Working with wonderful missionaries

Wow! I can't wait to come help out back home, and I am so excited
to drive again that I will drive all of you people
everywhere haha.   Still I am just eating the same things pretty much
everyday...eggs, chicken, lentils, black beans, spring onion, sardines,
tuna...carrots, green beans, bell peppers, that is the extent of my variety
I think, yes it IS pretty boring, but we manage it for now. Working out
like crazy in the mornings with Elder Stanford haha, but the rain disturbed
our running plans obnoxiously last week :) but we are planning more for
this week. Can boast and say that last Monday I knocked out 1000
pushups...so sore, but I rounded off the week Saturday night, totaling the
week at 2,110 pushups, so that was a nice achievement for me...not quite
the marathon milestone I was looking for, but I will add that to my
repertoire of 5,000 jump rope too....oh what wasted time...

We had a very busy and powerful week and met on separate occasions with the
Lumley, Freetown, Kissy, and Kossoh Town zone leaders to discuss some new
approaches and plans for the mission as well as to be able to assess their
areas and how we can help them more in ministering to their missionaries. We
are blessed with such a fantastic mission that I just have to brag about how
wonderful all of our missionaries are. We aren't perfect, but gosh I talk
to lots of missionary buddies and some people in their missions just
are...not living up to their potential, and it makes me happy to know that
we have got some great and humble guys and gals here working their best to
serve their Father in Heaven. On Tuesday we attended the Freetown district
meeting with Elder Maxfield, on Wednesday we got to do a lot of proselyting
which was really sweet, Thursday we went and did a weekly planning in
Wellington, then Friday we went and attended the Kossoh Town Zone meeting
and gave a sweet and spiritual instruction on the urgency of this great
work and how to overcome casualness, and it was awesome, the Lord was truly
using us and it was a wonderful experience as Elder Stanford and I just
tried our hardest to seek the Lord's will and to be his mouth piece and to
just humble ourselves to say and do whatever He asked us to...and we really
did :)

Saturday was a FULL day of proselyting, after we attended the baptism that
we invited A. to...then on Sunday he came to church and was
interviewed and his baptism will be THIS saturday and it's going to be so
sweet. A....I can't talk enough about this great father and
husband. Really...I don't even know where to start he is about 42, has a
wife and 2 children, 2 step children as well. 1. He wants to find another
job because he is part of security at a hospital...which does abortions,
which he does not agree with after learning the Law of Chastity. 2. talked
to his boss about giving him Sundays off (not a Sa Lone accepted culture
thing to do by the way haha) 3. told his boss that he could give him
ovaltine(cocoa) instead of tea leaf, or he would taking nothing at all 4.
bought his whole family cocoa instead of tea leaf and preached to his
compound about its harmful substances. 5. came to the baptism straight from
working a 7 p.m - 9 p.m. shift, no sleep, guy is a boss and probably the
most ripped man I have seen in this entire country...I'm talking 8 pack,
but another change is he now wears a shirt all the time, which he never used
to do hahaha. gosh, he has already read almost the whole book of 1
Nephi...and he is just awesome.

Have another guy we are teaching, a muslim man, who used
to smoke 6 a day, and we created a plan for him to leave cigarettes by
June...but he has already not smoked for about 10 days now, so that man is
amazing as well, love him lots. He is(was) a cripple who could barely walk,
but ever since he came to church he has started walking without a cane and
now is walking quite fine...it truly is a miracle and the miracle is
growing more everyday :)

Not too much to say this week, just going hard and enjoying my mission so
much. I wish I could tell you that I was so stinking full of energy, but I
am EXHAUSTED, but still going harder than ever. Usually when we pray at the
end of the day, it takes me about 5-10 minutes to get up...but, tha'ts a
good time to go down and stay down, stay up during the day, go down at the
end, that's the way its supposed to be and I know it's the Lord's way and it
sure does make me happy that way...but tired too...oh, when naps will be
keeping the word of wisdom and not a sin! hahaha :)

I love you all, keep on enjoying life!

Love,
Jesse
Elder Sumrak

Blessings of Sierra Leone

Hello Dear Family! 
Wow, another wonderful week has passed by and its sad to think that this was my last time orienting a new group of missionaries, but at least it was my favorite one so far, so that is a sweet positive! On Tuesday, we didn’t get to go to the airport to pick up the elders, only 8 showing up this time, but we had plenty of work to take care of before we hopped in the Barney’s sweet ride and got a ride down to seacoach to receive the missionaries at the dock. Had a fresh and excited young group with Elders from America, Nigeria, Ghana, and Tonga, and we got them all back to the mission office safe and sound. 

We got up early to start cooking for them…we meant to buy raw eggs, but Jokella got us boiled eggs :) so we broke them all and scrambled up boiled eggs with hot dog and onions and lots of pepe, and it was super yummy, though it kind of hurt my tummy a little bit, not too strange to think why. We then ALL went up to the mission home where Elder Stanford and I got to do a fun orientation with all the new guys! We shared some Krio phrases and the like and helped them understand some of the unique challenges and also blessings of Sierra Leone, so then we all went up to Leicester Peak where the missionaries got to receive their assigned area and companion, and we sang High on the mountain top, and then had a brief testimony meeting. It was a great experience and the spirit was so strong, besides the beating sun, it really was wonderful! We went down to the mission office for lunch and then shipped out all the newbies to their areas, then Elder Stanford and I were out the door with a nice little heel click and big smiles on our face! We got to go and teach some wonderful families and wow did we see some sweet miracles this week! More to come! 

Thursday, we got to help a young lady leaving to go to Ghana. We got to set up her email and give her a brief orientation and then even stand in on the setting apart, so that was awesome. I love being able to hear the wonderful blessings pronounced on them by President Ostler, and its so sweet to see how different they all are, but the great blessings that are promised to them if they will only be obedient and diligent…that’s all it comes down to in the end, God wants to bless us so much and just wants us to be obedient so he can :) we then had a brief sit down with President about the mission concerns and our focuses for the transfer…then, Elder Stanford and I went to planning and spent about 4 hours planning out the transfer, so we are excited for all the trainings, meetings, exchanges, and blitzes that we are organizing, and its going to be busy busy busy everyday but we are going to go HARD until the end. Even with all the craziness and the busyness of this week we still managed to go out and teach 20 lessons, so we are trying to be examples to all the other missionaries that we need to be diligent, no matter how much time you have left or how new you are, or how many meetings you have, go out and fulfil your calling to help these wonderful people with the only thing that will save them and bring true lasting happiness in this life…the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the gospel so much and it just makes me so happy…I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is for sure, and oh that I were an angel…oh well, actually I would prefer not to be a ministering angel, but no need for that tangent, life is good! I’m ranting… 

Friday, we got to go and attend the Freetown zone’s district and sister trainer leader orientation meeting, which was really nice, then out the door to go and teach the whole day, and then Saturday we had a FULL day of proselyting and got to some awesome people! 

On Sunday, we saw some wonderful miracles as we left early in the morning to bring an old sick man to church. We were leaving his house, him on his broken crutches limping away, when a BIG grizzly man saw him struggling to climb the hill…it started to rain, and this man, smelling like pure marijuana comes and taps me on the shoulder and asks for permission to help the man, I thought the old man was a little brittle and told him to be careful, but the big guy just hoisted the old man into his arms and carried him up the hill. It really touched my heart, because then the man didn’t even wait for thanks or anything, but just continued with his business. We put the old man on bike and then we went and joined him at the church, which was just a great service…besides the trouble I felt of seeing Sister Samba…but, that’s a big story for another day and not for my smiley self this day. Today…football, until the jamba boys wanted to play and refused to leave and we had to leave and go play in the compound..and then they popped my like 5 th ball now :/ geeze, going through too many footballs! Hopefully can do with just 1 more! I pray! Haha, then we went to town to buy Africana and that was just too much of an adventure…now, just laying down in the office waiting until the internet comes back on so I can send this blasted email…but, at least I finally get to rest now…right? :) Life is great! Woot woot!

Love,
Elder Sumrak 

Loved the Phone Call

Gosh, it was so great to talk to you all yesterday and it has just left me invigorated and excited to go out and do the work even more. I just love this gospel so much and it just brings me so much happiness. Teaching families and testifying of families and seeing the love these people have been channeled to their families and Jesus Christ is just fantastic. I know without a doubt that my Redeemer lives and what amazing comfort that gives me...that there is a purpose to everything we do, there is an answer to every why? and we have such great things ahead of us...the future is always so perfectly bright with an eternal focus...it really is amazing! 

Pretty much the phone call was the highlight of my week, and most certainly for our Sunday yesterday haha. We did have one sweet less active mommy come, sister M., who was baptized like 10 or so years ago and hasn't come to church in 6 or so years due to some issues with doctrine and the like, but we went and ate some of her food the other night, got bounced by a ton of people, and it really was a blessing because it led us back to her for a lesson on temples and eternal marriage which gave her the drive to come back and ah, it was so sweet to see her come and sit down next to us in church, gosh it made me so happy :) 

Wednesday was a nice a and busy day as we got up and caught a ride from the Kanzlers over to Kossoh town to attend the kossoh town/ kissy/ makeni zone meeting with the visit from Sister Barret, the west africa mental health advisor, and introduction of our new couples the Barneys. I got to conduct the meeting which was cool since I noticed how scared I would have been 2 years ago, and how comfortable I have become speaking in front of people now, it really is a miracle from the Lord and I am so grateful! We had about 80 missionaries in attendance and it was just a sweet meeting, then we had lunch with the leaders and a nice little Mission leadership counsel meeting with the zone leaders, but to be honest the highlight of the day was seeing our beloved Elder Hill, which made me and Elder Stanford so very happy. that guy is just so awesome and we have missed him so much so it was so great to see his smiling face again haha! 

Thursday we worked on the transfer sheet and all the transfer movements and ran through them with the drivers and Elder Kanzler and everything checked out okay! we got to go out a little bit to teach that day fortunately! 

Friday, in the morning we had the freetown/lumley zone meeting and then president had us preside over the MLC because he had to leave and the meeting went super sweet and we got tons of great ideas from the zone leaders there so we are super excited for the future and the trainings and everything we are planning. it is going to be so sweet! We had quite a bit of office work to do as well as some meetings with President, then some emergency transfer changes already, which meant we had to re do movements, then we had our transfer preplanning meeting with the office and couple staff and got everything all planned and scheduled out...yeah...another busy busy day.  

Saturday was sweet in that we got to proseltye for a considerable portion of the day which was great and we really enjoyed that. The upcoming week is going to be great with transfers and new missionaries and the like. Today was really sweet as we got to go and play some sweet football and have a good ol time with that, now just resting and relaxing and getting our bodies ready...pop some ibuprofen soon probably and take a nap. made some pancakes this morning and then this afternoon I enjoyed the Abdulai (oats, gari, kingdriver, sugar,) mashed up in a cup...then got hungry and made the Sumrak (oats, gari, sugar, peanut butter, almonds, walnuts, and blueberries) mashed up in a cup...living the good life. Life is sweet! got to keep going hard, love you all so much :)

Elder Jesse Sumrak

Heel Clicks

Wow, what a week, what a week! Here is a brief history…Thursday we went to Kissy to go and do a training there, and then spent 2 hours inside taxi on the way home while I tried not to cry my eyes out at the terrible transport system in this wretched city! But, got back and worked in the office until we had our office meeting at 5…then, we had a brilliant idea that we needed to go to Bo to visit the assistants out there…and President Ostler accepted!

Friday morning I was up at 3:45 doing crunches, then we were out the door into the dark by 4:30 to make our way into town to the bus stop so we could catch a government bus to Bo…well, we fortunately found a taxi and got there relatively quickly, but there was already a long line for all the buses to upline, and unfortunately we missed the que for the first bus leaving around 7…and we would have to wait until 9, NOT ACCEPTABLE! So, we got to meet this nice American woman, Georgiana from VA, sweet, then we got to work on our communication skills…so  I managed to convince the bus apprentice that we needed to be on the bus and he got us on the bus…yeah, we're smooth, and there we were, off on our way to Bo, slipping in and out of consciousness on the 5 hour bus ride.

We arrived in Bo and quickly jumped on bikes (gosh it has been such a long long time) and off we went to the chapel to meet up with the ending of Bo West Zone’s zone meeting, and I got to see my children Elder Labrum and Elder Etuk and my grandchildren Kelikume and Eshun as well and even more and it was a sweet reunion with Elder Hales and Hovley too :) We went and got lunch and began discussing our plans to make a new study curriculum for the elders and sisters next transfer. We sat in their apartment for about 3 hours discussing plans and trying out new ideas until we had to take a break and Elder Stanford and I hopped on bikes and ventured over to our former area...Messima Branch, Torkpoi Town and boy was it awesome. I was beaming the whole ride there and when we got there I was practically jumping up and down, and when we arrived at the first compound my heart was just so happy as they all remembered my name and came running from various houses to come out and greet me and the mommies and aunties and everyone and it was just so awesome to see my converts again! We made our way all around town, seeing all the wonderful families and members and people we taught and baptized and saw John Mgavou and his family...I had taught them but never got to see them baptized and it was so great to see him and his wife baptized and so happy with their children, and then to one of my favorite people Nancy Moses (the one who I baptized her daughter in the ocean in Freetown) and she was just so happy to see us and was cooking us food because she heard we were coming and we just went around for a couple of hours, trying not to cry, as we saw our wonderful families and friends and took pictures an ah :) so sweet! We made our way back just before dark and arrived back at the apartment close to 7, and got back to work on the curriculum and other ideas until 10:20 at night, not even eating dinner or anything, then went to bed with nets draped over chairs and crashed...

Up again at 4:00 to get ready to go and Elder Hales and Hovley half got up to wish us farewell and we were out into the darkness...so sketchy, we had to say a deep sincere prayer to be protected because we were off in the bush, far from the main road, in pitch black, and we got to the road and had a miracle...a bike man..at 4:30 in the morning, was passing, and we got a ride with him into town where the vans were loading, and another miracle, a van waiting for 2 more people! and...not-okay, so this one actually wasn't so sweet, we had to sit in the front seat...together...for 4 hours! tish, my butt died from being jammed into the seat belt 10 mins after we started, and we just kept shifting forward and backwards to try to stay comfortable and ahhh I just was so uncomfortable and in so much pain that I just kept slipping out of consciousness while the driver was cruising at close to 80 mph and jamming out to some nice R and B...oh boy, we ditched the van early in Jui and I couldn't even walk...I had to limp all the way to the next taxi stop and my butt didn't even recover before i was jammed in the back seat with 4 other people...we finally arrived at our apartment and looked like complete tish...honestly we looked in the mirror and were just horrified, so we showered and shaved and then immediately had to make our way into town to start looking for 180 umbrellas and 114 boots and 18 mosquitoe nets, but had another miracle when the first man we contacted showed us to all the vendors we would need and we got quotes from all of them, then wrapped it all off by getting a quote for the mothers day phone call...oh what a busy day! 

Sunday..oh my it poured all morning, so we had a diappointing turn out when we arrived to 4 other members there pretty much, but the amazing charles family was there, so we ran up to our apartment and Elder Flament brought bread and water and cups since the others were locked in the office, but at least the 1st counselor showed up so we had sacrament with about 10-12 people not including missionaries, and I got to bless the sacrament which has been a long long time, and we just kept our heads up and had a super spiritual experience and I even got to bear my testimony :) so it was really nice, we had to spend a couple hours in the office and then off to our area in great haste and excitement. We started literally running out of the compound doing heel clicks and it was pretty much the most hilarious thing even in my mind to watch these 2 white guys come running out of a building looking like tired tish, big black bags under their eyes and fasting and so tired and coming running out the door doing heel clicks and then get tired after about 40 yards and starting crying in laughter...yeah, that's our companionship :) we love it!

Yesterday...no p day for us. we took an hour drive with Brother Kargbo down into town and then stood in our lebanese store waiting for them to find all the boots for about 2 hours, we finally got them and got stuck in traffic and moved less then half a mile for 2 and a half hours, and gave up and back tracked to where we started and walked about a mile to the umbrella place, and fortunately found a bobo who would tote the things on his trolly for some money, so got all that back, and picked up some nets along the way, and then we were off to another hour drive home..so we got back and unpacked everything, then mad dashed out the door with a nice cute heel click again and off to our area. We got to meet up with S. for a sweet lesson, well really he had tons of questions about Galatians 1-2 which I thought was funny because I usually use scriptures from there to teach the apostasy, so it went pretty smoothly :) we made our way home and then started organizing all the rain gear until 10:20 and then off to bed...

Today, we thought we were going to have p -day but instead worked the entire day doing all kinds of crazy jobs and had some sweet pre transfer meetings with president and then we went into town and bought 4 thousand dollars worth of phone credit, oh yeah, felt like bosses carrying that around, and made our way back to the office to do some more work, then work work...and now we finally get to email our sweet famlies and life is good :) Staying busy, staying happy, staying awesome. love you all!

Love,

Jesse

Elder Sumrak