spring

Dear Family,

I'm a little sunburnt. You can get sunburnt on any part of your body in any season here. This morning, we played soccer, basketball and volleyball today to celebrate a fellow elder's birthday. I think the sunscreen wore off after sweating a bit. It could have been worse, I suppose. And technically, we've jumped into springtime here! Apparently that means cloudy mornings that burn off into sunny afternoons and fade to chilly, windy nights.

This week was a bit more of a struggle than last week. A family we're teaching - Rayner (father), Romi (mother), Hyromi (daughter), Rayner (jr.) and Stephen - had a few doubts about the plan of salvation, so we've been helping them understand that the Book of Mormon is really the deciding factor: if the Book of Mormon is true, then so is the rest of it. Rayner traveled to his place of birth (Chiclayo) to get a copy of his birth certificate, sign a paper to end his last marriage, and pick up all the rest of the papers necessary to get married. Apparently there was a delay somewhere in there, because he's still not coming back till tomorrow. It will delay the wedding a little bit, but I'm happy that he's showing his desire to finally get things right. We went to visit the local "municipalidad" - which might be translated as "municipality," as I saw at the bus station, but would probably be better off as "town hall" or "government building" - to see what was necessary to get married around here. It gave me a headache just thinking about it. Bishops don't have authority to marry people here, and the whole system seems designed to make one spend the most money possible just printing off the necessary documents and publishing the event. Nevertheless, the marriage-coordinating is in the hands of the members, who know a lot more about the system than I do, so I'm grateful we don't have to do too much logistical work.

At one point this week, I was feeling a little down, so I took a look at my personal goals and realized I had just run out of them (first step, find the source of the problem). I pulled out my little notebook - the one often used for brainstorming - and jotted down a few thoughts. I also pulled out a list I had made a few months ago about goals I wanted to achieve on my mission. I started with some daily goals and started working at them immediately. The effect was immediate. The discouragement fled and I was happy all over again. The scripture that says that men should be "anhelosamente consagrados a una causa buena" helped me understand a little bit more what I need to do to keep moving forward.

I started studying differently this week. I picked up a Book of Mormon and selected two colors to begin marking "doctrine" and "principles" - to avoid problems with semantics, my companion and I defined doctrines as basic, eternal truths and principles as doctrines applicable to life. It was easier to see why Nephi always delighted in plainness: it has made teaching clearly a whole lot easier. Both my companion and I are focusing more on keeping it simple. I love it!

Thanks for your letters, your good examples, and your prayers!
Love,
Elder Withers