Familia,
First off I just got to say... things seem to be going awesome back at home with the whole family. First off my sister just got older and seems to be wrecking it over there with them lost tribes in the northern countries, my little brother Xander is preparing to serve a mission in New Zealand, Syd is about to head home after serving los texanos for a full mission, Cooper is serving out there with his whole heart, Kolten is up there preaching the gospel on horseback, and my Aunt Rachel just got a kidney transplant from an organ donor. Let's be honest... Heavenly Father loves this family (I'd say he loves us more than the rest of the families in the world but the other blog viewers might get a little angry).
Things are going well here in Guadalajara Mexico. I am learning a lot of things. Well, I wanted to share a great old story about Elder Summers not being patient (imagine that ;) ).
Elder Hernandez and I were walking looking for some future investigators and we started talking to some old folks in the street. We were extremely nice and only asked if they knew the person that lived in the house in front of us. One of them was really rude and pretty much started saying a whole bunch of really rude stuff to us, about our church, commenting about our level of intelligence, and about preaching false doctrines. I pretty much just asked him why he had to act that way and what did he have against us. He hated us. He told us that we aren't very smart (but with a few different words) for not adoring the Mother of Jesus and for not praying to the Saints. I'll be honest... I got really angry and starting arguing and Bible bashing with a 60 year old man in the street. We finally left and Elder Hernandez helped me realize how dumb it was of me to argue with someone like that. I felt really dumb and angry with myself. We then went to visit an investigator and started talking about the 10 commandments but only got to the 2nd comandment with her about not having images or statues and how we shouldn't pray to them. This time it was my companion who had a Smash Bros. Brawl with our 60 year old investigador about the Virgin and the Saints as well.
The next morning I read in P.M.E. (Predicad Mi Evanjelio [Preach My Gospel] in Chapter 6 about patience. I thought that was my problem... and partly it is... but then I realized that really what I was lacking is loving the people. I read in Moroni 7:48 (and also the section in that chapter about love and charity) and it had a suggestion that has helped me out a lot. It said that we should pray everyday to love the people. I put it into practice personally and then we prayed together as companions.
Later that day we were knocking on a door when all of the sudden it started raining limes. Okay really people passed by and threw about 10 limes at us... luckly not even one of them hit us (Samuel the Lamanite Experience ;) (see Book of Helaman, Chapter 7) ).
We then went and searched for a future investigator and we met a very austere lady that told us off and was also very rude. I'll be honest... I got a little mad but I swallowed my pride and gave her thanks for her help and told her to have a nice day. Now I definitely don't love everyone like Christ does... but I am becoming a better disciple of Christ and am learning each day how to love the people... even when they don't seem to want to be loved by servants of the Lord.
Love you all,
Elder Summers
First off I just got to say... things seem to be going awesome back at home with the whole family. First off my sister just got older and seems to be wrecking it over there with them lost tribes in the northern countries, my little brother Xander is preparing to serve a mission in New Zealand, Syd is about to head home after serving los texanos for a full mission, Cooper is serving out there with his whole heart, Kolten is up there preaching the gospel on horseback, and my Aunt Rachel just got a kidney transplant from an organ donor. Let's be honest... Heavenly Father loves this family (I'd say he loves us more than the rest of the families in the world but the other blog viewers might get a little angry).
Things are going well here in Guadalajara Mexico. I am learning a lot of things. Well, I wanted to share a great old story about Elder Summers not being patient (imagine that ;) ).
Elder Hernandez and I were walking looking for some future investigators and we started talking to some old folks in the street. We were extremely nice and only asked if they knew the person that lived in the house in front of us. One of them was really rude and pretty much started saying a whole bunch of really rude stuff to us, about our church, commenting about our level of intelligence, and about preaching false doctrines. I pretty much just asked him why he had to act that way and what did he have against us. He hated us. He told us that we aren't very smart (but with a few different words) for not adoring the Mother of Jesus and for not praying to the Saints. I'll be honest... I got really angry and starting arguing and Bible bashing with a 60 year old man in the street. We finally left and Elder Hernandez helped me realize how dumb it was of me to argue with someone like that. I felt really dumb and angry with myself. We then went to visit an investigator and started talking about the 10 commandments but only got to the 2nd comandment with her about not having images or statues and how we shouldn't pray to them. This time it was my companion who had a Smash Bros. Brawl with our 60 year old investigador about the Virgin and the Saints as well.
The next morning I read in P.M.E. (Predicad Mi Evanjelio [Preach My Gospel] in Chapter 6 about patience. I thought that was my problem... and partly it is... but then I realized that really what I was lacking is loving the people. I read in Moroni 7:48 (and also the section in that chapter about love and charity) and it had a suggestion that has helped me out a lot. It said that we should pray everyday to love the people. I put it into practice personally and then we prayed together as companions.
Later that day we were knocking on a door when all of the sudden it started raining limes. Okay really people passed by and threw about 10 limes at us... luckly not even one of them hit us (Samuel the Lamanite Experience ;) (see Book of Helaman, Chapter 7) ).
We then went and searched for a future investigator and we met a very austere lady that told us off and was also very rude. I'll be honest... I got a little mad but I swallowed my pride and gave her thanks for her help and told her to have a nice day. Now I definitely don't love everyone like Christ does... but I am becoming a better disciple of Christ and am learning each day how to love the people... even when they don't seem to want to be loved by servants of the Lord.
Love you all,
Elder Summers