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