Monday, November 4, 2013

2013-11-04 Dead people don’t eat it though…

We had a meeting to plan for a fireside that we
are going to do, (us and the Hermanas) and Saul
(getting ready to go on his mission from the other ward)
picked us up the pizza to eat while we planned.

Hey Everybody,
This has been a pretty good week.  I am still getting along really well with my companion and I really like him. The one thing that bothers me is we stayed in twice this week because he had a headache. Oh well.  We got several new baptismal dates this week.  It has rained all week long which makes it a lot easier to work.

Elder Contreras is a strange little guy but nice.  He does kung fu every night and can do the splits.  He asks adults their age every time we meet them which I explained isn’t ok but he keeps doing it so we’re going to have to talk about that again.  He looks really young and everyone tells him he looks 15.

Beta is the daughter of a friend of Hermana Mercedes and we started teaching her last week.  This week we asked how it went with her prayer and she told us she’d had a dream.  She didn’t tell us what the dream was but she said it was positive and that she considers it an answer that the church is true.  She has a baptismal date for the end of the month.  A couple days ago we taught her mom too and it was a great lesson.  I think her mom will get baptized too.

On Saturday we did 6 hours of service throwing brick from the ground up to the 2nd story of house that members are constructing.  It seems like I have done a lot of service with moving bricks since I’ve been here. Luckily they fed us cow stomach with rice to thank us for helping them.  Cow stomach has a texture similar to gum but tastes terrible.


It has rained all week long which I love.  Right now it’s
raining this really light mist and it looks like snow falling.

We found of family of 4 and taught them the first lesson this week.  They seem interested and I hope it continues to go well. I like to teach families together. 
I think I told you about Gerardo before.  Yesterday, I got calls from several people in Villa Graciela to tell me that he had gone to their ward yesterday (his aunt lives there) and talked about me as he bore his testimony and talked about how blessed he’s been since becoming active in the church.  We had a lesson with him and his mom later that night and he thanked us for helping him decide to come back to church.  It feels really good to know that you’ve helped someone else out, especially with something as important as the church.

I can’t believe how many people don’t seem to understand the importance of God and church and the commandments.  Almost everyone believes in God and knows he exists but somehow that doesn’t affect most peoples’ decisions.  They don’t make the connection between a supreme, all powerful being and the importance of doing what He says.
Waiting with the hermanas for a family to finish cooking us lunch.  We aren’t actually flying even if it looks that way.

This week we are going to start working with the youth to find members of the church who are inactive in our ward.  There is something like 230 inactive families in our ward.  We only have about 30 percent attendance.

One of the best things about training is it makes me feel really responsible to set a good example by being obedient and using all of my time wisely.  It’s a good motivator to work hard.

I miss Villa Graciela a ton.  I miss the area and the people.  I really hope that I luck out and get to finish my mission there.
 
We did nothing for Halloween. They don’t really celebrate it here.  They do celebrate the Day of the Dead which was the 2nd of November.  Mostly they make tons of little breads and empanadas and put them on the table for the dead people to eat.  Dead people don’t eat it though so later the living people eat it and give it to the missionaries when they come to visit.

(In response to a question from his mother) I have sunscreen but sometimes I get burned anyway.  It’s better now that it’s always raining though.
Love,
Elder Howlett

P.S. Mark 2:27

 
view from Elder Howlett's apartment balcony