Wow, thank you for the soccer update mother dearest, I got some dear
elders as well so I am excited to see what is going on there soon. I
would love any information you have on the Gareth Bale signing, I
heard he went to Real Madrid, but really any info on Manchester United
and Real Madrid is good with me :) what would be the SWEETEST is if
you could find a SUMMER 2013 Complete Transfer Sheet. I would love to
see where everyone ended up if at all possible. If you could do that
that would be perfect :)
And I loved the story of the van breaking and fixing haha, the Lord is
truly mindful of us when we are in his service, and I think especially
in the case of his missionaries as well haha, he doesn't want any
delays to his work :)
Can't wait to hear where Clayton is going on his mission, ah that is so
exciting. GHANA AFRICA, watch it happen!
Celeste Kellogg! Wow, congratulations to her, she was doing awesome
before I left and I even listened to some of her stuff, even if I'm not
a country sort of guy, and I enjoyed it. Wow, the Hannah Montana of
Smithfield :) I remember she was a good soccer player as well, but
kushey to her, if you happen to see her again tell her hello for me.
Well...As for my week...
Lets start with the big excitement. Yesterday, we had our Ward
Conference, which I anticipated would go well, but never imagined it
would go as well as it did. Normally, we had 100-120 in sacrament, we
had 310 yesterday...We spent the ENTIRE sacrament meeting adding more
and more and more chairs, and the sacrament itself took like 20 some
minutes to pass haha, since they ran out of trays and water haha, it
was great. We broke the record forreals, no other ward conference even
topped 200, it was incredible. And another Miracle...54+
investigators...Stake President Swarray had them all raise their hand,
and I was just like *whistle* tish we are going to be busy. They all
made it to investigators class and I stood up to address them all with
something like this (interpreted to English)... "um...obviously, there
are a lot of you, and only uh...2 of us. So, we will be calling and
visiting each of you this week, and do our very best to make sure we
come and visit each of you individually and allow you to learn more of
Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, The book of Mormon, and baptism...um thank
you..." I Have NO IDEA what to do. Currently I set up with ward
missionaries to go on splits with us on both Tuesday and Thursday so
we can go out and try to contact all of these people but I am honestly
so overwhelmed I feel like I am going to explode haha, but we will do
our very best, pray and hope for the rest :)
Another Miracle, received a picture from Elder Stanford in Bo...2 of
my investigators from a longtime ago who I had taught, loved,
cherished, and left were baptized and confirmed. Nancy, an old woman
nurse who just loved to tell us her life story while I struggled to
stay awake in the heat. I felt more like a therapist then a
missionary...but then again, we are like spiritual therapist haha :)
And John Mgvaou, a man I contacted by my theory if someone is outsider
eading a book then they are being led to me :) or I am led to them
haha, so talked to him, he was so POOR so soso poor and came to church
and payed his tithes the 1st sunday he came and then was offered a job
far away (Blessing or curse?) and left, but now he finally came back
and was baptized :) YAY!
Ibrahim ...A young man who was referred to us by a less active
youth member who is now in prison and uh...yeah,
but Ibrahim has come to church every week
for the past month, but we didn't see him AT ALL last week, until on
Saturday evening we ran into him at the church compound and he begged
us to have a lesson with him even though it was getting dark. so we
gladly accepted and sat down to teach him and boy he taught us, my
gosh, I asked him if he read the Book of Mormon introduction and
MIRACLE MIRACLE. he read...oh boy did he read. He recited to us the
entire introduction, and ALL of the testimony of Joseph Smith, dates
and names included as well as number of visits to Hill Cumorah and
Moroni visits. Out of curiosity he went on to read WORDS OF MORMON and
told us the whole thing perfectly. His friend had asked him what he had
been studying so much and wanted to read it, but Ibrahim was so absorbed
he told him no, but he would copy it down so he could read it. SO
Ibrahim went on to hand copy the entire Words of Mormon for his
friend...hahahaha WHAT A BOSS> and I want you to get a good image of
this kid. He is my height and looks like a thug. Swags his jeans down
super low, wears a leather jacket and spikes his hair, looks like he
has possibly killed someone and the boy is just so loving and caring
and just a witness of NEVER judge a book by its cover :) now he sports
a nice CTR ring (courtesy of mother dearest) and wears modest clothes
to church, and looks like a missionary. What a boss!
We had a super sweet baptism on Saturday! I worked super hard to
organize everything but I forgot to choose someone to say the closing prayer
but, everything else went PERFECTLY and
started 10 minutes early. What? you heard right! 10 minutes early :)
and it was combined with Dwarzak, Freetown, Belliar Park, and Hill
Station. I had the sweet privilege to baptize 33 year old Adama,
mother of 2 children who is just the sweetest woman, and
Alfred baptized his stepdaughter-ish Mariama :) it
was a super sweet baptism and just an amazing day.
We even have families right now which just have me so excited! One man
we found contacting and his whole family live WAY WAY WAY up the
mountain but all came to church to be baptized. One woman and her
children came, and then the less active boy, Tamba (the one who we
convinced to return to church activity) his father now wants to follow
the family :) so we are super busy and will be for the next 4 weeks
without a doubt...I will die...but, I will die happy.
So, everything is great and mission is great. I'm tired but I guess
that's a good thing :) Elder Labrum and I are working very hard, both
physically and spiritually haha. We are working out every morning,
benching like crazy, and running quite frequently. We are hanging in
there. he has lost TONS of weight, while I am trying hard to maintain
hahaha, but with how much we workout we got to eat A LOT haha , but it
makes life different and fun. Nice to break out of a routine and feel
human sometimes...what am I talking about, I'm a missionary, I'm not
human!
I love you all so very much, have a great week!
Love,
Jesse
Elder Sumrak
No comments:
Post a Comment