So i don't know if I will send anything big this week the biggest highlight is we got to go to Athena's baptism on Saturday and so that was awesome to see her get baptized that is the last one of my mission. I am glad to end it on a good note like that, but it was awesome and we did a musical number in church me and the sisters it was good. I had a good
week. Today is my last working day. So ya it should be good I had my departing interview this morning with President and so ya it is over. Crazy to think this day has come. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve a mission for the Lord it has been amazing I have loved everything I have learned so much and I will close with a scripture from the bible In 2 timothy 4:5-8:
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an
evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to
me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
This is how I feel about my mission well kind of I an also grateful for my mission, but i am sad to leave. I have mixed feelings toward it all. i know that a new chapter awaits that will be great new things. See you soon.
Love
Elder Howe
Well this past week was a good week. On Monday we spent a couple hours at the Stake Center playing sports with a bunch of other missionaries and so that was fun! and then this lady showed up and apparently they were using the Stake Center for the voting for city council and so we helped this lady set all of that stuff up so that was great! and then ya highlights from the rest of the week. So Tuesday we went on an exchange with the zone leaders and I stayed in my area with one of them and it was a good exchange our dinner cancelled so we went to my favorite restaurant witch is called Mandarin I love it so much it is a Vietnamese place and this was probably my last time getting the Pho there I have a picture of it, but it is so good! I love it, but ya that was the highlight of that day but we saw Donny and his dad that night and man it is so hard to see a 12 year old who is trying by reading everyday but the example of his dad is just bringing him down and making it hard for him to keep progressing in the gospel it is hard sometimes to see. Donny has so much potential! it is amazing we just need him to be able to access it! He just needs to do it but I love that kid he is great! but ya and then on Wednesday we had a zone meeting with another zone it was a good training and at your last Zone meeting you bare your testimony so ya. I had to go first and it was good. It was also weird to be the one up there after seeing so many others do it before me but like I said in the subject it doesn't feel like I am going home at all! even though I have a week left I feel like I still have months but ya it was a great training and it was at the Elk River chapel and I found a quilt that had the Hunsaker name on it that was cool, but ya then that night it poured really bad we were only in it for like 5 minutes tops, but man we got soaked but it was fun. It just takes a few days for my shoes to dry out but ya! it was fun!
Thursday was a pretty good day I got permission from president to contact some of my old investigators that I was really close to in Andover and they came down to take me out to dinner on Thursday night and it was great to see them again and catch up I think they were going to send a picture to dads cell but i don't know if they ever did, but it was great to see them again they aren't investigating anymore but they have a great view of the church and I will probably be in contact with them for a long time so that will be good they are awesome! Ya then on Friday we had a lesson with our investigator Wilfred again and still nothing is getting across to him, but he really wanted us to come to his church so we set it up to go with him. That night we were tracting and met a nice old man he just wanted someone to talk to, but it was a good talk it was a good contact which is all that matters sometimes!
Then on Saturday in the morning we went on splits with the WML and his son so that my comp could go to Wilfred's church and I could be at our coordination meeting and then I got picked up by the other elders and we did service and waited for Elder Anway to get back from the church he said it was super interesting they sang for like 45 minutes straight before the service started and it was a 2 hour service and they said like 20 prayers and it was a Kneya church so some of them spoke no English but the word welcome! but he said it was interesting!
On Sunday we had a good day we didn't have anyone to church but it was still a good Sunday we got a new EQ president last Sunday and we talked with him this week and he is going to do a great job it will be awesome! and that night we met with a less active we meet with every week and this is my last time seeing him because he is going out of town and he said I was one of the only missionaries to get him to pray out loud and so that was awesome it was great! Oh ya I forgot on Friday we went to Mandarin one last time for me to get my second favorite thing there there orange chicken lunch combo it was great I got a pic of that too! but ya today starts my last week so I only have one email left but I plan to work as hard as I possibly can this week! but ya from my studies this week I was reading in Alma 29 and this verse stuck out to me
Alma 29:3
3 But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.
I read that and realized the importance of being content and thankful for what we have. I thought back to the the tenth commandment that tells us not to covet and I have pondered what that really is because people ask us and it is really a commandment because when we covet other things that means we aren't very grateful to the Lord for all that he has given us and we can't progress if we aren't thankful and realize all the Lord has done for us. He gives us what we need and we need to be content and thankful with what he has given us. He has given us all that we have so we should thank him everyday!
Have a great week!
Love
Elder Howe
So this past week has been a pretty good week. It was a little slow which here is still a good amount of teaching we taught 14 lesson, but I feel like we should be teaching 20 to 25 a week so we are trying to get there! but ya highlights from the week! On Monday our district took a bike ride over to the Mississippi to the Coon Rapids Dam it is the first dam on the Mississippi it is a cool place. It was fun to ride our bikes across the top and get misted with water it felt good because it was a hot day, but i got some pictures it was fun! That night we taught our investigator named Wilfred who is a 77 year old African guy and he is in need of a bike so i am giving him my bike when i am done in a few weeks so that is good, but man he just doesn't grasp some concepts. Things go right over his head especially priesthood authority he always just say yes I was baptized by immersion. I say good but not the right power and he says yes you need the power. So I say yes and invite him to be baptized and then it starts again, but he is a good guy just old so we will see where that goes! But ya the next highlight was we had New Missionary training, a big meeting with all the new missionaries where they get trained on how to do things, and it was a great meeting I have heard all the training before, but I really got a few things out of it that I needed and so that was great and after that meeting we exchanged with the APs and I went to their area and it was great. We went tracting and we prayed and told God we wanted to find a young family and then went tracting and found a single guy, he was super awesome and excited to come to church it was awesome and ya then we didn't have time to finish his floor because we had a dinner so we will come back to that apt later but ya a member took us to Chipotle and I learned that at Chipotle you can ask them to use 2 tortillas to wrap your burrito and for double beans and rice for free crazy I had know idea but man it was good! and then we had some meeting which is why they had me come to their area because in his words I am an old missionary so I won't mind just going to a bunch of meetings with ward leadership and he is right, but ya we also met this guy who just showed up at their church and it was cool he had such high standards like very like the church teaches about standards he had it was awesome! and then ya then the next morning before we went to exchange back we had a little time to tract so we went back to the same complex and we prayed again and said we are going to find that young family and we went knocking and we found them! we found this super nice lady and she is a single mom with 11 year old kid and so it is a young family she was super nice and was pretty interested she is a recovering addict and it seemed like she was really searching for something it was awesome. Afterwards me and Elder Esquivel were talking about it and it is something I have done on my mission pray to find someone specific describe them and it is amazing God puts them in your path every time he just says thanks for asking here they are. Sometimes it it right away sometimes a transfer later but he always does it and it is amazing he wants us to pray for specific things because he wants to bless us as specific as he can! It is really an amazing thing I really think it shows how much he really does love us! He love us alot!
The rest of the week was just kind of an average week, but it was good! Wilfred wants us to come to his seventh day Adventist church this coming Saturday so we will see if we can make it he came to church on Sunday and bore his testimony and it was good he proclaimed Jesus is your friend but he sounded angry he wasn't but it was kinda funny he is a good guy and will probably come back to church! So that is good! and ya it was super good! So from my studies this week it is actually something I was pondering this morning I was reading in Alma 27 which is about when the people of Ammon move over to the land of Zarahemla to get away from persecution and I read this vesre that stuck me.
Alma 27:29
29 Therefore, they would suffer death in the most aggravating and distressing manner which could be inflicted by their brethren, before they would take the sword or cimeter to smite them.
It struck me because of how converted they were they would rather die than sin and brake the convent that they had made with God how amazing is that they had such great abhorrence towards sin. It is something we should all strive to have we should all strive to have that great abhorrence towards sin! As we do we will be blessed!
Well that is all hope you all have a great week .
love
Elder Howe
So this past week was a good week. It seemed a little slow, but we actually did an ok amount of teaching. But ya Monday went well and that evening we had dinner with a family we always have dinner with the Maresh Family it is just an older couple, but they are awesome and he is Donny Mclaferty's home teacher so Donny and Brother Mclaferty came to dinner with us to their house and it was super good Bro Maresh talked to Donny about wearing a white shirt and tie and staying at church and how everyone loves him. It was great it was awesome I think he really helped Donny out. I have been worried about him and he has been on my mind a lot lately he is always in my prayers. I don't want to see him go a little inactive.
But ya highlights from the rest of the week! so we also had a really good lesson with the Homg family that we found she is so ready it is unbelievable it is awesome but she lives in a different ward and so we have to pass her off to the right sisters to teach her, but it has still been an awesome experience finding their family. But ya the rest of the week On Wednesday it poured again but luckily for us we got to the library right as it started to pour and so we didn't get soaked this week like last week which is good because we had to get a new phone because of last weeks but ya it was raining good. So in our area we tract at least an hour everyday and I like to make sure we aren't just doing things routine but that they are always inspired so the way that we pick where we tract is as follows. So we look what part of town we are going to be in and mark off an area and then we pray and ask the lord to lead us to where the elect in that area are and then separately we choose 3 streets each that we feel would be good and every time there is always at least one street the same and me and my comp did this for the first time and it worked as it always does and I have found that when it doesn't work it just means we are looking in the wrong part of town so we choose a different area but we did that and it was just a great spiritual experience and on the street we were both lead by god we taught a lesson on it this is just one of the many ways I saw the power of the holy ghost in my life this week and another one was on Thursday we had the pass off lesson of our date set Athena to the sisters who cover the ward she lives in and I was a little worried because Athena's mom wanted to go back to church with her sister who lives in our ward, but I felt that we could push her a little harder about it that is what the spirit told me at least and we had the lesson and it was a super good lesson Athena didn't make it, but that was ok it worked out and she was ok with going to the right ward so that was great it was a great lesson another instance of why we need to always listen to the spirit!
Now for the story about my subject line "lessons leaned by my greenie" so ya on Saturday we had a pretty open day and we filled it with stuff to do and then the whole day we just were getting in nowhere we were outside all day except for when we ate lunch and dinner. We had along hard day of work stopbys, tracting, biking around, and talking to people, but just no luck till 8 oclock we had an appt come through and then that night Elder Anway told me he learned he needed to be more specific with his prayers because he prayed that we could teach one person thinking in his head at least one person today, but God took it literally and we taught one person all day! So be specific in your prayers! But ya another cool experience with following the spirit this week was on Saturday we were going around this big apt complex going from building to Building trying to get in the locked doors and we were trying to see this less active we didn't know and Miracle we got in and then he wasn't home and we walked out to this street and I saw an African man sitting on a bench a I felt super strongly we need to talk to him. We knocked a few more doors and he was still at the bench so I said elder we need to talk to him and we went and we talked to him and it was the less active we were trying to find and ya so we got his new number and ya he said he would come to church the next week so it was great! I really learned a lot this week and got a lot done and because we followed the promptings of the holy ghost it is amazing he will really lead you and guide you though your life if you let him and then you will have a happy life and a successful life it amazing the gift that God has given us with the holy ghost. so i hope we are all using it to the maximum potential in our lives! I love it ! Well that is all this week hope everyone has a great week!
Love
Elder Howe
So this week was a good week, but oh man we did a ton of service like bigger service projects there was only a few days where we weren't serving for 3 hours or more. Hence the subject of this email! Highlights from the week. So on Monday we had zone pday and we had a zone council first to discuss what we are going to focus on this transfer and ya it was a good council and then we just did a bunch of different sports it was fun and then that night we had a lesson with the Hmong family we found, who the daughter has a date set for baptism on Aug 13 and it was a great lesson we had a member with us and it was just perfect for the lesson we had. It went super well it was then when I realized why I kept feeling prompted to ask her to come even though I knew she is super busy, but it was just what was needed so it was great! and ya Tuesday was the full day of service literally so we had our food shelf service in the morning and then we were going to do service for a less active but he canceled so we did service for our ward mission leader and then we went and had dinner with a family and then a family was moving in in the ward and it is a family we haven't been able to be in their home so we couldn't pass up the chance to help them so we did. Man they moved into a dang nice house right on the Mississippi. It is in their backyard and the house is huge and just awesome I have pics of their backyard and the front of the house it is awesome! but ya so that was a ton of service but it was good and on the way to the food shelf we met these to ladies who needed help and were asking for money, but we committed to help them clean out their grandma's apt, who just died, so the next day went and did that with the sisters after our district meeting and man it was quite some service not to hard, but the lady was little crazy and while we were trying to get this couch into the elevator me and sister frank were on one side trying to pull it in and the couch un-clipped my watch and it fell down the elevator shaft......... like the most unlikely thing possible! but just yesterday a less active guy who works there said he could get it back for me so that is good but it was disappointing when I lost it! but it was good! it is always good to help people it was a good experience!
But ya on Thursday the highlight was we had dinner with the Hmong family we found, man they made some really good Asian food it was super good the only weird thing was there was this super spicy dish, but it is served cold and so it was just a weird feeling to eat cold spicy food because usually spicy food is hot, but it was a super good dinner! They are awesome there are two sisters who are members that are coming back and then one of their daughters Athena who has a date set, but when we taught them on Monday we taught the first half of the plan of salvation we committed them to read the last bit from the pamphlet and she read it and she took notes and she knows a ton about it as we were teaching it. It was awesome. She has never had God in her life and she is only 11 but she is soaking it all up it is super awesome to see! She is so solid and ready for the gospel it is awesome to see! I have seen a lot of amazing kids who are just ready for the gospel in this area and it is super awesome to see! but ya we are excited for her!
But ya on Friday another day of a ton of service so we did a zone service project at this place called feed my starving children where you package these food supplies they send it to help others. It is super fun and a really good organization they are all about building up self reliance in needy countries which is great! and then after that there was a member who needed help moving and it was just us and the sisters and we helped them pack it in boxes and load the truck I was the "expert packer". Sister Frank says I should do it for a living, but I don't think it is what I am going to pursue, but it was a dang hot day I was sweating bad and man that truck was hot I was climbing around up top putting stuff in and just touching the top for minute and you would get burned and I also burned my arm on the outside of the truck I fell and my arm was pushed again a part of it for a minute because was carrying a dresser, but it was good. We helped them load it and the sisters had to leave but they needed help unloading so we went and helped them unload it too. Total we were helping them from 1:00 to 5:30, but who else was going to help them so it was good!
But ya Saturday was super rainy and we got in a bad part of it and got soaked and our phone got wet and wasn't working so it was sitting in rice from Saturday at 3 till Sunday at 9:30pm and man was that hard. I do so much work on the phone calling and texting to set things up. It was really hard not having one! but it was ok. On Sunday Athnea came to church again so that was awesome! it was a great Sunday and a great week we did a ton of service, but we were a still able to do a lot of teaching as well! The work is going well I only have a month left crazy how fast time is going by, but I am working hard as hard as I can. Satan is trying to distract me, but I punch through because I know that the Lord blesses the hardworking obedient missionary to the end not the one who get trunky and gives up! But from my studies this week. So with the my plan courses I am doing for missionary returning home there is a section on self reliance and it was a super good section! and then this morning I was reading in second nephi and read this verse
2nd Nephi 4:34
34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.
So it brought back a quote that was in the course that said we can only become truly self reliant as we learn to truly rely on the lord and that quote hit me and really made me think and as read the verse and that is what the spirit taught me that I will have a successful and good life as I continue to rely on the lord I have learned how to and how important it is out here and so I just need to do as Nephi says and rely on him forever and as I do that I know that is all that will matter and I won't have to worry as much because I know the Lord will bless me and help me in my life as we rely on him we become more self reliant in this life because he helps us and we don't have the need to rely one another as much he wants to help up so let him help you! 'let him in!
hope you all have a great week.
love,
Elder Howe
