service rocks!

Dear Family,

A lot happened this week! I'll do my best to write it all, but I only have a few minutes, as p-day is ending fast.

My companion has been somewhat sick, and President Mora told him to get checked out at the doctor. We had interviews this week, and it was during the interview that he was told he had to go to the clinic. I went on with one of President Mora's assistants on Saturday morning while my companion waited in the long line at the doctor's office. Later, I accompanied him for further testing and receiving the results. The doctor ordered a change of diet, prohibiting basically everything that makes eating fun: fats, lots of carbohydrates, condiments, ajì (that's what makes food spicy here), and some other things I hadn't heard of. So far, I'm trying to be supportive by joining in the diet and putting it to the test as well. For a couple days we were worrying that Elder Rojas would be sent to Trujillo, or even to his house; but it all depended on the results, and it looks like he's staying at least until transfers.

Yesterday afternoon, we were in a part of our area that we only visited one time before, for its being a bit of a hike from our house. We had some appointments, but before we got to their homes, we saw a few people unloading long sticks and planks from a big truck. Those sticks and planks are used to support the drying cement that I've mentioned before in "filling ceilings." We walked past them and realized that we had passed the house we wanted to visit. On our way back, I felt impressed to offer our help. Without waiting for them to say yes or no, we took off our jackets and backpacks and rolled up our sleeves and started carrying the sticks and boards down the hill and piling them with the rest of them. It was a direct violation of the Sabbath Day according to the Law of Moses, but we decided that it was "lawful to do good on the sabbath day" and got a little dirty in the process. After unloading it all, they let us wash our hands and gave us bottled water to drink. We found out that the people we were helping all belonged to the same family - I had assumed they were neighbors coming to help. They brought us our jackets and backpacks, and one of the women was inquisitively flipping through the copy of the Book of Mormon I had been carrying around and reading it as well. We explained to them what it was and gave all of them (about thirteen people total) a pamphlet of the lessons we teach, along with two copies of the Book of Mormon. A few of the little kids even wanted a picture with the "gringo" and so I favored them as they took a few. It was an amazing experience. Just a little (well, I suppose it wasn't the smallest) act of service can open doors and hearts that we don't expect.

We were in the rain with our umbrellas on Saturday night, and a taxi zoomed past us just as we were walking by the river that formed in the street. My companion was wet up to his waist - luckily I was on the other side of him and only got drenched up to the knees. There are some things that umbrellas just can't help.

Alright, time is running out. I wish I could write more, but it's a busy day. We're moving from our upstairs apartment to a bigger room downstairs that we're sharing with another companionship, so we've been working on that all day.

Love you,
Elder Withers