I would have to say reporting wise this is defiantly one of the best weeks I've ever had on my mission. Despite some of the difficulties we have faced in this area and especially this week everything just seemed to fall into place. A lot of the credit goes to the lord and this amazing ward which has been super missionary minded ever since Elder Prince and I have been visiting members and working with them to set missionary goals. I don't think I've ever been in a ward that compliments the missionaries as much as this one has been. It makes me feel all buttered up and I know the members are trying and we are seeing some great results. Plus my companion right now is just awesome. Anyway we now have 5 wonderful investigators who are all doing very well progression wise. Plus others that we are still working with.
Our primary investigators right now are Pam and her Daughter LaCresha (referral from W.Cleveland)and they now have a baptismal date for the 22nd of October they also came to church yesterday with the help a wonderful member Sis. Gray. We just started teaching some member referrals named George and Fay Williams who have some friends in the Shaker Ward and that is going well we were able to give them blessings as well as bless their home, they came to church as well. Finally we are working with a now 17 year old named Ben Kleidman who is just awesome because he learns and remembers the things he learns as well as agrees with them. He's totally awesome Elder Prince and I were able to contact into him. He'll be difficult to get to church because of work and he plays soccer for Shaker High School but we asked him about it and he's planning on talking to his boss to see if they can work something out. Just awesome!
I'm excited to see what happens next in this work and I'm so grateful for all of your prayers. They really help and I appreciate them.
Love,
(*)<~Elder Sumsion
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Mormon Dynasty.
You have just gotta love all the interesting and wonderful experiences that you can have in Cleveland. The highlights of the week are teaching our new investigator Ben Kleidman, he's 16 almost 17 and is very interested in the church and asking for himself. I'm really super excited to see what happens as we work with him. He's very busy though so he's hard to meet with. Also we met with a referral named Pam and she sincerely wants to change her life the trials in her life have made her very humble and we had an awesome lesson with her. Another highlight of the week was sacrament meeting when a Bro. Gomez gave one the most inspiring talks on missionary work that i have ever heard it was just absolutely amazing gave Elder Prince and I one of the best compliments I've ever had in my life. Really appreciated everything he said.
My left arm has healed up quite a bit but it is still rather sore. That's pretty much the only thing bothering me from my accident but it really ain't to bad.
Funny thing that happened this week. We were leaving an appointment from a wonderful lady named Sis. Gray and while we were walking away we see some guy so we ask him if he wants a card. He asks us if we have a cigarette, we say we don't smoke and then he turns to some other guy across the street and he gives him one. We start talking with both of them and the second guy leaves pretty quickly and then we tell the other guy where our church is located. Euclid and 77th next to Aldis's. He then asks if its the church on Mayfield road, we say no and repeat ourselves. He then asks us if its on Bellflower road, we say no it's The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. He says oh! Church of a Jesus Christ of mount Zion! We say no and repeat ourselves again and start trying to leave because he wasn't all there. We give him a card and reads Mormon and then says you from the Mormon dynasty, we look at him confused and start talking about the book of Mormon. He says oh the book that talks about the 14th century theologian John Mormon who crossed the sea to get to America of the Mormon dynasty. I just started laughing and so did my companion because it was such a silly conversation and then the zone leaders came by so we got away.
Also had another guy when I was on exchange with Elder Moffett (a missionary who will be joining me on the plane home) he's going to be with Elder Prince and I for a little while because his companion is in the Cleveland Clinic with Pancreatitis. He said that Mormons are crazy people that run around in the forest and do all sorts of things. I stopped him by saying "I'm a Mormon and we don't do any of that stuff." He looked so confused. I really like Cleveland and missionary work it's fun. : )
Anyway, love you all.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion
My left arm has healed up quite a bit but it is still rather sore. That's pretty much the only thing bothering me from my accident but it really ain't to bad.
Funny thing that happened this week. We were leaving an appointment from a wonderful lady named Sis. Gray and while we were walking away we see some guy so we ask him if he wants a card. He asks us if we have a cigarette, we say we don't smoke and then he turns to some other guy across the street and he gives him one. We start talking with both of them and the second guy leaves pretty quickly and then we tell the other guy where our church is located. Euclid and 77th next to Aldis's. He then asks if its the church on Mayfield road, we say no and repeat ourselves. He then asks us if its on Bellflower road, we say no it's The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. He says oh! Church of a Jesus Christ of mount Zion! We say no and repeat ourselves again and start trying to leave because he wasn't all there. We give him a card and reads Mormon and then says you from the Mormon dynasty, we look at him confused and start talking about the book of Mormon. He says oh the book that talks about the 14th century theologian John Mormon who crossed the sea to get to America of the Mormon dynasty. I just started laughing and so did my companion because it was such a silly conversation and then the zone leaders came by so we got away.
Also had another guy when I was on exchange with Elder Moffett (a missionary who will be joining me on the plane home) he's going to be with Elder Prince and I for a little while because his companion is in the Cleveland Clinic with Pancreatitis. He said that Mormons are crazy people that run around in the forest and do all sorts of things. I stopped him by saying "I'm a Mormon and we don't do any of that stuff." He looked so confused. I really like Cleveland and missionary work it's fun. : )
Anyway, love you all.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion
Monday, August 15, 2011
Satan usually doesn't drop flowers on hippies but in Cleveland...
We have had a week full of a lot of hard work with members and we've seen a little bit of results but nothing too extreme right now. Elder Prince and I have been trying to set goals for missionary work with the members in our area. Because allot of the people we have been talking with either are not very interested or they skip out on appointment's because of lack of commitment or they're little crazy. Although I'm convinced with enough hard work and help from fulfilling purpose with members we will see some solid member referral baptisms. That's usually how it has gone for me in my past area's I get to an area that is kinda dead and then we just start working and people show up. We had dinner with one family the Bagleys and they invited 2 non-members over with whom we were able to share a quick message with that was pretty cool and we will see where that goes. We've been working hard and I'm determined that we get some more members out with us despite the difficulty of their school schedules because most of the members in our ward go to Case Western University for their medical/dental/lawyer degrees. Makes for a lot of solid and busy members (oh and by the way Bro. Tippits actually ran against Jared in the thingy, he's an awesome guy). Anyway there has been a lot of good happen this week. We have a new investigator is a nice lady named Miss. Fuller was nice enough to talk with us after another investigator shrugged us off. Anyway it has been fun working in this area and Elder Prince and I are enjoying ourselves talking with some of the interesting people Cleveland has to offer. The other day we talked to this lady and she flat out said Gambling ruined her life, then we asked her what would be the best thing to help you get your life back (thinking she would say Church or Jesus or something akin to that) she said winning the lottery...sigh...people will understand someday. On Tuesday to kind of start off our week we were biking home from district meeting and I waved at some lady because she was staring at me funny and then looked at Elder Prince who then moved to the right, I looked down and saw a fire hydrant right in front of me. I smacked dead center into that and was flung over my handlebars and the hydrant onto the cement. My right hand started bleeding and my left wrist is now in a sort of brace that you can purchase over the counter because I sprained it pretty bad. But anyway I've healed up quite a bit since then. Also so you don't get weirded out and confused by the title of my email we were teaching a lesson and we looked at a mural painted on the wall of this coffee shop we were teaching in (I know not the ideal place to teach). In the mural there was a flying Satan dropping flowers on hippies, I thought that was odd and funny so decided to include it. Oh and yesterday we're not over the singles branch but 4 Chinese non-member's came to church and they were totally awesome I loved talking with them and how humble they were. But yeah they had heard about Mormons and wanted the chance to see what we were like. Anyway...
Love you all.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion
Love you all.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion
Friday, August 12, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
In the heart of it all.
Well I have now been transferred to my 6th area and yesterday was crazily enough my 16 month mark. Gives me a little bit of an icky feeling down my back.
At transfer meeting a lot of the great missionary's that I have had the privilege to serve around finished their missions. Elder Haines is gone and also Elder Farmer who is just awesome. All is well though. Oh and Elder Dowley is training so I'm a Grandfather!
My new area is pretty much awesome. I am now in the Kirtland District (in the Kirtland Zone) which is pretty sweet, because I get to go to Kirtland every week. I'm serving in the East Cleveland area. Which is pretty intense because the entire ward is ours and it is all a biking area. I'm going to be monster thighs when I leave. Plus it is the most ghetto area in the mission I've heard which is pretty sweet. I've got tales that I could tell about this area but I won't : ). There is so many people too, I love it. Plus in the ward is a Brother Tippets (I kind of recognized him). I believe he said he was on Team Focus with Jared when he was running for student body president way back when.
My new companion Elder Prince is an amazing missionary. I'm having trouble keeping up with him and how great he is at being a missionary. You would never have guessed this is his second transfer, he's just inspiring. I still live with 4 elders too. We live with the zone leaders Elder Bills and Elder Rangel (ran-hel) both of which are just great.
It kinda feels like I'm back in Fairlawn/Akron.
Lots of things to do today and I love you all.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion
At transfer meeting a lot of the great missionary's that I have had the privilege to serve around finished their missions. Elder Haines is gone and also Elder Farmer who is just awesome. All is well though. Oh and Elder Dowley is training so I'm a Grandfather!
My new area is pretty much awesome. I am now in the Kirtland District (in the Kirtland Zone) which is pretty sweet, because I get to go to Kirtland every week. I'm serving in the East Cleveland area. Which is pretty intense because the entire ward is ours and it is all a biking area. I'm going to be monster thighs when I leave. Plus it is the most ghetto area in the mission I've heard which is pretty sweet. I've got tales that I could tell about this area but I won't : ). There is so many people too, I love it. Plus in the ward is a Brother Tippets (I kind of recognized him). I believe he said he was on Team Focus with Jared when he was running for student body president way back when.
My new companion Elder Prince is an amazing missionary. I'm having trouble keeping up with him and how great he is at being a missionary. You would never have guessed this is his second transfer, he's just inspiring. I still live with 4 elders too. We live with the zone leaders Elder Bills and Elder Rangel (ran-hel) both of which are just great.
It kinda feels like I'm back in Fairlawn/Akron.
Lots of things to do today and I love you all.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Findlay's bottle has been drunk but not by me even though I'm 21!!!
Well...As usual all good things must come to an end to bring forth greater good. Last night we received transfer information and I was released as a Zone Leader and called as a District Leader again. So tomorrow morning Elder Scovill and I will be taken off to new adventures around the mission in the greatest work I've ever done. I started in this area with a mission role model of mine Elder Haines (whom will be returning home on Thursday to Orem). Then we baptized my dear friend Charlie Palmer when my next two companions came to serve with me Elder Ehlert and Elder Conlin. Eventually Elder Conlin left us and I spent a couple more weeks with Elder Ehlert and then my new dear friend Elder Green came to serve with me. I've learned a lot about love here. Sometimes I wish my perspective on life would always stay the same no matter what comes my way but it doesn't. It's all good though it's just another way the lord molds me.
The coolest thing that happened this week is the other Elders in our ward had a baptism of Barb Pfitzer a wonderful lady who I had the opportunity to interview for baptism. She's very sweet.
Obviously I turned 21 yesterday and that was cool. When we went to district lunch there was an ounce more temptation to buy beer. But I didn't and basically slapped Satan in his spirit face. That was fun and then Elder Green and I actually had a pretty successful day. We taught a wonderful lady named Katherine who said I've been thinking about getting baptized how would I go about doing that. Pretty much awesome we commited her to a date in September because she has cancer right now for the second time among other trials that she has faced in her life. Then we finished the night at the Morrows who have become so very dear to my heart since I've arrived in this area that I just can't explain with words. It was a good birthday.
Love you everyone. I'm really excited to see where I'll be tomorrow night. :)
(*)<~Elder Sumsion
The coolest thing that happened this week is the other Elders in our ward had a baptism of Barb Pfitzer a wonderful lady who I had the opportunity to interview for baptism. She's very sweet.
Obviously I turned 21 yesterday and that was cool. When we went to district lunch there was an ounce more temptation to buy beer. But I didn't and basically slapped Satan in his spirit face. That was fun and then Elder Green and I actually had a pretty successful day. We taught a wonderful lady named Katherine who said I've been thinking about getting baptized how would I go about doing that. Pretty much awesome we commited her to a date in September because she has cancer right now for the second time among other trials that she has faced in her life. Then we finished the night at the Morrows who have become so very dear to my heart since I've arrived in this area that I just can't explain with words. It was a good birthday.
Love you everyone. I'm really excited to see where I'll be tomorrow night. :)
(*)<~Elder Sumsion
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