My 20th Birthday

I had a great birthday!  Guess what I did!   

I WORKED!!   

I was on an exchange with one of the district leaders, Elder Bleggi, and we biked our butts off all day! He is a good missionary. I think it was about 110 degreese that day with some humidity of course. It was a good birthday. We visited some less-actives who came to church yesterday, we found a new investigator and went to the temple to teach a lesson!

I opened the packeges y'all sent me; I love getting new garments!!  I also like the tie, and the colored pictures and notes from the little cousins, and the chocolate cupcake things and the pens! oh and the white shirts and note pad! I love getting packages!

This week has been the best week since I arrived in this area. We had a member-present lesson with a couple investigators that went very well. We found four new investigators and had four less actives at church. Hopefully we can continue exceeding these numbers.  We need to get more member-present lessons.
We went to the temple on Saturday and as soon as we walked onto the temple grounds the spirit hit Elder Bleggi and I at the same time. It was like a wall! We looked at eachother and knew we were both having the same feeling. It was awesome. I love feeling the spirit strongly.

I've been having a great time on my mission. I realised that I've almost been out a year and it kinda made me sad. I still feel like a new missionary and I don't feel like I've been out a year. Holy Cow, time flies.
    
Love ya'll
                              Elder Shumway

Hauling Hay

I have stopped to think about y'all bucking and hauling hay as I work in this heat. It makes me kind of chuckle. But, at the same time I wish I was helping. Partly because it is awesome and partly because it is not 105 degrees with humidity out there!   

    I was so nervous to be ZL that the day before transfers, while I was packing, I had to relieve myself from diarhea 8 times! (Embarrassing!)

I am alot more comfortable with it now. Elder Andersen is my companion. He is a good guy from Utah.   

    The ward we are in could improve a lot. We have already set goals and made plans to help the area and the zone members also.

      I am good friends with one of the AP's, so I am borrowing his bike for now. Maybe he will let me keep it because he goes home this transfer. His bike is definitely not from wal-mart because it is still in good shape after two years.

 

   My bike was destroyed. I left it in Wichita Falls.... in pieces.   It would be possible to get it back, but it would take a while and I don't think it is worth it. I wish I would've remembered about the two year warranty.

    

          My new address is         

   6438 N Warren, apt. #161

   Oklahoma City, OK 73116    

  My area is like basically downtown OKC. The biggest tower in OKC is in my area and the Chesapeak Arena (The OKC's NBA Thunder stadium) is in my area too. I think the bombing memorial is too.

I'm looking forward to my birthday box! 

Love y'all!

Elder Shumway

Big News!

  We recieved transfer info last night. I will be going to Quail
Creek as a Zone leader in the Quail Creek Zone. My companion will be
Elder Anderson. I don't know much about him but I have seen him around.
He is one of the only missionaries who parts his hair. That is all I
know about him. Haha! I'm excited. The Quail Creek Zone has the most
Sisters in it as well, and they are all in one district. haha! They
call it the relief-society district. It will be interesting having six or eight sisters in the zone.

   I am nervous to be a Zone leader. I have no clue what they even do.
   Here is somthing funny though; when I became district leader, my
Zone leader (Elder Phillips) trained me in what I needed to know and how to
minister.  Now I am becoming a Zone leader and the AP's will train me.
Elder Phillips is now one of the Assistants so he will be training me
again!  I think it is funny.


  This week has been OK. We didn't have too much success finding people
but we met with most of our investigators and less actives this week.
It is hard to get people to come out with us because there are six
missionaries in this ward and each companionship is always trying to
get members to go out with them.

     The work is hard and the weather is hot.  ( the last few days it
have been over 100 ).  And sadly, my bike has been retired.
Before my mission I bought a schwinn from Wal-mart. It has been a pain
my whole mission. Slowly it has fallen apart. In Elk City the gears
stopped working. In Norman the brakes stopped working and the petals
were stripped. The bearings in the pedals and wheels were shot. It
could barely still roll. Then the shifter stopped working. So one day I
tried to fix the shifter so it would work with the gears. Somehow I
was able to get it to work so we left the house to ride to an
appointment. I rode my bike for about 20 yards when the shifter siezed
up and caught on a spoke. The rotating spoke pulled the derailer all
the way around and snapped the chain!


     It was a tragic day. I knew that my bike would die one of these days but this was soon.   I took
all of the pieces of the gears and the shifters and brakes off of the
bike so that I could see if it was all fixable.....but that is when I
realized what a mess I was in and that nothing on that bike is worth
fixing or paying for.  It is totalled. I don't have any pics of it.
Maybe next week I will send some pics.   But I might need a new bike.
Hopefully I  can get one from the mission office that a missionary
left behind. Next transfer there is a missionary going home that is
leaving his bike. Hopefully I can use that one.


Love ya'll


Elder Shumway