A WEDDING, MY SPANISH, AND A NEW COMP

(EMAIL SENT OCTOBER 26, 2015)

Hey there Shumway Crew,

Sooooo … here is the past two weeks in a nutshell!

Gee-Whiz Facts:

1. This last week instead of saying "el papa" I said "la papa" ... which is really embarrassing because el papa means "the pope" and la papa means "potato" ... 14 months in the mission and I still am trying to get this language thing down. Oh boy!

2. Tried to explain a Book of Mormon chapter to a member the other day … they had not read their Book of Mormon during the week and so we decided to read with them. When we turned to the chapter they were at, it JUST HAPPENED to be the words of the prophet Isaiah. Oh man … I knew this lesson was going to be a good one. Literally I was feeling pretty good about my Spanish, and then we started reading and I was pretty positive it was in another language. It just ended up being a disaster. But … at least I definitely know what I will be studying these next few days!

First … MY CONVERT got married this last week!! Woohoo!!! Talk about a special night. They looked darling, and happy, and everything just worked out so perfectly. Their marriage took place in the chapel, and Andrea looked beautiful in her white dress, and Leandro as well. What a treasure it was finding this family, and seeing how hard they have worked to get to this point. It just made me choke up knowing they did it, and that we can’t wait for the moment when they can be married in the temple for time and all eternity.

Also, we had a special experience this last week with an investigator. We found her because one day she told us in the street one day that she loved me skirt. She ended up inviting us to her house, and we taught her a quick lesson about what we believe in. Halfway into the lesson we just realized that something was missing, and we ended up asking the member that was accompanying us to share her testimony about families. As she shared her testimony and ended up testifying to this hermana that could be sealed to her family for time and all eternity. AND HER REACTION made me want to cry. Her eyes got huge, and she asked the hermana if she could REALLY be sealed to her husband for forever? We found out that he had recently passed away and she was heartbroken. We showed her a picture of the temple, and it was the sweetest thing seeing how amazed she was. What an incredible blessing it is for us to know that families are forever, and it doesn’t end in this life. We are still teaching her and we will be challenging her this week to baptism. She seems really interested and wants to learn more about the temple. So we found a new investigator!

Which is a miracle because these last two weeks we having been finding many new investigators, but leaving them after a short-time because they lose interest. It has been a tough few weeks but this week we are going to keep at it, looking, and searching for those who are ready for baptism.

Oh and I forgot to tell you all. My sweet Hermana Lucero got sent home this last week. Her uncle passed away and so she went home. My new comp is Hermana More. She is very sweet and loves to work! Her papers are actually in right now!

Oh man, I ran out of time again! Time to get to work and I will write more next week!!!

This next week I will send pics of our trip to Canchaque!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Xoxo, Hermana Shumway

With my little buddies at the wedding for Andrea and Leandro ... my convert!