March 26th

Another Week!!!!

Today’s my last day with Elder Ferreira, so new Comp tomorrow!!!  I think I will stay in the area for the next 6 weeks, but honestly I don’t know for sure. haha.

 Yesterday afternoon I’m on  the bus coming back from lunch and I almost fell again... this time on the man I was sitting next to... we both laughed it was way better then when I almost fell on that woman with her baby.

We ate lunch in the middle of nowhere... (see pictures) They had this awesome fruit salad, there was only a little left so I asked if I could finish it... he said no. haha it was awkward to say the least... Elder Ferreira had some good laughs afterward. Maria Jesus’ daughter owns an ice cream shop so we also got to eat ice cream this week; it was really good, I got pineapple and this fruit I don’t remember the name but it was soooooo good.

We also had lunch at a member’s house, they own a lamb called “Big Baby”; he likes to randomly head-butt the owner, that made for an entertaining lunch, yes the lamb was in the room with us as we ate, and also they had bunnies little baby bunnies’ soooo cute! When we were eating we heard this strange noise like a giant rough sounding GULP. The member he got up and came back with little concern on his face and said, "The frog got another one of the bunnies" I asked to make sure in understood correctly, and yes I did. A frog ate a bunny... I don’t know how! It’s not like the bunnies were really small they were the size of a squirrel Anyway it was quite the lunch... hahah

The work is going on here even with all the falls on busses and denied fruit salads. One thing I have been learning is PATIENCE. I’ve discovered that everyone we meet will not be baptized in 2 weeks... it takes time to develop the faith to truly follow Christ. An elder compared mission work to finding pearls in clams; if the clam doesn’t have a pearl do not sit around and whine about it and waste your time, mark the clam and move onto the next one until you find a pearl. The cool part is if you marked those clams others will come by later find those same clams and they will have pearls; you might never know the influence you will have on people’s lives, it’s not measurable. Just do your part, find, and mark, find, and mark.

 I have also learned patience for not just others but myself. Learning Portuguese is THE HARDEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE. There is nothing else in my life that I have had to dedicate 24/7 of my life to developing. I live in a Portuguese World; I live with 3 Brazilians. Some day’s I’m just like “I’ve spent legit the past 5 months learning this language and I have no idea how to say the sentence that I want to say!” But it’s little by little every day. How do you eat an elephant? Piece by piece, same with anything worthwhile in this life, if we want to improve, if we want to better in our own lives it’s not going to happen overnight;  it will come when we first have a desire, second set goals and third follow through. It’s not easy to change or to constantly work at something worthwhile but it is well worth the time.

I love you guys and miss you all. Thank you all who have sent me letters! I truly appreciate your words and prayers.  Love Elder Howe



My District

My District and Domiciano

Maria Jesus (the name of every woman down here), her husband, Antonio; she is not baptized but is basically a member, she is a long term investigator.

Elder Ferreira with a turtle at a members house

Jocivan, an investagator, he wants to learn english and is always trying to speak it, he's a boss

After a delicious lunch, I really like my comps face in this one

Comp gone crazy! haha

It's big sky country here



Legit, it is just forest and a dirt road



I don't know what week it is, I'll have to come up with a new method for time keeping

HEY!!!!!!!

This week was the first time in the field where time legit FLEW! I don’t know how it’s Monday again! And now I’m excited because that means I’m finally starting to lose myself in this work!!! YAY!

Shopping

Awkward pose

 This is for everyone in Utah becasue I think thats the only frozen  yogurt in all of Teresina unlike Utah where there are 100 million

Beast with my 39 points...

Elder Logan, Elder Peirson and Elder Ferreria

Awesome salon style doors

We dedicated ourselves this week to not stopping, just teaching EVERYONE; meeting contacts, knocking doors, everything possible to preach the gospel. Story time Tuesday was divisions I was with Elder Logan in my area and our lunch had fallen through, (Elder Logan is the zone leader and will be leaving next week) normally when lunches fall through  we just make food at home, but Elder Logan is a boss so he said Elder Howe I’m about to show you Brazilian hospitality... we walked up to a nice looking house and clap (that’s how you knock) a lady came to the front, we explained our situation, she agreed to make us lunch... we returned 30 minutes later to rice, beans and meat (all of which tasted a bit better than normal). It was so awesome! I have got to do that some other time; we also found a new family to teach.

Today we went bowling! It was quite fun, I bowled a 39... hahah; but the bowling alley smelled better than the ones in America, there wasn’t any smoke! It was crazy! The bathrooms had those swinging doors....which made it even COOLER!!!!!! It was like a bowling western salon adventure all in one day!!!!! Sometimes the mission can be too much to handle!

My testimony is this, God is perfect. With God there is no grey area, it is black or white and for this I’m grateful, because you see if it comes from God it will make you feel good and it will teach good things, if it’s not from God you will feel bad or it will teach wrong things, it’s that simple. This is one reason I know for a FACT the Book of Mormon is true, it preaches of Christ, a study of it uplifts me and my soul. IT IS THE WORD OF GOD!!!! For this fact I also know this church is the Kingdom of God restored to the earth, because no other church has the Book of Mormon. Don’t take my word for it just experiment, read it, think about it, and then pray. God will answer you with feelings by the spirit, if you’ve already done this do it again to strengthen your testimony.  I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Love Elder Howe

Week 9

"I think American's should have all their buses like this"

Group of us missionaries

My companion and I

Liliane and her husband, Marcello

Sunset in Teresina

"Sometimes I feel like Elf, living at the northpole when the couches are super small"

We found and egg store...

HEYYYYYYYY

So there is a video of one roach without its body and it’s still alive moving its head. We come home one night to find like 20 of them in our bathroom it was... gross so we went to town with 2 flip flops and killed them all.

This week I had my First baptism! I baptized Liliane, she and her husband (they got married Friday) have an awesome story he was baptized when he was 10 and went inactive he is now 26, they met and were living together, he has some health problems which brought them closer to god and he started going to church and she began to come with him. They were living together and not married so we married them and she got baptized! They are now excited to go to the temple in a year and have a marriage that will never end!

Liliane's Mom has been coming to church the past 2 weeks. She also went to the baptism and felt the spirit. Last night we taught her and she said the most beautiful pray at closing, it was so simple and wonderful, she only said one thing she was grateful for she said "thank you for baptism of Liliane" we will try are best to get her baptized too.

I love you guys so much! I know that this gospel has the Power to change lives, it is actually the same teachings Christ taught when he was on the earth. I know that if we will just stop and reflect on the things most important in our lives we will realize more often then not it is family. This glorious message is that we can be with our families FOREVER!!! It is the intention of God that we have a family forever! All we have to do is what he asks of us and we can live an eternal life in ETERNAL HAPPINESS!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!

Love Elder Howe