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