Fresh Eyes, Fresh Direction
Hey Everyone,
This has been an absolutely awesome week. The beginning was filled
with packing and running every which way, trying to help Elder Apgood
out getting everything situated before he left. Then Wednesdat, we
woke up at 5:30 in order to avoid most of Baltimore traffic and be in
Colombia by 7:45. We got there around 7, but we decided that if we had
left a half hour earlier we would've hit an hour of traffic, instead
of the 10 minutes we got. Elder Apgood went into his training meeting
around 8, leaving me to companion jump until 11, when Elder Lape
arrived. It was a lot of fun because I got to actually talk to a lot
of Elders that I haven't seen in ages. Then Elder Lape arrived and we
drove home and got to work. We helped one of the older ladies in the
ward move a bed upstairs from the garage and a dresser from the
bedroom into the garage then we got a text from the Winter's Run
Elders saying that the on-duty clergy for one of the hospitals in
Havre de Grace contacted them saying that a member of our ward had
requested a visit. Thankfully, we were already in the general area, so
we were able to respond quickly. We had a wonderful discussion with
her about how she came in contact with the church, and how she and her
husband always looked after the missionaries while they lived in the
inner city.
We were talking Thursday about what we wanted to focus on this
transfer and we really felt like we needed to get more involved in the
ward. We visited the Elder Quorum President that night and we had a
really good talk about how we can help with the Elders Quorum, and
especially how we can help with the new Ministering Program. We
planned out some really cool ideas for the next few weeks about how we
can work through him and other members of the ward to reach out to
those who either don't come very often or no one knows who they are.
So far, he's the only member of the ward council we've been able to
meet with, but this week we are planning on hopefully meeting
with the rest of them. We had a great discussion about us getting more
involved in the different auxiliaries, and the Sunday School President
asked us on the spot if we could help him out during one of the youth
classes, talking about ordinances and why they're important.
We had another interesting experience last night, we got a text from a
member out of the blue, I don't think I've ever talked to the family
before, asking us if we could come talk to her family about baptism
before her son gets baptized on his 8th birthday. Elder Lape and I
both got an uneasy feeling about it so we ended up looking it up in
the handbook to see what it said, and it confirmed for us that for
people who already have membership records, all that preparation is
supposed to be done through the bishopric and Primary. So we called
Bishop to apprise him of the situation and he directed us on what we
need to do and that we made the right decision calling him. With this
experience, as well as the Mission President switch this past week, I
have been really grateful for the assurance in Doctrine and Covenants
88:119 where it directs us to establish a house of order. It's always
comforting to know that if we don't have an answer, there will always
be a more experienced person who does have the answer, even if that
person is our Heavenly Father. You will always have someone to turn to
and there will always be someone who wants to listen and wants to
help.
I love you all, and remember that the best growth we experience will
come through the hardest trials we face.
Elder Howell
This has been an absolutely awesome week. The beginning was filled
with packing and running every which way, trying to help Elder Apgood
out getting everything situated before he left. Then Wednesdat, we
woke up at 5:30 in order to avoid most of Baltimore traffic and be in
Colombia by 7:45. We got there around 7, but we decided that if we had
left a half hour earlier we would've hit an hour of traffic, instead
of the 10 minutes we got. Elder Apgood went into his training meeting
around 8, leaving me to companion jump until 11, when Elder Lape
arrived. It was a lot of fun because I got to actually talk to a lot
of Elders that I haven't seen in ages. Then Elder Lape arrived and we
drove home and got to work. We helped one of the older ladies in the
ward move a bed upstairs from the garage and a dresser from the
bedroom into the garage then we got a text from the Winter's Run
Elders saying that the on-duty clergy for one of the hospitals in
Havre de Grace contacted them saying that a member of our ward had
requested a visit. Thankfully, we were already in the general area, so
we were able to respond quickly. We had a wonderful discussion with
her about how she came in contact with the church, and how she and her
husband always looked after the missionaries while they lived in the
inner city.
We were talking Thursday about what we wanted to focus on this
transfer and we really felt like we needed to get more involved in the
ward. We visited the Elder Quorum President that night and we had a
really good talk about how we can help with the Elders Quorum, and
especially how we can help with the new Ministering Program. We
planned out some really cool ideas for the next few weeks about how we
can work through him and other members of the ward to reach out to
those who either don't come very often or no one knows who they are.
So far, he's the only member of the ward council we've been able to
meet with, but this week we are planning on hopefully meeting
with the rest of them. We had a great discussion about us getting more
involved in the different auxiliaries, and the Sunday School President
asked us on the spot if we could help him out during one of the youth
classes, talking about ordinances and why they're important.
We had another interesting experience last night, we got a text from a
member out of the blue, I don't think I've ever talked to the family
before, asking us if we could come talk to her family about baptism
before her son gets baptized on his 8th birthday. Elder Lape and I
both got an uneasy feeling about it so we ended up looking it up in
the handbook to see what it said, and it confirmed for us that for
people who already have membership records, all that preparation is
supposed to be done through the bishopric and Primary. So we called
Bishop to apprise him of the situation and he directed us on what we
need to do and that we made the right decision calling him. With this
experience, as well as the Mission President switch this past week, I
have been really grateful for the assurance in Doctrine and Covenants
88:119 where it directs us to establish a house of order. It's always
comforting to know that if we don't have an answer, there will always
be a more experienced person who does have the answer, even if that
person is our Heavenly Father. You will always have someone to turn to
and there will always be someone who wants to listen and wants to
help.
I love you all, and remember that the best growth we experience will
come through the hardest trials we face.
Elder Howell
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