August 9, 2016

Elder Summerhays' Last letter:

Dear Family,

Man I can't believe it's already almost been two years! Time has gone by way to fast. This is the last email you will be getting from me on my mission and it feels weird for me to say that.

The past two years have been the best two years of my life hands down. I feel like I have learned more about everything than I had the whole 18 years before. I have loved every second of it, and though there were parts that were challenging, and tests that I had to get through, the happiness and pure joy that I have felt overpowers all. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to come to know my Savior, to help others to come to know him too, and to help them experience the peace that comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I will never forget the things that have happened on my mission and the Spirit that I have felt. I have had a complete change of heart and I don't know where I would be without that! Albuquerque and El Paso have a special place in my heart!

I have a testimony that Jesus is the Christ. That he came to the earth and performed the Atonement. He suffered and bled for all of our sins, and he has given us the opportunity to have faith unto repentance. We can become clean from the guilt and shame and sadness that comes from sin. He died on the cross and rose again on the third day so that all of us will one day be resurrected and return to our Father in Heaven again. I know that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in 1820 in answer to his first outspoken prayer. Joseph was called to be a prophet and, under the direction of Christ, was able to restore His church back onto the earth. We have the fulness of the Gospel today and that is such a blessing. It is found in the Book of Mormon. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith did translate it. It has a power in it that can change us and help us through this life. It is the evidence of our glorious message of the Restoration. I love this Gospel, and I love my Heavenly Father. I know He loves me and all of us with all his heart! His commandments will help us, they will make us happy, and they are the way to Eternal Life. I hope you all can come to know these truths for yourself too! I love  all of you and I am so grateful for all of the support that I have received on my mission! I am excited to see you guys in a week! Love ya

Love Elder Summerhays

August 2, 2016

Hey Family,

Congrats to Danny on taking 3rd place in the PGA Championship. I was getting updates from all the members this week haha! 

Elder Mapes and I have been working super hard! We're sprinting to the finish and it's great! I've seen a lot of missionaries during my time as a missionary, who don't sprint to the finish, and who just completely give up their last weeks in the mission field. I think it's super sad to see that. They don't reach their full potential. In a golf tournament if you're playing good the whole round you're not going to just give up on the last couple holes and double bogey out, it ruins your whole round. If you go home from your mission having given up for the last little bit, the rest of it is meaningless. If you're not going forward you're going backward. 

We tracted a lot this week because a lot of our investigators cancelled on us. We were able to meet with Fred and he didn't come to church this week which was a bummer, but we reset his baptismal date again. It's super tough because the only thing that is holding him back from being baptized today is his health. If he was feeling good he would be a member already, but the cancer treatment is just brutal on him, and he started feeling not so good again this week. We met with Jay yesterday and we found out that she has a problem with drinking tea. We got all of the tea bags that she had a threw them away for her, and she is trying to stop now so that's good! She also said that she is going to do everything that she can to finally make it to church so hopefully that works out too.

Missionary work is my favorite thing. I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to serve my Heavenly Father right now. I hope you all are doing well. Keep doing what's right and know that I love and miss you all! Talk to you later!

Love Elder Summerhays

July 25, 2016

Hey Family!

Congrats to Joe on getting to play in the PGA Championship! That's so sweet! Wish I was there to watch it but you guys will have to tell me how it goes! Sounds like everyone else is doing well too! 

This week was awesome! We had a straight up miracle happen with Fred! So every time we have seen Fred since we met him, which was probably about a month and a half ago, we have said "Hey Fred how's it going?" when we walk into his house and without fail he always says "Not so good guys" or "Pretty bad" or something like that because his health is bad and he's going through some cancer treatments and stuff. We gave him a blessing a while back and in the blessing it said that he would be healed. So this week on Friday we walk in and he greets us and he's super happy! It almost didn't seem like it was him. Then we asked him how he was doing and he said "A lot better guys, I feel great!" The reason why it was so awesome is that this last Wednesday we had fasted for Fred and his health, that he would be able to recover and be able to come to church and get baptized. So we kept talking with him and he had a question about whether or not our church had some sort of program where we can take a bunch of his old stuff he had and give it to someone that needed it. So we told him about the DI but we didn't know if there was one in El Paso so we asked him what kind of stuff he had, and he told us. So then we offered to take some of the stuff and also to ask around to see if anyone could use any of it. And he got the biggest smile on his face and was just like "Really? Really guys? That's awesome, oh that's just great!" and then he kept saying things like that and started crying and said "Maybe I will join your guys church after all." So then we kept talking and answered some of his questions about the Book of Mormon, and he said "You know guys I'm really optimistic about coming to church this week, with my health this good!" and then he told us that if he came this last week and next week then he would be willing to be baptized the next week! So we set a date with him for August 6th and he accepted! It was a miracle, I've never seen him so happy! So we are excited for that day!

We also had a district meeting this week about the Atonement. I have been studying about the Atonement a lot this week and it's just so amazing! I've seen the change that happens in people's lives through the Atonement my whole mission and I've seen it in my own life more than ever! I would invite you all to study about the Atonement and strive every single day to be changed and converted through it! That is where true happiness lies I promise! I love and miss all of you and hope all is well! Keep doing what's right. Talk to you next week!

Love Elder Summerhays

July 19, 2016

Hey Family!

The trip to McCall lake looks awesome! Everyone looks like they had a great time! Was the water pretty cold?

This week was pretty sweet! The highlight of the week was a miracle that we had on Sunday! In the morning we went to a catholic mass with one of our investigators named Victoria, because she invited us, and we felt like we should just to show her that we respect all religions. She is 16 and she wanted to start meeting with us because her biological father is a member and she wanted to have a connection with him by learning more about our beliefs. So we went and it was a pretty cool experience! The preacher actually gave a pretty good sermon, and after the sermon they did kind of a sacrament thing that they call the eucharyst. After mass we ate some lunch at our apartment then we went to church! Victoria was there and she sat by us, but then the Williams family, who have been fellowshipping her, waved at her to go sit by them so she did! sacrament meeting was great. We had Mike and Michael both passing the sacrament, and the speakers were pretty good too! After sacrament meeting was over Victoria came up to us with tears in her eyes and said "Sorry guys I just can't control my emotions! If I were to get baptized who would baptize me?" Haha so we explained that anyone with the priesthood could do it, and then she said "That last speaker just hit me really hard and I really felt the Spirit, and I feel so strongly that the church is true. I just don't know how I'm going to tell my mom and my stepdad." Her parents are really strong catholics and they really love their church so she is afraid that they won't let her get baptized. So we talked with her about it and came up with some plans of what she could say to her parents and we testified about the truthfulness of the Gospel, and she felt a little more comforted about it! So she is going to talk with her parents about being baptized and we are hoping and praying that they will be ok with it! But it was an amazing experience! When you guys go to church make sure to focus on the Spirit that is there because too often we go through the motions every Sunday, and we forget why we are really there. It is a day set apart to worship the Lord, and to rest from our labors, and you will feel the Spirit and have your testimony renewed if you do that! 

The three people who had baptismal dates all had to be taken off date because they didn't get to church this week so that was a bummer. But we are going to try to reset all of them this week! Anyways, I love and miss all of you guys and hope all is well! Keep on keeping on! Talk to you all later!

Love Elder Summerhays

July 12, 2016

Dear Familia,

Sounds like you guys had a good week and an awesome Sunday! Kill it out there Timmy and Brit!! You guys are going to be solid missionaries! I miss golfing with the fam, looks like a good time! 

This week was pretty good! The highlight of the week was Allen Greene. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and it was a really powerful lesson! We testified a ton about the Atonement and what it does for us. At the end of the lesson we asked him what the Plan of Salvation means for him and he said "Well gosh man, I mean there's no place I'd rather be than the Celestial Kingdom!" Then he went on to say "I just can't even imagine how much love Jesus Christ must have for us for willingly going through all of that. And knowing that..." and then he started tearing up "How could you not accept that, and how could you not follow him?" It was so powerful and the Spirit was there so strong! He's ready to be baptized, and all we have to do now is finish teaching him and get him to church! He's going to be a great member!

We also saw Bruce and Jay this week and taught them the Plan of Salvation as well. They loved all of it and believe all of it! After the lesson they said "When we're baptized you're still going to come by and teach us right?" and we said yes and also explained home teachers to them and Jay was like "I love that, that's awesome!" And then she turned to Bruce and said "Honey we found our church!" Haha so that was sweet! We're excited for their baptism. 

We had a zone training this week and we got a new scripture of the month. It's 3 Nephi 5:13. We are supposed to memorize it by the end of the month. I've been thinking about that scripture and there are a lot of ways that we can apply it in our lives, but I just love the humility that you can see in that verse. As disciples of Jesus Christ we have to remember that this is His work and His word, and that the people around us are His people, our brothers and sisters. We need to turn our hearts over to Christ and humbly serve Him. Always remember who gave us life and always remember who gave us the opportunity to find happiness and peace in this life and in the life to come. Without Christ we would have and be nothing. I love Him so much and I will serve him for the rest of my life. So I would invite all of you to memorize that scripture by the end of the month, and apply it to your life! 

Anyways, I love and miss all of you and hope all is well! Keep doing what's right! Talk to you next week!

Love Elder Summerhays

July 5, 2016

Hey Fam,

Man the 4th of July is probably my favorite holiday! I love the Kaysville parade! Looks like you guys had an awesome time! Elder Mapes and I saw a couple fireworks from our apartment last night. It was funny because we were just sitting out on our porch watching them and then one of our neighbors just gets home and comes on over and jumps onto our railing and just sits there and starts venting to us about how bad of a 4th of July he had haha! It was good though because we eventually got around to talking with him about the Gospel and about God and stuff, and he said he wants to hear more! It was pretty sweet.

This week was really good! We were able to set a baptismal date with Fred! He finally admitted that he believes that the Book of Mormon is true. He said "There's just no way a young guy in New York in 1820 could have just wrote this book." It's super awesome to hear investigators admit that the Book of Mormon is true! It strengthens your testimony of it! So Fred's date is for July 23 he is praying about whether that's the right date or not, so we're going to meet with him this week again and figure it all out! 

We also have two more baptismal dates set with investigators named Bruce and Jay. They are a couple who really love hearing the word of God. They were both raised in the south as baptists and they love the Lord. We taught them the Restoration this week, and we had taught Jay it before but Bruce had never heard it. They both loved it and believed it, so we invited them to be baptized and they said they would! So we set a date for July 30 and they said that they would prepare for that day! We also have another guy on date for the 30th whose name is Allen Green! He works for border patrol and he's just a super nice and humble guy. We've taught him a couple times but he has read all the way through 1 Nephi! He loves the Book of Mormon and he has super good questions about it whenever we come over. He is definitely going to be baptized on the 30th! We are going to teach him the Plan of Salvation this week and continue to prepare him for his date!

We also met with Mark again this week. He continues to have questions but the good thing about it is that he's actually studying and not just going to the internet for his answers! It's crazy how true the Gospel is! Answering his questions and talking with him, even though some of his questions could be offensive or are maybe rude about the church, just confirms my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel! There is so much evidence I don't even see how anyone can deny it! 

Anyways, I love all of you guys and hope all is well! Talk to you later!

Love Elder Summerhays

                                      

June 28, 2016

Hey Family!

Sweet, that Sam's going to scout camp! I remember those days. 

Our new mission President, President Guffey, came in today and we are meeting with him on the 2nd of June for a little conference to get to know him better!

We had some crazy and some awesome stuff happen this week! We had a great lesson with Fred. Last week we had offered him a priesthood blessing, because he has cancer and the treatment that he is going through is really wearing him out, and he said that he would like one, so that was the first thing we did. The blessing was powerful and right when it was over he stood up and just kind of smiled and said "Wow." and we asked him how he felt and he said "Really peaceful." It was the first time ever that we had asked him how he felt or how he's doing and said something other than "Not so good." so that was really cool! We then talked about the priesthood and the member that we had with us testified about the church and the Book of Mormon and Fred said that he felt something as he was testifying. It was probably the best lesson that we had with him and he is making more progress now toward getting his answer!

Something crazy happened on Sunday. After sacrament meeting we needed to talk to the Bishop about something so during second hour we waited outside his office for him to come out so we could talk with him. While we were waiting we got a text and it was a media referral from church headquarters named Mark Brunner who requested a Book of Mormon and it said that he requested contact ASAP. So we hit call on his number and he didn't answer the first time, so then we waited about a minute and he called us back. When he answered he was like "Wow your guys' system is amazing! I sent that request in about 1 minute ago and you were already calling me, in fact the reason that I didn't answer is because I was on the phone with someone from your church!" Haha! So Elder Mapes and I set the record for fastest contacted referral ever. I know that means nothing to all of you but we were pretty excited. So he asked if our church was off of Redd rd. and Resler rd. and we said yes and then he said "I'm near there and I can head over to your church to meet you guys if that works for you?" haha and so we said yes and he came and met us. We started talking with him and he had been catholic his whole life until he got mugged one time, and then he really turned his life over to Christ and now he is christian. He has a friend that is Mormon and he wants to learn more about the religion so he can have a good discussion with his friend. So we asked him if he had any questions and what he wanted to learn and he kinda just started Bible bashing us haha... So I was talking to him and Bishop finally came out of his meeting so Elder Mapes went over to Bishop to ask him what we needed to ask him while I talked with Mark, and then he came back and we ended up sitting down in the foyer. He asked us a ton of questions about the Apostasy and priesthood authority and a couple other things but as we were talking church was just happening haha so members were going by on their way to class and they would all shake his hand and introduce themselves right in the middle of this! And then one member overheard us talking and he actually ended up joining in on the discussion haha! This member is basically a Bible scholar and so he was able to answer a lot of the questions clearly. So we taught him all the way until the end of church haha and we confounded him by the Spirit, and this all happened during church haha. He said that he wants to meet with us again this week! We have an appointment set up with him and he says that his two main concerns are that the Apostasy never happened and that the priesthood was never lost, and that Joseph Smith is not a true prophet. We think that if we continue to help him feel the Spirit that he will eventually come around!

I've been thinking a lot about obedience this week and what comes from being obedient in our lives. I can testify that being obedient is the way to happiness, power, and having the Spirit in our lives. There is such a noticeable difference when we are obedient and when we are not. God will lead you in your life as you live his commandments. He is bound when we do what he say, which means when we are obedient we will recieve blessings, but when we are not we do not have that promise. Please stay obedient to the commandments, and I promise that everything will work out, and you will change! I love and miss all of you and hope everything is going well! Talk to you guys later!

Love Elder Summerhays

June 21, 2016

Hey Family,

Sounds like girls camp was fun! Idk if I could have done that challenge course, I hate heights. It sounds really fun though!

We had a pretty good week this week. We ended up having a lot of cancellations but it turned out to be pretty good! We found a new investigator named Josh, and he's pretty solid. He is a mexican guy who's a truck driver so he's out of town a lot and so it's hard to catch him. We tracted into him a while back and he said he would be willing to listen to us some time but he was busy then. So we came back this week and he let us in and we were able to teach the Restoration to him. He was asking a ton of questions throughout the whole thing which is good! At the end we invited him to be baptized and he said that he would if he read the Book of Mormon and came to know it was true! We are excited to continue teaching him although it's going to be a little tough to catch him with his job. 

We are still teaching Fred and he isn't progressing very much right now. We have been really bold with him about baptism and how he can and needs to get an answer through the Holy Ghost but he says that he wants to read the entire Book of Mormon before he makes any decisions... We're trying to help him understand that he doesn't need to read the whole thing to know if it's true or not, but he's been kinda stubborn. So we are going to keep meeting with him and continue being bold! 

We are working a lot on finding people right now with Michael and Mike being confirmed this Sunday. We are going to be out a ton in the blazing heat this week and it's going to be sweet! Anyways, I love all of you guys and hope everything is going well for you! Keep doing what's right! Talk to you later!

Love Elder Summerhays

June 14, 2016

Dear Family,

I know mom is at girls camp so I hope everyone gets this email. 

Mike and Michael got baptized!! The service went really well and they felt the Spirit super strong! Michael said that the thing that he is most excited about with joining the church is more involvement! He and Mike are really solid and they are going to be kingdom builders! We had stake conference this weekend so we are doing the confirmation this upcoming Sunday. 

We also found two new investigators this week. One of them is named Steve, and we met him a couple weeks ago while tracting. He said that he was busy working on something with the city council but that we could come by another time. So we went by again about a week later and he said he was still busy, but he promised us that he could meet with us the next week! So we called him and set something up the next week and it worked out! He is a really nice guy who you can tell is very honest, and he is a strong believer in Jesus Christ. He served in the Navy for a little while and now he just lives in a home by himself. We taught him most of the Restoration but he talked a ton so we weren't able to get through the whole thing in time. At the end he said that he has a lot of questions so we told him that we would come back and answer all of his questions. We're excited to continue teaching him. 

Transfers was yesterday and Elder Mapes and I are both staying here in the Mesa ward. Things are going really well and we are excited for this upcoming transfer. The ward is starting to catch fire with missionary work as well and we are hoping to get some referrals from the members pretty soon! It's so awesome to see all of the blessings that come from being diligent! This is my last full transfer in the mish because my next one will kind of be a half transfer... It's nuts how fast that last one went. Elder Mapes and I have set some awesome transfer goals and we're going to do everything in our power to reach them! I know it will go by too fast but I'm going to make it the best! 

This week I have been thinking a lot about finishing. With a couple missionaries in our zone leaving this last transfer and my time fast approaching haha. Also we have had a lot of investigators who will listen to us and will keep some of their commitments, like they will read and pray and sometimes come to church, but a lot of them are failing to finish. They won't make that last step into the waters of baptism. We continue to be super persistent and keep on inviting them but they just won't finish. I've seen some missionaries who do pretty good their whole mission and they have so much potential at the very end of their mission to work miracles and see success but they just can't finish! My invitation to all of you would be to make sure you finish! Whatever it is that's going on in your life don't run up and down the football field never running into the end zone. Make sure you finish strong! I love and miss all of you and hope everything is going well! Talk to you later! 

Love Elder Summerhays

                                                                    

June 7, 2016

Dear Family,

Congrats to Liv on graduating! That's super awesome Liv wait to stick it out! I bet you guys are all getting excited with summer coming up!

This week was really good! We were really busy which is the best! We are getting excited for Michael and Mike's baptism this Saturday, and so are they! They are both super ready and they are going to be solid members of the church! 

We were also able to meet with Fred this week. He is reading the Book of Mormon every day and studying it thoroughly. He has questions about it every time we come over and we answer them for him. We invite him to baptism in every single lesson and he keeps saying that when he gets a solid answer then he will set a date for his baptism, but he wants to first get to that point so that's what we are working on with him. We are also working with another guy named Bob Gardner. His wife is a member named Michelle who is less active, and he has been meeting with the missionaries for years now. He has an alcohol addiction that he is trying to overcome right now by going to rehab, and it's helping a little bit, but he still hasn't completely overcome it. We are working with him and we invited him to be baptized. He talked about how he has a couple things that he has to overcome before then, but eventually he feels like he wants to do it! So we're helping him with that and he came to church this week for the first time in forever so that was cool! 

We did a lot of tracting this week as well and we met a lot of nice people who just didn't want to take the necessary steps to change their lives around. We would explain the Restoration to them and talk about prophets really simply and testify about how it can help there lives and we would ask them if they thought this message would be important to them and they would say "Yeah definitely!" then we would ask when we could come by and share it with them and they would say "Well you know guys I'm not interested but thanks for coming by!" Then we would talk to them a little bit more and try again, but they would say they are busy or something like that. There is a saying in our mission called Learn, Do, Become. When we learn the Gospel we have a desire to live it and when we live it and do it, then we become like the Savior. We meet a lot of people who learn about the Gospel but they are not willing to do the things necessary to become a better person. There is so much potential that all of us in the world have as sons and daughters of God, but in order to reach it we not only have to believe in the Gospel and believe in The Savior, but we have to live the Gospel and DO like the Savior. I challenge all of you to do that. If you have anything right now that you feel like you could do a better job at, fix it! If you do you will become someone better! I love and miss all of you and hope all is well! Talk to you next week. 

Love Elder Summerhays

May 31, 2016

Hi Family,

Congrats to Jeff on the mission call! Is he speaking English? That sounds like a boss mission though! Kill it Jeff! Sounds like memorial day was awesome! I'm thinking about you guys!

This week was awesome! We had the opportunity to have a zone conference and it was powerful! This was President and Sister Miller's last one. The Zone Conference was focused on PMG and the importance of it. All of the zone leaders in the south of the mission gave a training and we learned a ton! At the end of the conference President got up and bore his testimony and shared some thoughts with us. He actually talked about missionaries who are getting ready to go home, and how we shouldn't worry. He bore a strong testimony about conversion, and how we need to decide to be a disciple of Jesus Christ right now and if we do that, that's what we will become. He said it a lot better than I make it sound, but it was so powerful! It applied so much not only to my mission but to the rest of life. We need to be committed in what we do. Life is completely up to us, we have 100% agency all of the time and we need to put doubt and fear and worry out of our mind and make the decision now to serve the Lord for the rest of our lives. If we doubt and fear what is in the future and we have that in our mind then that's what will happen. President said "You have the iron rod in your hand, now recognize it and do something with it!" I give the same challenge to all of you! At the end of the zone conference we all got in a line and were able to hug President Miller on our way out. Everyone was bawling and it was a spiritual experience. 

Other than Zone Conference we were able to teach a lot of lessons to investigators! We have 2 people on baptism date now. Michael Pinon missed his date this Saturday because he was out of town this week with family stuff, but he is back now and we reset his date for June 11! He is so ready and he's pumped to be baptized! We also have another guy on date for the 11th named Mike Nami. His wife is a recent convert who got baptized a couple months ago, and he just never got baptized with them. He made up some excuses for why he didn't get baptized and why he hasn't been baptized yet but we were able to go in there and figure out his real concerns and set him on date! They are from Iran so religion over there is very different than it is over here, and he explained it a little bit to us and it was pretty intense. But we were able to address his concerns and he committed to be baptized on the 11th of June which just happens to be a day after his birthday! We're super excited.

We weren't able to meet with Jay this week but we have an appointment with her tomorrow. We did meet with Norman again though, and we taught him the Restoration. He agreed with all of it but he did admit that he is a little hard headed haha. I can tell he wants it to be true but he just has to make the steps to come to know it for himself. He committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon so that was good! 

It's getting hotter and hotter here and we have been out biking lately. I am loving life, and having fun in the sun. Elder Burnett and I are going golfing today so that's going to be sweet! Anyways, I hope all is well with you guys! Love and miss you. Talk to you next week!

Love Elder Summerhays