Raindrops and Heartbreaks

Hey Family,

This week was really tough on us here in Tavira but we made it through alright. Things didnt go like we hoped they would but we survived so i cant complain.

This week we were really focusing on that lady, Abela, that we marked for baptism. We went there Wednesday night to teach her the rest of the commandments and to make sure everything was still good for the baptism, but it didnt go as well as we planned. We when we taught the commandments she had a few doubts about them, but luckily her brother(who is a member) brought his wife and the ward mission leader from his branch to help out so we were able to explain everything really well. Then, after that, we felt she understood and was willing to keep those commandments so we felt we should remind her about her baptismal date. Thats when things went really bad. She told us that she wasnt ready and that she was too scared to get baptized and that she wasn´t prepared to be baptized this week. We then tried to explain to her that we had prayed and that we felt really strongly that this week was her baptism but she still wouldn´t accept it. This was all really confusing and frustrating because we didnt think her fear of water was that big of a deal. We were wrong. She told us that she is so afraid of water that she has a hard time leaving the house when it rains! And when we started talking about baptism with her, the more we talked, the more she starting freaking out. And it even got to the point where she was about to hyperventilate and pass out so we had to end the lesson. Afterward, we felt really down and we didnt know what we should do even after calling the zone leaders. So on Saturday we called president Torgan and he basically told us to pray about what we should do and then give her a blessing of comfort. So later that day we called her up and asked if we could talk to her at church the next day about some things. We wanted to take that opportunity to give her the blessing because we felt that she really needed to be baptized yesterday. But unfortunately, she didnt come to church yesterday and hasn´t answered her phone so we dont know what really happened. We talked to someone in her family and they said that she went a funeral instead so thats why she didnt come. So yesterday me and Elder Torgersen were feeling kind of bumbed out but we´re feeling a little better. We not really worried that this lady will never get baptized, but i´m worried about how we´re going to help her now. We´ve done almost everything we can but we´ll keep praying to see what else we can do.

In other news, this week is transfer week so that means i know whats happening with me and my companion, Elder Torgersen. I'm staying another transfer here in Tavira but i´m going to be serving with an Elder who was trained by an Elder from my MTC district. His name´s Elder Christianson and he´ll be in his second transfer which means i´m greenie breaking again. I dont know how i feel about it right now because i´m really nervous about whats going to happen next transfer. It was nice serving with an older companion here because the work is tough and it can be really frustrating but now i´m going to have to shoulder most of it by myself. I´m sure it´ll end up being ok and i´ll learn alot but i´m a little worried because i have no idea what to do with this area. But i´ll keep praying and i know the Lord will bless us and help us out.

This week is also General Conference week, which would be great if i was somewhere i could watch it. The Elders in Tavira dont get permission to leave our area and go to another chapel to see the transmission so that means i probably wont see much of conference this weekend. I get to see it or read it sooner or later so i cant complain but thats just one more thing that makes this area frustrating.

In happier news, today we played basketball with the other Elders form our district and it was pretty fun. I played pretty well and had a lot of fun without getting mad or over competitive so i think it went pretty well.

Today i also pulled out some money but i just found out that i still had some money on my mission money account so sorry. I´ll be sure to check next time before i take out more personal money.

Well, i think thats it for news this week. I´m a little nervous abou the future but i know things wil turn out for the best so keep praying for me! Eu amo vôces!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Ups and Downs

Hey Family,

Sorry for writing a day late but with the way things went yesterday i didn't have a chance to email. We went and spent our p-day in another city with the other Elders from our district but the library there wouldn´t let me use the computers. I didn't have a copy of my passport or my driver´s licence on me so i couldn´t fill out the form to use the Internet so i had to wait to email you guys until today. So sorry.

But this week was a week of ups and downs. At zone conference last week we made goals of who we were going to baptize(like always) but this time something happened that normally doesn´t, things worked out! We made plans to talk to two of our investigators(our only two) about being baptized at the end of the month. One was already marked but hadn´t talked to us since we marked her, and the other was the mother of a recent convert that we had barley started teaching. But we prayed and felt like those two should be baptized this week. So, last Wednesday we talked to the mother of the recent convert about baptism. I wasn´t sure about how it was going to go but for some strange reason i felt really comfortable and actually a little excited, which i don't normally feel when we try and mark people. But we taught her about the plan of salvation and she loved it. She told us she feels like shes drinking in what were teaching like it was water. She also said she felt like she was prepared by Heavenly Father to hear the missionaries lessons. Then, after the lesson we marked her for this weekend and she seemed pretty excited. She said shes afraid of water and when we talked to her the other day she said she wasn´t sure if she was still going to be baptized this weekend because of it, but we think she be fine and get baptized anyway. But after that lesson we were jumping up and down and celebrating because we had finally marked someone for baptism that actually showed interest in what we had to teach. So after that lesson we were kind of on a high. But the next night things changed because we went to go talk to Tania, the other girl who we had marked at the beginning of this transfer. To sum things up, it didn't go as we would have liked. When we showed up at her house she was leaving and told us to wait, so we waited and talked to her sister who is a member. We ended up talking to her 12 year old sister for about 30 minutes about why she shouldn't leave the church because she was threatening to never go back(for a stupid reason that i will have to explain later because now i don't have time). Then, when Tania got back home she ran in the house without saying anything and told her sisters she didn't want to talk to us. Needless to say, in that moment, she became "unmarked". We were a little bummed because we sound out she was lying to us when she said she wanted to come back to church. But we still felt good that we had marked someone else who wants to become a member of the church. So right now wer´re pretty excited but we praying that everything goes well this week. We got a call from a member in the Porto Mission for some random reason and Elder Torgersen ended talking to him for a few minutes on the phone. He asked about how the work was going and when he found out that we had someone marked for baptism he sounded really surprised. He told us that 1 baptism in Tariva is like 10 baptisms anywhere else. So i´m feeling pretty blessed that the Lord has answered our prayers and blessed us with this huge miracle.

So the week up until that point was good, but church this Sunday didn't go very well. It started out with me getting frustrated with the branch president because he got mad at me for practicing the hymns for sacrament meeting before church started. Later we both apologized but it didn't start out the day well. Then, i found out i had to give a last minute talk, which didn't go very well at all, and on top of that i wasn´t feeling well. With all that put together, i was feeling pretty down but i got over it and i´m doing fine now. Especially now that we´re planning for a baptism.

I cant believe BYU keeps losing. And what makes it worse is that my companion is a die hard Utes fan so he gives me a hard time on P-days when BYU loses. I normally handle it pretty well but i gets really annoying sometimes. But at least IF beat Skyline so i can at least take pride in that.

Tell Mindy congrats on the new title as the "all knowing head of the English teaching people". But don't let anyone know she cant spell, or she might lose her job.

Thanks for the Info on the Robinson family too. I was wondering what happened to Joey but i´m glad he finally went on his mission. But if he´s in Rio his mission president´s son might be in my mission.

As for a Christmas box, i have now idea what you guys could send me. My shoes are doing OK for now, but if i need new ones there are a few places here where i can get some that might be cheaper, but we´ll see what happens. I also found out that i might have lost some more weight. I´m down to the last belt buckle on my larger belt that i used when i first came out. My shirts are also starting to feel a little big too but as far as the condition of my clothes, everything is doing fine.

Well, i think that's it for news this week. I better get back to work. Thanks for everything! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Deep Water

Hey Family,

Sorry that i didnt send an email yesterday but changes in the schedule of the mission made it tough. Instead of having zone conference on Saturday liked we were told at the beginning of the transfer, it got moved to yesterday. Meetings get changed to p-day pretty frequently here in the Algarve so i wasn´t surprised but its kind of annoying when you dont get a p-day to relax from all the stress. But all in all, we´re doing fine.

This week was another really good week for us. And just like last week, it was full of "little wonders". The highlight of the week was that we found 7 new investigators, which hasn´t happened in this area for a long time. I probably shouldn´t be too excited because alot of times we talk to people and mark them as a new investigator then they disappear, but i´m pretty happy with the results of our hard work last week. But now we just have to keep it up. But what was really great, was that among those 7 new people were 2 families, which really gave us some hope. I´m just praying that we can make something happen with these people.

We also had a great experience with a lady we taught a few weeks ago near Spain. I dont know if you guys remember but a few weeks ago we taught a lady who lives in Spain and does business with an inactive member of ours. Then that day after, we saw her 3 or 4 times throughout the day. Then, last Thursday when we went to got talk to our inactive member without telling him, and we ended up talking to this woman. We normally teach this inactive in his warehouse/workplace, and last Thursday we had some extra time so we decided to pass by and see he was there. To our surprise, he was there with this lady Adan they were talking about us. We walked in in the middle of the conversation, just as she had asked for our phone number. We ended up talking for a few minutes, in which time we discovered that she wanted our number so that she could find our when and where we have church. Up until that point the day hadn´t been all that great but knowing that we might have a new person in church on Sunday made the day seem like a success. We we´re a hundred percent sure if she was actually going to come but she did! She showed up and actually already knew the Branch President and his wife. She ended up leaving early without talking to us, but she seemed like she enjoyed church. We dont have her number to call her and set up an appointment so we´ll have to call our inactive member friend to see if he cant set something up for us.

So by my count, we´ve had quite a few miracles happen this week that have really helped stay positive. and actually, we had another miracle just happen. We do Internet here at the city library so there are always alot of people here. And in order to us the computer you have to fill out a little form so you can get a little card with your name on it. You then show that card to someone who works here so you can use the Internet. But when i came for the first time to fill out that paper to get my card, i had to talk to one of the employees here about some of the questions of the form. Alot of the questions dealt with profession and education, so i had to explain that i was a missionary and that i was a volunteer for my church. Suddenly the guy started asking me a whole bunch of questions about what we do and why we´re here, but i didnt think much about that conversation because i never saw that guy again. But today is Tuesday, a day we normally dont do Internet on, which also happens to be the day i filled out the form, and the day this guys works here. Coincidence, i think not. As soon as i walked up to the counter the guy recognized me, even though i´m in P-day clothes and have had a hair cut) and asked jokingly if it was my day of. Then he again starting asking me all kinds of questions about the church but was interrupted because he had to help someone. He told me he´d talk to me later about his questions so he seems really interested. I just thought it was funny because i was teaching him about prayer and the restoration while at the same time whispering so as to not disturb anyone. It was kind of weird but also kind of cool teaching someone unexpectedly.

Everything else here is going well. The weather is still really hot and humid but here pretty quick it will be getting really cold and rainy so i better enjoy the warmth while i can. But things are going well here in Tavira. We have plenty of reasons to complain and whine but most of the time i cant find a reason to dislike this area. It reminds me of a Scripture i read this week while studying in the book, Teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith that is found somewhere in the D&C but i cant remember which section. I think it in the 120s, vs 2, but its when Joseph is talking about tall his trials and he says something like, "as to the trials i am called to pass through, i think it a small thing...deep water is what i am wont to swim in". So i guess these days i´m finding it easier to find joy in "tribulation".

Zone Conference was good but nothing really notable happened. We´re still the #1 baptizing mission in Europe, which is the only highlight that i can recall right now.

Well, i better get back to work. Thanks for all the love and prayers! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

"Little Wonders"

Hey Family,

We just finished a great week here in Tavira and things are still looking up. I thought i had spoken too soon about how things were improving so much here but this week was another testimony to me that the Lord answers prayers!

We started out the week like normal, which includes knocking doors and getting rejected repeatedly. But near the middle of the week things started turning around. On Thursday we went to Vila Real de Santo Antonio(place near Spain) to talk to some people, but as always, things didn´t go quite as planned. We found out when we got to the train station that we had left our ward list at the house but that wasn´t too big of a problem because Elder Torgersen knows where everybody lives there. The real problem was the recent converts that we taught that night. They are two young girls who were baptized by previous Elders a few months ago and have never come to church while i´ve been here. They always make excuses about why they dont come but i think that sometimes they just want to annoy us. Normally, from what Elder Torgersen says, they can be a handful because they are super dramatic and they only liked the Elder previous to me because he would put up with the things they do. I came to find that that statement was 100% true because i have never talked to anyway who frustrated me quite like them. Let me explain. When we got to their house we sat down in the alleyway outside their house and started to talk to them a little until one question we asked set them off. We hadn´t even said a prayer or anything but for some reason when we asked if they had been reading in the Book of Mormon they kind of freaked out. We had just asked about their reading as a way of keeping the conversation going but i turned out to something worse. They started throwing out excuses like it was going out of style while me and Elder Torgersen shot down every single one with a reference to the scriptures or from one of the apostles. We did it in the nicest way possible but they refused to acknowledge that they were capable of reading the scriptures everyday. But fortunately, after about 20 minutes, something positive happened. The ex-investigator sister of these girls walked up and asked if she could go back to going to church again. She had been an investigator last year but stopped going because she didnt want to obey some of the commandments or something. But when she told us she wanted to come back, Me and Elder Torgersen looked at each other in a confused manner. Then he quickly took out the phone while she was explaining how she had visited other churches but didnt feel good in those places so she wanted to come back. As i was listening to her story, Elder Torgersen showed me why he took out the phone, and asked me what i thought about the date on the phone calender he had picked out. I assumed he wanted to mark her for baptism, which i thought was a little hasty, but i gave him an "ok" shrug. I didnt think she´d go for it, but when Elder Torgersen invited her to make a goal for baptism with us she accepted. She still seemed a little unsure but after we explained that the date could be moved she felt a little better. So just like that, we had someone marked for baptism and she became our first "little Wonder" of the week. But the problem was the other two girls told us that they wanted to stop going to church all together. One of them said that she wanted God to answer one of her prayers and bless her family with a new house before she would come back to church and the other younger girl just seemed to follow the older one. We explained that that isn´t how things work but they wouldn't budge. So the lesson with them was bitter sweet but something good came from it so i´m happy. Although the girl we marked didnt come to church this week but i´m not too worried yet. It´ll be tough to get her baptized but we have faith that the Lord will help us. We´ll work more with them and get them to church but it´ll take some time.

This week we also marked with the mother of a recent convert from a neighboring branch to teach so that should be good. In the past the Elders had taught her in the other branch and at that time she wanted to be baptized, but couldn´t because of some work problems. But she recently moved to our area so we believe the Lord has blessed us with another "Little Wonder". So things are starting to look up here in Tavira and its really strenghtened my faith that the Lord answers prayers. From about the time i entered this area i´ve been praying that we could find the miracle or spark that this area needs and ever since i´ve started doing that, Heavenly Father has kept blessing us with small miracles that i have decided to call "Little Wonders" because i heard that song a few times last transfer from our "apostate" ipod. I remembered that song from Rob Thomas and at times it still gets stuck in my head so the name just stuck. So i´m going to keep praying that we can keep seeing "...these little wonders".

And speaking of music, we had a Zone meeting(not Zone conference) this week, which was great because i got the package and mail you guys sent me. It was also good because we learned new things but the mail was still the big highlight. First of all i have to say the airheads were a great choice, so THANKS. Also, Mindy´s blog posts made me laugh really hard out loud that earned me sudden, confused looks from my companion. Especially like the parable of the Sunbeams. Good work Mindy. I´ll add to my collection of things i show my companions. Mindy´s phone call posts are already gained favor among my companions so i imagine the new posts will catch on too. Also tell Mindy "thanks" and "you rock" because the CD she sent me is awesome. All the songs are great and she even sent one of my favorites "i never stand alone". But i have to say "one of the 99" is probably my favorite now. It gives me chills every time i listen to it. But the Josh Groban and Allen Jackson were a nice touch too. so you can tell Mindy she is currently in the lead as "most loved sibling". And speaking of music, tell Mindy to look up a band called the Alaskan shenanigans(bad spelling). They sing alot of missionary songs and in think the RMs in our family would enjoy them, especially the dear John one and the one about inactives. So look them up if you have time.

In other news, Moms stories of church in winters gave me an idea and now, i´m the wards new pianist. I mostly just play one handed, simplified hymns but it gets the job so i dont think anyone+s complained yet. The simplified hymn book you guys sent is kind of hard, but i found an easier one so now i´m slowly moving my way up. Hopefully by the end of my time here in Tavira i´ll be able to play a little out of Grandma´s book.

And in other church news, we had fewer people in church than i have every seen on my mission, which wasn´t good, especially because it was testimony meeting. We had a grand total of 8 people, and i was the last one to bare testimony so that was interesting. I was trying to wait a while before going up but the branch president gave me weird looks so i got up sooner that i wanted. We ended up getting out earlier than usual but nobody seemed to mind. I wonder why?

Also, i wanted to ask if you guys had any ideas of an activity we could do here in our branch. We´re planning an activity for next Thursday, but its hard to plan something thats fun for everybody when you have really old people and really young people. So if anyone has ideas, they´d be appreciated.

In unrelated yet important news to the Worrying Mother, I´ve felt a little sick this week, which wasn't good because i tried to fast. Obviously it was a good idea but we were fasting together as a mission for certain things so i didnt want to be left out. I survived but its taken its toll. But dont worry mom, because i´ve been eating eucalyptus/menthol cough drops all week which have helped and i´ve been sleeping through parts of of meals to try and rest up so i´m doing better. So mom, you can stop worrying now(although maybe thats not possible).

Well, i think thats it for news. I dont think i´ve forgotten anything. We´re still working hard but i think we could work a little bit harder at times but we´ll work on that. Keep praying for us. Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws.

P.S. GO COUGARS!