Ironbound Week 7 - Trainer

How it going family! Quite the week we just had. Pretty busy and lots of work to get done! Training is going awesome. My new companion is Elder Marquez from Sacramento, California, and truly already a solid missionary. He is very smart and likes thinking things though very detailed. So he brings tons of awesome ideas, most of them I am like wow never thought of doing that! He sees a need or a problem and then thinks of tons of solutions to get it done. So its been going good. His dad is from Columbia and mom from California and all the members think he Mexican, its pretty funny. He didn't speak any Spanish with his dad at home so he is still learning a lot. But we well get his Spanish rolling in no time. For now, I have had to do a lot of the talking and teaching and doing my best to get him more involved in lessons and Spanish situations. We get an extra  hour of comp study so we are doing tons of role plays to get it going. I have no doubt he will be a boss missionary in no time because he pretty much already is!

 The zone got changed up a ton too. A lot of fun missionaries came/stayed in the Newark zone. Elder Nelson stayed as zone leader here which I am grateful for. Elder Sales, my old district leader stayed. Elder Warnock came here. He has been a good friend since the beginning. We served as zone leaders at the same time and he served as a zone leader with Elder Aspinall, so we all talked and hung out a lot. He is from Bountiful. His dad is Brent Warnock, his dad went to Viewmont? I dont know if you know him, dad. But a boss. Sister Josse (the one who has her aunt in Park City who you went to visit mom) came to the zone too. I dont know if you really know any of these people I mentioned. haha probably not. But to make things simple: I am surrounded by boss missionaries and some good friends. Starting with my comp so things are good.

We taught M--- a few times this past week. Went through a lot of the commandments with him. I think Elder Marquez was pretty excited to teach him too because we do a lot of less active work here so he was pumped to go see an investigator and a progressing one too! We taught him the Gospel, 10 commandments (with handsigns to remember), follow the prophet, and law of chastity. He accepted them all and doing great. We may have to move his baptism back a week. We haven't been able to see him as much as we would like because he randomly gets called into work or his home late from work. He didn't make it to church this last week. But he has such strong desires. We are seeing miracles with him. He lives pretty far from our house. Its like a hike to get home sometimes. We are looking into the bus schedule but the traffic moves really slow here and it'll probably be faster walking anyway. 

We ate Cuy for the first time last night. (Shout out to Elder Peters!) I have been dying to try it here. It is an Ecuadorian dish. Its pretty much Guinea Pig but a little bigger than the ones here in america. This stuff was imported from Ecuador. The members that fed it to us said that they tasted better from Ecuador, so they had their family send some. Pretty good, tasted like BBQ pork but a little tangier flavor. A lot of bone and skin and not a lot of meat. But the stuff you could get off was good. They are some boss members named Fanny and Pablo. They were baptized a year ago or so. He was a professional shoe shiner so he also gave us a quick shoe shine for free! ha they are the best.

We have been looking for more people to teach. Story of my mission. Story of every mission. We have been walking a lot and trying tons of people. We weren't able to find any last week but a few potentials. The weather has been weird. Snow then sunny then snow then sunny. After daylight saving yesterday it felt like summer just hit. It is pretty warm now outside. I love the feeling of being able to proselyte at 7 and its still bright outside. In the winter it gets dark at like 4:30. So it really feels like spring is coming which is scary because its almost my last season here. I read this in the Bible last week as I was studying Matthew, made my heart jump :

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:"

Haha Jesus just reminded me to keep working hard until the end.

Doing great, working hard. Thanks for the food and handwarmers! I am soooo glad you got some skiing in and got to go with the Harris too. Sam, your outfit looks fresh. Cant wait to shred with you.  And sooo pumped that the stake ice skating turned out good. I am praying for you all. Thank you for being such a heavenly family. You mean so much to me!

I love you all,

Elder Sumsion

Ironbound Week 6

To my family,

So much has happened this last week. I don't even know where to start. I feel like a lot of crazy things happened that earlier in my mission would've stressed me out majorly but I feel like I handled it all pretty well this last week. I have developed more of a just "roll with it" attitude.  Thursday night roles around. We get halfway through planning when Im like uh oh President is calling. I answer and yeah I got called to be a trainer again. Pretty sweet. I wasnt really expecting it. I was actually praying a lot to just stay here with Elder Andrus for another but I am pretty grateful for the trust The Lord has in me and President Taggart has in me to call me to train again. Either that or they are giving me another shot because I messed up last time. Round II. Haha nah im messing. But train away! It will be a good couple of weeks. Ill probably be here for the next 12 weeks which I am pumped for. This area is seriously heaven. Not feeling too stressed about training, honestly. Im really just planning on being myself. I feel like people try to put themselves at some higher level sometimes or try to be better than they really are when they train but hey Im just going to keep living and working my mission as I've always done and look for progression. We are going to have some fun and flipping work our legs off and our hearts until the end! 

We taught two of our recent converts last week how to make and eat french toast. We went over at 8 to their house and cooked some up with them. They didn't have syrup and neither did we so we had to go buy some. Haha the look on their faces were so funny when they were eating it. They would swallow and say yeah I like it, but the look on their face said otherwise. You have to realized these people are used to eating bread and soup for breakfast. It was pretty funny.

M--- is progressing so well. A few weeks ago he was like Elders Im moving and we were like oh flip that means we wont be able to teach him anymore. He kept saying pasando el puente which is like just over the bridge. We were thinking just over the bridge! Thats Kearny and the sister's area. Turns out he meant the highway bridge and he still lives in Harrison, which is part of our area! We were pumped. Taught him the word of wisdom this last week. He was like "What I cant drink wine, come on Elderes. and no tea?" Ha we were like well this is a commandment from God and we explained that its not about what the commandment is but rather if the commandment is from God or not. After a while he was like," Alright I'll live it." So sweet. And he was supposed to work yesterday and couldn't go to church but he called us yesterday morning and told us he could come! He is awesome and excited for his Baptism.

Its been quite the week though. The zone is getting split I think. So many crazy changes. Before it was pretty easy to tell what was going on with transfers but now it is like impossible. They are cutting areas and combing others and doubling out zone leaders. It is just nuts and hey I am just rolling with it. Elder Nelson my zone leader is staying. He is a boss and been a good friend since my like 2nd transfer so Im pumped for that. This zone is super close.

Summer is coming. Haha we have had three sunny days this past week! Snow is melting. It snowed last night like 4 inches but its pretty much all melted already! Im pretty pumped for spring and the warm weather. Thank you so much for the package of the handwarmers and thermals. Winter isn't quite over yet so they will be put to use. Ill share them with my new companion as well. Pretty excited.

Hope all is well.  Keep up the work with RS mom. You are changing lives. 

Love you, 

Elder Sumsion 

Ironbound weeks 4 and 5

Feb 16th, 2015

Hola Familia,

Wow what is up.  I cant believe Utah isn't living up to its snow potential this year. But I've been praying a lot so get ready for a massive powder year this next year. Haha nah but hey the snow is following me. We got some more snow out here this past week. We have mounds of it in the roads and a few fresh inches on the sidewalks right now. The whole town is covered with salt and snow. Ill send a picture of my shoes all salted up.  Its pretty cold out here seriously but its really not that bad. On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday it dropped pretty low. It said 6 degrees but snap there was some heavy wind out there too. Ha on Sunday night we had to walk from Harrison to the Ironbound over the Passaic River on the Bridge. It was unreal ha so windy and cold it was funny. We were allowed to stay in at times if we felt prompted but we had a lot of lessons we were running around to. So we were inside for most of it and it really wasn't too bad. We bundle up quite a bit. 

Snow Boom Landed in Jersey

It has been a quick week. One of the quickest of my mission. We were just constantly teaching and walking and making calls. I dont know but it flew by. We got to see our investigator, M, this past week again. We taught about the Book of Mormon and reviewed the Introduction with him then we both power our testimonies and invited him to pray. He said he would and he was pretty willing to go to church. Nobody really has cars here but we have a few members that do so we set up a ride for him and he came to church this last week. One obstacle we are trying to jump right now is that the owners of the house he lives in doesn't like having visitors come over so he is looking for a different place to live. Hopefully it is close and we can keep teaching this guy. He really is a miracle. If not, there are a lot of other boss missionaries everywhere in Jersey so he will be in good hands. but for now we are praying that he stays in ours! Ha I just really like teaching him.

Getting chunked again this last week. Holy smokes these people like to cook for us but its so inconsistent when. Ha one day we get fed 3 times and then the next we go hungry all day. its pretty funny. Never know what we will get. Funny food story of the week. We were coming back to home on p-day and we decided to go get something to eat. We decided to go try this little Mexican Taqueria aka heaven. The place was good and authentic but I decided to take a shot in the dark and go for tacos de cuero. Turns out I should've studied that word earlier because cueros means pigskin. Paid like 8 bucks to get some pig skin tacos. Ha jokes... But with enough Mexican hot sauce and a few onions... couldn't taste a thing.

We are working hard to go see all of the less active members in our area. We spent some time mapping them all out and we have been going through them all. Only 25% of our ward here is active. Im pretty sure only 25% of Jersey is active. Its a lot of less active work. Sometimes they are a little stubborn or lazy, but man do I love them all. It just grows on you real quick. I love teaching them and just doing all we can to help them build enough faith to make it to the Sacrament again. And its so cool to see them go. Teaching less actives really builds my faith in the Gospel too.  Sometimes its some pretty sad lives we are working with. Marriages broken, drugs, kids out of wedlock. But Ive realized that seriously many of these tragedies we are working with in life can be avoided if you just live the Gospel. I mean yeah, I realized that before my mission but things are different once your face to face with someone whose actual life is like that hard everyday. I really don't know how to help these people, but I do know that Christ does. So all we try to do is just help them build that faith until they trust Christ a little more. I know the Gospel and the principles behind it our true. And what great parents I have who have taught me that. Thank you!!! You've saved my life. And I will forever be grateful.

I love you all so much. Have a great week. Nice to see some CHILLTOWN rocking in the other Chilltown of the world. Haha  Thank you so much for the package as well. Thanks for being so creative too. Seriously its fun trying all this new stuff and candy. i love it. And the cute card with WE LOVE YOU. Ha I love you all so much

Elder Sumsion

SHoutouts

The Z family- Thanks for the fun puzzle letter card you sent. I know that was a while ago but it still sits on my desk and stares me in the face and every week I forget to give you thanks for it! SO thank you so much

Innis family- Thank you for the cookies and the card. My companion and I are enjoying them so much. Thank you!!!

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Feb 23, 2015

Family!

Things here have been a crunch week. Its like a big endure to the end competition. Who can survive the longest out in the snow walking around until you have to resort to any sort of cover? member, investigator, random door, pizza shop, church cathedral.  Ha seriously its like 20 minutes and then your cut to the bone. Its been nuts. We got snow for days and the cold with it. We definitely got into the negatives with some heavy wind chill. One member said Friday had the coldest morning in Jersey in the last 70 years. But all is well. The work keeps moving no matter how cold it ever gets. We wont back down. Not now, not ever.

So pretty exciting news this last week! Elder Bellevance and I got to go to the temple with J---, our recent convert in Jersey City. We have been planning and re-planning it for a while now because the temple was closed, but we finally pulled it all together and cleared up some time to go this last Saturday. It was pretty funny because we didn't have too much time to plan it all, but we were meeting J--- and Hermano T--- (old ward mission leader) at the temple at 9:30. So it was just Elder Bellavance and I with our one genius plan: get on the path train in Harrison and arrive in NY. After that we were just planning on finding our way to the temple ourselves.  We did it once with our zone but last time we had those two Senior missionaries guiding us. This time we were alone. Ha we get to the station in Harrison, turns out that there are three women from our ward here in Newark going to the temple too. (THANK YOU FROM BEN'S FAMILY )So we just tagged on with them and they guided us all the way there. Big miracle and we were able to get there on time. Man it was good to see Elder Bellavance again. He is such a good friend. We just got right back talking and joking around just like we had a transfer ago. Ha he is a boss missionary. In the temple we got to do like 20 confirmations and then 20 baptisms. So it was pretty rad. J--- loved it. We explained things to him carefully but he just loved being there I think. He was very grateful. Then we were banking on them taking us back to Jersey and they did but it was a very long route consisting of walking tons of blocks of New York. But eventually we did make it back home. It was snowing the whole day too. But seriously it was a cool feeling to be in the temple with J---. Someone we had helped baptize and now he is there doing baptisms for other people. I dont know, but I felt the Spirit super strong. It takes A LOT of work to get people to the point of doing baptisms. But it is God's work. He will provide. 

NYC temple w new convert J

Things are good. I know things are tough at times. I love that quote though mom, "Rather than allow them to destroy the peace and happiness that had come into my life.  I chose to set them aside for a season, TRUSTING THAT IN THE LORD’S TIME, HE WOULD REVEAL ALL THINGS.” I know there is a reason we have to struggle at times, but somehow there are always moments when we know for sure that it was worth it. Not just in the life to come but in this life as well. Seriously, the gospel isn't just for happiness in the next life, but happiness in this life. There are always moments that confirm our faith. So we all got to just keep rollin'. 

I love you!

Your son,

Elder Sumsion

Ironbound Week #3

Hola familia!

What a week we had here in the Ironbound. Things are going great and Im feeling amazing. Lots of changes but lots of good things going for us as well. It all started on Tuesday at zone meeting. First good thing: I got to listen and enjoy in zone meeting instead of having to be up there doing all the talking and trainings. Ha it was nice to listen and participate from the crowd. I love our zone leaders. Elder King and Elder Nelson. Elder King and I served together as district leaders back in Scotch plains. And Elder Nelson has been a good friend of mine and Elder Packer from the beginning. He came out one after us. They are super good friends. They taught a super powerful training and the spirit was there super strong at zone meeting. Basically this guy from SLC came last week and showed us that a lot of the things we had been doing were distracting us from our main purpose. I mentioned it a little last week but things like: paperwork for exchanges and accountability, reporting other numbers than the normal numbers (for example: number of contacts a week), and playing sports with investigators. I dont know there is a bigger list. But just a bunch of little things that slipped into the cracks that were keeping us from focusing on our main purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. I was a little hesitant about it at first because a lot of the changes were things which were normal for me for the last 18 months and now were doing something different. Imagine that kind of change. Its like we are going back fresh out of the MTC again. A lot of the older missionaries thought the same. But before this meeting I had been praying tons about it and for the help to follow the leaders and President Taggart. And I felt really good about it all and then the spirit was super strong in the meeting and BOOM I was pumped for the new changes. Turned out it took so much of a burden off this past week. These new changes are all about building companionship unity and not so much zone unity, and setting goals as a companionship not the leaders setting goals for championships. Its pretty cool stuff. A lot less stressful. I feel like we were all super number focused before, but now its all about the people are the motivated and numbers don't matter as much. You think we would've learned that 18 months ago haha but hey that's what changes are for. 

We worked super hard all week to find new people to teach. Ill be honest we had three investigators at the start of the week who we still couldn't get in contact with and I still hadn't even seen. So we really have been searching for people to teach the last three weeks. We tried tons of people and contacted a lot and really not a lot of success. Honestly of the 100 contacts last week, we haven't found anybody who was willing to listen. But the Lord works in mysterious ways right? So we got a straight up MEDIA REFERRAL this week. Not just one but TWO. Ha these are referrals from the church headquarters and until this last week I hadn't received one my entire mission. So we were pretty pumped. We call both of them and set a lesson with one of them named M---. We go teach this guy yesterday. We get in there do some How to begin teaching, teach a super simple Restoration, then Boom he accepts a baptismal date for March 15. Pretty sweet miracle. So we are seeing success in different ways than we even thought. Pretty neat. 

Went and saw some awesome members this week as well. We didn't have a lot going on when I got into the area so we made a goal to go see all the members and get to know them while we search for investigators. We are blessed to have some rock solid members. And quite a few of them too! They are the best. One family, the P--- family, invited us for a FHE and invited two non lds friends. They didn't end up coming but we were pumped for them for making the invite.

Well the weather is looking good. Only one or two cold days. Haha yes Chloe they may not be in the negatives but still Im cold. Haha I dont know what it is here. Lots of wind and this coldness just cuts to the soul. I finally, after 19 years of living in the snow and skiing, figured out how useful wearing long john thermals are. Haha I wear them top and bottom everyday. Guess what? They actually block out the cold. Thought someone would've told me that long ago. haha im kidding parents. sorry I never wanted to wear them before. But hey I bought some boots for $33 as well! Boom. Cheep and stylish.

last few weeks for me= Pansy, haha im ready to tackle the chuff out of this work now. 

Love,

Elder Sumsion

He also sent these:  Funny – He has never given me his address in Newark yet! So I called the office and they gave me one - I sent him a package and we ordered a pizza and had it delivered to that address..... 

ha no im doing super good. Thank you for the package. Funny story... That is NOT our address nor any missionary address. It was about 3 weeks ago, but the missionaries moved. So the church doesn't own it. The other Elders went by a few days ago to check on something and saw and picked up the package, and they were super confused on the whole pizza thing. It was just sitting there in the cold. Haha turns out they took it home and put it in the fridge for like 3 days till it thawed or something. Then they ate it! Ha no worries. SO it didn’t go to waste!!!!