Great Expectations

Hey Family,

Thanks for all the emails and of course, i love the photos too! It looks like
Milo has developed Kilie´s "scrunchy face".It sounds like everbody has been
pretty busy there, which is good because we´ve been busy here.

This week was pretty tough. We started out well and had a bunch of lessons
adn found a few new people to teach(which is good because the people we have
right now aren´t progressing much). But after the first few days everything
slowed way down as we went to interviews. At interviews President Torgan
always gives trainings so its like going to another Zone Conference so we´re
always in for a treat. This "Conference" was different however because this
time i realized what i got myself into by being in this Zone. Apparently,
this is one of the most difficult areas to work. The Azores(islands) have
been known to be the hardest to work in because of the strong Catholic
background and history but right now the Algarve´s(southern Portugal) is
having the most problems keeping our numbers up. We lost alot of Elders in
this last transfer but president said that that wasn´t an excuse. He then
read 2 Nephi 1:23 and told us that the Algarve needs to "wake up". He also
said that a lot would be expected and that work woud be really difficult. He
even gave us the opportunity to leave and said that if anyone wasn´t up to
the work he would transfer us somewhere else. But nobody raised their hand.
Then we had our interviews and mine was great. President Torgan said alot of
things in the conference that were really powerful that we need to apply to
the work so things should get better. In my interview he told me alot about
the history of my area and what he expects me and Elder Jones to accomplish.
Needless to say i´ve been really stressed over the last two days and will
probably be for the remainder of my time in the Algarve and probably in
Portugal too. But the future should be better so i´ll be fine.

This week in language news i gave my first blessing in portuguese. I didn´t
have much of a choice in the matter because Elder Jones stole the oil from
me before the blessing so i had to do the blessing. It was good and i really
noticed the difference from giving a blessing in english and portuguese.
I´ve given a few in english but in portuguese you really have to rely on the
spirit to know what to say, especially when your vocabulary is as small as
mine. I´m also teaching a lot more. I´ve found that I take more
opportunities to talk and answer questions now instead of letting my
companion do that.

Feel free to send that copy of the phone call in the next box. I dont think
it should be a problem. This transfer i´ve also payed myself back all the
personal money i spent on transportation last transfer so done worrry about
money. Elder Jones keeps telling me that i should use it to buy a portuguese
suit or ties or something else that i dont need right now but i´ve decided
to save it instead. And it looks like Mikey will have more time to
"namorar"(ask Mikey) now that he´s out of the house.

Well, i dont know what else i can say other than I´m feeling good and i´m
still working. We´ve got big expectations to live up to so we should be
really busy this week. Thanks for all the love, support, and prayers!
Amo-lhes!

Élder Haws