September 30, 2013

Kjære alle sammen,

Ok we have moves this week and guess who my new companion is? Sister Nicole Hilton!!!!! I am completely stoked. I think we will work really well together and get things done here in Oslo. We will be taking lots of pictures and sending them home for the stake to see. Hopefully!

Sister Hilton likes to run so I think we will run a lot! I am feeling healthier then ever before on my mission and I plan on eating a lot of salmon and drinking a lot of tea. Winter is coming though!! It is not as scary as I thought the sun still sets at like 8 or 740 every night so it is not too bad. I heard October is when it gets really dark. The members are inviting us over for dinner. They are the sweetest!! They were very supportive with our investigator  and comforted us a lot ! This week I had salmon, Chinese rice noodles,  and normal pasta, lots of veggies, it was grand.

These past two weeks have been really successful and we have  had a lot of success with foreigners that has been really cool. I am really grateful for all the prayers they have been felt in very specific and personal way. I really am just so grateful for all of you.  Norway is awesome the weather right now is perfect!! I am loving it. Love you all!! Something big I think I learned this week is how awesome that the only persons salvation we are in charge of is our own. What a blessing!! Another thing is that life is just much better when you are positive about things. It is also way better when you just put your whole heart into things. Like the language. I am rededicating myself to the language this week and I think me and Sister Hilton will rock the language together. Something I also learned this week is that your mission has eternal significance. It is not just right here right now but it will effect you in the eternities!! Same with life every moment counts so dance through the moments of life and enjoy them because the next step ahead is usually not easier it is usually harder. I am loving my mission. I am stoked for general conference. Words can not explain how much I love each one of you! Thank you for everything.

sister shaw

September 9, 2013 - Stor Uke! (Big Week!)

Kjære venner, (Dear friends)

This week is the best week of my whole life. I have never felt this much joy and happiness in my whole life.  It all began with two weeks age. Me and Elder Bird a traveling ap went contacting together. We found this girl named Karoline who seemed really cool and we scheduled an appointment with her. That day we had scheduled our appointment she didn't come and texted me that she was sick ( she had gotten sick from eating wheat!! she has celiac!! I share a lot of gluten free treats with her!!) so we rescheduled  for the next Monday which was this last Monday. During personal study I really pondered and prayed about what she needed to hear. I know she was not just a normal girl we would be teaching. Before the lesson she had told us that her friend in the USA had told her the day before she met me and elder bird while we were contacting  that she needed to talk to people who believed in God. She told us if her friend had not said that she would not have stopped and talked to us! We decided to teach her Alma 32 about how faith is like a seed. The lesson went great!!  Not only that but 6 months ago she decided to quit drinking alcohol also she believes in being modest and the of chastity. An hour later she texts me and tells me she read Alma 32 and that she understands it all! The lesson after that we taught her the plan of salvation. The lesson before we had given her a pamphlet and she read the whole thing! She pretty much explained the plan of salvation to us.  Her grandma had died but had left her a bible that was handed down from her great grandma and great great grandma. I told her It is like all of them are saying come with us come to heaven with us we all want to be there! It is just the coolest thing. She was very close with her grandma. We had invited her with a soft commitment to be baptized and told her to pray about it. Because me and my companion figured she is so golden that we want her to figure it all out herself. She came  with us to church on Sunday and after Relief Society tells us that she wants to be baptized! She chose September 28th because September 27th is the day her grandma was buried. Pretty much the happiness and joy I feel can not be explained. It is just the best feeling I have ever had in my entire life. We were talking about priesthood in relief society  and I was sitting next to Karoline and just kept thinking this priesthood, this power of God, is what will make this precious girl this dear friend sitting right next to me completely clean. It is the pure love and power of God and it was just magnificent it was glorious! it was herlig (lovely)!!!! I have never felt that power of the atonement outside of myself. I have never felt the power of the atonement for another. It was the  coolest feeling because I just felt overwhelming gratitude to my Savior. To give this beautiful girl a brand new chance to come back to Him and feel overwhelming love. 

This girl before we met her did not believe in God she is a normal Norwegian and she is the cutest girl in the whole world. 

Missionary work is just about planting seeds and nourishing them that is it!

Some cool things I learned this week from an institute teacher every child(investigator) is a seed it will grow itself but you just need to nurture it with the spirit. But there are a lot of other influences that can nurture the seed it you let the world nurture the seed it will not be what you want. 

Everything is given from the Lord You are never taking. Will you take a spouse or will you receive one?

The order of the priesthood is to receive all that the father hath. When you choose worldly things you are letting the world be your companion. When you choose spiritual things you let the Lord be your companion.

Also we have quit language class where we teach forevers Norwegian. Ever since then we have had 3 new normal Norwegians super interested in the gospel. It just stood out to me that you get what you expect! If you ask the Lord for foreigners he will give them to you but if you expect more He will give you equal to you expectations dream high!!!!

love you all!!

søster shaw 

September 2, 2013

Kjære søsken!

Wow what a week. This week we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Kearon. He is a part of the 70 in Europe.  It was amazing so amazing it is difficult to describe in words. The spirit was so strong and I learned a lot. I learned a lot about how Heaven really will be like. It is just a lot happier than I thought. Christ is much more personal and caring then I think of Him to be. The whole point of our existence right now is to be happy to have joy. We are not supposed to be perfect we are not supposed to be robots but we are supposed to be happy. Heaven is happiness. I think a lot of the time I expect myself to be perfect to be absolutely perfect. That I forget to be happy just truly happy.  I learned that the gospel of Jesus Christ is happiness and in every thing we need to represent that. My companion and I have recently been asking people on the streets what gives you the most happiness. It has been really cool to here peoples reply and tie it into the gospel and show them how the gospel can just increase there happiness. 
 

I learned a lot about the point of our existence on this earth. The point of our existence is to meet God. This I always think of is a stressful thing, but it is not. How will we be prepared to live in a world that is happy, joyful, and loving if we are tearing ourselves down for everything we do everyday. Elder Kearon told us to just let go of the negative thoughts in our heads because they are all a bunch of rubbish. -he is British  Usually it is Satan trying to keep you from doing something your really good at and you have a God given gift and talent for it, but of course he doesnt want you to do it. Of course not because then you would be helping others to be happier. So ya right now I am working on trying to enjoy life more and not be a robot. It has been really good and I am getting better and better every day!

It has been a miracle week. We have been trying to work with members more now and we had the oppurtunity to go to the bishops daughters birthday party. It was amazing and we are meeting with 2 new people because of it! Also the cook there was gluten fri she gave me a glutenfri baketri I can go to and she made glutenfri cake and I had glutenfri pizza! The Lord is watching me! I feel so blessed. I can not go to the baketri they have bread and cakes and everything!  

Cool things that happened this week:

I got to meet a guard that was guarding the palace and I shook his hand. I found out afterwards it is illegal to talk to them. Oh well!

We got to go to a farm today and pet the cows!! It was so much fun!

I love my new district. We get stuff done.

I love my companion. 

This week as we were heading home from one of our investigators houses who wasnt home we met a lady who really needs the gospel. She is like the coolest lady in the world.

love you all!

søster shaw!