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.