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