Day 96

Hola Familia!
I have bad news this week. Both of us are being transferred today. my companion e´ escobar is going to be a zone leader in the most beautiful part of the country (Bariloche) to replace his trainer that finished his mission today. i have been assigned to serve in Zapala and i am getting on my bus this afternoon at 4. the bus ride should last all night and then i am taking another bus in neuquen at 11;30 to get to zapala. zapala is in the province of neuquen and i have heard it is near the mountains and is very green with lots of fruit. lots of heat too but we are getting close to the fall season. e´ escobar gave me a beautiful scarf as a going away present (argentina colors blue and white) and i bought him a box of 24 grandote alfajores because those are our favorites. i got a beautiful tie for 24 pesos (like $6) and i am going to give it to my ward mission leader in the bus terminal because he is coming to say goodbye to me.
my new companion is e´ suarez (sp? no sé...) and i have heard that he only has 3 transfers left and is very very trucho. aaagh!!! but i am excited to get things goin´ in zapala! i am pretty pumped but we have 6 fechas here in abasalo and the rest of the families are soon to follow! aaagh!!! otra vez. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!! i am really disappointed that both of us are leaving and we won´t be able to see the baptisms. i took lots of pictures yesterday with the families and they promised us that they are going to be baptized this month. it was very emotional yesterday and we announced that we were leaving in our testimony meeting in church. there were a lot of sad people and i was surprised how much of an impact i have made on some people. some that i never would have expected... but they have seen how much i have grown in this area. muchos ven mi progreso pero pocos mi sacrificio. i am very grateful for e´ escobar and all of his hard work to help me. they told me yesterday that when i arrived i only had a smile and never talked to people but now i have my ´´personality´´ again. i will always remember this area and all of the people i have met. guess who is replacing me? elder campos from the ccm!!! i wrote him a little note and left it on my desk about all the cool people he should talk to and who will make him the most incredible meals. i don´t know if i have mentioned yet, but we found some less actives that are cooks and that really enjoyed us over so they made us some really good food every wednesday. wednesday quickly became my favorite day of the week. they weren´t home yesterday so i couldnt get a picture with them (flia Lepicheo)... shoot.
but my futbol skills are getting a lot better. i am very fast and i am getting more control of the ball! last week we were playing futbol with other missionaries and a whole gang of chorros came up to us wanting to play too. it was the elderes vs the chorros and after an intense game, we beat them. i was almost as good as them and they play futbol every day, all day. i should have played in high school!
we went to check on favoricio again and found out that he was killed in a car accident with his family right after i talked to him. i talked to his friends that were also there that night and they were very upset. they let us in and we bore our testimonies about the next life and left them with a prayer. they told me that after i left he said that he had no idea why he called out to me but he felt something very strong and that he really wanted to go to church because he felt something there. he kept saying my name over and over ´´elder summers´´ and when he left, he was pretty drunk. the only person that survived the crash was the 3 year old son but his lungs were crushed and i was told that he was in too bad of a condition to live much longer. it was so sad and it really made me wonder why i had that last chance to talk to him. i think that his friends, adriana and mario are going to be baptized and i am upset that i cant be here for them. i left good notes for the next elders to find them again.
we had a battle with some adventist missionaries a few days ago. they invited us into their house to eat some food and we figured nothing would escalate too bad. everything started very nice and they were very kind. they gave us some really good empanadas and then asked us why we werent christians. apparently we arent because we have church on sunday and not on the ´´real sabbath´´. we just explained why we went to church on sunday and they started getting really upset because we confounded them with their own words very easily and we were just about to leave when their pastor showed up and just destroyed us. this guy studied in college to be a pastor and he was a lot more knowledgeable then those dumb guys. we were basing everything on the law of moses and how Christ fulfilled the law but the pastor came in and said how the sabbath was a law with adam before that law existed so it is a celestial law and we had nothin´. it was a good experience though. i can handle those guys pretty well and i know that studying the scriptures everyday prepares me. i have now finished the old testament and i am almost done with the book of matthew and the book of mormon again. good stuff. i love my scriptures. i love how the jehovahs witnesses always quote the same scriptures and i have been able to tell them that they quoted them wrong and i told them what they really said. it was such an awesome moment and they can feel our power when we talk to them. i have had lots of experiences with those guys because they always attack us and tell us we are in ´´las tinieblas´´. its just fun for me now.
you guys are so lucky to have the temple so close! take advantage of it as much as you can because my ward is planning a temple trip to uruguay right now. ouch! you just had the super bowl??? wow!! i did not hear anything about it and i wasn´t ever thinking about it. that´s crazy how fast that came. were the commercials any good or were they garbage? the pizzas that we eat here are all home made with ham and cheese on it. its ok but the sauces they use kind of taste funny and they cut the pizzas into squares. but the cakes here are so awesome! yesterday, some members made us a cake because they heard we were leaving and it had dulce de leche and peach slices in it. it was so delicious. but i am so excited for my new area! we are going to take the bus back to the pensión and then we are taking a taxi to the bus terminal. my bus leaves in 4 hours from now!!! my companion is leaving for bariloche at 9;30 tonight. sorry, i cant find the right símbolo for the time on this keyboard... everything is going awesome and i am so pumped!! i am going to start sending some pictures now
I love you guys so much!!!! remember to send more fotos for me!
¡¡Con un abrazo grande!!
Elder Summers