December 17, 2018 to December 30, 2018

Dec 17-23

Monday we had a sister activity. We made crepes, popcorn, and hot chocolate. We watched Mr. Crouger's Christmas! It was so much fun that the elders ended up crashing it and watching the movie with us. Then Sister Parcel and I went to dinner at Brother and Sister Powel's home. After dinner we went and read more of the Book of Mormon with Sean. Then we went to the Johnson's to keep working on the trailer for the family who lost their home in the Paradise fire. The mattresses were bad so we drove out to Sisters Hill's to get a new one. We got home just before bed. We played some super fun cards games with Sister williams and Sister Hart.  

Tuesday was kind of crazy because on Monday Sister Parcel had left different random things at all of our appointments on Monday, so we were going on a scavenger hunt to try and find them. We went out tracting and we found Jean. He is an older gentlemen who invited us to come back. We are excited to see where it will go. Then we did a service project for Sister Powell. We put up tables and chairs for her activity day girls. Then we ended exchanges and all of us sisters had dinner at Subway, Then we had a lesson with Nathan and Sebastian. On Monday changed his baptismal date to Saturday so we are going to be finishing teaching him all of the lessons. Tonight we went over all of the baptismal interview questions and the ten commandments. Holy cow he is so ready and prepared to get baptized! 

Wednesday we drove out to Trona to have a lesson with Jasmine. I just love her and her three little girls so so much. They are adorable and Jasmine just eats up the lessons like they are candy. We were teaching her the plan of salvation and her favorite part is the three degrees of glory. She said that she loves how God is loving enough to give us second chances.  Then we drove home, had dinner, and went caroling with the youth. We got to go on a hay wagon and it was so so much fun. Sister Williams and I were the only ones singing though. After that we met Nathan at the church and he taught us what the gospel of Jesus Christ was. He made little steps out of paper that lead up to a picture of Jesus Christ. Each step had a word written on it, so it went faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. At each step he taught about what it was, then explain why it was important. The spirit was so strong and it was amazing to see how much knowledge and understanding he has. Then we taught him about tithing and how to use a tithing envelope. Juiliet Guzman shared a beautiful story about how she gained a testimony on tithing and again the spirit was very strong.

Thursday we drove up to Kern Valley to see Heather. She is doing amazing and so is her family. After visiting with Heather, we got dinner at Taco Bell then we drove back to Ridgecrest for a lesson with Nathan. On the way up to Ridgrest we got a text from a ward member saying that sisters can now wear pants!! Oh my heavens I was so excited!! I could not stop screaming and shouting for joy!!! whooooooo! Then on the way home our mission president called us and talked to us about it and said we could start wearing pants as of right now!!!!! whoooooooooo!!!!!!! When we got to our lesson with Nathan, Sister Calderon gave us money to buy our very first pair of pants! I don't know if I have ever been more excited in my life! Our last lesson with Nathan went amazing. We taught him about the importance of families and temples and about callings in the church. Nathan asked me to pray at his baptism and for Sister Wiliams and I to sing a musical number.... (yay)

Friday we had district counsel. Elders Hovenden and Riser taught us about how to be a more consecrated missionary. Then we had a role play on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Sister Williams and I got to role play together. She was going to teach the atonement to me first. Then I was going to teach it to her. As she was teaching me about Jesus Christ's love for me I was so overcome with the spirit that I started crying and couldn't stop and ended up running out of the room dramatically because I didn't want to be sobbing in front of my whole zone. Go me.... -_- The best part was when we came back in the room the elders were terrified of me and were giving me the most horrified looks on the planet so that was definitely fun. But honestly the atonement is such beautiful thing. Our big brother suffered in the garden for every single one of my sins and every single one of yours. He even suffered for the people who He knew would never accept Him. That's a whole lot of love. It's amazingly powerful and all you have to do to have that blessing is to come unto Christ. That's it, just come unto Him. It just is so incomprehensible. After district counsel we went over to Sister Shelby's and she gave us cute Christmas fuzzy socks and one of the ornament sleighs we helped her make. Then we went to the church and practiced our musical number before Nathan had his baptismal interview. Elders Riser and Hovendan came over to practice with us because Elder Hovendan can play the piano. Well when they were leaving, after we were done practicing, they stole Sister William's shoes and threw them into the men's bathroom so we had to go in there to get them and some member saw us coming back out.... awkward. Nathan passed his interview with Elder Kay. And he did amazing!! He's just so prepared and so so ready for his baptism! Then for dinner Brother and Sister Gartner bought us and pizza, salad and some mint oreos. Then we stayed in and finally finished our studies and did some more planning. 

Saturday morning was Nathan's baptism! He was so so excited to get  baptized. Sister Calderon talked on baptism and Kayla Calderon talked on the gift of the Holy Ghost. The spirit was so strong and everyone was extremely touched. After the talks Sister Williams and I sang "I Feel my Savior's Love". I sang the first verse, she sang the second verse, and then we sang the third verse together. It was one of the scariest things I have ever done!  I was so nervous and so worried about it. But I started my verse out strong and it was going well when all of a sudden the pianist started playing the wrong notes which threw me off and threw him off... but Sister Williams saved us all by singing so I could find my place again. I honestly almost started laughing because I was so worried I'd mess up, and when it actually happened, it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought. Anyway... so the rest of the song went amazing, and the spirit grew even stronger, and then we got to watch our Nathan get baptized. Wow the pure look of joy on his face was such an amazing sight to see. Wow.... what a blessing to be a part of. After the baptism we went home, made lunch, and then we  helped Sister Calderon and Sister Stahli take out Christmas bouquets to some of the women in our ward. Sister Williams started to feel really sick so we ended up going home and letting her rest. 

Sunday Nathan got the gift of the Holy Ghost and he was so so happy. He felt the spirit so strong and was so happy to finally be a member of the church.

Dec 24-30 

Monday was Christmas Eve and we played basketball and chair football as a zone. Then we went to the Jensen's house to celebrate with them. We played out the nativity and Sister Williams and I got to be wise men. We even had a Samuel the Lamanite proclaim to us about Jesus's birth and shot Nerf gun bullets at him. I had so much fun! We had to be in by 6:00pm so we played card games and unwrapped one present each. 

Tuesday was Christmas morning!  We went to the church and then we all made breakfast together as a zone and unwrapped our presents together. Then we went and Skyped with our families!!! We skyped at the Barro's house with all of their super cute kids. Can I just say that I have the cutest family on the planet and I made history by skyping home in pants! Then we went for dinner at the Sisco's house! After dinner we went around and skyped as a zone. It was so much fun and such a cool opportunity because we got to just have fun together and see who everyone was teaching.

Wednesday we went up to Trona and taught Jasmine the gospel of Jesus Christ. She loved it so much, and is really improving in her knowledge of the gospel. Then we had ward correlation.

Thursday was weekly planning. Then we planned a little of Phyllis's baptism for Saturday Then we went and visited Carmen and helped her set her TV up so that she could hear it a little better. After we left Carmen's house we stopped-by Sister Hannah and her mom. 

Friday we had district counsel. Then we did our studies and I can't really remember what else. 

Saturday was Phyliss's baptism! We got there early and filled up the font and got everything ready. Phyliss was late to the baptism, but when she finally got there we hurried and skyped her elders in and we had a beautiful baptismal service. I was asked to speak on baptism and Sister McDonald spoke on the Holy Ghost. After the baptism we needed to try and find a ride for Jasmine so that she could go to church.... we called almost half the ward before we were able to get a hold of Sister Hannah who was very very willing to go and pick her up!!! Yaya that women is a blessing. 

Sunday we drove out to Trona with Sister Hannah to go pick up Jasmine.  She really loved being at church! She said that she felt like she was finally at a place where no one was judging her. After church Sister Hannah took all of us over to her house and fed us homemade tamales. Then she drove us back to Trona. Phyliss also was able to get the gift of the Holy Ghost today as well. 

Love Sister Howard

December 3, 2018 to December 16, 2018

Hello hello!! I hope everyone has had two wonderful weeks. Things have been so busy and so good here! 

 December 3-9

Monday we emailed and then were going to play basketball with our zone, but Sister Williams was really not feeling good so we went home and I just read my scriptures while she slept. Sister Hobs brought us some amazing chicken noodle soup. 

Tuesday we drove up to Kern Valley and we had a lesson with Jenna and Heather. They are both doing fantastic! Things have just been really really working out for them and they are just so happy. We had dinner at a cool pizza place then grabbed some hot chocolate and headed home. 

Wednesday we had MLC in Tehacapi. We first had breakfast with sisters Hart and Parcel. The meeting was awesome and the spirit was strong. Then we drove up to Trona and had an awesome lesson with Jasmine! Her job is starting to settle down and her testimony has really started to grown. We headed home and Sister Williams still was really really not feeling good so we called the elders over to give her a blessing. Elder Hovendan and Elder Riser. They came and gave her a beautiful blessing. On their way out the door though.. they stole our Christmas wreath!! So naturally I chased after them to get it back and I managed to trip on the sidewalk and really skinned my knee. I didn't even get the wreath back! 

Thursday we had our zone Christmas morningside. Sister Williams and I sang for the special musical number. Then we had a beautiful lesson and the nativity was done by President Layton. We watched It's a Wonderful Life" then played a white elephant game. We all ate lunch together at a place called Kristy's then had our interviews with the mission president. While we were waiting, we all stood by the piano and sang Christmas carols together. My interview with president was awesome. Then we had a planning session with our zone leader Elder Kay and his companion Elder Maxwell. We planned out some of the future district councils. Then we went home and finished doing our weekly planning. 

Friday we had district counsel and I wasn't feeling good either so I really did not get much out of it. We had a lesson with Alisha and she asked us some really good questions but we just aren't sure if she really was interested or not. After I that ended up getting a blessing from Elder Visser and Elder Chandler. It was a great blessing. That night we had our ward Christmas party and it was so much fun. Jasmine came and it was fantastic. She really had a good time. 

Saturday we were going to head up to Kern Valley for the Christmas party there but then some crazy stuff happened so we just ended up staying inside together. 

 Sunday church was awesome and we were able to have Nathan at church. I really love church. It is so nice to be able to just sit and enjoy the spirit. 

December 10-16

Monday we had exchanges with Sister Albertson and Sister Sandall. I got to go with Sister Sandall and it was fantastic. We got to have dinner with Sister Meyer. Then we knocked doors and found a few people to talk to. Then we had a fantastic lesson with Sean. He's doing fantastic and simply loves us coming. Sister Hobbs came with us. Then some crazy stuff happened with the other set of sisters so they ended up calling us in a panic and we thought something really bad had happened because they asked us to pray for the elders because they were in a very dangerous house. So Sister Sandall and I were stressing and pacing around the house and the sisters get home. Apparently there were some drugs at the house while they were teaching the lesson and they didnt feel safe so they hurried and left, which makes perfect sense, but they left their purse in the house so the elders had to go back to the house and get the purse. Well no one was hurt and everything was just fine. Praise the Lord.... I honestly was kinda annoyed because I thought something super bad had happened to the elders... but I panicked for no reason. 

Tuesday morning we ended exchanges and went and had service with Brother and Sister Andrus. We got 10 trash bags of leaves off their lawn then we went inside and decorated for Christmas. It was pretty awesome! Then we had dinner at the Calderons and Sister Calderon asked Brother Martin to come over and give us both blessing because of all the stress that we had currently been having. 

Wednesday we got up at 3:30 am and drove to the temple! Oh my heavens I love the temple. We got to do a couple names for initiatory then we did a session with our cute zone family. The whole session my skinned knee was hurting so so bad. So I honestly was struggling. And I was like are you kidding me? This much pain for a skinned knee? Juliet Guzman drove us to the temple. Then we all went to Cafe Rio for dinner. After the temple we taught the young women how to speak in public and feel confident with themselves. Then we had our ward correlation meeting. 

Thursday we were going to go up to Kern Valley but we had a weird feeling not to go so we cancelled our appointments. Turns out that Elder Riser was in the emergency room because he really wasn't feeling good. They were there for 2 hours and the doctor told him nothing was wrong and gave him a paper about the flu. We took them some saltine crackers and paper towels. Then we were going to our dinner appointment and my knee was hurting super bad so I told Sister Johnson about it. And she gave me some amazing things to put on it because it was swollen, inflamed and very infected. Goodness. Then we ended up telling her about Elder Riser and she was able to get him a doctor's appointment. So he's doing way better now. So apparently I was suppose to be in pain so we could get him a doctor's appointment because now my knee no longer hurts. Sister Johnson also has a trailer that she is refurbishing for a mother and five year old son who lost their house in the Paradise fire. When she was showing it to us we asked if we could bring our zone over to help and with tears in her eyes she said yes. 

Friday we had district counsel and Elder Kay shared a beautiful testimony that made me tear up, then we all went home, got in our service clothes, and went to the Johnsons. They gave the whole zone lunch which was amazing biscuits and gravy then we all got to work on the trailer. Sister Williams and I ended up staying all day. By the end of the night our hands were so sore but I was so happy. It was just so cool to be a part of that. 

Saturday we went over and helped some more with the trailer. Then we went to Sister Shelby's and helped her paint Christmas tree ornaments for her to take around to her friends. Then we had an amazing dinner with Brother and Sister Sisco. After dinner we had a powerful lesson with Nathan Gaceta and his friend Sebastian. We were able to set Nathan on date and get not only a return appointment with him, but also a return appointment with Sebastian. 

 Sunday Nathan Mcarthur, Nathan Gaceta and Sebastian all came to church. It was so awesome to see them all there. After church we were able to have a wonderful lesson with Nathan Mcarthur then we went hiking, made lunch, did some planning, and  then went and helped Sister Shelby finish some more of the ornaments. After that we had a pass-off lesson with Elder kay and Elder Maxwell. We were teaching Tabatha. The lesson was amazing. And we now get to teach Tabitha! 

I love you all so much! Love Sister Howard! 

November 26, 2018

Hello Hello!! This week of course was a serious blast!!! 

Monday, today, we had zone activity! We played kickball, Apples to Apples, 2 truth and a lie and made banana splits! We had dinner with the Barros and then we had a lesson with Sean. Sister Sisco came with us and it was so cool to see how much Sean is progressing!! He has really improved so much!

Tuesday we had exchanges with Sister Parcell and Sister Hart! I got to go with Sister Hart! First we got to do service with all of the sisters at Sister Warkington's house. We moved boxes and cleaned her house to help her get ready for Thanksgiving. Sister Hart is a bran new missionary so it was so cool to be able to watch her learn and grow the whole time of the exchange. We had time to go out tracting and we had picked a couple areas to go knock on, but I just felt like they weren't where we needed to be. I ended up just looking at our map and felt prompted to go knock by one of our converts houses. As I was driving us there I kept doubting myself and almost turned around a few times. Finally we pulled up, parked, and started to go out and work. We knocked on a door and Amanda answered!!! She was so excited to see us and was very prepared to hear our message! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she invited us to come back!!! Then we had dinner at the Sisco's house and we got to eat with all four of the sisters! Brother Sisco told us his amazing conversion story! After dinner we had a lesson with Nathan Mcarthur. Bishop Jenson and his wife came with us. Nathan likes to ask a lot of super deep doctrine questions so it is such a blessing that bishop comes to the lessons with us. 

On Wednesday we ended exchanges and sent the cute Sisters home.  We had dinner with the McDonalds.  They had friends from Arizona visiting, and the lady is getting baptized in December!  It was really cool to be able to talk to her about her experience!  She is so sweet.  We also played a card game with the family after dinner.  

Thursday was Thanksgiving!!!!  Sister Williams and I did weekly planning and had dinner with the Warkington's and the Andrus's family.  They are such sweet families.  Sister Williams and I enjoyed our time with them!  It was a fun day.  

Friday was a wonderful day!  We had one of the most spiritual District Councils I have ever experienced.  Elder Peyson spoke to us about the power and authority of our calling and what makes a successful missionary.  It was amazing.  The Spirit was so strong.  I loved every moment.  

Saturday we were going to head up to Kern Valley but all of our appointments ended up being cancelled, so we spent a good amount of time tracting and we were able to find Don!! We knocked on his door and he listened to what we had to say then asked us to come back and teach his family more!! We were so surprised that we almost didn't realize that he was accepting our message! We gave him a Book of Mormon. Then he invited us to come back. We had dinner at the Jensen's but managed to get lost. We finally found them and had an absolutely amazing dinner with them. 

News with transfers!  Elder Peyson is leaving and is heading to Bakersfield.  So Elder Kay is going to be our new Zone Leader.  We haven't met him yet, but he sounds really nice.  I'm excited to work with him.  Other news, Sister Hales is leaving as well, and she is going to Silver Creek!!! I'm so excited for her to be in Silver Creek with Sister Jordan!  But the biggest news of all is that Sister Williams and I are staying together this transfer!!!  I'm so excited to stay with her and to keep working hard here in Ridgecrest!

I am so thankful to be able to serve the Lord as a missionary.  The #lighttheworld campaign is starting on December 1st and I am so excited for it!  I hope you all take part in it and enjoy serving others!!!

love, Sister Howard 

November 19, 2018

November 12-18 2018 

Monday we had our sisters activity! All of our sisters came up to Ridgcrest and we got our faces professionally painted and we got our nails done! It was loads of fun and it was nice to just be able to hang out with sisters for the day. We had dinner with Brother and Sister Andrus. It was Sister Andrus's birthday so we got to celebrate it with her! Then we went and shared a message with the Workman family. We had a lesson with Sean; and Sister Hobbs came with us. Sean is doing really good and the Book of Mormon is starting to make so much more sense to him. Sister Hales come over to our apartment for sister exchanges; so before we went to bed, we all played the game of life. 

Tuesday we went and did heart-attacks together. Then we did our comp study and Sister Albertson and I drove to Trona. We visited a ward family named the Clarks. Then we had a lesson with Jasmine. We taught her the restoration and she really loved what we were teaching her!!! We started talking about how Heavenly Father sent us to her for a reason and about how much he loves her. Then we invited her to be baptized!! She said yes!!! After we had a simple lesson with Rosie to see how she was doing, we drove back to Ridgecrest for dinner in the 2nd ward.

Wednesday I ended up being super sick and slept all day until our dinner appointment with the Mcdonalds. Then we visited the Powells and had our ward correlation meeting. 

Thursday I was still sick so I kept sleeping on and off. Taking long breaks as a missionary is extremely hard for me because I want to be out working so I just get so frustrated when I am sick. I woke up from one of my naps and all of a sudden I was filled with an overwhelming  peaceful  feeling that Heavenly Father was so proud of me and was happy that I was resting, It was amazing to just lay there in the comforts of God's love and the spirit. Then we visited with the Pattersons for a little while and had dinner at the Shelby house. 

Friday we had district council, so we loaded up to go to our meeting, but Sister Williams suffers from very bad migraines and when we got to the meeting she had an extremely bad migraine so we ended up having to go home. So we were inside all day until we went for dinner with Sister Meyers. 

Saturday we drove up to Kern Valley to have a lesson with Nick. The whole area was extremely smokey from all the fires. Nick has been investigating for a while and he really wants to be baptized. Only thing is he doesn't believe that Joseph Smith is a prophet. So we are trying to help him to gain a testimony of that. Then we stopped by Heather to see how she was doing and drove home as soon as possible because Sister William's head was still pounding. We had dinner with Brother and Sister Gardner. 

Sunday Nick and Nathan came to church. Then we finally got our weekly planning done and had dinner at  Sister Stahell's house. We had a plan on what we were going to share with them but felt prompted to change plans last minute. We shared spiritual whirlwinds with them and the spirit was very strong and we were able to touch Sister Stahell's heart with our message. 

I love you all so so much, Sister Howard

November 12, 2018

November 5-12, 2018

Howdy all you cute people!!! We had a super busy and amazing week up here in the Ridgecrest zone! 

Monday was p-day, and I finally got to go play tennis!! Oh my heavens it was so so much fun!! Elder Hovenden is a really good tennis player so we were able to have some really fun games together. It was just so so much fun!! I also got to teach the other elders and Sister Williams how to play! Then Sister Williams and I went to go get our hair cut.. Sister Williams got 8 inches off and she got her hair thinned which took a few hours... the whole time I was just in shock because my hair cuts take about 10 minutes..... what would my life be like if I actually had hair??? Then we went to dinner with Brother and Sister Damsted. They are a super cute family with three little adorable boys. Sean wasn't feeling good so we ended up not having a lesson with him. 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Layton, and on our way we decided to go stop by a man named Mike. Well Mike didn't answer the door in very much clothing... so the conversation didn't go too long before we pulled the we gotta go card. Then we went and had our interviews with president. He is amazing and the interviews went very well. Then we went to the doctor's to get a  prescriptions. The prescription took so long to fill that we just burned a few hours, then barley got the medication before we had to go to dinner. We had dinner at the Calderon's then played a board game with the youngest daughter.

Wednesday we woke up early and drove to Tehacapi so that we could have a breakfast with Sister Thongrit, Sister Hart, Sister Parcel and Sister Vogel. The breakfast was super fun then we went to MLC. MLC was special this time because president invited all of the district leaders to come as well. The spirit was so strong as we all talked about ways that we could better our mission. Then president did some role plays with some random missionaries. It was so cool to see so many missionaries teach from the heart. We then drove back to Ridgecrest and had dinner with Sister Meyers at an adorable Mexican restraunt called Bernandinos. Then we had a meeting with our ward mission leader. 

Thursday we drove up to Kern Valley and had lunch with Sister Hazard. We then all practiced a special musical number that we are planning to perform at Jenna's baptism.  After that we went to a lesson with Jenna and talked about eternal families, going to the temple and doing family history work. It is just so cool to see the excitement on Jenna's face when she talks about her baptism. Then we went to a lesson with Heather. We talked about the feelings that she had after she was baptized and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is just so amazing to see how much happier she is now. You can physically see a difference. The gospel changes lives for sure!! After the appointment with Heather, we drove back to Ridgecrest and had dinner with the Cooks. They are a super hilarious family who likes to quote church movies. It was pretty entertaining to watch them. 

Friday morning we were up to our usual shenanigans. I did a training on the importance of church and how to invite people to come to church. We felt inspired to have everyone go around the room and share their testimonies about church. The spirit was so strong and we all really bonded as a zone. After the meeting we went and had dinner with the Lucky's. Jack their cute son refused to sit by his parents at the restaurant because he wanted to sit by me!! Then we stopped by Sister Shelby to see how she was dong. She invited us to come back next Saturday to do a service project for her. We went home to have dinner because Sister Newcomb sent us a pizza. After dinner we went to the church to print off programs. Well the copier in the family history room was out of ink so we had to wait for the elders to come so we could use the library. After we got everything printed off, the elders left and as we were locking up I realized that I had locked the family history key in the family history room... dang it!! We borrowed the key from Elder Peyson and we for sure didn't want him to now that we lost it... so we called a cute lady who came and unlocked the door so we didnt have to tell the elders. 

Saturday we drove up to Kern Valley and got the font all ready for Jenna's baptism!! It was so beautiful and Jenna was so happy. Sister Williams talked on baptism then I spoke about the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then we sang "Come Follow Me" for the special musical number. Sister Hazard played the violin and Sister Bunting played the piano. After the baptism we went to the cutest place and did our weekly planning by the Kern River, which is gorgeous. Then we had dinner at the ward Thanksgiving party. It was so much fun and we even found a new person to teach! His name is Nick and he and been coming to church for a little while to learn more and he has invited us to come over and teach him more. 

Sunday we went to Kern Valley again to see Jenna get the gift of the Holy Ghost! She was so happy and so ready to get it. She wasn't able to stay for the rest of church because her pregnancy  has been hard for her, After church we went to Heather's to have dinner with her. She made one of the best lasagnas that I have ever eaten. I honestly really just feel like I am home when I am with her. We drove back to Ridgecrest but we both were feeling super sick so we ended up taking a nap before we had dinner with the Johnson family. We talked a lot about being a missionary and the things that we like about it. Then we stopped by Carmen to see how she is doing. She is feeling so much better and she is so much happier. After that we had a lesson with Nathan. He is Kayla Calderon's boyfriend and we just started teaching him. He is super cool and we just had a get to know you better lesson with him. 

Sister Williams and I saw a super huge miracle Saturday and Sunday. We went to get hot chocolate from this cute hot chocolate bar after Jenna's baptism. When we walked in the door this man was sitting by the window, and he said "I thought you were missionaries, I was right!" We told him that yes he was right, and went to get our hot chocolate. After we ate, we approached the young man, and asked him what his connection was to the church. He is a member and  he served a mission in Japan! He lives in Salt Lake, and was just passing through. We could tell that he is struggling as of right now and seems a bit lost and hasn't been going to church. So we talked to him for a bit longer and then went on our way. Later we felt frustrated because we should have invited him to church! We totally should have told him that if he was in town the next day, that we would love to see him at church and given him the address and time, but we didn't. So we  prayed for him that night that he would act on the Spirit he felt while talking to us and find his way back to church. 

Well the miracle happened the next day. We were in Kern Valley for Jenna's confirmation, and this man walked in! We went to say hi to him, and he told us that he felt like he should come, but he didn't know what time church was, so he got there for Sunday School and Priesthood, but he came! The Lord led him to the church! It was amazing! Even though we were imperfect and didn't think to give him the information for church, the Lord took care of it and led him to it. I love how the Lord in His grace and mercy takes our imperfect work and makes miracles happen.

I know that we were in the right place at the right time so that we could help that man feel the Spirit and so that we could plant a seed. The Lord then helped that seed grow and help guide the man to act on that prompting. It is amazing to see the Spirit work in others.

Lots of love, Sister Howard 

November 5, 2018

Hello hello all my cute family and friends!! Oh my heavens what an outstanding week!! i just LOVE being a missionary!!! 

Monday we had an amazing zone activity! Everyone in the zone dressed up like a toy from the third Toy Story movie! I was barbie and Sister Williams was Jesse! Then we carved pumpkins, made pumpkin pie and ended up playing football on the office chairs. It was so much fun rolling around in the gym trying to stop the elders from making a touchdown... honestly I really have no clue what was going on. I just had way too much fun crashing my chair so they couldn't score... we had dinner at Sister Bruchart's house. She is an amazing person! She has gone through so many hard trials, but she still has such a powerful and strong testimony! Then we had a scripture study with Sean. Sister Hobbs came with us and we studied more from the book of Mosiah. The Book of Mormon is such an amazing book to read... I just  am so very grateful that I have it in my life! It bring so much joy and peace into my life and in the lives of others!

Tuesday I got to go on exchanges with Sister Thongrit!! So naturally we stole the elders' pumpkins from off their porch!! Then we held them hostage the rest of the day while we were out working. We went and knocked doors for a while and had a lot of success just planting seeds and getting to know the people in my area. Then we had dinner at Brother and Sister Sisco's house. Earlier we had felt inspired to share the earthly father and Heavenly Father message with them. As we watched the video we felt the spirit fill the room and the spirit guided us to testify of Heavenly Father's love with so much power...that message ended up being exactly what they needed to hear. I am so grateful for the Spirit. He is seriously my best friend. Then we went to a surprise birthday party for Sister Calderon!! It was so much fun and they made us some amazing Mexican food. So I had two absolutely delicious dinners!! Whooooo!! After dinner we painted pumpkins! Then we headed home to make hot chocolate with our companions and just sit on the porch and talk.

Wednesday we did some studies with the sisters then helped them pack up and sent them back to their area. Sister Williams and I were a little stressed out about planning two baptisms so we had the elders come over and give us a blessing. Elder Maxwell gave Sister Williams one and Elder Peyson gave me one as well:) Can I just say I love the preisthood and I love my elders. They are fantastic. We went out to lunch at a place called Kristys and had amazing burgers! Then we had to go home early because it was Halloween. So since we were inside early we played Monopoly!! I totally creamed Sister Williams which was awesome because I have never won in Monopoly before!!! 

Thursday we went up to Kern Valley and had Heather's last lesson before she get baptized! Whoo! She is so excited and so ready!! We taught her about temples and families with family history work. We also planned out Jenna's baptism for her. Jenna is doing amazing! After we drove home got dinner and then had a meeting with our ward mission leader. 

Friday we had district counsel and Sister Williams and I got to do a role play on how to begin teaching people and how to be more personable as we go about doing missionary work! Then we drove up to Trona. We had a wonderful lesson with Jasmine and got to answer a lot of questions for her. Then we went over to Mary's house and gave her grandkids all of the Halloween candy that we didn't get to pass out because no one came to our house :). Our other lesson fell through so we tried to stop by Tonia who wanted us to bring her a Book of Mormon, but we could not for the life of us find her house!! We were walking down the street by some abandoned houses and there was one we thought was hers.... so we walked up to the door, realized it was abandoned, then we started to walk away. As we were walking I realized that there were so extremely fresh looking foot prints and tire marks on the ground. Then all of a sudden Sister Williams says my name in a super panicked voice. I look up and see this man in a black robe speed walking in our direction. So naturally we both start running the opposite  direction down the street. As we were running away in full panic mode a member came out of his house at the end of the street and started talking to us. And the man in the robe had disappeared... yep Brother Bates totally saved our lives... moral of the story don't go walking down the streets of Trona. We got safely back to our car and headed home for our dinner appointment with the Hobbs. After dinner we went home and did some planning and of course played Monopoly after 9:30pm before we went to bed. I think we are now both addicted. 

Saturday we drove up to Kern Valley and cleaned all of the dead bugs out of the baptismal font then filled it up for Heather's baptism!! The baptism was so beautiful! Heather really wanted to get baptized at 3:33pm so we had a testimony meeting just to stall the time before she got baptized. I have never seen her so happy!! Wow!! Her husband Donne was able to baptize her and her mother and father in law were able to come and see the baptism! They were so happy!  It was such a beautiful day! 

Sunday we drove up to go to church with Heather so we could see her get the gift of the Holy Ghost!:) Kern Valley is just a sweet and loving ward. I love being able to serve in it:) After church we went and had a birthday party for Heather:) it was a lot of fun and I really felt like I was home the whole time I was with them. Then we had dinner with the Dastrup family after we got back from Kern Valley. 

I love you all so much!!! 

Have a fantastic week! 

Love, Sister Howard. 

October 29, 2018

Hello my sweet family and friends!! Just another amazing week here in the great California Bakersfield Mission.

Monday was a very relaxed p-day. We went shopping, emailed and spent time with the sisters. For dinner we ate with Brother and Sister Mc Ewen. Then we had a scripture study with Sean. Sister Bull came with us and we had an amazing time reading in the chapters of Mosiah. 

Tuesday we went and got the alignment fixed on our car. Then we drove up to Trona to stop by two referrals and a part member family!! What a day of miracles!! We ended up finding six new people to teach! Ronald and his adult daughter Jasmine, David, Treasure and Chase who are all under the age of 12; and we were able to pick up April as well!!! It was so cool to see that so many people are ready to receive the gospel. 

Wednesday we had zone conference, then we went home, baked cookies for the car wash and went to dinner with the  McDonalds. After dinner we had  ward coordination with our ward mission leader. 

Thursday we went over the baptismal interview questions with Jenna, and had a lesson, and planned Heather's baptism. They are both super nervous for the interviews, but Sister Williams and I know that they are so ready!! 

Friday we had a car wash. We made posters and cookies then put the posters up all around town for a free car wash with a church tour. I had so much fun washing cars and getting to meet tons of fun new people. 

  

Saturday we went up to Kern valley for Jenna and Heather's baptismal interviews. They both passed their interviews and are so ready for their baptisms!! Jenna's baptism will be on the 10th of November and Heather's is going to be on the 3rd.  Then we drove back and had dinner with the Newcombs. 

Sunday we went to church. Heather,Jenna and Nathan came. Then we did studies and went to dinner with the Martins. After dinner we finalized all of the plans of Heather's baptism. 

Sorry this is short, but the internet has not been working today!! I love you all so much!! Have an awesome week and keep believing in miracles!! 

October 22, 2018

October 15-22 

Monday for p-day, we just stayed in the church building so Sister Pankratz could email her family and play the piano. Then we went to the Powell's for dinner. Brother and Sister Powell are so sweet and they helped us understand the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon. Then we went over to the Calderon's so that we could have the elders come and give Nathen (Kayla's boyfriend) a blessing. Nathan has been investigating the Church in the Ridgecrest second ward and he has really been debating on if he wants to get baptized or not. Elder Peyson and Elder Maxwell came over and gave him a truly amazing blessing. 

Tuesday was transfer day. Sister Pankratz and I got all of her stuff to the car then we drove all the way to Bakersfield which is a pretty long and far drive. We got to transfers and I got to see all of my friends from the mission and meet my new companion Sister Williams. Then we drove to Kern Valley to have a lesson with Heather. We taught her the word of wisdom and it was so cool because Sister Williams was one of the first missionaries to start teaching Heather! Heather is still working towards her baptism and we are all just so excited for her. We then had dinner with Brother and Sister Robb. They are such a sweet couple who made us a delicious dinner; then sent us home with a homemade pie!  They gave us a few names of people that we could go stop by to try and share the gospel with. While I was at dinner though I ended up knocking my pork chop off my plate and hurried and hid it before the Robbs noticed. Sister Williams noticed though and was having the hardest time stifling her laugh.   We then went grocery shopping and while I was grabbing tooth paste I managed to knock a few bottles off the shelf while Sister Williams stood there laughing her head off at my clumsiness. I was seriously leaving a great first impression to my new companion. haha. 

Wednesday we drove back up to Kern Valley to have a lesson with Jenna and  Heather. Jenna sent us a surprise text that said that she wanted to get baptized on the 10th of November! We were teaching her the law of chasity which she simply loves, and she surprised us again by saying she watched the women's session of general conference and that she was currently doing the 10 day social media fast and has been reading the Book of Mormon as much as she can! She really wants to raise her daughter in the best possible way that she can. Then we drove over to Heather's to have another lesson with her. We taught her the law of tithing and she is so willing to follow it. She asked us so many question about what more she can do to prepare for her baptism. We then drove home to have dinner with Brother and Sister McDonald's. They are great dane breeders so they have a few great dane puppies that I just love to play with. Well Brother and Sister McDonald got into a debate about how much one of the adult dogs weight was and it ended up that Brother McDonald was carrying the dog around so he could weight it on the scale with him. We were all laughing so hard because the dog kept squirming in his arms and almost knocking him over.  Then we had our ward coordination with our ward mission leader and talked about what we could do to better serve our ward. 

Thursday we had a lot of free time. We planned to go out and do a lot of tracting. We were knocking doors and talking to everyone that we could and I'll be honest the neighborhood was just very not excited to see us. We felt like we needed to be there so we kept working, We then "knocked" into Jenna. She had a nephew pass away and was really struggling with that. We were able to lift her burdens and just help her to feel more peace. She accepted the Book of Mormon  and is planning on reading it. Then we ran into William. William was very interested and we were able to share the whole restoration with him and he accepted a Book of Mormon and invited us to come back and teach him some more. Then we knocked on a potential's door (Tammy). Her son answered and listened to us for a little while then promise to give our card to Tammy when she got home. We then went to Kristy Restaurant to have dinner with Sister Meyers and Sister Steele. We all decided on breakfast food and I had the best pancakes of my life. Afterwards we did our weekly planning and prepared everything for our upcoming weeks. 

Friday was district council and we were asked to do a training on how to spiritually plan our day. So what we ended up doing was just planning out our day for Saturday while everyone watched. It was awesome because we did feel the spirit and everyone was super impressed with us. We also had our planning done for Saturday so we were excited to have more time for ourselves in the morning. We then had lunch with Sister Albertson and Sister Hales. Sister Albertson made us mac and cheese which was just so sweet of her. Then we went home and did some personal studying for the day, stopped by some referrals, then had a lesson with the Pomazal family. Elspeth is getting baptized tomorrow so we shared a video with her about baptism.  Then we stopped by Brother and Sister Allen. They are a cute older couple who can't get out much because of so many medical reasons. We had dinner with Brother and Sister Warkington, then we drove out to Ash-lee's to have a lesson with her. We talked a lot about eternal families and baptism. It was a really good conversation. 

 

Saturday morning was a very cool morning and we could not figure out how to fix our heaters. We had been asking the elders for help, but they had just been pushing it off. Well apparently the elders woke up and they were just freezing too.  So they realized they were cold with even with their heaters working, then we must be really cold. So they texted us and said they were on their way to help fix our heater. They came over and saved us from the cold. Then we were driving to go see Sister Hobbs when all of a sudden we realized that the car was making super duper weird noises and that something was way off so I pulled over and turns out we had an extremely super flat tire. So we had to call the elders again to come put our doughnut on. Then we had to spend a few hours waiting for the tire to get changed. But we were still able to make it to Elspeth's baptism. Then we were home doing comp study and Sister Warkington called and asked if we could help them move some boxes, so we went over and helped them for a few hours. Afterwards we went to our ward fall festival. After the festival we stopped by Carmen's to see how she was doing. Poor Carmen is really starting to lose her memory so she started telling us how she hates having to wait for the elders to give her blessings so she ordered her own healing oils online to give her self blessings! They even came in really cool fancy bottles! Sister Willliams and I were trying so hard not to start laughing our heads off. We helped her read the instructions and move the bottles to a safe place. I just really love and adore Carmen. 

Sunday we had ward counsel at 7:00am, then had breakfast before church with the Calderon's. During sacrament there was a cute little boy sitting in front of us, so I kept waving at him and making faces at him to try and get him to wave back. Finally he smiled at me and started waving back and after sacrament he came over to me, tried to climbed on my lap, then gave me tons of kisses on my arms! He then proceeded to tell me all about his buzz light year toy and what all the buttons did. His name is Juaquin and he is four.  He just insisted that I hold his hand while he walked down the hall. My heart has melted. We stayed with the primary to help them with the program and the whole time he kept turning around and waving and smiling at me. After church we had a lesson with Nathan. We read the book of Enos and talked about finding spiritual truths in the Book of Mormon and finding answers through prayer. Then we had lunch at the Calderon's and did a service project by helping go through all of Sister Calderon's jewlery and reorganizing it. She even gave us the ones that we wanted. We had dinner with Brother and Sister Bull. 

Well I love you all so so much!!

Love, Sister Hannah Howard 

October 15, 2018

Monday we went on an amazing hike with the Caldaron family! Sister Caldaron is our ward RS president. They rented a van and piled us in with Sister Hales and Sister Albertson and took us to Death Valley to see a beautiful waterfall. There was a tree branch hanging over a little bit of water so Sister Albertson and I climbed onto it and slide over it so we could take a nice photo and because Jose dared us. Well I almost fell in but lucky me I managed to save myself and not get wet. The hike was beautiful and we all had so much fun. On the way back there was a cow and her calf in the trail. Everyone was too scared to walk by the cow so I had to go over and move the cow off the trail. They now call me the cow whisperer.  It was pretty funny. I tried to pet it and Sister Caldaron got super worried that I would get hurt:) 

Tuesday We were on our way to Kern Valley to teach Jenna and Heather when we got a call that the sisters were having some struggles; so we canceled our appointments and headed to their apartment. We got everyone feeling better; then I got to go on an exchange with Sister Hales. We went and did some tracting and stopped by a few of the people they are teaching. Then we exchanged back and went to dinner with the Damsteds. They have the three cutest little boys on the planet! It was so adorable seeing them play with each other. After we went to Wal-Mart and picked up some cookie ingredients then went home and baked chocolate chip cookies for the Calderons to say thank you for the hike.

Wednesday we were suppose to have exchanges with Sister Thongrit and Sister Parcel. But we both came up feeling super super sick again. So we canceled exchanges and stayed inside all day just studying and sleeping. 

Thursday we got up and I felt way better but Sister Pankratz was still feeling down. We went to a service project at the Andrus home. We got to pull all of the weeds out of their flower garden and plant new flowers in their place. It was so much fun. Sister Hales and Albertson came with us and we had so much fun working together and just talking about movies. I forgot how much I loved gardening. We went home and let Sister Pankratz take a nap and just rest for a while.

Friday we had district counsel. We learned about repentance and forgiveness. Then we were heading home but got a call that Sister Calderon needed a blessing so we called the elders and all went over to help her. We ended up staying with her and talking to her until the rest of the family came back home from work and school. Then we went home and did some weekly planning until the sisters showed up and we went on exchanges with them. I was with Sister Albertson. We taught Nick and Cathy about the Book of Mormon and helped them to better understand why they need  the Savior in their life. Then we went and packed our over night stuff for Sister Hales and Sister Albertson, because they were going to spend the night with us. That night President Layton called and asked Sister Pankratz to come and have lunch with him on Saturday. 

Saturday morning Sister Albertson and Sister Hales made us pancakes and hot chocolate for breakfast. Then we drove to Tehachapi for lunch with our Mission President. He showed us all of the new sisters that will be coming into the mission this Tuesday and we talked a lot about Preach My Gospel. Then we went to the church and Sister Pankratz had an interview with him while I got to talk to Sister Layton. Then we went home. We stopped by a few referrals but they weren't home. Then we visited with Connie and her kids. Connie is a member, but her kids are not. We had dinner at the Barro's house! They have 6 beautiful kids all under the age of 6, so it was a party. 

Sunday was wonderful. I really enjoy just relaxing at church and listening to other people teach. Nathan and Randal both came to church. Then we had lunch at the Calderon's. We did our studies and had a peaceful Sunday. 

Love Sister Howard

October 8, 2018

Hello my cute family and friends!! Sorry I didn't email last week!! I was on a bomb hike!! Don't worry though I will send two emails talking about both weeks... which will probably take forever to read but you don't have to read them if you don't want to haha! I seriously do love all of you so much!! Thank you for all of the letters, emails and packages! 

October 1-7

Monday was p-day and because we are sister training leaders, we got to plan a sister activity. We felt inspired to ask Carmen if we could come over to her house and bake cookies. She was overjoyed and could not wait for Monday to come. When we got to Carmen's we instantly could tell that she had been having a bad day. Ever  since her husband passed away she has been overwhelmed with sadness. Some days she even forgets to eat because she is so sad. We baked cookies (my Aunt Camellia's recipe)  with her, talked to her, and comforted her. Then we all sat down and ate chocolate chip cookies and watched the New Testament movie. She loved the cookies so much that we even were able to convince her to eat multiple cookies and to keep some for later.  I got to watch her feelings of sadness change into feelings of joy.  What a huge blessing to be able to be a part of her life. She is such a doll. For dinner we went to the Pomazal's. They like to pick a scripture for us,  then have us make a spiritual thought out of the scripture.  

It was Haggi 2:12-13

12 If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.

13 Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.

What a scripture! I was like how do I even make this spiritual... I ended up talking about keeping ourselves spiritually clean and keeping our covenants with Heavenly Father. I think I passed haha.  Then we went around and took cookies to ward member and heart attacked their houses. We went to the Lucky's house to heart attack them. So I snuck up to the door put all the hearts on the door super fast then knocked the door and ran like the wind! A couple minutes later we get a text from sister Lucky! Apparently I was so ninja that the motion detector didn't realize that I was there so it didn't go off! (Sister Howard 1, Motion detector 0 ;) Then we went over to the sister's apartment and had story time. Sister Pankratz told her version of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". Which her opinion of things always just makes me laugh so so hard.  Hahaha that movie will never be the same. 

Tuesday   We had interviews with President Layton. My interview went well and so did Sister Pankratz interview. Then we drove up to Kern Valley to have a lesson with Heather. Heather is doing wonderfully. She is very prepared for her baptism. We taught her the law of chastity which she just loves. That lesson is so much more fun to teach when you are teaching it to a married couple. After the lesson we drove back to Ridgecrest to have dinner with the Johnson family. We shared the "Dare to Stand Alone" video, and talked about building a stronger relationship with our Savior. 

Wednesday  We went to the mission leadership council in Tehachapi. It went very well!! The mission is doing so good and so is our zone! I am so proud of how much Ridgecrest has grown in the time that I have been here.  MLC pretty much took all day so we drove back to Ridgecrest and had dinner at the McDonald's house. Sister McDonald has all boys so she just loves it when we come over. We always play a board game with her. Plus we get to play with her cute great dane puppies! After dinner we had ward correlation with our ward mission leader. He showed us all of his adorable wedding photos because they are still a newly wed couple, and we talked about all the people in the ward that we would like to help and what we can do to help the people that we are currently teaching. 

Thursday we had apartment and car inspections. Brother and Sister Sturgeon are the cutest elderly couple ever!! They made me feel so good about myself just because I know how to clean my house and make my bed. Hahah I just love them. Then for lunch we made southern mac and cheese just like how Elder Peyson taught us to make it. Which I'll be honest it is so much better then kraft mac and cheese. Then we had a leadership meeting with Elder Peyson and Elder Maxwell to talk about how we can help our zone keep improving. Elder Peyson and Elder Maxwell always make me laugh so hard. I just adore both of them. We had dinner at Brother and Sister Hannah's house then we went to go visit Sister Calderon and take her some beans that Sister Hannah made for her. Sister Calderon is doing a lot better from her surgery. We went for a walk with her so she could stretch herself and she just had us laughing so hard. I really love the Calderons so much! While we were there Jose decided that he wanted to take us all on a hike for Columbus Day. So we are all way excited for that!

Friday We had district counsel and at the end we had a surprise party for Elder Visser and Caleb. Caleb has been coming to a all of our meetings because he is leaving to go on his mission to Mexico. I am excited for him, he will be a very good missionary. Then we went home and did some studies. We had dinner in Trona which is far away like Kern Valley. We had dinner with Rosie ( she is 22)  and her little friend Gaythen. Gaythen is not a member so we had the opportunity to teach him more about the gospel of Jesus Christ and to invite him to read the Book of Mormon. 

Saturday we watched conference at the stake center which was just so beautiful and so amazing. Then we went over to the Andrus house and picked up my picture book that has a lot of temple pictures for me. Then the elders made us all burgers. Which was pretty awesome. The just wanted to serve us and make conference special for us. It was so sweet. Then we went to the second session of conference which was also amazing. I just simply adored all of it. There were so many good things said and a lot of my prayers were answered.

 

Sunday we went to the stake center to watch the Sunday sessions of conference! In between we had a pot luck with some of the members of the stake. Nathan came and watched conference with us for the second session. Conference as a missionary is just a super special treat  Then we went home because Sister Pankratz was feeling sick so she took a nap. We had dinner at the Shelbys then we had a lesson with Eli. 

Love Sister Howard

October 1, 2018

Monday for P-day we played glow-in-the dark pac man and glow-in-the dark chair soccer. It was so much fun! The only problem was that the elders where smacking each other so hard with the balls that the glow sticks were breaking all over the floor. The gym floor looked super cool though and we managed to clean it all up! We even made our t-shirts glow in the dark. It was a load of fun! For dinner we went to Brother and Sister Andrus. Brother Andrus is a very good photographer and has a temple folder full of all the gorgeous pictures he has taken! He surprised me by letting me pick out a couple photos that he will send to my house so that I can have nice copies to hang up! It was so cool!  We then went to Sean's house! Sean is a recent convert and loves family history work. He is just so cool! We are just starting to go over to his house every Monday night to read scriptures with him.

 

Tuesday Sister Pankratz and I were still feeling pretty sick. But we had an appointment to go up to Kern Valley to teach Heather; so we got up and headed out. Kern Valley is an hour away but I really enjoy the ride because there are sun flowers that line up the road and it has a pretty lake that we get to drive around called Lake Isabella. Plus we get to jam out to hymns!! :) Our lesson with Heather was fantastic! Her husband Donny was there and he pretty much taught the whole lesson for us. Heather is so ready to be baptized! She knows everything. Then we had a lesson with Kenny in Kern Valley as well, but we had the wrong address and the lady who answered the door was not to impressed with us. 

Wednesday we had a lesson with Ash-lee. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and we put an emphasis on repentance. She is doing very well and is super excited to be getting baptized! 

Thursday we did our weekly planning then we headed up to Kern Valley to teach Jenna. We taught her about tithing and very happily said that she would love to follow it! It will be a huge sacrifice for her though so I was so proud to see how willing she is to do it. We then went home and had a lesson with Billy. He ended up not being home because of his anniversary dinner which I think was a great excuse. We then hurried over to the elders apartment because it is Elder Riser's birthday and we wanted to have a surprise party for him. We blew up a load of balloons and decorated his house with tons of streamers. The other elders came over with a cake and we hurried and finished up then turned off the lights and waited for them to come home. The elders stayed in the living room and the sister hid together in the kitchen. We ended up sitting on the kitchen floor in a circle and told funny stories because Elder Harward and Elder Riser were taking forever to come back home. Well while we we telling the story the elders were being our look outs and didn't see the other elders come home so they surprised us. Then we sang happy birthday and ate cake and ice cream and went  home. 

Friday we had district counsel. Sister Pankratz and I did a training on the gospel of Jesus Christ. It went well and the spirit was there. Then we watched a role play by Sister Albertson and Sister Hales. They did an amazing job. We had lunch at the sisters' apartment and talked for a while because the sisters were struggling with some things. We had dinner at the Lucky's house. Brother Lucky is not a member and has had some struggles with missionaries being too pushy in the past so we were a little worried about dinner. Turns out though that Brother Lucky and I are kindred spirits and we just ended up making each other laugh the whole dinner. We both went to grab the lemonade at the same time and he was like, "oh my gosh thats so awkward". and I was like it is only awkward if you make it awkward. Then he and his wife both started laughing because Brother Lucky says that all the time. It was a fantastic dinner and I believe that we have made a friend for life. We went over to the sisters' apartment that night and had a story time. Sister Pankratz told us her version of beauty and the beast which had us all laughing way too hard. 

Saturday, Sister Pankratz was feeling very sick so I let her sleep and I ended up watching "Johnny Lingo" three time, 'The Mail box" and "Uncle Ben". I painted my nails, did laundry, did the dishes, baked cookies, curled my hair, and swept the floor. Needless to say I was having serious cabin fever. Finally it was time to go to a lesson with Ash-Lee so we headed out. Ash-Lee and her boyfriend have a hobby of gold mining, so they showed us around their work shop and taught us about how to find gold. It was pretty cool. Then we taught them the ten commandments and got Ash-lee to pray for us!  We had dinner at Bishop Jensen's house and then bishop and his wife picked up Nathan for a lesson and brought him to the church. We taught the restoration and the spirit was there so strong. Nathan promised to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about Joseph Smith. Then we went home to get the cookies so we could take them to the other missionaries' house. We dropped some off at Elder Payson's and Elder Maxwell's house. Then we headed to Elder Harward's and Elder Risers. Their lights were off, and we couldn't see their car, and we had a key from when we did the surprise party. So we figured we could just leave the cookies on their table and head out... so we opened the door put the cookies on the table and were heading out when we hear a panicked muffled voice say sisters?!?!? Turns out that Elders Riser and Harward were wearing halloween masks and had turned off all their lights to make it look like they were  not home so when Elders Peyson and Maxwell stopped by they could jump out at them and scare them. So when the elders heard us unlocking the door they thought we were the zone leaders and got into their hiding places, but when we walked in and we weren't the elders it freaked them out so they just stayed hidden to see what we were doing. Talk about awkward. We then took the key back to Elder Peyson and stopped by to have another story time with the sisters. They surprised us with an icee and I then told everyone the story of Mulan. Lets just say I'm apparently funny:)

Sunday we got to speak in sacrament! yay! The topic was on repentance. When I got to church I felt inspired to share a personal story about how I gained my testimony of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. After sacrament Brother Bull  came up to me and told me that when he was around my same age he had a similar experience that lead him to build his testimony as well. It was so cool. An hour or so after church Bishop Jensen sent us a text about how our talks on repentance had changed someone's life forever! What a humbling experience that we were able to be a tool in the Lord's hand. Heather, Ash-lee, Jenna, and Nathan were all able to make it to church. Yay!! Ash-lee loved our talks and can't wait to come to conference next week. Brother Lucky also came! Which made me so happy:) After church we had a meeting about ministering, then we went home, had dinner, and cut out hearts for heart attacks. 

Love you all lots! 

Love, Sister Howard 

September 24, 2018

Tuesday we went up to Kern Valley! We had a lesson with Jenna. The lesson was on the gospel of Jesus Christ. During the lesson Jenna opened up with us about why she wasn't going to church. She has had some bad experiences with some of the ward members in the past. Hearing her story was heartbreaking and Sister Pankratz and I weren't sure what to say. Sister Pankrats started trying to comfort her as a scripture came into my mind. I opened up my Book of Mormon and turned to the scripture. It was about the blessings that we receive when we follow God's commandments. We both bore our testimony of how sometimes God asks us to do hard things. But every time we follow through with the commandments, Heavenly Father blesses us for our faith. Then we read the scripture with her. The spirit filled the room and she started crying. The lesson ended up going fantastically and she promised to pray for a new date to be baptized on. Next we had a lesson with Heather. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it was awesome because Heather already knows all of it and she pretty much taught us the lesson. Her daughter Lilly did our hair while we were teaching and Penelope, her 2 year old, kept walking on the couch to me and then giving me kisses. It was adorable! The best part is I'm the first missionary that Penelope will play with or give kisses to! That night we were calling people in our area book to see if they were interested in learning more about Jesus Christ! Kenny answered and said he would love to learn more and Billy called us back and invited us to come over and to teach them some more! 

Wednesday morning we had exchanges. I went to the Ridgecrest second ward area with Sister Hales, and Sister Albertson went to my area with Sister Pankratz. We started off the day by doing service at the public library! It was so cool! I found a book titled "Mission San Fernando".  While shelving books Sister Hales and I kept noticing all the weird book titles and I'm pretty sure that we were laughing way too loud for being in a library. We then went home and did some studies and had lunch. We then spent some time by doing some street contacting and door knocking. We ran into a few people who let us share the restoration with them and let us give them a copy of the Book of Mormon. They didn't want us to come back and teach them again but they promised that they would then read more of the Book of Mormon. As we were walking back to our car we found a lady who is a member of the church! She was so happy to see us and we were able to share a scripture with her and to give her the address to the church. Me being the fantastic person that I am forgot to lock the car and the elders left us a note on the steering wheel... I double checked that the car was locked after that..... We had a lesson at the church with Courtney and his family about church callings, then we watched Courtney receive the priesthood. He is a 13 year old boy who just recently got baptized! Saturday he gets to go to the temple to do baptisms for his family. Then we had a lesson with Abel. Abel is a super sick man who is the young single father of two little boys. He doesn't have long to live which is so sad because he is just such an amazing guy. The spirit was super strong in his house. Sister Hales has only been out on her mission for two months but she is already a stunning missionary! It was so cool to see her teaching and working with people. It reminded me of when I was a baby missionary. Then we all went back to my apartment and had a sleepover! We ended up drinking hot chocolate and sitting on our back porch. Sister Pankratz and I had put up Christmas lights so it was so beautiful and relaxing.

Thursday, the next morning, we did our studies, then we exchanged back. We did our weekly planning, and were headed to our appointments but they had all cancelled on us, so we did some tracking, then went to dinner. We had dinner with Sister Meyers at a Mexican restaurant. For dessert we had the most amazing churros on the planet. Then we made a video of all the rocky dirt roads that we have in our area to try to convince the assistance of giving us a different vehicle to drive so we don't hit the rocks and bumps as hard. 

Friday I woke up feeling super super sick so afterwards we got done planning for the day I went back to bed until I needed to get up for district meeting. District meeting was great and the zone was doing amazing but I was just feeling so sick. By the time it was over I was ready to leave. The sisters ended up coming over for lunch and I just sat on the couch till they left. Then I went back to bed and slept the day away. While I was sleeping, all of our appointments cancelled on us so I got to keep sleeping (a blessing from God). I later woke up, watched some church movies and then Elder Riser and Elder Harward  came by and dropped off soup. While getting ready for bed I just felt so sick, all I wanted to do was to be out working and taking care of the people in my area.... nothing is worse then not being able to work. I prayed and asked Heavenly Father what to do and he said to get a blessing.

 

Saturday I slept in pretty late, woke up, then sent the elders a text to come give me a blessing... well they got distracted and came 3 hours later, then when they said they would come... so we were pretty annoyed at them. In my head I was like oh no!! I can't be mad while I'm trying to get a blessing... But when they finally got over to our apartment we were no longer annoyed and Elder Maxwell (a brand new missionary) was able to give me an amazing blessing. After the blessing I felt so much better and have felt a lot better ever since. 

Sunday I still felt a little sick, but as a missionary you can't really ditch church; so I went. When we got there we were asked to teach gospel principles and two five minute lessons in primary. I was so not in the mood, but we said we would love to. The gospel principles lesson was on sacrifices and Heavenly Father blessed us with a group of people who had tons of wonderful things to say so I ended up not having to say anything! By the time primary started I was feeling good enough to help with the short missionary lesson. Later bishop pulled us aside and gave us a referral for a new person to teach! His name is Nathan. He has already read the Book of Mormon and he loves it! He is excited to learn more and wants us to come teach him more this Wednesday. Jenna came to church!!!! Heather also came with her family as well!  

Love, Sister Howard