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