Sunday, November 24, 2013

November 18, 2013

FAMILY!!!!  How are you all doin??  This week was definitely a busy one!!  Anderson and Mayara got your gift in the mail.  They loved it.  I asked Anderson if he was gonna transfer it to Brasilian money and he said no cuz he wants to keep it as remembrance! haha so cool!

We taught Hellen's brother and sister this week.  Their names are Pedro and Maria.  Hellen is the one who got baptized two weeks ago.  We taught them the first lesson and it went really well.  They both told us how they want to be baptized.  We marked their baptism for the 7th of December.  Helton will baptize Pedro and Maria asked me to baptize her.  I am pretty stoked about that!!!

We also met just real quickly with Marcos and Claudia again as we were passing by their house.  They didnt come to church this week, not sure why.  But they are an awesome family!  We are meeting with them again tomorrow to teach them the pan of salvation.  We are gonna teach them a lot about eternal families and we think that will touch them for sure.

We are still trying to find more people to teach.  That is the hardest part about missionary work in any mission! haha.  But we will keep workin hard!  Yesterday, both me and Burton gave a talk in Sacrament meeting.  It went really well.  I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!!

Elder Howard

November 11, 2013

FAMILY!!!  This week was a great one!  Such a fantastic wee.  Friday night was Anderson and Mayara's wedding and it couldnt have gone more perfect.  So many members and non members went to support them.  The ceremony went great.  Afterwards, we went up and gave them both a big hug and told them congrats.  Then Mayara turned to us and said, "Por causa de voces dois."  Saying that all this happened because of me and Burton.  Holy cow, talk about the best thing ever to hear!! haha.  The next day was their baptism and it went great as well.  Burton baptized Anderson and I got to baptize Mayara.  On Sunday was their confirmation and also, Anderson already got the priesthood!  They are so happy for their decision.  We spent a little time with them after church and he just kept saying how happy he was.  You can just tell they are extremely happy.  It has been a long and great journey helping them get to this point.  Such an amazing experience!

We also met this awesome family that I talked a little bit about in last weeks email.  Well we visited them on saturday and it was great.  Marcos and Claudia are their names.  Claudia has taken us in with such love and care already!  And they barely even know us! haha.  We taught them about recieving an answer about Joseph and about the BOM.  That is probably their biggest difficulty right now.  We invited them to come to church yesterday and THEY CAME!!!  It was so awesome to see them there.  The members took them in and they had a great experience.  We are so stoked for them.  We are hoping for great things to come with this family.

Also, Hellen that got baptized a week ago, her brother and sister now want to be baptized! haha and her mom is allowing it!  So we will start teaching them this week and help them prepare for baptism.

I love you all and I am so grateful to be a missionary.  The experiences out here are priceless.  Eu amo este evangelho.  Eu sei que esta igreja é verdadeira e é a igreja de Cristo.  Eu sei que Joseph viu.  Se ele não visse, não estaríamos com a igreja verdadeira de Cristo hoje.  AMO VOCÊS MUITO!!!!

Elder Howard

November 4, 2013

FAMILY!!!!  This week was an awesome one!!  Yesterday, we had the baptism of Hellen and it went great!  She is 20 years old and is the sister of a member here named Helton.  Helton was able to do the baptism and he loved it.  It was a great experience for all the people who were there.

This friday is Anderson and Mayara's wedding!!  We are so stoked for them!!!  We will go to the wedding on Friday and then the baptism will be on Saturday.  Burton will baptize Anderson and I will baptize Mayara.  We are so excited for them.  It is so cool to see people change their lives for the better and accept the gospel in their lives.

We met a super cool family this week as we were knockin doors, cuz we knock a lot of freakin doors! haha.  The dad is named Marcos, his wife Claudia, their son and Caudia's mom Cecilia.  They are a super catholic family, but were open to learn more.  We taught them the first lesson and it went great!  They seriously understood the importance of the message and the importance of the BOM.  I then asked what would change in their lives if they recieved an answer that the book is true.  Marcos responded quickly and said "Tudo" which means "everything".  They will read the BOM and pray about it and we will return on Saturday.

We are still doin lots of contacts and working with the members to find new people to teach.  Me and Burton are staying together longer and a new American is coming to be companions with the Bolivian that we live with.  It will be dope!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

Elder Howard

Sunday, November 3, 2013

October 28, 2013

FAMILY!!!!  How are you all doing??  Sounds like you guys had a great week!!  I had a good one as well!!  Anderson and Mayara are doing great.  They got almost all of their wedding invites out this week and they are super excited for the baptism and the wedding!  We are so excited for them!!

Also, a couple weeks ago, we started teaching this girl named Hellen, who is a members brother.  We taught her one quick lesson and passed her to the other elders here cuz she lives in their area.  Well, this week she moved into our area and we will teach her again.  The other elders have taught her all the messages already, so now we are just going to try to get her lined up for baptism!  I am stoked about it!

Antonio and Sirlei are doing good as well.  We were able to go and visit them this week.  Sirlei is still wishy washy about the baptism, but she keeps thinking that she cant keep putting it off until tomorrow cuz one day, tomorrow might not come.  She says that she knows it all is true.  So we arent sure what the problem is exactly.  They keep coming to church tho and are enjoying it a lot.

Also, we planned a family night with a member family here and their non member relatives.  We taught a family of four: Paulo, Sandra, Leo and Renan.  The family night went really great!  We taught the first lesson using videos and stuff.  We taught all about my man Joseph and the first vision.  There was a great spirit with us and we could tell that everyone felt it.  The next day, Sandra and Renan went to church.  Paulo coulnt make it cuz of work.  We will visit them again this week.

Well I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!!  Aust, congrats on getting to the Semis in the state cup and for your hard work this year!  You are doing way better than your older brother ever did :)  I love you all!!!  Next week is the transfer, so we will see what happens!

Elder Howard