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.