Sunday, August 8, 2010

Hey Family,

We made it through our week of interviews here in Satarém which means that next week is transfers. It was a pretty good week but it still left a lot of room for improvement.

The week started shaky because some of the missionaries in our zone had to go to Lisbon to renew their visas. They had to stay over night in the office because it wasn´t going to take two days, which meant we had to do some divisions to make sure no one got left alone. Being the Lucky missionary that i am, i got to go on another division with one of the zone leaders because Elder Bradshaw had to renew his visa. I wasn´t too excited about the division because i knew the Zone Leader was going to try to show us all the things we do wrong and try and fix all the problems in our area. That wouldn´t have been a completely bad thing, but you´ll understand why i say that in a minute.

When the division started, so did the critic. We didnt have anything planned for that day so we spent most of the day walking around and contacting people in the street. First of all, i dont like doing street contacts, but what made it worse was that walking around so much gave Elder Fernandes (ZL) more time to tell what i have been doing wrong. I know he meant well, and that he was trying to help, but i felt that maybe he could have gone about helping me in a different way. But thankfully i was pretty patient and made it through the rest of the day without trying to kill him. But unfortunately, that patience didnt last over the next 24 hours. The next morning, during companionship study, he had me teach a practice lesson to him so he could help me improve. I taught an OK lesson that lasted about 15 to 20 minutes, then he gave me a 15 to 20 minute critic. At first, i handled it pretty well, but when the 10 minute mark came around i started getting a little frustrated and by the end, i was definitely not happy. He could tell that i was a little upset, so he asked me if i was ok. Bad idea. To make a long story short, we got in an argument that ended up effecting about half of our day. But by the time we came home that night i had cooled of enough to talk to him about it and now everything is ok.

I think that living with the Zone Leaders is starting to take a tole on me so now i´m hoping for a quick transfer. But if that doesnt happen, i´ll find some way to survive.

This week we also had interviews that went really well. Mine was short as always but was still really good. He told me somethings i need to improve and gave me some suggestions on how improve our area. He also said there are some other things that i can do on my mission but said that before that, i have to improve myself a little more. I dont know what "other things" are but if it has to do with leadership of white washing, i´ll tell him i´m fine where i´m at.

Anyway, tell Jenny that i got her email this week but that last week i didnt get one. I´m not sure if thats what she was asking in her email or not though. Also, tell Mom congratulations on her surviving girls camp. She probably did so well that she´ll probably be put in charge of the whole thing next year.

In food news, you may now add the following to the list of foods i eat, all thanks to a salad we made this week:

Tomatoes
Bell Peppers
Onions and
Cucumber

In unrelated news, this week is Elder Wilson´s last week as a missionary. I had the chance to talk to him 2 weeks ago when Elder Teixeira was here. We took some pictures and told stories for a while and it was fun, but i didnt realize at the time that that may be that last time i see Elder Wilson in a long time. It was kind of weird thinking about it.

Well, i think thats it for news this week. Thanks for all the emails and prayers. Next week i´ll probably tell you guys what is happening wiht transfers. Até Já! Eu amo vocês!

Élder Haws