Week 75:.....must press forward with a perfect brightness of hope.

HELLOOOOOOO from Wicheeta!

Last week was full of meetings and planning and preparing for meetings! So that's always fun :)
One of the highlights of the week was eating dinner with the Gonda family and their beautiful children!

Will - the boy on the left - drew this and said "this is you and me!" I just about died! Haha they are such an awesome family.

Now the news you have been waiting for: Kalimah did not get baptized. It's a very long story.....but the gist is that she spent some time with people that belong to another faith and they were somehow able to convince her in a few moments that she should attend church with them and that she shouldn't be baptized. It was quite the weekend. We did all we possibly could, but her decision was made and my heart was just very sad.
However, as I testified to her one night, I was just shaking with passion and I received a witness yet again of the reality of Jesus Christ and His Gospel, the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and that everyone MUST be baptized by the authority of Jesus Christ in order to receive all that the Father has. As I watched her receiving so much opposition, I just cried. It was like watching the war in heaven in real life and I just felt so small in the middle of it. It was wonderful to feel the peace of the Spirit as I turned to Christ for help. Choose the great Mediator!

Now the task on the daily is to find our Cornelius (Acts 10) we are making plans to make sure we are staying on top of it and doing this work in the Lord's way, applying the Lord's faith model in Luke 17 by expecting the impossible and doing more than what's expected - using the Atonement everyday. I know the Lord will work a miracle. All we need is to have faith sufficient for Him to work through us :)

A wonderful miracle did happen on Sunday! A super missionary minded member took us out to introduce us to some of her neighborhood "acquaintances" (yes, she has so much faith!!) and a family she introduced us to allowed us to come in, accepted a Book of Mormon and said they'd read it, and said we could come back! Yay! :) We are so grateful for the Lord's hand in this work! Oh how I love Him and desire to give all I am to Him.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Share your testimony with a friend :)

Con todo mi corazon y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

My picture from Will :)

Look at all those birds!!

"End of life Planning Seminar"?? I'm in!! Haha!

MTC district!!!! Lots of months later.... Haha

List of departures....not on there!! :D
Prez said I could extend!!!

Just kidding.

Audrey's Homecoming!

We are anxiously awaiting Audrey's impending return, and would like to pass along the information of her homecoming report.

It will be Sunday, December 27th @ 9:00 AM, at the Wickenburg LDS Church Builidng.

The countdown is off by a day, she is getting home the 10th, not the 11th, but I'm not sure how to fix it without making a whole new one, so I'm just going to let it go. :)

We appreciate your support of Audrey during her mission, and hope to see all those that can make it at her homecoming!

Week 74: Growing Pains

Hey Fam and Friends!

So guess what! I totally forgot to tell you, but Elder Stevenson came

to our mission on Saturday and held a mission conference with all of

us!!! It was awesome :) I felt the Spirit sooooo strongly and he

seriously changed my life. So many of my questions were answered and

my testimony of preparation was strengthened so much. I love my

mission. As I was sitting there, reveling in the Spirit, I was

overwhelmed with gratitude for my mission. Words just can't express!

Tears can though! Haha I learned a ton about humility and vision and

the power of testimony. It was an amazing surprise to the mission - we

only knew he was coming like a week before! It was a great Halloween!

So transfers of course were last week. Lots of adjusting and

opportunities to grow! Sister Palmer and I are very different, she is

very sweet, understanding and loving and I am..... So anyway...

Definitely have different strengths! She will teach me a lot in the

next several weeks. It was really hard to say goodbye to some of my

best homies though. Shout out to Elder Riddle, Sister Bringhurst,

Elder Pututau, and a Elder Brown. Miss ya guys. All is well in the

HEARTLAND!!! I have felt great comfort in knowing Jesus Christ will

always be here with me :) I love Him!

We fasted with Kalimah yesterday! She is so excited to be baptized

this weekend! We love her so much! This week she even bore her

testimony to her friend!! It was awesome :)

Oh! Cool miracle! So we finally caught Toshjanae, an investigator who

was on date for baptism, at home on Friday! At first she was like "I

don't have time for this in my life, I don't want to talk to you." But

then we testified hard core and I reminded her of the spiritual

experiences we have had together and then she said "actually, you can

come by Sunday!" Yeah - miracle of the Atonement and the power of the

Spirit RIGHT in front of our faces. We walked away and the Spirit was

like "why did you not invite her to be baptized again...?" And I was

like. Oh snap. So I told Sister Palmer we had to go back and knock

again!! We did! And we invited her, cleared up some of her concerns,

invited her again, and she said yes!!! It was great. I am so grateful

for the Holy Ghost and His help :)

Ohhhh another cool miracle!! So we felt prompted Sunday morning as we

were praying to go visit a few referrals (a family) from an active

member before church. We went. And saw a miracle! Imagine that.

Miracles happen when we just listen to the Spirit y'all. Anywho. So we

went and knocked on their door and the dad, Thomas, was super excited

to let us in! He told us that he has been reading in the Book of

Mormon and loves his LDS friends and the LDS culture. We knew we had

to invite him to be baptized! We did and he accepted to be baptized

TODAY! Haha we were like....uhhhhh maybe on the 21st? :) he was like

"if that's what I need to do, that's what I need to do, and I need to

do it soon!!" It was awesome :) we are so grateful for miracles!!

So, I love you all! Happy November! Choose the Right. Happiness will follow :)

Con todo mi corazón y amor,

Hermana Shumway

Bye Sister Bringhurst....notice how I'm
ALWAYS in the passengers seat? ...... :|

Bateman Family!!

That awkward moment when....

Sister Palmer and I. #nofilter #canyoutell?

Taking out the new missionary and Sister Gonda!!! I got real
emotional when Sister Joyner was introducing the
Book of Mormon to someone....I LOVE THIS.
Brought back tender feelings of my first day!

Bowling for P-day!

Week 73: Believing IN Him vs Believing Him

Hello my people! Haha just kidding!

So I know you're all wondering how Kalimah's baptism went!! Some
events transpired....and her baptism has been postponed until November
7th!! She is doing well though, just a couple things to straighten
out. We went over to pick her up for a dinner appointment with a
member family and she had this on her door!!

Haha it's all good....

This week I have been pondering a lot the difference between believing IN Christ and believing Christ. Believing in Christ to me means that I believe in what He says, like He really can change lives, heal infirmities, and redeem us from sin. But for everyone else....not me. But believing Christ is believing He can do that for ME. He can change my heart and my nature. I pray to believe Him more and more every day.

I am grateful for this mission. I am grateful for the culture of faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement.

Transfers are this week.... Sister Bringhurst is heading to PRATT KANSAS!!!!! I will miss her so dearly. This last week we made a mutual binding commitment to Heavenly Father that we would talk to 10 new people every day and teach at least 4 new people lessons, asking the Lord that He would bless us with a family to teach! It was amazing to exercise our faith, some days even to the last possible moment, and know the Lord would keep His promise to us - and He did!!! I haven't met them yet, Sister Bringhurst met them while we were on exchanges, but the family sounds awesome!!!

The church is true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and Jesus is the Christ.

I love you all so much! Have a great week.

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

#nofilter :) It made us so happy :)

Then her son wouldn't take a picture with me :(

Week 72: Spilled Milk

Thanks Mom for the package!!! Thanks Cara and Kendon for the letters!!

Oh!!! Cara and Kendon!!! Congrats on the baby boy! He is going to be
so handsome! I loved all the pictures.

Soooo let me sum up. Real fast. Cuz emailing is getting less and less fun :)
Kalimah is getting baptized this weekend and she is so excited!!!! It
has been such a blessing to be able to teach her - seriously such a
miracle. Yesterday we went with a member and her to the Mission
President's Devotional. President Bell invited everyone to wake up
early every day to read the Book of Mormon - she texted us this
morning and told us she and Jayden prayed and read the Book of Mormon
together this morning!!! We can't wait for Saturday!!

We helped some members lay some sod, that was fun and dirty!!

Sisters Conference was last week and that was good - weird to be on
the training side and not the receiving side, but it was fun
regardless :) I'll attach a pic! ALL the Sisters in the mission came
into Wichita for it!! It was so fun to see all their faces. A great
guest speaker came and taught us about procuring, protecting and
preserving our testimonies, it was super awesome :)

It was a good week, lots of things learned and loved :)

I love you all! Have an awesome week!

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

Miss Fred's mom!!

Sisters' Conference!

 Carving pumpkins for P-day.
P.S. I took breakfast on the go the day of Sisters'
conference and spilled my cereal in the car.
It has gotten kinda smelly.... :) haha sorry Sister Bringhurst!