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.