October 30, 2017

Hello loved ones, This week we were able to find three new investigators!! Whoo! Their names are Ashley, Lee and Stephanie. Ashley and Lee are both from the YSA ward and Stephanie is a beautiful mom in the Copper Hills ward. Lee was a referral from the Hawaii temple and he came to church with us on Sunday! He loved sacrament! He seems really solid! We are going to try to get him to come to Family Home Evening with us this week and we have a lesson planned with him. We actually meet Ashley at FHE. Her friend Dan brought her so we could meet her! We became friends fast and we have meet with her twice already. She's having a hard time with God so we are trying to help her build a relationship with Him. Stephanie was taking lessons from the missionaries before and she got dropped. We came back and since the missionaries had first left her, her life had gotten so much worse. She wants to come to church with us and we scheduled a lesson with her this week.

We were knocking doors on Friday and we knocked on this lady's door and when she opened it she made it very clear that she did not like Mormons because they are rude to gays and don't accept everyone. We kept talking to her and I noticed that she had a paper crane tattoo on her arm. I told her I thought it it was really pretty! She gave me a shocked look and said, "But Mormons hate people with tattoos!. We then had the opportunity to explained to her how we didn't hate people with tattoos, and how we do love "gay" people as well. We got talking about the paper cranes and she showed us a beautiful decoration hanging from her ceiling. It was 1 thousand paper cranes tied together. She told us this story about a little girl who was dying of cancer, who believed that if you make 1 thousand papers cranes then your wish would come true. The little girl wished for world peace, then died shortly after she made her paper cranes. This lady also is wishing for world peace with everything that is going on. She dearly loves everyone including her gay daughter. We expressed our love for her and God's love for her. She emotionally hugged us both and gave us each a paper crane. It was so amazing to meet her and to help change her opinion of Mormons. 

We are so excited to have so many people to teach! Jesse is still in the Copper Hills ward so we have been teaching him his recent convert lessons. He is working towards getting the Priesthood now!

So a couple days ago I was having a bad day and just felt so sad and discouraged. I prayed to Heavenly Father and told Him how I was feeling, then did the best I could to stay positive as I was going through the day, The phone rang and it was Jesse. He was calling to check in on me and see how I was doing. He told me I was an amazing missionary and that I'll just keep getting better. Heavenly Father has blessed me so much with sending Jesse in my life. He calls Sister Trujillo and I his LDS family.  My mission is the biggest blessing of my life. I love the two wards I am  in and I am very  grateful to be here! 

Love, Sister Howard 

October 16, 2017

Hello!

This week has been an awesome week! We have been planning Jesse's baptism! It is this Saturday!!! I have never been more excited! He is so ready and prepared to take this step in his life and it has been such an honor to be part of that. After his baptism he will be moving to a new ward, so this Thursday is my last lesson with him. I'll be honest, it makes me sad, but I know his new ward will take good care of him! 

I had my first exchange this week. Which is when you go with one of the sister training leaders for a day and my companion goes with the other sister training leader. The sister training leaders are doing Spanish work.. so I got to go to a Spanish area! We were riding bikes and we were suppose to cross this street.. well somehow I managed to get my sock stuck on the kickstand and I could not pedal my bike!!  I was stuck in the middle of the road with cars coming at me!! I ended up using one of my feet  to move the bike off the road. I look over and Hermana Rodgers had this look of shear terror and shock! I ended up busting up with laughter which in turn got her laughing. The exchange was really good for me because Hermana Rodgers gave me tons of opportunities to get out of my comfort zone and I found out that I can approach people so much easier now!! ( At least the ones who speak English) I also was able to pick up some new spanish words! Sister Trujillo and Hermana Penderna were knocking in the Copper Hills area and they found us a new investigator! His name is Conrado! We get to start teaching him this week! 

Henry is doing well and he came to church yesterday! We get to teach him the Plan of Salvation this week and I am so excited about that! 

We were visiting less active and part-member families when we felt like we should go visit Brother Lopez. He's active, but the rest of his family are not. We showed up at his house and he happily invited us inside. We shared the Principles of Peace video with him and he told us how much he loves the Savior! We read the Book of Mormon with him and challenged him to read it every day! 

For our member inspire we have been teaching the resortation to the members so I  can practice and I just wanted to tell you all how much I love Joseph Smith! He is a true prophet of God and it is so important for us to read the Book of Mormon every day! It will bless you so much! I have personally witnessed how much it helped the ward members lives my investigator's lives and my own!  

I am in a district with the APs, the Zone Leaders, and the Sister Training Leaders! We have a zone activity today.  

I love you all so much! I hope you are doing well! 

Thank you for the prayers! Love, Sister Howard 

October 9, 2017

Hello my dear loved ones! 

I hope you are all doing well! I love it here in California so much!!  Sunday I got to attend both of the wards that I am over. First we went to the Copper Hills Ward for sacrament. Then we went to the YSA ward and stayed the whole three hour block. I love getting to go to both wards and getting to enjoy hearing all of the amazing members' testimonies. I would also like to confess that I love going to YSA and I'm grateful that God finally got me to attend one. 

We went to K.O and the area where we were knocking just didn't feel right, so we ended up moving to a new area, and the very last door we knocked was this elderly lady named Izzy. Her husband has passed away a couple years earlier while she was taking lessons from the missionaries, and she said that her heart has been broken ever since and she felt like she needed to stay with her old faith. She had been having a hard day and she said it was almost like God sent us to her. We told her that God HAD sent us to her and we got the opportunity to talk to her about how much God loves her and that we know she will see her husband again! I felt impressed to give her a hug, and after that she said that we made her bad day into a good one. Moments like that are why I love being a missionary!! 

We were asked to teach a missionary prep class on doing the Lord's work. We started the class by letting the kids ask us questions about what missionary life was like. None of the kids were saying anything until a leader asked us to share our embarrassing stories... lucky for me I had an awkward experience the Saturday before and Sister Trujillo asked me to share it with everyone.... We were doing K.O and we walked up to this door and I was all pumped and ready to go. I knocked on the door and this older man answered the door and I'm like hello how are you doing? and he was like sup! And I was like oh no!! What do you say to sup? and I just went deer in the head lights and didn't say anything and the guy was like oh.. I made you speechless, it must be because I'm so hot! So Sister Trujillo came to the rescue and saved me from the awkwardness, while I just stood in the corner trying not to blush too hard...

Needless to say this story had the kids laughing so hard they opened up to us and we were able to help the kids get excited about missionary work! The Lord works in mysterious ways. Not only did he humble me, but he gave me the perfect story for my missionary prep class! 

I got a new investigator!! His name is Henry. He's from Australia, he's 22, and is a basketball player COC.  Henry was talking lessons from the missionaries with one of his member friends when the missionaries and his friends got too excited and scared him away from the church. Well the old bishop of the YSA ward invite Henry and us over for "dinner" and we asked Henry if we could practice teaching the restoration because I am just a new missionary and I needed the practice. Henry participated in the lesson and even bore his testimony on Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost! He invited us to come back and teach him again so I can continue to practice my lessons. Henry loves to go to church by himself and when his family comes to visit him from Australia he's going to take them to church!! He's so ready for the gospel. He just doesn't know it yet!

Jesse is doing very well! He has his baptismal interview this week!! He reads his scriptures every day and is growing so much! I feel so blessed to be able to be apart of his conversion!! He is still on date to be baptized the 21st of October! 

On p-days we get to go to the mall and they have a pool that is full of baby turtles and fish. You know you are a missionary when your favorite parts of the week are emailing, seeing the turtles, and going to bed!  I love you all so much! Have the best week ever! Sister Howard 

First week in California!

Hello my loved ones,

My last night in the MTC Sister Pinter and I decided that we should have a photo shoot when we should have been packing. I wanted to do one of those pictures where you put your name tag in a cute place and then get a picture of it. Well I picked a flowerbed and set my name tag by a beautiful flower. I took an amazing picture and promptly knocked my name tag down a crack in the sidewalk!!! Sister Pinter and I looked everywhere for a stick to try and get my name tag out, but the MTC lawn is way too well kept. We finally found two small sticks and had to chop stick my name tag out of the crack! We got the attention of some sisters by us and they videod the whole thing!! I am proud to say that I learned my lesson and won't be having any more photo shoots when I should be packing...  

We woke up at 2:00am to get to the travel office by 3:30am and were on a bus to the Salt Lake Airport! We got through security just fine and called our families; then we boarded the plane around 8:amish. I was super nervous because it was my first time getting on an airplane! I looked at my ticket and guess who had a window seat!!! Sister Howard did! Heavenly Father gave me a window seat! I felt so blessed! The plane start moving and I got really excited and start bouncing in my seat and poor Elder Harris sitting next to me was like.. well I guess your first time on a airplane would be exciting... he's such a good sport! Flying was so amazing! The towns looks like little doll houses and tiny toy cars.. It was so beautiful. I loved every minute of it. I also got to eat pretzels in the clouds! We landed in Burbank at the Bob Hope airport. As we walked off the plane we got to walk past the elders and sister that were leaving our mission. It was so inspiring to see the Light of Christ shining from their eyes and hearing the words of encouragement they shouted as we walked past. I knew that they were truly disciples of Christ by the spirit they carried. 

President Henrie and Sister Henrie welcomed us and helped all 18 of us get our luggage. They took us to the Mc Bean church house, feed us waffles and ice cream and we got to leave with our trainers!! Sister Trujillo is my trainer and she is so amazing! I was worried I would get a mean trainer and I was blessed with a compassionate  and patient trainer. We are over two wards: the Santa Clarita YSA Valencia ward, and the Copper Hills Ward. I am pretty sure I am a missionary of a YSA Ward because I avoided the YSA ward at home all summer.... 

We have an investigator named Jesse!! He is fifty, married, and has two kids. He has committed to be baptized!!! He's getting baptized the 21 of October! He is the biggest blessing of my mission. The first lesson that I taught him in, he asked us about Joseph Smith and multiple wives... We didn't have the best answer for him but he said the most amazing thing. I may not understand it, but I have the faith that its no big deal. Jesse is truly one of God's elect. I feel so blessed to be able to teach him. I have never felt the spirit stronger then when I first meet him. I can not wait to watch him be baptized! 

Every Tuesday through Sunday we do something called a K. O. (Knock Out)  is when all the missionaries go knocking from 4-6pm  on doors in their area. Our goal is to share messages of peace, teach by the pamphlets,  and find new investigators. At 3:55pm every missionary in the Santa Clarita Valley and the San Fernando Valley say a prayer. The prayer is that while we are knocking we can find the people that God prepared for us, and that all the missionaries can be safe. Every time we prepare to pray at this time its like a hush goes over the valley and I just imagine all of the misisoanries kneeling and praying. You can feel the power of God all over the valleys. K.O. is one of my favorite things. You never know who will be behind the next door. Some of the people are really nice and some kinda aren't....I have been asked to leave people's properties, I have been bible bashed, and chased by a dog... but the only thing that actually hurt was when a lady yelled at  us and said that Mormons harm people... our hearts were hurt so I said a prayer. A couple doors down a lady ( non-member) said she loved us and prayed that we would be safe while we continued to knock doors. She gave me the courage I needed to keep going and I know she was the answer to my prayer. 

There are a lot of Christian people who treat the LDS missionaries with respect. They give us water bottles, share their favorite things about God and bless us when we leave. The members here are awesome! I have been fed dinner every night and they are all so willing to let us come over for a MI (member inspire). A MI is when the missionaries go to a member family, share a message, and invite the members to join in on the missionary work! I love meeting the new members! For conference I was able to watch the Sunday morning session with Jesse! His favorite part was how they talked about service and the Book of Mormon. Jesse loves to serve people and he set the goal to get his wife more involved with service! Jesse has what he calls his Mormon hot line. Its a group on his phone titled "Mormon" and anyone who's Mormon goes in the group. He makes me laugh. His wife is not a huge fan of him wanting to join the church but that hasn't stopped him. I just love the people here so much! It is just such a blessing to be here. We went heart attacking the in-actives and part-member families last night! Hopefully it will help us build closer relationships with those families and maybe we can get them to come back to church or join the church! The videos that we have been sharing with the members are the Principles of Peace, its on lds.org and if you don't have anything planned for family home evening then watch them and think of someone who you would like to share them with:) 

I love you all so much! Thank you for the prayers! have the best week ever! Love, Sister Howard