August 29, 2017

I’m really trying to learn xosha because the people here get offended if you don’t know it, especially the older generation. I try to use it as much as i can like in church lessons and just talking to people but i still don’t know very much!

I’m going to use my card for a little so don’t freak out I’m just using my birthday money that i didn’t use to get some thing and to make up for the past 2 months.

I exercise almost everyday for about a year now.

 The geography of our zone its like a 4 hour drive from one side to the other.... roughly.

This week was good. We had AP exchanges and that’s always fun. I went with the new ap and he didn’t know to much i could tell that he was nervous about making a good impression. haha i already know he’s awesome, his dad is a 70 lol. We taught a lot of lessons this week and are preparing for a baptism next week. I love my companion, cant get enough of him. I just think why cant i get along with all my companion like this and trying to discern what i can do differently. Love reading the Infinite Atonement. It gives a good analogy about things we learn about with the atonement.... we think that were about to open that last curtain on what we understand but just to find out that there is another curtain. You cant stop learning about the atonement. There is so much to learn and to apply in your life. I’m trying harder to apply the scriptures more into my life cause sometimes i feel that i haven’t even changed enough from what i was in high school haha but love you!!!

elder shaw

August 21, 2017

This letter is going to be short cause i have to drive to East London in a little while. It’s a pday ruiner. This week was short cause of transfers and lots of driving. I didn’t really get to our area till Friday.  Oh let me tell you, elder lane is awesome!!!! Its’ so fun talking to him. When he came through the airport, we gave each other a big hug. It’s really weird to talk about home and stories and things, but so fun.. He even started calling me Caleb and i was weirded out! I haven’t heard that name in a long time

  

Speaking about my comp. He’s from Guatemala and is the humblest guy ever! We get along great. He’s about 14 months on mission so like a transfer before elder lane.

Got my card BTW!!!

We have a few people on date and 3 of them are looking very promising for the 3rd of September. Our goal is 6 for this transfer. Ah its nice being in a good area. i really don’t want to leave this place! Also I’m learning the language a lot more and kinda understand probably 60% at church but can only speak like 20%. ahha It’s fun and hard to get the clicks down.

The members don’t really feed us but they’re are like 2 families who invite us over ever week which is nice. I’m pretty sure my favorite food here is steamed breat of amaguenyas which is like Indian fried bread or sweeter. You just eat it plan or with some mince. It’s really nice. Also I kinda like amaquenya which is chicken feet. hahaha

It was very cold this week and we even got some snow in the hills surrounding the town. I wanted to go play in it this pday but we have to drive to the airport.

love you

elder shaw

August 14, 2017

This week was pretty awesome cause we had another baptism of a family (mama tyulu and siya tyulu) who have been investigating the church for over a year. Oh man we were sooo happy for their baptism because at some points they were like less active who would kinda progress and then we would go back and see them but never really progress.  I don’t know what clicked but I am super glad we never gave up. We were still kinda scared on how they would do in the baptismal interview and Elder Reed said that was one of the best he has ever done. Yo we were sooooo happy! Now to the baptism, haha our ward mission leader wasn’t there, and the auxiliaries were having a meeting so we really didn’t have a presiding person, but all went well. Also I confirmed mihlali landa and mbasa. It is very hard to pronounce people’s names here especially last names. Oh it was a disaster cause there are a few clicks in it and I had to say it in front of the ward. I like practiced the week in advance so I could get it right but elder palavi slaughtered his and i nailed mine hahaha. It was sooooo funny but all went well. The Lord knows who they are. It was the last week with Elder Palavi and im sad he is going but my new comp is elder orosco lopez. He’s from Guatemala, lol i don’t know how to spell that but he’s super humble and way nice. Also Elder Lane is coming to our zone!!!! I’m super excited to serve around him.

This week was really good though. I’m so sad though because my comp said his goodbyes and that means next transfer i will have to say goodbye to this place. It’s going to be really hard, i have a feeling. i love this place!!!

Love ya,

Elder shaw

August 7, 2017

It sounds like a hectic summer with a lot of fun activities!

Well this is our last week together and transfers will be next week Wednesday. It will be a big one i think cause we have all been in this area for a long time!!!! Yo my comp will probably go but who knows what will happen. I had MLC with our president for the first time and wow he is so energetic and fun to be around. He motivates everyone and its awesome!!! i love it.

We had to take our car in cause it was making some weird noises hahah so we had to walk for the day and we were on exchanges.  I was with Elder Ivan oh man he’s the coolest guy.  We got to walk for the day and talk a lot..... to each other mostly cause no one wanted to listen to us but we're like the same people. He loves basketball and skiing and boating and rock climbing so we talked a bunch. Too bad nobody else wanted to talk to us. 

The highlight of the week though was our baptism yesterday!!! it was so nice! Landa and Mihlali and Mbasa got baptized and it has been a journey for them. It was amazing to see them reject us and not want us to come back to getting baptized. It was awesome! They really had a change of heart. Because of sacrificing a lot of things this transfer and trying to be exact in obedient, miracles happen and they are one of them! Ill try to send pictures but they are on my companions camera. Our ward mission leader was not there and we realized after sacrament so we had to do a last minute scramble to get everything organized and ask people to give talks. I got to conduct it, I don’t get nervous in front of people any more, so glad. The baptism was really great!

One thing i have really enjoyed this week is my studies! i love personal study so much. I love to try and find what your investigators need and study about it. Somehow it always relates back to me in something I can work on. I wish i could study for longer than an hour hahaha!

It wasn’t a super exciting week but it ended really good!

love you, i have the best family ever!!!

elder shaw

July 31, 2017

Yo i feel like this letter is going to be super long!

Well this week started off super long. On Tuesday we had zone training and President Lebethoa came down and it was awesome. For our portion of the conference, we gave a talk on how can we teach more by the Spirit and it was really nice because many people participated! That’s always good when your giving a training but when we started President pulled out my comp for interviews first so i was just up there by myself haha kinda scary but once we got going it all went well! Then right after training we did an exchange with Elder Tshwane (elder lanes trainer) and oh man that guy is amazing. Seriously the best missionary i have run into! It felt like i was on exchanges with him instead of the other way around hahaha. He’s only a convert of about 3 years and knows soooo much! The exchange lasted a bit longer and we changed back on Thursday. Then from Thursday to Sunday, yo it was a blur. We taught about 25 lessons within those days and have some baptismal date set. We are going to have 3 baptism this coming Sunday and oh man that story is a miracle which i will tell in a little and then another like 5 on the 13!!! So exciting.

So we have this momma and son and they have been investigating the church for over a year now and i don’t even know what happened but something just clicked and they are always coming to church and committed to be baptized. .Ahh it was amazing and they are seriously the best. On Saturday we went to the sons high school rugby game and it made me miss organized sports so much! i wished i was on the field the whole time haha. i cant wait to get back and play with Jamo and Braiden when he’s done with basketball!!!! 

Hahah funny story, so are still teaching this lady Sanele and she always commits to come to church and never does. Anyway we were really sad she didn’t come today and then randomly she sent us an sms and said sorry i couldn’t make it, I’m in labor at the pioneer hospital hahaha,, First of all how are you even suppose to respond to that, good luck! hahaha We were dying laughing but its going to be hard for her to come to church now with a new child so we will see how that goes.

love you!!

elder shaw

July 24, 2017

I was just thinking and i couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have an ipad with gospel library. I could study sooo much easier and faster! kinda jealous but oh wells gotta love my scriptures.

I don’t even know what to say about my week cause it just flew buy. We taught a lot of lessons and a lot of people committed to come to church like 13 and only 8 showed up which was still good but if they would have come they would have made their bapt goal. After church we went and saw them to see what was up.

This week we are preparing to have zone conference with our new mission president and I’m excited to have an interview with him and, to sit down and talk and get to know him. I loved interviews with our last president cause its really is the only time you get to know him. Our mission is so spread out that you only see him like once a transfer and get to talk to him other than that your stranded on your own. We have to teach the missionaries while president interviews which will be exciting. During our last zone conference, we did it on sacrifices and what can we sacrifice to receive more blessings.

I’ve loss a lot of weight and I’m back to what i was before i left but i think I’m healthy. I’m not quite sure but I trying. I buy bananas every 2 weeks, usually last me like 2 days but oh well still love them. i mostly eat past like noodles with mince or hot dogs or just roman. i don’t know why but i love noodles and its easy to cook.

Usually the ward has 1 or 2 temple trips a year here and that’s like it. The temple has hotel rooms they can stay in for 100 rand a night (best deal ever) its like 7 dollars and its very nice!

I haven’t got my card yet but hopefully this week cause i want to buy a sweater, it got pretty cold this week. (His debit card was stolen.)

Ok on our senior couple, I’ve got to tell you about them. They are from Pocatello Idaho and they have a kid who just moved into our stake. i don’t know where or what ward but i know their son was the gatorade player of the year a few years ago for football. His name is treyton bell or something like that. You should meet the family. i love the Bells soooo much!! They are such a help to us! Senior missionaries make such an impact. I can’t wait to you guys serve! 

love you elder shaw

July 17, 2017

So something interesting about South Africa, people just light fields on fire so the green grass will grow next season. They end up burning like a whole mountain and the fire brigade here does nothing and they respond like an hour later. haha Its kinda funny.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every animal but an elephant now. i want to ride an elephant haha. My mission is huge geography wise so we have to fly everywhere sooo only 3 zones met president. He’s kinda on a tour.

I love driving here hahaha its like your always driving on an autobon or whatever its called but we have a driving speed limit at 100 ks but i think that’s like 70mph maybe 60.

I got my birthday package this week and it was amazing!!! i loved the ties and the candy. Thank tiffany as well! it was only like 100 rand which is around 7 dollars so not bad at all! i love packages, whenever you get bored you can always send e some! hahaha thank you sooo much!

I got to play with monkeys last week and i attached some pictures. Hopefully they work but oh man they’re super fun to play with! They were just climbing all over me and it stole my planner and started to eat it. haha They are really smart like really smart its weird!

The most spiritual experience this week was awesome. It’s one that i wont forget. So the other day we were driving and we drove past this house with a guy outside on crutches with one leg trying to rake his dirt. It was kinda funny seeing this guy hoping around trying to rake his dirt but at the same time i felt bad cause he was struggling. Anyways we turned around and helped him out and when we were done it seemed like his son came home (looked like he was 40s) anyways we talked to him cause the dad didn’t know English super well. We started talking and set up a time to come meet his family...turned out he wasn’t even related to that older man. Fast forward to when we go to meet the 40 year old. He gave us his address to meet him at his house but he didn’t have a phone. In South Africa the addresses are so messed up and they don’t even have street names. The signs are like buried on the ground cause people hit them with there cars, don’t ask hahaha. Anyways it took us a super long time to find his house and we almost gave up but we found it! Well we taught his whole family which consisted of his wife and 3 kids, the oldest being 14. They were having problems in their marriage and we just testified about families and taught about Lehi and his family and gave them a Book of Mormon to read as a family. During the lesson i remembered that at our stake conference, president hamilton said the gospel can fix any problem whether it be family, social, or government and it is totally true!!! It was a super spiritual lessons and i can’t wait to go back and teach them and see how their faith has grown reading the Book of Mormon!!

We met our new president this week and it was awesome!!! From the start everybody loves him! He is such a great guy. i love president lebethoa! He and his wife are from Johannesburg and they have 4 kids that he brought along to cape town. He is a young dad, he just has so much energy and always happy.  He’s the best. i cant wait to work with him and get to know him more.

love you all elder shaw