Jared Howell Mission

Hey everyone, I don't have a ton to report this week. I'm staying in Savage Mill, but Elder Teske is getting transferred out to the west side of the mission. My new companion is Elder Mitchell, who if you remember, was in my district both transfers I was in Susquehanna, which will be very interesting.  Now, about Trials. This transfer has probably been the hardest for me, health-wise. My foot was feeling really good, especially the last half of the week, but Elder Teske picked up the cold that's been going around the district, and possibly the zone, on Tuesday.  So we had exchanges on Tuesday, which was awesome. I went to CYSA with Elder Mendez and it went great, he's a really solid missionary even though this is his first transfer. We talked to a lot of people, there was one lady who pulled up right as we knocked on her door. As we were walking down her steps, I could tell that she didn't really want to talk to us, but when do we let that stop us. So I ...

Hey Everyone, I don't have a ton to report on from this week. The reason I put protection in the subject line is because Elder Teske broke the lamp in our bedroom, it was the middle of the night and it was pitch black. What he didn't realize is that it broke one of the light bulbs, throwing glass across the threshold of the door. I didn't realize that either until I walked past it two or three times before I turned on the light and noticed that it started smoking. I looked at the glass, trying to figure out how I didn't cut my bare feet on the glass and the only explanation I have is that we were protected. We vacuumed up the glass and called the mission office and the Zone Leaders brought us a lamp this morning. There are always small blessings around, you just have to keep your eyes open. I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Musonda on Tuesday. He's such an awesome Elder. Headstrong, knows how to work, and really cares a...

Hey Everyone, I had a doctor's appointment on Friday for my foot, and it wasn't feeling too good on Tuesday, so we didn't do a whole lot this week, trying to heel it up as much as possible, (pun intended). The doctor said that I should've been doing that that for pretty much both weeks, not just one, so I'm getting better, but I'm not whole yet.  The real highlight of this week was Saturday. We had a full mission conference Saturday afternoon with Elder D. Todd Christofferson. So not only did we have the opportunity to gather as a mission to hear him speak, but we also were able to shake his hand, it was incredible. He brought three Seventies with him and we got to listen to all four of them speak, as well as President and Sister Mutombo. Sister Mutombo's testimony was especially powerful because she spoke to us in English, which is incredible for a woman who couldn't really speak anything but French a few months ago. The Sev...

Hey everyone, This'll probably be a short email, we've been running around, trying to get everything done today.  There isn't much to report this week, I conducted my first District Meeting last week, as well as one yesterday. Last week we talked all about hope and this week was humility. As a Zone, we've been trying to focus on Christlike attributes and why it is important to acquire them on our missions.  Friday was the other big day, we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders so Elder Nelson and I got to run around Savage Mill for the day while Elder Teske and Elder Jacobson drove around Ellicott City. We had Correlation in the morning with Brother Tobey then had the Sisters drop us off near their apartment so we could do some work before heading home, also to conserve miles because we were really low. We had enough time to walk for a bit then grab a bite of lunch before it started pouring a natural East Coast storm. The Sisters dropped off ...