September 19, 2016

Our area had struggles this week.  We had some very nasty people talk to us all in a row and I like to think my skin is pretty tough and that stuff never bothers me, but this week because we got hit with so many all in a row it kinda got to us both. But as the Lord gives us trials and we go through them, he takes us to the promised land. And he needed to test our faith this week apparently but we then saw many miracles!

We randomly ran into this woman, Sabrina, as she was reading on her porch and long story short, she is a member who hasn't been to church in 20 years.  There were no records of her here and so we taught her and her teenage children who aren't members and they came to church!

Another miracle is Katina and her family of 6.  We were finally able to start teaching and they came to church also! Everything is aligning in this area right "when we were depressed and about to give up."

I love it here in Muncie, it is so hard but so good! :)

I just passed a year and I feel like the whole first year I was looking forward, hoping time would pass quickly.  But already I'm looking back and trying to grasp harder onto the precious time I have left. I love this work so much and would literally rather be nowhere else than here!

Be happy! Can I give you that advice? There is something wrong and something right in everyone and every situation.  You get to decide what you look for and continue looking at though. What will you choose? I am choosing happiness :)

Love,

Elder Howland

Elder Howland having ice cream on his "hump" day...September 16, 2016.

Elder Howland and his companion, Elder Swainston.  They were also companions while in the MTC.

September 12, 2016

 Elders Quinn and Manos in the front seat; Elder Howland in the back seat.

 Coffman family; Ryan (next to Mark) was his best pal.

 The Hubner family

 Elder Manos, Mandy - we were helping her come back to church.

A beautiful Muncie, Indiana road.

September 12, 2016

Literally my favorite part of being a missionary I just realized is the studies in the morning. We have the 1 hour of personal studies and I usually start my studies 15-30 mins early because I just love learning so much! I know that the most important way I will be learning is by applying things in my life each day but I LOVE my personal studies. I have found a way to mark things (haha MARK) that works really well for me and I am learning things that I never saw before and honestly it is making me love them so much more too! I was thinking this morning that if I were to lose these scriptures I don't know what I would do! God has provided all the answers to us and I'm finding that all I have to do is find them!!

This week we had a pretty hard hit, our golden golden golden investigator Kim recieved the Book of Mormon on Sunday and was to 2 Nephi 14 by Friday Which is unheard of! Members don't even read that much ahaha but she did and then on Saturday...she broke up with us over text! C'mon!! Yeah we got a text that said please don't come by or call anymore. That was a pretty hard blow because we loved her so much, she reminds me a lot of Jana Morrison to be honest, just amazing. But she read a lot in the Book of Mormon and so we are hoping that whatever she heard about our church will be not as powerful as the truth she read those few days and that sometime in the future that truth will emerge and she will come back.

We have taken it pretty well because we have seen other miracles!!! When one door closes and what not right? :) We are super excited, we have 2 investigators we are most excited for and they both have the same name! Terrie and Terry. One boy one girl. :) We love them both and are excited to see them move forward because they both have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and now it is just helping them to commit to live it!

So much love from Muncie, Indiana! Oh and I am with my old companion from the MTC, Elder Swainston!!!

P.S.  Elder Howland's new address is:

Elder Mark Howland

1505 W. Riggin Rd.

Muncie, IN  47303

September 5, 2016

The power of fasting is so real! This last Sunday, 8/28/2016, Elder Manos and I fasted because our teaching pool was dwindling down even though we are working. What a miracle that was! On Sunday night, a member from another ward in the stake called us and asked us to teach a woman in our area! What an answer to our prayer! Member referrals are much more solid than those that we find on our own efforts so that was a blessing. Then on Tuesday we received a call from a Sister in our ward who had a relative that she wanted us to start teaching! And we were like what??? We thought the blessing was the last member referral! Now there is two! And then on Wednesday we got another call from a member in our ward.  She asked us to go visit her brother (who is less active but in the ward) and she asked us to go on a specific day so that she and her whole family could fast for it to go well.

We thought the blessings were amazing just after that first one... It really taught me a lesson on God's grace. When we rely on our own efforts good things happen because he gave us moral agency and power to act but the real power and miracles come by relying on the Spirit and acknowledging His power! 

Transfers are tomorrow and I am leaving, I will let you know where I am going! 

I love you!

Elder Howland

August 29, 2016

Alright, so this week started off with a miracle! 

Monday- we are working with this Less Active named Mandy Moles, she is a huge blessing in our lives, she is so funny and witty. We have been working with her over the past couple of weeks and really have built trust with her. On Sunday her Mom who is very active came up to Elder Manos and started to just sob and thank for our efforts with her daughter. 

Apparently she has been so devoted to praying for her daughter to come back to the fold. Every time she would go to the temple she would put her on the prayer list and cry out in prayer every day to have something happen to have her back at church. Mandy would of never had missionaries at her house or would ever invite them back... 

This last week we saw Mandy, her mom and a friend. We were able to start out with a great conversion of getting to know each other that just faded right into a spiritual discussion. We taught a very powerful lesson about "receiving answers through reading the Book of Mormon". By the end of the lesson i asked if everyone can feel the spirit that was there. and Mandy answered with an excited "YES" because thats just how she is haha. After Brother Spencer and Elder Manos bore testimony about the Book of Mormon we left the commitment to study the scriptures with the purpose of finding the answers to the questions of your heart. Mandy was very excited to try this promise from the lord out haha 

Afterwards we had our "Family Home Evening" activity and ate M&Ms, fruit and played catch phrase and the evening that Mandy and her mother were very nervous about turned out to be the best thing they could of expected and were anxious to do it again soon!

Later in the week we had a great Mission Tour and Mission Leadership Council from Elder and Sister Hamula of the Seventy that was kind of the launch of changing almost everything about the mission. In short we talked a lot about being ready to lay it all down for the Lord,. Forgetting about yourself, Trusting in Him to take care of the rest, and living a consecrated lifestyle. It is something that the mission was needing because we have been seeing a trend of missionaries lacking in that aspect. Needless to say that the Tour was AWESOME. The Mission Leadership Council was very closely related to the tour but telling us more straight out that EVERYTHING is going to change in the mission.

We are very excited. its something that we have been hoping will change in the work. The Lord knows best :)

Love all of you!

Elder Mark Howland

August 22, 2016

This week we had such good work!  Cieara came to church with us and we had such a powerful lesson with her before. She had a powerful experience where the holy ghost was really strong and she is excited to continue learning. This week I learned so much about the power of following the keys because President Welch wants us to be more in Preach My Gospel and the other day I was studying and I spent the whole time in Preach My Gospel and the whole time things just felt different. The power was coming from doing what my priesthood leader asked of us. I realized that the commandment like from God doesn't matter so much as the obedience to it. That is why in the Law of Moses they had very different commandments than us and yet if they did it they still were blessed and progressed due to the obedience.

We are meeting with another man named John and he is the most sincere investigator I have ever seen. Heck most sincere than almost anyone! He cries during most lessons and even just during the prayers. He is like the most hardened man with such a sweet spirit. He has seen some incredible things that I can't even imagine and somehow he has gotten to a point where he is this in tune with the spirit. It really goes to show the power of repentance and the power of the Atonement that Christ gives us. No matter what we have done and no matter where we are at. God takes us from there and helps us progress.

Love you so much! 

Elder Howland

August 15, 2016

Alright this week was good but I'm finding out that as time goes along it goes quicker and quicker! That is crazy! So this week Elder Manos and I had fun in the rain! I have never experienced this much rain as the last week in my life! Every day it is just dousing us and it is so funny! Elder Manos is from Seattle (just south of where I lived) and he is loving the rain! Personally I like the sunshine more but it has been fun because only one other time (down in Arizona) have I experienced rain that pours so hard that the windshield wipers are not able to keep up! At church we went all of 30 feet from the car to the church and we were soaked even though we ran! Hahaha

So the work is progressing and we have been having a lot of success working with less actives recently.  We have 15 less actives that were at church this last week! The best part about that is that as they come back and get excited about the gospel we are going to help them work with their friends and introduce them to the gospel. There is this one less active specifically that we are working with who is 19 and we want to see him serve a mission. Me and him are exactly the same and I just love this kid to death!

We had a Zone Meeting this week and they asked that I conduct the meeting which was kind of random but it was cool because I got to see the other side of things. Being able to see the missionaries as they were furiously taking notes or as they sat pondering the things shared or some even as they took little naps haha.  But everyone was getting out of it exactly what they put in and it was neat to be able to sit on the stand and witness that. It is an eternal principle, it happens in church and scripture reading and everything. I realized that maybe it isn't the quality of the speaker in sacrament that determines how good the meeting is. Perhaps it is our preparation and the degree of desire that we have to take advantage of the atonement that day. This week we were invited to take greater advantage of the atonement during sacrament and I took that to heart and had one of the most profound Sacraments that I can ever remember. And that was because of my preparation before and my pleading with God during that changed it! God is willing to bless us when we use our agency to follow him!

Love you!!!!

Elder Howland