Desfrutem! Tchau!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Like Father, Like Son
Ok, these pictures need some explanation. So we have a big white board in our house that the zone leaders use for important zone leader stuff. But one day i got really board during our dinner break so i decided i was going ot draw some pictures on the white board. Then one thing lead to another and within a half an hour, i had created a depiction of my entire Zone. I guessing some of Dads (and Moms ofcourse!) creative skills kicked in becaue when the Zone leaders saw it they almosted cried with laughter. They then spent the next 10 to 15 minutes taking pictures of my masterpeice to make sure they could remember that moment in time for ever. The whole incident reminded me of the Portuguese saying, "O Filho de peixe, sabe nadar" (translation: the son of a fish, knows how to swim, or in other words: like father, like son).
Desfrutem! Tchau!
Desfrutem! Tchau!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Hey Family,
I made it through one more week in the furnace that is Santarém, and whats better, i made it through without injuries.
This week was another uneventful week here in Portugal for me and Elder Bradshaw. As always, we spent m ost of our week looking for new people to teach, yet failed miserablly. I have to say that this may be one of the toughest areas i have yet to serve in, which sometimes make me wonder why i got put here. We´re working hard but sometimes it really seems hard to see the fruits of our labors. But even though this was a pretty tough week, we saw some hope yesterday at church. I say that because we finally had a new investigator in church! Well, he´s not an investigator yet, but he will be...we hope. He´s actually the grandson of a member thats been inactive for about 20 years. He seems like a pretty cool kid, considering he´s about 12. I figured he´d be really hyperactive and out of control but he´s a pretty calm kid. We found him last week after changing our focuses.
Normally we try to go out and knock doors to try and find new people to teach, but recently, that hasn´t been working. So one day we were walking down the street and we ran into a member who gave us some really good advice. We talked to her about how the work was going and how we were trying to find new people. She then suggested that we try visiting inactive members in our area because there are a bunch of them. We thought that was a good idea so we started visting the inactive people from our ward list. Nothing was going well when we started, but we did manage to mark an appointment with one member. When we went back, her visiting teachers were just leaving, and they told us they had a taught her a lesson and that she had promissed to come to church on sunday. We thought that was great but decided that we should still go up and talk to her. When we got to the door she seemed a little surprised to get two sets of visitors in less than an hour, but seemed happy to see us. She told us she wanted to come back to church, but that her work schedule makes it hard, but that her visiting teachers would come everyweek to get her grandson to take him to to church, even if she couldn´t go. At the time we didn´t think much of it, but as we walked down the stairs of her apartment building me and Elder Bradshaw looked at each other and thought for a second. Then we quickly pulled out the ward member list and found that her grandsons name was circled because he hasn´t been baptized yet. It was like a miracle. We already talked to him at church and it looks like he has some promise. We´re pretty sure he´ll get baptized here soon but we´re still not a hundred percent sure. So we´ll see what happens.
In other news this week, i discovered EFY music on the IPOD we have in our house so now thats pretty much all we listen to now. Well, that and the soundtrack from the "Best Two Years". The music kind of makes me trunkey but its better than nothing.
This week we also ran out of money so today we had to use our own personal money to buy food. But dont worry because i just used the left over money that i pulled out last week. I shouldn´t have to pull out money for a while now so you can rest at ease.
This week is also the week we have Zone Conference, but this time its different. Not only am i now a district leader, but Elder Teixeira is also coming. That may sound really awesome at first, but then when you consider the fact that Elder Teixeira is known for giving faca, that "awesomeness" disappears. I´m not too worried because i think that faca has stopped phasing me like it used to.
It sounds like everybody travled quite a bit this week, except for me. I would have liked to take a break from the 114 degree weather but i shouldn´t complain too much because the Zone leaders we live with have to deal with the temperature AND they have to baptize more than anybody else because they´re zone leaders (haha). I´m just counting my blessings right now.
Well, i think thats it for news. But i almost forgot...Remind Mikey that Portugal barely lost to the team that won the World cup, while Brazil lost to the team that took 2nd. I just thought he would like to know. Well, thanks for everything. Eu amo vocês!
Seu penguim no forno,
Élder Haws
(Portugal é o melhor!)
I made it through one more week in the furnace that is Santarém, and whats better, i made it through without injuries.
This week was another uneventful week here in Portugal for me and Elder Bradshaw. As always, we spent m ost of our week looking for new people to teach, yet failed miserablly. I have to say that this may be one of the toughest areas i have yet to serve in, which sometimes make me wonder why i got put here. We´re working hard but sometimes it really seems hard to see the fruits of our labors. But even though this was a pretty tough week, we saw some hope yesterday at church. I say that because we finally had a new investigator in church! Well, he´s not an investigator yet, but he will be...we hope. He´s actually the grandson of a member thats been inactive for about 20 years. He seems like a pretty cool kid, considering he´s about 12. I figured he´d be really hyperactive and out of control but he´s a pretty calm kid. We found him last week after changing our focuses.
Normally we try to go out and knock doors to try and find new people to teach, but recently, that hasn´t been working. So one day we were walking down the street and we ran into a member who gave us some really good advice. We talked to her about how the work was going and how we were trying to find new people. She then suggested that we try visiting inactive members in our area because there are a bunch of them. We thought that was a good idea so we started visting the inactive people from our ward list. Nothing was going well when we started, but we did manage to mark an appointment with one member. When we went back, her visiting teachers were just leaving, and they told us they had a taught her a lesson and that she had promissed to come to church on sunday. We thought that was great but decided that we should still go up and talk to her. When we got to the door she seemed a little surprised to get two sets of visitors in less than an hour, but seemed happy to see us. She told us she wanted to come back to church, but that her work schedule makes it hard, but that her visiting teachers would come everyweek to get her grandson to take him to to church, even if she couldn´t go. At the time we didn´t think much of it, but as we walked down the stairs of her apartment building me and Elder Bradshaw looked at each other and thought for a second. Then we quickly pulled out the ward member list and found that her grandsons name was circled because he hasn´t been baptized yet. It was like a miracle. We already talked to him at church and it looks like he has some promise. We´re pretty sure he´ll get baptized here soon but we´re still not a hundred percent sure. So we´ll see what happens.
In other news this week, i discovered EFY music on the IPOD we have in our house so now thats pretty much all we listen to now. Well, that and the soundtrack from the "Best Two Years". The music kind of makes me trunkey but its better than nothing.
This week we also ran out of money so today we had to use our own personal money to buy food. But dont worry because i just used the left over money that i pulled out last week. I shouldn´t have to pull out money for a while now so you can rest at ease.
This week is also the week we have Zone Conference, but this time its different. Not only am i now a district leader, but Elder Teixeira is also coming. That may sound really awesome at first, but then when you consider the fact that Elder Teixeira is known for giving faca, that "awesomeness" disappears. I´m not too worried because i think that faca has stopped phasing me like it used to.
It sounds like everybody travled quite a bit this week, except for me. I would have liked to take a break from the 114 degree weather but i shouldn´t complain too much because the Zone leaders we live with have to deal with the temperature AND they have to baptize more than anybody else because they´re zone leaders (haha). I´m just counting my blessings right now.
Well, i think thats it for news. But i almost forgot...Remind Mikey that Portugal barely lost to the team that won the World cup, while Brazil lost to the team that took 2nd. I just thought he would like to know. Well, thanks for everything. Eu amo vocês!
Seu penguim no forno,
Élder Haws
(Portugal é o melhor!)
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Pancakes!?
This week i decided to make pancakes for three Elders(one was on a division). This was the result.
Baptism!!
This computer is being dumb so i can only send one photo of the baptism. Sorry. I´ll send more next week.
Tchau!
Tchau!
What Really Counts?
Hey Family,
The temperature is still unbearably hot here but life is still good. We had a pretty good but uneventful week here in Satarém, which seems to be a normal thing around here.
The week went pretty normal, as i had expected. Everything worked out with the baptism so there were no problems there. We taught her everything then had one of the zone leaders interview her. We had a lot of member help with tht ebaptism so that was great too. It was really strange though because it didnt feel like the baptisms i´ve had in the past. I think i felt differently about because i didn´t have as big a part in the baptism as i usually do. I really noticed that a baptism means more when you really know and love the people you are working with. In the past, that wasn´t a problem because i was part of the dupla that taught everything or resolved doubts or answered questions and gave support, but this time, the other Elders had pretty much already done that. I still felt good about the baptism but it wasn´t the same. I guess that just gave me more motivation to have a baptism of my own now.
I also had another good experiece this week when i got a phone call from Elder Dalton. He called me up right before our baptism on saturday to tell me how Setúbal was doing. He talked about how the two people we had marked were still doing well and also said that he marked one more of our investigators for baptism too. I already knew he was a better missionary than me but i have to admit that it surprised me when he told me that he had marked someone else already. That day was a little tough on me because i was really home sick for Setúbal. I started looking back and seeing all the opportunities that i hadn´t taken advantage of and started to regret some things. I also felt pretty down because i wasnt going to see those people get baptized but after awhile i felt a little better. I´m trying to tell myself that baptisms dont matter as much as working hard does but sometimes its hard to believe that. Its also hard to believe that i´m going to see more baptisms here in São Domingos because there isn´t much going on here right now. No investigators come to church, we not really teaching anybody who´s doing anything, and we cant seem to find anybody new to teach. I think i have to say that this area is probably the most dificult area i have served in by far, but i´ll survive. I think the key is to just stay positive. But the good news is, living in a four Elder house makes styaing happy and staying positive a lot easier.
Living with four Elders is alot of fun, but can also cause few problems. We have a lot of fun talking and telling jokes but sometimes those jokes go too far and sometimes we stay up too late just talking. So alot of the time we wake up a little bit slower than usual, which causes more problems so we obviously have some things to work on. Our taste in music is questionable as well so thats another thing we have to work on. But other than that we have a lot of good clean fun. Earlier in the transfer, when we spent alot more time in the house, i one of the zone leaders taught me how to do a rubix cube so add that to my list of things i learned on my mission. In our spare time at night we will sometimes play a board game . Risk, that we found in our old house. One of the Zone leaders also has one of Warrens favorite games, settlers of catan, in portuguses so we have played that some time too. All in all we have a lot of fun but there are still a few things we need to improve.
We also spend a lot of time talking about transfers, which is pointless because they are so far away. Everyone says i´m going to train next transfer because we have about 20 greenies coming in. I dont really want to train in this area because nothing is really going on, which would make thigns a lot harder. I would love to train right at the end of my mission but the Zone leaders dont think thats possible. So now i spend most of my time joking with zone leaders but asking them what things i have to do to not train next transfer. But the outlook doesn´t look good.
Other than that life is good. We working hard and trying to do our best. I just hope that "our best" will brign us some sucess or at least someone to teach!
Well i had better get going. Thanks for everything! Keep praying for me! Eu amo vocês!
Com amor,
Élder Haws
(or Élder Hauns as the people of Santarém say)
The temperature is still unbearably hot here but life is still good. We had a pretty good but uneventful week here in Satarém, which seems to be a normal thing around here.
The week went pretty normal, as i had expected. Everything worked out with the baptism so there were no problems there. We taught her everything then had one of the zone leaders interview her. We had a lot of member help with tht ebaptism so that was great too. It was really strange though because it didnt feel like the baptisms i´ve had in the past. I think i felt differently about because i didn´t have as big a part in the baptism as i usually do. I really noticed that a baptism means more when you really know and love the people you are working with. In the past, that wasn´t a problem because i was part of the dupla that taught everything or resolved doubts or answered questions and gave support, but this time, the other Elders had pretty much already done that. I still felt good about the baptism but it wasn´t the same. I guess that just gave me more motivation to have a baptism of my own now.
I also had another good experiece this week when i got a phone call from Elder Dalton. He called me up right before our baptism on saturday to tell me how Setúbal was doing. He talked about how the two people we had marked were still doing well and also said that he marked one more of our investigators for baptism too. I already knew he was a better missionary than me but i have to admit that it surprised me when he told me that he had marked someone else already. That day was a little tough on me because i was really home sick for Setúbal. I started looking back and seeing all the opportunities that i hadn´t taken advantage of and started to regret some things. I also felt pretty down because i wasnt going to see those people get baptized but after awhile i felt a little better. I´m trying to tell myself that baptisms dont matter as much as working hard does but sometimes its hard to believe that. Its also hard to believe that i´m going to see more baptisms here in São Domingos because there isn´t much going on here right now. No investigators come to church, we not really teaching anybody who´s doing anything, and we cant seem to find anybody new to teach. I think i have to say that this area is probably the most dificult area i have served in by far, but i´ll survive. I think the key is to just stay positive. But the good news is, living in a four Elder house makes styaing happy and staying positive a lot easier.
Living with four Elders is alot of fun, but can also cause few problems. We have a lot of fun talking and telling jokes but sometimes those jokes go too far and sometimes we stay up too late just talking. So alot of the time we wake up a little bit slower than usual, which causes more problems so we obviously have some things to work on. Our taste in music is questionable as well so thats another thing we have to work on. But other than that we have a lot of good clean fun. Earlier in the transfer, when we spent alot more time in the house, i one of the zone leaders taught me how to do a rubix cube so add that to my list of things i learned on my mission. In our spare time at night we will sometimes play a board game . Risk, that we found in our old house. One of the Zone leaders also has one of Warrens favorite games, settlers of catan, in portuguses so we have played that some time too. All in all we have a lot of fun but there are still a few things we need to improve.
We also spend a lot of time talking about transfers, which is pointless because they are so far away. Everyone says i´m going to train next transfer because we have about 20 greenies coming in. I dont really want to train in this area because nothing is really going on, which would make thigns a lot harder. I would love to train right at the end of my mission but the Zone leaders dont think thats possible. So now i spend most of my time joking with zone leaders but asking them what things i have to do to not train next transfer. But the outlook doesn´t look good.
Other than that life is good. We working hard and trying to do our best. I just hope that "our best" will brign us some sucess or at least someone to teach!
Well i had better get going. Thanks for everything! Keep praying for me! Eu amo vocês!
Com amor,
Élder Haws
(or Élder Hauns as the people of Santarém say)
Monday, July 12, 2010
Moving Up
Hey Family,
I survived my first week here in Santarém but the heat got close to killing me. It turns out that this is one of the hottest areas in the mission as far as temperature goes but i think i´m getting used to it now. Its also part of the northernmost Zone of this mission. Then if you consider i just became a District leader you couldl really say i moved "up". That also means i have served in 4 of the 6 zones in the mission and i still have plenty of time serve in the last 2.
To be completly honest, this week was very uneventful. I know that may sound surprising because i just moved areas and had a position change in the mission but not much happened this week. I left Setúbal last tuesday and got here in Santarém around 4 o clock. The night before i had found our that the elders were moving out of the house i was supposed top go to so that they could live near the chapel and pay a lower rent. I also learned that i would be living in the same house with the Zone leaders, but that one would be gone for a few days because he had to stay with a missionary who was going to train. He had to stay with him because his greenie (who´s from Idaho Falls and went to Hillcrest) didnt get there until thursday. So with all that in my mind i figured that a couple of days could go by slowly with little misisonary work because of the move. What i didnt know is that almost everyday would go be slowly with little missionary work.
When i got here the first thing we did was take my bags to the new house and then we went back to the old house to change out of missionary close so we could move stuff around in the new house. We decided to do that because we HAD(as one of the Zone leaders told me) to move in on that day. So we walked across town in the balzing heat twice, and then we didnt end up moving much of anything around the house. Then we spent the rest of the day in the house doing little chore things, getting ready for the rest of the move, but what we did more of was just talk. Then we had to go back to our old house to spend the night there for the last time but decided to get dinner on the way home. Then, the next day, we spent the morning gathering everything up from the old house and put that stuff in bags. Then in the afternoon, we went to a store to buy all the plates, glasses, knives, and forks and stuff that we needed for the new house and took that stuff strait there. Then we went back to the old house and loaded all our stuff in a member´s car and took it all to the new house. We then spent the rest of the day in the house putting stuff away. The next day was when we saw the first sign of real missionary work. We still spent most of our time in the house over the next three days( i dont know why) and would only really leave to get food and to teach someone in the chapel down the street. We taught about two lessons of those three days(ouch). It was a week of "fubecagem" as we would say or in other words, a week of laziness. I was really confused all week because we stayed in the house so much and when i would ask what we were going to do that day, no one said anything. So, being my queit self, i didnt push the other two missionaries out of the house like i should of. I felt real guilty about it this week end because when the other Zone leader(who was my Zone leader while i was in the Algarve) came back this week end, all of that stopped. Then, yesterday, that zone leader pulled me aside and warned me not to give into that kind of stuff and that i need to be more strict about that stuff. I´m guessing that has happened before or something. It made me realize that i´ve been following some of the smaller rules in the mission pretty loosly. But now that i´ve caught myself slipping i can make the necessary changes and do better.
In other news, we´re going to have a baptism this week. The Elders here marked a girl right before i got here so i walked into this one. We still have to teach the commandments so its still not a sure thing but it looks like she´ll be baptized this week. Other than that there isnt a whole lot going on here right now. My companion is Elder Bradshaw. He´s from Utah(of course) and is in his 12th transfer right now. We get along pretty good so this transfer shouldn´t be too rough. Our entire district lives in the same house, us and the Zone leaders. I have to do the baptismal interviews for the Zone leaders so that should be fun but i done have to worry about divisions because they will choose when to do them with me. And since there isn´t anyone else in our district i dont have to do divisions with anyone else. I also have to give trainings everyweek in district meeting but we have strict guidelines on how our meetings go so i only have to give a 10 minute trainging. Then, in Zone conferences and interviews i have to get up in front of everyone and answers questions and respond to questions that President Torgan gives to our district during those meetings. So, as you can see, i´m going to experience some changes this transfer so it should be fun. The funny thing is i used to think it would be cool to be a leader i the mission, but the only thing that means is more responsibilty, or in other words, more faca. Yay...
It sounds like everyone had an exciting week back home which is good. Tell Mikey, " Há muito peixe no mar"( theres alot of fish in the sea). I also hope Mom and Dad enjoyed their week in paradise because i sure enjoyed it while i was there. And be sure to tell Jenny that her kid´s farmer´s tans are almost as bad as mine.
Well, i think thats about it as far as news goes. I wanted to ask Jenny if she could somehow get me my old email address because we i leave areas people always as for my non-missionary one. I think my face book page should have it.
Well, i better bet going. Thanks for everything! Eu amo vocês!
Élder Haws
I survived my first week here in Santarém but the heat got close to killing me. It turns out that this is one of the hottest areas in the mission as far as temperature goes but i think i´m getting used to it now. Its also part of the northernmost Zone of this mission. Then if you consider i just became a District leader you couldl really say i moved "up". That also means i have served in 4 of the 6 zones in the mission and i still have plenty of time serve in the last 2.
To be completly honest, this week was very uneventful. I know that may sound surprising because i just moved areas and had a position change in the mission but not much happened this week. I left Setúbal last tuesday and got here in Santarém around 4 o clock. The night before i had found our that the elders were moving out of the house i was supposed top go to so that they could live near the chapel and pay a lower rent. I also learned that i would be living in the same house with the Zone leaders, but that one would be gone for a few days because he had to stay with a missionary who was going to train. He had to stay with him because his greenie (who´s from Idaho Falls and went to Hillcrest) didnt get there until thursday. So with all that in my mind i figured that a couple of days could go by slowly with little misisonary work because of the move. What i didnt know is that almost everyday would go be slowly with little missionary work.
When i got here the first thing we did was take my bags to the new house and then we went back to the old house to change out of missionary close so we could move stuff around in the new house. We decided to do that because we HAD(as one of the Zone leaders told me) to move in on that day. So we walked across town in the balzing heat twice, and then we didnt end up moving much of anything around the house. Then we spent the rest of the day in the house doing little chore things, getting ready for the rest of the move, but what we did more of was just talk. Then we had to go back to our old house to spend the night there for the last time but decided to get dinner on the way home. Then, the next day, we spent the morning gathering everything up from the old house and put that stuff in bags. Then in the afternoon, we went to a store to buy all the plates, glasses, knives, and forks and stuff that we needed for the new house and took that stuff strait there. Then we went back to the old house and loaded all our stuff in a member´s car and took it all to the new house. We then spent the rest of the day in the house putting stuff away. The next day was when we saw the first sign of real missionary work. We still spent most of our time in the house over the next three days( i dont know why) and would only really leave to get food and to teach someone in the chapel down the street. We taught about two lessons of those three days(ouch). It was a week of "fubecagem" as we would say or in other words, a week of laziness. I was really confused all week because we stayed in the house so much and when i would ask what we were going to do that day, no one said anything. So, being my queit self, i didnt push the other two missionaries out of the house like i should of. I felt real guilty about it this week end because when the other Zone leader(who was my Zone leader while i was in the Algarve) came back this week end, all of that stopped. Then, yesterday, that zone leader pulled me aside and warned me not to give into that kind of stuff and that i need to be more strict about that stuff. I´m guessing that has happened before or something. It made me realize that i´ve been following some of the smaller rules in the mission pretty loosly. But now that i´ve caught myself slipping i can make the necessary changes and do better.
In other news, we´re going to have a baptism this week. The Elders here marked a girl right before i got here so i walked into this one. We still have to teach the commandments so its still not a sure thing but it looks like she´ll be baptized this week. Other than that there isnt a whole lot going on here right now. My companion is Elder Bradshaw. He´s from Utah(of course) and is in his 12th transfer right now. We get along pretty good so this transfer shouldn´t be too rough. Our entire district lives in the same house, us and the Zone leaders. I have to do the baptismal interviews for the Zone leaders so that should be fun but i done have to worry about divisions because they will choose when to do them with me. And since there isn´t anyone else in our district i dont have to do divisions with anyone else. I also have to give trainings everyweek in district meeting but we have strict guidelines on how our meetings go so i only have to give a 10 minute trainging. Then, in Zone conferences and interviews i have to get up in front of everyone and answers questions and respond to questions that President Torgan gives to our district during those meetings. So, as you can see, i´m going to experience some changes this transfer so it should be fun. The funny thing is i used to think it would be cool to be a leader i the mission, but the only thing that means is more responsibilty, or in other words, more faca. Yay...
It sounds like everyone had an exciting week back home which is good. Tell Mikey, " Há muito peixe no mar"( theres alot of fish in the sea). I also hope Mom and Dad enjoyed their week in paradise because i sure enjoyed it while i was there. And be sure to tell Jenny that her kid´s farmer´s tans are almost as bad as mine.
Well, i think thats about it as far as news goes. I wanted to ask Jenny if she could somehow get me my old email address because we i leave areas people always as for my non-missionary one. I think my face book page should have it.
Well, i better bet going. Thanks for everything! Eu amo vocês!
Élder Haws
Monday, July 5, 2010
Portugal Pride
These are pictures from our last district meeting here in Setúbal...just us showing our Portugal Pride.
Goodbyes
These are some pictures of some of the people here in Setúbal.
The family with the baby girl is Mario(the guy we didnt baptize), Sandra(his wife), and Matilde(their daughter)
The other family is our old ward mission leader´s family
And the guy with the weird smile is the member of the bishopric that would always try to cheer me up.
Tchau!
The family with the baby girl is Mario(the guy we didnt baptize), Sandra(his wife), and Matilde(their daughter)
The other family is our old ward mission leader´s family
And the guy with the weird smile is the member of the bishopric that would always try to cheer me up.
Tchau!
Seeing Stars
Hey Family,
It sounds like everyone surrvived the 4th of July and is enjoying cool weather. I on the other hand, cant say the same. I survived, but the weather right now is killing me. Some places in portugal are already reaching temperatures of 112 degrees...fun.
Well, this week is transfers and seeing as how i´m emailing so late, i already know whats happening. I figured i could wait to tell mom till the end of the email but i could imagine her strangling me all the way from Idaho. We got the call early this morning and i was actually one of the first people in our zone to get "the phone call". We probably got our call first because Elder Dalton is going to train next transfer here in Setúbal. He has been out in the feild for about 4 months and is already training. I´m excited for him but he´s really nervous. He´s training a native so it wont be too dificult but he´s still freaking out. But it seems like a lot of young elders are traing this transfer. In fact, one elder is traning in his second transfer. I on the other hand, am not. I feel a little sad about that because training is the only thing i really want to do as far as leadership goes but it looks like i´ll have to wait a little bit longer. But i guess you guys probably care more about where i´m going so i´ll get to the point. I´m headed to São Domingos, an area in the middle of Portugal. Its north of Lisbon and is actually a part of the city of Santarem. I´m also going to be the district leader there. The zone were i´m going is known for being "a little" tough. From what i hear there aren´t alot of members there and the people are a little more closed but i´m praying everything goes alright.
IN other news, we didnt baptize our investigator this week. When we went there to talk to him about his date he gave us a bunch of excuses why he couldn´t be baptized this week so we had a short lesson with his wife´s visiting teachers and them to talk about it. We taught him about fasting and commited him to fast about a new date and he agreed. Then, on saturday we got a call from the Zone Leaders and they gave us some advice on how to get him baptized in the near future. They told us to have him interviewedf for baptism so that the only thing he has to do is pick a day to get in the water. We liked that idea, so Elder Dalton had the idea of talking to him that nbight and setting up the interview, but then i decided to call our district leader so he could come and interview him that night instead of later, so that he could be baptized the next day. So later that day, our district leader took Elder Dalton to our investigators house while i went with another elder. When they got to his house, he had already started his fast and had recieved his answer as to which day he should be baptized. Unfortunantly that day is the first of August. They couldnt tell him that that wasn´t his answer so they just went with it. It was kind of hard on me, because i knew that i was going to leave this area, but i didnt want to leave this area without baptizing anyone. We already talked to some members today at our P-day get together, and they both said that i did a great job and that i did exactly what this area needed. This was the same member that tried cheering me up a bunch in the past. I feel sad that i have to leave this area somewhat empty handed but i know Elder Dalton and his greenie will see a lot of baptisms from the work that i did here.
With all that stuff that happened this week i feel like i´m seeing stars right now, and thats not just because we brought an american flag to our P-day party today. The party was pretty good. Last night the elders from the other side of Setúbal came and stayed the night at our house so we ended up playing a bunch of card games and we also tried to decide where people were going for transfers. I won the game of Texas Hold´em that we played and also our game of BullSh#$. Then today we all went to our chapel with alot of the missionaries from this zone and played basketball and ping pong. I did pretty well in both surprisingly. Every team i played on in basketball won, and i beat a bunch of people in the Ping pong tournament we had. I didnt take 1st place but i did make it pretty far so i´m happy with that. I haven´t played too much lately but thats no excuse. And right now we´re just doing internet before we go and get ready to go do goodbye visits to some people.
This week has been crazy but its been good too. I´m nervous about my next area but i´m trying not to worry about it. Keep praying for me.
Well i better get going...
Hopefully all goes well. Thanks for all the emails and love that you guys keep sending. Eu amo vocês!
Élder Haws
It sounds like everyone surrvived the 4th of July and is enjoying cool weather. I on the other hand, cant say the same. I survived, but the weather right now is killing me. Some places in portugal are already reaching temperatures of 112 degrees...fun.
Well, this week is transfers and seeing as how i´m emailing so late, i already know whats happening. I figured i could wait to tell mom till the end of the email but i could imagine her strangling me all the way from Idaho. We got the call early this morning and i was actually one of the first people in our zone to get "the phone call". We probably got our call first because Elder Dalton is going to train next transfer here in Setúbal. He has been out in the feild for about 4 months and is already training. I´m excited for him but he´s really nervous. He´s training a native so it wont be too dificult but he´s still freaking out. But it seems like a lot of young elders are traing this transfer. In fact, one elder is traning in his second transfer. I on the other hand, am not. I feel a little sad about that because training is the only thing i really want to do as far as leadership goes but it looks like i´ll have to wait a little bit longer. But i guess you guys probably care more about where i´m going so i´ll get to the point. I´m headed to São Domingos, an area in the middle of Portugal. Its north of Lisbon and is actually a part of the city of Santarem. I´m also going to be the district leader there. The zone were i´m going is known for being "a little" tough. From what i hear there aren´t alot of members there and the people are a little more closed but i´m praying everything goes alright.
IN other news, we didnt baptize our investigator this week. When we went there to talk to him about his date he gave us a bunch of excuses why he couldn´t be baptized this week so we had a short lesson with his wife´s visiting teachers and them to talk about it. We taught him about fasting and commited him to fast about a new date and he agreed. Then, on saturday we got a call from the Zone Leaders and they gave us some advice on how to get him baptized in the near future. They told us to have him interviewedf for baptism so that the only thing he has to do is pick a day to get in the water. We liked that idea, so Elder Dalton had the idea of talking to him that nbight and setting up the interview, but then i decided to call our district leader so he could come and interview him that night instead of later, so that he could be baptized the next day. So later that day, our district leader took Elder Dalton to our investigators house while i went with another elder. When they got to his house, he had already started his fast and had recieved his answer as to which day he should be baptized. Unfortunantly that day is the first of August. They couldnt tell him that that wasn´t his answer so they just went with it. It was kind of hard on me, because i knew that i was going to leave this area, but i didnt want to leave this area without baptizing anyone. We already talked to some members today at our P-day get together, and they both said that i did a great job and that i did exactly what this area needed. This was the same member that tried cheering me up a bunch in the past. I feel sad that i have to leave this area somewhat empty handed but i know Elder Dalton and his greenie will see a lot of baptisms from the work that i did here.
With all that stuff that happened this week i feel like i´m seeing stars right now, and thats not just because we brought an american flag to our P-day party today. The party was pretty good. Last night the elders from the other side of Setúbal came and stayed the night at our house so we ended up playing a bunch of card games and we also tried to decide where people were going for transfers. I won the game of Texas Hold´em that we played and also our game of BullSh#$. Then today we all went to our chapel with alot of the missionaries from this zone and played basketball and ping pong. I did pretty well in both surprisingly. Every team i played on in basketball won, and i beat a bunch of people in the Ping pong tournament we had. I didnt take 1st place but i did make it pretty far so i´m happy with that. I haven´t played too much lately but thats no excuse. And right now we´re just doing internet before we go and get ready to go do goodbye visits to some people.
This week has been crazy but its been good too. I´m nervous about my next area but i´m trying not to worry about it. Keep praying for me.
Well i better get going...
Hopefully all goes well. Thanks for all the emails and love that you guys keep sending. Eu amo vocês!
Élder Haws
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