Day 33- Pictures Take 2

Elder Summers with his cousins, Elder Eric Summers and Sister Jana Randall.
that was a photo of my first district and we were awesome together. here is my other district in the advanced class, elder showell, and ochoa. e´ ochoa helped me a lot and he was one of my roommates. he is from peru and there is the picture of my primos and my fan club. the last one is me and the comp in our man cave. i can´t remember if i sent it yet but those are the pictures worth seeing, the others are just goofy. have a great week and write me dearelder.com letters!!! that is awesome that everyone could get together for the holidays but i sure wish they would write me more... anyone and everyone should write me to make the other elders jealous. why not? its free.

Day 33 - Pictures

Stitching his pants back up after encounter with a dog!
His companion to Argentina!
Playing the piano in the MTC!
In front of the map with Elder

Day 33

¡Hola Familia!
primero, you can still write me dearelder.com letters. just remember that i am in the argentina neuquen mission and my name is elder summers and i can receive your love on paper every thursday. i have been on my mission for one month!!! yay! to celebrate my one month anniversary, a kid stole my glasses. i had a bad feeling about this group of kids but my companion felt like we should talk to them. why? i have no idea. they were very vulgor and i was very uncomfortable talking to them. one reached over to ´read my nametag´ and then he snatched my glasses and ran. the only reason i was wearing them was to protect my eyes from all thne sand blowing around but i told a hermana in the ward about it and she gave me some goggle like sunglasses to use when we are tracting on large dirt hills. i still have plenty of contacts to use so i am not blind but i was a little discouraged about it. i just hope he has a friend with terrible eyesight that can use those glasses more than me... the people here are mainly pretty mean to us. some yell at us like dogs and tell us to ´shoo´. others tell us they already belong to the catholic church and they need no other religion because all the other churches are going to burn. it just makes me so grateful for the people that actuallly let us talk to them! our goal is to find a family to baptize before la navidad and i think we may have done it. The Gauto family is very young and the parents are both 26 with two young kids, but they are both feeling really good about the things we are teaching them. i met a woman with a beard the other day and she let us into her home. it weasn´t a full beard but her face was so furry. things won´t go far with her because she makes fujn of the things we say and she would not let us pray with her after the lesson. Choir practice here was so funny because there was about 6 old ladies in our ward and none of them could really sing but e´ escobar and i helped them get things together. we did not get the opportunity to climb cerro chenque with the other missionaries because they decided it was too cold to go so we played futbol at the stake center. i think it is funny how the gyms in the churches have soccer goal posts instead of basketball hoops and nobody can throw a ball but they have pretty good accuracy kicking one. the other day i was thinking about my last check from the country club and i was wondering if you guys could pay my tithing for me? thanks! shanes birthday is coming up this week so i want to say ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! you are getting old. i think dougs birthday is in a week or two so i don´t want to forget his birthday either. sorry doug, im not sure when it is but i know it is coming up soon! for la navidad this year, i think people just eat lots of asado and light a bunch of fireworks. i think they might have already started lighting them off at night or those might be gunshots. i can´t tell but it is really loud... people really eye me here. the people tell me i have a ´yankee face´ and they can tell i am not from here so i try not to wear a whole lot of costly apparel because i hate getting robbed. we pray all the time that we will be protected from bad people because we can see groups of about 6 guys on every corner that are smoking, drinking, or sometimes doing both. we get really bad feelings walking down some roads so we will turn around and walk down a different street. on the other side, we sometimes look back and we see we avoided a pretty bad group and we know the lord is looking after us. people don´t celebrate thanksgiving here and there was no holiday that i know of but we still eat some pretty good food everyday. every day for breakfast we buy some alfajores because they are the breakfast of champions! i know that probably is not the best but we don´t have anything else really. i ate an orange this morning if that counts... the lunches here are the ain meal and nobody really eats anything else. bjecause it was kthanksgiving, i will tell you what i am thankful for. i am thankful for the opportunity to be here in comodoro right now. i am thankful for the opportunity to talk to the people and the spirit blesses me with the things to say at the right moment. i am learning the importance acting on my impressions because they always seem to be right when we talk with investigators. i am thankful for the scriptures and the guidance from the prophet. i read the ensign and my scriptures every day and i look forward to my study time each day. i particularly liked the talks from pte eyring and pte monson on serving with the spirit and being grateful. i am thankful for the other missionaries in my zone because they are all great examples for how this work should be done. i am thankful for my family and for their support and prayers every day because i can feel it as i work. i am thankful for joseph smith because he restored this gospel when there were many that wanted to hurt him but he did it with no fear. i am thankful for the saviour and for his atonement and example so that we all may live and return to live with our heavenly father again. my pictures take awhile to download so i will get going on that. i love you all!
con animo y amor,
Elder Summers

Day 26

¡Hola Familia!
I did arrive safely in Neuquén after waiting all day in the Buenos Aires airport but it was really cool because I had the opportunidad to speak with a whole bunch returning missionaries from neuquen and they showed me pictures and played uno together.
I enjoyed meeting with President Peterson in the mission home. My companion is really awesome, his name is Elder Escobar and he is from Colombia. He has helped me a lot with my Castellano, which really is a very different language. I still have a very difficult time distinguishing the words because they pronounce things very differently. If i accidently say my ys normally, the people here correct me to make the sha sound. It is really hard typing on this computer because the keys are very small and there are extra keys for the accent marks...so don´t judge.
I am serving in Comodoro Rivadavia right now. It is next to the ocean at the bottom of the Chubut province. you might be able to google it! It took 14 hours to get here on a bus but they were very comfortable and they fed us a whole bunch of good food. my comp told me that we are too far south to see the penguins but there some type of seal in the area. My comp says they are not seals but lobos marinos and they are fat and very ugly, i am pretty excited to see them.
The members here are great and they give us some wonderful food everyday for lunch. Nobody eats dinner here so we eat huge lunches of the best meats i have ever eaten and they will give us loaves of bread with dulce de leche. I LOVE dulce de leche. Every night, elder escobar and i buy 2 alfajores from the same woman down the street from us to celebrate a good day.
This area is... charming... people just throw trash on the ground and i think to myself if they were in the U.S., they would get ripped apart for not "going green". it is very windy and sometimes we can´t walk forward because the sand is hitting us so hard. I get home with so much sand in my ears and hair and it is ridiculous sometimes but that is the mission, baby! i just have to enjoy it.
there are so many dogs, they are everywhere and most of them are wild. my personla belief is that everyone has a dog so they can here us clapping in front of their doors. In church there were about 60 people there and my companion and i are the only ones that can play but my comp can´t use the pedal or play with his left hand very well so i ended up playing all the songs in sacrament. I introduced myself before the sacrament and everyone looked very excited to meet me. There are a lot of girls that kiss my cheek and it was very awkward at first but my comp tells me that if i reject them they will be very offended and start yelling at me so i just put up with it. i was surprised to see the houses here because they are so small and they are made out of anything. there are fences around everyones houses that are made out of wire, beds, scraps of metal, anything. everyone seems to have at least 1 dog that won´t stop barking when we get there. they are very territorial and i already mentioned that i was bit. i luckily had my planner in my pocket so the teeth did not sink in my skin. i have pictures of the tear and my awesome job to fix it.
we were walking to an investigators house one afternoon and they had this dog chained in front of the house. a car drove by and a woman jumped out screaming. ``sasha! sasha!`` the dog was hers but the investigators just abducted it apparently and a guy came out cussing and threw a whole bunch of stuff at the house and called the police. it was a little funny because i thought to myself ``this kind of thing would never happen in parker``...
one night we met with hermana vargas. i am so grateful for that experience because she would say a whole bunch of stuff that i didn´t understnad so i prayed to my heavenly father just to understand her. she is about 80 years old and she uses a lot of old words that my comp did not understand either. in that moment, i began to understand everything and she was telling us about her son and how he died, about the trials that she has in her life. I don´t know how to explain it but my father in heaven filled me with so much love for this woman and i am grateful for the experience to feel the love that he feels for each of his children. i was able to laugh with her, and to cry with her. never in my life have i felt so much love for one person that i have never met before. i explained to her about how much love God has for each of his children and that she is able to pray to him to have a closer relationship with him. i know that my heavenly father is helping me and is protecting me.
Last night we were robbed for my first time. i just played dumb and pretended that i didn't understand him but my companion just gave him the 2 pesos that were in his pocket and everything was ok. he had a knife but i just smiled at him and shook his hand saying ``mucho gusto`` and we walked away because these guys aren´t that threatening to me. We can definitely feel it if they want to hurt us because we can discern their spirits.
I am grateful for this opportunity that i have to serve in comodoro, and i know that i will be safe and protected because we are doing everything we are supposed to. elder escobar is very obedient and he helps me a lot. i am grateful for my comp and i am grateful for my Saviour and the influence he can have in all of our lives. I am grateful for a loving heavenly father that allows me to know the needs of the people and allows me to help them. I don´t know where to send letters because it seems like all of you are changing addresses and i don´t have any others... So let me know! Write me letters so I can write you back!! Family, i love you all and i am grateful for your support. I am glad to hear everything is going well. ¡Ciao!
Con mucho animo y amor,
Elder Summers

STATUS UPDATE

Apparently, AP Spanish pays off! With his superior Spanish skills, Jake was bumped up into the advanced MTC group a few weeks ago. On Monday, he was shipped over to LA to finalize his visa then on Tuesday he flew to Argentina. Mom, dad, and Mollie got to talk to him from the airport. They said he was very excited to get to Argentina. On Wednesday, mom received a phone call from Jake's mission president's wife informing her that Jake got to Argentina safely and is serving along the coast with an elder from Costa Rica!!

Day 13

Hey Family!
Yes, the rumors are true... I have been moved up into the advanced Spanish class. I have a new companion in a new district full of native speakers and it was really hard to understand the first few days so I never prayed so hard in my life! There is one elder named Elder Ochoa that has a really thick accent because he is from Peru, but I love speaking with him because he is probably the most supportive in helping me to learn as much as I can. I am so grateful for my district because they are all so cool and they love helping me. They don't need to help me understand all the time, but only when they use certain expressions that I have never heard before. My new companion's name is Elder Angell, and he is from Georgia. He is the only missionary in the district that is white and he usually thinks he knows more than the native speakers so there are a few arguments with them about how to say things. I try to avoid that by just asking Elder Ochoa or one of the three sisters my questions... I'm sorry for not saying anything about my teachers!! Hna Smith mentioned that she worked at the same place that Annie used to so that was great you guys heard a little about my situation. I loved my last district and I missed them a lot at first but my relationships with these new elders are already growing a lot. It was really awkward at first because I was the "new guy" but now we are all pretty good friends.

Elder Ballard and Sheri Dew spoke with us the last few weeks and it was amazing hearing for them. I actually sang in the choir when E. Ballard came and he had a great message about the importance of communication. I sat really close to Sheri Dew, my companion and I sat in the first few rows in the gym. I always pictured her to be a burnette for some reason and my universe was shattered when I saw her in person.

Last night I went to the calling center for the first time and I had an amazing experience. Most of the calls I made were to confirm people were receiving DVDs about Christ or books of Mormon and nobody really answered. It was 7 o'clock when we called and I was mainly calling people on the eastern side of the US. One woman I called in California really enjoyed my call because I asked how she felt about God and why she really thinks we are here on earth. She said that she thinks about those things all the time so I bore testimony that God has a plan for each of us. Apparently the number I called was her work phone and she had the strongest impression to return to her office for no reason and she heard the phone ring. I told her that there is a living prophet on earth today and then I urged her to pray if those things were true because I knew she would get an answer. I am so grateful for this opportunity to talk with a real person for once here. Practicing with the other missionaries is fun and everything but I would prefer getting out to the campo misional.

Speaking of which, I have not received any flight plans but I might be flying out this week. Elder Campos, in my district, is also going to Neuquen and he is flying to LA next week to have an interview with a consolate and picking up his visa and then he is flying back to the MTC that same day. I have not heard anything about my visa yet but I hope I hear something soon. I have been here for 2 weeks now but it already feels like it has been a long time. I have felt your prayers throughout the day as I sometimes struggle to understand during the discursos and I am grateful for all of you guys. I know that there is power in prayer and that we can always speak directly to our Heavenly Father. Please continue to pray for me as I am preparing to go to Argentina.

Anything else? I can't think of anything to write in mine epistle... I have some great pictures of me and my district in front of the temple along with some pictures with both of my cousins and Elder Showell. I talked to Nicole V. in the cafeteria once but I haven't seen her since. It is nice seeing other missionaries that I know. Life is great here and I have never felt better! Dad- it is funny that you guys talked about Peter and his faith on the water because we literally just talked about that before I read your dear elder message. Please send more notes every day! I really enjoy hearing about your activities and I am sorry Mollie feels like she is in prison. It takes 2 minutes to write to me but it makes my day. Mom has won the weekly competition because she wrote to me the most this week. That means that she will reciev a personalized letter in a few days. Good job, momma! I love you guys and I hope things are going ok! Jacie, enjoy the move, sounds like Caden is. Uh.... anything else? I don't know... Im doing great and I appreciate my time that I have here.
Les Amo!!!!
Elder Summers

Day 5

Hello Family!
I have been here for a week but I feel like I have been here for a long time... Days seem like weeks and weeks really do seem like days. When I am writing in my journal, I can't remember what happened that day because it all blurs together.

I love it here at the CCM (MTC in Spanish), and I love my companions. Yes, companions. I have two now as of last night and it has been great. I got pretty sick a few days ago and I was miserable. It was a really bad cold, but my companions gave me a blessing and I am now feeling better. Elder Page is from Glenwood Springs and he is great to be around. I feel lucky to be paired up with him and I know he is my companion for a reason. Elder Leigh is my other new companion, I just met him last night because he was moved up from the beginning spanish class but he has been really cool. I have pictures of us in front of the temple and I just have to figure out how I am going to get them sent to you guys.

The elders in my district are all amazing and we are really good friends. I will write more about them later because I am pressed for time. I love hanging out and learning with them because we have such a great time but we know when to get serious and work hard too. I met Hermana Eyring a few days ago. She is President Eyring's grand-daughter and she is going to the Buenos Aires North mission so her class room is in the same building as mine.

Erik and Jana (Jake's cousins) have the same cafeteria and gym times as me so it is really fun to see them everyday. I play 4-square with Elder Summers every day and we are both really good at it. I have scraped my knees diving a lot and I don't think I am supposed to dive, but I get really into the game and I have to defend my King Square.

USE DEARELDER.COM because it is the greatest thing ever to be invented. You all have the power to send me an encouraging note everyday while I am here in the CCM so I expect you all to use that power. I am the music coordinator for my branch so I choose every hymn to sing in Sacrament meeting and priesthood, who is going to play the song, and who will conduct. By the way, everyone in my district loves the knots I make on my ties and they made me teach them how to do it. I always took pride in that but you guys never liked how big my knots were. We are studying lesson 1 on the restoration and we are going to practice on volunteers on Friday. We are also working on relying on the spirit to tailor the lesson to fit the needs of investigators while we teach.

Things are getting easier around here. We only speak Spanish in class and we made it a district goal to speak during the meal times but every other time is ok for English right now. Spanish is getting easier to speak and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable speaking the language. The first day we learned how to pray in Spanish and we try to do that all the time. We went to the temple this morning and that was glorious because it was neat going together as a district. We are good friends and it is very easy to get along.

Please send me some new hangers! I don't have a lot of money here and I don't want to spend it on hangers. I need about 10 more, that would be awesome. I am just doubling up on hangers so everything is working out ok but more would be beautiful. We only get $6 a week and I spent most of my money on a Spanish hymn book and sweet clip for my nametag.

Life is good, use DEARELDER.COM every day if able to while I live here, send me some more hangers, the church is true, and pray for me! I love you guys and I love hearing from you. I received the halloween package of goodies and I plan on sharing them with my district. I will take a lot more pictures with them too so it should be some good stuff.
Con mucho animo y amor,
Elder Summers