Pumpkin Pies and Pyramids

 Bonjour tout les monde! 

I hope each of you had a great Thanksgiving and ate a ton of good food! Also, I hope you all watched some football because I know I was missing that! More importantly, I hope you all are happy, and your families are safe. 

So, you all are probably wondering if anything interesting happened in my life and I'm happy to inform you that yes; yes indeed, some interesting things occurred this week! First, we had Thanksgiving, obviously. We ate as a zone so Elder Hawkins and I had to bring pumpkin pies. Two of the pies turned out great! The other one...not so much, but I am happy to say it was (probably) edible! We then went to watch Fighting Preacher, but we only got thirty minutes into it before we got kicked out of the church. We Elders were pretty disappointed, so we went and made an Elder pyramid to console ourselves! We had a blast as a zone! We then got fed by the Pyne family: drop off style! I think I literally looked like an overinflated water balloon after eating all that good food! We have such an awesome ward!  

Besides Thanksgiving, a lot of other good things happened this week. We were able to teach a lot of lessons with members and nonmembers alike! We were able to drop off a Book of Mormon to Shelly and Susan! Elder Hawkins and I also found out we are going to be together for another transfer so that was awesome!!! We also got off quarantine which was a tremendous blessing!  

Speaking of events that we don't want to experience but we need to experience let's end with a spiritual lesson I learned this week. After going through life, I've had the lesson that we need to desire God's will to rule our lives, not our own will, impressed upon me. We have a limited vision for our life. He has a perfect perspective and plan for us. That perfect perspective and plan are full of so many kinds of blessings. They may as well be counted as infinite. We need to understand that hard times are for our good and learning. It is a hard lesson to learn but one that I am forever grateful for. The reason why we have the capability to learn from tough experiences in life is Jesus Christ! His Atonement, Gospel, and Resurrection give us the hope, the way, and the life/purpose to overcome these challenges. Is it any wonder the Father Himself said, "Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son.”? (2 Nephi 31:11)? Repentance is a lifestyle of always seeking to become like Jesus Christ. Baptism is literally laying down our life, our will, for the Father's. We need to always be seeking to become more like Jesus Christ and living by and with the Spirit of Baptism. If we do this we will be able to let "God Prevail" in our desires, our purposes, and ultimately our very lives. 

Know that each of you has my love! I am forever grateful and deeply thankful for everything each of you has done for me in my life.  

Till next time, Love Elder Habel :) 

I got taken to hurt street...quite literally 

"Patrik" Mahomes is a pretty cool guy. Also, the new Elder is Elder Miller, Elder Livingston's super cool trainee. 

 

The Doniphan Elders attempted to deep fry a turkey. Double emphasis on attempted.

 

Elder Livingston and Elder Miller caught an "angry" bird.

A beautiful pyramid of Elder goofiness. Talk about good times!

 

A birthday bash, building a deck and quarantine.

Bonjour tout le monde! I hope all of you had a fantastic week! I pray you are safe and are finding joy in your day. 

Let's start with a couple of fun stories! First off, we had an incredibly special event happen....it was Elder Hawkins' birthday on the 18th! He turned a grand 21 years old! We celebrated by going to Red Robin for lunch! Later that night, we went over to the Cabrales’ house to pick up dinner to go. Little did Elder Hawkins know I texted Sister Cabrales earlier and planned with her to throw a little birthday bash! She surprised him (and me for that matter) with a cake, decorations, and presents! What made it even better is that we had 6 missionaries there including the Cabrales’ family! We sang happy birthday very loudly and obnoxiously to him and celebrated with everyone for a little bit. The Cabrales family is so awesome! All their kids (Adelle, Nico, Alex, and Camila) are amazing individuals!  Brother and sister Cabrales are super chill and spiritually fire all at the same time! Later that evening I gave Elder Hawkins his birthday present: A Game of Thrones book!  

We also had the opportunity to basically build a deck with the Doniphan elders! Elder Livingston showed us the way and we had fun tearing out the boards and replacing them. I was able to learn a lot and get a lot of blisters which were both very satisfying! We performed this labor of love for our nonmember friend Paula, who was very nice and willing to talk after about our message. We are hoping to continue teaching her. 

Some not so fun news is that we got put under quarantine on Friday. We've done a lot of Facebook work, calls to members and calls to nonmembers. While it’s been different and hard, I would liken us unto the Jaredites in Ether 6, especially verses 5, and 7-9. We are trusting in the Lord with all our souls. Those "fierce winds" in our lives, such as Covid-19 or 2020 in general, are under the guidance of the Lord. He is directing us to our promised land. We need to take up President Nelson's plea to have gratitude and to pray always. Doing both will direct our hearts and minds back to Heavenly Father who is eager to bestow blessings upon us. 

So, when times seem rough and the winds seem fierce, lift up your sails of gratitude. Harness the winds of the Lord (1 Nephi 18: 8). 

I love each and every one of you. Know you are cared about. Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost love you more than you can ever imagine. I hope to hear from each of you if you ever need anything.  

Till next time, au revoir et a bientot! 

Love, Elder Habel

Kenneth and the green recliner

 

Bonjour mes amis et ma famille! 

I hope all of you are doing good and you are finding peace amongst these crazy times! 

Sorry, it’s been a while since I've written a letter. A lot has happened since the last one I wrote so I'll try to sum up what went down really quickly. 

For one, my birthday was last Monday! We got a cake and ice cream; we went to the zoo and had an astounding meal at Sister Munoz's house! My first birthday in the field was amazing and I can't wait for the next one! Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and the kindness you showed me! 

As for the work, we have been doing a lot of service for non-members! I have been blessed to be put in a position to help others and to invite them to come unto Christ. As we have reached out to those in need, I have become so much more grateful and awe-inspired for and by our Savior, Jesus Christ. His Atonement is infinitely individual. I am grateful for His love. I am thankful for the opportunity to be His servant. I am blessed to bring others, with wounds too great for me to even fathom to heal, to Him. He is the master healer. He will heal those wounds. He is mighty to save.  

A funny story, we went on exchanges this week and I was able to serve with Elder Loesh for a day. He is a funny, spiritual powerhouse of an Elder! We were raking leaves and Sister Ealy found a small gardener snake. Elder Loesh (pronounced Lesh, I’ve messed up on pronouncing his name too many times to tell lol) wanted to keep the snake to prank his companion, Elder Noble. I offered to put the snake in the front pouch of my jacket to keep him around for the prank. Long story short we got attached to the snake and named him Kenneth! Kenneth was like my baby snake kangaroo! I fed him a cricket and took care of him during the whole service project. Well, almost the whole service project that is... I was raking some leaves and Sister Ealy asked how Kenneth was doing. I expected him to still be slithering around in my cozy little pouch, but he was eerily still. I took one look at his slack jaw and his empty-looking eyes and knew the worse had happened. Kenneth had died, choking on a fuzzy piece of blue lint from my jacket pouch. Oh! How we mourned! Tears were shed and, in our grief, we buried him in a bush. We were able to bond as a district over Kenneth's brilliant life and even more traumatic death. Let's just say I'm in for an awkward rendezvous with Kenneth the snake in heaven, lol! 

Also, another amusing event from these past two weeks was the new addition to our apartment! A sister missionary apartment below us was getting closed, so the Elders that were cleaning it out invited us to take anything we wanted before it was shut down. Low and behold there was a super comfy, green recliner! Like piranhas, we attacked the opportunity and brought it up to our apartment like a victorious Roman legion! We've been enjoying it ever since!

Well, that ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated but c'est la vie! I hope you all enjoy the update, and I will strive to keep up with the letters. Hopefully, you found this one somewhat interesting!

Till next time, Au Revoir et A bientot!

Love, Elder Habel 

 

 

My district:

 

Elder Wood

Elder Loesh

Elder Hawkins

Elder Owens

Elder Noble

Sister Ealy

 and 

Sister Banner.

Audio letter

Click here to listen to Elder Habel's latest mission update.

The Historic Liberty Jail is right down the street from our apartment! We haven't been able to go in yet, sadly.

A cool old church by us.

A picture for a Facebook post but I figured my mom might need a full body shot of me being alive to be reassured I'm doing well!

Brother Campbell's boxing gym in his garage. Elder Hawkins' nickname is Haberno Hawkins and mine is Rocky. Haha.