Week 22: "We be Preachin' Jesus"

Hello my glorious family and friends!!

Elder Landroche (my District Leader and co-missionary in the Spanish Branch) wrote a song called "We Be Preachin' Jesus" and he, Sister Seigfried, another Elder, Elder Chlarson, and I sang it! We love it! I attached it to the email! It'll be on the next Kansas Wichita Mission CD!!! 

How in the world is the world goin?! I hope fantastic! We saw a bit of the world this week! There was a Veteran's Day parade going on, but before we saw the parade, we saw protesters of the parade! From the Westborough Baptist Church! Who knew their origin...headquarters....? or whatever! is in Topeka, Kansas! Yeah. It was pretty crazy the stuff their posters said... Makes me so sad. Sister Seigfried and I wonder what their Sunday services are like... I can't imagine they're uplifting. haha

I forgot to say thank you's last week for cards and letters and things! I'm sorry! Thank you to Sister Hymas for the super sweet card she sent to me - I love her so much! Shout-out to Sister Berry who reported for her mission last week! So exciting. :) Thank you to Mom for the card and the letter! I loved reading both of them! AND thank you to Nathan Edwards for the thoughtful letter! I appreciate all of you OH SO MUCH!! Thank you, thank you :)

A few stories from this week...

We knocked a referral's door this week...she threatened to call the cops on us. That was a first! I'm convinced if she woulda opened the door the Spirit woulda hit her in the face and she would be getting baptized this week. haha we walked away laughing!

The Branch President told us not to tell everyone to bring a refreshment to our missionary activity because everyone would stay home from church in order to prepare their piece. These are my kind of people, they don't mess around when it comes to food :D For the missionary activity we had, we asked the Branch Pres to bring some cookies and a member of the branch to bring arroz con leche and we ended up with an ARRAY of refreshments. EVERYONE brought something. haha it was awesome. I love these people. :)

TONS OF ONE-WAY STREETS IN KANSAS. It kills me sometimes. haha

We raked tons of leaves!!! Pictures are included!

Some really cool stuff is happening in Topeka.

We visited 2 investigators who weren't going anywhere in the past (when Sister Hymas was here) and we have return appointments with both of them and one of them was even reading in the Book of Mormon!! We are really excited about it!!

The work is changing and progressing and we are really learning how to work SMART. Meaning helping the MEMBERS with the things they are doing to be missionaries and building them up which will then lead us to teach the people they love and care about. We taught Relief Society on Sunday and the topic was missionary work!!! It was awesome. We testified that we are here to help them. That we need their help to do this work. They know their culture, they know their language, they know their people. They have been blessed with the gospel in order to be a light to their own nation and guide their own people to the church. It was so powerful and we are SO excited to see the work just EXPLODE!!! 

The missionary activity was wonderful! We had a fun part where they did a relay race sort of deal which included tying ties, ironing shirts, finding a golden investigator and leading them to baptism through an obstacle course while they were blindfolded. It was very fun :) We invited some of the Spanish speaking RMs in the area to come to "investigators" with concerns. We split the members into companionships and gave them 15 minutes to prepare a lesson according to the concern their investigator had - they had all the tools a missionary has. Then they taught them for about 20 minutes. Then we had a testimony meeting. It. Was. AWESOME. Everyone loved it and the Spirit was so strong. Again, so stoked to see this area take off. The Lord is totally changing how we are doing missionary work and I'm excited to just keep stepping into the darkness, following the will of the Lord until He lights the way :) 

We have a ton of meetings this week - one of them with a general authority! So excited for some MAD revelation!!!! :D

I love being a missionary! It's the best!!!

I love you all so much, thank you for all of your support and love! 

Have such an amazing week, all!

Hermana Shumway

Cleanin' up the ojas (leaves). Straight cheesin'!

I wanted orange juice....."NO JUICE"...well. That's awkward.

Halloween!! We dressed up as elders!!