Justin's Peruvian Mission

Gustavo

2010-12-13T22:32:00.001-08:00

Hey Momma,
Well my week was basically the same as yours. Uneventful, We werent ablt to teach Gloria this week because she had a week full of doctors appointments and all sorts of business.So she didnt get baptised this week.

However on a good note we went to teach a man named Gustavo this week. My old companion and i had been teaching more or less. When i first got here he would run and hide from the missionaries. His whole family is baptised except for him. Well after lots and lots of super hard work we went and visited him this week. we taught the plan of salvation and challenged him to be baptised. Well miracles do exsist and he excepted and was very excited about it so we have a baptism planned for christmas day.

Well Christmas is getting close and we are getting everything ready.It looks like i will be calling on Christmas day in the afternoon. I am also glad to here that everyone has picked out there Christmas wish and i hope everyone gets cracking on completing each others wishes.

We also had interviews with President this week and as always that was amazing. He is so spiritual and really helps uplift everyone to work a little harder and give a little more to the lord.

Well other than that not a whole lot to report thisweek.
Have a great week
Elder Witt

Baptising again

2010-12-06T18:27:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Well we arwe getting closer to Christmas with each passing day. The majority of the people have submitted there Christmas wish but there are still a few missing.

I got my first Christmas package today from Jessica and Phil. It said do not open till Christmas but then i read that it had socks in it and to say the least i cracked. i had just ripped a pair o socks and i am already kinda low on socks so i popped it open.

I am working hard with my new companion and we are having success. It is amazing the spirit he brought with him from the MTC and it helps me to a much better missionary. this week we baptized which is alwas good. It was a 9 ear old boy named Hyrum. .His Mom and brother are both members of the church and active but somehow he never got baptized so we had the wonderful opportunity to baptise him this week.

We have quite a few baptisms planned for the upcoming weeks which is very exciting. I am particularly excited for one coming up, we have been teaching a lady named Gloria she was born withpout the use of her legs. We have been teacher her and her neice. They have both progressed wonderfully. They both have ther baptism date for this up coming sunday so i ask that ou pra for her. I am very excited for Christmads and my phone call home i still cant tell you ver any details of when i will call but ill let you know asap.

keep giving references to the missionaries. they dont have to be wonderful references.

the four key points are,

1. families with newborns

2. families with recent death

3 families with problematic teens

4 families that recently moved into the neighborhood.

the missionaries will love you for that.

i love you guys

Elder Witt

invite everyone

2010-11-29T08:14:00.001-08:00

Hello,

Well I am training or as they say in the mission i am with my son. Ha ha. He is good his name is Elder Chub. He is from Guatemala and FRESH out of the MTC in Lima. Its very different training. It requires a lot of patience because the lessons dont go anywhere nearly as smooth as before ha ha. There have been times teaching the Plan of Salvation that have gotten very interesting to say the least. Despite the challenges we had 7 investigators who came to church on Sunday. A few of which are very excited to be baptised so we should have some baptisms coming up.

Just 27 days and then ill call home im not sure when yet but ill tell you as soon as possible.
I assume your cell phone number is still the same.

I am pretty happy to hear that David is engaged. Thats a very big step for her and for him. How is his health what are the doctors saying?

Thanksgiving is just another normal day here. We went and had a lunch with one of the members of the ward because he knew it was Thanksgiving. He prepared a spaghetti and a soem mashed potatoes that were prtty good. Mostly this week has been pretty uneventful. just the same old normal stuff. I am working hard with my new companion.

The invitation from President Alexander is pretty interesting. 2000 is really not very many . I think a lot of people think far to much about who they are going to invite to listen to the missionary discussions. If you just talk to everyone about the church and share your testimony with everyone it will be very easy. Instead of thinking so much about who and praying then choosing a few why not invite everyone!

Well i love you all

Elder Witt

trainer!

2010-11-29T08:13:00.001-08:00

Hey,

Well like everybody said Happy Thanksgiving. Its kinda funny that this is my first Thanksgiving in the field but it will be my last as a missionary. Its kinda the last new thing that will happen to me in the field then it all goes to seconds, my second Christmas, second new years and so on and so forth.

Its amazing how fast the first year has past and it seems like every week, month and transfer is passing a little bit faster. I am trying to do my best. A little while back I had a terrible nightmare in which i was getting home from the mission and in my dream i had been a lazt missionary and as i got off the plane dad gave me a hug and said im so proud of you for working hard for the Lord....the guilty conscience hit. It was a terrible nightmare and gave me a big push for the week that was coming cuz there is noway i ever want to feel the way i felt in that dream. I just try to be a little better everyday and work a little harder every moment. Sometimes the work is tough and discouraging but thats just the way it goes out here. I heard a song from the cd called Joseph Smith a Nashville Tribute where they are talking or better said singing about how to trust in the ords sacrifice and it quotes a few scriptures from the sections of Doctrine in Covenants that were recieved in Liberty Jail. It all comes down to prayer.

This week we had the Leadership Training with President Chipman. Like I have told you before the church is installing 8 new lessons for the missionaries, Elder Holland described them as being the eight reindeer which will pull the sleigh wich is Preach My Gospel. They are mostly based on how we can help our investigators to recieve their own answers and to know and to truly be converted. Its really a great program. You guys should have the missionaries come over and teach the lessons to the family as if you were investigators it will really help EVERYONES testimony to grow and it will help you all to find your testimony.

Well the changes are coming up and I still have no idea where i am going so ill let you all know.

I love you all,

Elder Witt

P.S I need everyones elses Christmas wishes I am still thinking about mine.

Welp the changes are in I am staying here in 9 de octubre for at least one more change and i will be a trainer. looks like things are gunna be interesting ha ha

speechless.

2010-11-15T17:09:00.001-08:00

Well another interesting week to say the very least ha ha.

At the start of this week i was reading throught the book that Phil gave to me from John Bytheway ¨What I Wish I had Known Before the Mission¨ One part in particular seemed to stick out to me like sore thumb. He made a reference to binding the Lord and Doctrine and Covenants 82:10. Well I went to the scriptures and started reading. It says, I, the Lord, am ^abound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no ^bpromise.

Well I read that and looked at my companion and said, Elder Mostacero, are there any blessings you hope to recieve from the Lord. My companion stared at me for a minute like i was a crazy person. So i asked again. He respnded saying what are you talking about. I said I want to bind the Lord. I think at that point in time my companion was about ready to call the other Elders to do an exorcisim or something. I told him to turn to Doctrine and Covenants 82:10 and read it. He smiled and said what are you really asking me. I laughed and said, Lets bind the Lord. Well we have been doing it this whole week. It hasnt been easy but we are doing it. Tuesday Morning we kneeled down and told the Lord our plans to be 100 percent obedient and to work harder than we ever have. How wonderful was it to report on SUnday and here the astonishment in the Zone Leader voice as i told him our numbers. He simply said WOW I dont know what happend with you guys this week bu dont stop. I have always worked hard but not like this.

The Lord has shown us what it truly means to be his servant this week. This week I have remembered the words of the Prophet,

“The sweetest experience I know in life is to feel a prompting and act upon it and later find out that it was the fulfillment of someone’s prayer or someone’s need. And I always want the Lord to know that if He needs an errand run, Tom Monson will run that errand for Him.”

This last week I was able to find the sweetness. I was able to fufill the errand of the Lord in at least one occasion.

This week my companion and I had a hard day we were frustrated, we had set appointments thatwe belived were solid we were booked for the day. Or at least we thought, slowly one appontment after another fell through, we were down and discouraged, my companion and I both both said lets go to the church. There was not supposed to be anyone at the church. It was Thuirsday afternoon, there are no activities. But we followed the spirit, as we arrived to the Church my companion exclaimed, just as we thought nobody here and we just walked halfway across our area to get here, we cant even knock doors in this area because the other side of the street is outside of our area. Just as these word escaped his mouth the service car for the Church rolled up, no big surprise they had to clean. But then a young man sitting on a benmch yelled Elders!!! we were both shocked, he told us he had been walking from church to church all day hoping to encounter the missionaries, he had finally gotten to our Chapel and sat down and given up. We sat and taled with him for a while. We could both tell he needed something but he was very clsed to us. we said goodbye after a while and started walking away. I thought how strange, why would you be looing for the missionaries all day just to have a short chat? I kept walking but looked back. I made eye contact and could see he was crying, he yelled wait! And ran to us he asked us if we could give him a blessing. We walked inside whewre he then told us his story, he was in debt to loan sharks that wanted his life, he had to life his wife and daughter to find work and safety, his wifes family had recently attacked him in a drunken rage also hoping to save his life but somhow he was able to protect himself, he continued with what is possibly the saddest story i have ever heard. I looked at the chalk board in the room which was behind this young man, it simply said Tened Animo then cited a few scriptures including D&C 78:18 and other similar scriptures . We gave him a blessing and sent him on his way. We havent seen him or heard from him since. Our pensionist said how lucky that we found him when we did, i read to her, Proverbs 16.33.

Was it luck if so we see what luck truly is. I belive the spirit guided everyone thee in that exact moment. I belive the teacher on Sunday for some reason decided not to erase the chalk board and that the service man was guided to fix the sink at exactly that time. All i know is that from that moment on I made two of the same decision in that moment that President Monson made in his life,

1.“I decided then and there that was the last time I would delay acting on a prompting.” -I will never delay on a prompting nor doubt the reason for it.

2.I always want the Lord to know that if He needs an errand run, Justin Witt will run that errand for Him.

I also had the opportunity to watch the video, A Giant Among Men. I love the story that President Hnckley tells of the railraod switman, One day he handed written instructions to a switchman who, upon reading the directions, flew into a tantrum. The scene that followed disgusted President Hinckley: "He was a fifty-year-old man, but he acted like a spoiled child. He threw his cap on the ground and jumped on it and let forth such a string of expletives as to seem to cause the air to turn blue around him. Every third or fourth word was the name of Deity spoken in vain. I thought, how childish can a grown man be? The very idea of a man acting and speaking like that was totally repugnant. I could never again give him my full respect." Arger is such a useless thing, so unnecessary. I have also realized that at times anger can take control of me and like the railroad switchman i then act like a spoiled child. Its foolish and unnecessary.

I really love the Prophets and there council. there is so much we can learn from them. There are so many things i could tll you from this week. But timew doent allow so ill have to tell you when i get home.

I hope everyone has a good week.

Love,

Elder Witt.

p.s-do to one of these moments of me acting like a spoiled child i need a new oil vile........I love you.

oh and i got my package thank you mom. Not exactly the sweater i was hoping for...but it will do. I was hoping for my zip up hoodie to use on pdays and at night in our room.:)

starting from the top

2010-11-08T20:05:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Well I am still doing good. We had a few screw ups this week and quite a few changes are coming through the mission right now so lets start from the top.

This week the Zone Leaders had Zone Leader conference, in which President Chipman disolved two Zones and they are now just Districts. One of which is my old zone of Castilla. Very Interesting stuff we now only have 10 zones in the Mission but still the same areas are open.

With the zones being disolved came some emerency changes. I am still in my same area but we recieved one change in the Zone. One of the elders went to the old area of the zone leaders in Castilla and we recieved an ex zone leader. He will be a lot of strenth to the Zone I am sure.

We had a lesson with Jose if you remember me talking about him. He is a great guy but he is taking a long time to step into the faunt. My companion and i did a good amount of preparing and praying for our lesson and both felt the need for him to watch the movie Testaments. We went over there ready to teach and excited we put the movie in and it didnt work....we ran back to the room and grabbed the other copy of the movie and ran back. We put the movie in and started watching. Well to say the least Jose felt the spirit and was calmed to the point of sleep......he woke up and tried to stay awake but at the end we looked around and everyone was asleep except for my companion and i. we ejected the disc, Jose´s wife woke up (she is a member) and let us out. He stayed asleep. We have another apointment this week but we have officially ruled out watching movies with him ha ha.

I also had the wonderful opportunity this week of baptismal interviews. I love interviewing people for baptism. The man that I interviewed was 32 years old and had a severe studder. we worked through it. He told me some stories and the missionaries had commented he need a little but more excitement. i tried everyhthign i knew and just couldnt get him excited. The out of left field i had the interesting prompting to talk about baptisms for the dead. Not usually an easy thing to teach investigators but i went for it. I taught him and could see he was getting excited. I asked him how he felt and he then told me ahow his younger brother had recently been shot and killed at work and he had been wondering about his brothers soul. I love listening to the spirit it will answer any question we have. I love the lord and i am so greatful to be here.

Well Christmas time is coming up and it seems like this Christmas wil be pretty different for you guys then any other. I was thinking that as a family we have always spent a good amount of time thinking about the material part of Christmas. Maybe this year the best present we could give to each other is a Christmas Wish. Everyone has a Christmas wish, obviously we cant give someone world peice but i think we should all take time to think about what the other members of the family could do to strengthen bonds and make eachother happier one simple act of love to make Christmas special. SImple things like asking the family to have a sunday call and every sunday talk to each other as a family things like that. I cant really do to much or participate an any of these but once i get all of your guys´s ideas maybe ill come up with one too. I love you

Elder Witt

humbling experience

2010-11-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

hey well i am doing good another week down and its looking like my urinary tract infection is still here. this week they decided to do a urine culture to see just what is in me, they thought it was all bettter and ordered the urine cultyre but as the week has been passing the pain has returned and i have also spent a little bit of time throwing up. so hopefully this week will bring an improvement. Halloween, well halloween here in Peru means everyone getting really really drunk and bothersome. My companion and i had a good week with lots of service. It is a very true statement that as we serve others our testimonies grow. I have seen it and felt it this week. I love sundays, they are such a perfect way to end the week and just accumulate all of the lessons that we gained in the week.

the lesson of the week: so last week we taught the primary about baptism and the importance of following Christ right, and there was this one little boy who the entire time was asking stupid frustrating questions, At the end he asked us how to follow Christ and because my companion was frustrated he said ask your mom. So this Sunday we got to church and I noticed that this little kid was following exactly in my footsteps and doing everything i did so finally i asked him why he was following me and he said my mommy told me that you follow Jesus so im folloing you so you can take me to Jesus.

Well that was super humbling and a huge learning moment.

Well anohter week down here in Peru and happier than ever.

I love you

Elder Witt

P.S I got the package with the dvd player and a few candies. I love it thank you very much. weh ave already taught two lessons with it. Thank you

p.s All packages now need to have my name and the name of elder steven K. Butler.

thanks for all the emails

2010-11-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hey,
well i dont have a whole bunch of time to write cuz i spent a ton of time readin all the emails. Which i greatly appreciated. I had a very interesting week. It was back to the doctors, this time i have a urinary tract infection that makes it feel like i am constantly being kicked between the legs, so as you can imagine that has not been to fun. There was also a super interesting rain strom that came through which turned all of the dirt roads into mud roads which makes for it difficult to get into peoples houses. We also had a super wonderful opportunity to teach our new convert maria about Jacob 5. I think that was actually the first time i started to really understand Jacob 5 which is amazing it is such a powerful chapter. sometimes it is really hard to understand but when you really focus on it it makes a huge difference. Well its been a year down and only a year to go. its actually pretty sad. i love it here and i love the people so much, i hope i can have even more success in the year i have coming thanm what i have had so far. I love you all Have a good week. Tell pops the money cam through and i am still waiting to get the package from you guys but i think ill get it today.

Lovew ya,

Elder Witt

Happy one year!!

2010-10-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Well this week i am going to complete one year in the mission. Wow imagine that it is amazing how time flies by. This week was a slow slow slow week. I felt like time was at a complete stand still.

We had 4 investigators who we were preparing for baptism this week. Saturday they had there interviews....well none of them passed there interviews. They all said they didnt want to get baptised. which is kind of the most important part of the baptismal questions. So that was very disappointing. But at least we have work to do. We are also teaching a lady by the name of Medda. She is a wonderul investigator. This week she came straight out and said I want to get baptised. We talked with her for a while and explained that she has to get married first. She still wants to get baptised and is in the process of planning her weddingwhich is very very exciting.

Other than that not to many new things have happened this week we jut keep on with the same old stuff.

Hope all is well,

Elder Witt

conference

2010-10-11T16:51:00.001-07:00

Hey,

Well this was another fun week. The changes are coming to an end.....its always a little sad to see the changes coming. They always seem to get here just when i start becoming really good friends with someone. Well i am staying in my area as the district leader. only one of the elders from my district is leaving but of course it had to be the only white guy so i guess ill really loose any opportunities i had to practice my english haha. now i need to practice my english not my spanish.

Conference....WOW. It was amazing. I am sure it was even better in English. My two favorit talks would have been the Sunday morning talk given by president Eyring. Such an amazing talk. Its so interesting the part where he mentioned that when we don trust in the Lord it only brings sadness to our lives. Its a very true statement i think we have all seen that a few times in our lives and if we all just trust in the Lord it takes away a lot of sadness. It reminded me of the talk Elder Eyring gave at President Hinkley´s funeral. That is one of my favorite talks i have ever heard.

I also loved the talk by President Uchtdorf in the Saturday Afternoon session. Its so true that we just all need to find our optimal speed in life. Every once in a while we will have to slow down and speed up. If we all find our optimal speed everything will just work out better in life.

Well i still havent gotten the package you sent me.....so i guess ill just keep waiting ha ha. When did you guys send it. well im not to worried about it. Maybe ill call the office this week and see if its there.

well everything is good here. And i am looking forward to another change in 9 de octubre with elder mostacero.

Love you

Elder Witt

new style of teaching

2010-10-04T09:02:00.001-07:00

Hey

It sounds like everything is going well there. I saw that picture of Kaylee and she looks pretty pretty. We dont have very many new investigators but they all decided that they wanted to start progressing. Which i have absolutley no problem with. We have about 10 progressing investigators right now and the best part is only three of them have to get married before they can get baptised.

This week was a rather interesting week. We had leadership training from tuesday to thursday night. The Church will begin to teach a new method in the MTC at the start of the new year and they want all of the missions to be living the new program when they start teaching it. Its basically just a much more direct but spiritually guided way of teaching. In the last two months our mission has began to live this new style of teaching and our numbers have already shot up. So it will be interesting to see the growth. It is a very interesting program and it will be interesting to teach it in district meeting.

Next week we will have the opportunity to see conference because we couldnt this week so that will be fun. It sounds like there are some pretty good talks. I am very excited.

I got the envelope from grams and papa and i loved it. Tell them thank you. I am still waititng to get the package from you.

Elder Witt

becoming a veteran

2010-09-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Well another week down. I am slowing beoming one of the veterans here in the mission and it is a pretty crazy experience. The pensionista here in chiclayo is pretty good. Nowhere nearly as good as Hermana Meche in La Union but i didnt expect it to be.

Pretty exciting to have Grams and Papa back even if it is only for a small bit of time. I always remember how Livermore just seemed like a happier place when Grams and Papa got back from a long trip like that. It sounds like Pops is doing good and is doing great healthwise. Now when you mention that they are going to simplify there lifes, I imagine that means that they are going to sell there house.....all i have to say is you guys are very quicly selling away a lot of my memories, ha ha whats next are you gunna sell Kaylee.....

It sounds like everyone has been having pretty spiritual experiences. thats great i a msuper happy to hear it and i hope everyone is growing. It was truly amazing to see Maria get baptised it was a feeling i havent felt in a long time. As for conference we have to wait a week becasue next sunday is elections here and it is illegal to have any sort of meeting or gathering so we will have to wait. tell me what the good talks are so i can pay pecial attention.

I am sure kaylee will look great with er new braces. Tell her not t o stress and just keep smiling. Well I love you guys.

Elder Witt

taking a leap of faith

2010-09-23T11:11:00.001-07:00

Hey,

Well it sounds like everything is going good for you guys there. I amhappy to hear it. We had a fun week this week. Tuesday we had interviews with President Chipman which is always a wonderful time, however Sister Chipman decided to do cleaning checks and well ill just sa ywe had work today. she came back this morning and we had gotten everything back into gear and looking good ha ha. We had an awesome zone activity this week. It was Primavera Blanca. All the missionaries in our zone prepared there investigators to be baptised on sunday and we hada big group baptism. President Chipman came and it was wonderful. We baptised 13 people as a one yesterday. My companion and I had one investgator get baptised. Maria. It was great i have neverbeen so happy to see someone be baptised. She somehoe overcame all of her fears and just took a leap of faith. I think that what all of us have to do in life. have a good week I love you

Elder Wtt

first baptisimal interview

2010-09-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I am still doing good. I am having a great time here in my new area and the sucess is coming we were unable to baptise ths past week but i feel very very confidnt that we will be able to baptise this week. We have some really great investigators, bt each oe has there own little challenge.

Maria- Maria really is grea she is 21 years old and has a good amount of exerience with the church. she has assisted many different times and is really progressing. we were hoping she would get baptised this week but unfortunately no. She has a lot of fears and is a very shy girl so we have to be very careful with what we say and work hard with the members. I am rather confident this sunday she will be baptised.

Jose-Jose is from a part memeber family..well his wife is a member. We have been teaching him the same amount of time as maria. He just like maria has alot of experience with the church ad really ows everything we have to teach him. however his challege is h want to know MORE. that kills me when people say i need to know more. I just want to cream you can know more after you demonstarte your faith.

Sandra-WE have been teaching her the most time of all of our investiators and she has a stronger testimony than i do i beleive. She testifies to us of the book of mormon ad prophets and begs us to come teach her. she knows how to listen to the spirit and everything. However she is not married. She is cohabiatating. SO we have been talking to her about that and she finally said. I will talk to my husband and if he doesnt want to get married im leaving him.so thats gunna be intersting.

I also had my first opportuity to baptismal inerview this week or three. it was a great expernce- the spirit is so strong. i am looking forward to more.

Well i love you,

Elder Witt

its cold in Chiclayo

2010-09-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

Hey,

well its been a fun week here.things are interesting. as i told you i am in an area that was closed for a while and i am also districtleader. they mission and well the world recentlychanged they way they are gunna do district and zone meeting with new lessons nd everything.all the other dl and zls had a training a few weeks backbut i didnt attend so i am at a big dissadvantage and i can tell ha ha. my compoanion and i arrived hereon tuesday after noona dn just went straight to work., we have a few investigators that areprogressing pretty well and we are hoping to have two baptisms next week which would be really nice. we are working har but we have a lot to do cuz we relly have two different areas that are two wards and one just recently seperated so they are still trying to reorganize but ithink we can help them out quite a bit. Chiclayo is cold i will say it. maybe its just cuz piura is so hot but it is cold here. the first thingi did when i got here was buy a sweater to work in ha ha it is cold. the cool thing about chiclayo is that there is a ton of things to buy that would just make the missionary life wonderful(hint hint) but i am doing good. we are workingwith a lot of the less active families and tryingto cordinate family home evenings with them cuz our area is pretty dangerous att night so the best betis to be in the home of memebers ha ha. tomorrow we have zoneconference and elder clayton is coming. they are talking about dividing the mission into two missions so we all believe that will be the big news tomorrow. well it sounds like you guys had a goof trip to solvang and i hope we can go back when i gethome.well i love you guys.

the new District Leader, opening a new area.

2010-08-30T22:21:00.001-07:00

Hey,
We had a fun and intersting week. I webt ti another area called sechurs to help the missionoaries out there- It was gfreat fro the first tie to work with an american and toi work to the leveli wanted too. we had a lot of success and got into pretty much every door we knocked it was awesome. We ended the week by baptising a family which was just awesome. I was only there for a week with this family but i truly grew to love them and care for them. I had a big week of growing which was awesome.

As mentioned it is time for hanges. tomorrow i willbe going to the zone of Chiclayo Central with Eldr Mostacero as District Leader and we will be working in two areas one of which we will be opening. I am really excited i feel like we are gunna do great. it ha been fun truip in L union but everyhting comes to an end.
Sorry i dont have a lot of time cuz i have to get ready for the changes.I m looking forward to your poackge.

I know whti am gunna ask for is a lot an kind of a strange thing but i would really love a portable dvd player.They are so helpful here in th field. the church has movies tht are o powerfull but so many people are poor that it is basically impossible to wathc movies unlss you have aportable dvd player. SO many elders have them and i would love on if possible.

I love you
Elder Witt

don't lie, it can cost you your salvation

2010-08-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

Sounds like Brandy is just as stubborn as she used to be.

ha ha

- Well the wedding plans no longer exsist.....The elderly man. Hermano Ismael, when he entered the army as a young man, he told them he was married so that he would only have to serve for one year. Well that didnt work he still had to serve to years and now his identification says that he is married.SO in order to get that changed he has to go througha long court process admit he lied to th government and pay lots of money that he doesnt have. so there is your lesson. dont lie it can cost you your salvation

Well this saturday night we went with a member to go visit some investigators. as we were leaving in the truck we got stuck in the sand.... so we hoped out and starte dpushing pulling bouncing and everything-then the enginge caught oin fire. my comp being ever so maculine ran screaming its gunna explode. ha ha i ran to the front of the car and opened the hood and the memeber grabbed water to put it out. we then decided the best i dea was to try to lift the tires up to put things under them. well seeing as i was the biggest on that responsibitly fell on me. in the end we did it but it made me super sore.

well i loe you all

have a nice week elder witt

THE defining week

2010-08-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey,

We are doing a lot this week.My companion and I are working with the Zone leaders to organize a massive marriage of 6 couples so that they can get baptised and on top of that we have had a lot of traveling to do to all the little pueblos in our area, we have also taken control of the branch more or less. The leaders of the branch have stopped doing there jobs to be honest and me and my companion finally decided and found a way to help them. we took control. we are in the presidency meeting em are scheduling viits to the memebers by the Quoroums and everything. Its been pretty crazy. This morning my companion and I had a meeting with the mayor to see if we could move up the marriage waiting time and it got moved form about 30 or 40 day to 20 days which is better but still not what we wanted. Were hoping for 1 week but babys steps right. We are doing good. This week i found a truly new love for and love from the savior. I truly believe that this week all of my beliefs changed to a knowledge. I always belñievd in the gospel. i always believed the lord loves me. But now I know. I turkly do. This week will define my life for ever.i love ou all thanks.

Elder Witt

lonnnnng week

2010-08-09T17:34:00.001-07:00

Wow well it sounds like the big wide world of sports is pretty wild with a shocking death on top of it all. all i can say is wow. we had a slow week. not to much happened. We are still working with Sofia but wow she just doesnt want to go to church.But on the flip side church was interesting 5 minutes into the sacrament meeting they announced i was speaking, but you know who needs more the 15 minutes to prepare. i spoke about the love of the savior and it turned out pretty good i think. After church things kept getting interesting. One of the members had was with us and an old investigator was at church he had a baptismal date before but he just always forgot to get his wedding paperwork ready. well he told us he is gunna do it all and is gunna have it ready for us next sunday so we can get it moving with the city government. the branch actually offered to pay 80 soles which is alot of money to help him pay all the marriage costs. so we will eventually be baptising him which is exciting. sounds like you guys had a crazy time with all the birthdays and all which is cool. i hope everone had fun. Happy birthday kaylee and mom love you guys.

Elder Witt

amazing experience

2010-08-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

Wow sounds like you guys had quite a fun time this past week. We had a good week too this week. Thursday was the multizone conference and interviews which is always so uplifting and inspiring and even better i sounds like we are gunna get hot water in the mission this month which wil make the showering experiences much much better. There is something so very moving and powerful to see some one who you have helped into the baptismal fount stand up to the pulpit and bear a simple but sincere testimony. That was exactly the experience we had this week. when a young girl named Karla stood up to the pulpit and bore her testimony. in that moment i was able to forget about all of my worries about why our investigators werent coming to church, why we couldnt find any new invesatigators and all those other worries and just listen and feel the spirit and feeling of joy that cam into my heart. it was truly truly amazing. Sophia didnt go to church and it looks like despite how much she loves listening to the lessons she just isnt going to progress which means we are gunna have to stop teaching her.

its pretty wild to think that kaylee is officially a teenager. It will be pretty interesting to see the change in her when i get home.

I am paying attenbtion to everything my pensionista does when she is cooking but the truth is there are just something that cant be duplicated. and i am afraid thats the way it will be with this so when you guys come here we will have to swing by La union to try some really truly delicious peruvian food.

Speaking of when you guys come..it is way to early tot start planning but i think i would rather go home first then ome back as a group i think that would be funner for me but i dont know like i said it is WAY to soon to start planning.

well i am doing good i got the envelop and i loved it thank you so much happy birthday kaylee

Elder WItt

still in la union with elder padilla

2010-07-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hey,
I am gald too hear that Kaylee ended up having a good time at camp despite a little homesickness. The wholñe homesickness thing never ever hit me in my lifew until last summer when i was traveling so much. But its still some what of a foreign idea to me.

Well.....im 20. We had a tiny little birthday party with my pensionista an her family Thursday night which was fun just a little bit of soda and a small peruvian cake. Which to be 100 percent honest didnt taste to good ha ha. I got a feww small presents and all in all it was one of the funnest happiest birthdays ive had. The next day was the birthday of my companion Elder Padilla so we did it all over again. I am still waiting to recieve the envelope you guys sent I beileve that the Zone leaders have it and i should recieve it tommorrow but who really knows with the crazy mail system.

My companion and I arew doing good. Its a little tough right now becuse it seems we have hit another drought of baptisms here in the area. We have a few really good invesigators but thy just dont want to go to the church which is killing us. We are especially focusing on a 17 year old girl named sofia. She is a single mother and isa very very very interested in the church (she named her baby boy Elder Smith thinking of joseph smith before she had ever met the missionaries) but becuse of her situation she has a very hard time getting to church and well with out two assitences to the church you cant get baptised. its a very frustrating situation,.

I am glad to hear mary is doing so much better. She is truly blessed. I can only imagine how tough it must be to be in her situation now. I imagine all forms of excercise are off limits ha ha thats the worst.

well there isnt to much to say this week.

LOve you
Elder Witt

finding families

2010-07-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hey,
Wow I cant believe i am about to turn 20. CRAZY. I have to admit i have recentlñy started remembering the words of some of my scout leaders and dad as i see myself slowly but surely gaining weight. Especially the day i looked down at my stomach and thought Whyere the heck did this thing come from.

Life is good here. Tomorrow are transfers. I am pretty sure i have another 6 weeks here in La union wioth Elder Padilla but who knows. We will find out for sure later today.

We didnt have to much new happen this week. The president did however challenge us to stop relying on the branch memebers for references and he wants us to find two families to teach but to find them without the help of the branch.

We had a rather heartbreaking experionece this week. My past companion (Elder Tercero) and I had been teaching a young girl the entire past transfer and elder Padilla and i continued teachinbg her this transfer. She is thew only member of her family who isnt a member of the church. Well this week she had her baptismal interview. I was very excited for it and obviously had high expectations. She went into her interview and to say the least she was in the interview for quite a while. she came out after the interview and our dictrict leader said she needed a few more weeks. We talked to the district leaderr afterwards and he told us that somehow during the coursae of the week sher had lost all of her desires to be baptised. I have to say it was one of the most heartbreaking experiences so far in the mission for me. So it looks like we have a few more lessons to teach.

I am glad to hear kaylkee is up at girls camp it always seemed to me that the girls from the stake came back very spiritually recharged after girls camp. Tell her i love her AND TO JUST HAVE FUN while she is at girls camp.

The restaurant in san francisco sounds like a fun experinece and it sounds like youi at least had one of the dishes that is pretty common here.

Love you guys
Elder Witt

the power of the priesthood

2010-07-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

Hey,
I lovede the paqckage you sent me i ate a few of the things then gave most to the little kids in the branch and my pensionistas family.....unfortunately the caramels were melted and just generally destroyed by the travel so i didn`t get to eat those.

I am surprisingly still with Elder Padilla. He is going to stay in the mission. However there was an assignment change and I will now be working as the sewnior companion in our area. According to what Elder Padilla said it looks like he has a while before he will be able to work as senior compoanion again. But its all the same right the important part is that he is still in the mission field.

We rose above all the trials we had last week and were able to work hard and teach a bunch this week. we have a quite a few investigators who are progressing salowly but surely and it is really quit fun to watch there progress.

It certainly saounds like Kaylee is really quite the swimmer. 8 seconds is an absolutley amazing amount of timew to drop i am very impressed. Pretty funny that luke and derek are just now coming to the realization that we are related ha ha ha.

Last sunday i had an amzing experience that i forget to share with you guys i think. so here it is. Last week while i was sitting in church a sister whom we hadnt seen at the church in a long time came in and sat next to me. she than leaned over and asked me if we could give her a blessing. Because of everything that was going on with my companion he was unable to help with the blessing. so i asked the elders quorom president if he could help me. we went to a different room with the sister and talked to her for quite a while. she was going through some very hard times and just didnt have the energy or patience to deal with her children and she always had a headache. We then gave her a blessing during the blessing i could quite literally and tangibly feel a force moving through my head through my arms and out of my hands. At the end of the blessing the sister exclaimed wow i feel a lot betterç. i thought i had been the obnly one who had felt what happend. i then looked up and made eye contact with the elders quorom president he looked at me with a shocked look and said well that worked. we laughed for a minute then walked away.

the power of the preisthood is a very true and powerful thing. the only weak part about it are those that are usiong it. a faithful prayer or a faithful blessing can truly cause miracles.

Love you guys.
Elder Wtt

testing 1,2,3

2010-07-05T10:18:00.001-07:00

Hey,
Well I must admit the fourth of July here is nowhere nearly as exciting as it is there. Elder Gavarrett was just very very clear about what he wanted from us. I wouldnt say that the missionaries here by any mean let themselves go in terms of there appearance or anything, Elder Gavarrett just pointed out every single little thing that was possible. Like pins on suits, a lot of Elder have the top button of there shirt unbuttoned because of the heat and he talked about that and really just every single tiny aspect possible. But looking back it makes sense because we are representatives of Jesus Christ.

It makes me very happy to go to church here every sunday to see the people that havent come to church in quite awhile that we have been working with. I certainly think that reactivation is one of the most interesting parts of missionary work.

Whenever someone sets of a microphone they always say testing 1 2 3 testing. Well to Lord decided to say the same thing to my life this week "Elder Witt its time for some testing. Here is Test 1, 2 and 3"

Test 1- Well the Zone Leaders came for a work visit this week. So I went with one of them back to there area and the other one stayed in my area working with my companion. Awesome. Then came the next day and to our surprise the Zone Leaders came back.....this time they took each of us into a different room to talk. To say the least i was very surprised. I was then informed that some things had come to the surface and it looked like my companion my have to go home. SO I am still with Elder Padilla and we are waiting for Wednesday when he has his interview with President Chipman to decide everything. But to say the least it is a very sad experience to be working through. TEST 1

Test 2- Wednesday afternoon I recieved my birthday package from you guys. Thank you very much I loved it. Friday afternoon my pensionista and I decided to put the flea and tick collar on her dog. Which by the way is working wonders. Well I got some of the insecticide on my hands and then not thinking I pulled a hair or something out of my mouth to be completely honest i dont remember what it was but I put my hand into my mouth forgetting I had insecticide on my hand. Me and my comp went up to our room and I started feeling kind of sick. I then got an upset stomach well everything continued and I had a very high very and was throwing up quite a bit. My fever was a nice 104 or there abouts. We called Sister Chipman and she sent us to get some medicine. Well i took the medicine and i am all good now my stomach still feels a little weird but I survived. The worst part of that whole experience is that because of the situation with my companion he couldnt give me a blessing and none of the members were able to come over to do it so I went without a blessing. TEST 2

Test 3-Well this test is more of a test of time to be honest and is caused by Test 2. WHenever a missionary gets sick of for some reason has to buy medicine in the mission, the mission will reimburse the missionary if he has his receipt. Well when i was sick i gave money to one of our investigators to buy me medicine since i couldnt exactly make it to the drug store. He returned and was very honorable about it and came back with all the change. However in my sickened haze i forget to tell him to ask for a reciept. So i cannot get reimbursed for the money i spent for my medicine which ended up costing a little over a 3rd of my money for the month.....well it look like we wont be teaching in the little peublos outside of La union this much and we will be traveling a lot more foot. Test 3

Well i would certainly say this was my toughest week in the mission but i am still very happy.

I am very happy to hear that Mary is doing better or progressing at the very least. I am sure eventually she will rememebr French or it will be at the very least easy to learn again.

I am sad to hear that the cabin is being sold but i cant say it comes as to much of a surprise we had to see it coming. I just hoped i would be able to get back up there one last time. Well it will make the next Christmas interesting.

I love you guys.
Elder Witt

watermeon galore

2010-06-28T10:07:00.001-07:00

well this week was an interestin one. as i told you we had our zone conference and elder gavarrett came. he is a member of the 70 and is serving in this area. well it doesnt seem like the church is to happy with our mission....he gave us all quite the talking to and burning from the way we dress ourselves to the length of our hair all the way down to our weekly goals. But as much as it wasnt what we wanted to hear i guess it makes sense my teacher in the mtc told me we maybe doing a great job and all the right things but we can always do it better for the lord so i suppose thats what we should take away from that meeting.

intervews are always a wonderful experience and really help to charge up the batteries. he always knows exactly what i need to hear to strengthen me and help me be a better missionary. it amazin.

me and my companion had a good week workin like normal. we didnt have any baptisms this week however we did have a good number of investiagators who came to church. the branch really is finally starting to progress when i first got here they were averain about 45 people at church on sunday. this is the thirds week in a row with more that 100 people its truly amazing to see the growth and strength. they are still missing a few vital and very important thins but i am sure they will come before to long.

This Saturday my companion and i had a really fun time going to do a service progect with some members. we went and helped a gentlemen farm his watermelon. it was a ton of fun but wow was it a lot of work. however at the end we all got to eat watermelon until we were sick to the stomach and then take one home with us. so there are now two watermelons sitting in my pensionistas house.

it sounds like kaylee is quite the swimmer and really doing good. Hopefully she can keep it up. to answer moms question i do not have kitchen in my apartment ill have to send you a few pictures so you can better understand our apartment and pension ha ha.

i love you all
elder witt

teaching like crazy

2010-06-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

Well i am thinking that it would certainly be near fall points for that one. ha ha It was certainly an interesting experience. things with elder padilla are oin we ood we are teachin like crazy and the majority of our lessons are with memebers which is awesome and amazing.

sounds like kaylee did great in her swim meet. she always has loved swimming. i am sure once she gets that whole diving thing dowm she will be amazing. Sounds like the ward has chaned from a wrestling ward to a swimming ward ha ha. hahaha that is just like marvin and hayden to think of a redneck sightings ha ha then again they just about qualify for that list ha ha.

sounds like the wedding reception went really well and was a lot of fun. to be completely hopnest i didnt remember that joy was engaged ha ha. but congrats haha.

i am lad to see barron has made this decision he just has to stick to his uns and ride it out. i think he should actually look into listening to the missionary lessons because they are really powerful and it wuld be really good for him.

we had a good week for the most part not to much to report we picked up a few really good investigators so now we just got to keep going. we also had interviewsa this week whick are always amazing. thursday is zone conference so i am sure i will have lots to report next week i love you guys.
elder witt

having lots of success.

2010-06-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hey,
Things are good with my new companion. he is a little idfferent and loves to touch my things when we cleaned the apartment today like 50 percent of my things were on his desk so it will be interesting as much as you tought me to share as a little kid it never quite took. ha ha but we are doing well and finding lots of people.

we baptised the older man this week and wow it was quite a fight there in the faunt ha ha. for some reason he didnt undertand or didnt feel good going backward into the water. his wife was sitting in the congregation yelling to him that he had to go underwater and it got pretty crazy. so after the 3rd try i just decided that was enough and he was going underwater. i said the prayer kicked his legs out from under him and pushed him underwater. so in the end he got baptised ha ha. its true wrestling has helped me in every aspect of life.

i am really excited we recently started getting a lot of support from the members and our numbers shot up this week. last week we had 4 lesson with memebers this week we had 11. it is amazing. the members all say they love teaching with us and it helps them to feel the spirit more in there lives. it also helps the investigators feel more comfortable sunday at church. i will tell you righ tnow there is nothing missionaries like more than working with the memebers.

sounds like a cool restaurasnt you guys went to. youll have to look for a peruvian restaurant and try the fod there. i love the food here its the best.

its pretty wacky to think that kelli graduated and all. how is devin doing id he thinking about getting baptised or not yet ha ha.

umm and intersting with phils job not exactly what i expected but hey i have no idea bout that industry ha ha

well congrates to all the lhs graduates
love you
elder witt

epilepsy baptism.

2010-06-07T11:24:00.001-07:00

Wow it sounds like KAylee has really given herself a busy schedule. I am glad to hear that pops is doping better. Wow i cannot believe that Kelli is about to graduate time flies by. I talked to my pensionistas son today nobody knows for sure when he will be out buit he doesnt sound to bad so thats good.

e baptised Edilberto this week the teen we were teaching who has epiliepsy. It was a wonderful experience to baptise him. He has a hard time with memory retention so we really had to learn to teach in a new way to help everythin we said stay cememnted in his brain. However even harder is to get him to leave some of his old Catholic habits like saying his hail Marys and what not but little by little he is progressing.

Transfers are this week so thats intersting i am staying in the same area but i am getting a new companion Elder Padilla so it ill all be fun and new. I am really coming to love this area even if it is a tough area as they say and we arent baptising a whole bunch I am really coming to love it here.

Kaylee looks really ood in the pictures ytou sent me. That is very intersting about spaticus he must be pretty big now ha ha. I am still waintg for pictures of the two tanks so jump on it ha ha.

We set a baptismal date for an older gentlemen for this saturday he is a really intersting guy he had asssisted for 20 years a long time ago but nobody ever asked him if he wanted to be baptised.

Its to bad the dad is traveling again but i guess thats just the way it goes right. I am glad that the goodwins got my letters that io sent them. It seems like alot of the letters I send and peiople send to me jsut get lost in the woodworks so....

Well i love you guys and i am glad everything is going well.

Elder Witt

glasses

2010-06-01T02:20:00.000-07:00

Wow our stake is just pumpin out missionaries right now it sounds like. Not to much has been going on around here we moved the baptisms we had for this week to next week because we just didnt quit feel like they were ready yet so hopefully next week will go better. We are working alot with Edilberto our investigator with epilepsy he is a great kid but because of the epilepsy it is really hard for him to understand and to remember things. One of the times we were teaching him this week he had an attack luckly his dad was there to help us with him and it all ended up fine but it is really sad to see how it affects him and the family. We had an iteresting begininning of the week when me and my comp both got hit with a monstrous case of the runs or as the say here the bicycle. It doesnt sound like to much until you remeber that the two of us are sharing a bathroom and for me the whole problm started off with a Dangit if you know what i mean by that. Ha Ha. Cambios arent till next week so next week ill be able to tell you of any changes in my life in that regard. As for my pensionistas son he is still in jail because of the way things work he they havent even started with any sort of a trial and they wont till the 20th of june so it will be a while before i know anything for sure. Ill have to read that chapter sadl we dont get to go to the normal sunday school class but thats becasue we are teaching the investigators and new member class so its not to sad. Well no to much going on here i am good. Oh i heard about the Ipad whats the news saying about it and i want phils opinion lol and how was Iron man 2??? Lol well i love you

Elder Witt
Oh and last pday i went to the eye doctor cuz i was getting headaches during moring studies and they said i need glasses....we kinds already knew that but know we know for sure ha ha ha. the said it wasnt that like when the words were to close or to far but like a color reflective problem i dont know lol

looking for a wheelchair

2010-05-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

This week was well to say the least interesting....We have our investigator who is a two time stroke victim and she can barely walk with help of her husband and we had gotten everything planned for her to go to church and what not then saturday night walking to the bathroom she fell and dislocated her knee so she couldnt go to church. we are trying to find a wheel chair for her but its a pretty hard task cuz she isnt a member..yet.

Also my pensionistas son was sent to jail this week for rape so that has made things interesting. The court proceedings and all havent started yet cuz here it the opposite you are accussed then if you can afford a lawyer you get a fair trial. But it doesnt look like he acutaly did it. what happens here is htey dont scan numbers very often they just go by names so if some has the same name and does something your done for. but we will see how it goes..

On a good noter we have 4 investigators with baptismal dates and 5 investigators came to church which is a huge record for this area it will be interesting to see how it all goes. ha ha but its been a good weeek. i am excited for changes to come but hope that i stay here ha ha.

welp love ya,

Elder witt.

P.S if possible send like flea and tick medicine i want to give it to my pensionista for her dog cuz its the funnest dog in the wlr dbut its nasty to touch cuz you get bitten by fleas and rub ticks so i would love to try to help her cuz she is always picking ticks out of him lol i love you

just moving along

2010-05-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

This week wasnt a very interestinbg week. to be honest just keep on moving along. we are teaching a few really cool people but none of them have baptism dates until next week so hopefully ill have some stuff to report next week ya know. We did have one very interesting lession/reference that we recieved. it was from a part member family and they wanted us to visit there aunt. so of course we take references like they are gold and went over there. there aunt is a two time stroke victim and cant walk and care barely talk. when her husband answered the door he gave us hugs and invited us in. we talked for a while and then they said they asked for us to come over cuz they want to be baptised.....that was a shock. We talked for a while more and all was well. so now me and my companion have begun a search for a wheelchair of some sort so we can get her to church so she can have the church assitance necessary fr her baptism. then we will have 2 or three elder in the faunt to make sure the baptism go smoothly when the time comes. how amazing!!!!1

Thats funny with Cameron and its possibñle he wont get reassigned cuz we have missionaries whose family lives within the mission they just cant go to that zone haha.

I didnt know Brooke was putting in papers but i guess that makes sense that sounds like it will be good for her.

Cody, wow its amazing he is almost done now it seems like he just left on the mission a little while ago wow time sure flies. SOunds like he did a great job though.

Sounds also like Kaylee is making some buig decisions like running for office at school. i am sure she will love it and it is always interesting to run for office. Make the little stickers again if you can ha ha. Also sounds like she is quite the athelete and doing a great job with track. tell her to keep it up. those pictures were great.

Wow and sounds like dad has been a traveling maniac lately. But thats always interesting.

Well got to go love ya

Elder Witt

nothing too exciting

2010-05-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

Hey,

well i dont have a whole lot of write since i talked to yuo guys just last night ha ha. It was really nice to talk and hear how everyone is doing. Sounds from the emails that kaylee is quite the jumper i mean that distance is really good especially for a white girl ha ha. Well like i said yesterday we had one baptism this week but we have a lot more lined up for the following weeks. So we are progressing a lot. There really hasnt been anything to wild happening this week we helped build a house on tuesday which consisted of digging holesd in the sand for the four posts, putting reeds (like you would find at a lake) up between the posts to make walls and then throwing mud on the reeds to make it wind proof and then putting a metal sheet on top fopr the roof so that was a fun experience. my comp got some good pictures. i cant send ab}ny of my pictures cuz i dont have the cable for my camera so if you guys find that and send it to me i could start sending you guys a lot more pictures and stuff ya know. HAHAHAHA i just realized your probably sitting in front of the computer just waiting for this email to come through. I am still waiting tro get some pictures from yopu guys of the saltwter tank and sparticus i would love to see how all that is going ya know. well it sopunds from your email like dad is pretty busy with travel lately. i know thats tough but if i remember correctly that is when work is most interesting for him so at least things are interesting right now. Wow this is the first yeart in a long time with out one of us in primary...thats weird. Well i dont really know what else to say ha ha i said pretty much everything yesterday. HAHA well i love you.

Elder Witt

MPP

week one of la union

2010-05-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

WOW Kaylee is really high in those pics. How far is she jumping i would love to know ha ha. All is good here. I am in my new area now La Union its and area that has been struggling quite a bit and president has asked me to focus again on the memebers and bringing in more preisthood and future elders. I officially left the office on tuesday i dont know the date but tomorrow will be one week out of the office ha ha

My new area is a really poor area. The poor areas of my old area are the rich areas here. So the people are really humble. It is still however a very tough area one of the toughest in the mission they have only baptised 3 this year so far and one was just on saturday with me and my comp. i got to baptism him it was a little 10 year old boy but wow does he have a testimony and a big brain he is really smart. But i love my new area its amazing while i was in the office i got to go work in lots of different areas but i never really felt the spirit the same way until i got assigned to an area again and then the spirit cam back just as strong because i am not just helping other elders that is where the lord has assigned me.

My health is getting better it still hurts and i still have some problems but i am justpushing through ha ha and it is very rewarding.

Beit Lehi. I dont know why but for some reason i cant stop thinking about it lately its really weird. I would love to go back there after the mission and what not there is really a spirit about that site that takes over and captivates the mind and soul. SO ya if you could send those two book the one from the beginning and the one from funfor less tours cuz they both have some amazing quotes and what not.

I am thinking about sending a package home sometime soon of things i dont really need or want to keep lugging around so ya. Look in like safeway or what ever for a drink mix made by nestle calle ECCO cuz if its not in the states im gunna mail sme home

Well I locve you all

Elder WItt

P.S I had a crazy experience sunday. Me and my comp had an appointment and our back up plan fall through so we came to a moment of needing spiritual guidance. I thought and said lets go visit Brother Pascual who is less active and the brnach president has asked us to visit. we went over there and he wasnt home which was interesting to me cuz the spirit had told me strongly we needed to visit him. we left the house and i asked my comp who else lived near by. he said the 2nd counselro but he is probably not home. the spirit again testified thats where we needed to gop. low and behold he wasnt home. i was prettyy frustrated by this cuz i couldnt understand why the spirit had told us to go there. we talked to his wife for a while and while talking ashe tol us that her daughters boyfrind was over and completely drunk. we all kind of laughed it off and kept talking. a few minutes later we heard screaming in the house. The mother ran in side screamed and called us in we ran in and the drunk boyfriend had found a razor blade and slashed a huge hole in his cheek and was waving the razor blade around. there were no toher men there so the role fell to me and my comp. we didnt know wat to do so grabbed a big towel and snuck behind him when he brought his hand backwards i lasoed his hand then pulled him to the groud used my expierence from cop movies stepped on his wrist and kicked the razor balde out of his hand. he then got up ran outside where he fell down and started banging his headf on a cement wall. at this time the second counselor came home. we all worked together to calm him down then carried him inside to a bed and layed him down adn got the bleeding to slow down. then he stood up peed in the middle of the house and went back to sleep.......Got to love the day of rest ha ha ha

back in the field!

2010-04-26T14:19:00.001-07:00

Hey,

I am out of the office!!!!! I will being going back out to the feild now to proselyte and I am thrilled. I am going to an area called La Union. It is a little way outside of Piura. It is a good sized Branch that should be a ward but the members just aren´t doing all that is necesssary to be a Ward. My companion will be an Elder from Guatemala Elder Tercero. I am so thrilled to be back out working again. While >I have been here in the office I got to watch the Preach My Gospel videos again which completely reinvigorated the work drive and the spirirt of the MTC. So I am generally having an awesome week I also go to go with President Chipman to a small town by the name of Tambo Grande as he went to do baptisimal interviews. It was wonderful to get that much time to just sit and talk with President. Health wise I am feeling a little better not better and still not pain free but I am good enought to go back out into the field.
Sounds like you guys had quite a good time in utah and all. I hope and it sounds like the Goodwin family is doing good. Say congrates to Brittany Romano and to Cath for me. I wish i could have been there to hear elder christofferson and to see phils movies. Man do i miss movies. Well i dont have a whole lot to report I am doing good i got the envelopes you sent to me and i am using the insoles they are great and thank you a ton for the candy.The time is coming pretty soon for me to call. let me know if there is a certain phone i shouold call. Hey do you think you could send me my two little spiral bound books from my Beit Lehi trip there are a few talks and things i would like to read in those. I am doing good say hi to everyone for me.

Elder Witt

no new news.

2010-04-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

Wow it sounds like you guys had a pretty crazy week. We got everything bacvk from the ct scan and the doctors said it looks normal so he gave me some anti inflammitory pills and saisd if in a week im still in pain then we will start from the beginning again to see if we can find something we missed so i am still just one big mystery. Haha its to bad to hear about sister dickerson thats pretty sad. But its always a good opportunity and she is going to a good place so thats nice. I laughed pretty hard when i imagined hayden sayin Holy Crap at the pulpit. I can just imagine him saying that. That is way exciting for Riley that is the mission that Ronald A. rasband was president of before he was called to be a general authority. I am pretty bummed to here about the uc davis wrestling program but we did kind of have to expect it coming. I am also not to surprised to find out about philbrick. I still hope coach Diaz takes over the program but i dont think that will happen he is just tooooo busy. thats wild to hear all about your amazon acount and email youll have to look into that cuz that could mean that this person has a lot more info. I am not really teaching anyone right now cuz i am in the office but i am still doing alot of the office work which is less rewarding but just as important. i cant wait to get back into the field i have made some pretty good friends here but man do i want to get back to the field.

I love you all

Elder Witt

CT scan

2010-04-16T22:00:00.001-07:00

Well on the idea of doing better I am sorry to say I haven´t improved much. I am glad to hear you guys had a nice talk with President Chipman he is the man! He told me he had talked to you guys but just told me That you still love me and that you didn´t ask what i had done to get me in trouble and sent to the office. HAHAHAHA Its really nice to have a President that is also a doctor because he can always give his own opinion and also simplify it into words so that an non-doctor can understand. He certainly does have a lot of love for us missionaries. I felt it the first few times I got to have interviews with him and I am very lucky to now have the opportunity to feel it on a much more common basis.

We went to the doctor today to keep talking more tests. Today they took a CT scan which I had to learn spanish to find out means a computerized tomography. We always ask president what each test is before we go do it because some of these tests sound pretty scary in spanish. For Example: Urograma Exrector. When they doctor told me he wanted to take that test you can probably imagine what we thought it was. HAHAHAHA Later we found out it was just an X-ray with dye injections so they could see my urinary system HAHAHAHA. But we should get the results from the CT scan tomorrow then we will consult with the Doctor and after that with President but we will hopefully find everything out tomorrow. (I especially hope we learn everything tomorrow because if we don´t the next test they want to do is the one i thought they were talking about with the urograma excretor) I do certainly feel like I am in a wrestling match sometimes with this whole situation i think i just have a little longer to go before i get the win.

I can certainly back up everyword of what Trent said about exhausted and tired its kinda funny cuz we get back so tired and exhausted that all we want to do is just fall down and sleep but then you think "Oh wait we have to plan how we are going to exhaust ourselves tomorrow." Bri and hayden have a lot to look forward to cuz as the saying goes "you cant teach and old dog new tricks" oh wait wrong saying.... "when much is given much is required" thats the one i was thinking of.

Wow thank the family for me i really appreciate their love and support and willingness to help me it means a lot to me.

I will do they back excercises althought the symptoms are pointing less and less to back problems it could never hurt right ha ha so ill keep doing them. And i look forward to those shoe insoles. On the subject of packages, Thank yo, I got they package with just the random stuff and it was really fun and nice to have.

Wow i think our Conference favorites were exactly the same which is really cool. I loved Elder Oaks I was looking and i really think it wont be to long before he is prophet and I can certainly see the amazing qualities he has. I also loved Elder Hollands talk he speaks so darn forcefully but loving all at the same time i hope i can one day have the same speaking power that he has it is amazing. Elder Rasband is an amazing leader I had the opportunity to shake his hand and give him a hug in the MTC and although I only talked to him for 30 seconds and the only reason he was able to call me by name was because of my plaque(not the teeth type) I could still feel an amazing amount of love in his heart for me. he shared that same story in his talk in the MTC and the power of that experience is amazing. Those are the moments ill never forget.

I hate to say it but i vaguely remember the Dickinsons but it is always sad to hear news of that sort. But the knowledge of the Plan of salvacion is amazing and as sad as the time will be when she passes it will be the biggest growing experience possible for all those near to her and an amazing missionary opportunity to wipe away the sadness from someones face by sharing with them the great and amazing plan our father in heaven has for us. Wish them the best of luck and and if the moment arises share Alma 34 it is one of my favorite chapters about the Plan of Salvacion.

Now for the question:

1.Hmm my last day in Talara officially would have been Wednesday the 7th but I was here pretty much the entire week before that.

2. Just to say it again the package is recieved and devoured

3.Well there was no question 3 but i wrote the number before i saw that so.........

Well there are the answers I love you guys,

Elder Witt

"Sigue Adelante"

his longest email yet

2010-04-12T23:43:00.000-07:00

Wow thank the family for me i really appreciate their love and support and willingness to help me it means a lot to me.

Now for the question:

1.Hmm my last day in Talara officially would have been Wednesday the 7th but I was here pretty much the entire week before that.

2. Just to say it again the package is recieved and devoured

3.Well there was no question 3 but i wrote the number before i saw that so.........

Well there are the answers I love you guys,

Elder Witt

"Sigue Adelante"

just laugh cuz you want too

2010-04-05T17:57:00.000-07:00

Relaxation-Well I spent the majority of this week just relaxing in Piura in the mission office which was the exact opposite of what i wanted to be doing. We spent the week seeing doctors and running just about every kidney scan there is and now we have the RESULTS------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Its not a kidney problem so we have to look elsewhere for a problem ha ha ha good resluts huh. so i spent the week relaxing there and helping out the office elders.there are doing some changes in the mission this week for a bunch of different reasons and i am going to be changed to the office to live with the office elders and teach in that area so i am not an office elder but i will live in the office ha ha ha. Nothing to intersetin happened there some fun times with the Elders but yup thats about it.

Revelation-Well I have officially completed my first conference in the mission!!! And let me tell you it is even better in Spanish ha ha ha. A lot of the general Authorities actually translate their talks aheadof time so we actullay listen to there voice which was really cool. I loved Elder Oaks and Elder Hollands talks and of course anything President Monson says is amazing cuz he is a Prophet of God. I am looking forward to getting the ensign or liahona lol to read the talks. The Personal Secretary to the president told me a wild story about some revelation too...."he was sitting at his desk studying the week before and was starting to nod off...then he sat up and thought i need to look at my computer he did so and realized his computer was off as he was bout to go back to studying something said keep looking at your computer so he did at that exact moment the light fixture from above fell and landed right where his head would have been had he been snoozing. so always listen to the spirit even if your tired.

Strange Relations-One of the assitants to the president is a young man by the name of Elder Colby Campbell who just happens to come from a small town in idaho by the name of weston and just happens to have a great uncle by the name of Boyd so i am serving with a distanbt relation of Boyd cool huh

Well I love you all have a good week

Elder Witt

Quote of the week¨

Elder Campbell-¿Porque estas reyendo?

Elder Escobar-No sé...solo quiero reirme......

Just laugh cuz you want too.....

9 pills A DAY!

2010-03-29T15:26:00.001-07:00

Well i cant say i am over the kidney problems ha ha ha. I went in to Piura this week to see doctors and the one doctor she said its Kidney stones but presidnet who is also a doctor is somewhat skeptical because there really isnt any evidnece of kidney stones so i keep taking lots of pillss 9 a day ha ha and just keep working through it.

Wow thats exciting for Hayden and Briant i assume bri is speaking spanish and what about Hayden. They will love it so much tell those little snots to write me.Oh anfd tell them about the awesome socks at missionary mall ha ha ha.

Well we baptised again this week. A young girl named Karen she is 22 and me and my old comp taught her for both of our changes together and she was a slow progresser but she is now a baptised and confirmed and strong memeber of the church so thats great. Zuleyna we keep visiting her and we are gunna work with the relief society to get her a visititng teacher so she gets more visits we are trying to set up a time to meet with ther grandpa but her isnt to excited about it so we will have to see keep praying for her.

I dont really have any idea who these dean and rachael people are soooo....haha but good for them.

well i am glad to hear everyone is praying for me and tell holt hi and i just heard i have a package from them but it is in lima so i should get it in another month or so ha ha ha

well keep up the good work

i love you
Elder Witt

pushing through this sickness

2010-03-22T13:45:00.001-07:00

Wow sounds like a lot of exciting stuff going on at home. Well like I said last week i got a new comp this week. His name is elder De La Cruz. He is an interesting fellow the Assitants said this is my testing time. Elder De La Cruz has been out for about a year now and is just recently rising to Senior comp but I am doing all of the Senior comp responsibilities. But we are learning together ha ha ha. im sorry to hear about levi its weird to think that there is snow there lol. tell Teri to write me i would love to hear from her. things are going good we didnt have any baptisms this week but we haveone that is solid for next week so that is very exciting. Me and my comp have startd working really hard to activate the memebers in the Branch this change. Because the church records show that there are 710 members in the branch well there are at most 120 that are active so we are working on activating and on getting the directions of people that have moved so that the numbers and all look a little better. ha ha ha. the tough part is that NONE of the members hear are any help even the Branch president is a LAZY BUTT only our pensionista helps us at all. so its tough. Thats pretty exciting about Kaylees talk and hey make sure there is someone that picks on her everyonce in a while so she doesnt get to spoiled rotten these next two years ha ha ha. Tell her i say hi and i love her. I dont really have any wild stories or anything this week went back to the doctor and he said i am not progressing so gave me some new pills to take but i still dont feel any better so i am meeting with the president and area doctor on wednesday so the two of them can look at me ha ha but i am fine i just keep pushing on cuz last i checked my calling said i have been called to serve not called to take a rest while my belly hurts so i just keep moving along.
Well i love you all
Elder Witt

still sick

2010-03-16T04:54:00.001-07:00

Hey Hey Hey,

Well another change down and i am gunna be getting a new comp tomorrow i dont know him at all so we will see how it goes ha ha.

But all is going well here we had two baptisms this week a lady named Laura and her son Brandon great converts super strong. Still waiting for Zuleyna to get permission from her grandparents but i have a least another 6 weeks to work on that.

But everything is going better i went to the doctor this week to get looked at it looks like i have an infected and swollen kidney so i am taking lots of drugs and i am progressing little by little. The doctor said it will continue to hurt he said it will probably get better in ten days so i am going back to him on friday and that will have been 8 days but i am doing better.

Sounds like the play was a ton of fun i am kinda sorry i missed it. I didnt get any of the pictures yet so hurry and send them ha ha ha. its nice to hear grandpa and dixie had a chance to come down and visit. i havent heard from them at all since the mtc.

How are they doing.

It sounds like pops is progressing wel too.

Oh and i go the package and everything in it so all is well in that aspect. Oh and wow rootbeer barerell great idea root beer is something that just doesnt exsist down here so that was a very nice taste of home. well all is going well here i love you guys.

Elder Witt

sick.

2010-03-08T23:48:00.000-08:00

HEY,
Thats exciting to hear for the two of them the mission is great.

I do not have the package yet but i belive i will get it tomorrow when we go to our Zone meeting so ill have it then i believe.

Sounds like you guys had a fun week with the baby blessing and getting ready for grandpa and Dixie sounds like fun.

As for me well this week was a dewsy.........To start i got very sick everyone was telling me i have what is known as Denge Fever is a mosquito passed fever that if well nasty i felt like all my bones were on fire it was not fun. Had a high fever of 39 degrees haha and was throwing up so that obviously wasnt to fun and slowed things down. I finally got over that and we had an ivesitagor who quite honestly was more excited about the gospel than i have ever seen anyone be. we had a baptismal date and everything for this weekend. we got her grandmothers permission cuz she is only 16 and everything was great we went to pick her up for her baptism and she was sitting out side crying. Her grandfather had found out about her baptism and being a strong catholic wasnt happy he told her that if she ever went to another church activity again he would kick her out of the house so that was very sad and obviously heartbreaking. We are continuing teaching her and we pray for a miracle every night. then after that we started getting ready for the president to come down for district conference this week and as we were preparing i started to notice a constant cramp like feeling in my sides that slowly got worse and worse then it started to hurt to pee and well when it all comes down to it i have a severe kidney infection is what he president says. so i am on some drugs for that which just happen to be the most expensive medicine i have ever encountered so i am broke in pain and still happy as ever.

We are hoping to get a big 6 baptisms this week so pray for and and especially for Zuleyna (the one with the crazy grandpa).

I love you all,
Elder Witt

P.S good luck with the talk Kaylee

they didn't feel the earthquake there.

2010-03-01T15:22:00.000-08:00

La obra esta progresando bien. I do have the upside down question mark but i have no need for it right now ha ha ha. Todavia no package did you guys put my name and Elder Ibarra like i told you too cuz if not i may never get the package.....But i will just stay hopeful ha ha ha. Me and my comp are doing better. We had a talk i he is doing better i mean he is just more resperctful i still feel like he doesnt want to wortk but i guess ill just have tyo get used to that cuz ill proibably have quite a few comps that i have to drag along with me ya know. Well it sounds like the olymips went well and no i didnt feel anything from the earthquake but there are quite a few guys in the branch that served in Chile and they are pretty torn up over the earthquake and it sounds like Grams is just crazy for walking on the beach what the heck was she thinking. Well it sounds like livermore didnt do as terrible as anyone expected at NCS ha ha but it certainly sounds like they need a little bit of help. I hope everything is going well there. We had a baptism this week which is always fun the girl was deathy afraid that i would drop here in the water and she doesnt know how to swim so she was freaking out and didnt want to get baptised so we walked with her to the door of the faunt and we talked to her and she was still unsure. well i got impatient and just opened the door and got down in the water so everyone could see me in the water cuz i figured there is no way she can say no once i am in the water and i was right she hoped right in and all went well. we have two baptisms scheduled for saturday but one is a littl sketchy cuz we have to get the permission of the girls parents cuz she is 17 and they are strong catholics so we will see. well all is going well here love you guys.

Elder Witt

wet and painted missionaries.

2010-02-22T13:06:00.001-08:00

Wow it sounds like things are really moving along for Pops if all of his doctors cleared him to go to HAwaii and oh how i would love a nice cool week. Ha ha its funny that he wants a warm break and i want a cool break ha ha minus the break part. But things are progressing out here. We had three baptisms this week all on Sunday my comp Baptised two of the people and i baptised one that brings our grand total to 9 baptisms. I may not like the guy but we are baptizing. (comp fell and got soaked during the second baptism) I just think we could be doing a lot better. Every one knows i hate picky people and lazy people well. Let me introduce you to Elder Montes, He is very picky about everything and only workls hard with the Golden investigators, If the investigator needs anything more than our help setting a baptismal date in his mind they are "antiguo" and that makes me crazy!!!!! But i guess that just the life of a missionary so i keep pushin through. Well this Tuesday was Carnavales and i had no i dean nor did my comp we did comp exchanges that day and me and Elder Cahill who is an awesome Elder we went down by the port to teach a girl named Rebecca. Well teaching didnt happen cuz it was way to loud so we left sam pamphlet with her and told her we would come back another day as we were walking to another appointment and well part of the carnavales is painting people well Elder cahill got painted and they just poured water all over me so we had an interesting discussion with the next few investigators about why we were painted and wet ha ha. But everythinbg is going good here i am happy with everything just waiting for transfers ha ha but the work is moving forward. I love you all have a good week.

Elder Witt

slow week again

2010-02-15T16:42:00.000-08:00

WOW thats a really sad start to the olympics...... Who lit thre torch? Well nothing happened again this week things are really really slow for us we got 3 baptismal commitments for the 28th of this month so i guess that is pretty good ha ha. Me and my comp have been have some problems this week but we are working through it the Zone leaders are coming wednesday to visit us cuz i told them about everything thats been going on i am expecting them to bring my package then so i dont know ha ha maybe ill get it maybe not. But things are good more or less. The zone conferences were a ton of fun it kind of stinks that i dont get more time with president chipman cuz i would love to get to know him better. transfers are in like another 3 and a half weeks so no i am not exactly coming up on them ha ha but ya showers well the water here is kind of a hit or miss thing so a good week is 4 days of water this week for example we had water two days but we bought like a giant trash can to fill wioth water when we have it so we can use that to kind of clean ourselves of. ha ha youl have to send me the name of the person in piura cuz we get different articles down here and i didnt see anyone from piura having an article ha ha. ill write grasms now i had to set up a new email thing last week so i used a lot of time doing that and couldnt figure it out so i guess ill do it this week too lol but ill try to email her too i lkove you guys
send pics of the fam kayle grams and pops and the fish tank oh also in the next package send like a good sized nerf ball we could play with i love you
ELDER WITT

week 16

2010-02-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

Hey, not to much happened this week. we have to go to a differrnt town for zone conference which is tommorrow but we have to leav today so we hd to get on early so we could be there by 4 i havent gotten anything package or letter wise yet the zone leacers have it all so i should get it when we go into sullana today. its an hour and a half of the wildest bus ride ever with chickens and weird smelly people and no air conditioning lol shower wise i pulled in a big 4 but it rained really hard one day so i a m gunna count that and give myself a 5 for showers lol the streets have not draingage so they just flood and the city is built like on a hill side so one side of the city gets way flooded ya my shoes dont get wet cuz we took them off and walked back to our apartment and then went out in flip flops with our pants rolled up. no baptisms. our investigators keep backing out and being dumb so i would certinly apprecitae prays for baptisms in forgetting my english slowly lol and my spanish is getting pretty good i mean i can communicate with very few problems i just need to keep studying and ill be perfect before to long. thats exciting for kayleigh, its fun to hear stories of missionary work fom home. well i dont hve much time cuz we have to go to zone confrenc. I love you
-Elder Witt

seco semana

2010-02-01T22:50:00.001-08:00

well i didnt get anything this week package or letter wise i hope i get everything safely. i am glasd to hear pops is doing good. and i am excited for var and kim thats really exciting for them. my week was a dry week....no baptisms which sucks but i guess that just means i need to work harder. BUT there was some eventful things this week though. the city somehow elected two mayors??? I dont knopw how but because of that they couldnt pay the city workers so they obviously werent to happy and well that turned into crazy riots in front of the like town hall thing and people were throwing bombs and stuff it was pretty wild but it is all better now and peaceful. Also the worst part of my week was some people in the poor parts of town like pee in buckets and throw it out there windows..... well i walked under a window at the worst time possible and got soaked in urine..... luckily i was able to shower that day ha ha ha i got a whole five showers this week which is unheard of ha ha. like i said last week some one tried to rob me i had left my excercise shoes at the other missionaries apartment and we went to see them so i was walking back with my shoes and some guy tried to take them from me but i was styronger and just ripped them away and pushed him away so it was all good. there are a lot of wild dogs that keep trying to bite me but none have succeeded ha ha and i got pecked again by one of our investigators chikens ha ha but all in all a good but slow week. Oh one of the elders in our district was suppossed to change and the president called and he basically just said no i am not leaving so he got to stay. its so funny.
lol i love you

Dogs, Chicken, and Thieves (week 14)

2010-01-25T15:54:00.000-08:00

well i am glad to hear pops is good and all aand sounds like you had a wild snow trip ha ha ha well thats really exciting for brittany romano i am glad to hear that che told me before i left she was worried she would never get married ha ha guess not and i have to admit i do have a list but it pretty much just has one person on it and i dont plan on adding any other names to that list so.......ya. glad to hear that for the saints too i heard about the econmy though sounds like fun ha ha ha. wellllll i had a wild week three baptisms one was a girl that we met this week!!! Craz we got special permision cuz she was leaving for school soon so we got sapecial permision to do it with out all the prerequisites cuz she really wanted to be baptized. we baptised the dad and the son of the family we were teaching but like always nothing here ever goes smoothly lol we wnet on friday to the dads birthday party and well it turned into 4 hours of marriage counsling from two teenage boys lol cuz the mom said if he got baptizd she would divorce him. so i asaved the day by getting their kid to cry i want to be a family again lol lol today someone tried to rob me but i am too strong lol and i had two dogs try to bite me and smaked them bopth in the head with my scrips and i got pecked by a chicken in the led and i bled grrrr lol but worst of all one of the little kids i was playing soccer with today thought it would be funny to punch mew in the nuts funny for them not for me. oh and on top of akll that my comp was in the hospital all week till thursday with kidney salts???? I dont thata what they called it but all is well hear love you aall
Elder witt

week 13!

2010-01-18T10:15:00.000-08:00

Well i am glad to hear all is well at home i love you guys. I got two moree baptisms this week but other than that not a whole lot to comment on really. we are working with a bunch of peiple right now nd are hoping fpor 4 baptisms this week but whjo really knows i feel like a looser cuz i dont have much to tell youit was nice to get emails from everyone i love you all tell pops to keep getting better and that i am sorry to hear thy cnt go to hawaii lol ha ha you know your life is good when thats your problem i love you all elderwitt

*he said, that the keyboards dont have keys on them so he does it all by memory so thats why there are so many typos. ALSO, pray for his companion, he went to the hospital today, because he was throwing up all night and has a pain in his side so he went to piura today to get to one of the better hospitals.

WEEK 12; two showers and fleas

2010-01-11T13:59:00.000-08:00

Well pops i hope he gets better i am sorry to hear about all the complications that sucks. I got packages this week and 2 letters one from grams and pops and one from the steenbliks so there you go . NO land marks near my apartment really sorry um...no car but we take little like trike mototaxis every where and zone conferences are in Sullana i actually dont think the president is coming because he is way to busy to come to those cuz he is always traveling around the mission doing temple and other sorts of interviews. but ya that would be in sullana. Investigators well the family Jose and Maritza well we had a FHE planned with them and a family in the ward and Jopse showed up 45 minutes late completely drunk so that was just a big party and all so we set up an appointment for the next day and tought the word of wisdom he loved it and is gunna do it we belive no baptisms this week but we have twqo next week and hopefully six the weeek after so it all going well, i am glad to hear Kaylee is spreading the good news how are you doing with it lol. for the camera send it in a pakage but buy like werthers and cut the corner open with a utility knife pad the camera and put it in there then use clear scoth tape to seal it then put a pic of christ on the box that should do the trick. Well i love you all not to many wild experiences this week to share. Love you
Elder Witt

Week 11 (p.s. he only showered once this week!)

2010-01-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hey all just wanted to say happy new year. I hope all is going well there. things here have been fun to say the least. On new years here everyone makes a life sized doll with old clothes and then burns it at midnight we all did that and it was fun driving back to the apartment was wild with all the burning bodies in the street and the fireworksd shooting off i felt like i was in a war zone ha ha . We spent the night with the Elders in Talara Alta because it was just safer that way with all the drunks and stuff. ha ha but it was a ton of stuff some people here do the grape thing but we didnt we played some games with all of the elders in our district at our pensionistas hopuse it was a ton of fun. we have been doing great this week. we are working with a part memeber family the Melendez family my comp baptized two of the daughters in the family before and now we are working with the last daughter the son and the mother. We have a baptism date for the daughter and we are gunna extend the invitation to the son this week. the mom is the strongest of all of them in the lessons and gospel but she wont get baptized unless we baptize all of her kids first so we work on the kids lol. sunday was a wild day it was supposed to be my first baptism. well story time, pedro arrived to church excited and with all his stuff he then realized that the family who had befriended him wasnt there so he said no we have to wait till next sunday we taked with him and he wouldnt budge so we moved it....then right after church we decided to call the family that had befriended him there had been an emergency and they had to go to ecuador but they had just gotten back. we called pedro and moved the baptism back to sunday but at 7 BAHH so then 7 comes.... NOBODY was at the church the first people started to show up at 730 but still no pedro and 745 pedro shows up but forgot his stuff so he had to go back and get his stuff we started the baptismal service at815 stressfull but it all worked 4 investigators came to the baptsim and it was awesome. we also had 7 come with us to church and 15 less active members we have 7 baptism dates set and it is awesome. well i love you all and hope all is well.
Elder witt
P.S still no packages or letters hopefully tomorrow

Week 9/10

2009-12-29T03:47:00.000-08:00

so i figured out how to post without having to sign into his blog every time, SWEET. :)

Justin flew to Piura from Lima last Tuesday!! And enjoyed calling his family on Christmas. And once again, we are really bad at remembering to get me the normal email so i guess this week i can share a few pieces of my email. (and again, can someone forward me the normal email? ill post it up) He's slowly loosing his english and his spelling and i just copied and pasted from his email. :) enjoy!

im in a small city called Talara it on the shore

my comp is way cool he is from guatemala only speaks spanish but i can understand him so we are good and he has been out for almpost a year and has 47 bapotism

i have been here for almost a week now and i have had water twice and i shower with a cupand a bucket and the people we visit live in a box of 4 peices of wood and a tarp its GHETTO lol

its a ghetto apartmentr i could poop shower and be in my bed at the same time

i love being friends with thte memebers cuz the give me ice cream

we have a baptism on sunday i am super excited and we are gunna try to get 4 people (baptized) for next tuesday to its awesome

me and my comp were walking home after church and this little like trike motor thing they drive here hit a soccer ball and flipped over and the driver flew out and the thing was gunna fall on him and cut him in 2 but it was right next to me and my comp so my comp grapped the guy while i kind of cought the car HEAVY lol so we saved his life unfortunatley there was a mom and two kids in the back one of the kids was blind and the other paralyzed so i was pretty upset i couldnt have hjelped them too....but i saved a dudes life!!!!

AND, thanks to Justin's dad, Troy here is his normal email;

wow sounds like you guys are all pretty busy ha ha i am too ha ha say congrats to brett for me i am excited for him i would say i wish i could be there but i dont i am happy here lol i have been really busy and i am really sun burned i am hopping to get my packages and what not tomorrow but who really knows right we have abaptism sunday of a 20 year old named pedro he had a date set earlier but he wanted more time to make sure he could quite smoking he did and was still hesitant i felt like he really just needed to se it straight forwarsd so i sharde psalms 119:60 and he was like okayy this sunday ha ha its pretty dirrect but it worked we are hoping to baptise a family next tuesday prray for them they have a lot of little problems but i know they can be a huge strenght in the branch ilove you all i dont have a whjole lot of time but i love you marry christmas and prospero año nuevo
Elder Witt

week 8

2009-12-18T06:11:00.000-08:00

SO this is Meaghan and I'm updating his blog with his emails BUT before I got around to posting the first 7 weeks (i've been busy and distracted) justin cleaned out his mailbox and i can't find them in mine :( SO I don't have his weekly email for the first 7 weeks BUT if anyone does then if you want to resend them to me i would appreciate it so i can put them up :) THANKS.

Hey!!!!!,
How is everything it sounds like everything is going just marvelously! I am having a great time. I had some wonderful experiences out proselyting this week a few that were pretty frustrating but that is just how it goes i guess lol.
1st. We were out proselyting and had been out for quite a while talking to and visiting with less active members we taught good lessons but they all seemed like they were pretty set in their non-church going ways. (we will try to fix that this week)anyways.....we went to the next house if you want to call it that it was really just 4 cardboard boxes with leaves over the top of it. and we talked to the old woman who lived in the house she was happy to see us and promptly invited us in we talked for a while and then we talked about why they werent going to church. I couldnt figure it out finally i ralized that i was essentially talking to the inactive latino version version of papa. i told him some jokes and just laughed and had fun with him for a while. we were getting ready to leave so i asked the man if he would go to church on sunday. he smiled and said of course the reason i havent been going is cuz i felt like i didnt have anybody who cared at church and now i know people care. it was great the bad experience was when me and my comp were teaching baout christmas and he felt the need to tell the man that Christ wasnt born on christmas and that he was born on Oct 10th. HUH??????? Well i let him get himself out of that whole lol. well i got to go i love you all.

Elder Witt

MyTestimony Before I Leave

2009-10-12T23:51:00.000-07:00

I would like to bear my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I know without a single doubt in my mind that this Church is true. I have felt the spirit touch my heart as I have read and learned about the Gospel. I have had many wonderful experiences in the past year that have greatly strengthened and built up my beliefs. I love the lord will all my heart. He is the Savior and Redeemer of the World. I know that families can be together forever. I have found someone that I want to spend eternity with and because of my love for my family and her I want to share the wonderful gift of eternity with everyone I can. This desire to share this gift with everyone has led me to serve a two year mission. I will be serving the next two years of my life in the Piura Peru area. While it may seem too many, like a lot to set aside what I consider so important in my life right now. I know that while I am gone I can put all of my faith and trust in the Lord he will take care of the things that I care about the most. He will help me to be able to succeed while in Peru and to be able to not worry about all of the worldly things in my life. I love the Lord with all my heart and I know he cannot let me down.

John 8:12

“Then spake Jesus again unto them saying, I am the light of the World he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.”

I want to share the light of life with others and so I will go and do that which the Lord has asked of me.