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 ;)
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