Sunday, October 26, 2008

No Longer a Teenager

Hi.
Well this was a pretty good week. I am hearing a lot about the economy kinda taking a downslope. like some banks and states going bankrupt or something. I dont know.
So this week was pretty good. We did a good amount of knockin on doors and we think we might have found a new investigator. I went on splits with my District Leader and that was a lot of fun. We met with his investigator in his area and had probably the most spiritual lesson of my whole mission. This investigator is thinkin' about baptism. It went really well! Well, I gotta run. I am alive. Thats all that really matters, eh? HaHa, no I am doing fine.
To tell you the truth, my birthday came and left and I still dont feel any different, but I guess that's kinda how birthday's come. It was good though, we worked extra hard that day. And it rained. (My favorite weather) A member had us over for dinner and she bought a cake that was pretty good. I am sending you a picture.
I love you all. Thanks for your support
Elder Shumway
Ps- I guess technically I'm not a teenager anymore

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Happy 20th Birthday LeGrand!!


Hi family!
Thanks for wishing me a Happy birthday! So I am sending a package but it is by slowboat. I hope to send it in the next couple days. There is a gift in there for Jordan. Sorry I didn't get it to him in time for his birthday but oh well, he'll gat it when you get it. So today guess what I got in the mail? my votin' ballot. So that was pretty exciting. Well my companion is really cool. He is a kid from Utah in some small town. he's a pretty smart kid. he knows korean really well and koreans like him pretty well. This last week I think I've progressed a lot in the language. So my new companion (Elder Sprosty) is a new senior. He is 3 months older than me as a missionary. And because he is a new senior, coming into a new area, I've had to pick up a lot of slack and kinda fake senior up until now. Yes, he's senior. But there are some things that I have just needed to do (mostly just communication) and it has really helped me grow in the language.
Well we went to a wedding ceremony yesterday. it had a lot more traditional things in it than American weddings.
Well, I will talk to you later, Thank you!
Tootle- lue (in a darth vader voice)
Elder Shumway

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Hey Hey
Thanks for the letters. Last week I tried to something a little tricky. I tried typing two letters. one to Caleb and one to the Family. But I realized that took a little too much time. So even though I would like to write on a more individual basis, I am sorry to say that time does not permit it. Thanks for sending me the package. The way they do it is the post office recieves the mail, they then deliver the mail to the mission office daily, and from there the office forwards it to the missionary. And if it is close to transfers, they hold all the mail and forward them after all the tranfers are done. I'll have to ask the mission president about his son. That seems really exciting though! (His son, Ken Jennings was the smartest one on Jeopardy for a long time, and he recently participated on "are you smarter than a 5th Grader?" and earned 1/2 million dollars)
So if you want the news, tranfers are in and I am still staying in yeoung-Do. Elder Heubsch is leaving to another area. I have a new companion, Elder Sprosty. He seems really cool. He is a new senior so his experience in Yeoung-Do should be really good. This transfer looks really promising though. As for investigators, just keep praying for the ones you have. And pray for us as missionaries to find some really prepared people to teach.
I am sorry to hear all these deaths and bad health problems in the family. But I am happy for Neal (Stanfield) and whoever he's marrying.
Oh man! General Conference was awesome! I think you enjoy it more as a missionary. I think you are just more spiritual minded during this time. But it was really good. I felt, for lack of a better word, filled. I missed the Sunday afternoon session though. We watched it in English and after the morning session we booked it down to our little island, expecting to see it in Korean with our members, but they ended up not showing it there. I was a bit dissappointed. But was I saw was really uplifting.
The other day, we met this guy on the street that just started talking to us in pretty good English. We stopped and he bought us ice cream. He was really cool and was really into Boy Scouts. He got the Tiger (the equivilant of The Eagle) and told us to come by and have lunch with him sometime. On Saturday, just before conference, we went early to a hospital with the branch president, his councelor, and an inactive. We went to see the inactive's friend and her severly handicapped teenager. He looked like he was in really critical condition. Both of them were crying, but we gave a bleesing. I anointed and My companion blessed. He blessed him that he would fully recover.
Anyway we gotta go.
There are other people 3that nee2d the 8compu9t62er.
I will talk to\ you later.
*L*o*ve* you*!****/*-+Elder -*S/humway
PS- I wan/t* /t*o/ */*t/a*/k*e /*o/u*t/ */*so/m*e /m*o/r*e /*mo/*/n*e/y* /*f/r*o/m */*m/y* /*ca/*r/*d/*./ */*/I* /*/*/*/h*op/*e that's alright. Maybe like 100 do/l*a/r*/s*. Love Ruddy. Sorry that was another Elder with all the numbers and the dashes. They are getting pretty anxious. :-)
Love you all!
Respond back to the money question ASAP!
Thanks!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

General Conference

Hi Family,
Well, if I do say so myself, Jordan's spained pinky was a bit funny, especially the way Jordan told it. Thanks for the letter Bro! I got to go so I'll make this fast! So down in Yeoung Do, it is going pretty good. we had a big stake activity. It was a lot of fun. I realized that there are a lot more members in the Busan area than I thought. I played soccer for the first time in a long long time. Yep, I still stink. But this time it was worse. I ran a lot, that was refreshing.
We came home, my companion did 2 baptismal interviews ( there were 2 kids baptized on Sunday (not our investigators)). So this week was pretty good. We had a great lesson with one of our investigators. He knows what he needs to do, it is just a matter of time until he gets the courage to be baptized (for him, it would mean turning away from a lot of things). So pray for him. Kim-Teh-Won. Other than that, We have met a few really cool people and they might turn into investigators. It is pretty exciting. My companion is really awesome. I have been with him for two transfers so far, but transfer calls are Friday, And we think one of us will go. But we'll find out then... I hope you had a really good conference! We see it this week, it needs to be translated first. I am pretty excited. As far as my birthday, whatever. The EFY CD would be nice. And maybe another block of that Cedder and Pepperjack cheese. That was really good. Love you lots Elder Shumway
PS- Dad had that really awesome book about... the doctrine and covenents?... I am not sure. its the one that talks about the second coming and how everything plays out... do you know what I'm talking about? Well, If you could somehow get a copy and send it really slow, cheaply to korea (like by boat or something) that would be really cool.

Thanks!