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

Mosquitos are the Spawn of Satan

so this was a fun fast week again!
   we beat our oponent in march madness this week again. we scored 170 points and they scored 88. its nice to win haha and the great part about it is that this competition is motivating the whole mission to do better and to work harder and that is just making the progress of the work here sky rocket. im glad im a part of it. i finished reading he book of mormon through the pearl of great price the other day. the doctrine and covenants are just so cool! its crazy cuz ive had a lot of questions about some random stuff and in the doctrine and covenants it has all the answers! i never knew that they have been right there this whole time haha. my comp elder barlow got sick, got bitten by a dog, and got an ingrown toenail all in the same day. he could barely even walk and we couldnt do alot of work far from our penssion. yesterday morning he couldnt even walk on it really, but then like an hour before we played soccer all the pain went away and he was good to go! we kept saying it was a christmas miracle haha. the elders here are alot of fun and they are really focused on the work too. when you have fun you get the most work done, it just has to be the right kind of fun. at night it is starting to get a little colder, and ive found out that scratching a mosquito bite with another mosquito bite is very satisfying for a moment, then it just hurts a million times worse. i suppose that can relate to sinning and what not somehow, and mosquitos are the spawn of satan, so it all fits. i love you all alot and thank you so much for your prayers. there is no way i could be doing this on my own, the Lord is helping me alot and its because all of you are asking for it. thank you so much. love elder hayden summers

100 Pesos for a Pamphlet!!

everyone how are you!
  im great, this week was so very fast i dont really know what happened. maybe its a good thing that i keep a journal. sometimes i think that our greatest memories are lost in time from not being written down. my dad always told us with scout stuff that if you didnt write it down then it never happened, i never believed him cuz it doesnt make sense, but its nice to look back and read what you had to say about your own life. we won march madness this week with a score of 171 to 121, we mobbed life. if we win all our games this whole month then we get to have a nice fancy dinner at our mission presidents house, and yeah that is a big deal im way pumped for it! we need to work hard though. we talked to this rather not young sweet lady for a while the other day about life and stuff and gave here a pamphlet about eternal families. when we came back later in the day for bed she stopped us and tried to give us 100 pesos for the pamphlet, she said that she wanted to be baptized and that she wanted to pay us for what we told her, that sweet heart. she ended up forcing the 100 peso bill into my companions pocket, somehow we ended up leaving it in her house without her seeing us do it haha. but it was great she was just all smiles, it was really nice to see someone who appriciated the message that we have. thank you all for your support and if i have forgotten to thank you for a gift or letter i would like to do that now cuz lets face it, im not perfect and frankly a little slow too haha. so forgive me if i have forgotten. i love you all and keep up the good work of life. love elder hayden summers