February 24, 2015

Hey Family,

It sounds like everything is going well with you guys! You're doing great on the Book of Mormon reading! How many chapters do you usually read per night? 2 Nephi is a really good book! We did happen to know the missionaries that got held hostage! They are in our zone and one of them was Elder Gardner's old companion! They are doing ok now so everythings good! Anyways, this week was good! Jeffrey R. Holland came to the mission and spoke to us!! He is my favorite apostle hands down! He speaks with so much power and authority it's unreal!! He talked about how this is the last dispensation and how every missionary in every other dispensation has had some success, but has eventually failed! Every missionary in the Book of Mormon and in the Bible has had people listen to them but eventually they end up falling away and going into apostasy! Alma and Amulek, Ammon, Paul, even Jesus Christ. But in this dispensation, it will never fail! The Gospel is going to stay here on the earth forever, until Jesus Christ comes again, NOTHING is going to take it away! Obviously he said it more powerfully than I can but it hit me really hard! We also had another lesson with Rayna, and at the end of the lesson she said "Thank you guys so much for finding me and sharing this message with me" that wasn't the exact wording but it was so cool to hear! It's awesome to see the Gospel change peoples lives and bring so much happiness to them! Other than that we did a lot of yard work for people this week and we taught a couple other lessons! Being a missionary is the best thing ever!! It's going to stink when I have to take off the tag, but I'm going to enjoy it while I have it! I love all of you and I'm grateful for you all in my life! Keep doing what's right, and I'll talk to you next week! Btw next week is transfers so I will be emailing on Monday instead of Tuesday!

Love Elder Summerhays

Elder Gardner and I are running out of miles on our car, so we're bringing out the old bikes!                       

February 17, 2015

Hello Family,

It sounds like your week was really good! Congrats to Sam for winning Mario Kart, luckily it's not a battle for second anymore because I'm gone!;) I miss playing ping pong with you guys too, I'm excited to get back and put on a clinic!! I got the Valentines package and I loved it!! Those swig cookies can't be beat! And I hung up the picture of Pook and Puppy Boo on the wall! Thanks to all of you for the notes and the package, it made my day! That's awesome what Dad said that you guys are studying D&C 84, that's such a good section! I can testify that D&C 84:85 is absolutely true! That if you are studying daily and constantly treasuring up what you learn and living what you learn, that when you do need that knowledge it will be given to you in the very moment! It's so amazing how the Spirit works through us, through our diligence and faith! It's also amazing to see scriptures come to pass in our lives! The scriptures are so true, and they apply to our lives so well it's unreal! Anyways, this week was good, we were able to set a baptism date with Rayna for April 11! We were super pumped about that, she said she is having a little trouble believing in some parts of the resurrection but we helped her understand it and she said yes to baptism! We also got a new investigator named Rudd. He is probably in his 30's and he is an ex-marine just like Avram! He knows the bible really well and some of the stuff we taught him about modern prophets and the Book of Mormon he didn't fully agree with but we are going to help him understand it, and he said he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and we also have another appointment with him next week so that's good! It's getting a lot warmer so we have been going to a park that's in our area and walking around and talking to people at the park, and it's been pretty awesome! We're also teaching an 8 year old boy whose parents want him to take the discussions in order to decide whether or not he wants to be baptized! It's kinda weird to teach someone that young because you have to teach really simply haha! But yeah that's basically what happened this week! Haha one lady while we were tracting answered the door and said "We're not here today..." Hahaha we didn't even know how to respond so we just started talking about the Book of Mormon, and she slowly just shut the door! It was pretty hilarious! But yeah that was pretty much our week! To answer Dad's question, the District Leading is going awesome, I love it! The elders in the district are keeping my commitments which is good! My area has to have the highest key indicators every week, in order to be an example to the rest of the district so we have to be killing it, but I like to kill it so it's awesome! Anyways I love all of you guys and I hope you all have a great week! Talk to you later!
Love, Elder Summerhays

February 3 and 10, 2015

Hi Family,

It sounds like you guys had a pretty good week! I miss Pete that's for sure! And the Reading ward is the best ward in the entire world!! The Super Bowl sounded like a party, I heard the Patriots took the victory. All that food sounds like heaven! Wish I could've been there for that! Anyways this week was good! We were able to teach Avram a couple times and he is going to get baptized this Saturday!! We also set a baptism date with Sarah Loy! She is going to get baptized on March 14, and we have set up dates and times for teaching appointments leading up to that day! One of the members in our ward took her to the temple to walk around and talk about it and about what goes on inside and things like that, and it was a super spiritual experience for her and she received a confirmation that she needs to get baptized, pretty cool! We have been doing a lot of tracting this week trying to find new investigators, we haven't got any this week but we are hoping to go contact some potential investigators that we picked up this next week and hopefully we can gain some new investigators to teach! I realized this week that I have been on my mish for 5 months now coming up on 6!! The time is FLYING by, I have already been out almost 1/4 of a mission! I can't believe how fast it's going! It's sad to think about the end but hey that just means I have 3/4 left!! I can't wait to make the most of every single second out here! I love you all and hope you all are doing good!

Love Elder Summerhays

Hey Family,

It sounds like everyone's week was pretty good! Good to hear that the ward is pushing on reading the Book of Mormon! We had a zone training this week and there was a huge push on using the Book of Mormon in our teaching and in our finding! I guess a lot of missionaries in the mission have not been using the Book of Mormon as much as we should, and since it is the keystone and everything about the Church depends on it, we need to be using it and studying it more! It's amazing to see the miracles that the Book of Mormon can bring into people's lives! I'm glad that the ward is reading it and I agree I wanna challenge all of you to read it, If you haven't read it all the way through do it, and pray about it because everyone in the world needs to receive the witness that the Book of Mormon is true! It is SOOO important in conversion and I didn't even realize that until I came out on my mission, so read the Book of Mormon! Anyways this week was awesome!! We had Avram's baptism and it was such a good baptism! Avram bore his testimony at the end and it was so amazing to hear his testimony about the Gospel and how it has changed his life! He basically shared his whole conversion story since he grew up until now! He talked about how his family was atheist when he was little and he didn't believe in God and he actually made fun of people who did, but then he went into the military and after he got out all of that changed. He believed in God and joined a Church that didn't believe in baptism, so he studied the Bible and he found that baptism was needed for salvation so he left that Church and then he talked about how he was searching for the truth and then he found it and it was super cool! He also typed out a testimony and gave it to Elder Gardner and I! Also this week we found a new investigator named Rayna! She is probably in her 30's, she has two kids and a husband! We found her when we were just riding bikes around an apartment complex that is in our area! We saw her sitting on a park bench and just went up and talked to her and testified about the Gospel and the Book of Mormon, and she said we could come share more! So we went over to her house and we taught the Restoration, and she was asking a lot of questions which is always good, and at the end we left her with a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and pray about and she said she definitely would! She said she doesn't like all of the religions because they are always fighting against each other and she just wants to know the truth of what God wants her to do, so we said that the only way she can know is by reading and praying to Heavenly Father to ask Him personally! And so she said she would and we are hoping to teach her again some time this week or the next! Anyways, that was pretty much my week besides the usual missionary stuff! I love you guys and I hope everything is well! 

The Church is true, the book is blue, and Moroni is always on the ball! Talk to you later!

Love Elder Summerhays