Calling the Shots‏

Hey Family,

Sounds like everybody is doing well and surviving there in the US. As always, thanks for all the emails! This week for me and Elder Thomas was pretty good but a little stressful...as always!

On Tuesday i had the privilage to wait until about 1:00 p.m. for Elder thomas to show up and as soon as he did we got to work. He spent a little while getting his stuff organized in the house but then after that we got back into the street pretty fast. It was strange because since i´ve been here i´ve just followed Elder Jones around and he pretty much made all the decisions but when Elder Thomas showed up i was the one that had to call the shots. I was a bit nervous at first but the week went well. We actually taught more lessons than i have ever taught here in Portimão so that was awesome.

Elder Thomas is great and may even be my favorite companion that i´ve had on the mission so far. He´s from a town in southern Utah called hurricaine that is supposedly close to Zion´s national park. He has about 12 more weeks than i do which means he left the MTC a few weeks before i got there. Its sctually kind of strange serving with a comapanion who´s portuguese isn´t absolutly perfect all the time. He speaks really well but he just doesn´t have the time that my other companions have had. We´re working really hard and having a lot of fun so life is good.

Yesterday we had a Bar-b-que at a members house and it reminded me a lot of the sunday Bar-b-ques we used to have after church. That may have been one of the toughest times i have had on my mission with being "trunky". We also have a small CD radio in our apartment and some how it got turned on and new Michael Bublé song was playing which also made me super homesick too. Luckly i got over both quickly. And this week i also discovered a song that Mom might like that was written by the mom of a missionary a while back called"Hollow of Thy Hand". I figured Mom might enjoy it.

This week we also had a mini street meeting with just the two of us. Across the street from our chapel is an elementary school so we went there one morning and invited every person that went by to take a tour of our chapel. i stood on one side of the street and Elder Thomas stood on the other and we talked to everybody that went by. I didn´t get anyone´s information but Elder Thomas got a bunch of people to give us their info. His side had a lot more people passing by so after a while we swichted and the first person i talked to wanted to take the tour. It turns out he was the only person who accepted the tour that day. After that we taught him a lesson and are now teaching him and his family. They´re a little strange but i´m just happy we found a new family to teach.

Well, as far as news goes thats about it. Tell everybody Happy Birthday and make sure to tell me how fast Mclaughlin gets engaged after coming home!Thanks for everything! I love you guys!

Élder Haws