Talk to you next year.

Well howdy. 

What an amazing pleasure it was talking to you Mommy and Daddy with an occasional appearance of Ashton, Jens, Mckay, Aunt Audrey, Uncle Blaine, Uncle Scott, Adriane, and other people to pixelated to tell who they were! Haha. Time flies so I´ll see you sooner than you know it on mothers day. I can´t believe it has been a year since I received my mission call and such. crazy. Here´s my letter to the President that pretty much sums up my week:

Hello President! Merry Christmas!! 
I have to ask forgiveness of this past week´s numbers. I didn´t feel good right after getting home christmas night and got a cold which i am still recovering from. Energy in any form has been absent, but I hope to return to the work tomorrow as today I feel about 85% recovered. About :)

We didn´t have many missionary experiences this week as I detained our companionship to our home but we did have a wonderful acting out of the Nativity with a less-active family and their three boys. Their oldest son of 9 years was José, the mom was Maria, the dad was the narrorator, the 3 year old a shephered and their 9 month old baby was Jesus of course :) I played a sheep, the angel and a wiseman while sister austin filmed. we brought sheets and blankets for the costumes and were able to give them the video right after we filmed. I know they will love watching it when they are older. We also acted out the story from the Book of Mormon´s point of view, the three year old being Samuel the Lamanite and the older son being a person that believed him and went to follow him and sister austin was a wicked person that tried to throw stuffed animals at Samuel. It was a blast. 

The last few days that I have been sick I have started to read Jesus the Christ. I am almost to page 300. Other than the amazing fact that because I know portuguese I have been able to understand or decipher a lot of the bigger or "smarter" words that Talmage uses a lot I have come to understand so much about Him and the context of things. There are lots of hard english in this book, take the word "antediluvial". I would have had no idea before the mission and the context of the sentence does not explicitly confirm it´s meaning. The prefix is just like the word "antes" meaning before, and "dilúvio" in portuguese is flood. So "before the flood". Anyway, that part has been fun while reading. But my LOVE for the Savior has grown so much too as I have been studying Him from Jesus the Christ along with reading down each of the references in the guia das escrituras. Wow. I did not and am sure I still do not nor will not in this life perhaps fully understand who He is or what He did for us. But I want to know as much as I can and grow that love and devotion for Him that will hopefully carry over into my work as a missionary. 

Love you President. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. 
Sister Shumway

Unfortunately my time is already up. You are all awesome. God is real and He loves us and our choices do and will always have consequences, good (blessings), or bad (natural consequence of the choice). 

Love you all. Talk to you next year. bwahah.

Sister Shumway

Re: Feliz Natal!! {em vez de Boas Festas que é ridículo e egoísta, e destrói o verdadeiro significado de Natal.:}

Merry Christmas:)

love, Elder ETE

On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 8:02 AM, Eliza Shumway <eliza.shumway@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Happy Christmas Ron! Happy Christmas Harry!

Merry Christmas! 

man it´s kind of sad that i don´t have two chirstmases on the mission. I LOVE saying FELIZ NATAL to every soul that walks by. They rarely say it back, but they all say "Obriagado, igualmente" at least (thank you, likewise) (And then they know we are not Jehovah´s witness. Hallelujah.) But Mom´s probably happy I only have one. At least I have one :) I´ll get home right before Thanksgiving next year. 

We had a SICK (cool, unless you take in the context of how many desserts there were and then yes, you could have gotten sick) Christmas party in our branch this last weekend. CHRISTmas on the island of São Miguel baby!! Nice and SuNnY but we do have to wear a coat most of the time. nah nah. 

Just remember, we don´t worship Santa Claus. So if you have more pictures up of him than the Savior, fix that. 

Love you all. 

Sister Shumway

Feliz Natal!! {em vez de Boas Festas que é ridículo e egoísta, e destrói o verdadeiro significado de Natal.:}

Happy Christmas Ron! Happy Christmas Harry!

Merry Christmas! 

man it´s kind of sad that i don´t have two chirstmases on the mission. I LOVE saying FELIZ NATAL to every soul that walks by. They rarely say it back, but they all say "Obriagado, igualmente" at least (thank you, likewise) (And then they know we are not Jehovah´s witness. Hallelujah.) But Mom´s probably happy I only have one. At least I have one :) I´ll get home right before Thanksgiving next year. 

We had a SICK (cool, unless you take in the context of how many desserts there were and then yes, you could have gotten sick) Christmas party in our branch this last weekend. CHRISTmas on the island of São Miguel baby!! Nice and SuNnY but we do have to wear a coat most of the time. nah nah. 

Just remember, we don´t worship Santa Claus. So if you have more pictures up of him than the Savior, fix that. 

Love you all. 

Sister Shumway

Hey friends and family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA OERTLE!! Love you. 

Holy canolie it´s been a YEAR since I opened up my mission call (December 19th 2012). I also hit 7 months this week on the mission (December 15th 2013). 

I have figured out the key to happiness on the mission. Other than the obvious, exact obedience, thinking that sleeping at night is no more than a nap and P-day is really just that, preparation day, not a "day off" like I must have thought that it was for a while are really the ways to be happy. It really is just that, a full time mission. FULL TIME aka ALL THE TIME and nope you´re not here for you. Yes you grow and stretch and bear your testimony but you are not there for you. You are here for other sons and daughters of God.

I found an interesting note in some binder in my house someone had written. Those of us who could have easily served a mission and simply chosen not to will have to stand before the judgement bar of God and explain to the people that would have accepted the gospel had YOU served why they were deprived of or taken longer to find or accept the gospel of Jesus Christ on the Earth. bam. go on a mission. ;)

Send me your testimony okay? I need some testimonies for a special purpose of mine :)

Well this week went by seeeuuuper slow which is weird. IDK. Our baptism got pushed to next week. Sofia feels she needs a little more time to get over not being able to smoke socially or in stress. At church yesterday though Sister Austin said she thought she heard her grumble something about wishing she had gotten baptized yesterday haha. At least she´ll be even happier this week at her baptism. She´s incredible and gorgeous and fun. love her so much. We did have 2 people at church though. Her Paulo. Which apparently meant we had half of the zone number which was 4 people in church. I wonder what happened. First week of the transfer is always hard. 

K well i have nothing to say. sorry. i´m boring. 

"Go away, read some books." ~nacho libre. (the book of mormon of course. já sabe.)

Sister Shummers.

ps the picture is my 7 month portrait i took yesterday. enjoy. 

haha. anyways...

sorry every once in a while i click tab and then enter and it sends off my letter before i´m ready. 

now that you all know how i feel, which is GREAT, i will explain to you how you can feel the same way. 

BE EXACTLY OBEIDENT AND SHARE THE GOOD NEWS. we gossip enough about bad stuff so why don´t we stop doing that and tell people about the GOSPEL!! I had a sad realization yesterday that when i go home i won´t really be able to walk up to some RANDOM PERSON ON THE STREET WHOM I HAVE NEVER BEFORE SEEN and say (especially not in portuguese) HEY my name is sister Shumway, this is my comp, Sister (insert name of current comp here) Austin, and we are disciples of Jesus Christ and we have a special and important message about Him and how He continues to talk to us today through prophets. What is your name number address.... so we can come bother you later? (that is a summerized version and doesnt have our bubbly personalities included.) haha PSYCH we are gonna bother you with HAPPINESS!! haha that just totally made me sad because it brings SO MUCH JOY to be able to just DO that and when i am home it will be harder to do that. Of course i will always do it just in different ways i guess. haha. anywhosies...

THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME AND I am happy for you all cuz i am in a good mood today on P-day. sorry for being such a party pooper these last few weeks for some reason my bad mood day has fallen frequently on monday. But today i am happy and i´ll let you all know that. 

THE PARENTS OF OUR RECENT CONVERTS GOT BAPTIZED THIS WEEK!! Conceição and Adriano are the parents of Lurdes Cruz who was baptized at the beginning of the month and it was sooo cool to see people who are already in their 60´s decide to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized with someone holding the authority of God. hahahaha i am laughing because i am happy and giddy and full of JOY. i never understood Ammon (i think it was Alma but sis austin said it was ammon but i don´t remember) when he fell down because he was so happy i always thought that was a bit much... but haha you TOTES feel it on the mission! you get so happy you just gotta at least sit down!! it´s weird. it´s fine. 

Sofia is AMAZING. I don´t know if I have mentioned her before but she sought US out. The elders who where in our area before they were switched out for sisters (it´s called a pink wash) had knocked on her door and given her a pamphlet and just now, months later, she came to the church and thankfully a member was there to give her our phone number. She wants to be baptized! At first just cuz we said we have the authority to a valid baptism but yesterday at church she says she really loves it (which she had said she hates church haha even after she said she wanted to be baptized she didn´t want to come to church, but just because she hadn´t been to the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS hehe) We were so blessed to have an awesome fast and testimony meeting for her to see and then a mind-blowing gospel principles class about the Holy Ghost for her to soak up the spirit in AND the aweome single lady in our branch who is her age had a day off from primary and could sit with her in relief society. MIRACLES. thank you heavens. 

Letter to ZE PRES FLUCKIGER (flew key gur):

Olá Presidente :)

Tivemos uma boa semana. Batizamos os pais da Lurdes Cruz, Adriano e Conceição. Foi uma grande bênção. 

Para uma prenda de natal, se faz favor posso ter a permissão para escutar a musica do Rob Gardner no CD que se chama "The Lamb of God"?  Estou muita grata que podemos escutar a musica do EFY e queria agradecer por isso. 

Devemos fazer exercício de manhã no Domingo também, não é? Com cada missionário eu já falei sobre isso eles dizem que no domingo ainda levantam as 7h mas não sintam que é necessário no Domingo. O que você disse? 

Podemos usar Google Maps com autorização dos líderes de zona para buscar aonde fica a rua de um pesquisador?

Eu só queria elogiar o Bispo da ala de Mem Martins, António Suzarte. Ele é um homem de muito amor para os membros lá. Tem muita diligência em cumprir com o chamado dele e ajuda cada membro a sentir o amor dele por causa do caridade que ele mostra. Foi um grande privilegio meu de servir as pessoas em Mem Martins baixo dele. 

Quero elogiar o Presidente da estaca de Oeiras, Miguel Ribeiro. Ele pertence a ala de Mem Martins e foi um grande privilegio conhecer ele e o serviço que ele dá aos membros e não membros na zona de Oeiras. Ele se importou conosco como uma dupla e nos aconselhou em como ser mais feliz na missão e queria que nos soubéssemos do qual importante é que nos seguíssemos cada sussurro do Espírito Santo, porque foi assim que os missionários acharam a família dele e como ele achou muitas famílias na própria missão dele. 

Quero também elogiar o Presidente do distrito dos Açores, Ricardo Resendes. Nós aprendemos do grande sacrifício a vida dele tem sido para a obra do Senhor e para os membros aqui nas ilhas. Ele conheceu a igreja no juventude dele e serviu uma missão e aquela missão ainda está a continuar hoje em dia. Sou tão grata ter um exemplo como ele para minha vida pessoal, quer ser como ele e servir o Senhor com toda minha mente, coração e força.

Amo te Pres! Agradeço por sua presença aqui nos Açores com o Elder Dykes da setenta! Foi uma conferência incrível, e sai de lá com mais fé e esperança que tudo será bem! Continuarei a trabalhar com diligência! 

Hello President :)

We had a good week . Baptized parents of Lourdes Cruz , Adriano and Conceição. It was a great blessing .

For a Christmas present , please may I have permission to listen to the music of Rob Gardner on CD called " The Lamb of God " ? I am much grateful that we can listen to music from EFY and wanted to thank you for it .

We do morning exercise on Sunday too, is not it? With every missionary I 've talked about it they say they still rise on Sunday 7am but do not feel that is necessary on Sunday . What did you say ?

We can use Google Maps with the permission of the zone leaders to find where is the street of an investigator ?

I just wanted to commend the bishop of the ward Mem Martins , António Suzarte . He is a man of great love for the members there. He acts diligently to comply with the call and it helps each member to feel his love because of the charity he shows . It was a great privilege to serve the people in Mem Martins beneath him .

I want to commend President stake Oeiras , Miguel Ribeiro . He belongs to ward Mem Martins and was a great privilege to know him and the service he provides to members and non-members in Oeiras area . he cared about us as a companionship and advised us on how to be happier in the mission and wanted us to know in which important is that we follow in every whisper of the Holy Spirit , because that was how the missionaries found his family and how he found many families in his own mission .

I also want to commend the district president of the Azores , Ricardo Resendes . We learned of the great sacrifice his life has been for the work of the Lord and the members here on the islands . He found as a youth the church and served a mission and his mission is still continuing today . I am so grateful to have him as an example for my personal life , i want to be like him and serve the Lord with all my mind , heart and strength .

Love you Pres ! Thank you for your presence here in the Azores with Elder Dykes of the seventy ! It was an amazing conference, and comes out with more faith and hope that everything will be fine! I will continue to work and do so diligently !

I would love to get abby´s letters i know she is going home soon but if i could get those i would love it.

Thanks for the package mom! i´m excited to get it. i didn´t think you were going to send me one because i didn´t say what i wanted haha i´m so dumb i am sorry. all i really want are some of those erase by friction pens that Dad had (hey dad! love you!) 

And if someone would do a quick scope of the house and see if they can find my dvd case of all those movies on two discs that i bought right before i left i would really appreciate it. i realized i hadn´t really packed that safely away. it has some good ones on there... the ron clarke story and alligator pie. (childhood). Ashton or mom would you make sure thats safe and found and sound? heh. thanks. ;)

k well i love you all. I hope everyone who reads this paragraph will send me their home address. i want to be able to send you a letter. and send me a letter! :) for christmas. i PROMISE i will write you back. i have decided i do not hate letter writting so much. i have my whole life. if you ever got a letter from me CHERISH IT and know that i freaking love you cuz i never have liked to write letters and when i send you a letter from now on, STILL CHERISH IT because i still love you but at least it´s not an overwhelming burden for me heh heh. I live on

 Rua do Paim nº 82 1ESQPO 

Ponta Delgada, São Miguel Portugal 9500

 or the mission office is 

Rua Jorge Barradas nº14C

1500-370 Lisboa Portugal 

LOVE YOU 

Sister shumway

yo.

I FEEL GREAT