One of the Greatest Times on My Mission

My past week has been great! Durah was interviewed for
baptism yesterday, so anxiously awaiting that great day this weekend.
John left town for business :) but will be returning shortly,
and he would like us to go and start teaching his wife. The blind girl
didn't come to church Sunday, but we visited her Saturday and she is
so sweet and her faith makes me feel like mine is so small because she
is just so full of it...just believes at any moment her eyes will be
healed and gosh  I wish I had the amazing faith she does.
Of course I know these things are possible, miracles are a result of
faith, I just don't know if its the will of the Lord yet :/

Mangoes are very very plentiful...you can now get 5 for the price of
25 cents, so yeah....too many mangoes, and we usually don't buy them
anymore, people just give us plenty and come home with like 10. We
don't eat chicken very often, but fish is very plentiful from our
investigators and members. I will eat LOTS of chicken when we finally
get power in the apartment so we can have the freezer and maintain
these beloved foods we crave so badly.

I have been cooking a lot recently actually and made pancakes a couple
times this week and the crepes were a huge success. SO GOOD! I was
very pleased, although the only topping I had for them was brown
sugar, I went and bought jam and dark brown sugar and more honey syrup
today...(I prefer your Aunt Jemimah kind momma ;) ) so, I will try
again this week. I also made groundnut cake this week, which is super
yummy and I will certainly make that for everyone when I get home, but
I am still trying to refine my recipe...small small. Africans don't
really do measurements really well so...I'm learning.

And you don't need to get me any jeans haha, I will be fine...I don't
even know what will fit me anymore haha but we will see when I come
home haha but thank you mother dearest. you're so sweet to think about
me...You could get me the ADVENTURE TIME SEASONS though, so I can
enjoy those when I come home :) also...if Dad can send me any music, I
would love some instrumental stuff like...SMOOTH JAZZ, like Kenny G or
something haha...yeah, I'm crazy :)

Also...do you have the Miracle of Forgiveness?

Has anyone seen the movie the Fantastic Mr. Fox? and does Drake and
Josh still exist? random I know :)

Well...on to my fantastic week: So, Tuesday night Elder Weller and I
were very hungry, so we started cooking some pancakes. When we were
about half way through the 2nd one, the gas ran out...so we were not
happy. So we went outside, put 3 stones in a triangle, lit some grass,
sticks, paper, and plastic on fire and finished cooking our pancakes
:) they had some ashes in them...but were still super yummy! pancakes
will not be defeated, nobody can stop 2 hungry missionaries, no way.
But, the gas problems continued the next day when we got another can,
and then tried to light the stove and the entire room almost exploded,
because the regulator on the hose had broken and so the gas was
EXTREMELY high pressured and pretty much exploded when we lit it
hahaha, so that was fun. Went with senior missionary Elder Schlehuber
into town and went to a couple places before finding a replacement so
we could all enjoy food again :)

So...the real problem of the week...TOO MUCH RICE! We went to teach a
lesson, finished and they gave us a big plate of rice with potatoe
leaf, no problem, I was hungry. On to the next lesson....after it was
done, more potatoe leaf and rice...its okay, next lesson, more rice
and binge! what, I am dying! I went home and ran for 1 hour and a half
that night hahaha ANNOUNCEMENT: BATMAN DARK KNIGHT IS
ON IN THE INTERNET CAFE, temptation is present in the room! keeps eyes
focused on the computer :) hahaha

The rice problem continued the next day...and I had to tell the
people my tummy hurt (which wasn't entirely a lie) so no rice for me
today...that didn't stop 2 people from forcing me to eat their rice
but still....we were so busy teaching this week it was crazy! hardly a
bounce the whole week, just teach teach teach everyday all day and it
is pretty amazing. This is truly one of the greatest times on my
mission, I haven't felt such a desire and love for the work like this.
It's been there the whole time, but it truly grows every single day,
what a blessing to be in the service of our wonderful God...if the
gospel is true, what else matters? really?

Saw some people making clothes this week with some hand made material
that they beat with giant sticks for hours too make it shine, so that
was pretty funny to watch haha

The Bondu society was on rampage this week...really. They are this
woman society of Sa Lone that is seriously a secret combination where
I believe they are like cannibalistic and ritualistic and crap, but
they came into one of the areas we were teaching the other day, all
banging drums and screaming and everyone who was around went running
into their houses, while some stood to watch, but they were carrying
something on their heads that looked like a body and gosh, it was
freaky as tish, we got out of there QUICK haha, crazy  crazy
crazy.

The whole apartment decided to break this week, including my beloved
missionaries haha. Elder Weller got malaria, poor guy, Elder Mukwaira
was suffering from severe headaches, Elder Penia was getting sick, ah,
everybody was dying. Then, the bike pump to the water filter broke,
then the generator broke, then the well pump broke, then my heart
broke because I was so overwhelmed with broken things, but they are
all being fixed one step at a time so I won't let the stress rip my
heart out just yet. I will endure cheerfully!:)

That is something I have learned from my amazing mission president and
I am so grateful to him for that. We are not to endure, we are to
endure cheerfully. Anyone can endure. Just suck it up and don't kill
yourself and congratulations you endured mission, or you endured
college, or you endured life. But is that what it's about? I think not.
Enduring is simple, enduring cheerfully is the difficult one, but I am
slowly getting better and better everyday. Enjoying the good times
with a smile, enjoying the slow times with a smile, trying to enjoy
the worst of days with a smile. its not easy, but heck, if it was, I
would already be perfect and have nothing in life to work forward to,
so I am grateful to the Lord for my opportunity now to learn to be
better and endure a whole lot better :)

So, this weekend marked the 52 year of independence for Sierra Leone,
so congratulations to this wonderful country :)

Also, Bo has now established solar powered light poles ALL throughout
the entire town, even in my bush villages, and I saw for the first
time last night that they work! which is super exciting, yay for
improvements, yay for technology!

Yesterday we got to play lots of football since everything was closed
for holiday and we ended up playing a legit organized team, like with
jerseys and everything and they were all like 15-16 but were really
good. We went down 3-0 at first, but I got a goal in and an assist and
by half time it was 3-3. We ended the bloodless game (thank goodness)
4-4 so be proud of we pumwei missionaries, we tried :)

Well...that was my week, so sweet to be serving here in sa lone. I love
this country. I love this people. I love the Lord and everything he
has done for me. I truly am blessed now, blessed when I return home,
blessed in the pre-earth life, and blessed after this life, how could
existence get better then this? take care my family and friends!:)

Love,
Elder Sumrak