Changes......

hey mamo!

so this is my last e-mail as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This mission has been a miracle in my life, and I wanted to send a poem that I wrote about my own life, i figured it would be the best way to send things off.

Changes: By Elder Fischer Bartley Summers

Born to a beautiful family forged stronger daily by the Gospel of God's only begotten,
his beginnings were overflowing with love, joy, fun, and peace.
Up he grew, once he could move he never stopped,
trampolines, bikes, scooters, sports, all things active, all things fun,
playing with the brothers, learning to live, laugh, learn, and love.

Changes, once an open pasture with a pond, now a house nestled into a forest,
once simply attending church, now baptized and a member of the Lord's kingdom.
Once on the sidelines watching his two beloved role models, now wearing a jersey and a number for himself.

Changes, once spending all the time at home, now friends begin to be included,
once total and loving care from his angelic parents, now independence, his own life begins to form.
Once only good, only beauty, only uplift, only support, but now... opposition is introduced.
Once, only one voice, but now, so many, screaming at him, pushing and pulling, wanting to be accepted, to be cool,
confusion, stress, not knowing, or understanding, yet he thinks now, that he knows best.

Changes, again, once a surety, once ease, once... obedience, now... confusion, strain...sin.
Once support, now they feel like chains and cages, confused and stubborn he lashes out, he doesn't understand.

Once openness, now he digs his problems in his soul, locks it and throws the key.

Once he let HIM in, once he felt it so much more powerfully, struggle, war, denial... pride.

Once real, now, he puts on an act, he still believes, but he thinks no one understands him,

he wallows in loneliness and indulges in empty happiness, sadness fills his soul,

but he just can't let him in... he just can't let him in, he can't possibly take this away, can a change happen again? Can it really? Can I trust him?

Yes...answers come, love comes, direction, identity, understanding of what I need to do, overwhelming truth,

he is there...he...is...here, I know it.

Once an emptiness, now an overwhelming emotion of care, I am free...I am free.

It is now as it once was, but 10 times stronger, light, joy, forgiveness, confidence, surety, purpose, a loving embrace, encircled with his love, strength, power, resiliance.

Changes, the transformation, the discovery of who I truly am.

Over 700 days of learning and applying, failure over and over molded me by the master's hand.

I am not who I was two years ago, nor will I ever be again, my true change has occured, my transformation.

I am now, who God needs me to be.

p.s. i cant wait to see you.

love,

elder fischer bartley summers

Follow Your Promptings.....

This week my companion and I had a wonderful experience. We met a man on a train back from Warsaw about three or so weeks ago, we talked briefly and found out that he had had contact and even lessons with the missionaries from about 10 years ago. He was excited to see us, and he wanted to meet with us to be taught once again, so we exchanged information and began trying to set up a meeting with him. We got one set-up, but he didn't come to it unfortunately, but we kept trying and got one set-up in his town which is about an hour away from Lublin. We got there and met with him. We had just planned on reviewing what he had learned, figuring out what he remembered, then filling in the gaps the best we could, but as we sat down I felt I really needed to gear the entire conversation towards baptism, and then invite him to do so. So we did so, at the end we shared 2 Nephi 31: 9-12, testified of the restoration, then invited him to be baptized, and he accepted, it was the most peaceful feeling as he said yes, and now he is on his way to baptism. I know that thought was from the Spirit, who knows this man better than I do, and needed me to guide the conversation to teach him what he needed to hear. Follow your promptings, follow your thoughts, if you are living the restored gospel, they will guide you to do what you need to do, and you can be sure of that.

Testimonies We Have Earned Through Our Actions.......

 This week we had one certain experience that once again testified to me of how important it is to testify and rely on the testimonies that we have earned through our actions. We were doing a finding activity in the center of Lublin, and four college students came up and began talking to us, two of them are from Boston, one is from Croatia, and one from France, so we spoke in English haha, it was a different feeling, a little weird, but I liked it. Anyway we were kind of just shooting the breeze a little, and I was trying to see how we could smoothly go into a gospel discussion, while I was thinking about this a man approached us who also spoke English. Without mincing words, this man was one of the most miserable, sullen, sad, angry, and aggresive people I have ever met. He said he was an anti-theist, and an atheist, and he was basically trying to destroy our faith. All four of us here in Lublin testified to him, bouncing off of each other and testifying powerfully and simply, stating the things we know to be true. It made him really angry, and really frustrated and uncomfortable, so he ended up leaving. Because of that, it really easily brought up the gospel, and afterward we talked, and one of the four college kids came to church, and is going to begin taking the lessons. It was funny, the man tried to stop us, and acutally helped us. It showed me that testimonies cant be argued with, and that the Lord works in mysterious ways.

i love you mom, keep building up your testimony.    love,  elder summers