March 25, 2013

Hello family! So this week was so sick!!! First off the baptisms went perfect! It was such a spiritual experience, Isaiah and Da Paz went also another investigator Liborio who has been going to church for like 3 months but won’t accept a date yet. It was so awesome.

Giovanni (the kid) is so small and the font was so full he had to swim out to elder king when he entered the water to get baptized. his Mom (Elisa) was so happy and at peace after her baptism, in her closing prayers after leaving a message she always included "please lord let me continue on this path until I and my son have entered your kingdom" such a spiritual experience for me to see how there are so many people just waiting to receive our message and are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.

Saulo (the young Man) will get the priesthood this next week and then he will be able to bless the sacrament and also Baptize... we will teach his mother some more and maybe he will have the chance to baptize her!

Dom-Dom who was baptized at the beginning of the month got the priesthood yesterday and he showed up in a white shirt and tie it was a great feeling to see him. Also Ian who was baptized in the beginning of March showed up in a white shirt and tie, he is excited to turn 12 and help with the sacrament too.

So Sunday another merical happened we were walking to lunch (we meet in the afternoon) and we got a call from the elders who use the same building as us just in the morning and they said that there was a man there who lives in our area, so we went and got his address and everything, he was baptized in 07´way in Manaus he has been inactive for 3 years but felt the need to come back to church... oh yeah he also brought his girlfriend... who wants to be baptized! haha sweet!! we visited them last night and they spoke of marriage we will get all the details worked out but that will be another family for the ward! the lord is blessing us so much here.

So info about the transfers I will stay here my new comp is Elder Petersen he also studied at BYU and is only one group behind me (which means he only has 6 less weeks then me in the mission) it’s going to be his first time as a zone leader. But I’m super excited to work with him, sadly Elder King is going to Teresina but I will still see him at meetings and everything.

well that’s pretty much my week. I love you guys! miss you all!!

-Elder Howe

 

 

 

March 19, 2013

WOW what an adventure. sorry last week for the short e-mail i got kicked out of the LAN house... because the owner had to go shopping. BHAHAH

So all went well with Isaias and Da Paz they will get married on the 12th and be baptised on the 13th! they went to stake conference on Sunday and loved it! they are very happy and excited!

Joelma (mother of Ian who was baptised on the 2nd) also got married so that her baptism can happen, José her future husband is not very interested right now in church but i hope for him in the future. Joelma will also be baptised on the 13th. she is currently in Alma. haha last week we had a less active member at sacrament mtg. we asked some sisters from the ward to go sit with this less active.... everyone had an excuse for why they couldn't... so we asked Joelma, she quickly went right next to the woman and sat with her the whole time!

2 weeks ago we found a woman visiting from another city in Maranhão where the church does not exist. Her story is a miracle i wont be able to write about it but maybe i will record it and send it next week. anyway she will be baptised this week along with her son who is 8. her name is Elise and her son is Geovanni. i will be sure to send photos and the story next week.

We had a zone conference yesterday it was really good, we got to learn a lot from President. He told us of how we need to be good shepards and love those who we teach. We are not to teach in a lesson format any more but just like the church has changed the curriculum for the youth so that it's more of a conversation than a lecture we too are suppose to have conversations with our investigators... we tried to start yesterday and man it is so difficult to converse in a constructive way that alloweds ppl to still learn. it will be an awesome learning process. I and Elder King also had the opportunity to eat lunch with President, he told us that i will be staying for the next transfer and that Elder King will be leaving... I'm kinda sad because well Elder King has 6 months here and just now we are getting to the point where we will begin to baptise adn he will be here till the end of this week for the 4 baptisms but then he will be transfers. The lord has been blessing us this month like no other time on my mission; people this month finally have the desire to be baptised. It has truly been a month of miracles and it is only half over.

 

I love you all!

 

I'm officially a missionary!

Zone Leaders

 

March 11, 2013

ANOTHER AWESOME WEEK!!!

First off with Isaias and Da paz; on Tuseday they were able to get the divorce settled and we planned to go on Wednesday to get them married... the issue is that when Da paz went to the legal office to get started on the wedding and to finish the divorce they could not find her marriage certificate from the first marriage. She went home... and guess what she found?  A copy of her original certificate! She was very surprised that she still had it, she went back and made the divorce final in the system. Then another problem came up... to get married you need your birth certificate... Isaias did not know where his was, but he went to pay a visit to his mom this week and guess who had it... YES, she did, all ready to give to him... we will go this week to get them married and then 15 days after we will have the wedding!

Sorry I don’t have time today but I’ll chat you up next week as I’m being kicked out of the LAN house.

LOVE YOU ALL!!! THANKS FOR THE PRAYERS!!

Here are LOTS OF PICTURES: