1/24/2011 and pictures

Hola Familia,
This week was definatly a week of adventures! Braiden's game sounds sick! That is so cool, dang Braiden is going to rock me when I get back. Hey if you can send some pictures of Braiden's ball games, or actually just any pictures at all.! I am learning some prety sick moves with the foot fairy sport, granted I cant do them ,but a Peruvian taught me some sweet moves. Sounds like everything is going really well. Good luck with Junior Miss mom and Dad I hope your back feels better. On my mission thus far I have really gained a testimony of tithing, and never in my life have I seen such humble people here than those that are active in the church that are paying their tithing with nothing! I thought it would be a big problem but they are so willing.
Go Nate Berg that is so awesome about Japan mission call? 
Hey when you take the money out of my account to send a package, doesnt have to be soon just some time, could you buy batteries 4 triple A and 4 double , also a rechargeable battery thing that plugs in cause the baterries here are so expensive so if I could just get a rechargable thing it would be so helpful and a couple micro sd memory cards for my camera. Oh and hey guess what we weighed myself at a pharmacy and I weighed 197 last monday but wait, I weighed myself this morning and I now weigh 178.... don't know what I weight! This last week was amazing, we had our first interviews with President Callan. Just walking in to the presnece of that man is so spiritual! He is amazing! and He challenged every companionship to set 10 fechas (baptismal dates) a week.... we tried and it is so hard, we didn't quite make it but we made the lessons goal for the week. We had a little stumble one day cause we got a call from rama 1 and they said there is a North American at the border stuck cause he doesnt have papers so we were going to translate for him. Turns out he is Lithuanian that spoke very little English and he told us that he was in jail in Brazil for the last ten years, has no family in South America, and is trying to get back to his country but can't get into Argentina (our area cover the border to argentina), we think that he is an escaped convict by the way he told us. The worst part, he didnt have anything, no money, clothes, food, so we gave him some money and left, because we couldn't help him. Then it started to rain harder then I have ever seen in my life. The roads were rivers and we couldn't make it home so we got stuck in this taxi shack were the taxi drivers sit waiting, and taught 4 taxi drivers the first lesson with pouring rain outside. Ha the Lord gets his gospel to the people that need it one way or another! Also one time this week we were going to set fecha with a women whose husband was a member and we walked by their house and heard crying and we saw her hit her husband and they were fighting really bad, so we walked past thinking it was a bad time if they were hitting each other, we got about 3 minutes away when we got such a strong impression to turn around and share with them. We went back and clapped the house and I guess she yelled at us in Guarani to come in. We asked to share with them and they said oaky and I read my favorite scripture in the bible. Deuteronomy 4: 28-30 and gave my testimony about families and my companion taked after me and the spirit was so strong. She was bawling. There was the biggest switch from tension and conflict to just peace, the spirit was strong so quickly after she read that. we didn't commint her to baptism there but we will this week, and I'll tell you how it goes! One of our investigators that was going to get baptized on the 12 of February just told us yesterday that her dad won't let her and we don't know what to do, we pray to soften his heart but we dont know whats going to happen.
As for the language... all I want is to understand people doubts and talk freely but, Guaraní is so hard to tell the difference, like when people are speaking Spanish and then switch over I can never tell. Usually I know exactly what's going on but I don't catch details or jokes I just know the subject. My companion says it takes about 6 months to become fluent. but I really have been blessed with the language and I'm so thankful but I still need to be more patient cause I haven't even been here a month yet! I love learning languages, I wouldn't mind learning another later on in life!
And two funny stories, one we are teaching a pregnant 16 year old who has some troubles but has a good heart and wants to follow Christ. We clapped her house and we walked to the front door and she came out and she looked bad and she sat down and was telling us how she wasn't feeling well this morning and then her face distorted a little bit, and she threw up on my companions shoes hahaha! I couldnt help but think of Tiffany! I hope you are doing well Tiffany!
The other is in church a kid was saying the opening prayer and he was really quite and nobody could hear him, so we were just waiting and I guess my companion thought he said Amen so he like yelled amen, and the kid looked up in the middle of his prayer and just looked around like... what do I do now, he just cut me short. It was so awkward for like 10 seconds, ha it was so funny.
But I hope you are all doing well family, I love you so much. The church is true, never neglet any prompting from the spirit! Remember to read the Book of Mormon it's amazing! Braiden and Caleb, read the Book of Mormon! I promise it will help if you. Read to study not read to read! Christ Lives. Peace
Elder Shaw

1/18/2011

How's is it going family?
Sounds like everything is really good, ha good to hear that basketball is still the center of the home. I would like to brag about scoring a goal this last week against some natives.... no big deal. Is Braiden feeling better? Dad I completely feel you on the 15 hour days of church stuff, it draining! I have never been so tired in my life but I'm always given spurts of energy when I need them. This last week we found a man that let us in and we taught him the first lesson and it was great, I didn't do too much talking that lesson but in the closing prayer, my companion said and I lost it and couldn't understand for a while so I got a little tired and fell asleep during the prayer! ha and when I heard amen in the distance I guess I sat up a little fast but I don't think they noticed... hopefully. Mom I love the food surprisingly, everything except the sausage, one of the members fed us this sausage and I couldn't get it down so I pointed off in the other direction and said when does the next colectivo come by there and stuck it in a napkin and in my pocket while they looked away, ya smooth I know. Our missionary food is so bad wish I could make flop-overs but they don't have tortillas. Ii will keep looking for them but I can't find them, they also don't have peanut butter. When I get a better feel for the diet I will tell you some of the stuff that would be useful. Thank you. I just don't want you to send anything cause it is so expensive... or you could pull the money out of my account to send it. It's so cool that everyone is finally going I felt like no one was ever going to follow me into the mission field.
This last week was very fast! Time is flying and I have only been here for about 3 weeks. but this last week we found a very promising family of 3 that was so interested and we are going back to teach the rest of lesson 1 we never got to finish. My companion is so good at teaching to the level of Paraguayans so people can understand. I catch myself using words like Atonement and priesthood and I have to explain myself. I'm learning a lot. Also Friday we decided to go work in a town about 2 hours away from our pension. We were walking and about 30 minutes from any civilization and we saw a shack and as we walked by, there was a handicapped woman in a wheelchair and the wheelchair said Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on it. The nearest thing for like 30 minutes was a 3 legged cow. It's amazing how the church is everywhere. I heard that they will probably be opening China up to missionaries and that most American missionaries will be called there? Oh ya and parents ha if I tell you things that are very scary dangerous or something that, don't call the mission cause they will get ticked at me for telling. I say that cause this week on the way home from that town it was getting dark and a drunk man was peeing in the road and as we passed he said stop and tried to grab us. He was way drunk so we were able to avoid him and take off, he tried to catch us but couldn't keep up, but the weirdest feeling came over me when I saw him, it wasn't really fear ether. I knew I would be alright type feeling... and heck even if I do die here I'm all good in the life after.
This last week there is this girl named Gisel, who is 15 years old that we have a baptismal date with her, and we were going over to teach her the plan of salvation and when we got there she was sick, really sick and she asked for a blessing. My comp turned to me and asked me if I wanted to do the sealing. I did the sealing for the girl's blessing for my first time in Spanish. I messed it up but got through it. It was such a spiritual moment, my comp gave the best blessing from what I understood but I know that she will follow through with her baptism. She asked to say the closing prayer! She got well enough to go to church this last Sunday. She's awesome! gotta go, the church is true and so far the biggest thing I have learned is to follow the feelings you have whether they be your thoughts or the spirit as long as you're doing what's right you can't go wrong! The church is true. Love you, Elder Shaw

1/11/2011

Hola Familia,
 Okay it took me like 20 minutes to try and figure out how to import my pictures and then attach them on a Spanish computer so I don't have much time. But I learned so much this week!

I got my first rainstorm and got soaked, we were out in the middle of it, and it was so funny to see everybody scurry about and then disappear in a second. Like no way they got to their houses they had to of just found a rock and hid. It is impossible to contact or clap houses in the rain and also during the siesta. I don't know why America does not have a siesta because it sounds amazing! A 3 hour nap in the middle of the day.

This week was really good though because I realized how many people are here that are ready for the gospel they just need somebody to push them a little. Also I am amazed at how many more women there are than men are ready for the gospel. There are not enough good men in the world for all the women! Yesterday we were clapping houses and was told to come in by a women with her children and we asked if a man was home so that we could teach her and she, looked down and looked out back and said he is tomadod or drunk. He walked in at that point and started yelling something in Gaurani that I'm glad i didn't know cause he was angry. He came towards us but didn't do anything he forced us to leave and started yelling at his wife. I know that he beat her cause she already had a bruise on her faced when we came in... its so sad, if they would allow sisters in our area they would dominate, because it's so hard to get a man in the house so we can teach the women. But our area is really dangerous and 6 hours from Asuncion so they don't allow sisters out here! Yesterday I met the most interesting man in the world and he was completely sober! His name was Feli-Cristo, he followed us for 15 minutes and tried to preach to us that he was Christ with a name change and reincarnated and that he was writing another bible called the new order. ha it was so funny, he preached and preached and told us to bow to him. I guess he has already done this to my companion before I got here but it was so funny. He is so sure he Christ, oh and a crazy women at night told me to love her and to marry her!... that's the first time in my life I have been proposed to! But enough about the crazy people! One thing that I have learned on my mission is how Jesus Christ is with us in all we do, and we need to acknowledge him in everything. The moment I think I'm doing pretty good with the language I'm humbled so fast before I can say si, and then after I have been humbled he lifts me and helps me!

I was not happy yesterday cause i couldn't respond to a women and my companion was doing something and she was a member and getting frustrated... i knew for a fact I would never learn castiano and then that night my companion made me teach a quick lesson to a family that has been inactive for 15 years and I was given the gift of tongues to teach a 15 minute lesson on the spirit and they committed to go to church. In the mission we don't do anything, Christ does! There is a lot of activation work going on in Paraguay right now which is really hard, but I think that the branch will improve. Out here Satan tempts and throws more trials at the members then anything I have ever heard, and it's amazing how strong a testimony of new convert is. My comp and I are teaching a 14 year old girl and every time we walk in the door she tells us where she wants to serve her mission and that she is going to get married in the temple and she isn't even baptized yet.

I'm not sure the order of the pictures but one is food that I left out for 10 minutes to go change and came back and that's the amount of ants that can come in that short of time. Another is our district, and the other is the black-market after a rain storm, everything closed down and disappeared, another is my sweat tan lines already, and I think the last one is my area! Our area is huge!!!!! We like to work out in the Attapas which is a 1 and a half hour walk out and 1 hour and a half back in 110 degree weather. We can't get to about half of our area cause it is so big and we don't have enough time!

Oh and hey my taste buds have changed mother! I love the food here it is so good, I love chipa (the bread Devin tried to make but not as salty) and its just all good. I'm afraid that I'm going to get fat cause of the amount I am eating, every single house we go to, even though they don't own a house and are living under a tarp or only have one bed and nothing else, somehow they get something together to give the missionaries! They are so kind and give everything they have, I drink a lot of soda. The flavors here are so much better than North America! ha. I stepped on a scale at a store because I was curious and it said 91 kilos which is about 200 pounds! I flipped out and then found out it was way off so I still have no idea what I weigh but I look skinny and black!

President challenged us to read the BofM. cover to cover in Spanish and mark every teachings, words, names, spirit of Christ. It is amazing, the introduction is so powerful, we use that in lessons over Moroni 10:4 but it is a little chuchi for the people to read. I get scared to ask the investigators to read because there are so many people that cant or are slow and they still try to read the parts that we assigning them! When you have nothing you find your love for Christ and that is how these people are, they are so kind and loving, we have been rejected probably only 10 times out of every door clap and contact on the street since I have been here. They just can't say no to anybody! and Devin was right the hamburgers here....!!! amazing with eggs and they are like 50 cents. I don't have much time caused I gotta write president but I love you family, you're the best
Elder Shaw

1/4/11

Waz up familia! I love this place it is so amazing. I have so many stories from the first week only! Ya turns out Encarn has a lot of Gaurani people so let’s just say i am learning a lot really fast. I’m learning how to mumble and trying to understand the mumbling! The people here have mastered the technique of not even opening their lips and getting people to understand them! I can say a couple sentences in Gaurani. There are so many Portuguese people here also but it also turns out that they don’t speak Spanish here they speak Castion which is a mix of everything. So first story and best is Friday my first day out and about we went to a lunch appointment to a very poor member who was having his New Years Day dinner, which is huge. My comp said that it was probably 2 weeks worth of food in this one meal. We got there and they mostly only speak Gaurni so i was oblivious to what was being siad but we walked over to the table and I will describe it to you. (I know I have a parasite now!) There were hundreds of flies over everything! I’m not lying, they were over all the food and there were probably 30 chickens running around and on the table. Laying on the dirt there were the chicken that were not cooked and my companion pointed out the head, they had just killed it. There was this sausage looking thing that was weir. My comp said that he had never had it, it was all parts of the cow in the sausage and it looked liked mush. I gagged but had to eat it. Then there was this rice with like dirt for seasoning and worst of all was this Gaurani traditional drink or something that I got about a half a cup down. This meal gave eating with the chickens a whole new meaning, they were on the table as we ate and they talked haha. I could say a couple things when the member directed them at me! that was my first experience it was amazing!

We have contacted probably 30 people since I have been here and only 2 rejections so far, every body will say yes. Sometimes they give fake numbers or give us the wrong mango tree address (they give direction by blocks and trees and bigger chuchi (I don’t know exactly what that means but its fits cool huh) houses) I have done a couple contacts and I can get to about when they give directions and then I look over at my comp who takes it away. This week I am going to finish one I know it!
 We visited a member who was recently baptized and out the blue she said her daughter want to get baptized so we are trying to set a date with her for Jan. 15 I think. There are some interesting things that happen here.
 Oh ya, and it was testimony meeting in church yesterday and ya.... I got up and bore my testimony, and they were all so intent. I don’t know if it was because they were trying to understand me or because they were blown away by the spirit I do not know or care.
 Hey something else that is cool, I keep forgetting Babylon stuff from back home like songs and movies so, I’m working on forgetting words still but ill get there.
 Oh and guess how many member our one area has, 650 member, and about 30 active. There is a lot of reactivating work in Paraguay going on right now. Paraguays’ have a knack for disappearing and we don’t know what to do with the records. The people are so generous and kind and funny, they all call me ether Elder Nuevito (which is new super) and Elder Sha-kira (cause when they say it it sounds like that)
I’m sorry I didn’t attach any pictures I can’t take a lot of pictures here cause the people will jump you if they see a chuchi item that you have so i have taken only 4, but the place is beautiful. Our area is huge. We walk forever. Yesterday we walked for about 6 hours there and back to find a less active member, they were gone for New Years so we just clapped some houses. Turns out you really do clap house you don’t knock. It’s really funny and the people can’t tell whose house you are in so you clap at one and 3 houses on both sides come out to see if it is their house. And then they see the Mormons and they don’t answer their claps. 
I haven’t had the opportunity to play futbol yet but we are for noche de rama which is kinda like mutual. For the whole branch and we play volleyball. Volleyball is huge here!!!! This game called piki which is volleyball with no hands only chest and feet.
 There is a massive black-market in our area, parts of it we are not supposed to go into and you can get almost anything! Today we went and I bought 8 of the coolest ties. I paid 33 Gaurani which is about 6 dollars and fifty cents, its dirt cheap except electronics those are pricy here. 
Oh I do have a picture of our pension. I left my dinner out for about 30 minutes to go do something, came back and there were thousands of ants all over it, we have more ants then you will ever see, they just roam the place like they own it and I have killed a couple cockroaches but we do have a hot shower so I am grateful for that! 
Paraguay is the coolest place on earth and I couldn’t ask for a more better humbling mumbling beautiful mission in the world!
Con Amor 
Elder Shaw