Thanksgiving and Elections

Thank you so very
much for the Dear Elders momma, pops, sis Peterson, Cassy, Bekki Brau
(I wrote you a letter and will be sending it Friday) Drew, Rebecca
(also wrote you a letter dear cousin), and Thomas and Laura for the
most amazing postcards I have ever seen :) also wrote you 2 a letter!
Well, to address everything in your letter first mother.
Thanksgiving: Pretty Awesome! Well, we celebrated on Thursday evening
and made some delicious stuff! We started by boiling some chicken,
like usual, then added some carrots, and then made some mashed
potatoes and used some gravy packets Elder Hales gave me for my
birthday to have some delicious sausage flavored gravy. Ah, it was so
good and we enjoyed so much haha. Just looking at it all we were
smiling and geeking out and we ate until we were so full…then just
crashed in bed by like 9 hahaha. Ah, it was so good :) But, I know I
missed out on the normal family madness at our house and I hope you
all enjoyed. I can’t wait to come and join you all once again in a
short while hahaha.
I do vaguely remember running around the Sacred Grove haha, but, I
really would like to go back and visit now that it would have a much
more personal signifigance to me haha. So I will most certainly plan
on doing that sometime when I get back.
Wow sweet to hear that you ran into Nikki. Glad to hear that she and
Angel are doing well. Thank you so much for sending my message to all
my friends mother dearest, I know it probably was a hassle and I am
very appreciative that you did that for me.

Also, I gave Saidu my music player and card this week, and he went
all over Freetown trying to get it to work, and nothing would work,
until he randomly tried putting the card in his phone, and then
transferring the music to another card, and for some reason it worked!
So, now I got all the music and stuff, but I am pretty sure the card
was a 4gb you sent me but I got most of the music on my little 2gb
card and me and Elder Burton are throughouly enjoying the music so
thank you thank you thank you mother and father :) you should see us
singing to Mulan and Toy story haha, we have had such a good time with
it, but unfortunately, no power, no battery :/ but thank you so much
hahaha I love all of it, especially the teachings of Joseph Smith,
can’t wait to listen to all of those!
My supplies are doing pretty well. Haven’t even finished my first bottle
of solution, nor my first pack of contacts, nor my first shaving cream
can, but baby wipes are always sweet ;)

So, on to the randomness of my week that I just love sharing with all of you!
ELECTION MADNESS: So, the election finished up last Saturday, but
this week…the results came out. Friday night, we got an emergency text
from the zone leaders telling us all missionaries had to immediately
return home because the election results were about to be announced.
We had just opened with prayer in our lesson, so we closed with prayer
to the delight of our investigator who prayed something along the
lines of “I know we just started but, now we are ending, and please
bless…” hahaha so that was nice. We hurried on home, and then realized
that the boy we were planning to have interviewed for the baptism
Saturday was waiting for us at a later time, so we would not be able
to do it once we were in the apartment. So, we went to his house…and
waited…and waited…but nothing. As the results were sooner to being
announced, we began to pray in the middle of the street that the boy
would show up right then, so we could take him to be interviewed by
the zone leaders. Well, God answers prayers, just not always the way
we want. So, instead a little girl came running up and said she had
seen him in the Playstation arcade. So, she led us down there, we
grabbed him, took him back to the apartment, and finished the
interview right before the chaos erupted. The results came out, and
the city just lit up!!!! For hours! Everyone just singing and dancing
and banging pots and cars coming by and parades and just complete and
utter madness. The APC party won…
There were a couple conflicts in the city during the weekend
regarding the election, but we didn’t see anything fortunately, just
were told by President to be on alert. Saw some more Devils though
hahaha
Homeboys (hoodies): Well, got some material last week and took em to
our gnarly tailor to get them made into homeboys. So, he is crazy like
usual and is just ranting and showing us his karate and trying to
teach us push ups and calling us his handsome white princes and gosh
this guy is just so crazy haha but he made our hoodies but
unfortunately he made mine too big :/ so I will have to take them back
this week and get them refitted hahaha crazy man.
Okay, also random, Laura, you told me something about a new star wars
movie and Thomas said nothing about it….so please tell me because I am
awfully curious now, and also would love news on the Hobbit and
everything regarding that…thank you :)
Pull up bar: So, last week I bought a metal pipe to make my pull up
bar, and then proceeded everynight this week in sanding it down with
sandpaper, to get all the rust and the paint off. So, after a couple
nights it was ready, and we attached rope to either side, and threw it
over the balcony, so now we have a legit pull up bar that I will be
taking with me for the rest of my mission haha. So, I am pretty
excited about that, but geeeeze! My pull ups are lacking haha, I was
doing like 15-20 before I left and it was hard to do even 7 now. So, I
got some work to do ;)
We had surprise zone conference this Tuesday which was pretty
awewsome. Had some pretty inspirational instruction from President and
Sister Roggia and I really enjoyed it. We talked about signs, gifts,
and fruits and it was a super awesome conference, topped off by normal
egg burgers with fries and chocolate cake courtesy of the amazing
Sister lauritzen :)
So, remember how my shirts were all fitted way too tight? Well, they
have slowly been tearing hahaha and I had to take them to the tailor
to get them restitched under the armpits haha, so now they are even
tighter, but they are holding on.
Food of the week: Well, we have been eating this one food every day
this week for lunch which they call ochecke. Which is like ebba, with
spaghetti, with beans, with lettuce, with boiled eggs, with ketchup,
with some other things and ahhhhh so good :) we love it. Also, thought
I would get pretty funky with it and bought a coconut this week. That
was fun. Got to cut the holes open, drink the water out, then smash it
on the concrete outside before cutting it open and eating it. It was
actually really yummy and surprisingly very filling! But, I cut my
finger with the knife, so that is a nice little scar to add to my
nicely growing African Collection.
Also, bought a papaya this week since I had never tried that which
wasn’t as tasty as I wanted it to be. It was like a crappy cantelope
haha, which made me really crave cantelope, but there is no cantelope
in this country :( boo!
We have almost run out of subsistence, so we have been enjoying “poor
man’s chop”. Which is Gehrie  + sugar. Gehrie is like dried cassava
root that has been shredded and grinded into a fine powder. It is the
cheapest thing you can buy haha and contains zero nutrional value I am
pretty sure. But, we add it to some dry oats and yeah…enjoyment. Also,
makes it nice since we have run out of water this whole week…with  6
elders in the apartment again it is not too easy to maintain
water…but, elder burton and I went out early this morning to carry
those fun 6 gallon tanks of water back to the apartment so everyone
could bath this morning :) hahaha but, water should have ran today so
hopefully tonight we will be back to enjoyment!!!!!
Also... had tuna with ketchup today which was surprisingly delicious :)
Mother…could you send me some gauze wrap maybe? I wounded myself
playing football and have been using elder burtons gauze wrap so I can
gym in the morning without opening the wound again and now it is all
healed up, but it is rather handy and I would like it in the future if
anything was to happen. Thank you mother dearest :)
So…Also, at the zone conference, President Roggia enlightened us on
the progress and history of the Sierra Leone Freetown mission… pretty
much amazing. We currently have 100 missionaries in Liberia and Sa
Lone combined, but in 6 months we are planning to have 80 in Liberia
and 100 in Sa Lone…also, apparently our conversion rate in this
mission is 220+ baptisms a month…which apparently makes us by
percentage the highest baptizing rate in the whole world…not sure how
accurate that is but our Mission President said it and uh…it was very
motivating and made me smile very much :) the people of Sierra Leone
are so amazing and are accepting the gospel so readily and it is
incredible to watch the expansion of the church here. Even the
formation of a stake by Elder Holland on SUNDAY!!! WOOT WOOT!!!!
But, its not all easy, especially since so many new members
are given responsibilities in the church haha, so
we end up with elder’s quorum classes with false doctrine being thrown
around, but thank goodness Elder Burton and I were there this time to
clean it up hahaha. They were teaching that Coca Cola was against the
word of wisdom and that it + tea + coffee all contained Nicotine, and
they also said that if you eat too much it is a sin, and yeah, we
definitely had to calm all that down and clear that up hahaha oh its
so fun watching the church so fresh and growing here :)
But, speaking of which, we had 2 amazing baptisms on Saturday of
Elizabeth Katherine Augusta Thomas, and Emmanuel Bendu, and both their
conversions are pretty sweet.
Elizabeth is the sister of Onike, who was baptized 2 weeks ago, who is
the sister of Henry Thomas, who has been a member for 6 months now, so
it is awesome to watch the whole family come together and then bring 3
investigators with them to church on Sunday :)
Emmanuel is pretty awesome as well. We were contacting on the street
about a month ago, while adjusting to our new area, and we were
telling some serious looking people about the gospel, when Emmanuel,
some punked out kid came up and started asking questions. He was young
looking, with a bleached Mohawk (known as the Balotelli). We didn’t
think him serious at all, but came and visited him the next day. He
had already shaved his Mohawk (with any connection to us, we are not
sure hahaha) and came to church the next 3 Sundays and was baptized :)
ah, so sweet to see the Lord touch the hearts here…too amazing.
Well, my family and friends I believe I have ranted long enough in
this e-mail. I love and miss you all so very much and hope you had a
wonderful Thanksgiving. Grandparents I love you and happy birthday
wonderful grandma. Please take care everyone and know you are in my
thoughts and prayers every single night :) I love you all! Farewell
and be safe and remember Jesus Christ and what he has done for us
everyday!
-Love, Elder Jesse Sumrak