Hi!

 As for the favorite violin piece....i have been loving the arraigement of if you could high to kolob. i have both the piano and violin arrangement. i will actually be playing that this weekend in tacna for another rectial musical that we have put together down there with the help of the missionaries down there. Its a bigger stake down there thatn the one we have here in moquegua...and they are recieving professional help from a guy in lima with all the sound equipment stuff....and we are plannning for an attendance of 800 people. they have it all set up so when chipman and i play if you could high to kolob they will be showing pictures of cosmos and planets behind us! gonna be awesome!!! :)

so that is this sunday! 

What else happened down here. We did have our stake conference in which elder uceda of the 70 and the president of the area of northwestern south amercia came to preside and speak to us. i got to again play the violin for that and we had a great time of instruction and learning from him on how we can help out moquegua. President also came down again and we had a great time discussing the topics and how we can hlep the mission out on these matters as well. 

Other excited news for this week: well not really exciting (kinda sad actually) chipman goes home. yep, the man completes his mission. how crazy. its been a great time with him. we have done a lot togehter and have seen many many changes in our area and in our ward. he leaves wednesday morning for arequipa...so i will be riding solo with a temporal or other misionarys for the time being. i am kinda nervous who will be my new companion or if i will be gettting changed out of the area where will i go. all big stuff but, i shouldnt worry. im in the hands of the lord. 

we are never alone. god lives. he truely does. i have never seen him but i know that even though we are but small creations in his infinte universe...our prayers, however small reach that eternal being, whose love for us we cannot even begin to comprender, and he hears us. he knows our needs and he knows what we are going through. remember that the savior is always by your side. though we make mistakes....the savior WANTS to forgive. we can always turn to him. 

we should always strive to make our prayers better and really talk with the lord and then LISTEN! we talked a lot about that this last conference for the stake. 

3 things we can do to help our families.

1-pray. talk with the supreme creator of the universe. dont just say things that you dont mean. 

2-study not just read the scriptures. we must STUDY them.

3-always always alwyas have our family home evenings!!!! 

if we do those things we will always ahve a strong familiy. that is all i desire. really. please do that. my prayers are always with you all. i love you. 

continue on strong. fight the good fight. keep the faith and we will have eternal life. Together as a family.

i will see you next week!!

Chau!!

Weston

       Elder Birtcher

Perú - Arequipa Mission

Muy Buenos Dias,

Questions on the video....yes there are many. :) haha but i loved it!!! Some of my buds here sitting by me were laughing really really hard :)

Well what to tell you guys. 

We did our second recital muscial again...this time in ilo! We had a great time again! not as many people showed up as the last time but it was the same spirit that was felt. and it was the same wonderful feeling afterwards. my comp is the BEST EVER (he just wrote that on my screen). anyways....  saturday was sure busy for us because we had to go down to tacna and get them ready for their rectial musical the 2nd of november and then we had to travel up the ocean scenic route up to ilo where we had that other performance. i got to play again another violin solo and it was so cool the feeling that i got as elder chipman and i played. this weekend is stake conference and elder uceda of the 70 will be coming to preside over the meeting: and elder chipman and i will be playing along with a chior that we put together of members of the stake. so we are excited for that. 

We also had a baptism this last week! his name is diego and we have been working with him for a couple of months now. his dad is a less active along iwth his 2 siblings and we were able to get their whole family in the church and we rescued his older bro as well. its still dificult to work with his parents becasue they dont want to really come and do that which the lord wants. but with prayer and faith we can do it! 

This change is sure flying by. chipman is going home in 2 weeks...but we are not trunky! we are continuing to find a bunch of people to teach. this last week has actually been really really cool watching all the miracles happen right before our faces. because we for the first time in months we recieved some references and the ward has really been helping us out now. there is an excitement now and we are all on fire to work and find more people. a lot of less actives showed up to church and we were sure excited as well. 

we are working with a sweet lady named modesta who is so close to baptism. i ask for your prayers on her behalf to help her understand the importance and finally take the step in to the waters. 

i have been filled with love. love for the work, love for the people here, love for all of you back home, and love for the lord. i have been trying to renew my testimony and my studies have improved. i encourage you all to renew your testimonies. though we may know and it may seem silly to ask the lord once more if these things are true....i know that if we do, we can develope a testimony even more powerful in these the latterdays and satan will have no power over our hearts. we will abstain sin and want to do that which the lord desires of us. we will become better sons and daughters of the almighty and we will be instruments in the hands of the lord for the salvation of many more souls who are lost. as elder holland has said. santify yourselfs. and watch the miracles from heaven appear before your eyes. 

may we always do what is right. when people are watching and when they arent.

i love you all so much. 

cuídense bastante.

Elder Birtcher

1-4-3

       Elder Birtcher

Perú - Arequipa Mission

PICTURES!!! 

 

 

October 5, 2014

 

 

Coming to you live from Moquegua...

ITS THE ELDER BIRTCHER REALITY MISSION SHOW!!!!!

Welcome to all of you on the update of this last weeks events.

Well...i am finally here in moquegua again:) haha we sure have been traveling a lot lately. last saturday we went to Tacna (where i started the mission!!!) to help prepare the 3 zones there for their rectial musical that they are doing the 2nd of november and the 25 and the 30th i think...(one for each of the stakes there). we (elder chipman and i) will be playing with them for sure on the 2nd...the others not sure yet, there will be changes that same day. so who knows?? i sure hope i get to play for my old stake on the 30th of nov. and get to see everyone again. i miss them a bunch. 

along the same lines of the recital musciales that we have been doing. the one we did here in moquegua turned out great and we will now be traveling over to ilo the 18th of october to do the same thing over there!! So we got to start really getting prepared for this next saturday. should be great!

Then this last monday and tuesday we have been in arequipa for zone leader meetings with president. i enjoy the cousel that we had and we are really starting to focus our time on the reciente converts to the church. the area is really hitting us hard on the retention and we have created many many things that we are going to start doing here in the mission that will help us do that. we sure had fun taking some pictures afterwards with all my buds and with president. a lot of my friends are leaving this change. so so so sad. really really gonna miss them. especially my comp. we are getting along just great and are really trying to do what the lord wants us to do.  

our investigators are doing well. still need to progress a bunch to gain their own testimonies so that they can gain their own conversions. i have come to realize the importance of true conversion, not just baptisms. the lord does not want baptisms. he doesnt want more people in his church for numbers. he wants his children to be converted so that nothing will shake them. that they will be baptized and STAY active all the way home to the celestial kingdom. not to have us just baptize a bunch and have them linger and fall by the way side. we must see a change of heart in them before they can enter into the waters of baptism. and that we are trying to do. our teaching pool has been a little on the shy side...but i was able to do divisions with one of our district leaders this last week and we went contacting in the outskirts of our area and found some potential investigators that have invited us to come back and teach them and their families. i hope the lord will bless us and help us teach more of his kids. 

this week we were invited to go to a stake presidency lunch with all 20 of us elders and hermanas and really enjoyed that activity. our relationship with the stake presidency in the past here in moquegua has been absoluetly horrible. but ever since priebe, chipman, and i have gotten here we have turned that right around so it has been great to work with them and help the work move along. i was talking with some of the newbies as well this last week about a bunch of different things and really helped me realize all the many many miracles that i have seen here. the mission is wonderful. its the best. wouldnt have it any other way. i have grow to know my savior. he lives. and i am still growing. i still sure have a long way to go. but its a happy road to take. and i lvoe it. 

i hope you enjoyed all the pics. know that i really do love you all and pray for you each and every day. 

if you are ever feeling down or low. cheer up for there is one, a peruvian, who loves you. (i know that didnt rhym...but thats okay :) ) 

we get to watch conference this saturday and sunday! so i am sure excited ofr that!!

give my love to todos. 

Thank you for tuning in to fun times with the birtch. 

till next time from peru.

Weston 

--

      Elder Birtcher

Perú - Arequipa Mission

Family/Friends:

Its been a very busy, busy, busy, (did i mention busy) week. This last monday were the changes for the zone and we recieved a bunch of new elders and hermanas here in moquegua. We sent off about 4 and recieved 6 more. we opened up a new area in the zone and have been spending most of the week trying to work in our area and get them all supplied with a room, and all the things that they need to survive over there on the outskirts of the city. so a lot of trips have been made out there to drop off beds and desks and boxes of supplies. its kinda been a pain but i guess it is whatever. 

we also have in the zone 5 newbies fresh from the ccm! 4 of them are from the states that know nothing of the spanish and one of our sisters is from the galapagos islands. them along with our other gringo elder in training makes 6 companionships out of our 10 in total of the zone: training. its a lot! but i am excited. i have been able to meet some great newbies as well that have come here into the missoin. i have the best mission in the world. thats one thing that i love about the mission. you can meet someone in like 5 mins and already be best buds with them and just talk like youve known each other for years. its awesome! but i am super super stoked becasue newbies bring such a big excitement for everyone even though they cant speak or understand the language at all. hope to start seeing some big results here in this next month. 

the stake presdiency has been giving us constant thanks for the special muscial program that we did last week. we along with presdient zobrist are planning on doing the same gig in ilo this next couple of weeks. and it has inspired other areas in the mission to start doing the zone. there will be programs here in teh near future in tacna and hopefully in arequipa. it has had huge effect in the mission and everyone is hearing aobut it. we are now planning as a stake to do service projects and talent show ideas. however, our schedule this next month of october is already full. this sunday...THERE IS NO CHURCH! haha seriously. we will all be inactives. the deal is, there are elections here in teh southern parts of peru and it is ILEGAL to have any meeting of any sort. i guess in the past there have been riots and break outs in fights and trying to persuade people and do horrible stuff in honor oft he elections so....everything has been put on the hold. im all for the fear god more than man deal and go through with the church meetings but....i guess the church doesnt want me writing you all from a prision cell next monday :) so that means we will not be watching general conference until the 11th and 12 of october. SO DONT TELL ME ANYTHING OR SPOIL ANTYHNING BEFORE I SEE IT!!! :) i am super excited for it. 

We also this past week had a conference de zonas with pres. zobrist and the astistents. which turned out wondrful. i was able to feel the spirit so strong and really learn a lot aobut what i need to do to be a better missionary. they specifically spoke a ton on the work of the temple for the dead. i guess i ahve never seen the importance of it before in that way. WE HAVE SUCH A HUGE REPSONSIBLILTY TO HELP THEM!!! go to the temple please!!!! do the work for those who are waiting and who have been waiting for centuries for someone to find their name and go and do their ordinacnes. they will look to us in gratitude or shame in the next life if we do or dont do their work. we are their family....we got to help them. so if you can, sorry, when you can....please set aside time to go to the temple and do the work for the dead. i have never felt more of a desire (the spirit of elias) to do the work for the dead. listen to this coming conference. i am sure the prophets and apostles will be talking a ton about it!! 

i love this work. i love the mission. though i am beat and i am tired. i am happy. i feel the spirit and i desire to what god wants me to do. and i have wonderful family and friends supporitng me. so THANK YOU! i lvoe you all so much. 

our pday today consists of going to a park and having a good ole american BBQ!! i will be grilling up hamburgers for the 20 people in our zone! and we will be playing hte candy bar game again along with soccer and card games! gonna be sweet!!! and next week i will be writing you from arequipa. we have lidership counsel with president. so till then!!

love you all. congrats to kc and gart for the pics. want to see some!! so send like all of them. tell sis. mason hello for me and tell jake mason hi as well. 

con mucho amor,

Weston

--

      Elder Birtcher

Perú - Arequipa Mission

My Dearest Family and Friends:

We just had the best week ever. it was crazy it was so busy but what a wonderful time we had here down in the old moquegua. 

so lets start from monday:

Monday was the last pday of teh change so we obviously did something crazy! We  hiked as a zone to this waterfall which was gorgeous! i have never seen it so pretty. it was a great hike, a great time to spend time together and build zone unity. Afterwards we all came over to the house and had a zone fire with the hot dogs and smores. It was a farewell to 2 of our missionaries who ended their missions this last week. but it was really fun. 

For the middle days of the week: we were practicing for our big event yesterday night which i will in just a second talk about it. we were busy trying to contact new people and get some lessons in. 

on saturday....we were busy getting things together for the muscial programa. and elder chipman and i were asked to help the stake out with the young mens and womens activity that night as well. we got to play a specail musical number savior redeemer of my soul and it turned out really great. we got many comments on it and a ton of people are now asking for violin lessons. :)

other big news....WE ARE FAMOUS!!!

This last week...Elder Birtcher, Elder Chipman, Hna. Romney, and Hna. Aurich went live on the radio!! haha we went and talked on 4 radio stations about the muscial and invited all of moquegua to come and participate with us. I was asked to play the violin on the air and we even got a calll in aobut the event. we had a great time talking to the radio broadcasters and we had fun talking to moquegua!! some of the guys dig into us for answers....not aobut the activity but about the church in general and it was a good oportunity to have a little lesson on the air as well. i got to bear my testimony to everyone!!! :) haha i just hope everyone was listening when we were talking. but we did get a lot of calls from members afterwards thanking us and telling us we did a great job offically representing the church!! 

and for our Activity: Recital Muscial. Sunday 21 September at 5 pm.

WENT AWESOME!!!!!

Ended up having over 400  perople in the chapel. We filled it!! not a seat was empty and tehy had to open up the overflow in the very back! i got to play a solo piece on the violin and i got to accompany the chior on another. We sang in total 9 special muscial nubmers and what a spirit you could feel. We couldnt have done this activity any better nor in any other zone...seeings how presdient zobrist put 3 violinsts in the zone along with 2 great pianists and great singers!! we were a choir of 36 missionaries. the stake presdiency did a great job supporting us and it brought a ton of investigators in. i think over 30-40!! President Zobrist and his wife also came down from Arequipa to attend the programa and he couldnt stop hugging us nor giving us complements all night long. elder chipman and i were thanked publicly for all our hard work and it was just the best feeling ever!! on our last song we sang called to serve and we asked that all the rms stand with us and sing with the congregation the last verse.....WHAT A SPIRIT! people were crying, and smiling and it was so cool.  we took a ton of pictures afterwards and the members are so excited now to help us. President zobrist told me that we are going to do this if we can at least once a month somewhere in the mission and that i will go and play the violin! i couldnt be more happy!

What a  blessing it is to have music. it brings the spirit. i know that. 

things are going great here in moquegua. i hope to start seeing some great results with the zone. we do have many changes though and a lot of my best friends will be leaving....which i am very sad about. i think i might not see them again until i get back to the states. but we will be recievign many new gringos and newbies here in the zone. 6 companionships in total will be training and we will be opening up a new area which increases our missionary number here to 20 missionaries in the zone. i am happy. newbies bring such an excitement to the zone. and we will be having 6! 

as for other good news....president is taking us all out to lunch here in just a second and i found out that an 18 year old girl that i was working with in tacna way back when....will be getting baptized this weekend! :) no effort goes in vain!

i love you all. i love the mission. congrats to tiffany for getting engaged to my best friends brother, and to kacie as always....great things happening to us in both worlds. love you all. 

hope to hear from you all next week!

Elder Birtcher

--

      Elder Birtcher

Perú - Arequipa Mission

Mis Queridos: 

Les amo muchisimo. 

Well i guess i dont have much good  stories as far as the work going. We were able this last week to find a lady named Modesta, we were just contacting in the street and this nice lady told us to come back and visit her. Ends up she lives with her little grandson. the little boy, his mom works outside of moquegua and doesnt come back but every month for like 3 days to see him and his dad abandoned him before he was born. Very sad but we got to play soccer with him and the abuelita modesta really enjoyed our company. she did come to church this last week for all 3 hours!!!! that never happens!!!! we were so excited and i spent most of the sacrament meeting trying to keep the little grandson calmed down and quiet. thanks to those mike n ikes you sent mom...it kept him pretty quiet :) and i spend the whole time drawing plants vs. zombies pictures. :) but we were excited and our prayers were answered. she is really interested in what we have to say and will be coming back to church with us. :)

as for the other investigators....we challenged everyone of them to come to church and all promised and we even visted them the day before and they still told us they would be coming....AND....none came. we are looking at losing a girl named Doris who is just one of those eternal investigators its looking to be and a kid named diego because his parents will not let him come to church with us. he has all of his asistencias that he needs but still....we need to make sure that we dont just baptize him and then he goes inactive because of lack of family support. our other buddy jose who knows its all true, just doesnt want to act and my good firend edward and his wife karina were working. soo.......we are in that. kinda frustrating but what can you do. we can force them to do anything. i just hope we start seeing the success soon. 

This last week we also were able to go to ilo again for a practice for our specail musical fireside coming up and it is really turning out well. we are excited for the numeros and how its all going to turn out. that will be this sunday at 5 pm. we hope we get a ton of references from all the members and we hope they bring their friends!! i will get you that story next monday. 

as for random story time.... 

So elder chipman and i were dead tired. we were running later than usual to go get dinner and then head back to our apartment so that we could eat really fast, plan and then get to bed at the normal time. so we walk up the stairs and i tried opening the door. and SNAP! there goes the key! i broke the key off in the lock in the door!!! so we had to break into the 2 story of the building by lifting up elder chipman so that he could climb up to the balcony and get in through that door to open up the main door. (dont worry we have done it many times before with elder priebe due to him always forgetting the keys inside! good thing we havent had the cops called on us!! but i think i might become a guy cheer leader. im getting good at throwing them up to the balcony :) ) so turns out we just could get the key out really easy. had to take the whole door lock apart (they are different here in peru, not the same as the states) and had to get the key out. then put the door back together. so our plans to eat, plan, and get to bed fast got canceled and we ended up getting to bed about 11:30 ish pm. 

Other random story....WE MADE TACOS!! our pention bought everything and we made legit tacos. the el pato sauce and the jalepeños sure came in handy and we all loved it! ate way too much!! :) 

And the last one....so we are walking back to our room to grab some stuff before our meeting with the stake presidency as we always do  sunday afternoons...and we see this lady and this skinny kid struggling to lift these big bags of dirt onto this truck to be hauled away. so we run over and asked if we could help out. they were way grateful and we started loading them on. however, there was a BIG bag. so i squat down to not hurt my back and to lift it and i hear an awful ripping sound. HAHAHA I TOTALLY RIPPED MY PANTS IN THE BACK!!! like i mean all the way down! i dont know how the lady and kid didnt hear it but lets just say i was always facing them as i continued to lift bags of dirt onto the truck :) 

i hope you guys are smiling... :)

and that is the update from the hot city of moquegua. know that i love you all and i pray for you each and everyday. i love the mission, my comp is fantastic and we are happy. 

con mucho amor,

Weston

1-4-3

--

      Elder Birtcher

Perú - Arequipa Mission