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 everbody! How is it going? Thanks for all your letters and support! It's been really nice to get some mail this last week... I actually got more then my companion, Elder Aiura and he's from Japan! Hah!

So this last week has been fantastially difficult. I still, regrettably, don't speak any Japanese or understand it. So that's still a bummer. But I'm working hard, so I know it will come. This week, only one really cool thing has happened. Our investigator (note that I said that without using an 's'), set a baptismal date! I believe I talked a little bit about Chiba San last time? Well we committed him to work toward a baptism on Sept. 5th and he accepted! I also learned that he's married and his wife is due on that day. So he said yes... But to be aware that something might legitimately come up... We thought that was pretty fair.

At any rate, I think he still has to overcome some problems he has with keeping the word of wisdom, and he has to come to church... But he's on the right track now! So I'm really excited about that. It's weird because I haven't really done anything... But still exciting. Other than that, I really haven't done a whole lot this week. I went to this Matsuri thing (which is like a Japanese Short Drama) with an investigator, and it was lots of fun. But the investigator isn't progressing... So it was sort of a waste of time. And I didn't even have a camera with me, so I don't even have pictures to share. But needless to say, when Japanese people dance, they try to move their hips and torso as little as possible. It's very interesting. It sort of looks like Karate.

So what sorts of things do you want to hear about? My branch in Furukawa is about 22 people large, and everyone is super great. The Branch President is the only one with kids under the age of like 30, so there is only about 5 youth. The oldest being 12. So that's interesting. It's weird going to church with so few people. But I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Do you want to know something weird? I may have mentioned this before, but in Japan... Everyone wants to be white! It's so bizarre. Not American mind you... Just white. So all day people have umbrellas to block the Sun because they don't want to get a Tan. It's so opposite of America, eh? I also found it ironic that finally my natural ghost-like appearance would finally be desirable, only it's the one time in my life where I have no desire to be desired. I'm sure there is some sort of Murphy's Law about this or something.

At any rate, I'll describe the pictures for you. The first one, is a picture of my electronic dictionary that I bought. It's very wonderful and I use it every day. The second picture is another picture I took. No, I didn't actually use this word... But I just thought it would be fun to look up and take a picture of. Hah! :)

**** Actually the pictures may be a little out of order due to Jen (me) making this blogpsot. Sorry about that, but you can play mix and match and try to figure the pictures and captions out! *****

The third picture is of me and my companion, Elder Aiura! Yay! We're both sort of awkward. Sorry :/

At any rate, the next picture is just a random day after we came home from housing. I collapsed and shortley thereafter a picture was taken. Don't worry, I make it sound worse than it actually is. It's lots of fun too ^^

This next picture I had to send because when I saw this statue... I immediately thought of Luke! I don't know why... Anyways, the bottom half of the picture is definitely peeing. Just FYI.

This is justa typical Japanese Back yard. You can see the statue I took a picture of if you look closely.

This is Brother Morata. He's like 85 and pretty much deaf. But he's lots of fun. That's an example of one of the members of the Branch. He really loves Missionaries!

The next picture (2284) is of the phone booth that I'm writing this e-mail from.

The next picture is of my bike! Sorry I'm not on it.

The last picture is just a random picture I took on the plane coming to Japan... It's of the BoM in Japanese. I just thought it was cool and so I threw it in.

Ok. Well that's all for now. Thanks so much for all you do for me and for your support and prayers! I wouldn't be able to do it without you :) Love you lots!

PS. Random cultural note: Anime is everywhere in Japan! Have you ever seen Anime before? Ever wonder where they come up with the crazy hair styles that they have in the Anime shows? Well I figured it out! They got the ideas from Japan! They aren't crazy hair styles in Japan! They're just regular! Hah! Pretty cool, no? I thought so.

Kbye!

--
Sincerely,
Elder "Chain" Shaw

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: