Tuesday, April 25, 2017

April 24, 2017

(I asked him what was with the word yo)

Dear Fam,
Yo, which should be spelled yogh is just a saying here like wow or something along those lines and i say it a lot. i think my suit pants will be fine. i only wear the suit for 3 hours on Sunday and then i go home and take it off. But oh man i can’t tie my shoes with it on. The problem is in my thighs but good news is i lost 12 lbs and everything fits a little bit better cause we walk soooo much! My shoes are kinda ruined so i have less padding but im making them work. They look like they went through the 2 world war on d-day hahah.

Sooooo this week was great! We had zone conference and the president came down and did interviews. i love talking with that man. It’s so sad that he will be leaving in July. Most important thing is we had lots of lessons this week and people are progressing! Zizo will be getting baptized next week. She is 14 years old and does rowing. yo she looks like 19 years old and is a great person. But that will be awesome!!!

i dont even know what i ate this week. We were on exchanges and im pretty sure i ate a cow hoof. I dont really know what it was but it was not beef! sooo hard to chew. hahah. I’m sorry I don’t have lots of time, but love you lots and currently love missionary work more. 

(I asked what he wanted for his birthday)
i really like packages but they cost lots of money so it would be awesome if you could send a package because buying myself things is lame! i can buy most things here though. For my bday package send something for my comp. He would love it oh and you should send a thumb drive so i can store things! That would be awesome or what would be better is if you sent me money so i could by one here so i can get it faster!

elder shaw

love you for everything!



Monday, April 17, 2017

April 17, 2017


Queenstown is awesome. It’s like what you would see in pictures, jungley with bunch of shacks. I serve in a township outside of queenstown called mlungisi. There is a big game park next to queenstown with giraffes and rhinos but its not next to our area, kinda on the opposite side of town so i haven’t seem them yet but last pday, when i wasn’t here, they went and chased down giraffes. Who new that tall people (like braiden) could be so fast? The people there are super nice but the don’t speak english haha so im learning a lot of xosha, well im trying. i have a hard time! Mission life is awesome here in Queenstown. i have a great companion (Elder Buhanin) he is from rigby idaho and knows the gneitings which is pretty cool. My first few days here were super fun and interesting. So my comp happened to total the car a little bit ago before i came so we bike and walk in our area which is pretty far.  I’m junior companion. He has about 6 months left on his mission. He works hard but is lax on the obedience side but im trying to push him and set an example. In the town that we are in there are like 8 or 10 elders. There are 4 in our ward but we live out in the boonies. The nearest big town is 3 hours away. We live with 2 other elders and oh man 4 man boarding are so fun!! haha i love it! The ward is a ward haha but not a single white person.  The sacrament meeting is half english and half xosha.  They mix both into a sentence so it’s hard to understand but im learning a little by little.

We have a few really good investigators that will get baptized this transfer, maybe 5, but for sure 2. We have one actually next week. I’m so excited for that. We met this one girl named zanali (shaunalee) she was actually a referral from some other elders and we went to go see her and she has some serious problems i don’t want to go into detail but wow i feel so bad for her. She has been through so much and she even tried to commit suicide. Don’t you just wish that everyone could get baptized right then and there cause you know it can help them out sooooo much!! We are teaching her and her soon to be brother in law. Wow they are so powerful and so ready for the gospel. i cant wait to continue to teach them. Oh and we are teaching another guy named Patrick. He’s like 6'5" and plays rugby and this guy is soooo funny!!! We taught him the word of wisdom right after he went to the store and bought some alcohol haha.  i wish i could video him and send it home but i cant. It takes to long to upload. He said, “guys i have some serious problems with alcohol and tobacco” and we continue to talk and then he said, “wait guys i have a serious problem with woman oh man they are my weakness”. So we kinda snickered and said we would talk about that next time. He committed to go without anything for 3 days. We are hoping and praying that he can go 3 days without any tobacco or alcohol. PFP pray for patrick.

i love the people here so much and i cant wait to get to know them more.


Sorry mom for the bad English. I’m just super lazy right now and don’t want to correct it. i got your packages about 2 weeks ago i jsut keep forgetting to say. i got Nicole’s too! Tell her thank you. She didn’t email me this week. How is home life? Is it pretty boring without me? Do you see any of my friends? Can you have Brennan email me? i want to hear from him!!! Oh and soo for my bday i kinda want to buy a new suit since my doesn’t fit or at least like some new pants. i think i might get some soon cause my black ones DO NOT fit anymore! hahah way small for my thunder thighs now that im biking and walking all the time! Thank you, love you


Elder Shaw

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

April 12, 2017

This note and picture is from a sister in Caleb's ward, June Holmes. She has written us several times keeping us updated with Caleb's food preferences and ward activities.

Dearest Sister Shaw,

We said goodbye to your son, Elder Shaw, last night at the youth activity. I can't believe it's 6 months that he's been here! We have enjoyed his kind, gentle spirit in our ward and we will miss him.
Thank you for raising such a fine gentleman, he is a great example to my sons and all the youth in our ward.
This is a pic from last night's soccer game at the chapel.

Kind regards,
June Holmes



Monday, April 10, 2017

April 10, 2017

I’m not gonna lie, i had no idea when Easter was but I’m guessing this Friday and Sunday. I did some studying this morning to figure out where the Passover came from and apparently it was instituted to commemorate when the fog killed all the firstborns in Egypt and then they added a bunch of things to it but it's quite interesting.

This week was amazing! The whole week we had quite a few lessons but at the same time we had to go to cape town 4 times this week and we were wayyy over in our allotted ks, miles for the week, like more than double. My companion had visa issues then a doctors appointment and he had to get a SA ID but it was all worth it for Saturday and Sunday. Well to start, Saturday morning we got a few people from the ward together and some investigators to play some soccer and it was great. Only problem was i slid into my own teammate and have this huge turf burn all down my leg and it hurts soo bad! It was an accident! Hahaha but way funny. Then we visited all our progressing investigators and invited them to church for like the 20th time! And guess what they came! For the first time in 6 months i had an investigator come to church! It was so worth it. We have been working hard and it all came good in the end and it was my last Sunday here. Sooo avela and edward came to church and then nelly and her kids came late but we were running around trying to arrange rides and showed where they all live that we were late to church but that’s ok. At least they came! They had an awesome experience and nelly really really enjoyed church. I had to say goodbye to them last Sunday because I’m getting transferred to queenstown and my companion now is elder buhanin. He’s a guy from idaho falls hahaha. I’m super excited for this next part in my mission but really sad i will be leaving these people that i have really grown to love! Another funny story (if you don’t like killing animals don’t read) hahaha but we were in this township visiting a less active family and before we went in, we saw that their neighbor had a pig tied up and let me tell you i have never seen i pig this size, it was huge!!!!! But anyways halfway through the lesson we hear this squealing super loud because they were killing the poor pig for a braii. We were watching a temple video about what temples are like and my companion just about passed out because of it all. I was laughing really hard because i don’t think he could kill a fly. Haha but what a spiritual lesson, let me tell you. I thought we were going to have to teach the plan of salvation after that. hahaha love you all.

Your prayers definitely have helped this week


Elder Shaw



Monday, April 3, 2017

April 3, 2017

OK, conference was so great! My favorite talk was from the priesthood session when President Eyring was talking about walking with Christ and as we do we will see people as who they are, children of God and what they can become! i don’t know if its just being on mission but i felt like every single talk was pointed just to me.  Pretty sure it was just because i wasn’t sleeping for the first time!

In our area we are teaching quite a few lessons but none of them are investigators haha. We try to visit a member every day and less actives and i feel like it takes up a ton of time! We still got to meet with sinabo and Avela. We don’t even know what to teach them anymore. They have a baptismal date for the 23 of April and the only thing they need to do is come to church! Which is quite a big thing hahaha still working on it with them. They didn’t have a ride 2 weeks ago and this week was conference so they haven’t been able to be present for sacrament.

Had a really cool lesson this week. We were in Stellonbosch at the university (if anyone wants to study abroad this is the place!!! so beautiful and such a cool place) and we were walking and some guy randomly said hi to us which is unusual cause as missionaries people ignore you and try not to make eye contact ( such  an adjustment for me cause it was the exact opposite back home ;) ) hahahaha but anyways it was a less active studying and we scheduled a time to meet with him. Fast forward 2 weeks and we met with him. He was baptized at 16 and stayed active in the church for his teenage years till he came to college and then started to venture out to different churches. Anyways we were talking and he still credits the church for teaching him so much as a kid and he wouldn’t be where he is now without the church. Then we asked him why he went inactive, he just said he doubts his testimony.  We told him to stop doubting his faith and to doubt his doubts. Then we had him realize that when he started loosing his testimony was when he stopped reading the Book of Mormon. Cool thing was it was his birthday. It was such a cool lesson and great contact!! Reading the Book of Mormon is so important to gaining a testimony!!!

Love you,

Elder Shaw