Dear Family and Friends,
After you read this letter from Elder Sumrak, I know that he would really appreciate hearing from you. It is very easy and free to go to http://www.dearelder.com/ and click on the tab Write A Letter. Then you just need to select Sierra Leone Freetown West Africa in the drop-down menu and fill in the boxes. Your message will be printed out and mailed for free to Elder Sumrak. There is a countdown clock to tell you how long before the next batch of letters are sent. Thank you so much for taking the time to serve him as he spends his time serving the Lord. Love from the Sumraks
Well guys hello from Sierra Leone. I have so much to say that I will
not even try to organize it, but I am here in beautiful Sierra Leone.
I may rant and I may say some things but in the end everyone know that
I know this is where the Lord wants me, I'm not coming home, I love the
people, I love this gospel, and I love the mission. So first off, we
rode the ferry on over, and 2 of us 9 missionaries were immediately
sent off to meet our companions from the mission office...and the rest
of the missionaries spent the night at the mission office...yes I was
one of those two...and my apartment is a stones throw away from the
mission office hahah so if you have PLEASE DEAR ELDER me because those
only take 5 days to get here. Use dear elder send me a message, they
print them on Fridays for me :) so please tell Jenalyn, and ANY
friends to do that because I would love to hear from everyone and I do
not have time to read all on PDAY. But, Monday is our Pday. So back to
the story. They walked us up to the apartment, me and my buddy Elder
Hales...and gosh the apartment is complete tish. Dirty cement floors.
There are 9 of us Elders in this. The zone leaders, district leader,
and other companionships....so its bugs everywhere. cockroaches.
toilets don't flush. We have to poor water down them to clean them.
bucket showers. I pour antiseptic in a bucket and take some freezing
bucket showers. We must use a bicycle pump to pump the water through
the filter to drink. Everything is dirty. You can't be clean. We walk
around in flip flops in the apartment. But, it's not all bad I guess. I sleep
on the top bunk...so my giant fan has to be under the mosquito net
with me...so its pretty much on top of me haha and if i turn it off I
get too hot so i need it. I have gotten sick about 7-8 times by
now....but its all good :) I have tried all the food I can while I
have been here. My companion is Elder Ngerem. A nigerian elder who has
been here for about 9 months. He is the man. He speaks the language, is
the best cook in the mission, and takes awesome care of me. He doesn't
talk much, but he teaches with real power, and he is helping me tons.
But he cooks me lots of stuff. Stuff you would look at and say what
THE HECK IS THAT! But, i have eaten it all. Cassava Leaf, Potatoe
leaf, krin krin, Eba. Its crazy. Eba or whatever is like this doughy
stuff that you dip in some sauce and eat (like anthony bourdain in
liberia) and we (all the africans and I) sit around a bucket and just
dips our hands in and eat haha...its pretty gross if you think about
it but it tastes good! I love the food here! It just doesn't love me
so much yet if you know what I mean. So weather....It has rained
pretty much everyday, it rains everynight and every morning. My zone
is the Freetown, Mt. Aureol zone. Google it :) its pretty intense. I
have only been to 2 of our zones so far but our area is HUGE! But we
have 2 really good areas that we went to all last week. The first one
is on top of the mountain. We hike a little bit and catch a taxi and
then go proselyte up there all day. Its way up high in the moutain so
its nice and chilly up there fortunately. :) gosh, i have so much to
say. The PEOPLE! They are so amazing. Everyone listens to our message
and everyone is so friendly to us. They all call me PUMWEI which is
krio for white man, and some people just shout white man at me and I
turn and they smile and wave. The children crawl all over me and pull
at my hairs and poke my nose and my ears and chin and tell me to buy
them stuff haha. It's so funny. They are all so sweet. They all try to
teach me Krio. I can't really understand the people so much. Lots of
them speak krio...which is not easy to understand yet. and english
sounds about as close to spanish for me depending on who I am talking
to :) haha but I have already taught about 15 lessons and me and my
companion pretty much go 60/40% on them so he is giving me some great
experience. The people all accept the message. We have taught
everything to them haha and I have invited about 4 people to be
baptized and they all accept...and they all want to be baptized...they
just all struggle to keep committments. and if you don't come to
church, it doesn't matter if the message is true, you can't be
baptized until you show God that you know its true and you're going to
live it like it's true. So we have about 15 people commit to come to
church on Sunday...and only 1 showed up. Because it WAS RAINING!!!!
Gosh, it ranis everyday! Get over it! haha. But, church was funny
yesterday. Me and my companion had to bless the sacrament...then I
bore my testimony AND there was about 25 people in the room where
about 150 chairs were set up haha. There are so many members but
nobody comes to church when it rains beacuse they don't want to dress
up and then get wet. and when it rains here...it pours!!! SHEESH!!! so
a little about where I live and serve. I live in a lil apartment
inside a giant compound. There is a church building, the mission
office, and our apartment in the compound. The mission home is about
15 minute taxi ride away. Outside the compound is the world. Just people
everywhere and little shacks and houses everywhere. There are houses, sure,
but most people stay in clay, zinc, brick, concrete lil shacks and huts. Our 2 areas:
The one Tree Planting on top of the moutain is like a little village. All the
houses are on different levels and there is no road pretty much. The
road leading to the village is really bad. I don't understand how the taxis survive.
I get nauseous from how many bumps we hit hahaha! So the first lesson I taught
up there it was pouring down rain and I was basically yelling to even
be heard. So the other area we go is like downtown. Its Solider
street. We have to pass a prison on the way there which is really
scary since there are people with ak47s everywhere and light machine
guns and its crazy. But we pass that and go into the city.
and those houses are just no organization, everywhere. Huts, metal
houses, wood, brick, but there are some legit houses.
Gosh, this email is so crazy unorganized hahaha. It rained so hard the other day
and all day that 15 people died in Freetown. The rain almost knocked me off the mountain.
A giant rapid waterfall was on our path when we were up on the mountain and
you know there are people on the otherside just waiting to hear the
Lord's gospel so we tried to pass through it. So we are wearing giant
yellow rain jackets and big rubber boots. Everyday it rains (85% of
the time, except today fortunately) we go out in those. So we are
crossing this river and gosh it almost knocked me off my feet, and if
it had I WOULD have died. Its so nuts. But, on the people again. Every
single person we have taught is between ages 15-22, I would say. They
are all young guys, no girls right now except for 2 older women. They
are all young guys looking for some hope and light in their life. They
are great guys. They knows its true. You can see it in their eyes. I just pray they act
upon it. BRANCH MISSIONARIES!!!!! What great people. There are about
10 in our branch I think haha.A bunch of young guys who just want to
go on missions so they help as much as they can. They even wash our
laundry every Monday. But, they will go out with us all day. Brother
Igreasa went out with us the other day for about 7 hours! That is
sacrifice. Brother Sido, who can't be a day older then me, just got
called as branch mission leader, so that's really cool. He is always
out helping us, buying our food, and setting up our contacts for us,
because we can't find the people we are going to see if we don't know
where they live. SO pretty much EVERYONE wants the gospel. But we
can't teach everyone. So its hard but we have to only teach those who
we think are legit investiagors, because everyone wants to sit down
and talk to us. We can't even give Book of Mormons away unless they
are legit, because everyone wants one to read. We just don't have
enough to do that. So traffic...I thought traffic was bad in
Ghana...wow. I almost die, everytime I walk out the front door. A road
the size of a one lane road in the USA has two cars going either way
and motorcyles weaving in and out. I almost get hit every five
seconds. Imagine the closest call a car ever made to hitting
you...Yeah, that is about the most comfrotable distance you can be
from the cars here....Hahahah So crazy. But, I kinda love it. :) Its
hard work. Its exhausting. At times I really just want to come home,
but I know this is where I need to be. This is where I want to be. The
Lord has sent me here and I am ready to serve :) I love this gospel and
I know it is sososososososososos true! Oh, there is so much I still
want to say but there is just not enough time. Please send me lots of
questions because that is so much easier to answer then just ranting
like I have for the past 30 minutes. I love you all so much! I just
sent a letter off today Jenalyn, so it will get there in about a month
or so haha but please dear Elder me :) that would really make make
make my day! I love you all so very much....
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