fluid mechanics

Dear Family,

Christmas and New Years here were more like Independence Day than anything else. An enjoyable Peruvian tradition is the creating and burning of human-sized dolls on New Years. We went out in the street, and there seemed to be one large, flaming doll for every few houses all the way down the street and throughout the neighborhood. Apparently you can buy some that are decorated like politicians, actors, etc., but they're expensive and apparently not worth the cost. I nearly got hit by a few young'ns mishandling their roman candles, but in the end, nobody I know of got hurt.

On Thursday this week, our district leader did a work visit with my companion, so I went to his area and spent the day with his companion. His companion is Elder Johnson, who just entered the mission field about two weeks ago. It was an interesting experience being with another north american. I think Elder Johnson was glad to have someone to talk to in English. The experience went well all day, and we had a "noche misional" (or "mission night") in the newly built chapel. At the end of it all, we were in the bathroom when the Branch President locked the door. (And when you lock the door here, that means it doesn't open from the inside or the outside.) When we left the bathroom and found the lights off, we ran to the door and started banging on it and making lots of noise - the Branch President was nearly to the outer gate, about to lock that one, too. Luckily he heard us (and his wife hadn't seen us leave, either) and came and let us out. That's the closest I've come to spending the night in the chapel.

I'm ready for the holidays to be over - we can't proselyte on those days (the conditions not being very appropriate for receiving the Gospel), so we had to stay inside or meet up with the zone to play soccer instead of teaching anybody. We also had interviews with President Mora this week, which was an amazing experience all over again. The Lord calls and qualifies His servants. That took up all afternoon on Friday, leaving us with only a couple full days of working this week. We have been spending much of our time encouraging people and arranging transportation to help our investigators come to church on Sunday morning. The most effective teaching we do is when investigators can see the Gospel in action in the lives of others and in their own lives.

On Saturday, we went to the home of a man named Luiz Vera, an investigator who supports his family by making clay replicas of ancient Peruvian handiwork. He showed us the whole process (that he runs inside his home) and invited us to take part. His wife showed us how to polish the rough surface of the uncooked clay "huacos" (or maybe "wacos", since the word is quechua for something like "sculpture" and I think they might use the "w" in that language), and we helped clean a few of them before our service time expired.

The strongest spiritual experience came later that night, when we returned to the home of Luiz, where he was waiting with his wife, mother-in-law, aunt, and co-worker to listen to the missionaries. Since his relatives had some questions, we taught about the Restoration once again, using the Bible (because his mother-in-law loves hearing the words of the Bible, though she can't read) to show how the Church of Jesus Christ, though lost, has been restored anew. The Spirit brought the lesson to their hearts, and Luiz and his wife were both convinced of the truth of what we taught. My heart was filled with gratitude for the simplicity of the Gospel and the beauty of its principles. Those who seek the truth will find it.

I learned to appreciate warm showers when I had to go a few days with only cold water. This week, I learned to appreciate cold showers when we had to go a couple days without running water in our apartment. The term "running water" here is actually a bit of a farse - there is water available at certain hours throughout the day, and if you're lucky, you have a tank on your roof that fills itself daily (using a little floating plug that shuts off the running water when it's full). We have such a tank, but the plug doesn't work - so the owners of the house have to manually turn the water off and on every now and then to keep the tank full. But the tank ran out, and we were without water for two days. A cold shower is infinitely better than no shower. It's phenomenal how the Lord can help us count our blessings, no matter how small they may be.

I received a handful of Christmas letters and cards this week: thank you to everyone who sent those! It was a wonderful p-day morning, reading all those messages of love for me. "Out of small things proceedeth that which is great" - you might not know how much one little card inspires a missionary to keep working hard.

Thank you for the wedding pictures, the e-mails, and all of your prayers and love for me. I'm grateful to have such support from my family and friends and testify that (as it says in Romans 8) time, distance, and earthly powers can't separate us from the love of Christ, from the love of our families, and from the blessings we call down from heaven through our prayers.

Love,
Elder Withers