March 25, 2013

FAMILY!!!!  How are you all doin??  It sounds like it was a good week at home!  This week was really good!  I was able to adjust really fast to Curitibanos.  It is a small town, and it feels like a different country than Itajai!  haha it is pretty crazy!!  It reminds me of Richfield with a lot of farmers and a small town feel.  I am starting to like it though!

We have a few investigators that they have been teaching here for a little while.  Also, there are about 600 to 700 members here, but only 60 to 70 are active.  So this week we got a list of all the names of the ward members and cut them individually and put them into a notebook separated by neighborhoods.  We are working with a lot of these names to try to help re-activate, as well as find new people to teach.  We worked a couple days already with this notebook and we were able to teach a lot of lessons.  It went great!

Tonight, we are meeting with this kid named Leanderson.  He is a great kid!  He is about 16 years old and lives on his own.  His parents have drug problems and abandoned him.  It is a super sad story.  He has been coming to church for three weeks in a row now, so I think we will talk to him about baptism and see how that goes.  I am excited to meet with him!  

I am still getting the area down, so I will have more to talk about next week.  I am starting to like it here though!  It is really different, but it is cool to experience a different type of city like Curitibanos!  I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!!  I will write more next week, once I get the hang of everything here.  Tell Morg that I love her too!!

Elder Howard

March 18, 2013

FAMILY!!!!!  So some pretty crazy news from this weekend... I'm not in Itajai anymore.  I was transfered yesterday in an emergency transfer cuz I was in Itajai for so long and the missionary I switched with was having some problems so President sent him to Itajai.  I am now in a city called Curitibanos and it is super small!  haha it reminds me of good ol Richfield Utah! haha I got here late last night and just seen a little of it today.  It is rough leaving Itajai, cuz the people there were so amazing!  But I am also excited to start work here in a new city.  I am a little stressed out because of my first transfer, but it will be great!  Yesterday at church they announced that I was leaving and had me share my testimony.  After church I said all my goodbyes, and then Eddy and his family and Peter and Rafaela took me to the bus station and dropped me off.  It is sad leaving them.  The bus ride was over 7 hours long and that wasnt too fun! haha but I met a lady from Rio Grande do Sul and she asked me more about the church.  I taught her the lesson of the Restoration on the bus and then we visited for a while.  She was an older lady and her daughters live in the US.  She visited Nauvoo one time with them and had some more questions about Joseph Smith.  I am excited to be here in Curitibanos, even though it will be something to get used to after being in such a big city! haha but I am excited!  Not much other to say this week.  I will have more next week!  I love you all and tell Morgan that I love her too!!!  Have a great week!

Elder Howard

March 11, 2013

FAMILY!!!!!!!!  How are you guys doin??  Sounds like everyone is doing great at home!!!  I am glad that Bingham Soccer got two wins this week!!!  Keep up the good work Aust!  This week here was an awesome one!!!

On Friday, was Lilian´s baptism!  It went great!  She is really shy, and didnt want a whole lot of people there, so we planned a small baptismal service.  When she got to the church, a lot of the youth were at the church and we asked Lilian if we could invite them in for her baptism and she accepted.  It was a great turn out and was a very spiritual service.  Elder Hunt got to baptize her, and me and Eddy got to be testimonies for the baptism.  It was a great experince for Lilian.  She is the only one from her family that is getting baptized, and only her sister came to watch.  She doesnt have much family support, but it was so cool to see the faith that she has to be baptized, and to come to church every Sunday.  On Sunday, I got to confirm her in front of everyone.  I was definitely nervous, but it went really well.

On Saturday was Gabriel´s baptism.  He is 12 years old and is such a stud!  He showed us a list of goals that he has made for after his baptism.  On his list he had things like: Have an eternal family, get married in the temple, always stay firm in the church, etc.  He has such a strong testimony for being so young!  He is such a great kid.  His dad got to baptize him, and he cried the whole time.  He was a great experience for everyone there.

Yesterday we went and met with Peter and Rafaela and they are doing great!  We are helping them get everything figured out for their wedding, and Rafaela is really excited to be baptized right after.  They are working hard to pray everyday and to read the scriptures together, and you can definitely see the change that it has made.  They also told us how grateful they were for me and Elder Hunt.  They have met with a lot of missionaries in the past, but they said that none have helped them as much as we have, and none other missionaries have ever touched their hearts like we have.  That made me feel really great!  It is a proof that I am in the right place, and I am finding the people that I need to help.

This was a great week!  This next week should be another busy one, finding new people to teach.  I love you all and I hope you have a great week!  Tell Morg that I love her too!!  I will talk to you all next week!!!

Elder Howard

March 4, 2013

 FAMILY!!!!  Today is my sixth month mark and I cant believe it!!  It has gone by pretty fast looking back!  This week was a great one!  Me and Elder Hunt are really working well together and we have a lot of fun. Oh yeah, and I am staying in ITAJAI!!!!  :)

So last Sunday, (not yesterday, but the sunday before) this girl named Lilian and her little sister Beatriz showed up to church.  We talked to them and Lilian said that she saw the plaque in front of the church that said "Meetings 9 AM" and decided to come.  We met with her on Tuesday and we taught her the first lesson.  When we got there, her mom told us how she wanted to join our church.  At the end of the lesson, she accepted baptism, and we marked it for this Saturday the 9th!  I am so excited for her.  She has a strong testimony already.  She said that she had visited a lot of churches in her life, but this one she felt different at.  She came to church again yesterday, and then we taught her about the commandments.  It went great!  She is ready for baptism.  We will meet with her one more time this week before the baptism on Saturday.  I am super excited.

So there is a member in our ward, and his wife isnt a member, and neither is his son.  His son is 12 years old, and told his dad he wanted to be baptized the day after his birthday, which is this Saturday as well.  His name is Gabriel, and he is a great kid!  His mom, who is a non-member, gave him a list of things he had to do before she would let him be baptized, and he got everything done and got her permission.  We are gonna finish teaching him this week too before the baptism on Saturday!

We are also teaching Rafaela and Peter.  Peter has been a member for a while but Rafaela isnt.  Right now they are working on their marriage paperwork, because she is ready to be baptized.  They are such awesome people!  They had their wedding planned for April 20th, cuz it takes a while for the paperwork, but I told them that I would probably leave before then.  So they switched the date to the 13th of April so I can be here for the wedding!  I am super excited for them!!  They are also making plans for a year after Rafaela's baptism to be sealed in the temple as a family.  

This week was a good one and I am excited to stay a little longer in Itajai!  Also, I am proud of you Aust for making the team!!!!  I love you all and tell Morg that I love her too.  That is awesome that she came and visited you guys this week!!!  Have a great week :)

Elder Howard

February 25, 2013

FAMILY!!!!  How the heck are you all??  This week was a great one, and a really busy one!!  I really love Itajai and the people here are so cool.  Me and Elder Hunt have met some awesome people.  The transfer is next Monday or Tuesday, but I dono yet if I will be transfered or if I get to stay.

So this week we met with this less active family.  It has 6 members of the family that havent been to church in a long time.  We met them twice this week and shared messages with them, and we invited them to come back to church.  Sunday rolled around, and almost all of them came back to church for the first time in a long time.  One girl brought her boyfriend who isnt a member, and I think he had a good experience.  They are a great family!  We have a family night with them tonight and we are really excited about it.

We are also meeting with Peter and Rafaela.  They have two cute little daughters.  Peter is a less active member, and Rafaela isnt a member, but they have been coming back to church lately.  We met with them yesterday and taught them the Plan of Salvation.  It was awesome!  Rafaela told us she is ready to be baptized.  They arent married, so we are gonna help them get married, and then after, she will be baptized.  In Brasil, the process takes 40 days for the marriage paperwork.  It kinda sucks.  I hope that I am still here for her baptism.

Last night we went to meet with this guy named Luis.  We got to his house and clapped at the door (cuz you dont knock on doors in Brasil) and he wasnt there, but his neighbor came outside.  We started to talk to him about what we do as missionaries and asked if we could leave him a message.  His name is Miranda and is a great guy.  I liked this experience, cuz even though our appointment with Luis fell through, the Lord still put someone else in our way to teach.

This week was a great one and we have another busy week ahead of us!!  I hope that I will be able to stay here more time, but we will have to see.  Also, my package came!!!!  Thank you all so much!!!  Me, Hunt and Eddy's family, all loved eating the chocolate :)  I love you all and I hope you have a good week!!!  AUSTIN, good luck at tryouts!  Kill it out there!!!  Tell Morgan that I love her too.

Elder Howard

February 18, 2013

FAMILY!!!!  How are you all doing??  I hope that you all had a great week!!!  It sounds like you guys had some fun in Vegas!!!

This week was a great week!!!  On Saturday, we had the baptism of Leonardo and Adriana!  It was such an amazing experience.  I got to be the one who baptized Leonardo, and a member of our ward baptized Adriana.  It was really cool to be able to help them come unto Christ.  Also, Adriana's boyfriend was a former bishop, and we are trying to help in re-activating him too.  It is pretty cool to be able to help them out.  After I performed the baptismal ordinance with Leonardo, I felt the Spirit so strong and it was an awesome feeling.  Then someone asked him who will confirm him in church on Sunday, and without hesitation, he said, "Elder Howard."  That made me feel great!  Sunday rolled around and I got to confirm him a member of the church and give him the holy ghost.  It was a great experience for me.  I was definitely nervous the whole time cuz it was a blessing all in Portuguese in front of the whole ward! haha but it went great!  It felt so good to have this baptism and to be able to help them come closer to Christ.

Also, we taught a lot of lessons this week.  I really like being companions with Elder Hunt.  We work hard together and have a lot of fun.  In English class this week, we taught the class how to do the "Stanky Leg" while learning the Alphabet song! haha it was a funny experience.

We taught a guy named Joao Paulo this week.  He works at the restaurant Kebabztao with our friend Fabio.  Joao told us that he was interested in learning more about the BOM.  He said he has been through some crazy things in his life with drugs, and he wants to make a change.  He was really open with us.  We taught him the first lesson, and we will follow up with him this week.

We also taught Christiano and Dilaini from our English class.  They made us some french fries last night and we taught them the first lesson.  It went really well.  They both have a strong faith in God, we just need to help them gain a testimony of the BOM.  We gave them a BOM with a part to read, and invited them to pray to know if it is true.  We will follow up with them this week.

Eu sei que Jesus Cristo é nosso Salvador.  Ele nós ama muito.  Ele sofreu por cada um de nós.  Eu sei que O Livro de Mórmon é verdadeiro e Joseph Smith é um profeta de Deus.  Eu sou grato pela oportunidade para ser missionario e pregar o evangelho de Cristo.

Eu amo vocês muito!!!  Have a fantastic week!  Tell Morgan that I love her too!

Elder Howard

February 11, 2013

FAMILY!!!!  How are you all doin??  I am glad that you all had a good week!!  My week here was really good!  We met with Adriana and Leonardo and got everything taken care of for preparing their baptism.  The baptism is planned for this Saturday, so I am hopin that it goes through.  I feel like they are both ready, there as just some drama to take care of.  Leonardo is 12 years old, and I ill baptize him, and a member from the ward will baptize Adrianna.  Pray that everything will work out for the baptism to be on Saturday.  I am really excited for it!!!  They have both been reading the book of mormon a lot and they are excited to be baptized.  We will meet with them again this week to make sure everything is ready for them.

So Eddy got called as the leader over the missionary work in the ward, and we are super excited about it!  We met with him a couple times this week and we have a lot of ideas plannd to find new people to teach.  That is the toughest thing for us right now is finding new people to teach, because everyone is working during the afternoons, so door to door isnt always the most effective thing to do.  We printed off 500 invites for English clas and we are gonna pass those out this week.  We always leave a message in English class, so we are hopin that this will bring us more people to tteach.

We also met with Marcelo and his girlfriend Cilmara and their 2 year old daughter.  Marcelo is a member, but his girlfriend isnt.  We are trying to get them to come to church, and they are also working on getting married.  Marriages take a long time to do in Brasil cuz of all the paper work, but we are gonna help them with all that they do.

This week was good, but a little tough not being able to find many people who care to hear about the gospel.  But with our new ideas, the work here will start to get better.  Eu sou grato pela oportunidade ser missionário por O Senhor. Eu sei que esta igreja é verdadeira.  Eu sei que O Livro de Mórmon é verdadeiro também.  Eu sei que Jesus Cristo é Nosso Salvador e Ele sofreu por cada um de nós para que nós possamos mudar nossas vidas!  I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!!  Tell Morg that I love her too!

Elder Howard