Area Conference and Pizza!!

Hello everybody! I was so pleased this week to receive such a large
stack of dearelders :) it really made my day! I read em all that night
hahaha it was great! Thank you so much Elder Mann, Moma, Pops, Drew,
Kadee, Nicole, Rebecca, Aunt Deb, Sis Peterson, and Evan Verbeek! I
love you all so much and am working on writing you letters...just not
much free time now with all the work haha but I will do my best and
thank you very much!

Momma dearest! sounds like you guys have had quite a relaxing time at
home. I am glad that you got my letter momma. I am trying my best to
be more consistent but its not easy haha ;) So, to take your letter
one step at a time like usual:

Water situation: It was a little rough early on during the week, but
now, we are SET! Last night, we came home and the basin was completely
full (well, we found out the neighbors downstairs had been taking our
water...not cool, so I came up with a plan haha) we turned on the pump
to pump the water to our tank, then, when it filled all the 1,500
liters up, I turned on the taps, and started filling all the buckets
in the apartment, then emptied about 40+ into these giant blue drums
we have in our house (Katie Cutler, these are what they are for ;)
hahahah ) and proceeded to fill them for about an hour until all our
water was filled and the basin was empty hahaha, so now we have water
today, and emergency water, and water water water muhahaha! I never
thought water would be so important...now it is :) but, we are set for
a good good long time, so no worries.

And transfers are in exactly 2 weeks, so yes, probaby a 90% chance
that I am being moved. Usually don't keep anyone for over 4 transfers,
but Elder Hales might end up staying for 5. His companion Elder
Richards has a hernia :( and is being sent to Ghana for surgery...poor
guy, so he will be gone for a transfer, which means Elder Hales will
probably stay for at least 1 more transfer....Maybe they will send me
to him ;) bahaha I wish!

Wow, awesome you can send the stuff now momma! thank you so much! I
know you are a boss at hiding stuff, so I have the utmost faith in you
mother, :) you are amazing like always haha and yes I mean the ace
bandage, my bad mom. The ones I can continue to apply. Like on my
bleeding palms it was sweet to just wrap every morning and put the pin
on and be set hahaha, by the way, no bleeding right now so we are good
:)

What! they tore down mcdonalds? Are they turning it in to one of those
sweet lil cafe's now? Like the one at VA beach? that would be so
sweet...I sure do miss my oatmeal hahaha, I cannot wait to come and get
some of that...but with my appetite now I might get 3! :)

Ah Nick didn't go to ring dance? Who payed him not to go? hahah Dad?
Nick really wants that money, i know it ;) And thank you so much for
sending the letter on to Phoebe. I had already tried sending it once
but it got returned about 2 months later all the way to me hahaha, so
I just put it to you and hope whatever address she gave you works!

Also, congrats to my boys Ro Bin and Jullian on their mission calls
and also Miranda Heibert! I believe I Already congratulated you all
but I love you all so much and I am so proud of your decision to go
and serve! Best of luck my friends. Miranda....I will come and see you
in VA ;) haha

I love you very much my sweetest mother, now on to another exciting
week...by exciting I mean completely well you know sa lone. normal for
me haha

Well, first, Tuesday I got pretty torked off as well as my companion,
when we were in the middle of a lesson on the street, and about 5
black school guys (about 18 or 19) decided to get about 3 yards away
from us and continue to take pictures...oh boy, I almost flipped. They
were like, look at the Jehovah witnesses, we were like OH NO OH
NONONONONO Notta Jehovah Witness, Never Jehovah witness, oh boy, not
happy at all...

We also attempted to teach a pastor this week and he was too afraid of
us to say anything. He kept telling us I know all about your doctrine
and we were like, well tell us, and he wouldn't say anything. and we
asked him some questions and he wouldn't say anything,
...even saw him on sunday when his church was
letting out, and he saw me and tried to run inside but, i quickly walked
to make sure everybody saw us shake his hand :) we don't run away...we
embrace the truth...he runs hahah...oh good times!

So, we woke up early wednesday because we have an investigator with a
problem. her uncle she stays with is muslim and won't let her come to
church, and she is 18, but he leaves for work at 7, so, we ran over
there before he left and confronted him. He said, oh no problem, she
can do what she wants, she can go, I don't agree, but she is old
enough to make her own decisions...well, then everyone in the compound
wanted to come to church when they found out she could...so
sunday...she wasn't at church...oh boy, we are getting up EARLY again
this week to go and talk to him again.

Also, had a nice fast this week. Fasted on Wednesday for our
investigators who are currently struggling a little bit and it was
nice. We were so weak climbing the mountain, but the spirit really
lifted us up and carried us for the rest of the day. It was awesome.
For ALL the walking we did, I actually was not even tired as a normal
Sunday. I know that the lord truly helped us as we put our faith in
him :)

By the way, after seeing all the motorcycles here everywhere...I want a
bullet bike when i get back ;) thomas, start looking for a good one
for me :)

We met an American by our house too! his name is abraham, and he even
came to the conference on sunday. He sounds like he has a rough
background, but says he wants to change. he is moving to london though
very soon :/ ugh. he is so cool though. he is from texas and has THE
strongest accent, but from what little we absorbed or snuck from his
conversation...uh he does have a marijuana leaf tattoed on his arm, he
has a gun wound on his shoulder, and he is on probation from America
for 5-10 years...so, I can understand why he is looking for change.
and this gospel fortunately can heal any wounds you have suffered.
that is the miracle of the atonement. its never too late to turn to
Christ, he is always there waiting...you can change.

So...Saturday...Wow...What a tish day...Slept about 2-3 hours the
whole night. Had runny tummy about 3 times in the night, 3 times in
the morning. Was downing ibuprofen like nothing, while shivering
myself into a sweaty mess under my hoody hahaha, it was terrible. the
whole day was a mess for me, but God really helped me. 5 minutes
before we left the apartment my stomach was STILL churning, but I
prayed for help...I took a roll of toilet paper and hand sanitizer in
my bag, and took a leap of faith and went out proselyting and
everything was ok...well, by okay I mean I didn't have any more
problems with that...instead I only had a fever, had no strength in my
whole body, had a cold sweat all the day long, and possibly the worst
migraines of my life...but, all in all, a quite successful day which I
was very glad that I didn't wus out and stay home...its only 2 years.
I got to give it my all. I can rest later ;)

So, to top that, we had to go to the U-Building, the Myata conference
center, to set up for Elder Hollands visit that night. So, we got
transport across town and met all the other Elders there and began to
set up thousands of chairs for the conference. Didn't get back till
late, but it was okay. Gosh, I was so weak, all I ate all day was dry
rice so geeze was I tired, we closed, I wrote a short journal entry,
did our area book, and died in bed.

But, to the answer of my prayers, I woke Sunday completely restored!!!
well, I was still running, but I was happy. I had strength, I had
energy, I wasn't dead!:) So, we left early to get to the conference,
and oh boy was it great! all the Elders in the 2 zones in freetown
were there, ushering everyone and showing them to seats. We spent our
first hour+ standing by the one of the 2 staircases going upstairs to
the conference hall...and to my great luck, those were the stairs
Elder Holland used to go up, so I got the wonderful opporunity to
shake his hand and his wife and Elder Dickson of the seventy as they
went on upstairs...AH, So sweet!:) So SO SO SWeet!:) Well, we
continued to help people to their seats, even as the conference was
going, and continued to set up more and more chairs, even out in the
hall ways where all the people could do is hear the conference, not
even see it. Very few of us elders got to actually watch haha, but for
Elder Holland, I made the exception. I found a spot on some stairs
where I could barely see his face through a slit in the door, and got
to hear some wonderful wonderful wonderful news....


Sierra Leone is the 3,000th stake in the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints....Isn't that amazing!? 3,000 stakes in the world?
This work really is going forward. It really touched me how special
that moment was when Elder Holland announced it. None of us knew that
this was number 3,000. And he promised all the people that this
country had just made more history then they ever imagined, to the
great pleasure of the many beautiful beaming African faces :) ah...it
was truly amazing....

Well...Another week gone by and I am almost restored...not really.
Woke up this morning with some more runny...so decided that I needed
to put my weight back on hahaha, so Elder Burton and I made a long
trip up to Hill Station to visit our fellow americans Elder Hales and
Elder Richards in their small, but wonderful apartment all alone
hahah. We all walked down to one of the only pizza places there is,
this sketchy lil looking shack in the middle of nowhere, where this
fat white french guy is laying on a lawn chair with his shirt off and
a monkey running around...and man did he make us some good pizza! I
haven't had cheese since I even got here!:) It was SOOOSOSOSOS yummy
:) We really enjoyed. It was expensive, but we didn't even care! and
Elder Hales made cake with m&ms and boy, we really enjoyed today. yes,
my tummy is churning, but I am happy hahaha :) so, we ran down to
e-mail in time, and here we are ...hahaha :)

I Love all of you so very much. I know that we are never too tired,
never too weak for this work. The Lord will turn our weakness into
strength, we just have to take that step of faith and walk out the
door onto the path. you don't receive the witness until after the
trial of your faith. I know that to be true. I will continue to push
through this trial and I know that the Lord will help strengthen
me...I love all of you more then you will every know. Know that the
Lord loves you more, that Jesus Christ has died for your sins...my
sins...all the sins...and only asks us to turn to him...enjoy life,
adam fell that men might be and that we might have joy...in keeping
the commandments ;) take care my family and friends. Love you ma, pa,
nick, thomas, laura, gparents, family!!!! bye bye

-Love,
ELder Jesse Sumrak