Baptism fever

HEY all. Sorry for the lame email last week! I´m in a better mood today :) I came to the realization that i really have to plan out everything  in life, including my emails home and computer time so that I can let you know what´s going on and do everything I need to do while on the computer. 

I´ll just write down some experiences from the week:

You know you´re  a missionary when you answer the phone and you start saying a prayer. 

We got caught in a torrential downpour with one little umbrella loaned to us by an investigator and after showing up soaking wet while giving the lesson the power went out to the whole neighboor hood so we just sang a song and prayed and left :)

Saw an advertizement that says "There´s more to life than chocolate, but not right now" and agreed. 

Someone asked me if i was pregnant while slouching in a dress with a high belt and i guess it did look like a baby bump. Maybe it´s a sign that i´ll train a new missionary next transfer. 

If you´re ever sad, just look up at the sky, it is probably beautiful just for you. Tender Mercy from a loving Father in Heaven.

Our investigator, Camila, who got baptized on Saturday, and her mom got scammed online! They thought they were going to get some new puppies but turned out they cheated them out of 125€ which is like 200$ for them, it was probably just satan making her sad before her baptism. rude. but they´re okay now. x)

The baptism went well. The elders also baptized two people. Near the end though before the closing song and prayer there was a member that is friends with one of the people that got baptized and she asked if she could give a testimony. It wasn´t in the program but the elders said it was okay. She got up and started talking about weird stuff like how the bishop was our pastor and whatever and i honestly kinda zoned out, it sounded like a high school graduation speech but  i started zoning back in because the spirit literally LEFT. It was THE WEIRDEST MOST CONFUSING FEELING. I have never. ever. felt it that obvious before. It actually really strengthened my testimony of the reality of the Spirit because now I know when it is NOT there... The bishop was really kinda mad at the elders for letting her get up and speak without confirming it with him before because we had less actives and investigators in the baptism and to end the meeting like that was NOT okay. Without really knowing what had just happened we sang the last hymn and in the prayer a different member said some more kinda embarrassing things but besides that the meeting was great. I just don´t think our investigatores will be wanting to hear from us for a while. 

I mentioned to my mom about Paulo and Fatima last week, and they will be married and baptized this weekend. MIRACLES!! We have to meet with them everyday and teach them the rest of the lessons before then but we´re feeling so blessed and excited. 

Also my testimony of the Spirit was strengthened when after showing up exhausted and scatterbrained to a lesson as it was my turn to teach my mind went totally blank BUT right when i KNEW i had NOTHING to say, was when LITTERALLY the Spirit said what i needed to say in my mind and then i said it outloud. Wow. Coolest thing ever. 

Went on divisions with Sister Duke, who was my comp for three weeks in Mem Martins last year in our second transfers. She goes home next week but was telling me all that she learned and how at the end of her mission now is like the ends of her marathons that she would run. When she knows she´s close to the end she sprints all the rest of the way, to have no more energy whatsoever when she crosses the finish line. She said to me "It´s probably time to start sprinting". Epic. 

Daily odd compliment from Sister Brundage : " You´re the only person i know that can wear pig tails and not look like a 5 year old" Thanks Sis B. 

i ate a box of cereal by myself in less than 24 hours. 

What the Helaman? new joke. 

I wonder if in General Confernce they´ll talk about the second coming. 

K well that´s about it. 

love you all. 

Sis shumway. 

7

Fwd: Hey Fam!

haha that letter from noah is so funny.

well i´ll tell you something that happened yesterday i am just too lazy to write it but i will for you and it´s a super long story with lots of details but i´ll get the jist of it to you. 

we had missed a bus to our appointment with our girl who will be baptized this next saturday and with only a little over an hour left in our day we decided to go visit a less active and his active wife who had just tried calling us. we got there and she said her son, Paulo, had called her that day asking for the missionary´s phone number. We call him at her house (she had given him the wrong number) and we ask if we can just run over there right now. We get there and turns out he is an inactive member that was baptized about 6 years ago. He told us how his cousin who is one of his best friends had talked to him about how the mormon missionaries had been talking to him and how he went to church with us for the first time that day (yesterday, and this is Carlos who he and his family are amazing but are way convinced that reencarnation is real so they´re having a hard time with that) so then Paulo (who had been a sunday school teacher and had the melquisedeque priesthood etc) for the first time yesterday didn´t have to work on a sunday morning and felt really depressed and that something was missing and he knew he was supposed to go back to church. he didn´t know how to go back so he called his mom for our number. He and his non member girlfriend who he lives with want to go back to church (they had met at the church, she was an investigator for a while, and another weird thing, she is literally old enough to be his mother. she´s seriously like 65 and he´s 35. really kinda weird but he says she has a great spirit so i believe him haha). I was feeling nervous as to what to say but a tender mercy happened, literally my mouth was filled and i told him things that i was kind of scared to say not knowing how he would react. I told him how it doesn´t matter how far off the path we get but Christ´s atonement made it so that anyone can come back through repentance, and with a few other details  but at the end and scared for his reply he said: it´s funny that you would say that because that´s just the situation i am in right now and that´s just what i needed to hear.... and all this stuff. 

ive been having a hard time lately thinking maybe i should just come back with the big group of missionaries i got out here with who are going home in two weeks but they all had the full MTC experience and feeling kind of useless  i feel like Heavenly Father gave me this experience to let me know He can still use me for an extra 6 weeks. My amazing comp, sis Brundage usually is the one that comes up with all the awesome stuff but this little tender mercy experience from yesterday has helped reassure me that i can still serve for another 6 weeks. plus, if i go home now i will always wonder what could have happened those last 6 weeks being out here and obviously i went in early to get all this experience and i want the lord to continue teaching me and humbling me and making me a better servant of His. 

yes i am still with sister Brundage, probably for only another two weeks but we´ll see. I am what is called a Sister training leader for the first time in my mission and i go on splits with the other sisters in a few zones to help them or try to help them with whatever or just give them a fun different day. 

On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 2:12 PM, kristen.shumway <kristen.shumway@gmail.com> wrote:

hi sweetheart, KK is going to send you a copy of a letter that Noah wrote to him. It's really funny.

 so you think your other friends aren't writing you much, is that what you mean? who are you kind of thinking of not writing?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Express™, an AT&T LTE smartphone

-------- Original message --------
From: Eliza Shumway <eliza.shumway@myldsmail.net> Date: 09/15/2014 7:06 AM (GMT-07:00)
To: "kristen.shumway" <kristen.shumway@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Hey Fam!

haha wow is it you?

hey i got your letter! thank you i think i said last week i got it. 

i need to do better but i do write a few things down in my journal. 

i am feeling really weird right now ya know 

i made my last little agenda today for the six week transfer.. i did it kinda early but i only have 8 weeks left and no one writes me and i feel just a little forgotten... i am thankful for yours and dad´s letters though. you´re the only ones i look forward to each p day

On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 2:03 PM, kristen.shumway <kristen.shumway@gmail.com> wrote:

Seriously, I think you will wish you had written more down of your weekly experiences when you are old and your kids want to know about your mission but you can't remember anything.

Xox

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Express™, an AT&T LTE smartphone

Love from Portugal

Well that´s nice to hear that Grandma´s funeral went nicely. Sis Fluckiger called me and told me the news last week, and I cried a little but I´m mostly just happy for her. Good job Daddy. Would have liked to hear your talk. but i´ll hear it eventually. (do we get to watch our lives and other stuff again in the next life? that´d be sweet.) 

Well the rain yesterday morning turned out to be a blessing in disguise, only our two eternal investigators showed up because of it but all of church was so weird. All the normal people are gone on vacation or whatever and so just our wonderful less than normal ward members bore their testimonies and gave the classes.... we heard in testimony meeting how someone saw God and Jesus, (lucky) and someone read a few paragraphs from their patriarchal blessing, and our ward mission leader who is awesome is moving back to brazil but his mom is staying here and he cried like a baby on the stand and his mom (our awesome mãeinha) came over and wiped his tears off his face and held him for the rest of his haha cryamony about how much he loves his mom. haha. we love him and we will miss him. it was just funny. 

but then in the princípios do evangelho (the recent converts and investigator´s class) we were only there for the last 15 minutes of the class on the douctrine and covenants but we heard lots of lovely things and watched cool 90´s videos about the ressurected moses and elijah and Jesus etc. coming to the temple to restore priesthood keys etc and the priesthood being restored from peter james and john and the golden plates and to wrap the lesson up we watched some videos about how awesome the word of wisom is and baptisms for the dead. All the best about the mormon church, but all the hardest to accept. haha. 

We are studying the Atonement as a mission right now. We have a study packet with lots of quotes from modern prophets and apostles and 70´s. I love this quote by John H Groberg (he´s a 70 right? he´s the dude the Other Side of Heaven is about huh)

When filled with God's love, we can do and see and understand things that we could not otherwise do or see or understand. Filled with His love, we can endure pain, quell fear, forgive freely, avoid contention, renew strength, and bless and help others in ways surprising even to us.

Jesus Christ was filled with unfathomable love as He endured incomprehensible pain, cruelty, and injustice for us. Through His love for us, He rose above otherwise insurmountable barriers. His love knows no barriers. He invites us to follow Him and partake of His unlimited love so we too may rise above the pain and cruelty and injustice of this world and help and forgive and bless.

K well i love you all. 

Sis Shumway

9

Re: still counting up

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?im=true&v=3701964025001

please watch this

On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 5:38 PM, Eliza Shumway <eliza.shumway@myldsmail.net> wrote:

hey folks

we had a great week!

i´m currently in LISBON we´ll have mission council tomorrow.

sis brundage is still awesome!! we have so much fun together.

bad news i think i lost my video camera today on the way from Porto to Lisbon... the one aunt Cass sent me in the MTC.. with videos and pictures on it since the MTC... i´ll call the subway people see if an honest person found it...

We had a hard week of numbers... last week and this week coming are going to be seeeuuuuper busy but I love the Lord and He will provide if we do our part.

love yalls.
sis shumway
10

still counting up

hey folks

we had a great week!

i´m currently in LISBON we´ll have mission council tomorrow.

sis brundage is still awesome!! we have so much fun together.

bad news i think i lost my video camera today on the way from Porto to Lisbon... the one aunt Cass sent me in the MTC.. with videos and pictures on it since the MTC... i´ll call the subway people see if an honest person found it...

We had a hard week of numbers... last week and this week coming are going to be seeeuuuuper busy but I love the Lord and He will provide if we do our part.

love yalls.
sis shumway
10