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."

Dear Family! I hope you are all doing well! I am doing simply fantastic! So, there is lots of news this week (or 2 weeks. I can't remember the last time I e-mailed). At any rate, first off, this last week, our water heater died! It was very tragic! And because it died, our water pipes froze. Which is also tragic.

Our stove is still okay, so we figured if we could just get some water out, we could heat up the water on the stove, to shower with... but we couldn't get any water because, well, the pipes were frozen,etc... You see our dilemma. Don't worry, I showered everyday. It's been a very interesting week to say the least and I look forward to relating this story in years to come when my children complain about anything relating to water temperature. But, today the water heater has been fixed! So all is well! Or actually, at least, I'm told it's fixed... I'm actually not in Hachinohe right now so I don't know for sure... I'm in Sendai! At 3:00 today we had to leave to Sendai because as of tomorrow Elder Yatsunami is going home! Pretty crazy huh? He's the second companion I have metaphorically 'killed,' as they call it.

Also, today I found out who my new companion will be and where I will be working! I will be staying in Hachinohe (not surprisingly) but I actually don't know who my new companion is yet... Because I'm going TRAINER! Crazy, eh? I was really surprised. There is 5 new missionaries who arrived this morning, and after they have an interview with the Mission President he will assign which missionary is to be with which trainer, and I'm one of the lucky 5 people that went trainer this transfer.

And in other news, this last Sunday (it being Elder Yatsunami's LAST Sunday) we had 5 investigators come to church. Which is fantastic! Of the five that came there was one investigator named 'Horiba san.' She is an 80-year-old women we found way back in January. We've been working with her at least once a week... But she's very forgetful! However, this week, she remembered to come to church and she really felt the spirit! We talked with her after the meeting and she said it was better than she ever imagined. We asked her if she thought she might like to join. And she said 'if it's something like this... Probably.' Coming from Horiba San, it was a miracle! She's very forgetful, so she's probably already forgotten about the date we set (which isn't till the end of April), but we think that she will probably start coming to church every Sunday from here on out.

That's one thing I've really felt since coming to Japan... Church buildings are truly something special. There's a spirit in every Stake Center, in every tabernacle, that just affects people... and it was great to see it have such an effect on Horiba San. And well, the Temple, do I even need to say it? I hope everyone will make an extra effort to go to the temple sometime soon :D It's truly a blessing!

At any rate, I love you all. You are all such great examples to me, and I appreciate all you've done and continue to do for me. Thanks once again. Live Deliberately

--
ひとえに
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: