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