De Stroming

I have tasted the fruits of the Brazilian mission.... and I'm never going back. You'll understand in a second.

Elder Enslow and I worked hard this week, and boy were we blessed for it! We had a bunch of appointments, found some new people, and all around just rocked it!

There was a big black out on Friday! It took out like... all the power on the northern bit of the west coast. It wasn't too long. Just two or three hours. We were doing weekly planning/lunch at the time, and were really lucky to have a gas stove! I was able to make delicious Dutch pancakes anyway. Take that electricity. HA!

Okay, now we come to my AWESOME story. Our new WML is from Brazil. He also looks like Justin Timberlake. ANYWAY, I beleive I told you how he doesn't speak very good English and absolutely no Dutch. The first time we talked with him, he said "I know this family, they are good people. I think you should teach them." And teach them we did.

Our Sunday schedule had all fallen through, and we were a little bummed. But we were told during church that the family wanted to meet with us. That night. So we went with Justin Timberlake to go teach them. First, they fed us. Then they asked us to teach them. We taught in English while the father of the house translated into Portuguese for the family members that didn't understand. We finished the lesson and there were tears in the man's eyes. They didn't want us to leave. Oh, did I mention this is the first whole family I've taught my entire mission? It was amazing.

​I have a few pictures!

Zone Training: The most interestingly dressed missionaries in the entire world (rules for suits here are tad different.)

This motorcycle is massive. I'm not sure if you can tell.

My companion is very good at faking a lazy eye.

Someone did the New Testament using Legos. Cool right?

One more week done!

Keep it light; keep it airy!

Elder Shaw

Waarom doe je de deur dicht?

This week went much better than last one! Elder Enslow and I are still working our little tushies off. He's the bomb. Still not a lot of lessons, but that should change this week! We have a lot scheduled.

No, I didn't see the eclipse. I was even outside and doing service during it, but didn't see it at all. I don't know how. That service was actually kinda cool. It was for this little garden place in Haarlem, and they thought it was super cool that we were helping out, so they asked us a bunch of questions and apparently it's going on their website! I'll send you the link if it does indeed happen!

Lets see, we also ended up helping at the stake activity on Saturday. We and a few other companion-ships of missionaries watched the kids and played games with them while the adults did some different workshops. It was a good time. Dutch children are odd. Some of them were really super sweet and others were just little terrors. That's normal; what was weird is that THEY ALL SPEAK DUTCH. It just is weird to hear a child speak! But, seriously, they are very cute.

I did get my relax on last week. It was very nice. Elder Enslow and I just took it super easy when we needed to. Work actually goes better here when you aren't in a huge frenzy to do it. So, keep it swill, keep it casual, and just talk to people. We've been doing that, and this next week is filled with appointments! SO boom, success!

Oh, so it finally happened. They have started locking the church during services, you know, because the church is going to get stormed by terrorists and we're all going to die. C'MON PEOPLE! One, there have been no threats or anything! Two, If anyone really wants to kill us, they'll be able to do it anyway! Three, WE'RE A CHURCH. THAT DOOR SHOULD ALWAYS BE OPEN. People complain enough about how "secretive" the Mormons are, and then you lock the church. Dutch culture is just so different. Enslow and I have talked about it a lot. I could probably write a book about it. No joke.

Well, I have some pictures.

Trash can. Keeping it classy.

Yep! Cat.

Also cat. But this one was REALLY NOT happy when I picked it up.

Elder Enslow, little girl, and the Dutch game Sjoelen! (Pronounced Shoe-luh)

Elder DE Silva. Trust me, the De is important. They hate being mixed up!

Well, have a great week everybody! Have fun!

End of line,

Elder Shaw

Tot het eeuwigheid! en wat verder!

Well, it has been another week in Haarlem. It's amazing how time goes by. This week felt much longer than previous ones, just because.... I don't actually know why. Just was long. Lots of work, still not any visible successes. I know they are there and will reveal themselves in due time, but for now I'm just trying to push through. It's actually been kinda a rough week mentally. I am exhausted and worn thin. I need to do something to just kinda unwind. Hopefully today can provide that. I really do feel just kinda beaten to heck.

Favorite person from the week is Joseph! We met him on the street in the center of the city. He's from the French Congo, and is a super sweet guy. He has a Book of Mormon now, and we're hopeful for some lessons later in the week!

I finally got my bike key and all that jazz figured out. That's nice, but really I don't have stories from the week. Luckily I have a bunch of pictures, because I'm feeling a little short on words. (I know, surprising.)

Demon ducklings! So named because their species is scary looking and very mean!

Me and a cat! mmmm

Foot!....foot?

Missionary on an artsy Dutch playground

Off we go!

I made chicken and waffles!

His name is perfect. (Dhr. is De Heer, or, the sir)

Sisters Twiggs and Goodman being things from horror movies.

I found a koi pond!

Well, that's it for today. Have a wonderful week everyone.

Blah,

Elder Shaw

Loslopende Cavia

Transfers are done... and I now have Elder Enslow! He's the bomb! His voices are absolutely hilarious! He does an absolutely perfect Strong Bad, which has brought us a TON of laughs. Sometimes after a rough contact we'll start walking away and in "the voice" he'll say something about it. "That sucked" "Ha, Cute" "Holy Crap". It's very fun!

We had a lot of bizarre little mishaps to start the transfer off. First, on our way home from the train station that first day, Elder Enslow accidentally left his bag on the bus! Luckily, I knew a stop that I could take a short cut to and stop the bus later on down the line. So I pointed at our building, told him to go there and wait for me, and took off running for the bus. I got there just in time for it to pass by me. Of course.

Frustrated, I walked back to our building only to find that Elder Enslow wasn't there. This started a long half hour of us looking for each other in a very small area, but somehow never crossing paths. Eventually I just started to ask people if they had seen a guy about my height dragging two suitcases. They all had, and I found him pretty quickly after that.

Then, later, I lost my bike key. I think it is at a members house; I asked them to look, but if the don't find it I'll have to have my lock broken off. Not fun.

Also, we had a lesson with a former investigator. We went there to find her friend was over, too. Her friend was a Christian lady and spent the entire time arguing with us and trying to pull proof out of the bible that wasn't actually there. I've been bashed before on my mission, but never by someone that didn't actually have decent knowledge of the bible to do it with. It really was just kinda sad. We left feeling downhearted that people weren't even willing to just sit and have an open mind and listen to what we say. So, yeah, I don't think we'll go there again.

Yes, The Netherlands does daylight savings time! And favorite person... place... and thing of the week goes to..... ELDER ENSLOW!!!! YAY! WOO! But for real. He made the week okay, even though we have had all this crud go wrong!

I have some pictures!

Last day with Silva. I taught him my salute thing.

OH! Who's that goober on the bus! It's Elder Enslow! (sung)

Amen, Brutha!

Google translate this one, People. You'll die laughing.

See! look at that stud!

Til next week!

A deep thought--Pants are an illusion, as is death.

Elder Shaw

Nee, Ik blijf hier. Gaa maar door!

Elder Shaw is.... STAYING IN HAARLEM! Elder Silva will be going to Schiedam. (Which, by the way, was the area right next to Rotterdam North. It's in the same ward, and actually we worked in that area a ton. So, we kinda traded!) I will be receiving Elder Enslow, who is a missionary on his last transfer. That'll be kinda odd.

Interesting week. ALL EXCEPT ONE APPOINTMENT FELL THROUGH. That's right. We taught a whomping ONE lesson this week. It was a little rough, but Silva and I tried to make the best of it. We contacted a ton. And yeah.

The one lesson was pretty cool, though. It was an English lady and her son who has down syndrome. They were super warm and receiving. It was a totally different feel than most lessons. While it's true that we didn't make it through everything, we shared a nice message about prayer and prophets. The boy, Marv, was very happy to have us there. He kept showing me all these pictures! It was super sweet. Made my heart melt a little bit.

So, Haarlem is...... A small city? That's how all of it is over here. Like, it definitely has a city feel in a lot of ways, but the geographical area is actually quite small. Also, the buildings in the "centrum" are quite old, but filled with modern stores and things. Very strange. There are also 4 or 5 really old, big cathedrals. Who needs that many? Okay, very weird, my little cursor thing just disappeared. You would be surprised how difficult that makes it to type.

 There it is. Fixed him. My favorite thing about this place? I must say I do love the flowers that are beginning to pop up everywhere. They're gorgeous. I'll send a picture when they start to become a little better! It's mainly just stems right now.

I have a few pictures.

This rock dude has kinda a Rush album cover feel ;)

I can't believe there is actually a market for this. "Yes sir, I would like to smell like the 1980's" "Well, we have this very fine 1984 Van Halen scent....."

And I can't have either of those!

So, THIS cat was outside the Bishops house. I started to try and call him over and got down in this position. He jumped into my lap. AWH! We named him Peaches!

New Silva quote.

"I'm from a different planet."

"Which planet?"

"Greece."

Well, that's it. Except for one thing. That hymn, If You Could Hie to Kolob? I can't stand it! "Theeere is no end to thiiiissss song....."

Elder Shaw