1/30/2012

Hello Familia, 

Let Caleb know that the last time i ever tried to do a 360 on a snow board i tore that tendon thing in my knee and couldn’t play basketball for a while, sounds like he has passed everyone up. That’s awesome!  As for the mission prep class dad just let them know of the importance of the Book of Mormon. If you teach the class sometime or get the chance let them know of the testimony that i have of the book. That is a book that was written by the hand of God or was cleverly placed in the hearts of wicked men to lead us down the wrong path; there is no middle ground. I know with all my heart that if someone reads that book with good intentions that they will come to know by the power of the Holy Ghost that it is the truth and that only by its principles and teachings can we get to be with God again. There are no flaws, its doctrine is perfect. Teach the doctrine of Christ, as your testimony grows about the atonement so will your desires to share the gospel. 

That’s all for my preach session for this week. We just got out of a meeting with the president and he is wicked powerful. One always leaves with the biggest desire to teach the gospel. Family i want you to know that i know that this is the one and only true church and that the blessings for work dad and just life in general come through obedience to the commandments. Braiden and Caleb, its great to chill and be kids but talk about the church and don’t be afraid to be Mormon!!! Cause that’s what we are and will be! This last week we were tested very much. It was hot and the people we are finding don’t seem to want to progress but at the end of the week we were blessed with a few baptisms. Mom as for the marriage, that is this week and the plans are going very well.  The woman that is going to get baptized has a stronger testimony then anybody.  The other day we were sharing and she told us i am perfectly sure and i know that i will never regret joining this religion or something like that! She is so cool! and the dad for the first came to church yesterday and I’m pretty sure he liked! He will get baptized for sure! But apart from them we have got to do alot of finding cause we don’t have anybody more, its hard. Sometimes i get a little greedy and i just want more and more but the lord has blessed me alot lately. As Alma said in Alma 29 at the beginning i should be satisfied with what he has given me and be grateful.

I love this work but i definitely can be better though.

love ya all

peace out homies

elder shaw

(can you tell me English is better, its cause I’m with a yankee)

1/25/2012

Dear family.
  Missionary work is a pretty fun subject right.  I too gave a 15 minute talk in church this last week on missionary work, well more like retention. Nicole wrote me a letter through dear elder that said success of a missionary should be married on the amount of active converts not the amount of baptisms. I thought that was very smart. We have a little problem with retention here, but we are working on that! That’s really cool about the snow! 6 inches is alot, and i can’t believe that the go kart is still running... wow. As answers to some of the questions, yes i have come across Hermana Lewis... haha i actually played basketball with her once at a zone conference. It was an activity the president did and Elder Neeves also.  He is district leader right now so i have seen him in a couple meetings. Dad it’s hot! I hope that all the talks went well.  I remember thinking when dad gave talks wow why can’t i do that! To this day i wish!
    But this last week was good. We found alot of people a few of them pulled through to be decent investigators. Hopefully they progress. It’s amazing to me though the way things happen. It seems like we work and work and work till we just want to take a break cause we aren’t having any luck and them God puts someone in our path. It’s like he pushes us till right before we break to strengthen us and then blesses us.... like my biceps! (I have been doing my exercises and I’m going to come home a beast). It’s amazing to me how many people we find that are so prepared the first visit and then we come back a second time and they hide from us and deny it. Neighbors and friends like to talk here but really it gives so much joy to find someone and on the first visit they accept the invitation to be baptized.  You just walk away with a smile on your face. We have been working with a family named the family Servin and i love them like my own family. They are fantastic. I have talked about them in these last couple emails but really she is perfect and her children are awesome. She cries when she prays and she always prays for her husband to accept the church. They are not married and he doesn’t want to listen to us yet. We told her she had to get married and she started crying thinking she wouldn’t be able to. We told her to pray and talk to him and when we came back the next day she said he said he will get married the only thing i have to do is pay for the refrigerator... haha. The only thing the guy said was that she had to do that.. What love? But they are going to get married the 4th and she will be getting baptized. I really love the people here in Pilar they are amazing! Right now we are helping 4 youth in our branch get out on missions in a little. (What mom said is right, if you see any of my chick friends there tell them that i said that they need to get out on missions!)
I love the church.  It is perfect. Recognize the organization that you have there in Eagle. Sometimes the members take advantage or don’t realize how good it really is. I love you all. What part are you in in the Book of Mormon? I’m in Alma and learning alot about the war chapters. Is Braiden winning or losing? How’s the work dad? I love you all, Elder Shaw

1-8-2012

WHATS UP!!!
Dang zero snow? That’s no good but it is cold at least? Does Braiden’s team just ignore Seifert like our team did ha? How’s Braiden playing? Caleb? Well ya this week is changes but the assistants still have not told us what the changes are we are waiting. Dad did me a question about the size of the zone. Pilar and the cities around us are very small and far from Asuncion so our zone is very small. Some zones have 18 missionaries 9 companionships other 12 with 6 companionships but our zone is the best... we have 8 missionaries with 4 companionships the smallest in the mission!! Actually this month of January we are struggling but everybody is working very hard! This last week after many tribulations comes a boatload of blessings. We saw alot of success this week and i am so grateful. I know that it was only a trial and i hope we did.  Last week we found a family of 5 that all of are the age of baptism and everybody went to church... except the dad (he doesn’t want to go cause he is embarrassed that he doesn’t know how to read but we are working with him) but they are so cool. Today we are going to their house to have family night, but we are still praying for the baptisms. This fast Sunday we are fasting for the goals that we set as a mission. All the leaders went to Asuncion and the president set the goals for this year. My comp. and I this last week work our tails to reach the goals to show to the zone that they are possible and we fulfilled them. It was a answer to our prayers so obvious. I love prayer. At the first of my mission i prayed and kind of fell into a I’m just going to do it cause that’s what i do and not a, wow this is awesome, I’m talking with God! But now it’s a blessing to pray! Well the assistants just called us and my fat Latin comp is leaving me.... soooo sad. He is going to Asuncion and my new comps name is elder snow. I have met him before.  He is really chill and quiet but a good elder. I let know more next week.  This last week i found out why i was suppose to come here to Pilar.  We did divisions and i went with the district leader here and... he is great but struggles... i love him and in the night we talked for along time about his mission and it was very good. I really hope that he starts doing better cause he was struggling I don’t have much time to write today but i love you all and hope the best, dad with work, Braiden with the chicks, Caleb with the ball, mom with the staying young and the marrieds with being married! 
elder shaw

1-2-2012

Whats up familia!?

Thanks for the letters even though you’re busy and for the pictures Tiffany. They are great. That’s awesome that you got to go to Utah. How is the Shaw family? Wow i hope you can send my love to the Beans, they are awesome. Also I'm inviting you to join me in an activity that i am starting again, reading the Book of Mormon from cover to cover marking every name, attribute of Jesus Christ and when he talks. How’s BYU looking this year in sports?

     Right now i am in Asuncion again, we had to travel over night to talk about the month of December cause we didn’t do well as a mission... it was a ruff meeting.  The president wasn’t too happy but it ended well. I love that man, President Callan is an inspired man and even when he is throwing down the cane he knows how to do it without being like a police man and with alot of love. It put alot of pressure on us to show the example and make our areas be the example so that we can show to our zone that it is possible to have the success that the Lord wants us to have. This last week we had a very sad encountering. I cried in one of the lessons. If you remember the family i talked about the last time that went to church, well we went to their house to teach them one day and the dad sat us down really sad and basically told us not to come back because his family doesn’t like the Mormons and that they have to respect their family and they love them. So we had a very spiritual lesson with every body that day to where the wife starting crying. They know that it is the truth but they wont accept it so we lost them. But we are sending a member over there almost everyday with the hope that we won’t lose them completely. I think in this moment in my mission i am learning so much about faith. It seems like such a simple concept.... have faith, get miracles. but its hard to keep the doubts out so this week i have focused on only being optimistic and faithful and my comp has now begun to call me ^^barney^^ because i dream or my comments are so far fetched that they are imaginations but it’s a lot more fun this way to only think positively. We are being tried right now but we will see fruits in a little i know it. We don’t have many people to teach right now kind of a dry spot we find people but there always seems to be a problem. We did see one very big miracle. I was searching our area book and i found a sticky note that said the familia Machuka want us to move back in to our area. I talked to my comp and turns out he met them once they were old investigators so we decided to look for a house for them and found one and we called the number that was on the sticky note and ... boom... miracle the guy answered and was nice and is moving in to the house we found and we are going to begin teaching them. They will probably get baptized for sure 100%

A wise note and invitation is to read alma 37: 38-46 and apply that scripture to your lives. I love you all so freaking much.

elder shaw

goody bye

chou