Half Way to Portugal?‏

Dear Family,
This week has been great!Time is flying and i cant believe it! It seems like i was just writing you guys yesterday. I forgot to tell you guys last week in my letter that i saw Teixera right before the Devotional. Over half our district sings in the choir (we've done about three times now, i cant remember if i told you or not, sorry if i didn't) so after choir practice that day we were standing out in front of the MTC waiting for them to let us back in for the devotional. It turns out that we were standing were all the mission presidents and general authoroties walk down to go in those doors where i went into to get checked my first day. I saw Teixera walking with his wife and he smiled at us and said hi and kept waling and i had to explain who he was to everbody. After that some guys came over and told us we couldn't stand there anymore. At the devotional we saw all the mission presidents who were being trained. They got to sit down in front but at the end of the devotional, after the apostles left, there was a moment when only missionaries and mission presidents were in the building. Just then all the mission presidents and their wives turned around and waved to all the missionaries and all the missionaries waved back. It was so awesome. My mission president was in the room but i couldn't rememeber what he looked like so i dont think i saw him. In other news, I ate Fish this week and it was...not bad. I decided i had to try it sometime so i got some Cod Nuggets and ate some. I wanted to know if i would be able to eat it in Portugal and now i know that i can. I've also seen Chase Wilde almost everyday since he's been here. We also eat at the same times everyday so i see at the cafeteria too. I've also seen another Elder from our stake who's going to Hawaii, the same mission as Elder McLaughlin. MIkey may know him, his name is Spencer Lepray. I've also seen a lot of people form BYU. Guys in the Dorm, Classmates, and even a teacher. Name it and i've seen them. I got Mindy's package and i opened it but i haven't eaten anything from it. i read the first note on top then i closed it and i'm waiting for the 4th to reopen it. I'm still not sick and i hope i wont get sick. Teaching is much better now. Yesterday we taught in the TRC and i did better than i ever have before. It was great! The only problem was that Elder McLean couldn't feel the spirit when we taught. He was really worried about that but he's doing better now. The language is still great. We had another vocab test on 150words. The test only had 100 words but it was pretty tough. I got 92 words right and the rest of the district averaged around 50 so we're all improving. Everyone still thinks i'm the best at the language but i'm still not sure. I had me weekly interview with one of my teachers yesterday and he asked me if he was pushing me too hard. I told him that if anything he could push me harder. Then he told me he has a hard time pushing all of us at the same time because he's focusing so much on the people who are struggling with the language. He then told me that i "pick up the language very quickly" and then asked if i would use my "gift" (he said something like that) to help my district. He asked me if i would take five minutes everyday and try and help someone to understand a principle of the language that they couldn't before. I guess that kind of makes me tutor for my district. I've also learned that i enjoy shinning shoes. I'm not very good yet but i'm sure i'll get better. Tomorow is the 4th and we really dont do anything special.We still study all day and go to gym but we've heard they may let us watch the fire works from the stadium of fire and we may also get to see a play too. Thanks for sending the scripture markers. I haven't gotten them yet but i'm sure they're great. I was wondering if Dad and Mindy could give me some ideas on how to mark my scriptures(by topics or stories, etc.). It sounds funny to say it but i haven't found a way that i like yet. say hi to Spencer and Brianna for me and hug the grandkids for me. Tell everyone i love and that i'm doing fine.
I love and miss you guys.
Elder Haws