October 11, 2018

     He's HOME!!!

               


                                   And looks GREAT!!

October 8, 2018

Dear Sonke,

Oh my goodness I can’t believe this is my last time writing! These past 2 years have been the most rewarding time of my life. I don't even know how to explain the things that I have experienced here in South Africa. I love this place so much! I love the diversity in cultures and the people! I'm so grateful I have served a mission. 

I think the most important thing I have learned here on mission is found in Doctrine and Covenants 18:10-16 which pretty much says..... "and if it so be that you labor all you days in crying repentance unto these people and bring it save it be one soul unto me, how great will be your joy in the kingdom of my father." One day, about a year into my mission, I was having the hardest time understanding what my purpose as a missionary was. If people have there own agency and God has his own will then whatever I do it will not make a difference in anyone's life because God already has a plan for them. If I don't talk to these people here in South Africa then God will prepare another person to talk to them about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I finally found my answer in the bible dictionary where it talks about prayer. The purpose of prayer is to align our will with Gods and to secure for ourselves blessing which God is already willing to grant but its contingent on us asking. Prayer is a form of work to show God we need his blessing. It finally clicked in my head, the main reason I am on a mission is for myself! I’m not too sure if those scriptural references made sense to you, but it definitely allowed me to receive revelation for myself. Ever since that point I have tried my hardest to make sure I am the best person I can be. I love this restored gospel. I know it’s true. I'm so sad to leave this place, but at the same time I'm so excited to come home!!!

I think for the first time I've actually tried to make sure my grammar is correct so my mother doesn't have to correct it hahaha. 

Love you all and I will see you soon!

Elder Shaw

September 17, 2018

This week.... ya i was sick again! its like my 3rd time getting with a sinus infection. I went to the doctor and he told me to suck it up! lol and prescribed me cough syrup. I went to the doctor for cough syrup. I feel like an idiot! He said if i give you antibiotics again it’s going to destroy your immune system and your likely to get it again so this time he told me to suck it up and have nature take its course! Man i was kinda sad cause i wanted something quick, but he’s right.

The DeKlerk kids got baptized! Wow I’m so surprised they passed the baptismal interview! Is that bad to say? Hey with kids you never know what is going through their minds during the lessons but it turned out to be good and they all loved their baptism! It was so nice.

During my studies this week I’m trying to figure out something in the bible! If someone can please enlighten me since y’all have smart phones that would be super nice cause we are limited out here in south africa!!! We do have the institute study manuals but that’s only so much and we don’t have smart phones. ok we know that Jehovah was the God of the old testament and most of the time when it refers to LORD, LORD GOD, or GOD it is Jesus Christ, but it is not always the case. In the institute manuals it explains it using Hebrew text but still confusing.... i came to the conclusion i need to learn Hebrew to be able to understand. But if anyone wants to enlighten me that would be great also! (example psalms 110:1)

Elder Shaw

September 11, 2018

I’m writing today because my companion was sick yesterday and we never went out of the house but it twas a grand week. We tried really hard to have our investigator progress but it had a negative and positive effect. In the long run a positive. It really weeded out the elect from the not so elect.

We don’t have really anyone on baptismal date after this week, but we are going to have 4 baptisms this coming Sunday!! (4 kids in a family) Man kids are such a pain to teach especially a lot of them at the same time. But then we could really see their attitude and behavior change which made it nice to teach them! We need to find some new investigators because the ones we have now aren’t so many and it doesn't fill the day yet.

 I think the best feeling on a mission is watching someone humble themselves, get an answer, and have the atonement of Jesus Christ change their lives! We are teaching this person name Tarryn and her sister Chante who are actually sisters of our ward mission leader. When we started to have correlation at our ward mission leader’s house (Duwayne) they were super defensive and wanted nothing to do with us cause they loved their church so much. But over time we tried our best to build the relationship of trust and they then started to ask questions that didn’t add up in their brain and finally they accepted to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. and I’m pretty sure they got an answer but was too embarrassed to say it in front of Duwayne because she has been so defensive of Joseph Smith in her life that she didn’t want to admit it in front of Duwayne! Ah, it was the best feeling ever! She totally humbled herself and it’s working miracles!

I think i have like 4 weeks left and I’m really trying to be an effective minister and not just an administer. I asked my district the percentage of my ministering and administering and they said an equal 50/50 but we learned in zone conference that it needs to be 80% ministering 20% administering. So i studied about it this week and Moroni is just the perfect example. In Alma 48;11-18 it introduces him and his character... "if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." be like Moroni who doesn’t like bloodshed, sinning, and loves to prepare. 

Habashwe (man i hope google translate kicks in cause it’s a super funny Sesotho word) hahaha

Elder Matwasghotata came to our stake conference this week and that guy has such a powerful conversion story. He was baptized and was preparing to go on a mission It  came time for his setting apart and his stake president told him to invite his family and he said he couldn’t... lol the stake president kinda took away his agency and said do it. They came and yet they still didn’t say a word to each other the whole time. His mission president then told him that he needed to write his family every week on mission and he said he couldn’t but took away his agency again and told him to do it haha. 7 months on his mission his family was baptized! It such a cool story but it shows the importance of following your leaders and the example you set for other people. Live up to it!

Love you

Elder Shaw

best pday i have ever had!

best district i have ever had!

best roast and peach cobbler i have ever made!

just the best

September 3, 2018

Man, I can already tell you right now, this last transfer is going to be the best of my mission!!!! I love my new comp, Elder Dennis. He is from Mesa Arizona and just got trained. Our district is the best. Every morning we go play soccer on a cement slab and it’s super fun and good exercise. District meetings are killer.

Right now we are working a ton with members and seeing the blessing that come! I’m starting to think, why didn’t i do this earlier on in my mission but i guess you live and you learn. We kinda do Bible studies with all the part member families that we are teaching and just ask them, what concerns or questions do you have in the gospel and then just open up the Bible and answer their questions. Then we incorporate the Book of Mormon to show them it says the same thing if not in a better way!!!! And it’s working! But you really have to know your Bible and Book of Mormon to do so. I seriously have no idea where the knowledge comes from. I guess it helps to have read/reading the Book of Mormon over and over and studying the Bible like crazy! I have really grown to love studying! I just study a question about Prophets, no one can be saved in ignorance, or temple ceremonies done in the Bible and you would be amazed at what you find and how exact the church is today to the scriptures of olden times!!!! I can’t wait to come home and use gospel library! It will make studying a lot easier. By doing this Bible study with the part member families, it surprisingly make people think of a lot of questions to ask and they become really interested in the Book of Mormon! I kinda laugh cause many people think we are there for a Bible study, but most of the time we say we are here to help you come closer to Christ by the correct priesthood! But now were saying ya let’s have a Bible study. Most of the time, since there are a lot of false prophets here, they always ask about prophets and then that introduces authority and Joseph Smith and prophets today and then we invite them to pray! It’s awesome! I love the scriptures! Today my thoughts are super super random and hopefully you can interpret this email.

Love you,

Elder Shaw

August 27, 2018

It was a nice week, other than the fact that i got sick again! haha It was my comp first getting sick and i tried so hard not to get sick from him but eh you live with the dang man so it’s almost impossible not to. hahaha

Last week for preparation day we went to this ice skating rink. Man i just killed everyone. I was like Michael Jackson doing the moon walk. It was so fun, but I definitely had the biggest crashes. I’m still working on my stopping skills hahaha.

We had a baptism this week! It was awesome. Sorry if i never talked about this guy but his name Sivuyile Manqumakazi. He’s this 12 year old boy who is powerful! His older sister is a member so we were allowed to baptize him but the rest of the family are not members. We invited the mom to the baptism and she absolutely loved it! i really hope it opens up a way so we can teach her now! It could be a super powerful family. There is no father in the picture. He died a few years back but hopefully we can teach the mother and the 18 year old son!

So I’m trying to learn Afrikaans in the 6 weeks i have left on mission. Now what africans sounds like with the accent is it’s reformed Dutch. Now make the reformed Dutch a super ugly/dirty language and that’s what it sounds like. hahaha It’s super fun to try to speak but hopefully and can learn fast.

These past few weeks I’ve been really studying with hard questions to answer! (such as the whole clarifications of speaking in tongues cause Pentecostal churches are huge here) man it makes learning so fun. Then i was with the senior couple here and he showed what he was doing on gospel library..... man oh so i wish that we could have gospel library! Man you have access to everything! It makes studying so much easier! hahaha But i appreciate my dinosaurs, nothing beats the dinosaurs haha. 

Love you,

Elder Shaw

August 13, 2018

This week was super nice. We had zone conference and interviews plus our president came out with us on splits, which was super nice. I don’t know why but when I was a zone leader he would come out with us and i would be super nervous and i could see that in my comp also, but this time i really wanted him to just come out with us and help us!!!

Zone conference was great! We talked about the doctrine of Christ in 3 Nephi 11. How we are to teach the doctrine of Christ with simplicity. Anything more or less than the Doctrine of Christ is not built upon his foundation! So now during out teaching we are trying to keep it super simple basing everything around the Christ. it was nca!

This week as our president came out with us we had a super powerful lesson! We are teaching this lady named Michelle who has an addiction problem with some substances. I think i have already talked about her before but as we are going through ARP with her focusing on honesty and the Book of Mormon she just bore a powerful testimony how the Book of Mormon has changed her sister’s life (cause she went through the same problem) and now how she is starting to change her life! We committed her to come to church and she came and loved it! She participated so much in the gospel principles class. Ah man, it was such a great day! Most of her siblings are less active but they came to church as well now that they are seeing a change in their sibling! Don’t you just love the atonement of the Jesus Christ! i have gained such strong testimony in the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the power of the Book of Mormon. The keys to conversion!

Elder Shaw

We went to the VW manufacturing plant the other week and i thought of the cars you and mom drove in high school. haha It was a pretty cool place!

August 6, 2018

This is such a random scripture but every time i read it i think it’s the perfect recipe to revelation.

1 Nephi 11;1

"For it came to pass after i had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as i sat pondering in mine heart i was caught away in the Spirit of the lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which i never had before seen, and upon which i never had before set my foot."

Nephi desired to know, he had faith, and he sat ponding (or acting and pondering.) The Lord was able to reveal the Mysteries of Himself! I’ve learned that pondering is pretty important (you know me just make up my mind and do something without really thinking it through) haha But it’s how the knowledge you have in your brain is carried to the feelings of your heart.

This week was alright. It was kinda frustrating cause we meet a lot of awesome people but they never hold through. You just want to give up on them, but they seems to have just enough light in them to motivate you to keep going. It’s kinda like a teaser hahaha My comp and i definitely saw some tender mercies this week. We are teaching quite a few children and we’re really not allowed to baptize them without the president’s permission so when he comes this week we will have to ask him if we can. If they don’t have enough of a support system he won’t say yes. They pretty much have to have an active parent in order to be baptized cause 95% of the members who go to university go less active. It’s kinda sad but that is just the way it is. The church really isn’t established in the hearts of the people here but that is part of the area plan here in South East Africa. We are teaching one child who has an uncle who is a strong member but her mother isn’t. Her mother, Michelle has been taught by missionaries for 8 years but can’t give up smoking drugs to be baptized but she wants her daughter to be baptized. We broke the news to her that we can’t baptized her daughter without her being baptized also. Demishe was devastated. She’s 12 years old and started to cry. It was so sweet. The mother then realized that her decisions are starting to affect her children so now she said she will try extra hard to quit. We gave her a blessing and now were going though ARP with her and her sister who is also less active going through the same problems. I’ve got some pretty good feelings about them but it’s going to take a while! Pray for them!!!!

Love you all 

Elder Shaw