Courtney spent her computer time today trying to figure out when we are going to skype on Christmas.  I have a few odds and ends.  I am noticing that her English is getting rusty and she breaks into Spanish which we don't understand.

There is a video He Is the Gift on lds.org that you should all watch if you haven´t yet.  I spend all day telling people to watch it so I figured I could invite you guys too.  Tell all your non-member friends to watch and send their names to the missionaries.  Best christmas present ever!

No hay tiempo para escribirles, pero tenemos el bautismo de Adolfo!  Un caso MUY, MUY especial.  Voy a decir TODO por Christmas.  Les Amo!!

Ttranslated via the computer

No time to write , but we baptism Adolfo ! A VERY, VERY special case. I 'll tell EVERYTHING to Christmas . Love them !!

1/4 way done

Sorry my last couple of letters have been more like Omni, and less like Alma.  It´s been a busy couple of weeks!

One quarter of my mission is over.  The mission has changed me.  My legs are now riiiped.  I have tan lines.  I listen to Josh Groban.  I don't know what real life is anymore.

I don't feel like it's Christmas.  It´s like 100 degrees here.  And there aren't decorations, or music, or Christmas-y stuff.  But, I kinda feel like Santa Claus.  I gained the weight I lost, I'm really jolly, and I spend all day handing out gifts like Book of Mormon's and pamphlets on The Resurrection.  

Remember the investigator we had to stop seeing?  His baptism is this week.  I want to cry I'm so happy.  He's been so stubborn about reading the Book of Mormon, and praying.  Always saying that he doesn't feel anything.  I've been working with him ALL of my time in the mission.  Every prayer, every study time- everyone in our zone and ward know about him.  And..... FINALLY he received his answer about the church, and has a desire to be baptized.  I was beginning to be so stressed I thought all my hair was going to fall out! I have decided I'm gonna name my future dog after him Adolfo .

On Fridays I teach English in the church, and the other day I was teaching how to pray in English- and I remember how to, but I don't remember how I used to- the phrases I liked to use and such.  It's really weird.

My new compañera Hermana Lopez is great. (It's weird to teach someone else the area) I'm really happy. I love you guys.

 Photos from the camera of Hermana Lopez- Our first day together!

 Hermana Lopez- Our first day together!

 Conferencia con hermanas y Presidente.  It{s a rule that we have to have a hat or umbrella to proselyte!

 Hermana Spiderman.

 Mi primera compañera (mama), mi prima, y mi tia!

 Purmamarca

UGH. I don{t have time to email today really.

UGH.  I don't have time to email today really.
Send letters to the mission office.  
I have to go, today was a holiday but I have a miracle to tell about the next week.  Love you guys

Courtney

You can send Courtney a Christmas card, but it does require an international stamp. I think
they are currently $1.15. The address is:

Hermana Shumway
Argentina Salta Mission
Casilla de Correo 429
4400 Salta
Salta
Argentina

It may take up to six weeks to get to her, but she loves getting real letters to read.  Last zone conference she got 20 and the other missionaries made fun of her but the truth is they were jealous.  

Fried green bananas NOT Argentina style

I got your package this week!!!!!! Thank you.  One of the Kit-Kats was missing though....

Courtney was able to read her blog and she wanted me to correct the title.  Fried green Bananas are not 

Argentinian.  The people of Argentina made fun of them as they cut down and took the bananas home.

I completed my training, and we had transfers!!  My new companion es la Hermana Platino de Peru.  Muy capa.  Cocinar REEEErico.

The biggest thing I´ve learned in my mission so far is humility.  It was so hard in the begining of my mission- especially with the language.  I feel like I´m pretty eloquent in my native tounge- but in Spanish I spoke worse than most toddlers.  I would get so frustrated all the time- and because I couldn´t speak, sometimes I felt like people thought because I didn´t know the language, that I didn´t know anything!!- and they would explain things to me like I was 2.  I felt like Nacho Libre "People don´t think I know a crap load about the gospel- but I dOOOO."  The other 3 Hermanas in the apartment are 22, 21, or almost 23- so at 19 I was the baby.  There is nothing harder than not being able to express yourself, your ideas, or what you were trying to say.  I would get mad when people in the streets would yell at me in english, and ask me to translate for them.

  I did a lot of learning and soul searching. I still have a lot of spanish to learn- but I´m at peace now.  

No time today.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

 We found a banana tree outside the bishops house

 Pulled them down

Took them home and fried them up!

There is nothing worse than when things are going really well with an investigator, and they are excited to read the Book of Mormon and they agree they will go to church with you tomorow- and then they try to kiss you goodbye and they aren´t a girl so you have to squirm away and explain that you can´t. Kissing goodbye is such a big part of the culture here, it really hurts some peoples feelings.  BUT, luckily we have the gospel to cheer them up after we won't kiss them!

I taught Institute with my companion this week.  When we were asked to teach, we were all "sure, what´s the topic?"  "Well Hermanas, we´re a little behind and the year is almost over- think you can cover all of Alma?"  Then we laughed.  Then we figured out they were being serious.  Then we studied harder than we have ever studied in our lives. We did a great job.  The investigator who reminds me of Nicole came and had a major spiritual breakthrough!!!

Today I played futbol with the young singles adults.  They are are REALLY good. I can´t even kick straight- but we joked and had a lot of fun.

After 4 years of waiting, Melani is finally baptized!!! AND HER BIG BROTHER Alex WAS WORTHY TO BAPTIZE HER!!!!!!!! Shés read the Book of Mormon twice, and her testimony is SOOOO strong- but her mom would never give permission for her to be baptized, because her brother was baptized, and after wasn´t exactly a good disciple of Christ. We´ve been working with them, and after their mom saw the improvements in the brother, FINALLY gave her permission.    I'm never gunna forget it.  When Melani walked out of her baptismal interview she came straight up to her brother and they just held each other as she cried tears of happiness. 

It was a really stressful couple of months, BUT seeing the two of them in the font almost made me cry.  (He actually had to try three times to get it right!) In our mission the standard is that every companionship should be baptizing almost every other week- and while we haven´t had that- I feel content in our efforts and especially with this MIRACLE.

 Alex sad because he can't touch us.

 Melani and her brother Alex!

 Melani

 Alex

 mah homies

Melani and her brother Alex!

Good thing a photo is worth a 1000 words because it's a short one

MY COMPUTER TODAY IS AWFUL.

BUTTTT; I recieved 20 Dear Elders at my Zone conference this week! (Grandparents, Isabel, you.  All are dated in September) Every one made fun of me, but they are just jealous.  I got the one from Nicole, and I´ve  written a response but looks like I´ll have to wait untill next week to send it.

We went to el Cerro de Siete Colores en Palmamarca for P-Day, it is about an hour and a half away, and is the most beautiful thing in the world!!!!  It´s like the San Geminiano de Argentina.  Its like Zions, but instead of just red there´s green and purple, and pink, and blue colored rocks and sand.  I want to live there.  It was seriously one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life.  More photos next week!  Sorry I can´t write more!

Here is a bonus email that she wrote to Derek

DER-BEAR I LOVE YOU!!!! I´m sending a postcard in the mail for you guys, but it might take a really long time!

What is a box troll? Rapheal is my favorite ninja turtle!!

Here instead of celebrating Halloween, it was almost mothers day!  We had a big party in the iglesia and we ate empanadas, pizza (here pizza is topped with eggs and lunch meat, and there isn't a lot of cheese!) and everyone danced real crazy!  They all line up in couples and move their hips, and actually sway with the music. 

Mom told me about you not using my blanket.  Thanks for thinking of me- I think about you all the time and can´t wait to see you again soon!

¡Besitos! - Hermana Shumway

Querida Familia

Moochies sounds so good right now.  Were hittin´ it up when I get back.  I´ve actually planned out my first day back January 27,2016- I´m going to sleep ALL day.  And then you need to clear your calendar for the 28th because we are going to a movie, getting pedicures, and eating Chinese food.

The rat is out and about still (we think).  The other night I was about to kneel and pray when I thought I saw the rat at the side of my bed, so I freaked out and my companion came rushing to my side! Luckily, turns out it wasn't the rat. Just the BIGGEST cockroach I have seen in my entire life.  

We had the primary program the other Sunday, and it was one of the cutest things I´ve seen in my entire life!  The Church here is really chill, and 1/3 of the people come in regular clothes BUT- All the little children had foam ties, or foam flowers in their hair.  There are about 20 kids in the primary, and almost every one gave a little  talk  which they all opened very formally ("Good afternoon dear brothers and sisters, today I´m going to talk about the miracle of .....")  Their little voices were SOOO cute.  It was like they were pretending to be grown-ups.  

Remember my investigator who reminds me of Nicole?  We made him a mixed CD of church music.  He loved it.

The most satisfying thing of my life so far has been working with inactive members.  Or, now formally inactive!  There are 2 youths in the ward that have pulled Alma the youngers, and are now preparing to go on missions.  They went from not being able to take to sacrament, to blessing it the past few weeks!!!! One of them is working on being worthy to baptize his little sister who has been waiting 4 years to get permission.  The other I´ve been pestering to get his patriartical blessing- because he´s always worried about his future wife, and job, and all the stuff he is gonna do in the future.  He told me he wouldn´t get his blessing because he knew it would tell him to serve a mission!  This Sunday he surprised us and showed us his reccomend to recive his blessing this upcoming Sunday!  I was a little over excited, and he asked me to hold onto his reccomend until the big day.

They are so funny, and we have them pretty whipped.  When they forget their prayers, reading, or aren´t reverent during our lessons they feel guilty.  One of them has brought us chocolate a few times to apoligize.  

I´m SO grateful for all of the people I´ve met here.  I didn´t think I could have or recieve so much love from people who were strangers just a little bit ago.  The love of Christ unifies and amplifies EVERYTHING!

I love you all too- and can´t wait to see you all again!!!

- Hermana Shumway

New roomate

Over half of the people in my area are either Bolivian, or their parents are from Bolivia.  They´re great!  The Bolivians are really tranquil, and they speak a bit slower so their accents are a bit easier for me to understand.  I love it, it´s so beautiful.  When I tell them I have a friend who´s family is from Bolivia they all get really excited.

This week was really, really, really difficult.  I thought we were going to have our first baptism! But it ended up being the first investigator that we had to quit. 

Adolfo (one of the brothers that reminds me of Nicole and I) knows pretty much everything.  We have a hard time planning lessons because he already knows it all.  He´s been investigating for 7 months.  The problem with him is that he´s BEYOND shy.  He has a testimony, and the gospel has changed his life.  He knows baptism is important, and know he needs to be baptized.  However, he won´t actually do it!  He likes to use the exuse that he needs to know more.  

I never prayed so much for one person in my life.  We had no idea what else we could do, so we just planned his baptism. His favorite hymn, flavor of cake, I asked what kind of soda he wanted (he actually wanted juice), EVERYTHING.  He had his baptismal clothing, and he knew exactly what was gonna happen.  We called our district leader in for his baptismal interview, and hoped that when he knew all the answers and had someone else tell him he was ready he would do it!  The interview was 2 hours long.  I spent the whole time sitting in the other room stressing.  I think I lost half my hair.  When he came out, our district leader told us he was completely ready, BUT he wasn´t gonna be baptized.  He had absolutely no desire. 

I was heartbroken.  The next day, when we went to talk with him, we knew we had to break up with him.  We had spent almost 2 months to try to get him baptized, and couldn´t think of anything else to do.  My compañera cried during the lesson, and me after.   He was one of the first people I met in Perico.  I knew the names of all of his dogs, knew his little siblings, we had inside jokes.  It was really hard.  We felt emotionally awful after, and I was sick.  And, they turn off our water in the middle of the day untill the morning most of the time so I couldn´t use the bathroom.  Then we found a HUGE rat in our apartment (so now we have a 5th roommate), we couldn´t do our fast because I was ill. It was raining. We missed almost all of our appointment.  It´s day of the dead weekend so there were tons of drunk people in the street (Including one of our investigators..) Basically this day was the absolute pits. 

The next day we felt really bad, so we decided to go talk with him.  I told him that I missed his dog Sam.  He laughed, an we made up. He felt bad too, but we told him that we loved him and would always say hi, that he needed to keep going to church, reading, praying, and when he finally made his decision that he had our number.  

While all of this was a bit depressing, I learned a lot. And, I´n not sore about any of it! I´m back to my happy self. I´m really looking forward to this upcoming week!!  I love you all, miss you!

Hermana Shumway

We folded the empanadas for a ward activity. 

The ugly one was one of my first, and the pretty one one of my last! 

Me and my companion with all our hard work.

Washing dishes with the little boy of one of our investigators!

Our ward mission leader tried to capture the rat while we were out working, when we came home it was super dark, and THIS was in our hallway!!!!  He thinks he´s funny.

Three months

THE HERMANAS OF PERICO ARE NOW THE PROUD OWNERS OF A WORKING, FLUSHING TOLIET!!! Still can´t put paper in it, BUT YOU CAN FLUSH IT!!!  And, they are going to send someone to fix our light, and put light in the bathroom.  The tender mercies of the Lord are over all them whom he hath chosen!

Laundry the past few P-days has been impossible.  Last week, it poured.  Flooding outside + no sun = no way to hang dry your clothes.  And today, we didn´t have water for a good chunk of the day.  Pero, esta bien.  I have a couple sticks of deodorant!

My life here is has fallen into a pattern.  It´s literally like a sitcom.  

The re-occuring plot is that I don´t speak spanish perfectly yet, and the language barrier always causes some hysterical confusion.  (p.s. I´ve gotten REALLY good at charades, so when I get back hit me up for a game.]  Cultural barriers too- when people find out I´m from the United States the first thing they do is say, "I could NEVER live there.  Too much technology".

The characters are unbelievable.  My companion is literally insane!  She is SOOO funny, I love her. She is an authors dream, comedy gold. I always write down the crazy stuff that happens with her, and she loves to ask what was the funniest thing that she had done this week.  

We have this grumpy old tenant who lives downstairs who always complains "When the ELDERS lived here they ALWAYS paid their utilities on time."  or "The ELDERS never complained about the bathroom" 

Our investigators are pretty insane too.  We were talking to one the other day, "Do you believe in Christ?"  "No" "Do you have a religion?"  "Yep, I´m Christian." I laughed for a good long while.

We have the lady who owns the store on the corner who LOVES us.  Here when it is later in the day, the stores are locked up, and if you want to buy something, you have to do it entirely through barred windows or doors.  Anytime we need to pick something up on the way home she always unlocks the door and lets us in, even if she is helping other people still outside! (Stores here are pretty laid back.  At our internet cafe, when we are short a peso, the owner just tells us to come back in a few hour or next time.  Nobody is really big on small change, so most people give you penny candies instead of change.  Some stores even literally keep the candy in their registers.  It´s fabulous.:)

There are montages of us being more tired than is humanly possible, reading scriptures, eating, praying- and walking down dirt roads.  And then in the end of the episode when one of of investigators quits us, or the viewers think there is no way I could answer the investigators question, or get out of bed with a smile- a miracle happens.  An investigator unexpectedly shows up in church, or someone recieves an answer to their prayer about the Book of Mormon. 

More has happened to me in these 3 months than I ever thought possible. I`m so blessed for this  amazing opportunity.

-Hermana Shumway

Not sure If I will be able to write next week.  We are going to Cero de Siete Colores (it´s like Zions, or the Grand Canyon)  So, if you don´t hear from me don´t freak out!

Us after the POURING rain

 My cookies and malta I ate after the rain to cheer me up!

First transfer

This was a Crazy week.  Courtney ended up sending a few little emails to answer some questions we asked.  

Derek, 

Thank you for your letter!  I LOVE YOU!  It made me so happy.  All the skinny little boys playing soccer in the streets remind me of you!  I´m gonna bring you an argentine jersey.  Literally every one here has one.  Some kids it´s all they wear!!  About your grades- WOW!! Keep it up.  You are gunna make grandma poor. The kids in elementary school here have to wear white lab coat to school.  How wierd is that?? LOVE YOU!!!!!! You need to take my place and start drinking more milk.

The others, 

Sorry to hear about Marissa, but glad the problem was found! (Marissa had surgery Monday. She has been having trouble for about a month with pain on her right side.  Sunday night it got so bad we ended up in the ER. They found three cysts on her right overy.  They took them out and she will be on bed rest for the rest of the week.  She is not expected to have any more complications because of these cysts,)

We get 1500 pesos a month. Which is lucky.  The week I got here the rate was increased, it used to be 1200. We dont pay the rent, and I dont know how much it is.  We use this money for our food, necessities, things for our investigatores, cleaning supplies, and travel to conferences and far places in our area. We also pay our gas and light bill, but the church reimburses that- and it´s slow. Sometimes things are tight, but it´s the same for everyone else and the only time I´ve been hungry was fast sunday!

I got your Dear Elders from the day I left, when you joined the email group, and your study habits.  I did not get the one from Nicole yet.  I also recieved 2 from Grandma and Grandpa Shumway dated September 3 and September 13.  (So, yes Grandpa.  I did recieve your ´´life-changing epistle´´ Which I will respond to them next week when I have time)  Grandpa was very specific and insistent on the topic of marrige.  Including my future spouse and his "first Book of Mormon name"  And, I think Grandpa is psychic!!!  A quote from his corespondence "I have a secret message for you and you don´t even need to tell your companion unless she loves you and cooks you splendid frijoles for breakfast."  I don{t know how he knew this, but MY COMPANION DOES COOK ME FRIJOLES FOR BREAKFAST!!!!!!  In Honduras they eat baleadas for breakfast all the time, and it´s super delicous! (its just beans and cheese in a tortilla) Her family owned a resturant so the frijoles are super splendid.  When I told all the other Hermanas we died of laughter!!! (Her homeade tortillas are the best thing in the entire world- I will make them for you when we I get back!)

Pictures next week.  My computer today is bad.

I{m happy, LOVE YOU ALL:

Hermana Shumway

Esta Semana

¡¡¡¡¡¡HOLA!!!!!

The farmers market here is crazy.  It´s just like scenes from movies.  Burlap sacks full of grains and spices, crates full of produce, tin or cloth canopies, dogs, chickens, children running around.  Its really fun!  The meat stands freak me out.

This week has been crazy, and today almost all of the shops are closed in respect for the Virgin.  EVERYONE here believes in the Virgin.  They pray to her, idolize her, have ridiculous celebrations frequently. This week there has been preseciones (huge parades in the street) everyday.  Hundreds of people chant scripture as they bang drums and play trumpets.  Sometimes they have candles.  It´s scary.  The people here really love themselves the Virgin.  It,s really hard to convert hardcore believers.

There is this family of recent converts that we always go and teach, and every time we ask the 5 year old to pray he playfully declines.  We asked him, "don´t you want blessings?"  and he said "No, I want food!"  It  was really cute!

This week there has been so many miracles!  One of my favorites was with the little brother of two of our investigators that we work with a ton.  Fabio and Adolfo.  Fabio is 22, has this beautiful long curly hair and Adolfo is 19, he is a bit smaller, and he wears his hair shorter and straight. They have a funny relationship- Basically they remind me of Nicole and I.  So, I REALLY want them to be baptized and accept the gospel so we can party in the celestial kingdom together. They know everything, go to church every week BUT don´t want to become members.  They both know why baptism is important, and said they want to follow Jesus. And listen to our message more.  Ugh. We work with them a lot.  Anyway,this Thursday their little brother told us that he was going to be baptized- in another church in 3 days with all of his friends!  We felt awful for not teaching him and focusing so hard on his brothers.  We told him the importance of baptism, gave him a pamphlet about the restoration and priesthood and told him to pray and ask God if he should be baptized this Saturday.  We didn´t really have time to visit him before Saturday so we just prayed really hard.  On Saturday we visited their family in the evening and the little brother told us that he decided not to be baptized!  He said that he prayed and felt like he needed to learn more about baptism before he made his choice.  The world needs more 11 year olds like him.

LOVE; LOVE; LOVE,

Hermana Shumway

 I bought this skirt at the flea market for 30 pesos (about $4), the same price as my favorite candy bar.  It has pockets.  I´m in love.

 Looking down from our apartment

 The ground floor looking up to our apartment patio

internet cafe we use!

Internet stations we email at.

Hola

I got to watch the morning sessions of conference in spanish in the chapel with members and our investigators, and the afternoon sessions in english on our ward mission leaders computer at his house.  There is nothing more sad than seeing the face of President Thomas S. Monson, or Uchdorf and not hearing their voice!!!  Hearing an interpreter speak over them really wasn´t the same.  The conference was AMAZING!!! atleast the parts I fully understood.  The talk by Jörg Klebignat literally pierced my soul.  I audibly had to say "aye" grab my chest a few times.  So powerful.  And I personally want to high five Elder Bednar for his talk.  One of my investigators there really needed to hear his message.

This week has been one of the hardest, best weeks of my life. I´ve felt the love a Christ so strong, done things I didn´t think I could, and seen some of the ugliest dogs in my life!!!  That thing that happens in Disney movies where the main character befriends a stray animal?  Highly unlikely.  Our nations youth shouldn´t be viewing such dangerous material.

The beginning of the week was hard because I was sick, and it was SO hot.  I already have funny tan lines!  The Lord really helped me and I was able to work everyday.  

I found out this week that Jujuy (the providence I´m in- which is like a state)  is the poorest providence in all of Argentina.  There are areas in Argentina that are worse off, but as a whole Jujuy doen´t have a lot of money.  It´s such a blessing.  The people here are SO humble and ready to hear the Gospel.  There isn´t enough time in the day for all of our work.  The parts of our area that that are a little better off are harder to work in too!

I´m more friendly too!  I kiss everybody.  Church takes 30 minutes to leave because I have to kiss everyone in the building!

Trackting is talking to every one in the street.  while rushing from appointment to appointment.  There is never enough time to see everyone.  And when our investigators aren´t home, we just go to random houses or contact our references.  Most of the time we clap in front of houses.  I´m really good at it. When there is actually a door we knock.  In one neighborhood most of the houses have doorbellls.

 Please have everyone write to me via  Dear Elder.  Email is always SUPER overwhelming because I have only an hour to read then for my report to the president, family, and friends.  I email at an internet cafe, there are tons here because a lot of people don´t have internet or computers.

 LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Hermana Shumway

There are all these BEAUTIFUL flowering trees down here!!

 my ugly bug bites!  I promise i don´t scratch them!!

 At the flea market I found a banana tee!!!!!  It felt like home in my hands.

Looks like Courtney is still licking people.  Her companion doesn't look too happy.

Two months down!!!!!!!

 Um, wow.  Time has flown by.  I love everything here!  I´m SOO happy!!!

Sometimes my heart hurts a little though.  The people here are SOO humble.  The small portion of the city where we live is paved roads, but most of the residences are dirt roads.  Most houses are small shacks with concrete floors that just hold their beds, and then they do everything else outside.  Laundry, cooking, everything.  The rich houses have everything inside- but even those are TINY.  One of our investigators hadn´t eaten in a few days and her kids were hungry because they didn't have the 14 pesos that buys a GIANT bag of bread for a family.  14 pesos- that´s less than $2  in the U.S.!!!

There are 4 hermanas including me in our apartment, and Hermana Acosta of Colombia didn't filter hér water and got an intestinal infection.  We had to take her to the hospital and it was WAY scary.  You could hear children screaming from the outside, and pretty sure our house is more sanitary.  I hear in other parts of the mission there are really good hospitals.  So, lets hope I don´t get sick here.  P.S. (She is totally fine now!)

Cleaning and cooking here is WAY different.  We did a lot of service this week.  First off, you have to get dirt floors wet before you sweep so that you don't erode their house.´ And for insides, you dump a bucket of water and then use like a window squeegee to push all the water out.  Also, recipes don´t exist here, so the first time a member asked me to make abolndigas she was really confused when I just stood there.  But I learned how to fold empanadas!

I had the chance to take a 2 hour bus ride to Salta to finish paperwork for my visa.  It´s a real city.  It was crazy´,I almost had shell-shock- i'm so used to my area here!

Now to answer your questions:

Things I wish I had brought to Argentina:

A washer and dryer.  The first time I did laundry here, it was really fun.  We have this giant open top ice cream maker thing that you put our clothes in, then add soap and it really slowly wooshes them around.  Then you pull them out and put them in this basin and hand scrub the dirt out like old time movies, then rinse them, wring them, and hang them to dry.  Its very tiring.  ´

Miss most about the USA:

Milk that doesn´t come in bags.  Animal control.  Reliable utilities (our water and power go out a lot).  And paved roads, no good with skirts.  Sometimes I think I´m getting really tan, but then I go home and bathe and realize I was just dirty.

Foods I will miss the most:

Everything.  The providence I'm in doesn´t import ANYTHING.  Everything ís industrial Argentina.  There is no variety, and we eat the same things a lot.  There is one kind of cereal.  The biggest grocery store here is smaller than our house.  The fruits are really cheap, and really good.  I eat them every day.  Sometimes oatmeal.  I feel like grandma and grandpa Shumway!

Wish I had brought more of to Argentina:

Hand Sanitizer (Soap dispensers don´t exist)

Photos.  Everyone wants to see pictures of my family.  When I show them the picture first thing they do is comment on Marissa.  Then how beautiful Nicole is.  Then, its a tie between ´Dallin´s(Nicole's fiance) beard, or how tall we all are.  Everytime.

I love you all! I´m doing great.  I don´t have the language perfect, and things are hard sometimes but I´ve never felt the Saviors love so strongly in my life. 

- Hermana Shumway