Firmly Rooted in Concordia‏

Hey Family,

I’m still sitting tight down here in Concórdia. The phone call we received from the Zone Leaders last night revealed that there are no changes being made in Concordia. I will hit 7.5 months in the mission with only one area. I have no idea what will happen in January, but there have been times that President Dansie left Elders in their first area for their first 7 months in the field. If that is the case with me I’ll be here in Concordia until late February-early March and EVERYONE in town will know me. Oh well, at least we’ll have a few baptisms coming up.

I turned 6 months last Friday but wasn’t able to burn a tie…yet. We should have an opportunity to do some burning near the end of this week. I should have some pictures of the inferno to send to you guys in a couple weeks. Dad will probably be upset but I think I’ll be burning one of the ties we bought at Ferrell’s. Sorry. You can send me another one if you want.

Last night I also found out that Elder Bateman got transferred. I will get an email next week telling me where everyone in the mission is. I wish we would have gotten it today. It’s no fun to be in the dark with regards to what is going on in the mission. Not to mention in the dark with regards to Cougar Sports. Usually the Chapeco Zone has interviews the second Monday of the transfer (which would be next Monday, the 26) but we won’t have them until December 4. That is a LONG time until mail. It’s probably a good thing though. Now I can really sit down and focus on the work. We’re going to have to do some good-hard working to get the 8 baptisms we want this transfer. Yes, I know that that is an absurd number. That is the goal we set, and if nothing else, we will get at least one.

As far as interesting stories go, we had a level F-1 tornado in Concordia last week. When we went to bed there was just a light rain, we never saw it coming. At about 3 in the morning Elder Wright woke up to the howl of the wind. When he realized what was going on he ran to the balcony, where he had clothes drying, pulled them inside, and just sat and watched the happenings. It turns out that the winds were up around 140 kph. Elder Wright yelled at me to wake me up. He asked if I could hear the howling wind from my bed. I replied: “Yup, it’s pretty cool.” He was up for the rest of the night because the pounding rain and screaming wind was too loud for him to sleep. As soon as I finished my short reply I was asleep again. As Elder Wright was telling everyone about this throughout the past week no one believed that I could sleep through a tornado. I simply replied that the howl of the tornado was nothing compared to the sound of a Haws boy snoring. Elder Wright confirmed this fact, and I guarantee that Elder Bateman would agree after our 2 months in the MTC. I woke up to Elder Bateman hitting me in the face with a pillow on more than one occasion.

Concordia is hot, the hills are steep, and the work is continuing. I’m doing fine so stop worrying about me.

Only remembering Thanksgiving because the Holy War is coming up,
Elder Haws(mo)