Settling Down in Bo

So great to be able to sit down and talk to you all
again...stressful since internet stinks and I haven’t been able to read
my mission president's emails in like 3 weeks...but, its all good, I
keep sending him stuff haha

The district leader work is going well. I haven't screwed anything up
yet ;) I have been very busy just cleaning up some stuff that
needed to get done, which is going okay. Got a
plumber on the way this week, someone to retile one of the rooms, and
the carpenter should be coming, so this week will be a bit busy. Had
to go get cooking gas on Tuesday morning so that was fun riding around
town on a bike with a big 50lbs weight of cooking gas on your lap ;)
then, Thursday had to go get generator fuel early in the morning and
that was fun as well...

Elder Weller and I worked for a while one night making the chore
roster for everyone, and now just getting some necessities for the
apartment today, so it keeps me busy...but, I didn't get to do any
interviews this weekend :( they all were referred over to President,
but I get to go and do one tomorrow for the zone leaders, so I am
super excited to go and do that :)

I had to give the District meeting instruction on Tuesday which was a
surprise I found out about that morning but it went really well. I
gave instruction on Christ like attributes and we all discussed about
the ways we can become more Christ like. I prepared the instruction for
tomorrow today about Teach People, Not lessons, focusing strongly on
listening and asking inspired questions, so we will see how it goes :)
Wow, no boxes or anything yet, but thank you so much mother. I hope
they come soon, but I am doing pretty well now! So, don

’t you worry
about me, everything is going sweet :)

And a lot of the African missionaries don’t have family to write them,
so they get to write friends and bishops and what not so they always
have people to write to, and now EVERYONE is allowed to e-mail anyone,
and I don’t think its just for our mission, but I really just like to
write letters personally anyways :) though, I don’t have much time,
but then again, I only have an hour in the café as well, so really
only time to email parents, brothers, and then mission president. But,
that is great! I will start writing Saidu emails when he gets out on
his mission. I heard he is waiting for his mission call so I am so
excited for that boy

Wow, Brandon Privette! I sure love that guy. He is a great guy and that
is so nice of him to buy dinner for you. What is he up to these days?

And that is such a sweet baptism! Wow, see the missionary work moving
forward there, so proud of the sisters. That is so great and so happy
for that couple. The Mormon world is so incredibly small, just like
Elder Hovley just moved into my apartment and we both know and are
great friends with Haley Beckstrand, who was in my freshmen ward at
BYU.

Hahaha oh momma, no, what you need to do is start looking at which
mission you are going to serve ;) haha I’m just teasing you momma, you
better not leave or do anything before I get home.

And mom, want to know something crazy!? I just got your dear elder
from February 24, and you talked about being grateful for all the
premortal gifts we had. Well 2 days later, on February 26, our entire
zone conference discussion by the Roggias was on the exact same thing!
Isn’t it crazy how the Lord works and you and I and the Roggias are
studying the same thing!, because the morning of the conference I was
studying my patriarchal blessing and even wrote in my study journal
the same impressions from the things I learned. So sweet!
And mother you are so sweet! I talk to you sometimes too haha, but I
took lots of pictures at that field for you that day, and we even
played there today as well. But on to the week!!!!!

So, Sierra Leone, going great! What a busy week we had. So, have a
bunch of young missionaries in the apartment which is going great. We
have 5, all from the same MTC who have been on mission 6 months now.
So its Elder Weller, and I, the old men and the other guys Elder
Woodhead, Penia, Hovley, Stanford, and Flament, who are all 6 months
on mission and then the new picking from Ghana Is coming on Tuesday,
So we are all eagerly awaiting his arrival.

With the area split, and Elder Standford already being here, Elder
Flament, Stanford and I proselyted both areas this week, which was
super busy and fruitful. It was a super nice surprise come Tuesday
morning when the zone leaders informed me NO, the President was not
splitting the area, so I needed to go and redraw the lines for
the area was like uh, WHAT, but I got it together, got some maps
out, and got the job done with Elder Jones. Not bad!:) Did it as fair
as we could, but gave the other missionaries some of my favorite
recent converts and the best investigators in the world! I’m going to
miss them :( but it will be cool to see them at church still! We had
a total of 12 new investigators about 15 people contacted, and 9
investigators in church, so the work is just going to continue to
grown and flow forward here in Messima due to this split. The
President is truly an inspired man, there is no accidents in the
Lord’s work ;)

Elder Standford is a great guy who just left my boy Elder Hill in
Freetown, he is a great missionary and I have learned many things from
his teaching and his example. Elder Flament, my new companion, is a
big awesome guy from England. His accent is super strong and he is a great guy! We have all enjoyed being a
giant missionary task force this week, because our mission leader
Sonaldo proselyted with us everyday this week! He is so good :)
Sonaldo has such a sweet story. The boy is so humble; he is sitting at
our apartment right now just doing our laundry. He is trying so hard
to push the work forward here and prepare for his mission. He is just
full of love for the people and for the work, but so shy in talking to
people, so we are working super hard with him. He told me his story
yesterday and it was so sad.  He was born in Liberia and when he was
about 3 or 4 years old, the fighting broke out. He was sitting outside
and the guns started going off and as his mother came to pick him up
she was shot multiple times, as was the father as he ran to the aid of
his mom. He was spared and a woman took him and a bunch of the
children and got in an ambulance with them and escaped to Sierra
Leone. His whole family and all his sisters were split, and he still
hasn’t found most of them. Some went to Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea,
Sierra Leone, and ahh its just so sad. He didn’t get to finish the story,

So I will hear more tomorrow! but gosh,
its just so sad, it’s not easy at all.

But, on a brighter note, we are teaching this one boy, and we invited
him to read the Book of Mormon. He made it to 1 Ne 5 and I asked
him what he learned. Surprisingly the boy sat there and told me detail
by detail the whole account of Nephi up to chapter 5. Like, as detailed as,
yeah, they went inside to Laban to get the plates 3 times and then
Nephi went alone the last time and God delivered Laban into his hands
and geeze this boy is like 10 or so haha and is so small but he
understands so much. It was so sweet.
All of us missionaries were looking at each other like, whoa, this kid
haha

Got into a bike crash on Thursday morning, but fortunately did not
have the gas in my hand, Elder Jones did. It was hilarious haha. I was
just riding along, driver missed the turn, turned around, dodged a kid
he almost hit, sending him into the other lane, and then the bikers
just ran at each other without either trying to dodge each other for a
good solid 3 seconds before a head on collision, sending me off the
bike, but fortunately landed on my feet, so sweet, and just dropped
the money on the seat and walked off before the bikers even started
yelling at each other, then Elder Jones and I laughed our faces off
for about 10 minutes. So funny, oh Sa Lone, oh bikers, they no de get
betta sense.

Weirdest thing! It poured like 3 times this week. It was crazy. RAIN!
Haven’t seen that in months. It was so cool and refreshing though, and
although the humidity returned 2x as much, it was so nice!:)
Yesterday was the HOTTEST Sunday on mission haha, the meetings were
just miserable in church for everyone. Children were crying just
begging their parents to let them go outside and everyone was just
like dead, just passed out because we were trapped in a Sauna! So
nuts! But, always a good experience if you know what you’re looking for
;) thank goodness for the blessing and miracle of the sacrament!
But, that’s about it for me this week, I love you all and miss you all
so very much. I know this gospel is true and love it so much! Have an
amazing week! Love you momma!
Love,
-Elder Jesse Sumrak