2020- Week 51(Dec 14- Dec 20)

 I took Melinda breakfast for her birthday. She has the coolest Christmas tree that plays music and has all kinds of light patterns. It came with a remote to change things and Bronson knows how to work it like a whiz. He likes to carry it around and change the colors and song. It was so cute to watch him. I have been trying to teach him to say more in sign language for a long time and while we were eating I showed him again and he did it. We were so excited and were cheering and clapping so then he kept doing it and clapping for himself ha ha. 

I decided against doing this black and white tile on our hearth. 

Whitney and I have been watching the Bachelorette- our favorite part is the memes people post after an episode. They are so funny and so accurate ha ha.

I made these popcorn snowmen to give to my activity day boys.

We got a new rug for the living room.

I made baked potatoes and one them exploded ha ha. I pierced all of them. Normally I cook them in foil but I didn't have any.

I babysat Bronson and he was being such a good father to his baby. 

We picked a carpet color. The floors won't be finished until the middle of February.

We chose the lighter one on the bottom

We finished reading the Book of Mormon. I have loved studying this great book for Come Follow Me. We have gained so much new insight.

I see people making chocolate bombs everywhere so I attempted to make some in the shape of Christmas trees. I was babysitting Ally at the time and thought it would be fun to make some as a gift for her mom. Only one of them came out of the mold cleanly but when I tried to cover the top with chocolate to seal it the chocolate was too hot and it melted the whole thing. I still put it in a cup and poured hot milk over it and it was delicious.

Melinda sent me this fun picture of her kids. Bronson's face is so darn cute.

The Shaw's good family friend Marj Grames passed away. She lived in Tom and Sharon's ward and was so supportive of our family. She was like another grandma. She was 92 years old. They gave out chocolate bars at her viewing- what a fun idea.

There have been some gorgeous sunrises and sunsets lately.

On Sunday we went back to church. We had been staying home to make sure Whitney didn't get sick in the middle of her clinicals. After church we made ginger bread houses. 

Ashtyn found out on Monday that she was getting transferred on Wednesday but then on Tuesday they called and told her to pack up because an ice storm was coming so they were transferring her that night. That stressed her out a bit and she had a hard first day there. Her new area is Calvert County Maryland and she lives in Port Republic. Her companions are Sister Beckstrand and Sister Castillow. Sister Castillow is from Rexburg and lives in my best friend Lindseys ward. 

Here is Ashtyn's letter for the week:

Olá! Tudo bem? Eu estou muito feliz e animada! This week has been quite the adventure to say the least! I guess to start off, I was transferred on Tuesday to Calvert county! It was crazy because transfers weren't supposed to happen till Wednesday, but because an ice strom was coming in they decided to move it up! We spent pretty much the whole day packing Sister Williams and I up and cleaning the apartment! I then had my final lesson with Nelson and headed off to transfers! It was so hard to leave Sister Williams and I definitely shed some tears. She is amazing and literally changed my life! But guess who I finally met in person?? SISTER BAILEY!!! I was walking around trying to find my new comps and I saw her and started freaking out! We immediately ran and hugged each other and it was so so good to finally meet her! She is the cutest girl and I am so glad we are serving in the same mission! Anyway I then found my new comps, Sister Beckstrand and Sister Castillow (who are absolutely incredible and the cutest) packed my things in the car and drove an hour and a half to my new area! I live in the basement of a non-member family and it is awesome! We are literally out in the middle of nowhere and have to drive 30 min to an hour to get anywhere haha. But it is amazing and I am adjusting well. 

Anyway this week we focused a lot of our time on finding. Before Sister Castillow and I arrived here (Sister Beckstrand had already been here) they dropped a bunch of people so we are trying to build our teaching pool back up. We are teaching a few amazing people though including a woman named Jessica! Jesssica is so celestial! She has such a strong desire to be baptized and do what's right she just wants to gain that testimony for herself. We told her that is what we are here for and she is so excited to continue on! We are also teaching a kid named Hunter who had a rough upbrining and struggles with some addictions, but he is amazing! He does have a desire to change, he is just having a hard time putting into action the commitments that we give him. One cool thing that I am excited for is to give him a Book Of Mormon. Last zone conference our mission Presidents gave us a Book Of Mormon and told us to mark scriptures within it that bring us peace. They then told us to prayfully think of who we could give it to for Christmas. I prayed a lot in my last area but never had a name or strong impression come to mind. However when I have been praying here I have strongly felt that this Book Of Mormon needs to go to Hunter! I am so excited to give it to him and hopefully it gives him a lot of peace and comfort. Finally we are doing the recent convert lessons with a recent convert named Ken! Ken is a 71 year old man and he is the cutest! He has a hard family life so he loves talking to us! He loves to hunt and make fun of us haha. The people here are amazing and I am so excited to continue to get to know them! 

Anyway Christmas is this week and I am so excited! Christmas really takes on a new meaning when you are dedicating your time to serve the Lord. I have come to appreciate and really think deeply about the significance of Christmas. Jesus Christ, the king of kings, Lord of Lords descended from his throne for you and for me. He came down to save us. He overcame everything for you and me. He did not have to but he willingly did. Absolutely Incredible!! I encourage you all to think about this and to really take time to center this Christmas around Christ. He can heal you and comfort you if you let him. "Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus" I hope everyone has an amazing week and Merry Christmas!!!

-Sister Shaw

Pics:

1. My cutie companions

2. Mission Barbeque!

3. Kissing Gaithersburg goodbye:(

4. Exericse time and it is so cold you get frost on  your eyelashes

5. Sister Bailey!!!

6. More Mission Barbeque

2020- Week 50 (Dec 7- Dec 13)

We made some sugar cookies for something fun to do and made them into trees. During the baking I got a Marco Polo from Liz announcing her engagement and so I totally forgot about the first batch and they burned ha ha. 

Found a Washington DC puzzle at the store and had to get it in honor of Ashtyn.

Still trying to decide on a floor.

I finally got my copy of Michel's book! Hooray. It is darling. It's sold on Amazon.

I hit the jackpot and found actual Clorox wipes at the store.

We went to Hobby Lobby to pick out ornaments. I think everyone else had the same idea because it was a bit crowded. Here is what everyone chose.

Whitney loved the colors of this nutcracker

Ethan chose these teeth in honor of getting his braces off this year.

Jeff had to have the tiny Bob Ross.

Daisy had dental work done and we had to switch her to soft food for a week. Well after the week she will not eat the dry food any more so looks like she will be a Cesar dog from now on and we will be paying a lot more for food ha ha.

Look at how excited she gets to eat it.

Friday I took lunch to Malia so we could catch up. I loved getting to see her and Ruby.

Our neighbor works for Larry H Miller and they gave out 200 tickets to the Jazz game on Saturday night. He couldn't use them and gave them to us. I was so nervous about crowds but there weren't any. It was amazing. We weren't super close to any one and we had a great view and it was such a fun night. We also grabbed dinner from Crown Burger.

On Sunday we went to a live nativity in Herriman. Melissa went the night before and recommended it. It was very crowded but they were doing a good job of keeping everyone in line and we all had on masks and it was outside so hopefully we stayed safe. There was a real camel and a real baby Jesus. They had a little town of Bethlehem set up where you had to give your family name and see if you owed taxes. Then they gave you a small bag of coins as a refund for over paying. There were tiny stores where you could use the fake coins to buy items that represented parts of the nativity story- A nail, a star, a candle, Frankincense and Myrrh and a dreidel. Then we got to go into the stable and see the baby and Mary and Joseph by ourselves. I started crying- what a special spirit. It was really cold outside but so worth the wait.

We got to talk to Ashtyn and had a great visit. It is always so awesome to get to see her face and hear how she is doing. They finished up the 12 days and loved them:

I also sent Walmart gift cards with a Christmas story for each of them and hand written note and some bottles of body soap and hand sanitizer.

Here is her letter for the week:

Olá! I hope everyone is doing amazing! I sure am and I seriously am so lucky to get to serve here in DC! This week was filled with lots of finding, a couple lessons, birthdays, 911 calls, a mission tour, and transfer news!

I guess to start I am getting transferred! Really bittersweet because I love it so much here in Gaithersburg! Every single person I have met has changed my life and I Iearned a lot about being a missionary here. But change is good and I am really excited for this new chapter! I will be going about an hour and a half away from here to Calvert County! From what I have heard it is really beautiful and filled with farm land. I will also have two new companions so that is super exciting! 

But anyway my last week in Gaithersburg was really good!:) To start we celebrated Sister Brooks 22nd birthday this week! It was so fun to spend a birthday on the mission and we had a lot of fun going out to eat and stopping by a candy store. We also had the priviledge of having a member of the seventy speak to our mission for three days! Elder Bennet and his wife did a three day mission tour over zoom and it was amazing! I learned a some amazing things and left feeling incredibly motivated! I did want to share one thing I learned from this tour. Elder Bennet talked about how God's purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. God loves us. He could be focusing on so many things but he chooses to focus on us and our eternal salvation. Christ's purpose is then to do the will of his Father so thus Christ's purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Christ performed the atonement allowing everyone to receive immortality and repent of their sins, thus giving us the opportunity to receive eternal life. Finally our purpose is to follow Christ and align our will with God's. Thus our purpose is to bring to pass eternal life of man, since immortality is already a gift given by the Savior. How amazing is that!! Our purpose on life is to progress and bring to pass the eternal life of man! So share the gospel! It will bring you more joy and blessings then you can imagine! 

Speaking of sharing the gospel, this week was a bit of a slow week in terms of missionary work. A lot of our friends have been really busy and we haven't been able to meet with them as often:( We also found out that our friend Adrian isn't even in our mission so we have to send him over, but maybe a new set of missionaries is just what he needs! We were able to have a really good lesson with our friend JC about Joseph Smith this week. We showed him a video about the first vision and he said he was "mesmerized". He is just awesome and I can see him potentially getting baptized in the near future! We also spent a lot of time organizing our area book and calling people, some of who we are calling again soon! 

Anyway I think that's about it for this week! Remember remember that God chooses to focus on you and YOU are his child! I hope everyone has a fabulous week!

Tchau Tchau

-Sister Shaw

p.s. about the 911 call! We are totally fine and safe we just had a guy really high on drugs pass out in front of our apartment. But the ambulance came and hopefully he is good!

Pictures:

1. Decorating Cookies!

2. Sister Williams and her children! (Sister Moon is another sister, Sister Williams trained)

3-5. Some of the cutest members everr