"Da´s m´n stuff, yo"

The title is something I said in Dutch that really isn´t a thing. Stuff is not a Dutch word. Elder Serra and Timo have been making fun of me for it.

Timo got baptized on Saturday! We´re so excited for him. He also asked me to do his confirmation yesterday. That was a wonderful experience. It was scary to do it in Dutch as well. But it´s done now, and it was cool.

Other than Timo´s baptism, this week was really hard. There were a few roses of course, but they were far outnumbered by the thorns. I´m honestly really glad it´s all over. I think we taught... twice this week. Everything else fell through and we got to spend some evening wandering around the city centrum hoping people would take some time out of their "busy" evenings to talk to us. I´ve had better weeks.

What else would you like to know? I don´t really have any cool stories other than the baptism. I do have some pictures (from Elder Serra, I forgot to charge my camera.)

I look Polish, no thanks to Elder Serra. After he cut my hair I had to go to the hair place any way to get it fixed. 

KITTY!

Timo´s dog.

AND TIMO AFTER BEING BAPTIZED! WOOP WOOP!

thth tha th th th tha that that´s all folks!

Elder Shaw

"I wish my farts were strong enough to scratch my bum."

* Mom note:  This is actually the email that Elder Shaw sent on February 15th-- It finally arrived.  Enjoy!*

You can thank my wonderful (and always classy) companion for this little gem. No explanation is necessary.

Have you ever had one of those weeks full of inconveniences? This week wasn´t bad, by any means. In fact, we had a wonderful time! As good as it was.... nothing went smoothly. Or even wavy for that matter. It was rough and bumpy down the entire road. We made it work, but we´re both a bit sore from the jostling yet jolly journey (Oooh, he uses alliteration). 

I think it might best for me to just speak in photos for the rest of the email. I have a lot of those and I know you all love them.

Elder Serra and I trying to keep warm in the cold church

Um....... what?

Once again, what? You´ll have to translate this one.

Welcome to Carnaval. BIER, JONGEN!

This won´t translate correctly, but the words basically say "But it´s okay for people?"

We ate with our hands! African food is great. This is the family of our ward mission leader. The fellow you can´t see on my left (or right) is his son that recently returned from his mission in South Africa. He provided this wonderful meal.

You asked for a picture of our investigator, Timo? This is him as a little kid. I saw this in his house and almost laughed until I cried. SO CYYYUUUUTTTEEEE!

"We like to see you!" Or "We find you pleasant to look at!" Yep. This was taken in the city center of Den Bosch. We´ve spent a lot of time contacting there this last week. It´s not the most productive thing to do, but people hate having their door knocked after 8 p.m. in the winter. In the summer they don´t mind, because it´s still light.

Well, that´s about it for the week, I love you all and wish you the best.

Keep on keepin´ on.

Elder Shaw

Chica peniquo chapéu de coco!

Well, I´m really frustrated that my email last week didn´t send, because I sent a ton of pictures and I actually spent more time emailing last week because I didn't have enough time the week before. If this doesn´t get to you, I may just give up on emailing for the rest of my mission. Today is trying my patience.

Well, to be honest I have almost no sentence (ha, directly translated Dutch sentence) in sending a long email about all of the stuff I did because I don´t even know if it will get to you.

Let me say it quickly. This week went well. The weather has been less than favorable (still is). I´m currently waiting less than patiently to get the botch job done on my hair fixed. I like life. Life likes me.....

Yeah. I´m done. If this actually gets there I´ll resend all of the stuff from last week and send a nice big one next week.

Love,

Elder Shaw

Dang

This has been an interesting week. I´m actually going to start with today, because it´s all I can really think about right now. We got a call today from a member that said they needed help on their land. There was a huge storm today and a lot of the hay they just bought had become wet. The needed help cleaning it all up and covering it again. We had to run over there to help them with that, then we ended up staying the entire day there with them just having a good time. It all got away from us and now I´m emailing.

Okay, I need to keep this short because time is getting away from us and 'tis is a really odd evening (you all have no idea). 

These past few days have been filled with Carnival. The entire city is having a big party all about drinking, dancing, and debauchery. It´s very amusing, but not really the best oppurtunity to contact people. So we have been struggling a little to find things to do in the evening. I´ll send pictures next week, because I have NO TIME. 

We worked really hard this week, that´s all I can say. It was a good week despite all of the odd things that happened.

Okay, great, I´m cutting it off here. I´M SO SORRY TO EVERYONE THAT I DIDN`T EMAIL. I will get to you next week!

Love,

Elder Shaw

*MOM NOTE*

His email came just minutes before he was supposed to be back in his flat.  I did get a nice email really early this morning from a brother in the ward where he was serving with a couple of pictures. I asked if I can post them to his blog, but I haven't heard back (he is probably asleep),  Just know that photo credit is due to a really nice couple in Den Bosch,  Hopefully, he will give his blessing, and I will be able to give a shout-out to him.  I just never know.  Some people really value their internet anonymity.

Pictures!

"Ooooh.... I regret all that basghetti..."

...Said by the little girl of a part member family in our ward. I died.

We had an oddly eventful week. I´ll try and tell the fun bits.

Last week we received a "referral" for a former investigator. Elder Serra had actually been the one to drop him, so we were a little hesitant to go back. Long story short, we did go back, and he´s doing quite well. We actually taught him twice last week (which is somewhat uncommon in our mission) and they were both wonderful appointments.

A little note on Dutch scheduling because I mentioned it awhile back. The Dutch LOVE their calendars. They keep a calendar in their bathroom with the birth dates of all their friends and family. Most Dutch people have an actual agenda that they use for everything. Also, this is the only country I know of....where you schedule to call someone so that you can make an appointment. It´s hilarious.

Sunday was odd. I was asked to sing a song in church with a member of the Bishopric. That was a lot of fun and I think it went well. This Ward has many talented singers so I can´t fake it in front of them. That was nice and everything, but what made Sunday really interesting was that someone forgot bread for the Sacrament. As a note, only two active members in our ward actually live in the city where the church building is. No one wanted to make the long trip home to go get bread, so they asked us to go fetch some. We didn´t have any in our apartment, so we had to go buy some. We went to every market or bakery we knew and they were all closed. When we were about to give up I saw a fish stand open up. I knew that they normally have rolls for sandwiches so I asked to buy a few. They were very cooperative and we only ended up missing the first hour of church. Den Bosch, You´re welcome!

I have pictures!

Elder Serra now has the award for, "Worst Picture Taken of Me Holding a Cat."

The city is getting excited for Carnival.

Beautiful on the bus.

A man in our ward makes knives. Basically the most metal hobby of all time. \m/ Look how cool these things are!

Well, that´s it for the week. I love you all! Good luck!

Elder Shaw