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."

I think that a large number of my e-mails begin with short descriptive sentences that express my last weeks success and joy in terms of missionary work or whatever else and as a result of this I fear that many of the opening paragraphs to my e-mails have become, unfortunately, bland and boring, and in an attempt to absolve this problem I'm writing this ridiculously long run-on sentance which doesn't really serve any purpose other than to make me laugh and hopefully a few others giggle (inside at least).
 
And that's all the time I have for today...
 
Nah, just kidding. That'd be pretty mean, huh? Hahaha.
 
So this week was awesome. It was also April Fools day. The Mission President called one of the missionaries in my apartment who is going home in a few months, and said there was some complications at home and he had to go home a few months early. Naurally Elder Kobayashi was super suprised. But when we learned it was just an April Fool's joke, we all had a good laugh. Did anyone pull any good April Fool's pranks? Let me know! :D
 
Also, how was General Conference? Awesome I bet. I'm so jealous that you all got to see it a week before me. It's crazy to think that one year ago I was at the Conference Center? That seems like forever ago! But time goes by pretty quickly huh? Be sure to tell me you favorite talks and why and what not!
 
In terms of interesting experiences this week... Well I've had a lot. This one time when we were walking home at about 8:30 we stumbled into this one 70(ish)-year-old guy. And I say we stumbled, but really he did the stumbling! He was dead drunk! And to make matters worse, he had fallen down at some point in the road and was bleeding from his forehead! We were really suprised! We tried to talk to him and figure out what was going on, but we couldn't really communicate with him. He kept inviting us over to his house to drink sake together, and then he'd randomly get angry at us and ask if we wanted to fight him... It was crazy! Anyways, we walked with/dragged him to the nearest Convienence Store and from there called the Police to come pick him up. It was a crazy night! And more than once he tried to run out into the street for who knows what reason. Elder Taylor was joking that we probably saved his life. I don't know, but it was a fun experience none-the-less.
 
In terms of regular missionary work, we have this one High School kid we are working with named Masaki Kun. He is still young (in terms of being an investigator and in terms of actual age) so I can't say much about him yet, but we have an appointment to play basketball with him tomorrow and then teach a lesson. It should be really exciting! Other than that, Elder Taylor and I are really enjoying our time talking to people on the streets. Normally we don't do much walking in Japan (we have bikes), but since our bikes are still in Sendai, we walk everyone. And ofcourse when we were on our bikes we still stopped and talked to everyone, but it's a whole different ball game when you are just walking around. So it's been lots of fun. To those who have served missions, any cool stories about contacting people on the streets?
 
Other than that, same old, same old. Also, Sapporo is cold! It is still snowing! I don't know what's up with that. But oh well... I guess I'm just destined for cold! Thanks also for the letters! I got a few this week and they were little tender mercies! That's for sure.
 
Well, that's all for now! I love you all so much. Thanks for your support, your prayers, and everything else you do!
 
Oh yeah! And the pictures.
 
 
 IMG_93541.jpg (image/jpeg) 64.00K - More volleyball pictures from last week!
 IMG_92111.jpg (image/jpeg) 73.00K - This is me and some other missionaries. Our team lost basketball :/ So we had to sit out. I was obviously devastated!
 IMG_9423_21.jpg (image/jpeg) 75.00K - Group of all of us missionaries.
 IMG_9290.JPG 1,780.00K - I don't know why I am doing that strange pose. But we took this so you could get an idea of the snow that is still in Sapporo. Despite the fact that it is April! Crazy Japan.
 
Kbye!

--
厳しく
シャ　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: