May 24, 2016

Dear Family,

Sounds like everything's going well at home! Everybody is super excited for summer I bet! I remember how excited I got for summer and how short it usually went haha! But don't listen to me. EFY is pretty awesome Ann! 

This week was sweet! It was one of those weeks where you are just super exhausted at the end of the week because you worked really hard! It feels good! This week we found 2 new investigators. The first one is Jay. She is an African American lady who really loves God and Jesus Christ and who wants to come closer to them. She is living with her fiance and her son, and her son has a ton of questions about the Gospel that Jay doesn't know the answer to so she asks us and we answer them! She has a health condition where she has to go to physical therapy and she needs to walk to stay healthy. Jay had never heard of the Book of Mormon and when we told her about it and explained what it was she said "Why don't more people know about this?? This is awesome we need this!" Haha we were pumped to hear that. She needs someone to walk with her so that she has the motivation to do it so she was like "You guys can be my walking buddies!" And so we agreed and went walking with her. While we walked we taught her the Restoration and it was one of the best lessons I've been able to have. The whole thing made perfect sense to her and she had the perfect questions and the perfect answers to our questions! At the end of the lesson we invited her to baptism and she said "Wait a minute I've already been baptized though, do I have to be baptized again then?" And we explained the authority and told her that she did need to be baptized again and she was like "Yeah ok I can do that! Wait a minute do ya'll baptize, because when I was baptized it was in a river and I ain't gonna do that again!" Then we explained the baptismal font and she was like "Oh ok I like that!" Haha so she's super ready and we are excited to keep teaching her this week! 

The other new guy that we met is Norman Flaiz. He hasn't been to a church in a while but he had some questions about God. His biggest one was why do bad things happen to good people. He related a story to us that he had heard on the news about someone innocent being murdered and he just couldn't understand why God would allow that to happen. So we pulled out some scriptures in the Book of Mormon and helped him answer his question. It was cool because just a couple days earlier I was studying the questions of the soul section in Chapter 5 of PMG, so we were able to answer the question clearly! But he committed to read the BOM and next time we go over there we are going to teach him the Restoration. 

We did a ton of tracting this week in the hot sun, and I'm getting more and more tan! Met some crazy people and some normal people but I love El Paso! We have zone conference coming up this week and I'm excited to see what's in store for that! We have been working a ton with the members and helping them to do missionary work. Sometimes that can be hard but the members are doing a good job at inviting their friends and fellowshipping our investigators. I would invite all of you guys to do missionary work! Share the Gospel with others and I promise you'll be happy! I'm so lucky to be able to be a missionary and I can't wait to continue to share the Gospel after my mission! I love and miss all of you guys and hope all is well! Keep doing what's right, and I'll talk to you later!

Love Elder Summerhays 

May 17, 2016

Hey Family,

Sounds like you guys are doing pretty good! That's sweet that golf season is starting up for Sam. I'm excited to play when I get back! How warm is it in Utah right now?

This week was pretty good for us. We found a couple new investigators. One of them is named Fred. He was referred to us by the sister missionaries in our zone. He is an Anglican guy who doesn't agree with all of the stuff that his church is teaching, and he wants to find the truth. We went over there and he talked about how he has been in a couple churches throughout his life and he has liked almost all of them but he has found things that he disagreed with in all of them. So we told him that if he read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and continued to meet with us that he would know the truth. So then we went back later and talked about the Restoration and he liked it and agreed with all of it, and we invited him to baptism at the end and he said that when he learns more and comes to know that it's true then he will be baptized. He committed to come to church last Sunday and he came! We were super excited about that, and he is going to be baptized in the near future! 

The other new investigator that we found was a lady named Ashley. She is in medical school right now and she has had a busy schedule. She has also been through a lot of religions and she told us that she doesn't actually know what she believes in. She has been to so many churches and she had questions and the churches couldn't answer them and told her to pray about it, and she prayed and didn't feel like she got an answer. So she was starting to believe in science rather than religion. We told her about the Book of Mormon and how it supports the Bible and contains the fullness of the Gospel, and if she read and prayed about it she would know that God is there and what the truth was. Then she said "Well what's the difference? Why will this be any different than what I've done in the past?" So then we testified about how it could help her and why it is different and recommitted her to read and pray about it. So she said that she would, and before we left she asked us some questions about polygamy, not the polygamy in the modern church but in the old testament times, and we told her we would answer it when we came back again. So then we went back with one of our members and asked her if she had read and prayed. She said that she hadn't because she has been so busy with school and stuff, and she kept asking more questions about how she can know, and once again asked what the difference was between our church and other churches. We once again told her that she has to read and pray about it, and that there is no way she is going to know unless she does that. So she said she would and she told us to come back again later in the week. So we went back and this time her mom answered the door and said "Oh Ashley is sleeping, but she told me to give you guys this." And she handed us the Book of Mormon and it had a note in it that said (see picture). So we were kind of bummed about that, but we aren't going to give up! 

We also did a little bit of tracting this week and contacted a bunch of other referrals that we had been given. It was a pretty solid week overall! Michael is still progressing and he is really excited about his baptism coming up on the 28th!  It keeps getting hotter and hotter over here and I'm getting a nice tan! I'm loving ever minute! Anyways, I love and miss all of you guys and hope everything is going well! Talk to you later! 

Love Elder Summerhays