Day 216

¡Hola Familia!
Now i have 7 months on the mission! things are going well and the week went by very fast. wednesday was 25 de mayo, and that is the day that argentina declared independence from España, so it was a pretty big day. nobody opened their doors so we went to the parade in the morning. it was kind of strange because they had tons of stuff in the parade, like the army, garbage trucks, tractors from construction, little kids, gauchos (the argentine cowboys from the country and all of their horses), and the catholics even had their virgin mary display. it was an interesting parade. they also had huge speakers throughout zapala that played music from argentina and i learned that i really want to learn to play the accordion because that is a very popular instrument used in tango. very cool and i think i can learn to play it very fast. after, we had lunch with some of our investigators and they made us locro. it is like chicken noodle soup but with chorizo, bacon, tons of meat, and some vegetables. lots of calories and it was delicious. the weather is getting colder but i really like it. the sky is usually gray but at least their isn´t cold wind. we were pretty sure it was going to snow last night but it didn´t happen. i really love this weather because it is a lot like fall in Colorado and that is my favorite time of year. it´s not too cold if i wear my coat and scarf so i think i will be ok this winter, although i did hear that it will get colder in july.
we had some tough times this week because the people didn´t open their doors too much and it was kind of difficult finding our investigators again so we spent some more time with less active members. i think the week went very well because we had a higher attendance at church and we talked a lot about the atonement and how we should make goals to go to the temple for the first time. this sunday went very well. this next week, my goal is to meet the standard for the mission in all of the key indicators for lessons, new investigators, and contacts. i have only been able to do it once with elder escobar and we came close tons of other times but it is kind of difficult. we have to find 15 new people every week, have at least 8 lessons with members, and that is what gets us every week. we find about 8 or 9 every week, we have 4 or 5 lessons with members and it is tough to reach that goal. we want to meet the standard this week so my comp can finish his mission feeling completely exhausted :).
a few days ago, we were clapping doors and i stood under this tree when i felt little drops on my head. it was a bird. my comp says that here, that is really good luck, but i told him i never want that kind of luck again. that has never happened to me before but i guess that is pretty rare. i don´t want that happening ever again.
on saturday, i had my english class and a piano class. i am teaching a young girl with 10 years the piano and she is learning very fast. i taught her about the notes and rhythm, then started playing ´´i am a child of god´´. she is very smart and can play the whole song almost perfectly with her right hand! all of that with only an hour. ¡que k-po!
this week we also had our zone conference and i sent the foto of my zone that my mission president sent to me. the conference went pretty well and i really enjoyed it. we talked about the talk from elder oaks about our desires and how our desires should match those of our Savior. we watched the talk from elder holland that he gave in january in the mtc this year and it was very powerful. my mission president said that it was a talk that will change the whole mission. elder holland talked about john 21 when peter became the great apostle that he was. it really made an impact on me when i thought about the things that i would do if i was peter. the chapter is great and i loved listening to elder holland relate that story when Jesus tells peter that if he loves Him, he should feed his sheep. the discurso was very powerful and i have been thinking a lot about how we should show our love for the Savior by feeding His sheep. after that, i was asked to give special musical number so i sang and played ´´armies of helaman´´. it went very well and i felt pretty good about my performance.
our dog still follows us to church so we thought it would be funny if we dressed it up in a shirt and tie. we used an old shirt and tie that e´ suarez doesn´t use anymore and it was great. i took a picture in the house, but the sister missionaries took pictures of it at church when it was entering the gate that turned out very well. it can´t come in the church with us but it waits outside next to the door for 3 hours and it looked very classy.
im excited to receive your package soon! oh! and don´t forget to send pictures!
i love you guys
con mucho amor y ánimo
elder summers