Finally Moving

So, Thank you thank you wonderful family :) I loved hearing from you!
I got some dear elders this morning, which was really nice to read
before I headed out for an exciting day in Freetown...So much sweet
news! But, thank you thank you to Rebecca, Sis Peterson, Jullian ,
Drew, Momma, and pops, I loved hearing from all of you so much today
:) You are all amazing and I am so grateful for all of you and
Rebecca, You got a letter with your name on it on the way...not
someones elses...I apologize again ;) oh and Kasidy Jackson, I wrote
you a letter this week as well, thank you so much for your letter! it
was the longest I have received hahaha :) thank you!

Also...Kendall Boyd...did you ever get my letter?????

Well Momma, I love you so much and its so good to hear about
everything back home! I uh, totally did not know the lego guy was the
flash drive and have had him propped up against my picture frame along
with the plastic dog Saidu gave me a while back...Also, that soccer
pin you sent me was SUPER awesome! but, i don't like to wear them, So
i let Saidu have it and he is so happy momma, gosh it felt so good to
let him have it. He wears it every Sunday to church and everybody
always compliments him on it and gosh he just glows from it, so thank
you so much for making his day mom :) I love the tie by the way, its
my Bluffing tie! Good pick, you got my style down PERFECT! But, when I
get home today I will check the music and see if it works but thank
you so much :) you are so sweet! I hope it does, I need a lil change
in music, funny that I just mentioned that this morning hahaha

And...I didn't get sick! I am feeling totally fine after our
disgusting meals...but, we furthered it last night when we ran out of
food...and only had frozen vegetables...and ran outta salt...so used
Taco seasoning on our vegetables hahaha and it was totally uh, not
yummy but not too gross :) we enjoyed! sorta...hahaah thank you mom
for the seasoning! it saved us more then dry vegetables haha!

And...while I was in the bank today waiting to get our subsistence I
saw the news about the hurricane! it looks crazy. I am praying for you
guys and I know you will be okay, but hurricanes in VA can be wacky.
Please be safe and don't do anything silly...hope you didn't repair
the shed yet father,because you may be saying goodbye to it again ;)

Wow! sounds like you have been super busy momma but I am glad that you
got to enjoy some alone time and also got some many opportunities to
hangout with Mrs. P this week. That is awesome! I wrote the family a
letter this week, So I hope you get it within the month, but I just
want you to be happy momma :) hahaha so keep on enjoying yourself!

Something you could send me...NOT EMERGENCY, just if you ever put
another package together anytime or anything...like does not need to
be anytime soon...but I would love the Plan Of Salvation Visual
pictures...Like the lil cut outs things with the world and the sun and
everything, I would LOVE to start using that in my lessons, even with
older people. It would help them understand SOOO much better. thank
you momma :) if you cannot, I will attempt to make my own...but it
will be wo wo.

Well....first, news I found out today. the Assistant told us that
LIBERIA has been closed! along with Sierra Leone. The missionaires are
now locked in their countries. NO more missionaries will travel
between countries, they are preparing for the permanent split...so i
will not get to experience Liberia...and I will not get to learn
Koloquoa or however you spell their crazy language...and uh...thanks
to the new revelation...Elder Barth said they are sending 150 +
missionaries in the next 6 months...uh...we don't even have a 100 in
this mission...THAT IS INSANE! I don't know how accurate it is...but,
geeeze, he is an assistant so who knows. They are planning on putting
4 missionaries in  EACH branch and opening up like a bunch of new
areas, so it is possible I will be in Mount Aureol for a long
time...because I may split from Elder Burton and train someone else in
my area..but who knows, it is just complete chaos right
now...accompanied with the fact that apparently an average of 600
missionaries sent in papers a week before...and the average now is
7,000? what!? someone tell me if that is true, i heard it from another
Elders parents I think.

Also...We are moving out! finally! Super P day was cancelled today,
because we had to start packing because we are moving to our new
apartment tomorrow. Elder Burton and I got the opportunity to check it
out earlier this week because it is in our area and it is okay. It
actually has tiling, unlike our dirt floors, but it has small
rooms...so back to bunk beds...and the worst part is it only has 1
shower..for 6 missionaries, and its on a very busy street. so it is
going to be loud unfortunately, but, we will manage :) man, the
craziness that is going on in this mission...the craziness!!!!

Well...I will take it event by event I guess this week.

Tuesday morning we were having personal study and a swarm of dogs came
barking past our window, we haven't seen them in the compound in
forever, but there was like 10 of them, so Elder Burton and I jumped
up, grabbed the brooms, and ran outside. I stood up on the balcony and
threw the broom as hard as a I could and NAILED a dog straight in the
head! It liked flopped over like it was dead, and got back up and ran
out the compound! geeze the adrenaline rush! It almost makes me want
to come home and hunt!:) The assistants were proud of me...since they
have many hunting nights with the dogs,they say I am becoming one of
them hahaha

Also, Elder Burton and I have despaired from finding a chapel...we
went out Tuesday for a good last look, because our area is going DRY
because we have spent so much time finding a chapel instead of
teaching the gospel :/ but, whatever the Lord requires he will get
from us. But, we found a building, but the door to the second story
was locked, so Elder Burton and I had to ninja our way, like hopping
off neighbourings houses windows and on unfinshed doors to get up to
the second story balcony...yeah, we were a lil dirty afterwards, but
we took some pictures and it looks like a possibility...once we tear
down 6 plus walls :) but, later in the week, Elder Burton and I got
the opportunity to ride with Elder Lauritzen and President Marcus in
the mission Jeep to go and show them our find, and they are hopefully
getting it approved and sent to ghana for permission to get it up and
running...average predicted wait time...2-3 months :/ so I may not even
see the fruits of my labors...but that is okay. I know if a chapel
needs to be found, then we had to do it. It stinks because we have
only 1 more baptism we believe or maybe 2, until like the end of this
month ....but, missionary work is more than teaching I guess, it is
service too, so I am trying not to let it discourage me too much.

We taught one awesome family this week and we had a great lesson with
the momma and her two daughters. After the lesson, we were trooping
back up the mountain and this girl came sprinting out after us and was
like ELDER SUMRAK ELDER SUMRAK, so i waited for her to catch up and
she was like, Elder Sumrak, can you teach me some workouts? my tummy
is getting big and I want to lose it. What workouts can i do? Me and
Elder Burton were like uh...and looked at each other, and I was
like...You could run or you could walk to church on sunday! yeah
yeah, do that...and maybe eat less? can you do press ups? No? how
about crunches? no sabe? okay...um yeah eat less and walk to church on
sundays :) I promise you will lose your tummy in no time. uh AWKWARD
hahahaaha

Well, we got our hoodies made in one night! we went to the guy and he
is hilarious. He is a  funny old fat black guy, who
listens to country music, sings and dances around his shop, apparently
knows karate, and can out dance anyone. He made our hoodies and they
are SO legit. It is a lil hot to wear them but we are excited to bluff
them when we get home ;) we are getting some more made this week, only
costs about 7 dollars for the material and about 5 dollars to make
them, so not too bad :) specially for a unique african
hoodie...seriously, you will never see hoodies (homeboys) like this
hahaha they are weird!

Also, our investigator Cristiana is progressing SO much! we are going
to see her as soon as we are done here, but her baptism is on saturday
and she has come so far. I just randomly contacted her on the street
one day, and she has changed so much. She has it so rough. She lives
in pretty much a prostitute house (yeah, only will teach on the
balcony there) but, she is giving up all that. She says she will break
up with her boyfriends and give up all the other stuff and she even
came to church the past weeks, even yesterday when she was sick! and
she comes alone...with nobody...not even our members who are her
neighbours came and she still did...she feels/looks so outta place
but, she knows this is the right choice and I am so proud of her :)

Smoking...its bad for you! Smoking in Africa....Weird...uh...so Elder
Burton and I were walking down the street on Saturday, and in the
middle of the street was about 6 or 7 people all just sitting there
taking turns smoking out of the biggest bong. Like seriously, in the
middle of the road...like they were using like a water hose. I was
like what the heck! and they all were like "Hey! Pastors! Good
evening, hows the day!" we were like uh, got to get outta here, got to
get outta here. What is wrong with this country hahaha? WHy do we love
it so much?:)

Well, we had to fill the tank after the baptisms on saturday. I Don't
know if I told you last week but dry season is coming and we can't
afford to drain the baptismal font anymore...so we take buckets and we
cart it back up to the tank, about 20 yards away from the font, so I
stood in the font and filled buckets while 2 Elders transported the
buckets to an Elder standing on top of the tank to dump in. Yes, we
get work DONE around here hahaa :)

Well...we had one crazy crazy crazy lesson on Saturday night. We
taught this referral from the sisters and it was absolute chaos...15 +
girls.  NO guys. We taught them all outside. There was like 4 girls
our age, 10 girls who were lil and even 1 momma and wow, chaos, chaos.
They were just all giggling and everything and wow, I was just so
happy that we were able to finish the lesson and get 5 people a
baptismal date, but, none came to church (could have expected it, but
tried not to and practice a lil faith, too bad it requires faith on
both ends ;) ) Yeah, weird, the lil girls like dog piled us at the end
of the prayer and we were like ah ah ah ah girls can't touch us
hahaha! Probably NOT going back there

Well...Today was sweet. Ran some sprints this morning, packed up my
bags for tomorrow, then got transport to the bank with the assistants
Elder Barth and Elder Appleby, took about 2 hours to get our money
out, we then went to the restaurant where we got egg burgers fries and
ice cream again...ah :) then...then we went to a pharmacy to get some
district medicine and there was a white girl working there and we
haven't seen a pretty white girl our age in well uh for me 5
months...so we were all super shy and ran out as quick as we
could...yes, the mission does mature you...but, in different
ways...no, we can't talk to white girls. hahaha yes we are dorks.

But, then on the wood market, which was complete chaos today.
Literally at one point I had two women yelling at each other/me
pulling my arms in separate directions. they had all 4 of us by the
wrist and were dragging us everywhere trying to sell us tish but
ah...the men on the wood carvings side are just as bad, but I left
with 4 bracelets and a SWEET necklace...:) so, I am happy hahaha

Life here in the mission is sweet. I love my area. I love the people.
I love Sierra Leone. Ugh, my legs are tired from our mountain, but we
make it through. I worked out every single morning/night this week,
and had plenty of protein, and the chest on my shirts is getting super
tight hahaha :) So, I am putting on some muscle hopefully, which is a
big relief from the lack of protein I get. But, we ate a lot of
chicken and eggs and protein shakes this week so all is well...all is
well ;) thank you so much for the protein momma.

We were a little discouraged after yesterday in which all of our
progressing investigators except Christiana and Onike and Isatu came
to church...we are going to have to drop 7-9 people who I love, who
love the gospel, who have changed, who have progressed, but won't come
to church...my favorite boys (gilbert and abubakarr) they have changed
so much! they have given up all their women, quit drinking, promised
to pay tithing, read so much from the book of mormon, but, they have
only came to church once in the last month :/ its painful...we can't
keep spending time on people who don't progress. its hard...its
discouraging...its sad. I want their salvation...but, other people
deserve the opportunity to practice their agency. ugh

Well, after a bummer last night, I wrote some songs in my journal and
it really cheered me up. ate gross vegetables and some good yummy
bread...and now life is back on track and we are moving FORWARD!:) got
our subsistence back, we got money, we got food, lets do this thing!
boo yah! haha life is good.

I know this gospel is true and I love it so much. I honestly used to
be upset from all the restrictions I had in my life...Now, I pray to
God and I am so thankful because I see how much they protected me, how
lives are so screwed up without the gospel, and how a couple words, a
couple scriptures, and a wonderful touch from the Holy Ghost can
change the life of even the most corrupted sinner. It's
beautiful...It really is...and I don't even fully understand it
appreciate it, or put it into action. I know the atonement is real. I
have seen it in my life. I have seen it in the lives of others...It is
amazing. It is unbelievable. It is so intense that I try to avoid it
in my studies just because I know how much studying I would need to do
just to fathom 1% of it...but, I know its real. I was inspired to
study deep doctrine in the scriptures after reading a verse in
Doctrine and Covenants that read that nobody could be saved in
ignorance...and its true...You can't sneak into exaltation. You can't
happen upon it. You must realize what you are doing, you must accept
and keep covenants made. You know when you have made it, even before
God welcomes you into his kingdom :) I know that is true. I know
change is constant. I know who I want to be, I know who I am. I know
I can get there, slowly but surely, not over night, but with constant
prayer and constant change. I love you all so much and know this
gospel can help your lives as it has helped mine. Repent . Pray. Life
is okay :) I love you all! have an amazing week and please take care!

-Love,
Elder Jesse Sumrak

Be safe in the hurricane...I beg!