Email 28 March 2011

Beloved people back home :)
Things are going well here as usual! You guys??? If not good, you better change that... Anyways... This might be a little shorter than normal. Not much time today.
So this week, Shaw and I had some pretty good success. We have been finding a lot of people, which is cool. The only question is if they will progress into one of the "Prioridad 1", as we call them here. We are sure hoping to have baptisms soon!
First off, the McDonald’s trip last week was pretty good :) I just got chicken nuggets and fries and a Sprite and to top it all off, an Oreo McFlury in remembrance of you mom ;) haha. It was good overall. McDonalds definitely isn’t the best Birthday dinner, but I’ll put up with it for now I guess haha.
Back to the families that we have found... One is awesome. They are in Ixtahuacán. Both of the parents are orphans, so the only family they have is each other and their two kids. Pretty unique situation, but very cool people! They invited Shaw and me to spend the night at their other house in Xela if we ever need too haha. They actually know a lot about the church too because the dad has seen quite a few different specials on the BYU channel. And, they fed us dinner. We love them to say the least...
Side note - I saw chickens have sex for the first time.
I had a good couple drunk stories haha. On Saturday, as Market Day was finishing, Shaw and I left to work in Ical. On our walk there, a drunken guy started walking with me and talking to me in "English" (they never actually know English). I taught him just about every lesson possible in a matter of 5 minutes... As he was saying bye, he slipped on a bottle and fell straight on his back hahaha. Shaw and I walked away in complete laughter, while he laid there still saying bye and everything. It was great. Just up the road, we grabbed a truck to go up Ical (didn’t walk it because we didn’t have a lot of time... We were late). We stood on the back bumper as usual ;) (it is safe....ish haha). There were 3 drunks in the bed of the truck. As we went up the mountain they were all trying to talk to me. They don’t talk to Shaw which is really weird and not fair. Every time we hit a bump in the road, they would fall in the back of the truck. They slipped throughout the entire ride up. It was hilarious... haha. As soon as we got to the church in Ical, they were starting Mutual. They asked us a lot of questions about things they didn’t understand in the Bible of what they were studying... One of them was about the word "orgías", or orgies in English. Yeah, didn’t know what to do right there haha. It was hilarious.
Something interesting that happened that neither Shaw, nor I was aware of: 2 earthquakes. Some people told us about them and we were just like--what??? We didn’t feel those haha. They happened Saturday night at like Midnight I guess. They were like 5.3s or something. I was pretty upset I didn’t feel them haha. That would have been awesome.
That was my week... Shaw and I started a Tiky Can collection. We have them stacked to our ceiling. I continue to see Fireflies everywhere. I’m still in love with them...
I hope everything is going well for everyone! I miss you all and love you all soooo very much :) Have a great week everyone...
Con cariño,
Elder D.R. Bitner

Information found from Mom -

Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.9
UTC Time : Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 06:21:01 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 12:21:01 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 86.8 km
Send an “earthquake experience report” for this earthquake
Geo-location(s) :
49 km (30 miles) S of Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico
98 km (60 miles) WSW of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
133 km (82 miles) SW of Huehuetenango, Guatemala

Email 21 March 2011



20th Birthday

  ¡Mi familia y mis amigos!
Pues, I’m no longer a "teen" as most might know... haha. I have survived two decades of life and plan on about 10 more ;) Being on the mission for the birthday is definitely weird. To be honest, it didn’t even feel like a different day. It was a good day though :) I woke up and had a nice bowl of ghetto-brand Lucky Charms. That was yummy enough for a breakfast haha. Went to Sacrament in Colo, but then left right after to get to Ical church for Priesthood so we could "plan" for some people they have for us to teach. The planning consisted of a guy saying, "Well, let’s meet Saturday at 3 to go visit them." It was kind of a waste, but I do love Ical church. They are way more mountainous like than Colo. After church, we went to lunch in the usual place in Colo. They gave us fried chicken and french fries, so that was cool. After lunch, went home and wrote a letter home as always... Then we cleaned the house and shined our shoes and then went up to an inactive family's house. We ate lunch at their house on Thursday and my birthday came up... So they invited us over for dinner for it :) It was really nice, especially since they aren’t even "active". We helped them make the food. We had Chuchitos. Don’t really know how to explain them... Maybe Derek can. We also helped make tamales though. It was all fun :) We were there for a good amount of time... I spent some of it trying to touch a very vicious pitbull, but he wouldn’t let me touch him. It was rude haha. I was so close to him and he wanted to bite me so bad... But his chain held him just out of reach haha. I was pretty scared of it. We tried to make these Dessert Bar things from Reeses, but they didn’t turn out too well I don’t think. We just left them and told them to eat it. We had a younger girl from Huehue help us with those. She asked for a picture with me for Facebook haha. Ate 4 Chuchitos with lots of chile :) I was full... I used the plates and napkins that were sent too, so that was pretty cool. haha. Everyone liked them a lot. The girl asked me to get her 4 packages of each for her birthday, which is the 30th. So it wouldn’t have been possible anyways.... Went back to the house where I enjoyed a nice Sparkling Strawberry drink (without alcohol) that I bought. It was good... haha. But yeah, that was my birthday for the most part I think! It was a good one :) Being in the mission didn’t really make a difference. I’m 20! I’m not ready to be a grown up haha.
As for the rest of the week... Last Monday I found a place that sold Dr Pepper! That was awesome... Only could buy one though because they didn’t have a lot. 10 Quetz each. Expensive, but wow so good....
Had an awesome experience for me. Helped me realize what to do here... Made me think a lot about Cole. It is complicated... haha. I explained a little in the letter so you might understand a little bit, but wow it hit me hard.
Went through changes... I didn’t get changed, so yipee! haha. And neither did Shaw. We are very happy.
Alright, well the coolest day was Friday... So much cool stuff happened. No one but the people involved will understand because you would have to know and love Colo, but I’ll try to explain haha. Two other Elders came up to help us with some stuff. Elder Lewis (my Zonie and Shaw's trainer) and then Elder Pigott, who just really badly wanted to see what Colo is. They came up early in the morning and we went to Ixtahuacán to do some "seminary/institute" visits with some guy from Huehue... They were having a Carnival in Ixta, so that was awesome. They had a Ferris Wheel... Little kid basketball tournament... So that was just all a neat way to start out the day. Rode back to Colo standing on the back bumper of a truck again (my favorite!) haha. Before we got to Colo though, we decided to stop at the "slaughter house". We asked the people if we could watch the "death" of a cow. They said sure of course. I’ll just give a little description about that. They tied it with rope. Pulled its head around to face its back and then cut a baseball-sized hole in his throat. Stepped/jumped on it to get all the blood to drain out.... Then they skinned it.... Then took an axe to it pelvic area. Chopped that bone right in half with two good swings. Then they broke each leg, from the knee down, off.... Those two bone parts, were pretty crazy. Just hearing the bones break and snap off. Ewwww it was so cool haha. Then they cut out the esophagus, which looked like a white vacuum tube. Then the stomach and intestines came out (I got a picture of that :) ). Throughout all this cutting and breaking, there was this cute little girl in there. Little pig tails... A cute little pink shirt... White little shorts and flip-flops. She was maybe 5 years old, probably younger. She had a broom, and was sweeping the blood. I was just like, "You have got to be kidding me". It was crazy... We ran through Ical and the Barranka later, just to get a good sunset picture. Those are not small mountains... It was worth it though. Had a "photoshoot" of sorts with these cute little girls in Corte haha. It was just a great day overall haha. I loved it.
Anyways, that was my week. I’m being eaten alive by fleas again. I found out I have gained 10 pounds! Doesn’t look like it... I have grown an inch though I think. Yay :) haha. I bought 2 clip-on ties. I’m going to McDonalds before we go back to Colo for my lovely B-day dinner out haha. Should be fun. Thanks for all the birthday wishes, prayers, etc... Everything is greatly appreciated :) Have a great week! I miss and love you all!!!
Con cariño, Elder David Bitner :)

Email 13 March 2011

Ical Mountain; Banana Trees - Jungle in Colo

Hey all :)
Well, this week has been pretty good for me. Hope all of you have enjoyed yours as well! I’m mainly just happy none of you were in Japan. A lot of people told us about the earthquake. They were terrified about it. Now, about the week.
Started with another funny P-Day afternoon story... We were shopping for some stuff so we could have food for dinner and for breakfast because we were staying with the Zonies, when all of the sudden Shaw had a "diarrhea attack". We had to run across the street to a hotel where he paid to use their bathroom. At some point the through process he told me that he needed more toilet paper, so I had to search for some. I ran into a guy that, in English, asked me, "What are you looking for?" I was like what the heck. He ended up giving me more t.p. for Shaw, and then we talked some. He had perfect English for the most part. I was amazed... He has lived in the states 22 years and has a business in Denver. Very random... He was really fun to talk to though. The funniest was Shaw’s bathroom. It had a huge window on the side of it so he could look at the mountain view, and others could look at him! It was cool.
So, Tuesday was a pretty sketchy holiday here in Guatemala. Shaw and I had to travel back to Colo at 6 in the morning to get there before "things" started happening. We had to sit in the house all day...... No leaving for anything. The holiday doesn’t really have a name I don’t think, but it had weird traditions. People would go around with confetti-filled eggs and smash them on each other’s heads. Cool holiday? Some would even carry flour around and throw that at other people. Some even had real eggs. It was just weird. In Colo, basically nothing happened. Just a parade of kids in Costumes walked by our house following a minivan listening to "Eye of the Tiger" haha. In Huehue, I guess things got pretty sketchy but who knows really. Sitting in the house was just really boring... We wanted to kill ourselves.
Well, I got some "gifts" this week haha. An investigator gave Shaw and me each 2 bananas and 5 Quetz... We tried to say no, but they wouldn’t let us say no. Weird. Shaw gave me a V-neck shirt. I’m starting to like them haha. I ate real sugar cane for the first time. Cut it and all. Pretty cool and yummy. It was a generous week from the Guats.
I spent some time with the "Dream Team" this week. They are from the area Ixtahuacán. They just find people to teach and then call us up. They are cool. The people they found didn’t show up to church though... Maybe next week. Another of our areas, Ical, gave us 3 references last night too. They all were at church yesterday. The members actually do stuff and it is suuhhhhweeeeet.
I have developed a new passion here in the mission. Standing on the back bumpers of trucks driving through the mountains on very windy roads with fireflies all around.... It is awesome haha. I love it. The only downfall is when little boys throw very large sticks at you as you drive by. One landed in the truck next to us... Almost got us haha. It was scary.
Some random facts.... Finished the journal that Derek gave me. I’m now using the one I bought in the CCM. I shined all my shoes myself for the first time. I threw a lot of hot dogs over the edge of our house to the dogs last night... People didn’t really like that, but I was just trying to be nice haha.
Well, that was my week. No scheduled baptisms this week, but maybe something cool will happen. Changes are this week too though. I doubt I’m getting changed, but you never know... I really hope neither of us does. We are actually getting stuff done, and I’m enjoying myself more than ever on the mission. Anyways, have a good week and be happy:)
Love,

Elder Bitner

Shaw's Bathroom Experience

Stick that was thrown at me and Shirt Shaw gave me

Email 7 March 2011

Alfonso Vasquez Vasquez - March 5

Hola mi familia y mis amigos :)
Hope everyone is hanging in there, as they should be... It sounds as if people are okay for the most part minus some sicknesses and broken legs. Cuidense con eso. Su salud es bien importante. Anyways, here is my week.......
All started with last Monday night on my way home to Colo. Was sitting on the bus in the terminal waiting to leave.... When a guy sat across the aisle from me with a cowboy hat and a guitar. Not a good combo for a Latino. He realized that we were both there, so he started talking to me. After a little bit of time, he handed me his guitar and came and sat by me. Yay... haha. He began telling me about how he studied English, even though all he knew was, "I speak English. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 25!" It was....cute? Not. I knew because he had a guitar I was going to hear some sort of music. However, I did not really expect him to sing specifically to me haha. He sang 3 songs for me 2 with his guitar and 1 as he was getting off the bus. All the people on the bus found it very funny.... haha. They were all laughing pretty hard. Especially the teenagers. I ended up giving him the rest of my SevenUp and just talked to him the whole time. It was kind of weird, but it is my favorite drunk story thus far, thanks to a good old local with a guitar. I had lots of experiences with drunks this week actually. Two cried because we wouldn’t go to their house with them haha. One gave Shaw money. Drunks in Guatemala are just a lot of fun.... Especially when they tell you, you are the "best of heaven".
Did some service this week.... Moved more wood than I have ever thought even possible! It was not the normal cut up wood either. It was practically full on trees. The stumps at least. Not the lightest in the world haha. When we finished though, we got some eggs from this really old woman. We were a little scared to eat that stuff...
We made pancakes for some Less Actives. Trying to be nice people! We also found some new investigators... They asked to take pictures with us and they want copies haha. They really were excited to have some whites in their house haha.
Coolest news..... Baptism went through. Alfonso Vasquez Vasquez (weird I know) was baptized the 5th of March. His baptism was up in Ical, which is a very big mountain. We hiked up it with our Zonies in 30 minutes, which was record timing... haha. It is a very tiring hike..... Especially during a fast. Rough. haha. It was a nice baptism though. A guy preparing for a mission did the baptism. Nice opportunity for him. We went back to Ical Sunday for Church.... Hiked that beast of a mountain a lot while fasting. It was like being Moses. Well.... Sort of haha. We had to go up for his confirmation. Guess who ended up doing that... Me! I was terrified, but I pulled it off. It was pretty cool overall. I enjoyed it because it was my first one :) Church in Ical is very weird compared to others.... All the members basically come to charge their phones. At least they come I guess. They all bring their dogs too. Well, they follow them... haha.
That was my week though. Pretty fun I guess. The baptism was nice... Our Zone overall doesn’t have very good "stats", so we aren’t allowed to do anything today really. Shaw and I came down last night because we heard there was going to be protesting along the way today.... Last time Shaw came down during protesting, his 1 hour ride turned into 10 hours. We didn’t want to risk it, so we rode a bus down yesterday and stayed at the Zonies. Well, I hope all is well and everyone continues to hang in there.... Love you all very much! Have an amazing week! :)
Love always,
Elder David B. :)

Email 28 February 2011

¡Familia y amigos!
7 months today :)
How are all of you lovely peoples? Good I hope... haha. As you can imagine, I’m experiencing a lot of new, different things in my new area. It is crazy... This week was a good one though, so no worries there :)
First off, I’ll tell you about what Shaw (my comp) and I do every Monday... We have to come to Huehue to spend our P-day with our district, so we travel what should be an hour in the morning to get here. However, today.... We got here in 35 minutes. Our driver was insane. It was awesome though... We like taking trucks in the morning to get here because it is faster. We sit or stand in the back of them as they reach a high speed of approximately 70. It is awesome.... haha. To get home, we time just right to take a bus back at 6. We sit on different seats to see who sits next to us. At 6, all the kids that were in school are riding back... Usually, Shaw has an old man sit next to him, and I have a semi-attractive Latina next to me. It is a funny game to play for us.
We had a Zone meeting this last week... There we found out that out of all our time, we only spend 6 months of the 2 years actually working. Kind of a crazy thought... With all the traveling I’m doing right now to get places, mine is even less!
In my area, we came across a sketchy wood bridge.... We crossed it. It was over a big river too. My new area is way more legit in the whole jungle/mountainous area department. High five for that haha. I actually visited a lot of my area for the first time this last week... It is freaking huge. It’s awesome....
So, the most interesting day was Saturday... The area north of us was closed and the Elders were taken out due to some "bad things", so we are now the farthest missionaries. Pretty cool :) Anyways though.... Those Elders were supposedly going to have a baptism, so our Zonies had to go up there after they left to have it. They went without clothes though, so that is when Shaw and I came into play. We had to take them baptismal clothes Saturday morning so that could have the baptism Sunday. We waited down on the road for a bus to take us to a city called Camoja, but a member from Huehue drove by and decided to drive us all the way there, which was about an hour and a half drive. Close to that at least... We got to Camoja and then found our Zonies. Instead of just giving them the clothes and going home though, we hung out there for a while. The Zone Leaders and us took a 10 minute "microbus" ride (we stood on the back bumper I might add, the whole time) to a place called the Mesilla, which is the border of Mexico. We got there and saw all kinds of things... A Hummer, which happened to be a H1 :) Drug Lords that could speak English to us and had fancy cars... Lots of Pesos.... It was crazy! At one point, I stood just three minutes from the border. I wanted to cross it so bad, but I held back and stayed in my mission "boundaries" haha. We had lunch there and went tie shopping... I bought 3 ties, two of them being Valentino :) It was great haha. Then we went back to Camoja and headed back for Colo. However, we did not by bus or car or truck....But by foot! We walked for 4 and a half hours..... 35,758 Steps...... 18.6 Miles..... It was far, and we didn’t even make it all the way to Colo. We ended up in a place called San Pedro Necta. From there we taught a family a lesson and then the dad offered to drive us back for just the price of gas, so we paid him 50 Quetz and got home around 8 o’clock. We burned 1,187 calories and 80.3 grams of fat. It was a healthy day, but because of it we could not walk the next day. Both of our legs were bad. It was worth it in our minds though... It’s not every day you get to walk 18.6 miles after all! haha.
Well, that was my week for the most part. We have a very positive investigator that has a date to get baptized this Saturday at 3 o’clock our time. That should go through, so yay :) Two things I would like to have....
Anyways, I hope all is well with everyone... I miss you and hope everything works out well for all of you! Bobby.... Be careful when you play church ball. Breaking legs should not happen in such conditions. Won’t lie though, might have been funny to watch ;) haha. Love you guys!
With much of my little, beating heart,
Elder David Bitner :)

Email 21 February 2011

Colotenango, Guatemala

Hello all :)
As it seems you guys have found out.... I was transferred this past week. I got a phone call Monday night saying that I had changes the next day after Conference. They did combine my area with La Viña like I proposed to President, but I did not stay like I thought I would. My good friend here, Elder Shaw from Ogden, had an interview the Friday before and asked if I could be his companion because his comp was being changed. President said yes and here I am haha. My new area is called Colotenango, but also consists of an area called Ical and another called Ixtahucán. It is basically 5 large mountains... It is really cool though. It is an hour outside of Huehue, should be on the map, and about 2 hours from Mexico. The weirdest thing about my area is that they don’t speak a whole lot of Spanish... They speak the ancient Lamanite dialect of Mam, so I’m experiencing that for the first time. We are taking lessons on how to speak it from a member though, so maybe we’ll figure it out eventually. It is quite different and quite weird to experience. The church was all in Mam... Minus my testimony and the sacrament prayers we did haha. It is crazy in all honesty... I love it though, especially because Shaw and I are good friends here. We are in the same group. We were in the same room in the CCM. And, he is the one I was friends with on Facebook before, so it is really cool :) We are having a blast together! haha.
Few interesting stories from my new area already... Because it is very mountainous and big, there are a lot of places to go. We were hiking the other day and came across a ravine/canyon thingy. We decided to take it... We had to wedge ourselves with our feet at parts to get past water, but at one point, there was only two options. Climb up and then slide down this very steep dirt hill (what Shaw did), or walk straight through waist deep water, which is what I did.... It was very cold, but I got a really cool picture and video haha so it was worth it in the end!
They also have a market day every Saturday in Colo... It is pretty crazy. Basically, everyone just gets really drunk from this drink called "El Machetero" and pass out all over. They like to stare at us pretty intensely, especially since I have blonde hair. haha. People from Huehue have always told me they are scared of Colo because they like to burn people. They kind of go by their own Government system, so it is pretty sketchy sometimes. Cool experience though! haha.
About the house... It is just a one room building. The shower and toilet are in separate "rooms". You can’t sit on the toilet with the door closed, so we just poop with the door open. Sorry for the mental image, but it is fun ;) haha.
Two kids in my new Zone (still here in Huehue) were robbed at gunpoint last week. Kind of sketchy, but everyone is safe so that is good. President just told them to forget about it? haha. They only gave up 26 Quetz, which is $8.25, but the people asked them each for a $100 because they were both Gringos... Guatemala is pretty sketchy...
Anyways, that was my week. At conference I did get some mail. Mainly just letters. I got some articles from Mom. 2 Letters from Granddaddy. And a letter from a friend. Pretty good week. I’m loving where I am and the new experiences I’m having. It is like being in a different world in Colo. There is only one area further than where I am, so it is really cool. I’m doing my best to learn Mam even though no one knows how to teach it... It is cool though :) Thanks for everything guys! Hang in there and have a good week! I miss you all and love you all as well! :)
Love always,
Elder Bitner who is now suffering with another language haha.

Email 14 February 2011

¡FELIZ DIA DE CARIÑO!
That is Valentine’s Day here... They celebrate with a lot of sex and seductive sayings in English. Moving on....
First off, I want to start off saying how excited I am about Connor! haha. That is so exciting! I’m mainly just excited because it is Spanish Speaking :) He can join in on the fun now with Ryan and me when we all get home. It is going to be awesome. Even cooler that it is to where Bobby went! I think that is where he went at least. I’m so excited!
Anyways, about what has been going on here... I had the "Support Team" this past week. Well actually, every area in my Zone had them. Not very common. Guess our Zone sucks or something haha. I worked so hard though. It was great. I was with Elder Arteaga. He just got back to the mission. He was sent home for 5 months because he broke his leg going down some huge slide down a hill in Xela haha. That was a funny story to hear about. He and I found 10 new investigators in our day and a half together. Overall, we had 13 "news" for the whole week. Basically, we just dominated . We put 3 dates for baptisms too, but those probably won’t work out because the lady is having an affair with a married man we found out. Maybe we can baptize the kids. haha. One of the kids actually asked us if we wanted to sleep on the ground because he didn’t want us to leave. He wanted us to finish Spiderman with him... Cute kid haha. (Side note... Movies in Spanish suck). We did put a date with Mario for this Saturday actually... I’m really hoping that will work out. He is too ready for it not to, but who knows.
Throughout the week, I completed my 200th day in the mission and my comp completed his year mark. Just a few random facts haha. Same day we played soccer in a little open field with some kids. My comp almost fought with one of them haha. That was funny... I did laugh even though it was bad. We also did a good 5 hours of service... Cutting down plants that look like wheat, but not sure what they are exactly. We found a lot of weird stuff in the midst of all it. Things ranging from a spoon, to a bed, to a lawn mower. Not important though... Let’s just say I’m getting pretty good with a machete! haha.
I had an interesting shower experience again... I had the soap all over me and then the water ran out. Waited about 15 minutes for the water tank to fill up, started again, and then the power went out so it was freezing cold. Waited about 20 minutes for the guy we live with to get home and fix it... And then I was finally able to finish. It was gay. A shower has never gone so long for me I don’t think...
A few funny stories... Found out Elders from the other Zone have been teaching a lady in our area and taking her to church and everything haha. Guess they didn’t/don’t know the area boundaries. We could be getting about 3 baptisms out of that, which is pretty cool. The other morning when we were walking around, we watched a man in orange underwear (speedo style) run out of a house. Turns out he was crazy because a van pulled up about the same time and the guy got out and chased after him. That was really awkward but funny to watch. haha. The other night we had a cool experience with dogs. They were down the street from us barking their little annoying heads off. As we got closer they ran down this other street, but kept watching and barking at us. We pretended to run past the street they were down to make them think we were scared and then stood around the corner. Sure enough, they came bolting down the street after us. My comp was standing there twirling his belt in the air. When they turned the corner and saw him, they started yelping and ran back. We both just started laughing so hard. I thought it was like the funniest thing ever haha. My sense of humor is suffering being here as you can see...
I have been having trouble with my camera lately just to let you know. The lense has decided to be gay and not come out or go in sometimes. Might need a new one eventually, so prepare for that... I also might benefit from getting a new retainer. Mine is getting kind of gross. I don’t know if Hunter still has what my mouth is like. If not, I might have to go to an orthodontist here... Oh, I have decided the Old Testament is very boring. I’m getting sick of reading about sacrifices and the Tabernacle, but Ill push through it because I want to read it at least one time through in my life.
Spiritual thought from a talk I read this week by Elder Bednar (a lot of people here think are names are the same...). He said, "These four words-"Receive the Holy Ghost"- are not a passive pronouncement; rather, they constitute a priesthood injunction- an authoritative admonition to act and not simply to be acted upon." Something cool someone might benefit from. I just like the wording haha. But yeah, that was my week! I love you guys and miss you all very much! Hope this week is great for each of you. Be happy and enjoy life :) haha. Oh, and thanks for the 100 percent cashmere sweater. I officially feel like I am in a boy band. Yay.
Love always,
Elder D. Bitner