Oran

My new area is AMAZING.  I love it.  It´s not a ward- It´s just a branch, so there´s so much work to do and everything is a little bit disorganized but I´ve never met so many amazing people in my entire life.  Super humble, with SUPER strong testimonies.  One of the members found out it was my birthday 2 days before I came here, and they had ice cream for me when we went to teach them.  Another member gave me a gift it was a  place-mat that she had painted when we ate lunch at her house- the members LOVE the missionaries.

Our investigators are super different, and some of them don´t know how to read or write.  That kinda freaked me out in the beginning, but I´ve had some of the most spiritual experiences of my life working with the people here. Don´t ever take for granted the opportunity to read the book of Mormon yourself whenever you feel like it! 

  There are 2 converts that got baptized 2 days before I came who were super excited to pay their first tithing even though it was only $3.  They´ve only know about the church for about a month and they are already willing to give everything to the Lord.  

This week I gained a super strong testimony of the Word of Wisdom.  You know that blessing that says  we will have the strength to run and not be weary if we always keep the word of wisdom?  Tru dat.

About 2 days before transfers in my other area we were visiting with a member and his grandma who isn´t a member.  She asked us if we wanted a cup of coffee, and then we looked at her like "whaaat...?" she kinda of laughed and told us she knew we couldn´t drink coffee and was going to give us something else.  She then gave us little mugs of what I thought was malta (which smells and looks like coffee  all the members drink it but it  isn´t really coffee).  I looked the grandson he he started drinking it all chill, so we started drinking.  But, turns out it wasn´t malta.  If was DECAF coffee.  Which "is coffee".  I felt super bad, but I kind of forgot about it until I came here and my legs almost died.

My first day here in Oran we left to teach and I was super pumped but didn´t know there was a ton of mosquitoes here that think I´m delicious.  When we got back to the apartment my legs were covered in bites- HUGE bites.  And my legs swelled up until I basically couldn't move my ankles.  My legs looked like they belonged to an obese person, and were super red and itchy and full of venom.  In the morning it was worse.  I didn´t take pictures because it was disgusting.  I almost couldn´t walk so we went to the doctor and I got a shot in my behind and some pills.  At the end of the day I still felt bad- and was trying to think what I did to deserve this.  Then I remembered the coffee, and repented super good.  Woke up the next morning, and my legs were almost their normal size again!  And now they are just super blotchy!  I can now walk like a normal person!!!!!

Take all of the commandments super seriously.

I´m really happy here.

Hermana Shumway

My Birthday

I GOT TRANSFERRED!!! To Oran!! It´s basically touching Bolivia. It´s not a big city, and I have dirt roads again I´m soooooo happy and excited.  I had to take a 5 hour bus ride and it and we had to go really slow in certain parts where the road was bad.    My new companion is Hermana Saenz from Equador.  She´s 25 and is an English teacher. She´s super funny and great.

My birthday was awesome!!!!  I got 2 cakes (one from my companion and one from the investigator that I wrote about the last time), and cupcakes, and a present- it pretty much rocked except I had to leave my area and my cakes. :( So now I can´t continue to eat them for breakfast.

I almost forgot, I saw (via satellite) my first temple dedication this week!! It was so beautiful.  Elder Cristofferson (who served his mission here and can speak Spanish well) and Elder Uchtdorf (who... can´t) It was so cool to be able to hear the dedicatory prayer in English and Spanish and feel the spirit in the both languages.  

Everyone here is so happy because now there is a temple 10 hours from here  instead of 22.  I never realized how big of a blessing temples were.

And the cultural event was BEAUTIFUL.  I want to learn how to do traditional dance.

We got the best ice cream I´ve had in my entire life last P-Day

My candle was a firework.

We went to an art museum and I thought I was funny, and the security guard too.  He followed us around the whole time and tried not to laugh. And probably because he thought we were gonna ruin the art or something like that.

 With one of my favorite members

Post Mothers day letter

We have an investigator who has a hard time remembering to read The Book of Mormon.  So we started fasting for him, AND THAT NIGHT HE COULDN'T¨T SLEEP BECAUSE HE HAD SUPER STRONG FEELINGS TO READ THE BOOK OF MORMON! He read basically the whole night.  The Lord responds to our fasts.

And then he couldn´t go to church the next day because a pigeon flew into his room the 2 hours he slept.  But he really wanted to go to church so he ran about 20 blocks after he got the bird out.  He missed everything and felt super bad.  It was pretty funny!

I love you guys!

Hermana Shumway

We´re pretty

Why we can´t have Pringles during our studies.

 We were really excited to be able to talk to our families on mothers day.

I´M MORE THAN HALF WAY DONE WITH MY MISSION. :( :( :( :( :(

This week was super fun!  We had a ward activity and we ate a ton of asado (which freaked me out to see so much raw flesh and cut bones..)!  We played volleyball and basketball with every one, even though it was really hard in a dress. And, we played a shooting game and I totally schooled everyone and won!  And my companion accidentally hit one of the President´s kids in the head with a basketball.... That wasn´t exactly the best but it was pretty funny.

There is a little store (it´s the front room of a house) in front of our house that we always buy things from.  The owner also sells food, and she´s pretty good friends with us so when we passed by the other day she asked us if we wanted to try locro.  Salta is famous for its locro.  It´s probably one of the weirdest things I´ve ever eaten but it was SOOOO good.  It´s like a stew, that is made in a pot that I could easily fit inside.  Almost bigger than the stove itself, and it literally has everything.  Everything.  I ate a bowl full of squashes, corn, herbs, pig tongue, cow intestines, chicken and beef on the bone, salami, potatoes, cheese, EVERYTHING.  It was so good.  I didn´t even care that the I ate parts of animals I never would have eaten before.  Even though they looks weird, they didn´t taste weird.  

This was actually one of the hardest weeks in my mission so far.  But, we had a SUPER less active member come to church!  And, we had investigators come to the family home evening we teach every week, and the ward activity.  And I´m participating in a special (and really small- there is about 15 of us) choir because we are going to be having Elder Viñas from the 70 visiting us! I´m super excited!!!  

I´m really excited to get to talk to you guys this week.  I´m practicing my English with my companion during language studies.  (Last week I has an awkward encounter with some tourists from Colorado and couldn´t speak super well)

I love you all!

Hermana Shumway