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.

January 3, 2011 Another week in lovely Mexico!

Oh the time sure is passing quickly here! i`m almost 6 months into my mission!! weird!! Well we had a pretty good week. it was a little difficult with the holdiays, becuase the day before, of, and after new years everyone was drunk. so there was really no one to teach, and a lot of our investigators went on vacation. but we still had a good week, we found 3 new investigators that are pretty cool and we challenged 4 people to be baptized! it was great! so yeah, we definately had a good week here in Pradera! We also had a get together on new years with our district, we were allowed to stay out till 10:30!! So we watched a church movie (states of grace) and ate pizza. it was great! except I really didn`t enjoy the movie a whole lot. the end was lame. very lame. but thus it is. haha oh well...

Today we went and visited some more pyramids! these were smaller and not quite as cool as Xochicalco. But still pretty cool. Sadly the computer i`m on doesn`t have a card reader so I can`t send pictures this week. But maybe next week. It was quite fun!

and though all of you are thinking that the holidays are over... your wrong! theres one more on the 5th! El dia de los Magos Reyos. The day of the Wise men. When the wise men reached christ the baby and presented him with presents. It`s pretty much just another reason to get drunk... and eat bread. They have special bread for that holiday. haha weird. But thus is mexico. They have lots of holidays.

New years day was weird. No one was out of their houses. it was seriously weird. haha we walked around and cuernavaca was like a ghost town, there were barely any busses so we had to wait forever to go anywhere and yeah. it was a strange experience. Yeah well thats about all that happened this week. If all goes well we`re going to marry and baptize an guy this next week. hopefully. and have 3 or 4 baptisms for the week after. I`m really excited for that. we`re getting some pretty good investigators here, I love it!

yeah well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Summers

December 27, 2010 Christmas!!!

Oh what a great week it has been. This was the week of the Navidad. Christmas week. :) I love everything about christmas and this year it was awesome! I spent christmas day, here is the 24th. I´m not sure why, with an awesome family. We woke up in the morning and went down to the church to clean for a while, because we had no appointments, and people really don´t like to be bugged here on christmas, even though it´s not a very big holliday, (compared to the U.S.) and we cleaned and I played the Organ for a few hours. it was great! Then we went to the families house and talked for a while, and watched the Testiments! What a great movie! prettty entertaining in spanish too. Then we went to another members house to meet some people, they made us tamalies with guacamolie sauce that was bomb. I loved it. Then we went back to the first families house and had dinner, it was like a grassy plant in Molé sauce. it wasn´t very good. But I got full so I was happy! Then we sang christmas songs and my companion played the guitar. it was great :) And we got to stay out till 12!!! it was crazy. I was so tired... haha then real christmas day we went to another members house and our families called! so I got to talk to my family and friends! it was really awesome! I really enjoyed it. Then we ate lunch over there, then after had to go to another area to do an interview. Altogether a good day. Very relaxing. very nice.

Also this week! We had another Baptism!! It was so great. Her name is Eva. And she is probably the most excited person i´ve ever met aboutt he gospel. She was always making comment in our lessons about how excited she was to get baptized and everything and is now probably in Alma in the Book of Mormon! It´s awesome! she was so ready and so awesome! we´re teaching her two kids, but they definately have a lot less enthusiasm than she does. haha Her son we´ve taught basically everthing too and he was really excited and into it until we taught him about the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. Then his excitement dropped significantly. it´s sad. Hopefully we´ll be able to get him excited again. But all is well! :) We just played soccer with the zone. It was fun. We play a lot, and for new years we´re getting together as a zone and going ICE SKATING!!! yes believe it. Ice skating in Mexico! They have an outdoor rink in the Center of Cuernavaca aaannnddd it´s free!!!!! crazy huh. People here don´t really like to ice skate, but they love to watch. The other day I saw maybe 10 people on the ice. and 200 in the stands watching them. it was funny. So we´re gonna go tear it up! yeah!

We also had our ward Christmas activity! It was aweosme, they had a talent show like thing before and my companion and I and our ward mission leader sang a trio with the guitar, of Silent night. It was pretty good. I have the video, but it´s much much to large to send. There were lots of singers and dancers, and our bishop sang and played the piano and guitar. He is an incredible singer! seriously, he´s a very quiet humble guy, but he can sing! It was awesome!!1 yup, well included are my baptism pictures from this week and i´ll send more in another email!

I love you all and want to hear about your christmases and your presents and everything!!!

Love you all!

Love Elder Summers

December 20, 2010 Oh what a glorious time of the year!!! and BAPTISM!

What a great week it has been. it was kind of crazy and we had a lot of stuff to do. Including our Zone Christmas Party!! it was actually 3 zones together. It was great! we went and ate good food then everyone bought a gift and we had a crazy gift exchange. I ended up with a really cool weird statue thing of a mexican guy with beans. it´s cool. i love it! then we had a really great spiriualy meeting. The president and his wife spoke and I did a musical number with my companion and a few other elders. Then we had a testimony meeting. it was awesome! It got me very excited for Christmas.

Ontop of that we pretty much had a miracle this week. We´ve been teaching a Lady named Gabriella, almost all of her family are members. except her parents, but they live in another state so yeah. her husband and grandma and yeah pretty much everyone are members. He cousin just got back from a mission like 4ish months ago and he started bringing her to church and yeah so she got interested. Then we started teaching her and she was even more interested. When it came time for baptizm she said that she wanted to talk with her parents about it first. Which is reasonable, but lame because she´s like 27ish. so she should make her own decisions. And talking to her parents turned into She´s going to Guerrero (another state) on the 22nd for a week or two. and we couldn´t have that without her being baptized. Cause she is ready now. So we had a great talk and used the scriptures a lot! and after about 10 minutes of almost silence and just waiting she finally said ok. And we baptized her the next day!!! :D it was great! an awesome experience and very spiritual. It makes me happy when We have investigators that aren´t scared of what their family thinks and make decisions for their selves. it always makes me happy. We have another Investigator who is all set up to be baptized thursday! She is pumped. She´s probably the most excited person ever, she´s in the book of Jacob in the Book of Mormon and reads a lot. She is really awesome and super ready for baptizm. her kids are a little less. One has been to church once, the other twice (the son) We taught the son everything and the only thing he really lacks is the desire to get baptized, cause he doesn´t have it yet. he understands everything pretty well and I believe has stopped smoking and drinking. I hope. We´re goign to ask again next visit. and if everything goes ´miraculously, we´ll baptize him too! But only if he wants too.

Well with the christmas spirit in the Air, there is a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel! I challenge each and everyone of you that reads my emails to Share the gospel with someone that you think is ready, or needs to hear it right now! The light of Christ is stronger at this time of the year than any other. people are much more receptive and are more willing to listen about messages of Christ and his church than any other time of the year! so that is my challenge to everyone. Talk to your friends, co-workers, family, or a random stranger about the gospel, and if possible, see if they want a message fromt he missionaries! Because they need as much help as possible. I love Mexico! and I love All of you! and most improtantly, I love my Savior Jesus Christ!

Love

Elder Summers

p.s. I taught a lady this week named Santa. true story. I wanted to know if her last name was either Clause, or Biblia. Either would be awesome.