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