Because he lives

New video you guys need to watch: #BecauseHeLives 

The Womens conference was broadcast here at 9 o´clock at night so we didn´t have permission to watch it.  But we are going to watch it tomorrow morning!

You sent me photos!?  I LOVE YOU GUYS! The second they arrive I´ll know, the Elders in the offices are my district and we talk with them everyday!

Satan kinda killed our miracle. But I still have faith.  

We have an investigator that looking into the church about a week before I got here, so I´ve been teaching her my entire time in 3 Cerritos.  She has so much faith in Christ it´s crazy!  We´ve been helping her quit smoking (I made popcorn for her eveyday- and it´s really hard without a microwave!), and teaching her everything.  She´s been going to church with us for 2 months and the few times she hasn´t gone- she noticed that her week was really different!  

The only reason she´s not bautized is because she isn´t married to her 

"husband".  Which is basicaly a problem with everyone here- only the mormons are married!  It´s really hard to do all the paperwork.  You have to have a medical exam and get blood drawn, take a turn, wait forever, pay a lot of money.  It´s really frustrating, so a lot of people don´t do it.  It´s hard to divorce too!  So a lot of people are seperated but still live with their spouse, because they bought the house togather, and it´s too hard to divorce.  

Anyways, we taught her about the Law of Chastity.  A lot. In the beggining we tried to help them marry.  He is divorced from a different woman except his paperwork never went through. It was all really complicated.   And we asked her to pray and ask God if she should have her "husband"  be her eternal companion.  

We went to her house the other day, and she told us that she was going to leave her ´husband´ and quit smoking for good!  We were so excited.  I LOVE this investigator.  She´s like a mom to me here in Argentina!  

When we went back the next day things were different. And now it doesn´t look like she wants to be baptized, and she´s going to move super far away.  

I´m not bummed that she would be baptized in a different area, but we have no idea why she´s changed and forgotten her testimony.  I really hope that we can help her remember the way she felt in the church and when she read the Book of Mormon, and that she can prepare for baptism.  I want to see her in the celestial kingdom!!!!!!!

We had a really funny contact this week!  It was a grandpa.  He told us he that he knew our beliefs, that we believed in Moroni the archangel.  We told him that he was´t an archangel, and then he told us that he was the angel capo.  (Capo is like capable, but it´s slang.  It´s more like dope or legit.)  It was really funny.  He invited us to go back for tea time with him and his wife this week!

And then the rest of the week I felt the spirit, read scriptures, and drank a lot of mate.

I love you guys, 

Hermana Shumway

 When my companion is cold she turns Muslim

My companion is a babe.  She´ll probly get snatched up while I´m still in the mission

bowling and sweaters

There is a drink here called Malta- that´s supposed to taste like coffee.  But it´s not coffee, and all of the members drink it.  It´s super good.  I´ll bring you back some.  I drink it when I´m super hungry and don´t think matte will do it!

Dallen is going to be huge when I get back!

I´m still not used to there being cars in my new area that I forget to look when I´m going to cross the road.  I´ve almost gotten a hit a few times.  My companion wants to get me a leash!

There is this CRAZY family that we teach, (like 3 of them are named Jorge) (a few of them are less active members) and something interesting always happens when we are in their house.  The grandma told us that she´s been reincarnated a few times, and that when she´s sleeping her spirit leaves through her bellybutton.  She has a lot a rad jewelry.

This week the grandma was eating some chicken, while the granddaughter was saying the prayer.  The granddaughter gave thanks that her grandma has the opportunity to get fatter and fatter everyday!

We had a really spiritual lesson about the 5th commandment after that.  They are a really great family, and I´m really grateful for the opportunity to know them.

Sorry this letter wasn´t especial spiritual, we had a HUGE miracle- but it´s still in the process and I´ll tell you about it next week!

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

We went bowling for p-day with 2 of our mission presidents kids!  the bowling lanes are a lot smaller than normal, and you don´t have to use bowling shoes. It was super fun but weird!

It was raining so one of our investigators gave us sweaters that she doesn´t use anymore to keep!

How to help with missionary work.

Wow great question.  There are so many ways to help out in missionary work.

The work is completely different in the states, but what would help the missionaries the most:

Give them references

Help the less actives.  One of the biggest reasons that people are less active here is because they don´t get along with the other members.  And it´s really hard when more than half the ward is less active and don´t want to go to church because they don´t have friends, and nobody is worried when they don´t show up. Let the inactive know in a loving way that you missed them when they weren´t at church.  DO YOUR HOME TEACHING AND VISITING TEACHING.

They probably have a million priests to accompany them on splits, but the testimonies of married couples or families really helps.  Or invite the missionaries over for a family home evening with friends who aren´t members.  It´s a really comfortable way to introduce them.

What would help you guys prepare the most for missionary work:

Study chapter 3 of preach my gospel.  Even if you think you know it all.  Also, work really hard with chapter 6.

WORK WITH FAMILY HISTORY.  Actually put pictures and stories on Family Search.org. Help others do it to.  People who aren´t members have a lot of interest in family history.  The work of salvation is on both sides of the veil. Go to the temple.

Do service.  

Send out uplifting notes to members.  

I am so glad you reread the conference talk "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence" Remember after the conference you sent me a copy! Then  I told you it was my favorite and everyone had to read it? I´ve used it a lot in my mission. He makes six very good points that if headed will help anyone grow closer to God.  There is an overweight member in the ward that we always  joke with, and one time we told him to read it and pay special attention to the point about personal health.  He read it and we talked about it all of lunch as we laughed and ate with his family!  (sounds like klowii could use it too)

Love you guys.

Hermana Shumway

Ask and ye shall receive

You can make your own (probably will be more spicy) bag of roulette doritos.  Sprinkle aji (chili powder?)  on select few chips from the bag.  Or all of them.  It´s really good. 

 

I learned how to make gnooci from scratch!

 My companion finally got her visa!  (And she´s going to finish her mission in less than a month- I´ve been told not to expect mine in the 1st year)

I think that Satan can control the weather here sometimes.  There´s a type of rain that is literally insufferable.   It´s CRAZY fine.  It´s like a super powerful mist, and even with an umbrella you get wet instantly.  SUPER wet.And, it  lasts all day.  

This week we´ve seen a lot of miracles with our street contacts. We have to talk to 20 people every day that we´ve never talked to.  One day we had only half an hour before missionary curfew,  and we had only contacted 10 people.  I made a joke to my companion and told her that we were going to encounter a group of 10 people and finish with enough time for our last lesson.  Ask and ye shall receive.  Literally 20 seconds after I said that, we ran into a big group of friends.  And there were exactly 10 of them.

One night we were walking back to our apartment and I felt like we should contact this girl that was sitting in the grass.  She told that she was atheist (which is really weird for an argentine)  and vegan (which is even weirder).  We asked her what she believed in and she went on about some energy that flows through everything and the cosmos and there is a father of everything, but she said that it was impossible to describe and put a name to.   We then explained to her that this idea has a name- God.  I felt like Ammon converting King Lamoni!  

Love you all!

Hermana Shumway

 My companion finally got her visa!  (And she´s going to finish her mission in less than a month- I´ve been told not to expect mine in the 1st year)

 It was international woman´s day and they actually celebrate in here!

I found an imagine of Jesus praying in outer space for my planner.

Working like a dog

This week I got fleas.

Haha.  We were trying to teach a recent convert, and he told us that he didn´t have time because he had to clean out a room that hasn´t been used in a long time for his brother who was going to move in.  Being missionaries we offered to help him so that he would have time to listen for a bit, but we didn´t know what we were getting into.  

The room had not been cleaned in a very long time, and a couple of dogs have been living in there off and on again.  The second we entered my legs began to itch, but I have a lot of mosquito bites so I just kind of shrugged it off.  Then my companion started itching, and we looked down and we were covered with little black fleas!  

When we left we called the mission presidents wife and asked what we should do when we returned back to the apartment in a few hours.  She didn´t like our question, and told us we had to go the the apartment immediatly and wash our clothes and take showers.  By then we were starting to itch pretty bad so we ran the entire way.  We´re clean now!

This week we´ve found a lot of new families to teach!  My second favorite thing in the mission! 

 My first favorite is teaching someone who´s never prayed in their life how to do it.  The spirit is so strong.  There isn´t a better feeling than connecting someone to their Heavenly Father.  I feel like a P.I. help some poor little orphan find their long lost parents.

Love you all, hope you all are doing well

 

Hermana Shumway  

One of the hermanas we live with is a little crazy

Me and my companion were really excited because there is only one flavor of doritos (Nacho Cheese) here, and we both miss spicy ones.  And, what sounds more fun than Doritos russian roulett?  But, the extra spicy ones weren´t actually that spicy.  We were a little dissapointed.

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Missionary selfie

Blessed is living in the ward of your mission president, and having his wife bake for you.