Transfer 6: My first Kill

The biggest thing of the week for sure is that Pedro, Tiago and João were split up. I finally, almost 5 weeks later, have a companion of my own: Elder Combs. He is from Colorado, 20 and this is his last transfer.... Which means I will "kill him off" here in 4 weeks and 6 days, but who's counting (hahaha he and Elder Evangelista because that's when their 2 years is complete). Thankfully Elder Combs is a hard worker which will help our area come back to life. He used to be the "Assistente" and is now working with me near the dump. Its like the General Conference talk about the man going from planning the big event to being the poop scooper. He is enjoying having all day to be in an area though.

Easter here was pretty big, sadly once again mainly focused on drinking. "Good Friday" is almost a bigger deal. Lots of people don't eat bread or meat that day. "Palm Sunday" people literally walked around with palm leaves which was interesting. We had lots of lessons to go and teach about the Resurrection though which was good. Normally you can just show up and 80% of people will offer you chairs-even if they are too busy.... But this last week was probably 95%. It was a good week for finding/teaching new people and for tying to help "eternals" (investigators who keep "investigating for years without getting baptized-usually because of marriage difficulty).

Bia. Oh Bia. I am excited to share her story but want to once its more fully finished. She missed her interview so we had to push back the her baptism to the 29th. Thankfully she is doing really well and the extra time is nice to fortify what she knows.

We had a few old investigators call us this week asking for visits because they missed us--awwwwhhhh-- Of course we went, hopefully they understood the kindly put "flaming". Hopefully it was a good "purifying" week for many people.

Lots of people ask me about the garden. I think I will take a quick video this week to show it off more fully (because everyone wants videos).

I hope everyone had a good week. Like we kept telling all our people this week: The point of life isn't to get comfortable in what you're doing or where you are but to keep improving.

Thanks for the love you all show me
Elder Howell


PS: I had "frango zambiano style" chicken this week in a crock pot (big no no, culturally frowned on, ssshhhhh don't tell) and it was super good. I will have to cook it for people when I return. Do an all out Mozambican meal with xima and chicken sitting on concrete blocks.

This crazy kid that pretty much only speaks dialects... We took a video with him but he pushed the button twice so it didn't record :( I will try again this week probably.

This. This food. STUPID expensive. NEVER again but dang it was good. Prawns and squid. Both were incredible. 

This was a plate made by a member for us... Rice with peanut sauce, boiled peanuts and leaves.... Not bad actually.

The mission presidents wife surprised us with these pictures from an Easter Luncheon at the mission home on Easter Sunday.