2013-05-07 Elder Howlett's 1st days in Cochabamba, Bolivia



Missionaries that left Lima MTC with Elder Howlett on Cinco de Mayo

Hey everyone,

I don’t have much time again.  My p-day is now Monday I’m only writing now because I didn’t yesterday. Sorry I quit talking abruptly at the airport.  The calling station ran out of credit and no one could call anyone.

We arrived at the Cochabamba airport on Sunday night and were greeted by the president and his wife as well as some secretaries and assistants.  Elder Eyre, whose blog we read online is one of the assistants but I didn’t say I had read his blog because that would be weird.  We crammed all of the Elders and luggage into a tiny bus and drove to Hotel Ideal (actually considerably less than ideal) where there were giant pizzas and pop waiting for us. 

 The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and then walked to a stake center to work on paperwork and get our first assignments.  They fed us saltenas (awesome) and chicken cordon bleu (the only decent quality American food I’ve had here) then at 3:00 we had a big exciting meeting where president announced areas and companions. Lots of wild cheering which is something that I don’t see very often here.  

President and Sister Dyer with Elder Howlet

President is great. I interviewed with him and he said he has lots of family in Scottsbluff. (in Nebraska where Elder Howlett's grandparents live) Some are Dyers and some are something else. His wife is super nice and very grandma-like.  She also takes pictures almost nonstop. 

 

I got my companion and he said something I didn’t really understand but I followed him and pretty soon realized we were on our way back to the hotel.  We picked up my bags and were on our way.  I didn’t really get a chance to tell everyone goodbye since we left without me understanding but I believe most of us are in the same zone so I’ll see them soon.  It turns out what he told me is we need to get going because we are opening a new area and our housing plans fell through.  We didn’t find anything that night so we stayed with another pair of Elders.  I think it will probably take us a couple weeks before we can move somewhere else.  



quote from Elder Howlett "our apartment tiny door goes to the bathroom (yep it's a gross bathroom)"



Elder Howlett's bed

Elder Howlett and companion Elder Ruiz

I really like my companion.  He is a hard worker and has American manners which a lot of the Latinos lack.  He also seems obedient and a hard worker.  He is our zone leader.  We have different pensionistas for lunch and dinner.  Both live in modern (for Cochabamba) nice homes.  They are both super nice.  For breakfast this morning someone knocked on our door and gave us hot chocolate and delicious bread.  I don’t know if that happens every morning but I sure hope it does.  I gave my first blessing in Spanish yesterday too.  One of the Elders we are staying with did something bad to his back and asked me to give him a blessing.  It was a great experience but reminded my how much work my Spanish could use. Today after lunch my first appointment was to read the Book of Mormon with our pensionista’s 11-year-old son, Fabio.  It was fun even though I couldn’t follow the conversation half the time.  I’m glad that I took quite a bit of Spanish.  I was the best white guy at the MTC at speaking Spanish and still have trouble so I imagine it’s even more frustrating for people who didn’t take any Spanish before the MTC.  They had me translate a fireside one night at the MTC, which was really hard.  I’m sure I only got about half of what was said translated.  

Also mail didn’t come last week in the MTC.  If you sent something there and I didn’t say I got it in another email, you will have to re-send it to Cochabamba.  I did get a letter from Sarah Wilcox here.

tumba fruit and juice at pensionista's house

Keep writing me everyone.  I love reading your letters!

Also, Santa Cruz was beautiful weather when we got there.  It had just finished raining and was in the high 60s and tropical smelling.  Me and my companion and Elders Rhoton and Potts sat out there for an hour.

Cochabamba is great but I’m out of time.  I’ll tell you more about my first couple days later.

 Also, if anyone is looking for a good read, 2 Nephi Chapter 1 is pretty awesome.
 

I love it here and I’m having a blast.  Also one more thing, I got another referral on the plane to Cochabamba.  I sat next to 27 year old Rodrigo and we talked the whole time.  He lives in Cochabamba and works at the bank and gave me his number to call if I ever needed anything.  We also talked about the gospel some.  I did a lot better job holding up my end of the conversation than I did on the plane ride here.  He gave me his address as we got off and said I could send missionaries to talk more with him.  People here are way more open to talking to us than they would be in the US.

view of Christus from lunch pensionista's balcony

How come I haven’t heard from Harm?

Also I know I’m late but Happy Birthday Sam, Liz and Jarrett!!!

Love,
Elder Howlett

2013-05-06 Elder Howlett is in Bolivia!

I haven't heard from Elder Howlett yet today, but yesterday he was flying from Lima to La Paz to Santa Cruz to Cochabamba--so he should be at the mission home in Cochabamba.  I don't know what day will be his p-day, but I'm hoping for today!  He was excited when he called from the Santa Cruz airport yesterday and we got to talk to him for about 10 minutes before we were cut off.  You'll know more when I do.
Angel

I just got a quick email from Elder Howlett

I made it to Cochabamba.  We stayed in a hotel last night and today we are at a stake center doing paper work and interviews and stuff.  Just wanted to let you know I'm here.  Also, the hotel looked like the ones on Secret Millionaire.   I'll find out my first companion and area later today. 
Elder Howlett

Anyone who doesn't understand the reference to "Secret Millionaire," should look up an episode online and watch it.



2013-04-30 LAST p-day in Lima, Peru MTC

cool tree at MTC

Hey Everybody,

Don’t send stuff to the Peru MTC anymore.  I leave on Sunday morning for Bolivia.  I’m super excited but I won’t get anything here at the MTC. 

P-days are awesome and people here do some strange things.  It is totally normal for people to carry on a conversation with someone on the street from their window even if it’s a third story window.  Also if you knock on a door they yell, “Who is it?” instead of answering it.  The people are really nice and honest.  I bought some churros from a street vendor and he gave me money back when I accidently overpaid.  They only cost like 50 cents and they are huge.  It’s pretty awesome.

My district is pretty much the best ever.  I really am going to miss them.  Every night after we are ready for bed we get together and talk about the gospel.  It is great and I’m constantly surprised by how insightful everyone is. 

super soft fuzzy flower on cool tree

I had a great experience giving one of the sisters in my district a blessing of comfort yesterday.  She just wanted one before we leave for the field.  It was the first time I’ve given a blessing and truly felt guided by the Spirit.  Great experience and I need to figure out what I did right there so I can always have that happen.

Mom, you’ll probably like to know that I’m singing with another guy and a couple girls tomorrow as a special musical number for when Elder Weddle comes to speak to us.  The song is If Any of You Lack Wisdom. (from James 1:5-6)

Teaching the guard is a great experience.  It’s not going very well though.  He is a committed Jehovah’s Witness.  Our plan was to get him to give the Book of Mormon a chance and just read and pray about it and we know if he did he would feel the Spirit.  Unfortunately, he said he’s already done that and didn’t feel anything.  That was a hard thing to have an answer for.  Especially with our poor Spanish.  We are meeting with him again, but it is frustrating that even though he is trying to do what’s right he’s too stubborn to figure out what exactly that is. 

guard 'hut'

Sorry the letter is short but I’ve got to go.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful time at home.

Love, 

Elder Howlett

P.S. Here’s what I wrote down about going proselyting.  (transcribed by mom)  It was awesome but we won’t be going this Saturday as originally planned because we will be preparing to leave the next day.  We don’t know why our group was bumped a couple days early.

"After we made it up to the block houses, we knocked on the door of a nonmember who the member with us knew.  She didn’t really want us to come in at first but eventually let us after we visited on the porch for a while.  It turns out that her daughter is taking lessons from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  The local missionary did almost all of the teaching once we were inside.  She was really hard to understand because she was shy and talked very softly.  When it was time for the closing prayer she chose me to say it.  Turned out that wanting me to say the prayer was common among everyone.  As we walked between the three houses that the member wanted us to visit, the missionary would point at someone outside and tell me and my Latino companion to go contact them.  It was pretty uncomfortable to just go start talking to someone on the street.  I was very impressed though, every single person we spoke with let us talk for a while and gave us their information so the missionaries could visit them.  It would have been so different in the US.  I was amazed by how receptive they all were to the gospel.  Everyone wanted us to come into their home and say a prayer for their family.  The pace of life here is much slower.  Almost everyone was outside their homes visiting and the kids all were playing on the dirt path that was between homes.  The kids were all excited to see me (a giant white guy) and I guess there are no ‘stranger danger’ rules here because as we walked on the path, the kids would all run up and hold my hand or grab my leg.  One little girl grabbed my hand and dragged me closer to my companion so she could get his hand too so we could swing her back and forth as we walked.  At one of the lessons we taught, a six-year-old boy played with my watch on my wrist for 5 minutes and then ran off somewhere.  He came back with a toy Ben10 watch to show me.  It turns out that I don’t know how to say a lot to little kids, so anytime any of them showed my anything, I said “Chevere” (cool).  I definitely need to work on my Spanish. "
 


a box of snacks Elder Howlett likes to buy and eat

Elder Howlett even found NESQUIK cereal that mom loves and can't buy in the US!

 

2013-04-23



Elder Cruz--roommate

Elder Rojas--roommate

Good Morning everyone,

I’ve got a lot to say and not a lot of time so here we go.  First, if you have questions you want me to answer, if you put them separately in your letter it will be much easier for me to remember to answer them.   

 

Last week p-day for lunch we had Chinese food.  I don’t know if it was a holiday or what but the cafeteria was all decorated Chinesely and the food servers were dressed up.  It was pretty weird to see in Peru.  Also there are weird fruits here called grenadillas.  You can crack the shell like an egg and then inside is slimy silver fruit and seeds.  The seeds are too hard to chew so you just have to swallow them.  Look up a picture, they are orange on the outside.

grenadillas

 

Also, we got awesome news this week.  Elder Bednar is coming to speak here today!  It’s just for us so there will be fewer than 80 people there for his 3 hour talk.  I’m very excited and it starts in less than an hour now.

Proselyting was awesome!  And I definitely got to go to the coolest place.  I don’t have a picture because we couldn’t bring cameras, but it was at the very top of a mountain that was just dirt.  The houses are concrete block built on the side of the mountain and all painted bright colors.  It’s crazy that people live in 20 foot by 30 foot concrete blocks. 



MTC grounds

We left the MTC by bus and went to a chapel where we met with local missionaries and ward members.  Driving here is crazy!  At one point we were driving through a small street barely wide enough for the bus when I guess the bus driver realized that we went the wrong way or something.  He threw the bus in reverse and we drove 4 blocks in reverse down a street probably 6 feet wider than the bus. That didn’t stop little motorcycles from passing us going both directions though.  They’d just drive on the sidewalk if they couldn’t fit on the street.  Then later in a downtown area the bus slammed on its brakes and we stopped within a foot of hitting an at-least-80-year-old lady who was hobbling across the street.  It was like a cartoon and it took her probably two full minutes to cross the road.  Our teacher said that every single day multiple people get hit by cars and I understand why. 

 

Elder Tarqui

Elder Tarqui was my Latino companion and at the church we got a local missionary and a ward member to go with us.  It’s a good thing because there is no way we could have found our way to where we went without them.  We took a bus up to the end of the road on the mountain and then walked up like 30 flights of stairs on the side of the mountain.  Weirdest sight to see all those stairs in the middle of nowhere.  Sorry, Elder Bednar is early and they just said we have to leave.

love,

Elder Howlett

 

view from balcony above cafeteria

additionally,

Hello everyone,

Elder Bednar just finished speaking and then we had lunch but I get 15 minutes now to write some more.  Since we sat for about 15 minutes in the auditorium waiting for Elder Bednar, I thought it would be a good idea to write out about the proselytizing and then just send you a picture of the paper.  Unfortunately I don’t have that paper now and don’t have time to get it.  I’ll send that next week.  In short though, it was a great experience with very receptive people.  I learned that I definitely need to work on my Spanish some more though.

Hermanas that flew in at the same time as Elder Howlett

 Listening to Elder Bednar was awesome.  It lasted for about 3 and a half hours with his wife and Elder Waddell of the 70 speaking for less than 30 min of it.  It was very interactive.  He asked us lots of questions and then spent about an hour and a half allowing us to ask questions which he then taught about.  It was a pretty neat experience to do that with an Apostle in such a small group.  He said it had been a long time since he’d taught that small of a group.  He is a funny guy.  He did a cookie monster impersonation and he doesn’t speak Spanish but would throw in the Spanish words he did know.  He probably said "now let me explain porque" at least a dozen times. Afterward we all got to shake his hand.  It was amazing how fast 3 and a half hours flew by.   I couldn’t believe it when he started wrapping up.  When Apostles bear their testimonies about Christ, it always makes me wonder how they gained that special witness of Him.

cool flower at MTC

I had an awesome experience last night.  While we were in class my teacher told me and Elder Potts we were on exchanges to teach that night.  So we grabbed our scriptures and went with one of the teachers to teach.  We teach every day at this time to one of the teachers there who mimics a person they taught on their mission.  However this time he pointed to the guard shack by the MTC gate and told us to go knock.  We were confused because we had never done it in that way before.  We went there and knocked and a guard came out and we told him we had a message for him and started teaching him.  We weren’t sure what the deal was during the entire lesson.  During the lesson he quizzed us on the Bible quite a bit.  Made me realize that I need to know the Bible better than I do now.  Overall though the lesson went very well.  We got the chance to explain the Book of Mormon, go over Moroni’s promise and bear testimony.  Afterward we asked our teachers what had just happened.  They thought it was really funny to put us in an awkward situation.  They said that he’s not a member and that he is preparing to be a Pastor in the Jehovah’s Witness church.  We were the first people to teach him about the Church.  It was neat and even though we thought it was a practice we were glad that we had made a follow up visit.  I’ll have to let you know how our teaching of our first real investigator goes.  

Also I got letters from Miranda, Grandma, Adri, Matt’s blog, and Shanlee via dear elder.  Thanks and I’ll tell you more next week.

Love,

Elder Howlett

 

 

 

2013-04-16 p-day



view of the wealthy part of Lima near the temple

Hey everybody,

Another great week in Lima.  First of all I got dear elders from Mom, Sam, Grandma Marie and Emily Atwood.  Thanks for the letters, I loved reading them and that is definitely the best way for me to get information from everybody.  I’ll respond to other people by emailing them pictures of what I write.  And that was a typo in my last email.  It should say I CAN feel the spirit all of the time.  The MTC is a unique place not as good as the temple but better than a church. 

Apparently there was an earthquake while we were watching a devotional.   We watched in English in a different room than the Latino Elders did.  Since they were upstairs they all felt it but we couldn’t feel it in our room. 

I got pretty sick to my stomach on Sunday but I feel fine now.  I think we might have gotten extra bad food because 6 of the 8 elders in my district were sick.  The Hermanas never seem to get sick though, which I don’t understand.  Since people are constantly getting sick, there are plenty of opportunities to practice giving blessings.  I had the Elders in my district give me a blessing, and I think it is the first blessing I’ve had for a sickness since Tim Mellor and dad gave me one while we still lived in Provo.  I had the blessing Sunday night and felt fine by morning.   

I don’t really feel homesick but it makes me a little sad that I won’t go on any family vacations for a couple years.  I loved going to Disney World, Disneyland, Washington, Texas, DC.  Most of my best memories with the family are definitely on vacation.  Remember when we drove off and left Liz at a hotel?  Also remember when Harm got his hand stuck in one of those machines where you pay a quarter for a bouncy ball, and then the fire department had to come get him out?  I’ve never seen such purple fingers.  

I have been craving Dominos and Chick-Fil-A these last few days.  Trying new things is fun most of the time but I’m getting a little tired of it.

Today during p-day I talked with a nice little old Peruvian lady at the grocery store.  She came up to me and started talking quickly in Spanish.  It took me a while to figure out what she was saying but I eventually figured out there was some kind of terrorist bombing in Boston (we are kinda information starved here so no one had heard about it at all.  Most of what we find out is from bits of information the teachers tell us).  From what we can gather from the teachers we are at war with North Korea?  I felt bad ‘cuz I didn’t have a pass along card to give her.  They actually don’t seem to have them here, which is kind of strange since it is an MTC.  Anyway she lives close to the temple and likes Mormons so I’m sure she can figure out someone to talk to if she wants to.  I have a long way to go in learning Spanish but it’s really nice that I speak better than just about any other North American here.  (On a side note I think it is really funny that every time they make an announcement for us they say, “Attention please Norte Americanos and Canadians."  The first ever Canadian at this MTC came in with my group.   

store with church stuff--across the street from the temple

I know almost nothing about our proselyting but we are supposed to go on Saturday.  We will get paired up with one Latino Elder and heard that typically all the American has to do is say a prayer.

Sundays here are great.  It’s nice to have a break from always doing stuff in Spanish and just listen to things in English.  This Sunday we watched the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie.  I really like that movie even though I’ve seen it a lot.  He lived an incredible life.  It had never really dawned on me how young he was when he had the vision and began to tell people about it.  He must have had an immense amount of faith.  I know he was a prophet and I appreciate what he did.

Hope everything is going well for everyone at home.  Write me through dear elder everybody!  I love getting the letters.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. We can only take pictures on p-day and not in the buildings.  Every p-day we go outside the walls of the MTC compound to a road where they charge us 0.5 soles (20ish cents) to go to an intersection by the temple.  The driving in lima is nuts.  As a general rule people use their horns when we would use brakes in America.  The first time we rode the bus it seemed normal and we all sat down until he dropped us off, but every ride since then has been crazy.  They are already completely full and just stop in the middle of the street for you to get on.  You have to get on fast and just cram into the mass of people.  Stops typically take less than 10 seconds and they don't wait for everyone to be completely indoors before they begin driving.  When it's just a couple of natives who are getting on, the bus just kind of slows down and they jump on without the bus ever stopping.  Since there aren't really driving rules here, crossing the road is pretty sketchy.  We typically have 12ish missionaries together for p-day and when we cross roads we line up along the road so we can all sprint across when there is a break in traffic.


pic on the busses we take to get around town (I couldn't get a
very good one to show how many people are on those busses.)

2013-04-09 2nd p-day in Peru

Elder Howlett with Elder Dallin Olson from AZ

Hey,

To answer some of your questions, yes my p-day at the MTC is Tuesday.  No I have not received any pouch mail but neither has anyone else.  I think it is just slow (2ish weeks I think).  Maddy was on my flight.  We had seats together from SLC to LAX. I don’t have a recuerdos book yet.  Spanish is coming along.  I know it a lot better than most of the other North Americans here.  I can’t remember what picture you even saw where I was still in a suit, sorry.  No proselyting yet because it was General Conference but we will a week from Saturday.  We aren’t allowed to eat anything at the investigators’ houses though.  I don’t have any trouble sleeping.  Having every minute of every day planned with things to do wears me out.  Yes keep telling others to write through dearelder.  Thanks for the pictures.

General Conference at the MTC is awesome and it’s a lot easier to pay attention in a room full of missionaries than a room full of my family.  I did miss eating while I watched though.  I really liked the talk by the guy in the presiding bishopric during priesthood session.  I missed his name and just called him next guy in my notes.  Elder Holland’s talk was great too.  A few days before conference we watched a talk by Elder Bednar about developing the character of Christ.  It is one of my favorite talks I’ve ever heard.  If you can find it you should watch it.  I think it was given at the MTC in Provo around Christmas of 2011.  Hey Grandma Marie, do you remember that one talk we watched at your house where a prophet or apostle just talked about what all the other prophets had liked?  That was the most fun talk I’ve ever watched.

I love my district.  We spend almost all day together every day so that’s a good thing.  Class is a blast.  I can feel the spirit all of the time and it is still a ton of fun.  The language barrier between us and the teachers is pretty big.  We accidently told them that in America we call poor people Peruvians.  oops.  I have no idea why they called to test my Spanish and said I would be in the intermediate class.  I think they must have thought I was still going to Provo, because we all learn the same things. 

The weather here is great in the morning and night.  Mom, you would love it at night.  It gets a little too hot in the afternoons though.  Unfortunately that is when we have our physical activity time.  I play basketball, soccer or volleyball every day.  I’ve played soccer the most just because that’s what most people usually want to play.  The basketball court floor is like a glossy concrete.  It could double as an ice skating rink.  I think that was a pretty poor idea. 

The drinking fountains here have two buttons, one for cold and one for warm water.  That seemed pretty cool at first but it turns out that in order to get enough water pressure to drink you have to hold them both down and you get warmish water by default.

It turns out that I actually enjoy writing in my journal most nights.

Today is kind of sad because all of the Latinos left this morning.  They are only here for two weeks.  Our roommates were awesome.  They both spoke English, one of them completely fluent.  They apparently listen to a lot of American music in South America because they know all of the popular songs.  One of them also knows the words to every Disney movie song in Spanish and English.  Pretty impressive. I’m going to miss them and I hope we get good roommates to replace them.  I heard that they are having trouble getting visas so we only have 9 North Americans coming tomorrow. 

Food here is usually good except for the eggs at breakfast.  They cook the fried eggs so long that cutting through them is similar to cutting through the toughest steak you ever had.  They have probably 25 different kinds of juices and 2 at every meal.  Most of them are really good and you can tell that they are all completely natural.  The orange juice and strawberry juice are probably my favorite.  They have delicious bread with every meal.

I think you can keep mailing things here until I only have two weeks left, then you should switch to the Bolivia mission.

Love,

Elder Howlett

the street that the missionaries walk from bus to temple
 

 

 

2013-04-02 Elder Howlett's first p-day

Elder Howlett and his companion, Elder Laidlaw, at the Lima Temple
 

Hey everyone,

It’s pretty awesome here. I really like the food. It’s almost always some kind of meat with some kind of rice plus a side dish and a dessert. Sometimes there are potatoes instead of rice.
 

Elder Laidlaw and I get along well. He is huge and we are going to the same mission. We share our room with two Latino Elders. Elder Feller is 22 and from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He joined the church 2 years ago because his tango partner was LDS. He speaks a similar amount of English to the amount of Spanish I speak. He is outgoing and likes American rock music. The other is Elder Cotrina. He is 18 from Lima. He’s very shy. We didn’t think he spoke English hardly at all until yesterday we found out that he speaks perfect English. I’m not sure how it took us a week to figure that one out. I hope we didn’t say anything too weird in front of him since we thought he couldn’t understand us. We all get along well and have our hour of exercise at the same time every day.

Elder Howlett and his roommates

The MTC is beautiful outside and the weather is awesome except that it gets a little too hot most afternoons. We spend most of the day with our district where we have teachers who teach us about the Church in Spanish. That’s how you learn Spanish I guess because we don’t have any just Spanish classes. For the first half of the day our teacher is Miluska Loyaza. She speaks a moderate amount of English and really likes me and my companion. She gives me her ice cream at lunch. Also if she calls you in a year and a half it is because I gave her our home number and told her she could stay at our house because she wants to see Temple Square when she goes to BYU Idaho for a year. In the afternoon our teachers are Hermano Espinoza and Hermano Hvaita (pronounced white-a) Hermano Espinoza is probably the most excited person I’ve ever met. He speaks very little English but has a lot of energy and was Peru’s Tae Kwon Do champion. He gets married in November. Elder Hvaita speaks better English and gets married in a month. I’ve gotten to know my district well because we spend half of every day in those classes. Besides that we have workshops and firesides with more missionaries.

Elders Howlett and Laidlaw with a little
Elder from Colombia

There are less than 100 missionaries here which is nice. It is weird that Provo is overflowing but this MTC is at less than half capacity.

flags representing Elders currently at the MTC

The showers have a unique feature. They choose their own temperature and switch from scalding to freezing every 30 seconds. Literally. And when I say literally I don’t mean figuratively. It makes it kind of hard to shower actually.


 

Today was p-day and it is almost over. It was a ton of fun. First we went and did a session at the Lima temple and then went shopping at a Walmart-like store and then to a little church store. At the grocery store I spent 26 nuevo sols on drinks and snacks. Some stuff was really inexpensive and some was incredibly expensive. Pringles there are over 4 dollars per can. But I got 16 small bags of chips for about 2ish dollars. I think it’s 2.5 ns to 1 dollar.

Peru MTC grounds

I pretty much feel fine but my companion and a lot of other people have gotten sick.
Easter wasn’t anything too special but we did have an awesome sacrament meeting.
I’m out of time now.

love y’all,


Elder Howlett

 

 

 

 



There are two juices every day
 and there are 'tons' of juices.
Pictured are passion fruit and watermelon