Week 72 - 2 Baptisms

The baptisms were great! I baptized and confimed Kevin, and my comp baptized and confirmed John! They were both non believers on anything spiritual. Kevin saw the logical part of things, and the Book of Mormon was his conversion key. John read Alma 39 as a commitment we left, and that converted him (v. 10-15).

The other investigators are doing very well, we are just making sure they understand repentance as a preparatory thing!! I think the second week of March will be the best time to be baptized for the majority of them.

Transfers are on Sunday, and we will receive our comps on Tuesday! I am doing good! Just keep on chugging along.

And there are blockades tomorrow and maybe Wednesday, so we'll see what ges on with the meetings this week. But my comp finishes proseyting on Friday, so I will be in a companionship with another guy in the zone whose comp is dying (going home) as well, I will be with him until the following Tuesday! So, that'll be sweet!!

(I asked Brad what a blockade was and this is his answer) Where a bunch of angry cholitas, taxi drivers, trufi or bus drivers sit in the streets and shoot off like mean fireworks and the cops flip out, people get trampled or hung, crap like that. It's a pretty middle age country, lol.

(The lady in these pictures is Maria.  It was her birthday today and she wanted all of her favorite missionaries to come over and celebrate as part of their p-day.  She is a neat lady and is always sending pictures of Brad)

Week 71

This week was great. We had a bunch of sweet lessons, and unfortunately only two of the people we wanted to get baptized came to church, so John and Kevin are going to be baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. The rest of the people are going to wait for another couple of weeks so they can strengthen their habit of coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon. I have been good, just trying to help my comp finish strong (getting a little more tricky day by day).

It is literally hotter than can be down here, man! You get out of a cold shower and you're still sweating, that stinks. It's kind of rainy, but still hotter than sin. I miss mountain air and snow, but Cocha is still awesome. And yes, I admire that about the Savior too, we all need to work on that one;) (Selflessness) Speaking of that, I love Matt 18:11, with the footnote until I think the first semicolon after repentance.

I hope you all have a great week! Love, Elder Howells

Week 70

I have had a great day! And I'm sorry, I was totally planning on sending pictures, but in my hurry this morning I forgot my cable at home, I'm so sorry!! Today was good, it's been raining a lot these last couple of days. I am doing pretty good, the bowels are holding up too, thank goodness! In divisions with somebody in the zone I helped him put two baptismal dates for the 4th of March, which is awesome! I saw some of the game (Super Bowl) playing last night walking around my area and I was really struggling to not pull up a lawn chair and partake of the football feast taking place.

Our investigators are great, there are a solid 4 that should be baptized not this Saturday but the next Saturday! That will be great. We had a solid week! I am happy with how things went. Now just to find new people so that they are lined up for the future, so that there are always people being prepared without large gaps.

This ward is pretty good, I prefered my last one, but this one is still very good. Today, we went to the store, saw some of the families Elder Cortez used to visit, and now we're here emailing.

Today we are going to go and just proselyte, maybe a family home evening would be nice. We will play it by ear for today. Tomorrow we have a zone meeting, like normal, then we just carry on until next Sunday and Monday!

Yeah, I'm good! I love the mission, and it is flying by...

Maria Vargas sent some pictures during the week of Brad and Elder Cortez...