Boas Notícias

Olá everyone! 


Sorry for not sending an email last week, almost nothing happened, other than staying locked down in an apartment during the hurricane. It was an interesting experience. We were evacuated out of Melbourne, and we stayed with other elders who had extra room in their apartment. During our time stuck indoors, we had a TON of time to study lots of different things. I was able to read a lot of a book called Saints, which talks a lot about church history. It was really fun to see all the different things that happened, in a lot more detail than I had known before. I also got to study the scriptures a lot, and do a bunch of family history work. It’s always fun getting to look through my heritage, and read about my ancestors. 


Later, on Friday, we were allowed to travel back to Melbourne when it was safe, and some of the flooding was taken care of. Luckily, our apartment was ok, but we did have a couple of electrical problems, so for a whole week, we had no power to our bedroom. Because of the hurricane, we were also able to go and do service for those who needed it. We cleaned up a lot of branches, leaves and other things that were blown all over, and also helped at a food bank giving food to those who needed it. It was awesome to be able to serve those that needed it.


Last p-day, we were able to go to the beach together, and watch the sunrise. It was really cool to see. We played football, and ultimate frisbee on the beach afterwards. I lost every game, but it was so fun to play on the beach with the ocean and the sand. Afterwards, we all went to a surf shop and got some cool shirts, and then went to IHOP together. We also play this game every week called Avalon, and it’s really similar to Secret Hitler if you’ve ever played that, just a few more aspects to it. It can get pretty heated and it’s fun seeing how invested people get into it.


I got great news this last week as well! My visa for Portugal finally got approved, so I will be heading out this Thursday on the 13th! So this next email I send I’ll be in a whole different country, which is crazy to me. I will have to give you all a good update on how it all goes. 


We also had General Conference last week, and it was awesome! One of my favorite talks from it was by Elder Zeballos. He talked a lot about engineering and how they try and build/design seismic resistant buildings. He mentioned how his engineering professor said that they were here to learn how to design earthquake resistant buildings, not earthquake proof ones. It is impossible to build one that is 100% earthquake proof, but you can make one that resists them really well. Elder Zeballos then related this to sins, trials, and temptations in our own lives. No one can be 100% resistant to sin, temptation, and trials, but we can try our best to build ourselves up in such a way to be able to resist a lot of those things that are sent our way. We can do this by reading the scriptures, praying and asking for that strength, going to church, and keeping the covenants we have made. I know that doing these can strengthen anyone, and help them grow closer to Christ.


Tchau!


Elder Howard


Pictures: 
- Got to see a few more rocket launches
- P-day at the beach with the whole zone 
- Lots of trees were knocked over during the hurricane 
- There are a bunch of turtles in the pond behind the apartment. Fun to see them swim around






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