Training!

I just learned that I will be training a new companion beginning Dec 17th.

PLEASE PRAY FOR ME!

I just received the package you sent! (It only took 9 weeks to reach me, but it doesn't look tampered with.) I can't believe it cost $22 to send! That's a LOT of tacos in the street.

It said "Happy Birthday"...so I might just wait to open it on the Savior's birthday, since it is getting close. Thank you, Mom!

(This is a glimpse of our entire apartment. It is one room with two beds, two study desks, and a kitchen sink. We have a small bathroom off one side. We feel really lucky to have TWO sources of running water in our apartment. Most of the homes we visit only have one source of running water.)

I haven't gotten used to cold showers yet. My comp HATES it when we don't have money to buy gas to heat the water. I just shower with the cold water, but my comp uses our iron to heat up a bucket of water, then showers with that. I did it once or twice, but found it just made me dirtier.

This past week we didn't have much success because it was the day of the Virgin of Guatelupe. All of the Catholics go crazy, so we couldn't leave our apartment the entire day. They love fireworks here. In celebration, they are constantly shooting off fireworks, from morning until late at night. They also shoot mortars off of every house top...but they don't explode into beautiful colors....they just explode. It looks and sounds like I am living in the middle of WWII.

We were walking down the street one evening before the holiday, and one of these mortars was shot up in the air above us. When it exploded, a burning piece of it almost hit my companion. It was pretty funny because he literally had to duck out of the way.

Merry Christmas!

Love, 

Elder Shumway

Our little Branch

Well the Spanish really clicked this week and the work is going good. We ate the most spicy thing I have ever eaten in my life this week! It was like a beef soup with beans. I ate two bowls but I was dying because it was so hot!

We had our first baptism this week and it was pretty cool. The font was full of nasty water so we spent the morning trying to drain the water but the pump didn't work. We used buckets to haul all of the water out of the font, then cleaned and scrubbed the whole thing. It was kinda fun. But then the boiler didn't have any gas so the water was super cold. It was cold for me (doing the baptizing)....and I didn't even have to get immersed!  Our investigator, Rodrigo didn't mind too much because he was so happy. I had to baptize him twice because the first time he tried to come back up super fast because it was cold, but the second time was good.

Church is different here. Our church leaders are late to church and it seems the presidency doesn't have any idea what hey are doing, so when we went to confirm Rodrigo, they all looked at me to do it. But my comp told me that the branch president does so I hadn't memorized the words. My comp gave him the spirit. Then when the sacrament started there was only one priest to bless the sacrament, so I went up and blessed with him. 

Church is super funny because the member of the presidency that is conducting calls people out of the crowd to lead the music or say a prayer. This week we are trying to get the Branch Presidency to have a branch counsel with us so that we can have more help from the ward. 

We went to visit the Mexico City Temple.

I am not sick at all and the street food is still delicious. Sometimes the members give us fruit that they wash with the  water but it doesn't make me sick, so all is well. Thanks for everything! 

Love Elder Shumway

Trio

There are four missionaries in our branch and they are all latinos except for me. I haven't served near another American (guerros) but i like it that way. Sadly, one elder had only been in the mission two weeks when he found out that his Dad died. He just returned home to Equador to take care of his younger siblings.So I was in a trio for a few days with two latinos and it was pretty fun. We where the Three Muskateers, but we live in a little room that is the size of my bedroom. With our bunk bed and two little tables to study, it is almost the entire house.

(We visited some ancient ruins on our Preparation Day.)

This is my district at the Aztec ruins called Teotihuacan. My comp is the one with a red and white shirt. His name is Elder Utierrez and he is from Chile, but we just found out that he is being transferred on the 17th. 

I have gotten used to cold water for showering. We haven't had gas to heat the water for a month and my comp hates it, but we don't have money to buy gas. I just shower with the water, but it is super cold. My comp however uses our iron to heat up a bucket of water, then showers with that. I did that once or twice, but it just made me dirtier.

I haven't received your package yet but i do receive a lot of letters. Thanks everyone! The letters make it here in about a month. Thanks for the love!

This is a picture of our chapel:

The cultural hall (basketball court) is outside at the back of the building.

The people here can't pronounce my name. When I tell them how it is pronounced,...they all freak out because "way" is a bad word. (It is spelled differently, but sounds the same.)  I think i am going to tell everyone in my next area that my name is Chamoya. "Chamoya" sounds close to the way they say my name, but it is also the name of a fruit that they eat with candy.

All is well here in Mexico. I love the food, the people are funny and I am learning the language very well. I have become used to only eating once a day. It helps stretch what little money we have. Mexico is awesome.

Thanks for your love and support.

Elder Shumway

Dogs and the Metro

No I didn't play the piano this Sunday in church. I practiced, but I can only remember how to play 3 songs... and I can't play the same three songs every week. So yes, one of those little simple hymn books would be nice.

Our church building is like a prison, surrounded by a metal fence. All of the buildings here are like that with all of the windows barred and locked.

All of our mail gets delivered to the mission office because we can't receive mail at home. Once a month or so we pick it up. Our house is ghetto and only a small room, but the more houses I visit, the more grateful I am for our little room. A lot of people only have running water in one place in their house and they use a hose or buckets to get water to the bathroom or kitchen. We always offer to wash dishes for people after a meal, but washing here is really hard because they don't have running water. My house has a shower and a sink with running water so it is really nice.

Last Monday we had to go to the office so that I could get a year long visa. You would not believe the metro here! It is like a subway system. We went in the morning, rush hour. There are different sections for the men and the women because it is so crazy... but it was also scary. The metro cars are packed super full with people... more full then you can imagine, but at every stop, 5 more people manage to get in. They push and smash, and others help push them in. The doors close right on the people, but keep closing until somehow the people manage to morph in with the others. Even the police help push and smash people into the cars. It was the craziest thing! Finally my comp and I got the guts to squeeze ourselves into one of the cars. t was super funny because it is like sardines being compressed into a can.... but they were all shorter than my shoulders. I haven't really felt tall until I was on the metro. It the thing crashed, I don't think anyone would have died because we were all packed so tight that we couldn't move.

But then someone in the middle needs to get off! They fight and wiggle to reach the door, they crawl between everyone's legs, all while more people are trying to get ON! It was defying the rules of science, like a cup full of water yet they keep adding more water. Then suddenly, everyone gets off and it is an ocean of people ascending these stairs at the station and going their different ways. It is crazy! 

We offer service at every house we go to, such as washing dishes or giving their dog a bath. Some people actually took us up on this offer this week and we washed 3 huge dogs! It was nasty.

Everywhere I go, I am the only white person. It is super funny because there are the same ten people that know English and whenever they see me they say" Hello, good morning or how are you today?" But this is all they know. Even the police when they drive by say it to me. Super funny! 

We have our first baptism coming up this week. It is a man that we met my first day here in Mexico. He really wants to serve a mission, but has a child, so he can't. We explained to him that every member is a missionary and now every night that he is available, he puts on a button up shirt with a  sweater (he even carries a backpack with nothing in it)  to go with us on visits as a member missionary. After he is baptized we could have the best stats for lessons taught with a member in the mission!

This was also a bad week for dogs. My comp likes to run from them because they chase you. He likes the adrenaline rush and thinks its funny.... but he always goes running first and they get ME because I am behind him. Three little white poodles chased me this week! It was scary, but it is really scary when a big, nasty dog is chasing you! I did get nipped by a dog hiding under a car, but it didn't break the skin. So don't worry, Mom. I am safe. 

Love Elder Shumway

Living the Life of Nacho Libre!

Every one here thinks that my name is Chinese because they pronounce it "Chum-wee." Every day I get asked if I am from China or Japan.

I was almost attacked by a dog this week for the first time, but we got away. Most of the dogs don't care about us and walk next to us or we step over them, but this one came at us from under some apartment stairs. We ran up the stairs, but when the person we where visiting wasn't there we had to go back down to face the huge dog! We used our backpacks as shields and ran from the dog. Now I know that scripture power is a real thing!"

It has rained and thunder stormed almost every day this week. On Thursday a bolt of lightning struck really close to us. It was super scary because the light and the noise happened at the exact same time!

When it starts to rain is the best time for missionary work. My comp doesn't really like the rain but I do because we help people bring in their clothes and cover their little taco stands. Everyone is at home so visiting and contacting is super easy when it s raining.

When we are in a hurry we ride in these things called moto taxis which is a little wagon behind a motorcycle. The pizza delivery guys ride motorcycles too. It's funny. Sometimes I just start laughing because the people here are all like Nacho Libre! My comp doesn't understand.

The most popular things from Nacho Libre are the little bicycles with a huge cart on the front for carrying the "Lord's cheeps" and the corn on a stick. Watch that movie as a family and that is my life with a million more people and houses. I hope you had a good two weeks with baby Scott, and I love all of you.

Elder Shumway

25 Things About Mexico

You would not believe my life right now. It's crazy. The first good news is that I haven’t gotten sick yet! The water smells horrible and the streets are dirty but it's awesome here. My companion is Elder Gutierrez from Chile and he doesn’t speak any English. He is a very hard worker and a great missionary but our area is not very successful. There are only two active families in our area that attend the branch. (They are the Branch President and the 1^st counselor).

My Spanish is coming along. With some people, I understand almost everything,...but with others I can't understand anything they say.

Some of the houses that I eat in and teach in are almost like they are out of a movie. Small, dirty and tons of people living in them. The food is pretty good here, but we hardly ever eat. We eat a meal at 3:00 in the afternoon but never breakfast or dinner and we don’t have any food in our little house. (Our “apartment” is more like a little room.) So we basically fast for 23 hours every day.

Well here are 25 things that I love about Mexico which will help describe my experience here:

1. Tacos
2. All of the houses and windows are barred like prison.
3. My companion doesn’t speak any English but his trainer taught him some funny phrases in English
4. We don’t have a toilet seat
5. Tacos
6. Our shower is cold
7. We haven’t had toilet paper for 5 days, but we just got some today
8. There are a ton of mangy dogs that roam the streets
9. All of the sidewalks have dog poop on them (like every other step.)
10. It isn’t rare to see 5 guys on a moped being driven by a little kid.
11. We only eat once a day.
12. The hobos here use our restoration pamphlets to make cigarettes.
13. The water smells like sewage.
14. Food from the street vendors is delicious.
15. Tacos
16. There are so many shops along the sidewalk that I am constantly ducking my head.
17. I didn’t see any other white people until Saturday at conference when other missionaries came.
18. There is no such thing as a cross walk here. We just play Frogger to get across the streets. Cars get really close to us sometimes.
19. It either smells like tacos or sewage
20. The police always have their lights on so you know where they are and there are millions of them.
21. We sometimes throw pebbles at windows to get people to talk with us.
22. Tacos.
23. I am living the life of Nacho Libre! It's not a joke. It's a way of life.
24. It rains a lot, then cars drive by and splash us.
25. Tacos!

But Mexico is awesome. We were teaching an investigator in the park the other day and I didn’t quite understand everything, but I felt the spirit. Everything around us was crazy at the park. There was a band practicing, (and they really needed to because they where horrible), and kids playing soccer...but right there with our investigator it was calm and the spirit was there. My companion is a very hard worker and a great teacher. He is very good at listening to our investigators and responding.

One of our investigators this week was really sick on the day that we were going to set a baptismal date with her so we weren't able to. But I FELT PROMTED BY THE SPIRIT to offer her a blessing. So I anointed her with the oil in Spanish and then my comp gave her the blessing. It was awesome, and the next day she was feeling a lot better. We had a baptism set for my birthday but the investigator didn't come to general conference and there aren't any active families to help bring them. Some other cool stuff that happened this week is we are teaching a recent convert how to read and I helped one of our investigators make an interview video for her college English class.

I hope all is well at home and with baby Scotty. Tell the little girls I love them and I love you too.

Elder Shumway

The Eagle has Landed!

Hello Shumway Family,

                We thought you’d like to know that your son has arrived safely in Mexico City!  We are so thrilled to have him!  Thank you for sharing him with us – we will take care of him.

President & Sister Stutznegger

(Is the Chicken going to become a mission theme?!)