Hey Family,
These last few days went pretty well but unfortunatly it was just two days so i dont have a lot to say. I really enjoyed the phone call and it was pretty fun to talk to Mike in portuguese so i´m glad you guys enjoyed it.P.S he´s lying if he says i speak well.
This weekend we were pretty busy. I think that was good though because it helped us bith get refocused really fast. On staurday we taught a bunch of lessons and stayed pretty busy and then yesterday we had four investigators in church so that was a big imporvement from last week. Also, in that past two days we have given 3 blessings so we got some good work done too. Also,last night we marked an investigatir ti be baptized this week on the 31st so that she could start the new year with a clean slate. We´re praying everything goes well because she´s 8 and a half months pregnant so if you guys could keep us and our investigator in your prayers that would be great.
In other news, i´m learning to play the piano. It´s been a slow process but i can almost play half "Abide With Me" with both hands. Yesterday i was playinig it and a member thought that i lied when i said i couldn´t play. Ihad to explain that i could only play that much of that one song but it was pretty funny.
This week i´ll be giving the training in District meeting so the meeting should be pretty short tomorow but it got me thinking. I remeber Mindy telling me a story about how Bumble Bee´s shouldn´t be able to fly but they do because they dont know they cant. I want to use that story in one of our up coming District or Zone meetings so if Mindy could write that up and send it to me that would be great.
Well, I dont have much else to say. I´m still working hard and strying to do my best. Thanks for everything! I love you guys!
Até o próximo
Élder Haws
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Christmas!
Hey Family,
Its beggining to look a lot like Christmas here in Portimão! If i didn´t already tell you guys, which i think i did, during the winter here in Portugal it rains ALL the time. Which also means that even on the days it doesn´t rain its rare to see the sun because the sky is overcast. Its kind of depressing but at the same time i like rain so its ok.
This week the work in our area was slow. I dont know what it is but for some reason almost everything we plan falls through. At times its hard to stay positive but when that happens things normally start to pick up. Hopefully this week we´ll see some more progress. But this week is Christmas so that takes some time out of our week and also we have to go up to Lisbon for Zone conference. All in all, with all that and weekly planning, we only have two full days of work this week so we´ll see how that goes. We have a few investigators that are really close to baptism but none of them came to church yesterday, so it goes without saying but, we were frustrated. But on the brighter side we ate at two members houses this week so i cant complain TOO much.
In other news we had an earthquake here last week that recorded a 6 on the ricter scale. I´m not a scientist but that seems pretty high to me.Everybody has been talking about it because but me and Elder Jones had no idea it happened. It happened during the middle of the night so we were out cold, sleeping while people throughout the Algarve were running outside their houses for fear that their houses would colaspe. Elder Jones and Istill have a hard time believing it actually was as big as people said it was but i guess that just means we were really tired.
Also this week, while eating dinner at a members house, a member made a funny comment about our companionship. It said that we were the perfect companionship because I look like Hary Potter and Elder Jones looks like Ron Wezley. We didn´t think was all that funny but the members thought it was hilarious. So maybe if Jenny has more time she could make me and Elder Jones some wizard robes too because aparently to our members, we need them.
Now, the moment you´ve all been waiting for...THE PHONE CALL!
We still dont know where we are going to be for Christmas but that doesn´t really matter because the easiest way to do it is to just have you guys call here. THE NUMBER IS (Area Code)-**-***-****. I dont know the area code but Elder Jones says you can find it on line somewhere. I´m sorry i cant give more information on the number. The plan right now is to have you guys call at noon, that way its about 7 here. Right now i dont feel like i have much to say but i´m sure that will change when the phone rings.
Well, we only have a few hours of P-day today because Christmas is P-day too, so i have to get going. Thanks for all the love and support!
Até Logo
Élder Haws
Its beggining to look a lot like Christmas here in Portimão! If i didn´t already tell you guys, which i think i did, during the winter here in Portugal it rains ALL the time. Which also means that even on the days it doesn´t rain its rare to see the sun because the sky is overcast. Its kind of depressing but at the same time i like rain so its ok.
This week the work in our area was slow. I dont know what it is but for some reason almost everything we plan falls through. At times its hard to stay positive but when that happens things normally start to pick up. Hopefully this week we´ll see some more progress. But this week is Christmas so that takes some time out of our week and also we have to go up to Lisbon for Zone conference. All in all, with all that and weekly planning, we only have two full days of work this week so we´ll see how that goes. We have a few investigators that are really close to baptism but none of them came to church yesterday, so it goes without saying but, we were frustrated. But on the brighter side we ate at two members houses this week so i cant complain TOO much.
In other news we had an earthquake here last week that recorded a 6 on the ricter scale. I´m not a scientist but that seems pretty high to me.Everybody has been talking about it because but me and Elder Jones had no idea it happened. It happened during the middle of the night so we were out cold, sleeping while people throughout the Algarve were running outside their houses for fear that their houses would colaspe. Elder Jones and Istill have a hard time believing it actually was as big as people said it was but i guess that just means we were really tired.
Also this week, while eating dinner at a members house, a member made a funny comment about our companionship. It said that we were the perfect companionship because I look like Hary Potter and Elder Jones looks like Ron Wezley. We didn´t think was all that funny but the members thought it was hilarious. So maybe if Jenny has more time she could make me and Elder Jones some wizard robes too because aparently to our members, we need them.
Now, the moment you´ve all been waiting for...THE PHONE CALL!
We still dont know where we are going to be for Christmas but that doesn´t really matter because the easiest way to do it is to just have you guys call here. THE NUMBER IS (Area Code)-**-***-****. I dont know the area code but Elder Jones says you can find it on line somewhere. I´m sorry i cant give more information on the number. The plan right now is to have you guys call at noon, that way its about 7 here. Right now i dont feel like i have much to say but i´m sure that will change when the phone rings.
Well, we only have a few hours of P-day today because Christmas is P-day too, so i have to get going. Thanks for all the love and support!
Até Logo
Élder Haws
Monday, December 14, 2009
From Top to Bottom
Hey Family,
Thanks for all the e-mails and updates! It sounds like everbody´s doing well. I´m doing alright too but transfers were a little tough on me.
Last week me and Elder Silva went and had lunch with a "dying "missionary and his companion at a really nice restaurant. Afterward we all went to the chapel and played pingpong until we got a call from the zone leaders telling us about transfers. I was told that i would be heading to Portimão, an area in the Algarve, or southern portugal and that another Elder was coming to take my place. I didnt really know what to think because i was excited to leave and meet new people to teach but i also didn´t want to leave the members and people i was already comfortable with. That night we had a family home evening with a member family that feeds the missionaries a lot so i got to say goodbye to a few people. Then, the next day i got on a train to go to lisbon so that could catch a bus that would take me to the very, very bottom of Portugal. I was going from the top of the mission, all the way to the bottom. I didnt know when the bus would leave so i left early so i could have extra time to find out if i got lost. This turned out to be a good decision because i did get lost but i had a few "miracles" happen so i made it alright. In order to get to the bus station i knew i had to ride the train to Lisbon then ride the metro to a certain point but after that i really didn´t know where i was going. I had an idea but that didn´t help because i got lost all the same. When i got off the metro in part of Lisbon with the bus station i needed i couldn´t find the station. After a few minutes of looking i figured out the general location of the bus so i started to make my way there. And at that time i was exausted from heaving my bags up and down flights of stairs so at that point i was about to giveup. Just then an old man walked up and a started talking to me in Portuguese and, in the mood that i was in at the time, i didnt want anything to do with portuguese. I figured out that he wanted to help me but i said i was ok but he persisted and helped me find the bus station and get my ticket. Afterward i said thank you but he just held out his hand. It was then that i realized he was a begger who walks around helping people for money. I was a little more than suprised but happily gave him some change. After that i had the opportunity to wait for 2 hours till my bus arrived. during that time i ran into about a dozen Elders so i wasn´t completly alone for the entire time. I even had lunch with one dupla where the girl at the counter said i spoke portugese well. I had a small conversation with her and explained a little about what missionaries do but didn´t contact her. Its probably a good thing that i didn´t though because she was pretty cute and probably would have thought that i was hitting on her and trying to get her number. After that i waited for my bus and barely caught the right one because my ticket put me in the wrong place. Then i rode on a bus for 4 hours and arrived here in Portimão!
Portimão is at the most south western part of Portugal, if you can´t find it. Its a lot like Cascais in the fact that its a tourist town and really pretty. But unlike Cascais, this area is huge! It extends from the end of the continent until Albufeira. My companion is Elder Jones. He looks alot like Phil Shaw and his personality reminds me of Billy, the guy i worked with at the sewer department. The ward here is good too and its full of Brazilians so i´m in heaven. We live in the old sister missionary house so its really nice but really pick. I cooking a lot now because the sister missionaries left alot of cooking stuff behind. And just as a side note, I´m the second Elder Haws to serve here. The last one is from Mesa Arizona so i dont think we´re related (everybody asks) but i could be wrong. I´m really liking it here and all the members keep saying that i speak really well. I still dont think so but i´m sure i´ll always say that. And finally, the Portimão branch has a blog, i think the web adress is something like, www.portimaoramo at blogspot or somthing. I give you guys the real address next week because they´re going to put pictures up and stuff.
In other news, thanks for telling me about the camera card. I dont know ifthe picture will make it on time but go ahead and send it anyway. If everything goes well it should. And from what i´ve heard my package should be here but i probably wont get it until the 23rd. I still dont know anything about the Christmas phone call but i´ll have more info next week on that.
Well, i had better get going. Thanks for all love and prayers! I love you guys!
Um Abraço
Élder Haws
Thanks for all the e-mails and updates! It sounds like everbody´s doing well. I´m doing alright too but transfers were a little tough on me.
Last week me and Elder Silva went and had lunch with a "dying "missionary and his companion at a really nice restaurant. Afterward we all went to the chapel and played pingpong until we got a call from the zone leaders telling us about transfers. I was told that i would be heading to Portimão, an area in the Algarve, or southern portugal and that another Elder was coming to take my place. I didnt really know what to think because i was excited to leave and meet new people to teach but i also didn´t want to leave the members and people i was already comfortable with. That night we had a family home evening with a member family that feeds the missionaries a lot so i got to say goodbye to a few people. Then, the next day i got on a train to go to lisbon so that could catch a bus that would take me to the very, very bottom of Portugal. I was going from the top of the mission, all the way to the bottom. I didnt know when the bus would leave so i left early so i could have extra time to find out if i got lost. This turned out to be a good decision because i did get lost but i had a few "miracles" happen so i made it alright. In order to get to the bus station i knew i had to ride the train to Lisbon then ride the metro to a certain point but after that i really didn´t know where i was going. I had an idea but that didn´t help because i got lost all the same. When i got off the metro in part of Lisbon with the bus station i needed i couldn´t find the station. After a few minutes of looking i figured out the general location of the bus so i started to make my way there. And at that time i was exausted from heaving my bags up and down flights of stairs so at that point i was about to giveup. Just then an old man walked up and a started talking to me in Portuguese and, in the mood that i was in at the time, i didnt want anything to do with portuguese. I figured out that he wanted to help me but i said i was ok but he persisted and helped me find the bus station and get my ticket. Afterward i said thank you but he just held out his hand. It was then that i realized he was a begger who walks around helping people for money. I was a little more than suprised but happily gave him some change. After that i had the opportunity to wait for 2 hours till my bus arrived. during that time i ran into about a dozen Elders so i wasn´t completly alone for the entire time. I even had lunch with one dupla where the girl at the counter said i spoke portugese well. I had a small conversation with her and explained a little about what missionaries do but didn´t contact her. Its probably a good thing that i didn´t though because she was pretty cute and probably would have thought that i was hitting on her and trying to get her number. After that i waited for my bus and barely caught the right one because my ticket put me in the wrong place. Then i rode on a bus for 4 hours and arrived here in Portimão!
Portimão is at the most south western part of Portugal, if you can´t find it. Its a lot like Cascais in the fact that its a tourist town and really pretty. But unlike Cascais, this area is huge! It extends from the end of the continent until Albufeira. My companion is Elder Jones. He looks alot like Phil Shaw and his personality reminds me of Billy, the guy i worked with at the sewer department. The ward here is good too and its full of Brazilians so i´m in heaven. We live in the old sister missionary house so its really nice but really pick. I cooking a lot now because the sister missionaries left alot of cooking stuff behind. And just as a side note, I´m the second Elder Haws to serve here. The last one is from Mesa Arizona so i dont think we´re related (everybody asks) but i could be wrong. I´m really liking it here and all the members keep saying that i speak really well. I still dont think so but i´m sure i´ll always say that. And finally, the Portimão branch has a blog, i think the web adress is something like, www.portimaoramo at blogspot or somthing. I give you guys the real address next week because they´re going to put pictures up and stuff.
In other news, thanks for telling me about the camera card. I dont know ifthe picture will make it on time but go ahead and send it anyway. If everything goes well it should. And from what i´ve heard my package should be here but i probably wont get it until the 23rd. I still dont know anything about the Christmas phone call but i´ll have more info next week on that.
Well, i had better get going. Thanks for all love and prayers! I love you guys!
Um Abraço
Élder Haws
Monday, December 7, 2009
The Week of Firsts
Hey Family,
It sounds like you all had a really exciting week! Its funny that Bentley was dunked 3 times but at leat he didn´t almost die like my first investigator we baptized here!
This week was great here too. We worked really hard and we taught a lot of lessons. In fact, we taught 31. Its not the 50 lessons i taught with Elder Davis and Elder Wilson but this time around i felt like i helped out a lot more so i feel more comfortable saying "we" taught 31 lessons. We also had a person we contacted on the street come to church when we had never taught him a lesson before so that was really cool too. And with all that we only had a few "things" happen.
The first misshap occured after district meeting tuesday where me and Elder Silva somehow took the Irmã´s phone without knowing it. We then traveled back to our area, and then had to travel back to the Irmãs area to try and find them. We never did so we just gave their phone to their bishop but in the process of all that we lost a fews hours of time. Then later in the week we were looking for someone to teach in an area of apartments and we figured we could go visit a less active member girl. This turned out to be a bad idea because this 18 year old black girl came to the door not wearing any pants...needless to say i looked at the ceiling while Elder Silva told her we´d come back later.
This week also was a week of firsts for me. This week i made my first complete phone call in portuguese. It wasn´t a long conversation but the information was passed and understod so thats the important part. This week i also taught and directed a lesson by myself, normally Elder Silva does most of the teaching and i say a little and testify but this time I did most of the teaching and he spoke a little and testified. It was really cool but really nerve racking too. Also, this week i was approached by a drunk man for the first time. Me and Elder Silva were waiting for a train and he decided to use the bathroom so we went to a local café so he could. While he was waiting insode i waited outside because its a little rude to go in a store or café and not buy something. While i was waiting a very, very drunk man came up behind me and asked me if i knew who Jesus was. Being a missionary i was more than happy to testify that Jesus was our redeemer, but this man had more to say. He was a spainard so he spoke slow so i got all of what he said, but none of it really made sense. He just kept saying that Jesus was his God and me, being nice agreed. Then after finishing his"speech" he said that he wasn´t Christian, but was "for Christ". It was an interesting experience that i admit i kind of enjoyed and now, i have another story to tell!
This week was also my six month mark so i decided i had to burn a tie. But ididn´t burn one in the normal way. I decided that i would give a tie to a member here who needed it and who had helped me a lot here. His name´s Fabioand he´s a huge black kid who´s hiliarious. He gave me a picture a while back to put on the back of my name tag but i decided it would be better to put it in my photo album. He´s helped me a lot since i´ve been here and he doesn´t have a tie to wear to church so i gave to him as an early Christmas present. So i guess in a way i "burned" a tie.
Today is transfers and anything could happen so me and Elder Silva are waiting for the phone call form the ZLs saying whats going to happen. We already know that a lot of areas will be closing because in the next two months we go from 115 missionaries(or so) to around 90. Also, Three entire districts of missionaries all became Junior companions again and had their temple recommends taken away because they broke a mission rule by traveling across the mission for thanksgiving and spend the night without permission.So we already know these transfers are going to be fun.
Also, i need you guys to send one of the pictures from the camera card to the office here as soon as possible. Our mission is making a photo album ofall the baptisms that are happening this month and sending them to prophet.If you guys could send the one of me with the investigor that would be great. Just adress it the same but put Elder Mateer´s name on the envelope instead of mine. I dont know if you guys go the card yet because noboady said anything so i´m a little worried, but hopefully it´ll work out. I´m praying that it does.
Well, thats it for news this week. Thanks for all the emails, love, and support!
Com Amor
Élder Haws
It sounds like you all had a really exciting week! Its funny that Bentley was dunked 3 times but at leat he didn´t almost die like my first investigator we baptized here!
This week was great here too. We worked really hard and we taught a lot of lessons. In fact, we taught 31. Its not the 50 lessons i taught with Elder Davis and Elder Wilson but this time around i felt like i helped out a lot more so i feel more comfortable saying "we" taught 31 lessons. We also had a person we contacted on the street come to church when we had never taught him a lesson before so that was really cool too. And with all that we only had a few "things" happen.
The first misshap occured after district meeting tuesday where me and Elder Silva somehow took the Irmã´s phone without knowing it. We then traveled back to our area, and then had to travel back to the Irmãs area to try and find them. We never did so we just gave their phone to their bishop but in the process of all that we lost a fews hours of time. Then later in the week we were looking for someone to teach in an area of apartments and we figured we could go visit a less active member girl. This turned out to be a bad idea because this 18 year old black girl came to the door not wearing any pants...needless to say i looked at the ceiling while Elder Silva told her we´d come back later.
This week also was a week of firsts for me. This week i made my first complete phone call in portuguese. It wasn´t a long conversation but the information was passed and understod so thats the important part. This week i also taught and directed a lesson by myself, normally Elder Silva does most of the teaching and i say a little and testify but this time I did most of the teaching and he spoke a little and testified. It was really cool but really nerve racking too. Also, this week i was approached by a drunk man for the first time. Me and Elder Silva were waiting for a train and he decided to use the bathroom so we went to a local café so he could. While he was waiting insode i waited outside because its a little rude to go in a store or café and not buy something. While i was waiting a very, very drunk man came up behind me and asked me if i knew who Jesus was. Being a missionary i was more than happy to testify that Jesus was our redeemer, but this man had more to say. He was a spainard so he spoke slow so i got all of what he said, but none of it really made sense. He just kept saying that Jesus was his God and me, being nice agreed. Then after finishing his"speech" he said that he wasn´t Christian, but was "for Christ". It was an interesting experience that i admit i kind of enjoyed and now, i have another story to tell!
This week was also my six month mark so i decided i had to burn a tie. But ididn´t burn one in the normal way. I decided that i would give a tie to a member here who needed it and who had helped me a lot here. His name´s Fabioand he´s a huge black kid who´s hiliarious. He gave me a picture a while back to put on the back of my name tag but i decided it would be better to put it in my photo album. He´s helped me a lot since i´ve been here and he doesn´t have a tie to wear to church so i gave to him as an early Christmas present. So i guess in a way i "burned" a tie.
Today is transfers and anything could happen so me and Elder Silva are waiting for the phone call form the ZLs saying whats going to happen. We already know that a lot of areas will be closing because in the next two months we go from 115 missionaries(or so) to around 90. Also, Three entire districts of missionaries all became Junior companions again and had their temple recommends taken away because they broke a mission rule by traveling across the mission for thanksgiving and spend the night without permission.So we already know these transfers are going to be fun.
Also, i need you guys to send one of the pictures from the camera card to the office here as soon as possible. Our mission is making a photo album ofall the baptisms that are happening this month and sending them to prophet.If you guys could send the one of me with the investigor that would be great. Just adress it the same but put Elder Mateer´s name on the envelope instead of mine. I dont know if you guys go the card yet because noboady said anything so i´m a little worried, but hopefully it´ll work out. I´m praying that it does.
Well, thats it for news this week. Thanks for all the emails, love, and support!
Com Amor
Élder Haws
Monday, November 30, 2009
Lost in Lisbon Part 2
Hey Family,
Happy Late Thanksgiving! Its sounds like you guys were way busy but had a lot of fun! This week was pretty fun for me too so i cant complain. Last week a few companionships in our Zone decided to have a Thanksgiving celebration last thursday and it actually turned out ot be pretty fun. There were only five duplas there but we still had a blast. We all brought something which was nice because me and Elder Silva didn´t have any money. We ended up showing up late but we still made in time to eat so that was the important thing. The only thing i regret about it was that i forgot to bring my camera so i´ll have to get pictures from one of the other Elders who was there.
Then, last Friday, I went into Lisbon to renew my visa again. I got there on time and we left right away because we thought it would take forever...which it did. We drove to some shopping mail and for some unknown reason, there was a government office like place in there. If you ask me it doesn´t make any sense but then agian i´ve learned that alot of things here dont make sense. For example, one day me and Elder Davis were walking to the bus station and we looked in the windows of the shopping mail near our house and saw the Escalator was broken. That however, was not the strange part. The strange part was the mass of people standing at the bottom of the escalator trying to figure out how to get up to the next floor with the escalator broken. I guess didn´t cross their minds that a broken escalator is just like a normal set of stairs. But whatever. Anyway, we got this goverment type place and it took them 2 or three hours to have four Elders sign our names on a peice of paper or two and then finger print us. It was a prety relaxing experience talking to the other Elders and i got to tell some of my Elder Davis stories so it was a good time. While i was there i learned the full story of my "dissaperance" the last time i went to Lisbon. It turns out Elder Silva had called the Executive secretaries looking for me but they were in a lesson so they couldn´t pick up, so he then called the APs who then called the executive secretaries who then picked up. After that the immediatly stopped their lesson with an investigator and started to call around seeing if anyone knew where i was. Then President called them and tokd them to go to Cascais and look in our house, every shopping mall, every hospital, and the jail looking for me. So immediatly they started speeding in their car towards Cascais when a few minutes later they got a call from President(who was laughing a little) saying they found me. I apologized a lot to the Executive secretaries but they said it wasn´t my fault and that my comp should have go to the house to see if i was there. But now, all missionaries will be given a card that tells them what to do if something like that happens so i guess now the mission will always have something to remember me by.
This week i also gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about obedience and it was probably the best talk i´ve given here in Cascais. I had a lot of scriptures and i told Gemar´s Devil Story and it went great. After me Elder Silva spoke(with 15 minutes notice) and gave a better talk than me. Then, after him the counslor form the stake presidency got up a spoke and made reference to my talk which was cool so i guess he liked it.
Other than that this week was pretty standard. Dont worry about the baking soda thing. I can wait till next week. Besides, i´ll probably be leaving Cascais next week so theres no rush. But also could you ask about baking powder and shorting too. Thanks. And sorry about the money last week. I pulled out more money for lunch and when you pull money out it charges you so i pulled out a little more than i needed but now i can pay myself back with MSF so dont worry about putting a ton of money in my account. But i bought a sweater so there is good news. And "Jovens" are just youth like decons, teachers, laurals, ect. That age group. I didnt send the camera card last week because we were going to have another baptism this week and i was going to take more pictures but thats not going to happen. So this week i´mjust going to send it in a letter to mike and hopefully you guys can pick itup this weekend at the baptism.
Well, I think thats everything. Life here is good and i´m still surviving and working hard. Thanks fopr all the prayers and love. I love you guys!
Élder Haws
Happy Late Thanksgiving! Its sounds like you guys were way busy but had a lot of fun! This week was pretty fun for me too so i cant complain. Last week a few companionships in our Zone decided to have a Thanksgiving celebration last thursday and it actually turned out ot be pretty fun. There were only five duplas there but we still had a blast. We all brought something which was nice because me and Elder Silva didn´t have any money. We ended up showing up late but we still made in time to eat so that was the important thing. The only thing i regret about it was that i forgot to bring my camera so i´ll have to get pictures from one of the other Elders who was there.
Then, last Friday, I went into Lisbon to renew my visa again. I got there on time and we left right away because we thought it would take forever...which it did. We drove to some shopping mail and for some unknown reason, there was a government office like place in there. If you ask me it doesn´t make any sense but then agian i´ve learned that alot of things here dont make sense. For example, one day me and Elder Davis were walking to the bus station and we looked in the windows of the shopping mail near our house and saw the Escalator was broken. That however, was not the strange part. The strange part was the mass of people standing at the bottom of the escalator trying to figure out how to get up to the next floor with the escalator broken. I guess didn´t cross their minds that a broken escalator is just like a normal set of stairs. But whatever. Anyway, we got this goverment type place and it took them 2 or three hours to have four Elders sign our names on a peice of paper or two and then finger print us. It was a prety relaxing experience talking to the other Elders and i got to tell some of my Elder Davis stories so it was a good time. While i was there i learned the full story of my "dissaperance" the last time i went to Lisbon. It turns out Elder Silva had called the Executive secretaries looking for me but they were in a lesson so they couldn´t pick up, so he then called the APs who then called the executive secretaries who then picked up. After that the immediatly stopped their lesson with an investigator and started to call around seeing if anyone knew where i was. Then President called them and tokd them to go to Cascais and look in our house, every shopping mall, every hospital, and the jail looking for me. So immediatly they started speeding in their car towards Cascais when a few minutes later they got a call from President(who was laughing a little) saying they found me. I apologized a lot to the Executive secretaries but they said it wasn´t my fault and that my comp should have go to the house to see if i was there. But now, all missionaries will be given a card that tells them what to do if something like that happens so i guess now the mission will always have something to remember me by.
This week i also gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about obedience and it was probably the best talk i´ve given here in Cascais. I had a lot of scriptures and i told Gemar´s Devil Story and it went great. After me Elder Silva spoke(with 15 minutes notice) and gave a better talk than me. Then, after him the counslor form the stake presidency got up a spoke and made reference to my talk which was cool so i guess he liked it.
Other than that this week was pretty standard. Dont worry about the baking soda thing. I can wait till next week. Besides, i´ll probably be leaving Cascais next week so theres no rush. But also could you ask about baking powder and shorting too. Thanks. And sorry about the money last week. I pulled out more money for lunch and when you pull money out it charges you so i pulled out a little more than i needed but now i can pay myself back with MSF so dont worry about putting a ton of money in my account. But i bought a sweater so there is good news. And "Jovens" are just youth like decons, teachers, laurals, ect. That age group. I didnt send the camera card last week because we were going to have another baptism this week and i was going to take more pictures but thats not going to happen. So this week i´mjust going to send it in a letter to mike and hopefully you guys can pick itup this weekend at the baptism.
Well, I think thats everything. Life here is good and i´m still surviving and working hard. Thanks fopr all the prayers and love. I love you guys!
Élder Haws
Monday, November 23, 2009
Gettin Wet
Hey Family,
Its still winter here in Portugal but you could never tell because the weather here is so different. It almost always looks beautiful outside but it ALWAYS colder than it looks. Today i took out 20 euros of personal money to buy a sweater (it wont cost that much) though so i should be fine.
This week was awesome. Tuesday night i got a call form the secretaries that said that my visa day got changed so now i do it this Friday instead of last Wednsday which means i dont do visas with anyone i know. Its a little sad but i ´m over it. In other news we had interviews with President Torgan last week with only two days notice. When my visa day was switched they told us that our interview day was switched too. We were a little upset that no one told us before but later we found out it happened to everyone. My interview went well but i´m pretty sure President Torgan knows i´m not the biggest fan of his baptism plans because this time he sat me down and made sure that i knew the only thing he really wants us to do is do the will of the Lord. So all in all it was pretty good.
Then Firday we had the Baptism of one of our investigators and Elder Davis did the baptizing. He had gone his entire mission (he leaves for home next month) without being the person who baptizes the investigor aka "getting wet". He spent a lot of time in this area (7 months) and never saw the fruit of his labor but i thonk this week he saw one of those fruits. He showed up and the baptism was awesome. Everybody was excited to see Elder Davis again and this time our investigator didn´t "almost die". The program went really well too. The speakers were good and Elder Davis sang and played a song he wrote about baptism that was amazing. I was really glad about how well it went because we brought the family we´ve been teaching to the baptism and then to the conformation. After the baptism we all ate a ton of Bolo and sumo (cake and juice) while everybody either crowed around Elder Davis or went down stairs to play Elder Silva in Ping pong. But just as a side note,Elder Grey (Elder Davis´s companion) beat Elder Silva a couple of times :).Then after everybody left we went home and Elder Davis and Elder Grey stayed the night because their area is so far away. We ended up staying up till 4in the morning talking and eating the extra bolo but it was a good time. I mostly talked with Elder Davis while Elder Grey talked with Elder Silva. Me and Davis spent most of the time talking about the mission and our feelings toward it. Then we talked about our interviews that we had and he gave me a lot of advice. Elder Wilson may have been my trainer and a great missionary,but i really see Elder Davis as more of a "Father Figure" than him. He has always given me the advice i´ve needed which makes me said because hes leaving soon. I´ll really miss all his stories and jokes but i´ll move on.The next day we woke up at 11 and went to lunch before the other Elders left. It was a lot of fun but still a little said when they left.
This week at the baptism i also started taking pictures with the members because i might be leaving this transfer. When i told some of the Jovens that i wanted pictures with them they freaked out and said that i´m not allowed to leave. One of them was mad because when i got here i couldn´t understand him but now we´re just starting to have conversations. Its a little sad to think i might leave Cascais but the more i think about it the more possible it seems. But oh well, it doesn´t really matter because i knowi´ll go where the Lord needs me.
Tell Jenny i´m sorry i didn´t say Happy Birthday last week. I seriously had it in my planner as "thing number one to say" but i still forgot it.So...Happy Birthday Jenny! And also tell Warren Happy Birthday this week too(i think his birthday is this week.) This week i got all your letters soi´ll probably be sending the camera card sometime this week so you should get it either this week or next. As for the swine Flu i dont think anyone is worried about it here. the thing everyone is worried about is something called Flu A. And mom, your cooking is actually not boring because i miss some of the food i used to eat. But luckly i´ve had Mcdonalds twice in the last week to remind me of america. I´m not really sure abou the Holidays here. The last holiday we had was all saints day but i think after that comes Christmas. There are Christmas decrorations everywhere which is so weird because there´s no snow on the ground! Its really weird to think that Christmas is already here but that also means i´ll have 6 months on my mission pretty soon! This week i only have a few questions to ask: Can you guys ask Spencer if they have stuff like baking soda and baking powder in Europe? and if so, could you ask Mikey for the translations?
Well, life here is good. I´m starting to notice how much i´ve learned in Portuguese and it feels good. I´´m still working hard and learind a lot too.Thanks for all the prayers and love.
Com Amor,
Élder Haws
Its still winter here in Portugal but you could never tell because the weather here is so different. It almost always looks beautiful outside but it ALWAYS colder than it looks. Today i took out 20 euros of personal money to buy a sweater (it wont cost that much) though so i should be fine.
This week was awesome. Tuesday night i got a call form the secretaries that said that my visa day got changed so now i do it this Friday instead of last Wednsday which means i dont do visas with anyone i know. Its a little sad but i ´m over it. In other news we had interviews with President Torgan last week with only two days notice. When my visa day was switched they told us that our interview day was switched too. We were a little upset that no one told us before but later we found out it happened to everyone. My interview went well but i´m pretty sure President Torgan knows i´m not the biggest fan of his baptism plans because this time he sat me down and made sure that i knew the only thing he really wants us to do is do the will of the Lord. So all in all it was pretty good.
Then Firday we had the Baptism of one of our investigators and Elder Davis did the baptizing. He had gone his entire mission (he leaves for home next month) without being the person who baptizes the investigor aka "getting wet". He spent a lot of time in this area (7 months) and never saw the fruit of his labor but i thonk this week he saw one of those fruits. He showed up and the baptism was awesome. Everybody was excited to see Elder Davis again and this time our investigator didn´t "almost die". The program went really well too. The speakers were good and Elder Davis sang and played a song he wrote about baptism that was amazing. I was really glad about how well it went because we brought the family we´ve been teaching to the baptism and then to the conformation. After the baptism we all ate a ton of Bolo and sumo (cake and juice) while everybody either crowed around Elder Davis or went down stairs to play Elder Silva in Ping pong. But just as a side note,Elder Grey (Elder Davis´s companion) beat Elder Silva a couple of times :).Then after everybody left we went home and Elder Davis and Elder Grey stayed the night because their area is so far away. We ended up staying up till 4in the morning talking and eating the extra bolo but it was a good time. I mostly talked with Elder Davis while Elder Grey talked with Elder Silva. Me and Davis spent most of the time talking about the mission and our feelings toward it. Then we talked about our interviews that we had and he gave me a lot of advice. Elder Wilson may have been my trainer and a great missionary,but i really see Elder Davis as more of a "Father Figure" than him. He has always given me the advice i´ve needed which makes me said because hes leaving soon. I´ll really miss all his stories and jokes but i´ll move on.The next day we woke up at 11 and went to lunch before the other Elders left. It was a lot of fun but still a little said when they left.
This week at the baptism i also started taking pictures with the members because i might be leaving this transfer. When i told some of the Jovens that i wanted pictures with them they freaked out and said that i´m not allowed to leave. One of them was mad because when i got here i couldn´t understand him but now we´re just starting to have conversations. Its a little sad to think i might leave Cascais but the more i think about it the more possible it seems. But oh well, it doesn´t really matter because i knowi´ll go where the Lord needs me.
Tell Jenny i´m sorry i didn´t say Happy Birthday last week. I seriously had it in my planner as "thing number one to say" but i still forgot it.So...Happy Birthday Jenny! And also tell Warren Happy Birthday this week too(i think his birthday is this week.) This week i got all your letters soi´ll probably be sending the camera card sometime this week so you should get it either this week or next. As for the swine Flu i dont think anyone is worried about it here. the thing everyone is worried about is something called Flu A. And mom, your cooking is actually not boring because i miss some of the food i used to eat. But luckly i´ve had Mcdonalds twice in the last week to remind me of america. I´m not really sure abou the Holidays here. The last holiday we had was all saints day but i think after that comes Christmas. There are Christmas decrorations everywhere which is so weird because there´s no snow on the ground! Its really weird to think that Christmas is already here but that also means i´ll have 6 months on my mission pretty soon! This week i only have a few questions to ask: Can you guys ask Spencer if they have stuff like baking soda and baking powder in Europe? and if so, could you ask Mikey for the translations?
Well, life here is good. I´m starting to notice how much i´ve learned in Portuguese and it feels good. I´´m still working hard and learind a lot too.Thanks for all the prayers and love.
Com Amor,
Élder Haws
Lost in Lisbon
Monday, November 16, 2009
Hey Family,
Its definitly winter here in portugal now. Over the couple of days it reallyhasn´t stopped raining which is bad because we haven´t stopped working either. This week we made a lot of really good progress. In the past two weeks we have recieved two referals that turned out to be two great families. One of the referals came from a member that has never given us a referal while i´ve been here but the family that she gave us is turning out great. We´ve been teaching this grandpa and his two grandsons for almost two weeks and the grandpa came to church yesterday so things are looking up. The other family we got was refered to us by a brazilian family. They invited us, two brazilian member couples, a brazilian return missionary, and this family to dinner last friday night and it went great. Thi family had lost a child a while back so the members asked us (Elder Silva) to talk about eternal families. Elder Silva´s message was great and the members afterward keep bearing testimony and sharing experiences. I wanted to bear my testimony too but i couldn´t find room with all the members talking! It was a great visit and the family shows a lot of potencial. This week we also have a baptism planned for a little girl whose been taught by the missionaries for almost a year. She was almost baptized a few months ago but when the Elders asked the mom for permission she said no because her brother was an inactive member. So after that the Elders worked on reactivating the brother and finally got him active about the time i got here. Elder Davis was one ofthe Elders who taught her so he´s coming back to Cascais for a day to baptize her. Its funny though, becasue at the end of last transfer i told Elder Wilson that if one of us stayed we would have to find new people because none of our investigators were pregressing, but with Elder Silva we haven´t really had to work all that hard to find new people because the members are helping us so much. So life is good.
This week me and Elder Silva played some ping pong but things didn´t go so well. Elder Silva is what i would call a professional ping pong player because he makes people who play well, like the members here, look really bad. This is bad because i play terrible and i get really competitive. Well,to make a short story even shorter i lost...alot...and really angery and things were tense between us for a while but we sorted it out and we´re good now.
In other news, last week i had to go and start to renew my visa here so i got to see alot of people from the MTC. It was pretty fun to spend most of the day with them but we had to stand in lines all day wasn´t too exciting. Afterward they droped us off at one of the biggest shopping malls in portuagal so we could eat before going back to our areas and i got to eat lunch with Elder McLean and Elder Rich. President told us not to waste anytime becasue our companions had to stay in our areas with members until we got back but we sat and talked for a while and i dont feel like we wasted a minute. We ended up talking about our mission experiences so far and about how or views of the mission have changed alot since the MTC. I was suprised at how much we had all changed in such a short amount of time. When i got back to my area i went strait to my house because i figured Elder Silva would come back for dinner and get me. Unfortunatly he was waiting for a phone call to tell him that i got back. So, i got to the house at 5 o´clock and he got there at 8. By that time he had called the secretaries and the APs looking for me. So by the time he got home and found me the people inthe office thought i was lost in Lisbon somewhere. The next day i got a call from Elder Wilson asking me what happened because the APs had called him and told him that his greenie was never made it home the night before. By now i´m sure the whole mission thinks i got lost!
Yesterday i added another item to my list of foods that i´ve tried here in portugal. Everyweek we go to a big member family´s house and eat a big lunch after church and the food is usually really good. But this is also the house where i ate cow stomach and last week i ate shrimp (not little shrimp, the big kind with huge tenticals)there. This week though was different. At the end of church yesterday the members told me we would be eating "Arroz doPato". Being an american i had no idea what that was until i got to the house. Mikey could tell you and maybe he already has by now, but arroz dopato is "Duck Rice". I was a little nervous at first, never having eaten duck, but it turned out to be one of best things i´ve eaten since i´ve been here. During the meal one of the members asked me if i new what i was eating because i guess some Elders dont like duck. Almost everytime i eat there they like to tell me i can add one more exotic Portuguese dish to the list of things i´ve eaten on my mission.
Other than that, my week was pretty boring. Everything is going good here. I dont feel like my langauge is getting any better but i´m sure that will change when i get an american companion and i can see my progress. As for mypass i can get another one but doing that right now isn´t worth it so i haveto wait until next month. But at least i can get another one.
I found one last thing to ask to be put in my box, american, food measuring stuff.
Well, i´m still surviving and doing fine! Thanks for all of your prayers! I love you guys!
Élder Haws
Hey Family,
Its definitly winter here in portugal now. Over the couple of days it reallyhasn´t stopped raining which is bad because we haven´t stopped working either. This week we made a lot of really good progress. In the past two weeks we have recieved two referals that turned out to be two great families. One of the referals came from a member that has never given us a referal while i´ve been here but the family that she gave us is turning out great. We´ve been teaching this grandpa and his two grandsons for almost two weeks and the grandpa came to church yesterday so things are looking up. The other family we got was refered to us by a brazilian family. They invited us, two brazilian member couples, a brazilian return missionary, and this family to dinner last friday night and it went great. Thi family had lost a child a while back so the members asked us (Elder Silva) to talk about eternal families. Elder Silva´s message was great and the members afterward keep bearing testimony and sharing experiences. I wanted to bear my testimony too but i couldn´t find room with all the members talking! It was a great visit and the family shows a lot of potencial. This week we also have a baptism planned for a little girl whose been taught by the missionaries for almost a year. She was almost baptized a few months ago but when the Elders asked the mom for permission she said no because her brother was an inactive member. So after that the Elders worked on reactivating the brother and finally got him active about the time i got here. Elder Davis was one ofthe Elders who taught her so he´s coming back to Cascais for a day to baptize her. Its funny though, becasue at the end of last transfer i told Elder Wilson that if one of us stayed we would have to find new people because none of our investigators were pregressing, but with Elder Silva we haven´t really had to work all that hard to find new people because the members are helping us so much. So life is good.
This week me and Elder Silva played some ping pong but things didn´t go so well. Elder Silva is what i would call a professional ping pong player because he makes people who play well, like the members here, look really bad. This is bad because i play terrible and i get really competitive. Well,to make a short story even shorter i lost...alot...and really angery and things were tense between us for a while but we sorted it out and we´re good now.
In other news, last week i had to go and start to renew my visa here so i got to see alot of people from the MTC. It was pretty fun to spend most of the day with them but we had to stand in lines all day wasn´t too exciting. Afterward they droped us off at one of the biggest shopping malls in portuagal so we could eat before going back to our areas and i got to eat lunch with Elder McLean and Elder Rich. President told us not to waste anytime becasue our companions had to stay in our areas with members until we got back but we sat and talked for a while and i dont feel like we wasted a minute. We ended up talking about our mission experiences so far and about how or views of the mission have changed alot since the MTC. I was suprised at how much we had all changed in such a short amount of time. When i got back to my area i went strait to my house because i figured Elder Silva would come back for dinner and get me. Unfortunatly he was waiting for a phone call to tell him that i got back. So, i got to the house at 5 o´clock and he got there at 8. By that time he had called the secretaries and the APs looking for me. So by the time he got home and found me the people inthe office thought i was lost in Lisbon somewhere. The next day i got a call from Elder Wilson asking me what happened because the APs had called him and told him that his greenie was never made it home the night before. By now i´m sure the whole mission thinks i got lost!
Yesterday i added another item to my list of foods that i´ve tried here in portugal. Everyweek we go to a big member family´s house and eat a big lunch after church and the food is usually really good. But this is also the house where i ate cow stomach and last week i ate shrimp (not little shrimp, the big kind with huge tenticals)there. This week though was different. At the end of church yesterday the members told me we would be eating "Arroz doPato". Being an american i had no idea what that was until i got to the house. Mikey could tell you and maybe he already has by now, but arroz dopato is "Duck Rice". I was a little nervous at first, never having eaten duck, but it turned out to be one of best things i´ve eaten since i´ve been here. During the meal one of the members asked me if i new what i was eating because i guess some Elders dont like duck. Almost everytime i eat there they like to tell me i can add one more exotic Portuguese dish to the list of things i´ve eaten on my mission.
Other than that, my week was pretty boring. Everything is going good here. I dont feel like my langauge is getting any better but i´m sure that will change when i get an american companion and i can see my progress. As for mypass i can get another one but doing that right now isn´t worth it so i haveto wait until next month. But at least i can get another one.
I found one last thing to ask to be put in my box, american, food measuring stuff.
Well, i´m still surviving and doing fine! Thanks for all of your prayers! I love you guys!
Élder Haws
Monday, November 9, 2009
Portugese 24/7
Hey Family,
There was a lot of news in this weeks set of emails. First i read that Dad got released and then i hear that he´s getting a new calling? Life must be crazing back in Idaho! Everything is still good here. But first before i go on, i need to apologize to Bentley for not saying Happy Birthday last week. Normally i write what i want to say in my planner before but last week i forgot to write in his birthday. But anyway, Happy Birthday Bentley!
This week was really good. We taught a lot of lessons here and we´re finding a lot of new people which is really what this area needs. It seems like the Elders here have been teaching the same investigators for a long time now,some for years. Most of these people just like having the Elders over but never fulfill commitments. But because they´ll talk to us and let us teach them the Elders kept going back. But with Elder Silva its different. If people dont change, we find new people.
This week was probably our last week of english classes. I´m not sure if i told you but we teach english classes once a week, or we did. Normally it was one of the older american Elders that taught it but now it just me and Silva and he doesn´t speak english and i dont speak portuguese. So a member has taught the class the last two weeks but this week he said would be hislast so we´ll have to stop giving the classes. But last week the students were learning the ABCs so the member was teaching them the ABC song. Then afterward they had me sing it so they could hear how it went. They ended up liking it so much that they recorded my singing on their phones so they could listen to it out of class and practice. It was a little embarrassing but really funny at the same time.
Last week we also had zone conference with one of the area presidency members of the Western Eurpoe area. He´s a german guy so the whole whenever he spoke (which was most of the time) it was in english. It was a really good conference because he adressed a lot of the problems that i have been having with President Torgans plans. But when he first sstarted to speak i was worried because he backed President Torgan one hundred percent, which is good, but it didn´t help the way i felt. He talked about how he knew President Torgan was asking us to reach for the stars but that he said he would rather have us try and overstep our potencial than always live beneath it. That helped me feel a little better but then later, all my prayers were answered. Normally, President Torgan will tell us that when we dont have baptisms its because we dont have faith and that we need to repent. When the topic of faith came up in the conference Elder Kopisckey(spelled wrong) said that we should never say we didn´t baptize because we didn´t have faith. He even said, "I forbid it!" This was the hardest part of President Torgan´s plan to accept and it felt good to hear that the reason i didn´t baptize every week was because i was unworthy. I felt bad that PResident Torgan was a little wrong but now i´m feeling pretty relieved. And then after the conference i walked over to Elder Wilson with a big smile on my face,remembering our one week baptism failure. We talked about how we knew that we had done everything we could but we felt bad because we felt like we had no faith. But after that conference it felt like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders. It felt great!
Sorry mom, but i forgot to tell you that we got another phone from the office a few days after Edlr Wilson left, but this week i lost my pass that lets me ride all the buses and trains for free. I dont know if i can get another one but if i cant, money´s going to be tight for awhile so please pray for me! The list for the package seems right except for the rain coat but other than that it sounds perfect. And if you guys could send me some recipes for rice and pasta that would be great too because that stuff is super cheap and i can get it EVERYWHERE. And with a naitve companion i have discovered the wonder of european cheese. So Mom, you were right, its sooo good! As to news with my finger its exactly the same but i forgot to ice it.I talked to Elder McLean about my finger and he said he had the same thing happen to so i´m still hopping its a dislocation. It doesn´t look bad its just a little fat at the joint. Oh, and tell Nick and Mikey to stay away from girls because i dont want to be getting wedding invitations in the mail!
And this week i talked with Elder Davis a few times on the phone because he may come back and baptize one of our investigatirs. He also gave his last testimony in zone conference and told me that he used me in his testimony.
Well, its still all portuguese all the time here and i´m still improving.Thanks for all the prayers and love! Amo-lhes!
Élder Haws
There was a lot of news in this weeks set of emails. First i read that Dad got released and then i hear that he´s getting a new calling? Life must be crazing back in Idaho! Everything is still good here. But first before i go on, i need to apologize to Bentley for not saying Happy Birthday last week. Normally i write what i want to say in my planner before but last week i forgot to write in his birthday. But anyway, Happy Birthday Bentley!
This week was really good. We taught a lot of lessons here and we´re finding a lot of new people which is really what this area needs. It seems like the Elders here have been teaching the same investigators for a long time now,some for years. Most of these people just like having the Elders over but never fulfill commitments. But because they´ll talk to us and let us teach them the Elders kept going back. But with Elder Silva its different. If people dont change, we find new people.
This week was probably our last week of english classes. I´m not sure if i told you but we teach english classes once a week, or we did. Normally it was one of the older american Elders that taught it but now it just me and Silva and he doesn´t speak english and i dont speak portuguese. So a member has taught the class the last two weeks but this week he said would be hislast so we´ll have to stop giving the classes. But last week the students were learning the ABCs so the member was teaching them the ABC song. Then afterward they had me sing it so they could hear how it went. They ended up liking it so much that they recorded my singing on their phones so they could listen to it out of class and practice. It was a little embarrassing but really funny at the same time.
Last week we also had zone conference with one of the area presidency members of the Western Eurpoe area. He´s a german guy so the whole whenever he spoke (which was most of the time) it was in english. It was a really good conference because he adressed a lot of the problems that i have been having with President Torgans plans. But when he first sstarted to speak i was worried because he backed President Torgan one hundred percent, which is good, but it didn´t help the way i felt. He talked about how he knew President Torgan was asking us to reach for the stars but that he said he would rather have us try and overstep our potencial than always live beneath it. That helped me feel a little better but then later, all my prayers were answered. Normally, President Torgan will tell us that when we dont have baptisms its because we dont have faith and that we need to repent. When the topic of faith came up in the conference Elder Kopisckey(spelled wrong) said that we should never say we didn´t baptize because we didn´t have faith. He even said, "I forbid it!" This was the hardest part of President Torgan´s plan to accept and it felt good to hear that the reason i didn´t baptize every week was because i was unworthy. I felt bad that PResident Torgan was a little wrong but now i´m feeling pretty relieved. And then after the conference i walked over to Elder Wilson with a big smile on my face,remembering our one week baptism failure. We talked about how we knew that we had done everything we could but we felt bad because we felt like we had no faith. But after that conference it felt like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders. It felt great!
Sorry mom, but i forgot to tell you that we got another phone from the office a few days after Edlr Wilson left, but this week i lost my pass that lets me ride all the buses and trains for free. I dont know if i can get another one but if i cant, money´s going to be tight for awhile so please pray for me! The list for the package seems right except for the rain coat but other than that it sounds perfect. And if you guys could send me some recipes for rice and pasta that would be great too because that stuff is super cheap and i can get it EVERYWHERE. And with a naitve companion i have discovered the wonder of european cheese. So Mom, you were right, its sooo good! As to news with my finger its exactly the same but i forgot to ice it.I talked to Elder McLean about my finger and he said he had the same thing happen to so i´m still hopping its a dislocation. It doesn´t look bad its just a little fat at the joint. Oh, and tell Nick and Mikey to stay away from girls because i dont want to be getting wedding invitations in the mail!
And this week i talked with Elder Davis a few times on the phone because he may come back and baptize one of our investigatirs. He also gave his last testimony in zone conference and told me that he used me in his testimony.
Well, its still all portuguese all the time here and i´m still improving.Thanks for all the prayers and love! Amo-lhes!
Élder Haws
Monday, November 2, 2009
The Native
Hey Family,
As always thanks for all the E-mails. This week we had transfers but they were a little different than usual. Normally transfer happen the day after P-day because thats when new missionaries come in from the MTC but ealry this transfer President Torgan switched P-day. Because of that, no one new when we were going to hear about transfers and me and Elder Wilson didn´t know if we would ever hear about transfers because we didn´t have a phone.So we just figuered that transfers would be the dame day as they always were, which was thursday. But as always, we were wrong. After P-day, Elder Wislon and I returned to our Apartment to find our Ward mission leader and his younger brother sitting outside our house. They didn´t say much of anything and just dialed a number on the cell phone and handed it to Elder Wilson. I thought something happened and we were going to be yelled at by someone. It turned out that the APs had to call our ward mission leader to tell us about trnasfers. The next day, Elder Wilson would have to leave the house at 8:30 in the morning and travel to one of the most northern areas of the mission to be the new Zone leader there, while the Zone Leader he was replacing was going to come to be district leader here in Cascais and to be my new companion. This came as a bit of a shock because we didn´t expect anyone to leave until thurdsay so that night Elder Wilson spent most of his time packing. I on the other hand spent most my time trying to not have a nervous breakdown because my new companion was going to be Elder Silva, a native. That by itself scared me but then Elder Wilson said that he didn´t speak a whole lot of english and that just made it worse. But i made it through that night and the next day and now i´m wondering why i worried so much.
Elder Silva was born in Mozambique, a country in southern Africa, and eventually moved to portugal. Before the Mission he played academic soccor(which i think is a big deal) for Quimbra(probably not spelled right).It turns out that Elder Wilson was wrong about his english. He´s actually learned alot of english on the mission and probably speaks better english than i do portuguese. But i dont know for sure. As far as i can tell, his two favorite english words are "freak" and "trippin" which just happen to be my favorite english words too so right off the bat i new we would get along.He´s a great missionary and contacts a ton of people, and he´s good at it too. He also pushes me a lot harder than Elder Wilson did. Most of the time Elder Wilson would do all the contacts and most of the lessons but now, with Elder Silva, i do a lot more. He will stop people and the street and say hi to them and then turn and smile at me, meaning that i had to do the contact.Also in lessons, he will just turn to me and expect me to take over.Sometimes when we arrive at a house he will turn to me and ask me what i´m going to teach. I even taught a whole/very short lesson almost completly by myself. So as you can tell these past few days have taken some adjustment but i´m doing great. Elder Silva is hilarious and we´re working hard and having a good time. He´s been here less than a week and has already boosted our number of lessons and marked an investigator for baptism. So i´m going to be learing alot form him over these next six weeks.
Everything else is really good too. I cant believe that i´ve been a set apart missionary for 5 months now. It´s crazy! And now that i´m serving with a native companion my language should get a lot better too. When the members here first met him they turned to me and said, "Elder Haws, you´re going to speak VERY well!" I already feel like my confidence and ability to speak and understand have improved and its only been six days. He understands english pretty well but i still find myself speaking mostly portuguese to him and i´m not sure why.
Tell Jenny thanks for the pictures! Everybody looked great in their costumes but i most say that Mikey had the best! And to be honest, i was actually going to ask that you send another camera card because none of the computers here are fast enough to upload pictures so thats a great idea Mom. And I think my finger still has some swelling because i still cant make a full fist but i´m going to ice it so more so it should be fine in a week or two.
So, life is still good here in Cascais. Tell every thanks for all the love and prayers! I love you guys!
Élder Haws
As always thanks for all the E-mails. This week we had transfers but they were a little different than usual. Normally transfer happen the day after P-day because thats when new missionaries come in from the MTC but ealry this transfer President Torgan switched P-day. Because of that, no one new when we were going to hear about transfers and me and Elder Wilson didn´t know if we would ever hear about transfers because we didn´t have a phone.So we just figuered that transfers would be the dame day as they always were, which was thursday. But as always, we were wrong. After P-day, Elder Wislon and I returned to our Apartment to find our Ward mission leader and his younger brother sitting outside our house. They didn´t say much of anything and just dialed a number on the cell phone and handed it to Elder Wilson. I thought something happened and we were going to be yelled at by someone. It turned out that the APs had to call our ward mission leader to tell us about trnasfers. The next day, Elder Wilson would have to leave the house at 8:30 in the morning and travel to one of the most northern areas of the mission to be the new Zone leader there, while the Zone Leader he was replacing was going to come to be district leader here in Cascais and to be my new companion. This came as a bit of a shock because we didn´t expect anyone to leave until thurdsay so that night Elder Wilson spent most of his time packing. I on the other hand spent most my time trying to not have a nervous breakdown because my new companion was going to be Elder Silva, a native. That by itself scared me but then Elder Wilson said that he didn´t speak a whole lot of english and that just made it worse. But i made it through that night and the next day and now i´m wondering why i worried so much.
Elder Silva was born in Mozambique, a country in southern Africa, and eventually moved to portugal. Before the Mission he played academic soccor(which i think is a big deal) for Quimbra(probably not spelled right).It turns out that Elder Wilson was wrong about his english. He´s actually learned alot of english on the mission and probably speaks better english than i do portuguese. But i dont know for sure. As far as i can tell, his two favorite english words are "freak" and "trippin" which just happen to be my favorite english words too so right off the bat i new we would get along.He´s a great missionary and contacts a ton of people, and he´s good at it too. He also pushes me a lot harder than Elder Wilson did. Most of the time Elder Wilson would do all the contacts and most of the lessons but now, with Elder Silva, i do a lot more. He will stop people and the street and say hi to them and then turn and smile at me, meaning that i had to do the contact.Also in lessons, he will just turn to me and expect me to take over.Sometimes when we arrive at a house he will turn to me and ask me what i´m going to teach. I even taught a whole/very short lesson almost completly by myself. So as you can tell these past few days have taken some adjustment but i´m doing great. Elder Silva is hilarious and we´re working hard and having a good time. He´s been here less than a week and has already boosted our number of lessons and marked an investigator for baptism. So i´m going to be learing alot form him over these next six weeks.
Everything else is really good too. I cant believe that i´ve been a set apart missionary for 5 months now. It´s crazy! And now that i´m serving with a native companion my language should get a lot better too. When the members here first met him they turned to me and said, "Elder Haws, you´re going to speak VERY well!" I already feel like my confidence and ability to speak and understand have improved and its only been six days. He understands english pretty well but i still find myself speaking mostly portuguese to him and i´m not sure why.
Tell Jenny thanks for the pictures! Everybody looked great in their costumes but i most say that Mikey had the best! And to be honest, i was actually going to ask that you send another camera card because none of the computers here are fast enough to upload pictures so thats a great idea Mom. And I think my finger still has some swelling because i still cant make a full fist but i´m going to ice it so more so it should be fine in a week or two.
So, life is still good here in Cascais. Tell every thanks for all the love and prayers! I love you guys!
Élder Haws
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Phone
Hey Family,
Thanks for all the advice and support in your emails. This week has been tough with the whole president Torgan thing but i keep telling myself and my companion that i wont worry about it. I just keep telling myself to do my best and thats seems to help alot. So thanks again.
This week was pretty crazy. Everything was almost normal until wednsday rolled around. That morning Elder Wilson woke up very happy, which is strange because we were so depressed because we didnt have a baptism. But that morning he was happy and we went about our day like normal. We caught a bus up to teach a new investigator we had found the week before and we were having trouble finding his houose so after we got off the bus we decided to check our map and call him. The only problem was my companion didn´t have the phone. He had it on the bus but after he got off it dissapeared. I told him not to worry about and we keep working thinking that we would be able to call the bus company later to get the phone back that we thought we left on the bus. After we found and taught our investigator we used his phone to call ours. Somebody answered it, then hung up and turned the phone off. Not a good sign. After we left the investigator´s house, we went to the Bus company building and asked about the phone but it didn´t turn up. At that point Elder Wilson and I decided that the guy who smelled strongly of Marijauna who sat next to Elder Wislon on the bus took the phone when it fell out of his pocket. Over the past few days we have been calling the bus company just in case but it hasn´t turned up. So, we´ve gone almsot an entire week without contact with our leaders or invetigators so you can imagine the fun we had.
In other news... My finger is still getting better! I still cant bend it all the way and make a fist but almost all the pain is gone so thats good. This week i also had a member lady cut my hair because its expensive here and i cant speak well enough to tell someone how short to cut my hair. It came out really good. Its really short but its alot better than what i had before.This week the language got better too. There were times when i understood alot of what people said and my confidence in speaking is starting to grow so i´m prayinig that this progress keeps up.
Tell dad congrats on his teaching skills! And form Jenny´s pictures it looks like Mikey rented a Trombone from somewhere and is doing ok . Thats too bad about BYU but thats ok because i´m in portugal and no one here cares. Tell Nick hey for me and keep the H* girl away from him too.
This week is transfers again. I cant believe it that time already. We have now idea whats going to happen here but its very possible that me and Wilson could both leave because we´re not baptizing. So i dont know if i´ll still be in Cascais next week but i think theres still a good chance that i might stay. With the Whole President Torgan "Baptize Portugal" plan i´ve found a new use for one of my favorite songs from last transfer. "It wont be likt this for long" is now my out look on my mission because so far time has been flying and i only have two years to serve. So i´ve decided i cant focus and President Torgan and his telling me i need to repent and have faith because if i do, i wont be positive and enjoy my mission. So as you can probably guess, i´ve been humming that song alot latly.
Well, this week has been really good even though we didn´t have a baptism but thats ok. Right now my biggest priority is learning the langauge so later on in my mission i can baptize. It sounds like everybody is doing great. Tell Jenny thanks for the pictures and everyone else for the E-mails,support, and prayers. I love you guys!
Élder Haws
Monday, October 19, 2009
Bad Luck
Hey Family,
This week was really tough. Everywhere I went i seemed to have bad luck. It started last monday when we went to play basketball with some of the Elders form around the mission. I was pretty excited about it because i hadn´t played basketball in two months and everybody kept talking themselves up soi thought it was going to be fun. When we got there i talked with one of the Zone Leaders and we talked about how everyone that was going to play that day thought they were amazing while we kept telling each other we were terrible. When we got to the church in that area (Cacem) we started bar-b-quing and then started playing. After the first game the Zone leader i talked to turned to Elder Wilson and said i was a shooter. Then we didnt´play for a while but the next game i played in was bad. We got killed and to had to that i messed up my finger. I was playing defense and reached in to steal the ball but missed and hit the Elder and jammed my fingers really bad. I thought i was fine but when i looked down at the ring finger on my left hand the tip was bent in the wrong direction. I didnt touch it but a second later it popped back into place. It hurt a ton but i kept playing and finished the game. People there thought i was crazy. Later that day i looked at my finger and it was really swollen and purple so i got kind of worried so we made a make-shift splint out of stuff from my first aid kit(thanks mom). Then we waited a day and called the Mission President´s wife and talked to her about it. She said she did the same thing when she played vollyball and that i probably just dislocated it and that i would be back to normal in about a month. It already feels really good and i´m even typing with it right now so i´m fine. Dont worry.
The other bad luck came at Interviews. As i may have told you, President Torgan very serious about baptism. He tells us that we should be baptizing every week and when we dont he comes down on us and tells us we dont have enough faith. I really have a hard time going with this plan because its really hard to baptize people and i also dont like feeling like a failure at the end of every week but this week he just told everyone that he doesn´t really care about baptizisms but doing the Lord´s will. He said that as long as we pray and find out the Lords will and do it thats whats important but he still really pushing baptism. I felt a little better after that but when he interviewed me and Elder Wilson on thursday night he said if we had enough faith we would find someone to baptize that weekend. The only probablem was we had no one marked for baptism. Both our interviews were good so we were really excited and motivated but as the days went along nothing happened. We did everything we could think of: fasted, prayed, had our members and other missionaries pray for us and worked really hard and nothing happened this weekend. We worked on three people we felt were the people we were supposed to work on and good things happened but no baptism.So today me and Elder Wilson feel pretty down and i´m not looking forward to my next interview with President Torgan. I just dont understand why President is pushing us so hard and i´m really finding it hard to go with him on this. But I´ll keep working so I´ll be alright.
In other news. I got the box this week and it was awesome ! The syrup and peanut butter and candy were a surprise but they´re amazing! Thanks for the recipes too. The only problem is we dont ever have a long time to cook except at nights but i´m still going to make very good use of these recipes so thank you soooo much! I also got a letter from Will this week and he sounded really excited to head out to the MTC. Thats crazy about Nick. He lost a TON of weight!
I also want to apologoze to mom because i forgot to wish her a happy Birthday last week. But Happy late Birthday mom! Also this week we ate at a members house that we hadn´t eaten at in a long time. The food we had was weird but my companion didn´t ask what it was until after we were done. I told him to never ask before we eat because i can eat it as long as i dont know what it is. Afterward i was informed that the very chewy meat that i had been eating was cow stomach! Apparently thats a regular dish up north near Porto. But the most surprising thing was i actually liked it! One of the member that made it for us also asked me to ask you to send beef jerky.He served with a lot of american companions when he served here in this mission (he´s form Porto) and feel in love with it. you dont have to send but i told him i would ask.
I also have a project for Mikey. If he has time i would like him to email me the lyrics to Kory Kumz´s first CD. I´ll have more requests for lyrics from the Liken movies but that will do for now.
Well, it sounds like everybody is doing well. Thanks for all the letters and emails! Keep praying for me and tell everyone i love them!
Élder Haws
This week was really tough. Everywhere I went i seemed to have bad luck. It started last monday when we went to play basketball with some of the Elders form around the mission. I was pretty excited about it because i hadn´t played basketball in two months and everybody kept talking themselves up soi thought it was going to be fun. When we got there i talked with one of the Zone Leaders and we talked about how everyone that was going to play that day thought they were amazing while we kept telling each other we were terrible. When we got to the church in that area (Cacem) we started bar-b-quing and then started playing. After the first game the Zone leader i talked to turned to Elder Wilson and said i was a shooter. Then we didnt´play for a while but the next game i played in was bad. We got killed and to had to that i messed up my finger. I was playing defense and reached in to steal the ball but missed and hit the Elder and jammed my fingers really bad. I thought i was fine but when i looked down at the ring finger on my left hand the tip was bent in the wrong direction. I didnt touch it but a second later it popped back into place. It hurt a ton but i kept playing and finished the game. People there thought i was crazy. Later that day i looked at my finger and it was really swollen and purple so i got kind of worried so we made a make-shift splint out of stuff from my first aid kit(thanks mom). Then we waited a day and called the Mission President´s wife and talked to her about it. She said she did the same thing when she played vollyball and that i probably just dislocated it and that i would be back to normal in about a month. It already feels really good and i´m even typing with it right now so i´m fine. Dont worry.
The other bad luck came at Interviews. As i may have told you, President Torgan very serious about baptism. He tells us that we should be baptizing every week and when we dont he comes down on us and tells us we dont have enough faith. I really have a hard time going with this plan because its really hard to baptize people and i also dont like feeling like a failure at the end of every week but this week he just told everyone that he doesn´t really care about baptizisms but doing the Lord´s will. He said that as long as we pray and find out the Lords will and do it thats whats important but he still really pushing baptism. I felt a little better after that but when he interviewed me and Elder Wilson on thursday night he said if we had enough faith we would find someone to baptize that weekend. The only probablem was we had no one marked for baptism. Both our interviews were good so we were really excited and motivated but as the days went along nothing happened. We did everything we could think of: fasted, prayed, had our members and other missionaries pray for us and worked really hard and nothing happened this weekend. We worked on three people we felt were the people we were supposed to work on and good things happened but no baptism.So today me and Elder Wilson feel pretty down and i´m not looking forward to my next interview with President Torgan. I just dont understand why President is pushing us so hard and i´m really finding it hard to go with him on this. But I´ll keep working so I´ll be alright.
In other news. I got the box this week and it was awesome ! The syrup and peanut butter and candy were a surprise but they´re amazing! Thanks for the recipes too. The only problem is we dont ever have a long time to cook except at nights but i´m still going to make very good use of these recipes so thank you soooo much! I also got a letter from Will this week and he sounded really excited to head out to the MTC. Thats crazy about Nick. He lost a TON of weight!
I also want to apologoze to mom because i forgot to wish her a happy Birthday last week. But Happy late Birthday mom! Also this week we ate at a members house that we hadn´t eaten at in a long time. The food we had was weird but my companion didn´t ask what it was until after we were done. I told him to never ask before we eat because i can eat it as long as i dont know what it is. Afterward i was informed that the very chewy meat that i had been eating was cow stomach! Apparently thats a regular dish up north near Porto. But the most surprising thing was i actually liked it! One of the member that made it for us also asked me to ask you to send beef jerky.He served with a lot of american companions when he served here in this mission (he´s form Porto) and feel in love with it. you dont have to send but i told him i would ask.
I also have a project for Mikey. If he has time i would like him to email me the lyrics to Kory Kumz´s first CD. I´ll have more requests for lyrics from the Liken movies but that will do for now.
Well, it sounds like everybody is doing well. Thanks for all the letters and emails! Keep praying for me and tell everyone i love them!
Élder Haws
Monday, October 12, 2009
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
Monday, October 5, 2009
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
Monday, September 28, 2009
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
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
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
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)
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)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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
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
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