February 27: Why We´re Here

Hey Family,

Thanks for all the emails and info you sent. I´m not sure if i was supposed to get an email from Jenny this week because i didnt get one. Tell her i´ll pray this week that her email gets through because i really miss getting pictures of the nephews! But anyway, on to business...

This may have been one of the worst weeks i´ve had on my mission statistically, because our numbers were awful. But it made me feel better that we had two great excuses as to why we sucked so bad this week. The first reason is interviews. We got a call for the zone Leaders last Monday night saying that we were going to have interviews on Thursday, which meant that we would be in Setúbal all day. The second reason our numbers were bad was because we got a call on Friday from the other elders in our district saying that they needed us to bring the projector from our chapel to theirs. They were having a big activity with a bunch of investigators and members but had trouble getting a hold of a projector so they could show the movie they wanted. So we had to someone of the branch presidency to give us permission to take it to the other elders. They gave us permission but only on the condition that we had to bring it right back. So we had to stay for the entire activity and ended up getting home at 10:30. But according to President Torgan, "There are no pretty excuses, only repentance". So this week i´m determined to improve our numbers, but also the amount of time we dedicate to the work. Hopefully things turn out better.

But the work we DID do this week had good results. We only taught a few lessons but we got a chance to talk to that family and had a great lesson. We had planned on teaching the third lesson, about the gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes baptism. I had known we were going to have to teach this lesson since last week and i knew we had to invite them in some way to be baptized. I was really worried about how we were going to do it, but then i remembered something that a lot of Elders have used and also that is taught in Preach My Gospel. Its something i call "The Soft Invite" or in Portuguese, "O Convite Fofo" (that actually doesnt make much sense in Portuguese). It were we invite the investigators to be baptized when they receive a testimony of what we have taught. Its nothing new to missionary work, but i just barely discovered it and thought it would be good to use on this family. So going into that lesson i was extremely nervous, even to the point to where i prayed about half a dosent times asking for help and comfort. And not surprisingly, all those prayers were answered. When we went into the lesson i made sure to reexplain the Great Apostasy and the need for the restoration of the priesthood, because that always seems to be everyone´s doubt about our message. So after explaining that, i explained about Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. They accepted everything we said so at the end i left the invite with them to be baptized when they know these things are true. They all paused for a second...then said yes! I dont think i´ve ever felt so much relief from anxiety in my life than i did in that moment. And i know its not a sure thing, but at least now they know why we´re here. So now i´m praying everything works out with this family.

The day after that lesson, we had interviews with President Torgan. I didnt think my interview was going to be anything special, but this time it was. When he sat me down he started talking about how i was ending my mission and how he remembered me when i was a new missionary. I almost wanted to stop him because he was reminding me of how trunkey i COULD be, but i let him go. He then told me that i need to trust more in the Lord. But he didnt spend much time on what i needed to work on because he had some other things he wanted me to know. He said that he knows i´m a good missionary and that i deserve to see alot of baptisms and miracles from here until the end of my mission. He also explained to me that i´m serving where i am because i need to prepare my companion to be a leader. President Torgan said he needs to learn how to be a missionary and be a leader so the Lord put me with him so i could help him out. During the interview he almost started crying when he talked about my mission. He told me he really wanted me to finish my mission strong, with alot of baptisms and i think that one of the reasons he got all teary eyed is because he wants that to happen so bad. It was a great interview and it left me feeling great, but it was hard to keep those good feelings up after a tough week.

If i understand correctly, Mom is going to so some kind of rap this week. My only request is that a recording is made so that i can see it when i get home.

Well, I think thats it for news. Thanks for all the love and prayers! Eu amo vocês!

Com Amor,

Élder Haws

Finally! A Family!

Hey Family,

I happy to say that this week was a big improvement from last week. We still had a few trials that came up here and there but over all i´m actually really happy with the work we´ve done this week. Hopefully we can keep it up.

I guess the biggest new this week is that we found a new family to teach. In all we found 4 new investigators, which is a big improvement from 0. But out of all of them i think the family was the real high point of the week. We found them by knocking doors but that doesnt describe the whole story. IN my third or fourth week here in this area we started knocking in a area of the city where the Elders had previously knocked a few transfers back, hoping we would find somebody to teach, because at the time(and presently) our investigator count isnt very good. But we ended up knocking into Fernanda, a non practicing catholic who wanted nothing to do with us but said we could come by the house she was moving to to say a prayer with her family. I didnt think much of it at the time because she didnt seem interested at all. But at the end of the transfer we went by her new apartment and ended up talking with her husband, who seemed more interested than Fernanda. But even so, we still didnt make a big effort to go back. But this Wednesday night, all of our plans had fallen through, so we decided to head over to this family´s house to see if we could set up an appointment to go by another day. But this time, when we knocked on their door, Fernanda´s sister who has already had some contact with the church answered the door. She asked if they could start "the studying" immediately, as in the next day when the whole family would be home. I thought it was kind of strange that she asked us to come back, especially when her sister seemed uninterested, but when went back the next day despite my doubts. But to my surprise the family was there and they were ready to listen. We found out too that they have a mother and sister who are already members of the church and that they went to church a few times back in the 90´s. We ended up talking to them for quite some time then marked an appointment to come back to he next day to teach Vanda´s(Fernanda´s sister) daughter too. When we left their house i was already day dreaming about bringing this family to church and getting them baptized, but the second lesson we had with them humbled me a little bit. I say that because when we invited them to church they gave us the answer that i´ve heard many times on my mission..."We´ll go someday". But some other elders in this mission have come to a conclusion that i completely agree with. It is as follows...There are two things that NEVER happen:1)I will call you & 2) we´ll go to church next Sunday(or another day).

But fell that they also have put a little but more importance on us helping the daughter with her english homework than the gospel. But i´m sure that if we keep praying and stay positive everything will work out.

The other two people we found this week was a single mother with a lot of problems and a crazy guy. I´m more excited about the mother than the crazy dude because the crazy guy didnt really accept what we said and only seems to want to get food or other stuff form the church. He also wouldn´t let us prayer, but made me recite some weird prayer with him instead that kind of sounded like the Lord´s prayer. So i´m not too excited to go back to his house but we´ll see what happens.

I´m glad you guys liked the pictures i sent last week. I know it had been a while since i sent some but lately i´ve only served in areas with really slow computers so its been tough.

And i guess Jenny´s email didnt get through because i didnt get one from her this week. Its not a problem i´m just worried Jenny is going to bust her computer. Thats all.

In other news, the Transfer is half over now. Is kind of hard to believe that because this has been one of the slowest transfers i´ve had in a while. Time just seems to drag by but i guess thats good because it makes my mission seem longer. :)

Well, I cant think of anything else new to tell you guys this week. Thanks for everything! Keep praying for us!

Eu amo Vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Surprise!

Hey Family,

Thanks for all the updates on everybody this week. Its nice to know that everybody is doing fine. We´re doing alright here but we just came off a pretty tough week.All in all, things were pretty normal this week. We went about working like we normally do but this week President Torgan gave the mission a few challenges that took a tole on us.

It all started on Tuesday night when we got a phone call from the zone leaders telling us that President Torgan had prayed and felt that he should challenge every area in the mission to find 20 new investigators this week. That wasn´t all that unexpected because we get challenges like that all the time from PT(President Torgan). But later in the week he prayed again and felt that every area in the mission had someone they could baptize before the end of the week. So he then challenged everyone to not only find 20 investigators but also to baptize before Sunday night. The first invite i readily accepted, even though our average new investigator count per week is 2. But i felt that having a bigger vision would push us and help us to improve. The second invite was a bit harder to accept because we have no one that is progressing quickly, if at all, towards baptism. But we accepted the challenge and prayed to see who the Lord wanted us to baptize. Unfortunately, no one came to mind that met all the requirements for baptism so we did our best to work hard and hope the Lord would show us who he wanted us to baptize this week. But, when Sunday came around, nobody had been baptized and we had found 0 new investigators. I took it pretty well at first but after i talked to our District leader i got to feeling pretty down. But i´ve decided i cant focus on it too much. I just have to get back to work and do better this week.

But in happier news we have two investigators that "showed signs of life" this week. One is a teenage kid that said he felt good when he read in the Book of Mormon for the first time and the other is an evangelical guy who got really interested in what we had to say when we started talking about life after death. We didnt have a lot of time to talk to either of them because they were both kind of busy but this week will be able to check up on them a little better. We also didnt get a chance to talk to Ofélia this week but we should hopefully be able to talk to her this week.

I also got a surprise visit yesterday at church from some people i knew. Mario, the guy i almost baptized in Setúbal but got baptized right after i left, showed up at our chapel yesterday because he found out i was serving near by. He and his wife Sandra showed up out of now where because they wanted to surprise me. I couldnt believe it when i saw them there in the chapel but it was great seeing them. They told me they missed me and that they haven´t quite enjoyed the other Elders like they enjoyed me and Elder Dalton. They also made sure to tell the Branch President that i was a great Elder and told them how i helped Mario get baptized. I felt a little embarrassed but i felt good that i had made a difference in somebody´s life. They also gave us a box full of cakes and gave us a ride home from church, which gave us time to talk. They´re doing really well, and Elder Thredgold told me later that he was surprised they are new members because they seemed like they were already really strong. Mario is the Young Mens president and has been helping the Elders. Since i´ve been gone they´ve baptized a bunch of youth so i guess he´s been helping out a bit. But it was strange because when they dropped us off after church i felt great but later i started feeling pretty down because i was home sick for Setúbal and because our week didnt go very well. But seeing and talking to that family really made me feel great. Recently i had been doubting my success and worth as a missionary, but it seems that Heavenly Father knew exactly what to do answer my doubts. Its actually kind of funny because he did the same thing when was doubting myself in Tavira. During that time we had a district conference and i got to see the members i baptized there too. So i guess it seems Heaven Father had been looking out for me all along!

So i see Mike is wearing glasses again. Is that an attempt and being fashionable to get more girls or did just get bored with contacts?

Well, today is Valetine´s day, which means my comp might get depressed.They have decorations and advertisements up of couples so it might make him homesick for his girlfriend. I pray it doenst. So this could be a long day and a long week but i´ll survive.

Well, i think thats it for news this week. Thanks for all the prayers and love. Dont stop praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com Amor,

Élder Haws

Big Changes

Hey Family,

The first week February and of this transfer are gone but i shouldn´t say i´m counting. In fact, Elder Torgersen(my old companion) called me this morning and told me we only had 17 weeks left in the mission. It was a strange feeling i got when i heard it because i finally realized my mission is winding down. But those thought s and feelings will disappear quickly as soon as we get back to work here. So you guys dont have to worry about me being trunkey!

But more important news, this week went pretty well for us. It seemed to last for an eternity but thats normal for the first week of a new transfer. We weren´t able to talk to the investigators we wanted to meet with(Ana Paula and Tiago), but we marked an appointment with Tiago´s entire family for tonight. I´m a little nervous for the lesson because i´m still not a hundred percent sure what we are going to say to them and because this lesson could determine if we will be able to baptize Tiago in the near future. But i know the Lord will help us out.

We also had a really neat experience last night that lead to us finding a new investigator. Lately its been tough to find new people to teach so when it comes time to start knocking doors, its hard to stay pumped. But President Torgan has given the mission lots of ideas on finding new people that have helped alot of missionaries out. One of those ideas is to offer prayers on homes and families which has given me alot of success on my mission. So last night we were knocking doors and offering these prayers trying to find someone who would talk to us. No one was really interested in anything we had to say, which is normal, that was until we found Ofélia. We knocked on her door and for some reason she seemed different from the other people we had talked to up to that point. She stood and listened to my entire contact and invitation and didnt interrupt me once!(which happens alot) But she accepted the prayer and told us a little about herself. She said that she was having some problems in her life so in the prayer i tried to follow the spirit and pray for the things she needed most. Then as we ended the prayer, i looked up and she was crying. I´m guessing that the spirit touched her because when we gave her a pamphlet and asked to come back she didnt hesitate in saying yes. And though this may not seem like a huge miracle, to me it was the exact blessing that i needed at that moment. So guess you could call that one of my "Little Wonders".

I also forgot to tell you guys something that we heard in the Zone conference two weeks ago. With such big news wouldn't think i would forget but i did. But as on July 1, 2011 the Portugal Lisbon Mission and the Portugal Porto mission will be combined to form the Portugal Mission. The general authority that announced it was very excited for the change because he said that it means the work in Portugal is improving greatly. President Torgan will be the Mission President of the newly created misison but i wont be here to see. it. Unfortunately i go home 3 weeks before. But at least i can feel satisfied knowing that i helped at least in some small way.

I heard that Jenny had to have surgery? What happened and is she going to be alright? I figured something was up when i didnt get an email form her because she only doesn't write when something disastrous happens(like the breaking of a camera :) ).

Well, i think thats about it for news. Thanks for all the love and support! Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Hey Family,

We made it through the last week of the transfer without injury, well, almost, but i´ll explain that later. I know you´re waiting on transfer news so get that out of the way first.

Me and Elder Threadgold are staying for one more transfer together here in Vasco da Gama. I´m not too upset about it but i feel bad for Elder Thredgold because this will be his 4th transfer here, which is a long time in a slow moving area. I was also hoping for a change, not because i dont like Elder Thredgold but because i like changes. I was also hoping that he would leave because that would mean i would have a better chance of having one more area before the end of my mission, but this transfer kind of shot that hope in the foot. But we´ll survive this transfer and keep moving on.

Other than that there isn´t alot to report. We didnt get to talk to either of our two investigators so that made the week a little bit harder than usual. We also had another person who had a lot of potential ask us not to come back anymore so that was another tough shot to take. So it seemed like the entire week was full of disappointment after disappointment but we´re alive so i cant complain. We dont have any set plans for this week so it looks like its going to be filled with knocking doors and street contacts. But thats been the story of this entire transfer so we´re pretty used to it by now. I´m just hoping that we see some better results in these next couple of weeks.

But i guess i cant say the week was too uneventful because i had a pretty funny experience on Monday night. So last week we went with our branch president to do some visits to some inactive members, which i thought would be a great opportunity to get to know some more people here in the area. But when we got to the first persons house i was met with a surprise. The inactive member we were going to visit was a lady who had had serious problems with cancer and because of that, had had parts of her jaw and mouth taken out in surgery. After listening to our Branch President talk with this woman for a few minutes we found out that this woman had incredible faith in God despite her many trials and Health Problems. Me and Elder Thredgold didnt participate much in the conversation, partly because i was having a hard time understanding her because she has no teeth, but i felt really good as we got ready to leave her house. As we got up to leave we offered to give her a blessing of health, which she excepted,, but what happened after that was the interesting part. After having given her a blessing i made my way to the door but i as soon as i got to the door i heard her tell our branch president that she wanted to show him pictures from her surgery. Struck with curiosity, Elder Thredgold and the Branch President stopped to look at the photos she had on her phone. I of course, thinking that there would be blood and other images that would send any Haws to the ground, stood behind Elder Thredgold so that i wouldn´t be able to see the pictures. But unfortunately, that didnt keep me from feeling weezy because just my imagination was doing the trick. But thankfully i was able to bare the dizziness until we all got to the door way. But that time i thought i was going really well, then all of a sudden i was on the ground with my eyes closed and the branch president was telling everyone i was ok. What i found out later is that i had fainted and fallen backwards as little member lady screamed. Luckily i fell on the Branch President how caught me before i hit the ground. I quickly realized that i had passed out and for some reason, in that moment, i thought it was hilarious. I´m sure everyone thought i was crazy because while the Branch President and member were freaking out, i was smiling and telling them i was fine. They had me stand up quickly and drink some water with sugar in it to see if that would help, but it didnt, and i soon found myself on the ground again unconscious. This time Elder Thredgold caught me and let me down nice and slow and as soon as i came to they had me lay down on the couch until i felt better. Needless to say our visit became a lot longer than expected and kept us from visiting the other member that we had lanned to visit. So just like that i left my mark on this area and made sure that that inactive member will never forget the missionaires.

Well, i think thats it for this week. Thanks for all the prayers and love. Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

No Pressure

Hey Family,

We just made it through week five here in Vasco which means that this is the last week of this transfer. The week went pretty well although nothing all that interesting happened but i wont complain.

We started off the week as normal, by going to district meeting on Tuesday and then heading back to work right after that. We had to ride on a bus for 45 minutes to get to the meeting, which takes alot of time out of our day, but in Portimão we had to take an hour and a half train ride so i´ll take what i can get. The meeting was pretty interesting, mainly because our district leader is really "Intense" and also because the Zone leaders showed up unannounced. The meeting was a little unorganized but we got to hear some great experiences the other Elders had in their areas over the past week. It was also great listening to over District Leader tell stories about how he resolved some of his investigators doubts. Like i said hes very "intense" and has no fear of saying or doing anything. Even the Zone leaders were impressed with how he worked. It was a great example to me because i know i need to be more like that.

But after the meeting on Tuesday, the rest of the week went by like normal. We tried to talk to Tiago but he was never home, even after we set up 2 or 3 appointments with his mom. Then on Saturday he mom told us he was going to be out of town until Wednesday so that put a kink in our plans for last week. Then, the other lady that we are teaching, Ana Paula, was out of town as well on the one we can talk to her. We had planned on Marking her because the last time we talked to her she was talking and asking questions about baptism. Shes the best friend of a member and has been taught by the elders for 4 months but has yet to go to sacrament meeting. Shes using the excuse that her husband is super atheist(I hear that alot) and always has plans on Sundays for them to be with friends. But that doesnt make sense because shes already been to Stake Conference and General Conference, both of which take more travel time. And this week our member that we teach her with is out of town so we cant talk to her(because we have to teach her in the members house). So we already have run into some road blocks this week but i´m not too worried. I´m sure that things are going to work out for us.

I´ve seen alot of changes in myself over these past few weeks. I´ve made a lot of little changes in the way i work and i think that they´ll bring some better results. For example, the Mission, and the church, have set a new standard in teaching that states that we should be inviting people to be baptized in the first lesson that we have with them. The mission has been pushing this for a while now but i´ve been slow to adapt. But this week i made plans to do this more and i actually did it once this week. The person didnt accept, but it helped us find out what their doubts were so now we can solve them.

In more random news, we were visiting a less active member last night who as health problems when i discovered something about my own health. This member has to take his own blood pressure multiple times a day because has heart problems so he has his own blood pressure,watch thing. As kind of a joke he put it on us to see how healthy we were and it turns out that my blood pressure is excellent. So i guess the stress of the mission hasn´t worn on me too much!

I also need to tell you guys that i need to pull out 40 euros for this week, but i promise that this will be the last time i pull out money. I´ve already made plans to not use any more money from my personal account so you can rest at ease. I´m sorry if this causes any problems.

Next week is transfers so i´ll probably be able to tell you guys whats happening when i email next Monday.

And be sure to tell Dad thanks for All-star email. It just may be the best email i´ve ever gotten. So thanks a ton Dad, you´re awesome!

Well, i think thats it for news. Sorry i dont have more to say but thats life here in Vasco da Gama. Thanks for all the love and prayers. Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Empty Handed

Hey Family,

I´m glad the packages finally got home. That´s a big worry off my mind, and now that that problem had been solved, i have more room in my prayers for other things.

This week was a week that was full of "learning". I say that because i´ve been reading through a lot of liahonas and they all say that we learn because of the trials we have. So i spent alot of time "learning" this week.

It started out with me and Elder Thredgold having two full days taken out of week because he had to go to Lisbon to renew his visa. Then after that, we spent most of the week worrying about the baptism that we were supposed to have. We got back to our area Tuesday night form our divisions with the other elders with just enough time to make one visit to our investigators house. We had preplanned to go there with a member so that he could "smooz" the parents by talking about the young mens program but unfortunately, the parents weren´t home.The Mom was there when we showed up, but almost as if it was on cue, she left the house a seond later before we could sit her down and talk to her. But we ended up getting to talk to our investigator, Tiago(age 13), and his older brother, Claudio(age 15, i think). It was a good lesson but we didnt get what we wanted from it, which was the parents permission to baptize Tiago. We got to teach his brother which was nice, but we had to wait to tak to the parents.

Well, we ended up leaving there soon after the mom got home, but unfortunately she was having a lot of stomach pains and was only coming home so she could have her husband take her to the hospital when he got home. Needless to say, she look like she wanted to talk to us. So we went back a few days later to set everything up for the baptism but again, the parents weren´t home. So we ended up helping Tiago with his English homework and then left, yet again, empty handed. But we went back the next day which was Saturday, the day before the baptism, with our district leader to have the baptismal interview. But yet again, the family wasnt home so we ended up talking to Tiago in the street for half an hour before our district leader decided he couldn´t wait any longer to do the interview. So, he and his companion left with out doing the interview, which meant that we would have to do the interview the next day at church with our branch president while at the same time getting permission from Tiago´s ex-Jehovah´s witness dad all on the same day as the baptism. Fun.

SO the next day we went to Tiago´s house to get him to go to church but instead, we found his dad. We talked to his dad for about 10 minutes before it was clear that he thought baptism wasn't a good idea. We had at first thought that he wouldn´t mind because he was always very nice to us and never had a problem with us coming by. On this occation he was nice to us but stated his opinion that Tiago wasnt ready for baptism. He also seemed surprised that we were going to baptize him because Tiago had said nothing of the matter to him, even though we had be telling him to talk to his dad for 2 weeks. So we ended up leaving that house for 4th time in one week, empty handed. I was pretty bumbed because Tiago was our one real shot at baptizing this transfer, but now that star seems quite a bit dimmer. But were´re going to try and work with the family this week to see if we cant get something to happen. But the whole experience this week was strange to me. It just didnt feel right because it was kind of thrown together all at one time. It was also really stressful on our companionship, but thankfully, we made it through ok.

But in other news, We found a really great new investigator that we taught three days in a row and who seems really interested. I also found out two weeks ago that a family that i found in Setúbal is planning on getting baptized. I had planned on marking them my last week there but for some reason didnt, and then after that the family disappeared. Then a few weeks ago the Elders found them again and started teaching them. They always had a lot of doubts but once the heard President Torgan speak in Stake Conference, most of their doubts were answered. I also found out that the guy i marked for baptism there and got baptized after i left is now the young men´s president and has already gone to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. So after hearing that a few weeks ago really cheered me up.

Other than that life has been good. Its been unusually dry for winter in Portugal but its making up for it by being REALLY cold. Alot of miissonaries have been getting sick this winter(including my companions), but i some how have made it through untouched so far. So lets pray that keeps up.

I cant beleive that MIndy´s moving. The only i´m going to say is that the new house has still be close enough to Taco Bandito for m to get my grub on when i go stay with her.

Well, I think thats it for news. I hope Jenny´s camera gets fixed by next week because i think i´m going through picture withdrawals :).

Thanks again for all the prayers and love. Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws