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

190 days to go....

¡hola familia!
i wish i could have been there with you guys in the temple! sounds
awesome and i´m really jealous that i couldn´t be there. it has been
a long time since i have been able to go... i heard that the temple in
buenos aires will be ready in august or september and i think that i
might be able to go. that would be incredible! our lesson in church
this sunday was about doing more temple work, and it is very hard for
the people here because the temple is so far away, but we have the
priviledge of having many that are so close that there are no excuses
to go more often.
i have been thinking lately about how lucky i am to have such an
awesome family that has strong testimonies of the savior. i realized
a few days ago that my last 4 companions were all converts to the
church and they were all about 17 years old when they were baptized.
none of them really received support from their families and it makes
me really appreciate all the time that you spend just to send a quick
note to let me know that you are thinking of me every week. i am very
grateful and i love all of you.
there have been a lot of birthdays in the family this month! i have
them marked on my calendar and i can´t believe that time is going by
so fast. i wanted to give a shout out to ashley and mollie and wish
them a happy birthday this week! i hope you guys have awesome days
and i will be thinking of you. melani´s son, mario, turned 3 this
week too, and i shared my cadbury mini eggs to celebrate.
a few days ago, the missionary that i trained, elder ruano, has
reached his year mark on the mission. that makes me feel really
old... pero bueno, está bien. life is going well here with elder
guillen. he is really funny and we get along really well. he is
definitely one of my best companions and he really wants to work hard.
he is not shy at all like other comps i have had and that makes
things a lot more enjoyable talking to people. he reminds me of
somebody but i can´t think of who it is. maybe i will remember later.
we started teaching the mom of the first counsilor in our ward, pablo.
his mom, noemí, went to general conference, stake conference with
elder aidukaitis, and she has been to church many times, and now she
finally wants to take the lessons. we put the fecha for the 28th and
she is very excited and is receiving a lot of support from the members
in the ward. it is awesome. this week we had 46 people in sacrament
meeting. ¡vamos arriba! (that´s what my comp says all the time). it
means ´´we´re goin´ up!´´
one the 28th, we are looking at having many baptisms in my district
and i´m pretty excited about how things are going. i didn´t go on
divisions this week but we planned on doing it this friday with the
elders in centenario. should go great. i´m learning that if we want
something bad enough, we can accomplish anything. one question- what
are the requirements to work at the mtc?
i hope you guys have an awesome week and i will be sending pictures next week.
con mucho amor y ánimo,
elder summers

197 days to go....

¡hola familia!
> elder guillen, my new companion, is awesome. i really enjoy being
> with him and i love how responsible he is. he has a lot of fun
> working too and that makes a huge difference. my last companion would
> get mad at the members, but elder guillen is very positive and he
> brings a new spirit to cinco saltos. i´m excited to be working with
> him here.
> i´m happy kingston enjoyed his birthday on saturday! i can´t see the
> videos because this computer doesn´t have a program to watch... so all
> of the videos you sent don´t work. i saw the pictures though. on
> saturday, we were able to baptize melani! it was the first time that
> i have baptized anyone and it was a very special experience for me.
> melani was so happy and excited and it was a privilege for me to be a
> part of the ordinance. we took some good pictures and i am going to
> print some to give to her so she can always remember that day. she
> almost didn´t make it because she couldn´t get out of work, but we
> made it through and she was able to make it on time. on sunday, i was
> asked to confirm sofia a member of the church, the girl that baptized
> before the conference, and the first councilor, pablo, confirmed
> melani. that was the first time that i have confirmed somebody as
> well. an awesome weekend.
> my district has changed a lot this week. the hermanas in my district are doing awesome. hermana velez is working very well with hermana rosas, from buenos aires, and she came from neuquen and she was able to achieve the standard in her
> other area. i know we can learn a lot from her these next few weeks.
> i´m not worried about them too much, but on friday, i talked with my
> district and we set the goal of having 9 baptisms this month as a
> district. we already have one! the elders don´t have any fechas for
> baptism, but the hermanas have 4 really good ones. this week, it
> doesn´t look like we will have a baptism because brenda and daniel
> didn´t go to church, but franco and dolores are preparing for the 21
> and noemi is preparing for the 28. my companion, elder guillen is
> really excited to work and we get a lot done together. we will see a
> lot more miracles this month.
> presidente peterson wants us to meet with the ward mission leader and
> make goals for the trimestre, and we already have done that. we have
> the goal of baptizing 15 people in the next 3 months here in cinco
> saltos, and reactivating 8 families. we have the list of people that
> we are going to focus on and we are working with the members to help
> them come back. elder guillen and i are going to focus more on
> finding the less active members with the priesthood and help them come
> back to church. we really need them... and it just happens to be that
> they now have kids that need to be baptized, and they have lots of
> friends that want to hear about the gospel :). this week, we had 38
> people in church, 3 of them were our investigators. franco, herminia,
> and noemi. you have no idea how happy i am for them and we are so
> excited about what we are doing!
> i got my easter package today!! i really enjoyed it and my companion
> is excited to try some of my favorite easter candies. thank you for
> sending them!
> it´s starting to get a little colder now. the leaves are falling and
> i´m starting to use my long sleeved shirts again. i´m thinking that i
> probably won´t be using my short sleeved shirts again for a while...
> but that´s ok because i prefer working in the cold :).
> my scripture for this week is josué 1:9- mira que te mando que te
> esfuerces y seas valiente; no temes ni desmayes, porque Jehová tu Dios
> estará contigo dondequiera que vayas. that´s by memory. it´s a great
> scripture that helped me this week. i´m studying the book of joshua
> right now and i don´t know how many times God tells joshua to
> esforzarse and be valient. i don´t know what it says in english but
> this scripture did a lot for me this week.
> i know that i am where i need to be and i´m doing what i need to do.
> it is an honor for me to be a part of this work and i don´t want it to
> end. i love my Savior and i´m so happy to be here.
> i´m looking forward to another great week in cinco saltos and i´m
> hoping you guys enjoy this next week as well. i want pictures!
> remember that videos don´t work for me. pictures do.
> i love you guys!
> con mucho amor y ánimo,
> elder summers