July 21, 2015

Hey Family,

It sounds like you all are enjoying Lagoon this summer! The Cannibal sounds like a beast! Granny told me in a letter that a couple of the cousins went on Wicked and it started going backwards and they had to close it down after that! That's pretty crazy haha!

This week was really slow for me! We had a ton of appointments with investigators cancel and so we spent a lot of time tracting and going through the list of part member families in our ward to visit them. We found a lot of potential investigators and we have a ton of appointments set for this week! We are teaching Adelina tonight and she is excited for us to come over and to learn more about the Restoration! Pray for us that it will go well! The ward is doing a pretty good job with missionary work. It's always hard to get referrals but the bishopric has set a goal to have one investigator per month in each of their homes for us to teach them! We are meeting with someone at the bishops house this Thursday so we are excited about that!

Anyways, that's basically what's going on with me! I love all of you and I am grateful to have an awesome family like you guys! I love this work and I love the Lord! Always look for missionary opportunities because they are all around us!

Love Elder Summerhays

July 14, 2015

Dear Family,

So transfers happened and I got a new companion! His name is Elder Burton and he is 6' 7". We get along really well and it's awesome! Elder Mikesell was his trainer so that's pretty cool. I am excited to work hard with him and go crazy this transfer!

It is great to hear about Glasgow and to think of memories of going there! Cherry Creek looks like a pretty and peaceful place. I will definitely miss Great Grandpa a lot. The Plan of Salvation is the greatest blessing! I know that he is in a better place and I know that we will be able to see him again! I don't know what I would do without the comfort of knowing these things and knowing that we can return to our Heavenly Father again some day!

This week was super crazy!! We had a ton of zone leader stuff going on. So on Tuesday it was transfers and Elder Burton was coming up from down south so I had to wait for him to get here. On transfer day there is one meeting for all of the north missionaries that starts at 7:00 am and there is another meeting for all of the missionaries that come up from down south at 4:30 pm so I had to go to both meetings because in the first one I found out who my companion was and in the second one I got my companion. But in between those two meetings I was able to be with a couple other elders and work until 4:30. We got to work in the Cherry Hills area so that was really fun and it brought back old memories! I was able to see some of my converts again which was awesome! But then on Wednesday we weekly planned and on Thursday we had MLC. Then on Friday we had Zone training and we had to plan for SMCM which is on Sunday. Then Saturday was pretty normal so we had some time to proselyte but then on Sunday we had SMCM where we meet with the Stake Presidency and talk about the missionary work in the stake! It's pretty cool to be able to attend that meeting and provide input and stuff! But yeah so we didn't have too much time to find or teach but yesterday we found a new investigator named Adelina. She is from Russia and she used to be Russian Orthodox. She said she really likes studying about religion and she asked us a ton of questions about our religion! After we answered them and taught almost all of the lessons haha, we set up a return appointment for Saturday to come back and talk to her! She is a really awesome lady who really wants to know the truth so we are excited to teach her on Saturday!

That's about it for my week though! I'm loving every second of my mission and I can't believe it's almost halfway over... But I'm glad I have the rest of my mission to work hard and bring souls unto Christ! I love you all, Talk to you later!

Love Elder Summerhays

                                                                      At Damion's Baptism

                                                            Elder Summerhays zone before transfers

July 6, 2015

Hey Family,

It sounds like you guys had a great 4th of July! I was definitely thinking about you all, and thinking back on memories! Elder Mikesell said he has been to the Kaysville parade a couple times and we were talking about getting slaughtered by the fire trucks every time! Haha that's awesome that you guys brought a cooler full of ice water! I miss going to Shelly's and hanging out with the cousins and playing sports and stuff. Who is the guy that Whit is dating??

Anyways, this week was really good! Damion got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! The baptism went really well and he was able to bear his testimony afterwards which was awesome! Him and Rhianna got to go up to the podium after his confirmation and they were both welcomed into the ward together! It was really cool for them and for Elder Mikesell and I! I forgot to bring my camera today so I will send pictures next week haha sorry. We weren't able to meet with the Nava's or the Scott's this week but we did get a couple new investigators and they are all from members which is awesome! One of them is Josh who has a very rare form of cancer. He had asked a member of our ward for a blessing, which is cool because he is actually atheist. So the member invited us over for the blessing and we were able to talk to him and teach him about the Restoration. It went really well and he said he has had some things happen in his life lately that are telling him that God is there and that he is watching out for him! It was awesome to be able to help him recognize that! We are going to be meeting with him tomorrow and hopefully he will continue to progress! We also taught another lady named Clarissa! She helps clean the house of one of the members in our ward and one day she was just asking the member about God and what she believes and stuff, and they talked about it and the member ended up giving her a Book of Mormon, and asking her if she wanted to meet with the missionaries. She accepted and we were able to teach her the Restoration and invite her to baptism. She said yes to being baptized but we weren't able to set a date with her because we found out that she doesn't actually live in our area. But we were able to find out a little bit about her life and she was homeless with her boyfriend for a while and she has had a lot of hardships in her life, but she testified that she knows that God has helped her through all of it. It really is amazing to see how the Lord truly does prepare people to hear our message! Hopefully the missionaries in the ward that she is in will take good care of her!

Anyways, I love being able to teach and testify to people of what I know to be true, and to help people experience the best thing that can happen in their lives! I love you all and hope all is well! Talk to you next week!

Love Elder Summerhays

June 30, 2015

Hey Family,

So it's monsoon season here in Albuquerque, which means it has been raining a ton! We love the rain especially when it has been so hot! The other day we brought out the bikes and we got dumped on! Haha it was super fun! Mom that's awesome that you get to work with the Young Women! I remember the impact that my Young Men's leaders had on me and it's sweet that you'll get to have that kind of an impact on them too! The Canibal sounds pretty insane, but super fun! I'm bummed that I will miss Great Grandpa's funeral. Say hi to everyone for me. I can't believe Whit is already going to college! Life goes by way to fast!

This week was awesome! We got to teach almost all of our investigators which was awesome! We visited the Nava's last Tuesday night and were able to invite all of the girls to youth conference, and they all ended up coming! They said they had a great time and we talked to some of the leaders there and they said they were smiling every time they saw them! We have an appointment with them this week so we are excited about that! We also met with the Scotts again this week and we showed them how the Bible and the Book of Mormon support each other and all of the similarities that they have! We shared the story of the Jaredites and the tower of babel and they liked it. They said they haven't had very many opportunities to read the BOM or pray about it, so we recommitted them to it! We met with Tyler and Steven yesterday for the last time before they leave. It was sad to leave them but we were able to get their emails so we will stay in contact with them!

Anyways, I am so blessed to be able to serve here in Albuquerque and to meet all these amazing people and help them into the Gospel! I love missionary work so much and I love the Savior! Thank you guys for all that you do for me, I love you and I'll talk to you next week!

                                   Picture of Albuquerque Elder Summerhays took

June 23, 2015

Dear Family,

It has been scorching here!! Elder Mikesell and I have been tracting a ton in the 100 degree weather and I don't think I've stopped sweating for the past couple days! But this is what missionary work is all about! When you think of being a missionary these are the things you think of! Sometimes I wish we could go swimming though haha. I miss watching those home movies with you guys and laughing! I miss that barrel of Hot Wheels I got that one easter too!;)

Anyways, this week was pretty good! We had a lot of our appointments cancel but it happens! Yesterday was our busiest day! We were able to meet with a family called the Nava's. They kinda dropped off the world for a while but yesterday we were able to go over to their house and teach them about the strength of youth pamphlet, because there are 3 teenagers in their family who aren't making the best choices in their lives. We gave them the pamphlet and they said we could come back tonight to talk more about it so we have that! We also taught the Scott family again, but the only one who was at the lesson was the mom, Ash. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she loved it a lot! She committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and she said when she gets an answer she will be baptized! So next time we are hoping to set a baptismal date with her and the family! We were also able to meet with Tyler and Steven again! We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and they both kinda bore there testimonies on faith in Jesus Christ and stuff like that. It was super powerful! I think it's super fun to teach people who are around your age because you can talk about the same things that you like and you understand things in the same ways! Also they are kinda looking for themselves and how they want to live their lives so they are very open! At the end of the lesson they both said that they appreciated us talking with them and things like that. Tyler said the prayer at the end and in the prayer he let Heavenly Father know how happy he was to have met us! It was a great experience!

Anyways, I love and miss you guys and I'm grateful to have the best family in the world! Thanks for everything you guys do for me! Keep serving the Lord and doing what's right!

Love Elder Summerhays