October 26 Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

We had a great week and it's definitely summer time. Im getting my crazy foot tan from last summer. Do you remember the picture I sent? GROSS! I'm getting, right along with it, my farmer tan back. It makes me so sad, but I don't think I have my red tint like I used to have with my tan. It's funny because everyone always tells my companion that she is red and then look at me and say my skin tone is darker so I don't look so bad...thanks haha. I'm getting a pretty wicked watch tan too! C:
The Book of Mormon is the best book ever! Last night, when we got back to our pension, my companion and I started to study a little in the Book of Mormon to get our "fix" for the day and I cannot even tell you how relieved I felt. Yesterday was a good day, but without my usual Book of Mormon study, I felt SO not spiritually prepared for it. It was so sad, but I had a wonderful ten minutes of reading it before I went to bed last night. Alma and Amulek are amazing. In Alma 14 when they're encarcerated, they really showed exactly how Christlike they were with everything the guards were doing to them. Three times it says they were asked questions or someone made a comment and Alma and Amulek kept their mouths shut. Just like it says about Christ when he was suffering: "And he opened not his mouth..." I love the principle of enduring to the end. You love the principle of hope which has todo que ver con el perseverar hasta el fin. Will we endure? Sure, we'll endure. Will we keep our mouths shut and not complain and put on a smile and be Christlike?..................................we hope so right? We should because even when God withdrew His spirit from Christ, He still endured to the end.
This week was insane because we had zone conference and our mission president upped the requirements to get new investigators and other lessons....the key indicators. In order to count an 'other' lesson, we have to be in a house and say a prayer. They don't have to turn into an investigator, but we have to be teaching them in their house and we have to say a prayer with them. Then new investigators, we HAVE to, si o si, set up another appointment with them. We always did that anyway, so that wasn't something new for us. OH! This week I'm so excited because we have like 3 noches de hogar set up to have with the members. Our members are so helpful! They're always willing to help us if we have an appointment, but they're a little timid when it comes to talking to their friends. SOME OF THEM. Others love it and always are talking. My companion and I have a family home evening and our coordination meeting at the same time on Wednesday so we get to go on splits with the members to be everywhere we need to be and I'm so pumped for it! C:
Planning yesterday was so awesome because my companion told me something really special. She told me that since being my companion, it's changed her life. She told me that I always have a good attitude about everything no matter what and that I ALWAYS see the good in everything and that that is a gift. That meant a lot to me. It's not hard for me to have a good attitude, but sometimes I wonder why things don't happen. I guess I don't wonder why, but I'm so subconscious all the time of whether I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing to bind the Lord so He has to bless us. It's hard keeping a good attitude about things, but it's better that being negative about it, right? C:
Well family, I must say that the other day I told my companion that worldly possessions don't matter because spiritual blessings are so much better and I stopped and thought and said, "my parents would laugh if they ever heard me say that because I used to HATE it when they said that to me." Hermana Miller started to laugh. But it's ture. Yesterday, we had a less active in church that was inactive for a LONG FLIPPIN TIME. He worked the whole night, got home, shaved, changed and came to sacrament meeting. There is no excuse to not come to church. EVER! I hope I never forget that. Anyway, I must go! Love you all! Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to Brendon on Sunday! Havea wonderful week!

Hermana Shumway