The News From Oklahoma-  Week Monday Jan 6 to Sunday Jan 12, 2014


 Hi Family and Friends-

Another blog and it hasn't even been 3 months!  Part of my new years resolution.  I'm just letting you read my journal (minus all the names- remember I can't include that).  This is part of my new year's resolutions.  You might decide it's too much to read-  you won't offend me.   But I'll have a great record- with pictures- of some of the things we did.  

Hope everything is OK wherever you are-  we love you - and pray for you.

Love,

Sister Shumway

 Monday Jan 6, 2014-  Mission Leadership Counsel

It was a cold day-  I think our low was 10- and the high in the teens.  School was canceled because of the ice on the roads, so we decided not to do a neighborhood service project, for the first time in months.  The Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders came in a little later, but we enjoyed a nice dinner together and then an evening of training about leadership qualities.  It is such a pleasure to be with such remarkable young people.

 Tuesday Jan 7, 2014-  Mission Leadership Counsel continued

Up at 5:30 for breakfast at 6:45.  Some of the missionaries helped me cook.

We had 5 hours of training this morning- the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders doing most of the training.  It's impressive. 

Lunch at the mission home about 1:30pm.  Then there are just so many details to be taken care of -  things to be sent out to the zones, we always take a picture,  individual interviews for some leaders, and I had a few that needed to talk about medical issues.  This was the first time President Shumway didn't interview all the companionships together- probably the only time that will happen.

Then everyone heads back to their areas-  they are dedicated leaders and they are all determined to help their zones do great missionary work and improve in any way they can.

They love to be together!

Our beautiful missionaries!  We adore them!

Thursday  Jan 9^th 2014- Happy Birthday McKay!!

I was up by 5:30 to be ready to leave for Miami Oklahoma by 7:30.  Got Abby on the bus and made the hour and ½ drive to Miami to spend the day with 3 Sisters- a tri-panionship.  These are some of my best missionary days!  I love it!  We had companionship study and then went out to teach.  These Sisters are on fire!  They have so many investigators right now they are having a hard time teaching all of them.  I got to meet two of them.   One is a new investigator who already has a baptism date.  She prayed for the first time today, with help from one of the Sisters.  She held our hands and afterwards she stood up and hugged us and cried.  The Spirit was bearing witness to all of us of the truthfulness of the Gospel and that the Lord loves her and is so mindful of her.   It is a remarkable thing, a great blessing, to watch the dawn break as the Gospel comes into an investigator’s life.

Friday Jan 10^th 2014

President Shumway and I were up early and off to the Tulsa East Stake Center for our monthly mission broadcast.  This has been one of our creative endeavors.  Just another way to get in front of the missionaries.  The Friday after our Mission Leadership Meetings, the Zone Leaders pull their missionaries together for Zone Training Meeting -  10 zones in 10 different places all over our mission.   After the opening song, prayer and recitations, President Shumway and I speak to all of them via camera on the computer.  I’m going to admit I really don’t even know how they are doing it.  It takes them an hour to set it up, and it always works!  So I guess I don’t need to know-  these missionaries are so smart!

This was a special broadcast to us-  President Shumway and I have been praying and talking and planning.  We are trying to receive some inspiration about how we can move forward now with the 250+ missionaries in the OTM.  The hastening made the size of our force explode.   All of our indicators went up too, but we know we’ve got to be constantly working to help our missionaries  stay strong, obedient and motivated to do the Lord’s work.  Their work  requires huge effort.  They have to want to do it and find joy in it – and they do. 

I spoke about “climbing mountains” and President Shumway spoke about the 5 anchors that get us up the mountain-

1. Put your armour on every day-  obey every rule whether you agree with it or not!

2. Pray constantly and earnestly for the Holy Ghost to be your constant companion.

3. Make your mornings a spiritual experience (get up on time,  use personal and companionship study as a sacred time to prepare)

4. Don’t go in early-  stay out till 9pm  (all your effort-  all day!)

5. Stamp out all negative thinking  (positive thinking-  don’t let Satan  influence your thoughts)

That was the basis of his talk.  He had felt so inspired about these things and also used them in our last zone conference.  They are having a huge impact on our mission already.  We have had dozens of emails from the missionaries telling us of the miracles they are having from doing these things.

One of the sisters yesterday (in the area that is exploding!) on my visit told me she wondered why everyone said missionary work is so hard-  you just do everything you are asked to do and miracles happen every day.  

I had another sister call me to tell me they had decided to be “super obedient” today and make their morning “a spiritual experience”.  They felt directed to follow up with some media referrals and amazing things happened.  One man, whom they had never met before, but at some time had previously had missionary lessons asked them if he could be baptized!  They were thrilled!

I’m so grateful to know this is the Lord’s mission.  If we just will listen, He tells us what to do!

Saturday Jan 11^th 2014

Our preparation day and for the first time in weeks, we actually used it that way- washing our cars, organizing and catching up with some things. 

I got to go with Abby early this morning for a private tumbling and cheerleading lesson.  She has been working out in a gym for the last 4 weeks and is preparing for Jenks High School cheerleading tryouts next month.  She is the cutest cheerleader you’ve ever seen!  I LOVE watching her!  

Found an hour to catch up with some medical issues with the missionaries.   I had spent 3 hours yesterday afternoon sitting at my computer I was so far behind.  Today I can finally see that I might get a handle on this!   This is another thing that makes me so grateful for the Lord’s help.  What do I know!  A missionary calls to tell me what health concern they have, and I just wait and open myself up to the feeling I know will come that tells me to get them right to the Doctor, or to take an ibuprofen and go to bed.  I have to trust that feeling-  it’s always right.

Friday after the broadcast, President Shumway and I went to pick up a man that was supposed to come with us to the mission home for a lesson.  We have been working with him for a very long time.  He wasn’t there-  so disappointing.   But he called me later and again today to tell me he will come to church with us tomorrow.  I’m praying that happens-

Also had a great conversation this morning with Abby’s gym coach about the church.  He said he would like to join us in church tomorrow!   I’m always hopeful.

Sunday Jan 12^th 2014

Well-  my two friends didn’t come to church- I’ll keep working with them!  I went early to pick up a recent convert and her two girls for church.  She wasn’t ready and was very depressed and upset.  She didn’t come to church.   It was our ward conference today and it seemed like every word that was said would have been encouraging and helpful to her.  That’s the way it is- she’ll never know the blessings she missed by not being there.  But I was able to go get her and her girls after church and bring them to the mission home for dinner with the assistants and the one of our senior couples.  (Sister Linda Shumway and her companion had their investigator to dinner again!  So great!)   We watched “The Testaments” with the little girls-  they asked tons of gospel questions- I was so happy-  and the feeling was wonderful.  The recent convert asked President Shumway for a blessing.  She felt much more calm on the way home, and we had a great conversation.  I challenged her to prepare for the temple and she expressed the feeling that she really wants that. 

So, the end of another week, or the beginning, however you look at it.  And this next week is already full of appointments and missionary activities.

Hope your week is great too!  There are always so many blessings in all of our days and weeks!  The Lord loves us and the gospel is true.

 HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE

SHUMWAY FAMILY!

 January 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year!  Hope your holidays were wonderful.  Thank you for the many cards and letters from your families- we loved hearing from you.

Day one of our mission started with us on the run and it has never slowed down, but it seems like the last few months have been turned up even one more notch!  The hastening means moving a little faster and so we're running at top speed!

December 2013 was filled with missionary work and activities.  We had a wonderful zone conference the first week of December.   On our second day we had to pack 7 hours of conference into just a few hours in order to end early and try to beat the ice storms home.  Two very tense hours driving on ice.  The next couple weeks our weather was crazy-  ice and snow and cold.  Abby and Taylor had several days with their schools closed because the roads were so bad.  

This has truly been an Oklahoma winter-  lots of severe weather!  

Oklahoma icy winter wonderland!

Autumn just couldn't let go of this one!  Beautiful!

Bushes in front of the mission home weighed down with ice!

The weight of the ice broke branches all over town and pulled down some power lines.  Some people were out of power for several days.

 The very next Monday we were involved in our Mission Leadership Conference.   Our service project for that conference was to Christmas carol in our neighborhood.  It was bitter cold that night but we had such a wonderful time.   Thirty three missionaries walked through the streets singing Christmas hymns.  We stopped at many doors and gave out Tabernacle Choir Christmas CDs.   There was such a special spirit.  One lady came out on her porch and hugged the Sister missionaries and cried.  Christmas brings out the best in people.   

Our angel Christmas carolers!

December 16th was a special evening filled with sacred music as we went to Jenks High School to hear Taylor perform in the Messiah.  There were two performance.  Taylor sang with the Trojanaires in the first performance and played in the orchestra in the second performance.   We were so proud of him and excited for him the next week when he was chosen to be a dancer and singer in the school musical-  Tarzan.   We can't wait for this!

A special outdoor performance with the Troganaires.  Taylor still has his blonde hair from football-  all the players dyed their hair for the Stake Playoffs.  They won!  Jenks took Stake again this year!

December 17th brought 10 new missionaries to the OTM.  They got in to Tulsa quite late as flights were delayed because of the weather.  They were exhausted!  So we fed them, trained them with lightening speed (I hope they remember any thing at all!) put them in bed and shipped them out the next morning.  Then we spent the day preparing for our returning missionaries who got home in time for Christmas.  Several of them had a little trouble getting home.  Their flights were canceled  when they had a layover in Texas because of the weather in Utah and they ended up staying a night in the Texas Dallas mission home.   Finally they all arrived home safely.  We were relieved.

Our beloved returning missionaries.

New missionaries at Christmas time!

President Shumway and I traveled out twice on two Sundays in December to speak.  We love getting to know the saints around the mission-  all wonderful people.  

And then it was Christmas!  On December 21st Jonathan, Sarah, and their darling boys and Matt arrived in Tulsa to spend the next two weeks with us!    We had so much fun together and we worked them like crazy.  We had given them so much responsibility to help with our special Christmas Zone Conferences.  It was like having extra mission staff for a couple weeks.  We wished they would stay!  But we did take time here and there to enjoy each other and our Christmas eve and Christmas day were very special with family, our two assistants, and our senior office.   On Christmas eve we sang songs, acted out the nativity and enjoyed all the Shumway family Christmas traditions.  On Christmas day we all enjoyed dinner together and were joined by a recent convert and her family.  It was a special day and very relaxed!

Monday Dec 30 through Wednesday Jan 1-   Happy New Year!

What an incredible week.  We traveled around our mission and had a zone conference every day!

This was our special “Christmas”  Zone Conference.  It’s an extra zone conference we have done twice now between Christmas and New Years-  part of our Christmas present for our missionaries.  It’s a time to have some fun with them and also do a little extra training.

We were traveling with Jonathan, Sarah and their four boys,  Matt,  Nathan, JiSoo and their little Jenevi, Abby and Taylor -  and our Assistants.  We had 5 vehicles loaded to the top with boxes and boxes of everything we needed for our conferences, and all our luggage!  It was an adventure!

All the boys were at the church by about 7:00 every morning to set up for the “Mama’s Boys” and I went running to Sam’s club to be there at 7:00am when it opened.  At each conference we fed the missionaries about 45 pizzas plus veggie trays, fruit, cookies and drinks for lunch.

From 9 am to 11am we played games with them-  dodge ball, and minute to win it games.

Then “Mama’s Boys” performed for an hour -  I hope the missionaries enjoyed it, but I loved  it!  It made me so happy to see my family singing and playing together again.

We had an afternoon of training, and then on to the next Zone Conference.  We traveled from Tulsa, OK to Springdale AR and then the last day in Springfield MO. 

We were all so tired when we finally got home on Wed. Jan 1^st at about 11:30pm, but what a week we

had!

January 1^st 2014-  OUR HUMP DAY?   -  Not mine!  I don’t even like the visual image!  A hump is a small thing, it’s easy to get up to the top and easy to get down to the bottom.  I visual my mission as a mountain to climb, and I’m about half way up to the top!  Every day requires my strict attention and all my effort.  I can’t get lazy or complacent.   You have to respect the mountain-  there are rules in nature and if you don’t respect those rules and laws you may suffer severe consequences.  The same on a mission- obedience is a protection for all of us. 

It is important to stay strong to the top of the mountain.   But really, the end goal of reaching the mountain top is not nearly as important as the progress of each individual day.   I’m climbing with other climbers- we are tied together so if one of us slips a little we are all still supported.   My relationship with those other climbers is critical.  We can save each other’s lives. 

We’ll all reach the top of that mountain, and we’ll never forget the time we spent together working toward it. 

Ok- maybe that’s a little silly-  but my mission is a mountain!!

Thursday Jan 2, 2014

We all spent the day re-grouping.  Laundry, some grocery shopping, and Jonathan, Sarah and Matt preparing to leave the next day.  It was our last day together.

Friday Jan 3, 2014

What a melancholy day!  Jonathan, Sarah and kids, and Matt left this morning early to travel back home.  We’ve had two weeks of hard work-  missionary work- and fun together.  It’s just been pure joy for us. 

So it felt pretty sad to hug them goodbye.  They’ve had such an impact on our mission!  Our missionaries loved their wonderful “Mama’s Boys” show.  And missionaries just love to be around a family and we were happy and proud to share ours.

We didn’t have more than a minute or two to be sad.  We had to get right to work.  So much to catch up and we have Mission Leadership Council on Monday!  So we had a meeting with our assistants and then I ran to Sam’s Club and then to the office and met Scott there.  Then home quickly to cook dinner for 15-  we have a senior couple going home tomorrow.  This was their farewell dinner.    They have worked so hard.  Elder _____joined a men’s prayer group that had breakfast once a month and the people in the community- many who had false ideas about Mormons- got to know who Mormons really are and had great respect for these senior missionaries.  They taught many, many people, found less actives, and did countless service projects.   Senior couples have a profound impact on a community because, at least in our mission, they stay in one place and become well known.  People love and respect them, and listen to them.  We are truly going to miss them.

Saturday Jan 4, 2014

A happy missionary day!  A recent convert in our ward, has two sweet little girls, one age 9-and one age 8-  and they were baptized today!  President Shumway baptized the 9 year old and our Bishop baptized her sister.  Another great thing is that four of the mother's friends came who are not members of the church and they are coming to Sacrament Meeting tomorrow for the confirmation! 

After the baptism everyone came to the mission home for BBQ pork – a light supper.  We all enjoyed it and the girls were so excited.  It was a special day.

Sunday Jan 5, 2014

Brrrr!  It is cold here!  It snowed last night and the temperature dropped.  The high was in the 20s and the low is supposed to be about 9 degrees.  Then it will get even colder some time this week and we are looking at freezing rain- again!  This is the craziest weather place.  So much different than our very mild winter last year.

Some of the stakes and wards cancelled their meetings today because of the weather-  the roads are so slick.  And school is cancelled tomorrow-  again.  The buses can’t come into the neighborhoods on the slick roads.  This is our 4^th day missed this year because of weather. 

Our ward did have meetings and I was so glad.  The sweet little girls were able to be confirmed.  Our Bishop gave them beautiful blessings.  It was so rewarding to see this family making some important steps.  It has been such a struggle for them.  It’s taken many missionaries, and many ward members supporting them for every small step they’ve taken. 

Tonight- what has become our tradition for our Sunday dinner-  the office staff, our assistants, and often, our New Haven Elders for dinner.  I love it!  We  also often have an investigator or just someone who needs to be here.  It feels like family around our table and I’m so grateful for that blessing.   Tonight we were minus Sister Linda Shumway and her companion because they were having an investigator come to their apartment for dinner- hurrah for them!  I’m so proud of them-  they are wonderful missionaries!


So that's it for this installment.  I still can't believe anybody really wants to read this- but it's been a good exercise each day for me to record the many things I have to be grateful for.  I'm climbing "the mountain" and I'm loving it!  The gospel is true and any and every effort we make to share it is worth any sacrifice!

With Love,
Sister Shumway

 Ok - here I am again- trying to catch up.  Once in a while I just throw in a few journal entries.  It may not even make sense, but I think it's the best I can do in this state of life I'm in.

 August 26-29th  Our General Authority Visit and Tour
A general authority visit is one of the best things that ever happens in our mission!  The missionaries look forward to it for weeks and they are never disappointed!  Elder and Sister _________(remember I can't use names)  arrived on Monday August 26th, in the evening.  President Shumway and I were thrilled as we had already had an opportunity to get to know them in our pre-mission training and at the Mission President's Seminars.  

 

Thursday September 5, 2013

After 4 days spent on a mission tour with Elder and Sister ______, and Mission Leadership Council Monday and Tuesday of this week, I don’t mind saying I’m a little tired!   President Shumway left Tuesday immediately after our MLC to go out and start his interviews.  He’ll interview all 250 missionaries in the next couple weeks.  Big job and he loves it-  though it is really draining. 

 

Drove out to do some training with two Sisters for a short time and  came back just in time to be here when one of our dear returned missionaries stopped by. Boy do we miss him!  He came with his parents and Grandmother- wonderful people.

Tried to work in some missionary medical work in between all the rest of everything that needed to be done today!

 

9-12-13 to 9-15-13  Mission President's Seminar in San Antonio

Got up at 4am to be at the airport in time for our flight to San Antonio.  I was so tired after only 3 and a half hours of sleep I knew I would have to rely on The Lord to get through the day and it turned out to be such an incredible day.  I hoped I could rest on the plane, but instead - on both legs of our flight I met amazing people who would talk with me about the church.  The first was a lady in Bartlesville and the second a lady in Salem,MO.  Both have seen the missionaries, both would let me send the missionaries.  I had wonderful conversations with them and I was grateful the Lord kept me awake to be a missionary!

Then we arrived in San Antonio and the first thing we did was to go to the temple.  What a beautiful sacred place.   It was such a gift for us to be able to attend the temple again.

We spent the next two days in hours of training-  but it is always a spiritual feast.   We learn so much that helps us in our training of our missionaries and it is a time for us to be buoyed up and prepared to continue our work.  

 

San Antonio Temple

Tuesday September 17, 2013

Got up early and got the kids out the door to school.  Taylor leaves by 5:30 on the days he attends Seminary.  He has been sick for the last two days with a sore throat and fever.  Dr. _______ my dear friend- called him in a prescription while we were gone, so today he is feeling better.  But he didn’t go to Seminary this morning so he left a little after 6 am to be at school for Trojanaires- the show choir at Jenks High School.  I’m so proud of him to be doing this and he really loves it. 

I drove Abby to school by 7;15 and jumped on the Broken Arrow Expressway right by the school to head to _______AR – 2 hour drive- to spend the day working with Sister _______- a Sister Training Leader, and her companion- Sister ___________, our sweet little Spanish speaking missionary.

I talked with them a little- some training, and then we went to lunch, just Wendys and then went out to work for a couple of hours. 

Saw a recently activated Sister who is really struggling.  Her husband's sons (stepsons for her) are moving in.  One is a drug addict and one is a recent convert to the church.  Bad combination.  She was really stressed about it- I would be too.  We shared some scriptures, talked about the blessings of the temple and eternity, and invited her to set a date to be sealed in the temple, which she informed us, she already has!

Then we visited an investigator who seemed very nice as we entered.  The Sisters have taught her several times and I had actually met her before when I worked in the area.  We chatted for a few minutes- she has just spent a couple of weeks in a drug rehab center.  All of a sudden a friend came in the door- a very nice young man.  And then the sister totally changed.  She began to tell us that she could not believe in the Book of Mormon, though she has not read it.  She used the scripture in Revelations about not adding to or taking away from that book of scripture.  We told her she could not judge something she hadn’t read, but she just wanted to argue, so we quit.  Her friend was very nice,  gave his info to Sister _________, and asked us to pray for them before we left!  After I’d left the area, the thought entered my mind that the friend might be the one who had encouraged her to stop investigating the church.  He just seemed too friendly and too quiet while she was blasting us.

It made me sad for both of them.

Thursday September 19, 2013

Special day-  we honored one of our Senior Missionary Couples-   They left the mission field today to return home.  We had a brunch here at the mission home with all the Senior Office Missionaries.  The returning couple were very emotional- Elder_____ sobbed uncontrollably at one point.  I wish all the older couples in the church could have seen that-  his heart is just broken to leave the mission and return home.   They have had such an impact in the small  branch of Pea Ridge-  the branch has grown tremendously and much of it is due to their work with less actives.   We gave them our special gifts and hugged them goodbye- they will be missed!

 Back to work.  Next week is transfer week.  President Shumway is just finishing making all the decisions related to that-  He tries so hard to stay in tune and understand what the Lord wants.  These decisions have far reaching effects- they have to be right.

Then- we have files of incoming missionaries to read-  and so much other planning and preparing to be done.  We’re always ready- just barely in time!

 

Monday September 23, 2013

We are in transfer week mode-  that means running!  Every minute!  So much to do.

We went to the airport 3 times today!  I took Abby to fly out to CA to spend a week with Jonathan and Sarah at Disneyland-  lucky Abby!  Taylor is mad.  Then President and I went two more times- to take missionaries who have been here in the OTM for just a couple months waiting for their Visas to go through for foreign missions.  Amazing how attached we get to them in such a short time-  it’s so hard to let them move on to their next assignment!

In  the middle of all of it, I got a phone call – from an investigator, that I met at the grocery store.  I invited him to come to the mission home way back then, to visit with President Shumway and me about the gospel.  And he did!  We had a wonderful lesson then and he accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon.   Later we visited him in the hospital after he had some surgery.  He’s called us off and on for the last months-  and about a month ago we invited him to come to church.  He said he would but he never showed up.  Today he called me because I had texted him to know if we might go to his visit him.   And today he said yes, but he told me that he no longer had a significant other.  They separated because he told her he wanted to come to church with us and they had a fight about it!   Amazing!  I think he already knows its true.  He is willing to defend the church and he’s never even been!

We had an incredible family home evening tonight.  Our wonderful four assistants- 3 of whom will soon be gone- ate dinner with us and we had family home evening.  They spoke directly to Taylor for half an hour- shared their testimonies of missionary work and told him how they had prepared, and how they wish they had done more to prepare.  They all expressed their love for him.  Taylor was emotional through all of it.  These are his “brothers” and he adores them.  They have been here when we couldn’t have the brothers from home, and they have saved him.  I will never forget them.  They are like our sons and our hearts hurt for them to move on.

Tuesday September 24, 2013

Miracles today!  I got up early, studied, walked on the treadmill and started running!  So much to do to get ready for 20 new missionaries tomorrow.  I was at Walmart getting a few last grocery items and the husband of my wonderful assistant called.  He said she’s been very sick and even had to go to the emergency room for breathing treatments.  She knows how much work this week requires, so she was going to drag herself to work!  I told her to stay home, and then I sat in my car and felt like crying, but only for a second.  The Lord ALWAYS helps when we need him-  and He did!  Over and over a name came in my mind-  a beautiful young returned missionary who doesn’t have a job yet.  I called her-  she was at the mission home within an hour.  We cleaned like crazy for several hours,  and I got a big chunk of the cooking done. 

The Assistants came and took my list of errands that I didn’t have time to finish.  Bless them!

The Senior office Sisters called and offered to help- they are angels.  So here they came at 7pm tonight after putting in a full day at the office.  They helped me prepare some of the Thursday night meal for the returning Elders and then cleaned up all the kitchen mess. 

There is no way I could have done this without help and I know it-  I’m so grateful to the Lord.
 

Wednesday- Friday  September 25-27

More miracles!   That wonderful returned missionary came again and spent 12 hours with me at the mission home!  We ran like crazy, but we got it done. 

Thursday morning I was up at 4:30 to get breakfast ready and  all those new missionaries out on the transfer loop.  We got over to the Tulsa East Stake Center by about 6:45 and then off went the caravan of new missionaries and transferring missionaries.  Then I had another miracle!  Two of our sister missionaries needed a place to be until their new companions came back from being picked up on the transfer loop.  And I had a place for them!  They went back to the mission home with me and all three of us scurried for the next 8 hours to have everything ready for the returning missionaries.  I would have been in so much trouble without their help.  Those two sisters know how to work hard!  And they could see what needed to be done- so nice. 

So it all worked out.  Friday morning we put 11 remarkable missionaries on the plane to return home and took one back to the mission home to meet his parents who were picking him up.  That is always such a joy-  to meet the great parents who prepared a fine missionary. 

Then transfers were over-  and we kept running!  Off to the Mission Office to finish up the last details of transfer week.  For me that means putting pictures on the computer to make a letter to send to the parents, and transferring contact information about returning missionaries to the computer, etc…   And President Shumway just goes on with his work. 

Our FOUR wonderful assistants! 

Our great new missionaries!

Oh do we love these missionaries-  they are finishers!  They stayed to the end and did what the Lord asked them to do!

Beautiful Sisters getting ready for the transfer.

Wonderful member who drives on every transfer loop!

 

Sun just coming up- early on transfer day!

 Taylor is having lots of fun lately-  involved in the Trojanaires-  the Jenks High School Show Choir!

 

Just after a performance-  choir!

 

 

 

Taylor's finished his Eagle Project!   4 tied quilts that went in the "house warming kits"- which were boxes of things that we put together for homeless families to use to get started in their own apartments.  Plus 25 more quilts and tied fleece blankets for the homeless shelter.  Good job Taylor!

Our little Tulsa Family-

Wish I could share every detail of the miracles we see here- some day- when we have more time ....

Love and miss all of you - our dear friends and family!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Hello friends and family-  our August was full and wonderful and already it's September, but I haven't had one minute to prepare a post for September.  We've had so much missionary work to do.  So here are a few entries and I'll catch up sometime soon.

Thursday 7-25-13

I can't believe I forgot to tell you about our wild storm!  The news reports were warning of a severe thunder and lightning storm- and it was!  This is the second time we have had a storm this severe.  The last one was during tornado season.  Lightening here works differently than in Utah.  The entire sky fills with low clouds- it feels like they are sitting right on top of the house, and the lightening begins to circulate around the clouds- not one big bolt, but hundreds of bolts and they just swirl and the rumble is unbelievable!  It was 12:30 in the night and President and I hadn't gone to bed yet.  Abby came down because she was a little agitated by the very loud storm-  the rain was pounding, the wind so bad that the rain was horizontal!  We stood out on the back porch under cover and watched it as long as we dared, squealing when the lightening got too close.  Are we crazy!  Probably, but I've never seen anything like it!

The next day there were downed trees and branches everywhere.  A huge chunk of Tulsa was without power and has been for the last two days.  It's still not all back on.  Our mission office has had no power for the last two days, just got it back this afternoon. 

Our neighborhood was hit by the storm!

 

Noticed the damage in my early morning walk.

                So this morning when I went for my early walk I noticed a rock on the driveway?  But it was moving.  At closer look I could see it was a turtle!  The Elders tell me the turtles always come out after the big rains-  and here he was!
 Oklahoma Tulsa Mission-  OTM-  Oklahoma Turtle Mission!
Just a fun thing to start my day with-  Here he is:

Friday  7-26 13

I traveled a couple of hours away to go on an exchange with one of our Sister Training Leaders-    She is top-notch!  I love going out with her because I feel like I learn so much from watching her.  Some people are just born to be missionaries.

Our first appointment was with a young man they had found in the apartment building right next door.  We were teaching the second lesson and he was so prepared.  He had read the pamphlet the Sister had given him about the restoration.  She asked him what he thought of it and he said he thought the whole country was in a state of apostasy!   Wonderful lesson. 

Just as we finished the lesson it began to rain- to pour!  And we had to walk off the nice dry porch into the rain.  We were soaked by the time we got to the car.  Traveled on to the next appointment and sat on the very tiny porch- outside -  while our single gentlemen sat inside on his couch (those are the rules- we couldn't go inside).  It was so wet!  It took me several hours to completely dry out. 

Later we visited an investigator- woman whose husband is dying of cancer-  you can imagine how she is feeling right now.  We shared parts of Alma 40 with her.  I really believe sometime she will be baptized.

Sunday July 28-13

President Shumway and I traveled to Greenwood AR early in the morning.  Beautiful drive- 72 degrees at 6 am- just perfect.

This area is called Greenwood for a reason- another area of our mission with rolling green- forest covered – hills.  I love traveling around our mission.

We spoke in their sacrament meeting and then stayed for their three hour block and after for several hours to speak in an afternoon fireside they were having for investigators.

The best part of the afternoon was the “linger longer”-  my very first one!  Many of the members of their ward travel in to church from a distance and so if they are going to have youth firesides or any other meetings in the afternoon, they all bring food for their lunch- a huge pot luck- and then have the meeting afterwards. 

We loved getting to know the wonderful members there-  sweet humble people, excited about missionary work. They were so kind to us. 

Monday July 29, 2013  -   Thursday August 1, 2013

Nate, Jisoo, Jenevi and Taylor arrived in the evening.  Taylor had been in Missouri working on President Goodmans ranch.  He learned to be a real cowboy- how to lasso a cow, ride a horse, and do all kinds of ranch work.  He loved it and we were so proud of him to work hard there. 

Nate, Jisoo and Jenevi stayed until Thursday morning.  We loved having them here, and took a few minutes here and there to play with our darling granddaughter.  

Thursday August 1, 2013

The mission home is covered in dust!  Workers have ripped out a hanging cabinet in our kitchen (it made it so we couldn’t see through to the dining room and made the kitchen dark feeling),  installed a sliding door between the kitchen and the living room (so we’ll have more focused and reverent meetings when we have a living room full of missionaries, and someone is working hard in the kitchen to get their next meal ready- lots of noise)  and laid a beautiful new wood floor in the dining room ( the carpet was constantly a mess).   We’re happy for the upgrades!  All of these things will make the mission home more functional.

And- two of our wonderful workers stopped for a moment and listened as we encouraged them to allow the missionaries to come and visit-  both had a first lesson- so far!

President Shumway and I have been working hard today to get ready for the first special Missionary/Member Zone Conferences we are presenting-  there will be nine of them- one for each Zone (Stake).   Our first is tomorrow.  We are so excited about it!  We’ve invited every member in the mission!

Sunday August 11, 2013

The last two weeks have been incredibly busy and very rewarding.

Monday and Tuesday of this week was our monthly  “Mission Leadership Council”  - leadership meeting with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders.  This group is getting bigger and bigger- 24 of them now plus our four assistants.  It’s a very busy 24 hours and I love it!  These are such fine missionaries-  more than that, they are my dear friends and I look forward to seeing them so much. 

Once again, in the afternoon as they come in and take turns with their interviews with President Shumway, the others did service. They helped Taylor tie a couple more quilts for the homeless shelter here in Tulsa (still trying to finish his Eagle Project).  Seven of the Elders went across the street in their service clothes and weeded some beds to help our neighbor.  The beds were full of poison oak, poison ivy and poison sumac.  I was very worried that one of them would get some of that poison on them, but we had taken precautions-  rubber gloves- and we made them shower afterwards and send their clothes straight to me in the laundry room where they were washed immediately.  I prayed they’d all be ok- and they were.  Our neighbor was very grateful.

Our service project-  weeding in the poison ivy!

More quilts for Taylor's Eagle Project.  Taylor is instructing us!

I love our Sisters!

The final product!

Awesome Taylor with one of our great missionaries!

Mission Leadership Council - August 2013 at the Mission Home

This was registration week at school – so we spent some hours taking care of all that for Abby and Taylor.  It included drug testing and a complete physical for Taylor so he can play football.

The Friday morning after our Mission Leadership Council is always Zone Training Meetings around the mission.  Each set of Zone leaders gathers their Zone and trains on what we have discussed at the Mission Leadership Council.  This is not a meeting that we have attended in the past, but President Shumway felt inspired a couple of months ago that we should work out a way to broadcast a “President’s Message”  from one of the Stake Centers here in Tulsa to the rest of the zones in their Stake Centers around the mission.  We have been doing it for the last several months.  It gives us one more opportunity each month to get in front of our missionaries and do some teaching, training or instruction of some kind.  President and I each speak for about 10 minutes.  This Friday was our first broadcast with no technical problems at all- everyone got it and heard it.  We were so grateful!   The Lord has blessed us to have such smart missionaries that can take all these ideas and make them work!

SPECIAL MISSIONARY/MEMBER ZONE CONFERENCES

Friday night August 9, we traveled to Rogers AR for our third Special Zone Conference.  Another inspired idea.  After the remarkable Worldwide Missionary Conference,  President Shumway felt directed that we needed to capitalize on the tremendous enthusiasm for missionary work that was felt after that meeting.  So we are having a Zone Conference in each Stake-  9 of them.  The members are all invited!  We are loving it!

Our theme is “We are One!  - taken from the Broadcast and we spend two hours in each conference learning how we can do that.

We have an incredible choir in each conference made up of the missionaries and the young men and young women in that stake.  When they sing “Called to Serve” together, there is such power! 

We also sing a special arrangement of “I’ll go where you want me to go”,

Our area seventy is speaking at all the conferences he is able- so far all three of them.   President Shumway does some training-  side by side discussions with a Bishop, a ward mission leader and a missionary.  We show a couple of videos from the “Hastening” site on LDS.org. and do some training in regards to those.

This has been one of the best things we have participated in-  we can tell it is making a difference.  We love these members and we want them to feel confident to do this great work with us.

TONIGHT-  SUNDAY AUGUST 11, 2013

Another Missonary Youth Fireside here at the mission home.  We have done nearly 20 of them.  This was our biggest group ever- 40 youth.  We really had to pack them in.  We’ve done this so many times now, we know what we want to do with it and we can just enjoy the experience.  There is always such a great spirit in the mission home as we spend the evening with them.  They want to serve, want to do what’s right.  We can feel it. 
Taylor starts football tomorrow.  Abby will go to Grand Lake with the youth in our ward and President Shumway and I will feverishly work tomorrow to be ready for 18 new missionaries coming on Wed. and all that goes with “transfer” week.

WE LOVE OUR MISSION!  This is absolutely one of the greatest things I’ve ever been involved in-  it’s the Lord’s work!

Any of you who are ready to serve are welcome in the OTM!

We need Senior missionaries- we could use 40 of you-  we’d put you all to work in the wonderful branches and wards around our mission and you would change lives-  including yours.  Please come!!

Monday August 19, 2013

Last week was transfer week-  18 new missionaries in-  16 returned home.  It is always the most taxing thing we do-  lots of energy required to feed, train, and move many missionaries around our big mission. 

Yesterday-  we held our 6^th special missionary/member conference in St. Robert, MO.  It was a remarkable conference.   I began to gather some of the youth into the cultural hall for our brief choir practice one hour before the meeting.  We have typically had about 40 or 50 youth (sometimes more or less) participate in these stake choirs plus all of our missionaries that are in that zone/stake.   This time, they just kept pouring through the doors- it was astounding!  More than a hundred youth from their stake came to participate!  We couldn’t put them all on the stand in the chapel-  most of them had to be down in the first rows of the chapel.  It was an incredible sight and sound!  The Lord has raised up a righteous generation to prepare for the 2^nd coming and I am glad I am here to see it!  They are everywhere!

An incredible group of youth!  They all came to sing and catch the missionary spirit!

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TUESDAY AUGUST 20, 2013

I have had a remarkable day today.  I traveled out to work with a Sister Training Leader and her companion,  a new sister- still in training.    There are only 3 active member families in the area they are working in, and the Sisters said they were struggling a little to get things going.  They are living with a member family who are great people, so that is good, but the Bishop had asked them to find the less actives and bring them back-  and there are dozens on the list they had.

The Sisters were feeling quite overwhelmed and needed some encouragement. 

So we split up and we went out to work.

The Sister Training Leader and I went to find a less active sister.  She was out in her garden and was not too happy to see us.  She told us she didn’t have time to talk.  We learned that she came from Laos but is Hmong.  We followed her toward the house just visiting and at some point she liked us enough to invite us in to her home.  There we met 5 of her 7 children from 3 different fathers.  It was a very dysfunctional family.  She is living with a man, the father of the last baby- 9 months old. 

She let us have an opening prayer and then we began to share the lesson that the Sister missionary had prepared.  The woman and her boyfriend went to get their scriptures-  they had copies of the Book of Mormon in Hmong!  We had a brief lesson where they mostly just listened-  it was pretty obvious that most of it wasn’t sinking in.  I think the language barrier was more than we realized.  But somewhere in all of that she looked at us and realized we were Mormons!  She said she had thought we were just some nice Christian ladies come to visit.  She became animated and told us how dear her Mormon friends in Wisconsin were to her.  She said she had been attending a Christian church in town because she couldn’t find the Mormon church.  But yes, now that she knew there was one, she would come!  And yes, she would like to know other latter day saints in the area. 

The only child in the family that has been baptized is her 18 year old son- he wasn’t there at the time.  So there is a whole family of people who need to hear the lessons and be baptized, and there is a marriage that needs to take place, etc…  Lots of work for the sisters!  A very productive visit.

Next we went to another less active sister-  she broke my heart.  She has had a very difficult life and continues to struggle with some things.  She needs friends and the "good word of God".   But I also felt strongly to tell her that the Lord needed HER!  Her town would some day have it’s own branch and then ward-  the Church would need teachers and Primary Presidents and Relief Society Presidents.  The Lord needed her to come back and help build the Kingdom, to come back and find peace and receive the blessings that would come to her family from living the gospel.

After those two visits we went back to the Sister’s home- they are living with members.  The member had fixed us a nice lunch and afterwards I tried to locate some of the sister’s less actives on facebook-  I can do that, they cant- yet.  I had my Ipad with me and I was actually able to find a couple for them-  new addresses, etc…

I felt inspired to tell the Sisters that if they would invite these less actives to come to a dinner, a party, a Relief Society enrichment activity, and then keep inviting them to activities and help them get to know each other-  things would start to grow.  They could help the area establish it's own “family” feeling and someday they will be a branch and then a ward.  I felt so excited about it.  I know the Lord will help them find these people.

The Sisters got excited as we talked about it and we all felt the wonderful feeling that comes from knowing we are on the right path and doing what the Lord wants us to do.

Thursday August 22, 2013
I've been scurrying around all day- trying to get ready for our general authority visit.  There is so much to do!  He will arrive Monday night and we will have a three day tour of our mission-  it will be so great for our missionaries and for us too!

So - that's the end of this post- I always get it done about one month after it happens, but it's fun for me to reread what I wrote back then- seems like a year ago!  I feel like we are traveling in some "other worldly" time zone-  where days fly by so fast I never know what day of the week it is!  It always feels like either Saturday or Sunday!

We love this work!  We love the people here, and we love the Lord.  The OTM is a great place to be!
Love, Sister Shumway