Shall we not go on in so great a cause?

"Merry Christmas"

2010-12-20T12:14:00.001-08:00

And a happy new year!

So we've had some great Christmas miracles. One of our investigators that was hanging on the backburner since November came to church twice this past week and yesterday. Yeah! Don't get your hopes up though. It's not the one that won't tell her family. But we stopped by her...and she's still...yeah. Anyway, the girl that came to church yesterday also invited us over to her house for dinner, which is a huge step. So we got to meet her mom and hopefully make some good impressions. She told us that she knows the church is true and wants to get baptized. Now, the hard part is finding a time. She wants her boyfriend to baptize her and he is out of town for who knows how long. So, we'll pray for some more miracles.
Christmas Eve we got some great service opportunties. We are going to go caroling with our district on Main street which should be fun. Then the other sisters have a baptism on Christmas! How exciting is that! Doing the Lord's work on the Lord's day, cool. It's going to be a 'white' christmas, after all. It is a 9-year old boy who is super excited.
Nothing to exciting else happened this week. The other sisters are moving in with us for the holiday weekend because their family has a ton of people coming over. So it will be a fun sleep over. We had some other investigators but they are either avoiding us or loosing interest which is the hardest one because then you feel like you did something wrong for that to happen. But it is usually because they aren't keeping their commitments.
So a Christmas on a mission is quite interesting because it kind of feels like everyday to us. We talk about Christ, think about Him, study about Him everyday. But the best part is that people we talk to are in a different mindset. Either they are really stressed out because of the holidays and cranky or they have the Christmas spirit with them and are willing to listen more than if it was a different part of the year. And another great thing about Christmas on the mission is that you aren't worrying about spending time with the family or presents and so we are more focused on trying to service on Christmas which has a great feeling to it. Because that is what Christmas is all about, the spirit of Christ.
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! The church is true and the Savior lives and loves us. So turn to him and rely upon him in every situation for "he is the way, the truth and the light."

Love, Sister Sumsion

"Satan is out to get me."

2010-12-07T09:43:00.001-08:00

Hi!

This week was transfers and I'm dying in Parker! And I'm so excited about it because this place has been great. The ward is great, the bishop is great and the area is great-even though it has its challenges but what area doesn't? But the best part is that President left four sisters in Parker. Sister Staib (from MTC district-who was in a threesome with us for a week) got a new companion, Sister Hamilton who is my companion from La Junta. The bishop is so excited to have four of us still and there is plenty of work for us to do. They are living with other members but we get to see them all the time.

Remember that investigator from last email? She is awesome and Satan knows it and has been working hard on her. Two weeks ago she told us that the baptismal date we set was too soon for her so we had her pray and pick a new date to work towards. She felt really good about the 15th of December and was super excited about it. She read everything we gave her and was devouring the Book of Mormon. We did a church tour with her and she told us in the chapel that there was an overwhelming feeling there. She loved everything we taught her, she loved the feelings from the spirit, she just loved it. But good things don't come without opposition. She didn't come to church that sunday and she told her fellowshipper that she wanted to take a day off to let it all sink in (that interpets to mean "I'm nervous about coming" or "Satan is working really hard on me"). Her fellowshipper told her to take another day off but not Sunday. Satan is good and very sly and sneaky. Sometimes I want to punch him in the face but he doesn't have a face to work over. So we go over the next day after Sunday and she tells us that she is feeling rushed for baptism and that she wants to take it slow. (I hate Satan...) We pray with her and ask her to keep praying and find out if that is what God wants her to do. Well, we go over there the next day and she tells us that she is terrified to tell her parents because they won't react to it very well and she wants their support. We talk about the apostles and how they left their families for Chirst's ministry. We told her to trust in God and that everything will work out with her family in the end. But she ended up dropping the date anyway. In the end she told us that she didn't want to meet with us anymore because she wanted to take a step back and go slow (which I thought she was already doing). It is hard to see people know that it is true and know that it is a commandment from God but turn away from him because they don't have the faith to move forward. And if they aren't moving forward, they are moving backwards.

Our testimonies are like escaladers-the ones going down. We are walking up the ones going down and it takes a lot of effort but it is very possible to move forward and upward. But if we stop, then we go down. And Satan knows it all. He just has to distract us enough, either it be with good things or with bad things, that we stop moving forward or slack off and we begin to go down. Family is a good thing, school is a good thing and work is a good thing but Satan can use them to his advantage.

Well, the church is true and Satan sure makes evidence for it. Remember who you are and keep the faith!

Love, Sister Sumsion

"The First Fruits of Repentence is Baptism."

2010-11-24T22:58:00.001-08:00

Hi!

Sorry about the skipped email last week. Too busy. Anyway, this first few days in this week have been a mad house and super packed with miracles. So last Friday, we go to a certain apartment complex to look up former investigators. As we were parking I felt really good about tracting a certain building. We start knocking doors and we tract into this YSA girl who says that we could come back. The next day we show up to her apartment and she says that she forgot about us coming but still lets us in. We start teaching a first and baptism comes up and we ask her why she thinks baptism is important. She says she has no idea why. But we start teaching her about baptism and at the end she wants to get baptized. Skip ahead a few days. At our next appointment she says that she read all the scriptures we marked, the pamphlet and the scriptures in it and she feels really good about the whole thing. She says that she was planning on cancelling on us when we set up our first appointment but she spaced that we were coming. She says that she is so grateful that God let her forget about the appointment because she believes that this is true. After our first appointment, she had talked to her Sister-in-law's mother who is an active member of the church and she told her about eternal families. This investigator was so memorized by that because she is really close with her family and wants that for hers. She said, that is a huge reason she wants to learn more. We are doing a church tour with her on Friday and she is bringing people too.

So me and Sister Sorensen went to Leadership training this past week and I learned a huge lesson about the importance of baptism. So you know the five principles of the gospel-faith, repentance, baptism, HG and endure to the end? Well, it hit me this week that no one can feel true repentance or forgiveness UNLESS they are baptized by proper authority and given the HG. In PMG pg 2 it says "Although they (nonmembers) may not know why, they need relief from feelings of guilt that come from mistakes and sins. They need to experience the joy of redemption by receiving forgiveness of their sins...

Moro 8:25- "The the first fruits of repentance is baptism..."
Baptism is a step in repentance or for those that have been baptized- the sacrament. So a nonmember who seeks forgiveness from God can pray for forgiveness and change his life but the burden and guilt will still be there. His garments are still spotted with sin until baptism and receiving the HG. So millions of people are wandering the world with loads of guilt from sin and transgression and we have the relief that we need. So please keep that in mind when you think of non-member friends and sharing the gospel.

Love Sister Sumsion

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

500 to 1: It's game time!!

2010-11-08T14:47:00.000-08:00

Hi!

So this was a jammed pack week filled with the spirit. We had zone conference and a mission conference with....Elder Russel M. Nelson! He is the funniest cutiest old man, besides Grandpa Sumsion;) Anyway, I just wanted to share some thoughts from both conferences and hopefully you can learn something from it too.

At zone conference, we focused all about baptism. We first talked about mentality and what we should focus. It brought back the memories of my high school basketball career. My coach would always tell us that an hour before the game we needed to focus our minds and thoughts and nothing else but basketball. I had another coach that said to think about shooting and playing the game while trying to fall asleep the night before. Sports is all about the mentality. If you think you are going to lose, you probably will. But if you think you are going to win, you probably will. So I stood up and shared my ideas and thoughts with the zone and I told them that everytime they walk out the door to go proselyte for the day, it is game time. So as a missionary, you must eat, sleep, dream, think about baptizing. If you think you won't baptize or that this person isn't ready, then it won't happen. But if you have the mentality that you can do anything with God on your side (and He wants His children to have the gospel) then you have a much higher chance. Don't forget agency though. But God knows their thoughts and feelings and can help you discern them and overcome any doubts or concerns so that they will accept the gospel. Best ever!

Then Elder Nelson talked about Gideon in Judges 7 and how the Lord minimized his army to 300 people. The enemy had 150,000 people. Talk about bad odds. That makes it 500 to 1. Then Elder Nelson talked about the numbers today. There are 14 million members and 6.6 billion people in the world. And it almost equals out to 500 to 1. Interesting.... He then talked about how the Lord has the unexpected to do the impossible. If you trust in the Lord and rely upon His strength and power then you can do impossible things. We will always be outnumbered by worldly standards. But I would rather but outnumbered and on God's side then on the side that might look bigger with worldly eyes.

The church is true!

Love, Sister Sumsion

Church attendance is vital in so many ways.

2010-10-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

Hi!

So if you all don't know. I went senior companion this transfer and I'm also training. Sister Pfile says that the Lord has catapulted me from being Junior to senior and trainer all at the same time. Her name is Sister Sorenson. She was called to the Nauvoo mission and is doing her outbound here in Colorado for 6 months. She is from Orem Utah. She has an older sister and three younger brothers. Sister Baker, my last companion, is still in the singles ward with her new companion. The Lord decided to mix it up and now there are four sisters in the ward. The bishop is loving it!
As senior and trainer, there is a different weight load and responsibility. More pressure to do good and more pressure to get baptisms. I had a personal miracle this week. I've been stressing all week and praying like crazy for the Lord to help me and also wondering why I can't baptize. I feel like there are high expections for us up in this ward, since now we can teach families too.
I didn't feel like I was really getting an answer until Sunday. I went into the Sabbath pleading for help to guide us and for help on what we can improve on so that we could baptize. I know that my desire is not bad because in the scriptures it says a dozen times that the field is white already to harvest.
So the theme of the Sacrament meeting was Prayer. When the second speaker got up, everything she was saying seemed to be directed towards me and WOW did it hit me really hard. She talked about how we are all entitled to revelation but it is us that stops it when it doesn't come. God promises to help us, not always in the way we want or in the answers we need but He does. She went on to say that sometimes God gives us promptings that require us to think, and work. I was writing down everything she said and what the spirit was telling me. Then in Relief Society this woman came and spoke about how she didn't get married until she was 33. It was to help the girls out in the ward. She talked about the Lord's timing. Don't worry, I wasn't thinking about marriage but instead everything she was talking about was pointing me back to how MUCH the Lord loves me and how He is trying my patience. The strongest thing that the spirit said to me was to "WAIT, be patient and keep the commandments then will your time come. Then will your number be called." I just keep getting this overwhelming feeling that the Lord knows that I'm trying my best and to keep improving and IT will come. Whatever that is. I just have to not worry about what people may think of me when I don't get the results that they want or that I want. God's will is different than my will. I know that it is His will to baptize and bring His children to Him but I NEED to trust Him then everything will work out the way HE wants it. I feel like the Lord is testing me and waiting for the right moment to pour out that bucket of blessings that He has been holding over my head. When IT happens, I will recognize His hand more and be more grateful then I would have been earlier in my mission.
This experience I had at church just shows how important going to church is and to ALL three meetings. We receive revelation there. We receive answers to prayers there. So don't think that church is boring because if it is boring for you then that means you aren't trying to listen to what the spirit is trying to teach you. I love church more than ever! So don't just be active in the church but be active in the gospel!

Love Ya!

Sister Sumsion

Following the Spirit

2010-10-12T23:42:00.001-07:00

Hi!

This week was very interesting and had a lot of dynamics to it. We had interviews this week, found a super solid investigator in which we had the most amazing experience following the spirit and we now teach families, as well, if we find them off of tracting.

So there was one day this week that we were wanting very badly to find an investigator because we've been a little dry. So we were praying really hard all day long to know the place where we needed to be. We would go to one apartment complex that we felt good about but after a few minutes of tracting there, we felt like this wasn't the place anymore. So we would pray and go to another apartment complex. By the end of the day, we still felt positive and more sense of urgency to find someone. We arrived at another complex and felt really good about being there. We felt strongly that someone was there that we were going to find. It would have been interesting to be watching us because we were almost running from building to building. We would stop in front of one and think for a second if God wanted us to tract there. If not, we would move on to the next building. If we got to a building we felt good at we would decide what floor. As we were knocking on a door, I looked across the grounds and saw this building and said, "We NEED to tract there!" So we ran over there and stopped in front of it to decide what floor. Instantly we both looked at each other and said, "Up!" So we ran up the stairs and started knocking. We knock on a door and this man comes out and says that he would be interested in listening to us. We start asking him some questions and we find that he has never been religious but because of the events in his life, he has started to pray for help. We talk about God's love and the Atonement and he begins to cry. He cuts us off after a few minutes and we set up a return appointment with him. Well, the morning of his return appointment, we get this random call. It is a member who is works with the guy we just tracted into. He says that the guy is super excited to meet with us and has read 17 chapters of the BofM already. WHAT?! That was a surprise. At our appointment, he tells us that for about a month, he has been praying for help and he says that we were an answer to his prayers. So we take him on a church tour and he tells us that he went and bought his first bible. We invite him to a baptism that another ward is having so he can see it for himself how it is done. A couple of minutes before the baptism, he calls and says that he doesn't want to come because he is feeling totally overwhelmed. We tell him that we are there to help him and to teach him, not to push. So he says he needs to be more open minded and to come. After the baptism, we talk to him and he says that he has been finding alot of answers in the BofM. He sometimes just opens the book and flips to any page and starts reading. Well, he came across a scripture that i would think would be really scaring but it was what he needed. It was Alma 9:12-13. Read it. Now we are trying to help him learn and gain a testimony for himself.

The church is true!

Love Sister Sumsion

From 14 dollar houses to 14 million dollar houses

2010-09-05T20:07:00.003-07:00

Guess what?!

I'm getting transferred, finally, out of Pueblo zone up to Parker where I was last week for team-ups. Interesting how this happened. Before I was transferred to Mesa, I had teamups there a week before and then it happens again with Parker. Every area I've been transferred to, I've flushed-meaning that me and my companion are new to the area. My new companion is Sister Baker from Orem, Utah and she goes home in December. She served there last year so she is not really new to the area. In Parker, I'll be in my first singles ward (weird...) and all we'll teach is YSA investigators, meaning everyone between the ages of 18-30. We'll be living with members, so that should be a new experience. But I'm super excited and ready for a change. I'll miss my Aussie companion though, we had a lot of fun together.
So some fun things happened this week. One morning, we had planned on seeing a few potentials (people who said they would be interested for us to come back) and some members but they all fell through so we went to tracting. About the last house, right before we headed into lunch, we tracted into this lady who answered the door and said, "Sisters, I've been waiting for you." What?! No one ever says that to us. She goes on to say that the sisters in that area last year said someone would come and stop by. She went to church last year and loved it and she wants to come again because she wants her little girl to be involved. We talked to her for about 30 minutes and she was really open and excited about church. Later on that day we went through the area book and she was no where in the area book. Miracle that God led us too. Also, she is crazy busy with work and school that she is hardly ever home but we caught her at home, another miracle.
Later on that day, we decided to go and see a less-active that hasn't been to church for decades. We walk up to his house and he's outside working on the garden. He is about 70 years old and we were bracing ourselves because usually old people aren't excited to see us. But man, he sure was. We talked to him for a good half an hour and after our conversation he told us that we made his day. We volunteered to help with his massive garden and he said that we could come back in a couple of weeks. We asked if there was anything we could do for him at that moment. He thought about it for a second and then gave the cutest face and said, "How 'bout a hug?!" It was so dang cute that we couldn't resist hugging this cute old man.
Well, nothing else to report. But just remember that the church is true and will always be true no matter what we do. The only thing that will matter in this life is what we did with the gospel. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God and that means every soul.

Love, Sister Sumsion

"The Work of the Lord"

2010-08-14T19:13:00.001-07:00

Hi!

We had an amazing zone conference this week about adversity and the new curriculum that the church has set up for missionaries. Not different lessons to teach but something to help us learn more and become more converted. We read, together as a zone, 3 Nep 11, 2 Nep 31 and 3 Nep 27, which are all about the gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, repentance, baptism, HG and enduring). It is interesting to see how focused those chapters are on the importance of baptism. We read a scripture (3 Nep 9:20) some where after the destruction before Christ came and how during those three days of Darkness, Christ's voice can be heard throughout the land. It is interesting to note that Christ had just performed the Atonement and had just suffered all the sins and pains of mankind, and the thing he talks about is repent and be baptized so he can save you. He doesn't talk about the pain that he just felt but instead of what we can do to come unto him and be saved. It just shows how important baptism and repentance are to us and to mankind. They CANNOT return to our Heavenly Father without it. They CANNOT gain full access to the Atonement until they are baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Everyone receives a part of the Atonement which comes as a free gift, resurrection. But besides that... People need it to heal them and help them.

So my wonderful companion, Sister Hilbert, is very inspired (I hope she gets to read that). We were planning on Wednesday and we're going through the ward roster to see what less-actives we could go and see. So we pick a few and give them a call to see if we could stop by. Sister Hilbert felt really good about going to see a certain woman, so she gives her a call and sets up a appointment for that day. When we go over there, we find that she has company, a friend. We talk to him and he says that he isn't really interested in religion and he tries to dodge the topic. So we stop pressing it and continue visiting with the less-active member. Her friend, pretends to not be listening but he starts chiming in with all these different questions about our church. Alot is misinformation that came from TV and movies, but as we cleared those things up, he would ask another question. We continued to not push it upon him but the spirit did the work for us and it peaked his interest. At the end of our visit, we invited him again to church and he said that he would be very interested in coming and even meeting with us to learn more. I love it when I'm just the instrument that seems to do the talking and Heavenly Father is doing the actual work through the spirit. So we now have a return appointment with him at the less-active's house. Two birds with one stone, sweet.

Keep the Faith!

Love Sister Sumsion

Seeing the promises a far off...and then waiting.

2010-07-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

Hi Family and Friends!

This week has been a great test of faith and a builder of faith as well. Last Sunday, we had set up the baptism for the birthday investigator for the following Sunday, not knowing if she would make it. We made announcements and gave them to her to give to her family. But we decided that we were going to do our best and leave the rest of it up to the Lord. On Monday, she called us because she had something going on and wanted to meet earlier. It was amazing that she called us because she is sometimes forgetful. We thought that it was going to go smoothly the rest of the week. I don't know why I thought that because it never goes smoothly the week before a baptism. The next day we go over and she is mad at the world and wouldn't talk to us. So a day passes. But we kept calling people for the baptism and scheduling it. Wednesday comes and we call her and she is still hating the world. So we pray harder. The next day, she calls us and apologizes and asks us if we could come over. So we go over there and we are really worried that she will cancel the baptism. While we are sitting there talking to her, she brings up that she is making cakes. We ask what for and she says that she is making them for her baptism. Duh! She tells us that for those past two days, Satan had been working really hard on her and she would get thoughts to cancel the baptism or not go to church. So now we only had two days left to teach the rest of the lessons. We go over there on Friday, and as we teach the commandments we start gettting worried that she won't remember for the baptismal interview. But we put it in the Lord's hands again and we know that if she isn't ready the Lord will let the interviewer know and we would keep working with her. So we set up the time for the zone leaders to come by and interview her. We show up the next day and she's not there. Not again! We call her mom's, her brother's and no one knows where she is. So we pray again and ask that she could get her interview that day and we had full confidence that it would happen. Both us and the Elders kept stopping by all day long and then finally, two hours before curfew, she's home. She passes the interview and is super excited for Sunday. We go over all the problems that could stop her from coming to church and set up a game plan. Sunday comes, we stop by in the morning about an hour before church and see if she's up. She was already taking a shower and everything. So we drive to the church and have our meetings with the bishop. About 45 minutes later, the investigator's ride calls and said that the investigator didn't feel good and she isn't coming. (She was having major anxiety.) AWWW!!! So we take off to her house to bang down the door. She doesn't answer and we know she's there. We go back to the church in defeat but we knew that we did everything we could and the Lord had miracles happen all over the place to get her that far. Finding her was a miracle too. We did everything we could and so did the Lord, without taking away her agency. She just chose to use it in the wrong way. So we were exhausted at the end of the week and as we learned that it requires a lot of mental power and strength to have full confidence and faith in the Lord.

Faith is something that I've been learning very quickly. In my personal study this morning, I turned to my study journal and read notes I had taken from a conference talk in Nov 2003, "Seeing the promises afar off" by Anne Pingree. There are some quotes I wrote down and scriptures she used. I always turn to this when I need a boost.

D&C 123:17- "...let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power, and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."
"Faith, the spiritual ability to be persuaded of promises that are seen "afar off" but that may not be attained in this life, is a sure measure of those who believe."
Heb. 11:13- "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them..."

The hard part about faith is waiting on the Lord's timing. It might be tomorrow, it might be in a year, it might be in the next life but in Alma 37:17 it says,

"For He will fulfill all His promises which He shall make unto you..."

Faith needs to live within us and we need to live our faith.

Love Sister Sumsion

"The Book that saves souls."

2010-07-12T20:16:00.001-07:00

Hi!

This week has been crazy! The birthday present investigator I mentioned last week went MIA for a couple of days and we were scrambling to find her. When we finally got a hold of her, we were amazed and our "joy was full". We knocked on her door to see if she was home, and luckily she was. As soon as she opened the door and we got a look at her, we could tell that she has been keeping her commitments. The light of Christ was just beaming from her and this once depressed person was grinning from ear to ear. She cleaned up herself a little bit and she looked great. The house even had a different feel to it. She had cleaned up her house and re-arranged a bit. She was so happy to see us! We started talking to her and she read everything we asked her to read. She said that she didn't quite understand it all but she loved it anyway and she knew that it made her feel better when she read from the BofM. She even told us that when she would have panic attacks, she would try to read but she couldn't focus so she would open up the BofM and place her hand on it while she prayed. She said that it made her feel better. The key to conversion is to gain a testimony of the BofM through the Holy Ghost and to do our part to gain that witness, we need to read it.
Her example is a strong testimony of the importance of church and the BofM. If we are struggling in our lives, we need to check ourselves and what we are doing. First, are we praying everyday? Second, are we reading the BofM everyday? Third are we going to church to partake of the sacrament worthily and going to all three hours, everyweek? If we do those things, we will be happier! We will still go through hard times but we came "endure them well" and "be of good cheer". Joseph Smith said about the BofM, "a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." Pres. Packer said, "In a world ever more dangerous...the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Christ has the nourishing power to heal starving spirits of the world." What a wonderful gift God has given us! He has given us a book that continues the fulness of the gospel with no error, no mistakes and with no questions of what God's standards are and what we can do to be happy. So many people are starving (spiritually) for the comfort that the BofM can bring because it WILL bring them closer to Christ and God. Pres. Hinckley promised that if when we read the BofM, "there will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God." The world needs it and the gospel in its fulness. So share it! God will help you help his children. For this is His work and His Glory.

The gospel is true!

Love Sister Sumsion

"The Book that saves souls."

2010-07-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

"Happy Birthday" - Heavenly Father

2010-07-06T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hi!

So my 22nd birthday was this week and I can't believe how old I am. I opened my wonderful package from my mother that morning. I never thought I'd be so excited to get suit jackets and blazers. And mom, they fit great! I love them! My mom sent party supplies so we could have our own party but we were waiting till p-day to bake a cake. Then we had district meeting that morning where they sang happy birthday and then we went back to work. Afterwards me and my companion were going to go to a amazing pizza place to eat lunch. But when we got there we realized that it was going to take longer than an hour to cook and eat. We were too far from home to go and eat there, so we went to the closest place- a gas station. Wonderful... On my birthday I ate lunchables in a gas station parking lot. Pretty exciting! We laugh about it alot now. But we saw a lot of the Lord's tender mercies that day. I was thinking about homemade ice cream all week and how I could have asked Mom to make me some at home for my birthday. But when we show up at a member's home for dinner, who didn't know it was my birthday, she had made homemade ice cream. I was so excited!
But the best present of the day came later that night. Heavenly Father gave me a wonderful present, actually two presents. Here is a backdrop for the situation and setting. A week before we had been trying to get a hold of a former investigator that we felt really good about. When we tried to see her we found that she had moved and the phone number was wrong. So we dropped it. But a week later, we were scheduled to meet with a less-active member. We called him a couple of minutes before his appointment and he said that he had forgotten about it but we could come see him at his friend's house. "Perfect!" we thought. Teach him and the friend. So when we show up and when the friend introduces herself we realize that she is the former we were looking for. We teach her about the Restoration and she starts crying after the 1st vision saying how much she needs this in her life and how much peace she can feel at that moment (spirit!). She accepts a baptismal date without hesitation. She is has had an extremely rough life and she can feel the joy that it brings so she wants it soooo badly. She has been prepared by God to receive us. The next day we had the Elders come over and bless her home and give her a bless. She was crying through the whole blessing and couldn't stop thanking us for teaching her. We talked to her about church and how people dress there. She said that she didn't have skirts or nice clothes. But we were prepared and inspired to bring her clothes the night before. So we whip out a skirt and blouse and said, "No worries, we brought you a present!" She was floored by the gift and started crying again. She even modeled them for us and she was so excited to wear them to church. She came to church on Sunday and loved it. What a wonderful birthday present! I love my Heavenly Father! She is set for the 18th but we might move it a little sooner because she is just so willing.
I got another present the day after. Someone me and S. Hamilton had taught for awhile in La Junta got baptized. He was the 16 year old boy we were teaching. He was confirmed on Sunday and received the priesthood and is set to pass the sacrament next sunday then bless the sacrament the week after. I was sad that I didn't get to go to his baptism but we were working hard here in Pueblo!

Remember if we have faith and involve the Lord through prayer, He will prepare our neighbors, friends and family for the gospel. We just have to be willing to share.

Love Sister Sumsion

"Pray as if everything depended on God. Work as if everything depended on you."

2010-05-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hi!

This past week has been a week of crazy miracles. We are teaching a teenage boy who met with the Elders months ago but they lost tract of him (because he moved). He was about to get baptized. We've been praying to find him for two transfers and God provided. We felt inspired to go tracting in Rocky Ford on our way back to La Junta from district meeting. We started talking to this teenager and started teaching him. Halfway through the lesson, another teenage boy showed up and said that he was taught by missionaries and that he was still reading the BofM every night. When he told us his name, we looked at each other and then asked him if he still wanted to meet with us and get baptized. We were so excited! He came to church this past week and we are now re-teaching him all the lessons. Prayer does work and God does love us.
A couple of weeks ago an inactive man came to church with his two daughters. We introduced ourselves but he didn't talk much. The next week the mother (who is active) of the man told us that one of the daughters is old enough to get baptized and she invited us over to her house to teach the girl, Jacklyn. They came to church again this week and the dad is working hard to improve his life and be a better father.
Another crazy miracle. We got this call from a member in the ward and she said that her grandson (23 years old) wanted to take the lessons. That was a surprise since we have to usually do the finding. So we met with them at the church the next day and he has truly been prepared. He said that his life has been on the downward slope for too long and that he's ready to change. He's already read the first two books of Nephi, knows the BofM is true and wants to get baptized. When we asked about his feelings that he had during the first vision, he said that he felt all tingling all over. He felt the Spirit so strong! It always amazes me how God will give us miracles in a different way when we are trying our best to find people and to help them come unto Christ.
We've been thinking a lot about a former investigator, Joann, who we had worked with for a long time but she wouldn't get married. We tried calling her but both of her phones were disconnected. But then we got a call from her but since our phone was broken we only got her message and not her new phone number. She said that she's been thinking a lot about us and misses us. So we decided that we were going to try and find her. We had to time it right because she lives in a different town and we wouldn't get many shots at it. We stopped by her house and no one was home. The house looked a little different and there was a different car there. We thought about her moving, since she was struggling financially. So we said a prayer and asked for help to find her. About 30 seconds later a car pulls into a driveway and we walk over there to talk to invite them to learn. But as we got closer we found out that it was Joann's daughter and the daughter's husband who we had met several times before. When we recognized her, I thought "Well, that was fast." God didn't wait to give us an answer. She called up her mom told her that we were looking for her. We met with Joann later that evening but it wasn't as what we were expecting. The fire and spirit we had once seen in her was gone. She looked different and acted different. I was reminded of something out of Preach My Gospel that talks about the power of the Holy Ghost and how people feel it which gives them that testimony and witness but if they don't receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, they lose it. Joann had lost it. Great testimony builder of why we try to get people baptized quickly because if you wait too long they lose it. They need the companionship of the Holy Ghost to re-affirm to them the truthfulness.

During my personal study, I found a great analogy to our lives. In 1 Nephi 16:17-31, Nephi breaks his bow and the family can't get food. Everyone begins to murmur but not Nephi. He doesn't just sit around waiting for something to happen, he goes to work, makes a new bow and then asks God where to find the food. We can learn that when we have struggles we need to do everything in our power to make it better or to fix it but we also must turn to the Lord for help. This quote comes to mind, "Pray as if everything depended on God. Work as if everything depended on you."

The past week Heavenly Father has been giving me alot of hints and has even hit me over the head to try and get me to listen. He's been trying to tell me that I'm trying my hardest but I just need to trust in Him and His will and to have patience to see the blessings come. I think that I've been trying to force my will for so long that I've pushed the Lord out of the equation. I've wanted to baptize so badly that I've been working my hardest but without Him. I need to rely upon him and have patience in his will because he knows what is best for his children and this area. I just love my Heavenly Father so much! He desires so strongly to give me what is best for me. He desires the salvation for all of his children so perfectly, more perfect than any earthly parent could ever feel. I just think of the scripture in Moses where Enoch sees God weeping and asks, "Why are you weeping? You're God." But God says that he weeps because of his children and how they turn away from him and turn against each other. He loves me so much; He loves his children so much that he will help me help them.

Shot out to Lizzie! Congrats on the Mission Call-the Baltics, never would have thought...I'll miss you!

I love the church, the gospel, my Savior and my God! So keep the faith!

Love Sister Sumsion

Mission Revamped

2010-05-04T21:34:00.001-07:00

Hi!

This week we had a mission conference with Elder C. Scott Grow from the quorum of the seventy. He talked with President Pfile and there are alot of new changes in the mission. Now we extend a date three weeks out so if they miss a sunday at church, they aren't hanging in limbo, it also gives us more time to work with them. We now don't set monthly goals anymore but weekly goals, focusing really hard on what the Lord tells us we should set our goal as. He has asked us to try and teach 15 minute first lessons, as to bring the spirit, gain their trust and leave them curious so that we can go back for another lesson. Because the purpose of teaching a 1st, is to teach a 2nd, which is to teach a 3rd....

We had a great lesson in Relief Society about understanding God's will. The teacher read from Joshua 3:3-5,16 and said that complete trust in Him can allow God to work wonders among you. Job got through it because he looked for the miracles/blessings that he had been given. He had the patience to say, "I can get through this." Remember the greatness of God. He has the power to overcome all no matter what. So once we have done everything in our power, then turn it over to the Lord and he will take care of the rest. Just let him take over. Be in tune with the spirit so you know we have done enough, you have done your best. She also talked about how Christ has walked the path that we are now walking. So he knows that the whole journey is worth it. We need to trust him and ask for his help. He knows the blessings that are in store.

I've come to realize that patience, faith and hope work together and that I need to improve in all of them. We need to have patience and faith as we go out and work everyday that God will lead us to his elect. As we go through our trials of faith, our patience, and faith our tested to see if we will have the patience to continue on faithfully and will have the hope that we'll see our promises afar off. I still wonder why I was called to Mongolia, why I'm here in Colorado, in La Junta and what his will is for me. It requires alot of patience and faith.

Make sure you give your mom a big hug and a kiss this week and tell her how much you love her! Happy Mother's Day!!!

Love, Sister Sumsion

"More Holiness Give Me"

2010-04-20T22:36:00.001-07:00

Hi!

Today has been a crazy week. We've taught a ton of lessons this week. We are getting better at teach on the spot while we talk to people at their doorsteps and on the streets. We are handing BofMs out like candy.
Cool miracle for this week. We were tracting and we saw someone cleaning out their car so we went to talk to them. It was a 20 year old girl and when we asked if we could share a message with her, she said sure and ran inside to get her mom. I was thinking, "Oh no. The mom will probably kick us out". But instead the mom, Vicky, warmly invited us in and she seemed very open about letting us teach her. We left her with a BofM and committed her to read it. We then planned to do a Book of Mormon followup in 3 Nephi 11 and stress baptism and correct authority (she's a catholic). When we came back we asked her if she had read, she said that she had read 52 pages from the BofM. That surprised us. She then told us that she felt so much a peace and could feel the power from the BofM. Her daughters read with us and when we asked about how they felt when we read, they said that it wasn't confusing, that the BofM answers itself. But then we wanted to hit our heads against the wall when she said that she was catholic and had been for 40 years. The Holy Ghost was so powerful when we were reading with her and she had felt it when she read on her own but couldn't connect the dots. But she was willing to work towards baptism, she just said that it would take along time. We thought that she was really solid for church because Vicky and tried to go and find it a few days ago but got lost. But an hour before church started they called and told us that they were all sick. We asked them if they could come to just an hour. We even stopped by on our way to church but it was a no go.
But the best thing that has happened to me on my whole mission, showed itself this week. We were teaching a lady, Christine, and would have the lesson at her friend's house, who was a less-active/recent convert (we hadn't been able to meet with her before because she would always avoid us or make excuses). As we progressed through the lessons with Christine we started to notice a change in the recent convert. She started praying, reading from the BofM, stopped drinking coffee and started to ask alot of questions, soul searching questions. The investigator would never come to church but the recent convert started to come back. When we met with just her the other day, she told us of the difference that we had made in her life. She even started to cry when she talked about how we would eventually have to leave this place and she would miss us. She even disconnected her phone because she didn't want to talk to her old friends because they were a bad influence. Her parents, also recent converts, told us of how she is always talking about us and thanked us for helping get back to church. The mom started to cry too. I felt so happy to know that I had actually touched someone and helped someone. Probably a lifechanging thing for her.

Remember who you are!
Love Sister Sumsion

"Don't stop Believing; hold onto that feeling." ~Journey

2010-04-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hi!

This week and transfer has been one of the hardest ones on my mission. Satan has kicked up a notch and his throwing everything at us. We keep having alot of 1st lessons but no one progresses past that. We've probably talked to every single rude person here at least once maybe three times. This transfer has been full of rude, nasty people, one right after another. We keep telling ourselves (and we know this is true) that there is something amazing around the corner. Just remember the trial of your faith before the blessing.

We had a way cool miracle of the Spirit trying to tell someone that the gospel is true. We tracted into a couple who told us to come back and that they were opened minded to everyone's beliefs. We came back and taught them a 1st and the spirit was in strong abundance in the room and working through us. We were able to teach with power and clarity. When it came to time for the 1st vision I was ready for the spirit to hit the ball out of the park, which it did. As Sister Hamilton was sharing the vision, the husband all of a sudden quoted a line (...above the brightness of the sun...) from the 1st vision before she ever said it. It shocked us and it surprised him. When we asked him about it he said that he had heard it before and brushed it off like it was nothing but from the questions he had been asking the whole lesson he didn't sound like he had heard it before. It was cool to see how powerfully the Spirit was trying to tell him it was true and that it was the truth he had been looking for but he chose to ignore it. They later called us an hour before our second appointment to say they were no longer interested. They told us that they had read and prayed about the BofM (in one day span) and they didn't get an answer, so they said it wasn't for them.

There was a great idea from a letter I got from a friend who is serving in Australia. He said that we are like metal that God is trying to mold. He sticks us into the fire to heat us up and then right before we get to the melting point he pulls us out, puts us on the anvil and pounds us then sticks us the ice water to cool us off. So if we are still humble enough to be teachable and we trust his will, he sticks us back into the fire. So when we say, help me to become a better person or better missionary, we are just saying to God, "Bring it on, I'm ready." So back into the fire.

But during that "fire", God will still aid us and let us know that he is watching out for us. Let me share a tender mercy I had this week. After this long week of rude, nasty people, then came Sunday to finish it off. Sunday seems to be the hardest day for a missionary probably because of church. It started out with us missing the passing of the sacrament because we were trying to get an investigator to church. She didn't come and it bummed us out and it was extremely hard on us because it seemed like a cherry on top of this nice week. But we still needed to work. We didn't feel like talking to anyone, we didn't feel like working, but we knew we needed to. So I kept saying a constant prayer for help and encouragement. I felt prompted to open the new Gospel principles book and I opened it to one of my favorite quotes. It's by Heber J. Grant and it says, "That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing is changed, but that our power to do is increased." In high school, I kept this quote on my nightstand and read it all the time. So it was a reasurrance that God is there and that I just need to keep trying. But still bummed out, we went to walking the streets and tracting. As we were tracting, a song came blaring out of someone's car. It's by Journey and it goes "Don't stop believing; just hold on to that feeling..." My attitude changed. That song was directed towards me and God was telling me "Don't give up, continue to have faith and hold onto that 'feeling' from the spirit." I love my Heavenly Father!

During those struggles and trials (or continous trial), I just need to keep my eternal perspective that this is all for my good. We all do.

Love Sister Sumsion

"Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice."

2010-04-05T14:01:00.001-07:00

Hi!

So the highlight for this week was conference. I never fulling appreciated it until my mission. Now I listen and write notes and just love every second of it. It seems that the theme of conference was the family and death which involves the eternal families. Interesting. I wonder what is in store for this world in the future. My favorite was Pres. Monson when he talked about that picture and the boy who died in the hospital. It brought tears to my eyes. For Conference, I wrote down a lot of questions that I wanted to see answered through the talks. But what happened was something I wasn't expecting. The impression I got during those talks was that God wanted me to work harder at finding those questions. He wanted me to ask, seek and knock harder by praying, looking for the answers in the scriptures and relying upon personal revelation. So it was interesting to get a smack down from God but in a very loving way. But it was wonderful to see the love he has for me. Because then he had talks about overcoming adversity and how to push through it and just other talks about how much he loves me and the wonderful loving plan he created for us and then the inspiring talks about our Savior.
This week we were moved to a new district in Pueblo. Our new District leader is Elder Oakes and we had a great, intense meeting with him. Let me share the insight he gave us.
Alma 43:37, 39-45: Lamanites in their nakedness fought like dragons but were still defeated. Then Lamanites wise up and use armor but the Nephites still beat them because they were more prepared. Apply: We are going to battle (in life) naked (without the Spirit). We still fight hard and may have a few wins but we will still be defeated. We may wise up and do a little better by keeping some the commandments which gives us some of the blessings. But we need to keep ALL the commandments to gain all of the blessings so then we will have the spirit in its fulness and we WILL win against satan.
Alma 49:25-27: Moroni Kept the commandments, so they won
Alma 43:16-21: Moroni was appointed at 25 years old (so there was probably a lot of opposition from older men who thought they knew better than him) but Moroni was appointed by God. The Nephites had good leaders and they were willing to obey. Apply: We need to obey our leaders because they are called by God. Especially, the prophet and apostles. It was sad to see this weekend how many people didn't watch conference, especially on Saturday. It just isn't the same when it is not live.
Alma 43: 48-51: Rely upon the Lord! Turn to him! Ask for help! With the power of God on your side, it doesn't matter who or how many you are fighting against.
Alma 48:11-17: Become like Moroni, so that the gates of hell will shake.
So this applies to all, if we keep the commandments fully and exactly, then the powers of satan will not prevail against us and we will win!

Love Sister Sumsion
Remember this:
Preach My Gospel pg. 11 "You show your love for the Lord and his Atonement by bringing souls unto Him."
We've all been commanded to share the gopel so be a member-missionary. Through the members, are where the strongest converts come.

What's going on down here?

2010-03-29T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hi!

Crazy stuff is happening down here. Our investigator, Joann, is having problems reaching her goal of baptism. The spanish Elders came up from Pueblo to help us talk to her "husband" about getting married (since he only speaks spanish). They resolved it, we thought and we planned for baptism that week. But five minutes before her interview she informs us that her husband changed his mind and doesn't want to get married because he doesn't want to go through the process of divorce. So we were pretty bummed. She is at the point where she has to decide if she'll move out. So we keep praying really hard and fasting for her but I don't know what will happen. She wants it so bad but she won't make that last step.

Well, we were low on our miles this month, so we went to walking everywhere. But because we walked everywhere the Lord placed people in our path. As we were walking through main street of La Junta, where all the businesses are, we passed this random house. Sis. Hamilton felt good about knocking on it and the person who answered asked if he had met me in Garden City. The first thought was "Sis. Drinkwater, the blonde hair". He had been ITLed by her and called the number for a BofM. The crazy thing is that he doesn't live there, he was helping someone move. We got his information and set up a return appt. Then we had an amazing lesson with a recent convert family. We showed them the "Testaments" and the spirit was really strong. The best part was that a non-member cousin was there and she was crying her eyes out. We gave her a BofM and she has been reading it. About 10 minutes after leaving that appt. we walked past a house and felt prompted to knock on it. An old lady answered and let us in. We taught her a first and gave her a date. The great thing is that she understood really well for a 85 year old lady. A couple of hours later, we were walking to the church for the Young Womens Broadcast and we were ITLing this guy when a member called. Some girls from the College basketball team were coming over and she wanted us to "stop by" and talk with the girls. Her husband is a basketball coach at the college. So we "stopped by" and pretended that we were just passing through. We asked if we could leave a "spiritual thought" from the BofM. We then asked if the two girls would want a copy and we asked them to read from it. We then set up a return appt for Tuesday to teach them a 1st. Sweet! If we hadn't been walking we wouldn't have had that miracle. Then we got to the Broadcast and made it for the last two talks. Sister Dalton and Elder Utchdorf spoke. They spoke on our divinity as daughters of God and pushing through adversity. All which I needed to hear. So it was an amazing day!
Love, Sister Sumsion

I Love to See the Temple

2010-03-15T17:06:00.001-07:00

HI!

Since it was my half way mark (almost), the mission has a tradition of taking those missionaries to the temple at their halfway mark. So this week I got to go to the Denver Temple. I sure needed the recharge. It is amazing to see how real Satan is and how all this crazy stuff happened this week before I went.
The first one was with our investigator, Joann. She had her baptismal interview on Monday and we thought we were in the home stretch with her. But as the district leader was filling out her baptismal record he finds out that she isn't married to her "husband". Crash and burn! We had to tell her that she needed to get married before she could get baptized. She was so heartbroken because she wanted soooo bad. She went home that night crying but the wonderful thing is that she turned to the Book of Mormon and the conference talks we had given her for her support. She is now working with her "husband" for a marriage date. Her husband speaks spanish so we are having some spanish elders come up and teach him because he told us he would be interested in learning. He even came to church with Joann on Sunday. But Joann has such amazing strength. She keeps praying for her husband, and that he will want to get married, since they've been together for 15 years. She has great faith in the Lord that he will provide a way for her to get baptized. We keep praying for her and her husband that he will do it.

As for the temple, I felt like I have a new battery to get me through the rest of the mission. In the temple I resolved to work harder, be bolder and to give it my all so that I could come home on a stretcher. I love the feeling in the temple and the peace and calm that comes from it. I love how close one can feel to the Savior and to Heavenly Father in the Celestial room. It is a wonderful blessing that he has given to us that I don't take full advantage of. I was reminded of how, as missionaries, we are working to get these people, not only into the waters of baptism, but to receive the wonderful blessings of the temple.

Remember who you are!

Love Sister Sumsion

Down in Farm Country

2010-02-22T11:03:00.001-08:00

Hi!

So a little bit about my new area, La Junta. It is a small town and reminds me of the towns down in Mt. Pleasent, Manti, etc. La Junta is about 1 hour east of Pueblo. The area we cover is huge. We live in La Junta which has 10,000 people and we cover several other towns which are much smaller-Ordway, Fowler, Las Animas, Swink, Rocky Ford, etc. The climate is about the same as Pueblo which means not a lot of snow. There are about 450 people on the ward roster and between 60-70 come to church each week. So there is a lot of potential work for reactivation. The bishop, who is new, is very focused on bringing back those less-actives. This ward is the second highest baptizing ward in the mission. They had 39 baptisms last year.
The first day we got here, we spent all day and several nights, cleaning the house (not apartment) which had been lived in by Elders for several years. It was gross!
We have to travel to Raton, New Mexico for our district meetings which is about 1 1/2 Southwest of us.
We met the ward on Sunday and they were so excited to have Sisters in the ward. I guess that it's been 6 years since they've had some. The ward, especially the Gonzales family (recent converts) are always sharing the gospel with family and friends and inviting them to meet with missionaries. Most of the baptisms last year came from member referrals. It's great that the members are heeding the call of the prophet and doing their duty to be member missionaries. Something exciting though, last year the missionaries baptized a guy from Mongolia! He was here at the Junior College as a foreign exchange student. I was sad to hear that he is at BYU-Hawaii for school.
My new companion is from Fairview Utah but her family moved to Virginia when she was a Junior in High School. She came back to Utah to go to SUU for college. She has five siblings, four girls and one boy (weird...)
We had zone conference yesterday and it was awesome! There are some things that we talked about that can able to everyone. We talked about the armor of God and how the only thing that is not covered is the back. He said that we need to be the protection for our companion and to watch their back, to help them not get into trouble and to be obeident. As families, friends and husbands and wives, we should all watch each others back so that Satan won't be able to overtake them. The mission president also said that we don't have anything on our back is because we don't retreat. This is an ongoing battle with Satan which started in the pre-mortal world. It is an ongoing spiritual battle to protect ourselves from him and to save others from him.
We also talked about how every ordinance in the church is an ordinance of forgiveness. Think about that. Also, when we partake of the sacrament, we are renewing ALL our covenants (baptism, temple and personal). So there is some food for thought and remember not to take the sacrament lightly. If we do our part, the Lord promises us to always have his spirit to be with us. That is the best gift he can give us.

Remember the church is true, so keep the faith and win the war!

Love Sister Sumsion

2 Down, 13 More to Go

2010-02-22T11:01:00.001-08:00

Hi!

This week we had a wonderful mission conference with Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Halestrom from the seventy. We got to shake his hand so that is what the subject line is for. I only have 13 more apostles to meet. I loved both of their talks. I would like to share some notes from the conference.
Elder Halestrom's talk:
-There is no other organization that can turn young people, who are in the most selfish part of their life, into unselfish people.
-Your mission will be your foundation, your spiritual foundation for the rest of your life. You will KNOW who you are; you will know your relationship with God and that faith and trust will be so grounded into your very being.
-He talked about how we can be taught by the spirit. He said that we need to follow Moroni's advice in chapter 10:3-5. First we need to have real intent which means that we will act upon any answer or direction that God gives us. He asked us the question: "When we learn something, do we have the intent that we will follow what we learn? Second, we need to have faith in Christ. Third, we need to have a sincere heart. So we need to do these three things if we are to be taught by the spirit. We need to have this mentality when we go to church, when we go to general conference, when we read our scriptures, etc.
-He said that the greatest thing that we can give to the Lord is our WILL. Actually that is the only thing that he hasn't given to us. Everything he ask from us (time, money, etc.), he has already given to us. He tied this back to learning by the spirit. When need to be saying, "Whatever you ask Lord, I WILL DO!" if we are to be taught by the Spirit.

Elder L. Tom Perry's talk:
-He said that as members of Christ church, it is OUR responsibility to declare to the world that the power of God (the priesthood) is again on the earth.
-He talked alot about how it is essential that Christ church be set up as an organization. He shared some scriptures with us. Luke 6:12-13; Matt 17:1-4; Eph. 4:11-15; Articles of Faith #5; D&C 13; D&C 110
-He mentioned that if someone sends in a letter to the apostles that is asking a doctrinal question and it can't be answered by pointing to the scriptures or a church manual, they send the question to the prophet who takes it to the Lord in prayer. I thought that it was really cool that the only person who can receive revelation that clarifies doctrine and can find out the true interpertation of scripture is the prophet.
-I love seeing apostles not in conference because they are so much more relaxed. Elder Perry is the third in line to be the prophet after Elder Packer and he joked around that he is checking Elder Packer's blood pressure everyday. He said that he doesn't care how long he lives as long as Elder Packer lives one day longer than him. It was great to see that these men aren't aspiring to be the prophet. In fact, they would rather not have that responsibility on their shoulders. I come across alot of people who think that the leaders of our church are power hungry.

Cool miracle for the week: We went tracting in a small town called Las Animas. After 10 minutes of tracting we were let in by a woman named Joan whose niece had just died and she seemed very depressed about it. We talked alot about the Atonement and the Restoration and how this church can bring her more peace than anything else because it's Christ Church. She accepted a date to be baptized and has read from the Book of Mormon since then. She told us, when we asked about baptism a few days later, that she knew that this was the right thing and she knows that it will bring her peace. Now we just have to get her to church.
So after leaving Joan's house, we were in awe because so few people let us in and let us teach them a lesson. We went back to tracting. Both of us felt like we should no longer be on that street so we picked another street that we felt good about. Within five minutes of tracting, we street contacted a younger lady outside her house. She, Katie, also let us in and we taught her a 1st lesson too. She also accepted a date! Never has that happened where we got two new investigators within five minutes of each other! It was crazy! We had Katie pray before we left, about the BofM. She told us that she felt like this could be true and would bring her closer to God. After leaving Katie's house we looked at each other and said how awesome God is and the miracles we get to experience in his behalf.

I love my Heavenly Father and the power of faith! For without faith, miracles could not be. Miracles can and do happen everyday as long as we turn to the Lord and have the faith to trust him and his will. Give the Lord the one gift you can give, your will and many miracles will happen.

Remember the church is true so keep the FAITH!

Love Sister Sumsion

"Hi Sister Sumsion" - Elder Nelson

2010-01-19T14:15:00.001-08:00

HI!!

So this week was Stake Conference and we had an apostle come, Elder Nelson. It was a great experience and we had three investigators come who got to see the apostle speak. After the meeting everyone went up to shake his hand. When I went up to talk to him, he gave my nametag a weird look and asked what it was. I told him it was in Mongolian. He told me that country is a great place (we went there last year to dedicate their first stake). It was so cool!

Anyway, you know that family we were teaching and how they wouldn't get married. President told us to drop them at interviews if they still wouldn't get married. Well, that night after interviews, we went over to their house with the resolve to do as he asked. But Satan sure puts up a good fight. First, they had bought pizza for us and then they got each of us a necklace, that says "Jesus is Love". Satan was not going to make this easy for us. We've come to love them and see how they've gained a testimony of the church. So we sat there eating pizza, and shoving our face with food because we were stressed out. They had gotten all these things for us and we were going to have to say we couldn't come over anymore. After they were done eating we pulled out a calender for the month of January and laid it on the table. We then told them to pick a date for baptism and for marriage. Ron said that he wouldn't do it so we started to resolve concerns one more time. We made it very clear to him that sex outside of marriage was a sin. We told him that God had answered his prayers to get married. He told us that he knows that. We told him that the best way to break free from his past bad experiences was to marry the woman who had been with him for four years and who loved him. He told us that over the past few days, he had been praying for help and he has realized that, that wall (fear and pain from experiences) was gone. He told us that the thing holding him back is that he wanted to do it his way by fufilling his dream (perfect wedding, proposal, etc). Then one of my favorite scriptures came to mind (Mosiah 2:20-23) which lists a portion of what God does for and has done for us and that all he asks from us is to keep his commandments and then he promises to give us more. So I poured my heart and soul out to him and told him that God has given him EVERYTHING and that He even sent his perfect son to die for his sins! This was the first time that I truly spake from the heart and bore my sincere testimony in a lesson. I said, with tears in my eyes (of course-I always cry), that all God asks from us is to keep his commandments and that can't even scratch the surface of what he has done for us. I pleaded with him to try, try to pick a date. When I spoke to him, I could feel the overwhelming love that Heavenly Father had for him and I hadn't really experienced it in this way before. So I laid my heart out on the table and told him to pick a date. The Spirit was so strong! We probably waited a good minute while he looked at the calender and he was soooo close, so close to picking a date. I could see the fight going on in his head. But then he decided to slap his Savior in the face and told us that he couldn't do it. He didn't want to give up his dream. I felt like my heart broke. I haven't had that feeling very many times. He loved his Savior and he knew that this was the true church and he really wanted to get baptized and to be with his family forever. But he was giving all that up for a dream to have a perfect wedding on his timetable.
So then Sis. Ellison told him and his girlfriend that we couldn't meet with them (I was just trying to keep it together with bursting into tears). We would stop by every so often but we couldn't come over every night to teach them. It was probably the hardest thing i have ever done or experienced. I didn't feel sorrow for myself and how I was missing out on two baptisms (which would have been my first) but how they were missing out on the blessings and how they were disappointing God. As we left, I could barely hold it together and when we got back to the car, I broke into tears. While we were driving back to our next appointment, Sis. Ellison just comforted me in the backseat. I know that I sound pathetic but they were so close! If they had been married they would have been baptized by now, that's how close they were.
The thing I learned from that experience was that I realized what potential I have as a missionary to teach and to love.
Satan is not making my mission easy for me. But I know that the blessings will come for enduring it well. My mission has been one trial of my faith after another and it will just get harder. But I can see how God is putting me through the refiner's fire and turning me into my greatest potential, into a diamond.

Love you all! The church is true so keep the faith because that is all the God asks of you!

Love, Sister Sumsion

Wow, this has been the craziest week of my mission!!

2010-01-11T13:04:00.001-08:00

Hi!!!

This has been the craziest week of my mission! So in the last week's email I mentioned a guy, who accepted a date to be baptized. Well, we went back two days later to teach his wife the first lesson. She accepted a date too! We also found out that the oldest child is eight years old. We went back again this week and taught them the plan of salvation with a cute married couple who are members. We focused a lot on eternal families and by their body language it seemed to be something that they really wanted. We asked the member couple to bear their testimony about being an eternal family and it brought the spirit so strong. They've been reading the BofM and the husband (they're the Franklins) has been talking to church members at his work about the BofM. The struggle with them (and their always seems to be something that hinders an investigator and could keep them from getting baptized) is they both have crazy work schedules and the usually work on Sundays. For someone to get baptized they have to come to church at least twice. So we are praying really hard that when they get their schedules on Thursday that they will have sunday off because this weekend is Stake Conference and Elder Nelson, an apostle, is coming.
We are also teaching another family, the Dikemans. We started teaching this family awhile back but only the boyfriend was interested in learning more and the girlfriend wasn't interested but liked us coming over. Neither were too excited about baptism when we asked if they wanted to be baptized the first time we taught them. Since the first time we taught them, which was over a month ago, we've only met with them 2-3 times. We decided to do a "do or die" lesson with them on Monday night. Which means that if they won't commit to setting a goal to be baptized that we won't meet with them again and use that time to look for more solid investigators.
That night, we asked the boyfriend during the lesson if he believes that this is Christ church. He told us that he does and that he knows it's true. (That's music to a missionaries ears!!) The girlfriend, Angela, seemed more interested during this lesson so we committed her to find out for herself it was true. We set a baptismal goal with them for the 17th (the same for the Franklins too.) An important thing with teaching people, is to have daily contact with them so that they can continually feel the spirit and will know that being baptized should be a big focus. A couple of days later we did a church tour with them so that we could get them in the church building and that they could feel the spirit there. This time the roles switched. The girlfriend seemed super excited about church and the boyfriend seemed nervous. (He has social anxiety so large groups are a problem for him.) The next day at our next lesson, the girlfriend told us that she had a dream the night before the church tour. That night she had been praying about the church and in that dream she was getting baptized. She said that when we opened up the font at the church tour, it was just like in her dream. When she said that, I almost cried! I could see that joy on her face and her strong desire to want to get baptized. Now she is so solid and is doing everything we ask of her so that she can get baptized!
However, during that lesson, they broke out into a small fight about how they've been together four years and with two kids and how they still aren't married. Our eyes were so huge! We thought that they had been married the whole time. We didn't want to tell them that they would have to get married if they wanted to be baptized. Because they were soooo excited about baptism and we thought that we were safe for the 17th. So that night we prayed so hard that God would give us the strength and courage to be bold with them when we taught the law of Chastity and told them that they had to get married since they are living together under common law. The problem is with the boyfriend. He's had bad experiences with past girlfriends that keep him from wanting to get married because he doesn't want history to repeat itself. The girlfriend is all for it and would do it tomorrow if he said yes. We were able to tell him that he needed to get married. He wants to but not yet. But they both came to church on Sunday which was a first for me. All I can tell you is that it is super stressful having investigators at church because you are worried about someone saying something about deep doctrine. We are praying really hard for both families to help them overcome their road blocks and can reach their baptismal date of Jan 17th.
But it has been wonderful to have someone to teach but, man, having investigators is so stressful. I always think to myself, "I prayed for this!?"
Remember the church is true so keep the faith!

Love Sister Sumsion

"After the trials, come the blessings"

2010-01-04T12:02:00.001-08:00

Hi!

I forgot to mention transfers from last week. Sis. Soldinger was transferred to Colorado Springs and me, Sis. Yancey and Ellison were put into a threesome. Being in a threesome is a difficult challenge. Teaching together seems to be the hardest because everyone wants to say something but you don't want the lesson to drag on forever. But we've been practicing to polish our teaching.
Anyway, after three months of struggling to find people, our teaching pool seems to be growing at a fast rate. I mentioned a less-active mother and her son last week. That fell through because we tried several times to get a hold of her and we were unsuccessful. We left our number with the uninterested, nonmember husband and told them to give us a call if she wanted us to come over.
But here come the miracles, last night we were tracting right before a dinner and we knocked on this guy's door. We told him about the BofM and asked if we could teach him more. He said that he was busy now but to come back later. So we came back after our dinner and he was shocked to see us. (I guess they think we won't come back) He let us in and we taught him a first lesson. (He is in his early 30s and has two kids-hopefully one is over the age of eight) When we extended the baptismal commitment after the 1st vision he accepted and accepted Jan 17th to be baptized. (We always extended baptism and a date on the 1st lesson, helps us see who is really ready and commited. We give them a date to work towards to, like a goal.) The spirit was there and we could tell by his reactions and body language that he was feeling the spirit. When we asked him about the 1st vision and how he felt when we told it, he said that he didn't really doubt that it wasn't true. Those are great words to hear. So we are going back on tomorrow and we set it up so we could teach his wife too. We also have recent converts to teach (from other missionaries) and some other potential investigators that we found a few days ago. I actually feel like a real missionary now.
I keep trying to work on my faith especially in my faith to find the people who have been prepared to hear the gospel, because God has promised us that the field is white and that there are people ready. We just need to find them which he helps us do. Isn't that amazing, how God helps us accomplish his work. It seems a little backwards but that's how he works.

The church is true so keep the faith!

Love Sister Sumsion

"For ye shall receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."

2009-12-07T17:23:00.001-08:00

Hi!

So this week worked our butts off and we didn't have much to show for it. We hadn't taught any lessons until Saturday, where we finally caught Peter at home. We also taught a recent convert a lesson and another lesson to a couple. We also gave a talk at a baptism. It was a great day because we were literally running from place to place and I actually felt like I was a missionary.
When we taugh Peter, he was so excited to see us and he felt bad that his work was always calling him in. So we sat down and taught him a first lesson. He told us that he has been reading the Book of Mormon and hasn't found any contridictions between the Bible and BofM. We said that they complimant each other. He said, "Exactly!" That was probably the best lesson that I've had so far, not the way I taught but because the Spirit was there so strongly. We talked about Christ's apostles being killed and how Christ's authority was lost. He told us that he had never thought about it that way. We talked about prophets and how there was a prophet today. We showed him a picture of the prophet, Pres. Monson and he was amazed. He held the ensign in his hand like it was sacred and he said, "This is the prophet's picture and his apostles?" He was so excited! He said that he always knew that there should be prophets on the earth again. We talked about baptism and extended him a baptismal date. He fully accepted it. He told us that he had been baptized many times but he didn't feel any different. He still felt like the same person. When he said that, I could feel the spirit so strongly and without hesitation I told him that this baptism would be so much different. I could feel the love that the Savior had for him and it was so strong. We told the 1st vision and we asked how he felt. He said that he was a little jealous of Joseph because he got to talk to God. But he said that he knew that Joseph was a prophet. We were so happy after that lesson! He was excited to go to church the next day and he almost pleaded with us to get him a ride. So we set up a ride for him.
We waited patiently at the door but when his ride came to church he wasn't with him. We were so disappointed! The ride said that when they knocked on the door, they told him that he wasn't home. We've struggled and prayed so hard to try and get our investigators to church and Heavenly Father is stretching us to our limits. It is the "trial of our faith". We've been struggling so hard to find people and are having a hard time. But we keep working hard.

The church is true so keep the faith!
Love Sister Sumsion

"Bear with Patience thine afflictions and I shall give thee success."

2009-11-30T10:37:00.000-08:00

Hi!

This week has been another hard week. We are still working with Peter, the one I talked about in last week's email. He is really hard to get a hold of because he doesn't have a phone and he's work schedule is crazy. He was planning to coming to church yesterday and he even had his own ride set up but he never showed. That is the point we are trying to get to, which is to get an investigator to church. We've haven't been able to get one to church since I've been here. It is quite frustrating but we are keeping our heads up and trying to "bear our afflictions with patience."
We are teaching a young couple where the Elders cast out real evil spirits out of their home. We taught them a 1st lesson and committed them to baptism. They wanted to be baptized but wouldn't pick a date because they had a crazy schedule. Their son is having to go to the hospital all the time because he got sick and they are trying to figure out the cause. The husband also goes to the doctor's for treatment of his epilepsy. They didn't show up for church either.
So me and Sister Yancey have been praying hard to find someone who will keep their commitments and come to church. But Satan is still pushing us hard. We like to call ourselves the "golden investigator but won't come to church" whisperers because those are the only people we find. We meet them and they seem like they are so ready to accept the gospel and they believe it's true but won't come to church. We've had so many like that. But we keep telling Satan "to get off of my back".
On to a happier note, we got the whole day of Thanksgiving off! We got to watch two movies from an approved list. So we went to the church and made ourselves comfortable with a tv and snacks and enjoyed ourselves. But I've realized that I've been a missionary for a long time because I was relating everything in the movies to the gospel. We watched "Hercules" and I was thinking, "Um..this is kind of like the plan of salvation. First the fall of Adam from an immortal state, then our life on Earth as we try to follow God and prove ourselves on Earth and then we return to our Father's presence." It was weird. We then planned basketball for a couple of hours in the gym and had dinner with a member.
We also had zone conference this week and the focus was the Book of Mormon. The President had come across an amazing way to mark the BofM according to the lessons in PMG so one could find them really easy while in a lesson. We marked some scriptures at Zone Conference but I'm still going through the BofM marking things I could use in a lesson. I've come to realize how much information is in the BofM, how much it contains everything we teach and everything we need to gain salvation and to learn about the gospel. The Book of Mormon is so jammed packed with the gospel! I love it!
This week I've been studying about the Atonement the past couple of weeks because we have an investigator you feels that he's done so much wrong that there might not be a way to correct it. My love for the Savior continues to grow as I realize, more and more, what exactly the Atonement means for us. Christ came and suffered for our sins so that we could repent and be cleansed of our sins. He also suffered for our sorrows, heartaches, pains and afflictions so that He would know exactly how to help us. Because of the Atonement, He can heal us spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally. I am forever indebted to Him and my Father in Heaven for that great act of mercy.

Well, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! The church is true so keep the faith!

Love Sister Sumsion

Missionary work is a rollercoaster!

2009-11-25T22:48:00.001-08:00

Hi!

Sorry about the letter last week. I was letting Satan bruise my heel. Last week was one of the hardest emotional weeks that I've ever gone through in my life. Something is coming and Satan doesn't want me to accomplish it.
My purpose is to baptize and I should EXPECT to baptize but if I don't then I shouldn't let Satan get to me. I will just punch him in the face next time and get back to working hard :)
During that hard week, we experienced an amazing miracle. We were tracting and we were walking past this house and this guy was just standing out on his porch. So we went up and talked to him. We easily fell into a discussion about the church and the Book of Mormon. We gave him a copy and scheduled a return appointment. When we came back the next day, he asked and asked us so many questions. But the amazing thing was that we could answer all of them and he agreed with our answers. Peter is is name, and he has been plagued with so many trials and heartaches in his life. He's had several of his friends die and he's tried to kill himself several times. But he said that God won't let him die because he feels like God has a purpose for him. His been in jail 32 times and he feels like he's done so much wrong that God couldn't forgive him. He loves the Bible and can quote from it. But the funny thing is that he hates the Catholic church and tells is family that they worship idols. He said that he's been to different churches seeking the truth but hasn't found it. So me and Sister Yancey testified to him that we have the truth. Then he said that he knows that this is true. (We haven't even taught him a whole discussion yet-amazing!) He said that when we were walking up to him the first time that he knew that there was something different and special about us. When we were walking up to him, he said that he felt peace and was really happy. When he said this, I just wanted to run down the street screaming how much I love God and the gospel. Peter so desperately needs the gospel and the Atonement in his life. I'm so blessed and grateful that I can be the means of teaching about our Savior to him. He might be on parole or probation because his only 38 years old and has been in jail 32 times. That would be disappointing but I'm still so happy that he can finally find the truth and can work towards being forgiven.

I love this work and this gospel. Even though this is the hardest thing that I've ever done, I know that is worth every second. I will work where ever the Lord wants me, either in Colorado or Mongolia.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Sister Sumsion

Stayed in Pueblo!

2009-11-17T21:22:00.001-08:00

Hi!

So I'm staying in Pueblo, all four sisters are, which surprised us all. But we are getting a new district leader this week.

This has been a hard week. It all started with Kelsey disappear off the face of the planet and then our new investigator Amy disapperring too. Kelsey has always answered her phone before and she was always home. But now she's never home and she doesn't answer the phone. We can't seem to get any potential investigators as we are tracting or ITLing and we hardly taught any lessons. Is the problem me? I worry that I'm not saying the right things because people have rejected us so hard this week. I try my best to be myself and follow the spirit. But I'm afraid that I'm not doing my best. The worst was after district meeting because everyone else is having success and it's looking bright for the rest of our district but our success is going south, fast. I try so hard not to base my success off of the stats but I've always graded myself by my stats. As a basketball player, the best was the one with the best stats, especially points. I know that is how the world bases success, by numbers, stats and money. But it is hard when even your zone leaders and district leader is telling us that we need to baptize, baptize and if we are not then we aren't working hard enough. Well, they didn't say that straight out.
I got a priesthood blessing from Elder Prior for comfort which greatly helped. The Lord told me that I'm experiencing trials so that I will be pushed to become my best. He also said that He was pleased with my efforts and the sacrifices I had made to come on a mission.
But this morning I was reading through my study journal and reading all the talks and firesides which I had attended when I was at the MTC. I what I got out of it was that it is up to us on how many people we baptize or how successful we are. I read that it is not decided in heaven on who you will baptize. But I always thought that was only to a certain point because God is in control and maybe we aren't baptizing because He wants to test us. But we need to keep working our hardest and then He will bless us but maybe not in the way we feel is right. But how do I know if I'm working my hardest? But then I've always heard that there are only certain people that I can baptize. So my emotions, feelings, and thoughts are torn different ways. But don't worry. I will keep pressing forward as I always have and will work to serve my God with all my heart, might, mind and strength.

My testimony of prayer has been strenghtened the past couple of days. During our interview, you told me to teach from the heart like I was teaching a friend so I've taken that to heart and have been praying for help to do that. I've also been praying about talking to people from the heart, to help get over my shyness. And I've started to see the change. When I try to teach what I feel, I teach better. The spirit is there more strongly. I know that I have a strong testimony and strong feelings of the gospel but I have a hard time putting them into words. So I've been growing as we are going through this rough patch.

The church is true so keep the faith!

Love Sister Sumsion

Kelsey has a Testimony!

2009-11-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

Hi!

Last week we went to Kelsey's house and we decided to teach her the importance of Book of Mormon and going to church because we feel like the fire in her is dying because we hadn't taught her for almost two weeks because she had the swine flu. I was all pumped up, with the spirit of course, and I was feeling really bold. We asked her if she had been reading the Book of Mormon and she said that she hadn't had the time. We told her that we understood that it's hard to take time out of our busy schedules to read. Then I started to bear testimony of how important the Book of Mormon was. The Book of Mormon was written for our day and it contained all those precious truths that were lost during all those translations of the Bible. I then told her what exactly we do as missionaries. I said that we can't see our families, call them and we only get one hour to email them everyweek. We teach, preach and work all day long, seven days a week. I then told her that we do this because we know that the Book of Mormon is true. We know that this is Christ's church. We are out here to bring those blessings from the gospel to others because we want them to experience those blessings as well. I then told her that we are there teaching her because we love her. Man, I surprised myself by how bold and honest I was with her. I told her that I missed my family so much (I started to cry too) but I knew that I was doing an important thing. I started right into her eyes as I bore my testimony to her. I said that she should try to find at least five minutes a day to try and read it. I then went into the importance of the sacrament and I told her flat out, that she couldn't get baptized if she didn't come to church. The policy is that the investigator has to come to church at least twice before getting baptized. She seemed to grasp the importance of it and she her attitude towards us seemed to change. She was nice to us before but she started to act even nicer to us.

We taught her a few days later and she had been reading the book of Mormon. Yeah! We watched the Joseph Smith movie with her. I was praying the whole time that she would feel the spirit. We wanted to strengthen her faith in Joseph Smith and the restored gospel before teaching her the word of wisdom. Afterwards, we asked her what it meant to her to know that Christ's church is on the earth. She said that it is mindblowing to think about and she said that it will always feel like that. But she said that it is comforting to know that there is a prophet on the earth. She has a testimony! We were so excited because we know that she knows that this is Christ's church.
I thought that as a missionary that we would be able to see her testimony. But in reality we have to ask her what she believes for us to know. But she seems to be changing. The spirit in her home is different. Her spirit is different. She seems to be really changing. It's amazing!

My testimony in the Book of Mormon is growing so fast. I'm starting to realize that any concern or question that we have can be found in the Book of Mormon. My love for it has become so strong and I just love reading it. I know that God loves his children and wants them to be happy so He gave us the Book of Mormon which contains all the way that we can return to Him. It contains the fullness of the gospel and the way to reach true happiness.

Remember the church is true so keep the faith!

Love Sister Sumsion

"Can I get baptized earlier because I might be going to jail."

2009-10-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I'm still in Colorado. I'm loving it here and having a blast living with three other sisters. Sometimes it feels like a sleepover but don't worry we are still working really hard. They are struggling and having a hard time getting our visas and we (me and sis. Ellison) are afraid that if we are still here by the end of transfers (Nov. 7) that we won't be going to Mongolia. We'd only have a year and one month left of our mission.
Our whole mission is struggling right now in finding people to teach. Pueblo, where I'm at, is the hot spot and the place where everyone wants to go because one teaches a lot here. But that hasn't really been the case since I got here. Sis. Yancey said that before we arrived that she would be teaching 20 or more lessons a week. Now we are down to 5 lessons a week. It is hard to tract all the time without much success. I have to keep telling myself that I'm not doing anything wrong. I keep working hard and I'm obedient so I'm doing the best that I can. None of our investigators showed up for church. Bummer! Kelsey, the girl we've been working with, got really sick and we haven't taught her all week.
But there was a miracle this week! Our zone leaders called us on Tuesday to try and fire us up to have the faith to find. Me and Sister Yancey were all pumped that day. We went out to work that day having the mentality that we were going to find someone. So we went out that day to start tracking. As we were walking to where we wanted to track, a guy waved us over to talk. We thought that was really weird because people never do that. We talked to him on his porch and asked if he would like to learn more about our beliefs. He said yes and asked if we could teach him right there. We've taught him three times this week, the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, and Word of Wisdom. We gave him a baptismal date of Nov. 8th and he told us that he wanted to be baptized earlier but we told him that he had to come to church at least twice and take all the lessons. He's read everything we've given him and he has prayed about it too. He said that he hasn't got a super strong answer but he feels that getting baptized is what God wants him to do. We almost fell out of our chairs when he said that. When we asked him to follow the word of wisdom (he smokes, drinks coffee) he said that he wanted to stop anyway and that he knows how bad it is for him. He started to change his life around five months ago by quiting drugs and alcohol. So he's been clean of those things for five months. The funny thing is that before we started the lesson on word of wisdom he said, "Instead of drinking coffee this morning, I prayed. My day has gone a lot better." He's in his early twenties and goes to culinary school, which surprised us. Also, after teaching him the word of wisdom. He told us that he should stop listening to the bad music he likes because he feels that it isn't good for his spirit. We looked at each other and thought "Who is this guy?" He then surprised us again by asking, "Is body piercings against the word of wisdom? (he has a nose ring)" Our mouths dropped open because he was on top of things and is wanting to do the right things without us saying it. We taught him last on Friday. He said that he was going to come to church but he didn't show and then he wasn't at home for our appointment on Sunday either. But we aren't going to give up on him yet (Bill). We hope he has a good reason for not coming to church. The problem that we are going to have with him is that he might have to go to jail. He was charged with a misdemeaner and is going to court on Monday so he might be put in jail for 60 days.

I've come to realize that what we are teaching people isn't taking away from their faith but building upon it. What we have is 10 times better than what they think is great. It can bring them closer to our Heavenly Father, Christ and they can feel the full extent of the Atonement through the gift of the Holy Ghost. The gospel and the plan of salvation just makes so much sense and it gives me wonderful peace and comfort to know why I'm here and what I'm doing on this earth. I wouldn't be able to get through the hard times without that knowledge, that I'm a daughter of God.

The church is true so keep the faith no matter what!

Love, Sister Sumsion

"Can I get baptized earlier because I might be going to jail."

2009-10-26T23:52:00.000-07:00

Missionary work is hard!! Who would have thought?

2009-10-19T11:07:00.001-07:00

Hi!

This week has been tiring and it has seemed unsuccessful. We gave our investigator, Kelsey, who last week had the blessing from the elders, another baptismal date. We were so excited to extend her another date because she had an amazing experience with her blessing. We went to her house and were going to give her a date about two weeks away, which would have given her a chance to go to church twice, hear all the lessons and work out any other problems. She told us that she wanted to get baptized (Yeah!) but wanted it to be special to her. She wanted to do it around a holiday so near Thanksgiving. We were excited that she wanted to get baptized but a little disappointed. I'm afraid that Satan will work on her before she can get baptized and receive the strength of the Holy Ghost. We are praying about how to help her realize the importance of baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. We invited her to church and she was playing on coming yesterday but got sick and couldn't make it. It is a major disappointment when someone doesn't show up for church. Because you sit all through Sacrament meeting on the edge of your sit and look at everyone who comes through the doors. She didn't show up so we stopped by her house after church to see how she's doing. Her son, the one that received the blessing, is doing amazingly well. He is eating like crazy and isn't on a lot of medicine anymore. So that was a miracle and the priesthood does work. But she was really sick with the flu when we were over there. She felt bad that she couldn't make it.
Me and Sister Yancey have been thinking about how to help her. We want her to see how wonderful baptism is and the blessings one receives from it and the gift of the Holy Ghost. I think that her testimony of the restored gospel, especially in Joseph Smith is strong but I don't think she realizes what that means and how what it means that Christ's Church is on the earth and that it is lead and directed by him. So we've been praying about how to best help her.

I've been so exhausted this week. We've been biking and walking everywhere because we have no other investigators and everyone we talk to says that they aren't interested. Every night it takes me about five seconds to hit the pillow and I've been going to bed about 9:45 pm everynight. Sister Soldinger, whose been out 6 months, says that it gets worse. You begin to become spiritually exhausted and you feel tired and drained all the time. Somehow my body finds a way to keep going. I never realized how much work missionary work was on the body, mind and spirit.
The Lord's tender mercy for this week was from a scripture I read. Me and Sister Yancey can't get any new potential investigators, or any investigators for that matter, except for Kelsey. Sister Ellison and Sister Soldinger have been finding alot of potentials but then they never want to meet with them so they are always getting ditched. So we've been having a tough week. So I had been thinking about the struggles and trials that people go through and what missionaries go through. I was thinking about how trials or the trial of our faith comes before a blessing or some great event. So one morning while eating breakfast I picked up a Book of Mormon off our table and just turned to a random page. It opened up to Alma 21 about Aaron and the sons of Mosiah. Aaron is teaching the gospel in a city but they just argue with him and reject him. He goes to another city and is rejected. He goes to another city and is thrown in prison. While in prison he suffers (Alma 20:29). But after being released from prison, he goes back to work and continues preaching. Then in verse 17, the Lord blesses him and allows him to be the instrument in bringing many to the truth of the gospel. That scripture really stuck out to me. If I keep pushing forward through the sorrows, struggles, rejections, disappointments, trials and tribulations, the Lord will bless me. I don't know how He will bless me or when, but He will.
This week we got a new resident in our apartment. One afternoon, we were making lunch and all of a sudden, Sister Yancey and Sister Ellison yell bloody murder. It scared me so bad because I thought someone was dying. Then I realize that they saw a mouse. Then I started laughing my head off. Me and Sis. Soldinger going looking for it and were trying to catch it when it comes out of hiding again. Sis. Yancey sees it and runs around the kitchen like a chicken with her head cut off. It was soo funny! Sis. Ellison started screaming even though she didn't see it. So they made me set up a mouse trap and that night we caught it.

My testimony has grown so much during the four months I've been on a mission. My love for my Savior and for my Heavenly Father has grown so much. I see everything that they have done for me and have given me. They have done it out of love for me. When I try to comprend the love they have for me, I just can't do it because it is stronger than anything that I could imagine. They only thing that comes even remotely close is the love I have for my family. I would give up everything for them! That is just how my Savior is. He gave up everything for me. He suffered and died for me. His whole Earthly existence was to help me. There is nothing in this world that I could do to repay him and he knows that but he still did it anyway. The thing that he asks of me is to just follow him and to love as he would love.

I love you all!
The church is true so keep the faith!

Love Sister Sumsion

I'm loving Missionary work in Colorado!!

2009-10-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

MIRACLE Stories:
We have a woman, named Kelsie, who we are working with. But recently one of her sons became really sick from a flu shot. She had to take him to the hospital and now he is on five different medications. So I called the other night to see how he was doing and I offered her son a blessing. She seemed very grateful for the offer and asked if we could come over tomorrow. I could feel that this was a chance for a big miracle and could be a great testimony builder for her. When we went over to her house the next day, her little boy seemed alot better and I felt a little disappointed. But as we talked, I found out that he was still having internal issues. She was super tired and stressed out because she was working so hard to comfort her child and to take care of him. When she said that, I thought of mentioning that she should get a blessing of comfort and strength. I mentioned that to her and she was up for it. While we sat at her house and was waiting for the Elders, nothing seemed to be going right. She was babysitting some of the neighborhood kids who kept getting into trouble outside and her little boy was really restless so I figured that he wouldn't sit still for the blessing. I kept thinking that this wasn't going to work. The Elders showed up and explained more about blessings. As they were giving the boy a blessing, I was praying my heart out that the spirit would come and touch her heart and that Elder Prior would speak through the spirit and that the kids outside wouldn't come in and interrupt. In the blessing, he gave a specific amount of time of when he would be healed. The spirit was there. After giving the boy a blessing, the Elders proceeded to give her a blessing. I once again started praying like crazy. Her little boy was quite and still for both blessings and the kids outside didn't interrupt. The Spirit was so strong there and Elder Prior was saying things in the blessing that only the spirit could have told him about her. It was a wonderful blessing. He told her that God was pleased with her desire to be a good mother, to follow Him and to find out the truth. After the blessing, she was crying and she seemed really touched. The Elders talked for a few minutes about what she felt. She said that before this blessing that she had doubts about the church but after the blessing it confirmed to her the truthfulness of our message. Me and Sis. Yancey were smiling so big! She then asked if she could say a prayer. She gave a wonderful prayer of thanksgiving and for help. She was so overcome with the Spirit that she suprised one of the Elders by giving him a hug. Elder Prior (our district leader) told her that they're not allowed to hug and so she felt really awkward. But after the Elders left, we talked to her. She said that she has never prayed in public before but she felt so grateful that she wanted to pray. She said that she had received blessings from some clergys before but their blessings hadn't really meant anything to her. We explained to her that this one was different because it was the actual power of Chirst that was given to Joseph Smith. We explained more about how blessings work, how the person giving the blessing tries to feel the spirit and tries to say what God wants them to say. After we left her apartment, me and Sis. Yancey turned to each other and started hugging each other and we couldn't stop smiling. Today we are going to recommit her to baptism. Now I don't want to leave until she is baptized. I didn't find her but I've taught her all the lessons so she would be my first baptism. She is an amazing woman who has a powerful testimony and faith.

Sis. Ellison got a new companion named Sis. Soldinger who has had alot of experience with working with members. She is all fired up about contacting inactives and doing member missionary work. So we are all excited to have her here.

We had Zone Conference this week. It was wonderful! We talked alot about teaching by the Spirit. I love this district and the zone and the mission president. I could be here forever! Well, not really.

Testimony: I've gained a stronger testimony of Priesthood power and the miracles it can bring. Not only can it heal people from sicknesses but it can heal hearts and faith. I know that God is there because He listened to my prayer that Kelsie (the one who received the blessing) would gain a testimony. He is wonderful to me and is always blessing me with tender mercies. It is wonderful to be on a mission and to see the miracles that happen everyday. The many hard days are worth that one amazing day!

The church is true so keep the faith!
Love, Sister Sumsion

I'm still alive......in Colorado

2009-10-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the day delay. Transfers are on Wednesday so they moved P-day to Tuesday so people could use it for packing. Sister Downs is moving to a new area and another Sister is taking her place. My companion is still Sister Yancey which makes me happy. The longer we're together, the more we found out how alike we are. Luckily, she laughs at all my jocks.

Momma: I haven't got your letter yet because they were holding all the mail that goes to the mission office until transfers (which are on Wednesday). I also bought a coat the first day I got here because it was 40 degrees outside. It cost me 30 dollars. This friday it is suppose to snow. They have been giving us money to get food and supplies. The first day we got here it was 35 dollars and then we got 65 dollars yesterday. We will get some more money in two weeks.

This week has been alot better since I've gotten into the swing of things and becoming more comfortable in the Area. Sister Downs and Sister Ellison had a wonderful companion inventory, which concluded with dumping water all over Sis. Yancey and I. Sister Yancey wasn't to happy about that but we let it slide because they were bonding.
This week has been hard. Every appointment we made with potential investigators, investigators, members, recent converts and inactives, fell through! Every single one! So we spent alot of time tracting (which I don't like very much) and ITLing. I realized that no matter what you say, while tracting, people will give the same response. They seem to have an automatic response. I found this out when they give really different responses to what we said. Sometimes I'll say "Christ's church has been restored to the earth" and then they'll say "I'm Christian and I'm not interested". Okay...didn't you just hear me. CHRIST's church has been restored. Some people can be quite rude to us. When we contact people on the street, half the time they won't stop and talk to us so we have to follow them and talk to them at their break neck speed. Some won't even give us eye contact. The worst is when you can see a group of people about a block away. So you start walking to them and they see you coming! So then they scatter. Then your self-esteem is crushed because you think that you smell bad or look funny or something;) But then you get the really nice people who appreciate what we are doing, even though they don't believe in it. They stop and talk with us for a little bit. So I always thought that I had to say the right things to get people to let us in to teach them. But in reality, it's the Spirit that they feel and see when they talk to us which motivates them to want to know more.

Miracles stories: We were about to drop an investigator, named Bobby, after a week of trying to get a hold of him. He was the one we taught the first lesson to. We found him while we were tracting. We had called him earlier on Sunday but there was no answer. While we were ITLing in the park, we ran into Bobby. He seemed really excited to see us and apolgized that we couldn't get a hold of him. His phone had been shut off because he hadn't been paying the bill. He asked if we could try to set up an appointment for the next day. Sis. Yancey had felt prompted to go to that park. We wouldn't have ran into him if we hadn't gone to that park. But then we couldn't get a hold of him the next day. His phone was still off and he wasn't home. But it was still a miracle.

We did have a lesson yesterday with a single mother named Kelsie. She is 24 years old with two 3-year old boys. She has had a rough life but she has tremondous faith. She reads the Bible everyday to her boys and reads them the little kids bible stories. We taught her the first lesson a week ago. We stopped by her house a few days ago just to say hi which we ended up talking to her for 30 minutes. We then went to her house yesterday to teach her the second lesson. We asked her if she had read the portions of the Book of Mormon we left her. She said she had and she had prayed about them. She then told us that she feels that they are another Testament of Christ. She had always thought that it was Joseph Smith's words and writings. But now she believes that the BofM was saved and preserved. We taught her the plan of salvation and afterwards she told us that she feels that the plan fills in the holes that the Bible leaves. We were so excited when we left and we set up another appointment with her. Yeah!!

General Conference was wonderful and many of the talks were answers to my prayers. When Pres. Monson mentioned Mongolia, I knew that that was a reasurrance from God that He has not forgotten me in Colorado and that someday I will get to teach His children there. He is always answering my prayers and offering me comfort even though sometimes feel unworthy of His love. He will always be there for me, to lead and to guide me. He wants the best for me and gives me experiences to mold me into the person he knows that I can become.

Keep the faith! The church is true!
Love, Sister Sumsion

So I guess I'm not going to Mongolia!

2009-09-18T23:57:00.001-07:00

Hi Everybody!!
So last Thursday night we got our flight plans where it gives us the time of when we leave and through which airports we would be going through. So we were so excited!! That high didn't last very long because the next day the travel office told us that we were being re-assigned to somewhere in the USA until our visas come in. The mission president in Mongolia thinks that it is going to take longer than two weeks to get the visas so he told the MTC to re-assign us. We were pretty shocked but we knew it might be coming since we were warned two months ago.
But I think anyway that the visas could still come in because no one really knows their exact status until they get them in the mail. So me and my companion prayed hard and fasted yesterday that the visas will still come in. I know that through God anything is possible. If it is His will it can be done. We asked some of the other members in our district but they didn't feel very positive about the idea and they didn't want to fast with us. I don't want to pray and fast against the will of God but what if He is testing us. Faith is a very confusing thing sometimes but then it can be very simple. But I feel very peaceful about the whole situation with the visas. That either means that they will come in on time or that it is for a good reason that I'm getting re-assigned. Maybe there is someone in the USA that needs to hear my testimony or there is someone that needs my helping hand. We are all a little nervous about teaching in English because we have been practicing so hard in Mongolian. But we'll get over the fear soon enough. The postive thing about being re-assigned is that we will get phone passes and will be able to call our parents from the MTC to tell them our destinations. We'll get that information tomorrow. So MOM, keep your cell phone on you at all times today, tomorrow and Saturday. Another positive thing is that we can watch general conference in English. We're trying to make the best of our situations. We are just so excited to go to Mongolia that we don't want to put it off any longer.
Anyway, some other things was that one of the apostles came and spoke to us. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came and talked about how his mission changed his life. He said that we should embrace everything thing about it. We should embrace the gospel, the people, the scriptures, the teaching, the hard times, the trials, the good times and the learning experiences. Everything that will happen to us on our mission will be for our benefit and can help us become the people that God wants us to become, to reach our full potential. He said that as a missionary, or in other words as a disciple of Christ we get to glimpse a little of what Christ went through. We can walk in His path by feeling, acting the way He did. By taking the rejection that He took, crying the tears that He cried, loving the people as He loves them, teaching as He would teach, serving others as He would serve them. He also told us that missions are hard and that we should embrace that because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation will never be easy. If it was hard for Him then it will be hard for us. If you want to be His disciple then the road of salvation always goes through the garden of Gethsemne. Every disciple is expected to carry a cross.
He also told us as missionaries and as members of the church we are in a battle against the wicked and against Satan. He said that we don't have guns, or swords to fight with. We just have our words or the words of the gospel. So he told us that we need to open our mouths and speak to everyone about the gospel. We cannot be shy when telling others about the blessings and comfort they can receive through the gospel. He told us that our missions is Game-Day. We have been prepared, we have practiced and practiced for years but now we must deliver. We must give it our all to the Lord because we are on His time. We must give all our heart, might, mind and strength so that when we get home and get off the plan then we should collapse. (So just be ready for that Mom ;)
Quote: "As you walk your various paths, walk with faith. Speak affimatively and cultivate on attitude of confidence. You have the capacity to do so. Your strength will give strength to others."
Prophet and President Gordon B. Hinckley

The church is true so keep the faith!

Love, Sister Sumsion

Less than 14 days until departure!

2009-09-12T23:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Everbody!!!

The time is flying at the MTC. This week we started our Speak Your Language challenge where we only speak Mongolian to everyone, even to the missionaries not learning Mongolian. We would tell them in Mongolian and then we could translate it into English. On Monday, that only lasted till after dinner. It is very hard and very frustrating to do especially with everyone in the MTC speaking English. My companion, Sister Ellison and Sister Staib were the only three going strong. I snapped about an hour after dinner. I guess the stress got to me because I was in a really hyper mood and I got my companion rolling with laughter. My companion was a little frustrated with everyone else who was speaking english instead of Mongolian. She had put in her planner to be more patience. Well, I thought she was trying to be more patient because I was driving her crazy. It crushed me! I stressed about until the next night where I asked her about it. She said that the teacher had told her to study patience because she would have companions in the field that would try her patience. Man, I should have asked her earlier! Communication is very important so never assume something.
Last week at the TRC there were so many volunteers!! There was about four volunteers for every companionship (six total companions). There was also a cute little Mongolian family with a three year old baby. She was so cute!!! When I saw that family I could feel what it will be like in Mongolian. I felt a love for them even though I did not know them. It was quite exciting to feel that way.
We started our progessing investigator this week. Where one of the teachers acts like someone who is investigating the church. We adjust the lessons based on his needs and problems. We make several appointments with him and get to know him (or the person he is pretending to be). So far we taught him about God, how the gospel can bless families, prayer and a little about the Holy Ghost. That's all we had time for and he was pretending to be a Buddist so we have to start out about who God is and how to pray. We won't talk about the Restoration or the Book of Mormon until next time we teach him.
When I got my mission call, I was happy that I was learning a new language. I thought that since I was learning a new language that I wouldn't cry when bearing my testimony when speaking that language. I always, always cry or choke up when talking about my feelings and my feelings about the gospel. Well, when we were teaching the progressing investigator, I was bearing my testimony about how God can help strengthen families and how my family has been strenghtened. Man, I was choking up and it made me happy that I was! I feel like I'm more sincere when I cry. I think others can see that the gospel means a lot to me when I show my true feelings.
This week I've been reading the Old Testament. I decided to read the story about Solomon and the two women who claimed the same child. In the beginning of 1 Kings 3, Solomon is praying for wisdom and knowledge to judge and rule the country righteously. In verses six through 9 is where he asks. In verses 11 through 14 is God's answer. When I read these verses it brought to mind how we should pray and how God answers our prayers. In verses 6 and 7, Solomon shows humility, faith and realizes that his strength comes from God and how loving God is towards him and his father. Then in verse 9, Solomon is not asking for himself but for the benefit of the Lord's people. God replies in verse 11 and says that he is pleased that he asks not for himself and that he doesn't ask for riches and wealth but for spiritual things and worthy things. Then in verse 12 he says that he will answer his prayer and give him what he desires. Then in verse 13 and 14 he says that he will give him even more blessings, blessings that he didn't even ask for. Then in verse 14 he says that if Solomon is righteous he can keep this blessings that he has given him. This is how God is. He wants to bless us and to help us. He gives us more than we deserve. He has always and will always give us more than we deserve. He has blessed us with a body and the opportunity to learn and to grow and to reach our fullest potential. He sent his son to die for our sins. How hard must it have been to watch his perfect, sinless son suffer all the sins, afflictions, sorrows and sufferings of the world! But still he did not stop for he loves us and was merciful enough to give us an opportunity to return to him. He is merciful to even those who don't follow him and keep his commandments in his plan of salvation. I love my Heavenly Father so much and Jesus Christ who both love me enough to be patient with me and my weaknesses. They have blessed me with a wonderful family and wonderful friends. They have blessed me with this gospel and with the Atonement. I get the chance to take this wonderful message to the people of Mongolia who have never heard of Jesus Christ or a Heavenly Father.
The church is true, God loves you so keep the faith!

Love, Sister Sumsion

Only 3 weeks left!

2009-09-12T23:36:00.001-07:00

Hi Everybody!!

The weeks are flying and I can't believe I leave in three weeks. Next week Monday we are only allowed to speak in Mongolian. We'll see how that goes since I only know gospel vocabulary. But our teachers tell us that it will prepare us greatly and we won't be as shocked when we get to Mongolia.
Last week at the TRC we taught the gospel which is faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the end. For some reason, I was really excited to teach that day even though I wasn't prepared more than normal. I bore my testimony all over the place during our lesson. The lesson went well but the poor investigator was really tired and I guess my slow Mongolian put him to sleep. He kept falling asleep throughout the whole lesson. So I guess it was just my luck.
We got a new teacher this week who got home from his mission two months ago. His accent is different and takes a little to get use to. But he is really patient with us and believes in us and sees great things. The MTC is hiring another Mongolian teacher so we'll have three! But we're not sure when he comes in.
We taught English for the last time this week and it is a great feeling to kneel in prayer with people from around the world. We taught a class with people from Tonga, Panama, Honduras and Cambodia. We taught them how to teach their investigators about what happens at a baptism. I was helping the two Cambodian sisters and they are sooo cute! One was explaining to the other, "You will then be immersed in the water for one minute." I told her that it was probably only a second. She realized her mistake but then she made a joke out of it. She said, "No, actually we'll baptize you for one hour because you have many sins and it will take along time to wash them away." They both burst out laughing and so did I. I love the internationals!
Last week we had a large group meeting where we talked about a missionaries purpose, which is to baptize. The teacher said that anyone can baptize. The capacity that we have to baptize will be directly related to our preparation, obedience and our ability to teach with the spirit. How many you baptize is not preordained, it is up to the missionary. Pres. Hinckley challenged the church to double the number of baptisms. That was back in 1999 and the numbers keep dropping. People have a misguided view of agency. You can influence people and how they use their agency. If you do a good job they have more of a chance of using their agency correctly. He asked us, "Does it make any difference on how we present the gospel, YES!!" If we don't teach with the Spirit then nothing will happen because the Spirit does the conversion. If the missionaries are disobedient, the Spirit cannot be there as they teach. The Lord has promised us that the field is white and ready to harvest and that there are people out there who are looking for the truth but do not know where to find it. If we ask for the Lord's help then He can prepare a way for us to find them. So DON'T go telling anyone that they are going to a place where it is hard to baptize. If they go on their mission thinking that they can't baptize then they won't. You must encourage them to work their hardest and to follow the Spirit and be obedient and they will baptize. The field is READY for harvest. It is not a time for planting seeds, it's a time for harvesting, we just have to find them.
Quotes of the day:
Elaine S. Dalton when she came and spoke to us:
"You must be willing to give up the life you have planned, in order to have the life that is waiting for you"
"We need to value the companionship of Holy Ghost that we will never let anything get in the way of losing that companionship."
"I can do nothing of myself and cannot even do hard things. But if I rely upon the Lord and His Atonement, I cannot only do the hard things but I can do ALL THINGS."
Proverbs 3:5-6
Sister Sumstion

4 Weeks Left in the MTC

2009-08-28T23:25:00.000-07:00

Hi Everbody!

This week has been an interesting week especially since it has been filled with many ups and downs usually concerning Mongolian. We taught the third lesson again at the TRC and me and Sister Adams felt that it didn't go very well. No one felt prepared for the lesson since we had so many things going on that week. We had to observe an English class and then teach we then had to host for the new missionaries and so many other things were happening. Me and Sis. Adams had also tried a new way of studying. We tried to just study the vocabulary needed and not write out sentences so that we weren't memorizing a script. So that way we could practice making sentences in our head based on the vocabulary. That is a lot harder than it sounds and by Thursday we were very stressed. So we wrote down some sentences on Thursday and started memorizing.
All the volunteers ended up being male which for some reason is more intimadating since they aren't as nice to us beginners. We ended up teaching someone who teaches English to the Mongolians here. His name is Brother Gaberial. We asked a lot of questions about "how was church?" and "if he had questions from last week's lesson?" but of course we didn't understand anything he said and he had to repeat it a zillion times. Sometimes we just moved on and pretended that we understood. He said something about having to work instead of going to church and we never understood what he was saying about last week's lesson. I think I only understood the work thing was he used alot of hand motions. He asked alot of questions throughout the lesson especially about Repentance. I could only catch a few words of what he said and sometimes I didn't catch anything. I would always have to turn to my companion who caught on quicker and she would answer. I leave for Mongolia in four weeks and I can't even talk to people let alone understand them! In two weeks we are going to talk nothing but Mongolian!! We tried that for an hour and it is sooo hard! I don't know in vocabulary, only gospel vocabulary. I want to try and study other vocabulary more but I'm always preparing for my lesson. And half the time I forget the lesson we just taught because we move onto another lesson. I still have no idea how I'm going to become a returned missionary speaker from my present situation with Mongolian.
Anyways, back to the TRC. Later that night we ran into Bro. Gaberial as his class was out bearing their testimonies. We were outside doing language study. He came and talked to us about how we felt the lesson went. We said that we didn't feel that great about it. He then asked us how we measure our performances or the lessons. I don't remember what we said but he said that it is determined by the presence of the Holy Ghost. He said that as an investigator he could feel that we cared about him and wanted him to understand. He could feel the Spirit as we bore our testimonies in broken Mongolian and when we asked him to pray. It was very uplifting to get some feedback from the investigator. We just need to keep the focus that the investigator is what matters and if they feel the spirit.
We finally had an Apostle come speak at our devotional. We had Richard G. Scott, one of my favorites. He talked about feeling and following the promptings of the spirit. He gave us many examples from his life where following the spirit has saved his life. He also talked about prayer and how we shouldn't take that special privilege to talk to our Heavenly Father for granted. He blessed us as missionaries to have the gift of tongues and that we would be protected while we served. It was wonderful to hear his testimony of the living Christ and that he knows that he lives and loves all of us.
Here are some quotes and scriptures for the week:
"If you have struggles in your life don't, don't ever think that there is something wrong with you. Seeing your weaknesses means that you are moving closer to God" -Gordon B. Hinckley
"Those who bring sunshine to others cannot keep it from themselves"
"If you ever have negative feelings towards anyone try to remember their testimonies and their love for the Savior." -my district leader, Elder Burns
The Church is true and keep the faith!
Sister Sumsion

Half Way Through the MTC!

2009-08-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody!

This week has been great! We started our English teaching training. In Mongolia, in order to obtain a visa, the missionaries have to teach english 12 hours a week. So this week we got about four hours of training and observed some of the ESL classes. The teacher in the class then assigned us a topic to teach the class. In the class we are in, (me, my companion and two other sisters) there were four Elders, one from Chile, one from the Marshal Islands, one from Honduras and one from Mainland China. So the Elders got a lot of one on one time practicing with us. I was paired up with the Chinese Elder and I asked about him how he joined the church. He said, in is very broken English, that a cousin introduced him to the church and he travelled to Hong Kong to be baptized. He has been a member for two years and his parents are not members. There are 10 people that are members in a small southern town in China. I was amazed that there are any members in China. He said that they don't have any church buildings but they meet at someone's house to have sacrament. Someday that mission will open up and it will be amazing! He is going to England on his mission. We taught the elders this week how to bear their testimonies in English and it was a great experience. I'm excited to teach English in Mongolia.
So this week at the RC our district set a goal to get 7 referrals, so to send missionaries to someone's house. Usually we have a hard time getting people to pick up there phones and we usually just get answering machines. But today we had a ton of inbound calls! When we got to the RC, the teacher who helps us out told us to hurry and get on the phone because inbound calls were coming in like crazy! Almost everyone calling was wanting a free Bible, so some of our Bible commercials must of been playing. After an 1 1/2 we had 41 referrals!! I don't know how we did it but it was a wonderful experience. I think we have become bolder in what we say and in bearing our testimonies of the church to people.
I talked to one lady who called in for a bible. After getting her information I asked her what prompted her to get a bible. Usually they just say, "I say the commercial and I need a new one." But this 50 year old lady said that her grandmother had died two years ago and it had really humbled her. She was now going back to God. Before I finish the story, I had told myself that I would ask or say anything that popped into my head because I always had a hard time thinking of things to say that's why I think I'm shy. So the first thought that popped into my head was to ask her if she misses her Grandma. I was a little afraid of asking that question because it sounds nosy but I asked it anyway. The lady said that she missed her grandmother so much and that she was really close to her. It was really hard on her to lose her grandma. I then testified to her how we believe that families can be together forever after death. I then asked her how that would make her feel if that was possible. She said that that would be wonderful! She loved her grandma and would love to see her again and live with her forever. I then mentioned the BofM and how it testifies of Jesus Christ and how it is companions with the Bible. I asked her if she would be interested. She said that she would love to learn more about different religions. I told her that missionaries in her area can come drop the Bible off, give her a Book of Mormon and tell her all about how families can be together forever. She seemed really excited and appriecative about it. It was wonderful to have that experience and to learn more about how to ask good questions and to listen to the promptings of the spirit. But I also talked to some really nice people who were really religious and seemed like they would be golden contacts but they weren't interested at the time. They told me that they could be interested in a few months.
Some funny translations from Mongolian is sugar. If it is directly translated from Monglian it means "Sandy Candy". If box is directly translated from Monglian it means "Love time". That made sense to us missionaries because we love our packages!
We had a great experience teaching at the TRC this week. We had so many volunteers that they had to pair up. I taught the girl I met at the capital when I went up there to help the Mongolian deligation. At one point I said in Mongolian, "We do remember the pre-mortal life." They played around with us and said "You remember the pre-mortal life because we don't." I then realized my mistake and corrected how I conjucated the verb. It was quite funny. But they asked a lot of questions and made it seem really real.
Sister Marta just graduated and is no longer teaching us. Sad day!
The church is true!

Sister Sumsion

Amber's 5th Week in MTC - I'm so excited to go to Mongolia!

2009-08-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody!
This week has been really good especially when we taught the second lesson again at the TRC. We had switched sections from the week before so we had to use new vocabulary and learn different gospel subjects. This week me and my companion decided to focus more on the investigator, even though they were returned missionaries. We decided to try and make it as really as an experience as possible. So we prepared scriptures and questions that we could ask. We also resolved to bear testimony throughout the whole lesson. I also resolved to change my attitude about it and not think about my lack of language ability and to focus on the needs of the investigator. So before we started teaching we asked her about the first lesson and if she had any questions and then if she had read 3 Nephi 11 which we had committed to her to read. She started asking us questions which made it seem more like we were really teaching someone. But she had to talk slowly and had to do a little hand motions to help us figure out what she was saying in Mongolian. After we figured out what she was saying we wanted so badly to answer her but our language skills are lacking. We comminicated with her in our broken Mongolian. We taught her the lesson and her read scriptures that applied and then we would ask her if she understood, even though we knew if she had questions we would have to work really hard to understand. That lesson was an amazing experience! We could feel the Spirit even though we were slow in speaking and our language skills were poor. It comes to show that the investigator is the real focus of your work.
So Brother Cannon, our teacher, on vacation this past week to Mongolia. He came back with stories about the work there and the mission, and the mission president. It made our class so excited to go! We learned that we can openly say that we are missionaries so we don't have to wait for someone to ask us what we do. There are five companionships that are tracting everyday to see how it goes and the mission president has found that it has been really successful. The mission president has three programs: 10 contacts a day-where we will share a short message with someone on the street and ask if we can teach more, and then inviting the investigators and members to share the gospel with people they know and then each companionship is given five inactive families to visit everyweek. Because of that inactive families who are visited 300-500 more members have been coming to church. Also, over the past few years there has been 500-800 baptisms a year. There is at least one baptism every weekend at each baptismal font available. They predict that in 7 years there will be a temple. There are six American sisters there, so we are going to double it! Some other interesting facts are that 98% of Mongolian people can read and write. Mongolian women are very career oriented and very educated. My mongolian teacher (a woman) says that the Mongolian women are carrying Mongolia.
So all the stories that Brother Cannon was telling us was making us so excited! The only thing that scares me is the language. I know I won't be prepared when it comes for us to leave and I feel that I will struggle with the language in Mongolia. The grammar is pretty simple after you get use to the sentence structure but the pronounciation is the killer! I have a heard time speaking English somedays. I'm afraid that my quiet nature will keep me from speaking because I will say it wrong. It's going to be a goal of mine and my companion and Sister Marta have been very supportive and willing to help me overcome that weakness.
Quote of the day:
Neal A. Maxwell- "The more we adjust to this world, the less we are adjusted for the next world."
Scripture: Mosiah 7:33
The church is true and keep the faith!
Sister Sumsion

1 Month - Mongolian is killing me!

2009-08-11T00:54:00.000-07:00

Hi!!!
I can't believe that I've been here a month already. It feels like I've been here forever but then it feels like I just barely got here. We're starting to feel like the oldies of the MTC. Everytime we see new missionaries we think that they so cute. We say, "Oh, how cute the newbies!!" And then we smile at how lost they look there because we felt the same way.
This week has been going pretty well. Last Friday we taught in Mongolian to a volunteer. It was tough and not pretty. We spoke in primary langauge which made us feel quite foolish because our vocabulary is really limited. It was really slow going too. Me and my companion didn't even get through the entire lesson in 30 minutes, that's how slow it was. Memorizing and speeching the language is very difficult since the alphabet isn't even close to the english language so you can't really accociate mongolian words with english words.
This week at the RC was an amazing experience!!! Our district goal was to get 8 referrals in 1hr 45 minutes. Which means we send missionaries to someone's house. My goal was to bear testimony to at least five people. I also asked the Lord to let me get at least one referral during the time I was at the MTC. The Lord pleased me five minutes later with an inbound call from a man who saw one of the Church's commercials. He was calling to order a free Bible but he really wanted to talk about finding happiness in this life. The man sounded really depressed and was on the verge of tears while I was talking to him. I told him that God loved him and was mindful of his trials and tribulations. I told him that since Christ suffered and felt our pains he knows exactly what we are going through. I told him that this gospel has brought me happiness and peace during my times of need.
I asked him if he wanted the missionaries to come to his house, deliver the Bible and teach him about becoming happier. He thanked me while holding back tears. I prayed so hard last night that the missionaries will be able to get a hold of him and to help this man. I'm so grateful for being born into this gospel and for the joy it brings me.
So that was one referral and then the Lord blessed me again. I was making outbound calls and seeing if people had received their orders. Before I started, I decided to be creative when talking to people so it didn't sound like a script. I chose a scripture (Alma 7:11-12) and decided to read that to people who had ordered the Bible. People who order the Bible aren't really interested in the gospel they just want the free Bible. So I decided to read that scripture and try to get them to accept the Book of Mormon. Well, after figuring out a plan I started calling people. A called a lady in Ohio who had ordered the Bible. I asked her if she had received it and she said, "YES! I love the Bible." Not to sterotype but it was a nice, black woman. I then asked her if I could share a short message about Christ and to read her a scripture. I didn't tell her where the scripture was from until after reading it and then I bore my testimony of Christ and his Atonement. I asked her if she had heard of the BofM. She said that she had. But she didn't sound like she held anything against it. So I asked her if she would like a copy. She said, "Sure, I like learning about other religions." I asked her if she would like the missionaries to bring her a copy and share a message about Christ with her. She tried to give me an excuse of "I have four dogs and they don't like strangers." I wasn't going to let her get away that easily. So I said, "Well, we can send them over anyway and see if the dogs like the Elders." I know, it was pretty lame. But she said okay. It was really easy to talk to her and I didn't feel like a saleman but a friend talking to her over the phone. She talked about some missionaries she had met a few years ago. I asked, "Were they nice to you?" "Oh, yes, very nice." she said. "Good, they better be." We talked for a few more minutes before we hung up. Man, I felt so good!! I had boldly bore my testimony and boldly extended her an invitation. I felt so grateful for the Lord once again. I love being apart of missionary work!
My teacher Sister Marta from Mongolia is very blunt which is good for me. The class was doing individual interviews with her about how we were doing. Me and her talked about me being more quite in class and how I was trying to get over it because it is really hard to teach people the gospel when you won't speak to them. She asked me to try to extend myself in gospel discussions and during Monoglian class. Well, we went back to the class and started to do a short lesson from PMG. Usually she asks for thoughts and feelings about the lesson she shares but usually she controls the lesson so she bears her testimony and shares experiences. But this day, we read the section from PMG and then she said. "Sister Sumsion is going to lead our discussion today." My head popped up from what I was reading. Man, she doesn't lose anytime trying to get me to speak more. The sisters said I handled it beautifully but I felt a little uncomfortable but not too nervous. I'm so grateful for her and her diligence to make me better. If she keeps this up then I'll be talking to the whole world when I come back from my mission.

The church is true and remember to keep the faith.

Love, Sister Sumsion

Single digits BABY!!! (9 weeks left)

2009-07-30T12:54:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody and my momma!
Life here is flying by. The days seem long but the weeks are going so quickly. But it seems like I'll be here FOREVER!! There were some missionaries in our branch that left a few days ago, and they came in the same day we did. That will happen four more times before we get to leave. So I thought I would share my schedule with you:
5am-wakeup because I need alot of Mongolian study time, but we're supposed to be up by 6:30am
7:45-Breakfast
8:15-Personal Study (scriptures, Preach My gospel)
9:15-Mongolian Class
11:00-Gym
12:30-Lunch
1:15-Comp. Study
2:15-Mongolian Class
5:30-Dinner
6:15-Language Study
7:15-Mongolian Class
9:00-Plan for the next day
10:30-Lights out!

So I thought that one could never fall asleep so early but on that scedule it is very easy. The days change a little bit and Sunday is a lot different because there is no class. We have a fireside on Sunday night and those are a blast! The speakers are laid back and it is in an informal setting. Also on Sunday is ice cream day, my favorite! Tuesday is the devotionals but we haven't had a apostle yet but we did have John Groberg last week. Wednesday we go to the Referall Center and on Thursday is P-day which is where we do laundry, personal study, comp. study, Temple, and class at night for a few hours. Friday we have a large group meeting for 2 hours where we talk about the gospel or some aspect of it. Saturday we do service in the morning. Usually we clean the bathrooms or vacuum. The MTC was really smart to do that because they don't have to hire as many janitors for that. The missionaries clean all the dorms and buildings. So that is what my schedule looks like. For gym, we have it with the elders in our branch and zone and some others. We are allowed to play with the elders in b-ball but girls can only guard girls and elders to elders so I pretty much play one-on-one and I can't find a girl who is good at b-ball. So I usually run, do the bike or weights. They have a small weight room but it's not to my satisfaction.
So last week we were supposed to teach our first lesson in mongolian. We show up at the TRC and there is no one there. My teacher realizes that it's Pioneer day and no one is coming in. We were so happy! But we have to teach tomorrow so it just it put off for a week.
The RC this week wasn't very exciting. No one called in and no one would answer their phones when we called out. Maybe next week.
Good news is that I'm over the cold and back to my normal self.
The food isn't bad here but they use the same menu every three weeks so we are going to see it four times. We can eat salads, wraps, sandwiches, soup and they usually have three main courses to choose from, and LOTS of desserts. I've chosen to only eat treats on Sunday when it's ICE CREAM DAY. On fast sunday, they don't cook or serve any food for breakfast or lunch and then everyone has dinner at the same time. It's going to be a madhouse! The food does start to get a little boring because it's cafeteria food and you can only get so good with that. It doesn't compare to homemade.
The interesting Mongolian fact for the day is that they LOVE free things. When they were ruled by the Soviets, they were given everything so they are use to it. My teacher said that they have to carry a ton of referall cards around because if they give it out to one person, everyone will want one. He said that he'll be talking to someone on the bus and give them a referall card. Someone will notice and they sneak a look at the missionaries and talk among themselves. Then they'll come up to him and ask for a card. And he can't just give a card to the parents but every person in the family has to get one. Some people will ask, "Can I have one for my kid?" and my teacher would think, "He's a 6-month old baby?! Why would he need a card?" but he would give him one anyway. Most of the time they don't read them but it makes it easier to give away. They don't like to give BofMs out in public because everyone would want one and most people wouldn't read it. I thought it was funny.
In our Large group meeting on Friday we talked about Faith in Christ and how our faith as a missionary can help someone else's to grow or strengthen. They showed a clip from Pres. Hinckley's talk of the three men who carried people across the Sweetwater River. They gave everything to serve the Lord and his children. The teacher then asked if we can have that same kind of service for the people we will serve. I thought about all the work I do in the MTC and how much I learn and what I learn will affect the people I'll teach. All my learning should be in the mindset that everything I do is for the People of Mongolia not me. I should work my hardest for those people. Because they are the ones that will be blessed by the gospel. I can change THEIR lives. This motivation will help me study better and work harder.

Sister Sumsion

AMBER'S 2ND WEEK IN THE MTC

2009-07-23T17:53:00.000-07:00

Hi!

So I had been getting letters everyday until Monday, which was the first and only day so far that I haven't gotten an email. I was a little disappointed that I hadn't gotten anything. I know, that is so selfish of me when some of the sisters don't get any mail. Don't worry Dad, I still have time to read all the letters. I usually get my mail in the middle of the day but wait until after the day is over and we have an hour of time before bed. Carmen, Lizzie, the Uibels, Angela Merrick, Grandma Sumsion have written me. People have been very supportive of me and keep telling me to keep my chin up and press on!
Well, the first week was the hardest, which everyone tells me but after getting over that first week and going to the temple last Thursday has made all the difference. I'm use to the routine now and the work that is required, well, maybe not yet. It has been an awesome week! Me and my companion, Sister Adams hadn't really connected yet until after we did a session in the temple. I had prayed so hard for comfort and guidance to help me serve and love my companion, even though there is nothing wrong with her. But after that temple trip, I'm so open with her and she loves my dry sense of humor. She thought my handgun and pepperspray comment was funny;) We've bonded so well over the past week and also with the other sisters in our group.
Last Friday we did our first real lesson in the TRC, which is where we sit in a living room and teach an "investigator" (or volunteers). I was a little nervous for that which surprised me because I was expecting to be really nervous. But after we got in there and started teach, it seemed easy. We taught the first lesson on a non-christian background level. I didn't stumble over my words and I bore a strong testimony that of course involved crying. The spirit was so strong there! After we were done teaching we talked to the "investigator" (who had returned from a mission in Mongolia) and she said that was one of the best lessons she has had at the TRC. I was humbled by her comment because I knew the Spirit did the real teaching.
Yesterday, we went to the Call center again and I was very nervous because my last experience didn't go so well. But this time we took inbound calls from people who wanted to talk with us. My first caller was a 78-year old man from Rhode Island who had been a Jehovah Witness but didn't feel like that provided everything for him. We started talking and I told him that I could send him a free video and he said that he didn't have a player for it. I told him that I could send it with him anyway and he could find someone to watch it with. It was good with that idea and then he started asking me about the Second Coming and anti-christs. He was very knowledgeable of the scriptures but the amazing thing was I knew the scriptures that he was talking about and what they meant like "being born again" (baptism) and "the lion will lie down with the lamb" (second coming-peace). I invited him to take the missionary discussions but he didn't think that would be a good idea. So I invited him to church and gave him an address that he could go to. When I told him that the meeting was on Sunday, he said something about that being a pagan tradition. I told him that we worshipped on that day because of the creation being 6-days and the last day was a day of rest. He told me that we weren't sure on what day the day of rest was. It could be Saturday. My companion overheard my conversation and whispered to me about the resurrection being on a Sunday. So I told him that but then he said that it would have been a Monday because it was three days. Then I thought of a scripture of how it says that He will rise ON the third day. So I tell my companion and we both go flying through our scriptures to find it. I found one in Luke 24, i don't remember the verse. I read it to him and he was still confused. I said that the scriptures say specifically that he was died for a FULL three days. He then laughed and said that he would go along with me. He died on Friday, was dead Saturday and rose on the Sunday. He talked about Christmas and Easter being a man-made tradition. It seems that he still hung on to some of his Jehovah Witness' beliefs. After we were done talking for about 45 minutes about the second coming, marriage, Sunday worship, Christmas, the Restoration and etc. he thanked me for my time and said that he didn't really have anyone to talk with anymore. Sad! But that he felt a goodness from me. I don't know how you see that over the phone but I know how he felt it. I don't know if anything will come of it but I will never forget his name, Harold O'Leary from Providence Rhode Island. I'm so grateful for the Lord for that great opportunity to do missionary work and now I'm excited to teach. The church is true and stay True to the Faith!

Mom: Make sure to put this on the blog and email it to people.

Love Sister Amber Sumsion
Funny story: I have to write my Branch President every week

2009-07-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
I'm so excited that it is P-day! I'm not allowed to write letters or emails on any other day. The first week has been a crazy roller coaster. First day I was on the verge of tears all day. Thursday and Friday were better because I was getting to know my sisters better. There is six sisters now and seven elders. The most sisters they've had going to Mongolia has been three. So we shattered that record out of the water. The first couple of days I wasn't really talkative but I decided that three months of being quiet was going to really stink so I decided to say whatever came to mind. On Friday, I had started to talk alot more but the ice breaker was my awesome movie quoting skills. I don't know how we got on this subject but Sister Turner (from Washington, an only child, adopted, and of polynesion ancestry who loves to laugh at everything, and never stops smiling and who is not my companion) was quoting one of her favorite lines from "She's the Man" and then I told her my favorite one, "Suck it up and be a Man!" Well, after I did that all of the Sisters burst out laughing. I still have the skills.
Saturday was the hardest day because there was so much classroom time where we learned Mongolian and our brains were starting to overload. After the afternoon class, our Mongolian group or district, went to dinner. I guess girls relieve their stress differently but we were laughing at everything and anything. It was awesome! And then you look at the other end of the table and the Elders all had a "I can't learn Mongolian, and I'm so depressed" face. The sisters all laughed about that too.
Sunday and p-day will probably become one of my favorite days because there is no class and on Sunday there is alot of spiritual activities like a fireside, church, district meetings, studying, etc. It was a great stress reliever. But over the first three days I was still thinking about my lack of teaching ability and my knowledge of the gospel. But my prayer was answered on Tuesday at the Devotional. A former 70s member spoke about missionary work and testimonies. It finally dawned on me that all we need is a testimony to preach the gospel. A testimony will bring the Spirit and the Spirit does the converting. The rest of teaching requires practice and study which I will have three months to do.
On Tuesday, me and my companion, Sister Adams (from Beaver, Utah; went to Utah State and is studying Economics; I'm about a foot taller than her; long brown hair) taught a short lesson to one of our Mongolian teachers, Brother Cannon. He told us that we will have to teach differently than we would a Catholic. The Mongolians know nothing about Christ and Buddha is their God. So we have to teach a primary-like lesson and define alot of words like Atonement, Prophet, Priesthood, Apostle. It went pretty well and I wasn't nervous which is a first but I stumbled over my words and cried when I read the First Vision in our lesson. I hope those tears come in handy when I teach to the Mongolians because it seems that I won't break the habit of crying everytime a say something spiritual.
Learning Mongolian has been hard but it amazing to see the Lord's hand in the work. My second day we learned the alphabet and by Sunday we could sound out words even though it would take longer. But after a week, we could sound out words faster and bear our testimonies in Mongolian. Next Friday, we're going to teach the first lesson in Mongolian. The Lord will have to show some miracles because that will be tough.
Yesterday we went to the RC where people call in about the commercials on TV and we ship them DVDs and Book of Mormons. Yesterday we made outgoing calls where we make sure people get their shipment. That was pretty frustrating because some people got angry at me because we kept calling or they weren't interested. We are asked by the MTC to try and bear our testimonies to them but I couldn't think on my feet on what to say next. It was quite frustrating and I still hate being that way.

(Mom my watch broke, I think it was one of the links, so I will ship it back to you and the other links that were taken off are in the envelope I gave you.)

Love you all,
Sister Amber Sumsion

A Little About Mongolia and the Church

2009-06-22T14:43:00.000-07:00

Mongolia, commonly known as the Land of Blue Skies, is located between Russia on the north and China on the south. It is a developing country, after having been under Soviet domination for nearly seventy years. Since 1990, after the Soviet Union fell, Mongolia has seen dramatic changes with new businesses, new products, new ideas and new government. Ulaanbaatar is the capital city with approximately one million people living either in ger (tent) districts or in apartments. The rest of the 2.9 million people live in the countryside — in small cities or out in open spaces.

The dominant religion in Mongolia is Buddhism, but Christian religions are taking hold. The membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is growing steadily, however it is relatively new to organized missionary work. The first missionaries actually began their service in September of 1992, prior to Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s dedication of the land to missionary work in 1993. There are now nearly 8,000 members in Mongolia. The total number of LDS-owned chapels in Mongolia is ten with two districts, twenty branches and now a new stake, as of June 2009. There are 170 young missionaries and 14 senior couples.

Missionaries are only allowed in Mongolia under the direction of Deseret International Charities, a foundation directed towards teaching English in schools, businesses and government offices. All missionaries are required to teach English 12 hours per week. One cannot mention the Church while teaching English, but if people ask about it outside the classroom, the missionaries may teach them.