october 27, 2011

Mba´a te copio che familia,

Sounded like a pretty boring week for you all.  Also with lots of sickness, that can’t be fun. Is it cold or hot there? Dang i remember the ACT, i know mom wants me to speak positively about the wonderful test for like 7 hours of my Saturday so that Braiden has a good attitude about it if he has to take it again but.... wow that test is... something else. What did you get last time Braiden? As for ideas of an eagle project you can build bird houses that seemed to be a popular one in our ward. This last week was good. There were some sad a great things that happened, like always its a rollercoaster but you just love it all the time anyways. First i let you know about the sad one which really mad me cry. We have a convert in the area that got baptized about 1 month before i got here. Her name is Vacilia.  When i got we started to teach her uncle that lives with her. Back in August she was so strong. When we taught she would give her testimony in the middle of the lessons on her own.  She just wanted people to accept the gospel like she had done. She read all the time and never missed a day at church. Well over the past two weeks i guess she had decided to research a little bit more about the church because her uncle refused to get baptized.  He started talking to her and telling her lies about the church. She then got on the Internet and read alot of stuff the anti-Mormon had posted.  This whole last week i spent lesson after lesson trying to answer her question about the deepest doctrine. 2 days ago i finally gave up and told her the only answer you need is to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon and the rest of this is true. i asked her to tell me her conversion story and why she got baptized and she denied everything. She completely denied the holy ghost and ever feeling the spirit with us or while reading the Book of Mormon.  I began to cry.. she said she will not be going to church anymore.  I don’t understand how anybody could deny the spirit after feeling it so strongly. It’s amazing how stupid man kind can be. They receive their answer and feel the holy ghost but the moment Satan comes in they turn chicken and run away from God. I could never in my life deny the spirit that i have felt on my mission. And will never give up the gospel for all the money in the world. This is the truth, and any person that doesn’t have the guts to fight past peer pressure, to stand up for this gospel, is denying Christ. It probably sounds like I’m angry, I’m not i just have strong thoughts and feelings about this subject. Stand up for the truth! 


Now for the awesome part. Well not awesome but we had to postpone the baptism of the family of 7 because of the baby coming this week. But that’s alright they are still amazing! i love them! Their names are the family De La Cruz and I pray that they keep feeling the spirit.

This last little while i have begun to try and teach in Guarani more so that the people understand in their native language. As with everyone you make some mistakes when you first start a language and i said two things very very funny this week in lessons. first i called some a horrible swear word instead of saying ´´you have´´ and the second i was trying to tell someone that god will bless them for getting baptized i told them (referring to myself as god) that i would bless her personally. haha it was very funny watch their faces after and realize i messed up.
 I also fed a monkey a tortilla with my mouth! i bit the corner of it so that it could grab it and it ate it! it was so cool i was so scared cause this thing was yelling and screaming! but i did it.
Oh and guess what i lent my camera to a member for a night cause they had to use it at a birthday party and the accidentally deleted every picture on my camera!!!! but i had already saved them on a pindrive.  And about the shaver I can buy that one here (cd players i cant but i got one from another missionary so we are all good)
thanks mom and dad for the letters its good to hear from you. i love you all. chou!

elder shaw

October 17, 2011

Dear familia,

Thanks for the letters that you sent me. It’s always fun reading about what is happening in the lives of the Shaw family and beloveds. Ha dad sounds like a lot of things broke down. Hope everything is working now. Hey dad if your ever in charge of talking to the missionaries of your stake tell them to work with the members better. Now that i look back on it a missionary never ever has asked us for a reference. I still wish i would do better about that here. 
This week for us was fantastic! I have made so changes in my studies this last week. I was always afraid to study Gaurani really well cause it jacks up your Spanish so I’ve just learned it in the streets but this last week i convinced myself to start studying but just for a couple months or maybe even 2 and then straight back to Spanish. I have only been studying one week and it is so much fun to talk to the members and people. It is such an easy language, although my comp gets a little angry when i speak for a while cause he thinks that we are talking about him ha! Speaking of my comp, we have changes today and neither of us have changes we are both staying here. I am learning how to get along with all types of people. I love the elder to death. He’s my son, but we are perfectly different in every way. So we have both grown alot together. I’m learning to swallow my pride.  The president has really been focusing on the missionaries lately in his letters and interviews about how we as people can be better and apply these Christ like characteristics to us. I hope I’m doing it a little. This last week we had a baptism, his name is richard sanabria, he is 15 years old. He made a complete life turn around when he first moved here from Asuncion.  He we a rebel, mean with earrings everywhere but it just goes to show the power of repentance! Alma 36! He was a little scared to get baptized but he was ready and it went really well! The chapels here in Paraguay don’t’ have water heating so every baptism the people come out of the water sucking for air like they are about to die and red! It was funny but hey i think it still counts. The thing i am most excited about is our familia!!!!!!!!!!! i love the family De La Cruz!!!!!!!1 They are a family of 7 and have fecha for the 29th. I have a crush on a girl of theirs, named Raquel, she is so cute and she always takes my agenda and draws pictures for me when we teach,... she’s 5 years old! It keeps her quite. They came to church yesterday for the first time. There are 4 of them that are of the age of baptism, miriun roberto arturo and julieta. I love them and this women is so huge i can’t believe her stomach just doesn’t break at her belly button and everything fall out, she is a huge pregnant women. She should give birth this week. One funny story is one time this week we were teaching a drunk man at the house of an investigator named jose luis, and this drunk man stumbled up to his gate to call the Mormons devils, and that the king of the united states sends us to rob the sweet water of Paraguay, I really caught a kick out that one and laughed pretty hard and the guy picked up a brick and tried to throw it us but missed completely. It was to heavy, then jose had to escort him out. I love this work and am really happy with the area that i am in! I can’t wait for the baptism of this family, they deserve this blessing in their lives! 
Right now my studies personal are focused on the doctrina y convenios and i have learned a lot, especially about the 2nd coming of Cristo, there is a lot of hidden in that subject that not a lot of people know. I think its d and c 46 or somewhere around there. I hope your studies are going well, especially caleb and braiden! Don’t forget to read... read to understand.

love you all
edler shaw

October 11, 2011

HOLY COW BRAIDEN WHAT A STUD!"!!"!!!! that is so cool sounds like a``journal moment experience`` (ha yep from a missionary, actually I’m not doing that well with my journal right now but trying) waiting 4 years doesn’t that put grandpa at like 109 years old or something like that. Any way how are you family? Glad to hear that everybody seams to be doing good back home, but i didn’t hear much about Caleb? What’s up with Caleb?! Lovin life? My life is great this last week was fantastic! A lot of blessing we received! We had interviews with president this last week and it was amazing, he is such a powerful man, although when you are training all he really wanted to do was talk about my newbie and see how he is doing and i kept trying to take it off and on me so he could receive some heaven sent revelation for me to and not only for my comp, ha but it all went over good. My comp is progressing very well elder keller. Changes were not this week, they are next week and i will be with my newbie again. You are always with a newbie for two changes. But I’m fine with that. He is improving my vocabulary but as you can see my spelling is horrible!!! But remember that family i wrote about last week the familia D La Cruz. Well they are progressing so well. They feel the spirit and are a little shy but awesome. i love them so much. We are now talking with the kids to and 2 of kids have fecha for the 29th as well. Yesterday we passed by there house to accompany them to church and we got there and the dad came out and said my wife doesn’t feel good and we are going to go to the doctor.... i don’t know she gave birth yesterday or what happened but the didn’t go to church which was really sad but we had some other people in church that are progressing to. We shared with the family De La Cruz the age of responsibility showing that some of their children good baptized and at the end the said i know Joseph Smith was a profeta and if he said it then its true i trust you. It was so cool. I’m really excited for them! Also we had a really funny experience happen ha! 2 days ago we had a investigador that more or less cares and i drilling the importance of the Book of Mormon and how much value it has for me in my life and for us and right in that moment my comp dropped the guys Book of Mormon in the mud and it was completely dirty and it went silent for a while and then i couldn’t help it but it was so perfect timing and funny that i died laughing right in the lesson and the guy didn’t know how to react but we gave him another one and left.... we will see if he reads it haha! 
It was a really good week. i have been trying to put something to the test. My comp he can be a little down and pessimistic and like that so when ever he complains i try and be really happy about something else and always be grateful or happy about something in place of getting down and sometimes its really annoying but most the time it works really well and it makes you a lot more happier about the situation. Try it, its works. So I’ve almost hit a year in my mission, but for this first full years i have only worn one pair of shoes the whole time and i need to take a picture of them... they are completely destroyed and my shocks are visible in like 3 parts of both shoes. 
I’m reading in secciòn 40`s of Doctrine and Covenants and wow i have learned a lot of stuff about the millennium my guess is that its coming soon! i have grown a love for doctrine, it probably wont help me but i like to learn all the small things. I love you all and am thankful for the letters. o and by they way i sent home some letter like 5 so if you could please pass them off it’s a lot cheaper this way. it costs me like 2 and half dollars to send one letter. ha don’t worry about who they are going to either! elder shaw

October 2, 2011

Dear family,
Conference was amazing!!!!! I got to listen to it in English cause our investigators chose put into practice 2 Nephi 2;27 there free agency between liberty or.. not coming to church. So we didn’t have to sit with them in the Spanish and we watched all of it in English. I agree with you dad Elder Holland’s talk was amazing and very powerful. He does bring up a good point. It kind of seems like the youth are hitting there teenage years and then stepping away from the gospel and then deciding when they turn 19 to fix themselves up and try and get out on a mission. The church would be so much stronger if the youth would see the importance of the gospel in their young lives. (I’m not a teenager anymore i don’t think i now pertain to that category). There were two things that really stuck out to me. 1) The importance of a testimonio. With investigators they really have Satan fighting against them, and their neighbors and family fight against them in becoming a [Mormon] and so when they receive their answer from God and recognize it the next lesson is automatically trusting in the Lord and the feeling that you get from the holy spirit. 1 Juan 5:9 I think, says in trusting God’s testimony over that of the men. Its so important to trust in the promptings that you receive. As a kid i don’t remember receiving many promptings so i think it would also be important in listening to the spirit as to strengthen your testimony. Somebody can and will fight against doctrine but no man can fight against a firm testimony. 2) The importance of temple work and genealogy, doesn’t apply to me much here but i found it interesting. Its really fun and has put a new perspective on conference when you testify of these men all day and then you finally have the chance to here them speak. This last week we had some success and some lesson learning ha. First off i got a funny story, so we were walking back to conference Saturday night and walking pretty fast, we were crossing the street to get to the church and, i have no idea what tripped him or if it was just his shoe but my comp. tripped and had his backpack on and it kind of carried him forward a little and he tried to catch him self by speeding up, and couldn’t get it and i don’t’ know why he didn’t use his hands but went straight face first into the street. I have never honestly seen a face first trip like what he did. It looked so funny, almost like he didn’t have hands and tried to catch himself with his face. He is pretty scratched up. I laughed and he got mad at me for laughing, he is kind of defensive. o ya and about 3 hours before that we were doing contacts and we were in a hurry so we went over to a group of 4 men that were drinking and laughing, we introduced ourselves and the continued to invite them to church. One of them half drunk started preaching about there is no second coming and the life is just going to end so why should he care. Never in my life have i actually called someone to repentance till then, i pulled like a Alma Amulek type speech.  2 of them shut up and the others kept making fun of us and threw their empty beer can at us but it was very fun. Lastly we found a family named roberto y mirium de la cruz. They are amazing!!!!! We told them to read and they read, we told them pray and they prayed. and the next lesson said they received their answer and want to get baptized!! It was such a powerful lesson. I am so excited for them. The only problem is that she is huge pregnant and she might not be able to go to church...
but i love you and thank you for those that sent letters they are always fun to read. I finished the Book of Mormon yesterday, love it
 edler shaw