Lost in Lisbon Part 2‏

Hey Family,

Happy Late Thanksgiving! Its sounds like you guys were way busy but had a lot of fun! This week was pretty fun for me too so i cant complain. Last week a few companionships in our Zone decided to have a Thanksgiving celebration last thursday and it actually turned out ot be pretty fun. There were only five duplas there but we still had a blast. We all brought something which was nice because me and Elder Silva didn´t have any money. We ended up showing up late but we still made in time to eat so that was the important thing. The only thing i regret about it was that i forgot to bring my camera so i´ll have to get pictures from one of the other Elders who was there.

Then, last Friday, I went into Lisbon to renew my visa again. I got there on time and we left right away because we thought it would take forever...which it did. We drove to some shopping mail and for some unknown reason, there was a government office like place in there. If you ask me it doesn´t make any sense but then agian i´ve learned that alot of things here dont make sense. For example, one day me and Elder Davis were walking to the bus station and we looked in the windows of the shopping mail near our house and saw the Escalator was broken. That however, was not the strange part. The strange part was the mass of people standing at the bottom of the escalator trying to figure out how to get up to the next floor with the escalator broken. I guess didn´t cross their minds that a broken escalator is just like a normal set of stairs. But whatever. Anyway, we got this goverment type place and it took them 2 or three hours to have four Elders sign our names on a peice of paper or two and then finger print us. It was a prety relaxing experience talking to the other Elders and i got to tell some of my Elder Davis stories so it was a good time. While i was there i learned the full story of my "dissaperance" the last time i went to Lisbon. It turns out Elder Silva had called the Executive secretaries looking for me but they were in a lesson so they couldn´t pick up, so he then called the APs who then called the executive secretaries who then picked up. After that the immediatly stopped their lesson with an investigator and started to call around seeing if anyone knew where i was. Then President called them and tokd them to go to Cascais and look in our house, every shopping mall, every hospital, and the jail looking for me. So immediatly they started speeding in their car towards Cascais when a few minutes later they got a call from President(who was laughing a little) saying they found me. I apologized a lot to the Executive secretaries but they said it wasn´t my fault and that my comp should have go to the house to see if i was there. But now, all missionaries will be given a card that tells them what to do if something like that happens so i guess now the mission will always have something to remember me by.

This week i also gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about obedience and it was probably the best talk i´ve given here in Cascais. I had a lot of scriptures and i told Gemar´s Devil Story and it went great. After me Elder Silva spoke(with 15 minutes notice) and gave a better talk than me. Then, after him the counslor form the stake presidency got up a spoke and made reference to my talk which was cool so i guess he liked it.

Other than that this week was pretty standard. Dont worry about the baking soda thing. I can wait till next week. Besides, i´ll probably be leaving Cascais next week so theres no rush. But also could you ask about baking powder and shorting too. Thanks. And sorry about the money last week. I pulled out more money for lunch and when you pull money out it charges you so i pulled out a little more than i needed but now i can pay myself back with MSF so dont worry about putting a ton of money in my account. But i bought a sweater so there is good news. And "Jovens" are just youth like decons, teachers, laurals, ect. That age group. I didnt send the camera card last week because we were going to have another baptism this week and i was going to take more pictures but thats not going to happen. So this week i´mjust going to send it in a letter to mike and hopefully you guys can pick itup this weekend at the baptism.

Well, I think thats everything. Life here is good and i´m still surviving and working hard. Thanks fopr all the prayers and love. I love you guys!

Élder Haws