The Adventure Continues

Dear family and friends,

The adventures continue as we did a lot of traveling this past week. One Monday we went to a Lion Park with some Elephants also which was awesome! It was a great zone activity and it was actually my first time seeing an elephant since I've been here. I was able to touch the trunk of the elephant which was pretty awesome. The lions came running up to our car and were trying to bite our tires which was kind of freaky! I'm not sure what we would have done if we got a flat in the middle of the park haha.

On Tuesday we traveled to Richards Bay (2 hours north of Durban) to work with the Elders there. Richards Bay is the hottest part of the mission and it's the middle of summer right now so I was dying! The humidity there is ridiculous and I felt like I was living in the middle of the sun. I was able to work with Elders Berkey and Bonner who are 2 great Elders. Elder Bonner just started his mission this transfer, he's an African American from New York with some amazing stories. I learn so much from these new missionaries so I really enjoy working with the "greenies."

I'll share one experience from the day in Richards Bay. We approached a home in the afternoon with the intent to teach a new investigator the restoration. When we arrived we discovered that the person we were looking for was not there but the sister that was there seemed interested in knowing what we were doing. We explained our purpose to her and she invited us in the share more. As we began teaching her it was apparent that this was one of those "golden" investigators who was prepared to receive our message. We taught her the entire message of the restoration and when I shared Joesph Smith's words describing the first vision the spirit in that room was undeniable. She actually began crying at one point because she was so touched by everything she was hearing. By the end of the lesson she was so excited to read from the Book of Mormon that we introduced to her. She also didn't know that God and Jesus Christ are separate and distinct Beings so she was able to pray correctly for the first time in her life at the end of the lesson. Her prayer was so powerful and she told Heavenly Father how grateful she was for learning of the truth and having her eyes opened. It really is lessons like that on mission that make everything worth it! I'm excited to hear how she progresses.

After working with the Elders in Richards Bay we headed to Swaziland the next day. We worked with the different Elders in this area called Ezulwini which means "heaven" in English. It was a beautiful area and I worked with the walking Elders so it was nice to be on my feet for the day although it ended up raining all day so I was soaked haha.

The following day we had our final zone conference in the mission which was powerful. I'm really grateful for the opportunity I have to present training with President because it's helping me continue to develop with regards to communication, planning and presentations. This next week we will be planning out the transfers so it should be pretty busy! I'm really just hoping everything runs smoothly. Thanks for all your love and support!!

Love, Elder Summers