Moline II - Week 2

Chloe sent a long email Monday - It was a great email.  She was happier than she has been during her whole mission.  She asked that I stop posting for a while as she just wanted to write to family and not to a whole audience.  We respect that.  I will post again when she gives me the go.  She has been out...

                                        ONE YEAR TODAY - Sept. 25, 2014!  :)  

Moline II - Week 1, Hermana Velazco

FAMILIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow. the Lord is so merciful. I got my new trainee this week and i have been the happiest I  have been in awhile. 

In the weeks in between sending my papers in and receiving my call, I was sure I would be in South America. Sometimes the Lord knows us better than we give Him credit for....and grants us according to our desires.

Sister Dannia (Danya) Maria Velazco is the most adorable Hispanic I have ever met. She is from Mexico City south, but moved to Meridian, Idaho when she was 11 so she is fluent in both. SHE is training ME!!!! I already love her SOOOOO much (not to mention her CONSTANT spanish and mexican food lessons she is giving me: and it's only day 4!!!!!!!!) I am pretty sure she follows the Spirit better than I have ever known how. First day I took her finding like Sister Lloyd did for me and the second door she suggested was a man with two kids. She asked if she could share a message. He said yes and came out on his porch in the rain and it was SO AMAZING. She's legit. She trains ME in the third-hour-studies. I am so excited. 

She has such a heart for the Savior and missionary work. She is a natural at feeling the Spirit and has been so prepared to use it to bless others. She teaches better than I do, I think. I am so grateful to be her companion.

President gave us permission to leave our area and travel around the zone if need to find people to teach. My Spanish is flooding back. I am thrilled to be a kind-of hermana. :) A wanna-be one at least. We will mostly still be working in Moline (yes, mom, same address as the last three months) but might take some time to find some Latinos in the area............

We are running into some small issues in the ward. The bishop is supportive, but not as involved in missionary work as we would like. Home teaching and visiting teaching for our recent converts is not getting done and for a few of them the missionaries are their only support. One is even less-active do to her anxiety. 

Sister Velazco arrived, sensed the problem immediately, and she and I have been discussing how we can best help the word in their "retention efforts." We have committed to fast and ponder about the subject more intently, especially as we are more and more nervous about find Spanish speakers to teach. We want them to have support if hermanas are not consistent in this area.

 
We feel confident that the Lord can guide us in this portion of His vineyard. We are excited to be the ones chosen to work here!!!

 The first day, she taught the entire restoration by herself pretty much 

Some more news in the mission is that Elder Wright just went home. I am SURROUNDED my amazing support out here and from home. The missionaries in this mission are incredible. They are AMAZING people and amazing missionaries!!!! It is always sad to see good missionaries go home because you feel like the work will stop without their intense testimony..... :) but it never does. (Elder Wright was my district leader these past two transfers and this district got really close because of him) Can we make a District 3? I think so.

I feel somehow connected to Elder Jeff Sumsion and Elder Bennet Sumsion because I get to use a bit of your mission language. 

Love you both. grateful to be ...

HERMANA SUMSION!!!!!!!! :) 

Keep the Faith!!!!!

Second time around in Moline, Ill - this time with Hermana Velazco

Corn is so ready to harvest!

Davenport Week 3/ Moline week 12 - Cray Cray

Cray Cray as Jordan Murray would say....  (meaning " crazy")

Almost fainted twice this week.

1.  In the MTC, I heard a talk but Elder Bednar called the Character of Christ which basically said that Christ is the perfection of unselfishness. When His love tank was empty and He was in complete pain, He sent an angel to strengthen John in prison. 

Last week was rough. I felt like I needed to sort through one million things in my brain and pause for two seconds to get control of my life and the Lord asked me to press onward. My companion teased me that I would be training this transfer to top off the chaos.

I got a call from President this morning asking me if I would train. I literally sunk to the floor and was laughing so hard I almost couldn't give a real response. Of course.

We are called to help. We have been given the great responsibility to lift those around us. This is a very noble task. A task in which I hope to "waste and wear out my life." -D&C 123   

I have been giddy all morning that I have this chance to turn outward instead of inward and rely on the Lord more than on myself. But I'm still shaking I'm so nervous!

2.  My first Sunday in Moline I noticed a mom who looked like a cross between Mom and Aunt Keri. I struck a friendship with her as she poured out her whole life story to me through the next few sundays. She told me about her less-active son and his girlfriend. I felt very special but couldn't exactly see how this would help the work. she loved the other missionaries way more than me ( she lives in their area so we don't get to see her as much)..so I just assumed it was a tender mercy of the Lord to give me someone to love each week at church. This week in Davenport, we were given a name to go "see if we could find." Half way through the lesson with him and his girlfriend, I realized it was her son. we all started goin crazy hyper and laughing and I almost forgot I was a missionary because we were just talking like friends. The two of them expressed interest in getting more involved in the Gospel. I am leaving this week so I wouldn't get to be there for the rest of the story, but I almost started crying as I realized for this TINY moment, by NO orchestration of my own, I was able to help two young members feel a TINY bit more comfortable on their journey to salvation. I almost laughed and cried and passed out at the same time.

The Lord is so cool. He so knows what He's doing.

-Sister Chloe Sumsion

Shoutouts:

BENNET: You are A MAN in your pictures. NO MORE GROWING UP!

Tyler Alden and Nana and Tanya: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR ONES!!!!!!!!!!! One year older and wiser too. Man, I'll never be able to catch up to you!

Moline/Davenport - Chillin' in the QC

NUTS! This week has been NUTS!, as Ben would say. I have taught an average of about 18 lessons a week on my mission......and this week we taught 32. My companions are the best and we just never stop working so we barely even have time to think! :) We just laugh about it all the time and throw our hands in the hair and say "emergency transfer adventures!" and then just dive in. It's been so fun. These two are just the sisters for the job!

I can't even start describing my week because I wouldn't be able to stop. It's been NUTS! And we see the Lord's hand in each day. I think most amazing is that we have all been amazingly sustained: we are just going going going! We know it's His STRENGTH that has got us this far!

One cool story is that we called this elderly less-active-member couple like a month ago to ask if we could visit them. I was super nervous that we wouldn't get a very excited welcome, but instead the husband asked us all these questions about the nature of the spirit world and the baptisms we do in the temple for them. We gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and some scriptures and we are really excited this week to see what he learned!

Also: I can't go without telling you about the Ward Mission Leader here. HE IS LEGIT! Convert at 21. Mission at 23. Married at 25. WML at 26. HE IS SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THE WORK!!! He told me I looked like a deer in headlights at coordination meeting because I was so shocked at the urgency he felt for this work. I think the 1-hour meeting with him was probably why we didn't stop for one second this week. He is just like "SAVE ALL THE PEOPLE NOW!" and we are all like whipping our butts into gear. So intense! 

Part of that fire was translated into making Co--- and his daughter Che---a meet with us 3 times a week. He is the coolest guy ever: hasn't been to church for 22 years (since teenager) and just decided he wanted it all again so he called us and asked us to prepare him and his daughter so that he could baptize her. His daughter is 12 and has never been to church before. We have been talking and talking for like a month to try to coordinate and finally this week we were like OK GO! and we just made it happen. NUTS!!!!

"woa! Church is true!" That's what we say whenever something cool happens (so like multiple times a day) that we feel is directly orchestrated by the Lord. 

Yours truly,

Sister Sumsion

I didn't know what QC meant so I asked my dear friend Lesa Peers who lived there what that meant.  She said..."QC stands for Quad Cities=Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline and Rock Island!"