5-22-2012

Whats up?

Thanks for the emails! Sounds like everybody is pretty busy. The academies should be great! Grandma, thank you for sending me a letter. Its nice to here from you and know your still loving life. Love to hear from you. I didn’t know that you served in Florida. That’s awesome! Well to start off... lots of changes and lots of humility. I’m not sad in any way but a lot of things have happened that really wasn’t what i was expecting. This last changes for some reason they deicded to white wash my last area and take me out with my comp gone and put two new ones in. I really loved my investigators in ITA. It was amazing how quick i came to love the members and the investigators i had there. There was a baptism this week there. I am now in a place called Lucerito. My new district is actually bigger then my last zone, there are 11 people in my district and 3 sisters (that’s a first). and right now i am with a Latin from el Salvador. His name is elder Guzman. He has about 1 year in the mission. He is a really focused missionary... the first day we were defiantly getting use to each other and i hade to bite my tongue for the first couple days but i think everything is good now. He is a good guy and i can learn a lot from him. The area that i am in is the smallest area in the mission it is about 3 or 4 blocks wide and i don’t know how long but small. There was 1 investigator when i got here and i think she will get baptized she is really good but apart from that we have been doing alot of talking to people and working with the members. I am on like 30 minutes from Asuncion so everybody speaks Spanish and they are a little more like normal smart a little bit ruder people. The members here really are amazing!!!! There are leaders here and it’s the first time in my mission that i have it like this. It’s really nice how we can working with the leaders. The problem that we are having in the ward is that we don’t have the people to work with or investigators. 
Don’t get me wrong i am really grateful for the chances to do something else and learn more and be some where else, but i am a little sad about having left my last area. They had a baptism there last week and should have a couple more in there coming weeks.  Something really cool that happened last week, we were working and found a man that had gone to the church before and never got baptized and we are now teaching him. He is very receptive to the spirit and we had a very powerful lesson. He didn’t accept a baptismal date but we are going to try again the next time. My English will probably be getting alot worse in these letters cause i don’t speak it any more. I love you and am grateful for the support that you give me. i know that this church is true and i don’t really care where president puts me, i am going to do my best to be a success missionary. 
Love elder shaw

5-15-2012

It was good to talk to you this last weekend!  It seems like everything is going very well! Oh and happy mothers day mother! Dad thank you for the mission stories. I just remember hearing a lot about you mission before my mission and i wanted to know what it was like, the difficulties, your areas, leadership opportunities, just what ever so thanks. I will also keep this one short probably cause me and my comp have to go to Asuncion today so that he can have his last interview with president. I really love my comp to death but it really stinks having to be with a missionary as he ends his mission. This next change i plan on re consagrating myself. I want to be better in many areas and focus a little better on the work! We have so many investigators right now so this moment is critical for the amount of baptisms we will have in the future. I am thankful for the success i have had in my mission. I do realize the hand of God. This morning i wrote all the converts that i have been told that have gone a little wishy-washing and aren’t following good. I feel like i continue learning everyday. Some things i have learned this change are first off, after having done all you can and people don’t go to church, to stay chill and not get over emotional about it. I have to respect the agency of other people. Also i have learned (not a whole but there is a little difference) to serve better.  I have learned to feel the joy in serving those close to me.  I have also come to enjoy teaching. I love teaching alot more now! I will let you know how the changes go next week. I love you so much  elder shaw

5-7-2012

ey family!
That is so cool that school is almost out and that the academies are coming.  They were so much fun!! Thanks for the emails, fun to hear from you. Well as for this weekend my comp and I will be able to call at 4 oclock my time. If i am not mistaken i think that would be 2 oclock for you... but you would have to check. At 4 oclock here i will try and be on but be patient if its not right at 4 oclock cause alot of times the computers here our occupied and we will have to wait so just some time around there.
This last week we had our conference of zone, and it was amazing!!!! It was based around the talk of elder Chirstofferson from 2008 welcoming of the new mission presidents. It is amazing and really puts in perspective the importance of missionary work and not just trying to get good numbers to please your district leaders and zone leaders. I loved it!. This last week we had a couple lesson with some of our investigators that were amazing. There is one guy named Mario, and he has a lot of faith in God but his problem is he works Sunday and cant go to church and we are getting him to quite and we saw alot of progress in him this last week. One lesson was very powerful... he finally made the connection that Jehovah is Jesus Christ.. The Jehovah Witnesses are very well taught incorrectly and it is very hard to get them to understand the doctrine of Christ but he is progressing very well. 
This week my comp and I our going to be focusing on getting people in church cause that is our main difficulty right now! We are finding the investigators just they wont go to church. By focusing on our own testimonies of the sacrament and obtaining a deeper understanding of the doctrine of it we are hoping that our invitation will mean more to the investigators. We have one girl named Luz, that was suppose to get baptized this Saturday but she could not go to church because her mom and dad worked instead of going to church. She is the daughter of a family less active we are working with. This last week we had quite a few things funny happen! First off we made friends with a drunk while waiting for a bus to take us back to our city were we live and he liked us so much that he staggered his way on the bus to follow us and then paid secretively for our ticket home haha! Next i ran in to a pole face first in front of alot of people after doing a contact and hurt my nose. And the best this last week i had one of the most creepy visits i have had on my mission. So we heard there was an old family of members were not all were members and they lived in the middle of now where, we went there at dark night to find them. When we got there we clapped and this old witch looking women came out to see who we were. She got to us and i kid you not looked exactly like a skeleton with dry skin wrapped around it. It was the scariest thing i have ever seen. We walked in and met the dad and the daughter. The dad asked for our names and then said thanks I’m going to go inside and say a prayer for you and left us with the kids and the mom. Then my comp asked how the teenage girl was doing and she said bad. So he asked her why and she said she was sick. My comp asked if she had a fever and she said no. Then my comp tried to make a joke said, well you didn’t lose an arm did you?! She said no worse.  I lost my baby yesterday. It was the most awkward moment of my mission.  We continued to meet them and ask questions and then the dad came out, who finished his prayer i guess, and then said hold on a second i have to get something and hid behind a tree, and then for the next 5 minutes this guy was like a ninja, all over his yard. We could hear him but could never see him. We got really creeped out and pretty much took off running. The spirit was not in the house!!!
All in all life is going very well! I feel like i have continued to progress again and got out of my rut. My studies have gotten alot better and a lot more profound. I am learning some crazy stuff. My comp will be going home next week so hopefully he doesn’t get to trunky.
As for some suggestions on taste test dad..... yes i have tried it all look up these foods on the internet. 1) mondongo (cow intestines.. i think) 2)chicharon (cooked fat) 3)ceso empanda (fried bread with cow brain) 4)cow tongue (actually i eat it alot) 5)blood sausage 6) cow hoof (HORRIBLE)
and much more.
 I love and will talk to you this Saturday. peace
 elder shaw

5-1-2012

What’s upppp!!!!!

Wow sounds like life is just trucking right along with out me. Well that’s fine. i hope everything is going really well cause everything for me is fantastic. Tell Danielle congratulations, and thanks you for the emails. Tyler thanks for writing me too it was good to hear from ya. You’re just as much family as anyone else! Where are you Braiden and Caleb? We just got out of a leaders council and it was amazing!! My companion had to give his last testimony in the meeting... it was very powerful. He is a good missionary. President talked the whole time about becoming our message, about applying the gospel and the teachings to us mismos, and about the sacraments. I really left that meeting with a better.. spirit. i think sometimes we get after missionaries for there numbers when the are lazy and not working, but it really made me realize that if someone is not fulfilling with his covenants or responsibilities it is cause he does not understand the doctrine and someone has to put them in their place and make them learn. I love president. I really don’t like it when people don’t speak highly of him! I can’t say in my new area we are not having success because we are.. Just not in the way I’m use to having it. My comp and I since we have been together have activated 3 or 4 families together and they are very strong in the church now. It is a really a satisfying feeling to see them walk into church.  They are just not investigators. We are going to try and get them to invite their friends. I love this work and it is good to take a look back and the importance. This is the only true church that leads someone to the true forgiveness of Christ, which brings the real happiness. The sacrament is so important but its frustrating when the people don’t listen or follow through. This last week on Thursday i had thee most physically exhausting days. We walk so far and for some reasoning no body was home and we tried everyone. When we got home i didn’t feel good i walked straight to my bed as well as my comp and in my clothes fell on to my bed and we fell asleep till 3 in the morning when i guess my comp got up and turned off the lights and changed... i didn’t. I slept through the night. It was a hard day but gratifying.  The for the strength of youth finally got to Paraguay. The new one is amazing!!! They make some bold remarks, and it is a lot more forward! Great

Stuff.  There was a lightning this last week that killed to people in ITA and burnt some many televisions. It was crazy we were in the chaplet when it hit and the lights surged i thought they were going to burst. We found an incomplete family and the 16 year daughter in not baptized. A member gave us the reference and we arrived with a member and it was a very spiritual lesson. During the lesson the mom stopped and said wait wait wait... do you feel that. I came home exhausted from work and right now I feel something! It was a very spiritual moment. They committed to come to church this week that comes! The daughter has a baptismal date. Really i do love this work and want to help a lot of people but one of the biggest homework that i have here is the elders in our zone. A lot of them are struggling and need help and my comp and I are trying very hard to animate them and help them have success. We don’t know what to do now to help them... its sad. I really want to be a better `person i feel like i have leveled out and i want to keep progressing, developing more and more in the attributes of Christ but sometimes i don’t feel like i progress. I think God is teaching me a lot of humility right now again. Its kind of fun taking the trials and seeing what good i can get out of them. l love you and desire the best.

elder shaw

p.s. Sorry i suck at sending pictures home but i really am taking more pictures then you think don’t worry. It’s the journal that i am not to good at