2013-09-16 ...the water was kinda green and murky looking...

Hey everyone,

I sent a bunch of pictures so this won’t be too long. 

I have enjoyed being in my new area.  There are a lot of really good ward members.  I still miss my old area though.  My new area is in the city instead of up in the mountains like before.  Not downtown Cochabamba but still in the city.  Elder Grigor (Canada) and Hermana Jones (Ogden) from my MTC group are in my zone. They are both great.  

We had a lot of rain and overcastness this week which was nice.  I like it when there’s no sun.

The family we live with is really nice.  They made me pizza last night that was actually quite good.

 

We live on the 4th floor of a building which is the highest floor. We have a big outdoor patio/balcony thing which is probably my favorite part about it.

We have electricity which is something I had missed for the past month.

The water usually works here but not always.

[My new companion is] Elder Campos
[from] Otavalo, Ecuador
[He’s been] in the field the same as me, 4 weeks less over all because Latinos aren’t in the MTC as long, I shared a room with him in the MTC.

I haven’t seen the Floreses yet but they have called me every day since I left.  I am going to see them today. We’ll take a taxi, they are going to make pizza.  None of [the Flores family] speak English but they all know random phrases.

We have a cell phone, almost everyone does now.  I imagine everyone will soon.

No IPad or facebook for now.  If it happens I think it will be June or July of next year.  (I think facebook is likely but I can’t see us being known to have IPads here being safe.  I think that would lead to a lot of missionaries getting robbed.)

Johnny Diaz’s mom called me when she found out I was leaving and we went over there because she made me food and wanted to say goodbye.  They gave me a picture from Johnny’s baptism with a nice note on it.  I’m glad she’s finally listening to the missionaries.

We had a baptism of a family of four on Saturday.  They seem really nice and I'm excited to get to know them better.  We filled the font and the water was kinda green and murky looking, then we went to lunch and came back an hour later and it was a dark brown.  The family Parra got baptized in it anyway though and we just didn't say anything.  Afterward, the mom was talking to me and told me she had pictured a blue water.  I told her, "me too."  Turns out she thought we had filled it with herbs as part of the ceremony.


Somehow we didn't have a single other investigator with a baptismal date which is absolutely crazy. We have a lot of work to do here.



 

We got to go with the ward to the temple to do baptisms [for the dead].  It was a ton of fun and the baptistry here is beautiful.  It also had a picture of Jesus being baptized that was really cool and I've never seen before.

 

 

We have the same pensionista for lunch and dinner.  She runs this little restaurant thing at lunch and at night we eat in her house.  It's good food and she doesn't mind if I don't eat everything.  I think I'm really going to like this family.  Her name is Mercedes and she has 3 kids, Fernanda 14, Junior 12, and Isabella 3. They've only been members like 6 months and gave their first talks this Sunday.





Love,
Elder Howlett

P.S.  Alma 36:21