Hij snurkt echt te hard.

About the title: we sometimes have to stay at the apartments of other missionaries while we're traveling. There is an Elder in Groningen that has made it difficult for me to sleep. Don't worry, not my companion!

We worked in Friesland this week, but before that we had some cool successes in our own area-ish places. On Tuesday we sang for the funeral of a member from Amsterdam. It was kinda high-stress because I had to learn the songs the morning of the event. Needless to say..... Far from my best performance. Oh well, learn from it and do better next time, right? Oh, I also had to borrow a suit that was way small for me from another Elder. We decided the light blue was a little irreverent. I need to go pick myself up another one. The only issue s finding time! I have the money, just need a chance to go do it!

Wednesday we had some time to go proselyting. In just a matter of about 2 hours, we had 5 potentials. We were pretty pumped, hopefully we can have some time to go look them all up. We have trouble with that....

Okay, back to Friesland. I'm assuming most of you have no idea where or what that is. Friesland is a Northern province of The Netherlands with an odd history. They have their own language, Fries (I know, right?) pronounced Frees. Really it's just an odd dialect with a ton of words from other Germanic/Scandinavian languages pronounced really funny. Also, they like to claim that it's the ORIGIN of all of those languages. Mmmhmmm. Sure. 

Also, this entire province only has one branch. So we were traveling quite a bit, but we ended up having a really good time with it. We always do. It was a little strange actually. There was some drama that went on a few places in the North in the church, and since we visit most of the members, we uncovered it little bits at a time. We felt like little detectives.

 

In answer to my mother´s questions:

1. Funniest person of the week was Ahmed, a member in Leeuwaarden (The branch in Friesland). He´s from Egypt, makes ridiculous amounts of food, speaks very broken Dutch, but LOVES the church. He had a Book of Mormon sitting on every couch in his house, had pictures cut out from church magazines hanging on his walls, and ended every slightly gospel related sentence in the name of Christ. It was very cute.

2. No, I can´t drive yet. I´m still waiting for my Belgian license to get processed.

3. I have no clue when we´re getting iPads. Hopefully sooner rather than later. It will make emailing on P-days SO MUCH EASIER. Especially when your companion leaves his keys in the car, and you have to go to the office and beg to use the computers instead of going to the church.

Well, that pretty much closes it up this week. I forgot my camera, so I couldn´t take pictures.

Have a good week everyone!

Waffles, ho!

Elder Shaw

Eten, drinken, en wees Maria.

I have to admit that I've been putting off this email for last. It seems like so much to write, even though I know it isn't. Just another little mountain to climb.

I'll start off with something I forgot to mention last week; it was a pretty cool experience. We were out contacting in a park when we came across three people sitting on a blanket with an electric guitar and little battery powered amp.--two guys from Sudan and a Dutch girl. We went to talk to them and learned that one of the guys was a reggae artist in a Bob Marley tribute band. We ended up sitting with them for almost an hour singing Bob Marley songs and talking about the gospel. It turned out the the Dutch girl had actually been to the open house of the temple! Very cool. We didn't get any crazy awesome lesson from it, but it was certainly an awesome way to share some gospel truths. AMEN!

Okay, a little interesting point of business. It was announced on Tuesday that transfer dates after this November are moving forward a week. Yes, that does mean that I will be coming home June 1st instead of June 8th. There was some issue with flights later in the year, so they're doing this. While all it really does for me is shorten my mission a bit, it actually came as an answer to prayer for a lot of Elders worried about school deadlines and things. Interesting, huh? Don't freak out too much, Mom.

We worked this week in Groningen! It was really cool to see the city again.... and very odd to see how few of the members remembered me. Heck, my picture was still even up on the bulletin board as one of the missionaries in the city! C'mon people! I can tell who's missionary minded and who isn't now! But it was cool. We had a lot of appointments, and I think we really helped some people out.

President also had us over for lunch this week. I think he's sad to be leaving so soon. It was very pleasant, though. We had a good time.

Later that same day we figured out that we'll be singing for a funeral next Tuesday. By that I mean tomorrow. And we learned yesterday that they want us to sing a song that I haven't learned yet.... that is quite difficult. I'm crapping my pants more than a little bit. We'll see what happens. I have a lot of work to do.

Well, I have some pictures, also stuff from awhile ago, so, yeah! Get pumped.

Gotta love the Asian student housing!

See! I'm still there! Gosh, Groningen.....

The oddest mailbox and mailbox placement I've ever seen.

This tree had an odd white covering all over it. Elder Hunter and I were quite confused.

Upon closer inspection, we realized that it was covered in silk and silk worms! All of the trees in this area looked like this! How cool is that?

Guess what that is! It's Germany! We may have popped over the border after an appointment that was sitting right next to it.... It wasn't actually that special.

I just about died watching this. Elder Hunter and Elder Conatti were doing a fake confessional scene. Apparently Catholic Priests wear comforters? But seriously, I fell out of my chair four or five times laughing. It's also where I got the title from.

And the moment you've all been waiting for. It's been awhile!

CAAAAATTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!

All right. That's everything for this week! I love you all!

Elder Shaw

I dunno.

(*Mom note: This was last week's email.  I was super busy and didn't have time to post for him last week, so you get two this week!)

Well, we had a really uneventful week. It was mainly a lot of rehearsing and me realizing how poor of a singer I am. I guess I needed to be humbled a little bit. I certainly have been.

Yeah actually, I don't have a lot to say about this week. We are working in Groningen this week, which is a little odd! We sang there on Sunday and it went pretty well. I was amazed how many of the people from Groningen just didn't remember me at all. I felt the love, oh yeah. I know they see a lot of missionaries, but I would think at least the bright blue suit would be recognizable! Dang it, people! 

It's weird to think that I come home in less than a year. It really doesn't feel like it's been that long. I just got here, dang it! Everyone says the last years flies by even faster. That's weird. I'll be there in no time apparently.

I don't even know what else to say. It was seriously super uneventful this week. I hope you all have a good week, though!

Also, I didn't take any pictures.

Sorry!

Elder Shaw

So much for eight hours.

Hello, everyone! It feels like it has been long time. I'm now deep into the music project, and it's crazy. The title is a reference to the sleep I've been (not) getting this week. I won't tell you the exact details.... but just know that Singing Elder hours are NOT standard missionary hours.

Although this week they should be! We have an off week to work in our own areas and practice more. I'm super grateful. Also, emailing should be more normal now, but still not completely. I just never know what will come up. Also, Sundays tend to be REALLY late nights.

Let me try and scratch the surface of what has happened.

Last Sunday (not yesterday), I sang in a Sacrament meeting in Turnhout. That's in Belgium by the way. I was super nervous! And it showed.... Not my best job ever. But we worked and sang for the members there that week before the performance on Saturday. That was a huge thing for people from all over Dutch-speaking Belgium. I dutifully carried out my task as Glorified Water-Boy! But for real. I didn't do much that night except help to get everything set up for the others!

Yesterday we went to our own ward. That was nice. Then we went to a recording studio in a member's house and started working on 6 songs that we'll be recording for a purpose we don't yet know. No one does-- we just felt like it needed to be done. We recorded all of Elder Pouwer's parts (the same part I'm singing.... So I really won't be on it at all) before taking him to the mission home. He got on the plane this morning and should be home in a few hours. I really enjoyed the chance to learn from him. He actually was my first District Leader and took me on my first exchange.

Yeah.... It has been an emotional week. I have a few pictures. I'll load em up.

This is a terrible translation.

The beautiful Elder Hunter. This was him singing along with Josh Groban's version of The Lord's Prayer. I have a video; too bad I can't send it.

They give you way more fries in Belgium than in The Netherlands. 

I split those fries with almost everyone in this group. Recognize Elder South?

We took over Brugge!

This has been my view the past few weeks!

'Til next week,

Elder Shaw

Mom Update (Again!)

Hey, Everyone!!

Elder Shaw is alive and well, and super, super busy!!  Unfortunately, he only had just enough time to send me a quick email to let me know that he is alive and kicking.  He wasn't able to provide a blog update for me to post due to a couple of factors: incredibly busy, and poor time-management. But, he is very thankful to those of you who write to him regularly with encouragement and updates.  He promised to try to be better with his time management skills and make it a priority to send out a good update this coming week. 
Since he is almost at his official year mark, I am going to try and send Elder Shaw a video collage of people that just want to say "hey" or wish him well.  I'm also going to try and refresh his tie collection. (I'm sure the same ties can get boring after a year of wear.) Anyone that is interested in helping with these endeavors or contributing in some way is more than welcome to email me or message me via Facebook.  The package will be mailed next Friday, so if you want to send something and want someone else (meaning, me!) to pay postage, now is the time.

'Til next week,

Billy's Mom