I feel so blessed

Que mal las otras misioneras! That's funny that the missionaries you had over for dinner told you they wouldn't eat salad.  It´s not a rule in my mission that we have to eat everything, it´s just good manners.  And, if you don´t they get offended, and you are never invited to eat with them again.  And in my other area where the people are really poor and humble, it would be really rude not to!  Plus, food is good and we walk a lot.  

The families from the ward that we lunch with here are the bomb!  One of them sells yorkies for a living.  She has eight in her house right now.  All different colors and sizes, hair lengths, with tails and without.  There is one that looks exactly like Loki.  They all attack you when we walk in.  

One of the other families has a daughter that just got back from her mission in Chile- WHERE DAVID ARCHULETA WAS HER ZONE LEADER.  Crazy.  

This week we were trying to contact a reference, but the address was bad, or didn´t exist.  So, we decided to knock on doors and contact the people close, and ask if they knew about the address.  We knocked on a door and a woman came out.  And.... she has been prepared by God to accept the gospel.  

She has a brain tumor, her husband is AWFUL, and her kids don´t have the best habits.  She vends food for the  lunch  hour  to around 40-50 people every day.  ALL by herself.  Cooks, cleans, does everything.  Every day she cooks and then washes dishes until it´s time for bed, HUGE amounts of dishes. When we entered her house we started washing dishes and talking. We washed dishes for 2 hours, until we finally finished.  And that was with 3 of us, I can´t imagine how long it takes her by herself!  My arms hurt from scrubbing a pot almost the same size as me.  

She told us that she listened to the elders 2 or 3 times many years ago, but she didn´t know why they stopped coming.  She was crying as she told us this and knew that God sent us.  She just wants happiness and love in her family, and wants then to grow up well.    

I feel so blessed top be able to be an instrument in the hands of God in bringing the spirit into a home.  The only real happiness in the world, comes through the spirit.  If we don´t have the spirit in our family, we don´t have anything.  There is no love, hope, or peace.  

I LOVE YOU ALL, and thank you for everything.  I´m so excited to be an eternal family with you guys, y ¡ser felices para siempre!

Hermana Shumway

 The Bascillica de Salta.  The inside supposedly is vibrant colors and is BEAUTIFUL.  Pero, as missionaries I´m pretty sure that we can´t enter the great abdominal church.  Sorry Satan.

 And, we went to an art museum for P-day