It's SOOOOOOO Hot.....

To Bart....
you mixing up the masculine and feminine thing reminds me of the
office when michael is trying to learn spanish and is marking
everything with a post-it note if its feminine or masculine, haha.
yeah its different with the whole concept because in english we dont
have that at all. so now i guess the skype rules have changed and we
have to do it on a the sunday itself and all the computer places here
are closed that day. they said we can go to a members house here but i
dont want to worry them on that on the day of christmas so a call will
suffice. i think i sent the number to mom in the surprise email i sent
this week. our church is only an hour long as
well but it happens to be starting right at 10am here. i was thinking
that maybe after the day of church of us both it would work better.
that means we would be out at 11am argentina time. and ill be home
probably from 2pm to whenever. ill be carrying the cell phone with me
all day just in case. im pumped for it too. the time on mothers day i
didnt really know spanish as well as i do now so im excited. my week
was good, i had to go and re-do my visa so i can stay here for one
more year and i worked my magic and we ended up going to burger king
again. i got the whopper rodeo. im now in love with onion rings. i
cant wait to get home and cook an argentine meal for you guys. im
going to need lots of oil, tomatoes, and salt. so if you were to call
me at maybe three or so my time or even just right after your church.
the whole day i will be devoting to christmas and your call so
whenever you can call after your church hour is done will be great. im
training a new missionary starting on wednesday. he is not going to
know anything about anything so i get to teach him the ropes and how
to be a boss in this wacked out country. itll be sick. cant wait to
talk to you guys. ill get on the computer again during the week to see
what times would be best for you to call me. so if you could send an
email back so i can see whats up would be perfect. ITS SOOO HOTT!! its
hard to even sleep at night. crazy. okay love you dad, dont stop your
progressing now that you got it going so well. there are a lot of
inactive families here that used to be way strong and it all happens
right after they were the most strongest. not saying that our family
will ever be that way haha but satan works his hardest on the best of
Gods children. love your son, elder hayden summers
　
To Nan....　
so mom the skype thing is a no go. i explained it to dad and i dont
have the will to do it again haha. im doing great, hot, but great
indeed. yeah i was hoping that some more packages would come with some
chocolates and christmas stuff too :) i set up gmas little nativity
that she gave me and its the last time ill use it in argentina! also
the first though.. im glad the tree is up and sad i have to miss it.
things are going to be alot different next christmas :) dont worry im
still focused. i get to train a newbie from the mtc starting on
wednesday. im going to try my best to show him how things are here.
he´ll be coming here almost exactly a year after i got here. the week
was good, we had interviews with our mission president, he is a boss.
even though he only speaks spanish haha. but for real he is the best
and super smart and just full of great advice. the mission is the best
and im so happy that you guys are safe and recieving blessings. youll
have a good 9 months of double missionary blessings so get prepared
for magic! thats all i got for this week. love you a ton mom and merry
christmas!! talk to you in 7 days :) bye!

Christmas 20 Days Early....

To Nan...
hey thanks for the christmas packages!!! it was good to open them 20
days earlier even though you had clearly labeled to wait. i just
figured if it is something i could use it would be better if i could
open it now and use it. so yeah today we used my football and it was a
blast! thanks for all of it. but you said your going to send other
things too? sweet!! im always ready for more lovin from home.im
doing pretty good. i am alright at soccer now. im the second best
one in our zone of 12 elders, two of which are actual latin missionaries
and most of the others have more experience than me. i just like
being the best, that’s all :) the cache story is cool and i kind of
dont believe it but at the same time i expect nothing less of that
from him. i mean i would have done the same thing as well.
did cache sell his snowmachine? For his mission give him more
bottoms of garments than tops. all of the other advice that i
was gathering up for him is pretty much useless
now that he is going to utah.. so i feel somewhat useless in the area
of advise but thats all good. they used to use bikes here but they
were being robbed too much so the got rid of the bikes and make us
walk everywhere. i now weigh 95 kilos with my clothes on. i havent
converted it to pounds yet cuz i just weighed myself in a pharmacy.
thats the life of a missionary.. im going to send some pics i hope
you enjoy them. i love you mom and the mission is the best.
thanks for supporting me and helping me out so much before

and even now. love ya lots! bye!

Sweating My Pants Off...

To Nan...
so right now i am sweating my pants off in a stuffy old computer place
with argentine kids yelling and screaming all over the place playing
world of warcraft.. thats my life!always after a good pday i get to write
so im usually on the up-swing. the work is really hard and the hearts
of the people are harder.. but im just doing as much as i can and doing
it the best way i know.that would be way cool.
im doing good, very hot, but good. i dont really remember how i was at
the end of my time before the mission. i think i tried really hard to
get you to love me more by bringing you lunch and stuff. i know you
know that i may have had other motives.. aka getting free lunch and
brownie points but I liked doing it anyways. i think we got along good
right before and miss that alot. im definately going to LOVE watching the
harrypotter 7 movies together with you and dad and fischer. its going
to be the best. okay im out.
yeah going to burger king was amazing. i got a whopper extreme max,
everything on it. ate it all and loved every bacon filled bite of it.
miss ya mom! love you too. peace!

To Bart....　
wow i cant believe they cancelled church in alaska! thats crazy. my
week was great! it was a bit different because my comp got bitten by a
spider and we had to run to nasty doctor offices all around
everywhere. but in the end things are just about all fixed with his
leg. we actually found a giant spider in our house place and trapped
it, took pics, then baptized it by fire! it was as big as the palm of
my hand. we think it was just a wolf spider. also we found a bug that
is from argentina in our house that supposedly can kill you within
hours. we caught it and took it to the hospital to have them check if
it had the desease that they carry sometimes. this pday we did soccer
and i got 3 packages from you guys for christmas. i dont know if im
going to be able to wait... thanks for all the packages you send me it
is the best. i cant wait to play mario bros with you guys when i get
home that sounds like a lot of fun. love your elder hayden summers

Follow the Breadcrumb Trail....

hey dad,
so this week was cool. about the exact oposite of 2 feet
of snow here. it is pretty convenient with this heat though, if anyone
wants to follow me they just have to follow the breadcrumb trail of
sweat that follows me wherever i go. well its not that hot but you get
the idea. like i said to mom, service is just the best thing ever. its
dumb i think when people offer service here or anywhere and afterwards
expect some pay. whatever we do here will forever be sealed up in the
heavens, so we better be careful and just mob life. but life isnt life
if we arent having fun. like you guys going snow machining and
fischer, being fischer, wrecks a machine. but as almost always, all is
well in zion. christmas is just around the corner and ive heard that
they have so many fireworks here that it sounds like a war zone, im
way pumped. tell fischer that next thanksgiving ill be home to beat
him up like never before. even if he is going to outweigh me by twenty
pounds ill take him out. just like how you summon your old man
strength to beat me and them somehow.. with love, your son.


sup mom,
yeah thanksgiving here was a lot to give thanks for. it
just so happened that we had two american women in our little branch
here and they treated us missionaries to the best argentine
thanksgiving that we couldve imagined. my week was good too. i just
cant get enough of doing service here. all of the service ive done
here has either been for mixing cement and building walls, or making
mud and building roofs. its awesome! plus it is way cool to see the
blessings that rain down on us after we serve people. even if it is
just pushing a car that died to a gas station or sweeping an old
ladies porch, blessings just come out of nowhere. also today we made
an asado (an argentine barbeque but different) and played some soccer.
oh i bought a soccer jersey... i dont know it that is a sin in our
family.. well yeah it is but hey i gotta blend in with the folk here
as much as i can right?
im just gonna say that life is busy and fast for all of us. we have
waited billions and billions of years for these short ones on this
earth. its just our job not to mess it up. gotta run! love elder
hayden summers
ps. for christmas im just going to be happy with whatever i get :)

Thanksgiving...

To Bart...
so this week was cool. i miss the cold. the days here
when the clouds decide to come out and block the sun i am loving it.
when it rains every now and then it takes me back to fishing haha. its
great. your the best dad, just so you know. your example to the family
is just getting better and better. i cant wait to see where you are
when i come home for thanksgiving next year. here we have a family
that is from the united states and they are going to help us have a
good dinner, we are going to try and make pie and cobbler and stuff but who
knows how it will turn out haha. not much to say for this week, i love
you guys alot and hope all is well. thanks for the pictures and stuff.
love elder hayden summers

hey mom!
so i got some pictures sent to you guys with my head
blood supressent, me doing service, and good stuff indeed. my week was
good and today we played soccer. also i ate a hamburger the size of a
football today. twice this week it rained hard and we were caught in
it, it was even hailing huge hails for a while. me and my comp get
along good. i love giving blessings to people its the best! enough
said its just that amazing i dont want to taint it with my weakness in
writing. not much to say about the work, its still just that. we are
finding more and more cool people and good stuff is going down down
here. its still hot as heaven and we have a great ice cream store
close by. my life seems pretty boring with no really good stories. for
my one year mark i bought a huge watermelon and we ate food and food
and food! i bought a cool watch for pretty cheap. but yeah...they dont
celebrate thanksgiving here, but they make up for it with a hundred
other pointless holidays that are useless. i love you guys and have a
great THANKSGIVING!!

The Lord Had Prepared Him....

To Bart...
yeah my area is actually called rivadavia and not junin. its a bit away from it but still rather close. we are doing work down here and its great. its not as hot here as my last area but still crazy compared to alaska. a nice and easy and calm christmas sounds great, next year.. i really like it here and am having a good time. are you going to sell the Grebe? i cant believe that our ward is growing so fast, its incredible how true this church is. i just wish it would grow that fast down here where im at, i work and work and i hardly ever see the fruit of my efforts. but its okay because my fruit is going to be all piled up and waiting right in front of my mansion in heaven. all the fruit i´m ever going to want haha. have fun on all the toys you now have in your possession and just know that someday i´ll have more than you. love ya pops.
To Nan...
im way glad he is pumped i was. just like for him i was sent somewhere that i was not expecting at all. it seems like the Lord had prepared him before he even got his call to accept that it is God´s will and not ours. that little turd is going to baptize a mountain of people. im way happy for him, even though the numbers dont matter im sure he will love it. and possibly being able to see him on my way home would just complete my mission so beautifully. by the time i go home he will have 9 months in the field, thats crazy!! my new area is nice. the ward is cool and the members are alot more better than the ones in my last area. although a member is a member, there are different levels of member. not having anything to do with calling but with willingness to help and the will to help us. my comp is from texas. he is a wrestler and we are just getting to know each other more but we get along pretty good. not as good as me and my whittle got along but hey, he is family to me now. so yeah. love you all. love ya mom, thanks for all. :)

Time Doesn't Matter to God....

To Bart....
yeah time is a crazy thing to think about. isnt it weird how time doesnt matter to God? he just does what he wants, he makes promises, and he always does what he says he will. and his whole purpose is for us to become like him and he has made the way ready for us, we just have to not be dummies and do what we are told and we will be fine. its good to have some change in the ward, it keeps everyone on their toes i suppose. i can see tims dad doing everything exactly by the book. i remember thinking to myself why he hadnt been a bishop or something yet and that was years ago. your work sounds too exciting for me... im just going to have to be a boring old doctor or amusement park owner or something like that.
sometimes i wonder about the future. i mean God allready knows what is going to happen. he has known from the very begining how things would turn out. and when lehi had his vision he read out of a book that said the future and what was going to happen. so that makes me wonder if the whole everything of this world is written down somewhere and as our time goes on we just fulfill those writings. that just leads into a topic of there not really being agency and all sorts of crazy stuff. but ultimately, in the end, God is the master planner. before this world was even started he planned and created everything spiritually. then when it was ready it was put here to carry out its purpose. so God just planned so well in the eternities that he automatically knows what is going to happen to each and every being on this earth and on all the earths that he has created. its so great how we will be able to do what he is doing someday if we fulfill our purpose here.
it sounds to me like your growing spiritually faster than i am haha. i feel just the same here as a missionary while you are back in the world and taking huge strides into a realm youve never ventured into before. im proud of you, dad, you are becoming the man that God wants you to be, and as you continue doing His will you will be filled with more happiness, more control over your emotions, and more love for everyone but really, way to go dad. love elder hayden summers
To Nan....
well now, for caches call i most definately would love him to come to here in argentina with me, that would be the best. although.. even though i would love that to happen it is not my guess. i think he will go to....... ! haha that is going to be my vote, however untruthfull and random it may be. but i really think he will be sent overseas, i mean come on he is a summers, we are the best that there is. i have pics of the head wound but the computer today is dumb so yet again no pics, sorry. but i definately love getting pics from you guys, cache makes a pretty good dad, and fischer makes a pretty good musk ox ;) i hope that things with gma Hardy all pass by how its meant to be with minimal distress. gma clark is just the most perfect example ever, its crazy that she is so faithful and persistant in all of her troubles and trials, especially with their dog Jake hah. my week was good. im getting moved to a different place more closer to the city of mendoza. not sure exactly where but it is a little south and called Junin. my new comp is another gringo and he is from utah, go figure. he has less time than me, actually he came to the mission with elder whittle. my time with whittle was the best. we made a ´summers whittle wish list´ that we are going to complete after the mission when we both are in school. most of it is hunting and outdoors stuff. like the hardest one probably is killing a rabbit from 60 yards with a bow. i leave tomorrow and start up a whole new time over in another place with all new people and investigators and its almost like what i did here is just going away just like that. but itll be good for later on stuff i hope i helped some people here and stuff. i feel great about life, i hope he gets his call this week! i dont know if i told you how sweet it is to have this settlers game!! thanks so much its the best. bye with lots of love

You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do

To Nan....
yep everyone has now mentioned the tampon experience to me. minus dad, that was a shocker. but im doing fine now. they took the stitches out today, 3 to be exact. they were almost shoe lace size, dont know if that is normal but whatever. today we climbed a cool large hill, to argentines it is a mountain. the place is called Zonda. it was way fun. there were some members that went with us 10 missionaries and they were party poopers. whenever we tried climbing rocks or being adventurous they would pipe up and get us to stop. then it got really hot, we all got hungry, thirsty, and not really any of us came prepared. then the members cracked out some sandwiches and juice and water. so in the end i didnt dislike them as much as before. we also found a river and took our shoes off and walked in it. well it was more of a creek but it was real wild water and it felt heavenly. there really isnt much to say about this week though. we left and worked alot even though i wasnt really supposed to... oh well. you gotta do what you gotta do. so yeah. thanks for sending me all those packages and thanks to everyone else too. blanket thank yous are much easier and much more missionary like so thats what im gonna do :) love you mom. thanks for saying that im great, even though i know im not, ill let you be right this time. love you alot. bye!

The Lords Hand Was in All of This....

Disclaimer......remember when Hayden said he was "severely protected"  well, I am a believer!!!   Since reading this like 10 times my mind has gone a bit crazy, BUT....sweet peace in my heart tells me he is ok and I am so thankful for his awesome sense of humor and the love he has for life and laughter and a Heavenly Father who loves and protects us all....especially his missionaries. 

hey there family,
                          so ive decided that this email is for all of whoever it may concern. this week was way cool. every morning we have gone over to an investigadors house and we have been helping them add on to their mud house. first we knocked down a small wall by karate kicks. my comp had a hammer and we called him thor for a bit. then after shoveling and sifting a bunch of dirt and rocks we layed a foundation to the walls we were going to put up. they used bricks made out of mud, held together by more mud. then a couple days into adding on this part of their house we had the opportunity to take out a bigger stronger wall. me and my comp took a video of us demolishing and destroying the concrete and brick mud that it was holding it together. with a combination of our man strength, my pick-ax, and his sledge hammer, we brang the wall down. after chuck norrising the wall to the the ground a willow of dust arrose and filled out nostrils and lungs. i caughed and im sure a brick came flying out of my nose. then moving on. we had to complete their roof. i gladly removed their small brick chimney. we layed down bambo sticks on top of the mud walls to be the roof. a black tarp on top of the bamboo, then we dumped a mountain of mud on top. the next day i had to do a division (where i go with a different missionary for a day) so my comp and another missionary finished the job with cement. we carved our names into their roof, of course. okay now the good part. on this division that i had with another missionary, we were late to lunch. we were absorbed into some conversation that at this point in my memory i cant recall. i dont think that you know what a kiosco is... but try to imagine that you live on a block, with no work, so you convert your window facing the street into a small store that contains chocolates, drinks, bread, all sorts of candies, and sometimes meat and cheese. okay. these kioscos have to be heavily guarded from the thieving 9 year olds running around. so they have a set of bars on the window facing the road. in the night, they cover the bars and the window with a metal awning. in the mornings and when they are open they prop up this awning to protect their window from the sun and the once or twice a year rain that comes through. argentines are midgets. so this awning was precariously placed, just like all other ones here, at about six foot and one inches. i have always been a bit of a matrix pro, but this one came out of nowhere. i was looking straight at the ground as we were walking very fast. the next thing that happens is that there is a loud noise, my head had stopped moving forward immediately while my body kept going, and the corner of this metal awning had just made best friends with my forehead. i blacked out. as i was falling to the ground, the awning slipped off of its holder and smacked me on the top of the head as well. this second hit brought me back from my blackout so i caught myself while the awning swung and slammed shut with a ferocious noise. incredible pain surged through my head. i waited to see if i would bleed, and like old faithful, it began. i crouched down, seeing stars obviously as the blood began to pour out of my face. i looked straight at the ground as the straight line of red life giving liquid escaped my head. the lady who lived there ran out of her house at this point to see my blood everywhere, my comp shocked and not saying audible words, and me laughing because of the enormous pain i was in. really when something happens you either cry or laugh. i took the summers path and laughed. she made a small squeel and ran back indoors. my comp at the time finally told me to stop the bleeding so i touched my forehead with two fingers. i didnt know where exactly i was cut. the blood didnt stop. so i took my whole palm and covered my whole forehead. it slowed down but didnt stop. i then felt the giant goose egg where i was takin out. the people invited me in, they gave me a gauze thing and we eventually slowed down the bleeding enough to wash things out. i got to a mirror and saw where i was destroyed. a lock of hair was underneath my scalp so i dug my fingers in, grabbed the hair, and pulled it out from underneath my skin. when i did this the flap of my scalp opened up and started bleeding again. we stopped the bleeding and i pulled back my scalp and saw my skull!! i almost touched it but i couldnt think straight. i showed my comp my skull and also the people who lived there. we left that house and got to where we were supposed to eat lunch. on the way we called the mission nurse. she gave me two choices. i could go and get stitches at the hospital... or use alcohol to clean the wound myself, super glue my scalp to my skull, then tie the hairs on each side of the laceration together to hold it in place. i was in favor of the second option, more manly of course, but we decided stiches was cheaper to do. so the sister who we were to eat with was a nurse for 32 years. she saw my blood and pain and snapped into nurse mode. she called this ex-police guy who is the mission leader for a different ward and they took me to the hospital. now an argentine hospital is 0 percent like an American hospital. you see bugs crawling on the floor, dogs sleeping in the hallway, the lights are hanging off of the cieling, water damage, floor damage, and it basically is a place for hurt people to come and die. we got there and the sister who was a nurse got me in the emergency room right away. all the while the bleeding hasnt stopped leaving my gapeing hole in my face. they layed me down, a nurse who worked there came and looked at me and told me she was going to do the stiches right then and there. as she said this, a real doctor walked by, saw that we were white and he recognized the missionaries. he looked at my head and said ´no worries, ill take care of this.´ after he stitched me up, they took an x-ray of my skull to see if i had any cracks up there. then they sent me away, and i kept my x-ray :) so now they have me on some medication and they seemed to have stitched a tampon looking object over my laceration. so yeah that was my adventures for the week. they wont let me leave and work more than about half an hour in the sun for a week. this happened on saturday. so yeah. but a note for this whole story of how the Lords hand was in all of this. 1. the awning hitting me for the second time and awakening me from my blackout. 2. the family that was nice and let me bleed all over their sidewalk, kitchen sinks, and bathroom. 3. the sister who was a nurse for 32 years and got us into the emergency room asap. 4. the ex-police guy who drove and illegally parked his car right at the entrance. 5. a real doctor spotted us missionaries and said he would stitch me up and not a random girl nurse. 6. the fact that there were about ten other patients in the room that they put me in who had crazy injuries to their legs and arms and all of the nurses and doctors huddled around the hurt gringo. and finally number 7. i have a tampon on my forehead so everyone sees how rediculous i look. im pretty sure that i have a concussion but they didnt check for that at the hospital. when i went to bed that night i was half expecting not to wake up haha. oh boy it was a fun day. but that was my story, im fine now, no worries. i have some medication, its like an argentine ibeprofin but a little better and some antibiotics so i dont get an infection. my skull looks way cool, in x-ray form or just me seeing it in the mirror under my scalp flap. so yeah. what an adventure no? :) love you all!

200 Empanadas

hey dad,
man that sounds like it was a great sunday. in our sunday meeting yesterday we had 20 people there, two priesthood holders, and the rest were kids and woman members. the work is tough but we are having fun when we dont get the results that we want so we dont go crazy. a few times ive gotten so frustrated i just punch my pillow, but ive picked up the habit of doing pushups to calm myself down, or just kicking the crap out of a soccer ball. it helps temporarily, kind of like drugs, but its all i got. but the best thing i do to calm down is read. doesnt matter what piece of doctrine it always helps. i think the 4 gospels are the most soothing to read, and the book of mormon is always the best. im trying to finish the spanish book of mormon before my year mark, hump day, but i still get mad. i have really been missing fishing lately. this was my first fishing season in my life that i can remember not going out and castin the old vibrex into the hole. man, those are good times. dont worry though im doing what im supposed to. the activities you had sounded awesome, i think ive forgotten what an actual ward does when they are active and have resources to have cool things and fun activities. all in due time. okay dad thanks for the letter, love ya.


allright mom your just the best. its just a fact. i got my packages on tuesday i believe and they were oh so amazing. i couldnt have asked for anything better than what i got so thank you! there was just so much stuff i dont know what i liked most, probably all of it, yeah that. it made my week way good. yesterday was mothers day here in argentina. on saturday me and my comp helped make over 200 empanadas, i dont know if you know what those are but they are good, google it. we made them and yesterday after church we got all us 20 or something people in the branch together and ate those, tiny sandwiches, pop, and had an average argentine cake to top it off. me and my comp just did what we do, they had cameras there and of course i had to show off my muscles everytime a picture was taken. then i got the cake, ran around with it, almost dropped it, saved myself, set it down. almost threw a little kid into it a few times but in the end it was safe. besides the incidents yesterday with the mom day thing nothing interesting happened all week. me and elder whittle have started a competition to see who can kill the most flies by catching them in our hand, shaking them up, then throwing them as hard as we can at the wall. we always rack up the kills at lunches because the families never talk to us and flies are all over. its definately possible to have fun in the lamest of situations. im glad i got elder whittle or else i dont know if i could do this area without going crazy, God must know what he is doin right? thanks for everything mom, your the best. period. love you lots mom

Bored in the Dark....

To Nan….
so a couple weeks ago we were in a discussion and the power got cut. so we left there and walked home and the whole city had the power cut. it was late at night and the only lights were the ones from cars. we got home and decided to test ourselves and our emergency skills. we got all of our earthquake things out, in the pitch dark. we found our flashlights but said we didnt need to use them. so my comp went and washed some socks, some plates, we both got undressed and changed into our night clothes. then i went to the bathroom all off of sound and smell. we were done and bored in the dark. so naturally what does one do in this situatuation.. make pancakes of course. so in the pitch blackness of everything me and my comp found the flower, powdered milk, pinch of salt, egg, strawberry extract, fork, bowl. i put all the stuff in not knowing the proportions but just feeling how thick it was by stirring. then we got all the plates ready before we lit the stove which gave a tiny bit of light. i cooked all the pancakes and just when the last one left the pan the lights came back on. no mess or anything was to be found. also i had a war with my wart i found on my caliss for my pinky finger. i finally had to stab it with a blunt end of my flathead screwdriver and it bled everywhere. we bandaged it up and left to go work. we were in a lesson and in a spiritual moment i looked down to find my hands covered in blood. without thinking i lifted up my hands and asked them if they could help me. my hands were just covered. they freaked out for a second but my calm demeanor i think helped them out. they gave me a giant ball of gause cotton. whenever we go to this one families house to eat they always have us bless something or other. usually it is to the old grandma to make her feel more calm. there ive blessed a kiosco (like a little kiosk with food and snacks), my comp blessed their truck.the shoes are great i wore them to church and they were super shiny.
the work is as tough as ever. dealing with drunks is great too. love elder hayden summers

Whatever you cook for me I am going to eat!!!

To Bart....
the end of the season is always when the coaches wake up and try to change something. once we get a coach to change something that needs changing when it needs to be done is when they will be successfull. also ive decided that i will never ref a sport because i dislike them so much i dont want to wear those same colors. you can always tell who´s team your on by the way you dress yourself. everyone knows who´s team the missionaries are on thats for sure. sometimes we get people that run away from us because they are either afraid or just know that we are here to fix their sinful lifes. some people can even tell when we talk to them that we are sent from God. we often declare to the people that we have the authority to tell them that they are doing wrong and help them change. honestly i like this alot haha. im not going to be able to do this again for a very long time so im trying to take advantage of every second.
ive also decided that whatever you cook for me i am going to eat. i will not take pickles off of my hamburgers, onions off of my liver, or tomatoes off of my food ever again. you can hold me to that promise later on when your making me a giant dinner sometime in the future.
yeah the scriptures are amazing, ive been reading in the gospels and the life of christ and the apostles and it is just great stuff. im soaking in every word and clinging to every teaching. i wont even recognize my family when i get home, thanks for being a great example dad to my little bros. it sounds like they need it more and more as the world gets crappier and dumber.
thanks for everything dad. when i get home is when i can do anything crazy and ill just spend all my blessings saved up hah. love elder hayden summers

To Nan...
conference was lagit and way cool. kind of fun even. one of the missionaries had his parents here and they were up watching it in english with us gringos. we talked to the mom and the dad too. the dad was way funny and talking just about stuff was way cool. its crazy how conversations with people are sometimes just what you need to feel good. of many things ive learned here, talking face to face with someone is the best way to help and really mean something to someone. also hugs work alot too. i cant really hug anyone outside of missionaries and other dudes here but im going to be a hugger when i get home for sure. i should get the packages on tuesday or wednesday. its a long process because once the packages finally get here they stay in the mission offices until the begining of every month.it was a boring week besides conference. im with my comp for another month and a half so we are pumped up. i just love it here. stay safe up in the north, snow should be rolling around by the end of this month, send me pics of it? :) love ya mom!

Trying to Do The Lords Work

To Bart....
yeah that caribou trip was way intense. i have fun telling the elders here that story but none of them respect it so ive stopped sharing it. well my comp now respects it, he has had some crazy experiences with elk in idaho like you have had too. glad joe is getting better that is way good news.the mission is way cool. i feel like i havent changed at all but i think back to before the mission and it doesnt even seem like me. i dont have much to say about this week outside of the fact that it was a rollercoaster of emotions. this investigator we have, well three of them, are way good and have been progressing great. but their uncle who is a member, and ex-branch president, has been stepping on our toes every step of the way. just this last week he called off the baptism, which he shouldnt be allowed to do, and he told us that the people dont have enough faith.i think right now that is the worst part of my mission is trying to do the Lords work with the members working against us. if they would just help us we would get 10 times more work done but no, they are the ancor on the shore with the boat trying to get to the fishing spot. but we are handling it as best we can. love you dad, elder hayden summers
To Nan....
mutha, i dont wanna go to school today, i think id rather go outside and play, yeah.
that was a song mom, i think from the 70s´ish era. the toughest part about a mission.. well there is no set hardest thing but a bunch of little hard things that add up to be super hard. getting into houses all just depends on if the people are ready or not. yes they are lazy and pridefull here but hey what´re ya gonna do right. also interactions with other missionaries can be tough especially if you dont get along at all. we are representatives of Jesus Christ as missionaries and its hard to not get in fights with people. sometimes i almost lose control but i get it back before its too late. i remember a big talk we had once where i needed to learn how to bite my tounge. ive become a master at that haha. also ive realized that i never used to really have an opinion about things and would just go with the flow alot. ive started developing opinions about stuff and it makes me feel a little grown up and a lot less lost in the world. my rams will rise to be the best some day, no doubt. yup the spirit is the bomb. no other way to explain it. like whenever i get a random feeling that doesnt make sense or a thought i just do it. who knows why but sometimes we do things so that it helps people later on and not in that instant. i was always impressed by your ability to do what the spirit says even if you didnt know why. but im short on time today. i love you mom, thanks for everything.
ps. still no packages
!

Loving the Time Here....

From Nan’s…
go fischer my little bro is makin an impact. but he sadly runs in the summers footsteps in the fact that we are underplayed and not appriciated. thats allright because then he´ll just go on his mission right after school like me and cache is about to. I ate german pancakes, 4lbs of meat and chicken, and peach with banana cobbler on my bday. as a gift to myself im going to buy soccer shoes and maybe a real towel. i havent gotten any packages and probably wont until october or november even. the work is way tough here but we are just loving the time here. when you really love what your doing time goes by fast, thats the truth. not much more happened this week other than my birthday that is worth noting. but i have some pics from my bday. love elder summers

From Bart's....the missionary life is the same as always. im doing great, the allergies here are killer though. i take a claratin but it still just hits me way hard. its getting better now though. the other missionaries we live with are getting on our nerves. we´ve stopped cleaning any of their things and the place is just turning into a dump. it may come down to war. they are both latin missionaries and just as dirty as can be. oh well its fun talking english around them and them not understanding. love elder summers

Happy Birthday Hayden!!!!

As of today, Hayden has been serving for 10 months, and yesterday he turned 20!!  Holy Buckets!!  Our family has been blessed beyond measure by his service.  Every monday, I am thrilled as I see his email pop up in my inbox.  Truthfully, just seeing that message in the inbox fills my soul and I love to read what he writes, but knowing that he took time to write a little bit is enough for me.  He is not a man of many words, and most of the time refuses to answer our questions....we laugh and know that he is independent and doing more important things than answering questions like "Where do you live??"  His letters are filled with the spirit and funny stuff.  The mission has changed his focus, and ours.  It is about giving yourself to the Lord for a time and not worrying about things back home.  I feel he is doing this with complete obedience and we want to support him in whatever he asks.  This last letter he gave the blog to me and said to use the letters he sends to us, edit if I want to, and then share with you. So...the blog will be the same, but different.  I love you all, comment if you want, if he doesn't read them now, he will when he comes home.  This church is true and missionaries are the sweetest blessing ever!!  We have a testimony of no news is good news and know he is being "severely protected" (Hayden's words) Thanks for the letters and packages and pictures.  It means alot to him, and us.  I love you all, Nan

hey thanks so much for wishing me my birthday to be happy. i think me and my comp are going to make a cobbler with a certain combination of fruits that we havent really planned out yet. my comps name is elder whittle. we are basically best friends here. we´ve planned elk trips and fishing trips that we are going to do after the mission. his family is almost as hardcore about hunting as we are about fishing. they live in oakley idaho and on a huge ranch\in the mountains thing. but yeah we are basically the same person me and my comp, needless to say we get along way good and life is just a blast here. you all look so great, except caches poorly grown facial hair that is. well love you all, elder hayden summers

From a letter to Bart…..
              wow the mission is tough. before i entered the mtc and started this all i had no idea what was inhead of me. when i got my call even and after my first few months i was still realizing what a mission is. we talk sometimes like we live our lives until we turn 19, then we live for two years for God, then we continue with our own lives afterwards. so right now im not even doing anything for me. but its way sweet because i get a mountain of blessings and so do you guys, and they are all just basically free. i always think about when you used to say we had a blessing bank account, i hope im filling our families up... miss you dad, love elder hayden summers

Panso de caballo "Horse stomache"

dear blog,
               man what a week. it went by too fast. but on saturday i had somewhat of an eventful series of events. we got the oportunity to go and rake up about a billion and a half leaves at some random place. it was a service project for the stake here and there actually was over 100 members there. we created a huge pile of leaves taller than me and about 20 yards long. i ran and jumped in it and was way satisfied. after that we had to run to our lunch with a member family. we got there and waited 2 hours untill they had the food ready. we ate this stuff called pansa de caballo, if i am correct in my translation, it means horse stomache. it wouldnt have been that bad had it not smelled like the backside of hog. also it wasnt cooked all the way through so we had to eat a mushy, smelly, piece of horse stomache. the members told us it tastes better with mayonaise. so, like good missionaries, we followed their directions. the mayonaise was warm as well. so after we somehow survived we left and talked about it. then we decided that we would not have been able to eat it had we not been severely protected. but that was the story of the week. and i would like to point out that we have people that have passed away always around us and always watching us. i bet my sis is standing over my shoulder making sure that i stay the path, and i bet she is also working her tail off in trying to help me hah. thats all i got, love you all. elder hayden summers

Something About Growing Up In Idaho...

hey there blog,
                        way awesome week. me and my new comp get along very well and we both know how to work. something about growing up in idaho has taught us both how to just do what needs to be done, its fantastic. and living in alaska (the biggest best state) has taught me that there is never a situation to bad to get out of and nothing is impossible. i dont really have a lot to say this week except life is just great isnt it? i mean we are priveledged enough to be brought into this world in the last times. with this oportunity i believe that i have a responsibility to live up to. obvioulsy i knew before i came here that life was going to be super rough, but i also knew that i was strong enough to get over any difficulty. i try to just remember that anything that comes my way i have the strength and the will to get past it. ill keep working hard, the Book of Mormon is the greatest, love you all, elder hayden summers

In Life You Got to Have Fun

dear blog people,

                          i got a comp now his name is elder whittle from oakley idaho. he is cool and we talk about hunting, fishing, and football. along with teaching the gospel of course :) in life you got to have fun, thats definately a fact. if im not having fun while im doing things than im not doing it right. and if your having fun the time races by. so i guess if i wanted to have a slow and drawn out boring life where i loathed every second of it i would choose to not have this wonderful thing called ´fun´. thats just not the case incredibely. i feel like there is always something that could be looked at as enjoyable and entertaining in just the everyday boring things of life. its been said a billion times to always think about the positive and keep going. its been said so many times because its true haha. the good and fun times of life are the ones that you remember the most. yeah i remember when i left a burlap sack on the lawn and my dad ran it over with the lawn mower and i spent the next 2 hours picking up the miniscule particles of its remnants, that sucked, but i somehow remember better how fun it was to play football with my dad in the back yard. i learned from the sucky and remembered the fun that grew my love for my family. when we have fun with others we grow closer to them and really we are all brothers and sisters, someday we are going to all be as one, why not start now :) keep up the good work in the states, im tryin my best down here. love elder hayden summers

Life is Good Right?

 

                     

blogg update,

                     so i ended up getting some talks from our old mission president, they are kind of like motivational speeches that he used to get pumped up and do what he had to do. there is this pole vaulter named bob richards and i have a few of his talks. he always talks about how just thinking positive can change a persons life. i agree 100 percent. i was thinking a few weeks ago about why i do or did the things that i did i life before the mission. i was surprised when i found out that i did most of what i did do in order to avoid a consequence, and not to obtain the prize at the end. i started naming a bunch of moments in my life when i had to make a decision, and yup i found that im all about avoiding the negative and not really about obtaining the positive. but i have a question, which is better, to try and avoid the bad or to embrace the good. they could be close to the same thing but i think there is more to the story than what there seems. ive started trying to do things thinking about the positive instead of what ´could´ happen if i didnt do something. honestly ive seen that life is alot more fun when it is concentrated on the good things and the possibilities instead of the bad and the possible hard times. i am still trying this out and its great. i should get a new comp this wednesday but i still have no idea who itll be. life is good right? :) love elder hayden summers

My Mission is the Greatest

oh yeah,
             so lets start off by saying that my mission is the greatest! oh man our investigator got baptized last saturday. he is the coolest, and his whole family arent members. we were waiting to start the baptism until his family arrived, we waited half an hour and the all showed up together. all of his family was there to watch it and it was just so insanely spiritual. babies crying and everything it turned out being great. so then my comp ended his mission after that. so now i am without a companion for a few days. so i am working with random members and random elders so that i am never alone. it feels really wierd to, but this is a great oportunity for me to show what i got and to show that i have what it takes to be successfull in this great work. i talked about this a bit with my last comp, about trials through fire. sometimes you just have to do things head on. if your in the ocean and a big storm raises up out of nowhere you have a choice, keep going, or turn back. i remember many times with my dad when he would think about going into the storm or just going home. we had put so much time into just getting out onto the water that going back would be a waste of time, money, and effort. very few times my dad has turned us back to go home. usually he looks at us, smiles, and says here we go. in life sometimes things happen where we have a choice to either back down, or take it on with our chins up. the ones who take on the challenges face first are the ones who are successfull in this life and secure their spot up above. nothing is to hard for us to overcome. trials have been put in our life specifically for us, so that God can try our patience and our faith. have a great week! love elder hayden summers

Little Tid Bit

hey there,
                well another little tid bit of what i have learned this week. its all about how we as people need to be given the same rules over and over again. i mean i think about it and 2000 years ago Christ was teaching his gospel, before that it was taught, and now we are teaching it today as well. our mission president gave us a lecture on studying all the doctrine over and over again. as members we have heard and read many times the rules and restrictions that we have in order for us to live safe and happy lives. but for me i always rolled my eyes when someone would start talking about the stuff i thought that i knew. yeah i was aware of the rules and such, but after time the natural man takes over and numbs those rules that we know. before i knew it i was making exceptions and justifying things i knew was wrong. then BOOM. someone gives a talk or says something about those rules again and i get reminded that i know what im doing is wrong and that i need to go back to following them exactly. in the moment of being chastized it is easy to say that i will change. then a few hours after my mind isnt so willing. that is a part of life, and the ones who can fight that fight and win are the ones who will have eternal glory. i got a lot of work to do hah. love you all, have a sweet week, love elder hayden summers

The Hand of the Lord in Your Life

argentina update,
                           isnt it great to see the hand of the Lord in your life? honestly He has been lifting me up for my whole life, i just havent noticed it until ive been out here and litereally in His hands. in the mission tough times smack you in the face out of nowhere. things turn south, then they rocket boost straight down. ive thought to myself alot about whats happening and it seems to me that there is hardly ever an easy way through the pain. something that ive noticed though just keeps re-occuring as i face harder and harder times. i get beat down and low in the dirt, try to get through it with a smile, then things get harder. i have in those times been to the point of not knowing what else to do. but then something triggers inside my head. and i say ´hey after this im going to be more manly and strong´, hah. its strange yes but i tell myself that. then i face the whirlwind of tribulation that is in front of my with my chin held high. once i say i can do it, the Lord´s hand swoops in and takes all the burden away. to be honest its incredible. and i even sometimes feel like i wish the burden didnt get lifted or made easier but it did! we are always helped out in our lives. sometimes it doesnt seem like the help is coming at all. but once we buck up to face the odds, we are givin strength, we gain confidence in ourselfes and in others, and we fight through the bad and burst out into a world that we can handle. sorry if thats confusing haha im slightly confused myself. but i know its true, be safe, love elder hayden summers

Confidence in Yourself.....

hello blog.
            this week was fantastic. its interesting for me here because with every companion that i have i definately learn something new from them that just clicks in my head. what i learned this week is some stuff about confidence in yourself. we were discussing confidence and how it relates to faith and what not and it was interesting to ponder. in the church our callings come from inspiration and revelation through the holy ghost. which then means it is from the big Man himself. so every calling we get in this church is God himself telling us that this is where we need to be. he calls us there because he knows that we will do well and progress how he wants us to. he has confidence in us that we can do the tasks that are put in front of us, and, well, he knows everything so he is obviously right hah. now for me i have a hard time having confidence in myself. i feel nervous, on edge, and like i cant get over some of the tasks that im asked to do. especially now. but if i lack confidence in myself than that means that i lack confidence in what i am called to do. which in turn means that i lack confidence in the Lord and ultimately just shows everyone how much faith that i dont have. now if the Lord knows we can do it then there should not be a doubt in our minds that we can. he knows already that you will do it, so i say to myself just buck up and trust in Him who called me here. i love the mission :)

How to Love Others

dear blog,

               the life of a missionary is quite spectacular. one learns how to accept change, how to live with those who annoy, and how to deal with rejection. you also learn how to study the right things, how to accept people for who they are, and how to adjust to peoples needs. most importantly for me, ive learned how to love others. not just a fake love, but one that you feel for someone who you really care about and a person that you truly wish the better for. as a missionary its pretty important to love others, actually if you dont love the people than your not being Christlike which then means you cant completely have his spirit to be with you to teach. thats my little message for this week is to love others. if you love others than you are willing to sacrafice something of yours in order to make their life easier or simpler. if everyone were to do this for everyone else than there would be a billion less problems in the world. thats why Christ is so cool, he knows that and he loves us perfectly. he even told us all the secrets to be like him and even at the end of his mortal life he asked our Heavenly Father to forgive the people for crusifying him. thats super love and he has it for all of us. some day we will make it to that point but we cant make it there unless we are headed in the right direction. im going to try my best to stay going the right direction. youll never get the the good fishing hole if your going the wrong way :) love you all, elder hayden summers

Happy BDay America

hello there,
                so this week was cool. we got another elder in our pench so we are in a trio until wednesday when i leave and go somewhere else. an unknown place with just a goldmine waiting for me to find and try and teach hah. happy bday america, the best nation on earth, the good old United States of A! we are going to celebrate today just us gringos with meat and american football and fire and a big american flag. should be fantastic. enjoy the time you have with your loved ones cuz you never know if youll be in argentina for the 4th of july, hah or two of them. but really hard times are ended with the best times of our lives, that is all. love elder hayden summers

I'll never lose my patriotism!!

well thats another week gone as if it were a dream.
                    so after the book of mormon challenge we had here to read it in 66 days i found something interesting. well alot of things very interesting hah but something that hit me good  is when Jesus tells us that the words of Isaiah are super good and its a commandment to read them. so this week i started up with that challenge. needless to say ive been reading a maze haha. but really its interesting, he uses the craziest ways to say things and you really have to look deep and look up words just to understand what the comparrison it is that he is making. what a challenge it is. but hey, its a commandment to do it so im trying my best haha. i got my packages from everybody! thank you all! it was quite an amazing experience to see all the things from the USA, i´ll never lose my patriotism and i certainly appriciate the US more now than i ever have haha. love you all, stay classy, love elder hayden summers
We heard from him today saying that he will be transferred next wednesday, he is in a trio until then.  Love you all, thanks for following his blog:-)  Love, Nan

Amazingness Covered in Chocolate and Baptisms

hello,
         this week went amazingly. we had a competition of points and one of the ways to gain points was to sing a hymn to people in the street and in their houses. so this whole week we sung ´as i have loved you´ in spanish to everyone! after we sang the short song the people would ask us what we were doing and it opened them up for us to come by their house another day. some people didnt want to hear us sing and they kept walking, but we were persistent, so we sang and walked next to them anyways, even if they were really upset and saying mumbled grumbles to us. how great it is to be a missionary and sing songs to random people on the street :) then i baptized our investigator rafael on saturday. its been a long road with him but we finally got him to the font and he was really ready. the next day we got him to church and he told us that his back didnt hurt anymore and he could use his arm again, he couldnt really use it previously. so yeah amazingness covered in chocolate and baptisms. love you all, elder hayden summers

I Love Fishing!!

dear blog,
               i love fishing, just about all situations in life can relate to fishing in some way somehow. for those of you who arent crazy fishing addicts like my family it may be harder to see this truth. maybe since fishing is a part of my soul i always think of real life things and all of a sudden boom, a fishing memory pops into my head and i learn something from it. in the movie ´cloudy with a chance of meatballs´ the dad only speaks in fishing analogies because for real you can relate it to anything in life. when you go to fish you wont catch anything unless your line is in the water. you cant just throw out a hook with nothing on it or else you wont catch any more than the stick fish we all despise. so we must be prepared with the correct bait and pole and line and knots and you gotta know the right place to go the right river at the right time of the year, the right clothes with things in case of emergency, hooks, bug spray, your lucky underwear, you gotta have it all haha. then your ready to start fishing, but if you dont know how to fish than its all for nothing! but wait, you have along with you a person who guided you to the right spot with the right gear. and he will help you have the confidence to be able to go after the fish and even more important, what to do with that fish once you got it hooked. well i dont have time to explain all of that to you haha oops but i bet my dad knows whats up. love you all, my week was awesome, dont give in to the hard times, love elder hayden summers

We are kind of like dogs......

first full week with a latin comp went smoothly. i think ive grown alot through confusion and being lost haha. but ultimately its a blessing to be tried to your limits. in the book of mormon there is an ever occuring pattern of rightousness followed by blessings of wealth followed by people starting to be prideful to falling away then to being chastened until they come all the way back around to being rightous again haha. and the reason they are chastened is because God loves them so much that he doesnt want them to stay in their prideful state and he wants them to progress. you cant really progress without trial so he gives them trials and when they make it through them they have grown stronger and have come back to Him who chastened them from thier own faults. if you think about it we are kind of like dogs. you can love your dog like none other and things are fine. then one day your dog does something its not supposed to and then it gets its nose rubbed in it or sent outside or locked in its cage. after that punishment the dog comes back to you and loves you even more. i know thats kind of a lame anology haha but all the same it makes sense to me. God loves us and when we mess up we get the consequences of our actions, then he helps us through the consequences and we love him even more afterwards. this has been your five minutes of elder summers, love you all, have a fantastic week, good luck!

If your not having funin what your doing then change it!!

hello to all,
         i have a latin comp whos name is elder falcón now!!! its intese as can be. but we really get along good together for some reason, i think we are going to have a good month and a half together. but this week was long and fast. i got rid of my other comp and got my latin on wednesday. then for the past 5 days ive been showing e´ falcón around our gigantic area and we´ve been walking a ton, and very fast. when you teach a good lesson and the spirit is there is just the best thing that you can imagine. everytime when we get out of a lesson that was just awesome i cant control myself and usually end up running around and saying things in a half english half spanish slur of excitement. fist pumping the air, jumping off of benches, just doing whatever. it makes things fun. if your not having fun in what your doing then change it. either change what your doing or make yourself have fun. thats my new theory i have. in any situation your in, awkward, boring, lame-o, scary, you can always make it fun if you choose to. oh and also the book of mormon challenge is going great, i just finished the armies of helaman part, man they are studs. i find myself looking at each person in the book of mormon as my new coolest and most favorite person. i love that book alot. have a spectacular week, with lots of love, elder hayden summers

Gettin' a Latin Companion

hello everyone,
          this week went by really fast. im almost positive that im getting a latin comp on wednesday, thats a comp that doesnt know english! im ready and pumped for it. on friday me and my comp elder barlow cooked an american breakfast for dinner for the seminary students here in our branch. we cooked pancakes, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes, mandarin juice freshly squeezed, and we made maple syrup also. we didnt know how many people were going to be there, i was thinking maybe 5 other kids, then all of a sudden it turned into 15 people in total haha. it was the most people theyve ever had at seminary. and somehow we cooked the perfect amount of food without even knowing how many people were going to be there. they all loved it alot, they sang us a song and all the guys came and gave us hugs while the girls gave us hi 5´s haha. then saturday we did a service project for a family in the ward. they are building a house and we got to make the foundation for it. i decided to be the shoveler of the rocks into the cement mixer and we got more done in 2 hours then they were even expecting. it was awesome to help out. it was a great week, i hope all of your weeks are just as positive and great. love elder hayden summers

Bodega!!!

ings are going great here,
           last tuesday we visited this have baptized family and the mom there had just got done with jarring brand new and fresh honey. she gave me and my companion a jar of it for ourselves. oh my goodness never have i ever had such an amazing tasting honey in all of my life! this week we bought three loaves of bread because we just eat buttered toast with honey now haha. we seem to go through food phases and they get taken to the extreme. we had a few investigators in church which was super cool. we visited a bodega on pday, thats the spanish word for winery. it was fun we had a tour and saw how they did all the specifics on how they make wine. i got to put stickers of the labels on a wine bottle just like the workers there were doing, i felt really cool that i was helping them out and a little wierd that i was a missionary kind of promoting another bottle into the world of an alcoholic beverage haha, im conflicted a little. oh my book of mormon in 66 days challenge is going fantastic. ive started to notice now how much of a stud each and every one of the prophets were in those times. the things they go through and getting thrown in jail and getting hit and spit on and having their friends turn on them and wanting to take their lifes. it puts things in prespective at how nice it is for us in our time. in alma when alma and amulek are teaching the people of ammonihah there is a part where they have to watch as all of the people that hearkened unto their words were destroyed. women and children alike. amulek says why dont we stop them and alma says the spirit is telling him that what is happening is according to the agency that the evil people have and are demonstrating. he says that the people that are getting thrown into the fire are getting excepted into heaven and that they will serve as a testimony against the wicked when the end comes. to better understand what it is talking about you need to read it and think about how things mustve been. i try and put myself in their shoes in situations and it shocks me at how they got through it all. love you all, have a spectacular week, love elder hayden summers

hello family and friends,
            happy mothers day to all them moms out there! i got to call home and it was sooo great. moms are really the best, they make the world go round and keep us all sane at the same time. it may seem impossible for us, but for our mothers nothing is impossible hah. this week was great indeed. the guys up top, aka the people who are in charge of our whole mission, re-enstated some really strict rules this week so we get a chance to try and be more obedient, change is tough i wont lie, but thats how our church kinda works. even though the way to return to our father in heaven is to ovey his comandments and that never changes, the small things that govern our lifes do. how great is revelation! man im just really pumped about the book of mormon though. i dont know if i told you all this before but there is a challenge in the mission to read the book of mormon in 66 days. im hanging in there and keeping up. i just read abinadi and never realized how awesome he was!! in my scriptures i wrote ¨the awesomeness of abinadi pgs 169-180¨ haha. its great. i love you all. elder hayden summers

Moles and Bats

hey there all,
      this week was great, we taught alot of people and are still trying to get our good investigators to get out of bed and come to church. this week went by really fast actually and the time just seems to be floating away. the book of mormon challenge is going fantastic! i just really love the scriptures. me and my companion elder barlow had a really cool revelation type thing happen to us the other day. we were in 2 nephi reading chapter 12, its a part of Isaiah talking which can be really confusing. but in verse 20 it says, ¨In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which he hath made for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;¨ me and my comp read this and thought wow that is cool imagery, moles and bats are random weird creatures. then we talked about it, and a connection slapped me in the face. isaiah was talking about the second coming and such (awesomeness) and in this verse, to emphasize how meaningless the idols will be he says theyll be thrown to the moles and to the bats. idols were created to look stunning and be appealing to the eye, moles and bats on the other hand, they have the crappiest sense of sight haha. it was fun when we made that connection and we ran around hootin and hollerin in our pench about how cool isaiah was. thats all i got today, love you all. elder hayden summers

Don't lose sight of the prize of Eternity

hi everyone,
      i am having a blast as a missionary!!! i mean seriously how could things be any better than they are right now :) my life is just a dream full of surprises that make my world a better place. i honestly have no worries in the world besides what i should do and who we should teach. its two whole years of fun! the spanish has come along just enough for me to begin to know what people are saying and i can actually have conversations with random people on the street and get their address too. i mean but wow it hit me how grateful i am that i chose to do a mission. i never doubted that i would go on one. i think i was in third grade, or something, and for church or an activity i ended up getting a little plack that said ´future missionary´ on it. when i got that i always kept it with me and made sure not to lose it, and it kind of secured in my mind that i was a future missionary just like all of the youth are. and honestly it is a HUGE decision, very very difficult dont get me wrong, a mission is not a cake walk. BUT, these two years will bless me for my whole life, for my familys life, for my kids lifes, it will bless my friends, my foes, for all of this life, oh and guess what else, for the great expanse of time that will never end it will always be there giving my loved ones and myself an extra boost. going on a mission is one of the greatest works that we can do on this earth for our father in heaven. so if we are going to be judged off of our works on this earth, then why not do the best ones. something that ive thought about lately. when i was young and i did something that made my mom and dad happy it made me happy. all through my life if i were to do something that made them smile i would be the happiest person youd ever seen. whether it was a drawing i made for them and they liked it or something much more significant, i was always filled with such a happy feeling when i made my parents proud. that is how it works in heaven as well. this world is fashioned after the government of heaven, namely the structure of the family. how great will we feel when we see our celestial father in heaven and he comes up to us, tears in his eyes, gives us a BIG hug, and says that he is proud of what we have done. i hope i can be good enough to experience such an eternal honor someday. dont lose sight of the prize of eternity. love you all, elder hayden summers

Staying in Alvear

   hi america,
          i am staying in the same place for the next month and a half with the same companion too. i am actually happy about it cuz we have a lot of fun and work well together. i still kind of wanted a latin, but next trasnfer i am going to ask for a latin. for me i love this place. its really chill and most of the people are nice, we still manage to find the sort of people who have a screw loose. yesterday we found two guys in a row that were off. the first guy kept saying how polygamy was bad and how we are too young to teach him anything. the next guy would always inturupt us when we tried to speak and all of a sudden he started telling us how japan got hit by Gods fist and that the bees are all dieing. after he rambled about that for a good half an hour he just said see ya later and walked away from us, we just had to laugh. we have four new elders in my zone. three of them are just a little bit shorter than me. i cant wait to get a bball game started up with them. the fourth is a peruvian that is very short. im loving the life of a missionary. my spanish is improving and i can actually have a real conversation with people on the street all by myself. that is all. love elder hayden summers

I've come to like three things I never thought possible....

this transfer is over!
   it went so super fast compared to my last one. i dont know what im going to be doing yet for them cuz i havent heard news. i could go somewhere else, stay here with my comp, get a new comp, or who knows, maybe even get a latin! that would be a fun challenge. the work is good and tough as always. we found a couple of really cool families that just need to hear the truth. also this one family speaks some english so i got to do that and it was really cool, then we switched back to spanish and i got lost immediately haha. but the language is getting better. everywhere we go the people ask me to pray so i have good practice at that. i love it here though and the food is growing on me. ive come to like three things that i never thought posible, rice, cats, and soccer. man it is tough to admit that but its the truth, the cats are just a million times nicer than the dogs here, rice is all we eat usually, and soccer is everywhere. we play it with kids in the street alot of times, then just like that we are their best friends. im having a lot of fun and working hard. thanks for your prayers and your letters, they keep me going. love elder hayden summers

ps the pic is me and elder barlow at a really cool families house for lunch
having fun with the youngins

General Conference is like the Super Bowl

 is one´s for the masses,
    so if you missed GC than you missed out on pure awesomeness. all of the speakers were totally doing work and there isnt one of them that didnt get inspired by our friend the holy ghost. all this week in the mission with the other missionaries there was like a buzz that we all felt. General Conference is like the super bowl here. we bought doritos, sandwich supplies, set up a table right in front of the little 7 inch tv we got to watch it on, and we were ready to go. we watched all of the pre-game shows for all the sessions. when they would pan the camera over the front stand where everyone was sitting all the missoinaries would point out their favorites like they were seeing famous bball or football players before a game. but these players were a million times better than any sports player that people recognize. not only did the speakers talk super powerfully but they brought the spirit. most times when we are tought we dont really remember what the people said, but if they bring the spirit then he will teach you what you need to learn and get out of it. its like reading between the lines when the spirit teaches you stuff. ive always kind of neglected general conference and used it as a day that i didnt have to go to church, but i found that its the best thing there is in every 6 months. back in the days of like moses and nephi they tought alot and preached alot, but only the people who were actually where he was got to hear him and feel his words. with us we have a prophet with the same authority as those guys and we get to watch and hear him from across the world in the language that we know. its way cool. i love you all. my favorite talks were the ones on desire, pain, to be or not to be, and all the ones talking about self reliance. the talks about delaying marriage were funny too. love elder hayden summers

Stick out a Hand to Help

this week went by mega fast. we lost march madness to a team that just wiped the floor with us. we were the top dogs and now there is just no way we can win the dinner with our mission president anymore. now its time to just keep doing regular missionary work haha. we are finding alot of people here but it is tough, they say they are catholic so we say sweet lets talk about jesus but they say no they are to busy then when we walk away they just stand there and keep smoking haha. i just laugh it off and we keep going. thats really all we can do. its not like we can force them to go to church or to listen to us, that is the wrong way to do things. we cant make them feel the spirit or make them stop doing bad things either, all we can do as missionaries and as church members is stick out a hand to help them. if they reach for your hand and grab it wanting to be helped then they have made the first right choice to eternal happiness. the crazy thing is that they dont even know what they are doing and how big of a choice it is when they slam the door in our face. we just have to find the people that will let us in and tell them the truth of christ is back! yeah thats all we can do, thats what jesus himself did was preach the truth. keep on keeping on all of you cuz i will too! love elder hayden summers