Jared Howell Mission

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...

Hey Everyone, So the main highlight of the week was the doctor's office on Thursday. We went to see if they could finally figure out what was wrong with his foot, and they did. Elder Dixon is a mutant. He has an extra bone in his ankle that's inflamed, which is what's been causing him all this pain. So they stuck him on anti-inflammatories and told him to rest, so we've been doing a lot of resting since then. However, we've still been able to get out and work for a little bit each day. In fact, on Thursday, we ended up having a really cool lesson with a referral we received from the Jones Falls sisters a few months ago that asked us to wait until semester ended. Well it ended so we called her, and she said she was still interested in meeting with us. So we met at a Panera Bread, and her first question was, "Do you really believe we can become gods?" It ended up not being a bash, which we were thankful for, she was just an honest seeker for truth with a...

Hey everyone, We had exchanges this week which means that Elder Cannon and I got to take in BYSA together. The unique thing about this exchange was that I go home next transfer, and he goes home this transfer, so a lot of our side conversations were talks about college and classes and (on his part) weddings. But it was a really fun exchange.  On Wednesday we walked all over West Baltimore, and I mean all over. I think I've forgotten to mention, but Elder Dixon has been in a boot all transfer, pictured below. He can still walk fine but he kept falling off curbs in Frederick and twisting it, so it started really hurting. When he went to the doctor, the doc didn't know what was wrong, only that it wasn't broken, so he stuck him in a boot and said to come back in two weeks. When we went back a little over a week ago, it wasn't any better or worse, so they had him get an MRI, and he has another appointment this week so I guess we'll see what happens. But that boo...

Hey everyone, So by far the most entertaining thing that happened was this guy we ran into and ended up getting stuck on his porch for an hour, talking to him. He told us about how the Earth isn't round, that it's standing in four pillars, and that it is stationary and everything spins around it, but then denied that the Earth is the center of the universe. (we asked, twice...) Then he told us that Christ never existed, but that he was black. He also talked about how you can't deny that God exists, but he thinks that faith and prayer are useless. It was so weird and reminded me of Korihor. One of his biggest hold backs was his misunderstanding of the use of Christ's title as The Great Mediator. He saw it as if we were saying that Heavenly Father didn't have the power, so Christ had to perform the Atonement in order to make up for that difference, as opposed to us being the imperfect ones that needed the Atonement in order to make it back to Heavenly Father. ...