Elder Steven Crandell Howlett: 2013-09-02 I got to climb up in a tree and use a machete to chop it down.

"There are these really cool bright purple trees all over. They were normal trees until they all got purple flowers last week."

Hey Everyone,
I only have a minute to write right now but I’ll write more later.

Yesterday I went to an appointment to visit a young man we met last week. The only person there was a little old lady who only speaks Quechua though. I asked her if the guy we were looking for was there and she answered me in Quechua. I only understood “manu canchu” which means something along the lines of “there aren’t or isn’t any.” I think she was telling me he wasn’t there but I’m not sure because Quechua is hard.

This was a rainy overcast week which was really nice. The sun is way too strong here and I’m always getting sunburned.

We went and did service this week up in Villa de Mar where Veronica, who got baptized, lives. We did service there before too. I got to climb up in a tree and use a machete to chop it down. We moved a pile of bricks too. I don’t really know why. She made us a ton of food while we were there. We had ecco, camu camu, madarina juice. Also bread and rice with a fried egg and I think it was carrots cooked in garlic.

We ran into Brenda Lopez. She got baptized a year ago and never got confirmed. We met her family too and I’m excited to be teaching them.

Elder Chavez came back to visit during dinner on Wednesday so that was fun to talk with him. I miss living with him.

Today is Angie Flores’ birthday so we’re going to their house right now. I’ll write more later.

Love,

Elder Howlett

In answer to some questions I asked...
I have gotten a letter from Miranda and Adri but not Kiana or Britta.

no package except for the photo book (from anyone)

Yes, I’ve gotten multiple letters from all my grandparents

Ya I’m pretty much always happy.

Ya it’s insane that I’ve been here 5 months. I feel like it’s going to be over before I know it.

LATER...

2013-09-03

after-food-fight hair styled by Arturo

Hey everyone,

I got my package today that you sent July 31. I opened it with the Flores family at lunch today. They loved the Wonka bumpy jelly beans and chocolate. Some of them liked the beef jerky but some of them didn’t like the teriyaki flavor. They said it tasted like it was coated in sugar. They didn’t care for the wheat thins though. They have more flavor than they are used to and it made Arthur cry. I got a kick out of that, he told me it tastes like it’s covered in ajo, a spicy pepper they use here. It’s just sun dried tomato basil flavor though.

They had an egg and flour fight during Angie's birthday celebration

I had a blast with the Flores family yesterday too. We spent all of p-day with them. Arthur went with us to the store and we bought everything we needed so I could make chicken avocado sandwiches. It was pretty expensive to get ranch and cheddar cheese here but that’s ok because everything is super cheap. We brought everything to the house to cook while we waited for the rest of the family to get there. While we got the food ready, my companion and Arthur taught me the salsa. I don’t dance well, but that’s alright.

On Sunday I went on splits with Sergio Vilca who is one of the youth who hadn’t gone on splits yet. I was kind of worried about what he thought about it because none of our appointments were there so it was a lot of walking and only 2 visits in 3 and a half hours. He’s a really nice kid though and I enjoyed walking around and talking with him. That night I got a text from him thanking me for taking him, saying he’d learned a lot and hopes we can do it again. So that was nice.

in Elder Crankshaw's area (next to Elder Howlett's)

I also went on splits with Elder Crankshaw to his area this weekend. It’s only the second time I’ve left my area. It was a lot of fun. Most of his area is a lot more wealthy than mine. It was weird to see such normal looking neighborhoods.

Cambios are this Sunday and I really don’t want to leave. I think it’s about a 50/50 chance that I stay which is pretty good considering that I’ve already been here 3 cambios.

On Thursday we had a young men’s activity of a dinner and soccer. We got 6 investigators together to go and of course the ward hadn’t gotten a dinner ready. Instead we went and got pizza at my pizza place with them and it was a ton of fun. We pulled out the photo book and ate and chatted for a couple hours. It was only like 10 dollars for everyone’s (8 people) pizza and drinks. Then we played soccer. It’s crazy how much less organized the wards are here. I’m in one of the strongest wards in Cochabamba and it still lacks active members in a lot of the essential callings. Half the wards here don’t even have a ward mission leader so it’s awesome that we have a really good one.