Jared Howell Mission

Hey all, This week went super fast so hopefully I can remember everything.  On Monday  we had our interviews with President. Julia also had her baptismal interview, which she passed with flying colors. We are set for  this Saturday, the 2nd . It is amazing to me to see the gospel change people so quickly and so completely. it has been a really cool experience for me to see this change in Julia.  We also had Thanksgiving this week, in case you didn't know. Since it is such a big holiday, we were told not to actively proselyte. We were invited up to the Simpsons place where they were having a large Missionary dinner so it was like being with family. Even though our whole district lives so far away from each other, we all have grown to view each other as family, Elder Funk (our fearless leader) and his companion Elder Shick are the only ones who have passed their year mark so they have deemed themselves the crazy uncles. Being with them for the afternoon and eve...

Hey all, This week was really long but there isn't a whole lot to report on.The only appointments we were able to keep were with Julia, who has her baptismal interview  tonight . She is doing awesome and is progressing at an amazing rate, despite the stresses coming from home.  Elder Haslam and I got to go to the mission office  on Thursday , Elder Haslam had some Medical Issue the mission doctor wanted to look at. It was my first time being there. It was really great to see the office staff again, as well as Sister Christiansen. She took us out to lunch afterwards with the Assistants, so that was a lot of fun. It's going to be really sad when Elder Burtenshaw goes home this transfer. I've really enjoyed having him around.  I ended up taking an impromptu nap for about 20 minutes or so during dinner, which made me kind of loopy for a couple of minutes until we walked back outside and the cool wind really woke me up. But while I was loopy I looked at the ph...

Hey all, It does not feel like I hit 4 months yesterday. My mission is going by too fast. I also realized that I never provided the background to the Scripture I put last week, Matt 27:19. So here's the context. The  Thursday  before last I got an awesome package from my sister, Beth, and it had a great CD with songs about Christ's life. The best thing about this CD is that it is mostly told from the point of view of secondary characters. For example, one is told by a Sadducee and a man who Christ healed, another is from the Point of View of a Blind man who received his sight, and the song that is probably my favorite is the one sung by Pilate's wife. She sings this incredibly powerful song about how even though she doesn't know who Christ is, she never even says his name, she just knows that he's innocent and that she doesn't want Pilate involved with him. The chorus has lines like, "I don't know who he is, but I know what I feel" and "Po...

Hey Everybody, This week has been a week full of long days but a surprisingly short week,  Friday  felt like a  Wednesday . We picked up a mother and her adult son this week and had a great lesson about why there are so many churches. it was really cool and they were all set to go to church yesterday but the mother got a serious headache so they weren't able to come. Then we also met Antonio, who has been really prepared for the Gospel. He wasn't able to make it to church yesterday either but we hope that he will next week. He is a really cool guy. Julia is also doing amazing, she is eating up anything we throw at her and she's really starting to act like she feels like she belongs during church. We didn't get to meet with her  on Tuesday  like normal, because we had to be at the Simpson's that evening, because of Halloween, but we were able to have a great lesson  on Friday .  We also had Zone Conference this week, which is always a time of gr...