So, this past week has been crazy once again and busy out of my mind, but my companion is learning super quickly and it just seems like he has been an Assistant forever now haha, he is a quick learner and never a Junior companion, he is most certainly my equal and helps out so much! Love Elder Stanford, guy is a boss and we get along so well. He doesn't get up every morning to work out with me, but I get up everyday at 5:40 now and do about 1000+ crunches, 200 or so pushups and then some other ab workouts, and then we went to the gym once last week and my bench hasn't dropped so that is good, and we also went on a run on Saturday and I did well with that too, so I am staying in shape and doing well. We sure do love the protein shakes, and mix our powders together for some pretty tasty shakes haha, so we are enjoying that! Also enjoying today, our cheat day (got him on my diet as well ;) ) and we had like 8 pieces of french toast each this morning, ah life is good!
And Mrs. Casey is most certainly invited to watch Ender's Game with me when I get home and you can tell her thank you so much! I would love if she bought that movie for me. haha, and I can't wait to watch it and read it again and everything, with whatever stinking free time I find, seems like my life back home is going to be as busy as my mission haha, but to be honest, how my schedule looks right now that honestly isn't even possible.
Well...the ebola craze has died down with the missionaries and hilariously is sparking up with the people. NOW they are aware and are all taking precautions, while we just lowered all of ours today and are shaking hands again and eating Free meals and the like, so thats just the way things work with the news here in Sa Lone :)
Well...on to my week! Last Tuesday we had our monthly coordination meeting which was super sweet! Had all the sisters and zone leaders from Freetown for a great meeting and we were able to discuss some sweet topics, even a possibility of having something like sister zone leaders, but nothing for sure yet, but it was a great meeting, and afterwards we took care of some office work, then began what we knew unfortunately would be but shouldn't be an adventure. We left too late, and we knew it, as we walked out the door to the quickly setting sun at 6:30 with our back packs on our backs and 2 mosquitoe nets in a package and our swords (scriptures) held securely in our palms...We were on the way to Wellington to join the Thunderhill apartment for an exchange with the Kissy zone leaders, yeah thats a sentence for ya. As we tried and tried for transport to one of our many destinations, we failed and had to get transport another way and walk a short distance to the next pick up point. So we got taxi, walked about 15 minutes to the poda loading place, and no podas...so we began walking down the super busy/dirty/filthy/ toxic waste dust filled streets towards our destination, praying poda would pass. Many did, all were full, and now the sun was set, so on we walked past millions of people through the dark party streets of the busy part of Sierra Leone, not having any luck with transport, almost completely lost, but we pressed on, walking through neighbourhoods that I might have just curled up and cried had I found myself there without a name tag...but, we felt inspired to jump off that road and head down a sketchy alleyway through pitch black narrow streets and eventually passed through the compound of a giant mosque full of muslims, but we continued until we found the main road and prayers were answered as we found a half full taxi with a taxi man willing to break the law and overload us all in there :) SUCCESS! we then took the taxi about 20 minutes down the road and he let us off too early...so walked another 10 minutes until we met the zone leaders on the street. we were filthy and tired but not depressed and entered into a house of young wonderful missionaries, Elder Rogers (my pikin!), Elder Hamilton, Elder Mphaka, Elder Orchard, and zone leaders Ahrinful and Arikpo. We had a great time and it was so sweet to catch up with my boy Elder Rogers!
Well, Wednesday we had the sweet exchange and had such a great time with the elders. I went with Arikpo up into the Thunderhill areas with the intention of training on finding and teaching families and it went super successful and we were able to find a couple and have some sweet lessons with people! Ended the day early so that we could get home on time, and that still didn't really work as it took us close to 2 hours to get home... might I add that the distance without traffic and the hecticness of Freetown really should be about a 5-10 minute drive haha, very disappointing, poor people here :( its not easy! as they would like to say.
Thursday, up early and back to the streets to hunt for transport and managed to get 2 taxi rides to get to the poda loading area and then ride the poda for an hour and a half to Waterloo to go and do a weekly planning surprise training with the young missionaries and new district leader there. It went super well and we were able to observe, correct and give some good help to these wonderful missionaries to help them be a tad bit more effective, but we were pleasantly graced with wonderful obedient missionaries, so we were very happy. took a good long ride home and managed to get out and teach a couple lessons in the evening, even though we both had dead legs from the stinking poda poda, stupid seats weren't even mounted to the floor haha, then no taxi, so had to walk about an hour and fifteen minutes home and get hit by 2 stinking bike men...tish! but, we were diligent and still went out bloody and diligent :) trying to do our best haha!
Well, Friday morning we got up early and fortuantely found a ride with Bishop Markus to go back to Kissy to go and do a sisters training meeting, so we were surprised to find all the sisters there on time and got to have an instruction with the 8 sisters there, as well as the sister trainer leaders Mukiisa and Povanhu gave brief instruction and it honestly went fantastic. We were nervous the sisters would just shut down and not even respond, but they were all super engaged and optimistic and we were able to help them learn a lot of things they were struggling with. Poor sisters :( nobody trains them on the simple things so they have a hard time when they become leaders but these sisters are all so committed and humble and willing to learn, I love that about them! We went to a nice lil cheap restaurant and got some uh hamburgers? made out of ...uh luncheon meat...yeah, then paid a fine price to get a taxi man to just take us all the way home (not playing with transport anymore)! Then, found out many of the missionaries phones were in danger of shutting off due to not being registered :( so we got a ride into town and went to the Airtel office and I have a woman contact in the back, the manager, who I was able to fight through the huge crowd to talk to her, we engaged her with our mende and were able to get one of their workers to come back to our office with us and register our huge list of phones...problem, when he showed up he didn't have everything he needed to finish the job...so, we taught him the Restoration and sent him on his way :)
Saturday morning, taught a quick lesson in the chapel to Hassan and then got transport into town to go finish the registration. Were able to get this woman to do our short list for us but that took close to 2 hours, and we rushed home to try and salvage the day and teach as much as possible, so we did some weekly planning finally and then made our way out to go and teach some wonderful people and families :) In the evening, during follow ups, one of our best buddies from Bo, Sonaldo, showed up because all the youth there are on a YSA Summit trip to Freetown where a 70 came and addressed them, so he came and visited us and it was so cool to see him again! 2 of my converts made the long trip as well and were enjoying a dance, but Sonaldo isn't into that haha, but he brought Elder Stanford and me 2 pushup bars with our names carved in them that he made haha, that guy is so sweet!:)
Sunday, had a sweet service and then skipped part of our Sunday School to go and visit Belliar Park, where Christiana got up to bare her farewell testimony to leave on mission to Liberia on Friday, my sweet convert who was baptized in November 2012. She is just incredible, the change that she has made in her life just wouldn't make complete sense through email. She was on the bad side of life and everything when we found her and she has just completely reversed. She couldn't even look people in the eyes before, couldn't read, couldn't talk well, just ashamed and shy. Now...stood up in front of 200 people, bore testimony about the truth and divinity of the restored gospel and the Book of Mormon, and threw my name into the testimony like 10x haha which got kinda awkward because everytime she did, everybody in the congregation would turn around and look at me, then turn back haha oh but it was beautiful to see how far she has come. The gospel is amazing...it truly is :)
Well...played some awesome football today so that was a lot of fun. tired and exhausted and going to go get a haircut!! woot woot! life is great and we are balling hard, trunkiness it no daeo, so una go lef for tok dat one! Love you all :)
Love,
Jesse
Elder Sumrak
ELDER JESSE SUMRAK
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Monday, April 7, 2014
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
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
Monday, March 31, 2014
New Companion!
FAMILY! Friends! The madness is currently going on and I am trying to keep my sanity. My phone has been ringing off the hook with transfer news, questions, and transfer movement questions and when am I being picked up? Why haven't I been picked up yet? Where am I supposed to go? And boy it's just crazy and just writing this email this one paragraph I have answered the phone like 3 times. So we are in the process of it all right now, with the 5 departing missionaries with us right now, Jones, Symons, Despain, Turner, and Mills and we just took them all to town to go blow all their money on goodies for home. Got some hamburgers and ice cream and now back to the mission office just trying to shoot off a lil email before we are off to the hardest week possibly of my mission haha....the reason being...I am flying pretty much solo right now, as my companion has received his transfer news and will be going to Lungi to open up that area, and I have received my new companion, the amazing and hard working Elder Stanford, who I have been praying to be compaions with my whole mission because of his work ethic, but he is new here and doesn't really know whats going on, so its all on me right now because I have been here, but my companion is prematurely retired haha, but I will make it through...and if not, then someone died and it wasn't because of ebola!
Oh, the insanity of it all, this week we received the news about the Ebola entering the country and it has just been pandemonium. Missionaries calling in asking if they have the symptoms. So we had a staff meeting and we all discussed our emergency plans and ended up sending immediate funds to every apartment who went out and bought 2 weeks worth of rice, toilet paper, food, water, and the like to stock every apartment in case we were put into lockdown mode...its been a difficult week...were not allowed to shake hands with people anymore, even missionaries really, we aren't allowed to eat ANYTHING off the street, which we don't cook ourselves, so its super hard right now but we are working to get adjusted. I don't believe that the Ebola is really a threat anymore, even though rumors pop up of people in Freetown getting it...but gosh I had nightmares the first couple nights, thanks to the 3 hour video we watched wtih Mrs. Key in high school on it...geeze that is scary stuff, but all is well here and the exctiement and nerves are finally dying down...all is well...
But...besides that all is well. Our poor president was so busy and we normally receive transfer news on Wednesday, but it didn't come until Friday, so we have been going ever since in that office until 10 PM just working our minds off! On Friday though, we did go to the bank, then joined Gyewu-Appiah and Lanier to go get Indian food at Saffron, some new restaurant...it wasn't bad. just fried rice with some nice hot indian dressing on it. super yummy though. By the way, last Monday we went to a place called Ginnas which was like a frozen yogurt/jamba juice place haha where I got some real frozen yogurt and it was delicious. It was so sweet! the place was so cool. Wireless interent and just everyobyd in there was white...it was very strange! so, I left and bought some african street food and came back (before the ban might I add...I'm obedient :) )
but, Friday evening the Kanzlers took us out for Elder Nwosu's last dinner with them and we went to the nice restaurant, Crown Express! Where we had amazing delicious food and a wonderful experience. I got 2 giant crepes, stuffed with chicken and shrimp haha, which was SOO stinking good! then back home to work the whole night.... And yeah
Welll....I miss you and love you all...thank you for everything. sorry for how busy I am...I want to talk more but I am so busy right now. Love you all :) love you mamma and pappa!
Love,
Jesse
Elder Sumrak
Oh, the insanity of it all, this week we received the news about the Ebola entering the country and it has just been pandemonium. Missionaries calling in asking if they have the symptoms. So we had a staff meeting and we all discussed our emergency plans and ended up sending immediate funds to every apartment who went out and bought 2 weeks worth of rice, toilet paper, food, water, and the like to stock every apartment in case we were put into lockdown mode...its been a difficult week...were not allowed to shake hands with people anymore, even missionaries really, we aren't allowed to eat ANYTHING off the street, which we don't cook ourselves, so its super hard right now but we are working to get adjusted. I don't believe that the Ebola is really a threat anymore, even though rumors pop up of people in Freetown getting it...but gosh I had nightmares the first couple nights, thanks to the 3 hour video we watched wtih Mrs. Key in high school on it...geeze that is scary stuff, but all is well here and the exctiement and nerves are finally dying down...all is well...
But...besides that all is well. Our poor president was so busy and we normally receive transfer news on Wednesday, but it didn't come until Friday, so we have been going ever since in that office until 10 PM just working our minds off! On Friday though, we did go to the bank, then joined Gyewu-Appiah and Lanier to go get Indian food at Saffron, some new restaurant...it wasn't bad. just fried rice with some nice hot indian dressing on it. super yummy though. By the way, last Monday we went to a place called Ginnas which was like a frozen yogurt/jamba juice place haha where I got some real frozen yogurt and it was delicious. It was so sweet! the place was so cool. Wireless interent and just everyobyd in there was white...it was very strange! so, I left and bought some african street food and came back (before the ban might I add...I'm obedient :) )
but, Friday evening the Kanzlers took us out for Elder Nwosu's last dinner with them and we went to the nice restaurant, Crown Express! Where we had amazing delicious food and a wonderful experience. I got 2 giant crepes, stuffed with chicken and shrimp haha, which was SOO stinking good! then back home to work the whole night.... And yeah
Welll....I miss you and love you all...thank you for everything. sorry for how busy I am...I want to talk more but I am so busy right now. Love you all :) love you mamma and pappa!
Love,
Jesse
Elder Sumrak
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Visiting the Dentist
Well, mama and papa you both seem interested to know how the tooth is and thank you for your thoughts and prayers; it was definitely an experience to remember haha!
So Friday morning I was driven there by the Kanzlers and the Seaders and they were just joking giving me a hard time, but it wasn't until I entered the office until I realized;oh my gosh, I am in a 3 rd world country, the poorest country, about to get health care work done on me? WHAT AM I DOING?! Get me outta here! But, the office was very clean and actually looked legit once you got past the outside haha. So, I wait in the lobby and of course, we are tired missionaries, so we pass out instantly on the couch and the nurses wake me up to go on back, so I get chatting with them in Krio and they are all super friendly, and Dr. comes in, and he is just a fun and loving joking guy, so he jabbed me with some novocaine and I'm sitting there wondering, oh my where has that needle been?! But, I try to ignore it, as he does it with no gloves on might I add, but while he is waiting for me to numb up we chat about food and culture and everything, and then he begins the work, but quickly realizes that TISH, that area is not numb enough yet haha;so, he gives me another aggressive shot in my mouth, targeting apparently my main nerve; well, Elder Sumrak didn't like that and started getting very dizzy very quickly, but I tried to man up and just said okay, let us continue, and opened my mouth and next thing you know I am having some crazy dreams and weird stuff is going on, and then where the heck am I, who are these people? What is the point of life? Seriously, those were my thoughts as I blacked out, and woke up to bright lights and 3 africans massaging my chest and arms. My shirt was unbuttoned and my tie was loose and my laces and my belt and I had passed out and honestly I couldn't breathe hahah and I was very scared, but as they massaged my chest I came back pretty quickly and drank some water and then I made a joke about not eating enough cassava leaf before I came, then laughed my self to tears for like 5 minutes while they couldn't figure out what was going on; but, the rest of the procedure went well and my tooth looks quite amazing to be honest. So, now that my mouth was completely numb, that is when I decided to introduce the gospel and invite him to church; yeah, with spit sliding down my face and everything, probably should have done that before :)
Well the rest of the day was pretty difficult, as I got back and was really dizzy, I wanted to be a good example to other missionaries, so I manned up and we went proselyting, even though I was teaching with half a face and the most important word in my vocabulary (Jesus Christ) couldn't even be comprehended by myself when I tried to say it haha! But, the day went well and was pretty funny when Jokella, Elder Nwosu and I, sat down to teach one man, who confessed he was planning on taking a second wife, and currently was cheating on his wife, but didn't see any problem with it; while all the neighbours are listening and its just like casual talk. So, that pretty much knocked the novocaine outta my mouth and I was feeling sore but could talk again as we tried to help him understand Jesus Christ's way, but his heart was very hard and we felt like we were getting nowhere;surprisingly, by the end of the lesson after the prayer, he said that he was convinced and he was not planning on having a 2nd wife now;so, we will have to follow up and see how that goes..he has such a beautiful family, a wonderful YOUNG 16-18 year old wife, while he looks to be 35-40 and beautiful children, ah, we don't want him to ruin what he has already been blessed with!
But on to the rest of the week!
Wow, what a super active and super fast week has past me by here in the Sierra Leone mission. I don't even remember half the week haha, it just flew by, but I will do my best to recount the awesome week that we had! Well, got our email on Monday what President wanted us to instruct on Tuesday morning at zone conference, so we got to work preparing that evening and really the Spirit just took over and sweet scriptures and references and applications were coming to us, so we were able to knock the preparation out in less than an hour, and had an outline that we were both very content with! The zone conferences were oriented around working with the members and Elder Nwosu and I were to instruct on how to work with members through the branch mission leader, and then to include an instruction on the correct way to give advice and correction to the member leaders. So, we had our instruction prepared for that, giving scriptural references and what not on how to and how not to handle issues, and I loved sharing the example of Uzzah from 2 Samuel 6; I think that's right, about Uzzah and the ark haha, and applying that.
Well, we were up early Tuesday morning and Elder Appiah and I decided to go for a nice semi-long run and ran 6-7 miles to Murray town and made our way back in the dark. Good times, feeling healthy and good and honestly could have done 10 more, no problem, so catching up with you pops! But, President Ostler came and picked us up, he was a bit late, and then got pulled into a meeting, literally pulled out of the van, but we were blessed with traffic and were only 15 minutes late and we had a wonderful conference over in Kissy :) it was super sweet and fun being my first zone conference giving instruction, I really enjoyed it and was surprised by how smoothly everything went. We had an Elder who finished his mission, Elder Aluka, so we took him on up to Leicester Peak, then to the mission home for a wonderful dinner where we ordered tons of stuff from Crown express, Pasta, Thai curry, pizza, and all this awesome food, then dessert of ice cream and brownies, oh my spoiled taste buds were so happy :) Came on home and slept so well!
Wednesday, home base, we had zone conference here in Freetown and it went very well as well, except in the morning when we woke up and realized that we had forgot to order food, so we made an emergency order and she said she could do it. When the food was delivered, it was swarmas with cheese balls? Guess she couldn't finish the fries in time;) but, everyone enjoyed and the conference went well. I was surprised by how comfortable I am becoming in front of the missionaries, though the Lord has always blessed me with being comfortable talking in front of people, but being nervous prior has always been a weakness of mine, but that has significantly diminished due to this calling, so that is a great blessing I am having :)
Thursday, we were up early again and out the door quick to go to the Waterloo Zone Conference, but we stopped in Kissy on the way to meet a departing missionary and his family to set him apart as he was making his way to the airport;it was so cool to be able to stand in in setting apart a missionary and the blessing he gave that young man I know that it came from the Lord; it was so powerful and that boy is going to do great! So, on to our last zone conference of the week, and it went smoothly as well and was over quickly and nicely and in time for Elder Nwosu and I to even get home and get 2 appointments in, so we are trying our best haha! What a super busy week though!
But, ON Sunday I got to see an old face;Christiana, my convert that I baptized inside Mt. Aureol ward back in November 2012; she came to our sacrament meeting and flagged me down so I ran to go sit with her. She takes out her bag;SHE HAS RECEIVED HER MISSION CALL and is going to the Liberia Monrovia mission :) ah, I was so stinking happy and just wanted to sing and shout haha and she is so excited as well. She really doesn't know too much about the gospel doctrine or lessons or anything, but just has a great desire to go out and serve, and I'm just so happy because I know it doesn't matter if she isn't prepared now, mission is going to change her life and convert her so much. She is going to be going to the temple! What?! :) I am just so happy to have a convert who is going to the temple and so happy that she is going to go and receive those blessings :) she leaves next month on the 18, so I will make sure I am there to help her with anything she needs as she goes;I am so proud of her!
But, that was my week;and life is great and kickin well here. We will receive the transfer news this week and get ready to dish out all these fresh 18 coming missionaries, I am super excited and ready to get to work;this week and next week will be the busiest, here we go again!:)
And as far as Lungi, I'm pretty sure its set and ready for missionaries to go, but we will know for sure this week and my eyes are FINE I Promise, it was just really bright in those pictures, my eyes are just tired but, just from exhaustion haha!
All is well here...I love you all and miss you so much and pray that you are all doing well...I am still studying myself about undertanding principles to dictate my actions, instead of studying the actions themselves :) it really is sweet and its changing the way I think about a lot of things! everyone, I love you! Bye bye!
Love,
Jesse,
Elder Sumrak
So Friday morning I was driven there by the Kanzlers and the Seaders and they were just joking giving me a hard time, but it wasn't until I entered the office until I realized;oh my gosh, I am in a 3 rd world country, the poorest country, about to get health care work done on me? WHAT AM I DOING?! Get me outta here! But, the office was very clean and actually looked legit once you got past the outside haha. So, I wait in the lobby and of course, we are tired missionaries, so we pass out instantly on the couch and the nurses wake me up to go on back, so I get chatting with them in Krio and they are all super friendly, and Dr. comes in, and he is just a fun and loving joking guy, so he jabbed me with some novocaine and I'm sitting there wondering, oh my where has that needle been?! But, I try to ignore it, as he does it with no gloves on might I add, but while he is waiting for me to numb up we chat about food and culture and everything, and then he begins the work, but quickly realizes that TISH, that area is not numb enough yet haha;so, he gives me another aggressive shot in my mouth, targeting apparently my main nerve; well, Elder Sumrak didn't like that and started getting very dizzy very quickly, but I tried to man up and just said okay, let us continue, and opened my mouth and next thing you know I am having some crazy dreams and weird stuff is going on, and then where the heck am I, who are these people? What is the point of life? Seriously, those were my thoughts as I blacked out, and woke up to bright lights and 3 africans massaging my chest and arms. My shirt was unbuttoned and my tie was loose and my laces and my belt and I had passed out and honestly I couldn't breathe hahah and I was very scared, but as they massaged my chest I came back pretty quickly and drank some water and then I made a joke about not eating enough cassava leaf before I came, then laughed my self to tears for like 5 minutes while they couldn't figure out what was going on; but, the rest of the procedure went well and my tooth looks quite amazing to be honest. So, now that my mouth was completely numb, that is when I decided to introduce the gospel and invite him to church; yeah, with spit sliding down my face and everything, probably should have done that before :)
Well the rest of the day was pretty difficult, as I got back and was really dizzy, I wanted to be a good example to other missionaries, so I manned up and we went proselyting, even though I was teaching with half a face and the most important word in my vocabulary (Jesus Christ) couldn't even be comprehended by myself when I tried to say it haha! But, the day went well and was pretty funny when Jokella, Elder Nwosu and I, sat down to teach one man, who confessed he was planning on taking a second wife, and currently was cheating on his wife, but didn't see any problem with it; while all the neighbours are listening and its just like casual talk. So, that pretty much knocked the novocaine outta my mouth and I was feeling sore but could talk again as we tried to help him understand Jesus Christ's way, but his heart was very hard and we felt like we were getting nowhere;surprisingly, by the end of the lesson after the prayer, he said that he was convinced and he was not planning on having a 2nd wife now;so, we will have to follow up and see how that goes..he has such a beautiful family, a wonderful YOUNG 16-18 year old wife, while he looks to be 35-40 and beautiful children, ah, we don't want him to ruin what he has already been blessed with!
But on to the rest of the week!
Wow, what a super active and super fast week has past me by here in the Sierra Leone mission. I don't even remember half the week haha, it just flew by, but I will do my best to recount the awesome week that we had! Well, got our email on Monday what President wanted us to instruct on Tuesday morning at zone conference, so we got to work preparing that evening and really the Spirit just took over and sweet scriptures and references and applications were coming to us, so we were able to knock the preparation out in less than an hour, and had an outline that we were both very content with! The zone conferences were oriented around working with the members and Elder Nwosu and I were to instruct on how to work with members through the branch mission leader, and then to include an instruction on the correct way to give advice and correction to the member leaders. So, we had our instruction prepared for that, giving scriptural references and what not on how to and how not to handle issues, and I loved sharing the example of Uzzah from 2 Samuel 6; I think that's right, about Uzzah and the ark haha, and applying that.
Well, we were up early Tuesday morning and Elder Appiah and I decided to go for a nice semi-long run and ran 6-7 miles to Murray town and made our way back in the dark. Good times, feeling healthy and good and honestly could have done 10 more, no problem, so catching up with you pops! But, President Ostler came and picked us up, he was a bit late, and then got pulled into a meeting, literally pulled out of the van, but we were blessed with traffic and were only 15 minutes late and we had a wonderful conference over in Kissy :) it was super sweet and fun being my first zone conference giving instruction, I really enjoyed it and was surprised by how smoothly everything went. We had an Elder who finished his mission, Elder Aluka, so we took him on up to Leicester Peak, then to the mission home for a wonderful dinner where we ordered tons of stuff from Crown express, Pasta, Thai curry, pizza, and all this awesome food, then dessert of ice cream and brownies, oh my spoiled taste buds were so happy :) Came on home and slept so well!
Wednesday, home base, we had zone conference here in Freetown and it went very well as well, except in the morning when we woke up and realized that we had forgot to order food, so we made an emergency order and she said she could do it. When the food was delivered, it was swarmas with cheese balls? Guess she couldn't finish the fries in time;) but, everyone enjoyed and the conference went well. I was surprised by how comfortable I am becoming in front of the missionaries, though the Lord has always blessed me with being comfortable talking in front of people, but being nervous prior has always been a weakness of mine, but that has significantly diminished due to this calling, so that is a great blessing I am having :)
Thursday, we were up early again and out the door quick to go to the Waterloo Zone Conference, but we stopped in Kissy on the way to meet a departing missionary and his family to set him apart as he was making his way to the airport;it was so cool to be able to stand in in setting apart a missionary and the blessing he gave that young man I know that it came from the Lord; it was so powerful and that boy is going to do great! So, on to our last zone conference of the week, and it went smoothly as well and was over quickly and nicely and in time for Elder Nwosu and I to even get home and get 2 appointments in, so we are trying our best haha! What a super busy week though!
But, ON Sunday I got to see an old face;Christiana, my convert that I baptized inside Mt. Aureol ward back in November 2012; she came to our sacrament meeting and flagged me down so I ran to go sit with her. She takes out her bag;SHE HAS RECEIVED HER MISSION CALL and is going to the Liberia Monrovia mission :) ah, I was so stinking happy and just wanted to sing and shout haha and she is so excited as well. She really doesn't know too much about the gospel doctrine or lessons or anything, but just has a great desire to go out and serve, and I'm just so happy because I know it doesn't matter if she isn't prepared now, mission is going to change her life and convert her so much. She is going to be going to the temple! What?! :) I am just so happy to have a convert who is going to the temple and so happy that she is going to go and receive those blessings :) she leaves next month on the 18, so I will make sure I am there to help her with anything she needs as she goes;I am so proud of her!
But, that was my week;and life is great and kickin well here. We will receive the transfer news this week and get ready to dish out all these fresh 18 coming missionaries, I am super excited and ready to get to work;this week and next week will be the busiest, here we go again!:)
And as far as Lungi, I'm pretty sure its set and ready for missionaries to go, but we will know for sure this week and my eyes are FINE I Promise, it was just really bright in those pictures, my eyes are just tired but, just from exhaustion haha!
All is well here...I love you all and miss you so much and pray that you are all doing well...I am still studying myself about undertanding principles to dictate my actions, instead of studying the actions themselves :) it really is sweet and its changing the way I think about a lot of things! everyone, I love you! Bye bye!
Love,
Jesse,
Elder Sumrak
Monday, March 17, 2014
Lungi Will Get Missionaries!
Well, another busy and crazy week of adventures has passed me by. My current excitement, was just eating lunch and lost half of my previously damaged tooth, broke the corner off and now the inside of my tooth is exposed; no blood, no pain or anything, but serious enough that they are scheduling a dentist appointment this week;and this week is TOO busy for a dentist appointment, golly G we have zone conference meetings Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, baptism on Saturday, church on Sunday, Friday is the ONLY possible day to go and get my precious mouth operated on. I don't normally like to ask for prayers, but quite honestly I am very nervous, so please I ask if you could just briefly remember me, at least to calm me down hahaha you know me, I'm a spaz, and I have 3 months left, I HAVE TO FINISH! I REFUSE to do anything contrary, and would rather lose my whole back tooth than go home, so I know it's probably nothing serious, but thank you :)
Well, we did get to play football today, and have spent the WHOLE rest of the day moving into our new apartment and moving our beds and what not. it is in the same building, but just on the opposite side of upstairs and much smaller, but much more convenient and private for our calling, so we are digging it and still trying to get everything working in there okay :) But, the football was fine, except we showed up and somebody had knocked down a stinking tree on the court and just left it there...the Elders were discouraged...but, I didn't get football last week and I NEEDED it today, so I just said forget it and started doing my best to drag the tree. As the locals watched they joined in, some of the young boys passing and the other elders and after 10 minutes we had dragged most of the tree and its branches off the court and were able to play, and my favorite boy EDY Bangura (he loves you mamma haha) came to play with me today and we did work. I danced and scored and played well and got some great exercise so I am very content until next Monday haha!
Another busy week though, and on Tuesday we traveled to Wellington to go and attend wonderful Elder Bogh's district meeeting, but on the way went to the sisters apartment in Congo Cross to go and replace their lightbulbs, as my companion is the only one tall enough to replace them, so we went there to see the lighbulbs so we could find the right ones, then Bishop Markus drove us to Wellington, but along the way we got pulled over by a police man in traffic on the street...the car's registration had expired...but bishop is smooth and I had full confidence in him. The police man entered the vehicle and demanded we drive him and us down to the station, and bishop agreed and we all got settled in...and yes, I was sitting in the back with the police man, and bishop just gave him a nice little talking to and managed to get him to excuse the violation and some how he got out and let us continue on our way? Oh, the Lord is truly watching over us and helps us out :) We got to the meeting late but it was great...
Well, the rest of the week was actually not quite so sweet, as we had some emergency transfers. On Wednesday, we spent most of the afternoon in the mission truck with President Kargbo transporting the missionaries to their new proselyting areas and also bringing our departing missionaries to the office. Oh, these great and wonderful men and I am so proud of all of them, and I know Heavenly Father is as well! But, it was sad to see them go home and I cried very much like a little baby as I hugged them and had to say goodbye...it's not easy, especially for them, and only a little bit for me. Gosh, I sure do miss them, but know that they are going to do great things in life, so I don't fear for them at all, only pray for them :) Besides that, the week went sweet and we got to go and teach and testify and it was superb!
Saturday, my feast day, was exceptionally sweet and not because of the poptarts, but because of J's baptism. We showed up just on time for the baptism, and then J. was there, and her Mother, father, and brother all came (not members) to watch and it was so sweet! Ah, the spirit was so strong, and I had the sweet privilige of baptizing her, and she was so happy, and I also got to baptize another candidate, S., who I didn't know very well, but he is sweet as well :) J. even called us that evening to tell us thank you and that she and her family are so happy.
We would end up going to J's house last night to talk to the parents about the baptism and confirmation and they were so happy and felt the spirit, but are so attached to their churches right now, but recognized a different feeling at our church that they enjoyed so much...so, Elder Nwosu and I extended an invitation we hve never done before... "We invite you, this Sunday, to attend YOUR church, and see if you feel the same happy feeling, will you do that?" "Yes." We promise you, if you do that, that you will NOT feel the same spirit, and you will have a desire to return and feel the Holy spirit in Jesus Christ's church." Hahaha weird committment, but we felt inspired and they seem excited to perform the "experiment" of their faith, and know that they will exercise that particle of faith and go, knowing what they are looking for :)
But, Firday we also got to attend a meeting with the mission president and zone leaders and sister trainer leaders with the stake and this mission calling peoples, and we got to discuss our training of the missionary in association with the stake goals and what not, so it was really cool to be able to go and contribute to that meeting and see what will happen this week at our zone conferences.
Sunday, we were invited by President Ostler to go to the Kissy building to attend the Freetown East District Conference. The Kanzlers drove us there and boy it was packed! It was so great to see all my mission buddies, Rogers, Penia, Mongalo, Bogh, Weller and tons more, and even get to see and befriend some I had never met before as well :) The conference was packed and they counted about 1,900 people there. The whole room filled up and all missionaries were standing (about 50+ of us) and even they had people sitting outside with tvs set up to watch and that was all filled up as well. Even extra chairs were brought and people were still standing and then...big news...the District was split into the Kossoh Town District and the Kissy District. So now Sierra Leone has 1 stake and 4 districts, and they also announced our hidden agenda about LUNGI opening up and missionaries are going there next transfer, so that was fun to finally be able to open my mouth about that haha :) But, the conference was great and afterwards the missionary leadership sat down again with the new district presidencies and we had a great discussion...that leaves us with only today to prepare our instruction for tomorrow the zone conferences begin, and our lives are sold hahaha! and then the next week we're are preparing for transfer, and then the following week we are doing the transfer, and then next thing you know its week 2 of my second to last transfer :( ah, so scary! geeze, what is going on?) Well the mission is sweet and we are seeing miracles each and everyday. Have another baptism planned for this Saturday and I have NO IDEA how we are going to get her ready in time with our schedule, but we are going to sacrifice and make it happen, oh yes we will haha, well, on I go to whatever is next today, farewell and enjoy your week. I love you all :)
Love,
Elder Jesse Sumrak
Monday, March 10, 2014
Transport Craziness
Wow! So much excitement going on at home, its hard to take it all in!
So happy that you got to meet Sister Labrum and receive all those pictures as well! that sounds like such a sweet time you had and ah, poor Elder Rogers, I know they are suffering over there and not having an easy time so I wrote him a nice long letter today that I am going to send out there this week. Love that guy and feel bad about the pictures as well, but fortunately I have a lot of pictures of his first 12 weeks :) so, at least he has those, and some pics of his recent converts as well, but I don't dare send them, his family can receive them when I get home :)
As for the bed bugs, no more of that fortunately, but my arms got scarred by it as well as my feet, but its not too bad, no pain at least. Today we had super p-day and I was a bit bummed because we didn't get to play football, but we got to watch Ephraim's Rescue, which was awesome! It was hilarious and touching and left me inspired to go out and minister and do the work, so I recommend it as a must see for anyone, Mormon or not, you will enjoy!
So, last Tuesday we went into town and fought for transport in the morning to go to Kissy to attend their district meeting. The road to Kissy and Waterloo is the crappiest road in all of Sierra Leone, its so tiny and so busy and the most traveled road in the whole country,I can't imagine how many millions use it, poda poda, bike men, people pushing handcarts and wheelbarrels and just craziness! Well, it was craziness that morning, thats for sure, as traffic was completely stopped and we ended up jumping outta the taxi and running down some back roads to look for a poda poda, to then find police men pretty much tackling bike men off their bikes because bikes are illegal on the main roads now, so we jumped inside a moving poda and made our way to Kissy for an awesome district meeting...took us almost 2 hours to get home afterwards with all the transport issues...so we finally get home by about 3:00 or so and have to take care of tons of stuff in the office, so then we were finally packed up and ready to go by 5...to go to waterloo for exchange, waterloo is past kissy...by like an hour...so we fought and fought for transport and eventually got to the road where you load up to go to waterloo and there was a HUGE line, and we could NOT wait, so we managed to beg a driver in the line to let us load early, much to the anger of the crowd, who all stormed the poda when they saw us enter, which left some wounds on my legs, but nothing serious, as I made my way to the back and sat down...for 2 hours or so, because we didn't arrive in Waterloo until abut 8:15, but was happy to find my man Elder Weller eady to receive us, and this time we thought ahead and brought nets and everything, so we had a wonderful time with those elders that evening in the Waterloo apartment sleeping on mattresses on the floor.
Well, Wednesday I got to go on exchange with Elder Weller all day in the Igbo town area and it was so cool because I just made such great friends with everyone in the area so quickly. Honestly, one day with those people and we were already great friends laughing and sharing experiences and inside jokes somehow and ah, I love the people of Sierra Leone so much, and it was already hard just to leave that area! Even found 1 of my recent converts from Mt. Aureol there and got him with the missionaries given them referrals :) So, we went home early to get transport and made it back to the apartment around 8:30 or so and cooked up some dinner and collapsed in bed...too much transport destroys the body!
Thursday was not a day of rest, as we were up early to the Kanzlers arriving to pick us up to take us back to the new area we are helping to establish so we could look for apartments. We boarded the ferry and fell asleep for most of the ride, and met our awesome guy W. and he spent the day showing us all the apartments he had found for us as potentials. Some, out in the bush, just mansions and what not. Others, tiny little houses. Another, big one, owned by an american woman from New York who I had fun chatting with, and others, and it took a couple hours. Then, the awesome Kanzlers fed us a nice lunch and we even stopped at a beach to look at some shells that were there, but the beach was absolutely filthy, so we didn't stay too long and made our way back across on the ferry, and even found time to go teach a lesson after we got back, so a very successful day!:)
Friday, we got to have our report with President and then our weekly planning and then we got to go out and teach for a couple of hours which was super sweet, and then Saturday we got to spend the whole day out teaching and it was great!
Sunday was a sweet day as well as another american guy from New York was visiting and he wasn't in our area, but I spent the whole time fellowshipping him and getting to know him and he already agreed to baptism...so cool!:) I love the gospel! Went out in the evening and accomplished much. Some muslims were playing some apostate pastor/shek tish that talked about how Jesus Christ didn't die on the cross on some LOUD SPEAKERS and Elder Nwosu and I went and confounded them, bore testimony, and they took the CD out and promised not to play it anymore :) we took our recent convert/future missionary Hawa out to teach with us and we taught a pastorish guy and she started throwing scriptures out at him confounding this guy and all his false doctrines about the Trinity and the creation and atonement and I was just so proud of her :) so...yeah, that was my week in a nutshell haha
I am seeing miracles everyday, and even the tiny ones are the biggest testimony builders, like today, as we were trying to get the DVD player to work and NOTHING was working, and my companion was being stubborn, and I just said a short prayer, and hit the play button, and it came on...its just those little ones that really mean the most and really testify to me that God is watching us and listening and just waiting for us to ask, and sometimes we don't ask because we feel like its silly, or he doesn't care, but I testify he cares..He loves us and he cares and he just wants us to show our faith by closing our eyes and asking...I can testify that this week if you try it show your faith in the big and small tings alike, and watch the miracles that you will, you will see God's hand in your life :) So, a great week and more to come I am sure...the journey never ends...onward we go!
Love,
Elder Jesse Sumrak
So happy that you got to meet Sister Labrum and receive all those pictures as well! that sounds like such a sweet time you had and ah, poor Elder Rogers, I know they are suffering over there and not having an easy time so I wrote him a nice long letter today that I am going to send out there this week. Love that guy and feel bad about the pictures as well, but fortunately I have a lot of pictures of his first 12 weeks :) so, at least he has those, and some pics of his recent converts as well, but I don't dare send them, his family can receive them when I get home :)
As for the bed bugs, no more of that fortunately, but my arms got scarred by it as well as my feet, but its not too bad, no pain at least. Today we had super p-day and I was a bit bummed because we didn't get to play football, but we got to watch Ephraim's Rescue, which was awesome! It was hilarious and touching and left me inspired to go out and minister and do the work, so I recommend it as a must see for anyone, Mormon or not, you will enjoy!
So, last Tuesday we went into town and fought for transport in the morning to go to Kissy to attend their district meeting. The road to Kissy and Waterloo is the crappiest road in all of Sierra Leone, its so tiny and so busy and the most traveled road in the whole country,I can't imagine how many millions use it, poda poda, bike men, people pushing handcarts and wheelbarrels and just craziness! Well, it was craziness that morning, thats for sure, as traffic was completely stopped and we ended up jumping outta the taxi and running down some back roads to look for a poda poda, to then find police men pretty much tackling bike men off their bikes because bikes are illegal on the main roads now, so we jumped inside a moving poda and made our way to Kissy for an awesome district meeting...took us almost 2 hours to get home afterwards with all the transport issues...so we finally get home by about 3:00 or so and have to take care of tons of stuff in the office, so then we were finally packed up and ready to go by 5...to go to waterloo for exchange, waterloo is past kissy...by like an hour...so we fought and fought for transport and eventually got to the road where you load up to go to waterloo and there was a HUGE line, and we could NOT wait, so we managed to beg a driver in the line to let us load early, much to the anger of the crowd, who all stormed the poda when they saw us enter, which left some wounds on my legs, but nothing serious, as I made my way to the back and sat down...for 2 hours or so, because we didn't arrive in Waterloo until abut 8:15, but was happy to find my man Elder Weller eady to receive us, and this time we thought ahead and brought nets and everything, so we had a wonderful time with those elders that evening in the Waterloo apartment sleeping on mattresses on the floor.
Well, Wednesday I got to go on exchange with Elder Weller all day in the Igbo town area and it was so cool because I just made such great friends with everyone in the area so quickly. Honestly, one day with those people and we were already great friends laughing and sharing experiences and inside jokes somehow and ah, I love the people of Sierra Leone so much, and it was already hard just to leave that area! Even found 1 of my recent converts from Mt. Aureol there and got him with the missionaries given them referrals :) So, we went home early to get transport and made it back to the apartment around 8:30 or so and cooked up some dinner and collapsed in bed...too much transport destroys the body!
Thursday was not a day of rest, as we were up early to the Kanzlers arriving to pick us up to take us back to the new area we are helping to establish so we could look for apartments. We boarded the ferry and fell asleep for most of the ride, and met our awesome guy W. and he spent the day showing us all the apartments he had found for us as potentials. Some, out in the bush, just mansions and what not. Others, tiny little houses. Another, big one, owned by an american woman from New York who I had fun chatting with, and others, and it took a couple hours. Then, the awesome Kanzlers fed us a nice lunch and we even stopped at a beach to look at some shells that were there, but the beach was absolutely filthy, so we didn't stay too long and made our way back across on the ferry, and even found time to go teach a lesson after we got back, so a very successful day!:)
Friday, we got to have our report with President and then our weekly planning and then we got to go out and teach for a couple of hours which was super sweet, and then Saturday we got to spend the whole day out teaching and it was great!
Sunday was a sweet day as well as another american guy from New York was visiting and he wasn't in our area, but I spent the whole time fellowshipping him and getting to know him and he already agreed to baptism...so cool!:) I love the gospel! Went out in the evening and accomplished much. Some muslims were playing some apostate pastor/shek tish that talked about how Jesus Christ didn't die on the cross on some LOUD SPEAKERS and Elder Nwosu and I went and confounded them, bore testimony, and they took the CD out and promised not to play it anymore :) we took our recent convert/future missionary Hawa out to teach with us and we taught a pastorish guy and she started throwing scriptures out at him confounding this guy and all his false doctrines about the Trinity and the creation and atonement and I was just so proud of her :) so...yeah, that was my week in a nutshell haha
I am seeing miracles everyday, and even the tiny ones are the biggest testimony builders, like today, as we were trying to get the DVD player to work and NOTHING was working, and my companion was being stubborn, and I just said a short prayer, and hit the play button, and it came on...its just those little ones that really mean the most and really testify to me that God is watching us and listening and just waiting for us to ask, and sometimes we don't ask because we feel like its silly, or he doesn't care, but I testify he cares..He loves us and he cares and he just wants us to show our faith by closing our eyes and asking...I can testify that this week if you try it show your faith in the big and small tings alike, and watch the miracles that you will, you will see God's hand in your life :) So, a great week and more to come I am sure...the journey never ends...onward we go!
Love,
Elder Jesse Sumrak
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Bed Bugs!
Mother! Wow, it sounds like you guys have been having a super duper time out there in Utah and I am super jealous, but then again, you should be jealous of me because I am living it up in sweet ol Africa sa Lone and teaching the sweetest restored gospel to the most amazing people in the world...so booyakasha!:) but, seriously, love and miss you all and hope you are having an amazing time!
My week...my week...I don't even know where to start...well let's go in chronological order then!
Tuesday, we got up and did our gyming, then headed over across town to Cnogo Cross to attend our wonderful Elder Gyewu-Appiah's district meeting. Got to teach a sweet woman outside the church briefly while we waited for the district to come to the church, so I hope that she came on Sunday haha :) The district meeting was sweet and we had 2 brand new missionaries there, so we had a good time with them as well and the instruction from our sweet Sister Asiimwe was great! After that, we headed on home and had a meeting with president in the office about some mission issues and what not. Then, we got to go out and teach briefly before coming home and packing up our bags for our sleepover...got a taxi to take us the 45 minute drive to Goderich, where we were to go on an exchange with the zone leaders Richardson and Lokpo there. In the dark, walking down a street I had never even seen before, I hear my name called out, and it was Inah Moses, the young lady I baptized in the ocean a couple months ago, and it was so great to see her and catch up and even her mother called me the next day and I got to talk to her! Oh, I love that family so much!
Well, we continued on our way to the apartment and had a good time with the elders there before going to bed. They have a bench there so we all went and competed and had a great time with Hartling, Mason, and Ichode before Lokpo made Okra soup with ebba before we went to bed... well, we realized it was 10:30 - too late because the clock on the wall was off, so we rushed to get into the spare bedroom and with the dim light of the flashlight we see the 2 mattresses are just covered in black dirt...just covered and we had stupidly assumed they had mosquitoe nets there...my friends, my family...say hello to my worst night of the entire mission. Trying to solve the issue quickly and obediently, I threw down a prayer mat on top of the bed and the elders came and brought me a pillow...at first it was really nice with the breeze coming through the windown, then around 1:00...the sweetness ended, as something was chewing the tish out of me! I had no sheet or anything, so I eventually ran and threw on my suit pants to cover my poor exposed legs...then, took my shirt off and covered my hands and face with it as well as I could. it was quite a sight to see and needless to say, I didn't sleep at all for pretty much the entire night...woke up to exercise and had no energy...but I had some friendly bites and counted 30+ bites on my left foot 40+ on my right foot and multiple bites on my neck and arms...oh my, I thought I was surely Malaria bound, but tried not to panic and just took my medicine and continued...(came to find out later that it was not mosquite bites THANK GOODNESS but bed bugs...I called and ordered the mattress to be burned immediately) I was so exhausted that I had to stand up during personal studies just to stay awake haha, but the Lord blessed me and gave me strength and I had an amazing day out teaching with Elder Richardson in the Emergency area! It was an awesome and spirit filled day, and I even saw one of my first converrts on mission Abu Joseph Conteh, and he is preparing to leave on mission this summer!:) didn't even know! so sweet haha!
Well, we finished up the exchange and made it home around 9:00 and closed for the day and crashed...
Thursday, oh what a sweet day, as we received a special assignment from our sweet mission president to go and look at a NEW area that has never been proseltyed before to go observe the members there and see if they are ready for further progression...so we woke up in the morning and rented a taxi and went to take a ferry across the ocean. It was a fun ride, as we got first class, which meant we sat in a room with a lot of rich people while they played very loud and apostate music and people tried to sell us things...but, it was a better atmosphere then the rest of the market of a ferry that was going on outside haha, so no problem. The ferry was super slow and took about an hour until we arrived at our destination. Receiving us was an excited return missionary, W., who has been living in this place for 3 years now from his mission with his wife and has been dying for the church to come there...he has organized a family home evening in his community each week and has gone to long pursuits to find other members in the area to gather and prosper. He has found 2 other return missionary couples some other members, and already has about 4-5 investigators attending weekly...so they have about 10 or so a week usually and he has been begging president so president sent us to go investigate. So, this wonderful man toured us all around the area! we got to go and meet their investigators who all want to be baptized and were so happy to meet us! They are so anxious for the gospel to come there and were just almost in tears when they saw us. They were like, ah the church is coming, the church is coming! We got to go and see Z., another return missinoary mamma. We got to see H., a convert from Kenema. We got to even teach the first ***** Lesson and the young lady, Julliette accepted to be baptized...although we couldn't really set a date haha! But, then we took a short trip to a school where he is planning on starting to keep service if the home group gets approved, and continued on to the government hospital to meet S S., a super ripped return missionary whose wife is also a return missionary and talk about moving the work forward...we discussed missionary possible apartments, chapel locations, baptismal sites, and the possible proselyting areas and the like..We came on home on the ferry, meeting another police man return missionary who got us on 1st class for free. Then made our long trip home and got home close to 9:00 again...so tired..we crashed.
Friday, woke up and gave our report to President and Ostler and talked about our future plans to help establish the church there...we will be returning this Friday to look for apartments and the like and hopefully get this show on the road quickly! we are very excited and even prayed and fasted for these people on Sunday...they called Sunday night and said they found 4 potential missionary apartments. I have a testimony and KNOW that the Lord is truly hastening his work here..it is certainly an exciting time!:)
After our meeting we had an office staff meeting which went on for a long time, then we rushed to the bank to go and get our subsistence and then return back in time to go and teach a lesson before the day was finished...oh, how this week flew by. Saturday was SWEET and we had a full day out proselyting with multiple members and saw some amazing people. Sunday was a great day as well, as were opportuned to keep fast and I rushed to go bare my testimony first before the usual crowd :) President Ostler, his wife, and his daughter were in attendance so it was a sweet sacrament meeting and we even had 4 investigators come, the ones we saw on Saturday! so that was encouraging as well. After church, we gotour ward mission leader to meet with us, and then made our way to go teach J. and her parents about the importance of family, as J. had brought her mother to church and it was a super sweet experience for her :)
Today, got to play some SWEET SWEET football and everything I touched turned to gold and we had a great time...even proved to myself my juggling skills are still there when I topped over 500 consecutive juggles..oh you would laugh if you see the ball we use to play with haha but that was fun, then we went in to town to get Elder Nwosu a haircut, and now finally emailing...
Well...as for my diet this week, aye I ate some surely funny meals, protein packed and surprisingly tasty, breafkast usually looked like: 2-3 eggs, onions, green beans, bell peppers, and great northern beans. Lunch: same vegetables, sardines, and beans Dinner: same vegetables, chicken, and beans....well, now I have mixed it up and now also throw in lentils as well with most of my meals and now have carrots and spinach to throw in there as well and just throw it all in a pan and small oil and then throw on random seasonsings that end up making it taste pretty awesome!:) so, I have been enjoying that for EVERY meal of everyday...seriosuly, no variants, no oatmeal, no breads, rice, or anything, that is it...until...SATURDAY!
Saturday: my cheat day, and I wanted to see how much I could enjoy and boy did I enjoy! and since my reps increased from 18 to 20 so, small difference, but it was more about enjoyment! Started the morning with some sprints and crunches, then some eggs and beans and spinach...then...2 poptarts, tons of peanut butter, digestive biscuits, bowl of oatmeal, tootsie rolls, giant bowl of krin krin rice, king driver (giant sugar cookie) more rice, frozen poptart and mircrowaved poptart with a glass of milk, bowl of oatmeal, bowl of cereal, bowl of jollaf rice, tons of swedish fish, and some bananas, tons of nuts and fruit mixes...for a grand total of about 3,700- 4,000 calories of sweet and deserved delicousness...I can't even remember the last time I ate HALF that much and boy was it nice :) and conveniently almost made fast Sunday too easy..which I feel like I need to sacrifice more haha! I was not even hungry! but, the fast Sunday was very sweet and spiritual so I know it was still amazingly beneficial :) oh boy, what will I eat next Saturday?! I have no clue, but its going to be GOOOOOOOOD!:)
well, that is my craziness and insanity coming out of Sierra Leone! I love you all so very much and I miss you all. Hope you all have a fantastic week and always remember your purpose. I love the talk in the February Liahona from Elder Scott, just read it this morning and it was SOO good :) encourage everyone to live by those principles and then hopefully a part of the USA will not fall off into the great abyss!
Love,
Elder Jesse Sumrak
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