Hola Familia!

Cool, its spring break already, wow time flies! I loved your letter thank you so much! Dad.... you’re old! Sounds like Braiden’s big enough to catch you and give your spankings now. We get general conference here it’s in the stake center about 30 minutes away. Our area is not big enough to have a chapel so they put our area in a chapel about 15 minute away by bus and then a walk a little. I’m so excited for general conference. It’s going to be awesome. I have had like 3 people ask me when I think the second coming is going to come because apparently the movie 2012 made a big impact on every body here and then what happened in Japan made every body crazy!
 But oh my gosh, our area is beautiful. There are two spots that I’m going to take pictures of this next week but sorry for not sending many pictures. You can’t really take out a camera and take a picture anywhere cause you will get robbed and we are not suppose to look like tourists so I will sneak a couple pictures this next week. Our area is awesome. Every single person will listen to our message we just have 1 problem.. Every body’s catholic and they believe they have to listen to the word of God and have no intentions of changing. We are a little nervous cause if we don’t have success President is going to close the area again and it’s a little hard to have success in a brand new area without members.... But really those thoughts are just lack of faith. We have found a couple people that have interest in changing and we are going to get them to all 4 sessions of conference ha! I love my companion, Elder Arias! He is so funny and we get along very well. I’m learning the ways of Mexican humor. Did you know that sarcasm really doesn’t exist much in the Spanish language. It’s mostly an English thing! But he is a great influence. He talks with everyone and can get along well with anyone! Right now we are figuring out how to teach together because he teaches like hour long lessons and explains everything so that they understand it in the first lesson and I’m more of a skim over prophets and Jesus’ life and apostasy so that they kind of know it to get to the restoration so that they can feel the spirit. Other then that we are good.
 One really amazing experience that I had this week was we taught a family that spoke only Portuguese and they were from brazil. I honestly can say that that is not possible with out the Spirit; I could understand every thing they were saying and they could understand us. They are close languages but not to the point of where a 3-month year old missionary could understand it. The gift of tongues exists along with the others. They are really promising. Except the wife, she got up and walked out yelling I’m catholic. But they rest like it.
 Right now I’m focusing on faith for my Christ like attribute. It’s simple with faith, success happens. That’s why we are going to have all in investigators in all 4 sessions, taking a different attribute every week and focusing on it is so beneficial! 
 I love this work, it’s very hard, but worth every second. I love you fam. Thanks for the letters and the pictures and all. 
Elder Shaw

3/25/2011 pics coming soon!

I have so much to say so I don’t know if I can reply to everyone. It will just have to be a family letter today. I had a crazy two weeks! Oh and mom and dad, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! I made a cake for you with my last companion. First, Tuesday was district meeting and my companion and I went there thinking it was a normal everyday district meeting and found out that President Callan and his wife did a surprise visit to see how our district was doing... ha The opening song actually sounded good but that’s not the crazy part. Every meeting we do practices and me and my companion got assigned to teach President Callan as an investigator in front of everyone for the first lesson!"!!! I was a little nervous, but it went well and he complimented my improvement on the language. He is an amazing spiritual man. Then that night we had a lesson with one of our investigators that has a fecha and when we got there he sat down and said, "I need to repent". We didn’t want to know what his sins were so we just encouraged him and said it’s possible to repent! Then out of the blue his bed-ridden mother who’s like 102 or something yelled "he’s a player and an adulterer and has like 6 women. He’s going to heck and called him out and it was so funny. He blushed and I had to try so hard not to laugh. We then continued to teach the law of chastity more in depth, its always awkward ha! He should get baptized next week on Sunday. The President assigned me to give a 15 minute talk in church.... ha, in Spanish. I gave my talk on personal revelation (dad that’s a really good topic and if you can get a hold of a true to the faith missionary library there is a lot of good stuff) and I gave it with 2 investigators there and it was 20 minutes. I love the gift of tongues! Monday came around and my companion and I knew we were going to be separated that he would be leaving but..... we got the changes and I left and am receiving a new companion. A Latino named Elder Arias. I am opening a new area in Ciudad del Este. A city with the 3rd biggest black market in the world! I had to say good bye to our investigators and when I was saying goodbye to our family, I explained to them that I could go through the temple with them in a year if they remained faithful and he started crying cause I was leaving, The littler daughter gave me doves as a sign of friendship... it was so sad! I really hope they remain faithful cause I really wanna go with them in a year. The President allows the missionaries to go through the temple with their converts. I arrived in Cuidad de Este at 4 in the morning with another missionary that was serving near me and nobody told the zone leader so we were stuck in the terminal for 4 hours till we borrowed someone’s cell phone. Right now I’m in a brand new area. I don’t know the area, the like Gaurani(i cant speak still), and its an adventure! My new companion Elder Arias is so cool! I’m sure he is the Fonz (I don’t know how to spell the smooth 50s guy) for Latinos and so funny. All I can do is laugh cause I don’t have any personality in Spanish. I wish I could make remarks back but I can’t think fast enough. He is really cool and does most of the talking. He probably thinks I’m lame or boring cause I cant. I bet I am going to learn Spanish so much faster with him. I’m getting to the point of where I can pick up the conversations around me but i still have a problem of talking for a long time cause my mind gets mixed up so usually after teaching the life of Christ my companion has to re teach a couple things so that they make sense cause i mess up some of the conjugations. I don’t have any pictures of here or pictures of him yet so we will see and I’ll send them when I get them. We don’t have an area book but we have references from other area book of missionaries near by and the President told us that this area is a trial run and if we have success in one change he will leave it open but if not then they will close it again.

I’m back to working on the attribute of patients cause I have been humbled again with the language and with my teaching the gospel with a Latino companion. I got frustrated again. But really frustration is just a lack of faith and confidence in the lord. I need to be patient cause I’m still learning. A 2 change young missionary like me had to be picked with inspiration and I’m suppose to be here for a reason and not an experienced missionary, so what ever I can do is needed here. Oh ya and we don’t have a chapel near so we got put in a ward a little ways away with120 people!!!! That’s like 3 times the amount in my last area.

The church is true and Jesus lives! Seeing the poverty of these people and hearing of the people in Japan is really humbling. Be grateful for what you have, we have a lot family. I love you

Elder Shaw

3/15/2011

Dear familia,
Ya I get to write back this week its next week that I won't write until Thursday. This week was a week of patience and success at the same time. Sounds like everything is going well back at home. It is exciting that Tiffany and Tyler will get to find out what they are having. Tell grandpa and grandma hi for me. I feel like I have not seen them in a long time. Caleb! way to go on the basketball team with making the A team! dominate! What position are you playing? When is your first game? I still can't believe Jordan is coming to Paraguay! I asked around and my companion told me that the North Mission just got a President change so I don't know if the call he received will be the same President he is going to have the whole time. I sure Jordan's President will be a crazy or Russian or a native Paraguayan! I did find out that it is completely free to write to missionaries in the North mission and the letter arrives in like a week so I can write him.
But this last week was very very hot and we didn't have much success until Saturday but Saturday was one of the best days I have had in Paraguay! Saturday we did divisions with president Toralez and we visited a family trying to go apostate and had a really amazing lesson and at the end the husband said he wants to return to the church but they still need a little bit longer. We found out that their daughter is not baptized and said that they want her baptized so we are going to be working with her. Saturday night me and my companion were walking in a place called Buena Vista and felt that we should visit a house of an older investigator and found out that there is a member in the house. We stopped by and found that the old investigator whose name is Roke He had returned from Asuncion back to Ecarnacion in February. When he left we he was 2 weeks out from baptism and when he came back we have him planned for the 2 of April to be baptized. He is a stud and about the only person in Paraguay that place basketball (we invited him to play with us p-day but turns out he has kidney stone and couldn't play).

Last Saturday at like 8 o'clock we passed by an investigators house named Edgar Marcelo, we had not be able to get a hold of him the entire week and wanted to try one last time before Sunday. When we clapped the house he was there, he invited us in and brought out his Book of Mormon and sat us down and said sorry I haven't been here I went on a work trip with my brother but I took my book and read every night. One night my brother asked me what it was and I told him and he wants to come and learn! It was so cool, we taught him about keeping the Sabbath day and attending church and he promised to come to church. At the end of the lesson we had a kneeling prayer together and the spirit was so strong! Unfortunately the next day he didn't come to church but he is still amazing! We have to pass by and see what happened tomorrow.

At church we only had 25 people and no investigators... I don't know what happened. Everybdy is getting so close and ready for baptism with testimonies but they won't come to church! Only the branch president has a car in our rama and he can't leave to go pick people up.

This last week I have been working on gratitude. Every single week I pick a different attribute of Christ and work on it through the week. This last week was gratitude and I realized that although we didn't have one investigator in church but we had 25 bomb awesome member show up! I think what the lord is doing is putting all this success in front of us and then making us show gratitude before we will have any baptisms with them. We need to be grateful for what we have and not what we think we should of had. Also I'm still trying to dominate charity. This attribute is really hard. I think showing love to people that are close to me is really difficult for me, such as someone like my companion. He is bomb awesome and is leaving next week and I'm grateful for him even though we are not the same people! I'm going to work on that too.
I have one funny story Thursday we walked out to Predera Alta which is 2 hours away and during the middle of the day, it was so hot, I have never sweated so much and burned so badly! We stopped under some shade in the middle of nowhere to rest and it really was on a road with nothing in sight and a moto drove by with 2 guys. One jumped off while the moto was still going and ran in to the bushes next to us and did his business I guess. I don't know why he couldn't do it elsewhere. But when he was done he went to get back on the moto and his friend took off as he was climbing on a left him! He stopped look at us shrugged and walked off in to the sun after his friend on the moto. Then 15 seconds later another moto came by and I swear on everything I own that is was Micheal Jackson on this moto. I saw him good as he passed and I know it was him. He stopped picked up the man and took off. I'm not sure if I was delusional from the heat or what but it was weird!!

All is good and I hope everything there is going great! the book of Mormon is completely true and the church is even truer! I love to hear from you.

Elder Shaw

letter and pics! 3/7/11

Que Tal familia That is so awesome about Jordan! I can't believe it. Tell him to start learning how to cook without meat cheese or peanut butter. (the first two are just really expensive)! Oh I am so excited for him. He will probably know Gaurni better than me when we are both back because there is more Gaurni in his mission. There is also a lot of Portuguese in his mission and the temple is in his mission and about 3 fourths of Asunicion is in his mission. We have the campo or boonies and black market areas. We also have a pretty large Japanese area. Ha that is just so cool. I hear in the North mission they can wear Sombreros and drink the tee de de. I don't know for sure though.

This last week we had a General Authority come to our mission and he laid down the law. I am pretty sure our mission has more rules than any other mission in the world but really it makes a difference in the missionaries. It is all good.

That�s awesome about basketball and the sports going on! I hope Caleb you make the A team but hey.... I didn't, and B team was awesome! But good luck I hope you make it Caleb! How is school boys? The kids here started school and one day we visited a family in a place called Predera Alta which is about 2 hours from our pension and its straight Gaurani out there. They speak Spanish like I do because they speak mostly Gaurnai. The mom was not able to pay for the schooling for her children because they didn't have enough money and she said she didn't come to church because her children feel embarrassed when they get asked to read and they can't. It really makes you look at life differently. They have it hard. Right now we are looking for a solution for her children to get in school to learn how to read. I think we are just going to take personal money and pay for the kids schooling this week. But I love the people

Guess what! this week in church we had 30 people and two of them we investigators!! Both with fecha and they are so solid. Their names are Arial Arias and Edgar Marcelo. Both are men about 27 years old. It was testimony meeting so we were a little scared but it went well. We are hoping to baptize them on the 26 of this month. We are having a hard time balancing member work and investigator work cause this rama really needs both. We also have an investigator named Hermana Prerda we actually don't know her first name but she asked to be baptized out the blue! Then we found out that she can't get baptized because she is married but they don't know if it is legit or not. They are going to go to church this Sunday so pray for them because she is really nice and always gives us food! Usually carrots grounded up in nasty water but hey it is a vegetable.

This week I have really felt the blessing of the spirit with the language! I feel like I can really understand and talk more fluently. I sat with one of our investigators through church and answered all his questions, I'm am being blessed. I'm focusing on vocabulary right now because I understand well enough, I just need a wider vocabulary. Dad I'm trying to keep a journal but what I'm learning is to write what I'm learning. That isn't easy because I learn so much. Right now I'm learning so much about charity, it's so much deeper than I ever thought. It is perfectly said as the pure love of Christ. accepting others for how they are, not seeing their faults and giving them the benefit of the doubt. Judging someone is sometime necessary for our safety and a situation but the line is so gray that... idk. Charity is loving someone so much to the point where they don't have faults in your eyes. I learned a lot in the scriptures from this awesome Book of Mormon guide I found in our pension.

Something funny: we were teaching an investigator the first lesson and he really is good but during the part about where Christ comes to the Americas, their dog ran to the middle of our circle where their chickens were walking around. The dog broke the neck of the chicken and started tearing it apart. Everybody screamed the dog was crazy and the dog just took the chicken outside to finish it off. We continued and at the end when we did the last prayer for the investigator you could hear the dog crunching the bones of the chicken. You would be amazed at some of the conditions we teach in. Ha it was so funny. We have our last p-day next week for the change

I love you family Elder Shaw

3/1/11

Hola Famila,

 Sounds like everybody is doing good. First, thank you so much for the package. I got it this week!!!! It was perfect, and the best part was the granola bars! I love those and I only have one left and it was perfect timing. We didn’t have any money for very many groceries this last week so the peanut butter and g. bars were fantastic and candy from the states is amazing! Although there are some here that the states need like boillos. They are fried dough with dulce de leche inside andits only 15 cents and its the size of my fist. Thank you so much. That’s awesome about basketball. I hope you win. The state tournament is a awesome experience Braiden. And wow everybody is finally leaving. I’m getting email from a lot of missionaries but can never right back, except to say I cant write back. I think it must be a rule for our mission. 
 This week was great. We had 45 people in church! That’s a lot. Once again we did a lot of work with the member and inactives. Quite a few people that said they were going to come still didn’t make it. A family of 13 that live 2 hours away came. It was awesome. We still couldn’t get any of our investigators to church, which is a problem. We have baptismal dates with a couple of people but they will not come to church so we have to keep changing the date. We worked out in a place called predera alta this week. It is as much as a camp as gets. Everybody spoke Gaurani to each other except when talking to us and then they spoke a mix. I can pick words out here and there and can say some stuff but by no means able to talk. With Spanish I know that I’m improving every week with understanding and talking but I’m still being patient for it to come! I can say what I want right now but as for the understanding, I don’t catch jokes or specific details and I ask people to repeat things for me. It’s so weird to think that I can speak a different language! 
 Remember the family that was perfect with the Gaurani ancestors? Well, the kid that new for a fact the church was true went to Asuncion and the daughter has moved out we think. We went back 2 days ago and the herman said that she was to keep learning but has gone back to some of her old beliefs. Dang traditions of her forefathers. We haven’t given up on her yet. We will give her another week and go all out and see what happens. We have found 3 different 26 years old that have fecha. One of them invited us over and we talked and found out he didn’t believe in God but is starting his family so wants that hope for his new child and wife. His name is Raul Martinez and he has accepted baptism but didn’t come to church yesterday. We think we know why some of them didn’t come though. Saturday night was the classic, or the game that happens 2 times a year between Olympia and Cerro-2 futbol teams. It’s like the Super bowl but times ten. We didn’t get one contact or one lesson that day and the city was barren. We eventually sat down and waited and listened because when someone scores the town blows up with fireworks and screams. It was insane. Olympia won and afterwards the streets flooded with people everywhere, screaming, honking and running. Every body has a team and families are split. At church the majority were Olympia cause the Cerros were too embarrassed to come ha! Yesterday was the last day of carnival. Carnival is during the month of February on the weekends and basically take eagle fun days multiply it by 20. We don’t live in central which is were all the main stuff happen but get the drift of it. We probably got hit with 20 water balloons this month. There is dancing and its really dirty. The missionaries in Centro had to leave the area but it dominates Eagle fun days everywhere. It was crazy! 
This week during my personal study I studied the order of the Book of Mormon. It is so interesting. All is good here. My companion and I didn’t get a baptism for the month of February and we are supposed to so the zone leaders called us, but this next month we are going to get 5 when we get them to church! I’m excited.
 Q:
A: everybody has a phone, but a lot of people don’t answer well, they just text. 
A:There is no such thing as carpet in Paraguay. I have not walked on a floor bare footed for 2 months now! 
A: My companion and I are going to try some new meals this week but its hard to be healthy here it really is. Dad’s right mom the Lord is blessing our fats and sugars to be the whole wheat, apples, and rock hard grape nuts and yummy peas and carrots I use to eat. Joke but we are trying
A: I forgot the rest of the questions. Sorry.

I love you family. Read the scriptures and talk to you in a week. I have a good picture I’ll send next week. 
Love Elder Shaw