2014-05-26 ...also because I just really like her and her family.

Hey Everyone,

Me and my companion on top of Cerro Rico

Well this was a good week.  I didn't get to write yesterday because we went to hike Cerro Rico in the morning and one of the companionships got lost trying to find their way back down.  It took an extra 3 hours to find them and we didn't have time to write anymore.

Oh, by the way, I put 3 photos of my really nice current apartment on this email.  I wouldn't mind having more hand warmers.

Manuel went with me to do divisions all day onSaturday and we
went to a restaurant to finish theday.  It only cost about 5 dollars
each for a ton of food.  Chicken, steak, salad, rice with cheese,
potatoes, and delicious fresh peach juice.

Last Monday in the afternoon we went to 4060. It's a restaurant and I had a steak cooked in butter, garlic and other spices--definitely the best beef I've eaten in Bolivia.  The restaurant is named for the number of meters above sea level.  They also have delicious fresh juices.  I had pineapple. I love how inexpensive the food is here.  We'll eat there when mom and dad come to Bolivia with me.  As we were leaving, we got 3-scoop ice cream cones for 4 bolivianos (a little over 50 cents.)

Hermana Carmen got out of the hospital yesterday. She is way better now.  Tonight we are going to my favorite pique macho restaurant with her and her family to celebrate because it's Mother's day in Bolivia--also because I just really like her and her family.  Her son is Manuel who is really good about helping us when we have too many appointments and need to do divisions.  He also does a really good job in the lessons.  This Saturday, as we did visits, I felt the Spirit strongly as he bore his testimony, once about the priesthood and then once talking about his own baptism (he was baptized less than 2 years ago).  As I thought about why I'd felt the Spirit strongly, it helped me understand that a testimony doesn't need to be eloquent to be powerful.  His testimony was simple but sincere and it allowed the Holy Ghost to do its job of testifying of the truth.  Also Saturday was awful weather.  It's not as cool in the picture as it was in real life, but the wind started blowing really hard.  It picked up so much dust that it went from being sunny to just being dark in the middle of the afternoon and it was cold.  Everyone gives us mate (beverage) when the weather is like that though which is nice.

For Hermana Carmen, almost dying has actually had a really good effect on the Spiritual side of her life. First of all it made her realize that God does hear and answer her prayers.  I don't believe I have as strong of a testimony of any gospel principle as I do of the power of prayer.  It is important to pray earnestly and I believe it is the most common way for the process of conversion to begin.  That experience also led her to reevaluate the priorities in her life.   She is committed to go to church, she's been reading her Book of Mormon, and she's decided to do something she's put off for far too long as a long-time member of the church... go to the temple.  It's often hard to understand why bad things happen to us but I've learned a principle that calms my mind when I see people passing through hard times. Come what may, God loves us and His work and glory is to bring to pass our immortality and Eternal life. The experiences that He allows us to go through are necessary for our salvation and often for the salvation of someone else as well.

We went to help with 3 English classes at the Bancario school (elementary to high school) again.  It was a ton of fun.  I attract attention there even more than just on the street.  Between classes, everyone comes up to talk to me.  I also found out that Santiago is an inactive member of the church who is moving next week to our area. He's also conveniently moving in just a couple blocks from the church.

We had interviews with President on Friday.  I love his interviews because he always just says really nice things about how great a missionary I am and I leave just feeling great.  One thing interesting he said is that he'd intended to send me or my companion away this transfer but had felt like we should stay a 3rd cambio together.

Me, Elder Severiano, President Dyer, Suzanna, Christian (our investigators).  Why?  Because while my companion was having his interview with President Dyer, Christian and Suzanna walked into the room, saw my companion, and pulled up a chair.  President Dyer talked to them a little and then called me in so we could all take a picture together.

Things are going pretty well with Savino.  He came to church on Sunday.  He's doing pretty well with reading in the Book of Mormon.  He wants to be baptized, we just need permission from his dad.  I think we'll be able to get permission but it will probably take a lot of praying and a little time.  After church, Savino had to go get his hung-over father and take him to their house.

Happy end of the school year everyone.  Now that you don't have school you have way more time to go to the temple.  It is where we can have a fullness of the Holy Ghost (D&C 109:15).  That's a pretty good reason to go there.  There is nowhere that allows me to be more receptive to receiving personal revelation than within the Holy Temple.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S.Alma 7:11-12

2014-05-19 ...in the "how I felt the Spirit today" section.

Hey Everyone,

Yesterday was the cambios call and I'm staying another cambio with Elder Severiano.  After never having a companion for 2 transfers in the first year of my mission, it looks like we'll be together for 3.  I'm pretty excited about that.  We work well together and get along well. 

This was another great week.

We had a great Family Home Evening with the Benavidez family this week.  It was a lot of fun. The grandpa wasn't there though, so we came back on a day when he was, and brought stuff to make coke floats.  They don't ever make floats here which is weird because they have ice cream and they drink a ton of pop.  We had a good chat with him about his childhood in Potosì.  He's warming up to us a lot.  Hopefully we can get him to come with us to church one of these days.

Everything is still going well with Jose Maria and Erik.  Their mom wants them to get baptized and they came to church and to the activity in the stake center this week.  After the activity in the stake center, we went with them to a pizza place and had a delicious bacon and egg pizza.

The activity in the stake center was for all of Potosì.  It was an open house with a 4-stop tour and then refreshments.  Almost all of the missionaries were there to help (20ish).  Elder Severiano and I were in charge of teaching a 10 minute class on indexing, family history, and baptisms for the dead.  We taught nonstop classes for 3 hours which was really tiring.  It wore out my voice too.

This Sunday after the 2nd hour of church, the Bishop told all of the priesthood holders we were leaving early to go help a member who had been hauling 8000 bricks when his truck flipped.  A member went and brought his flatbed truck and 26 of us climbed into the back with another 5 or so in the cab and we drove 20 minutes outside of Potosi to help reload the bricks into the truck and sort out the broken ones. It took 35ish guys 3 hours to do it.  I've never seen so many bricks.  It was pretty cool to see priesthood working like it should.

I can't remember if I've said anything about Mari and Lucas...  We found them last week and it's going very well.  They are very receptive and the husband/dad passed away a couple years ago so they are very interested in temple sealing and eternal family stuff.  Lucas likes basketball and comes at 6:30 on Saturdays to the church to play with us during exercise time--so do some other investigators and members. Lucas came to church on Sunday but his mom didn't because they are still building their house and it doesn't have a door so she says someone always has to be there so they don't get robbed.   This week we are going to go put in a door as a service project.

This week the other Elders told us they were going to visit Manuel's (I don't know if you remember him but he sometimes goes on divisions with me) mom, Carmen, in the hospital. She all of the sudden had trouble breathing and was in a lot of pain and had been there for a few days.  Since she lives in the other Elders' from out ward's area and isn't active, my companion and I hadn't even met her before.  I had a weirdly strong feeling that I should ask the other Elders if we could go with them though.  I wrote about it in my journal in the "how I felt the Spirit today" section--at the time still wondering if it had been the Spirit.  I really had no idea why we needed to go but felt like we should.  We wound up getting there and the other Elders weren't there.  We called and found out they weren't going to be able to come.  We went in an found her getting ready to leave to go have tests done downtown.  The hospital has an ambulance to take people to do tests for really cheap but it was being used and she didn't have the money to pay a taxi to get her there.  I offered to get the taxi and we went with her and Manuel for her tests.  We also had a great lesson about the Atonement with her.  She was very worried that she was going to die and felt terribly guilty about not having been going to church.  Prayer has a powerful ability to calm a person down.  After spending the afternoon with them I realized why I'd been prompted to be there. We had been able to be there and help when she needed it and maybe just as important, was the lesson I learned about the Spirit.

A few side notes.  I write about how I've felt the Spirit at least once every day in my journal.  I found it to be very helpful in learning to recognize the Spirit.  It helps me notice what I may not have during the day as the Spirit and helps me be more aware throughout the day of the impressions that come.

Also, I understand better every day that God knows a whole lot better than I do who needs help and what and when.  At the beginning of my mission I spent too much time trying to match people's problems to a lesson and not enough time asking God what I could share that would touch their heart, help them feel the Spirit, and make them want to change the way they are living.  Trying to figure what God wants me to do and how I should do it allows me to be a much better missionary than I can be in any other way.  That is probably one of the more valuable lessons I've learned and something I'm sure will allow God to make a lot more out of my life in the future than I would be able to in any other way.   It often surprises me the frequency with which God gives me revelation.  It makes me wonder how much of that I missed out on before because I didn't work harder to look for it.

It's almost summer time there.  It is ridiculously cold outside here and every bit as cold inside. I'm literally unable to sleep with my head outside of the blankets.  My companion sleeps in his coat with a beanie on.  I've never liked mornings and that's something the mission doesn't seem to be changing. I think I will always be more of a night person.  I hope you have a great summer, I'll be back for the next one.  If you don't write in a journal, you should.  God gives us experiences that we need.  If we don't write them down, we risk not remembering what we need to in the moment when it will help us.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S.  2 Nephi 4:27-29 I like the part about not letting people make you angry.  Being angry never helped anyone with anything and especially doesn't allow the Spirit to guide you.

look--I caught a chicken

2014-05-12 all that really matters

Hey Everyone,

This was another good week.  This cambio has flown by.  There is less than a week left.

 

Elder Van Horn and me with an American flag in Potosì because we are Americans in Potosì.

This week we met a blind guy and helped him get where he was going.  When we got him to the building where he needed to be, my companion started talking to him a little bit about the church and asked him if he could read with his hands.  He said, "yes" and my companion pulled out a pamphlet and handed it to him and asked him to read it.  He felt all over the pamphlet and couldn't read anything.  My companion, starting to realize that it would be pretty much impossible to read something printed in ink, guided his hand to his plaque and asked him to read that.  The blind man said something like, "Well I can feel something but this isn't braille."  To top it off, my companion wraps up by saying something like, "Ok, well it's a beautiful pamphlet we have."  I couldn't control my laughter.  The blind man seemed like a pretty smart guy and it seemed like he got a kick out of it too.  We did get the guy's information though, so the missionaries can go visit him because he doesn't live in our ward.

We had a great lesson with Hermana Nelly (mom) and Selina this week.  They both say God has answered their prayers that the church is true and they accepted baptismal dates.  The mom said something about wanting the whole family to get baptized together so she said she is going to work hard at getting a time for us to talk to her husband who is almost never home.  If we get permission from our leaders, then this next month we are going to go with them to a little village about 3 hours outside of Potosì to where Nelly's very old parents live to help them harvest potatoes and turn them into chuño.  The entire family is awesome and the kids always come to all the activities at the church.  The only hard part is we cannot find the dad to talk to him.  

 

the grandma there saw that I was burning and gave me the hat to wear

We also had a day of service with the Benavidez family.  They are building more rooms behind their house. We went and helped mix cement and pass it in buckets up to the 2nd floor of what they are building. We passed buckets of cement for over 4 hours.  Even small buckets of cement are ridiculously heavy. When we were done, they made us a barbecue.  We ate oka with it which is similar to a sweet potato but I like it better.  It was sunny, rainy, and hailed during the 4 hours we worked.

 

the 4 missionaries and Benavidez family kids after the service project

Last Monday, I left my wallet in a taxi and didn't notice until the taxi was gone.  Between my companion and I, we remembered that the taxi was white.  Since I didn't remember anything else to help me find the taxi, I was pretty worried about how I was going to get it back.  Especially since it had all my money, my mission and personal debit cards, and my Bolivian and US IDs.  I said a prayer and immediately knew the taxi would come back if I just waited on the street corner.  That was a relieving feeling.  We sat down and 10 minutes later the taxi was back and the driver waved me over and handed me my wallet.  That was a good prayer experience. Praying makes things happen.

While I was talking to my family yesterday, I mentioned how I feel so bad for so many people here.  And I do. I grew up with so many advantages that these people don't have.  I never experienced trials anything like what so many of the people here face.  I've always gone to good schools, had both of my parents, had money for what I need.  I've never had serious health issues, never had to worry about what I'd eat or where I'd sleep.  It makes me so grateful for my wonderful life.

My mom asked, "Aren't they happy though?"  It got me thinking last night.  Some people are and others aren't. Just like the people back at home.  Meeting so many people and seeing which are happy and which aren't has taught me two important things:

One is that relationships with other people has a far greater influence on happiness than anything material.  A united, loving family is happy with no money, living in a one room concrete hut with one bed for every 3 people. It impresses me.

The other thing I learned is that personal worthiness is a huge determiner in happiness.  A guilty conscience destroys anyone's ability to be happy.  A certainty of personal worthiness, together with an understanding of the gospel, allows anyone to be happy regardless of their circumstances.  People whether they are members of the church or not, naturally feel guilty for their sins.  The greater a person's understanding of the gospel, the greater their guilt.  Those who aren't members but live worthy lives don't have the guilty conscience but still sometimes find themselves uncomfortable with their own lives because they don't understand God's plan. That is why everyone needs the true and restored gospel.  When they understand that their personal worthiness is really all that matters in this life, their confidence grows and they find themselves happy, overlooking the difficulties of this life in favor of an eternal perspective.

So get yourselves worthy and go to the temple.  If you are going to the temple regularly you won't find it difficult to stay worthy.  And that's all that really matters for the 85 years or so that we hang out here on Earth.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. Helaman 14:30

2014-05-05 She doesn't know how to read but she does love God.

Hey Everyone, 

This was a really great week.  Yesterday was really great day too.

with Savino

Yesterday we had 9 investigators come to church, and 7 of them have baptismal dates.  They were Savino, Mery, Raul, and their son Carlos Raul--Wendy, Suzana, and Christian--Jesus and Salina. That made me really happy.  I talked with Savino while we were at church and he said his family wants him to get baptized Catholic. He said he doesn't want to be Catholic and he thinks he was meant to be Mormon.  He's supposed to talk to his dad about that again before our appointment on Wednesday. We are trying really hard to get his dad to listen to us too but he doesn't want anything to do with it.

Juan Francisco Flores was inactive when I got here. We visited him just 2 times and now he's come to church every week for 6 weeks.  Yesterday he was called as the stake Sunday school president which is pretty great.

I'm very excited about Mery and Raul and their family. The three that came to church all listen to us twice per week.  They also have a 14 year old daughter named Anahi but she's not too interested and we've only taught her once.  We did find out this week that Raul has a big smoking problem though.  He wants to quit--he just hasn't been able to though--so that's good.  Right now they have a baptismal date for May 31.

me and Benjamin--he is 3 and always comes up to me in church and says hi elder Howlett and he says my name better than 90 percent of the people here.  We ate lunch at his family's house yesterday.

Wendy, Suzana, and Christian are Benedicta's kids.  She was out of town again on Sunday so she didn't come but her kids always come to church and to every activity.  It's going really well with them except that the mom is always gone.  They have a baptismal date for the 24th of May but I think it is probably going to get pushed back a little so the mom can get ready and they can get baptized together.

We got to talk with Jesus and Selina's mom, Nelly, this week.  She is very nice.  She doesn't know how to read but she does love God.  Only her kids showed up to church yesterday though and I don't know why she didn't come.  One of the things that makes it kind of hard to teach here is that lots of people have trouble reading. Probably almost half of the adults and 25ish percent of youth.  Lots of kids just randomly don't go to school for a year here and there.  I'm not really sure why but I think that's probably one of the reasons they don't read very well.  The Book of Mormon is really hard for a lot of people to understand.  The good thing is that everyone has a firm belief in God and seems to be very receptive to the Spirit.

 

with Sabrina--kids here love having their picture taken and they always want to see it as soon as you take it

The whole (all the members) Benavidez family came to church again.  We also went to their house on Friday and got to talk to the grandpa again.  He used to not even allow the missionaries but we had a good conversation with him.  We invited him to church but he said he's going to some pueblito on Sunday. We told him to come the next time he's in town for a Sunday and he said ok.  We also are going to have a family home evening with them tomorrow.

with Jose in the Benavidez house

Yesterday after church we went on divisions again. I went with Manuel (the same guy from last week) and we had a terrific afternoon.  The Castro family has an inactive 14 year old nephew who lives with them who we've been trying to visit for months. We went yesterday and he not only was there but seem happy to talk. We taught about the Priesthood.  He was ordained a Deacon but not a Teacher.  We told him that God needs him to fulfill his Priesthood duties and asked him if he'd prepare to be ordained a Teacher. He said he would.  He hasn't been to church since November but he promised he'd come on Sunday and he has an interview with the Bishop on Thursday. One of the things that surprised us is that he seems to have a strong testimony.  Most inactive members who we visit don't have a testimony.  His dad died unexpectedly almost a year ago and I think that had a really negative impact on him and was why he stopped going to church.  

After victor, we went to visit the Bautista family.  Two months ago I ran into 3 young men close to the church and talked to them.  They said that they'd gone to the church before and told me their names and that they live in the pink house as far north as there are still houses.  I thought that that should be pretty easy to find but it turned out that there are way too many pink houses.  In the past couple months we knocked liked 15 pink houses out in the middle of nowhere.  There aren't even dirt roads where we were looking, just trails.  Finally we found it on Thursday.  On Saturday we taught them the Restoration.  Yesterday Manuel and I decided to go see how they are doing.  None of the kids were there but the mom was.  I talked to her and found out that she's a member. She and her parents and siblings were all baptized a long time ago.  She said she was very active in the church when she was younger but that she hadn't been in a long time.  She also said she'd been thinking a lot about the church lately and wants to come back and she said she also wants her sons to receive the missionary lessons.  So that seems really really good.  We have an appointment to talk with her whole family on Friday.

This is God's church.  It is His gospel.  And there is no better, happier, or easier way to live life than living faithfully to God, His church, and His gospel.  I am completely sure of that. 

Have a great week everyone!  Go do ordinances for someone who needs them in the temple.

Love, 

Elder Howlett

P.S. D&C 88:78-80 

2014-04-28 He's really short.

me with Jose--he goes with us when we teach Christian's
 family, because he's Christian's buddy

Hey Everyone,

This was a fun week.  We are halfway through this cambio which is pretty crazy.

My current companion is Elder Severiano from Iquitos, Peru.  He's a good missionary and we get along great. We work really well together too. I'd be happy to stay a 3rd transfer with him.  He's really short.

Yep it's still getting colder.  This week has actually been really cold.  I'd guess that in the house it's 45ish degrees but I really don't know.

On Friday we left for Sucre at 8am and didn't get back until 10pm.  We had a conference there from 2 to 6. We got there at 11 so that gave us a little bit of time.  My companion started his mission in Sucre so we went to visit his old pensionista and we ate lunch there.  Sucre is a pretty place.  The whole city isn't white but the church where we had our conference was in the white part of the city so we got to see that.

We also had a stake priesthood meeting which was really good. One guy had a really good talk about home teaching and used Elder Bednar's talk that I think is called Powers of Heaven. Home teaching is a disaster in all of Bolivia.  In the wards where I've been I've never seen a month where even 5% of the members were visited.

It would make sense that seeing as how we have the only true gospel, and the power and authority of God that we would be very diligent in fulfilling or religious responsibilities.  I think that in general the reason that people aren't more diligent is that they don't have a strong testimony of the gospel.  Those who understand how important the gospel is and believe it to be true devote much more of their time to doing what God asks of us.

Esveld, who's planning on leaving for his mission in August, went with me on divisions.

I hope everyone has a great week.  Be faithful in your callings, even if you don't have a calling you are still responsible for helping others receive salvation.  There is plenty to do as a member of this church and that's the way it should be.  Pray and search until you have a testimony and then don't be lazy.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. D&C 107: 99-100

2014-04-21 you can still go again instead of waiting until you haven't been recently

Hey Everyone,

This was a good week.  It was Holy Week here in Bolivia.  That means that people don't eat meat so I didn't eat any meat.  I ate a lot of mashed squash which was actually a lot better than you'd think.  It's called locro. It also means that I ate a lot of arroz con leche.

look, I found a baby donkey (it's actually pretty common to find animals where ever you are here) I ran through a herd of llamas chasing a soccer ball while we played today

It is going really well with Savino.  He is completely sure that he wants to be baptized.  He's tried to get his dad to listen to us but his dad doesn't want to. Savino is reading his Book of Mormon for 15 minutes every day and he always prays.  We are just waiting on permission from his dad so that he can get baptized.  His cousin Brandon is also progressing well now, he's just having trouble making the decision to go to church instead of playing on his soccer team on Sundays.

Helping the Benavidez family peel potatoes.
We peeled 2 5gallon buckets worth of potatoes.

It is also going great with the Benavidez family. Jhamil got his inactive aunt and uncle to come to church on Sunday along with his siblings and a cousin.  That made 6 of them on Sunday.  I also got to chat with his non- member grandpa when we peeled potatoes this week.  His grandpa isn't a big fan of missionaries or the Church but I think it went really well and now I talk to him when he's around and he doesn't try to stay away from us. That's good too.  I love the Benavidez family and would love to see the grandparents baptized before I leave. Jhamil was telling me a little about his family yesterday while we did visits together.  Jose, Jhamil and Anahi live with their grandparents because their mom died a little over 4 years ago and their dad has another family and lives in another city.  I feel bad for them but  they've all turned out to be really good people.  I think they are probably some of the hardest working people I've met.

We had a good lesson with Raul and Mery and their family this week.  We talked about eternal families and temples which seemed to catch their interest.  Their 9-year-old son is by far the best investigator in the family. After about a month of praying to know if the church is true he was excited to tell us that he'd gotten an answer this past week. The mom still hasn't prayed to ask if it's true.  She told us this week that she's afraid that God might say yes and she doesn't really want to have to leave the church where she is.

Making empanadas with Hermana Janet ( we live close

 by her little restaurant and so once every week or 2 she

 calls us when she gets a big order and we help her make

 empanadas)  it's pretty fun and I've become a pretty

 good empanada maker.

People seem to have celebrated the end of Holy Week today by drinking until they pass out in the street. 

Hermana Benedicta and her family are also progressing well.  They all have a baptismal date for the 24th of may.  They've all been to church once or twice now.  One daughter says she's received her answer.  And they always let us come in and teach when we pass by. They've become good friends with the Benavidez kids too who go by and visit them on their own.  They had a Liahona this week and when I asked where they got it they said Anahi had come by with another one of her friends and given it to them.  Anahi also says she wants to go on a mission now which is great.  

O and they just told us that we are headed to Sucre on Friday for some special training.  We'll just be there one day but I'm excited to get to go see Sucre again.

activity at the church 30 min after it was supposed to begin.  There was only 1 person.  It wound up starting with about 25 people over 1 hour late.  Nothing ever starts on time here.

Today we played soccer again.  I'm definitely getting a lot better at  soccer.

Have you been to the temple recently?  If not you should go.  If you have, you can still go again instead of waiting until you haven't been recently.  Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. John 21:15-17 (watched a great talk by elder Holland in the MTC if you can find it online.   I think it's called Feed my Sheep.  It goes with this scripture)

2014-04-14 It was a nice parrot that didn't bite us.

Hey everyone,

me at the door that say warning: Mormons prohibited

This was another great week.  Things are going really well with Savino and we found a couple other new families who we are teaching.

This week when we went to visit Savino he told us, "I want to be a Mormon, how soon can I get baptized?"  I told him in 3 weeks if he comes to church every Sunday.  He came to church yesterday and is very excited.  He is going to try and get his dad to listen to us too because he wants him to get baptized too.  He also wants to go with us to visit other people and he wants to introduce us to a couple of his friends this week.  He's been getting along really well with his dad this week too.

my favorite soup (not really)

Besides him, we had 7 other investigators at church which is the most I've had in Potosì.

Weather here in Potosì is absolutely crazy, it hails all the time.  It's hot when there is sun and cold when there isn't.

One of the families we found is Lydia who lives with her 2 grandsons, Oscar and Jhonatan.  Jhonatan has a parrot and he let us play with it.  It was a nice parrot that didn't bite us.  The grandma is great and very excited to be listening to us.  She has 2 kids who were baptized like 10 years ago but don't live close by.  The first time we talked to them she let us come inside and sit down in their little cement room.  Teaching them reminds me a lot of teaching Julia and her grandkids in Villa Graciela.

 

me with Timon the parrot and Jhonatan the investigator. (he's wearing an oba mao shirt)

It's going really great with the Benavidez family (Jhamil's family).  Jhamil, Jose and Anai all came to church for the 4th week in a row.  Jhamil did visits all afternoon and evening on Saturday and Sunday with us so we could do divisions because we had too many appointments.  His sister, Anai, is also coming to all of her church stuff and wants to go with us to do visits.  She came with us on Sunday and when we finished, she asked if I could give her one of each of the 6 pamphlets so she can read them and be able to help teach next time.  We just need to get their Aunt Sulma active.  She came to conference the past week but hasn't come to church in several weeks.

On Elder Alarcon´s birthday we made salchipapa for breakfast.  French fries with fried sausage and a fried egg.  It was really good.  Then we smashed a dozen eggs on his head and threw flour on him because that's what you do here.  It made the house smell terrible though.

We found another family of 5 this week too.  They are great--a mom, Benedicta, her 3 kids, Wendy, Suzana, and Christian, and her niece, Maria.  They also always let us into the house when we come.  We taught them 3 times this week.  They were all supposed to come on Sunday but only Suzana and Maria came.  I guess the mom had gone to visit her sister way out in the middle of nowhere.  The 2 girls were 10 minutes early to church which never happens here.  It's pretty crazy how late everyone always is.  Activities normally start about 45 minutes to an hour late.  I really like teaching that family.  Their house consists of 3 concrete rooms and they have one light bulb on a really long cord that they just move to whatever room they need to see in.  Christian is 9 and loves me even though I don't really know why.  He gives me a huge hug every time we see him and when we come to teach he always saves me a spot next to him on the bed to sit.

my area

I feel like my Spanish has been really good this week.

Also I did get your Easter package, thanks.

Anyone never prayed to be sure that the church is true?  If so, today would definitely be a good day to do that. 

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. Alma 34:28