Saturday, August 23, 2014

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

2014-08-11 It's not a good sign when he doesn't even remember the name of the church.

Hey Everyone,
Well, cambios came last night.  I'm going back to Cochabamba tomorrow.I'm going as zone leader to my last zone, Alamos.  I'm going to the Colcapirhua ward which is 2 wards over from where I was before.  I'm pretty excited about that.  My companion is Elder Delgadillo from Santa Cruz, Bolivia.  I'm very ready for a new companion.

It actually kind of freaked me out how I found out.  I guess the new mission president wanted to tell the new zone leaders personally their transfer.  He sent a text at 7 asking me to call him.  That kind of made me nervous since old president never did that.  He just gave me the new assignment is all though.

I'm sad to be leaving but really excited about where I'm going.

This week we knocked a door and a man answered, was very friendly, and invited us in to sit down before we even explained who we were. It turned out he'd visited the church several times over 10 years ago. We taught the first lesson and invited him to be baptized. He had 2 concerns about accepting a baptismal date which I think show that he'll be a good investigator. One was that he hadn't yet prayed to know if it's true and second if he's going to be baptized he wants to do it with his wife and children. After explaining a little more, we set a baptismal date for September when he'll get baptized if he receives an answer that it's the true church.

We knocked another door where we met 21 year old Richard.  I introduced us as missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and asked if he'd ever heard of that church.  He said no.  I asked if he belonged to any church and he said yes.  I asked which and he said the Mormon one.  Turns out he was baptized about 8 years ago and stopped attending shortly after.  It's not a good sign when he doesn't even remember the name of the church but he did let us visit him twice this past week and he says he'll come to church on Sunday.

This week in a lesson with Claudia (who got baptized a month ago) I asked how she likes being Mormon and she said it has changed her life--that the kinds of things she does now are completely different from how she used to spend her time.  That made me very happy to hear. She´s almost finished Jacob in the Book of Mormon now.

We had another great first lesson this week with 3 siblings who are 20, 14, and 9.  Their parents weren't home but they let us come in and teach the first lesson and were very interested.  They were also very well mannered and attentive and I think they understood it well.

Well now that you guys are on the downhill side of summer, I'm headed back to a hot place that will be heading back into summer soon. Remember that whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.  I was reading an old talk from Elder Holland and liked what he said about what we should pray for--not for situations that we can handle with our abilities but for the abilities and support we need to make the best of our situations.  We surely can do whatever the Lord requires of us.

Love,
Elder Howlett

P.S. Doctrine & Covenants 46: 8-9