Shumways in Norman, OK

  I love this ward! This is one of the best wards I've ever served in. It is one of the few wards that I've been invited to attend ward council. And this ward's ward council is very effective. It is usually very centered on missionary work. (I love it because that is what the entire church should be revolved around anyway. It's central to the Abrahamic covenant.) I am convinced that the only way to be successful as a missionary, is to gain the trust of the ward, the Bishop, the Relief Society President, etc. We do that by working very close with all of the members and accounting to them in ward council about what we are doing. When missionaries do this, the ward will trust them with the Less Actives that they work with and the non-member friends that they have. Baptisms always follow those things.

    I don't want to share this next experience to brag, but rather because it was one of the coolest things that has  happened to me on my mission. It made Elder Reese and I grow a greater love for the ward and the work that is going on in the ward.

Yesterday in ward council, Bishop turned the time over to us and our ward mission leader first. Our ward mission leader started telling the council about how we were the "best set of missionaries who have ever served in this ward." Then he told them about all of the things that we have done in the last few weeks that he has seen effect the ward in a good way.  

 Elder Reese and I have been overflowing with Joy for the last few days. Good things are happening.  I never thought that I would be in a ward that prays specifically for the missionaries in their ward during sacrament meeting. It is awesome!

    This ward has not had a convert baptism for about a year and a half.  We will be having a baptism on the 14th of April and 3 baptisms on the 13th of April. We are so excited!   I have become a more bold teacher since I've been here in Norman. I love being bold because you stay on the same page as the investigators. When there is no miscommunication, lots of progress happens.

     I think I forgot to tell you that there are lots of Shumways in this ward.  This week we had dinner at the Shumway's house. It was cool. Bro David Shumway and I talked about how we are related and he told me a bunch of stories about Charles Shumway that I didn't know. Charles Shumway is not who I thought he was. I thought he was a really spiritual guy who was really close to the prophet back then, but he was a normal guy who made mistakes too!  Bro Shumway let me borrow a book that his dead aunt made. It is Called: "The Charles Shumway Family".  I like to read the stories out of it. I also found out how I am related to Charles and which wife I'm from.  I never thought I would be like this about genealogy.

     Did you know that Charles Shumway was excommunicated from the church for a short period of time?  The story is actually funny.  He was a short tempered guy at times and one day he got really mad at some guys who were working on his saw mill in Shumway AZ, and he cussed them out pretty good. So these men Excommunicated him! But after about a day, they let him be a member again. haha!  The church was a little bit different back then.  But Charles Shumway was a really cool guy. He was a hard worker and he had a lot of faith. And he was obedient to everything the prophet asked him to do.     ..... Anyway. just some cool stuff I thought I'd share.

   

                   This is a picture of me and David Shumway. He is from a different wife. He is the Dad of all the Shumways that live in our ward. They live out away from town. It must be a Shumway thing to live in the country.

                 Love Elder Shumway

Transfers Again!

 The massive wave of missionaries hits our mission tomorrow. Tomorrow is when all of the new missionaries come from the MTC and fly into OKC. Wed is Transfer day, when all the new missionaries meet their trainers and go to their first areas.  This transfer, next transfer and the one after that will be the biggest transfers ever! Our mission is getting 40 missionaries added to it between these first two transfers. 

       I will be getting transferred to Norman on Wed. Elder Hardt and I stayed together for two transfers and he is staying here in Lawton again. He will be here for 6 months by the time next transfer ends.
     
       I'm Excited to go back to Norman. There are great people in that town. And I think I will be safe from tornadoes this year. What are the chances of a tornado going through the same town two times in one year? It's like jumping into an artillery crater to take cover from the other artillery going off.   Right?

       I will be going to the Norman 4th ward. it is on the east side of Norman. My first time in Norman, I served on the west side. I am very excited because I have a recent convert who was baptized last year in Norman. But they moved from the 2nd ward to the 4th ward!  So I will be in their ward again!     My new comp's name is Elder Reese. He is a cool guy. We have served around each other a few times before. 

  
       I have been blessed with very good companions. I have never had a comp that didn't want to do missionary work or wanted to go home. I have had great comps to do missionary work with.  I am thankful for that.

  Dad, that is a cool story about meeting your trainers son as an Elder in Medford!  It reminds me of a story in PMG.... Or maybe it is from a talk I listened to recently. It's about how a less active member of the church who thought his mission in Spain was a failure because he only baptized one person. But he met a missionary from Spain many years later who was the son of his only baptism.  It showed him how many people really did benefit from only one baptism.   That is a cool story. I hope I have an experience like that some day.

       We did have some Blizzard warnings lately. Northern Oklahoma (Stillwater, Ponca City area) received about one foot of snow when that storm blew over. That is a ton of snow for Oklahoma!  In Lawton we just got some sprinkles of rain and lots of clouds.  But, today is a great day! It feels like spring again. It's a warm day. I decided to wear a short-sleeve shirt today.

             Good things are happening, but it all takes work to get'em done.
                                 Love Elder Shumway

                                       

Miracles

  Our mission has been handling the death of Sister Smith very well. As a mission we have been reading the Book of Mormon together. The week that sister Smith died we read Alma 26 and verses 34 & 35 apply very well to our mission.   This has been our drive and our mentality these last few weeks. Lots of missionaries have risen and become more diligent and obedient since this has happened. Others who think they had no connection to Sister Smith have not changed or been affected at all, but they could still learn from this experience later in their lives.

         Cool things that have happened lately?   ...... Cool things always happen.  Last night all of our plans had fallen through so we had nothing better to do but knock some doors for 30 min.  It was 8:30 at night and we were knocking houses that had lights on inside.  It's funny being in a military town because there were a couple of times where the head of the house brought a rifle to the door. Haha!  You can always tell when they do because they will look out at you through the window in the door and set the gun down behind the door.   But anyway, we knocked doors until 9:00. The last door we knocked, a guy named Brian let us in to pray with him. He is a high school teacher and he was very interested in our message. We prayed with him and set up another time to come back and teach him. All miracles that happen to missionaries, happen between 8:45 PM and 9:00 PM,  when you are really showing the Lord your faith to find.

          We have been teaching a lot more people lately too. It has been great.  I love the members here in Lawton.  There are all different kinds of people in Lawton because of the army.    We have lots of investigators who are getting close to baptism. They each have a few concerns that we still need to find and/or teach to.

          I am looking forward to the spring. At times I miss the Oklahoma summer.    It's good to hear about all the young men preparing to leave on their missions.  How many missionaries are from the Ashland ward?  Is this a new record of missionaries gone from the Ashland ward all at once???      God is in the details of our lives. He really is.                                                                           -Elder Shumway

Very Sad News

Family,

    Something very devastating happened this week. On Friday, February 1st at 8:30 PM, Sister Smith

 (a missionary in our mission)  was hit and killed by a truck while she was riding her bike home from a teaching appointment. I had been her zone leader in Quail Creek for 3 months. She was a great missionary.  She lived in the same apartment complex as us so we saw them a lot.

    Our mission is devastated. Sister Smith was Training a brand-new sister missionary; the only 19 year old sister in our mission. They were assigned to open up a brand new area in Woodward, OK. Everyone feels like this couldn't have happened at a worse time.

     But, President Taylor is an inspired man and I know that those diligent sisters were where the Lord wanted them, and doing what they were supposed to do.

     I just want to ask you to pray for Sister Smith and her family in Arkansas. And also to pray for her companion, Sister Wendel.  Also pray for President and Sister Taylor and all that they are going through. President Taylor has also asked us to pray for the young man who was driving the truck.

 

     I had the opportunity to talk to Sister Smith on Wednesday at transfers. She was so excited to train Sister Wendel and open up a new area.  She is a great missionary and I'm sure that she is still applying the missionary skills that she learned while she was here.

 

     Tomorrow, Tues. the 5th, The whole mission will be gathering in Moore for Sister Smith's memorial service.

 

      I'm glad I was able to serve around Sister Smith. She was a hard worker and she made a big impact in this mission.

 

 

                                                            -Elder Shumway