Keep Going Til The End

A. S. did have his baptism on Saturday and it was very special! I was pretty emotional about it haha, but he bore powerful testimony about the truth and divinity of the church and especially the Book of Mormon, as he is now cruising through 2 Nephi, it's giving him a little trouble but he is hanging in there and doing his best, naturally, and we even got to teach his wife yesterday who is happy to see the changes in his life and is finally showing interest, which is surprising since she is super muslim and all her family is, but its exciting...their WHOLE family live in this compound, so if this whole family joins, her sisters and cousins and uncles and aunties will surely follow, so the work we are doing is slow but crucial and we are determiend to help the Lord and these people! 

I have had a slight issue this week, as I was having some intese upper abdominal pain earlier in the week that was sending me into the fetal position most of the night and the only way I could relieve myself of the pain was to get up and walk around in the night, and that has been continuing, the only thing that has been helping me thus far is popping 10-15 pepto bismal, but I am doing well today and hanging in there :) Just got to survive! that's all, just survive! but, seriously I am doing okay, no problems. I received a beautiful blessing from my companion and Elder Kanzler that really touched my heart and soul and I know the Lord is looking out for me and He is going to help me finish out this work strong, going as strong as I possibly can! Elder Stanford and I had another busy busy week and still managed to get 20 lessons again, so we are dying haha and laugh about how dead we are but are seriously enjoying hastening the work and finding and teaching more and more families!

On Tuesday we went out to Waterloo on the multiple different transports and attended their district meeting which was really sweet and great to see my boy Elder Weller again. Then, the long trip back, then a meeting with President Ostler, then an office meeting with everyone, then ran out the door to go and see the S. family really quick. He has been doing fantastic! He has completely left cigarettes and after I sewed his glasses back together, he has been marking the Book of Mormon a whole lot more now and is making good progress. He and his children all came to church on Sunday, now we are just working on his muslim wife haha, all of these muslim wives! He had a big problem on Saturday though when we showed up and the whole compound was very gloomy and his daughter was in tears, and he didn't look very happy either, but we sat down to talk to him and helped him understand the holy spirit and how he didn't feel it right now and what the source of that dissension of the spirit was and he argued about how white people have different skin and don't take beatings, but black skin is tough and its the only way to teach the children, and we went to the scriptures and during the lesson his countenance changed and the spirit really bore witness to his heart that this was wrong and he promised to never hit his kids again and it was beautiful...it was funny when I thought...I am a 21 year old white kid sitting here helping YOU, an old 55 + family man with your family...and then I realized yet again, I am not doing ANYTHING. It's just the Holy Ghost and the power of God working through Elder Stanford and I, his rusty tools who are trying their best to be polished and usable, and accomplishing his own work...I love being an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

Wednesday was a super sweet day as in the evening time we returned and had a district blitz of the freetown area with the zone leaders as well, and that was sweet as we took 10 missionaries into a single area and just started contacting as many families and kingdom builders as we could. I got to take our phillipino, Elder Alvarino, who can barely speak English haha, and got to take him and we had so much success! we found 4 families and one was full English from New York haha "you guys are the latter day saints right? " No dad! They're the Mormons!" oh, Im sorry Im sorry," :) haha, haven't had that my whole mission...but that was a really sweet experience all going into that area and getting the community and missionaries excited in that difficult part of town.

Thursday, we did our weekly planning, then got to help prepare and send out 2 departing missionaries going to Liberia and Nigeria, so that was nice being able to assist in setting them apart, then lots of teaching that day.

Friday, we had our own zone meeting but had to leave early unfortunately to get taxi all the way to Jui to meet the kissy zone leaders to give them money for the Lungi Elders district funds because they ran out, then headed back and got to go and see some people,

then Saturday was the sweet sweet baptism, and the rest of the day was spent proselyting our faces off.

Sunday was sweet and I was privliged to confirm Abdulai Samura and it ws really sweet and he was super excited...maybe one of my last confirmations for a very long time...at least for the living ;) but then spent the rest of that day out teaching as well, and follow calls in the vening form Thursday night to Sunday night, so were pretty exhausted from that,

but we ran into town this morning, ditching our own zones super pday haha, and I took all the measurements to the tailors and material people and hopefully will be getting some fine africana clothes for my wonderful family, or at least trying my best, then came home and elder stanford  had found some clippers and tried to barb my hair and WHOAH was it WAY too short, and then it died after the first swipe, so I put a hat on and we went down the street and somebody, Ogggaaaaaa, is his name :) he finished up my hair after laughing at my silly haircut and now we look like stinking marines haha our hair is so short you can see our white scalps, but whatever right, its not like I'm trying to impress anyone :) Just as long as I am an appropriate representative of Jesus Christ, but to be honest I look more like a mercenary than anything right now...but, small small, life is great and I am loving it...not too much to say but I love you all, work is sweet ,keep it going till the end!

Love,

Jesse

Elder Sumrak

Working with wonderful missionaries

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

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

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

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

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

I love you all, keep on enjoying life!

Love,
Jesse
Elder Sumrak

Blessings of Sierra Leone

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

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

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

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

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

Love,
Elder Sumrak 

Loved the Phone Call

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elder Jesse Sumrak

Heel Clicks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Jesse

Elder Sumrak

3 Miracles

Hello Hello! Sorry for my delay and writing this on Tuesday, we had independence day weekend here, and if holidays fall on a weekend here, they immediately extend to that Monday...not sure if the rest of the world does that, maybe, but its pretty interesting. So, yesterday, instead, we went to a district meeting by my boy Elder Rogers and he did incredible. His instruction was the exact instruction we have been giving around the mission so it was fun to see me and my pikin were receiving the same revelation to share with the missionares. After that, we made our way home the back way through Grafton again and boy did things get crazy in Hill Station. At first, just a couple of drunks dressed up in the road in halloween outfits, like zombies and spiderman, which was kinda entertaining...then as the taxi progressed the entire road was blocked off by hundreds of drunk/high crazy people just going nuts and so many devils were out going crazy and it honestly changed from that's kinda funny, wow this is annoying, to this is sick and gross, to I believe this city needs to be purged! we were pretty freaked out and depressed by what we witnessed and were sick in our hearts for the rest of the day at the iniquity we saw in even drunk 12 year olds and just it hurts my heart to even think about it...things got worse as our caravan of taxis slowly made its way down the hill, as we approached our drop off point and realized that there were 3 devils in the vicinity and a drunk man with a hunting rifle and a beer in the other hand leading what looked to be a mob...so, we payed extra and went to the next junction to grab another longer but different taxi route. arrived at our last location and the street was just crazy with more drunks and partiers, so we made our way down to some back streets and some football fields and got to the mission office and was able to get a notice out to all missionaries to return home...so that is the fun and excitement of Sierra Leone independence day, way too much alcohol....oh wicked and perverse nation that we love so very much, defininitely increases my zeal and "oh that I were an angel" as I go out declaring repentance to my beautiful people of Sa Lone...Settled in yesterday and took care of lots of office work, then even had time to play monopoly with the district again...I must brag in that I completely annihalated everyone with Boardwalk and must brag further by saying I am on a 4 year unbeaten streak continuing all the way back to when I destroyed Thomas / Laura/ and Nate back when I was visiting BYU for the first time...btw, I am dumb and remember THESE sorta things, forgive me of my pride, I love you all :)

Today we had our pday and spent hours in the bank waiting for money and then got some hamburgers, bought a sweet africana shirt, then made our way on home..now...email. yay!

As for the rest of the week, last Tuesday we went and visited Kissy for a zone meeting and it was great to see my old buddies, Nwosu...Penia, Mongalo, Rogers and honestly too many others to name them all. The meeting went well.   We came on home and took care of some work and even got out to see our wonderful family man A. before taking transport to arrive at Lumley by 9:00....oh, it was hard finding the apartment off in the wasteland in the dark, but we found it and settled in nicely with the great missionaries there. Elder Bogh and Richardson and Hartling and the 2 tongans. They all prepared a WONDERFUL meal for us all and we sat down to dinner with smoothies and pasta and just a delicious dinner, sweet time with those guys, then spent a wonderufl day on exchange in the Goderich area with the man Elder Bogh. Honestly, one of the most intelligent people I have ever met and just a great missionary who proseltyes and does his finding with a temple magazine, which he uses so artfully and magnificently. Great exchange, then got home late that night.

Thursday, up early and out the door to go to Jui and then Hastings to go and meet the elders there to aid them in their weekly planning. They are very young  but we were able to help them out considerably, but it went for so long, but we eventually made our way home and then had to take care of lots of office work and our own weekly planning and made it out to go see a person real quick.

Friday, we had our last sisters training meeting over in Congo Cross and it went really well, though it was super hot and everyone was dying. We had a great meeting with them and then were able to come home and spend a bit of time out proselyting, which was really nice.

Saturday, we had a FULL day out proselyting and were so excited that we just rushed out the door and got to work. We found a super sweet guy during our contacting in a new area we had never been and we were just on fire having a great time and just really feeling the spirit. Taught, M., a young father of 3, and then got bounced around considerably by our family appointments and pretty much only the wives and children were home for all the appointments...except for our beloved man A., who we had a great lesson with on the Book of Mormon, and then we had our 1st FM (free meal) as a companionship for an enjoyable and hot Fry stew on rice from sister Loyce.

Sunday...we felt inspired to fast on Sunday for some wonderful families who promised to come to church, and we just wanted it so bad and we just wanted some miracles to happen in these people's lives..and boy did it happen. The Lord poured out so many wonderful blessings to us on Sunday that we were just drowning in smiles and laughter and just an amazing day that we know the Lord gave us in his infinite mercy! First, we went down the street and down in to the valley to where a crippled man lives who we were teaching a while ago. His foot is broken and he has no medical help, so its pretty much permanently broken...but, he has never come to church before...but felt a prompting that he should and prayed that the Lord would help him...so, we showed up in the morning and pretty much said, we are here to help you go to church, so he hollered at his boys, grabbed his walking stick and we got him up the cliff, up the stairs, and into the church...it wasn't until we visited his family that evening that he confessed to us that THAT was the first time he had crossed the road in over a year an a half...what a miracle! He could hardly even walk, but had the faith to go to church and testified to everyone in the compound that the church was true and he was going to be baptized (the muslims weren't much happy about that)  Good times! That was miracle 1! Miracle 2, we were pretty disappointed when HE was the only investigator in sacrament though after our hard work that whole week, but half way through sacrament our family came...brother S, with his wife, and 2 young girls in his arms. WHAT! The whole room watched and stared at them and our ward mission leader rushed over across the room to us and was like IS THAT your family? and we were like yes! Brother S. is a big man in the community and well respected by everyone, his children (ages 3 and 5) speak better English then our bishopric can! It was so awesome for him to finally come after we have been teaching him for such a long while now, and immediately the members all understood and helped in miracle 3. they all just swarmed this family with love. the intermediate hymn starts and immediately 3 members are surrounding them with books helping them sing. as soon as sacrament ends the entire bishopric and even President Charles from the stake went and introduced themselves and then President Charles went to elders quorum with S. and Sister Charles stayed with the wife and the kids the whole day, it was amazing...oh yeah, not to mention that area authorities were there...2nd quorum of the 70 Elder Vinson was there and even got to talk to Elder Koranteng of the area authorities as well. so sweet! Elder Vinson gave an amazing talk that really hit S., so we were super excited!

Went and got to visit A. and his family and his wife is warming up to us, or now is! because she cooked us cassave leaf and we had prayed and fasted and told the Lord that we would fast until evening or unless a miracle happened and one of our families cooked for us, and she did! so that was another miracle that opened her heart to us :)

Then, on to S. T.and his family and we got to sit down with him and boy he just loved church and his wife wants to come back next Sunday and it was just awesome but he had a whole sheet of concerns that we were able to address all through the spirit and scriptures and it was honestly one of my favorite most powerful lessons of my whole mission. Answering concerns from offerings, collection, praise and worship, dancing, fasting, prayers, miracles, speaking in tongues, unpaid clergy, boy it was a bunch of questions, but we answered EVERYTHING through the Book of Mormon and he is really growing in his testimony of it :) finished the day nicely and came on home to prepare for the next day of fun and ceaseless miracles, the Lord truly blessed us and we are trying to be grateful for every blessing big and small!

by the way, Christiana Samba just emailed me, this is her email address
​christiana.samba​@myldsmail.net
I encourage anyone and everyone to write her, even if something is small. She is a convert to the church and has NO family or anyone supporting her while she is gone so I am sure she would love and appreciate even the slightest bit of attention or time you could offer...thank you!:)

Well...yeah, that is the work right now, we are enjoying and working hard and loving mission. life is great! we love mission! love you all!:)

Love,
Jesse
Elder Sumrak

JOY

Hello family and Friends! Oh, my Easter started out depressing...I was struggling so hard to just focus and try to feel the spirit but was really down after a busy busy week that we had worked our butts off to fit in every second we could to go proselyte to only have 1 investigator in sacrament meeting, a wonderful young 21 year old guy who is just changing from Islam and its fun to watch the transformation, but we had taught so many people and so many people had promised to come that the service was just really rough for us to concentrate...but, after I was on the phone with some missionaries, when we realized one of our wonderful families was coming out of the other ward's sacrament meeting!:) The giant ripped father wearing a white shirt and carrying his small daughter in her little white dress and his step daughter at his side, I almost cried with excitement :) we got him with the other missionaries to take care of him for the rest of the day and then hugged my companion in sweet relief and excitement...our hard work this week had not been in vain...we had found a family...a man I had been prompted to engage for a long time now and we finally did it and he is truly prepared to receive the gospel, and I'm so thankful to my Heavenly Father for that tender mercy...It made the whole rest of Easter Sunday sweet as we testified to everyone about the Atonement and literal resurrection of our Living savior, Jesus Christ and it was a wonderful note to end the week on! Even if we were doing follow ups in the office until 10:28 at night haha... 

But...on to my week. Tuesday we caught some transport over to Wellington to go and attend Elder Mongalo's wonderful district meeting and he truly enlightened us and it was very edifying. He talked about our special message to the world, the restoration of the GOSPEL and not the restoration of the CHURCH, and he focused on how the gospel was the more important part of the messsage, and how we can sometimes fall into the routine of focusing too much on how the church was restored instead of the fullness of the everlasting gospel. so it was a good refesher and we saw plenty of spiritual miracles as we went out and fully applied it in our teaching throughout the week. Very sweet meeting and getting transport home didn't prove TOO difficult this time around. Wednesday was supposed to be a full day of proselyting but due to project after project and little disturbances we only got in around a couple hours in the end...but, we did our best with what we had. Thursday was another downer day as we went over to Mt. Aureol to go observe and aid in their weekly planning sessions but were forced to retreat to the office for an emergency missionary departing that day and had crazy day plugging in CDEs and doing weekly planning for ourselves and then no time to even go out, just straight to follow ups, so of course the Lord in his mercy blessed us with a magnificent Friday. 

Friday we got up early and caught Poda Poda around the back way of Grafton and made it to our sister training meeting 45 minutes early due to the easiness of the traffic that way, which was a mighty blessing. Elder Weller and Mosenthal joined us to instruct our wonderful sister trainer leaders and missionaries and it was a really superb meeting and we all left edified and wanting to do better and do more, so that was sweet! Then, we rushed home, enjoying wonderful Clif bars courtesy of mother dearst and went straight out to the field and got to see some wonderful people and had a very uplifiting day of teaching ALL families. Just mother and father and children at almost every appointment, so that was super sweet! came home, follow ups with sisters,  but we enjoy it all as much as we can... 

Saturday...not so sweet, we went over to the sisters apartment in congo cross in the morning to replace their lightbulbs...again, and then rushed into airtel in town to get all of our missionaries numbers registered and the process is so stupid and long that they have to manually put in each number and take my picture and get my thumb print...not once, but 15 STINKING TIMES! It took about 2 and a half hours as they would enter in ALL my information, take my picutre, wait for me to scan my thumb, and gosh they are so slow...and for the record, YOU DON"T HOLD DOWN THE CAPS LOCK BUTTON AND TRY TO USE IT LIKE SHIFT, IT JUST DOESN"T WORK! but, enough about that, I love these sweet people :) at least they are trying. So, with that frustration done, we finally got home and managed to salvage some of the day in the field and teach some wonderful people...so all in all a super duper busy week full of success and miracles and we are just trying to stay as busy as possible, with another insanely busy week of training, exchanges, and zone meetings and the like, so we are very excited for all of that! 

Football today was a lot of fun and I had a good day of dancing and goal scoring and the sun stayed away mostly so I'm not pink at least ;) but, Life is great and we are exhausted and I'm about to take a nap in this office to be honest, that would be really nice...maybe I will get my prayer mat and just pass out...so sweet, life is great, just keeping busy and working hard here, I love and pray for you all, thank you for your prayers and encouragement, it means so much to me!:) 

Love, 
Jesse 
Elder Sumrak

And how could I forget...Christiana Samba left for her mission Friday morning. I got her a mini hymnbook and preach my gospel and we said our goodbyes. She looked so mature and happy and scared and I'm just so proud of her. Only her sister came to see her off, and I imagine that nobody will be writing her throughout her mission except me, so anyone that wants to write this sister just let me know and I'll give you her email address :) So happy to think that she might have entered the temple today, or sometime this week! Oh, joy :)