Delves

Well, you´re going to appreciate the title a lot, because it´s very typical Shaw. We had the Missionary Broadcast this Wednesday and our district had the pleasure of watching it with President and Sister Bunnell. There was a lot of lag in the internet connection and the video kept pausing. President Bunnell asked if someone could explain to him why this happened. *AHEM* 

"You see President, the way this works is that little elves are running through these cables at a very high speed. Because they´re required to run so fast, they sometimes get tired and have to stop for a water break. Normally the internet companies account for this and have enough little elves in the cables that it doesn´t matter if a few need a break. However, because there are a lot of people using the internet the elves are split through too many cables. Thus, the reasons for these pauses are elf water-breaks." He thought that was pretty funny.

Anyway, Elder Serra and I have cool news! We´re getting ma... I mean, we´re together for one more transfer! I´m very excited to have the chance to serve with him for another six weeks! We still have a lot to do. He will also be here for Timo´s baptism, so that´s going to be great!

We had an odd week. SO MANY APPOINTMENTS that didn´t actually happen. Seriously, if it wasn´t for the laws of nature I think Thursday itself would have dropped us. Oh, also, all except ONE of our dinner appointments fell through. Last night I had to just make Italian breakfast. We didn´t account for having to cook so much for ourselves. Oh well, we are doing okay!

We also had to travel out to a tiny little town to look up three referrals that were ALL fake. And it was an hour travel on an empty bus to get there. Yep, waste of time. I´m glad people care to help two young men that just want to help people use their time effectively. Uh huh, I wasn´t bitter. Nope, not me.

I also learned that an investigator Elder Muller and I found back in the day has a baptismal date. How cool is that? 

Suffice it to say, Elder Serra and I tried to make the best of our week and it worked pretty well. We saw some cool miracles. Pretty great.

I love you all, I have a few pictures!

Tho hanthom!

Elder Serra and the captain.

"We don´t put up our middle fingers. That means ____!"

This was said to me yesterday by a little boy in church. It was in Dutch of course, but I don´t remember exactly how he worded it. Timo (our incredible investigator) and I laughed until we could not breathe.

Lemme see...... I attended a Catholic think-tank about Saints this week. That was very informative and quite fun. Zone Training was also uplifting..... Yeah, most of our lessons fell through and the ones that went through were not what we were expecting.

HOWEVER-- Elder Serra and I found some student housing this week and proceeded to knock the living crap out of it. Weaving through a labyrinth of weed-stench, slightly pornographic posters for raves, and blaring house music we found multiple students willing to give some dapper young men the time of day. We have many appointments in the coming week. Let´s pray they go through. I´ve had enough dropped appointments for a lifetime!

In other news, we got some snow on Saturday night! It didn´t stay until morning, but it was certainly fun while it lasted. It is now super cold, so if we get some more rain, we would likely see some snow. Sadly, the sky has been super clear since then. Pray for snow, it´s fun!

I have one picture!

It´s an ode to Nicki Minaj in Boxtel! Nice, Eh?

Loves all you! Much good week!

Elder Shaw

GIJ KUNT ZEKER GEENE WHEELIE, JONGEN!

By the way, this may not all translate perfectly, but it´s a Brabants accent. Noord-Brabant is the province of The Netherlands that Den Bosch is in, and you can think of it as the Dutch equivalent of Texas. Everyone is super proud to be from here, and it´s a bit more religious than the rest of The Netherlands. It´s wonderful, and by far the most amusing Dutch accent. Our investigator, Timo, has been helping me to learn how to speak it!

We´ve been working our little tushies off. It has been good to see some stuff come from our efforts this week! We taught some wonderful lessons to people incredibly prepared for the Gospel. I was amazed to see the way that our message can answer so many of people´s questions about life. People really have no idea what they´re missing, and that´s very sad. I want the world to understand just how much of a difference Christ can make in their lives. It´s an abstract thought, belief, but if people will open up to it, they´ll see a change in more ways than they can count.

In other news, Elder Serra got kicked out of a Burger King this week. It´s not what you´re thinking; I just like to get a rise out of ya´ll! Anyways, we were in there eating far too expensive food for our missionary budget (because we locked ourselves out of our apartment again) and out of nowhere this water starts spraying in the restaurant. I looked to see a small hose poking out of a little hole in the ground unleashing a torrent of water in every direction. After a second it stopped and sank back into the hole. I heard the staff talking and they started cleaning up the mess. They replaced some people´s soggy food and then five minutes later it poked out of another hole in the restaurant and did it again! Apparently it happened every time someone flushed the toilet. They evacuated the restaurant.

Anyway! Here are some pictures!

This is Theo! A wonderful member of the ward. He´s a sweetheart!

Itchabois!

Beautiful Boxtel!

Also Boxtel.... But not quite so beautiful.

I love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Shaw

"...Dan heb je ook gesquat!"

I am very done with holidays on a mission. I love them, and it´s really cool to experience them as a missionary, but they are such a HUGE disruption to the work! "Oh, I have no time; talk to me next year." That sentence describes our past two weeks.

This has been one of those contacting weeks. Uh huh, every missionary has them..... well, at least in this mission. I don´t know about Brazil. We spent a long time walking around, hoping people would actually stop for two seconds to talk to us. Most people were too busy getting drunk and throwing up all over the city. That isn´t a joke. Elder Serra and I went out at 11AM on New Years morning to find a ghost town COVERED in puke. Stay classy, Den Bosch!

They go insane here for New Year´s Eve. Fireworks go off from about 11 to 2 in the morning. I tried to get some pictures of it, but they didn´t work too great.

Another thing the Dutch take very seriously is holiday greetings. On Christmas, you say "Merry Christmas" to everyone you meet. And for at least three days after New Years you´re expected to tell everyone "Beste wensen!" It´s not a joke. It´s a very serious part of Dutch culture. I love this little country!

In other news, we have a baptism scheduled with the most wonderful investigator of all time! We´re so excited for him and the choice he´s making! Things are going well and I love it here!

Well, I tried to take a picture of the intense fireworks, but you can´t really tell just how nuts they are. Last year in Haarlem was even better, though.

 This is how Elder Serra did the dishes when we were required to stay in on New Year's Eve.

I seriously can´t get enough fun pictures of this goofball!

Well, that´s about it; I´ll keep you updated on anything else that goes on!

When life gives you lemons.... yeah, that´s pretty cool, I guess.

Elder Shaw