Monday, January 30, 2012

271 Days to go... (9 more months)

¡hola familia!
> i officially have 15 months on the mission. to celebrate, we had a
> zone conference in trelew and ate hamburgers and panchos. the
> conference went very well and my companion and i received some good
> revelation for the next few weeks in rawson. the focus was on the
> ´´recipe for eternal life´´, finding more people to teach, and how to
> bring more investigators to church. it was a great conference and we
> learned a lot of good things that we have already put into practice.
> the recipe for eternal life includes the following ingredients: 1)
> faith in Jesus Christ that carries us to repentance, baptism and the
> purification by the Holy Ghost, 2) the guidance of the Holy Ghost in
> our daily lives, 3) being a part of the community of saints, to serve
> and receive service, 4) frequently sharing the gospel so that it is
> deeply rooted in our hearts, 5) keeping faith in Jesus Christ through
> simple acts of prayer, fasting and scripture study. pretty good
> recipe, right?
> the week went very well and we saw some MILAGROS (miracles) that
> boosted our ánimo for the work. we were able to find 7 new people to
> teach this week. that is the most that i have been able to find this
> transfer so we were pretty excited. we had three of those in church
> yesterday! in the morning on sunday, my companion and i went on
> divisions with leandro and emmanuel, another priest in our ward, and
> we went looking for our investigators to bring them to church. we
> were only able to bring 3 because the others had to go out of town or
> they didn´t want to wake up... but we had some great meetings. in our
> gospel principles class, elder roper taught about repentance and
> everything went perfect. raul and fabian are two guys that have lost
> everything because of drinking problems but we talked with them and
> convinced them to start new and just come to church with us. during
> the sacrament meeting, fabian couldn´t take it and he left to buy some
> alcohol, but raul really wants to make a change in his life. we have
> a cita with him at 7 and we are looking forward to it because he has
> strong desires to change. when we found him outside of his house, he
> said he was really struggling in life and he just wanted something to
> pick him back up and help him. well, the gospel is perfect for that!
> i was playing the piano in sacrament meeting so elder escobar sat next
> to him during sacrament meeting, but he told me that raul was paying a
> lot of attention to all of the discursos in the meeting, even though
> there were a lot of distractions with all of the little kids running
> around.
> right after the meeting, rodrigo, the brother of leandro, told me that
> he wanted to be baptized so i asked him if he feels prepared to be
> baptized this saturday, the 4th of febrero, and he said yes. he wants
> his friend gaby to baptize him and we are pretty excited for this
> weekend. the family cuello will all be members by this weekend and it
> will be awesome.
> our other investigators are doing well too, they are just waiting for
> their answers to know if this is Christ´s church and if they feel
> prepared to be baptized. we set a few more baptismal dates for the
> 18th of febrero so we are coming along. we are just working on
> getting our investigators to read and pray. they say that they don´t
> have much time but they can always make time... oh well. this week
> our goal is to find 15 more investigators (at least 2 everyday) and
> have 8 of them in church so we can stay really busy. we can do it!!
> in our zone conference, we talked about setting our goals higher.
> anything is possible.
> from my last email- thanks for taking care of my fish casper/dorothy.
> the ´´real burritos´´ that i mentioned were real because the other
> burritos that people have made aren´t like the ones from home that i
> like. they usually don´t have all of the ingredients and the
> tortillas are really small because we buy the covers for empanadas
> (which work pretty well too). i have been thinking about the typical
> argentine food that i eat everyday and everything that i eat is pretty
> simple. it´s basically bread, rice, chicken, noodles or spaghetti,
> and some tomato sauce or lots of mayo and salt. i sometimes get lucky
> with some really good seafood with some shrimp salad (because i live
> so close to the ocean right now) or some trout. delicious. but the
> food isn´t too dificult. maybe you guys won´t want me to make this
> stuff for you... maybe i will just make empanadas or something because
> i don´t know how to cook lamb.
> on saturday, we were playing futbol, and they say that i look just
> like wayne rooney that plays for manchester union. they say that he
> is a torito salvaje (wild little bull) while playing futbol so i guess
> i´m ok with that. nahuel antinao wants to give me his rooney shirt so
> i can ´´play even better´´. you´ll have to see if i look like him or
> not. everyone says that i do look like him but i say that he looks
> like me :) jajaja!
> but anyways, this week i was able to finish doctrine and covenants in
> spanish and the book of mormon again in english. i love reading the
> book of mormon and i started again this morning in spanish. i know
> that it is the word of God and that it testifies of our savior. we
> all have the opportunity to repent and be cleansed from sin so that we
> may live with God again. i love the last words of moroni at the end
> of the book of mormon in verses 32-34. yea, COME unto christ, and be
> PERFECTED in Him. the great thing about the ´´recipe of eternal
> life´´ is that our heavenly father loves us enough to share it with us
> and give us the chance to be PERFECTED like He is. i know that there
> are many that don´t like sharing their recipes... but our Heavenly
> Father gave us His: the gospel. i´m so grateful to be here in rawson
> and i´m looking forward to another great week.
> i´m getting some letters out next week. i should be getting more
> money to send them in february but i DID write letters. should be
> good. just a little expensive to send... but i love you guys a lot!
> con mucho amor y ánimo,
> elder summers

Monday, January 23, 2012

278 Days to Go!!

¡hola familia!
another good week in the books. it hasn´t been too hot but they cut
the electricity a few times and they do that when the heat is really
strong. we went to the beach last monday and it was perfect because
it was kind of cold and gray so nobody was there. there are a lot of
africans on the beach selling things like bracelets and watches and we
were going to play futbol with them but then they started playing
dirty and we left. throwing the ´´codos´´... we ended up playing
just the missionaries in another field and we went to eat lunch in
this peruvian-mexican restaurant. i ate a real burrito for the first
time in argentina and i LOVED it. tomorrow, we are going to eat tacos
with the familia cuello (dalia, aixa, leandro, y rodrigo) and i´m
pretty excited for that too.
today, i think that we are going to lie low and just hang out. i´m
tired today so we are going to print some pictures and go to the post
office to send stuff and we might order some sandwiches from don gato.
(son riquísimos).
we met some new people this week with some interesting situations...
and it´s really hard to help them. all we have is the gospel but
their problems are a lot more complicated and i feel like all we can
do is listen and do our best. it´s just frustrating. claudio didn´t
read anything this week but we talked to beatriz and she wants to get
married but claudio doesn´t. claudio doesn´t believe that anything
comes after this life. he´s living the ´´joda total´´.
but the familia cuello is doing awesome. rodrigo didn´t come to
church because he ´´didn´t feel like it´´ and he went to hang out with
his cousin. he did read and pray but he said nothing happened. he
did have a dream about the church that night but he doesn´t remember
what happened. aixa is studying the book of mormón and has lots of
good questions. she is going to buenos aires in mid february to study
medicine. leandro is thinking about serving a mission, and his mom,
dalia, is happy serving in her new calling.
we have been talking with our ward mission lider to start some plan
where the members start inviting less active members and recent
converts to their family home evenings and we announced our plan
yesterday in church. the members are pretty excited about the idea
and they started inviting people. i think it is going to help them to
learn how to have family home evenings and they are going to start
coming to church again. we are going to do what we can to help and
everyone is going to report how things went and who they invited. in
rawson, there are a lot of inactive members because they just don´t
have any interaction with the church. it´s like the missionaries came
in and baptized, and when they left those converts just fell away.
it´s sad but the ward has been coming along lately and attendance is
getting better.
i can´t believe my fish is still alive! wow! thanks for taking care of
it. i thought it died a long time ago. can you send me a picture of
it? maybe with a newspaper or something to show the date as evidence
it is alive today because i really didn´t think it would have survived
until now. jajaja! when is jana randall supposed to go home? that´s
kind of wierd that her mission president is sending her early...
this friday, we are going to have our zone conference and pte peterson
asked us to read a talk from elder perry. i´m not sure when he gave
it but i really liked it. it talked about how we can have eternal
life and compares it to a cook book. in the book, there is a picture
of the plate when it is done perfectly. if we don´t follow the
directions exactly while we prepare the meal, the results aren´t going
to turn out. he says that in our lives, if we aren´t obedient, we
won´t reach eternal life. i really liked that analogy. i know that
the scriptures have the instructions that we need to be able to reach
that goal! just need to apply them in our lives. right now, i am
studying doctrine and covenants in spanish and these really stood out
to me this week-
D&C
97:8 Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are
honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to
observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the
Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me.
103:36 All victory and glory is brought to pass unto you through your
diligence, faithfulness, and prayers of faith.
the life is going good here in rawson and we are getting ready to
leave. thanks for your letters this week! they make me happy. i love
you guys! keep on keepin´ on.
çon mucho amor y ánimo
elder summers

Monday, January 16, 2012

Day 285

¡hola familia!
> happy martin luther king jr day! this week has gone a little slower
> because it has been a lot hotter. it got up to 42 (107) degrees and
> the heat has been getting a little hard to deal with. we are drinking
> a LOT of water and im going to need to buy some sun tan lotion today.
> we are going to the beach today and i don´t have a lot of time to
> write. to answer questions- ceniza means ashes. there was a huge fire
> in chile and we got hit with all of the ashes because there is a lot
> of wind in the patagonia.
> Nacho went to buenos aires for the week so we haven´t seen him around.
> silvia is doing well too. we have been helping her with her chacra
> and we ended up finding a new family to teach because there were some
> people picking fruit to eat. their names are claudio and beatriz, the
> only problem is that they aren´t married and claudio is antichrist and
> reads a whole bunch of ¿philosophy? (spelling?) he showed us his
> library and it was impressive.
> aixa is doing awesome too. her brother leandro didn´t baptize her
> because she said they don´t have a very close relationship and they
> don´t talk very much... but her mom just got a calling to teach the 8
> year old kids, and the family is doing a lot better. we are just
> lacking rodrigo to be baptized... but he is coming around. we had
> divisions the other day and i wasn´t in my area when my comp and the
> other missionary asked him what was impeding, stopping him from being
> baptized but he wouldn´t answer. my comp thinks it is because he
> doesn´t want to serve a mission but i need to talk to him about it.
> we are getting ready for a zone conference this week and we are going
> to go over the talk from elder perry from general conference and to go
> over the significance of baptism in salvation. it should be great and
> i´m looking forward to it. i think that elder arnold might be there
> for the conference too but pte peterson didn´t mention him in his
> email.
> everything here is going good. i´m not sure why i will be here
> another transfer but i think it is for the investigators that we have
> right now. this is my 4th transfer here in rawson and things are
> coming along. i opened this area and it has progressed a lot since i
> started so i´m pretty happy about things here.
> my scripture for the week is found in doctrine and covenants 90:24
> 24 Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things
> shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember
> the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another.
> it stood out a lot to me when i read it and i like thinking that i
> have covenanted with these people to find them as a missionary to
> teach them the gospel. it makes things a lot more fun to contact and
> talk with the people. well, i have to go now, but i love you guys
> and i look forward to next week!
> con mucho amor y animo,
> elder summers

Monday, January 9, 2012

Day 292





¡hola familia!
> we started the year great with the baptism of aixa, leandro´s sister.
> aixa picked elder escobar to baptize her. i have no idea why,
> especially since he never talks to girls, but she decided on him.
> that was a little disappointing for me but it was a great baptism.
> everything went very well and then the other missionaries had a
> baptism on sunday so we are all pretty pumped. i played the piano
> for the baptisms and for church. the bishop said that i should be the
> official pianist of rawson and he would like me to play more on
> sunday. i just don´t want to get stuck playing the piano when we have
> investigators come to church but i guess the members can do more
> fellowshipping. this week there are no changes in rawson. an elder in
> the office told us that this transfer, pte peterson made 62 changes
> (pretty much half the mission got changed) but we are all staying in
> rawson for another 6 weeks. we are looking forward to some good times.
> it is really hot this summer! i don´t remember it being like this in
> comodoro... i think the sun here is a lot stronger and the wind is
> very warm. yesterday it was 38 degrees and i think that is over 100
> fahrenheit. we got a little more ceniza yesterday too and it was
> pretty tough. i´m just trying to keep my ánimo up, and the ánimo of
> my comp because the heat seems to suck out your energy. especially if
> you can´t get into any houses. now, most of the people go to the
> beach all day so we don´t see very many people in the streets... i´m
> getting jealous of the snow. me llamo veranos, pero prefiero el
> invierno jajaja.
> hey! i got my visa stuff done this week so i am no longer illegal!!!
> that was nice. i had to get my picture taken and i spent the day in
> the immigration office in rawson hanging out with the peruanos,
> bolivianos, and some africans. i got some good references for the
> other missionaries and the rest of them live outside of rawson. and
> now i´m waiting for my DNI that is going to come in the mail any day
> and it says that i am an argentine citizen so i´m really excited to
> get it!! the other missionaries usually get theirs really fast but i
> never got mine...
> nacho came to church yesterday and things are going well with him. we
> also had a noche de hogar with silvia and her family and it was
> successful. we are trying to start teaching oscar, the guy that is
> living with silvia, but he doesn´t seem to have much interest even
> though he does want to get married with her. a few days ago, we went
> to see if manuel, the viejito that we were teaching a few months ago,
> was still there and we found a guy named lucas that hasn´t been to
> church for a long time. he found the book of mormon that we left with
> manuel and he started to read it. he couldn´t come back to church
> this sunday but the next sunday i´m pretty sure he will be able to
> come. we are doing alright, just the heat is our challenge.
> i really liked president monson´s message in the january ensign about
> some ABCs for this year. he says ´´we can´t direct the wind, but we
> can adjust the sails.´´ having a good attitude really helps in the
> work and i´m trying to help my comp a lot. his weakness is the heat
> because he is negro and i think it makes him really tired because he
> always looks sleepy. i´m trying to help him stay animated or he can
> turn to a negative black hole that sucks out my joy, and it is amazing
> how much he can change if i just focus on all the positive things
> around us. i enjoyed reading in doctrina y convenios esta semana
> tambien:
> D&C 81:5-6
> 5 Wherefore, be faithful; stand in the office which I have appointed
> unto you; succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and
> strengthen the feeble knees.
> 6 And if thou art faithful unto the end thou shalt have a crown of
> immortality, and eternal life in the mansions which I have prepared in
> the house of my Father.
> our goal is to find a whole bunch of new people to teach this week so
> we can keep baptizing every week. just got to keep that vision.
> i sent some pictures and i tried to send videos of the fireworks but
> they are too big. sorry. i guess we will watch them together! i will
> send some better pictures next week :) bueno, ¡les amo mucho y espero
> que tengan una semana increíble!
> con mucho amor y ánimo,
> elder summers

Day 299

¡hola familia!
> happy new year! my first few days of 2012 have been awesome and this
> week i celebrated 14 months on the mission with some great fireworks
> and we had a lot of fun. i don´t have my camera to send pictures
> right but next week for sure.
> we climbed the roof again, me, elder escobar, roper, castillo,
> rodrigo, mauro, and mauro´s friend. rodrigo lit the fireworks and we
> watched everyone around us throw a ton too. it was pretty great.
> there were some fires too... we saw some smoke that looked pretty
> close so we decided to see if we could help. we started running out
> towards that fire and some druggy pulled over and asked if we had an
> emergency and rodrigo screamed, ´´somos bomberos! we´re firemen, take
> us to the fire!´´ he believed him so we all loaded up in his little
> car and he brought us there to find out that the fire was on the other
> side of the river in the middle of nowhere, but at least we tried to
> help. we reported the fire at least...
> it was an exciting start to a new year. i get my hair cut too. pretty
> short and i really like it. it´s a nice change to start really well
> this year. not a whole lot exciting happened this week in the work
> but the leandro´s sister, aixa, told us that she wants to be baptized!
> we are teaching her the charlas but she already knows a lot because
> her mom has been going over a lot. she has a fecha to be baptized
> this weekend (on leandro´s birthday) and we are going to do all we can
> to prepare her. we are pretty pumped. it was a miracle because we
> walked in the house to visit the family, and aixa told us straight up
> that she wanted to be baptized. it came out of nowhere and really
> surprised us but we are pretty happy. it would be really awesome if
> leandro is able to do it. this is the last week of the transfer and we
> are thinking there will be some big changes in rawson. the members
> are saying that the mission president puts sister missionaries in
> rawson for the summer so i might be the district leader again but
> there is the possibility that i will be leaving next week and i am
> thinking it will be nice to start fresh again in a new place. if i
> don´t leave next week, i will definitely leave in february because i
> don´t think i will stay in rawson for more than 6 months. i guess
> there is also the possibility that we all stay together another
> month... but we will see next monday!
> i´m glad everyone got home safe and you all had a good week. sounds
> like those movies are going to have to be on my list and we will watch
> them together. i am pretty excited for sherlock holmes 2...
> king benjamin in mosiah 2:41 invites us to a state of never-ending
> happiness achieved by obedience to the commandments of God. He says:
> “…I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy
> state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they
> are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they
> hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that
> thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness…”
> right now, my mission president is putting more stress on our
> obedience to have more baptisms. when we are doing all the things
> that we can, the Lord blesses us in many ways. he tells us that we
> should maintain the vision of having baptisms every week and i´m
> setting some hight goals for 2012. i´m getting excited in the work
> and i love being here! my second year in argentina is going to be
> even better. I know it!!!
> i love you guys!
> ¡con mucho amor y ánimo!
> elder summers