Monday, January 31, 2011

...ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. Ether 12:6‏

I can't remember how much I've told you about the Fays. Well when I came into the Ashtabula area Elder Helton introduced me to Bro. Garfield Fay, Sis. Garlena Ramirez (Garfield Daugther), and Arturo Gomez (who is 8 and is Garlena's son). Plus their dog crazy who just a nutso dog afraid of boxes and he tried to bite my heel once but he's probably my favorite dog in the world. We were teaching them because they are less-active and they wanted Arturo to have the lessons. Later on I met Garfields wife Sis. Lena Fay. She ended up getting stomach cancer and now needs dialysis. Plus there is David their grandson who works for Pizza Hut and lives with his girlfriend there. Well we found out eventually that Garlena was baptized but it wasn't confirmed a member so she needed it to get baptized again. WHICH TOTALLY HAPPENED YESTERDAY!!! Yay first baptism's!!! Woot woot! Elder Dowley baptized Garlena and I was able to baptize Arturo. It was really awesome. I would definantly say one of the best days of my life. I felt the spirit super strong while I was listening to my comp. talk about the Holy Ghost after the baptism's.
But the week was pretty rough.
It started out with an Exchange with Elder Scott McClellan from Lindon, so he could interview them both for baptism. That was actually a pretty good exchange. It was mostly hard for Elder Dowley because he got rather sick but he was working in Youngstown with Elder Baird.
Wednesday we had dinner with the Edwards and Sis. Edwards daughter. Sis. Van Akin she's from Spanish Fork area too and knew some Sumsion's.
Thursday while we were driving to a Trainer/Trainee meeting. I was changing lanes on the freeway and hit some black ice and began to spin in circles going about 70 mph on the freeway. That was pretty intense and I'm glad we were saved from that. The meeting was super awesome and I met an Elder Coral from Springville. He lives close to Grant Elementary and his home teachers are Sumsion's.
Friday Sis. Lena Fay almost passed away but was saved by a blessing so that was very scary. Then later on that day we attended a funeral for a Sis. Metcalf that used to go to the Ashtabula Ward. Later on that day Jordyn Dickey a member in this area that was giving us a ride slid off the Edge of the road and we were stuck there for a little while until another member happened to drive by with his enormous street light fixing truck thingy.
Saturday I found out that a very good friend of mine Bro. Robin Kelly from the Ashland Branch passed away because of smoking. That was kind of a bummer.
Sunday we found out that another former member of the Ashtabula Ward passed away due to a heart attack. Lots of people dying or nearly dying. I'm glad for the plan.
But the week ended with our first baptism's and that's what made it all worth it. They'll be confirmed next sunday.
Anyway love you all.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Elder Dowley says Hi‏

Not to bad of a week this week. We've been working with Jordyn Dickey he's close to going on a mission. Just a little bit older than Elder Dowley.
Well he's been our investigator Mike Thompson's fellow shipper. We went to Kirtland with both of them on Friday. It was super cold but its always an awesome experience there.
We've got some pretty decent new potential investigators and the ones we've been working with have been mostly un-progressingish but they're not to bad.
We should be having both of our first baptisms on Sunday the 30th. It will be Garleena and Arturo Ramirez. They are just awesome and have been going through some troubling times recently but I love working with them.
Mike is also on track for baptism. If he keeps coming to church I'm pretty sure he'll start to fix the things he needs to fix. But he's doing good so far.
The Crubaughs are still wonderful but they have been difficult to get to church. Mostly because of children.
I gave my first Baptismal Interview this week. That was kinda different but not to bad. It was to a guy named George Adams being baptized the same day as Garleena and Arturo.
Been working with the Molleks and i think they'll start coming back to church.
We dusted a very dusty house for Sis. Rood on Wednesday. Lots of sneezing but it was pretty rewarding.
Oh yeah in case you didn't know Elder Troy Hawkins is training a new missionary too!
It was a rather good week numbers wise we just need more investigators before we baptize the ones we have.
Love You guys.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion

Friday, January 21, 2011

Elder Sumsion's current address:

Elder Lance Orland Sumsion
1636 E. 29th St.
Ashtabula, OH 44004

Monday, January 17, 2011

Unforeseen Awesome.‏

Well this week has been a pretty good one so far it started off with a pretty good p-day last week and then a rather good Tuesday when we saw Mike Thompson and taught the plan. He's pretty much great we taught him Saturday night as well and we kinda fire-hosed (taught a whole lot of gospel principles at once) him quite a bit. But he did really well and the only problem we've had with him so far is that he didn't make to church yesterday. His mother is a truck driver and he wanted to spend the day with her which seemed like a good enough reason to me.
We haven't taught a lesson to the Crubaughs for a little while but they aren't dropping us. We finally figured out a concern they've been having with coming to church, so we've been remedying that. We might have to push their baptism date back but that won't be to bad if we can start getting them out to church.
Elder Dowley and I tracted into this really great guy named John that I think would take some work to baptize but I don't see it out of the question. He holds some deep guilt and I don't think he truly knows what he believes but he's really awesome. Might go play cards with him later today.
Also last night we had a lesson with a less-active family the Moleks and they brought out a lot more concerns than they had which kinda just blew me away. Because I thought they were less-active because they didn't feel worthy to go to church because they've got some commandment troubles. But there was a lot deeper issues there than I thought. So we might be able to help them start coming back to church which would just be totally awesome because they are super great.
On Tuesday night we were able to have a sleepover at Warren. The other area in my district. Because I was able to go to some pretty cool leadership training meeting. It was pretty awesome but super long. Also it took forever to get there and to get back because the roads were so bad.
Oh and the unforeseen awesome is that we might be having my first baptism on the 29th (fingers crossed) if Garleena is ready (who we thought was a member but found out she either missed the conformation like her father or her paper work didn't get sent in). Plus her son Arturo who is 8 would've been a baptism that we can't count because Garleena was a member. But since she's not we can count it. So two baptisms on the 29th of this month if we're lucky which is totally awesome!
Anyway love you all.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion

Monday, January 10, 2011

My Boy!‏

Well I guess my mission president beat me to the punch about the name of my new companion Elder Dowley. He's from Spanish Fork, Utah. He's pretty much awesome. He's the 3rd of 8 and the first to serve a mission. It's been fun getting to know him.
Lets see this week hasn't been to bad, my last two days with Elder Helton were good. He got sent to Cuyahoga Falls to replace (if anyone remembers) Elder Berry. He's the one I went biking in the rain with and got soaking wet on an exchange when I was in Akron.
Haven't been able to share a lesson with the Crubaughs this week because their kids have been sick, which is sad because we got a call yesterday before church and they were still sick. But they are still super willing to keep commitments other than that one which is wonderful. They even figured out a way themselves to follow the Word of Wisdom. Which is pretty amazing because with a lot of people you have to spoon feed them everything.
Oh and this week I got word from the Fairlawn Elders that Darlene Craig has been awesome with coming to church every week and is right on track for baptism! Boo-Ya!
Plus Elder Helton and I were able to get a few pretty solid referrals from Erin before she left and one of them Mike Thompson actually came to church yesterday! Which is totally awesome and also if he's baptized and willing he could even serve a mission himself because he's just a year younger than me. The other two referrals we're going to see tomorrow.
We also found out that someone who thought she was baptized when she was younger isn't actually baptized because she missed the conformation part. So once we finish the lesson's we can actually baptize her and her son. Garleena and Arturo. Although her mother Lena Fay was in the Cleveland Clinic for some pretty bad cancer and a bunch of other stuff. Now she's in a home to help her with dialysis.
So the other day we walked two miles in like 3 - 11/2 feet of snow! It was pretty intense.
Spoke in church yesterday with Elder Dowley. He did an awesome job.
Yup, that's about it.
Love Ya.
(*)<~Elder Sump.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Good news, Bad news and Awesome news.‏

Well lots of cool things are going on this transfer week. The GOOD news is that I am not leaving Ashtabula this transfer and I am super grateful for that. Because I really don't want to pack up again. The BAD news is that my time with Elder Helton is over. He's being transferred tomorrow to somewhere not in Youngstown Zone. The AWESOME news is after nine months my time to bring a boy into the mission is now. Tee Hee. For those of you who are not familiar with silly missionary lingo. Tomorrow I get to start training a brand new missionary! I'm super excited about that one. I don't know his name yet but I'll be finding out at transfers tomorrow. Its exciting.
Also something else cool is Elder Richardson is training a new missionary as well, so there will be two new missionary's in the district. Plus at training meeting yesterday which was just an amazing experience getting to listen to the mission president and the AP's talk in a much smaller group of people. Elder Gullerud my last companion is training as well, and he'll also be doing it in my first area Fairlawn. I was really grateful to see him yesterday. He was a great comp.
Nothing super cool happened during the week. We just went about working. Met the Lawrence family, he went to the Germany, Dusseldorf Mission years ago. They are super great.
The Crubaughs are just great and are coming along well. We just need to get them to church. Amanda the mother was sick this week so they couldn't make it to church. They are coming along well.
Sunday was a great day of church the Testimony meeting was super awesome and then we met a Truck driver from near Houston, Texas. He was just awesome. I was really impressed with this guy. His name as far as I can remember is Bro. Joshua. But he was able to join us at dinner Sunday night with the Kligge family. He was just super great.
Well I love you all. I'm super stoked to train a new missionary.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion