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