August 17, 2015

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is making the transition back into school. I heard it has been really hot in Utah the past couple weeks. It has been super hot here too, and we have been outside a lot and I'm definitely getting a tan!

This week we were able to set a baptismal date with Amy New! She is going to get baptized on the 19th of September! We are really excited to continue to teach her and help her into the waters of baptism! This week we were also able to find a new investigator family. Their names are Paul, Julie, and their kids Isaiah, Luke, Gabe, and Micah (all bible names except Julie). We contacted them a couple weeks ago and they said that we could come back and share a message with them. So we came back yesterday and taught them the Restoration. It went really well and they agreed with all of it! We committed them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and they said that they would! Paul wondered why so many people would reject another book of scripture to help increase our knowledge and we told him that we wonder that same thing haha! But we are meeting with them again this week so we are excited for that! We also did some more tracting and contacting and we were able to find some more potential investigators so hopefully we can turn them into new investigators!

Anyways, I hope all is well back home. Keep doing what's right and remember that Jesus Christ lives! I am grateful to be serving at this time and I love all of you! Talk to you later!

Love Elder Summerhays

August 11, 2015

Hey Family!

All the pictures of St. George look awesome! I love that place! I remember that hike that we always go on when we go down there, was it the same one? Whatever it is it looks like a sweet hike! There is a petroglyph national monument right outside the border of our area. We live right next to a mesa and right next to some volcano's but I haven't visited them yet. Mom I thought it was funny that you said "Doh!" Haha everyone in our zone is starting to say that because I say it too!

This week was really busy! We had MLC on Thursday and they talked a lot about helping investigators and missionaries make and keep commitments! We also came out with a new thing. So every year our mission sets a baptism goal, and this year it was 850+ baptisms. So in our mission right now we are a little bit behind in reaching that goal for the year so in MLC one of the zone leaders brought it up, and we discussed together as zone leaders what a good idea would be to get everyone kinda remotivated to reach the goal. We all decided on setting quarterly goals for baptisms! So every three months we will have a baptism goal for each of our zones and at the end of the three months we will set a new one so that we can stay focused and motivated on the goal! I thought it was a great idea and after we presented it and discussed it with the zone in zone training, all of the missionaries are pumped to reach the new goal that we have set! We also had SMCM this week which is a meeting where the Stake Presidency and the high councilors for each ward and us all meet and talk about the missionary work that is going on in the stake! It's a pretty sweet meeting! We get to work a lot with the stake high councilor over missionary work, which I think is pretty cool because that's dad's calling isn't it? Does it work the same in Utah? If it does then that means that I am going to one of the same meetings that dad goes to which is sweet!

As for our area things are going pretty well! We found a new investigator this week. He is the boyfriend of an older lady in our ward and he lives in Florida! It was pretty cool because I could relate to him cause Granny and Grandpa served there! Surprisingly he had never been to Rita's, and I told him he's gotta go there!  He is only going to be here until Saturday which kinda stinks... But we are teaching him this week and we are going to help him understand more about our beliefs so that either some missionaries in Florida can find him or that if he ever comes back hopefully we can teach him again! We had a lot of appointments cancel this last week but luckily they moved to this week so we are excited to be able to teach more of our investigators!

Anyways, I love and miss all of you and I hope all is well at home! Keep doing what's right! I am loving the mission, and transfers are next week by the way, so pday will probably be on Monday! Talk to you all later!

Love Elder Summerhays

                                                          Knocking on doors

August 4, 2015

Hey Family,

I can't believe school is starting up already! Summer always flies by even on your mission, but it sounds like you guys had an awesome summer! Congrats to Ava on being baptized and that's awesome that Jeff got to do it! 

This week was pretty good for me! We were able to teach a guy named Chris Gomez, I may have talked about him in the past but Elder Mikesell and I met him a while ago and have been trying to set up appointments with him for forever now! We tried stopping by a couple days ago and he let us into his backyard to teach him! We figured out his religious background and he was episcopal a while back and right now he is going to some Christian church a couple streets down from our area. He said it's kind of loud and irreverent but he loves the pastor there so that's why he keeps going. We were able to teach him the Restoration and focus on receiving an answer to prayer. He said that he really is seeking to know the truth and he said he would read and pray hard about the Book of Mormon and about our message, so we are excited to meet with him again this Sunday and talk about how it went! 

We did a lot of tracting and street contacting this week also and we met some people from London which was cool! We contacted them and it felt like I got a little taste of dad's mission haha! They had thick British accents and they were there visiting friends. They weren't really interested in the Gospel but they were really nice!

Anyways, things are going great in ABQ! We have MLC and Zone Training this week so we should be pretty busy! I hope you all are doing good and choosing the right! I love and miss each of you! Thanks for everything you guys do for me!

Love Elder Summerhays

July 28, 2015

Dear Family,

Thanks mom for the pants that you sent! They are awesome, in fact I'm wearing them right now! And Salted Nut Roll's are my favorite candy bar, that's hilarious that you guys ran around the whole store looking for Salted Nut Roll's! Also, I can't believe that Mason Seelos is already leaving on his mission!! Time is just cruising!!

This week was awesome! We were able to meet with Adelina last Tuesday and one of the priests in our ward came with us! We taught her the Restoration, and she had a lot of questions and concerns. At one point in the lesson after we taught the Apostasy she said "So you said that the Bible has lost some things over the years and that the Book of Mormon tells us about some of those things, can you tell me 3 things that the Bible has lost that the Book of Mormon has?" Haha so we explained that it talks about the Spirit World and heaven and more about the life of Jesus Christ, but then I got a prompting from the Spirit to talk about baptism, so then I said "Well the Bible talks about baptism and it says that Jesus Christ was baptized and that we need to follow his example, but it doesn't explain very much about why we are baptized, and what it means and does for us in our lives." and Adelina said "You know I never really noticed that before. In my church people always say that we need to get baptized, but I never really understood why?" And so we opened up to Mosiah 18 and talked about the covenant that we make at baptism and how if we keep it then we will not only receive Eternal Life but also we will always have his Spirit with us. She thought that was pretty cool and we invited her to baptism, and she said it will take a lot of study and prayer but if she does come to know it's true then she will be baptized! It was sweet because I had never really even thought about that before, but just like it says in D&C 84:85 it was given to me in the very hour what I needed to say by the Spirit! It was an awesome experience!

We also met with the Scotts this week and it was Ash and her daughter Nara that were there for the lesson. We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and focused on baptism as well, and we were able to set a baptismal date with them for August 29th! Nara is 9 years old and she said she really wants to be baptized, so that will be a huge help and motivation for Ash to be baptized with her daughter!

Anyways, things are going awesome over here in the ABQ! I love every second of the work and I don't want it to end! It's insane that my year mark is basically a month away... But that's just motivation to work harder! I love you all and hope all is well! Keep on doing what's right! Talk to you later!

Love Elder Summerhays

                                                       Alma 32 on the sidewalk