transfers (I'm staying!)

Dear Family,

It's a bummer when everything I write gets lost. I didn't even get a chance to save it or anything. Just a slip of the hand, the wrong combination of keys, and I selected the whole thing and turned it into an "h". I'm not a big fan of repetition, so I'll sum up what I just wrote, but this time without the details.

My companion was trunky this week: we spent a lot of time saying goodbyes, eating unapproved food, and taking pictures. I learned a bunch from Elder Caviedes, but now he's on a bus to Trujillo for the final meetings and preparation to go home. My new companion, Elder Cavazos, will arrive Wednesday. The olympics passed by without us, but I caught a few glimpses in homes where the TV just didn't get turned off.

I'm working in a ward where the members have great missionary attitudes. There isn't much difference between them and any other ward I've been in, other than the fact that they just invite their friends to come to church and to listen to the missionaries. It's a new experience for me, because some of the sweetest memories of my mission were those amazing, miraculous finding experiences where the Lord guides us to His prepared children. Here, I hardly do any finding of my own. We knocked just one door in the last 6 weeks. The idea that members are "full-time finders" and that missionaries are "full-time teachers" is taking shape here.

We talked with a member lady who gave us a referral, and she told us that it was a woman she worked with who was having some family problems. We went by yesterday so that the member could tell us the address - instead, her husband took us in his bus right to their door and talked to the lady so that we could come in. The woman belongs to another congregation, but our message awoke a little bit of interest when we talked about eternal families. Working with members opens doors that we never could have entered just knocking them randomly.

Well, time's running out. I better get going. We don't have much to do today, so I might have time to write a letter or two. Best wishes to all those returning to school (or going off for the first time)! Thanks for your letters and your prayers! And thanks, John and Marie, for your political insights - they'll be helpful in my overseas voting experience. I don't get much of the US political conversation down here, and according to my manual (the "white bible"), I'm not here to get involved in such discussions. My prayers are over the land of the free.

Love,
Elder Withers