Day 47

¡Hola Familia!
the christmas season is coming and i miss hearing the awesome north american christmas songs on the radio... the people here do have christmas trees but they are all about 2 feet tall. that is just about all of the decorations they have for christmas but it works. my zone leader called me and told me i had a ton of letters this week including some hand-written so i am super excited to see my pile of love and see who loves me the most! i learned a new word this week: barro. it means mud and we had a whole bunch of it this week because it rained a lot. the weather here was pretty strange this week because it is a cycle of rain and sunshine all day. i love the rain here and i think it is way better than the wind. the other day was the worst day of wind i have ever experienced because there is a lot of dirt and sand blowing really hard and it cut my face pretty bad. my nose was bleeding because a piece of sand hit it so hard! my comp took a picture of me after one of the windy days and my hair is caked with sand, im wearing my awesome goggles and my tie knot is really twisted. im surprised i can keep it around my neck! i really want to buy a scarf to protect my neck from the sand and the cold wind so i will probably get one next week.
I loved getting pictures of my nephews today. caden and kingston look a lot older! please send more pictures because the people here love looking at them. it sounds like mollie had a great performance and i hope the weather is nice enough for you guys to travel to doug´s graduation. Congratulations Doug! we decided that hna vargas is crazy but we are going to keep visiting her. she has old books of mormon that other missionaries gave to her and there are notes inside saying to read different passages but she told us she cant read and she doesnt want to learn about those things. it is so frustrating when people choose not to be baptized even though they tell us that they can feel these things are true. there is one mother that we are teaching in a less active family that tells us she believes in the gospel but she ´`knows she wont be saved´´ because she does not want to stop smoking. people have their agency but i hate when they decide not to do the right things. we are teaching many different families but the hard part is being able to find them again. we taught so many people about 2 or 3 times but then they just disappear and we can´t find them anymore. i really want to climb cerro chenque and take some pictures of comodoro so you can see where i have been but i dont want to take chances with getting my camera stolen... my comp and i end up walking a lot because our ward boundary isn´t really defined and i was thinking the other day that having a pedometer would be awesome. i have gained a lot more confidence walking down the streets here in abásalo and i am no longer afraid of the drunks and junkies that watch us closely. i have seen a lot of really cool things here and my testimony of priesthood power has really strengthened. i have been really good with writing in my journal every night and i swear i could write a book while i am here. e´escobar and i have had some really cool experiences and we know for sure that we are being protected and led to the people that really are going to progress.
i finished the book of mormon in spanish for the first time and i started over again. i love reading it in spanish because there are a lot of little things that i haven´t noticed before that are so cool. i have a testimony of the book of mormon and i am very excited to share it with everyone i meet here. some elders in my old district emailed me from the mtc and they are so jealous that i am out here already and they still have 3 more weeks. i have almost completed my first transfer of 6 weeks on my mission! that is so awesome! time is going by surprisingly fast and i have to enjoy every moment i have here. some days i look at my watch while we are out clapping doors and time goes by so slow and we have the opportunity to talk to so many people. some of the excuses people come up with to keep us out are pretty interesting but most people tell us they are just busy or they are already catholic or evangelist and they have ´´heard enough´´ about the mormons. one guy told me he would make his dogs attack me because i wasn´t catholic. another said he would let us inside to explain more but his dogs would eat my face so i should stay away. i love dogs now...
it just makes me appreciate the people that let us inside even more! i am grateful for my companion because he wants to work just as hard as i do and we get a lot accomplished. we spend a lot of time visiting the less active members and i love seeing families progress. when we asked hno ruiz about how his ´´reading assignment´´ of the book of mormon was, he just lit up and ran into the other room to tell us all the things he read and how much he loved reading. more people are coming to church and i love looking out and seeing the people we have helped come to church again. the elders in my district are going to act and sing together friday night for a christmas party in our wards and it has been pretty fun practicing for it. i am playing ´´army of helaman´´ and another christmas hymn on the piano while the elders sing and we sound great. i am getting pretty good at improvising on the piano and people like to sit down and listen to me play after some ward activity. i love the piano!! thank you for sending some sheet music! i know that i am going to enjoy playing it.
now that the christmas season is upon us, we can direct our messages towards the savior because pretty much everyone here believes in him. i believe the greatest gift we can give for christmas is the gospel and i would like to ask you guys to focus on helping your friends find it. i know it can be scary but following the promptings of the spirit really does a lot and you will feel so much better if you do. Family, i love being a missionary. i am so grateful for all of your support and i love you all very much.
¡¡¡Con mucho amor y una sonrisa grande!!!
Elder Summers