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 I have some terrible news! Remember how the last time I e-mailed I was in a huge rush but promised that I would have lots of pictures from some sort of all-Sapporo Preperation Day Activity thing? Well... We took too long on e-mail/shopping/etc, and missed our bus and didn't get to go. So I have no pictures of that for you. Sorry :/ Oh well. Maybe next time :D
 
At any rate, this last week has been great. I'll start with the pictures. There's lots!
 
IMG_0824.jpg (image/jpeg) 75.00K - This is dodgeball that we played recently.
 IMG_0849.jpg (image/jpeg) 76.00K - Action shot! You can see me throwing a ball at Elder Taylor (who is in the red)
 IMG_0006.JPG (image/jpeg) 1,087.00K - This is a new suit that I bought! Except you'll never guess how much it was? $5.00. Yeah! Isn't that insane?! I don't know why it was so cheap, but whatever :D [Also, I need a haircut!]
 IMG_0008.JPG (image/jpeg) 2,000.00K - A closer up picture of the suit so you can see the pattern.
 IMG_0012.JPG (image/jpeg) 871.00K - We had a small activity where we made some eggs. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of it... But here is the egg I painted. Half of it is red and the Canadian Flag.
 IMG_0015.JPG (image/jpeg) 834.00K - The other half is green.
 IMG_0026.JPG 747.00K - See if you can guess the other design I was going for :D I'm no artist!
 IMG_0043.JPG 1,083.00K - This was a cleaning party in my apartment... I'll talk more about this later.
 IMG_0040.JPG 1,066.00K - This is the Kubo family that we went and visited. They fed us Bacon! It was tasty.

At any rate, that's all the pictures for this week. But I have some fun news this week! It was transfer week! Elder Taylor and I are still companions and we are still serving in Teine, however, our beloved Elder Kobayashi was transferred to a place called Obihiro, leaving an empty place in our apartment. Which was filled by TWO people. Elder Lawry from Australia and Elder Shin'no from around Tokyo. Elder Shin'no is a new missionary (Green Bean) and is being trained by Elder Lawry and Elder Ovard who are the other 2 in the apartment. It's nuts! Our apartment is definitely NOT meant for 5 people! Haha. It has 3 rooms. One room is the kitchen living room area. Then there is a study/bed room place. Then another small bedroom-like room. Then of course we have one bathroom. But it's TINY. But it's also lots of fun. Haha. Actually we had to go buy another small desk for the new Elder. And I was the only one who could withdraw any money from my account... So the lot fell on me to buy it. I'll probably get re-imbursed (spelling?)... Probably. Haha. (Sorry Dad!).
 
In terms of missionary work things are fantastic! It seems like we are doing more and more everyday! And we're seeing lots of success and miracles and well... You know how it goes :D Recently, one of our stronger investigators, Kuwahara san, actually took a turn for the worse however! We had been working with her and had her reading the Book of Mormon and praying. But she wasn't coming to church and she wouldn't commit to a Baptism date. She hasn't really progressed at all for a few weeks, so we taught a pretty bold lesson and told her we couldn't continue to meet if she didn't come to church. She said she can't (for a vareity of excuses, none of which are any good). I was sad and she was sad. But sometimes that's how things go. So we won't be meeting with her for a while.
 
Our next strongest investigator is a Matsukawa Kun. He comes to church everyweek and is doing great! Although he is SUPER shy. More so than anyone I have ever before met. I'll be sure to keep you updated on him. He's a huge Gundam fan. It's a Japanese Anime about huge flying robots (I think). Apparently I'm in it too? The main villian's name is 'Shaw,' apparently. Matsukawa Kun tells me it's funny. Haha.
 
In other news,... (those dots are me thinking). Nope, nevermind, there's no other news in terms of missionary work.
 
At any rate, I heard the Brett Salmon got home? Pretty crazy! Pretty soon all those other guys will be getting back, huh? And pretty soon I'm going to be hitting my year mark. That's also pretty nuts. Hahahaha.
 
Also, just so everyone knows... The rules in Sapporo mission are different than Sendai Mission. You can all (all as in family) e-mail me. (However, I would appreciate real letters more, since I have limited time to e-mail and if I spend all of my time reading e-mails...) Also, through e-mail feel free to send me pictures. Not only is it faster, but it's cheaper too! Yipeeeeee.
 
I don't know what else to talk about. This is so weird. I have time to e-mail and I have nothing to write about...
 
See, and now I'm going to send off this e-mail and then 15 minutes later (once I no longer have any time) I'm going to realize that I forgot something major to tell everyone.
 
But oh well, I guess that's all for this week.
 
Thanks so much for your love and support!
 
Kbye...........!
 

--
喜んでいる
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: