Chile is getting cold, Stake Conference in Argentina

June 2

Dear Family,

Greetings!  Concepción is getting sort of cold.  We got quite a bit of rain and wind recently, but I am in good health.  Last night the mission president called and asked me if I would be willing to serve as district leader here in the same zone.  I really don’t know exactly what I have to do, or how to do it, but I know both of my zone leaders well and they are going to show me what I need to do.  If you could include me in your prayers that would mean a lot to me.  I am staying in the same area, and so is my companion, so that is nice.  We are going to be getting an Elder Harrison from Nampa, Idaho in our apartment, so that will be fun.  

Today has been quite the party.  Our zone had lunch at a fancy American style restaurant called Mamut, and I ordered a buffalo burger.  It was really good, and the lemonade was amazing.  It was funny when I ordered the lemonade.  I made up my order really fast, and forgot to decide on what do drink.  I said ´´puedo tener una limonada de, um .....3 seconds.....limon?´´  They had a lot of different fruit options, and I realized I just wanted my lemonade to be from lemons.  It was good.  

This past week I got some amazing pictures of a sunset, but I forgot to bring the camera with me to the computer place, so I guess I will do that next week.  

We had the family home evening with Norma, the person who one day asked where church is and how to become a member.  She is really nice, and we hope she can progress well.  Amadeo came to church this Sunday.  We are thinking about moving his baptismal date a week forward, because he is understanding everything we teach him.  He was a soldier, then a FBI guy, and he is now retired.  We hope he can stay strong.  

I love my mission.  I know that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and watches after us.  He sent his beloved son, Jesus Christ, to die, so that through faith and repentance on His name, all mankind may have the chance to be saved from their own sins.  I know that if we follow his example by being baptized by someone who is in the authority to do so, we can receive a remission, or forgiveness of our sins.  Then comes the baptism by fire, to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands.  We then can receive personal guidance and direction in our life, to help us return to our Father in Heaven.  I know that if we choose the right we will be blessed.  I humbly testify of these things in the sacred name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Today, I received a large stack of nearly 20 dear elder letters that have been piling up over the last few months and were in the home of other missionaries.  I will have a blast reading them this week.  Thank you all for all of the awesome letters.  I love you all more than the number of cheerios it would take to fill the super bowl, more than all the cows it would take to have enough whole milk to pour into the super bowl, and more than the number of calories you would eat if you were to cover it all with sugar and eat the entire bowl for breakfast.

-Elder Withers

Dear Family,

This week was awesome.  First and foremost, with the transfers.....Heavenly Father loves me and is blessing me with a change.  I will be training a new missionary fresh from the MTC, and I’m really excited!  A new set of challenges and adventures awaits me.  I am going to Rosario tomorrow to pick her up :)

Like Chad said, I can’t believe we are almost at the year mark.  Today is 11 months!!!  Soooooo fassssttttt.   

Also........I don’t know how much I want to tell you this, but it’s sort of a miracle so I am going to.  But don’t freak out.  Yesterday...........we got robbed.  Ha.......I told you, don’t freak out.  This is what happened, yesterday was our day to deep clean the apartment.  We did our studies like always in the morning, and then went to the store to get a few cleaning products (because we had absolutely nothing).  We got back from the store, entered our apartment, and all was good.  I went to the back of the apartment to start cleaning the patio, organize the junk I have always wanted to organize but didn’t have the time...and throw most of it away.  Hermana Ospinal came to the back too, and we really made some progress.  Hermana Ospinal had been going back and forth from the front to the back, taking out bags of garbage, and for some reason left the door open between trips because it was faster and less of a hassle.  I didn’t know this (I would have told her to shut the door and lock it every time) but on another run with garbage, she only made it to the hallway, and came back white as a ghost.  She said, "Hermana.....someone was in our apartment" I asked did you see them or do you only recognize things out of place?  She said no, there was a tall skinny man with a hood on and his hands in his pocket, I didn’t see what he was doing, I only saw him leave.  I was surprisingly calm, and said "Well shoot......let’s see if he took anything."  And sure enough, he swiped her wallet and 300 of my pesos (like 60 bucks).  She felt awful....and went on and on about how scared she was, and how sorry she was for leaving the door open for a minute... but I honestly feel fine.  I am at peace with everything, just a little weirded out that someone else was in our apartment.  The miracle is that he didn’t take the phone/documents/cameras or try to hurt us.  He just entered and left.  And it’s totally our fault because the door was open (just to take the garbage out....you can’t trust anyone these days!)  but if anything it has taught me a good lesson to be on guard ALWAYS  always always always.....to always know what my companion is doing, and to be extra careful, locking and double locking everything.  I love that we have a member who lives next door and looks out for us, and this week we are going to be working closer to our apartment walking by frequently so it looks like we are always home.  We really are so blessed and I am so grateful for the safety and protection.  Please don’t freak yourselves out, I just wanted to share this story and miracle, I know that the Lord is always looking out for us, even if we make mistakes.  He always loves us.  Also know that I really do feel very safe in our apartment, it’s a good place.

I also wouldn’t mind if we could go a couple of weeks without a big adventure.  That would be sweet :)  This week a member gave us dinner, and served us something called Matambre.  It is probably the most Argentine meal I have ever eaten, it’s a pizza, with cheese and sauce, but instead of bread for a crust, the crust was steak.  It sounds weird, but it really was good.  

We also had Stake Conference this week, and it was incredible.  We had 2 general authorities, and a big theme in the sessions was missionary work.  It’s fun to be in a bigger area, where general authorities from the seventy come for conferences.  The conference was in Rosario, and Roberto and Teresa were able to go which was awesome.  They stayed for the whole thing and really liked it.  They have also been sharing pamphlets with their family about the church which is incredible.  We really love them and pray that their paperwork comes through every day, so that they can get married.  

We are ready to start another week with contacting and finding and teaching and serving!  Enjoy your vacation and adventures in the East (and in Chile!) and know that I love you all more than all the people meeting with the missionaries around the world!

Hermana Withers 

Diligence, Trip to Rosario

Dear Family,

This past week passed really quickly, and I am shocked that I am almost at the halfway point of my mission.  TOO FAST.  I wish it would slow down.  Yesterday I gave a talk about the Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End.  I focused most of the talk on enduring to the end.  I used the tortoise and the hare analogy, and invited everyone to be gospel tortoise, not in the sense of being slow, but in the sense of being diligent. We were delighted to see that Amadeo, the reference from Bro. López came to church.  I would appreciate it so much if you could include him in your prayers.  He still has a long ways to go. He has a baptismal date set for the twenty first of June, and he really needs your prayers.  This week we hope to finally have the family home evening with Norma, the reference who contacted us in the street.  We have been waiting for the members to set up the family home evening, and they have lost her phone number a couple of times.  I really hope we can start working with her this week.

Oh, I dont remember if I sent the recipe for microwaveable cake yet.  Here it is.  You can make it in a mug, a bowl, or anything that can go in the microwave.  Feel free to double or triple the recipe.  4 cucharadas de azucar+ 3 cucharadas de harina + 2 cucharadas de chocolate amargo (nesquik will probalby work just as fine) + 4 cucharadas de aceite + 3 cucharadas de leche + 1 huevo.  mix until well mixed, then put the microwave on highest power setting and cook it for 3 to 3.5 minutes.  Enjoy!

To answer a couple questions, we haven’t come in contact with the Matthew 28:19 investigator, I think he has been out of town.  We will either find him this week or we will slip a note under his door.

I love you all more than the number of bugs the car will hit between now and the time you pull the car into garage in Boise.

Sincerely,

Elder Withers

Dear Family,

This was an out of the ordinary week because we had to go to Rosario 3 times (3!).  That’s a ton! We first went so my companion could have an x-ray and MRI done, then we went the next day to pick up all the results, and we went again to do what is called a "choque de fuerza" or in other words, overflow a single area in our zone with all the missionaries in the zone for 3 hours to help with contacts and lessons.  It was really awesome, and made me so grateful for Beltran.  The area we were working in has tonnnnns of money, and lots of cold, uninterested people.  But it went well, and it was fun to all work together as a zone.  And as always, it was fun to see Elder Hill :)

When we went to downtown Rosario for the medical stuff, we were told to go to the Gamma Institute, which turned out to be a huge, big medical place right in the middle of downtown Rosario.  It takes almost 2 hours to get there because you have to take 2 different buses, and it took even longer because we had to go the mission office first to pick up the money to pay for all the tests.  It felt like we were traveling all day long.  And when we got to the area of downtown Rosario, everything started to get nuts.  You have to walk really fast to keep up with the speed and the sheer number of people that are invading the sidewalks.  You have to guard your bags because there are so many people everywhere, and not breathe in too deeply because everyone and their mother is smoking.  We walked past the big Broadway theater....ha and in case you are interested they will be showing Phantom of the Opera this week. :)  I would have taken pictures of everything to document it all.......but I didn’t want to attract attention and get robbed, so I just locked it all in my memory and am doing my best to explain it all.  

Funny story....at one point in the journey from the mission home to Gamma, we were given permission to take a taxi.  We called the taxi, got in, and were on our way.  It was an insane roller coaster (like every cab ride.....I miss driving laws) and the car broke.  Right in the middle of the big road.  We got out, and kept going, but it was a funny little adventure.  We spent a lot of time in the big huge city this week, and it was a little stressful, but we made it out alive. Hopefully we can figure out what is happening with my companion’s knee.   

I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish yesterday, and it is such a powerful book.  I prayed again to ask if it was true, and just like every other time I have prayed and asked.....I got the same peaceful and reassuring feeling that it is.  And I know it is.  

Our investigators are all doing well.  We are still waiting for the paperwork for Roberto and Teresa to come through so that they can get married.  They are progressing well, and we even got to help them lay the cement and place the bricks on the house they are building this week, which was fun.  :)

We also had an investigator named Jorge, who went to church yesterday.  He is living with a member who has 7 kids, and they moved to Beltran recently.  They want to get married (so many people need to get married!) but they are waiting for the divorce paperwork for Lorena, his girlfriend.  Hopefully it comes quick!  They are both cops, and super awesome people.  

All else moves along nicely here in Beltran.  Our branch president is this nice man, but he is huge.  I learned this week that he lifts lots of weights, and it all makes so much sense.  I will send a picture of him some time, he has to turn sideways to walk through the doors his shoulders are so big.  He is awesome though.  Crazy thing is that the relief society president and her husband (he isn’t a member, but we are teaching him) both had polio.  It is very rare to meet people who have had that disease, but apparently Argentina was hit with a bad case that spread quickly, and they were affected before there was a vaccine.  They are incredible people.  

The general conference talks have been like angels to me.  I love listening to them.  And just so you know, everything has cleared up with the packages.  They arrive without problems.  Just don’t use private companies like FedEx or anything.  

This week really was a stellar week and I am excited for another week of adventures!  This is the last week of the transfer, so I won’t be emailing until next Tuesday.  

I love you all lots!  More than all the people I walked past in downtown Rosario this week!  

Hermana Withers

Using Both the Book of Mormon & Bible to Teach, Love Being a Missionary

Dear Family,

This week was a really good week.  Working with Elder Sellers is really nice, he speaks amazingly good Spanish.  He sometimes has a hard time understanding the Chileans, but so does everyone.  We get along without any problems, and I really have my fingers crossed that neither one of us gets transferred 2 weeks from now.  We have finally got the member who knows the lady who wants to become a member of the church to set up a family home evening.  It will be this week.    

There is a mentally challenged member in our ward, his name is Christian.  He is 32, is handy with the scriptures, and lives with his parents.  His favorite thing in the world is to work with us whether it’s confirmed teaching appointments or knocking doors in the rain.  He gave us a reference of a preacher who uses the Book of Mormon in his ministry, teaching about 60 people every week in the shed behind his house.  We have passed by that house about 6 times, trying to find the preacher, but we’ve never found him.  Saturday night, he was home.  He said he was busy, but he came out to open the front gate and we gave him more literature to read.  We were finally able to meet with him.  We found out he actually isn’t a preacher, but he does have a Book of Mormon.  His name is Amadeo, he is 83 years old, and is retired.  He worked many years for the PDI, the Chilean equivalent of the FBI.  Having a pretty sharp mind, he taught himself English using an old textbook.  We taught the message of the restoration in English.  The spirit was so strong, and he had really good questions.  I shared my conversion story with him, of how I came to know the truth for myself.  Towards the end of the lesson, he grabbed a Book of Mormon, and said, “I know that this book is true.”  Then he grabbed the Bible, and said, “I am not sure about this book, but I know that this other book is true.”  He is so prepared, and we are going to pass by this Wednesday with Christian.  We are teaching some other really good people, and I wish you could meet them all.  

A while back we were teaching a preacher named Roberto.  He has a very good handling of the Bible, and told us that he respects and admires the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints a great deal, but will never join it because we baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  He is so set that baptisms should simply be in the name of the Son.  He then said if we could show him a verse in the Bible that explains baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, then he would join our church without question.  We stopped visiting him, since it seemed he only wanted to argue with us.  This morning, I was listening to a conference talk, and Elder Holland was speaking.  He said something that made me think to look up “missionary work” in the topical guide, and it led me to Matthew 28:19.  “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”.  I will hold Robert to his word, Matthew 28:19 has him.

I love you all so much, more than the number of paper clips it would take to make a paper clip chain between the International Space Station and the Statue of Liberty.

Sincerely, with lots of smiling,

Elder Withers

Dear Family,

I’m  glad you are all having a great week!  I can’t believe you are getting ready to leave Minnesota and are going to visit the east coast.  Take lots of pictures!  

This has been a good week and I am so grateful to be a missionary.  We are making lots of fun progress with the less actives and our golden investigators Roberto and Teresa.  They are progressing lightning fast and the only thing we are waiting for are the wedding documents and paperwork to come in the mail so that they can get married and baptized.  Woohoo! 

It is getting pretty cold, and my coat has been the best thing ever.  I love that it’s long, and I am totally ready for winter.  

Congrats to you Chad on all your success in Chile!  It’s amazing how the Lord puts people in our paths to find and teach, but so important to remember to do our part first so that we can be ready and worthy of the blessings.  Keep it up!  

Thanks for all your letters and messages of support.  I love you guys so much, and I feel lucky to be in South America.  My time ran short today because I had to do some paperwork on the computer (my reimbursements!) so sorry the letter this week isn’t as good.  Next week I will have more time and be able to send pictures (Ha...I have been promising for like a month now, but next week I really promise ;).  

I love you more than all the people I am going to meet this week through contacts!  

Hermana Withers

Mother's Day Phone Calls - Short Letters

Dear Family,

I was so excited to talk to you all.  It was awesome.  Amazingly, we were able to hook up all three computers and have a crazy long distance phone call, and be able to see everyone’s faces.  It was awesome to talk with each and every one of you, and to try to catch up with all the many things that are going on.  

This week started out pretty rough, as far as the quantity of people we had scheduled to teach.  We worked hard to talk with as many people as possible, and on Sunday, on our way to lunch we were privileged to talk with someone who is really prepared to receive the gospel.  Her name is Norma.  I was so happy about it that I put it in my letter to president.  We did our part to do the 10 contacts a day per missionary, and we were greatly blessed.  I was honestly surprised when we were walking to lunch yesterday and a couple stopped us, and asked where and when our church meetings are, and what is required to be able to be married in the temple. The man is a member, and really wants to be sealed to his wife.  She is a non-member, but very interested, and asked us about how to prepare for baptism.  We look forward to teaching her the gospel.  I am convinced that had we not been talking with everyone throughout the week, God would not have placed them in our path. I have a testimony of the importance of talking with everyone.  I am happy, and healthy, and excited to start this new week.

                

The mission is such an amazing experience.  To be able to see people accept the gospel is the most exciting thing.  Those awesome moments when you are really teaching the gospel make it all worth it.  

I love you all so much, more than the number of cheerios it would take to feed all the animals in Hogle Zoo for a week.

Elder Withers

Dear Family,

Oh it was so fun to talk to you guys through Skype.  I lovvvvvved it, and even more incredible was that Chad and I were able to talk for a little bit.  Such a miracle that everything worked out and that we could have a nice relaxing conversation.  

I really love my mission.  I really do :)  All the silly and strange things and adventures that happen are all part of the package, but they aren’t the whole story.  All of the people we talk to in the streets, or the members we visit, the lessons we have, or service we can offer are what make the mission awesome.  As fun as it has been getting to know a new country and culture, that’s not why I came on a mission.  My purpose was and is to serve the Lord, not to get to know a new county.....and it’s been awesome!  As foreign and different as the Argentine people seem sometimes, they really are amazing and have the same spiritual and emotional needs like everyone else in the world....they just speak a different language and are addicted to mate!  

Life is good.  Missionary work really is a life changing experience, which makes a person grow and change in incredible ways.  

I love you lots and hope you know that you are all my favorite!  I love you all more than the number of people who are investigating the church around the world!

Hermana Withers 

New English Classes, Trips to Rosario

Dear Family,

How awesome that you saw the northern lights!  I wish you all the best on your end of year school projects, and packing.  

We started an English class this last Friday and we had one person show up.  I taught him how to say “son of a nutcracker!” from the movie Elf.  I found it pretty funny.  The way to say that in Spanish is “¡hijo de cascanueces!”  

There hasn’t been a whole lot of happenings here, just working hard and trying our best to find the people who are ready to hear the gospel.  Elder Sellers and I have a lot in common, he likes math, likes airplanes a lot, loves to play checkers, and likes to quote from the same movies.  The other day I said “Wow!  What a hole!”   He recognized it was from the movie “Home Alone Two”.  

Last night we found a family to start working with.  

I have come across some pretty good recipes in Chile.  One is 3 min in the microwave brownies, and the other is what I decided to call Lópèz Leche.  it is:  Sugar+chocolate amargo or fruit or whatever flavoring or fruit you want+warm water+powdered milk.  Put all that in a blender and blend it.  It is surprisingly good, and is the only delicious way I have found of consuming powdered milk.  I bet you could use real milk instead of powdered milk, but I buy powdered milk down here because it is so much cheaper.  I will try to remember to send the brownie recipe next week.  

I love you all, more than the number of Willy Wonka nerds candies it would take to make enough nerd ropes to make a bridge between the north pole and the south pole.

With lots of love,

-Elder Withers

Dear Family,

This week was soooo awesome.  Really!  Such a great week.  We had to travel to and from Rosario  twice. One was to go to the mission office for interviews with President, another was for our zone meeting.  Our interviews with President are always awesome and it’s hard to believe that president Giuliani goes home soon. When we walked into the office all the office Elders, President, and Hermana Giuliani said......"Oh Hermana Withers, Elder Hill left the office so sad because he didn’t get to see you, he had to take a missionary to the hospital"  and I said, "Oh that’s okay.....I will see him tomorrow at zone meeting!"  Hermana Giuliani felt sad about it anyway and said she wanted to film a little video of me talking so she could show it to him.  So she filmed me, and I didn’t say anything of consequence, just hey, how ya doin, see you tomorrow, and have a great day.  It was fun to do.  And it turned out that I didn’t need to make the video after all, because after she filmed me....he walked in!  It was soooo fun to see him after 6 months.  We were able to talk for about half an hour....just catching up on life, our areas, our families, the funny things about Argentina....and it was sweet.  I love being in the same mission as him.  Even more hilarious is watching everyone’s faces when people learn that we are cousins.  

We also had zone meeting....and Elder Hill had the whole zone laughing several times, cracking jokes about being here in Argentina with his "prima".  (Prima means cousin in Spanish)  After zone meeting there was a stack of dear elder letters like always :) and also a package.  I nearly cried in excitement.  When I read the customs paper to see what it said, it said candy and cosmetics.  My face soap made it!  And a bag of melted Reeses, and apparently there were Cadbury eggs but someone along the way must have opened the box and taken those out.  Its okay, the Reeses were perfect and so fun to eat.  I shared some with the other missionaries in our district while we were waiting at the bus stop.  The face soap has been a luxurious blessing for my skin, and the chocolate such a fun treat.  And it also means that there is still hope for my other packages to get here.  I have no idea how a box with candy and soap made it.....but miracles happen!

After one of the meetings we had we went to McDonalds as a district, and paid quite a price for a burger, fries, and a drink.....but it was so worth it.  It was 44 pesos (!) but in reality it was like 15 dollars.  Which is still kind of a lot for fast food.....but McDonalds is considered fine dining here because it’s more expensive and it was so fun to eat a familiar food.  No matter how greasy and unhealthy it was, it was soo good.  I’m totally keeping the receipt :)

McDonalds was delicious in comparison to what a sweet member served us for lunch the other day.  It was pretty brisk outside, so she made us a stew.  And the stew was made of broth, potatoes, some pieces of beef, and weird square chunks that were a white/grayish color.  I was able to eat everything else...but for some reason those weird square things I just couldn’t eat.  They were just too mysterious and too scary looking to try. So I left them in the bowl (there were only 2 or 3).  And after we left I asked my companion what the square chunks were, and she said pig skin.  I am so grateful for my health every single day.  There are things we are served, and I try to be careful....but it’s not always easy.  I just never look in the kitchen to see what it’s like or how clean it is, or to see if birds or cats or dogs are walking on the counter, or licking the food.  It’s just easier if I don’t know.  But I am healthy and strong!     

We are teaching a really incredible family.....Roberto and Teresa, who have 2 little boys.  They have been taught all the lessons, and are waiting for the paperwork to come in the mail so they can get married the end of this month... and of course baptized afterwards.  Sweet!  They went to church yesterday and are so awesome. They participate in the meetings, go to the activities, and are very solid.  They are fun to work with.  

Our next door neighbor is a sweet member who is also our landlord.  We rent the side of her house (something similar to the short house, with a separate door, and living quarters) and she is a hoot.  We can always tell when she wakes up because at some point when we are doing our studies we can hear her outside talking to her 5 window plants.  She talks to them like someone would talk to a cat or dog.  Except.......they are her plants.  Ha, she is kind of lonely.  

Today we went to Rosario to see all the sights (actually just the one really big famous monument).  And it was sweet.  We are actually still here, we are writing home in the internet place and will head back soon.  I took lots of photos and can’t send any home right now, but next week!  I promise for real!  We also ate lunch at a fancy restaurant, it was an all you can eat buffet which was sooo fun.  

I love my mission.  I love the blessings I have in my life.  I love being part of an eternal family and sharing with the whole world that I know the book of Mormon is true.  This country is always an adventure, and it has been fun to get lost in this big city of Rosario.  We have had to ask at least a dozen times where stuff is......because we have no idea!  

I love you all more than all the moms in the world excited to talk to their missionaries this next week!  

Hermana Withers

Chad's New Companion, Cockroaches in Argentina

Dear Family,

This week had a lot of happenings.  I got my new companion.  Elder Sellers is huge, about 6’ 4”, and is from Orlando, Florida.  He doesn’t have a southern accent, and he speaks pretty good Spanish.  He really does speak good Spanish for having so little time in the mission field.  He is really humble, and doesn’t complain.  His parents are converts, and his only sibling, his step brother, is less active.  He comes from a town where there aren’t many members, so he has lots of good ideas on how to share the gospel.  He baptized his friend, and this last Saturday, his 24 year old cousin got baptized in Georgia.  It was even cooler, because Saturday was also his birthday.  The Muñoz family, and the Withers family of this ward, organized a surprise birthday party for him.  It was a fun evening, with a few of the members, and we even had time to share a quick spiritual thought, on the TV.  

I don’t know if I ever told you guys yet, but with Elder Vasquez, we organized all the Mormon messages onto a flash drive.  When we visit members who have computers or modern TVs, which is more than half of them, we copy all the videos onto their computer, so they can have quick access to them, and they are great to share in family home evenings.  

Well, son of a nutcracker, I know this letter was short, but I ran out of time.  Next time, I will read all the other letters faster.  

With love,

Elder Withers

Dear Family,

I am in a new area and I am working on getting to know everyone, and it’s taking time.  I am also very aware that Mothers Day is coming up.  So don’t worry, I already asked a really nice lady who gives us lunch on Thursday if we can Skype using her computers (because she has 2 :) and we are good to go.  We haven’t heard anything from President regarding when we can Skype home, but it will be sometime on Sunday.  So we can all rest tranquilo with that.  (Translation:  rest easy) 

There is so much I want to write home about to you guys, but there is just no way my little fingers can type it all in one hour.....so it’s going to take a few weeks to really explain this place.  

Turns out that Elder Hill is only in my zone, my zone leaders in La Paz got my hopes up and told me we were in the same district too, but it’s just the same zone. Which is fine with me, I will still get to see him.  I am also super excited to be in a much bigger zone with lots more missionaries......new adventures!  

My new companion is Hermana Ospinal, from Peru.  She is great, is very patient, and loves to eat.  I have never had a companion who can eat so much.  It’s impressive really.  My new apartment is awesome, much nicer than the one in La Paz.......but this new place has cockroaches....really big cockroaches.  The biggest one I have seen so far was the size of a stick of butter.  Horrifying!  I made us buy cockroach killing sprays and traps and it’s making a difference.  Hopefully little by little we can at least get it under control.  I’m not especially interested in living with bugs.  We also had to go and get groceries.  There wasn’t ANYTHING in the fridge when I showed up.  They had water, and freezer burned watermelon and bananas.  Ha... food storage?  The fridge and cupboards have some food now, and the cockroaches are slowly dying... every day its feeling more and more like home. 

Beltran is a cute town, about the size of Boise, and it reminds me a lot of the town from Toy Story 3 for some reason.  With the picture perfect trees lining the streets, lots of kids riding bikes to and from school, and ladies outside doing yard work on the weekends.  It’s about 45 minutes outside of Rosario (awesome.....you better believe we will spend a P Day there seeing the sites!) and the majority of the people have lots of money.  So when we go contacting, it’s a little harder to find people who are willing to listen.  The fall season is really pretty here and it’s still fun to step and crunch all the leaves :)

But this branch here in Beltran is INCREDIBLE.  On Sunday there was a whole bench full of Priesthood holding leaders who show up to church and activities, and who anxiously fulfill their calling.  And there is excitement in this branch and amongst the members that is sooo fun.  We really are going to see miracles in this area.  I have been slowly getting to know everyone....and I have been very careful to make good first impressions.  I’m always on my best behavior, but this first week is going to be really important in terms of gaining everyone’s trust. Especially because I am the first yankee Hermana to serve in this area.  Before it was an Elder’s area, and in December it got switched to Hermanas......and up until now all they have had is Latinas.  It’s been really fun to get to know everyone :) Here in Beltran we don’t have a chapel because we don’t have the attendance to have one......so we meet in a big, old fashioned two story house.  I will have to send pictures next week :)  It works great though, there is a room for all the classes, a kitchen, bathroom, and big living room space where we have sacrament meeting. I also had to give a talk in church this last Sunday.  I met the Branch President last Wednesday, about an hour after arriving in Beltran...got to know him and he said, well since you are new you have to give a talk and share your testimony this week. And you speak well enough that you can talk for 15 minutes.  Sweet.....it’s been fun to start over in a new area.  In La Paz, all the members could remember how bad my Spanish was when I first arrived in Argentina, but here they have no idea!   I was assigned the topic of charity, and it went well.   

We have a few investigators, but not many.  The majority of our time we have spent contacting, trying to find really good people.  I’m excited to see who ends up progressing out of the people we have talked to.  

Overall it was a long week with traveling and adjusting, but also a really great week too.  I hope you all know how much I love you all.  I love you more than all the new streets and new people I have been getting to know this week!  

Love,

Hermana Withers

Chad Training a New Missionary, Rebecca Transferring to the City

Mother’s Note: 

Rebecca mentions her excitement about seeing and serving with Elder Hill.  In case some of you are new to this blog or missed an earlier post… Elder Hill is Rebecca’s cousin, his dad is my brother, and he was in the MTC when Rebecca got her call to the same mission.  They saw each other briefly when she was on her way to her first area, and he was passing through the bus station on a transfer.  They have been friends since they were children and have hoped for the chance to see each other in Argentina.  His mother and I are always comparing notes on things going on in the mission.  Enjoy the letters this week!

Dear Family,

We got transfers, and my companion is going to a small town outside of Chillán. My new companion is brand new from the MTC.  I don’t know who he is yet, but it is pretty neat that his first ward is this one, where we have a great bishop and a great ward mission leader.

This week was another exciting week here in on the Pacific Coast of Southern South America.  Try to imagine a thick morning fog covering the thickly forested hills, the deep green pine trees cutting into the horizon.  That was the view I saw this morning, from the freeway heading to downtown Concepción.  We were in the car of a member, to drop off Elder Vasquez at the mission office, it being his 104th week in the mission field.  He was another missionary living in our apartment, and returns home to Guatemala on Tuesday.  Yesterday in Sacrament meeting he gave a talk, and shared Doctrine and Covenants 130:2   “And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy”.

I think that verse is awesome.  It made me think of eternal families.  If we do our part by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be very very happy for a very very long time.  I know that is true, and that if we choose otherwise, the reverse is true; very unhappy, for a very long time.  

I think that one of the main points of this past General Conference was the blessings of obedience.  The commandments really are to bless us.  They come from God, and along with the Atonement of Jesus Christ, play a critical role in the Plan of Salvation.  This past week being Holy Week, we made an extra effort to share the Plan of Salvation.  We spent a total of about 6 hours giving Plan of Salvation pamphlets to people who came to the General Cemetery of Concepcion. We had to obtain written permission from the cemetery, and we took a document that our bishop signed to help us get in.  My companion and I were so excited, and we invited other missionaries in our zone to come and help us, because most of the cemetery visitors don’t live in our sector.  We took a big white board and drew the Plan of Salvation out really big, and made 6 posters explaining the Atonement, the Resurrection, the Plan of Salvation in general, baptism and eternal families, and the restoration, and so on.  We taped the posters on to a table we carried from the church.  Most of the people came by families, and so we were able to talk to hundreds of people.  My companion has a picture of the posters and whiteboard set up.  I will be sure to get that to you.  The cemetery is huge (it has been around since 1823), and is conveniently located in front of the church meetinghouse.  I know that missionary work really is the work of salvation.  I know that Jesus Christ lives, and that he is at the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I love you all more than the number of people who need to find the Gospel.

Sincerely,

Elder Withers

Dear Family,

This week was super great....and the biggest update I have is that my time in La Paz is coming to an end, and I am going to the zone "Rosario Norte"  where Elder Hill serves, the APs, more Hermanas and a ton more Elders.  My area is called "Beltran" and I have another Hispanic companion....but no idea where she is from. I will learn that tomorrow.  Transfers are sort of a weird mixture of feelings, because it’s bittersweet.  I will miss everyone here in La Paz but I am beyond excited to have a change.  Crazy to believe, but this is really my first time experiencing a transfer.  Last time was because I got my visa and had to change missions, and that’s a transfer but I feel like that doesn’t really count.  I am so excited to experience a big city, to be in a bigger zone, to be closer to the mission home and to serve with Elder Hill.  Never in a million years did I think that President would put us together in the same zone, let alone the same district!  I am in the district with all the leaders, and I am excited to learn lots.  I know that everything in my world is changing though...and I’m excited.  Bring it on :)  

Okay.....on to what happened this week.  

Last Sunday I was sitting next to a family in church quietly waiting for the meeting to start when a member from the Branch Presidency asked if I could give a 15 minute talk after the sacrament.  Ha.........sure.  Every talk I have had to give up until this point I knew about before hand and had time to prepare for it and write the things out in Spanish that I couldn’t remember how to say, and this time I had about a 2 minute warning.  It went well though.  I talked about the importance of Easter....and how as we reflect on the sacrifice of Christ, it should compel us to become more like him.  We shouldn’t only reflect on the Atonement and Christ (though we do need to do that too.....we should always do that) but we have to DO something.  Put in to action our thoughts and reflection of the Savior and work to develop the attributes of Christ.  Refine ourselves and put to use the gift of the Atonement so that we are ready for Christ to come again.  That was the message that was in my head that I tried to get across.....and I hope everyone understood it :)

I’m not really sure how, but somehow the mosquitoes are still alive and still a nuisance.  It is really starting to cool off and they still aren’t dying!  I am ready for mosquito season to end anytime now.  They are honestly worse now than they were in the summer.  I come home with at least 2 or 3 new bites each night and have a rotating cycle of at least 20-25 on my arms and legs.  

This last Friday we had family home evening with the branch and it was pretty fun.  I put to good use all those years of scavenger hunts and scripture reference puzzles we did at home to find the Easter candy, and we made one up for the branch members to do.  We divided them into 2 teams and they had to solve the phrase by finding each letter in the scriptures.  Finding the reference, counting the lines, and the letters to get the one they needed.  We learned that these members are dangerously competitive, and that we need to have a few activities with scripture masteries or something to help them learn where the different books are in the Book of Mormon.  We gave everyone a piece of candy, put in the DVD "To This End Was I Born" and overall had a great activity.  Next week it’s the Elders turn to come up with an activity :)

Contacts this last weekend were a dream.  Here in Argentina Easter weekend is from Thursday to Sunday, so everyone was focused on Easter for 4 days, and most were at home with their family.  And everyone was insanely kind and nice, way more than normal and it was awesome.  If only it could be Easter weekend all the time to help the world focus on Christ!

The other day these 2 old ladies stopped us in the street and tried to ask us a question.....but neither one of us could understand what they were saying.  Their lips were moving, but all that was coming out was a jumble of noises.  I think they were from France or Italy or something, and I have no idea what they were doing here in La Paz.... and their Spanish was pretty bad.  I switched to English for a minute to see if that could help, and it did!  They spoke perfect English and they were surprised I could speak both.  I was surprised how weird it felt to speak English though.  My whole world for the last 6 months has been in Spanish and it felt strange to speak in English.  Lots of progress has been made since the beginning of my mission.  Spanish and I didn’t start out the best of friends but we get along alright now.

Our investigator Alfredo is still incredible.  We had a lesson with him this last Wednesday, and this time his 11 year old son Francisco was there.  He was such a cool kid.  The whole time he was listening intently and when we invited Alfredo and his family to church on Sunday and a baptismal service on Saturday, Francisco went and found a piece of paper, wrote all of the notes down...and stuck the paper on the fridge.  Sweet.....a secretary!  It was awesome.  Alfredo made it to the Baptismal service (for the Elder’s investigator), and he already knew more than half the people.  Thank you La Paz for being a small town!!  :)  Alfredo loved to see what the baptism was like and is excited for his own baptism on May 10.  He is marching along nicely in the Book of  Mormon and is progressing well.  He is so fun to teach.  

This week really was a great one.  I love being a missionary.  I have loved my time here in La Paz, and I am excited to meet and work with the people in Beltran!  

Thanks for writing me, through Dear Elder and email.  I love writing each Monday, and I hope you know how much I love you all!  I love you more than all the miles I have to travel to get to my new area!  (It’s about 7 hours in a bus........sweeeeet.)

Hermana Withers