Monday, December 19, 2011

You always know its a good day when the man your talking to puts a snowball on his head.‏

Had an interesting week yet again the Lord is still showing me that when we put the sacrifice in blessings flow.
The cold weather has been less than fun, it started snowing like crazy a couple days ago and now its mostly gone because of the rain melting it into mud. Members in our area have been going home for Christmas and there has been difficulty getting others out with us but we have been able to still get help and plus this ward is pretty much awesome. Its full of tons of Mormons in extreme debt from school loans because they are all trying to be Doctors, Dentists and Lawyers.
Our teaching pool has grown drastically, many of the people we are working with are kinda shaky because we find them on the bus mostly and we worketh in the ghetto/hood, but we are still trying our best to help them repent and change.
The coolest and most progressing investigator we have is a referral from the Shaker Heights area (the zone leaders we live with Elder Bills and Elder Hansen). His name is Chris Davis and he is basically baptizing himself, yesterday was the third time he's been to church because he went to the shaker ward twice, it's a true blessing to see the sincerity of him wanting to change his life. Yesterday at church he was looking for ample opportunities to serve the members in the ward and he even asked for help from everyone in the priesthood to help him be a better person.
We have been working with the Belle family as of late and that is where we have found most of the new investigators. There is a lot to work there and I foresee it being difficult to get them to church but they are however reading the scriptures and doing there best to follow Christ. Plus they listen very well when we come to visit. (From this house we have been working with Gloria, Arayna, Shayna, Trevonte, Rayonna, Terrance, Jamie and Brianna and I think some others but those are the only names I have). They all at different progression levels and various ages, but Arayna and Brianna I would say are progressing the most.
We have also been working with a YSA named Yonica and she has a very good head on her shoulders. She's very willing to do what we say but things keep getting in the way like sickness or just busy with finding a job. We've been doing our best to get her involved in the singles branch.
Well I love you all and I'm excited for this week. There is going to be lots of Christmas experiences to be had especially tomorrow when we all go to the Kirtland Temple for a meeting. It'll be to legit to quit.
Have a good week.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion

Monday, December 12, 2011

"Come all ye Faithful"‏

For some reason these weeks that seem so difficult at moments, never stay that way. You can go through a day where literally you sit on a bus or a really fast train hoping for a good conversation with someone that happens to sit close to you. That is literally all you do that day at it can get quite obnoxious. However when you put in that time of hard work and getting yourself out of your comfort zone over and over again. Eventually God shows you blessings.
Some of those blessings we experienced this week consisted of an amazing dinner with the Ashworth family. They have been being a wonderful example to their neighbors and they have noticed. Bro. Ashworth served in Hong Kong and he speaks Cantonese. They introduced themselves to their chinese neighbors (the husband speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and some English. The wife speaks only Mandarin) and eventually that family came over one day with some chinese soup and asked if they could go to church with the Ashworths. They came to the ward party and to church. This week we were blessed to teach Fang and Ying Wang at the Ashworths. It went very well and despite the language barrier we both feel excited for what happens next. However the Ashworths are going to Utah this week so working with the Wangs is going to have to wait a little bit longer. It's going well this far though and I'm excited to see what happens next.
Earlier in the week we visited an investigator and we wanted to watch the restoration with her (Arayna). We got there and it's a pretty crazy atmosphere, people just come and go and we are not sure that all the people there are related or even know the people in their house. The kids were on the television playing a video game, a recent convert named LaShaun (who is truly a beacon of how the restored gospel can change a life really quickly). So LaShaun had played this game before got an idea to get the TV. He challenged the current player that if he wins we can watch this movie with everyone. Well LaShaun won and we watched the Restoration with the whole family. It was pretty funny and awesome at the same time.
Last night we went to an investigators home and we taught everyone in the house that was willing to listen. What we saw was when we spoke the kids and teenagers there had peace spoken to them. You could see in many of their eyes the need and the want to repent. It really truly is my favorite thing to see that, what the preaching of the word can do to others and how it helps them.
Also we have been working with Chabba and he came to church this week and while at church he said "I'll be coming to this church from now on." That exploded a smile onto my face.
Other blessings have been shown through the goodness and the kindness of the members you can't beat the happiness this work brings to others. It's so true. I hope that you all do your best to share the love of the Savior with others this Christmas. Don't think of yourself because you won't figure it out that way, find yourself through helping other be happy.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Lost in Cleveland but finding others

This week has yet again proved to be extremely difficult, I could say probably more difficult than last week. We have been cancelled on and our travel has been inconvenient and some of the people were downright rude. We were on the bus just there to talk to people and when we first got on the bus, I ended up sitting next to someone who had been in Jail for the past month. He was very humble and willing to try to change and listen. When he got off I started a conversation with another man. He turned around and asked me if I was a Mormon. Then for the next five to ten minutes he upbraided both of us and said we didn't believe in Christ and such. The humility between the two was extremely different, I know that repentance and change brings humility and that is needed to live with God.
At the beginning of the week we were lost and trying to get to someone but we really had nothing to do, so we were mostly just wandering around with no one to go see. While we were walking I saw a brother maybe a little younger than us and when I was about to turn around and talk to him. He called out to us and asked us if we knew how to help him get a job. After being in Cleveland over 4 months that isn't something you hear often. We said no but then said we know someone who might be able to help. We talked to him about what we do for a little bit and found out his name is Chabba (sounds like Sha-ba). Then I felt like being Elder Prince and I asked him if he was free right now for us to share a little message with him. We watched the restoration with him and afterwards he started to pace around the room not really sure what he was feeling. It was neat. We later in the week had a lesson with him again and we had another member with us Bro. Smith. We kinda got his mother involved and over time I think she'll come around a little bit more but her demeanor changed to longer we were there it was awesome. She went from constantly leaving the room to sitting on the couch and listening.
Sunday however was the best day of the week we had 3 lessons that day work out well and we were able to teach short lessons to really meet the needs of those people. It was all thanks to one of my favorite members in this area Bro. Webber.
Well I love you all. I'm not being transferred tomorrow. It looks like I'm going for 6 months here in the East-side of Cleveland. I'm grateful for all the experiences I've had thus far and as these last four months come keep me in your prayers.
Also a lady named Tiffany. She's awesome and would be a great asset to the church.
Love you.
(*)<~Elder Sumsion