Happy Birthday to Me‏

Hey Family,

Its transfer week which means that i still have 6 more weeks to be a missionary so do get trunkey...at least not too much.

I found out last night that i´m staying here in Évora to end my mission, but i´m getting a new companion. Elder Fillerup is going to Lisbon to serve with an elder i came into the misison with, while i´m getting his companion, Elder Smith. I´m really excited because he only has about a year in the mission buit he speaks really well. I´ve served with really young guys for so long i dont know how i´m going to handle this next transfer. But i´m excited to see what happens.

This week to be very honest, was a very hard week for me and Elder Fillerup. On Tuesday we went to Beja, another city in the Alentejo to have a district meeting with some other duplas. I saw district meeting because i had the vane hope that we would actually have one, but as i figured, the missionary whos going home today just wanted to go around the city and talk to people. He served there about a year ago and wanted to say goodbye to some people so we ended up just following him around. I kind of figured something like that would happen, but we went anyway and we regreted it the whole week. Thats the first step of repentance so i guess we´re are making progress in the right direction.

The week was also really tough because José dropped off the face of the earth. We had talked to him a few times on the phone, and he was sounding great. He was doing amazingly well with the plan we made with him to stop smoking and he seemed happy. But later in the week we dropped some stuff off at his house for him to read. We had to do that because we cant talk to him during the week because of his work schedule. But we wanted to get him the baptismal interview questions so we could baptize him this week. But after dropping the stuff off with lady who owns the house, he just dissappeared. We kept calling him and he never answered, and then he didnt come to church. So we dont know what has happened to him. Hopefully we can find him and get him back to church. So please pray for us!

But in happier news, my Birthday was great. The members here LOVE the Elders because most of them are old and either dont have children, or their kids live far away, so instead of spoiling them, they spoil us! So everytime an elder has a birthday here in this area the lady´s in the branch all make cakes and bring them to church so they can celebrate. So this week the members made 3 or 4 cakes for us. After church yesterday they sang to me twice, once in the chapel, then a member family sang to me later at our lunch appointment. I think i gained 10 pounds from all the cake, but i´m not complaining. Then after church, we went to the branch president´s house to eat lunch like we always do. Since it was Easter, or Pascoa in Portuguese, they made us a special Portuguese lunch that you only find in the Alentejo. The whole meal was made from a lamb that the branch president bought from an inactive member last week. The member cut it up for our branch president, then they stuck in our freezer for a week. The meal was amazing, which made me glad that i was here in Évora for Easter. Then they brought out a big cake and sang happy birthday to me for the second time. It was a great day for food, which just happened to be on my Birthday, which made it even better. Happy Birthday to me!

I´m glad to know that Bubba made here safely. I was also very impressed that mom got the pictures to send in the email. Way to go Mom!

Oh, and before i forget, the members here want to do an activity about the pioneers and they want to knwo what kind of music, games and dances they had. I would tell them about the stuff they told on the Martin Handcart treke but that was a long time ago. So if you guys could hepl me out that would be great thanks!

Well, i think thats about it for this week. Thanks for all the love and prayers! And thanks MIndy for the email! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

One More Knife Story‏

Hey Family,

We made it through our week, but unfortunatly there was no baptism. We had moments that gave us alot of hope, but in the end it just didnt work out. But we´ve mostly recovered from it so we´ll be alright.

The week itself was pretty exciting because we weren´t in our area for the first part of the week. On Tuesday we had to go to Santo André, another area in the Alentejo, so that i could do a baptismal interview for the other Elders in our district. The Bus ride took over three hours, which didnt make sense because the distance covered didnt merit the amount of time it took to get there. But we made it and the intervoew was one of the best I´ve ever done(i´ve only done two :) ). Then Me and Elder FIllerup stayed the night there and had to head to Lisbon the next day for a Leadership meeting. They called us Monday night, right after we had made plans to go to Santo André for two days, to tell us about the meeting two days later. It was a bit of a surprise but it wouldnt be a mission without surprises. But because we had to go all the way to Lisbon, we had to get up early than normal and catch a bus to get there before the meeting started. We were making good time and were going to make it there right after the meeting started when we hit a traffic jam that reminded me of all the trips to Utah we used to make. The only thing that was missing was Dad´s cussing but i was pretty close to blurting out a few questionable words myself. But we made it and the meeting went well. I got to see alot of my old companions there, including the two Elders i greenie broke(Elders Dalton and Christiansen). It was a lot of fun to see all my friends from the mission, but it didnt last long because me and Fillerup had to head back to Évora.

After that, the week ran pretty slowly. we couldnt have lessons with José because he works everyday until late at night. So we would call him check up on how his goal of stopping smoking was going. He did good the first day because he only smoked 3. But then a few days later he smoked 10. We got worried at that point but the next day he said he only smoked 1, and that was Thursday, so we got really excited because that meant there was a good chance that he´d get baptized on Sunday. I was still a little worried because we still hadn´t taught him everything and hadnt even reviewed the baptismal questions, but i tried not to wrooy too much about that stuff. Then, Saturday night we tried to call him twice but he didnt pick up, so we just decided we talk to him the niext day at church. Unfortunatly, he didnt show up, and when we called after the first hour of church, he said he went out of town to visit his mom and wouldnt be back until Monday. So jyust like thatour baptism fell through. I had been really worried about it so i felt a little relieved, but now i´m worried because we have to go through the whole process again, and we dont know the situation with his smoking habits. So this week is going to be an adventure, but we´ll work hard and see what happens. Thanks again for all your prayers on our behalf. I know Heavenly Father heard and answered them. We justed didnt have enough faith, so we´ll repent and do better next time.

In other news, I got my Birthday Box while i was in Lisbon and i couldn´t wait so opened it and started eating the candy. I also baked the cake so i could take it to the baptism, but since it fell through me and Elder Fillerup have just been eating it. So thanks for the candy and cake, they were great!

I cant believe Bubba is finally coming! It would be great if he came on my Birthday, but then again i´m not sure i want to share that special day with anyone. Even if he is a Haws :).

Oh, I almost forgot. We had a Representative from the Stake come to church Yesterday which was fun, because our SUPER apostate member was at his best. First he gave his talk in Church and preached weird/retarded doctrine from the pulpit, which the branch president had to fix in his talk. Then, while the Stake guy was teaching in Preisthood meeting, the crazy guy´s breifcase popped up and a huge knife fell out on the floor. Everyone just started laughing instead of freaking out( which i thought was a little strange). I know Mindy would have passed out as soon and they said "faca" but luckly no one freaked out. They just made fun of the guy for being crazy. So we were kind of glad we had no invetigators in church because they probably would have thought we were all crazy.

Oh, and tell Liz that when i get home you´ll have to start praying for Mikey to find a wife! Love ya bro!

Well, i better get going. Thanks for all the Love and prayers! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Baptism? What?

Hey Family,

We just came off one of the most successful weeks we´ve had here in Évora, even though we spent a lot more time than we wanted in the house. Not only did Elder Fillerup´s feet and hands blow up in blisters, but i also got sick again and was out for a day. But with all that, we taught more lessons than we´ve ever taught and even marker someone for baptism for this Sunday so we cant complain.

So i guess the most important thing that happened this week was marking our investigator, José, for baptism. We only get to talk to him once a week on Sunday´s after church so because of that, we´ve only taught him a few times. But a few weeks ago we made a goal of baptizing him on the 17th of April. We made that goal after we found out that he loved the scriptures that talked about baptism that we left with him from the Book of Mormon. But we had planned on marking him last week, but we went to Lisbon and couldnt, which meant that we were going to have to teach him all the commandments(because we hadnt taught him about them yet) and mark him for the next weekend. Normally i hate doing that because poeple dont normally go along with it when i bring it up, plus its kind of an "ify" process. But when we talked to him last night, the spirit was there and he accepted our invite. We then had to teach him all of the commandments because we can only talk to him for a short period on Saturday before the baptism on Sunday. He seemed to accept everything pretty well, accept for tithing but when the Zone Leaders come and interview him, they´ll help us out. He also has to stop smoking so this week is going to be a battle to get him in the water. But we feel pretty good about it so we´ll see how it goes. But we´re going to need your guys´prayers too because some members here are kind of agianst "Growth" right now because so many members have been driven away. But i´m praying that all goes well, so please pray too!

But in equally great news, the other Dupla in our district marked one of their investigators for baptism yesterday too, and for the same day. So i have to go over there tomorrow and interview their investigator because i´m the only District leader in Alentejo that i know of. Its really funny that our two areas are going to baptize on the same weekend because our two areas are known for being two of the worst areas for baptisms in the mission. And to add to that, Fubecas have been serving in these areas for over 6 months so its a real blessing that the Lord is letting us baptize here.

And i know by now mom is dying to know about my sickness, so i better explain that before she gibbs smacks me all the way from Idaho. So recently i´ve been having problems with my allergies, but i didnt think much of it because thats normal for me. And i when i got sick the other week i just thought it was a bout time i caught something because i had only gotten sick once on my misison. But this week i got sick again, so decided to figure out what it was. I didnt want to got to the Hospital because it wasnt that bad, plus Protuguese doctors scare me. so i found this book in our house that talks about common illnesses, their symtoms, and treatments. After some searching, i figured i had the flu or a cold, but then realized i had almost all the symptoms of Hay Fever, which is caused by what else...Alerigies. That was on Thursday, so we spent the rest of the week taking it a bit easier. Elder Fillerup´s feet were really bad too and he also had blisters on his hands from the crutches that he´s been using to walk so we were a bit limited in the health department. But somehow(i´m not sure how) we taught more lessons in this area than we ever have.

In terms of weather, its hot and will only get hotter. It was in the 80s yesterday and they say this summer its going to get up to 113. But hopefully, i´ll freezing my butt off in Idaho when that gets here.

And just to tease MIkey "a little" more. Tell him to read 1 Nephi 3:7. I´m sure he read a billion times with his investigators on his mission. Also tell him not to kill me when i get home. I´m kidding!

Tell Jenny her kids look great, but completly different than how they looked two years ago. And i dont buy all this stuff about Milo being "sweet". He still looks like he´d got some "terror" left in him.

Well, i think thats it for news for this week. We´re going to need your guys´s prayers this week so dont forget about us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Forever Young‏

Hey Family,

We had a crazy general conference weekend, which we just returned from, but we survived and had a great time doing it.

So the first thing you guys need to know is that my companion, Elder Fillerup, is a leper. No, not a real "leper", but he has some skin problems that make it hard for him to work some times. But to explain the situation in a nut shell, he has very sensitive skin that has a tendency to create blisters very, VERY easily. So you can imagine that walking around all day in the hot sun would create large blisters on anyones feet(dont worry mom, mine are fine), but just imagine the blisters on my Companions feet. I even thought about sending some pictures home, but i didnt want anybody to pass out. So thats the situation wh were in. We´ve been trying to work really hard, but part way through last week Elder Fillerup´s feet were looking and feeling, "quite afflicted". But a few weeks ago he bought crutches so that he could give his feet a break, but then he got big blisters on his hands. We told the members what was going on, because they wanted to know why he was on crutches. After explaining the situation, they told us to go home and let him rest. I wasn´t big on the idea, but i realized its better to keep my companion alive, than kill him while trying to save the area. That was Thursday, which meant that our next few days were going to take a hit. We stayed in the house a bit to give Elder Fillerup a break, but i just kept feeling like i was supposed to be out in the street. It killed me at times, but i just had to keep telling myself that i had pushed him really hard over the past few days, maybe a little too hard, and that he really needed a break.

So thats the first part of the story. But before this last week, we had Zone Conference, where Elder Fillerup had the chance to talk to Irmã Torgan about his feet. she said that the mission Doctor was coming to Portugal for a short time and that he would be able to take a look at it to see if he could do anything. So this week, when i called President Torgan to ask where me and Elder Fillerup were supposed to go to see conference, because cant transmit it to Évora, he told us to go to Lisbon on Saturday so that we could watch conference in the office on Sunday, then talk to the Doctor on Monday. That kind of killed our weekend but we were glad that we were able to see conference and to spend time with the other elders. Before heading up, we worked here for a bit and then went and bought a bunch of candy to eat during the conference, then later headed up to Lisbon after watching the first session of conference. So this weekend we stayed with the Office Sectaries, which was a lot of fun because i was in the MTC with 2 of them, was the first district leader of the youngest of them, and shared an area with the other. we had a ton of fun talking, telling mission stories, and watching conference. Alot of other missionaries i knew showed up too so we had a pretty big conference party going on. Our candy was also a huge hit with all the elders(and Irmãs) so we were pretty popular. We got to see almost all of conference, except i think i missed Elder Hales´ talk. Other than that we saw pretty much everything. And on Sunday we went and ate at a senior couple Missionaries house for lunch and it felt like we were back in America. It was awesome!

But the whole time we were there, it seemed like the younger Office secretaries were determined to make us older guys trunky. As a matter of fact, right before i got there they had printed off the picture of my MTC district and the elders that came in with us at the mission home that first night in Portugal and had written at the top of the paper, "Forever Young". And as a funny coincidence, i heard that song twice of the weekend, so imagine that.

But this morning, when Elder Fillerup talked to the doctor, nothing really happened. They talked for about 15 miuntes but nothing was really decided. The Doctor hadnt really seen anything like it before, which Elder Fillerup was a bit surprised and upset about(mainly because he didnt so anything right then). But he said he was going to talk to the Skin doctor/professor at BYU and then let us know what will happen. I imagine this skin thing is really rare so i dont blame the doctor at all for not knowing exactly what to do. But i talked to President Torgan while he was getting checked up and told him about how we were working despite Elder Fillerup´s blisters. He was really proud of Elder Fillerup and said that he was an example to all the missionaries in the mission, but that he wasn´t sure how long a missionary can stay on the mission with a problem like that. But when we finisher up there we headed back to Évora and got back just a little bit ago.

It was a ton of fun being with the other elders, but it was also really trunky. I had to help out with some stuff and even had to go to the Airport this morning which was weird, because i still remember being terrified while getting off the plane. Then when i left, everyone told me the next time they would see me would be when we are going home, which was also really trunkey, but i got over it quick.

So all in all it was a really good week. I was surprised that the General Authorities were giving all the young guys "Faca" for not getting married. So tell MIkey I´ll be expecting a wedding invation in the mail here in the next few weeks.

Well, i better get going. Thanks for all the love and support! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

The White Shirts‏

Hey Family,

This was one crazy week, so i´m really glad its over.

We spent Tuesday night through thurdsay morning in Setúbal for Zone conference, so that took a big chunk out of our week. But we got Elder Miller sent off Tuesday afternoon so that was a big help too. BUt while we were there in Setúbal, we had some down time so i got to surprise the family that surprised me in Vasco. It was way funny because when the lady opened the door and started to freak out a little. My companion is still pretty new and had littlt idea what was going on so it was pretty fun to watch his expressions. I only talked to the wife because the husband was at some church leadership meeting, but they told me to come by the next day to eat dinner with them like "old times". It would have worked because we missed our bus back to Évora so we had to stay in Setúbal but the zone leaders needed our help so i couldnt go. Bu while i was there in Setúbal i got sick, so when we finally got back to Évora i spent the first couple hours sleeping to try and recover. But after that the work picked up a little bit so the week ended well.

In Church yesterday i had to give a talk, play the piano, and teach in Priesthood quorum. The only thing that went well was the lesson in Priesthood, which i got alot of compliments for. The spirit was really strong, which helped quite a bit, so i cant take any credit.

We also talked to the guy that came to church last week and loved the reading that we left with him. He read the chapter 4 times(3 nephi 11) and loved the verses about baptism! how weird is that. So we committed him to baptism when he knows the Book of Mormon is true so he´s our ray of hope right now.

But in other news, i keep forgetting to tell you guys the funny story that happened a few weeks ago in Vasco during Carnival. On that P-day, me and Elder Thredgold were walking home from buying food for the week at 8:30 when we had an interesting experience. Normally we dont go shopping that late at night but we didnt have any food and we had spent the day in Setúbal with the other elders. But on the way home we ran into a group of kids wearing masks and holding sticks that were walking in our direction. IN that moment i remembered the traing that President Torgan gave in our last zone conference talking about how two missionaries had been robbed because they hadn´t returned to their area on time after P-day(which was our case at that moment). So we tried to avoid the group as best we could by staying on the side walk, which put a parked car between them and us. But unfortunately, one kid stayed on the side walk to stop us. We didnt make a scene so we just kept walking until they called after us to stop. So we turned around and started talking to them. The head punk walked up and said, "Give me a card". So i, being the missionary i am, handed him a pass along card. He looked at it, then at his group in a puzzled way, then turned back to us and asked us what it was, while waving it in his face. We explained that it was a card for a free movie about Christ that we were offering and gave a card to one of his friends. They started looking at the card, and then one of them said that his mom would probably want one. They talked a little bit more and then said they´d call us tomorrow and then left. We didnt think much of that conversation until the next day when we had district meeting. We told the other elders that we thought they were going to rob us, as kind of a joke before the meeting started but our District leader, who´s a native of Portugal, wasnt laughing. I asked him what he was thinking when he said, "Elder, they probably weren´t asking for just a card, but your guys´ credit cards". At that moment i was grateful that the Lord blessed us with protection even though we weren't in the right place. But at the same time i thought it was funny that some kids got deterred by a pass along card. I still dont know if they were actually going to rob us, but either way it makes for a good story.

But in some other funny news, we´ve run onto a few American Tourists here in Évora. The other day we ran into a guy from Salmon who was on a trip with some people. He was member and told us it "its good to see the white shirts". We talked to him for a bit, but then he went back to his group. Then, during our first week here, we were walking near the big palace of Évora when some tourist looking people started staring at us. As one of the Ladies saw my name tag, she half asked, half exclaimed(in English),"ARE YOU MORMON MISSIONARIES?" we had to try hard not to laugh but luckily one of her friends told her, "they´re everywhere". It was funny to see Americans in Portugal, but even funnier to see them surprised that WE were here.

Well, i had better get going. Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor

Élder Haws

P.S. Fubeca is a Brazilian word, so Mikey can explain it better than I.

Where am I?‏

Hey Family,

This was a pretty crazy week here in the middle of now where. Coming into the area i new it was going to be a tough first week but i didnt now exactly how it would go. But we survived so i cant complain too much.

So as i mentioned in my email last week, one of the ole missionaries is staying with us till tomorrow because hes going home in the middle of this week. His name´s Elder Miller and i was in the MTC with him, so i´d seen him around the mission a few times. I figured that he would be pretty "dead" and i was right. We spent most the week in trhe house soing little to nothing so if we wver left the house i counted the day as a success whether we taugh anyone or not. Luckly, we left the house everyday, but the purpose of leaving and the time outside varied form day to day. It was a pretty tough week for me because i wanted to push him to work more but i couldn´t figure out how. He did a good job of showing us the area and we got along really well as a tripla but i just felt terrible this whole week because we wasted so much time. And i know the only person i can blame is myself, but i´ve already started the repentance process and am moving on so theres no worries there.

But it was also a really tough week being around somebody so trunkey and ready to go home because that made me realize how close i am to going home. I tried not to focus on it but the only i could do while we were in the house was study the scriptures and read old letters form family and firends, which didnt help much. But i´m glad i got this week out of the way. I kept telling myself i only had to make it through this week and things would get better and now i can finally say i made it.

But as for the new area...I freaking love this place! I dont know if you guys have seen any pictures of Évora put the whole city is built within castle walls. Ourt house is actually a house, and not just an apartment in some apartment complex that all my other mission houses have been. All the streets are tiny nad full of shops, which is always how i had imagined Europe before my mission. I´ve always wanted to serve in a town like this, not just because its really pretty, but also because everybody here is crazy! All the ward members are great but they all have something that makes them a little weird, while other members are just plain crazy. The branch is super small, but really tightly nit. They love having activites and throwing parties and everytime they get together it always turns into a party. For example, yesterday they were doing there Relief Society comemoration Luncheon when it turned to a huge "Festa". They invited the whole branch because there arent that many women here, but after the luch they had we ended up playing games for 4 hours. It was hilarious to see old portuguese people play games that they had learned for the hundreds of missionaries that havce come through here. They really love the elders here, eventhogh the last few missonaries were "Fubecas". I´m actually worried becasue the branch is really attached to Elder Miller. But i´m sure everythign wil be fine.

As for investigators...there are none. I was actually surprised to hear that but then Elder Miller told me they have benn trying to keep the branch together because there is an apostate, active, member(its hard to explain him) who has been driveing members away form the church. As a matter of fact, the branch used to have around 60 people who were active, but now it only has like 24. I know it might not be entirly this members fault, but after talking to him for 45 minutes i saw why he causes so many problems. APOSTACY!

But to answer Mom´s questions...

I actually got an email from Ethan today, so i guess he figured out my address.

about the Trombone...I have no idea what to do. I havent touched, let alone seen a tombonbe for almost 3 and a half years. Plus, i never ws that good anyway, but i´ll think about and let you guys know later. But why does Mikey wasnt me in the band?

Elder Thomas lives in St. George Utah...actually a small town outside of St. George called Hurricane. He´s planning on going to UVU or BYU and says he wants to ahng out when i go down there but thinking about that makes me trunkey, so i dont think about it.

The BYU basketball news made my day. Thanks for the updates family!

I also got both of Jenny´s emails so you guys can let her know that she can save her computer from a beating.

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

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Sunday, March 16, 2011‏

Hey Family,

I´m sorry for writing so late today but i just barely found out whats happening to me and Elder Thredgold for transfers. Were getting white washed and i´m heading to the area where i will probably end my mission, while Elder Thredgold is heading to an area up near Lisbon. My new area is Evora. Its the "middle of no where" Portugal where there are few members and the members that are active, are weird. The last three duplas of missionaries that have served there were slackers and the branch there didnt seem to like them much. I´m white washing it with a young Elder named Elder Filrup so we´ll see how it goes. One of the missionaries who was serving there is going home early next week so he´ll be with us for a while to show us around the area. I talked to him a minute ago and he says the area is like the last three areas i´ve had...dead. And he also said the branch is falling apart so these final transfers will be fun.

This week was a pretty good week. we talked to that family we helped but we didnt feel anything too strongly from them. We felt after the lesson that they listened to us because they felt bad about accepting food from the church. we still dont know whats going to happen with them but hopefully the new elders here will get things going for them. The African family we found a few weeks ago wasnt home when we past by them(after marking the appointment) so they too lost some points in my book. Thats 3 or 4 appointments that they´ve skipped out on in a row so i´m not too happy with them.

In other mission news, Elder Thomas, who i served with a year ago, is going home this week. He was my zone Leader these past two transfers and it was good to remember the good times when we had a bunch of baptisms together. But now hes headed home and is planning on seeing me at BYU. He doesnt know if he´s going to BYU or UVU but will be in the same general area. last week we went to the beach as a zone and played football in the sand. It ws fun because 3 of the Elders there were or had been my companions. It was also really fun because the other people on the beach had now idea what we were doing. Then on Friday, the other elders in our district called us because they needed our projector again so we headed over there and spent the entire day with them. They had 4 baptisms that day(one dupla had 3 the other had 1) and afterward they had a dance for the members and recent converts. As missionaries we couldn´t do much much but we made sure to enjoy the food and to laugh at the members. I took a bunch of videos and pictures so i´ll have to send those to you guys another day.

We also didnt have zone Conference this week because the mission´s planning got all screwed up. They´re going to have it this week which will be annoying because its going to be really expensive to go back and forth form my area. So i might have to pull out some more money, even though i promised i wouldn´t, but i dont have much of a choice. Sorry.

I´m glad to hear that BYU is doing better than they were last week. All the missionaries who are BYU fans(and there are a few) were heartbroken all last week. But knowing we did better this week cheered us up a bit, so thanks for the updates dad!

You can also tell Jenny that i got both her emails, even though i forgot to delete some emails. My inbox shouldn´t even be close to being full because we have gmail now and our in boxs are huge, but i´ll delete some stuff just in case.

And i dont mind living with Mikey at all. I´ve actually been looking forward to it(but not too much, because thats trunkey). I thought i might be able to room with Elder Thomas, but he doesnt know where hes going to school so i´ll just plan on chilling with Mikey.

Well, i think thats it for news. I´m really going to need your guys´ prayers in my new area, but i know you guys are always praying for me because i´m always seeing the blessing from those prayers. So thanks again for all the love and support! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,
Élder Haws