La Cucaracha...La Cucaracha...

Well I am still alive everyone! It has been a crazy week here in
Chile. Here is my week... we landed in Antofagasta and we got picked
up by president Bruce. He is such a stud! I am so excited to be in his
mission. He said that we were the largest group of missionaries to
come into the Chile Antofagasta mission. We had 8 gringos and like 20
latins. It was so much fun making friends with all those elders! they
are so funny! Its funny trying to talk to them is spanish and them
trying to talk to me in english. They all call me "Twilight boy Jacob"
haha. after the airport we took a bus to the church in antofagasta and
eat a great home cooked meal by our mission presidents wife. she also
is incredible! then we had like a 15 minute meeting where president
Bruce gave us a letter of our new companions and where we would be
serving. Right now, I am assigned to work in Alto Hospicio, Chile. The
sector Las Americas.. haha thats an apporpriate place for me to begin.
and my companion is Elder Deck from Argentina.. and he has been the
Assistant to the President for the past 5 months. So that means I have
the best companion in the world! I dont know how I got to be paired up
with him but he is a professional missionary! We might have to
"retire" his name tag like they do in sports because he is a ledgend!
He speaks a little english which is incredibly nice to have! Well
right after about an hour in the church we got on another bus.. to get
on another bus to go to Iquique( a 7 hour bus ride) add all that
travel combined with the planes. that was a long 2 days! but it was a
decent bus so i got some sleep. We then proceeded to get off at the
wrong bus stop (ooppps). Then we had to drag our bags forever and take
a taxi to the "pension" our house. We got there at like 4 Am finally.
We opened the door to the appartment complex we are staying and it was
A MESS!! it was incredible! trash everywhere! It is a tiny 2 room and
a kitchen in an appartment building. I was increibly thirsty and we
cant drink the water there, but luckily they had big jug of purified
water so I pounded like 4 glasses (remember this part). We went to
bed, woke up the next morning and went to eat at our mamitas house. we
knock on the door and introduce ourselves, me being last, I shake her
Hand and she starts to scream! I was terrified! I thought I broke her
hand! I have always had a firm handshake, but I have come to realize
everyone is really soft here. (oops lesson learned the hard way). but
i hope she will forgive me of that one. Well after that we went back
to clean the pension.. as we started cleaning we had so much trash we
filled up the chutes that people put there trash in. so in was backed
up all the way up.oopps. but as were are cleaning we come to find we
have a SERIOUS cockroach infestation!!  They are EVERYWHERE!! we spent
the afternoon with roach killer and waterbottles killing like crazy.
It was like real life Call of Duty... i wrecked! we honestly killed
probably 500. The were everywhere.. they were in our beds..in our
clothes.. in our fridge.. in our food pantry and to my disgust as we
were continuing to find more places to find and kill more, we opened
the water filter and there was a spawning pool of cockroaches. The
same water that I drank the day before had atleast 70 little cockroach
babies swimming in the water! hahah Gross!! but oh well I didnt get
sick! haha it was so much fun killing. we have 4 elders in the pension
with us. Elder pulsifer from Az. and Elder Maroquiin or something
random like that from guatamala. Way cool guys anywho. So we had a
blast tearing apart the apartment there. I dont think we will ever
kill them all but atleast we made a dent in their population.
anyways.. we then actually got to missionary work!! We like i said are
opening a new sector here in Alto Hospicio so we walked around
everywhere getting to know the branch president and the other leader
in the branch. We have a HUGE area and we cant have bikes or anything
so we have to walk.. there are also tons of hills. so by the end of
this transfer i should have some pretty toned legs. There are so many
unactives here! elder deck said. "1 in 10 people in Chile are members.
but of those 90% are inactive!" So we have a lot of work to just bring
people back to the knowledge that they once knew! So I think I reached
the peak of Culture shock in my 1st lesson ever.. So catch this.. we
are teaching my 1st lesson and its this single lady with 4 kids. one
of which is a few months old. So poor awkward white boy me is just
sitting there cause i have no clue what is going on and 5 min into it
the lady whips out her boob and starts breast feeding her child while
were there talking to her. I WAS LAUGHNG INSIDE SO HARD!! It was
strange to say the least.. and it continued for the rest of the time
we were there. Lets just say I made the best eye contact with a person
I ever have in my entire life! Poor little awkward me. Well Elder Deck
tells all the kids here I am from Hollywood in America and my name is
Zack Effron. The girls freak out! its too funny! people call me lots
of things down here... the kids call me Zack Effron, twilight Jacob,
harry potter, hogwarts (they dont pronounce the H in spanish hOWARD) ,
gringo. haha I just go with it! Too be honest though, this week has
probably been the most diffucult week of my life so far.. its is so
hard to be in a place where I cant talk to or understand people. but I
find joy in other things.. when ever I do say something is ether a
joke or something that is so wrong the people laugh at it anyways.
However in a week I have picked up a much better ear for what people
are saying. I still cant speak much.. but it is getting better. they
dont pronouce the letter S at the end of words and there are a lot of
words that end in S. so its hard to know the words they say.. they say
PO on the end of random words.. it means absoultly nothing but they
say it tons! So thats strange.. ive been trying to do my best and know
with time, work and help from above I will be able to do it! Well
Tonight we have an appointment with an investigator whos daughter has
been baptized and we found her the 2nd day. she is progressing and the
only thing holding her back is the concept of profets. we taught about
it all last night and committed her to pray for comformation its all
true and she said she will and she also said if she receieves and
answer she will be baptized. So im hoping and praying! Well Time to
get to work.. Thanks for all you do for me at home.. thanks for
reading my novel. I love you all and hope all in well there!

Love Elder Howard

Elder Howard is the one is the dark suit... (1st row 4th from the right)

1st day in Chile

hola familia!! wow.. where in the world do I start? well 1st off this keyboard that i am using in not normal so it will take some time to get use to it.

Well i know everyone wanted to know how my bubble bath was.. and don't worry.. it was fantastic!! I've never seen so many bubbles in 1 tub before. Well this is my experience so far. Well we woke up at 3:00 am to finish preparing everything we needed to leave the MTC.. we got up and went to get on the bus.. I felt like I was escaping the mtc. It was kinda strange. we left and took the bus to the airport.. we saw a car flipped over in the 1st 10 minutes we drove by the 801 and just thought of all the good times I've had there. and it was really weird be cause that was the last time i would see my town for 2 years. We got on the plane.. i thought we weren't gonna make it because it was so ghetto. but luckily we did land. however, 5 minuets later when i went to pick up my bad, they lost it. I was sketching... i had no clue what to do. but after like 15 minutes they brought this bag to me and thank goodness It was mine!! then we flew to nyc.. the airport was pretty cool. it was so nice to be able to talk to my parents( i love em). but at this point i wasn't nervous at all.. i was thinking i would just wreck the language and wreck everything else!... and then reality hit me like a rock. we got on the plane to Chile. everything was in Spanish everyone spoke Spanish.. i did not know what was going on! none of the missionaries did.. in fact they were offering us drinks ( wine, coffee, tea) and all we would just nod our heads and say "Si".. we had no clue what we were saying yes to. but then we had to make an emergency landing in panama because some passenger was a having some crazy episode and got delayed for 2 hours. Well We finally landed in Santiago and it was beautiful there.. everything was still in Spanish and i guess that's what i signed up for. We finally got on our last plane to Antofagasta.. we landed safely and ALERT SUSPENSE KILLER.. i have no more time.. stay tuned for next weeks email when i can tell you about the rest of my experiences so far. All is well..

Elder Howard

Bubble Bath Goodbye

Hey everyone.. Well I don't have much time because I have a lot to do. I Leave in 6 hours for Chile and I have a lot to still get ready (I have a huge bottle of bathtub bubbles and I'm going back to the residence to soak in the tub of glory for my last night) I'm stoked! But I just want to quickly give an summary of my experience here in the MTC. I arrived here not really knowing what I was getting myself into. I have little confidence and had a lot of insecurities. It was incredibly odd for me to have someone by my side as a companion 24/7.. I liked to think of myself as a "Lone Ranger" before my mission. Just kinda went by my flow of things. Getting used to the expectations was difficult.. Struggling with my testimony in Spanish feeling like I didn't even have a testimony in Spanish was even more difficult. Just because i couldn't share my feelings. Trying to be the missionary that you all think I am, and at times coming up short was heart wrenching. But these experiences where the experiences that I needed to feel. I have overcome these faults, only because of the Lord. I know as I would kneel down and pray for help in every struggle that I had, the Lord would bear me up and give me all that I needed to get through my trials and then some. My relationship with Jesus Christ has forever changed and will only continue to grow closer and closer. I am so grateful for the spirit that I have felt here! "the temple is the house of the Lord" but "the MTC is where the Holy Ghost lives"... It is so powerful the things you can accomplish here. I'm so grateful for the experiences that I have had and they will forever change my live and soon to be the lives of those I serve. And to end, tonight we had to opportunity to watch the talk that Elder David A. Bednar gave to us on Christmas.. there was no better way to go out of the MTC.. I think I emailed about the talk in my Christmas email. but to some it up.. forget yourself, turn outward. I am going to go serve the people of Chile with all my Heart Might Mind and Strength(in about5 1/2 hours now)! I'm not going to hold 1 once of energy back, and nothing is going to stop me!!! Its going to take all that I have but I will do it! I am proud to say I came into the MTC, I jumped in with 2 feet not holding anything back.. and I can honestly say I've worked honorably hard and I am worthy to now have the chance to go serve the Lord in Chile.

thanks for all you do for me everyone... and I will tell you how great the bubble bath is later!

Love Elder Buck William Howard

Ready to Fly but not to "ski"

Yo Yo Yo, whats crackalacking fam??? Hope all is well. Well its been another great week in the MTC. Last Tuesday we had the opportunity to have our biweekly devotional and were lucky enough to have both Elder.Russel M. Neilson and Elder Jeffery R. Holland come speak to us! It was wicked.. because they have been renovation the buildings here they had to rededicate some of them. So we got to hear Elder Russel M. Neilson give a dedicatory prayer on the MTC, I don't know if any of you have heard an apostle pray but it is cool.. he was just talking to his best buddy in heaven! Last Tuesday was the 50th anniversary of the Provo MTC! It was pretty cool to be here during such a sweet event! My favorite part of every devotional is singing in the choir! Its too much fun.. they have the cameras that always zoom in on their faces and am pretty sure I'm 4 for 4 on getting some face time! So if there is anyways you get a hold of the Tuesday devotionals at the mtc check me out :p haha.

yesterday I had a sweet tender little moment... 1 year ago yesterday (February 2nd, 2011) I eh had an "accident" hehe. You all know the story.. I was hittin' up the slopes on my skis making my ski video because I was getting lined up to be sponsored by Red Bull. For my last trick I was going for it all and Pulled a triple back flip... but then I bailed half way through... landing on my left leg shattering the bone from top to bottom. hahah well I have probably told like 2,000 people this is how I broke my leg. They always believe me! haha it never gets old either! but unfortunately you all know the sad and pathetic truth.. something like "heely's" or something I don't know. its a sensitive subject haha :) . But I cant even say how grateful I was for that experience now.. I honestly learned sooooo much. Its was heart breaking not being able to do all the fun stuff at the end of Senior year.. not being able to play with my boys in my Senior Lacrosse season. But such is life.. and that little trial is nothing compared to trials that I will have later in life. So yeah, if anyone asks you what the real story was just tell them I was skiing! haha

So i have some good news and some better news!

 I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS!!! I'm officially sent and have my plane ticket to CHILE!!!! We leave February 13th!

we leave the MTC at 4:00 a.m for the slc airport.. Our fight plans are as follows... 7:00 am SLC to  11:00 am Chicago O Hare ... 1:00 pm Chicago O Hare to 4:25pm New York JFK...  7:40 pm New York  JFK to 8:30 AM Santiago, Chile... 12:35 pm Santiago to 2:30 pm Antofagasta!!!!! Its going to be the best! Soooo long but I CANT WAIT!

and the better news... when we are at the airport we can CALL HOME... so charge your cell phones! Anyone who wants a call, send me the numbers and I will be able to talk for a little bit! Well at least I think its exciting.. you all use phones everyday hah.

Love Elder Buck William Howard