Sickness!

 I heard that the US got a ton of snow this week!

 Well, everything here in Ixtapaluca is moving along pretty well. We found two less active families that are part member families and we have 6 investigators that are progressing toward a baptismal date. But the best part is that it was not super cold this week. 

Yesterday (Monday) we had a normal work day because today we went to the temple as a zone and it was an awesome experience. However, now I am sitting in a hospital room with one of the district leaders in our zone. His name is Elder Keyes and he has been feeling sick for about a week. Yesterday he coughed up blood so he went to the hospital and found out he has pneumonia and bronchitis. So after going to the temple I came here to the hospital to stay with the Elder while his comp goes home with mine to take a shower and get new clothes.

So here I am writing this email on my phone (they gave us i phones as zone leaders in Ixtapaluca because there isn't good phone reception. This phone is the most advanced technology I have ever had and I still don't know how to use it very well.) 

 Everything is awesome here in Mexico and I hope all is well at home. Pray for me so that I don't get this contagious disease and have a great week! Love Elder Shumway

Animals at Church?

        Well this week has been very difficult here in my new area and zone. It has been super cold and rainy all week and it even snowed in the mountains here in Ixtapaluca! (I only brought two jackets on my mission, and I loaned them to two different elders while we where on divisions in my old zone.  Now after all these transfer, who knows where they are at?

        We spent the entire week walking in the street, contacting people and looking for less actives on the list, trying to find someone to teach. We did a ton of walking and very little teaching. There were some days when I honestly didn't want to leave the house because we had no plans for the day and it was raining! But we worked hard and have a tiny bit of hope for 2 or 3 investigators. 
        In sacrament meeting while I was preparing the bread for Sacrament, a medium sized black dog ran through my legs! There was a dog in sacrament meeting! The funniest part is that the members didn't even worry about it, it was normal! We confirmed a little girl that was baptized a few weeks ago, then I gave a talk and they still hadn't taken the dog out! Apparently it belongs to one of the members and sometimes it follows then to church and just doesn't go away. It is funny the stuff I experience here in Mexico. 
        Another funny thing that happened one day while my comp and I were wandering around in the streets looking for less actives in the list is that we were super tired and thirsty so we stopped by one of the million little stores that are on every block to buy a juice or something, but all they sold was Coca Cola! I love Mexican Coke but we do drink a lot of it and I wanted something else. However, all they had were 3 refrigerators with different sized cokes: some in glass bottles, others in cans or in plastic bottles and of every size you can imagine! (That explains Mexico well.) So I bought a coke.

These two Volcanoes are on the border of the state of Mexico and the State of Puebla. The one on the left is named, Iztaccihuatl and the one on the right is Popocatepetl. There is a cool ancient Aztec story behind these two volcanoes. The name of the volcano on the left means "sleeping woman" because it looks like a lady is lying down on top of the mountain with her head on the left and her feet on the right hand side. Popocatepetl means "smoking mountain" and it is the most active volcano in Mexico. Pretty cool.

 Thank you for your thoughts and prayers because I really need them right now to help us find investigators.

 I love you.

 Elder Shumway  

A New Area!

 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

New Assignments!

Congrats to Brandon & Kari on new baby Audrey! They will be a super strong influence in the ward for ever! Hey Mom, I pulled 600 pesos out of my bank account to marry a family last week.

Tomorrow I have transfers. I only served here for two transfer cycles but I feel good about the work my companion and I did the past 12 weeks in this area and with the Elders in the zone. When I came here, there were 9 baptismal dates set. This week there are 50. We also had a very successful Christmas open house at our Stake Center. Missionaries stood on the sidewalk, inviting people to come in. Refreshments were served, and each of the auxiliaries had stations set up where they told people about their organizations. From that activity, we also have MANY new referrals!

Other cool news that I keep forgetting to tell you is that the mission is going to be bigger as of tomorrow. A few weeks ago in the mission council, President told us that the mission is going to receive one stake/zone from the bordering mission Chalco. The new stake is called Ixtapaluca and it is a pretty cool zone of city/mountain and village areas. In the stake there is also a church ranch where they take the young single adults camping. The stake is also known for baptising a lot so they call it "bauptizaluca."

In this transfer, there are a ton of Elders that have changes and President says that he wants to send a lot of the zone leaders and district leaders to this new zone to whitewash it with hard work! They are going to drop a lot of leaders to senior comps in Ixtapaluca and call a lot of new leaders throughout the mission. We are going to white wash an entire stake and the mission is going to have a huge makeover. So tomorrow we will see what happens! I don’t know where they are going to send me but I will let you know next week. 

Elder Shumway