Week 15 - Feeling better and more garlic!

(There was a 6.1 earthquake a few hundred miles from Brad) I did not feel the earthquake this week, the only earthquakes were in my large intestine. I am about three quarters better. This week was just a bunch of breaking garlic by hand, every day we work anywhere from 2-12 hours. My thumbs are ruined. Just trashed.

(I asked Brad if he thinks he got worms from harvesting garlic) I have never seen worms in the garlic fields, just spiders the size of my palm with the blue egg sacs the size of your thumb hanging off of them. I have found two in the chapel (where he lives), I'm sure you can imagine how well I handled that. Lol. I have forged a killing stick for them. I harvest by hand, everyone does. No problems, my hands are the same. They were already pretty leathery when I came out. Nothing has changed. I am convinced I am losing weight. (I asked him if he taught much this week) No, only 3 lessons, and we can't get to half of our area on the other side of the river because it has been raining so much, which also means we can't get to our investigator with the baptismal date, and he can't get to us. I don't know what's going to happen.

(I asked him who the investigator was that was being baptized Saturday) it is Alejandro (He is the 11 year old boy Brad has been teaching for a while), for this saturday. But I will probably be in Cochabamba. The problem is that the river is too deep and fast to cross, even with a horse and he is only 11. 

And a sad story, we have 13 members going to the temple today, some for the first time. And we have this older couple, 50's I would say, and they are members. They attend Church every Sunday, participate, are active, and were baptized. They have the photos. But when President Hansen was interviewing them he couldn't find their records.  When they were baptized in Mendoza, Argentina the people didn't register their baptism. And they had already paid to go to the temple for their first time. But now they have to be re-baptized, and have to wait a year. They were so ready to go, you could see it in their eyes. President Roly, Elder Cortez and I had to tell him this, and it was heartbreaking. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do.

Here are some highlights of my week, we got to Quiriza Tuesday night, broke garlic, Wednesday we broke garlic from 9 to 7, then from about 730 to 9 we proselyted in Quiriza. There is one really bad dog, he wants blood, but I know he isn't rabid, which is good. The rabid dog is dead that we had some encounters with. I have also assisted in a pig slaughter. I don't like it. And you don't want to hear about it. They just aren't terribly humane, hunting is 98 times more humane. They die faster. But it is okay. And then we broke more ajo, harvested tomatoes, and did more ajo, (garlic), the j is pronounced with an h sound. And then this morning we left my area at 3:30 AM to be in Tupiza to email you.

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Howells