This week: 
So things have gone well this week, it has been a lot of fun to see everyone - I really love the people here. I was wondering what to write this week as it is my final week. It seems to me that every other missionary when they finish they leave some really powerful testimony about the Atonement and how much they have changed. So yeah, I am not really feeling like going to serious this week. Not that I don't have a testimony don't worry, because yes, this experience has been amazing and yes, I believe the Atonement has helped, and continues to help me change but what I wanted to focus on this week were a couple of my favorite parts about the mission. 

This is a question that seems to come up a lot, "What has been my favorite part of the mission?" Well, that is pretty hard to decide but I think I have finally come to a final decision in the final stages as I finalize my trip home. My favorite part of my mission has been the opportunity I have had to teach and be taught. When I am able to teach someone about the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I get to see them recognize the truthfulness of the Gospel because of the Holy Ghost and the Light of Christ working together, it is one of the best feelings in the world! I don't know how to explain it - it is kind of like that feeling when you put the last puzzle piece inside a puzzle but a thousand times better. I will always miss being able to be a missionary who gets to teach full-time and I will be forever grateful for the people that I have had the priviledge of meeting. 

That is another of my favorite parts of my mission. I have been able to form relationships with so many different people from all over the world - whether that be the members, the missionaries, or my mission president, President Balli - but the people I have been able to teach are the people who seem to really matter. My life has been changed forever and my testimony is stronger than it has even been. I look forward to seeing you. I will be excited to be home but I will always love this place, it is hard to describe aye. I have loved serving my mission and I will continue to serve in any way that I can. 

Love,
Elder Summers 

Questions and Stuff: 
Time is going very fast, things are winding down and I am staying strong. Everything I am doing now seems like planting seeds then hopefully Elder Wilson will harvest in the next couple of months. Our bishop got wind that I am finishing so I have a speech next Sunday and he announced at a YSA cottage evening that in a couple of weeks I would be single - that was pretty funny. We have been hearing about Trump and Clinton for a while but just snippets from members. People on the street always ask me which one I would vote for but I always give the same answer, "I need more time to be able to research and make a good decision but on the outside both seem pretty rubbish." Hopefully everything went well with the bridal shower - just another marriage I am hearing about (haha). It seems like every email or week I get news from a member, a friend, or the family about someone else getting engaged. It is a pretty interesting time in life. I think it will be weird to have a inward look like you said Dad. I need to figure out how to plan for myself because for the past two years I have been planning for everyone else. For right now the plan is what you thought, go back to work at In-N-Out and finish the associates at SLCC for convenience. I am not too sure what it going to happen other than that. I have faith that I will be able to transition smoothly back into the world but not of the world. As far as dinner goes I think Hawaiian Haystacks would be nice (Jokes - please don't do that!) Maybe a taco bar with pickled onions and mexican ranch or Café Rio salads also with pickled onions and mexican ranch haha. I think I just want some good old homemade Mexican food. My mouth actually watered while I was writing this so I might just be hungry but I think I will probably go get a pie from the shops.

This week: 
This week was pretty good. Things seem to be going really well. I love the ward and the work. We spent the week trying to see investigators having some struggles, doing some trade off with the elders, sussing out some stuff from President, and trying to motivate the zone. I had my last MLC and then we had a pretty good zone training. I feel like I have a good grip on things some days but I still get thrown couple of curveballs every week. This week was pretty good though. 

We did have a cool experience with those kids that you saw on facebook. So the story goes we went over on Friday to light fireworks for Guy Fawkes day even though apparently it was Saturday that we were supposed to do it. Anyways while we were doing fireworks with the Mafi's all the neighborhood kids came around to watch. We started to talking to them about the gospel as we were giving them some sparklers to play with and then we were able to tell them to come back the next day to have a lesson on Saturday and that photo was with some of the kids that actually came back the next day. They were really curious about church. Some of them had been to church, I had met a couple of their parents already in earlier weeks. It was cool to see how close all these kids were to each other. They are now asking their parents if we can come over and have some real lessons. We are going to go over and see if we can meet all the parents as well of course and give some real explanations. It should go well hopefully (haha). The Mafi's are good about posting stuff. 

The other experience that I really enjoyed this week was at the YSA cottage evening we had a short lesson, played some games and then it was time for the feed. I was sitting next to a girl who I found out was SDA [Seventh Day Adventist] and she was really cool. I asked her how she liked the program and she said it was good. Then she said "Can I ask you a question?" And I said "Is it personal?" We laughed for a second as she was like "No, no no it is about your church." I said "Oh, that was close. haha" then I explained that I would answer personal questions as well because I don't mind but then I got to tell her what we do as missionaries and how it was kind of my job to answer questions. We ended up having a really good discussion about some of her questions. Her original question was about if we believed that when people died were they still on earth so I explained about the Spirit World and how final judgement comes for everyone after Christ comes back so yes there are some spirits still here waiting for that day in a place called the Spirit World. She was amazed. I ended up getting to the premortal life, prophets, the Book of Mormon and even invited her to read and pray. She has been looking for a church for a long time and she has heaps of family in the church. (She is Tongan and anybody that is Tongan has heaps in the church pretty much.) I was pretty gutted when I found out she lived in the Hamilton Mission, I asked her if she would like the missionaries to come by and she told us she would talk to her uncle who is a Bishop of our church first. She was what I call a prepared person. Elder Wilson was watching us but he was caught up talking with some other YSA and couldn't really find out a way to jump in and help so he just let me go. It was a lot of fun. My favorite question she asked was "Why doesn't God still speak to people like he did with Moses ages ago?" God has definitely been preparing her and I was glad that I could confidently answer any question she had. It seemed like everyone was in their own world but all the members were still paying attention to the one-on-one lesson I was having with Ana. It was a great experience and just reaffirms the testimony I have every time I get to explain it to someone else. 

Love You,
Elder Summers

Questions and Stuff: 
I am glad that we have so much going on all the time. It seems like every week in emails there is at least something exciting going on back home that I get to hear about. I hope Justin and Alyson enjoyed their trip to the Pacific. I think visiting all the islands might be on my bucket list. I have emailed Sam a little bit and he seems to be doing well. His mission looks really cool and according to what he has shared with me he likes it. I miss that guy. I am very excited to see everyone and life keeps going here in NZ. Kaden is getting better grades than me I think. We will see what he gets on the ACT haha. Hazel got baptized and Ute performed it, now I feel old. I hope Shannon comes to my homecoming that would be cool. Aunt Rachel really has come a long way, that is heaps of pills. Tell her I am impressed. I had a headache this week and I took about 6 pills at once and I thought I was the man. I guess not. 

This week: 
This week was good and time is going by really fast. We are still working and having some fun at the same time. We have a couple of investigators that are preparing for baptism but unfortunately I probably won't be here in time for them to enter the waters of baptism. Just planting some small trees for someone else to pick up the fruit I guess. haha. 

That picture that the Mafi's put up is from Gospel Principles on Sunday I think. It was a good lesson where we had a debate about some Word of Wisdom gray areas. It wasn't really my comp and I being to into it but it was mostly the members. It was a lot of fun. Sorry we don't have much time today but it has been good to hear from you and I am still loving the mission and the people and of course the Lord so no worries. See you soon.

Love 
Elder Summers 

These are the pictures that Xander is referring too in his letter that he thought Sister Mafi posted from their Gospel Principles class - Sister Mafi's caption was, "Yep I think he is making the most of his last 3 weeks in the mission lol". Thanks for sharing Sister Mafi!

Questions and Stuff: 
It has been a pretty good week. We got a text from Sarah this week but that was it. I would love to be here for her baptism but it doesn't really matter. I just want her to be ready, and I want her to use the knowledge she has now. I love getting emails. I was sitting here reading the stories from home and similar to Mike Jepson, I just sit here smiling like an idiot. I really enjoy the updates - it is fun even if it is just a glimpse. I think I get a bigger glimpse than most of the Elders and Sisters - I really love it. I am glad that Dad was able to go and help with the roof. I keep thinking I should probably figure out some of those skills because I don't really know how to do any of that stuff. I think I know enough to get something that works but not something that looks good, or works the way it is supposed to. I need to learn how to do stuff the right way. :) Sounds like it was a busy week. A lot of driving and taking care of everything. Sorry the U game was so frustrating - soccer is more fun to watch, you are right. Too bad Kaden broke the phone haha. I don't really mind anything either way Apple or Android anything that you can find a good deal on. Although an on-going debate with Ryan and Xoch how Android is superior does sound tempting. I am willing to use a less effective device if it comes with a discount. Thanks so much for that - I was wondering what I wanted to do for a phone when I got home. I don't really have too much of a preference. It might be similar to your U of U t shirt, there must be opposition in all things. 

This week:
So like I said, and say every week, this week was a pretty good week. It was a busy week as in helping other Elders, running errands, service and things but it wasn't too much teaching. Which is too bad because teaching is my favorite part of the mission but we were trying to do a lot of preparation for our baptism on Saturday. We were able to have the baptism of Jewls and Cleveland Riki-Rotohiko

I am not sure if I have said this before but there always seems to be something that goes wrong, or not according to plan, when I have a baptism. It just never runs smoothly. We had the baptism planned for 6pm. This one I was confident we were ready - we had the program sussed and speakers were assigned. The bishopric was notified and it was announced in the ward. We had the kids invite their family both member and non-member alike and everything. It was looking good. Our WML had the program. Everything seemed like it would run smoothly. 

We went over earlier in the day to pick the program up because Bro Vole had a birthday party instead of attending our baptism but it was all good. We had a cup of Koko Samoa and we left. We went later about 4:30 to go and fill the font. The first bump was that we couldn't get it filled... we had to get some other keys had to contact a few other missionaries to figure out how to do it, turn on the fans to keep it from steaming and set up the room. We had the font filling everything looked good.

This is when we realized that we needed to make copies of the program, we couldn't find it, we looked in the car, back at the flat and then we rushed over to Bro Vole's to see if we had left it there while we were enjoying our Koko. He was already gone and the house was locked up tight. We could see it on the table but it was to late. It was about 5:30 when we got back to the font and started it up again. We decided to get on the chapel computer and make a new program. By 5:41 we had that done, then we were making copies and we forgot the font. We over filled it a little bit but it was still okay. We managed to get everything ready but it is always a rush.

The program was great. We started just past 6. Everything went well and we had about 15-20 non members attend. It has been such a blessing to teach these kids. Jewls full name is Jewls Coda Tere Vaine Josephine Riki-Rotohiko. I performed her baptism so that was a mouthful but I managed to get it the first time. They have been doing so well and I was also able to confirm Jewls the next day in Sacrament meeting. They are so cool and it makes me want to be a kid again. it is pretty good. The last thing we forgot was to take the plug out of the font while we were still in it. But Elder Wilson managed to figure it out. :) 

I love it here. I am excited to go home but I am really going to miss New Zealand it is an amazing place and I am so lucky to be here. 

Love,
Elder Summers

Questions and Stuff: 
The week has been pretty good. We haven't heard from Sarah :(. I feel bad for Heavenly Father - we are pretty useless sometimes and he loves us so much. I am sure that makes his job even harder sometimes. I am trying to do a good job in my calling. I don't mind who writes me I am just grateful as I sit here in the internet cafe grateful for the emails but trying to hide them from the Tongan elders near me. Two of them haven't gotten an email once their whole mission and yet they keep writing every week hoping that their family is reading it. I don't know what that is like thanks to you Mom and Dad. Thank you. The Cabin is always improving, I think back to what it was like before we bought it. There just wasn't much going on. Now we have a lot of things, working on the running water, the power, the new floor plan, the loft, the dead trees are getting removed and of course the best thing is the tree house which I hope is still standing. Right now I think I am the only cousin serving (unless I forgot someone and that would be embarrassing) but soon Clara will get to join me and that will be a great experience for her. My mouth watered as I read your description of tacos al pastor. I really miss Mexican food - like good, flavorful Mexican food. Hopefully it worked out like you wanted it to Dad - I am sure it was great. Things are going to be very busy for the next little while. I am excited to be home but at the same time I am not really. It is a funny feeling because I love it here but it feels like it is time for me to go too. It doesn't mean that I am done today or anything but the feeling is still there. 

This week:
So this week we weren't able to see Sarah again. :( Like I mentioned above, it was disappointing. I hope somehow she will pop back up. Her cousin, Sis. Kavea, is out of town for a couple of weeks which usually doesn't really seem that important except for the fact that I leave in 5 so it is crunch time. We have had some good news with our other investigators - Mama and Cleveland. They are such great kids. They were supposed to be baptized on the 15th but we pushed them back to this weekend just to make sure that everything goes according to plan. It was a good decision and we are going to have everything ready for this weekend. These two 11 year old kids are just so amazing. They have made such good progress and they wanted to be baptized ages ago but we just needed to slow them down and help them understand some things. Everything looks to be ready for this Saturday the 22nd. 

We had interviews with President Balli this week. It was my last scheduled day of interviews and I was able to have a really good talk with President. I explained to him some of the feelings I have had about my mission. I also expressed some of the feelings I have been having recently as far as desire to work and be diligent. He told me about a talk that Pres Monson gave in 1972 called "Finishers Wanted". That really helped and then he said something that I will never forget. He said, "Whether you have 24 months or 24 hours the Lord has a work specifically designed for you if you are willing, but you have to be willing." I have tried to take that advice and he also challenged me to have a "Just for Today" attitude which pretty much is just to keep me motivated to work for he day and then if I am diligent he promised me that it will be easier to be diligent the next day. President Balli is such an amazing man and I believe one of the main reasons I was called to NZ is so he could be my president. The mission is just so cool. It has been a while since I have had such a good talk with President. 

We had a "Come and See" fireside this Sunday. It was the last one I will attend on my mission. I was able to get an investigator to every one my entire mission except when I was serving in Kaikohe in the far north away from the city. This one was so cool. It was like I was finally realizing that I am going to actually finish my mission. I was talking to the Elders from my intake and none of us can believe it. I felt the Spirit so strong during the whole thing. The music, the convert testimonies, the closing remarks from President and having a little bit of time to just catch up with the many members and missionaries I have had the privilege to get to know and love. I didn't cry but I was pretty close a couple of times. It was a sad yet joyful experience. It sucked but I loved it. 

Love,
Elder Summers

Questions and Stuff: 
Yeah I am really grateful to be here in the mission field. God definitely loves us. I feel really old right now - Clara went through the temple, Xoch and Keeg are married, Dad's head is getting closer and closer to perfection. :) It is just so crazy to me to see how time flies. We were able to spend some time in Central Auckland - there is one family I got surprising close to in the past 10 days of covering the Niuean Ward. The Kniffen's new house sounds way different. The box in the floor does sound pretty cool. Dad is the Man. That is pretty cool for Aunt Al and Justin, to bad they don't get to come to NZ :(. Thanks for the update. 

This Week:
This week was interesting. We didn't hear from Sarah at all. That was really disappointing :( She has just disappeared. She texted once on Thursday and we haven't seen her since then. It is frustrating sometimes to help some people progress. She is so great and we love her so much, I just wish we could have seen her and help her with everything that is going on in her life. It was a really busy week but not as busy in our area. Overall it was slow. We had transfers on Wednesday and conference on over the weekend. 

Even with everything going on it was a still a pretty good week. The highlights of of the week were definitely the opportunity we had to listen to conference and I wanted to just take a second and share some of my thoughts during the Priesthood Session. It was during Henry B. Eyring talk about the Melchizedek Priesthood holders being an example to Aaronic priesthood holders. While I was taking notes I got lost in thought trying to think back to before the mission and the many leaders and examples I had that have shown me how to be a good priesthood holder - the list was pretty long and I am sure I missed people but it was cool as I just filed through memories of scout camps, young mens activities, church classes, sacrament and fast offering runs. So the people that I wrote down quickly was Blake Nelson, Kevin Larsen, Rob Archibald, Bishop Hummer, Jake Ferguson, Aaron Abeyta, Lehi Mackissack, AJ Christensen, Karl Pouson, Bishop Ogden, Brady Jones, and Russ Pincock. I know I missed a lot of people but I wanted to say thank you to all of these people when I get the chance. I realized that as I was thinking back I learned a lot from all these examples but of course the biggest example was Dad, thank you for everything. I have been so blessed to be trained and raised up by such great people. 

General Conference is such an amazing experience especially as a missionary. I feel so blessed to be here and I loved my last conference as a "set apart" servant of the Lord. I will really miss being a missionary and I am trying to enjoy every moment of it. I love my calling right now and I never want to forget the things I am learning. I love the people here as well. I never thought I could get attached to people so quickly only being around the people I have met for a few months each, yet I feel like they are my family. 

Love,
Elder Summers 

Questions and Stuff: 
We get transfer news tonight. We are still together, Elder Wilson and I. We are working our butts off. I am all good to speak on Sunday still. I have been planning the homecoming speech since day one. Jokes. :) I will probably have enough time to prepare hopefully, you know with that short flight ;), but I am going to try and get as much sleep as I can on the flight. If it comes down to it I can probably wing it - thats pretty much what I have done my whole mission. I was happy that Sis Jackson emailed you. I was just on Trade Offs with the Assistants. It was fun to go back to the North Shore for the day. I think Elder Wilson will finish me off in the mission. We don't know for sure yet. Congrats to Nik - I will look forward to meeting him. It is going to be a very busy weekend. The cabin it seems is a central focus in our lives - I don't think I realized how big of a deal it was until I came out on the mission but it seems that it one of the regular email topics. It is such a great place. 

This week: 
Yes it has been a busy week. We have mostly just been working in our Favona area however. We have had some real progress with the people we are teaching. We thought we would spend some time traveling around the mission with permission to proselyte anywhere but we still just stuck in our small ward boundary in South Auckland. We didn't really have time to drive places. There is plenty of work in our small area. Plus the Tongan and Niuean Ward didn't really have a lot going on with them. The missionaries were struggling in those areas and that always makes it hard for the work to progress. So we ended up mostly working in good old Favona Ward. 

Something I really wanted to share is a cool experience we had with Sarah. We were finally able to catch up with her and have a lesson this week. We asked her what had caused her to change her mind about baptism and text us. Sarah told us that sometime after we taught the Plan of Salvation lesson she had an emotional breakdown during the following days. She fell back into old sins, life didn't seem to be going well and one day it just all seemed to go wrong. She was alone in her car and she was pretty much at her lowest point and she started to curse our Heavenly Father - with everything she now knew about Him it all just seemed unfair. Remember that prior to our lessons Sarah didn't even believe in God as her father, she didn't believe really in much of anything but since then she has made some big changes in her life. She was very upset, and she swears enough out of habit as it is, but she was angry and she said some terrible things to God. After she had calmed down she didn't feel like He was mad at her like she thought He would be. She said that she felt that He loved her. She was surprised. How could He still love her? It was almost as if she wanted Him to smite her or something. Then if that wasn't amazing enough, when she had pulled herself together she stepped out of her car and on the ground right outside her car was a missionary badge. She couldn't believe it. She said she new it was a sign and she shortly texted us after that experience to tell us that she wanted to be baptized. I know that Heavenly Father is very involved in this work, and in the lives of each one of His children. It was just all to perfect to be a coincidence. I am grateful that He is a God of miracles. 

After she told us that we picked a day for her to be baptized in the month of October. We then finally got to teach her the Full Restoration lesson. When we invited her to pray about the Book of Mormon at the end she started looking at us as iff we were dumb. Then she said. "Why do you think I want to be baptized. I already know the Book of Mormon is true." We replied, "You prayed about it right?," and she said "Of course I did, isn't that what I was supposed to do." She told us that she did it ages ago and we asked why she didn't tell us earlier, apparently she didn't realize how important it was haha. Didn't think that was that big of a deal until we had taught the Restoration. It has been so fun to teach her. She is just so cool and she is crack up. She just needs to come to church and get to know more of the members. Then I think that everything else will be fine. 

That's what I wanted to share, hopefully you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed seeing it happen and then getting to put it into words today. 

Love 
Elder Summers

Hello Dear Readers,
Last week we got an email from the mission secretary, Sister Jackson, to tell us that Xander's return has been postponed by a few days. If you'll recall, a few weeks ago he mentioned that he wanted to stay a few more days so he could attend the sealing of a member that served in his mission with whom he is close. Instead of returning on 11/15 as previously scheduled, he'll be returning on 11/19.

Here's the letter from Sister Jackson:

Dear Brother and Sister Summers,

I had your son to dinner last night-we really love him! He’s been a great missionary. He asked that I send you his updated itinerary showing his arrival 4 days later than his previous itinerary due to him wanting to attend the sealing of Brother and Sister Mafi. Could you please also alert your Bishop and Stake President of this change?

Thanks in advance!

 I have attached some pictures from our dinner last night. It was Elder Fa’amoe’s birthday but Elder Summers blew out the candles. Typical! Right? :)

Sister Jackson
Mission Secretary
New Zealand Auckland Mission

Questions and Stuff: 
This week was totally different then last week. It was a really good week. We were able to see all of our investigators except Sarah so we still haven't been able to have a lesson since she texted us telling us that she was keen to be baptized. Other than that though, the area is progressing again. Agency is a bummer sometimes. I am so grateful that we have it though. I hope we can make it into the cabin sometime soon after I get home. I really want to go there again. I love the cabin! I am so excited for GC - every time so far on my mission it has just seemed to get better and better. This one should be really good but it is still a couple of weeks away for us. Sounds like this cabin trip is going to be a busy one and it might be without much electricity. Another adventure for Mom and Dad - I am glad you to love each other. I did go to a Blink 182 concert with almost the same group - It was Chantelle, Keeg, Kolten and Me. It was with My Chemical Romance. That was a fun memory to come back up. I am excited to come home but we have a lot going on in our area which is good. Preston is still emailing me and sending me photos. Marissa emailed me today and said she was engaged that was pretty crazy. Time is moving so fast. 

This Week;
So like I said before we have had a good week. We had a FHE with the family that lives next to our Ward Mission Leader - Cassie and her Kids. It is fun but difficult to teach them sometimes. Trying to keep their focus and trying to teach simply is interesting. They didn't come to church again but we are still having good lessons so I am happy. Hopefully we can help them attend church next week. 

We also have seen some really good progress with two of our investigators - Jewels and Cleveland. They are twins and are 11. Elder Wilson was able to go over and teach them on Saturday and he set a baptismal date for the 15th of October. They accepted and their parents have given them permission so that is really good. It feels nice to have someone set with a date again. It is a lot easier to plan for someone when they have at least a goal set. Progress speeds up with goals. 

In other news we have had some big changes to our area for the next week or so. We had one of our missionaries go home this week from our zone and so now we are in a trio with one of our DL's. His name is Elder Fonua. We are covering a total of three wards now which includes A Tongan ward, A Niuean ward, and A Palangi (English) ward (the Favona Ward). The Tongan and Palangi wards are within our zone boundary but the Niuean speaking ward covers our entire mission. Well technically it covers the whole of New Zealand and one could say that it actually covers the whole world because it is the only Niuean Ward in the whole world because on the Island of Niue there are only branches right now. (Its a small island in the Pacific that is covered by our mission.) So pretty much it was the busiest Sunday I have had in my entire mission.
The started earlier and didn't stop... 

• 6 am: PEC in Niuean.
  
• 8 am: Favona Ward council
  
• 9 am: Sacrament in Niuean
  
• 10:30 am: Drop off supplies for the Tongan Sisters
  
• 11 am: Favona Sacrament
  
• 12 pm: Gospel Principles Favona
  
• 1 pm: Tongan Sacrament
  
• 2:30 pm: MCM with Niuean Ward Mission Leader
  
• 4 pm: Appointment with Jewels (aka Mama) and Cleveland with Tutagalevao family
  
• 5 pm: Dinner in Favona with Atitoa family
  
• 6 pm: Lesson with Ururaiaha Favona Investigator
  
• 7 pm: Lesson with a new family in the Niuean Ward in Mt Roskill zone (Central Auckland)
  
• 8:30 pm: Pudding at Sister Autaua's (Aka Mama Lynne) 
  
• 9 pm: Planning
  
• 9:30 pm: Accountability Calls
  
• 10 pm: Planning Zone Devotional for the next day
  
• 10:30 pm: Nightly Prayers
  
• 10:32 pm: Full hibernation 
  

It was a very busy day with a lot of words that I don't understand. plus to top it off it was daylight saving for us on Saturday night so we were running on an hour less of sleep. I am excited to be covering the whole mission now - when I served in the YSA ward, our area only covered about 3/4ths of the mission. It should just last until next week Wednesday when we are transferred. I am hoping for my last transfer to be here in Favona. This week should be a lot of fun. 

Love,
Elder Summers

Questions and Stuff: 
That family didn't come back yesterday on sunday but we heard they were coming next week. I like that analogy about the orange juice I might use that in a speech soon. I don't know how I plan on sharing the gospel when I come back but I am going to try and find ways to do that. Dad seems to always be busy. I am grateful for everything he does for us. I had a dream this week that I was playing like a new Halo game that had come out since I was on my mission with Kaden and I had just gotten off the mission. I woke up angry because I kept remembering how he was beating me at halo in my dream. I just didn't know how it worked haha. It is fun having Keegan live so close. I saw pictures from Preston of him, Will, Kylee, and Alex Hill at Applebee's - I am pretty jealous. Sounds like everything is going well back home. 

This Week: 
I am pretty grateful to be here on the mission but this week felt like a long week even though our p-day was last Tues. Things are still going well and I am still going through the daily grind. Enjoying the little things that I know I will miss after the mission. 

So we had a few ups and downs this week. One was that we finally got to teach Sarah the Plan of Salvation on Tuesday and she loved it - I am actually not sure if she loved it. She knew she needed to make some changes and said It just all made sense. It really put baptism in perspective as just a step. On Thursday we got a text from Sis Kavea asking how many people need to attend a baptism. We explained that it was the one performing and the witnesses and a presiding member of the bishopric. The next text explained to us. Sarah was actually the one on the phone and she told us she wanted to be baptized. We asked her when and she said as soon as possible! We were stoked and set an appointment for the next day. We were pretty excited to see her... then she pushed that appointment back to Sunday. We were still excited but a little gutted that we had to wait a couple of more days. Then on Saturday she sent us a text asking if we really believed that we could become gods of our own worlds and stuff. Apparently she had told her friend she was going to be a Mormon and her friend told her about that concept. We gave a brief answer and promised to explain on Sunday. She came to church by herself which was really good. She then was about to leave so we caught her in the hall after Sacrament meeting and she said she had to leave so she couldn't come to class but before she left we had just a short chance to answer her question. She didn't seem happy that we hadn't explained this principle in the Plan of Salvation when we taught it. Then she left. Just before church ended she sent us a text canceling our appointment for yesterday. She said we might be able to see her tonight but we will see what happens. It is so hard when we can't have time to explain things to her in person. I know we will see her this week, I hope we do. We still have some work to do with her. She is an awesome person and one of my favorite people to teach.

The Gordon-Samuel Whanau family is doing well. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and then seemed to enjoy it. We explained the baptism is something for them to work toward, and help them return to Heavenly Father. They agreed that it would be a good thing and Cassie the mother said it was okay for the kids. We asked them if they were coming to church and they said yes... but, they didn't come. 

We are trying two work with some twins that have had permission to be baptized. Every weekend we try and go teach them, we have an appointment then they aren't home. Or they are busy. We had an appointment this week on Saturday, we went over on friday to double check it, the rescheduled for sunday, then on Sunday they weren't able to come to church and they moved our lesson after church for thursday this week. 

We overall seem to have everyone in our area telling us they will do stuff, and seem like they are committed to doing it and then they don't and it is frustrating but more so disappointing. We had 12 people or so tell us they were going to come to church this week. 3 showed up. I was very happy for those three and it is good to see them. It is just dissapointing because we know how great the OJ is. They say they want some so we are pouring them a glass and then they just leave it on the table. 

A lot of good things did happen this week. Not sure if my email highlighted those things but it was cool to see one of our LA sisters. Her name is Josie. We have gotten started with her doing family history and she is doing so well. She has a 7 year old grandson that she is taking care of and is going through a hard time. She just likes to stay home alone, doesn't have money to do anything she says. We are some of the closest thing to family she has around still. We were able to talk to her about her brothers and sisters and her parents and step parents. Her Grandparents. She barely knows anything about them. She grew up on the street, has a broken family got baptized when she was dating a member, he ended up being abusive so she left him and now she is struggling to get by. About a month ago or so she was diagnosed with cancer. Even with all of this she is a happy person who finds purpose in raising her grandson that her daughter doesn't want. This is the kind of stuff that I need to recognize how lucky I am to meet someone like her. 

Love
Elder Summers