Onward Christian Soldiers

Definitely felt all of your prayers this week! Thank you for them! I had a great week! 

We had lots of member and investigator meals this week! One investigator meal was with Carlos (who we´d appreciate if you would pray for, that he can be humble and read the BOM and get the right answer in his prayers and know that he should get baptized. Thanks ;) and his wife Elisabete and 11 year old daughter Inês. We had whole shrimp for the appetizer, you got to rip the head and shell off and then dip it in mayonaise and/or Whiskey Cocktail sause. We kept with the mayo. Then after i got pretty full on shrimp i realized my mistake in thinking that was all when they brought out a huge dish of Bacalhau and puré which was delishious but i´m sure Heavenly Father helped me have enough room for it and also the creme brulé at the end. (I´m sure i ´m spelling all of this wrong, don´t worry. Every word in english comes up with a red squigily line under it. )

When we were all stuffed silly we talked about Paulo, Carlos´ not-as-wayward-as-two-weeks-ago brother, who recently had a spiritual awakening. This Saturday we walked into Carlos and Paulo´s store when to our horror, Carlos steps into another room and we were left semi-alone (it´s a store) with Paulo, a single, 41 year old very worldly man that looks at ME and says he wants to talk to me. "Uh oh. This will make for a good email home, and i hope i don´t know what he´s about to say" runs through my mind. I say "yes, you can talk to US" squishing myself to Sister Azevedo´s side. Then the floodgates open. He starts shaking and crying, this hugely buff and kinda disgustingly attractive man starts bawling in the store. 

He goes on to tell us how when he first met us all he wanted was to win the Euro-milhões (lottery), luxuria and a ferrari but the times we would come in to speak to Carlos he would overhear sometimes (he would not want to listen at the time of course, yes we did invite him) and how he was a changed man because of us sisters and what he has felt. Of course we invited him to be baptized on the spot, but unfortunately his "religious organization independent" brother (carlos, who is totally awesome besides that) had already gotten his "there are lots of ways to get to Christ" had already gotten in his head so we still have some more work to do. We read Alma 32:27-28 to him that talks about the word being planted in your heart and how it gives you a swelling in your breast an he totally started crying, sobbing and shaking again. WHoah. 

Carlos confirmed his change of heart at their house when we had dinner with them, how he was such an unresponsible teen-ager his whole 41 years but now he will cry on his shoulder and ask him for advice, kiss his mom, get home on time for dinner with the family etc etc... and Paulo says it´s because of our "positive energy" but we corrected him telling him it was the Holy Ghost and that he needed to repent an be baptized but we could only get him to commit to coming to church NEXT week... so i´m hoping we can direct all of this spiritual energy into the true church and not just into searching for random information about reencarnation or Jesus or whatever on the internet and sitting in the park enjoying the breeze and little birds that he said is happening right now. 

At another appointment with a random guy we found in our Area book, Fernando taught me a lot about myself. I didn´t mean to but he got me pretty mad when he didn´t want to hear what we had to say (we had been on a 45 min bus ride to get to his house to tell me i don´t have love in me haha darn it) and my comp also told me she had never seen me so mad. I was just mad that i could let myself get so mad honestly. But i´ve been studying charity and repenting this week so hopefully i´m not a lost cause. 

Christmas has already started here in Portugal! They´ve got some little halloween things (what it was just halloween last year! and i was in the Açores!) but mostly it´s all Christmas preparations now. Goodness! I kinda love the idea of having Christmas spirit everywhere for longer than just November 25th to December 25th like we do there. 

Enjoy this song, it was my theme song for the week. 

Please write me back!! Tell me about your life!! 

Sis Shumway

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

Don´t spiritually barf on me

So. Imagine you are sitting on your couch watching the afternoon cooking show. You hear the doorbell ring. You reluctantly get off the couch with a "I´ll be right back Rachel Ray" to see who´s bothering you. You open the door to see two strangely beautiful asian girls who come with a message about Buddha. You don´t know why but you invite them to come back another day with a gift in the form of a book about Buddha and promises that your life will be better by hearing and applying the teachings of Buddha. 

This is missionary work in Portugal.

Except they all think they know who Jesus Christ was and is here. But who in the USA doesn´t think they know about Buddha?

This is why it´s the Spirit that does all of the teaching and converting. 

To these people, we are just two strangely attractive (i mean honestly) American girls with a message about someone they have already heard of and they think they know all about, then they feel something different, and that´s why they invite us to come back (if they do:). 

Anyway this is one of the many interesting conversations Sis Brundage and I indulge in. 

We had a great week! Great week! GREAT WEEK!! 

got some new instructions from Mr President

We can only count a lesson if it had an opening and closing prayer and a new investigator if we have had previous contact with them. our numbers have gone down a lot but it feels so much better like this. 

love you all! if any of you are online i´ll be online for the next half hour! write me back! but i think it´s like the middle of the night in Utah right now so scratch that idea. (but hey! other missionaries!! SAY HEY)

love you all! 

sis shummers

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/this-is-a-womans-church-says-director-humanitarian-services

ye sisters of israel

Great week! 

Antonio was baptized in a river! YAY! 

Pedro was baptized in the church! YAY! 

i am still the worst letter writer in all of missionary history! 

i´m Staying with Sister Brundage!! YAY again! 

Prayer, music and scripture study can invite the spirit into your daily life! here´s a song to get you started! (hopefully the attachment works!)

Love you all! 

Sister Shumway

ah!

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-tabernacle-choir-santino-fontana-headline-pioneer-day-concerts

fast and fast

fast and fast

like this is a fast email and fast that sis brundage and i stay together okay? okay.

love you all! 

50 lessons this week! we on FIAAAH!! 

happy back from your mission Lydia! 

Sis shumway

Grateful for your existance no matter the distance :)

Hello my beautiful family and gorgeous friends and lovely neighbors.

How was your week? 

Mine flew by. As is the usual with Sister Brundage. We enjoy spreading the gospel together and calling people to repentance and inviting people on the street to be baptized. 

One such incident was indeed special.  We had a cool contact (Contact n: someone we stopped to talk with on the street for a brief interval of time) who was SUPER elect (elect adj: 1. someone prepared by the lord for the restored gospel 2.someone who has wondered why there are so many curches, wished he knew which one´s right, and wondered about the meaning of life before the missionaries brought up those questions) and as we were talking to him, José Paulo, 23 years old (cat called at sis B--but turned out to be a nice guy), and pretty much teaching the whole first lesson about the restoration of the church he kind of stopped us and said, Before i started talking to you i was all stressed out about work and stuff but now i just feel this weird calm feeling and i´m not stressed anymore (as he was like patting his chest haha), to which we told him was the Holy Spirit testifying of the truthfulness of our message.  We kept talking and after we said the prayer he stopped us and was like WHOA What is going on!? What is this inside me? I have goosebumps! What the heck!? Haha! We were all like DUDE THAT´s the spirit! He´s like I gotta get into this church! How do I become a member? How can i be a missionary like you? and on and on and then when we asked him for his address and phone number... unfortunately for us but fortunately for the other elders he lives JUST across the dividing line of our area, and Zone AND WARD grr. but the other elders are zone leaders so they´re supes righteous and they´ll baptize him on the day we marked him for (yes we marked him for baptism right there on the street for the 17th of August and he accepted. lucky elders...) He´s just gotta stop smoking but he´ll do it! haha. MIRACLES!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!

We have a newish/oldish rule that we can´t take pictures during proseliting time but we remembered to bring our cameras with us today on p-day so enjoy these pictures. i sent like 8 in this email, tell me if you didn´t get them. Sometimes they don´t come through i guess. 

OH ALSO 

We had 9 people at church yesterday!! WHAT?? THAT NEVER HAS EVER EVER EVER HAPPENED!! AND WE HAVE THREE people marked for baptism this week and one for the week after!! {tender mercies} and one of them is the HUSBAND of the RELEIF SOCIETY PRESIDENT!!! who is a recently-reactivated member and her husband has never heard the lessons or anything, and is just surprisingly sooo ready. GAH!! i am SOO not worthy for ANY of these incredible blessings.. Sis B is the backbone and get ´er done ´er but thankfully i help out a little! And the --->LORD<--- is giving us so much work!! Such a blessing to know He can trust us. 

Love you love you all

Sister Shumway

Re: Good one.

pictures: antonia at the bus stop 

and missionary selfie (this is Sister Brundage´s cute cute dress.)

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 1:16 PM, Eliza Shumway <eliza.shumway@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Hello! 

Wow this week flew by!! 

Our baptism fell through after he showed up as a drunken sailor to a ward activity the day before he was supposed to be baptized. Sad but funny at the same time. He was doing so well! But dang it SATAN has a big hold on him with the alcoholic beverage and smoking too. I felt at peace about him all week though, so I know with whatever happens all will turn out right. 

 We´ve been having a great time calling people to repentance this week. So now it´s your turn.  

 27 But wo unto him that has the law given, yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of his probation, for awful is his state!

So yeah. If you´re not living your life as you KNOW you should, don´t postpone your true happiness anymore. I KNOW that living the gospel of Jesus Christ is the way we are guaranteed to have pure happiness. It´s sad how so many people here (Portugal) and there (U.S. and everywhere) think they need to find their own way to happiness. Humble yourself and get back on the only track that has already been proven and prophesied to bring happiness. Give up something bad or even something okay/good for something BETTER: The peace that Christ can give you in knowing He has forgiven you and that you are trying your best.  Ask Heavenly Father for forgiveness for whatever it is that you have done or are doing or are NOT doing and then LIVE ACCORDINGLY. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/beware-of-pride?lang=eng

On a happy note, we had a fun ward activity on Friday! On a sad note, i tripped on a little INVISIBLE step during it and bruised my foot and pulled a muscle in my calf. On a happy note, I am almost better now and it didn´t really take much time out of our work to rest. 

Update on Luis: He is not too gun-ho on the whole "other testament of Jesus Christ" idea. He said he´d read it that one day but he hasn´t yet, because he says he doesn´t feel a "pull" or "force" or "flame" coming from the book. He´s a weirdie. He thinks he´s being open-minded but he´s not. We love him anyway. His mom said that she wouldn´t go to another church even if God Himself appeared to her telling her to go somewhere else. Haha. At least Luis understood and said he would. But he´s not acknowledging the Spirit he felt when he met us or when we went back the first time before we mentioned the Book of Mormon. We´re going to bring a member that he liked when he went to church to teach with us.

 

K well this is my mind ___________________________

so I love you all! Keep the Commandments! Read the General Conference Talks Again! Do It! 

Sister Eliza Shumway

Fwd: Pics

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marie Miles <mariemiles93@gmail.com>
Date: 2014-07-14 14:26 GMT+01:00
Subject: Pics
To: Eliza Shumway <eliza.shumway@myldsmail.net>

Re: Espirito, Verdade, e Luz oh my!

On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 1:35 PM, Eliza Shumway <eliza.shumway@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Hey everyone! 

Wow! Probably the most spiritual lesson on my mission this week! We found this awesome 30 year old evangelical dude, Luis, on the street on Wednesday. As we were walking past he stopped and talked to us and we talked for a good 20 minutes there. At the end my comp asked him why he stopped to talk to us. He said that as we were passing he felt a "flame" on his whole side and he knew we were servants of God. Wow. Then we went back on Friday and his mom was there and she started crying even before we said the opening prayer. We asked her what she was feeling and she said "a happiness". Luis said he felt it then too, the "flame" again in their house. We told them that was the Spirit of God telling them that what we were about to say was true. We gave our lesson with an overwhelming dose of the Spirit and when we got to Joseph Smith´s first vision my beautiful comp bore her testimony saying that she knew Joseph saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and she said she knew that more than she knew she was there in that room with them. WOW Bowling ball of Spirit punched me in the gut. loved it. She is such a righteous warrior. But anyway they totally felt it too and when we got to the Book of Mormon, Luis was a little apprehensive, because evangelicals teach that there can ONLY AND WILL EVER ONLY be the Bible, (which is dumb. present subjunctive.) But {miracle} he said he would be willing to read and pray about it. (which is a lot more than what most evangelicals are willing to do). We reminded them of the spirit they felt at the beginning and we reminded them how we all felt it and we could not deny the feeling and so God was telling them they needed to read and pray about it. Wow. So needless to say they accepted the "convite suave" which is when they know these things to be true will they be baptized and then Luis came to church yesterday! For some reason his mom couldn´t come but she´ll probably come next week we hope. 

Can I just say how THANKFUL i am for Sister Brundage? She has helped me so much. She is the most patient person ever, good thing cuz all my comps have really had to have that quality while serving with me. I know I´m not a super good missionary and I have so many weaknesses but she´s helped me appreciate the little miracles and have so much fun along the way. She wanted me to make a list which i still haven´t made of the reasons why I know Heavenly Father loves me, and i will make this list soon, and the first thing i´ll put on there is "I know HF loves me because He let me serve with Sister B." Hoping for two transfers is all haha. 

K well i sincerely love you all. And miss you. 

Sister Shoomay.

Espirito, Verdade, e Luz oh my!

Hey everyone! 

Wow! Probably the most spiritual lesson on my mission this week! We found this awesome 30 year old evangelical dude, Luis, on the street on Wednesday. As we were walking past he stopped and talked to us and we talked for a good 20 minutes there. At the end my comp asked him why he stopped to talk to us. He said that as we were passing he felt a "flame" on his whole side and he knew we were servants of God. Wow. Then we went back on Friday and his mom was there and she started crying even before we said the opening prayer. We asked her what she was feeling and she said "a happiness". Luis said he felt it then too, the "flame" again in their house. We told them that was the Spirit of God telling them that what we were about to say was true. We gave our lesson with an overwhelming dose of the Spirit and when we got to Joseph Smith´s first vision my beautiful comp bore her testimony saying that she knew Joseph saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and she said she knew that more than she knew she was there in that room with them. WOW Bowling ball of Spirit punched me in the gut. loved it. She is such a righteous warrior. But anyway they totally felt it too and when we got to the Book of Mormon, Luis was a little apprehensive, because evangelicals teach that there can ONLY AND WILL EVER ONLY be the Bible, (which is dumb. present subjunctive.) But {miracle} he said he would be willing to read and pray about it. (which is a lot more than what most evangelicals are willing to do). We reminded them of the spirit they felt at the beginning and we reminded them how we all felt it and we could not deny the feeling and so God was telling them they needed to read and pray about it. Wow. So needless to say they accepted the "convite suave" which is when they know these things to be true will they be baptized and then Luis came to church yesterday! For some reason his mom couldn´t come but she´ll probably come next week we hope. 

Can I just say how THANKFUL i am for Sister Brundage? She has helped me so much. She is the most patient person ever, good thing cuz all my comps have really had to have that quality while serving with me. I know I´m not a super good missionary and I have so many weaknesses but she´s helped me appreciate the little miracles and have so much fun along the way. She wanted me to make a list which i still haven´t made of the reasons why I know Heavenly Father loves me, and i will make this list soon, and the first thing i´ll put on there is "I know HF loves me because He let me serve with Sister B." Hoping for two transfers is all haha. 

K well i sincerely love you all. And miss you. 

Sister Shoomay.

this week.

​gah. here is my beautiful hollister model comp from california! hah well she could be a hollister model. 

we had a great week! lots of inviting people to be baptized and people have accepted! We have to help lots of people stop smoking and drinking but they´ll make it! we´ll fast and pray for them. hehe. 

we went to the beach today for p-day! pictures maybe next week. 

sorry i suck at writing emails! gah. i feel bad for yall but i can never think of things to say when i´m actually sitting at the computer. haha. 

i love this gospel! i KNOW it´s true. duh. it only makes sense and the Spirit reenforces it into my soul every day. it´s like this feeling that overcomes my whole body and almost paralyzes me. i feel it especially strong like that during the sacrament of weeks that i am fasting. it´s so so wonderful. reenergizes and refocuses me. 

we got a reference for a lady that had just moved back to portugal from Germany. She said she didn´t want elders so we went over to see her. I got transfered into this area just barely and we went to go see her when i first got here. It doesn´t always happen like this but we have the email of the sisters in Germany who passed her to us and one of the Sisters is my good friend from High school, Natalie Motto! Shout out! small world! we´ll take good care of Maria Teixeira, Natalie! don´t worry! and she said you speak great german!! we talked to her in portuguese though of course haha. 

love you all!! 

sis shummms

Re: well...

Keep up the good work Sister

On Monday, July 7, 2014 8:27 AM, Eliza Shumway <eliza.shumway@myldsmail.net> wrote:

That was fast. 

After one very short yet very long transfer (6 weeks) in Seixal, I am out and up to Porto! Yay! I´ll be serving where my dear old companion Sister Lybbert has been serving for the last two transfers with her MTC companion, Sister Brundage! She´s stinkin cute and super funny and from California! I´m excited to serve with her :)

I´m thankful for the opportunity I had to serve in Seixal. I know exactly why I was sent there: to serve with Sister Fuller. She taught me so much about myself and let me know what things I need to change and work on to be a more humble person and disciple of Jesus Christ.  I know I have so much to work on and I hope I can each day become a more broken hearted and contrite spirit daughter of Heavenly Father to better serve Him and give all I have to Him. 

Well I´ll let you know how this area is next week! It´s beautiful so far!! Look up Porto on google images probably some gorgeous pictures on there. 

Sister Shumway

well...

That was fast. 

After one very short yet very long transfer (6 weeks) in Seixal, I am out and up to Porto! Yay! I´ll be serving where my dear old companion Sister Lybbert has been serving for the last two transfers with her MTC companion, Sister Brundage! She´s stinkin cute and super funny and from California! I´m excited to serve with her :)

I´m thankful for the opportunity I had to serve in Seixal. I know exactly why I was sent there: to serve with Sister Fuller. She taught me so much about myself and let me know what things I need to change and work on to be a more humble person and disciple of Jesus Christ.  I know I have so much to work on and I hope I can each day become a more broken hearted and contrite spirit daughter of Heavenly Father to better serve Him and give all I have to Him. 

Well I´ll let you know how this area is next week! It´s beautiful so far!! Look up Porto on google images probably some gorgeous pictures on there. 

Sister Shumway

​thanks Ashton!! love you!!