Rebecca, you poor girl :( I am so sorry to hear about all those rough things going on in your life :( I love you so much and I am praying for you dear cousin! also, wrote you and rachel a letter this week, so hope you get it! Cassy! your letters are great and everyone enjoys them so much!:) thank you! one of my apartment mates Elder Baffou Appiah requests Arsenal information! Thank you so much :) Thomas...I wrote you and Laura today...but really man, 5 finger shoes....sheesh.....
Thank you so much everyone that wrote me dear elders or letters last week (haven't received this week) Thank you dear moma, Elder Hales Father (by the way, he was on to me right away when I said fence stories and started laughing and was like "jeff jeff jeff...." but, he really enjoyed it. Your son is doing well and we are taking extra good care of him here. I make sure I share all my snacks with him so we both enjoy various american goodies. Thank you also Jenalyn (even though your letter was incomplete ;) ), Dad, Rebecca, Aunt Deb, Rachel, Nicole Gledhill (funny, Nicole, I wrote you the week before I got your Dear Elder, so you will receive that sometime soon :) ), Cassy, and Thomas and Laura for 3 of your postcards, thank you all so much!
So, on to the week. Today is some Muslim holiday weekend like Ramadan or something so everything is pretty much closed. We are sitting in the mission office and it is 8:30 at night and we are writing our emails :) yes, I love you that much that I was so anxious to talk to you family. So, today was SWEET! Finally got to play my first real Sierra Leone Football game. We had like 15 branch missionary/members show up today this morning to play, so we all went out to the field across from the chapel compound. So, let me be very descriptive. The field: The field is various made of rock and dirt, mixed with drainage holes, large puddles, large rocks, and also serves as a parking lot, so the field is lined with cars horizontally, on the ends the goallines are the zinc houses. so...pretty awesome right. EVERYONE comes to watch when there is any sort of football game, so at one point there were probably 75 Africans lining the field all sitting on the hill and the cars watching the game. It was pretty legit. We had jersies, we even had a referee. So SWEET! so it was the missionaries, versus the ward...keeping in mind we have 4 white guys who do not play football. Well....we won :) it was pretty awesome! I scored 3 goals and we ended up winning 7-4! Wow, I was BLOODY after the game! I had fallen so many times and gosh i was so dead. They washed me off with water satchets but ah, after the game so many people were hugging me and lil kids were all jumping on me :) it was nice to show the people that even white man can play soccer. I'm not so different to them anymore now at least....or I hope. So, it was very refreshing to play football again and I really enjoyed :)
So, on to Thomas's questions from his postcard. The weather here is sweet. Rain a little here, little there, lotta there, lotta here. Its nice though, but the sleeping conditions...hahaha well, until last week they really sucked. I sleep on the top bunk, and the fan has to be placed underneath my net so it works. So...the fan is making contact with my face while I sleep. Also, there was not room for the net to be taunt since I was on top bunk, so it hang really loosely and sometimes would touch me...which is a nononono. I sleep with the stretchy sheet attached to my body (the one meant to go on mattress) so that the air from the fan doesn't get inside the sheets hahah, funny huh? At night, especially when it rains, it can get freezing, while I still got fan on of course ;) I have to put my hoody on and also my blanket, but I have to keep fan on to block out the noise from my companions radio (that I bought him) because he plays it so loud every night. But, Elder HALES TO THE RESCUE! The other night he went outside and broke some sticks and smoothed em all out, attached em together with duck tape, came and nailed extra hooks into my celiing, placed the makeshift poles at all corners of the bed, and made my bed sweet and the net doesn't touch me any longer. Gosh, that guy can do anything, I am very grateful for him :)
So, some funny things that I felt like sharing! There are HIV billboards EVERYWHERE. Always saying something like "I take my pills, and I'm happy" ah they are funny. Also there are cholera safety things everywhere, which show graphic cartoon demonstrations of diarrhea and how to clean it...yeah weird.
Okay, so this boy approaches me the other day, and he is no older then 8, but he has sweet dreadlocks, all braided awesomely, and I'm like man I love your hair, and talk to him for a good while. Later, I was talking to Elder Ngerem, and I mentioned the hair, and he was like yeah it's sweet that they are able to be born with hair like that....and i was like uh what? he was like yeah all them Jamaicans are so lucky to be able to have hair like that when they are born...I never said a word, just laughed my insides silly....
But, I heard dinosaur noises the other day while a fence rattled violently behind me in the bush...so I believe there are dinosaurs still in Sierra Leone :)
Also, the football games are sweet here! The local clubs, which are like 10 + for a community, are so fun to watch .EVERYBODY comes out to watch them and enjoy and its hilarious. The boys will score and take off their shirts and run down the street and ah its very entertaining to stop and watch.
So, we are running short on funds, so we got hungry the other day and stopped at a roadside shack to get some food. Food being, a big piece of bread with mayonaise on it...yeah, just mayonaise, and then they hand it to you...and yes, they wrapped it in used computer paper...I kid you not that there were letters on the paper that they handed me hahaha :) Oh, TIA (This is Africa), you just got to love it.
Saw some young boys playing bottle cap football the other day. Had 11vs11 bottlecaps and they were flicking a piece of like rice back and forth, it was very cool to see :)
Also, taught an 11 person lesson this week which was pretty awesome. People just kept flocking to the area we were teaching but it was really sweet! Also, came to learn about some Muslims in the area, and how they tried to tell us that Adam partaking of the fruit, was him actually having sex...so that was interesting to talk about with them :)
Something I find hilarious, and I have chastised Saidu and his culture for, is the way some people greet here...here is an example
ME: Oh, hey,
Person: HI!
ME: Ow di bodi?
Person: eh Fine! How youself?
Me:fine fine
Person: Kushay! (translated to "Hello")
Me: Kushay?
Person: Kushay ah....
So, translated to English
Me: Hey there
Person: oh hey
ME: how are you doing?
Person: Im doing well how about yourself?
Me: I'm doing well.
Person: hello.
Me: Hello
Person: yes, hello....
Its like talking to a crazy person! except they all do it hahah!
So, our area and this mission is growing super fast. 30 new missionaries are on the way, and 9 new apartments need to be found in the Sierra Leone mission, so Elder Ngerem and I are one of the ones who need to find a new apartment/chapel (conjoined preferably) in the area. So, that is very exciting that I get to help look for potentially my new home until December hahah!:)
Ah, on Saturday we got to take part in a HUGE service project at the Sierra Leone Broadcast Center! It was awesome. We had like 6+ branches there to come help out. We all got to wear those sweet Mormon helping hands yellow vests, and go out with our various branches and clean the area for like 3 hours. So, cleaning is like sweeping, cutting grass, picking up trash...but remember, TIA!!!! So, cleaning is taking the end of a broom, just the end I might say, and sweeping all the rocks, trash, and trashy trash trash into a pile. Cutting the grass, oh boy, various ways. You can :
1. Do what I did most of the time and use your hands to pull on the grass. No, not just the weeds, but the grass.
2. You can take a shovel to the ground, and hack up the dirt, grass and all.
3. you can take a machete to the grass and start chopping at it.
4. you can take a hatchet and violently stab the ground.
All ways are pretty awesome :) but, gosh we were all so dirty when the day was through, but we enjoyed very much! it was great to be able to give service to the wonderful people of Sierra Leone, and great to see so many wonderful members show up to help out :)
So, the other day I had a very awesome experience with my companion while teaching this boy. This boy's name is Bamie and he is the super shy guy, who is super ripped, super popular, super good at football, but in a religious setting looks like he is about to cry. But, while talking to him, Elder Ngerem and I were able to discern his needs so well, and I was able to ask him questions in Krio ( so he could understand) with words and statements I had never practiced before, and scriptures I never before noticed were popping into my head, it was so awesome!:) I loved it! DC: 84:85 is so true :) I know the Holy ghost is there to always help and will help us know what to say as long as we are diligent in treasuring up the word.
Ah, what a sweet week! We have so many progressing investigators that we do not even have time to see them all! There are people coming to church 3 Sundays in a row that we haven't even been able to see! So, this Sunday I was asked to teach Elders Quorum, but Elder Ngerem wanted to teach the investigators, so we went on splits haha and I taught the Elders Quorum while he taught the investigators the restoration. After church, it was raining so hard that nobody could leave, so we ended up teaching them Lesson 4 as well :) it was pretty sweet! they were all so receptive! I think we will have one baptism this Saturday, and maybe 2-3 next Saturday, so we are staying very very busy!:)
I love everyone of you so much! your letters are so amazing and I am so grateful for them! Thank you for all of your prayers :) I love you all and pray for you every night as well. I miss you so much family. You truly are amazing and I am so grateful for everything you have done for me in raising me :) I can only repay you by serving honorably for 2 years, and then marrying in the temple and having grandkids huh? I love you :) I love you parents, brothers, sister, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, you are all so amazing! I know this gospel is true! And if its true, what else matters? I can see it bless the lives of so many people, and especially myself. I miss you all like crazy! but, I know this is where I am supposed to be...It no easy. But it sure is sweet :) Farewell everyone! Take care!
-Love,
Elder Sumrak (going to the mountains of Mount. Aureol!)
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