Wow momma, you sure did have a dramatic week, but I hope the next couple of ones are more relaxing for you as the new semester begins. Your end of semester sounds like my end of transfers haha, we sure do have good times don't we huh?:) Congratulations on the 25 mile run Dad, that milestone is no small feat, I am awfully competitive and I'm going to have to try to come home and compete with you this summer haha, you got the edge on me!
So...this week, I did crash actually, I was full of energy until like Thursday morning when I woke up and my whole entire body hurt for some reason, just everywhere, not in a muscle way either, but it even hurt to swallow, my toes hurt and everything, but fortuantely that was an office day so I got to rest up before going out proselyting in the evening and during the day Friday, so I was able to overcome that and back on a high today with tons of energy. We had super P-Day today and we got to go play football and it was a good time, until somebody popped the ball, so Elder Gherkins and I ran, yeah ran pretty fast, over a mile to the only open store that sells a ball, bought a ball and came back haha, I still had so much energy again that I went and did pull ups and push ups while my companionn bathed and then we watched Kung Fu Panda 2...and yeah...that was my day today, super p day fun stuff :)
As for the real story...the COBRA! Well, we put the whole compound and all security and personnel on high alert, and heard mutliple stories this week of people encountering the snake -under the cars and in the bushes, but after we had not seen it, we kinda gave up the notion of it and just relaxed...almost was the cause of a short ended mission....
Thursday night Elder Nwsou was making some jokes about the snake and things and we were having a good laugh and my body was still hurting me so I got ahead and was in bed early just resting and we said our prayes and everything and I was asleep when apparently Elder Magrangqa remembered the front door was still open and asked Elder Tucker to go close it, so Elder Tucker, already getting into bed went out to go close the door and just started screaming, and we are all just like...man shut up and go to sleep sorta deal, and he is screaming I'm serious, "He's here He's here!" so, I lazily climb out of bed and put my glasses on and oh my gosh there he is slithering around at the bottom of the steps and then...you wouldn't guess. he starts climbing the stairs toward us...what!? is this some horror film! we all started yelling and man it turned back and went off and disappeared into the bushes...needless to say, Friday morning I did not get up to workout outside...no way about that. gosh...
well...I thought the story had ended there...but, while emailing about 30 minutes ago...we heard commotion outside, and then yes...yes! Confirmed! KILL CONFIRMED! the construction workers had found and battled the snake and WON! so we all went out and danced around like silly white men and took tons of pictures and what not while the africans were all freaked out like it was juju to play with it, and then we lit that sucker on fire and we won!....we won! the snake is dead and we are free! oh, so much peace in my heart. every morning it was so hard to work out knowing that thing was lurking around, but now I have true peace :)
Well, my testimony of simple service continued as that young girl I contacted last week continued to progress. She was just walking down the street toting her water and I helped her with it and she came to church, made lots of friends, came to our missionary fireside, came to church again, and now has a baptismal date for February...the gospel is so sweet, its so simple, its just love. Love brings miracles, and I come to love mission and the people and members more and more everyday...
We did have a missionary fireside on Saturday which wasn't too bad, we had over 30 people there, and Elder Nwosu and I did a lot of the instruction, with also some videos as well, and it was really nice and we even had 5 investigators attend! we will be finishing baptizing a family this Saturday, which is very exciting as O. and A. are preparing to be baptized, since the rest of their family baptized inside November. It is finally time for them to be joining them, so we are very excited for that :) tons of expansion in the mission and working on branch and ward splits on the computer and the like and its very exciting here to see the progression of this small country, scary to think I am going to start to have to prepare for a new batch of missionaries in 3 weeks...my oh my I am going to need a whole new box of ibuprofen for that one...Ayayaya!:)
But, as for my studies today, I gained a valuable lesson on Retention OVER Reactivation as I studied the words of Alma and Moroni on the matter. I am not actually sure of all the scripture quotes but, Alma 59:9 talks about how it was easier to maintain "converts" than to retake them from the "devil" and we learn the same lesson in Proverbs 18:19 (hope those are right) about retaining our converts. Alma 24 something also talks about how dangerous and terrible it is when someone who has come to the greater knowledge falls away and are worse off then they orignally were before you baptized them, which creates such an essential focus on conversion and not baptism. We are practically damning people if we are to baptize them, to have them make covenants with God, when they are not fully prepared and we do not nourish them afterwards, it is dangerous for them, as 2 Nephi 31:14 talks, we can't do that to this wonderful children of God. We need to nourish them, to the point where they can stand as the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's...and be able to stand for the cause of Christ even if it means their lives...that's my little 2 piece for the week...
Wish I had 2 pieces of pie for reals right now though...
But, I think that is all for the week, I love you all incredibly much and miss and pray for you continually, thank you for your prayers...I know they work for they are constantly blessing me everyday.
Love,
Jesse
Elder Sumrak
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