BOO!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!....crazy to think that October
is almost over...less than two months till Christmas!!! 

We are serious about Missionary Work!

This past week was great! Josh and Aaron are set for baptism on the

21st of Novemeber. (keep forgetting to get a picture with them and

their family, but I keep forgetting :/ ) Drew keeps opening up to us.

I am sure that he will get baptized right after his son's do. ;) He is

so solid. We had dinner with their family last week and I had a really

good discussion with him about the word of wisdom (a small hurtle). He

had a question about coffee and I simply told him that I see it as an

act of faith; Heavenly Father wants to see if we will obey him when we

don't understand the reasonings behind all things. When we trust the

Lord and give some things up he in turn blesses us so much more! HE

WILL BE BAPTIZED!!! Time will tell! They are moving in to their new

place this weekend. We will be able to meet with them more because

right now they are living with his grandmother who hates "mormon's,"

and want us to come over and teach in her home. We are super excited

for this wonderful family!

We were able to find a couple new investigators this past week by opening our mouths and talking with the people we meet...I am likeing it more and more...We had an exchange on Friday this week with
Oregon City 1st Elders. I went over there with Elder Casey. HE IS SOOOO FUNNY!!! I was laughing what it felt like every minute. Over the 24 hr period we tracted for 9 hrs!!!! That was the most that I have tracted on my entire mission. It was great for the most part. Thank goodness that most of the people here are nice and friendly (...may be my charm...haha JK!) While street contacting we talked with a man named Jim and had a great 
conversation about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. 
He was active in another faith and wasn't interested at first with what 
we had to say. But then I listened and asked him about his faith and 
helped stir some curiosity and had him consider the message we had 
to share. It was great! At first he was very standoffish, but then he was 
left with a good taste in his mouth about the church. I noticed that as 
missionary's really see other's the way our heavenly father does and 
love the people that they become more likely to accept or consider your 
message. We need to show that we care. I also learned to make sure 
that we smile! WE ARE SHARING "GOOD NEWS!'' I have found through 
experience that as we physically show how much joy the gospel blesses 
us with that people are more likely to be interested in what we have to 
share. We live in a gloomy world, brighten it with your smile and joy! A 
smile goes a long way. Share with others the many blessings that we 
enjoy by living and accepting the gospel!

On Saturday, We had the pleasure of hearing from Elder Manyes of the Seventy. (He spoke in last conference). It was great!! We talked about how we can demonstrate good leadership skills and how we can best help these young missionary's that we are training reach their highest potential. It was empowering! He then opened it up for questions. It was a wonderful meeting! I learned a lot. Here are some short thoughts that I felt prompted to write down:

Try to always be optimistic and have a positive attitude

Leadership can be a lonely place to be, you are never alone. You always have the Savior by your side

Never lower your expectations or your effectiveness will decrease

Leader learns the 1st time and applies it immediately

How much faith do we have and how hard are we willing to work!

On Sunday we had another DLC with our district leaders. Our zone is
doing AMAZING! We have been having at least 2 baptisms each week 
in our zone of 24 missionary's in 12 areas. I don't know if I said this
already, but our mission goal is to have each area have a baptism
before Christmas. We are well on our way.

It was a wonderful week! I hope everyone was able to bear their
testimonies of the Savior last week and that we all will continue to
do so! I love this gospel and the opportunity that I have full-time to
share it with others.

Guess who I saw on P-Day?

Short Thought for the Week:

While in my studies this week, I came accross a CES Devotional that I
loved. It was by Kathy Kipp Clayton and was titled, "A Regal
Identity." It talked about understanding who we truly are: we are of
noble birthright and have value and worth. There is a story that I
would like to share from her talk:

"...Some years ago my husband, our youngest son, and I lived in
Argentina on assignment from the Church. Our son and I particularly
made something of a career of visiting local sites of interest in our
free time. We had a few favorites. Among them was a wild and wonderful
zoo unlike any zoo we had ever seen before. Rather than wander past
cages of sleepy animals and admire them from afar, the Lujan Zoo
invited visitors to enter the pens and pet the animals--even the most
notoriously wild ones. We couldn’t resist that invitation. Following
the trainer, we made our way into the enclosure prepared for the very
large, very intimidating lions, and we petted them while they seemed
to fully ignore us.

Once we had safely left the enclosure, I asked the trainers how in the
world they could have convinced those giant beasts not to eat us.
Their answer was fascinating to me. They called my attention to the
several little dogs who likewise inhabited those pens. They told me
that one of the things that they had done was to raise the lions with
those dogs constantly at their sides. When the lions were very small,
those yappy dogs were bigger than the lion cubs. The dogs believed
that they were in charge, and they chased the lions mercilessly and
nipped unkindly at their heels. The baby lion cubs became accustomed
to cowering in the corner and behaving as if they were terribly afraid
of the pesky little dogs.

When the lions grew, they continued to cower in the corner and fear
the small dogs. With the flick of a paw, any one of those large lions
could easily have sent those dogs flying clear out of the pen, but the
lions didn’t see themselves as they really were. They were painfully
unaware of their regal identity. They were stuck and limited by a
mistaken notion of their potential. They thought they were small and
weak, so they allowed pesky, persistent dogs to control and intimidate
them. I fear that we all have some pesky little dogs that squash our
confidence and keep us cowering in figurative corners.

You undoubtedly have pesky dogs that are uniquely yours. We all do.
Don’t let them define you. Behave as the regal children of God that
you are. That is your birthright. If your behavior doesn’t currently
match the level of your regal identity, make changes. With the help of
heaven, you can do it. Your divine identity is lasting. Just because
those lions weren’t behaving in brave, powerful ways didn’t make them
cease to be lions..."

Always remember who you are. As you do you will find strength and help
in making righteous decisions because you know who you truly are.
Never lower your standards for nobody. Always shoot for the very best!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween and a fantastic week.

I love you all and I am so grateful for your love and support!

Love,
Elder Shaw

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't send this out earlier. I had it saved in my drafts and it deleted... Oh well I guess I didn't do a good enough job the first time. ha!

We have had several miracles happen this past week! WE SET 2 BAPTISMAL DATES!!! Josh and Aaron Talley will be baptized on Nov. 21st! We couldn't be more excited for them and their family. We are hoping to have Drew, their dad, baptize them then, but first we have to get him baptized! Bring on the challenge! ;) They are such an amazing family! We love working with them and absolutely adore their family. We are also working with Dominique (Mother, who was baptized just over a year ago) and help her get her patriarchal blessing. So many great things are happening within their family. The ward is super excited too! They LOVE them and are super excited for their baptisms. The Ward hasn't had a baptism in over a year and a half. Exciting times!!

Now a quick lowdown for the week:

On Monday evening after our P-Day, the Talley's invited us to celebrate Josh and Oliver's birthday's at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was great. I was able to talk with Drew and get to know him better: his religious background, where he works (get this he works at Dave's Killer bread in Moreland!! Cool huh!) his goals and desires. He is such a great Father to his family. He is so great! I also asked Dominique if she could share with us her conversion story and it was pretty cool. Some Elders tracted into her and gave her a book of mormon. She took it unwillingly, but remembered what they said that if she ever needed something more in life to read this book. One day she picked it up and started reading it. She said that it felt right and then began to meet with the missionary's. So cool! I know that the book of mormon is the word of God and that it can fill in some of the seen and unseen holes in our lives. Dinner was awesome. Afterwords we had family home evening with the Villalobos. We played uno, had dessert, and shared a message with and their non-member friend AJ. It was fun. We then got a call from a man in the Canby 2nd ward who knew of a non-member in the Canby 1st ward who wanted a priesthood blessing. We dashed over there and met Andrea. Andrea has had a lot of health issues recently in her life. She is very solid in her faith in Jesus Christ. Before we gave the blessing we talked about the Savior, specifically the atonement of Jesus Christ. I then shared with her my favorite quote by Elder Jeffery R. Holland: "Don't you Quit. You keep walking, you keep trying, there is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon. Some come late. Some don't come until heaven. But for those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in Good Things to Come." We were all moved to tears. The spirit was so strong. After the blessing she agreed to meet with us after she got better. We are pumped!

Super Burrito!

On Tuesday, we helped out a less-active little 86 year old lady, Eva Smith, with her yard. She was the cutest thing! We dug up a large tree to transplant and then shared a message about general conference with her and gave her a c.d that a member gave us with all of the conference talks on it. She was thrilled! We then invited her to come to church this Sunday. After our service and lesson we showered and had dinner. We then made the rounds in the zone and went down to Molalla to do some nightly planning with the Canyon Creek Elders and the Molalla River Elders. It was great! We have so many young missionary's in our zone Elder Smith and I are the oldest, by far...it is weird. I love working with them! They have that greenie fire that I love!

On Wednesday, we had our district meeting in the morning with Canyon Creek, Canby Spanish sisters and Canby 2nd Elders. Love our missionary's. After district meeting and lunch, we had a lesson with an excommunicated member, Paul and read the scriptures with him and set up a time to go to the temple and the visitor's center this week. He is super solid. We then went to Saint Pat's, a community church food bank. Elder Smith and I sorted through some canned foods. It was actually a lot of fun. I LOVE ORGANIZING! It is one of my favorite things to do. We go there every Weds from 3-5ish. It was great to help out in the community and to get to know different people from the different religions in Canby. Got to meet some cool people. We then had dinner with Morehouse's. They are simply fantastic! After dinner we had a lesson with them, their non-member daughter Tracy and with Sister Poe who lives down the street. Sister Morehouse is the queen of inviting. She has invited all of her neighbors to come to her home and hear from the missionary's. We read the Restoration pamphlet together and had a great discussion. Tracy is another one of our fantastic investigators. She is super solid and sincere with wanting to know if this church is true. We Love them!! It was so funny...after the lesson I had 5 left over restoration pamphlets that I gave to Sister Morehouse. She was so funny...she said, "Perfect! I can give them out to people when I go shopping!" She is a hoot! Her and brother Morehouse's story is neat. Brother Morehouse grew up in the church and married Sister Morehouse who was shortly baptized after their wedding. After her baptism they fell through the cracks and weren't active in the church for over 50 years! Nobody stopped by, no phone calls nothing...they had no contact with the church. It was until the Elders tracted into them 50 years later where they came back. They have been active ever since and are working toward getting sealed in the temple. I love them both! They remind me of my grandparents-hardworking, loving, and very firm in the gospel.  

It took me several days to finish it!

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we had some service at the Canby Center, contacted some potentials, Weekly Planning, had two more district meetings, and had a couple more lessons. This week hopefully we can make a dent in the part member families here and work on setting more baptismal dates!

Finally...Sunday! WE HAD 6 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH!!! WAHOOO!! It was awesome! We had Paul Sowards, Aaron, Josh, and Drew Talley, and Ella and Kevin Schwalm. It was the primary program and after only 2 weeks of meeting with us and coming to church, Josh and Aaron stepped up to the plate and did a wonderful job! They are the sweetest boy's with the kindest hearts. So blessed to have the privilege of working with them and their family. I feel like the Talley family was another reason why I came on my mission. So grateful for them and their examples of faith. After church we had dinner with the Crums. It is quit funny...if you know these 3 families in canby: The Clarks, Crums, and Leders you practically know the ward. So mama Crum had all of her family over for a birthday celebration. There was over 26 people there. It reminded me of some of our own family gatherings...laughter, fun, and smilies for days. We had yummy pulled pork and some cake and ice cream. What was even cooler was meeting the Crums that live in Estacada. Their family is less active and while I was there we weren't able to get in with them, but they worked close with the Senior Couples the Peterson's and the Brown's. It was neat to chat with them and see how they were doing. It turns out that Chelsea (the mom) drives from Estacada to Canby almost every day to work in her salon here. I will stop by and see if we work from both ends to get their family active again. They are so nice and sweet. I could feel that they miss the gospel in their lives a lot and could feel the guilt that they had for leaving yet also their desire to come back. I just wanted to hug them and beg them to come back!!!! After we had dinner, cake and ice cream we shared a message. It was my turn to share the spiritual thought and I had no idea what to do. There were over 26 people there, a lot of kids with short attention spands...what to do? I said a silent prayer and felt prompted to share my testimony of my savior and the atonement. I opened it up with a question: "What makes you happy? The answers ranged from: my family, friends, missionary's, the gospel, toys, treats, and heavenly father. I then shared with them that my savior, even Jesus Christ makes me happy. We then showed them the mormon message, "Because he lives." The spirit was so strong. The room was so silent that you could hear a pin drop. We then shared what stood out to us from the video. I enjoyed the part when it said, "No matter who you once where, he is there." I then, trying hard not to choke on my tears, bore my testimony that I know that Christ lives and that he loves each of us. No matter what we have done or who we once were, his atonement is available to each of us and can bring us all immeasurable joy. I looked over to Chelsea and their family and I know that they could feel the spirit. It was incredible. 

Challenge for the Week: 

Share your testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ through social media, to your family, your friends, or those that you meet. Let them know that their Savior loves them and is waiting for them to come back into his arms. Let me know how it goes! I would love to hear about it!  I know that one of the most powerful and uplifting things we can give to someone is our testimony of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and his atonement. As you do so you will find that you will be lifted too and that you will be able to feel the love that Christ has for you personally as you share that love with others. 

I love you all and I am so grateful for your examples, love and support. Keep moving forward and help others on your way. ;) Remember, "I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me." (Phillipians 5:13)

Have a fantastic week!

All my love,

Elder Shaw 

Greetings from Canby!!! 

I am so lucky that I get to experience another autumn in the beautiful Oregon Country yet again! Being able to look outside and see the many different colors is such a treat. It is crazy

how we have to drive 20 or so minutes to get to district meetings and things...its fine with me. I just look out the window and enjoy! So thankful for the many beauties that can be found all around us.

I LOVE CANBY! It is so nice. The members seem very nice and laid back. I do miss Hillsboro though...especially living with members. I don't have the luxury of coming home each night to chat with and or making cookies with mama morris, and I don't have to worry about someone waiting around the corner to scare me (Brian;). Oh how I miss them! Off on another adventure! ;)

This past week was full of meetings and taking care of some zone items! :/ On Tues we had to scramble to collect all of the mileage reports for the zone and turn them in. We were in the car almost all day tracking people down and collecting the reports. From Oregon City to Canby to Molalla to Colton and back! It made for a long day. We also had to collect supply orders for MLC on Friday. We were able to complete everything just in time thank goodness! After dinner we were able to meet with Villalobos family and had a lesson with them. Carlos is wanting to set up weekly family home evenings with us so he can invite some of his friends over to meet with us! We are excited!

On Weds we had 2 district meetings back to back. We had our district meeting in Canby from 10-1 and then we went over to Oregon City for another district meeting from 1:30-3:30. Afterwords we had to help out the Spanish sisters with their bikes because their car was in the shop. We then were able to set some appointments up with some of our investigators for Thurs and got around to meet some of the less actives and members in the Canby 1st ward.

Sisters Anderson, Mercado and Elder Smith and I.
We were able to drop off their bikes at their apartment!
They are so funny!

Thursday!!! YAY! We were able to spend the entire day in our area proselyting!! I was soooo excited! We met up with several of our investigators. We were able to meet with and have a lesson with the Talley Family. Drew, (father) Dominique (mother, recent convert) Josh (11), Aaron (9), little Oliver (3) and Paige (1). Drew, Josh and Aaron aren't members and Dominique was baptized a year ago. I LOVE THIS FAMILY! Josh and Aaron are sooo smart and they are able to remember everything you teach. They want to be baptized! It was so cool so Josh was talking to us about how he was talking to his friends at school about Jesus and how he loves him. We got a powerful future missionary among us! ;) They are real neat. Today is Josh's birthday so he invited us to dinner with his family to celebrate over in Tualatin at Buffalo Wild Wings. The entire family was at church on Sunday as well as some of our other investigators. We had 6 investigators at church! So awesome! Also on Thursday we were able to meet with Loren (less active) and his daughter Tenzen (investigator). After dinner we were able to go over to Brother and Sister Morehouse's, (recently returned to activity:) and had a lesson with them. Guess What!?! They pretty much invited the entire neighborhood! Their daughter, Tracy is a non-member who was there. We also met with Cassandra, recently divorced and a mother of several boys. We began reading from the Book of Mormon, the title page all the way to 1 Nephi chapter 1. It was soooo good! We paused for questions and taught parts of the restoration in between. We talked about Joseph Smiths experience and then when we recited the 1st vision the spirit was soooo strong...I was practically choking over my words. It was so cool to watch and see Tracy's and Cassandra's reaction as they felt the spirit! So neat! We committed them to read from the Book of Mormon and to pray about if it is true. We will meet with them all again this coming Thursday. 

We have the primary program coming up this Sunday and Cassandra is planning on coming and bringing along her boys! We are stoked! By the end of the day we were able to teach 7 lesson and found 3 new investigators! Miracles!!!!

On Friday we had our all day meeting with President Ballard, MLC from 8-4 and went over to the office to get supplies for our zone. The meeting was good. Super excited to roll up my sleeves and get to work! We ended up getting back home to Canby around 7 due to traffic. We then had dinner and then went to the church and played some basketball with Canby 2nd elders and some potential investigators. Although I am not very good I did my best and made sure that I got out of the way! ;) Haha!

Early Saturday morning we had a zone wide meeting with the stake (SPC) from 7-10. It was great to see everyone together and to meet with some of the stake leaders. They are very missionary minded and want to help us the best they can! They are fantastic. We then gave out all of the supplies and then rushed to a baptism for Monica in the Oregon City 3rd ward we we performed a musical number and I gave the closing prayer. I love baptisms! The spirit is always sooo strong. We then got back to our place around 1 had lunch and then did some weekly planning before dinner. After dinner we went over to Molalla for a baptism for someone who Elder Smith taught. It was great! So happy for Devin.

MLC

It was a wonderful week! It was crazy...every single day we had a laugh of some sort . . . . usually had something to do with me. So the first night we had dinner with the Reed family whom I love and while I was giving the spiritually thought I sat my I pad on the table and was pushing it back so everyone could see and while doing so I was pushing off their puzzle that they started to make. It was so funny! The next day while we were doing supply orders in the clerks office at the church, I thought I heard the Spanish sisters coming down the hall so I jumped out and scared them . . . turns out it wasn't them, but it was the Dunbar Family in the ward with their young children . . . awkward . . . I slowly closed the door and was hoping that they would forget when they passed . . . they didn't. Their youngest daughter said, "Boo!" Trying to scare me! I was so embarrassed . . . it was sooooo funny! 

The next day at one of the district meetings I was with the OC 3rd Sisters helping them come up with good tracting approaches with Elder Casey (he his hilarious!) He was trying to bash with us and was asking the sisters about weed and how we do baptisms for the dead. I started to laugh hysterically! Everyone else joined in. Meanwhile, Elder Casey kept bashing these poor sisters until finally Sister Iremia said, "I would like to leave with you my testimony that I know the gospel is true. I also know that your girlfriend left you because you are smoking and selling weed...." She kept it coming and Elder Casey and I were dying laughing!! It was so great! Another cool thing about our ward is that we share it with the Spanish sisters: Sister Mercado and Anderson. We share dinners with them weekly on Tues, Weds, and Thurs. Oh my gosh! Sister Mercado is so funny! I actually came to Portland with her. I sat next to her in the plane. Anyways....I love her laugh! When she laughs I start laughing which makes everyone laugh. Dinners have been so great! haha!

It has been an amazing first week in Canby! I am loving it here!

Quick Spiritual Thought:

I absolutely loved conference this past week. I am grateful for Elders Rasband, Stevenson, and Renlund and for their willingness to serve as members of the 12 apostles. I enjoyed hearing their testimony's and wanted to share with you a part from Elder Renlund's testimony:

"...No matter what the assignment or calling is in the Church, to
serve capably, one must serve knowing that everyone we serve “is a
beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, …
has a divine nature and destiny...” He then goes on by sharing an
experience of when, as a cardiologist specializing in heart failure
and transplantation, had an operation that went south and how as he
shared the news of a young man's death with his parents how he saw him
through their loving eyes. "...I saw Chad through his mother’s and
father’s eyes. I saw the great hopes and expectations they had had for
him, the desire they had had that he would live just a little bit
longer and a little bit better. With this realization, I began to
weep. In an ironic reversal of roles and in an act of kindness I will
never forget, Chad’s parents comforted me..."

I absolutely loved that story. As a missionary, I have been able to feel of the much love that our heavenly father has for his children. I have been able to see the people of Oregon through my fathers eyes and boy has that been a sweet experience. To effectively serve others we need to see other's the way our father sees them. "Only when we see through Heavenly Father’s eyes can we be filled with “the pure love of Christ.” Every day we should plead with God for this love..." I am so grateful for the impact that service has on my life. Whenever I serve and forget myself I am lifted. I know that as we see others the way our father does and serve them with love we can experience the pure love of Christ.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and that all are happy and healthy! I love you all!

All my love and more!
Elder Shaw

Good Old Country Here I Come!!!

I am getting transferred. Leaving Hillsboro and going to the Canby 1^st Ward and will continue to be a zone leader over in the Oregon City  Stake!!! My new companion is Elder Smith. I am super excited to work with him! He goes home in 2 transfers so I might kill him off (mission terms for ending a mission). It's been bitter sweet leaving Hillsboro and Elder Kaiser, but being on a mission I have learned that it's all about the "see you laters!" ;) I am super excited to go back to the country! It's where I feel Oregon the most!

Have a lot of things going on today. For p-day we will be going, going, gone. Saying more goodbyes in the morning and then we are going to be going to Adidas (like Nike, but not really...) got permission to leave the mission and use our employee guest pass where we can get 1/2 off everything in the store. Should be cool.  Afterwards, I will finish up packing and then off to Lake Oswego for our transfer swap. Crazy busy, but loving every minute of it!

I absolutely LOVED conference! Very nice to watch it with several of our investigators! I loved the inspired messages!

I will fill in everyone next Monday and let you know how my first week in Canby is!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Shaw

Thomas Family

Burke Family

Elder Kaiser

Ross Family

Hillsboro West District

Morris Family

Burke Family

Happy Monday everyone!

Crazy to think that we are almost in October . . . well you know what they say . . . time flies when you are having fun! ;)

Had another great week! We had a Sunday miracle!! We had 6 investigators at church!! It was crazy!!! We were swamped with people. It was so neat . . . we had one of our investigators go up and give his testimony . . . he did such an amazing job! We are so proud of him.

Dinner Before Transfers

Just been tying up loose ends before this transfer ends. I am pretty sure that I will be leaving. I feel like I am needed elsewhere. It’s going to be soooo hard to leave. I have loved my time here in Hillsboro. I have grown a lot and I have so much love for the people here! It is bitter sweet . . . sweet for all that we have accomplished here, the people I have met, and the experiences I have had, but also bitter having to leave a piece of my heart here. On the bright side though I get to have a new area with new people and new adventures! ;) That makes everything better!

Now a brief run-down of how the week has been:

On Tues to Weds we were able to finish our last exchange of the transfer. I went over to Hillsboro with a new missionary, Elder Benesch (from Gilbert AZ). It was cool to be reminded of when I first was out on my mission. It was crazy how much I have found myself these past 14 months. I know who I am and I have learned a ton about who I really am. Cool to see new missionaries begin to find themselves as they lose themselves in the Lords work! We were able to see several miracles on the exchange. One, that I can actually chop and stack a ton of wood in my church clothes ;) (who knew?? haha It was so funny . . . super awkward . . . I was drenched in sweat and was a mess). Another miracle was that we were able to find a couple of new investigators as we "Teach where we find, and find where we teach." It was neat.

On Thurs we finally finished contacting all of the part member families in the ward! Yay! Then on Friday we had a weird experience. So we tried contacting an investigator on Weds who wasn't home. We left a card with our names and number. We received a voice mail later the next day of him asking us to come over. On Friday evening we stopped by. When we knocked on the door, he swung open the door real fast making me jump in the process. He invited us to come inside. We did and as I walked in the house it was super stuffy and reeked of alcohol. It was super sketchy. We went inside and he burst into tears and opened up to us with the many struggles he was facing. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how it can give us peace in this life and how the atonement of Jesus Christ can cleanse us and we can be forgiven of our sins. He was touched and asked for a priesthood blessing. As I gave him the blessing we knelt  and I could feel how much heavenly father loved this man even with all of the mistakes he has made. Afterwords, we left him with a word of prayer and as we did he wept. I felt tears swell up in my eyes as I could picture him kneeling and weeping at the saviors feet. I then compared this to how we all kneel, weep, ask, and beg God for forgiveness to do better and to be better.  When we were done I gave him a big hug and told him how much his father in heaven and the savior loves him. He was able to come to church this past week and we will start teaching him the missionary discussions!

On Saturday, we had a stake service opportunity to help out at a women's half marathon. Our zone was there to be guides and cheerleaders for the passing women. It was a lot of fun!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and remember how special they are! I love you all soooo much!

Scripture for the week:

2 Nephi 2:6-8

          Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he

          is full of grace and truth.

          Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of

          the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit;

          and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.

          Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto

          the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no

          flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the

          merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his

          life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the

          Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being

          the first that should rise.

Love,
Elder Shaw

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Dinner at the Matteson's

Brother and Sister Shaw - Bishop Matteson here of the Cornell Ward. Wanted to let you know we absolutely love your son and the service he is providing for the Lord in our ward. He has a great testimony and my kids absolutely love him. We're a bit nervous he will be transferred soon and if he is he will be missed as I'm sure you're all too aware. This is a recent picture from dinner the other day. Thanks for supporting your son in the field so he can bless the lives of others. 

Bishop Matteson