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