cockroaches

Dear Family,

Yes, cockroaches do exist - and they're just as big as you see them in the movies. Luckily we haven't seen any in our room or house; we saw one in our pension, though - they're quick (and nasty) little buggers, but my companion stomped on it after several tries.

There was a power outage in Trujillo Thursday night that lasted for 10 minutes or so. If we had been outside, we would have had to head back to our room to wait for the lights to return. Luckily, we were in the house of a part-member family and continued our lesson in the dark until the lights came back on.

Saturday, we participated in another ward's talent show; three companionships of missionaries took part in our little skit. It was fun to see some of the primary kids perform cultural dances like the Marinera - with the traditional flowy skirts, sombreros and everything else you'd expect in a real latin dance. It was impressive!

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting. Elder Gonzales del Valle was assigned to speak about "hermanamiento" (I think that's "fellowshipping" - or the act of making a brother out of someone), and I was assigned the topic of tithing. The microphone wasn't functioning, so they removed the apparatus entirely. But somehow that made me feel more comfortable in front of everybody.

We finally found an investigator whose door we've been knocking fruitlessly for some time. He's a lawyer named José, and we passed by his house just as he was coming home from some "congreso" (I assume that's a congress - or some lawyer function, I'm not sure: he uses a lot of words I didn't know before). We asked 20 minutes of his time (and somehow stretched it to an hour) and taught him the message of the Restoration. He had some questions about the church's view on homosexuality, and was satisfied with our answers. He accepted what we taught, and we left him with a Book of Mormon and a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. It was a notable experience for how readily he accepted what we taught; he was probably the most educated person we've taught thus far in my mission.

Saturday night completed 5 months straight of flossing every night. It used to always be a burdensome thing to do, but once it's a habit there's no problem!

I ate too much Saturday night and woke up sick Sunday morning. I skipped breakfast (rather, performed the opposite of breakfast, in fact) and was feeling whole again by lunch. While I gave my talk I pretty much forgot that I had been sick.

Today we had a "parrillada" (peruvian version of a barbecue) with a couple of other zones. The office elders heard that our zone played the best "futbito" (apparently there's a difference: "futbol" is played on grass, 11 v. 11; "futbito" is what we play 6 v. 6 on a smaller concrete "cancha," or field) and therefore challenged us to play this morning. It was pretty fun - they all showed up with matching shirts, and our zone leaders passed out our jerseys as well. I'd send a picture, but my camera batteries died just a half hour ago. Mine has the number 5 and the inscription "Mitchy". We looked pretty sharp. The food was incredible: corn on the cob, potatoes, tomato-avocado salad, rice, and some wonderfully cooked meat. The difficulty involved the lack of silverware. We all ate with our hands and somehow didn't make a mess.

One spiritual highlight of this week was a lesson with the Ramirez family Friday night. We taught them over a month ago and just barely found them again. We refreshed them on the Restoration, and the Spirit was strong as we testified of it. There are specific steps we've been taught to use in teaching: invite (teach a principle and ask for a commitment), promise blessings, and testify. It's easy to go through the motions and say what we're supposed to: but I've been making an effort to make each step meaningful. I focussed more on teaching with clarity, promising blessings with charity, and testifying more sincerely. It seemed to make all the difference.

Preach My Gospel is highly useful. But all the missionaries, members and returned missionaries I've talked to seem to have found that members don't know how to use it the same way missionaries do. I remember trying to just read the book and getting stuck before coming on a mission. Now I can't do without it. Preach My Gospel is scripture: it's a manual on how to become more Christlike. I love it!

Love,
Elder Withers