AAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, that's how I'm feeling. Here's the story. Oh wait! I'd like to apologize first to the people I didn't respond to this week. It is an absolutely hectic P-day, so I can't get to all of them. I promise I'll write all of you next week! Anyway, here you go...

Last Monday, whilst on my way to a service activity, we get a call from President Robinson. I was told that I would be serving as one of the four Singing Elders of the mission. In addition, I would be leaving the next day. I went about my busy day then came back home and stayed up late packing. I took the trip to Leiden the next day.

 

Upon arrival in Leiden I learned who I would be replacing, and just what this work really requires. We visit a different ward every Sunday in the area where we'll be performing. Performances happen roughly once a month. Then we go back to Leiden Mon-Wed and do "normal" missionary work there. Thursday through Sunday we are back in the ward where we visited on Sunday visiting all the members, investigators, and less-actives in that area, inviting them to the performance, and singing for them.

This past week we were in Belgium, Sint Niklaas, to be precise. We visited a good chunk of the ward, and I worked on learning some of the music, and it was quite spiritual. I'm also worn/stressed out to the point of taking off my shoes and dancing on our car just to release some steam. Oh, yeah, we have a car, too. And I'm going to have to drive.... In Europe... Yay? Just another thing on my plate. BRING IT ON!

So, a little bit on logistics. I am now in Leiden. My companion(s) are Elder Hunter (from Scotland) and Elder Pouwer (Houston, Texas. Mmhmm!). I will be replacing Elder Pouwer, who would have been leaving on Wednesday! However, there is no way I can learn all the music in time for the performance on June 6th, so President Robinson asked him to stay until then. He leaves the Monday after that. He sings the Baritone part of the Elders (normally, it's a bit) which means I'm learning parts much lower than I'm used to. It's a lot of work. Very difficult to fit everything we need to do in to the VERY SMALL amount of time we have in a day. I would say I wish that days are longer.... but if they were I don't think it would make a difference. That time would get filled with other stuff to do as well. The other two Elder live in Delft. We travel and stay with them in the areas where we work, so it's like half of my time is a four... or five... man. It's a lot of fun, and very satisfying, but draining physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I didn't think the first time I went on tour would be on my mission!

 

I'll talk next week, everyone!

Elder Shaw

Mom Update

Hey, All!  I think this may only be the second or third time that I have dared to do a guest post on Elder Shaw's blog, but I wanted to give a little update.  After I posted for him yesterday morning, I received a second email-- very short, but very upbeat and excited!  He was called as one of the "Singing Elders" for the mission.  I think this means that he will be travelling pretty extensively to give firesides and devotionals all around the mission area as part of a men's quartet (known as the "Singing Elders").  Any of you that really know my son know that this is something that he will truly enjoy. He loves music (wonder where he got that--wink,wink) and it is a big part of his life. He told me when we talked for Mother's Day that he was surprised by how much his ear had improved on his mission-- he can now listen to something, and he can work out the chord progressions without too much trouble.  So, even though I failed miserably to get him to play the piano, I guess I can feel pretty happy that he absorbed some theory! Hopefully he will be able to give us some more details next week.  Right now, I am just excited because he is so excited!

Ik fok paarden

Another long week. Not a lot has changed. Still teaching a lot. Said came to church again. I´m just very excited!

 A few very cool things from the week (This email may be a bit shorter, sorry everyone). First, our mission will be getting iPads! They announced it during Zone Conference and everyone was quite excited. However, they have no clue when we´ll be getting them. They gave them to 10 of the 30 European missions as a start to see how it goes...... and we were not one of them. President says he thinks we´ll have them by the end of the year, though.

Also, there is a group of "Singing Elders" that go around the mission doing a show for the wards and it's a SUPER big deal here. It has brought a lot of new investigators and was a great idea by the mission. What´s the point? I got to try out for it! I wasn´t sure I wanted to initially, because it pretty much takes you completely away from standard work, but I figured all I could do was give it a shot and see what the Lord wants me to do! So, who knows? I certainly don´t.

New President comes..... beginning of July, I believe. And I don´t remember his name. It starts with a "B". It´s going to be a huge change. The mission is very anxious about it. Only time will tell what happens; I´ll have been out for a year by that point. That´s odd to think about. No plans really-- it will probably just be a normal day.

Last P-day was nice, though. We, as a district, went to this little lake by the church and played sports, had a little picnic, and I brought a guitar. It was all quite fun. From far away we probably just looked like students. It was actually kinda weird to think about.... Like, this is what I would be doing if I wasn´t a missionary, except I wouldn´t have a tag that says Jesus Christ on it. It really put into perspective just what I have decided to do for two years. Suffice it to say... I was relieved to put on a tie again at the end of the day.

Sorry it´s so short. I´m quite drained, but we´re going to do a bunch of service today. I want to get done here sooner rather than later so that I can maybe get a tiny nap in. It sounds nice.

Only one picture, but it´s super nice!

Planning as done by a Bond villain, Elder Moomey.

I love you all!

Elder Shaw

Bak het! Bak alles!

Where do I begin? This week was hectic! Bike crash, cool lessons, brownies, smart people, college parties? It's all been here.

I'll start with cool lessons/smart people. They tie in pretty well. We are still teaching a ton. YEAH! This week we found a bunch of new people.... all of whom are incredibly intelligent. I sit there and twiddle my thumbs during lessons thinking "Oh yes, theology..... sciences....... history................ Math?........... science again.......... oh, I understood that bit!...... wait...... no, I'm lost again."

Okay, it isn't really that bad-- but they are quite intelligent, which does pose a new challenge for me as a missionary. I'm no longer trying to dumb down gospel subjects so that people with no religious knowledge can understand them; I'm trying to cram as much information in as possible to hold their attention. I think it's working, but I haven't asked them yet. Oh, but something funny!-- A big thing here (with all of the Africans, mainly) is the belief that Jesus was black. You see paintings up in places in windows and things (always knock those doors, by the way). Well, one of our super intelligent investigators actually went through and looked at a ton of historical crap and by the end of his lecture my brain hurt and now I think it's totally plausible that Jesus is in fact, black. Doesn't really matter. It'd be cool with me.

Bike accident! Yeah, it was pretty simple. Elder Moomey tells it much better than I do, considering I was a little distracted at the time. But here it is-- We were biking to correlation at the church. The church is very close to our house, so we only have to make one turn to get there. We were running a tad late, so we hopped on our bikes and hauled our little tushies. The bike light for our only turn turned yellow, and rather than slowing down, we decided to put the speed on and blaze through the intersection. All of us were moving at a more than decent clip, with Moomey in front and me behind him. Watching Moomey take the turn, I realized that I was now going way too fast to make it. I tried to slow down (to no avail) and tanked into the curb. I flew off my bike and managed to plant one foot on the ground before going face first and disappearing into a bush. MMhhmmm. Cars were driving by. Pointing. Laughing. Honking. The other Elders thought it was just hilarious. Really, I couldn't do anything but laugh, either. I came out unscathed, so no complaints from me! I got a good story out of it! 

Brownies! I made slutty brownies this week, and Elder Moomey and Elder Yocum couldn't decide who got the spatula, so they had to share (Mom note-- he did include a picture of this.  I am declining to post it. Ha!)

This week was a vacation week, and 3 of the days were massive parties for the students. Alcohol, scantily clad coeds, weed, dancing, you know, basically everything we can't be involved with. We just kind of avoided those. However, we were on the outskirts of some of them, and drunk Dutch people are hilarious! The communication basically becomes a bunch of slurred Dutch interspersed with loud, poorly pronounced English swears. It was a good time!

My favorite person from the week has to go to Teodor from Den Haag. He's a member there that speaks Bulgarian. During our lesson with Said, we were able to Skype him and have him help us teach is his native language. We wouldn't have been able to do it without him, so I'm super grateful. It was an awesome lesson!

Well, here are some pictures:

 

Groningen!

Mmmm, Boogers.

Saw this in a window. Almost died laughing.

Lastly, the most inspiring graffiti--ever.

Have a nice week, everyone!

This is Elder Shaw for KGWTF, Signing off.

 

Ik ben Elder Shaw, en hij is Elder Moomey. Samen, zijn we Shawmoo.

This week was long and fun! Elder Moomey and I taught a bunch! And I had some cool experiences!

First, something hilarious that happened. Elder Moomey and I were going on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. It was a bit of train ride, and Elder Moomey and I got stuck out by the doors and not in seats. We were okay with it, until the room was filled with yelling, obnoxious, Dutch pre-teens. Elder Moomey and I decided we didn´t want to get into it with them, so we just spoke English. Almost immediately they assumed we didn´t speak Dutch and proceeded to make fun of us. Elder Moomey and I just chuckled, and I told him I have a plan. So we sat, and we took it, and we listened while just making small talk in English. Then, as we were pulling into our stop, I picked up the phone and made a call to the Zone Leaders. I spoke only Dutch, at a decent volume. The turning of their heads was amazing. There was some fear there. A lot of fear. I was quite happy. One of them was like "I thought they were both English!" and Moomey said "Oh, we´re American, but we speak Dutch." HAH! Take that, children!

We also have had some really nice experiences with a man named Said that we met on King´s day. He´s from Bulgaria, and hardly speaks any English or Dutch. We have gone by twice this week and had really short, simple appointments. We just gave him all of the Bulgarian materials we had, and tried to leave little messages. Then he came to church, after less than a week of knowing us. Amazing. He was super happy to be in church, and he brought his girlfriend. Luckily, her English is much better than his, so she helped him out a ton when speaking with us. There is a member in Den Haag, though, that speaks Bulgarian, so we are going to try and set up appointments where he can Skype in and help us. Technology is freaking cool!

Have I ever mentioned that I love Africans? They are just the sweetest people! I love talking with them, and a lot of them move here. It´s very nice!

Well, I have some pictures!

Rainbow! There was actually another one right next to it, but I couldn´t get them both to show up in the picture.

I fell on my bike going 2 mph. Elder Moomey died laughing.

Cat! Again!

Also Cat! Again!

Well, that´s it for this week!

Good night, and big balls. (*Mom note--if you've seen the t.v. show "Wipeout", then you understand this.  If not, sorry!  It's schadenfreude at its finest.)

Elder Shaw

It's hard to be clever in Dutch, dangit!

My goodness. I am pooped. All the pooped. So much pooped the only word I can think of for pooped is pooped. Today was kind of an odd day, because it wasn't P-day. That was supposed to be on Saturday, but that also wasn't really P-day. Then our Sunday schedule was also really weird, so I'm a little thrown off. You get so used to a very set schedule as a missionary. I hadn't realized how used to it I was until it got thrown off.

Before I get to today's craziness, let me talk about the rest of the week. Elder Moomey and I taught. And oh, did we teach! Did we teach? Yeah, we did teach. Granted.... not all of the lessons went as well as others. For example, one was an absolutely wasted man in a refugee camp. I'm talking three sheets to the wind. We had to wake him up when we showed up for our appointment. BY YELLING AND SHAKING HIM. He was gone. Yeah, we didn't stay very long.

Another one was a 93 year-old man that lived quite a distance away and wasn't actually all that interested in hearing our words. He could have easily told us that earlier, before setting an appointment with us. Once again, we didn't stay very long.

However, for the first time in a very long time we had an investigator at church! She hustled out pretty quick afterwards, but I think she had a good experience. We have another appointment, so that's a good sign! The work moves ahead.

Okay, I have two things I still want to talk about. One is my day today, and the other is the guys I'm with. I'm going to do the guys I'm with first, because I'm sure you'l find that interesting, and you'll also be looking forward to the thing at the end!

The first fellow to speak about it Elder Bishesar (Pictures will be in order). He is a little older than the rest of us and comes from Suriname. He's a super genuine guy and is very funny, sometimes without meaning to be. Normally without meaning to be. He is also a very good cook! So we enjoy a lot of good food!

Next is Elder Yocom. He's a very sarcastic and fun Elder that just got out of the office. He's super organized and likes to have things clean. Really clean. It's nice, because the apartment is always tidy, but he never freaks out at people or anything. His cleanliness is the type that just seeps into everyone, so we do a good job. He tolerates my humor very well, and is a lot of fun.

Then Elder Moomey. He's my companion. He's a missionary on his last transfer. Sometimes things make him really ready to go home. (Cute dogs.... he misses his a lot) However, he keeps in there by being one of the most well-rounded people I've ever met. He can get along with just about anyone and knows people well. I have a really good time working with the guy. He is absolutely hilarious as well, and he knows it, too.

Okay, my day. We had the King's Day today. It's a celebration of the King's... birthday or coronation or something. Basically it's a huge party over the entire country where people get super drunk! Then, on certain streets people have this big yard sale. Really, you can just try to sell all your old junk. And EVERYONE comes out to do it. So, we set up a stand there and gave away all kinds of stuff! A ton of BoMs and pamphlets in a ton of different languages. I also went and found a guitar to play to draw people over to the stand! And it totally worked! It was great. Okay, actually, I have to cut short the story about it so I can have time to load up my pictures. Okay, here we go.

Das Moomey!

King's day!

Elder Bishesar

Elder Moomey! (This is a packet of anti material we received in the mail)

For you board gamers

Groningen goats

Groningen CAT!

Okay, I'm done! I will talk to you all next week!

Elder Shaw

Ik wil alleen blanke Elders

If you just translated the title, you'll understand soon enough.

Ahem! *activate morning news announcer's voice* Good morning loved ones. It's another beautiful day in Groningen. We're looking a pleasant day filled with low winds, lots of sun, and a 100% chance of crazy college students. Throw on your funky high tops and get outside, everyone! There's slacking to be done, hazing to be taken too far, and parties full of loose co-eds.

As you may have guessed, Groningen is a college town. And I love it. It feels so much like Austin that it's a little strange! I love the crazy things you see people do. It's just a rippin' good time for everyone involved.

Transfers went pretty smoothly. It basically involves throwing ridiculous amounts of luggage and bikes onto trains and praying that the doors don't close while you're either loading or unloading. It happens every time to at least one person. But that's just how it goes. 

My new companion is Elder Moomey. He's on his last transfer, so I will be "killing" him. Luckily, he's as focused as all get out! We have been out and working super hard already. The other two Elders in the apartment are Elder Yocom (said like it's spelled) and Elder Bishesar (he's from Suriname). We all get along super well! It's great.

Okay, you are now going to understand the title. Elders Yocom and Bishesar whitewashed in to Groningen. That means neither of them were here before. It's always difficult, and it causes a lot of funky problems. One such was a former investigator that came into church yesterday. He looked a little untidy and came and sat by me. HE started to speak very loudly but I couldn't understand him. Then, I realized he was saying the word "paper"-- very poorly. I didn't know who he was, but I handed him a sheet and he started to write down his name and that he is deaf. I ended up having to write down all of the lesson that was being taught (I realized I haven't written in Dutch very often). The lesson ended and he asked if he could make an appointment with us. I went to talk to Elder Moomey before committing to anything, because the members seemed quite surprised that he was there. Moomey said that he was a former investigator from the other Elders that were now gone. Apparently, he had called his lawyer and stuff, too, because he was angry that they invited him to be baptized. Apparently a lot of other crazy crap went down, and we just didn't really want to get involved. We thought that maybe we could have him spend time with the other Elders and he'd make an appointment with them. So we had them write for him during Sacrament Meeting.

After church, he comes up to us with his little sheet of paper. On it, he had asked again for an appointment, and that he didn't want one with the other Elders because Elder Bishesar isn't white. Terrible, right? Well, we now have an appointment with him for next week. We'll see how that goes.

Other things... I was sick yesterday. Not fun. But I'm a lot better now. 

Sorry I don't have pictures. I kinda slacked on them this week.

Til next week everyone!

Elder Shaw