February 15 Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

Just an update...Lucas did not get baptized on Saturday. It was raining SO HARD! His family couldn't come because of it. He had his interview and everything set up, too. Do you wanna know what happened? 6:30 Saturday evening rolls around and these two sister missionaries can't get a hold of their investigator. They think, okay, well...maybe he's in the shower or...something. 7:00 rolls around, still no answer. Not his cell phone, not his house phone. When they get to the church, they find the bishop and his first counselor filling up the baptismal font. They think, "gee that's really nice bcause we forgot to ask someone to do that." When the bishop asks the senior companion, "Hermana, where is your investigator?" To which he receives a completely blank stare and the stupidest answer in the whole world before a baptism: "I have no idea."
Thank goodness our bishop decides to act and not react, eh? He and his counselor went to his house to look for him. He was not there. We wait for an hour, we call, we wait some more, we call...NOTHING. No baptism.
That night we receive a text message from the lost sheep that says, "sorry I didn't make it, my family couldn't come because of the rain." SHADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just wanted to call him and drop him a fat cane and say, "Lucas, you can call us when you can't make your own baptism, it's cool." Oh well, what're you gonna do? We called him and told him that we are definitely going to pass by for him Sunday morning to make sure that he at least comes to church. However, when we get to the church, we tell the bishop our plan and he shakes his head and says, "Hermanas, do NOT pass by for him, he's not a baby, he's a 30 year-old man (yeah a 30 year-old man who's pampered like a toddler by his mother) and he can come to church by himself." That's what we did and when we called his mom said he was still sleeping but that she would tell him that we were waiting for him at church. Oh por favor what I wouldn't give to give that man a reality check. Anyway, he had another interview with the bishop yesterday during church and he will be baptized si o si this Saturday because his daughter is now staying with him for the week. Thank heaven. Please pray, all of you, that it will happen.
Please do not think that I have any negative feelings about what happened this weekend. It's done, it's over, Lucas has a testimony, he's getting baptized, he just wants the support of his family. He's just a little absent minded and spoiled.
We are teaching Karen again. The 11 year-old, do you remember her? She went on vacation with her dad and told us before vacation that her dad told her she couldn't get baptized until she was really ready to do it. Well, she called us Tuesday night, asked us to pass by Wednesday (the first time we've seen her in 3 weeks), and she informed us that her dad told her during their vacation that she could get baptized! ¡Qué bendición! We are so happy and we're working with her so that she can get baptized in two weeks if at all possible. Our bishop has to talk to her and her dad. Her dad's not a member so...we'll see how that goes and how our bishop feels.
We taught a lady this week that has a lot of interest in family history and we have another appointment with her on Tuesday which we're really excited about. Her name is Ana, so pray that she will accept our message and want the blessings of the gospel for her whole family.
We found out transfers on Saturday night and guess what? I'm staying in Rosedal for yet another transfer! HOLY JUNK! I've been here for soooooo long, but I'm so excited! By the end of the transfer I will have 7 and a half months in this area. Haha, when we told our bishop when transfers were he asked me how much time I had in the area. When I told him, he said, "Hermana, if they keep you here one more transfer, I'm going to give you a calling!" Haha...it's true, my name should pretty much just go in the ward roster. Anyway, I'm completely content to be have the blessing to "die" in this area. I love the members here and they love us. They are sooooo willing to help us with whatever we need. When they find out that a lunch appointment fell through and we ate in our pension they get really mad and ask why we didn't call one of them and blah blah blah. Haha, they're great.
ANyway, I hope you all have a good week. I know we will! Hermana González is still my companion. We will have six months together at the end of everything. I love my companion!!!!!!!!! She's so great! We get along so well! My district leader is still my district leader and Hermana Brown (one of my best friends of a companion that I had in the mission) is going to be in my zone!!!!! What more could I want? I'm sooooo happy! The Lord has blessed me so much and I'm so excited to serve Him for six more weeks. He loves me so much and I hope to please him not only these last six weeks, but the rest of my life. Have an awesome week!

All my love,
Hermana Shumway