Week 14......

Well.... it is transfers week and....

I AM GETTING TRANSFERED!!! I got the call this morning that I am getting transfered and that I am also training. So I going to be opening a new area with a new missionary... just in time for the holidays. It was been hard for sister webb and I. We have both been crying. Sister Webb is one of my best friends now. I really really don't want to leave her but the Lord needs me somewhere else. I am soooo nervous. I am actually completely freaking out. I wish I could explain to you how inadequate I feel to be in this position. There are lots of sisters that have been out longer than I have that aren't getting transfered or training. I guess God knows I can handle it.

But anyway. This was a good week again. I went on an exchange to hamilton on wednesday. That was fun. I was in a threesome for the first time. I was with Sister Beeson (She came out with me but she is a visa waiter.) and Sister Origer (She came out the transfer before me). I love them both. Sister Beeson and I decided that we are going on a study of broad together to Europe, fall 2015. So Ill be saving for that when I get home :) That was pretty much the only thing that happened this week. We didn't meet with Sierra or Sherry this week. But we are going to stop by them tonight since I am leaving and I can get some pictures with them and say goodbye. I feel so rushed. I just want to say goodbye to everyone here. I love this ward. I am very said to leave it.

Wish me luck this next week. And write me letters. I didn't get any letters this last week so that made it hard. Ill be sending you my new address tomorrow on my letters this. I love you all and I hope you all have a fantastic week.

Oh and yes I got the warm package. I loved it. The dancing turkey is sooo great. He sits on my study desk. I named him Jerry. I love the head band too. So cute! Perfect timing too! It has been 22 degrees here for like the past 2 days. Not fun. But yeah. Those tights are AWESOME too! I love them! :)

I love you

Week 13!!

Hey hey!

Yes I did receive my boots. I loved them. They are GREAT!!! I wear them everyday. :) They fit!

Yesterday was pretty freaky for me. We had tornado warnings all day and we were at a members home around 6 and the tornado sirens went off so we had to go down to the basement. Nothing happened thank goodness but I was totally freaked out! haha. Oh well. It was cool. I survived my first almost tornado.

This has been a super hard week. Our knees pretty much got taken out by Satan. We basically only have one investigator as of right now because the rest of them won't talk to us. Sierra is off date, Sarah dropped us, Sherry disappeared (Maybe in the hospital), Bekah is still super sick with lupis and has memory loss, and Hillary disappeared also. Our only investigator is Lois Watson right now and she is totally awesome. She is so sweet and she is ready to read the book of mormon on a spiritual level (She has read it before). She also said that she would be baptized if she came to know it was true! Super awesome :) But yeah. It is going to be a week of finding and helping Lois. We aren't leaving our other investigators alone quiet yet. Especially Sierra.

I know Bubba. I didn't know he went on a mission.. He graduated the same year as me but from Great oak. Last I heard about it he was in San Franscico?

Im glad you are excited for thanksgiving. Transfers are the tuesday before thanksgiving so I don't even know if I will be here. I could be somewhere else. That'll be interesting. For christmas all I really want are garments. Ill send you my size in my letter :) haha.

Sorry this is so short. I have pictures this week though :) Hopefully Ill have time to send them!

I love you!

SIster Shaw

First snow of the year!!

McDonalds for LUNCH!!!

Deer in the middle of someone's yard while tracting.....

Getting ready for winter...NEW boots!!

They FIT!! Thank goodness for online shopping and a sister with the same size foot!!

 The Sister Webb cat....it only had three legs!

Week 12

Thank you so much for sending me boots! These boots are almost done for. haha. I have two HUGE holes in them! Yes I got my CDs today! You didn't put an apartment number on them so I didn't get them until I went to the office today to forward letters to people who don't live in our apartment anymore. Thanks for all the notes and stuff. I loved them! :) That's too bad the Elder Esplain has a shy companion. Transfers are in two weeks and I am really afraid that I am going to get transferred. We have almost the entire ward praying that we won't get transferred haha. They love us! which is totally awesome because we got like 3 referrals last week. But two of them were not interested at all! and we haven't talked to the other one yet. Hopefully he will be interested.

I did hear about the typhoon. That is so crazy! Theres a family from our ward or the ward next to us that are mission presidents there and they said that the missionaries are going to be doing a lot of service. haha. Its good that hey have a sense of humor about something scary like that. People keep telling me that these next couple of months are going to be the worst of my life because I am going to be so cold. I pretty much wear my snow coat everywhere already and its not even that cold yet... haha. Im so scared!

My investigators are great though. Atsushi unfortunately dropped us on Friday. He wasn't ready to take it all in yet but I have no doubt that in the future he will be baptized. :) Sierra is now on date for December 21! I am so excited. She came to church yesterday and I think she liked it. Her mom loved it. But yeah. At church yesterday President Porter just happened to show up to our ward along with like 6 stake presidents, and an area authority. After sacrament was over President Porter came down and said hi to us and Sierra and Christie and he also introduced us to the area authority. That was really cool. He introduced us as two of the missions best. :) That made me super happy even though he probably says that to everyone haha. But yeah. I can't remember the area authorities name but he was really nice and him and President Porter seemed very impressed with us. So yeah. Yesterday was a great day. Sherry is doing well. I think she might actually be a progressing investigator. Well, we will see tonight. Hopefully she read and is praying. She's so sweet though. I just love her. I think we can get her to be baptized by the end of the year. Just gotta keep working with her. Bekah is SUPER sick with lupis. She might be going to the hospital soon. That makes me sad. Ive been praying a lot for her. And yeah. that's who I am teaching. Hopefully I will have more people to report next week. :)

I don't think I need anything but thank you mom :) Sister Webb is doing great. Mason is still an great as ever. I love it here! The fall is SOOOOOOOOOOO beautiful. The trees are so bright and wonderful and I got to rake leaves for the first time this week! :)

Well. until next week :) I love you!

I don't miss you!

Love

Sister Shaw

Sister shaw and her investor. 

Busy Worker Bee.....

I am doing great this week. I FINALLY pushed everything aside and pushed and now I have fully given myself to the Lord. I am even having a hard time right now writing because I feel like I am being unproductive. I have hit an extreme point but it is what I need to do get Mason moving. Mason reminds me of the rancho ward, kinda a dead area. President Porter is really counting on Sister Webb and I to get this area moving. I know I can do it but I have to fully submit myself to the Lord. It is all his will.

How is Elder Esplain doing? That is sad that Elder Pumphrey is leaving. But he'll do great. :) Maybe he'll be training! But yeah. Transfers here aren't until the week of thanksgiving so you can send the boots to my apartment because if not I won't get them until transfers and that's ONLY if Sister Webb or I are getting transfered. So yeah...

Things are going well here though. Sister Webb and I really got kicked into gear on Tuesday at zone conference. We talked to President Porter because we didn't know what to do about Mason and he said that we need to either figure it out or I am pulling you out and that scared me so bad! We have pretty much been sprinting ever since then. But we are really figuring it out.Which is why these last couple of days Satan has been working really hard on Sister Webb and I but we are not giving up. We are making it happen :) But yeah. Our investigators were all having a hard week... thank you Satan but I have no doubt that it is going to get better from here. I am so excited to tell what awesome things that are going to happen this week. I love you so much and I don't miss you at all. Thanks for all that you do :)

Love

Sister Shaw

ps Sorry I don't have any pictures this week. You can look at the zone conference ones :)

Week 9 and week 10..........

Week 10......

It has been another happy week in Mason Ohio. To answer your question, no I haven't gotten my package yet but I should be getting it tomorrow. When packages get sent to the mission office they don't forward them so I have to wait until I see Presdient and Sister Porter who are gonna bring them to our zone conference tomorrow. I am super excited for zone conference. It is gonna be so great. You can maybe find some pictures of me this week mom :) I cccaaannnn go shopping but I probably wont. You can just buy a size ten in shoes and I can just wear alot of socks if they don't fit :) Theres not enough time to go shopping especially since we volunteer for 2 hours p-day. But yeah... Keep an eye out for cute head wear. I need stuff that'll keep my head warm.... But I don't know if I can wear beanies. But if you find one, send it just incase. It was cold last week.. like high of 41 but it is suppose to nice this week and then cold after that. So one more week of nice weather. But yeah. Everything is going well here. I think like 3 appointments got cancelled last week because 3 different investigators were sick. The flu is going around... I really hope I don't get sick. I would die. Blah. It's not gonna happen. But yeah. Our investigators are growing so much. We still have Sierra on date for November 23 but I will let you know next week if she is. Then we have Atsushi. The Japanese guy and we had a really great lesson with him last night. We talked about the Savior and his life on earth. It was so great! The spirit was so strong. Then we had great lessons with Sarah, Bekah, an dSherry. They are all so great. I'll let you know if anything exciting happens. They just all still want to learn more about the church which is ALWAYS a great thing :)

This was a good week though :) I think I am adjusting well to missionary life. It is fun and I can't imagine being anywhere else. I feel a need to be here. I have learned so much since being out here though. I have really learned the importance of having a Christ centered life. He needs to be the center of everything we do. If we aren't making choices that'll make us more closer to Christ then we are moving away from him. It is so much easier to have a Christ centered life on your mission but I am going to make him the center of my life forever. I know that it'll bring blessings and I will then have a Christ centered home and my family will be blessed forever :) I love you and I hope you have a great week. I don't miss you or abby or dad or anyone at all!

watch for my letter this week :)

Love

Sister Shaw

And I accidentally posted the wrong letter from last week.....so here it goes week 9....it was a good one check it out........

Holy Cow it has been a great week! So many things have happened that I am going to go by days. So last monday...

We got a new investigator. Great way to start off the week. We found her last week while we were out tracting and made an appointment with her. She use to be married to a member but he passed away a while ago and her 2 oldest kids are both baptized. She is super sweet and our lesson with her went really well. I think she is more ready for this than she thinks.

Tuesday... Was CRAZY!! So this is a really cool miracle. So Sister Webb and I were having a rough morning. Nothing seemed to be going our way. We got out of the apartment an HOUR after we planned because we forgot to make cookies for the less actives we were trying to go see. So we were already an hour behind schedule when we got a text from the member that we were going to do service for saying that she was sick (She's pregnant and due in 3 weeks) so that just added to our frustration. So we were walking down the street between less actives and I dropped the bag of cookies and sister webb stepped on the bag to cookies and we picked them up and we were just like this is what our day has been like! Not very happy at all. So we went to the less actives and they didn't answer... like always... So we went to a potential investigators who we knew wasn't going to be home so then we decided to head out down to the last less actives house so we could just get out of that area and firgure out something else out to do. On our way down to the less actives house we passed a lady taking her trash out and getting the mail. Sister Webb gave her a pass a long card and asked if she had a belief in Jesus Christ. She said yes and that she was baptized when she was 16 in Texas. She then told us that she had been praying for help and we came along. She introduced us to her daughter who asked us if she could be baptized!! CRAZY!!!! Best day ever! such a miracle. Well. We met with them last night and her daughter, Sierra, said she'd work to be baptized on Saturday November 23! CRAZY! They also told us we were their angels. So sweet.

Wednesday we had a really good lesson with our investigator Sara

Thursday was a normal day. Tracting alot.

Friday We got a new investigator Bekah. She's from Wako texas... We are pretty sure she is FLDS... So we have another lesson with her tonight so we will see how that goes... We don't really know what to do... Her mom was excommunicated from that church when Bekah was nine because she was scheduled to be married and her mom stopped it. So Bekah has had a REALLY rough past.

Saturday we had a crazy lesson with Atsushi. The members that came with us totally took over and it all went south from there.

But yeah. It was a great week. I still haven't gotten the CDs. Hopefully today. Only got a letter from you this week mom and it MADE my week. I had a couple sad dream that everyone was glad I was on a mission because they didn't have to deal with me. But yeah. Just tell Elder Pumphrey that the more you think about home the more you will lose the work. Get the members excited about the work. Start a 40 day fast in the ward where one family a day fasts for missionary work. Our ward did that and miracles are popping up like crazy!

WEll.. Sorry no pictures this week. TWO MONTHS though! It has gone by so slow and yet soooo fast!

Have a great week! I love you and don't miss you at all!

Week 10!!

HOly Cow it has been a great week! So many things have happened that I am going to go by days. So last monday...

We got a new investigator. Great way to start off the week. We found her last week while we were out tracting and made an appointment with her. She use to be married to a member but he passed away a while ago and her 2 oldest kids are both baptized. She is super sweet and our lesson with her went really well. I think she is more ready for this than she thinks.

Tuesday... Was CRAZY!! So this is a really cool miracle. So Sister Webb and I were having a ruff morning. Nothing seemed to be going our way. We got out of the apartment an HOUR after we planned because we forgot to make cookies for the less actives we were trying to go see. So we were already an hour behind schedule when we got a text from the member that we were going to do service for saying that she was sick (She's pregnant and due in 3 weeks) so that just added to our frustration. So we were walking down the street between less actives and I dropped the bag of cookies and sister webb stepped on the bag to cookies and we picked them up and we were just like this is what our day has been like! Not very happy at all. So we went to the less actives and they didn't answer... like always... So we went to a potential investigators who we knew wasn't going to be home so then we decided to head out down to the last less actives house so we could just get out of that area and firgure out something else out to do. On our way down to the less actives house we passed a lady taking her trash out and getting the mail. Sister Webb gave her a pass a long card and asked if she had a belief in Jesus Christ. She said yes and that she was baptized when she was 16 in Texas. She then told us that she had been praying for help and we came along. She introduced us to her daughter who asked us if she could be baptized!! CRAZY!!!! Best day ever! such a miracle. Well. We met with them last night and her daughter, Sierra, said she'd work to be baptized on Saturday November 23! CRAZY! They also told us we were their angels. So sweet.

Wednesday we had a really good lesson with our investigator Sara

Thursday was a normal day. Tracting alot.

Friday We got a new investigator Bekah. She's from Wako texas... We are pretty sure she is FLDS... So we have another lesson with her tonight so we will see how that goes... We don't really know what to do... Her mom was excommunicated from that church when Bekah was nine because she was scheduled to be married and her mom stopped it. So Bekah has had a REALLY rough past.

Saturday we had a crazy lesson with Atsushi. The members that came with us totally took over and it all went south from there.

But yeah. It was a great week. I still haven't gotten the CDs. Hopefully today. Only got a letter from you this week mom and it MADE my week. I had a couple sad dream that everyone was glad I was on a mission because they didn't have to deal with me. But yeah. Just tell Elder Pumphrey that the more you think about home the more you will lose the work. Get the members excited about the work. Start a 40 day fast in the ward where one family a day fasts for missionary work. Our ward did that and miracles are popping up like crazy!

WEll.. Sorry no pictures this week. TWO MONTHS though! It has gone by so slow and yet soooo fast!

Have a great week! I love you and don't miss you at all!

Week 9!

HEY HEY! :) Another great week in the GREAT cincinnati ohio mission!

So before I get to anything exciting... I have to tell you something funny that happened on tuesday. So I told you how Sister Webb totally ate it on monday while we were running... Well, the next day we were running and in the EXACT same spot... I ate it! It was soooo funny. We have been laughing about it all week and telling everyone and NO ONE thinks it's funny. I guess Sister Webb and I have gotten use to that because no one ever thinks what we have to say is funny. At least we think we are funny. Well to make the situation more funny, we have the exact same scrape too! Hopefully I can get the picture from Sister Webb. 

But yeah. I got your halloween package last monday. Thank you so much! I loved it! We are gonna put the stickers on our window today hopefully! :) Well... Nothing actually exciting happened this week... Sorry... We are still having a hard time with Elijah and his family. we had two appointment this week with them and they totally ignored us both times. I could hear them inside. It took everything in me to not just run in there. They drive me crazy sometimes but the weirdest thing is... I actually like them. they are really funny and when we are together we can feel the spirit and laugh. They are just really really flaky people. super frustrating. But it's ok because we had an amazing lesson with Atsushi! We talked to him about God and the importance of praying everyday. He has such a great desire to pray and learn. It is amazing. He is so golden. I really think that he is going to be a grat investigator because he keeps his commitments which AMAZING!!! He's awesome and we have another appointment with him on Saturday! 

Well... We are still struggling to get investigators but we fasted yesterday so we are gonna get new ones this week. We have some lessons lined up with some really solid potential investigators. 

Tell Michael I say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I am going to try and write him a letter but I am really busy today. 

Yes I did get your package and NO I AM NOT GETTING TRANSFERED! :) I am sooo happy. I was so afraid. Actually. That is a really funny story. So we started this volunteer thing today where every monday we got to the Mason Food Pantry and stock shelves for 2 hours. So on our way there we got the transfer call. It was Elder Shirtz (The SUPER hilarious Elder in our ward) and he was like, Sister Webb you are staying and Sister Shaw you are leaving. I was freaking out and grabbed the phone and told him he was lying like 7 times and he was like nope. And you're training. I almost had a heart attack. He just started laughing and I told him I was going to kill him... I haven't changed at all! :) haha. 

Well... Thank you for being so awesome! 

I love you! 

Have a great week!

Love, Sister Shaw

Showing off there matching ouchies from falling......

A package!!!

Falling is rough....

Serving.....

Th