Monday, October 29, 2012

Everything is going well here of course! I'm a missionary.. things are always going well! Glad to hear the family was able to go out hunting again. Too bad there wasnt any success though.. if i was there we wouldve had success.. just sayin :). Elder Rollins called!! yayy!!! i miss that kid! He is soooo great. Nicest kid i have ever met by far. New roommate is elder lenen from idaho. He is such a great guy as well. he has been out for about a year. Elder Blake is from ohio since you forgot.. I cant wait for my package!! i have been waiting for it.. i go out to the mail just waiting for it and it doesnt come :( haha jk but i cant wait! happy halloween! I missed the howl this year.. that was kinda disappointing :). But for halloween this year we can go to a members house and chill or just chill in our appartments. Last year they got to play ball like all day long but we cant this year :( just my luck but its whatev. Oh and i talked to trenton about his video of the call. I actually sent him a memory card that i want him to put the video on. you can put it in a camera or download the video onto it from the computer. whatever works. just send it to me asap after he gets the call. im sooooooooooo excited!! Mom i did not get the picture of grant i dont think ill have to go through my emails and try to find it. i miss and love that kid so much. Stay safe in park city. hope all goes well there. There hasnt been any really new stories to tell for this week. Just workin hard and trying to get new investigators. We actually had a miracle happen. A guy we have been working with hasnt been to church in YEARS. We got him to come on sunday!!! It was awesome!! Something funny that happened this week was we were walking around downtown Davis on Friday night and we got soooo much crap! it was hillarious. people were saying so much stuff to us like nice costumes.. and some homeless guy was like mormons huh?? we said yeah for sure! he said keep walkinggg.. we busted up laughing and then he mocked us. hahaha i felt bad for a second but it was funny. I also got a flat tire on my bike and had to walk like 3 miles to go get it fixed. I have the best luck. I was just laughing because something about being on a mission every little thing in this world makes me laugh :). My knowledge of the gospel increases everyday. I get sooo exhausted by the end of the day but its so worth it. I love the people that i get to teach and meet. We are working with that 90 year old still. it was really cool earlier this week when we taught him. At first he wasnt interested in praying AT ALL. BUT by the end of the lesson we committed him to praying. We have an appointment with him tomorrow so we will see how that goes. Hopefully he has been prayin his old heart out! great guy. We all leave for camp liahona this thursday-saturday. i'm so excited!! not sure how its gonna turn out but im really excited to see what happens. Ill take some pictures and what not. I dont have many pictures for this past week im really sorry :( i kinda forgot to take some. in the next email ill send a couple. one of the pictures is an elder named elder hunt who was standing while bench pressing or whatever. that was a lot of fun. Our district switched up a little bit this past transfer. There are 4 sisters and me and Elder Blake their names are Sister Hernandez, Sister Ika, Sister Briggs, and Sister Uehara. Sister Hernandez gives me soooooo much crap. She says i reminder her of her little brother so she has to give me lots of crap. we have a good time. we went to a baptism yesterday that sister hernandez and sister uehara taught. that was a great experience. It was a young couple that have a little kid thats like 3. sooo exciting to know they are gonna be sealed in a year :). I love going to baptisms!! the spirit is so strong there. no way you can deny it :) Anyway.. i think thats like all i have to say. nothing too special is going on. just working hard and riding my bike all the time. Hope all is going well. I love you all soooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for everything you guys do!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have the best family ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sorry got carried away) But im gonna get going.. i pray for you all every day. Until next time... Elder Howell is out! LATER!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Whats up everybody!!!!!!! MOMMY HAPPY FREAKIN BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I GET TO WRITE YOU ON YOUR BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you enjoyed my present to you. I would have sent something like that to dad but I didn't think of it. Stupid me :). I hope you have an amazing birthday because you are the best mom ever! You raised the sickest sons ever! Me brayton and justin are by far the coolest kids you could ever have.. just sayin. I have been great! The baptism ended up happening it was soooooo sweet. I felt the spirit so strongly. I ended up speaking on baptism.. I was so honored to be there speaking because i didnt even have that much to do with getting her baptized i just kept teaching her and being there for her. I love the ward here so much. The people here are amazing. The news for transfers is..... IM STAYING!!!!!!!!!!!! and so is my trainer! It is gonna be a good time. We have some great goals set for this coming transfer. I'm hoping i get to spend Christmas here because the people here are just so awesome. For the package you are thinking about sending me.. you dont need to send pants i dont think. There was an elder in our zone that left that gave me a pair. So you guys can keep those until i rip one or something haha but you guys can do what you want. Elder Rollins (the kid from big bang theory) went home :( his time was up. It sucks seeing people go home that you grow so close to. I love that kid! he is such a great example. I heard grandma and grandpa came over and grandma slept in my bed. I'm guessing you guys cleaned up my room hahaha sorry about that. I hope it wasnt too much of a disaster. I thought i cleaned it up pretty well before i left ;). Whats new with my room? Or the basement? anything?? Is my room turning into an office or anything? Party room? Whats going on? If its the party room nothing changes then because thats what it was before i left. :) I'm sooooooooooooooo stoked for Trenton to get his call its not even funny!!! He told me he submitted his papers and i got chills! I'm sooooooooooo excited!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! What a baller I love that kid. hes my brother from another mother named Teri. I'm glad to hear the Cole and Jordy are enjoying their missions. It was soo fun seeing Cole at the MTC because he was complaining about the spanish a little bit and making jokes about how easy english would be haha. but i hope he started picking it up. he is such a great kid. Jordy is so lucky to be in africa.. thats super sick! :) Love those kids Mom i love how you brought up being an airhead.. i love it hahaha. Some stuff i do makes me think you would probably do that so i cant make fun of you anymore :). You are the greatest. I heard about the hunts.. Sad i had to miss them but glad to hear they went well. I'm sure everybody missed seeing me miss my shots at my big game. Sure everybody got a kick out of it because i was so bad :). Hope you guys were able to strengthen the family during the hunts. We are too sick. :) Some stories for this week... We had dinner at the ward missionary leaders house this past week and that was a good time. We had papusas or whatever they are called. His wife is from Elsalvador. I'm sure jon has had them before. but they bought us the "worlds hottest hot sauce" supposedly from india and it was soooooooooooo hot! me elder blake their son and 2 sisters did it and i was freakin out!! I'm such a pansy haha. Elder blake and their 12 year old son were the only ones not freakin out. They were fakin it ;). Now a reallyyyyyyy funny story. We went out to dinner with members and i didnt finish my meal so i got it to go and me and Elder Blake were walking around downtown when i ran into a homeless lady. She asked me if i had extra food. Well in my head i was thinking i need this for tomorrow its sooooooo good! So i was like uhhhh yeah but its my lunch for tomorrow. I started panicking and she was like oh then keep it but instead i opened it and grabbed a handful of fries and said "take some fries" hahahahaha and she kept saying now but i kept trying to force her a handful of fries. Elder Blake said it was the most awkward thing ever! She didnt take them because my fingers touched them. I just kept sayin "take the fries" I was sooooooo stupid!! We were laughing soooo hard once it was all said and done. Man.. super funny story. If you didnt laugh its better to tell in person :). Anyway.. nothing new going here. Were trying to find some people. We are teaching the 90 year old guy. We taught him yesterday and at the beginning he wasnt interested in praying at all.. but by the end he committed to it! So we will see what happens.. anyway... i dont really have much more to say really! All i wanna say is how much i love all of you soooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MOM HAPPY FREAKIN BIRTHDAY!!!! Mom i love you. Dad i love you. Brayton I love you. Justin I love you. You guys are the best!!! Take care until next week!! DJ TEASKIE OUT!!!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Family and friends what is up!! Everything is going well. Mom.. I'm doing great! I'm eating just fine! Don't worry about me hun. I'm doing awesome haha. I sometimes take your vitamins.. I'll be better I promise.. haha. I forgot to tell you guys but uh... I GOT TO GO TO THE SACRAMENTO TEMPLE ON THURSDAY! That was soo sweet! Its such a small temple. The grounds are way cool though.. I saw some blacktail deer and those things are sooo ugly! I'm so glad i hunt mule deer. I'm one blessed soldier :). I'm so glad the hunting went well. I have been thinking about it a lot lately.. but im doing just fine. Its kinda weird that the hunt is already here. I feel like i just dominated the hunting season a month ago. Time is flying.. ;). Time is actually going by kinda fast. Sometimes days feel like weeks but weeks feel like days. Transfers are this coming week. Does my trainer stay.. or does he bounce?? We will have to see! Pretty sure im staying though. I hope i do just because i love this area. The families i have met here are awesome. There is a family i met yesterday (our ward mish leader) Their family is sooo fun. but not as fun as mine obviously :). The baptism got postponed once again.. the scheduling is getting ridiculous haha. The baptism is on wed though for sure. I have to speak on baptism. I pretty freakin excited she is sooo excited! Its gonna be a great experience i cant wait. I gave one of the sisters a blessing the other day. That was such a cool experience blessing a sister. I think it was the most spiritual experience so far. Yeah it was trentons birthday yesterday.. sad i missed it. I hope it was great. Love that kid. Mom your birthday is coming up too!! Party hard!! I'm glad to hear your mouth is doing better. You're not getting old dont worry. You are just getting younger :). I dont know what i just said but i like it! I cant believe bryson got his papers in that fast. I love that kid! I miss all of them a lot but its sooo cool how these young fellas are starting to get their calls and get their papers in. I'm so excited for all of them. Excited to see who is coming to santa rosa with me! :) Hopefully its my best friend trempin. There is a member here that updates me on the college football games. I heard about byu.. thats rough BUT they will beat notre dame haha uhh wait nvm probably not. But ill pray for them ;). Its good that Utah is losing though! I just said that. Sorry Utah fans. (Neilsons) ;) Ok soooo for my package. I would actually like for you to send my old church pants. I'm trying my hardest not to spend extra money so if i rip my pants i dont want to buy new ones. I don't really know what else you can send me.. my life is pretty simple. The weather here is getting a little cooler. Its sooo unpredictable. Its been way cold and way hot. Idk what to expect sometimes. I don't need any clothes for the camp. I'll borrow some from members. I'll think about what i want for Christmas don't worry it will be a BIG list.. haha :). Btw what is the plan for Mac?? Just curious.. I hope he can make it.. But if not its ok. Let me know how he is doing. imple now. If you could do that that would be very much appreciated. I love my mission president. He is the NICEST person i have ever met.. SOOOOO LOVING. Anyway.. I don't really have much more to say. I'm gonna try sending pictures but i dont think ill have time because i have to go grab my camera from the gym and i might lose my spot. I'll try. Anyway... thank you everybody who emailed me and wrote me letters. Love you alll soooooo much! Dad I love you! Mom I love you! Brayton I love you! Justin I love you! LOVE YOU!!!! Peace out friends and family! Elder Howell/DJ Teaskie

Monday, October 8, 2012

Hello!!!!!! I love Mondays so i can email home and let everybody know how awesome I'm diong haha. But really I'm loving it here. Unfortunately this week hasnt been super interesting :(. It's starting to get a little colder finally. Gosh it sucks riding a bike all day long in the heat. Boo! Nothing new has happened this week like at all.. Nobody new or anything :(. BUT we do have a baptism coming up this saturday!! her name is D :). She is such an amazing woman! She has the strongest testimony of this gospel before baptism that i have ever seen. She is amazing! The other people we are just trying to work with and get new people. We are going out hard later today and try to contact as many people as we can i'm really excited. On the first of november were having an all mission conference camp out haha. Who has ever heard of that!? I think its super crazy! Were going to camp liahona to do a bunch of service and devotionals for 2 nights. We have to find a ride there from a member and a ride home. Its 3 hours away.. Its gonna be hard finding a ride. BUT i'm way excited. Don't know what to expect exactly. We also have to borrow sleeping bags from members and bring nothing but service clothes. It will be super interesting. Yeahhh.. this month is a hard one haha. Knowing that i should be out hunting this month kinda sucks. But im here doing the Lords work and hunting will be there when i get back. Well.. hopefully! I'm so happy that brayton and dad got to go. Im excited to hear if they end up getting anything. General conference was awesome! This was like the first time i ever paid attention haha. I'm so excited that 18 year olds can now go out. I wish that would have been for me so then i coulda bounced right after high school. That would have been so nice. I'm way excited to see them get out here though. I think its a genius idea because a lot of people go in limbo after high school and just dont now what to do. Get them out here! This work needs to be hastened! :) Congratualtions to josh! Tell branson happy birthday for me and I miss him. I dont know if you know this but me and Jaren are emailing back and forth. Its really great. Crazy he has been out for a year! Hes a great example to me. I have a member here that keeps me updated on the college football games haha i love it. I heard utah lost to usc and byu beat ut st. Man.. byu beats usu utah beats byu and usu beats utah. Who is the best team in utah? NOBODY KNOWS! haha i say rematch with byu and utah.. just sayin :) I'll let you know how the baptism goes this week. I'm so freakin excited its not even funny. My first one! She was already found before I got here.. but still! My first one! :) I have some pictures im gonna try sending.. hopefully you get these ones. if not then its whatev.. I don't really have much more to say I don't think besides I love you alll sooooo much!! Thank you to those that have been handwriting me. I really appreciate it a lot. I love going out to the mailbox and seeing a letter for ME haha thank you. Love you all more than you will ever know!!! I LOVE YOU FAMILY!!!!!!!! Until next time DJ Teaskie is out!!

Monday, October 1, 2012

Hello!!!! I first wanna tell you how great today has been. Woke up and went and played some soccer. I can't tell you how amazing that was to get out and go play again. i miss it so much. I loved it. Can't wait to get home and playing it again. Anyway after that I went home and I had a package from my favorite family! Thank you so much for the pictures and snacks! I LOVE IT! Yes there are a couple other pictures I would like.. There were some pictures with me tagged in them right before I left I would like. And the one with me jordan zack nate and thomas was super blurry haha. I know there is a better one out there that I would like. If you don't want to send them thats totally fine haha I understand. Earlier this week we did a blitz for a different area. Thats where a bunch of missionaries go in and try to get some work done. During that blitz i placed my first book of mormon! i was pretty excited. But.. about those baptisms. They didnt happend because the 18 year old got kicked out of the house because there was so much contention. So he is living with a widow who has the most caring heart ever. I love her. Anyway so the 2 baptisms are post-poned and will be happening separetly (idk how to spell) We dont have dates for those yet. but we do have a SOLID baptismal date for the 11th. I'm so stoked! And a family that comes and goes actually called us and we met up. They want to make a 6 week plan for them to be ready to be baptized. Thats super exciting. A lot of pressure is on me though because they love elder blake and he is probably leaving after this transfer. They have separation anxiety basically so i have to become really close with them super fast to keep them around. I can do it though. I'm sick like that ;). Something really cool that happened this week is we didnt know what to do about the postponed baptism, so i gave elder blake a blessing to help us both figure out what to do. We think we came up with the right choice. Nothing else is happening really. Just keep meeting people and talking to them. No new investigators yet. Were trying to focus on the ones that are soo close or falling away. Some of the recent converts I have met are the nicest strongest peole ever. They are such an amazing example. This guy i shall name "S" (like what jaren does) has very very little and yet he is the happiest old dude. I love him! he is going so strong. About to get the priesthood soon and just can't wait. I love the people i'm around. Something really funny that happened the other day was we were on exchanges and I was with Elder R who reminds me of people on big bang theory. We were riding our bikes and i was ahead of him on a trail. He comes flying up to me and in the most worried concerned voice he yells "elder howell elder howell I think i just ran over a squirrel!" hahaha and he explained this thing shot out of bush went under his tire and hit his ankle. He turned around and this squirrel was limping away hahaha he felt so bad. I love this kid. (he goes home on the 22 :( ) Glad to hear that BYU dominated. I heard there defense is like 9th in the nation or something. That's way sweet. I talk to the members sometimes about it and my companion just looks at me like yup you're a greenie haha i love it. Yes things are getting more and more familiar. I probably will be here another transfer which will be good so i can get to know the people and area more. I love it here. Even though its not that beautiful I love the people! Groceries are coming good! I'm learning how to shop kinda.. I just go for cheap microwavable stuff haha. Hopefully i dont get fat! We get like $130 a month. I hope that keeps me from spending my home money so i can go to Utah St. when I get home! :)Mom/Family thank you so much for getting the pictures and snacks together. As i said i received them today! I really really appreciate it. I don't really have much more to say.. Its just same old same old. I pray for all of you every night!! I love you all sooooooo much!! Hope all is well!! So um.. i got emails back saying you didnt get some haha. I hope you got the main one and my pictures.. i hope my account is just being dumb. Gotta go now. Love you so much mom!! Gonna go convert my bretheren and sistas!!