September 22, 2014

Kjære alle sammen,

WOWWWWWWWWWWW, My life has never raced so quick before my eyes in my entire life. I really wish I could have some sort of brake to slow down time, going by so quickly. I love my mission. I love Norway. I love that it gets dark, I love that it rains, I love that it sometimes takes so much effort  to just walk in the rain and contact people, because after moments like that after a million nei takks, you just realize I am doing this for Christ. and  I am doing this for my brothers and sisters who NEED to have the peace and hope that comes from the assurance of Gods all encompassing love. 

Eirik he is doing well, we are still shooting for November 3rd as a baptismal date. He is having a hard time giving up the state church. I know that as he has more experiences with prayer, he will come to know the truths of God. 

This week we had the opportunity to go to trondheim for a meeting and I lost my wallet!! That was crazy..... I organized everything so it would be OK, but the biggest miracle i think that has happened is I got two amazing packages!! both from my family and the relief society giving us loads of food!! Which is so needed because ya, we are pretty low on money. That was like the biggest miracle in the world!! Thank you so much. I know the Lord is always there especially in the nick of time. 

We are all wonderful agents, we can bring about great goodness in the lives of many of our brothers and sisters around us. 

I know God listens. He is there.

søster shaw

Septermber 15, 2014

Hello everyone,

This morning we took the time to go to the mountain of the Lord. We woke up and climbed to sukker top. As we were climbing up I was reminded of this symbolising of our personal journey to come closer to the Lord. As my physical body was taken to greater heights my spirit was lifted and I noticed that my thoughts became more clear and centered on Christ the higher and higher we walked. Not only that but I was thinking of a negative mentality I had and thought as we were going up why cant I just have this mentality? It would just be so much easier to stay the same. As we were walking up the path though I was reminded there is only one way to make it to the Lord and His presence, and even though it is hard. It is always more worth it to be in His presence. 

As I have thought and pondered more about Elders Bednars conference I have learned more things. 

I have learned that when we "perform" we are being objects. When we are just ourselves we are agents. 

When we compare and measure ourselves against others we are objects.

As agents we can reach the higher potential God has for us. We can serve Him and learn and grow at the pace He wants us to grow. 

This week we have contacted a lot and that has been great, but it mostly has just been great to talk with sister Hornback in between the contacting pauses when no one is out and realize how I\we can become agents for good in this world of confusion. How we can choose the future we have and truly reach our potential as agents in Christ. It has been really a blessing to take a step back and look at what is possible and realize the kind of person and the people I can choose to surround me as being an agent. 

Eirik is one of our investiagtors with a baptismal date and this week we met with him. He really likes his church so he still was not sure if he would be baptized.  We taught him that he is an agent. If he wants to find out this is true he can. 2 days later we got this text message... it is translated from norwegian so be patient...I am thinking over if I will be baptized in your guys church. I have thought about it and have not managed to defend my church. I prayed to God and said is this church sister Shaw and sister Hornback are so glad in true? and god showed me that your guyss church is true! I am so glad!

this was the biggest miracle from this past week probably the coolest thing that has happened on my mission. Hopefully we will have another fjord baptism:) 

I love ålesund. I have learned so much about being a leader, we have to do a lot in this little branch, but it is amazing. I also have learned a lot about music. I have to help with everything. I even had to sing in sacrament meeting yesterday. I have gotten much better with my musical skills:) 

I know that I truly can change because of the atonement. I am an agent!

have a great week love you all!

Sep. 8, 2014 yesterday I shook an apostle of the Lords hand

this past weekend was incredible. I have had the best weekend of my life. I have learned so much and I am so grateful to be on a mission. I LOVE MY MISSION. 

We had the opportunity to go to Oslo for a sisters conference and go to stake conference with elder bednar we then got to have a meeting with just us missionaries with elder Bednar. We had three hours with the apostle and his amazing sweet wife. It was great!

first  the sisters conference...... all the sisters came together on the Saturday before and we all had the opportunity to talk and chat and learn about how we can be better. It was fantastic and so much fun to see the sisters I truly have missed while I have been up here in the north with 8 other sisters. who I also love dearly but I miss the sisters in the south too!

the stake conference with elder Bednar was amazing the spirit was so strong and his wife is so sweet. They are just such cool normal nice good people. That was a amazing. He taught the first teach and directed towards all investigators there. It was perfect and we learned so much

Our conference with Elder Bednar was unreal. Him and his wife are so good. I learned so much. 

I learned we are agents not objects. God put us as agents. Because He has made us agents, our deep desires what we want are good. We can make what we want happen as we pray and act. God desires to give us the gift. We must just act and show Him faith to obtain the gift. 

As agents we will be inspired to help others in the way they  need. We will be inspired to help ourselves in the way we need.

Because we are agents we are loved, our spirits, our personalities are beautiful in the Lords eyes and because God has made us agents, he wants us to shine. We are enough and beautiful and loved. God wants us to thrive and to trust ourselves trust Him and trust others. 

We never need to apologize for who we are or be different around different people. We can be ourselves all the time. That is the thing I liked the most about elder bednar is that he was so real. He was just himself he called things weird and certain choices people can make stupid because they are just that. He didn't stand up there and act all spiritual because the spirit was just there and, he was being himself. He acted the same way as he would act at home. Elder bednar is just a cool person, his wife is just a cool person. They are both very real. 

 The only reason we are on this earth is to come home. Everything that takes us away from this mindset is a waste of our time. We do not need to be caught up with who had better clothing or who is prettier or who has more things. These thought don't help us to come home, so we don't need to think them. 

I was one out of a couple missionaries who got to shake elder bednars hand and it was so great. I am so grateful to have experienced that.

I love God. I am an agent. and I am on His team. We are fighting a winning battle.

Sep 1, 2014

We don't have so much emailing time so this will be fast. That makes me so sad because this has literally been one of the best weeks of my life. We had a baptism in a fjord we were witnesses to our ex brach presidents wedding we went to trondheim and I got a saving package from my best friend ashley.

1st we went to trondheim for zone conference I got to see majken.

2 we got to witness at our previous branch presidents wedding and I was the photographer! We were also bridesmaids. I am not exactly sure how legal that was but it was so much fun!!! I got to be a part of a wedding too this week. It was in a court hall but ya know marriage is marriage.

3 this week we completely ran out of money (like the whole mission ran out of money for some reason)...... We had absolutely no money to buy foods or any necessity. I mean for dinner one night I ate rice with peanuts and soy sauce and I gotta admit it was not bad. But ya we had absolutely nothing. After we got home from the exhileration of witnessing at a wedding we see that I got a package from Ashlee Rupp. We go and get the package and we open it and I just started crying because there is so much gluten free food in the package. I ate mac and cheese and annies crackers and all sorts of dried berries. It was the biggest miracle from the Lord. I know that was meant to come that day. 

4 We had a baptism in the fjord. Not only was it an amzing baptism but it was so simple and the spirit was ever present as bente made this choice to follow God. It was so calm and simple. I cant even put it into words. I am so grateful for bentes example to me and for her strong spirit. 

two things that I have pondered this week.

perfection is completion. When God sent us to earth he never told us that we should become more unlike ourselves or that we should rip ourselves apart. He loves us. The process of becoming complete is becoming more ourselves. If we are kind we need to use our kind intelligence for good if we are clean we can use the intelligence of cleanness for good. There is no way you can really change anyone or even change yourself accept if its through the atonement of christ. So we need to realize our personality is complete we are jut learning how to enhance our personality here on earth. 

Christ was sent so that we would be helped. He was sent because we cant do it alone. If we get done with life and we [don't] turn to christ and we have accomplished everything. What have we really accomplished?

Love is paying attention to and desiring to meet other peoples true neeeds and wants. Not your own wants enforced on the other person. 

I love you all have a great week.

this week I will see elder bednar

Aug 25, 2014

This week has been great. I would like to impart something I have been pondering about a lot. 

spiritual thought

 to sum up a lot of who Christ was is He was available. He never was too busy for anyone or anything. He wasnt stressed hurrying and doing things. He was just him there being there for anyone and everyone. Availablility is also the essence of love. It is not so much the doing that matters but the being that is what people need. I hope that the people I love can feel that I am available to them

This week Bente is going to get baptized like really. She is so utterly prepared. i AM SO GRATEFUL WE could meet her and teach he. . We got like 7 people cancelling on us  and then we finally taught a couple who are from nepal and love God that was really great. Church was really great and I am so excited to see Bente get baptized. we are going to trondheim on friday and we are going to get sorbet with Majken a member in trondheim:) Also we are going to see elder bednar in 2 weeks. This week was pretty crazy. Like every week is.

miracles, Bente is getting baptized there is nothing cooler than that:)

the funny thing that happened this week

We taught a spanish guy with using only five words in spanish and he only knowing 10 words in english. I could say I wish I had learned spanish from my mom. But that experience was so hilarious that I am really grateful I didnt:) I will learn spanish when i get home as well as icelandic. 

by the way being here in norway has allowed me to develop a deep interest in iceland. I would love to learn their language, it is legit. 

love you all have a great week

sister c shaw

Aug 18, 2014

This week has been really great. We have seen a lot of miracles. We had the opportunity to go to bergen. That was really fun.

this week: we had the opportunity to teach Bente about obedience. We looked at our watches and low and behold it is 845 and the bus takes 30 minutes to get back home. There was almost no way we would make the bus home. It left at 855 and was a twenty minute walk. But we looked at the time and realized we better go. We ran out the door with all our gear and started sprinting towards the bus. There were many points where both me and sister Hornback thought whats the point we aren't going to catch the bus anyways why cant we just walk. But we continued running. We ended up flagging down the bus and it stopped for us!!! That was a huge miracle. I know that when we are obedient we really are blessed and we were able to be home at 930 and have a great evening.

have a great week. I know being obedient brings miracles.

Aug 11, 2014 Among Men We Chase The Sun

Wow, what a week. This week was amazing. So many amazing things happened. 

Miracle: the trondheim sisters came down for a visit. I had this desire to pick sister chapman rips which is a berry she had never had. I thought that is a really dumb idea. But then I just thought why not we will be contacting anyways.  We got on the bus and as we got off sister oldham met a man that she had taught  a year ago that she has been trying to get in contact with for forever! We met with him later that night and the meeting went well. This is what happens when we listen to the good intenions of our heart. Our desires are good. This huge miracle happened because we wanted to pick berries. It was one of the coolest things that has happened to me in my life. 

Many miracles continue to happen. It is just me and sister hornback on this small little island and it is a sanctuary. I love ålesund! I know God lives and is waiting to give us what we want.