Merry Christmas!

Hi family.

It was really good to talk to you too on christmas. I think the postal service might be running a bit slow. We haven't recieved the package yet. And transfer calls are this week. so I will let you know next week how they go.

Well, I feel about the same way that you do. I talked to you all a few days ago and nothing has really happened since then. we did some knocking on doors the other day and the security gaurd made us leave. It was... interesting...

We also met with this family that wee met two weeks ago. The wife is vietnamise and we gave her a vietnamise Book of Mormon. I think she will read it. She seemed really cool. She was like "let's go to church" and "make an appointment to meet again". The dad is less interested but he likes meeting us at least. Unfortunately the woman isn't the best at korean and when we teach she doesn't really have the patience to be a part of it. she instead takes care of their son. but we will keep at it and see if anything will become of it.maybe keep em in your prayers kim-nam-joe is the name.

Also, this week the mongolian that came to church about a month ago came back and I had the privlage and task of translating during church on sunday. It was a task. but I got through it alive. It was fun.

well have a happy new year and keep us in your prayers.

Bye bye

Love you all!

Elder Shumway

Korean Christmas

hi Family!
I would first like to give a shout out to Daddy-o and commend him on his 51st birthday! wow, you're still ahead of all of us. I get one year closer to you every October and just when I think I might have a chance to pick up the pace and catch up to you, you always seem to pull ahead... well maybe things will be different next year...
I am sorry I didnt write anything in a letter yet. To tell you the truth, I wrote a handwritten letter two weeks ago and just barely a few days ago, sent it off. sorry I have not mentioned anything in the actual e mail. It has been a pretty good christmas season so far. we went caroling to some members and made christmas cards for them. It was pretty good. We are doing an actual Christmas party for our ward tonight and I am doing a dance to jingle bells with some other missionaries. and me and my companion are singing "silent night" with a some single adults in our ward. I, of course, am tenor. But I have to say, it doesnt quite sound as fluid as our family's rendition of "Silent night". It'll be fun though. I'm excited.Christmas is actually pretty widely celebrated here. There are a lot of Christians here. In fact, last night we were knockin on some doors and saying Merry Christmas as our introduction. It was really cool because we started and the first door we knocked on a lady came out, talked to us for a bit, was really nice, but then left us and went back inside. But the second door we knocked on was a family that was just like "yeah, yeah, come on in!" And they proceded to give us some bread and juice. We talked with them for a good amount of time. We shared the 1st vision and the spirit could be felt. it was a good lesson and we gave them a book of mormon.But yeah, christmas is here too and it can lighten people up just like in America if you smile and wish them a merry Christmas.
No package yet. thanks for it in advance though...
I know how it feels to have those sprained ankles. Looks like Kendric got a better story to tell though. I bet it got some high fives and pats on the bum from teammates. :-) Hey maybe even coach Soto gave you a pat on the bum too. If not, pat yourself on the bum for doing a good job. And give yourself a wet-willie for me, would ya. :-) I only have potholes and dodgeball to blame for some of my bad sprains.
OK I will call the day after Christmas here and that will be christmas night in America. I will call sometime between 7-9AM (Korean time) I think that puts you at what... 3-5PM on christmas (Arizona time). is that ok?
Keep praying for pak- gun. he's a good guy.
Love you,
Talk to you on Christmas!
Elder Shumway

Scrooge

well family,

This week was a bit better than last week.It started off with a really good zone conference. Our president wanted to do something special for the christmas season so we went to a really good resturaunt, had some really great talks prepared by other missionaries, and watched a movie. We actually watched Scrooge! It brought back a lot of memories. Singing "hark the Herald" in English accents, calling people "crums of musterd" and "old potatoes", and of course, the ending where he has that change of heart and blesses all those around him. It was really good to see and it calmed a lot of stress and brightened my day.

This last week we set up the christmas tree at the church. It needed some repairing as well (just like when we used to have our "annual repairing of the tree" festivities back in Arizona) People were complimenting me on how well I did in repairing the tree and making it look nice. I have to thank you guys for all the years of practice in refining this talent. It's nice to know "christmas tree repairing" is a valued talent to the people of korea. :-)

so as for calling on christmas, would it be better to call on christmas night arizona time? We are told to call at the convinience of the family, and I know our family is always really busy on Christmas Eve. Or have you already made arrangements for that since I last emailed. let me know. Yes, I baught a phone card. no worries there.

Also, some new news... if or when I go to a biking area, I will need to buy an actual bike. So is that bike fund still there? They were having a problem with expenses, people not treating the bikes well, and whatnot...

We are still trying to meet with "pak- gun" (he's kindof a mix between 2-PAK and tommy-GUN) :-o he is a college kid that is pretty busy and pretty cool. We have really seen the hand of the Lord in meeting him and how his Buddist kindof antichurch parents have opened up to us. Now we need to start focusing on the message. We have become pretty good friends and want to help him. And knowing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most beneficial and happiness- instilling thing in the universe, It appears to us that that would be the next step.

Well I love you all, I gotta run

Pray for Pak-Gun

Love you, Elder Shumway

Snow in Busan!

Hi family.
Well there is one picture of the baptism. but I am not in white like the pictures you normally see from baptisms. Probably cause it actually wasn't our investigator and there wasn't a lot of priority. sorry. but I can get you the picture of the group later. At least the one being baptised is in white.
well there is news about christmas. It looks like we will call on christmas here meaning it will be christmas eve there. so... yeah. that's what's going down. I want to see if I can get a card here first cause that will be easier. they aren't giving us cards this year. anyway. I will keep you posted on that.
Things are good here! Im holding up pretty well. On saturday we got a phone call from a girl speaking English and she said she wanted to come to church. She is from mongolia, only 10 days younger than me, and doesn't speak Korean at all. But luckily she was pretty good at English! She is the only member of her family and has been living on Yeoung-Do for a couple months already. She aparently has been trying to find the church for a while now and through a lot of phone calling, finally got our phone number. She came to church and it was really cool. It totally made our week. We had to translate. That was fun! And really hard! I tell you what... Nothing really lets you see how much you dont know than when you have to try and translate. I started, but gave up. And my companion took over. But he had a really hard time with it too. We ended up just giving up on the "direct translating" and doing more of a "So this is what they basically said.."-type of aproach. Yeah it was hard. But I think if I start translating to myself, I can use it in a good way to improve my Korean. I learned a lot just by trying to translate. But it was really cool to have her there. She even bore her testimony and my companion went up to translate for her. It was really good. she sat down and my companion bore a short testimony. And I translated back to English what he bore in Korean. Missionary Korean is a lot easier to translate that Korean Korean. Sadly, she is heading up to Gumi to see some relatives on Friday so I dont know if we will ever see her again. But we already gave her the number of the missionaries there, so it should be a smooth transition.
Well, I gotta go. Have a merry Christmas!
Love, Elder shumway
Oh, We also saw a little snow this week. not enough to stick to the ground but it was cool to see. It almost never snows in Busan area (so I hear)