February 20, 2017

You think i hiked that mountain hahaha i just took a tram up and it was really expensive but i was not hiking that thing hahaha some elders did it though. They woke up super early and went and we met them up there. Its called table mountain by the way

This week was awesome but not awesome at the same time. Not awesome because i was sick for one of the days, I had a lazy morning and then went out in the evening but then it was awesome because we had great zone training with Elder Ellis and then Stake Conference with President Hamilton! They were both super powerful people and incredible talks! One thing i learned in leadership training from Elder Ellis was how to be a good leader through the parable of the shepherd and his fold. I also learned how to build on more faith. Kinda funny quote from him but its so true. To build your faith you have to do things that require you to exercise your faith. You can’t just wish for it and think it will happen. You have to continually be building your faith like a testimony.

My ward is awesome by the way. It’s a mix of black people, white people and colored people. There is definitely some racism in the ward.  Anyways we get on average about 85 people turnout every Sunday. The youth program is very small. i would say there are like 5 girls that are active and about 8 boys that are active. 2 priests come which is great because one of them just turned 16 (Bailey Sanders). By the way, the youth give 10 min talks, if you think a 5 min talk is hard haha. The adults give 15 minute talks.  The sacrament is very short, like maybe 7 minuets, oh and the singing is the BEST part hahaha. Some people can sing others, lets just say they have very very sweet voices. Then we have the black people who are the gospel singers. They just go for it, let me tell you hahha. All in alll it’s the best.  Surprisingly i can still site read all the parts in the hymn book which is good and I do have opportunities to play the piano in district meeting and a few others times.

Where are they going for Sonous tour? i really miss singing in a good choir like really really miss! I also received tiffany’s pictures, which was awesome!! Thank you! Love physical letters, hint hint...  

Elder Shaw

February 13, 2017

Wow i dont know really where to start i guess with John (the investigator who is difficult). Well he is such a happy guy.  He comes to church all the time but never reads the book of mormon, really frustrating. The worst part is he loves the book gospel principles and still doesnt read the book of mormon. I just wonder what is going through his head hahah love him though.

I had a very cool experience but first let me tell you, the gift of interpretation of tongues is real. Which leads to my next experience that is so cool. ok here we go, haha it was getting late and we just decided to go to a less active who is having a hard time right now and when we pulled up to their house i noticed a guy just standing there next to the road and he just really stuck out to me so i grabbed a pamphlet out of the boot and my comp was like what are you doing, just said gotta always be prepared. he didnt know i was meaning to give it to this guy but i told myself if the less active is not home then we are going straight to him and of course the less active guy wasnt home so i walked over to this other guy and started to teach him. he doesn’t know English well but knows xosha and zulu so my comp kinda interpreted .He was very accepting and wanting to learn more. We went back the next day and then the next so now we have taught him for 3 days in a row and on the third day he was talking to my comp about a thing that happened in his life that somehow i understood about how his girlfriend just got up and left with his son that same day we first taught  him and all this. After the lesson my comp turned to me and asked me if i had any idea what he was talking about and i told him the whole thing and he was so surprised!!! It was super cool and i have done it like 5 other times with my comp talking to the investigators in xosha and then they turn to me and laugh cause i dont know what they are saying then i tell them what they’re talking about and they freak out. Im really excited to see how this guy progresses, his name is leike (Lee-kee).

I’m learning so much about the plan of salvation. i love studying about it. In my patriartical blessing it says that i will understand it completely or something like that so ive been really studying about it. I learned that God was one of us at a point (and he probably served a mission haha,) I’m not sure if that is doctrinally correct but im pretty sure, its says in joseph F. smith prophet book that "As God once was, we are and as God is, we can become!” super cool, correct me if I’m wrong. There’s only so much you can learn with the amount of material you have. some questions you have cant be answered cause we only have the scriptures and some books.

Funny story of the week, soooo sometimes we get lazy and dont take out the trash and just put it on our balcony but we had inspections so we had to take it out and it wouldnt fit in our car and didnt want it to smell so we just put in on the boot (trunk). Elder Sibiya didnt think it was going to stay on so he sat back there with it and we are going through the garage and i barely tap the gas pedal and he goes tumbling right off then rolls. hahahaha i was laughing sooooooo hard. it was so funny!  he was mad at me for the rest of the day hahahah.

OH my goodness training has really tried my patience but you would be surprised at how patient i am haha,. Elder Sibiya and i got along great this week. he just doesn’t respect me now, he thinks since he older and more experience he can disrespect me. its really funny cause i dont care to much but other elders have noticed and said stuff hahaha but i still love him. in a weird way you love all your companions, somehow HA.

All is good. I miss home a lot and not eating too healthy because im to lazy to make food. dont ask tiffany about what i ate at mcdonalds

Love you

Elder Shaw

P.S. In the pictures, we are on top of table mountain and btw i have now come to the conclusion that i look good having a chubbier face. hahaha it suits me now and i like it. Oh and my comp is a personal trainer so now when i work out i have a personal trainer. oh my lanta! oh and we taught 10 lessons in 2 days Friday and Saturday which was soooo cool. We have never have done that before!

P.S.S.And yes mom i will of course be your valentines.... this year :)  hahaha

February 6, 2017

The pictures are awesome. i never have done the virtual reality thing or Topgolf so im jealous!! hahahah i really wish i could have watched you do the zombie apocalypse one hahahaha shucks.

Well another week down in the books and it was a rough one but we had some really good lessons! This week we have an investigator whose name is john and he has been taking lessons for 7 YEARS! Sooo he is frustrating to work with. We planned to teach the book of Mormon again but i knew that was going to do nothing haha We just went in there with a prayer in our hearts to know what to say and it was the most spiritual lesson ever. He is afraid of commitment and baptism. he says that its takes a while to decide but come on, 7 years! Yo, there’s something not right. he even comes to church every week. Really frustrating. Anyways, we went into this little room no bigger the mud room and sat down, got to the prayer then after the prayer i just sat in silence not knowing what to say. I ask him what he thinks is the reason he hasn’t gotten an answer and he gives us the baloney responses and i was like listen! Then stuff just started flowing out of my mouth. i shared a scripture somehow in 2 nephi 31 about entering into the gate which leads to the path and related it to him. Then I told him he doesn’t have to know everything about the church to get baptized. baptism is just the start to a long happy path. then asked him, do you have faith that God will answer your prayer? Do you really want to know if the Book of Mormon is true and he answered yes. Then I asked are you willing to act on whatever answer you get and he hesitated so i asked again and he hesitated and he gave a timid yes. He’s scared to be baptized so right then i had him pray and ask if the Book of Mormon is true.  We then waited in silence so he would get an answer. ended up waiting like 15 min just in silence and then this is the worst part! he just gave his baloney response that baptism takes a while. awh i was so frustrated but it was such a spiritual lesson.

"Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man" D&C 84:85 I know this to be true and i love missionary work! I have studied a lot about the plan of salvation and I’m reading Jesus the Christ and i love it. i stay up later than i should reading it and it just is awesome. I learn something new every time but also learned that man cant even comprehend the fullness of the plan of salvation, Shame. really wish i could but soo cool studying!!

Love you 

Elder Shaw

Well i attached a picture of a spider that i found and put my name tag up to it just for you to see how crazy big it was, just about died!