All is Well

 Oh, all is well, all is well and everything here is going amazing. I seriously love my new companion to death and we get along perfectly and just have the same work ethic...this has honestly been one of the busiest, most exhausting happiest weeks of my whole mission and I am still tired from it and getting more tired every day, but that's what it's all about. Just keep going and hope that your body quits when you get on the plane home rather than on the top of the mountain ;) He is the perfect missionary to come here and help me to achieve my goal of not getting trunky and going hard until the very last second. The training for him has gone so quickly and smoothly, except he is not so hot with computers, naturally after being in Africa for over a year now, but he is picking it up quickly. We are both cleanly people, obedient, and planners and love to gym, so that is going well and he is also on my diet plan, so we are unified in all things! Life is great! Let's see our week... 

Monday, we left our emailing and went on up to the mission home for our wonderful missionaries departure dinner and boy was it good. We had sloppy joes at the request of Elder Turner and it was madly delicious and then I was exahusted from all the work and passed out during testimonies, but from what I gathered they were really sweet :) haha dessert was massive amounts of ice cream and brownies and I can shamefully say that I had 3 servings...but don't judge me haha. We came on home and the internet was not working and we had to deliver the transport movements to our mission drivers, so at 10:45 at night, President Ostler is driving us around Freetown going to bishop's house to drop those off, and then we finally got to sleep around 11. We were up early to gym and start the transport movements and what not, don't know if I told you about the thief we caught last week in the compound...but he was fired, but on Tuesday EVERYTHING that could go wrong did, and the Lord always provided another way and made so many miracles happen. Well, before it was even 6:30 already got calls that one of our buses broke down and had to figure out different arrangements for that, then came to find out that the driver left 2 of the people he was supposed to pick up, so had to rearrange for them, then the timing didn't work anymore, so had to arrange for elders to spend the night in different places and oh boy I was working hard but we got through the morning and the rearrangements and had the apartment all suited up, then found out an additional missionary was on the way, and got them suited up.  

Ate lunch, then took the 5 departing missionaries on over to the airpot and it was sweet this time because we got to ride across with them, and held back my tears this time as we said goodbye to some really good friends, a companion, and even my future apartment mate Elder Symons...bye bye! Then, we had a briefing with President Ostler about the agenda and program for the Lungi conversion plan haha and that went sweet, then the 15 new missionaries started arriving, looking all fresh and green and happy haha, so we gathered them all up on the bus and got them across on 2 separate sea coach boats, which was a lot of fun! a really excited group with like 4 tongans included, and they were just fun and friendly and super excited for the work. I contacted a man on the bus though, an Indian man R., and that was cool , one of the first Indian contacts I've made, although I tried to contact an Egyptian yesterday and quite honestly I think I would have done better with a deaf person haha, couldn't understand each other at all!:) but we tried. We got all the missionaries back to the mission office safely, fed them all, got everyone snug for bed, did all of our crazy busy work, and we even got to bed on time as well! But...problem, I had ordered and prepared food for 15 missionaries, but I didn't take into account the fact that 1 tongan = 4 normal humans, so when they went to make sandwiches, one elder literally made an 8 piece of bread pb and j...so, did a quick assessment to get extra food...but oh tongans...love them so much :) 

Up early Wednesday to start preparing breakfast for the elders and managed to have them all dressed and ready and even time for personal studies, then went down to the office and the Ostler's arrived with a last minute request...They wanted to take the 15 missionaries up to Leicester Peak, the top of the mountain, 25 minutes away, to do an orientation...well all of our drivers were gone doing movements, but Elder Stanford and I were not discouraged, we loaned 200,000 out from the mission funds and ran out to the junction and miraculously found an empty poda poda (literally, its a miracle to ever see one empty) and we managed to hire him hahaha, Imagine that, it was so cool, so he drove us back to the compound and we piled the missionaries in there and the mission vehicles as well and made our sketchy way up to the top of Leicester Peak for a really sweet and unique orientation that we haven't done before :) Awesome! Made our way down and then managed to get the poda poda man's contact information and then sent it (he has been taught multiple times by the missionaries now and he and his family are progressing :) ). So continued on and had orientation and lunch and got to teach all the new guys everything I know about Sierra Leone, at the request of the Ostlers at lunch haha, which was lots of fun for Elder Stanford and I. After, ran up to the office and managed to coordinate all the drivers and give them their tasks and get the elders in the right cars and sent out to their areas, strangely no mistakes, so that was nice! Got all that done and we still had 5 left who would be leaving Thursday, so I paired each of them with elders here and we all went out to go teach, gosh it felt so sweet to have a newbie again, and I just threw him right in and we contacted 2 families straight and taught them and got him to do some teaching as well. Elder Adu-Gyamfi :) oh, that was such a good time, we exhausted them up on the hills and then tucked 'em all in for bed. 

Thursday we were up by about 5:15 or so starting to wake the elders and pile up all the supplies for Bo/Kenema and fed everyone and what not, and eventually the bus showed up and we got them all out successfully with no more hassle. So, with all that done, finally Elder Nwosu and the others departed for Lungi, farewell! and we continued our work. Sister Brown from Kissy was leaving on her mission so we helped with her orientation and setting apart, then accompanied president to sea coach to drop her off, and we stayed with her to keep her company, then found taxi home fortunately. we then had an office meeting that lasted FOREVER and didn't end until dark, but we went out and taught a lesson anways before coming back to close.   

Friday, we left after personal study and got a ride with Bishop Markus to attend Lumley zone's district/sister training leader orientation meeting, and their chapel is right on the beach, so it was so pretty as we sat outside and had an amazing instruction from Elder Bogh and Richardson and also so cool to see all of our district leades from that side. They helped train everyone up and it was a sweet meetng. We came on home and then had a 4 hour planning session, as we planned the most crazy transfer of my entire life. Everyday, district meetings, exchanges, trainings, observations, follow ups, interviews, my my my we are going to die but its going to be so sweet. we ended the study at 6:30 and had followups at 7...but, we ran out and contacted 2 families before running inside to close and do follow ups until 10:30 haha....boy oh boy.  

Saturday was a sweet and amazing full day out proselyting with miracles and miracles and families and families. Such a sweet day and a nice break from the office :) And yeah...thats how the weekend pretty much went down, we are working our faces off and enjoying it so much and gosh my fingers hurt from typing, so I am going to shut up now, but I love you all so much and I pray for all of you and hope you all continue to endure to the end...yeah, something like that. Love you bye bye! 

Love, 
Jesse 
Elder Sumrak