cockroaches under my bed

Dear Family,

We had a little bit of service this week - a nice member lady needed us to do some cleaning in the newly-constructed second floor of her house. The floor was covered in bits of cement, brick, and rusty wires, and we swept it all up and dumped it into a pile outside in short amount of time. Then she brought us what she called a "carro" (that's "car," normally), but what turned out to be a small, collapsible cart that had suffered (what appeared to be) years of mistreatment and exposure to water. She brought us some smelly "acid" and latex gloves and asked us to clean off all the rust and repaint the little thing. We applied the chemicals as directed, but didn't see any real effect when we attempted to remove the rust. But we worked on it for an hour and a half and ran out of time before we could get all the rust off and paint it. So we're going to come back next week to finish it off. The nice lady rewarded us each with a bag of fruit and a bag of toiletries, including clothes detergent and toilet paper. I appreciated the toilet paper - for missionaries who can't really accept food outside their pension, that's got to be the next-best thing. I gave my laundry detergent to our pensionista and started on the fruit. Unfortunately, my companion left his rotting banana in the bag (sitting on the floor) for a couple days and it spoiled the whole lot. Just this morning I ate the last orange that was in my bag - the vitamin C boost (there were about 4 or 5 oranges in the bag) is helping me fight a cold that has been threatening to come on. I had a bit of a sore throat, but hopefully I can beat it before it turns into something more uncomfortable.

Today is a beautiful, sunny day in the city of eternal springtime. We're about near the end of Autumn and the trees remain lush with green leaves and most still have their bright red, orange, or purple flowers. I guess that's why they call it eternal spring. We played soccer this morning with the office elders and enjoyed a breakfast of homemade pancakes with them afterwards (the office elders are the only missionaries who have the option - and a kitchen - to cook their own food). That was delightful.

It was a week of hard work once again in our area; we knocked a few doors (though that's not my favorite way of finding new people) and had to use creative ways to get them to talk to us. A lot of houses have a lovely sticker on their window or their door stating their religion and asking or (depending on the severity of the sticker) demanding that nobody bug them about other religions. Nevertheless, I've found that ignoring that sticker can yield a lot of good. We felt like knocking one door that had a stronger message on its window, but we asked the right questions and they let us in, and we set a time for a return visit. It turns out that they have a son (or daughter-in-law or nephew or something along those lines) that lives in Oregon, and they wanted to write down our phone number and call us when they come to visit (so that we can talk about Oregon things, I guess?).

In other news, Father's Day wasn't nice to our Sunday schedule - we had set a number of appointments but most people were enjoying the day and spending time with their fathers. I suppose that's not something bad, but it made things a little difficult yesterday.

This week was a bit of a trial (and continues still) for a few reasons. I'm still getting used to the work in the city, and we're finding new ways to find new people to teach. Like I mentioned, knocking doors isn't my favorite approach - but there's little more we can do sometimes. We've been working with a lot of less-active members and active members to help get them excited about sharing the Gospel. Our ward is starting to help out a lot more now, so I believe the work is going to start picking up. Another trial this week involved a new pair of shoes I bought on Monday. My old black ones had their last lap back in Cajamarca, so I didn't take them with me back to Trujillo. I took a reference from the office elders to go to a shoe store named Paolo's and found some shoes that I liked; the only trial was that as I broke them in, they caused blisters. I'd switch back to my old brown shoes for relief, but those have more holes in them than swiss cheese. I've exhausted the band-aids in my first-aid kit not so much for healing, but more for padding so that I can wear my new shoes and break them in. It seems to be working however, and I sent in my brown shoes for repairs on Saturday. I'll pick them up today and see if they've done a good job.

Despite the trials, I found a lot of joy in the work we did this week. There were abundant discouraging moments and - it seemed - not enough encouraging ones, but I tried to figure out how I could savor every moment of my mission, be it difficult or wonderful. I believe that, more than anything, happiness is a choice I can make, not a condition that my surroundings can thrust upon me. So, no matter what happens, I'm not going to give up or let up. The Lord needs me to give my all to forward His work and His glory. And I'll give it all for the love I have for Him and for His marvelous work.

Thank you for all your letters and prayers - I appreciate them very much. Good luck in weddings and plans and sports camps and everything!

Love,
Elder Withers

p.s. Don't worry, there aren't any cockroaches anywhere near my bed. I just thought the subject line would draw your attention. =)