Pedro is Gone

Well, the first important part of the week is that we are missing Pedro. Elder Evangelista had to have surgery at the start of last week on his foot to remove some weird thingy out of it. Apparently it made a bit of a hole so we couldn't walk a lot (aka work) so he will be in the mission office until around mid week this week. That means Elder Nielsen and I have been running both our areas. That's a massive amount of area. Which just means that boleias (hitch hiking) have been key. 5-10 a day. There are gifts given to people, mine is flagging cars apparently. Craziest boleia this week was getting picked up by some white people. Such shock/confusion that no one said anything for almost the entire car ride.

Due to splitting time in the areas we haven't been able to visit my investigators and recent converts all that much which is tough. That however leads to me seeing who really wants visits. After a few days in Elder Nielsen's area ALL of the recent converts had called wanting visits and even some investigators. How awesome of them. *it's also super nice to have my own phone, there is comfort in the weight of it.

This week I also learned:

 1. How to cut hair---Sorry Elder Nielsen, I tried. It didn't turn out too bad though?
 2. That I am totally allergic to the weird grenade looking fruit.... Never has my mouth felt so itchy.
 3. Learning dialect terms like "can I have some food" or "please, go home you're drunk" are very useful.

That's it for this week. Sounds like the "tripla" will be staying until transfers in a few weeks!

Elder Howell

 Elders Evangelista, Nielson and Howell

 Grenade looking fruit

 It makes my mouth itch

We have to sleep under beg nets

Crazy, strange week

I uploaded some pictures and even a video this week, so this email will probably be pretty short.

To begin, I am without a companion as of Wednesday. My old companion is taking some time at the mission office then will be getting a new area. No idea when I will be getting a new companion. For the meantime I am working with Elder Nielsen and Elder Evangelista. They are both killer people and Elders. Super awesome teachers and because of Elder Evangelista's nationality of Brazil, clearly he speaks Portuguese well (though like a Brazilian which is an accent, like a sickness that you can catch if you're around it too much). That means I have walked a lot in their area and have been able to see another teaching style and way of doing things, very interesting.

Lots of the kids around call the missionaries Moses and Abraham due to a TV show 10 Commandments. But now that we are in a tripla they call us "Pedro, Tiago and João" (Peter, James and John) which we all find pretty funny.

Like I've showed with several photos kids like to hold our hands and walk. Fun to talk with them. This week however Elder Evangelista was taking a kid back to his house and this old lady came out yelling at him, slapped him (hard, glasses went flying) and started yelling about how he was going to kill and eat her grandkid... So that was super funny afterwards. Some old ladies here love us, some don't apparently. We call our next door neighbors (very old) Grandma and Grandpa. They are super awesome and always give us fruits and stuff (same couple who's tree we chopped down).

That is pretty much it for the week. Updates of comps and such to come next week if I get a new one. Enjoy the photos!

Thanks for the emails and everything!

Elder Howell

This week will be a pretty short email given our lack of "working" in our area this week. We had interviews on Tuesday with our Mission President. Right after we were talking with his wife and she sent Elder Nunes to the hospital (cough, lack of appetite and such). 5 or so hours, blood tests and x-rays later, and he is pretty much totally fine. Just a cough. Better safe than sorry though. They did however order bed rest for the week. We did work on Wednesday and Thursday but then we stayed in the house.

We did have Zone Conference on Friday which was nice to see some of the other Elders I havent seen in a while. I was able to chat with Elder Burchett and get a package my Mum gave to an Elder that she found in Utah (Thanks Mum!) After eating some nice Pizza Hut little pizzas we went and started the official bed rest time. I got tons of reading done this week.

On Saturday we did have Movany's baptism. He is the brother of Sarita (who was baptized 2 weeks ago). Sarita's mom took weeks of talking with to finally agree to the baptism. Sarita invited Movany to church one week and he hasnt missed since. We had to visit him 4+ times a week to get him all the lessons, but it all worked out super well. The baptism was small, but nice.

Here are some answers to questions from last week:

It seems like you are having good success in your area. Are you getting to know the people in your new ward?

I am getting to know the people from my area. I have some nice ward friends who I enjoy chatting with and such, but no super close friends. Everyone knows I will leave within a few months, so its hard for people to get attached. Still trying to get to know everyone though.

Is it a ward or a branch?

Ward, part of the Maputo stake which will soon split into the Maputo/Matola stakes.

What are the biggest differences between this area and the last one?

Much smaller area, less walking more hitch hiking. We have a strip of the beach, so we go get food there when we can which is soooooo awesome and sooooo cheap. 125 Met for the plate of food I got-totally full after too. But healthy. We also work with members a lot more there.

 How is the garden doing?

Growing like crazy. The one papaya tree is like 3 feet tall already.

What are you trying to grow?

3 Papaya trees and an orange tree.

 How long has it been growing?

6 weeks, right when I got here it started.

One thing. Home teaching. No one here does it. I can't tell you how many people we talk to that haven't been to church in years say they stopped because "a little after baptism the missionaries couldn't keep coming and we felt alone, like no one cared". Literally all it takes for tons of people is feeling cared about and home/visiting teaching does that.

Thanks for all the love and support. Emails, letters and the like. Love all of you!

Elder Howell

Start of Transfer 5

Well, transfers. Transfer 4 felt like a weekend not 6 weeks. So that's a bit crazy. Anyway, we were told that Elder Nunes was leaving us, but we are still together. That is super nice because I don't know the area well enough yet to show it to another person. It can be really hard to get around because there are no addresses or real street names. You ask someone where they live and they *pointing North* "Over there".... What? Could you explain "You go to that one blue shop, then take your next 12345 lefts, 23456 rights and its the 17th house on the right behind the other house...." Oh, thanks. But, we are together for another. Adventure part 2.

To begin the update from the week before, everyone is convinced I have 'The Gift of Boleia's". I can somehow always flag down cars for rides. Its super convenient and we haven't even been kidnapped again!

Three things about food! I helped make fried fish and rice with some members. It turned out pretty good other than the whole fish head and the pain of eating fish bones. We ate on the beach this week (we have a little strip of beach in our area apparently! Whoooooo). The chicken, xima, fries and salad stuff was SO good. Insanely good and only 125 Met.... Also, I think Coke has mind control powers here. They have this song/jingle that plays in all their commercials. Whenever I hear it I want a Coke.... I'm not addicted, I could stop whenever I wanted *sips Coke*

Two last random things. It rained almost non-stop for almost 5 days last week so all the streets are flooded which makes for some serious parkour skills that are needed to make it to lessons without wet shoes.  We teach a lot of lessons everyday, no time to waste!

Lastly, this week during a lesson I thought a mosquito bit my leg, so I slapped at it... THEN MY LEG CAUGHT ON FIRE. Not literal fire, well kinda. My legs (in and out of my pants) were swarming with big red biting fire ants.... I subsequently asked to be excused, then bolted outside to slap my legs to death. It was not fun. That is all.

Have a good week one and all!

Elder Howell

Transfer 4 Week 5

Well, only four real things of interest happened during the week.

First, I have come to love Peri Peri sauce. Its like hot sauce but way better. Anthony Bourdain described it as better than cocaine. I agree (though I haven't tried cocaine, I still think its better). Anyway, this week a member challenged me to eat a peri peri raw... I was like "eh, why not". Terrible idea. It felt like my mouth had a hot coal in it, then my throat. It was soooooo not fun. I will never make that mistake again :)

Second, we got a text mid week saying "GO HOME NOW OR YOU'RE GOING TO DIE". So, we headed home at 16:00. Right as we left our area it started pouring rain. Turns out a hurricane was on its way. Thankfully it hit further up the coast in Gaza, but we still got lots of rain this week.

Third, I got peed on. That was not fun. Middle of a lesson a kid just walked up to me and peed all over my new Happy Socks... In the house. I was the only one who even seemed to think that was odd.... Yay Africa.

Fourth, Camilia, Sarita and Cloudio finally got baptized. After last Saturday and Sundays mess of no water we finally got to baptize them. It took 4 days of slowly filling the "font" with nasty greenish yellow water. But, it all worked out. Hopefully the photos will finally load up.

Love all of you. I hear its finally warming up a little in Utah.... "Warming up".... HA.

Elder Howell

PS:   I don't know if I'm even saying Howell right anymore. I hear it wrong countless times a day and I'm starting to question if I know it.

Week 28: No water = no baptisms

This week has been a bit hard on us and our investigators. The big thing of the week should have been a double baptism on Saturday. We showed up at the church 4 hours early to fill the "font" (cut in half water tank). It was filling slowly but going, so we left to get ready everything else. Once we got home we got a call saying the water turned off. Long story short we had no running water at the church and maybe a foot of water. We spent the next 2 hours running to the neighbors around the chruch with buckets trying to fill it, but then their water stoppped. We ended up having to cancel the baptism for the day and move it to Sunday.... Sunday the same issue of no water happened again .-. That was really sucky for us, and the girls getting baptized. But! We will just move them to next week with the baptisms planned for then. Hopefully next week it all works out better.

In terms of families we are teaching, one of my favorite families I've met here moved middle of the week... We aren't sure exactly where, but probably not in our area anymore. They're still coming to church and are planning on getting married in our chapel with us there. But they will probably have to get baptized in the city. They finally have all their marriage documents and have opened the month waiting process, it really sucks to see them go.

As far as life here... the little garden at our house is starting to grow nicely. I hope before I leave this area to see that it has grown a lot, to the mini fruit stage. Lots of people ask me about the weather. Answer: Its stupid hot here. So hot and humid. The people who were born/raised here complain about it and kindly let me know I will never adjust because they haven't. I sweat pretty much 24/7 which is great fun, but drinks are cheap!

Thanks for all the love, I will try to send photos next week!

Elder Howell

Week 27: Six months out!

Well, after last week this week has seemed very simple and boring by comparison. During the week I write little notes in my planner of "noteworthy things to write home about" and this week I had very few. So, I will do more updating on my "new" area.

First off, like the pictures will show, I literally work around a massive, flaming, mountain of a dump :} Yes, all the fun of smells, flies and the like are there. This week however we walked/climbed to the top of it to take pictures of the sunset. Beautiful in a trash smoke filled way. It was really cool to see my whole area though.

Quick family update, the family that all had malaria is already better... Except the youngest daughter who didn't have malaria now does. BUG NETS PEOPLE, BUG NETS.

We also had Stake Conference this week. We got to church at 8:00 to take an hour bus ride with the members to Matola {where the stake center is}. Tons and tons of people were there. I got to talk and catch up with all of my friends from T-3 which was really fun. Also, I got talking with a member from my ward who is going to South Africa this week, he is going to pick me up good food....MAHAHAHA Does that count as me being an international trader? I guess we'll see if he delivers or not!

That's it for the week. Love you all!


Elder Howell

PS: Loved getting all your letters this week. 15 from October to December all showed up this week!

Trash Mountain Hike.

Pre/Post haircut.

Food!

Me preaching the sacred bible in an African church.

African selfie that they wanted.

Stake Conference in Matola.  People in attendance:  1107.

Elder Howell and his comp Elder Nunes at Stake Conference.