One More Miracle

Hey, Family,

I dont have a whole lot of time but i figured i´d send you guys a quick email to update you on how things are going here.

Yesterday we went to church so i had the oppurtunity to meet alot of the members of the branch here. I was actually really empressed with the members from what i saw yesterday. I say that because i had talked to an elder that served here and he wasn´t too impressed with the branch so i kind of had low expectations. But it turns out that the branch is alot better than i expected. I could really feel the difference between here and Tavira. DOnt get me wrong, i love and miss Tavira, but the spirit was felt strongly yesterday throughout the meetings, something that wasn´t always common in the small branchof Tavira. But going to church yesterday gave me some added hope for this area because now i know that when i bring investigators to church, we´ll have alot of addition help in making sure they feel welcome. I was also asked to bare my testimony in church yesterday so that i could intorduce myself to the branch. I took the liberty to make a few jokes about how the chapel looked like it was really full because i was used to seeing 12 people at church every week. Everybody laughed a little and seemed to enjoy the meetings yesterday, and afterward, we had a lot of the members setting up meals for us in the up coming weeks. Elder Threadgold told me that its not normal for the members to feed us that often, but it seemed like everybody wanted to feed us yesterday. Elder Threadgold suggested jokingly that they must really like me but for whatever reason it is, i´m just happy we have the members on our side.

Yesterday we also had a really good experience in using the area book. We had planned on staying and working in Moita(city where the church is) because it costs quite a bit to get there from our house and i still dont have a bus pass. So when we went to church we took our area book and a list of inactive members to pass by so that we could have something to do while we were there all day. So after church we sat down and picked some investigators to go by and in turned out the the first door we knocked turned into a lesson and a new investigator. We had planned on just setting up an appointment to come back but the man quickly invited us in so we were able to teach a lesson. Then after the quick, impromptu lesson, he told us we could come back anytime. It was a small but really important miracle we had yesterday because it gave me and Elder Threadgold some hope that better things are going to come in the future. I´m also really excited to keep working with the area book because its filled with people just like this.

Well, today we have to go do some shopping so we can survive the rest of the week. We´re a really low on money so i might have to pull out money to make it through the week. Sorry but i´ll try my best to go without taking out money.

Other than that, theres not much to tell. Sorry for the short email but these past few days have been pretty boring. It was great talking to you guys on Saturday so thanks for the phone call! Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Leaving It Better Than You found It - Dec. 20, 2010

Hey Family,

I cant believe its Christmas time again. I´m starting to feel like an old timer in in the mission because this will be the second to last phone call i will make before going home. I even had some random lady last night tell me i was pretty much ending my mission already. She was just some lady who has been contacted by the Elders alot so she knows a little about what we do, so she was curious to know how much time i had left. When she found out i had 6 months left she responded with, "well you´re pretty much done aren´t you." Little did she know 6 months is plenty of time to work. But enough with trunkey talk. Lets move on to more important things.

First of all, transfers. Last night after we did our planning i was in the shower when we got our phone call from the mission office. That was strange for a few reasons: 1) I never get called by anyone about transfers let alone by the office Elders. 2) we normally dont get calls till Monday afternoon 3) The office Elders insisted on talking to me, which meant that Elder Christiansen(who was overly excited in handing me the phone) busted in on me while i was naked in the shower i tried to hand me the phone. (go ahead Mindy, have fun with that one on your blog!) But any ways, i found out that i´m being transferred to Vasco do Gama, an Area just on the other side of the river from Lisbon. I dont think there is a city called Vasco do Gama, so if you look it up on line you´ll just get a bunch of pictures of the bridge the area was named after. Its a pretty big area but from what i´ve heard from an Elder in my district(who just served there a few months ago) its like Tavira, but with more members. I´m pretty excited to see what its like but i wont get work there until Wednsday, because we´re having a special Christmas Zone Conference in Lisbon tomorrow. Hopefully i´ll be able to have as much success there as i did here in Tavira, but only time will tell.

And i know by now that Mom is dying for the details on the phone call and i glad to report that i can give you guys that information right now. I knew you guys might worry so i got the phone number and times set up right away so nobody would worry(well, not too much anyway)

So the number is 918 101 318

I talked to my new companion, Elder Threadgold, about when he was going to have his parents call, but he said he´s having his parents call the phone in the chapel there so it doesnt matter when you guys call. Though he´s planning on having his parents call at 11:00 a.m. your time so i think it would be best if you called at 12:00 a.m. just to be safe. But if that doesnt work you guys can call whenever.

But on terms of missionary work, things were good and bad this week. When the week started, it didnt seem like it was going to be a great week, but it ended really well. The days just seemed to crawl by because we didnt teach all that many lessons. But we went by alot of people that we had talked to and dropped alot of people so in that aspect it was really good. But part way through the week we got a call from the Zone Leaders telling us that we needed to focus on baptizing someone before the end of the year because President Torgan wants every dupla to baptize before December was over. The then informed me that my district needed to baptize because our two companionships were 2 of only five that hadn´t baptized this month already in this zone. So after that i felt pretty low, but then i found out that the other elders in my district got the same phone call form the Zone Leaders, plus a phone call from President Torgan giving them faca for having low numbers. So after all of that i felt pretty bad because my district was struggling, but we had an experience yesterday that really cheered us up.

So i told you guys last week about Nela, the Lady we found by using the area book. Well, we can only teach her once a week on Sundays, so we had a lesson with her yesterday that turned out to be one of the highlights of my time here in Tavira. We had talked to her last week and had committed her to coming to church, but we found out on Saturday that she wouldd´t be able to make it. But we were still able to go by and talk to her in the afternoon so we weren´t too worried. But when we went there we had the goal of marking her for baptism, something i dont like doing with an investigator before they go to church. But we went there any way and taught her about eternal families and the plan of Salvation and at the end of the lesson invited her to be baptized. I expected her to use some sort of excuse to get out of it like most people do, or i thought maybe her husband who was sleeping in the same room where we were teaching her would rose a complaint. But what i didnt expect was what happened next. With out any hesitation, an doubt, she asked the invite and even prayed with us to confirm the date. I´ve never marked anyone for baptism so easily on my mission as i marked her. It was a powerful witness to me that the Lord had led us to her and that she had been prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel long before we ever knocked on her door. I cant imagine a better way of leaving an area than this. Its a great feeling leaving a baptism for the next Elder to have because thats the feeling of leaving an area better than when you found it.

We also had a few people call us this week out of nowhere telling us that they wanted to come to church this Sunday but wanted to know where and when it was. Unfortunately neither came because one works on Sunday mornings and the other was out of town but we got the contact information for both of them so the Elders will be able to "Tract" them down.

Well, here in a little bit i´ll be heading up to Lisbon so i better get going. Thanks for all the love and prayers! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

P.S. Sorry for getting you in trouble Jenny.

P.S.S. Next time you send pictures of cute Cheerleaders, please send their addresses as well ;)

Snakes, Snails, and Area Books

Hey Family,

I really enjoyed the emails this week, especially the parts where BYU and Detroit won, but dont think i didnt enjoy the other stuff too. But unfortunatly this week was really slow, but fortunately we have this week to make up for it so i guess its ok.

To be completely honest, nothing special really happened this week. We worked really hard but we just havent seen the fruits of that labor yet i guess. We´ve been working with a few new people recently that have shown some potential, but have yet to do much of anything but we´re going to see if we can change that this week. One of the people we are focusing on is an old investigator that we found in our area book that had been taught by the Elders a long time ago, but had never gotten baptized. She had been taught alot by the missionaries but for some reason the Elders had stopped going by her so we decided to pay her a visit. When we passed by she seemed really happy to see and she said that she was really curious as to why the Elders never came back to her house. She really likes talking to us and is always happy to see us(something we´re not used to) which makes me wonder why she never got baptized. Her teaching Record says she was dropped a few times but the most recent excuse for dropping her is illegible so we dont not what it was. But we´ve talked to her a few times already but she still hasn´t come to church so we´re going to try to push her a little bit more this week. The plan is to invite her to be baptized because she says she believes everything the Elders have taught her, but we still dont know how that will go so pray for us.

Then the other person we´ve been working with is an African woman that we found by using the Area book again. We had found the previous woman, Elsa, by using the Area book so we figured we´d keep giving that a try. So we went back to the list of people the Elders had already taught and gotten to go to church and we found a person who had already gone to church more than 5 times and was almost baptized. We decided to pass by that reference a little bit later but we found to our dismay that the person no longer lived there. So, not knowing what else to do, i contacted the person who answered the door to see if maybe they had interest in talking to us. Luckily, Nela(the woman´s name), accepted our invite to hear our message and marked an appointment for the next day. She is a very quiet and humble woman from Cabo Verde who has proven to be another "Little Miracle" for us here in Tavira. We´ve only talked to her twice but every time we have taught her the room is always filled with the spirit. So far she has willing excepted everything but still hasn´t come to church, but then again we didnt just find her last Sunday so i guess i cant complain. We can only teach her once a week(on Sunday) so getting her to church with so little contact will be a challenge. But we have very high hopes for her as well so maybe we´ll mark her for baptism this week too. So keep your fingers crossed.

In other news, not much has happened. We had a guy from England in church this week which was a nice surprise. There are two Enlgish people that come to church when they´re here, an older man named Derek Smith, and a younger guy named Richmond. This week Richmond came to church, which was a nice change for us because we got to speak English with someone who's not a missionary. He really has no connections with Portugal that we know of so we´re not really sure why he comes. He used to be dating the girl in the ward that all the missionaries call, "The Snake of Tavira", but she moved to America a few weeks ago after they broke up so i dont know why he came. We actually moved the girls information last week to somewhere in Oklahoma (sp?) but surprisingly, she showed up at church this week too asking to have us recall her records to this branch again. So this week was a little hectic at church, because i also had to give an impromptu talk, but it worked out ok.

I also got and opened my package this week and it was great. I also sent some packages of my own home. Well, there more like envelopes but the mail system here in Portugal is weird so thats the best i could do for the price. The one that says "Não Abrem até Natal" is for Mom and Dad for Christmas, and the other one is to opened at any time because it has my old camera card and a USB drive with more pictures on it too. It also has an additional present for mom too, or for anyone else who wants it.

Thats pretty weird that Elder Davis called you guys. He was pretty much my trainer because i served with him and Elder Wilson at the same time in Cascais. So i guess you could say they both trained me. He still keeps in touch with everyone there so i guess they must have told him i was there. But i´ve been able to keep in contact with him by email so i hear from him once in a while. I dont know how he got your number but dont annoy him to much.

Well, i think thats about it for news. Next week should have transfer news for you guys and Christmas call information. But right now i better get back to work. Thanks for everything! Eu amo vocês!

Com Amor

Élder Haws

P.S. Tell Jenny to be careful when sending pictures of cute cheerleaders, its way trunkey!

The Trunkiest Week Ever

Hey Family,

I´m pretty worn out after a long week of travel and of being in Lisbon. But today´s P-day so i´ve had the chance to recuperate after visa week.

The week went pretty well, even though i spent most of it our of my area. I went up to Lisbon Monday night and stayed in the office Elder´s apartment for two nights. It was pretty fun being in a house with 6 elders (4 office Elders, Elder McLean, and me) but it wasnt fun in the fact that i had to sleep on a cold, hard matress without a pillow or blankets for one of those nights. But the Leadership meeting went well on Tuesday but i was a little disapointed to find out that i had to do a division with the Assistants afterward. The division went well but i just felt like i was being judged the whole time, but i feel that way on every division so i guess thats nothing new.

But the next day was better because i got to spend the day as "The Assistant to the Finacial Secrataries", or at least thats what i called myself. The office hadn´t planned on where me and Elder McLean would be going so they just decided to put Elder McLean with the Assistants and i got put with the Finacials. I was actually pretty excited to work with the Secrataries because they were both in my MTC group. But i guess i shouldn´t say we worked, at at least did missionary work, because secrataries have to spend more timie dealing with other peoples problems instead. So we ended up going to a Zone meeting that day, then we had to go to Mafra, and area north of Lisbon to do a Baptismal interview for some other Elders. That ended up taking most of the day so afterward we only really had time to go to a member meal and then one lesson after that. But we had a lot of fun that day because we spent most of our time with other elders. Then, on Thursday, we started doing our Visas, which we all thought would take a long time but only ened up talking an hour. So afterward, i had planned on staying with Elder Nixon and Elder Rich(Finacial Secs) again but i got an offer from Elder Torgersen to stay with him in Cascais, my first area. So obiviously, i chose Cascais.

We ended up getting there around the time they were suppose to meet a member to do a division so we ended up spliting up for the day. The member turned out to be a Joven that i used to work with all the time in Cascais so he was pretty excited and surprised to see me. But soon after getting there we seperated and i took Elder Thaut, an Elder who was staying in Cascais for the same reasons as me(visas), and we went out to try and knock doors. But soon after leaving the house i decided to call an old member that i used to teach (I also baptized his sister) to see if he had time to talk. At first he didnt remember me, but after a few seconds he realized who was talking to him and told us to come over. So we got to his house and started talking to him and it was great. He was impressed with how well i spoke because the last time i was there i didnt speak very well at all. But during the visit i found out that this member was planning on getting his Patriatical blessing and going on a mission, when just a year ago we were just getting him to come back to church. It was amazing to see the changes he has made in his life and to see how church oruiented he has made his life. its almost like he´s a completly different person. It was also great to finally be able to comunicate with him too because when i was in Casais a year ago i didnt speak too well. But a sad thinhg that i learned form the visit was that his sister who i baptized is in active right now. I was kind of bumbed about that but the Elders and her brother will work with her and get her back some day so i´m not too worried. I also saw the first alsy i baptized there too. We were just walking on the street and we saw her and talked to her. She seemed really happy to see me and said that i had grown but i´m not sure she remembered who i was. And then later that night i got to see another Joven that i used to work with alot too. He also is inactive so i gave him some faca for not going to church so hopefully that changes soon. It was great going back to Cascais and remembering all the stories and memories that i made there but it was also really starnge going back and working in my old area.

Then, on Friday we finished up our visas and we all went to Chilie´s in Lisbon. We had a ton of fun telling stories and laughing but i´m sure the people who work there hate the Elders by now. Then, after having our fun, me and Elder McLean hopped on a bus back to the Algarve. So after a long week of travel , with no problems might i add :), i´m back here in Tavira. It was really strange being away from "home" for so long but its nioce to be back. Its also taken me some time to get back into doing missionary work and getting my focus back but now i´m doing all right. But this week was probably the most "trunkey" week of my mission.

But in terms of only having 3 days of work in Tavira we did pretty well. We founf 3 new investigators and taught a few lessons so things are still going well. While i was gone Elder Christiansen stayed with some elders from the Zone and was able to work a little bit here in Tavira so that helped a little.

In other news, i´ll try to send some stuff home with my camera card so be looking for that.

Well, i better get going. Thanks for all the love and prayers! Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Tis´ the Season for Little Wonders

Hey Family,

We made it through Thanksgiving week here in Tavira and are about to go into another week full of excitement and travel. So things should be pretty interesting this week.

Last week seemed to go by really fast but wans´t all that eventful. We spent most of our time trying to find people to teach, but couldn´t find anyone over the first couple of days. Then, on Tuesday, we were sitting on a bench near our branch president´s house praying about what we should do and where we should go to find someone to teach when we had another "Little Wonder" happen. We had initially stopped to pray quickly about what we should do next but we ended up sitting there thinking and praying for about half an hour. Then, we got up and started heading down the street without any location in mind when we ran into our branch President on his way home. He seemed a little different than usual, but i didnt think much of it at first because he´s kind of a weird guy, but then he started talking about an inactive member that he had just gotten off the phone with. He told that this member had been baptized a long time ago in Lagos (other side of the Algarve) and had then moved to a city thats just across the border in Spain. He had always kept the books and manuals he had gotten form the church and would read them form time to time, but had recently decided he wanted to return to church. He also said that his girlfriend, who he is currently living with and will soon marry, was willing to take the missionary lessons from us. Our Branch President was really excited about this couple but for some reason, me and Elder Christiansen didnt make too big of a deal out of it and just went on our way. We were excited that someone wanted to come back to church but we weren´t 10 percent sure that it was going to happen. But then the next day, we found ourselves talking to our branch President again and he asked us to come to the chapel early the next morning so that we could teach this part member family. I was a little bit worried about how the lesson would go but it actually went reallly well. They´re both great and it looks like we might be able to baptize the girlfriend in a couple of weeks when they get married. She seems really open and willing to learn but i think its going to be a question whether she has a desire to know if the church is true or not. I just hope shes not doing this to make her boyfriend happy. But i´m sure everything will work out in the end. They didnt come to church this week but our branch president talked to them and he said he knows why they didnt come. He didnt tell us the reason but we´ll find out this Thursday when we talk to them again.

In other work news, we found 4 more new investigators this week which is pretty good for Tavira. Each time we find a new investigator its like find another "Little Wonder" in our Area.

Also, last week i found out that i´ll be spending all this week in Lisbon for meetings and to renew my visa. I had known for a few weeks that i would be going up but it wasnt confirmed that i´d be staying all week until last week. I have to go up to Lisbon today because tomorrow we have a leadership meeting and then on Friday i will renew my visa with all the Elders from my MTC group. Its kind of strange that i have to spend all week out of my area just because of two days that are so far apart but when bus tickets to Lisbon cost €20 its better to spend some extra time there than burn through all my money.

And speaking of money i pulled out some personal money this week because we ran out of mission money. We had to buy some stuff and i also had to make sure i had enough money to get me to Lisbon. We should get more mission money on Wednesday or Thursday but that may mean i might have to pull out 20 more euros before then. Sorry, but this should be that last withdrawal i make for a while.

This week i also might get my package that you guys sent me so if theres anything that you wanted me to open before Christmas let me know.

Thats a bummer about the BYU-Utah game because i know i´m going to hear about it for the other Elders at the Leadership conference tomorrow, but it´ll be a nice humbling experience for me.

Also, tell Jenny "thanks" for the pictures. I thought the one with Milo and the chicken was pretty funny.

Well, I think that it for news this week. Thanks for all the emails, prayers, and love. Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws