Well hello family! Baptisms are a blessing from God.

Well hello!!
Oh what great things I have to tell you about this week! Well, It was good. haha so we started off the week like normal, But right now we´re working on some papers to marry a couple so they can get baptised, with their 3 children. We´ve been teaching them; Narcizo, Ana, Claudia, David, and Jenifer; for a few months now and they have really changed a lot. So we had their baptismal interviews this last friday and they all passed their interviews, we just need to marry the parents and their ready. So we asked the kids about baptism and when they wanted to get baptized. We told them that the fastest would be that night, or with their parents, or whenever they wanted and after a bit of talking They decided that they wanted to get baptized yesterday! at 7 in the morning! So we woke up early and got everything ready for a nice early morning baptism! IT was really quite an amazing day. Sadly the computer i´m on now is lame so I can´t send a picture, but I will hopefully later today or next week. This next week I have a Leadership Conference In Cuernavaca every day, so I´ll be traveling to and from Cuernavaca every day. I¨m kind of excited. I went to the last one too and it was really great, so yeah everything is going to be great. and if everything goes well, Narcizo and Ana will be getting married and baptized this Saturday! I¨m very excited for that

Well thats about all thats going on here right now. I´´ll let you all know how thigns go this next week and everything.
I love you all and hope you ahve a fantastic week!!
Love
Elder Summers

HOLA! RAIN!!

Well hello everyone!! Today sadly I don´t have time like normal for my long email. But this week went by pretty well. We are preparing a family of 5 for baptism for this week. We just need to marry the parents and then they are all ready!!! I´m very excited for it all and it´s gioing to be a crazy week, so prayers are greatly appreciated. haha Today it´s been raining almost non stop. IN the morning we washed our clothes at a members house then hung them out to dry, because dryers pretty much don´t exist here, then it started to rain. CHAFA. but thats what happens. Then we got together as a district and played American football in an awesome field that was FULL of water. So we jumped in puddles and got dirty and wet, it was really fun. Pictures will come next week! Well I really don´t have a lot more to say, other than I feel al ittle bit cold right now, and that makes me VERY HAPPY! haha.

WEll I love you all tons tons tons! and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love

Elder Summers

June 13, 2011 Well HELLO! Baptism, and ¿¿La Hacienda??

Well hello family and friends and dearly beloved ones.
How are you all today? I hope that you are great because I am! Guess what I did today? I went to an Hacienda and Explored!!! if you don´t know what that is check it out on google. you can try La Hacienda de Coahuxtla Mexico. I don´t know if it will be there, but i´m sending pictures, don´t worry!!!
Well this week we had a fantastic baptism, Karina decided that she is ready so she got baptized saturday night. We are teaching her parents and brother too but they haven´t fully commited like she has thought they all come to church every week. But i´ll bet within the next month they all decide that baptism is what they want. We are also starting the Marriage of Narcisso and Ana!! I¨m very exciting, it took a lot of teaching and talking to convince them to get married, but they want to do it and want to get baptized!! yeah! They have 4 kids that are just awesome. So we are looking to have a lot of success in these next few months.
As district leader, I get to do baptismal interviews, at first I was a little nervous of this, but now that i´ve done quite a few i´m not scared at all, but I had a few interviews that were intense this week. It´s weird how much a person can trust you just becasue you wear a black name tag. wow. But i´ve grown a lot!
Well i´m also including pictures of the Baptism of Anabel, karina, La hacienda, and maybe a few other treats that I find on my camera.
Get ready for a LOT of pictures!!
Love you all tons tons TONSSSS and hope that your doing fantastic!!
Love
Elder Summers

WE found Machetes in the Zone leaders house, so we took pictures.
Me being a ghost
and the POPO the only active volcano in Mexico. i can see it from my front doorstep.

WE painted a house. believe it. and look cool in our suspenders.

June 6, 2011 HOLA HOLA HOOOLLLAAA

Well hello everyone! (in a deep saucy kind of voice)
This week was just swell. just swell! haha it really was fantastic! oh all the things that happened. We started out the week as a new companionship working hard! we got to know all of the members and investigators and everythign was goign well. We have a lot of fantastic people that we´re teaching right now. We have 2 COMPLETE families. One is Narcisso and his family, that are 5 people, and another family of 4. A few have a baptismal date for this saturday and all of Narcisso´s family have a date for the next saturday! We just have sooo many blessings!! I love Coahuixtla!! haha as you can tell i´m very happy about my area, and my companion. Elder White has been attracting a lot of attention around these parts. He´s the first Black person in this mission, so for the majority of mexicans, the only one they´re ever met. But we found out that a new elder just started, that is also dark skinned. No i´m not racist, it´s just how we say it here. black. So we have a lot of work. And by a lot of work i mean that we just might die from work these next weeks, but we´re going to see many MANY blessings from this work! haha i´m very excited!! We have a lot of fun with the drunks in this town. They´re very funny. One always comes up and says "Hermanos! Hermanos (crying) te acuerdes de California???" he always asks us if we remember california, which we dont. haha he´s funny, and drunk. always Theres another one called Tanis, he always yells at me in english "ONE ME FOUR FIFTY-FIVE JU CON WITZIT HOWER!!" just like that. every time. it´s funny. he´s a funny guy Tanis. haha But everything is going great here. Well I really don´t have a lot more to tell you other than I love you all tons! My computer is lame and wont send pictures, but next week we´ll have lot ok? LOVE YOU TONS AND TONS AND LOTS!
love
Elder Summers

May 23, 2011 MIracles, Miracles, MILAGROS!!!

Well hello everyone!

As i´m sure you can tell from the subject, this week was very good. I quite enjoyed it a lot! We started off this week with an amazing day in Cuernavaca. The entire mission came and we had a Meeting with President Rasband, the President of the presidency of the 70s! IT was awesome!! He´s truly a great man. He told us lots of stories of his mission, and when he was a mission president, and how we can be better missionaries, and it really helped a lot. It gave me a lf ideas of what I need to do to be a better missionary, I also got to sing in the choir. That was awesome! I love singing, just so you all know.

We also had a lot of awesome things happen with one of our families, Family of Narcisso, My companion taught them before a while back, but didn´t want t progress, but this last week they came to church for the first time! We went to go teach them twice this week and both times were awesome!!! Saturday night we had a family home evening with them and it got all of them really really excited for churcht he next day, Stake conference, and they all came!!! except the dad. But really they are super excited. WE´re going to put them all with a baptismal date this week and we´re going to batize them! They are really such a fantastic blessing for me and us. REally big. We also have a lot of other fantastic investigators, including a sister from the ward that has been active for about 5 years, but until recent events couldn´t get baptized, but now can! She has a date for this saturday. WE´re going to do a baptism really big and exciting and special. She is just a fantastic lady.

Well sadly I don´have any more time to write you all. But Next week i´ll write a super long letter so you all know how i´m doing!

I love you all a TON and hope your fantastic!

Thanks for you prayers

Love

Elder Summers

May 16, 2011 Alejandra! 8 in church! ELDER RASBAND!!!!

well what a week it has been! we had zone conference this week as well as many other things that were great happen! one being the baptism of alejandra! she is a 10 year old girl that is just fantastic! her brother is a member that we`re re-activating. she is extremely smart and really wanted her baptism. it was really special. her mother came to her baptism and i know felt the spirit a lot. i want to teach her mom and step dad, but they work every sunday and are rarely at their house so we pretty much never see them. but hopefully one day we will!! We also had our mothers day party!! here they celebrate mothers day on the 10th of may. and on the 11th we had a big party in the church and invited everyone!! we had one family of investigators that came! they are great! My companion stated teaching them a long time ago, but dropped them after a while when they weren`t progressing. But we started teaching them again and tey`re much etter now! the mother really enjoys it and has a baptismal date for next week! She and her 4 kids also came to church this sunday!! it was so amazing, and they all have friends in the church! they seemed to all really enjoy it a lot and said that from what they`ve seen they`re definately coming back! WOOT! what a great blessing, really, we`ve seen so many blessings this week! we also taught another family of 5 that came to church! 4 of the 5! and our other investigator Uriel who has a baptismal date for this week! he still has a bit, but I believe that he can be ready for this Saturday!

this week, tomorrow, we have an awesome conference with Elder Rasband! President of the presidency of the 70. he`s coming to our mission to talk to us tomorrow, the entire mission is getting together in Cuernavaca. We have to get up at 4:45... ugh. Which means that i`m going to bed right after I get off this computer. haha. But i`m very very very exctied for this conference, I have a feeling that something big is about to happen to the missions here in mexico, there are 2 apostles and Elder Rasband visiting I believe all of the mexico missions. So I think it`s something big. haha, this I believe is one of the first times in the history of THIS mission that the whole mission has gotten together! woot!!

Well yes, there are a lot of other realy cool things that i can tell you but I really want to get some sleep tonight so i`m going to turn in now. I love you all sooooo much and am seeing the blessings of your prayers! thanks to everyone for your prayers! I love you all!!!

Love

Elder Summers

Pictures.

1. Some of you have asked what is the most delicious Taco in the world. I have told you, tacos al pastor, you didn`t understand what that was. here is a picture, this is 22 pounds of delicios Al Pastor meat, right from the cow! what it`s marinated in to turn it red and make it sooo delicious, I have no idea. But this stump of meat is like heaven in my mouth.

2. the Zone cuautla! the best zone in the MISSION and quite possibly, THE WHOLE WORLD!!! mwahahahahaa but realy, we rock.

3. Alejandra with her mom and sister-in-law and a few members. how cute!

4. Alejandra and her mom and sister-in-law!

haha love you all!!!

May 9, 2011 Do mexicans smile in pictures? nope.

Well hello everyone!!

HOw was your week and how was your MOTHERS DAY! I hope it was good. here in mexico, we celebrate mothers day tomorrow. 10th of May. But that doesn´t matter. I want to wish every mother a happy late and early mothers day! haha well Yesterday was great, becaues I got to talk to the FAmily!! That was fantastic! you all sound like your doing very well and I really hope things stay well.

Well this week was pretty good. Just busy busy busy. We finally got everything done for the Marriage of Elizabeth!! It was crazy, can I tell you all right now how hard it is to get married in the state of Morelos, mexico? very. we had a billion papers and blood tests and classes and wooh! lots of things. But finally On friday at 4:00 p.m. We had the marriage of Elizabeth and Sergio! It was great. And because they´re now married we also had the BAPTISM OF ELIZABETH! She´s awesome. She´s been active for some months now in the Church, but wasn´t married to her husband so couldn´t get baptized, but now she is married and baptized! It was a great experience. The pictures in this email are of the Wedding, and the ones in the next email will be the baptism. But yes, it was a very stressfull week for me. But we really saw the blessings start to come after everything was said and done and we have a good aspect for the rest of this month. If we have a few investigators come to church these next two weeks, we can baptize EVERY WEEK! ´Thats what the goal of the mission is right now. for us to baptise every week of every month of our mission. It´s hard, but very possible!

Yesterday we went to a members house and watched "Charly" with the family, what a sad show, it´s really good though. It really helps you put into aspect what the goal is in this life, Eternal marriage, not just for deth do us part. What a great blessing we have to be members of the only True Church of Jesus Christ and for the blessing of Eternal marriage and Temples.

Well thats about the highlights of this week. I hope you all have a fantastic week and Talk to someone new about the Gospel!

I Love you all!!

Love

Elder Summers

Well here are some other photos of the baptizm!

p.s. Mexicans don´t smile in photos, never. it´s weird.

And just so you know. When a church door doens´t lock correctly the Incorrect thing to do, is tie it with string, shove a mop or two or a broom in it and wedge it shut. That is the INcorrect thing. haha But we have gotten robbed twice this month. They first stole a cd player, then went to the AC units and stole all of the copper out of it.... why? I don´t know.

May 2, 2011 Pictures

here are some photos.

These come from the magical land of Tepotzlan! with they pyramid Tepozteca! I´t´s great. The hike up was a killer. REally, I almost died. haha but i´m alive so all is well!

One of these photos is a photo of a Tejon. It´s a weird animal that will eat out of your hand if you want, as you see in the picture, kind of cool. But watch out! they bite...

May 2, 2011 B B B B Bautizmo!

Hello Family!!

Guess what? I live in Mexico! weird huh. Well with that said, I´ll get down to business.

This week was great! We had a challenge from our zone leaders to find 15 new investigators this week. Every companionship in my district found at leat 15! except one... it was sad. But it was great! We also had a great baptizm! The Baptizm of Edgar! (photos in other email) He is such a great guy and has a great testimony of the Church. He has about 1 month investigating the church and is super strong, he´s 19 years old and hopefully will be a missionary!!! But he has a girlfriend and i think they´ve talked about marriage. huh. I would love if one of my converts was a missionary with me! that would be AWESOME! haha But whatever happens is his decision. We sadly didn´t have the baptism of Elizabeth, because this was the week of the pascua, Easter, and every government thing was closed, so we couldn´t marry her this week. So we have a date for next wednesday or thursday! then we´ll have her baptism next saturday!!! Woot!! she´s great. We also have one other girl thats getting ready for baptism. Her name is Alejandra, she´s 10 years old and really likes the church! Her brother is already a member, or so we thought! until we talked to him about the baptism and the gift of the holy ghost and he told us that he never got confirmed and received the holy ghost, and since he got baptized over a year ago we are just going to have to baptize him again! haha the only problem is that he lives with his girlfriend, thats a big problem here. But thus it goes.

This week we started a Preach My Gospel class in my ward! every thursday night at 7. We had a wopping, 3 PEOPLE! haha it was great! one of the ladies that went got up sunday and bore her testimony and PLANCHED the ward for not coming. it was really funny. but great. Also because today is P day we get to go on fun adventures! today we went to a pueblo called Tepotzlan. It´s about 15 minutes from my old area in Cuernavaca and is awesome! we hiked up a mountain and went to see another Pyramid. It was pretty sweet. But it was a pretty rough hike to get up there. But it was really cool. We saw Tejones, little raccoon things that come and eat out of your hands if you want. They´re pretty cool. haha But yeah, it was a pretty exciting few hours.

I´m really starting to like this little Pueblo. It´s small and everyone knows everyone, but I like it. Everyone knows where the chapel is and it´s very close to everything. very convenient. haha The church is great here it Cuautla, a lot better than Cuernavaca. I love it!! These last few weeks I saw the movie "The other side of Heaven" twice. It is amazing. It makes me feel very blessed to be on a mission here in Mexico. Haha, food everyday, lots!, a bed and water. haha great things to have. But yes. I am very blessed to be here on my mission right now.

Well thats about all that I have for this week, If you want to talk to me on mothers day, go to my parents house at 1:00 and i´ll be talking! haha Love you all! have a great weeeeekkkk!!

Love

Elder Summers

April 25, 2011 Hola!! Cuatlixco!

Well hello everyone!!! Sadly I only have like 5 minutes to write this letter, so it`s going to be really short.

First, my area is called Cuatlixco. It`s a Ward of about 100 actives in a little pueblo. It`s really great. My area is tiny, but I really like it. It`s got that small town, everyone knows everyone, feel so it`s great meeting investigators and finding out that their brother or cousin are members! haha This next week we have programmed 2 baptizms. the first is the Hermana Elizabet. She has been waiting for almost a year to get baptized but isn`t married. But thursday were going with her and getting her married!!! wooot!! sadly marriage is a really big problem here. No ones married. But thus it goes here. We also have another teenager who is just great who also has a baptism date for this week. HOpefully if all goes well we`ll see 2 this week and have a few otehrs for the month. The work here is great! The people are a lot happier and more accepting than in Cuernavaca. It does get a lot hotter here though. Not super hot. Very dry, but somedays the sun is just killer. But we are usually inside teaching or with members, so its all ok!

Elder Lara is awesome!! I`m really enjoying my time with him. He only has 3 months in the mission, but teaches like he has a year. haha We really get along well and are very obedient. Quite possible the most obedient i`ve been on my mission, and thats PRETTY OBEDIENT. haha But everything is going great. We`re looking for some members to lend us bikes, becasue our President said we can use them in this area. it`s small, but bikes would be SUPER convenient.

MOM AND DAD! I never got a response to my email that i sent 2 weeks ago about my birthday present. I`m just curious if thats a possibility. Gracias :)

Today our zone and the other zone here in Cuautla got together and played soccer and basketball. There are not 6 of the 11 elders in my generation here!! (were with me in the MTC) it`s so great to see them. haha we`ve had a great time together.

Today is my first district meeting as district leader! I^m very excited. I have a feeling it`s going to be very good!

Well i`ve got to go!

I love you all and am so greatefull for you prayers!

Love

Elder Summers

p.s. it`s weird to not speak english for a week.... haha

April 18, 2011 CHANGES! COMPANIONS! AND BAPTIZZZMMMZZZZ

Hola Familia!

Well boy do I have a lot to tell you!

this last friday we had the fantastic opportunity to Baptize the Hermana Estefania!! She is a fantastic Lady and I`m very glad I got the opportunity to teach and baptize her. Last week we moved into the top floor of her house. It was really really fantastic Living with her. But thursday my companion got a call that said that he had to go to a meeting with a bunch of other missionaries. Which usually means that he`s going to be a trainer. Which meant that i`m for sure leaving! So we went there and President told me that i`m leaving!! But not where. So I had to wait till Saturday night and I`m going, and now am, in Cuautla! the area of Cuauixla, It`s a city about an hour away from Cuernavaca, Actually i`m in Ayala. But it`s pretty much Cuautla. It`s pretty nice. My area is a lot smaller, and with new areas come NEW COMPANIONS! My new Companion is Elder Lara. My first Mexican companion. He seems reallllyy cool! I have a feeling were going to get a long very well. He only has 3 months in the mission but seems to be a very good missionary already. We`re going to be a very good companionship. It`s hotter here than Cuernavaca. But nothing like acapulco. Soi`ll live. Our house is big. wayyyy bigger than any of my others. So i`m pretty pumped for that.

so thats the life of Elder summers right now. In a new area. With a new companion. Just having the time of my life!! haha I`m way excited. OOOHHH! I`m also District Leader now!! in the mission there are 10 zones and each zone has 2 zone leaders. Then every zone has 2 or 3 district leaders for their districts, and i`m a district leader now! That means I get to do Baptismal interviews and lead district meetings every week! I`m pretty excited. So yeah lots of changes. I`m a step dad right now. because i`m elder Lara`s second companion. mwahaha.

Well yeah thats about all that I have to say right now. I love you all and am very grateful for your prayers!! Love you!!

Love

Elder Summers

April 11, 2011 Hola!

Hello family!

Another and probably my second to last week here in Cuernavaca! It was very good. WE had lots of good lessons with some awesome investigators and this next friday we have 2 baptisms!!! Estefania and Yoatzan! We actually just moved in with Estefania. She`s around 50 and all of her kids are out of the house and she had her whole upstairs open so she rented it to us for cheap!! It was very kind of her. So we spent all morning moving. It was exciting. I`m very excited for my new house. Well we`ve found some really cool people lately. 2 weeks ago we found Yoatzan. he is the boyfriend of a member who is reactivating. He`s way awesome. He`s reading and praying and coming to church and wants to be baptized!! What a blessing. There are some amazing people here. We also found another family. The Familia Zoza Armenta. We knocked their door a few weeks ago and the daughter let us in, then left. So we talked with the mom and her brother, and at first they didn`t want anything to do with us. But then we got talking and we found out that recently her husband died so we taught them a cool lesson on the plan of salvation. They loved it and later we taught her and her 3 daughters the restoration. They all really enjoyed it and said they would pray and come to church. We went back and the mom and middle daugher were there, the mom said that she wasn`t sure if she had received an answer to her prayers yet, but the daughter said yes and that she wants to learn more! it was awesome!! But..... They didn`t come to church. I`m not sure why. we`ll find out tomorrow. Hopefully they just got lost and couldn`t find it. But we`ll see.

Well this next week is changes! and More than likely i`ll be leaving this lovely area. I`m a little sad because the ward is AMAZING! but i`ve been here for almost 6 months, so i`m very excited. Actually today marks 6 months since i`ve been in mexico!! woot! 6 months! It`s a fun place. I^m a little nervous that i`m going to be sent to a really hot area and just die from heat... But if that happens i`ll live. I`ll just sweat a lot. true story. But oh well.

We had a pretty funny lesson this week, we were teaching the mother in law of one of my converts, Eugenia, and she can barely hear. So we were practically yelling the first lesson at her and she didn`t understand very well what we were saying. At the end we challenged her to be baptized and asked probably 20 times and she didn`t understand what we were saying. Finally at the end understood that we were asking her to be baptized and she said that she was already baptized in the 50`s it would difficult. We explained about baptizm by authority into the true church and everything but it was just hard. The Hmna. Eugenia had to translate everthing for us. But it was weird. WE`d say something and she wouldn`t understand, the the hermana would say the exact same thing. and she would. haha it was kind of funny, I was almost laughing the whole time. Then at the end we asked her to give the closing prayer and she said ok. The she instantly started crying and like wailing while she was praying. It was quite an experiece. haha I almost started laughing during that too but I didn`t. it was very funny. But she came to church! with hearing aids. haha. and she seemed to enjoy that a lot. So we`ll see what happens.

Well april is here, and Cuernavaca is getting warmer. Still pretty cool. But parts are getting hot. Other parts of the mission are getting around 120 right now. very hot. I hope I don`t go there. but wherever I go. I go. haha Well thats about all I have this weeek. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!!!

Love

Elder Summers

March 21, 2011 Another week!

Hello Family!

How is everyone? good I hope..

Well this week was pretty rough. We knocked a lot of doors and no one wanted to listen, we only found a few new investigators, but we had some good lessons! one of our investigators, Estefania, is getting baptized saturday! she`s awesome! her son`s a member and he started having family home evenings with her then we started teaching and now she`s totally ready! She wants us to move in and live in her upstairs. we want to. haha but not sure if we can yet. Hopefully we can, cause she`s like 55ish and lives alone now, and the rent is a lot cheaper so hopefully we can. Sadly a lot of our good investigators are starting to turn not so good. WE need to talk and see why. I`m pretty sure i`m down to my last month in this area! i`m coming up on 5 months here! it`s a lot. But I still like it. But I would like to go to another place, but changes aren`t for another 4 weeks, so i can wait. WE have a really cool investigator named Armando, he`s 24 and his mom recently passed away because of Alcoholism, and he almost died from it too. But he stopped and is completely cleaning up his life. he`s fantastic and understands everything that we teach and reads a lot! But he lives with his sister and I don`t know if she lets him come to church cause he couldn`t the last 2 weeks. it was lame. But this next week we`re making sure he`s coming. FOR SURE! but yeah. Thats about it. It was a rather uneventful week, but thus they are sometimes. We met a family that we`re pretty sure Runs an Illegal Cock fighting ring. It`s crazy. They`re acutally a pretty cool family.

But thats about it this week. I love you all and am very glad that your my family!!

OS AMO!

Elder SUmmers

March 14, 2011 B B B B Baptizmzzzzzzzzz

HOLA YA´LL!

How has your week been? good I hope. WEll, This week was great! my first week with my new companion, Elder Walker, and things are going great! We had 2 baptisms this week, Victor, and Esther. They are two very special people, they both got baptized in 3 weeks, pretty rare, but great. Victor is the neighbor of a less active family and he is super humble. He has Epilepsy and falls a lot and hurts himself, it´s sad. he was super excited though. He cries all the time. It´s cute. haha Esther lives with a member family. She takes care of the house. She was awesome. Possibly has one of the best testimonies ever, almost. But doesn´t talk much. Is very shy. and as you can tell by the pictures. Very short. haha I baptized them both. in WARM WATER. Thats rare. haha we have a boiler, but shometimes it doens´t work. lame. But thus is Mexico. Dad i´ve decided you should come down here and be the FM manajer over Mexico. They need help sometimes. haha but oh well.

We also had a conferenze with the area 70 over mexico. It was great! he talked about Faith. It was great to hear and gave me new perspectives on lots of things. We also had our stake conference, it was also very great! But it was kind of sad. We had 7 people that were secure on coming to church sunday. And NONE OF THEM CAME..... very frustrating. But we have some great people that are getting very close to baptizm, we´re hoping to have a fantatsic month here in pradera. My last! i now belive that I only have 5 weeks left here. Cause this is my 4th change. but we´ll see what happens. It´s going to be a great month for sure! especially with elder Walker. WE make a pretty good companionship. So yes. Thats about everything cool thats going on right now. Cuernavaca is doing great and is growing super fast!!!

I love you all a lot and am greatful for your Prayers!

Love you all!

Love

Elder Summers

March 7, 2011 HOLAA!!!

Wow. What a week I had this week. Seriously I don`t know if i`ve ever had a crazier week in my life.

First. Last monday We had our p day like regular but when we got home in the night time our ward mission leader called to tell us that our Bishop just died. It was very sad. i ddin`t believe it for a while, but then finally accepted it. Tuesday we had a lot of appointments and had to cancel a bunch to go to his Funeral which was tuesday night. It was a very sad and special moment for me. His son directed and asked me and Elder Blair to sing Be still my soul with him. It was great, really spiritual. he was an amazing Bishop, i`m going to miss him a lot. So the ward was in a crazy havock for about a week, Because my bishop was bishop for about 9 years, and everyone loved him. So it was really sad and hard to see him go. Wednesday we had an amazing talk with one of our investigators Anayeli and she pretty much told us that she wants to get baptized, the only problem is that she isn`t married to her husband, so we have to marry them first then Baptize them. But she`s really amazing, We have a memeber that lives right by her house thats helping us with her. It`s great. Hopefully we`ll start teaching her family too. She has like 10 brothers and sisters and her parents. the 12 more potential baptisms!! yeah!!!

Thursday we had another amazing lesson with Esther and she told us that she wants to get baptized! We have a date for this next Friday!!! WE also met with Victor and he came to church yesterday which means that he`s also getting baptized this friday!!!!! i`m super super excited! yeah! We pretty much ran from appointment to appointment all week. it was crazy, but we enjoyed it quite alot. Then Saturday night came and we were waiting to hear about changes, I had a feeling that I was going to get changed becasue I have 3 changes in this area. So the call came, the ZL`s told me there`s bad news. then told me that Elder Blair is leaving!!! MY SON IS LEAVING! well now he`s gone. it`s sad. We only had one change together. But it was awesome fun. But now i`m with my new companion, Elder Walker! He`s great. He`s only got a year on the mission, but he is a hard worker! i`m very excited!! yeah! So that was the main points of my week. There was a lot more too but I really can`t write it all. And finally I have photos!! yeah!! You all finally get to know the awesome ALEXIA!

I also went to the zoo this last week so i`m sending a few of those pictures too!

They had cool waterfalls, it wasn`t much of a zoo. But the monkeys were cool! you could touch them. kind of. I don`t think you were supposed too. haha

February 28, 2011 Hola Familia!!

Well hello everyone how are you doing this fantastic week?? me? i`m doing great!! I`´m all and done with this lame sickness and I feel fantastic, I can pretty much eat whatever and don`t have any pain! hooray!! haha yes that is good news but yes onto the other news.

BAPTISM!!!

We had the wonderful opportunity of baptizing Alexia this week! She is great, he mom is a member but her dad didn`t let her get baptized for the last 2 years, but finally, for a 10th birthday present, he let her! The service was fantastic! Lots of people were there and after they brought sandwiches and cake! I loved it! we never have awesome baptismal services like that so it was great. Sadly her dad didn`t come to the baptism. But sometimes it`s like that. But it was still super special!. Sadly I don`t have a computer today that I can send pictures, so I can`t today. But next week I``ll send pictures of Alexia and Liborio! Yay!

This was really a great week of progression! We had 7 people come to church this last week and 4 people yesterday! one, Esther, is amazing. She`s already been to church twice and we started teachign her sunday. We put her with a baptismal date for the 11th of March and I believe she will meet it! she``s really fantastic. Seriously! WE also have another awesome guy, Victor that is super cool. he lives right by a member family and went to church witht hem once and loves it. he has epilepsy and falls a lot, so he`s in pretty bad shape. But because he has that He can`t work. So he doesn`t have money. So he`s super poor and can`t really get the right medical help that he needs. it`s sad. But he loves everything and has a date for the 11th also. SO AMAZING!! REally we had many wonderful blessings come to us this week, it`s fantastic to meet all of these people that need our help. Then to help them and watch them progress!

We also had our Zone conference this week. It was great! I really enjoyed it. it`s wonderful to hear from president and the hermana Spannaus so much. They are so amazing seriously! well theis next week is changes! I do`nt think i`m leaving. I`m pretty sure i`m not... But it`s pòssible. I`ll let you all know what happens next week. I don`t want to move. WE`ve got some fantastic people for this next month. I don`t want to leave yet. And I only have one transfer with my kid. It would be lame to leave already. BUt whatever happens happens!

Well thats about it for this week.

I love you all soo omuch and are so greatful for your prayers and thoughts always!

Love

Elder Summers

I also went to a zoo today! you`d better believe it! it was kind of dissapointing. not many animals. The monkeys were cool though! my companion got bit by a duck! mwahahaha. So that was exciting. I`ll send pictures next week. yeah. Well yeah tahts all i thought i`d tell you!

Hasta Luego!

Os amo!

Elder Summers

February 21, 2011 Hola Todos!!

Well hello everyone!

This week has been a pretty great week! pretty crazy and kind of painful too to be honest. I was sick this last week. for about a week and a half. I have Gastritis, (i´m not really sure whats it called in english) but it´s somehting to do with stomach acid and stuff. it hurt. i´ve been on a super healthy diet and can´t drink soda and have been taking a lot of pills. But i feel a ton better! and haven´t hurt for days! So it´s pretty much all over now! I just need to be more careful with what I eat now. Becasue a lot of the food that I eat here is not very good for you. But other than that it was a great week! we found a lot of really great people and we are getting ready for the baptism of Alexia wednesday!! I´m way pumped. She has been waiting for about 2 years to get baptized, but her dad never gave her permission, her mom is a member, but he finally gave her permission and she is soooo ready!! they´re going all out with invitations and cake and everything! i´m way pumped. I´ll definately send pictures.

Theres this family in my ward, the Benitez family, who all got baptized about a year ago but have been inactive for most of the time, and we started teachign one of their daughters that wasn´t baptized and 2 of their grandkids that are now baptismal age! they´re fantatsic! they came to church this week and 2 weeks ago! theyré great! but they didn´t come last week, because the grandma benitez (maria de los Angeles) went to the hospital and they siad that she has cancer. she was super sad and didn´t do anything for a few days, but laster did more tests and found out that she dóesn´t have cancer! she said that it was a miracle and gift from god. Which i´m sure it was. so she´s super intent on reactivating and coming every week!! the only problem is that they´re super poor and don´t have money. But they came this week. so things are looking fantastic for the baptism of the daughter and 2 grandkids! We´ve found of mountain of fantastic investigators and i´m very excited for the end of this change and the next, because we´re going to be baptizing a lot more! it´s really fantastic! we work hard. seriously.

WE had a miracle in the church sunday. We have been having an insanely difficult time getting people to church, for the last 3 sundays only 1 person came. But this week we had 7 come!!! 2 were brought by members and we´d never met but now have appointments, and the other 5 are our investigators. One is the neighbor of the Benitez family. He´s amazing. He has Epilepsy and falls a lot so he has a lot of bruises and i think a few broken bones, and becasue of this can´t work. But when he came to church he looked sooo happy. WE have a lesson with him Wednesday and i´m very excited for him. Seriously amazing.

crazy story. 3 weeks ago we had a man come to church who got baptized about 10 years ago, but has been inactive and living here in Cuernavaca for about 5 years, so we visited him to see how he´s doing and he was so excited to see us!! he lives in a sweet house with a pool and has another house with 10 rooms behind his that he rents out to college students, they´re nice, kind of expensive, but nice. So it´s pretty cool. We met his son whos 18 years old and he´s pretty cool. He was born in Mexico City and went to elementary school in a Jewish school. Then grew up in other religions and for a while lived with his mom in Ireland and there was baptized into the catholic church. And took his first communion in the VATICAN. IN the vatican. crazy. kind of cool. super apostacy, but cool. haha so he´s had a lot of different religious ideas but he seems very open and sincere and wants to help others, he seems like he´d be a great missionary. We have an oppointment with him tomorrow. i´m way excited. This weeks going to be crazy!!!

WEll thats about it! I love you alll SOOOOOO MUCH!!!! And am so greatful for all of your letters and prayers they help more than you can ever understand!

I love you all!

Love

Elder Summers

February 14, 2011 Hola ya`ll!

WEll hello everyone! how has this week been? It`s been pretty good for me! we worked hard and are seeing some good results with a few great investigators! sadly we`re going to have to drop a few this week. Because they`re not coming to church, even though i pretty much promised us that they were going to come to church this week.. they didn`t. lame. That is a super hard thing in this area. My curch is way out in the middle of nowhere and is very hidden, no one knows where it is. and our services start at 8 in the morining. it`s just rough. and every time we`ve stopped by to pick up someone and bring them to church, they were either sleeping or had somethign else to do that was more important than church. lame. they weren`t. So yes, that is the current problem in this area, but everything will be better soon enough! we have one fantastic girl thats getting baptized on the 23rd! her mom is a member but her dad isn`t and he hasn`t given her permision until right now to get bap`tized! she`s super excited and super ready. at the age of 9 she knows more than most people! it`s fantastic! but yes, i`m very exctied for that.

My companion got a crazy alergic reaction to something this past week and his face sweelled up and got all ugly, it was kind of funny. We went to the doctor yesterday and he got a shot and is now on meds and is almost perfectly back to normal! yay for medicine! it was quite an experience.

My ward here in this area is so fantastic! seriously theyre some of the coolest people ever! such a great strong ward and always willing to help. the only problem is a lot of the coolest people that will help, work a lot. so can`t haha but oh well. it`s still great!

Well hat is about the extent of the awesomeness of this week. I really don`t know what else to say, except HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!! I didn`t even realize until about 3 hours ago. haha funny huh. yeah not really a holiday super celebrated by missionaries. haha but i did notice an unusual amount of people selling heart shaped balloons in the streets today. so i guess that makes sense.

Well yes, I love you all sooo much and am so greatful to have wonderful family and friends like all of you!

CUIDENSE MUCHO!

Con Amor

Elder Summers

February 7, 2011 HOLA Familia!

Well hello everyone! How are you all? good I hope. I`m fantastic!!

This week was a pretty good week! WE had a mission wide meeting for the leaders of the mission and because i`m a trainer I got to go! It was fantastic! 4 days of talks from the president and his wife and the assistents! It really was fantasticf! and also because it was mission wide we had elders from the 2 other states that our mission covers, Guerrero, and Michoacan. come to Cuernavaca and had to stay, we had the Zone Leaders from the area of Guacamayas, in Michoacan stay with us. They are awesome! It was a fantastic time! and since the conference was only in the mornings we did splits with these elders for the rest of the day. I was with Elder Ochoa. He is quite amissionary. seriously. he`s actually the number 1 baptizer in the mission. though he seriously is a fantastic missionary. He knows preach my gospel inside and out. it was an awesome experience to learn from someone with so much experience, and it was different being with a mexican, just cause i`ve always been with Americans.

But all in all it was really a fantastic week! I learned a lot and it`s really helping me with everyhing with Elder Blair, my kid, and everything! We taught a lot this week. WE found about 16 new people to teach. Though most of them aren`t super cool, but still it was a solid week. hopefully this next week we will see the baptizm of Avi!! im excited for this! really really, because i`ve been teaching her for a long time and it`s just about time that she finally takes this step! she`s really cool though so yeah.

So becasuse I went to this conference all week we had to find a companion everyday for my companion so we just asked ward members, one was a recent returned missionary, he is way cool, another one is just a joven, young man, and the other 2 were older men, but one didn`t show up so we ended up calling Liborio, my recent convert, and he went out with him! it was awesome! he was so pumped to do missionary work! Then the 4th was a member of the high council, he was really cool. I love my ward! it`s seriously so awesome! haha I`m thinking pretty much one of the best wards in the mission, almost without a doubt.

Well thats about it for this week. Weve been working really hard and are ready to see some miracles happen in our area. Which i`m sure they`re going to! but yes, i`m very very excited! I love you all so much and am super greatful for everything you all do for me, for your prayers, letters, and love.

Love always

Elder Summers

January 31, 2011 Hooollllaaaaa!!!! My first full week as a father.

WEll hello everyone! How was your week? good I hope. Mine was good too!! Elder Blair and I are getting adjusted living together and teaching and everything, and the work is really starting to take off! WE have a few investigators that have various times in church and we feel are very close to baptism. We have a few more that we found this week that are realllly cool. WE found this one family. La familia Mondragon. (yes very Mexican I know) And they have 8 people, 7 who are baptismal age. They all seem really cool, even the 85 year old grandma who I thought would be super hardened Catholic, but nope! they`re cool! Sadly we can only visit them about once a week cause they work alot. But we found a lot of other cool people and I think a lot of them are going to progress. The biggest problem we ran into this last month was people not coming to church. For some reason the chapel I go to is pretty well hidden, and it`s very very hard for investigators to find, so usually we have to pass by and pick them up and all go together, but the last 2 times we did that the people were still sleeping, because it was 7:30 in the morning... because it starts at 8. But yes, that is what we`re working on for this month of February. It`s going to be a month of many baptisms so just be waiting for the pictures!!! Speaking of baptisms, I`m sending the pictures from Liborio`s baptism. He`s such a great guy. and other pictures too.

Well we had a little miracle the other day. WE went out for pizza with a member, and right when we were leaving a young man stopped us and asked if we were Elders, and we said yes, he then told us that he`s been baptized about 3 months ago in Mexico City, but never filled out any of his papers, and i`m pretty sure wasn`t confirmed. But now he lives in Cuernavaca in our area! So I believe if we get everything together and make sure that he doens`t have papers we`re going to re interview, tlak more, and RE baptize him this week!! I`m way excited, we only saw him for a second but he told us that he`s still super excited and has a lot of interest! So we`re very happy to help!!

This next week is going to CRAZY!!! WE have a Meeting for all of the Leaders of the mission, Zone Leaders, District Leaders, and Trainers. So i`m going! It`s tuesday, wednesday, thursday, and friday, all morning. So My companion is going to go on splits every day with a Member from our ward. it should be fun. What`s more fun, is that because it`s the entire mission, we have a lot of elders coming in without a place to stay, so we`re having 2 elders stay in our room with us. I don`t know how. because our room is super small. Like smaller than my room at home... seriously. But yes. it should be fun. They`re both mexican. So we`ll be speaking Spanish all week! Which isn`t difficult. This week my spanish has exploded!! Now that I`m senior companion and training I pretty much have to do everything. So I can`t rely on anyone else, and though Elder Blair speaks pretty well, he still has a lot to learn, and so do I. WE both do! But it`s really gotten better. I love it!

WEll that about all that I can think of for this weeks letter. I´ll let you know how the meeting went and maybe share a few notes for you other missionaries that read this.

Well I love you all and am so greatful to have you all in my life!

Love

Elder Summers

Oh my pictures before, The first 2 were of Liborios baptism. He´s just a cute old man! The other is My dad (Elder Collins) Me, and my kid (Elder Blair). Apparently we haven´t rubbed off on him enough. haha and the other is my Gospel Principles class! What a great class!!

ok now these ones.

As many of you may know. At 6 months missionaries burn a tie. Well I did! That is all thats left of the tie. Sad

Also this is the Family Torrez Molines. They are great! The Mother has been a member her whole life, but just recently re activated and is now 1st councelor in the Relief Society! Her 3 kids (only 2 in the picture) got baptized a week before I got into this area, and the WE´re teaching the Father. He´s great, but hasn´t come to church because he works, but we fasted for him this past week and his daughter told us that he knows he needs to come and he´s definately changing his schedule at work this week! YEAH! I´m very exctied from him, because this is a really special Family!

January 24, 2011 Miracle Baptism!! and much much more!!

Hello everyone!!
What a week! that is all that I can tell you. I was in a trio all week. With my Dad and my Kid. 3 generations of power in one companionship!! But now it`s down to two, becasue Elder Collins leaves, and is in the offices with all the other dying missionaries. sad. But now we get to start off fresh! two relatively green missionaries that can barely speak the language! Hooray for the power of the spirit! haha Well this week we had a few miracles, the first and biggest, Our long time investigator, Liborio, Got BAPTIZED!!! WE`ve been teaching him for a few months, but he and his wife weren`t married, and it was a huge hassle forever and just wasn`t working to get them married, becasue they wanted to, but it`s hard here. Then things happened and we decided that we were going to drop him and he will call us when he really wants to change, well the next day he called!! we started teaching him again and he really has changed! So this past saturday, we went to the state of Guerrero, and Got them married (because it`s easier) then that night He got baptized!! it was so fantastic! Then sunday he got confirmed and was given the priesthood! He is such an amazing man. Hes had a very difficult life and his done some things that he truly regrets, but it`s amazing to know that he is now clean and perfect and all of those past sins are gone!! wow. AMAZING!! he is way set on going through the temple with his wife in a year (she`s already a member) and I really really hope they do! That would be fantastic!
Another miracle, the daughter of our of our investigators finally came to church!!! WE have been teaching her for a few months, but dropped her about 3 weeks ago, becasue she wasn`t progressing, Then she came to church with her mom! It was fantastic! She says she wants us to teach her again, and told Elder Collins that he wasn`t going to be here for her baptism, and she was sad about that. so yeah!! I^m very excited to start teaching her again, becasue she`s pretty cool! We`re also teaching the 2 kids of one of my converts. She told us this week that on the second of february she`s moving to Tabasco, to be with her cousins (who are members) thatmade me sad. But her son will be here till the 22nd. so hopefully we can teach and baptize him before he leaves, and her daughter is staying another year for college. So hopefully the same with her. They`ve bothe been to church 4 or 5 times and seem to enjoy it, and enjoy when we teach them and everything, but just won`t accept a firm baptismal date. it`s sad. Hopefully wiht my new companion we can think of fresh new ways to teach them and help them to understand how this will help them. We`re also teaching the daughters boyfriend, freddy. He is awesoem!! has tons of questions, is super curious and interested!! i`m pretty sure he`s definately going to get baptized! yeah!

So that was about my week. It was different with 3 pe3ople, but now we`re going to get a lot of work done. all we have to do is work! Because neitherof us are Distric Leader or anything. So we`re going to TEAR IT UP!! (pictures to come next week)

I love you all and am so grateful for your prayers and everything you do for me!
Love
Elder Summers

January 17, 2011 I`M A FATHER!!!

Hello everyone!!

oh what a week it has been. We had some good success and found some pretty great investigators! We challenged them all to be baptized and most of them accepted! Sadly only one was at church, it was weird casue our recent convert wasn`t there with her kids, which is really weird cause she`ll always there. but oh well, we`ll see what they are up to this week. yeah. So we had interviews with the president on friday, and he gave me big news! I`M PREGNANT! actually, I already have my kid! I`m a trainer now. haha quick. awesome! His name is Elder Blair! He`s from St. Louis Missouri, and he`s really not new. he has 3 weeks less in the mission than I do. So we`re basically the same generation, but he was in The Utah, Ogden mission for the last 3 months waiting for his visa. So i`m kind of his second dad, his Mexican dad! yeah! We actually knew each other in the mtc. We sat by each other and talked during conference once, it was great! So things are going to be awesome! I`m very exciting! and becasue he came early, and Elder Collins leaves next week, we`re a trio! oh fun. it`s pretty great. We just have a tiny room so it`s kind of hard to live in. and we haven`t taught anyone yet. so we`re not exactly sure how thats going to work teaching with 3 people. huh. But i`m very excited. He already speaks pretty decent spanish. He just doesn`t have an accent... at all. it`s kind of funny. But he`ll learn fast. This will be fun... two gringos that barely know spanish spreading the gospel! Yeah!! It should be a great week, it`s funny casue we`re now 3 generations in one companionship, cause technically ì`m still with my dad... But I also have my kid, so it`s son, father, and grandpa, all together! yeah! haha What a great treat for elder collins to go home for!

But yeah, thats really about the extent of my week, we taught of family of 7, and they all accepted baptism, then we found out that 2 are already baptized. ooops. haha it was pretty funny. yeah. I would also like to thank everyone in my home ward for sending me Christmas cards! they were great and I love you all!!

Well thats about all for this week, i`ll let you know how things are going with my kid this next week.

Love you all!

Love, Elder Summers

So I didn`t take many great pictures this week. BUT! Theres this part of our area that has interesting grafiti, i believe it`s a church. and they stole some of our pictures.

January 10, 2011 The TEMPLE!!

What a week it has been. We had a slower week, we had a lot of people cancel on us or just not be there and really didn`t find many new investigators. But it was still a great week! WE started teaching the boyfriend, Freddy, of one of our investigators, Lucia, and he`s really cool! He has a ton of questions and when we teach him he really listens and pays attention. I believe we`re going to teach him again on tuesday or wednesday! We also had a little problem with one of our investigators, lets just say he had a fun new year and then dissapeared to Mexico City for a few days. It scared us a bit... but we went to go talk to his wife and he was back. which is great! so hopefully we can get them married this or next week and baptize him before my companion goes home. That would be great! haha
To top off my week! I went to the temple!! :) It was really really great! one of my companions converts got married and sealed to her husband! it was such a spiritual and amazing opportunity! We took a bus to Mexico city and then a city to the temple. that city is seriously huge. Like. ridiculously giant. haha I can`t even explain it. I`ll be sending lots of pictures of the temple! because it`s amazing! and huge! I believe it`s one of the 5 biggest in the world. wow. We got to go in and see them get sealed. It was wonderful! haha I wish we could have stayed all day and did more, but we had to go, but it was all ok! haha afterward one of the people with us gave me their camera and told me to take pictures, I got some pretty good ones. They called me professional. haha it was fun. I really really enjoyed it!
We went to the Visitors center there too! They had a great statue of Christ, Pictures depicting the entire book of Mormon, and a small Mexican Pioneer Museum. it was pretty cool! I`ll send pictures of all of this!
Also this week, we had another holiday here in Mexico, El Dia de los Reyes Magos! or day of the wise men. they celebrate when the wise men brought Jesus the baby presents, and because they did, they bring all the kids presents here too!!! haha it is kind of a weird holdiay, but I like it! It has pretty much 0 apostacy, and it takes a lot of the presents out of christmas and more of Christ. It`s great! I approve. haha and for this holiday they have a big circular bread called La Rosca, and they hide tiny little dolls in it when they bake it, and when you cut your piece you try not to get a doll, and if you do you have to bring Tamales to the next holiday, 2nd of February, (a holiday for a Virgin). it`s funny. I got one, My companion too. But we`re not bringing Tamalies. Because we don`t celebrate Virgin Holidays... haha
Well I believe thats about all, we have some pretty cool investigators right now, and some pretty lame ones. We stopped off to pick up a lady and bring her to church, at 7:30 in the morning! (which means we left the house at 6:45. Aaannnddd, she was still sleeping and didn`t come. it was pretty lame... we`re going to planch her this week. huh. yeah, church is difficult at 8 in the morning. WE only had 1 investigator. it was sad. But the Boyfriend of the Bishops daughter came, and he`s not a member, so I think we`re gonna start teaching him soon! he seems pretty cool.
Yeah well Thats about it! I love you all and Pray for you each and every day!
Love
Elder Summers

The temple! And The Mexican MTC!!! Pretty cool huh? it`s really small... haha
Also. I found THE GOLD PLATES!! cool huh? i`m a pretty great missionary, just for that... mwahahaha.


oh also! for fun today. WE went ICE SKATING!! believe it. Ice skating, in an OUTDOOR rink in the middle of mexico. yup.

The pictures of the Book of Mormon, Temple visitors center.
More of the Temple!
A rodeo! yes... a mexican rodeo! haha I think it lasted for like 3 days... i heard loud speakers and music every night for the past little while... haha
A really cool flower i took a picture of. At the pyramids we went to. it was growing from a tree that i called the jello tree, cause it moved like jello. haha

The Pyramid!! I don`t remember the name... it was really weird. But it was pretty cool! not as cool as Xochicalco... which is huge and has like 20 or 30 pyramids. this one had 2 big ones and 4 or 5 really small ones.