February 8 Letter

Dear Family,

What can I say about this week? It kinda kicked our trash actually so we’re really excited to start this new week and get staff done!

Lucas was supposed to have his baptismal interview on Saturday, but he never showed up and we’re not really sure what happened there, we still haven’t been able to talk to him. What’re you gonna do?
Church was really good yesterday. Juana bore her testimony and it was awesome. That woman has such a strong testimony. She loves this gospel so much. The rest of the classes were way awesome as well. Diego gave the gospel principles class and did awesome. It was about prayer. Prayer has a whole different meaning to me now. I know Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. However, the hard part is accepting that God answers in His own time. Even when it’s something that we think we really really need and it’s a righteous desire…still, He answers when it’s best for us.
Relief Society was good. The stake primary president gave the class about reverence. She said that in everything we need to be more reverent. She went into depth about how it’s us that need to change if our children are being irreverent during sacrament meeting. We must help them. They need to see that when we pray in the home, it’s a special moment. They need to see that when we’re in the church, it’s a special moment. We need to not bring their toys to church or at least pull them out during sacrament meeting. They can do quiet activities like color and read a book or whatever, however, they need to understand that it’s quiet time. Also, of course they aren’t going to pay the attention we do to the people who are talking, but yes, we can help them kind of know what’s going on up at the pulpit by saying to them, “look who’s talking! He/She is talking about this or that.” They need to know that we expect them to be reverent. We had awesome meetings yesterday and I LOVE FAST AND TESIMONY SUNDAY! It’s my favorite ever!

That’s so exciting that Grandma Holden is getting baptized! I’ll be able to tell crazy people on the street that say they are too old to change that my great grandma that’s older than 80 (how old is she exactly?) is going to get baptized so take THAT! That’s exciting! I gasped out loud like Mom does sometimes. The gasps that make you almost have a hard attack. It was pretty funny! I’ll be praying really hard so that she gets to her baptism date! Also for Dad cuz he hurt his knee!!!!! WHAT?!? Daddy what were you thinking trying to stop the intertube with your leg??? I guess you could turn that right back around to me and ask, “Well, Cara, what were you thinking when you busted your knee cap dancing to Michael Jackson?” Everyone knows that there are things we just can’t explain. That will also be a mystery to me for the rest of my life. Anyway, I hope you are doing okay, although I’m very sad it happened when you were just about to start the new house. I hope Steve is taking good care of you!
Well, my last transfer starts in one week. Let’s see how I do. Try not to talk about me coming home too much k? I love you all, have an amazing week!

All my love,
Hermana Shumway