Skype Week

I am taking a week off for writing a weekly email for the most part because I got to Skype home this week.... Its the perfect excuse to be lazy about emailing!

Christmas here was.... Well.... Unique like last year, but something I will never forget. We did a lunch with members (all of them treat us amazing) and then we did a District Christmas lunch that was nice. A mini family dinner of sorts. It was a mix of happy and kind of trunky... Overall good though.

Next week I will give an update on everything better.

Thanks for all of you who support me though your emails (and those old fashioned letters too!)

---Elder Howell

Member Christmas lunch.

Christmas dinner with the district.

Santa?

Christmas Skype!!

Christmas Day Skype was the best!  Elder Howell is doing awesome!

House Hunters International: Nampula

The big thing from this week was going to Nampula for a few days again. We showed up, got a car this time (smart, very smart move) and headed to the current missionaries house. We got unpacked then headed out for the day with the house finding person (who after two visits and a stupid amount of time together looking at houses I still cant remember his name). We right away headed to where a the new 'chapel' -retrofitted house- is going to be.

House 1:

The house had no windows.... The roof was made of metal sheeting with nice holes in it for star gazing and ease of entrance for mosquito and lizards. No running water in the house to get in the way of things and there was no kitchen or bathroom in the house.... It was also filled with the largest spiders, and spider webs I have ever seen :) What a magical place! Super low rent and great location.

House 2:

Located close to the chapel again, also low rent but with some nice modern twists. This house had electricity and 4 bedrooms! The bedrooms all even had their own bathrooms... But the rooms where about small enough for 1 twin size bed and a chair... The "kitchen" area was a common area for the whole, yet partially developed, building... Oh, it was 100% made of cement too! Super nice. The highlight of the house was it having over 4,000+ units of energy (we maybe buy 600 for 2 months). That and the random ladies living around making food were real wins.

House 3:

We showed up to a store front, close to the chapel, super safe area, easy access to the main chapa stops... My money sense was tingling feeling the price rising. We then get escorted through 2 full metal doors and gates, down a hall to another 2 set of metal doors.... Up a flight of stairs to anther door, hall way and then the door to the house... At this point I just wanted to see what was so magically hidden and gated in but I was sure the price would be outrageous. We entered into this super nice apartment. New paint, tiled floors and nice wooden doors. 2 really nice bedrooms and a nice, yet small bathroom and kitchen. Then comes the upstairs. A massive roof top patio thingy with a cover over looking the city. It was a magical view. With sadness I asked about the monthly rent waiting for a horrifying price just to be told a price less than a forth of what I thought..... Wow.


In the end we got House 3 ---Obviously, it was a miracle to find that house. We saw several other houses that I can just picture missionaries sending photos home and them very quickly getting ordered home by their parents. Thankfully we found that awesome house and one other!

This week we also had "Natal Branco". We did a choir with the stake and it turned out pretty great in connection with the "Light the World" campaign thingy going on right now.  We did two "shows" for people on Saturday and Sunday which was interesting, thankfully it went smoothly.

People update:

Fei and Ana are doing well and were at church along with Chul and this other new person. We will hopefully be having Chul's baptism this week (I havent talked about him much, we kinda 'adopted' him as an investigator from that Elder with toe problems). He is Pedro's friend (Pedro was my first baptism in the office). Hopefully all goes well this week!

I look forward to Skyping my family and to seeing photos and such from everyone's Christmas fun. Enjoy the snow and cold for me...and some Tacos.... and slushees.... and good hot cocoa!

Love

Elder Howell

Weekly Email---As Required

Hello Everyone,

This week was a bit different than most because we were living in another dupla's house and on Monday we picked up an Elder who was headed home. He stayed with us in a strange version of a tripla for the week. We kind of mixed around between Elder Skraba, that Elder and Elders Lemmon and Godfrey (the other dupla we were living with). For a few hours I would go off with Elder Lemmon to the bank, money changing or making purchases then I would pick everyone up for lunch or would grab another Elder to do other tasks. Elder Godfrey is healing up well but he is supposed to avoid walking or sitting for too long.

A few key things from the week:

1. Flavia and the twins actually got baptized this week.... Finally. We had good member support and everything... Both twins required doing the actual baptism twice because they kind of freaked out as soon as they started going into the cold water.... One literally ran away, the girl I baptized just kind of angrily glared at me in the font looking like she was going to slap me for needing to get dunked again in cold water (though it was her fault for flailing her legs out of the water...) In the end it all worked out, everyone got baptized and confirmed on Sunday.  They are doing well an the twins aren't too upset at this point.

2. Elder Skraba totally organized my desk during one of my "You come with me *grabs closest Elder and runs off to do something" moments... So that was nice. Though my 'organized chaos" is now just organized, I will relearn it.

3. Ummmmmmm *flips through photos* Yup, nothing else super big.... Um, we dropped of that Elder yesterday... Matilde is back today, finally not sick.

Alrighty. Have great weeks you peoples.

Elder Howell

6 Months to Go

The timer has started. There are just 6 months until I am the one boarding the plane, not the one dropping everyone off. That is insane. The last however many weeks and months have felt like eternities, days or even just brief moments at times. I honestly can’t explain it. But I am excited for whatever time I have left. 

Due to some unforeseen things happening I just got home, very much late (but doing what I was asked to) So, this email will be very quick. 

The baptism of Flavia and her twins didn’t work out. There was a train wreck of 23+ people getting sick at a wedding (including the bishop), a canceled primary program practice and no water at the chapel.... That left us with no water to baptize in, no one to conduct (that we wanted to conduct) and no members there to support.... We pushed it back a week. 

Elder Gumbo is still far far way (plane ride then 9 hour train ride) in Marromeu —the dream land for missionaries, but I am white so I can’t go— but we were with two other elders this week because one really really messed up his toes. He got ingrown toe nails, the hospital botched the surgery and he can’t walk for 2-3 weeks.   The toes are infected really bad and gross.  #Africa  But he is healing up well but needs a lot of help. 

We did get an awesome new family this week though! Fe and Ana, and their 8 month old. Ana is a member since 2012 and her husband just started coming to church. They are super smart and after just 2 visits I love them to death and I am super impressed not only by how smart they both are but how awesome of parents they are and how well they follow through on commitments. Awesome investigators #Referrals 

​Tchau!

Elder Howell​

This is Elder Skraba and I emptying the baptismal font.

This adorable baby is the kid of my favorite family.