Sorry to hear that your spring break went by really fast. Seems like
you guys had a lot of fun though. My week went pretty well. I am
staying warm. I think this last week will be the last cold week we
have hopefully. I'm ready for spring and not having to wear a sweater
anymore. In this next month or so I will be sending more warm things
home.

It did surprise me that you were with Lori. It made my day. She is
very nice. I hope she's doing well. What did you guys talk about? She
is very nice and funny. Yes they do have Elder Tuttle in their area
now. I wonder how he is now. I've never served around him so I don't
know how he is. Yeah she does call me Elder Russell. I guess she
thinks I look like him. I'm excited for them to move to California,
then we can visit them more! Yeah Jon and Elder Lake would talk about
video games a lot and me and Lori would just talk. I did get the
picture from both you and Lori. It made my day.

Knottsberry farms looked like a lot of fun. I would have loved to have
gone on the fun rides. I do enjoy roller coasters. Lila told me about
a few in her email. Seems like they were a lot of fun. She said that
Sam was the one that was chickening out on a lot of them.

The beach looked like a lot of fun. Even though it was cold I'm glad
you guys had fun. What was the temperature like? I remember the last
time I went to San Diego there was a lot of seals around and they did
not smell very good. I would love to go with you guys when I get home.
Sounds like the boys didn't have a lot of responsibility. How many
days where you in California. Good thing you guys didn't get totally
lost on the way home. I love the pictures already. You guys looked
like you were having a lot of fun. I'm sure it was a lot less
stressful with a smaller family.

I remember going to the Mormon battalion. I think a Shumway was in the
Mormon battalion. I think he was just a private though.

I'm sure Courtney did great on her talk. Sounds like my other cousins
are doing ok. Hopefully Blake and Ashley can find good significant
others.

Sorry to hear about Paul. I have no idea how he is doing. I sent him a
letter a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I have been using the wrong
mailing address. If you could give this to him that would be awesome.
The address is: 26 N Ladow Ave Apt 12-C Millville, NJ 08332. I know he
deals with depression. He'd always ask Elder Fifita and I to pray for
him, I didn't know he hurt his back. I miss him a lot. He's one person
that I am going to continue in staying in contact with when I get
home.

Yes Armando is going to be baptized this Saturday. I'm really excited
for him! The one in the video is not him. There's a missionary and his
name is Elder Soto and the other young man is Alonzo. He is an awesome
young member who comes out with us all the time. So we are actually
trying to change plans for the baptisms. Robert is living with his
girlfriend right now and so we had the idea of having them be married
on the 15th and then he would be baptized the next day which would be
Easter. So far they say that's ok with them. Ishmael would be baptized
on Easter too.

I'm glad you got the names I sent you. Hopefully you can get them
done. There are some baptisms there so hopefully Lila can do those. I
also have two male names with baptisms needed and I'm going to go to
the temple April 8th and get them done then.

Seems like Sister Whis is feeling better. Sorry to hear about Daisy.
There's not much we can do. I'm sure there's a lot of excitement
waiting for both of those calls. I'm excited for them too.

Car issues are not fun. Hopefully everything will go back to normal
and there will be no more car problems.

Yes I did run out of time to send out a weekly email. I'll be sure to
send one out today. Yep 2 weeks until General Conference! I'm really
excited for that! Yesterday was Grandma and Grandpa Shumway's
anniversary! Wow that's great. They were amazing people and I miss
them a lot. They were great examples to all of us.

Love Elder Shumway

Happy Monday everybody. Sorry I didn't get a letter out last week. But
I am sending one out today. We have been very busy these last couple
of weeks. We have some great investigators who are progressing very
well. Armondo who is the 12 year old will be getting baptized this
Saturday. We are also working with 2 other men. One who's name is
Robert. He is a very prepared man. The only problem is he needs to get
married to his girlfriend who he is living with. The other man we are
working with is a man named Ishmael. He is also a great guy. He's come
to church these last two sundays and loves it. He also loves how his
name is in the Book of Mormon. He is progressing very well. But yeah
that's all of our investigators who are progressing with a date.

That's my report for this week. Hope everybody is doing well and
staying cool. Here it has been pretty cold. I'm trying to stay warm.

Love Elder Shumway


Hi dad. It sure looks like you had a lot of fun in California. It was
foggy huh? I think it would be a whole lot of fun to go again when I
get home. Lori is really awesome. I miss her. Yeah she does have a
loud voice and she doesn't care either. I'm glad I was able to meet
her and I do think she will be a life log friend as well as Jon. Hope
you have fun in your meeting. Talk to you later

Hello. My day is going pretty good. Right now I'm sitting in a barber
shop in Vineland watching my companion get a haircut. Sounds like
wonderful weather over there. Here it's a little chilly. Tomorrow
there's supposed to be some snow. Mom sent me a few videos of tanner
and cooper. It was the first time I've ever heard tanner talk.

I'm sure Courtney is very glad to be home. In America we definitely
take for granted the luxuries that we have. Sounds like she had a
great time on her mission.

Mom has told me that you guys are going to California and gonna have a
lot of fun. So I actually met Vai Sikahema yesterday. He gave me his
football card and signed it. He is the stake president of the cherry
hill, New Jersey stake. Things are going smooth here in the area. We
will be having a baptism in about 2 weeks. Hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Shumway

Hello. Thanks for getting me an awesome email so early in the day.
Spring break! How long is spring break? 1 week? 2 weeks? When are you
heading to California? You guys are gonna have a lot of fun. I'm sure
it will be a little weird just having 4 people around. Man Lila and
Sam sure are good readers. The TV went out? Do you know why?
Telestrations  is a really fun game.

Thanks for the update on the Corbitt family. They all seem to be
growing up. Nick and Luke are getting married! Wow. I wish them luck
and hope they will be happy together.

Last week was super hectic. It was very hard to leave Cambridge.
Doesn't look like I'm going to go back. I was hoping that I might. I'm
most likely going to be staying here in Vineland. I am glad I got to
say goodbye to Paul though. He is one of my favorites. I wrote him a
letter last week to see how he is doing and I haven't gotten a
response back yet. I know one of the Elders that's there and he's
really awesome. I don't know his companion very well. Thanks for
sending off the package to Paul. I'm sure he will love it. I did get
the picture of the package items. The thank you notes for the other
people will be great. Thank you for doing that. We do live in a pretty
nice place. We will be moving in with the Spanish elders at the end of
the month and their apartment is in Vineland. I couldn't tell you the
exact address right now.

Yes it has been very cold. We are supposed to get a lot of snow tomorrow
 too. Not looking forward to that. I've been staying pretty
warm. The snow doesn't really stick to the roads very well here.
Hopefully that stays the same tomorrow.

Thanks for the awesome videos. I think that was the first time ever
that I heard tanner talk. Yeah I'm not sure why you can't send longer
videos. I can send pretty long ones to you. You might want to try and
sending it through the computer.

My new area is pretty good. Lot going on. I usually like it. Yeah we
were having a lot of fun last week. We went to the zoo. We are
teaching a young man who's name is Armando. He is the son of a member
who is returning to church. He's a sweet kid. He will be baptized once
25th. We also have two others on date for April 15. A man named
Ishmael and a man named Robert. Robert is awesome he is very prepared
and we did some family history work with him this last week. He knows
a lot about his family which is good. Ishmael is a referral we got
from the Spanish elders. He's a nice man. He's going through a lot
right now cause his brother is in the hospital and is expected to die
anytime soon.

What did you and Sister Beaudette talk about? That's great about
Spencer and James. I'm sure their moms are counting down.

Have a fun time in California. Drive safe. Thanks for the updates on
Sister Whis and the dogs. Live you.

Love Elder Shumway

Hello everybody. Elder Shumway here. I am writing this email in
Vineland, New Jersey. Pretty hectic week this week. Last Thursday we
get a call from our mission president and he informs us that we need
to pack up our things and we are both being emergency transferred.
Elder Fifita was to go with some elders in cherry hill, New Jersey and
I will be transferred to Vineland, New Jersey. The reason this
happened is a missionary was going home early and someone needed to
take his place. I was the one that was chosen to fill his place. So my
new companions name is Elder Martinez. He is from San Bernardino,
California. This transfer is his last transfer as a missionary. But it
has been good these past few days being here.

On Thursday night Elder Martinez told me that we would be going to the
temple Friday morning. I was really glad cause I haven't been to the
temple since I was in the MTC. And it was a really good time. I really
enjoyed being in the temple.

We have some great investigators. We have a 12 year old boy who's name
is Armando and is set for a baptismal date for the 25th. We have
another guy who's name is Robert and he is really awesome. He loves
coming to church and I'm pretty confident that he will be baptized
sometime soon.

So another crazy thing that happened was we got locked out of our
apartment. We locked the keys inside and didn't have an extra key. So
Saturday night we slept at some other Elders apartment. We went to
church  Sunday and a member had offered to help us by using his
ladder to get into our apartment. So that what we did. After we had
finished, thankfully there was a window open, we were in our apartment
and we look outside and see a few police cars and we believe that they
are for us. So we go out and talk to them explaining what we were
doing and that we are not burglars and we live here. Thankfully
everything turned out ok and they left.

But yeah everything is good for me. It's been very cold. Hopefully
spring will be here soon.

Love Elder Shumway

Yes I have had an exciting week! Paul did have something to say. Yes
we did have a sudden(emergency) transfer. Right now I am in Millville,
New Jersey, but the area that I am serving in is the Vineland, New
Jersey area.

My companion is Elder Martinez. I honestly was not very happy when I
found out I was going to be his companion. When I was in Pottsville he
was one of our leaders and I had a few times of being with him and
there's just some things that he did that rubbed me wrong. I think he
has calmed down a lot now because he is no longer a leader. I am in
the Vineland ward. The district name is the Linwood district I think.
My address is So my address is actually 12 N Ladow Ave Apt C Millville, 
New Jersey 08332. We have an
apartment. It's pretty nice, almost as nice as the one in Cambridge.
We had a pretty interesting experience last night with our apartment
that I will mention in my weekly email. The Fletcher's live in
Bayview, Delaware. This is Elder Martinez' last transfer. He is from
San Bernardino, California(and you can definitely tell he is from
California).

I have been pretty upset/sad that I had to leave Cambridge. We didn't
really even have a chance to say goodbye to people. Didn't get any
pictures with them either. Except for Paul I got one with him. This
might be my last area of my mission. I'm not sure. If it is I will be
staying here for 6 months.

I will miss Paul a lot too. I am going to be sending him letters
though. We were so close to getting Mexican food. I was really looking
forward to that. I'm sure it was hard on him sometimes that he had to
feed Elder Fifita. He was really nice to us. I'm sure he will be
blessed for it. I think he would like getting another chilis gift
card. He would love some towels. I also mentioned to him a while ago
that you make aprons and he loves aprons. So if you are able to I'm
sure he'd love to have an apron. I am probably going to miss Paul the
most. I don't know exactly who the new missionaries will be. I have
some guesses but I'm not sure. I think it will be where someone will
train a new missionary. I do think I have made a life long friend with
Paul. He kept telling me that.

Jon and Lori told me they were moving to California at the end of the
year. I was pretty excited that they were cause then I can be closer
to them. I feel bad that Jin is by himself too. I've sent him a letter
and am waiting for a response back from him. Elder Ostrom will be
transferred out of Pottsville Tuesday.

Yeah I have no idea what going to happen with Sister Russell. The new
missionaries will get to deal with her.

Elder Fifita is going home Tuesday and so these last few days he has
been staying with the Elders in cherry hill, New Jersey until he goes
home. He is very excited to go home.

Jed's gonna get hi call this week! Awesome! Teryn finally responded to
my email that I sent him a few weeks ago asking him to update me on
his mission call stuff. He said his papers have been submitted. Really
excited for him.

I'm sure everybody had a great time with Courtney coming him. I loved
the brief message that you sent from her. I probably will try and be
the last one. Yeah I don't really get sad for those types of videos. I
wish she actually could have said hi.

Sounds like a fun trip to California. I'm sure you guys will have a
great time. Yeah I don't think it is that smart to sleep in the back
of a truck in a church parking lot.

Thanks for the awesome pictures. Things are a lot more organized in
the shed now. So how come all you videos are so short? I see other
missionaries with videos from their families that are a few minutes
long.

Glad everybody is busy with scouts and winning third place at the
science fair.I enjoy writing Grandma back. She is always so nice to us and the least that we
could do is write her back and tell her thank you.

Love Elder Shumway

Yes very big surprise for me. Everything is going pretty well. It was
very hectic that day that we got the call. Elder Fifita will be
heading home Tuesday I hope all goes well for him too. Teryn also
told me he had sent in his mission papers. I'm really curious to see
where he will go and how he does. That's awesome for Jed. Sounds like
some exciting times for the ward. Mom sent me a short video of Carson
being called over the microphone. Glad he is doing well and is helping
his teammates out. I also wonder how the tennis team is doing. You
probably won't recognize anyone on the team. And I also heard that
coach Jackson is no longer there. Yeah our apartment is pretty nice.
But we are probably going to be moving out of it at the end of the
month and moving in with the Spanish elders in Vineland. We are moving
out cause a senior couple will be coming in and living here. Here it's
not very green right now. It has been very cold too. I really want
spring to come soon. I am still a regular missionary and that's the
way I like it. My shirts are fitting just fine, thank you though.
Today we are planning to go to the zoo with some other elders. Have no
idea where it is though. We can play basketball if we wanted to. The
new ward is pretty nice. We get fed pretty well. The ward has a lot of
old people.

Love Elder Shumway

Hi Lila. Good to hear from you. Seems like you have been doing well. Mom told me that you got 3rd place at the science fair. That's awesome! Sounds like you had a good time at the color run event. My week has been a little hectic but everything has been ok.

Love Elder Shumway