Haarlem--Week #4 (mission week #27)

First off, the thing I said about getting sick and then starting to feel better? I was wrong. I'm quite sick now. It sucks. I actually had to stay in Saturday night. It was not a pleasant experience. It has also made sleeping very difficult. I'm going to try and take it very easy today. Don't worry about me though, people! I'm safer right now than any other place I could be while sick.

Christmas was pretty cool. We had fun appointments with members. I actually ended up having Indonesian for Christmas dinner. They don't really have a tradition for it. I think I already mentioned this, but they also have a second Christmas. It's the day after the first one, and NO ONE knows why. I would guess it's just to have another day when they don't have to do anything. But we took a big group of missionaries and went to carol in the city center. While we did that we would have a few missionaries that contacted around those that were singing. I actually met a husband and wife from Austin. I was actually with Elder Hunter at the time, which was perfect, because he's a country singer, and actually apparently helped Carrie Underwood write some song. It made us the perfect team to talk to them and we gave them a Book of Mormon.

Yep, it snowed on Saturday. All day. However, NONE of it stayed. It was the weirdest thing. The air was constantly filled with snow, but there was no build up!

Well, I'm feeling done, so I'm going to get off the computer now.

I love you all,

Elder Shaw

Fijne Kerstdagen?

Okay, interesting stuff about the week-- They are having this huge radio charity event in the city center and it's ALWAYS packed full of music and people and hustle and bustle and blah blah blah blah blah blah. I'm a little impatient at the moment, just because I feel like I have so much to do and am struggling to complete it all. I've never been great dealing with the logistics behind things, which means that OF COURSE I have a lot of opportunities to deal with them out here. Goodness! Also, our teaching pool has been taking a little bit of a beating this week, so we need to fix that!

Dutch people say either their equivalent of Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays pretty frequently. It's this weird thing where everyone else needs to be politically correct, except the Dutch about Dutch things. Very strange. I've already spoken about most of the traditions. Not sure what else there is to say. If you want to know a little more about Haarlem, go watch "The Best Two Years." They do some contacting in front of a station there. Let me just say I spend a lot of time working via that station. There's actually a member that works in a store there and gives us totally full- priced hot chocolate (;D) when she's there. It's a very fun place.

I have plenty of pictures.

I got out of the shower one day to see Elder Silva putting this up in a doorway. I stared at him for a second, then he said, "Can we pretend you didn't see this?"

Our Christmas tree.

It snowed food in Haarlem. Therefore, I put on my winter best and decided to make a food angel.

This is Sister Johanson. I got her to chug Vla-- a popular Dutch pudding-like treat.

Silva, did you know?

He got a little too into it.

That's it for this week! Merry Christmas everyone!

Elder Santa

Geef de schuld aan het Boogie (Blame it on the Boogie)

Oh my goodness, I'm not sure what to say about this week, so much has happened. Goodness.

Okay, transfers were on Wednesday. That was fun; a little bit stressful-- but s'all Gucci.

Elder Silva is hilarious. He's a very talented singer, and a little ball of good times. EVERYTHING makes him trunky, and it's so funny. I'm pretty sure he does it on purpose, but it's funny just the same. 

Haarlem is a very cool place. Very different atmosphere from Rotterdam; I like it a lot. I have a few stories from the week.

Saturday we had a bunch of missionaries sleep over so that they could all make it to stake conference on time the next day. It was a nice night, but the morning after became HELL. First, we didn't know how to get there, so Elder Silva and I had to get up early to come look up how. We got back, then it happened. See first picture. Because of this we missed our bus and it became a terrible morning of trying to get there on time.

I am now suit-less, and don't have time to buy one today. SUCKKKKKKK. WE actually have an appointment today (yeah, I know), and then we have to wait for someone to come look at our washer, because that broke before I even got here. So, no P-day for us today, really, just email and grocery shopping. Also I'm feeling pretty ill today. Surprisingly, despite all this, I'm happy! How weird right?

Other stuff-- met a very cool investigator. We went bowling with him and the Elder's quorum on....... Friday? I think. I can never remember days out here. He's a very funny guy; I have a picture of him later. He sounds kind of like a mix between George Carlin and Bobcat Goldthwait. But he's a little Indian guy born in the Netherlands. I like him.

Okay, funny Dutch thing. The word "hoor"-- it is pronouned like "or" but with a very slight aspirated H. It hard to explain the meaning, but it's something kind of between calling someone buddy, and telling them thank you. And............. They will throw it at the end of almost every phrase. That's an exaggeration, but they do use it a lot. Because of that, in my last week Elder South and I did try to put it at the end of EVERY dutch phrase. People complimented our Dutch a lot! How dumb is that?

Well, here are pictures.

Dinu, the investigator, and us

The Silvanator

The street of my people. (We're gonna knock the crap out of it.)

Artsy transfer photo

The remnants of that sleep over

I sick today.

Love you all!

Elder Shaw

Tot de volgende keer, Roffa.

Good morning, good morning, It´s great to say hello.........

I´m getting transferred! To Haarlem! It´s right next to Amsterdam. I´ll be with an Elder from Portugal on his second transfer. You have absolutely no idea how excited and nervous I am. It will be difficult, but people say it´s their dream city, so I´m very lucky.

I don´t have packages. Hopefully I get them on the 16th. We´ll see! The work went much better this week! We found a ton of potentials that I´ll be leaving for Elder South and his new greenie. Yep, he´s training. I´m really going to miss him, but he´s gonna be a good trainer. Yep, Elder Shaw is feeling good. His Dutch has improved, he is getting in better shape, and had success this week! How cool is that? I´m pretty jazzed this morning I guess.

Dealing with the cold is a matter of less biking, and more layers. I will wear thermals, a white shirt, sweater, scarf, and jacket. That generally is enough for your body, so long as you also have gloves. The wind here is insane. It can push through so many layers like they´re fishing nets. But it isn´t too bad.... yet.

I have a few pictures!

This was four in the afternoon on Friday. So weird.

Someone lost a bird.

Look how European I look! It´s hilarious right? Don´t worry, I don´t dress like this every day.

We got an advent calender.

Elder South is sleepy on the train.

Elder South got the swag on.

Pretty lights. Rotterdam is pretty at night

Good bye everybody! 'Til next week!

Elder Shaw

IT`S FREEZING

It´s hard to know what to say about this week. It was hard. Most of our appointments canceled, so we ended up doing a lot of contacting. Which yielded....... nothing. But, I do have a few stories and some pictures to go along with them.

Thanksgiving was a lesson on the wonders of the internet. The family that fed us got all of the recipes online, and it ended up being a very good meal. That was a good experience. 

Baptisms. Nearest is in January. We´ll see what happens.

Okay, picaturs. (No, that isn´t Dutch)

Okay! This handsome devil is Raymond. He was a less active member who has recently started coming back to church. We meet with him a decent amount.

Well! He got us presents! Hahahaha. We were very surprised. He got us chocolate letters and hand knitted us scarves--which I am currently wearing. This is us with the stuff. 

This is the fine Dutch art of achteropping. (literal translation: after-on-ing or behind-on-ing) I took this very cool picture out with the sisters one night. I was on the back of a bike with Elder South when I took this picture. 

I made a cake!

Then I covered it with peanut butter and sprinkles.

Ja, toch? Of niet? Ja wel!

South and I had a very cool week. We had some awesome lessons; people are coming along well for the most part. The sad bit is, WE CAN´T FIND GULIA! She hasn´t responded to us and hasn´t been at church. We don´t know what´s happened! UGH!!! It blows.

But Eliza brought a friend to church! That was really cool. I had to translate for her. I did okay! It´s kind of weird though, because translating directly into English isn´t hard, but trying to translate into simplified English while defining unfamiliar gospel terms is REALLY HARD.

If you can´t tell by the many phrases of capital letter screaming it has been an emotional week. Ups. Downs. Shake it all arounds.

Do things like Dad? I dunno, Dad, what did you do? I make it an effort never to mix my Dutch and my English, especially when speaking English. We refer to that as Nederengels. Missionaries are notorious for doing it, but I´ve noticed that all the people truly good at the language never do it. SO! I have made it an effort not to do that! I get sick of hearing about how "Lekker" things are. Or people talking about how many "Doop"-dates they have. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Most fun moment of the week? Well, we did some service for a member this week. He had all of the missionaries there. So we all sang a bunch of songs and had a really great time while helping him get his new house ready to be moved in. It was definitely fun.

Well, the big thing to say about Dutch holiday traditions is a big topic of debate over here right now. They have a very catholic Santa Claus, and then his helper, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). Black Pete is always a white person, dressed in black face, with very red lips, and he´s Santa´s little helper. Thus, the country is caught in some civil war over whether or not it´s racist to keep a children´s holiday tradition around because it has to do with race. I´m really tired of hearing about it, and it´s ALWAYS in the freaking newspapers. Dumb.

Here are a few pictures!

PONY! IT´S SO CUTE AND LITTLE!

(Mom note: the entire picture didn't download in the email)

Elder Bitters and bikes. (Crouching Pony, Hidden Exchanges)

Rotterdam at night (Meaning 5 in the afternoon)

Artsy picture of really awesome dart throw by Elder South

Good bye!

Elder Shaw

Dutch rain ruins clothes!

It´s true. I have clothing that has been stained and ties that have changed color because of the rain here. How ridiculous is that?!

This week has been wet, and cold! I wear a scarf and jacket everyday. It´s kind of funny; the colder it gets, the less we look like missionaries and the more we look like everyone else. Since we´ve had to start pretty much always keeping the white shirt covered, we don´t really get call outs on the street. Just feels strange to NOT be stared at constantly. People still stare at the badge of course, but they don´t really notice it when you go hauling by on a bike.

The best thing about being in a big city is...... It´s fun! It´s lively; there´s a pleasant hustle and bustle to the streets, but not one too intense:

Mom Note: Elder Shaw wanted me to put in a picture of the Shibuya District in Tokyo, to show you what he meant. We happened to be here a few years ago and the crossing at the intersection outside the train station was exactly like this--so full of people! He thought it was really a little too congested, and assures me that Rotterdam is not like this!

We live nearly right in the center of the city, so It´s very cool to have all that business constantly around you. Then, when it gets too much we can go and work in the suburbs! So that´s nice, too! 

I will probably get transferred. That will be on Dec. 10th. Yay?

I can read Dutch and all that just fine. But there´s this super annoying thing about street names here. They are not marked well; sometimes you have to go down three streets just to figure out where the heck you are, and they´re SUPER LONG! Also, many streets in an area will have the same beginning, but just different endings. e.g., Crooswijksestraat, Crooswijkselaan, Croosewijkseweg, Crooswijksebak, and so on and so forth. Dumb right?

Pictures!

Us in Raymond´s swaggin' shades

Have pamphlet, will teach. (Chinese Edition)

It´s cold!

Zwolle tickets: So espensive!

Zwolle Group: Thom, Cook, Neptune, Taggart, Roemer, Kemp, Me!

Geen belangstelling!

We hear that phrase at the door a lot.
Not a bad week I guess. We did a ton of contacting! It's hard sometimes, but we gotta keep pushing through!

I'm not really sure what to say about the week. We really have mainly been contacting, trying to increase our likelihood of coming across someone with interest in our message. It's not common, sadly. We did have Eliza come to church again! She is progressing very well! We are very excited about working with her. Gulia is still coming along as well. Her baptismal date was moved, but I should still be here to see it! YAY! 

I guess I can talk about today--

I'm in Zwolle right now! It's very cool. That's why the email is late today. Elder Kemp invited me to come with him to see one of his old companions, Jeremy Romer. We met Elder Taggart and a few other missionaries I haven't told you about out here and are having a very good time. Sadly, I forgot my camera. The pictures will come next week after I get them from Kemp! Don't worry! We did get permission from President to be here. We aren't just going apostate. ;D

P-day schedule: wake up, breakfast. Email! Grocery shopping. Do some cleaning! Find something to do with other missionaries! Games, sports, shopping, museum visits, anything really! Do that until dinner, then we have to work again afterward!

Favorite Dutch food: I like Oliebollen. I will have a picture of them for you next week. All they really are is Dutch, round beignets. I also enjoy Stampot. Basically mashed potatoes with things in. Very good.

Inspiring thoughts/notes from the week:

If you don't have anything nice to say, definitely don't say it to a Dutch person!

It can be difficult, sometimes it just feels like it absolutely is terrible, sometimes it sucks, sometimes you hate it, sometimes you wish you were done, or just asleep in bed. BUT! It's all good. No worries! I love it despite all that can be thrown at me!

Much love; pictures next week!

Elder Showuh*

*Why the crap is my name hard for DUTCH people to pronounce? I mean really!

Helloooooooooo, I´m Elder Shawwww (Rotterdam, Week 13)

First off, Elder South! He is....... Seth. Like, in so many ways. Similar mannerisms; he has that same really high pitched laugh. We have a lot of fun! But it´s a little easy to get distracted during study time......

Dutch is coming along pretty well. I think I´ve dreamed in it. But languages are so mixed here I can end up speaking English, Dutch, and the little bit of German I remember in the same appointment. I really want my Dutch to improve, but haven´t had the chance to do my language study in many days. Luckily I should have it again tomorrow I believe. 

Jus´ trow it on tha blog. It `ll be grand. 

Investigators? Gulia is progressing well (Yeah, apparently it´s spelt with a G). We are trying to figure out when she is going to be baptized, because for some reason she is very nervous. So hopefully that turns out for the best. We honestly had a somewhat bittersweet week. Saturday we contacted a referral from the office that is very positive, and she came to church yesterday! It was very exciting! But other than that... most of our appointments have fallen through. Every single appointment yesterday fell through, including our dinner one. And no one told us that they were canceled, we just arrived at their houses and no one was there. It sucked. It sucked hard. It sucked donkeys. It sucked eggs. It sucked like a mosquito. It, yeah, it sucked.

Yeah, we had daylight savings time. We actually had it last week! Not this one. It gets dark very early now. Which blows.

I have a few pictures.

This was outside that new investigators house. I thought it was rad.

Last anime stance with Taggart

Elder South and Elder Shaw

Hallo, Ik bin Elder Taggart.

 I have a very funny story. Elder Taggart and I went to go contact a referral from a facebook campaign they are doing here. They have this little script they want us to use with it, so I went to try it. The bumble sounded something like this when the door opened (except in Dutch):

"Hi.... uh, hello. I´m Elder Taggart, and this is my...... Oh wait! He´s Elder Taggart, and I´m Elder Shaw! We....." And yeah, I was very embarrassed about it. Thus, Elder Taggart and I have been making jokes about us both being him.

Okay, Elder Taggart is getting transferred to Heerenveen! Which is up north and very cold. I´m staying and going to be companions with Elder South. I haven´t really met him yet, but I´m excited.... And very nervous to take over the city. You know my issue with navigation and directions......

[In response to a question I asked him about a Dutch word--Mom]

 I´m guessing the word was koekje? Which is cookie. Or kokje? Which would be...... little chef, or chefy. They minimize EVERYTHING here in conversation. If you know what it meant, I probably know the actual word.

 I got two pairs of VERY European pants which I maybe shouldn´t be allowed to wear, but am. And a pair of casual shoes. I still have a lot of money to use; I need more socks and a raincoat--still. But I´m doing fine without them right now. 

Yeah, we went to the temple! It was fun.

Yeah, I don´t have pictures today. Sorry!

Elder Shaw

Rotterdam--Week 11

Artsy

The mission moves soooooooooooo fast. Like, wow. Lets see, Elder Shaw´s weekly interesting crap.

Julia is back in town! It´s great to teach her again, because she´s so willing to accept all the aspects of the gospel. We taught the word of wisdom, and she was very positive about it, almost excited. Also we took her to a baptism a few weeks ago and since then she´s been trying to practice the movement. Elder Taggart and I tried so hard not to laugh at that. It´s just so funny. 

I don´t remember if I told you much about Ignisious, but we´re actually teaching him now. It took awhile, but he´s a very nice guy. It´s hard to get appointments because of his schedule, but we keep trying. 

Oh! So, Tim, a member in the ward from China, taught us to make spicy Chinese chicken the other day. It was very spicy, and afterward one of the Sisters promised me a batch of brownies if I would lick the plate the spicy chicken was on. The fire poops will hopefully be worth it? We´ll see if I get the brownies; Sisters are notorious for not following through on their treat promises.

Transfers are next week! No clue whether I or Elder Taggart will stay. Probably me, but we´ll know by next Monday!

I don´t know what I want for Christmas..... IT´S OCTOBER, DANG IT! DON´T RUSH ME BETWEEN HOLIDAYS! 

The best thing about serving a mission is the people that slam that door in your face. The people that yell at you on the street. The two Moroccan guys sharing a Vespa that drive by and call you homo. Why the heck would that be the best thing, other than the irony of the Vespa drive by? Because you know it comes because you are doing the right thing. That´s Satan`s way of trying to keep you from doing your work. And you know--every time you don´t let it get you down you´re pushing Satan down in the dirt, spitting on him, and God gives you a "high-five" of blessings as you both walk away laughing. Then, all of this opposition becomes worth it-- when you see someone you teach start to smile as they understand the message of the gospel you bring them. Or when you see someone cry when you share the story of the restoration with them. These are the things that make a mission worth it.

Well, that's it for this week. I miss you all!

Elder Shaw

Say, "WEEKRY PRANNING"

Elder Cooper and yours truly!

IK MOET NIEZEN

 I'm not sure what to say about the week. It was..... something! I don't know what though.

One story from the week, I guess. I went on exchanges with one of the ZLs, Elder Krebs. We had a really good day of contacting and stuff. Then, as we were getting ready to drive back to the apartment (being in a car again was weird) we got a call from some other elders in the zone. One of them was not feeling good at all and was afraid it was appendicitis. So we drove all the way over there, picked them up, and took him to the hospital. When we got there, it was already technically time to be in the apartment. Well, we got to sit in a Dutch waiting room for a VERY long time--even though there were only a few other people there. Yeah, sorry people. I'm not convinced this socialized system works!

Well, they finally told us they wanted to keep him over night, so we went home. We got there a bit after midnight. I was very tired the next day. Actually, no one has told me yet what happened with him. I hope he's okay, but I'm so out of the loop!

Party on Garth,

Elder Shaw

Picture of the hair. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?! GOODNESS PEOPLE! It's just a normal haircut!

Um..... picture! Elder Krebs and Elder Bean (my DL) and...... Rakka? I think that's the birds name, but I can't remember.

Rotterdam, Week 9

Conference was yesterday. It was actually all we did. Yay? Not yay. It felt SUPER UNPRODUCTIVE. But the talks were good. I'm glad I got to hear them, but I wish there had just been more time in the day for things that weren't conference and eating.

All the clothing you sent is great! I actually wear a sweater pretty much every day, just because it looks way better than a baggy white button down.

Our only progressing investigator was out of town this week, so we did a lot of unsuccessful contacting. Not a single potential out of it even. Oh well!

One interesting and embarrassing story: we went over to this inactive guy's house, Ron. He's super cool, always playing video games when we get over there and he's a really good guitarist. Well, he made us a very delicious and very Dutch meal of mashed potatoes, meat, and red cabbage. Now, my appetite since getting out here has been way smaller. Staring in the MTC, I just no longer needed as much food to keep me going. Because of that, I often don't even finish a first helping of food. Well, I apparently decided to eat a ton of that meal that Ron made. Then he announced there was desert. Vla. It's super good, look it up. Well, he made Elder Taggart and I both huge bowls of it. And...... I just kept eating it 'til I felt sick. I finally decided I needed to stop because I felt sick. So I did. But it was too late. I sat for a few minutes while Ron and Elder Taggart made fun of me for how sick I looked and how much I'd eaten. It wasn't more than 5 minutes before I was in the restroom throwing back up all that delicious food that tasted no where near as good the second time.

I felt terrible, but Ron thought it was hilarious, so that's good I guess.

Love you all! 'Til next week!

Elder Shaw

We balanced a chair!

Conference!

Elder Kemp, Lydia, Elder Conatti, and Tahira

More conference!

Elder Taggart and Aaron(or Adam, it's hard to tell with the Dutch accent)

In Rotterdam--Week #8

There was a baptism on Saturday night for one of the eternal investigators. He technically lives in a different ward AND stake but wanted to be baptized in our building because it´s where he attends church with his fiance. So all of us had to sort all that out. Also, it´s been so long since he had lessons that he had no teaching record, so the Den Haag Elders taught him all the lessons in two days. Wow! But it was really cool to see a baptism happen.

We went to go try and visit one of our potentials and found the door had been broken in by a police battering ram. The door had been closed and locked but all the damage still made it really apparent. There was (as you can imagine) no one home.

Don´t really need anything right now, just pushing on through.

Elder Taggart actually did that haircut. He only did the sides. Elder Kemp is actually coming over today to finish it and clean up the top. 

Okay, stuff about the birthday. I got everything on Friday actually. My actual birthday was not my greatest day ever honestly. I ended up feeling pretty crappy nearly all day. Fasting and lack of sleep are not good together. But the other missionaries in the ward made me a little card and gave me a few of the chocolate treats that they had made. Today apparently we´re going to do..... something. Honestly I´m not sure what. I´m sure I´ll have pictures of it next week though!

I have a few pictures today I think.

I call this one "Let´s do work". Elder Taggart grabbing some pass along cards for contacting.

Here is a big "thank you" to everybody for all the birthday wishes and food! You´re the best! 

I love you all, and look forward to talking next week!

Tot volgende keer!

Elder Shaw