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

Going Through the Motions 1/10/11

Hey Family,

The first real week of 2011 just got over and i think we started the year well here in Vasco da Gama. We had some tough times but overall, things went pretty well.

The week started off with us having a really great experience that gave us some hope and alot of excitement. Monday night we were walking to an investigators house when we got a phone call from the zone leaders saying that we were going to have an emergency zone conference on Thursday because the zone and the entire mission was struggling as a whole. They also told us that we needed to pray about who we should mark for baptism for that week. I´ve heard the Zone leaders tell me that alot on my mission but for some reason i got really irritated this time, and i think Elder Thredgold could tell. We talked about it after the phone call and i told Elder Thredgold that i was tired of hearing the mission leaders tell me to baptise when i have no investigators to baptize. But after a few minutes we decided that we should dwell on it too much and that we should just work hard and do our best. But after that, as we arrived at the house of the investigator that we wanted to talk to, we had a miracle happen. Throughout my three weeks here in Vasco da gama we had tried to talk to this teenage kid many, many times, but were never able to met with him. But somehow we were able to get a hold of his mom that Monday, and get a lesson with him. In that lesson we talk a little about what the elders had already taught him and asked him if he had received an answer about the Book of Mormon. He said that he really liked the elders and that when he prayed about the book of mormon, he felt really good. To this point in the lesson i had just been going through the motions but when i heard that, it was almost as if i woke up. We then asked him if he had talked to his parents about baptism and he said his parents would let him get baptized. We then asked him if he wanted to get baptized and if so, when. He said that this Sunday was a good day, so just like that, we had an investigator marked for baptism. But although we continued to work with him all week, the baptism ended up falling through because his family went out of town. But we´ve already remarked the baptism for this Sunday and everything should go without a hitch this time so we´ll see what happens.

The Conference we had this week was actually different that what we´re used to here. Normally we get together to talk about who and how we are going to baptize but this time, we talk about that stuff, but we focused more on finding new people as well. There were also parts of the meeting where President or sister Torgan would go over alot of the basic mission rules that alot of missionaries haven't been following. It was kind of embarrassing to have to talk about those things but i guess it was needed.

Today i´m spend the day with the zone leaders again because Elder Thredgold had to renew his visa in Lisbon so i´ll be here today and with other elder tomorrow.

I´m really nervous that my packages haven't gotten home yet. They have almost all of the pictures from my mission in them so i really hope that nothing has happened to them.

Well, i think thats about it for this week. Thanks for all yours prayers. keep praying for us(and my packages)! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

2011?

Hey Family,

We survived the last week of 2010 but it really took it out of me. Things are looking up for us here so 2011 should be just as good as 2010.

Surprisingly, this last week passed really dast, while at the same time, passed really slow. I guess that brings meaning to the old missionary phrase, "The days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like days". Not alot happened during the week but we did see a little bit of progress so i guess you could say things are changing.

The week started out pretty normal, and passed pretty normally, that is until we got a knock at the door at 8:30 Wends day morning. To our surprise to the Zone Leaders appeared unannounced st our doorstep to do a "Surprise Division" because they wanted to help our area a little. I guess the numbers here have been struggling for a while so they said they wanted to do a division so that they could help us find more new investigators. I was a little confused at first because they showed up at our doorstep after a week of me being in the area, which to me said, "we dont trust you enough to do this on your own" but after a while i humbly accepted the help the Lord had sent me and my companion. So i spent the next 24 hours while a zone leader walking around an area i still wasn´t familiar with trying to find the elect. But with some luck we actually found some really good people. We had decided to go by some references that a member family had given the elders a while back but non of them were home, so we decided to knock around their apartments. I didnt think anything amazing would happen but just as we knocked the door of the apartment next to the reference, we found a woman who invited us in and became a new investigator. After that experience the day ran pretty well. We ended up finding a lot of really good potential investigators and i also got to learn alot from the zone leader i was with. It was really humbling experience as well because he was in my MTC group which means we have the same time in the mission. But I guess having the same amount of time in the mission doesn´t really matter much because he was 10 times a better missionary than me. It just seemed like every idea he had and everything he did resulted in success. And you´d think that after a great division with a missionary like that i would feel great, but the opposite actually happened. Instead of being happy that we found all those people i became almost depressed at the fact that i still dont do missionary work in a very successful way. I guess having so much more to learn discouraged me a little, and for a few days i felt pretty down. But thankfully we have a billion Ensigns in our house that were full of conference talks that built me back up and kepted me keep going. So in that aspect the week was tough, but we´re starting to see some progress with the area now so things should get better soon.

In other news, my companion is still feeling a little under the weather so i think thats been wearing on me. Its not that i getting sick its just that i´m afraid it might be making me lazy. I´m really worried about setting a good example for him so i´ll be sure to work a little harder this week to push myself.

I dont know how New Years Eve went for you guys but ours was pretty normal. We actually went to bed early because we were really tired but Elder Thredgold got woken up buy all the noise the people were making outside in the street. I dont remember waking up and neither does Elder Thredgold. He was actually a little surprised that all i did was roll over in bed because he said that people were banging pots and pans outside. He even said that it was hard for him to go back to sleep because of all the noise. But i guess being a Haws keeps me from being woken up by city wide celebrations AND earthquakes.

I´´m kinda worried about the packages that i sent home because they have almost all of the pictures from my mission. I really hope they make it home this week.

Well, i cant think of anything else add to this email. Keep praying for us! We really need all your prayers!

Obrigado por tudo!

Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

One More Miracle

Hey, Family,

I dont have a whole lot of time but i figured i´d send you guys a quick email to update you on how things are going here.

Yesterday we went to church so i had the oppurtunity to meet alot of the members of the branch here. I was actually really empressed with the members from what i saw yesterday. I say that because i had talked to an elder that served here and he wasn´t too impressed with the branch so i kind of had low expectations. But it turns out that the branch is alot better than i expected. I could really feel the difference between here and Tavira. DOnt get me wrong, i love and miss Tavira, but the spirit was felt strongly yesterday throughout the meetings, something that wasn´t always common in the small branchof Tavira. But going to church yesterday gave me some added hope for this area because now i know that when i bring investigators to church, we´ll have alot of addition help in making sure they feel welcome. I was also asked to bare my testimony in church yesterday so that i could intorduce myself to the branch. I took the liberty to make a few jokes about how the chapel looked like it was really full because i was used to seeing 12 people at church every week. Everybody laughed a little and seemed to enjoy the meetings yesterday, and afterward, we had a lot of the members setting up meals for us in the up coming weeks. Elder Threadgold told me that its not normal for the members to feed us that often, but it seemed like everybody wanted to feed us yesterday. Elder Threadgold suggested jokingly that they must really like me but for whatever reason it is, i´m just happy we have the members on our side.

Yesterday we also had a really good experience in using the area book. We had planned on staying and working in Moita(city where the church is) because it costs quite a bit to get there from our house and i still dont have a bus pass. So when we went to church we took our area book and a list of inactive members to pass by so that we could have something to do while we were there all day. So after church we sat down and picked some investigators to go by and in turned out the the first door we knocked turned into a lesson and a new investigator. We had planned on just setting up an appointment to come back but the man quickly invited us in so we were able to teach a lesson. Then after the quick, impromptu lesson, he told us we could come back anytime. It was a small but really important miracle we had yesterday because it gave me and Elder Threadgold some hope that better things are going to come in the future. I´m also really excited to keep working with the area book because its filled with people just like this.

Well, today we have to go do some shopping so we can survive the rest of the week. We´re a really low on money so i might have to pull out money to make it through the week. Sorry but i´ll try my best to go without taking out money.

Other than that, theres not much to tell. Sorry for the short email but these past few days have been pretty boring. It was great talking to you guys on Saturday so thanks for the phone call! Keep praying for us! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

Leaving It Better Than You found It - Dec. 20, 2010

Hey Family,

I cant believe its Christmas time again. I´m starting to feel like an old timer in in the mission because this will be the second to last phone call i will make before going home. I even had some random lady last night tell me i was pretty much ending my mission already. She was just some lady who has been contacted by the Elders alot so she knows a little about what we do, so she was curious to know how much time i had left. When she found out i had 6 months left she responded with, "well you´re pretty much done aren´t you." Little did she know 6 months is plenty of time to work. But enough with trunkey talk. Lets move on to more important things.

First of all, transfers. Last night after we did our planning i was in the shower when we got our phone call from the mission office. That was strange for a few reasons: 1) I never get called by anyone about transfers let alone by the office Elders. 2) we normally dont get calls till Monday afternoon 3) The office Elders insisted on talking to me, which meant that Elder Christiansen(who was overly excited in handing me the phone) busted in on me while i was naked in the shower i tried to hand me the phone. (go ahead Mindy, have fun with that one on your blog!) But any ways, i found out that i´m being transferred to Vasco do Gama, an Area just on the other side of the river from Lisbon. I dont think there is a city called Vasco do Gama, so if you look it up on line you´ll just get a bunch of pictures of the bridge the area was named after. Its a pretty big area but from what i´ve heard from an Elder in my district(who just served there a few months ago) its like Tavira, but with more members. I´m pretty excited to see what its like but i wont get work there until Wednsday, because we´re having a special Christmas Zone Conference in Lisbon tomorrow. Hopefully i´ll be able to have as much success there as i did here in Tavira, but only time will tell.

And i know by now that Mom is dying for the details on the phone call and i glad to report that i can give you guys that information right now. I knew you guys might worry so i got the phone number and times set up right away so nobody would worry(well, not too much anyway)

So the number is 918 101 318

I talked to my new companion, Elder Threadgold, about when he was going to have his parents call, but he said he´s having his parents call the phone in the chapel there so it doesnt matter when you guys call. Though he´s planning on having his parents call at 11:00 a.m. your time so i think it would be best if you called at 12:00 a.m. just to be safe. But if that doesnt work you guys can call whenever.

But on terms of missionary work, things were good and bad this week. When the week started, it didnt seem like it was going to be a great week, but it ended really well. The days just seemed to crawl by because we didnt teach all that many lessons. But we went by alot of people that we had talked to and dropped alot of people so in that aspect it was really good. But part way through the week we got a call from the Zone Leaders telling us that we needed to focus on baptizing someone before the end of the year because President Torgan wants every dupla to baptize before December was over. The then informed me that my district needed to baptize because our two companionships were 2 of only five that hadn´t baptized this month already in this zone. So after that i felt pretty low, but then i found out that the other elders in my district got the same phone call form the Zone Leaders, plus a phone call from President Torgan giving them faca for having low numbers. So after all of that i felt pretty bad because my district was struggling, but we had an experience yesterday that really cheered us up.

So i told you guys last week about Nela, the Lady we found by using the area book. Well, we can only teach her once a week on Sundays, so we had a lesson with her yesterday that turned out to be one of the highlights of my time here in Tavira. We had talked to her last week and had committed her to coming to church, but we found out on Saturday that she wouldd´t be able to make it. But we were still able to go by and talk to her in the afternoon so we weren´t too worried. But when we went there we had the goal of marking her for baptism, something i dont like doing with an investigator before they go to church. But we went there any way and taught her about eternal families and the plan of Salvation and at the end of the lesson invited her to be baptized. I expected her to use some sort of excuse to get out of it like most people do, or i thought maybe her husband who was sleeping in the same room where we were teaching her would rose a complaint. But what i didnt expect was what happened next. With out any hesitation, an doubt, she asked the invite and even prayed with us to confirm the date. I´ve never marked anyone for baptism so easily on my mission as i marked her. It was a powerful witness to me that the Lord had led us to her and that she had been prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel long before we ever knocked on her door. I cant imagine a better way of leaving an area than this. Its a great feeling leaving a baptism for the next Elder to have because thats the feeling of leaving an area better than when you found it.

We also had a few people call us this week out of nowhere telling us that they wanted to come to church this Sunday but wanted to know where and when it was. Unfortunately neither came because one works on Sunday mornings and the other was out of town but we got the contact information for both of them so the Elders will be able to "Tract" them down.

Well, here in a little bit i´ll be heading up to Lisbon so i better get going. Thanks for all the love and prayers! Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Élder Haws

P.S. Sorry for getting you in trouble Jenny.

P.S.S. Next time you send pictures of cute Cheerleaders, please send their addresses as well ;)