Chad's new area in the city, Rebecca is staying in La Paz

Dear family,

I love you so very much.  I would send you pictures of the ocean view we have from our 4th story apartment, but the virus security is questionable on these computers, so I don’t want to hook my camera up. I will try to use better computers next week.  My companion is really cool.  We live with 2 other North Americans, so it is harder to learn Spanish.  Living with Latinos was a huge help for my Spanish.  

Amazing news,  Elder Vàsquez sent me an email saying that, after 8 or so years of missionaries on and off, Adolfo finally accepted a baptismal date, the 22 of February.  He was the guy that took us fishing.  I will make sure that Elder Vásquez sends me the pictures of the baptism.  Adolfo always reads the assigned chapter of Principles of the Gospel Class, and takes brilliant notes.  He prepares for Sunday School class more than the teacher does.  I am so happy that he is getting baptized.  

That is great that the Seahawks won.  Being in Concepción, I am now a fan of ocean birds.  Yea Seattle!

I love you all so much, and hope that you always remember that Heavenly Father loves us more than we can possibly imagine.  I love you all more than the number of times it says in the scriptures ´´Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you.´´

Con mucho amor,

Elder Chad Withers

Dear Family,

 Today marks 7 months in my mission......!!!!!!!  So crazy.  I have a lot of time left to serve still, but these last few months have flown.  

As for the transfer update.....I am staying another transfer in La Paz with Hermana Sainsbury.  People are starting to make jokes that she has been here so long and will have to finish her mission here, but we are excited to have another transfer together.  We have a smooth rhythm in the way we teach and contact....we can go back and forth in talking really easy because we have been doing it for so long together....we can only improve and get better from here!  

My birthday was fun.....but in all honesty felt like any other day.  My companion made me French toast with dulce de leche, and served it with a nice cold glass of peach juice (the fruit juices here are out of this world delicious), and we went to get ice cream from the shop a block away from our apartment.  You walk in and no one is there....and then this tall lanky man will come towards the front from this dark hallway that is in the back and stare at you, not asking you anything....just expecting you to start telling him what flavors you want) Haa....at least his ice cream is good!  

While we were waiting for a colectivo earlier this week, it was clear and sunny skies, then in a matter of seconds clouds came from nowhere and seconds after that it started to rain, HARD.  We ran from the stop....bagging the idea of catching the bus right then and ran to the closet thing that could cover us....which ended up being a Catholic chapel (ironic right?!)  It only rained for a couple of minutes and then stopped, so we went back to life as usual.  It was just the most random storm ever.  

And the other day while we were walking home, we were walking past a part where the sidewalk turns into this wide open gravel patch that leads to a couple of different roads.  We walk on the side of it in case people turn in from the main road to turn to the other side roads.  Anyway....we were walking past this part (on the left hand side) and a white car going kind of fast turns in.  We keep walking and it turns towards us and speeds up.  We look at each other.....freak out and run to the right side of the road......the car speeds up and also turns to the right side of the road.  We tried to escape the car and run to anywhere with protection but there really wasn’t anywhere to go.  It was a big open gravel patch of nothing with no trees or buildings to run towards....and before we knew it the car was inches away from us.  The car really couldn’t have gotten any closer without touching us when it slammed on the brakes.  We thought we were about to turn into road kill at the hands of some dumb kids or something....when one of the families we are teaching piles out of the car laughing their heads off.  They were deep belly laughing so hard at the faces we were apparently making - and they thought it was so funny.  Once we knew who it was we were laughing too, but in the moment they really scared us. Which is what the dad was going for when he was driving I think.....quite the prank!  They really are a great family though.  The parents are married (which is unusual!) they have six kids, and are very kind to us (except for the car prank thing....that was lame!)  They are very Catholic but also have an admirable relish to learn more about the LDS church.  We just barely started working with them, so we will see what happens and how they progress!  

Yesterday at church I think was the first Sunday that we didn’t sing Secret Prayer and Who’s on the Lords side Who.  We sing at least one of those hymns every Sunday just because everyone seems to like them and they don’t know that many songs, so if they know one they like to sing it lots.  I never really sang those hymns before my mission......but I am pretty sure they are always going to make me think of this Branch in La Paz.  

We have new investigator named Florencia who is living with a menos activo.  He wants to come back to church and she wants to get baptized.  We are teaching them together, and hoping that we can have a wedding this transfer and a baptism right after! 

I am doing well and excited for another transfer here in La Paz...there is lots of work to do.  Holy moly.....it just started to rain torrential down pour outside.  Good thing we live a block away from the member whose computers we use, because we totally didn’t bring our umbrellas!  We should be having zone meeting this next week which means I get to see what made it in the mail from America all the way down here in Argentina!  (:  

I love you all lots....more than all the people who are shocked when they learn that mate doesn’t exist in the States.....and more than all the people who pronounce Google "gugley"  it’s my favorite (:  

Have a great week!

Hermana Withers

Chad has a transfer and new companion, Obertello Family in Argentina

Dear Family,

We got the transfers.  My new companion is from Harriman, UT.  My new area is Lorenzo Arenas Ward (I don’t know for sure if I spelled that right).  It is in the downtown part of Concepciòn.  The mission office is in the zone limits.  I am going to be training during his last 6 weeks of the 12 weeks training.  It will be exciting to be in Concepciòn this summer (winter for the northern half of the world) when they do the first groundbreaking ceremony for the Concepciòn temple.  They are expected to start construction in the coming months.

I really want you all to know that I know this church is true.  I was preparing to leave the house yesterday, and I couldn’t find my missionary plaque.  I looked, and looked, and looked.  I had no idea where it was.  I knelt down and prayed, asking for help in finding the plaque.  I said amen, and immediately had the thought come to my mind that I had left it on my rain jacket.  It was raining pretty hard the other day, and I forgot to take my plaque off the jacket.  God would not help missionaries of a false church.  He helped me.  This church is true.  I know that if we can learn to apply the gospel into our lives, we can truly become the people that God needs us to be.  I know that it is through the atonement of Jesus Christ, that we can all have the hope of an eternal family.  I know that this Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church.  

I love you guys, more than the number of snowflakes that cover Minnesota.

Sincerely,

Elder Chad Withers

                                                                                                                                             

Dear Family,

All is well here in La Paz.  We are going to get a transfer call this morning to see what will happen, but we won’t receive it until after we email......so I will let you know what happens for this transfer next week.  Thanks for the birthday wishes!  It’s crazy to think that I will be 21......not sure how that happened. 

It was so hot this week.  Oh you have no idea.......it’s a kind of heat you can’t even explain.  So hot and humid, that not even a fan can relieve you.  Our pension (apartment) has turned into a giant pressure cooker....and I am jealous that Thomas can access his roof.  Ours is too high, but what he said about the fans is right.  They are really just giant blow dryers.....they don’t actually blow cold air, they just spin the hot air around.  Summers without air conditioners are a whole new kind of ball game.  I am so grateful I only have one full summer here.  The Lord was very merciful at the end of this week and sent a rain storm to clear everything out.  Its starting to get hot and humid again, but the cooler weekend was a blessing.  People here say though that this summer has been especially brutal, that it’s not normally as hot or so hot for so many days in a row.  There are normally more rain storms to keep everything balanced and everyone sane.  Cool!  I sure lucked out.  At the beginning of the summer I thought everyone was crazy for living in a place that was so hot all the time without air conditioning, but learning that this is one of the worst in 50 years makes this place much prettier and it’s easier to understand why people still live here. On the plus side everything is green and beautiful which is awesome. 

There is one family who is especially incredible, the Obertello Family.  They are carpenters by profession, and they run the shop in the back of their house.  They have 14 kids and are all recent converts within the last 4 years.  The teenage daughters were baptized first, and over the years they have all been converted and baptized.  The kids were all converted first and the parents very last.  The mom smoked before, and was supportive of her kids switching from Catholicism to Mormonism, but she never made the change herself.  And the dad is kind and humble, but in the beginning was very opposed to his kids being baptized into the church.  So about a year ago the parents were married, she stopped smoking, and they got baptized.  They are recent converts with strong testimonies, but have a lot of trouble getting to church on Sunday.  We had a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) this last Friday with them and talked a lot about overcoming challenges, and how when we have things to overcome, they can often seem impossible, but if we go to the Lord in prayer, they can still be hard but also become very possible to overcome.  We talked about their struggle to get to the chapel as a family and invited them to pray for strength.  To pray for a solution to the problem and trust in the answer, because it might be something they have never thought of before.  They live a 45 minute walk away from the chapel, and have a few motorcycles, but not enough to take everyone.  And they can’t make several trips because they don’t have enough money to pay for that much gas. So on Sunday morning we anxiously waited to see them.  To see them show up at the chapel, and seeing them walk through the door just melted my heart.  Only the parents came that day for some reason or another, but they are the ones who have the most trouble coming, so seeing them there was like Christmas.  We have Relief Society and Sunday School first, and then Sacrament meeting.  While we were waiting for sacrament meeting to start we were sitting by them and I started talking to them, and found out that their motorcycles were broken, something happened to their car, and they were waiting for the colectivo (bus) to stop by but it never did......so they started to walk.  And they walked the whole way.  They are kind of an older couple (I mean they have raised 14 kids....they can be tired if they want to!) and they walked the whole 45 minute distance.  In reality it was more like an hour to an hour and a half.....because 45 minutes is missionary speed and they move a little slower.  We were so proud of them. There are a lot of sacrifices saints make here to be faithful.....sacrifices that not all members have to make.  But it is something the Lord has required of them, and the idea to start walking as an answer to their prayer in getting help to the chapel I am sure is not something they were super excited to follow through with.....but they did it anyway.  They are such good people, and those 14 kids have excellent parents for examples.

The zone leaders had a training about 2 weeks ago...and they picked up mail but forgot to give it to us.  Almost unforgivable!  But it was kind of fun to get mail in the middle of the month.  I had a few letters and Christmas cards.  Thank you to all! 

My favorite snack lately has been Oreos (they sell them here and it’s the best thing ever!).  And p day activities usually are study, email, get groceries, lunch, and then go to Gridos and get a half kilo of ice cream to share....take it to the chapel, turn on the ac (the church is one of the few places that has ac!) put on shorts, and eat the ice cream directly in front of the ac.  It’s the best ever......and then we spend the afternoon playing ping pong too. 

I am doing well and have so much to be grateful for.  I love you more than all the banana trees that grow here that I didn’t know were banana trees until a week ago!

Hermana Withers 

Baptism in Chile, Another week for the record books

Dear Family,

I am glad to hear that you are all pretty chill with the Minnesota winter. It is hard for me to imagine how cold it is, because I am in summer.  The summer here is hot, and humidity doesn’t help much.  It would be really nice if it would rain a little bit and cool things off.    

The good news:  Lorena was baptized and confirmed this week.  I baptized her, and Bishop Hidalgo confirmed her in church on Sunday.  The oldest son was really sad that he couldn’t go to his mom’s baptism.  Benjamin was in Santiago with his grandparents and couldn’t make it.  We are hopeful that he will be baptized too, because his mom, not us, scheduled an appointment for us to teach him when he comes back.

Somebody who lives in the other ward was also baptized the same day, all of his family are members and he finally decided to join the church too.  The guy who baptized the other guy is from Chile, but lived in Nampa, Idaho for six and half years.  His wife is from Nampa.  It was cool to talk with somebody in English, about Boise Idaho.

Tina, the friend of Maria, came to church for the second time.  Maria rents part of her house out, and Tina is now renting from her.  She feels she has received an answer that this church is the original, the one and only.  It is good that she will be in frequent contact with an active member. We are quite hopeful that she will be baptized.  We have a family home evening tonight with her and Maria and some other members.

I love you all more than the number of hours it would take for this message to get to you had we been using snail mail.  I love you all!

Elder Withers  

Dear Family,

This week was another one for the record books.  We taught lessons to investigators and menos activos...and they are all progressing!  With some of them the progression feels slow, but they are all moving forward in one way or another.  Marisa is finally going to Neuquen this next weekend to get married, and we have several other people who are all kind of at the same spot. They are listening to us, reading the Book of Mormon....experimenting in their hearts, and we are working on getting them to the chapel for Sunday and on date for a baptism.  We walked a lot, consumed gallons and gallons of water, and had lots of adventures!

There is a watermelon truck that goes around selling only watermelon. The truck is so old that every time I see it I am sort of surprised and mostly impressed that they even got the thing to start.  There is one guy driving, and another in the back with a megaphone advertising.  They just drive all around town selling watermelons.  

The branch here is preparing to go to the temple in Buenos Aires.  The members who want to go have to pitch in money and they are all going to rent a big bus and travel together.  (It’s like 6 or 7 hours).  They are going to stay there for the day doing temple work and then get on the bus and travel home again.  They have been planning this event for forever and it’s cool to see the people who are interested to go and the sacrifices they are making.  

Something that is kind of sad that I have learned is that a ton of people have diabetes here, but they also don’t have any means or way to take care of it so they are just sick all the time.  It’s really sad.

When it comes to traffic here....the general rule of the road seems to be "hit or be hit"  If you walk on the sidewalks all is dandy, but the cars and motorcycles out in the road pay no attention to the speed limits, stop signs, intersections, or lanes.  It’s sometimes scary to watch!

We had interviews with president this week which really was fun.  I love talking to him.  And because we were the last ones from our district to get interviewed, they gave us a ride in their air conditioned car from the chapel to our area while they were on their way out of town.  It was sweet.

This last weekend here in La Paz there was a big triathlon.  It’s one of the only events this town has, so everyone went nuts supporting it.  It was like a parade....everyone lined the streets drinking mate.  And instead of sitting down drinking mate and watching people walk by like everyone here loves to do, they just watched them bike or run by instead.  Also, people stood on the curb with a pitcher of water in their hand waiting for a racer to come by....and then they chucked it at them.  I’m not sure if it was suppose to be considered a public service or not.....because it just looked really annoying.  The finish line was exactly 1 block away from our apartment so there were tons of cars and people.....but it has all cleared out and we are glad it’s over.  We feel like we can have our area back now, because the main part of the course was main road we have to walk on every day.  It was kind of tricky this last weekend...but it’s all calm again! 

I love you all lots and pray for you all everyday!  Keep on keeping on!

Hermana Withers       

Chad and his fishing buddy Adolfo

Chad doing what he loves on P-day.  No fish pictures, but still a great day with friends!

Great start for the New Year

January 13, 2014

Dear Family,

Today we went fishing with Adolfo.  It was really cool.  It was on a really nice 120 hectare private property.  The water was really murky with all the snow run-off, but it was fun to cast. Nobody brought anything to net, so there aren’t any fish pictures.  

Pablo went back to his home in Rancagua, if the cancer tests turn out bad it will be really sad, because we know we could have done a lot more to get him ready for baptism the last few months or so.  We just sort of ignored the idea of teaching him because he would come and go every few weeks.

We had a family home evening with recent convert Maria.  She invited 4 neighbors, and we invited 4 members.  One of Maria`s friends took really well to what we were talking about.  Her name is Tina.  She accepted a baptism date, the first of February.  She then went to church with Maria.  It is awesome to see new converts sharing the gospel.  

We have a baptism planned for this Saturday.  Her name is Lorena.  We are really excited, because we have been teaching her for more than 3 months now.  She teaches kindergarten, and has 3 kids.  Her husband, Carlos, isn’t really interested in the church, but says he will go to the baptismal service.  We were planning to have the baptism last Saturday, but her kids were visiting their grandparents in Santiago and wanted to see the baptism.  The oldest son, Benjamin, who is 12 years old has been taking the lessons as well and wants to be baptized soon.  Lorena is a really good person, reads the Book of Mormon, and knows the church is true.  I know that she knows the church is true, because if she didn’t have her own testimony wouldn’t have come back to church based on how some of the members had treated her.  Just speaking to all members within reach of my voice:  be nice to everyone you see at church, sit by them, talk with them, and just be their friend.  

I love all you more than the number of snowflakes in Minnesota,

Elder Withers

Dear Family,

This week it has still been cooler, with breezes and rain storms, mud, and lots of blessings. Yesterday at church it was like Christmas.  There is this young mom named Laura, who was baptized about 5 years ago....she served as primary president and was a great member for the branch, but then had a disagreement with one of the other members.....got offended, and hadn’t been to church in 3 years.  She is a nanny for a different member named Deborah (this town is real small)...and she has been helpful in inviting her and asking her every so often about the church and so on....but Laura just sincerely has never been interested.  We have been passing by ever since I have been here, and in the beginning she wasn’t reading the Book of Mormon, wasn’t praying, obviously wasn’t going to church, and really didn’t have a desire to change.  I have been here for almost 3 months......and since then she started to read the Book of Mormon, is praying, and a couple of weeks ago told us that she felt like it was time to come back.  And yesterday.......SHE CAME!  She paid for the colectivo (bus) ride, brought her two kids, and stayed for all 3 hours.  Miracle.  A lot of the members thought she was a new investigator because she hadn’t been in so long, but when they learned she was a member...they gave her a big hug and now know who she is and can look out for her.  Getting them to the chapel for that first time in who knows how long is a huge hurdle, but if they can do it...the members here are really great at looking out for them.  

But the miracles don’t stop there.  We also have this cute grandma in our branch who is super active, but her husband has a job on Sundays and has become less active.  And her daughter and grandkids are all less active.  One of her grandsons, Luis, lives with them because of some familial problem he had with his parents.  He is 18 years old, with a good conscious to know what is right, but just in a mix with a bad bunch of friends.  He never comes to church on Sunday....because he is out late Saturday and can’t get up the next morning.  Well ever since we met him and learned all of this, we said "what the heck......this kid can come to church."  So we made a plan.  On Saturday night instead of going out with his friends....he has to stay home.  And not only stay home, but expect us to stop by and share a message to keep him accountable to us and to the Lord....to make sure he didn’t go anywhere.  We started this 2 weeks ago....we go over, he is still home, we share the message, he promises to come to church, and then after we leave he apparently went out to go with friends and subsequently didn’t come to church.  So we started the cycle again.  We stopped by once earlier in the week, and told him that we were stopping by at 9:00 Saturday, the last stop of the night to get him ready to come to church, we stopped by, shared a message, he promises to come.....and at 9:00 am he wasn’t there.  His grandma showed up without him, saying she tried to wake him up but he wouldn’t budge...but that she left 3 pesos for the colectivo ride in case he woke up in time to come to part of church. We called him in between meetings, and no answer.  We get to the last 15 minutes of church and the last speaker gets up to give a talk in sacrament meeting....and, who walks in with crazy hair but white shirt and tie?  Luis.  It was excellent, and the only talk he heard was awesome, just what that kid needed.  It isn’t easy to be a youth here.  The young men and young women’s programs aren’t very strong, and there are only a few that are even active....but they are capable. Its taking a lot of work to get these people up and running on their own feet....but the fruits of the labor are worth it.  Even if they are only in the chapel for 15 minutes.  It’s worth it and we can try to do better next week and get to church for a little longer.  

I love being a missionary....it is so cool to be a part of peoples personal conversion and journey back to Christ.  And it is incredibly fun.  I love doing this.  

Yesterday a member fed us "Carpincho" which I have no idea what it’s called in English or what it looks like alive, but apparently is like a giant hamster dog type thing.  You should look it up. It was a reddish meat that smelled kind of like fish but tasted a lot like chicken...it wasn’t the best thing I have ever eaten, but it also wasn’t the worst.  I think it helps that I don’t know what this animal is like in real life.    

I feel like I haven’t been writing very much about the culture or my surroundings, but I will try to write more about that next week.  People ask us all the time what language we speak in the States because they get confused by the fact that we are Yankees speaking Spanish....they sometimes think the U.S language is Spanish.  And McDonalds is super expensive here and legitimately considered fine cuisine.  If you go there people will ask you if it’s your anniversary or birthday or something.  Nevertheless....missionaries still go there because in dollar amounts it’s still really cheap and its one of the only things from the U.S. here in Argentina.

Anyway....I love you all lots.  Keep me updated on everything!  I love you more than all of the people who ask us if we live in the chapel like the Catholic nuns who live in their cathedrals!  

Hermana Withers

Pictures

La Paz

Rebecca with her cousin Elder Hill

Rebecca celebrating Christmas with members

Rainy day on a dirt road

Chad happy to receive first package

Chad with members on Christmas day

Awesome missionary

Going fishing! Running from the rain!

Dear Family,

I would like to start by saying I was floored by the pictures of all the snow.  I can’t believe the amount of snow over there.  You would think that people just wouldn’t build towns in places like that.  Chillan never gets snow.  I have asked a lot of different people about the weather here, and it only snowed once in the last 20 years or so.  And it was just a little that melted the same day.  

There is an awesome family here, the mother has been to the temple, but the father isn’t a member.  His name is Adolfo, he works as a Sergeant in the Chilean Army, and he is a really cool guy.  Anyway, he has been going to church on and off for several years.  He is just starting to really read the Book of Mormon, and he started in 3 Ne 11.  What a great place to start!  Anyway, he loves to fish, especially for trout.  He offered to take us fishing next Monday, in an area just loaded with trout in the 12-16 inch region.  He says they aren’t big, but there are tons of them.  It is close to a tiny little town called Pinto.  We have permission to go and it should be a lot of fun.  I will take pictures.  Hopefully we can hook him on the Gospel and at the same time hook some fish.

Miracle of the week:  We were having trouble finding new people to teach this week.  As we were walking down a street we almost never walk down, because it is about 5 min out of the way, there was a member who started to leave the house of a friend.  We crossed the street (it is called Marchant Street), house number 530, or close to that.  He was in a joking mood as he walked out of the house and got into his car, but he said, “Elderes!  Aqui! Enseñar ella.”  (Elders!  Here!  Teach her.)  He was laughing as he said it, and so was his friend, because she really wanted nothing to do with the church.  Anyway, we went and talked to her at her doorstep, and she said that nothing about the church interested her, that she had heard the missionaries several times before.  We then asked her about what was most important to her, and she said her family, especially her son.  We then said that “your family can be together forever” and her entire demeanor completely changed.  She changed the look on her face, and really wanted to listen.  We then taught her and her son about the Plan of Salvation, and asked them to be baptized.  They readily accepted baptism after we explained priesthood authority.  She is a devout Catholic, who goes to mass, and has the whole mass program memorized word for word.  We are excited for her and her son.  She told us that her husband is also Catholic, and she doesn’t think he will listen to us, but we want to meet with him anyway. The spirit was amazingly strong in the lesson, especially as we testified that Jesus Christ is our redeemer. She told us that she doesn’t get any spiritual satisfaction out of going to mass, but that she felt the spirit as we taught her.

Maria, one of our converts here has an uncle.  His name is Pablo, (or Paul).  He has been to church well over a dozen times, and actually doesn’t live in Chillan.  He lives in the Rancagua mission in Chile, but comes to visits his niece every month or so, and stays for a week or 2.  We have taught him a few times, and he is very receptive.  The thing is, he told us yesterday in church that he has cancer.  He said he wants to be baptized as soon as possible, because in this church they teach the same good things that he learned during his childhood, but one of the differences is that we teach families are forever.  We are anxious to hear the results of the medical tests, because they don’t yet know if it is terminal.  If it is terminal, we plan to teach him everything in a week and baptize him on the weekend.

I love you all,

Elder Withers

Dear Family,

So....we are officially into 2014!  How crazy!  We celebrated the new years by going out for ice cream and attempting (I say attempt because we didn’t have a recipe and they turned out strange) to make M&M cookies.  

We had cooler temperatures for a few days too!  The heat and humidity built up for about 2 weeks, and then the heavens just let down a huge down pour of rain.  It was beautiful.  On Thursday we were visiting a member, sitting on lawn chairs out in her yard under a tree.  It sounds kind of picturesque doesn’t it?  While we were out there, we could see huge, big, black clouds start to roll in.  At the beginning of the visit they were way out in the distance and it looked like the storm would be here by that night....but after half an hour, the clouds were right above us and the rain and wind was about to break loose any second.  We finished the lesson, and started to run.  We were too far from our apartment to make it, so we headed in the direction of a faithful member who lived close by.  In retrospect, I don’t know why we didn’t just stay at the first member’s house.....but oh well.  It was pretty windy while we were running, but it hadn’t started to rain yet....so we decided to go a little bit further to our next appointment with an investigator, and we made it just in time!  It was a blessing indeed....because the rain was nuts!  It all cleared out within an hour or so, but it cooled everything off for a couple days....which was such a blessing.  

Yesterday at church we didn’t have a single less active at church.  Not a single one.  And we only had Marissa, our investigator who is more faithful than most members at church....not any other investigators.  It was kind of a sad Sunday in that respect.  We feel like we work so hard, trying to new things to get people excited and interested in returning to church.....but yesterday there wasn’t anybody.  And the regular members are watching.  Sometimes it feels like finals week every Sunday.....because all the fruit from your work for the week is usually seen at church on Sunday.  But...that’s okay.  We will just try again this week.  

On Friday Chad and I hit our 6 month mark on the mission.  How crazy!!!  The time is flying.  There really isn’t much to write home about because I just barely emailed on Wednesday, so I think I will just start to send pictures that I have been meaning to send but have never had time.  

I love you all more than the number of Argentine kids who are given American names (Austin, Ashley Kevin, David, Jessica, and so on.... just pronounced with an Argentine accent so they sound a little different),

Hermana Withers