327 to go...

¡hola familia!
> we made it to december! things are going awesome here in rawson, and
> the weather is starting to get a lot warmer. the stores are starting
> to sell more decorations for christmas and i´m excited to celebrate in
> rawson this year.
> my new comp is elder escobar and he is a lot more tranquilo than my
> last comp. i can´t think of a better word... he´s pretty quiet but he
> still works and we get along fine. he is from guatemala and he turns
> 24 on the 16th. he was one of those guys that listened to heavy metal
> in english and played a lot of violent video games so he has one of
> those personalities... but we are doing great. the transition was a
> pretty big one because my last comp was a lot louder and now my new
> comp almost whispers the things he says.
> this week went great and the people are really progressing. after
> leandro´s baptism last week, he started spending a lot more time with
> the youth in the ward and his little brother rodrigo is getting a lot
> more involved too. right now the youth are playing in a stake futbol
> tournament, and leandro and rodrigo both came to play. we went to
> watch and our ward won 7-3. i thought that church basketball was
> intense... but it has nothing on futbol in argentina. leandro is
> getting ready for the aaronic priesthood and the bishop announced it
> in sacrament meeting yesterday. we have been visiting him and his
> brother to help him prepare and the goal is to have leandro baptize
> his brother. that would be awesome. his older sister has been
> studying in buenos aires and she is coming home for the navidad.
> elder colombres taught her a little bit before she left and now the
> family is saying she has more interest, so maybe it WILL be a white
> christmas after all!
> silvia is doing great too, the only thing she lacks is getting married
> to the guy she is living with but he needs to get divorced first. she
> probably won´t be able to be baptized for a few months unless they get
> going with the process but the guy doesn´t seem to hurry. él es
> satanás.
> yesterday, we went to eat lunch with natalia britez and her family and
> it was the first time they have given the missionaries lunch in over a
> year. they have been less active for a while but elder colombres and
> i got them to come back to church and to stop listening to the
> jehovah´s witnesses (because they have been confusing them a ton). it
> is so great to see them progressing, and her son lucas is passing the
> sacrament every week. natalia gave us an awesome reference for a guy
> named nacho. he is 22 and is the younger brother of her ex-boyfriend.
> last year he used to drink a ton and do a lot of drugs, but he found
> a church in trelew that helped him get over all of that and he
> completely changed. now he is very frustrated with that church
> because he found a lot of things in the bible that are against it and
> he says that he doesn´t feel satisfied after attending. we ended up
> going to his house last night to get to know him and we found natalia
> there visiting him. we were able to teach him about the restoration
> and about the church. he told us that all we wants in life is to find
> the right way and natalia helped us a lot with the lesson. it was
> awesome! we have another cita with him tonight and we are really
> excited to teach him about repentance and baptism. he already has a
> fecha to be baptized on the 17th this month.
> this week, i really liked these scriptures:
> mosiah 27:36-37
> 36 And thus they were instruments in the hands of God in bringing
> many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their
> Redeemer.
> 37 And how blessed are they! For they did publish peace; they did
> publish good tidings of good; and they did declare unto the people
> that the Lord reigneth.
> mateo 19:29
> 29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters,
> or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s
> sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting
> life.
> i thought that they were really awesome scriptures and i know that
> there are a lot of blessings that come from our service as
> missionaries. i love seeing the fruits of our labors and i am praying
> every day to find the people that are ready! last night was a miracle
> finding nacho and i am very grateful for the help and support of the
> members. i think that we are finally gaining the trust of the members
> here in rawson and we are going to see a lot of great things in the
> next few months. i´m excited and ready to get going another week!
> today we started the week great and i was able to go and buy a new
> watch band (finally)! it broke a few weeks ago and i didn´t know where
> i could get a new one so my watch stayed in my pocket... we got our
> haircuts this morning too and the hermano morales did an awesome job.
> now we look more ´´missionary-like´´. today we are planning on going
> to the zoo here in rawson so i might take some pictures for next week!
> hey- thank you for getting that certificate sent. i think i am going
> to be able to get going on that this week but i haven´t heard anything
> so far. we haven´t checked to see if the bolsa arrived in the
> terminal yet so i don´t know if i got my package yet, but for sure
> next week i guess! ¡¡muchas gracias!! just 3 more weeks until
> christmas and i am so excited to talk to all of you! i´m thinking
> that i will be able to skype so that will be awesome! i love you all,
> and i´m looking forward to hearing from you again next week!
> con mucho amor y ánimo
> elder summers