Hi Lila. My week was great. Yesterday I was able to go to the temple. It was really pretty. I sent mom some pictures. A new sister missionary from PA in your ward that's sweet. Sounds like you had fun with Brooklyn. Love you. 

Elder Shumway

Hi grandma. Don't worry I got your email. Sounds like you had a great
time at he family reunion. I'm sure it is a lot more beautiful and
cooler over there in Idaho. That building is really old. Did the organ
feel different than from playing a computer organ? I'm sure it sounded
different. It probably sounded more authentic. I hope you got a
picture of it at least. I'm sure your bishop was very glad to see the
Dayleys back in town. You have been doing quite a bit of traveling
recently. Are you enjoying your traveling? Love you grandma.
 
Elder Shumway

 This week was amazing. The best part of the week was yesterday when we
went to see the temple. Man it is so beautiful! I will send pictures.
We went with a couple of our investigators. We went with Jon and
Mason. They are both doing great. They both came to church yesterday.
We left for the temple right after church. The drive was about two
hours long. At this time the democratic convention was going on as
well. So there was quite a bit of traffic. Kind of scary too, cause
there's some crazy drivers in Philly and a lot of them.

Also  Fridayy Jon got into an accident in his truck(he is a truck
driver). He got hurt a little bit. He hit his head on the windshield
and now theirs a crack in it(the windshield not his head, just to
clarify). He was taken to the hospital and he was in a lot of pain.
Lori who is a member and also Jon's fiancé called us to give him a
blessing. We came and gave him blessing. I had the opportunity to be
the voice of the blessing. I felt prompted to bless him that he would
be able to come to the open house Sunday with us. And wouldn't you
know he was able to come. He did have to go in a wheelchair during the
tour cause it was hard for him to walk. Also another crazy thing too
is that they took some X-rays and thankfully not a thing was broken in
his body. Just goes to show the power of the priesthood.

Things are going awesome here in PA. I am really enjoying my mission.
I'm so glad that we are getting a temple soon. I wish everybody could
come and see its beauty and feel of its spirit.

Love Elder Shumway

 Mom,

Also I am needing another flash drive. Also if there's anyway you can
get one of these it would be awesome.

I did take pictures of the temple. I will send them today. Mason did
come with us and he thought it was amazing. I would ask him what he
thought of it and others asked him the same and a lot of times he
would say that there's no words to describe it also that he is
speechless. So he really liked it. We had two other people come with
us. We had Jon and Lori come with us. They both enjoyed it as well. I
do like Pottsville. Unfortunately Pottsville isn't a ward, it's a
branch. The branch is small with a lot of older people and not the
best leadership. In the branch they basically just switch around jobs
when it's time. It is awesome to have elder and sister black. They are
super nice and are very wise. And they don't have to follow a bunch of
rules like we do. We see them a lot actually. We see them at least
three times a week. We do our laundry in their building and that's
where we are right now and elder Lake is going to get a haircut from
sister black. So we see them very often.

Thanks for that picture of porter and his parents. Porter is very
skinny. I'm sure that porter enjoys to be home too. It's kind of hard
to see growth in just a picture. He still looks the same to me. Just
skinnier. I remember him being a very soft spoken and it drove me
crazy sometimes when playing tennis with him cause I could not hear
him. From what you're saying he sounds likes he got worse. Seems like
the Derrick family is getting smaller and smaller. They don't need a
large bench anymore.

I have not told her what I have done in family history. I'm trying to
work on not talking about me and talking more about others. Speaking
of temple name I'm sending back mine right now because I'm not doing
anything with them and I figure that they will get done faster if I
send them home. So I'm sending them home today. I hope Jill can get
those names done. How in the world did James get all those names.
Seems like he has a lot of time on his hands.

I would love to see all Chance and Carson in a picture. I haven't seen a picture of
chance for a long time. I'm sure thing will change a lot when I get
home.

Happy birthday to Daren. That's great that Tate has already had a
baptism. That sounds like an experience that he will always remember.
That's great that Brooklyn came over. Thanks for getting Lori's email.
She has always been a very nice person to me.

Yeah Elder Lake doesn't really make emailing a priority on Pday. I try
and email everybody I can. He is also getting pretty trunky. He goes
home in five months and is looking forward to it more than he should
probably.

That sounds like a good responsibility that you gave Carson letting him drive to Thatcher. I'm glad
nothing bad  happened too. I don't know if you would let me do that
when I was his age. Would you?

Wow first day of school today. Summer went by really fast. That's
great that Carson is going to be able to drive to school everyday.
Hopefully that will be a good experience for him. Hopefully the truck
can be in working order soon.

1: I didn't see too much but there was quite a bit of traffic With the Democratic convention. I did
see a plane with a banner following behind it say vote for Hillary!

2: I don't really know a lot about what's going on with the election.
We have been given a rule out here that we are not to talk about
politics at all.

3: We are not fed everyday. We are fed every so often. Haven't had
anything that I don't like.

Love Elder Shumway

It is called a sd to lightning adapter. I'm sure if you just search it it will come up. Also make sure it goes to an iPad mini please.

Also, I've been noticing that I'm not really getting answers to the questions that I write in emails responding to the families. I have questions in there that I really want to know. Can I encourage the family to write me back when I respond to them with questions. Love you

Sam

Thanks for helping Lila with babysitting. I heard you like throwing
knives now. Do you have any pictures of them. Are you starting school
today?

Hi dad. I've been looking at the weather this past week and it does
seem like things are rather warm over there. Try and stay cool the
best you can. Sounds like porter learned a lot on his mission. Also
sounds like he's having a hard time speaking English. I'm sure he'll
get used to it soon enough. I wonder what chance did to hurt himself.
I would love to hear from him and see how he's doing. If you ever get
the opportunity could you let him know that? My week was really great.
The highlight was probably yesterday. The temple is so beautiful and
the spirit is soooooo strong. We had two investigators come with us.
We were going to bring about five more but they canceled on us last
minute which was a bummer. Not too surprised about the Dbacks. Darnell
Docket is back? I guess that makes sense that he wants to retire as a
cardinal. He as there for a long time.
Mason is doing great. He really enjoyed the temple. He said many times
that there are no words to describe how he felt or how beautiful the
temple is. He is progressing. He's been coming to church and we are
still set for the 6th of August. The Humidity isn't that bad right
now. There has been some nice breezes thankfully.
Love Elder Shumway

Mom,
Yep I will be out 11 months tomorrow. It does seem like a long time.
But at the same time it's gone by fast. How do I feel about the time.
Well it still seems like I've got a long way to go, but I have been
here for a while. We did have a pretty awesome week this week. Sorry
you have to start working again. Wow everyone is still sleeping in till 10:30. That must
be nice.

That's interesting about Porter. Seems like he has really changed. I'm
sure he will be able to get used to this again in America. And
hopefully be able to gain some of that weight back. He looks very
skinny from the picture you sent me with coach Jackson and Teryn.
That's good Coach is still awkward. There's some things that never
change.

We actually had to move Noahs baptism to Aug 6 because it worked better for
his family. His mom is doing awesome. She has a calling, she is a
family history consultant and is preparing to go to the temple soon.
Mason is doing well. We had a lesson with him and he desires to be
baptized. However Elder Lake and him have gone through this before
with him several times. Because he has flaked out on the times before.
So we are hoping that this is his time. We set a date for the 6th of
August as well. Wow that is awesome that you are getting my missionary set apart
 blessing prepared. I would love to have it. I don't really remember a lot of
what was said. I do remember that he had forgotten my mission in the
blessing and it took a while for him to remember it.

Well those are the words from a missionary that I know in his district
in Montana that Tate is in. I don't know the specifics but that is what he said. I
have learned a lot from my companions. Elder Lake and I are doing
well. He reminds me a lot of Carson. I don't know if he prepared me
for this companionship. Anyways why he reminds me of him is because he
takes FOREVER in the bathroom and also I wait for him a lot to leave
the apartment. I have not met all of our investigators. Some of our
investigators should be dropped honestly. I do like my area it is
really awesome.

The temple is a little less than two hours away from Pottsville. It is
a beautiful temple. On Sunday it will be my first time seeing it with
my own eyes. I'm very excited. I asked president about how often we
will be able to go and he said that he's been thinking about it and
has been talking to president Winn as well. And they don't have all
the details on that finalized yet, but we will be able to go. The plan
right now is that the temple will invite whole zones to do a session
one day. That's all president really told me. I hope I serve close to
it too. Elder Gibbons is serving in the area where the temple is right
now.

Carsons haircut looks nice. Hopefully he will keep it short. And I'm
sure that he is happy about getting his braces off. That's great that
he got paid and is saving for his mission. I'll encourage him to go to
mission prep. Sounds like he is having a good time dating too. He's
been 16 for almost two months now.

Sounds like Lila is becoming a great dancer. I'm excited to see how
good she is when I get home. That's good she is starting to act older.

Sam does sound a lot like me. He sure is a great kid. How come he
doesn't show his teeth when he smiles?

1: The meeting went well he is an awesome man. I'm really excited for him to be
the mission president. I hope to become good friends with him.
2: Yes I've got all of the packages.
3: Yes I will still get my packages at transfers. We are pretty positive that elder
lake will be transferred. So if he gets transferred we will have to go
to Broomall and I will have to go with him and get my new companion.

I did get grandma poem, it's really great.

Love Elder Shumway

Hi Lila. My week was great. Sounds like your becoming quite a dancer. What is finding dory about? Was it pretty funny? 

Love You, Elder Shumway

Hi grandma. Looks like you all had a real fun time up there in the
cabins. My mom sent me a lot of pictures. It sure sounds like a
beautiful place. Do you think you will go back some day? My mom
mentioned that maybe next time we can go to the beach instead.
 
Living like that sure makes you grateful for what you have. I remember
when I was on the pioneer trek and I felt the same way. I felt very
fortunate to live at this time.
 
My mom told me that Colten, Carson, and Tate got lost. Good thing
everything turned out ok. I'm sure you all were worried about them.
 
Sorry you got so many disgusting jelly beans. I hope to play it here
too with some of the members maybe. Probably won't be able to with
other missionaries cause we are far away from other missionaries and
don't see them very often.
 
Wow those wolf digs sound rather large. Are they really nice or mean?
I'm sure they are there to protect that place. I think Lee would say
yes to Gage's wish.
 
I miss you too grandma. I happy that the family can get together and have fun.
 
Love Elder Shumway
 

Hello family and friends. Hope everybody is staying cool in Arizona.
Heard it's been pretty hot over there. Here in PA it's getting pretty
humid. But I'm not really minding it right now. People here complain
how it's so hot. I think it got up to around 90 or so last week and
people were complaining about it. I thought it was a beautiful day.
People here just don't understand what hot is. But they always say
that we don't have to shovel sunshine. So I think they'd rather it be
hot and humid rather that snowy and cold.

So this week was really great. If you remember when I told you about
our recent convert who is just awesome. Her name is Nicki. She also
has a son named Noah. Noah turned 8 last Saturday and wants to be
baptized. And he has asked me to baptize him! I'm really honored that
he asked me to baptize him. Noah is a really smart kid. He probably
knows the gospel better than me! We don't know when he will be
baptized most likely July 30th just because of some scheduling
conflicts we have to push it back.

Also we had 3 investigators come to church! One of them was a former
investigator who Elder Lake knows. His name is Mason. He's in his
early 20s. He's a really nice guy. He talked to us and says that he
really wants to get baptized and join the church. We told him that we
can definitely help him our with that. We have a lesson with him
tomorrow morning. We should be getting him baptized too. Please pray
for him cause Elder Lake says he's done this before and then backs out
at the last minute. So please pray for him so he can be baptized.

This Wednesday I have my first interview with President Randall. I'm
really excited. I didn't get to talk to him much at zone conference a
few weeks ago so I'm really excited to talk to him and get to know him
some more. Anyways I'll tell you about how it went next week.

Love you all the church is true. The priesthood is restored and there
is a prophet on the earth today. Oh and I don't know if I mentioned
this before. But I'm going to get to go through the Philly temple open
house on the 24th before everyone else. I'm really excited about that.

Love Elder Shumway

Mom
Sure seems like a lot has happened. I did have a pretty great week. I
think they just hang out there in the prison courtyard. There were some guys smoking out
there. So they still do that in prison. I feel fine and safe. The walls are
very very high and are made out of stone. The weather is also very
nice. People think it's hot here but it really isn't. They don't know
what hot is.

That's crazy Porter comes home so soon. I sure his family is very excited.
Yes please get a picture with him. And also chance and Micayla! Wow.
Time just goes by super fast.

I do like the pictures of the reunion thank you. Looked like you all had a good time.
You had mice in your cabin? At least there were no bed bugs. That's really gross. I
found a few mice while I was in Reading. That was really gross. I'd
love to read grandmas EVIT poem about me. That would be scary for Carson, Tate and Colton to get
lost in the woods. I'm glad that they were ok and they weren't forever
lost. I'm sure they were pretty tired once they got back. 10 miles is
a long way. I agree the next reunion should be on the beach. Then you
won't really get lost.

Yep everything is going fine with Elder Lake and I. Speaking of Tate.
I emailed an elder who was in my MTC district and he went to Montana.
He says Tate is in his district right now. I thought that was pretty
cool. Elder Smith who is in Montana said that Tate has a trainer that
isn't one of the best missionaries, if you know what I mean. I'm sure
he will learn a lot from his companions. I know I have. I've forgotten
a lot of stuff that I've watched. Seems like the more longer I'm out
the more I forget about stuff.

Did Skylar go to the Andersons homecoming? That song was awesome. I was in it.
It's actually our mission hymn.

Thanks for helping out Teryn. I'm sure he likes to be around a family
that love each other. I really want him to get on a mission. He needs
to just get out of his house. If I was him I wouldn't be homesick
either.

That was an interesting experience I had with Elder Holden. Well the
woman from California is an active member. But her fiancé is not a
member and he wants to know more about what she believes. So yeah they
are sweet. Also he will be coming with us to the day when we go to the
temple on the 24th. And that car crash was pretty something the spanish elders were in.

 There car got very messed though. It is interesting being on exchanges with Spanish

elders, I don't understand a lot of what's going on. I can pick out
some words and phrases but not much.

Oh so that's why Carson is growling his hair out. It's getting very
long. Has grandpa said anything about it. I know he doesn't like it
when boys have long hair. It's my pleasure for writing grandma. She's
very nice to us. I will continue to write her back.

1: I did not get Cindys package. I hope that I will get it soon.
Hopefully on Wednesday cause we have interviews with President Randall
then.
2: It's quiet at night being next to the prison.
3: I say just send the next package to the mission office, maybe send it in the

beginning of August. Transfers will be the second Tuesday in August.

Love Elder Shumway

Dad,

Everything is going well here. It sure looked like you guys had a fun
time. I did get a lot of pictures from mom. Sorry you have to go back
to work. That's great the truck is improving. Seems like it will be a
great addition to the family fleet. Sorry one of your coworkers passed
away. And also your uncle max. Thankfully we have the knowledge that
death is not the end of life. Man the dbacks are not doing so hot at
all. I heard that Kevin Durrant signed with the Warriors. Is that
true?
Love Elder Shumway

Hey everybody. Hope everybody is having an awesome 4th of July. Well
we got a new mission president last week. He is super awesome. His
name is President Randall. He came with his wife and three of his
kids. They were super funny. We had a zone conference on Wednesday and
they introduced themselves to us and it was super funny. Sister
Randall can be very sarcastic and it is hilarious. I'm super excited
for them to join the best mission in the world.

Something President Anderson would say is that without this mission
there wouldn't be any other mission. How crazy is that? In
Philadelphia the Declaration of Independence was signed as well as the
constitution. Which allows us to worship the way we can. And without
that the church would not be on the earth today. Also in this mission
the priesthood was restored. Which is also very important. So without
this mission there wouldn't be any other mission in the world. I'm
very proud of my mission.

This week I went on back to back exchanges. I went on Wednesday with
Elder Holden and it was my first day taking over the area for the day.
I had only been in this area for about a week and a half. We saw some
great people. On that day we had a pretty sweet experience. So it was
near the end of our day and I had felt impressed to visit a woman who
had just moved into the branch recently who is from California. So we
go over there and she lets us in. She was very nice. She said that she
knows her mother is worried about her going less active and she
promised us that she wouldn't. She also tells us that her fiancé is
actually interested in the church. And she invited us to come over for
dinner on Monday. She also explained to us that she thought it was
weird that we had shown up that night. She said that about 15 minutes
earlier the senior couple missionaries had stopped by and invited her
to the temple open house. And Sister Black (the Blacks are the senior
couple) said that we have two missionaries in the area and they would
love to stop by. And she had no problem with us stopping by. And then 15 minutes later
we knock on her door. It was a really interesting
experience. I know that that experience wasn't a coincidence.
Hopefully something great comes out of this.

The next day I went on exchange with Elder Dennis in Hazleton, PA.
Elder Dennis is a Spanish elder. Earlier that day him and Elder
Withers who is his companion got in a car crash. They were hit from
behind by a tow truck. It hurt their car pretty bad. So for the whole
day Elder Dennis and I were on foot. And since we are in a Spanish
area I have no clue what is going on and I can't talk to anybody which
was very hard. But I've gone on plenty of those exchanges and they are
always fun.

Well that about it. Oh wait no. I forgot to mention that my apartment
is right next to a prison. I will send a picture of the inmates
sitting on the steps.

Love Elder Shumway

Mom.
I haven't really noticed the humidity very much. I think it feels
really nice outside. Idk what I would rather have. Right now it's nice
here. But back home it's nice dry heat. I'm glad that you are still
enjoying the solar. I'm sure it keeps the house nice and cool. Thanks
for the pictures of what you have been doing.

Yeah we do have some things in common. Things are going well. He's not
really that hard of a worker. He does not play ball. We actually are
like really far from any other missionaries to play ball with. So we
are kind of exiled. Elder Lake is a huge nerd. Especially video games.
He just talked about video games all the time. And when I say he talks
he rally talks. He would just talk about a video game for two plus
hours straight. I try and pay attention but it's super boring to me.
And we do live next to a prison. It's pretty interesting. It is a
pretty safe place compared to Wilmington. That picture you saw must
have been old. So we get to our apartment through the back. There's
some steep stairs that we go up. We live on the 2nd floor. It is a
really old town. Lots of old stuff. We are the only two missionaries
in our area. The teaching is going ok. Elder Lake has been kind of
slacking for showing me the area. So I haven't met a lot of our
investigators. Also a lot of them are out of town anyways. We don't
tract a lot because in both of our opinions it's a pretty big waste of
time. I haven't seen any success with it on my mission and neither has
Elder Lake. We want to focus our efforts on working with the members.
Which a whole lot more affective.

That's great that their is a truck at home now. Sounds like a good
project they got going on. I do remember those seats that I use to sit
in. I thought that the truck was red? Did it get repainted? Is Lee
really serious that he wants his truck back?

IDK when I'll get the package. Hopefully sometime soon. You could send
it to the senior couple that is in the branch. I'll ask them if it's
ok first and then I'll give them your address. I don't think it should
be sent to our apartment cause it's not too safe. The senior couple
live in a safer apartment complex.

Our branch member wise who are active is around 60. But there are a
bunch of less active members. It could easily be a ward if everybody
was active. We are invited to more meetings because of how small it
is. The branch also trusts us a lot. I am in her stake again. That
would be sweet if she came up one time.

The other people in the picture is Nicki's sister and brother in law.
Thanks for feeding the sisters there. It's awesome when you are able
to go to someone's house and they have an awesome meal for you. So
thanks for doing that. How did that go? Grandma told me a little bit
about the getaway. Sounds like a lot of fun. You guys will definitely
experience some cooler weather. I need another flash drive cause the
one I bought out here in nearly full and I need another one. I do have
pictures on the other one.

1: I have been able to meet the Randall family. They are sweet.
President Randall is super awesome. Sister Randall is super sarcastic
and funny. They are a lot different from president and sister
Anderson. They also have three kids with them and hey are super cool
too.
2: We will be doing Pday stuff and probably watch fireworks. We also
have an awesome dinner appointment tonight with a recently moved in
member who has a fiancé that is interested in learning more about the
church.

Love Elder Shumway

Hi Lila. My new area is great. Lots of great people here. We try and eat at the sandwich shop once a week or so. Usually we go on Fridays cause they have awesome macaroni and cheese. Elder Lake is doing just fine. Still a huge nerd. I saw that you have been swimming a little bit with Sam, Annie, and Hannah. That looked like a lot of fun. And the pool looks really good too. Looks like a sweet truck. When you get old enough to drive are you gonna drive the truck or the tracker? How was it with the sister missionaries? 

Love Elder Shumway