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 

September 17, 2018

Hello my cute family and friends, 

Tuesday was zone conference. President and Sister Layton came down to Ridgecrest to give us trainings on how to be a powerful teacher. A few missionaries were asked to speak and then we got to give a training with our zone Leader Elder Peyson. Our training was on how we can become more like the best teacher ever to walk on the earth; which is Jesus Christ. We watched a video on his attributes, then we all picked one that we wanted to work on. At one point Sister Layton had us all get on the  family tree app to see if we were related and I found out that Sister Layton is my fourth cousin twice removed! Plus Elder Harward is my fourth cousin once removed... small small world.  Towards the end of the conference a man came in and said that he has a girlfriend that he would like to have the missionaries teach. We found out that they lived in our area so we went out into the parking lot and got to meet Ash-Lee! Ash-Lee was super excited to learn more and asked us to bring her a Book of Mormon when we came over to teach her! After zone conference we went to Sister Warkington's house to share a message. We talked about 9-11, agency and God's love for his children. We had dinner at the Calderon's house. The Calderon's are hilarious and Brother Calderon (sweetie) teased us the whole night! Plus he told us all of his crazy childhood stories. When we got home later that night we had another miracle. Sister Johnson called us to tell us that her friend Randall wanted to be baptized and invited us to come over in the morning to teach him. 

Wednesday morning we had a lesson with Randell. We taught him the Restoration and talked about baptism, Because he is going to be getting surgery this week we didn't want to set a baptismal date just yet. The elders came over and gave him a blessing that the surgery would go well, then we headed up to Kern valley. Kern Valley is the other ward we cover but it is an hour away from Ridgecrest. We had a lesson with Jenna on the Plan of Salvation. Jenna is a cute young mom who is expecting. The lesson was amazing and the spirit was so strong. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We then had a meeting with our ward mission leader Brother Stingle. Kern Valley is very interesting because it is all dirt roads with a huge lake in the middle of it (Lake Isabella). Driving is kind of scary because there aren't railings on the road so you could just go off the road and drive down the hillside. Sister Pankratz and I may or may not have had an awkward experience when another car flew down the road and almost pushed us off... lets just say God protects his missionaries. Our meeting with Brother Stingel went well then we all went over and taught Heather the Restoration. The lesson went well and I was amazed at how converted Heather is. Just seeing her you can tell that she is so ready to be baptized. She has the light of Christ in her eyes. We drove home and had dinner with the McDonald family. They are dog breeders and have two great dane puppies that are so adorable!

Thursday was our lesson with Ash-Lee. She was super excited to see us and had a lot of questions to ask us. While we were teaching the first vision she announced that she had felt the spirit, then accepted our invitation to be baptized! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was so excited to start reading it.  Then we went home and had weekly planning. For dinner we went to Brother and Sister Ross's house. Brother Ross served his mission in Brazil and loved telling us all of his cool mission stories. 

Friday we had a family history lesson with Eli at Sister Warkington's house. We helped him find a few names to take to the temple. The computer and the website kept having issues and every time Sister Pankrats was like what is going on; Eli would smirk at her and say I don't know.. you're supposed to tell me!! I was cracking up the whole time. After the lesson Sister Pankratz wasn't feeling good so we went home and let her rest so she could get feeling better.

Saturday we got to be a part of the stake youth standard's night. The topic was missionary work! We got to teach a class on how to do missionary work in natural ways and how to face our fears while doing it. We taught three different groups and they all went amazing! I was so impressed with how smart and missionary minded the youth are! 

Sunday  we had ward counsel in the morning then got to go to church! yay!! Heather, Jenna and Randall all made it! Poor Ash-Lee wasn't able to make it because the clutch in her truck went out. After church we went home and Sister Pankratz got a blessing because she was not feeling good. When the elders came over and gave her the blessing it was amazing because the spirit was so strong. It is so nice having worthy priesthood holders to come give us blessings. We had dinner at the Bull's house. Their friend April was there. She is not a member but we were able to have a cool conversation on Jesus Christ. Then Brother Bull gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon! It was so cool to see him do that! She said she would love a copy and promised to read it. 

• Love Sister Howard 

September 10, 2018

Monday was a sad but exciting day. I got to say goodbye to all of my wonderful ward family that I love so much and good bye to the missionaries serving in my zone. We went to say goodbye to the Lamersons and while we were waiting for them to answer the door Aidon and London came running out of the garage and surprised us by spraying us with silly string! When it was time to leave, London and Aidon held onto my legs and told me I couldn't leave. Gosh it was so hard to say goodbye.

 

Tuesday we were packing up the car to leave for transfers and we somehow managed to lose our car keys...we spent a half hour trying to find them before we finally found them in a box of supplies! Then we drove off to Tehachapi to exchange companions. We get to Tehachapi which was very lonely because the whole rest of the mission was exchanging in Bakersfield. President wanted us to exchange in Tehachapi.. not sure why. So we switch comps and then all of a sudden I am off to Ridgecrest with Sister Pankratz! I love love loovve her! Within minutes of being in the car with her we started laughing and realized that we have a lot in common. Plus we both have the goal of just working super hard and being obedient. So I am actually covering two wards; Kern Valley and Ridgecrest. Kern Valley is in the mountains and has a lake by it called Lake Isabella.  Ridgecrest covers Trona as well. So my area is huge!! Also it is just a huge dessert with sand everywhere. We went grocery shopping. Then went home and started packing up the apartment. The landlord wanted us to move into a newly refurbished apartment so we packed until dinner. My very first dinner was with Sister Walls! She is so cool. She has been fixing up her roof and while she was up there the wind blew her ladder over and she was stuck on her roof so she had to peek into the neighbor's yard and ask them to help her get down!! I simply adore her. After dinner we went back home and continued packing.  

Wednesday we started out with a service project for a lady who is moving to St. George. We raked up pine needles from her dirt lawn ( all the lawns here are dirt) and there were so many that it took two hours! Then we had  a long day of moving stuff from the old apartment to the new apartment. The elders were dolls and came over and helped us and we almost got it all done in one day but by the time night came we were exhausted and called it a day. We had a meeting with Bishop Jensen and our Ridgecrest ward mission leader Brother Mizushima. OH MY GOSH THIS WARD IS SO MISSIONARY MINDED!! It makes me so happy. I am so excited to serve here.

 

Thursday we had Mission Leadership Counsel which was in Tehachapi so we had a long drive down and back. Ridgecrest is the farthest north sisters can go in the mission. MLC was good and we learned a lot about how to be better at our personal studies. Some of the discussions got heated so during break Sister Pankratz and I went for a walk around Tehachapi.  We had dinner at the Dickey's house then went to a zone leadership meeting with our zone leader district leader. Because the zone is so small he gets both callings. We planned what we can do in the zone to help the missionaries be more effective. Then we made plans on how we could better serve them.

Friday was district counsel. Elder Peyson gave a great training and we had an awesome time getting to know each other. We had a lesson with Eli who is a recent convert. We helped him to find more names to take to the temple to do baptisms. Then we had dinner at the Hannah's house (cool last name right) they are into barrel racing and rodeos and we talked about that for a while then shared the spiritual whirlwinds video with a focus on repentance. It is so cool how repentance works. It makes me feel good to know that Heavenly Father just wants me to focus on being better today then I was yesterday. After that we went and did service at Sister Barros house. We helped her bake cupcakes for a baby shower that is coming up in the ward. 

Saturday we got to be in the 911 parade! It was so cool! They have a tradition for carrying 1,000 flags in honor of the 911 victims and I got to carry one of them. It was so cool! I also ran into Tenisha Barnett!!! It was so nice to see someone from home!! Then we did weekly planning which was nice because I got to learn more about the people in my area.  We had dinner at Sister Shelby's and she is awesome because she gave us some referrals to stop by.

Sunday was my first day in the Ridgecrest ward and I honestly had an amazing time. The people are so loving and so accepting! I feel so loved and so welcomed. After church we came home and ate lunch, then had companionship study. All of a sudden we get a call from our ward mission leader in Kern Valley. There is a sweet lady named Heather who has been investigating the church for a few years and she has decided to get baptized in November! So we texted her and we have an appointment to start teaching her this Wednesday! Her Baptism will be November 3. After studies we stopped by the referral that Sister Shelby gave us. She was not interested in what we had to offer so we decided to knock doors in the neighborhood until we needed to leave for dinner. The first door we knocked was opened by Janette. At first she wasn't interested in what we had to say, but once we started teaching about eternal families and the Book of Mormon she got excited and asked if she could have a copy of the Book of Mormon. We gave her one and she invited us to come back and teach her more!  Then we knocked the next door over and Adrin answered. He was so interested and we were able to teach him the whole Restoration and give him a Book of Mormon! He loved what he was learning and is so excited to learn more! We have a return appointment with him as well. We then had dinner with the Mower's family and guess what!  They are from Fairview! We figured out that we are 11th cousins.

. 

Monday we decided to start P-day out right and we went to the Trona Pinnacles. Which is a ton of really cool rock formations. They have filmed a lot of space movies out there and the movie "Holes"! Which makes perfect sense because there is so much sand! Well we managed to get our car stuck in the sand and had to dig it out then push it for a while so we could get back home. It was definitely an adventure because we did not have cellphone service. Plus a part from the elder's car fell off because they ran over a rock. So that happened.  Then we drove around Trona which is a living Ghost town. It use to be a really busy populated place, but the mines where all shut down so there was no longer any reason to live out there, so property prices went way down, and there was no way to sell the land or to find work so almost the whole town got abandoned. Some people even went as far as paying someone to burn down their house so that they could get money from insurance. 

I love you all! Have a great week Sister Howard 

September 3, 2018

Hello hello all you cute people!! 

Monday was p-day. We had a district activity, which involved pizza, card games, and way way too much fun. My district leader is Elder Udy,  with Elder Christensen, Sister Reynolds and Sister Nelson who are also in my district. They have been so much have to serve with! We had dinner with the Clark family. Which is always so much fun! 

Tuesday morning we visited with Sister Valencia! We talked about how much Jesus Christ loves us and what we can do personally to build a stronger relationship with Him while we are going through hard times. Then we stopped by Liberty's house to read scriptures with her! She is doing good and we are working on helping her son Logan prepare to be baptized. That family is just so adorable. We then drove to Valencia to have our interviews with President Layton. I felt inspired to ask President Layton for a blessing and it was a beautiful blessing that really help me feel so much love from Heavenly Father, plus it really built my trust in President Layton. After that we stopped by multiple ward members to see how they were doing and if there was anything we could do for them. Then we went to the Bitter's house for dinner. The Shepherd's were there as well. Both couples will be going to Ukraine for their missions! Then we went to the church to visit with Bishop and Brother smith. While we were there an earthquake happened!! It was 4.4 . It was in Los Angeles and Brother Wilde felt it over here! I honestly had no clue that it happened. 

Wednesday we had a lesson with Allison. She is doing great and Andrew has grown so much! The gospel really has blessed them. Then we had a lesson with Nyla. She is a super cute young mother with the most adorable little baby boy on the planet. The whole lesson he was running around and it was just adorable. The elder found them and passed them off to us. We were able to teach her about the restoration. She is excited to read the Book of Mormon. We stopped by Marion's and read a few chapters in the Book of Mormon with him. He has improved so much and loves to called us and ask more question about what he is reading. We went to the Kelly's and started teaching them the plan of salvation, then Brother Kelly opened up to us about some things that he had questions about. We listened carefully to what he was saying, then felt prompted to ask him if he knows that God loved him. He said" yes!! of course I do! Then we talked about how that is the most important principle for us to think about and to focus on, nothing else really matters because if you know that that statement is true then you know what your worth is. The spirit strongly filled the room and Brother Kelly just lite up. After the lesson we found out that Brother Kelly and I are born on the same day, so he promised to come to church with me! 

Thursday we found Mia! We were stopping by some ward members and ran into her on the street. She invited us in and asked a a lot of question about being baptized. She has had missionaries before  and was so happy to be able to learn more. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she has promised to read it. Then we had dinner with Macey! Macey is a YSA college student from my first area! It was so cool to see her again! We went to a lesson with Shawn and read more out of the Book of Mormon with him. He has just hit his year mark as a member of the church so it is just really exciting to see how much he has grown. We visited with Sister Zavlaa and shared a cool message about the sacrament! It is always a wonderful time going to see her and her family. 

Friday was district council. Elder Udy gave a fantastic training and I was able to bake cupcakes for everyone. Then we went and visited with the Burgess's. They surprised me and baked me a birthday cake!! It was such a sweet surprise. I felt so loved. We had a lesson with Caleb and he told us all of his beliefs. We then had a lesson with Jesse and Sister Putnam came with us. The lesson went very well and Jesse and his kids are all doing fantastic. 

Saturday we had dinner with Brother and Sister Oblad. Then we got transfer calls and I found out that I will be transferred out Mint Canyon and Solemint this Tuesday morning. Gosh it makes me sad.. but I knew it was coming. This ward has been such a huge blessing in my life. I am excited to see more of the Bakersfield mission though. 

Sunday was my birthday yay!! I woke up and  got ready for the day, and while I was getting ready Sister Weaver made me muffins and put out all of my cute birthday packages and cards! What a fun morning! Thanks to everyone who sent me a birthday surprise. We went to church and it was so emotional. Brother Kelly came to church because guess what!! We are birthday twins!  I hate saying good-bye to all the people that I love! Oh my heavens... I just have adored serving in this ward so much. It has been such a blessing. Ward members are one of the best parts about being a missionary. After church we went to Sister Sheils to say goodbye. It was so sad!! But it has been awesome getting to know her! I just love that family. Then we went to dinner at Sister Melendez's house. Sister Llamas was there and they ended up making me a birthday taco and singing happy birthday to me in Spanish. It was hilarious! Then they also gave me a birthday cake and $20. It was such a fun party. We stopped by the Mccoys and played the card game Trash and said good-bye.... then we stopped at the Todd's house. They surprised me with a beautiful birthday cake and Jack even sang Happy Birthday to me. Saying good-bye to them was so hard... especially my baby Jack... I'll be honest I cried. 

Love, Sister Howard