Week 4: Do You Love Me?

¡Hola Familia y Amigos!

¿Como fue su semana? How was your week?

This week´s email is titled Do You Love Me? because our devo on Sunday night was from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - one of the Lord´s twelve apostles in these the latter days - and he related the story of Jesus asking Peter 3 times if he loved Him after His resurrection and of course Peter says yes. Then the Lord tells Peter to feed His sheep.

THANK YOU ERIC FOR YOUR DEARELDER!!!! Seriously. Mail makes my life. Thank yoooou!!!!

This week....had it´s ups and downs that´s for sure. Wednesday was tough - as Wednesday´s always are...because it was like a P day hangover. haha but the days get better and better!

First of all, it looks like you guys had SO much fun in Taylor this weekend!! That´s so awesome that our family got to participate so much! Like blow the anvil and such! I missed that a lot! Thank you for the pictures - my family is just the best!!!

Here for the 4th of July of course everyone was dressed in red, white and blue. They made French toast for us for breakfast and we had a picnic type meal for lunch. They even decorated the cafeteria with red white and blue table cloths! It was so so so soooo sweet. They really did their best to make us feel like home on that very special special day for the United States. We got to sing the Star Spangled Banner too!! It made me miss singing that at every home game.

For a couple days this week, I went on a fast from English - oh my is it fun! I LOVE speaking Spanish!! Sometimes it´s hard to get across what I want to say, but I LOVED trying to speak my mission language the whole day. I will definitely be doing that more and more before I leave the CCM and when I´m in the field. Everything seems to be so much funnier in Spanish...I´m not sure why. hahaha and me and my comps always talk in voz alto (loud voices) when we speak Spanish...not sure why that is either. haha but my English and speaking and spelling is getting more and more difficult soooo I guess that´s good? :)

I feel impressed to share my feelings of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. For Sunday Night Movie Night we watched Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration and I really feel like I should share some of my feelings.

I will be honest, this week, I doubted my faith before I doubted my doubts. I went through a little rough patch where I doubted my testimony of these things a little bit. I prayed so fervently to know. 

But I want you all to know....that I DO know. I was reading back in my study journal and I found a little entry. Right before I started reading scriptures about the Book of Mormon I prayed like I always do to have a confirmation of its truthfulness through the Spirit as I read. And the first verse I was led to was Doctrine and Covenants 17:6. The last 3 words are "it is true". I quickly went on to the next scripture on my list when all of a sudden I got the thought (from the Spirit, I´m sure of it) "hold on...you just asked for that....". I´m getting emotional now just thinking about it, but I KNOW. I KNOW. and I continue to seek further knowledge that the Book of Mormon..the book we invite everyone to read so that they can draw nearer to our Savior Jesus Christ is ohhhh sooo true. I love it. I love this gospel. I am so grateful for the patience of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I am grateful that he was worthy to restore the true church of Jesus Christ again on this Earth under direction of our Heavenly Father and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I know Jesus Christ lives. I know Heavenly Father wants us to be happy and successful.

I invite all who read this to read the Book of Mormon. Pray about it. You WILL RECEIVE the answers your heart desires. I don´t know when and I don´t know how. But you will. I promise you. The Lord has promised you. 

I love you all so much. Thank you for your prayers and all your support. 

So much love, hugs, and smiles from Mexico City,

Hermana Shumway

PS I went to the Mexico City Temple today and we watched a video about families. A quote on it was: Heavenly Father shows His love for us by giving us families. HOW TRUE THAT IS. Oh my goodness I cried throughout the whole thing. Heavenly Father has blessed me so so soooo much with the family I have - that is just so perfect for me. I love you so much. I really just can´t express. Thank you for everything. I am so proud to be your caboose :)