Elder Weston Birtcher: November 11, 2013

Hey All!

¿Como estas? ¿todo bien? Well from the letters that i have recieved sounds like all is well back home. Well we had another busy week! Our investigators are progressing and we are continuing to see the outpour of blessings from our heavenly father to his children here in peru. We were supposed to have a baptism this last week with a mother and daughter but we couldnt get permission from the husband so we couldnt baptize them! we are trying to obtain the permission but everytime we try and schedule an appointment with him he isnt available and when he is....he is drunk. So we are praying and praying for them! please pray for gloria and ariatna!!! But we have been working with Marco some more and he is progressing so much. his baptism is this saturday!! just need to continue to keep working with him and help him overcome his addictions. but what is cool about marco is he came to church with us yesterday and after sacrament meeting he needed to leave. so we said goodbye and then during sunday school he comes back and finds us....this time with his mom! his mom came into tacna yesterday from lima to visit and will be here for 15 days. she is such an awesome lady and just loves us for trying to change the life of her son. she is in total support of us and she wants to join the church too! so possibly we will have both of them baptized soon! such blessings. anyways some highlights of this last week....on monday played soccer with the zones and had a family night with 3 families! we all had a great time playing games after our spiritual lesson about eternal families. think about that for a second. how blessed we are to get to have our families be sealed for eternity. i wouldnt have it any other way. i am so grateful for you guys and that i will be with you forever! during one of our games we got to play ninja. haha the peruvians really like that game. we had a great time with all the little kids and the adults enjoyed it too. The wife of the bishop then brought out the treat for the night. in my honor we had hot dogs! haha yeah american food! what else...oh we were tracting an area this last week and we found a family moving all their things into their new house. which was halfway up a mountain with no trails....yeah i will never ever complain about moving people into their new houses ever again. at least there is cement and stairs in the states. but it was a great experience and oportunidad to serve them and we have return appointments with them this next week. One experience that i think stood out for me this week was our numbers were just so low every day and we couldnt complete goals like we have been in the past and we were praying and praying trying to find more people and complete goals and on friday our prayers were answered. we found 2 new families...one of them all 4 accpeted baptism and they came to church yesterday with us and we found 8 new investigators and they accepted our message and baptism and we were able to complete our goals. i know heavenly father hears our prayers. and yesterday we had another packed house in the chapel again!! everyone says its the violin but i think it is the lord working miracles and building the desires of the members and investigators in coming to church and living the gospel in their lives.

Overall, we are happy and excited for this next week of work. I dont have much time left but i do want to share my feelings about the overall lesson that i have learned this last week. I guess you could say there are certain lessons that i learn every week that summarizes the week. for example the answers to prayers one week. or repentance changes lives another week. well this week the lesson that i learned was how much love our heavenly father has for his children. this last week was amazing as we got to teach the people. i love them so much and i want what is best for them! i really do. i pray for them everyday and just want them to come unto their savior and recieve a remission of their sins. I know that our heavenly father loves his children and all he wants for us to do is return to his presence. because we are truley his children. he loves us so much that he gave his only begotten son to atone for our sins to be able to return to his presence. Now think of the love of our savior jesus christ for us. he suffered beyond comprehension for us in the garden. he didnt have to. he had his agency too, he asked the father if there was another way...but in final he said glory be to the father, thy will be done. i like to think of him saying, this is going to be so hard and painful, but i love my brothers and sisters. i love Weston. i will suffer and die for him. and he did. he suffered for my sins, he paid the price for my mistakes and my errors and he gave me the chance to return back into the loving arms of my father in heaven. I love my savior. i have read of his life in the book jesus the christ and my testimony of him has grown tremensly. he lives. he truley bore our griefs and carried our sorrows and with his stripes we are healed. I ask all to learn of their savior whose love for you is infinite and incomprehensable. The most precious blood that has ever lived was spilt for you. the best life that has ever been lived was freely given for you. learn of him who paid the price for eternal life. I testify that he lives and that this is his work. He desires all of his children to come into his loving outstretched arms.

This is my challenge to all who read this. Learn of your Master and Redeemer. for i stand all amazed at the love jesus has for me.