The adventures and misadventures of Elder Shaw as he teaches among the Japanese, and is no doubt taught in return.

Head to the 'Profile,' section to read more about who I am, and what I believe in. For more information on where I actually am, please click here.

The adventures and misadventures of Elder Shaw as he teaches among the Japanese, and is no doubt taught in return.

Head to the 'Profile,' section to read more about who I am, and what I believe in. For more information on where I actually am, please click here.

My name is Brian Shaw, though you can just call me エルダーショー (Elder Shaw). As of the 19th of May 2010, I have been rigorously engaged in serving the Lord by laboring to bring the Japanese people back to their savior, Jesus Christ; and I will continue to do so faithfully until the 19th of the same month in 2012.

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I have an unshakable testimony that this church is of Christ. I know Christ lives, and I know he suffered for my sins, so that I could return to live with my Heavenly Father after this life. I know that Joseph Smith, the founder of this church in the latter days, was called of God to restore Christ's authority to this earth, and establish the covenants and ordinances that were lost long ago. I also know that Joseph Smith was given a set of gold plates to translate into scripture called the Book of Mormon. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

If you would like to know this just as I do, please click here, or click here for a free copy of the Book of Mormon.

2 Nephi 25:26
"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

Hey everybody! How are you? Just so everyone knows, I only get to answer e-mails and answer letters and what not on Tuesday... And I have about 2 hours to reply to letters and 1/2 hour to send out a mass e-mail. I know! No time at all, right? So I'm sorry that I have to keep my reply short. Oh, and I can read letters/dearelder whenever you send them... So feel free to send lots (if you don't know what Dearelder is, ask Luke). Thanks to everyone who sent me letters and e-mail. It was great to receive them. And thanks dad for forwarding the letter from my mission president. It was nice to read.

Anyways. Now on to the meat of the article right? You guys want to know everything that's happened... Right? Well...

WOW! That's the best way to describe it! I didn't realize that I could be this productive! It's amazing how busy I am! The only free time I have is when I'm eating breakfast lunch and dinner! And that's hardly any time at all. But the MTC is fantastic. I'm enjoying it so much! Where to start? My companion's name is Elder Lay and he's half Japanese. He's great and we've been getting along famously so far. His mom spoke Japanese to him his whole life, and so he already has a great grasp of the language, and I'm really lucky to have him as a companion, as he helps me all the time to figure things out and understand the language. He's from Ogden. Then, in my room, we have Elder Dick and Elder Morrison. Elder Dick is from Spanish Fork, and he's quiet but is funny and interesting when he does talk. Elder Morrison is from Australia and he is hilarious! Haha, I hardly have time to even begin to describe him. We call him Koara Choro though... Which is Elder Koala. He's great. Then there are three sisters, and three other elders in my district. Elder Einfeldt, Elder Gordon and Elder Warner are in the other room. They're all really great. Elder Einfeldt played basketball at SVU this last semester and he is a fantastic basketball player! Every gym time we have a lot of fun with that. Elder Gordon is half-japanese as well, and also helps me understand the language. He's from Houston, Texas. Then Elder Warner is from Washington (near Seattle)... And I would relate him to Logan Hanna (speaking of which, I've seen Logan Hanna like 5 times already! And Mitchell McClung and a few other Canadians I know!). He's lots of fun and he knows Kanji (uhh... Don't worry about what that is) really well. So he's great to have in the district. Then there is Sister Tauira from French Polynessia (spelling?), Sister Gningrich from Virginia, and Sister Drasso from California. They are great and we all are getting along just fine. I really like my district. My sensei's are Bradley Sensei and Jacobson Sensei and they are also fantastic and awesome teachers. So that's great.

My typical day is like this:
5:30am - wake up get ready till 6:00am
6:00am - 7:45am - personal study
7:45 - 8:30am - Breakfast
8:30am - 12:30pm - Classroom instruction
Lunch untill 1:00pm
More classroom insturction from 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Some sort of group activity till 5:30pm
Dinner until 6:00pm
Companionship study time and languange study time until 9:00pm
Till 9:30 pm we plan out the next day
9:30 - 10:30 journal writing, getting ready for bed, etc...
Glorious sleep until 5:30 then next morning.

Classroom instruction covers everything from teaching us the language to teaching us how to teach the gospel. It's amazing. The classes are so spiritual and the sensei understand the language so well. And they've been there! You know? It's great.

So that's pretty much how it's been going. Oh. I also need my vaccination information forms, by the way. Like really need them. I need my records of exact dates for my Hep. B, Tetanus and 2MMR shots. We had the years, but they need EXACT dates. So... If Dad or mom you could take care of that and mail it to me... That'd be great. Because I can't do it.

Oh ya! I should also mention that I was called as District leader for my district. That's pretty exciting. I have to get the mail, interview elders, report on things and what not. It's been fun so far. I also get to call on people to pray, share thoughts, etc... There's some other responsibilities that I have to do... But I don't have time.

Anyways, I'm going to run out of time in like... now... So I'm sorry I can't type any faster! I know Christ lives. I know he loves me, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here in the MTC learning. I'm amazed... Every night I go to bed thinking I can't handle another day. And every morning I wake up thinking I'm so glad to be here! The spirit is so strong, and it only gets better every day, and I'm sure it will continue to get better when I'm in the field! Ah! No time :/ Well. The gospel is true, I love you all, and feel free to write me! Use Dear Elder while I'm at the MTC... That will make everything much faster to get a hold of me!

Until tomorrow,
Which is to say a week,

PS. Please feel free to forward this to anyone.
PPS. Thanks for doing my blog Emily
PPPS. Please send me more dear elder letters so all the elders are jealous of me
PPPPS. Just wanted to another ps.

Sincerely,
エルダーショー
Elder Shaw



Oh! And I forgot one more thing...

PLEASE, send me your addresses (yes, even you parents). Because I don't know anyone's address. (And I know I said I only had 1/2 hour... But I got permission to come on to print some documents, so I'm just sending this tiny e-mail while I am already on.

Jyamatane!

A list of my writings by their entry date:

05.25.2010

06.01.2010

06.04.2010

06.08.2010

06.15.2010

06.18.2010

06.22.2010

06.29.2010

07.02.2010

07.06.2010

07.13.2010

07.20.2010

07.21.2010

08.10.2010

08.12.2010

08.17.2010

08.25.2010

09.06.2010

09.15.2010

09.20.2010

09.28.2010

10.04.2010

11.01.2010

11.30.2010

12.24.2010

12.30.2010

01.22.2011

01.26.2011

03.02.2011

03.07.2011

03.14.2011

03.18.2011

04.25.2011

To my friends and family... Write me! And I promise I will write back as promptly as reasonable.

First, please do not contact me through e-mail. I have an e-mail, but have been told by my mission president not to read e-mails from anyone (not even family!). Sure, some other missions might do it differently, but for Sendai, I'm not supposed to read your e-mails. Just write me lots of letters instead!

And please direct all mail to this street address: