Don't Worry I Didn't Die

Okay yesterday was a holiday so i didnt get to email... sad that people celebrate christs atonements with drinking and all sorts of sins...

Kelli CONGRATS! I am so stoked... another Nov. birthday in the fam. and what? Laik is prego too? if i gathered right from mavs email. 

mom for the package all i want is a lufa and the little green ctr rings to give to kids here... i dont need anything else but i cant remember if i told you about packages here or not? this is the dl when sending packages here put that you spent no money and its misisonary supplies so i dont have to spend 500 freaking dollars. when i send packages i have to put that i spent way more money too so i dont have to spend 500 freaking dollars.

okay im being dramatic but really all the american missionaries have told me this is the best way to do it. 

what do i say about my new comp... I LOVE HER! She is the cutest thing, always in cardigans. she looks like a little brittish girl, sag would love her! 

seriously my portuguese has already improved so much with her. she also is trying to learn english so we only speak english in the house... its great! 

seriously though having brasilian comps that want to learn english is the best because they will repreat anything you tell them. I have two americans in the district from texas that are big tony romo fans and so i had her go up to them and say tony romo is awful and brings shame to number 9 hahaha it was so funny. 

i really dont have a lot to say and not a lot of time to say it. we went to another city this morning for zone meeting and i only have a little bit of time but let me just repeat... I LOVE MY COMP! Sister Claret. She joined the church 4 years ago, is an only child and her parents arent members... wow. 

she is constantly getting packages and letters from her boyfriend (and ive only been with her for a week) and im sitting there like yeah, well my mom sends me postcards! haha no mom i seriously love them. 

about mothers day, ays it will be skype. no one has apple products here. and so i have no idea how i will be able to talk to all of you because my comp said for christmas they only got 40 minutes... LAME! 

thanks for doing my taxes dad, i forget im semi a real person. and its actually a curse that i look brasilian because then people start speaking super fast and i just smile and nod. 

i met a lot of crazy people this week... sis. claret and i were dying. seriously im always laughing with her! 

Allysondra lied and said she was going out of town so she couldnt go to church... the elders saw her with some friends, score.

not much is new except i also spoke too soon about it cooling down, its back to heat. oh great!

my last pday with cidrao last week we went to the beach here... i attempted to take the same pic that logan took when he was in the philippines except im not lucky enough to have my best friend in my mission with me to take the pic haha

sad i missed another easter! but my easter last year was probably my favorite... i was in dc and had 3 investigators and one less active to church with me. ha funny that i had more "success" not as a missionary. 

Sag im pumped for you to be in kentucky soon. seriously the time that i learned and grew the most was when i was outside of utah, not as a missionary... DC. you will learn how to weave the church into any conversation in a non-weird preachy way and it will be epic and nate will have a lot of missionary opportunities with dental school too im sure. and dont worry im already planning on visiting you for like a week.

chey funny that bry said she loves my bed... i do too. probably the comfiest bed in the house, someone go take a nap in it for me! 

okay well im kinda over emailing for the day. its weird not emailing on pday and i feel like im wasting a lot of time right now... there are souls to save!

xoxox

sis shum

Put a your a Hands in the Air

Someone tell Peanut congrats on his mission call for me! The BYU reunion
sounded so fun! im so jealous and that pic with dad and Brewer on the field
like the pic of dad and Logan on the field is SO cute! I cant believe how
chubby his now! Oh and Brew is getting fatter too ;) ha jk dad thanks for
trying on some bling for me though. Did you guys talk to Senator Hatch? Did
he pretend to remember mom and pretend to remember me? No he better
remember me i brought him lunch almost everyday!

My money is on dads tomatoes doing better than logans...

Chey... Sometimes i think sending me to NY first was a cruel joke too haha
but i will go to both reunions for sure. but if i had to choose... NY shhh
dont tell my mission here haha

Sag... quit with the law school that ship was sailed when i went to DC and
learned how not cool being a lawyer is.

Im glad gramps took the surgery like a champ... lets be real though, did i
expect anything less?

By raise of hands who started crying when Pres. Uchtdorf started talking?
that would be me...

I wish i could say something that would make this day easier for everyone
back home but words dont change things that have happened. at the beginning
of this weekend i thought, great every April conference will be a sad
reminder. then i realized what a tender mercy it actually is. every year it
will be hard but we get to listen to the consoling words of a living
prophet!

Elder Uchtdorfs talk is what did it for me... i absolutely loved it, i
couldnt even take notes i just sat there thinking and listening.

this week as i was fasting and praying the words, Christ weeps with us kept
coming to my mind. death isnt just a trail people have to go through and
our Father in Heaven and Christ are just watching to see how we will handle
things... no, it hurts them just as much as us, if not more and they are
crying too. Remember Christ already felt the loss before us. while thinking
about this i rememberd the story of Alma and Amulek. All the followers of
Christ were burned and Alma and Amulek had to sit and watch. They had the
power of God, they wanted to badly to stretch forth their hands and save
these good people from their pains, but the spirit constraineth them from
helping. Alma says, the Lord receiveth them up in glory unto himself, in
glory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing....
Yes, Alma knew what was waiting for them and knew it was so much better but
did it make it any easier for them to watch? Absolutely not.
Its the exact same thing with Christ and our Father in Heeaven. They want
so badly to reach out and take our pains away but sometimes they have to
watch us suffer. They know its for our own good but i think it pains them
just as much as us to watch us go through trails and i know they are
weeping with us.

With that said i thought it was so interesting how SO MANY talks in
conference talked about covenants. Whether it was about obedience to those
covenants, making covenants such as baptism or even going to the temple,
family history or eternal families many discussed the importance of
COVENANTS and the temple should always be our focus and not the vain things
of the world... i loved it!
It reminded me of our theme in NY that says the TEMPLE is the goal #NewYork

I also loved when Elder Perry spoke about growing up and how it was like
the celestial kindgom having all his family so close and i thought the same
thing. All of my grandparents live within walking distance and many of my
cousins too! I really did have the perfect childhood except for evil
parents who let the mean rooster chase me around... im still traumatized by
that by the way...
okay youre not evil, only that lack of judgement was.

So on Friday night my comp asked me about americans watching tv on sunday
because she heard we all watch football. i replied yeah depends on the
family. she asked about me and i said yeah, i dont think its that bad... we
watch as a family... well Elder Nelsons talk slapped me in the face.

When he spoke about watching football on Sunday my DL and I, who is also a
Cowboys fan, looked at each other and said oops. Seriously, like Elder
Hales spoke about i realized i have had, selective obedience, in things or
as i like to call it, if-thats-the-worst-im-doing ovedience, where i think,
well if thats the worst things im doing im pobably doing pretty darn good.

yeah it so doesnt work like that...

My Pres wanted all the missionaries to watch conference in their native
language no matter what so im happy i was able to understand it all! The
americans just went into another room in the church to watch it. Can i just
express how incredibly awkward i am! It was me and we have 3 other
americans in my district here... it was me and three elders. I seriously
didnt know how to handle myself i felt so awkward and was so weird.... pray
for me when i get home because im going to need all the help i can get
haha.

it was fun having a little american party though. we all made american
treats and every time they mentioned the US or we saw a US flag we all did
little fist pumps #merica

I think if i didnt have conference this weekend it would have been a really
hard week for many reasons. one is that we have just about no one to
teach... literally all our investigators dropped us. Luis, the awesome boy?
his dad wont let him meet with us anymore.
Remember Fran? My perfect investigator that has such a strong testimony,
attends church, reads the BOM everyday and the only problem is her husband
doesnt want to be legally married? Yeah we had lunch there on Friday and
she was so excited for conference. when she didnt come we went to her house
and she told us to never come back...
broke my heart.
dont know why.
wanted to cry.

I am doing absolutely everything in my power to be obedient and help the
people here but it just seems like im having less and less success. I guess
as long as God is sending ble3ssings back home though its okay, people have
their agency.

There has been a lot of losses around this weekend so im super grateful we
have conference and can listen to a living prophet!

com amor,
Sister Shumway

Pics: Our American party... please just notice the hand gestures... Elder
Vernon: thumbs up, always has a smile on his face #18yearolds
Elder Rodgers: Spiderman... missionaries are freaking weird
Elder Lapray: Peace... he thinks hes cool but i know secretly he was
thinking about the Bachelor hahaha

Saturday morning the young womens session was broadcast here and i watched
in english alone.... it was fabulous!

everyone said its worse here but i think its better. its just the same
except instead of pepporoni its linguissa which is a million times better!

Oh The Portuguese

dont even worry that about 5 minutes after i sent my email last week i
found powdered sugar here... which is RARE! Yeah you better believe i came
out of retirement and made some cinnamon rolls asap. i also learned how to
make maracuja, a fruit here, (i dont know what it is in english because ive
never seen it) mousse which is to die for! sag, you say i need to learn how
to make everything but everything im learning i dont think you will even
eat haha. and yes with all this the diet went out the window. lets be real
though i dont even know how to go on a diet.

its funny that people say a mission is the best place to develop and
improve talents but i think the only talent im improving is baking haha.
parents... i think this is a sign i need to go to culinary school?? jk ill
go to real school first. (i would put quotations on real but i dont know
how to on computers here)

Dad it is really funny that you mentioned the fact that you have a football
thing to go to at BYU this week because this week it hit me... this year is
the 30th year anniversary for the national championship right?! Seriously
if they do something cool for the reunion like go to a bowl game in Cali
again this year I am going to be so sad i missed it! those were the bomb.
and i am super jealous i am not going to the spring football thing this
weekend with you (assumming you would let me come) haha. anyway if there is
a cool reunion, try on lots of super bowl rings for me will ya someone?
Okay so remember that miracle last week about those girls and one boy
coming to church? Well we had such an amazing lesson with them. they read
the book of mormon and understood everything! Well saturday we went back
for a lesson and the girls gave us these excuses why we couldnt teach them
anymore but the 12 year old little brother still wants to be taught...
later that night we saw one of the girls going to a different church. heart
breaking.

However, the 12 year old boy, Luis. He is something special. He understands
everything, answers every question and is just amazing. As we were teaching
him the plan of salvation he said it was all really familiar to him but he
didnt know how. then he gave the prayer and oh boy was it powerful. that
kid is special i know it, i have never seen anything like that.

Fran... the investigator with the autistic girl. she is just perfect. she
reads, comes to church fasts, she is basically a member. its just her
husband wont get legally married... so frustrating! we are going to do a
fast with her though to hopefully soften his heart.

the work here is so interesting... you would think because its brasil it
would be a lot easier. well the south of brasil is not brasil. my comp who
is from sao paulo says the church is SO different here. my branch in NY was
bigger than my branch here.
yeah, people here will let you come in and teach them but they dont keep
commitments and the members dont understand a whole lot as well.

for example in other places during sacrament meeting its normal to sit as
families... nope, not here they all sit with their friends and talk and are
on facebook during the sacrament. and its not just one or two families its
everyone! they constantly have parties in the chapel, not for the church,
like personal parties... what is going on here?

one thing i dont like here is that there is such an emphasis on senior and
junior companions here. in ny i dont think i ever heard someone say
anything about it. i mean with sister blosil obviously we could assume she
was senior but it wasnt said every single day. here it is a BIG deal. even
if she is being disobedient my pres says i have to follow her... WHAT THE
HECK?! its a little rough going from a place where you feel like you know
how to be a missionary and coming here where you just feel like a baby.
ughhhhh and i can see how it is affecting the work!

my comp is really really trunky. she constantly talks about going home,
having kids and getting married. but my president thinks that is a good
thing. have i told you all how much my president talks about marriage?!

ok... let me just tell you, and yes this is all true. my pres tries to hook
up missionaries. not after the mission, now! straight up and he thinks we
all need to marry each other within like a month of getting home and its
just the strangest thing i ever did see.

but what can i do? i just try to learn the language... Logs i finally got
your letter, yep took more than a month! and you said the first month was
complete confusion?? ive been here more than 2 months and im still in
confusion! and im pretty sure portugues is easier than tagolog. ill admit
it, Logan is smarter than me.... wow the mission really changes a person
huh? i cant believe i didnt die as i typed those words.

ive been studying the book of abraham a lot lately... it helps me keep an
eternal perspective.

so you know how i have my problems with smelling and tasting? well i feel
like here i smell more and taste less.... i dont know if its just because
things are dirtier here so the smell is really strong and i eat the same
thing everyday so im just used to it? who knows

it was Clebers birthday this week... he is an RM and helps the missionaries
with anything and everything, hes the bomb. birthdays are such a big deal
here, i love it!

it was also another members this week too, Gabrielle... they are such a
cool family and its so funny because they NEVER eat beans and rice...  but
this is the pic of her and her cake, oh and my pretty boy DL is in the pic
too. can i just tell you how great it is to have an american DL that i can
speak english to? especially one that will talk about the Bachelor with
me... hes got some great opinions about Emily hahaha.

Sag on a scale of 1-10 my portugues is a 4

i know this email is overall somewhat negative but i promise i love it
here, and sagan tell nate that no, the time isnt dragging it is 100%
flying... way too fast, i have way too much i need to do. i am so grateful
i have been able to see so much growth in my comp. there are still a lot of
things that need to change but the Lord wont punish me for her doings, i
just have to do my part.

how stoked are you to have general conference this weekend? seriously cant
wait!

alrighty im peacin out for the day... be good my friends.
Sis Shum