July 6 Letter

Dear Family and Friends,
I thought I would dedicate the subject of this e-mail to the recently lost king of pop, Michael Jackson. Poor guy...he looked more like a girl than most girls. No offense ladies, I'm just stating the facts. I love the guy, he's probably the best dancer ever, heck, I dislocated my knee cap dancing to his music, but he was a weirdy! Nothing really special happened this week. We ran into a lot of people who are athiest. I don't think I've ever met so many of those people in my whole mission than I have in this area. I feel bad for them. There is no reason to hope for anything, no reason for happiness when you don't believe there is a supreme being who cares about every person on this earth. I have a couple funny stories: First, a few days ago we knocked the door of a jehova's witness who came right up to us and said, "oh, hello! I'm a jehova's witness!" She greeted us with the usual kiss on the cheek and began telling us about this and that. After a while she stopped and asked, "so how long have you been jehova's witnesses?"...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................say what?!? I kind of couldn't believe my ears. Don't worry, I immediately corrected her and said, "We're NOT jehova's witnesses, we're Mormons! Jehova's witnesses don't walk around with our plaques (I totally forgot how to spell a lot of words so if that word is spelled wrong, I'm terribly sorry!)." How silly. People ask us that all the time and I'm just like...for the love! Open your eyes! Look at the name we're wearing! Por favor.... Also, I figured out, I've been completely cured of my touchiness. I do not like to be touched. My companion is a very touchy person and for some reason, I can't handle being touched anymore. What're you gonna do? Haha, we contacted an older couple in the street yesterday and the woman asked, "who are you? Evangelists?" We said, "no, we're Mormon missionaries." She replied, "Oh, evnagelist mormons." Her husband aksed, "What did they say? I don't hear." Then the woman said, "These are evangelist mormons." Then I firmly said, "No, we're not evangelists, we're MORMONS! Nada que ver (nothing do to) with Evangelists." Oh...the misconceptions of the very small minded...oh my gosh, I repent. I didn't say that. They don't know any better...right? The highlight of my week has been with Yohana. I'm so excited for her. She's so strong already and is ALWAYS studying the Book of Mormon. We gave her a bible because she didn't have one and she studies it when there are scriptures to look up from the pamphlets we've given her, but she's told us that she likes the Book of Mormon better and reads in it every day. She's a very slow reader. She has the reading level of a 9 year-old...what's that like 4th grade? Qué sé yo? She's already in 2 Nephi. She's amazing and she bore her testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting as did Hugo. Yohana got up and said, "I'd like to share my testimony with you. This is my first time getting up here and talking to you, but I want to say that I know that this church is true and that Joseph Smith is true. I want to thank you all for helping me learn about all of this..." she said some other things and then said, "I want to leave these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." It was perfect and holy junk the spirit was so strong. She sat down and told us, "I said that because I really felt it." We told her that it was perfect and that she did a good job. She really is a very sincere and honest person so if she says something it's because that's really what she's feeling or thinking. I love her so much and I have learned a million and 5 things from her. Hugo's testimony was very simple and sweet as well. He said that thanks to this church, his life has changed for the better and that he wouldn't know where he would be if he hadn't heard the oportune words at the oportune time. He said he knows that Christ lives. It was beautiful. Many people were very impressed and moved by the spirit that was there. It was awesome. I don't really have much else to say except I'm pretty excited because I'm dying my hair back to my natural color. I will never EVER color my hair again. It's fun....for .5 seconds, but when hair is as dark as mine, it just looks awful when it starts to grow out. Anyway, Grandma Lyon, I'm sorry I missed your birthday on June 10th, but happy birthday! Grandma Sharrie, happy birthday on Wednesday and Grandma Shumway happy birthday on Friday! You look great, all of you! =) I want you all to know that every week in the mission I have learned something. I don't always realize it, but my spirit is growing. I will never leave this faith. I will never leave this church. There aren't many things I'm absolutely sure of in my life, but the most important is the church is always the same. We will ALWAYS be able to count on this church. Maybe not some of the people in the church, but the church itself, Christ as its head will ALWAYS be the anchor in our lives. I haven't seen it more in my life than right now. The people I teach need something to hang on to, something that remains firm in this world that is constantly wavering. That thing is this gospel. It's the truest of true and it's everlasting. Our Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ live and they are guiding this church through President Monson. This gospel changes lives. I love it with all my heart. I'm so happy for this time in my life to serve my master. I'm not sure what's coming after this short time, but He will always be there for me if I do what I'm supposed to do. I hope you are all doing fantastic and I hope Dad, Mom, and the girls had a wonderful time at camp! Love you all!
Hermana Shumway