Gettin Wet‏

Hey Family,

Its still winter here in Portugal but you could never tell because the weather here is so different. It almost always looks beautiful outside but it ALWAYS colder than it looks. Today i took out 20 euros of personal money to buy a sweater (it wont cost that much) though so i should be fine.

This week was awesome. Tuesday night i got a call form the secretaries that said that my visa day got changed so now i do it this Friday instead of last Wednsday which means i dont do visas with anyone i know. Its a little sad but i ´m over it. In other news we had interviews with President Torgan last week with only two days notice. When my visa day was switched they told us that our interview day was switched too. We were a little upset that no one told us before but later we found out it happened to everyone. My interview went well but i´m pretty sure President Torgan knows i´m not the biggest fan of his baptism plans because this time he sat me down and made sure that i knew the only thing he really wants us to do is do the will of the Lord. So all in all it was pretty good.

Then Firday we had the Baptism of one of our investigators and Elder Davis did the baptizing. He had gone his entire mission (he leaves for home next month) without being the person who baptizes the investigor aka "getting wet". He spent a lot of time in this area (7 months) and never saw the fruit of his labor but i thonk this week he saw one of those fruits. He showed up and the baptism was awesome. Everybody was excited to see Elder Davis again and this time our investigator didn´t "almost die". The program went really well too. The speakers were good and Elder Davis sang and played a song he wrote about baptism that was amazing. I was really glad about how well it went because we brought the family we´ve been teaching to the baptism and then to the conformation. After the baptism we all ate a ton of Bolo and sumo (cake and juice) while everybody either crowed around Elder Davis or went down stairs to play Elder Silva in Ping pong. But just as a side note,Elder Grey (Elder Davis´s companion) beat Elder Silva a couple of times :).Then after everybody left we went home and Elder Davis and Elder Grey stayed the night because their area is so far away. We ended up staying up till 4in the morning talking and eating the extra bolo but it was a good time. I mostly talked with Elder Davis while Elder Grey talked with Elder Silva. Me and Davis spent most of the time talking about the mission and our feelings toward it. Then we talked about our interviews that we had and he gave me a lot of advice. Elder Wilson may have been my trainer and a great missionary,but i really see Elder Davis as more of a "Father Figure" than him. He has always given me the advice i´ve needed which makes me said because hes leaving soon. I´ll really miss all his stories and jokes but i´ll move on.The next day we woke up at 11 and went to lunch before the other Elders left. It was a lot of fun but still a little said when they left.

This week at the baptism i also started taking pictures with the members because i might be leaving this transfer. When i told some of the Jovens that i wanted pictures with them they freaked out and said that i´m not allowed to leave. One of them was mad because when i got here i couldn´t understand him but now we´re just starting to have conversations. Its a little sad to think i might leave Cascais but the more i think about it the more possible it seems. But oh well, it doesn´t really matter because i knowi´ll go where the Lord needs me.

Tell Jenny i´m sorry i didn´t say Happy Birthday last week. I seriously had it in my planner as "thing number one to say" but i still forgot it.So...Happy Birthday Jenny! And also tell Warren Happy Birthday this week too(i think his birthday is this week.) This week i got all your letters soi´ll probably be sending the camera card sometime this week so you should get it either this week or next. As for the swine Flu i dont think anyone is worried about it here. the thing everyone is worried about is something called Flu A. And mom, your cooking is actually not boring because i miss some of the food i used to eat. But luckly i´ve had Mcdonalds twice in the last week to remind me of america. I´m not really sure abou the Holidays here. The last holiday we had was all saints day but i think after that comes Christmas. There are Christmas decrorations everywhere which is so weird because there´s no snow on the ground! Its really weird to think that Christmas is already here but that also means i´ll have 6 months on my mission pretty soon! This week i only have a few questions to ask: Can you guys ask Spencer if they have stuff like baking soda and baking powder in Europe? and if so, could you ask Mikey for the translations?

Well, life here is good. I´m starting to notice how much i´ve learned in Portuguese and it feels good. I´´m still working hard and learind a lot too.Thanks for all the prayers and love.

Com Amor,
Élder Haws