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