We Three Kings‏

Hey Family,

This last week was crazy. It was full of drama and the unfortunate thing was it all happend in our apartment. Last Friday during weekly planning Elder Davis (the District Leader) got a fun call. This wasn´t normal becasue he´s one of the most popular and well liked misisonaries in the mission. The strange thing was it was from the office Elders. The Told him that Elder Anson´s flight plans had come in and that he (Elder Davis would become an office Elder. This caused some trouble. Apparently the tests that Elder Anson had taken said that there was something wrong with his blood and that he was damaging his body. He had talked to the Mission doctor for western Europe on the phone and the doctor said he might send Elder Anson home because they wouldn´t be able to do anything here. Elder Anson told the doctor he wasn´t going home and that they had to fix the problem in portugal. The doctor said he would see what he could do but didn´t make any promises. That was about a week before the previously mentioned phone call. After the office Elders talked to Elder Davis he handed the phone to Elder Anson and told us the what was going on. They both were very upset. Elder Anson didn´t want to go home and Elder Davis didn´t want to be an office elder. They then called a bunch of people trying to figure out what happened because they were never told anything before this. They couldn´t get a hold of President Torgan because he was in London and the Doctor couldn´t be reached. Then, later that night they talked to the doctor and he told them what was going on. He said he was very sorry but that Elder Anson had to go home and get the prblem fixed because they couldn´t here. He said he would be able to go back out on a misison but the chance of coming back to portugal was slim. So they spent the next day saying goodbye to people and that night they talked to President and Elder Davis asked to stay with me and Elder Wilson til the end of the transfer. He loves this area and wants to finish some things and he told the president he could do divisions almost everyday with members. President Torgan said he would pray about it but when Anson asked about staying he said there was no way. But when Anson asked about coming back to the mission afterward President Torgan said that he was going to fight strongly for him which means if its possible, it WILL happen. Thats how President Torgan is. The next day they both spoke in church and said goodbye to everybody and we all felt terrible alll day. That night they found out the final details and we went to bed quietly for once...it was strange. In the morning they got there bags together and called us into the living room. Elder Davis said he wanted to show us a magic trick and that he had an announcement. He showed us a quick trick and then said that he was going to stay with us till they end of the transfer. The night before he had gotten a call from the secrataries and he found out he was staying but he wanted to trick us so he didn´t tell us. I was really excited but Wilson seemed kind of down. We were going to have two areas and he was going to be district leader so i think he was sad that that didn´t happen. When Elder Anson left it was tough. When you train here in this mission, and maybe other places too, your greenie is forever called your "son". Elder Anson came the transfer before me and already spoke portuguese but was still being trained so he was kind of like my "cousin". So that day Elder Davis lost his only son and i lost my cousin. It was tough and we´ve been sad all week but we´re doing alright. I told Anson he had to come back before Christmas so that we could be each others Greenie Breakers here in Cascais.

This week President Torgan put a new plan into action to get baptisms. He is very serious about baptisms and always tells us we dont baptize enough people. The Elders here say he has a "Brazilian" attitude toward baptism were you find some one and baptize them in three weeks. The members here dont like that and some missionaries dont (like Elder Wilson) because we already have thousands of inactive members. This happened because back in the day missionaries would baptize just to baptize and people would go inactive and some of those people had never been to church. Even with all this President says that we have to baptize. He´s already doubled the standards of the mission and introduces new plans everyweek to get us more investigators or baptisims. He also didn´t like the way the mission was run so he changed some of the organizational stuff and then white washed (taking both missionaries out of an area and replacing them with two Elders who dont know where anything is or who anybody is.) 10 areas in a single transfer. The normal rules for these kinds of things have been thrown out the window since he´s been here and no one knows whats going to happen next. Some people are upset with the President about this stuff but I think its alot of fun.

The language is ok. My trainer told me that i speak really well and that people dont have a problem understanding me, but that i need to work more on understanding them. I cant hardly understand anyone except for american missionaries but i´m getting better. I get frustrated but i get over it quickly. And now I have my trainer and Elder Davis who we call my mission "uncle" and they help me alot. They say they might not see alot of baptisms because they can leave any transfer but they said they are going to prepare me to teach and speak because they said i probably will see baptisms here. They help me alot and its alot of fun being in a tripla. Elder Davis likes to discribe us as "We Three Kings". We miss Elder Anson but i´m almost sure i´ll see him here again soon.

I dont have the address the house but i´ll have it next week. I´ve been thinking about stuff you guys could send me when you do and i have a small list.

1. My mission Prep Books and Notes from my laptop from Bott´s class
2. Recipe Book
3. DeodorantI also want to send Mikey some letters in portuguese so i can practice writing and stuff so i´ll just send those to Jenny´s house.

Elder Wilson also wants to know how he can register for BYU classes here on the mision so if you guys know and could send us that stuff it would be great.

Life on the mission is great and i´m loving it here in Portugal. Thanks for keeping me updated. When i get a chance i´ll send pictures. I cant here on this computer because its too slow but maybe next week i´ll find a place. And tell Mikey to stay away from girls till i get back. Well, I gotta go. Tell everyone i love them. I love you guys!

O Élder Haws