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!

January 30, 2017

I hope you get all my pics.

1)    theres a generation picture

2)    pictures of Fishhook

3)    me and my comp and

4)    Hough Bay or however its spelled. 

Spencer, oh man i miss him and would absolutely love to be his companion! it sounded like he did a great job. And nick going to Malan! So cool, is tanner moss there?

The first week of training i had some anxiety and i hated it. i just got overwhelmed but its a lot better now. The first few days were rough cause i had to do everything but im fine now! First week of training was awesome and he’s learned so much! The thing is, he’s not very teachable. He’s 24 and thinks he knows everything cause hes older than me but hahah he will learn by council or consequence (messing up in lessons) lol but hes awesome!  Oh man this week we worked really hard. We had 54 hours in our area and got a lot of new investigators. We have 3 really good bapt dates and i hope and pray for them, richard, nelly and avela! Avela is such a stud!! He’s 17 years old and he read the beginning to 2 nephi 14 in 2 days and then after, when we came to visit he told us about what he learned!! ah i love him so much and just want him to realize that he will be happy and blessed as he becomes baptized!! Pray for him! i dont think he has enough faith to come to church but we are working on that. Hopefully we can get him to come this week! I love teaching him and watching him grow.

Im reading in Mosiah right now and just finished when King Benjamin gave his address. He was such a bomb king! He considered himself lower then the people and worked just like everyone else. He is a good example of a leader that i hope i can be to my son. (comp)

Love you,

Elder Shaw

January 23, 2017

Wow thanks for the confidence in my driving. im sure i would have managed but definitely would have gotten into some ditches a few times due to drifting hahaha. It sounds like braiden is getting a lot more playing time. I was talking to the president about him and he said hes doing well but fighting hard for his position. who is he battling for his position?

I love receiving physical letters, hint hint.

First week of training was a learning experience hahaha i really hope i wasn’t that bad when i came in haha but Elder Sibiya is amazing. He is soo good at talking to people. He talks to everyone and anyone. He’s good at talking to people and building the relationship of trust and then i teach. We’ve got a really good combo going but my throat hurts cause i pretty much have to teach the whole lesson. He is only a year convert to the church so he doesn’t know a lot but hes learning a ton!! hes originally from south africa but moved to ireland when he was 8 and lived there since but a year ago he got a contract to play rugby at a semi professional team in england and that was where he was converted. hes the only member in his family but hes awesome. im learning a lot from him on humility and patience but all is well. We were about to drop this investigator named Avela because he wasnt progressing but Elder Sibiya came in and he just got to know him super well and now he is progressing again and we have really good hopes for him! keep him in your prayers!!! We want to get 2 baptisms this transfer and going to work very hard to get it. Oh and hes a very hard worker!! its great. and it pushes me even more. We have another mother whose name is Nelly another super sweet lady and we really have good hopes for her too! Imagine me, Elder Shaw answering all the deep doctrine questions investigators ask us. hahaha it amazes me how much i actually know! i have learned so much this past 3 months its incredible

He wants to go to a rugby practice and give some tips and we dont even know the people. i was like so you want to coach the coach on how to coach and he was like ya we will get so many investigators!! hahah i will tell you how it goes next week.

Had to say goodbye to my father wednesday and it was sad. i really enjoyed him and learned so much from him

Yes i will be in sommerset for 6 months which is weird to think about cause thats already a fourth of my missioin!!! wow it has gone by so fast.

Its going to be a fun, hard, learning 3 months

Elder Shaw

January 16, 2017

This week was an average teaching week but it felt slow. Since my comp is going home all of the members wanted to say goodbye and feed us sooo that really nice! The members are awesome! i love them soo much, i didnt know how much of an impart the members have on a missionary. The other day i read the whole February liahona and there was a really good quote from Elder Hamilton who is over us and it said something along the lines of, " if you cant sacrifice everything you have then you dont have enough faith for you salvation" it was something like that but you can read it and it might make more sense. i love the liahona and they have such good lessons to teach members and less actives.

I haven’t quite gotten the Christmas package yet but i did get notified that i am receiving one. I have to go to the bank and pay for the package and then the mission office will deliver it to me (sadly i still had to pay for it but it wasn’t a lot of money). i will usually receive packages but they take forever!! i haven’t quite spent my Christmas money yet and i dont know what i should get, i think I’ll get some new slacks and socks but im just to lazy and i just want to save it. Also when i use my card its going to get denied, or every time after its going to get denied so i can only use it once then im going to have to call the bank and fix it.

While we were saying goodbye my comp, Elder Fonua said goodbye to his recent convert he converted and baptized and it was really sad. She was just crying the whole time and she didnt come to church cause she didnt want to listen and cry during church which is so sad. To see the impact that we have on people lives its incredible. It really strengthen my testimony on mission work and motivated me to be the best person i can be. I just hope i will be a good example for my son (Elder Sebeuh). I found a really good scripture in 2 Nephi 4, i dont know the verse but when you flip to the page its on the first column like 3/4 the ways down and it talks about not drooping hahah hopefully you find it. I REALLY like and compare it to a basketball standard not letting your standards down. Such a good scripture.

Kinda a funny experience is we were teaching this guy who lives in a room smaller than my  bedroom and its really messy anyways we were teaching and a rat seriously a rat crawls down the wire of his tv which is behind him so he doesnt see it and me and my comp just look at each other in the middle of the lesson and just start busting up laughing!! he was like oh dont worry about them there music is always this loud cause next door they were blaring music hahah we just laughed hard. Well there went the spirit but we couldnt hold it in. We had to finish lesson knowing there is a rat somewhere in this tiny room ahhh it was gnarly but sooooo funny!!

I hope all is well back home and i miss you very much and love you all

Elder Shaw

January 9, 2017

Ahh this week has been crazy, it has either been a really good day full of appointments (and when i say full like 3) or absolutely nothing and we either tract or check up on people. I had my first hard day Saturday. i didnt feel good and i was super tired and almost fell asleep driving and every appointment fell through until the last one at 7 which was good. Thankfully we went to go see our last appointment and they weren’t there so we went to their neighbor and taught them. He was a less active. it went really well.

We got a new schedule this week, which is different from the past. From 6:30 till 10 we workout, personal study, plan, get ready, and breakfast. From 10am-7 or 8pm we are out of the flat proselyting and within that time you can do comp study, train, or language study. The president wants us to get out early but we can take breaks in the day to do that stuff and we dont plan at night anymore we plan in the morning which is nice.

So i had an interview with President and its near transfers and he asked me if there was anything that would be stopping me from a leadership position and i said no but right then KNEW he was going to call me as a trainer. Then he was like well your name has come up and YOU WILL BE TRAINING THIS NEXT TRANSFER. Training, like serious? I still don’t know what I’m doing here! hahaha It’s gonna be a mess but really fun. I’m really scared cause i just finished training. oh well i have really learned to trust in God’s will and just go with the flow. im really going to miss my companion but excited to have a greeny with me so i can see what i was like haha. Hes from Ireland but born is South Africa so im pretty curious what hes going to be like.

Our Sundays go thus: we go to church all 3 hours and we teach gospel doctrine then after we go to a member’s house for lunch. Usually have appointments after that and then hopefully another DA at 6. This Sunday we went to a members house and cooked dinner for them haha cause they are pretty poor, a single white mom with 4 kids. Her husband died of cancer a few years ago and she works full time with 4 kids no older than 13. The 13 year old thinks hes getting abused by his mom, went to a professional and found out it was him. Now he is deciding if he wants to leave home and live somewhere else. He’s an idiot, his mom loves him and gives all that she can he just cant see it and is the total opposite of humble. i kinda hope he chooses to move away so he will realize how much he has but it would be very sad. Sundays are a pretty relaxed day. Everything in pmg where it says  Sunday is the best time to teach cause families are together and stuff like that, its totally opposite here and so its hard to find things to do. i have learned this past week that even though president is from the military he is relatively relaxed. i was surprised cause i would think he would be very strict. Great man though. I love you.

Elder Shaw