Day 230

¡Hola Familia!
another awesome week. it was really sad for me to see elder suarez get on his bus this morning at 4 in the morning. i think that i am going to miss him a lot. this week, we went to visit a lot of the members so he could say goodbye and i am pretty sure i gained some weight with all of the food that they gave us. i ate tons of food, including some giant homemade hamburgers and french fries. que kpo, no? there were some more ashes but it didn´t get too bad. last monday, we had to stay in the pension all day but it rained that night and we were able to start again the next day. i actually heard another volcano explode a few days ago and now there is a nice blanket of ash on the ground.
this last week, i kind of felt solo because my comp was zoning out, and i had to plan this next week by myself because he didn´t feel like it was that important if he participated. he cut my hair nice and short yesterday, and the people here in el ciber told me that i look a bit older but definitely gringo. fetch. i don´t want to be classified as a gringo but i can speak like a latino. i love speaking with everyone and it has helped me to improve a ton speaking castellano.
i know that with my next companion, we are going to be a lot more involved with the planning because i heard many great things about him. i have been very lucky with the companions that i have had and i am very grateful for the opportunities that i had to be with them for a few months. por eso, i am really excited to meet my next comp because i know that we are going to be great friends here in zapala. at 4 in the morning, i met with my zone leader, elder pedersen, then we went to his pension to sleep for a few hours. i slept in until 8 because i spent the whole night talking with e´ suarez and helping him pack his things. me regaló muchas de sus cosas because he won´t need them anymore. this morning, i helped e´ pedersen clean his pensión and now after lunch, he´s going to help me clean my house! ja ja ja. i already cleaned the bathroom and everything, i just need to finish washing the dishes that we used last night and i want to switch desks so i can sit closer to my new mp4 that e´ suarez gave me. last night we tried mate for the first time and i really love it. i made a promise that i will never again drink it for the rest of my mission because we aren´t allowed to drink with members but i will have to bring some to my country when i finish the mission. e´ suarez just called me from neuquen and it was awesome hearing from him again. i hope everything goes well for him, and i would love to visit him someday in peru. i told him my doors will always be open for him when he comes to provo to visit me :)
officialy, i know that my dog is pregnant, and i am pretty sure she is going to have her puppies this transfer. my neighbor told me that i am going to have to cuidarla these next weeks and help her with the delivery, so that should be an interesting experience...
my new companion is named elder taylor and he is coming from neuquen at 5:30. i have only heard that he is a powerful missionary and that he is going to finish the mission in october, so i´m looking forward to the opportunity to learn lots from him. he is going to be the new district leader here in zapala, and we are going to receive 2 more missionaries for the ruca hueney ward with the hermanas. should be awesome! well, now i don´t have much more time. i have to go! oh! spiritual thought! this morning i was reading the book of mormon and i thought about the time at the bottom of the page that the people had before christ came. what would it be like if we knew how many years we lack until the second coming? would we change anything if we knew it was coming soon? would we relax a little if it was decades away. i think that we should do all we can to prepare the people for the second coming as if it was going to come this weekend. lots of things would be different. i love you guys! enjoy this next week, and i look forward to hearing from you on monday!
¡chau!
elder summers