St. Cloud Letter # 10, Aug 31 2009

Hey Guys!
Well Ed charges were dropped so he should be good to. Elder D was in a bad mood today, good thing I'm going on exchange with Elder Peters! LOL! We commit Charles to be baptized and his date will be the last week in September. That's so sweet. I have had the best 2 months of my life out here. I have to just keep working hard. We are having a lot of good luck and the Lord is preparing people for us. We went to see Ed and set up another date for this Saturday! We are going on a Temple tour with the Hall's and Charles tonight and I can't wait. I tell everyone I meet that this is the true church. I just tell the truth. I am trying to be like the Prophets of old and I want to have the spirit with me always. God has prepared people and I want to find them. I really want to love the people and teach them by the spirit. Ok I just clean the mold out from under the stove and it was the worse thing I ever smelt. It was nasty. It was like old milk and stuff that boiled over and it made the whole house stink. Ok we had to drop Ed or I should say he dropped us. We went to talk to him and he gave us all our books back and said he didn't want anything to do with us. We went back later to talk to him and he didn't change his mind. So my knuckles are swollen from hitting the wall. I was so sad. Elder D. bought me some ice cream because I was crying. We have grown closer today because of it. We still have a date for Charles on the 26 of Sept...which is so far away. I hope he can withstand Satan, so please pray for him. I love him so much and I want him to have this in his life.I am so happy but at the same time super sad. I was pondering a pray that Charles gave. He said something like "Thank you Lord for sending these guys my way. You know that I have been searching." It touched me and boosted my faith. I really want to serve the Lord my whole life. I might teach @ the MTC when I get back. This is all that matters. I don't want to be a 2 year missionary, I want to be a missionary for life. We should find out transfers this Saturday.....I hope me and Elder D. stays here. We have so much going on and we are doing good. I'm growing so much and I love being out here. Is Jack doing okay? I'm getting a little worried about her? Tell her I said to make it to church every week, it's really more important than anything else! she needs to be sealed, she NEEDS to be SEALED, tell her for me please! I can't get it off my mind. Keep Cal close to the church. There is so much evil mom, it's time to step up our game! I will do all I can here but I need yours and Dad help! Just 2 years, then I will take over when I get back. The church is the most important thing we have. Without it we can't even be with our family's forever! Help me make the family understand that. Mom there are sooooo many people who don't understand the truth. We have to help them. It's so important! I have changed so much and I didn't understand unti I got out here, but now I will serve the Lord the best I can everyday for the rest of my life. That is why we are here to help each other get back to our Heavenly Father. Well sorry for being a preacher, but that is how I feel. Maybe I'm just in missionary mode, but I plan to do that and I'm not joking. I will serve the Lord until my last breath. Well I love you guys so much!
Elder Summers

St. Cloud Letter # 9, Aug 24 2009

Hey,

We have President interviews. I just hope Pres. D doesn't get mad at how long my hair is. I need it cut pretty bad and I didn't shave yesterday, so I need a shave quite badly too. It's weird I have to shave so much it's not even funny. Anyway I hope I don't get sent home. Anyway it all went good. I've been study preach my gospel for like 50 min trying to get ready for the Halls. I'm so worried that I'm going to mess up but Brodee's favorite scripture... Joshua 1:9 helps out a lot. I know if I teach by the spirit it will work out fine, I just have to have faith. Funny story...Elder D. was riding down these stairs on his bike and ate it so hard. His hand was bleeding. I felt so bad but now that he's ok I can't stop laughing. He was straight up in the air forever, it was so funny. We are going on exchange with the zoneleaders. It should be fun and Elder D. can get a break from me and me from him! I went with Elder Linley...I learned a lot from him. We ran from house to house. I did real well and taught with the spirit. We got a lot of potential gators. My favorite scripture is 2Nephi 26:27...look it up! Well we were getting ready for Ed's baptism and had the font all filled up and everything and we found out Ed has a court date. We had to cancel the whole thing. I hope things work out and he still gets baptized. Well he said he'll still come to church but he didn't show up. Well on Monday we are going to go work on our knifes again. Brother Wright's so cool. My handle is from a East India stag horn.

This next part is for Calleigh...hey I have some advice for you. You can take it or leave it but know I prayed about it and I love you. Ok always try your hardest and and learn all you can in school and church. Pray and ask for help. Be kind to everyone no matter what they say or do. Listen to Dad, learn from him, see his kindness and how hard he works for us. Watch how he's kind to everyone he meets. Look at Brodee and learn from him as well. Look how he studies hard to get what he wants. Now watch Mom cuz she has the most love for you. No one on this earth loves you as much as she does or can. Learn how to be a good mom. If you ever need help pray and ask for help and remember Heavenly Father loves you, But remember that Dad, Mom and Brodee are there for you and learn from them NOW while your young. Now as far as church...you need to do all you can for the church and a good way to do that is live the gospel. Live like you are next to Jesus all the time. As soon as you do bad ask for forgiveness. Keep the Holy Ghost with you always and be an example to everyone. Just do what you know in your heart is right and be happy. Don't date any boys till after high school. Just have fun in school. I love you so much and I want the best for you and the only way I know to get the best is through Jesus Christ and his church.

Ok ....Hey mom #60 Travis Bright for the cowboys...his grandparents are in my ward and I talked to them Sunday. Also we were tracking and we found two new gators. One is way good..he invited us in and we asked him if he knows the things we are saying are true and if he'll be baptized and he said yes, that the Lord has been preparing him. His name is Charles Cameron, he is maybe around 50 or so but he's ready. Today I realized I didn't have my name tag on and it like 5pm! Funny HUH! Well I love you so much, you are the best Mom ever. Thank you for babying me but be tougher on Calleigh, teach her everything and help her learn everything you know. Just keep her on the right path. Don't worry bout me, just focus on her...this is going to be a key time in her life...high school is fun but super dangerous. Stay close to the church and be an good example ...no more swear words in front of her. I love you and I know you know all of this but I worry about her. Don't ever forget you and Dad made me who I am today!

Love, Elder Summers

St.Cloud Letter #8, Aug 17,2009

Hey Guys,

Well we went and played volleyball today @ the church. I wanted to play Basketball but we have members and maybe some gators coming so we played volleyball. It was fun! We had a lot of people that weren't very good but they were trying hard. Elder D. is cutting Elder Stewart's hair. I need a hair cut but I guess I can get one next week! I'm scared to have him cut mine. O yeah yesterday I was on a roll. First I asked this guy if he would read 3Nephi 11 and he said he would, then we met this lady and she said come back and we'll have dinner and we can talk to her, so that should be good. I hope we can get her going so she'll be are new gator. We had a good lesson with the Halls, Tracey the wife made us cookies, so that was nice. She is moving along good. Mom I never have time to write people. It seems like the only time I have time to write is when I'm on the pot. But anyway can you tell Ty & Tye and Aunt Nana, the Windsors and Namy and Papa thanks for the letters and packages. Tell them I'm so happy when I hear from them and they are all so sweet! Thanks them for their support and that they all give me the boost I need and to stay happy and strong! So when we were tracking this guy said that our Prophet is fake and he always changes his mind. So I told him I know the Prophet is true and I bore him my testimony. Elder D told me afterwards what I did was wrong....I told him I would never back down when people talk bad about my church, I know it's true and I'm proud of it and I can't listen to people talk bad about it and that well never change! But anyway .....Hey Guys it's weird but I love the Book of Mormon so much now! I want to understand it better! I'm reading about the brother of Jared right now. Oh I saw the Temple yesterday....you like come over this hill and Bam there it is. It's so beautiful! So we knock on this guys door the other day and he wasn't interested but he said to watch out for those giants grasshopper, they have been jumping on people all day. He was right! So I was looking in the mirror and guess what.....I have a missionary farmers tan!! I hate it .....my neck is two different colors right at the collar. It looks so dumb but I look at it as a sign of working hard. Another sign is that I'm soaked from sweating everyday! Haha.. Oh I have seen at least 5 black snakes already....scary huh!!! Brother Wright is helping us make knifes. It's going to take like 3 months, it should be fun. So we have like 12 or 13 gators we are working with, so we are working hard. It's weird I didn't think I would miss you guys this much, but I know I'm out here for a good reason. I want to do missionary work my whole life. Well mommy I miss you but don't worry about me I'm doing good! I know the church is true and I know life is hard but it is worth it. Tell everyone I love them!

Elder Summers

St.Cloud Letter #7 Aug 10,2009

Well it's p-day today...and it's a zone one. so like all the zone does the same thing together. They went to Gator land. Elder Stewart still didn't feel good so I stayed home with him. He gave me like 4 ties for it....hahah! Me and Elder Stewart just napped all day. I need to get your email address so I can set up mine next Monday. I hope I don't get in trouble because we are suppose to write President Darrington every Monday but I didn't!!! Owell!! Elder D. is working on his bike and we are going tracking. We ended up getting caught in the rain! We were soaked!!! We stopped at a member house and did the dishes for them and helped clean until it stopped raining. Mom start the lead in missionary work. Help the missionary's as much as possible, not so much with food but with people. Make Dad and Cal fellowship people. We all need each other in these last days so please PUSH ON! Well it's been the longest and shortest week of my life. It's crazy, I'm learning so much everyday but I feel like I have been doing this forever! I don't know why but people are rude...if they would just give us a chance...we are only trying to help them so why can't they see that. Anyway...Connie this lady we are teaching wants to come to church and that just made my night! But anyway things are going good, it's hard but really good. I'm changing for the better, but I wish I had more energy to do more! I can't believe it's been a month. We have 8 gators we are teaching. That's what we call investigator! In Church we got to teach primary and it was fun. Please send jerky. I miss you guys a lot but time is flying by. I got your letter that James had his baby and it sounds like Riley is going to be cold!

Love you, Elder Summers

St. Cloud Letter #6, Aug 4, 2009

Hey Guys!
Got here! Yesterday was a good day...Ed Sanders is this guy me and Elder Delucchi met and he wants to have a baptismal service the 22 Aug. First we have to get him to stop smoking. He is a pretty cool guy! I have met a lot of cool people! This morning I had to wake up @ 5:30 so we could go eat breakfast with the Solomon's! I'm going to eat a PB & J for lunch and then we are going tracking. I'm so cheap now I even eat the heel of the bread! I remind myself of Dad! Tell everyone thanks for the letters and keep them coming. It's always good to heard from you guys! The other missionary's in our house are Elder Stewart and Elder Wilks...they are pretty cool! I told Elder Stewart that my mom was a Stewart and we are probably cousins or something! President and Sister Darrington are cool too! We went to our first dinner appointment with the Philip's...they just got married like a week ago! Elder D and Bro. Philips had it all set up to make my meal all GREEN! HaHa very funny huh? Everything was green...my cup, juice, fork, food and even Elder D's tie! I gave Elder Stewart a blessing cuz he was sick. It was good and I hope he gets better! The house we are staying in is Ok..it's kind of old but it's nice and cool, but i don't have a pillow yet and that sucks! It doesn't matter though cuz when I hit the bed I'm out! We are riding bikes today for the first time! My bike is nice but it's kind of like I'm riding my bike in the shower cuz I'm wet all the time, it's crazy humid! Tomorrow we are going to play softball with the ward...I'm so excited to meet everyone! The Hall's are coming, they are a family we are teaching. I went to my first church and it was SICK...the members are cool to help with missionary work!!! I loved it!
well I need to go study, Love Elder Summers!