Rejoice in Christ--part 2!

I lead the choir in our ward!  I am the Choir Director!  This Sunday, we had the whole Ward organized before me and my companion and I led them in a lot of songs none of us have ever sung before.  In order to get them all to energize, come alive, look at their audience instead of books, and to smile and brighten up to match the  message.... I SUPERSMILED (one of my SuperHero Powers) and would conduct while dashing quick and unexpectedly from one part of the chapel to the next so they all had to follow me with their eyes and take them off the books.  I kept moving so they would look up.  They all laughed and we all had a wonderful time.  That was the first time in my life a Bishop has ever given me permission to run around on the benches of a chapel!  I reached back in my memory to things that Sister Cramer used to do in our Manassas 2nd Ward choir.  Her tactics worked wonderfully applied here.  Thanks, Sister Cramer! This  was also one of the hardest days of my mission.  We literally gave all our souls to the work and faced some crushing discouragements... and as we were walking to church, we faced all these black clouds and said aloud, for the next kilometer, I will only smile.  I choose to look to Christ and re-harness myself to the only power of light that is always available--Joy.  Eyes and minds are only designed for one thing: looking to and following Christ!  It at least certainly is the most productive thing we can use them for; so why not use them only for it?

We can always rise and choose joy if we fall to our knees and choose Christ.  That's the way to live life as a triumph-er!

​No stone will remain.  No wall is ours alone to climb over.  No burden can block or drag down--only give traction and strength to bring you to the top.  No endings.  No sorrow of ANY kind that can't be swallowed up and transformed if turned all the way over to the Savior Jesus Christ.  Nothing but dead-ends until we choose His path.  No emptiness, loneliness or rejection He doesn't understand.  Nothing but fullness of life and hope. "And what is it that ye shall hope for?  Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise." Moroni 7:41 "In Christ there should come every good thing.  All things which are good cometh of Christ; otherwise men were fallen, and there could no good thing come unto them. ... they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing" "Cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, He shall come to suffer and die to atone for your sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that you shall stand before Him to be judged.  All your burdens may be light, through the joy of Christ." paraphrased Alma 33:21-23.  "It is easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point you a straight course to eternal bliss ...the words of Christ, if we will follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better life. ... As much as you put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up.  Cry unto the Lord Jesus Christ and find mercy, a remission of sins, peace to your soul." paraphrase of Alma 36-36. 

​

He had no debt to pay.  He had committed no wrong.  Nevertheless, an accumulation of all of your guilt, your grief and sorrow, struggles, heartaches, temptations, sufferings, rejection, disability, infirmity, depression, illness, disease, pain and humiliation, all of the mental, emotional, and physical torments known to man--and more importantly; known to you and your individual life--He experienced them all.  So that you can and will overcome them all.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Until next week!

Elder Howard

"Now"--For 2 Things:

You have no idea how flourishing and yet inexpressibly challenging the labor is here in this isolated part of the Lord's majestic Vineyard.  We are in the world's ultimate paradise, preparing children of God for transcendent celestial paradise.  This place is like no other.   This is a different world than where you have ever known.  When I am home, oh you won't know me. 

The District (as shown in attached photo) is working very hard and seeing each other through some of the hardest days of our missions.  The full District is an unbreakable unity, and it startles all of us just how we're there for each other in every hard moment.  This is a team I've only ever dreamed of.  There is perfect accord here, no matter the torrents and storms these sailors must face as a body.  With some of our investigators running away with no clue or hint as to why, mysteriously, or some getting kidnapped just before their Baptisms were about to take place, and with wrapping all our fasting and prayers and labors and tears and sweat around these precious and eager followers of Christ--it has indeed been a day of testing.  We are still strong and do have so much going right.  Things are going great because we have each other through it all, and Christ works good through all things, always.  

This week, after one of the hardest days of my mission, we were walking down the hot road to go save some dear people we love... walking down roads that were so hot my companion said he could feel it through his shoes, I was making phone calls to many different people we are working with.  Each call I would make would connect, and the people on the other end would be talking and then after 10 seconds, a deep breathing, angry, voiceless disturbance would cut the call off.  This same thing cut into and then cut off my calls twice.  We then entered into the house of our dear family we are working with.  Their house was filled with darkness.  One of our dear investigators was possessed by a devil and was starting to show his teeth and become wild, sweaty and writhing around.  The Spirit of the Almighty overcame my system and I arose boldly and by the power of the Holy Priesthood I hold, I raised my arm and rebuked all the demons in the home and in the people occupying it.  Immediately after exercising the power of the Almighty and in the name of Christ commanding the evil spirits to leave, I went right into prayer over the house.  The Voice of the Holy Spirit flowed through my mouth what I must say, and the room began to change and the feeling began to reverse.  We pulled from my bag a DVD entitled "Finding Faith in Jesus  Christ" we watched the entire film for a half hour and then read from the Book of Mormon and New Testament for a half hour.  The Book of Mormon reading is what really made the long-term difference.  By the end, the whole family was marking their scriptures and teaching each other and smiling and happy and peaceful and joking and at ease.  Light filled each one of us, and as commanded in the prayer I was prompted to pray, angels came and ministered to the hearts of the household members and guarded the compound.  

I challenge us to surrender.  Give up your life, not part or some or a little--but all, to Christ.  Just drop dead.  End your you.  Time to give up.  In order to "Endure to the End" you need to "End" Your old hold to what you think life should go like--to all it could highest, grandest, brightest, gloriously be like.  For you to give up your everything everything everything to Christ. What I mean is to LIVE by GIVING ALL TO CHRIST.  Your whole heart, might, mind and strength isn't just a nice phrase.  It's the real thing and means just what it means! 

Life is for 2 things: Enjoy!  and Build Satisfactory Future!
Ponder on that.


My life has been worn out and torn around and shred to pieces into ... something whole, complete, new, alive, on UNQUENCHABLE EVERLASTING FIRE. If you could have come to Fiji with me, you would have been consumed by a fire that quenched your whole being and melted the fiber of your very being into lava flowing goo... and you don't need to come to Fiji with me; I'm sure things in your life just end up leading you to that point sometimes... and I hope we have all been melted into that pool of lava goo because if and once you do Heavenly Father can then shape you!  Hop your goo into His forming hands!  Tell God, "God, life isn't mine.  You can have it.  It's all yours. Loving Father, I as your child, trust you completely.  I'm ready to show that.  Humble me and reshape me.  I'm ready to melt and be deformed so I can be formed into all the vision you once grandly had for me. Now the day has finally come that you can make that an everlasting reality."  Jesus Christ is ready and waiting to form you into all and more than you ever dreamed.  Here is the call to eternity.  

I bear my testimony that I have not belief, but, knowledge.  I have pure knowledge to and then beyond and deeper than all my senses--that Jesus Christ and His Father, God--your personal, loving, eternal Father--live! They don't live to rule the universe and govern... God the Father, His Son and the Holy Ghost live for only 3 things: Y, O, and U !  Precious, eternal and priceless you!  Jesus Christ is a real individual.  His face is the ultimate joy to the human heart.  Are you and I on a path that is making us into even His image and full likeness?  If not, sacrifice that path immediately.  You as a divine heir of all He hath, are worth more than putting off the abundant joy and life He has outside your heart's locked doors.  

You're looking at the door and picturing the lock in your mind's eye. You alone know perfectly; you know perfectly what locks remain. Time to decide.  Unlock or block out the sound of the knock?  

I testify the Book of Mormon is the anchor of life.  You need to read that book.  Life is going to be a hollow version of what it could be until you delve yourself into this book of pure, sweet light.  The accounts in the New and Old Testaments and Another Testament and especially words straight from true, living prophets today, are all 4 what your soul needs and is missing if deep down you feel like anything is missing in part of your life.  

I testify that if you are a Priesthood Bearer, you have to live worthy of your Priesthood at all times.  I have had to command legions of demons out of people and dwelling places, I have experienced miraculous healing that snatched me and others from the actual jaws of death, I have seen this authority transform eternal destinies through ordinances where the power of Godliness can seal families and individuals to one another and eternal bliss and joy that never dies.  You hold it, but does it hold your priority? Or does it take only 2nd place in what guides your every decisions in daily life?  You can't be like the world if you have the power that made the world.  Think about it.  Change from the heart of your heart and work out, out, outward till you are clean and usable always.

I testify Christ DID in full reality suffer the full accumulation of all your guilt, grief, sorrow, struggles, heartache, temptations, sufferings, rejection, disability, infirmity, depression, illness, disease, pain and humiliation, all of your mental, emotional and physical torments you ever have or could know--and this so that you could know you can and will overcome them all only if you heed His entreating call of love: Oh Come, Come Unto Me.  How?  Through making and keeping and building the very foundation of ALL you are on COVENANTS, promises that connect God and you to the power and heavenly help you need in order to change, progress, grow and triumph in this life.  As in  the book of Mosiah, chapter 24, your Covenants are what make your burdens light and cheerful, only positive and beneficial to you.
The hurricane that hit Fiji was supposed to destroy all human life here.  If it had hit directly over all of the land, Fiji would no longer exist.  All banks, all government, all police, business, economy, importing, exporting, living--gone.  Thousands upon thousands would have been heaped up on the earth and all things ended. The Lord is giving everyone maybe just one last chance to receive His message and repent and come to higher ground.  We don't get many chances if we keep ignoring them.

I raise a bold call to all the reaches of the earth, to come unto the Savior  through building each of our lives on the Covenants and Ordinances He offers through this restored Gospel that exists only in this Church, the Church of Jesus Christ.  Hear the voice of living prophets who speak with Him face to face.  Find the peace, joy, hope and find every yearning of your heart met! Find every hunger and emptiness of your soul filled and made more than richly, perfectly answered and whole.  Come and be made clean, joyful, whole, healed, pure, holy again!  You are destined to succeed and only your choice to embrace the Restored Gospel of Christ or not can break or make that eternal reality, everlastingly joyful or eternally damned.  Oh I call on all men everywhere in the name of the Master I serve, to take the hand of healing that is reaching out to you, know a better way, repent and heed His invitation to higher ground, above the crumbling smoldering ash of the clouded lowlands of this falling world.  

Will we rise to a higher level?  

Will we never hold back?

Will we never look back? 

Are our eyes fixed forward and upward?  

What will I change to take His image fully upon me today?

I send my love across the 12,000km or to wherever this letter may reach in the reaches of the world I send it to.  

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Ambassador of the Savior of all Mankind,
Elder Howard
Fiji Islands
Nasinu Hindi

Won't Recognize Me

Due to the Cyclone that has destroyed the nation, I haven't been able to send out a good email in 2 weeks.  Now, due to the number of people I am responsible for here and the work that needs to be done, I have to keep it simple for the 3rd week in a row.  I will share with you a detailed account of all this after my mission or next week. 

At the performance of thousands of youth for the Prophet before the Temple was Dedicated, the most satisfying thing was to with joy see my beloved recent converts performing!  How far they have come and all they are. 

I have gone through almost the whole variety of life's challenges on one level or another now... I have seen that the Savior is perfect and can make us perfect.  He doesn't care what we go through as much as He cares about the end result of what it will make us.  See you are becoming, and trust Him by having all your actions be full of faith, hope and pure love. 

The only true greatness is that to be as pure as a child.

The Spirit's potential is unlimited.  The body's potential is limited.  But the potential of the soul is only limited by the body's ability/capability to yield to the spirit.  Don't sacrifice what you want most for what you want now.

We haven't always have food, water or power, and many don't have homes. 

My life is dedicated to bringing others JOY that fills them, lasts, and that they can then share.