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