MY TALARA FAMILY, FINDING, AND FUN AT THE BEACH

(EMAIL SENT FEBRUARY 8, 2016)

Shumway Crew!

First off, SEND ME PICS PARENTS!! Have a superb time in Hawaii! Sounds like all is well in sweet ‘ole Utah! Here in Talara it is still BURNING HOT … but today we stopped by the beach to take a breather and soak in the air. Sent some pics of our adventures! And, in case you are wondering, we totally did not mean to get wet.

A few facts of the week:

1. Accidentally contacted someone in English this last week. That is what happens when you put two gringas together. Woops!

2. Random little children hug us everywhere we go! It is so cute! Sent a pic of a few neighbor kids that love the stickers you gave me mom.

3. Forgot to wear my glasses one day and asked a random stranger to be in our pic. Thought it was one of the Rosales family brothers … but nope! Pretty positive I am half blind.

4. Taught someone that somehow connected the baptism of Jesus Christ to hip hop halfway through the lesson. Don’t even ask me how … but it was hilarious.

So this week was a whirlwind! First off … my companion and I both suffered from a severe cold which wiped us out every day … but it did not stop us from working. We were able to find 13 NEW INVESTIGATORS this week! Can you believe that?! And they all seem solid. And a few of them are families!

Here are a few ways we were successful:

1. First we did divisions. My comp with one member and me with another. We divided and conquered. Sadly, EVERYONE rejected my member comp Marjuri and I … E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. Even got a few doors slammed in our face and a few people that got pretty mad … but hey, we tried! It was a great learning experience. But my comp found a few great youth that are excited to learn more from our message. We want to visit them this week!

2. Another new investigator came from knocking door after door after door. We were just about to stop and head to the church for our Noche Misional and decided to knock one last door. I looked to my comp and said we need something to pump us up and we both thought of the song “Eye of the Tiger” … so we sang a little bit of it and then knocked the door! And we found a darling investigator named Gaby and her family. She seems VERY interested and we invited her to baptism the first lesson. She said if she receives an answer, then yes. We have a lesson with her later this week!

3. And the last example came from after knocking many doors, and not finding any of our contacts home, we decided to say a prayer. We headed to a part of our area that was a little quieter and said a comp prayer. I prayed and prayed we would get some crazy sign … but nothing came. The only thing I felt was knock the doors around us. We just happened to say a prayer in a street we had never knocked in and started knocking all the doors in the street. And … on the SECOND DOOR … we met a family that were just getting home from the market. They let us in, and what do you know, SOME OF THEIR BEST FRIENDS ARE MEMBERS! They said they have always wanted to learn about the church and seem VERY interested! They want to come to church this next Sunday and the husband and wife are married … talk about a miracle! It was an answer to our prayers.

So overall, we have been looking for new people and Heavenly Father definitely showed us a few miracles this week. It is incredible how many miracles you find if you look for them.

Our other investigators seem to be doing great too! Kati, Angelo, and Lucas are still going strong. Sadly, they didn’t come to church this last week (even though little Lucas was dying to go) because Kati got sick. BUT, we have taught them many lessons at this point and they get excited when we show up. Kati also wants to teach us how to make more Peruvian food! :) The only challenge is they haven’t accepted a baptismal date yet. We are still confused why they can’t, but this next week we plan to watch the First Vision and ask them if they have a testimony of Joseph Smith and feel that the church is true. Hopefully they can tell us what they are waiting for. We haven’t found whey they have doubts yet but pray that we can figure it out this week!

We are teaching another investigator named Kati who is an 18 year old that is not married but lives with her boyfriend. She was blown away when we talked about Joseph Smith and prayed about him later that night and said she got an answer. She feels it’s true and has started reading her Book of Mormon. She is great, and wants to come to church but when we went to go pick her up last week she wasn’t home. Hopefully next week!

Oh and also we had an intercambio this week. A cute new missionary named Hermana Quiroz was with me for the day. And I have to share with you a REALLY COOL CONTACT we had. It was with a family we passed in the street and felt like we needed to contact them, and as we presented ourselves we realized they were deaf and mute. So I started drawing some pics and tried to move my hands in some way that they understood! It was the most special, cool contact I have every done. We want to teach them but the parents of the mom are catholic and do not want her to listen to us. But it was a contact I won’t ever forget! Maybe someday they will find the gospel again.

And to finish off the week we have been focusing a lot on the members of our area. We have a made a lesson plan to help get them excited to help us. It goes a little like this:

1..We teach them the restoration.

2. Ask them to think about all the blessings they have recieved from having the restored gospel in their life and they make a list.

3. Then we explain that their friends and family need that and how much it would bless their lives.

4. And we end by singing a hymn, and as we are singing we invite them to write of list of their friends and family that they could invite to the Noche Misional we have every Friday.

5. AND THE NAMES COME!! It is so cool to see how many names they think of!

So we leave the commitment to invite them, and we remind them during the week. It’s cool because we are finding references and they have the chance to share the gospel! Cool right?

So pretty much, the days are flying by here in Talara. It has been crazy all that we can do if we work hard and trust in the Lord. We have seen MIRACLES this week and I just love being part of this glorious work!

I love you all! THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT!!!

Have a wonderful week. Remember, you can do hard things … and that miracles are real.

I know this work is the work of our Heavenly Father and that this is the restored gospel.

Until next week,

Hermana Shumway

At the beach on P-day ... the ice cream man let me ride his bike!!