Miracles

Holy Cow! It has been an amazing week! I cannot believe how much it turned around in just 3 days! WOW! 

So this week we found 5 new investigators, and 2 came to church! We are teaching a family now and they are so prepared. They love the gospel and all of the family liked church. It is amazing to see Heavenly Father working in the lives of people. In Alma 16:16&17 Heavenly Father promises that he is preparing people and I have been able to see this scripture come to life right before my eyes. It is amazing how I will talk to people and they will tell me about the trials they have gone through and all of their hardships and I then have the blessed opportunity to show them how those experience brought us to them. As I testify to them I see the light of Christ come onto their face and joy fills their hearts and they are excited for us to return. 

Because of this week I have been able to see that Heavenly Father truly has a plan for everyone and every choice that we make has a consequence. This week I was talking with my Bishop's wife and she was saying that she firmly believes that if we make a decision based on what we think the Spirit is telling us, Heavenly Father will consecrate that and use it to bless people. So ALWAYS do what you think the Spirit is telling you and you will be blessed :) 

I want everyone to know that I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know that I am a choice daughter of God. He has a plan and a happily ever after for me. I know that I am blessed to be apart of the gospel of Jesus Christ and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I want everyone to know that I know that is Christ's church. He leads and guides it through our prophet Thomas S. Monson. I know these things to be true. "I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dare I do it;" (Joseph Smith- History 1:25)

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

Love

Sister Shaw

3 Nephi 5:13

Good afternoon everybody! :) 

So this has been a trial of my faith week. We did not have as much success as we were hoping for. But the good news is... we get to stay here for another 6 weeks together! No one in our ward is getting tranferred :) That is 3 companionships! I am so excited. 

But yeah. We had to drop one of our investigators this week because he was being kinda interesting... He is a 71 year old man who calls sister Fausett "Preacher" because she whips out scriptures all the time and calls me "Angel" because I have a glow about me? He is different... :) 

So we have about 2 investigators right now and we are hoping to find a lot more this week. 

Heavenly Father likes to give me trials of my faith. That trial is in not finding people to teach and everyone dropping us in one week. It is fun... Sometimes. haha. With all of these trials I know I can last a little longer than the last time. I am going on 2 weeks now. That is longer than I have lasted yet. haha. So I think I can do this. 

I hope you can keep exercising your faith. If we aren't working to act on our testimonies then they won't last long. Keep going forward. There is no growing in a comfort zone and their is no comfort in a growing zone. That is our missions saying at the moment. 

Oh, ps. One of my investigators from Kettering in getting baptized this weekend! I am so happy. It is going to be awesome! :) 

Hope you all have a great week! I hope you are having a fun vacation mom and dad. 

love

sister shaw

Happy Happy

Good afternoon fam-bam :) 

I hope you are all doing well. I don't ever miss you of course. It has been a fun week. I am learning so much from my mission. I am so grateful to be here especially with President Porter as my mission President. He is AWESOME! I am learning so much from him. 

So we have been working really hard and it paid off a little. We are finding, trying to teach, and we want to baptize. We are working a lot on our faith which I am so happy about because I need more of that. I am so excited. I have been reading my patriarchal blessing a lot and I have been trying to figure out how to become that person and I think I am getting that chance by being here. 

So this week we have been having fun. We had exchanges this week and I actually was with Sister fox this time. So funny story about Sister fox. We are facebook friends. We became friends after we both had our mission calls. She was Ryley Peabody's FHE sister and he remembered that that is where I was going so we kind of knew each other before our missions. Small world moment :) But yeah. 

I am trying to think of what happened this week and the only thing I can think about is Faith. That has been the center of my week. Everything that I have done has come by to that one thing. I am learning that faith is more than I thought but easier also. Faith is a thing hoped for but not seen. Hope is believing and expecting something to happen. So if I want faith in baptizing I have to believe it is possible and then expect it to happen . So simple but yet so hard haha. I am learning how to develop that more though :) 

Well, I hope you all have a great week! I love you! 

love

Sister Shaw

Wait What??

o this has been an interesting week haha. 

The main reason is because of what happened on Wednesday. At about 5 in the evening we got a call for our zone leaders and it kinda went like this:

Elder Price: "Hey Sisters, are you ok?"

Me: "Um... yeah.... why?"

Elder Price: "There was a tornado that was between Mt. Washington and Batvia."

Me: "Wait What?"

Elder Price: "Yeah, you didn't know?"

Me: "No, we didn't heard sirens or anything... but I guess that explains the crazy weather..."

Elder Price: "haha. Ok. Well be careful, we have to go and call the other sisters."

Me: "We will try..."

haha. It was so crazy! There was tornado that hit our ward! It hit out in the middle of no where I guess though. It was a funny phone call though ahah. 

Well... other than that... nothing exciting has happened. We have been doing well. A lot of hard work but we have an investigator looking to get baptized at the end of the month :) I am learning so much. I am learning how to submit myself to Heavenly Father! It is so cool. I know that as I hit my hard parts I will have success. Heavenly Father is with us in our afflictions (Mosiah 23:10). 

I wish I had more to say but I just want to say, I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us. I know that Christ walks with us. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the Lord's kingdom once again on the earth and that he leads and guides the church through our prophet Thomas S. Monson. 

I love you!

Love

Sister Shaw

Growing growing growing

Another fun beautiful week in Cincinnati Ohio! :) 

The miracles really came this week. We have 5 new investigators and 1 at church! It was awesome! We have 1 progressing investigator, he is awesome! He is the definition of elect. He is so ready for the gospel! It is incredible!

We also had zone conference this week and it was so GREAT! I learned sooo much. I wish I could tell you everything I learned. But that is all in my journal back at the apartment. Sorry aha. It was just awesome. I know that by doing the things I learned that I will become an even better missionary and that I will continue to have success! I am just so happy. Heavenly Father has shown to me this week that He has a plan for me. He wants me to be happy and is giving me the chance to become more then I could on my own. I am learning my relationship with Him and it is making me happier than I have ever been before. I feel like I am just floating on air all the time. It is cool. 

I am just so happy to have this chance to share the gospel. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that we can have happiness only by putting heavenly Father first in our lives. He will change everything about you for the better if you let him. 

I have had the opportunity to share a lot of my experiences with my companion Sister Fausett. We are growing so much with each other and it has been so incredible! One thing that has become our thing to do is sing that Carol King song hahah. "You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face ad show the world, all the love in your heart. People are going to treat you better, you are gonna find yes you will. That you are beautiful as you feel!" It has been so fun. I walk around singing it all the time haha. It is fun :) So thank you mom for teaching me that. I have shared the lessons you teach me all the time! 

I love being a missionary and I love being on a misison. I love the Book of Mormon and I love my Savior, even jesus Christ. I love the Church and the opportunites it gives all of us. I love the Prophet  Joseph Smith and I love the things he restored. I love Heavenly Father and I know he has done all of this for me and you :) 

Have a great week! Remember who you are! 

Love 

sister Shaw

P.S. The Church is true