The Gospel's True, the Book is Blue, and Moroni is on the Ball!

July 22, 2019

I am IN LOVE with Tennessee, and it's only been six days. I didn't know I could love so many complete strangers. Even the lady who threatened to call the Sheriff on us, or the one who yelled at us to "get the hell off" her porch  Most of the time the people are so kind to us. I am amazed at how many crazy life stories I've heard just this week! And I can't wait to hear 17 more months of them.

It is SO GREEN here! Everything just drips with plants. Literally. The plants have plants growing on them! There's this ivy stuff called "Kutzu" (idk how to spell it) but it grows up the trees and then starts to hang down the branches until it reaches the ground again. It is the COOLEST looking thing ever. I love it. 

I always thought that the super sticky feeling you get at the coast was from salt in the air or something. NOPE. It's humidity. So I get to feel hot and sticky all the time - but I kind of love it. It's so humid here that there is, no joke, sea weed growing out of the ground. That super slimy green stuff that grows in all the tidepools in the Oregon coast: all over the ground! Kind of nasty, I almost slipped and fell in it a few times, yikes! 

Best experience this week: 

Yesterday, sister Jacobson and I were trying to get our 20 hours of weekly tracting in, and we were right at the end, last house on the street. The lady who answered the door was acting very timid and stand offish. After we introduced ourselves she burst into tears and I asked her if she needed a hug. Sobbing into my shoulder, she told us that her husband had passed away in November, and she has been living by herself in his house, and I think she said something about people trying to take the house away from her and she's been doing her best to keep it (I couldn't understand everything she said through the tears). She has an amazing testimony that her Heavenly Father loves her and she told us that she knows that He sent us to her door to let her know that He hears her and loves her. We left her with a plan of salvation pamphlet, our number, the church address, and a prayer. We are going back to teach her a full lesson on Thursday. Her broken heart and contrite spirit are a beautiful testimony to me that God has been preparing her for this Gospel and I know that He did send us to her door yesterday. There is no such thing as coincidence. I love this work and this gospel of Jesus Christ. I an so blessed to have been raised surrounded by the testimonies of so many amazing people to guide me to where I am today. 

I love you all so much!!! 

-Sister Shumway