Birthday Week

Thank you so much for the letters dear family and friends! Elder Mann
(wrote you buddy), Phoebe and Maddie (letter on the way :) ), sis
peterson, soccer momma, drew, mom, dad, rebeccca (another letter
sent!) , Robin Lee( congrats on the mission call buddy, sent you a
letter), also JEFF LEAVITT, if you even read these reply if you got my
letter punk!

Elder Mann...if you are reading this, this is the shoutout you
wanted.I love you very much my brother, all the way from Ghana. I
can't wait to see you in 20 months my man. I wrote you a good ol
letter with my life story in it today so hope you get it soon. You are
the man! keep on keeping on MANN for life!

But, I got the box momma! but no package yet!:) it was soooooo
sweetttttt!!!!!! I was so happy and have been sharing lots with my
companion. Thank you so much mother dearest.
:) I waited all the way from tuesday to saturday to open it on my
birthday, and we have enjoyed very much. The food was great, the
notepad is sweet,  the zip it monster bag
is pretty much the sweetest case I have ever seen, the pictures were
nice  and wow...thank you mother dearest!

Yeah, Eddie is pretty hilarious! I love that guy so much. he called me
on my bday and told me "te amos"...yeah he is learning spanish? haha :)
got to love him. But, the hat trick he is talking about is when I
scored 3 goals on the ward like 2 months ago when we played, but he
wants a rematch against the white man haha so we will see if we play
anytime soon. but, no no soccer on my bday, or in a while actually :/
just too busy on pday to play really...sad i know. I'm sorry i have no
stories right now mother dearest, but they will come I am sure in the
future. planning on playing this monday :)

So, the new companion is pretty much AWESOME! Elder Burton and I are
running this place like a boss. I got to start taking over and do what
I wanted since I knew the area, and it really helped and me and him
are rocking it, in just one week haha! we have 15 baptisms planned for
October (we are hoping and praying) and we had 75 people at church on
sunday (most since I got here) and 10 investigators at church (most
since I got here), so I am super excited for this companionship. I
love Elder Burton! He is 6'3 and man, just an amazing missionary.
Speaks great Krio, everyone understand him, super organized...we are
going to ROCK it!

Hahaa Sis Peterson is awesome. I love reading her letters to me. I am
glad that you are using dearelder as an example to help others. I am sure the
world will benefit from wonderful women in the relief society! without
a doubt :)

I am so happy to hear about Grandfather! He never quits. Grandad, you're
going to be there when I get off the plane, yeah? :) I know you will
be and I love you so much! I hope I am as healthy and strong as you
one day! haha

Wow, nick is so cool. I love that guy. Glad he is having such a great
senior year and I hope he continues too.

My studies kinda cooled off this week as I am going through ACTS so I
have stayed out of Doctrine & Covenants a little bit, but gosh I love those
manuals too momma. I wish I had them before back home. they help me
learn SO much stuff. But, yeah my bible study is going great, but excited to finish
within the next month or so and get back in my book of mormon ;) never
gets old! then on to JESUS THE CHRIST! woohooo! I love the pictures of
the buddies back home. miss the tish outta them so wish them hello and
my love mother :)

So, the beginning of this week was a little rough. Had tons of
missionaries coming and going and I gave away ALL the food in my box
to the poor elders who had nothing. They were all out of subsistence
and were entering the apartment or going back home and so i fed them
with everything I had haha, even took them out to lunch on their last
day to get them some good food. It felt really good to help out...but,
then me and my compy were both dead, so i took out some personal money just
so we could have transport up the mountain...needless to say we lived
off rice and oatmeal hahaha dry dry dry but we enjoy and we love it!

The week was sorta crazy with exchanges and what not, and the new
elders got here early while the others didn't leave til thursday! so,
on Tuesday we had a 5 man team up in Treeplant of me Elder Burton,
elder ngerem, elder symons, and saidu haha it was so much fun, but I'm
sure we were an intimidating force of mormonism entering the
community. but, all the lessons went great and we ate lots of good
food for Elder Ngerems farewell :)

I also got to see the fresh batch of missionaries out of the MTC. wow,
makes me start to feel old when I see my first new group of Elders
following me. All wide eyed and scared out of their mind, just like I
was haha :) woke up at 5:30 on thursday to see them all off in the
vans, along with my papi and some other good elders...but, I'm really
excited for my new companionship. I loved Elder Ngerem but it is
really cool having a companion who understand me and responds along
with me when we hear WHITE MEN WHITE MEN! haha oh you got to love
africa :)

so, had some pretty interesting lessons and experiences I would love to
share with you guys. We were teaching David Mansaray on Saturday, and
man this guy was just unloading some questions on us haha, we were
teaching the 10 commandments and boy this kid can talk. He was like,
well "is it a lie, if some guys are trying to kill you, and I hide you
in my house, and tell them you went THAT way?" we uh...kinda kicked
our feet in the dirt and said well yes, but, its okay and I would hope
if that happened you would do that..but, try not to lie and uh always
ask god if its okay...if you feel bad afterward,uh repent :) hahaha it
was funny.

Another great expereince, oh GOSH, This one is about the LAW OF
CHASTITY! so, we are preparing this 26 year old big guy for baptism,
and we are teaching him the law of chasitity in his home and he is
just like...wow guys that is so hard .and we bore personal testimony
and talked aobut the blessings and everything and he was just like
guys, this is super hard, i will try though, and I was like man, if
you say try, you WILL fail! I want you to say you will live it! and
then I asked him, do you have a girlfriend? and he said yes and
explained she was muslim and all and we asked him if it was okay if we
could sit down and talk to her sometime and he made a face and was
like well uh,guys....and then his face gets so serious....and he is
like "shes here...SHES here" and she knocks on the door and walks in
:) man, I smiled from ear to ear, and just jumped on it and was like
hey sister we are missionaries and went straight into teaching her the
Law of Chastity and the guy is like "uh, I left something, uh
somewhere," and gets up and runs out of the house...so, now I am on
the verge of busting out laughing while we teach her the law of
chastity, close the lesson, and he never came back hahaha :) still
haven't seen him since, but I hope he is doing okay :) oh, gosh it was
great!

Had a very emotional experience the other day when a mother of a 18
year old girl we teach called us over and started begging for food,
just begging for money to buy rice...and we can't give her
anything...its against the rules and she is just like on the verge of
tears, and asks us to pray for her, but she wants to say the prayer.
So, we all close our eyes, and I think she just wanted us both to say
a personal silent prayer, so we continued...and man, I just felt so
helpless... I just started sobbing like a little baby...this mission
is so hard sometimes. As the woman said, I know your message may be
true, but how do you expect me to even pay attention if I can't even
focus because me and my family are starving to death? ah...its hard.
truly. It breaks the heck out of my heart and I don't even know what
to do sometimes...but, I will pray and hand it to the Lord and do my
best.

Oh, mother...please don't send anything for the children or  have
Rak pak do it or anything...I wish we could but we can't give them
anything. Its hard not to...but i can understand the painful
reasoning. Me as white man can give give give, next elder is poor man
who can't give and all the children cry and beg him for stuff and he
has nothing to give. children are offended and everybody loses...so we
aren't allowed to give them anything :( its not easy here..its not
easy at all...but, thank you and everyone for your beautiful charity.
It is the thought that counts. truly.

So, my birthday...wow, what a wack day haaha! so, it was National
Cleaning day, so no missionaries were allowed to leave the apartment
until 12 (on this day the whole country is quarantined in their
compounds and must clean their house and the surrounding environments)
....(yeah still looks like tish) but that happened...also, our convert
couldn't make it to her baptism, but we had the program and everything
so we still cleaned the font, then waited forever for Elder Hales and
Elder Richards to show up and have their baptism of one lady. it was
fun haha, just us Elders and her, so we grabbed some kids cleaning the
compound and got them to come in and give talks and testimonies hahaha
;) the baptism was intense. the water drained or something so Elder
Hales baptized this lady in like knee deep water haha, he is such a
boss! ah he is the man :)

but, we didn't even get to proselyte til like 5 and we had a quick
lesson, and then the Conteh family called me up and said they had
birthday dinnner prepared for me. So, we went to their house and
wow,,,they prepared so much for us :) they prepared this ground nut
soup with rice that had like chicken, fish balls, fish, beef and ahh
so good, and they  bought us fantas and sprites and wow :) what a
sweet sweet family. the big 2-0. I feel old as mess...my body is
exhausted. the mission and this mountain is not kind, but the lord and
his grace and mercy help lift me back up and down everyday...I know
this wouldn't be possible without him...I couldn't even get out of bed
without him....

I really enjoyed all that the Conteh family did for my birthday
 and it felt nice to have some love from the wonderful Conteh family.
A little home away from home...but, i truly miss you guys and can't
wait to celebrate 22 with you guys one day hahaha....

But, it's been a long week. I love my new companion and really look
forward to the week ahead of us. We are going to work super hard and
do our best to have these 15 baptisms, all before the 20th  No one thinks
we can do it,but gosh dangit we are going to pray and fast and we are
going to do it! WE WILL DO IT! :) I hope haha :) well I love you all
so very much! I love the mission, of course I will experience some
heartaches and some problems...but, I will endure. I read a scripture
in like Acts 16 or 17 today that said something about "through much
tribulation to enter the kingdom of God"...its not easy for
anyone...Everyone has their own trials and tests they must pass
through in this life. I will pass through mine and endure and
hopefully the Lord will be proud of me. Crap and tish will happen but
I know if I do my best and keep my eye on the prize the Lord will
raise me up and give me the strength and inspiration and encouragement
I need. Life isn't easy...but, if it was it wouldn't be worth living.
yeah, I am in a cheerful mood as you can tell.

I love all of you so very much. The mission is the greatest thing I
could ever do. You find out what is most important in life...and
figure out that the Lord will never forget you. Things in this Earth
will pass away, but the things ordained of by the Lord will not. Ever.
I love you all. I miss you. I hope you all have an amazing week and
life and everything and yeah yeah yeah.

Love,
Elder Jesse Sumrak