I had transfers on Wednesday and my new companion is Elder Lopez. My entire mission I have never had a companion from the USA; they have all been latinos and it is awesome! From each comp I get better at Spanish and learn more about the culture.
My new Zone is called Ixtapaluca. We are all new because we are "white washing" a Stake that was recently added to our mission. My Zone is pretty cool! It is tucked away from the city and it is on the side of a pretty big hill that runs into a huge mountain. We also have two volcanoes overlooking the stake that are called Iztacihuatl and Popocatepetl (which is an active volcano that is always smoking!) There is clean air here and green plants so it is a nice change from the big city.
My ward is called Izcalli and it is a pretty big ward that has a good members, but does not baptize very much. The mission president had been telling us for a while that we were going to grow as a mission and receive this new stake and that they baptize a lot here. But when we showed up it looked like the Elders here had stopped working because as a zone we only have 6 baptismal dates when the normal is 25 to 35 for a zone. A lot of the Elders in the zone where disappointed when we arrived and realized that we were starting from scratch but we all worked super hard this week, found new investigators and we are working hard to turn the stake around!
Next week I will send you some pictures but I just want to say thank you for the Christmas package! I had a great Christmas on the 8th of January, I really needed the socks and ties! It was the perfect gift and the pens too! Thank you. Also here in Ixtapaluca it is super cold, so I might take some money out to buy a sweater. I have gone through my entire mission with just one worn out sweater that I bought in the tiangis (like a street market / goodwill thing) at the beginning of my mission but it doesn't do much for warmth.
Thank you for everything and I love you all. Elder Shumway
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