Hello,

just like the title reads....it was a very tiring week...and we are only in for another one this week. 

Last monday and tuesday we had a District Leaders conference here in Arequipa, acutally the 1st one that we have ever done here in the mission, and it went AWESOME! we are really trying to focus on them, and help all the leaders excite and pump up their elders and sisters so that we can all have more success here int eh mission. The mission is improving and we are very happy to see our numbers going up and the excitement of the missionaries as well. President and us are planning many activities and things to do so that the mission will continue to improve and reach new heights. 

After our DL training meeting, Cornejo and i headed straight down to my old zone in MOQ for some divisiones with the elderes and see how the zone is doing. We have been doing really great on visiting zones and doing the divisiones so far....so we continued with those this last week. 

and moquegua is doing great. We spent tuesday afternoon and night working with the ZLs and stayed at my old house. However, turned out to be a HORRIBLE night because they had not prepared and didint have any matresses for either of us. so we spent the night on the hard floor....which hurt both our backs and didnt get ANY sleep at all. On Wednesday we did some more divisiones with other elders in the zone and it was fun to help the newbies and get them more stoked to work in their areas and to complete their numbers each and every week. 

Haha wednesday night we couldnt sleep on the ground anymore so we found a little peruvian motel type thing and rented out a room for the night. so much better than killing my back again and being exhausted all day the next day. 

Early thursday morning we headed down even farther to the zone on the ocean front, ilo. where we had a meeting with the zone and trained them a bit and did divisiones all day and into the night with them. then we slept at the zls house for that night.

friday morning was spent in the bus returning to arequipa 4-5hrs. in bus-not very fun. and once we got into the terminal, we went straight to work...and headed over to the mission home for a lunch and conference with all the new missionaries that had arrived this last change and who are just serving here in the city of Arequipa. had great hamburgers and other food...and the conference went well...but we were so tired. then yesterday afternoon was spent with president in the office planning and getting other mission details resolved and taken care of. 

so, in total....i had 1 hr. to work in my own area ALL week long. and that was spent visiting a new convert who is so great! her testimony is growing and she is so faithful and strong. she just recieved her very 1st calling as the primary secretary...and she is excited to serve in that position. 

So crazy week right.....

now we got our little break today for pday...and we will be starting it all up again. 

Tomorrow after church, we head to the Arequipa Airport for our flight down to Tacna. Tomorrow night, i will be performing in the recital musical that they will be having. and monday through wednesday will be divisiones with the 3 zones that are located down there. tuesday will be my companion´s birthday!!! and wednesday night we will be returning back here to Arequipa with presdient and his wife who will also head down there with us. then thursday is THANKSGIVING!!!! president is trying to hook up a turkey bowl with the offcie in the morning and then we have divisions on friday. then i will be talking to you again on saturday.

From what mom´s letter says: you guys are doing great and are having fun. be safe and continue to let me know on what is happening there in the good ole state of AZ. 

love you guys so much. i really do.

Weston

1-4-3 always

 

 Elder Birtcher

 Asistente 

 Misión Perú-Arequipa

Mis Queridos,

Finally have a moment to breath i should say. i dont even know where this week went to, it went by so fast. and i can believe we are already half way through november. 

well for your update on this last week. On monday Presidente Zobrist left for Colombia for a mission presidents seminar with all the other presidents in the area and Elder Cornejo and i were put in charge of the mission. So we were Presidente Cornejo and Presidente Birtcher till yesterday afternoon when president rolled in. :) but during the week we were sure busy with divisions. Like i said in my last letter it should take us about 2 months to do divisions with the whole mission...but we have it all planned out to do it in a month. its going to be busy busy busy until Feburary due to all the visits we will be doing, getting the new elders and sending the ending ones off and training the zone leaders, hermana leaders, district leaders this monday and tuesday, christmas visits with president, and then interviews all january is the plan. 

We were in a city outside of Arequipa (about 2 hrs.), called Mollendo, last tuesday. I were able to train the zone a little bit and help them out. a couple of problems are happening out there and we went to solve them and get them to be an effective zone once again. On Thursday we also got to visit a zone (my old old one in Manuel Prado) and teach them and interview the missionaries and see how they are doing. I then got to do divisions in my old area of 15 de Agosto once again. IT WAS FANTASTIC! i got to see so many of my converts and i got to visit some of the new investigators that are there as well as visit my pention and other families. You should have seen their faces when they saw me. I really love those people i got to teach. i really do. so wonderful to see them again and to see how they are doing. and great news from back there: so my one convert, Nelly, told me she has completely read the book of mormon and is reading it again for 2nd time. my other convert, edwin, baptized his younger brother this last month and is preparing to put in his papers for his mission. My family that we helped baptize is active and doing great in the church. my other converts, yandy and wendy are faithful ward missionaries and always are giving references and doing their visits...and they both have been to the temple in lima and did baptisms for the dead. and my other one freddy, is now the 2nd counselor in the elders quorum presidency (he also went to the temple!!). I couldnt be more happy. My joy is full :)

love them so much. and i love being able to go and visit them once more in my mission. other news happening. we have a district leadership training meeting this monday and tuesday which should be interesting...and immeditaley after that training conference, my comp and i will be heading down to my old zone of MOQUEGUA to do divisions and interviews and then on thursday and friday we will be in ilo doing the same thing. and then on next sunday we will be heading down to Tacna for another recital muscial and then to do divisions with the 3 zones down there Monday through Wednesday and maybe Thursday...depending if we get on a plane or not. haha craziness i know. but i couldnt be more happy. the office elders are great and i love living with them and being able to work all together. The wards are great and we are trying to work all the time with the members when we are actually able to work in the area. but...all is well. 

 

keep up what you are doing, be safe and know that i love you all.

1-4-3 para siempre

Weston

 

 Elder Birtcher

 Asistente 

 Misión Perú-Arequipa

Hey Guys, Well I am now serving in Arequipa.... haha apparently the mission needed a new assistent. so im the one chosen to fill in that gap. :)  its kinda crazy. i guess i really dont know what to think of it yet. but we are hitting the ground at a full sprint. so i got here today about 2 hrs. ago and we have a training meeting for all the new trainers this change in about 2 hours. tomorrow we have the newbies coming in from the ccm and will be going to pick them up and then train them all up on how the mission is and what they need to do and what to expect. then on wednesday and thursday we have all the zone leaders and sister leaders coming into arequipa for a training meeting. we are booked! some welcome hu? So just to give you some of the updates on how my schedule will be changing.... pdays will now be on saturdays. so dont expect my letters anymore on mondays.  My new companion is one of my best friends in the mission: Elder Cornejo from chile. we have always been really great buds and we are so excited to work together. He was actually comps with my former comp elder priebe who just went home and was also comps with elder chipman who i just sent home. haha its funny: inbetween the 4 of us (Chipman, Priebe, Cornjeo, and Me) we have ALL been companions at one time or the other in the mission. so i am really excited to get going. nervous as well...i sure will be on my knees praying hard for the lords help in everything.  but some of the past weeks updates just to fill you in quickly and i will try and touch up more on it saturday: but chipman left :( so i was in divisions all week long with other companionships of elders. it turned out really great but also very very tiring. not to mention the weekend. so chip had left but then came back to help out with the rectial musical that we did in tacna this last weekend (well actually yesterday). we were so busy running down to tacna and practicing and returning sunday and really really tiring. when we were trying to come back to moquegua sunday night we got the terminal at 9:15pm and the last bus that left from MOQ was at 8:45pm and we were stuck! we couldnt find any rides and we ended up walking down many dark alley ways and markets trying to find anything to return because we still had to pack everything up and get our room ready for the 2 new zone leaders and also get us all ready to go to arequipa. Elder chipman just met up with his parents about an hour ago and now im getting to work. but crazy crazy trying week we had and will be having from today on. we also had a little halloween party which i will send pics later and for the day of the dead on saturday we went to the cemetery and passed out tons of plan of salvacion flyers and also shined shoes for free for a couple of hours. really had fun with that as well.  All in all....i am sad that i left moquegua. i had the best zone in the mission, some of my best buds. the ward was sure sad to see both chipman and i leave but we had a good farewell. sad to see chipman and all ton of my friends who just left..but we are in for some great times ahead. i look forward to learning all i can from president and help the mission out with what i can and what the lord wants me to do here in his vineyard of Peru Arequipa.  I love you all and will talk to you all some more on Saturday.  Con todo el amor que tengo.  Weston        Elder Birtcher Perú - Arequipa Mission

Move to: Drafts Sent Mail dad folder Junk mom folder Sent spam Spam weston folder Trash [New Folder]     Prev  |  Next

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