Day 349

¡hola familia!
hey! things this week went pretty well and i had a great birthday! we didn´t do a whole lot to celebrate because it has been raining all weekend but my companion made me a cake, and then the familia Gonzalez brought me a cherry cake with peaches and dulce de leche inside. it was delicious. the other elders in rawson- elder taylor and castillo came over to our pensión last night to sleep over and celebrate with me. it was really fun but my companion was upset with one of the other elders so he didn´t participate... that was kind of a downer last night but i still had fun for my birthday.
where are you guys planning on going with those passports? are flights to argentina really expensive? :) i have one more year but i guess we will see! so it´s getting really cold in colorado? we are getting lots of rain and mud but that´s about it. now it is 13 degrees (celsius) so i am getting happier. it´s getting warmer because summer(s) is just around the corner! jajaja.
we did talk with susana about conference and she really enjoyed it. she said that it was very special but she won´t be baptized because she doesn´t ´´have time to read and pray´´ but she does have time to come to church...? i don´t understand that but then again she is always filling in her time with little things for her friends and she doesn´t want to make the time for the more important things. frustrating. but we did find a new family this week named the flia dorrey. they are friends of the bishop and his wife (they are both really young families) and they hang out a lot. we want to get a family home evening with them together but the bishop is out of town right now and the father of the flia dorrey has a difficult schedule. the best time to find him is between 6 and 7 in the afternoon but even that hour isn´t set. that is the hardest part for me here! it´s really hard for us to find people because they are never home.
this is the last week of the transfer so we are going to find out this saturday if there will be changes.
can you believe that i have a month in rawson already! that is crazy.
the 15 family plan is for each ward council to come up with 15 families for the missionaries to visit and teach. the missionaries come up with an informe (report?) saying what those families need to come back to church and the members take over in fellowshipping them. we are doing ok with that plan but it is hard finding those families for some reason. we made contact with almost all of them but it is really hard to find them again because something always seem to come up. more perseverance i guess.
it is mother´s day this sunday here in argentina! in centro, on almost all of the windows they say ´´i love you mommy´´ or ´´happy mother´s day´´ (in spanish of course) but it makes me feel kind of trunky.
at 4 today, we have an activity with our ward that we planned for people to bring their friends. we are going to play futbol, have a ping pong tournament, the youth is going to perform a musical act, and we are going to turn it into a family home evening for the ward. i really hope lots of people come (mejor con amigos) and i´m pretty excited. i think that a lot of members are going to come because our ward mission leader got up to give his testimony in church and he boldly invited everyone to come and enjoy the activity with us. he is really cool and calls us his sons. he has facebook too so i am going to keep in contact with him for sure.
i also gave my testimony yesterday and i felt really good all day afterwards. i think there is a lot of power in a testimony and i know it´s very important to share it as much as we can.
we had the opportunity to bring the sacrament to a recent convert because she had to work in the morning. it was very special because it was very personal for her and it made me reflect on how we should be taking the sacrament every week.
watching people take the sacrament sometimes makes me cringe because there are some people that don´t remember the significance and it annoys me. if they take the sacrament it´s just something for them to do and they don´t remember that it´s something very sacred and personal for them. i guess that´s why i enjoyed blessing the sacrament for dalia so much yesterday because i felt the spirit very strong and we sang a hymn afterward.
i finished the book of mormon again this week and i know that it is the word of God. i know it.
my scripture for the day is d&c 12:8
8 And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care.
there it is. i really like this scripture and i am praying every day to have more of these things because without them, i can´t meet my goals.
i love you guys a lot and i am praying for you. i hope this week is even better than the last and i´m looking forward to next monday already! don´t forget to write!
elder summers