Surprise!

Hey Family,

Thanks for all the updates on everybody this week. Its nice to know that everybody is doing fine. We´re doing alright here but we just came off a pretty tough week.All in all, things were pretty normal this week. We went about working like we normally do but this week President Torgan gave the mission a few challenges that took a tole on us.

It all started on Tuesday night when we got a phone call from the zone leaders telling us that President Torgan had prayed and felt that he should challenge every area in the mission to find 20 new investigators this week. That wasn´t all that unexpected because we get challenges like that all the time from PT(President Torgan). But later in the week he prayed again and felt that every area in the mission had someone they could baptize before the end of the week. So he then challenged everyone to not only find 20 investigators but also to baptize before Sunday night. The first invite i readily accepted, even though our average new investigator count per week is 2. But i felt that having a bigger vision would push us and help us to improve. The second invite was a bit harder to accept because we have no one that is progressing quickly, if at all, towards baptism. But we accepted the challenge and prayed to see who the Lord wanted us to baptize. Unfortunately, no one came to mind that met all the requirements for baptism so we did our best to work hard and hope the Lord would show us who he wanted us to baptize this week. But, when Sunday came around, nobody had been baptized and we had found 0 new investigators. I took it pretty well at first but after i talked to our District leader i got to feeling pretty down. But i´ve decided i cant focus on it too much. I just have to get back to work and do better this week.

But in happier news we have two investigators that "showed signs of life" this week. One is a teenage kid that said he felt good when he read in the Book of Mormon for the first time and the other is an evangelical guy who got really interested in what we had to say when we started talking about life after death. We didnt have a lot of time to talk to either of them because they were both kind of busy but this week will be able to check up on them a little better. We also didnt get a chance to talk to Ofélia this week but we should hopefully be able to talk to her this week.

I also got a surprise visit yesterday at church from some people i knew. Mario, the guy i almost baptized in Setúbal but got baptized right after i left, showed up at our chapel yesterday because he found out i was serving near by. He and his wife Sandra showed up out of now where because they wanted to surprise me. I couldnt believe it when i saw them there in the chapel but it was great seeing them. They told me they missed me and that they haven´t quite enjoyed the other Elders like they enjoyed me and Elder Dalton. They also made sure to tell the Branch President that i was a great Elder and told them how i helped Mario get baptized. I felt a little embarrassed but i felt good that i had made a difference in somebody´s life. They also gave us a box full of cakes and gave us a ride home from church, which gave us time to talk. They´re doing really well, and Elder Thredgold told me later that he was surprised they are new members because they seemed like they were already really strong. Mario is the Young Mens president and has been helping the Elders. Since i´ve been gone they´ve baptized a bunch of youth so i guess he´s been helping out a bit. But it was strange because when they dropped us off after church i felt great but later i started feeling pretty down because i was home sick for Setúbal and because our week didnt go very well. But seeing and talking to that family really made me feel great. Recently i had been doubting my success and worth as a missionary, but it seems that Heavenly Father knew exactly what to do answer my doubts. Its actually kind of funny because he did the same thing when was doubting myself in Tavira. During that time we had a district conference and i got to see the members i baptized there too. So i guess it seems Heaven Father had been looking out for me all along!

So i see Mike is wearing glasses again. Is that an attempt and being fashionable to get more girls or did just get bored with contacts?

Well, today is Valetine´s day, which means my comp might get depressed.They have decorations and advertisements up of couples so it might make him homesick for his girlfriend. I pray it doenst. So this could be a long day and a long week but i´ll survive.

Well, i think thats it for news this week. Thanks for all the prayers and love. Dont stop praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com Amor,

Élder Haws

Big Changes

Hey Family,

The first week February and of this transfer are gone but i shouldn´t say i´m counting. In fact, Elder Torgersen(my old companion) called me this morning and told me we only had 17 weeks left in the mission. It was a strange feeling i got when i heard it because i finally realized my mission is winding down. But those thought s and feelings will disappear quickly as soon as we get back to work here. So you guys dont have to worry about me being trunkey!

But more important news, this week went pretty well for us. It seemed to last for an eternity but thats normal for the first week of a new transfer. We weren´t able to talk to the investigators we wanted to meet with(Ana Paula and Tiago), but we marked an appointment with Tiago´s entire family for tonight. I´m a little nervous for the lesson because i´m still not a hundred percent sure what we are going to say to them and because this lesson could determine if we will be able to baptize Tiago in the near future. But i know the Lord will help us out.

We also had a really neat experience last night that lead to us finding a new investigator. Lately its been tough to find new people to teach so when it comes time to start knocking doors, its hard to stay pumped. But President Torgan has given the mission lots of ideas on finding new people that have helped alot of missionaries out. One of those ideas is to offer prayers on homes and families which has given me alot of success on my mission. So last night we were knocking doors and offering these prayers trying to find someone who would talk to us. No one was really interested in anything we had to say, which is normal, that was until we found Ofélia. We knocked on her door and for some reason she seemed different from the other people we had talked to up to that point. She stood and listened to my entire contact and invitation and didnt interrupt me once!(which happens alot) But she accepted the prayer and told us a little about herself. She said that she was having some problems in her life so in the prayer i tried to follow the spirit and pray for the things she needed most. Then as we ended the prayer, i looked up and she was crying. I´m guessing that the spirit touched her because when we gave her a pamphlet and asked to come back she didnt hesitate in saying yes. And though this may not seem like a huge miracle, to me it was the exact blessing that i needed at that moment. So guess you could call that one of my "Little Wonders".

I also forgot to tell you guys something that we heard in the Zone conference two weeks ago. With such big news wouldn't think i would forget but i did. But as on July 1, 2011 the Portugal Lisbon Mission and the Portugal Porto mission will be combined to form the Portugal Mission. The general authority that announced it was very excited for the change because he said that it means the work in Portugal is improving greatly. President Torgan will be the Mission President of the newly created misison but i wont be here to see. it. Unfortunately i go home 3 weeks before. But at least i can feel satisfied knowing that i helped at least in some small way.

I heard that Jenny had to have surgery? What happened and is she going to be alright? I figured something was up when i didnt get an email form her because she only doesn't write when something disastrous happens(like the breaking of a camera :) ).

Well, i think thats about it for news. Thanks for all the love and support! Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Hey Family,

We made it through the last week of the transfer without injury, well, almost, but i´ll explain that later. I know you´re waiting on transfer news so get that out of the way first.

Me and Elder Threadgold are staying for one more transfer together here in Vasco da Gama. I´m not too upset about it but i feel bad for Elder Thredgold because this will be his 4th transfer here, which is a long time in a slow moving area. I was also hoping for a change, not because i dont like Elder Thredgold but because i like changes. I was also hoping that he would leave because that would mean i would have a better chance of having one more area before the end of my mission, but this transfer kind of shot that hope in the foot. But we´ll survive this transfer and keep moving on.

Other than that there isn´t alot to report. We didnt get to talk to either of our two investigators so that made the week a little bit harder than usual. We also had another person who had a lot of potential ask us not to come back anymore so that was another tough shot to take. So it seemed like the entire week was full of disappointment after disappointment but we´re alive so i cant complain. We dont have any set plans for this week so it looks like its going to be filled with knocking doors and street contacts. But thats been the story of this entire transfer so we´re pretty used to it by now. I´m just hoping that we see some better results in these next couple of weeks.

But i guess i cant say the week was too uneventful because i had a pretty funny experience on Monday night. So last week we went with our branch president to do some visits to some inactive members, which i thought would be a great opportunity to get to know some more people here in the area. But when we got to the first persons house i was met with a surprise. The inactive member we were going to visit was a lady who had had serious problems with cancer and because of that, had had parts of her jaw and mouth taken out in surgery. After listening to our Branch President talk with this woman for a few minutes we found out that this woman had incredible faith in God despite her many trials and Health Problems. Me and Elder Thredgold didnt participate much in the conversation, partly because i was having a hard time understanding her because she has no teeth, but i felt really good as we got ready to leave her house. As we got up to leave we offered to give her a blessing of health, which she excepted,, but what happened after that was the interesting part. After having given her a blessing i made my way to the door but i as soon as i got to the door i heard her tell our branch president that she wanted to show him pictures from her surgery. Struck with curiosity, Elder Thredgold and the Branch President stopped to look at the photos she had on her phone. I of course, thinking that there would be blood and other images that would send any Haws to the ground, stood behind Elder Thredgold so that i wouldn´t be able to see the pictures. But unfortunately, that didnt keep me from feeling weezy because just my imagination was doing the trick. But thankfully i was able to bare the dizziness until we all got to the door way. But that time i thought i was going really well, then all of a sudden i was on the ground with my eyes closed and the branch president was telling everyone i was ok. What i found out later is that i had fainted and fallen backwards as little member lady screamed. Luckily i fell on the Branch President how caught me before i hit the ground. I quickly realized that i had passed out and for some reason, in that moment, i thought it was hilarious. I´m sure everyone thought i was crazy because while the Branch President and member were freaking out, i was smiling and telling them i was fine. They had me stand up quickly and drink some water with sugar in it to see if that would help, but it didnt, and i soon found myself on the ground again unconscious. This time Elder Thredgold caught me and let me down nice and slow and as soon as i came to they had me lay down on the couch until i felt better. Needless to say our visit became a lot longer than expected and kept us from visiting the other member that we had lanned to visit. So just like that i left my mark on this area and made sure that that inactive member will never forget the missionaires.

Well, i think thats it for this week. Thanks for all the prayers and love. Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

No Pressure

Hey Family,

We just made it through week five here in Vasco which means that this is the last week of this transfer. The week went pretty well although nothing all that interesting happened but i wont complain.

We started off the week as normal, by going to district meeting on Tuesday and then heading back to work right after that. We had to ride on a bus for 45 minutes to get to the meeting, which takes alot of time out of our day, but in Portimão we had to take an hour and a half train ride so i´ll take what i can get. The meeting was pretty interesting, mainly because our district leader is really "Intense" and also because the Zone leaders showed up unannounced. The meeting was a little unorganized but we got to hear some great experiences the other Elders had in their areas over the past week. It was also great listening to over District Leader tell stories about how he resolved some of his investigators doubts. Like i said hes very "intense" and has no fear of saying or doing anything. Even the Zone leaders were impressed with how he worked. It was a great example to me because i know i need to be more like that.

But after the meeting on Tuesday, the rest of the week went by like normal. We tried to talk to Tiago but he was never home, even after we set up 2 or 3 appointments with his mom. Then on Saturday he mom told us he was going to be out of town until Wednesday so that put a kink in our plans for last week. Then, the other lady that we are teaching, Ana Paula, was out of town as well on the one we can talk to her. We had planned on Marking her because the last time we talked to her she was talking and asking questions about baptism. Shes the best friend of a member and has been taught by the elders for 4 months but has yet to go to sacrament meeting. Shes using the excuse that her husband is super atheist(I hear that alot) and always has plans on Sundays for them to be with friends. But that doesnt make sense because shes already been to Stake Conference and General Conference, both of which take more travel time. And this week our member that we teach her with is out of town so we cant talk to her(because we have to teach her in the members house). So we already have run into some road blocks this week but i´m not too worried. I´m sure that things are going to work out for us.

I´ve seen alot of changes in myself over these past few weeks. I´ve made a lot of little changes in the way i work and i think that they´ll bring some better results. For example, the Mission, and the church, have set a new standard in teaching that states that we should be inviting people to be baptized in the first lesson that we have with them. The mission has been pushing this for a while now but i´ve been slow to adapt. But this week i made plans to do this more and i actually did it once this week. The person didnt accept, but it helped us find out what their doubts were so now we can solve them.

In more random news, we were visiting a less active member last night who as health problems when i discovered something about my own health. This member has to take his own blood pressure multiple times a day because has heart problems so he has his own blood pressure,watch thing. As kind of a joke he put it on us to see how healthy we were and it turns out that my blood pressure is excellent. So i guess the stress of the mission hasn´t worn on me too much!

I also need to tell you guys that i need to pull out 40 euros for this week, but i promise that this will be the last time i pull out money. I´ve already made plans to not use any more money from my personal account so you can rest at ease. I´m sorry if this causes any problems.

Next week is transfers so i´ll probably be able to tell you guys whats happening when i email next Monday.

And be sure to tell Dad thanks for All-star email. It just may be the best email i´ve ever gotten. So thanks a ton Dad, you´re awesome!

Well, i think thats it for news. Sorry i dont have more to say but thats life here in Vasco da Gama. Thanks for all the love and prayers. Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Empty Handed

Hey Family,

I´m glad the packages finally got home. That´s a big worry off my mind, and now that that problem had been solved, i have more room in my prayers for other things.

This week was a week that was full of "learning". I say that because i´ve been reading through a lot of liahonas and they all say that we learn because of the trials we have. So i spent alot of time "learning" this week.

It started out with me and Elder Thredgold having two full days taken out of week because he had to go to Lisbon to renew his visa. Then after that, we spent most of the week worrying about the baptism that we were supposed to have. We got back to our area Tuesday night form our divisions with the other elders with just enough time to make one visit to our investigators house. We had preplanned to go there with a member so that he could "smooz" the parents by talking about the young mens program but unfortunately, the parents weren´t home.The Mom was there when we showed up, but almost as if it was on cue, she left the house a seond later before we could sit her down and talk to her. But we ended up getting to talk to our investigator, Tiago(age 13), and his older brother, Claudio(age 15, i think). It was a good lesson but we didnt get what we wanted from it, which was the parents permission to baptize Tiago. We got to teach his brother which was nice, but we had to wait to tak to the parents.

Well, we ended up leaving there soon after the mom got home, but unfortunately she was having a lot of stomach pains and was only coming home so she could have her husband take her to the hospital when he got home. Needless to say, she look like she wanted to talk to us. So we went back a few days later to set everything up for the baptism but again, the parents weren´t home. So we ended up helping Tiago with his English homework and then left, yet again, empty handed. But we went back the next day which was Saturday, the day before the baptism, with our district leader to have the baptismal interview. But yet again, the family wasnt home so we ended up talking to Tiago in the street for half an hour before our district leader decided he couldn´t wait any longer to do the interview. So, he and his companion left with out doing the interview, which meant that we would have to do the interview the next day at church with our branch president while at the same time getting permission from Tiago´s ex-Jehovah´s witness dad all on the same day as the baptism. Fun.

SO the next day we went to Tiago´s house to get him to go to church but instead, we found his dad. We talked to his dad for about 10 minutes before it was clear that he thought baptism wasn't a good idea. We had at first thought that he wouldn´t mind because he was always very nice to us and never had a problem with us coming by. On this occation he was nice to us but stated his opinion that Tiago wasnt ready for baptism. He also seemed surprised that we were going to baptize him because Tiago had said nothing of the matter to him, even though we had be telling him to talk to his dad for 2 weeks. So we ended up leaving that house for 4th time in one week, empty handed. I was pretty bumbed because Tiago was our one real shot at baptizing this transfer, but now that star seems quite a bit dimmer. But were´re going to try and work with the family this week to see if we cant get something to happen. But the whole experience this week was strange to me. It just didnt feel right because it was kind of thrown together all at one time. It was also really stressful on our companionship, but thankfully, we made it through ok.

But in other news, We found a really great new investigator that we taught three days in a row and who seems really interested. I also found out two weeks ago that a family that i found in Setúbal is planning on getting baptized. I had planned on marking them my last week there but for some reason didnt, and then after that the family disappeared. Then a few weeks ago the Elders found them again and started teaching them. They always had a lot of doubts but once the heard President Torgan speak in Stake Conference, most of their doubts were answered. I also found out that the guy i marked for baptism there and got baptized after i left is now the young men´s president and has already gone to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. So after hearing that a few weeks ago really cheered me up.

Other than that life has been good. Its been unusually dry for winter in Portugal but its making up for it by being REALLY cold. Alot of miissonaries have been getting sick this winter(including my companions), but i some how have made it through untouched so far. So lets pray that keeps up.

I cant beleive that MIndy´s moving. The only i´m going to say is that the new house has still be close enough to Taco Bandito for m to get my grub on when i go stay with her.

Well, I think thats it for news. I hope Jenny´s camera gets fixed by next week because i think i´m going through picture withdrawals :).

Thanks again for all the prayers and love. Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Going Through the Motions 1/10/11

Hey Family,

The first real week of 2011 just got over and i think we started the year well here in Vasco da Gama. We had some tough times but overall, things went pretty well.

The week started off with us having a really great experience that gave us some hope and alot of excitement. Monday night we were walking to an investigators house when we got a phone call from the zone leaders saying that we were going to have an emergency zone conference on Thursday because the zone and the entire mission was struggling as a whole. They also told us that we needed to pray about who we should mark for baptism for that week. I´ve heard the Zone leaders tell me that alot on my mission but for some reason i got really irritated this time, and i think Elder Thredgold could tell. We talked about it after the phone call and i told Elder Thredgold that i was tired of hearing the mission leaders tell me to baptise when i have no investigators to baptize. But after a few minutes we decided that we should dwell on it too much and that we should just work hard and do our best. But after that, as we arrived at the house of the investigator that we wanted to talk to, we had a miracle happen. Throughout my three weeks here in Vasco da gama we had tried to talk to this teenage kid many, many times, but were never able to met with him. But somehow we were able to get a hold of his mom that Monday, and get a lesson with him. In that lesson we talk a little about what the elders had already taught him and asked him if he had received an answer about the Book of Mormon. He said that he really liked the elders and that when he prayed about the book of mormon, he felt really good. To this point in the lesson i had just been going through the motions but when i heard that, it was almost as if i woke up. We then asked him if he had talked to his parents about baptism and he said his parents would let him get baptized. We then asked him if he wanted to get baptized and if so, when. He said that this Sunday was a good day, so just like that, we had an investigator marked for baptism. But although we continued to work with him all week, the baptism ended up falling through because his family went out of town. But we´ve already remarked the baptism for this Sunday and everything should go without a hitch this time so we´ll see what happens.

The Conference we had this week was actually different that what we´re used to here. Normally we get together to talk about who and how we are going to baptize but this time, we talk about that stuff, but we focused more on finding new people as well. There were also parts of the meeting where President or sister Torgan would go over alot of the basic mission rules that alot of missionaries haven't been following. It was kind of embarrassing to have to talk about those things but i guess it was needed.

Today i´m spend the day with the zone leaders again because Elder Thredgold had to renew his visa in Lisbon so i´ll be here today and with other elder tomorrow.

I´m really nervous that my packages haven't gotten home yet. They have almost all of the pictures from my mission in them so i really hope that nothing has happened to them.

Well, i think thats about it for this week. Thanks for all yours prayers. keep praying for us(and my packages)! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

2011?

Hey Family,

We survived the last week of 2010 but it really took it out of me. Things are looking up for us here so 2011 should be just as good as 2010.

Surprisingly, this last week passed really dast, while at the same time, passed really slow. I guess that brings meaning to the old missionary phrase, "The days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like days". Not alot happened during the week but we did see a little bit of progress so i guess you could say things are changing.

The week started out pretty normal, and passed pretty normally, that is until we got a knock at the door at 8:30 Wends day morning. To our surprise to the Zone Leaders appeared unannounced st our doorstep to do a "Surprise Division" because they wanted to help our area a little. I guess the numbers here have been struggling for a while so they said they wanted to do a division so that they could help us find more new investigators. I was a little confused at first because they showed up at our doorstep after a week of me being in the area, which to me said, "we dont trust you enough to do this on your own" but after a while i humbly accepted the help the Lord had sent me and my companion. So i spent the next 24 hours while a zone leader walking around an area i still wasn´t familiar with trying to find the elect. But with some luck we actually found some really good people. We had decided to go by some references that a member family had given the elders a while back but non of them were home, so we decided to knock around their apartments. I didnt think anything amazing would happen but just as we knocked the door of the apartment next to the reference, we found a woman who invited us in and became a new investigator. After that experience the day ran pretty well. We ended up finding a lot of really good potential investigators and i also got to learn alot from the zone leader i was with. It was really humbling experience as well because he was in my MTC group which means we have the same time in the mission. But I guess having the same amount of time in the mission doesn´t really matter much because he was 10 times a better missionary than me. It just seemed like every idea he had and everything he did resulted in success. And you´d think that after a great division with a missionary like that i would feel great, but the opposite actually happened. Instead of being happy that we found all those people i became almost depressed at the fact that i still dont do missionary work in a very successful way. I guess having so much more to learn discouraged me a little, and for a few days i felt pretty down. But thankfully we have a billion Ensigns in our house that were full of conference talks that built me back up and kepted me keep going. So in that aspect the week was tough, but we´re starting to see some progress with the area now so things should get better soon.

In other news, my companion is still feeling a little under the weather so i think thats been wearing on me. Its not that i getting sick its just that i´m afraid it might be making me lazy. I´m really worried about setting a good example for him so i´ll be sure to work a little harder this week to push myself.

I dont know how New Years Eve went for you guys but ours was pretty normal. We actually went to bed early because we were really tired but Elder Thredgold got woken up buy all the noise the people were making outside in the street. I dont remember waking up and neither does Elder Thredgold. He was actually a little surprised that all i did was roll over in bed because he said that people were banging pots and pans outside. He even said that it was hard for him to go back to sleep because of all the noise. But i guess being a Haws keeps me from being woken up by city wide celebrations AND earthquakes.

I´´m kinda worried about the packages that i sent home because they have almost all of the pictures from my mission. I really hope they make it home this week.

Well, i cant think of anything else add to this email. Keep praying for us! We really need all your prayers!

Obrigado por tudo!

Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws