learning

Dear Family,

It was a good week, especially towards the end. On Friday night, we had to find the keys to the chapel (as well as the keys to the big back gate to let the cars in) for the Mission Conference the following morning. Our building is the only one with room for parked cars, so we were responsible for bringing the keys. The Bishop was out of town and his 1st Counselor was on a campout with the youth, so we were visiting the 2nd Counselor's house all day trying to find him. It turns out that the Bishop's son had pocketed the keys and took them on the campout, so we called up the Stake President, who was happy to help us out.

All day Saturday, from 7:15am till 3:30pm, we were in our conference with President Mora. Fortunately, there were no accidents occasioned by falling asleep, such as happened in Acts 20 when Paul gave an extremely long talk. It was amazing how President Mora could keep going so long. But it was more amazing how motivated we were to work and teach better. He focused on the quality of our teaching, and we did several practice lessons to work on that. I learned a ton and was able to change some things that will help us work even more effectively.

In Sacrament Meeting, we were visited by a family we've been teaching for about two weeks. Their daughter appreciated Primary (and was even one of the best-behaved there) and the couple seemed to enjoy all of it. Josè Chilon, who was baptized the week before, was able to be confirmed at the end of the meeting, too. He was asked to give his testimony in Gospel Principles and Elders' Quorum, and he even gave the opening prayer for the Priesthood meetings. In Elders' Quorum, the Stake President paid us a visit and we sustained (after which he set apart) an Elders' Quorum President. We're only lacking a few other presidencies to have them all filled in the ward.

We began teaching five new families this week, and we passed through some sweet experiences. After teaching one family, we invited the father to say the closing prayer, and it was beautiful. What we need most right now is help to bring the families we teach to Sacrament Meeting. In our conference on Saturday, we learned great new ways to teach and help the investigators feel the need to come to church, and we've been applying them in all the lessons since. This week is going to be something special.

I'm happy to be taking part in this work. President Mora asked us during the conference: Why do you eat? Why do you shower? Why do you clean your room? We gave the natural answers: to satiate my hunger, to get clean, to keep the room clean, etc. Then he asked us once again what our purpose as missionaries is, showing us how everything we do is focused on that purpose: to invite others to come to Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. We have changed our focus now and, more than ever, we're giving our best to make that purpose a reality.

Thank you for your letters and your prayers! I appreciate all that you're doing and the great examples you are to me.

Love,
Elder Withers

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

1 Nephi 17:13 - "you will know"

Dear Family,

Today, the transportation union had a strike - I'm not sure if they have a union, really: they enforce their demands with sticks and stones. Nevertheless, their influence seems to have gotten the buses stopped for a while. But money talks, so we rented out a tiny bus for 4 soles a piece and rode to a little town called Llacanora. After parking in the modest Plaza de Armas, we followed the signs and the direction of friendly locals to find the legendary waterfalls. A mile of hiking later, we wound our way up to the top of the rocky hills and took pictures from above the waterfalls. The scenery was almost as breathtaking as the climb up the hills, but fortunately we didn't have any run-ins (unlike the other elders) with the unpopular arachnids that are a little too common in these parts. After climbing back down, we were in a little store buying cold soda when we overheard four men, sitting at a table, talking about the law of tithing. That interested us, so we started talking to them and turned the subject to the Restoration of the Gospel. Though friendly enough, they weren't eager to accept anything not found between the books of Genesis and Revelation. We testified and shared a little of what we could remember from Elder Holland's talk in conference about that subject. It was a delightful little chat, but we had to go, so it didn't last too long.

We're happy with what we're doing in Chontapaccha, though this week was a little stressful. We had a baptismal service planned for Saturday at 7pm, and we had hoped to coordinate with the member who usually makes all the arrangements for us. Unfortunately, he, along with a few other key players, was out of town from Thursday to Saturday. When crunch time arrived, Elder Iverson and I were the only ones at the church. We had just about everything ready: baptismal records, cameras, baptismal clothing and keys to the church building. However, a few key elements were missing: investigators, members, witnesses, keys to the baptismal font, and a whole lot of water. We left our things in the church building, and we ran (literally) all over the town, trying to find, firstly, the keys to open the baptismal font and turn on the water. But our attempts yielded no results. When at last we couldn't find anybody to help us, we went to visit the investigators to see what was up. They had a few doubts that they had to ask us about - the father of the family has a brother who had discouraged them a little bit (being of a different faith) when he announced his baptism to the rest of his family. But it was something special when we heard him tell us that he wants to be baptized and he's doing it for the right reasons. It was a testimony to me that I had been longing to hear. We resolved his doubts and planned for a baptismal service the following Saturday. He came to church on Sunday morning, too; so we were glad that he hadn't gotten discouraged from the events of the night before. All in all, nobody was left with ill feelings, though we were rather tired at the end of the day. We were glad that nobody was offended by the failure of anybody to attend. The members didn't organize a baptismal service, and the investigators didn't come - I think we might have been the only ones who knew what happened. Next week shows a little more promise.

Well, that's news behind enemy lines - at the battle's front, however, we've been prospering. Over the course of the week, we taught seven new families in their homes. From my family at home, I've heard a lot of talk about "green" - Cajamarca is one of the greenest places I've seen on my mission, but I must admit that the field is white when I look at it. I love teaching the Gospel to the families of Peru. There's no greater experience than this. I love a quote I heard from Elder Holland: "Welcome to the big time! Welcome to the Church! Welcome to the life of Apostles and Prophets! Welcome to the life of the Savior, who knew quite a bit about cups people don't want to drink and paths people don't want to walk." I love this life. As I face down the trials, the hard times and the great times, I come to know more every day that I have a Father in Heaven who loves and knows me. I reflect on the trials and struggles of Lehi's family in the desert and on the ocean and realize how they learned who their God was; they learned it as they passed through their difficulties. He even promised them that they would know that He was their God. I, too, know He lives, and I know He is my God.

Love,
Elder Withers

back to my roots

Dear Family,

The weather is cheering up in the southern hemisphere (I'm in one of the few places where the seasons aren't backwards: I might miss winter this year). Just like everybody said, the rain seems to have stopped in May. And it's a little warmer in the sun, though it's cold at night and in the early mornings. In the part of our proselyting area that lies outside the city limits (off the map and so forth), it gets extremely muddy in the rain, and the cars kick up dust when its dry. I guess we win some and lose some. In fact, as we were proselyting out there (among the farmland, dirt/rock roads, cows and cow smells, dairies, pastures and magnificent scenery), we went exploring even further to places we had never reached before. Then we saw and heard rain coming from the direction we were heading. The way we were going, there were no houses for about a quarter mile, so we turned around and high-tailed it to the nearest house with eves and huddled next to the wall. The rain came pouring down noisily, and it had got us a little wet as we ran. While we waited, an uncomfortably large spider descended behind my companion's back, crawling down the wall of the house - I notified him of the pest, and he moved out of the way. The spider jumped off the wall and my companion used the ordinary shoe approach to dispose of the little menace. Then the rain started to come in sideways, so we knocked the door, and someone let us in. Ten minutes later, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The road was dry again before we got back into the city. It was a delightful little adventure, and we found a few new investigators out there.

On Thursday night, the ward planned a Giant Family Home Evening - the Relief Society and the Missionaries were in charge. About five of the people we had been teaching were in attendance, along with a less-active family and some other 20 members. We were in charge of the lesson, so we gave a brief explanation of the Plan of Salvation. I narrated while my companion acted out the premortal, mortal and postmortal life of a child of God, and we drew the famous diagram on the chalkboard to help explain. We received good reports, especially from investigators who had never heard the Plan of Salvation before. The Relief Society prepared the refreshments and assigned the games, so we enjoyed the rest of the activity without other responsibilities.

We talked to a lot of people this week and set a bunch of appointments for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday went really well - we had lessons with families the entire day. But Sunday didn't work out so well, and all of our appointments fell through. We were out of people to visit around 5pm, and we were near the park again. There were around 50 people there, including lots of little kids and their parents. I believe I mentioned this park before (the one with a large, cement sombrero as the center focus point). We climbed up on the top of the sombrero and announced who we were, where we're from and what we're doing here. A bunch of the little kids came and sat on the brim of the hat below us. We sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" and testified of that simple truth, shouting into the wind to reach everyone around. Then we sang "I Am a Child of God" and shared our testimonies again. After climbing down the sombrero, we talked to the families who had been there listening to us. Some of them wanted further explanation, others said it sounded nice but apparently didn't change the fact that they were Catholic, and others wanted us to come to their homes and teach them. My companion and I decided to make that a Sunday tradition, since there are always lots of people in the park those afternoons. I know it's no Hyde Park (neither in size nor in number of people around), but we do our best.

This morning, we got our hair cut and went around downtown, shopping and getting our photos developed. I got 20 or so printed out and thought about sending them home, but I saw that they could burn a CD of all my pictures, so I got that done and got it sent on its way home for only 17 soles of postage (about $6 for 50 grams of package). It should arrive in 10 to 15 days, so you should have access to all of my pictures from the mission in a couple weeks.

While we were out proselyting in the beautiful country land mentioned earlier, we taught a family about the Book of Mormon in their little house. They offered us a cup of something, and I didn't understand what the name was. It looked like a sloppy joe in a mug, but served cold. We're not supposed to eat oustide our pension, but if we're offered something (especially by poor families) it's quite disrespectful to turn it down. But they explained that it was made from pumpkins, and a quick smell gave me a little confidence, so I tried it. It was actually pretty delightful: it was a sort of cooked mush of pumpkin, with sugar added and the seeds still there. I might have even asked for more if I hadn't been worrying about the later side effects that would result from just one helping of the mysterious substance.

This week was a spiritual feast. We taught a bunch of lessons and found lots of new families, and we talked to everyone we could. Our ward is working even more in missionary work, and there are a couple of families preparing to be baptized. The Lord poured out blessings on us in amazing ways. Even when walking all over the city and outside of it, having several appointments fail, and getting tired and feeling sick, I've never felt happier to be serving the Lord. I've never wanted to keep working so hard, even when it would be easier to go home.

Thank you for your prayers and letters!
Love,
Elder Withers