October 20th, 2014
Hello family!
So happy to hear that things are going great. I am so glad
that you mom and dad had a wonderful trip and are safely on your way home. Cant
wait to see some more pictures (If there are any left after your phone broke.)
But hey what matters is that you had a fun time together and saw some cool
places. Maybe not the pictures to remember is all but you both know it and
someday we will be able to remember everything. That's how I feel out here all
the time. I wish I could get so many pictures and write down and remember
all the amazing moments and all the amazing people and all the hard times and
all the good times. And as much as I try, there is always so much that I
can't document but I can at least be happy for the times that I know I have
had. Every second out here is worth writing about. Ha but I will try to
get more pictures for you. Its just sometimes not on the top of my mind. So
happy you were safe though and Sam had a good time with Alex and Shaylise. I
love the fact that you looked for missionaries there too! Ha I think its
funny about how different all the missions are in the world, but all us
missionaries are carrying the same message.
We did a big service project about a week ago at Liberty
State Park (island where statue of liberty is) with about 40 missionaries and a bunch of Muslims and different
people in the community here. We were planting tulip bulbs all around the park
for next spring. However, when we woke up that morning though to find it cold
and raining. So we all threw on the coats that we had and by the end up it we
were all so wet and muddy. Its nice to go out and do some service like that.
Everyone was so happy despite the fact that it was cold and all wet. I just
love the missionaries here in this mission. They are always so happy and humble
and ready to work and serve. We were talking and laughing with everyone the
whole day. Its a blessing to be with such solid missionaries. Honestly, our
zone is amazing. They are all such hard workers. There is never any problems,
only people getting sick. Ha
I went on exchange this past week with one of the new
missionaries in the zone named Elder Pastene. I was hoping to teach him some
things but turned out that he is an awesome new missionary and I
learned a lot from him. He is from Vina del Mar, Chile. He is in the
English program here and when he got to the mission 3 months ago, he couldn't
speak of lick of English. But wow only a few months later he already speaks so
well! He is so committed to speaking English. He is so funny too. All day he
would speak to me in English and then all of the sudden, he would stop and say,
"wait I need to explain this part in Spanish" Ha so then he would
explain the rest of a story to me in Spanish, then I
would often talk back in Spanish then he would respond in English. Ha
it was a fun day with him. We worked Elder Drewes' and My area.
We had a great exchange also this week with one of the
assistants. Ha it was actually Elder Wilcox who came with us. Just a transfer
ago he was in our zone as a powerful missionary and we were going on
exchange with him. Now the roles are switched where he came as assistant on
exchange to help us on and teach with us. So awesome though. He is
always thinking of new ideas to help out the mission and asking us what we
thought about it and would give him feedback then he would always say ,"ok
I will talk with my companions some more about it." We have three
assistants right now and they are some amazing missionaries. So loving and
focused on us missionaries and how we can better fulfill our purpose. Also we
got quadruple chunked that day. We ate 4 meals in 6 hours.
Found a new investigator Ju--- last week. We were blessed
enough to have another lesson with him and his son this week. He didn't read
the part in the Book of Mormon we left him, so we talked to him and explained
the importance of reading, pondering, and praying about the truthfulness of the
Book of Mormon. That combined with the Spirit is the only way to conversion.
Everyone needs a testimony about The Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith because
once you know that is true, everything else falls into place and the rest has
to be true. God's plan truly is perfect.
I love you all!
Elder Sumsion
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| Rutgers baby. Uncle Todd sent me this |
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| The Man the myth and the legend. Elder Packer! |
Ocotber 14, 2014
Whats up Family!
Cant believe you are in Spain right now, parents! So sweet. Dad, so crazy how much the church has grown in
Spain since you have been there. All those seeds you planted are harvesting.
Crazy how you can remember the street names huh? I swear I walked down some
streets so many times in Short Hills, nothing will be able to pull that
knowledge from me. Keep getting pictures and having fun. I love seeing the
smiles on you faces!
We had some heavy meetings this week. Dense with the Spirit.
First off, we had a big zone meeting on Tuesday. We had been planning for a few
days for it. We do this meeting at the beginning of every month with our whole
zone. The meeting went great! The schedule this past one went like this:
--Announcements
Opening prayer, hymn, monthly scripture.
Accountability (for the zone goal we had)
Training about Working better with members (we asked an
x-zone leader to train about it)
Training about revelation (from us)
Role plays for 30 min
Closing---
The whole thing took like 2 1/2 hours. It went super well.
For Accountability it was pretty fun and spiritual. We had each companionship
act out a moment in the week where they showed charity. There was some
spiritual stories, and some pretty funny stories. The was one about a
companionship that went to a Dominican Barber shop for a haircut. There was a
misunderstanding and the barber ended up cutting this big part-line down the
side of their head. (Its a big style here in Jersey City). Looks pretty sweet
but pretty contrary to a formal missionary haircut. Ha just think of the Utah
missionary with this shaved line down the side of his head where the part in
his hair is. Ha so they showed charity and didn't flip out when it happened.
For our training on revelation we shared a story that we made up about a miner.
His mine entrance collapsed except for a little hole that his son could get
through. So the son had to go through the mine in the dark listening to his
father's voice to find the trapped miners and bring them back to his presence.
It turned out pretty sweet and spiritual as we related it to missionary work.
Our zone is full of a bunch of boss missionaries. I love them
On Wednesday and Thursday we had the big Leadership Training
from 8-4. My all time favorite meeting in the missionary. Its for the new
missionaries. I have written about it a few times. This was the third time I
had gone. The first, when I was a new missionary. The second when I trained.
And now as a zone leader. So I have gotten to see all sides of it. Ha it was a
little different as a zone leader though. This time we got to do a 20 minute
training in front of all these new missionaries, trainers, Sister Training
Leaders, zone leaders, the assistants, and President and Sister Taggart. We
counted about 80 missionaries there! So it was intense. Probably the biggest
training I have had to do in my life and for 20 min. Turned out super good
though. So fun that Sister Taggart sent that video to you! Ha that was right in
the middle of our training switching from our demo to our teaching part. I know
it meant a lot for you mom! Ha I was super thankful to her for doing it. How
did the training sound? Ha no jk.
Well we were training about "How to Begin
Teaching" from Chapter 10 Preach My Gospel. We started off with this funny
skit where us missionaries were teaching this new investigator who had no idea
who we were. We were expecting to baptized him and he thought we were
there to teach him how to drive. We got a few laughs. It was super fun. But
then we explained about why it is so clear to teach our investigators about WHY
we are there. The first few moments with an investigator are extremely
important so they know we are there to help them progress to covenants with God
like baptism and not there to teach them to drive. Went super well. A few
missionaries came up after and told us how much they enjoyed it. It is weird to
be an older missionary and being an example HA I'm still trying to figure out
what I'm doing! Ha no but we did tons of role plays too. These new missionaries
who are coming in teach like bosses. They amaze me. So prepared to be servants
of God.
Loving life as a missionary. Thanks for the package this
past week. Have fun in Espana!!! be safe.
Love you
Elder Sumsion
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