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

Half way mark!!!!!

Hello again from the beautiful Cincinnati Ohio! :)

It has been another nice week of sunshine here in Cherry Grove. The miracles happened :) We have 3 investigators! :) I am so happy about that. We found 1 last week and 2 yesterday. This transfer has been a true test of my faith and patience so far. We are trying and I know it will work out. It reminds me a lot of Kettering and West Chester when they started out but it will grow. :) 

This last week was fun, I had exchanges last tuesday, and we have been getting to know the ward and just laughing together really. But yesterday was just INCREDIBLE! :) Yesterday as a mission, we found 234 NEW INVESTIGATORS! It was a miracle! My zone found 50 new investigators! It was so cool. My district and another district went to a park and drew out a HUGE plan of Salvation and then went out and TALK TO EVERYONE! We had a companionship find 12 new investigators yesterday! It was amazing! I have never seen so many miracles in one day. 

It is amazing to be a missionary. To see the Lord's hand in my life and other people's life daily! I can see His hand in EVERYTHNG. If you can't see His hand, then you look harder. I can promise that each of us receive His hand and are his hands EVERY SINGLE DAY! Look for the miracles! See what Heavenly Father is willing to do for you when you do his will. Heavenly Father loves us all and I can bear testimony of that. I know That Christ is my Savior and Redeemer and he stepped up to the plate because I needed him, you needed him, everyone needed Him. I will testify of that forever. I know that it is only through Jesus Christ and that we can look forward with hope in every new day. If I did not have Him on my right hand and on my left, I would not be here today. I am grateful for the blessing of the Atonement and the chance that I have to start over everyday. Heavenly Father wants us all to return to Him, what are we doing today to make sure that everyone possible is going to make it? 

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

Love, 

Sister Shaw

New Area.....And 9 MONTHS!!!!

NEW Address.......

4 arbor cir #419

Cincinnati Oh 45255

WOW! This week is my half way mark! I cannot believe it! I am going to hit 9 months on wednesday! CRAZY! :)

Well. I guess everyone is wondering where I am... :) I am in the Cherry Grove ward. It is in Cincinnati and we have 3 sets of missionaries in this ward. Out of 6 missionaries, only 2 stayed so yes that means that Sister Fausett and I were "doubled in". So it has been an interesting week.

Before I get into what this area is like, I want to say what my companion is like. She is 19 from Eagle Mountain, Utah. She has been out for 5 months and has served in Hunnington, Indiana (Fort Wayne area). She is soooo sweet and like to do German Long sword fighting. :) She calls herself a nerd. She is just too cute. I love her to death already!

But yes. My area is a 10 minute drive from where we live haha. We live like right next to the other sisters in our ward, Sister Burton (Stayed here and has been out for 3 months) and Sister Lewis (She came from Middletown, was in my last zone, and I came out with her:)). So it fun to have them close. We work out with them in the morning and stuff. Fun stuff. Our area is very hilly with TONS of beautiful large green trees. and the houses here are pretty huge! There is a reds baseball player that lives in my area so that kinda explains how much money is here haha. So we have a lot of work to do here... we came in with 0 investigators and still haven't found any. It is definitely going to be hard but I know Sister Fausett and I are going to change this place!

I know because we fasted and we are learning A LOT about faith! We read Ether 12:6. After the trial of our faith we will be rewarded :) I know this is going to be awesome because of my faith in Jesus Christ.

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

Sister Shaw

Transfers!!!

So... Yes. I am getting Transferred! I am so sad to leave Kettering. This feels like my home. I don't know how to do missionary work without it. :( But it is going to be a good adventure.

Well. In other news. I had a good week :) We FINALLY reached double digit member presents. haha. yup 10 member presents this week. It was awesome. We also got 2 of our investigators to church this week. One is this guy who has been coming for a month now. That is always a good thing :) and then the other is a kid who is 15. He walked to church and then after 20 minutes he left because the talks inspired him to go do something nice for his mom. It was cool to see that church inspired him to do something. He promised also that he would stay the whole time this next week. But yeah. Our investigators are awesome and I am sad to leave them. :(

Well. I hope you all have a good week. We will see what is going to happen next week! :)

love

Sister Shaw

p.s. I am dying my hair dark today. Hopefully it turns out :)

Sister side note.......Yesterday we got to skype with Sister Shaw.  She looks so happy and is truly enjoying her mission! She thanks everyone for the prayers on her behalf and all the support she has been given.  She sends her love to everyone!!

Transfers??

This has been another hard working week. I guess every week is a hard working week though haha. :) We had a lot of success this week though. Sister Anderson is just such a hard worker so it helps me want to do the same.

We found a lot this week, and we taught a lot this week. We just did a lot this week. It was fantastic. I am happy and satisfied with my work so I know the Lord is also. That is an incredible feeling :)

We are still working a lot of investigators and trying to get them to come to church. We haven't had too much success with all of that but hey. If I am trying my best, I will have the grace of the Lord. :)

This week I have really been working on the importance of the Book of Mormon. We have these DVDs of our mission President going through the first couple of verses in the Book of Mormon and how much they have to offer. It is INSANE! I love it. So I have been reading the book of Mormon and asking myself after every verse, why did Mormon put that scripture in the Book of Mormon for me? What does this verse have to offer me. So I am just going to say that... that has been incredible help! :)

Well... other than that... transfers are next week so send letters to the mission office :) Don't know if I will be staying or going :) I have only been here for 6 months :)

love you!

Sister Shaw

So it was another beautiful week in Kettering, Ohio. The nature is blooming and so is the work of the Lord. We were lucky enough to find 4 of Heavenly Father's children who were interested in the gospel. And able to get 2 of His children to church.

It is so amazing to be apart of this work. We had a couple come to church yesterday with their 2 sons. This week was not an easy week for them and I have to say that I was kind of surprised that they made it. I am so happy that they did. They enjoyed it a lot and that just made me so happy.

I love to have this chance to share the gospel with others. So many people do not understand what Heavenly father has to offer us! We are so lucky to already have the gospel in our lives. The gospel truly does improve the quality of our lives! I have seen that over and over again. I know that we have so many blessings for being obedient to the gospel. John 8:31-32 :)

I was reading the scriptures this week and I came across 2 Nephi 11:4-6. Nephi is talking about how he loves to tell his people about Christ. I know it is such a blessing. My soul delights in sharing the truth about Jesus Christ like Nephi.

I know that this is the Lord's kingdom on the Earth and that the Book of Mormon can tell us EVERYTHING we need to do to be happy. I invite people to do this all day every day and I have seen so many people blessed for it. Keep reading the scriptures. Those who study the scriptures more, love the scriptures more.

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

Love,

Sister Leslie Shaw

3 Nephi 5:13

Ohio is green....no sprinklers!!

 Funny tree we saw when out walking.......

 The sweet miamaids in our ward gave us flowers.......

 Hit my 8 month mark!!!!!

Happy Easter from Cincinnati

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter! I really enjoyed mine. :) This ward is great. We had a nice young couple feed us dinner. they actually let Zoye come join last minute too. It was her first time celebrating Easter! How crazy is that? We gave her some eggs that Sister andrson's parents sent her and a "Finding Faith in Christ" DVD. haha. good stuff. We also had one of our investigators invite us over for dinner. Luckily she is old and couldn't tell we didn't eat. haha. Lucky me :) She gave us left overs so we went and gave them to a member who was spending the holiday allow in his small apartment. We dropped it off thinking that he would know it was us but we got a text like 20 minutes later that said thank you. Dang it! haha. :)

But yeah. That was my Easter :) The rest of the week was great also. We found people to teach and we finally got some one to church! It was such a great feeling to have someone at church again! I am so blessed to have the opportunity to help others come unto Christ!

Being a missionary is awesome and I love the support that I have. The mission is obviously not easy but I love EVERY second of it! I work my butt off every day and come home and almost cry because I am so happy to see my bed. And yet I wake up every day excited to see what it had in store for me, to see what way I am going to bless someone that day. It is incredible. Even though it is hard, I just remember to "Press on!" Which I read is like the slogan of the Human race. Remember to Persevere. Success has a price and if we don't pay that price, we will pay the price of failure.

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

love

Sister Leslie Shaw :) <3