Upcoming Christmas

We spent more than half of our week down in Twin Falls for transfers and a Mission Christmas party. Sadly we had to make the trip twice. Elder Te'o and I drove down to Shoshone, ID on Tuesday afternoon  and slept over at our Zone Leaders house. Sleeping over at the ZL's house is always super fun! We usually stay up way late and play games, wrestle and talk ha ha. Wednesday I had to leave Elder Te'o and got a brand new missionary as a companion! His name is Elder Michael Mace from Chandler, AZ. He is not used to the cold at all! He is a good guy, plays piano, guitar and saxophone, sings well, played football and swam in High School. We get along fine. I will miss Elder Te'o a ton, we had way too  much fun in the short 5 weeks we had together. He is in Rupert, ID serving as a Zone Leader.

    So we drove back Wednesday night. Thursday we had an Awesome day. Ed and Chrissy Davis have recently come back to church and their two daughters, Kailey and Jessica, got baptized about 3 months ago. A good family friend, Chad Meyers who lives with them, has come back to church, too! Sunday they received the Aaronic Priesthood! I was so happy for them and their families :) Ed and Chrissy are working towards having their family sealed in the temple! They have another good friend named Tommy. He is a tattoo artist, alcoholic and smoker. Having seen the changes in Ed and Chads lives, Tommy also wants to come unto Christ! He accepted the invitation to have lessons with us missionaries and the Davis family! I am super excited to teach him more about Christ and how Tommy can receive Him into his life! That night we had dinner with Jim and Angela Evans, a family recently baptized. Jim has struggled with chewing tobacco but a couple weeks ago I promised him if he quits that us missionaries would watch a football game with him! Turns out he is quitting and using jerky chew to quit ha ha. In a couple weeks we have to watch a football game with him :)

    Friday we drove back to Twin Falls to go to the Temple and have a Mission Christmas Party! The day was great. We got an update about Elder Silver, the missionary who had major head surgery a couple months ago. He got the piece of skull replaced on Thursday and is recovering Extremely well! There have been 46 baptisms in his home ward this last month. Elder Silver asked the people in his home town to have the missionaries in their homes to see what Elder Silver was doing these two years and 46 people have accepted the gospel, How crazy awesome is that! The Lord works in mysterious ways.

   We got back Saturday and have had a couple of great days! Elder Mace is ready to learn and work hard. I am SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS! I get to video chat with my family on Christmas day for about an hour :) Have a Merry Merry Christmas and I urge you all to reflect on our Savior Jesus Christ, His birth and His Heavenly Mission on Earth. He is our Savior and Redeemer, the one who atoned for our sins. He is and should be the most important person in our life! I love Christmas season and Hope you all enjoy your Christmas week!

   Love, Elder Ethan Howard (ehoward@myldsmail.net)