Taylor writes home every Monday so be sure to check for a new letter each week!                                                                                                       Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and TEACH THEE WHAT THOU SHALT SAY. (Exodus 4:12)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

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

Friday, May 13, 2011

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