July 29, 2011--sorry its late--

What’s up familia!


Wow alot has happened. That’s cool that efr is still growing! Hey i remember the Las Vegas tourney was so fun. What team did Braiden play on? Let me know how the farwells go for Jordan and Michael. Who leaves first? When? Thanks for the package. I asked tiffany to put one more thing in before you send it! So on Mondays we figure out the changes but only who goes and who stays and tomorrow at the meeting of district we figure out were and with who. We got the call this morning and.... my comp and me are both leaving the area and they are joining two areas together so the other elders with have our investigators. I can’t decided how i feel cause i have really really grown to love my converts here. I promised wilfrido that i would come back to Paraguay to go to the mundial together.. (i thinks that’s the world cup in ingles) and i really am going to try. I have so much love for them. They are amazing. One thing i am learning right now is the charity or love for others. As for the events of this week. with the couple that was going to get baptized we talk to them about the law of chastity and at first he said no way am i getting married and then we taught them and it was amazing how much work the spirit did for us. They were crying and we did examples and scriptures and they said they would get married and baptized the 13 of Agusto. We found out their daughter has 8 years so she can get baptized to. The bad side is that they didn’t come to church. We don’t’ know why but they will get baptized I’m sure of it. Also this week we had a very funny contact it was drunk outside at night. We were walking and contacted this guy that was walking back to his house. We talked to him and he said he really wanted someone to help him stop drinking and help my family be more united. Well he had a beer bottle in his hand and I asked him if he really wanted to and he said yes. So I told him to throw his beer bottle, and i pointed at the ground a ways away. He looked at me and then i told him again and he smiled and hucked it as hard as he could at the wall of a house and it shattered and then laughed and we told him we would pass by his house later. It was really funny. Also a scripture that you should read is all of 2 Nephi 9 it is my favorite and gives me animation (it works in Spanish).
Sorry this letter is really jumpy but i love you and am thankful for the letters!!!!!


elder shaw

July 18, 2011

Dear familia,


Thank you for the letters! Wow EFR. I bet it’s getting really small. By now not many people can go. Where are there doing it? How was the merit badge camp for you Caleb? Is the food still nasty!? I know i have absolutely no room to talk but on your letter dad you miss spelled warm with ward in your shower and i laughed. It took me awhile to figure that one out ha. But, is the farwell of Jordan this next week? How is he doing?


This week was a week of patients although we did have a little success but not much. It started to rain really hard Saturday and not many people received us and we got really wet and muddy. I fell one time but was able to catch myself before hitting the ground. This last week there was a Paraguay futball game that happened and they won and that night i almost died 3 times. When Paraguay scores a goal here the streets go crazy. When there is a game nobody lets us in so we end up walking the street waiting for the game to end. Every time they score we have to place ourselves under something metal but because the amount of fire works and bullets shot into the air is extremely dangerous and we get scared.. I have heard bullets fall next to us and then when the game ends all the cars come out and people run through the streets screaming. It is so funny to watch! They are crazy about their futbol. But this last Tuesday we had a very amazing experience. We are teaching the brother of wilfrido a member now, and he has never read the bible in his life or gone to church, which is really rare. We were teaching him and we decided to watch the movie the restoration. They have 3 children that never are quite and when we watched the movie the whole atmosphere changed and the kids stopped talking and the spirit was very strong! Then after the movie we asked them how they felt and they said very convincingly that Joseph Smith was a profeta of God. Then we were passing to leave we ask him to say the prayer and he began to cry in his prayer. The spirit was very strong and he told us that he had never had desires to know a church better other then this church. He breaks every single commandment that you can think of but he is changing little by little and we are working with his wife too. It is so very important to be worthy of the spirit at all times. I know there are always things i can do better here to be more worthy and sensible to the spirit and i want to focus on that this week. Because with out the spirit a missionary is lost! Actually everybody has to have this guide in their lives. We didn’t have any investigators in church yesterday but we are teaching some promising people right now. Thank you dad for the advice. Ya i was thinking that too. I think we put to much confidence in the visits and the knowledge that he was gaining but he always said he couldn’t recognize the spirit. We can’t find him right now so we will see what happens. He doesn’t answer anymore. This will be the last week before changes and these changes that are coming are going to be crazy!, 6 zone leader leave, alot of zone leader leave, 1 assistant leaves, and 29 north American which means 29 more trainers this change. We will see what happens. I have taken alot of time to read preach my gospel this last week to and that book is amazing. Did you and the boys finish reading that?

I love you all


elder shaw

July 13, 2011

Hola familia,


Thank you for writing me. It is always really fun to get and read your letters. Your so lucky it’s warm there. I hate the cold, but it’s getting better. Right now it’s not to bad. Where did Braiden go? Why is Caleb home alone? When does Micheal leave for the mtc? Jordan? I haven’t seen Dalton Neeves but i believe that he is here too. I’ll probably seen him when i get moved closer to Asuncion. I have not had an area closer then 6 hours away still. Sorry i forgot to tell you but i received your packet with the cd player and seasons like 2 weeks ago. Thank you so much. I loved the chocolate and the alfredo,, curry, and gravy were great ideas. Ya i would probably take vitamins if you sent them but they cant be like horse pills with every flavor of dirt stuffed in it. Just something simple. I’m really learning a lot this change. I feel like i have changed as a person. Being senior companion you have more of a responsibility, I feel. We had a great week this last week and found alot of new families to teach. I think some of them will progress. That is what i love most about Paraguay. The families when it feels good out side, sit in front of there homes and drink tedade together like there is no problems. And if you have a little persistence you can usually force your self in the gate to teach a quick message to try and spark their interest to return. Yesterday in church we had one family and 2 other people in church for our investigators. We are teaching the brother of my recent converts mariela and wilfrido. and i love them so much. They have such a strong testimony and she knows right when to bare her testimony when we are sharing. I know i will cry when i leave them. But I’m very sure that he will get baptized. We are also teaching her sister and her husband, but every time we share with them she always says i know it’s true and then he (being brain washed as a child in the catholic church) cant wrap his mind around our message and has alot of doubt and doesn’t want to progress. This last Thursday we were sharing in the house of mariela with them and we were sharing about the gospel of Christ and what we have to do in this life to return to live with him, and i couldn’t find the right time to hint to mariela to give her testimony. I was looking and waiting to ask her in the right moment and he just kept being dumb. Then when the lesson was closing there was a pause, and she jumped in with out any help and gave the strongest testimony. I really don’t know how she does it but it was so powerful. I hope they come to church. Also with diego and Erica, the family that i really love that i told you about, i have been praying for them alot... but lost contact with them this week. They don’t answer and we cant go over there, so i sent a member there to see what happened and he said that he is going to another church right now. We will see with him. I’m really looking for inspiration with diego. I need help. This week i learned alot... i always learn alot. I finished the Book of Mormon and started it again. I have stopped study the bible so much cause i understand the importance of the b o m. when ever we share from the Book of Mormon it’s apparent how strong the spirit compared to the bible (I’m not down talking the bible) but it is a huge difference, and really with out the spirit they will never become converted. I think i have put to much confidence in the words, the visits, and the knowledge of us and not enough in the 3rd member of our companionship before. Really i understand the purpose of missionaries. It is really to help the people recognize the impressions that they receive. (i need to work on recognizing too)
A funny story is this week me and my comp started a game with the drunks. When ever a drunk stumble agoo us or us on them in the night we play a little game, and we both start to sway back and forth and only a little bit but big sway both of us. It trips out the eyes of the drunk person and they cant think or talk and began to get really dizzy. hahahaha (break: a man (probably crazy) just streaked across the street out side!!! Ha that was funny. I wonder if someone will try to stop him.) One time when we were playing one man had to drop to his knees cause he couldn’t keep his balance. I love the mission and it is such a great experience. If you ever have the chance to engage in the work and share this truth with someone DO IT!

I love you all and thanks,


elder shaw

7/4/2011

Family, how are you all? Thank you so much for the letters. there were awesome. It sounds like a lot is happening. I didn’t even realize that it was the 4 of July till i read your letters ha a little sad but o well. That is awesome about the byu camp Caleb and Braiden. Caleb you were dang lucky. I have never played in the Marriot Center and i always wanted to. Are you allowing the illegal firework in your show this night? How many baptisms does the eagle stake get a month dad? Isn’t the stake going to split soon? wow that’s so cool that Jordan is finally taking off in a couple weeks. Its all weird to think that i will have a year by the time he gets in Paraguay! I love being senior companion. Before i always relied on my comp when i got stuck and didn’t know what to do but now i can think for a second and then just do and say what the spirit brings to your mind. It really is amazing how the spirit works. Its almost as I’m not thinking one thing and it comes out anyways! (took me like 30 seconds to think of the word anyways). I defiantly have more pressure like if we don’t have success then it falls on my head. But this last week we almost had another baptism. But the young man that was going to get baptized cant find his moms house ad we need her signature... we talked with her on the phone but she doesn’t want anybody to know where she lives so we will see how that all falls out. 
The weather here is..... kill me cold! I always have 4 or 5 layers on through the whole day and it rained all week but that always makes thing more fun cause me or my comp fall in the mud at least once a day. My comp has a good picture of me when i fell in the mud. This last week was a week of learning. We didn’t have much success but I learned how to handle so many situations better, that’s for sure. We have another mother in law that is the devils wife I’m sure!!! The sister of our recent convert we are teaching and the first 3 times were all good and we watch the restoration and the spirit was doing it’s work and then the mother in law caught on and now every time when we come over she runs out of the house to beat them and says there not here or sleep, another day!! Man she is horrible. And then with diego ad erica the investigators that i love they didn’t go to church and i haven’t talked with them for a while so we decided to go to his house and hope the M I L is not there but.,... she was and came out yelling what do you want with my diego? He’s not here don’t come back. hahaha i love her, although she makes it difficult to talk with him. He will get baptized soon I’m sure. But for the highlights of the week mariela and wilfrido the converts they didn’t go to church yesterday and so we went over to ask why and before we could talk she said I’m going to start with a prayer and in her prayer she cried asking for forgiveness that they didn’t go to church. And because they didn’t go neither did her sister, and it really touched me. They’re sinceridad towards the church. But that was a very powerful lesson they are doing really good with helping her sister’s progress. Also we got a text from the sister who we are teaching with her husband and it said, my mom doesn’t like but i want you to know that we will continue with your church and please come back!!!! Yep that was awesome! So i think they will get baptized the only thing is that he works Sundays. For a funny, i had a great encounter with a 2 drunks in the night. They came up to us and started to yell saying, what are you doing here American i will shoot you... then they paused and started to laugh and said just kidding... paused again and said we have guns but your aour friends come with us we will buy you something to eat. so we followed them and they bought us food and we left. Really I’m not going o lie i get scared but its not a scared like you think. I don’t have any doubt that we are protected here, as missionaries and I know that nothing will happen to us. Its a really cool feeling! I’m healthy, safe, try to be the most obedient i can thanks for the example you always put parents. 
Remember Braiden and Caleb to read the scriptures every single day!!!! Don’t miss one day even if you are busy partying! I love you all Elder Shaw