Sons of Thunder

Hello my dearest family,

I know it's late but I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I honestly kind of forgot it was Thanksgiving, it was just another normal day here in South Africa. Although we were watching a Mormon message from President Monson on gratitude. I loved part of what he said when he talked about just pausing and recognizing the many blessings we have each and everyday. Often times we forget to recognize the small things in life because are so busy. I do the same thing! Each day is a blessing from the Lord and it was a great reminder.

I've nicknamed our companionship the Sons of Thunder hence the title of the email. My companion is such a stud and we are finding a ton of success together. We also sing quite well together so that's where I came up with the name. This past week was one of the best weeks on mission so far! First off a couple of the lessons we had were some of the most spritual experiences I've had on mission so far. On Tuesday we met with this guy named O_____ and it was only the second time missionaries met with him and my first time meeting him. We were talking about prayer and he told us how he had been praying for help from God when the next day the 2 Elders knocked on his door. After relating that story to us, I told him that was a direct answer to his prayers. We then went on to introduce the Book of Mormon to him and I had a very overwhelming feeling to challenge him to baptism. After challenging him he accepted and said he wants to change his life. We are planning on having him baptized in January  

Then last night I thought I had a dejavu moment. We went to meet this Ma who has been taught by missionaries twice. This was also my first time meeting her. We showed up late for the appointment so she just wanted to reschedule. We sat down in her home and after we scheduled an appointment we asked how she had been doing. We got to talking and eventually she started asking some questions about the Book of Mormon. Then she basically broke down and started crying, she told us about all of the challenges she has been facing and how she has earnestly been praying to God for help. She has incredible faith. I shared with her some scriptures that have really helped me in my times of trial and she was very grateful. I'm so glad that we were able to be an answer to her prayers and act as a "tender mercy" in her life. Last night we had the chance to be there for her and encourage her. The reason I say it was a dejavu moment was because the exact same situation happened in Margate with Sister P______ who 2 months later was baptized. The Lord is mindful of each of us and will always answer our prayers in His own time. Our Heavenly Father really does care about us. I love the scripture in Alma 26:37 that says the Lord is mindful of each of us and his bowels of mercy are over all of His works. I have seen this manifest time and time again and I cannot deny it. The church is so true.

There is a quote that I love that has kept me motivated, especially in times where mission kind of seems long. "Don't count the days, make the days count." Sometimes we get caught up in looking at the future instead of being happy with the now! I'm guilty of this, the more I live in the "now" the more I enjoy life. Each day is a blessing and we should never take the sun rising for granted. It reminds me a lot of that talk President Uchtdorf gave in General Conference about enjoying time now and being happy with what we have been given.

Thanks for all of your support, you all are amazing and I hope you have a great holiday season!

Love,
Elder Summers

Long Week

11-19-12

Okay so I typed a really long email to ya'll but the internet wasn't working once I sent the email so now I have to type this whole thing again! This is going to be a lot shorter because I don't have much time now.

Dumelang!!

That means hello in Sotho. Sotho is very different from zulu but at least there are no clicking sounds in this language. I kind of lied in my last email home, I said I would be emailing from a different country today... well not quite. Transfers were kind of crazy and there was some confusion. I'm in Phuthadajahba aka PJ. It's on the border of Lesotho and it's in the Lesotho zone. We go into Lesotho sometimes for meetings but that's about it. I also thought I would be driving but apparently there was some miscommunication. I'm actually in a walking area which is really nice! My companion is Elder Khultedi and he is from Johannesburg. He has been on mission for 3 months, he just finished training and I'm his what they call "follow up trainer." He is a really hard worker and is very obedient, we are getting along very well. I've had 3 great companions so far and I hope it's like that for the rest of my mission. This area is wayyyyy different from Margate. All of the roads here in PJ are dirt roads, the only roads that are paved are the main roads. The branch here is really young, it's only been a branch for about 2 years. There are about 50 to 60 members at church each Sunday which is pretty good considering the branch hasn't been around for long. Most of the members here have only been in the church for 1 to 3 years at the most. The people here are so humble and friendly, I'm really going to enjoy my time here.

On my way to PJ I had to take a bus for 5 hours. I was the only one on the bus and I had the chance to talk to this young lady sitting next to me. We started talking about her family and about how the U.S. is different to South Africa. After talking for a while we got onto the topic of religion. She wanted to know why there are so many churches and why our church is different. Well that led perfectly into the restoration and by the time I was done she was really wanting to meet with missionaries. By the end of the bus ride I had taught her the entire restoration and it was cool to see that she was so interested. She was headed to a different area then me so I got her contact info and gave her a pass along card. It's amazing the people you meet on mission!

All of the kids here are so cute. They love to yell "luguwa" which means white guy in Sotho. The 'g' sound makes a gutteral sounds like the 'g' in German or Dutch. I am seriously the only white guy here so I get a lot of people looking at me and the kids all like to wave at me haha.

Okay I had some other stories but I'm out of time. I'm living in a 4 man boarding and I'll upload some pictures next week, I forgot to bring my camera cord today. The other companionship has a car and they are both really cool guys. I'm going to enjoy my time here!

Love you guys!

Elder Summers

Drum Roll Please.....Transfers!

Dearest family and friends,

Transfer news came last night. Yes I'm leaving Margate. Any guesses? Although it's probably hard to guess a city in South Africa when most of you don't even know where South Africa is located on a map haha. Just kidding. So my new area actually is not in South Africa. No I'm not being moved to China or Europe... It's either Swaziland or Lesotho. So guess between those two...

Okay I'll just say it already, I'm being moved to Lesotho.

Let me save you the time of having to go to Google and research where the heck that is located! Haha. Lesotho is a little country in the middle of South Africa, it's on the outer edge of our mission boundaries. I'm in for a really LONG bus ride tomorrow. I guess President just wants to keep me in the "outer darkness" of the mission boundaries haha. Lesotho is an extremely poor area, they speak a completely different language from zulu (right as I'm getting to know zulu!) and they use a different currency. That's about all I know about this little country. My new companion is going to be Elder Kutley. I don't know where he is from yet (the name is African), I think he is new on mission from what I've heard. They drive buckeys (basically like trucks) in Lesotho because there are pretty much no paved roads. The whole mission is a driving mission for those that are wondering, there are only a couple of walking areas in the Durban mission.

Right now I'm super excited to move on past Margate but at the same time I'm going to really miss people here! Margate has been an amazing experience, it's a pretty tough area but the Lord has blessed us with success in my limited time here. It just goes to show that if you work hard and have faith in the Lord, all things are made possible. I really love our mission equation: Hard work + Faith + Obedience = Miracles. So true and I have seen it come to fruition! I'll go say bye to everyone today and it will definitely be tough. I'm not sure how most missions are, but here in the Durban mission you typically stay 4 1/2 to 6 months in an area. Almost every missionary here serves in between 4 to 5 areas for the 2 years. It's likely I'll be in Lesotho for 6 months since I was only in Margate for 4 1/2 but obviously anything can happen.

Real quick from this past week. It finally stopped raining these past few days! But man oh man was it hot yesterday, really the first hot day I've experienced here in SA. We challenged M_____, M_____ and L_______ to baptism this past week and they accepted! I can't believe the people we have found here in Margate. It's amazing to see that this branch only had about 4 baptisms in the past 4 years and we are on track for 7 or more in just the past 5 months since I've been here. F_____ is also scheduled to be baptized in beginning of December, along with Lw______

We had another amazing lesson with Ma E______ and I'm really going to miss her. She said that she feels like she is "about to graduate from lessons" i.e. she is getting close to baptism. She says she has learned so much from us teaching her and that her mind has been "opened." She was really sad to see me go and I hope I'll still be on mission when she is baptized. Such an awesome lady! I gave her a paper entitled "The 17 points of the True Church" which includes a little story. If you haven't had the chance to see that story, look it up! She really enjoyed it and she said it strengthened her faith in the direction she is taking with us.

I heard all about the election this past week. People here love Obama, I have to hold my tongue a lot. Life moves on and I won't say anymore with regards to that subject. Another quick story real quick that was kind of funny. The other day we accidentally left one of our lights on inside our apartment with all of our windows opened. Well since it wasn't raining that day and it's been warming up, these bugs that are attracted to light came all inside our apartment! There were hundreds of them, I'm not sure what they are called. They are almost like caterpillars but with wings, that's about how big they are. It took along time to clean up our apartment and I had to stomp on a lot of those things! Well we learn from our mistakes. If we aren't making mistakes then we aren't doing!

Best of wishes from Margate for the last time. Next week I'll be in Lesotho!

Love you all,
Elder Summers

We are few but the church is true

Hello everyone,

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and hardly anyone was at church. We only had 20 people which was by far the lowest I've seen here in Margate. Nevertheless, it doesn't matter the size of the congregation if we are gathered as Saints of the church. I felt the spirit stronger than EVER during that testimony meeting even though there were only a few of us. It reminded me of the scripture in Mathew where the Savior is speaking to His disciples and He says: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there will I be in the midst of them." This was manifested yesterday and my testimony was strengthened even further.

This past week I had the chance to go to zone conference in Durban. This is the second time I have gone to zone conference since coming on mission. It really re-motivated to continue to work hard and commit all my time and talent to the Lord. President spoke to us on the importance of conversion and shared the talk from Elder Bednar in this past conference. Elder Bednar's talk was so great and I was happy to see it again! I loved this quote from his talk: "Consistently living the gospel is the essence of conversion." The deeper our conversion the less and less we question certain commandments or the trials we face in our lives. President really emphasized the importance of continuing to strengthen our own testimonies, we cannot expect to convert others if our own faith is wavering. We see many RM's go inactive after their missions so just because you serve a mission doesn't mean your faith won't be tested.

We have been meeting with these three brothers I mentioned in a couple of other letters, M_____, M______ and L______. We were teaching them on Friday night and we challenged them to baptism. They really are pondering our message a lot now and are definitely taking it into consideration. They said they need to read the Book of Mormon more and attend church. I asked L____ a question about the Book of Mormon after we challenged them to baptism. I said: "How do we know if the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith really translated it by the power of God?" and L______ responded by saying: "Because Joseph Smith said so!" Hahaha we all started laughing so hard and I couldn't even keep teaching. These 3 brothers are so funny and I love teaching them. I don't consider them "investigators" but instead as my friends. It's too bad we just found them a few weeks ago! I'm pretty sure these guys will all be baptized within the next couple of months. I'm really glad facebook has been invented so I can stay in contact.

Elder Ngwenya and I also had the chance to meet with Ma E_______ on Saturday. She has prayed about the Book of Mormon and I believe she is slowly receiving her answer. She once again said it will be difficult for her because of her deep roots in the Anglican church. I firmly believe that she will join the church but it will take time. She is one of those investigators that will have a story in the Ensign someday and she will eventually be an awesome relief society sister! She always says that I am one of her sons haha. I'm really going to miss her and I hope she joins the church someday. I shared with her how my testimony of the Book of Mormon did not come immediately as an answer to a prayer. Instead my testimony has come over time as I ponder and diligently study the Book of Mormon. The Lord slowly reveals truth and light to me everytime I read, God is not going to have us feel peace and joy from a book that is not from Him.

I have been studying the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon a lot lately. I'm not going to lie, I skimmed Isaiah (like many people) before I came on mission. Isaiah is the most quoted prophet in the Book of Mormon and the Savior himself said it is a commandment to study the words of Isaiah. After diligently studying the Prophet Isaiah's words, I have come to understand why so many prophets in the Book of Mormon quote him. Isaiah is the man and he really has seen our day. There is a reason Nephi quotes him for half of 2 Nephi. Of course studying these chapters takes quite a bit of time and it doesn't all come immediately but it's definitely worth the time.

A lot of people have been asking me about the storm hitting the States. They keep asking if my family is alright, obviously this must be a pretty big storm if so many people here know about it! I explained that the storm is no where near my family but I hope everything is going alright for the people there on the east coast! We'll see what happens tomorrow, hopefully my boy Mitt pulls out the election. Not that I'm biased or anything. ;)

The church is true. The book is blue. And we are few.

My comp and I came up with this, you know "Many are called but few are chosen." By the way, it's my companions birthday today! I didn't have time to bake him anything but I bought this wayyyyy good cake and this awesome apple cider. Good stuff!

Love,

Elder Summers

Happy Halloween

Dear family and friends,

Happy Halloween (They don't celebrate Halloween here by the way)!! Another fantastic week in South Africa. I can't believe I'll be leaving Margate soon and how fast time is going. Wasn't I just emailing home yesterday? Actually... Baba K_____was baptized yesterday! The baptism went great and it is was so great to see him take this step forward. He is the last one in his family to become a member (his wife and 7 kids are all members). P______ was also confirmed a member yesterday! It's incredible to see the love I have developed for each of our investigators and for the members. When you really come to love the people, everything else falls into place. It's so hard to resist someone who sincerely giving love away to others. Love creates an enivornment of peace and people feel comfortable. People are so willing to open up when they feel genuine love.

We have been teaching this Sister named M___ E______ for about 2 months now. She is seriously the nicest lady I have ever met and she would be such a great relief society sister. Elder Jallah and I met her when we started helping her do some service in her back yard. She invited us in and let us share our message. She has very deep roots in the Anglican church. The other day we challenged her to baptism and helped her more clearly understand our purpose. She said it will be tough for her to leave her church but she is really going to pray and ponder about it. I know the Lord will answer her prayer if she prays sincerely.

Well we have a lot of driving to do this week and transfers are coming up in just a couple of weeks. I gave myself a haircut this past week which turned out pretty good, maybe I'll open a barber shop when I get home haha. Just kidding of course.

Love you all,
Elder Summers

I'm Mormon - I know it, I live it, I love it!

Hello family and friends!!

I absolutely loved general conference this past weekend! If you watched Sister Dibb's talk then you'll understand my heading. I really enjoyed that talk by Sister Dibb. We watched the the Saturday and Priesthood sessions back to back to back on Saturday, basically it was 6 straight hours of being spiritually overloaded. I don't think I've ever felt more on a spiritual "high." I was so excited to have the chance to hear conference, I seriously felt like a little kid about to open birthday presents. Being a missionary just makes conference even better then usual! We watched all of the sessions in our small little chapel, I felt the spirit so strong while watching the talks in the chapel. I really loved both of President Uchtdorf's talks and I can't wait to get the ensign!

So besides conference we had another crazy week as usual. First off I had an allergic reaction to this pie I ate at a members home. It's called Rubarb pie and it had a bunch of stuff on it I've never even heard of before. Well something on it my body did not enjoy, pretty much my whole body turned red that night and it was really difficult to sleep. I just took some claritin and eventually it went away, I haven't had an allergic reaction to something in almost 10 years though so it kind of freaked me out. I'm all good though and there is always power in a priesthood blessing! Speaking of priesthood blessings, I had the opportunity to give a blessing to a sister in the branch who was going in to see a surgeon. She had been to this doctor twice before and they had found some serious problems so she was quite nervous to go in this third time. Well after receiving a blessing then visiting the surgeon, she told me yesterday that all the problems had according to the doctor mysteriously vanished. Anything is possible through our Heavenly Father, if it's His will and we exercise faith He can work miracles.

We have another baptism coming up this coming Sunday. Baba K______ is being baptized (Baba is a respectful term used for fathers here, similar to calling someone "sir" but if you don't use it then that's seen as being rude). His whole family have been members of the church for about 15 years but he has never wanted to join. He started meeting missionaries about a year ago but would never commit to baptism. When Elder Jallah and I started teaching him, we were finally able to get past the barriers and challenge him to be baptized. He has accepted and is very ready to be baptized! It's so great to see that this wonderful family when now have a Priesthood holder at the head of the home.

We also started meeting with these two guys named M_____ and L______ this past couple of weeks. M_____ is 20 and L______ is 19. They are brothers and they live together. The two of them are awesome and really fun guys to be around. We introduced to Book of Mormon to them in our last lesson and they were very accepting. L_______ (very funny kid) said "Wow it's a good thing you guys told us about this book, it sounds very important, we are so privileged!" I wish all investigators were like these 2 guys. I think they have potential to make a lot of progress and we're excited to keep teaching them.

F_____ (guy from Ghana) is also continuing to make a ton of progress. Elder Ngwenya in his 2 years on mission said he has never seen someone so prepared to receive the gospel. F______ is accepting of EVERYTHING and is going to be a powerful leader in the church someday. He says it makes total sense that there is still modern revelation and he loves reading everything about the church. He said he was shocked to see (when he was looking on the internet) how fast the church is growing and said "something special is happening here that the world isn't recognizing." This man was prepared by the Lord and it's by no coincidence we found him.

I love you all and wish you all the best!!

Elder Summers

P.S. it still is raining like crazy, I have never seen so much rain in my life

Baptism!

Hello family and friends!

First off I can now pray in zulu and bear my testimony in zulu so I can't wait to do that when I get home haha. Elder Ngwenya can speak 4 languages which is pretty impressive. He has been teaching me quite a bit of zulu, I'm really getting good at these click sounds. There are 3 different click sounds in zulu that you have to make and when I first got here I had never heard anything like it in my life but I'm slowly getting better.

Anyways, that's not what is important! P______ got baptized yesterday and it was an amazing experience. There is the scripture in D&C that says how great shall be your joy if you bring save one soul unto me. Well my joy was full yesterday when I saw her get baptized. Only 2 months ago we knocked on her door and handed her a pamphlet. It's incredible to see how she has gained a testimony and how the spirit has confirmed in her heart the divinity of the Book of Mormon. She is going to be a very strong member of the church and she has already started inviting friends and family to church. We also have a couple other baptisms coming up at the end of this month. Very excited for those as well.

Elder Ngwenya and I are getting along great. He is literally always happy and laughing, it makes mission a lot easier when your companion is awesome. He only has a couple of months left but he isn't trunky at all. We've continued to find success here in Margate and we're really moving the work along. I think the hardest part about leaving Margate will be the families here. I've developed such a close relationship with some of the families in this small but united branch. Serving a mission is not always easy, there are discouraging days but then I look back on the relationships I've developed and the love you have for these people and it makes it all worth serving the Lord!

When you truly have that change of heart that Alma speaks of, nothing else matters and you are willing to give it your all. Studying the Book of Mormon each and everyday truly will change your life. It's incredible what I am able to learn each and every morning during my personal study, I think that's one of my favorite parts of the day. It's my goal to read the entire missionary library along with the entire standard works. I'm getting there slowly but surely. Jesus the Christ is an amazing book, it's as if Elder Talmage was there witnessing the ministry of the Savior. If you haven't had a chance to read this book, I highly recommend it!

Love,

Elder Summers

P.S. It rains a lot here (and I mean a lot!)