Elder Sumrak's Poetry

Serving in Africa 

We come to teach what we know is true 

Preaching up and down mountains is what we do 

Forget about life and everything you knew 

For two years its just the Gospel and you 

Trials and afflictions is what to expect 

Study and pray and let the Spirit direct 

The clock clicks by faster than you think 

Back home it's a life time, 

Out here it's a blink 

Letters come and letters go 

How much they mean they'll never know 

Take my doxy and sanitize my hands 

Serving in African that distant land

Sumrak Clan   

Father’s father had a son
I named him papa
And it was done
Auntie’s sister married dad
I called her Mom
The best I had
Mum and papa had a son
That’s my brother
He is the one
Brother had a little brother
No not me
It is another
Little bro had an older bro
Now that is me
Wouldn’t you know
Now we have an older sister
But big bro does not
Because he kissed her
Grandma had a grandbaby
You best believe
Don’t look at me!
Wasn’t little bro or I
Left one guess
I’ll let you try
Now these branches are grafted in
With a Mormon promise
We just done begin
This is the mighty Sumrak Clan
Alone we fall
United we stand 

Big Transfers Ahead

 Hello Family! I am on a little bit early today.  Its that part of the transfer again, and now have just begun my 15th transfer...so, that is crazy to think about, but its all going well. Transfer movements are in the process and missionaries are flowing all over the country, and miracles are happening to allow them all to go smoothly, so the Lord is hastening his work...and our drivers :) but, all is well. Had a surprise last week...2 more missionaries are joining our group, but won't arrive until this weekend, so right now we have 18 coming in tomorrow, 9 elders and 9 sisters, and then 2 more on the weekend from the USA, so we are having a great time trying to get all that sorted out, but small small. Schedule for the week:  Tuesday - pick up missionaries, Wednesday - orientation - Thursday - dish out the missionaries/farewell dinner for departing 5 missionaries Friday - Dish out the elders who have finished their missions Saturday - hopefully teach teach teach! Next week: Zone Conferences ALL WEEK....Needless to say, lots of work and its great and sweet, but boy am I missing teaching and what not..small small, ministering in all sorts of different ways :) 

The past week was nice and crazy, receiving the transfers news, preparing the movements, revising the sheets, preparing newsletters, and whatever other mess that we get ourselves hooked up in...oh, but its wonderful :) I love getting to be with President and discuss and be a part of this great work on a broader sphere, it truly is a privilige! 

Not too much went down this week though... Elder Penia left us this morning :( so, we are all going to miss him, and especially his cooking in our apartment...and my haircuts haha. Saturday, we went up to Hill Station and got to witness their massive baptism, with an Elder who is going home this week ending his mission with a bang and had 14 baptisms for his area haha, it was pretty sweet, and I can imagine he might have got tired in that font, but he made zero errors, no repeats, because he is a boss :) of course. 

Concern of the week brought up by investigators...1 Corthians 15...women covering their heads...well my friends, women do not need to cover their heads, "Excuse me, is that biblical?" After my companion tried to explain to them the scripture, I felt inspired to read more of the chapter and came across I believe V.15...women have hair, which covers their head :)...to which all of our investigators were greatly content with that answer and many strangely said that was a testimony to them, since nobody had ever been able to explain that scripture to them before...um...broski, just read the rest of the chapter and ...well, that is my little sphele, excuse me :) 

Not to much to say though, I love you all and everything is going well out here, I studied a sweet story in the Old Testament yesterday morning, about how King Zedekiah did not believe in the words of the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah because their prophesies seemed seemingly contradictory, but almost impossibly came true, to the downfall of him and his family. Just sweet to see even the craziest of prophecies come true :) I love the scriptures so much, and they bring me so much peace in even the greatest times of turmoil. The Savior is so generous and sweet to us and continues to feed our starving spirits with modern day prophets and revelation, and I am glad that my feast will never end, though sometimes I just want to try everything on the table, just got to be patient haha...well, off to work on more and more projects. life is good though, love you all, enjoy the week! 

Love,- 
Jesse 
Elder Sumrak

Love to Teach!

This past week was amazing! We got to go out and teach teach teach and find find find and testify and I just felt the spirit so much and it just made me so happy and I felt like a normal missionary again, and it felt so good, but I am diligently doing my calling as well and I know that this is what the Lord has called me to do and will fulfill my calling, and enjoy the proselyting when opportunity permits...but, boy did it permit this week! 

And yes...preparation for new missionaries has officially begun and we will start the chaos big time on Wednesday when we receive the transfer news, so that is when the real excitement and Ibuprofen popping begins! woot woot! can't wait :) seriously, it is so stressful, but it is almost fun sometimes haha I love being a part of it and getting to help out, so I am not complaining at all to be honest. 

I think we have 18 missionaries coming this time around, next Tuesday, and 9 of them are sisters, which actually makes my work a lot easier haha, but still with this many missionaries it is always exciting for transfer time, new areas and swaps and apartments and the like and oh it's so cool to watch the Lord hastening His work...I am witnessing it and being a part of it everyday. 

I haven't met the couples yet, but I did see the new ones today in a passing truck and got to wave to them...they looked a little bit overwhelmed...welcome to SA LONE!:) 

hahah that made me laugh so hard about father thiefing my soccer shoes :)  I can understand him being a little jealous...tell him to get the same and we can match! 

So, Tuesday this week we had our mission leadership council with President and all the zone leaders and that was super sweet! we talked about treating people as agents and not objects, and then discussed and worked on resolving many mission concerns, but it was really pleasant and is helping me. Something I have been focusing on now is principles that govern my actions. I am obedient, but what principles inspire my obedience? Is it obedience for obedience sake? Or obedience bcause I love the Lord and his children? 

Wednesday...a FULL day of proselyting and boy was it sweet, ah we got to teach so many great lessons and it was such a great day of feeling the spirit and teaching the Lord's children, oh boy I loved it so much :) what a sweet relief and break ah, it truly was a great refresher. Thursday we were mostly busy in the office :/ but Friday and Saturday we got to get out more and teach teach teach and ah, I am so happy we had such a great week 5, beause week 6 last transfer we had 3 lessons...I hope we can manage more than that this time, but transfer time is crazy ahhaha! 

Today was pretty sweet, as we cleaned the apartment after a good morning gym session, and then we all made our way over to the National Stadium, where they have basketball, tennis courts, pools and everything. So, we went to go play basketball, but you know me, I packed a futbol, so I got a bunch of Sa Lone boys coming off school and some Return missionaries and we played some sweet futbol, even though the bobos were bugging the heck out of me haha, they just can't seem to comprehend a white man playing futbol and speaking their language...(it's a part of town where missionaries don't proseltye) so I guess that's why haha...well, then we went to Freetown Mall and I spent boku money on some supplies and sweet food for my cooking adventures. I had run out of razors, and these Sa Lone ones are tearing my face apart haha, but small small, my skin has gotten tougher now, so what doesn't kill you makes you (no not stronger) stranger...yeah that one :) 

Well, on our way home, got a pleasant call while we in the taxi...2 of our missionaires were detained at the US Embaassy for taking pictures of the embassy...so we rushed home, didn't even shower, threw on our shirt and ties and rushed up the mountain with their passports and got them released...not going to say any names...but my my my :) still love them, but now enjoying some sweet email and life is pretty good right now....so no complaints with me...busy busy, I love you all boku, hope you have a great week! 

Love, 
Jesse 
Elder Sumrak

I Love Forgiveness

Wow, that is so much crazy snow back home, I can't believe that you guys have had that much! That is insane, and I know you guys are probably all tired of it by now, but I hope that you are careful and that nobody gets hurt. 

Oh, this week was so crazy and busy, but we really enjoyed and worked hard and felt the spirit continously through our busy schedule but sweet lessons and baptisms.  

Tuesday, Elder Nwosu and I left early in the morning with Elder Penia with us as well, our favorite Samoan, who is now our permanent companion until the end of the transfer, and we all went over to Goderich district to attend Elder Evan's district meeting. The meeting went great and he did a great job instructing on humility and planning and we are benefited from it! Then, we all piled in vans and taxis with the Elders and sisters and made our way to the closest Rokel bank, where we met up with about 15 other missionaries to wait in the long queue to obtain our funds. It was great seeing all of our fellow missionaires, and even greater having our much needed restoration! After, we went down the street to a NICE restaurant, Tessa's, to enjoy our subsistence and we all enjoyed a very nice environment and even better food. My companion and Elder Weller and Lokpo enjoyed giant pizzas and most got hamburgers, and I enjoyed a grilled chicken panini, whew it reminded me of Panera bread to be honest :) after that fun experience, we hurried home and got to go out and see some of our wonderful investigators. We have one, his name is B. and we had such a powerful lesson with him this week and I really enjoyed it, because he is a big intelligent man (my favorite to teach) and by the end of the lesson he was wanting to compete with Joseph Smith haha, "well, of course I'll pray...how long did Joseph Smith pray before he got an answer" US: "well, you don't have to pray all day and all night, Joseph Smith had a desire and a question and he knelt down and prayed and received his answer." "But, how long did it take?" US: "Minutes" "I'll pray...and if Joseph Smith can get an answer in minutes, then I know I  can get one in seconds!" US:...YEAH, thats the spirit!" hahaha...oh I love Sierra Leone :) 

On Wednesday, we had a super fun day. The Kanzlers showed up around 8:30 to take us on the trip to Makeni to give our wonderful Sister Trainer Leader there from Uganda some advice and training. It's such a new calling and its no wonder they are lost sometimes, because there is no preach my gospel or white handbook instruction on the calling yet, so we have to manage and go help our wonderful sisters out. It was ALSO sister Kanzlers birthday! so, she packed way too many snacks for us and we enjoyed too much junk food all the way there on the 4 hour drive. We arrived in Makeni and were able to help the sisters out by fixing some of their apartment issues and fixing them up some new fans and the like. We were able to give our sister some training and it went super well, then we jumped in the car for a LONG LONG drive home. It was pleasant though, as Elder Kanzler is a former bishop, I had a great time talking to him and learning all I could from his experiences and expertise while the others slept most of the time haha. Of course, we hit our village markets and was able to talk down the prices on all their fruits and walk away with some pineapples, watermelons, grapefruit, and cucumbers...SUCCESS! Traffic in Freetown was horrendous, and it tooks hours to get through town,  Didn't get home till about 9:45 or so, just time enough to close and prepare for bed. 

Thursday was a busy day in the office, but we managed to get out in the evening time.we went out teaching and had a pretty bouncy day unfortunately, so I tried to contact as many people as possible and actually saw some success in that one of whom we contacted without any further communication actually attended sacrament meeting on Sunday :) it's just all about finding those who are prepared honestly, even if it seems unlikely haha! 

Saturday was a bit crazy...We had our baptism early in the morning for our wonderful convert, H., and everything went smoothly and nicely for the baptism. She is such a sweet young sister, who has attended church ever since her first invitation and every single activity as well, so she is diligent and reaching out to many of her friends as well and already was fellowshipping investigators on Sunday, and even was given assignments in our coordination meeting, so we are going to work hard to build her a strong foundation and make her roots strong in the gospel :) 

Saturday the Spirit comforted our hearts and allowed us to go and teach some of Heavenly Father's children, which really cheered us up and helped us to finish the day strong...Craziness in the mission right now, but its all exciting and keeps us on our toes. Finished up the evening with getting a haircut from my favorite Samoan man, Elder Penia, and he gave me a nice fresh barb and I'm feeling good and light again :) love that guy so much and we love having him here with us in the apartment. 

Sunday was good, even though NOBODY we planned to come to church came, but it was pleasant in the fact that those we DIDN'T plan for did come haha :) it was fast Sunday and it was funny because I started the day with NO strength at all, and ended the day going so strong haha, it was funny, inside church I was drained, but when we went to go teach a lesson, I received so much strength and was just bouncing up the hills...but, who knows, I taught Elder Rogers, my pikin, that that is the time of the day when you reach "NIRVANA" when you no longer feel anything and you're not actually hungry anymore, so everything is sweet :) finished our fast with a sweet binge + rice dinner at our beloved Bishops house. SWEET STUFF! 

Monday, today, got up early and did crunches and curls and what not, then had some sweet studies in Isaiah and also 1 Nephi 7-8. We then got all suited up to go and play some sweet football and I had a great time today, just dancing away and scoring and gosh its so funny here. Had a bunch of Jamba boys come and sit down and watch us for 2 hours hahaha...oh and then a giant Truck passed by with 30+ africans in the bed, all screaming my name "ETO!!!!!!" on the back of my shirt...oh, I love this place so much haha...speaking of football though...Manchester United...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! 

But, we got a sweet lesson planned today with a family man on the top of the hills, so we are excited to go and see him this evening :) This week is going to be pretty busy though, and next week is the beginning of the CRAZY week, when we receive transfer news on Wednesday, and then work tirelessly until Wednesday the next week when we dish out all the new missionaries and what not...but, 3rd times a charm, maybe I'll get used to it ;) 

Oh, by the way, can anyone tell me if keeping my journal on Dropbox would be a good idea one day? We have it installed now on the computers, and I was wondering how I would keep a journal for the rest of my life...because my hand writing is wretched haha, what do you think? 

Father, you asked about how the bishop inspired me...Well, our bishop is a mortal man, a great man with a great testimony and a return missionary with a temple sealing... we love him and his sacrifice he makes for this work. But, while he was preaching at the missionaries one day in coordination, he talked about how he was so very disappointed in  the return missionaries who come home and wait to come to church to even talk to their bishop...he said that shows they don't want to work, they are ready to come home and blow...so, I was inspired to go ahead and write bishop an e-mail this week :) haha 

Miracle of Forgivness I see each and everyday...and as I apply it in my own life It makes me so happy to know that my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is able to do the same for me and even more perfectly. I have been blessed with a forgiving characteristic, which often has come to bite me time and time again in the past, but I would never wish it any other way. I would rather forgive and forget and be punished for it rather then not forgive at all. I truly have a testimony that if we can forgive AND forget, that the Lord will do the same for us. True forgiveness is really forgetting, being able to look at someone who wrong you and just be like, I love you, its okay. Repentance is the same way for ourselves, as we are forgiven, the pain goes away, and we can remember what happened, but the pain is gone...my I sure do love the atonement...I love you all, have a spendid week! 


Love, 
Jesse Elder Sumrak 

New Missionary Couple

The Jests (new missionary couple) arrived this week and they are great! Both have strong British accents but are humble and sweet and ready to work..but don't watch Football :( disappointing, I know, I was so excited to have a buddy to talk football with, but nope. He is gigantic, like 6' 3-4" something, even bigger than my Nigerian companion and she is incredibly short, around 5 feet, I imagine, or smaller. but they are great and taking action. The office missionaries will stay with us, as they are assigned to our ward, but we may look for other accommodations for them, but for now they are with us.   

We did have baptisms! A pregnant young lady, who is very shy, and O, 12. They are the adopted children of P. and his giant recent convert family, so we are trying hard to manage them and keep them all coming and fellowshipped though we are working hard to get leaders into the ward so we can split it by May...lets see how that goes. We do have 1 more this Saturday as well, so I'm glad we finally got this area going after they washed it clean the week before I arrived haha, but small small we are trying our best :) 

Last Tuesday we went early over to Waterloo zone about an hour away and got to join and give instruction in their zone meeting, which was a lot of fun, especially since I got to see my pikin, Elder Rogers, and even Elder Flament, so I really enjoyed that! It was my first time giving instruction to a zone, but  the Spirit was certainly there and I really enjoyed it and strangely wasn't too nervous,  so I really enjoyed it. We are going to Goderich District meeting tomorrow to observe and then the 4 hour drive to Makeni Wednesday to instruct our sweet beloved sisters.

We had an old missionary return back to us this week from Nigeria. He came back and it was just funny how I observed him now! It's funny...I wrote in my journal about it, about wow, this is such a sweet dedicated member of the church and I'm really proud of him and all his work, funny how I didn't see him the same when he was a missionary...we just have different standards here and ways of living. It just made me laugh that as missionaries we are SO hard on ourselves, it is crazy. We do have a higher standard here, and i was joking with Elder Weller the other day, it's like man...I feel bad today, I woke up at 6:32...or man, I didn't get to studies until 8:05...or ah gosh, I forgot to shave today! and we feel like these wicked terrible people who aren't even worthy to take the sacrament haha...mother, your sentence to me wrapped it up last week, what do mormons do best? feel guilty. I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I'm so happy I don't have to be perfect...I just have to try my very best and when I fall down, or miss my alarm, or forget to shave, I can repent and do better tomorrow...but, I can be slightly prideful and say I haven't forgotten to shave and I am usually up at 5:45...yeah, I'm a boss. 

We had a great time finding some new individuals and praying hard to find people and receiving revelation on where to find them, and it's so miraculous to go out and try your hardest every day and see no success...none...wasted time...and kneel down and say a prayer and do it the next day and see success...see investigators, see people wanting to come unto Christ. I love it so much. I was contemplating the other day about baptism and was thinking " why do we need someone to do baptism for us" faith is personal, repentance is personal, enduring to the end is personal, what is with these not personal ordinances? Well, you can't be saved on your own. You can't do it on your own. You can't baptize yourself. you can't come up out of the water by yourself...You need Christ, and it doesn't matter how good you are. I love that so much, we always need Him and he is always there. Always...its a true principle I have seen in everything, call me silly but I pray before I play football,and when I do, I play well (not win, but personally play well) when I don't I don't. Not going to go too deep into it, but if I want to go play, its me going to go play, when I pray to be safe and play and well and have fun, I join the Team and God is on my side :) 

Thursday we got to orientate a young woman from Bo and send her out on her mission to Nigeria, which was fun to just go through the white handbook and answer some of her questions and just see how pumped she was to go on mission. Also had some guys return from mission this week to our ward, so we are trying hard to get them pumped up to go out and work with us and give us some referrals and help keep them converted and going strong! 

We had a office coordination meeting with all the couples and president and his wife and we got some things decided and our vision established and its awesome. We are working hard to build real growth in the members and also in our missionaries and I love minstering to missionaries and investigators alike, and I love the relationships I have been able to establish on mission, yes with my converts, but even through my missionaries. Honestly, sometimes I feel like I am helping them endure to the end as much as converts (and they honestly do the same for me as well, I love them all). 

Today we went over to Goderich to attend their super p day they invited us to, so we got to go to the beach and play football on the beach, then went for a run on the beach and then we went back to a members house after walking about 2-3 miles and then enjoyed TONS of rice, chicken, and salad and watched Madagascar 2 haha. I talked to Elder Evans most of the time about working out and gyming and what not and we had a great time, I really love that missionary. He is from Hawaii and then I forget where, but he is a big Polynesian guy who is just a ton of fun. Hope I can chill with him after mission! 

Besides that, everything really is going sweet right now. we have some great investigators and some sweet people we are teaching. Taught one educated man this week and we stumped him pretty good, and I'm excited to go back and see what's been on his mind, but we were running short on time and had to run back and do follow ups. He asked about the Book of Mormon and asked, well why is your church different and why do you use the Book of Mormon, which makes you different while all the other churches only use the bible?....to my response ----why are all the other churches different if they're all using the same bible...naturally we would be different and have a good excuse if we are using the Book of Mormon as well :) hahaha I really love teaching people who ask good questions though , honestly, I love difficult people much more than accepting people. I don't like, yes, whatever you say must be true you're a man of God! I want to hear, WHY! HOW! WHO said! or, how can I know what your saying is true! to which I can respond pray pray pray! instead of, "will you pray to know if this is true"....why do I need to pray I already believe everything you are telling me? To my respoonse --- STOP believing me and ask God, PLEASE! haha Oh, Sa Lone mission...I love you! everyone have an amazing week, I love you all so much :) 

Love, 
Jesse 
Elder Sumrak 
TheOatmealMan! 

FOUND PACKAGED OATMEAL BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOO got me banana/peaches/and strawberries and cream, kinda expensive but oh I am going to enjoy!:) 

Cobra Part 2

Ah! So so jealous to hear that you got tickets to go out to Utah momma, but I hope you guys have a fun and safe journey. Shout out to my little brother Nick, love you little guy, if you are even still alive!...but, like I said...still love you :) 
Wow momma, you sure did have a dramatic week, but I hope the next couple of ones are more relaxing for you as the new semester begins. Your end of semester sounds like my end of transfers haha, we sure do have good times don't we huh?:)  Congratulations on the 25  mile run Dad, that milestone is no small feat, I am awfully competitive and I'm going to have to try to come home and compete with you this summer haha, you got the edge on me! 

So...this week, I did crash actually, I was full of energy until like Thursday morning when I woke up and my whole entire body hurt for some reason, just everywhere, not in a muscle way either, but it even hurt to swallow, my toes hurt and everything, but fortuantely that was an office day so I got to rest up before going out proselyting in the evening and during the day Friday, so I was able to overcome that and back on a high today with tons of energy. We had super P-Day today and we got to go play football and it was a good time, until somebody popped the ball, so Elder Gherkins and I ran, yeah ran pretty fast, over a mile to the only open store that sells a ball, bought a ball and came back haha, I still had so much energy again that I went and did pull ups and push ups while my companionn bathed and then we watched Kung Fu Panda 2...and yeah...that was my day today, super p day fun stuff :) 

As for the real story...the COBRA! Well, we put the whole compound and all security and personnel on high alert, and heard mutliple stories this week of people encountering the snake -under the cars and in the bushes, but after we had not seen it, we kinda gave up the notion of it and just relaxed...almost was the cause of a short ended mission.... 

Thursday night Elder Nwsou was making some jokes about the snake and things and we were having a good laugh and my body was still hurting me so I got ahead and was in bed early just resting and we said our prayes and everything and I was asleep when apparently Elder Magrangqa remembered the front door was still open and asked Elder Tucker to go close it, so Elder Tucker, already getting into bed went out to go close the door and just started screaming, and we are all just like...man shut up and go to sleep sorta deal, and he is screaming I'm serious, "He's here He's here!" so, I lazily climb out of bed and put my glasses on and oh my gosh there he is slithering around at the bottom of the steps and then...you wouldn't guess. he starts climbing the stairs toward us...what!? is this some horror film! we all started yelling and man it turned back and went off and disappeared into the bushes...needless to say, Friday morning I did not get up to workout outside...no way about that. gosh... 

well...I thought the story had ended there...but, while emailing about 30 minutes ago...we heard commotion outside, and then yes...yes! Confirmed! KILL CONFIRMED! the construction workers had found and battled the snake and WON! so we all went out and danced around like silly white men and took tons of pictures and what not while the africans were all freaked out like it was juju to play with it, and then we lit that sucker on fire and we won!....we won! the snake is dead and we are free! oh, so much peace in my heart. every morning it was so hard to work out knowing that thing was lurking around, but now I have true peace :) 

Well, my testimony of simple service continued as that young girl I contacted last week continued to progress. She was just walking down the street toting her water and I helped her with it and she came to church, made lots of friends, came to our missionary fireside, came to church again, and now has a baptismal date for February...the gospel is so sweet, its so simple, its just love. Love brings miracles, and I come to love mission and the people and members more and more everyday... 

We did have a missionary fireside on Saturday which wasn't too bad, we had over 30 people there, and Elder Nwosu and I did a lot of the instruction, with also some videos as well, and it was really nice and we even had 5 investigators attend! we will be finishing baptizing a family this Saturday, which is very exciting as O. and A. are preparing to be baptized, since the rest of their family baptized inside November. It is finally time for them to be joining them, so we are very excited for that :) tons of expansion in the mission and working on branch and ward splits on the computer and the like and its very exciting here to see the progression of this small country, scary to think I am going to start to have to prepare for a new batch of missionaries in 3 weeks...my oh my I am going to need a whole new box of ibuprofen for that one...Ayayaya!:) 

But, as for my studies today, I gained a valuable lesson on Retention OVER Reactivation as I studied the words of Alma and Moroni on the matter. I am not actually sure of all the scripture quotes but, Alma 59:9 talks about how it was easier to maintain "converts" than to retake them from the "devil" and we learn the same lesson in Proverbs 18:19 (hope those are right) about retaining our converts. Alma 24 something also talks about how dangerous and terrible it is when someone who has come to the greater knowledge falls away and are worse off then they orignally were before you baptized them, which creates such an essential focus on conversion and not baptism. We are practically damning people if we are to baptize them, to have them make covenants with God, when they are not fully prepared and we do not nourish them afterwards, it is dangerous for them, as 2 Nephi 31:14 talks, we can't do that to this wonderful children of God. We need to nourish them, to the point where they can stand as the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's...and be able to stand for the cause of Christ even if it means their lives...that's my little 2 piece for the week... 

Wish I had 2 pieces of pie for reals right now though... 

But, I think that is all for the week, I love you all incredibly much and miss and pray for you continually, thank you for your prayers...I know they work for they are constantly blessing me everyday. 

Love, 
Jesse 
Elder Sumrak 

Cobra!

Hello ALL! I actually did get to catch up on my sleep small, as we had planned to go and teach that lesson, and it was only 5 PM, so I layed down to nap real quick as my companion did...and we both woke up when the other elders came up from the office at 7...so that plan failed haha, but we got to teach ALL day Friday, Saturday, so we got to find so many new people and teach a lot of lessons so we are really enjoying now. I am trying to go to sleep by like 10 now just to save some minutes and its really giving me more strength for the day :) So I am feeling a lot better now!  

And as for workouts...After that brutal one, of course we had to go back Saturday morning and we hit it hard, and just were going quick quick from workout to workout and Elder Magrangqa was like, uh guys I don't feel so hot, I need to use the bathroom...and went with his companion in a hurry back to the compound. Came to find out after our workout, the security guard told us something was wrong with the south african guy...he passed out like dead cold, twice on his way up to the apartment, so we found him just laying there in the parlor like a dead man and managed to get some food and water into him and he has been just fine but hahah...oh silly Elder M...guy gave us a scare though, but no more working out for him hahaha. 

Well...honestly, all that is haunting my mind right now is the experience we had this morning, which still is giving me the shivers. Elder Nwosu and I woke up early and went on our first jog together and went for a good 3-4 miler which was nice and woke us up good, then the whole apartment got to work cleaning up the apartment from the new missionary castastrophe, boy we can never KEEP the place clean for a week haha, but we got it all sparkling and looking good and then I got started on my personal studies when...Elder Tucker came in looking quite scared and told us he went out to the water tanks, and there was a big black snake inside the cage where the water switch is (to pump the bottom tanks to the top tanks/ essential to filling 3 of our 5 tanks. SO we are macho men of course and strong soldiers you know, stripling warriors, so we grabbed some sticks and I had my broom and we had our stones and we marched down to where he said the snake lay, well it's inside this little stone box, inside the gate to the water tanks...so Elder Tucker climbs on top and we all stand outside the gate and are trying to figure out what to do. It just loooks like a normal ol black snake, no big deal, see em all the time, even had one under the car  at one point, even had one in our house in Virginia one time, no big deal right? or so we thought... 

Elder Tucker began by spraying it with some bug spray while we sprayed it from the front...not much happening...so I gave Elder Tucker some matches and he tried doing it flamethrower style...no visible success or stirring...well, Elder Nwosu became impatient and grabbed a long 3 yard stick and stuck it through the gate and into the small cage and then jabbed at it...missed...and jabbed again. and struck hard...oh boy, did we make a mistake. THAT THING FLARED UP, fanning out and just spread out like a BEAST! and then didn't even come out the front, but ran out the side of the cage, where Elder Tucker was on top. Well, Elder Magrangqa, Nwsou and I all dropped our weapons and ran like for the apartment, while poor Elder Tucker is stuck on the cage and the thing starts hissing and holy my its like 3-5 feet long and forces Elder Tucker to retreat on top of the water tank while it is shooting at him, like lightning quick strikes trying to rip that poor Elder to shreds while we are all screaming and have no idea and are panicking out of our minds and it just keeps trying to climb the tank to essentially kill him, but fortunately the tank was too slippery and it couldn't get a grip, so we are throwing stones at it and its gets tired of him and darts at us, and man this thing is coming faster than we can run! and disappears into the bushes in front of us...and doesn't come out...and as of this moment we still have not seen it again, but it took Elder Tucker about 15 minutes to come down and run for the front gate and make his way around for the front door of our apartment, but my oh my that thing was shooting venom! It was a black Cobra, no doubt about it, and not some play play snake, and we are still paranoid about that thing 7 hours later...ah...but before we had entered the gate on our initial attack..I had stopped and said a prayer that if this was something serious that we would all be okay, so I know Heavenly Father was looking out for us...the only problem now is, its not "playing with a snake", its we HAVE to fill these tanks of water up, and there is a snake guarding it haha, so unfortuanately we still have to make frequent trips out there, so we just got as a group to watch out for each other...but small small, we will live :) 

Then, got to go out and play sweet sweet football and I had a great time. Have so much energy today, I was just bouncing around the field and ah, the ball just felt like my buddy today and was like glue to my feet, so it was nice experience and even after 2 hours of it I was just so pumped that I went home and just did pushups and pullups and handstands and now I'm still energized, which is surprising...guess I'll crash soon hahaha. but nice p-day, so excited to go out teaching again this week and we certaainly had many miracles even through our 2 days of proselyting. funny how our efforts turned out. We didn't teach for like 2 weeks really and had 1 investigator at sacrament meeting....then we get to go out for 2 full days and have 6 at sacrament meeting, so I know the Lord is mindful of us and doubling our small efforts to make a big difference!:) The gospel is so sweet and I just have such a great testimony of our Lord and Savior and all that he has done for us.... 

Something that has been bothering me about the people we teach, and definitely is building my patience and tolerance and love, is that they just don't understand apostasy or restoration. They know it, they learn it, and they will tell you its true, and can quote it back to you, but still think they can go to their own church and everything is fine, which just makes me sad. During one lesson with a woman in which we taught the whole restoration, spirit was there, lesson was sweet, accepted a baptismal invitation, and then told us she couldn't come to church Sunday because she had an activity at her church...what? let me get this straight? okay its straight! So, with righteous indignation (as my Professor at BYU loved to talk about in defending all of the Greek heroes of mythology) I was able to tell her how it was, and it was actually a pleasant experience. I have spent a lot of my mission promising blessings, which is beautiful and nice,but I have noticed in the scriptures that is not all the prophets do, they promise blessings, and also promise the consequences of not obeying, which is kinda promising condemnation, or helping understand the steps to it at least, but I know that if we follow the spirit and do it the Lord's way then the work will be done the right way :) PMG (Preach My Gospel) all the way. 

Something I am working on personally at the moment is my thoughts. I don't have immoral or non-virtuous thoughts or anything like that, but just was reading a book "As a Man Thinketh" in the apartment, last night, and it really hit me. I want to become the master of my thoughts and thus control everything else that happens. Is it the time to be thinking that? Does thinking about that aid me in anyway? Why does it matter? why should it take my time? what does it mean to my progression in anyway. Is it worth thinking about? is it worth worrying about? It's been a sweet experience just today alone trying to master it and always think, okay well why am I thinking about that. How important is that? and its just sweet, don't know how to explain it, yeah I'im ranting, what's new, carrying on. 

and what the weather craziness is going on back home, really? it honestly sounds like the Day After Tomorrow or something is going on back home, even the Lauritzens did not have an easy time getting home...took em a couple days :/ we sure do miss them.... 

Have another great week ahead of us and really excited for the work. Have many progressing investigators and even if we didn't I just feel great! Just going out and testifying and doing my best. as I just focus on doing my best, my peace and serenity really increase. I can't control people's agency, I can only go out and do my very best, if they accept, great and I'm very happy. If they don't, I'm working on that part about still being happy :) I just want it to develop kind of into my football mentality. When I play a game, I don't care about the outcome, just that I did my best. If we lose, no problem, as long as I did my best I'll celebrate more than if we win 7-0 and I play terrible. I don't know if thats the right attitude to have...hahaha but, its worth a shot :) I love you all so very much and I have talked far too much, just want to leave my testimony that we all have angels watching over us, and sadly, we have more and more everyday going to the spirit world, but we have more family enter everyday as well, so as our present hosts continue to bless us, and our spirt world friends watch over us, our friendships and relationships only increase to bless our lives as we continue on...something like that right?! :) love you all 


Love, 
Jesse 
Elder Sumrak