Well, mama and papa you both seem interested to know how the tooth is and thank you for your thoughts and prayers; it was definitely an experience to remember haha!
So Friday morning I was driven there by the Kanzlers and the Seaders and they were just joking giving me a hard time, but it wasn't until I entered the office until I realized;oh my gosh, I am in a 3 rd world country, the poorest country, about to get health care work done on me? WHAT AM I DOING?! Get me outta here! But, the office was very clean and actually looked legit once you got past the outside haha. So, I wait in the lobby and of course, we are tired missionaries, so we pass out instantly on the couch and the nurses wake me up to go on back, so I get chatting with them in Krio and they are all super friendly, and Dr. comes in, and he is just a fun and loving joking guy, so he jabbed me with some novocaine and I'm sitting there wondering, oh my where has that needle been?! But, I try to ignore it, as he does it with no gloves on might I add, but while he is waiting for me to numb up we chat about food and culture and everything, and then he begins the work, but quickly realizes that TISH, that area is not numb enough yet haha;so, he gives me another aggressive shot in my mouth, targeting apparently my main nerve; well, Elder Sumrak didn't like that and started getting very dizzy very quickly, but I tried to man up and just said okay, let us continue, and opened my mouth and next thing you know I am having some crazy dreams and weird stuff is going on, and then where the heck am I, who are these people? What is the point of life? Seriously, those were my thoughts as I blacked out, and woke up to bright lights and 3 africans massaging my chest and arms. My shirt was unbuttoned and my tie was loose and my laces and my belt and I had passed out and honestly I couldn't breathe hahah and I was very scared, but as they massaged my chest I came back pretty quickly and drank some water and then I made a joke about not eating enough cassava leaf before I came, then laughed my self to tears for like 5 minutes while they couldn't figure out what was going on; but, the rest of the procedure went well and my tooth looks quite amazing to be honest. So, now that my mouth was completely numb, that is when I decided to introduce the gospel and invite him to church; yeah, with spit sliding down my face and everything, probably should have done that before :)
Well the rest of the day was pretty difficult, as I got back and was really dizzy, I wanted to be a good example to other missionaries, so I manned up and we went proselyting, even though I was teaching with half a face and the most important word in my vocabulary (Jesus Christ) couldn't even be comprehended by myself when I tried to say it haha! But, the day went well and was pretty funny when Jokella, Elder Nwosu and I, sat down to teach one man, who confessed he was planning on taking a second wife, and currently was cheating on his wife, but didn't see any problem with it; while all the neighbours are listening and its just like casual talk. So, that pretty much knocked the novocaine outta my mouth and I was feeling sore but could talk again as we tried to help him understand Jesus Christ's way, but his heart was very hard and we felt like we were getting nowhere;surprisingly, by the end of the lesson after the prayer, he said that he was convinced and he was not planning on having a 2nd wife now;so, we will have to follow up and see how that goes..he has such a beautiful family, a wonderful YOUNG 16-18 year old wife, while he looks to be 35-40 and beautiful children, ah, we don't want him to ruin what he has already been blessed with!
But on to the rest of the week!
Wow, what a super active and super fast week has past me by here in the Sierra Leone mission. I don't even remember half the week haha, it just flew by, but I will do my best to recount the awesome week that we had! Well, got our email on Monday what President wanted us to instruct on Tuesday morning at zone conference, so we got to work preparing that evening and really the Spirit just took over and sweet scriptures and references and applications were coming to us, so we were able to knock the preparation out in less than an hour, and had an outline that we were both very content with! The zone conferences were oriented around working with the members and Elder Nwosu and I were to instruct on how to work with members through the branch mission leader, and then to include an instruction on the correct way to give advice and correction to the member leaders. So, we had our instruction prepared for that, giving scriptural references and what not on how to and how not to handle issues, and I loved sharing the example of Uzzah from 2 Samuel 6; I think that's right, about Uzzah and the ark haha, and applying that.
Well, we were up early Tuesday morning and Elder Appiah and I decided to go for a nice semi-long run and ran 6-7 miles to Murray town and made our way back in the dark. Good times, feeling healthy and good and honestly could have done 10 more, no problem, so catching up with you pops! But, President Ostler came and picked us up, he was a bit late, and then got pulled into a meeting, literally pulled out of the van, but we were blessed with traffic and were only 15 minutes late and we had a wonderful conference over in Kissy :) it was super sweet and fun being my first zone conference giving instruction, I really enjoyed it and was surprised by how smoothly everything went. We had an Elder who finished his mission, Elder Aluka, so we took him on up to Leicester Peak, then to the mission home for a wonderful dinner where we ordered tons of stuff from Crown express, Pasta, Thai curry, pizza, and all this awesome food, then dessert of ice cream and brownies, oh my spoiled taste buds were so happy :) Came on home and slept so well!
Wednesday, home base, we had zone conference here in Freetown and it went very well as well, except in the morning when we woke up and realized that we had forgot to order food, so we made an emergency order and she said she could do it. When the food was delivered, it was swarmas with cheese balls? Guess she couldn't finish the fries in time;) but, everyone enjoyed and the conference went well. I was surprised by how comfortable I am becoming in front of the missionaries, though the Lord has always blessed me with being comfortable talking in front of people, but being nervous prior has always been a weakness of mine, but that has significantly diminished due to this calling, so that is a great blessing I am having :)
Thursday, we were up early again and out the door quick to go to the Waterloo Zone Conference, but we stopped in Kissy on the way to meet a departing missionary and his family to set him apart as he was making his way to the airport;it was so cool to be able to stand in in setting apart a missionary and the blessing he gave that young man I know that it came from the Lord; it was so powerful and that boy is going to do great! So, on to our last zone conference of the week, and it went smoothly as well and was over quickly and nicely and in time for Elder Nwosu and I to even get home and get 2 appointments in, so we are trying our best haha! What a super busy week though!
But, ON Sunday I got to see an old face;Christiana, my convert that I baptized inside Mt. Aureol ward back in November 2012; she came to our sacrament meeting and flagged me down so I ran to go sit with her. She takes out her bag;SHE HAS RECEIVED HER MISSION CALL and is going to the Liberia Monrovia mission :) ah, I was so stinking happy and just wanted to sing and shout haha and she is so excited as well. She really doesn't know too much about the gospel doctrine or lessons or anything, but just has a great desire to go out and serve, and I'm just so happy because I know it doesn't matter if she isn't prepared now, mission is going to change her life and convert her so much. She is going to be going to the temple! What?! :) I am just so happy to have a convert who is going to the temple and so happy that she is going to go and receive those blessings :) she leaves next month on the 18, so I will make sure I am there to help her with anything she needs as she goes;I am so proud of her!
But, that was my week;and life is great and kickin well here. We will receive the transfer news this week and get ready to dish out all these fresh 18 coming missionaries, I am super excited and ready to get to work;this week and next week will be the busiest, here we go again!:)
And as far as Lungi, I'm pretty sure its set and ready for missionaries to go, but we will know for sure this week and my eyes are FINE I Promise, it was just really bright in those pictures, my eyes are just tired but, just from exhaustion haha!
All is well here...I love you all and miss you so much and pray that you are all doing well...I am still studying myself about undertanding principles to dictate my actions, instead of studying the actions themselves :) it really is sweet and its changing the way I think about a lot of things! everyone, I love you! Bye bye!
Love,
Jesse,
Elder Sumrak
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