MY LAST TRANSFER ... WHAT THE??!!!

Shumway Crew,

There is still snow in UTAH!! Love the pic Daddio! And McKay … you and Syd look great! Thanks for the pics!!

The big news of the week is ... CARNIVALES has started again! MEANING ... we just about got soaked many times this past week (until they found out we were missionaries) by a crazy swarm of kids with water balloons. The only bad part is they have stepped it up and put food coloring in the balloons ... always an adventure here in Piura. Also, we had a ward talent night this last Friday. A dance group performed, the relief society and priesthood performed a musical number, and a cute little girl sang a song. And then the missionaries took the stage. We presented many different numbers, but the one that topped them all was the "Querido Juan" (Dear John) Act. It is based off of another group of missionaries on YouTube … but it was so HILARIOUS!! I will show you the video when I get home because it is too big to send.

Also … so sad goodbye to darling Hermana Valencia. She is finishing her mission today and it was definitely hard saying bye. Received my new comp early this morning right after she left. Her name is Hermana Parks … she is from Utah and is a stellar missionary. She has about seven months in the mission and is so darling! It will be a great transfer together with two gringas taking on Talara. We are still Hermana Lideres.

Our area currently is struggling a little bit. This last Sunday NO ONE came to church. Still. We passed by our investigator Ortencia and it looks like she isn’t interested anymore. We decided we are going to leave her and focus more on our other investigators. Currently we have a good group of investigators that are slowly progressing. Here is the status of the people we are teaching:

Angelo and his Family - We are now teaching the whole family! The parents are married and their son Angelo was the first to listen to our message. His parents joined us in a lesson two lessons ago and now seem really interested! They didn’t come to church because the Dad started working again but we scheduled a lesson during the week when the whole family is home.

Acni and Jose - They are just the cutest family but it is difficult to find them. But this week we are stopping by and crossing our fingers they are home.

Carmela - Sad to say … but she is moving to Trujillo. But we are still teaching her the lessons and hoping to finish before she moves. She does want to receive the missionaries in Trujillo so that will be wonderful!

And there a few other families that we are just starting to teach. Also this last week many of our less-active families came to church! Familia Ortega, Jose y Mari, and David. It was such a blessing! In this following transfer Hermana Parks and I also want to start working with more less-actives of our branch. This last week we had a Worldwide Missionary Training (the last one happened about a decade ago) with the apostles and other leaders and they gave us a few new ideas of how we can work with less-actives. So we are going to put the plan into works.

Overall we are staying busy here in Talara … and I hope to make this last transfer the best transfer yet of my mission. This time has flown by WAY TOO FAST and I want to make every minute count.

What an incredible experience it has been walking in the footsteps of my Savior in my time as a missionary. It is a chance everyone should take because it brings the greatest joy.

Thank you for all your support! I received many Christmas letters this last week from back home and I love you all so much and grateful for everything! Thank you for all of your support and love!

On to another week … NO REGRETS!!!

Xoxox, Hermana Shumway


Swimming with the churres ("churres" means kids in Peru)

These little girls are so cute

Our Relief Society

My favorite little pal Arnold ... he is the little kid in between me and my companion

One last pic as a district

It's Carnivales again! Remember last year where they throw water balloons at you during that month. Here we go again!

Food from our pencionista ... yummy!

A pic with Family Ortega ... the mom has been a member for a year. Her baby is the cutest! We love their family. She washes our clothes.

Saying goodbye to my cute comp and the other missionaries

One last goodbye with my cute comp ... I am going to miss Hermana Valencia

Show de Talents (Dance group that performed) P.S. I have videos of our performance, I will show you when I get home

I am awkwardly scooting closer to this cute little kid with his mom ... he has a deathly fear of white people and no one knows why!!! Hahaha … he cried every time I looked at him. It was hilarious!

My little pals from the neighborhood

These little girls are SOOO CUTE! Natalie and Anais

Not sure why ... but these two little cuties always like to hit me ... but they are cute too! We took the pic after a lesson.

Angelo, our investigator, with his mom! They are a great family!

My favorite plate ... Arroz con Pollo ... SSOOOOOOOO GOOD!

Our pal Heyda

Our best dog friend ... se llama AMIGO

PROTESTS, PROMPTINGS, AND GOING ON SPLITS

(EMAIL SENT JANUARY 18, 2016)

Shumway Crew,

Sounds like you are all doing super great!! McKay is going to start working on his mission papers ... SOOOO EXCITING! And Mom, that is so cool that you got called to speak during sacrament meeting! Tell the ward I love them and that I say "HI"! Honestly ... I can’t believe how fast time has flown either. IT BLOWS ME AWAY!!! In one week I will be on my last mission transfer.

So this last week kind of just feels like a blur ... it went by so fast ... and I honestly don’t remember most of it. Here is a quick rundown. 

It was a pretty crazy week in our area because there was a huge protest in Talara. It was called EL PARO. It was a pretty much the whole city that went in strike against a company here. It is a gas company and so the whole city didn’t drive any cars that day ... meaning no motos, buses, or taxis. It was like a ghost town! The people created fires in the streets, poured bags of bricks area, and threw bottles on the ground so people didn’t drive. In the end there was a huge march down the street. Apparently the company has been hiring workers from other countries and not using those who live in Talara. So everyone got mad and had this huge protest. Kinda crazy!

But the miracle of the protest is that we found some great contacts. Everyone was walking in the street so it was PERFECT!! And one family in particular stood out to us. It was a Dad and his two teenage kids. We passed by and literally I felt something tell me I should contact them. My comp felt the same but as they walked by they were walking pretty fast and we decided not to contact them. I felt bad for not saying anything and felt like we needed to contact them. I looked at my comp and I said we need to go back. So pretty much we CHASED THEM down ... running down the street and contacted them. We presented ourselves and said we share a message about families! We asked if we could stop by sometime and they said... TOMORROW morning! They seemed really interested and cool. SO ... we passed by the next morning ... and man ... THEY ARE INCREDIBLE. The daughter said she has a friend who is Mormon and has always wanted to know about the church. They asked us many questions and we shared a little about the restoration. It all went great until they told us they would be going out of town for about a month. But they gave us their number and we gave them ours so hopefully they call us. It is sad because they seemed so ready for this message, but I know that Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways and there is a reason we taught them right before they went on vacation.

Also this last week we had many visits with our hermanas. We had visits with our sweet hermanas in Sullana and the upper part of Talara. We are their hermana leaders and stopped by to see how they are doing in their areas and if there is anything we could do help. In Sullana we watched their weekly planning and took a few classic selfie pics. The two hermanas are Hermana Lang and Hermana Garcia. They are so cute and it was cool watching how they plan. Later this week we met with the hermanas from Talara Alta. I got to spend the day with darling Hermana Richan. Sadly ... NO PICS. She is from Utah and was in the group of Hermana Bryce and Hermana Thomas. And probably the sweetest person I have ever met. I got to know her area, and we got to spend a day teaching together. It was great! Her Spanish is incredible for only having been here six-ish months.

The bummer was we couldn’t find many investigators this week, but we did find Angelo! And he says he feels its true, and is going to pray for his baptismal date. He is doing great! Also, we found Ortencia and she now accepted another baptismal date for 20 of Febrero. Our other investigators it has been DIFFICULT finding them ... but this week hopefully we will! No one came to church but NEXT WEEK for sure!

It was more of a crazy hectic week ... but I don’t even remember most of what happened. But the great thing is we have another week full of new memories! 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Have a great week and keep on being the great people you are! I pray for you all every day!

Keep on keeping on,

Hermana Shumway

We visited some of the sisters that we are leaders of ... they are just superb

 Couldn't resist doing a silly pic

Our hilarious theater act we performed in our Branch Mission Night

It was so much fun ... being a missionary is the best!

Our ward mission leader and the crew

Eating with Familia Rosales ... I LOVE THEM!!!! They are the parents on the right and are pretty much my second family!

MY "FRIEND" THE COCKROACH, TEACHING, AND LA PLAYA!!!

(EMAIL SENT JANUARY 11, 2016)

Shumway Crew!

Gee Whiz Facts - 

1. A little girl in our branch sat by me in church and asked me if we talk English where I am from. I told her yes, and she said "And you understand each other?!" 

2. We bought a pizza earlier this week, and as I was eating it a cockroach snuck out of my cheese.

3. Reached my 16 month mark. Honestly, it was more of a heartbreaking feeling kind of day. The less time I have the more I realize how incredible and a blessing it is to be a missionary. 

4. I have come to realize that however much sunscreen  I put on but it just doesn't seem to keep me from getting sunburned.

This week we spent many days walking up and down our long area, following up on our contacts, and praying for miracles. It was a harder week for us, because when all was said and done, no one came to church. We called, passed by, sent members to pick them up, and in the end, no one showed up. It definitely has been a challenge in this area, and in almost my entire mission, but we know that everything happens for a reason. But by far the he hardest thing for me this week was seeing how one of our investigators couldn't come to church because her Dad wouldn't let her go. 

Her name is Alma, she is 14 years old, and I think I have mentioned her before. She is progressing little by little and the last lesson really impacted her. We taught her about Joseph Smith and the spirit was so strong when we shared the first vision. Her mom, who was cleaning the house, even secretly stopped cleaning to listen. She felt the truth of it, and Alma wanted to pray to know if he really could have been a prophet. We also invited her to church and she was really excited. But when we showed up Sunday, her father was very drunk and wouldn't let her go. Her mom felt so bad telling us on the doorstep that she wasn't allowed to go and said Alma was crying inside. I wanted to cry as well. I couldn't believe it. My comp and I went to church alone, and honestly I just wanted to cry. It was so sad! We are praying her dad opens his heart to our message and lets her go. 

Overall, it has been a hard week. But the trials always come to make us stronger. And this week we witnessed that miracles come after the trial. Monday, after our P-Day, we went to a new part of our area to knock doors. We first went to follow up on a contact and got very rejected. We knocked a few doors after that, and door after door got rejected. We finished knocking all of the doors, and walked away pretty broken down. BUT ... as we were walking out of the area we contacted a family. Their names are Jose and Acni. They are not married, and have one son and they were the first people to listen to us that night. We visited them a few days ago and they are great! For the longest time Acni has had the question of which of all the churches is true and why are there so many? We had the answer, and they couldn't believe it when they heard about Joseph Smith. Jose read and reread James 1:5 and told us that of all the churches they have listened to, no one has ever invited them to ask God directly for an answer. They said they would do it and we have another lesson scheduled during the week! Miracles come from trials. 

So they are a new family we are teaching. Also, our other investigators are doing pretty good. No one has come to church yet ... but poco a poco. It has been tricky even finding them at home, but hopefully this next week we can find them! Two of them had a baptismal date but they didn't come to church last week so now we need to schedule another date.

Our branch is doing okay. Many members are coming to church and we are trying to reactive the less-actives. So far we are teaching one less-active 16 year old. His name is David and he is very timid with us ... but way cool! I just crack jokes with him and little by little he is opening up with us. He did come to church last week which was great! 

Overall, we are trying to get things moving here in Talara. This area is hard because many people spend their time on the beach ... but we are contacting many people in our area and praying for someone who is prepared for this gospel. We know they are out there! 

I love you all! Pray that we will find someone who is ready for this gospel and that they will come to church!

The miracles are out there. We just need to look for them! 

XOXO, Hermana Shumway

P-Day at la playa ... the beach!!!

Look at this cool crab ... nice!

Having fun in the sand

Look at this cool rock shoe ... same sole as me!

Boy oh boy ... do I ever love this place!

Hola from Talara!!!!!!!!

My attempt at drawing "three fingers up" to say I love you

Shout out to my familia!

This cute little kid wanted to take pictures with me at the beach ...

He was ssooooooo adorable!

MIRACLES, STAYING POSITIVE, AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(EMAIL SENT JANUARY 4, 2016)


Shumway Crew,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Seems like 2015 flew by, right?! But it always the best starting a new year, setting new goals, and getting a fresh start!

This week for us was full of many different emotions. We focused on finding new investigators, which meant we ended up knocking A WHOLE LOT of doors. The first day we were excited, because we were ready to find new people and share the gospel! But we didn't end up teaching one lesson, and got rejected way too many times to count. The second day, we started again, thinking THIS IS THE DAY, and we even had a member with us all afternoon, and NO ONE. Can you even believe it? We even got to the point, around 7 o' clock-ish, when after getting rejected so much our poor member even looked bored. I noticed that and felt bad ... so I tried to make it more positive and fun. As we walked to the next door to knock, I said "Hermana Valencia, this is the family that is getting baptized, right?!" She looked and me and said, "Oh that's right!" The members eyes lit up ... and we just kept acting like the door we were going to knock was a family that was getting baptized! No one answered, and so we went to the next door. I said, "Oh wait ... sorry, THIS is the family!" Knocked the door, and no one answered. The member realized what we were doing and she just started laughing every time we said it! We did that until we finished knocking all the doors in the block. No one let us in ... but hey, we made it fun! It was just a testimony about the importance of being positive even when it seems to be the worst circumstance. It can make any situation better!

But we did see many miracles this week after spending many days knocking doors, and planting many seeds! Our investigator Ortencia, 16 year old investigator, told us she received an answer and knows our message is true! She said she was praying the night after we taught her and felt something in her chest, like a burning feeling, and she felt that what we had taught was true. It was such a miracle, and she seems to be progressing a lot! Also, Angelo, our other young investigator, said he had a dream after we had visited him, and he also knows its true! We finished teaching him the restoration, and he loves listening to us. It´s cute because his family always secretly listens to our lessons from the kitchen. Hopefully little by little they start listening to our lessons. So far they have told us no ... but anyone can change!

Oh and New Year´s was spent pretty calmly here in Talara. A member invited us over to eat a delicious meal with them, and then we got back to our room by 9:30pm. We got to see the fireworks go off all through out the city from our third floor room, and it was beautiful! It definitely was hard to sleep that night with all of the fiestas that went on, but it was quite an adventure!

But overall, it was a great week! We are excited to work with the investigators we have and I know the miracles will keep coming if we are obedient and trust in our Heavenly Father.

Today I just want you all to know that our Savior, Jesus Christ, loves us. This morning in my personal study I just felt his love so powerfully as I read the conference talk of Elder Ronald A. Rasband. I know he lives, and I know that this is his gospel!

I hope you all have an incredible 2016, and thank you for all of your support and love!

Be good, and do what´s right!!

Until next week,

Xoxo, Hermana Shumway


Dinner we ate with a member family (paneton, chifles, chicken, y noodles - pretty typical)

Some of the fireworks that lit up outside of our bedroom window - Happy New Year!

Well look who I found ... my old comp Hermana Thomas

She will always be one of my besties!!!

My cute companion Hermana Valencia ... I love hugging her because she is so cute and tiny!

Showing our funny gangsta side ... hermana-style

We taught the Gospel Principles class ... we were asked about one minute before! Was way fun!

 What I just ate for lunch ... Seco de Cavello ... Mmm mmmmm good!