March.21.2016 - Trunky. Actividades de La Última Semana, Mi Lectura en El Libro de Mormón, y Sentimientos

Hey there everyone!

So, I started getting my stuff organized to start packing the trunks.  Today I am officially and literally trunky.

BUT I HAVE TO BE because I won't have time to be packing very much during this week.  We are going to baptise two awesome people this Saturday, friday we`re putting together a stake easter activity and we`re going to be working our butts off all week getting ready for those events, today at 6pm we`re going to meet with the sister missionaries and the ward mission leader to hand out flyers to the people who live close to the church, Tuesday we`re going to be working with the ward counsel for the activity and promoting the Follow Him video.  Between all this time is district meetings and getting Luis and Fernando ready for their baptism this Saturday, on top of all that we`re contacting and teaching as normal.  Im swamped! and Im loving it.  I have to keep myself busy to end with a bang.  Last sunday we helped 8 different people meet the requirements to be officially reactivated in the church. Plan March madness is going perfectly so far. :D  jejeje (thats spanish for `hehehe`)

Another thing Ive been doing is reading the El Libro de Mormon in spanish from cover to cover before I go home.  IM SO CLOSE!  I just finished 3 Nephi, which is actually great seeing as I was in 1 Nephi three months ago.  If I read 10 pages a day Ill be in Moroni 10 while Im heading out the door!

¨Elder Rawson (Missionary who lives with us) took this picture.  This was the moment where I finished Alma.¨

With so much going on in this last week, I don't really know what to feel.  Im sad that Im ending the mission, but happy to be going home.  Im sad to leave the people here but very happy to see my family and friends again.  Im happy to be leaving the hot humid weather of Ecuador and a little nervous to jump into the icebath of northern utah.
With the bitter and the sweet going on at the same time, I'm feeling neutral.  Yep, everything feels pretty normal around here.  Im sure as I'm descending upon Utah Ill feel a bit differently, but for now, todo bien.

I realized that this is my last email to you guys from the mission... weird... -however, weird isn't too weird for me these days, Ive come to expect the weird and the unexpected.  I've seen and experienced lots of things in my time here.  Ive learned from and have taught to an entirely different culture.     ....I'm going to have a hard time giving up the rice...


-but ya wanna know one thing I wont miss?  Busses.  I hate busses.


-Love, Cameron

March.14.2016 - Montalvo, panqueques, y casas

This week´s email will be mostly pictures and captions if that will be ok.  I love you all!

  

Last p-day we took a bus through the river to get to a little town called Montalvo for some different scenery.

When we got to Montalvo, I took a picture with this guy. :D

Montalvo Is a place near the mountains (The Andes), its lush and very pretty and has coolER temperature.



It also has a deadly rushing river with a sketchy bridge the can be crossed :D






As I was going through the Montalvo pictures, I realized that Ive never really sent a picture of Babahoyo home to you guys, so, I went out and took a picture of the scechiest part of it.
10% of Babahoyo is on stilts above the swamp and you have to get to the houses using bamboo bridges, the rest of it is pretty normal.



Our investigator, Luis, has a brother who told us the he was going to Florida to go buy some clothes because name brand clothing is much cheaper in the US than in Ecuador.  He asked us in there are anything we wanted while he was there. I told him yes.
Hehe.

Sunday nights the family Chang always invites us over for dinner.  We love them and are aways grateful to them for having us in their home every week, they say that they love having missionaries in their home because they say they always feel closer to God when we´re there.  Sister Chang is from Columbia and Brother Chang´s grandfather came to Ecuador from China, their children are triple mixed between Ecuador, Colombia, and China.

Sister Chang said that I needed to cook something from the US before I went home.  So last week I said that breakfast for dinner was on me!  I made a big stack of the Howell Family Pancakes, they loved them!  I left the recipe and found a home for my measuring cups for when I leave in two weeks.



And... that is all.  Things around here are going great.  We are going to have two baptisms at the end of this month and both Luis and Fernando are really awesome!  We´re also counting 9 people as Reactivated in the church for the month of March.  The work here is going great and Im loving it.
I hope all is well back home! See you all soon!

Love,
Cameron

March.7.2016 - ¿Ir al río o dormir? eso es la pregunta...

So... haha... I don't have photos 😑 But it ain't my fault! Stinking cybers don't work sometimes.  I don't like public computers!  I want my own!  ... I guess that's on the to-do list for when I get home.

HEY THERE!

Today I'm on at the last hour of p-day because we went to Montalvo as a Zone today. Montalvo is a little town that's about an hour away from Babahoyo, there are pretty green mountains there but and a small town feel that I have always loved since BuenaFe and have never really felt since BuenaFe.   ...I miss that little town.  But it´s way to far away to go visit before I go home.  Montalvo was cool but... We basically traveled for an hour, got there, ate sandwiches and took pictures by a river in a small canyon, and then drove an hour back.  I actually felt like it was a three hour waste of my p-day.  My problem is that I've become boring.  I've discovered that the best way to spend p-day is sleeping and relaxing in the house because I'm just so dang tired all the time, its nice to take a nap.  Today I decided to give in and do something ¨fun¨ for pday, but I kinda wish I slept instead.  Oh well, two more pdays to go...

Saturday there was a 5.6 earthquake in Manabi, we felt it here in Babahoyo.  I worry about this place sometimes, if the earth shakes any harder than 6.0 houses will most likely fall down because they're just made of concrete blocks and plaster.

The same night at about 3am we had a huge thunderstorm.  One of those thunderstorms where the lightning is right above your head and you hear it in the same moment it flashes.  The rain gave a lot of people an excuse not to go to church, meh.

The rest of the things are about the same, I'm tired, but I'll probably survive three more weeks.  I reserve the rights to sleep on the plane though.

Yeah, I'll make sure I have pictures of the river excursion next week.

That's all.  See you all soon!


-Elder Cameron Howell

Feb.29.2016 - Comenzando operación: ¨Marzo de Locura¨

Hello!

Happy leap year!

So, I don't have any pictures this week.  I actually sent my SD cards and pen drive to a guy who knows how to recover data so that maybe I get some lost pictures back so that I have things to show for when I finish.  There are pictures that you all have not yet seen.

...I just hope the guy didn't cross the border with my pen drives.  I shouldn't trust people, but, I do anyways.  I don't know if it's a bad thing or a good thing.

Around here the work is going well.  The ward is progressing and we are, as usual, working our butts off to find people to teach to line up the plates for my last big bang in Ecuador.

We are commencing operation: ¨Marzo de Locura¨

Its looking like my big bang is going to end up with three baptisms, which is pretty exciting.  We are teaching a guy named Luis who is REALLY awesome.  We are just trying to help him feel excited for baptism.  Because really, he was ready before he even knew about the church.  He´s the same guy who we met when he walked into church to see what it's like on my birthday.  His name shows up in the dictionary when you look up what a golden investigator is.

Last Thursday we were having a pretty bad day.  A bad day in the sense that all of our plans and backup plans fell through and contacting wasn't going to well either.  In a moment at about five in the afternoon, we sat in the curb because we had been walking in the sun all day without much success. In that moment I thought to myself ¨what are we doing wrong? Haven´t we been doing everything in our power to do the Lord´s work with diligence today? What´s going on?¨
Not long after that thought, the phone rang. It was the Relief Society President.  She asked us if we were busy, she said that she had a friend who came to her house saying he wanted to meet with the missionaries.  WHAT?  ...that doesn't happen too often but... COOL!

We - not really busy with anything but sitting on the curb at the moment - went straight to her house and found out that a few years back he was meeting with the Elders and attending church and was just about ready to be baptised when his work made it so that he had to move out of Babahoyo. As a result he lost contact with the church.

But he recently came back to live in Babahoyo and he wants to come back to church and be baptised.
After getting to know him and setting an appointment with him while trying not to show our excitement too much, we started walking to Luis´ house because we were getting close to the appointment that we had with him that evening.

On the way to Luis, a lady stopped us in the street yelling ¨¡Elderes!¨

We stopped and went to her. She presented herself to us and explained that she recently moved to Babahoyo and that she was a member of the church.  She lived in a little town called Baba before moving here. Baba is about forty-five minutes from Babahoyo.  She said that five years before she was really active in the church, however, Baba doesn't have a ward or branch, so she had to travel forty-five minutes every week to go to church on Sundays.  After some time she gave birth to two other sons apart from the one she already had.  Her husband being in the military, it was really really tricky for her to attend church, so, she deactivated.  But now that she´s living in Babahoyo she told us that she´s committed to going to church every week. She also presented us to her oldest son, Fernando, he is 12 years old. When they were active in the church he was 7 years old.  She asked us when he could be baptised, we told her that he could be ready in three weeks.  He confirmed to us that he wanted to be baptised. And so, he shall be baptised in three weeks.

After that we went to teach Luis -which is always great because he´s always so willing to do God´s will and change his life for the good.

So after a bad day, we got to finish off with a triple whammy of an evening and a really good feeling going to bed that night. It was another testimony to me that God really loves us and is always there helping us in his work.  And I think he´s also a big fan of my March madness plan of baptising like crazy before packing my bags and going home.  :)

So, that´s how things are.  Me and Elder  Ames are still having a blast working together; teaching lessons and singing Disney songs loudly in the house at night.

....I might have to watch some Disney movies when I get back   -if I have time that is.  I have a big list of movies to watch and rewatch, but I'm not sure if I want that much couch time when Im home -there is so much to do with life and time is short!

Health wise I'm doing good, I plan to stay that way too.  There´s no use in getting sick in the last stretch.

That is all.

I love you all and I'll see you soon!
Have a good week!

-Elder Cameron Howell

Feb.22.2016 - Entrando la Puerta de Narnia y manteniendo un nivel de estres bajo a la vez

Hello!

We learned that the area south America north-west has a psychiatrist.  His name is Elder/Dr. Reaside and he came to our mission this week to give zone conferences to all the missionaries.  He gave some really good tips about stress and how to manage it.

One of my favorite parts was the part where he talked about perfectionism:  He explained that perfectionism is when you feel like you need to set high goals for yourself that you can't reach, and you get stressed when you don't reach them.  Some people feel like as members of the church we NEED to be perfect, which is more or less true, Jesus did invite us to be perfect and that is the end goal. (Matthew 5:48)

However, it's a process.  And we need to progress day by day to reach that goal, we aren't going to be perfect all at once.  It's not an excuse to not be obedient, we have to give it our all, but what he asks of us is that we are WILLING to keep all his commandments.  To be perfect you have to be willing and expect that you will fail, and get back up after you fall.

Things have been good this week, normal, really.  We have been teaching lessons, finding people, and jumping through doorways to Narnia that we found in our sector.  Best of all we are loading up March with baptismal dates so that I can go out with a bang.  :D

Really, everything here is all good, I hope you guys get my emails, It made me sad to learn that mom didn't get an email from me for the last two week even though I wrote them and sent them.  Meh.

Right, anyways, I'm gonna get working pretty soon here.  I'll see you all soon!

-Cameron

Me jumping through the gateway to Narnia (first picture) and Elder Ames (second picture)

Feb.15.2016 - Four Guys

Hey there!

Today will probably be a photo recap because I owe you all pictures. I heard that I won't be speaking in Church until the 24th of April. WHAT A RELIEF!  I like to have time to write talks, yesterday the bishop had a problem, the speaker didn't attend church.  And what do you think he did?  Five minutes before sacrament meeting started ¨Hey, Elder Howell, could you speak for ten minutes?¨  ¨...sure bishop, I love speaking for 10 minutes...¨

If Mr. Sam from my speech and debate class who taught me how to write a ten-minute talk in five minutes is reading this I'd just like to say. THANK YOU!  You saved my life.  Luckily giving a testimony can extend a talk by 2 minutes and keep the spirit too.  I spoke about the first principles Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Have I ever told you guys that I love the gospel of Jesus Christ?  It's so simple and so profound at the same time.  Go read 3 Nephi 27!

Right, so, I thought I'd start this photo email with food; For my soul delighteth in food.  First off-

We found this near the terminal in Babahoyo, we don't know how it got here but I'm sure that no one but North Americans get the joke.  The burgers aren't as good Five Guys though... they lack a guy.

I was caught eating my birthday present to me last week.  I have no regrets.

Carnaval, a holiday that I would enjoy VERY VERY much if I wasn't a missionary.  Basically, its three days of free for all water fights with paint, foam, and balloons. On the third day of Carnaval, we sat down to eat some bread and soda because the lady who was going to give us lunch went out of town for the holiday.  While we were sitting we watched a large family play Carnaval.  A girl came over to us from the party and asked if she could spray foam in our hair.  Before we could answer, she did.  After that, the family sent us over some roasted plátano and chancho from their party.  We contacted them out of gratitude.    ....Here I am talking about food again... Carnaval all and all was a full big party.

Feb.8.2016 - El Día de Amor y Amistad

Wow,

So, lots of things have happened this week.  Right now we´re in day two of the three-day holiday called Carnaval.  It's been a big party full of loud music and drinking and water balloon snipers on the roofs.  We´ve discovered that the same spirit that Samuel the Lamanite had is the spirit that we have.  Everyone who has tried to get us wet hasn't been able to hit us with their balloons, much like the arrows and the slings that the wicked used against Samuel.

The weapons of choice around here is foam spray, water, balloons, and calk-paint.  We have today and tomorrow to service, I think we´ll be able to do it!

Oh yeah!  When I say we I don't mean Elder Rojas and I.  Elder Rojas got transferred today and just a few hours ago I picked up my new companion, Elder Ames.  He´s my second North American companion and probably my last companion too seeing as I'm on my last transfer cycle. D:
He´s from South Dakota but has attended BYU Provo.  I don't know too much about him yet because in our time together we´ve only been able to go buy food and eat lunch.  However, I know now that he likes to eat at KFC (yes, there´s KFC in Ecuador), he buys cereal, eggs, milk, and green apples among other things.  I'll be sure to be entreating him all week long to be able to share details with your guys. :P

I have some good pictures but... I let another elder borrow my SD card adapter and I wasn't able to get it back from him, so... pictures will be next week too.  Sorry about that.

As for me, I'm doing alright. :)  Healthwise I'm fine, I haven't let any mosquitos give me Zika, nor will I.  Its raining right now but I haven't gotten sick from that either so... yeah, life is good.

I completely forgot valentines day was this weekend until mom emailed me... right now everyone is focused on drinking and getting each other wet, I'm sure Wednesday they´ll start remembering ¨El Día de Amor y Amistad¨

Although I forgot about valentines day I did not forget about dad´s birthday.  Happy Birthday dad!  You´re turning... a... -older than you were last year! yay! (age doesn't matter when you´re always a good looking bald guy)

I hope all is well back home. I guess Ill be seeing you all soon, but not before I get to work!

Love you all!

Cameron