2014-10-27 ...because she doesn't know which one is the true church

Hey Everyone,

Well we had a great week this week.

To begin, Hermano Daniel has almost made it 2 weeks without chewing coca.  If he makes it 2 weeks we are going to get him interviewed and he should get baptized this week.  He's also changed his attitude a lot.  He's suddenly much more committed to the church and gospel so I think he'll come through for his baptism.

primary after the primary program

I went on exchanges with Elder Steuhser in my area this week.  He's been in the mission almost a month.  It got me thinking about when I started my mission.  I can't believe how fast time has passed.  Today I've been a missionary for 19 months.

Elder Howlett, Samuel (Kevin's brother), and his friend with
their primary program bow ties

While I was with him we knocked a door where we met someone that said she was busy but that we could come back some other time.  She didn't seem that interested but the next day we went back.  Her older sister answered the door.  The person we'd met wasn't there but we explained who we were to the sister and she let us come in to talk to her family.  We talked to her and her 4 kids.  Her husband was in Santa Cruz. The mom told us that she belonged to another Christian church and so she hasn't had any of her kids baptized Catholic or in any church. She told she hasn't been going to her church for quite some time and that she's been thinking a lot lately that her kids should be baptized and that she should go take them to church every week. She said she'd come on Sunday. And they actually did all show up together on Sunday. And they loved it.  She has a 13-year-old son Alan, a 9-year-old son Oliver, an 8-year-old daughter Selma, and a baby.  I'm very excited for them.  The dad gets back this week and on Saturday we have an appointment to talk to him.  Hopefully he jumps on board with the rest of the family.  At church the mom told us that she'd been stressed and upset for a while but has felt much more at peace since our visit.

 

Wilfredo's baptism

Also we met Adeila and her 2 grandsons Deybi and Kevin.  The kids are very nice and like to sit and listen to us.  The grandma is really great.  The first time she talked to us she told us she always prays but she doesn't go to any church because she doesn't know which one is the true church.  That was before we had even begun teaching anything about the true church.  We ran into them today and they were friendly and excited for our visit tomorrow.  

This morning I went to have breakfast with Jairo Vasquez (convert from Villa Graciela).  He's doing well.  He goes to church and to seminary and today we talked about a mission.  He says he wants to go as soon as he turns 18.  He's 17 right now.  

Today we played soccer with all of our zone and another zone too. It was pretty fun but it was on a hot astroturf field in the sun.  I'm really tired from that now.

We had interviews with President Hansen.  It made me miss President Dyer.  President Dyer was an awesome interviewer.

Cambios are on Sunday.  I suppose that I'll probably stay and get a new companion.

Have an awesome week everyone and don't forget to pray every night.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. Joseph Smith-History 1:25

2014-10-20 ...because he knew not where to find it

Lady Jane and her family on
 the day they completed 1 year
 (except for Yasmira the oldest
 daughter, who completes 1
year in February)

Hey Everyone,

It was another great week here. Wilfredo was baptized on Saturday without any issues.  In his testimony in his baptism he spoke about how he didn't belong to any church even though he'd gone to visit many others.  He talked about how right if felt when he started coming to this church and that he plans on following this path for the rest of his life.  I think he is an excellent example of someone who was kept from the truth simply because he knew not where to find it.  He won't be confirmed until next week because Sunday was a special Stake Conference to reorganize the Stake Presidency. 

zone at Incachaka

Elder Wadell came to the conference to preside and spoke about the temple as did President Jensen (Cocha temple president).  That was perfect for Luis Miguel and Kevin who have their temple recommend interviews tomorrow and who we recently taught about the temple.  I'm excited to go to the temple with them.  I love the temple.

when the fog came in at Inca

Samuel (Kevin's little brother) also came with Kevin to the conference and we went back together afterward.  I asked him how he felt about baptism and he told me he wants to get baptized already.  His date is the 22nd of November.  His brother Alan isn't doing as well though.  He wasn't at our appointment and so we didn't see him this week.  We have a family home evening planned with them for this week to see if we can get the brother and also the dad more interested and (especially for the dad) to get them to like us more.  The dad's always polite with us and supportive of Kevin but it's going nowhere with him still.

We had 3 baptisms in the zone on Saturday which is a considerable improvement on what we've been having.

I don't remember if I told you, but Hermana Viqui (Gerardo's mom) got her endowments.  I saw them when we went to do a baptismal interview in the Alamos chapel.

 Also, we took the zone to Incachaka this morning.  We left at 6am and everyone was there on time which really impressed me.  Incachaka is on the way to but before Chapare.  It was a blast.  It is really dense jungle and smells really good.  There was no fog until about 10 when we watched it come in super fast.  It was really cool looking.  We saw a waterfall and also the devil's throat which is basically a small waterfall inside a stone room type thing but the rock is bright red.  It was cool.  We played capture the flag again in a little field after the hike to see the other cool stuff.  It got so foggy in the field that we couldn't see to the other side which was cool.

I hope you all have an awesome week.  Being a missionary is the best.  I love being here.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S.  D&C 123:12 

2014-10-13 ...we sat on their porch under a little tin roof while it rained...

Hey Everyone,

Yesterday was weird because it was election day in Bolivia.  In Bolivia that means that nobody works and nothing is open and it's illegal to have any kind of meeting so there was no church. The mission made some extra rules for us.  We had to stay in our apartments yesterday and they had us buy extra food and water for the house just in case we couldn't leave the house after elections because of political unrest.  It seems like everything is normal today though and they let us go out normally.

The rest of the week generally went well though.  Wilfredo is still one of the best investigators I've ever worked with and he can't wait for his baptism on Saturday.  During our last visit he gave us one of the sweetest watermelons I've ever eaten.

lunch at a member's house--they made a really
good dessert so I took a picture of it and there it is

Also, we had a great lesson with Kevin (who recently was baptized)  and his two younger brothers.  The almost 10-year-old Samuel told us that after reading in the Book of Mormon and praying he received his answer that this is the true church.  He told us that that means he wants to go to church always with Kevin from now on out.  We invited him to be baptized and he readily accepted.  The date is set for the 22nd of November.  Alan (the 12-year-old brother) was excited to talk with us which hasn't normally been the case.  He promised to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it too.  Our goal with him is the 22nd of November too.  Kevin once again bore a powerful testimony, this time about how he's felt since being baptized.  The mom loves the church and is looking into it in Spain.  The dad is polite with us but just doesn't seem interested at all.  He listens to us every once in a while but isn't progressing.  This week we asked his sons, especially Kevin, that they can try and show their dad how important this church is.

I don't remember if I've talked much about Roxana.  She wanted to be baptized but this week she drank a little when she went to visit her family.  She says she still wants to be baptized but it might take a little while longer for her to really get herself ready.  I don't think she has much of a testimony of the gospel either.  I think that's what's keeping her from really working hard for her baptism too.  We are going to start reading the Book of Mormon with her to see if she can develop a stronger testimony.

Collapampa in the rain

We went to Collapampa twice this week.  I was in interchanges with Elder Rosario one of the days that we went and it was raining all day.  Collapampa was a muddy mess.  We bought trash bags to cover our bags so our scriptures wouldn't get wet.  Our best lesson there was with Herminia and her 18-year-old son Israel.  We had visited Herminia several times and last week when we went, her son Israel listened to us for the first time.  He didn't seem that interested last week but when we talked this week he told us that he had prayed about it like we'd asked him and he didn't understand why he hadn't gotten an answer if it was true or not.  We explained a little more about the receiving revelation and then had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation.  Israel told us that he is the only person in his family who hasn't been baptized and that he wants to be baptized but doesn't know in what church.  It was a really fun lesson too because we sat on their porch under a little tin roof while it rained and the mom made us mote with cheese.  Mote is like giant boiled corn.

I've noticed 2 very different attitudes while I've been here in the people I've taught who need to change something to live the gospel.  Of those who have come to know that they need to change, some focus on making that change.  Many other people focus on a generally true principal that changing our lives is a process and distort it until it becomes a major obstacle for them to affect the necessary change.  Those who simply decide that they need to change and that they are going to do it usually make the change even if it does take them a little while to do it.

There are way too many people who say that change only happens over time and use it to justify procrastination in beginning the change or use it to justify a limited effort that they'll put forth.  I believe that change normally takes however long it takes us to decide that we'll change and know that God will support us in our effort.  It does sometimes take some time for a person to build that needed confidence or faith in God but that faith does not arrive until we are willing to give our all to make the change.  A change to live the gospel is repentance and God's will is always that we repent as soon as possible.  He won't hold back his help if we live in such a way that we can receive it.  I don't know how so many people have been confused into thinking that it will take them some incredibly long amount of time to make a change and that that is ok.  It is not ok.  We repent as soon as we know we should.  

I hope everyone has a great week.  I hope you go to the temple because you should.  I love being a missionary!

Love,

Elder Howlett

D&C88:68

2014-10-06 ... since we didn't want to get robbed...

Hey Everyone,

This was a good week.  I really like General Conference.  I didn't remember to get ready to tell you what I liked about conference--some scattered thoughts--I really liked Elder Eyring's talks in both the general session and the priesthood session.  I felt like there was a lot about finding or strengthening your testimony of the church and gospel.  I also liked ElderAndersen's talk about Joseph Smith.  I liked what Brother Godoy said about living to see all the promised blessings of your Patriarchal blessings realized.  I enjoyed President Uchtdorf's "Is it I?" talk.  It was fun to see the Spanish talks being in a Spanish-speaking country.  I enjoyed the last talk by Elder Bednar too.  The service was so bad during L. Tom Perry's talk that we couldn't understand it.

Wilfredo came to 2 sessions of conference.  Luis Miguel and Kevin also attended conference.  The signal was awful in our chapel while we waited for the Priesthood session to start and we didn't want to miss again like we did for Elder Perry's talk.  So we went to the Alamos chapel where the missionaries said the signal was better.  That was fun because I got to see the Alamos people.  I sat with Gerardo, Junior, and the Parras (Edwin and Liam).

Kevin and his family at their home

Kevin's 9-year-old brother, Samuel, really liked church last week and we started teaching him this week.  We actually had a really good lesson with his whole family.  His mom returned to Spain today which is a bummer but she promised to look for the missionaries there.  She's really nice and I do think she'll be baptized before she returns to Bolivia the next time.

Wilfredo is still awesome.  He's read the first 20 chapters of the Book of Mormon (5 chapters between every visit) and marks what he wants to talk to us about.  We've confirmed that he doesn't drink alcohol--he doesn't even drink coffee.  He's excited to be baptized on the 18th.

Hermano Daniel came to conference.  He's doing better with the coca but still not perfect.  I imagine that his baptism will be the end of this month at the earliest or November.

the zone at capture the flag

Roxana didn't come to conference.  We went to visit her and rescheduled her baptismal date for the 25th because we didn't feel she'd be ready for the 11th.  She wants to be baptized but is having a hard time putting in the effort she should to prepare herself.

area where we played capture the flag

Today we took the zone to the mountains to play capture the flag in the morning.  It was the craziest game of capture the flag I've ever played because it was just in a pretty dense forest except for a dry river bed which frequently had 5- to 10-foot drops.  Also it poured heavy rain for about 45 minutes straight.  No one ever got to the other team's flag or even got close. After about an hour and a half, another guy in the forest got robbed at knife point close enough to one of the team's jails that everyone in the jail saw it happen.  That made us a little uneasy and since we didn't want to get robbed we decided to end the game there.

One of the things that I noticed and thought about while we taught Kevin's whole family together is that it felt really good.  I think we may get even more help from the Spirit when we are with an entire family.  Even though Kevin's dad really isn't very interested right now, I think just being with his family and us for that 45 minutes was a very good experience for him.

I hope everyone watched conference and learned something.  I hope you do something different because of what you learned.  If you missed some or all, go online and watch it.  What the Prophet and Apostles say is very important.  What I've heard during General Conference has influenced my life a great deal over the last 8 years. I'm certain that Thomas Monson is the chosen Prophet of God.

Love,

Elder Howlett                              

P.S. D&C 128:18

2014-09-29 "Of course, I want to hear the prophet's voice."

Hey Everyone,

This week went great!  Kevin got baptized and it was a great baptism--well attended and spiritual.  His entire family came too.

He's probably one of the most prepared investigators I've ever baptized.  He bore an awesome testimony in his baptism too.  He talked about how sure he is that this is the true church.

His mom and brother came to church the next day too.   They liked it and asked us to visit them on Tuesday.  I hope they get baptized too.  The problem is that the mom is probably going back to Spain in a couple weeks.

Wilfredo is the friend of Luis who was baptized last week.  He came to church again this Sunday and is the best investigator ever.  The first time we went to visit him he had already read the first pamphlet and starting with the introduction had read up to chapter 3 of First Nephi in the Book of Mormon.  We talked about President Monson on Saturday and when we asked if he'd go to General Conference, he told us, "Of course, I want to hear the prophet's voice."  On Sunday, he told us that God had responded to his prayers and he knows he needs to be baptized.  His baptismal date is for the 18th of October. 

Luis Miguel was ordained a teacher on Sunday and is excited to pass the sacrament.  He showed up early for his interview on Tuesday and is doing great.  Also his mom sat in on a lesson again this week and told us that she likes how we pray.  Hopefully she bends one of these days and joins the church too.

Susana´s (from Potosì) older sister, Fabiola, was baptized on Saturday and their mom has gone to church a couple times and hopefully will be baptized in the coming weeks.

The Parra family finished the temple prep. classes on Sunday and is going to choose their sealing date now.

On Wednesday we had to take Elder Callahua to pick up the new missionary that he was going to train.  They had a short training up by the Jesus statue so we got to go up there on Wednesday morning and it was really cool.  It was early so it was a great temperature and president gave a good little talk.  He talked about the prepared people who aren't members of this church only because they haven't had the chance.  I think Wilfredo is one of those people.

It turns out that the father of the Fernandez family doesn't have records in the church so he needs to be baptized.  He wants to be baptized but he chews coca so we are working on that right now and once he leaves his coca he can get baptized.

I love being a missionary!  It's so awesome.  This is the true church, there is no other and I'm sure of that.  Have an awesome week.  Help your friends be strong in the gospel.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. D&C 123:17

2014-09-22 We didn't start that late...

Hey Everyone,

This week was awesome.   

First of all, yesterday was cambios.  I'm staying in Colcapirhua with Elder Delgadillo.  I'm fine with that.  We are doing very well.  There were quite a few changes in the zone.  I think 6 of the 20 missionaries were changed.  Only one ward in the zone didn't have any missionaries changed.

Also it was Luis Miguel´s baptism.  It went really well.  We didn't start that late and a lot of people from the ward came.  His mom and godfather also came which was awesome.  His mom was all dressed up and ready to go when we passed by their house to pick them up.  The baptism went smoothly and Luis bore a powerful testimony to finish the program.  He talked about how the church has changed his life and about how grateful he is that God forgives our sins.  I felt the presence of the Spirit strongly as he spoke.

He also brought Wilfredo who lives in a different room on the same lot where he lives.  I sat with Wilfredo before and after the baptism and we got to talk quite a bit.  He seems great and very interested in the church.  He's in the picture of everyone at the baptism standing next to my companion.  He came to church yesterday too and said he liked it.  We have our first lesson with him on Wednesday.

Everything is set for Kevin's baptism on Saturday.  His whole family is going to come and Kevin is very excited.  I hope that going to the baptism will help the family to want to come to church.

I went on exchanges to my old area, Alamos, this week.  That was a lot of fun.  We went to visit the Parra family.  Abigail wasn't there but everyone else was.  They are on the 5th of 7 lessons for temple prep.  Hopefully their sealing will be in about 3 weeks.

Elder Howlett's chapel

Jhenny came to church with her member friend from a different ward yesterday.  I think I wrote you a couple weeks ago about how we felt prompted to knock a door on our way to lunch.  That day we met Liseth who is Jhenny's younger sister.  Well now I understand even more why we had that prompting.  Jhenny enjoyed church and is going to come see the baptism on Saturday.

This week we found Hermana Roxana.  She listened to the missionaries quite a while ago and got baptized but never was confirmed.  I'm not really sure why but she's excited to come back to church and talk to us and we've started teaching her again.  The plan is to have her confirmed (and maybe baptized again, if president says she needs it) on the 11th of October.

Go to the temple.  It's a better use of your time than just about any other thing.  Get someone else to go with you too.  People who go to the temple make better choices.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. 1 Corinthians 9:24

09-15-2014 we got to teach them and pray with them all together

Luis Miguel

Hey Everyone,

This was a great week.

Kevin and Luis Miguel's parents both gave permission for their baptisms.  

When we went to talk with Kevin's parents they were both a little on the fence but Kevin shared an awesome testimony with them again and then they were both supportive.  His mom even told us that she's excited that he's going to be baptized. She called the rest of her kids and for the first time we got to teach them and pray with them all together.  It was an awesome lesson and I hope that the family will follow Kevin's example a little further down the road.

Kevin is very ready to be baptized.  He's sure that the church is true and he already lives all the church standards well.

Luis Miguel had us a little worried on Sunday because when church started he wasn't there but he walked in a little late and sat down and my companion and I both felt very relieved.  He hasn't drunk coffee since we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he seems more and more sure about the church every time we visit him.

Liseth and Jessica are both still doing well even though they didn't come to church on Sunday.  

Today we went to Pairumani.  It's a park-type place outside of the city.  We went with the whole ward.  We had a pretty good turn out--about 125.  We played games and ate and hiked a little.  

 3 investigators.Gerardo 16, Ariel 14, David 12- in Pairumani

One member brought her younger siblings. She's a returned missionary living in Santa Cruz but she's back visiting her family for a while. She has a 19-year-old sister and 16,14, and 12-year-old brothers. Since the brothers were just sitting alone, I went and ate with them.  They are an awesome family. Very well mannered and the 3 brothers all like American music and basketball.  I hung out with them pretty much the entire day. They are gonna start coming to play sports with us in the mornings when we play.  I especially talked a lot with the 16-year-old during the day.  He seems really interested in the church.  We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon.  He recently switched schools and he said that there are a lot of Mormons in his new school.  He said he'd come on Sunday to church too.

We also had a training with Elder Waddell of the Seventy this week.  It  was only 4 zones of missionaries so well under 100 people were there.  He speaks Spanish well and is a great and engaging speaker.  I enjoyed all of it even though he spoke for about 5 hours.  I was amazed at his ability to invite the Spirit through what he shared with us.  We talked a lot about getting people a testimony before they get baptized.  He also talked a lot about obedience and using the Spirit as missionaries.  

A couple of interesting things he said that got me thinking:

1 The Spirit is the most important part of everything we do as missionaries and also everything we will ever do not as missionaries too.  Absolutely everything we ever do--he told us.

2 What we do here will determine how we live after this life.  Then it naturally follows that what we did in our pre-mortal life affects our life now.  He told us that being in this mission at this time is a result of decisions we made before we came to the Earth and that our decisions before this life have very little to do with our nationality.  He then told us he doesn't know exactly what parts of our life are a result of our pre-mortal use of agency and didn't tell us anything else specifically as to what is or isn't.

Another fun thing was that he asked the zone leaders to stay after.  There were only 8 of us so it was neat to get to talk to him in such a small group.  We mostly talked about how we can make sure what we learned gets implemented in our zones but then he gave 10 or 15 minutes to ask questions too. One of the interesting things we talked about at that point is that he believes that there are too many less-actives because we focus on baptism rather than the temple when we teach non-members.

 

me my comp and Gerardo.  He came to accompany us on visits but we wound up helping some investigators move.  That's why my tie's tucked in.

I love being a missionary.  Its pretty crazy that I've been here for so long.  I'll finish my mission in less than 6 months now.

Serving a mission has helped me realize that living the gospel really makes life a lot better.  People who are obedient to God are always more content with their lives. 

I hope everyone is going to the temple.  It's a great opportunity to think about the covenants you've made. Being faithful to those covenants is what will get you to God's kingdom.  It's the only way to get there.  Don't forget the promises you've made with God.  And just as important, don't break those promises.  Going to the temple also gives us the strength to keep our covenants.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. Job 14:14