2021- Week 15(Apr 12- Apr 18)

 My dad sold and closed on his house this week! Hooray. They got what they wanted out of it. One house down and one more to go. Now they have to sell Yvonnes house.

I am still visiting Cheri every week. I really want to see her as much as I can before she passes. Some days she seems great and others she is not well at all. I feel bad for Mike. 

I can't imagine what he must be feeling. 

They sent us home early from work on Tuesday and then cancelled work on Wednesday due to weather. I wasn't too sad. Ethan had a doctors appointment on Tuesday so I was able to take him myself. He has been having severe leg pain in both legs. He's been playing ultimate for two months now so I feel like that is enough time to adjust to the added stress on your body. I'm thinking he might have shin splints. We have to go see a sports medicine doctor next week. They gave him a check up at this appointment and he is not even on the chart for his BMI- Ha ha sounds about right for us. They also did several tests for Marfan's Syndrome. He exhibits a few of the traits of this disease so I wanted to be sure he didn't have it because it can cause all kinds of heart problems. Although he does look like someone with Marfan he failed every other physical test so we don't think he has it. That is a relief to know. 

He's 6 feet tall and 125 lbs. 

Seeing him sitting under the Curious George wallpaper made me picture him as a tiny little guy again. He said we need to switch to an adult doctor.

All ready for work and it got cancelled.

The Clarks Malasada truck is back around. Elissa and I went and grabbed some. Oh how I have missed their sugary goodness.

Ethan had two games this week. It was pouring rain for both. Jeff and I only stayed for the first one because he had to get back to work. They lost both but it was fun to watch him play.

 I could tell he was freezing.

I really need to get a rug by the door. Daisy tracks in mud frequently.

Julia's daughter Susan died. I didn't know her as well as Cheri but I am really sad for Julia. 

We went to her celebration of life. They had a cute display and one of the things that stood out was they were serving "Susans Hors D'oeuvres " It was things like cut up hot dogs and saltines with avocado spread. I loved that personal touch.

Our neighbor Ceilia is getting married. I was invited to her bridal shower. We played games and it was so fun. Our team won the toilet paper dress challenge. I also won the design her a dress challenge.

I absolutely love Emily Belle Freeman. She shared this message on her social media this week and I love it.

When work got cancelled on Wednesday I invited Scarlett to come over for tea since work was cancelled for her too. I found a new cold infusion tea that we both really liked. She is pregnant. I am so excited for her to be a mom. 

Our garbage disposal went out and leaked all over the cupboard. Why we have so many water problems I do not know- maybe because our house is getting older. What do you do? 

Whitney made the most delicious Oreo truffles. We had my mom come over for dinner and then we watched Relative Race together.

I am reading this amazing book. It is all about gangs and how compassion changes even the most hardened individual. Really great!

Ashtyn's email:

Olá de Gaithersburg!! Holy Cow I am so excited to be back in my home land! DC was amazing but I definitely love being more in the suburbs! It is so fun to be here in the spring time because everything is green and blooming! But this week has been good, transfers were a little hard and tears were shed but we are good! My two cutie companions are Sister Richards and Johnson and all of us were originally assigned to Portugal! Oh I'm also technically a temple visitor center Sister because both Sister Richards and Johnson were reassigned as Visitor Center Sisters! And that means I get to give virtual tours of the Visitor Center! So if anyone wants to see the beautiful DC temple let me know! Super exciting and also kind of nerve wracking! 

Anyway I guess for some updates on people we are teaching: we are teaching this guy named Max who I actually met with a few times when I was here before, so it's cool to see that he is still being taught! He is doing pretty well...we had a lesson with him on the Restoration and he said if God came down and told him it was true then he would believe:( I tried to real quick pull put an analogy with the wind and how we can feel it but we cant see it, but we know that it is there. That's the same way it is with God. If we could always see everything and have signs there would be no need to have faith. But anyway we then invited him to church and told him we could even go early with him and give him a tour! He told us he works till really late and sleeps all day so he probably wouldn't be able to make it. But on Sunday we get a text from him asking for the church address! He came and we gave him a quick tour of the building and then convinced him to stay for the meeting! Afterward he said it was nice, so hopefully things can go up from here! Besides Max we are working with a few inactives and we received a referral named Joshua who wants to come closer to God! But ya things are pretty slow around here but we are spending lots of time finding and I know God has people prepared for us! 

But I think that's about it for this week, still haven't heard much of anything about Portugal but I'm pretty sure they are working on our visas right now! Super exciting but I love it here in Maryland and am going to soak it up as much as possible! I hope everyone has an amazing week! Tchau Tchau!

-Sister Shaw

Pictures:

1-5. Goodbyes in Eastern Market:(

6-7. District!

8. Chalk finding 

9. Maryland is so pretty!!

10. Titanic memorial!

2021- Week 14(Apr 5- Apr 11)

 At work this week I was in the school one day. I have loved refreshing my memory on the Deseret Alphabet. I also am loving the animals everywhere. This family of deer let me watch them for a good ten minutes. I read a wonderful story about being content with what you have in an old 1940's book. I also worked at the Andrus Home and finally figured out where the signature window was. It's in the ceiling and you can see the owners signature on the boards. It was really cold that day and outside I found ice that looked like broken glass.

Ashtyn asked me to order Baylee and Rylee birth flower necklaces from Made by Mary for their birthdays. We were excited to find out that the March birth flower is the cherry blossom and so I included a picture of Ashtyn with the cherry blossoms with their gifts. Hard to believe these girls are 

20 now.

Brody and Brooklyn slept over. We had fun walking to the 7-11 and getting Slurpee's. Brooklyn and I stopped at the park on the way home and there were some other kids playing too. She wanted to play with them and as she approached they said Hi. Thinking they were talking to her she said Hi back and then they told her that they weren't talking to her. It made her so sad. I said next time just say back "Well I was talking to you so Hi!" We also ate homemade pizza. Aleah came over to play with Brooklyn and Brody and Ethan coded a whole game together. We took Kevin and Melinda to Texas Roadhouse to thank them for their help on the backsplash. Man I love the food there. 

Whitney and Rhett broke up. She was so so heartbroken. She cried herself to sleep and then even called in sick to work because she couldn't function. Then the very next day they got back together. It was a roller coaster of emotions. A few days later they decided to just be friends. I think it is for the best. We really like Rhett but he has a lot he is dealing with right now and needs to focus on himself. I think it was nice that he came back into her life but a friendship is best for now. Jeff and I knew she was sad so we decided to take her on a drive to see the sunset. It was really cold so we mostly stayed in the car. We took Daisy too which was a huge mistake and she whined the whole time. I found that if I bounced her in the air like a baby she calmed down.

Ashtyn's email for the week:

Olá tudo bem! I hope everyone has had a amazing week! This week was awesome and also filled with some nerves because I knew transfers was coming up! But before I share my transfer news, I will give some updates on what's been going on!

So our area is going well, we had a super awesome lesson with Cornelius about temples and he said he felt like it was the missing piece! He also said he wants to go up to Philadelphia and see the temple sometime! Things are definitely looking up! We had two lessons this week with some newer friends named Calvin and Brandon who are both pretty involved in their own churches but are interested in learning more about what our church offers! Also our cute friend Vonna who we've been teaching for a while dropped us:( she really was never interested in learning more and told us that she felt like the things we were teaching weren't true:( super sad, but she is a cutie and we are still going to keep on contact with her every so often! We also had our friend Christopher come to church with us this week! He was originally being taught in California and then got passed to us a few weeks ago and actually lives in our same apartment building haha! Oh I also had my first lesson at someone's house! We taught a member and we got to go to her house because of our new guidelines! So fun and so cool! Anyway I think that's about all the updates for now. Now for transfer news......

I am going back to Gaithersburg!!! It's the area I got trained in and I am so so excited to be back! I'm going to be with two sisters who are also originally assigned to Portugal! Wahoo!!!

Anyway before I sign off, I will leave you with a little spiritual thought:) This past week I read the conference talk in 2015 about Ponderizing scriptures! It's where you pick a scripture and think about it deeply and memorize it! I started doing it this week with Jacob 7:5 and it was so amazing! There is a line that says "... and I could not be shaken." That then lead me to think about the opposite of the word shaken, which I decided was immovable, and i read this amazing quote from another conference talk: "I can envision the Savior holding our faces between His hands and pleading with each of us individually to remain steadfast and immovable and faithful to the God who made us." So so good!!! So I invite everyone to start ponderizing! Pick a scripture this week and give it a try! It will change the way you look at things and will help you strengthen your testimony! Anyway I love everyone and hope you have a great week! Tchau Tchau!

- Sister Shaw

Pictures:

Honestly I feel like the worst and this is one of the only photos I have! I'll send more next week!!

2021- Week 13(Mar 29- Apr 4)

Ethan's birthday marked the start of Spring Break so he got lucky and didn't have to go to school. He wanted money mostly this year and then we got him a few other things he needed. He wanted donuts instead of cake and we went to Marley's for dinner. His friend Nicole works there and gave us a discount. We pretty much had the place all to ourselves except for one other family who happened to be the owner of Jeff's original Nielson Elgren company- small world. They sell slider size burgers that were perfect for me and they also have such an amazing assortment of fries and onion rings that were all so delicious! His friends gave him a pony ride and sang to him for his special day.

Such fun old time decorations.

Ethan has a bucket list and one of the things on it was to stay up for 2 days straight. I thought this was a crazy idea but since it was Spring Break I said OK. He did dose off a few times but I think for the most part he actually did stay awake.

We got to talk to Ashtyn on Easter and also on Monday which was so fun! She also got to visit the DC cherry blossoms which I am so jealous about. They were beautiful! This is her email for the last two weeks:

Olá tudo bem! I hope everyone has had an amazing week! These past two weeks have been kinda crazy but good! I decided I'm going to combine last week with this week since I didn't get an email out last week! So I guess I'll get right in to it!

Two weeks ago was super fun and really busy! We had both exchanges with the sisters in our zone which is always so fun! We also had the opportunity to go over to our mission presidents house for the day and hang out with his two daughters! We had so much fun and played a little game of cupcake wars with them! We also had the opportunity to go to the bishops storehouse and serve! I had never served at one before and it was an amazing experience! We helped gather produce for other wards and stakes in the surrounding areas and it just made me so grateful to be a part of a church that loves and helps and reaches out to everyone regardless of economical status, race, ethnicity, and faith! We also had an exchange with the STLTs this past week which was so fun and all the cherry blossoms are out and it is a literal dream!!

I guess I can now give some updates on our friends! So one of the hardest things that happened is our friend Cornelius who was on date to be baptized and so golden, decided he doesn't want to be baptized anymore:( we got on a call with him 2 weeks ago hoping to go over the logistics of his baptism and he told us. We aren't exactly sure all the reasons why but he came to us with a question about temple sealings that was concerning to him and then told us he couldn't be a mormon because he would always be questioning things. It shook us all pretty hard and lots of tears were shed. It is always so so hard when someone rejects a message they felt or knew was true at some point. While things like this are sooo hard I try to think of this video by Elder Holland titled "Missionary Work and the Atonement". He talks about how salvation is NOT a cheap experience because it was not a cheap experience for Christ. So whenever we are rejected or turned down we are standing with the best life that ever lived. So ya really challenging but everything is in Gods timing and it will work out perfectly. Other than that we started teaching someone named Calvin who is pretty Baptist but is interested in the differences between our two churches. We invited him to conference and he said he would watch a little! We also started teaching someone who was formerly taught named Victor! Hes amazing and in his lesson we talked about baptism and asked him if that is something he desires and he said yes! I am so excited to continue to work with him and see him come closer to our Savior!

This week was also Easter and I hope everyone had an incredible week! Celebrating Easter as a missionary was so special and meant a lot more to me then it maybe has in the past. Jesus Christ is Risen and lives. He lives for me and for you. He loves us and everything everything he did was out of love. Not for fame not for Glory. Conference was also amazing and I hope everyone soaked it up and felt the spirit! I want to challenge everybody to take Elder Bednar's challenge of keeping the talks from conference right next to your scriptures and study them just as much over these next 6 months! I know we will see immense blessings and feel the spirit so strong as we do!

But ya I think that's about all! Things are good and also our COVID restrictions have lightened up a little and we can go inside people's houses!! Washington DC is so good and I love being here! I hope everyone has an amazing week! 

-Sister Shaw

70 I St. SE Washington DC, 20003

Pictures:

I started work again for the first time in a year. Since we can not do traditional field trips I will be working at the various sites instead. My first day I got to be the train conductor. It was so fun and also so so cold. At one point I couldn't even speak my brain just froze- literally. By mid day I had the script down pat and when no one was riding I got to sit in the cab with the driver and get warmed up. My fourth great grandfather Edward Robinson was the first railroad conductor in the world so it was an honor to get to play this role. Another plus is that the pants are men's sizes so they fit my legs perfectly. I am not scheduled on the train again right now so I am glad I got a chance to try it out.

I also volunteered to work in the livery this week so I bought me a pair of Mucks since I knew that I would be mucking stalls as one of my duties. It was so fun but a lot of work. I helped out in the barn showing people our new baby animals. We had a sheep named Cleopatra give birth to two little precious baby lambs. That was so fun!

Speaking of lambs. Julie F. and I decided to give our ministering sisters a lamb since Easter is not about a bunny it's about a lamb. I have seen that saying so many places but no one sells lambs anywhere so I was thrilled to find these at the Quilted Bear.

Kevin and Melinda came over and helped us grout the backsplash. Once that was finished we decided to put our house back in order since the shiplap wall will not be happening until later in the month. It was so nice to have my house back! We got the vents cleaned which was nice too. Jeff took the chair he had borrowed for Ashtyn's MTC back to work and we were surprised that it fit in the back seat. Jeff's parents gave us their old mattress so we were able to get rid of the even older one we had been sleeping on. I am loving my new rugs and the new white desk we bought to replace the red one.

We hosted Shaw family dinner on Sunday which was also Easter. I did a passover type meal. We had roast, herbed baby potatoes, apple fall salad, Kristy made flat bread, I made a charcuterie board with cheeses and nuts and veggies and I also made roasted brussel sprouts. Jeff told me not to make them because no one likes them but everyone did like them. I love them so I will definitely make them again. We had the kids read the Easter story with my Easter eggs and I gave everyone a Rose of Jericho plant to take home and remind them of the resurrection. Malia made yummy mini cheesecakes for dessert. Whitney also invited Rhett to come to dinner and meet the family. Ethan and I made our traditional Resurrection Rolls for breakfast on Sunday morning. It was also General Conference this weekend so we got bagels too. I could not have asked for a better weekend. All of the talks touched me so much. It was wonderful.