May 10, 2016

Hey Family,

It was awesome to see all of you guys on Mothers Day!! You all looked great and super different haha! Ava Grace I apologize for thinking you were Mia haha! I love each and every one of you and hope you know that! 

Things in El Zion are going well! Elder Mapes and I are doing a ton of finding! We have been tracting and visiting a lot of the members to get referrals! The members here are awesome (Close to Rio Zion) and they all have a super strong desire to do missionary work! We are hoping to see more referrals come this week because we spent a lot of time setting up some appointments yesterday for weekly planning! We have a guy that I may have mentioned in the facetime named Michael Pinon. He was referred to us this week by some missionaries who said that he was asking them how he could get baptized! We went over and taught him the Restoration this week and he said that he will be ready for baptism by May 28th! He is really solid and he came to church this week so that is awesome! Right now we are mostly working on finding so we can build up a solid teaching pool! 

Anyways, I hope you all are doing well and loving life! Be happy, and keep doing what's right! Talk to you next week! 

Love Elder Summerhays
                         

May 3, 2016

Hey Family!

That's crazy that there was another wind storm! Was it just as bad as the last one? That was fun to be able to go around and help everyone out though. It definitely feels good to serve! 

So I got transferred. It was so awesome to be able to serve in Rio Zion and I’m super grateful for the experiences that I had and the people I was able to meet! Now I am in El Paso Texas in a ward called the Mesa Ward. You can look out the window of our apartment and see Mexico haha! My companions name is Elder Mapes and he is a ton like Elder Olsen haha! I'm not a District Leader or a trainer anymore just a regular old missionary! There is definitely a lot of work to be done here. This ward has had a couple not so good missionaries in the past and so Elder Mapes says that the work is struggling a little bit, but I’m ready to turn El Paso into El Zion!! It is a lot warmer down here than it was in Rio Rancho and this will most likely be the last area in my mission, so I’m going to come home scorched and super tan! 

I am going to miss Forrests baptism this week, but he is excited and so ready to be baptized. This last week we were able to teach him a couple times and also pull some weeds in his backyard, and pull out a tree in his yard! His parents were wanting to pay us but we told them that we did it for free. I hope their hearts start to soften and maybe they will want to hear the message! We also met with Fred and Mary and Fred said that he wanted to be baptized but the only thing that is holding him back is his health problems. He is afraid with his bad knees and back that he wouldn’t be able to come up and down the stairs into the font. He wants to wait until he has better medication that will help him feel better, so hopefully that happens soon so he and Mary can get baptized as well! 

Anyways, I am super excited to be here and I see so much potential in our ward! I am excited to see miracles and to help more people into the waters of baptism! I love being a missionary! I love and miss you guys, and hope everything is going well! I'll talk to you next week!

Love Elder Summerhays

April 26, 2016

Hi Family!

Well I got taken to the woodshed on the BOM challenge! You guys smoked me but that was definitely cheating! It sounds like a sweet experience though to do the Book of Mormon read a thon. I've never done one of those so when I get back we'll have to do one haha! 

 This week was pretty good. We were able to teach Forrest a couple times. He is almost done with all of the lessons so that’s cool. The most powerful lesson we had with him was yesterday. We taught him about tithing and it went really well. He accepted everything that we taught, and at the end we talked about fasting. As we were talking about it he interrupted and said “I already fast, does that count?” and we were like “You fast?” and he was like “Yeah I skip breakfast and lunch every day.” And the member that we had with us was like “Why??” and he said “We don’t have enough money to eat more food.” That was really sad to hear. On your mission you really grow to love the people that you serve and you want them to be so happy. It was sad to hear that his family is struggling so much. But we testified to him and helped him and later on after the lesson was over, he brought up that he has depression, and that has been a struggle for him, and he wants to overcome it so bad, and he knows he can but he just needs to do the things necessary to overcome it. We testified like crazy about Jesus Christ and how he can help us and what he can do for Forrest. We told him to pray always, and to stay close to Christ and that we’d be here to help him. I know that he will overcome it some day! I love Forrest and he is going to get baptized. We asked him if he still wanted to get baptized on the 7^th of May and he said yes so that is going to be awesome! 

 We also met with David and taught him the 10 commandments. Later on in the week he came to a baptism that was happening in one of the other wards in the stake and at the baptism, his fellowship (Kyle) talked with us about how Davids parents went crazy about David being baptized and coming to church and stuff. They don’t want him to be baptized, and they don’t want him to meet with us anymore… So that was a huge bummer, but hopefully their hearts will soften to the church some day. Fred and Mary also came to that baptism that was going on. Since Mary grew up in the RLDS church, she said that the baptism was super similar to what she was used to she said “Coming here is like coming home.” So that was pretty cool! Fred really liked it too and you could tell that they both felt the Spirit really strong! It was a powerful baptism and at the end of it, Ryan, the guy that was getting baptized, bore his testimony and it was one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard on my mission! Forrest was also there and he said that you could see a change in him after he was baptized! It was a great experience for everyone. 

 We weren’t able to teach as much as we would like to this week but we saw a lot of little miracles and we were able to find some awesome people while knocking on doors that we hope wil become new investigators this week! I love being a missionary so much, and I know without a doubt that the church is true! It is such a great blessing that we have in our lives and that is why it’s our obligation to share it! I love and miss you all and hope you are all doing well! Next week is transfer week so I may get transferred from Rio Zion, but I know that wherever I go there are people there who need the Gospel just as much as here! I’ll talk to you guys next week! 

 Love Elder Summerhays

April 19, 2016 (Preston's Birthday!)

Hey Family!

Thank you all for all the birthday wishes! It has been an awesome day and I wish I could go golfing, but President decided that today was deep clean P-day so we are going to be cleaning our apartment all day! :D It's ok though, our apartment needs a good cleaning! Congrats to Sam on being able to get the Aaronic Priesthood this week, that will be awesome! I'm proud of you Sam! 

This week was awesome for Elder Olsen and I! We were able to teach Forrest probably 5 times and we set a baptismal date with him for the 7^th of May! He said that he is one of those people who likes to really know things before he makes any decisions, and we told him that he can come to know what he needs to know in order to be baptized. He isn’t going to know everything, but he will know that the Gospel is true, and that Joseph Smith is a prophet. So he just needs to come to church one more time because he came this last Sunday and he loved it, and in order to be baptized he needs to come twice. He said he is going to have a lot of questions because the topic in YSA sacrament meeting was on Temples, so that should be sweet! We also met with David twice this week, who is our investigator who is autistic who was on date for the 30th of April. We taught him the Word of Wisdom the second time, and he said that he has a problem with drinking coffee which was kind of a bummer. We told him that he needs to stop or else he can’t be baptized on the 30^th of April, and he said “But that’s going to be hard!” And we told him that yes it was, but we testified that Christ and us and Kyle (his fellowship) would help him out so that he could do it. He still said it was going to be hard but he commited to do it. Then about two days later he drank a cup of coffee… I was really bummed because if I get transferred next transfer I won’t be able to be at his baptism now… He will be baptized though either way so that’s good! 

Other than that we did quite a bit of tracting this week, and we ran into a guy that cussed us out, and said that only a fool would believe that there is a God and that Christ exists. And while he was going on a rant I was like "Well as representatives of Jesus Christ..." and he interrupted before I could say anything else and said "You guys aren't representatives of Jesus Christ! Have you seen Jesus Christ?..." and he went on and said some more things with a few choice words and I was just like "Sir I haven't seen Jesus Christ, but I know someone on the earth who has, and he called me to do this!" and then he didn't really know what to say so he kinda just changed the subject and said goodbye to us and told us not to come back. It is awesome to be able to bear your testimony with power and authority of the things you know to be true though! It's so great to know that we have a prophet on earth today who is lead and guided by Jesus Christ, to help us know what he wants us to know! I love my mission, and I love the Gospel! 

I love and miss each of you and hope everything is going well! Thanks again! Talk to you later! 

Love Elder Summerhays

 

April 12, 2016

Dear Family,

Sounds like everyone is doing awesome! That's so crazy that Dad is in Ireland! Hopefully you get to play some golf Dad! 

This week was pretty good for us! We got to see Forrest again a couple times! He was like having anxiety attacks about the after life and he was really concerned for what was going to happen to him after he died. So we went over more of his questions and made him feel a lot better about it. He said "The more you guys come over the better I feel about it!" So that was good! Then we went over yesterday and had an awesome lesson with him that answered a ton of the questions that he had! He will be baptized!! 

We also had a lesson with a new investigator. Her name is Nicole O’Keeffe and we had met her a couple weeks ago but we finally got an appointment with her so we were pumped! We went up and talked to her for a little bit and while we were talking to her the Spirit kept prompting me to set a baptismal date with her at the end of the lesson. So I was like “Ok” haha! So we started teaching and the lesson was SOLID and the Spirit was super strong! At the end we invited her to be baptized and she said yes! And then we talked with her about setting a baptismal date and when she thought that she could be baptized by. She thought for a couple seconds and then said “Two weeks!” hahaha, we were pumped!! So we said “Well we usually hold baptismal services on Saturdays so that would be the 23^rd of April.” Then she said “Well I don’t like the number 23 can we do the next week?” and we told her that we could and set her date for the 30^th of April! We were super excited, but the only hold up is going to be that she is on probation which means she will probably need permission from the First Presidency in order to be baptized… We hope that she will be able to be baptized soon but either way, whether it’s sooner or later, she will be baptized!

We also had a baptism of one of our investigators in Cuba this week! We got to go up to the Cuba branch sacrament meeting on Sunday for the confirmation and it was awesome! Mckenzie kannon is her name. She is about 10 years old and she is going to be a solid member of the church! 

Anyways, that was pretty much my week! I love and miss all of you and hope everything is going well! 

Love Elder Summerhays
                                       
                                   

April 5, 2016

Dear Family!

Those pics from Hawaii are sweet! It looks like you guys had an awesome time! 

This week was sweet! We were able to find three new investigators! David, Daimon, and Forrest. David was referred to us by a less active in the YSA branch named Kyle Connolly. He is a little bit mentally disabled but he told us that he wants to be baptized haha! So we taught him twice this week. The first time we taught him the Restoration really really simply and it went well! He retained a lot of it and loved the message! The second time we talked a little more about baptism because he had a couple questions. This time we were at Kyle’s house and it was awesome because Kyle served a mission and he was really active after his mission but then he kinda fell away and got into some bad stuff. At the lesson he talked about how he used to love studying the scriptures and praying and all of that stuff but he talked about how he just doesn’t make the time anymore. But David said that he wants Kyle to baptize him, and Kyle said that he would do that. He is going to have to make some changes but I think he will do it! It’s really cool because teaching David is also helping Kyle to get active too! But David is probably going to be baptized on April 30^th.

Daimon is also one of our new investigators. We met him a while ago and we have set up appointments in the past but he always gets called into work so we can never meet with him, but this time we went over for our appointment and his brother answered the door and told us that he wasn’t here but that he should be there in a little bit, and as he said that Daimon pulled up in his truck! We had just had a Zone Conference that day about teaching simply and using the pamphlets when we teach the lessons so we were pumped to teach! Daimon came up and said sorry for not being here a couple times in the past but that he wanted to hear our message! So we taught him the Restoration super simply right there on his driveway and invited him to be baptized and he said that he would when he felt that it was true! It was super powerful and he committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon before the next time that we came! He even prayed at the end of the lesson to know if what we taught was true! He is super solid and is going to be baptized in the near future! 

Our other new investigator is Forrest. He was referred to us by some sister missionaries in our zone. He is a good guy who was struggling with and had some questions about the after life and what happens aftere we die. So we went over there and taught him about the Plan of Salvation and explained it to him. He told us that it made sense and we committed him to read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. Towards the end he talked about some of his beliefs and he said “I believe that way back in ancient times, there was one church, and all of the churches today branched off from that one church, that is why all of the churches are different but they all have things in common and similarities.” Haha so we talked about that too and told him that next time we come we could talk about that as well as the Plan of Salvation, and he thought that was awesome! He is solid and we are going to teach him again this week! 

General Conference was awesome! I loved all of the talks! One of my favorites was President Eyrings talk in the very first session! He spoke with so much power about how we need to prepare and soften our hearts to hear the word of the Lord! We need to feast upon it and really pray to seek the revelation to help guide us in our lives! It was a perfect way to kick off all of the rest of the talks! It is great to hear from the Prophet and the Apostles. You can’t listen to them without feeling the Holy Ghost witness to you that they really are prophets, seers, and revelators speaking for the Lord! It’s so great to know that we have a prophet guiding us, and telling us exactly what the Lord needs us to hear in our times! I know that the church is true and that it is run by Jesus Christ, and I’m grateful for that knowledge. I love all of you and hope everything is going awesome! Keep doing what’s right! Talk to you later! 

Love Elder Summerhays
                                

                                                    

March 29, 2016

Hey Everyone!

Hawaii looks so awesome!! I miss that place a ton, and it's so good to see that all of you guys are having fun! I remember getting scorched every day and having sand everywhere after body surfing some sweet waves haha! I hope you guys have a good trip! I heard the Utes got smoked in the tourney by Gonzaga. That stinks. 

This week was awesome! We only had two dinners on Easter compared to our 4 on Christmas so that was a break! We did a ton of tracting and had a lot of appointments fall through. Right now we are working on sifting through our investigators to see which ones actually want to meet with us and who doesn't. It's been a little rough but we keep pressing forward! Elder Olsen and I are getting along great, and we are both loving the work! We were able to teach Reyna this week which was good! I was on splits with a member when we taught her, and we brought someone from the branch so that she can have a friend when she comes to church. But she had a ton of questions for us, mostly about the Book of Mormon and a couple about Joseph Smith. Eventually she said "You guys keep talking about how there are so many churches on the earth, but how can you really know which one is true?" And that's the question that every missionary wants to hear haha! So we talked and testified again about the BOM and all the members in the room bore their testimonies, and the Spirit was super powerful. At the end we committed her to read and pray about it to really know if it's true, and she said she would and that she felt bad that she hadn't been doing it! So she is probably going to be baptized in the near future, she is really seeking the truth and we're excited to see what happens! Also it turns out that she was like best friends with Kyra, who just got baptized, when they were younger. So they are getting in touch again and that is going to be huge for Reyna! 

Other than that we had a couple more appointments but most of the week was tracting! This week should be even more of it! Anyways, I love and miss all of you and hope all is well! Talk to you all later!

Love Elder Summerhays

March 22, 2016

Hey Family!

That's SWEET that you guys get to go to Hawaii! Take lots of pics for me! I hope we can go on another Hawaii trip when I get home! I have seen a couple pictures of the new Provo City Center Temple and it looks awesome! I actually watched a time lapse of it being built and it was nuts! I'm excited to see it when I get home! Congrats to Timmy on the call to Cali! That will be an awesome place to serve and it's sweet that he gets to learn Spanish! Kill it Tim!!! 

This week was pretty good! A ton of our investigators cancelled on us and a couple rescheduled for this week so that was kind of a bummer! We did a lot of tracting and finding which was actually really fun! We did get to teach one of our new investigators named Richard White. He is a YSA who lives with his super inactive mom, and they are kind of struggling to get by right now. He has a dog named Ghost which was named after the Holy Ghost haha, because one night he was praying that he would be able to wake up at a certain time in the morning, because he felt a little lazy and he needed to wake up. Then he went to bed and his dog woke him up at that exact time, so that's pretty sweet! But the first thing that he said when we got into the lesson with him was "So when is the soonest that I can get baptized?" Haha so we told him the requirements and he said that he would live them! But he had been taught by missionaries before in a YSA branch in Utah and he said he didn't like the branch there because the people in it were kinda snobby and stuck up haha, which I can believe. But he said he loves our branch and he really does feel that our church is true and he wants to be baptized. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and set a baptism date with him for April 9th, so we are super excited for that! 

That was one of the many miracles that we saw this week! We were definitely getting some opposition from the adversary this week, but one of the lessons that we learned is that there is opposition in all things, and for all the bad things that happen, there are always good things to be happy about! Every time we had an investigator cancel or we had some brutal rejection tracting, we saw a miracle later in the day or the week! It was so awesome to see and know that God does love his children and that his power can overcome anything! I love being a missionary and being able to see these things on a daily basis, and to be able to feel the Spirit work through me as I speak and testify of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It's the best thing ever! 

Anyways, I hope you guys are doing well! Have fun in Hawaii next week and don't forget to take pics! I love and miss all of you. Keep choosing the right, and you'll be happy!

Love Elder Summerhays

March 15, 2016

Hello Family!

It sounds like everyone at home is doing pretty good! March Madness is coming up, I bet everyone is getting pumped! It seems like everyone is getting married and it's nuts! 

 

This week was sweet!! We did a lot of contacting and were able to find 2 new investigators. We had a sweet experience while we were tracting. So we were knocking on this one street and while we were walking we ran into a vivint alarm salesman. He was pretty young, and he ran up to us and was like "Hey guys how's it going?" and we started talking with him and it turns out that he is a return missionary as of 10 months ago. He served his mission in Japan, so we talked with him for a little while about it and then he was like "You know what I was talking to a guy on the other street over and after I sold him an alarm system we were talking and we got to talking about my mission and what missionaries do. You know what I'm going to call him right now and ask him if he wants to meet with you guys!" Haha so he called him and asked him if we could come over and teach and talk with him and the guy said yes! After he hung up the vivint guy was like "I have been praying for an experience like this guys!" It was SO cool!! So we hopped in our car and drove to the next street over and went and knocked on this guys door. His name was Mario and he was waiting at the door for us. He let us in and showed us his new alarm system, which was actually pretty sweet, then we got to talking about the Gospel and his beliefs and stuff. He told us that he doesn't like churches because the people there are hypocrites. He said that they come to church on Sunday and say that they believe in Christ but then they go out the next day and party and break commandments and do whatever they want. So we talked with him about how the Gospel is a way of life and not just a Sunday thing, and he agreed with what we were teaching and testifying about. Then we got to talking about the Book of Mormon, and he asked kinda what it was and what it was about, and we explained it to him and he was like "Oh cool can I have one of those?" haha and so we gave him one and marked a chapter in it for him to read, and told him to pray about it. We are going to have to hand him off to some other Elders in our zone but they will hopefully keep teaching him and see him baptized! It was super cool to see! Pray for opportunities to share the Gospel and I promise you will find them! Bear your testimony or talk about the Gospel whenever you get the chance, it brings so much happiness!

Saturday was the best day of the week though! I got to go through the temple with Avram and see him get his endowment!! It was such an amazing spiritual experience! He is going to continue to build the kingdom of God and I am excited to see him keep his covenants and see the blessings that will come into his life because of that! Right after the temple we had Kyra's baptism! It was one of the best baptisms that I have ever been to! I know I say that after every one, but they just keep getting better and better! She bore her testimony at the end of the baptism and the Spirit there was so strong! You can't deny the truthfulness of the Gospel after you see the ordinances of the priesthood being performed! 

I love being a part of this work, and being able to feel the joy that comes from sharing the Gospel and working hard every day! I love and miss all of you and hope you are all doing well! Talk to you all next week!

Love Elder Summerhays

P.S. Also there is an awesome talk about grace by Brad Wilcox called "His Grace is Sufficient" you should read or listen to it Mom it's awesome!:) Love you