Monday, July 18, 2011 - Pday and New Comp/New Area

Hey dad!
All is going well here. Ok you are not even going to believe where I’m at right now. Dude! Ok so I’m in Iguape! That has no significance for you but basically this is the interior of our mission. We are 4hours away from the mission home by bus and there is so much forest and awesomeness here. A part of this area is an island called Isla. Just look this place up on Google and you will find it. I will describe this place as a mix of Santa Barbara, the property and Seaside Oregon. I love it here. Missionaries always say that they don’t like this place because it’s hard to work here. I got here and I said to myself’, ‘are you kidding me!!?´ I love it here. Nobody is running around and I won’t almost die in the street because of crazy drivers. It’s so beautiful here. There is a mountain here that reminds me of Mt. Si. We stopped at a rest stop on the way here and I saw some of the most beautiful birds ever! So many different colors! Crazy! I wanted to take pictures. There are some waterfalls in the forest here that tourists go to and there is a guide in our ward that will take us there. We are on the ocean! Yeah! There is a huge river that we get to cross almost every day to go to another part of our area. Our area is huge! Missionaries don’t like to work here because there aren’t very many people or because you feel lonely. But are you kidding! This place is great. Sure it may be a little hard to find people in the streets to do contacts but whatever! We have a branch here and they depend a lot on the missionaries. I gave a talk yesterday about the spirit. It went fine. Really this place has the potential to be a stake because there are so many inactive members. Over 400. Wow!! We are going to have training with the presidency and talk about home and visiting teaching. But it’s awesome here. I’ll take pictures and send them someday. On Saturday we had two baptisms. woohoo! good stuff. we have some others that are marked for baptism that we are working with. I’m so excited to be here. Ok, now my companion…his name is Elder V. Santos. He is awesome. He is from the Bahia. He has 18 months on the mission. I think the name or our Branch is Iguape. My companion is so stinking intelligent! When he talks I feel like a child and I don’t know anything. But it’s really cool! I’m learning a lot from him. He always asks questions. He is our district leader and I’m really excited to work with him. He doesn’t have the sense of humor I have so I’m still working with him but he’s awesome and we are having fun. I think Iguape is an old fishing town. Anyway…I’m glad you and mom have some time to get away. You guys deserve it. I hope that you guys are having a great time. Man it sounds like Harry Potter was awesome! my dad went to a midnight showing!? ha-ha. Man those shirts do look awesome! She is so talented. Has she told you about the ideas that I gave to her to paint? (pictures of missionaries) Dad I’m learning so much in my studies. But I can do better. I see Elder V Santos and I need to do better. ha-ha. I started reading Jesus, The Christ. Crazy stuff. I love it! I’ll have to write you later about something I learned. I don’t really have time to talk about it right now but I love the scriptures! I just finished Alma and will start Helaman. Moroni is the man! Thanks for everything dad. I’ll get there. Just work hard. That’s what I’m here to do. I can’t make excuses for myself and not do my best. The language will come but all I can do is my best right now. Thanks dad! I love you very much and I hope you and mom are having a great time. Have you guys gotten the pictures yet? Love you!

Elder Taylor Vincent Summerhays

6/20 E-Mail - Father's Day

Dad!
This week went by really fast. But yesterday we had a good day. One investigator of ours, Jucelia, came to church and enjoyed it and also watched the baptism of an investigator of ours. Luane. Woohoo! Good stuff. She has been taking the discussions for a while but it was great to see her happiness as she was baptised. So there isn't much to do here besides write and stay in our house (Referring to what he does for fun on Pday). I'm still looking. haha. I'm glad you had a good Father's day. I'm sorry that I didn't send a card. I remember when we went there (Referring to my comment about our trip to Nauvoo years ago and how the statue of Hyrum and Joseph at Carthage affected me - Tamara and the kids gave me a beautiful 18" bronzed replica). Well you just made me start crying. I love you Dad. I'm so greatfull for everything that you have done for me. You have no idea. I'm sorry that I didn't show it very much before I left. I'm very sorry. I have been thinking about how I can make it up to you one day in my life. I've got a lot to do. Thank you dad. I love you so very much. That's cool that Amber came home to see her dad. But crazy what happened! (Referring to being hit by debris at Baskin &Robbins when a car drove through the front door) what are the odds of that?! I hope that they are ok. I will write to Sis. Seader. I hope that she is ok as well (In hospital). I will pray for her. Maple Valley days. Good times. That picture (Of Lilly) is awesome. I miss my city and my trees. haha. Keno! and Kaleb! good for him. Hey you should show Josie my apartment too. She would like that. But that address doesn't sound right nor the name. I will look up the address of the building and send it next week. I think its fairly new. So Morielli is doing great. She missed church but she is still reading and is excited everytime we come over. We are excited for her. Hey dad, so I don't have a lot of time to respond to what you wrote about Alma 8 but it was great reading it. Thanks for that. I so wish I had studied more before the mission. I missed out on so much. Now i wish I had more time to study everyday. We are working hard and will keep on going. Oh quick. Elder Mota was really sick with stomach pains the other day and couldn't walk. I gave my first blessing and it was in Portuguese. woah. haha, it was really simple but it was a blessing. The next morning he was fine and ready to go. That felt great. A blessing doesn't have to beautiful. It felt great to use the priesthood to help. Anyway...I hope that all is well at home. I love you dad and thank you again for everything. You are the best. Oh have you guys gotten my pics yet? bye.

Elder summerhays

Hi Mom!
I'm doing good. This week was good and went by really fast. Things are going well with our investigators. We have some people marked for July that are really progressing well. But guess what? We had a baptism yesterday! woohoo! Luane. It was great. We are definitely being blessed in this area. We will have more in July. Everything is going great with Elder Mota and I. We just keep on going. We are having a good time. Lots of laughs at stupid things I do on accident...like slipping or tripping in the street. My upbrella flying up behind me and breaking in the rain. Eating too fast and drinking soda and burp hickuping. And lots of other stuff. We're having a good time. Yeah no more school! More time to spend with your children. Thats great for Bryce (Referring to solo he sang at the final school concert). He should continue. Yeah McKenna said something about EFY. She is excited. good for her and I hope that she has a good time. haha that's funny...they (referring to Cam's roommates that stayed the night on their way to China) stayed the night? haha good stuff. I'm glad you had fun with that. Just tell them the story when he went out in the snow naked. Haha I forgot to send dad a card! No! I will don't worry. I hope he had a good day. Eric stapely is back!? what!? He just left yesterday! haha good stuff. Don't worry mom. We are safe. I just don't bring anything valuable and have a couple bucks in my pocket to give to someone if they rob us. I love you mom and I hope the start of your summer is amazing. I love you.

Taylor

Robbed! 6/13 E-Mail

Ok dad so I have a story for you. So we were walking down the street one day last week and we stopped to look at the map. Then someone came up to us and started talking to us and he was mad. I didn't understand at first what what happening but after a minute I realized we were being robbed. He was saying that we were investigators and were suspicious and asked if we had a cellphone. So elder Mota gave our phone to him. He said he was going to call someone to see if we were actually missionaries. He said he is going to keep it to find out who we are. yeah... right. Come on! Lamest robber in the world. He knew we were missionaries. What a lame way to rob someone. He could of at least had a gun or something so I would have a better story to tell you. haha But I'm glad we were safe. But now we don't have a cellphone to call our investigators. Lame. Hey,so I don't know if you want to tell mom that story. You decide if she will worry too much. I enjoyed/hated it. My first robbing. No more cellphone. But this week was good anyway. We had a storm where we got soaked. Robbed. Marked people for baptism. Had a good investigator in church. Good stuff. I'm really enjoying my personal study right now. read Alma 8. It talks about Alma when the people of Ammonihah rejected him. The verse about praying fervently and then when the angel appears to him to be of good chear. I put above the verse with the angel a note that says PMA. Hey dad... when you were on your mission and were still learning the language and didn't understand. in the lessons - what did you do? How did you talk with them? I can teach the gospel but not a lot with reagular life stuff. Just wondering

Thanks for writing me... thanks for the advice. I'll write more to it next week. running out of time. Just sometimes I feel like i don't have a purpose because people don't understand me and my companion repeats what I say. I don't know. I know I have a purpose...I just want to help more and I need to have patience. I just want to do it now.

Love,
Taylor

Hi mom!
Dont worry about it! I'm so glad you had fun in cali! This week was good. Transfers was good. I was sad to leave Elder Dressman but that's ok. He is great. My new companions name is Elder Mota. He is Brazilian. He is from Bahia. Feria De Santana. It's above Rio. But he says he wants to live in Washington. haha. I am in the zone of Embu. Not far from Campo Limpo. It's cool here. We have a small jungle reserve here that I love looking at. I miss trees. The address is still the one at the mission home. That's how we get our letters. Portuguese is coming along slowly but surley. I'm understanding more but I'm having fun with it. oh I forgot. We are opening a new area. We don't have anyone to teach and are walking everywhere to find them. Lots of hills. It's awesome! I was built for this. If I didn't like hiking I think I would get bored. But it's cool.

I'm so glad that California was fun. I miss the fam. wow thats a lot of people. haha I love our family. Santa barbara! good stuff. Grandpa. I'm going to write him today. I'm glad that you got to spend time with him. I'll thank him today. Good for Bryce. he is so smart. Tell him I love him. Flaming geyser. I love that place. I'm glad you guys had fun in the sun. Guess what? It's cold here. weird. It's sunny but cold. I didn't think that would happen. I'm glad you enjoyed the card (Mother's Day). Thank you for writing me mom. I love you so much. Please have people pray for me and for this area. We need it. We do have a baptism on the 18th of June so were excited for that. Oh, and our house is huge and has 4 elders living there. The others are really messy. oh well. I love you mom. Have a good week.

P-Day May 23, 2011

Hey Mom!
I'm doing good today. We had a zone activity together which was pretty fun. I wish it wouldn’t have taken so long because now we don't have time to do anything else... but nothing unusual there. We played Nertz and soccer. Nertz! haha fun stuff. We weren't completely helpless. I liked working with Elder Horne because we were able to find stuff out on our own. I could try something and I wouldn't have someone to rely on but the spirit so it was cool. I love Elder Dressman and he has taught me so much but I always like learning some things on my own. So I have one experience that I will share after I write about everything else. I got my package! woo hoo! I have already eaten a lot of it so I need to slow down. Thank you so much! And yes, I have plenty of food. I'm trying not to gain weight. ha-ha. I hope I don’t...if I do I'm going to eat apples every day. Haha I love Sadie! Tell her that I said hi and that I love her! haha Tell Lilly that I love her very much and that I'm proud of her for reading her new scriptures. That will help her so much. That’s great. Oh man... I forgot that he (Fred Nelson) was getting married. tell him I love him and that I said congrats. ok here's the story that happened. So it's not very long but I have told you about our investigator Jane. She is great and she knows that baptism is the right thing to do for herself and her very young daughter when she's older. But she is like her mom Rosa. Rosa has been investigating the church for 2 years and she has told us she knows the church is true and she goes to church all the time. But they lack self confidence or they just have something holding them back. I don't know. But the last time that we talked with them was hard. The lesson was great. The spirit was so strong as we talked about how they can receive answers to their prayers and that their Heavenly Father will help them with anything if they have faith. I don’t know how they couldn't have felt the spirit. It was as strong as I have felt it. We invited them to be baptized together and to help each other to prepare themselves. But they still were scared and declined. I kept a smile on a little when I left but once they closed the door and we were walking home I felt incredibly sad. It was dead silent the whole way home. It was so hard to stop myself from crying in the street. What could be holding them back? It just makes me so sad to think that they know that these things are true but can't take that step. I don’t know. I learned so much about loving the people I teach. I love these two people. I cry over them. I just want them to make this choice that will make their lives happy forever. I always heard people say to love the people and I just learned what that actually meant. After that night I promised myself that I would do all I could to love every single person I talk to. Because when I do that I will have the same desire for them that I have for Jane and Rosa. I want the happiness that I have in my life to be with these people. I was so sad but grateful for this experience. I know that Jane and Rosa will make this decision one day. I'm going to do all that I can to help them. I know gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know that God answers our prayers and loves us more than we will ever know. He loves us so much. I can't even imagine how hard it is for him to see his children in pain and anguish. How much that could hurt him. I love my Heavenly Father and am so grateful for all that he has blessed me with.

I love you mom. thank you for the email! I hope you have fun in Cali! say hi to the family for me and talk to Veda about my mission! I love you!

Taylor

Monday, May 16 P-day Emails

Hi Dad!
This week has been good! I’m glad that your back is feeling better! Oh the garage... haha (referring to the fact that I cleaned it up from our last camping trip, enough to get the van in ) I love it. You know what’s weird? i miss cutting the lawn. I miss the smell. So it’s been raining huh? It’s been raining a little bit here, right now it’s “cold” (haha) which is like normal temperature at home.
Man if you were getting hot at 62 degrees I don’t know how you would handle it here. It’s almost over that every day. But that’s cool that you guys had a picnic. How’s McKenna doing? I hope she’s well and happy. I’m glad she had fun at Cherises’ reception. Yeah I heard about his party. (Referring to Evan Mans’s bday party where is suddenly started raining hard) good stuff! I like rain. Oh and don’t worry about me leaving my companion. We have been talked to about this before and we know who to watch out for. Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep looking out for it. Let’s see what else? I told mom stuff already. I guess I’m trying to keep a good attitude about the language. I hate being treated like a child. I’m just the little missionary who doesn’t understand at times. I don’t know. Just a little annoying. But everyone has to go through it. I’ll learn quickly. This week has been good. I feel like I have gotten better already. This week we have a new missionary training so I’ll have to tell you about that. Elder Horne and I had a division together again. But this time we were all by ourselves. woohoo! scary but awesome! i Liked it a lot. I learn a lot more when I am on my own and try stuff. It was cool. We taught some lessons to some less active members. It went well. Fun stuff. So do you know that I have no time on the mission? I haven’t written in my journal forever! I have stuff I need to write about too. But I will get to it. Well that’s it for me. Have a good week! Love you. Thanks for everything. Thanks for your example.

Hey Mom!
Yeah this week has been great! Our investigators are good but we were kind of bummed this week. Jane didn’t make it to church this Sunday so she can’t get baptized this Saturday but she will get there. Then Danyely moved, so she will be getting the lessons from other elders. But that is still good! We have marked at least 5 others for baptism. It will be good. I got my Package!!! Thank you so much! That was great. I am trying to not eat stuff too fast. Haha It’s hard. But it’s awesome and thanks for the pictures and notes…that was great. I loved hearing from you too. Sorry about the phone connection. Next time it will be better. Yeah it may have sounded good but it was just basic stuff. (referring to Tamara’s comment about house his Portuguese sounded when he spoke with Cameron) but thanks. That was fun. But this week I have felt a little better with the language. I still feel like I’m treated like a child from people because I don’t understand very well… but I’ll just have to live with it. It’s ok. I already asked him if he knew Annie and he said he didn’t. (Referring to Tamara’s question about whether or not Elder Dressman know the Nelson family from the Alpine area…they live in the same general area.) bummer! Haha Yeah for Jessica! (Had her baby) haha that’s crazy! Tell her I said congrats. haha Preston’s not that old is he? Tell Evan congrats as well (Birthday) and that I love everyone! I did hear about your talk! I hope it went well! I love you! ok just one story that happened this week. so we were doing contacts from house to house and I did a contact with a guy who went off on us like he knew everything about our religion. I didn’t understand everything but I understood enough that he was saying that we worshiped Joseph Smith and that Christ wasn’t important to us. It was hard for me to stand there and take that and not be able to say anything because he wouldn’t let us. I was upset. I wanted to tell him as best I could that I would love to tell him that Jesus Christ is central in our lives and that you can’t tell me about my religion when I have been sent here to tell you about it. I learned about how it is hard to love when you are angry with someone or when someone doesn’t want to listen to you. But I know that I need to. I’m going to work on loving everyone even when they don’t want to listen and then help them as best I can. That’s all I have this week. Thank you so much for the package! It may have been a little big but no big deal. You could probably send the same size next time. No one said anything about it. I’m going to send pics home this week. I love you soo much! Have a good week! Love you.

Elder Taylor Summerhays

Mother's Day

Happy Mothers Day!!
I hope that you had a great day yesterday! I'm sorry about the phone. Next time for sure we will be using skype. That was ridiculous yesterday. But it was great to hear your voice. Tell Grandma that I love her and it was great to talk to her. What is her email again? So I don't have much to say today...I guess I could tell you about somthing I learned in personal study today. I have been thinking about this a lot but I'll write all my thoughts in a letter one day. Basically I studied about talents. We talked about it in church on sunday and I felt that I should study and ponder it a little bit more. So I decided that I'm going to look for the talents that I have and use and develop them during my mission. At least the ones that I can. But I read in Mathew today about how are talents can show the light of Christ or the gospel. I had never thought of it like that before. But then it makes sense because we got our talents from God. But like basketball... how could that show the gospel? But then I thought of how I played the game of basketball. Share that with others. But anyway that's something I'm going to work on. I didn't do very well at developing my talents before the misson. I was so lazy. But anyway I will write more about this later. Well I don't have much more to write. I love you. Oh tell Veda to write me about her mission. I want to see if I am serving in some of the same areas as her. I hope that you have a good week mom. Be happy. I love you. bye.

Email to Mom May 2, 2011

Hi Mom!
I'm doing great! Yeah it's been really cool working with the people here. Yes Danyely is listening to the lessons. We talked to her again and she said she read some of the Book of Mormon and she said she prayed and felt that it was true. So cool! We are going to keep working with her. She had college classes on Sunday's so she hasn't gone to church yet but that class ended yesterday so we are going to get her to church this week. Please pray for us and for her. We have been contacting those people that came and we have gotten some people to listen to lessons but we are still working with them. It's really good though. Elder Dressman is awesome! He helps me out a lot. I am eating a lot. I really hope I don't gain weight. I still like the rice and beans. I have only had one thing that i don't like. Some fruit dessert thing. I almost threw it up. haha So bad but i ate it anyway. Good times. My shoes are fine. A little dirty. No blisters. My knee has been bothering me a little bit but nothing huge. I'm looking after it and if it gets worse ill get it checked out. I can't wait for the package! I'll look at it. Oh and if you could talk to Josie about the package she sent. I think she said she sent one. If she sent it to the mtc I probably won't get it because they won't send it forward. Ok, so kind of a bummer I don't think that I can do a web cam. We are going to call from the chapel. Where we live middle class is like our lower class. It's pretty humble here. Garbage everywhere and the river is absolutely disgusting! But I still love it. haha weird. Thats sounds like it was really cool! (Referring to Time out for Women) John Bytheway is awesome! And I love that song! (Come Thou Fount) I have it in portuguese too. Sweet! So I have to write to the president right now but I will write more about my experiences in dads email. I love you so much. You are the best mom in the world. And the food is good but I really miss your cooking. haha I love you mom... miss you. Talk to you on Sunday! Bye!

Tay

Letter to Family 4/25/11

Hey Family!

I am doing great! This first week has been really busy. Elder Dressman is great and has helped me out so much. I’m really grateful for him. Portuguese is tough right now. I don’t understand much but can get my point across, like you said it will come. I know it will. I just have to be patient and not let it get me down. So yeah we had a busy week. The busiest day was on Friday. We had an open house at the chapel and I stood outside the chapel for 6 hours contacting people and seeing if they want to take a tour of the church or hear a message later. I must have contacted more than 40 people.  It was awesome! Some accepted but most just said no or just kept walking…but really a good experience. I got a sunburn too but that’s ok. It had to happen. Our ward is amazing! I have never heard of or seen a ward that is so involved in missionary work. Absolutely incredible. I was contacting people with a 14 year old who wanted to help bring people into the church. He helped me know what people were saying too. So many people helped. They are a good example for what other wards should be like.  I don’t eat much for breakfast… maybe an apple and a piece of bread but for lunch we eat a lot with members and they feed us tons of food and then we don’t eat a lot for dinner. I’m going to buy a lot more food today to snack on. Usually we eat rice and beans with some chicken saucy thing or some other meat and salad. Not bad. Haven’t had anything weird yet. Really good dessert too. On Saturday we had a really good day. In the morning we planned for the next week. We set a goal for two people marked for baptism for that week. We prayed that God would put someone in our way that was ready to hear and accept the gospel. Well, near the end of the day as we were walking down the street we went to this house and this 17 year old invited us in to hear a message…. weird. Doesn’t happen often but she had gone to the open house and liked it and had a Book of Mormon. We taught the first lesson  and at the end we invited her to be baptized on the 21st of May. She accepted without hesitation. That never happens! Everybody knows that but I knew that our prayer had been answered. God put someone that was ready to hear the gospel in our path. I almost started crying during the lesson as I thought about that. It’s just another testimony builder for me of how God does answer our prayers when we work for it. And we definitely worked for it. We are going to continue working with her to help her understand the importance of this decision. I’m so grateful that God hears and answers my prayers. Church was good. Didn’t understand much but it was good. Love the ward. That’s great that Tyler is getting that done (referring to submitting his mission application). Let me know where he is going. oh I love that service project. Scones! I miss those! (Referring to our ward service project at Lake Wilderness Elementary school on Saturday…Tamara and I made scones for about 60 ward members) Oh man tell Dad I’m sorry about his back. Hope he feels better. I’m glad you guys had a good day with the family though. This week has been great. Saw my first cockroach in the apartment. woohoo! haha but that’s cool. I work out every day. Pushups and sit ups and other things. We’re going to start running too. We do our study in the morning until 11 and then we are out teaching and contacting until 9. Lots of walking but it’s great. I love it here!. I love you mom! I miss you all and thank you for the email and your love. You are the best. Love you.

Elder Summerhays

E-Mail to Mom 4/18/11

Hey Mom!

Thats so cool that he called! (Referring to the call receive by Tamara from President Jackson last night telling us that Taylor arrived safely… they spoke for 20 minutes and it was about 1AM in Brazil. President Jackson had great things to say about Taylor and about Taylor’s companion.  He is apparently a very accomplished pianist and an even better missionary.)  Yeah I really like him. He made a really cool analogy with basketball and companions. How right now I am the sophomore on the team and my senior companion is the senior player. I’ll be the top player or scorer someday. I liked that.  They served all of us a lot of good food that first day in their home. We were interviewed and then we went to a chapel to find out who our companions were. My companions name is Elder Dressman. He is great. He has 3 months left and he is helping me out a lot. We live in a small apartment with just us two. Pretty small and a little dirty but not too bad. I am sure that I will have worse. haha. I want to figure out how to send pictures home so that you can see the pictures I have taken.  Things have been good. After I met my companion a member took us back to our apartment. He had his daughters with him and I sat in the back with them and they were talking to me and I could not understand much. A little but it was hard… haha fun times.  After that we went out and taught a guy named Eduardo and we taught about church. I talked to him about the sacrament and the peace that we can feel there as we remember Christ. It was really cool and I could feel the spirit as he excitedly told us that he liked church. It was great. I did not understand everything but I could tell that he was excited. Then we did some street contacting which was fun. I did well and if when I did not understand something my companion would jump in and help. He has definitely helped a lot. My first night was good. I was really tired so I slept well. This morning we did personal study and then we had a district meeting. I went on my first bus ride which was fun. Did not understand much at the district meeting but it was still good. Elder Horne (friend from Maple Valley who arrived in the field the same day as Taylor) is in my district so we do not know anything together. haha. Then we went and ate lunch at a restaurant and went grocery shopping  and now I am typing to you. It is not a very rich area. Lots of dogs running around. Some run down type places but it is cool. But yeah I am loving all of it. I just wish I knew the language so I could enjoy it more, but I know that it will come with time.  I hope that everything is going well at home.  I heard it was snowing which is pretty cool for April. I love you so much mom! Thank you for writing me. My pday is on Monday so make sure to write me on Sunday. I love you! Miss you!

Elder Summerhays

Email to Dad 4/18/11

Hey Dad!

I am out in the field right now and it is awesome! My only issue is the language haha but that makes sense. It will come I know I just want it to be now.   We taught a guy named Eduardo yesterday and I taught about church and the sacrament and other things but after I spoke I did not understand what he said about what I said. But that teaching experience was awesome. He had already had gone to church and said that he loved it. It was so cool to see how excited he was about it. We are teaching him again on Thursday so I will let you know about it on Monday which is my pday. They let me write today because I missed pday. Lets see our place is interesting haha it is small and dirty but not too bad. I went and bought groceries today which was cool. We have gone street tracting and I talked to someone and he agreed to listen to a lesson. My companion is Elder Dressman. he is cool and has been out here for almost 2 years. He has 3 months left.  He is great and has been helping me out a lot. Elder Horne is in my district! So cool! Now I don’t feel alone when I don’t understand something. Lets see what else... there are hundreds of dogs everywhere, they sleep wherever they are and you see them on every street. I rode the bus for my first time. Lets see… the mission president is cool but he is leaving in 3 months. They made us really good food at the mission home. I  do not know what else to say for now…. just write me next week with more questions that you have. That’s cool that it’s snowing again. poor mom (referring to my comment that mom is tired of the cold weather). haha  McKenna is so beautiful! (referring to the prom pictures we sent him.)  I hope that she had fun.  I  love you guys and hope you are happy. Write me back next week. love you!

Elder Summerhays

Letter to Cameron 4/18/11

Hey Cam!
Dude I'm in the field! It's crazy! I have already taught parts of lessons and gone street contacting! way cool! I don't understand everything and need to ask people to repeat things but its way fun. Just trying to have fun with it. Our place is pretty poor but I'm sure I'll have worse in the future. Good stuff. So many dogs here! They're everywhere. But hey I have p-day on Mondays so if you write me do it before then. Love you!

Elder Summerhays

Letter home to Mom (4/13/11)

Today has been really good so far. We went to the temple which is good as usual. This week has been good. We had an area seventy speak to us yesterday and he talked about faith which I really liked. I am so excited to be going out. I may have met my trainer at the temple but I’m not sure. I leave on the 19th for the feild so that’s my last day in the CTM. The Portuguese is coming along still. I really enjoy talking in Portuguese. So we have districts here and I was made a District President so basically I just lead discussions get mail and other stuff. It’s really nothing and kind of boring. I help make goals for us and we start class and help during sacrament meeting. Save that slide show forever! (Taylor is referring to a Taylor and Mom memories slide show we put together before he left and Tamara had mentioned that we watched it last night and it brought tears to her eyes again.) We will add onto it and it will be amazing forever. I love you so much. Ok so I got those shakes and they were so good! (Referring to the chocolate shakes we bought for Taylor and his companion which they picked up on Pday at Mr. Cheney’s cookies directly across from the CTM) amazing. Elder Burkett says he loves you guys. haha. That’s cool. I’m glad that you guys have been able to spend time with Clement’s… tell them I say hi and that I love them. there are so many people here from Washington that you wouldnt even believe it. good stuff. what mission? (Referring to Elder Hogg’s mission call to Brazil) and what mission is Eric Stapely in? um let’s see…I don’t know if I need anything in my package. Maybe some more pictures of family and camping trips. Maybe some candy, peanut butter, and anything else you want to send. I don’t really have any needs right now. Thank you so much! Let’s see…so I taught a lesson yesterday to my teacher who was a fake investigator obviously but I felt it went really well. I felt the sprit as I told him about faith and recieving answers to prayers and then having him accept baptism. I have never felt the spirit that well in a fake lesson. Maybe this time it was because it meant more to me. Not sure but it was still good. The bad part was that I spoke too much and my companion didn’t say as much. I need to work on that. Let’s see…I learned about listening the other day. There was an elder in our district who speaks slower than some, so what people usually do is not listen and say... “uh huh”, and wait for him to be done. But my teacher always pays attention to him. So I tried it and actually wanted to know what he was saying and it felt so good. I felt the spirit as he bore his testimony even if the way he spoke was slow and a little dull. Great experience. I dont have much else. I love you all. I will probably email you guys on monday or tuesday next week right before I leave. You guys are the best I miss you and love you! bye! 

Elder Summerhays

Letter home to Dad (rcv'd 4/6)

Hey dad! So I went to the Sao Paulo temple today which was great! Not as pretty as the Campinas temple on the outside but the inside was gorgeous. Ok so last weekend I went proselyting! It was so scary but awesome at the same time! We handed out 6 Books of Mormon and like 3 phone numbers if they wanted to know more about the book later. So cool. My favorite one was when we talked to this guy who didn’t have a religion but he prayed and knew that God loved him. I bore my testimony about how important prayer was in our lives and that he could pray to know that the Book of Mormon was true. I really felt good as I was doing all this. I couldn’t understand everything but enough that I could talk and say what I needed to say. I really enjoyed it. Conference was amazing! I had so many thoughts and impressions come to mind as I listened. I loved it so much. I loved how it talked about family a lot. I really enjoyed David A Bednars talk. That was great. I wish I could tell you more about everything I learned and loved but I honestly never have time. I’m running out of time right now. haha oh and the music was amazing. They sang the spirit of god. That made me so happy. I have probably told you this before but some of the times that I have felt the spirit the most is when I hear the tabernacle choir singing. I love their music. I heard and saw it all. That great about the blog. Thanks for having him do that. Ask him what the best way to send pictures home is. Please. Haha so I got your letter last week and I’m sending one back today. Thanks for that. And I haven’t gotten the cookies yet but I’m going to try right now. And yeah I have one more pday next week. Love you dad. I’ll try to send more stories in a letter soon. Love you! Elder Taylor Summerhays

Email to whole family from MTC

Hi Mom!

I’m doing great! We didn’t go to the temple today because we are going to the police station to get registered to be here or something, so that should be fun. But my week is going pretty good. It was kind of sad because Elder Pedro left for the mission field and he was mine and Elder Jones really good friend. We love that guy. I’ll tell you a quick story about him. He was baptized about two years ago and he is the only one in his family. His parents didn’t like it but were ok with it. Then he decided to go on a mission and this set his parents off. He was going no matter what but the day he left and he was saying goodbye, he went up to his mother to give her a hug and she denied him. She pushed him away. He tried to do the same with his father and the same happened. His father said that he wouldn’t have a place in their home when he returned. How completely terrible is that? He is so strong though. He was having a lot of thoughts of discouragement for a little bit because he was scared about his family. He was thinking of going home because he loves his family. But he asked us for a blessing. Just the Americans, which really touched me because he thought the Brazilians, would have called him weak. It really humbled me because in my life I know that my mother loves me and my father, and that when I get back I will have a loving family there to give me a hug. He may not have that, and yet he is still out here doing what he is supposed to be doing. I think about all of the “problems´' that I have in my life. When I’m a little tired or the language is difficult. How can I say that those things are hard and let them get me down when he doesn’t even have a family to support him in anything. Thinking about this and about the rest of my mission, I started reflecting on my status as a missionary. How hard am I studying and working? Am I doing everything that I possibly can to prepare to help the people of Brazil? I’ll admit at times my time has been wasted. But last night I bore testimony of the importance of working as hard as I possibly can. Anything else that I have put effort into like basketball or hiking I need to put 100 times more effort into this work. I will not waste mine or the Lords time for one more minute. It is too important. So this week has been a lot of thinking and reflecting and getting myself on track. My companion and I have set goals to study hard and practice and speak Portuguese as much as possible. So we are going to do better. But yeah, I love my companion and we work hard and it’s fun. The language is coming along. I just need to practice more to understand and speak it better. But I love speaking it even if it’s not right. haha! You know rice and beans are my favorite part of the meals. Haha The other stuff sometimes isn’t so good. But that’s ok. Oh man the Campinas temple was so cool! So beautiful. I really enjoyed that. I’m glad that I will get to go to the Sao Paulo temple as well. Soon. Yeah I heard about Elder Horne and that’s awesome! I can’t wait to see his big eyes when he gets here because everybody is just like deer in headlights when they first get here. haha! Oh tell Cameron that I met two of his roommates that lived with him here. I can’t remember their names right now but I will send them next week. I love our family! Tell them I love them. General conference! I’m excited as well. Lots of note taking will be happening. Benevolence. I never really knew the meaning of the word but that definitely is true. We should be serving with a Christ like love and kindness through our actions. I love you Mom! I love you so much and thank you for loving me. No one else has written so I can just keep writing you haha. The CTM is beautiful. I study outside a lot. There is a little courtyard with trees and flowers and stuff so it’s really nice. At sunset my room faces outside so I have gotten some really good pictures of Brazil sunsets! Awesome! Oh I got my first Brazil soccer jersey from Elder Pedro! Sweet! Oh tell McKenna that I love her and to tell Josie that I got here last letter and that I’m sending her one today. I’m going to try to get one off to Keno as well. When does Amber go off to school? Tell McKenna it write and tell me how her prom went. How’s the family doing? What have you been up to besides hanging with the cousins? I heard BYU lost…bummer. Keep me posted on who wins. Sorry this last part is for everyone. haha. Thanks for the cookies by the way. I will pick them up later. I love you all! Thank you for supporting me. It means everything to me. Please pray for me that I can work as hard as I possibly can. I love you so much. 

Your loving son

Elder Taylor Vincent Summerhays

Email From the MTC

Hey cam!

Its going great! i love it here! The spirit is everywhere! haha but seriously its a great place. Brother williams is awesome! and it is the one that you are talking about! he went to goiania and he remembers you! ill give him your number! he is a great teacher and i feel the spirit a lot around him. he has helped me with some things as well. hes awesome!  oh i love the planner! i have a shedule to my life! haha dude the weeks have passed so crazily fast. yesterday was monday and tomorrow is sunday! haha if that makes sense. its going by quick. i really want to get to brazil! i love you man. you are a great brother. we will get to do a ton of things when i get back. Thank you for your testimony. i understood most of it but a couple things i will ask about. here is my testimony.

Eu sei que Jesus Cristo e meu Salvador e Redentor. Eu Sei gue atraves a Expiacao de Jesus Cristo nos podemos ser libertado do pecado. Eu sei que Joseph Smith foi um profeta. Eu testifico que O Livro De Mormon e verdadeiro. Eu sei que Deus tem amor para todos Seus filhos. Eu amo este trabalho. Sou grato por voce e sua exemplo em minha vida.

Em nome de Jesus Cristo amem.

Thank you for writing me cam! write me more and ask me more questions! i need to be better at remembering stuff to tell you and the family. there is just so much stuff going on! haha

Love you bro!

Elder summerhays

Elder Taylor Summerhays' Mission

Hey this is Elder Summerhays' older brother Cameron, I will be taking care of his mission blog. I am excited to be able to do this and I am excited for Elder Summerhays. Thanks for checking out the blog, we appreciated you supporting my brother. :)

Listen to this playlist: Mission