March 27, 2017

As for your questions, this week is week 5 and next is week 6 of this transfer so it will end at the end of next week. I’m not sure what we are going to do about conference because they will broadcast the morning session at the chapel at 18:00 on Saturday and Sunday. I’m not sure if we are going to be able to watch the afternoon session or when.

None of our investigators came to church but we did receive and SMS that they couldn’t find a ride and their mom couldn’t take them so at least we knew they tried which is a step! All 4 of our investigators we found this week (2 families) and since we have not been able to see them in a long time they have slipped back into there old ways and backed off from baptism but after a little chat and D&C 20 about the requirements for baptism they are back on for the 23 of April but by then i wont be able to see them get baptized. Sad, but i really hope they continue to progress to there baptismal date! We had a really good week. Well i guess, we kept busy. We are visiting every active member cause there 100 that are active and 200 that are inactive. We are almost all the way through with all of the member and we’re giving them a challenge to bring one of their friends to church! NOT THAT HARD!!! Everyone back home should do it also! It’s super easy, all you got to do is ask. You’re never going to receive a witness until after the trail of your faith so chances are they are going to say no the first time but that doesn’t mean you should give up!

Love you all

Elder Shaw

March 21, 2017

I guess you could say it was a rollercoaster week. We didn’t spend much time in our area this week due to Zone training and interviews. Then we went to Stellenbosch (an town thats in our area but kinda far away) for a youth conference that a few of us missionaries were invited to teach at. It was so fun to teach the youth about missionary work and all the aspects of it. They even fed us breakfast and lunch which was amazing! That was the loopdeloop of the week. The spinning sickening part was we don’t know where some of our investigators went! They didn’t come to church and we haven’t been able to make contact with them in a long time and they both have a baptismal date for the 26.  I think we are going to have to move it back to the 9 of April. Pray that we can find them!!! This week was so tiring!  I went to bed Saturday and woke up the next morning remembering that i had to give a 15 min talk in church. haha Just winged it. Turned out to be 20ish minuets and then people came up to me after saying it was good and there was even someone from our area council that was there hahaha. I love missionary work but it’s hard and tiring. I have a feeling that’s not going to go away so i just got to learn to cope with it.

Well mom I’m super tired right now but i get to go golfing with some of the youth cause they don’t have school today and last p day we got to go to a trampoline park. I was in heaven but i went with a bunch of uncoordinated Elders and it was so funny like this one guy seriously couldn’t even jump hahaha i was laughing so hard inside but then realized to be blessed with such a athletic body, i think i would die if i wasn’t. 

Usually when a mission president is going home (like mine) the mission tends to get disobedient and I’m surrounded with a bunch a disobedient elders but my comp and i got the compliment form our zone leaders that we were like the most obedient in the mission haha. wish my mission was more obedient

Interviews were awesome with President Merrill, I love talking to him!!  I asked where I’m going and he said he doesn’t know yet but he did say i was leaving. i think i will be going to eastern cape so Port Elizabeth and Queenstown and East London. I’ve never been there but i heard a lot of good things about it. We also had multi zone training this week which was great as always but what we did pretty much was just watch the missionary broadcast as a multi zone and we already watched it before but it was good because we stopped and talked about some of the points. Jealous you get to go to Austin. We were driving along the beach to get to zone conference and there were people surfing and i miss water soooooooo much!! I almost got in a crash cause i was staring at the waves haha.

Elder Shaw

March 8, 2017

Well this week was rough!  We taught about 10 lessons the whole week and all our investigators that were suppose to come to church, didn’t.  We woke up early to drive around and wake them up, woke them and they said they will be there and not a single one showed. Then we had scheduled appointments with them after sacrament so we went to there houses and we could hear them but they wouldn’t open their doors Ahhh it was so frustrating so i don’t think they will make they’re baptismal dates anymore. We are always trying to find new investigators. Every tuesday, wednesday and saturday we tract from 10-12 cause the president want us in our area by 10. Then if we don’t have anything else to do in the mid day we usually contact some more. My comp and I get along fine. haha we have some pretty good laughs and then other times he freaks out at me if i leave a bowl in the sink or crumbs on the counter and he gets moody.   And I’m super good. i would say one of the best in the mission at being clean so that something he can work on haha. That all probably sounded negative but i really hope this week is a better week. i cant wait till transfers. We’re half way through and i really want a different area, i love the people here and don’t want to leave them but it is hard when all the surrounding areas around you are blooming and we are just stuck. We have interviews with president this week and im hoping he tells me where im going next transfer. One scripture i liked this week was in alma when moroni is talking to pahoran about fixing the problem in Zarahemla and he says that you have to clean the inner vessel before the outer is cleansed and its for realz!  Its starts with your thoughts and your intent and if that’s good, then you actions will show!

Thank you for all your prayers. South Africa is in a drought right now and there’s like less than 100 days until water runs out, kind of scary for them. The Lord could be humbling South Africa.

Love you all 

Elder Shaw

February 27, 2017

Ah that is soooo cool that Braiden got to start! i really really wish i could watch him! Hopefully he plays when i get home haha. Sad about grandpa’s fall. He didn’t look too good in that picture. Was Mark there this week? Tell him i say hi!! I still can’t believe Jaden is going on a mission. Im sure she will do well. I’m really proud of her. Did you see Spencer D.? i  miss him and wish he would email me.

Sorry this letter might be short This week was tough hahaha definitely the hardest week of my mission so far! So many appointments fell through and  Ifelt like we were just running from one place to another not teaching anyone but we still got quite a few other lessons. We did a ton of service this week! Which is a good thing because after serving, one of our investigators came to church! FIRST TIME EVER!!  Her name is zukiswa (zu-kee-swa) thought you might need that haha but were teaching her and 2 of her sons that are 21 and 18. They are both progressing and coming along but the sons haven’t made it to church yet. we might have to continue doing service for her so she keeps coming haha We built her a little garden. Finally my working skills came in handy hahaha when i say we i mean I made her an amazing garden but forgot to take a picture of it. i will try next time we go over. the sons names are Avela and senabo. Our other really good investigators are Richard and Nelly. they were suppose to get baptized yesterday but there not married!! i really hope they get married because they have been together for 10 years and have kids so they’re not splitting up. They are so ready to enter the waters of baptism!! Pray for them! its really expensive her to get married so we will see what happens. Yesterday i had the chance to confirm a little girl whos father passed away in our ward. It was a super cool experience. Pray for that family too.(lawrence fam) They are going through a rough time. The father passed away a while ago. She is a single mom with 4 kids under the age of 13. Her car just got stolen and there is fighting in the home. i feel for them sooo much. I have been super blessed to have been born in such a great community and a awesome family! love you all

Elder Shaw

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!