July
14
Dear
Family,
We
have transfers tomorrow. I will be going to a nearby city stake called
Andalien, and will be in the Santa Sabina ward. Cambios are always a
little bit stressful because all of the packing and running around to tell
people goodbye. I have heard that the ward has one of the highest Sunday
assistances (attendances) in the mission, about 200 people weekly, but I will
let you know on that one. I will still be really close to the mission
office, so that is convenient. Speaking of the office, the package came.
Thanks a million! I can’t wait to open it. My companion will be Elder Bence, from
California, I talked with him briefly about 6 months ago, and he seems to be
pretty cool. The ward has 4 elders and 2 sister missionaries. I am
excited to see how a big ward works. I have heard that there is a seventy
who was called from that ward within the last several months, so that will be
cool. I am really excited to get to know this ward.
Rebecca,
sorry Argentina lost. There is an Elder who is an Argentine soccer
fanatic in our house, and it really was hard for them to lose. I hope
that it calms down soon, and that it is safe to work. I hope you have an amazing week this week.
It
sounds like you guys are having a pretty good summer. Keep me updated
with all your awesome activities. I like to hear about everything that is
going on with Idaho, Minnesota, travel adventures, girls camp and scout camp,
having fun with cousins, and just everything.
This
past week has been a pretty calm week. I made pancakes this morning, and
I was taught how to flip them really cool using the pan. It is easier
than it looks. We have been teaching lately the bishop´s niece. Her
father is less active, but wants her to be baptized. He is often out of
town on Sundays because he is a truck driver, but he sometimes comes to church.
The girl`s name is Constanza, and she stays with her grandma on the
weekend, who is very active. By the way, yesterday her grandma gave us a
can of homemade manjar, which is called dulce de leche in Argentina, and is
similar to caramel. We put it on the pancakes.
In
this mission it is prohibited to teach kids under the age of 14 unless their
parents are progressing in the gospel with them. The father recently had
an interview with his brother in law, the bishop, and so we have permission to
baptize her. The service will be this Sunday right after church. I
will ask Elder Sellers to email me some pictures. Yesterday in Church I saw Amadeo for what will
probably be the last time. He is such a fun person. He is in his
eighties, but more lively and happy then most people half his age. We
gave him a flashdrive with a copy of over a hundred ´´Mormon Messages´´ in Spanish.
I hope he stays active as he gets older.
This
morning we went with a couple other Elders in our district to a neighborhood in
their ward called Lonco. We went because it is said to have the biggest and
fanciest houses in the mission. Many of the houses there would be serious
mansions in the U.S. I saw 3 and 4 story homes, large brick palaces,
modernistic styled homes, and lots of just plain big houses. There was a 3
story brick home with a Mercedes-Benz parked in below ground garage. It
was really cool, and I got some good pictures.
I
wish you all the very very best in all that you do. I love you all more
than you think. Remember to work hard in whatever it is that you are
doing, and to not forget to have fun as you work. That applies especially
to scout camp. I thank you all so much for all the many prayers on my
behalf. I love you more than the number of cheerios it would take to make
a mountain of cheerios necessary to fill the entire treasure valley with
breakfast cereal up until the height of Bogus Basin. Have a Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat
week!
Sincerely,
Elder
Withers
Dear
Family,
We
received transfer updates, and I am staying in Beltran with my companion....woooohoooo!!!!!!
I love this place and I love my companion. Its going to be another
great 6 weeks :)
This
week we had a meeting to meet President Zanni, and it was awesome. President
Zanni is INCREDIBLE. Absolutely incredible. We got to meet him, his wife,
and 6 of their 7 children (one is on a mission in Taiwan....the first to go to
Taiwan from South America...pretty cool!) and they are so great. You can
tell that getting used to the mission has been a little bit tough for them,
because it’s all so new and there are so many missionaries...but they are doing
well. Their kids are still pretty little (youngest is 5) and all the kids
say that one of their favorite things is the new house (it really is a huge
mansion, like the one Chad was describing...a brick palace with a fancy car for
Pres.) :)
And
this week, the word cup finally ended. President gave us permission to
watch the game, because it was impossible to work during the match....he said
we might as well enjoy it since Argentina has made it so far (ha...isn’t he so
awesome?:) so after church on Sunday, we ate lunch and went to a members house
to watch the game. They had seats saved for us in their front room, and
gave us some cake and lemonade to enjoy. We felt like royalty for a minute
:) and then the game started, and I have never seen such passion. They
asked us if our families were watching it too, and I said we never watched the
world cups....but that since Argentina is in the finals, and that I am in
Argentina....there was a good chance that you were all watching....and you
were! How fun :) They were all joking, and laughing, blowing little
horn things, cooking in the kitchen, and so forth like a super bowl party or
something.... until Germany scored. After the goal, my goodness the
dynamics of the room changed dramatically. All joking was over, and it
got serious. They were really nervous, and the mom had to start knitting
to distract herself. When it ended.....shnikees it was sad. I even felt
sad and I don’t even really care about soccer. I think seeing how sad
they were made me feel a little bit sad. Their nephew Santiago, who is
11, really started to cry. Big, throbbing tears. The daughter and
her husband who are expecting their first little baby, were so sad they started
crying too, the mom who was knitting put her little project down and started to
go around trying to comfort everyone saying it’s okay "we made it this
far", "we are the second best in the whole world" or "we
played the best we could, it was a hard match" and so on. No one
believed her, but at least she tried...she was just trying to be a good mom.
Ha....it was a good experience for me. You can accurately describe
the passion people have for soccer down here, because it’s so intense. I don’t
think I really understood how important it is to everyone until I watched the
game with them....then I learned my lesson. All of Argentina was sad,
with even the toughest of men brought to tears. I’m sure you saw that on
TV. I thought everyone would go nuts, and they did for a little bit but
not really. If we are talking for long term effects, it was better that
we lost. If we had won the party wouldn’t have ever ended. And I
realized with when I was watching the game that the last time Argentina went to
the finals, was when you were in Argentina mom!
And that game was against Germany with a score of 1-0. Talk about dejavu!!! I think we are the
unlucky ones, because Argentina lost both times. :)
As
far as the work here in Beltran, its going well! We have lots of great
people we are working with, and the training is going well. One crazy thing
that happend.....(please don’t freak out) is that we got robbed in the street.
They swiped everything, my bag, copies of the Book of Mormon, pamphlets,
and little cards of Jesus. I hope they enjoy their goodies. But I had
to buy a new bag, I hope that is okay. Hermana Gonzalez lost her
scriptures (her nice ones to study with) and all of her pictures with her
camera. I had my camera too, to take pictures with the members after
lunch in case I got transferred, but I have all my pictures backed up. I
hardly ever take my camera, but these last few days I have been taking it to
take a quick picture in their house before leaving, and it has been
swiped. I had to buy a new one today. The robbers scared the living
daylights out of us, and it was better to hand over everything instead of
getting hurt. For now, I don’t take anything valuable outside.....just
pictures of Jesus. Memories of Beltran will have to be in my memory and
in my journal, my camera will take pictures only inside the apartment, until I
gain the confidence to take it with me to take pictures in other people’s
houses. We are really really careful (Argentina has changed me a little
bit in that sense, I look at everything suspiciously and everything has the
potential to be dangerous) and it keeps me on my toes. We really are okay. The Elders came over
to give us a blessing, and that helped a lot. There are angels protecting us,
they really really are.
I
really really love all of you guys and hope you know that I look forward to
your letters every week!
I
love you more than all the Argentine hearts that were broken after the world
cup!
Hermana
Withers
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