Just Another Week in Paradise‏

Hey Family,

Thanks for all the emails! And i want to give a special thanks to Jenny for the photos. They were great! And as always, thanks for all the prayers!

This week was one more week in Paradise, but it turned out to be even better than last week! This is about how it went...

We started the week focusing on our marked investigator, Luis, because his baptism will be this Sunday, in between sessions of conference. I was a bit worried about how things would go but he turned out to be the most golden, prepared, and focused investigator in the history of Portugal! He told us, "my main focus right now is baptism". This coming form a man who doesn´t have a job and lives with another family here in Portugal while his wife and kids live in Brazil. We´ve taught him just about everything and he´s loved it all so we´re not so worried about him anymore. But on Thursday, things got more exciting...

We had planned on talking with Silvia, one of the brazilians that we´ve been trying to baptize for 5 months, about conference and we felt that she could be baptized the same day as Luis. We thought that because the only doubt that she has about the church is that we have a prophet in our day. We figured she could watch conference, gain a testimony that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet, be interviewed, then be baptized all on that day. With that in mind, i prepared a special lesson for her and me and Elder Thomas went and talked with her with our Ward mission leader, with the intention of marking her for baptism. Unfortunately, the lesson didn´t start as planned. While making small talk before the lesson we found out she had to work all day on both days of conference. Then, when the lesson started, she talked about how she thought Jesus Christ and Jehovah are different people(she studied with JWs for a while). The spirit wasn´t real strong in the beginning but when our ward mission leader took over it got alot better. Then Elder Thomas started to share the lesson i prepared, which included a story from the Liahona that talked about how someone overcame the same doubt she had about baptism. Then, he showed her the calender that i made of the things she would do everyday to prepare for baptism. Then it was my turn to bare testimony. Yet again, things didn´t go as planned. I started crying like a girl and didn´t make any sense so Elder Thomas had to take over again. I felt dumb and left for a second to dry my face and came back a little later. We talked to her a little more and finally got her to accept to be baptized on the 4th of April, during conference! She said that she had never received an answer about baptism so we invited her to "take the first step" and promised her that the Lord would bless her with and answer after she accepted the invite to be baptized. That's exactly what the article in the Liahona said. All in all, i didn´t do much in the lesson but she´s marked for baptism...FINALLY!!!!!!

The fun didn´t end there though. Yesterday we also talked to her husband and we made a "goal" with him about HIS baptism. We told him he would receive an answer to his doubt about Joseph Smith during conference and his wife´s baptism. Then we invited him to be baptized the next weekend afterward if he receives and answer. He accepted but only because we said we were making "a goal". We taught this lesson with a member who is close friends with the husband, Marcio, and who was our ward mission leader before the change in the branch presidency. He assured him he would receive an answer and be baptized so really, its more than a goal. I didn´t really do much in the lesson, accept keep the members little boy busy and quiet so Elder Thomas and the member could teach the lesson. But I still feel like i helped a little.

Then, that night we went to teach the husband of the lady me and Elder Jones baptized on the 31st of December last year. The missionaries had never taught him because he would always leave the house or go to sleep in his room when we would show up. But this week, we went with our branch president, who´s good friends with the husband, Fernando. Because the branch president went with us, we were able to teach the Fernando and it was great. That was on Wednesday. Last night however, we taught the entire family the Plan of Salvation and Elder Thomas invited him to make "a goal" for his baptism too and he accepted. He will be baptized the same day as Marcio, on the 11th of April. I didn't really help much in the lesson this time either, but it turned out well. We talked about the possibility of marking him before and i was more than a bit skeptical, so now i feel pretty dumb. But i´m happy in the fact that we marked him for baptism.

So, all i all, thats 4 people marked for baptism! Luis and Silvia will be baptized on the 4th, and Fernando and Marcio will be baptized on the 11th. And to make it even better, they will probably all be baptized before i leave this area. The Zone Leaders have pretty much told me i´m leaving next transfer, and if i do, i will leave right after the last two are baptized! But the only one who will be baptized for certain(99.99%) is Luis. The others are still kind of "Ify" so we´ll see what happens. It all depends on if Silvia can get work off to see conference and if they all recieve answers to their prayers and doubts. So please keep praying for them, and for us! Thanks!

Phew! That was a mouth full! Now on to the rest...

To answer Mom´s questions...

We have one Zone Conference and one meeting for Interviews(mini zone conference) every transfer where we get mail and here trainings from President Torgan the other leaders in the mission. We get our mail and packages when we go to these meetings and also anything else we need from the mission office. We´ll be having Interviews on the 10th, which is right before transfers...again. So i will know where my next area before i email on that Monday. I did get the News letter and it was great! And dont worry about mother´s day. I dont think President Torgan would keep us from calling home. Irmã Torgan definitly wouldn´t let us go without calling home either.

As for Mindy´s blog...

First of all, let it be known that i do know how to say more words than "Holy Cow!" and "Oh my Gosh!".

The entire time i was reading the post i kept laughing. and actually got to the point to where i had to show Elder Thomas what i was reading because i was laughing so hard. And just so Mindy knows, he enjoyed it too. And its good to know that Kiley isn´t starving and that Kenna is being taught all about rascism. Thats all good stuff. And of course, I loved the Gibb smack references.

Well, i´m out of time so i guess i better go. I´ll let you know how the baptisms go next week. I´m praying for one more week here in Paradise! Dont forget to pray for us. Obrigado por tudo! Eu amo vocês!

Até o proximo

Élder Haws

Sunday, March 21, 2010‏

Hey Family,

This week was full of fun and excitment! We had some great things happen here so this could be a long email!

I might as well start with the craziest thing first. As you guys know we had Zone conference last week and normally at Zone conference we get an envelope with a mission news letter that says where everyone is serving and a liahona. But this week we got references from church headquaters. We only had two so we weren´t incredibly excited but that changed yesterday. When we got the referal we found that one lived near our house and the other lived 20 minutes away. We planned on visting the one near us on Saturday, the day after Zone conference but our plans Friday night fell through so we went ot see if we could go by to set up an appointment with the guy. When we went by, nobody was home so we just figured we would call him the next day. His information said he wanted to know the times of our meetings so we called and told him we meet on sundays at 9:30. Elder Thomas was the one talking to him on the phone and told me after the phone call that the guy didn´t sound very interested but said he would come to church. We didn´t think he would show up so we just kind of forgot about him. Then, while we were in a meeting yesterday before church, this random guy shows up and one of our members pulled Elder Thomas out ot talk to him. It turned out that this guy had been looking for a church to attend and saw our church in Brazil, before coming to Portugal. When he saw our church here he tried to go inside but the gate is always locked. But he really wanted to come to church there so he got online and emailed the church to find out the metting times. After Elder Thomas talked to him for a few minutes the meeting got over and i walked over and introduced myself but it wasn´t long before our ward misison leader walked over and took over for us. Both our ward mission leader and this investigator are from Brazil so they got along great. Our mission leader gave the guy a tour and then sat with him through priesthood metting while another brazilian member sat with him for the rest of church. Our members were great about talking to him and he seemed to really enjoy church. Then after church we marked a lesson with him for later that day. We met him in the church and started teaching him the first lesson and it went great! He told us that he felt the spirit throughout the meetings that day and that one of the talks and really "touched" him. During the lesson he kept asking really good questions and seemed really interested. Then, about half way through the lesson a member who has helped us alot with some other investigators came in and helped us teach somemore. The lesson was really good, but i kept noticing we said the word baptism alot. It seemed like everytime we answered one of his questions we talked about the priesthood and baptism. There was even a point in the lesson where i thought we were saying it too much. The strange thing is we never taught a lesson like that, that was so focused on baptism. Then, in the middle of the lesson i had this strange thought, and it might have even been the spirit, but i felt like we could mark the guy for baptism. He seemed to be accepting everything and i could feel the spirit pretty strong during the lesson so i thought we could do it. I quickly tried to put the thought out of my mind but i kept thinking about it. Then i remembered all the stories of how missionaries had marked people for baptism in the first lesson and i remembered how i wanted to have an experience like that. Then i remember thinking that if i wanted to have an experience like that, i would have ot invite this guy to be baptized if Elder Thomas didn´t. Again, i tried to push those thoughts out of my mind but i couldn´t. Then, at the end of the lesson the guy asked how we do baptism and Elder Thomas and I jumped at the opportunity. We just happened to be having the lesson int he room with the baptismal font in it so Elder Thomas went to turn on the lights in the font while i slide back the doors. I then explained how we do baptism and then after, Elder Thomas invited him to be baptized on the 4th of April. We knelt and prayed about it and as soon as the prayer got over i asked him how he felt. He said he felt good about it before we prayed but he seemed to feel just a little but better afterward. I say that because he told me he felt good and then hugged our member who was there then hugged us. Our member was a bit surprised but went with it. Then, we were about to explain how these next two weeks were going to be a battle for him, when he went and said that all by himself! It was incredible! He is the most prepared person i have ever met in my life! He knows these next two weeks will be tough and he said this last week was already tough but seems ready for the challenge. The best part about this story is that me and Elder Thomas had been praying to find the people who were ready to recieave the gospel and progress towards baptism. The people we have been teaching have benn preogressing but only to a certain point. And then this week, the Lord literally handed us someone who was ready for baptism! The last couple of weeks have been tough on us because the rest of the mission has been baptizing but not us. I especially felt bad but now we´re feeling a bit better! This truly was a testimony to me that the Lord answers our prayers!

That was the high light of our week by far but we also had Zone conferece. The day before, I went on a division with one of the Zone leaders so the other zone leader could come and mark our brazilain couple for baptism. He and Elder Thomas tried, twice, but it didnt work. On the other hand, me and the other Zone Leader marked one of their investigators for baptism. We marked her but she didn´t come to church yesterday so now she can´t be baptized on that day but it was still a good experience for me. That was as good as the division got. At the beginning of the division we had to ride a train to get to the ZL´s area so that took a while. Then we went back to the house and then went straight out to do street contacts for two hours. I HATE street contacts because i feel awkward and never know what to say. I ended up not talking to anyone because i was nervous. I was with a ZL and in a new area, and hadn´t done street contacts in a while so i was rusty. He noticed that i was nervous and afriad of being regected so he told me to contact 3 people at a bus stop a t the same time. I didn´t shy away for the challenge but was too excited about it. I tried...and failed misserably. One person was talking on the phone, the other two were didn´t believe in God and i couldn´t speak portuguese to save my life because i was so nervous. The ZL took over after that so i was even more imbarrassed. Then, after that, he told me to contact two teenage girls, who also truned out to be atheist. I agian, failed terribly and the ZL took over. That was pretty much the theme of the division. I felt so embarrassed the entire time but was glad when it was over. I apologized to the ZL for not helping very much but said that i did fine. Then the next day we had Zone Conference and i got to see Elder Wilson. We talked for a bit and had a good time. He´s loving being AP and is having a ton of success so i´m happy for him. Also, in Zone Conference, we found out we are teh highest baptizing mission in Europe! I also got my package and it was awesome! Everything is perfect!

. . .

contin...

sorry about that. I hit the wrong button.

I also read Mindy´s blog post adn it was great. I dont have time to comment on it but i will next week for sure!

The language is going good. President Torgan made a comment about it in the leadership meeting in zone conference in front of all the District leaders and Zone leaders in the Algarve(only like 5 people). The investigator yesterday also asked that i answer some of his questions during the lesson. Normally people ask my companions for answers, i think because they know the talk and understand better but yesterday the guy said,"Elder Haws, can you explain what...means?" It was awesome. I also found myself answering a good amount of his questions too. It was great!

Well i´m out of time so i got to go. Tell mom i got her email. The weather has been nice and sunny latly so spring is here for sure! I only have one request, and thats that you guys pray for our investigator who we marked yesterday. He said its going to be hard for but with all your guys´s prayers i´m sure he´ll make it. Thanks for everything! Eu amo vocês!

Élder Haws

Just one more Email.
I thought yu guys might like some more pictures too.
The one with the kids is a picute of a school yard with a bunch of chickens that live in the field next to it
I also thought that dad would enjoy the enuch sign.
Tchau!

weekend update‏

Hey Family,

Sounds like everybodies doing well back home and thats good to hear. Although i didn´t get an email from mom this week so i guess something must have happened with the computer or something so i´m not worried.

This week was pretty uneventful agian. It seemed long last last week but wasn´t too unbearable so i surrvived. We didn´t teach a whole lot of lessons but we found 9 new investigators so that was high point. We´ve been finding alot of new people to teach but its been tough to get back and teach them more than once. I dont know if people are avoiding us or what but getting follow up appointments with people has been difficult. We still haven´t baptized anyone but we haven´t given up hope just yet. We keep praying the Lord with lead us to someone who will keep our appointments and progress but as of right now we haven´t been seen the fruits of those prayers yet. We just have to have faith and the rest will come. The Lord always does his part.



I forgot to write in my last email about the new, strange food that i ate last week with some members from Romania. They´re recent converts so we like to go by and talk to them at least once a week. They´re great members but have the tendency to be a little intense about the gospel some times. We took the husband to a few lessons in the past and he likes to preach repentacne a little too much with a little too much "fire". But last week we went to their house sunday night to visit them because the husband had just gotten beack from a trip to Romania. They offered to fed us, and of course, we said yes. They didn´t fee us much but what the did feed us was food fresh out of Romania. The husband had brought back some of the food that they eat in Romania and the wife cooked it for us. When we walked in the kitchen i didn´t know what to expect. I wasn´t really sure what romanians eat so i was a bit worried. But, when all i saw was a few sausages on a plate i wasn´t so nervous. Then, as people always do, they told us about the strange food sitting in front of us. I thought it was a normal meat sausage like they have here in Portugal. But i was wrong. this sausage was special as it was made from pig organs. The husband started describing the food and as soon as he said "pig heart" and "blender" i flipped the little switch in my head that makes me understand portuguese to the off position. I just looked at him and nodded my head and planned on asking Elder Thomas for an explanation afterward. I was a bit afraid of eating it but it actually tasted pretty good. They then assured us afterward that everytime we eat there they will cook us romanian food so i may have more fun food stories to tell in the future

In other food news, this week we discovered something incredible in one of the supermarkets here. Its a food that i think should have been invented in Idaho because it comnines two different recipes for potatoes: French Fries and Mashed potatoes. It appears that some had the idea to combine the too and made something amazing. They´re little round balls that have the covering of french fries but when you bite into them, instead of a semi crispy center, you have a soft, baked potatoe filling. It may sound strange but it tastes like heaven!

We also descovered something else this week too, but it didn´t have a creamy, buttery
center. Last year the mission participated in a kind of documentary filme about the life of missionaries in Portugal. It was filmed by a non member but the guy was given permission to follow a few misisonaries around with a camera and film everything they do. He also interviewed the old mission president too. Then, this weekend they played it on the news all over Portugal so tons of people saw it. Almost all the member saw it but not all of them liked it. Some said it was weird and that they showed stuff that wasn´t necessary. But some really liked it. One of the members taped it and wants to show us but i´m not sure how that would go. It was done last year so i wouldn´t be in it but it would be enteresting to see what its like.



Well, i think thats about it for news. We have Zone Conference this week so i might have more fun and exciting things to say next week. I might even get my package too! Thanks for everything! Eu amo vocês!

Élder Haws

Just a few more pictures for you guys!

Tchau!

Sunday, March 7, 2010‏

Dear Family,

This week has almost been the longest week of my life! It almost seemed to drag buy but hopefully this week will get better.

This week started off pretty well. We taught lessons everyday but for some reason, time seemed to slow way down in the middle of the week. It wasn´t like things weren´t happening either. In fact, we found 8 new investigators but for some reason the week just felt kind of empty. I dont know if its because i´ve been in the area for so long or if its because we haven´t marked anyone for baptism in a while. I´m thinking it felt so long because we´ve been working with that brazilian couple for about 3 and a half months and they´re still not marked for baptism. They are so close to being baptized and yet they still dont accept the invite. They really have a strong desire to be baptized but they´re always wanting to know more, or they´re not sure about something. I love these two people to death and i want to see them baptized but its getting really frustrating right now. Every week the Assistents call us asking who will be baptized during the week and we always say that this couple will be, but now i dont know if they will ever be baptized. Who knows. I think i just need to have more faith. In other news, we´re helping an old man stop smoking and as of right now, he hasn´t smoked in almost a week! He´s also reading from the Book of Mormon almost every day and we´ve really seen a change in him. Its amazing the affect the gosple can have on somebody. When we met this man he was kind of uninterested and almost grumpy when we would teach him. And now, he smiles alot more and seems alot happier than he was. Its really strengthened my testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon. He still doesn´t want to be baptized but we´ll just have to wait and see what happens.

In other transfer news, Elder Wilson became the new Assistant to the president this transfer. Its really funny because he´s always been known as a "climber" or someone who wants more leadership. Me and Elder Thomas are extatic because Elder Wilson can be kind of an air head some times so we´re excited to see what happens. I love Elder Wilson to death so i´m praying for him to do a good job.

This week me and Elder Thomas are planning on starting a diet because we both haven´t been eating very healthy throughout this last transfer. I´m not sure how long this diet thing will last but we´ll see how it goes.

I thought the box that mom was sending WAS my b-day box so now i´m a bit confused. Syrup would be great to send in the next box because they dont sell that here and some kind of mix would be good too. P.S. my favorite kind of cake is Better than basketball cake but i dont think they make mixes for that. A watch would also be good too. Mine broke my first week in the country. I could buy one from a chinese store here but i´m afraid it wouldn´t last too long. Things from chinese stores have a tendency to break rather quickly.

I´ve also tried to attach some photos of our area. I also included a few before an after pictures of our kitchen. I hope you guys enjoy. This new email makes it easier to send photos so i´ll be sending more in the coming weeks. At first i had trouble getting in to this new account but now i´´ve gotten everything worked out so life´s good.

Well, think think thats about it for news here. Thanks for all the love and support and especially the emails! Eu amo vôces!

Élder Haws

Just in case‏

Hey Family,

Sounds like everybody is doing fine back there in the US. We´re not doing too bad ourselves here but we are coming off a tough week.

This week we decided that we were going to drop all of our invetigators that weren´t progressing and spen our time looking for new people to teach. I´m not a big fan of "procura" so i wasn´t too excited but things turned out ok. In the first three days of the week we found 7 new people which isn´t too bad. We´ve already gone back to talk to a few of them but the others are proving more difficult to meet with. After those first couple of days though, it kind of slowed down. We had interviews on Saturday so that took that entire day from us so the rest of the week was really slow.

On thursday though, we got to go the same enlgish speaking member family´s house to eat again. So in other words, we got to go to AMERICA again! They made us mashed potatoes and meat loaf...MASHED POTATOES! When they broughtthe potatoes out i could have cryed! We also had a kind of green bean casorole, which i ate two helpings of! Over all, our night in America was amazing. We also had a funny experience on the way there. So, in order to get to this members house we normally have to get on a boring train and ride for 20 minutes before arriving in their city. This week, the train ride was a bit more interesting. In the train station we ran into to a man who just happened to be a preacher from a pentacostal church. At first we thought he was just another crazy evangelical preacher guy so we quickly got away from him. But that wasn´t the end. He decided to sit by us on the 20 mintue train ride to the other city and made a scene on the way. When he sat down he asked what church we were from and then stated that he was, "a reserve preacher for the church, God is Love." Then, when the guy who checks peoples tickets came around, the guy went crazy. At first, the guy checking tickets asked if we were all from the same church and we assured him that we weren´t. Then, out of nowhere, this crazy "reserve" preacher reads the guy John 3:16 and then states that he (the "reserve" preacher) is a prophet. He then began to prophesy that the other man would one day preach the gospel and then precided to prophecy about everyone else on the train. Afterward,while everyone one on the train was laughing to themselves, he started singing some freaky christian song at the top of his lungs. It was the longest train ride of my life, at the time, but looking back on it it actually made the time pass a lot faster. It also makes for a great story too.

There were also a few people that commented on my speaking ability this week too. This week we were teaching a brazilian family and the mom made a cmomment and said that i spoke really well. I didn´t think much of it because everybody says that to the missionaries but then, at interviews this week, President Torgan commented on my language. He said, "Elder Haws, tua português já melhorou muito. Já tas a compreender tudo e tas a falar muitomais. Já melhorou muito mesmo"(not exact quote). basically he said i´ve gotten alot better with the language so i´m not sure if that means i spoke really bad in the past and now i speak ok, or if it means something else.

Interviews thios week were good too. Transfers are this week, so we all found out where we are going in our interviews. We when got there, we all sat down int he chapel with President Torgan and waited for the other missionaries to show up. It was kind of quiet when all of the sudden, President Torgan starts telling everyone where they are going. Me and Elder Thomas are staying together and so are the Zone Leaders so our district was untouched. The other two got hit though and one of them is getting "whitewashed". I was kind of sad that i´m staying because i was hoping for a new area but this i´m still kind of happy.

We also tried to mark our Brazilian couple agian but it didnt work. We even gave them the lesson president Torgan said to give them and it didn´t work. It was a really powerfull lesson and the funny thing was, i was really the one doing all the talking and not my companion. It was really funny because i´ve never talked that much in a lesson in my mission so it was interesting. At times i would be talking and i would think to myself, "I cant believe i´msaying this, this is so not me!" It really felt good to do alot of the talking and Elder Thomas said it was a really good lesson. We were both kind of frustrated but we´re getting over it. Then, yesterday in church the Youngmen´s president was gone so we had to teach the two deacons in the branch. They gave us the manual and again, i took over. I felt bad afterward for not letting Elder Thomas speak more but he said the lesson was good and that he didn´t mind at all. The deacons said it was a good lesson too so i guess i did alright.

Other than that, not much is happening. As for the box i cant really think if anything. But for future boxes, it would be awesome if you guys could send Mormon tabernacle choir CDs or EFY or Kory Kunz CDs because life´s tough with music.

Well, lifes good here in Portugal and I´m starting to realize i´m a missionary. Up to this point it hadn´t really hit me, but slowly, ever so slowly its been dawning on me. Well, i had better get going. I love you guys!

Élder Haws