Friday, July 18, 2014

2014-07-14 I'm going to be very sad when I finish my mission

Hey Everyone, 
This week went by really fast since we were in Sucre until late on Wednesday night.  Sucre was a blast. 

We left on Monday night.  The bus ride is a little over 3 hours and we got to Sucre at about 10:30.  During the bus ride, Gerardo called to tell me that he and his mom were in Sucre and wanted to go to Potosì to see me. That was pretty convenient since I was on my way to Sucre.
 
in Sucre waiting to eat choripan (sausage sandwiches)-- neither of us is making a very good face but I sent it anyway.  that's Elder Morales from Argentina
The first day we had a conference all morning and then went out to work with Elders in Sucre.  I went with Elder Hatch from my group and we had a couple of really good lessons.  We just stayed with the Elders in Sucre too. The next day all the elders from Potosì had interviews with President.  Since mine wasn't until 3pm I went with Elder Jafek and met up with Gerardo and Hermana Viqui.  They took us to eat salteñas and then to a museum.  The most interesting exhibit was probably Bolivian dance masks or I might just think that because it was in a dark room with cool lights which I also like.  The tour guide at the museum was a pretty nice guy and we got to talk to him about the church.  He also had studied the Navajo and we talked about that since I'm from Utah.  After that, we went to lunch and to the Para Ti chocolate factory where they made really good chocolate covered ice cream.  

It was great to get to see them again.  They're both doing very well with church stuff.  It made me realize I'm going to be very sad when I finish my mission and leave all the people I've met.

The new President's wife seems really awesome and he seems good too.  I definitely enjoyed interviews with President Dyer a lot more than this one with President Hansen.  I'll probably like the new president more the more I get to know him.
 
Sucre
Marco called to  tell me that he's going to Peru for like 3 months to earn some kind of certification for something.  I don't really know what kind of job training it is. 

My Patriarchal Blessing talks a decent amount about my mission so I find it really interesting to read and see how I feel that it's being fulfilled.

Victor Castro and his sister, Paola, got back from traveling on Saturday.  We talked to Paola yesterday and things are still going well with her.  She has a baptismal date for Aug 9.  We haven't gotten to talk to Victor since he got back but he and his sister should come to church on Sunday.  That's pretty good because Paola wouldn't even talk to us for the first 3 months I was here.

We found a lot of new investigators this week.  We knocked one door this week looking for someone we'd talked to once but they weren't there.  We started to chat with the lady who answered the door.  We asked about her family and found out her infant son had died almost a year before.  That's not really a normal thing to say to a stranger in the door but people blurt out things like that all the time to us.  I don't know if us being missionaries makes them want to tell us things like that or if God has them do it so we have an easy way to relate the gospel to them.  It's interesting though.  We taught about eternal families and babies being saved by grace.  Now we have an appointment to teach her and her husband tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a great week.  Don't forget to go to the temple.  You always feel great coming out of the temple.

Love,
Elder Howlett