Jersey City - Weeks 10 and 11

Sorry - I was out of town to post these...

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

Rutgers baby. Uncle Todd sent me this

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

Jersey City - Week 9 - "This is the Life"

Things are going great! I loved General Conference this past weekend. What inspirational talks. I just

General Conference Sunday

feel pumped to go out and work and live a more righteous life. But I totally know what you mean as in the whole thing just flew by. We had meetings right up to the start and a lesson in between sessions and after we gave a few blessings. Ha it was just running from Conference session, to a lesson, back to Conference, to home, then back to conference, and somewhere in the middle of all that we found time to eat and sleep. So good though. Loved the part too mom where it talked about not abandoning old ship Zion. Just stay with it. I just thought it was interesting that they talked so much about Joseph Smith and sustaining our modern day prophet, President Thomas S Monson. And how they talked about asking God about truth. You can have questions, you can have doubts, just like Joseph Smith did when he was a boy, but always ask God for the truth not worldly sources. God is the source of all truth. I just love that. Go will answer all prayers in His own time. Don't let questions delay you from reaping the blessings of the Gospel. I just loved that.

As for the rest of the week: Time was well spent between learning and teaching. We had our big monthly Mission Leader Council this past week. Things went well. It was a little tough with the change of mission Presidents the past few months. Just things are different and lots of changes. The meeting was really good though and we all got caught up and things are all starting to click. But the things which President Taggart have brought are exactly what this mission has been needing. I have seen that in a lot of the missionaries I have been working with. Especially myself. Its crazy cool to see how sustaining and following an inspired leader can make things so much better. He is an inspired man! NJMM is going BIG!

We went and tried to teach Nu--- this week at her house. But when we got there she actually wasn't there. But instead her brother and dad were there. Which turned out to be a miracle because the brother (who is like 40 or so) was baptized when he was a teen. Ha we didn't realize it at first but he knew just way to much about missions so we thought that there is no way this guy hasn't had tons of connection with the church. Turns out he was baptized when he was 14 and kind of fell away when he was 18. We are starting to help him come back. We really just took things slow with him and just listened to his story and talked about prayer again. It was really touching to see him have desires to learn about God again.

We had some awesome lessons with a few members this past week. They are so solid. This one member Ja--- is a returning member and is so committed to her calling. She works with some of the children in our ward with mental handicaps. But she just loves them so much. She has a couple of facebook pages that she runs that helps her and other members around the world work better with primary kids with these handicaps. Oh she is so solid. Our Bishop's wife and family have us over every other week. Bomb Peruvian food, and such a strong Spirit in there house. They little daughter who is like 5 cracks us up. She always says things how they really are. It is so funny.

Our mission is actually bigger than I think I came across last week. We actually have 12 zones with 12 Zone leader companionships, and I think 6 companionships of Sister Training Leaders. The meeting last week with Elder Anderson where I was with 8 other zone leaders was just a third or so of the mission. But guess what... things are starting to shrink again. Our mission will start getting less missionaries than receiving. The main 'bubble' wave of missionaries is starting to go home.

So glad to hear that family BOM study is going strong. That is exactly what the Apostles talked about yesterday with having continual spiritual revelation. Its not just a one time thing. Family and personal prayer and study are perfect for amping things up to the happiest way of life.

Sounds like things are fun with cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents. Love the pictures. Thank you for the package this past week too! We are living a good life. Thank you family I love you!

Elder Sumsion

I saw a sticker on the top of some gangster's car's windshield that said, "This is the life." Ha that's what I feel like everyday! Being a missionary is the life!

My 30 seconds of kickin it in the apartment

Jersey City - Week 8 - Hit the ground running

Wow this week felt nice. We had a few good solid days of no meetings but just pure missionary street work. I loved it. We got to talk to a bunch of people on the streets and in their homes again. usually we have a meeting or zone business (Which I love going to and helping out with) but it truly was nice to just settle in and teach people this week. Found some pretty cool people topping off with Sadan and his family yesterday on Sunday.

We were just trying a few names off the ward list yesterday in the afternoon and there was one name, Sa---, that we has planned to go try and find. Turned out we found ourselves in this pretty hood street, just full of graffiti and people drinking, but we walked over to this house and found a guy named Car--- who turned out to be Sa---'s dad. He was deep blooded Catholic and not too open at first but he let us in to talk to his son. Sa--- is the cool 22 year old, from the Dominican Republic and has been here for 4 years. Baptized when he was 14 but he couldn't find a church when he and his family moved to America. He said he has been waiting for the missionaries or someone in the church to come find him to show him where the church was for the past 4 years. The coolest part is is that he totally has a desire to come to church and he is free on the weekends. We taught him about families and prayers. The dad, Car---, actually jumped in and participated in the lesson too. Truly a miracle to find them. We are pumped.

We saw I--- and the family on Tuesday. Man, it was the most touching lesson ever. I--- and Je--- were in tears halfway through it because of how grateful they are for the Gospel in their lives and how much power and strength it has given them in their family. Truly they have become such a happy family. They are so solid and active not only in the church but also in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I feel like they are my good friends. I am happy to come to Jersey City just so I could meet them all. There are more people like them that are out there that are so thirsty for the truth in their lives, Im just praying to find them and know what to do when I do.

So we showed up (it was planned) at S--- y P---'s house and we walk in and the first thing they said to us was," We found another Bedbug last night!" Oh my goodness. I was ready to make a dash for the door or jump out the window when I heard that. I never want to see one of those again. So we didn't want to be rude and we stayed and ate with them and taught them. But man, I was just looking over my shoulder every second looking for more bedbugs crawling on me. Luckily we found none. We have been praying so hard in our apartment so that we don't have anymore! Those things just made sleeping a pain. So we are going for miracles and praying we didn't bring anything home from their house!

We got double stuffed Mongu-ed (heavy Dominican meal) this last week. Or as we say it here in zone 4 "getting chunked" which means getting fed A LOT. So if one missionary was asking another about what he was doing that day he would say," Hey what are your plans for 6 today?" The other missionary would respond,"Oh we are getting chunked at the Martinez family's house tonight." Meaning that they were about to get fed pounds and pounds of food . Ha we ate Mongu with one member and then we planned (Kind of our fault, but totally worth it.) two hours later to learn how to make it with another member. So he taught us how to make it then we ate it. I can actually make it for you all when I get home now. Although I don't know if you would want to eat it. 4 out of the 5 ingredients are fried. Ha so not the most healthy thing, which is crazy to me because it is like one of the biggest meals in the DR. 

Things are going good. So excited for Chloe that she is training right now. And Connor too! Pray for them tons. Training is probably the most intense part of missionary work possible and requires the most trust in the Lord. Its actually the most carefully selected calling in missionary work too! Meaning their calling is a very sacred responsibility and the Lord trusts them tons. 

I love you all.

Elder Sumsion

 ...

Ha no we run three times a week. And then do body building the other days.

Getting "chunked" eating  yummy Mongu.