Mom,
Good morning. Yep April has sure has gone by quick. I'm really looking
forward to Mother's Day as well. My week was pretty good. Bro Wright
is doing okay. He's worked a lot this week and he works in southern
Delaware. He said he was coming to church but he'd be a little late.
Unfortunately he wasn't able to make it at all. So that was a bummer.
I thought sister Cathey had MS? He will not come back before he dies.
Bro Trice doesn't want to fight it anymore. Which means he's done
living and just wants to go home cause he's been in the hospital for
months and is in a lot of pain. We are still visiting them but it
doesn't look like the baptism won't happen on this side of the veil.

Yep Mothers day is coming fast. My new apt is about 14 minutes away so about 3
miles. The building is nice. A lot nicer than the one we are in right
now. We have not found any bed bugs or bed bug bites. It is getting
warmer. We do have a dryer so I can put all my things in there to make sure the bugs dont follow us. For
the package you could just send it to our apartment address. It will
probably be right at our door and safe too.

Well I'm actually an AP. That's why I'm standing next to president in the picture.
That meeting was super great. The district leaders were trained on a
lot of things. There are a lot of awesome elders in that group.

Those are some good men in the bishopric Bro Johnson and Bro Gale. I'm not surprised that Chance
has gained some weight. I'm sure he's trying to lose it soon. He's
also coming home super soon. So is porter and Brandon. That's crazy.
Member involvement is huge in bringing back members of the ward who
are less active. Some people think that it's just the missionaries
job, but it is not. We are here to help the ward. It's not the other
way around. So president Derrick is right you guys need to get to
work. I'm super disappointed that bishop carpenter is no longer my
bishop. I'm gonna miss him. Which ordination is this for Teryn?

Church is still at 2pm huh? Is that a good thing? Do you wish it was
earlier. Here we have church at 9:30 which is sort of nice. Except
when our ward mission leader wants to meet with us at7Am before
ward council. We've stopped that cause it was really hard. Especially
when we were sleeping on the floor. So we've moved that meeting to
Saturday nights now. Maybe you'll finally go back into relief society.
I remember you said that you wish you could go back in there. Maybe
this is you're chance. Maybe dad will get called into the young men's
because of Carson or Sam who is not to far away from it.

That's awesome that Tate will soon get his mission call. If you could
please take a video of it and send it to me. I'm sure you know that I
like watching those kind of videos. And the same for Colton. I'm glad
things are going well and that dad is feeling better. I hope it
continues to be like that. Carson looks like he's playing hard in
those pictures. I do pray that she will recover

1: No I dont need the Ensign that's ok cause I have the gospel library app on my iPad which
has all the conference talks.
2: I do not know what apartment the marijuana is coming from.
3: There are members in my apt building but they don't want anything to do with the church anymore.

Love you too
Elder Shumway
P.S. I'm not actually an AP I was just kidding.

Good afternoon everybody. So this week was pretty great. So in explanation of my title, on Tuesday we had a super busy day. We went out with our ward mission leader and taught a lot of lessons and also getting in some less active hunting. We had no money and no food and we hadn't had lunch so we asked if he could get us lunch and so we went to this awesome cheese steak place, we have been there before and it was super good. So this time it was also super good. Later we went on splits with some brothers in the ward. Elder Gibbons went with the former bishop of the ward and I went with the current stake president. We both had a very successful night. The when we get back and meet up Elder Gibbons has cheese steaks in his hands for dinner which was bought for us cause we still had no food or money. So we had cheese steaks for lunch and dinner, but I'm not complaining they were super good. And the next day some members took us out to five guys, so we have been eating super healthy this week.

Brother Trice is not doing so well. He has decided that he is done and doesn't want to fight anymore. So once the infection is cleared up the decision is to take him home and let him pass there. So the baptism will probably not happen. But it will happen.Sister Trice has told us that it will get  done in the temple.

We haven't seen brother Wright this week. He works a lot in southern Delaware. He also wasn't able to make it to church. He is still doing well though. We are brainstorming what days would work best for us and him to go to the temple. We are thinking the second week in may would work. So hopefully we can get him to the temple then.

That's pretty much it. The work is picking up a lot we are seeing a lot of miracles happen and I am excited to see what is in store for this area. 

Love Elder Shumway

Dad,

Hello. Yes I do have leadership role. I am a district leader here in Wilmington, Delaware. I told mom that I was an AP since I was standing next to president. Sorry you had to sit in those hard metal chairs during stake conference. Yeah I know who the counselors are in the bishopric. Those are really great men. Especially Brother Gale. I didn't know that Bro Rudd was a counselor in the Coronado 2nd ward. That's great the Dbacks are doing better. I didn't know that they got new uniforms. Any chance that you could send me a picture of them? Ooh that's too bad for the warriors. How long is he going to be out for? How did he hurt himself? Mom told me that Tate is waiting for his call to come. That's exciting. Hopefully you do get to go and watch him open it. yeah he should just worry about those sort of things when he gets back home from his mission. I'm sure he'll succeed at anything he does. I'm sure he's excited to graduate in the next little while. I remember I was.

Love Elder Shumway

Sam,

Hi Sam. Wow only 20 days left of school. That is super sad. Don't you wish it was more? So you got monk dvds huh? Why do we have to get a new DVD player? How come you are changing TV providers? Is Dish kind of getting old? Man getting all this new stuff for your feet and it's not even your birthday! I will be safe and conquer.

love elder Shumway

Mom,
Woah that's super disappointing. Things sure are changing. We are now
Coronado 3rd. That sure is different. It will be interesting to see
who is in our ward now. Hopefully some nice people. Will you still
have 2pm church? I'm sad that we no longer have those people in our
ward. What's Bishop Boman like? I assume he used to be in the Coronado
2nd ward. Our ward boundaries is a lot smaller, and they were small
before it split. I guess the church is growing a lot in our stake. So
do you know where the new stake will be and what it will be called? It
will be different coming home to a somewhat different ward.

Seems like Andrew might be a little lonely. I wish he would've stayed
on his mission. Hopefully he can find some friends and a job and go to
school. I wish I could help him out more. That's so mean that you told
Carson to do that! But I'm sure you had things to do and he stayed
there long enough. I wish he would get his license. That would help
him.

So we have not gotten into our new apartment yet. We were told that we
will be moving in May 1. So we have moved back into our apartment.
Elder Gibbons got a couple of bites but we think it was a spider bite
not a bed bug bite because it swelled up a lot. I haven't gotten any
bites of any kind so that's good. We haven't seen any bed bugs either.
We found out that the Philadelphia area is #2 in the nation for bed
bugs, Detroit is #1. We might be rid of them finally. We still have an
occasional marijuana smell and also cigarette smoke smell. This
apartment will be an interesting memory. The new apartment will be
much better I'm sure. Elder Gibbons does not like the our apartment at
all. He has super bad allergies and spring is in the air and there's a
lot of pollen in our apartment for some reason. It hasn't bothered me
too much.

My white shirts are holding up pretty well. I have gotten a few
marks/stain on a few so those will be sweater shirts. I have not grown
in height. I've grown the opposite of height. I'm sure you understand.

Wow that is super sad. Now he is no longer suffering and is now
glorified and doesn't have any more disabilities. So what's wrong with
Sam? How come his feet hurt?

That's cheese steak was really good. I'll send a picture will my face
in it. I'll send you a picture of our zone.

Yeah Brother Wright is awesome. Yesterday he met with Bishop to talk
with him. I'm not sure what about, I'm sure we will find out. He
probably wants to just get some things straitened out. He did come to
church and I got to sit next to him. So weeks ago we knock on his door
and call him and he was always out of town. Then a week or so ago he
calls us and wants to set up an appointment. And he's ready to come
back and be active in the church. So the man in the hospital. His name
is Harry Trice, he has ALS which is Lou Gehrig's disease and he has it
really bad. His wife is also excommunicated and he's usually always
out of it and he can't talk so we basically just teach her. He didn't
look very good the last time we visited. She says that she's pretty
sure that he's going to pass away here. I hope she's wrong. We are
trying to "teach" him as fast as we can cause that's what the stake
president in Dover, Delaware said needs to happen before he can get
baptized again. We are hoping that it could happen this weekend. But
he might pass before then. So yeah that's the story so far.

1: My feet are fine. No ingrown toenails recently. I had a few in the
beginning of my mission. My shoes are getting a little beaten up. But
that's good. I want my shoes to look that way.
2: They have been feeding us. I wish they would feed us more. The
Spanish Elders get fed practically every single day and they are in a
branch! And we have a ward full or rich lawyers. Doesn't really make
much sense to me. But that's okay, I can afford to miss a few meals.
3: Our new address on May 1 will be 1504 N Broom St Apartment 6
Wilmington, DE.

Love Elder Shumway

I forgot to ask, how is Sister Slade doing? Haven't heard anything
about her for a while.

Wow where did the time go? I've been out for 8 months now. It's crazy
how time just flies by on your mission. I will be out for a year in
four months. It's starting to get warmer here. I think winter is
behind us. In the past Elder Gibbons has had really bad allergies and
this year is no different. Spring is definitely in the air. Lots of
sneezing and itchy eyes for him. But for me it hasn't really taken
affect yet. Thankfully he bought some Claritin which helps a lot.

So for an apartment update. We have moved back into our old apartment
just to see if we still have bed bugs or not. So we move in and the
first night Elder Gibbons has two bites on his arm. We don't think
they were from a bed bug because his arm swelled up pretty well and
bed bug bites usually don't do that. Thankfully I have not been bitten
at all. I must have sour blood or something and Elder Gibbons' blood
is sweet.

So last week I mentioned an excommunicated couple who want us to meet
with them. So we saw them about three times this week. I said that he
had ALS and for those of you who don't know what that is it is Lou
Gehrig's disease. I don't know all what it does to somebody's body,
but it is not good. He has it really bad. He also has a trache in and
he can't talk which makes communication next to impossible. Thankfully
he grew up in the church and even went on a mission so I'm sure he
already knows a lot about the gospel. We are trying to get through the
lessons soon because his wife said he is getting worse and worse and
could possibly pass away soon. So he right now is our first priority
when it comes to teaching somebody. Hopefully he can hang on for a
week of two so we can get him baptized. But if it doesn't happen in
this life the family has plans to do it in the temple.

An update on Brother Wright who is this super awesome guy who has been
less active for years and wants to come back. He came to church last
week and everything went well. We will continue to work with him. We
are trying to get him ready for the temple which will most likely
happen in a few weeks.

So that's about it. We are busy and working hard and trying our best
to invite people to come unto Christ.

Love Elder Shumway

Dad
Mom did fill me in on it. Our ward will definitely be a lot different and we are losing a lot of awesome people. But this is kind of a good thing, it shows that the church is growing and this way we will be able to meet new people and gain new friendships. I'm sure there will be some people you only miss a little. That's good for Carson to have more young men that go to Williams field. It will sure be interesting who will be their other stake president and also what it will be called. Oh yeah happy anniversary the other day. Ooo yeah you should probably make that up to her. I guess you guys went and mowed lawns that day too. Is it getting hot enough to go swimming yet? I can see the baseball standings, doesn't look like Arizona is doing too good. Our living conditions have improved recently so that is good. Love you too.

Hey Lila. Didn't we get put into a different ward? Is the water cold? Did you guys do anything for mom and dad's anniversary? My week went pretty good. Haven't gotten bitten by any bed bugs. Love you too

Hi Carson, nice job at volleyball and at all those wins. How did chase
get hurt? You'll do great at setting. Good luck with combs and
Benjamin Franklin. Why are you playing them? I thought they were a
charter school? Hope your doing good too.

Mom

AH darn! I'm sure it was an awesome letter that you deleted before you sent. That's good that dad was awake the whole time during the conference. Well it's not too surprising to me that the sister get to help with the temple opening cause sisters are a lot more effective than elders. It's really interesting how there is a big difference between how elders and sisters do missionary work and who gets more success. If you go to when Elder Holland had that face to face for the young adults he says that one sister is just effective as five elders. So it practically doctrine. But we elders have accepted it and there's like nothing we can do about it.

Elder Gibbons tries to play basketball. He isn't very good. He says in Canada that sports aren't as important as they are in America. He never really grew up playing a sport. He's also super uncoordinated. They do play basketball but they have stuff to improve on. We play ball every now and then which is a bummer. I wish I could just go by my self. But I can't. Our companionship is doing well. We are just super different and have different personalities and stuff like that. But that's pretty much everyone of my companions. We are all super different. Lila sure does take it seriously. I'm glad she does. I love hearing from her.

Ok so bed bugs. We found another one in the  spanish elders apartment a couple of days ago which will hopefully be the last one, hopefully. The good thing is none of us have been bitten in a while. And we are never going to go back into that apartment to sleep. I start to itch when I come in too. It's horrible. And the marijuana smell is still there. That's a good idea to get a blow dryer, I think I will. We already did send our suits to the dry cleaner but we are probably going to do it one more time cause it's been a couple of weeks since then. How much money do I have on the card? I've used it a couple of times for bed bug stuff. 

Well that's missionary work for you not to answer the door when you knock. People can be very rude sometimes. And when that situation comes I would usually just keep knocking until someone comes to the door cause I know someone is home. 

Well I would like another pair of pants and some socks for my birthday. Eventually I will need another sweater, but that can wait for at least after summer. Other than that I will take anything. If the thing you bought is something I already have what should I do? I'm referring to a gps. Idk if that's the thing that they suggested, if it is I already have one. I inherited it from elder Murphy. It's crazy that I am almost 19. It's my last year of being a teenager! That's super weird. I am glad that the age changed to 18 cause I would just soon be leaving if it hadn't. 

Yep less than a month till Mother's Day. I'm really excited too. I know your anniversary is coming up. 22 years is a long time. Is that all your going to do for your anniversary? Mow lawns? 

Wow those are super sad stories. I really liked Darens friend Danny he was a cool guy. I wish I could've got to know him more. I've met people here on my mission like that and I love talking with them. And that's super sad about shelly. Will there be a funeral? 

1: We went online. But we found the one we are going to move into through a member in Newark, Delaware. 

2: The mission has plenty of furniture for us. 

3: Tracking?

Love you too

Elder Shumway

Hey how come Cindy hasn't written me in a while. I'm really missing her letters

Hello Dad. It's been raining over here quite a bit, it's actually been
snowing too. It snowed for a couple of hours on Saturday.  But hardly
any of it stuck to the ground. Mostly just cars and a little on the
grass. That sounds like a fun day. And a day full of nice weather.
Mmmmm yum ribs. I haven't had ribs in a while. I do get a steak every
single week here though. Good job for Luke Corbitt. Has he decided to go on a
mission? I remember he was pretty against going. There going to split
the stake on Sunday? That is quite a change. We will still probably have
president Derrick as our stake President right? So how do you think
it's going to be split?

Those darn Dbacks. I got to watch a little bit of a mets and phillies
game. The Phillies were struggling. Hopefully he dbacks will get back
on track and start winning some more. That's super awesome for the
Warriors. They'll probably beat the record. They will probably win the
championship. Thanks for being so nice to Teryn. I'm sure he is having
a rough time. He needs to get on a mission and forget about home.
That's sad that the girl didn't say yes.

I never would have guessed that you were all excited for Mother's Day.
I'm really excited too. Is church still at 2:00pm? We'll have to
figure out a good time. Carson can just drive the tracker. He should get a
job. It would be good for him. I'll keep up the good work.

Elder Shumway

Hi Lila. We have one but we haven't moved in yet. We are hoping that
we will soon. We are teaching some new people. We are teaching a less
active man named Brother Wright. He is super awesome. He really wants
to get back to church and eventually got to the temple. Not only did
it rain over here it snowed over here. I just ate a really good cheese
steak. Hey don't worry about school summer is on its way soon. That's
awesome that you went to Kammys bridal shower. When will she be
getting married? What did you learn on the ukulele?
Love Elder Shumway

Well as you can see from the title the bed bug still lives. So last
Monday was the final treatment for our apartment and after that we
could move back in and the bed bugs would be gone. So we were like
yay!!! So we move back in there and the first night Elder Gibbons has
one bite from some sort of bug. So we say we will give it one more
night. So we do and the next morning this is Wednesday morning we both
wake up with several bites. So we were then just done with this
apartment. So we said we are never going to sleep here again. So we
tell our leaders and they say to move back into the Spanish Elders'
apartment and this time we are super careful about moving back in. We
sanitized everything super well. We also were told that we would now
be moving apartments. So this week we've spent some time
apartment/house shopping. We've found some nice and reasonable places,
unfortunately the decision is not for us to make. But pretty much
anything else would be better than that apartment.

So other than that we watched conference and it was great. There were
some amazing talks and messages given. Also the church is adding four
new temples! That is super awesome. As far as teaching goes it's been
a little slow again with this bed bug catastrophe. We were able to
teach one of our new investigators. She is from a part member family.
She lives with her grandma who a member and gets sick a lot. We found
her by doing a stop by with bro finch our ward mission leader. She had
taken the missionary discussions in the past but nothing really
happened because of it and after we taught her this week I can kind of
understand. I say this because she told us that she does not believe
in God. So because of that belief it is really hard to teach her. So
we will see what happens with her.

Sorry this email couldn't be a little longer. Once we get our new
apartment we will be a lot more busy. Love you all. The church is true
there is a prophet on the earth today and he is being led by God. I
know it. It's been reassured to me by the spirit this past weekend. I
love our prophet President Thomas S Monson.

Love Elder Shumway


Conference was really great. It's crazy how I've already gone through
two conferences on my mission. I've only got two more left! No m&ms game?
That's okay we didn't do that either. There were a lot of great talks.
That talk on fathers was really good. Are you referring to the one
from elder Christofferson? Dad is great. He probably fell asleep
during that talk right? Four more temples! That's awesome. And there
in some pretty far away places. One of my favorite parts about
conference is when temples are announced. It's such a blessing to have
the temple near you. Unfortunately I probably won't be in Philly when
the temple is dedicated because all the sisters are supposed to help
with the tours for the open house. I guess we aren't pretty enough. I
have a feeling I'm going to stay here for a while.

Yep the Michael Jackson sure is an interesting house. She's a huge fan! Even after he's
dead. She will hopefully come to church. She just needs a ride cause
she doesn't have a car.

I do love to play basketball. It was really hard to say no. I got the
package and thank you for it. Elder Gibbons said that now he is super
prepared to go on many trails because of all the trail mix. Thank you
Sam for the money. I love getting money. I don't care if Sam has
boring stuff to tell me I will read it and respond to him. That's
awesome that Lila is doing that. Her letters seem to get longer and
longer.

The spanish elder don't have bed bugs anymore thankfully. They haven't been bitten in a
while and they haven't seen any either. What we've been doing is
drying our clothes and that kills them. I won't need to buy new
bedding cause I can just dry them. Our plan right now is we are
definitely going to be moving. We've been looking around recently and
have requested some to the mission. We will see what they say. It's
super uncomfortable to sleep on the floor. Especially with nothing
else. So our apartment....so they sprayed for the last time and said
that everything is good and that we can move back into our apartment
and that the bugs should be gone. So we were like sweet! So we move in
and the first night elder Gibbons has a bite. We gave it one more
night and I wake up with more bites and so does he. So we move back
into the Spanish elders apartment and we are super carful not
transferring them again. Then later we go back to our apartment and
begin cleaning it thinking that we might get rid of them by cleaning
like crazy. While we were cleaning we found a bed bug that was alive.
So obviously the treatment did not work and they are still here. So we
tell the mission office and everything and they said that we are just
going to move. We gave the apartment office the termination order and
said that we would be moving soon. So yeah that's basically what's
happened this whole week is just dealing with this problem.

That's super nice that you invited the sisters over for dinner. It's the best
when we have dinner at a members house. Nice you get to go on splits!
Have fun! Splits with members are the best! And it's not really that
hard. I mean I do it everyday. Well not splits but I do do missionary
work which is what you will do. Yum venezias! Sorry to hear about
Carson didn't like the hot wings. Hopefully he will feel better.

Yeah I'm super disappointed that I don't know how to cut my hair. From
now on I'll just have another person do it and not me.

Actually this transfer I am staying in Wilmington and I'm staying with
Elder Gibbons.

1: We went to a members house and ate their food for Easter.
2: I am able to take more pictures.
3: Most of the sessions we watched it in the church. The last session
we were able to go to a members house.

Love you


Hello Lila. My week was pretty good. You probably did well on those tests. Sorry to hear about your crazy scary teacher. Just remember that after this year of school you will probably never have to deal with him again. The Papas moved to Colorado? What is infection? I remember shin splits. They are super painful. That sounds like a pretty cool movie. Would you go see it again? I loved General conference. Everything was really great. I really liked President Nelsons talk in priesthood session. I am not getting a new companion. Love you too.

Carson, 
The tracker still isn't starting yet? Are you going to get a new
battery? Are they going to get the truck? Sounds like a pretty sweet
truck. Also super old. Good luck with volleyball.

Dad
Conference was indeed great. I did get to watch all of it. It
definitely gives you a boost. Did you fix all the problems in the
Nissan? Are you going to get a new battery for the tracker? The pool
got used? It is pretty hot over there already. Sounds like some good
food at venezias. Haha that's a funny story of you getting pooped on by a bird.
 Seems like this sort of
thing happens to you. You either fall on your back or your already on
your back and people laugh and no one helps. I'm sure it was super
funny. That to bad about AJ. Is Patrick Corbin back? How's Goldschmidt
doing? We've found a few potential apartments, but it's not really our
decision. Transfers I am staying here with elder Gibbons.