My First Skin Walker‏

Hey Family

Life´s good here in Portugal. This week we taught some really good lessons and got some good work done. Earlier last week we had FILLED our weekend with appointments but as any other missionary can tell you, almost every single one fell through. It was tough but we surrvived. Yesterday we also confirmed the lady we almost killed a week ago as a member of the church and this time everything went fine.

Mom was right about my rain jacket. Last week it rained really hard and the jacket really didn´t do anything. It works well against light rain but the heavy rain last week killed it so that other coat might be a good idea. That day it rained really hard we were working with the jovens and had met the mat the local Staples. When we got there it was just cloudy with no rain but when we came out of staples about sixty seconds later it was pooring outside. Our jovens wouldn´t leave Staples because it was raining so hard so we left them there and just keep working. Luckly the rained stopped not long afterward but i still got soaked.

The language was alot better this week. I´ve noticed that when my morning studies are good, I speak better portuguese. In fact, the other day, me and Elder Wilson had to go to another Area to do a baptismal interview for some other Elders because the Zone leaders couldn´t do it. When we got there, Elder Wilson went in to do the interview and i was left by myself with a brazilian Elder and an american who refuses to speak english. I was freaking out because i was sure i wouldn´t be able to comunicate and thought it would be really embarrassing but i talked with them the whole time and understood almost everything! It was so cool! The American is from Rigby and his last name is Hinckly. I dont think we know him though. Also, the brazilian Elders last companion was from IF, his name is Elder Craig. I dont think we know him either. Then, in some of our other lessons this week i´ve started to say more than just my testimony and i´ve started to ask really good questions to our investigators. I´m starting to become more confident but i still dont think i speak well. The real test will be in interviews this week because i think that President Torgan will do the entire interview in portuguese.This Friday i should get your package at interviews so i´m really excited.

Last week we had lunch with our Elders Qurom president for the first time in a long time. Almost every part of the meal was fish. Their were fillets, shrimp things, and cod fish balls. It was SO good! Fish is amazing! Also about a week ago, i got bit by a dog but i´m fine. The dog was about the size of Cloe so its teeth did´nt even get through my paints. Elder Davis would have called it a "Skin Walker". Also about two weeks ago, i almost got arrested. Here in portugal public transportation has tight security. One time when i was on a division with Elder Anson, we were riding a bus we watched a guy get a ticket because he had the wrong ticket and wouldn´t get off the bus. Well, the trains here are even worse. When we ride the trains we use a special ID to get the little gates to open for us so we can get onthe train. Well, one day i walke up to the side of one of these gates and used my ID and the get opened. The only problem was Elder Wilson wasn´t thinking and just walked through. This is a problem because you can only use your pass once over a period of time so now my pass wouldnt open the gate. So, Elder Wilson handed me his pass over the gate and i used it and got through. Then, as we were walking, one of the train-guard/cop guys came and yelled at us and made me go all the way back to the gate and scan my card again. The guy wasn´t happy and i was sure i was going to get a ticket or get arrested. After i scanned my card and he found out it worked he got after us and let us go. I thought i was going to kill Elder Wilson.

This week i kind of have some bad news. I´ve talked with some missionaries about shoes and i may have some problems with my shoes in the future. ElderDavis had a pair of Rockports just like mine but he said they only lasted six months because his toe came throught the top of his shoe. His toenail had worn it down and eventually the roof of the shoe gave out. So this weeki took a look at my shoes and sure enough, i felt the roof of my shoe and it was already worn down. I´m really mad because these shoes were $150 a pair and are supposed to last me my whole mission but now i´m praying they last me another transfer. If you guys have any ideas of what i can do to save my shoes let me know. The only thing i can think of is buying a 30 euro pari of shoes and wearing those till they die to try and help these shoes last longer but in the end i´m not sure how much that would help.

Tell Jenny thanks for all the photos! Her kids are growing up so fast! Especially Milo. That kid is getting big. It sounds like BYU is doing good but my Lions are struggling. At least some of there games are close and they seemed to stay pretty close to the Superbowel champs. It also sounds like Spencer´s going to have a long year since but hopefully something will click for the Bills later. But at least the Vikings are tearing it up.

Can you guys send me Will´s MTC Address and maybe his Email address too? i sent him a letter before his farewell but i´m not sure if he got it. Today me and Elder Wilson are headed up North to a Zone bar-B-que where i´ll get to play some basketball so today should be a really good day.

Well, I think thats it for news here in Portugal. Thanks for all the Emails and prayers. Tell Dad to keep up the good work at school! Tell everyone i love them!

Élder Haws

The Slam Dunk‏

Hey Family,

Week 2 of trnsfer 2 just ended and i´m stil alive. We had a crazy week last week between Zone Conference and General Conference. Last tuesday we jumped on a train really early in the morning to get into Lisbon on time to get us on the right bus that would drop us off near the mission office. There was almost nobody there when we showed up but eventually everybody got there. I thought that three Elders from my MTC district would all be there but one ended up going to the other Zone conference thats happening tomorow. It was a lot of fun to talk with the other two Elders though and there was also another Elder form the other MTC district there too. We had fun swapping mission stories and laughing but after the conference i felt really discouraged because i didn´t feel like i was doing as well with the language as everyone else. But that night i had some good experiences with talking with members so that helped and last night i was laughing and having fun with one of the jovens from our ward so i´m feel a little better. Elder Uctdorfs Talk in the priesthood session helped me a lot too. I liked how he said not to compare yourself to others and once i started thinking that way i felt better.

This week we learned in Zone conference about the new rules from president torgan. There are a lot of new phone rules because one Elder had a 200euro($300) phone bill. Tell Mom not to worry, if it was my companionship it wasn´t my fault because i never touch the phone. There are also a lot of new rules about divisions and leaving areas and stuff so the mission leadership Elders are having alot of fun now. President also said that we couldn´t leave our areas to watch conference and that IF we were to watch it it would have ot be with members or investigators. That made it fun for us because almost everyone with internet in our area wasn´t planning on staying homeand watching it so we had to find the few people who were. Fortunantly we say every talk in conference except for Richard G. Scott´s talk. I saw the first and last sessions in portuguese and the middle three in english. The portuguese was tough to follow but the English was awesome. I never realized how much i loved general conference until i was wacthing it in portuguese and dying inside because i couldn´t understand it. But we watched two sessions with an inactive member and he really seemed to like it so that was good.

last wendsday we also had a baptism! We really did do much to get the investigator ready for baptism because she was the friend of a memeber and she pretty much did everything. But the Baptismal service was interesting.The Talks were all good but when the bapstim came around it got tense. Elder Wilson was doing the Baptism and had practiced with the lady before but things didn´t go as planned. She got in the water just fine but when Elder Wilson put her under the water she took a HUGE gulp of water! She came up and started choking and everybody freaked out! She couldn´t breath for a awhile and i seriously thought she was going to die but the first thoughtthat ran through my head was, "If she dies, at least she´ll go to the Celestial Kingdom". After a while our Elders qurom president got her breathing and everything was alright. I ended up singning in a musical group later in the program and everybody eventually calmed down so it was ok.Afterward the Lady wnted to try again because she thought she could do better but we had to tell her that we couldn´t. It was a fun experience buti dont think Elder Wilson will be baptizing anyone anytime soon.

Last week after i got Mom´s email i went out to our HUGE shopping mail and bought a 5 euro rain jacket that should work. It rained today so i got to try it out and it works just fine. I got mike´s email it was really great so tell him thanks. I really hope i learn portuguese as well as he did because it looks like he learned REALLY well. I also wanted to ask if you guys could send my CTR ring to me in my next box too. Sorry for all the requests. I got all of dads letters at Zone Conference and since its a new set of Zones i´m now probably famous in both regions of portugal as the missionary who gets thousands of letters. And it you were wondering, it looks like letters take about seven days to get to the mission home so if packages are anything similar i should get the package on the 15th. The language is still really tough but my personal and language studies have really been bad lately so i klicked myself in the but and now i already feel like i´m doing better.

Well, it sounds like everybodys doing well there. Its turning into winter here so now theres thick fog and overcast skies all day. Its also way humid!I was reading letters on our patio and by the time i was done reading a letter the paper would be moist. Well, i better get back to work. Tell everyone i´m still alive and that i love them. GO LIONS!

Élder Haws

The Champ‏

Hey Family,

Thanks for all the emails! I had know idea there was that much sports news that could happen in a few weeks! My Lions won! Who would´ve guessed it. I feel bad for BYU but i think we´re all used to dissapointment after last season. Thank Jenny for all the photos. I´ve only been gone a few months and her kids have grown up so fast! Milo looks completly different! What happened? Ruby´s hair does look a little funny but here in a few weeks i have to get a haircut so my hair will look really funny too.

This week was good. Elder Davis still calls me on my cell phone(our area has two until tomorow) every once in a while which suprises me because he always has a half-dozen people calling him. His new house is terrible. Last week he got shocked and this week he tried to put in a new light socket and almost died. There are two wires that hang out of the ceiling that the socket connects to in the room where Elder Davis studies. There was no light in that room so he decided to put the socket and fixture back up(they had fallen off a long time ago). So, remembering the experience he had with the light switch, he stood on a chair and had his companion stand next to him with a broom. He was holding a broom because Elder Davis told him that if he started getting shocked to knock him down. So, before touching anything they flipped all the light swicths to what they thought were the "off" position.Then, just to be even more careful, Elder Davis took a screw driver and used it to connect the wires to test it like you would with jumper cables. But as soon as they connected there was an explosion that blew the fuses in the house. And the explosion was so big that it blew plastic all over Elder Davis. Luckly, he´s still alive but I´m sure that house is trying to kill him.

This week was really slow and we didn´t teach a whole lot of lessons but we have a lot of hope for this upcoming week. Its hard having low numbers but we´re hoping to have a few baptisms really soon.

In sports news, the rookie ping pong player of the year (for the Portugal,Lisbon Mission) took to the table and destroyed his companion. He beat me once but after that i killed him. I´ve also found that my backhand is getting better. Then, after that we went and played horse out back behind that church and i won both times. I also bought a new sling bag that is perfect and i feel like a girl because i love it so much.

Tomorrow we have a huge zone conference with half the zones in the mission again so that will be fun but my district from the MTC should all be there.

I think i´ve also lost some weight. A couple weeks ago i walked into a room in our house with out a shirt on and one of my companions(who took steriods before the mission) said, "Dude, you´re buff!?" So i guess all the walking in the hot sun has done me some good. I also got some shirts from Elder Davis that are size 16 and are fitted so when i where them i look GOOD.

I only have a few questions. Could you guys email me my mission plaque scripture reference? And also, in the next box you guys send(not this one)could you guys send my seminary books? They have alot of good examples that i can use in lessons. I´m not sure about the coat. There are ALOT of places to shop around here but i´m sure what it would cost to get a coat. I´ll look around today a see what i can find and i´ll let you know. I sent mike a letter so he should be getting it sometime this week our next. Make sure to tell him not to make fun of my bad portuguese too much. I might send pictures with this E-mail but i might not so dont get your hopes up.

Well, I´m doing good and I think i´m finally starting to get comfortable here in Portugal. Yesterday was stake conference and a lady got up to speak and i had an interesting experience. I could understand alot of what she was saying but she spoke really funny. I just thought she was speaking with a weird accent or maybe she just spoke really bad portuguese because she was me feel good about my portuguese. Then i realized she was speaking Spanish...she was the wife of the Madrid Temple President.

Life´s good here and Cascais. I hope everybody´s doing well because i´m doing fine. Tell everyone i love them.

Élder Haws

1 down, 15 to Go...‏

Hey Family,

Its been a pretty good this week despite all the changes. We spent last thursday moving Elder Davis to his new area in Setúbal so that was a fun road trip. He and his new companion decided to meet half way in Lisbon so we didn´t have to take him far but it still ended up taking up a good part of our day. He´s called us a few times this week and he sounds ok. His house there is terrible and last night he called me and told me that it almost killed him. He was walking onto the bathroom to take a shower and turned on the light switch and ended up getting electricuted. Afterward he said his foot was stuck to the floor and his heart hurt. He´s alright but i dont think he´s going to be touching any light switchs any time soon.

the work this week has been pretty slow. With just two of us(and me being a greenie) we cant do as many divisions so our lessons went down a bit. Our companionship is doing good. There have been times when i have wanted to kill Elder Wislon but everything always works out. Right now we´re teaching our jovens how to teach the missionary lessons because they want to be ward missionaries. We call it our member missionary training center(MMTC). So far its been really good and we´ve already sent them a couple of times to go and teach some people.

I sent Will a letter this monday so hopefully he gets it before he goes into the MTC. He´s going in really soon. Although maybe it just seems that way because time is flying out here in Portugal. I´m in my second transfer in the field already! How crazy is that! That means i only have...15 more to go! I still dont feel good about my language skills but I try not to worry about that too much.

This week President Torgan has made more changes to the mission. P-day will no longer be on Wendsdays but will now be on mondays. This starts this week so this monday wil be P~day again.

Its still hot here in Portugal(as always) but pretty soon it will be raining everyday and i cant wait. Next week I´ll be sending pictures for sure so you guys can have a better idea of where i´m serving and i´ll also send you guys pictures of our apartment that costs 600 euros($900) a month.

Has dad been sending letters to the mission home or to my house in Cascais because I´ve been checking the mail box and I haven´t gotten any and i´m worried that the address doesn´t work. And i still haven´t sent that letter to Mike yet. I keep forgeting but hopefully i get it sent off this week. How are my Lions doing? I haven´t heard any sports news in forever. And whats Mike´s relationship status? I thought i would have recieved a wedding invatation by now. But i guess there´s still hope as long as the M*girl and and A* F* are single.

Well, I know this was probably a boring E-mail but with Elder Davis gone life here in Cascais is a little dull. Thanks for keeping me updated on everything and thanks for all the prayers. I love you guys.

Élder Haws
(People still can´t pronounce my name)

Transfers, Baptisms, and Ping Pong Balls...

Hey Family,

Its been another crazy week here in Cascais. After i got done writing you guys last week our tripla taught 9 lessons...on P-day! We tore it up this week! When we gave our numbers to the Zone Leaders they were really suprised. Our numbers were as follows...

0 baptized and confirmed
2 marked for baptism
3 investigators in church
27 lessons with a member present
3 lessons to investigators w
ithout a member
3 progressing investigators
2 refrences
6 contated refrences
7 new investigators
20 lessons to members
9 potential investigators

All week Elder Davis has been saying, "We tore it up!" After the APs got our numbers they called our Zone leaders to check and make sure the numbers were right. It was a great week.

This week was also transfers and our district got hit pretty hard. Our Zone leaders got transfered and now the sisters from our district work that area and now we are part of a new zone.One sister left but we got a new one too.Me and Elder Wilson are staying here but Elder Davis unfortunatly was transfered to Setubal. I´m pretty sad that Davis is leaving because he´smade these last few weeks bearable. He´s a really great Elder and he works really hard but he has a fun loving attitude that makes people think he is a slacker but in reality he´s the best Elder i´ve met here. I´ve learned alot from him so i´m really bumbed that he´s leaving. I´ve started to get really annoyed with Elder Wilson and i´ve thought about killing him a few times soi dont know how this next transfer will go. Elder Davis has felt the same way about Elder Wilson and even offered to call president for me and tell him to transfer me our Wilson. WIlson isn´t a bad Elder, he just gets really annoying after awhile, plus he´s really messy and doesn´t think a whole alot about others or what might happen in the future sometimes. He works hard buti might kill him this next transfer so pray that the Lord with bless me with patience over these next 6 weeks.

To make things worse our baptisms fell threw this week. We had one schelduled for today but the girl called a half hour before the baptism and canceled. We just talked with her and found outwhy. She still wants to be baptized but she needs more time. It was tough but we all feel better now. The other baptism was scheduled for saturday but the girls parents freaked because we had a lesson with her in her bedroom with two Elders, two members, her, and some small children so she wont begetting baptized this week either. Theres been a lot of sad news this week but i´m doing good. I just keep singing the words from hootie´s song, "It wont be like this for long". I think those words are going to get me through this next transfer.

In happier news, i discovered my mad skills in Ping Pong. We have a Ping Pong table in our Church(dont ask why, i dont know) and while we were setting up for the baptism yesterday we played a little. At first i was aweful but after a few games i did alright. Then, today while the font was filling up we played some more and I TORE IT UP! I lost a few games here and there but i think i have the best record of any greenie in the mission! I dont want to brag but i am pretty good.

About the Torgan plan, every week president calls us and tells us a new way of baptizing someone that weekend. Most of the time we take an investigator whose been to church a few times and try and baptize them in a week. We´ve tried it but it hasn´t worked yet and the stress kills us.

Thanks for all the Info on the family and my friends. I´ll keep you guys posted on this next transfer. I love you guys!

Élder Haws

Counting Down‏

Dear Family

Thanks for the bus load of emails the were awesome! I´m glad everybody liked the Rat Story. Its been the big story in the district this week. I can´t believe that BYU beat Oklahama! When i read Dad´s first Email ithought he was just messing around until everyone else´s emails said the same thing. Thats crazy! I guess BYU plays better when i´m across the ocean? Thanks for the Update on Will and Ed. I´ve been trying to pray for Will and his family everynight and i hope they´re doing well. I actually know Elder Walker. He was in the MTC with me and he was in the one of the first groups to leave after the Swine Flu thing. He is actually my favorite Elder from that group and i got to talk to him my first day here.

This week at District meeting it was just me, Elder Wilson, Elder Davis and the Irmãs because the ZL´s had another meeting. It was way fun and the Irmãs seemed very impressed with my portuguese. Afterward we took them to lunch at an Indian Resturant. We all laughed the entire time and i´m sure the irmãs didn´t know what to think of Elder Davis. They were also pretty suprised about how outgoing i was because i had always acted shy and quiet around them. They wanted to see the Rat but we ended up throwing the rat away aftera couple of days. Me and Elder Davis were going to put it in Elder Wilsons bed but decided it would be better if we didn´t.

Interviews went well last week. President i was doing well with the language and said that i was going to be a good missionary (but i´m sure he says that about everybody).

I got ALL of dads letters at interviews and everybody seemed really surprised. It took me FOREVER to read them all but they were great.

I dont have alot of time today because a new "Torgan plan" has turned todayinto a working P-day.

As a language note, one member said i spoke with a portuguese accent andanother said i spoke like an irishman so i dont know who to believe.

Tell Gemar thanks for the Devil story he used to always tell in Priesthood about how the devil would tell people to read and pray "tomorrow". The Elders, Sisters and members all love that story so if he or anyone else has cool stories please send them to me. Everybody here loves them.

Can you guys also send me Will´s address and along with the package you guys are sending can you send some thermal garms?

Well, i got to head out. Tell everyone "hey" for me. I love you guys!

Elder Haws

The House Guest‏

Hey Family,

This week was crazy. we spent most of the week doing divisions with members so i spent alot of time with Elder Davis. Elder Wilson would go off with a member and me and Elder Davis would go work somewhere else so our numbers were crazy good. At District Meeting this week Elder Davis kept telling everybody "We Tore it up!" Tomorow we have interviews with President Torganso we look good going into them.

I had my first crazy Mission house experience this week. I´m going to to tell you guys this story but NOBODY is allowed to call the mission home! This week we hadn´t been keeping the house very clean. Normally Elder Davisgets after my companion because Elder Wilson is pretty messy but now Elder Davis just says he doesn´t care anymore. So on monday morning we woke up and found that one of our apples had a bite taken out of it. We were all confused until we looked closer and saw that it looked like a bird our something had been pecking at it. We didnt think much of it so we just ignored it and went to district meeting. That day we were going on divisions with the Zone Leaders so Elder Wilson went to Oeiras with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Flint, and the other Zone Leader, Elder Markarian, came and worked with me and Elder Davis. After District meeting we split and got to work and the day went pretty well. Almost all of our plans fell through but it was still a really good day. Then, that night we we got back to the apartment we were cooking dinner and Elder Davis was talking to Markarian in one of the bed rooms when I walked out of the other. Davis was about to get into the shower and by this time we had all forgoten about the apple. As i walked out of the room I looked into the living room and saw a long tail slither behind the wall kind of like the snake tail in Harry Potter. I stopped and said, "Dude, I just saw a tail..." Then we all freaked out. We all ran into the living room and started looking around. They kept asking me how big it was but i didnt get a good look so i just said it was about this big (i showed him it was about 6 inches). Elder Davis then said, "Aw crap,its gonna be huge!" then went and got a SMALL tuperware. HE came back and it old them it was probably under the couch. We closed the door and we all spread out. Davis was on one end of the couch and Markarian was on the other and i was behind Davis. Markarian chose to scare it out so Davis could catch it so he lifted that end of the couch up and he dropped it. Just then a HUGE rat busts out from under the couch and runs in between Davis and Me. We all freak out (again) and we all start jumping on the furniture. Davis starts yelling and swearing and I´m laughing my butt off. That rat runs around for a misnute then hides under a bookcase. Then Davis said, "Forget this, i´m getting my camera!" He came back and i was chosen to be the camera man. We tried to catch again with the small tupperware but couldnt so Davis left again to get our big tupperware. This whole time i am filming this Davis is swearing and i´m still laughing. We finally get a big tupperware and scare it out one last time and caught it some how. Some how Davis managed to drop the tuperware on it and was so suprised he took his hand off it. Then remembering what he was doing he put his foot on it. After that we made a video Interview with his camera and then decided that we had to get rid of it some how. We couldnt let it go out side anywhere because it would just come back so we decided...we had to kill it. The only question was how. We would have shot it but we didn´t have a gun. We didn´t know what to do so we tried to get it drunk so it woulnd´t feel anything our run so fast by poring Rubbing Alcohol into the tupperware. Then i called Elder Wilson and ElderFlint and Elder Flint siad we should just freeze it because that would be the most humane way to kill it. We all felt really bad about it because we had all seen Ratatouy (the movie with that rat that cooks) but it had to be done. So now we have a tupperware in our freezer with a giant rat in it.

Life here has been really good. Since i´ve been here i´ve eaten Indian curry twice and some really good brazilian food so make sure to tell Warren that. I´ve also had clams too. Elder Davis just had surgey on his chest because he had a sist like Spencer so today will be a relaxed P-day.

The Language is good. Yesterday i talked to a lady in portuguese and answered her questions without help and i also answered another members questions last night too. I also gave my first talk this week and the other Elders helped me with it. I wrote the best i could then they corrected it. Iwas really nervous but afterward everybody said i did really well and that i speak very good portuguese and a couple people said i spoke perfectly. One member got mad at me because i told her before that i didn´t speak portuguese.

Whats the name of that Elder Mom was talking about, i probably know him? I didnt get mikey´s email so you guys can just send the notes in the package. I think packages go to the mission home but my adress here is:

Rua José Joaquim de Freitas
Lt. 2 r/c A 2750
Cascais
Portugal

I think that should work. Life in a tripla is good. Elder Wilson is a straight arrow and Davis is...well...not a straight arrow. He says he like it work hard but he wont run faster than he has strength. Hes an obedient missionary but he still has a lot of fun. He actually reminds me alot of what i think Dad would be like as a missionary. As dad if he ever served ina town called Macclenny Florida becasue thats were Davis is from.I learn alot from both of them so life is great. One of the Zone Leaders told Wilson yesterday about his first impression of me. He said i looked like an Elder that would be a hard worker and pick up the language really fast. I was a little suprissed at hearing that but Wilson told him he was right.

Well, Everthing is good here. Thanks for all the love and support. Kepp me posted on how everybody is doing. Tell everyone i´m still alive! I love you guys!

Élder Haws
(The way they say it here is Élder OZ)