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
 

2013-03-28 First day in Peru MTC

email from Elder Howlett

Yep, I got your email. And I made it to the MTC. I don’t have any pictures for you this week because I don’t have my camera cord with me but I’ve only taken a couple pictures anyway. Looks like I only have 30 mins to write you too, because there is a clock on the screen counting down.

There were 13 of us at the gate at Salt Lake, all going to the Peru MTC and almost half to Cochabamba. The plane from SLC to LAX was awful--super small and almost completely full. At LAX we got lost looking for our flight to Lima, accidentally left the airport. We think the tram driver told us the wrong stop to get off at. We made it to our flight anyway. The plane to Lima was awesome. It was huge and the seats were comfy and it was half empty. Me and a couple other missionaries got moved to the front row where there was so much leg room I couldn’t even touch the wall in front of me. It had awesome touch screen TVs except we can’t use them. Bummer. Diego the flight attendant was nice and came back and offered me m&ms and ginger ale often. We were also served two meals, chicken with green beans and potatoes and then a breakfast sandwich with turkey, tomato, and cream cheese. We got crackers with brie, cake, and a salad too. The food was all surprisingly good, especially the sandwich. Also, Diego is a pilot that flies private planes in Chile. If we ever go there, he gave me his email to have us fly with him. He helped us fill out our customs and immigration papers which was nice.

Also while we were on the flight, a lady from first class came wandering back to where me and the other 2 missionaries were. She started asking us questions and pointing at our name tags. None of us could really understand her but I spoke the best Spanish so she sat down next to me and we talked for 15 minutes. Turns out that my Spanish has really gone downhill. Bummer. It took almost 5 minutes to figure out she wanted to know if we were los Mormones. We are. After that we talked about her (mute?) son who lives somewhere she doesn’t get to see him. I think that she and her son are both Catholic. She asked me what the difference between Mormons and Catholics is. It was like a practice question from mission prep. Unfortunately we don’t practice in Spanish so I told her we believe families can be together after this life because that is all I could say in Spanish. She was nice and patient with my terrible Spanish and eventually I asked if she wanted the missionaries in Chile to visit her. She said yes and I took down her name and phone number. She took the pass along card too. Pretty good for a first day, huh?

bus that picked up missionaries at Lima airport

We didn’t leave the Lima airport until 2am and I didn’t get to the MTC until almost 3:00. We were given companions and room assignments and finally got to bed around 3:30. We got up at 9 and had breakfast. Good croissant, good thick mandrina juice. warm milk on cereal, not so good. Also mandarin fruit with green peel but looks like orange on inside and lacks taste, picture to follow. My comp is Elder Laidlow from Cali. He is who I rode to Lima with. Out of time and hard to type, keyboard is different.

love y’all,

Elder Howlett

2013-03-27 Reporting to the Lima, Peru Missionary Training Center

 
So, today was the big day.  We left for the airport at about 7:30 am.  Steven's flight left at 10:20 am and connected through LAX to Peru.  It's 9:00 pm as I'm writing this and he's STILL on a plane (in a middle seat!). 

Yesterday, as we were frantically finishing up last minute preparations, Steven's friend, Jenny, came up from Provo to show him a slideshow of photos she had taken of him and his "Provo friends" the last time they were all together.  Another friend, Miranda also came up to say "goodbye" and Sam C. was here, too. 

This morning before we left, Jarrett, Sam, and Connor and Serena and Angelica came over to say "goodbye" too.  They had tried to get Steven breakfast from Kneaders, but had to settle for McDonald's since it was the only thing open that early.

John dropped Steven and me off to check in.  I collected lots of hugs (but not enough to last 2 years!) and stayed to watch Steven through security. 

I was finally able to get the video from Steven opening his mission call uploaded!

Steven opened his mission call on September 27, 2012.  It said he should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on February 20 but that was later changed (probably because of the change in full-time missionary age) to March 27 at the Peru MTC.