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 everyone! So today, I'm actually e-mailing from the Misawa church building, so I can send some pictures! YAY!
I have way to many pictures to update everyone on. But here's some that I thought were pretty fun. I'll start with those :D
 
 CIMG1916.JPG (image/jpeg) 857.00K - This is me declaring the word in the frozen tundra of Hachinohe! Haha. Seriously! I've never been so cold! I don't know why either... The temperature is only around -5 or so... But it's way colder than anything I ever had to deal with in Canda but then I think of Jordan Hill or Tony Huber, and well, I remember how lucky I am to be in Japan ^_^
 IMG_0105.JPG (image/jpeg) 1,351.00K - This is the typical Japanese sized tunnel. Their tiny!
 IMG_0115.JPG (image/jpeg) 1,069.00K - This is me and my district (minus Elder Ohira... He is taking the picture). The table is so tiny because it's Japan size.
 IMG_0112.JPG (image/jpeg) 1,267.00K - This is us and Ono Kyodai (kyodai is brother-- therefore it's Brother Ono). We went to his house and did a little service/FHE activity for him, because he hasn't had a job for a long time now and it short on... well a lot of things, but we help out with food where we can.
 IMG_0093.JPG (image/jpeg) 829.00K - I realized when I talked to everyone on the phone, that you really have no idea of what I eat in Japan. So I took some pictures. This is what some real sushi looks like. That's squid I think. Hard to know. I don't really bother to ask anymore. I just eat and it was deliiiiiiiccciciiciiicicicicioopoiisoisoisuss!
 IMG_0094.JPG (image/jpeg) 880.00K - This is Ramen. You might notice it looks like 'Top Ramen.' That's because America's version of this tasty dish is the famous brand we all know and love. Only the real thing is much, much more delicious.
 
Okay. I could probably send more pictures, but it takes way too long to upload them. Sorry. I'll mail some.
 
At any rate, this last week has been great. Obviously I just recently talked to everyone. It was so nice to hear from you all, and thank you so much for your wonderful presents! You all gave me things that I use everyday! Thank you so much! I love you all very much :D I know I'm not supposed to pick favorites, but I think my favorite gift was the crayon coloring of Snoopy from Ava. So, Jen/Luke, make sure to thank Ava for me :D Although everyones gift was really very special. Thank you. Really, this Christmas was perfect. Actually, it's really cool, because in Japan Christmas is just a time to eat cake (pretty much) and so they still deliver mail on Christmas! So I got a great surprise when a Christmas package arrived just in time for me to enjoy it! Then I got to go to Misawa from a Christmas dinner, it was amazing! And the Brough family (Branch President) gave me some Lucky Charms and Pop Tarts from America! Can life get much better? Other than the hundreds of thousands of Japanese, it's like I'm right at home! :D
 
The rest of this week has also been awesome! So, unfortunately, about 6 of our 9 investigators dropped off the face of the planet. But it's given us a chance to do lots of really good finding! And actually, we got to see lots of really cool miracles! You see, in Japan, Christmas isn't really all that important... but New Years is HUGE! Because it's around new years time, a lot of people are going home for a few days to clean and take a much needed break with family (this will be the first break since summer). However, because it's such a big deal, people tend to get angry when we knock on their door, but, due to that, the people you do find are always much stronger investigators. At any rate, this one day Elder Yatsunami and I felt it a good idea to go visit the unviersity area of town. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, since 99% of students are home for the Holidays, but we really felt we could find someone there. Well, we figured out how to get there from the map and went out as early as we could. It turned out the map was very deceiving and the university was a little farther than we expected! It took about 2 hours of hard bike riding on icy sidewalks to get there, but neither of us really (haha) fell, so it wasn't a problem or anything. When we finally got there we went through apartment after apartment without having any success. Who knows how long it was? It was pretty sad to be honest. But we didn't lose hope, I mean... Come on... Everyone knows that the best missionary miracles and stories always start with a lack of success/terrible weather/a major rejection/etc... We figured we'd met the first part of the tale, so we pressed on. And you know, to be honest, as I type it, it doesn't sound all that amazing... But we found two FANTASTIC investigators. And it was a miracle.
 
They are both around 19 years old, and awesome! Sorry, I forgot the first one's name, but he's currently studying business at the university, and loves snowboarding. Burton, oddly, being his favorite. We got to teach him a small lesson at his door before he had to leave to work. He was amazing and we are SO excited to teach him again. The next is named Wakamoto san. He is studying Pre-School Education or something like that. It was way cool, because we were about to go home when we saw him on the street and of course the goal is to talk to everyone, so we meandered over and had a chat. After I introducted myself though, it started snowing/raining. What a way to start a conversation, huh? Well, anyways, he didn't leave, but actually stood there and talked to us, in the freezing rain, for over a half hour. It was amazing! He used to be catholic, so he knows a little something about Jesus Christ and already believes in God(which is super rare!), and has some really strong interest in meeting again.
 
Amazing, huh? Anyways, that's about all the time I have for today. But I love you all so much, thanks for the continued letters, support and prayers. Byeeeeeeeeeeeee :D
 
 
PS. Dad, could you tell the Hill's to tell Brent that I love his Shirt that he left in Aomori. Hahahaha

--
実に
シャウ　長老

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: