Back in Tennessee!

 Sorry for missing yet another week, but here we go on a mother double weekly! 

 

Saying goodbye to all the wonderful people in Brevard was so sad but they are in good hands! Transfer day was very bitter sweet but I got to see a lot of my old companions and met a lot of new missionaries as well! My new companion is Sister Isaacson and she is the sweetest!! She has only been on her mission for three months but she is already an amazing teacher and I am so excited to be working with her. We actually live in a house with another companionship and all four of us are constantly laughing out seems like. I love it! The last two weeks with them have been so busy and have flown by!! 

 

This area has quite a few recent converts that we have been working with and I love them all so much! Hearing their testimonies and hearing about how much they have changed and improved their lives through the Atonement of Jesus Christ brings me so much joy and hope for this world! I love being on the front lines of the Lord's work!!! 

 

We have also met a couple of really wonderful friends to teach and we are more than excited to be working with! The Lord has been blessing us so much and I am ever so grateful for the people and experiences that fill my life right now. 

 

I love you all! And I love the Lord!

-Sister Shumway 

 

P.s. we made a balloon Christmas tree because #poor

And our friend Joe that we met like three weeks ago got baptized!!!!! 

But Wait! There's More...

 Last week was so good and I knew I should have written a weekly for it, but I never got around to it. So brace yourselves for this 2-in-one weekly email!!! 

 

We had interviews with President Graham last last Thursday. They were a little bit different because President Graham had SO much going on this transfer and 240 missionaries to interview that he just didn't have the time to travel all around the mission, so interviews were on zoom! That's better than not having them at all - technology is such a blessing!! At first I thought it wasn't going to be as good, but I was quickly corrected. I am so grateful for my mission President. He knows me much better than I had been giving him credit for. I kind of assumed I'd be lost in the crowd (240 missionaries is a LOT). But he knew exactly what to say to me and I feel loved, understood, and valued by him. He is an amazing mission President!! I know that every missionary probably says this, but in my case it's actually true: I HAVE THE BEST MISSION PRESIDENT IN THE WORLD! 

 

How amazing is our prophet??? I think he is pretty fantastic. His message to the world was literally a life changing experience to me. I learned so much! From his actual message to the experiences of applying myself 100% to his challenge. It was the first time in my life that I got to hear a prophet of God pray. I learned something critical (to me at least). Do you realize that the prophet prays the SAME way you and I do? He communicates with God in just as simple of a way as we do. God loves all of us, from the prophet to the homeless guy outside of Walmart, we all get to communicate with Him through prayer. I have found so much joy this week as I've focused on gratitude and been flooded by all the other grateful people on social media. I LOVE IT!!!! 

 

This video posted by President Nelson also led to a huge miracle!! Sister Foster and I had just sent a friend request to a guy on Facebook, we will call him Joe. Sister Foster had shared President Nelson's message to her page and Joe watched it and took the challenge and even shared the video to his own page! (And this was all before we had really started a conversation with him!). And then he messaged US asking US if we could teach him about the church!!!!! Ummm YES! We met him the very next day and taught him the message of the restoration and I can honestly say that I have never met someone SO prepared to receive and embrace the restored gospel! He came to church on Sunday and after the service we taught him God's plan of Happiness and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was so excited about it all and so eager to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost that he wanted to be baptized that afternoon! Unfortunately, he actually doesn't live full-time in Brevard, he just "happened" to be in town on some business the week we reached out. God is in the details!!! So we connected him with the missionaries down in Georgia where he does live, and they have continued to teach him and now he is going to be baptized on December 5th! My heart is so happy at how much joy he has found in the past two weeks. He has a LOT on his plate right now, but he told us that he is happiest he's ever been because he now knows the purpose of his life. We love Joe!!!!!!

 

Sister Foster and I also had a plethora of service opportunities this week! (I am grateful for the person who came up with the word plethora. It means a lot). On Thanksgiving we got to volunteer at the local soup kitchen and help feed all the families in need of a hot meal. It was by far my happiest and most exhausting Thanksgiving!! There were about 5 other service projects that popped up throughout this weekend last and we have been SO happy helping meet people's needs. We even got members involved in helping and Sister Foster and make it on the front page of the newspaper!! Hahaha. I absolutely love serving people. It makes me happier than I know how to describe. 

 

We also had transfer calls this week!! With 4 weeks left on my mission, I figured they would leave me here in Brevard, but no!!! I'm going back to Tennessee! Go Vols!!!! I will be serving in the Poplar Creek ward and I am SO excited because there are two sets of sisters living in that apartment and I have been in great need of more socializing. IT'S GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN!!! 

 

I love this mission SO much you guys!!! It is the most wonderful thing that's happened to me. I love North Carolina, I love Tennessee, I love my mission President, I love you all, but most importantly, I LOVE THE LORD!!!! 

 

-Sister Shumway

Clean Cars and New Friends

 Hey hey hey hey!!!! I hope y'all had as marvelous of a week as I did! We met a bunch of new friends this week and even reached out to some old ones again. (One of them had blocked us on Facebook, so we just wrote him a snail mail letter instead). I know that the Lord loves these people because I sure do!!! 

 

We also had zone conference this week! Zone conference is always fantabulisticly marvelous. And Sister Foster and I once again earned a free jar of nutella for having one of the two cleanest cars (weird flex but okay). But on a more spiritual note, I learned some pretty amazing things at zone conference. I had this realization (more like revelation) that I have been carried through the past couple of months. There have been challenges and obstacles that normally would be causing me so much turbulence, but looking back at it all, I realized/the Lord showed me that He had strengthened me, even that I could not feel the burdens upon my back. Like the people in Mosiah 24!! I also connected this miracle with your prayers. Thank you for praying for me and for every missionary out there! It does make a difference and I felt it this week. My testimony of prayer has strengthened tremendously from this experience. I know that if your prayers are making a significant difference in my life, then my prayers will also make a significant difference in the lives of the people we love and teach. 

 

I know that the Lord loves His children! I know that God wants His children back and I'm doing everything I can to help Him!! 

 

I love you all, I love this work, (and as much as I wanted to be on that space shuttle this weekend, I would not want to be doing any other work than the one I'm doing now, there is nothing greater!!) I love the Lord!

 

-Sister Shumway 

Our pretty church building

Muscles

 I had a lot of strength training in the past two weeks. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, and even though there were uncomfy moments, I know I came out stronger (even if I can't quite tell yet). I'll start with the physical ones 'cause they're the funniest. 

 

We get to serve at a local food pantry/soup kitchen once a week and last week we were given the task of getting the lid off of a 5-gallon bucket of oats. Now this bucket was military-status bunker food storage and it was indestructible. Sister Foster and I wrestled with it for literally 20 min before we FINALLY managed to get the lid off. The funniest part is, for the next three days my HAND muscles were SORE. I DIDNT KNOW HAND MUSCLES COULD GET SORE!!! Who knew?! 

 

Just about the time my hand muscles were recovering from last week's trauma, Sister Foster and I decided to utilize the can of bear meat that one of our friends gave us after bear hunting a couple weeks ago. Well, it turns out our friend is WAY stronger than us and screwed the lid onto the jar so incredibly tight that we could NOT get it to budge! But we are not quitters. So we tried everything. Rags for better grip, tapping (or smacking) the ring with utensils, hot water, etc. It just wouldn't budge. It wasn't until a little bit later when I was waiting for the red (almost purple) half-circle mark in my palm to fade that I noticed I had given myself a BLISTER from trying to unscrew a can of bear meat!! What the heck?!?! Eventually we did manage to get the water hot enough and wait long enough for the lid to loosen, but BOY was it a process. (For those of you wondering, bear meat just tastes like beef. I couldn't tell a difference). 

 

The next experience from this week strengthened my patience. And you're gonna need patience to read this next paragraph, cause it's gonna take a sec. At 3:00 in the morning last Wednesday, I woke up to an obnoxiously high-pitched beeping noise. My first thought was the CO alarm, but after listening again I only heard two beeps, not four. But there was no way I was going back to sleep with it chirping like that every minute or so, so I went to investigate. After checking the two OTHER alarm systems on the wall, I found the culprit: a box-thing plugged into an outlet in the kitchen. I had noticed this little box before because some previous missionaries had left a stickie note on it that read "do NOT unplug this unless you plan on destroying it" so I had never paid it any more attention. Turns out this little CO box only lasts for 7 years before it gives up and needs to be replaced, and we just so happened to be lucky two who were there for it's tragic end. After looking a little closer (and losing some of my hearing in the process) I discovered a catch 22. In order to get the beeping to stop, you have to take out the batteries, BUT the battery compartment-thing was not only screwed shut, but it was also only accessible by unplugging the box from the wall. So what happens when you unplug it from the wall? It doesn't beep anymore. Instead, it SCREAMS ONE PAINFULLY LOUD AND OBNOXIOUSLY HIGH PITCHED SCREECH. I literally sat there on the kitchen floor at 3:00 in the morning glaring at this thing for a good 20 minutes. Finally, I resorted to a temporary fix until morning when my thinking skills were less asleep. I wrapped the box in about 4 layers of packing tape and added two rags to top it off. Less shrill, but still loud. Unnecessarily long story-short, in the morning our landlord brought us a new one and we figured out how to get the batteries out of the old one to shut it up. I learned how to be patient with things that aren't in my control (or at least things that are taking me a really long time to figure out how to handle). 

 

I don't have the time or space to write all of the little spiritual learning moments I had this week, but I want to make sure y'all know how much I LOVE being a missionary!!! My heart has been bursting this week with gratitude and love for my Heavenly Father and this gospel. The way people's faces light up when you tell them that Jesus Christ visited people in ancient America and that they recorded it! The direction and confidence that people find in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! The happiness and JOY that gets magnified in people's lives when they start living it!! I have firsthand seen each of these examples this week and IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY!!!!! 

 

I love you all so much! I LOVE the Book of Mormon, I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I love laboring in the Lord's vineyard, and most of all, I love the Lord! 

 

 Sister Shumway

I LOVE to See The Temple!

I don't even know where to start! I am literally SOO blessed!!! In the entire mission, I was the only sister missionary that got to accompany the other missionaries to go through the temple for their first times. Wow. I feel so undeserving of such a miracle!! But I will never ever stop cherishing the memories and moments I got to spend in the temple this week. Because we were on the opposite side of the mission from Nashville, we got to spend TWO nights in the mission home with the Graham family! I LOVED seeing the Grahams in their own family atmosphere as parents and real people, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!! 

 

The other sisters we got to go to the temple with are SO kind and energetic and I really needed the social re-charge this week. I know that the Lord knows me and knows exactly what I need even better than I do. 

 

Sunday was pretty sad for us this week. Our friend Jacob was going to be getting baptized, but he had some last-minute doubts and fears and decided he couldn't do it. It was quite heartbreaking. But we have a wonderful and supportive branch who are so understanding and still willing to work with us after all the effort they put into planning and organizing Jacob's baptismal service. 

 

Sometimes the Lord asks us to do things and sacrifice things that we aren't really willing or wanting to. But He knows us. He knows what's best for us. He loves us and everything He does is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. I know He lives! I know He loves! I know He is very involved in our lives, whether we know it or not. I love the time I have to serve as a laborer in His vineyard, I love Tennessee and North Carolina, and I love the Lord!!! 

 

-Sister Shumway

The Anticipation is Killing Me!

 This week I saw very clearly the miracle of conversation happening with some of the people we are teaching. I know with my whole being that I am not the one who convinces or converts people to the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost does! It was when our friends were studying on their own when they had some of their most Spiritual experiences. When they took action on what we shared with them and decided to try it for themselves. I cannot describe how happy it makes me feel when they are so excited to tell us about the experiences they had studying the Book of Mormon or how much their testimony grew when they found themselves defending their faith to other people. Bearing a testimony they didn't realize they had! It was such a happy week!!!! I love these people with my entire heart and soul! 

 

We got to soak up the last little bit of warm weather this week before the chill really sets in. I am so grateful for this beautiful planet that God has blessed us so generously with. As much as I want to go to Space, there is breathtaking beauty all around us, sometimes I just have to open my eyes a little bit more to see it. 

 

Okay. This week wasn't super eventful, but NEXT week will be the BEST WEEK OF MAH LIFE  so far. I'm sure there are even better weeks in the future, but ya know, time will tell. Next week will consist of exchanges with the sister training leaders, interviews with President Graham, A MAGNIFICENT TRIP TO THE TEMPLE when we get to spend two nights in the mission home, and a baptism. I LITERALLY CANNOT CONTAIN MYSELF. 

 

So. Stay tuned. 

 

I love the Lord so very much!!!! I hope y'all know that I mean it! 

 

-Sister Shumway 

Life's a filet of fish... uh... yes it is!

 I've had that song stuck in my head all week, probably because life IS a happy song and I do have everything I need right in front of me. 

 

So sorry about not sending an email last week! Our mission has officially entered phase 2 which means we can go into members homes for brief, socially distanced and masked visits, as well as teach in people's home AND gather as districts on P-days again!!! So last Monday was way too much fun to write an email. But now I have 2 whole weeks to catch y'all up on! 

 

I don't normally share a lot about the people we are teaching, (I think it takes waaaaay too much explaining to understand all of their backgrounds and progress, so I usually just skip it) but our friend Chris needs prayers! He was introduced to us by a less active member of the branch because he was not feeling the Spirit at his church and felt that he needed direction in his life. Since then he has gained a beautiful testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and has sacrificed so much to prepare himself for baptism. We are so proud of him and his progress! He is trying to overcome a smoking addiction right now and we would really appreciate it if you kept him in your prayers this week. He has made a lot of progress this past week and just needs one more push to completely quit! 

 

HOW AMAZING WAS CONFERENCE?! Wow. I am so grateful for the living Prophet and Apostles. My favorite quote from conference was from Rebecca M. Craven's talk. She said, "I hope I have changed since yesterday." How amazing is it that change is possible? And even more miraculous: change for the better! Change that brings you CLOSER to God! Change that lasts! We have an indescribable gift from God called the Atonement of Jesus Christ which is the reason change is possible. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to change! Mosiah 3:19 describes just some of the qualities that we should strive to obtain by changing our natural man into a saint through the Atonement of Christ. With a list like that, it's gonna take a while! But God knows that and because He teaches us line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, it will take some time. We must be diligent in changing a little bit every day. I have seen change in myself, it's pretty gradual but it's definitely there. I am eternally thankful for the Atoning sacrifice of my Savior Jesus Christ that has made that change possible. And because I want to continue growing closer to Him, I hope I have changed since yesterday.  

 

On Thursday we went to go visit one of our friends who hasn't been answering our phone calls, and it was actually the first time I've met him in person (lol it's the last week of the transfer! #gratefulfortechnology). He is absolutely hilarious!! He introduced himself to me as "The Reverend Leroy Brown of the church of what's happenin' Brothuh!!" It is so interesting to me that he knows the church is true. He believes it all (he called Porter Rockwell one of his heroes! Never thought I'd be talking about modern-day Samson with an investigator). The only thing that he is letting stop him from uniting with Christ's church is his beer and tobacco. It makes me so sad! But how often do we do that in slightly less obvious ways? We let just that one show or just this one kind of music get in the way of allowing the Spirit to fill our lives more abundantly. The Lord usually asks us to sacrifice the thing we least want to let go. For Abraham it was Isaac. What is the Lord asking you to give up for Him? 

 

We had transfer calls on Saturday! Nothing happened to me and Sister Foster, we both get to stay here in Brevard! 

 

I love this work so very much. I know that it is His work and moves forward no matter what happens to the world. I found a quote that I really love this week: "When God gave you a calling He already factored in your stupidity." He knows us! And STILL trusts us! I love this work, I love you all, and I love the Lord!

 

-Sister Shumway