They Lead Us, They Help Us, They Love Us.....

hey momma!

so first off i want to say that i got my package! and we are going to save up the deliciousness until he leaves if we can handle it that long haha, but yes it got here, thank you so very much, the treats will be enjoyed and the ties will be worn! obiecuję! yeah the branch is small, but yes, very strong, on the topic of general conference, we will watch them, but it will just have to be spread out throughout the week, but yes we do watch conference i would never miss out on hearing from big tommy! yeah the pizza was awesome, it was kind of like a barbeque sauce on it, it was good, for breakfast yesterday i had oats, and usually we have eggs, or cereal, or toast, just regular stuff that i usually eat for breakfast.  so some new experiences from this week: we started contacting in a park called park Kościuszki, i think i might have mentioned that last week, but this week we really started being as specific as we could in our finding, praying to be lead in the direction of people with certain characteristics, and this week we taught a lot in the park, on monday i was on an exchange with another elder in our district,  he has been out six months, so it was pretty scary to go out and contact with him, because both of us don't know the language very well, but then i had a little bit of a revelation, in the Doctrine and Covenants it mentions how powerful Christ is quite frequently, and it made me realize that i have no reason to fear, ever, as long as i am righteous, the Lord will help me succeed, and during the time i had with him, it worked! i understood so much more,  it was so cool, it is just purely amazing what Christ and our Heavenly Father do for us, they lead us, they help us, they love us, they give us only things that will strengthen us, it is incredible, and i am so grateful to know, that i have a Heavenly Father who loves me, protects me, and helps me. then later in the week we taught a young man in the park, and it was good, we pretty much taught the entire plan of salvation, and he listened and said that it makes sense, he accepted our card and said he would get in contact with us, so it was good. other than that it was life as usual for a missionary, working hard and being fully committed. this church is true, i know it is, and through the last week i have been doing a lot of study on the holy ghost and how amazing he is, he is so important, through him we are directly connected to a god who has created galaxies and universes, through him we receive wisdom and knowledge from an all-knowing being, he is important, he is real, and i know that to be true, and his influence can be felt by anyone on the planet.

love,elder summers

Little Tips and Tricks....

If I remember right....this is one of the oldest castles in Poland. Fischer said it was Bedzin, I don't know if that is the town or the castle? He is loving Poland!

hey momma bear!

yes the park is way awesome, and the work is for sure going fast there, no investigators yet, but more people are stopping to talk to us, so that's good, and that is awesome that you are looking for a house, it is so strange to think that I will come home to a new home with a new ward and new people and just new everything, but I am sure that it will be okay, because I know that when we do what the lord wants us to do, it is impossible to be unhappy, so i am gooooooood. so in our branch, we have about 20 active members, one member, named zygmnunt is trying to read the book of Mormon 1830 times, and right now he is in the 1600's, so we may not have many members, but the ones we do have are very strong its just one branch that we are over, and we don't have a family history center in our building we meet in, so I will try to get in contact, and that is awesome that someone is looking for one of my ancestors, maybe I will find some long distant relative and bring him/her to Christ, that would be so incredibly cool, I will try to keep that in mind and try as hard as I can to get that. everything is just awesome! so for some experiences now, this week we had a zone conference, so I got to see some of my fellow trainees for a day, it was so fun, we got taught by President Edgren, the Assistants, and we had some awesome pizza, and here in Poland they have a cranberry sauce pizza, and a pickle and kielbasa pizza (both of which are delicious), but anyway the AP's taught us a lot on our contacting, with some little tips and tricks, and some things that they and President want us to focus on during our contacting and tracting. and when me and my companion put those into practice it was amazing, we taught more lessons in one day then we had the entire previous week, we taught one man named Marion, who is an older man, we gave him a Book of Mormon and our card, and told him that he could call us at any time to talk, he seemed pretty receptive, but who knows, maybe something will happen and he will decide to listen to our message of never ending happiness, then we stopped a young woman named Kasia, we taught her as well, she had seen missionaries 6 months previous to our meeting, and she didn't have time to talk but accepted a card, she visited our web-site and liked what she saw, and we set-up a teaching appointment with her for next week, she would be an amazing member, and I have faith that she will come to our lesson. then my companion and I went tracting, which is a little hard to do in our area because there are not many houses to go knock on, but we found a little neighborhood and started knocking, and the last door we knocked on, we found a Methodist woman and talked to her for almost an hour about our church, and then at the end of the lesson my companion asked her if we could do anything for her, and she started tearing up, she had been praying for someone to come and help her, and my companion and I happened to be her answer, it was so cool to have that experience, then the next day we went over to do service, and instead she fed us some cake and we drank some fruit tea, and then we talked for 2 hours with her, we talked about the organization of our church, the plan of salvation, and discussed faith, and repentance, and all kinds of topics, the spirit was there, it was strong, but unfortunately she didn't want to hear any more after our discussion, but I know that eventually, she will see and remember what she felt like, and will want that feeling again. other than that it was life as normal, a lot of studying, a lot of memorizing the language and using it, but all is well, I am happy, and I am spreading a message of happiness to anyone who is willing to stop and hear. this is truly the lords work, and I am so proud to be able to be a part of it.

love,
Elder Fischer Summers

elder summers 

When We Work Hard The Lord Blesses Us.....

hey momma!!!

yes I am understanding the language more and more every day, it is so cool, prayer works! and heavenly father is real and blesses us! I know it with all my heart now.yeah it is very weird being so far ahead of you, when I go to sleep at 10:30 (exact obedience right?) you guys just barely hit noon in your day, its pretty funny. everything is going awesome, and I truly am having the time of my life, right now, nothing could be better for me than serving the Lord, and apparently my friends and cousins are doing the same thing, and it just makes me so happy, Poland is the best, its so beautiful, and just awesome, just pure awesomeness. last week we went to this huge castle, called ogrodzieniec, its the oldest one in Poland, and I will put the pictures on my google drive so you can see them. 

 so for some awesome times on the mission for this week. I went on an exchange in kraków for the day of Monday, so I got to experience missionary culture in a different city in Poland, it was fun, we did a finding activity for like 5 hours, it was pretty long, and at the end I had a conversation with a very atheist man, in English, because he wanted to speak English, and I couldn't say what I needed to say in polish... yet, so it was good. its funny how people really want like a physical representation of God, like a sign from heaven or something, and they just don't understand that god knows each one of us, and when we receive our message that this church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is the ONLY true church on the Earth, it is very personal, and it is given to you in the exact way that our Heavenly Father knows you will accept it, we don't need a scientific journal telling us that God is real, all we have to do is ASK, and we will receive, its that simple. so we are still contacting in the giant park, and we have kind of mapped out areas that people are generally walking and sitting, and the first week that we tried in the park we had no lessons, and hardly anyone stopped to talk to us, but slowly we have started to have more success, we taught a young man, who is an agnostic, and the conversation was very interesting, because he said to us that he didn't believe in God, but then he like started looking around at the beauty around him and then said to us, I want to know if God is real, so we gave him a Book of Mormon and we exchanged phone numbers, and he commited to read it. we did a few white-boards and free tables with our district, we handed out books and talked to people, it was so fun and so good. Then on Sunday, a less-active member that we tried to contact CAME TO CHURCH! his wife had told us that he would be on vacation for two weeks (2 Nephi 9:34), but he showed up, it was so cool. our prayers are being answered, the lord is in our lives, and now that he has given us strength to push harder, it is time to pray more, and work harder, and I know that when we work hard the lord blesses us with strength, and then it is our responsibility to use that additional strength to push harder, and receive more, and then push harder again, so we are constantly progressing, and constantly learning more, and I know that when we do that, our heavenly father will look down on us, and with a tear in his eye, his heart will swell with pride, and he will embrace us with the loving and warm feeling of the Holy Ghost in our lives. 

love,

elder summers

God Loves All His Children....

hey momma!

  So what are some things that happened this week that I can talk about, well we focused on that big park I mentioned again for most of our contacting, and we had some interesting experiences, one woman we talked to and actually taught a little lesson to was a catholic like most of the people in this country, and we talked to her about the resurrection of Christ, and about our sacrament, and about the Book of Mormon and the significance of it, it was really cool, I got to bear a very small testimony in Polish haha, my companion does most of the talking because 1) I don't know the language well enough yet, but that's okay because I am only on week 3 in country, and 2) because polish people like to ramble, so you have to be quick if you want to get a word or two in, but I am understanding more and more each day, it is so cool. and then on Saturday we talked to a young man, he is in his mid-twenties and is a physical therapist, he was in the park to register for a marathon that was being held in the park (maybe another sign of how massive this thing is), it was so cool, my companion asked him if he believed that the Bible was the only word of God that we have on the Earth, and he said that that wouldn't make any sense, because God loves all of his children, so it would only make sense that he would give all of his words and teachings to all of his children, and then we were like hey! That's what the Book of Mormon is, and we got into a pretty cool discussion for that, we exchanged e-mails because he will be leaving on vacation for 4 weeks, but I have a really good feeling that he will find the peace and happiness in our gospel that I and so many others have found. other than that, life was good this week, I know that this church is true, without any doubt in my heart at all, this is the only true gospel on the Earth, and I know that it was restored through Joseph Smith, and that we have a living prophet today that talks to God and Jesus Christ, this gospel may be hard to follow, we may have some things that are hard for people to understand or follow, because we require so much work and diligence and obedience, but the fact is, this is supposed to be hard, because life was never easy for Jesus Christ, and we are commanded to follow his example, to be perfect, "even as your father which is in heaven is perfect", so life wont be easy, but I know that through obedience and faith, our loads will be lightened, our lives will be happy, and we will have peace, through this church, the only true church on the face of the Earth today.

love,

elder summers

Everything About This Is Just Awesome.....

hey momma!

so first off i am glad that the pictures worked for you, feel free to share them with anyone that you want to, the picture of the white house with the red roof is the mission home, and all of the pictures of rooms are our apartment, yes the closet is awesome, only it has a light that is motion activated so to stand in it and have light you have to be constantly moving around in there, so i get to dance whenever i put clothes away, poland is so beautiful you have no idea, it is absolutely amazing how beautiful it is, i cant wait to show you through pictures, and hey, maybe one day in real life. thats awesome that you sold both sleds, it made me tear up to see my baby leave, but im glad that it is gone, i want the funds more than i want the sled.  thank you so much for your testimony mom, i know that everything you said is true, and i know that my heavenly father loves me as well, i have felt so much peace and love from heavenly father here already, and i know that as i am more and more obedient to the mission rules and all of the commandments, i will feel greater and greater peace and joy. yep, im killing off my dad this transfer, its all good, he is an awesome elder, so my area name is Katowice (ka-toe-vee-tseh) good luck haha its hard to describe how to say things because polish is phonetic, but when I talk to you I can try to explain everything and teach you how to say some things maybe. so this week was interesting. the branch president here has decided on a place for us to go and contact for the next few weeks, it is called park śląski, and it is massive, it has smaller parks, little gardens, statues, a soccer stadium, a chair lift, lakes, rivers, outdoor amphitheaters, a zoo, its insane, the place is enormous. so this week we walked around and tried to contact some people, it was really fun, im understanding more and more each day, and I know that eventually I will understand what someone says to me haha, but we really had some good conversations, a few men we talked to were really sound in their faith in the catholic church, we didn't get any new investigators, but we passed out a few book of Mormons, had some good talks, and tried as hard as we could, and I know that as long as I keep trying as hard as I can, that I will be blessed after the trial of my faith. I love the work here, its tough, but I wouldn't have it any other way, the harder you work for something, the better and better it gets when you finally receive it. later in the week we did a "free table" with the sisters, where we set up a table with book of Mormons and pamphlets for people to look at, a young man came up to us and asked about the book of Mormon, my companion talked to him and he accepted one, it was really cool, another thing that I am discovering is that missionary work is very fun, and you have to be creative when doing it, its awesome, everything about this is just awesome.  

love,

elder summers 

hey dad!

yeah our apartment is nice, I like it, and I definitely feel very blessed to have it, but it is definitely not better than our house, because you don't live here, so its impossible for any house or apartment anywhere to be better than the house that you all live in, wherever it is. thanks for everything dad, I love hearing that you are proud of me, and I am so happy for the way that you raised me, im blessed by it every day, and I will continue to be blessed by it, I know it.

love,

elder summers 

Here is a link to Fischer's google Drive where he will be posting his pics...

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9t0xcipLfbkbDYzZlVEekNtelE&usp=sharing_eic

There Is No Other Place I Would Rather Be....

 

hey dad!

yeah im glad that i made it safely across too, the flights weren't that bad, i got to meet some cool people on them and i got to hang out with my district one last time before we all split off to our individual areas. i wish i could have gone fishing with you guys, i always wanted to go and try to catch a shark, thats too bad you couldn't get one, but i can see that you got a different kind of monster instead haha, that yellow-eye is massive, i bet that was such a fun fight. im glad to hear that you are still busy with the work of the lord in alaska, its so good to hear that. so my trainer is named elder dodge, he is from orange county california, and is an amazing missionary, i got called to serve in katowice, which is a southern town, and we live on lubuska street, so you should be able to look that up if you want on google earth. now for some experiences over the past week or so, oh man where to begin, well on my first day here we went to the mission office to do some legal work, then we went back to the mission home to eat some food, and then the AP's took us out tracting to an awesome palace in warsaw, it was way fun but at the same time i was EXTREMELY nervous for it, nothing too funny or exciting happened there, we spent the night in the mission home then the next day met our trainers and left by train for our areas. When we got to our areas, me and my companion got lost for about 2 hours in katowice trying to find our apartment, so i got to drag my 95 pounds of stuff around the city haha, and while we were waiting for a bus some kids came up to me when my companion was looking at the bus schedule and they said something, and then i what i wanted to say to them was "have you ever heard of our church?" but instead what came out was "have i ever heard of my church?" so you can understand they were very confused, so yep that was my first experience trying to start a conversation in polish. the rest of the week was pretty normal i would say, we did a few white-boards in the street, its where we just set up a board and have a question on it for people to try and answer, so far we haven't gotten any success, we haven't taught any lessons to progressing investigators, but we have taught lessons on the street, my polish is improving, and ive been having more fun here than anywhere else i have ever been, i know this is the lords work, and it will be hard, jesus christ didnt have an easy life, neither did joseph smith, so we shouldn't expect any different, hard times will come, and that is why i am so happy i have a heavenly father to help me. i also met the branch president who is awesome, and is a rock spiritually and physically, i got to bear my testimony in church, it was awesome. some last comments, at some point in polish history they all decided to speak at 150 MPH and never breath while speaking, jehovah's witnesses are everywhere and really weird, and people like to get drunk here, but i love it, im not complaining at all, there is no other place i would rather be than right here in poland right now

Hey momma!
yes it is true, jestem w polcy! yes warsaw is extremely beautiful, and yes i am a left handed polock haha. so my companion is elder dodge and he is on his last fransfer, my area is katowice, the heat is not that bad its manageable and getting colder, my apartment is safe and comfortable, and the food is amazing. im glad to hear that your testimony is still growing strong, and that is the total truth about tithing, and it makes total sense. heavenly father has given us EVERYTHING we have, absolutely everything, and to receive blessings, all we have to do is give 1/10 back, its so simple and yet it says in malachi that we will not be able to bear the blessings of giving tithing because they will be so great, i know this church is true, i know that i have hard times ahead of me, but i know that the lord is with me, and he will not allow me to fail.

All Of Us Are Converts....

hey momma,

yes i am busy on p-day just like any other day, but its okay, being busy just keeps my mind off of the time, and then it goes by fast. yes i do have a flight schedule, we go from salt lake to minneapolis, then from there to amsterdam, then amsterdam to warsaw. we will get into minneapolis at around noon local minneapolis time, and i will call you from there and talk for a little bit, say goodbye and let you hear my polish haha. i really feel that the lord is guiding your lives right now, more than usual, and if i were you i wouldn't fear at all, i know that he will give you the answers you need, so no worries, im just happy that you are following the counsel of the lord. this week we had two devotionals as usual, and one really hit me, during it the speaker called up two missionaries who had been converted after the age of 16, and they told their stories, and what i got from it, is that the lord prepares all of his children to hear the gospel in their time, he knows them, and gives them the path to the light. all of us are converts, and all of us are prepared for the moment when it hits us that this church is the true church of god on earth, fully restored through joseph smith. so im not worried about going to poland and not being fluent in the language, because there are people that have been searching for truth, and our heavenly father prepares them for this message, so why should i fear? i have an all-knowing, omnipotent being on my side, who has created worlds without number, and he is willing to help me. so i have no need to fear at all, because the lord is with me, he will help me, and all i have to do to be worthy of his help is to work and be obedient, which is not hard at all. thank you for everything that you have done for me momma, i really appreciate it, and i will miss the dear elders everyday, but ill be okay. oh and about the food, well the only way i can describe it is like this: our intestines are coiled up with all kinds of turns so food takes a while to work its way through them, but this food has made my stomach into a straight highway, no turns, nothing, so you can imagine what thats like, but its okay because at least i know that i will be fed every day, so no complaints. other than that life is good, im happy and im growing every day.

love,

elder summers