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