December 30, 2014

Hey Family,

It was so awesome to talk to you guys on Christmas! You all seem like your doing awesome and that's great! Thanks to everyone that sent me a letter in that package, it was the best present ever!! I wish I could come skiing with you guys, I think when I get off the mission skiing is something I am going to get into! Anyways, this week was pretty good! My district meeting went well, I threw down on the elders in my district and my zone leaders said it was the best district meeting they've ever been to, haha! There are a lot of elders in the district that are being disobedient right now and that aren't focused on their purpose, so this week has been pretty stressful with trying to help all of them out! President Miller even had to come and talk to some of them... But yeah hopefully I can be an impact to all of them! Elder Gardner and I are getting along so well, we are teaching and finding with more and more unity and power each and every week! Our investigators are doing pretty good, we got a new investigator named Ilva this week. She is from Sweden and she grew up Lutheran. We taught her the Restoration this week and she took it in very well! We gave her a Book of Mormon and a chapter in it to read and she said she would! We also invited her to baptism and she said yes so we set a baptism date in February and she said that she was going to need some more time so we set a date for April 19th!! If everything goes well that would be the best birthday present ever haha! Randy is doing well he hasn't smoked for 2 weeks now and he is still on his January 18th baptism date! All is well over here in Cherry Hills and I love being a missionary! It is the greatest work that any of us can do in this life and it's an honor to be wearing the name tag with the Savior's name on it! I hope you all are doing well, keep doing the right things and the Lord will bless you! I love you all

Love Elder Summerhays

December 23rd (This week we talk to Pres!)

Hey Family!

Those videos and pictures were awesome! Congrats Bamuel and Josh for taking the W in the dessert contest! The prophets in the nativity look like the real deal, and Bar was a cute shepherd! First things first FaceTime will be probably at 1:00 on Thursday but I will send a quick text to let you know. I got the package and it is awesome!! I love it, thanks so much to everyone that helped with it! That's great that it's Christmas break for 2 weeks! 

This week I became a district leader which is crazy! That means I have to give a training each week for district meeting! Haha I'm kinda nervous but I think it will be pretty awesome! This week was full of cancellations... But we went caroling a lot and had a lot of miracles happen from it! We gained a ton of potential investigators and we are going to go contact them this week! Elder Gardner and I are getting along super good! We teach with good unity and we have a lot of similarities! We taught Randy this week and he said he wants to start meeting with us only once or twice a week. That wasn't good to hear but the best news of the week was on Sunday when we called Randy to invite him to church he said he hasn't smoked in 5 days and that he's quitting for good!! We went absolutely nuts when we heard that! We are so excited and proud of him and we know without a doubt that the Lord is watching over him and strengthening him! This Christmas is going to be different but I can say one thing, that I didn't know the true meaning of Christmas until this year! I always knew that Jesus Christ was what we needed to focus on during this Christmas season but I never fully gained a testimony and fully understood why. I know that Jesus Christ is the greatest gift that has ever been given to any of us, and I know that He is the only way we can receive peace and happiness and joy in this life! I know that without Him we would not be able to be with each other forever, and we wouldn't be able to return to Heavenly Father! I also know that no matter what pain what trial what temptation we are going through in this life, Jesus Christ can give us strength, He can help make our burdens light and He can free us from guilt and shame! I am so incredibly thankful for Jesus Christ and for all He has done for my life! I know I can never repay Him but what I can do and what all of us can do, is show that we are grateful for what he has done for us! And the way that we do that is by serving others! I am going to give Him all my heart, might, mind, and strength this Christmas and I know if you all do the same it will be the best Christmas ever! I love all of you and I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas! Stay safe and keep doing the right things!

Love Elder Summerhays

December 16, 2014

Dear Family,

The Christmas tree looks good, and I wish I could see it in person! Liv I hope you had fun at the Christmas dance. I miss doing the candles with you guys, and reading all about the saviors birth. I still read about it and it's awesome to read about and to feel of the Christmas spirit! Yes missionaries do use the "He is the Gift" video a lot! We actually were given pass along cards at the beginning of December and we were told to pass out 10 of them a day, so we each got a stack of 125 cards and we have to get rid of them all by Christmas! It makes OYM's a lot more fun and also more effective! We have shared the video with a lot of people and every time I watch it I wish it lasted longer! It's an awesome video and to all of you that haven't watched it, watch it!!  Anyways, This week was pretty good, I got my new companion, his name is Elder Gardner! We actually came out on our missions at the exact same time, so we knew each other in the MTC and we came on the same plane to Albuquerque together! When we heard that we were companions we both were going nuts! We work really well together so we are super excited for this transfer! We had three lessons with Randy this week and during the first one he had a seizure... We were watching a video on LDS.org  and he just had a seizure. Luckily we had a member of our ward with us who knows a bit about seizures so he was able to help him and keep us both calm haha. Later in the week we found out that it was from the new medicine that he's taking to help him stop smoking. He said the doctor took him off a couple of the meds that he was taking before but now his depression is coming back and he started smoking again and it's just going downhill... We have been praying hard for him and we follow up with him every day to help him out with everything, but it's going to be hard. We actually set another baptism date with him since he missed his last one, so if he can go 2 weeks without smoking then he can be baptized on January 18th! We also had a lesson with Rebecca! She came to dinner one night to a member's house and we were able to teach her there, and also we went over later in the week and showed the "He is the Gift" video, and she loved it! She still wont come to church and she wont get baptized until she moves so idk what we're going to do with her... We also had a lesson with a lady named Jackie who is one of our investigators! We have been trying to get in and have a lesson with her and every time she makes us stay out on her front porch. So we shared a scripture with her and gave her a priesthood blessing because she is going in to a surgery, and we also set a return appointment with her for this week so hopefully we can get in and teach the Restoration to her! 

I am loving every second of the mission and it seems like time is just flying by!! I feel like it should be December 1st and not the 16th! It just makes me realize that I'm not going to be a missionary forever and I have to make the most of every second of every day! I love being able to wear the tag with the Saviors name on it and I can't wait to bring people into the kingdom! Love you all and hope you're doing well! Thanks for all the support and everything! Talk to you later

Love Elder Summerhays

Pres with new companion Elder Gardner

(they need to clean their bathroom mirror)

December 8, 2014

Hi Family,

It's good to hear that you guys are doing the candle tradition! I miss that so much. That's good that Christmas break is in 2 weeks, I am so glad I'm out of school haha! We will be able to Skype on Christmas and I can't wait for that! Tell Granny that that fantasy score she sent us was crazy and that I'm rooting for her! Also tell her and Grandpa thanks for all the letters they send I look forward to getting them each week! Also thanks to everyone else that sends me letters and stuff! I appreciate them more than anything and I want you all to know how grateful I am for everything that you guys do for me! Anyways this week we got some bad news. Elder Harral is getting transferred... I am super sad to see him go but I know that it's where the Lord wants him to be! So I will be getting a new companion this week and I will be taking over the Cherry Hills area! I'm kinda nervous but I know that the Lord will help me with whatever I need help with! Randy cried and cried when he heard Elder Harral was leaving... He is going to miss him so much but I hope that me and my new companion can continue to help him progress towards baptism! A miracle happened this week with Randy's smoking! So he got a hernia so he has to have surgery to get it out, and the doctor said he only has one week left to smoke so he can do the surgery, and Randy said after that week he is done for good! When Randy told us that we went nuts and we couldn't believe it!! It was definitely a prayer answered! We also picked up two new investigators this week! They are mother and daughter named Maria and Kelsey! Maria is Hispanic and she's probably in her 50's and Kelsey is her daughter probably in her 20's! We taught them the Restoration this week after finally setting a return appointment with them, and it went really well! It was one of our more powerful lessons, and at the end we invited them to be baptized! They said they weren't really ready yet and they needed to learn more, plus they have been Catholic their whole lives and they said they had to make sure it was a change they wanted to make! So we testified to them and left them with a Book of Mormon and challenged them to read it and pray to know if it and our message was true, and they said they would! So me and my new companion are going to go over there this week and teach them again and follow up! Oh and also we had a zone training this week and guess what we have to do for all of December...? We have to carol one door per day... Hahaha I don't know what President Miller was thinking but oh well I guess some people will be going deaf this Christmas... Haha! Also we are now allowed to tract which means along with OYMing we can now knock doors! We are pretty pumped for that! The mission is the best! It's crazy how amplified my sensitivity to the Spirit is! I've learned so much already and I've only been out 3 months! I would have never guessed my knowledge of the Gospel and testimony would grow so much in this little of time! I'm so grateful for my mission and I know this is where I need to be right now! My outlook on life has completely changed and I know that the most important thing we can do in this life is preach the Gospel! I love you all and I hope everything is going well! I'll talk to you next week!

Love Elder Summerhays

December 2, 2014

Hey Family,

It made me happy to think about thanksgiving and it sounds like you guys had an awesome time! I miss ping pong and I actually played it at our bishops house the other day haha! I played their sons and I took them to the woodshed! I can't wait to get home and keep my undefeated streak alive!! That's tough that the kids lost the turkey bowl. Hopefully they weren't too upset. I wish I could have been there for thanksgiving, I missed thanksgiving at home. That's sweet that Zack's farewell was last week, I have a feeling that he's going to be an awesome missionary. Tell him I wish him luck and that he better e-mail me! I heard about you guys running into Riss and friends at Station Park. Sounds like a good time! 

This week was pretty good! We weren't able to get in with Evete but we got to teach Randy a couple times! Every time we go over there we leave a scripture out of the Book of Mormon with him to read, and he loves the scriptures! Every time he reads it he says "How did you guys know exactly what I need?!" Haha it's incredible! He also said the other night that he was "hungry" for that kinda stuff! Haha what investigator says they are hungry for the scriptures, Randy is amazing!! He already has a super strong testimony and he is so inspiring! We are still trying to get him off smoking and this week we talked about fasting with him. We shared a Mormon Message called the hope of God's light, and we talked about fasting and it really hit him hard. We also took him to a baptism, and after it we asked him what he thought about it and he said "It was inspiring man, it made me jealous!" Haha so we are going to make it so he doesn't have to be jealous anymore! We also picked up two new investigators this week whose names are Lenora and Serena. They live together but thankfully unlike Alfreida and Shauna, they are mother and daughter! We went over there to teach them the Restoration after we found them, but during the lesson the Spirit prompted us to share Omni 1:26 and so we did and they really opened up to us! Serena shared her testimony about how she knows that God is there and he puts us through trials for a reason, and it was so powerful!! The Spirit was there so strong and we taught with power and authority! Anyways that's about it for the week. Next week is transfer week, so P-day will be on Monday, that's when I'll email. I hope you guys are doing good, I think about you guys and pray about you! I love and miss you! Keep doing the right things and know that Heavenly Father loves each one of you!

Love Elder Summerhays

November 25, 2014

Hi Family! 

I can't believe I won't be spending thanksgiving with my family for the first time ever! It's crazy and I'm going to miss you guys like crazy! But know I'm thinking about you all and I'm thankful for each and every one of you and the impact that you've had on me! Kids, good luck in the turkey bowl, but it's going to be a tough one this year! Hopefully you guys can keep a winning streak alive for the kids! I'll be rooting for you from the Duke City!! Thanks to Annie, Bam, and Bar for the video, and Puppy Boo is getting uglier and uglier hahaha;) I wish I could send you guys one back but these computers don't let us send videos:/ Thanks to Danny for the video also, it was awesome! Hope the golf game is doing well. I can't even describe how much I miss golf! Dad that is awesome what President Strong said about repentance, I've never looked at it that way. We actually had a zone conference this week and Elder Corbridge of the 70 came and gave a talk! It was super good, and one of the things he talked about is that the reason people say no to baptism is because they don't understand. They don't understand how important it is to be forgiven of our sins, to be free of all guilt and shame and everything that sin brings, and to have eternal life after death! Once people know the importance of all of that, how could you turn that down? It hit me really hard and I'm trying to change my teaching to help people understand the importance of the Atonement and the impact that it has on us. this week was pretty good. Not too much happened but we met with Randy a couple times, and we also got a new investigator named Evete, she is a 60 year old lady who says she's "Trying to get back to Jesus" We were like, "We can definitely help you with that one!"  We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and invited her to baptism at the end of it. She was debating it and kinda said a prayer out loud to Heavenly Father, asking him if this was what she needed and she said yes! So we got another person on baptism date which is sweet! We met with Randy on Tuesday Friday and Sunday, and on Friday he was in a ton of pain because he is disabled because of his back. That was sad to see him like that, But on Sunday we went over after church and had a lesson about reading the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, and it went really well! He said he would and he also said that we just have to be patient with him, and that he is truly trying to quit but it's going to take some time. He said he wants to get baptized a ton and that we were the best thing that's ever happened to him in his entire life! It was so humbling to hear that, and it made me so happy and thankful to be a missionary! We love Randy and we know he will get baptized! I'm so blessed to be a seeervant in the Lords vineyard right now! This work is the best work that any of us could do, at this time and I'm loving it! Thanks for all of your support and for everything that you do for me! I love all of you guys, and I miss you! Let me know how the turkey bowl goes!

Love Elder Summerhays

November 18, 2014

Hi Family,

Sounds like you guys are doing good! That's sweet that the Utes beat Stanford, and Whit that is crazy that you're touring Stanford!! You're way too smart haha!! Mom wanted to know about the food and stuff, for breakfast almost every day we eat cereal, but every once in a while I will cook cheesy eggs, for lunch we either eat corn dogs or leftovers that members gave us from dinners, and we do eat at people's homes for dinner almost every night. The food is good. Dad that's cool what you taught in mission prep! I remember when they would call me up to role play, haha I hated it and it was super awkward, but looking back on it now it helps sooo much! When I was in mission prep I had no idea how much it would help me on the mission. That was a cool story out of the Old Testament, I've never heard it before but I want to go and read it now! I want to thank everyone for all of the letters and e-mails! If you've sent me a letter and I haven't wrote back, don't be offended, I want to write everyone back so bad but I just don't have time. I love it when I get letters from all of you and I'm grateful for an awesome super supportive family! This week was pretty good! We had to teach the Word of Wisdom to Randy which we weren't very excited about. He smokes and he says he's trying to quit but it is definitely going to be hard... After we taught him the WoW we went back over a couple days later and you could just smell so much smoke in his house. That's how it is every single time we walk in there, it's like hard to breathe! But we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that was probably the best most powerful lesson that me and Elder Harral have taught! The Spirit there was SO strong and you could just feel it working on Randy! After the lesson we asked him how the Word of Wisdom was going (Even though we already knew) and he said he was down to one cigarette a day instead of 5! That was awesome but we've still got a little bit to go! So what we did was we got all of the cigarette's that he had left and we numbered them from 7 to 1 because that's how many he had left, and on the last one we wrote "last one" So hopefully that works and after that last one he stops! He said it was a good idea and he thinks it's going to help. We are going to pray for him super hard and continue to check up on him! Quitting smoking is super hard and it's going to be a process but with the Lord nothing is impossible! We didn't get in with Alfreida and Shauna this week, and we had a couple other cancellations but Randy was the highlight of the week! I'm loving the mission! It's the best thing ever to wake up every morning and devote all your time to the Lord! I can't get enough of studying the Gospel, and the blessings of being obedient far outweigh the bad parts of the mission! I miss you all and hope you are all doing good! Keep doing the right things and know that I'm praying for all of you! Love you all!

Love Elder Summerhays

November 12, 2014

Hi Family,

That wasn't the best news about the Ute game. That sounds brutile! It's awesome to hear that you guys are studying Preach My Gospel for FHE! The teach with the Spirit is one of the most important sections in Preach My Gospel and I didn't even know about it until I got into the MTC. Teaching with the Spirit is absolutely essential in missionary work. The Spirit is what converts people not us. We can give the Restoration lesson a billion times and we can say it word for word but if the Spirit isn't there then it will have zero effect on the investigator. Another thing I learned in the MTC is that if we are living the Gospel, like mom said in one of her emails, the Spirit will give us what we need to say in the very moment that we need it. Before the mission in mission prep class and in the MTC, I would think about what to say before I said it and I would be frantically thinking about what comes next in the lesson and I wouldn't even be able to focus on the investigator. If you do that while teaching a lesson, there is no way that the spirit can touch the heart of the person that you're teaching. In order to be an effective missionary you have to teach people not lessons. If you have faith that the Spirit will provide and if you're living the Gospel the Spirit will tell you what to say in the very moment that you need it, and you will be able to tailor the lesson to the investigator's or whoever you're teaching's needs. Anyways, this week was awesome!! We gained 5 new investigators and set another baptismal date! The one that we set a date with is named Randy. We met him on Halloween night while we were OYMing and he said he would be interested in a message! So we taught him the Restoration and he loved every little bit of it! We invited him to be baptized and he said yes so we set a date of November 29th with him! He also said that he knows without a doubt that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of the Lord and that no one can change his mind about it! He studied about Joseph Smith on LDS.org last night for 4 hours!!! I'm pretty sure he knows more about him than me and Elder Harral do now haha! But anyways our other investigators are Maria, Sheron, Alfreida, and Shauna. Maria is Spanish and she's like 60 something years old. Sheron is like 70's and we always carry her groceries in for her. Alfreida and Shauna live in the same house! We taught them a couple days ago and before we taught the Restoration we were asking a little bit about them and Elder Harral asked "So are you guys sisters, or mother and daughter, or what?" and Alfreida says "Oh no she's my girlfriend!" ...Hahaha we were not expecting that at all! So that might be a little barrier on the road to baptism but hey we are going to keep trying! I know that if we put our faith in the Lord and be obedient to him then he will perform miracles for us! I loved what Dad said in his email, that everything happens for a reason and that the Lord always has something in store for us and when something goes wrong and we wonder why, just look around for the miracle because He's always pouring blessings out on us. I love you guys and I hope everything is well. Stay safe and keep doing the right things!

Love Elder Summerhays

Thank You

A hand written letter thanking everyone for their letters.  Thank you to all of you who have written to Preston!

October 27th

Hey family, 

So the reason I'm emailing you now instead of tomorrow is because it's transfer week, and they do transfers on Tuesday so they do P-day on Monday. I'm not getting transferred so that's good, I don't have to get a new address and a new companion and stuff! This week was pretty good. We got to meet with both Kimball and Rebecca. Also a couple other investigators and less actives. For Rebecca we taught her about prayer and invited her to come to church! She said no because she feels like she doesn't have to come to a building to be close to God and to feel the spirit... It was another super duper long lesson and basically the whole time was just testifying about church and explaining why it was important to come to church and to partake of the sacrament and stuff like that, but she just wouldn't budge. We told her to pray about it and ask with a sincere heart and real intent, and she said if she gets a solid answer that she needs to come to church she would! The hard part is that in order for an investigator to be baptized they have to come to church at least 2 times. So that means that Rebecca needs to come to church this week and next week in order for her to be baptized by the 15th of November... That's going to be tough, but hey we're going to stay obedient and work

hard on her and hopefully it goes well! With Kimball we taught him a lesson about the Book of Mormon and a little rundown of it and we read with him Moroni's promise, and he said he would read it and pray about it and he really wants to be part of the church! He actually came to church with us this week which was awesome! but of course the lesson in Gospel Principles class this week was on the law of chastity... Hahaha so he said he had a couple questions about it and we are meeting with him tonight to answer those questions which should be...fun... haha. Anyways my first transfer is over already! Time really does go a lot faster when you give all you have to the work! I'm glad that I get to spend my next transfer here in Cherry Hills and hopefully me and Elder Harral can get a couple baptisms and continue to build this area up! I really am loving the work out here! It's just amazing to be always so close to Heavenly Father and to be teaching people about what I know without a doubt to be true! We also had a "Bible Bash" this week. We were walking up a street and a guy in an Acura pulled over and said "What's the message today boys?!" and me and Elder Harral go "Jesus Christ!!" hahaha so then he starts telling us what he has studied about the Mormon church and how he is catholic and how the Apostasy never happened and how we preach false things, and he was just going into all of this deep stuff. He was a bum. But we just bore down in pure testimony and basically told him that, why have a big blooming testimony of all of this deep stuff when you don't even have a testimony of the basics, like faith and repentance and stuff. And he was just stumped haha. We kept bearing testimony and he was starting to get frustrated so he just said something about the apostasy again and just drove off. It was awesome!! There is a quote by elder Holland that says "We don't always bash, but when we do we always win" hahaha! The whole time the guy was talking to us I was just smiling and thinking "Whatever this guy says to me, no matter what he says about our church, that is not going to change anything that I believe and know to be true!" I'm so grateful for the testimony that I have of the Gospel and I'm so grateful to know that it is true and that Heavenly Father is real and he loves each and every single one of us! It's so awesome to know that our church is ran by revelation straight from Him, and not by man! I love this Gospel and I love all of you guys! I miss you guys a ton and I hope you are doing awesome! Talk to you all later!

Love Elder Summerhays

October 21, 2014

Hi Family,

It was sad to open up my emails and hear about great grandpa. He was an amazing man and I looked up to him ever since I was little. He was always so happy and nice, he had the best sense of humor and I'm going to miss him so much. It's so comforting to have the knowledge that he is in a better place and that we will see him again. I'm praying for you guys and for Grandma Deb. He definitely got the best of his life, almost 90 years old, that is awesome. He was a great man that we should all look up to as an example. I'm glad that I got to see him in Glasgow one more time and I can't wait till I get to see him again. Thank you guys for the Halloween package, this "spooky cool boy" was very happy to receive it haha! It made me laugh, and it's always good to get packages and letters from the fam! This week was awesome! We got to teach both of our new investigators Kimball and Rebecca, and guess what? We set baptism dates with both of them!! We taught Kimball the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and we taught it really well and the Spirit was there SO strong and at the end we asked if he would be baptized on November 15 and he said he totally would!! He said these last couple weeks have been heck for him and this was what he needed!! So if everything goes well we are going to baptize him on Nov 15th! With Rebecca we taught her the Restoration and it took us 2 hours haha!! She had so many questions and she didn't really understand the priesthood authority that you need to baptize, also we had a member of our ward with us and she just rambled on and on about her conversion story haha so it took forever!! But we had to ask her about 8 times if she would set Nov 15th as a goal to work for to be baptized, and on the 8th time she got up and started crying and ran back to her room! We just waited there and let the Spirit work on her, when she came back we asked her calmly one more time, and she smiled and said yes! We were so happy and it was so spiritual and awesome! So yeah we got 2 baptism dates now! All of our obedience and diligence has definitely paid off! This area hasn't seen a baptism in 6 years, so me and Elder Harral and our district are pumped! I am excited to teach them again and to continue to teach them until they enter the waters of baptism! Things are definitely looking a lot better here in the Cherry Hills area and I can't wait for more! I know the Gospel is true and I know that everyone no matter what their circumstance, needs it in their life! It is a guidance and a comfort and a strength in times of need. There is no way I would be where I am without it and I can't wait to share it with everyone! I love you all and I hope you're staying safe and doing good things!

Love Elder Summerhays

October 14, 2014

Hi family,

It sounds like you all had an awesome week. That's cool that you guys saw Meet the Mormons! We aren't allowed to see it but rumor has it that this zone conference on Thursday we are all watching it, so hopefully that is true! You guys have no idea how much help and support you all give me in your emails! Mom and Dad you guys are the best parents ever and I can't thank you enough for all that you do for me, and for all of the inspiration and advice you guys give me in your emails! Liv, Ann, Sam, and Char you guys are awesome and I look forward to hearing from you guys each p-day! I love all of you guys so much! This week was a lot better than last week! We taught a lot more lessons and we found 3 new investigators! Me and Elder Harral are giving our all to the work and it's starting to finally pay off! Our new investigators are Kimball, Rebecca, and Scott. Kimball is 20, Rebecca is around 65 and 70, and Scott is probably in his mid 20's. I wrote about Kimball in the letter I am sending today so you'll hear about him. We met Rebecca while we were OYMing, we were actually on our way to an appointment with a less active member who lives in the same apartment complex as Rebecca, and we saw her out on her front porch and started talking to her. After we talked with her for a little while, we gave her a card with our number on it and a plan of salvation pamphlet, and went upstairs to our appointment. After we were done with the lesson we went back down the stairs and Rebecca said "Hey can we talk about this pamphlet for a little bit!" so we went in and taught her the whole plan of salvation lesson, and at the end we invited her to be baptized, and she said she didn't really have a full understanding of everything yet, so we set a return appointment and we are going to go back and teach her the Restoration so we'll see what happens, but I think she has potential! So things are getting better here in Albuquerque, and we are starting to have a lot more success! I know that putting our trust in the Lord in every circumstance, whether it's big or small, He will help us through any challenge or trial that we have! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is such a blessing and a guidance in our lives and I don't know what I would do without it! Everyone in the world needs it and that's what I'm here for, I love you all and I hope you are all doing good! Keep doing what's right!

Love Elder Summerhays

(Pres and his companion Elder Harral and Pres mowing someone's lawn:)

                           

October 7th

Hey Family,

Good to hear that the Utes beat UCLA! That's a W!! Sounds like the family is doing really well! I'm glad to hear that Mom's back is doing good, and It's way awesome to hear your guys' testimonies every week! Dad thanks for the inspiration about facing Heavenly Father! The natural man is an enemy to God, but when we are able to put off the natural man and yield to the Spirit, then we become one with Heavenly Father and with the Spirit and there is nothing that can bring us down, and no trial that we can't face! This week has been alright! Again a week of lots of cancellations but we did our best to stay busy! We only taught about 6 or 7 lessons, but they went well! Me and Elder Harral have been working on finding new people to teach so that we can get some more investigators that want to hear our message, and that have been prepared by Heavenly Father to receive it! We have been praying that we will find new people and we have set some new goals this week to help us get new investigators! 

Conference was awesome! By far the hardest thing that happened this week was not going to the priesthood session with Dad like I always have. I missed that so much. It was awesome to hear all of your favorite talks, and I agree that all of the ones that everyone said were awesome! My favorites were Elder Bednar's, and Elder Christoffersons! I also liked Elder Uchtdorf's in the priesthood session, he always comes through! Elder Bednar's talk was to all of the non-members of the church. He talked about how we are not forcing them to join our church, and we are not forcing them to change all of the beliefs that they already have, we are just inviting them to "Come and see" He made a great analogy and tied it in to how as missionaries, all we are doing is sharing what has brought us the most happiness and peace in our lives, and that is so true! I wish that all of the non-members of the church could have heard that talk! Elder Christofferson talked about how now and days people get their own beliefs and people only believe the things that they think are right or things that they want to believe. He went on to say that that doesn't change reality. If you don't believe in the law of gravity or only believe in some parts of it, that is not going to stop you from falling if you jump off a cliff! 

The reality is that the Gospel is true, and it is the only true and living church on the earth today! No matter what you believe or want to believe, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. That hit me really hard and strengthened my testimony so much! I know without a doubt that this Gospel is true and no matter what anyone says to me or does to me I will not deny it! Heavenly Father is real and is present in all of our lives, and I know no matter what trial or hardship or anything that we face, if we humble ourselves before Him and put all of our faith in him, then he will make our weaknesses become our strengths! I love you all and I hope you are doing awesome!

Love Elder Summerhays

September 30th

Dear Family

It was awesome to hear from all of you! Mom be careful about your back, that's scary that you couldn't move for 2 days! It is true though that we all need to be praying for all of the little things, I've done that a lot since I've been out here and my attitude and everything is way better!! Dad thanks for the e-mail! It gave me inspiration to get out there and do what I came here to do! I've noticed that the days that I just think about home all day go by SO slow and nothing really happens, but the days when I give it my all and focus on investigators and finding people, the day goes by faster and I feel the Spirit so strong! This week was pretty slow, just because all of our appointments the whole week except one were cancelled. It's tough to ride around in the heat all day just sweating through my shirt, just to knock on doors and have people either ignore us or aren't home. Also we have had a little trouble with OYMing this week. It seems like no one in this area wants the gospel or wants to talk to us. We've had a lot of people ignore us and swear at us and stuff, but we try to just keep going and stay diligent the whole day! It's all worth it when that one person out of the whole day says they want to hear more about our message, and we get to set a return appointment! So the investigator that we got to teach this week was Brian. He lives in a pretty ghetto apartment complex.  He says he has a hard time understanding the Book of Mormon with all of the ye, thou, thine stuff! Whenever we read him a scripture we have to go through it really slowly and break down every single part so he can understand it well! We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and he understood it and the Spirit was super strong and it hit him really hard! We invited him to come to Church and he said he definitely would! But then at church we waited for him to come and were looking for him the whole time and he never came! We were really bummed about that but there's always next time! My comp. said that there are some pretty ghetto areas in New Mexico and there is a lot of crime going on right now. Our area is not too bad but there have been a couple break ins in the ward! The other day me and my comp. were studying outside because we had to water this lady's lawn, and while we were studying we heard a gunshot!! Haha that was really sketchy! I know that I am protected by the Lord at all times though! Serving a mission has blessed my life so much already, and from all of your e-mails, I am glad to hear that it is blessing all of your lives as well. I can't wait to hear from you all again next P-day! Love and miss you guys!
          

First Letter from ABQ

Hi Family,

That's awesome that Liv went to homecoming! How did she like it? That's one thing I'm going to miss about High School is going nuts on the dance floor! And thanks for cleaning my room;) I heard that the Utes got pummeled by Michigan, is that true? It's awesome to hear about all of your lives!

It's already been a week in Albuquerque! I am serving in the Cherry Hills area, in the Albuquerque zone! My companion's name is Elder Harral and he is awesome! We get along really well, he likes sports, he has a girlfriend, and we teach really well together! It's awesome to finally be out here in the mission field and serve! My companion said my area hasn't had a baptism in 6 years!!! That shocked me when I heard it but all that does is give me motivation to get more baptisms in the area! I have already taught a couple lessons to investigators, and they went really well! My companion said that I know the lessons really well and I am good at teaching for only being out for a week! That made me happy but I know that that is only possible because of the Lord! So instead of knocking on doors we do this thing called OYM which stands for Open Your Mouth! We go around and just talk to people who are outside. It is supposed to be more effective because then they can't slam the door in your face and you can't get the cops called on you for soliciting! I've already had a couple people ignore us or just swear at us and other stuff, but whatever you just gotta keep going! I've already seen the power of being obedient since I have been out here! There is a saying that goes "Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles" That quote is totally true, and I have noticed that on the days where I be exactly obedient, impossible things happen, and that is one thing me and my companion are trying to work on, is being exactly obedient, so that we can fix this area up and get it going!

But anyways it is awesome out here and I'm excited to tell you guys about more of the experiences I have, and the people that I meet, and the spirit that I feel! I love all of you and miss all of you, and I hope you are all doing great!

Love Elder Summerhays

 

(Notes from me, (Shauna) Preston said he is serving in Cherry Hills and in a separate letter he said it isn't the greatest fun spot you'll ever know:)  Also I guess it's a good thing he doesn't know that Utah beat Michigan right?

Two Tender Mercies

This morning Preston headed down to Albuquerque.  We were able to talk to him for a bit before he boarded the plane.  It was so, so great to hear his voice and hear about his MTC experiences.  It was hard to hang up the phone. Then two things happened that made my day.  One I received this text from an anonymous woman:

And two, Bryan's sweet sister who happened to be staying in a hotel near the Albuquerque airport was able to run over and quickly greet Preston as he got off of the plane.  I am sure seeing a friendly face was so good for him.  Thank you Carrie!

                                   

MTC Week Two

The MTC really is amazing! The week that I've been here has been the most crazy, spiritual, exhausting, and awesome week of my life! I've studied the scriptures and prayed SO much and the spirit has been with my almost 24/7 since I've been here! Every day here is kinda planned out for us. The usual day is, we wake up, go to breakfast, after breakfast we have like 3 hours of study time where we can study the scriptures, preach my gospel, notes, stuff like that! After study time we usually teach "Investigators" which we were given towards the beginning of the MTC. After that we go to class which is usually 3 hours, where we learn how to be more effective missionaries and teach better. After that is lunch and after lunch is usually gym time. Then we shower and get ready and go to dinner. After dinner is more class time, and then we usually go back to our rooms and get ready for bed and write in our journals and stuff. It's been amazing to see how much I have grown spiritually in the past week! It's also been cool to teach the investigators and kinda get a taste of what the mission field is going to be like. Missionary work is all about teaching with the spirit so you have to have the spirit with you at all times to be an effective missionary! As D&C 84:85 says If you treasure up in your minds the words of life, the words that you need to say will be given to you at the exact time that you need them! That has helped me so much in my teaching and I'm so grateful for the scriptures in this work and just in life, as a comfort, a guide, and for the answers to anything I need! I love you all and miss you all, and I hope you guys are doing great! I pray about each of you every day and I know that this mission is going to bless me and my family and everyone greatly! Oh and by the way, on Sunday I heard the best talk of my life! It was given by Elder Bednar a while ago in the MTC and It was called The Character of Christ! This talk was unreal and I encourage anyone who wants to, to go watch it!

Love, Elder Summerhays

Our First Letter! (PS, my heart skipped a beat when I saw it!)

Hi Family!! I made it to the MTC safely and I'm doing great! The first day was a little bit rough just because it was new and I missed you guys and Riss more than I've ever missed anything in my entire life. The first day when I got there, the host that took me in led me to a place where I got some things that I needed, like the nametag and some resource books, and stuff like that, after that he took me to the room that I am staying in and I chose a bed and put my stuff on it. Then he took me to a classroom where we were introduced to our companions and our districts. My companions name is Elder Worley, he is super tall and a pretty big guy, but he is way nice and full of the spirit. After that we had a little get to know you game where we all stood up and told our names and missions and why we were serving. After that we were taught a little lesson and were given study time. By the way, the days here seem to be dragging on forever, but it's fine because I know that this is the lords work and it's what I need to be doing. After we studied for a little bit we went to a big meeting with all of the Elders and Sisters, and we met the MTC presidency, they all spoke and just welcomed us and kinda told us what was going on here and stuff. It was cool to see the diversity of all the Elders and Sisters. There were some from China, some from Tonga, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Japan, just everywhere! So after the meeting we went to the cafeteria and ate dinner, which was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas. It was funny because my companion loves peas just as much as I do. He says he takes a frozen bag to school and just eats them right out of the bag haha! After dinner we went to a big room and we all sat down and a guy explained to us that we were going to be in 3 different rooms with 3 different investigators in them. We were supposed to kinda ask questions and teach the investigators in each room. It was just like what we do in mission prep but instead of 2 people teaching it was like 50 haha! So after we went thru all the investigators, we went to a zone conference and met our zone leaders and our zone, they took us on a tour of the MTC and then took us back to our rooms. There we got ready for bed and showered and stuff like that, and at the end of every night we have a zone prayer. It's crazy how much we pray here! One of the people in my zone said he tallied one of the days and said he prayed 24 times! Its really amazing how much closer that brings you to our savior! Then at the end of every night we have quiet time from 10:15 to 10:30 and then it's lights out. The second day was similar to the first except we had a lot more study time, and in the classroom we got assigned to these "investigators" that we are teaching today. It is kinda like mission prep, which I am glad I went to because this would be a whole new experience if I hadn't! Anyways I am running out of time, so I just want to end by saying that I know this church is true, and this has been the hardest 2 days of my life, and I miss you guys and Riss more than ever, but I know that this is what I should be doing right now and I know that I can do anything with the strength that the Lord gives me. The MTC is getting better each day and I am excited to get out there into the mission field and do the lords work. I love all of you, and tell Riss that I miss her and love her, and I'll be able to e-mail her on pday which is Thursday! Tell her I am praying for her and tell her to stay safe. I'm also praying about all of you and I hope you guys are doing good! I'll talk to you guys again on Thursday!

Love Elder Summerhays

PS. My favorite scripture is probably Ether 12:27 :)

We took Preston to the MTC yesterday.  It was the hardest day.  Each of us shed many tears as we said goodbye.  We are excited to get his first letter and will post it as soon as it comes.

He's a missionary!

Tonight Preston was set apart as a missionary.  It was such a great experience with a lot of mixed emotions.  He is excited to get to Albuquerque and serve. This is where I will post his letters and photos.  Enter your email on the right for notifications when we post his letters.