The turning of a page

Hey Family,

We lost our Brazilian roomates again. I'm gonna miss those guys. They are going to the Brasilia mission and were excited to "finally" get out of here. They had been here a little over two and a half weeks. Guess how I feel. I loved our first roommates but I am really going to miss these guys. Elder Silva is fluent in English and would just sit and talk to us about anything and everything each night. Elder Camargo knew only about 50 english words. He was SILENT for the first week he was here. Then suddenly, he started talking. But it wasn't solid converstationally stuff. He would sit there and listen, and then throw in the funniest one liners I have ever heard. Last week Elder Bateman and Elder Stosich taught Elder Camargo what a "sugar momma" is, and Elder Camargo left this place with a new "dream".

We went proselyting again last friday. Normally districts go to a park their second time and hand out 5 Books of Mormon and 60 pass-along cards per companionship. Our district was priviliged enough to go BACK to our lovelyBrazilian wallstreet, only to a part of the street where NO ONE wanted to talk to us. My companion, Elder Bateman, tried talking to abot 75 people. Only three stopped to give a response and one of them walked away when they realized he wanted to talk about religion. People both looked away and ran away from me again. People just don't seem to be very fond of 6'6" Americans.

I got letters from Adrienne Love and Britnee Searle this week. It ws great to hear from them. I can't believe Austin's farewell was Sunday. I remember that when I left it seemed like it was going to be an eternity before he left. One Elder mentioned that along with working with the Lord's time, we also get to see time from his perspective. Weeks, days, and classes blur together. Its absurd to think I have been here for a month and a half. But what's more than that, is that we are now some of the oldest missionaries at the CTM, which means the young ones will be expecting us to know something. That puts quite a lot of pressure on us.

Speaking of "the new kids", two guys I knew from BYU joined us this week. ElderMcKell was in my basketball class this last semester. He was a great ball player and seems to be enjoying his time here. Elder Van Tassell is also here. He lived in Q-hall, played basketball against me at the RB a few times and crossed my path everyday on the way to class. It was fun to sit down and actually get to know him.Life is going great. The language is really starting to come now. I'm doing great so stop worrying about me. I love you all!

-Elder Haws(mo)