IronBound Week 18 and 19 - last transfer

 May 25, 2015 (5-25-15)
iPads and the Power of God

Familia,

Welcome to phase 2 of the NJMM. Haha aka-the future. They are finally here!!! After 22 months and many jukes the iPads have finally arrived.

The long night of apostasy is over and here comes the lights and screens. Haha I don't know if you knew we were getting them. You probably did. But wow are they awesome. I first learned that we were getting iPads about a year and a half ago when I was being trained.

There were many dates set when we would get them but they kept getting moved back and I honestly thought for a while that the iPads wouldn't make it before I left. But to my surprise they called an all mission conference this past Tuesday. We sat there for 8 hours through some trainings and then around 3:00 we got them. So know they are in our hands and the work of God is just taking off.

It was a pretty weird week having an iPad. I mean a real handheld electronic device. The first few days I felt guilty just using it.

Like what in the world- it's been 22 months since I've had my own phone or tablet, I can't use that! I felt like I was restarting as a missionary. Ha but after it sank in it was pretty clear that this isn't the "end" of missionary work like it has been. Missionary work is still the exact same. You still teach people, knock doors, have disappointments, contact people, see miracles, change lives, study teach, find, baptize, cry, laugh. It really is all the same. The principles of missionary work will never change, but the tools we are given change all the time. First we had missionary discussions, then it felt right to have preach my gospel. Just as a phone, a planner, a pen, paper, car, or anything is a help for us, the iPads are the same.

Just another tool we can use to invite other to come to Christ. It's been fun getting used to them. I remember sitting there on Wednesday morning thinking "what in the world am I supposed to do with this thing?" Ha there are three stages of using the iPads for the mission.

We are on stage one which is teaching a studying with the iPads. So that all we do now. In a few weeks we will move to stage 2 which is about converting our records and area book and planner and making them digital on the iPads. They have all these cool programs. Stage three which will probably come after the next 6 weeks which is online proselyting, using Facebook and all that. But I probably won't be around to see it. Which is cool with me.

Well family some things happened this week that can't be explained except by the power of God alone. I can't describe everything that happened but I have seen some things happen that have change my life.

I know for a fact I was called to jersey for a reason. I have come to know for a very real sense of how much God loves us and how real his mercy and justice is. Basically we found this less active guy in the street about a week ago. He actually initiated it and called out to us, "elders!" His name is D--- and let me just say this has been the best, most spiritual week in the mission. There are some pretty interesting things that have happened and it's been a testimony to me that I have been prepared for jersey and meeting this guy and he has been prepared to meet us.

We saw him for the first time 10 days ago on Friday but we were on our way to a lesson so we got his number and we set something up for Monday. Well Monday comes around he calls us and for some reason I don't answer it. Just felt like I shouldn't. I call him back about 2 hours later and I'm like hey we still good to come by tonight at 8. He says yes. Well we go teach a lesson to a different family up in Harrison and on our way back to the ironbound my comp starts feeling pretty sick and is all shaky so we sit down for a second. We are already late but we had to stop so we didn't know what it was. Maybe the food or something. He couldn't tell. Well at this point it's like 8:15. Already 15 minutes late and I'm about ready to call this guy to cancel and set something up for tomorrow. We talk about it together for a sec then my comp jumps up and he is like "you know what no I'm fine. Let's go." Sweet. So we go and wow we finally get there he invited us in, within 1 minute he starts telling his whole life story and wow what a story it was. Baptized when he was 12 almost went on a mission. Had his call and everything and then fell away. It's been 15 years since he went.  Well so much more happened this week. I'll tell you more in detail maybe when I'm back in 2 months. It's about 10 pages in my journal of all that happened with him he last week. Well he comes to Church yesterday. We didn't even invited him initially he just said he was going. He says elders this is the first time in 15 years I have been in church and wanted to be here and I feel great.

His son calls him later and asks dad is something wrong. He replies you know son, I've never been better. Oh it was the greatest week. He is a great guy.

Well can't believe mom and Chloe are just chilling in New York. I looked you up. Where you are. It really is about 15 mile drive.  (We went back for Chloe and Alexis to see each other after 2 years)  Haha have a great week in New York and the rest of the family in Utah. La Tierra prometida. Haha well transfers today. My comp is leaving and I'm staying in the ironbound! Haha so pumped to be staying. Prayers are answered. Transfer conference is tomorrow. Well this is it. Last transfer. The beginning of the end.

I'm doing great.

Thank you and I love you,

Elder Sumsion

Sent from my iPad

16 paper planners vs 1 iPad! 

missionaries get trained on new iPads

June 1st, 2015
 T minus 1. Awesome comp. Awesome area

Here we gooooo. Well things are going great here. Transfers this last week and Elder Marquez got transferred to..... guess where.... Clinton with Elder Aspinall. Actually its called Branchburg now so its a little bigger. Elder Aspinall and I only got one together when we were both there months ago and for the last year we have been saying that they need to stick us together in Clinton again. Well like two transfers ago he got called back! And I kept telling him that Im headed that way. Well I guess my boy Elder Marquez is as close as he can get to me being there with him again. Ha so it worked out great. They will be a good companionship. Haha well I was feeling a little nervous at transfer conference. I prayed a lot and wow prayers are granted.They called Ironbound Spanish...... Elder Welch with Elder Sumsion. Ha I stood up practically laughing. No way. After President Taggart read our names, with a smile he said, " we expect some solid work to be done," knowing that we are both pretty old in the mission. I replied, "It will be done President!" Haha so I am pretty pumped. Elder Welch was trained by Elder Drewes a while ago and he only has about 5 transfers left. So yeah we are a pretty old companionship so we are going to tear things up this transfer. And we are both staying in the IRONBOUND. Sad to see some of my good friends leave this last transfer. Almost the whole departing group were good friends of mine. 

Well we had a nice hot week this week with tons of good stuff going. We got juked a lot but things worked out perfectly and we were able to see at least three different less active families that I have been trying to see in the last few months but haven't been able to reach them at the right time. SO right off the bat we are already seeing miracles. For example, on Saturday we got juked by a potential investigator, meaning that we set an appointment with them and he wasn't there. So we kept following our back up plans and we went and tried this recent convert's house which we have knocked probably like 50 times in the past and called a bunch, but that day the front of the apartment door was open so we went right up and knocked there door and part of the family was there. Well we taught the grandma and the uncle. It was like the saddest thing. There house was an absolute mess. Stuff EVERYWHERE just in piles piles. The grandma is bed-ridden because she cant use her legs and doesn't like going out much. Well we talk to them and its obvious things are a little rough. She breaks down crying and its just the saddest thing. She feels her family doesn't love her much and she has no friends and cant move but has to stay in this super messy house all day. It was so sad. Broke my heart. We taught her a bit and shared some scriptures on the Atonement and Christ and it seemed to brighten her day. So we get to ward council yesterday and we ask if someone can just call her and talk to her or maybe go by and the war council made plans to do it. So now she will be taken care of by the help of the ward. It was cool to see the ward council and missionaries work together helping and reaching out to her.

On Friday we went and taught F- and P-. It was a great noche de hogar with a few members of the primary presidency. They have been having some marriage problems and it is just the saddest thing. So the ward has learned about this and has been doing all they can to help them out. Well they put on this video about a missionary on his plane ride home (great) and he is telling stories about his mission to the guy sitting next to him. Its like perfect for the situation because it talks about how he help this family learn about the Gospel and forgiveness so they could work out there marriage. It was awesome and then we all spent the next like hour teaching and testifying about what makes us most happy. Pretty much all of us talked about our families and the joy we get from them. It was so good and just loaded full of the Spirit. They are doing better.

We left church yesterday and headed to a lesson and then we had to walk from Harrison to Ironbound and it rained a ton! Ha we had nothing with us so we got drenched to the core. It was crazy but fun. Lots of flooding everywhere. Like all these main roads were closed off and cars buried in like 2-4 feet of water. There were cops everywhere directing people where to go. Felt like we were being quarantined. Weird day. 

Wanna give a shoutout to Jason Barth for getting baptized this past weekend. So happy for him. Its a very spiritual thing to see two of my good friends be baptized. Its a very close thing to me.

Well hope you are loving life and happy. Summer is here. Hot and humid. Love you so much! 

Elder Sumsion

Ironbound Week 17 - A rollercoaster week!

Okay when I talk about crazy weeks..... This just took the crown from them all. Some of the weirdest and craziest moments of my mission just got slammed into a single week and capped off. Forget the rest of the last 21 months and check this out. The saddest part is that it wasn't even about proselyting or anything cool like that. But Check this out!

Well being a boss mission president like he is, President Taggart (and I'm sure Sister Taggart had a big say in this all, too) made a new rule about 6 months ago about how every missionary is allowed to go to six flags ONCE in their mission???? What in the world??? So at first I was like not too stoked about it. Just like whatever I'll just go later after the mission or something because me time is short and I don't want to go down and be in that crazy place as a missionary! Well somehow F---- and P--- found out about it like a week ago and man they wanted to go soooooooooooo bad with us. We were debating it for sooo long. So finally I went on a three way conference call with E Bellavance and E Warnock and were debating it still and finally we were just like: okay fine LETS DO IT. So yes on thursday we went to six flags. Totally legal. Totally okay with Presidents permission, but still was weird. But at the same time it was so much fun! Haha 5 of us missionaries went down with them and we got to hit all the crazy roller coasters???? Who would have ever thought I'd go on a roller coaster as a missionary??????? Haha it was a joke but so fun. F---- and P---- had a blast and were super happy that we all went with them. They are an awesome family. SO yeah that was part ONE of the week.

Part TWO!!! We get home from six flags on time and get to a lesson. We teach the lesson and the other Elders (E Warnock and E Pacheco) drive us home. Well we are making a turn and BOOM. We get T-boned in the middle of the intersection. HARD. We slide all the way across the intersection and up onto the sidewalk and stop. Airbags went off and two crunched cars remained. It was nuts. We were all like what in the world just happened? Everyone is OKAY!!!!! E Warnock got the worst of it and his shoulder hurts but nothing is broken! I am fine. like 100% I felt like my insides got crushed right when it happen. But I have no symptoms at all. My neck muscles dont even hurt. So yeah we got hit but we are all okay. E Pacheco was driving. I was in the back left seat in the car. E Pacheco feels super sad about it, but we just kept telling him its okay. Because nobody got hurt. It was two 19 year old girls in the other car. They were fine too. The cops came, the fire trucks, and eventually they towed both the cars. All this happened at like 9:15 PM and we left the scene at like 11:00 PM and walked over to this McDonalds and called this member who owns a Taxi business and he came and drove us home. We got home at like 11:20 and all of us just sat there for like 30 minutes, blank stares, like wow that could have been a lot worse! We just totaled two cars! We finally got to bed and yeah everything is back to normal now. We are all good! 

Well besides getting our bodies thrown around intentionally and unintentially this week, we did see some other miracles too. We gave a member a blessing this week right before his surgery and after his surgery went awesome and he is good now! Went on exchange with our District Leader and we saw tons of our investigators and recent converts. Haha (when I say DL I mean Elder Warnock). Saw some miracles on that exchange. One of our awesome member families invited M--- (recent convert) over for an FHE and did a great job helping him feel included. We all ate cuero after. We had one of the most spiritual district meeting of my mission last week. Tons of good trainings from the older missionaries. I gave a 25 min one on MIRACLES. Haha waddayaknow??  We found anew Uruguay investigator this week. Helped F----- prepare to teach gospel principles this last sunday. She did awesome! We have been focusing on reading the Book of Mormon in the lessons with a few of our investigators. Stuffed out of our minds on Saturday. Had a great less active family come to church! and saw a less active last night that we have been trying for a while. Good week.

We are as tired as ever. but we are alive, okay, and happy representatives of the Lord, Jesus Christ. This is His work. And we have the blessing to be part of it. God protects his missionaries!! I promise mom. We are good!

Well things are going solid. Thanks for the prayers. I love you all so much.

Elder Sumsion

I will send some more photos next week. Pablo has a lot on his camera. Here is the beast. THE KINGDA KA. Tallest Roller Coaster in the WORLD. 126 MPH- our tags would've blown right off.  I have wanted to ride this for the past 5 years. When I first saw where it was I thought, "Jersey??? When am I ever going to be in Jersey???". haha oh how things have changed...

Ironbound Week 16 - Mother's Day

Family,

Wow it was so great to see you yesterday. I am sooo glad it all worked out so easily too. F---- and P--- were the best and had the ipad and the computers all charging when we got there and the internet was pretty smooth. Just all around very easy and simple and it all connected and he let me use his skype account, which was  a blessing. But man, I had a good time talking to you and seeing your faces. It was fun to see you and then Chloe on the phone. Alexis had our own time (saw each other last week) so its good. Haha But thanks for making it such a good call. I felt great during and great after. It was good to talk over some plans but I feel great today and focused so a few more months of blowing NJ up with the Gospel!

I guess I explained a lot of the main things we are doing and answered some questions yesterday but I didn't get to talk too much about the week we had so I will give you a rundown of it all. This week started out pretty nuts with F and P just trying to help them out. We had a lesson on Monday with them that just was kinda chaotic. It was just taking a long time so we cut somethings down and just went off the Spirit and made our lesson a little quicker and more direct. They have a lot of interest to really live the Gospel to the fullest. Its kind of interesting, they are really becoming converted and its clear that they have a real desire to live the Gospel and the laws to the fullest. So they first wanted to learn more about our modern day prophet. So we shared some scriptures about how prophets and called and share our testimonies with them. Next time we are going to watch his biography movie with them. But they are just the happiest family and the greatest. We love them!

We had zone meeting on Tuesday which was awesome. Our zone leaders are great. Yes they are younger than a lot of us but man they are some powerful missionaries. I love listening to their trainings. They are definitely inspired and bring a lot of energy to the zone. We love them. They talked about finding new people this last week. President wants us finding more people and dropping more people if they aren't willing to progress. That way we cylce through people faster and as we meet new people we have a better chance to meet prepared people that will listen to our message and ACT. Two lines in PMG have stuck out to me lately:

  “Find Them That Will Receive You.” You are to build up the Church by finding “them that will receive you” (D&C 42:8). Such people will recognize that you are the Lord’s servants. They will be willing to act on your message." -Preach My Gospel

So we are really looking for those who really want to make those commitments and act. Yes we still work with everyone but our focus is on those people who are in desperate need of just some light in their life but are “kept from the truth [only] because they know not where to find it” (D&C 123:12). Its a good focus because we know there are people out there that are ready. Sometimes they dont even know they are ready but that's why we are called so that we can share with them this good news.

We have a great teaching pool of investigators. We only got to see a handful of them this last week. One of them is this atheist lady I was telling you about. We taught her on Friday and wow it was one of the best lessons I have been a part of. My testimony of the Gospel was strengthened, maybe even more than hers. We started off with her teaching the restoration and within 30 seconds she had tons of questions and opposition and yeah it was just a mess. I was thinking, "Ok this lady obviously has no desires to learn this stuff and she is opposing everything. And just bringing up random topics, we are going to teach this lesson and maybe it will be our last with her." But we kept praying and wow the lesson turned around as we discussed why false doctrine is there and we were here to teach God's restored truth. It was awesome. We walked away with a good spirit and we will see her again.

Anyways. Love the phone call yesterday. What a car!!! Cant believe it Sam. haha and I love you all so much!

Elder Sumsion

Ironbound Week 15

Hello family,   5/4/2015

We are having a great time here in New Jersey and the weeks are just getting better and better. We have a big mission focus on finding new people to teach right now. I'd say that is one of the toughest challenges of missionary work, especially here in Jersey. Finding people that will listen is hard, finding people who will actually progress and keep commitments is beyond that. We made an all mission goal to find a good amount of people in April and we made a few district goals. So this last week we did tons of talking to people in the streets and made so many calls, and even knocked a few doors. Things we usually do but we just stepped up the level a lot. Finding is pretty interesting because it has soooooo much to do with your faith. Honestly a missionary could go out and work as hard as he needs and talk to hundreds of people everyday, and still find nobody. Like it says in Alma 26, God grants missionaries success. The missionaries dont create their own success, it comes from God. Thats why we do our best to focus on truly being worthy and listening to the Spirit throughout the day. If we believe it can happen, it can happen. God knows which people are ready, and he will let us know.

So we found a lady this past week. We contacted her on the street last Sunday. She is atheist and was like, "No, im really not that interested sorry." We pretty much just said with smiles on our faces, "Come on just let us come over just once and see how you like it." She agreed and gave us her address and number. We set a lesson with her and she juked but this past Saturday we were walking by and knocked her door and she was there. We asked pretty upfront and direct, "Can we share something with you? Right now?" She agreed and we taught her on her porch. Wow, I remember thinking, "What on earth are we supposed to teach her, let alone, start out with?" We basically just became familiar with her beliefs and then things just started clicking together. We felt inspired to share the Plan of Salvation pamphlet with her. We did come across a similar belief: We both believe in THIS life.... Haha we explained where we came from and why were here and where we are going. And we just bore testimony about families, because we saw her kids through the door. Her husband is atheist as well. I dont know what happened but something hit her, and before we could ask if we could return and share more with her family, She asked us, "So when can you guys come back?" So sweet. So we are seeing her this next week. The Spirit guided that lesson.

Well turns out this past week, one of our other recent convert couples started having problems. F----- and P----. They are one of my favorite families here on the mission. Super strong and love joking around and laughing with us. Its them two and their little daughter. Great family but man, some more problems. We had a great lesson with them last night and we were going to read part of this Chapter in 3 Nephi 18, but the Spirit told us to share the whole thing so we did. So we read verse by verse with them in a circle and some random scripture in the middle of it really hit home to them and they just told us what was going on a little bit. They are really seeking to follow all the commandments, and its pretty obvious that satan is opposing them. Man, we just bore powerful testimony and told them how much we love them and how much God loves them. Things are going to be alright! 

Had interviews this last week with President. It was great and I learned a lot. He is a great man. 

We had stake conference this past week as well. Sang in the stake choir. WHAT????...... WHY??? Well they pretty much made us... Agency was taken... I still dont like to sing... so that part about me still hasn't changed... 

Ha no riots in Jersey. Just a protest. Life is good

Love you tons.

Elder Sumsion

Noche de Talentos - She did a Honduras dance.

Notice the words on the shirt - ha!  She said she had no idea where she got it.

Our temple trip last week.