Short Email...LOTS OF PICS!!!!

Batismos e Fotos!!!

Ola! Tudo Mundo!!!

I really want to get some photos up so I cant spend much time writing, they say pictures are worth a thousand words so I will have written a huge book with these photos! This week was the best week in the mission field so far porque I had my first Baptism! Im so honored to be able to perform such a sacred ordinance, i cant tell you how happy i was and nervous when Antonio entered the font with me, it was a sureal moment...We confirmed 5 young men into the church this week and we will baptize 3 more young men this week! Oh and something really crazy, we might be getting a family married in our church!!!!! in order to baptize them!!! I will describe this story more maybe next week...love you all and hope things are going well! The Field is white and ready to harvest and the work is tough and enduring but I am very happy to be a harvester for the Lord!

love Elder Howell

Arrival in Joao Pessoa!

Mossoro!

Elder G. Costa and his awesome Pregar Meu Evangelho!!!

Chuva!!!

Loving Brasil!

Ahh!

Showering in the rain! 

Amando A chuva!  Loving the Rain. 

Great P-day!

Conferencia Geral, Elder G. Costa, Elder Calerero

e Elder Young

Elder Morreira soaking in the glory of the rain!

Doing work...wait this doesn't look like

Brasil, where are we?

Bus ride to Natal!

After some Futebol!  Awesome P-day!

Elder Julio dos Santos and I with Otimo Mocos!  Great young boys!

The four in white were Elderes Morreira and Julios baptisms

and Antonio was soon to be dressed in white!

Elder G. Costa and I with Antonio! and his brother

Jefferson who will soon be baptized as well!

Meeting in Natal! First Talk and a Baptism!

Alo everybody! hows it going! Be so grateful for air conditioning becuase i know I am right now!

Anyways heres my last week in a nutshell.

Slept in a hammock for the first time, was pretty awesome, we had to spend the tuesday night over at another duplas casa (other missionaries house) becuase we had a zone meeting in Natal the next day to meet with president Hall and we had to leave at 4 in the morning. So we all packed into a microbus that wednesday morning to make the four hour commute to Natal and boy that was a experience, the roads to Natal were not the smoothest roads i have ever been on, I got extremely car sick and then gained an even stronger testimony of prayer. I have never felt so car sick and that moment was a terrible situation becuase there was really nothing i could do. The microbus was packed with like 12 missionaries and it was really a MICRO bus, the rows of seats were packed tight! So i couldnt really explain what i needed to do at that instance becuase of my lack of portuguese and i was sitting in the middle, so if i threw up it would of been jus the worst thing ever. I said a prayer in my head, very strongly asking the Lord to bless these missionaries with cleaniness and for me and that instant i felt relieved! Was so cool! Anyways the meeting in Natal was great! I love my Mission Presidents!

Just when i thought the butterfly had gone away from last sunday bearing my testimony they assisgned me to give a talk!!! Was only 5 to 10 min talk but still, ah it went alright...I got a lot of compliments only because they are really polite i think...I talked about the importance of prayer in missionary work. It is probably one of the most important things other than baptism we need our investigators to do. It is a way they will find the great truth in our message and to gain a testimony of their own which is so essential. Just when i thought no one in this area was going to start progressing we met a funny and the shortest 14 year old i have ever met named Antonio. Antonio made my week. When we taught him he was so accepting and now he is getting baptized next Sunday!!! My first baptism! He says he is very excited!

Anyways i wish i could share more and if i have time i will upload photos! I wish you all a great week and keep feasting on the words of Christ!

Love, Elder Howell

oh and soon to be Elder (M.) Howell becuase there is another elder howell here in Joao Pessoa so i get a new nametag!
They suggested that i be only Elder Michitake but i wanted to keep my familys name. so I chose M. for Michitake plus Howell and also becuase it will always remind me of my Father whose initial is M. Howell...

Second email from Brazil! Andy showering in the Rain!

First Sacrament Meeting, Crazy Thunderstorms, showers and lots of heat!

Ola todo mundo!

gosh i always have this problem! i always dont even know where to begin and i really wish i had more time to write! but i will try my best to fill you in as much as i can possibly do!

Its super hot here, probably the hottest place i have ever been to, always sweating, i wish i had a thermometer to tell you how hot it was. I love this place! and especially the people! Mossoro is a very interesting place for me! Cobblestone streets pretty much everywhere, also motorcycles probably out number the people in ratio. Never thought i would see pigs and horses just roaming around at their free will in the neighborhoods. oh and there are cats and dogs everywhere! mostly cats! its crazy! i think the term its raining cats and dogs was invented here becuase when it rains here its like golfballs sized raindrops! its awesome! the weather is very bipolar here at times. it will be very sunny and then suddenly a monsoon comes in! oh something really funny but also kind of sad, some men here when it rains will go outside and just start showering! you will see a ton of guys just out there with shampoo and everthing outside washing themselves! im pretty sure those guys dont have showers in their houses so thats why its sad. we are so fortunate to have showers in our homes! One thing im really grateful for is, that those men atleast wear pants when they shower! haha Our last P-day it started to rain like crazy so i decided to try it out. It was pretty fun! I have pictures! The town here is a big mixture of very rural areas and rundown areas to pretty urban and industrialized, this place has an awesome sense of charm and culture though! I love it and i cant tell how awesome the people are, i cant wait to be able to get to know them better and express myself better when i can speak better portugues so i can tell them how important and how much the gospel can bless their lives. Be so grateful for what the Lord has blessed you with like showers! We ran out of water in our house for like a couple days so i learned to really running water and showers. i didnt rain during those days! So during those days we had some stored water that i had to use to fill up a bucket and use a like a pail to shower myself, also to use our toilet we had to walk back and forth with a big bucket of water to fill the toilet so it was able to flush! so yeah appreciate the little blessings in life! My typical day so far im getting up at 6 o clock every morning to study portugues until seven. then an hour of personal study like reading the Livro de Mormon until 8. then estudo companhero until 9. i really love my companion! he is hilarious. even though we cant really commicate to each other very well i feel like we are the bestest of freinds. and we are guys right, who needs to talk haha. He was baptized into the church when he was 12 years old and only his dad in his family of 7 are members. I really admire his decision to serve also another elder named elder Julio dos santos, who lives with us with elder Morriero, is the only member in his family and he decided to serve. I really admire commitment and thier desire to be an example. from 10 o clock til 12 is tracting! then almoço or lunch which is usually always with a member! I have given a couple spitritual thoughts! then after lunch starting from 2 and on is more Tracting! We are teaching so many people and handing out a lot of book of Mormons, but big problem that i have found here is. the people are nice yes, but they say yes to do something just to be polite, so its really hard to know whether or not they will actually follow through on thier commitments. We need to express more in our lives on how the gospel can bless their lives and they need to act on their faith. people here have a lot of faith, but they dont do anything about it....anyways we are always praying to be able to teach with the spirit more so they can be touched and realize what they need to do. I really love it here and am looking forward to teaching more! I miss you guys a lot and wish you all the best! Always be grateful! love, Elder Howell

First Email from Brazil!!

IN BRASIL! MY FIRST AREA- MOSSORÓ
Oppa! whats up everybody! i made it to brasil safely, dont worry and i havnt been attacked by any wild animals.

Nossa! oh my goodness where to begin! well lets start with the longest connections of flights i have ever experienced in my life.
so pretty much i spent a total of 30 plus hours awake in traveling, that was fun. luckily i did it all with 10 other elders and sisters all together.
that was a real blessing becuase one of my other elder amigos had to do that whole thing by himself and i felt really bad because he
is really bad with directions. haha he made it safely dont worry. well turns out i only have six minutes left to write becuase i apparently spent most of my time writing to my amazing mission president hall. im so sorry i would of written a book full of the things i have experienced so far but the things that i want to point out is having humility and diligence.  i hope all of you had the opportunity to watch conference this weekend and listened intently becuase i was so grateful when i found out i was able to watch it in english becuase before i thought i was going to get nothing out of it. the advising words of the general authoreties are so priceless and i know they were all inspired of our heavenly father to say what they had to say. the people here are as kind as ever, especially the members, their charity has no bounds, i cant express to you how open their hearts are to service for the missionaries, they have very little to offer in terms of food, but they offer it all happily to prepare meals for us which basically what i have eaten is the famous rice and beans. food here is called comida and that means initially rice and beans but it is some of the best rice and beans i have ever eaten. i have also had some other very interesting foods that were also suberb that i dont know how to desribe, one is called saie and its this fruit thats frozen and mixed into some sort of ice cream, at first i thought it was chocolate ice cream, boy was i wrong, anyways on to more important things sorry i got sidetracked becuase im really hungry right now. anyways i arrived here in mossoro thursday morning at 3 and let me tell you first impression of this town was that i feared for my life, but in the morning when the sun came out this town transformed into the most charming town i have ever been in. what a metaphor i thought. my new companion is name elder g. costa and he is a brasilero and speaks no english really, the only thing he knows how to say is i like your tie. haha its difficult but im so grateful for this opportunity i have to listen intentally and learn portugues because i really have to haha. he is from belem here in brasil. my president and all the elders i have met and the people are truly inspiring and i cant tell you how happy and excited i am to get to work. please always remember read the scriptures everyday and pray intentally. follow our saviors example. i love you all very much and miss you but am very anxious to get to work! UNTIL  next week!
LOVE, elder howell
p.s. i will try to upload pics next week and write more

Here is a map of Andy's mission...his first area is in the northwest part of it: