This Letter was actually one we received 1 week Prior to the last post I'm sorry I have been so Lame about posting his Emails on time.  Thank you all for your support!

Hello out there in sandy utah!!






Everything is going well for me just as usual. me and elder timberlake are doing great! our ward mission leader told us that the work here has been pretty slow for awhile but we are picking it back up. that was a big compliment for us ebcause we have been working really hard.





Sooo... the 17 year old twins brenda and esmiralda came to church yesterday!! that was soooooooo cool. im not sure if i told you guys about them but they are awesome. were not sure how legit they are with baptism but they wanna learn so much more. the young women were very welcoming for them that was soo good to see. we have an appointment with them tomorrow so we will see how they liked church and everything.

We were on exchanges but elder timberlake and the ZL had a great lesson with crystal. they ended up changing her baptismal date though just ebcause of smoking and she isnt quite ready yet. it was changed to april 20th a i believe.


We were on exchanges again and i was on the other side of vacaville and you guys remember charlie?? well we havent been able to find him yet but i saw his roommate so me and elder bezzant (spanish elder) ran over to her to find out where they were living and she just passed by just pissed off at the world as said they werent living anywhere and wouldnt stop to talk to us. sooo... we have an idea where he is at but were not sure. that was crazy seeing his roommate though.



We havent been able to meet with a couple of our investigators because they cancel or what not. But one of our investigators named korisha is in the hospital but as far as we know she will be alright. she really as the desire to learn more. i hope we can meet with her this week.

This week we get to go to the temple!! were going on thursday. also something really cool is that on sunday we have a stake conference and elder cook from the 12 is coming to speak to vacaville! the first couple rows are reserved for missionaries and their investigators so we hope we can get all our investigators there. its gonna be sooo coool! were also gonna be the ushers so im sure we will get to meet him.

The weather here is amazing. pretty freakin hot though when were out pedaling around. but some people are really nice and offer us water as we ride by. my bike is holding up great. that thing has so many miles on it its not even funny.

I met a guy the other day who went to the old jordan. he is like 48 or something. i cant remember his name though and i dont know where i wrote it down haha but i was gonna see if you guys knew him.


Zack left on wed??!! dang ill have to email that boy. i dont get to play soccer that much really.. on pday we play sometimes in the gym but not like legit soccer. i miss it so much.. ahha.



Thts nuts hearing all these people that are getting ready to go on missions. i cant believe how long i have been out.. almost 7 months. sooo crazy. everything is going great though! i feel so blessed to be out here at this time in the world. there is a reason i was saved for this time. i love my mission and i love you all so much. you have all blessed my life. im so lucky to have the best family and friends in the world. love you soooo much!!! take care and ill talk to you next week!! xoxoxoxoxoxox elder baller

Whats up fellas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! E. Howell here in Vacaville library


So........ i get the feeling this is going to be a really boring letter.. haha nothing too many new things happened this past week. I hope thats okay for y'all. Just know that im doing great! Just doing the usual... which is missionary work if you didnt know.


The first thing i wanna talk about is the chance we had to hear from our Apostle Elder Cook! That was soooooo sweeet! We had an all mission conference in Santa Rosa. We all got to meet Elder Cook personally as we went into the chapel. It was sooo cool. He said a lot of great things that made me think about not only my missionary work but about my life. We also had him come to the Vacaville stake on sunday. That was nuts!! We had the first couple rows reserved for investigators and brenda and esmiralda showed up. The twins. The ward has been so good to welcoming them in and everything. They even went to Mutual this past week. They are sooo solid i hope they keep progressing its so sick. but anyway on sunday the stake center was PACKED! More than what ive ever seen in utah haha. we were the ushers and had to sit down hundreds of people. every single seat in that joint was filled. they had some intense security guards surrounding the service haha it was so nuts! it was a great service. Elder Cook talked a lot about the same things on sunday as he did on saturday so i got to hear like the same thing twice. It was overall just a sweet experience.



This past week we also went to the temple. We went to the Sacramento temple. I feel dumb because i have some pictures of this past week with the all mission conference and temple and what not but i forgot my camera cable.. its whatever though i guess haha. ill just have to send you some pics next week. i had a really cool experience in the temple though. i took in my patriarchal blessing (thank you for getting that to me) and i reread it and i received some revelation for my life. It was soooo cool! its amazing the spirit that you feel inside the temple.. its so special. my goal is to have all of us go together when i get home. that would be sickkkk! hit up tons of temples around our crib. that would be a good time.




We are still teaching the same investigators.. we didnt pick up anybody new. This past week was pretty slow due to the activities and everything going on. The only new thing is that Crystal found out how important prayer can be while she tries to quit smoking so we will see how that goes. she really needs the gospel so we hope she can stop...


There is actually an experience that i wanna share that happened today just before i came here. the bishop knows a kid that committed suicide and he wanted us to go to the funeral because there were gonna be tons of non members because it was a split religion funeral. that was super interesting.. anyway.. it was just such a testimony builder of life after death and the role of the book of mormon. there was a speaker that said "there is no proof of what happens after death" and that struck me. i know the book of mormon is true and that there are sooooo many people out there that have no idea about it or anything. There were a couple of other things that happened there that probably shouldnt be shared just for respect but the funeral was a testimony builder for me.



Thank you so much mom for getting me madis address. She sent me a letter that i got today. I cant believe she leaves this week.. thats nuts! Griffen leaves in August!!?? Whoaaaaaaaaaa dangggggggggg that is so nuts. I'll almost be at a year. See him in 3 i guess.. haha


I'll keep Grandma Howell in my prayers.. hope all goes well with her

Well I dont think i have much more to add. Everything is going great with me though! Transfers are next week so you will probably hear from me on Tuesday.. depends on what happens with transfers but it will probably be tuesday. Thank you sooooo much for all you guys do for me!! I love you all so much and pray for you each and every day. I dont think i need anything.. if i do ill let you know dont worry. LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! Take care until next week! STAY SAFE OUT THERE! Peace homies























































Well I dont think i have much more to add. Everything is going great with me though! Transfers are next week so you will probably hear from me on Tuesday.. depends on what happens with transfers but it will probably be tuesday. Thank you sooooo much for all you guys do for me!! I love you all so much and pray for you each and every day. I dont think i need anything.. if i do ill let you know dont worry. LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! Take care until next week! STAY SAFE OUT THERE! Peace homies



























Thank you so much mom for getting me madis address. She sent me a letter that i got today. I cant believe she leaves this week.. thats nuts! Griffen leaves in August!!?? Whoaaaaaaaaaa dangggggggggg that is so nuts. I'll almost be at a year. See him in 3 i guess.. haha


















































































































 




























I'll keep Grandma Howell in my prayers.. hope all goes well with her.





Well I dont think i have much more to add. Everything is going great with me though! Transfers are next week so you will probably hear from me on Tuesday.. depends on what happens with transfers but it will probably be tuesday. Thank you sooooo much for all you guys do for me!! I love you all so much and pray for you each and every day. I dont think i need anything.. if i do ill let you know dont worry. LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! Take care until next week! STAY SAFE OUT THERE! Peace homies

Hey family!!






This past week was really good for us. We were able to pick up a few new investigators. We havent been able to hear from Charlie. He was evicted and were not sure where he ended up. He said that he would give us a call when he gets wherever it is he is going and we havent heard from him yet :(. Thats okay.. we will just have faith that he will eventually call.





We got in contact with Crystal that was really good. She struggles with smoking and all that crap so we talked to her about the word of wisdom. She says she wants to stop smoking, but she just loves it too much. She understood the importance of the word of wisdom. She said the closing prayer and she said "please help me overcome my addictions so i can be baptized." me and timberlake when we left were like no way.. she is legit haha. We are taking her on a church tour this week so she can start coming to church. We have a hard time getting investigators to church. Hopefully things start picking up.





I cant remember if I told you about these people last week but we have a family with a daughter named Victoria, mom named Korisha, and aunt named Charice. We had a really great lesson with Korisha and the first time we met her she said she wasnt interested in converting but after this lesson about the Restoration and Priesthood Authority she started questioning things. We told her about how families can be together forever and she said she believes she will see a family member in heaven . What we explained was very comforting to her. She has been sick so we havent been able to meet with any of them for awhile. I hope when we meet with Charice we can help her to understand the people in the church arent perfect. Because she believes the church is true but wont convert because she got offended. Victoria is just kinda chillin with the lessons. She will come around though eventually.





We had a lesson with Lee the African American without legs and he talked to us about our dedication. He said what do i need to do to become a mormon and be dedicated like you guys. His wife was like "whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa did you just say hunny" (in her accent) she wasnt trying to be rude she just was shocked with what he said. She was kinda pushin him away during the lesson but we hope he will come around. Its hard with her though.. she is extremely nice to us though. We cant meet with him regularly because his health. We hope we can meet with him this week though.





There is a guy named Andy. I talked about him last week. He was the one about the prayer in the home. We were on exchanges but timberlake went and saw him and he is pretty solid. I will get to find out more about him sometime this week. He said hed come to church once he met with us more.





There are 18 year old twins that we have taught. They are just curious about Mormons. Not too sure about how legit they are about being baptized or anything but we will be able to find out more as we meet with them. Maybe eventually they will come around.





I cant think of any special stories off the top of my head. I have some good news though. We got new rules that we can now email family and friends! Hopefully it stays that way! I finally can start emailing everybody back. Glad to hear that your mouth is doing fine. I'll keep you in my prayers. Maybe send some pictures :)





I did not get Thornes package :( Sorry.. I feel bad I never got it. Maybe they have it in the office but idk. I will have to check around. I dont think its there though. Did she send it to the mission home?





Everything is great with me though! Just pushin along. Missionary work is tough not gonna lie.. but its worth it in the end. I pray for you all each and every day. Miss you all sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much! I brag about my family at dinner appointments sometimes :) its pretty much the best. Love you all soooooooooooooooooooo much!! Peace out until next week! Love your son, grandson, nephew, friend, brother, cousin whatever my relationship is to you. Buh Bye!

Hello!!!!

 

How is everybody doing?? Everything is going well for me! We had a pretty good week. The weather here is pretty freakin amazing not gonna lie. So lets go ahead and start on some stories and updates.

 

Charlie is going to be moving so.. I dont know what were gonna do about him. He wasnt able to make it to church on sunday because of his new medication, but thats okay. We are still meeting with him until he leaves. He leaves whoa I think tomorrow!! I didnt even notice... oh boy. He doesnt know where he is going. Him and his roommates are getting evicted. He is in such a terrible environment its not even funny. He needs to get out of there. They do so many drugs and steal crap from stores and who knows what else they do. He cant stand being around them though, but he cant afford to live on his own. Such a great guy though.

 

So earlier this week we were on exchanges and we went to go see a potential investigator and she didnt asnwer. As we were leaving I turned around and some random dude was waving us over. We went over to him and he asked us to say a prayer for his home because there has been so much contention between him and his wife. They got their kids taken away from them because of it. His wife wasnt there but we went in and said a prayer on his home. At the end of the prayer we looked up and he was in tears. He said he felt so much better already. We explained to him how the gospel blesses families and he invited us back for this friday. He has to go to jail for a couple days because of driving on a suspended license. I'm excited to see what happens this week. Hopefully we end up teaching him!

 

We went to go see an investigator who is my age and has a kid. Her little brother answered the door and let us in to their families home. There were sooo many kids running around. It was like a zoo. This was the first time they had let us into their home so that was a miracle in itself. But there was a lady there who is the aunt of our investigator. She saw us and was like "I LOVE MORMONS!" and talked to us about our church and how she has studied it so much and it makes the most sense out of all of them. She was coming in and out of the lesson though because she was taking care of the kids. She heard us talking about the book of mormon and she was like I have that book! I asked if she reads it and she said yes all the time. I was just thinking what in the world.. why is this lady not a member. She said she believes its true and everything! hahaha she then said she thought being mormon was the missing piece in her life until she got offended by a mormon. She is really sensitive she said. I told her I had some stuff i would like to share with her another time and she said schedule an apt with the family and she will be there. Our appointment is tonight so we will see how that goes.

 

We set a baptismal date for Crystal we finally got a hold of her. It is scheduled for the 23rd but it was a soft baptismal date. She said she would be baptized by that date but we have sooo much that we need to teach her still. She also needs to quit smoking and come to church so IF she does ever get baptized it wont be on the 23rd but its kinda a goal for her right now. We will see how things go. I cant remember if that happened this week or last week so sorry if i already told you.. haha.

 

Lee the amputee African American  hasnt been able to meet with us because dyalisis is killing him. I'm sure grandma understands where he is coming from.

 

I hope the grandparents are doing well. I miss them both so much. Grandma and Grandpa Thorne me and my buddy here have decided were gonna come visit you guys when we get back because he has grandparents in st george too by the outlets :). Grandma and Grandpa Howell I forgot to tell you I think thank you so much for the package. It means a lot.. I hope you guys are doing well. :)

 

Mom, did you send my package yet? Just wondering because the appt sent out a letter saying mail was missing and that they were changing things around for our safety so just making sure its not supposed to be here yet. BTW I love what your studying . Read Alma 7: 11-13 I believe. Its sooooooooo good! I share that with people a lot.

 

I cant believe Madi leaves this month. That means Zack leaves here shortly... WHoaaaa thats sick. I got an Ecuador satchel thing from thrift store here that they would love.

 

I hope Trenton is doing well... I bet its really hard for him right now though. Especially with spanish.. I cant imagine how hard it would be. If he is struggling right now I'm sure things will pick up. It was super hard at first. I'll send him an email it will be ok dont worry. I sent him a picture with a letter on it the day before he left so he should have gotten it on Thursday. I hope it kinda helps him.

 

Well I think thats all I have to share for this week! We had some pretty cool miracles happen this past week. Hopefully things keep moving forward! I love you all so much! If there is anything i can do for you out here in California let me know. I miss you all soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much! btw thank you so much janae for the email I'll write you back. Time for me to bounce.. Peace out family! Love you! XXXOOOOOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOOOOOOOOXXXX :)

 

P.S Sorry I dont have any new pictures to give you guys.. :( Still love you!