The White Shirts‏

Hey Family,

This was one crazy week, so i´m really glad its over.

We spent Tuesday night through thurdsay morning in Setúbal for Zone conference, so that took a big chunk out of our week. But we got Elder Miller sent off Tuesday afternoon so that was a big help too. BUt while we were there in Setúbal, we had some down time so i got to surprise the family that surprised me in Vasco. It was way funny because when the lady opened the door and started to freak out a little. My companion is still pretty new and had littlt idea what was going on so it was pretty fun to watch his expressions. I only talked to the wife because the husband was at some church leadership meeting, but they told me to come by the next day to eat dinner with them like "old times". It would have worked because we missed our bus back to Évora so we had to stay in Setúbal but the zone leaders needed our help so i couldnt go. Bu while i was there in Setúbal i got sick, so when we finally got back to Évora i spent the first couple hours sleeping to try and recover. But after that the work picked up a little bit so the week ended well.

In Church yesterday i had to give a talk, play the piano, and teach in Priesthood quorum. The only thing that went well was the lesson in Priesthood, which i got alot of compliments for. The spirit was really strong, which helped quite a bit, so i cant take any credit.

We also talked to the guy that came to church last week and loved the reading that we left with him. He read the chapter 4 times(3 nephi 11) and loved the verses about baptism! how weird is that. So we committed him to baptism when he knows the Book of Mormon is true so he´s our ray of hope right now.

But in other news, i keep forgetting to tell you guys the funny story that happened a few weeks ago in Vasco during Carnival. On that P-day, me and Elder Thredgold were walking home from buying food for the week at 8:30 when we had an interesting experience. Normally we dont go shopping that late at night but we didnt have any food and we had spent the day in Setúbal with the other elders. But on the way home we ran into a group of kids wearing masks and holding sticks that were walking in our direction. IN that moment i remembered the traing that President Torgan gave in our last zone conference talking about how two missionaries had been robbed because they hadn´t returned to their area on time after P-day(which was our case at that moment). So we tried to avoid the group as best we could by staying on the side walk, which put a parked car between them and us. But unfortunately, one kid stayed on the side walk to stop us. We didnt make a scene so we just kept walking until they called after us to stop. So we turned around and started talking to them. The head punk walked up and said, "Give me a card". So i, being the missionary i am, handed him a pass along card. He looked at it, then at his group in a puzzled way, then turned back to us and asked us what it was, while waving it in his face. We explained that it was a card for a free movie about Christ that we were offering and gave a card to one of his friends. They started looking at the card, and then one of them said that his mom would probably want one. They talked a little bit more and then said they´d call us tomorrow and then left. We didnt think much of that conversation until the next day when we had district meeting. We told the other elders that we thought they were going to rob us, as kind of a joke before the meeting started but our District leader, who´s a native of Portugal, wasnt laughing. I asked him what he was thinking when he said, "Elder, they probably weren´t asking for just a card, but your guys´ credit cards". At that moment i was grateful that the Lord blessed us with protection even though we weren't in the right place. But at the same time i thought it was funny that some kids got deterred by a pass along card. I still dont know if they were actually going to rob us, but either way it makes for a good story.

But in some other funny news, we´ve run onto a few American Tourists here in Évora. The other day we ran into a guy from Salmon who was on a trip with some people. He was member and told us it "its good to see the white shirts". We talked to him for a bit, but then he went back to his group. Then, during our first week here, we were walking near the big palace of Évora when some tourist looking people started staring at us. As one of the Ladies saw my name tag, she half asked, half exclaimed(in English),"ARE YOU MORMON MISSIONARIES?" we had to try hard not to laugh but luckily one of her friends told her, "they´re everywhere". It was funny to see Americans in Portugal, but even funnier to see them surprised that WE were here.

Well, i had better get going. Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor

Élder Haws

P.S. Fubeca is a Brazilian word, so Mikey can explain it better than I.