Aug 31

Dad

Yep only one more day. I am so excited! So much has happened this week. I was able to give my first blessing. It was to one of our Elders in our district. His name is Elder Gutierrez. He was not feeling very good Saturday night, his stomach hurt a lot and he had a headache and he asked me to give him a blessing. I gave him one and after that we went to bed. The next day he told me that he felt a lot better and after we went to bed he fell right asleep and had slept very well. 

Good for Lila on getting her teeth pulled out. Hopefully she will recover quickly. Bowling sounds like a lot of fun. Glad the Neuwielers move went well on Saturday

. Hopefully they will come back. Good for Carson to get up and go to Randolph, that place has a spirit a lot like the MTC, it is very special. I did hear about Sister Slade hopefully she can recover soon. Great to hear that the young men got to speak and sing on Sunday, they are a good bunch of young men.  

Thanks for all the great Emails dad keep them coming. Love Elder Shumway

Aug 31

I have one more day. I am so excited to get on a plane and go to the city of brotherly love. I've learned so much by being here. I've made many friends and I hope to continue in that friendship. There are a total of 10 Elders going to Philly. All of them are great missionaries and they will do awesome. Unfortunately we have no sisters :(

I cant wait to meet my mission president. I hope to have a great relationship with him. I hope our meal tomorrow will taste a lot better than the food here. Hopefully it will be Philly Cheese stakes.  I know the plane ride will be fun because this group has a lot of humor in it. I'll probably be very tired in the morning cause we have to be at the travel office at the MTC at 5:30 in the morning.

Today for the last day at the MTC we all decided to wear blazers. We all looked pretty tacky but it was a lot of fun. Here's a pic:

Aug 31

Mom

I am excited too. I have one more day! The flight was great it was a different feeling, one that I have never felt before. I'll be sure to call, it will probably in the morning so be ready. Good for Carson that he got up all by himself, he's getting so big ;). I haven't gotten any packages recently and haven't received the $20 yet either. Thanks for the package from you and Lila, every time I get a package or a letter it seems to me that the stress level goes down, so I really appreciate that.I'll send you my address once i get to my first area. I found Caleb (Elder Call) just by walking down the hallway and I saw Scottie (Elder Brown) when we were walking from the temple and he was walking to the temple. 

That's to bad about Sis Slade, I hope she gets better and thank goodness it wasn't a stroke. I will keep here in my prayers. Sorry everything is so quiet at home. I guess you'll have to get used to it. To bad about Tate's injury he is a tough guy, i'll keep him in my prayers too. I know he will bounce back. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers that are given towards me. Here in the MTC missionaries say that when your name tag on you shirt is a little crooked or a little out of place it means someone is thinking about you.

I'm glad that you are glad and I love you too. Love Elder Shumway.

Aug 25

Dad
Your letter made me want to go swimming. I have talked with Elder Brown and Elder Call, it was so great to see them. I too wish the food was better. That Barro's pizza sounded really good. My companion is from Washington state. District Leader duties are going well. My District is just awesome. Thanks for telling me about sports. We don't really get much news that goes on in the outside world. Sorry the tracker won't start. I got to go to the Templetmorning. But unfortunately I fell asleep almost the whole time because i'm so exhausted. Thanks for all the letters and keep them coming because I love to get them.(This letter was sent to Rick)

Aug 25
Hey everybody it's your favorite missionary in the whole world. It's Elder Shumway! Things have been great here at the MTC.

Monday night me and my companion, Elder Weston, taught our first true investigator. It went really well. She accepted to read the book of mormon and pray about it. These past few days have been really stressful. We really don't have a lot of freetime. We have class for hours each day. I am so glad I'm only here for 2 weeks and not 9 weeks cause I think I would go crazy!! I also hardly get any sleep. Most days I get about 7 hours of sleep. On a lucky day i will get about 8. And now that I am district leader I have to go to a few meetings early in the morning. And always feeling the spirit also drains my energy and just makes me exhausted.  

In one week I will be on a plane bound for Philadelphia!! I wouldn't mind just leaving today. I'm so glad I don't have to learn a language. Good old English is good enough for me. I hope everybody is doing great. I have had so many great experiences here at the MTC. I cant wait until I tell you stories about people that I will be serving. 

Tonight we are having a devotional and a general authority is supposed to come and speak to us. Don't know who it is yet, I hope its Elder Holland. During that devotional i'll get to sing cause I am in the choir. It will be so loud cause about 1000 missionaries are singing in it. 

Aug 25

Mom
I did get those donuts mom and they were delicious. I'm mainly just eating more fruit, which isn't as gross. I will be leavingt. My flight is from SLC strait to Philadelphia. I'm planning to buy a phone card soon. I'm sorry the blueberry wont start, it must miss me a lot. And I am receiving those letters and I am so glad to get them. It's always exciting to find mail in the mail box. As district leader I am actually in charge of getting the mail, so I'm always the first one to see it. In one week I will be in philly and I can't wait. I finally got to see Elder Brown and Elder Call and I have pictures too. Ill send those in the group letter. Oh and tell sam that the tp is like sandpaper, but i'm tough and I can handle it.

                                                                Aug 21, 2015
Hey parents and family. Hope everybody is doing great. I hope school and work is also going great. I miss you a lot and I miss my home but I know that I need to stay here. This place is amazing!!! The spirit is so strong!! Everybody is so kind!! I'm still getting used to being called Elder all the time as well as calling everybody sisters and Elders. My District is so great we all get along and our really starting to bond. Tonight we get to go to the gym and play ball. Hopefully I can show them my basketball skills. Tuesday we'll be able to go to the temple and I'm really looking forward to that. 

I think I have prayed more times than I can count these past couple of days. I have studied the scriptures so much. Our classes are awesome we are really learning how to teach with the spirit. We have great teachers. They are pretty new but they are great. My companion is Elder Weston. He is really quiet and doesn't say much but hopefully he can start talking more and getting out of his shell. Till now I have not found Caleb (Elder Call) or Scottie (Elder Brown). Caleb was not able to escort me unfortunately. Hopefully I can find them.

I love you all, be safe and don't worry about me I'm fine.

                                                                  Aug 21, 2015
Hey Everybody this is Elder Shumway. This is my first week in the MTC. You can definitely feel the spirit tremendously here. We have been very busy here going to classes and preparing lessons. My companion is great his name is Elder Weston. Things are going really well with me and him. My District is pretty much the best District in the MTC in my opinion. We have four sisters who are all going to Tallahassee Florida. There are a total of six Elders. Four of them are going to Philadelphia and two Elders who are going to Billings Montana. We really have a great time. We laugh a lot and make jokes. We have only been together for only a few days but we are really getting to know each other a lot better and really grow in our friendships. The food here is really bad in my opinion. I try to eat as little as possible just so I can kind of feel full. I really haven't been getting to much sleep here because we have so little time to ourselves. But I am really enjoying myself here.

Something happened Thursday night which I was not expecting. We all had a meeting as a zone and each of us bore our testimonies and told everybody about us and where we are from and where we are going to serve our mission. Then we were interviewed by a member of the presidency. I must have done really well on both cause I was made district leader!!!!! I was not expecting to be one. Now my responsibility just got a little more increased. 

Today we are supposed to prepare a lesson and teach an investigator. I hope that goes well. This morning we were assigned to do service but once we got to where we were assigned all of it was already done so that was really awesome. 

The spirit is so strong here. Being a missionary for only a few days I can really feel myself changing. Last night when I was going to bear my testimony I had the whole thing planned out and I go up there and the stuff I was going to say wasn't even what I said. I know that the spirit was telling me what to say and obviously I listened cause now I'm a district leader. I love you all. I know this church is true and the Holy Ghost does help us when we need it.

P.S. I will send some pictures next time I email. :) 

April 16, 2015  It finally came.  After checking the box 3 times Braden's mission call is here.  We cannot wait for him to open it.

The next day Braden invites friends and family to watch him open his call.  So many people came to support him. 

Our family

 The moment he is reading his call.  

Philadelphia, PA

What is amazing about this call is that his cousin Skyler Shumway just got back 6 month earlier from that mission.  Also Uncle Grant served in the same mission in the late 80's.

The Dayley Family

Lots of friends

Braden and Jimmy Carpenter-  Braden spent many hours working with Jimmy during the summer.  He would help Jimmy spray for bug for Ancor Pest Control

The Girls

The Dayley cousins