The last "weekly" Inbox Lila Shumway Mon, Jan 1, 3:18 PM (2 days ago) to me Hey everyone! You might notice from the title that this will be my last email (sorry I wasn't ever very good at writing weekly haha) but I thought I'd give you all a little update and a brief overview of my mission and what I have learned! UPDATE: I have been transferred from Lawrence:((( it was so heart wrenching to leave lawrence. I served there for 4 transfers and the people there really had become my second family. It was especially hard to leave Terry. I had helped Terry learn about the restored Gospel and be baptized! We had become such close friends. My birthday was on one of my last days in Lawrence and also fell on stake conference day! Terry came to stake conference! We had a lunch with all of the other missionaries in the stake, the stake presidency and their families, we invited Terry to come to! And much to my embarrassment, everyone sang happy birthday to me. And I looked over to Terry and he was crying while he sang. I have grown to love Terry so much and it's an incredible feeling to realize the role I have played in his life too. Terry is definitely the biggest reason I needed to come to Kansas. But now I am in Salina, Kansas with Sister Hunting!! And she is a party! We have been working so hard here in Salina and it's been great! Here's a story: so last week, a member from our ward gave us a laundry basket full of Pepsi and told us to find someone to give it to (😕?!) And of course we can't say no. So on Friday, I curb checked so hard in our equinox and totally destroyed our tire (embarrassing I know). But a lot of good things came from this! We called the elders in our district to come help us change our tire. As they helped us, one of their friends they were teaching saw them! This friend had been difficult to contact for the elders, but when he saw them helping us change the tire, he texted them and set up an appointment! Also, we went to get our tire fixed and the guy at kansasland LOVES Pepsi, so we gave him all of our Pepsi! Transfer by transfer overview of my mission: MTC companion: Sister MaKaylee Anderson♡) I loved the MTC! My district was so fun! I still remember we would all hang out in a random classroom during our free time, one elder would play the piano and a couple other elders would freestyle rap about the restoration or something. Those are good memories:) But also, the MTC was tough. I remember feeling so inadequate and fearful about being a missionary, luckily, my companion, sister Anderson, helped me A LOT! TRANSFER 1 CONCORDIA trainer: Sister Sonora Garrett♡ My first transfer was a blast! Sister Garrett and I got a long so well and she became one of my best friends! I still was dealing with a lot of self doubt, so honestly I didn't talk much, but thats okay! We served in a tiny branch and people were a little strange, but we loved them! My favorite person we taught while in Concordia was Brett! Brett was a farmer and it was so hard to understand him. He had some kind of accent and mumbled a lot of his words. But he was awesome and loved the gospel! TRANSFER 2 RIVERSIDE PARK Follow-up trainer: Sister Saleena Dockstader♡ I loved sister Dockstader, she was always so sweet! I definitely grew a lot from this transfer because Sister Dockstader was even more of an introvert than I was! I really learned how to step it up and start teaching people! TRANSFER 3-4 RIVERSIDE PARK These two transfers were definitely the hardest part of my mission. I had a veryyy difficult companion who pretty much destroyed all of the confidence that I had worked to build while I was with Sister Dockstader. But there were also some amazing people that I met and taught! *Mallory Wood is such and amazing person and I witnessed SO MANY miracles in her journey towards baptism and strengthening her family with the gospel! *Margarita and Dean were also some of my favorites. They were a sweet older couple who loved having us over and were so kind. They were so interested in our beliefs and honestly respected our opinions and guidance! *Tina is the absolute sweetest. She was quite mentally challenged and we visited her about twice a week. She was often very emotional and we would sit with her and comfort her when she cried. She loved us so much! *Maggie was a sweet girl we taught through video call on Facebook! She had severe anxiety and would pretty much have an anxiety attack everytime we called and had a lesson with her. But, she really opened up to us and loved to learn about God and the Book of Mormon. We were able to help her learn to pray and she grew so much! *Another huge part of these two transfers were Jereferol. She was one of the sweetest ladies I have ever known and became a mother figure to me out here in Kansas. Unfortunately, we had to help her through a whole lot as she was going through a very hard separation from her husband and being evicted from her house. A lot of our time was spent visiting her and making sure she was okay. It was a very stressful time, but I am forever grateful for the chance I had to help her♡ TRANSFER 5 HUTCHINSON Companion: Sister Sharlee Anderson♡ Honestly, not a whole lot happened in Hutch. The main person we spent time teaching was Ismael, who was a recent comvert to the church. Ismael is awesome and super funny, i miss that guy! We really struggled with finding people to teach and Hutchinson was not the safest place to be... Hutch had a very high population of drug addicts and sex offenders lol. I also remember it was SO COLD this transfer. Needless to say, Hutch was not my favorite area, but it was my favorite district! I had so much fun with Sister Anderson and my district. We lived in a quad with two other sisters, sister Barrus and sister Mitchell! Living in a quad was the best everrrrr (besides the fact that there was only one bathroom). And my district did so many fun service projects together like volunteer at the animal shelter, clean houses and gutters, and help this random guy move a bunch of logs and tree branches to the other side of his property! Fun times! TRANSFER 6 AUBURN HILLS companion: Sister Savannah Glass♡ This was a fun transfer! I follow up trained sister glass! She is so sweet and so fun to be around! We taught a lot of amazing people! *I LOVED Heather and Jacob (and their little boy Bentley!). Heather and Jacob loved to learn about the Book of Mormon and come to church. Sometimes it was a little challenging to teach them because Jacob basically never stops talking haha but they were soooo fun! *Allison was crazy! Definitely the tallest woman I have ever met and basically an emotional mess all the time. She refused to break up with her abusive boyfriend who was really holding her back from being baptized and living the Gospel. It was super sad, but we loved her. *Mildred was probably the craziest person I met on my mission. Honestly, I don't know if I can really describe her... maybe I'll just say that sometimes she eats her daughter's ashes when she really misses her. But we had fun teaching her, she loved us and she loved the Gospel. *Mike was a cool guy. We answered a lot of questions about the Gospel and he really enjoyed coming to church! TRANSFER 7 AUBURN HILLS Comp Sister Delilah Gunderson♡ Sister Gunderson was soooo fun! I love her! I don't remember a lot that happened this transfer, but one of our big things was helping Sister Knopf move from her house. My comp and I were basically the entire moving and cleaning crew. This house was seriously the most dusty house I've ever been in! Sister Gunderson and I continued teaching Heather & Jacob, mildred, Mike, and we also started teaching this really cool lady named kelcey! She was so sweet and we had many spirit filled lessons with her! TRANSFER 8 LAWRENCE W/ SISTER BREE ROLLINS (aka my fav area and fav companion=best transfer everrrrr) Sister rollins is an angel and we became besties this transfer! We also taught my favorite people ever in this area and the lawrence ward was soooo amazing! This was the transfer that I met Bob Rose, Terry Lewis, and Lee Howard! Anyways, I just had the best time this transfer and we had the most fun! TRANSFERS 9-11 companion: Sister Saige Taylor I trained sister taylor and we were together in Lawrence for 3 transfers! Honestly, that was tough and I went kinda crazy, but also one of the highlights of my mission! We taught and helped Bob, Terry, and Alease prepare for baptism! The weekend that terry and alease were baptized we also had a couple jodee and Nathan hillyard were baptized and two young boys from a less active family in the ward (Charles and Max) were baptized! That was a veryyyyy exciting weekend! *we also taught Lee Howard and he's just one of my favorites! He's so cool and loves God and church. He is still working on being baptized hopefully in the spring time. I'm planning on taking a trip back to Kansas with my family to go to his baptism! * we also taught Lori and did a lot of service for her. Lori is the sweetest lady who took care of us so well, she just loves the sister missionaries! The lawrence ward was absolutely the best. I grew very close to a lot of the families and young women in the ward! Sister taylor and I inspired a couple of the young women to serve missions, so cool! We were very close with the Hansen family, the steimles, the Mitchell's, Pam, the nicholsons, and sister streeter♡ Lawrence has my heart♡♡♡ GO JAYHAWKS! TRANSFER 12 SALINA Companion Sister Madison Hunting Now, my last transfer is in Salina! This is a fun place and we are teaching some great people now! Like Frank and Nancy! Frank is considering baptism right now and he's super kind! Nancy is a true searcher of truth and kinda likes to bash us, but thats okay! This transfer has been one of my more challenging transfers. It's hard to go through the holidays and family birthdays this time of year for the second time! But we are working hard and still having fun! I am so thankful for this time I have in Kansas! A few things I've learned in Kansas... *God is very aware of me and those around me. I have seen countless times when the Lord has sent tender mercies to me and those I have taught on my mission. He knows our needs and our struggles. He is there to help us through hard times. *Trials are necessary! The purpose of life is to come to know Jesus Christ and to rely on Him. That is absolutely impossible to do without facing challenges and seeking to overcome them. As we seek to know Jesus Christ and apply His gospel in our lives, we are changed! Trials are real and so is the Atonement of Jesus Christ! We are given strength through grace that allows us to overcome our trials and come out the other side a new person! *The Book of Mormon is absolutely true and Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I have felt the Spirit everytime I have read the Book of Mormon. I know that when I study it, Heaven is somehow closer. I feel a sense of reality of the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration. I know that whenever I have testified of Joseph's first vision, the Spirit is with me! *GRATITUDE! I am grateful for loving parents & family, I am grateful for the knowledge of the Gospel, I am grateful for the Book of Mormon, I am grateful for my healthy body, I am grateful that I will go home to a house that smells nice🙃🤗 I am grateful for the wonderful friends I have made on my mission, I am grateful for hardships, I'm grateful for laughter, I'm grateful for my companions and what they have taught me, I'm grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ! *My mission has led me to be more humble. It takes humility to be obedient even when rules are not very fun. It has taken humility to be patient with the Lord's timing and with those around me. *KNOWLEDGE! I have learned so much about the Gospel on my mission. My testimony has been strengthened by gaining knowledge. I have also learned that my testimony does not come from collecting facts, but also feelings and impressions from the Spirit. My new knowledge allows me to know when the Spirit is speaking to me! As I have gained this knowledge about the Gospel, it encourages me to seek more knowledge after my mission! Thank you to all of you! Everyone who has supported me and believed in me♡ I love you all very much and can't wait to see you soon! Signing off, Sister Shumway♡♡♡