Jersey City Week 2, Week 56 of mission

Hola Familia,

Sounds like things were super fun and happy at the wedding (cousin Lauren in CA) this past week. Props to  Lauren and Trevor. That's awesome. Glad to hear that almost the whole Montgomery side was there, except a few others and a few missionaries. But don't worry. We are livin' a good life out here!

This week was so good. Things are finally starting to settle down and set in. I finally got over the fact I'm in the middle of a giant city, well maybe not entirely- this place is crazy, but it is feeling a lot better. I feel so blessed to be here. Its so fun being surrounded by all these people. I have had a ton of people just stop us in the street to talk about the Mormons. Some a little drunk or so and others just asking real, sincere questions. You never know what you will get. Zone Leader responsibilities are settling in too. I love being able to help all these missionaries in the zone. We had an awesome 2 1/2 hour zone meeting on Tuesday.  We ran the whole thing, and gave some trainings and had the sister training leaders give trainings and one other missionary. Then some role plays!! So good. We have tons of new missionaries in the zone who are tearing it up.

So guess what! We had a real baptism yesterday! So sweet. This guys name is Al--- from El Salvador. Super spiritual guy. Right when he stepped into the water he bowed his head and said a personal prayer for about a minute. So touching. It all went well and President Taggart came. It was super spiritual. Elder Drewes and the other missionaries before had been teaching him for 7 months and so I kind of just walked into it.  I really only had the chance to teach him once or so. Great guy though. So nice to see a real baptism again. We will be teaching in the follow-up lessons this week.

This week we were able to go on exchange with President Taggart on Wednesday. Well, he really came with Elder Drewes and I all day from 1 to 9. It was a great experience. He has a lot of really good ideas about being more service oriented like the Savior was. So we spent some time at a rest home with some older folks and got to talk to some of the nurses working there as well. President Taggart is also really pushing to bring back less actives who hold the Priesthood to bring their families and help build the Lord's Kingdom. Powerful stuff. We went to our Bishop's house and we ate some super good Mexican tostadas and then we were able to talk with him and President Taggart about some less actives we could go visit this week. Very impressive exchange. And the most stressful 8 hours of my mission. Ha! just kidding

We taught this awesome member yesterday named Hmo Amp--- with our ward mission leader. This guy is super nice and sincere. He is from Columbia. He hasn't been coming to church lately because he lives in Hoboken which is far from everyone else in the ward and nobody has been reaching out to him. We just went to cheer him up. We talked with him for awhile and then all 4 of us shared our favorite scripture. He loved it. We are going to lunch with him on Wednesday so he can show us what real Columbian food is like.

We are also teaching this investigator named Ne---. He is very spiritual. I could just feel the Spirit right when we were in his house. He is doing good. We taught him about God's love and repentance this past week, and we should be putting him on baptismal date this week.

Things are going good. Glad to hear that Sam got his license as well. That's whats up. Cant wait to drive with him.

Love you all,

Elder Sumsion

Thank you for the package this past week. The shirts are perfect. That will be good for now. Thanks for the Cholula sauce as always! Love it. I didn't have any in this apartment I'm in. I will send some pictures!

Answer to my questions:

Yes me and Elder Drewes get along super well. Best companion so far in the mission. There is no tension or conflict between us. Our apartment is in a good area. Safe place, like a block off Journal Square. It really only gets a little sketchy down in Greenville and on Ocean Ave. That isn't in our area but its in the zone. A new missionary and his trainer are there right now! We have to drive through it every once in awhile. And plus its not even that bad. No trouble or anything. I feel 100% safe.