2014-08-18 We got to go milk cows on Saturday

Hey Everyone,

Well, this week was pretty good.  I left Potosì early on Monday morning in a taxi to Sucre, I went with Elder Porter from St. George.  In Sucre, we grabbed a plane to Cochabamba and were in Cochabamba before noon. (way better than going in a bus all the way to Cochabamba.)

My new companion is Elder Delgadillo from Santa Cruz, Bolivia.  He seems like a really great guy and we are getting along well and working hard.  He is kind of a neat freak though.  Every day he asks if he can help me fold my blankets or if he can help me organize my desk.  That's all, I'm not very organized in case you don't remember.

It rained a ton yesterday.  It felt really nice because when it rained in Potosì it was really cold.

I spent last Monday mostly just saying goodbye to everyone.  In the evening Johanna and her husband Vladimir (the stake president) invited us over for some food and to say goodbye.  After that we had a FHE with the Barrios family which was awesome and a ton of fun.  That whole family is doing really well now except for the Uncle Edwin.  Savina and Carmen are planning on going in January to get their endowments.

In this zone we are part of the church's pilot kiosk program.  We put out a street display, and 2 missionaries stand by it to take down information of people who are interested.  There are 20 missionaries in the zone and we are in charge of making sure that we run the kiosk 6 hours per day, 6 days per week.  That's actually a pretty good amount of time that we spend doing the kiosk

Rodrigo called me this morning.  He went to church on Sunday and seems to be doing well.

We got to go milk cows on Saturday.  When we got there, there wasn't anyone home and we were just yelling from outside that we were there.  About 15 minutes later, they showed up and when we walked in we saw that the youngest son had been asleep right in front of us that whole time under a blanket.   I don't know how we didn't wake him up with our yelling from 20 feet away.  

I'm not very good at milking cows but I did enjoy getting to know the family  I sat down with the grandma and the 11 year-old son Oscar and they tried teaching me Quechua.  Oscar went into the house and brought out sugar cane and peeled and sliced it for us.  The dad gave us a ride back to the main road when we finished in a makeshift tractor thing.   It looked like a riding lawn mower motor that pulled a small cart.

the kid asleep outside on his mat

Our area is pretty big and pretty rural.  There are almost no asphalt streets.  It's all dirt and stone streets and dirt trails. I like Cochabamba's climate way better than Potosì.  It's prettier too.  I like my new area.  The people seem pretty friendly here.  We had 49 street contacts this week which is way more than I normally have.

We saw Evo Morales this week (Bolivia's President)  He was at a graduation in a small university in our area.

Well I'm almost out of time.  Everybody should go to the temple again for good luck starting the new school year.  I'm pretty sure going to the temple once a week helps you to get better grades.

Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. Hebrews 6:10-12