Day 174

¡hola familia!
things are going well here in the branch and the ward. we are starting to get more support from the members and we are feeling better about our investigators. we finally met with both of brians parents at the same time and it was very interesting. his mom didn´t want him to be baptized because she is uncomfortable about the church, but his dad thinks it would be a great idea if brian was baptized. the dad is atheist but he has noticed a huge change in his son and noticed that brian is a lot more responsible in school, at home. he wakes up everyday at 5 to attend seminary and his dad told us that he has never seen so much dedication and thinks that the iglesia will help him a lot. the dad talked to his wife more than we did to ease her worries and we are looking to april 30 for his baptism. we still need to confirm on that day because the parents said that they still needed to think about it.
the flia antipan has some other problems, and sometimes we can´t meet with them because we show up at really bad times. one of them is usually so upset that they don´t want us to come in and i don´t think we can get too far with them right now. sad. but this week, we found 9 more people and we are looking forward to meeting with them again. with some people, i could just feel like they were ready and they needed us to share with them. the hardest part is getting the second lesson because they are always busy and it´s difficult to get that second cita. the work is going well. some of our investigators actually got married on friday, and we think that now they will feel more worthy and willing to come to church. pablo is a punk. he is only attending the other ward for his girl, and he is getting frustrating for us. we will see this week how it will go with him.
it´s been getting a lot colder... thank you for sending the hot chocolate! it´s amazing. this week i busted out the scarf again and we are rocking it. it´s not too bad here but the wind is freezing. i read one quote by albert camus that says ´´in the depth of winter, we find within ourselves an invincible summer´´. when the wind gets really bad, i quote that with my comp and we move along. there aren´t any people in the street on the cold days, but we think the cold temperature helps us into houses. my comp is getting a little worried right now because he only has 8 weeks left and it is starting to hit him. he doesn´t want to go home and we are staying focused to avoid the home-sickness.
my english class was awesome on saturday. we had 2 more in the class and some promises of bringing more friends. awesome. in all, we had 5 people. we worked on conjugating verbs in english and translating short sentences. i also taught them how to pray in english and i wrote some phrases on the chalk board with some extra words to say what they are thankful for, or the things they would like to ask for. it went very well and they all participated a lot. on wednesday, i am going to start teaching piano and i am a little nervous because i have never taught before and i don´t know where to start. i guess i will start with the notes and the different timing and rests. that´s pretty basic so it should go well. the only thing about the music here, is the notes aren´t abc, they are do re mi, and i don´t know all of that very well. i try to remember the song from ´´´the sound of music´´ but i can´t remember it all. we will see. on wednesday is mollie´s birthday too!! ¡¡feliz cumpleaños!!
this week, elder suarez and i discovered piñones and they are so good. they only grow here in patagonia and they are like corn peanuts. you peel the purple husks like corn and the peanuts inside have a corn-ish texture. it´s awesome with salt and it tastes pretty good. we also found a phantom dog (perro fantasmo) and it scared the crap out of me. it is very tall and skinny with long black hair. it creeps around and has a loud shrill bark. eh... im going to get a picture with it this week because we talk about it a lot when we hear things crawling around on the roof at night. creepy.
i think that this next transfer we will lose the branch and only work in the ward because the office called us and asked us if we knew where they could rent another pensión in the area. we heard that we might get 2 more sister missionaries in our district and it should be interesting to see what happens in 2 weeks. your game nights sound awesome! we have game nights too after our family home evenings. we usually play chancho where you have to cheat to win, and i am the best. to read and receive my emails every week, i go to a ciber close to San Martin on echeluz. it also has an ice cream store called don h heladeria so you might be able to look it up if you want to. i buy some ice cream after i write if i have to wait a little longer for my comp to finish. i think i will get some today too... today for pday, we are going with the hermanas to climb this hill outside of zapala because the view is supposed to be really cool. this area is pretty flat... but the mountains on the horizon look beautiful right now because the snow finally came!!
i read a talk from pte eyring a few days ago, and he said that we are supposed to feel overwhelmed with our callings because we can gain more dependence on the Savior. we will never have less work to do because our heavenly father wants us to stretch our limits and do things that we never thought possible before. he also shared a scripture- DyC 84:88 (one of the prophet´s favorite scriptures) that says the Lord will always be there to help us when we are on His errand. entonces, as a missionary, i need to put more trust and confidence in my father in heaven to accomplish the things that He wants from me, and find the people that are ready to receive us.
im excited for my first pascua in argentina, and we are searching for more opportunities to share our testimonies about the Savior. I had the chance to speak in church yesterday, and to bless and pass the sacrament too! we can remember the Savior every sunday during that very important meeting but we also can remember him in every moment of our lives. i know that He lives, and i know that an eternal life with our families is possible thanks to His sacrifice and resurrection. i am grateful for His example and i love Him. i hope to show my love for Him through my service in Zapala and i am very grateful for this opportunity.
i love you guys a lot and i hope this week is even better than last week for you.
¡¡con mucho amor y ánimo!!
elder summers