going uphill

Dear Family,

It was nice to talk to everyone at home again. The time seemed to fly by, but it was good to hear some familiar voices as well as some new ones.

This morning, Elder Iverson and I went on a hike up in the mountains. We asked a family we've been teaching to take us to their favorite spot where one can see the whole valley, and they were pleased to accompany us. They took some pictures for us, too. I think by now we've covered just about all of our area, though technically all the people in the mountains belong to our area which, as I understand, extends almost indefinitely until it reaches the mission limits (and I'm not sure where those are, either). It was a long walk and well worth the view, but our legs are pretty tired now. On the way home, we stopped by a dairy and had some yogurt and cookies. We didn't by any of the famous Cajarmarquino cheese (luckily we get to eat that about twice a week at home anyways), mainly because we didn't bring all that much money with us.

A couple times this week we accompanied potential investigators up some of the other giant hills in our area. I imagine it's hard for many of them to come to church, so we don't plan on spending too much time up there. Nevertheless, a few of the hill people accepted us with warm hearts. After teaching them a little bit, they sent us back down the mountain with a cornstalk in hand to eat as we went. I don't remember having eaten raw corn right off the stalk before, but it was surprisingly delightful. We also chewed up the remaining corn stalk, which is another new practice for me, but it was also pretty good.

This week, we had the baptism that hadn't come through last week. It was only the father of the family, Josè. We're working with his wife still, and hopefully Josè will be able to perform the ordinance when she decides to take the same step of faith. The members helped out a lot once again, planning out the service and taking care of the little details that can make it stressful for us missionaries. The hardest part is that Josè and his wife live on the 4th floor of a building where they rent out a room a bit smaller than my bedroom at home (with a window the size of a shoebox). Not only that, but the owners of the house never liked us visiting and have decided that we're probably going to steal things, so they don't let us come visit anymore. Thus, we have to call Josè on his cell phone for him to come down and talk to us, and then we have to find a place to teach him - the church or a member's home. But it's not that inconvenient, and on Wednesday it was his two-year-old's birthday, so we bought them a cake and had a little celebration at a member's home nearby.

A couple that we've been teaching accepted a baptismal date during our lesson Saturday night and came to church on Sunday all by themselves. They have four children, but brought only the littlest one with them. There's also a young woman who we've been working with for the last two months who decided to be baptized on that same day, too. She had been going to one of the local congregations for quite a while, but finally told us this week that she had received an answer to her prayers. It was beautiful to see how the Book of Mormon helped her arrive at that testimony.

All in all, the work is going forward with impressive speed. And I'm urgent. I can't wait a week for anything. We didn't find so many new people to teach this week, but several of the families we've been teaching took their first steps toward knowing the truth of the Gospel for themselves. It just kills me inside when they don't come to church, and there's too many of them for us to go around Sunday morning and bring them all there ourselves. Nevertheless, we've got great things ahead of us, and June is coming all too quickly. I love seeing the changes the Gospel brings, and I'm excited to be involved in this work at such a crucial time. I know that it is truly the Lord's work.

Love,
Elder Withers