It is the Best I Have Felt EVER......

　Hi there,
Well, i think that im ruined. These past few nights while
i was sleeping, i got extremely cold. It was so incredible that i had
to put a blanket on! Usually i just have my sheet seperating my legs
from touching skin because that is really annoying, but this week it
got down to a chilling 70 degrees at least in the night and i was just
all shivers. Alaska just may turn me into an ice cube. The week in all
was pretty good, it hasnt really changed. We see random miracles
happen but then we try and act on them and turn them into something
even more miracley but it just all falls to shambles. In the mission
there is a ton more of disappointment than there is accomplishment, at
least here where i am. After a long few months of no real success to
our eyes though something happens and it is the best i have felt EVER!
It totally erases all of the bad and hard stuff and i just think about
how amazing it was after the hard parts. Plus i get an extra gain of
experience and learn lots of things too, its pretty much God´s way of
just being a Boss, working with every person specifically so that we
all learn and grow and accomplish more than one thing at once. It
seems that every other week we have new investigators and they are way
cool everytime. Sometimes we have to be content with planting seeds,
although the field is white and already to harvest, someone has to
re-plant seeds where others have harvested. That´s definately not
doctrine haha but i like to think of something like that to keep a
smile on my face in the upsetting times.
I love you mamma! Elder Hayden Summers
Good work dad, that sounds like a super busy day packed full of
spiritual stuff and other things that catch you up on your sleep. I
am really privileged here because i am learning myself on how to run
and manage a ward or branch. It is a lot more complicated and has many
intricate details that are sometimes overwhelming but its definitely a
great experience and i get to learn a lot. Sometimes i say that i
learned alot and such but honestly i couldn't put a solid finger on
what exactly i learn haha. Its more of an ´in the moment´ sort of
thing where i know how to deal with situations less roughly or even
gaining patience or being more humble. I honestly came to the mission
field off of the MTC very prideful. Now that i look back i was really
prideful in my life and i am trying to fix that by humbling myself.
This country has definitely opened my eyes to what exists in the world
and that many of the things i worried about back home, or even here,
dont have any real significance in the giant picture. Sometimes when i
either get corrected or told that i am wrong, or when someone schools
me in sports i try to just say, ´okay, ive been humbled´ haha. Whether
it be the truth or just something that prevents me from getting mad i
try to use it and it works as something for me. My week turned out
good and it just boils down to trying to have fun and push forward and
perservere until the end in the midst of not the most wishable of
situations :)
Love, Elder Hayden Summers
ps. i wish i couldve seen you fly through the air, haha, classic

It's Just 3 Measly Hours in the Week....

OK, so these are not in his order but you can figure it out:)
So the first pic is just epic, no description required.
The second is of when we made almost a whole bag of rice into rice
pudding with french toast.
The third is our Christmas party back in December, I got to see
Sargent there, he was my MTC comp.

To Bart...
My hot week had some rain thrown on it one night when we
decided to keep the windows open to watch the lightning storm in the
distance. I woke up with my bed half soaked and a rediculous wind
coming into the room blowing leaves from the trees in front straight
into our little abode. But to be honest i think it is kind of cooling
down a bit. They call it the summers storms here when all day it is so
hot it evaporates all the water and at night it all rains down again.
When the sun comes up in the morning it evaporates it all and the
cycle starts all over again. The other day it dumped for about a half
hour right at mid day and when it stopped i could see all the water
going back into the atmosphere from off of the scorching hot streets.
The humidity was out of control but it was sweet. We have this new
family that lives way far out in the middle of a bunch of grape
fields. The other day we went all the way out there (one hour bus ride
to a 3 mile walk on dirt roads) and got to their house and they
weren´t even there, so we plucked some fresh grapes out of one of the
fields and snacked on them for a minute waiting, they never came so we
went all the way home again. It was way cool and I love the
experiences that i get to have here in Argentina, they are so cool and
precious to me. Keep it up dad your awesome. I think it would be way
cool to have my last interview with you leading it. I dont know if
that could work, wishful thinking i guess.
Love,
Elder Hayden Summers

Hi Mom,
I have just recieved the worst sun burn in my whole
mission. Yesterday we went to play some soccer and a bit of kickball
in a big open field. We stayed there for maybe 4 hours running around
and diddle daddling. When it came up to the time to leave we realized
we were glowing a bit, and as the day went on, we reddened and
worsened and its just great! Ive got the best farmers tan ever. But
besides that it doesnt interfere with the work, besides the fact that
people just stare and laugh at us that we are all red gringos. We keep
finding these miracle people in the street and from less active
families, but the problem is that no one wants to come to church! Man
its a real pain, its just a meesly 3 hours in the week, just 1 hour to
stoop to just going to sacrament meeting. It is not impossible to go
to church. Man it really grinds my gears the excuses that people put
in front of themselves. But thats why we take the spirit to their
houses because sometimes when they say their excuses, and the spirit
is there, they come out and either say what the real issue is or they
promise they will come. I wish the people could have the presence of
the spirit around them at all times, if that was the case they wouldcome running to the church twenty minutes early every sunday. Sorry
for that hah, its just how it is. Its the best time of my life and i
cant tell you how happy i am to be here.
With love, Elder Hayden Summers

The Gift of Tongues...

The summer is hot, and the Elder Summers is even hotter. Yes, i mean
it exactly how it sounds. haha nah im kiddin. I hope that summer is
winding up, its been a long and dry and pretty sweet time indeed.
That really was forever ago that we were taking the sacrament to people
in their houses. Time is just rediculous. It is going to be stinkin sweet
when we are Gods some day and time doesnt exist. Really a mind boggling
idea, but its just a matter of time... Are you still studying spanish? I am
Already pumped to see what you know and help you out. I found that being
A translater for other elders is pretty stinkin cool. My mind has two
lanes now in the language department and whenever i want to i can
switch lanes and still be saying what i want to. I bet the gift of
tounges is working its best on me because when i got here i was SOO
lost i didnt know which way was up. I am very grateful for our amazing
Father in Heaven that doesnt forget us, not a single one is forgotten
to him. There was a quote, i dont know where its from but it says,
´Compared to God, we are nothing. But to Him, we are everything.´ Mom
keeps telling me how much you´ve changed, i cant wait to meet you for
reals and see what its like. I bet you´ve changed and progressed more
than i have haha i feel pretty much the same but with a lot of
experiences now under my belt.
Love ya,
Elder Hayden Summers
Its the sad truth.. They have put me in charge of something again.
It just is not comprehendable that the baby fish is old enough to date now,
not like it ever stopped him before but now
its just cutting the chain off that he had already broken haha. My
life is good, slow but good enough. The wheels keep turning. Me and my
comp went on a 4 mile run the other morning to a soccer field that we
discovered a while back and i kicked my football around. It was
incredible, obviously. I have lost a lot of my stuff but it will come
back i think, God will bless me :) Its hard to get people to want to
change here. Everyone says that they are happy where they are at and
dont even care that there might be something else way better for them
out there. I know that there is way cooler and better stuff for all of
us, we just have to find it and hold on to it with all our strength
and always be looking for something more. Always progressing and never
being content is the way to go :) I cant wait for all the packages you
sent! The mario t-shirt is simply genious and i love it alot. Thanks
mom!
Love ya,
Elder Hayden Summers

He is Just So Smart and Clever.....

Sup,
Another great hot week here. For pday we played a bit of
soccer and i kicked the football around too. The day was overcast for
the morning which made playing outside way fun and not so deathly.
Spanish is going well also. But its different because i learned a lot
of vocab for missionary work and gospel terms but when people are
talking about worldly stuff i have to really pay attention. In the
beginning of my time here i was embarrassed to ask what stuff meant,
but now if i dont understand something i ask them right away haha. I
want to know whats going on all the time now with conversations, ive
lived not knowing what was going on at all and it aint that peachy.
Also if we are asking questions to people it shows them that we have a
real desire to better ourselves or to know what they are trying to say
exactly. Oh man i cant believe that Elder Cache money is in the MTC,
what a greenie :) I remember when we used to call him ´trash talkin
cache´ haha good times. Messing up in sacrament is just classic
you haha i laughed out loud when i read that. Thanks for all the
support you give me and dont forget to give Cache all the support you
can. Starting the mission is tough, and continuing after you start is
even tougher, but somehow we make it out alive.
Love ya dad, Elder Hayden Summer
Hi Mom,
No i havent gotten any of those three packages that youve
sent me. I did just get one from Christmas when you all wrote a little
note and with the caramel, btw, caramel was a hit! I loved it and the
pecans and all the stuff in that package thanks! my week was good. I
got moved back over to be with my old comp elder Carter and we are in
the same area and everything. Not really anything out of the ordinary
happened this week. We did some service for a family by making their
roof and it all went way good. Service is just the best thing ever,
period. My testimony grows every time i do service because almost
directly after the activity we somehow see a miracle or someone just
falls right into our path. Its so great!! It makes it impossible to
not notice how God is blessing us every single day. Ive noticed that
He always answers my prayers but i just dont realize it somehow. He is
just so smart and clever that he does things in unthinkable ways and
they are exactly what we need, you just have to try and recognize it.
I have a hard time recognizing the good in things but the mission has
helped me do the cup half full thing better :) Its still hot here, and
there are always chances to get better at everything!

Love,
Elder Hayden Summers

A Deep True Joy That I've Never Had.....

Hey dad,
My week went pretty well. Here in my pench there are 4
elders. Me, my greeny, another missionary, and his greeny. The way
things work when we train people is that they are together 2 transfers
with their trainer, aka 3 months. Transfers is this week and we found
out that the other trainer in the pench is leaving to be a leader in
another part of the mission. My comp is pretty good at spanish and
asked for a latin comp. Ask and ye shall recieve, he got it! So the
other trainer leaves, a latin comp comes to be with my comp, and i get
bumped over to the other side of the town with the greeny from the
other missionary. My new comps name is elder Weaver, he is from saint
george but lived in austrailia his first 10 years of life. He is tall
and we both get along really well. The week was great, i feel way
priveledged to be here and to see all the blessings you guys are
getting so far away. I just love the work and havent tried to do
something with all my heart ever before and this is the first time im
doing it, i gotta say, its great :) it is just super tiring, but with
those feelings comes crazy happiness and a deep true joy that ive
never had before. Thats all i got. Some advise, dont break your hip.
With lots of love,Elder Hayden Summers
Hi mom!
Well according to the pictures of Cache that you sent to
me it looks like he finally recieved that pre-mission chunk under the
chin like we all do ;) Wow he is a real elder now.. i gotta say, im
pretty jealous... When i pulled up the pictures of him i could see
that he was just so happy and super done with the life of before
missionarydom. Your weekend sounded fantastic and mine was pretty fun
too. We prepared for some baptism madness. Its pretty crazy because on
days with baptisms something always goes wrong or is complicated or
someone doesnt show up and on and on.. And in the end its all good
because the person gets rebirthed and the light in their eyes just
shines, its the best. Oh cool thingy that i heard down here. We were
conversing on the subject of how men have the priesthood and how
females do not. We were kind of sharing our opinions and such and one
missionary had the best idea. He said that in this life both of the
parents have the same equal responsability as the parents of their
kids. The woman is in charge of the first birth, the one that takes
the spirit out of the pre-existense and into this world obviously, and
the father with the priesthood is in charge of the second birth, also
called baptism. So both the parents do the necessary steps in order to
help their child achieve eternal life by starting them off right.
Pretty cool i thought. We have been dodging Rafiki at all moments
possible, everytime we go through the plaza we get really alert kind
of like meerkats looking out for bad guys. its fun. The work hasnt
changed, same doctrine, same message, new people that either accept it
or reject it until a later date. Have an amazing week, i cant wait to
get another package from home!

Con Mucho Amor,
Elder Hayden Summers

Song, Prayer, Song, Sacrament, Song, Prayer

Hi mom,
Its super hard for me to remember my last week or so
before i left... Wow it seems like so long ago! I do remember us
driving around my last night in Alaska and we followed a firetruck,
ate at an old fashioned diner, and just tried to enjoy the last
seconds we had. my week was great! it was pretty long though.. its
just so cool to see how things just happen for a reason all the time.
When we are doing the right things and trying our best to follow the
rules then things just fall into place and you get happiness galore!
Besides that amazingness im pretty happy. Im tired as can be everyday,
i get a little ticked at people sometimes, and things are very hard,
but i am so happy. Its really wierd.. oh well right?
we got stopped in a plaza by this random guy. He
started talking and asking penetrating questions right in our faces.
he was about as tall as my armpits and he would get on his tiptoes and
ask questions and stare at me from out of the sides of his eyes. I
named him Rafiki because i was expecting him to pull out a bamboo
stick thing and just smack us on the head with it. He was very drunk
and got mad at me when i tried to bring Christ in the conversation,
after an hour we escaped. twas an experience of a nightime.. but thats
all i got.love you alot mom!
Hey Dad,
What a week. Isnt that fast of winds supposed to be classified
as a tornado or a hurricane? Sounds like home :) I was looking through
some of the notes that i took a while ago and rolled upon a great
scripture. It is in Doctrine and Covenants 64 verse 29. It can be
applied to our callings in the church and our purpose here on earth as
well. The scriptures are just the best!! There is just not anything
better than them. I really wish that i wouldve had the habit of
reading them before i came on the mission but oh well what´re you
gonna do about the past right? Ive been having fun and just goin
through the same old fight here with the heat and the heat and the
heat. I weighed myself again and im back down to 95 kilos. Thanks for
the football i just love kicking it, its too bad that there isnt any
fields around this area that i can really lay into it. Not much more
to report this week but that it all turned out good. On saturday we
had a baptism! i filled the font up with what i thought was hot water
but the water heater died on us. when it was full it was all cold and
freezing. so i emptied it to halfway, fixed the water heater, and
filled it up again. when i came back to check it again the water was
just dripping out because i had used up all the water that the church
had... oops.. we did the service and the branch president that we have
tried cancelling church but we talked him into having at least
sacrament meeting. we had no speakers because i think the president
just wanted to end the day fast. So we did a song, prayer, song,
sacrament, song, prayer, and we left. it was about 30 minutes in
total. Im pretty sure it is all my fault in the end... next week we
should have a regular day. that was my week. have a great one yourself
in the snow. love, elder hayden summers