Sept
22, 2014
Dear
Friends,
Well
the weather here in Chile is starting to be less chilly. I can’t decide
whether I´d rather have the hot weather or the cold weather, but either way the
hot weather seems to be coming. This past week our entire street was covered
with flags. The houses are built really close together, actually they
share walls, and almost everyone had at least one flag. This past week we had
the 18th of September, and I ate like there was no tomorrow. I had
large sandwiches loaded with ham, pastries covered in icing, more sausage links
than I can remember, and salad, and pop, and deep fried sugary pastries, lots
and lots of empanadas, and steak. On Thursday, the 18th for lunch, a
member family did a large barbecue, and it all tasted great, but the steak was
a little red. They commented that it was a bit rare, but I thought all is well,
just eat it. I later had a mild case of sickness, but Elder Richardson in
our house, who is by the way probably one of the best friends I have in this
mission, gave me some tums, and then I was fine. Yesterday, we had an
even bigger asado (Spanish for barbecue) and the meat was definitely
redder. I am going to change my definition of red meat after yesterday´s
lunch. My slice of steak was redder than most of the other steaks, and
throughout lunch I was praying in my heart that I wouldn’t get sick. It
tasted good though, and I washed it down with lots of belly washer, coca
cola. I took a couple of tums after lunch, and I don’t see any signs of
sickness. I will try to be more careful about eating steak.
By
the way, I find it fascinating the way people barbecue down here. The
grills are very simple but work great. They have a large half barrel,
with bars of iron above it. The barrel they fill with charcoal.
The bars can be lowered and raised. A contraption así (like this) can cook a
lot of stuff pretty fast, and a new one goes for less than a hundred
dollars. They cleaned the grill before putting the meat on it by
spreading an onion on the bars as the flames burned the fat off the
grill. They used a piece of plastic as a fan to feed oxygen to the coals,
but the member said a hair dryer works better, it just wasn’t available.
I didn’t bring my camera to lunch, but I will get you some pictures sent.
It was the biggest and most delicious barbecue I have had in the mission field
so far.
Thanks
for the prayers and fasts on behalf of my companion. He is doing a lot
better, and I think he is on his way out of a really low point. Thanks a
million.
I
really can’t believe how fast time is flying by. It really is
amazing. I am past the halfway point on my mission,
I
love you all more than the number of postage stamps it would take to send a
package to the moon.
Elder
Withers
Dear
Family,
I
am so glad all is well. That life keeps on keeping on and that you are
are healthy and happy :)
This
week........was awesome! There isn’t really order to the highlights of
the week, so I will just start from what comes to mind first.
Coolest
thing was Mauro received the Priesthood yesterday. The branch is doing a
most excellent job in incorporating him into the congregation and giving him responsibilities
and making him feel welcome and important, and also strengthening his
testimony. He was asked to share his testimony yesterday....and it was so
good! He is so honest and good, but also so humble. And afterwards
he received the Priesthood, the office of a priest, and the branch president
committed him to come next week to bless the sacrament. He is pretty
excited. (And we are too!) Also another recent convert we have
here, Gustavo is progressing and is steadily coming to church and paying his
tithing!
There
are 4-5 ice cream men here in Beltran, and they seem to be out in the streets
twice as much as us. They each have a bicycle they peddle (some use a
motorcycle) and a big cooler strapped to the front, and they each play the same
annoying song from a speaker. Some annoying tune from Beethoven, blaring
as loud as possible. It’s the equivalent of March, almost April
here......and the ice cream men are already relentless! The bonus to this
whole situation is that they are teaching me patience :)
We
made empanadas for the first time ever, and........I am going to keep
practicing. They are harder than I realized! They tasted yummy,
they just came out looking like funny little bricks. But I will master
them. Making them look cute is the hard part.
Remember
last week when I told you about a rat situation we were having in the
chapel? Well it’s all fixed! The branch president called the
exterminator, they are in the process of deep cleaning it, and then we are good
to go! It looks really good now. It needed to be deep cleaned
anyway.
Our
branch mission leader has a little kiosk in the front of his house, where he
sells things. And one day he received a super rare $2 peso coin from
somebody, and wanted to give it to me. So he gave it to me, but I felt
bad that he only had one and didn’t have one for Hermana Gonzalez too. A
few days later we went to the fruteria to buy our fruit for the week, and the
change they handed my companion.....was another one of these super rare $2 peso
coins! We couldn’t believe it! It is officially a lucky coin.
We are both going to keep them.
We
also went to a nearby area as a zone to all get together and help the Elders in
that area with lessons and contacts. It was awesome :) There area
was huge and a little sketchy.....but I went with the new Hermana from the U.S,
and it was fun to work together. We are the only American sisters in our zone,
and she only has 3 weeks here in Argentina. And working with her for a
few hours put me on a trippy walk down memory lane, remembering culture shock
and all of my first impressions about Argentina and the people. Getting
used to this place is hard, I won’t lie. But I LOVE IT NOW. Working
with her was good for me to learn how much I have experienced and progressed
here. I have learned lots of incredible things.
The
time goes by quick, and the beginning is especially difficult......but if you
put a smile on your face and keep going, it all works out. I am so
grateful for my mission. It has been the blessing of my life. And
there are days that are hard, or when things don’t turn out.....like all things
in life.....but if you have a good attitude, and decide to make a positive
situation out of a hardship.......it always turns out. We weren’t sent to
this earth to suffer, but instead to learn. And learning sometimes comes
the hard way. But my companion always shares with people....."Living
the gospel can be hard at times, but it is much more difficult to not do
so" and how right she is! Living the gospel is worth it. We
were sent here to learn, and as members of the church we are commanded to help
others and to help them live the gospel too. It’s worth it.
I
hope you know how much I love you all. Sometimes people ask me if I will
stay in Argentina forever.....and I always so no. Not because I don’t
like it here, but because you are my family and you are all my favorites, and
we need to be where our families are.
I
love you more than the number of flowers that are starting to bloom in the
southern hemisphere!
Hermana
Withers
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