busy!

Dear Family,

Since last week's letter didn't survive, I've got a million things to write and very little time to write them. Here goes:

I am now in the Chimbote Sur Zone, serving as a zone leader with Elder Caviedes, who was my district leader (and then zone leader) in Esperanza. It's his last transfer in the mission, but he's (thankfully) in love with the work and determined to finish strong. The last few days have been the busiest of my mission. There are 24 missionaries in our zone, 4 of which are sisters. They're planning (with good reason, I believe) to divide the stake, which is comprised of 11 or 12 wards and 1 or 2 branches. That should happen during the Stake Conference in September.

On my third day here, we had a wedding-baptism for a woman who was living together with a member. Her children are all active members, and we've been working with her husband to help him come back. They were married (which is not the easiest thing to do here, I'm coming to realize) in the morning, walked across the street to the church and straight into the baptismal font. I thought it mighty convenient that the church was built with such proximity to the "municipalidad" (assuming that the church building was built more recently). We didn't stay around for the cake-cutting, latin dancing, and other pleasures that might have distracted us, because we had things to do. But the best of it all was that we didn't have to do anything for the baptismal service. Our ward mission leader took care of all the assignments, speakers, and everything. All we did was bring the white clothing for the sister being baptized, and after the ordinance was performed, we plugged in the TV and put on a spiritual movie while the participants got dried and dressed.

I'm in the Gedeòn Ward, and I like it. I felt like I was at conference when I went to church yesterday. I sat in the very back row (miles, it seemed, from the pulpit) next to an investigator who came just after the start of the meeting. There was a piano, but I didn't have to play it. The Stake President lives in our ward, and his twin sons (17 years old) both play the piano well enough to read hymns. However, since I was new, I was invited to bear my testimony before the congregation, which made me feel special.

On Saturday, we had a "dìa de gracia" in our ward. Fourteen missionaries and the presidencies of the ward organizations (with only a few absences) went on splits to visit every member of the ward, extending invitations to the less-active members to come back to church. I went out with the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric, and my companion went with the ward mission leader. After three hours of being out, we came back to the chapel to share our experiences and collect the results and referrals and to enjoy some light refreshments. We took advantage of the presence of two of our district leaders and had two baptismal interviews right after the end of the activity. One woman interviewed has two little kids - the oldest, Christian, will turn 5 shortly, and the younger, Fabricio, is one and a half. A member woman took charge of the stroller (in which was seated Fabricio, awake but calm) while Elder Caviedes and I busied ourselves with keeping Christian from interrupting the interviews. Eventually, the member with the stroller had to leave, so she passed me the reins. Out on the soccer court, Christian climbed up on the stroller, holding on to the sides (facing backwards), and I took them for a bit of a ride. Unfortunately, that position gave Fabricio just too much ease in grabbing at, hitting, and otherwise disturbing his older brother's face. So I had to get creative to keep Christian from starting a fight. I used my imagination and started to think like a little kid again. It was delightful, but shortly I was exhausted from pushing them all over the place. Finally their mom came out of the interview and we got to go home and rest. I was exhausted when we got in, but I was happy. I don't think I ever feel so happy as when I've given everything I've got in just one day.

I'm working on getting letters out, but I don't have much time today, so I'd like to say thanks to everyone who sent me a birthday letter or package. Your individual "thank yous" will arrive in a month or two. It seems that by turning twenty, my receding hair line has decided to redouble its efforts. Oh well. Oh, my companion just pulled up our area on Google Earth. Looks like we're going to have a better map now!

I absolutely love this work! I'm about to hit the year mark, but it should just give me more desire to give my all. I've been using dental floss every day for more than a year (that's about 105 meters of floss)! This morning, I finished reading the Book of Mormon in English again. I started about 2 weeks ago, getting up at 5 in the morning and reading for an hour in the bathroom (so that the light wouldn't bother my companion). I still haven't been able to find a better hour for reading. And with some new responsibilities in the mission, our study time is often interrupted (we have a telephone that never gets a break). I love the Book of Mormon! Slow or fast, in order or from any chapter or book, or the life of any prophet - it's the best!

Love,
Elder Withers