Good afternoon everybody. Hopefully everybody is staying warm. I
definitely trying to stay warm. It has been super cold this past week.
With the windchill it gotten down to negative 10 or so. Right now it
is snowing. Even though it's super pretty and fun, it's super cold and
windy. But it's supposed to warm back up these next couple of weeks.

I found out Saturday that I'm gonna be transferred. That is super
sad. I don't want to be transferred. This area is awesome and so is
the ward. Hopefully my next area will be just as great as this one.
This week we have been pretty busy. A couple times this week we helped
clean out a house. This house is for another companionship of elders.
There are gonna be two more Spanish elders in our zone in Reading. We
could us it cause there are so many people here that only speak
Spanish. I wish I payed attention more in Spanish class.

So kind of funny story, well at least for me it is. We got a referral
the other day for a guy named Chris. So we call him and ask if we
could come over, he said that's fine. So we start heading over there
and then realize that he isn't in our area. So we called the zone
leaders to see if it was ok to go over and see him. They said that
would be ok. So we go and introduce ourselves. We start talking to him
and say who we are and he says he already know that we are
missionaries. Then he says that the sisters in that area have already
been talking with him. Then he tells us that he is already a member!
Then something really weird happened, Chris starts to call somebody.
They answer and he talks to them for a little bit then he hands the
phone to me. I answer and then I'm speaking with missionaries in
Virginia! They said that they sent that refers and wanted to make sure
that we found Chris. I told him that we found him and that he's gonna
be ok. I probably broke some sort of rule. So we call the zone leaders
and tell them what happened after we left Chris' house. They said that
it was ok, I didn't know who I was going to talk to on the phone.

Another kind of funny story. So we got a referral from the zone
leaders. They referred a guy named Jayson to us. They told us that
he's super solid and wants to learn about the gospel. The only thing
is that he is deaf. So last night we went and tried to go find him. We
go there and we are invited in. We found Jason, but something was
different, we realized that he could hear just fine! We asked him if
you were the Jayson that was deaf, he told us no that's someone else.
So instead of leaving and saying we will come back later we taught
home the restoration. He told us that a lot of hard things have been
happening in his life. We promised him that the message we share will
help him. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and also invited
him that when he knows that it is true to be baptized by someone
holding the proper priesthood authority. He accepted! Maybe we were
just meant to find this Jayson. Unfortunately I won't be able to see
him progress. But that ok they Lord needs me somewhere else in the
mission.

I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through a
prophet of God. That prophet is Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of
Mormon is true and is the word of God. And I am so grateful I get to
share this with these people here in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia
mission!!

Love Elder Shumway