Shumway Crew,
Well … CANNOT believe that another week has gone by. The weeks fly in the mish!
Gee Whiz Fact:
1. Have you ever tried a green mango with salt ... because
that’s the thing here in Chulucanas! Right now many mangoes aren’t ripe and that
is how they eat them. Nifty right!
This week was an okay week. We worked hard, contacted, and
came home exhausted at night … BUT we are trying to find new
investigators. We challenged many of them to baptism and many said no. For
example, we have been teaching a family for quite some time about the
restoration and two lessons ago we challenged them to baptism. They have many
questions and told us that they weren’t willing to take that step right now.
The biggest challenge with them is they don’t understand why they need to pray
about our message if they already know their own church is true. I told them
that we want them to find their own testimonies ... and know with certainty that
this message is true ... and their Heavenly Father promises to answer our prayers
if we want to know the truth. They kept asking more and more questions and
finally I just shared my testimony. When in doubt … share your testimony! And I
invited them one last time, to pray to our Heavenly Father if this message is
true. They accepted and I pray that they try it! It will change their lives if
they get an answer! We are going to try one more lesson and see where it goes.
But man ... we have been struggling with investigators this last week.
Our sweet Marible is also struggling. She seemed so
interested at first but lately has not had interest. We went to go take her to
church Sunday, after trying and trying these last few weeks, and when we
got there she told us that she is willing to listen and learn from us, but
doesn’t have time to go to church. It broke my heart. We are slowly losing her,
and we are going to try one more lesson with her to see what we should
do.
Overall, we keep losing investigators. My comp and I are
praying for help and that we can find new investigators in our path! We have
been contacting more, which is always great, and knocking doors in our area! We
have found great people, and are challenging them to baptism their first
lesson! It’s bold, but it’s working! Many have accepted, and with faith, they
can get to that step!
Faith has been huge for us this week. My comp and I have
lacked that and we were reading in Preach my Gospel that DOUBT and FEAR are the
opposite of FAITH. SO … we will NOT DOUBT and will NOT FEAR … because if we
have faith our Heavenly Father can help us do anything! I just know if we keep
up contacting and knocking doors we are going to find someone that is ready for
this gospel!
Also, we had two activities this week … Meet the Mormons
Movie Night and a Ward Activity in one of the mango fields of Chulucanas! Both
were a success with many less-actives and new converts present! So that was a
major blessing!
Mission life is definitely like a rollercoaster. There are
ups and downs and every day you learn something from it and it brings so much
joy. I love life!!! Sometimes it is hard and at times you just feel so exhausted
it is hard to wake up and start a new day … BUT IT IS WORTH IT!
I love, love, love being a missionary and love, love, love
being a member of this church!!!
Love you all!!! Do what’s right!
XOXO, Hermana Shumway
Climbing mango trees!!!
A pic of me scared to death to get down. It doesn’t look high ... BUT IT IS!
My process of going down the tree ...
... IT WAS HARDER THAN IT LOOKS ...
... and was sooooo hilarious!
Me ready to catch one of our branch members Eva
Trying to take a serious mango pic with my comp ... and this is what you get!
Playing volleyball ... just look at the trees, and the run-down house, and the clouds ... I LOVE PERU!
Pals from the ward ... I LOVE THIS LITTLE GIRL!
THE DISTRICT!!!
