Baptism and 20th Birthday!!

My week was great!! Josè Gabriel's baptism was wonderful :) And my birthday was great! I am really happy :) Yesterday was a great day, hard to think it's my last birthday in the mission, that means I'm about to tap out. I have to take advantage of my time. I have already, but there is surely more to take advantage of, which I will. Today we went and played soccer and then bowling, and it was pretty fun. Now we're here emailing. And soon we're going to head off and preach the good word! And tomorrow we have district and zone meetings, Wednesday the Temple and the zone's interviews right after in the mission house (which is right behind the temple, literally), and Saturday and Sunday General Conference. I am thrilled for the conference, it should be great!

I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Howells

Week 76 - Baptisms this Saturday!

This week was a great week! We have Josè Gabriel who is going to get baptized this Saturday at 6:30 (Bolivian time), and two preparing themselves for the 8th of April. The zone did a lot better this week as a whole, which we are grateful for. Coming up this week, on Thursday we have zone conference, then just normal work the rest of the week!

I have been speaking pure spanish the whole mission except for in the offices and when I was with Elder Wren. Because of my different companions my vocabulary consists of Peruvian, Chilean, Ecuadorian, Argentinan, Panamanian, Bolivian and a little bit of Mexican. I have my r rolling down so good, especially when speaking fast or in slangs, people sometimes ask if I'm from Chile. One problem I have from time to time is that one word is fine here, but in Peru it's the worst thing. In the Dominican Republic you can say let's get in the bus, but here it means something bad. Hahaha you have to be careful depending on who you're with. I told a bunch of kids to screw off yesterday on accident in church. I wanted to say stop bugging the teacher, but I used an Ecuadorian word, which is fine there and every other country besides Bolivia. Hahaha. And I speak a little of Quechua, which is some old Jaredite aged Indian language, which is fun to use with the new gringos because they think it's Spanish because they still don't speak Spanish! Hah.

I hope you all have a great week.

Love, Elder Howells

Week 75

My week was really good! We worked hard this week, but the zone numbers aren't great. We're going to have our zone meeting tomorrow and we're going to fix that. It'll get better! That worries us a little bit. We played indoor volleyball as a district today, and now we're here emailing. We've gotta get our haircut today, too! There are 7 companionships in our zone, 14 missionaries. It's the smallest zone, but with the most consistently highest numbers, which is awesome!

Our investigators are doing well, but we need to find quality new ones. We have one guy who is 17 named Josè Gabriel committed for baptism for the 25th, and he's right on track. A great kid.  

Lately it's been so rainy, it's crazy. It's wet and cloudy, 7 minutes later it's hotter than sin. Crazy!

I hope you all have a great week.  

Love, Elder Howells

Week 74

I love my new comp, he is so awesome! He is like a latino Leanord Hoffsteader (Leonard is a brilliant nerd in the tv show The Big Bang Theory), which is awesome! I love him to death, his name is Elder Larrea, from Lima, Peru. 

This week was good. We were busy with zone stuff and transfers, but after that, we got to work hard, and we are really happy with what we've been able to do so far! The snow at home looks awesome, I am doing really good! I am happy and excited to have my new companion!

Our investigators are good. Nobody came to church yesterday, which stinks. Last week we had to be in the airport for three days straight in a trio waiting for companions to get here from outside of Cochabamba, but the flights kept getting canceled and stuff like that, which was a pain. So we didn't get to work hardly as much as we wanted to. But Friday, Saturday and Sunday we gave it heck, and today we're going to, too! We have 2 people with a date and we are going to put 2-3 more this week! Attendance is really our biggest challenge out here.

Have a great week!

I love you all,

Elder Howells

Week 73 - Carnival

My week was really good! Elder Cortez and I finished strong, I'd say! My new companion is from Peru. Elder Larrea is his name. He finishes not this transfer, but the next. He's a great guy from what I know, really humble, and just willing to work. I love that, and he is obedient! I am stoked for this transfer! I won't be with him until Wednesday, and on Thursday we have a leadership council!  We had 3 investigators go to church yesterday (Norma, Lyndalee, and José Gabriel). José has a baptism date for the 25th of March.

Today and tomorrow we don't have permission to leave the house, just for lunch and to write, so that's it for today. The reason is the Carnivales have started, and everyone, literally everyone is drunk. We only have permission today to write you guys and go to lunch, then back to the house, and tomorrow, only to lunch. So that stinks! As far as feeling safe, I've felt pretty uncomfortable today, and even yesterday. But I usually feel fine. When you're white in an anti-white culture, it gets a little spicy sometimes.  Hahahaha

I love you guys, have a great week!

Elder Howells