Cleaning the Beach

I heard from Saidu like you did and I willl be writing him for sure for the
next 2 years, no doubt, he is a great guy and even his brother came to
church yesterday! I'm not sure if he has ever come before, so it was
really sweet :)

They have been focused a lot lately on Families because each week for
the next 6 weeks I have been assigned a district discussion topic
concerning families, so its fun to be creating those discussion
lessons and trying to provide interesting material for a spirit filled
lesson in which we can all be edified and uplifted by each other, and
by the spirit. My personal studies are going awesome and I am in like
Leviticus 10, using the old testament manual word for word, so its
slow going but I am really enjoying learning about the tabernacle and
all the temple symbolisms and what not and can't wait to go back to
the temple and look and see all the symbols and what not for myself.
Its also interseting to learn about all the sacrifices
and how they all are shadows and tellings of christ. It really is
interesting how everything in the old testament points to Christ. From
Abraham and Issac to the birth of Moses to the Sin offerings before
the tabernacle, it truly is marvelous...

Had some small palava in the apartment this week but we got everything
settled out and fixed up and what not. once again, prayer saved the
day and chilled my burning emotions and prayer is truly amazing. The
spirit is changing my life, who I am how I think, everything, as long
as we hand it all over to God, its all good. we just need to be brave,
and follow Elder Bednars advice and bury ALL THE WEAPONS we have, as
the Anti Nephi Lehis did...it would have meant nothing if they buried
their armor and shields and swords but kept a small dagger tucked in
their pocket, just in case...thats not faith, thats a backup plan, and
with God and faith, their is no back up plan, either hand it all over,
or your holding it all back.

My name tag finally snapped this week when snagging on someone while
entering the poda poda. It was already starting to splinter so I had a
new one ordered, so now I am a pearly whites missionary with a brand new
white name tag and ah, if you put it next to my wo wo yellow one it
would make you laugh out loud, it really is atrocious...just like all
my white shirts, all my shoes, and I can probably guess the inside of
my body as well, speaking of which, an abundance of worms has been
found in our water sources...YAY! we looked inside our water
containers yesterday to find little worms swimming at the bottom...so
we poured some bleach inside...3 hours later...still swimming, so gosh
my body is probably lined with them and they are eating me away, no
wonder im so hungry all the time, TISH!

My workouts are still going good and I hope I am putting on some more
weight. I eat a whole lot more and lots of protein everyday. protein
shakes, eggs, sardines, chicken, baked beans, everyday, makes me
pretty full but I hope it is working. having some fun workouts from
dads book he sent me and its great. the exercises are challenging
parts of my body I haven't really targeted before, but I seriously
miss a legit gym...like the good ol BYU gym. that one is legit. I love
that gym haha :) no bad, I'm patient! pushups and situps will do for
now.

We had a big ole stake service project this weekend which actually had
quite an impressive turnout. It was at lumley beach, and we woke up at
5:45 and managed to arrive at Lumley junction by 7...they told us it
was close...it wasn't. We walked down the beach for about 40 minutes
before arriving at the Belliar Park Ward work site on the beach area.
We were sweeping the boku boku trash off the beach and gosh it is just
filthy. syringes, needles, shoes, crap, beer bottles, just lots of
tish that I don't think anyone has cleaned in YEARS, so we swept with
brooms and shovels and rakes and worked and worked for hours as numbers
consistently continued to flow in, until about 50 youth were gathered
on our end of the beach and we ran outta tools for everyone haha. So,
I didn't realize it until yesterday when I woke up but my hamstrings are
TIGHT! I was bent over sweeping for 2 and half hours and ahh....they
are still tight now haha. Its like a little handheld broom, imagine
taking the stick off the broom and there you go, and it started
POURING and you can imagine how that makes sweeping a beach...soaking
muddy sand and sweeping...yeah that doesn't go together, but the
beach looks absolutely beautiful now and we really made a difference.
I think 400-500 people from the stake were there, all in our yellow
helping hands shirts, so maybe pictures will be in the liahona or
something ;) but I doubt it because of the rain. I was absolutely
FREEZING and got a pretty bad fever, but nothing stops us from
continuing our proselyting efforts. already made a oath to myself that
I would never miss one day of proselyting due to my own choice or
health...I will endure! to the end!

Well...nothing else is really going down. we finally played some
football today and I really enjoyed finally getting to play again
today and I'm not TOO rusty although I really need some real legit
grass and to strap on my good ole football boots and go out and do some
work! our jogs have been going well in the morning and  my
companion and I are active and fit. He is a boss and he is doing great, I
love my companion!

Wish I had more to say but I guess I am pretty boring, huh? sorry haha
I love you all so very much and hope and pray that you are all doing
well...I'm tired haha...peace love and idk, apple juice ( I miss apple
juice...) bye bye!

Love,
Elder Jesse L. Sumrak

I Wear Yellows

Oh mother, you and your corny jokes haha, I love them indeed!
something interesting I also found in my studies this week incorporating
our new mission focus on families, I did a study for district meeting
and this is small of what I came up with from the study : talked about
how the Book of Mormon starts with family in 1 nephi 1, the New
Testament starts with family in not only telling the birth of Christ
but establishing the genealogy and family history, and I found the Old
Testament starts with Heavenly Father building a home and a family in
the first chapter with the world and Adam and his wife, also in
Doctrine and Covenants section 2, it talks about Elijah's promise and
blessing, which the first section was added later to the beginning, so
maybe that was originally the beginning of family being the first
doctrine in the list of covenants, and then the Pearl of Great Price
does the same, beginning with Moses and God establishing his
connection with Moses as HIS SON, and that God is most certainly his
FATHER. Small small.

and yeah, they eat a lot of that chicken gizzard here, its cheap! and
easy to cook, just boil it nice and nice till its not too tough, but I
am teaching my companion a little how to cook...he can heat up baked beans now
:) but thats about as much as he will do. I am going back to chicken
breast when I looked and found chicken gizzard contains like 127% of
your daily cholesterol in 1 serving...so small small with that one :)

Yeah...I drink a lot of syrup now haha, i have a ton and its just like
my snackng now just take it and chug some...yeah, super healthy huh?
but yummy :) went into town today and got some sweet material and got
a tailor to take my measurements and she is making me a jacket vest
like for church out of it. it should be sweet, but we will see...Saidu
also left me some SWEET african shirts when he left on Friday...Gosh,
I love that boy. I am going to miss him and Idriss so much. 
...anything to help that guy! even got an email from him today
:)

ah, mother it makes me so happy to hear that you are anxiously engaged
in missionary work back home :) You and I can go and visit people
together on Sundays okay? and maybe if I'm lucky dad and I can be home
teachers together for the summer. I would like that a lot! and gosh I
miss me some Bubba n Franks! ah, need me those sweet potatoe fries,
forreals!

ah, crazy in Williamsburg! everything okay? and yeah we get pretty
intense lightning sometimes, but the craziness of sa lone right now is
that like Wednesday it poured all day, and a bridge collapsed, killing
10 or so people, and 30 + are still trapped underneath it and people
are STILL working on rescuing them...its very sad and a big commotion
here still. its got everyone scared about the  infrastructure of
this town!

and I don't know if all of you will be able to have the patience to
wait for me and Enders game...how does it look? who are the actors? :)

I tried a new fruit this week...SOURSOP! super yummy :) Thursday was
the end of Ramadan the muslim fasting month so we had PRAY DAY and
tons of food and nobody goes anywhere so lots of appointments and lots
of happy belly full muslims running around haha :)

Got your guys SWEET box this week and I am enjoying everything SO
much, thank you thank you! listening to Kenny G is amazing and for
some reason strangely reminds me of late night drives through Newport
News? strange... and the workout book is so much fun! I am loving the
handstand pushups and working hard to improve my muscle strength and
even got to 8 today, so I am trying to reach 10 by Saturday :)

Lost the phone on Saturday when getting out of taxi...went and got the
sim recovered today but lost all the numbers and they will be deducting
money from my subsistence for the next 4 months to pay for it...tish...but its
the will of God so I am not too beat up about it . I was super upset at
first but immediately entering the house I knelt down and prayed and
just felt at peace with the world and everything is good and dandy :)
I know God loves me!

We had a baptism for Ibrahim  on Saturday and it was
awesome! Elder Labrum got to do his first baptism and it was super
sweet. Ibrahim is following the example of his close buddies who were
all rebel children who gambled, broke the law, and were troublemakers
who are now turning into the saints of the neighbourhood :) I love
them all!

We went to another youth Family Home evening on Saturday and 30 were
there! again, they asked me to give the spiritual thought and I
invited ALL of them to invite us to come teach their parents...we will
see how they do :) Also, one of the young men has quit smoking since we
gave him a blessing the previous Sunday, so I am super excited for him
and he should be interviewed Sunday if he can continue enduring :)

The work here is great, we are busy and loving it and working super
hard...district duties are great and everything is taken care of. Hill
Station elders just moved in with us today so got to help them unpack
and get settled...also Elder Labrum and I lifted a taxi this week that
was stuck in a gutter haha, we didn't get TOO dirty...but gosh my
whites are not white anymore...I wear yellows! but life is great and
family is the most important thing in the world. I love my family so
much and I'm so grateful for this gospel and the opportunity I have to
unite families forever...KAYEAGOMA!

Love,
Jesse,
Elder Sumrak

Awesome Amazing Youth

Yeah, the internet last week was disappointingly wack, not
happy at all with that, but its all good now its working fine. I am
doing marvelous this Monday, even though the rain is pounding outside
and I didn't get to play football today, our area is doing well and
changes are constantly on the way. The Zone Leader, Elder Aseidu told
me he was informed he will be training TWO elders next transfer and
will no longer be zone leader...and we have 4 Elders going home, 2
zone leaders, 1 assistant, and a district leader...changes are
abundant here and he told me that according to president I shouldn't
plan on finishing this training...which makes me sad, but then again,
nothing is definite until I hear it from President myself :)

Training is going great and I love Elder Labrum. He is a great
missionary and is learning very quickly and yes, to answer your question
Mom,  he is nervous but he is confident and doing well.  Of course I was 
SOOOOO Nervous when I first came out.  Whenever I am training I
always try to do everything to help him as much as I can. He
has made me a better person as I have done some self evaluation and
trying constantly to better myself and my example so I will have a
good lasting positive influence on him. But, we get along great. 4
mornings this week we woke up early and made our way out into the dark
to go on nice jogs. We went pretty off course Tuesday morning haha and
wanted to reach the beach but never really got there, or close. but
the other runs were nice haha :) also have increased in pushups and
what not now and putting on some more weight through my delicious
cooking as well. Decided to try cooking some new stuff last week,
CHICKEN GIZZARD!!! and I made a nice stew. It was a bunch of chicken
gizzard in a tomatoe stew of Bell Peppers, baked beans, onions and
some chicken seasoning as well to make one nice tasty stew. THAT is
GOOD protein :)

Wow, that yellow front door looks good TOO! I like it a lot, good job father
:) and Nick drove?! can it be? well im glad to hear that he is a good
driver haha , I was TOO slow when I first started driving...now
mission has given me a great desire to buy a bullet bike and go fast
fast fast! but, thats how they all drive here :) can't blame me!
You can remember the first time I took the interstate by myself? and
tried to drive over to like that stake center in Newport News or
something? gosh momma if you knew that experience I had you would
never have let me go again! haha

Ah, the ROSHYBURGERS! I love those guys! I hope they are all doing
well and I would love to join back up with those original boys in some
7v7 football when I get home...even Grant Cummins :)

But, the mission really is going great! The other day when waiting for
transport a USA military man came and started talking to us and he is
a United states military...who lives in Italy? Who is a Mormon, and he
was awesome. His name was Paulding, and he wanted to take us out for
lunch, but unfortunately was running late :/ so boo! but always great
to see members!

I finished Church history in fullness of times this week, that
whopping 600+ page monster, which was an awesome read, and then began
my night time studies of the Old Testament, using the Pearl of Great
Price, DC, and Old Testament manual, and our beloved prophet Joseph
Smith and his many aided translations. It is going amazing and I am
really enjoying all the doctrine and lessons I am learning and
learning more about how Jesus Christ is the God of the Old Testament
and how he is also our saviour and how is most certainly the same
yesterday, today, and forever. It is an awesome study and I am really
enjoying it. Its so sweet how powerful the spirit is and as I record
the things in my journal how new and inspiring thoughts come to my
mind and its like continuous revelation and its really really sweet! I
love it and its more than I have ever experienced before!

On Saturday we had a frustratingly great baptism. Of course, my error,
the baptism was to start at 10:30 and stupid me, I told them to come
by 10:00...what was I thinking....because if I was smart I would have
said 9:00 or 8:30 and maybe they would have come on time. Our 2
candidates came late but were able to change quickly and join in the
baptism. Two awesome girls, Binty and Elizabeth who I
had the privilege of baptizing and it was really sweet. they were so
happy when they came out of the water and ah, it was a very spiritual
baptism and they bore beautiful testimonies afterwards :) They showed
up yesterday and were confirmed and 2 more souls are now converted to
Jesus Christ's true church and his true plan of salvation. Not all is
done of course, and they must endure to the end, but they have entered
in the gate, now just must press forward :)

Our Ward's youth is amazing and are actively going around constantly
doing missionary work and reactivating friends and what not. TONS of
referrals this week and 12 investigators in sacrament yesterday. The
Youth have family home evenings every Saturday night and always
invite us to come, so this time we came and we had a great time. They
invited me to give the spiritual thought and it was cool because about
30 people were jammed into a room fit for maybe 10, and we talked
about tithing and fasting and fast offerings and it was tons of fun :)
We then told jokes and I stumped everyone with a riddle that Elder
Flament taught me.

What is more righteous then God,
More Wicked then the devil,
The Poor have it,
and the Rich need it?

Boo yah!

Fun family home evening and they even gave us kool aid and popcorn at
the end before we had to go stand in the rain for 45 minutes while
waiting for poda poda...fun :) trying to get a video of poda poda
journeys for everyones sake back home haha...we fit 25 people in there
the other day...quite a feat I must say :)

Eugene and his parents both came to church yesterday and it was
awesome. they even came in the rain! and they were both so happy and
it was a sweet service! Elder Labrum and I ditched priesthood because
Saidu invited me to hear his testimony in his final sacrament. 
 Saidu then got up to bare his testimony and it
was powerful and he had good composure...until the end, and then he
returned to his seat and put his head down and I went over and it was
just a really special moment I had with him. We both just balled our
eyes out like little babies and went out into the hall and cried some
more and he is really scared to leave but I got him all cheered up in
time to go back in to find Idrissa also choking up as he left the
pulpit and returned to his seat and then went and cried with him
hahaha, then their best friend Patrick was just balling his eyes out
because he is leaving next month on mission and ah it was sad but it
was a good sad :) I am really happy for those boys and I am so proud
of them. Just to top it all off they sang I'll Go Where You Want Me to
Go to close and I was reminded of my sweet beautiful cousins and my
sister Laura singing at my departure and ah it was too emotional for
me. Too emotional for Africa haha, here they don't cry! But, it was a
really awesome moment seeing my boys all leaving on mission when one
year ago I was sitting there telling them  they had to go and they
were making excuses and I was filling their papers with them and
trying to convince their parents and ah, its so amazing to see them
all now going to represent the Lord Jesus Christ and go and do this
great and powerful everlasting work...I am so proud of them and I
encourage everyone to pray for these boys continually, they are
sacrificing more then we can imagine, and having to exercise greater
faith than any of us to put our papers in...I love them all very much.

Taught one awesome lesson yesterday in which our investigator arrived
at HIS house with about 15 of our youth with him haha, we were waiting
to teach him after service and he had been out with the youth
reactivting, so ALL the youth taught him the word of wisdom and law of
chastity and Elder Labrum and I just kinda dictated the discussion and
kept it focused and oriented and asked questions and let the youth
teach him and it was awesome. I am so proud of all of them and even
him. He is a very intelligent boy of about 18 who probably knows the
bible better then most 18 year olds, and he wa just so convinced, not
by the doctrine or teaching, but by the example his friends set and
the missionaries as well. he wants to go on a mission already :) I
told him one step at a time haha :)

Sierra Leone is amazing...I have seen so many miracles here, the
greatest one being the growth and foundation of the church establishing
here...last year I was meeting on a dry Sunday in the same chapel with
20-40 people...now I am meeting on a rainy Sunday with a bunch of
soaked members in the same chapel with 100-125 members :) the Lord's
work is hastening my dear friends and family. From my studies of the
Old Testament, look to the sky on these rainy days, and that old
familiar rainbow will tell you that you have time :) but, when that
rainbow doesn't appear any longer, know that the Messiah is coming
soon. The rainy days are coming, let us plant our foundation deeper in
deeper on the rock of our reedemer so that the devil and his assured
attacks will have no power to lift us away from the sure knowledge and
testimony we have built. I love you all! peace out!

Love,
Jesse
Elder Sumrak