Smiley Potato!

Bonjour mes amis et ma famille! 

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and were able to appreciate the greatest gift, ever given, Jesus Christ!  

Our Christmas was really fun! First, we woke up and honestly didn't know what to do with ourselves! We were all waiting for our parents to call to open our presents, so the first little bit was slow. After our parents called and we opened our gifts we played some football. I really enjoyed it! Then we got ready and we met up as a zone for some Christmas festivities! We did a white elephant gift exchange! I got a potato with a smiley face drawn on it! We then watched Princess and the Frog, which is a super good movie! The most heart-wrenching part is when Raymond gets crunched (the real fans will know what I'm talking about)! However, despite the heartache, hope shines on because, after his heroic sacrifice, he gets to be a star in the sky with Evangeline! After we watched the movie, we had the special privilege of Elder Holland dropping by and sharing a message via zoom! He shared some very good advice; "If you want to have the joy you had on your mission do the things that brought you that joy!" Keep on keeping on! That spoke especially true to me because after his message we went and delivered cookies to those we are teaching. Being giving on Christmas is something I want to continue for the rest of my life.  

 

As for the rest of my week, I was impressed by the Sacrament prayers.  

"O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this water to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them; that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them. Amen."

 "O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen."

When we partake of the Sacrament, we always Remember Him. In light of the Christmas season, this is how we can always keep the Christmas Spirit with us! The Sacrament can help make every day be like Christmas! 

Know that I love and care deeply for each one of you! I hope and pray that each of you feels His love every waking moment of your life! 

Till next time, au revior et a bientot! Je vous aime!  

Love, Elder Habel 

We burned some wood for our friends Megan and Eric! Their neighbor's fire started catching their lawn on fire, so I had to sprint over there and put that out with my feet. That was a fun adventure! Of course, it happened right as she started asking questions about the Book of Mormon lol!

The man, the myth, the legend: Elder Holland! 

 

"Tire on Fire"

 

Bonjour mes amis et ma famille! 

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone one of you has had a wonderful holiday and are feeling the Christmas spirit, I know I am! 

We have had the pleasure to have been given such a great area from the Lord! The members are doing a great job at feeding us, helping teach others, and finding people who are ready to be taught! Those that are part of our teaching pool are doing well and we had a lot of breakthroughs this week, which leads us to (drum roll please)!!!

THE ADVENTURES OF ELDER HABEL!!!

(*Indiana Jones theme starts playing in the background*) 

Our daring "encounter" of the week involved lots of dirt, fire, and wheelbarrow 'airplane" flights!! To begin, earlier on in the week we had our first sit down lesson with Chris Thomas! He was eager to learn and we had a good spiritual discussion! We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it! Life goes on and later in the week we get this out of the blue text from Chris! He needed help moving this big pile of dirt from his front yard to his backyard. We dropped everything we were doing and rushed on over to help him! He really appreciated our help! We helped him haul wheelbarrow loads full of dirt up and down and back and forth between his front and back yard. Let’s just say it was a good workout and that I appreciated receiving it! All seemed well and good for a while until one time up the hill to the backyard the wheelbarrow wheel fell off!! We dumped the dirt and then looked up on YouTube how to seal it back on so we could fill it up with air. The solution presented before us was to use WD40 and then light it on fire. So, like any sane person, we took the advice! The first couple of times all that happened was a "Tire on Fire" (trademark pending) but after really soaking the inside of the tire with it we were able to get the tire to seal back up! It was epic! Around this time Chris’ kids got home from school so they eagerly started to help! I ended up pushing the wheelbarrow full of dirt up and down with his kids riding in it! We had a lot of fun! He was impressed and very thankful. So much so he invited us to have lunch with him! All in all, it was quite an adventure!  

 

To end, I love each of you! Know the Lord loves you perfectly and He wants the absolute and truthful best for you (John 15:9-11)! Trust Him, love Him, and strive to be like Him!

 

Love, Elder Habel 

 

Also, I got my shots for Africa this week in downtown KC! I was the only one who could go into the hospital. These pictures go to show what Elders do when they are bored waiting in the car!

Good Laughs and Tender Moments

 Bonjour mes amis et ma famille! How goes it? I hope each of you had a wonderful week!

This week went really well! We were able to teach a lot of lessons to members and non-members alike! We went out a couple nights and knocked doors with members and were able to have some good laughs and some tender moments! 

If you are wondering if there is a funny story from this week I got a pretty good one for you! We had zone conference this week at 9:30 a.m on Tuesday. This is where all the missionaries in our area would meet together to receive training from leadership. President Ames would be there and there would be car inspections as well. We left at 9 (it was 15 minutes away) so we felt pretty good about our chances of getting there on time. The only problem is when we tried to clean the car the gas station car wash ended up being closed! We frantically tried to find a car wash because we had been doing a lot of service projects and let's just say the car was not the cleanest whatsoever! After skirting rapidly through town we finally found an open car wash! To our dismay though, the car wash ended up being a pretty cheap job. By this time it was 9:15 and we had no time to vacuum out all the leaf debris in the car! Like a cross between Fast and Furious, the movie and The Best Two Years, we raced to get there on time! We were hurriedly responding to the inquiries of zone leaders as we were giving directions! It looked like we were going to make it! Well almost...all the way up till we missed the exit. That was the finishing blow. We rolled in late, in a barely washed car, which apparently had a reflector taken off by the car wash! We also found out we were actually supposed to be there at 9! Let's just say that was a fun adventure! 

As for the spiritual highlight of the week, we were able to have a couple of the people we have been teaching get to church! Shelly was able to watch church over the zoom link! I am so grateful to have modern technology helping us out in this wonderful work! 

Speaking of the wonders of modern technology, here's a cool story! We have been striving to find people in our area over Facebook posts and whatnot. From one of the posts, a person started responding super well so we brought up that we were missionaries. She responded she was actually a member and she was from Canada but she said she wanted to help! Long story short we are now going to teach her friend in Kentucky via zoom while she zooms from Canada! Goes to show that the Lord's work goes on no matter the circumstances! 

Know that I care deeply for each and everyone one of you! I am so thankful and grateful for how each of you has influenced my life for the better! I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! 

Till next time, au revior et a bientot! 

Love, Elder Habel

The Congo and a Key

Bonjour tout les mondes! 

I hope all of you had a great week and that each of you are staying safe and happy! I pray that each of you are enjoying the holiday season! 

As for me, my week was pretty good! We were able to teach a lot of lessons and do some more service! A piece of revelation I received this week was the brilliance of God's timing. Although we were disappointed the Green's couldn't make it to church last Sunday that opened the door for us to ask Sister McKeever if she would want to do a lesson with us. Long story short we were able to teach her nonmember son Nathan! Whenever people cancel and our schedule is wrecked, I take pleasure in seeking the Lord's schedule. Those are always the best phone calls, contacts, and Facebook work! 

Also, I guess I should include that this week I got the date for when I'm leaving for the Congo! President Ames tried to call us twice, but we were in lessons each time he attempted to get a hold of us! Thankfully the third time was a charm and he told me I will be leaving on January 28th for The Republic of Congo! It was some pretty bittersweet news. Bitter, because I love the people here so much already, and leaving will be tough! Sweet, because I will be going to the place and people where the Lord needs me to be! I am excited to continue following the Lord and to keep having adventures with Him and His people!  

Speaking of adventures; there was a funny one that happened this week! The car we share with the Doniphan Elders is a push start Chevy Equinox (trust me this is going somewhere). We were driving to our different dinner appointments. We dropped them off at theirs and drove to ours. When we got to ours, we realized they still had the key for the car! Since they still had the key, we wouldn't be able to start the car again! We wouldn't be able to go back to pick them up and they had to somehow get to us and return the key! So, we ended up teaching our lesson while the other Elders had to walk all the way to the highway and get a member to give them a ride back to us so we could start the car again with the key! Let’s just say it wasn't our brightest moment, lol, but it was quite the adventure!  

Know that I love each and every one of you! Till next time mes amis!

 

Love, Elder Habel