Space Punch, Greenhouse Kits and a Hewn Crocodilian

 

Bonjour mes amis et ma famille! 

I hope every single one of you is doing good and are happy! I love you each very dearly!  

This week was pretty fire but before I start rattling off about greenhouse kits and a hewn crocodilian lets get to the people who really matter. 

First off Megan and Eric are so awesome! We moved the date of their baptism back to the 30th (which we had a deeper spiritual impression of anyway) and they are all for it! They both want to get baptized for the Lord and the Lord alone which makes me overjoyed! We have felt the Spirit so strongly with them and I rejoice deeply in my heart thinking and pondering about the joy and the continuous presence of the Holy Ghost which will be available to them after Baptism and Confirmation! I ask very solemnly and earnestly for each of you to keep them in your prayers as well! Megan had to go to the hospital. Eric being the studly man, husband, and father he is has been there every step of the way for her. She is going to get out Wednesday! Please pray that her tests will go well and for the doctors so they will be able to figure out what is the cause of her seizures. We love them so much!!! 

Secondly, Brother Arnold accepted our invitation to baptism! He will be getting baptized on February 20th! He has been going to church forever with Sister Arnold; his wife, who is a returned missionary! The joy we felt from them in their home was astounding! Sister Arnold was relieved and happy to see this day finally come! Brother Arnold is eager to keep learning and to partake of the blessings of being a member of the Lord's church!  

We have been superbly blessed by the Lord to be able to partake in these sacred experiences. I am so happy to be changing lives for the better with Him! 

I love each of you so much and I know the Lord loves each of you far more! Keep keeping covenants and reaping the bountiful blessings of His love! If you aren't then I would ask you to consider starting to do so because the Lord has many great gifts to lovingly give you!  

Till next time, love, Elder Habel 

 

(If you want to find out about the "stone gator, space punch, and the greenhouse kit keep reading)!

 

1) We drink only the finest of collectors’ beverages! Space punch is your one-way ticket if you like expired, distasteful, fruity energy drinks! Let's just say we have a lot of running jokes from this member "gift"!

2) Responding to FB comments is a one-way ticket to mental exhaustion. Trust me. I know. 

3) Ahh the greenhouse. We set it up for Sister Goodpasture. If you are curious how many missionaries it takes to finish a greenhouse kit we don't know. We do know however it takes 5 of us to get halfway done! Let's just say we are going back to finish on Tuesday. 

4) We've been sending pictures to Megan about what we've been doing as missionaries while she has been in the hospital; hence, the picture! 

5) The Continual Battle of Car

6) The famed Stone Alligator! This monument has made for some very memorable walks!

7) The Legends themselves (Eric and Elder Hawkins) in their trench coats!

Be of good cheer!

 

Bonjour mes amis et ma famille! 

I hope each of you had a fabulous week! Times may be crazy but what else is new? You each have my love and know you have our Savior's love! In John 16:33 our Savior reminds us lovingly, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world!" 

So, let's take up the Savior's invitation and "be of good cheer" despite the craziness of the world as we remember His merits, mercy, and grace!  

This week we helped a lot of people. We helped Chris pour some concrete and haul some branches to a dumpster! We helped some members move into the ward and another family with throwing stuff into a dumpster (kind of funny how much time we spent with dumpsters haha but C'est la vie). 

By far the best highlight of the week was meeting with Eric and Megan each time! The Holy Ghost is deeply present at each of our discussions which brings me so much joy! I often reflect upon our experiences together and I am filled with joy seeing the tender mercies of the Lord guiding both our paths. 

One of the grandest manifestations from these experiences is being reminded of how true Jesus Christ's Church is. I know the Restoration of His Gospel by the Prophet Joseph Smith is true. That in all reality God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son God came to Joseph Smith! Think of the grandeur and mercy of God in that! Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ came to him! Jesus Christ restored His full teachings and doctrine through the Prophet Joseph Smith! Our Savior's way is the way to eternal life with God! He has restored the truths and principles to living life! He still lives, He still speaks, His Church and Gospel is the living truth! 

Know that I love each and everyone one of you. God loves you and wants to give you everything He has. 
 

Till next time, Love, Elder Habel 

 

Hats, Mats, and an Invitation

 

Bonjour tout le monde! I hope each of you is making the most of 2021! I pray each of you knows how much you are loved by our Heavenly Father!  

As for adventures, we had plenty of them! Transfers happened this Thursday! We sadly had to say goodbye to Elder Livingston! He is such a stud and a great example of living life in a fun and Christlike manner. He made a hat out of a raccoon we skinned, and I had the pleasure of helping him sew the fur onto the leather right before he left. He is now a zone leader in Lenexa. The fun part about transfer day was that we turned our duo into a trio with the addition of Elder Finch! He is such an awesome and funny Elder! He excels at explaining the Gospel in an easy-to-understand way! We didn't have another mattress for Elder Finch to sleep on so Elder Hawkins won the coin toss and chose to sleep on the Green Recliner! Thank goodness we got a mattress the next day because he said the recliner wasn't the best to sleep on and that he had to sleep on the ground because it was so uncomfortable! We also had the pleasure of meeting Elder La who filled in for Elder Livingston! He is a good Elder who works hard and is really good with social media (something I am in dire need of help with ha-ha)! All in all, transfers turned out splendid and we have already made some great memories together! 

Speaking of the great memories from this week, by far the greatest memory happened this past Saturday night! Earlier in the day, we planned to go over to Megan and Eric's house to share a message with them. When we began our personal study, Elder Hawkins felt impressed by the Holy Ghost to invite Eric and Megan to be baptized on January 30th, to join themselves with Jesus Christ's Church. I'll admit when I first heard him say that I was nervous! We decided to ask Heavenly Father in prayer if our decision to invite them to baptism was a part of His will. After our prayer, I received an answer. We would invite them to be baptized and to set a date for the 30^th of January. As you know I'm supposed to leave for Africa on the 28th of January. Knowing what joy, happiness, comfort, peace, and ultimate purpose would be given to the Treml's if they decided to be baptized and knowing the love I have for the Lord and wanting to bring about His will; I knew it was the perfect date, even if I had to watch the baptism from Africa. I would be more than alright, despite the sadness I would feel not being there in person because the Treml's would be receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and would be starting their path towards God. Them being baptized was enough for me. Thus, we prepared to invite them to be baptized. 

I'll admit I was nervous going into this! I think Megan and Eric could tell (ha-ha). Thank goodness we had Sister Meyer there! We had a super good discussion and when we invited them to be baptized the Spirit was so strong! You see in the scriptures when Jesus Christ talks about having a fulness of joy, this is what we felt!

                                                
 

Later on, Megan asked me why we chose January 30th. I explained why and I started tearing up: I felt the Lord's presence and love through the Holy Ghost! Truly it was once in a lifetime experience! The Spirit was so present in our hearts! Thankfully Megan told us she would like to have us all there, so now we are shooting for the 23rd! 

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth along with His power and authority (the Priesthood). He seeks our ultimate happiness. It's up to us to seek it alongside Him.

I love each of you very deeply and dearly!  Know we can overcome all things through God!  

Till next time, love, Elder Habel 

Cheese Puff Tag & Ice Scrapers

Bonjour mes amis et ma famille! 

I hope each of you are doing fabulous! Pat yourselves on the back as well because you made it! It's 2021! 2020 is in the rearview mirror, already far behind us!

As for adventures we had plenty of them! We were heading back home from P-day and some other Elders tried to pawn off a big tub of cheese puffs on us! We were already drowning in food from members so we couldn't let that happen! Thus began a game of tag with the cheese puffs! Elder Hawkins ran them down while they were driving out of the church parking lot and threw it into their car through their open window! We hightailed it back to our own car but they blocked us from backing out with their car as they dropped the cheese puffs right behind us and dipped out of there as fast as they could! We then made a plan and executed it to perfection! We played football with those same Elders at their apartment complex and then right before we left we put the cheese puffs on top of their car! We had a good laugh about it especially after we heard what happened next! Apparently, one of their potential member friends saw the cheese puffs chilling on top of their car. He took them into his apartment and texted those Elders to come by and get them. They ended up teaching him a lesson because of that! We inadvertently set up a lesson for them!

Later on, in the week it snowed pretty good while I was on exchanges with Elder Loesh. We were going to go meet Chris; one of our friends, for lunch and a lesson. We got out to the car to leave when we found it covered in ice. The only problem was we didn't have an ice scraper! So being "ingenious" elders, we grabbed a spatula from the Doniphan Elders and attempted to scrape the ice off with it! The spatula actually worked pretty spectacularly! We were able to make it to lunch with Chris and we had a super good time and spiritual discussion! After hearing about our ordeal with the Spatula, Chris graciously gave us a really good ice scraper! It just might work better than our spatula! 

I also accidentally broke the word of wisdom! We were over at Sister Goodpasture's house ministering to her with Sister Campbell. We got talking about chocolate and she mentioned this really good chocolate she had. If you know me at all you'll be able to attest that I am a sucker for chocolate big time! She started listing off the ingredients: chocolate, honey, etc, as soon as I heard chocolate and honey Sister Campbell and I were both eager to have some! The catch is there were more ingredients than just honey and chocolate: there were coffee beans! Of course, we found this out after we each unknowingly stuffed a piece into our mouths! We had a good laugh about that and we are slowly but surely working with Sister Goodpasture. 

For New Years' we had a fun evening of making toasts and doing stick pull wrestling with Elder Miller, Elder Livingston, Elder Wood, and Elder Owens! It was really fun but the greatest and best thing that happened this week happened when the Treml's came to church! The fast and testimony meeting was full of astounding testimonies! They really enjoyed it and we are excited about continuing our friendship and helping them progress to develop the desire to be baptized! 

Overall it was a really exciting week! I hope you all have a good New Year! Je vous aime!

Love, Elder Habel 

The smiley, kind potato; my White Elephant present.

Rare sightings of the "Sasquachinston"