6 months celebrated at the temple

Hey all,

I'm not even sure where to start this week. Elder Graff and I walked on a frozen lake on Wednesday, simply because we could. That was also the coldest day of the week, in the low 20s. After that it got really warm, Thursday was in the 60s so we all broke out the short-sleeve shirts again. But it was 18 again this morning so the sweaters and hats are back on.

 We had an absolutely amazing lesson on Wednesday evening. We were able to get in contact with a Bible referral and she asked us to come over immediately. So we delayed Dinner and went over to meet with her. We sat down and started talking with her. She has had a pretty rough life and we talked a lot about God's love for us and especially about the Atonement. She started crying and told us that she knew this was from God. She was sobbing, Elder Graff was crying, I was almost crying, there was fun had by all. We gave her a Book of Mormon, asked her to read Christ's Ministry and left. We got about 2/3rds of the way home when we realized we hadn't given her the Bible. She had a job interview in Lancaster this weekend so she will be over there until tomorrow. 

On Thursday we had a meeting with a man we knocked into late Sunday night. We sat down and started talking and realized he was a former, from 40 years ago. He had a friend when he lived in Tennessee in college, so he met with missionaries there. Then he went into the army and missionaries knocked into him in Washington. Now he lives here and we've knocked into him. It was a very interesting lesson because he still remembered most everything the missionaries taught him 40 years ago, he just told us he'd never had the motivation of join. We challenged him to start reading the Book of Mormon, which he's kept on his shelf all this time, and asked if he'd come to Church. He didn't but there's still hope.

Friday was definitely the highlight of the week. We had planned for Elder Graff and I and the York Ward Elders to drive down with a family from our ward to the temple Friday morning. We planned to leave before 7am, get to the 9am session at the temple, stop by Cafe Rio in Frederick, the only one in the mission, on the way home, and watch President Monson's Funeral at 2pm. Sounds easy enough, right? Well we left on time but about 30 minutes down the road I realized I'd forgotten my temple recommend. After a few seconds of internal panicking, we called the temple and they said they'd work it all out. We had taken into account for traffic on the I-495 beltway around DC but we hadn't thought about the traffic on the I-270 which we needed to take in order to get through Maryland. We got to the Temple around 9:30. We all walked up to the recommend desk and right as we got there the phone rang. The man at the desk answered it, said my name, and told them I just got there. He hung up and said someone was coming to collect me. We waited for a minute or so and then Sister Wiltbank, from back home, walked around the corner and took us back. We talked for a few minutes before we had to keep moving. A few minutes later I walked upstairs and right into Brother and Sister Thornton, from Fairfax. We talked for a few minutes and then went our separate ways. We stopped by Cafe Rio on the way home still, and on the way there I realized that if I hadn't forgotten my recommend, I wouldn't have gotten to see Sister Wiltbank, and if we hadn't hit traffic and been late, I never would've run into the Thorntons. It's always interesting to see how things that might've been trials or inconveniences, pave the way for greater things.

After the Temple was great too. Elder Graff and I hit our 6 Month mark on Friday and there is a tradition among missionaries to burn a tie at your 6 month mark. We asked the family we went to the temple with if we could burn them in their backyard, since we didn't have a place to do it at our apartment. They agreed and looked at the ties we brought, there was a missionary who finished his mission in our area a few transfers ago and left a bunch of ugly ties, and told us they wouldn't burn to well. So in typical Boy Scout fashion, we soaked them in Gasoline first. I'll throw the video on the email, it isn't super entertaining but hey, it's fire. 

Elder Graff and I were finally able to meet with the investigator that the missionaries found a few months ago, who's been very sick all transfer so she hasn't been able to meet with us. One unique thing about her is that she's blind. Someone asked us a few weeks back how we knew she was blind, apparently people fake it(?). Elder Graff answered very simply, because she has no eyes. She is very nice though and seems to finally be getting over her sickness. 

Elder Graff and I were asked to help with Primary again this week, they didn't have enough people to cover the classes so the normal teachers could go to the Teacher Council Meeting. Junior Primary again, very nerve racking. Small children just make me nervous, don't know why.

We also found the most dangerous restaurant in York. Dangerous for our wallets at least. It's this little corner store just south of the city center, that has always looked really good when we drive past. We didn't have time to drive all the way home for lunch on Saturday so we stopped in there. They had Lamb Gyros (Pictured below) which smelled so good I couldn't resist getting it, and I have no regrets. It was incredible. Sorry about the food plug but it was food worth writing home about. 

Love you all. The church is true,

Elder Howell

Alma 7:11-12 (I know I've used it before but it is so moving every time I read it)​