Monday, June 28, 2010
Bolo João
This is a picture of the member who gives us cake every week. Its the same cake... every week... but its still good.
Tchau!
Tchau!
Fubecas
Hey Family,
I´m glad that everyone liked the photos i sent home, and if anybody wants a pair, they cost about 10 dollars(just so you know). And what you saw going on with my ankle is what i was telling you about. THAT is the bite situation. I´m doing better this week so i´m hoping i´ll be done with these bites around the time Mikey gets married.
But on to bigger and better things. This week may have been one of the wost weeks for missionary work that i have every had on my mission. We taught a grande total of 9 lessons...9! As many native missionaries who speak a little english would say, "Dat sucks". (sorry for the language Mom). We also had interviews with president Torgan last week so that took an entire day. And we also had to do another division with the other Elders in their area because of visas on another day so thats about two days gone down the drain. Other than that the week was good. We had a few things go differently than planned, such as the moving of one of our baptisms but our investigators dad to August. Unfortunatly we need his permission to baptize this girl so we had no say in it. He pulled me aside after church yesterday and told me. There wasn´t much i could do except ask why. He reasoning for moving the baptism was because his girlfriends family is coming for their wedding and he wants them to be there for it. Its good he wants them to be there but its irritating he told us this a week before the baptism. Our other invetigator who we want to baptize didnt come to church yesterday and seems to be running from us and everyone else from the church. I had a bad feeling that these baptisms were pretty "liquid" but now things aren´t looking too good. We need a miracle to baptize this guy this week so please pray for us. But the interesting thing is, with all that stuff that happened to us this week, i´m still really happy and postive which is something that President Torgan noticed in my interview.
My interview with him was short, as always, but was, as always, really good. He told me he was glad to see that i was happeier and i was glad that he didnt give me faca like i thought he was going to. He then told me i was a great missionary and told me to prepare to see a lot of miracles on my mission, somthing he´s told me many times before. Over all, it was a great interview but seemed to pass really fast.
In other news, me and the other Elders of Setúbal were "fubecas" last P-day and watched the Portugal game where they played North Korea. It was amazing because we killed them! 7-0 Baby! And whats funny was all the portuguese people here started talkng smack to all the Brazilians because Portugal scored seven goals on a team that Brazil only scored 2 on. There was a lot of antisipation leading up to the Brazil/Portugal game (which we didn´t watch) because we we sure there was going to be fights. And sure enough, there were. One brazilian guy ended up stabbing a portugese guy during or after the game, which caused some problems and sent all the other brazilians into hiding. It was disapointing that the game ended in a tie but aleast i dont have to listen to Mikey when i get home about how his team beat mine.
Mikey can probably tell you what a "fubeca" is but if not, let me know. President never told us not to watch the games, but basically told us to teach people before, during haltime, and after games. He just said that we cant use the games as an excuse for not teahing people. Some Elders though, have taken that advice from president, and over used it.
Thanks for checking jersey prices for me. I checked here and it apears that they cost around 100 US dolares here so it would be best if you guys got me one for chrstmas and just keep it at home for me till i get there.
We´ve got one more full week in this transfer and then i think one of us is gone. I think its going to be me that leaves, and so do the Elders in the office, the Elders in our district, and also the Elders in our Zone. So, in other words, i´m as good as gone. But i´m not too worried because who ever comes in should be walking into a lot better of an area than i did.
Well, i think thats it for news. Tell everyone "Happy 4th of July" for me. Next P-day we are going to have a Zone ceebration here in Setúbal so dont worry about me being home sick. Thanks for all the emails and prayers. Eu amo vocês!
Élder Haws
I´m glad that everyone liked the photos i sent home, and if anybody wants a pair, they cost about 10 dollars(just so you know). And what you saw going on with my ankle is what i was telling you about. THAT is the bite situation. I´m doing better this week so i´m hoping i´ll be done with these bites around the time Mikey gets married.
But on to bigger and better things. This week may have been one of the wost weeks for missionary work that i have every had on my mission. We taught a grande total of 9 lessons...9! As many native missionaries who speak a little english would say, "Dat sucks". (sorry for the language Mom). We also had interviews with president Torgan last week so that took an entire day. And we also had to do another division with the other Elders in their area because of visas on another day so thats about two days gone down the drain. Other than that the week was good. We had a few things go differently than planned, such as the moving of one of our baptisms but our investigators dad to August. Unfortunatly we need his permission to baptize this girl so we had no say in it. He pulled me aside after church yesterday and told me. There wasn´t much i could do except ask why. He reasoning for moving the baptism was because his girlfriends family is coming for their wedding and he wants them to be there for it. Its good he wants them to be there but its irritating he told us this a week before the baptism. Our other invetigator who we want to baptize didnt come to church yesterday and seems to be running from us and everyone else from the church. I had a bad feeling that these baptisms were pretty "liquid" but now things aren´t looking too good. We need a miracle to baptize this guy this week so please pray for us. But the interesting thing is, with all that stuff that happened to us this week, i´m still really happy and postive which is something that President Torgan noticed in my interview.
My interview with him was short, as always, but was, as always, really good. He told me he was glad to see that i was happeier and i was glad that he didnt give me faca like i thought he was going to. He then told me i was a great missionary and told me to prepare to see a lot of miracles on my mission, somthing he´s told me many times before. Over all, it was a great interview but seemed to pass really fast.
In other news, me and the other Elders of Setúbal were "fubecas" last P-day and watched the Portugal game where they played North Korea. It was amazing because we killed them! 7-0 Baby! And whats funny was all the portuguese people here started talkng smack to all the Brazilians because Portugal scored seven goals on a team that Brazil only scored 2 on. There was a lot of antisipation leading up to the Brazil/Portugal game (which we didn´t watch) because we we sure there was going to be fights. And sure enough, there were. One brazilian guy ended up stabbing a portugese guy during or after the game, which caused some problems and sent all the other brazilians into hiding. It was disapointing that the game ended in a tie but aleast i dont have to listen to Mikey when i get home about how his team beat mine.
Mikey can probably tell you what a "fubeca" is but if not, let me know. President never told us not to watch the games, but basically told us to teach people before, during haltime, and after games. He just said that we cant use the games as an excuse for not teahing people. Some Elders though, have taken that advice from president, and over used it.
Thanks for checking jersey prices for me. I checked here and it apears that they cost around 100 US dolares here so it would be best if you guys got me one for chrstmas and just keep it at home for me till i get there.
We´ve got one more full week in this transfer and then i think one of us is gone. I think its going to be me that leaves, and so do the Elders in the office, the Elders in our district, and also the Elders in our Zone. So, in other words, i´m as good as gone. But i´m not too worried because who ever comes in should be walking into a lot better of an area than i did.
Well, i think thats it for news. Tell everyone "Happy 4th of July" for me. Next P-day we are going to have a Zone ceebration here in Setúbal so dont worry about me being home sick. Thanks for all the emails and prayers. Eu amo vocês!
Élder Haws
Monday, June 21, 2010
2 on 2
Hey Family,
This week was a great week for us and we´re starting to see some hope here in Setúbal.
We didn´t see a whole lot of success when it came to numbers of lessons and people progressing but what we did see was two people who got marked for baptism! After 9 weeks we finally marked Mario for the 5th of July. We went to his house and had dinner with him and his wife, like we always do, then we taught a lesson to them where we marked him for baptism. For dinner we had rooster livers and chicken neck, which was weird, but i survived. The lesson we had started out strange because he brought up baptism then immediately said he wasn´t sure he wanted to be baptized because he wasn´t sure he wanted to follow the word of wisdom. He said it wsn´t a question of being able to, but more a question of desire. I prayed the whole time that Heavenly Father would inspire me to say the right thing, because at that time, i was clueless. Then, we he let me speak, i read a few scritpures to him that came to my mind and then just started talking. I didn´t really know where i was going with my speech, but it ended with us marking a date with him as a goal for baptism. Afterward i felt like i was on a high. Its still going to be a fight to get him baptized so i´m still a little worried but i know the Lord will help us out. We also went to see that Brazilian girl on Saturday, and the plan was to mark her for the next day, but we just ate dinner and left. We left right after dinner because it was 10:15 and the Mother in law had to go back and close up the building where she worked so i didnt think there was time. But a part of me felt that we should have tried to teach a lesson so afterward i felt pretty down. But the next day after church got out, i stopped the Brazilian girl and her dad and sat them down for a quick talk. I was a little worried because the dad always gives excuses when it comes to marking stuff but me and Elder Dalton were determined to mark his daughter. I started out by asking her if she wanted to be baptized and she quickly said yes, very enthusiastically. Then i asked the dad if he wanted her to be baptized and he reluctantly said yes. Those were the responses i anticipated so i told them that if they want it to happen, that we have to mark a date so we can work for it. The dad wasn´t liking the idea but after a bit of pushing we settled on a date. I got a feeling that this little girl is going to be hard to get in the water too because of the parents but we´re going to do our best to make she it happens.
We also had another lesson this week with our Brazilian family that we are teaching. We talked about baptism with them this week and they kind of freaked out. They started by saying they were already baptized into the catholic church so we had to explain that those baptisms weren´t valid. They really didnt like that so we had to explain just about everythingng we had taught them about the great apostasy again, but they still didnt like it very much. They kept saying the same things and asking the same questions but it never really got anywhere. But the strange thing was i wan´t nervous about teaching htat lesson like i normally am when we talk to people about baptism. I wasnt worried they would reject it or laugh or anything. I just felt calm and cool and confident. And even after the lesson i felt great even thought they didnt accept the invite because i had done everything i could. But i think the key to our success this week had a lot to do with the story Mikey sent me in his email last week. Every time we went into one of those lessons that story came to my mind and motivated me to stop "playing scared". Its funny because i realized that right now, i´m not playing 2 on 2, but more like 2 on 1 1/2 because i have a greenie as a comp. He tries hard and does a great job, but just doesnt have the language skills to help alot. If you guys don't understand what i´m talking about, you can ask Mikey and i´m sure he´ll tell you.
In other news, we had two sleep overs with the other Elders last week and they were pretty fun. On our P-day "division" we went around down town and we all bought "Gypsy Pants" (pictures to follow). They´re huge pants that girls wear here in the simmer time because they breathe really well, but they always have funky colors so missionaries always buy them as a joke. They´re way comfortable and have a super low crotch and look like MC Hammer pants. I also almost bought some jersies but they´re really expensive, so i wanted to ask you guys to check the prices for the red Portugal team jersey on line. If its cheaper to just get it off line at home, i´d rahter do that.
I´ve also goten alot of bug bites latley which is really annoying. Elder Dalton and I dont think they´re actually bug bites because he has been bitten at all so we´re thinking i might have an alergy to our laundry detergent. I know its probably not fleas because i think i had them in Cascais but these are different. I´ll keep you guys posted on the "bite" stautus.
Other than that i dont have much else to say. I got the box and uit was great. And i also got the pictures dad sent of Mikey.
Well, thanks for all the love and support. Eu amo vocês!
Élder Haws
This week was a great week for us and we´re starting to see some hope here in Setúbal.
We didn´t see a whole lot of success when it came to numbers of lessons and people progressing but what we did see was two people who got marked for baptism! After 9 weeks we finally marked Mario for the 5th of July. We went to his house and had dinner with him and his wife, like we always do, then we taught a lesson to them where we marked him for baptism. For dinner we had rooster livers and chicken neck, which was weird, but i survived. The lesson we had started out strange because he brought up baptism then immediately said he wasn´t sure he wanted to be baptized because he wasn´t sure he wanted to follow the word of wisdom. He said it wsn´t a question of being able to, but more a question of desire. I prayed the whole time that Heavenly Father would inspire me to say the right thing, because at that time, i was clueless. Then, we he let me speak, i read a few scritpures to him that came to my mind and then just started talking. I didn´t really know where i was going with my speech, but it ended with us marking a date with him as a goal for baptism. Afterward i felt like i was on a high. Its still going to be a fight to get him baptized so i´m still a little worried but i know the Lord will help us out. We also went to see that Brazilian girl on Saturday, and the plan was to mark her for the next day, but we just ate dinner and left. We left right after dinner because it was 10:15 and the Mother in law had to go back and close up the building where she worked so i didnt think there was time. But a part of me felt that we should have tried to teach a lesson so afterward i felt pretty down. But the next day after church got out, i stopped the Brazilian girl and her dad and sat them down for a quick talk. I was a little worried because the dad always gives excuses when it comes to marking stuff but me and Elder Dalton were determined to mark his daughter. I started out by asking her if she wanted to be baptized and she quickly said yes, very enthusiastically. Then i asked the dad if he wanted her to be baptized and he reluctantly said yes. Those were the responses i anticipated so i told them that if they want it to happen, that we have to mark a date so we can work for it. The dad wasn´t liking the idea but after a bit of pushing we settled on a date. I got a feeling that this little girl is going to be hard to get in the water too because of the parents but we´re going to do our best to make she it happens.
We also had another lesson this week with our Brazilian family that we are teaching. We talked about baptism with them this week and they kind of freaked out. They started by saying they were already baptized into the catholic church so we had to explain that those baptisms weren´t valid. They really didnt like that so we had to explain just about everythingng we had taught them about the great apostasy again, but they still didnt like it very much. They kept saying the same things and asking the same questions but it never really got anywhere. But the strange thing was i wan´t nervous about teaching htat lesson like i normally am when we talk to people about baptism. I wasnt worried they would reject it or laugh or anything. I just felt calm and cool and confident. And even after the lesson i felt great even thought they didnt accept the invite because i had done everything i could. But i think the key to our success this week had a lot to do with the story Mikey sent me in his email last week. Every time we went into one of those lessons that story came to my mind and motivated me to stop "playing scared". Its funny because i realized that right now, i´m not playing 2 on 2, but more like 2 on 1 1/2 because i have a greenie as a comp. He tries hard and does a great job, but just doesnt have the language skills to help alot. If you guys don't understand what i´m talking about, you can ask Mikey and i´m sure he´ll tell you.
In other news, we had two sleep overs with the other Elders last week and they were pretty fun. On our P-day "division" we went around down town and we all bought "Gypsy Pants" (pictures to follow). They´re huge pants that girls wear here in the simmer time because they breathe really well, but they always have funky colors so missionaries always buy them as a joke. They´re way comfortable and have a super low crotch and look like MC Hammer pants. I also almost bought some jersies but they´re really expensive, so i wanted to ask you guys to check the prices for the red Portugal team jersey on line. If its cheaper to just get it off line at home, i´d rahter do that.
I´ve also goten alot of bug bites latley which is really annoying. Elder Dalton and I dont think they´re actually bug bites because he has been bitten at all so we´re thinking i might have an alergy to our laundry detergent. I know its probably not fleas because i think i had them in Cascais but these are different. I´ll keep you guys posted on the "bite" stautus.
Other than that i dont have much else to say. I got the box and uit was great. And i also got the pictures dad sent of Mikey.
Well, thanks for all the love and support. Eu amo vocês!
Élder Haws
Monday, June 14, 2010
Killing Myself Trying
Hey Family,
Obrigado for all the emails. This was was just another day "paradise" this week, but things are looking up so i´m not worrying.
This week started really well. We started out by going to a brazilian family on monday and commited them to coming to church and them seemed excited to go. The husband even decided he wasn´t going to play soccor that day like he normally does because he wanted to go to church. They always love talking to us because i tell them jokes all the time and we have a good time but whenever it came time to give the lesson some of the family members would get weird. This week with them was normal but we had a great lesson and got them to promise to come to church.
Then, the next day we went to Zone conference and i had a chance to see all of my companions who are still serving as missionaries here(Wilson, Silva, Thomas, Dalton). I was sitting next to Elder Thomas when the meeting started and he turned to me out of nowhere and reminded me that 4 of my 6 companions were there. Interesting thought. The conference went well but at lunch Elder Wilson talked to me about my area and fed me a bunch of information about what has been said about my area in the office, which i found out later to be completly false. At the time i was really upset because of the stuff that he said was "going on" but right after lunch i talked to President Torgan and he cleared it up. I had gone up stairs to sit in the chapel to hide from president Torgan, so i wouldn´t have to talk to him, so i sat with another Elder there and just read the hymn book. Unfortunatly, instead of hiding from him, i backed myself into a corner, because he came upstairs early to try and fix the microphone in the chapel. I tried to avoid conversation by sinking deep into the church bench i was on but that didnt work, because he looked up and saw me and casualy started asking questions. He asked about the area and about my companion, which i figured he already knew the answers to but i went with it. Then afterward he told me that the Bishop of our ward really likes us and says we´re really hard workers. Thats somethign he repeated to me and Elder Dalton throughout the rest of the day. The rest of the conference was good, and President Torgan spent alot more time building us up than giving us more faca so that was good.
The rest of the week was good too. We had an amazing lesson with Mario were the spirit was really strong and invited him to be baptized, but he later denied the invite. Then we tried to invite another little brazilian girl to be baptized but the members she lives with say she isnt ready so she didnt accept either. We had planned on baptizing both of them this weekend and felt really good about it. We had prayed a few times and felt it was right but things just fell through again. The lesson we had with Mario was great and i really felt good about it. I felt like we did everything we could to mark him but it just didnt work out. The other lesson wasn´t very good and i felt like i should have pushed harder to mark her but i wussed out because of the parents. This week though we´re going to go at these people with fire. Either we´re baptizing this transfer our i´m going to kill myself trying.
Our experience in church yesterday was really great and worked as a kind of pick-me-up for us. That brazilian family(4 people) came to church and also another lady who we taught for the first time the day before came too with her brother and daughter. Alot of the people who normally come to church weren´t there so everyone who was there yesterday had been taught at least once by us. Afterward the councler to the bishop came up and grabbed me and asked why i wasn´t smiling because we had just brought two new families to church. He was really excited but i´ll be more excited when these people hav dates for baptism. The lady who brought her brother and daughter had talked to the sisters a long time ago and was almost baptized but wasnt because she had a lot of doubts and the sisters couldn´t explain them. So we invited her to church and during the class for the investigators and new members she asked a ton of questions and our ward mission leader and bishop took turns answering their questions while one of the new members kept trying to high five me and shake my hand because this family looks golden. He kept saying "congragulations!" while i was trying to make sure the investigators weren´t seeing him freak out. All in all it was a great day in church and it felt goo to show the members that we really are working hard out here.
In other news, today i´m with the Elders from the other side of Setúbal today because Elder Dalton is in Lisbon doing his Visa. Hopefully he doesnt get "lost" like i did when i went, but i gave him the phone so he´ll call when he gets back. He has to go today and tomorow so i have to stay with the other Elders for most of the next two days.
As for "faca", when people use that term here it means that someone is scolding you or something to that effect. I thought it was brazilian slang but i guess maybe it wasn´t if Mikey didnt know for sure.
And speaking of Mikey, tell him thanks for the email and also tell him his story did help alot. "Obrigado"
Thats funny about Mom and the Jeeps. Believe it or not, there aren´t alot of foresters here but i´m always sure to point them out when i see them. I´ve also started to notice more jeeps now too but i´m sure i cant spot them like mom can.
And according to my usuage of the said "slang", thats just what i´ve picked up form my years of living in the big city town of Idaho Falls. Spencer and Reggie got me started but on the mission i´ve had a few companions that have taken me back to those years. Elder Davis was one of them and now i´m serving with Elder Dalton, whos uses a bit of slang so i´ve gotten into the habit of using it when i speak. Also, Elder Davis spoke with a southern drawl and me and Elder Dalton are both country music fans so now i´ve started speaking with a little drawl of my own. So just imagine a hick from Idaho speaking big city slang with a drawl while throwing in random portuguese words, and you´ll have a good discription of me.
Well, times about up so i better go. Obrigado por tudo. Eu amo vocês.
Com Amor,
Elder Hawzinho
Obrigado for all the emails. This was was just another day "paradise" this week, but things are looking up so i´m not worrying.
This week started really well. We started out by going to a brazilian family on monday and commited them to coming to church and them seemed excited to go. The husband even decided he wasn´t going to play soccor that day like he normally does because he wanted to go to church. They always love talking to us because i tell them jokes all the time and we have a good time but whenever it came time to give the lesson some of the family members would get weird. This week with them was normal but we had a great lesson and got them to promise to come to church.
Then, the next day we went to Zone conference and i had a chance to see all of my companions who are still serving as missionaries here(Wilson, Silva, Thomas, Dalton). I was sitting next to Elder Thomas when the meeting started and he turned to me out of nowhere and reminded me that 4 of my 6 companions were there. Interesting thought. The conference went well but at lunch Elder Wilson talked to me about my area and fed me a bunch of information about what has been said about my area in the office, which i found out later to be completly false. At the time i was really upset because of the stuff that he said was "going on" but right after lunch i talked to President Torgan and he cleared it up. I had gone up stairs to sit in the chapel to hide from president Torgan, so i wouldn´t have to talk to him, so i sat with another Elder there and just read the hymn book. Unfortunatly, instead of hiding from him, i backed myself into a corner, because he came upstairs early to try and fix the microphone in the chapel. I tried to avoid conversation by sinking deep into the church bench i was on but that didnt work, because he looked up and saw me and casualy started asking questions. He asked about the area and about my companion, which i figured he already knew the answers to but i went with it. Then afterward he told me that the Bishop of our ward really likes us and says we´re really hard workers. Thats somethign he repeated to me and Elder Dalton throughout the rest of the day. The rest of the conference was good, and President Torgan spent alot more time building us up than giving us more faca so that was good.
The rest of the week was good too. We had an amazing lesson with Mario were the spirit was really strong and invited him to be baptized, but he later denied the invite. Then we tried to invite another little brazilian girl to be baptized but the members she lives with say she isnt ready so she didnt accept either. We had planned on baptizing both of them this weekend and felt really good about it. We had prayed a few times and felt it was right but things just fell through again. The lesson we had with Mario was great and i really felt good about it. I felt like we did everything we could to mark him but it just didnt work out. The other lesson wasn´t very good and i felt like i should have pushed harder to mark her but i wussed out because of the parents. This week though we´re going to go at these people with fire. Either we´re baptizing this transfer our i´m going to kill myself trying.
Our experience in church yesterday was really great and worked as a kind of pick-me-up for us. That brazilian family(4 people) came to church and also another lady who we taught for the first time the day before came too with her brother and daughter. Alot of the people who normally come to church weren´t there so everyone who was there yesterday had been taught at least once by us. Afterward the councler to the bishop came up and grabbed me and asked why i wasn´t smiling because we had just brought two new families to church. He was really excited but i´ll be more excited when these people hav dates for baptism. The lady who brought her brother and daughter had talked to the sisters a long time ago and was almost baptized but wasnt because she had a lot of doubts and the sisters couldn´t explain them. So we invited her to church and during the class for the investigators and new members she asked a ton of questions and our ward mission leader and bishop took turns answering their questions while one of the new members kept trying to high five me and shake my hand because this family looks golden. He kept saying "congragulations!" while i was trying to make sure the investigators weren´t seeing him freak out. All in all it was a great day in church and it felt goo to show the members that we really are working hard out here.
In other news, today i´m with the Elders from the other side of Setúbal today because Elder Dalton is in Lisbon doing his Visa. Hopefully he doesnt get "lost" like i did when i went, but i gave him the phone so he´ll call when he gets back. He has to go today and tomorow so i have to stay with the other Elders for most of the next two days.
As for "faca", when people use that term here it means that someone is scolding you or something to that effect. I thought it was brazilian slang but i guess maybe it wasn´t if Mikey didnt know for sure.
And speaking of Mikey, tell him thanks for the email and also tell him his story did help alot. "Obrigado"
Thats funny about Mom and the Jeeps. Believe it or not, there aren´t alot of foresters here but i´m always sure to point them out when i see them. I´ve also started to notice more jeeps now too but i´m sure i cant spot them like mom can.
And according to my usuage of the said "slang", thats just what i´ve picked up form my years of living in the big city town of Idaho Falls. Spencer and Reggie got me started but on the mission i´ve had a few companions that have taken me back to those years. Elder Davis was one of them and now i´m serving with Elder Dalton, whos uses a bit of slang so i´ve gotten into the habit of using it when i speak. Also, Elder Davis spoke with a southern drawl and me and Elder Dalton are both country music fans so now i´ve started speaking with a little drawl of my own. So just imagine a hick from Idaho speaking big city slang with a drawl while throwing in random portuguese words, and you´ll have a good discription of me.
Well, times about up so i better go. Obrigado por tudo. Eu amo vocês.
Com Amor,
Elder Hawzinho
Monday, June 7, 2010
Worth the Weight
Hey Family,
Sorry i´m writing this letter so late but the Indian huy who runs the internet shop here was being a punk this morning and wouldn´t open shop for us. Then we had a district P-day activity near Lisbon so we had to leave before doing email. So hopefully this email is worth the wait.
This week unfortunatly, was a another tough week. It started out normal but got bad around thursday. And as some of you may know, thursday was my 1 year mark for being in the mission(i´m not trunkey). The week hadn´t really gone as planned because we didnt have a whole lot of set appointments so everything was kind of on the fly. We were doing alright, that is until we got...the phone call.
Our thursday had been going pretty normal, with nothing really out of the ordinary when we got a call from our district leader asking us why we still haven´t baptized, even though we have 10 people in church every week. He said the assistents had called him and sounded upset but reassured us that HE knew we were working as hard as we could. We told him as best as we could what had been going on, like we had done many times before, then we went back to work. At the time we were knocking doors because we had some extra time before our next appointment so a few minutes after that phone call we started heading to our investigators house. But on the way, we got one more phone call, but this time is was from the man himself...President Torgan. He waisted no time in getting to the point and right away asked me, "Elder Haws, what are your problems?" A little freaked out i just started going through everything that had been going on in our area over the past couple of weeks and i tried to explain why we weren´t having success. He paused for a moment, then hung up. Thats when i freaked out a little more, almost like Jim carry in that scene from liar liar when he cuts off the Judge on the phone. Then, two minutes later he calls back and continues with his questions. Then, after talking to me for a while, he asks to tlak to Elder Dalton and asks him the same stuff. At first i thought it was because he thought i was lying because he called our district leader, then me, and now my junior comp so i figured maybe he thought i wasn´t telling the truth. then after saying similar things to Elder Dalton he wanted to talk to me and he asked me more questions about the things we had been doing in our area, then talked to Elder Dalton again. He pretty much told us to work with the members more and also to improve our companion study(has suffered lately). Then he told us to repent and improve, then sent a "hug" over the phone and without saying more, hung up. Just like that, out of nowwhere we got "faca" straight from the mission president for about 30 to 40 minutes, while standing outside an investigators house. Afterward we felt really down, and to make things worse, our appointment with our investigators fell through too. After that we headed home to eat dinner and it was a long, silent walk back home. Later Elder Dalton said that the "faca" we had just gotten was an answer to his prayers because he had been praying to recieve an answer as to why we haven´t had success here. After i learned that, i frankly told him to stop praying for answers.
He also called our Bishop this week too and talked to him and said that he needed to help us with these people in church but even with his help, nothing happened. This is bad because tomorrow we have zone conference with president torgan so i could be a LONG day tomorow. So please pray that he will be gently with us tomorow.
In other news, we didnt baptize or mark anyone for baptism this week, but we plan to this week so hopefully things will go alright. But i´m not too worried about it. I´m just praying that all these bapstims we are planning on having are worth the weight of all this pressure.
And in terms of the language, a member talked to me and said that he heard a rumor that i speak really fast portuguese, and then told me the same thing the other member had told me. So i guess i´m doing ok with the language, but i guess i really need to slow down.
And tell Mikey that no matter how many times he says he´s not dating anybody, we all know different. I´m in Portugal and i can see that fool is tripping for this girl.
I also have a question for dad: is Tony Parker French? me and Elder Dalton had a debate and i want to sheck to see if Dalton is right.
Well, i think thats about it for news for this week. There wasn´t a whole lot to say but i´m sure that next week there will be more to talk about. Thanks for everything. Eu amo vocês!
Fiquem bem!
Élder Haws
Sorry i´m writing this letter so late but the Indian huy who runs the internet shop here was being a punk this morning and wouldn´t open shop for us. Then we had a district P-day activity near Lisbon so we had to leave before doing email. So hopefully this email is worth the wait.
This week unfortunatly, was a another tough week. It started out normal but got bad around thursday. And as some of you may know, thursday was my 1 year mark for being in the mission(i´m not trunkey). The week hadn´t really gone as planned because we didnt have a whole lot of set appointments so everything was kind of on the fly. We were doing alright, that is until we got...the phone call.
Our thursday had been going pretty normal, with nothing really out of the ordinary when we got a call from our district leader asking us why we still haven´t baptized, even though we have 10 people in church every week. He said the assistents had called him and sounded upset but reassured us that HE knew we were working as hard as we could. We told him as best as we could what had been going on, like we had done many times before, then we went back to work. At the time we were knocking doors because we had some extra time before our next appointment so a few minutes after that phone call we started heading to our investigators house. But on the way, we got one more phone call, but this time is was from the man himself...President Torgan. He waisted no time in getting to the point and right away asked me, "Elder Haws, what are your problems?" A little freaked out i just started going through everything that had been going on in our area over the past couple of weeks and i tried to explain why we weren´t having success. He paused for a moment, then hung up. Thats when i freaked out a little more, almost like Jim carry in that scene from liar liar when he cuts off the Judge on the phone. Then, two minutes later he calls back and continues with his questions. Then, after talking to me for a while, he asks to tlak to Elder Dalton and asks him the same stuff. At first i thought it was because he thought i was lying because he called our district leader, then me, and now my junior comp so i figured maybe he thought i wasn´t telling the truth. then after saying similar things to Elder Dalton he wanted to talk to me and he asked me more questions about the things we had been doing in our area, then talked to Elder Dalton again. He pretty much told us to work with the members more and also to improve our companion study(has suffered lately). Then he told us to repent and improve, then sent a "hug" over the phone and without saying more, hung up. Just like that, out of nowwhere we got "faca" straight from the mission president for about 30 to 40 minutes, while standing outside an investigators house. Afterward we felt really down, and to make things worse, our appointment with our investigators fell through too. After that we headed home to eat dinner and it was a long, silent walk back home. Later Elder Dalton said that the "faca" we had just gotten was an answer to his prayers because he had been praying to recieve an answer as to why we haven´t had success here. After i learned that, i frankly told him to stop praying for answers.
He also called our Bishop this week too and talked to him and said that he needed to help us with these people in church but even with his help, nothing happened. This is bad because tomorrow we have zone conference with president torgan so i could be a LONG day tomorow. So please pray that he will be gently with us tomorow.
In other news, we didnt baptize or mark anyone for baptism this week, but we plan to this week so hopefully things will go alright. But i´m not too worried about it. I´m just praying that all these bapstims we are planning on having are worth the weight of all this pressure.
And in terms of the language, a member talked to me and said that he heard a rumor that i speak really fast portuguese, and then told me the same thing the other member had told me. So i guess i´m doing ok with the language, but i guess i really need to slow down.
And tell Mikey that no matter how many times he says he´s not dating anybody, we all know different. I´m in Portugal and i can see that fool is tripping for this girl.
I also have a question for dad: is Tony Parker French? me and Elder Dalton had a debate and i want to sheck to see if Dalton is right.
Well, i think thats about it for news for this week. There wasn´t a whole lot to say but i´m sure that next week there will be more to talk about. Thanks for everything. Eu amo vocês!
Fiquem bem!
Élder Haws
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