September 15, 2015

Hey Family!

That is SWEET that Dad qualified for the Boston Marathon! And that story is awesome! I wish I could come and watch it in Boston! You'll have to send me videos and pictures though! Priesthood blessings are awesome!! I don't know how you can not believe in God after witnessing a priesthood blessing or being a part of one! They're sweet!

Speaking of priesthood blessings, Elder Burton and I went on exchanges twice this week and on one of the exchanges Elder Burton and another Elder in the zone found a girl named Alexx (Yes two x's... some parents haha) she was outside chasing her dog down the street and they asked her if she needed any help getting him back in the house, and she said no but they ended up helping her anyways and asked her about the Gospel and stuff. She started asking some questions about what we believe and she asked what we do for sick people in the church. They explained priesthood blessings and how it's the same authority that Christ used to heal the sick and she thought that was pretty cool so we went back yesterday and taught her a little bit more about it and gave her a priesthood blessing. It was a great blessing and after it we asked her how she felt and what she thought! She liked it and she asked some more questions, and we ended up teaching most of the points of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and stuff! She loved it and we set a return appointment for this Friday to go back and teach her more! Amy should be having her baptism this week but she called us this Sunday and she said she hasn't talked to her husband Shawn yet and she wants our opinion on what she should do. We are meeting with her tomorrow so keep her in your prayers and hopefully we will be able to help her get an answer as to what she should do! We biked a ton this week which was sweet and we found a lot of potential investigators so hopefully they will turn into new investigators soon!

Anyways, Love and miss you all and hope everything is well at home! Missionary work is amazing and I love it! I'll talk to you all later!

Love Elder Summerhays

September 8, 2015

Hey Family!

That's sweet that the Utes beat Michigan! I can't remember who told us but I think it was one of the members that we ate dinner with that was telling us about it! Sounds like Sam and Char are killing it in football! Grandma Deb sent me a picture of Bam in his football jersey and it looks sweet! Mom that movie that you guys went to see sounds sweet!

This week was really good for us! We were able to meet with a ton of our investigators and we were super busy because of MLC and Zone Training and stuff! I love those weeks where there is just no break from appointment to appointment! We met with Amy a couple times this week and she came to church on Sunday finally!! We have been talking with her about the hope that the Gospel really brings into our lives, and how we can become perfected in Christ! In our last visit we shared the Mormon message called "The Hope of Gods Light" If you haven't seen it I would recommend it! But she is on her way to baptism on the 19th. We also met a new lady named Annya! We were going over to a recent converts house to ask him to come participate in our zone training on Friday and she was over at his house talking with him and so he invited us in and we talked with them. She ended up asking a ton of questions about our church and our beliefs and we taught her basically all of the points of the Restoration and some of the Plan of Salvation! It was really awesome to see how the Spirit can confound anyone if we are in tune with it! We weren't able to meet with Tina Arce this week but we are hoping to maybe see her tonight!

Anyways, being a missionary is the best! I love all of you and hope you are all being safe! Talk to you next week!

Love Elder Summerhays

                  Elder Summerhays burning a shirt to celebrate his year mark

September 1, 2015

Man I can't believe I hit my 1 year mark this Thursday! Crazy how fast it has gone by! It sounds like everything is going well at home. That's sweet that Sam and Char are both playing football! Is it tackle or flag? Tight end is a sweet position for Char to play in haha! And I bet Sam is a beast running back and wide receiver! That's hilarious that Pookie attacked a chicken! Where did the chicken come from haha?

This week was really good for us! We met with Amy New and talked about the baptismal interview questions. We had a member with us and we talked with Amy about telling her husband Shawn about the baptism before she gets baptized just so she can have a little bit of support! They are taking marriage counseling classes soon so she is going to bring it up with the counselor there, we are going to be praying for her and hopefully everything goes well! We met with a lady named Tina Arce in our ward. She has a daughter on a mission right now in Tennessee and she emailed us and told us to go to her moms house and teach her because she is not a member. So we set something up to go and meet with her and we taught her the Restoration. It went really well! She had a couple concerns about the Book of Mormon and a couple other things about prophets but we were able to resolve them and help her to understand! She said she would be at Church last week but she ended up being sick so that kinda stunk but she will be there this week! We met with a couple other people as well, and did a lot of tracting and contacting!

Anyways, I am so grateful to be on a mission and I can't believe how fast it is going! Like Dad said in his email I need to make this year better than the next, so that is what I am going to do! I'm not going to let one moment go to waste! I love you all and thank you so much for the support that you give me! Have a good week and I'll talk to you next week!

Love Elder Summerhays

August 25, 2015

Hey Family!

So transfers happened! I stayed in Volcano Cliffs with Elder Burton which I was happy about! Our whole zone got switched around and we got two brand new missionaries! It was cool to see them and help them out a little bit! It reminded me of when I was brand new and how nervous I was and how much I didn't know! It's weird to see how far I've come!

This week was great for us! We spent a lot of time finding new investigators but were also able to meet with the investigators that we do have and teach them! We met with Jim Millard this week. Idk if you remember him but when I first got to the area Elder Mikesell and I taught him and set a baptism date with him, but ever since then he has dropped off the planet like no contact at all! So one of the days last week we decided to drop by his house and he ended up being there and let us in! He said that he was just getting ready to put his dog down which he took really hard, so we said a prayer with him and set a return appointment to come back and teach him. So we went on splits on Thursday this week and I went with our Bishop to go visit Jim, and we basically caught up with his life and asked him if he had any questions or concerns. He focuses a ton on the deep doctrine of the Gospel and wants to know all of the "mysteries of the kingdom" I guess you could say, so we told him that he needs to start with a foundation of faith and prayer and the basics before he can gain a testimony of the deep stuff! We both testified and the Spirit was there and Jim said that he hasn't prayed or read in a while and he admitted that he needs to start doing that, so we committed him to do it and he said he would! We also met with Paul and his family again this week and taught them the Plan of Salvation! It was a really good lesson and they loved the idea of families being able to be together forever! Their son Isaiah actually sat in on the lesson this time and he ate it all up as well! We told him about Seminary afterwards because school is starting up and he said he really wants to go even though it's early morning! The whole family believes in what we have taught them and they accepted baptism so hopefully next time we meet we can set a date with them!

Anyways, I am loving being a missionary! It's a great feeling to come home at night just scorched from the sun and beat because you worked hard all day! I can't believe it's almost been a year already... I love all of you and hope everything is going well at home! Talk to you all later!

Love Elder Summerhays