Week 96

I'm doing good, tired, but really good! :)  Right now we are in Uyuni (World's largest Salt Flat) as a zone, we had to leave Potosi at 4:30 am to get here, and we will get back at about 11 tonight, (4 hours of travel), so this is the only email I can send, I'm so sorry! But we still can write 6 more times in the future ;)

We are only going to have one baptism of Benita this week, but that's okay, she is really prepared and a sweetheart! With transfers coming up this weekend, I think Elder Gill will leave, he's been here 6 months now with three comps, so he should go, and I have no idea who will kill me.  I think my legs are fine, they just hurt when I step wrong, so yeah, new shoes are in order, lol. But don't worry about it, I'm fine :) Elder Gill decided he wants to be a pirate some day, #I'm a sailor, I sail LOLLOLOL. (Inside family joke)

I'll talk to you next week! Be safe, I love you!

Week 89 - Life at 13,400 Feet

How are you? :) Not a lot of air out here, my goodness. My comp (Elder Gill) is awesome, he has been out 4 months and lives by the Seare's (Katherine's Sister in Gilbert, AZ) kind of.  It does get real cold at night, I put on my thermals and I have a double blanket, so I'm pretty good. Being up here has already caused me to start losing weight #thankgoodness. The area is big, but still half the size of my last one. The ward is big too, it's a ward of a 1000 members, but about 100 attend... sad. So, I don't have to iron my shirts anymore because I always wear a little sweater dealio, hahaha.

(I told Brad about our Father's Day activities) Haha, I wish I could've watched Poppy play ball! HAPPY FATHERS DAY to everyone!!! My area is big, but the other senior comps who were there before worked stupid while trying to work smart. So we've tracted a bit and are just trying to help everyone here. We have one guy that should get baptized this week. He didn't want to, but we had two chats, and now he's ready, I'm happy for him, his name is Juan Pablo Rios. And in my last area, I don't know what happened, but no one got baptized (He had 2-3 people ready for baptism when he left on Tuesday), which stinks, but there must be a reason...
Well, I hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Howells

Week 88 - Transfers

I had a great week, and the baptism on Saturday was wonderful! I am going to go to Potosi, Centro 1 (area), with Elder Gill from Arizona as Senior Comp.  I'm excited, Potosi is at like 13,400 ft. normally, so not bad! Yeah, it's winter so there should be pretty good weather (He's hoping for a little snow), supposed to be cold there, I don't know!  I passed through Potosi when I was in a bus coming to Cochabamba or Sucre for immigrations. Just google it, and you'll get the jist of it from the first picture. The big hill is called Cerro Rico, or rich hill. Got a crazy story about the gold and silver, supposed to be a pretty haunted city, a lot of devil worshiping and crap. Don't like that at all, lol.  

I miss Dave Alcorn (Dave is a family friend who just passed away), he was one of the greatest in the Kingdom, that I know. 

Today we went to a barbecue, I made bratts, then lunch, and now we're here emailing! Tonight we have just a few appointments, then getting my bags ready. My flight leaves tomorrow (Tuesday 6/13) at 7 in the morning, only a half hour flight!

I love you all!  Have a great week.

Week 82

My day has been good, I went and bought some souvenirs... It's weird that I'm to that point to buying stuff to take home. Then we went home, my comp took a shower and I accidentally fell asleep for two hours, and now we're here! ;) Elder Larrea is doing good, finishing strong! If these three planned baptisms for next Saturday happen, we will break records of baptisms together in two transfers for his whole mission!

That went on National news (The video below) and the newspaper. It was a holiday activity, and the stake president wasn't there for an interview, so, seeing as I'm ZL1, they made me do it, and then the clown wanted the one in charge, and the missionaries decided to shout my name, and there I was...


I hope you all have a great week.

Love, Elder Howells

Week 81

My day was good, we took a nap, got our hair cut, and now we're here! This last week was great, and this next week should be too. We've been trying to find more people to teach, and so far I'm happy with the people we've found.  2 of the new ones have a baptismal date for the 13th, and one other older investigator has a date for the 13th too! I am feeling pretty good, no complaints!

And this week is going to be pretty standard issue! And the only difference here in the fall is that the mornings are a little bit nippy, but really, not bad at all! It still can get hotter than sin and you can get burned in literally 5 minutes if you don't stick to the shade. For the high altitude the sun has a stronger effect.  And Pres. is great, I saw him yesterday in a stake/mission president meeting with the zone leaders. It was cool, he drove us home! I think he might be a little trunky, but he really doesn't show it at all!

Well, I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Howells

Week 80 - Baptisms

I am doing great. Better than a pig in a puddle. The baptisms went great this weekend, in fact, it was the first that actually started within 15 minutes of when it should. Usually everything in this country starts about an hour or 1.5 hours after it was supposed to start. That means everything, general conference, church, whatever. Hahaha. 

Today we went and played soccer, I'm still no good, and this week looks to be a pretty laid back week as far as administrative stuff is concerned. Elder Larrea and I have a pretty great rythim, our area is buzzing and we've got the zone firing on all cylinders. We're excited.