LAST POST!

> ¡hola familia! > i don`t know if i will be able to write next monday, but i received my > travel itinerary. it doesn`t seem real that i am already on my > home... next monday i will be with president lovell for my final > interview and i will eat lunch and dinner with all of the other > missionaries that are finishing at the same time. i think there will > be about 12 in my group. october 30, tuesday in the morning, i am > heading out to buenos aires at 0800, and i`m arriving at 0930 . i > think that i might be able to go to the temple in buenos aires. i > would love that! > matias was in church yesterday but he says that he wants more time. > he doesn`t feel like he can get baptized yet. he used to be in jail > and i think that it might have something to do with that but we feel > like he is preparing well. gabriel taught the class in sunday school! > i was so proud of how awesome he did. i am not worried at all for how > things will go for him. > yesterday was mothers day in argentina and nobody was home. it was > kind of a tough day for us but we were able to speak with carlos and > set another date for the 17th of november. it has been raining since > last night. > yesterday we ate this peruvian plate with grober and carla called > ceviche and it was really good. it is spicy raw fish with a ton of > great stuff in it. my companion says that it is like ``oka`` in > samoa. grober is doing well and carla is going to church every sunday > now. they are looking forward to their wedding in december. > we found some other people that have been inactive and we received > some great references from them. we are looking forward to contacting > them this week. we now have a stake ward mission leader, and as zone > leaders we are going to start meeting with him once a month. we met > him on wednesday and we were able to talk well with him about setting > up ward mission plans in every ward in the stake. he is very excited > about his new calling and we are excited to work with him. he gave us > another reference when we finished talking to him! > i can`t believe ryan was called to the M.A.N. mission! that is > awesome! please tell him that he is going to love it and i will put in > the good word for him with president lovell :) > on friday, i was able to do another baptismal interview for the elders > in cipolletti. ivan is awesome and he was baptized on sunday. this > week we had 2 baptisms in the zone. we are still baptizing every week > and things are looking great for the month of november! tomorrow we > are going to catriel for the day to interview the elders there and we > are going to do some divisions. the whole week is packed with great > plans and it is going to go very well. > i have been reflecting a lot lately about my blessings. i am so > grateful for everything that i have learned here in argentina and i > wouldn`t trade this time for anything. i am grateful for my family > and all of your support. i have received letters from you guys every > week and that is an accomplishment! thank you for everything. i > don`t want my mission to end and i just don`t feel like it will end. > jacob 7:26 > 26 And it came to pass that I, Jacob, began to be old;... I conclude > this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my > knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our > lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream... > 2 timothy 4:6-7 > 6 the time of my departure is at hand. > 7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: > i know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and it has been an honor for me > to teach His gospel for two years in argentina. i will never forget > the many experiences that i have had and i am looking forward to a new > chapter in my life. i love you all and i am excited to see you all > next week! > con mucho amor y ánimo, > elder summers.

16 Days to go...

¡hola familia! i received my card and my birthday package! thank you for sending them! i had an awesome birthday last week and we took some good pictures. the Gil family is awesome and i am very grateful for all that they did for my birthday. the tacos were delicious too (because we cooked them) but we learned that martín is moving to chile with esteban really soon. i won`t be able to see the baptism... on tuesday we had a zone training. elder syddall and i planned and directed the meeting and it all went very well. we finished with a testimony meeting and it was a very special experience. our ward mission leader, hermano gomez, finally came back this week! i think that his influence is really going to help us to baptize his nephew, matias. we set another baptismal date for the 27th of october and we are praying that everything works out this time. he went to church and he enjoyed it so things are looking great. gabriel is a stud. this sunday he received the aaronic priesthood. he bore his testimony in sacrament meeting and i was impressed by how firm he is in the gospel. i know that he is going to stay solid in the church and i am very grateful to be a part of his conversion process. the ward is supporting him a lot and it is making a huge difference. his family is coming back to church. i really liked this scripture found in d&c 76:69 69 These are they who are ajust men made bperfect through Jesus the mediator of the new ccovenant, who wrought out this perfect datonement through the shedding of his own eblood. i am grateful that gabriel took things seriously and is ready to serve. carla and grober are going to get married in december. they need to take out a turn to be able to do it because getting married is very complicated here... but they are excited. they told us that carla is pregnant again so they are expecting another kid. they weren`t able to go to church this sunday. it might have been the rain but estan cumpliendo con sus compromisos por lo menos. they are praying together every day and they are reading the book of mormon. grober will get baptized shortly after their marriage. we didn`t find a lot of people to teach last week but we did receive some good references that we are excited about. we are looking forward to finding them this week. our ward is starting to go home teaching. it is part of the ward mission plan that we went over with the bishop and the priesthood holders are starting to get more involved. we went to help with some of the visits to help get the ball rolling. on saturday we went to clean a patio of this older woman that isn`t going to church. i cut the grass and my companion removed a ton of weeds. afterwards it started raining a ton and it rained all weekend. it is still raining and the streets were flooded. some streets we can`t cross because it is so deep with water! the mission office here in neuquen was flooded because of a leak in the roof and the sewage system erupted from the floors because it was so full of water! im just glad that nothing passed with our apartament :). i´m not sure what i want to study at byu... do i have to sign up for classes right now or can i wait until i get home? oh! and my driver´s licence is going to expire so i will have to get that renewed too! i love you guys! con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers

23 Days To Go (and Happy Birthday Elder Summers!)

¡hola familia! thank you for all of your birthday wishes! i do feel older... one family in my ward prepared lunch for us and made me a cake so i am very excited to meet with them today, and tonight, we are going to have a noche de hogar with a guy that is less active and his room mate that is not a member. they both went to general conference yesterday and they really enjoyed it. they are going to make us tacos, so today we will have lunch AND dinner! i´m so excited. in this mission, we rarely eat dinner because everyone eats really late. we usually get back to the house and eat a small snack, like a quick pb&j sandwich. this is the M.A.N. mission. (Misión Argentina Neuquen :) ).wasn`t this week amazing? i feel very grateful for all of the experiences that i have been given. we had the monthly zone leaders council this week and we went over the numbers for the mission. right now our zone is number one in the mission and we are very proud of our missionaries. i also heard that the church in rawson, my old area, is being extended because of all the growth. i am so happy for them. we are having a lot of success and i am enjoying every minute of it. this week we tried something new. my companion received an article about some activity other missionaries tried in russia and they put a table out on the plaza and had people write their questions for God. we made plans and we were able to do it friday night so we could invite as many people as we could to general conference. we had a good turn out, there were a lot of good questions written, and we received a lot of references. i attached a picture we took of the activity. general conference was the highlight of the week. i was able to watch every session, priesthood session was sunday morning for us, but it was all in spanish. i loved it. i loved hearing about the new announcements from the prophet and we are very excited to have more missionaries in the field. our mission is starting to get a little smaller because so many people have problems getting their visas. that is why a lot of people are staying in the states to serve while they are waiting. we are praying everything goes well for the missionaries in the future. i am grateful that i was one of the few to get here ok without any problems. my scripture for the week is found in d&c 64:33-34. we can`t get tired of doing good works. ¡hay que seguir firme! i love you all and i am grateful for all of the support that you give me every week! have an awesome day! con mucho amor, gratitud y ánimo, elder summers

30 Days to go...

¡hola familia! we are finally in october! this week was very busy and we were able to accomplish a lot of things. we had our noche de hogar with carla and grober. they made us pizza and it was delicious. the lesson went great and they went to church on sunday! we were very excited for them. the members greeted them very well too. they felt very welcome so i hope they will keep coming strong every week. we didn`t have a district meeting this week because president lovell had interviews with all of us. it was a really cool experience because i was able to participate as well. i was asked to give a short talk before about how the mission helps us to become better disciples of Christ. i talked about the talk from elder waddell last year about how neuquen is holy ground for us because everything we do, everyone we meet and teach, is to help prepare us for the eternities. i am very grateful to be here. we talk about giving two years to the Lord, but i feel like i was given so much more in return. elder syddall and i then separated and i was with elder queirolo, one of the president`s assistants, and we interviewed half of the zone about how they are working and how we can help them continue to improve. i really enjoyed it, and i gained more respect for what mission presidents do... my interview with president lovell was really cool. he asked me how i was doing and my thoughts about entering my last month of the mission. we talked about priesthood keys and how as a zone leader, i was given some of those keys to direct the zone. it was a neat experience for me. this weekend, we had 3 baptisms in the zone! we are working on baptizing more on a weekly basis. gabriel is doing awesome. he is going to receive the priesthood next week between sessions and he is very excited. he was asked to offer the prayer during sacrament meeting and i was amazed by how much he has progressed because a few weeks ago he didnt want to pray! we had ward council yesterday. our ward is so awesome. we are planning some more activities to do every month until the end of the year. my companion was kind of a punk about it because he kept saying how i wasn`t going to be there... but i still had cool ideas! we are going to have baptisms on the 13th and we are hoping for more after that. we met a guy named matias, he is 21 and is the nephew of our ward mission leader. matias came down from salta, argentina, and he was really excited to talk to us. now he is talking about how he is going to be baptized and serve a mission too! he is awesome. this week, i have been thinking a lot about these scriptures found in doctrine and covenants 123: 16-17 16 You know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves. 17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed. we can only do our part, and then trusting in God, He will do the rest. I love you all and i`m looking forward to hearing from all of you next week! con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers

37 Days To Go! (and a BAPTISM!)

¡hola familia! gabriel was baptized this weekend!! it was so exciting and he is very happy. he asked me to baptize him and he was confirmed yesterday at church. it was a very special day for me too. it has been almost 2 years since the elders in this ward have baptized and i feel like we have broken the ice! we haven´t had credit on our cell phone all week but the ward helped us pull everything together for the baptism. everyone is very excited. gabriel was a reference from one sister in the ward so the members have a lot more trust in us and are giving us more references. elder syddall and i are looking forward to a lot of success. even the attendance at church is getting better and there are more priesthood holders attending. we are already seeing the fruit! everything went well with the transfers this week. we gained 2 more missionaries to the zone so now we have 24, 4 of those missionaries are being trained right now. our district leaders are studs and we are baptizing every week. i have been looking over the numbers over the last few weeks and we have dropped a little in lessons because we are working more with the leaders, but we have more news, references from the members, and things are looking great to be baptizing every week. the vision of president lovell is to have at least a baptism in each district every week. we are getting there. right now we are having at least one in the zone. we are working with the bishop and the ward leadership. we put a ward mission plan together and set some good goals for the rest of the year. one new thing that we are doing is present a short message before priesthood meeting. yesterday, the bishop had us present how we would give away a book of mormon to a friend and we had a quick practice to show how easy it is. our friends aren´t looking for answers to deep doctrine, they just want to be happy. only the gospel gives us lasting happiness! there are some members that told us they are preparing lists of their friends that they want to share the gospel with, and we challenged them to talk to them first and set a day that we can pass by and visit with them. we had divisions with the assistents to the president, so i had the opportunity to spend the day with elder page again! we were companions in the mtc, so it was cool to be able to work with him and share a lot of things that we have learned throughout the mission. it was really cool. we are going to go on divisions this week with the elders in the office. i have never done divisions with them because they are always really busy with all of the conferences that we have, and the transfers and money stuff... but now things are calming down. 2 missionaries showed up at our apartment last night at midnight, saying they came in from plaza huincul, about 2 hours away, to do their ID documents. i was surprised... but today is a holiday and they can´t do anything so they have to go back. the elders in the office didn´t think about the holiday... but now they bought the tickets for these guys to return later today and they will come back to neuquen some other day. carla and grober are excited too. they are going to get married in december, their daughter is a 1 year old. we prepared a family home evening with them for tonight and they are going to cook something delicious for us. i am really looking forward to it. roberto se enfrió un poco... he doesn´t have the same interest that he had before. pucha. i had a miracle this weekend! at the baptismal service, one family gave me a piece to play on the piano for a musical number half an hour before the baptism. i tried playing it through and i couldn´t... it was very difficult. they looked at me and said, ´´well, maybe we should have said a prayer first´´. it made me laugh a little, but then we said a prayer. i played it through again and it still didn´t sound good. the brother told me to have more faith and just play it louder because they felt that this was the perfect song for the baptism. i said a silent prayer and then i played it louder and with feeling, and the song just came out of my fingers! it was amazing! everything went great and i am very grateful for that divine help. if you would have heard it, it would have blown you off your feet to hear the difference. i felt very good and i am glad for that experience. i know we can do anything with God´s help. i have been studying the bible this week and i loved the passage i found in acts 3:6-8 peter and john went to the temple and see a crippled man outside begging. they called out to him 6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. i love how peter reached out and physically lifted the man. i have been thinking a lot about the blessings that come from the Gospel and how we can help others have the strength that we have if we just reach out. i can imagine the joy that the man would have as he went to the temple leaping and praising God. i saw that joy in Gabriel this weekend. i am very grateful for the opportunity to serve and see these miracles every day. isn´t being a missionary amazing? i love it. i hope that this week goes as well as the last. i love you guys! con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers

44 Days To Go (And Last Transfer)

¡hola familia! another good week in the books! right now we are handling transfers and we are going to have some really good changes. today, elder page came by to the apartment with one of our missionaries and he asked me how i felt to start my last transfer... crazy thought! we are going home together and i can`t believe how fast things have gone. i am really looking forward to the next six weeks because we have a lot of good things going for us. gabriel wasn`t baptized this weekend. we had the baptismal interview on friday and he said that he knew everything was true and that he wants to be baptized but he wants to wait one more week so he can feel more prepared. so we are looking forward to this weekend and his baptism was announced in church on sunday. we found a new family to teach this week! it was a reference that we received online from the office and that has never happened for us before. apparently, carla is a member and she is living with grober and they have a daughter together. she is from bolivia and he is from peru. they have the goal of getting married in december and grober has a lot of interest in the church. they didn`t make it to church yesterday but i think it is because they weren`t able to find the building. we will make a map for them this week or something... but they are very excited. we also found a man named roberto. he is going to be baptized on the 29th of september. a really cool guy. i am very glad that i wasn`t transferred this week! i know of a lot of elders that were transfered this week because president lovell likes to change things up so the elders stay focused working until the end. this week was our zone training and it went awesome. elder syddall and i prepared this conference to get the zone inspired to work better and we practiced a lot of things that we felt the zone needed. it was great and we got the zone to participate a lot. i felt like everyone was edified and we felt the spirit a lot as we reflected on our areas and practiced. we were very proud of how everything turned out! we had a baptismal interview in cipolletti so we had divisions with them, and then on thursday we took a bus to 25 de mayo for another baptismal interview. it was a great weekend :) we are looking good for the next few weeks too. things are really turning around in the zone and we are very happy. i attached a picture of our zone that president lovell took a few weeks ago. we are a bunch of good looking studs, right? only the best for neuquen! mom- i`m glad you enjoyed your birthday this week. i was thinking of you all day. can you believe we are already half way through september?! crazy. i have been thinking a lot about some things that we talked about in church yesterday. it was about staying on the Lord`s side and making little decisions to stay on that side. we talked about how the devil tries to deceive us by making us think things or by doing little things to inch our way over to his side, but if we focus on staying on the Lord`s side, we won`t have the desires of leaving or lowering our standards. it was a cool message that got me thinking about how i can stay strong for the Lord. don`t have too much time left so i have to stay strong til the end! i still can`t send pictures but i have some awesome ones to show you! now i have to head off for the terminal to help with the transfers but i will write more next week! i love you guys and i hope you have another awesome week! con mucho amor y ànimo, elder summers

50 Days to go....

¡hola familia! > i really enjoyed this week! we had the zone leaders council and the > rededication of the temple in buenos aires. it was an amazing > experience being able to participate. on saturday night, there was a > cultural celebration and the youth of argentina sang and danced. > president eyring said that he felt as if the youth were like the young > nephites that greeted the saviour with their smiles and enthusiasm. i > felt so proud to be here serving in argentina and i can`t describe how > happy i feel to be here. i really do love the people. president > eyring said the dedicatory prayer, and elder christofferson translated > it to spanish. it was very powerful and i felt the spirit very > strong. the talks before were very edifying. elder arnold spoke > about the things that really mattered in life, and the ability to go > to the temple is such a great blessing. one man at the rededication > told us that he has been through the temple 4 times and i was grateful > to see how faithful and dedicated he is to continue visiting the > temple throughout his life. it was an incredible experience that i > will never forget. i made a personal decision to go to the temple as > much as i can. it is a holy place and i won`t take it for granted. > elder syddall and i are preparing our zone training for tomorrow. all > 22 of the missionaries in our zone are coming in and we are very > excited to encourage, enthuse, and execute. our three E`s. :). this > week, we had 2 baptisms in the zone, and we are looking really good > for this weekend. we are preparing gabriel for the 15th. we haven`t > seen him all weekend because he has been working out of town. we are > praying that everything goes well and that he feels prepared to make > this new covenant. > i have been thinking a lot this week about the things that really > matter. i have been studying about covenants that we make with God > and how we can keep them better. i memorized the sacrament prayers in > spanish this week because i felt like i needed to. i read a quote by > elder oaks that says we renew all of the covenants we have made with > God by taking the sacrament, and it made me appreciate taking the > sacrament even more. > i know with all of my heart that our Heavenly Father loves us and > wants us to return to live with Him. i know that He listens to us. I > love my Savior, and i am grateful for His sacrifice, His gospel, and > His authority to make eternal life with all of you possible. it > wouldn`t be worth it without my family. i love all of you and i am > grateful for the support you have given me in the greatest decision i > have made in my life. > con mucho amor y aún más ánimo, > elder summers

57 Days To Go...

¡hola familia! ¡esta semana fue re copada! i am grateful for all of the things i was able to learn this week. we had the conference with elder zeballos, his wife, president lovell and his wife. i attached a picture that president lovell sent to me of our zone, and the missionaries in neuquen oeste, zapala, and roca. there was a ton of us, and the conference was very powerful. we talked a lot about our vision of the argentina neuquen mission, and more specifically for our own areas. we talked about having the sufficient faith to make that vision a reality. elder syddall and i have been talking about that already so it was cool to hear it from elder zeballos too. he talked about how we need to do everything in our reach to show our love and share how we can be happy. he said that that is all the people really need. they don`t need answers to deep doctrine, they just want to be happy and live with peace. we talked about how we can do our part so we can be pure instruments in the hands of God that searches His guidance and does His will. during the week, we have been meeting with the elders quorum president, the bishopric, and the relief society`s president. we don`t want to be a burden for the ward, we want to build it up and help them ``salir adelante`` and progress. they were very excited to meet with us and we were able to talk about their own visions and how we can help. i feel like we are going to see fruits very soon. we just have to keep the ànimo up and get the ward to a point where they find more people for us to teach. we met with the bishop to work on our ward mission plan. our bishop is awesome and you can tell that he gives his calling everything he has. he is going to call ward missionaries to help us. this week went really fast, didn`t it? we traveled to 25 de mayo again for another baptismal interview but the guy isn`t quite ready yet so he wasn`t baptized. i felt like he was only going to be baptized because he felt pressured so maybe with some more time. this weekend is the temple dedication of buenos aires. i am so excited for it! we are going to get a broadcast on sunday that we will be able to attend. it is going to be a very big day for argentina. our ward is planning a temple trip to buenos aires for the end of the year. the members have had to travel to santiago, chile, or to montevideo, uruguay to be able to attend the temple, so it`s going to be awesome. i saw pictures of the temple yesterday and it is beautiful. we are pretty excited! right now we are with elder carquin because his companion is in bariloche doing his visa tramites. it is cool being with him. it is nice to have a latino around to help me with my spanish. i am getting to a point where i can speak very well, it is the accent that gives me away. they say i kind of speak like a colombian, but i am ok with that. :) you said that jamie mcpherson is getting married? that`s crazy! i bet you are all excited for elder holland in parker too. dad- i think i will have to read that book too after shane is done with it. we are looking forward to another great week. i feel like everything is coming together and going smoothly. we have had it kind of rough lately, but nothing serious. it is all getting better. like they say, the future is as bright as your faith. love you guys! hope everything goes great this week, happy labor day! con mucho amor y ànimo, elder summers p.d.- you`ll find that i was very smart in the picture. easy to find me :)

64 Days to go...

¡hola familia! gabriel got home from buenos aires this week and really liked it. we met with him and the lesson went very well and we ended up having him pray right there to get his answer. it was a very powerful moment and he felt the spirit very strong. he said that he felt the way he did while he was in the temple. it is a little frustrating though because even though he has his answer and he wants to be baptized but he likes his wine and he doesn`t want to give it up for now. he says that in the future he will feel more prepared to make that change. i guess we need a little patience with him and continue to support him as he makes those changes. he went to church yesterday, he participated, the members make him feel very welcome and he is excited to be there. i just don`t want him to be an ´´eternigator´´. it has been kind of tough this week. our area got really dry and we dropped a lot of people because we feel that they aren`t going to progress. i have been talking a lot with my companion and we made a plan to really include the members in everything we do. i feel like we are running by ourselves and we aren`t getting things done that way so we are going to have a different focus this week. elder syddall and i are thinking about our vision for our area and for our zone and developing goals to be able to attain that vision. we talked a lot on the bus and we are excited to get our plan going. we realized that the members in our ward don`t have enough faith, because in the last 2 years, our ward has only had 6 baptisms, and the missionaries before us have been working without them. we can`t have the success we want without the support of the members. we are going to work with them this week and invite them to do little things in the week to help their friends and families accept the gospel. we ask them to help us but our vision is to get our area to the point when we have to help them with the work. here in centro, we feel like that is the only way to be able to progress. in the zone, we had 2 baptisms. we had to travel to 25 de mayo on friday for one of the baptismal interviews and it was awesome. everything went very well. our zone is picking it up and it looks like we are going to have baptisms every week in the month of septiembre. we are very excited with the progress we are making. this week, elder zeballos is coming to our mission and our zone conference with him is going to be this thursday. i`m kind of nervous because the president lovell`s assistents told us we are going to have to rendir cuentas to him. we are working really hard but i don`t feel like we are doing it very effectively. i feel like our zone can do a lot more and i want it to reach that potential so we are going to talk with our district leaders and have each companionship think about their vision for their areas for the rest of this year, and set goals to make it a reality. dad- percy syddall is my companion`s grandfather. in my time here, i have never used my personal debit card to buy stuff, and this week i realized that it expired last year! things have kind of slowed down but i know that things will pick up a lot this week. i`m looking forward to it and we are ready to work even harder! thanks for writing this week! con mucho amor y animo, elder summers

72 days to go....

¡hola familia! Jamie- ¡Happy Birthday! i hope you have an awesome day on Friday and i will be thinking of you all day! This week was another awesome one and i learned a lot. we had our zone conference on friday and it was great because president lovell came out with his new vision for the mission and announced the new standard. he wants us to focus more on the investigators that we have so that they progress instead of finding so many news in the week. we talked a lot about how we can help the people we teach progress and a lot of that comes from our planning. we talked about lucas 14:28-30, and our preparation. we do that with our studies in the morning and we talked about how we can plan and practice what we are going to teach. another new change in the mission is that every missionary is to study the language for one hour every morning before leaving the apartment. we now start our day at 11 instead of 10:30. we found paola again, and she didn`t read what we left her. we feel like her boyfriend (he is a member) is discouraging her because he doesn`t want to go to church again. he says that he isn`t ready to make changes in his life but he knew the gospel would help paola feel better about her family`s loss. it seemed like she kind of lost the spark but we are going to see what happens. gabriel is awesome because this week he went to buenos aires to check out the temple in the open house with his brother and the youth in our ward. he should be coming back today and his mom told us that he was feeling great. we are so excited to talk to him tomorrow and see how he is doing. azul is awesome too because she invited a friend to go with her to church with her little sister. the girls get along very well and they look forward to going to church every sunday. the thing is with her is that she is unsure about getting baptized. we are talking with her and her mom to try to help them get baptized together. that would be awesome. florencia is losing the spark too. there isn`t much more that we can do for her, she isn`t reading, praying, going to church, interacting with anyone outside of her house... it is sad for me but she doesn`t want to do anything. we are going to stop visiting her and give her a few weeks because she isn`t progressing anymore. the sellman family from oregon is doing great. the thing is that the mom doesn`t want us talking about God with their kids. we went to the kitchen with the dad, jose, and we talked with him for awhile about what is going on and he really opened up to us about a lot of things. he explained to us how a lot of terrible things have happened to him and his family and he is bitter with God, but he has a lot of questions about why we are here and about the true church (because he had a bad experience with the Catholic church). we asked him to give God another chance and he promised to read a part of the Book of Mormon that will help him. he thanked us for listening to him because he hasn`t been able to talk about those things for awhile and he felt better. we are hoping that he can feel the love that God has and that it can open a new door for him. in the zone, we have gone 3 weeks without a baptism. that`s really bad. it looks like this week we are going to 25 de mayo again for some more baptismal interviews and we are going to talk with gabriel and challenge him for this weekend as well. Thank you for the package! i got my package last monday. i am taking more pictures now. elder cortés wrote to me today. he told me that he can definitely feel the difference not being missionary any more and that it is not the same trying to teach people about the gospel. i imagine it would be like peter parker without the spiderman suit. that`s why i am grateful to be here and i`m taking advantage of my time while i am a missionary. i am thankful for all of your support while i am here. i love you guys! con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers ps- jamie, otra vez, ¡feliz cumple!

79 Days To Go...

¡hola familia! it has been a crazy week but it has been fun. i get along really well with my new companion, elder syddall. i took pictures with him but for some reason, i can´t send the pictures on this computer and that really bothers me... oh well. things are going well and i know that we are going to have a ton of success this transfer. i am thinking that i am going to be finishing my mission with elder syddall. crazy thought. he is half samoan, half tongan. he was born in new zealand, lives in california and he plays the ukulele. he was the missionary in allen that got cut in the face by some anti american and he almost died. you can probably see something in the news about it. he has an awesome scar. we got a reference for a woman that is the girlfriend of a guy that isnt going to church but he wanted us to pass by because he knew that we could help her. recently, her niece passed away and she didn´t understand why things like that would happen. we taught her about the plan of salvation and it was an awesome lesson. with elder syddall we teach really well. afterwards her boyfriend explained to her about blessings and she asked us for one so she could feel better. she told us that she felt really calm and she felt good about everything. during the blessing, paola had a very warm feeling. we set a baptismal date for the first of september. i don´t know when we will have our zone conference with elder zeballos but we are going to have one conference this friday with just president lovell. i talked with him and he said that he can do my interview afterwards to get my ecclesiastical endorsement. he says that he only has to go over the moral code with me so it should go well. there have been quite a few changes in the zone and we are really excited. all of the sister missionaries are going to train new missionaries. elder syddall is really excited to start as a zone leader and i have been going over a few things with him. he has a lot of energy and it is fun working with him. on sunday, gabriel went to church and he brought his mom and his little brother that are already members but haven´t been attending. gabriel still hasn´t prayed yet and we are thinking he is scared of his answer. during sacrament meeting, the bishop asked for a few testimonies from my comp, and other members, and all of the testimonies were about how God listens to us and answers our prayers. pretty direct. gabriel offered to go with the youth of our ward to visit the temple in buenos aires before they rededicate it. that should be an awesome experience for him. azul and mili finally made it to church as well! they loved it and they were so excited to be there. they got along with all of the other girls too and are looking forward to next week. it has been a week since we went by their house because of all of the changes and we didn´t have time to go to their neighborhood in parque industrial. when we got there, the girls dropped the cane and told us we needed to visit more often. they are 10 and 7 and they love praying, reading the scriptures and singing hymns. we just need to get their mom to go to church too but it is hard for her. she is very supportive of the girls and wants them to go to church. one sister in our ward brought them on sunday and they were all very happy. brother nuñez did baptize his family and it was very special. they are active in the church. he blessed the sacrament on sunday for the first time and he taught the class in priesthood. his daughter jenifer is getting baptized on the 25th of august. i haven´t got my package yet but i haven´t heard anything from my district leader. the bolsa goes to him. omar finally had his operation on his shoulder and he is feeling better. he has a fecha for the first of septiembre to get baptized, and we found a guy named alexis from paraguay that now has a fecha as well. we are very excited because we feel like we are really progressing. last night the bishop invited us over to his house and we talked about a ward mission plan to help have more baptisms in the ward and reactivate more members. we are really looking forward to this next week! sorry i could´t show any pictures this week. maybe some other day. i hope everything goes awesome for you guys this week and i´m excited to see more of your pictures! i love you all. thank you for your letters! con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers

86 days to go...

hola familia! hey! i am writing really quick just to let you know i`m still alive... i haven`t had the chance all day to write because there are a lot of changes. i am waiting in the bus terminal right now and a whole bunch of missionaries are passing through and i have to supervise them and make sure they all get their bus tickets. my companion finished his mission this morning so i am here alone and it is a little stressful. my new companion is named elder syddall. i have never met him before but i heard that he is from california and his family is samoan. he is arriving in half an hour. i don`t have very much time. this week was awesome though. we had a zone training that my companion and i had with all of our elders and it went very well. there we talked about the goals we set for our zone and we practiced some things that we needed to improve together. it turned out great. it has been really crazy this week. 2 elders were kicked out of their apartment so they are searching for a new place, and our zone was changed a lot this week. 3 missionaries are going to train in the zone so we are excited to get some new missionaries. next week i will have more time to write, but now i`m going to see what i can do for my school endorsement. i love you guys! have a great week! elder summers hey! i just got my school stuff done. i am going to call pte lovell tonight and see if i can have the interview over the phone... but everything is good. elder syddall is awesome and we get along really well. we are chilling at the terminal waiting for one more elder to come in and he hasn`t written his family yet so i figured i could take advantage and get that endorsement stuff done. everything good. transfers went well last night. really crazy, and the other zone leaders in neuquen didn`t do anything. there were a ton of missionaries and i had to direct them all and make sure everyone went to take out their tickets. the last missionaries left at 12:30 and we went to bed at 1:30 in the morning. i am a little tired today but i am feeling good. elder guillen, my comp from cinco saltos left last night to bariloche and a few families i knew came to see him off. there i talked to them and found out how all of the investigators we found together that were progressing were baptized after i left. sandra, carmen, jose, rene, and franco were all baptized and they have callings and are attending church every week. franco is going to serve a mission! i was so excited to hear about that. it was great hearing about them all last night and it gave me tons of ànimo. everything is going great and i am looking forward to a great week with elder syddall! con mucho amor y ànimo, elder summers

93 Days to go...

¡hola familia! i remembered my camera this week but my batteries just died... i`m sorry! i took some awesome pictures too... :( oh well. this week has been very special, and we have had our bummers. in the familia nuñez, the parents got married on friday and our ward had a reception for them in the church on saturday. yesterday, the father received the sacerdocio and will be able to baptize his family next saturday. the ward is thrilled and very happy to have their family in the church. florencia did not get baptized because her dad says that she is too immature to get baptized and needs to wait a few years more. that was our bummer. we are thinking about a member that we can bring to their house to be able to change his mind and help him see that florencia is ready and that she really wants to. the think about florencia is that in all aspects of her life, she isn`t too thrilled about things and she sits at home all day on facebook. kind of a wierd personality so her father is right in some ways. since i met flor, she has been progressing a lot. we haven`t been able to talk a lot with them this weekend because we travelled to 25 de mayo for 2 baptismal interviews on friday and when we got back on saturday, her family went to chocòn. pucha. it was a good trip though and the missionaries there had their baptisms. i gave a talk in church yesterday too. i talked about the importance of unity in our ward and with missionary work. everyone working together. i felt really good about it. it is a topic that i have been thinking a lot about because we can`t work effectively if we don`t work together. that includes me and my comp, and all of the missionaries in my zone. i have been thinking about my zone`s needs and with my companion we read 1 corintios 12 that talks about the body of Christ. we make up the body and we can`t function if we are incomplete. i also liked DyC 38:27. sed uno, si no sois uno, no sois mios. es poderoso. unity is critical. today is my companions` last pday, so we went to buy a few souvenirs for his family and now we are going to play bowling with our district. i`m excited for that too. i will buy some more batteries today for my camera. this week is going to go very well. we are going to have a few conferences too because we are going to have a training session with our zone and we will have another conference with the other zone leaders of the mission on thursday. i am excited and we are preparing some cool stuff to do. it is getting pretty cold, but my things are holding up. my sleeping bag is very warm, asi que no se preocupen. hoy rompi un pantalon pero voy a arreglarlo. oh y el lunes comimos tacos con esa familia estadounidense. los mejores que he probado en argentina. no recibi mi paquete todavia pero creo que llegara la proxima semana. estoy animado por los traslados esta semana porque creo que veremos muchos cambios en la zona. cambios buenos. y estuve pensando que voy a llevar una caja de alfajores a los estados para compartir y mostrarles como son. a mi me encantan los alfajores con esa masa hojaldre, con coco, dulce de leche en medio y chocolate arriba. son de diez. it was announced that on the 15 of august, they are going to start restoring the parts of our church that was burned, so we will be assisting in another chapel for 3 months that is a lot further away. :( but it should be interesting. to see how it works out. this week we found another family to teach pero viven en el barrio nueva españa that is kind of far away. we went looking for the familia fonseca but they weren`t home asi que aprovechamos de estar lejos and we started looking for new investigators. it was the first time that i have been in that part and i really liked it. i really feel like my area here is a combination of all of the areas that i have been in so far and i love that. today we have lots of plans and i think that we are going out to lunch today. i might buy my comp lunch because it is his last week. should be fun today. gracias por las cartas esta semana! i feel bad because i don`t have much time to respond to some of them but i`m working on that. i love you guys and i hope that this week goes very well for you. con mucho amor y ànimo, elder summers

99 Days To Go....

¡hola familia! bueno, i forgot my camera... sorry! this week has been nuts and a little draining with all of the drama in the zone but we are getting through it. one missionary hurt his knee and he might have to operate (but he would have to go home early). another has problems with her apartment because of the humidity and she had problems breathing. we are trying to get them another place to live because her contract is void. this week we helped some missionaries do some visa stuff here in neuquen and they had to go to trelew for a few days to finish up their documents in rawson. they had some arguments in their district before they headed out and they brought both of their cell phones leaving the elders there in 25 de mayo without a way of communicating, and that made some tense problems. it was very stupid and immature, and when they returned to their areas, it was ugly. now everything is settled and i think it is going to be ok. our zone had interviews with president lovell and it was pretty cool. i couldn`t renew my temple recommend because he forgot to bring his things for it, but he is going to interview soon. i will mention the endorsement with him. elder jorge f. zeballos wants to visit our mission and i`m excited for that. we don`t know when but it will probably be the next transfer. florencia came back from disney world and she is very happy. she has changed a lot and she is a lot more grateful for her parents. before she wan`t very respectful to her mom, but now she is spending a lot more time with her. she also said that she hated the food in miami because everything was fried. she must have eaten terrible stuff. pobrecita. i told her that if she ever goes to colorado with her family i will get them real, delicious food. we are planning her baptism for this saturday, and the ward is helping us. right now, people are finishing their winter vacations and starting school today. i guess i forgot to explain alfajores and they are amazing! there are various types of alfajores but the most common are like cookie/cake sandwiches with dulce de leche in the middle and everything is bathed in chocolate. i guess i should take a picture of that too but i am planning on bringing a box of them home with me. it`s delicious. with santiago, we watched the restoration in the church with him and it went excellent. he said that watching that movie, he felt the spirit strongly that it is true and we invited him to read the book of mormon starting with the introduction. he was more than excited to start reading. you could tell that he had that spiritual ``hambre`` and it was a very cool moment. he couldn`t make it to church though... he doesn`t have a phone so it is difficult to contact him. gabriel was there at church with his mom. his mom is inactive for pretty much her whole life so it was awesome seeing her there and she was very welcome with the members. gabriel felt very comfortable as well. a family invited us to go eat tacos with them at 11:30 today. i`m excited because they are from the states and i like speaking english with them. it`s the same family that made me cornbread :). we have been teaching a lot with the family zúñiga and those lessons go very well. they started calling me ``elder calhoun`` because in the movie best 2 years, that elder has glasses, works the comb over (yes, i`m working the comb over too), and challenges everyone to be baptized like me. i believe that putting a baptismal date in the first lesson is very important because it shows the people the direction where we want to go and that we care enough about them to make that invitation. so if that`s why they call me that, i`m ok with it. they have a friend named melisa that we started teaching and we put the fecha for the 18th of august. it was an awesome lesson. we stressed the part about being children of God and His plan for each of us. we watched a video from elder uchtdorf about the ugly duckling, and how we all have the eternal potential. this week, i loved reading in 1 corintios 9 20 And unto the ARGENTINES I became as AN ARGENTINE, that I might gain the ARGENTINES; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; 22 To the weak became I as aweak, that I might gain the weak: I am made ball things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 23 And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. 24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 And every man that striveth for the amastery is btemperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible ccrown; but we an dincorruptible. i like these scriptures because pablo had to adapt to situations and try to relate to everyone that he was serving. these are cool scriptures. on my contract that i signed with president peterson, verse 24 was on it, so i looked it up and found this part. that`s the promise if i do my part and give everything i have to the work. i love that phrase- so run, that ye may obtain. i am grateful to be here in argentina, the best mission in the world. i love you guys, thanks for the letters! con mucho amor, y ànimo, elder summers

105 Days To Go...

¡hola familia! hey! how´s it going? i loved getting pictures today! i need to be better about sending my pictures too... i´m sorry. next week. but everything is going well here too. been a pretty busy week here. last pday, we went bowling with the district from cipolletti and it was really fun. even though i lost, i still had a good time. after that, we got to work!! we had a district meeting in villa ceferino at our church. there was a fire in the church because somebody left a chair next to a heater and it was melted. the upstairs was covered in smoot and they were cleaning all week. it´s pretty clean now but there´s still a smell. we are going next saturday with the ward to help clean some more. on domingo, we only had sacrament meeting, and we all left early. on wednesday, elder carquin and elder zuleta came in from 25 de mayo and catriel to do their tramites, and renew their visas. we had to help them all day to get it done and there were really long lines. i ended up waiting in one consulate with elder castillo (he was in my district in rawson and now we are zone leaders together :) ) and it was fun talking with him again. this week was pretty crazy and i ended up meeting a lot of really interesting people. we found a guy named carlos, a big mapuche man, and it was an awesome lesson. mapuches are the native people of the patagonia. he has a fecha to be baptized in august. it made me think about what shane´s mission would be like in samoa because when he talked a lot in his language, it sounded a lot like samoan. azul is progressing a lot more and we are happy for her. today she turns 10 so we are going to call her and sing happy birthday. omar becerra still hasn´t had his surgery and he is thinking about suing. it has been almost 3 months since his accident and he´s getting depressed about it. on his birthday on saturday, he was drinking again. i wasn´t there because i was on divisions but my companion told me that it was pretty bad. we passed by again on sunday but he had a bunch of his friends over to celebrate. we found another woman named silvia. her husband passed away a few months ago and she is already getting over it because she believes she will see him again. we put another fecha for august. i ate cornbread for the first time in 2 years! we are teaching the sellman family from the united states and jose, the dad made me some cornbread. it was so good, and now i feel like cooking something good today for my pday. i´m thinking of making them some chocolate cookies today, so we will see how they turn out. i don´t have a lot of time today because this computer is slow and i just finished turning in the numbers for the zone. no baptisms this week but we are looking really good for next week. florencia comes back from florida on saturday night so it will be great to see her again and get her ready for her baptism. oh! and an elder gave me his tape recorder because he doesn´t use it so i might be able to send a tape! we will see if i have time later. my comp is rushing me... i love you guys and i´m looking forward to next week. i´ll send some pictures! con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers

112 Days to go (UPDATED)

¡hola familia! this week has been crazy and full of awesome events. winter vacations started this week, if you can believe it. today is a holiday in argentina, so almost everything is closed for the day. we are writing in a different ciber! on sunday, president lovell arrived in neuquen with his wife. i was able to meet him on wednesday at a conference for zone leaders. we spent almost the whole day with him, getting to know him and his wife and it was really cool. i am very excited to work with him. he has a presence like president eyring and has a ´´quiet, but piercing voice´´. i know that he is going to be awesome. his wife doesn`t speak any spanish but she is very excited to be here. president lovell talked about his vision for the argentina neuquen mission. the church has only been in this part of the world for 40 years. we were trying to imagine what the church will be like in another 40 years and i loved thinking about all of the positive consequences that come from this work. we all ate lunch together in the mission house, and we ate lasagna. president lovell sat by me so we were able to talk for awhile. he said that bishop larsen mentioned me to him and was excited to meet me. president lovell is an awesome guy. tuesday, my companion and i went to cipolletti for the district meeting, and we were very impressed with how well things are going in that district. they have very high goals and they are almost meeting them every week. they are some of the ´´machines´´ in the mission and we are very happy with how they are doing. we got them all alfajores to celebrate with them. on thursday, we had a zone conference so president lovell could meet everyone. he is on tour for the next few weeks to get to know everyone. i don`t know if you guys know where all of the missionaries are in my zone, but we have the east half of neuquen, the city of cipolletti right outside of neuquen, the town of catriel, and another called 25 de mayo. our zone has the most missionaries of all of the zones and everyone came in for the zone conference. on friday, we ended up taking a bus to 25 de mayo to do two baptismal interviews. i did them both. quimey is a 9 year old girl that is more than ready to be baptized, but her father wants to baptize her and he isn`t worthy right now. he has the goal of stopping some things so he can baptize her in august. the other interview i had was with a boy that wants to be baptized but he isn`t ready yet. he is going to fix a few things. we got saturday afternoon to eat some lunch, then had our english class at 4. Gabriel and Santiago were both there, and we ended up teaching them after the class in the home of some members of the church. it went great and they both accepted to be baptized this month. gabriel`s family was already baptized and he feels the need of getting closer to God. Santiago is a 34 year old man from colombia that we met from our english class. he is a kung fu master and he teaches here in neuquen and practices tai chi. he is studying geology in the university of comahue and he had interest about the church. we also had more lessons with azul, she wasn`t able to go to church because she sprained her wrist and was in a lot of pain, but now her arm is feeling better. azul is a 9 year old girl, and her mom has been listening to the missionaries for a really long time but hasn`t been progressing because she drinks and uses drugs. it has now been 2 weeks without using, and isn`t drinking anymore. she has made lots of changes, and her boyfriend doesn`t live with her anymore. azul wants to be baptized the 28th of july. we found another family in parque industrial. they have fechas to be baptized on the 5th of august. the parents, rodrigo and claudia, both smoke so we are going to address that but they are progressing and reading the book of mormon. the kids are excited to learn more and their family is becoming more united. their daughter sharon is finishing high school, and she is very interested in the book of mormon. we passed by their house and had an awesome lesson with hermano gomez about the restoration. elder cortés and i are doing a lot better here in neuquen, and we are feeling very excited about how things are going. we are getting closer to meeting our goals and we are setting the bar higher. i feel very good about our accomplishments, and i know that we will see all of the fruit of our work very soon. on thursday at the zone conference, i received my ´´trunky papers´´. the office wanted my information and your email address so they can send me home the 30th of october. they are already buying my plane ticket... this morning, i was finishing the book of jacob in the book of mormon. jacob 7:26 says ´´ that the time passed away with us, and also our ´´missions´´ passed away like as it were unto us a cdream,´´ . that really called my attention and freaked me out a little. but i still have plenty of time left to enjoy being a missionary :). i also received a contract from president peterson that i signed, promising to God that i will ´´sprint until the end´´, giving the mission my very best over the next few months. i also really enjoyed reading jacob 5. i learned things that i have never thought of before and i am very grateful for the new insights i was given. in verse 64, it is talking about my area with my investigators, and the members in my ward. 64 Wherefore, dig about them, and prune them, and dung them once more, for the last time, for the end draweth nigh. And if it be so that these last grafts shall grow, and bring forth the natural fruit, then shall ye prepare the way for them, that they may grow. i am very grateful for this opportunity to help build the church in neuquen. i read another talk from bishop edgley (i think) from the priesthood conference, and he said that when he thinks about saving one individual, he is making a difference for generations to come. i am not baptizing hundreds of people in this mission but at least i am making a difference for those individuals, or families, for the future. that´s an awesome thought. i love being in neuquen and i am looking forward to another great week ahead. i loved getting all of the pictures this week! all of the kids are getting so big and it made me very happy. i have been thinking about our family and how blessed i am to be a part of it. i loved seeing the pictures of the ´´next generation´´ and i know that they will all be strong in the gospel. i love you all and i am so grateful for the love and letters :) con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers

113 Days to go...

¡hola familia! hey! how´s it going? everything here is going great. it was a pretty busy week but we got through it and i don`t feel as stressed because everyone got to where they need to be. it all went smoothly. this week was successful, and we got a lot done. we did not have a baptism, but things are looking very solid for the 14th and the 21st. the becerra family still need to go to church, but they want to be baptized on the 14th because it is omar´s birthday and he believes it is the perfect day to be ´´reborn´´ :). with florencia, she is heading off to disney world this week but we set the fecha for the 21st. she is very complicated to teach because she gets distracted easily and is addicted to facebook. we have been thinking about having the young women in the ward send her links to sites on mormon.org or things from the church so she can have more contact with the church while she`s surfing the web. we had an object lesson that turned out awesome! i was thinking that we could put a glass of water and pour in a red dye to the water to represent stains on our souls when we sin. i saw that once at home and i was thinking it would be perfect for florencia to understand and it worked perfectly. she payed attention, understood, and is very sure to be baptized when she comes home from florida. we also had a lesson with her niece gianina that was baptized about 3 weeks ago, and that really helped us a lot. gianina and florencia are really good friends and gianina made a huge impact in that lesson. my companion and i are pretty excited for them. azul did not make it to church. we are thinking that she just slept in but the hermana that was going to bring her knocked on the door, called their phone and tried to wake them up, but nothing happened... next week for sure she will be there. we ended up only having florencia in church. we went to cipolletti this week for another baptismal interview. julian was baptized on saturday and we finished the month with 9 baptisms. our goal was to have 13. i think that we are looking great for the month of july. this month, our goal is still 13 baptisms, and hopefully we will be able to contribute at least 3. we are looking great with fechas and i am sure we will meet our goal. president peterson went home on saturday, and president lovell arrived yesterday. i am very excited to meet him and our zone is going to have the chance to meet him on thursday in a zone conference. i heard about the fires in colorado! i have talked with a few people that were concerned and i`m glad you weren`t affected by it. how is mitt romney doing? one man told me that things are going down hill for him, but then again, he was saying a lot of negative things. made me wonder if he was even credible or not. this week, i have been thinking a lot about charity and what it really means to be charitable. i want to be able to see the people as the Savior sees them, and i want to be able to treat them as if they were the Savior himself. i have been thinking a lot of this scripture in moroni 7:48. i am sure i have shared it before but it is one of my favorites. 48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen. this is how we can be real followers of Christ and that is what i want to be. this week i am going to try harder to serve with all of my heart. i love you guys and i am very grateful for all of your support and prayers. i hope that this week goes great and you enjoy the holiday! con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers

120 Days to go...

¡hola familia! sorry for writing a little late today, but today we have transfers and it has been a busy day. at 6 we are taking a bus to the terminal to help the missionaries get to where they need to. there are a whole bunch of missionaries coming in from all over the patagonia and are passing through. my zone is changing a lot. elder heaps, one of our awesome district leaders is going to trelew norte to be another zone leader, elder smith is heading for comodoro, and a few of the hermanas are going home. we are going to have 3 mini missionaries. those are members that accompany the missionaries for a few weeks. i`m pretty excited because one of those mini missionaries is going to be mauro alarcon, and i loved eating lunch with his family in zapala. it`s going to be awesome being able to see him again. elder cortés and i are staying together for his last transfer. he is going home in august and i think he is starting to realize how little time he has left. we are going to work even harder these next 6 weeks. i got new shoes! they are practically new. the only think is that they are a little big but i put some cotton in the toes to fill the space. they work out well. i was going to send pictures but they aren`t coming up. i already ate my peach rings so i wouldn`t be able to trade them for my comp`s shoes anyways :), but it was a good week. i had my haircut today and i am happy with it. we didn`t have any baptisms this week, but we did well in the zone. we have had 3 weeks en seguida with baptisms and we are looking good for the next few weeks too. we have to keep the baptisms coming. elder cortés and i are working with florencia. she is going to disney world in florida next week, and we won`t see her for 2 weeks... we are hoping things go well for her baptism this weekend before she leaves. we started teaching another girl named azul. she is 10, and is the daughter of some investigators in parque industrial, another neighborhood outside of neuquen. she was really excited to go to church, but sunday morning, one woman in our ward went to look for her but azul said she didn`t have good shoes to go to church, and didn`t want to go. :( pero bueno, we are going to talk with her this week. on saturday, i told my companion that i was in the mood to see a parade and a few minutes later we saw tons of people running in the streets and all the cars were honking. river, a major futbol team in argentina won their game and they were raised to the A division of futbol. it is a big deal in argentina and the people were crazy, we had to wait a while because our bus couldn`t pass with so many people. president lovell is getting here on saturday and i am excited to meet him on the 4th of july in a zone leaders council. it is going to be a long day because we have to wait in the terminal until 10:30, and some missionaries are going to need to stay in our apartment for the night. everything is going to go well and all of the changes are exciting. i am going to have the chance to see elder ruano again because he is passing through from bariloche. i am not sure where he is headed but it will be cool to see him again. i wanted to wish Grandma Summers happy birthday! it would have been awesome to be there celebrating with you. i don`t have much time but i wanted to thank all of you for your prayers and support. i especially felt it this week. i love you. con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers

127 Days To Go

¡hola familia! > it has been a very busy week. we have been preparing a ton of things > for the zone conference on friday and everything turned out very well. > i directed the meeting, we prepared lunch for 30 people, and made a > presentation for 45 minutes for our zone while president and hermana > peterson had interviews with every missionary. they wanted to thank > all of us personally, and it was great. i am very grateful for them. > on tuesday night, we went to catriel to have divisions and we were > going to do some baptismal interviews but my companion ended up doing > one. in our zone, we had 2 baptisms this week!! now it has been 2 > weeks in a row with baptisms and we are hoping that we can continue at > this rate. for this month, we are still preparing florencia and the > familia becerra. > with florencia, we went to their house with the bishop so the bishop > could get to know her parents, and everything went very well. > florencia is ready to be baptized but she is so shy! it`s a difficult > problem to get over... > the familia becerra is from bolivia. we went to visit them yesterday > and they were grilling chicken and some chorizos (sausages) with some > other bolivian friends. the bolivians are great people. omar is > still having some problems with his shoulder. he traveled to roca to > have a doctor look at him and they say that they can`t do the surgery > because it has already been a month, and they don`t have the material > to do it. they have to order it from the united states and it is very > expensive. omar would have to go to buenos aires to be operated but > they don`t have the money. he wants a change in his life, and he is > looking forward to the 23rd of june for his baptism. he went to > church a long time ago, but with us he hasn`t been able to go. he has > family friends over saturday night, and they stay until 3 or 5 in the > morning. this week they promised that they won`t have friends over so > late and they are going to be able to wake up and go to church with > us. we even had an hermana from church go to pick them up in her car, > but they were sleeping... we are working on it with them. but at > least they are progressing, and that is the most important. we are > also visiting them with the hermano gomez and they really get along > great. > it has been cold this week. it snowed and rained a few times. doris, > the mother of florencia, gave me some other shoes that her husband > doesn`t use anymore but there are some holes in the leather. the > soles are strong though. i have been thinking that some missionary > will leave his shoes this week because there are 17 missionaries that > are finishing this transfer. we had lunch with the bishop a few days > ago, and my companion complained about some water in his shoes, so the > bishop gave him brand new shoes that he hasn`t used. i was really > jealous because i have been searching for some good shoes and my comp > has a few good pairs still but he gets brand new ones... but i am > going to be persistent in my search. > this is the last week of transfers and 3 missionaries from our zone > are going home. one sister missionary is having her family pick her > up on sunday and they are going to spend a week visiting the three > areas that she has been in! crazy... > hey! i got my package from you guys! muchas gracias! i wore the tie in > the zone conference. i really love it. i haven`t been able to play > the music yet but maybe i will get the chance today! i have been > hiding my peach rings from my comp because he really likes them too, > but i am sharing the peanut butter. i love reading the talks from > general conference too. i had forgotten some of them but rereading > them now have really helped me this week. > it has been a pretty crazy week, but i had some good experiences that > i learned from. i´m feeling pretty good and we are happy with the > progress of our zone. it is looking like we are going to have at > least 2 more baptisms this weekend. we are praying everything goes > well with florencia. > i found a great scripture in philippians 4:13 > 13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. > i am focusing on improving in a lot of things, and some of those > things are a little more difficult to do... if we are always doing the > same things, we will always have the same results! > we want amazing results this week, so we are fixing a few things to be > able to help florencia and the becerra family be baptized this week. > i am very grateful for the things i am learning and i am grateful for > all of the support we are receiving from the members in our ward. one > family offered us to use their home for a family home evening with > some less active members tonight so we are excited. i love you guys! > i hope this week goes great and you are in my prayers! > con mucho amor y ànimo, > elder summers

141 days to go...

> ola familia! > it has been a great week. president peterson asked all of us to have > a special fast this weekend for our investigators so that we can meet > our new monthly goal for baptisms. part of his vision for the mission > in neuquen is to have 100 baptisms every month. that means that each > companionship needs to have at least one baptism in the month. i felt > really good with the fast that we had and we were able to find and > teach a few more people. we have seen many miracles in neuquen this > week. > omar and grisel becerra are a young bolivian couple with two young > children. i met them for the first time this week but my companion > found them a few weeks before i arrived. grisel wanted to learn more > but omar didn`t have much interest. omar had an accident on his > motorcycle and he was hit by a bus. he should have died in that > accident and the doctors are amazed how fast he was able to get > better. it has been almost a month since his accident and he is able > to walk again. his shoulder is still shattered and a few nerves in > his face were cut so it is a little disfigured, but he is going to > have a few more operations. he has completely changed and is very > grateful to God for another chance of living and taking care of his > family. he told us that he really wants to know God and get closer to > Him. he has a baptismal date for the 23rd of june and he is going to > talk to his wife about it. > florencia is a 14 year old girl that is preparing for her baptism this > weekend. she attended the stake conference that we had yesterday with > her niece, gianina (also preparing to be baptized), that lives in > cipolletti. we are hoping everything goes smoothly, but she is really > progressing and has the desires. > we also found an older woman named alicia. she has been an > investigator for about 6 months, but she recently told the > missionaries not to come anymore because it causes problems with her > husband. i wanted to meet her, so we passed by her house. she said > that she felt terrible sending the missionaries away and she wants to > learn more about the church. her husband hugo was very 创buena > onda创, in a good mood, and everything went very well. she accepted > to be baptized on the 23rd of june as well, but hugo is not ready yet. > i feel like this area has turned around a lot these last few weeks > because we started at zero with nothing to do. i know that there are > a lot of people that are prepared to be baptized in this area, and > elder cort閟 and i are working hard. > in our zone, everything is getting better. we did not have a baptism > this week, but for the next 3 weeks, we have many investigators that > are progressing. the goal is to have a baptism every week in the > zone, and we should be able to do it with 13 companionships. i am > excited to see the enthusiasm the missionaries have in the neuquen > zone. things are picking up in 醤imo :). elder cort閟 and i are > calling at least one companionship every night to see how they are > doing and check on their progress with investigators to keep them > excited. > tomorrow is our zone leader conference with president peterson. we > are very excited for it and i know that we are going to learn a lot of > great things. > this morning, i finished the book of mormon for the first time in > spanish. i know that the book of mormon is the word of God and it has > blessed my life in many ways. it gives me the strength and energy to > work diligently every day because it testifies of Jesus Christ and i > am very grateful for the messages it contains. i loved moroni 9:25 > and i felt this scripture speak directly to me. > 25 y son, be faithful in Christ!; and may not the things which I > have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but ay > Christ lift thee up!, and may his sufferings and death, and the > showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, > and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind > forever. > i am so excited this week! today we were going to go play bowling with > the elders from catriel and 25 de mayo, but their ride got sick... i > guess we will play next week. my companion, elder cort閟 is writing a > song for president peterson so i think we are going to go to the > church and see what we can come up with, and then we are going to make > some empanadas :) i love empanadas. dad- mcdonalds here is trucho > because the burgers are very small with a little plastic-y disc of > meat, and it is very expensive. i think that the ice cream is ok but > i never bought it. it`s getting a little chillier right now. i磎 > looking forward to watching the avengers with you guys. were there a > lot of awesome things in the garage sale? i`m excited to see the bike > you bought! i loved all of the pictures that were sent this week. > jacie`s new house looks awesome and emelia is very cute. thank you > for keeping me in your prayers in thinking of me in neuquen. i love > you all and i`m looking forward to hearing from you next week. > con mucho 醤imo y amor, > elder summers

155 Days To Go...

¡hola familia! > it was a very fast week for me. very busy. i love neuquen! it is > like a combo of all the areas that i have been in and i`m very excited > to be working here. my companion elder cortès is awesome too. i like > the way he teaches and we get along very well. he is very talented > with music and has plans to study in byu after the mission. he is > from valdivia, chile and it is very likely that he is going to finish > the mission with me. he has 2 transfers left. i am learning a lot of > things and it has been a humbling experience starting here. > neuquen is kind of a complicated area but we are having more success. > my zone consists of the east half of neuquen, towns outside of neuquen > called cipolletti, catriel, and 25 de mayo. there are 4 districts in > our zone, including the missionaries in the mission office. the new > district leaders in our zone are very cool as well so our zone will be > picking it back up very soon. > my area is downtown neuquen. it is similar to downtown denver and > things move pretty fast. lots of cars, lots of stores, tons of people > in a hurry. we live in a nice area, on the other side of a private > school called morning glory. we don`t have very much in this area. > when i got here, we literally only had 4 investigators, but now things > are getting better. in the last 24 months, the ward only had 4 > baptisms... we are contacting references and i can tell that we are > already gaining more confidence from the members (which is the key!!) > surprisingly, i already knew quite a few of the members here and the > members are really cool. i swear that the first counsilor in our ward > looks just like viggo mortensen. wasn`t expecting that one... but > everything is going well. we set some fechas with florencia and doris > for the 9th of june and they are looking pretty solid. tonight we are > going to have a noche de hogar with them and we invited a member to > come along with us. we found some other people to teach, but we are > going to meet with them again and put the fecha. one man is named > horacio, and the guy has the potential of being a stake president. i > am pretty sure that he is prepared to be baptized, but he made a > comment that made me think that he isn`t married right now so we will > check on that. > the members are anxious to work with us too so we will see the fruits > very soon. i`m so excited! it is very overwhelming to start in a new > place, so busy and fast in neuquen, in addition to all of the new > responsibilities that i have been given, but i know that i am > receiving a lot of help. these next few months with elder cortès are > really going to help me grow as a missionary and i`m ready for the > challenge!! i found one scripture that helped me a lot this week in > d&c 68:6. i know that our savior is always there to help us with our > trials and problems. everything is to help us grow stronger because > He knows our potential. > i loved all of the pictures this week! i`m glad that caden`s birthday > went well, and annie`s pictures were very cute. i will talk with pte > peterson about the ecclesiastical endorsement. everything is going to > turn out very well. you guys can look me up in neuquen! my address is > rìo desaguadero 647, the church is on la rioja 134. > my boundaries are from salta to illia, from the top side of neuquen > until perito moreno below on the other side of mitre and a huge park. > there are tons of things in our area, and we are working on > publicizing are english classes we teach every saturday. we are > getting some good results from that too. we also have a few more > neighborhoods outside of neuquen that we visit called parque > industrial, 14 de octubre, barrio copol, rincon de emilio, and nueva > españa. it is a VERY large area, but we can reach those neighborhoods > in 10-15 minutes on a bus. its very expensive here!! > but the great thing is that i can see walmart when i leave the > apartment, and we have 2 mcdonald´s in our area. even though they are > trucho, it makes me feel good for some reason knowing they are so > close :). are apartment is very unorganized. we are going to > dedicate a good few hours today to clean. we have tons of space and > we have 2 floors!! living the life in neuquen. i love it. > being here as a missionary in neuquen means everything to me. i am > very grateful to have the opportunity of serving the people and the > other missionaries in the zone. thank you for supporting me on my > mission and keeping me in your prayers. i love you all and i hope > this week goes better than the last!! > con mucho amor y ànimo, > elder summers

162 Days To Go...

¡hola familia! it was awesome being able to talk to you guys yesterday! today, i`ve been pretty busy and we are getting ready to go out to lunch with a family in cinco saltos before i head off for neuquen. right after talking to you guys, we went to visit a family that made me a delicious cake. we took some good pictures. now i am downloading my pictures on a dvd so i will have more space. i finished packing everything this morning and i`m feeling good. a little nervous thats all. i talked with elder page on the phone and he told me that he`s looking forward to seeing me again at a leaders training meeting. he is one of the assistents to the president and i will have a lot of contact with him as a zone leader. i also talked with elder cortès, he is my new comp and he is from chile. i am going to meet with him at the bus terminal in neuquen at 6, so i have a bit of time. it`s all going by so fast but i know that everything is going to go well. i got an email from president peterson and he told me that he is going to interview so i can renew my temple recommend, and i will be attending the temple in buenos aires before going home!! that will be very exciting. i loved getting all of the pictures today! there is going to be a special zone conference in a few weeks to say goodbye to president peterson and we are going to have a pure testimony meeting. it is going to be great and i`m excited for it. i am very grateful for president peterson and his wife for all of the things they have done for me, helping me along the way. i`m excited to start as a zone leader today. i`m ready to go! now i`m running out of time, but thank you for writing me today, i will have more time to write next week i think. i love you all and i wish you the best this week. ¡hasta luego! ¡chau! con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers

169 Days to Go!

¡hola familia! this week has gone by so fast! it was a holiday on monday and tuesday. the president of argentina started ``bridge holidays``, so if a holiday is on tuesday, we have another on monday so we can have a longer weekend. on tuesday, we ended up going to the ward activity in centenario for lunch because our ward didn`t do anything until saturday, and then we helped the elders move out to another apartment. it was a good day. oh! and monday night, we ate the pig head. it was mostly skin what we ate with some little hairs (good protein), but i can proudly say that i ate everything on my plate. victor made a salad of the pig, tomatos, and cebollas (i don`t remember how to say it in english), and it was alright. not something i would want to eat again because it didn`t have much meat. it was like thick pieces of uncooked bacon. on wednesday was the birthday of elder gomez, but i don`t think he did much to celebrate. we are going to neuquen today to go bowling, and we are going to celebrate with him. i`m pretty excited. we went searching for some calling cards this morning and we are very excited to call our mamas on sunday :) friday, i had 2 interviews for baptism in centenario. everything went awesome and i loved being able to talk with them before they were baptized. they had some neat experiences. juan villar is a guy that has had it pretty rough but he has a strong testimony. this week was great for our investigators, and they are progressing a lot. the only thing is that they have some obstacles they need to overcome before they can be baptized. carmen is waiting for her leg to heal, because she can get an infection in the water. horacio and carolina are doing great too. they are getting married in june, and jorge and marta are planning to get married this month. we have a fecha for ema to be baptized on the 19th and she is also very excited. she invited her daughter to see her baptism. i took pictures of my shoes but something happened with my camera and they aren`t showing up! i will take more. here are some pictures of when i ate a kilo of ice cream with my comp, and our victory lunch. i cooked an asado! and a picture of my pancakes that i make for my comp. he loves them, and i`m sure he would love them even more with maple syrup instead of pear jam :). es rico igual pero no es lo mismo... we are happy. everything is going well and we are staying on top of it. the bishop told us that he is happy with how things are going and is glad to have 2 elders that are more ``spiritual and serious about the work``. ¡vamos arriba! asì me gusta escuchar. it makes me very happy to be here with someone that wants to work as much as i do and we are accomplishing a lot. we stay very busy everyday and we are visiting tons of families. we just need to get them to church... fa! pero bueno. the scholarship sounds awesome! the reference from mr. hire would be great. this year, he won`t be at chap anymore? i wanted to visit him at the school... i`ll be thinking about what i will write to send in. how are dad`s piano skills doing? i haven`t received any more videos. now, i am able to watch on this computer. i love seeing fotos as well :) elder guillen cut my hair this week too. nice and short for the coming winter. it`s starting to get colder. today it is pretty nice outside, so i am ``aprovechando`` with some short sleeves. i am so excited for mother`s day! i am really looking forward to talking with my mama. i will be calling from the church here in cinco saltos around 5-7 my time. i think that`s good for you right? at that time? i was reading in alma 57:21 and it made me think of my mama. 21 Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had tau

ght them. mom- thank you for everything and i`m excited to talk to you on sunday to tell you how much i love and admire you. today, i send 3 letters filled with fotos :) jajaja i hope you get all 3 parts. i love you all and thank you all for writing. jacie was the only one that didn`t write me anything... :( but next week for sure :) con mucho amor y ànimo, elder summers

176 Days To Go!

¡hola familia! another great week. the hi-light, was definitely the baptism of noemí. everything went very smoothly and were really excited for her. she was very prepared and we are very happy for her. we got her a triple combo and we wrote our testimonies in the front pages. we are going to give it to her this week as a gift. for my 18 month mark, our lunch failed us so i bought us an asado to celebrate and i cooked for my comp. then we ate a kilo of ice cream. i was very happy and we took some good pictures. it was kind of an ugly day but we enjoyed it. it rained last wednesday, and that´s how i found out that there are some holes in my soles. fa... but i have another pair of shoes that i´m using. i don't know how much time my other shoes have because i think i´m burning them out faster. we are walking a lot. i´m not sure how much but somebody told me this week that each block is 100 meters, so we must be walking at least 6 or 7 kilometers a day. it never seems like we walk that much though... i´m trying to send pictures but the computer isn´t uploading anything. i wanted to send 2 from the baptism, one of the awesome asado that i prepared, and another of my shoes with holes in the soles. maybe next week. i´m getting a lot better at cooking. i can now make a good guiso and i have perfected my pancakes. elder guillen loves them. they are nice and puffy, and i am excited about how much i have improved. the only thing is that we don´t have maple syrup to make it complete. i only wish i could show my pictures!! i have some questions- have they started the temple in fort collins yet? when are they supposed to finish it? who all is in the new avengers movie? i would like to watch all of those movies too before i watch it on dvd. how is mitt romney doing? what are the requirements to work at the mtc? are things getting more expensive there? i heard that the dollar here is worth 5 pesos right now. when i started it was worth 3.92. when was the last time you ate a chipotle burrito? i miss it... anyways, the zone conference this week was incredible. i loved it! president peterson talked about what his vision is for the mission and we talked about how we can all get there together. he talked about what he wants from each of us as missionaries and how we can help improve in our areas. i think my mission president has two transfers left before going home. that´s crazy how fast everything goes. it´s going to be interesting to see what happens. i am really grateful for him and all the things i have learned from him. everything is going very well here in cinco saltos. we aren´t sure what to do with ema because she told us some things that make us think she might need to talk to president peterson before getting baptized, so we will see. she was there at the baptism on saturday, and we are going to see her tonight. we found another woman named carmen and she has a ton of faith. people go to her and ask her to pray to God for them because they know He answers her prayers, but she tells them that they have mouths and they can do it themselves. she is really cool. the doctors cut off her leg a few months ago, i think she has diabetes. she is now the third person that we are teaching that is missing the same leg. we taught the plan of salvation and she felt the spirit very strongly and accepted to be baptized on the 12th. it was an awesome lesson. it made me think about my patriarchal blessing that says on my mission i will be able to teach many people about where they come from and the purpose of this life. lately, that promise has been coming to my mind a lot. i really enjoy teaching the plan of salvation because i like to know what they truly believe, and then we help them understand their eternal potential. it´s one of my favorite things to talk about. jorge is doing great too. he went to church on sunday and says that he felt very good. he really wants to be baptized and we are very excited for him. he is getting married soon, and then he will be ready for baptism. the members are starting to give us more references and it is an honor for me that they are starting to trust us more with their friends and family. this week, we have a lot of work to do. i have been thinking a lot about the scripture found in st john 15:16 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. i feel like we were chosen to work together here in cinco saltos specifically at this time. we have lots of fruit and we are very excited! i am very grateful for all of the blessings that we have been given and i feel as if everything gets better and better as time goes by. tonight, we were invited to eat dinner with a less active family. we are going to eat a pig´s head. it made me laugh to see the head in the fridge and i took a picture. scouting with brother rydalch helped me prepare for my mission because i remember trying to eat a pig´s head at one of our campouts :) jajaja. i love you guys and i´m thankful for all of your letters. some of you have been more ´´flojo´´, i´m not going to name names but you know who you are. it would be awesome if you make it a goal to write me every week for the next 25 weeks (that´s all!) and think of all the awesome blessings you will receive! i hope this week goes even better than the last for each of you! con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers

183 Days to go...

¡hola familia! i can´t believe that this week i will have 18 months as a missionary!! wow! it goes too fast. things here in cinco saltos are going awesome. we are going to have a baptism for sure this saturday and i will have pictures next week. noemí is the mother of pablo, our ward mission leader and first councilor in the ward. both of them are very excited and i´m pretty sure that pablo is going to baptize her. noemí told us that she had a dream that answered her prayers. she wouldn´t tell us details because they are very personal to her and they were exactly what she needed to know for sure of what she is doing. we are very excited for her! i don´t know if i mentioned jorge yet, but he is also progressing a lot. he is lacking a few things for his divorce, and then he is going to marry marta, a woman that just moved into cinco saltos from neuquen and she wants to do the things right, so she told jorge that they need to get married if they are going to live together. they are an older couple, probably around 60 years old. while we taught jorge about the plan of salvation, it really touched him and he felt strongly that it is all true and is doing all that he can to prepare himself for baptism. we found another woman this week named ema that talked to the missionaries a long time ago and now wants to be baptized. she wanted to be baptized this saturday but wasn´t able to go to church yesterday, so we are going to have another week to help her get ready. melani is doing great. really excited to go to church every week. we are teaching her mom, herminia. she isn´t progressing as much but she really supports melani and wants to go to church with her. she didn´t accompany melani yesterday because sunday is her only free day from work and she decided to go visit her brother in neuquen that she hasn´t seen or talked to in over three years. those are the people that are progressing the most but we are seeing other miracles here in cinco saltos and finding many people that want to learn more. the ward is getting a lot better, and the members are even starting to leave their houses to finally do their visits with the inactives! the visits are long overdue but it´s sure helping. we didn´t reach 50 members in church yet but we are getting closer. in church, i was asked to give a talk about missionary work and how we can invite our friends and families to learn more about the gospel. creo que me salió bien. :) i´m so happy to see the results that we are having. the ward won´t change overnight but it is nice to see the progress already. fall is starting in cinco saltos and it is getting a little cooler. un poco fresco afuera, but i love this weather. it is very beautiful here, and i love when the leaves change and begin to fall. hey! and i loved the pictures you sent me! it was awesome seeing everyone together. i was going to write earlier but the ciber where we usually go was closed and we decided to do other things and wait for the siesta to end to be able to write in a different ciber. sorry i didn´t write sooner. and the bolsa of letters that we get every week hasn´t come yet, but i´m hoping it comes later tonight or tomorrow. it might not even show up this week because we have a zone conference this wednesday in neuquen but i hope that the office sent it... we spent the day pretty well though and we had an amazing lunch. i took a picture of it to be able to show off the belleza and majesty but i will have to send it next week with our pictures of noemí for her baptism. i was reading the book of mormon in alma and i really enjoyed 36:24-25 24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. 25 Yea, and now behold, O my son, the Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors; i am happy to be able to share the gospel in cinco saltos and i have no shame in doing it. my companion, elder guillen, and i are working very well together and we are having a lot of success. we are very excited with our work and i echo alma´s words when i say that we have great joy in the fruit of our labors. thank you for all of your support. this is the best time of my life. i love you guys and i´m looking forward to hearing from you again next week! con mucho amor y ánimo, elder summers