Jared Howell Mission

Hey Everyone, By far, the most exciting thing that happened this week was that Elder Parkinson and I did a back to back exchange with the Inner Harbor 2 Elders, Elder Mendez and Elder Rose. My exchange with Elder Mendez was especially fun, not only because we had already been on two exchanges a year ago, so we were able to see how each other has grown, but he is also in the process of setting up an organ concert for the community, under the direction of President Mutombo. When I was with him, we had the opportunity of going to a massive Catholic cathedral in Northern Baltimore. I was a little wary of going, mostly because of a story Elder Moffett told me about when he went into a Catholic church that the Spirit left at the door. So I was a bit nervous as I pulled open the huge metal doors to the cathedral and followed Elder Mendez inside. We walked in and I immediately started looking around at the beautiful architecture and amazing carvings in the limestone. Once I got about halfw

Hey Everyone, This was a relatively uneventful week mainly because of Tuesday. So first Monday, we had walked around a ton that day, and Elder Parkinson had been having problems with his leg already, so needless to say, by Tuesday morning he was in a fair amount of pain, so we had Elder Stubblefield look at it after District Council, and he told us that he has shin splints, which is why it feels like his calf is about to rip in half. So needless to say, we've been resting and he's been putting icy-hot on his leg every couple of hours.  But we've still been able to go out for a few hours every day; on Wednesday we had to go down to the Inner Harbor Building so Elder Parkinson could do a baptismal interview for someone that the Inner Harbor Elders are teaching, and we were able to go to his baptism on Saturday. We needed to be there to fill the font, then members that I knew started coming and we ended up staying for the whole thing. Afterwards, Elder Stubblefield put

Hey Everyone! So Zone Conference was probably the biggest thing that happened this week. It was amazing, we learned a ton about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. One of the Zone Leaders and I had an interesting conversation during one of the breakouts. We were talking about how we can best utilize the Atonement in our lives, and frankly, we were struggling a bit with it, but eventually, I had the thought to change the question a bit. So instead of asking what the Atonement can do for us, we asked, How can Christ better utilize us through the Atonement, and that opened up a whole new world of discussion. The end of Zone Conference was really good too, but for a different reason. At the end of each Zone Conference, the departing missionaries give their departing testimony, and since there are 29+ going home this transfer, there were 8 of us there on Friday. After we all said our piece, Elder Steenblik, one of the Assistants, got up and said that he wasn't going home, but he had ne

Hey everyone, As my subject line suggests, not a whole lot happened this week, just a lot of walking and not a ton of results.  Yesterday was by far the most exciting day. Besides going to church and being able to talk to my dad, which was awesome, while we were doing call-ins, the fire alarm went off. So we quickly got into normal clothes, mostly because I didn't want to go outside in my fuzzy Captain America pjs, and followed the rest of the building out onto St. Paul Street so we could participate in the annual meet your neighbor event. Probably the most memorable neighbor was a girl who brought her fish with her in a tiny tank, and was just casually walking around with this big goldfish. The tower truck pulled up and the firefighters did their thing for a few minutes, then we all went back to our apartments and fell asleep. On a side note, we found a huge cemetery on the way to Dundalk. There was a massive crypt in the middle of it that peaked my interest, so we wal

Hey Everyone, So on Wednesday while we were waiting for the Walks to pick us up to take Elder Dixon away, we got a call from Elder Steenblik, one of the Assistants. He started off by apologizing, never a good start, and told us he was planning on telling us two days ago, but he had forgotten. Then he informed us that we were switching apartments with the Jones Falls Elders and losing our car. So I'm back to living in the city as opposed to living in the county. It's also my third apartment in this city and sixth in the general area. As a natural byproduct of shifting everything around, I've had to get used to a new apartment, new companion, and a new way of working because we're back on full bus, which I think is poetic. I started my mission on a bus, and now I'm ending it on a bus.  It's good though. It's in the perfect location for us, right next to Johns Hopkins campus, so we have much easier access to YSAs. We're also much closer to the c

Hey Everyone, So the big news first, I'm staying in BYSA for my last 6 weeks, but I am getting a new companion (10 companions back to back!!)  So the most exciting thing that happened this week was a personal miracle. So since our schedule was all messed up because of Memorial Day, we ended up having Preparation Day on Tuesday, as you might've noticed, and District Council was on Wednesday. And since we didn't have the opportunity to do so on Tuesday, we got permission to go buy me new shoes on Wednesday, I've been having problems with my knee for the last few months but I've just been ignoring it until Elder Stubblefield, who's a chiropractor, told me to stop ignoring it. So we went out on the hunt. A member suggested we try DSW in Towson. It put us in the right place, but wrong store, way wrong store. The clearance rack started at 80 dollars... So we went to the store next door. TJ Maxx, which had no male shoes, at all... So we went to Burlington, whic