Week 79: "I'll be home for Christmas"

Happy Monday!!

Thanks Mom for the package!!

So this week should be a busy one with packing and meetings and
interviews and invitations to baptism and miracles and lots and lots
of hugs...

Last week, I'm super sorry about the email! I accidentally hit send
too early then I guess the other email I sent afterwards to complete
the email didn't send :( I'm really sorry about that. I will try to
find it again and send it out.

I hope everyone got to watch the Christmas devotional! Those are
always very special. If you didn't get to watch, go to LDS.org! We
watched it at the Johanson's house with one of the less actives we are
teaching, Sister West! Jessica and her family were supposed to come
too but they decided just to watch it at home - they really enjoyed it
though! Jessica brought her 5 kids to church all by herself; she is
such an example to me. Oh how I love her and will miss her. She wants
so badly to be baptized and is willing to do everything in her power -
whatever it takes. Last Monday we got to do a little FHE with them and
while Sister Palmer taught Jessica about the Baptismal Interview
Questions, I got to teach the kids "I Am A Child of God". It was just
great. What wonderful simple truths that little song teaches us! They
loved it. We then performed it to Jessica and she loved it. The gospel
is sure for families. :)

iPads are a great teaching tool!!

Also on Monday! (Monday was very miraculous) we got in contact with Brittany!! Finally!! She was upset she missed her baptism, but she had been reading in the Book of Mormon and praying and still wants to be baptized. She came to church yesterday so this week will be full of us helping her prepare for THIS WEEKEND!!! We have lots to do, but we'll make it happen with the Lord's help. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were full of meetings....those are always good! 

Friday we had zone training and for my last one the zone leaders asked me to give a training on loving the Savior, loving our missions, and increasing faith. I was grateful to be able to share that passion with the other missionaries. I will miss being surrounded by missionaries constantly. There is just a special spirit that comes with that mantle and that calling. We truly are set apart to be representatives of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I think the spirit is just so strong in that company because we repent and use the Atonement every day. Always happy, never content :) I will miss them so dearly!!

Friday we also went on exchanges!! Sister Tafua came with me to Bel Aire and oh the miracles!!! We found 2 new families to teach!! We are excited to help them progress towards baptism :)

Last week we also started to teach a new family that hasn't been to church in a long time. They have let their doubts and uncertainties take them away from the living water of Jesus Christ and His restored Gospel. It broke my heart to see them struggle so much with their concerns. They have a desire to live the Gospel and teach their children, but they are held back by their doubts and they feel they just can't move on. It made me really ponder on the purpose of life. The purpose of existence in general...is to progress. God's plan for us is eternal progression. Damnation isn't necessarily hell fire and brimstone, but an inability to progress. I felt so strongly that this family is experiencing that: damnation in a sense that they aren't progressing. They're stuck. I just wanted to throw out every one liner from every conference talk ever: Choose to Believe! Doubt your Doubts before you Doubt your Faith! Don't chase shadows! Stay on the Old Ship Zion! Haha there's no where else to go. The truth is in Christ and His restored Church. 

Sunday was a day of tears and love and pictures with the members. I sure feel so blessed to have dear family in Kansas. 

I guess now is the time for sappiness, the reason for my lack of sleep in the past week... I don't have much to say. Well, no, I have a lot to say, just not the words to say it. I guess I can only express my deep and eternal gratitude to my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, for seeing fit in their love and mercy to call me on a mission. Every spiritual experience and every trial has been the greatest of miracles. I have come to love the doctrine of Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have felt the reality of the Son of God and His infinite Atonement and also the reality of the adversary and his temptations. 

This is His truth. I will forever be grateful for the permanent conversion that has taken place within my heart. I will serve Christ always. "My discipleship is settled!"

Well, I love you all :) thank you for joining me on this trip down the yellow brick road!! 

Many hugs and kisses! See you soon!

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

The kids and I :) Jay'Lah, Justice, Justin, and Jamie
- not pictured: Josiah

Santa and the missionaries at the Ward Christmas Party.

Thanksgiving Skip-bo with the Johanson family!!
(Sorry for the throw-back-hehe)

I WILL :)

Week 77: ".....I only design thy dross to consume and they gold to refine."

Happy Thanksgiving from the heartland of Kansas!!!! 

Happy birthday to my dear sister, Carly!! Have an awesome day!

Thank you to mom and Sister Jarvis from Hugoton for the letters this week! I sure love ya :)

We had interviews with President Bell this week! My interview was great - those few moments with him have been such pivot points for me in my mission and therefore in my life. Since our last interview, because of his remarks and questions, i have analyzed my relationship with the Savior and my knowledge and love for Him have grown so much as I have sought Him out. This interview was very special to me as well because I expressed to President some of my confusion. At the beginning of my mission, I was definitely not humble, I had no idea what faith is, much less how to exercise it, and I didn't understand at all how to us the Atonement every day. But I saw success!! And then, when I finally feel like I understand all of those things, the results just aren't there. He helped me see that it requires way more faith to be diligent and obedient and live the gospel even when the blessings aren't there than it is to live the Gospel when they are. I am grateful for the life lessons the Lord is teaching me on my mission :) I get to choose to be happy and grateful regardless of the outcome! What a wonderful way to learn how to use the Atonement!! It was great :) 

The girls are not getting baptized this week :( they didn't come to church. They are very excited to be baptized so we are sure they will be on the 5th!

We saw a great miracle this week with one of our newer investigators, Anita! We were going along teaching her the restoration, it was difficult - she loves the Lord and she is quite the talker haha - when we were testifying of living prophets and apostles on the earth today I felt prompted to show her the picture of President Monson and the 12 apostles, something I don't usually do. she then told us about this program she watched on television of old white men. She said she felt the Spirit as they were talking and knew they were men called of God - she actually used the title "apostles"!!! We asked how long ago this was and she said a couple months ago and she's looked for the program since and hasn't found it!!! She totally watched general conference!!!!! It was amazing!! Right after that clicky moment I invited her to be baptized and after some more testifying, she accepted!! It was awesome :) so grateful for the Holy Ghost!! We met her husband a few days later and he totally reminds me of my dad so that made me love him a ton. He will be a great Ward Mission Leader once he's a member!!!

We got to practice teaching the restoration to member families this week. Wow, my testimony of the priesthood has sure been strengthened by their testimonies. I love these members so much!!! :D

Bronté returns home to California this week!!! Isn't that super crazy. She included this scripture in her email and it is just to perfect not to share again!!

Alma 26:37 "Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen"

Have a wonderful and grateful Thanksgiving!

I love you all so much! 

Con todo mi corazón y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway

Sent from the ❤️land

Week 76: "Dean likes beautiful things." :)

Hello Everyone!! Oh dear, another week has come and gone, can you
believe that?! I can't.

Kinda sad that my picture of the departures didn't get a reaction from
you, Mom. I was waiting for it! Haha

This past week was goooood. Got to do lots of work! And a few girls we
are teaching: Brittany, Ajaiah, and Contessia, came to church! That's
always a huge blessing. They are preparing to be baptized on the 28th.
We pray the mom gives them permission!!

This week Sister Palmer and I focused a lot on making commitments to
the Lord each morning, expecting specific blessings. Definitely
stretched us to increase our faith :) I have been pondering a lot on
God's will. I truly desire to be aligned with Him always. But I have
to know His will before I do it! Haha so that was definitely a cause
for much reflection this week!

A couple miracles: one of our investigators, Jessica, progressed so
much this week! We set up a time to give her a church tour and she
invited her mom and aunt! They all came and expressed desires to
change their lives and come closer to Christ. The Spirit was truly the
teacher and they all accepted to be baptized on December 5!! Since,
they have kind of lost focus, so this week we will be workin hard to
help them be solidly committed to Christ to be baptized! They'll get
there :) the trial of faith has to come before the witness!!

Another miracle!! A family moved out of our ward, and when we were
saying bye to them we told them, acting in faith, that the family that
was moving into their house in their place was going to accept the
gospel. So we went by after they left to meet this new family and they
are interested!!! If people will just read the Book of Mormon...they
will know!! Everything goes downhill, even for members, when we stop
reading that book every day as we have been counseled and commanded to
do.

I love my calling! We got to help a lot of the Sisters in our zone
this week. I love being able to care for them and help them lose
themselves in the Lord's service - even though it can be so hard, it
is so worth it!

Well, I better sign off! I love you all so much and hope you have a
wonderful week!!

Con todo mi amor y mi corazón,

Hermana Shumway

This is Dean - whom the subject is referring to :)
haha when we were having dinner with his family,
his mom told us he's a smuggler...next thing I
 know he is climbing all over me trying to  sit
himself down in my lap! Hahaha it was soooo funny.
His mom came and took him away then a few minutes
 later he tried the same thing with Sister Palmer
and his brother just said matter-of-factly:
"Dean likes beautiful things." Oh it was so cute!!

The young women in the ward asked us to be a part of
their mutual activity! While the leaders were interviewing each
of them individually for personal progress, they asked us
questions about being a Sister Missionary! It was very fun :)
we were grateful to be able to share our testimonies
of the Gospel and love for the work with them!

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 :(