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! Thanks to everyone who sent me mail recently ;) I really appreciate it! I'll start with the pictures again.

IMG_2319.JPG - I'll come back to this one later...
IMG_2298.JPG - This is some rice I ate. Look! There is Little Snoopies in it! I thought it was pretty cool. :)
IMG_2299.JPG - One day this week, my companion had a sudden attack while we were planning. So I drew this. Enjoy!
IMG_2300.JPG - Today I had around 20 minutes of time where I had nothing planned. And so I drew two different comics. Maybe not the best use of time I suppose. But I did it none the less. If you can't read what it says... It says: "What happens to Japanese Missionaries:" and "Yay! Rice!"
IMG_2301.JPG - Then the rest of these pictures
IMG_2302.JPG - Procede to give the account
IMG_2303.JPG - Of what happens and/or what a missionary
IMG_2305.JPG - In Japan eats through the week.(Monday through Sunday). Then... After two years what he looks like! Yipeeeee!
IMG_2306.JPG - The other comic is on finding approaches that work in Japan.
IMG_2307.JPG - Something not to do.
IMG_2308.JPG - :)

So this last week has been great! On Friday and Saturday I went on Splits with an Elder Suzuki and we had a great time and found three new investigators! Which is fantastic! We were very excited. It is sad that I won't get to teach any of them though. But anyways... it was lots of fun and I learned a lot from Elder Suzuki.

In Furukawa, things are looking quite as bright. Chiba San, whom has a baptismal date, will not be able to make his baptism, beause he hasn't as of yet come to church and we haven't been able to meet with him for a week now! We think he is dropping us... But we haven't given up all hope yet.However, we did find a new promising investigator named Nanjo San. He is an old man who owns a really succesful Real Estate company. He suffered from Depression for a while, but has recovered and is now interested in our message. Yay! We've only met with him twice, but he seems to be an earnest seeker of truth. So we are excited for him.

Other than that, we haven't found any new investigators... But a lot of potential investigators! So this week we are likely to see lots of success. We are also meeting with members when we can to "Mougi" (or role play) through lessons so that I can get practice teaching and speaking the language. It's lots of fun, but I wish we had the real thing so that we didn't have to turn to the members! You know? Regardless it is lots of fun and very effective.

Other than that, not much else is going on here in Japan. You can pretty much predict what I am doing... Finding. Housing, streeting, contacting, etc... All day every day. Lots of fun :)

At any rate, before I go, I want to share a quick spiritual message based off of the picture I skipped from earlier (IMG_2319.JPG). Sometimes I think we are like this picture. We see something good, and think that in order to focus in on it, we have to close everything else out. But that's not the case! I don't know if you can tell, but this picture is of the temple.

Sometimes I think people get the idea that temple work is temple work and missionary work is missionary work. Sometimes people think that we just need to focus on missionary work, or temple work and as a result we close everything else off to focus on that thing. But when people do that... They miss the whole picture!

The whole picture is that all this work... Is really God's work: "To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Missionary work is temple work, which is home teaching, which is teaching children, etc... It's all God's work. And I think that is important to remember. I may be a full time missionary, but we're all engaged in the same work! Remember it's all important! And I leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you all. Thanks so much for your prayers and support.

--
Sincerely,
エルダーショー
Elder 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: