Day 362

¡hola familia!
yes- flia is short for familia. sorry for not explaining that earlier but i guess i wasn´t thinking about it. we had another good week of interesting adventures! i am happy here in rawson and my companion and i are working really hard. elder roper, our new district leader is really cool too. he has 14 months on the mission and our whole district, the 4 of us, are rocking it here.
it´s funny with elder roper because we have all the same stuff and yesterday we wore the same tie to church! we both went to missionary mall! jajaja
on saturday, we had a baptism for a woman that´s about 45 years old and our ward mission leader, hermano chemin, was able to baptize her because she is related to him. elder colombres found her a long time ago and the other missionaries have been teaching her but it was really cool and i played the piano for the meeting. my comp made bread of mandarin oranges and bread of banana.
we finally found families that we have been trying to find for weeks! we were so happy and we had noches de hogar with them. more people in the church on sunday! it was a really good meeting and we even had some investigators there that enjoyed it a lot. yesterday were the elections for argentina so we couldn´t do much all day because everyone is obligated to vote or they get a fine.
my companion has been getting really sick this week because of allergies. he couldn´t sleep at night because he couldn´t stop sneezing. it got really bad and i gave him a blessing. hermano chemin brought us to a farmacia at midnight to get him some medicine! he started sneezing blood but he is still alive and well.
we got into marina´s house to teach her and it was the most disgusting place i have ever been. it smelled really bad and it was so cluttered and filthy that i have no idea how she could live like that. we put the fecha with her but now i am afraid to go back to her house. she doesn´t have any friends and nobody can enter her house because ´´black magic´´ is keeping them from entering. but i don´t think so. there is half eaten food, rotten on the table that you can´t remove. when we left the house, my throat was stinging when i breathed and people told me that my clothes smelled really bad. we went back to the apartment so i could soak my clothes in soap and then i took a shower. we haven´t gone back since... but i know we have to help her. the woman is very large and never leaves the house because she doesn´t have work. she told us that she wants to hire someone to clean but she has nothing else better to do... and i don´t think she should let anybody have to deal with that mess.
we also found this guy, gabriel, and we were able to teach him real quick. he was pretty cool but a little feminine. he said that he was living with his ´´companion´´ so elder colombres told him that we were ´´companions´´ too. the guy got really excited and acted really wierd with us. the way he shook my hand creeped me out a lot. we went to his house again to teach him but we found some other guy and he was definitely gay so i don´t want to go back there anymore.
the family dorrey is doing awesome though. it is hard to find the husband but we manage to teach them and they are feeling very good about things. did not come to church but they are progressing!
that´s so cool that the ward had those baptisms! do those guys have a lot of friends in the church or were they friends of the missionaries? a lot of people here get baptized and then fall away because the members aren´t the warmest but we are working with that. we are trying hard to get members to the lessons with us but it gets complicated.
i still haven´t recieved any package but i´m sure it will come pretty soon. you know what would be cool? if you sent me a calendar for 2012 with the birthdays and important dates of everyone. i wanted to ask for addresses this week too because i want to be better getting more letters out. the thing is that i am poor and it costs me 10 pesos every letter that i send in the post office. it´s the end of the month and we are running low on money so in november i can start getting stuff out. this thursday i am going to have 1 year on my mission! very fast! i still don´t know what i will do to celebrate but maybe i will burn that shirt i wore at marina´s house. i´m tempted because i don´t want to wear it anymore but i think it´s ok now. it doesn´t smell anymore and i need all of my shirts. speaking of my clothes, i am ok with everything. all of my shirts, pants, and everything is still alive and i think i can last the 2 years without having to buy new things. sure, there are some holes but i have fixed them. nada grave.
my scripture for the week is DyC 78:17-18
17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are alittle children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;
18 And ye cannot abear all things now; nevertheless, be of good bcheer, for I will clead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the driches of eeternity are yours.
i have been reflecting a lot about God and who He really is. i am so thankful for all of the blessings that i have in my life and they make all of the bad things seem so small. when i read these scriptures, they make me think about Him leading us along holding our hands. i know that He loves us a lot and is ready to bless us when we stay obedient and firm in the gospel. i love this work, and i´m grateful to be here. thank you for all of your support and i´m looking forward to talking to you again for Christmas!!!
I love you all and i hope this week is better than the last!
elder summers