Knocking, Knocking, Knocking...

June 24, 2013

Hello everyone,
This past week was powerful to say the least and the Lord is pouring down His blessings upon these areas we cover in Welkom and Phahamang. We currently have 3 young women between the ages of 17 and 18 (all referrals from the branch) in Phahamang ready to be baptized on July 14th. We just started teaching all 3 of them about a month ago. They are all progressing very well and it will be exciting to see them all baptized together. Phahamang has its struggles when it comes to finding investigators but we are starting to find some great people there.

As for Welkom we did a lot of good ol' knocking on doors this week. Welkom is a little more difficult area because it's mixed with races and people are richer there. We were able to find some really cool people through finding this week and I've never found that many new investigators my entire mission. We found one family of 6 and another family of 4, including a few other individuals. The family of 6 consists of a mother and mostly daughters and we have had 2 good lessons with them so far.
We also found an Afrikaaner named I_____who invited us back. Now when it comes to knocking on an Afrikaans door it is often pretty difficult to get a return appointment. I_____ is the first Afrikaans person I have ever gotten a return appointment with on my entire mission. We came back on Sunday and had a lesson with him, his brother, his cousin and his girlfriend. They are all between the ages of 18 and 30. We had a great lesson with them and helped answer some of their classes with regards to life after death. They have potential to progress and it was the first white family I've taught since I've been in South Africa.

Now the cool story of the week was this family of 4 (N____ family) we found in Welkom. My companion and I have specifically been praying and fasting to be able to find a father led family. The Welkom branch only needs 1 or 2 more active priesthood holders to become a ward. We were doing tracting on Wednesday night. We approached a door and found no one home. As we were leaving a car pulled up to the house. A father jumped out with his 2 sons and greeted us in Zulu. It was weird to hear Zulu because this is a Sotho area and there are pretty much no Zulus living here. We greeted him back and he invited us in. He was so happy and willing to let us in. He sat down with us and said: "So gentlemen what school do you go to and how can I donate?" Haha he thought we were school children, not too uncommon I guess.

Well we explained that we are missionaries and started helping to answer his questions. He hasn't attended church in years because of the politics within churches and the pastors becoming very rich. Then he asked us: "What makes your church different from all the hundreds of churches here?" We began to go into the restoration and we eventually got to Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. After explaining the entire restoration, he said that he could tell something is different here. Then he asked us if we have a website. He got his laptop (pretty rare to see that here...) and pulled up mormon.org. We watched some Mormon messages with him and even got onto the topic of temples. All of this happened in the very first visit with him! We ended up being with him for 2 hours. As we were leaving and telling him thanks for his time he replied: "No, thank you to you guys for opening my eyes." Wow, the Lord was preparing this guy. We will see what happens but we think he has a ton of potential, future bishop!

The Lord is preparing His children to receive the restored gospel and the work is progressing. We currently have a ton of people progressing at the moment and we will hope to see some of them entering the waters of baptism very soon.

Love you all,
Elder Summers

Happy Father's Day!

June 17, 2013

Happy fathers day!! 

I can't believe that one year ago at this time I was giving my farewell talk! It's incredible how fast time flies by. I was able to give a talk in sacrament meeting once again for fathers day except this time it was with the Phahameng branch of 40 people meeting in a very little school building. It was really cold too! This place is becoming colder by the day, I never knew Africa could feel like back home. It was great to give a talk to this little branch and I felt prompted to speak on overcoming trials. There have been a lot of people facing difficult trials within this branch recently so I think it went well. No matter the challenges we may face we can always find comfort in the fact that our Savior loves us and He will help us move on. 

So I got my new companion on Tuesday. I dropped off Elder Ramasinandro on Monday night to take an overnight bus down to Durban (about an 8 hour bus ride) to his new area where he will complete his mission. I then slept over Monday night while waiting for my new companion to arrive Tuesday night. On Tuesday I was with Elder Hilton for the day while he awaited the arrival of his new companion too. Elder Hilton is from Cedar Hills and he went to Lone Peak. I have seen him a lot on my mission and we have become pretty good friends. I can't believe I never knew him before coming here! He is a really cool guy and it was fun to work with him for the day. My new companion then arrived that night and we headed back to Welkom on Wednesday morning. My new companion is Elder Mokoena and he is from Johannesburg, South Africa. He arrived on mission one transfer before me (6 weeks) and this is his 3rd area here in Welkom. He served for 6 months in Swaziland and 7 1/2 months in Durban, those are long times in an area! He is a really cool guy and we are getting along great so far. I believe we are going to find some success together. In case anyone was wondering this is my 6th companion and yes all of my companions have been from Africa. It will be weird when I get an American companion, I've gotten too used to being with Africans. 

So I'll relate one experience from this past week. We were doing quite a bit of knocking on doors because a lot of our appointments were falling through. Literally everyone was rejecting us while knocking on doors which is pretty unusual for South Africa. Usually we can get in about 75% of the doors we knock on. I felt like I was in Margate again (that's my first area for those wondering... it was a very rich and difficult area). Well after knocking for a while I decide we should check on a contact we had met on the street. She had given us her house number a few weeks back and she lives pretty close to the chapel. When we got there we found the father outside and he let us in. The girl who gave us her details was not home but we started talking to the father and mother. Their name is the M_____ family. They are a Xolsa family, Xolsas are a minority tribe in this area (they have a lot of clicking sounds in their language!) I have mentioned before that this area in Welkom is primarily the Sotho tribe but in my first area of Margate it was primarily the Xolsa tribe so it's been a while since I've heard Xolsa. 

The mother then asked us a question: "Are you saved?" A common question here. I responded: "It depends on your definition of saved, how are we saved?" She didn't know how to respond to the question so then her husband sort of was making fun of her. The husband said: "You are a church goer every week but you are empty up here! (pointing to his head)" Then the wife shot back in kind: "It's better I go to church every week then going to the tavern everyday like you!" We started laughing, we couldn't help ourselves. Then the husband said: "It doesn't matter where we pray. We can pray at home, on the toilet or even in the tavern! 'Dear God, How many beers can I drink tonight?' and 'Dear God, please help me drink these 3 beers!'" My companion and I started laughing so hard. This father was hilarious. After a little discussion the mother really wanted us to come back but as we were leaving the father said: "I probably won't be there, I'll be praying in the tavern." Ahh too funny. 

Well we went back to visit this family yesterday. They have 9 people in their family, mostly girls. We sat down with 6 of them yesterday (mother, 3 daughters, young son and the house keeper). As we came into the home it was weird to hear Xolsa language again, I haven't heard it for almost 10 months. I could still remember some Xolsa so they all started laughing when they heard me (a white American) clicking and asking them in their language some questions haha. This country has too many languages but I have learned some basics in Zulu, Xolsa and Sotho. I haven't learned any Afrikaans yet, that language is hard! Anyways, we taught them the entire restoration and they seemed pretty interested. They have a very limited knowledge of the gospel but we feel like they can make some progress. We left them with the Book of Mormon in English and Xolsa, they were excited to see we have the Book of Mormon in their language. We'll see what happens with this family, we meet them again this Friday. The smartest person in that lesson that understood the best was the 10 year old boy! That kid had great English for a 10 year old and I was shocked that out of everyone he understood the best. It's always weird for me to see some kids speaking such great English here because it's not their first language. 

Well it's been a pretty great week with my companion and I'm excited to head into my 2nd year of serving the Lord. I cannot wait to see what is still to come and the miracles that lay in store. I love you all and I am so grateful for your continued support! I am especially thankful to those that write me letters, they mean so much. 

Love,

Elder Summers

Transfers

June 10, 2013

Hello everyone,

First off I just want to congratulate my dad and my new step mom on their marriage! I wish I could have been there but unfortunately there are quite a few miles separating American Fork and Welkom, South Africa haha. I am so excited for the 2 of you and wish you all the best moving forward. It's interesting about a year ago this time I went through the temple for the first time to receive my endowment at the very same temple you were married in. That's pretty cool!

This past week was pretty amazing. We had some awesome spiritual experiences and we found some great new people. We were able to find a couple of fathers that are pretty interested in our message in Phahameng. The difficult part of serving in Phahameng is the language barrier. The majority of the community is very impoverished. The schools there are not teaching English adequately so we struggle to communicate. Most of the older people only know Sesotho and Afrikaans (learned Afrikaans in school during apartheid) so Americans like myself really struggle. We almost always have a translator with us but it really is just too hard to teach the gospel having everything translated. Anyways, these fathers we found actually speak English pretty well so we are hoping to progress with them. And by the way, we don't face many language problems in Welkom because it is an established community so almost everyone knows English here.

We had a really funny lesson this past week when we were teaching a father, his daughter and the brother in law. Only the daughter knew English and the 2 older men don't speak English. One of the men speaks Xolsa and Sotho and the other one only knows Xolsa. Our translator with us only knew Sotho so we were having English translated to Sotho then Sotho translated to Xolsa. We literally were talking in circles but they were such humble men and they really want to learn. We are hoping to focus on the daughter because she knows English very well and wants to learn. Hopefully we can help her be converted and she can help her father and brother in law learn.

Then on Saturday we had a lesson that I'll never forget. We went in to teach a young mother for the first time. Her younger brother has been less active and when we were visiting with him she asked if we could come teach her. When we sat down and started teaching her it was obvious she doesn't know much about the gospel. She is very confused by the many different Christian churches and stopped going to church a while ago. She said every time she goes to church the pastors just dump information and she doesn't learn anything. As we began expounding the basic doctrines of the church the spirit instantly filled the room. We were helping her understand basic questions such as who is God and what is the gospel. Those seem like such simple questions but they are incredibly misunderstood here! As we began answering her questions and teaching her both my companion and I got the same impression from the spirit: "Challenge her to baptism." At first when that came to my mind I said: "What? It's only our first meeting with her!" But as we challenged her to baptism she accepted and she was so excited. I have never seen someone so happy to hear to gospel and be baptized.

She said that every time we come to visit in her home with her brother she "feels something different." She said that every time we leave she feels something leaving with us. We helped her understand that's the spirit and asked her if she would always like to have that feeling. There are also a few members who live around her and she says that she sees something different in their lives. They are always blessed and seem happy and she said she wants that. This just goes to show that example speaks louder than words! You never know who is watching and I am very grateful to the example of those faithful saints in living the gospel. Because they are living the gospel it has prepared the way for another sister to enter into the waters of baptism. When we were teaching her I couldn't help but smile, I don't think I've ever felt that happy in a lesson. And the best part is that this has motivated this less active brother to come back to church. He has been at church the past 2 weeks after not attending for a few months.

Keep living the gospel, you never know who is watching.

Love,
Elder Summers

Playing with Lions!

June 3, 2013

Hello to you all!

Yes you read that subject title correctly, playing with lions! Yeah so for pday earlier today 4 of us missionaries went to a lion park. We got a personal tour and were able to go play with baby lions and tigers. It was so cool! They can really bite and scratch though, I have a lot of scratches on my arms. It was a once in a lifetime experience though, there are many places like that in South Africa. I got some great pictures and video, I'll try to upload them next week.

As for the work this past week there is not a lot to report on. The baptism of the father in Welkom was great and it is another priesthood holder here in Welkom! Now that Welkom is apart of a Stake they have potential to become a ward. They are only a few priesthood holders away from becoming a ward. We are really searching to try and find those fathers out there!

I'll relate one neat experience from this past week. We have a YSA brother who has recently started working with us here in Welkom. He hasn't really worked with the missionaries before but we started to encourage him to come with us (he was less active for along time but he became active again last year). We have really been pushing him to serve a mission and he decided he wants to serve a mission! He is beginning the process of putting in his papers, it is really exciting to see him make this decision.

Well after making that decision to serve a mission he had a pretty hard trial hit him last week. He received news that he lost his mother. Even after losing his mom he kept coming and doing missionary work with us to stay focused and feel the spirit. Well on Saturday we could tell he was struggling and offered to give him a blessing. When we gave that blessing I could feel Heavenly Father's love for this young man. The spirit was powerful and every individual in the room could feel it. Heavenly Father knew his struggles and was very aware of his needs. The power of the priesthood is real and I have seen it manifest time and again on my mission. For those of us that hold the priesthood let us never forget the authority we hold. The authority to act in God's name! Let us never forget that and always live worthy of this sacred calling. As Elder Holland says, we must sanctify ourselves because we never know when lightning will strike. There have been so many instances on my mission this first year where we have been called to exercise our priesthood in the most extreme circumstances. As priesthood holders we must always be ready because Heavenly Father needs us!

I hope everything is going well back home, my prayers are always with you.

Elder Summers

Finding the Lost Sheep

May 27, 2013

Hello everyone,

This past week has been one of going out and finding the lost sheep. We did a lot of less active work and we were able to find even more less actives that haven't met with missionaries in years. A couple of
them did not give us the warmest responses! It was really exciting to see that yesterday a mother and her daughter came back to church for the first time in over 2 years after we had met with them a couple of
times. Everyone at church was so excited to see them and they felt like they had come home. It is a pretty joyful experience to see less actives come back after being gone for so long.

There was one pretty neat experience that I will relate very quickly. Time and time again the scripture in Alma 26:37 (which I quote so often) manifests itself in this great work. The Lord truly is mindful
of the needs of His children and we are His hands upon this earth! We were working in Phahamang, the branch pretty far from us. This littletown is very impoverished and people live in very modest homes. It's
hard to describe the living conditions of some of these "homes." Well one of our appointments fell through at night and we were thinking about who to check. It's hard to check people at night because there
is so much crime that most people are indoors and don't really like visits at night.

We were prompted to check on some less actives that we visited a couple weeks ago. When we got there one of the less actives ran out the door to avoid us so we met with his sister and the little ones. We
sat down and sung some primary songs with the little ones and talked a little bit. Then before we left one of the little girls said the prayer. She prayed that Heavenly Father would provide them with their
daily bread. As we were walking out my companion noticed that everything in the kitchen seemed really empty and clean. He asked if they had dinner yet and the older sister said no. Then they told us
that hadn't eatten in over 2 days and they were just drinking water. These are members of the church who are living on nothing! Their mother only comes back once a month to give them money for food and
they had run out of money. We left them with some money for food and electricity and notified the branch president. That little girls prayer was answered through the Lord's servants, the Lord was mindful
of the needs of this family at this time. It was a special experience that humbled me even further and made me forever grateful for the basic neccesities of life I am provided each day.

We also have a baptism coming up next Sunday. A father who has been taught by missionaries for a while will be baptized here in Welkom. We have a couple other people who are slowly progressing but not much else to report at the moment with regards to investigators. Just a lot of less active work which is also a very important part of this work. There is nothing better then seeing the Lord's lost sheep return to
the fold.

Thank you for all your support and love. I love you all!
Elder Summers

The Spirit of God

May 20, 2013

Family and friends,

It has been an absolutely powerful, uplifting and humbling week. God truly does live and this really is His church! I can't even begin to express how I'm feeling at the moment. Let me just start out by saying that I was struggling a little bit coming into my new area because I was missing all of the great people in PJ. It's always tough coming into a new place because once again you have to learn everything from the start! I received so many tender mercies from the Lord this past week and answers to my prayers. Sometimes the call to serve as a missionary can be quite overwhelming especially with heavy responsibilities. As I was reflecting on some of the things weighing me down and trying to see how I could best move forward. As I was pondering and reading I immediately had the words of a hymn come into my mind: "Because I have been given much I too must give..." I have been blessed with so very much and the least I can do is serve the Lord for 2 years with all my heart, might and strength. Although at times the call to serve can be difficult, it's worth it! I felt the Lord ever present in my life this past week and found that just going to work and serving those around me was the best antidote for any struggles.

Well those answers to my prayers came at the start of my week. We then pressed forward going out and rescuing the lost sheep in our area. We were able to track down a couple of less actives that haven't seen the missionaries in years. Sometimes it is so difficult to find these less actives but we were led to a few of them. I will relate one experience that helped me feel the presence of the spirit stronger than ever before on my mission. We were trying to find a less active girl who was around 25 years old. We went to the address but found that she had moved and her number had changed. We were able to find her new address which just happened to be within the vicinity. As we visited her new address at first we found a friend who said that someone by the name we were looking for did not live there. But as we were about to leave then I asked who lived there and found that she was using her other name (Africans have many different names). We were led in and just "happened" to find her there. Most of the time she is working and not home but she just once again "happened" to be home at that time. Nothing happens by coincidence in missionary work.

As we sat down and began to talk to her she told us everything that had been happening. She hadn't been to church in a couple of years and was kind of hiding because of some things that had happened. We were able to relate to her the power of the atonement and the story of Enos. I love the story of Enos in the first 8 verses because it shows how Enos was forgiven. His guilt was swept away because of his faith in Jesus Christ. I could relate to her on some levels and the spirit was so strong. I really hope she will have the courage to come back and overcome the trials that she has been faced with. It gave me further testimony that the Lord is mindful of all His children.

Well I thought the week was going pretty well and then it got even better. We came to Bloemfontein (about 2 hours away, we apart of that district) for district conference on Sunday. It was a historic weekend because Bloemfontein was turning into a stake! Okay so that might not sound like a very big deal but let me give you guys some background. South Africa has not had a district turned into a stake in a very very long time. Most of the stakes created here have been stakes that have been split or stakes added onto an existing stake. Elder Carl B. Cook came to Bloemfontein under the direction of the First Presidency to create Bloemfontein into a stake of zion. This was Elder Cook's first time since he has been a in the Africa South East area presidency and a member of the 1st quorum of the seventy that he has seen a district created into a stake here in Africa. That kind of gives you an idea of how incredible this moment was.

As the service began on Sunday you could just feel the excitement in the air. The chapel was completely packed! Just imagine one of our stake centers being packed all the way to the stage and then having to use overflow classrooms. There were close to 1,000 people there! The spirit was so strong and the meeting started off by singing hymn number 2 "The Spirit of God." Wow, I don't know what else to say. It was powerful when we sung that hymn as a congregation! There were so many wonderful testimonies and it was great to see the new stake presidency called. And to make it even better about 15 people from the PJ branch were attending! I was able to see some of my great friends from PJ, including Lebohang and Lerato who we baptized. They were both sustained and set apart to receive the Melchizedek priesthood at conference. That will be so great for that branch! After conference we stayed in a hotel for the night because we had zone conference the next day (today). The hotel was so nice!! We had a way nice breakfast made for us and incredibly comfortable beds. I felt like I was in the MTC again haha. That was a lot of fun!

And then to top it all off we had an incredible zone conference today. This was President and Sister Von Stettens last zone conference on mission. They are heading home in just a months time! I thought I had felt the spirit strong the past week but I can't even begin to describe the spirit that was felt in that chapel as 40 Elders sat and listened to their mission president bear his testimony and final words. I have never felt more committed and ready to go out and serve the Lord. President Von Stetten is an incredible mission President and it will be so sad to see him go. His service to this mission has been unbelievable. He completely turned the Durban mission around from what it used to be 3 years ago (it didn't have the greatest reputation before). I only wish I could help people fully understand the peace and comfort that comes from the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Although the gospel requires sacrifice and trials do come, I know my Savior loves me and I always have the strength to move forward with that knowledge. This truly is God's true and living church upon this earth today, I have no doubt. What we know will always trump what we don't know in the words of Elder Holland. Never let your doubts or questions with regards to the gospel overcome what you know to be true! I love you all!

Elder Summers

The Blind Leading the Blind

May 6, 2013

Hello everyone,

Where do I start this email? This has been an absolutely crazy week with so much to talk about. First off I'm here in Welkom (that is "Welcome" in Afrikaans) and the area is completely different from my
first area. In PJ I was the only white person but here there are quite a few whites. It is about 80% Sotho and 20% Afrikaaners/English people here in Welkom. Welkom is a mining community so whenever mines shut down everything is cut back and a lot of people move. The branch fluctuates quite a bit based off of what is happening in Welkom. There is a chapel here in Welkom which is really nice! The chapel was built in the late 1950's but it was recently rennovated so it's nice inside. The branch right now has between 45 and 60 people that come to church with quite a few less actives. The auxilaries are all filled and everything is very organized so I don't have to act as a chorister or clerk anymore which is nice!

Okay now to the kind of crazy thing I learned when I arrived. My companion and I actually cover 2 branches! The other branch we cover is in Bultfontein which is about 75 km's away (about 45miles). The
branch there was started about 10 years ago by a single man and his family! It is now a very powerful branch with about 50+ members each week at church. It is very similar to my area in PJ, very humble
people and no whites there. The people there are pretty poor. The meet in a high-school in the center of the area and from what I've seen it looks like a pretty nice school. The branch president there is legit
and loves missionary work. The branch has "mini missions" each month where they go out after church and do tracting! Then they give all of their referrals to the missionaries. Pretty cool eh? We switch off
where we go to church each week. Yesterday we went to church in Welkom so I'll have to tell you about church in Bultfontein next week. We switch off where we work each day. We work in Bultfontein on Tuesday and Wednesday and the rest of the days we work in Welkom.

So our district currently consists of 3 companionships. My companion and I in Welkom, 2 Elders in Kroonstad (small group meeting about 70k's from Welkom) and 2 Elders who just opened an area in Virginia (about 20k's from Welkom). On Wednesday when I arrived we went with the Elders and the couple missionaries to dedicate the city of Virginia for missionary work. Virginia has a few members living there and it's a really nice community. We went to a hill overlooking the city and said a dedicatory prayer. It was a very special experience and there was an incredible peace in the air. I believe that area will thrive! It's exciting to see the expansion.

Okay so you are probably wondering why I titled this email "the blind leading the blind." So within our district 4 Elders are brand new and the other 2 Elders have only been in their areas for one transfer (6
weeks)! My companion is completely lost here in Welkom. There are so many round abouts! They do not have traffic lights here in Welkom but instead just round abouts. It is crazy and really confusing. So my
companion doesn't really know the area all that well and it's been a struggle. I'm really considering buying a gps or else we are just going to run around lost. We are really trying to find less actives
but that is hard to do when you are lost.

We did manage to find a couple of really cool less active families though! I'll tell you about one of them we met yesterday. Their name is the C_____ family and they are really fun. There is a mother and 2
daughters (ages 18 and 13). Both my companion and I met them for the first time last night. They haven't met with missionaries in a long time and they haven't been to church in a couple of years. With less
actives you can't just go straight into their home and tell them to come to church, you really have to get to know them first. We spent 2 hours in their house just talking, laughing and getting to know them
without even discussing the gospel. After that we were about to get the daughters to open up. After there mom left the room to go cook we were about to get the daughters to tell us what was going on. They
told us they were all sealed in the temple about 10 years ago as a family. Then we found out their dad passed away in 2009 and their mom couldn't deal with coming to church anymore because it brought too
many memories of their father. They are still committed to the gospel but we just have to get them to see the light again. I was able to share some of my experiences with losing my mother the same year in
2009 and how the gospel and church helped me pull through that. The spirit was so strong and they really had a desire to help their mom start coming to church again. I think we'll be able to get this family
back but it may take a little time. The spirit was strong though and I was grateful we were able to be led by the spirit and discover their needs.

It is unfortunate to see people go less active in the church because I know the blessings the church has brought me in my life. I was able to overcome some of th emost difficult challenges in my life because of the gospel and the loving support of church members. In the worlds of Elder Andersen (I paraphrase): "You do not leave the protection of a storm shelter right as the tornado is in view" and the same applies to the gospel. You should not leave the roots of the church and the foundation of the gospel in your life as the challenges present themselves. Life is not easy but neither is salvation, as Jesus Christ
told his apostles in John 16:33: "...In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be not afraid I have overcome the world." There is someone who has experienced our pains and knows our challenges, Heavenly Father is very mindful of our needs and we can overcome anything as long as we exercise a little bit of faith and patience.

Love you guys and Happy mothers day this week!!
Elder Summers