You ARE Eternity Changing

बुला विनका !

How are YOU?

Written in my Journal from the last 19 minutes being 19 the day before my Birthday: "It is a very prayerful moment.  A special stepping stone; milestone of millennia it took me to travel forward thus far.  I am now to focus and rise and put away all that isn't fully Christ. For i am now 20.  An age of greatness, service, solidifying and building what will determine every year after in my life and posterities lives that will ever happen.  The next 20 years, like the past 20, are in my Father's hands.  This marks the greatest chapter of my life yet."

My teen years are forever behind me.  20 Years Old as of the 27th.  It is a new dawn, the best and grandest chapter of the book of my life yet written, because these chapters are ALL about Christ. Nothing can or will ever be the same.  I am ready for all adulthood, and am fully undaunted by the mission I have to fulfill in this life. I am empowered.

Just Some Highlights of the Week:
Gave away literally 1000's of invites to the Temple

Taking literally 100 people through the Temple

I finished training with Elder Datoon, and got transferred and now have a new Companion

I am now District Leader of a very large district of 8 Elders

Have arrived at a beautiful vista in the mission, seeing about 30 children of God who have been able to be Baptized through the Lord's working through me in not even 2 years of the mission yet, and watching them all having come back to the Savior Jesus Christ and make their families more prepared for Eternal Joy in this life and Eternal Life and Exaltation in the life to come... it hasn't been an easy 15 months, but it has been the ultimate joy and highest life experience I could imagine at this point for my time on earth.

(I took this photo after having gone through the Temple for the 6th time with some of the people I love the very most in Fiji. These ARE the most special days of my life yet.)

​I spent my 20th Birthday at the Suva Fiji Temple, BRINGING more than 20 PEOPLE to the Temple.  It was the best Birthday I could have wished for.  On that special day, Riznal had his Baptismal Interview and was finally after over a year of working and praying and hoping and not giving up, he is finally able to be Baptized!  And I found that out on my Birthday!  While in the Temple in a tour with Asmin, Junior, Nafisha and Ansh, I sat down in the Celestial Room of the Temple, and it was one of the most profound and warm moments of my life.  I had a conversation with Heavenly Father in His holy house where He prophesied some very amazing blessings about my future and about my family. No gift could top the gifts that God has personally given me through the Temple.  I know that God wants you and your family there. I can testify that, even before it has been Dedicated and set apart by the living Prophet on earth, the Temple is the House of the Lord even now while it is just open for public tours.  As we go there, holiness overrules and reshapes our very nature, and we are welded in unity to our Savior Jesus Christ who is the Author of everything good in your life.  We need to be in the Temple.  I testify that the work of eternity is real.  In Temples really truly is where Eternity meets Eternity.  I have watched miracles happen right before my very eyes as people of other faiths or beloved Recent Converts have gone through the Temple with me.  One family walked into the Temple and when they got to the part of the tour about eternal family and eternal marriage, they felt the spirit of our loving heavenly Father just envelop them, and they actually stepped forward and knelt at the alter and looked into the mirrors of eternity that really have no end in either direction in that beautiful sacred room, and the husband said, "It is time for us to move forward, as a family."  They weren't members.  This story is the kind of special miracles that are happening every day here in the Fiji Suva Mission right now.  We have stopped focusing on teaching people for the time being, just so we can get the entire nation through the House of the Lord, His Holy Temple.  These free tours are more powerful than weeks of lessons with those investigating the church.  I feel so privileged to be a part of this miracle.

February 20th it will be broadcast worldwide.  If you are on the East Coast USA, it will start 10PM Friday the 19th.  The world can watch this Historic event. I will be participating.  All the Missionaries in the Entire Nation of Fiji will be on the field for part of this special national Temple Opening Celebration. 

​Almost all of the people I have been able to see come into the church through my mission, were able to go through the Temple with me.  It was one of the sweetest moments I had always wished for when I traveled there with them and heard them make earnest comments like, "I can't wait to serve my own mission."  "I promise myself that that is where I will be married."  "I promised God in my heart that I will come back to this place."  "My family should be baptized too, so they can be eternally happy, eternal family."  "I am coming again!"  "I can't imagine what my life would be like if this Gospel had never come into my life." "Can I come and do the work for my ancestors who never had the opportunity I had, to receive this message and gospel of joy? I want to do their work."  "I can't walk nicely, but, when I come here, I know it is my Father's house, so I won't be using a wheel chair when I come back.  He will take me through His house. I know He can do miracles." "This was the most special day of my life."  "Wow!  Look at it!  It is so beautiful!"  "I felt so good inside." "You brought us here."  "God has worked miracles in our lives." "We can't wait, we are just going to go right now!" and "Elder Howard, we're here together.  Think back to the first day we met, and now we're all at the Temple."

This was my last day with Elder Datoon as my companion!  In Mission Terminology, as a trainer, he is called my trainee or "son."  And I am so proud of him!  He is now leading the area I got transferred out of.  Leading 2 wards and a huge area with 15 Baptismal Dates and much to stay on top of.  He has risen to the task.  His Hindi and his abilities in the mission have just blossomed.  I love him.  Having him as my companion was a main highlight of these 2 years.  He is going forward now and doing great things. His new companion is a good friend of mine, Elder Halbert.

This is my new companion, Elder Mo'uga.  It turns out he and I were kind of almost neighbors as kids!  We were born in neighboring cities.  He is just a couple years younger than me, but his is very tall.  He is Samoan, from Utah.  He is so much like one of the best friends I've ever had--Brandon Agre(who is now serving a full-time mission in Chicago Spanish Speaking)--and has all my favorite qualities in a person I could wish for.  He is so pure and humble and willing and funny and we are always smiling and laughing about something.  He was my trainee's companion in the MTC.  He and Elder Datoon had been companions before.

My new area is my old area.  Nasinu 2nd Ward, Hindi.  All my mission (except for when I was in training,) I have been responsible for either 2 or 3 entire wards, and had to balance and juggle non-stop.   While I was doing that with Suva 1st, 3rd, and Nasinu 2nd, I enjoyed working in Nasinu.  But now I am blessed to be able to give it my full attention!  I finally only have one ward.  It has become my favorite area in unique ways.  Each area is so beloved to me and my heart is in each area, but there really is something special about Nasinu.  When I arrived into the new flat with my wonderful new missionary companion, by my request, he gave me a Priesthood Blessing.  Many things were promised and prophesied in that blessing that have just filled me with strength and vision and promise for all that is to happen in my time in this area.  I AM HAVING FUN. Wow!  It is such a unique and sacred privilege to be allowed to go back to one of the areas in the mission where you have already served--for now, I can experience being with my recent converts over there that I have grown to love just as if they were real family.  I know the Lord has great purposes in all He does. It has only been a few days in my new area, and I already see exactly how this area needed me and I needed this area.  It is perfect!

Rachel and Shaun.  We taught and Baptized them many months ago.  It is such a joy and a miracle to be WITH them now, to see how far they've come and help them go further.  They loved the Temple.  I am beside myself thinking how richly the Lord blesses us as we just trust His path and be willing to press forward whatever the next step be.

This is a family that we are privileged to be working with.  They are a miracle!  They want to be sealed as a family for time and all eternity in the Temple after they are soon Baptized and then prepare themselves.  Going through the Temple with them was a good experience. 

I celebrated my Birthday with this girl and her family.  This is a family I will come back to Fiji to visit after my mission.  This little girl's name is Kushi--meaning "Happy" in Hindi.  So, we wanted to celebrate our birthdays together because we share the same personality and name and funniness.  We sang, prayed, laughed, and had the best time with this family on the night of my birthday in Fiji. This is the Kumar family.  As we have built a deep relationship with this wonderful, beloved family, Brother Kumar the father of the family, has become the Chapel building representative and their family has just transformed.  I am so proud to have known them.  There is nothing like serving a mission.  That's why I'm going to do it for eternity.  I am an eternal Missionary--a true and everlasting Disciple of Jesus Christ the Son of God.  I have been called of Him, to declare His word among His people that they might have everlasting life. 

This is Ansh.  We celebrated his birthday as well.  He is a miracle.  Everyone thought he wouldn't survive, and we were all praying for him.  But now, his surgery cut across his stomach is fully healed up and just a scar!  He is Baptized and stuck with nothing but a smile on his face every day!  He is building his life around becoming a missionary, and going to the Temple and being like Jesus Christ by reading the scriptures every day and becoming more and more happy and kind and Christ like each day.