May 29, 2018

Hello everyone!!

Just another glorious week here in the Great California San Fernando mission!!

Monday: We had a zone activity and everyone played basketball. Then we got to stop-by the Todd family to see how our sweet little Jack is doing. We went to my zone leadership counsel meeting and came up with new ways to better serve the people in our areas and the missionaries in our zones!

Tuesday: Was weekly planning day. We got all of our planning done then we had a pass-off lesson with the YSA elders so that they could start teaching Shannon. Pass-off lessons make me so sad! But I know the elders will take really good care of her. We had a lesson with L-Jay and he has committed to be baptized!!! Whoo!! His baptism will be June 23. Only sad part is he is also YSA so we passed him off to the elders as well.. lucky elders..... We decided we were going to knock doors by L Jay's house. We were knocking doors and no one was answering when I noticed a young girl and her mom cleaning the stairs of their apartment across the street. I felt this strong urge to go talk to them so I told Sister Smullin and we walked over to them and started talking. The mother, Elise, invited us to come back and teach her family!!! YAYA!!!! We have been praying for a family to teach!!!! We had a lesson with our recent convert Shawn in the Solemint ward and his mother Paula is not a member. Well we have been inviting her to come listen to the lessons and she is starting to ask questions!! 

Wednesday: We had another lesson with Elise and two of her kids Gabby and Alexander were there. The kids are so ready and excited to get baptized, but Elise wants to take a little more time; which is completely fair. We taught them all the restoration and gave them their own copies of the Book of Mormon. Gabby is so excited and asked a load of questions!! She can't wait to get started and to be baptized!! What a huge blessing to be teaching this family!!

Thursday Sister Smullin had a doctors' appointment because she hasn't been feeling so hot, so I got to drive back to my first area which was so cool to see again!! Then we had district meeting and I got to lead a discussion on "The Faith to Reap" talk! This talk is such a cool talk about the difference between having faith and having the faith to reap... I recommend you all read it:)  Elder Wilford W. Andersen March 17, 2015. After district meeting we went back to the doctors for another check up. Then we just took an easy day of updating so my cute comp could get feeling better. 

Friday we had another doctors appointment, then we went to ward correlation with our fantastic ward mission leader in the Solemint ward! He is such a cool guy!! We stopped by the Burgess family and read scriptures with Brother and Sister Burgess. They are the cutest elderly couple on this planet! Plus they always make us treats which is always a bonus. Then we went home and Sister Smullin got to take a nap while I read through some old letter from my family and friends. If you are ever wondering what to send to your missionary send them a letter. It seriously is such a special gift to receive from someone you love! We had dinner at the Lamersons house and I taught the kids the Plan of Salvation while Sister Lamerson gave Sister Smullin advice on things to help her start feeling better. Can I just say I love the ward members here so much!! They take such good care of us and make us feel like we are part of the family!!

 

Saturday we got to do some updating at Brother Moutrie's house (our ward mission leader) They have such a pretty house and updating  there felt like we were at some awesome resort! Our appointments fell through so we did some stop-bys and had dinner at Sister Valencia's house. She taught us how to make the best fried rice ever and how to make amazing enchiladas... I am now set for life in the food department. 

Sunday we went to church for six house since we cover both wards, which is something that I actually really really love. Taking the sacrament twice is so amazing to me.  Shawn's mother Paula came with us to church to hear Sister Smullin speak and she loved every minute of it. She promised to come to a ward party with us on Monday and said she couldn't wait to get to know the ward better. 

Monday: we went to the coolest ward party ever!! Plus Paula and Jennfer were there!! Then we were able to pick up a girl named Ephony who has been going to church for a few weeks but hasn't wanted to take the lesson until she decided to at the party!! We have a lesson with her on Thursday!!

 

Well love you all!! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Howard 

Monday May 21, 2018

Hello all you beautiful people!!! This week has been an amazing week!!! I will never forget the amazing experiences that I have had. 

Tuesday I was on exchanges with Sister Pinter, and we had a lesson with Claudia. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and then asked her to be baptized! She said yes and asked if she could be baptized on her birthday!! She is so excited to learn more and she is reading the Book of Mormon every day!! 

Wednesday we had a leson with Lavonia, she is such a cool person to teach. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and she said that her favorite part was enduring to the end because she says she think thats where most people get lost.... we invited her to be baptized but she said she doesn't feel ready yet, which is just fine!! We as her missionaries will just do whatever we can to help her build a stronger faith in Jesus Christ. 

Friday we had final interviews with President Henrie. It was so sad!! That was my last interview that I will ever be able to have with him before he goes home and we get a new mission and a new mission president... It is so cool to see how much your mission president and his wife can really impact you to be not only a better missionary, but a better person.... hahah I told him that I didn't want him to leave and he smiled at me and said that no matter what, he will always be my mission president. Then after the interviews he took out the zone leadership to get lunch. He started talking to the waitress about Jesus Christ and explained what a missionary does... then before she could come back to share her information with him, he stood up smiled and said you missionaries take it from here! Then he walked out... yep best mission president ever!! Good news though I got her information and she is extremely interested in learning more!! 

Saturday we had a day fun of miracles! We had a member lesson with a less-active member in the Solemint area but as we were driving to her house she texted and said that she was going to be a bit late because she was still coming back from an appointment. We decided that we would look at the map on our area planner app and see if there were any potential investigators to stop by in the area. We found two and as we were walking to their house we saw a guy walking down the street and we started a conversation with him. His name is Mario and he has been visiting different churches to try and find one that fits best for him but none of them have felt right! We invited him to come to church with us and he said he would. We also got a return appointment and are going to go teach him more on Wednesday! The timing was perfect. He was on his way to work and was very late... we were conveniently walking down the street at exactly the right time... as a missionary I believe that timing is everything. 

We had a wonderful member lesson with Sister Rodreguz and she took us out for lunch! She shared her testimony with us on the power of prayer! I love being able to hear the members' testimonies. It really helps to strengthen mine. We had a lesson with Shannon and we taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ! Holy cow she is so prepared. She had already read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and she read the testimony of Joseph Smith. She asked all of these thoughtful questions. Then we invited her to be baptized!! She said YES!! Her date is for June 19th! She said that talking to us about repentance and being baptized is the only time that she has talked about religion without leaving the conversation frustrated. The spirit is key to helping people to be converted. Sister Smullin and I are just so excited for Shannon and its funny because we both feel like we know her from somewhere.

After the lesson we rushed to the stake center for our cute little Jack Todd's baptism! He is the little boy that we have been teaching every Sunday since we first go into Mint Canyon over 12 weeks ago.  He has a diagnosis of autism. He looked so cute in his white clothes and was patiently waiting to be baptized. We started the baptism and I got the honor to give the talk on baptism. Then Jack went into the font.. well because of seeing all of the people watching him he got scared and he decided that he was now NOT going to be baptized. So they closed the curtians and it was just his family watching and the two witnesses.... Sister Smullin and I were sitting next to the curtain and we could hear Jack's cries of worry and stress and his parents trying  to help him get baptized... immediately we started praying individually for him to have the peace to be baptized. Well it wasn't working and we could just hear him getting very very upset.  We both wanted to go in there and talk to him to see if we could help, but we weren't sure if we should or not... finally the bishop came out and said Sister Smullin and Sister Howard will you please come talk to Jack. 

We were with him in seconds. We ran through the mens' bathroom and found Jack curled up in a buddle of towels dripping wet saying that he hated baptism... we both cuddle around him and started asking him what was so scary...... he just snuggled next to us and said he didn't want to be baptized any more... we started coming up with all these crazy ideas of how we could help him. At one point Sister Smullin and I were both standing in the font with him and his dad helping him to feel comfortable in the water. We offered to let him get baptized in just his church clothes to have his CTR towel around him as he got baptized, anything that we could do to help him feel more comfortable. Finally Jack had had enough and was just sitting in the corner putting his tennis shoes back on..... Sister Smullin grabbed my hand and pulled me into the mens' bathroom again. We knelt down on the floor in the stall, held hands  and we said a prayer for Jack to feel peace, and comfort and to remember why he wanted to be baptized. Soon after we ended the prayer we heard Jack splashing in the water. His parents were praising him and saying good boy Jack you got this!! You can do this!! Then we heard Brother Todd say the baptismal prayer and heard the sound of Jack coming back out of the water. We watched an adorable little boy come running out of the font in only his boxers and realized that after an hour of coaxing our little Jack, he had made history by being baptized in just his underwear!!! Then he asked if he could please be baptized again!! He came running up to us dripping wet and asked if we could please dry his hair off.... we were both bawling our eyes out and laughing our heads off. It was cool to see how praying as a companionship was extremely more powerful them praying by yourself. Plus we got to see our little Jack be baptized. Sister Smullin gave a beautiful talk of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then we got to watch Jack happily receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and I don't think I have ever felt the spirit so strong in my life.... It is such an honor to be able to be apart of these life changing moment as a missionary!! Jack Todd will always hold a special place in my heart. 

Sunday after church we were visiting part-member families and as we were walking from appointments we ran into L Jay. He told us that he just moved in and was looking for a church. We happily invited him to ours and taught him the restoration. He loved it!! We promised to read the pamphlet and asked if we would teach his grandmother too. We have an appointment with him this Wednesday!! 

Can I just say that all in all being a missionary is the best thing that has ever happened to me!! Having that chance to see peoples' lives change and see their love for Jesus Christ grow is such an honor!! If your ever having a bad day just go out and serve the people around you!! I promise that your day will become so much better!! 

 

I love you all and hope you have the best day ever!! 

Love Sister Howard

Monday May 14, 2018

Hello my people!!!!

I hope you all had a fantastic Mother's Day!!! 

This week I managed to start out on a fantastic note. We went to zone activity on Monday and decided that we were all going to play soccer. Well pretty soon things got kind of competitive and I ended up running into a few of the sisters and managed to twist both of my ankles!! Whoo! So Sister Smullin has been stuck with a hobbling companion this past week. Which is good for her because she thinks my walk is hilarious!  But good news, I still managed to make the most goals, so my team still won!! (even though missionaries aren't allowed to keep score!!) We had a wonderful dinner at Sister Lawler's house. Then got to go to the park and have Family Home Evening with them. Then I got to have a skype call with Sister Pinter to talk about the missionaries in our zone and to go over the people who are getting ready to be baptized! Then we went to zone leadership counsel and planned ways to better move the work forward:) I know the church is true and that the spirit is the one who converts people just by the ideas that the elders come up with... 

Tuesday was weekly panning day! Because of our new technology with our smart phones we have gotten new ways to plan for our day and for our week..... Sister Smullin and I are still trying to figure out how to do all of this new stuff properly.... we had a lesson with a recent convert named Shawn in our Solemint area and he is just the coolest guy ever!! His mom isn't a member but she sat down with us and read the Book of Mormon and asked questions about Joseph Smith. Shawn is an amazing example to her. 

Wednesday we had a cool lesson with a girl named Kenzie. She is a doll and is a member, but hasn't been involved in the church for a while. We invited her to YSA ward and she is planning on going. We had the chance to meet with three part-member families, the Albees, Marshes and Kelleis. The Albees grandson isn't a member and he is living with them and he's hilarious. He's been in a load of plays and happily  gave me advice on my make-up. Best friends for life! Brother Marsh is a member but his wife isn't. He actually participated in the olympics and offered to let me come play tennis on his tennis courts!! (I finally find tennis courts the week I sprain my ankles!!) His wife wasn't interested in hearing our lessons, but she was a complete sweetheart to us. The Kellies are one of my most favorite families ever!! We read Alma 26 with them and you could tell that Brother Kelly was touched. We made a deal with him that if Sister Smullin sings in sacrament he will come to church!! 

Thursday we had mission conference from 8:45am till 3:30pm. Lets just say it was a miracle that I didn't fall asleep!! haha We had trainings on how to use the new area app planner and how to baptize our facebooks so they are clean enough to use as a missionary. So watch out for all the great California San Fernando missionaries on facebook!! I had already received these trainings when they opened up these apps to mission leadership, so I had the opportunity to try and explain it to the missionaries around me. Its honestly so cool seeing how much technology can move the work forward! Technology is such a blessing! When its used right of course! We had another lesson with Shawn and when we came out of the lesson we ran into a guy named Deter. He was walking his dog and we talked to him and he invited us to come back and teach him some more!!! yay!!!

Friday our day was booked!! We went and read scriptures with the Burgess family. They are a super cute older couple who don't really leave their house. We read a chapter with them, then set up their internet so they could watch videos on the gospel library app! Then we taught Claudia about the gospel of Jesus Christ and committed her to read the Book of Mormon! We found Shannon and Alex during knock-out and they both invited us to come back and teach them more! Shannon has just discovered faith and is so excited to read the Book of Mormon!! She says she can do it in 2 weeks!! We had another recent convert lesson with Allison and she is doing great! 

Saturday we had a cool lesson with one of our ward families... they are going through a hard time and we were able to share a video that answered some of their questions! It was so cool to see how the spirit can bring things to your remembrance at the very second when you need it! We had another cool knock-out and found two more people!! Mark and Caeser!! They have both had experiences with Mormons in the past and are excited to learn more!! Mark himself has seen how the church changes lives and is very excited to get on this path!

Sunday I GOT TO SKYPE MY FAMILY!! YAYA!!!!! 

It really was a great week of finding! I can't wait for the next week of adventures!! 

May 7, 2018

Hi everyone!! 

So this week has been full of cool miracles and a million times ten mistakes...... 

Monday, our zone leaders texted us and said that there wouldn't be a zone activity, so we got together with Sister Keller and Sister Reynolds and had a sisters' zone activity! We went to Yo Crazy and thrift shopping. We actually found some really cute cheap clothes and maybe a had a little bit too much fun without the elders . 

After that Sister Smullin and I  went grocery shopping and we got this text for our district leader. Apparently they were having a zone activity without us and everyone was at the church playing soccer!! I have never seen my wonderful companion get so mad..... being left-out is seriously no fun! We had dinner that night at a beautiful house in the Solemint Ward (the Cawlies) they were just the sweetest family. They bought me my favorite ice-cream and bought Sister Smullin cheese cake! During the dinner one of the ward members started choking and it was just so scary. Then I got strawberry juice all over my new dress! After everything calmed down they gave us a tour of their house.... they have a water slide and basketball courts. Sister Smullin and I are already planning to come see them after the mission. I had a special skype call with Sister Pinter to go over all of the baptismal dates in the Valencia Zone and the Santa Clarita Zone and to see how all of my beautiful sisters are doing. Then Sister Smullin and I went to my zone leadership meeting. 

Tuesday was weekly planning day, (which is always a very tiring event), two hours of studies and three hours of planning makes me so sleepy! We were knocking doors and we found Joe! Joe is a really cool guy who loves learning more about Jesus Christ, and learning about basically any religion! He has a huge knowledge of church history and we had a super cool conversation with him! We gave him a Book of Mormon and he promised to read it! Then we got a return appointment! We had accidentally scheduled two dinner appointments so we just decided to go to both of them. The first dinner we had was with the Smiths. They have two adorable boys. Graham and Alter. Graham is four, he walked up to me asked me what my name was then asked me if I would please sit by him during dinner. Then he taught me how to properly play with legos! We were having a great time when he informed me that he doesn't like girls.... except his mom. He's a smart boy for sure! 

Our second dinner was with Jennifer!! We shared our testimonies with her and are just really hoping to build a good relationship with her! We had an appointment with Clarissa who is a pass-off from the elders. We've never actually meet her yet. Anyway we couldn't find parking and she lives in a gated community so we made a blonde decision and parked by the gate... well we couldn't get in and cars started parking behind us so we were literally stuck!!! Then our zone leaders saw us and started texting us roasts about causing traffic jams!! 

Finally the gate opened and we just went home...... when we got home our house smelt weird... we walked into the kitchen and our kitchen sink was full of disgusting grey water. We called the district leader to see what we should do and they said to leave it and call maintenance in the morning...... so we got ready for bed and at 10:24pm I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and I could hear this sound of water trickling in the kitchen... I walk in and our floor was covered in inches of water and our sink was just over flowing!!!! I screamed to Sister Smullin and... panicking we both called the zone leaders for help. They didn't pick up the phone!!! We called the district leaders and they gave us the number for maintenance.  Then we called maintenance and they didn't answer!! We ended up just filling our mop buckets with water and dumping them in our tub because we realized the our kitchen floor was wood! Elder Brown and Elder Miskin, our district leaders came over and helped us clean up the water. Needless to say we didn't get it all cleaned up till 1:00am, which for a missionary is so late. Before Elders Brown and Miskin left they gave us a dozen chocolate chips cookies... they are my heros. 

Wednesday I had a mission leadership conference so we didn't have a chance to catch up on our sleep. We met Sister Pinter in Saugus and our companions went to work in Mint Canyon while we were gone. I just love being Sister Pinter's Sister Training Leader companion!! It is just like the good old days in the MTC. Well because I was so sleepy I ended up offending a few people because I kept losing focus in the conversations we were having. It was so stressful! But good news...maintenance finally came and fixed our sink while we were gone. We had dinner at the Spencers and they are so cool!! They have ten kids who all have hilarious personalities. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at a dinner. After dinner we went to the Kellys to read the Book of Mormon. Brother Kelly loves to tease us, and we love to tease him back. It is a miracle that we can even feel the spirit I swear. 

Today we found two people! Jimmy and Dorsely. Jimmy was found during knock-out.  He had friends who were Mormon growing up and they would take him to stake dances! We gave him a Book of Mormon, got a return appointment, and he promised to come to church with us in a few weeks. Dorsely is the son of our investigator Lavonia. Sisters Burns and Smullin found him while I was at Mission Leadership Council. He's a very cool kid who wants to learn more about the church with his mom. 

Thursday we had a lesson with Lori; she is so cool! She understands the gospel so well and she has been reading the Book of Mormon for years!! She use to investigate the church, but her husband asked her to stop. Well she wants to start up again and she just loves talking about anything gospel related! We had district meeting and Sister Smullin and I got to do a training on using baptismal calendars! The training went well! Then we had exchanges. I got to go with Sister Keller to Saugus! I love Saugus! We taught a lesson to their recent convert Ron! He is in his 90's and it the cutest man alive! Then we were knocking doors and found Derick! He invited us to come back and teach him more! After knock out I realized that I had left the Saugus phone at the apartment... go me. We had dinner at a really cool less active family's home! The wife is a member, but the husband is not. It was so cool to see how much they love missionaries. Meanwhile in Mint Canyon and Solemint, Sisters Smullin and Reynolds found Sabrina while they were out knocking doors!!

Friday we exchanged back and Sister Smullin and I had a Ward Correlation with our ward mission leader Brother Motrie! He is so cool!! He's a fantastic ward mission leader and I can't wait to work with him. His daughter Olivia is a world famous soccer player and she is only 12.....super cool family. He bought us pizza for lunch then he got us 14 donuts for the week. He says he know he's our favorite ward mission leader so we don't have to thank him because he already knows...... what a tease LoL. We went to the Todd's for dinner and got to teach Jack his last baptismal lesson. His baptism is going to be on the 19th!! we are so excited!!

 

Saturday all of our lessons canceled on us!!! So we just did stop-bys and had a slow day.... I put an address in the GPS to go stop-by a member in Solemint and ended up putting the wrong address in.... we were on the free-way and by the time we figured it out... we had already left our zone and were heading to another one!! Oh my gosh!!  We ended up missing an hour of knock-out and had to text President Henrie to tell him what had happened.... go me .....We got to celebrate Cinco de Mayo by going to get sushi with Brother Kelly!! He also bought us muscles to try!! Best Cinco de Mayo ever!!

Sunday was crazy!! I managed to leave my name tag home and had to go to 6 hours of church with out it!! The wards had a great time teasing me about it!! 

Well this week was nuts, but I did learn a lot. I love you all!! Have a great week!

 

Love, Sister Howard