Snail Mail - July 7th

Greg’s Snail Mail Letter of July 7, 2009
Dear Family,
This weekend has been pretty great. Yesterday we studied all day till lunch then we had class the rest of the day. We had a great lesson on the atonement where our District combined with one of the older districts. We all sat in a circle and one of the teachers walked around the circle and asked every person if they wanted some Skittles. If the Elder said yes, the teacher would turn to the other and the one without Skittles would do 15 push ups. After that the Elder would get Skittles and the teacher would move to the next Elder. No matter what we said the other teacher would do pushups and we would still get Skittles. Yes or No. He did them so that we could have skittles whether we wanted them or not. He ended up doing 240 pushups with one leg (the other is in a brace) and was exhausted by the end and couldn’t hold himself up. They then related that to the atonement. They talked about how Christ atoned for everyone’s sins whether they would accept it or not. It was really great. Then, that night we had a sub who called a lady from the Referral Center. The call was going to be in complete Portuguese so they let our District listen in on the call. It was really cool because I could understand almost everything the teacher said but it was really hard to understand the lady because she spoke Brazilian Portuguese. I should be used to it because everyone we teach in the TRC is Brazilian, so if Mikey plans on speaking to me in Portuguese I probably won’t be able to understand him until I’ve been out in the field awhile. Today has been really good too. This week we have two districts leaving. Some Elders are going to Porto, Portugal while the others are going to Mozambique, Africa. A lot of people were talking because our zone leaders are in that group so new ones were going to be picked today. Our District thought it was going to be me and McLean but they normally pick them every 6 weeks which means the Elders in the newer District would get them. At breakfast everyone was making guesses at who they were going to be and who would do the best job. They talked about how they take them aside 15 minutes before Sacrament meeting and tell them, so everyone was excited. After breakfast we headed to Sacrament meeting a little earlier than usual. When we got there we saw the District Leader and his companion being talked to outside the chapel so I thought they were going to be the new zone leaders. I asked one of them and he said no so I was really concerned. Then when we sat down the branch president pulled us aside. He didn’t waste any time in asking us to be the new zone leaders. He talked to us for a minute then said he had a lot of faith in us and said they’d announce it in a few minutes. By the time we got to our seats everyone knew we were the new ZLs. Our new district leader was pulled to the side at the same time as us and was asked to be the new district leader because McLean was moving up. He got back to his seat and then everyone knew. IT was pretty cool to stand up in Sacrament meeting and be recognized. Then we spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon in meetings. I didn’t like that part but now everybody calls me and McLean “Zone Leader.” It feels strange but I’m excited. I just hope I can do a good job. No one in our district was surprised and everyone seems to support us so we should be fine. We’ll be really busy Wednesday because we have to go talk to the new missionaries on Wednesday and give them tours and stuff so that should be exciting. The fireside tonight was really good and after we watched the Joseph Smith movie, again. It was so good!!! No matter how many times I watch that movie I still get goose bumps and want to go out and preach! So today was really good. I just have a few questions. Did you guys find out about my debit card? Is there anyway you can activate it? I found out I can call from the airport (22 days) so do you want me to buy a phone card or do you want to send one? Well, I hope everyone is doing alright. I’m doing great here. Thanks for all the love and support! I love and miss you guys!
The newest zone leader in branch 54,
Elder Haws