back to my roots

Dear Family,

The weather is cheering up in the southern hemisphere (I'm in one of the few places where the seasons aren't backwards: I might miss winter this year). Just like everybody said, the rain seems to have stopped in May. And it's a little warmer in the sun, though it's cold at night and in the early mornings. In the part of our proselyting area that lies outside the city limits (off the map and so forth), it gets extremely muddy in the rain, and the cars kick up dust when its dry. I guess we win some and lose some. In fact, as we were proselyting out there (among the farmland, dirt/rock roads, cows and cow smells, dairies, pastures and magnificent scenery), we went exploring even further to places we had never reached before. Then we saw and heard rain coming from the direction we were heading. The way we were going, there were no houses for about a quarter mile, so we turned around and high-tailed it to the nearest house with eves and huddled next to the wall. The rain came pouring down noisily, and it had got us a little wet as we ran. While we waited, an uncomfortably large spider descended behind my companion's back, crawling down the wall of the house - I notified him of the pest, and he moved out of the way. The spider jumped off the wall and my companion used the ordinary shoe approach to dispose of the little menace. Then the rain started to come in sideways, so we knocked the door, and someone let us in. Ten minutes later, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The road was dry again before we got back into the city. It was a delightful little adventure, and we found a few new investigators out there.

On Thursday night, the ward planned a Giant Family Home Evening - the Relief Society and the Missionaries were in charge. About five of the people we had been teaching were in attendance, along with a less-active family and some other 20 members. We were in charge of the lesson, so we gave a brief explanation of the Plan of Salvation. I narrated while my companion acted out the premortal, mortal and postmortal life of a child of God, and we drew the famous diagram on the chalkboard to help explain. We received good reports, especially from investigators who had never heard the Plan of Salvation before. The Relief Society prepared the refreshments and assigned the games, so we enjoyed the rest of the activity without other responsibilities.

We talked to a lot of people this week and set a bunch of appointments for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday went really well - we had lessons with families the entire day. But Sunday didn't work out so well, and all of our appointments fell through. We were out of people to visit around 5pm, and we were near the park again. There were around 50 people there, including lots of little kids and their parents. I believe I mentioned this park before (the one with a large, cement sombrero as the center focus point). We climbed up on the top of the sombrero and announced who we were, where we're from and what we're doing here. A bunch of the little kids came and sat on the brim of the hat below us. We sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" and testified of that simple truth, shouting into the wind to reach everyone around. Then we sang "I Am a Child of God" and shared our testimonies again. After climbing down the sombrero, we talked to the families who had been there listening to us. Some of them wanted further explanation, others said it sounded nice but apparently didn't change the fact that they were Catholic, and others wanted us to come to their homes and teach them. My companion and I decided to make that a Sunday tradition, since there are always lots of people in the park those afternoons. I know it's no Hyde Park (neither in size nor in number of people around), but we do our best.

This morning, we got our hair cut and went around downtown, shopping and getting our photos developed. I got 20 or so printed out and thought about sending them home, but I saw that they could burn a CD of all my pictures, so I got that done and got it sent on its way home for only 17 soles of postage (about $6 for 50 grams of package). It should arrive in 10 to 15 days, so you should have access to all of my pictures from the mission in a couple weeks.

While we were out proselyting in the beautiful country land mentioned earlier, we taught a family about the Book of Mormon in their little house. They offered us a cup of something, and I didn't understand what the name was. It looked like a sloppy joe in a mug, but served cold. We're not supposed to eat oustide our pension, but if we're offered something (especially by poor families) it's quite disrespectful to turn it down. But they explained that it was made from pumpkins, and a quick smell gave me a little confidence, so I tried it. It was actually pretty delightful: it was a sort of cooked mush of pumpkin, with sugar added and the seeds still there. I might have even asked for more if I hadn't been worrying about the later side effects that would result from just one helping of the mysterious substance.

This week was a spiritual feast. We taught a bunch of lessons and found lots of new families, and we talked to everyone we could. Our ward is working even more in missionary work, and there are a couple of families preparing to be baptized. The Lord poured out blessings on us in amazing ways. Even when walking all over the city and outside of it, having several appointments fail, and getting tired and feeling sick, I've never felt happier to be serving the Lord. I've never wanted to keep working so hard, even when it would be easier to go home.

Thank you for your prayers and letters!
Love,
Elder Withers