Hello everybody. Hope everybody had a great week this past week. I had
a great one. We were able to be instructed and taught by Elder Cordon
of the seventy. He's a fairly recently called seventy, he was called
in the April 2016 conference. He taught us some great things. We had a
great discussion. He introduced two questions to discuss. The
questions were, who are we? And what are we called to do? He shared
some great insight. I liked how he talked about how we need to be sons
and daughters of God and not of men. Referring to the natural man
which is an enemy to God.

This weekend was stake conference which was awesome cause I got to go
down to Reading, PA and see some of the members in my first area. It
was great to see them. I am so blessed to be in such great areas with
great people. I'm grateful for their examples and their friendship
towards me.Saturday night there was an adult session at the stake
conference. Jon was asked to say the closing prayer and he did really
great. We were really proud of him.

This week we also set a baptismal date for sister Gibson. I don't
think I've mentioned her. She is a lady who called up our branch
president and wanted to come to church but she needed a ride. A ride
was able to be provided and she came to church and loved it. We were
able to get her contact info and have met with her twice already and
she has a baptismal date for the 10th of December. Please keep her in
your prayers. She is reading the Book of Mormon and is keeping her
commitments. She is doing great.


Love all of you hope you have a great week this week. Don't be afraid
to email me back, I will respond.

Love Elder Shumway

Mom,
Yes another week has flown by. I have no idea how many weeks I've been
out either. I think I have less than 40 left though. I'm sure you will
be counting down soon enough. Miss you too. My week was pretty good.
It is getting colder over here but it's live able for now. I'm glad
that there is still no snow on the ground. The reaction to the
election here is mainly positive. Here in the rural area of PA there
is a lot and I mean a lot of trump supporters. I'm sure in places like
Philly there's more Hillary supporters because of the big city.
Unfortunately we aren't allowed to talk about politics like at all
with people which is a bummer. But it also causes a lot less stress
probably. Yeah I heard there has been some rioting in Philly don't
know the specifics though.

Sounds like you had a very busy week. Thanks for all of the pictures I
got. I really like it when it happens. So Lila is now 14 that's crazy.
I'm sure you were SUPER COOL at the birthday party. So McCall got
married huh? That's great. Tell her congrats from me if you already
haven't. I'm sure Lila really appreciated you giving her some advice
on some dance moves. You are an amazing dancer!

How did chandlers farewell go? I'm sure he did great. How did the
primary program go? Also the lunch with the Dayley family? Where you
able to get your new phone?

That's a lot of money. I'm sure Carson was not happy about payingfor driving school and accident.
Maybe that will teach him to be more careful on the roads. The brakes
aren't working at all on the Tracker? That's strange, I hope dad can fix it. That's
surprising to hear that coming from Carson that he likes the Tracker. What changed his mind? I do
not know how to drive stick, I've never done it before.

So this weekend was stake conference. So church was technically in
Reading. Which is a little bit of a drive away and none of our
investigators wanted to drive all that way. So no one came. The lady
that came to church last week, her name is sister Gibson. She's really
awesome. We've been able to meet with her twice and set her with a
baptismal date for  December. So she has members of her family who
are members of the church and she has always admired them. She has
always been interested in religion and has grown up catholic. She says
that she doesn't agree with some teaching in that church and thought
she might try going to the Mormon church. She somehow got the number
to our branch president and wanted to come to church. So she came and
loved it. Thankfully no one said anything stupid in fast and testimony
meeting, usually someone does. She loved the meeting and the people
and the branch fellowshipped her really well.

Thanks for letting porter derrick know I want to hear from him. I sometimes think about him and wonder
how he's doing. Along with other people who I have hardly heard from
like Braxton and chance. I'm sure there are many more people that I
can't think of right now.

The meeting with the general authority was great. He is a newly called
general authority, he was called in April of 2016. He is from
Guatemala and English is not his first language. He had a very think
Hispanic accent. He wanted to speak Spanish with the Spanish
missionaries. The main thing he talked about with us where two
questions. First is, who are we? And what are we called to do? We had
a great discussion about those questions.

That sounds like a great story about the WF football team being such great sports. I like it when
I hear good stories like that. They let you know that there are still
good people in the world. I will be anticipating that picture.

One other thing that I need are razors. Now please don't get me
disposable ones. They don't get the job done anymore unfortunately. My
facial hair is gaining in abundance. So I need Gillette fusion pro
glide razors. They are a little more expensive but they get the job
done. That's what I've basically been using my whole mission and they
have been working great. I'll see if I can think of one more thing
before you send it. Yep I saw the wojcickis yesterday at stake
conference. I loved it. Especially seeing a lot of familiar faces.
That missionary I was standing next to is probably one of my most
favorite missionaries ever. That's Elder smith. Not my former
companion another missionary. Him and I cam our together. He's
awesome.

That's really sad news about sister whiz. How is the family taking it?
Have they gotten the news yet of what stage it's in? Keep me updated
with this. I will keep her in my prayers.

You have a great week too.

Love Elder Shumway

Dad

Good morning. Lila is now 14 years old. She sure does look different in the pictures you send me. Mom did fill me in on the party. Mom said Lila wanted you and mom to be there because you were cool. I remember getting all that free food on my birthday too. That was a lot of fun. What did Lila get for her birthday? Any gifts?

I heard from mom and grandma that chandler did well on his talk. He sure had a great topic to speak on. I hope he does well over there in Texas. 

Thanks for all your hard work on the tracker. Hopefully it will soon be back to normal. 

Primary programs are great. The spirit is always there and can bring myself to tears. I'm sure you and Sam did great in the program. 

Yep sister wojcicki sent that yesterday. We were door greeters/program passerouters. Here I don't do it a lot mainly cause of the size of our building. It's super small and usually we are in meetings before church starts. The mission I think does. I've seen other missionaries with young men and women. But they've only been with missionaries in leadership positions. 

Thanks for all the sport updates. Hopefully the diamondbacks can get things rolling with here new guys in charge. I hope they keep goldschmidt. He is a really good player and seems to have good morals. Hopefully the cardinals can finish strong the rest of the season.

We have one woman who we are teaching and have set a date with. Her name is sister Gibson. She came to church last week and loved it. She has a baptismal date for December 10th. We do teach new member lessons. Mainly to Rochelle and Jon right now. They are both doing well.

I'll see what I can do for the PA shirt.

Love Elder Shumway