Dear Family and friends, Life here in Freetown is going well. The Lord
has blessed us with many amazing investigators and many miracles this
week, which never seem to cease when on the Lord’s wonderful errand. I
had read to page 350 of Church history fullness of times and its
amazing to see the many miracles that occurred in the lives of the
early saints, despite all their many challenges and hardships they
were forced to suffer, the Lord helped them through the refiners fire
as they humbled themselves and came unto Him. It truly is a great
example in my own life. Often, things get simple, things get easy,
that’s when we get challenges to shake things up and continue to help us
to grow…we elders, former residents of the Celestial apartment of
Kiama Road, Brooksfields, were forced to face this challenge this
week…
Friday morning, Elder Dancan and I had gone deep into town to buy
somethings necessary for the zone service project to take place the
following day, when we received a call from the Assistants. They
informed us to immediately return home and pack our bags, we would be
exchanging apartments with the sisters at any moment during the day…
(this was due to some harassment from some neighbours in the sisters
neighbourhood). Well, we returned home quickly and began to pack and
no later then 30 minutes the van arrived to pick us up…well,
obviously we made them wait so we could get all of our stuff but gosh
it was a mess and we had to leave so much food and stuff behind :( it
was hard leaving that beautiful apartment of joy and blessings, but
happiness isn’t meant to last in Sierra Leone.
The new apartment is interesting and has many cockroaches and not all
the necessities that we were enjyoing but, I do find comfort in that
WE now have to suffer while our dear sisters do not have to suffer
anymore.So much crap they were having to deal with and I am grateful
to take that sacrifice for them. Never for a second did I regret the
swap...but, life is good.
I am super jealous of your awesome family reunion this week and beg
that you guys have another one in like...2-3 years :) so then a lot of
the missionaries will have returned, but lets be honest, now that we
are at this age, there will ALWAYS be someone on mission haha, which
is of ourse a blessing and a curse huh? oh mission work is sweet!:)
Kayeagoma!
and I DID get my hot dog king story and it really cheered me up to read
it and remember words that I used to use that I had totally
forgotten...oh my vocab is gone, I am dead and gone. I have so many
more stories to write though haha, I can't wait. I have been recording
all the future stories I have to write...like for Thomas and I "the
ice cream man..." for me on mission "How Oatmeal saved my life" a
nutritional autobiography of Elder Sumrak ;) I'm such a dork...yeah,
whatever gets me going right?
NOTE FROM MOM: I had asked Jesse if when he fell in front of his
mission president, if he got up smiling and this was his response:
and you're right about my smile in that circumstance, of course I got up
smiling, I'm not really one to go around being ashamed too much, just
get up and make a big joke out of it and then everyone feels better,
including yourself! you know me too well mother. well, I managed to
stay drier but gosh...everything is starting to mold. I hate to put
this image in your mind but when moving I removed my pillow case and
found my pillow GREEN...its a white pillow...so i threw that Tish away
haha, my shoes are even getting mold on them now overnight...I'm not
really sure what to do except clean them in the morning :/ any
suggestions?
and our relationships with our cousins has truly been a blessing and I
hope Nick and Clayton get to see each other lots. I loved spending time
with Drew when I was at college and he was my best friend. we didn't
live together :) but I think that helped make us best friends haha,
someone you live with and be with everyday you can tire of and get
impatient with, but me and Drew always got along great, and he was my
eating buddy, study buddy, gyming buddy, miss that guy like crazy.
can't wait to continue when we return. hope clay and nick can find
some time together as well :) always Sunday nights at Thomas' at
least!
So, more excitment in my life... I was thoroughly enjoying a piece of
frozen pineapple the other night when I thought I discovered piece of
rice in the pineapple (not a big surprise, rice is EVERYWHERE) so, I
spat it out and continued my enjoyment...it wasn't until a couple
minutes later that I realized a small chunk of one of my back teeth
was missing haha :) life sure is funny sometimes...rice? boy oh boy
where am I?
To add to my injury list, yesterday morning I was cutting a mango, and
the knife was slightly dull, go figure, but not dull enough to stop
from chopping into my thumb...blood minimal, questions
lots...madagascar band-aid...mom for the win :)
Due to our distance form the apartment now, we must locate and use
Poda Poda transport now, which I hope to one day video for you so you
can see the craziness of Poda Poda :) just throw in as many people
into a stripped van with metal benches bolted to the ground and a
driver who is with the motto "Time is money" and use your
imagination...I tried to use mine but I'm still suffering from the
concussion from the low ceiling...
On Saturday we got to participte in a zone service project at...you
guessed it, A hospital! yea, probably one of the top 3 places in sa
lone I wouldn't like to be, is a 3rd world hospital. but, we managed
and did our service, I mostly mopped and swept so I got to avoid some
of the dirty work that some were forced to do, like cleaning the
birthing room, which from the details from the elders sounds like a
nightmare. blood...guts...stuff...yeah , glad I missed out on that.
but, we sang some hymns to the patients as well and it was a wonderful
experience and the people there were very grateful so we all loved the
opportunity to serve and help out!
The baptism on Saturday was super duper sweet and we had to rush
quickly from the project to the chapel and it was great. Aruna and
Brenda were baptized. Brenda is the sister of the young lady I
baptized in Bo, who requested her sister wait until she came to
Freetown to be baptized..sweet...but its all good :) Sunday was great as well!
we had over 125 members and not even enough seats for Elder Dancan and
I and some of the priesthood brethren who volunteered to
stand in the back with us :) it was great! we had 10 investigators
there and ah we were busy...and me...well me...I was sick the entire
service and ran to the bathroom about 6 times, but upon my final visit
I prayed to the Lord that he would allow me to do my proselyting and
do my work for the day, that I would sufffer in the evening and night
and instantly I felt better and had no more pains or troubles with my
stomach for the rest of the day...coincidence...NO...MIRACLE...YES!
the Lord is truly blessing me abundantly as I put my faith in him and
simply pray for his help :) ask and ye shall receive...I beg everyone,
just ask, he will give you...
During sacrament, another miracle happened, when one of my recent
converts Matilda, from BO, walked in to OUR service out of the
4 services for the day. I went and talked to her small but was
disappointed because I was busy and sick and hardly got to talk to
her, but I promised her as she left that we would see each other again
one day, so no worry, and then she admitted she was returning to Bo
tomorrow...but i re-extended the promise...the Lord fulfilled it. One
parent, was ushering his daughters to
class, when I then saw the teacher (our recent convert Charles)
turning her away, telling her to go to investigators class because she
no baptize yet, I questioned the father and he was like...well thats
true, my daughters are like 16 and haven't baptized yet, i guess you
should come visit the house and teach them...okay come do that
sometime this week...yeah, thanks for helping boss, terrestial
kingdom? I'm not the judge. Well after church we went and taught a sick
recent convert, and the father passed by, pointing us to his house. so,
we went high up the mountain to an area I had never been before, and
we found the 2 girls...turns out Matilda's family shares the house :)
so, she introduced us to her whole family and they all have baptismal
dates for august 17, so lets see how it goes with them hahaha :) oh,
their is no coincidences with God...he truly is our loving Heavenly
Father, of that I testify and know to be true!
Today was sweet, we went to Lumley Beach and met up with the other
district to play a football game on the beach with goals and
everything...the rain came down like a hurricane and it was complete
chaos and slippery and glass and tish and ah, it was great! we ended
up winning a dramatic game 14-10, and it was super sweet playing the
members and investigators and so much fun. ah, the beach is
amazing...I could see Virginia, you know?:) so, I wanted to leave the
beach as soon as possible before trunkiness could set it, but it was
really cool. their beach road has potential to be like Virginia Beach one
day, so they are trying haha.
but, that was my week, another week of greatness, business, business,
tired, ugh :) sweet! Love sa lone, love mission, love my family and
friends, farewell all!
Love,
Jesse Elder Sumrak
No comments:
Post a Comment