December 21, 2015

This week I got moved into the best area in the Mission! But honestly every area I'm serving in is going to be the best area in the Mission! (sorry for the bright and excited optimism so early in the morning haha).

We are in the Norwood ward and it is so cool because we have 3 sets of Elders in the ward and we all live within half a mile of each other! We have a Spanish set that lives like a block away and then the Zone Leaders are a little further than them but we see all of them almost every day whether just for a second in passing or for a while. It is sooo fun!!! All 5 of the other Elders are so cool and funny and I'm just so excited to be in this area!

My companion is Elder Leaupepe (Lay-ow-pepe).  He is from Samoa but spent like the last 18 years in California. He has been on his mission for a while, like ya know... 22 1/2 months haha. I'm killing him off (that's what they call it here when they go home the next transfer). So I'm excited because he is an awesome missionary, isn't trunky at all, and I have a lot to learn from him. Another thing I'm excited for is that it is like 90% sure that I won't be leaving this area at the end of this transfer!!! This transfer and the next are both 7 weeks each because of weird things but that means I should have 3 1/2 months here at least and I'm super excited for that because of how much fun we are having and all the work that is here to be done... not in that order haha.

The work is good; we got doubled in, which means that Elder Leaupepe and I both got transferred in and have no idea what's going on haha. It is exciting, but the work is going well.  They baptized a woman a couple days before they transferred out and we just put another girl on date for the end of January. Good things are happening in Norwood :)

Also we have a legit gym here, the YMCA, and so we now wake up at 5:30 to make it over there and work out for an hour which is sooo nice! I don't want to be the guy that comes home 30 pounds heavier than he left... especially because I'm already up 10 lbs! Haha 

I love you all and hope that you have such a great Christmas, looking forward to talking with you Mommy :) And to everyone else enjoy time with your family and try to remember the reason for the season! :)

Elder Howland

Elder Tolbert, Ethan, Matt, Evan, Elder Bunderson, Elder Howland