FIRST LETTER!!

Dear family and friends,

 

Happy Father's day!  I missed being there with you on Sunday, but I know I am in a good place.  Love you dad.  It's been an awesome week.  I feel physically tired, but spiritually awakened and enpowered.  It's amazing on the many insights I have learned for myself this past week and been taught by others.  The days are long.  The average day consists of about 6 hours of language study and about 5 hours of scripture study.  It's been a humbling week.  I didn't think I was ever super prideful, but I guess I have some things to learn :)  I have relied on prayer a lot this week.  It was a long week.  The first couple days, I felt especially inadequate and weak, but I'm learning to trust in God more, that He has a way for me.  I think it was Hyrum that told me to just focus on myself and not compare myself to others.  That has been especially helpful this past week.  I have already taught about 100 minutes in Vietnamese, but I admit, Vietnamese has been no walk in the park for me.  I have had some difficulty pronouncing some of the sounds, but they are starting to come.  I guess I just need to be patient with myself.  It is amazing though how I have learned, yet I know that it is not of me, but is the Spirit.

The words from Isaiah 61:3 that a fellow missionary in my district comes to mind, "I give Him my ashes, He makes them beautiful.  I give Him my sorrows, He makes them joy.  I give him my efforts, He makes me a missionary."  That is so true.  At this point, I'm not sure how I truly will be able to be fluent in the Vietnamese language, but I know one day, I will.  I learned this week a lot about what the gospel exactly is through my study of 2 Nephi 31 and 3 Nephi 11.  I have learned that the gospel is of obedience, peace, humility, simplicity, knowledge, and hope, but most of all, the gospel is about love.  In Mark 22, Jesus accepts the will of the Father to perform the Atonement in Gethsemane.  Yet, I believe that the strongest incentive or motivator of this action was love of all humankind.  My love of the Australian Vietnamese has kept me going.  I have been called to teach them of God and His love for him.  As I said in farewell talk, I feel like a weak vessel, but I am an earnest one.  I will endeavor to do everything I can to become the missionary and person I need to be. 

My companion's name is Elder Marker.  He is from a small town in Nevada.  He is a litttle bit more quiet than me, but I love him a lot.  He is a good example to me.  I respect him for his great kindness and desire to be good.  I think we are learning from each other.  It took a couple days for us to get to know each other, but I consider him a great friend. 

I debated to tell you what happened last night, but I figured you'll find out because of insurance.  I threw up last night in the last 2 minutes of a devotional last night.  I passed out for about 30 seconds.  We eventually went to the E.R. room and I threw up again in the waiting room.  I finally got a hospital bed and laid there for about 3 hours as the nurses and doctors put a bunch of IVs in me.  We said a prayer and that helped give me some peace that I was going to get better.  I wasn't completely conscious because they gave me a bunch of sedatives.  I don't remember that whole time, but I was told afterwards, that I was speaking perfect Vietnamese.  I eventually threw up again at the Walgreens.  I didn't get back until about 2 o'clock this morning.   I slept till 11.  I'm feeling much better.  Don't worry about me.  Just keep me in your thoughts in prayers.  I was one of two missionaries that went to the E.R. last night because of some virus called Nolbert virus, or something like that, I can't remember.  I still don't feel completely there, but I am on the mend.  Don't be scared to send me letters by DearElder.com.  I love them when I get one.  I think Anna has been the most faithful letter writer :)  I love to hear the updates and what's going on at home.  Love you all.  Like Shakespeare once said, "I count myself in nothing else so happy as in a soul remembering my good friends (especially, my family, and Savior, Jesus Christ).  Thanks to everyone who came to my farewell talk last week.  I'm sorry I haven't been able to write thank-you notes yet for all the kind messages that written to me, but know, that I really appreciated them.  Hope everyone is doing well.

 

Your brother, son, grandson, friend

 

Elder Shumway