Slow, but really good week

So this week was a super slow week. We only taught 10 lessons witch is super low usually we have at least 15, but it was still good. On Tuesday we taught Harry about tithing and fasting. It was kind of a weird lesson because he has no income so he can't pay tithing and has has health issues so he cannot fast either. So it was kind of like a will you commit to live these principles if you are ever able to? It was weird but good too!

On Wednesday we did service at the Food Shelf and I got to work the front desk and it was fun to interact with a lot of different people. Sometimes it was hard because they only spoke Russian there are so many different nationalities out here it is crazy. It is just one huge melting pot from places all over the world. It is really cool! After that we went on exchanges and I finally got to leave the area for the first time on exchanges. It was super neat! We taught this one guy and his family. All of his boy have long mullets that go all the way down their backs it is super hilarious. I wish that I had a picture of it! 

On Thursday we took our car into Goodyear because it was making some weird noises. We were there for two hours and the guy just comes and tells us we just need to drive it for 100 more miles with the new oil that we had just gotten in it on Tuesday of this week. It was such a waste of time for such a stupid easy fix but it is all good now. We know our car isn't going to just brake down on us. 

On Friday we had a zone service and it was down in Minneapolis so we got to go down to the city and it was awesome. It is a cool looking city. Service was strange we just helped set up a Fundraiser event for a Charity at this super fancy hotel. It was fun, but kind of strange as well. Then after that we went and rehearsed a musical number with the whole zone because we are all singing at the Saturday session of Stake Conference on Nov 15 so that should be super awesome!!

On Saturday Harry had his baptismal interview. It was scheduled for one but the member who was supposed to pick him up forgot. He was late, but the Zone Leaders who were doing the interview were also late in fact the Zone Leaders were like almost a whole hour late because of traffic. We let Harry look at our Gospel Art Picture Book because he loves the pictures in it. He said while looking at a picture of Jesus. 'Jesus was a handsome man'. Ha Ha. It was so funny. He passed his interview so he is getting baptized this Saturday it is going to be so awesome!! He is super ready for it. It is amazing to see how he has changed since we have been teaching him. He has gotten so much happier then he was before. It is awesome to see. That evening we had dinner with Harry at his house and we had some african food called fufu. It is this mashed potatoes like stuff the looks like dough and it is served with pepper soup and you cut pieces of it up and then you just swallow it whole and don't chew it. It was very interesting. That night Harry told me he liked how I eat. It was funny. Liberians like people who eat a lot of food apparently. 

It was a super good week and I got my hair cut last Monday so i will send a picture of that and a picture of what fufu looks likes!

till next week
love,
Seth

Haircut

Fufu

2 Months Gone By

Well this was a Pretty good week. It is crazy to think I have already been out two months because it hasn't felt like two months it kinda flew by. I hear that it doesn't slow down and just keeps flying by.  We almost hit all of our goals for the week we found 4 new investigators that is the most since I have been out it is great. 

Twice a week we visit this recent convert named Brother Gray. He is 64 and had a stroke a little while back. So he is a little out of it, but is completely accountable. He is my favorite person to visit. He is so funny. He just loves the church so much and has a super strong testimony. It is great. We are helping him to be able to say the sacrament prayers so that he can do it in sacrament meeting. It is lots of fun to be over there. This week we brought him teaching with us twice and he was great he doesn't have a huge knowledge of the gospel, but he knows what it has done to his life and how it has made his life better. This is almost better then just having a knowledge of the gospel it is really amazing to see. 

This week we got a referral from the Mormon Battalion site in San Diego and we finally got into see them and they are awesome. They have a friend who is LDS, but hey knew absolutely nothing about what we teach. They were super open to it. She told us "who am I to tell you this is wrong when I haven't even read it". That was super encouraging because it means she will read it with an open mind. That is great because a lot of people have trouble doing that. I can't wait to get back to see them and see what they thought and felt. It should be great!! 

We had two great lessons with Harry this week he is just super awesome. He just wants to serve the Lord, but has health problems and it slows him down a little bit. He always prays that he can be healed so that he can serve the Lord. It is super humbling to hear because he wants to serve super bad, but he can't. I know I am completely able and could always serve more diligently than I am now. It is a good reminder you can always improve and work harder. 

One super funny thing Brother Gray told us this week was that when we see Jesus again we are going to be buck naked. It was so hilarious he is so funny. oh yeah so Harry's full name is kinda funny.  His name is Harry Gbotee but his last name is pronounced Booty so his name is Harry Booty people always laugh when we tell them. It took us a whole month to realize it too. His baptism is getting super close and we are getting super excited. He is super ready! He came to church again and loved it.

Well that is all for this week till next week. 
Love, Seth  

Funny text from the Ward Mission Leader

One Transfer Down

This week was a little slow because we had a few things that took up a lot of time. On Tuesday my companion had a leadership training in Bloomington so I went on exchanges with another district leader's companion in their area and their area was a bike area.This posed a problem because I don't have a bike right now because mine got stolen. I had to use the other elders super old and beat up bike. While I was peddling down their street I had just got to the bottom of a hill and the whole crank arm fell off of one side of the bike. The elder I was with didn't see and kept peddling. I had to walk up the street waving my peddle in the air trying to get his attention. We road nine miles and man was I sore I hadn't ridden a bike for that long in a long time. It was hard and of course they had some decent size hills we had to go up. Man I am glad I have a car right now because that was exhausting! 

On Wednesday we had service at the food shelf like always and I am out side on "butt" duty sweeping up the cigarettes butts with another elder and we started talking to this guy and he was kinda crazy. He just told us how much better the world would be if there were no people in it at all. Then he told us that he eats Bambi's that he kills it was super weird.

That day we taught harry and committed him to be baptized on November 1st. I know he is going to make it he is super solid. We taught him the word of wisdom and then right after the lesson he went in to his room and gave us all his coffee to throw out for him. That was super awesome! 

We had a really intense lesson with an investigator who has been investigating for over a year. The member we had with us just called him out and really made our investigator just see it how it really is. It really hit him hard and I think he realized what he needs to do better to get baptized. Hopefully he does those things. Members make such a big difference!

On Friday we had a lesson fall thorough so we went to stop by a house where a potential investigator lived. It was a different guy than we talked to before, but he let us in and we prayed with him and then taught him the restoration. He had worked for Marriott before. He found a Book of Mormon while he was working and so he is interested. We should start teaching his whole family now so that should be awesome.

On Saturday we called up this guy who had been taught 4 years ago. He invited us to go and do service with him at this Middle School that he was building a set for a play at. We did that for like 2 hours and then he took us to Denny's he was super nice and has read the books in the quad once through at least, but just doesn't agree with some pre-life things. He still isn't ready, but maybe down the road he will be. 

Sunday was good we had Harry at Church again this week and he stayed for all 3 hours. He loved it again. He told people that he justs wants to become one of us so that is awesome. Then we had a lesson with an investigator whose view on everything go straight in line with ours he lives the word of wisdom and the law of chastity without even knowing what they are. It is crazy he just needs to come to church once and gain a testimony about the Book of Mormon. He would be a solid member.  He is super active in his church right now tough so it is hard to get him to ours on Sunday, but he promised he would find a sub and come once. Hopefully he will hold true to that promise. It was a good week over all hopefully this one is even better than the last!

till next week 
love,
Elder Howe

The Ghostmobile. I guess I am right next to the Halloween capital of the world

Conference Weekend

It is crazy to think I have already been out almost one whole transfer. It has gone by super fast already. This week was pretty good we did exchanges again with the elders in the area next to us. I ran the area for the 3rd exchange in a row. It is weird being the one in charge of the plans when I still don't know how to get everywhere, but it went pretty good.  

Every Wednesday we do service at a place called ACBC Food Shelter and it is always so much fun. It is good because it shows the community that we are just nice regular people not a bunch of freaks. We get to do a lot of good for people who are in need of food and don't have money so that is awesome. 

This week we taught our first doorstep Restoration Lesson in a while we hadn't taught one in a couple weeks. The guy didn't accept a Book of Mormon or anything but he listened to all of it. Something might come out of it further down the road that I won't see or even hear about, but that is OK. It was kind of a slower week we taught Ron and Heather twice. Man their kids are so crazy it is hard to get in a good lesson because they are always like running around screaming and stuff. It is just crazy.

We did a fast with or investigator who is trying to stop smoking and that went pretty well. At first he thought that it wasn't a good fast but then he realized that whole day he didn't smoke a single cigarette.  He realized that he can quit if he just takes it one day at a time and doesn't look at it as an all or nothing situation like he was before. We are going to keep teaching him and his kids because they are ready. His smoking is the only thing stopping them from being baptized. 

Our investigator Harry is just Golden we taught him the Plan of Salvation this week and it just all made sense to him. He is progressing along well and wants to get baptized, but is still nervous about his health. He is healthier then he thinks. Hopefully he can over come that fear. 

Conference this weekend was fantastic Harry watched all four sessions of it and loved it so much he wants us to make a CD of it for him. I will do that for him. There were some amazing talks. There was a big focus on bringing less actives back. This is something our Mission President just talked to us about. We have to get this going  better. One of the best ways is member fellowship. 

After the Priesthood Session we went to get ice cream and a member ended up being there and he bought us ice cream. Then we sat and talked to his family for a little bit and that was super fun and nice to do. 

Today we had zone p-day and we went to a park and played a bunch of games like ultimate Frisbee, a relay obstacle course and then capture the flag. It was so much fun. The last two p-days have been just fantastic. It has started to get colder. It was in like the 40's and 50's all week this week. That means winter is close. This morning we had to scrape some frost off our window and it is only the beginning of October. Hopefully the snow holds out till at least November. till next week.

Love,
Seth 

Not sure if they had a license to drive.