"Little Wonders"

Hey Family,

We just finished a great week here in Tavira and things are still looking up. I thought i had spoken too soon about how things were improving so much here but this week was another testimony to me that the Lord answers prayers!

We started out the week like normal, which includes knocking doors and getting rejected repeatedly. But near the middle of the week things started turning around. On Thursday we went to Vila Real de Santo Antonio(place near Spain) to talk to some people, but as always, things didn´t go quite as planned. We found out when we got to the train station that we had left our ward list at the house but that wasn´t too big of a problem because Elder Torgersen knows where everybody lives there. The real problem was the recent converts that we taught that night. They are two young girls who were baptized by previous Elders a few months ago and have never come to church while i´ve been here. They always make excuses about why they dont come but i think that sometimes they just want to annoy us. Normally, from what Elder Torgersen says, they can be a handful because they are super dramatic and they only liked the Elder previous to me because he would put up with the things they do. I came to find that that statement was 100% true because i have never talked to anyway who frustrated me quite like them. Let me explain. When we got to their house we sat down in the alleyway outside their house and started to talk to them a little until one question we asked set them off. We hadn´t even said a prayer or anything but for some reason when we asked if they had been reading in the Book of Mormon they kind of freaked out. We had just asked about their reading as a way of keeping the conversation going but i turned out to something worse. They started throwing out excuses like it was going out of style while me and Elder Torgersen shot down every single one with a reference to the scriptures or from one of the apostles. We did it in the nicest way possible but they refused to acknowledge that they were capable of reading the scriptures everyday. But fortunately, after about 20 minutes, something positive happened. The ex-investigator sister of these girls walked up and asked if she could go back to going to church again. She had been an investigator last year but stopped going because she didnt want to obey some of the commandments or something. But when she told us she wanted to come back, Me and Elder Torgersen looked at each other in a confused manner. Then he quickly took out the phone while she was explaining how she had visited other churches but didnt feel good in those places so she wanted to come back. As i was listening to her story, Elder Torgersen showed me why he took out the phone, and asked me what i thought about the date on the phone calender he had picked out. I assumed he wanted to mark her for baptism, which i thought was a little hasty, but i gave him an "ok" shrug. I didnt think she´d go for it, but when Elder Torgersen invited her to make a goal for baptism with us she accepted. She still seemed a little unsure but after we explained that the date could be moved she felt a little better. So just like that, we had someone marked for baptism and she became our first "little Wonder" of the week. But the problem was the other two girls told us that they wanted to stop going to church all together. One of them said that she wanted God to answer one of her prayers and bless her family with a new house before she would come back to church and the other younger girl just seemed to follow the older one. We explained that that isn´t how things work but they wouldn't budge. So the lesson with them was bitter sweet but something good came from it so i´m happy. Although the girl we marked didnt come to church this week but i´m not too worried yet. It´ll be tough to get her baptized but we have faith that the Lord will help us. We´ll work more with them and get them to church but it´ll take some time.

This week we also marked with the mother of a recent convert from a neighboring branch to teach so that should be good. In the past the Elders had taught her in the other branch and at that time she wanted to be baptized, but couldn´t because of some work problems. But she recently moved to our area so we believe the Lord has blessed us with another "Little Wonder". So things are starting to look up here in Tavira and its really strenghtened my faith that the Lord answers prayers. From about the time i entered this area i´ve been praying that we could find the miracle or spark that this area needs and ever since i´ve started doing that, Heavenly Father has kept blessing us with small miracles that i have decided to call "Little Wonders" because i heard that song a few times last transfer from our "apostate" ipod. I remembered that song from Rob Thomas and at times it still gets stuck in my head so the name just stuck. So i´m going to keep praying that we can keep seeing "...these little wonders".

And speaking of music, we had a Zone meeting(not Zone conference) this week, which was great because i got the package and mail you guys sent me. It was also good because we learned new things but the mail was still the big highlight. First of all i have to say the airheads were a great choice, so THANKS. Also, Mindy´s blog posts made me laugh really hard out loud that earned me sudden, confused looks from my companion. Especially like the parable of the Sunbeams. Good work Mindy. I´ll add to my collection of things i show my companions. Mindy´s phone call posts are already gained favor among my companions so i imagine the new posts will catch on too. Also tell Mindy "thanks" and "you rock" because the CD she sent me is awesome. All the songs are great and she even sent one of my favorites "i never stand alone". But i have to say "one of the 99" is probably my favorite now. It gives me chills every time i listen to it. But the Josh Groban and Allen Jackson were a nice touch too. so you can tell Mindy she is currently in the lead as "most loved sibling". And speaking of music, tell Mindy to look up a band called the Alaskan shenanigans(bad spelling). They sing alot of missionary songs and in think the RMs in our family would enjoy them, especially the dear John one and the one about inactives. So look them up if you have time.

In other news, Moms stories of church in winters gave me an idea and now, i´m the wards new pianist. I mostly just play one handed, simplified hymns but it gets the job so i dont think anyone+s complained yet. The simplified hymn book you guys sent is kind of hard, but i found an easier one so now i´m slowly moving my way up. Hopefully by the end of my time here in Tavira i´ll be able to play a little out of Grandma´s book.

And in other church news, we had fewer people in church than i have every seen on my mission, which wasn´t good, especially because it was testimony meeting. We had a grand total of 8 people, and i was the last one to bare testimony so that was interesting. I was trying to wait a while before going up but the branch president gave me weird looks so i got up sooner that i wanted. We ended up getting out earlier than usual but nobody seemed to mind. I wonder why?

Also, i wanted to ask if you guys had any ideas of an activity we could do here in our branch. We´re planning an activity for next Thursday, but its hard to plan something thats fun for everybody when you have really old people and really young people. So if anyone has ideas, they´d be appreciated.

In unrelated yet important news to the Worrying Mother, I´ve felt a little sick this week, which wasn't good because i tried to fast. Obviously it was a good idea but we were fasting together as a mission for certain things so i didnt want to be left out. I survived but its taken its toll. But dont worry mom, because i´ve been eating eucalyptus/menthol cough drops all week which have helped and i´ve been sleeping through parts of of meals to try and rest up so i´m doing better. So mom, you can stop worrying now(although maybe thats not possible).

Well, i think thats it for news. I dont think i´ve forgotten anything. We´re still working hard but i think we could work a little bit harder at times but we´ll work on that. Keep praying for us. Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws.

P.S. GO COUGARS!