snail mail july 29

Greg’s snail mail letter of July 26, 2009

Dear Family,

This weekend has been great! The Cabo Verdelian Elders have been packing and getting ready to go and I realized that will be me in a week! I’m really starting to get nervous but I’m still doing all right.

Saturday morning we had a “culture day” with our teacher. That’s where a teacher who went to your mission comes in during a class and tells you about the people and other things about that mission. One of our teachers served in Cabo Verde so he was able to do it himself. He brought in two big books of pictures of Cabo Verde and told everyone in our District about it. He had bought the books in Cabo Verde and they were really interesting. Our entire time here everyone said Cabo Verde wasn’t a very “pretty” place to go. One Elder (Burton) who had seen some pictures described it as “taking an island then bombing it and never watering it ever again.” But from the book it looked very beautiful and tropical. It wasn’t till after class that an Elder pointed out to me that those books were for tourists and that they didn’t show any of the “bad” stuff. It was really exciting to hear about the mission there even though it’s not my mission. Everyone leaving in these next two weeks seem really excited but really nervous at the same time. The more I think about it the more nervous I get. So you can probably guess I don’t think about it too much.

Saturday afternoon we had our weekly zone softball game for the last time with our Cape Verde Elders. It was a lot of fun and I played really well. We normally have the older elders in our zone play against the new district and the Spanish elders and that’s how it was this week. I batted really well this week and I also played good defense. I was 2 for 3 of getting on base with each time on base being a hit to the outfield. Then on defense I made a good catch that probably would have been a homerun in a park of any kind. The Cape Verde elders also played really well and the elder I hang out with most (Elder Russell) played really well too.

After that we went to class where we all switched companions and taught a lesson to one of the newer districts and then they taught us. I taught with Elder Russell and it was awesome. We had three minutes to prepare and we had never taught with each other before but it went really well. Then the other missionaries taught us in Portuguese and it was great. It was their first time ever teaching in only Portuguese and they did really well.

Then after that we played some Jeopardy in Portuguese and then we were taught by our newest district. They taught us in English and they did awesome! Me and elder Russell were taught by Elder Risenmay (Lisbon, looks like Spencer to me for some reason?) and Elder Cannon (descendent of the apostle Cannon). They did really well and afterward we switched companions back so I was with McLean again. I was a little disappointed because I liked working with Elder Russell a lot but Elder McLean is still good.

The rest of that night was good and today has been good too. The meetings today went well and we didn’t have any problems. One of our meetings was cut short because our branch presidency had to go to another meeting so we had more study time. During that time I read some of the book of Mormon in Portuguese and understood more words than I thought. It was really interesting!

Then after District meeting we were all interviewed by our Branch President one last time. This interview was different though because he wanted us to teach him something in the interview about what we’ve learned here in the MTC. I was really nervous but I taught him about how I learned to study more effectively and how I learned the importance of the spirit in missionary work. It went really well and he told me not to be nervous and that the Language would be frustrating at first but would get better. I also told him about how when I first got here I didn’t feel like a good teacher. That’s when I taught him about study and the spirit and by the end of the lesson he said he wasn’t worried about me because he knew I was going to be a great teacher. He also said I was very articulate and that I would only get better at teaching. Then as we were leaving the room he said if he were my mission president he would be excited to be getting me. I felt really good after that and more excited to go. Then tonight we went to the devotional and then watched the Joseph Smith movie again, it was awesome! Every time I watch it, it gets even better.

All in all this weekend has been great! I’m about to head into my last week here and everything is coming to a close. I should be sending my suit with this so that should take care of that. My pictures should also be inside so you can enjoy those and maybe put some faces to some names.

Well, I better get to bed. Tell everyone I’m doing great! Thanks for your love, support, and prayers! Tell everyone I love them!

Elder Haws
(paragraphs added by mom)