called to testify

Dear Family,

We taught a zillion more lessons this week. Almost everyone was there at home, waiting for us. That's unusual yet wonderful. Twelve investigators came to Sacrament Meeting yesterday.

Mari Florian, Diana Florian (her niece), and Richard Llaro are all scheduled to be baptized this Saturday. We're working out the details for interviews and baptismal services. Next week, Jose Chavez, Ricardo Grandez and Maria Ermelinda are also preparing to be baptized.

Yesterday, Jean Claude (who was baptized about a month ago) came with us to proselyte all afternoon. He's the First Counselor in the Teacher's Quorum Presidency now, and he helped us teach and bore his testimony. Fantastic! Jose and Ricardo, mentioned above, are also future teachers, so the help was perfect. They all attend seminary together in the morning, and they even study at the same school.

Last night, right before turning in and totalling up all the numbers, we talked with Lucho (Luiz) Morales. He's our pensionista's brother-in-law. He has lived in the house for 10 years and has talked with lots of missionaries. The other night I felt impressed to ask him if we could talk with him, and he accepted an appointment for Sunday night. He's catholic by tradition, but he hasn't attended church (of his own free will - that is, aside from invitations and events) in 20 years. He told us he does believe in God, but he observed that religions and churches were slightly used as a crutch available for people in desperate times. I shared what came to my mind. I told him about the plan of salvation and what I hoped for after this life. I testified of eternal progression and endless life and learning. He asked what it was that made us give up 2 years of our lives when we could be doing other things. I shared with him my feeling that there were people here who needed to hear my voice. Not just any voice - but words only I could say. Other missionaries could fill my place physically, but perhaps there's something that only I could say that could reach a certain person. I testified that there were people who were waiting for me, prepared from a life before. Lucho was interested. We had to cut our time short, since I had to collect the numbers from my district - but Lucho asked if we could meet again. He's going on a work trip this week, but next week he said we could talk again. I was so dizzy with excitement that I had a little trouble getting up the stairs to our room.

Love,
Elder Withers