Week #3 in Rotterdam

 Phrases from English translated to Dutch straight up just don't work out most of the time. I try and keep them as simple as possible because of that. Is het Nederland leuk? (Is the Netherlands cool/fun?)

Still no coat, or anything else really for that matter. Though I was given an old man cardigan by a man in the ward. His name is Brother Thiel and he and his wife have us over for dinner all the time. It was a really cold day and when he saw I didn't have a coat he gave me an old sweater. It's massive, but very warm. I was grateful for that. But yeah..... I'd like that coat. We'll see if I EVER get clothing here.

Things feel often like they just don't go your way here. I think God is cooking up some sort of curve ball to throw at me, but I have yet to see what it is. He's been walking me a lot lately, not even giving me a chance to swing and hit the ball. Maybe I should just take out the stupid umpire. Baseball joke and metaphor aside, yeah, I've felt a little bit down this week. I feel sometimes like maybe I didn't actually bring any useful or impressive talents on the mission. Everyone around me is so good at everything. I can hardly bring myself to draw anymore (you'll understand when you see what Elder Taggart did for Dylan's birthday). My voice chokes and dies whenever I try to sing. Yeah, I'm struggling a little bit. We've been dropped by a lot of investigators and people don't seem to understand when I try to speak Dutch. Things will get better...... I hope.

Typical missionary day...... Hmmmm

6:30-- (attempt to) wake up

7:00-- shower, exercise, eat breakfast, that sort of thing (assuming you completed waking up)

8:00-11:00-- study

11:00-12:00-- lunch, finish getting ready, get out the door.

12:00-whenever you decide to do dinner-- teaching, finding, proselyting

after dinner-9:00-- more teaching, finding, proselyting

People here mostly make either Bami (little bit of meat, lot of veggies, and noodles) or Nasi (little bit of meat, lots of veggies, and rice). They're spiced in a very Asian way and pretty good..... But I had Bami 5 times last week. That's not including the leftover from what Elder Taggart made at the beginning of the week that we ate. I dunno.... that's most of what I've eaten. There is this good Surinamen soda that they sell called Fernandez everywhere. I've had a little of that. I just eat a little of what's in front of me. That's how it goes.

I think I only got one picture this week, but I'll try and get a few more next time.

Love you all!

Elder Shaw

This made me laugh really hard. If anyone remembers the old cartoon Gundam, this was a statue built next to a skate park. It's a gundam..... I needed a picture of it. It's just too dang funny. Oh, Dutch people. They're so bizarre

Rotterdam Week #2

It rains here sooooooo much. And I still have yet to get a coat. I get soaked, but it's still fun at this point.

I'm so glad you all got to have fun in Florida. I look forward to doing that when I get back!

Those crepe-like things are called pannenkoeken. They are somewhere between a crepe and a pancake. I've had them multiple times since, as Elder Taggart is very good at making them. He's just a good cook all around.

 

Everything I needed? No. In fact, when we went out shopping on Monday, I got NONE of what I needed. I missed sales by a week; now everything is more expensive. With the extra I have I should be able to get stuff now though. I sadly won't have a chance to go today it looks like (I have to go to Leiden to take care of MORE paperwork crud) but I'll try next week. You know me-- I just have trouble spending money on myself. It's difficult for me; it's one of the reasons it took me so long to buy that guitar!

The work is... difficult here in Rotterdam. A lot of people aren't super open to the word. But, it's certainly a labor of love, so we push on through. Understand that the MISSION goal for each companionship is 20 lessons a week....... We had 3. Rotterdam is nice though, and people feed us anything from Italian to Mexican to Surinamen. It's far better than just getting Dutch food all the time. It's rather like British in that it's fairly bland and uses a lot of potatoes. I should be here for another transfer, so you can go ahead and send stuff to the Rotterdam address. In the actual heart of Rotterdam there are 4 sets of missionaries. One set is our zone leaders; they're in Rotterdam south (or Poortterdam). There is us in the center and North of Rotterdam, but we really end up covering most of the West as well because the missionaries there are the Portuguese Elders. They are SO busy with the Portuguese that we handle all the Dutch speaking in that area. Which isn´t really saying much I guess. Then there is a pair of Sisters to the East.

I gave a talk yesterday in church. I thought I was going to wet myself. I kept it short and simple though. People came up afterward, complimented my Dutch, then told me "je bent zo grappig!" Meaning I´m very funny. I guess that´s a good thing!

In Rotterdam-- Week #1

I call these fine specimens of photography:

1: Soaked with bike

2: Soaked with Rotterdam

Holy cow so much has happened!

First, the story about me looking off to the side in the picture--

I was posing giving Sister Robinson a nice smile when a drunk old man walked up to us mumbling in Dutch. The AP's talked with him, but yeah, she took the picture right as he started talking to us, so I was looking at him. I didn't understand a word of what he said.

Yeah, I got "pie-ed" by a Sister Missionary, but that seems so long ago now! AGH!

Elder Taggart and Elder Shaw

Okay, my trainer is Elder Taggart. He's super funny and incredibly similar to me, which is nice. Also, he looks like Benedict Cumberbatch, except less weird. He's taught me so much already, and defends me from all the crazy Dutch questions thrown at me that I don't understand.

We're in Rotterdam! It's super pretty, you'll get some pictures. There are a ton of immigrants from various other countries here. It's super cool!

I have a bike..... It cost me a lot more than I expected..... 180 euros! Ugh! bedding isn't too big of a deal, but I'm going to get clothing today. I really hope I don't need more money, but it's entirely possible.

I love it here. And I have a ton of stories. First day we just hung around the mission office and home and took care of some paper work.

Then the second day I finally got into my area. After dropping my stuff off we went to go look for a bike. We didn't find one so we decided to go to an area and look for some inactives by the bus (by the way, inactives make up 75% of the ward). Well, it started to rain..... I got soaked. We didn't find any of the inactives but we ended up in a members home we didn't even know was there. She was there with her cousin, Ignacious(sp?), who happens to be the world #2 long jumper. The one that injured himself in 2008! He isn't a member, but loves studying with the missionaries when he can. We're hoping we can do more work with him. He's actually competing in Zurich this week.

Next day we finally found me a bike. However, I had to ride on the back of Elder Taggart's through POURING RAIN to get there. That sucked.

Other cool stories..... the members have been really nice to us. Most of them have a very interesting attitude toward the church. I'm not sure how to describe it.

Oh! We were riding back home from a dinner appointment on Saturday when a man (Elder Taggert thinks he was Moroccan) started yelling at us quite rudely. We were at a bike stop light (ugh, they're the worst) thus we couldn't really leave, but he just kept yelling at us. There were a lot of mother *$#@*& in his sentences.The Dutch people around us kept asking if we knew him. We didn't, and they were quite sympathetic to us. It was nice actually.

Oh! They have little triangles on roads that indicate who has to yield. Sometimes, it's the bikes that have to yield for cars. Well, I suck on a bike and didn't see some once and had to...... use Elder Taggert's body to help stop myself, but I ended up going a bit too far past them anyway. I did stop though! However, a police officer saw this, and came up to me; he was quite angry. He was speaking Dutch, and I didn't understand ANY of it. According to Elder Taggly Waggly the officer said I was lucky he didn't give me a 70 Euro fine. That was scary.

I apparently have a thing called greenie butt. Yeah, bikes suck.

Last day in the MTC, ya know, cuz Elder Shaw swag!

This is PART of the view from our apartment

More views from our apartment

Another view from our apartment

Artsy picture with Elder Swaggart:

And a chocolate ampersand. Apparently you give chocolate letters to people on one day of "Christmas" (there are three). I guess someone's name must start with one or something. It wouldn't surprise me--

Well, that's everything I guess. Sorry about the many spelling and grammatical errors. The computer is in Dutch, thus everything I do is highlighted in red and I don't have the heart to go back through and check it.

Love you all!

Elder Shaw

Arrival!!

Sister Fredrickson, Elder Andrew, Elder Shaw, Elder Steenblik, Elder Parr

Billy won't have a chance to email this week, so this is his old mom giving an update.  He was able to call from the airport yesterday, and it made my day (quite possibly my week, and my month! It was soooo good to hear his voice!) He is very excited to be out in the field, and he sounded happy.

I asked how the language was going, and he said he feels fairly confident.  He said that now he believes he has a capacity for learning languages-- Anyone that knows anything about Billy will see this as huge step for him... He has a tendency to be very self-deprecating when it comes to his talents and abilities-- almost as quick as he is to give praise and credit to the gifts of others.  So, the language is probably coming along quite nicely.  He was even able to speak some Dutch to us, and that was fun!

We received a nice email from Sister Robinson (the mission president's wife) and the pictures that I have included in the update.  It looks like Elder Shaw's new p-day will be Monday, so feel free to email him on Sunday if you want it to be current.  The time in the Netherlands is 7 hours ahead from the Central Time Zone.

Thanks for caring about Elder Shaw, and reading his blog.  He loves to hear what people think of his adventures and pictures!

Elder Shaw