Splish Splash‎

Hey Family,

Survived 6 weeks in the field, one full transfer completed, and I’m staying in Concordia. I was glad to hear it. I like this place. All the hills/mountains make for some good exercise, the members are great and try to speak slowly so I can understand, we have investigators who are excited about the Gospel and are really progressing, we just found out there are couple of places we can play basketball here and the kids are anxious to play against me. I was fully aware that a greenie “usually” stays put in the same area for a few transfers, but I was still a little worried they’d move me. The likely course will be that I stay with Elder Martin (my companion, trainer, and district leader) for this transfer, then he will get moved and I’ll show a new senior companion around the city, after 1 or two transfers with him I’ll likely be packing my bags to head off somewhere else. Whatever happens will be dictated by the Lord so all I’ll have to do is sit down, shut up, and take notes. Life will be good but I think I’m going to miss this place when I go, but I guess that’s normal.

Friday was as interesting as I expected. Elder da Silva (our senior Zone Leader) and Elder Burke (a junior companion from Chapeco, but originally from Wyoming) came in the morning and we went to the church for Micael’s interview. Everything went well; he was ready for the water so we went to lunch at a member’s house. Because of awkward bus times, and Micael’s limited availability, the interview was at 12:30 and lunch wasn’t until 1:30. After lunch Elder Martin and Elder Burke left for Xanxere to do a baptismal interview and I was on the streets with a zone leader for the day. He knows some English words and a phrase or two, so I got some good practice with Portuguese. He says he understands most of what I say, and that I don’t have a bad accent at all, but I don’t know how much I can trust that. After all, zone leaders are supposed to be positive and supportive right? After nearly everyone that we had expected to visit wasn’t home, he taught one lesson and went back to the church for the interview with Marcelo at 6. We got there 5 minutes early, and waited until 6:25 before leaving. He never showed up, and I was worried about what would happen. We went to see if he was at his house (a 20 minute walk), he wasn’t, tried another address, and then went back to his house to find him arriving home. He had thought the interview was at 6:30 and had gotten there promptly 5 minutes after we had left. We got the interview done and headed back to the apartment. I was fortunate enough to have received 23 letters in the week and a half since Zone Conference. Everybody here is jealous. Keep ‘em coming! Elder Martin and Elder Burke got back at 12:30. Everybody was fortunate enough to wake up a 5 AM to help Elder da Silva and Elder Burke leave in the morning. Good times.

Saturday Micael didn’t show up to the baptism. There was something about emergency work, or something said in quick Portuguese with words I don’t know. Marcelo was there, ready, and excited for the water. The actual baptism took place in a pool at the house of a friend of our new Elder’s Quorum President. Fun, fun. Marcelo was (in the words of Elder Jordan Danger Brough) the first person I “splashed” on my mission. Greg still holds the honor of being the very first person I splashed back in the Idaho Falls Temple, but this was entirely different. We got a new date set up for Micael, Marcelo came to church, was confirmed, took an active role in the discussion in Gospel Principles class, and went on a visit with us last night. It is amazing to see how his life has changed in 5 weeks since we started visiting him.

Weekly Request: Contact Solution and a little bottle of hand sanitizer. Sister Cardon from the MTC suggested we buy hand sanitizer but I can’t find any here. I have easy access to stuff to make refills, but the original product can’t be found. Besides that, just keep sending letters. Candy is good too.

I love you all. I’m good, great, grand. Keep praying, keep writing, keep knowing that I’m safe but stop worrying about me.

Probably another P-Day without basketball,
Elder Haws(mo)

P.S. Last P-day 9(in Xanxere with the Sisters) we went to an outdoorsy place with a waterfall and paths through a forested area. I will add a couple photos this week but will do more next week.

Photos:

(1)Marcelo, Me, Elder Martin before the baptism

(2)Family Photo, Stack of letters I’ve received so far in Brazil

and the 7 letters I got from friends last week

(3)Elder Martin watching a movie two p-days ago

(4) The lunch the sisters cooked us
(5) Sister Tavares and Sister Soares

(6) One photo of the waterfall
(7) Me with a little meal I cooked (proof that I’m still alive)

Christmas List (revised Aug. 20)

-An American Football

-A Potato Peeler

-Plan of Salvation Lesson Pieces that Mindy used (leave spots for the names blank)

-PEANUT BUTTER

-More Photos of family. Recent ones of the nephews. More of parents and siblings.

-Photos of Friends. I have none with me. If anyone reading this is a friend of mine, or knows a friend of mine, I would appreciate if you would get a real photograph of the afore-mentioned friend to my parents. Senior Pictures are awesome. PARENTS: Don’t make copies to send me. Save up pictures and send real prints in a package in a few months.

-3x5-ish note card with a simple map of Idaho on one side and of the USA on the other. If Mindy or Jenny or someone could make it instead of the parents, it would be great.

-Scripture Marking pencil(s). The ones we bought pre-mission aren’t that great.

-An English copy of whichever “Teachings of the Prophet _______” that will be used after President Kimball

-Recipes

-Picture of the IF temple

-Ensigns, New Eras, The Friend in English

-CANDY!!!!! Reese’s, Starbursts, Hershey’s,

Anything that the other Haws Missionaries craved.

Always Working,

Elder Haws(mo)

Dad Would Have Killed Him‎

Hey Family,

As always, I’m safe and sound. However, I’m not in Concordia this time. For P-Day we got up early and took a bus out to Xanxere to spend the day with the sisters. Elder Martin is paranoid that she is going to get transferred next week so we are going to be here the whole day. They apparently have something fun planned for this afternoon, but we don’t know what it is yet. All in all life is good, but I feel naked. We’re running around Xanxere in P-Day clothes, but something is missing. Not the nametag. Not the tie. I’m in jeans and a t-shirt and I’m not wearing a BYU hat. It doesn’t feel right. Not right at all.

This morning was pretty eventful getting to Xanxere. Our alarm went off at 5 AM like it always does for road trips. I jumped out of bed to get ready for the day. Elder Martin crawled out of bed 10 minutes later. We always plan to leave our apartment by 6, for the bus that leaves at 6:30, but never make it out before 6:15. At 6 I was finishing packing my bag and was about to get my shoes on when Elder Martin got out of the shower and announced it was time to get our stuff ready to leave. 10 minutes later I’m standing my the open front door watching him run through the apartment, searching every room looking for shoes, nametag, cell phone, keys, and everything else. He probably has the worst memory of any guy I’ve ever met. He can’t remember faces, names, times, the cell phone in the morning, his keys… It doesn’t help that he never puts anything in the same place twice. This morning I got to watch him destroy the apartment for nearly 20 minutes trying to find his stuff. I couldn’t help but think what Dad would have said/done/thrown-out-the-window if he had been here. We ended up having 3 minutes to walk to and load a bus that normally takes 10 minutes to reach. We got there a few minutes late and he was able to talk the bus driver in to waiting another 2 minutes so we could get the right tickets. In the end we made it here safe.

I’ve got the camera. I’ll be taking a few pictures today and Saturday and then will hopefully be emailing some next week. Normally we’re not allowed to take pictures on Saturdays but we will be having a baptism, and President Dansie let’s us take pictures for baptisms. Marcelo and Micael (Pronounced like Michael in German… meek-eye-el) are around 21 years old and excited for the baptism. We’ll have an interesting situation Friday for the interviews because the Zone leaders will have to be here all day. Marcelo is only home at night, Micael is only home in the mornings, and my companion needs to come back here to Xanxere for a baptismal interview in the early evening. Wish us luck!

Mom mentioned that she wanted me to start a Christmas List. I will send another email with that. I can’t think of much I could use or want, but if Warren, Mindy, or Spencer can remember stuff they wanted, I could probably use it.

Life is good, baptisms are on the way, and I’m fine, stop worrying about me.

Preparing Souls for the Waters of Baptism,

Elder Haws(mo)

Holy Cow!‎

Hey Family,

Hawsmo here. Safe and sound after 20 hours of bus rides, broken up by a Zone Conference and an unexpected sleep-over. We left Concordia at 4:30 Sunday night and bussed for 2 hours to Chapeco. We arrived at around 6:30 and just did contacts for the Elders there until 9. It was three hours until the missionary bus would come so we had some sit-down, relax time while the Chapeco Elders slept. I ended up talking with Elder Bateman (my companion from the MTC) for most of that time. He is serving in Pato Branco, one of the two cities in Parana that are in our mission. It was fun to relax and swap 4 weeks of stories with each other. Despite his area being over 8 hours from mine, in a different state, we have had a lot of similar experiences. Our bus left from Chapeco at midnight, and after picking up missionaries in 5 different cities along the way, we arrived in Lages for Zone Conference at 8 AM. This Zone Conference is for the 3 Zones inland, not on the coast. Namely Chapeco, Lages, and Ipomeia. After stories, lessons, trainings, a tiny lunch, more training, testimonies, and junior companions talking while a leadership meeting went on we loaded the buses and headed home. President Dansie always refers to us as the “Great and Noble ones”. This time he made a remark that because all the new elders in the western zones were tall, and all the ones who are going home next transfer are short, we were gaining the Greats (which also means big ones in Portuguese) and losing the Nobles. Everyone got a laugh out of that one. I had the privilege of opening 12 letters and a package on the bus home. The camera got here safe and sound. I’ve had contacts in since 6:30AM Sunday morning (3:30 in Idaho, I think) so I haven’t checked on the glasses yet. We got off the bus at Xanxere on the way back to catch an earlier bus to Concordia, and found out that the bus was full. After a few minutes of my companion’s “controlled panic”, the Sisters called a family from their branch and we stayed the night at their house before catching a bus home a 6:15 this morning. A little late getting home, but safe.

As far as work was concerned, our week was a little short this week. We only got to teach one lesson after church on Sunday before heading to Chapeco, and Thursday we didn’t get to work at all. We caught the bus at 6:30AM to Xanxere and remained there all day. Elder Martin did a baptismal interview with a teenage boy in the morning, before heading to a family’s house for lunch. The mother in this family is learning English so she talked to me the entire time. A bunch of Portuguese to help me practice, and bits and parts in English to answer some of her questions about grammar and rules. She wasn’t too thrilled when I told her English lacked 100% rules for the stuff she didn’t understand, but all went well. The afternoon was a thoroughly enjoyable District Meeting. We were going to catch the bus back to Concordia at 5, but we got invited to attend a youth activity that night so we stayed. They were going to show a film to young boys who were going to be receiving the priesthood sometime in the next couple months. They couldn’t get the projector screen to come down so I got to spend about 20 minutes playing basketball with nine 11-year old boys in a sand pit. Dribbling was nearly impossible so the game quickly became “American Football-Basketball”, with no dribbling, just running, passing and shooting. It was fun. The little guys would rattle off enormous sentences to me in Portuguese before remembering that I was just learning. Most of them did a great job of simplifying sentences for me.

Now to address the title of my email. Last week, just 7 hours after sending you the email, we went to teach a 2nd lesson (Plan of Salvation) to an investigator family. When we taught them the week before they thought it was a shame that we only got fed my members at lunch and had to provide our own dinner so they offered to cook us one. It was great. They barbecued for us. The memorable part of the evening was when they passed a plate to us and invited us to try a different kind of meat. After chewing a piece for nearly two minutes and swallowing I went back for another piece to be polite. This meat was REALLY chewy, and didn’t taste like much besides the little seasoning on it. About 10 minutes later they told my companion that it was cow udder. Definitely a new experience for me. Didn’t see that one coming.

Here comes my weekly request (we might have to make this a recurring program): Becky’s cousin’s husband and Spencer’s buddy from the Football Team both served in here in the Florianopolis mission. Could I get their last names, and if possible, a list of areas they served in? People have a habit of remembering American missionaries, but not always hometowns, or last names. It would just be fun to have.

Thanks for the package, the letters, and the prayers. Keep ‘em coming.

Life is good, the mission is coming along, and everything is fine, so stop worrying about me.

I love you all.

The largest of the new Great and Noble Ones in Santa Catarina,

Elder Haws(mo)

Speaking and Pretending to Understand‎

Hey Family,

Life is quickly starting to hit routine. Which is fine. While the words we use in the lessons often get repetitive, the Spirit that comes is always new and refreshing. Unfortunately our two teenage investigators decided to postpone their baptism. Instead of this Saturday it will (hopefully) be next Saturday the 18th. They both know everything is true, they just feel a little cautious about jumping right into it. We invited them to fast this last weekend (and the older brother did) to see if they are ready. We haven’t gotten an answer from them yet but we remain optimistic and hopeful.

Last week we spent Wednesday in Xanxere with Sister Tavarez and Sister Soarez, and we will be spending Thursday with them this week. Due to the timing of Zone Conference and interviews with the President we get to have district meetings two weeks in a row. Last week the bus left Concordia at 6:30 AM, and because they don’t run as many busses as we would like, we got back to Concordia at 9:00 PM. The total trip is about two hours each way, but coming back we had an hour and a half wait in Seara, another city, so we did contacts and got addresses incase they open Seara as a new area anytime in the next year or so. Sister Soarez was kind enough to decide to speak Portuguese AT me for the entire afternoon. With a stroke of luck I was able to understand a good portion of what she was saying and could even respond when the occasion required a response. Learning to speak a language is difficult enough, hearing and comprehending might be a 2-year endeavor in itself.

To answer Mom’s questions: I can use my debit card here. Due to “greenie expenses”, as I have deemed them, my mission allotted money ran out a little over halfway to the next “pay day” (today) so I took 15 or 20 American dollars out to help me get by. My greenie expenses consisted of an umbrella (which was convenient since we had a flood my 4th day here, an extra pair of sandals to wear outside the shower, and scissors to make flash cards. I finally got my American cash exchanged this weekend, which means I have a solid emergency fund if I need. The laundry business is fine, it’s just a pain. I think I’m starting to get the hang of it, but I’m still a long way from perfecting it. As far as “housekeeping” goes, I have a request. I never got a simple recipe book from the family, or Wal-Mart, or anything. If any combination of recipes could be included in a package you send at Christmas, it would be appreciated. In the meantime, I would like to formally request a simple recipe or two (through email) for cookies and mashed potatoes. It appears as though potatoes could be an easy purchase, though not the quality of those at home. On P-day we have time in the apartment when we watch Disney movie on the Portable DVD player Elder Martin has, and I imagine cookies would spice up life a little.

The only REAL request I have is: If anyone is planning on sending a package or anything in the next couple weeks, include a jar of peanut butter. JIF, Western Family, the brand doesn’t matter. The more experienced Americans informed me that the peanut butter here isn’t worth trying. Having lived my entire life with Peanut Butter Sandwiches available, I don’t know if I could make it too many months in the field without it. In the MTC we had homemade peanut butter available at every meal. It wasn’t the most delicious stuff, but it did well to suppress the addiction for the time being.

Next Monday is Zone Conference in Lages. We will take a bus to Chapeco Sunday evening, and have an all-night bus ride to Lages from Chapeco Sunday Night/Monday Morning. As such, rumor has it our P-day will be Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Continue your regular lives at this point; just don’t panic if my email comes a little late next week. Give my best wishes to the Band. Both IFHS and BYU. Cheer on my Cougars and make sure to send me updates on personnel, stats, and successes. I promise to stay focused on the work all the time, but I may be forced to have interest in Cougar Athletics on the occasional P-Day afternoon. DAD, MOOSE. I will need info on Football, Men’s AND Women’s Basketball, and Women’s Volleyball. Numbers, records, info, summaries, whatever you deem worthy and necessary.

Life is good here in Concordia. I’m learning a lot, loving the work, everything is fine, and stop worrying about me.

Missing Spuds and Peanut Butter,
Elder Haws(mo)