2014-08-25 I love being a missionary.

Hey Everyone,

This week went by really really fast.  

I think part of the reason is that on Thursday we had the leaders' council.  That took up almost the whole day. All of the zone leaders and the sister training leaders meet up at a church in Cochabamba and we talk about how to make things better here in the mission.  It was really fun because 10 of us were from my MTC group and I hadn't seen some of them in a long time.  It was also interesting and well done.  President spoke a little.  One of the new things they announced is that in the coming weeks they are going to launch a mission Facebook page that Hermana Hansen will be in charge of.  You can look for that in few weeks.  It was a good spiritual meeting and I left excited to try some new things in our companionship and in the zone.

My companion and I are still getting along well.  He's a good guy.  I don't remember if I mentioned that he's kind of a clean freak though.  This morning I swept the study room and then he went in right after and redid it.  The house is always really clean though.  It is a lot of fun to be a missionary especially when you have an awesome companion.

my area

I ran into two converts from Alamos this week. One was the Parra family.  They are all doing very well and are planning on getting sealed the same day they were baptized--Sept 14th.  I'm super excited for that. Especially since you can always get permission to go to the sealing of your own converts.  I also ran into Oliver Torrico and his wife Consuelo.  He is the ward secretary now and they are also doing very well with church stuff. They were the ones who got married and then he got baptized that same day. They are also planning to be sealed during the coming months.

We found a great brother and sister this week. They are Daniel (14) and Jessica (17).  We taught them the restoration this week and they were very interested and understand well the idea of praying to know if it is true. We stopped by last night to see how it had gone with their prayers and Jessica told us that she believes she received an answer that it is true.  Daniel said he didn't get an answer yet but told us that as long as he gets an answer he wants to be baptized.  We have an appointment with them and their mom this week. We talked to the mom for just a second on Sunday and she also seems very nice.  Their baptismal date is the 27th of September. I really think that they will get baptized. 

walkin' in my area

Everything is still going well with Luis Miguel.  We had 2 lessons with him this week and he came to church. The only thing that's not going that well is that his mom has no interest at all in listening to us. She really likes us a lot and makes sure her son is ready to go to church by 7:30 and likes that we teach him.  However, she says that her life is calm and she doesn't do bad things but she doesn't like going to church.  Hopefully we can get through to her one of these days, she is a really nice lady.

This Sunday the bishop gave me about 15 minutes heads up that he needed me to give a 15 minute talk.  I spoke about ordinances and filled the 15 minutes.  I think it went pretty well.  It was easier than the last time I did something similar so I think that means that my Spanish is still improving.

The kiosk we have to do once a week in this zone--I enjoyed it more this week than last week.  Its surprising to me that almost everyone I contact knows someone who's a member of the church.  I don't really feel like having the kiosk up makes too much of a difference because even though most people can read, probably about half of everyone doesn't read very well.  If we ask them about the question on the display they would struggle to sound it out.  That doesn't work very well for 2 reasons.  One is that a lot of people are self conscious about their difficulties reading and two they can't really think about how to answer the question because they are so focused on figuring out what the words are.  It's basically just a few hours of street contacting when we do the kiosk.

you can see a lady and her son reading a pamphlet we gave them in the background

I love being a missionary.  I really do.  It is so fun to go around and just teach people about the gospel.  The gospel is truly the best and most important thing anyone can have.  The gospel has been a huge blessing in my life.  It is incredible how much God does for us.  He's done a lot for me.  I'm grateful for that. I know God is aware of us and loves us.  I know the Jesus Christ lives.  He is our Savior.

Make sure that you are living the gospel.  Life is better when you are.  Help your family and friends live the gospel.  When you do, you are participating in our Heavenly Father's work.  

Happy new school year to everyone too!  I hope it's a good one and I'll be back before this one ends.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S.  Joshua 3:5

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

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

2014-08-04 ...chapi...

Hey Everyone,

ready to go into the mine

This week was nuts.  They took the other 2 elders out of our ward and put in sister missionaries so we had to find a house for just 2 missionaries (before we lived all 4 together) and move before the end of the week. We did find a new place, kind of chapi (Bolivian equivalent of saying ghetto or junky) though.  It's way colder in the new house, there is seriously almost no difference between outside and inside.  We taught way fewer lessons than normal since we spent a lot of time moving and looking for a house.  That was kind of a bummer.

To answer your questions,  Kevin is probably worse than before.  His very Catholic boss has been talking to him a lot and now he's very confused and not making much progress.  I don't doubt he'll get things figured out with a little bit of time though. 

Do I think I'll get transferred? Probably   Where do I think I would go?  I really don't know.  I'd like to be in Sucre before the end of my mission but I feel like I'm heading back to Cochabamba.

On Saturday we had an activity with all the missionaries in Potosì.   The idea was that lots of youth would come and we would go out in divisions to visit all of the less-active members in one of the wards.  The members failed us. Only one young man and maybe 4 women showed up.  We still did the activity with the branch presidency that was in charge.  I lucked out and the branch president sent me out with the only young man. Most of the missionaries just went with another missionary and a few went with the members of the presidency. It was pretty fun.  They gave us a list of 10 less-actives and we went out to look for them.  We found like 4 of the families.  I was with Gabriel who's 17 and is planning on leaving at the end of the year for his own mission. Chatting with him made me grateful for my own life again.  His parents are divorced and his mom has her own other family and he's had to move around a lot for his dad's job.  He's an awesome guy anyway though.

The activity was in Minero where Scott Schwarz served and I met the Orco family who he baptized.  They are doing awesome and Estevan Orco told me to tell Elder Schwarz "hi."

My lunch Pensionista and her daughter, Christina and Sole, say "hi" to you parents.

At church on Sunday 6 of the 7 recent converts were there.  Rodrigo, Valeria, Suzana, Erik, Pamela, and Claudia.  Just Jose Maria was missing.  Everyone's doing well.  Erik and Jose Maria are having the hardest time but really it's just that their job sometimes wants them to work on Sundays and they sometimes do.

 

almost half the missionaries in Potosi

Today we went to the mine.  It was really fun.  We'll have to go when you guys come.  The devil worshipping thing is kind of weird, we saw the tio statue where they sacrifice llamas and sometimes people. I really liked just walking around the tunnels.  Some parts are really tiny and we had to crawl.   Also they have a little train to move mineral and when you hear it coming you have to plaster yourself against the wall so you don't get smashed.  It's pretty crazy, they wouldn't let tourists in a place like that in the US.  Also the mine is massive.  If we didn't have the guide, I really don't think we ever could have found our way out.  There are so many tunnels that just twist in whatever direction.  We paid like 5 dollars apiece for a 3 hour tour. Our guide spoke English Spanish, Japanese, Quechua, and Portugueis and understands German.  Parts of the mine were super cold and other parts were super hot.

Enjoy the rest of your summer everyone.  You should read your Patriarchal Blessing after saying a prayer.  

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. 2 Corinthians 9:7

2014-07-28 She is sure of what she's doing.

Hey Everyone,

 It was Hermana Roselyn's birthday so I made

cheesy garlic breads

This was a pretty good week.  I enjoyed my little trip to Cochabamba and got to go see the Flores family and the Carbalho family (my pensionista from Alamos)

It was Hermana Roselyn's birthday so we also
 smashed eggs on her head

I met up with Elder Severiano after writing you last week and he was my companion until we went back to his house that night.  We went to visit the Carbalhos and they'd made us a chicken and sausage barbecue which was really good.  It was fun to talk to them and see them again.  Mom and Dad I can't wait for you guys to meet them when you come.  Junior is doing great.  He's the deacons quorum president and is doing a great job at getting the other deacons active.  He asked for a list of the deacons and goes to visit all of them regularly.  He's been going to the temple once a week too.

After talking with them we went to the Flores' but only Hermana Anghy and Arthur were there.  I don't remember if I've told you, but Marco went to Peru for  a 2 month study program. Celeste and Anghy Lou were at their school.  They are pretty much ok but Celeste is staying with her grandma who's sick for a while and isn't really going to church.  It was the first time I visited them in their new house but it is right across the street from their old house.

That night I slept at Severiano and Laidlaw's apartment.  That was really fun since they've both been my companion and I really like both of them. The next morning we went to the airport and flew to Sucre.  I was very happy that we didn't have to go back in a bus.  In Sucre, we got a taxi that took us 2 and a half hours back to Potosì. 

at Elder Severiano's house

Then on Saturday was Valeria's baptism!  She is awesome.  I don't think I've told you a whole lot about her. She's 27 years old.  Elder Severiano and I first contacted her 2 or 3 months ago when we went to visit Hermana Carmen (her cousin) in the hospital and she was there too.  It was right around Mother's Day so we shared a Mother's Day/Army of Helaman message with Carmen and Valeria listened to us too and was really friendly. That day she agreed to come to church with Carmen when she got out of the hospital.  When Carmen did get out they did both come to church.  Since Valeria technically lives in the other elders' area, we told them about her and they started teaching her.  We kept visiting Hermana Carmen and her family though and Valeria was there a lot and she always came when we did family home evenings with them so we wound up still teaching Valeria quite a bit. 

Valeria's Baptism!

She was a great investigator who actually read the Book of Mormon when she said she would.  She liked the church from the start but didn't want to get baptized without being sure she should.  One day in a lesson she said,  "I got my answer, how soon can I be baptized?"  That was pretty exciting.  She is sure of what she's doing. She bore her testimony in her baptism and talked about how happy she is to have found this church.

She asked me to confirm her.  Since the bishop normally does that for converts, it's the first time I've ever confirmed anyone.  It was a pretty cool experience.  It's an awesome feeling to give a blessing and know that you've been guided in what to say.  I felt the Spirit incredibly strongly as I performed that ordinance.  That afternoon we ate lunch with Hermana Carmen's family and Valeria and Valeria told me that it was a great experience for her too.  She told me that she'd felt like there was an energy going from our hands into her head and that she just felt warm and happy afterward.

I've noticed that how I prepare to give a blessing makes a huge difference in how well I'm able to recognize the impressions as to what I need to say as I give it.  I think that's part of the reason that it went so well for Valeria's confirmation.  I was pretty nervous about doing it so the two nights before I studied how to do it in Spanish and I also prayed a lot that I'd do it well.  Not only that, but we were in sacrament meeting which is very conducive to the spirit.  I've noticed that when I give blessings in general that there are two things that really help that the Spirit be present.  One is saying a personal prayer.  That's something I've always known I should do but never realized how much it helped until someone asked for a blessing at the end of the lesson and since we were kind of rushed I just gave the blessing and just felt uneasy trying to know what to say.  The other is singing a hymn with everyone before the blessing.  That's something that Elder Mero did and I've also noticed helps change the atmosphere so the Spirit can be there.  I always make sure to do those two things before blessings now.

Anyway, I still love being a missionary.  I'm very grateful to have grown up with the gospel in my life.  Life is a million times better when you have the gospel and live it than it is in any other way.

Find some time to go to the temple this week.  I'm sure you'll feel the Spirit if you do.  It's a great way to get yourself focused on how you should be living.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. Acts 6:3

2014-07-21 I don't think I've worn a seat belt since I got here.

Hey Everyone,

Well right now I'm in Cochabamba.  It was a surprise for me--they called me 2 days ago to tell me I was going to need to travel to get some visa work done.  Last night at 8:30 we left on a bus.  That was pretty awful.  Also a couple hours outside of Cocha still we ran out of gas!  I do not understand how that happened.  Then it took 3 hours of us just sitting on the road for someone to bring us gas.  That was not much fun but we got into Cocha about 10 this morning and went straight to immigrations to renew our visas (3 of us came from Potosì). Anyway now I'm in Cochabamba and it's P-day and I'm going to go visit the Carbalho family (Junior and Mercedes and Fernanda and Isabel).  I'm pretty excited about that and the weather is really nice here.  I'm going to see Elder Severiano today too.

 

Family Home Evening with the Barrios

making Mickey pancakes at FHE

We had a great FHE with the Barrios on Monday and then on Saturday they moved.  They moved out of the ward which made me pretty sad but at least they waited until I've probably only got 3 weeks left in Potosì. Not as sad as it made Manuel though, he was not at all happy about moving. They are doing really well. They all come to church every week and Valeria, Carmen's cousin, is getting baptized on Saturday.

Last p-day we played more soccer and that was really fun.  I've definitely gotten a lot better since I've been here in Potosì.

I don't think I've worn a seat belt since I got here.  They don't really exist here in Bolivia

church 10 minutes after starting time-- they finally started
with 4 missionaries, the bishop, and 3 other people

Sorry that my letter is short today.  I'm pressed on time since we got late to Cochabamba today.

It is incredibly important that we help others live the gospel but we can't do it unless we first are living the gospel.  Live how you should and then help others do the same.  The blessings we personally receive when we participate in our Heavenly Father´s work are amazing and there are people who will not make it to the exaltation without the support of a loving friend or family member.  God can work through you to save another one of his children.

I hope you guys have a great week and I hope you go to the temple.  You know that there are ordinances that can only be done there and are just as necessary for salvation as obedience to the commandments.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. Mosiah 8:18

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

P.S. Moses 6:59-60