Happy Birthday to Me‏

Hey Family,

Its transfer week which means that i still have 6 more weeks to be a missionary so do get trunkey...at least not too much.

I found out last night that i´m staying here in Évora to end my mission, but i´m getting a new companion. Elder Fillerup is going to Lisbon to serve with an elder i came into the misison with, while i´m getting his companion, Elder Smith. I´m really excited because he only has about a year in the mission buit he speaks really well. I´ve served with really young guys for so long i dont know how i´m going to handle this next transfer. But i´m excited to see what happens.

This week to be very honest, was a very hard week for me and Elder Fillerup. On Tuesday we went to Beja, another city in the Alentejo to have a district meeting with some other duplas. I saw district meeting because i had the vane hope that we would actually have one, but as i figured, the missionary whos going home today just wanted to go around the city and talk to people. He served there about a year ago and wanted to say goodbye to some people so we ended up just following him around. I kind of figured something like that would happen, but we went anyway and we regreted it the whole week. Thats the first step of repentance so i guess we´re are making progress in the right direction.

The week was also really tough because José dropped off the face of the earth. We had talked to him a few times on the phone, and he was sounding great. He was doing amazingly well with the plan we made with him to stop smoking and he seemed happy. But later in the week we dropped some stuff off at his house for him to read. We had to do that because we cant talk to him during the week because of his work schedule. But we wanted to get him the baptismal interview questions so we could baptize him this week. But after dropping the stuff off with lady who owns the house, he just dissappeared. We kept calling him and he never answered, and then he didnt come to church. So we dont know what has happened to him. Hopefully we can find him and get him back to church. So please pray for us!

But in happier news, my Birthday was great. The members here LOVE the Elders because most of them are old and either dont have children, or their kids live far away, so instead of spoiling them, they spoil us! So everytime an elder has a birthday here in this area the lady´s in the branch all make cakes and bring them to church so they can celebrate. So this week the members made 3 or 4 cakes for us. After church yesterday they sang to me twice, once in the chapel, then a member family sang to me later at our lunch appointment. I think i gained 10 pounds from all the cake, but i´m not complaining. Then after church, we went to the branch president´s house to eat lunch like we always do. Since it was Easter, or Pascoa in Portuguese, they made us a special Portuguese lunch that you only find in the Alentejo. The whole meal was made from a lamb that the branch president bought from an inactive member last week. The member cut it up for our branch president, then they stuck in our freezer for a week. The meal was amazing, which made me glad that i was here in Évora for Easter. Then they brought out a big cake and sang happy birthday to me for the second time. It was a great day for food, which just happened to be on my Birthday, which made it even better. Happy Birthday to me!

I´m glad to know that Bubba made here safely. I was also very impressed that mom got the pictures to send in the email. Way to go Mom!

Oh, and before i forget, the members here want to do an activity about the pioneers and they want to knwo what kind of music, games and dances they had. I would tell them about the stuff they told on the Martin Handcart treke but that was a long time ago. So if you guys could hepl me out that would be great thanks!

Well, i think thats about it for this week. Thanks for all the love and prayers! And thanks MIndy for the email! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

One More Knife Story‏

Hey Family,

We made it through our week, but unfortunatly there was no baptism. We had moments that gave us alot of hope, but in the end it just didnt work out. But we´ve mostly recovered from it so we´ll be alright.

The week itself was pretty exciting because we weren´t in our area for the first part of the week. On Tuesday we had to go to Santo André, another area in the Alentejo, so that i could do a baptismal interview for the other Elders in our district. The Bus ride took over three hours, which didnt make sense because the distance covered didnt merit the amount of time it took to get there. But we made it and the intervoew was one of the best I´ve ever done(i´ve only done two :) ). Then Me and Elder FIllerup stayed the night there and had to head to Lisbon the next day for a Leadership meeting. They called us Monday night, right after we had made plans to go to Santo André for two days, to tell us about the meeting two days later. It was a bit of a surprise but it wouldnt be a mission without surprises. But because we had to go all the way to Lisbon, we had to get up early than normal and catch a bus to get there before the meeting started. We were making good time and were going to make it there right after the meeting started when we hit a traffic jam that reminded me of all the trips to Utah we used to make. The only thing that was missing was Dad´s cussing but i was pretty close to blurting out a few questionable words myself. But we made it and the meeting went well. I got to see alot of my old companions there, including the two Elders i greenie broke(Elders Dalton and Christiansen). It was a lot of fun to see all my friends from the mission, but it didnt last long because me and Fillerup had to head back to Évora.

After that, the week ran pretty slowly. we couldnt have lessons with José because he works everyday until late at night. So we would call him check up on how his goal of stopping smoking was going. He did good the first day because he only smoked 3. But then a few days later he smoked 10. We got worried at that point but the next day he said he only smoked 1, and that was Thursday, so we got really excited because that meant there was a good chance that he´d get baptized on Sunday. I was still a little worried because we still hadn´t taught him everything and hadnt even reviewed the baptismal questions, but i tried not to wrooy too much about that stuff. Then, Saturday night we tried to call him twice but he didnt pick up, so we just decided we talk to him the niext day at church. Unfortunatly, he didnt show up, and when we called after the first hour of church, he said he went out of town to visit his mom and wouldnt be back until Monday. So jyust like thatour baptism fell through. I had been really worried about it so i felt a little relieved, but now i´m worried because we have to go through the whole process again, and we dont know the situation with his smoking habits. So this week is going to be an adventure, but we´ll work hard and see what happens. Thanks again for all your prayers on our behalf. I know Heavenly Father heard and answered them. We justed didnt have enough faith, so we´ll repent and do better next time.

In other news, I got my Birthday Box while i was in Lisbon and i couldn´t wait so opened it and started eating the candy. I also baked the cake so i could take it to the baptism, but since it fell through me and Elder Fillerup have just been eating it. So thanks for the candy and cake, they were great!

I cant believe Bubba is finally coming! It would be great if he came on my Birthday, but then again i´m not sure i want to share that special day with anyone. Even if he is a Haws :).

Oh, I almost forgot. We had a Representative from the Stake come to church Yesterday which was fun, because our SUPER apostate member was at his best. First he gave his talk in Church and preached weird/retarded doctrine from the pulpit, which the branch president had to fix in his talk. Then, while the Stake guy was teaching in Preisthood meeting, the crazy guy´s breifcase popped up and a huge knife fell out on the floor. Everyone just started laughing instead of freaking out( which i thought was a little strange). I know Mindy would have passed out as soon and they said "faca" but luckly no one freaked out. They just made fun of the guy for being crazy. So we were kind of glad we had no invetigators in church because they probably would have thought we were all crazy.

Oh, and tell Liz that when i get home you´ll have to start praying for Mikey to find a wife! Love ya bro!

Well, i better get going. Thanks for all the Love and prayers! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Baptism? What?

Hey Family,

We just came off one of the most successful weeks we´ve had here in Évora, even though we spent a lot more time than we wanted in the house. Not only did Elder Fillerup´s feet and hands blow up in blisters, but i also got sick again and was out for a day. But with all that, we taught more lessons than we´ve ever taught and even marker someone for baptism for this Sunday so we cant complain.

So i guess the most important thing that happened this week was marking our investigator, José, for baptism. We only get to talk to him once a week on Sunday´s after church so because of that, we´ve only taught him a few times. But a few weeks ago we made a goal of baptizing him on the 17th of April. We made that goal after we found out that he loved the scriptures that talked about baptism that we left with him from the Book of Mormon. But we had planned on marking him last week, but we went to Lisbon and couldnt, which meant that we were going to have to teach him all the commandments(because we hadnt taught him about them yet) and mark him for the next weekend. Normally i hate doing that because poeple dont normally go along with it when i bring it up, plus its kind of an "ify" process. But when we talked to him last night, the spirit was there and he accepted our invite. We then had to teach him all of the commandments because we can only talk to him for a short period on Saturday before the baptism on Sunday. He seemed to accept everything pretty well, accept for tithing but when the Zone Leaders come and interview him, they´ll help us out. He also has to stop smoking so this week is going to be a battle to get him in the water. But we feel pretty good about it so we´ll see how it goes. But we´re going to need your guys´prayers too because some members here are kind of agianst "Growth" right now because so many members have been driven away. But i´m praying that all goes well, so please pray too!

But in equally great news, the other Dupla in our district marked one of their investigators for baptism yesterday too, and for the same day. So i have to go over there tomorrow and interview their investigator because i´m the only District leader in Alentejo that i know of. Its really funny that our two areas are going to baptize on the same weekend because our two areas are known for being two of the worst areas for baptisms in the mission. And to add to that, Fubecas have been serving in these areas for over 6 months so its a real blessing that the Lord is letting us baptize here.

And i know by now mom is dying to know about my sickness, so i better explain that before she gibbs smacks me all the way from Idaho. So recently i´ve been having problems with my allergies, but i didnt think much of it because thats normal for me. And i when i got sick the other week i just thought it was a bout time i caught something because i had only gotten sick once on my misison. But this week i got sick again, so decided to figure out what it was. I didnt want to got to the Hospital because it wasnt that bad, plus Protuguese doctors scare me. so i found this book in our house that talks about common illnesses, their symtoms, and treatments. After some searching, i figured i had the flu or a cold, but then realized i had almost all the symptoms of Hay Fever, which is caused by what else...Alerigies. That was on Thursday, so we spent the rest of the week taking it a bit easier. Elder Fillerup´s feet were really bad too and he also had blisters on his hands from the crutches that he´s been using to walk so we were a bit limited in the health department. But somehow(i´m not sure how) we taught more lessons in this area than we ever have.

In terms of weather, its hot and will only get hotter. It was in the 80s yesterday and they say this summer its going to get up to 113. But hopefully, i´ll freezing my butt off in Idaho when that gets here.

And just to tease MIkey "a little" more. Tell him to read 1 Nephi 3:7. I´m sure he read a billion times with his investigators on his mission. Also tell him not to kill me when i get home. I´m kidding!

Tell Jenny her kids look great, but completly different than how they looked two years ago. And i dont buy all this stuff about Milo being "sweet". He still looks like he´d got some "terror" left in him.

Well, i think thats it for news for this week. We´re going to need your guys´s prayers this week so dont forget about us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Forever Young‏

Hey Family,

We had a crazy general conference weekend, which we just returned from, but we survived and had a great time doing it.

So the first thing you guys need to know is that my companion, Elder Fillerup, is a leper. No, not a real "leper", but he has some skin problems that make it hard for him to work some times. But to explain the situation in a nut shell, he has very sensitive skin that has a tendency to create blisters very, VERY easily. So you can imagine that walking around all day in the hot sun would create large blisters on anyones feet(dont worry mom, mine are fine), but just imagine the blisters on my Companions feet. I even thought about sending some pictures home, but i didnt want anybody to pass out. So thats the situation wh were in. We´ve been trying to work really hard, but part way through last week Elder Fillerup´s feet were looking and feeling, "quite afflicted". But a few weeks ago he bought crutches so that he could give his feet a break, but then he got big blisters on his hands. We told the members what was going on, because they wanted to know why he was on crutches. After explaining the situation, they told us to go home and let him rest. I wasn´t big on the idea, but i realized its better to keep my companion alive, than kill him while trying to save the area. That was Thursday, which meant that our next few days were going to take a hit. We stayed in the house a bit to give Elder Fillerup a break, but i just kept feeling like i was supposed to be out in the street. It killed me at times, but i just had to keep telling myself that i had pushed him really hard over the past few days, maybe a little too hard, and that he really needed a break.

So thats the first part of the story. But before this last week, we had Zone Conference, where Elder Fillerup had the chance to talk to Irmã Torgan about his feet. she said that the mission Doctor was coming to Portugal for a short time and that he would be able to take a look at it to see if he could do anything. So this week, when i called President Torgan to ask where me and Elder Fillerup were supposed to go to see conference, because cant transmit it to Évora, he told us to go to Lisbon on Saturday so that we could watch conference in the office on Sunday, then talk to the Doctor on Monday. That kind of killed our weekend but we were glad that we were able to see conference and to spend time with the other elders. Before heading up, we worked here for a bit and then went and bought a bunch of candy to eat during the conference, then later headed up to Lisbon after watching the first session of conference. So this weekend we stayed with the Office Sectaries, which was a lot of fun because i was in the MTC with 2 of them, was the first district leader of the youngest of them, and shared an area with the other. we had a ton of fun talking, telling mission stories, and watching conference. Alot of other missionaries i knew showed up too so we had a pretty big conference party going on. Our candy was also a huge hit with all the elders(and Irmãs) so we were pretty popular. We got to see almost all of conference, except i think i missed Elder Hales´ talk. Other than that we saw pretty much everything. And on Sunday we went and ate at a senior couple Missionaries house for lunch and it felt like we were back in America. It was awesome!

But the whole time we were there, it seemed like the younger Office secretaries were determined to make us older guys trunky. As a matter of fact, right before i got there they had printed off the picture of my MTC district and the elders that came in with us at the mission home that first night in Portugal and had written at the top of the paper, "Forever Young". And as a funny coincidence, i heard that song twice of the weekend, so imagine that.

But this morning, when Elder Fillerup talked to the doctor, nothing really happened. They talked for about 15 miuntes but nothing was really decided. The Doctor hadnt really seen anything like it before, which Elder Fillerup was a bit surprised and upset about(mainly because he didnt so anything right then). But he said he was going to talk to the Skin doctor/professor at BYU and then let us know what will happen. I imagine this skin thing is really rare so i dont blame the doctor at all for not knowing exactly what to do. But i talked to President Torgan while he was getting checked up and told him about how we were working despite Elder Fillerup´s blisters. He was really proud of Elder Fillerup and said that he was an example to all the missionaries in the mission, but that he wasn´t sure how long a missionary can stay on the mission with a problem like that. But when we finisher up there we headed back to Évora and got back just a little bit ago.

It was a ton of fun being with the other elders, but it was also really trunky. I had to help out with some stuff and even had to go to the Airport this morning which was weird, because i still remember being terrified while getting off the plane. Then when i left, everyone told me the next time they would see me would be when we are going home, which was also really trunkey, but i got over it quick.

So all in all it was a really good week. I was surprised that the General Authorities were giving all the young guys "Faca" for not getting married. So tell MIkey I´ll be expecting a wedding invation in the mail here in the next few weeks.

Well, i better get going. Thanks for all the love and support! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws