Well,
Mama deary, I do not know who will be filling my shoes quite yet, but I
laughed when I read what you wrote about filling shoes and then thought about my own shoes...Oh, BOY
they are so wo wo, they are completely falling apart, but I don't know
what's in store for the future of the mission, poor President Ostler is
going to have to make SO many changes this transfer, losing lots of
people in the mission this transfer, and the next transfer, and pretty
much all the leadership will be gone, but the Lord is in control and
will help others to fill those roles and move this great work forward :)
It
IS weird that this is my last time emailing as a missionary...but, it
is quite exciting as well. My past week has been another extremely busy
one, and we are exhausted, but my awesome companion is keeping me going
and we are still hustling and going strong until the very end. Up every
morning working out and going on runs and starting the day right.
Tuesday, we went over to Kissy and joined them for their zone conference
and it was wonderful! I was given the opportunity to give an
instruction on how to begin teaching and I enjoyed it so much and had
such a great time instructing! The conference was sweet, though it was
strange to see Elder McDonald and Nwosu give their farewell
testimonies... and then the Ostlers took us on back, where we rushed out
to our area to go teach our wonderful investigators.
Wednesday,
we had another zone conference in Lumley, and it was another powerful
one. Much smaller but a lot of spirit and I got to give the same
instruction again, which went better that time :) There was no departing
missionary from that zone, so they requested that I prematurely bare
mine, even though mine won't be until next week, but it really was great
to bare my testimony to my wonderful missionaries and friends. I love
bearing my testimony so much and never want to pass up the experience
like I did so very often before I came on mission!
Thursday, teaching!
Friday,
we went and taught a little bit, then we had to rush over to Kissy to
go and join the Thunderhill district for an area blitz...but, President
Ernest Bai Koroma had different plans for us. As we approached the new
roads, lots of traffic. Mr. President decided a publicity stunt to walk
the 5 mile road and greet all the poor people who had built little zinc
houses and pan bodies on the side of the road and smile and hug them and
give them small money and tell them, sorry we are coming to tear your
house down...so, thank you Mr. President, because I fell asleep in a hot
coma in the back of the taxi for over an HOUR! So, its easy to stay
focused when you are busy. Not so easy when you sit in the back of a
hot taxi with a rather large man who is obviously confused about the
difference between "President" and "God" and calling all the people
sinners for building houses there hahaha...well, that went on for 3
hours, we were very late for the blitz, so decided to go finding our own
and found some sweet people to at least turn in at the
evaluation...then back in transport to get home close to 9 at night
haha...oh good times.
Saturday...had
a sweet baptism that we attended, then we went to go and see Mr.
Sheriff...and we had a really emotional/spiritual lesson about the
sabbath day. I don't really know how to explain it, but nevertheless,
my faith was tried, I saw a grown man, ex solider, almost in tears, and I
felt a lot of uncertainty and doubt for the rest of the day. I studied
my scriptures and preach my gospel and even called President Ostler and
searched the words of modern day prophets and I am so grateful for
revelation...I can't show my gratitude enough for that blessing I have
received on mission. I will be honest, before my mission, I didn't
really recognize answer to my prayers. I knew that coming on mission was
the right thing to do, because I had ENOUGH faith to believe the
prophets, but never received a spiritual witness for myself until I
came...but, that's not completely true, because God was answering me all
along, I just didn't recognize how the spirit spoke to me...but, I am
grateful beyond words for the knowledge and testimony and ability to
recognize the spirit that the Lord has so richly blessed me with and it
has changed who I am today and who I will be for the rest of my life. It
took 2 years to develop and I am certainly still developing it and
trying to refine it, but if the Lord had required me to go and serve a
10 year mission to even get where I am today...I would do it, I would do
it in a heartbeat.
Sunday,
Elder Stanford and I decided to fast for our area and Brother Sheriff
and it was one of the best fast Sundays of my life. We were just so
happy and we had so much energy, more than after a pday, more than any
day, and yet we had no food or water, it truly was the spirit that was
running our withered and exhausted bodies as we laughed and joked and
literally ran through some of our areas, talking to everybody and
finding some amazing contacts. The first one we had been trying to get
inside the BOMBA house for so long, and the Lord provided an opening
when we randomly contacted this Muslim pa, and that was obviously going
to fail, but we tried anyways, and then a sa lone mommie started Palava,
but that even led to the next opening, a woman came out of the BOMBA
house and we were able to contact her and she was from Denmark...she
married a man from Denmark and had lived there for years but he died and
her and her kids moved back. Her kids didn't even look black at all,
they were almost WHITE but they spoke pure krio haha, it was the coolest
thing as we sat down with her and her 2 white kids
and were able to have a small discussion with them :) continued to see
miracles throughout the rest of the day as we found and taught prepared
people, found less actives and received referrals from contacts for very
prepared families and wow, it was truly a spiritual high as we RAN back
to the apartment, late for follow up calls, ate real quick to close the
fast and were on the computers until 10:20 hahaha. oh so sweet!
Today,
my last football game and it started POURING during our personal
studies, but I had faith it would stop for my last football game, and it
did and ALL the missionaries in Lumley zone and Freetown zone came, so
we had close to 30 or so and we just had a great time playing and oh
boy...my last concrete football game, it was sad but I enjoyed and
received a hearty salute from my boys as I left for the last time for
seeing some of them. Eddy Bangura of Mt.Aureol ward bought me a custom
jersey with my name on the back, so all the children now saw me wearing
it, so thank goodness it was my last Monday and I didn't ever wear it
before, because now children ALL know my REAL name...I liked it better
when they called me "Eto" ;) hahah we then were joined my Elders Kvist,
Flament, Tucker, Rogers, Maxfield, and Khumoetsile and went to Meds for
the last time for a hamburger and then made our way back to start
emailing...
Have
a very busy week ahead of us, and will be making the 4 hour drive to
Makeni tomorrow for their zone conferenec, then Wednesday we will have
zone conference in Kossoh Town, then Thursday we will have zone
conference here...in Freetown, for the final time. Saturday, my last
baptism for the Sherrif family, Mr sheriff and his 2 children, Mohamed isn't old enough yet, poor little guy ;) Saturday, Elder
Weller comes in, Sunday I will bear my testimony to the members of the Dwarzak ward for the last time, in the chapel that I have been worshiping in for 20 months now, with the people I have been laboring
for and with for the past 2 years...I'm probably going to cry like a
little baby haha, and then that night we will gather all of us departing
missionaries and have our final farewell dinner and testimony meeting.
Monday, we will take the missionaries shopping, or rather I guess the
APs will take me shopping and then we leave to go to the airport for
our 5:00 flight...oh boy, it is coming too quickly..
Wow,
2 years has truly flown by and it has certainly been the hardest 2
years of my life, but without a doubt it has been the best. I love
Sierra Leone, I love the people, I love the culture, I love the food, I
love the weather, I love the church here, I love the opportunity I have
had to come here and serve and I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father
for allowing me to come and serve in the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission...I was privileged to serve a lot of missionaries and members
and people, and blessed to witness the creation of the 3,000 stake by
Elder Holland. I have seen miracles, I have been an instrument in the
hand of the Lord in performing miracles, I have gained and built a
testimony that has changed the fibers of my being and changed everything
from my spirit to my countenance. I left Virginia in 2012 as a little
boy, and have grown into...a bigger boy, still trying to become a man,
but I know that I have become the man that my Heavenly Father wanted to
make me. I have gone through wonderful physical trials, terrible
emotional trials, spiritual stretches, doubts, answers, and
confirmations that have converted me beyond my ability to express...I am
a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I
tried my hardest and though it wasn't easy...not at all, I know I have done everything I could, and that make me honestly shed tears, always
looking at from day to day how tired I was, and how I doubted I could
ever go another week at the same pace...watching time and the world pass
by and feeling like I could never catch up, the Lord has blessed me
immensely and I have come to know Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the
Holy Ghost more and more. I still have so much to learn, study, and
apply, but I am grateful for the person that the Lord has changed me
into. I am not the same boy, I don't think the same, I don't talk the
same (mostly because now I am an uneducated bush bobo), I don't feel the
same, I don't look the same (surely Africa has made me a lot more wo wo)
and I am grateful for that. I know that my Redeemer lives and what
comfort that gives me to know that this isn't a waste, it never is and
never was and never will be. There is a greater plan and we are all a
part of it, and we have so much potential that we don't ever fully
comprehend and probably never will and I know...I know that our Heavenly
father loves us, we really are his children and I know that he hears
and answers us. Even though sometimes we might feel alone and want to
cry out, Father where art thou? he is there...He is listening, and he is
trying to make us grow. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, it
changed my life, started my repentance, and gave me a testimony and
witness of the atonement of Jesus Christ. I can sing the song of
redeeming love and it makes me so happy. I am tired, exhausted, beaten
and torn up and looking uglier then ever, but I am the happiest I have
ever been in my entire life. My testimony is so long and so broad now,
but in the end it all just comes down to one thing for me... Families
can be together forever, through Heavenly Father's plan, I always want
to be with my own family, and the Lord has shown me how I can...and I
showed them how they can...I love you all and can't wait to see your
wonderful faces...thank you for all writing me, thank you for your
encouraging words and testimonies and just the fact that you were
thinking of me...your prayers changed my life and probably saved my life
and I love you and thank you all! I will see you all soon enough :)
Till we meet!
Love,
Elder Jesse Sumrak
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