2013-12-09 I felt the Spirit a ton this week…

Elder Howlett with one of the "very baby cats"

Hey Everyone,
My companion is doing great now.

District Leader doesn’t mean too much more to do. The district is 10 people.  I give a 1 hour class every Tuesday in our district meeting.  I get the district’s numbers every Sunday to give to the zone leaders.  I go on intercambios with the other elders in my district.  I do the baptismal interviews for everyone who gets baptized in the district.  It doesn’t really take any more of my time.

This week was probably one of my favorite weeks in the mission.  It was great.  We worked hard and had success.  My companion didn’t have any health issues and we get along great.  

We started teaching Gabriela (23) this week and put a baptismal date for Jan 4th.  She’s friends with a member in the other ward that shares our church and already came to church once.  She is very interested in finding out if the church is true and our first lesson with her went really well and we all felt the Spirit strongly.  

We put a baptismal date for Jan 2nd with Ana this week.  Her daughter is a member in the ward and they are helping us and she already believes that it’s true so I think her baptismal date is pretty sure.

We had a great lesson with Javier this week and sured up his baptismal for this Saturday. He has a problem with his foot and we gave him a health blessing which brought the Spirit strongly.  

I felt the Spirit a ton this week and that’s one of the things that made it so great.  My companion is still learning how to teach and I’m still learning Spanish so our lessons aren’t exactly smooth but the Spirit helps and it always turns out well.  I feel the Spirit more being with Elder Contreras than I have with any of my other companions.  It’s incredible the way the Spirit always guides the lesson to something that the person we are teaching needs to hear.

Can you guess what this is?

Rodrigo (17) came to the baptism that the other ward had on Saturday.  Afterward we talked and I asked him if he’d felt the Spirit during the baptism.  He said, “no,” but that made him wonder how all of these people have their answers that the church is true but he still doesn’t have his answer.  I feel kind of bad for him.  He’s had all of the lessons at least 3 times and has been investigating the church for almost a year. We had a really good talk with him after the baptism though, and for the first time he chose a date to work for--my birthday, Jan 11.  I really hope it works out.  He already spends more time at the church than the members do.

We finally got to talk to Santiago (13).  He and his mom talked to the missionaries for 6 months about a year ago. They’ve had all the lessons and he knows it all really well.  He wants to be baptized.  We made an appointment to talk with him and his mom together so we could get her permission but no one was home when we went.  I hope she gives permission and that she’ll get baptized too.  From talking with her son, it seems like she really likes the church except for the fact that we don’t drink coffee.

We taught the Parra family about temples this week and are planning on going with them to do baptisms before Christmas.  I’m excited for that.

I love being here a lot.  I love so many people I’ve met here.  It’s crazy how fast I grow to care for them.

Christmas time doesn’t feel the same here.  It’s too hot and also no one cares that it’s Christmas time.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. Jeremiah 23:23-24