Here We go Again

Hey Family,

We made it through another week here in Tavira and we actually had some success so it actually turned out to be a pretty good week.

But, first things first, transfers. I got the call just a few minutes ago form the secretaries but i dont know how i should take it. Me and Elder Christiansen are staying together for one more transfer here in Tavira. When i first got the call i honestly couldn´t think of what to say. And over the phone i heard all the Elders in the office laughing as they told me what was going to happen in my district. At first i was really upset because i have been so frustrated here that i knew it was time for me to leave. I figured that if i was going to stay i was going to kill someone. But now that the annoucnment has sunk in, i think it´ll be ok. I´m still wondering why i´m supposed to stay, but then i realize that the Lord does everything with a purpose. I feel like i´ve learned alot here through all of my trials but i guess the Lord wants me to learn a little bit more.

But on to happier news. We talked to Abela this week and we marked her for baptism, again. But this time we really think she´s going to go through with it. We went there on Wendsday with our Branch President to talk to her and teach a kind of farewell lesson because everyone figured i was going to leave. But everything in the lesson went well and we marked her for the 13th of this month, which happens to be this weekend. So after the lesson we were all feeling really good but then something happened on Saturday that put a chink in things because on that Saturday we had our meeting with the branch President. In that meeting we always talk about our invetigators and so ofcourse, Abela came up. So when we started talking to her our branch president pulled out one of the church manuals and starts reading form one fo the sections that talks about baptism. I didnt think anything of it until he got to the part about if the investigator wants to be baptized by someone from another branch, which is whats happening with Abela. He then read about how that person has to show him(the president of the branch that the investigator will attend) a temple reccomend or another type of reccomned that says they are worthy to do the baptism. At that point a fight broke out between me and the branch president because i felt that he had gone looking for an excuse to stop the baptism from happening. He was never 100% behind us on the baptism adn wouldnt even consent to annoucing it in church so they members would know. I could believe that after all we´ve been through with this lady, our branch president would be the one to stop our baptism. I what i didnt understand was the fact that that part of the manual almost unknown to everyone so its never enforced. We argued for a while but didnt solve anything so we left the meeting with a bad taste in our mouths. But the next day we resolved everything and we are back on good terms but it was shaky for a while. But now, everything should run smoothy this week. So i guess one plus of me staying is that i might get to see this lady get baptized. But if she doesn´t get baptized this weekend, i´m considering dropping her.

And by the way, tell Jenny thanks for the pictures! It always nice to get those from her every P-day.

Well, I´ve got mixed feeling about this next transfer but we´ll see how it goes. Keep praying for me and i know i´ll make it through ok! Thanks again for al the love and prayers! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws