(HELP!) Serve All Love All

Hey!  I wanted to let you know that I need your help: make someone smile.  If you and I do that by going out of our comfort zone each moment we have today, we can make a lasting difference and touch 1000's.  

I am busier than ever.  Haha, that is all I can say this week. We are working with 12 amazing people who are choosing to follow Jesus Christ by accepting His invitation to be Baptized and live more like Him and happier than ever.  We have such amazing and inspiring people we are blessed to work with, over 60 of them.  Amazing families and individuals we are blessed to help on their journeys to becoming Eternal Families and becoming perfect even as Christ and Heavenly Father.  There isn't a more beautiful work and a more important one in all the earth, than that work in which you and I are engaged.  I know this work is true.  I am watching the Lord do wonders of Biblical proportion and tell people in dreams and visions and by His eternal loving hand the way  to this Restored Gospel.  We are working with many families to get to the Temple and have their families become together forever.  

As a District Leader, and with the incredible workload that is upon my companion and I, we are busy every minute of every day.  I can honestly say I mean that literally.  It is a blessing to be in the service of my fellow brothers and sisters in the mission and be able to help them in deeper and more meaningful ways than ever before.  

The greatest insight I gained this week was probably the following:
When I serve others, I give pieces of myself away.  I give pieces of myself that don't come back.  Those things we give of ourselves, are the outer shell of our lesser self; and as they are pealed away one fully giving-of-self-act at a time, the most glorious version of ourself is THEREBY unveiled, revealed, obscured.  Give of yourself in ways that are entirely selfless and influenced by thoughts and feelings fixed on Christ rather than anything else, and you'll watch all the dark scales of your lesser self fade and chip away to reveal the leader and Christlike divine being you eternally are.  Give of yourself in every way, and the real you will be revealed from each act of service.  Those pieces you give of yourself, really are you giving yourself the greatest you you came to earth to become. 

Christ is our only model for how we can become all we can.  

It's simple, but it's my testimony.   It is true.  Christ is all we should model our self-vision to.  We can become all He's seen in and able to make of us.  I testify He'll make you the best you, if you'll give Him the whole you... He'll transform everything. 

Give Him all. 

That's Happiness. 

That's my challenge. 

I send my love, I beg you to tell me what I can do to lift your life.  That's my job; to be there for you; someone I love.   We are family.

We are Christ's hands.  

The Light of the World, has called you to be the Light of the World. 

Time to be a light! 

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

 Here is a picture of our old flat, and then the new one we are moving into today.

















Rachel and Shaun (2 of our Bap.Dates,) are progressing better than I have yet seen people do before in my mission experience!  They have come to church 3 times and developed relationships with members and gained testimonies of their own and accepted everything the Lord has challenged them to change in their lives, and they always return our pamphlets like this(see attached photo)!!! 

And they have brought us 5 FAMILIES who we are now about to start teaching.  They give out Restoration Pamphlets to people at their old church!  They're incredible.  

We had 10 Investigators to church last Sunday.  Each one is incredible and full of promise.  They are serious about their progress and felt the Spirit strong--they are each changing their lives.  

Asmin Bibi is a dear Hindi lady we are teaching who is giving up everything in her life to receive the Restored Gospel.  We come to teach her, and she tells us about dreams and visions she had to be Baptized; what she must do in order to overcome all the incredible opposition that she faces in this path, and is soooooo strongly overcoming all trials. 

Do You Want to Thrive?

Hey, I wanted to see how your life is going!  How are you? 

This is Elder Howard, and I only have 15 minutes but wanted to know how you are doing and let you know what I've been up to here in the BEAUTIFUL ISLANDS of Fiji.  

First, send me an email of any way I can help you or anything I can pray for you.  If you're facing something hard in your life or just want a friend--that's my calling and that's why we're friends.  You're my family and I'm here for YOU.  

The work in the mission is going GREAT!   REALLY great! (:  I am beside myself as I in awe look at the miracles that have happened this week, and just wish I had the time to share them all!  

But I have to send some pictures, so, here you have it:

Here is a picture of my Spanish Sombrero I got to wear while I spoke Spanish and ate in probably Fiji's only Mexican place.



I also wanted to send you some pictures so you can see what it's like here.  This is one of the places we work in, and is a pretty good representation of what my surroundings very often look like, and one of the dear families we visit.

This is the view from the back of the house of one of our very dear friends who we are teaching, who is eagerly moving toward Baptism in the coming week....  





















This next picture was what they did in response to our assignment for them to do in our lessons.  They wrote an essay pretty much!!!! We were shocked and delighted to say the least!  They are changing their lives, and changing ours, by following Jesus Christ and learning about the fullness of His restored Gospel.  Their next follow up assignment was even more impressive!  They are just so inspiring.  The Lord really blesses us as we seek out who He has prepared.  He has promised we will become like Him, we able to reach anything, and we'll reach every righteous desire ultimately, if we will just never stop keeping on forward in His best ways side by side with Him; lifting those He has put around us today.  The only way we can ever fail is to stop being willing to take one more step forward.  Walk in the Light.  We're all invited and welcome!  Christ has a better version of our life and self waiting if we'll be willing to trade in our old/current version. (:


We have 6 amazing people who are about to be Baptized, whom we are loving, learning from, and enjoying our time with.  The Lord's work works when we work hard with Him and have fun doing it!  There are people out there just for you, that are meant just for you to lift and bless--and when you lift and bless them, that will change you to all you want to make of yourself, and the best life you can envision... so why do any less?  Get out there and follow a feeling that leads you to do or say good towards another.

I testify that the Restored Gospel is true.  Thomas S Monson is Jesus Christ's chosen prophet, and He really does speak to this prophet.  I am grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and His love and His church.  It is the full and complete road to achieving the most full and complete life!  So try it out; I challenge you to stop letting things keep you where you're at when you could move forward and upward.  Know my prayers will see you to it, and I'll be there and so will Christ to help you thru it.  I know this is true.  I know there's a grand mission God has, that is just meant for you: and that mission is to learn what a joy it is to give every piece of yourself to lifting and blessing others!  This is what Christ has shown us how to do!  I share this short and simple bits of light and thanks toward our Heavenly Father and you, and send these things your way with all my love!  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Love, 
Elder Howard

Shark Attack! Jesus Christ needs YOU

I LOVE YOU

Powerful words.  Use them from your heart, prove them from your actions.  That's greatest commandment God requires of you and me.  Christ needs us to reach out, for that's the only way we can live a happy life at it's deepest level.  Today is the only chance we have to prove we love Heavenly Father, by giving up all of our whole self, to gain a better self: His version of us!

Grander than we could imagine.

This is our day to love and lift--thus be filled with the love and lift to impact our world and EVERYONE around us for eternal bright and brilliant good! 

Are you up for it?

Hope this can give you a boost and motivation for your week.  The Lord needs us.  We have a wonderful life to seize!  I send my love and thanks for all you do and the advice you sent me last week!  I am humbled by the miracles the Lord works as we love Him and His children and press past every pain, trial, challenge, weakness and barrier.  

There are people out there to love, serve, lift, encourage, and this is the day to do it!

This is Dante.  He was Baptized the other day.  He is an amazing young man.  Take a step up and out--follow Christ.  Promise Him your whole self and He'll multiply all you are and bring you above the sorrows of this world and transform you on exchange of only on thing: a willing heart.

I am learning to be more willing and more perfectly trusting.  And oh is it a joy! I'm inadequate, but Christ doesn't need me to be adequate--He just needs me willing.  He'll magnify us if we are simply willing and don't stop stepping forward with our love and trust fully STUCK on Him.  

I certainly haven't arrived; but thanks to Him and all of your help and advice, I am basking in the light of the daily journey.  I know your Savior loves me.  He commands me to promise you that He does.  That is my commission; to reconnect people to that love. 

Here's the report of this week's lessons Christ taught me this week in Tropical Fiji Suva:

Bits of inspiration and thoughts this week:

This is the simplest formula I know for unhappiness: "A lack of trust in God brings sadness,"(President Henry B. Eyring) and trust in Him will always pull us up to the highest levels of happiness He is ever ready to bring us to. 

This week, our District of Missionaries in this area came together and decided to try something: 

S.H.A.R.K.

subtle, humble, acts of random kindness

And we have spent the whole week sharking everyone.  We assigned ourselves secretly to another missionary, to serve them in anonymous ways non-stop all we could.  Try it!  Be a shark this week! You'll find your spirit has a full belly and you've got a lot more power and joy in life by being a shark. It changed the way I lived my week!  Try it out and it will do the same thing for you. 

I have been studying and watching and learning about the living Prophet whom God has called in our day, President Thomas S. Monson, and the more I watch and study him and the other living Apostles Heavenly Father has directly chosen in our day, the more I have an overwhelming confirming witness from Heavenly Father that these men are true prophets chosen to lead the world in these final days.  In my opinion, they are the most in to tune people in the world with Christ and the Holy Spirit.  They are the kind of selfless and pure I have decided I will choose to devote my life to become.  They are my heroes.  I have a personal witness that Jesus Christ lives and that it really is He who has called these inspired and humble men. 

Beyond just knowing of the instances where they have performed miracles or done impossible things and changed the world, I just simple know from the power of the Holy Ghost that they are true prophets and Jesus Christ is at the head of this church. 

In our quest to be more like the Savior, copying these men and following closely the patterns we see them teaching us by the way they live their lives and the truths they speak, this way we will find ourselves surprised to day by day be even as Jesus Christ---His image and works shining brightly in who we are and how we love and serve and lift the world around us.  Let the Prophets of God become your new hero.  Jesus Christ is teaching me so much; as I follow His servants I find myself becoming like Him like I always wished . 

Random picture I found :) 

Choose whether you want to build yourself a tent to reside in for eternity, or a house, or a castle.  It's up to us.  What we choose and give, we'll receive. 

I also learned that you can ask Heavenly Father directly, "Lord, please teach me how Thou dost communicate with me", and He will then be able to show you if you listen and pay attention.  Find out the way He speaks to you, and then seal yourself to that line of communication and it will transform you to who you wish to become.  

I have also learned that covenants are how we gain a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  AS we live the promises we made at Baptism and in the Temple to lift and serve and love all around us and follow in the footsteps of our perfect Savior, that is the way we come to know Him even as if He were personally with us moment by moment.  That is the quest of this lifetime: to find the covenant path in this gospel and then seal yourself to it fully with your whole heart daily. 

Is your light a reflection of the Savior's light?  

Find this light and plant it in you, and you'll watch all the dark world around you transform to bright.  

We are saved as we save others, we come to know Christ by bringing others to Him, we become more than we could dream we can become, only once we lose ourselves to serving our Heavenly Father and one another and shifting focus completely off self. 

Missionaries work 112 hours per week, every week for 2 years and receive no pay or break or compensation from this world.  Why?  Love is the Motive, Christ is the Reason.  That is what fuels us.

The other night, in my personal prayers, I asked Heavenly Father if He was listening to me.  I felt a blockage.  He then responded, "Yes.  Are you?"  This simple soul-to-soul instance taught me a great truth.  In our personal relationship with Him, we must learn this great truth:  When you listen to Him, you'll feel heard.  When we feel we can't see or hear Him for a moment, it is us who aren't looking fully at Him and us that aren't listening fully to Him.  Know Him, and you'll feel known.  Serve Him and you'll have every need and yearning met.  Give yourself, you'll find yourself.  This is the secret formula.  Give, receive all you need! "Allow yourself to feel loved by Him, because if you don't feel loved by Him, it is you who isn't allowing yourself to embrace and believe His limitless love.  You don't have to qualify for His love.. you have to let it in and embrace it and then THAT transforms you in the path of light to BEing a qualified and healed son or daughter in His arms, ready to be all you're destined for!   This is the simple thing He is always and has always been trying to teach us: to live for something bigger than ourselves--serve the family we belong to, humanity/divinity... the family of God.  Faith to give, gives us the blessing of receiving all of the fullness life and eternity have to offer!  He wants us to learn this .  

Biggest principle is, let yourself believe in His love for you.  That that move you forward on the path of light, past all your stumbling, weaknesses, inadequacies, sins, doubts, pains, wounds and fears.  Accept what He is trying daily to give you.  

Simple.

Try it. 

Persist at it ! 

Continuous effort will realize you to all you aspire.  Christ never gave up.  That's one way you and I can be like Him.  

If we do one thing, we're promised success... that one things is NOT GIVE UP.  Keep stepping forward ! Always. Toward Him. 

The other night, Elder Luatua and I were talking about Heavenly Father's expectations and our possibilities in this life.  We talked deeply about, "When you are 50, what kind of life do you picture for yourself?  All the details.  What do you hope you have accomplished.  When it comes down to it, what will have mattered by then MOST?"

These were questions our mission discussed in a Zone Conference recently:

·         What are the first words that come to your mind when you think of God?

·         Do you think heaven would be heaven without our family?

·         Do you know that God knows you by name?

·         Have you ever wondered what God is doing to help resolve the problems in the world?

·         Have you ever considered what you can do to strengthen your family?

·         What would it mean to you to have a prophet of God on the earth?

·         Have you ever felt like life is pointless?

·         What do you want as an end result of this life?

This conversation my companion and I had led me to understand what I want to be when I grow up.  We came up with 11 different paths I now understand I desire to choose.  Career paths become clear when we go to the Lord's best laboratory for life: a 2 year Mission.  The revelation does come if we seek it and live for Him as our full center and focus to serve others.  

The other day, my companion and I performed a Samoan "Sasa" dance for a big ward talent show.  It is a joy to embrace other cultures and be outside of one's comfort zone.  This is the best place.  In our comfort zone, we shrink.  When we are out, we love life and life grows and improves us and we impact the world as agents of Christ to do meaningful, loving acts constantly for others.

The other day, we were walking along, and a guy called out to us, "Elders, I have been waiting for you.  Come bless me, I am very sick."  We were very surprised and didn't know who this man was, but God did.  We blessed him and then his wife came out and said she had just been talking to their neighbor and she wants to be Baptized and learn about this church.  We taught her neighbor and then that led us to another person she had for us to teach!  The Lord can use us as we simple are following Him where He wants us to be and doing what we should, letting Him know we're ready to act on His errands.  

Sooo many people are coming to church and preparing to be baptized!  It isn't because of us.  It is because the Lord uses anyone who will just be willing and walk with Him with all their heart.

Ate Mexican food in Fiji!! Haven't used my Spanish in ages!  I love you Mommy and Daddy and family.  I love all of you.  Be disciples of Christ.  In every way, every day, every day, every day! :)

My Favorite Flavor of Happy

Hey!  It's me, Elder Howard.  How was your week? 

I wanted to send you an email, telling you some of the things I am experiencing from my mission here in Fiji this week.  I wanted to know what's going on in your life, and if you know of any good advice for me or things you learned this week I could use in improving myself this week.  I will live what you suggest.  I love you and hope you get something you can maybe use from my email this week.

Is there anything I can specifically pray for to help you?  Please send me an email letting me know how things are going. :)

Here is the bottom line of what I have gained this week of my 2 year mission: I am stripping everything out of my constitution of "who Elder Howard is," and then putting it back together in priority order with the Savior at the center.  I am interested in just becoming a deeper level of humble, pure, effective, changed, like a child, usable, fully usable in Heavenly Father's hands, and who He wants me to become.

We have no time to become absorbed in ourselves.

I have recognized and attacked my weaknesses.  And that is what I like about living!  I love learning about what my weaknesses are and then targeting them and completely stripping them from me.  I have a lot to learn, but I am so exuberantly excited about it, because I am all the way willing to change and be molded by the Lord and to live whatever He suggests I live.  He is going to teach me how to be a real humble servant. That is what I want to be, perfectly: perfectly humble. 

I listened to this talk by President Uchtdorf this morning:
Pride and the Priesthood

There was another one too, 
To BEcome

They are really good talks you should read :)

I am finding any levels of Pride anywhere in my thoughts or actions, and am really happy and enjoying the growth.  I am loving the Lord's mission.  I am learning more about Jesus Christ every day. And it isn't just happening upon things about Christ--now it is that I have a real and undying hunger to REALLY know what He not only is, and not only what He wants me to do, but more importantly, what He wants me to be/become.  

What are ways you think we can really come to know Christ and be more purely close to Him in real, daily, actual ways?


We had several of our investigators come to church on Sunday!  The Hindi program here really has sooo many prepared people.  In the time I have been in Suva, as we follow the patterns and promptings the Lord gives us, He leads us to what has now become around 40 new people who are eager to come learn about the Restored Gospel and then receive Baptism.  As we work with them, we are realizing how much potential the Lord has for each of His children on this earth, and how He loves each one personally and knows each of us intimately. These people are ready to come unto Christ. 

How can I direct people to Christ?  What has worked for you?  How can simple things i do, more effectively point people to Christ?  That's what I want to perfectly get good at.

Teach me any ideas you've got.

We will have a lot of eternally changed lives this month as we continue to be all the way humble and absorbed in Christ and in consecration.  THIS IS HAPPINESS:  to console others, and take them from their current level, to a level where they feel understood, listened to, heard, helped, valued and important.  I am changing a lot.  I am making sure, with the Lord as the friend by my side, that all those changes are only good.  I am enjoying following the schedules and rules with exactness and being patient with myself when I make mistakes, and forgiving all who otherwise would tempt me to be impatient.  I love loving others, making them the one in the spot-light. 

"Listening is an expression of love.  It often requires sacrifice.  When we truly listen to others, we often give up what we want to say so they can express themselves."  that is a quote I ran into this week and have been practicing a lot.  

Man, my companion, Elder Luatua--He is the man.  He is my mentor and superior in soo many ways.  I am the senior companion in the companionship in our work here in Suva, but all that means is I get to serve him in lowly humility and perfect united friendship.  I take my role humbly, but seriously.  I know the Lord has made me responsible for what happens in my area.  But, Elder Luatua really is so pure and I just enjoy him.  There is no one who is a better listener than him... and he knows how to do all the things I am working on improving in my actions.  He is an amazing guy and I treasure our close friendship.  We are lifting each other to our potential.  We are learning important and life-changing lessons of discipleship and relationship and effective work ethics.  

How do genuinely listen to others? How can you make someone really feel understood?  do you have any ideas on that, you could share with me?

 I am amazed at how he is serving his mission--and right now my mission is just to be there for my companion and spend my time making people other than myself the spotlight, valued, and loved and make them important; through letting the Light of Christ lead my actions and conversations to Christ and not Elder Howard. 

Any of the "natural man"(ways I'm like the world instead of like Christ) you see in me, point out to me.  I am nothing but mold-able in the Lord's hands now.  I am ready to be and reach heights I've never known, by living President Uchtdorf's talks, living your advice, and consuming my mind in just learning deeply about Christ and how I can really be like what He IS, not just on the outside or superficially--but really reaching Him as urgently and desperately as He is reaching out to me.

Anything you are prompted to send to me, please don't hesitate.  Anything you thing could help me be a better me more like the Savior, send it my way.  I am hungry to be like the Savior, and that has no limit, so send me all the good you come across that i can use to better myself toward being like Him.


Bottom line, humility is my favorite flavor of happy.  It connects to all great and happy attributes and opens all doors to all the best destinations.

I love you.  

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

_humbly and meek, your friend
Elder Howard