Super awesome motivating week things are changing now!

So this past week was a pretty good week we had a pretty slow p-day we just did the normal stuff then we walked around the mall because we were bored, but ya then we had an FHE at a member's house and that was fun! Tuesday man oh man Tuesday. So we woke up a little earlier and left for Bloomington for Mission Conference at 6:45. We go there and Elder Martino of the Seventy was there and first he shook all our hands and talked to us for a second. Then we started the conference and had some training by Sister Forbes and Sister Martino and they were super good. One was about perseverance and the other was all about loving your companion. They were good trainings and then two missionary were randomly chosen to give a 3 min talk on Charity, I wasn't chosen, but they were good talks. Then President gave a training on faith and it was way good he shared an experience from his mission that was super good. I really love President Forbes he is a great man and is a great teacher and leader. Some people in the mission compare him to the last Mission President and it is sad to see how they don't respect him as much. He is a great man who is called here for a reason. I love that man and look up to him. Then Elder Martino had the last 3 hours of Mission Conference and he talked all about how our mission goal for baptism was 500 but we were only at like 250ish and he did the math and every team in our mission has to get 3 baptism by the end of the year for us to hit that and then he told us it is possible. He promised us it could happen if we had the faith that it was possible so that was super awesome and then he proceeded to give a training on how to get referrals from members and he told us it isn't hard if we are asking the right questions and show them we care. So i want everybody who is reading this email to think about these questions I am about to ask: 

      Do you know any non members who have recently had a death in the family? 
      Do you know any non members who have recently had a baby born? 
      Do you know any non members who are struggling to raise teenage children? 

As you think about those I bet at least one person will come into your mind. Think out of all the people who are coming to your mind who is the one you think would be receptive to hearing the gospel. Do you think that the Plan of Salvation could change their lives I challenge you all to pray about this and then introduce these people to your elders or sisters!  Everybody we know can benefit from the gospel and more times than not we think they will say no, but they will really say yes. Give this some thought and then act on it! 
Well it was an amazing mission conference. I learned a lot and got lots of idea to improve on. That night we didn't go home because we had mission leadership conference the next day. It would be waste of miles to go home and come back so we spent the night with the assistants. I went around with one of them and we did a lot of paperwork and meeting stuff, but it was good. What was super cool is my first companion is an assistant right now so we got talk and hang out that night when we got back to the apt because I didn't exchange with him, but it was great he is my favorite comp so far for my whole mission! 

The next day we had MLC and it was super good. Elder Matino really called us out. We had to account for our zone monthly goals and we didn't have and baptism last month and won't have any this month. He looked at us and said no more goose eggs and told us it is expected of all zone leaders to have 1 baptism a month there are no excuses. We should be the example for our whole zone and we should be leading by example so that is our goal now.  One baptism a month. So that has become my goal for the rest of my mission so I know that no matter what area I am in that it is possible as long as I have faith in the Lord!  So ya it was a great conference both days super uplifting and motivating. Then we got back that night and had a good member dinner and he told us his conversion story and it was super good! Then we had one appt and we went and played basketball and that went well there are always some non members so it is good contact! 

Thursday we had a bunch of calls to make. We had to call all the teams and tell them things they need to do that week in their planning session so that took some time then we had lunch and we had more calls. Then we went to campus and tried to contact and we had dinner and we had an appt with our investigator roberto who is not progressing we are probably not going to be focusing on him, but it was a good appt. We are getting him started on family history  so that should be good! Then we had a lesson with a less active lady who has a daughter who isn't baptized who we are focusing on because we feel really good about her at this point and we had a super good lesson with just her. The member who was with us did a really great job it was super awesome! 

Friday we had to account with our district leaders and then we had weekly planning which took until dinner time so much planning to do, but it will be worth it because it will help us get a baptism a month. We didn't finish planning, but we had an appt with Peter the guy we found out is really member so that went well we had bishop with us and it was an OK lesson he doesn't speak english very well so it is a little hard! Then we did a little more planning and we had an appt with a less active who we work with and we are helping him get ready to teach his brother a part of the plan of salvation so that went well!

Saturday we had our coordination meeting and breakfast and that went well and then we played soccer like always and that was really good. It is usually pretty fun and then we went home and changed and ate lunch and then had a call with the APs and then we went to do serivce out at a less active member's house. We helped them clean up from the yard sale they had and then we had dinner there and it was some extremely sweet sloppy joes. It was a little weird because they were super sweet! but it was all good! Then after that we still weren't finished planning because we had to make a 10 person list of people who could get baptized before January and it needs to be detailed so we were doing that and it takes a while, but it was a good day! 

Sunday was a good day this member brought two people to church and that was good. We will hopefully be able to start teaching them so that will be good they sounded interested, but ya it was a good set of meetings. We talked about obedience in gospel principles and it was really good! then after church we had a linger longer potluck so that was good and then we had more paperwork to do for the zone. Then we had dinner with a family and we did the questions thing I brought up earlier in my email and it went well they are a super awesome family. Oh ya,  the whole stake like changed here all kinds of boundaries changed. My last area doesn't exist anymore they changed the whole north part of our stake so that was interesting it affected our ward a little bit we lost one city, but it will help the branch they went to. Then that evening we had appt after appt fall through and then went to try and see a less active part member neither of us knew and we got in and visited with them for an hour and it was super good.  So that was an awesome miracle and they are ok with us coming back so that is super awesome! God is good he will always bless us as long as we have faith and we work hard and just keep working and keep believing. This week was an awesome week lots of super cool stuff happened and I just love being out here I am hoping for a great week full of miracles! Well that is all till next week!
love 
Elder Howe 

Weird Statue in Makato