5 awesome people in Church on Sunday... Chile & Argentina

Dear Family,

Well the cambios (transfers) got here, I and Elder Copling are still together so that is good.  I don’t know if I told you about ´´The Tie´´.  There was a missionary who was here during the earthquake, and he gave the tie to the person he trained, and then that person to the next, and so on, kind of like the gold plates.  I was the 8th person to have the tie, and now Elder Copling has it since he finished his training.  The missionary who has it writes their name and the year on the back of the tie.  It is a cool tradition.  

This was a great Sunday.  Five less actives came to church.  One of them brought his girlfriend, and she is a non-member, so we hope we can start the lessons with her.  

Here are a couple of pictures one we put with our testimony in the Books of Mormon before we give them away.  The other picture is the man who goes up and down the streets all day selling fruits and vegetables out of his large ox pulled wagon.  He advertises by yelling really loud, he is good at it though.  

We had some pretty cool experiences this week.  Yesterday, at about 9:00 p.m. we came around a corner, and we both felt a very strong impression to just turn around and go back.  We both, neither one saying a word, knew that God didn’t want us to be over there.  I don’t know what would have happened had we ignored the spirit.  I hope that you all know that God answers prayers, and that he is watching out for his children.  I love you all!

I love you all more than the number of grapes that Chile exports to the U.S.A.
Elder Withers

Dear Family,

I love hearing from you guys.  I just love the routine of reading your letters each week and knowing that all is well.... Life is so incredibly good isn’t it?  We have so much to be thankful for and so many fun things to experience in this life.  

As for my adventures this week.....it was a good one!  We had five investigators at church.  FIVE!  Every time one walked in my heart sang a little bit louder.  It’s so fun to have them there, because the members do a really good job fellowshipping them.  

We had another lesson with Alfredo, and he is still so cool.  He is reading the Book of Mormon lightning fast, and has the most admirable curiosity.  He really is just like a child in that sense....very meek and willing to learn. 

And we had a lesson with Marisa.  Which went well, she is still letting doubts float around in her head instead of acting on faith with what she does know to be true. She is a good lady and is willing to do the Lord’s will, she is just getting confused as to what the Lord’s will actually is.  We are working with her though; at least she is still willing to meet with us.  

We had zone meeting this last week as well, which was fun..... I keep praying and hoping that the Christmas package makes it.  

Fun cultural note is that we are sort of stuck in the 90s down here......in nearly everything.  In clothes, music (our neighbors are the worst in that sense.....they play footloose, and girls just wanna have fun, and so many more super loud....we sleep with the fan on the highest setting to drown out the noise and layer up the blankets....because it’s getting cold!)

I love that we are experiencing changes in seasons together, you guys on your way out of winter, and me on my way into winter.  It’s so crazy.  The time is flying by.  

Today we got transfer news, and............Hermana Sainsbury is going to Parana to be with Hermana Haynes (my MTC companion!).  Crazy!  I am getting a cute Hispanic companion named Hermana Galan (I still don’t know where she is from though; I get to meet her tomorrow!)  She just finished the 12 week program, and I am excited for the change.  Ha.....Hermana Sainsbury is devastated though.  She is going to a big city, and we have stayed at that apartment she is going to move to (when we have to travel long distances).....and it’s a real dive.  We will be buying ice cream this afternoon for sure.  

Really life is good.  I feel like my roots are firmly established here in this area, and it feels good to have a handle on the language.  Having a new companion here will be good to change things up too, and I can keep learning and growing.  

I love you all lots!  More than all the things that go up in price each day!  I am actually not even kidding, everything inflates in price a little bit each day.  

Hermana Withers    

Stake Conference on Missionary Work and an Argentine Wedding

Dear Family,

Well, today was pretty cool.  Our zone went on a 20 minute drive to a trail head, and then we took a short 20 minute hike to a really pretty beach.  We played beach volleyball.  It was a lot of fun.  We had to make the court out of scratch.  The member and his convert friend cut down 2 small trees, and we dug holes in the sand, and then we put the trees in as the poles.  We brought our ward´s volleyball net.  We drew the lines in the sand, but after a couple hours the ocean started to erase the lines.  It was a really pretty hike, and the beach was nicely secluded and really pretty.  I brought my camera, and I got 1 picture at the trail head before the battery died.  

We are trying really hard to find new investigators.  Our Stake Conference was almost entirely about missionary work, and temples.  We had a Seventy come, and he was from Argentina.  His name was Elder Causse.  I got to shake his hand.  It was so nice to hear someone speak Spanish who isn't from Chile.  He was so easy to understand, and talked really slow.  It was like listening to someone from Alabama.  He talked about how right now, is the time when the Lord is hastening His work, and that the members and missionaries work together.  When he bore his testimony that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that this is the true church, I felt the spirit really strong.  

Our mission president had a really great talk, and he had 2 missionaries do a role play of how a member can share the gospel in an everyday conversation.  Then he asked every member to talk with the person sitting next to them of someone they could share the gospel with.  Then he told all the members to do a 2 minute practice, and he had the missionaries go around and help them.  It was a really good conference, and I took some notes that I want to re-read during my morning studies.  The first talk was one of my favorites.  It was a convert who grew up in a really hard home, but found the church.  He shared that if people study for years and years in order to live comfortably in this short life, just a High School diploma is about 12 years of study, then how important it must be to study the gospel and prepare ourselves for eternity.  He himself knew about studying, he is some sort of doctor of radiology or something like that.  It caught my attention, that this life really is very short, and we better prepare ourselves well, because where we are going after this, we will be there for a long long time.  

I wish you the very best in all you do, you are awesome!  I love you all more than the number of grains of sand in the ocean.

Sincerely,

Elder Chad Withers

Dear Family,

Time really is flying by so fast!  I can’t believe it!  Today marks 8 months in my mission.  I hope last week’s email didn't make me sound sad or out of spirits, I am always doing great.  It’s just that last Sunday was sort of a rock bottom feeling with all of our investigators who just weren't progressing.  We have dropped the majority of the people we were visiting, and have essentially started over trying to find the people who are really ready......and the Lord blessed us so much in our efforts!

Last Saturday evening (2 weeks ago) we contacted a cute girl named Liza and taught her a quick lesson 1 on her doorstep.  We left her with the pamphlet and a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment for the next Monday.  We showed up Monday for the appointment, asked for Liza, and her dad came to the door.  He told us his name was Alfredo, and that he knew we had met with his daughter, and that he needed to talk to us.  Physically looking, he is kind of scary; with broad shoulders, a thick handlebar mustache, and a really deep voice.  My immediate thought, was "oh shoot.....he is going to tell us that we can’t come back to meet with Liza" (shame on me for so little faith!)  He went to get the Book of Mormon that was on the book shelf and the pamphlet...he took us to the kitchen, told us to sit down.  

He told us he had read the pamphlet (which is awesome.....so many people never read!) and that he had started to read the Book of Mormon, and that he was very interested in it.  His curiosity was interesting though, it didn't come out of negative speculation but instead out of sincere wondering.  He had never seen it before, told us quickly all the things he hates about his church, and that he just wants to know about this church.  We only talked to him for like 10 minutes because he had to go, but we set up another appointment with him for Friday.  We showed up on time for our next Friday appointment......and he blew us away.  

He told us that a few nights ago, at like 3 in the morning, he had a toothache so painful he couldn’t even sit still....it hurt so bad.  He walked around in his house, tried to go back to bed, and nothing worked.  He saw the book on the table and decided to read it to pass the night away....he started to read it and said he couldn't put it down.  He got to 1 Nephi 11 when he realized that his eyes were starting to get tired from reading.  When he closed the book, he realized his tooth didn't hurt anymore, and he was able to go back to bed and then to the dentist the next day.  We reviewed what he read, and he told us his favorite was chapter 8 which talked about the tree of life.  His interpretation of it was so spot on, it’s like he is a member.  He picked up that the iron rod is the way to God, the fruit is the gospel, the people out in the darkness are people who have fallen off the path and so on.  He picked it all up.  We went back to the first vision to go over that too, because we hadn't had the chance to really teach him about the restoration.....and he literally quoted back the First Vision to us.  He had already read the pamphlet a few times.  He says he is very interested in the church, and that what he has read so far he believes is true.  

I have never taught anyone like Alfredo on my mission before, and he is so fun to teach.  He asks us so many questions we have to draw him back into what we are talking about.  People who are progressing are just so much more fun to work with!  The intense contacting we have been doing so far is working and the Lord is really guiding us to where we need to go.  

We also went to a fiesta in the chapel for the wedding of the Elder’s investigators.  It was a cute party with lots of balloons, support from the members, and a great opportunity for our investigators to go to the chapel and meet everyone.  We met Ariel and Silvia there at the chapel (and they really came with their whole family and everything!) and it was awesome.  Pepe gave them a tour of the building, with a stop in front of the baptismal font, and they said they loved the chapel and members.  They were a family we were going to drop but they are still ever so slowly progressing, so we won’t lose hope on them yet.  If there is even the slightest sliver of a chance, we keep them.  If there is no movement forward, we move on to new people that are ready.  It’s sort of a sad cycle sometimes, and can be exhausting.....but it makes me really appreciate the true love Christ has for all of us.  

The wedding party was fun though because they have a cool tradition.  Instead of the bride throwing her bouquet of flowers of her shoulder to see who can catch it, they do something completely different.  They bake the cake with little coin things in the shape of random things (like a shoe, car, fish, house, bike, so on) with a string attached to it.  So the strings hang around the cake like aligned confetti (I hope this is making sense).  So all the single women gather around the cake, grab a string, and on the count of three everyone pulls the string.  The person who pulls the string with the ring at the end of it is the person who is going to get married next.  (Funny thing....the bride pulled the ring at this party.)  I pulled out a fish, and Hermana Sainsbury pulled out a house.  (We were reluctant to do it, but all the members thought it would be funny if we did it, so we did!).

The situation with Marisa has honestly just changed.  She sent us a text on Thursday saying she doesn't want to meet with us anymore, that she doesn't know what she believes, and that she just needs space from the church for a while.  We called her right up and asked what happened.....and honestly nothing has happened.  She just hasn't been reading the book of Mormon for 6 weeks or going to church in 2 months, and she has spaced herself enough from doing good things that the doubts Satan puts in her head have just become a little more difficult to overcome and get rid of.  She said she is going to pray this week to really see what the Lord wants her to do.  We fasted for her this Sunday, and we are excited to go see her this Wednesday for our appointment we talked her into.  She has just progressed too far to let us drop her so quickly.  We are going to fight for her as long as she will let us.  

We had a funny contact the other day, and they honestly had me walking away amazed.  It was a middle aged couple that came to the gate, and shared all sorts of information.  Apparently lots of missionaries have clapped that house before, but they still aren't interested.  They said that we aren't even part of a church because the only church that can exist is apparently their church, that we were on a bad path, and that we probably aren't going to be saved.  They talked on and on about how they have a higher chance of being saved compared to most people because of their Santos (saints), the virgin Mary, and Jesus. We just sort of said, "okay, good to meet you, we know this is the true Church of Christ that has been restored" left a pamphlet and just tried to get out of there.  They gave us a pamphlet thing with weird pictures and articles that make no sense.  I am just going to pick the path of Jesus and work to help others do the same.  Less confusing!  I hope one day they can come to understand. 

The Fall weather is still as beautiful as ever and I am excited for a new season.  I got out my sweat pants and sleeping bag to sleep just so I can feel cozy in the cool evenings and mornings.  It’s awesome!  Everything is still really green though.

Well....I hope you all have a great day!  We have zone meeting this Friday, so maybe I have a package waiting for me!  I hope you know I love you more than all of the Catholics who worship Gauchito Gil (Google him....he is like an Argentine Robin Hood who lived who knows how long ago and there are seriously shrines where people go to pray and leave flowers and stuff).

Stay awesome,

Hermana Withers

Still working hard, Progress seems slow

Dear Family,

This week was awesome.  It started off slow, but we decided to just be happy, have faith, and work as hard as we can.  We are doing something called “hablar con todos” (talk with everyone) and it really works.  The idea is that we contact as many people as possible as we go between appointments.  Last night there was an older guy who was going to buy some bread with his grandson.  We were kind of on the fence about wanting to talk to him, but we decided we would.  He was amazingly nice, and we are going to go visit him this week.  Also, we are teaching a guy named Ivan, and he has one of the most impressive beards I have ever seen.  It is big and evenly parted, and he has a huge handlebar mustache to go with it.  The week didn’t have any crazy stories, but it was still a great week.  It was awesome to see one of the recent converts come to church, after not coming for 3 months or so.  The members did a good job of welcoming him back.  I am happy, and I think Chile  is a pretty cool place.  I know that this church is true, and that God loves us. 

I love you all, more than the number of snowflakes that made the winter Olympics possible.

With love,

Elder Withers

Dear Family,

Truthfully this week was long.  There were also lots of bright spots in the week though too.  Best of all was that we had district conference.  So the branches of La Paz, Las Termas, Santa Elena, and Feliciano all came here to meet.  President and Hermana Giuliani came for the meeting, and it was soo good to see and hear from them!  We hardly ever get to see them and it was so fun to have them here.  (That is how I was able to get mail in the middle of the month because they brought it up with them in the back of their car).  

Most disappointing of all is that Marisa came back from Neuquen.......unmarried.  She went all the way down there, a 30 hour drive one way, and wasn’t able to get married.  We had a lesson with her on Wednesday.  (Actually we were on exchanges with the Hermanas from Parana so I felt a lot of pressure for this lesson since it was the first time since we had seen her and Hermana Sainsbury wasn’t there) and we also brought Hermana Obertello with us to be there as moral member support.  It was an interesting lesson to say the least.  We walked in and she is normally always so happy and inviting, but this time she wasn’t so I could tell something was up.  We get to talking to her and find out that when they went to Neuquen.....her "husband" didn’t even have to get divorced.  This whole time they had been telling us that "they need to go to Neuquen so he can get divorced and then they can get married."  He has been divorced this whole time, and just needs to go to some government office in Neuquen to pick up the paperwork.  And he didn’t do it.  Marisa told us that he got very bitter all of the sudden about her decision to get baptized and is now saying that if she only wants to get married so that she can get baptized....then he doesn’t want to get married.  Its soooo sad.....and she is so hurt.  She wants to get married and she is offended that he won’t marry her, even just to support her in her decision to be baptized.  I wish I could just go down to the office and pick up the paperwork myself.  The thing is though; even though we are on the southern end of the equator....we aren’t at the edge of the planet.  We are living in the 21st century where fax machines exist.  We are going to try and see what we can do.  We have to come up with a plan fast though, because she has been waiting so long to be baptized and she needs to be living the law of chastity.  She has family who live down there who can mail things.....but I don’t know.  We are going to visit her again this week and help her come up with a plan.  It’s just sad that all the waiting to be baptized hasn’t even paid off yet.....because she is still waiting.  The other thing that is frustrating is that Marisa has learned about plural marriage and how it used to exist, and it has been quite the testimony shaker for her.  We are working it through it with her....but man she has been a difficult investigator to help get to baptism.  

And all of our other investigators aren’t really progressing either.  We are dropping a lot of them lately and looking and contacting ALL THE TIME.  We are trying to find the Lord´s prepared people.....and help those who are ready to progress.  The thing is that people´s agency to choose the natural man over their spiritual desires is hindering their ability to progress.  This transfer has been kind of hard in that that way.....in that we are working hard and we have good numbers to prove to the Lord we are working, but we are seeing so little success.  We follow the spirit, are obedient, and trying to be grateful for the blessings we have......but the Lord is really putting us through a refiners fire right now.  The prepared people are just very well hidden right now......but we will find them!  It’s just going painstakingly slow right now.  

Other than slow progression here.....all else is well!  We were able to organize and help the branch president here hold his first ward council meeting...so that’s progress.  And a less active that hasn’t come in 2 years showed up to church.  

It’s starting to cool off and I have never been more excited for the autumn and winter seasons.  It’s going to be sweet!  

I love you all lots and I have a testimony of this work!  I know the church is true!

I love you more than all the ping pong games we plan on P Day!

Hermana Withers

Opening a new area, Sharing candy from USA

Dear Family,

Thanks for your amazing letters.  I really enjoy all the little updates each person has to share.  I can’t believe you had 60 mornings below zero. That is crazy, I wish I could send some summer over to you guys, because we have a lot of it. 

My companion is a really nice, genuine person.  We work together really well, and I feel like he would be a companion I will keep in contact with after the mission.  He was really into sports before the mission, and did just about everything (football, wrestling, basketball, hockey, motocross, and lifting)  His morning exercise is pretty intense.  One time he was benching his bed, with another missionary on top of the bed for added weight.  

The area we are in is a brand new area.  It was opened one transfer before I got here, so we are kind of starting this sector from ground zero.  We are starting to find investigators and inactives too.  We may or may not baptize during this transfer, but I know there is no shortage of work here in Lorenzo Arenas.  This ward has some of the first converts of Chile.  Missionaries got to Santiago in 1956, and there are some 1957 converts here.  There is an active member who served in the Chile Mission.  She was the first sister missionary to serve in Concepcion, and her mission covered all of Chile.  We had a family home evening with her and her husband, who also served a mission.  They served root beer floats (which is awesome because you can’t buy root beer in Chile)  The husband had a companion who brought root beer with him to the mission field in Chile, and he thinks it is the most amazing drink.  They have American Elders ask their families to send root beer concentrate with a package, and then they make the root beer.  I told them (the Mella family) that you guys could send root beer concentrate in the next package.  They would love you forever if you can send some in the next package.

I will try to put two weeks of adventures in one letter.  I ate horse meat last week.  It was a lunch appointment with the Lopez family, and they usually serve horse meat.  

I live with a missionary named Elder Ainge.  His father is Danny Ainge, of the Boston Celtics. Elder Ainge was playing basketball for BYU before the mission.  He is really nice and very humble.  

The other day was Valentine´s Day, and we had an awesome ward activity.  It was a karaoke night.  The bishop made it really exciting for everyone by dividing the ward into three teams, and putting one or two missionaries with each team.  The teams would compete for points by trying to be the best group in a certain category of music.  It was a close competition and everyone was a winner.  At the end of the activity they had the YMCA song playing, and nobody was really paying attention, most people were just getting ready to leave.  My companion thought it would make for a good grand finale, so he handed me the microphone and told me to jump up on the stage.  During the whole activity, nobody used the stage. All the singing had just been done on the floor.  I jumped up there and started to sing the song as I spelled out the letters ´´Y.M.C.A.´´  I got  the 20 or so people that were still there singing and dancing to it, then at the end of the song, my companion and Elder Taylor carried me on their shoulders and I kept singing the song and making the  ´´Y.M.C.A.´´ letters as they carried me around. The whole ward knows I have no idea how to sing, but I just decided to be really excited about it, even though I was about 10,000 miles outside of my comfort zone.  It was kind of like when Buddy the Elf (Movie Elf with Will Ferrell) got the mail room singing and dancing.  It was  a good ward activity, and some less active members and some investigators showed up.  Most of them participated in the competition. 

I can’t remember if I told you guys yet or not that the second temple in Chile will be built in my zone.  It will be down by the Bio Bio River.  I've seen pictures of what it will look like.  It will be three floors, with a fourth floor underground.  

The stake here is starting to put a huge focus on family history work.  Our zone leaders are expecting us to help the members use family history as a way to find new investigators.

I would love to share the awesome pictures that I have, but the blasted plug ins with these computers just don’t pick up anything.

I love you all more than the number of good people all over the world who would accept the gospel but just don’t know where to find it.  

Sincerely,

Elder Chad Withers

Dear Family,

This week has been BEAUTIFUL.  This whole summer has been impossibly hot throughout the whole thing, but this week it has cooled off and it’s even a little bit chilly during the night.  I have slept with a blanket for 6 nights in a row!  That’s a new record.  

I’m not really sure how, but the town of La Paz has this overwhelming smell like cilantro.  Not so much in the downtown part, but if you get out in the wide open spaces with fields and farms and acreage.....the whole town has a cilantro smell for some reason.  It just barely started...maybe its cilantro season?  I have no idea.  I don’t even like cilantro, but I can’t seem to get enough of this smell.  It is just so fresh and wonderful....it’s like I am living in paradise!  

We have an investigator named Tito (not sure if I have talked about him) but he is awesome.  He is 20 years old and working hard.  He doesn't actually live with his family though.  He comes from a humble background, is the oldest of 6 kids, and when he was little his mom would send them out to beg for food because they had no income.  He would always go to the Castella family....who are less actives in our branch.  The mom would give him lunch and let him stay to play with her kids.  Play out 15 years to where we are today, and that mom is a nice grandma, her daughter lives in the house in front of hers, and Tito is like the child they never had who helps out with nearly everything.  He helps take care of the paralyzed grandpa who can’t eat, go to the bathroom, get dressed, or anything. He runs errands for them, cleans stuff up, and it’s so cool.  This boy who was so little when his mom sent him out to ask for food is able to give back and help out.  So he has been living essentially with this less active family.  We have visited the family what feels like a million times and they know they need to come to church, but actually getting there is a struggle.  A couple of weeks ago we met Tito and started teaching him and he is so awesome!  He absorbs the lessons like a child....sincerely interested in learning and so quick to act on faith and believe.  His work schedule has made it hard for him to come to church, but he has progressed so much so far, that I know he can do it.  He told us that he met with the missionaries for a while about 4 years ago, and he wanted to get baptized but he was only 16 and his parents wouldn't give him permission.  Now he is 20....so baptism is his independent decision!  We are excited and hope he will get baptized. 

Tito is really the only investigator we have though that is pulling through and keeping his word.  All of our investigators keep meeting delays in progression....making up excuses for why they didn't come to church, or trying to explain that they are just so busy they didn't have time to read the Book of Mormon.  The best part is that when we have these conversations with people, we are usually talking to them while they are sitting there drinking mate telling us about how stressful and hectic their lives are.  

I’m working hard to not be frustrated though!  Because frustration just drives the spirit away, but seriously.....where are the people who are ready to progress?  Our teaching pool has been cycled through several times and it’s hard when all of them don’t want to choose the Gospel.  Maybe they still don’t get how important it is (even though we have explained it like a thousand times) but it’s okay.  Missionary work is all the same.  Some get to plant for a while, others may be in charge of weeding, and some get to pick the fruit.  It feels like I have been in the weeding department for a really long time, but maybe that’s what I am good at.  Ha, who knows.  Success isn't manifested by the number of baptisms but rather my desire to bring people to Christ.  

So I got another box.  I think your theory about the boxes being faster is true.  I know they are more expensive, but I still haven’t got the padded envelope you sent in October, but I got a box sent January 30.  It doesn't add up but it makes me feel closer to you guys when I can get notes and a package that isn't three or four months out dated.  I opened the box up right away and gave a tootsie pop to each of the Elders.  The one from the Jungle of Peru loved it.  I also gave one to Pepe our missionary leader and in Spanish he was like, "candy from America?!"  Ha it was fun to share.  Don’t worry, I am keeping the rest for me.  From the other package I let the Hermanas from Santa Elena try a tootsie roll.  One is from Chile and the other from Peru, and they were so funny.  They kept asking if it was gum or if it was chocolate....and I was just like......"uh...neither.  It’s a chewy sweet called a tootsie roll with chocolate flavoring"  

I love you all sooooooo much and hope you know I pray for you every day.  I am so grateful you are all doing well.  Keep up the good work and know that I love you more than all the plates of noodles with bread I have eaten since being here!

Hermana Withers

Packages in Chile, Bus crash in Argentina

Dear family,

I got a wonderful package from home.  I also got a package from the Victory View Relief Society.  It had candy, letters, oat meal, and ramen noodles.  It also had a lot of CTR stickers. Please be sure to tell them thanks for me.

Did I tell you they have Subway here in Concepción?  And Dominos pizza too.  It is awesome.  

That is awesome that the Olympics are up and going.  I love you all more than the number of peanuts it would take to fill an Olympic ice rink for these games.

Love,

Elder Withers

Dear family,

We are writing a little bit early today because we have the Hermanas from Santa Elena who spent the night over at our place (our zone is having a special P-day today.....volleyball on the beach of the Parana River and a member is BBQing for us.....sweet!)

This week really was so typical I struggled coming up with things to write about.  But don’t fret!  There is always something to write about :)

Earlier this week we were riding a colectivo, which is bus system that EVERYONE uses. Interesting to note is that there is no capacity or limit they have for the amount of people that can be riding it at once, they just keep shoving more and more people on when its rush hour.  Anyway we were riding the bus from the furthest part of our area (about an hour walk) back home for the night, when the bus pulled over at the next stop, to let some people off and others on.  The new passengers got on, the bus driver put the thing in gear, and seconds after that a car going decently fast slams into the back of the bus.  In my head I was thinking, great this is going to take forever....now we have to wait for police to come and check everything out, make sure everyone was okay, and so on....considering that it might be better to just walk home at this point The bus driver got out to go check out the situation, was gone for about 30 seconds, got back on the bus, and kept driving as if nothing happened.  I was floored..... thinking.... don’t you need to exchange information for insurance purposes in case of necessary repairs or liabilities?!  Ha!  Oh well.  The laws are clearly not the same here.  May God Bless America.  

On Tuesday we had a rainstorm that would put Portland to shame......it was raining SO HARD when we woke up, and was like that solid all day until 4 in the afternoon.....it didn’t even stop or let up once.  It flooded some houses and made a mess of all the roads, but it cooled everything off and everything looked so pretty with the gray clouds for a backdrop and the moisture in the air.  Funny thing though.  You know how we say in English that it’s raining cats and dogs and how even though the expression makes no sense, you still know what it means?  Well in Spanish they say it’s raining pitchforks.....an expression that also makes no sense but everyone here knows what it means.  You should have seen us talking to the member about it, he was trying so hard to explain what a pitchfork was, and we were trying so hard to figure out what the heck he was talking about.  We gave up, wrote down the word and looked it up later.  We get it now :)

This week we had a small adventure at the doctor’s office for my companion.  Hermana Giuliani gave us a list of doctors we could go see.  My companion looked at the list and said, "I want to go to Dr. Lawrie.....his name looks the least Argentine and most reliable."  I was like.....ha okay.  All these docs are going to be Argentine, but pick whoever you want.  (It’s not that we don’t love this country, we do....but when it comes to medical things sometimes being in a foreign country is scary.)  We made the appointment for that afternoon, showed up and ended up waiting for 2 1/2 hours.  When the doctor finally got to us....he read her name and then in English says, "she speaks English, come on lets go into my office!"  We got into his office, and he goes onto explain that he was born and raised in La Paz but that his grandma was very strict and that every time they went over to her house they had to speak in English or they didn’t get to eat.  He said, "You can talk in English or Spanish to me....it’s all the same concept" and I think he was right.  His English was incredible, if not fluent.  He said he learned English with a British accent, and it was kind of funny to hear him speak british english with an argentine accent....but he really does know English.....it was so cool!  My companion starts to explain what has been happening, and he gets a wicked grin on his face and says, "you know we have a little problem.....I would love to help you but I am an orthopedic surgeon....I have no idea how to help you"  Haaaaa...........what a bust.  The list of doctors Hermana Giuliani gave us weren’t all general practice ones like she thought they were.  He gave us our money back and we were on our way out.  We have an appointment with the doctor’s brother (who works in the same office but is general practice and can also speak English!)  It was just a huge waste of time more than anything, but we are working on making it all better!

This week really was a great one!  All is well and life is good.  We have visitors over for today and its going to be a great day with volleyball and barbeque and zone meeting tonight. 

I’m doing well and love you all.  I love you more than all the glasses of chocolate milk I have consumed this summer!  

Hermana Withers

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