A.
S. did have his baptism on Saturday and it was very special! I was
pretty emotional about it haha, but he bore powerful testimony about the
truth and divinity of the church and especially the Book of Mormon, as
he is now cruising through 2 Nephi, it's giving him a little trouble but
he is hanging in there and doing his best, naturally, and we even got to
teach his wife yesterday who is happy to see the changes in his life
and is finally showing interest, which is surprising since she is super
muslim and all her family is, but its exciting...their WHOLE family live
in this compound, so if this whole family joins, her sisters and
cousins and uncles and aunties will surely follow, so the work we are
doing is slow but crucial and we are determiend to help the Lord and
these people!
I
have had a slight issue this week, as I was having some intese upper
abdominal pain earlier in the week that was sending me into the fetal
position most of the night and the only way I could relieve myself of
the pain was to get up and walk around in the night, and that has been
continuing, the only thing that has been helping me thus far is popping
10-15 pepto bismal, but I am doing well today and hanging in there :)
Just got to survive! that's all, just survive! but, seriously I am doing
okay, no problems. I received a beautiful blessing from my companion
and Elder Kanzler that really touched my heart and soul and I know the
Lord is looking out for me and He is going to help me finish out this
work strong, going as strong as I possibly can! Elder Stanford and I had
another busy busy week and still managed to get 20 lessons again, so we
are dying haha and laugh about how dead we are but are seriously
enjoying hastening the work and finding and teaching more and more
families!
On
Tuesday we went out to Waterloo on the multiple different transports
and attended their district meeting which was really sweet and great to
see my boy Elder Weller again. Then, the long trip back, then a meeting
with President Ostler, then an office meeting with everyone, then ran
out the door to go and see the S. family really quick. He has been
doing fantastic! He has completely left cigarettes and after I sewed his
glasses back together, he has been marking the Book of Mormon a whole
lot more now and is making good progress. He and his children all came
to church on Sunday, now we are just working on his muslim wife haha,
all of these muslim wives! He had a big problem on Saturday though when
we showed up and the whole compound was very gloomy and his daughter was
in tears, and he didn't look
very happy either, but we sat down to talk to him and helped him
understand the holy spirit and how he didn't feel it right now and what
the source of that dissension of the spirit was and he argued about how
white people have different skin and don't take beatings, but black skin
is tough and its the only way to teach the children, and we went to the
scriptures and during the lesson his countenance changed and the spirit
really bore witness to his heart that this was wrong and he promised to
never hit his kids again and it was beautiful...it was funny when I
thought...I am a 21 year old white kid sitting here helping YOU, an old
55 + family man with your family...and then I realized yet again, I am
not doing ANYTHING. It's just the Holy Ghost and the power of God
working through Elder Stanford and I, his rusty tools who are trying
their best to be polished and usable, and accomplishing his own work...I
love being an instrument in the hands of the Lord.
Wednesday
was a super sweet day as in the evening time we returned and had a
district blitz of the freetown area with the zone leaders as well, and
that was sweet as we took 10 missionaries into a single area and just
started contacting as many families and kingdom builders as we could. I
got to take our phillipino, Elder Alvarino, who can barely speak English
haha, and got to take him and we had so much success! we found 4
families and one was full English from New York haha "you guys are the
latter day saints right? " No dad! They're the Mormons!" oh, Im sorry Im
sorry," :) haha, haven't had that my whole mission...but that was a
really sweet experience all going into that area and getting the
community and missionaries excited in that difficult part of town.
Thursday,
we did our weekly planning, then got to help prepare and send out 2
departing missionaries going to Liberia and Nigeria, so that was nice
being able to assist in setting them apart, then lots of teaching that
day.
Friday,
we had our own zone meeting but had to leave early unfortunately to get
taxi all the way to Jui to meet the kissy zone leaders to give them
money for the Lungi Elders district funds because they ran out, then
headed back and got to go and see some people,
then Saturday was the sweet sweet baptism, and the rest of the day was spent proselyting our faces off.
Sunday
was sweet and I was privliged to confirm Abdulai Samura and it ws
really sweet and he was super excited...maybe one of my last
confirmations for a very long time...at least for the living ;) but then
spent the rest of that day out teaching as well, and follow calls in
the vening form Thursday night to Sunday night, so were pretty exhausted
from that,
but
we ran into town this morning, ditching our own zones super pday haha,
and I took all the measurements to the tailors and material people and
hopefully will be getting some fine africana clothes for my wonderful
family, or at least trying my best, then came home and elder stanford had found some clippers and tried to barb my hair and WHOAH was it
WAY too short, and then it died after the first swipe, so I put a hat on
and we went down the street and somebody, Ogggaaaaaa, is his name :) he
finished up my hair after laughing at my silly haircut and now we look
like stinking marines haha our hair is so short you can see our white
scalps, but whatever right, its not like I'm trying to impress anyone :)
Just as long as I am an appropriate representative of Jesus Christ, but to
be honest I look more like a mercenary than anything right now...but,
small small, life is great and I am loving it...not too much to say but I
love you all, work is sweet ,keep it going till the end!
Love,
Jesse
Elder Sumrak
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