6-25-2012

Dearest of family!
     Thank you so much for the letters, and Caleb HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I think you are the only person I have wished happy birthday to on my mission.   I will write about the President thing in Paraguay a little bit later.  It was crazy. 
Well the big news this last week is that my last comp went away and I am training again a newby from Utah!  I got a lot of great news this week.  I really feel like God was waiting for the right moment to give the blessings, he pushes you as far as you can and the gives you a break, kind of like muscles.  This last Monday I was sure that I was going to be with my Latin problem comp again and we were not seeing eye to eye in a lot of the work and worst rule breaking.  But getting my newbie has been one of the most appreciated blessings I have seen on my mission... a little selfish I know, but I am very thankful.  His name is Elder Maxwell from West Valley Utah.  He is a good guy.  He doesn't hesitate talking to people, even though his Spanish is horrible.  But its normal being a new mission, the important thing is that he does it and tries. He invited 5 people last week to be baptized! we get along very well even though we are a little bit different but it works perfectly.  I love the elder.


This last week Friday, we got a call from the assistants telling all the missionaries to go back home for the night and not to work cause there were a lot of riots and talk about the president. So we heard about the new president (kind of sad, cause the old president was a bishop in the catholic church and a lot of time we used him as an example of why the catholic church wasn't true cause he had over 50 children in Paraguay with many different  women and everyone knew he wasn't a moral person) so during that  time me and my comp went back home and built a fire on top of our house and cooked bananas. 


But the big news is that Nicolas (our rich artist investigator) IS GOING TO GET BAPTIZED!!!  After many long lessons and kneeling prayers and different activities to help him recognize his answer he finally accepted for this Sunday!!! I really wanted to baptize him, I love this guy so much he is going to be a great member, but I let my comp do it. it is always really fun when you can baptize quick in your mission.
but everything is going good. loving the mission! 
I will right more the next time but I am short on time again this week cause we are going to play soccer!
but I will send a picture
I love you
Elder Shaw

6-1-2012

What's up!!!

                Thanks for the letters, everything seems humpty dumpty.  The Academies where always great, what happened with the taste testing?  Wow that is weird that school is already out, ha dang Braiden is a senior and Caleb is in high school.... seems like just yesterday that I was changing your diapers.  Ha Ha 
                Well this week was very hard and turned out to be very rewarding at the same time.  I really feel like I am becoming a better missionary, or better said a more successful missionary.  Not in the numbers but as a person and a missionary.  I am learning a lot and being very humble.  I love my comp don't get me wrong but I am learning from him to lose conversations haha.... he doesn't want to ever be wrong and me neither but I am learning to shut up and try and make him happy, he is a good guy but had some problems before with some comps so that's why he is so old in the mission and still not senior comp but he teaches very well and knows how to do the work.
                This last week something happened very funny it made me realize that God has a sense of humor!  It was Friday and this week we worked very hard and my comp got a little discouraged and in the evening he started complaining about not being worth it, how hard we were working and not seeing any fruits of our labors and kept saying out load where are the fruits of our labors,  He wasn't  happy.  On the way home we were walking and some women came out and said ``wow you must be very tired take these took bags of fruits and go make juice" hahahahah I died laughing in her faces cause it was so ironic, that God would send that message.  We definitely had a lot of fruit!
                Friday it rained very hard.  In the rural areas you can always ask someone to give you shelter when it rains and you take advantage of the situation and teach them.  But here in the city it started to pour and so I tried it out and not one person let us in!  They all said "not today!!  We got soaked I'm sure my wife will be good looking because to be honest we are working very hard.  Sunday came and one of our investigators went to church!!!!  His name is Nicolas and he has been investigating the church for like  years.  He is an artist and after church we went to his house to eat.   He showed us all his paintings and stories!!!  He is incredible, he sells these paintings for thousands of dollars!  He lives alone but has quite a bit of money.  He said he would draw a picture if I wanted.  He has a baptismal date so we will see what happens of him:)
                Another cool thing is that last night we had a family night with a part-member family and the dad does not want to be Mormon.  Almost the whole family are members except him and his young daughter of 9 years.  We had a great lesson and at the end I invited him to get baptized when he knew it was true and flat out said no.... it kind of surprised me so I kind of just added on there well..... will you let your daughter get baptized and he sat there for a second and said ``sure why not`` .   He hasn't agreed to let her get baptized before so this Saturday we are going to baptize the nine year girl.
                Personally I really feel like I'm am progressing, I love the mission, there is so much to learn.  After you have a hard trial sometimes you feel like  there is nothing left to learn... only to be hit with another trial which makes me realize how far I am from where God wants me to be.  I think I'm getting better at seeing the silver lining too but still have a long ways to go. (thanks Mom for teaching me that phrase). I have no doubt that this is God's will, that I am where I am. Life is so much better when you look for the learning experiences in all things. I know the church is true.
I love you all
elder shaw