So, I got like 3 weeks worth of letters this week So i want to address
everyone really quick!
Momma i got your package and it was sweet! except for a rat got in and
ate whatever the chocolate and raisins were haha but the rest was
awesome and I loved the pictures :) thank you so much mother, you are
so sweet! though, in the envelopes and packages, crackers do not
survive, but i still enjoy the crumbs ;) your amazing momma thank you!
Plus, Jenalyn! I got your picture and 3 Dear Elders so I sent you a
big long letter this week! got the money and stamps momma so thank you
tons! Thank you Jenalyn, Sis Peterson, Aunt Deb -yes, my shirts are
starting to turn a lil yellow ;) , Katie, Aunt Julia - yeah, xenocide (the book)
is awesome! it is hard to start but easy to finish :) i love it,
Mr.Whitley - There are some old old crazy people here who claim to be
90+ but I don't know my good sir,
All of them are very receptive to the
Gospel, baptizing 2 this weekend actually :), Cassy - Alex Morgan!
what a beast! thank you for the soccer info, i love it!, Jeff Hales -
We sent you letters this week :), Aunt Deb - wow rachel and her bags,
high maintenance ;) just teasing!, Moma, and Rebecca - I loved your
email, you will hear from me soon dear cousin!
and again...more letters... Aunt Deb- Happy late birthday! I loved the
picture you sent me and keep it in my wallet :) beautiful family i
love you so much!, rebecca, Jen, Miranda, mom - love the soccer stuff,
dad - I am proud of your lifts and runs but sheesh you need another
vacation old man,....get the shoes!, Jenalyn!, Kendall boyd - i
sent you a letter today buddy, i loved hearing from you, Cassy, Sister
Peterson - the only thing I hear about school is the exams they are all
taking during the summer that really determine the outcome of
their entire lives, but since it's still summer I know little about
schooling, Rebecca, - ah work sounds so exciting! and i miss wii mario
kart! so much fun, Katie, Thomas and laura- got 5 post cards from you
guys, thank you so much :)
So...on to the week!
Well, last Monday I actually bought 4 of these sweet Nigerian ties
called Jatallas, they are straight african! they never spoil, no rain
or nothing hurts em and they are super shiny and super awesome. They
are like the coveted missionary ties that are super expensive unless
you find people selling em. They usually like 70-100,000 but we
got em for 12 :) I also bought myself a little music player and have
400 + church songs on it so that is very enjoyable! I finally had
snail this week which was actually really tasty. My companion and I
made ground nut soup, which is a super yummu soup we use with our
rice, and we put snail and fish in it and it is super good, but I told
my companion no more snails hahhahaha....sketchy....
I did get hit by a car this week! or at least my backpack did haha
almost knocked me over :) but that was pretty exciting!
Last night Elder Hales and I had to jerry rig my fan because it
wouldn't turn on...so we lifted it off the top bunk and grabbed
another fan...a standing fan...which wasn't tall enough to blow on
me, so we ended up duck taping it in the air to the side of the
bed....its pretty hilarious to look at, specially since we did it with
a flashlight in the dark, but hey, it worked! :)
I finished the Book of Mormon this week! which is pretty awesome :)
only took me 7 weeks, and finished Our Heritage and 50 % of the book
of mormon manual, so my studies are going great! but, I was kinda
bummed when I finished the Book of Mormon because I realized how hard
salvation and exaltation was...but, talking to the Elders last night
we had a really good conversation...and its not that hard as Moroni
sure makes it sound hahah, because it is by GRACE that we are
saved....after all that we can do :) so...you may not be perfectly
charitable, as is the requirement for exaltation, but, if you did your
best, Jesus Christ and the atonement will do the rest. So, that was a
very nice lesson I learned this week!
So, on to the biggest excitement of the week, which seems like is
always on saturdays and usually included baptisms. but, I have been
kinda sick this week. Got caught in the rain all wednesday with no
umbrellas or jackets, so got soaked...and got a cold/fever, that I
didn't treat right (which means I continued to do the Lords work
hoping that would cure me ;) ) so now I am pretty sick, but I am doing
great now! got a blessing and some Sinutab and feelings Tons better!
but, then I thought I had ring worm on my chest...but, Sister Roggia
told me that it is probably something else, so also that is cleared up
and I WILL SURVIVE :) the Lord's work must go on and I am here to do
it SHABANG!:) I love this gospel. So much hope and so much love, but
wow I strayed off topic didn't I? Back to saturday action. SO, i was
texting sis roggia about my condition and accidently took the phone
with me to the baptismal font to go clean, like Elder Ngerem and I do
every saturday pretty much. Well, I didn't realize i even took it, but
at some point while cleaning it must have fallen out of my pocket...so
we went back up to the apartment, where I ironed about 15 clothes
again, then we went to call our investigators but....no phone. so we
grabbed the other Elders phone and called ours...yeah someone answered
..but in Krio!
and they said "who na dis?"
Elder Ngerem replied "da missionaries" they hung up the phone and
turned it off.
OH NO THEY DIDN"T! so we sprinted down to the chapel and started
interoggating every young man! no luck.. we grabbed the assistances,
they started making kids turn out their pockets... no luck! and gosh i
was praying and praying because I did not want to lose another phone!
so we went and got one of the main missionary men, President Marcus
and he and the security guard locked down the compound. nobody is
allowed out....yeah, so the person who has the phone gets scared..and
calls us
they say "da titi done go down to charge de phone."
so we run out the compound and go and check the 3 nearest charging
stations...no luck...
we search and search and eventually get a call from the zone leaders
in the apartment. They found the phone. the person got scared and
threw it in our flower bush and ran for it...SO in the end, we got the
phone. I forced myself to love whoever it was though, and not get angry
hahahah oh I love my companion :) the mission is so exciting and so
great! I absolutely love it. and I love the people here, they truly
are amazing!
But, the day went on, and we baptized A. and M.
so what a great day! :) it was pretty sweet, and
they both showed up on sunday to be confirmed as well. ah and we have
possibly 3 more baptisms this sunday :) so exciting. we are so so so
so busy though, specially with Elder Ngerem being District Leader. Like yesterday,
Saidu and I had to teach lessons to people after church because Elder
Ngerem was interviewing. Ah this was so frustrating.
I am practicing the interview questions with this lady and I'm like
"whattin na repentance" and she looks at me and is like huh so I
repeat myself. She then turns to Saidu and says something like "ah de
white man done speak English, whattin ne he tolk?"
TO which Saidu responsed "Whattin na Repentance" and she proceeds to
answer...I almost flipped...hahaha he laughed so hard when we were
done. I was like was that not clear what I asked and he said its just
because she is an old lady but ah, frustrating day yesterday, felt
like nobody could understand me...well as compared to amazing friday
:):):)
So, friday, we did exchange again. Idressa and Elder Ngerem and Saidu
and I. We taught 4 lessons up the mountain and ah they all went great!
we went to this one guy and we invited all his friends over and they
were all our age and we just had a great lesson and everything went so
sweet :) we had 3 more lessons with everyone the same age group that
day and everyone was so sweet! they all are such awesome people and
were begging us to come back this week. I am really excited to go see
them...ANDANDAND
I might get to go with ELDER HALES THIS WEEK!
Since Elder Ngerem has to do exchanges, I might get to go with Elder
Hales this week, which I am super excited about. Gosh, we are just
going to take people and throw em in the river and baptize em ;) ah
just kidding but yeah I am super excited to work with him. Love that
guy.
Also, ELDER Ngerem received LOTS of Dear Elders this week. At least
10. SO THANK you everybody that sent him one. you have no idea how
much he lights up when he realizes he got more letters than the other
Africans, who have dates and what not. So thank you everyone.He may
not write back but he is more grateful then you will ever know. He is
super stressed with the new position and your letters really cheered
him up!
So, big big news of the week! our apartment is getting torn down in
less then 3 weeks! we have to find apartments PRONTO! so, they even
told us that except for those extremely progressing investigators, we
need to drop our plans and focus on finding a new place to stay...each
new area. so Elder Ngerem and I did just that On thursday! and we
found the NICEST place...but, in the end too nice. Sweet apartment
place that had 6 flats, total of 18 bedrooms and just perfect perfect
perfect, beautiful absolutely beautiful (that meaning it looks like a
Best Western that has been trashed, but beautiful for Sa Lone ;) ) So
we toured for an hour, took 200 + pictures, showed the assistances,
they loved it, we could have moved ALL the missionaries there, not
just our companion ship but everrone, the president, and the couples,
but the lady was not willing to remove the furnishings...so in the
end, no deal. but the assistants found another place the next day so 6
of us will be moving there in the next coming weeks...but, not Elder
Hales and his companion, so we will have to depart :( i am so sad! ah
it is going to stink so much to leave Elder Hales...ah don't want to
think about it.
so I know a little bit of like 3 languages now, or at least how to say
hi and what not in KRIO, Mendes, and Timini, so it is fun to
communicate with people on the road now. I do my best, but I can
always improve, but we try to teach our lessons in as much English as
possible. Since it is an English speaking mission :)
Also, scripture I read yesterday that I really really loved! it is in
Matthew 7 and it says about broad is the path to hell or whatever but
narrow is the path to heaven but "few there be that find it". Well
everyone kows that one but they always interpret it like oh yeah well
duh there is more people going to hell then heaven, but it says few
there are that "find" it, not follow it. SO, it really inspired me to
go out and help people find it :)
But, this week has been awesome. I love you all so much and I am super
duper busy but am doing my best to try to stay healthy and do the
Lord's work. Today, we went to the wood market, and I bought some hand
carved (see,hear,speak) no evil monkeys. SO, its pretty awesome :) and
only cost 5 $. also, because of Zone leaders, elder Symons and I ended
up losing Elder Hales and Elder Ngerem and couldn't find each other
for 30 plus minutes. NO phone, because we left it at apartment, but gosh
could not find each other.SO, elder symons and I stopped in the middle
of the market, and I offered a quick prayer...he then asked, "where do
you think we should go" while I had the inclination to not move...I
was feeling tired and lazy...but he was about to head down, and I was
like no...and then didn't move or think for like 10 seconds, and then
right behind us in the opposite direction he spotted Elder Hales
entering another alleyway :) so we found them! only by the power of
the Holy Ghost I tell you :) it is truly amazing and a great blessing
in our lives
So, I got to run but I love you all so very much my friends and
family. your letters are so amazing and I had such a big pile this
week that made me so happy! ah, so happy. you are all so sweet and
I'll never forget you for sacrificing even a little bit of time :) I
love you all! please be safe and take care! Moma and Papa I love you
:)
-Love,
Elder Jesse Sumrak
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