Week 84 - Mothers Day & I got robbed

Hey pops, somebody robbed me and my whole wallet, so can you hurry and cancel my credit card so that they can't take any money out! I love you, talk to you later!  (That was the email Brad sent first thing Monday morning, I had to wait until later to find out if he was okay)

I'm good, just upset! ;) They only took 80 b's (Boliviano's; local currency), but I lost my Bolivian ID (200 b's to get replaced), my church insurance card, church and home credit cards, Temple Recommend, notes from you and mom, and my Sportsman's Warehouse frequent customer card (real upset about that one), and my pride, but that's okay!

We have a lot of appointments this week, so Elder Larrea will go home with a bang! :) The baptism was great, Javier is a special needs youth, mentally, and he was scared of the water, so the fifth time baptizing him was the charm.

We were able to Skype w/ Brad on Mothers Day.  It was so good to see and talk to him.  He is doing really well (other than getting robbed on Monday morning).  

Week 83

How are you?? :) This week was a hard week, a lot of doors and very very few answers, but we saw little miracles and tender mercies each day, which makes it all worth it. Today we played indoor volley ball, called wally, and then we went and ate, changed, and now we're here emailings. As far as calling on Mother's Day we haven't even found a computer to use yet, but we will email you during the week to let you know. It will probably be in the afternoon, I think!

Elder Larrea is pretty worn out (He has 2 weeks left), but giving it his all, which is admirable. And transfers are the Sunday after Mother's day, I don't know what day that would be!

I love you guys!  Talk to you on Sunday!

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.

Week 79

Well... I didn't have a transfer, Ì'm going to be killing Elder Larrea (Sending him home), and then stay for the next transfer of 3 weeks, which I'm happy about! The baptisms were rescheduled for this week, and it's pretty sure that they're going to happen! We had a good week. A lot of lessons, new people, we are happy with how it went!! :) And this week is just a normal week of teaching with a regular district and zone meeting on Friday! :) This assignment (area, comp, etc.) it's my favorite assignment so far!! :)

I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Howells

Week 78

General conference was awesome, I really enjoyed it! I'd say my favorite talks were by the counselors in the First Presidency in Priesthood session, and by the Australian guy, with Elder Rasband as well! I liked em all, I guess. Haha. This week we have two scheduled baptisms of Norma and her daughter Lindalee. They are about 85% percent sure for this week, and if not this week then the next. The temple was great and the interview was great! President asked me about the status of the mission, how I thought we could meet our goals of 900 baptisms a year (Currently at 670 in 2016), and how I thought we could improve the work. In conference, what stood out to me was that I heard, John 3:16 4 times and "Perfect love casteth out all fears" 4 times as well, if I'm not mistaken (I probably am ;).

I went pretty hard on indoor volleyball today, so we're a little tight right now. And transfers are on Sunday! I was trying to send some pictures and I just got a virus on my flash card. I hope it didn't delete all of my 1500 pictures! I am going to see in the offices because they have virus killing software!

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Howells

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