Monday, March 19, 2012

What type of Crazy mission do i work in???

Well hello!! Guess what???
Oficially, as of today, I`m not constantly sweating anymore!!! Woot!!
Do you know why? because today was Changes, And i`m Back in Morelos!
Where you don`t melt to death in the Acapulco sun. haha, yes, after my
short 3 months in acapulco, the Lord has called me to serve in the are
of Tlatenchi, Zone Galeana! About an hour from Cuernavaca and Cuautla!
Sadly i had to say goodbye to Elder Gonzalez!, but Happily i`m now
with my new companion, Elder Pacori! He`s from Peru. He seems super
cool and obedient, he has less like 4 months in the mission, just
finished getting trained. I have a feeling we`re going to get along
super well and be super obedient.
My area. Is pretty hot, but hot like Utah! Dry not super duper hot
hot. So you don`t sweat unless your directly in it. It`s super flat!
:) unlike acapulco. and we meet in the newest stake center in the
mission!! woot woot!! it`s super nice. i`m very excited.
Yes, so other events that have happened. yesterday we had the
baptism of Yesenia!! but sadly we couldn`t do it in our church,
because the font was broken! But luckily I basically lived on the
beach! So we went to a Laguna right by the house and baptized there!!!
woot!!! Dream of the mission officially complete! I`ll send pictures
in another email.
So yes, this week that comes up, 3 people in acapulco are getting
baptized, sadly i wont be able to attend their baptismal services, but
my companion promised to send pictures. so i promise to send them to
you as well!
yes, i`m very excited, and feel invigorated to be in my last area in
the mission, because i`m about 98% sure it`s my last, I feel like i`m
just started to reach my potential as a missionary and with my last 4
months i`m going to do something that i`ve never done before!
Well thats about all to report this week. LOVE YOU ALL TONS!! And am
very greatful for all of your prayers.
Love
Elder Summers

Progress!!!

Well Hey family!!!

This week was pretty great! We had an awesome conference On Friday and Saturday with Elder Tenorio, The second councelor of the Area of Mexico. in the First quorum of the 70s. it was awesome! He`s a super enthusiastic person and has TONS of awesome faith building stories. We also had another Conference with Our mission president. he was very few left. He seems kind of sad that he`s getting close to ending the mission, but he`s been an awesome president, Keep your eyes out for future conferences that say ``Elder Alìn Spannaus`` first Quorum of the Seventy. haha but yeah. that was awesome.
We have had some great success too. Two sundays ago we had 2 sisters coem to church, the husband of the one is a less active member, he went too. But they all came to church again this week, it was stake conference! we talked with them a few times with week and chalenged them for a baptismal date on this Saturday!! (because one is about to have a baby in like 2 weeks and we need to baptize her before that happens) haha, they are really excited and progresssing really well!
We also have another Couple, Gonzalo y Clemencia, they are older and came for the third time at conference, they seem really excited and are also have a baptismal date for Saturday! So it looks like we`ll be having a SUPER SATURDAY! We`re really exctied. Gonzalo is almost in Alma in the book of mormon, he reads a tons.
We also found a cool less active family, they came here for California about 8 months ago and haven`t come to church yet, but they are all super cool and said they`re gonna come next sunday. All the kids were born in the US and speak english haha, they have quite a few friends by their house and we`re hoping to receive LOTS of Refereces this week from them.
Yup well the work still goes well here in Acapulco, today we went to ``La Quebrada`` they`re big cliffs and have Cliff divers that jump off like 40 and 50 foot cliffs into the ocean, They say its one of the only places like it on Earth. it was cool, i got some pretty pictures of the water and stuff. yeah. well thats about it
Love you all tons and hope that your having a fantastic week!
Love
Elder Summers

Traveling!

So we had another pretty crazy week. Sadly the family that we had all prepared and everything for baptism is falling away. The father told us that definately the daughters couldn´t get baptized, which made us sad, but we´ll going to keep with them. We believe that god can soften his heart. But we have another family thats progressing well. The Grandson came to church on sunday, we became super good friends with him and he seems pretty intent on changing his ways. We have made a bit of changes in our planning and how we´re going to start working this week and we hope to see lots of success. it´s been pretty hard here in Acapulco, but I´m not getting down, i´m just excited to get back to work tomorrow.
We´ve been doing lots of traveling lately, I have Atoyac in my district. That was my starting area. it´s about 2 hours away from acapulco, so whenever i got it takes half a day away. We´re doing divisions with them today also so it should be pretty interesting. But i´ve spent a lot of time in the buss. haha
Well i´m going to send 3 pcitures! one of the Baptism of Griselda 2 weeks ago!!! weee!! other of a cool bus we found in Acapulco, it´s called ´´The Black Pearl´´ I love it. haha it´s my companion and me. And the other is a picture in the back of our church, and for any questions, yes, that is the ocean. We have an ocean view in our church. it´s pretty awesome haha.
Well i love you all and hope that your having a fantastic week!
Love
Elder summers





Monday, February 27, 2012

Baptism!!!! what a week

Well can i just tell you all that i`ve had a week!
Some great things happened. and at the same time we had some really sad, and lame things happen.
So sunday morning we had the baptism of Griselda. she`s an aweosme lady who definately is going to do well in the church, her mom and kids are all active members in Texas, but she got deported and we baptized her here. She has a pretty sweet testimony and we are hoping that the ward with accept her in well and work with her. i`ll send photos next week. We also had a couple come to church that we`v e been working with for like amonth. The wife came like 3 weeks ago. But the husband, who just finished reading 2nd nefi! came and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. So they are right on track for baptism in this month of March! woot!
Sadly the family that we`re working with Veronica, Raul, Tamara, and Michelle, fell. We had their interviews this week of all except raul, and they are were super ready and excited, but sadly satan always has to put his little hand in the middle of what we do, and turned the dad against us. He probably heard soemthing about the church and didn`t want it, but he won`t talk to us, and as of saturday, which was when they were oging to get baptized, has prohibited them from talking to us. So it was sad, they are so ready and want to so bad. But the Hard hearted, and proud always seem to put the rest down. But we still have faith taht we can do it. We`re going to try to talk to him and get all of his doubts and everything so he gives permission to his family to at least assist or listen again. So please include them in your prayers.
Crazy story. last sunday night our church got robbed, they took an entire air conditionight unit, and cut the tubes of all the other 5. so sadly this sunday we had to sit through all three hours without air, and without window, cause our church doesn`t have any. it was hot. They also stole some keys to a shed that we needed to open to drain the baptismal font and to clean it. But we couldn`t get in, so we had to drain it with buckets. Does anyone know how long that takes? LONG!! We only drained less then half in like 4 hours they said we`ll just clean in and refill it and put in bleach, and it turned out nice and pretty for the baptism. We sang a song with Guitar, my companion is teaching me how to play a little. So yes, after lots of trails from the adversary, we were able to have a good baptismal service. haha
Well thats about it for this week. Love you all and hope your having a fantastic time at home or whereever you may be.
Love
Elder Summers

Monday, February 20, 2012

Well hey everyone!

Well how are you all!!

This week actually turned out pretty great. We were super excited for the baptism of this family on saturday, but sadly, do to family problems, they couldn`t. But we talked to the mom and daughters and got them excited again and the 3 came to church again yesterday!! woot!! Also we had the interview and everything with Griselda! She`s all ready and set for her baptisms this weekend. We`re really excited. She needs it. haha The work is going well right now, we`ve been really busy and finding new ways to work and find people, I feel pretty good here in Acapulco now. It`s not super hot anymore, though that just means that in the coming months it`s going to start to get hot again. But really REALLY hot. But oh well. Our house that we live in now has a AC unit, so that makes me happy.
Exciting note! Today i bought a hammock. It`s blue, and really big. I like it. a lot! so when i come home we`ll have to find a place to hang it up. And maybe i`ll let you all try it... maybe.. mwahaha jk yeah you can try. But yeah. i`m excited to have a hammock to rest in. I won`t use it a ton. But i`ll use it. and it`ll be nice. It can hold like 3 people.
Soccer is no longer banned in my mission anymore!! woohoo! due to a bunch of injuries, president banned soccer a few months back, but today we played freely without bans. it was fun.
Also New announcement. The new Mission president for the Mission, Mexico, Cuernavaca, has been announced.


http://www.ldschurchnews.com/media/photos/6987305.jpg

Bruce C. and Alynda K. Kusch


Bruce or Presidente Kusch, Associate academic vice president for curriculum, Brigham Young University-Idaho. Born in Lynwood, Calif.,


Yeah, we`re pretty excited here. Except i`m pretty sad that i won`t end with President Spannaus. he`s the best. He finishes, July 1st. I finish July 21st. The first Generation to die with the new president. But oh well.


So yes, we`re exctied to Baptize this week and we`re seeing lots of good things happened here in Jardin Acapulco!

Love you all tons and hope you have a fantastic Week!

Love

Elder Summers

The mission. Sometimes it`s hard.

So my first week with my new companion.
Things have really been doing well! We get along super well and things have been going great!
Things are still going good with the family and other people that are going to get baptized. Raul, Veronica, and their daughters have progressed a lot! They all accepted a batismal date for this saturday! We were super pumped for them. We also have been working a lot with Griselda, she went to church alot in the US, but until now couldn`t get baptized. She really wants to but keeps having things come us and couldn`t come to church on sunday or make it to her baptismal interview, so we`ll see how things go. Sadly also Raul, and his family couldn`t make it to church either, Raul had to work and Veronica`s Aunt is now sick and has to go be with her EVERY evening to help her. So I don`t think they`ll be getting baptized this week.... That is sad. But they are really a special family and will get baptized soon, so i just need to have a little bit more patience. haha. But other than that things are looking pretty great hear. Little by little the ward is reaching out and helping us more. So that is great!
The other two missionaries that will be in the ward haven`t gotten here yet, so we`re still just 2 missionaries in the ward. There is going to come a Mexican to train an American straight from the MTC, But he hasn`t gotten to Mexico yet. So yeah. But yeah things are going pretty good. We now have AC in our house. LOVE IT! seriously, I don`t know how it`s possible to live here in Acapulco without AC, but like 90% of the people do. So yeah, obviously it`s possible.
Well yes. This week we have a lot of work ahead of us, but i`m excited. Things should start picking up here and we`ll be having some great baptisms soon.
Well sometimes the mission is hard too. But thats when you learn the most.
Love you all tons and am very greatful for your prayers and love.
Love
Elder Summers

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

HOLA, Cambios!!

WEll hello everyone!
Today is the day of Changes!
Well they called us friday night to tell us changes a little bit early so that we could get our tickets and everything. And My companion, Elder Payne, is going. To Cuautla as a zone leader. It`skind of sad that he won`t be here anymore... But oh well, we thought he was going to leave this change so we were all super ready. They told me that my new companion is Elder Gonzalez. a mexican! but... the problem is, is that there are like 4 elders Gonzalez in the mission. One, I would NOT like to have as my companion, to be honest. Dead. haha but he was already here, so i figured it wasn`t him. But i was so worried about who it was that night that i even dreamed about it. I was worried in my dreams. haha But it wasn`t him. My companion is super cool. he`s from Guanajuato, Were Robert Served his mission! I`m pretty pumped, he seems really laid back, and a good people person. I feel like we`re going to get along really well.
So this week was pretty good! Our AWESOME family that we`re teaching came to church. It was sweet. I was super pumped to see them there and they liked it a lot. Even the husband came this week. The wife and daughters are pretty pumped to get baptized, they haven`t accepted a date yet, but we`re workin on that. And i think that dad is also getting pretty excited. WE taught Griselda all week and she is super excited, but strangely didn`t come to Church on Sunday, we were late for an appointment on saturday and she was cooking so we said that we`ll talk on sunday and she seemed ok with that. But for some reason didn`t come. It was weird. So tomorrow we`re gonna go see whats up with her. But i still think she could get baptized this week for sure.
yes, so here i am here in The Garden of Acapulco with Elder Gonzalez, I don`t speek english anymore. It`s fun. haha it`s been like 8 months since i`ve been with a mexican companion, Elder Lara whos now my Zone Leader, and it feels good! haha
Well love you all tons and hope that everything is going great and that you all get lots and lots of snow to start out February!
Love
Elder Summers

Monday, January 30, 2012

Well hhheeelllooo!!

How are ya`ll this week!

Well this week was really awesome actually. We worked pretty darn hard, and we found an awesome miracle. her name is Griselda. She got here about 6 months ago from Texas. Her mother and all of her kids are members there in texas. But sadly as happens to some mexicans. She got deported to here, so she can`t see them much for a bit. But she has known the church for a long time and has worked with lots of missionaries, but said that she never really took them seriously. She almost got baptized, but wasn`t married to her husband so couldn`t. But now she`s here, alone. And really wants to change. ITS AWESOME!! We had an awesome first lesson with us and she told us she`s gonna do everything. We passed by to get her sunday and she was all ready and super duper excited to go to church again, because she went a lot in the US, and on the way there announced that she`s going to get baptized, but she wants us to prepare her good!!
Blessings come from God I know. She needed us in the moment we found her. Actually, we were looking for some inactive members that live in a part of our area that we never go, and we asked her cousin if she knew where they lived and she said behind her house, so as we were leaving, griselda caught up to us and started talking to us in perfect english. haha, slight accent, but still. much much better than most people. p.s. the inactive member came to church too!! he seems pretty exctied to reactivate after like 6 years of inactivity. haha
But yes. Church was awesome for that. But sadly our awesome family that came to church last week didn`t come this week. We don`t know why. We had an awesome lesson with them on friday and taught the dad for the first time. they all seemed really excited to come to church again, and the daughters went to mutual on saturday. After church we passed by and the youngest daughter said that her mom was sleeping and that something had happened. But yeah. We`re not sure, we`re going back tomorrow for an appointment so we`ll see what happens.
There`s lots more thats going on here in the Garden of Acapulco, but it would take too long to write it all. We went to the beach again today. I love it. its just kinda stinky. but thats how they are sometimes. haha
We `re coming on the last week of the change. The other two elders in my ward are going home. Elders Woolsey (my zone leader in Chilpancingo) and Elder Martinez (he was in my first district in Atoyac) 2 elders that i`ve known for quite some time. I`m gonna miss them lots. But that always has to happen. And theres a good change that my companion Elder Payne is going too. But we`ll see what happens on Saturday.
I also made some phone calls to some converts last night and talked to some of my favortite converts from Cuautla. Narciso and his family. I love them. it pumped me up a lot and really got me excited to baptize more ready people like they are.
WEll i love life, the mission, the Lord, and ALL OF YOU!!!
Love
Elder Summers

Monday, January 23, 2012

Well hello! 18 months! and BAPTISM! kinda....

Well hello everyone!
This week was a really great one!
many things important happened. one, i completed 18 months! yeah! pictures below. As a tradition with missionaries, we like to burn things on landmark months. 6 months. tie. 12 months, shirt. 18 months, pants. yes. goodbye my least favorite pair of pants. burnt. to a crisp! haha We also had the baptism of Moses. Everything went super well this week, he came to church on sunday with his wife and everything went great. But after church, i went to fill out his paper work and another brother pulled me aside and told me that he just had a good conversation with moses, in which he told him that he already got baptised 4 years ago with his family... we just sat their with our mouths open for a bit. We knew that his wife and kids got baptised. but he had failed to mention that he did. and from what we asked him, he had never been baptised. So we figured we go right ahead and do it. But after that comment we decided that we couldn`t do anything more and had to ask for the records of his wife and kids to see if we can find his. So after lots of stress and possible a little bit of apostasy. Moses was baptised. kind of..... so yeah. Thats my crazy story for the week. I may have just baptised someone that already got baptised. huh
So yeah. We also had a cool experiance. friday we were searching for a refferal in a road. We asked the neighbor if she knew which house was hers. and she said it was the one next to hers. so we contacted the neighbor too and set up an appointment to teach her and her daughters the next day. We searched for the referral, knocked, shouted, but no one answered. So the next day we checked again and she wasn`t there. So we went to the lesson with the neighbor and she and her 2 daughters were AWESOME! We invited them to come to church, and they accepted. Church started and only one investigator was there, but then 15 minutes before sacrament meeting ended, she and her 2 daughters and 4 year old son came in!! woot!! they seemed to love it! So yes. Even though the other 5 people that we were waiting on didn`t come. God gave us a tender mercy and sent us this very awesome family. It streighthened my testimony of contacting. Because here it`s not very effective.
So yes. Those were the highlights of this week. We have 2 other families that we`re working with that have been to church before. But for some reason they didn`t come yesterday. WE`re gonna stop by tomorrow and see whats up with them. But yes. it feels good to complete 18 months. now it`s all downhill really fast. but it makes me happy.
last monday we had district meeting on the beach. we took cool pictures and had an awesome spiritual meeting. I really enjoyed it. But yes. I like the beach, and one day am coming back here. So anyone that wants to come with is definately invited.
Well love you all and hope that your having a fantastic week!
Love
Elder Summers




40 year old flirts.... *shutter*

WELL HEY THERE YA`LL!!!

A little bit of country here from mexico. ok not really more coasterner. yeah...
Well this week was pretty great! We had 6 people in church yesterday! it was awesome! one of them, Moses, is getting baptized this week! WOOT!! we`re super pumped. his family are members. we think. They got baptized in Oaxaca, mexico, like 4 years ago so we`re looking for their records to make sure that they are. but he`s pretty excited. We also had 2 other families come. one, the sister is a member that got baptized like a month ago in Michoacan, she`s super cool and has an awesome testimony. we`re teaching her sister, mom, and their families. 3 of them came to church. They seemed to like it. And 2 others came. the daughter is a member. just super inactive for years. We started teaching them like 2 weeks ago. The youngest daughter is pretty interested. The middle daughter. not really at all, and the mom kinda. she`s a flirt. grosse. well. they all are. but the mom call`s us things like WOW, and HANDSOME. yeah... she`s like 40. super inappropriate. but thats life. they came to church though!! haha
Oh yeah... moses, funny guy. 6 kids. didn`t know what a condom was until like 2 weeks ago.... awkward conversation. but good that he`s not having anymore kinds. cause he`s poor. very, very very poor. but awesome!!!
Well yes. today we`re going to the beach. i can see the ocean right now from my computer. it`s calling my name. we can`t touch the water. but we can go on the beach. so i will.
Well love you all and just FYI if there is anyone that want to write me by hand. FEEL FREE TO DO IT! missionaries LOVE mail. haha

Elder Brent Summers

Thursday, January 12, 2012

My oldest Baptism!!

Well hello Everyone!!!
As you can tell from the subject, We Baptized this week!! His name is
Hugo, he`s 76. Definately my oldest convert. He was super ready and
awesome. His son`s the ward mission leader, and he`s been inviting him
to activities and church for years, but his dad`s never really wanted
to go. Then he went to the ward Christmas party, then church that
sunday then told my companion that he wanted to talk to us! (because i
hadn`t gotten here yet) So all these last 2 weeks we`ve been teaching
him and he`s been doing everything so fantastic! It makes me super
happy to see every type of person accept the gospel. They say you
can`t teach an old dog new tricks. But I can guarantee that you can!
WEll yes, the other picture that i put on here... if you believe me.
is taken from my road. yes. I`m about 15 minutes, walking. LOVE IT!
They have super pretty beaches here too. They`re pretty dirty in some
parts but cool. My area doesn`t have much ``beach``, it`s mostly just
cliffs. But the other half of my ward, which is another area has a
HUGE beach. Which is in the picture. It`s pretty cool. i wouldn`t mind
coming back here after the mission to check out the beaches. haha
Well we worked hard this week and found success. This week was a lot
easier than last week physically. the hills beat me up and the heat
killed me the first week. But thats normal. this week i went a lot
better. and this week to come is going to be fantastic!
We had an awesome family of 5 come to church yesterday! The dad is a
member. He was baptized when he was 8 but has been inactive ever since
and doesn`t know a thing about the church, except that he was
baptized. So yeah. it was their second time coming. then they invited
us to eat at their house. They`re super cool. We just need to have
some really powerful spiritual lessons so they can be more interested.
But things will work out well.
We had another investigator come called Moses. he`s kind of crazy.
But cool. he studies a lot and writes about what he studies, but
sometimes comes up with crazy ideas about scriptures then he gets
really excited and wants to go out preaching. He asked me on sunday if
he could go out knocking doors like we do... haha i told him it`s best
if he didn`t. Unless we were with him, then it would be ok.
We have another big family we`re teaching. they`re a reference from
Elder Martinez, who is one of the other Elders in my ward. Elders
martinez, and Woolsey. My ex zone leader. he baptized her in
Michoacan, and now she lives with her family in my area. they`re
pretty aewsome, and they are a LOT of people to teach. so we`re
excited. But sadly, they didn`t come to church on sunday, and we don`t
know why. But we`re going up there tomorrow to go check it all out.
Well thatas about all thats going on. This place is pretty great and
is getting better everyday. I love being a missionary and I feel so
very blessed to be here right now.
i love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!
Love
Elder Summers





Tuesday, January 3, 2012

ACAPULKEANDO!

Well hello everyone!!
One week complete in Acapulco!
it´´s not AS hot as i remember it. But that doesn´´t mean that it´´s not hot. Because it is. haha we have an AMAZING view of the ocean right outside my house. My area is basically a big mountain that looks over the ocean. i´ll send pictures soon. My companion! ELDER PAYNE! awesome. love the man. He was in my district in the MTC, we started together. It´s cool to be with him now. he´s had lots of success here and together we´re going to have TONS of success together.
This week we have a baptism prepared for sunday morning. An old man name Hugo, he´s like 75. His son´s the ward mission leader but he´s never really had interest in the church much, but he came last sunday and then told my companion that he wanted to listen, and i´ve almost never taught anyone more ready for the churc. We taught him the word of wisdom and since that day has not drinken coffee. awesome.
We´ve also found a bunch of families that are super ready for the gospel. we almost didn´´t have anyone in church though. we had like 45 members, rough week, but new years, so it´s understandable.
We´ll i´m loving my time here in Acapulco, other than the heat and ridiculous amount of sweat. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!
Elder Summers