Trunchbul

I only got one water balloon thrown at me for Carnival!

This week was a little interesting.  In the beginning, I wasn´t missionary happy.  I was just normal happy.  But then we fasted and I´ve had some of the most spiritual experiences in my entire life.  

 We have an investigator who literally looks exactly like the Trunchbul (from Matilda), and she´s super tall!  She investigated the church years ago, and received an answer by the Spirit that this is the only true church.  But, still isn´t baptized.  We´ve been visiting her for a little bit but we still can´t get her to act upon her answer.  We had a member from the ward who is 14 years accompany us for our last visit.  The Member just moved here from Bolivia, with absolutely nothing.  They had everything in Bolivia, but gave it all up to move here for her little brother who has downs, because there weren´t programs in Bolivia for him.  She has one of the strongest testimonies I´ve heard in my life.  After she testified to our investigator of all of the blessings she's received by being faithful in the church she started crying, and told our investigator that she wanted her to be baptized.  The room was DEAD silent.  And the spirit was so strong that me and my companion´s eyes welled up with tears too.  We left her with a baptismal registry and told that we would follow up with her the next day.  

We also ran into a woman who is 100%  prepared and ready to hear more about the gospel.  She´s always been religious but quit going to church years ago when her husband died.  Her son is super rebellious.  She´s amazing.  Her dog is adorable.

Everything here is amazing.  I see little miracles every day, and I´m sooooo happy.  

Trunchbul

valentines day

 For Valentines Day the people here don't really do anything, but I bought some chocolate, some alfajores, a fruit tart and we ate junk food with the other Hermanas. 

Meals in Argentina are a little bit crazy.  We eat the main dish first, and then we have a bowl of soup, and then dessert is almost always fruit salad, or a whole fruit!  We never eat fruit with our other food.  They like the soup second because it fills in all the little spaces after you´ve eaten- and it helps your tummy digest all the food.  

This week was pretty normal, apart from it being the weekend of Satan!  It's Carnival.  Nobody wanted to go to church this week because they all wanted to party. It´s crazy.  It´s literally like an episode of Buffy the vampire slayer.  People take  pots and put raw meet and herbs in it and do stuff to try to summon demons.  And people assault one another with water balloon, flour, eggs- I´m a little bit afraid to leave and teach tonight!

I´m suuuper happy.  My companion is one of the funniest people I have ever met.  I feel the spirit everyday.  

I don´t have a ton a time today, but I´m glad things are going well with you guys!  

Keep going to church.  Be grateful to be in a super organized and strong ward. I'm not seeing a lot of that in Argentina. 

Hermana Shumway

Hooola!

Lots of weird stuff happened this week.  One day for lunch, we were given half a chicken each, with rice and salad and potatoes.  Then, during the day we had malta con leche con una familia with bread and jams.  Then we had ice cream.  Then met with other investigators. Basically everyone was giving us food, and I´ve never been so full!  Then in the night time one of our new investigators asked us if we were pregnant- and then she poked my tummy!  My companion and I just laughed, "Del espiritu y asado."

And, we were street contacting when we came across a cute little Asian- but when we tried to talk to her she said that said, "No hablo Español"  and then when we looked really confused she said, "I speak English"  Then I got really excited and said "Me too!" 

So then she asked me a basic question, and then I just started staring at her because I couldn't remember how to say why I´m here en English.  My compañion who knows English really well had to tap me, and the only thing I could think of was "I´m a missionary"  And when she asked what missionaries do, "I teach about Jesus!"   And when we started talking more it was so awkward, because she could think so much faster than me, and I can´t respond to one word questions in English, or use filler words.  But, it turns out she´s here because she wants to learn Spanish and teach Chinese. I told we could teach her Español and gave her our number. I don´t think she was really impressed with my native language abilities so I guess we´ll have to see.

We found a lot of amazing people this week.  It´s crazy almost everyone who we talk with has had contact with the church at least once in their life.  We´ll be on a corner handing out Jesus cards and when we start talking with someone turns out they are a member, but inactive for years, or went to the church a couple of times as a kid, or received the missionaries once but they never returned. 

This week there was a special womens conference, but we could only go if we brought an investigator.  I was praying that we would find someone to take, but nobody wanted to go.  About an hour and a half before the conference, we were teaching a woman in a bakery.  One of her employees stopped working and came and listened.  And when we invited them to the conference, the employee said yes, even though it was in an hour!

She told us that she´s been looking for something good in her life, and when she was thinking about this in the morning- she had REALLY strong impression that she should go to work even though she wasn´t planning on it.  She told us that she knew it was because she needed to meet us, and now we´re teaching her with her two daughters.

Love you all!  

Hermana Shumway

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

1/3 done

Wow.  1/3 of the way done with my mission.  

I forgot you asked if I washed things the same- here we have a better open top washing machine (better meaning it actually washes!)  And we have a contraption that almost completely dries the clothes.  It spins the clothes super fast and the water shoots out of the bottom!  Then then only need to hang dry a little bit.  I´m gunna miss having all of my clothes be hand wash only.

This has been miracle week.  God is pulling on Oprah´s favorite things!  Our area is really hard- the people are so stubborn.  In our ward, we had two baptisms last year, and the standard for the mission is 2 baptisms a month!  My companion works harder than anybody I´ve ever known.  And I´m learning so much from her and the area.  We had a baptism this week, and we´ve found so many people ready for the gospel this week- it´s crazy!  

One of our investigators that we´ve been teaching for 3 weeks is changing her life.  She went to church with us last week, and when we visited her on Saturday, she told us all the great things that happened this week- and how she was just happier all around, and how she KNEW it was because she went to church with us.  She said she has never felt so comfortable in a church, and she wants to bring her daughter!!  She´s reading the manual for sunday school to be ready for next week.  When I asked her about her faith in Christ- she started crying as she testified who He was in her life.  She smokes, and when we started to talk about the word of wisdom she gasped and was told us that just yesterday she thought that she needed to quit, because God doesn´t like it.  Even though she works late, she went to our baptism at 8 in the morning (EXTREMELY early for an Argentine) and said that she would be next.  THE GOSPEL IS AMAZING!!!

Our baptism is Victor an abuelito de 72 years.  He´s a traveling anthropologist, cultural professor or something.  CRAZY smart.  Grandpa Dale would love him!  He´s been to practically every counrty in the Americas researching and working in excavicions.  He teaches quiphu.  A language that uses blocks of color.  The ancient inhabitants of the Americas used this to write aroung the same times as the Lamanites.  In the photo of Christ visiting the Americas, theré´s a woman with quiphu on her dress.  He has photos of ruins that look the same as church paintings of the lamanites.  (BUT; he knows the Book of Mormon is true by the holy ghost- he just likes the proof)  His jokes are exactly like Grandpa Dales. They kill me.  Right know he´s in Paraguay for 3 weeks.  

I´ve never felt so loved and blessed by our Heavenly Father.The best way to receive blessings, is to obey the commandment exactly. Go to church and take the sacrament.  Read the scriptures.  Pray, pray, pray. Tithing and word of wisdom.  The more our faith stretches to fulfill the will of our Father, the more he will bless us!  I love you guys, and I know everything will work out.  I´m praying and trying hard to serve my best. 

- Hermana Shumway

If you can´t it´s perfectly fine, but can you put a little bit of money in my account?   I used my personal funds for living expenses when my old companion didn´t have anything. the district leaders lost her reimbursements wich were half of her monthly allowance.

                                   Victor

3 Cerritos!!

I feel like I´m in a completely different country from my 1st area!!! Its like i´m back in the United States, except 100x prettier!  Our apartment is actually a guest house behind someones extremely big and nice house. Our area has a lot of mansions.  Everyday we have to go through their house to get to our house behind.  They aren't members, but they are the nicest people on the planet.  And, their couches and chairs in the front room are leopard print! I have yet to tell them that it´s my spirit print.

It's soo much harder in this area (and I have to start wearing makeup again), but I´m learning so much- especially with things I was struggling with before.  The lord knows what he is doing with his revelation!  The ward here is a lot smaller (50 or so actives), and I had to give a talk, teach gospel principles, and teach the family home evening lesson Sunday night.  In this week alone I`m making leaps and bounds in the language- and FINALLY using the subjunctive tense.

For p-day today we went to the Teleferico which is like a ski lift up a mountain, and hiked down.  IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL.  I feel like Grandma and Grandpa.  The only 2 times I´ve done something fun for p-day has been hiking.  And I eat fruit everyday for breakfast, and talk about the church with strangers all day.  We went with the elders in our zone. But they left the trail and got lost.  They called us and were really stressed out, and all we did was make references to Lehi´s Vision.  They didn´t like that very much.  Its been 2 hours, I hope they found their way back!

Then, we went to McDonalds. ¡¡¡¡¡¡MCDONALDS!!!!!!!! It´s like I never even left home! (it was like 100 pesos, but the food looks exactly like the picture!  And the fries hardly had any grease)

I thought it was going to be really weird being in the same ward as our Mission President- but it´s actually really fun!  His kids remind me of our family.  His 11 year old is crazy like Marissa!  His 14 year old is just like Dallen.  There is a daughter my age, and a son Nicole`s age out on a mission.  (he has another kid who is 16, who I guess could be like my cousin or something)

And, I got your letters from Thanksgiving!  And, when I have letters the Elders give them to me when I´m in the offices, not only at zone meetings- so it´s a lot faster!

I LOVE YOU GUYS!  (And tell Sonda I thought of her when I was eating my hamburger about the story from her mission with the rat- miss her tons!)

- Hermana Shumway

My first transfer!

This has been the craziest week of my life.  On Monday, I had to travel to Salta to finish my visa stuff (which is like 2 hours from my area).  I was just supposed to spend 1 night  and return to Perico BUT, the police station was on vacation and I had to stay another day.  In total, I was gone 3 days, sleeping in the apartment of the hermanas of Tres Cerritos (3 little hills), visiting the police stations, and working a little bit in their area. 

Satan was working really hard while we were gone. And we didn´t have time to fix the damage. In three short days (mon, tue, wed), he managed to convince our baptism for this coming week to be baptized in another church.  And our other baptism, decided that she doesn´t want to listen to us any more.  Then  thursday we are inside almost the entire day planning, friday we had to travel far to attend the training meeting of a different zone because we missed ours while I was in Salta an extra day.  Saturday we FINALLY had time to work.  While we were walking to our first appointment- we saw an apartment for rent (we have been looking for a new one for a long time now) so we knocked, the lady showed us right away, we loved it, and decided to move in immediantly.  So there wasn´t and time to work.  

Sunday was the hardest day of my mission so far.  I cried the whole time during the church meetings, and when I had to say goodbye to my converts, members, and les actives.  I can´t express how much I love Perico, and the people.

Then at 11 at night, they called to tell us about the transfers.  My new area is...... Tres Cerritos, Salta! The area I was in for a few days. It`s SOO different than Perico. It´s central Salta. And, our Mission President lives in our ward. His kids and wife acompany us for our visits sometimes. Me and my new compañera (Hermana Alcerro de Honduras) are the only missionaries in the ward.    The houses here are mansions.  There aren´t dirt roads.  There is a McDonalds. The mission offices are in our boundries. I don´t know what life is anymore!

We had to go the the terminal with our compañeras de apartment, and we were in the terminal from 12 at night untill my bus left at 7 in the morning.  We didn´t sleep

.

But, I´m very happy.  The people here don´t have the same humility as Perico, but I know the Savior is going to bless us!  I´m a bit nervous, but it´s going to be a great opportunity to grow!

Love you all, 

Hermana Shumway

 Saying goodbye to  Perico, Jujuy

Last day in Perico con mi compañera Hermana Platino!

This is what it looks like when you don´t have a bed to sleep on in your new place