Snail Mail

Dear Family,
It’s Sunday and I’m waiting to go to the fireside so I figured I’d write you guys a letter. My weekend has been really good. Yesterday I spent the day with the four elders going to Cape Verde because McLean was sick and so was Thaut. To be honest it was nice to have a break from McLean. He’s not bad, I just get tired of him sometimes. The highlight of my day yesterday was our class last night. We had a sub, Irmao Campell, who served in Cape Verde. He played a game with us where we would throw a ball, that had verbs written all over it, back and forth to each other. When we caught the ball, the person who threw it would call out a finger on one of our hands and whatever verb that finger touched would be the verb we would have to conjugate and put in a sentence. The person who threw the ball would call out a tense and we would make our sentence in that tense and then throw it to someone else. But while this is going on the teacher would play hymns on the computer and when the hymn would stop, whoever was holding the ball would have to stand up and bare testimony in Portuguese on a chair in the middle of the class. It was kind of like hot potato with a lot more pressure! I, of course, was the first to testify. Then, after we all had testified, then whoever lost had to count to thirty in Portuguese. One person did that then one Elder had to count and bare testimony to end the game. Lucky none of those people were me! I just had to do it once! But the teacher also told us about Cape Verde and how scary our missions are going to be. He kept telling us we had to use our time wisely and work as hard as we could. (I had heard this before, thanks Dad, Mindy, Warren, Spencer, Mike, Mom, Jenny, and Everyone else.) It was like a home pep talk! It freaked me out but at the same time made me more excited to serve! I just took a break from writing this to listen to the fireside. It was pretty good. They’ve asked a lot of people from Idaho to give prayers in the large meetings since I’ve been here. One gave the opening prayer and an Elder going to Warren’s mission gave the closing prayer. So overall the meeting was good. Today I felt really bad because I stayed with McLean cause he was sick so I didn’t go to Sacrament meeting. I felt even worse because I slept in till 8! I felt so bad! Then when me and McLean were walking over to the main building so I could drop McLean off so he could go to Branch Council, I found out that I had been called to speak in Sacrament meeting! So someone else had to speak which means I’ll probably speak next Sunday. Every one said I was lucky, even the Branch Presidency. The councilors in the Branch presidency said I must have known I was going to speak. Then I felt even worse but I’ve gotten over it a little. It’s made me want to work even harder to make up for the time I wasted this morning. I feel horrible about wasting that time and will do all that I can to never let it happen again. Later I was interviewed by the second councilor in the Branch presidency. We talked for a while about Idaho (he’s from Tetonia) and about family and homesickness. Then he made sure I was OK with having my companion be the District Leader. He then said that I shouldn’t think I’m not good enough to be the DL. He said that I would have many chances to be a leader in my mission. I think he was just saying that because that’s because that’s what they tell all the companions of the D.L.s, but it also kind of sounded like he was sure I was going to be a leader in the field. After the interview we went to the temple and took a ton of photos and then got ready for the fireside. Life was really good today and each day gets better. I think I’m going to need those ties Spencer gave me that I left there. And I also need some kind of scripture markers. The ones I bought here aren’t very good. Other than that I’m great. If there’s anything you guys want me to write about in my letters and emails let me know. Tell everyone thanks for all the letters, prayers, and love. And thank Dad and Mindy for the advice on teaching, it was great! Tell everyone I love them and tell Mikey to stay away from Girls! I love and miss you guys!
Elder Haws
P.S. I almost forgot, Elder Davidson in my District used to ride bulls! Not professionally, but that’s still really cool.