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

Christ Lives....

This is a link to the Poland Mission 25th Anniversary celebration

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-Nvc-Dbj1xgTUVhUHdlN2tvc0k/view?usp=sharing.

mamo!

I am doing so good, honestly, nothing to complain about at all, I love the work, my companion, my responsibilities, everything, I couldn't be happier (unless I was with you of course). im glad that the family is remembering me even though I am half of a world away from you guys, its good to know that I am loved, because a lot of people don't have that luxury, a good family, strong faith, direction and a goal they are working towards, so knowing I do makes me feel very grateful. I want to agree with you that Christ lives, and I actually didn't know that the holy ghost left him in the garden, but an angel was sent to comfort him, but even in spite of that, he suffered more than all of us could even imagine at all. yet even in that moment of extreme pain, he followed his fathers will, perfectly. its amazing to think about. This week we had one pretty intense experience. My companion and I were going through the lists of potential investigators missionaries in the past have gathered, calling them and trying to set up meetings to begin them on the path to Eternal Life again. We called one man, named Piotr, and he was willing to set up a meeting at his house in a city nearby Katowice. The time came for the meeting and we found his address, and went and visited him. We knocked on his door and he answered and invited us in for a discussion. He led us to his room, and the scene we saw was very shocking. Beer bottles empty on his table, cigarettes beside them, and a few small bottles of vodka on his couch. He was slightly under the influence at this time, but was sober enough to listen. We began with a prayer, and the spirit was there, I know it, and the feeling we had was one of pure love to this man. He had given up the fight, giving in to his temptation to drink and smoke, but wanted to come out of it, we could see it in his eyes, the pain and sadness from his addiction. I and my companion have never testified harder in our lives for this man, we told him God loves him, and is his Father, that he is there for him at all times, he responded by saying that no one knows how he feels. So we opened to Alma 7: 11-13, and read these verses about why the Savior offered himself as a sacrifice. We testified again and again, trying to help him, the Spirit was so palpable in the room, and it broke through to him. Because after all of this, he decided to start reading the Book of Mormon again and praying daily, and I know that the power of God will work through this man. I love you so much mom.

love,

Elder Summers

The Same Tram Stopped....

 hey mamo!!!

I am so excited to stay here, honestly, because I love the branch, I love the apartment, I love my companion, I love my calling, I love everything and I didn't have to move, which was really really awesome. I love my companion, and we are going to push each other and make each other way better this transfer,  so I get to serve missionaries for at least another two months.  We had a little activity on Saturday, in which we played sports and the sisters made an American cake with a flag as the design, it was a lot of fun and the most chill 4th of july I think I have ever had.  So this week we had a little miracle happen to us. We were in our tracting spot that we have picked out to knock to some doors, and my companion and I were heading back home, and to do that we needed to take a tram to the center of town, then take a bus to a stop near our apartment. When we were in the tram we took a seat and rode the tram into the center of town, exited the tram and made our way to the bus stop. About 50 feet past the tram stop I checked my pockets for my phone, and it wasn't in there, I didn't know where it was it was just gone.  Honestly, we panicked a little bit, he tried calling it and his phone said that my phone was not working, and couldn't be reached at that time, so I thought that somebody had taken it and it was gone forever. But it in this time of trouble and confusion, I remembered the words of Alma found in Mosiah 23:22 which reads :  Nevertheless—whosoever puteth his trust‍ in him the same shall be lifted up‍ at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people. I decided to trust the Lord, and I prayed, and as I said the words in the name of Jesus Christ, amen, peace entered my heart, my mind was clear, and we decided to go and wait for the tram to return to get my phone. So we waited on the stop going the opposite direction, and in about 5 minutes, the same tram stopped, and there was my phone, waiting for me on the seat. I know this was the hand of the Lord, calming me down and allowing me to have the hope I needed to get my phone back. 

love,

elder summers

Negativity Is Turned To Positivity....

June 22, 2015

hey momma!

yeah hump day happened for me, im glad that I am at peace with all of it, I didn't do anything really special, I did burn a shirt and that was pretty eventful but you will have to wait and see the video of what happened to me while it was burning, its pretty funny and honestly something that you should expect to happen to me. Through the savior, every bit of negativity is turned into positivity, trials become blessings, and opposition becomes stepping stones to exaltation with our father. its so amazing. I am so thankful for the time that I have had here in Poland, and I am so grateful that I am able to spend another year here, it makes me so happy. So this week, we as a district went out to a town outside of Katowice called Mysłowice, it is a town that our Branch President felt that we needed to focus on. So over the last week or so, we have been trying to spend as much time as possible in that city, getting a feel for it, and just discovering how it feels to do missionary work there. So far we have had some cool things happen to us, namely something that happened just a few days ago on Saturday. We were trying to find some places to tract that were kind of out of the normal way, and during the week we found some neighborhoods with some little houses which we thought would be perfect for tracting. So on Saturday we began to tract, and we didn't really get any response from anyone, people seemed to be tired or they just didn't answer the doors or something like that. Nevertheless we pushed on, and we had about 30 or so minutes left before we had to go home, and we talked to a lady who was standing outside her house in her yard. We said that we were sharing a message, and asked to come in. She welcomed us in, and we saw her husband and their three children. The kids were playing and making noise as kids do, and the husband was watching some TV. They turned the TV off and we began to talk to them about the Restoration, answering the common questions people ask us. The lesson lasted for about 30 minutes, we testified of Christ, of families, and of anything else we could. They willingly accepted a Book of Mormon, and told us to come by anytime to talk more about our Church. 

love,

elder summers 

hey dad!

my week was so good, so very good, its weird though, I feel like I just got here, and I do not care how cliché that sounds, its true, I still feel like a noob out here, so this next year will be pretty interesting honestly. we will see how it goes right? you guys only get little updates weekly, but that is why I have been writing a journal daily, so when I get home you will be able to re-live my mission in my shoes, I cant wait for that, and at the same time I know that my work here is not done at all, I still have a lives to change, and people to touch, and every day I am getting better and better at doing that, every day I wake up happy I am in Poland. I love it so much here! My 3rd quarter is starting, and the final push is beginning, and I will come out victorious because I am on the team that is going to win, so I will contribute all that I can to that effort, and when that 4th quarter begins, craziness is going to happen! I cant wait, yet I can, its weird, I don't know, anyway, all I know is that I love it here, and I thank you for your prayers and support, I love you dad.

love,

Elder Summers

Why We Need The Book Of Mormon....

June 15, 2015

hey momma bear!

I am doing a lot better this week, way better, there is a talk I read recently from president packer entitled "the candle of the lord" and it has some good missionary type of advice about sharing testimonies and why it is so important, so if you want you could give that a read. So this week something pretty awesome happened to us. My companion and I have been meeting recently with a man, he has been coming to English for years, and has met with missionaries off and on over those years. So his biggest obstacle is why we need the Book of Mormon, which is honestly a question that I have never had to answer, so during a morning of study my companion and I studied this, and I found a few answers. The first is basically that the Bible and the Book of Mormon testify of each other, so the Book of Mormon testifies the Bible is true, and the Bible testifies that the Book of Mormon is true, they contain the same teachings, so if the Bible is true, so is the Book of Mormon. And the second is that the Book of Mormon has lost knowledge, the knowledge that everyone will resurrect, the fullness of the gospel or in other words the plan of salvation, infant baptism, and so on. I discovered all of these things that I knew already, but now I know better why they were revealed, and why we need the Book of Mormon. So we had a meeting yesterday with him, and testified of these things, exhorting him to read and find out, to ask God. Then we asked him to follow the example of our savior and become baptized, and he accepted.

love,

elder summers

hey dad!

my week was so good, so much better than last week haha. that weather is craziness, I cant believe its that hot in Wasilla and seward, fishing would be incredible up there right now. and speaking of Alaska, ive heard some funny new things that people think about Alaska here on the mission, mostly from missionaries. we had one here from texas, and he had convinced himself that Alaska is all ice, and if it all melted it would be smaller than texas, then another one thought that Alaska was an island like Hawaii. its just like hearing crazy things about the gospel people think about. once my companion and I got told that the first Mormon was from Australia, no matter what we said she was firm in her belief, it was pretty comical. thank you for your support and love, and your uplifting words, they mean a lot.

love,

elder summers