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
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