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
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