November 18, 2013
Dear Family,
Yes, I have received packages! A
box and a big envelope. Thank you so much for all the Christmasyness you
sent. It wa really cool to receive a big box from the far north, and open
it in the far south. Muchisimas gracias. I have opened up some really
neat stuff out of the box, but I haven’t opened everything yet because I want
to save some stuff to open on my birthday and some on Christmas. I also
got a large envelope with Christmas stockings. There were 2 Christmas
stockings, 2 wrapped gifts, and a lot of really nice handwritten letters.
I gave Elder Vásquez one of the stockings and one of the wrapped gifts.
Thank you so much. I haven’t read all the hand written letters
quite yet. I also got a lot of dear elders, and a letter sent the normal
mail method. I read all of them, and really enjoyed it. If I could
respond to all of them I would. I will try to summarize a response to
every dear elder I have gotten from you guys lately. Summary: Good
job, I am proud of you, you are the best. Keep up the good work. I love
you. I also have been getting dearelders from Grandma Hill ever since the
MTC. Please tell her thanks a million. Her letters are always so
funny, and have such thoughtful “thought of the day’s”.
We also had a surprise visit from the
mission president. He and his wife came to the Libertador ward baptismal
service. Carol was baptized and confirmed. Her 10 year old daughter
was baptized about a month ago by other missionaries. The other
companionship in our ward baptized an elderly woman and her thirty year old
daughter. It was a really happy Friday. The Copihues ward
missionaries were planning to have a family of 3 get baptized the same day, but
the mother got extremely sick, is in the hospital. The 3 baptisms of Copihues are delayed at
least a week. I don’t know how she is right now, but I hope the family
can be baptized this Saturday, along with Jorge. Jorge is one of our
investigators. His mother, Magdalene was inactive for a long time, but
she is active once again. Jorge is 14 years old, and is progressing well
towards his baptism this Saturday.
I love you all,
-Elder Withers
Dear Family,
Hola from Argentina! This week was
another great one.....and just as a for-warning, there are probably a bajillion
spelling errors in my emails because this computer is in Spanish it puts a red
squiggly line under every single word, and I don’t have time to go back and
read it to find them.....sorry more editing for you to do.
Here in La Paz, everything is quiet and
peaceful. And we are working a ton with less actives. Some years
ago, the Rosario mission baptized a lot of people....and retained very few of
them in the church...and so now our President is very concerned with retention
and it feels like we are working in the aftermath of all those
baptisms....working hard to reactivate people who once had a testimony but just
need a reminder and invitation to come back. It’s a bit of detective work
to find some of them, but its fun! Throughout each week we rally as many
menos activos (less actives) as we can and get them all excited to come to
church, and on Sunday leave for church about an hour early to go pick
some of them up. Yesterday it felt like we were waking up all of La Paz
by clapping outside some of the members houses....when you start clapping, the
nearby dogs start going nuts, and when one starts barking he can get them all
barking and it’s just a domino effect. We were able to get quite a few
people to church yesterday though, which is awesome. The rain first and
foremost was cooperative, and the branch is starting to grow ever so slightly.
The church isn’t very strong here in La
Paz. There was one big branch about 3 years ago, so they split it and now
have 2 fairly weak branches. We like to explain to people that the church
is a hospital for people to go and get spiritual healing....but on the same
side we need nurses and doctors to help take care of people. So we are
really trying to help this branch grow. People have callings, but don’t
fulfill them, if people are asked to give a talk....they might show up if it’s
convenient, but the drive to show up in order to fulfill a commitment doesn’t
exist here. There is just a different attitude about church here...that it’s
important to go if you can, but if you can’t (can’t meaning you would rather
sleep or cook) then it’s okay to skip. It’s frustrating to work with this
aspect of the culture....but we have also been mighty bold these last 2
weeks...reminding them of all the blessings they aren’t receiving and are never
going to receive unless they go to church. We show our genuine love and
care that we really do have for these people....share 3 Ne 18:1-12 that talks
about the sacrament or Moroni 6:9 which explains that sacrament meeting is
never boring because it is directed by the spirit....and that each message
every Sunday is the exact lesson that we need to hear. It’s a
slow struggle, but we feel like its growing. We go to the mutual
activities to show our support for the youth programs, are holding weekly noche
do hogars (Family Home Evening), and if you have any more ideas to get people
to the chapel please share.
In other news.....sunsets here are
beautiful. And the mornings are the best, because its not too hot and a
lot of people are still sleeping.
Schools here are worth basically
nothing. Most kids have school in the morning or in the afternoon....but
not usually both, and never during the siesta. So each kid has between
3-5 hours of school. Schools also aren’t divided by boundaries....a
family chooses a school like you would a doctor’s office or something.
All the teachers and kids have to wear uniforms, which are white lab
coats over normal clothes. It looks like Argentina is breeding a bunch of
mad scientists! The playground area outside the school is a patch of
grass surrounded by a barb wired fence. I am not even kidding when I say
that the first time I saw kids in their uniforms just walking around in the
grass outside their school....I legitimately thought it was a juvenile
detention center or something. Their schools and playgrounds literally
look like prisons.
Mayonnaise is served with EVERYTHING and
salads are lettuce with vinegar and salt or oil. They have the funniest
condiments.
When we get groceries, we have to get 6
bags of milk.....SIX! The bags are about the size of a powdered sugar
bag....and we just go through them quick. My favorite treat is chocolate
milk (they sell Nesquik here) and that helps our milk storage move along.
For breakfast we have corn flakes because that’s the only cereal that is
affordable here (everyone just drinks mate...so breakfast foods are interesting
to find) and we just sprinkle sugar of the cereal and milk to make it sweet.
We have scheduled lunches with members
every week....and we eat SO MUCH MEAT. So much. It’s all really
good, but I think for Christmas I am going to splurge and buy some real lettuce
to make a real salad. I really miss fruits and vegetables. Also
bread is served at every meal. So we eat a lot of bread, meat, and pasta.
It’s excellent. I just wouldn’t eat their salad here, it’s not too
good.
After one member meal last Sunday....we
were getting ready to share a spiritual thought. I had the verse ready to
read, Mosiah 2:41 which talks about the temporal and spiritual
blessings from keeping the commandments (ahem...going to church!) and handed
the book to the member named Pepe and asked him to read it. He gets up,
goes to his bucket of glasses, dumps it out, and starts trying on every pair.
I told him, It’s okay....I can just read it! But he was determined,
and when he finally got to the pair he wanted he started reading.....it was
just really funny to see this old man trying on all of these glasses. I don’t
know why he doens’t just keep the ones he likes out, but it was a funny
experience anyway!
We are going to Rosario tonight for an Hermanas
conference with President. I am really excited! We will be back Wednesday morning,
so a nice fun little adventure. It’s a long ways for us, so it’s a big
deal when we travel.
I love you all lots! More than all
the chickens and roosters who run in and out of people’s houses (sometimes
during lessons and member meals!)
Hermana Withers
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