April 7, 2014 - Baptism

Dear family and friends,

About 6 months ago we met a girl named C. She became one of my good friends. She was amazing and was so prepared and ready to come closer to God and get baptized. It was the most amazing experience of my life and some of my most joyful moments in life come from being with her. She sadly chose to take another path, and dropped us missionaries. That was a really hard time for me. I loved her. I knew and could see how the atonement of the Savior could clean her mortal baggage and bring her greater happiness. The day after we heard this I read in preach my gospel about hope because that is what I needed. It directed me towards this chapter in Hebrews. 

10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

 11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

 12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

 13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

 14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

 16 For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

 17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

 18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the beil;

 20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

The words spoke to me. I was still heart broken and I did not quite understand why God could not  have changed this from happening and why my friend and sister chose a path that did not lead her to greater happiness. But I knew  that after faith and patience we Will inherit the promises. 

I did not quite understand what God was promising me in that scripture until this weekend. This weekend another women named C who I also love dearly made the choice to follow God and made a sacred covenant with God through baptism. 

I know this experience has etched into my soul a stronger faith and trust in Gods promised blessings.I  have had this greater understanding of the Lords love and His inability to lye. 

We can trust in the Lords promises to us. He can not lye. This is a life lesson I have learned and will cherish for eternity. 

I love God. He is all powerful. Trust in Him. 

love you all!

søster shaw

The Lord is not so focused on changing us. He is more focused on enhancing us.

April 2, 2014

john chapter 6 

5 ¶When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

 6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.

 7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.

 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him,

 9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

 10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about ^afivethousand.

 11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given ^athanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

 12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be ^alost.

I know God hears. We can prove Him. We can bring our loaves and fishes to Him and He will multiply them greater than we could ever imagine.

I know God loves He listens He multiplies

Remember Gods grace is always there

the Lord does not expect you to be better than your best 

Have a great week love you all 

sister shaw

March 24, 2014

hello,

this week was full of eating home made gluten free boller so good! getting 50 eggs from a member in the ward. Making pizza. listening to the frozen sound track because one sister brought it. sledding bossing it with my new companion sister angerhoffer....holla...being a missionary so fun.

The coolest thing that happened this week is we got to go to the bethel church. It was amazing. The spirit was so strong and it was fun to listen to some rock christian music. I think the coolest part was that there was a bunch of Norwegians like college age who were just worshipping God. I felt the love of God so strongly for them and I know the Lord is well pleased. They are awesome and they are so amazing to take a stand in a world where many will not. They chose God.

I am not going apostate..... I know the church is true and I am grateful for the reverence and the peace that you can feel when you are at our meetings. I know our church is true and I know that the priesthood is something that is able to help others to feel greater the love of God and reach a greater level of happiness and love.

it was really cool to go to bethel though because we got to be investigators I realized what I liked and what I did not like in the way people were and how they introduced themselves to us.

spiritual thought

we will all meet hindrings in life but we must just keep swimming

God does not care so much about where we have been but just about where we will go and who we will become.

 also this week  I learned to not be harder on myself then God is. We take small and simple steps towards eternal progression. These small steps are what grow the deeper roots. Not just a hard thing and then you are done. It takes small trials again and again to make the lessons learned engrained into the eternities.

Our Father lives. He loves. He answers.

love you all

sister shaw

I learned to cross my eyes on my mission!

March 17, 2014

kjære alle sammen,

 wow we received snow half way through march these kinds of things just do not happen in California. It is so beatiful though and the best weather. The sun is brightly shining and the snow is glittering you almost get blinded as you walk out of the door of the apartment. it is amazing. every morning we wake up and have the best run. We fun along the fjord and past a church that is like 800 years old. it is just incredible. 

this week has been really great lots of learning we sent our investigator off to oslo for a week and she will be coming back soon. so that is good. a less active made me boller and it is super good. So right now I am eating this delish gluten free boller. I told her my mom would be so grateful that she made this for me, so i am just really grateful for boller. eh.......I kind of do not know what else to say. Life is really great another girl is coming to trondheim and so our little trio will get split up but we will all still be living together so it will be good. sister r will be in tromsø so we will be able to talk to each other because we are now in the same zone... good stuff....

some good quotes i wrote down....

our destiny is not determined by how many times we stumble but how many times we get up.

yet the world mocketh Christ He never lost the understanding and the significance of who He was and His divinely appointed mission.

when we are not being humble we are taking ownership of the bad us. Instead of letting God strengthen our weaknesses and let us turn into the good us. We hold onto the bad side of us. 

I am grateful I am here. I love God I love Christ amen

søster shaw 

March 10, 2014 - Visiting Hell, Meeting a "Prophet" and Seeing the Northern Lights

WOW what a week. This week we went to a place called Silbu and to get to silbu you have to drive through hell. A member wanted us to visit there home town and to preach the gospel there so we had the oppurunity to set up a stand and share the book of mormon. It was really amazing and taught me a principle of patience. Because at first the stand was super awkward and all the customers werre complaining and then 15 minutes before we were supposed to pack up and leave. two cute grandmas sat by us because they needed to sit down. We shared with them the book of mormon and gave them a free one they were both willing to read it they will call us if they have more questions they also showed all their friends the book and we gave one of their friends a book. During one of the awkward parts in the stand there was a lady who came up to us and took my companions guitar and started singins a song called la oss leve for hver andre. You guys showed all look it up it is pretty sick. After the stand we went to one of the members farm house that was super cool, period. The house we visited was built in the 1730s and was just super awesome. I will attach a picture below. The house was so legit but ridiculously tiny. Like I am saying half the size of the tv room. They were so conservative with space. The house is embedded in the mountains and it was just the essence of peace  and reminded me of how realaxed life was before and how I desire a peaceful life like that.

We also met a man that said he was a prophet and we taught him and he even came to church that was cool.

I saw the northern lights last week before this one and forgot to put them in my last email. It was super cool thopugh and hopefully I can send pictures from that because elder whetten in my district took some cool pics. bUT OVERALL THEY WERE JUST BREATH TAKING.

Every morning we go running along the fjord. We go past these super colorfuil buildings and thei super cool church that is from the 1200s . it is breathtaking. Every day when we run I just think how did I get so lcuky. My mission is literally the coolest thing ever. I am so grateful for the experiecnes I have and the things I have learned.

spiritual thought,

This week we talked about grace. Most of the world is occupied with desiring the best. Who is the best runner, singer etc. The Lord is not . He loves us for who we are and even if who we are is not the best He loves us. He loves us for what we have overcome and what we have endured and the pain we have gone through. I just realized that what if I really just judged people the way God judges others. What if we looked at everyone as to where they are instead of who they are compared to someone else. We just looked at their point and gave them the immense grace and mercy that the Lord gives all of us.  Yes our goal is perfection but we have only had an earthly body for 20 years and there is a lot that we need to learn. That is why we have the gospel of Jesus Christ. Continue using the grace of God.

Christ really is our brother. We are all brothers and sisters.

 19 And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am amore intelligent than they all.

I really like that scripture.

I hope you all have a great day and a great week. Norway is the most amazing country in the world.

our investigators are doing really well and we are working super hard and doing really well

lots of love sister shaw

March 3, 2014

dear family and friends,

this week was kind of slow so it was touhg we contacted A LOT, or talked to people on the streets a lot. It is hard sometimes to make the gospel apply into these peoples lives. If anyone has any ideas just let me know. I am open for them.

remember the world needs your light

stress is what brings out that ugliest sides of us as people so remember to take a breather and pray to God

yeppp. so thats it have a good week.

sister shaw

February 24, 2014

heisann, går det bra med dere?

well it has been another week. To put words to this week would be too difficult. It has been too amazing but yet such a challenge. We had a lot of contacting time this week and so I think have done a lot of personal thinking.

I am so grateful I am here in Norway. I am grateful for my companuions who are so loving kind and compassionate. I am grateful for the love and mercy sister rupp has showed me so that I could personally learn of the Love and mercy of the Savior. This has helped me and has changed my life. I now know that when a situation bugs me instead of getting mad at that person I can just kneel down to the Lord and tell Him how I feel.  I realize how much He loves each one of us individually and how much He listens. It has been really great to be here because I really have learned that I can tell anything to the Lord that I can share my deepest feelings and desires amd I can just give them to the Lord.

Also..........when you think of the plan of salvation it shows how it just makes sense that we have so many weaknesses. For example I have only lived twenty years away from Gods presence. My whole existence before this life was with Him under His care and concern. So it makes sense that sometimes I doubt, but I am progressing to come to a  knowledge  that He lives the same way I had that knowledge when I was with Him in Heaven. Also it makes a lot of sense with communication I feel that communication is something that is a cahllenge for all of us. That is because I feel that in a way before we lived here on eatrth we were able to communicate all of our thoughts and feelings in a perfect language. It is such a challenge to be here on earth and use an imperfect language to communiate what you feel. It just makes so much sense.

moses 6

 65 And thus he adam was baptized, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, and thus he was ^aborn of the Spirit, and became quickened in the ^binner man.

 67 And thou art after the ^aorder of him who was without beginning of days or end of years, from all eternity to all eternity.

 68 Behold, thou art ^aone in me, a son of God; and thus may all become my ^bsons. Amen.

God desires that we can all become His son so that we can inherit all that the father hath. This is our purpose to be one day as good as our father. What does this mean to you personally?

I am just kind of sharing my testimony because not much happened this week. My companion was sick. Our investigators are progressing and we have some really posxitive people it is just great. We found a man from china this week who is looking for God and it is seriously just amazing. We gave him a book of mormon and he is going to read it. We are excited for our most positive progressor to decide to get baptized soon she is super cool.

thanks for tuning in.

this week go out with the missionaries on a teach. I know if you do that you will have a greater understanding of Gods love to His children and a greater undersatnding of God and His plan for you here on this earth.

love you all

søster shaw

Jeg vet at Gud lever. Jeg vet han bryr om hver eneste av oss. Vi er hans barn. Vi kan arve alt han har hvis vi stoler på Guds nåde kjærlighet og barmhjertighet. Men vi må tro på Jesus Kristus. Vi må rense oss gjennom Jesu Kristi forsoning, gjennom omvendelse. Vi må bli døpt til å innga en pakt med Gud til å vise ham at vi elsker ham og nå er en del av hans rike. Vi må få den hellige ånd til a få den gleden som Gud vil at vi har. og vi må holde ut til enden slik at vi kan få enda mer glede når vi reiser hjemm til vår far som ga oss liv

unnskyld hvis jeg tok feil med å skrive. vi snakker ikke skriver Norsk

February 17, 2014

Dear family and friends,

This week is really worth your time reading. Some amazing things have happened. This week S got  baptized! It was so amazing and the spirit was so strong especially when she got confirmed. She is from China and has come to Norway. Her husband was a member but she was not personally interested. She decided to get baptized about 4 weeks ago. It was so great to be a part of this moment of when she is coming closer to God and watching her take that step into the kingdom of God through baptism. She will be going to china in 2 weeks and her and her husband will be sealed together in the Hong Kong temple. It is so amazing because I know that this decsion will not only change her liofe but all those around her and will bring the people in china the joy and peace the gospel brings. I know that through her and her husbands example people will know that they are different and they will desire that difference.

I also have personally gained a stronger testimony that God answers prayers. He just does.

I am so grateful for s and her amazing example to me of how one should treat others and how love really is the highest and should govern everything we do. ¨Me and my companions always joke that she is more christlike then we are. But the thing is it is true.   she is the sweetest most simple classy lady. I love her so much. I am so grateful I could be here in Trondheim and know her. and will continue to know her

Family I am just so grateful for the love of God. He lives and He cares.

I am grateful for the oppurtunity that I have had to be a part of this sacred moment. I am grateful I am here in trondheim and I love it here. It is just beautiful.

other insights

the most amazing thing about a mission is that  you must live the gospel of jesus christ again.

the gospel of jesus christ is faith repentance baptism the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end.

I have had so many times on my mission where I go back to step one which is faith in jesus christ and as I have been honest with my lack of faith I have developed a greater testimony of the love and mercies of God. I know missions are so great becasue you have to have a greater degree of faith you have to have a greater degree of repentanvce and you have to cling to the covenants you made with God so much more. I know that is why the mission changes you.

I am grateful for the love and mercy I feel from the Savior and I know that he loves each one of his children.

funny story

there is a crazy man that came tro church and knows my name and is now out and about on the streets of trondheim and we see him. 

I officially have a stalker here in trondheim. My companions were talking to other people while I was behind them and talking with someone else. I see there ahead of me and this man is in between them. I do not know what to do so I just turn to the wall so that he can not see me. My comp starts walking towards me. and I thought he was gone so I turn around so that I can be back with my comps. He actually was right in front of me and I see him. We make eye contact and me and my companions start booking it. While we are running he is yelling after us ....shaw.....shaw....shaw

that was proabaly the funniest moment of my entire mission. Everyone is safe but we have to be extra careful and stuff

i love you all

love sister shaw

missionary from the church of jesus of christ of latter day saints. 

February 10, 2014

kjære alle sammen,

This week was full of contacting contacing and more contacting..... it is great!! Contacting is when you go on the streets and try to contact people to meet with you so that you can tell them more about the church and Gods love.

This is a great ward and I am excited to work with the awesome people here they are super great.

spiritual thought:This week as we were walking to a members  I was thinking of questions we could ask people to get them to stop and talk to us about God. As I was thinking I thought of the question. If your ancestors were here today and could see your life and what you have done what do you think they would think? As I was thinking I realized we could never ask people this, but then I took a minute to stop and think about that question myself. As I was thinking of what my ancestors and what they would think of my life right now, I realized that the things they would be disappointed in are very different then I personally would think. For example instead of the fact that I do not have the same cool jacket as someone else they would probably be more disappointed in the fact that I just do not realize how unimportant this world is. It just comes down to the fact that they probably would be the most disappointed in my insecurities and being mean to others and not treating my family members the way I should. It was just super great because it made me think of the true purpose in life.

this is very confusing but I would just like to invite each onr of you to ask the same question to yourselves. 

Also I learned this week that uysually when you are mean to someone and do not like someone you are pretty much making yourself miserable because then you have to concentrate on how annoyed you are.

I recommend that everyone reads the article in the latest ensign about communiation with your spouse it haas helped me to undersatnd how I can better sommunicate with my companions and t6hose around me.

trondheim is so utterluy beatiful it is just insane. I know I am not supposed to think this but it feels like I am on a vacation here I just get to talk to people about the gospel. trondheim is prettier than bergen,

lots of love

søster shaw