May 29, 2017

I’m seriously trying to remember what happen this week cause it was such a blur. Ummmmm, so our really good investigator who’s name is Samkelu is doing great! We met him 3 weeks ago and we have already taught him everything and he sometimes comes fellowshipping with us! hahaha Investigator fellowshipper! But something sad happened. He has been really low on money because he is selling these loadshedding bulbs here and not doing very well and his boss is putting a lot of pressure on him so someone offered him to sell drugs and make about 300 rand a day. He texted us and said he’s really tempted to take the deal and then we couldn’t get a hold of him for like 5 days. Apparently his phone was stolen but luckily he came to church. We were super happy and relieved but at the end of church he gave us this note that was super nice thanking us for everything we have done with him. In the end he needed 300 rands sooo not sure what we are going to do but i hope he puts his trust in God and I’m sure everything will work out fine with him!

I really miss the temple. I wish I could go. I love that place.

This week was great! We were able to confirm another one of our investigators to baptism which is such a blessing.

Elder Shaw

May 22, 2017

This week was a bunch of ups and downs. On Wednesday we had an awesome day! We hit every single one of our goals and had quite a few lessons and they all went great but the next day was probably the worst I have had on mission. We walked for probably 4 out of the 6 hours we were in our area and only one appointment held. So we were constantly walking, got home and just crashed. I was like depressed, it was the worst. The good thing was we had a baptism this week and it was really sweet. His dad is a member. He was baptized about a year ago. We have been teaching his children who are all under the age of like 18ish. Anyways they live hecka far away in the village so walking there takes over an hour so we sacrificed so much for him to make the date of the 21st but it was all worth it! Seeing his dad baptize him and then having him coming up afterwards to tell us thank you for sacrificing and getting him ready for the baptism. The baptism was really sweet. His dad can’t really speak English so Bulelani (his son) pretty much said the baptismal prayer while his dad repeated him and then after the dad pretty much grabbed his neck and dropped the kid in the water! hahaha it was so funny! The first time he didn't go all the way down so we had to do it again but it was a really great experience. Now we are getting ready for the 2 other siblings to be baptized on the 11 of June so the whole family can be baptized! They are such a sweet family and the mom isn't in the picture. I’m not sure what happened to her. Also this week, lets see, Sem stayed instead of going to cape town!!! so we are preparing him for baptism on the 11 as well. We hopefully will have 6 baptisms on the 11th. We aren’t teaching a lot of people, we only had 10 investigator lessons this week but all of our investigators are really progressing so its all great. We have received a ton of referrals. We’re are trying to ask everyone and its working! I think we received 20 referrals and contacted most of them!!!! Its awesome. pmg says if you ask “who do you know?” you wont need to worry about investigators. Oh another funny story. my comp and I are walking down the street in the township and we both stop and listen and motab is playing hahaha so we try to find the house that is blaring it (people love gospel music here). Anyways we find the house and ask him where he got the cd. It turned out that it was pirated and they bought it on the side of the road hahaha super funny!  We scheduled a time to meet the family! hahaha What a coincidence! Love you,

Elder Shaw

May 8, 2017

Mlungisi is awesome. i can’t complain at all. We are finding new investigators, we have progressing investigators, and missionary work is the best. This week with 4 of our investigators we had to sit down with them and be really bold and blunt to them because we have taught them pretty much every required lesson. We just had to say our church is the only true church. I guess sometimes that is called for. So when we go back and visit them this next time it will probably be a do or die situation. Sometimes it can be hard to let go of investigators cause you build such a good relationship with them. You know they can change, they just choose not to. I hope these 4 investigators will make a good decision this week. We are teaching this one lady from New Rest and she is the one who is going through a really rough time and every time we teach her, her kids are jumping around making so much noise. This time she was fed up with it as well so she told them to leave the house and then she locked the door. hahaha Probably not the right thing but ah we had such a good lesson about the plan of salvation and the question why are we here and what’s our purpose hit home with her. The spirit was definitely present in that lesson and she invited her friend from work and he was really interested.  At the end he said, "wow i really need to change my life" haha i kinda giggled inside when he said that! But hopefully he will come along as well.

My companion is doing pretty good. He had the chance to talk with sister french and after that he was super motivated and happy. She must do her job very very good! it was really nice that day but things are going great. i don’t feel that he has made any progress this week but i might push him a little harder this week and see how he responds. I’m not going to lie, i have been kinda easy on him but if i get another transfer with him i really hope to set good goals and make him stick to those goals, so we can both improve and learn from each other and that he will get out of this little hole that he is in.

Our ward is all black. The only white people are the missionaries ahahaha We live in a village and yes they do have youth but i don’t think mutual is at the church since its quite a ways away. In sacrament meeting they speak half english half xosha so i get like half of sacrament meeting hahaha. The church in Africa is strictly English. We can’t teach in any other language or have church in any other language. The people here don’t really like that because it’s tradition to speak xosha so it’s kinda half and half. I’m learning the language little by little and can say a few simple sentences.

I’m so excited for this Sunday. It will be a blast to talk to everyone and ill get to express myself better cause i hate typing!   

love you      

elder shaw

May 1, 2017

(I told him we went to Idaho Pizza Co)

Yo i miss Idaho Pizza Co so much! I have had pizza here and its not the same but still pretty good! I’m pretty much good at cooking as well. I made my own tortillas and they were super good! Thanks for the spices you sent. I’m not sure what they were called but I loved them! This week was great! Zizo got baptized! Now that i think of it, I’m going to name my kids weird African names cause i think i like them more hahah, sorry wife. The baptism was awesome and she couldn’t even describe what she was feeling! It was super cool. The funny part was she didn’t know how to come out of the water. (Muddy water) She was good at bending her knees but then she sprawled like a frog and flailed coming out, sounded like a wave crashing, hahaha it was pretty funny but it was a really cool experience. We have lot of progressing investigators, which is always nice! I’m sorry that I don’t have lot of time. I’m actually over time now but missionary life is awesome! I don’t think i have ever been this happy in my life. I just started the Doctrine and Covenants and its awesome! D&C 6 is awesome! One of my favorite sections, i think its section 6. haha It truly shows its one of my favorite. My companion is turning out to be an awesome obedient guy. I’m sorry there aren’t any pics cause i forgot my camera. I’ll remember next week.

love you 

Elder Shaw

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!

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

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