Monday, December 13, 2010

More Pictures

A picture of Brent with his current zone
A service project Brent did at a Primaria


Eugenia at her baptism
us at Xochicalco. This was a great trip





Brent posing in a trench coat he found in his apartment

Some Pictures




Making what I think are scarves?



















"A cool part of Pradera, called Tzompantle. it´s a rich area. Lots of rich people. and very poor people. weird... thats mexico. haha"






"A big stack of dead things! not really... they like the dia de los muertos. haha halloween is a pretty big thing here. seriously."
"Dia De los Muertos!! mwahahaha!"
















December 13th

Hello Family!
It is the 13th of December and just a nice almost 70 degrees here in Cuernavaca Mexico! You might be curious about the subject of this weeks letter. As a few of you might know and the vast majority probably don´t. Yesterday 12-12-10 was the Birthday of the Virgin Guatalupe!! The whole country celebrated with a ton of fireworks all day. We watched a little at night. Everyone was praying to the Virgin and giving her flowers and everything all day. it was.... ridiculous. and stank seriously of Apostacy. But that is mexico!!! haha
So this week has been pretty good! We have 2 people that are set to get baptized this next week. and with some luck and faith 3 more the week after! But we´ll see what happens then. This week had great and sad moments, We had to say goodbye to a really cool family. They were progressing really really well and were super interested and everything! But after teaching them about the law of chastity we found out that they aren´t married. They´ve been together for 14 years and have a 14 year old kid together, but aren´t married. We later taught a great lesson on the family and the improtance of marriage in the family and how it will strengthen their relationship and everything! it was very spiritual, but sadly they reject marriage. it´s weird, cause they are very happy together and really seem to love each other. But don´t believe in marriage. I don´t understand why, we kept asking and asking and trying to figure out their real problem with marriage or the church or whatever but they would never open up about it and after 3 appointments we had to say goodbye and left them with a card and our telephone number. It was sad because they were sucha great family! they came to church 2 weeks in a row and everything! but... when we drop someone I know the lord prepares more to be taught. So this week we are going to teach!
This week was changes! And Neither me nor my companion are going, which means that i´m going to kill my father! haha this is his last change, then he goes home. Sad. He´s great! and awesome guy, missionary, and father. But i´m exctied for him to go home. haha and i´m excited just to be able to say that I killed my father. mwahahahaha
Well christmas is definatley coming, I was in walmart today printing pictures and they had good american christmas music on. I felt at home. It was great! haha So i´m really not sure whats happening with christmas yet.... were going to find out during the week and I might shoot you a quick email telling you where and what and everything so yeah. If you have reccomendations on what time I should call tell me. And I hope everyone is there at Mom´s and Dad´s when I call!!!
Ok well i´m going to chili´s for lunch now. I love you all and will talk to you later!!
Love
Elder Summers

December 6th

What a week! We baptized Eugenia!! It was great! She was really an awesome investigator and totally ready. She had a friend that took her to church about a month ago and gave her a ton of copies of the Liahona which she´s read most of. It was awesome. Really such a great experience. The service was supposed to start around 8 p.m. but didn´t actually start till around 9. it was late. But we got it done, so thats really all that matters!! haha
So this week in pradera was pretty good. We taught a lot of lessons and have about 5 or 6 people that can get baptized this month. As long as all goes well. The biggest problem is that lots of people actually aren´t married. it´s hard. so we have to marry two couples this week. Luckily we have an awesome lady in our area thats super rich and dedicates her life to helping missionaries, so she drives us and our investigators to an area called taxco, in Guerrero. There´s a judge there thats a member and she marries people fast and cheap. So hopefully i´ll be going there this week to marry two couples. I´m Pumped!!! We only had 3 people in church yesterday, kind of lame. But not too bad. A lot of people say they´ll do stuff. Then don´t. It´s lame. But we do have some really great investigators that are progressing really well. December is going to be a great month!!!
So picutres, The first is of Eugenia at her baptism! yay! that me in white and my companion Elder Collins, Eugenia, and her daughter Avi. (like abby) We´re teaching her too, but she´s not as awesome as her mother. But she´s cool. Hopeuflly she´ll get baptized too.. pretty much all the others are me and my companion and my zone leaders, Elders Wilson and Miller at Some ruins called Xochilcalco!!! They were awesome!! huge. and awesome. We might go back in a few weeks. Super fun. I love good Pday activites they´re great! I´ll send some more in other emails today.
WEll the christmas season is kicked off here in mexico! it´s really a big thing! But not really for Christ... it´s for the Virgin Marry. They should call it Marrymas, not christmas. Cause sadly he doens´t play a huge part. But! Thats why i´m here, to stomp out apostacy at all cost! and virgins... yup. Thats mexico
We have our big christmas party soon, i´m pretty excited. Elder Collins, the ZL´s and I are doing a cool musical number, we´re going to have a 70 come. i´m pumped! We´re doing Silent night, but with a music and the spoken word verse with just humming, reading the birth of christ from Isaiah. Like Motab. WE´re cool. Yup. Well thats about all I have to report this week! I¨m loving mexico! It´s awesome! I just miss the snowy awesomeness of utah. But i´ll be there eventually. so no problem. I love you all soooooo much!!!
Love Elder Summers

Thanksgiving in Mexico!


What a week. what a week. What a great week!!! Things really have started to move along here in Cuernavaca! Our first week was rough. We had very few investigators and spent a lot of time contacting, but little by little we got a lot of references and visited a lot of cool people and now we have around 13 investigators!!! WE had 5 in church this sunday. it was great!! We have a Baptism planned for this saturday, a lady named Eugenia. She`s really great. I´m pretty pumped to baptize her!! I`ll send pictures. I swear. I just have really bad luck and never find computers that work with memory cards or anything. it`s really really annoying. But i´ve got a lot of picutres to send when I do.
We have around 8 people with a baptismal date. This week we found, or rather they found us, a family of 3. They are awesome! Pretty sure they`re going to get baptized. They all 3 came to church on sunday, they seemed to enjoy it a lot and are really good at keeping their commitements!! Yeah! We set a goal of baptizing 4 this month, which in Cuernavaca is a pretty high goal. But i´m sure we can do it. We have a few investigators that are really great.
So this week was thanksgiving, but they don`t celebrate it here, so elder Collins and I decided that we were going to eat turkey somehow. So we looked for turkey all day! But no one had any, lame. So that night we went to an OXXO, (like a 7,11) And bought turkey sandwiches and ate them. It was great! haha So yes, that was my turkey. We gave thanks to a few people and ate turkey sandwiches.
This Week starts december!! woott!!"!! i´m super pumped for christmas. But It doesn´t quite feel like christmas yet. Cause there´s no snow. lame. And very little christmas music. double lame. So i want christmas music. and every type of music that is appropriate for a missionary. ok? ok.
Yup. Well i don´t have a lot more to say. We played football today as a zone, and soccer. But a lot of football, it wa spretty fun. Theres this prety nice turf field. It was fun! It´s still not cold here. My first few weeks were way cold! but it´s warm again.... I want it to be cold. huh.. but thus is mexico. Yup. Well I love you all sooooo much and am so greatful for everything you do for me!!
Love
Elder Summers

Mexico! (Nov 22)

What a great week it has been! We´ve really started to see some success here in Pradera. Sadly we don´t have any baptisms, but we have one person set up for next week. She´s awesome! her name´s Eugenia, she found out about the church from a friend and went to church with her and then looked for church in our are for 2 weeks before we found her and showed her. She´s pretty much already for baptism, we just need to teach her everything. We´re teaching her daughter too, she´s around 20. She´s super smart and actually reads, which is very uncommon in mexico, So we´re going back wednesday to check up on if she read the book of mormon. We´re teaching about 10 people right now. and they all seem very awesome. Things go so fast here, one moment your top investigator is progressing and awesome, the next they aren´t and you´ve found someone new to take their place, it´s crazy!! We have a baptism for the week after too! as long as he and his wife can get married, his name is Livorio, he´s 60 and really seems like he wants to change, it´s cool to see people really want things that they don´t have, but we´re giving them. So yes, things are really starting to pick up in my area, the members are starting to trust us and we´re getting a TON of references!
Guess What? I went and saw pyramids today! and climbed on them! haha it was awesome. I have pictures, i´m trying to send them but this computer is dumb. hopefully i get it to work. it was a great activity for Pday. I want to know what everyone is doing for Thanksgiving. Also what everyone is doing for christmas, cause i doubt i´m doing anything for thanksgiving, except maybe we´re going out to dinner with an Hermana in our zone, she is kind of old and super super super rich and spends her time spoiling missionaries, we go to dinner with her like once a week. hopefully we´re going tonight. its awesome. The food here is a lot better than atoyac. We eat a lot of american and Italian food. it´s pretty good. I think i´ve gained a little weight back. Though i´m still like 10 pounds under what I was when I left the mtc. haha
I gave a talk in church this week, it´s my second since i{ve been in mexico. haha Then after I had to teach gospel principles, which turned out well, cause we got a new investigator in that class! haha it was very exctiing! I love My mission, I love the Lord, and I love Mexico!! haha I love my family as well, sooo much! yup. well thats about all i´ve got this week. Hopefully one day I´ll actually send pcitures. hopefully. comptuers here are sometimes very ghetto. or broken. haha well i{ve got to jet.
Love you all!
Love Elder Summers