エルダーショー

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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.

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About

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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."

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3.07.2011 / 6:47 AM

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Dear Family!

I think it's been less than a week since I last e-mailed you... But today we had a Specialized Training Meeting (Similar to Zone Conference) in Aomori, and it was just very conveinent to stop at Misawa and do e-mail today. Plus, my new ビーンチャン (trainee) probably should e-mail his family pretty quick to let him know how he's doing right? So, we are e-mailing today.

At any rate, I imagine you are all pretty excited to hear about my new companion? His name is Elder Taylor. He is from a city in Northern Arizona called 'Snowflake.' He just worked after Highschool and turned 19 while in the MTC, so he's the first companion I've worked with that is younger than me, since I came to Japan (Elder Yatusnami and Elder Aiura were like 23 and Elder Swenson was 21). So I feel very old right now. Which is weird... When did I become one of the older missionaries? :/

But the missionary work is fantastic! Granted we've only been together for like 3 or 4 days. But it's already been lots of fun and very rewarding. And I really, REALLY, am feeling the blessings of the Lord in helping me to be a better missionary. It's crazy, like... Overnight my Japanese improved by 100 times! And I owe it all to the Lord... I definitely could not do this language on my own! And I don't know if you'd say I'm fluent... But pretty much. Does that sound arrogant of me? Oh well. Also, speaking in English is also really hard! I've gotten so used to doing all of the regular missionary things in Japanese... I just default to Japanese! But then Elder Taylor doesn't understand. And I can't speak English very well anymore. I think my writing/typing is okay (you haven't notcied anything, have you?)... But I always mess up when speaking :/

As for investigators this week, well there's not too much to report. Miura San is doing well. She has to completely quit Tabacco by the 12th of this month to be able to get baptized... So please make sure to include her in your prayers so she can quit tabacco. And Horiba san (who I probably mentioned before?) is also doing well... But she didn't come to church this week. We went and visited her after church... It seems she took a nap at 9:30 and forgot to come to church after that. But she's still awesome! We're really looking forward to continuing to work with her.

Anyways, here's a fun story for the week that deals with the spirit and the power of the spirit. So we have this one investigator named Kurimoto San. We visited her on Friday night. She was way excited to see us, and right away I felt prompted and followed up on prayer (our last commitment). She had tried it! I asked her how it went and she told me she felt really weird about it, and didn't like it. Which is definitely not what you want to hear. But I taught prayer again and committed her to pray again. She refused. I taught some more, and commited again. She refused again! I commited her four times to pray... But she just kept saying that she doesn't have the motivation to try again. I was a little discouraged, but at this point asked Elder Taylor to give a testimony about prayer and commit her to it one more time. His Japanese was... Well, let's be honest, it was his third day and it was brutal. He messed up on a lot of grammar, and I'm not sure Kurimoto San understood very much. But! The spirit came. I really felt it. And so did Kurimoto San. After Elder Taylor committed her to pray, she accepted. She said she'd pray that night to see if our message was true or not.

In Missionary Work, there is nothing more important than the spirit. I know it, because I see it all of the time. It doesn't matter how talented or skilled or wonderful a missionary is, if they don't have the spirit, they can do nothing. I'm very glad to have a companion who understands this simple principle better than I, and that he was able to help Kurimoto San understand the need to pray. I'll let you know how her next prayer goes.

Well, I'm out of time, but I love you all very much! And I appreciate all of your letters and wonderful pictures/analogies/stories/etc... Keep 'em coming :D Thanks once again.

Kbyeeeeeeeee

--
突然　で
シャウ　長老

アドレス

Address

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:

While at the MTC
Elder Brian Derek Shaw
Provo Missionary Training Center
MTC Mailbox # 89
JPN-SEN 0804
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

While in Japan
Elder Brian Derek Shaw
Japan Sendai Mission
3-1-5 Yagiyama Minami
Taihaku-Ku
Sendai-Shi, Miyagi
982-0807
Phone:81-22-245-8851