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