¡hola familia!
it was so awesome talking to you guys on saturday! after i talked to you my companion was having problems talking to his family so we sprinted downtown to a local locutorio for him to call. it cost him $102 to talk to his family for an hour and a half. it was really late when we left and we didnt feel safe walking so we waited for the bus and didn´t get home until 11:30. that was my christmas present for my comp other than being an awesome missionary. sounds like you had some awesome christmas-es and it is too bad i wasnt there but i was thinking about you guys! dad- i do my laundry in this little cheap washing machine we have at our place. i will take a picture or something... then i just wring out the clothes and hang them up to dry in the bathroom. it is such a pain but i actually did it this morning. transfers are today and i am losing some good friends in my zone... but my companion is now the new district leader and we are getting two new elders in the district. i think they are both gringos getting ready to leave the mission so it should be awesome. it will be good watching my companion in a leadership position too. this computer is VERY slow so i cant see the pictures sent but maybe next week. i have some awesome pictures of me and e´escobar on cerro chenque above comodoro but i dont have my camera right now. we are downtown and this ciber is very expensive. $8 pesos an hour. we have to dress up to meet my old district leader at the bus terminal but i never really liked him. he was always very trucho and i found a lot of sketchy things in his pensión like magazines or coca colas in the fridge and i just dont have that much respect for him. i am excited to see how different things are going to be with our new district. one of my zone leaders is now the president´s assistant and we now have elder taylor to replace him. he is solid and was trained by the elder that i found on the blogs and is a legend here. i just hope to learn more to be a better missionary. i try my best to be a better teacher and i use a lot of parables to explain things. that awesome puzzle for the plan of salvation is being used a lot and i love it. i have the people place all the pieces while we go through each part. i love teaching about the plan of salvation because it is very interesting to hear what they believe is going to happen after this life, where we came from and why we are here. some people tell me that they are just going to rot in the ground and there is no purpose to life and it just makes me sad. the catholics tell me that the whole world is going to burn and everyone is going to die but i dont think that is what the catholics believe, is it? well, i have been here 2 months and i think i only have this next month to become completely independent and i think i can do it. 2011 is going to be a big year for me and i think it will be one of the most exciting and happiest years of my life. i really feel like huge things are going to happen and i just cant wait to get started! this letter is a tad short this week but i just talked to you guys a few days ago. i am looking forward to those packages too! i love you guys and i am so glad i had the chance to talk to you. its too bad i couldnt talk to jacie and annie but next christmas will be awesome if everyone is at home! thank you for all of your support! i cant think of anything better i could be doing right now and i am really enjoying being a missionary. i love you guys!
con mucho ánimo y amor!
Elder Summers.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Day 54
¡Hola Familia!
I am so excited to talk to you guys for Christmas! its going to be
awesome but im still not too sure how everything is going to work out.
i think that i will be able to email you again on friday to tell you
when i call (or when you can call) for Christmas day. right now i am
thinking we will be spending christmas eve on the roof until midnight
to watch all the fireworks and then christmas day with my zone and
this family that wants to make us an asado (the most amazing meat
ever) and i am really excited! this family has some young girls that
the mom is trying to set up with my zone leader but eating that asado
is worth a few hours of strange-ness. i am starting to enjoy futbol a
lot here but nobody lets me play because i am not very good yet. i am
always the goalie because i am the best but i want to get in the
action. thank you for sending me a scarf! im in comodoro right now
and my comp and i were about to go buy one so i will pray that the
package makes it into my hands. still no package yet, but last week i
received a mountain of letters and i was so excited to get them. they
were all dear elder letters from nov 17- dic 3 on diciembre 13. i
loved reading them and i have to say that jamie wrote to me the most
and i wrote her a letter but i don´t want to send it yet because they
are moving soon. jamie, can i just email you next week? i cant
remember your email address. i will take a picture of the awesome
envelope that i made for you but i dont want to send the letter
anymore. my companion told me that i talk a lot in my sleep and he
started to write down the things that i say. i mostly just correct my
grammar in spanish so i think that is pretty awesome. one night i
apparently burst out laughing for a few minutes but i cant remember
why i would. this is my last week of my first transfer!!! i dont know
how long i am going to stay in abásalo but i hope i stay for a few
more transfers. this week we couldnt do a whole lot because we had to
take the bus to the kilometros building a lot to practice for the
stake choir concert. we performed last night and i played 7 songs on
the piano with the choir for about 200 people. it was awesome because
there were people with saxophones, trumpets, and drums accompanying
us. i was kind of a big deal. but we did find some more awesome
families this week. this week we found 11 new investigators. a lot
of the people we found are menos activos but their families are not
members and they let us talk to them. since you asked for it, here is
a list of people we are teaching that need your prayers: natalia,
silvia, mirta, oracio y silvia, jaime y jazmina, zulema, hna vargas,
flia levicoi, juan v, nena, alberto, flia ruiz, flia castro, javier y
su familia, y flia menendez. the first few women listed are about
35-40 with a lot of younger children. there are not very many people
that believe in marriage so they just do whatever here. the rest of
the people we are teaching are menos activo families that we are
trying so hard to reactivate and we visit them all at least once a
week. we are waiting for the miracles to happen in our ward. there
are a few families that wont come to church because there are drunks
or drug addicts that smoke right outside of their homes and they are
too scared to leave with their young families. we dont blame them and
we are trying hard to help them get to church safely every week
because we know the importance of attending and taking the santa cena
cada domingo. there were a few people that we had to stop teaching
last week because they had lots of problems and they dont want to
progress. we found out this week that some women we were teaching
were actually prostitutes and they dont want to change their lifestyle
because they dont think they can support their children in the
dominican republic without the money theyre making. i was not
expecting anything like that because they were so normal and did not
look like they would ever do anything like that. but apparently,
their business here is too good to give up... other than that,
everything here is going great. no mud this week. it is very cold in
the mornings and then in the afternoon the sun is very hot but all the
cold wind makes for a nice balance. e´ escobar and i are finally
going to climb cerro chenque today. the other elders in my zone are
bums and they dont want to make the effort today but we know it will
be awesome. on top of the hill, i am going to take some pictures to
show you guys where i have been serving. it is really windy today so
hopefully you will be able to see all the sand blowing across the
land. i dont know why there is so much sand everywhere. the beaches
dont have sand but they have big ol´ rocks. fun. i found out the
lobos marinos are pretty close so my comp and i will have to get some
pictures with those too. someday... well, i am so excited to talk to
you guys and i will work on figuring out how to talk to you. i may be
able to use skype... but i dont know. i love you all! ¡Feliz Navidad!
Con mucho amor y ánimo,
Elder Summers
I am so excited to talk to you guys for Christmas! its going to be
awesome but im still not too sure how everything is going to work out.
i think that i will be able to email you again on friday to tell you
when i call (or when you can call) for Christmas day. right now i am
thinking we will be spending christmas eve on the roof until midnight
to watch all the fireworks and then christmas day with my zone and
this family that wants to make us an asado (the most amazing meat
ever) and i am really excited! this family has some young girls that
the mom is trying to set up with my zone leader but eating that asado
is worth a few hours of strange-ness. i am starting to enjoy futbol a
lot here but nobody lets me play because i am not very good yet. i am
always the goalie because i am the best but i want to get in the
action. thank you for sending me a scarf! im in comodoro right now
and my comp and i were about to go buy one so i will pray that the
package makes it into my hands. still no package yet, but last week i
received a mountain of letters and i was so excited to get them. they
were all dear elder letters from nov 17- dic 3 on diciembre 13. i
loved reading them and i have to say that jamie wrote to me the most
and i wrote her a letter but i don´t want to send it yet because they
are moving soon. jamie, can i just email you next week? i cant
remember your email address. i will take a picture of the awesome
envelope that i made for you but i dont want to send the letter
anymore. my companion told me that i talk a lot in my sleep and he
started to write down the things that i say. i mostly just correct my
grammar in spanish so i think that is pretty awesome. one night i
apparently burst out laughing for a few minutes but i cant remember
why i would. this is my last week of my first transfer!!! i dont know
how long i am going to stay in abásalo but i hope i stay for a few
more transfers. this week we couldnt do a whole lot because we had to
take the bus to the kilometros building a lot to practice for the
stake choir concert. we performed last night and i played 7 songs on
the piano with the choir for about 200 people. it was awesome because
there were people with saxophones, trumpets, and drums accompanying
us. i was kind of a big deal. but we did find some more awesome
families this week. this week we found 11 new investigators. a lot
of the people we found are menos activos but their families are not
members and they let us talk to them. since you asked for it, here is
a list of people we are teaching that need your prayers: natalia,
silvia, mirta, oracio y silvia, jaime y jazmina, zulema, hna vargas,
flia levicoi, juan v, nena, alberto, flia ruiz, flia castro, javier y
su familia, y flia menendez. the first few women listed are about
35-40 with a lot of younger children. there are not very many people
that believe in marriage so they just do whatever here. the rest of
the people we are teaching are menos activo families that we are
trying so hard to reactivate and we visit them all at least once a
week. we are waiting for the miracles to happen in our ward. there
are a few families that wont come to church because there are drunks
or drug addicts that smoke right outside of their homes and they are
too scared to leave with their young families. we dont blame them and
we are trying hard to help them get to church safely every week
because we know the importance of attending and taking the santa cena
cada domingo. there were a few people that we had to stop teaching
last week because they had lots of problems and they dont want to
progress. we found out this week that some women we were teaching
were actually prostitutes and they dont want to change their lifestyle
because they dont think they can support their children in the
dominican republic without the money theyre making. i was not
expecting anything like that because they were so normal and did not
look like they would ever do anything like that. but apparently,
their business here is too good to give up... other than that,
everything here is going great. no mud this week. it is very cold in
the mornings and then in the afternoon the sun is very hot but all the
cold wind makes for a nice balance. e´ escobar and i are finally
going to climb cerro chenque today. the other elders in my zone are
bums and they dont want to make the effort today but we know it will
be awesome. on top of the hill, i am going to take some pictures to
show you guys where i have been serving. it is really windy today so
hopefully you will be able to see all the sand blowing across the
land. i dont know why there is so much sand everywhere. the beaches
dont have sand but they have big ol´ rocks. fun. i found out the
lobos marinos are pretty close so my comp and i will have to get some
pictures with those too. someday... well, i am so excited to talk to
you guys and i will work on figuring out how to talk to you. i may be
able to use skype... but i dont know. i love you all! ¡Feliz Navidad!
Con mucho amor y ánimo,
Elder Summers
Monday, December 13, 2010
Day 47
¡Hola Familia!
the christmas season is coming and i miss hearing the awesome north american christmas songs on the radio... the people here do have christmas trees but they are all about 2 feet tall. that is just about all of the decorations they have for christmas but it works. my zone leader called me and told me i had a ton of letters this week including some hand-written so i am super excited to see my pile of love and see who loves me the most! i learned a new word this week: barro. it means mud and we had a whole bunch of it this week because it rained a lot. the weather here was pretty strange this week because it is a cycle of rain and sunshine all day. i love the rain here and i think it is way better than the wind. the other day was the worst day of wind i have ever experienced because there is a lot of dirt and sand blowing really hard and it cut my face pretty bad. my nose was bleeding because a piece of sand hit it so hard! my comp took a picture of me after one of the windy days and my hair is caked with sand, im wearing my awesome goggles and my tie knot is really twisted. im surprised i can keep it around my neck! i really want to buy a scarf to protect my neck from the sand and the cold wind so i will probably get one next week.
I loved getting pictures of my nephews today. caden and kingston look a lot older! please send more pictures because the people here love looking at them. it sounds like mollie had a great performance and i hope the weather is nice enough for you guys to travel to doug´s graduation. Congratulations Doug! we decided that hna vargas is crazy but we are going to keep visiting her. she has old books of mormon that other missionaries gave to her and there are notes inside saying to read different passages but she told us she cant read and she doesnt want to learn about those things. it is so frustrating when people choose not to be baptized even though they tell us that they can feel these things are true. there is one mother that we are teaching in a less active family that tells us she believes in the gospel but she ´`knows she wont be saved´´ because she does not want to stop smoking. people have their agency but i hate when they decide not to do the right things. we are teaching many different families but the hard part is being able to find them again. we taught so many people about 2 or 3 times but then they just disappear and we can´t find them anymore. i really want to climb cerro chenque and take some pictures of comodoro so you can see where i have been but i dont want to take chances with getting my camera stolen... my comp and i end up walking a lot because our ward boundary isn´t really defined and i was thinking the other day that having a pedometer would be awesome. i have gained a lot more confidence walking down the streets here in abásalo and i am no longer afraid of the drunks and junkies that watch us closely. i have seen a lot of really cool things here and my testimony of priesthood power has really strengthened. i have been really good with writing in my journal every night and i swear i could write a book while i am here. e´escobar and i have had some really cool experiences and we know for sure that we are being protected and led to the people that really are going to progress.
i finished the book of mormon in spanish for the first time and i started over again. i love reading it in spanish because there are a lot of little things that i haven´t noticed before that are so cool. i have a testimony of the book of mormon and i am very excited to share it with everyone i meet here. some elders in my old district emailed me from the mtc and they are so jealous that i am out here already and they still have 3 more weeks. i have almost completed my first transfer of 6 weeks on my mission! that is so awesome! time is going by surprisingly fast and i have to enjoy every moment i have here. some days i look at my watch while we are out clapping doors and time goes by so slow and we have the opportunity to talk to so many people. some of the excuses people come up with to keep us out are pretty interesting but most people tell us they are just busy or they are already catholic or evangelist and they have ´´heard enough´´ about the mormons. one guy told me he would make his dogs attack me because i wasn´t catholic. another said he would let us inside to explain more but his dogs would eat my face so i should stay away. i love dogs now...
it just makes me appreciate the people that let us inside even more! i am grateful for my companion because he wants to work just as hard as i do and we get a lot accomplished. we spend a lot of time visiting the less active members and i love seeing families progress. when we asked hno ruiz about how his ´´reading assignment´´ of the book of mormon was, he just lit up and ran into the other room to tell us all the things he read and how much he loved reading. more people are coming to church and i love looking out and seeing the people we have helped come to church again. the elders in my district are going to act and sing together friday night for a christmas party in our wards and it has been pretty fun practicing for it. i am playing ´´army of helaman´´ and another christmas hymn on the piano while the elders sing and we sound great. i am getting pretty good at improvising on the piano and people like to sit down and listen to me play after some ward activity. i love the piano!! thank you for sending some sheet music! i know that i am going to enjoy playing it.
now that the christmas season is upon us, we can direct our messages towards the savior because pretty much everyone here believes in him. i believe the greatest gift we can give for christmas is the gospel and i would like to ask you guys to focus on helping your friends find it. i know it can be scary but following the promptings of the spirit really does a lot and you will feel so much better if you do. Family, i love being a missionary. i am so grateful for all of your support and i love you all very much.
¡¡¡Con mucho amor y una sonrisa grande!!!
Elder Summers
the christmas season is coming and i miss hearing the awesome north american christmas songs on the radio... the people here do have christmas trees but they are all about 2 feet tall. that is just about all of the decorations they have for christmas but it works. my zone leader called me and told me i had a ton of letters this week including some hand-written so i am super excited to see my pile of love and see who loves me the most! i learned a new word this week: barro. it means mud and we had a whole bunch of it this week because it rained a lot. the weather here was pretty strange this week because it is a cycle of rain and sunshine all day. i love the rain here and i think it is way better than the wind. the other day was the worst day of wind i have ever experienced because there is a lot of dirt and sand blowing really hard and it cut my face pretty bad. my nose was bleeding because a piece of sand hit it so hard! my comp took a picture of me after one of the windy days and my hair is caked with sand, im wearing my awesome goggles and my tie knot is really twisted. im surprised i can keep it around my neck! i really want to buy a scarf to protect my neck from the sand and the cold wind so i will probably get one next week.
I loved getting pictures of my nephews today. caden and kingston look a lot older! please send more pictures because the people here love looking at them. it sounds like mollie had a great performance and i hope the weather is nice enough for you guys to travel to doug´s graduation. Congratulations Doug! we decided that hna vargas is crazy but we are going to keep visiting her. she has old books of mormon that other missionaries gave to her and there are notes inside saying to read different passages but she told us she cant read and she doesnt want to learn about those things. it is so frustrating when people choose not to be baptized even though they tell us that they can feel these things are true. there is one mother that we are teaching in a less active family that tells us she believes in the gospel but she ´`knows she wont be saved´´ because she does not want to stop smoking. people have their agency but i hate when they decide not to do the right things. we are teaching many different families but the hard part is being able to find them again. we taught so many people about 2 or 3 times but then they just disappear and we can´t find them anymore. i really want to climb cerro chenque and take some pictures of comodoro so you can see where i have been but i dont want to take chances with getting my camera stolen... my comp and i end up walking a lot because our ward boundary isn´t really defined and i was thinking the other day that having a pedometer would be awesome. i have gained a lot more confidence walking down the streets here in abásalo and i am no longer afraid of the drunks and junkies that watch us closely. i have seen a lot of really cool things here and my testimony of priesthood power has really strengthened. i have been really good with writing in my journal every night and i swear i could write a book while i am here. e´escobar and i have had some really cool experiences and we know for sure that we are being protected and led to the people that really are going to progress.
i finished the book of mormon in spanish for the first time and i started over again. i love reading it in spanish because there are a lot of little things that i haven´t noticed before that are so cool. i have a testimony of the book of mormon and i am very excited to share it with everyone i meet here. some elders in my old district emailed me from the mtc and they are so jealous that i am out here already and they still have 3 more weeks. i have almost completed my first transfer of 6 weeks on my mission! that is so awesome! time is going by surprisingly fast and i have to enjoy every moment i have here. some days i look at my watch while we are out clapping doors and time goes by so slow and we have the opportunity to talk to so many people. some of the excuses people come up with to keep us out are pretty interesting but most people tell us they are just busy or they are already catholic or evangelist and they have ´´heard enough´´ about the mormons. one guy told me he would make his dogs attack me because i wasn´t catholic. another said he would let us inside to explain more but his dogs would eat my face so i should stay away. i love dogs now...
it just makes me appreciate the people that let us inside even more! i am grateful for my companion because he wants to work just as hard as i do and we get a lot accomplished. we spend a lot of time visiting the less active members and i love seeing families progress. when we asked hno ruiz about how his ´´reading assignment´´ of the book of mormon was, he just lit up and ran into the other room to tell us all the things he read and how much he loved reading. more people are coming to church and i love looking out and seeing the people we have helped come to church again. the elders in my district are going to act and sing together friday night for a christmas party in our wards and it has been pretty fun practicing for it. i am playing ´´army of helaman´´ and another christmas hymn on the piano while the elders sing and we sound great. i am getting pretty good at improvising on the piano and people like to sit down and listen to me play after some ward activity. i love the piano!! thank you for sending some sheet music! i know that i am going to enjoy playing it.
now that the christmas season is upon us, we can direct our messages towards the savior because pretty much everyone here believes in him. i believe the greatest gift we can give for christmas is the gospel and i would like to ask you guys to focus on helping your friends find it. i know it can be scary but following the promptings of the spirit really does a lot and you will feel so much better if you do. Family, i love being a missionary. i am so grateful for all of your support and i love you all very much.
¡¡¡Con mucho amor y una sonrisa grande!!!
Elder Summers
Monday, December 6, 2010
Day 40
¡Hola Familia!
im sorry that i wasnt there to help put up the christmas stuff but it sounds like everything went ok. it is really hot here but the wind can really pick up and cool everything down really fast. my comp said that during winter, the wind here is so cold that it would cut his face really bad with all the wind so i hope i don´t stay here until christmas... i have learned to appreciate the wind because there aren´t any drunks on the street when it gets bad outside. more people are congregating in the streets with a bunch of liquor and it gets really scary sometimes because they call out to us and they whistle a lot to get our attention. we have learned it is best to keep our heads down and just keep walking when they have alcohol because they most likely want to ask us for 10 pesos or to empty our pockets on the spot. my heart jumps everytime they call out to us and my comp warns me whenever he sees a group of guys walk out onto the same street. i always thought my mission would be a breeze just walking up and down streets knocking doors. i never imagined that i would be dodging streets and using code words with my comp to run from dangerous people.i just keep thinking of DyC 122:9 that says that my days are set and these guys can´t hurt me because i am protected by God. i know he is with us even thought things get pretty bad.
i wasnt robbed this week! yay!!! other than that, we have a lot of families that we are teaching and we are really trying to help them. most of them are progressing and i really do believe we can have some baptisms by christmas because i really want a `white christmas´!!! we understand the importance of baptism and we are inviting everyone to be baptized. i love the feeling i get after i challenge someone for baptism because there is a huge ´relief´ like i have done everything i needed to do. things are going very well with our invesgators. we are teaching 6 families that are so close and we are doing all we can to help them find the faith that they need. e` escobar tells me that i remind of robin williams because i am always smiling like him. i tell him that he must have one good looking smile then... my legs are really toned because we are always walking ´´with purpose´´ past dangerous people. i want to take a picture and send it to you guys because i am not lying. my face was pretty burned at first but it is turning into a nice tan and the people think i am from chile!!! i really believe that i can blend in with these people and i just have to practice my accent. here, they don´t say the ´s´s at the end of words and some of the ´s´s are pronounced like ´j´s. kind of strange but recognizing that has helped me understand a lot more and i feel a lot more comfortable talking with people. my ward mission leader kind of looks like the guy from ´no country for old men´ but is skinnier and has shorter hair. i need to get a picture with him because he is really cool. when we go on divisions with the ward members, i actually lead the discussions! sure, my castellano is a little weak but they can understand me and i can generally understand them and i am so glad that i am here instead of being in the mtc! the missionaries in my first district still have 3 more weeks in the ccm before they enter the mission field and i am grateful that i was able to use this time to my advantage to learn so much more than the others. i feel so lucky but then i remember that the lord has been preparing me so i could do this.
could you send me more pictures of the family? the people here LOVE to look at pictures and i feel dumb only having a few pictures of my family. i want to show off how amazing you all are so you should send me some good stuff! i didn´t get any dearelder letters on jueves because we had a zone conference with pte peterson. it was really cool meeting with him and we practiced teaching about the importance of the sabbath day and how to talk about the law of chastity here because nobody here gets married. i am the only elder in the zone that can read piano music and play the hymns. elder cortes can play songs by listening to them and i really wish i could do that but it takes him awhile to figure it out. elder cortes is chileno and i am trying to pick up an accent from him so people actually could believe i am not a ´´yankee´´ and i am getting better.
every monday is my p-day so we come down to this place where there are a bunch of computers and i pay like 3 pesos to use one for an hour. i look forward to this ´´sacred day´´ when i can just relax for a few hours with the other elders before i unleash again in comodoro. i am really working hard here and i think my clap has been perfected because everyone can hear me on the street. now i know why i have such large palms! the water is ok here but we have to buy all of it. nobody drinks a lot of water but they have a lot of juice. i love jugo de pomelo the most and i buy more when i can. i think that means grapefruit but i´m not too sure. yesterday for fast sunday we walked the farthest i have ever been in the mission boundaries to eat some little tortilla things with a member but then we found out we were supposed to eat with an hermana that lived really close to us and she made us an asado, an amazing potato salad and lots of chorizo (sausage), and pizza! i felt so bad that we didn´t eat with her but she still brought us all the leftovers and there were a lot... i eat so much here but the other elders are telling me that i look like i lost a lot of weight in the last week. i discovered white chocolate alfajor cookies and i eat one every morning with my pomelo juice for breakfast. im feelin´ good, i love the weather here, i love the families we are teaching, i love the huge support we get from the ward, i love the music here because they blare a lot of 80´s music in the streets with lots of Michael Jackson and Bon Jovi songs. if i was not a missionary, i would be dancing up and down these streets but we end up humming lots of church songs to keep the spirit and to discern where we should be going all day. i love my companion and the lessons we teach are becoming a lot more balanced because i can contribute a lot more. thank you for paying my tithing for me, i was actually going to ask about that today! i am glad that shane´s birthday went well. i am glad that you are writing me more dear elder letters but i should receive some today when i meet my zone leader. elder nuñez is awesome. thank you for all of your love and support!
con mucho ánimo y amor,
Elder Summers
im sorry that i wasnt there to help put up the christmas stuff but it sounds like everything went ok. it is really hot here but the wind can really pick up and cool everything down really fast. my comp said that during winter, the wind here is so cold that it would cut his face really bad with all the wind so i hope i don´t stay here until christmas... i have learned to appreciate the wind because there aren´t any drunks on the street when it gets bad outside. more people are congregating in the streets with a bunch of liquor and it gets really scary sometimes because they call out to us and they whistle a lot to get our attention. we have learned it is best to keep our heads down and just keep walking when they have alcohol because they most likely want to ask us for 10 pesos or to empty our pockets on the spot. my heart jumps everytime they call out to us and my comp warns me whenever he sees a group of guys walk out onto the same street. i always thought my mission would be a breeze just walking up and down streets knocking doors. i never imagined that i would be dodging streets and using code words with my comp to run from dangerous people.i just keep thinking of DyC 122:9 that says that my days are set and these guys can´t hurt me because i am protected by God. i know he is with us even thought things get pretty bad.
i wasnt robbed this week! yay!!! other than that, we have a lot of families that we are teaching and we are really trying to help them. most of them are progressing and i really do believe we can have some baptisms by christmas because i really want a `white christmas´!!! we understand the importance of baptism and we are inviting everyone to be baptized. i love the feeling i get after i challenge someone for baptism because there is a huge ´relief´ like i have done everything i needed to do. things are going very well with our invesgators. we are teaching 6 families that are so close and we are doing all we can to help them find the faith that they need. e` escobar tells me that i remind of robin williams because i am always smiling like him. i tell him that he must have one good looking smile then... my legs are really toned because we are always walking ´´with purpose´´ past dangerous people. i want to take a picture and send it to you guys because i am not lying. my face was pretty burned at first but it is turning into a nice tan and the people think i am from chile!!! i really believe that i can blend in with these people and i just have to practice my accent. here, they don´t say the ´s´s at the end of words and some of the ´s´s are pronounced like ´j´s. kind of strange but recognizing that has helped me understand a lot more and i feel a lot more comfortable talking with people. my ward mission leader kind of looks like the guy from ´no country for old men´ but is skinnier and has shorter hair. i need to get a picture with him because he is really cool. when we go on divisions with the ward members, i actually lead the discussions! sure, my castellano is a little weak but they can understand me and i can generally understand them and i am so glad that i am here instead of being in the mtc! the missionaries in my first district still have 3 more weeks in the ccm before they enter the mission field and i am grateful that i was able to use this time to my advantage to learn so much more than the others. i feel so lucky but then i remember that the lord has been preparing me so i could do this.
could you send me more pictures of the family? the people here LOVE to look at pictures and i feel dumb only having a few pictures of my family. i want to show off how amazing you all are so you should send me some good stuff! i didn´t get any dearelder letters on jueves because we had a zone conference with pte peterson. it was really cool meeting with him and we practiced teaching about the importance of the sabbath day and how to talk about the law of chastity here because nobody here gets married. i am the only elder in the zone that can read piano music and play the hymns. elder cortes can play songs by listening to them and i really wish i could do that but it takes him awhile to figure it out. elder cortes is chileno and i am trying to pick up an accent from him so people actually could believe i am not a ´´yankee´´ and i am getting better.
every monday is my p-day so we come down to this place where there are a bunch of computers and i pay like 3 pesos to use one for an hour. i look forward to this ´´sacred day´´ when i can just relax for a few hours with the other elders before i unleash again in comodoro. i am really working hard here and i think my clap has been perfected because everyone can hear me on the street. now i know why i have such large palms! the water is ok here but we have to buy all of it. nobody drinks a lot of water but they have a lot of juice. i love jugo de pomelo the most and i buy more when i can. i think that means grapefruit but i´m not too sure. yesterday for fast sunday we walked the farthest i have ever been in the mission boundaries to eat some little tortilla things with a member but then we found out we were supposed to eat with an hermana that lived really close to us and she made us an asado, an amazing potato salad and lots of chorizo (sausage), and pizza! i felt so bad that we didn´t eat with her but she still brought us all the leftovers and there were a lot... i eat so much here but the other elders are telling me that i look like i lost a lot of weight in the last week. i discovered white chocolate alfajor cookies and i eat one every morning with my pomelo juice for breakfast. im feelin´ good, i love the weather here, i love the families we are teaching, i love the huge support we get from the ward, i love the music here because they blare a lot of 80´s music in the streets with lots of Michael Jackson and Bon Jovi songs. if i was not a missionary, i would be dancing up and down these streets but we end up humming lots of church songs to keep the spirit and to discern where we should be going all day. i love my companion and the lessons we teach are becoming a lot more balanced because i can contribute a lot more. thank you for paying my tithing for me, i was actually going to ask about that today! i am glad that shane´s birthday went well. i am glad that you are writing me more dear elder letters but i should receive some today when i meet my zone leader. elder nuñez is awesome. thank you for all of your love and support!
con mucho ánimo y amor,
Elder Summers
Monday, November 29, 2010
Day 33- Pictures Take 2
Elder Summers with his cousins, Elder Eric Summers and Sister Jana Randall.
that was a photo of my first district and we were awesome together. here is my other district in the advanced class, elder showell, and ochoa. e´ ochoa helped me a lot and he was one of my roommates. he is from peru and there is the picture of my primos and my fan club. the last one is me and the comp in our man cave. i can´t remember if i sent it yet but those are the pictures worth seeing, the others are just goofy. have a great week and write me dearelder.com letters!!! that is awesome that everyone could get together for the holidays but i sure wish they would write me more... anyone and everyone should write me to make the other elders jealous. why not? its free.
that was a photo of my first district and we were awesome together. here is my other district in the advanced class, elder showell, and ochoa. e´ ochoa helped me a lot and he was one of my roommates. he is from peru and there is the picture of my primos and my fan club. the last one is me and the comp in our man cave. i can´t remember if i sent it yet but those are the pictures worth seeing, the others are just goofy. have a great week and write me dearelder.com letters!!! that is awesome that everyone could get together for the holidays but i sure wish they would write me more... anyone and everyone should write me to make the other elders jealous. why not? its free.
Day 33 - Pictures
Stitching his pants back up after encounter with a dog!
His companion to Argentina!
Playing the piano in the MTC! 
In front of the map with Elder
His companion to Argentina!
Playing the piano in the MTC! 
In front of the map with Elder
Day 33
¡Hola Familia!
primero, you can still write me dearelder.com letters. just remember that i am in the argentina neuquen mission and my name is elder summers and i can receive your love on paper every thursday. i have been on my mission for one month!!! yay! to celebrate my one month anniversary, a kid stole my glasses. i had a bad feeling about this group of kids but my companion felt like we should talk to them. why? i have no idea. they were very vulgor and i was very uncomfortable talking to them. one reached over to ´read my nametag´ and then he snatched my glasses and ran. the only reason i was wearing them was to protect my eyes from all thne sand blowing around but i told a hermana in the ward about it and she gave me some goggle like sunglasses to use when we are tracting on large dirt hills. i still have plenty of contacts to use so i am not blind but i was a little discouraged about it. i just hope he has a friend with terrible eyesight that can use those glasses more than me... the people here are mainly pretty mean to us. some yell at us like dogs and tell us to ´shoo´. others tell us they already belong to the catholic church and they need no other religion because all the other churches are going to burn. it just makes me so grateful for the people that actuallly let us talk to them! our goal is to find a family to baptize before la navidad and i think we may have done it. The Gauto family is very young and the parents are both 26 with two young kids, but they are both feeling really good about the things we are teaching them. i met a woman with a beard the other day and she let us into her home. it weasn´t a full beard but her face was so furry. things won´t go far with her because she makes fujn of the things we say and she would not let us pray with her after the lesson. Choir practice here was so funny because there was about 6 old ladies in our ward and none of them could really sing but e´ escobar and i helped them get things together. we did not get the opportunity to climb cerro chenque with the other missionaries because they decided it was too cold to go so we played futbol at the stake center. i think it is funny how the gyms in the churches have soccer goal posts instead of basketball hoops and nobody can throw a ball but they have pretty good accuracy kicking one. the other day i was thinking about my last check from the country club and i was wondering if you guys could pay my tithing for me? thanks! shanes birthday is coming up this week so i want to say ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! you are getting old. i think dougs birthday is in a week or two so i don´t want to forget his birthday either. sorry doug, im not sure when it is but i know it is coming up soon! for la navidad this year, i think people just eat lots of asado and light a bunch of fireworks. i think they might have already started lighting them off at night or those might be gunshots. i can´t tell but it is really loud... people really eye me here. the people tell me i have a ´yankee face´ and they can tell i am not from here so i try not to wear a whole lot of costly apparel because i hate getting robbed. we pray all the time that we will be protected from bad people because we can see groups of about 6 guys on every corner that are smoking, drinking, or sometimes doing both. we get really bad feelings walking down some roads so we will turn around and walk down a different street. on the other side, we sometimes look back and we see we avoided a pretty bad group and we know the lord is looking after us. people don´t celebrate thanksgiving here and there was no holiday that i know of but we still eat some pretty good food everyday. every day for breakfast we buy some alfajores because they are the breakfast of champions! i know that probably is not the best but we don´t have anything else really. i ate an orange this morning if that counts... the lunches here are the ain meal and nobody really eats anything else. bjecause it was kthanksgiving, i will tell you what i am thankful for. i am thankful for the opportunity to be here in comodoro right now. i am thankful for the opportunity to talk to the people and the spirit blesses me with the things to say at the right moment. i am learning the importance acting on my impressions because they always seem to be right when we talk with investigators. i am thankful for the scriptures and the guidance from the prophet. i read the ensign and my scriptures every day and i look forward to my study time each day. i particularly liked the talks from pte eyring and pte monson on serving with the spirit and being grateful. i am thankful for the other missionaries in my zone because they are all great examples for how this work should be done. i am thankful for my family and for their support and prayers every day because i can feel it as i work. i am thankful for joseph smith because he restored this gospel when there were many that wanted to hurt him but he did it with no fear. i am thankful for the saviour and for his atonement and example so that we all may live and return to live with our heavenly father again. my pictures take awhile to download so i will get going on that. i love you all!
con animo y amor,
Elder Summers
primero, you can still write me dearelder.com letters. just remember that i am in the argentina neuquen mission and my name is elder summers and i can receive your love on paper every thursday. i have been on my mission for one month!!! yay! to celebrate my one month anniversary, a kid stole my glasses. i had a bad feeling about this group of kids but my companion felt like we should talk to them. why? i have no idea. they were very vulgor and i was very uncomfortable talking to them. one reached over to ´read my nametag´ and then he snatched my glasses and ran. the only reason i was wearing them was to protect my eyes from all thne sand blowing around but i told a hermana in the ward about it and she gave me some goggle like sunglasses to use when we are tracting on large dirt hills. i still have plenty of contacts to use so i am not blind but i was a little discouraged about it. i just hope he has a friend with terrible eyesight that can use those glasses more than me... the people here are mainly pretty mean to us. some yell at us like dogs and tell us to ´shoo´. others tell us they already belong to the catholic church and they need no other religion because all the other churches are going to burn. it just makes me so grateful for the people that actuallly let us talk to them! our goal is to find a family to baptize before la navidad and i think we may have done it. The Gauto family is very young and the parents are both 26 with two young kids, but they are both feeling really good about the things we are teaching them. i met a woman with a beard the other day and she let us into her home. it weasn´t a full beard but her face was so furry. things won´t go far with her because she makes fujn of the things we say and she would not let us pray with her after the lesson. Choir practice here was so funny because there was about 6 old ladies in our ward and none of them could really sing but e´ escobar and i helped them get things together. we did not get the opportunity to climb cerro chenque with the other missionaries because they decided it was too cold to go so we played futbol at the stake center. i think it is funny how the gyms in the churches have soccer goal posts instead of basketball hoops and nobody can throw a ball but they have pretty good accuracy kicking one. the other day i was thinking about my last check from the country club and i was wondering if you guys could pay my tithing for me? thanks! shanes birthday is coming up this week so i want to say ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! you are getting old. i think dougs birthday is in a week or two so i don´t want to forget his birthday either. sorry doug, im not sure when it is but i know it is coming up soon! for la navidad this year, i think people just eat lots of asado and light a bunch of fireworks. i think they might have already started lighting them off at night or those might be gunshots. i can´t tell but it is really loud... people really eye me here. the people tell me i have a ´yankee face´ and they can tell i am not from here so i try not to wear a whole lot of costly apparel because i hate getting robbed. we pray all the time that we will be protected from bad people because we can see groups of about 6 guys on every corner that are smoking, drinking, or sometimes doing both. we get really bad feelings walking down some roads so we will turn around and walk down a different street. on the other side, we sometimes look back and we see we avoided a pretty bad group and we know the lord is looking after us. people don´t celebrate thanksgiving here and there was no holiday that i know of but we still eat some pretty good food everyday. every day for breakfast we buy some alfajores because they are the breakfast of champions! i know that probably is not the best but we don´t have anything else really. i ate an orange this morning if that counts... the lunches here are the ain meal and nobody really eats anything else. bjecause it was kthanksgiving, i will tell you what i am thankful for. i am thankful for the opportunity to be here in comodoro right now. i am thankful for the opportunity to talk to the people and the spirit blesses me with the things to say at the right moment. i am learning the importance acting on my impressions because they always seem to be right when we talk with investigators. i am thankful for the scriptures and the guidance from the prophet. i read the ensign and my scriptures every day and i look forward to my study time each day. i particularly liked the talks from pte eyring and pte monson on serving with the spirit and being grateful. i am thankful for the other missionaries in my zone because they are all great examples for how this work should be done. i am thankful for my family and for their support and prayers every day because i can feel it as i work. i am thankful for joseph smith because he restored this gospel when there were many that wanted to hurt him but he did it with no fear. i am thankful for the saviour and for his atonement and example so that we all may live and return to live with our heavenly father again. my pictures take awhile to download so i will get going on that. i love you all!
con animo y amor,
Elder Summers
Monday, November 22, 2010
Day 26
¡Hola Familia!
I did arrive safely in Neuquén after waiting all day in the Buenos Aires airport but it was really cool because I had the opportunidad to speak with a whole bunch returning missionaries from neuquen and they showed me pictures and played uno together.
I enjoyed meeting with President Peterson in the mission home. My companion is really awesome, his name is Elder Escobar and he is from Colombia. He has helped me a lot with my Castellano, which really is a very different language. I still have a very difficult time distinguishing the words because they pronounce things very differently. If i accidently say my ys normally, the people here correct me to make the sha sound. It is really hard typing on this computer because the keys are very small and there are extra keys for the accent marks...so don´t judge.
I am serving in Comodoro Rivadavia right now. It is next to the ocean at the bottom of the Chubut province. you might be able to google it! It took 14 hours to get here on a bus but they were very comfortable and they fed us a whole bunch of good food. my comp told me that we are too far south to see the penguins but there some type of seal in the area. My comp says they are not seals but lobos marinos and they are fat and very ugly, i am pretty excited to see them.
The members here are great and they give us some wonderful food everyday for lunch. Nobody eats dinner here so we eat huge lunches of the best meats i have ever eaten and they will give us loaves of bread with dulce de leche. I LOVE dulce de leche. Every night, elder escobar and i buy 2 alfajores from the same woman down the street from us to celebrate a good day.
This area is... charming... people just throw trash on the ground and i think to myself if they were in the U.S., they would get ripped apart for not "going green". it is very windy and sometimes we can´t walk forward because the sand is hitting us so hard. I get home with so much sand in my ears and hair and it is ridiculous sometimes but that is the mission, baby! i just have to enjoy it.
there are so many dogs, they are everywhere and most of them are wild. my personla belief is that everyone has a dog so they can here us clapping in front of their doors. In church there were about 60 people there and my companion and i are the only ones that can play but my comp can´t use the pedal or play with his left hand very well so i ended up playing all the songs in sacrament. I introduced myself before the sacrament and everyone looked very excited to meet me. There are a lot of girls that kiss my cheek and it was very awkward at first but my comp tells me that if i reject them they will be very offended and start yelling at me so i just put up with it. i was surprised to see the houses here because they are so small and they are made out of anything. there are fences around everyones houses that are made out of wire, beds, scraps of metal, anything. everyone seems to have at least 1 dog that won´t stop barking when we get there. they are very territorial and i already mentioned that i was bit. i luckily had my planner in my pocket so the teeth did not sink in my skin. i have pictures of the tear and my awesome job to fix it.
we were walking to an investigators house one afternoon and they had this dog chained in front of the house. a car drove by and a woman jumped out screaming. ``sasha! sasha!`` the dog was hers but the investigators just abducted it apparently and a guy came out cussing and threw a whole bunch of stuff at the house and called the police. it was a little funny because i thought to myself ``this kind of thing would never happen in parker``...
one night we met with hermana vargas. i am so grateful for that experience because she would say a whole bunch of stuff that i didn´t understnad so i prayed to my heavenly father just to understand her. she is about 80 years old and she uses a lot of old words that my comp did not understand either. in that moment, i began to understand everything and she was telling us about her son and how he died, about the trials that she has in her life. I don´t know how to explain it but my father in heaven filled me with so much love for this woman and i am grateful for the experience to feel the love that he feels for each of his children. i was able to laugh with her, and to cry with her. never in my life have i felt so much love for one person that i have never met before. i explained to her about how much love God has for each of his children and that she is able to pray to him to have a closer relationship with him. i know that my heavenly father is helping me and is protecting me.
Last night we were robbed for my first time. i just played dumb and pretended that i didn't understand him but my companion just gave him the 2 pesos that were in his pocket and everything was ok. he had a knife but i just smiled at him and shook his hand saying ``mucho gusto`` and we walked away because these guys aren´t that threatening to me. We can definitely feel it if they want to hurt us because we can discern their spirits.
I am grateful for this opportunity that i have to serve in comodoro, and i know that i will be safe and protected because we are doing everything we are supposed to. elder escobar is very obedient and he helps me a lot. i am grateful for my comp and i am grateful for my Saviour and the influence he can have in all of our lives. I am grateful for a loving heavenly father that allows me to know the needs of the people and allows me to help them. I don´t know where to send letters because it seems like all of you are changing addresses and i don´t have any others... So let me know! Write me letters so I can write you back!! Family, i love you all and i am grateful for your support. I am glad to hear everything is going well. ¡Ciao!
Con mucho animo y amor,
Elder Summers
Thursday, November 18, 2010
STATUS UPDATE
Apparently, AP Spanish pays off! With his superior Spanish skills, Jake was bumped up into the advanced MTC group a few weeks ago. On Monday, he was shipped over to LA to finalize his visa then on Tuesday he flew to Argentina. Mom, dad, and Mollie got to talk to him from the airport. They said he was very excited to get to Argentina. On Wednesday, mom received a phone call from Jake's mission president's wife informing her that Jake got to Argentina safely and is serving along the coast with an elder from Costa Rica!!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Day 13
Hey Family!
Yes, the rumors are true... I have been moved up into the advanced Spanish class. I have a new companion in a new district full of native speakers and it was really hard to understand the first few days so I never prayed so hard in my life! There is one elder named Elder Ochoa that has a really thick accent because he is from Peru, but I love speaking with him because he is probably the most supportive in helping me to learn as much as I can. I am so grateful for my district because they are all so cool and they love helping me. They don't need to help me understand all the time, but only when they use certain expressions that I have never heard before. My new companion's name is Elder Angell, and he is from Georgia. He is the only missionary in the district that is white and he usually thinks he knows more than the native speakers so there are a few arguments with them about how to say things. I try to avoid that by just asking Elder Ochoa or one of the three sisters my questions... I'm sorry for not saying anything about my teachers!! Hna Smith mentioned that she worked at the same place that Annie used to so that was great you guys heard a little about my situation. I loved my last district and I missed them a lot at first but my relationships with these new elders are already growing a lot. It was really awkward at first because I was the "new guy" but now we are all pretty good friends.
Elder Ballard and Sheri Dew spoke with us the last few weeks and it was amazing hearing for them. I actually sang in the choir when E. Ballard came and he had a great message about the importance of communication. I sat really close to Sheri Dew, my companion and I sat in the first few rows in the gym. I always pictured her to be a burnette for some reason and my universe was shattered when I saw her in person.
Last night I went to the calling center for the first time and I had an amazing experience. Most of the calls I made were to confirm people were receiving DVDs about Christ or books of Mormon and nobody really answered. It was 7 o'clock when we called and I was mainly calling people on the eastern side of the US. One woman I called in California really enjoyed my call because I asked how she felt about God and why she really thinks we are here on earth. She said that she thinks about those things all the time so I bore testimony that God has a plan for each of us. Apparently the number I called was her work phone and she had the strongest impression to return to her office for no reason and she heard the phone ring. I told her that there is a living prophet on earth today and then I urged her to pray if those things were true because I knew she would get an answer. I am so grateful for this opportunity to talk with a real person for once here. Practicing with the other missionaries is fun and everything but I would prefer getting out to the campo misional.
Speaking of which, I have not received any flight plans but I might be flying out this week. Elder Campos, in my district, is also going to Neuquen and he is flying to LA next week to have an interview with a consolate and picking up his visa and then he is flying back to the MTC that same day. I have not heard anything about my visa yet but I hope I hear something soon. I have been here for 2 weeks now but it already feels like it has been a long time. I have felt your prayers throughout the day as I sometimes struggle to understand during the discursos and I am grateful for all of you guys. I know that there is power in prayer and that we can always speak directly to our Heavenly Father. Please continue to pray for me as I am preparing to go to Argentina.
Anything else? I can't think of anything to write in mine epistle... I have some great pictures of me and my district in front of the temple along with some pictures with both of my cousins and Elder Showell. I talked to Nicole V. in the cafeteria once but I haven't seen her since. It is nice seeing other missionaries that I know. Life is great here and I have never felt better! Dad- it is funny that you guys talked about Peter and his faith on the water because we literally just talked about that before I read your dear elder message. Please send more notes every day! I really enjoy hearing about your activities and I am sorry Mollie feels like she is in prison. It takes 2 minutes to write to me but it makes my day. Mom has won the weekly competition because she wrote to me the most this week. That means that she will reciev a personalized letter in a few days. Good job, momma! I love you guys and I hope things are going ok! Jacie, enjoy the move, sounds like Caden is. Uh.... anything else? I don't know... Im doing great and I appreciate my time that I have here.
Les Amo!!!!
Elder Summers
Yes, the rumors are true... I have been moved up into the advanced Spanish class. I have a new companion in a new district full of native speakers and it was really hard to understand the first few days so I never prayed so hard in my life! There is one elder named Elder Ochoa that has a really thick accent because he is from Peru, but I love speaking with him because he is probably the most supportive in helping me to learn as much as I can. I am so grateful for my district because they are all so cool and they love helping me. They don't need to help me understand all the time, but only when they use certain expressions that I have never heard before. My new companion's name is Elder Angell, and he is from Georgia. He is the only missionary in the district that is white and he usually thinks he knows more than the native speakers so there are a few arguments with them about how to say things. I try to avoid that by just asking Elder Ochoa or one of the three sisters my questions... I'm sorry for not saying anything about my teachers!! Hna Smith mentioned that she worked at the same place that Annie used to so that was great you guys heard a little about my situation. I loved my last district and I missed them a lot at first but my relationships with these new elders are already growing a lot. It was really awkward at first because I was the "new guy" but now we are all pretty good friends.
Elder Ballard and Sheri Dew spoke with us the last few weeks and it was amazing hearing for them. I actually sang in the choir when E. Ballard came and he had a great message about the importance of communication. I sat really close to Sheri Dew, my companion and I sat in the first few rows in the gym. I always pictured her to be a burnette for some reason and my universe was shattered when I saw her in person.
Last night I went to the calling center for the first time and I had an amazing experience. Most of the calls I made were to confirm people were receiving DVDs about Christ or books of Mormon and nobody really answered. It was 7 o'clock when we called and I was mainly calling people on the eastern side of the US. One woman I called in California really enjoyed my call because I asked how she felt about God and why she really thinks we are here on earth. She said that she thinks about those things all the time so I bore testimony that God has a plan for each of us. Apparently the number I called was her work phone and she had the strongest impression to return to her office for no reason and she heard the phone ring. I told her that there is a living prophet on earth today and then I urged her to pray if those things were true because I knew she would get an answer. I am so grateful for this opportunity to talk with a real person for once here. Practicing with the other missionaries is fun and everything but I would prefer getting out to the campo misional.
Speaking of which, I have not received any flight plans but I might be flying out this week. Elder Campos, in my district, is also going to Neuquen and he is flying to LA next week to have an interview with a consolate and picking up his visa and then he is flying back to the MTC that same day. I have not heard anything about my visa yet but I hope I hear something soon. I have been here for 2 weeks now but it already feels like it has been a long time. I have felt your prayers throughout the day as I sometimes struggle to understand during the discursos and I am grateful for all of you guys. I know that there is power in prayer and that we can always speak directly to our Heavenly Father. Please continue to pray for me as I am preparing to go to Argentina.
Anything else? I can't think of anything to write in mine epistle... I have some great pictures of me and my district in front of the temple along with some pictures with both of my cousins and Elder Showell. I talked to Nicole V. in the cafeteria once but I haven't seen her since. It is nice seeing other missionaries that I know. Life is great here and I have never felt better! Dad- it is funny that you guys talked about Peter and his faith on the water because we literally just talked about that before I read your dear elder message. Please send more notes every day! I really enjoy hearing about your activities and I am sorry Mollie feels like she is in prison. It takes 2 minutes to write to me but it makes my day. Mom has won the weekly competition because she wrote to me the most this week. That means that she will reciev a personalized letter in a few days. Good job, momma! I love you guys and I hope things are going ok! Jacie, enjoy the move, sounds like Caden is. Uh.... anything else? I don't know... Im doing great and I appreciate my time that I have here.
Les Amo!!!!
Elder Summers
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Day 5
Hello Family!
I have been here for a week but I feel like I have been here for a long time... Days seem like weeks and weeks really do seem like days. When I am writing in my journal, I can't remember what happened that day because it all blurs together.
I love it here at the CCM (MTC in Spanish), and I love my companions. Yes, companions. I have two now as of last night and it has been great. I got pretty sick a few days ago and I was miserable. It was a really bad cold, but my companions gave me a blessing and I am now feeling better. Elder Page is from Glenwood Springs and he is great to be around. I feel lucky to be paired up with him and I know he is my companion for a reason. Elder Leigh is my other new companion, I just met him last night because he was moved up from the beginning spanish class but he has been really cool. I have pictures of us in front of the temple and I just have to figure out how I am going to get them sent to you guys.
The elders in my district are all amazing and we are really good friends. I will write more about them later because I am pressed for time. I love hanging out and learning with them because we have such a great time but we know when to get serious and work hard too. I met Hermana Eyring a few days ago. She is President Eyring's grand-daughter and she is going to the Buenos Aires North mission so her class room is in the same building as mine.
Erik and Jana (Jake's cousins) have the same cafeteria and gym times as me so it is really fun to see them everyday. I play 4-square with Elder Summers every day and we are both really good at it. I have scraped my knees diving a lot and I don't think I am supposed to dive, but I get really into the game and I have to defend my King Square.
USE DEARELDER.COM because it is the greatest thing ever to be invented. You all have the power to send me an encouraging note everyday while I am here in the CCM so I expect you all to use that power. I am the music coordinator for my branch so I choose every hymn to sing in Sacrament meeting and priesthood, who is going to play the song, and who will conduct. By the way, everyone in my district loves the knots I make on my ties and they made me teach them how to do it. I always took pride in that but you guys never liked how big my knots were. We are studying lesson 1 on the restoration and we are going to practice on volunteers on Friday. We are also working on relying on the spirit to tailor the lesson to fit the needs of investigators while we teach.
Things are getting easier around here. We only speak Spanish in class and we made it a district goal to speak during the meal times but every other time is ok for English right now. Spanish is getting easier to speak and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable speaking the language. The first day we learned how to pray in Spanish and we try to do that all the time. We went to the temple this morning and that was glorious because it was neat going together as a district. We are good friends and it is very easy to get along.
Please send me some new hangers! I don't have a lot of money here and I don't want to spend it on hangers. I need about 10 more, that would be awesome. I am just doubling up on hangers so everything is working out ok but more would be beautiful. We only get $6 a week and I spent most of my money on a Spanish hymn book and sweet clip for my nametag.
Life is good, use DEARELDER.COM every day if able to while I live here, send me some more hangers, the church is true, and pray for me! I love you guys and I love hearing from you. I received the halloween package of goodies and I plan on sharing them with my district. I will take a lot more pictures with them too so it should be some good stuff.
Con mucho animo y amor,
Elder Summers
I have been here for a week but I feel like I have been here for a long time... Days seem like weeks and weeks really do seem like days. When I am writing in my journal, I can't remember what happened that day because it all blurs together.
I love it here at the CCM (MTC in Spanish), and I love my companions. Yes, companions. I have two now as of last night and it has been great. I got pretty sick a few days ago and I was miserable. It was a really bad cold, but my companions gave me a blessing and I am now feeling better. Elder Page is from Glenwood Springs and he is great to be around. I feel lucky to be paired up with him and I know he is my companion for a reason. Elder Leigh is my other new companion, I just met him last night because he was moved up from the beginning spanish class but he has been really cool. I have pictures of us in front of the temple and I just have to figure out how I am going to get them sent to you guys.
The elders in my district are all amazing and we are really good friends. I will write more about them later because I am pressed for time. I love hanging out and learning with them because we have such a great time but we know when to get serious and work hard too. I met Hermana Eyring a few days ago. She is President Eyring's grand-daughter and she is going to the Buenos Aires North mission so her class room is in the same building as mine.
Erik and Jana (Jake's cousins) have the same cafeteria and gym times as me so it is really fun to see them everyday. I play 4-square with Elder Summers every day and we are both really good at it. I have scraped my knees diving a lot and I don't think I am supposed to dive, but I get really into the game and I have to defend my King Square.
USE DEARELDER.COM because it is the greatest thing ever to be invented. You all have the power to send me an encouraging note everyday while I am here in the CCM so I expect you all to use that power. I am the music coordinator for my branch so I choose every hymn to sing in Sacrament meeting and priesthood, who is going to play the song, and who will conduct. By the way, everyone in my district loves the knots I make on my ties and they made me teach them how to do it. I always took pride in that but you guys never liked how big my knots were. We are studying lesson 1 on the restoration and we are going to practice on volunteers on Friday. We are also working on relying on the spirit to tailor the lesson to fit the needs of investigators while we teach.
Things are getting easier around here. We only speak Spanish in class and we made it a district goal to speak during the meal times but every other time is ok for English right now. Spanish is getting easier to speak and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable speaking the language. The first day we learned how to pray in Spanish and we try to do that all the time. We went to the temple this morning and that was glorious because it was neat going together as a district. We are good friends and it is very easy to get along.
Please send me some new hangers! I don't have a lot of money here and I don't want to spend it on hangers. I need about 10 more, that would be awesome. I am just doubling up on hangers so everything is working out ok but more would be beautiful. We only get $6 a week and I spent most of my money on a Spanish hymn book and sweet clip for my nametag.
Life is good, use DEARELDER.COM every day if able to while I live here, send me some more hangers, the church is true, and pray for me! I love you guys and I love hearing from you. I received the halloween package of goodies and I plan on sharing them with my district. I will take a lot more pictures with them too so it should be some good stuff.
Con mucho animo y amor,
Elder Summers
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Day 1
Jake was set apart as a missionary Sunday afternoon. He flew into Salt Lake City this morning, got his last good American burger, and was dropped off at the MTC by Annie, Brett, and Grandma & Grandpa Alldredge. Annie said that after the pictures he said, "Okay let's go. I'm ready to go now!"
Let the letter writing begin. You can also send him messages at DearElder.com for free!
Let the letter writing begin. You can also send him messages at DearElder.com for free!
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