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 :)