2014-06-02 It was generally pretty awful.

Hey Everyone,

This was another good week here in Potosì.  We had 11 investigators in church on Sunday which is the most I've had here in Potosì.  Among those were Jose Maria, Erik, Claudia, and Pamela.  They are all progressing very well.  Jose and Erik will likely be baptized on the 14th.  Their mom is already a member, but very inactive.  We've been having a hard time getting her to come to church.  She's always very friendly when we find her in the house though.

Guinea pigs are called cuyes here.  
They have like 30 but they don't eat them unless the dog kills them.

After church on Sunday, we went to eat lunch with Yolanda and Ivan´s family.  Their family loves us.  After we ate, they took us to their backyard where they have a little zoo thing with guinea pigs, ducks, and chickens.  Then we all went  back inside and had a lesson.  Kevin left partway through.  We are having a harder time with him than the others, he didn't come to church yesterday.  This afternoon we are going to go out to lunch with him and then to play soccer.  We are working with him on some problems he has with some of the commandments and I think he'll feel more motivated to come to church and read the scriptures and do the other things he should once we get those other things worked out.  I really hope that this family can get baptized together.  They are really good people.

Suzana, the 11-year-old, is doing really well.  She's read up to Mosiah in the Book of Mormon and has been to church every week for almost 3 months.  She also goes to absolutely everything there is at the church.  She is there more than any of the members.  Her family isn't progressing at all though. In fact, besides one of her sisters, we haven't been able to teach them for over 2 weeks.  By June 14th, she will have been attending church for over 3 months and we are going to ask her mom permission to baptize her on her own. 

The Floreses called this week. They've moved across the street from where they used to live.

Bancario this week--the white-looking kid in red in the front

 is Rodrigo.  He came to church on Sunday.  They are all 

wearing jackets and stuff because it's freezing in the school.

We went to Bancario school again. It was fun. Three of the students told me they were going to come to church this week. Only one came, Rodrigo.  The other 2 texted to say they wouldn't be there though.  They had to go to military training that's obligatory here. We judged their pronunciation during a spoken presentation.  It was generally pretty awful.  The majority I couldn't follow along with even with a written copy to read. A few speak pretty decent English.

On Sunday at 10:00, when church starts, there were 9 people there including the 4 missionaries and the Bishop. By the end of sacrament meeting there were 150ish.  

We tried a new Italian restaurant in our area this week.  It is quite good and costs 10 to 15 bolivianos (1.50 to 2 dollars).  They also serve focaccia bread with all of their food, which is delicious.  We ate there twice this week.

Pamela, and Claudia's dad, Ivan.  It's a picture from
 while we were teaching because one of their kids
 had my camera and when I was looking through it
this morning I saw they'd taken photos while we taught. 

We found Victor Castro after a long time of not seeing him this week.  We had a really good lesson with him. We found out that one of the main reasons he's not coming to church is that he has classes on Sunday. He promised to be sure to pray every day and tomorrow we have another appointment to visit with him.

How long has it been since you said a good prayer? One where you talked to God about something important and weren't rushing to finish so you could go to sleep.  One of the things that amazes and confuses me when I get to thinking about it is our ability to speak with God.  Whenever and where ever we want to. And he listens to us.  The most powerful and important being in the universe listens to us when we want to talk with Him.  He not only listens, but then responds and blesses us.  And while His answers don't always come in an instant I've never said a sincere prayer and not been blessed in that very moment with the wonderful peace and security that the Holy Ghost provides us.  Say a good prayer, and not just once.  I'm sure that a habit of sincere prayer is one of the strongest protections we have against temptation.

writing in my journal by candlelight-- 

 For whatever reason Potosì, the entire city,

 has been losing its electricity almost 

every other day for the past couple weeks

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S.  D&C 78:17-18