It's Beginning to Look a lot like... SUMMER‏

Hey Family,

Christmas is around the corner but there’s no snow in sight. It’s a sick joke. What’s even worse is that we might be having a rainy Christmas again. Go figure. I don’t know what I do to deserve rain every time I talk to you guys on the phone. I guess whatever happens, happens.

Andrew French is off to Chicago North? When? I might be wrong but I think Elder Soares might be there. Do you guys remember? Right as I got to Navegantes Ronan Soares left on his mission for Chicago. I just don’t remember if it was north or not. Either way, have Andrew keep his eyes open for a Brazilian named Soares. Send him a hug for me.

The Christmas Conference was amazing. We ended up having an extra zone at the conference so it was PACKED! We only had about 20 elders at our house for the night. The 115 of us just showed up and left in the same day. An enormous night in Floripa would have been awesome, but against all rules.

The call should work out great if you call me around 2 or 3 o’clock. Elder Hill is planning for his family to call in the morning. If anything changes I may have to give you guys another email. Don’t worry, I’ll talk to the president first.

I don’t know what else to mention. I’ll be talking to you guys next week .I already opened the little package and will open the big one as soon as I get home. Thanks for coming.

Christmas is near, the rain is here, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Preparing for the Holidays,
Elder Haws(mo)

Christmas Conference‏

Hey Family,

Mike Jorgensen is already back from his mission? AND he got married? That is awesome. I had completely lost track of when people are getting home. About a month from now everyone will probably be back except for Shipley and me. Oh well. We’ve still got some work to be done.

Yesterday was stake conference (in our new chapel) so we got to see President and Sister Queiroz as well as the rest of the missionaries in and around Joinville. This week we were going to have Zone Conference on Friday but it got canceled. Instead we will be going to Florianopolis on Wednesday to have a “Christmas Conference” with around 100 missionaries. It might be the most absurd idea the Queiroz’s have ever had. Unfortunately our bus will leave from Joinville at 4 am, which means we’ll be up around 3. On the bright side we will see almost everybody from our group. Elders Bateman, Andrews, Cornaby, and I will all be there. Oh yeah! I’ll also run into Elder Santana (formerly Elder C. Silva), the elder I trained in Imbituba. It turns out he’s training right now. I guess that might make me a grandpa. I guess that means I’m REALLY old.

As far as the Christmas call goes, it will end up being ~5 hours difference. We will officially have the new phones in full operation on Wednesday. In the past you guys have called to:

***-****-**** and
***-****-****.

This time the number will be:
***-****-****.

You will still have to throw the Brazil Code in front but the area code is ** and the phone number is ****-****. Any questions? Good. We’re still planning the specifics for Christmas but you guys could call around 2 or 3 pm, which would translate to 7 or 8 down here. If that doesn’t work for you, just tell me. If that doesn’t work for me, I’ll let you guys know.

Where is Greg going to be living, and what will the classes be? Did he pick a major yet?

The rain has slowed down, the sun is out, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Preparing for the Red-Eye Bus,
Elder Haws(mo)

Cleaning Up After the Flood‏

Hey Family,

The rains are slowing down. Last Tuesday we were at lunch with a member casually chatting about the weather when she turned the news on. We watched as a national network talked about Santa Catarina for 20 minutes. That has never happened before. They then proceeded to show that Spain, England, Mexico, and the US were also talking about the weather down here. I was surprised. Then I got worried that you guys would be stressed out about us. We’re fine. The biggest thing that happened in this ward was that the other companionship that lives with us couldn’t get to there area the day of the rain. The two biggest roads in our area turned to rivers but we were still able to visit our investigators. I’ve seen pictures of other elders walking (not swimming) in water that covered their nametags. … Do the math.

Thanks for the packages. I’m still holding off for a little before I break them out. The anticipation is killing the other gringos in my house. It doesn’t bother me though. I guess the newer guys just tend to be a little more excited about Christmas. I still find it hard to believe that I’m one of the “old guys”. Who knows, maybe I have learned a little bit about the work, but I’m still trying to figure it out. Each area, each companion, each ward, each investigator, and each discussion is different. Some kids still don’t realize that there is no clear cut formula for success in any situation.

I’m glad Thanksgiving and the birthdays went well. Christmas should be amazing for you guys. WHITE. After the single greatest rainy season in recorded history (that still hasn’t ended) people are anticipating an over-charged summer. OH BOY! Don’t be surprised to see Haws come home crispy. Good luck with the snow!

Wow. I have no idea what our schedule is going to be for Christmas. We’re trying to work it out with a couple members. It would end up being a lot easier to know the new phone number we’re going to have. I imagine we can just do the call in the afternoon. I’ll keep you posted. I hope to have everything worked out with the members next week. OH. I won’t be having P-day the weeks of Christmas and New Years. Just on Christmas and New Year’s Day. As such, I might have a LITTLE trouble sending emails off, but I’ll do what I can.

The sun is out, the roads are dry, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Soaking Up the Sun,
Elder Haws

The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up But the Church on the Hill Stood Still‏

Hey Family,

Max Hall? What’s the big idea? Throwing five picks against Utah? I was starting to hope he would be our awesome “big play” quarterback. The biggest argument I’d ever heard against John Beck was the lack of difficult wins. Either the team was so bad we got blown out or we were so good we blew everyone out (until the Holy War of 2006… I was there). Here Max had gotten us a couple big wins in the 4th quarter and then comes to a screeching halt in Salt Lake. Oh well. Good bye BCS. Good bye Heisman. Good bye 4 offensive lineman. Better luck next year.

Life down here took a pretty big change on Saturday. A full week of rain culminated in some mudslides all over the state. Approximately 20 people died. Crazy. A couple members (and our golden investigator) got trapped on the freeway Saturday so they missed church on Sunday. That was a bummer. Life is good though. No missionaries were seriously hurt. The most damage this did to the mission might be delaying the actual transfers for 2 or 3 days because there are no roads into or out of some of the larger cities. Either way I’ll be staying here in Joinville until New Years. January 7 will be the next transfer and anything can happen before then.

I got my packages last week. I was actually curious if I could open them or not, but Mom said I could. I’ll probably just search out decorations and the Christmas tie. Another elder from Joinville mentioned that he wanted a Christmas tie to use for the holidays so depending on what I get I might send him a little present. Most of the stuff I’ll probably wait to open.

Christmas call? We’re actually supposed to start planning that now. A member has invited us to spend Christmas with them, but I think the other elders will end up using the house phone for the call. If we want, we’ll have more freedom using the cell phone again. We will be getting new phones in a couple weeks, which means the phone should be in good condition. I don’t know how the other phone calls had been for you guys, but I didn’t have a whole lot of trouble. Just let me know what you guys prefer. So far we don’t have anything huge planned for Christmas. It appears as if the president might command us to hold a zone meeting, but we’ll see how that goes. Just figure out when you guys can or cannot call and we’ll work out a time.

Congrats Jenny. Both for the birthday and for the boy. Hey Wo. Have a happy birthday this week. I was trying to work in a baptism down here to celebrate for you but it looks like we’ll have to wait a couple weeks. Sorry. Thanks to everyone for the prayers, letters, and overall concern.

Trying to dry my shoes,

Elder Haws(mo)

Open House and Cleaning House‏

Hey Family,

I hope everyone is doing well back home. Joinville is still an interesting city. We had a relatively dry week up until Saturday. Saturday was the official Dedication Day of our new chapel here in the Itaum Ward. Temperatures were around 100 Fahrenheit, but with good old fashioned humidity. Yesterday the rain came back down and everything came back to normal. Shoes are wet, clothes don’t dry, but at least no one is dying of dehydration. We got the opportunity to work giving tours at the open house for the chapel this last weekend. Not as many people showed up as we might have hoped, but it was still a great experience.

Last week we had the great honor of receiving a member of the area presidency. The zone conference was awesome. We laughed, we felt the spirit, we left uplifted. I don’t believe anybody cried, but I’m not too worried about it. The most eventful part of the week was the actual preparation for the conference. A couple days before the conference an assistant gave us a call and told us that Elder Ellis “might” be coming to visit our house. We all suddenly had a great urge to clean house. We always clean up our own messes and don’t let anything get horrible, but when “the prophet’s eyes” are coming to town cleaning must be done. The greatest task I personally encountered was scrubbing the bathroom. It was a very humbling experience, especially knowing that no one had seriously performed such a task in a very long time. And when I say long time, I mean before Homely’s mission. I was on my hands and knees for a couple hours on two different days scrubbing every tile. My certainly didn’t thank me the next morning, but the approving thumbs up from President and Sister Queiroz almost made it worth it. Our new task is keeping the house spotless. Elder Ellis said the only thing wrong with our house was the fact that the mattresses are a little old and too thin. We have received authorization to go price shopping for new mattresses. That would be great… if we had time to do price shopping. With a brand new chapel we are now feeling the obligation of wearing out the new baptismal font.

Just to make matters more interesting, we got a surprise visit the night before the conference. Everything was spotless and ready for the cleaning inspection when a few more elders showed up to sleep at our house. Our house is definitely the closest to the bus station, but that’s still no excuse for 10 extra missionaries to sleep in a freshly cleaned house the night before a general authority visit. More work, stress, and hurrying to throw everyone out of the house early to clean up and be to conference on time. It just so happens that 6 of those elders missed their buses home the next day so we had to go pick them up the next night at the bus station to let them sleep at our house again. Oh well. It worked out in the end and BYU still won.

It’s the last week of the transfer. I’m sending home photos of my two companions this transfer. I worked with Elder Rocha for 12 days in Rio Tavares before coming to work with Elder Hill in Joinville for the rest of the transfer. Time to finish strong!

Contemplating the Maximum Duration of Rainstorm,
Elder Haws(mo)

Another Wet Week in Joinville‏

Hey Family,

Life keeps going, and the rain keeps falling. Joinville is an incredible city. 2 days have a hot, blazing sun, 2 days have cloud cover which turns the city into a giant oven, and the other three days have pouring rain. No matter what Mother Nature decides to throw at us, we come home wet. But that’s ok. There is always work to be done, and rumor has it (October) showers bring (November) blessings. I’ve definitely got my fingers crossed. We can use a little heavenly help in our little corner of the mission.

Just to fill in any gaps. I’m still in Joinville, in the Itaum Ward. Itaum is a word in a “native” language that means iron. The four gringos are now thinking of printing up some shirts with the name Iron Men. What do you guys think? Itaum is the largest ward in the Joinville Stake, which so happens to be the largest stake in the mission. We just got a brand new chapel built on top of a hill across the street from our house. The open house will be Thursday and Friday which means we’ll probably stop knocking doors and hang out looking for referrals. Everyone in the neighborhood is talking about the new “Mormon Temple” so hopefully we’ll get plenty of leads. The dedication and cultural show will be on Saturday. Unfortunately we’ll be wearing suits for an extra day, but at least we’ll be able to have part in the festivities. For the past 15 months the stake has been renting a bus to take the members, missionaries, and investigators to the neighboring ward. It just so happens that the other ward is Boa Vista, the area where Elder Bateman is currently serving and where my buddy Elder Huber started his mission. Up until the bus trip to church this ward was one of the highest baptizing wards in the states, but has had problems with the current situation. Every member in the ward seems interested in getting back up to the former state of glory. We’re more than willing to help them out a little bit.

Our little gringo situation got a little worse this past week. Tuesday night I got a phone call from the assistants telling us to be at the bus station at 10:30 pm. I thought it was a little weird, but I played along. Elder Hill and I got there and, much to our surprise, Elder Wright got off the bus. Elder Wright was my second companion and is serving as assistant to the president (at least until he goes home Thanksgiving Day). He ended up staying and working with a couple of the “white washed” companionships for a day. I’m not sure if we use the same term back home, but in this mission whenever a companionship gets transferred to a new area where neither was serving beforehand, we call it a whitewash. We had 15 in the mission last month, so a couple of them have been getting extra help. Elder Wright served here in Itaum when I was down in Navegantes so we went to visit some of his old investigators. At one particular house we had a great lesson. He had baptized the wife and 14 year-old daughter but the father couldn’t give up smoking so he couldn’t get baptized. Elder hill and I had visited him a couple times but we didn’t have any success in getting him to give up the cigarettes (even though we did take his pack away the first time we visited him). Elder Wright threw in a bunch of different techniques that appear to have worked. Burning, guilt tripping, and priesthood blessings got him to agree stop smoking and get baptized next week. I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Thursday will be the grand conference with Elder Ellis. Everyone is a little nervous because the last time part of the area presidency came to visit there was a lot of burning and repentance involved during the following weeks. Don’t worry; I was still in the MTC when that happened.

2 more weeks and then it’ll be transfer time again. We’ve got the 4 of us who arrived and practically the same time so anything could happen. I just hope the rain gets transferred to another city.

The chapel is ready, the rain drops are heavy, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Thankful for Umbrellas,
Elder Haws(mo)

4 in a Row!

Hey Family,

I hate curveballs. I love the fact that my Tigers and Couagrs came out with the victories this last weekend. Sometimes I wory about my boys. I had a fun debate with Elder Bateman yesterday decidedig what would be the best case scenario for a 1-loss BYU team. We both agreed that it will be nearly impossible to get back to a BCS bowl game, but we still need Utah to be a big team when we beat them... at Rice-Eccles. We were debating whether Utah or TCU needs to win when they match up with each other. A definitive answer was not reached, but either way we have our hopes set on next year.

Joinville is coming along pretty well. We’ve been knocking a LOT of doors and no one seems to like really tall guys. We did splits last week and Elder Stokes got in a couple of houses in my area. When I came back for the second visit one lady got scared and told me to get away. Fun times. Don’t worry. That sort of thing doesn’t happen a lot. As far as our house is concerned, what happens is a huge mess and a lot of English. It’s relaxing for us but the leaders probably don’t like it all that much. By the way, our Zone Conference will be next week. Elder Ellis from the area presidency is coming. The pressure is on for everyone to look good. We’re suddenly in a mad chase to fin a dry cleaner and get some shoes fixed. Wish us luck!

Wow. Outside of Utah and Idaho there appears to be a system of “short-time” missionaries. They come a serve one or two months when we’re short on missionaries. One of these short-timers went home early to finish his actual mission papers, so we had a lone elder in the area that touches ours. Luckily, we had another missionary sitting around in a threesome so we got him here quick. Unfortunately, it wasn’t instant. As such, I had to pack my bags and go live and work with the other elder for a day. In doing so I attended my 4th different ward in 4 Sundays. Is that a Haws family record? If not, I’ll try to get a fifth in this weekend. (Agronomica OCT-12, Rio Tavares OCT-19, Itaum OCT-26, Itinga NOV-2). While I was gone the other three worked together in our ward. Everyone was taken by surprise. Oh well. I’m back in my own area today.

Just to answer Mom’s question: No. I wasn’t demoted to junior for blocking the president’s shot too many times. The only thing that’s really ben changing lately is the scenery. Hopefully it’ll stay pretty constant for the next couple weeks. I hate packing my bags.

We played soccer for P-day (again), it hasn’t rained today (yet), and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Unpacking my bags (with much prayer and fasting),
Elder Haws(mo)

Not again...

Hey Family,

How’s life up there in Idaho? The goalposts are still orange? BYU dropped a game? Elder Haws got transferred? Again? Yes.

Life is crazy. One day you’re in Florianopolis, the next day you’re on a bus to Joinville. Don’t even ask. I’m still confused as to why I’m here. The fact of the matter is that I’m serving in the Itaum Ward, with one other companionship. My companion is Elder Hill (Orem, UT… kind of) and the other companionship is Elder Stokes (Poky, ID) and Elder Coburn (GEORGIA). 4 gringos in the same house. The members were more than a little startled by this outcome. The other three elders got here 2 weeks ago (when I went to Rio Tavarez) so we’re basically enjoying 2 white washes. Good times.

Joinville is the largest city in Santa Catarina and has around 7 or eight different companionships in the city. Luckily we can still have big P-days. We just have to make a couple phone calls before hand. Joinville is famous for raining every night. Right about the time the sun goes down the drops come down. Just to make matters better, during the summer it becomes on of the HOTTEST cities in the mission. Wish me luck! Pray for cloud cover.

Mom had mentioned something about a Christmas package. To tell you the truth, I hadn’t even realized that Christmas was right around the corner. I think I’m going to be here for Christmas, but there’s no way to know. I served in 3 different areas over the course of 11 days. I think President Queiroz might be having a good laugh about this one. Who knows?

Package? It’s not worth it to send clothing. Candy is always a nice addition. I think what I would like is food from back home. The sauce packets were awesome. Maybe a box of cereal. Mac and Cheese (NOT EASY MAC. Other families sent easy mac to missionaries but we don’t have microwaves), stuff like that. Don’t send ramen noodles or cake mixes, I can find them both down here. Besides that, just be creative. I trust you guys. If I get anything I don’t want, it’s easy to give stuff away to people who will use it. Thanks for everything.

The sun is hot, the rain is constant, but I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Leaving my bags packed,
Elder Haws(mo)

Where in the World is Elder Haws(mo)?

Hey Family,

It appears by your emails that everyone is a little stressed. Everyone seems to be wondering where I am, what I’m doing, and why I didn’t email yesterday. Good times. I can’t believe that BYU lost so bad to TCU. It had seemed to be the second hardest game of the year, but still. One of the assistants to the president called me Friday to tell me BYU got blown out. I nearly cried, and it wasn’t even because of the spirit of the lesson. I was pleased to find out that I’m so well known around the mision for being a BYU fan. Even the AP’s will take 10 minutes out of their “busy days” to call up and talk trash to Elder Haws.

I feel as if we are setting a record down here. I’ve been tracting in the rain for around a month now. In the last month we’ve had around 8 days of sunshine, and the rest was umbrella weather. Luckily the sun was out this morning so my shoes could finally start to dry. It would definately be a time for rejoicing if we could get some snow to fall instead of this dreadful rain.

Now to answer some questions. I got transferred from the Agronomica Ward to the Rio Tavares Ward. Rio Tavarez is the ward that covers the southern half of the island of Florianopolis. Next week I’ll try to email a map showing the distance I moved. No, the president didn’t transfer me because I blocked him a couple times (jsut to make sure I blocked his shot once yesterday), in fact, he spent that same week bragging to every missionary in the zone that his team still beat mine. Onme of this P-Days I’m going to havbe to lay down the law with the president. My new companion is Elder Rocha who is from Olinda, Pernambuco. Interesting, because my second companion in Navegantes was Elder da Rocha from Recife, Pernambuco. Recife and Olinda are neighboring cities in the northeastern corner of the country. I’m emailing today because we couldn’t yesterday. Ourr “allowance” got delayed a couple days so I had to wait for my companion to recieve funds to email. Don’t worry. President Queiroz cleared everything.

Since today isn’t P-day I’m going to have to fun real quick. Sorry for the quick email. I’ll send photos next week.

The sun is back, my clothes are drying, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Roaming the Island,
Elder Haws(mo)

P.S. Forgive me for typing errors, this computer doesn’t have spell check in English.

Surprise, Surprise‏

Hey Family,

Another transfer has come and gone. Before you know it Christmas will arrive and someone will be making fun of my Brazilian accent. How crazy is that? Oh well. 6 weeks in the Agronomica Ward and I’m already packing my bags. Yes, you heard correctly. I’m getting transferred. Surprises aren’t always that fun.

This past week was a real pain. We had a couple days were plans A through D fell through ALL DAY LONG. It tests your faith, and your patience, but everything works out in the end. Willian got splashed, but his mom will have to wait a little while. Saturday after the baptism the primary had a big activity. Seeing as how we had a few kids there from investigator families, we stuck around to help out a little bit. It was a bunch of fun. It’s too bad I’m already leaving the area, but I feel as though I helped out a little bit.

For P-Day today I was expecting to go to a big game of basketball at the president’s house. It just so happened that my companion had his heart set on going to the beach. A few different Elders called me this morning to make sure I was coming, but I had to tell each of them that it wouldn’t work out. Oh well. There’s always next time. We hung out on the beach, threw around a football, a Frisbee, and had sumo wrestling matches in the sand. It was Elder Burkhardt’s last P-Day so we went to Pizza Hut for lunch.

What else could I be forgetting?

…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!

From your SON,Elder Haws(mo)

PS I'm throwing in a picture of Artur, an 18-month-ish old boy who I taught to say "Cougar". He only says a handful of words in Portuguese but runs around his house screaming "COUGAR!" Don't worry. His mom studied at BYU for a semester so she understands.

Conference in 2 Languages‏

Hey Family,

5-0. It’s a pretty good start for my Cougars, but we can’t let a team like USU look good when the U beat them by over 40. Oh well. We’ve just got to keep our focus on the conference and everything should work out for the best.

How was General Conference for you guys? I got to watch everything except the Saturday Morning Session. Everything Saturday was just in Portuguese. President Queiroz informed us that we could only go to the Saturday sessions (except Priesthood) if we had an investigator. All of our investigators backed out at the last minute for the morning session so we had to do a little running but we made to the Saturday Afternoon Session right at the end of the first musical number with Willian. It was great… except for the talk in the Priesthood session by Elder Mamula(?). The guy translating got lost a couple times so we listened to half the talk in English. A couple people got really upset… but I didn’t mind. What can I say? I guess I’m pretty easy to get along with. And don’t worry. We got a ride home at around midnight with the Bishop. Dairy Queen doesn’t exist in Florianopolis so we had to improvise (picture enclosed). Sunday I spent the entire day in the office watching conference with Elder Wright and the rest of the Americans in the Zone. As soon as Elder Godoy mentioned Florianopolis there were loud cheers from every computer screen. Elder Wright wasn’t watching the conference live, so his cheer came when the rest of us were watching the end of his talk. It just so happens that Elder Godoy was the mission president of a member from Navegantes. Elder Godoy was baptized into the church at 17 and was a mission president when he was only 34 years old.

Thanks to everyone involved with the package. It was great. I opened it while I was on a companion exchange with Elder Burkhardt (picture enclosed). Elder Burkhardt was incredibly jealous of my package. Usually missionaries get boxes filled of either useless stuff, or candy that nobody misses. The ward and family came through strong for Elder Haws. Thanks! Oh, I think I read in a letter that the Gemar family is expecting another. Maybe it’s just me, but I think Michael Gemar has a great ring to it. What do you guys think?

I’m sorry if I’ve done anything to offend the family. I keep getting little hints to answer questions that people send me. I went back and read each of the emails I’ve gotten since mid-August and the only two questions I found were about my mission president’s last name and whether or not I get packages sooner now that I’m on the island. If you say KAY-ROSE you’ll be about 90% right. Yes, our district has meetings at the office every Tuesday.

Just to close we played ball for P-Day today. After 2 hours of humiliation, runnindg and soccer we busted out the basketball. It was Elder Huber, Elder Santana (formerly Elder C. Silva) and me versus the President and two Americans that will be home before Thanksgiving. It was a pretty close game at the beginning but ended up being an eternal 3-2 drill since Elder Santana is still learning. Unfortunately we lost 22-20, but at least I blocked the president 3 times (only 2 were big) and a couple people got ad at the 15-foot jump shot.

Life is good, summer is coming soon, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Countdown to Saturday,
Elder Haws(mo)

Preparing for General Conferece. Round 3.‏

Hey Family,

BYU #8? That’s what I love to hear. One of the zone leaders here on the island is a Missouri fan so he’s always talking smack about BYU. Tomorrow I’ll be sure to let him know what the truth is. Before too long we’ll be on top of Missouri fighting our way to the BCS Championship. GO COUGARS!

I can’t believe Jake’s home! That little punk. He better get that letter off to me soon. It’s been around 3 months since I heard from him. Did mom say his hair is short? I’m going to have to see that picture to believe it. I saw that kid every day for 6 years and I can only remember twice that his hair wasn’t hanging down over his ears. Don’t get too excited family. Jake and I graduated together, but we don’t come home together. He went out 7 and a half months before me, so you’ll have to wait 7 and a half months before you see me. Enough of this “finish strong” business. You can’t talk about buzzer beaters when the 4th quarter hasn’t even started yet.

Life here on the island is going good. P-Day is always an excuse to gather the troops, even if we don’t end up doing anything. General Conference this weekend has ruined all our plans. We have an awesome family that came to church by themselves yesterday. Usually they come but we have to go wake them up, pick them up, and sit by them through all the meetings. Yesterday we called to remind them about church and they responded that they were just waiting for the mom to get ready and they’d be on the road. If it weren’t for conference we’d be splashing them on Saturday, so we’ll end up having to wait a week. This transfer seems to be flying by. October 15th will be the next switch. It’s a good thing. Elder Carvalho is ready for a transfer. He’s enjoyed working here on the island but he’s been for almost 5 months. He’s anxious for a change of scenery. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Rumors are floating around the island that the package arrived in the office so I’ll pick it up after district meeting tomorrow. Thanks to everyone back home for all the love, support, prayers, and letters. I probably need to apologize to some people who haven’t received responses from me. Some letters haven’t received response due to laziness on P-day. That’s the natural man. I’m sorry. However, I can’t take the blame for all the letters. Twice since I came to Brazil the Brazilian Postal Workers have gone on strike, accounting for thousands of letters being burned, and other thousands never being delivered. Anything is possible. I can’t blame everything on others, but I’ll do my best from here on out to promptly respond to letters received, even if I do get invited to play basketball.

Life is good, summer is coming back, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Watching Conference… maybe,
Elder Haws(mo)

Back to the Beach!

Hey Family,

Life on the island is going good. Yesterday was ward conference and the chapel was surprisingly full. I still don’t know everyone yet so a majority of the people could have been just stake leaders. The stake president recognized that this ward is the fastest growing ward in the stake. I looked at Elder Carvalho because we both know that this ward has only had 1 baptism in the last six months and around 4 baptisms in the last year. Then the stake president finished his “joke” by having all the pregnant members stand up. He said something like “even when investigators don’t get baptized, the ward can still grow in other ways. I’m not sure if it was a true joke, or if he was trying to drop a hint. Either way, I didn’t laugh.

It was good to hear about another shutout. Everyone had been talking about how our defense would struggle this year, but I haven’t seen any proof of that yet. Good times. I hope we can keep this up so that I can witness the big story next year. 2008: Quest for Perfection. 2009: National Championship! Go Cougars!

Today for P-Day we went to the beach. A bunch of missionaries really had fun, but I didn’t see much of a point to the trip. We traveled to the other side of the island to go to some “amazing beach” and everyone ended up talking for 2 hours. I thought it was good, but I failed to see any reason in traveling so far to sit around talking.

No package yet, but Zone Conference is on Wednesday so there’s still hope to get it this week. We are already getting the announcement that any Christmas packages must be sent directly to the mission office. Letters can go to “Caixa Postal 361”, bur any package needs to go to “Feliciano Nunes Pires 42”. I can’t promise that the second address is correct. You can look up the address in my mission papers, in the emails from last year, or I can send it next week. Either way, don’t send packages to the “Caixa Postal”!

I’m including a couple photos today. We have a family we’re teaching you decide to start living the Word of Wisdom. Since they don’t drink coffee anymore we decided to borrow it and try to brew some at home. It appears that our style was a little wrong and we ended up using all their coffee to make one batch. It didn’t appear to tasty so we ended up throwing it out. Does that make me a bad person?

Life is good, summer is coming and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Whipping up the newest coffee,
Elder Haws(mo)

16

Hey Family,

59-0? That’s what I like to hear. My boys are taking care of the PAC-10. Even better: The Power of the Wasatch (BYU Marching Band) now has a home. I home they warm it up nicely for me. Only another year before I claim my permanent place. But hey, there’s no time to think about that now. It’s time to work, work, work.

P-Day today was enjoyable. We got about 20 Elders together at the mission home to play ball. 2 hours of soccer (when I was playing the Brazilians left me in the goal) and around an hour of basketball. Good times. When we got there the president pulled me aside to talk to me… no … it wasn’t an interview… he just wanted to know if I’d heard about the BYU game. When I told him no, he replied that the game was ugly, really ugly. When I asked who played ugly he smiled and answered “Not BYU”. He remembered it being around 60-0, a number that I enjoyed, and openly laughed at UCLA. I was excited until we started playing soccer. That can kill any great feeling. President played with us and made a couple kids look silly. Rumor has it that when he was a kid he was teammates with a current Brazilian legend. I’ll have to do a little more research before we start spreading the rumor so keep it on the down-low.

Once the Brazilians got a little tired we played a “quick” game of basketball. First to 21 by 1. It was me, Elder Burkhardt (Florianopolis Zone Leader) and 3 others against Elder Huber (plays awesome), Elder Peterson (great post player), 2 random Brazilians, and President Queiroz. The president played surprisingly well, and didn’t seem to get as tired as everybody else. They ended up beating us 22-20. President Queiroz hit a deep jump shot to pull away 21-20, and a quick turnover by our team led to the immediate loss. It appears as if we’ll be able to play every other week for a while. Should be good.

Elder Carvalho (my current companion) is a great kid from Sao Paulo. He’s got 6 months on the mission, is in his second area, and was trained by one of our zone leaders. He turns 21 on the 28th of September, but appears to only be 14 or 15. He plays guitar, is a programmer in training, and is anxious to have a baptism on the mission. So far he’s been dry, but we hope to have him in the water a couple times in the next month or so. Work on the island is incredibly different from what I’ve already experienced, but with help from our awesome new ward mission leader we hope to be finding success relatively soon.

Summer seems to be starting up soon, but we’re ready for it. Last week we had around 4 days of rain.That’s no fun when you walk everywhere. Missionary life is never easy, but there’s no use in complaining because it’s not going to end anytime soon.

The sun is hot, the rain has stopped, and I’m fine to stop worrying about me.

Searching for my groove,

Elder Haws(mo)

Lost in a New City‏

Hey Family,

BYU is still undefeated. That’s what I love to hear. Even if it was a blocked extra-point at the buzzer. We’re good like that. Though, I must say, I’m a little disappointed at the fact that Harvey fumbled in the end zone. 136 yards on 23 carries is acceptable, but you can’t fumble at the goal line.

Today we spent P-day at one of the most famous beaches in Florianopolis. The Praia Mole. If you translated it, it would be SOFT BEACH. Don’t worry, we got out before noon, which means that we were gone before anyone else showed up, and we stayed a good distance from the beach that is “clothing-optional” (don’t ask). We went with the zone leaders and a few of the sisters in the zone. By the way, I’m currently serving on the island of Florianopolis in the Agronomica Ward. My area is pretty big, it’s full of hills, and the ward has between 70 and 80 at church each week. The ward has been “dry” for a little while, but we’ll see if we can’t fix that a little bit.

It turns out that Elder Huber (from BYU) is serving with Elder Santana (who I trained) in a ward on the other side of the bridge. Today we ran into them at Pizza Hut (yes. Pizza Hut) and we’ve started our official plans to play basketball. It might seem like a conspiracy, but President Queiroz played with them this morning. Elder Huber seemed a little too happy to inform me that the play of the game was when he blocked the President’s hook shot. We’ll see if I don’t have any of my own stories next week.

We are currently teaching William, a 15 year old who is really excited about the church. He’s been to church twice now, we to a ward activity to play soccer last weekend, and just got signed up to go on a stake camping trip. If all goes well he’ll be getting baptized next week, and the rest of his family should follow shortly.

Life is good, the hills were worth the wait, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Learning to climb… again,
Elder Haws(mo)

From the Beach to the Island‏

*note from Mikey's family - we're confused about his transfer.

I think he put Itajai two times instead of telling us

WHERE he's going. Maybe someone else can figure out where he is. :)

**update** ok - we're gussing he's on Florianopolis

Hey Family,

School has already started? BYU already got a win in the books? Utah won at Michigan? That’s really going to help our rankings when we beat them in a third straight Holy War. BCS here we come.

Life here in Navegantes is good but it’s about to come to an end. Yesterday the bishopric announced that I was probably going to get transferred. It seemed as if the world was going to come to an end. A bunch of people started to cry, a few gave me their addresses and informed that if I didn’t keep in touch they would kill me, and others just continued with their lives as usual. It turns out that it times for another change of scenery, so I’m packing my bags.

The baptisms went great last Friday. Deivison is 11 and Gustavo is 8. There parents and older sister were baptized ten years ago, but have been inactive for around years. The family is almost completely active right now, and plans to stay that way now that we splashed the little boys. (Note: I didn’t mean that WE splashed the little boys, it was actually the bishop in the water with them). Gleice is 13 and is the neighbor of a really active family that lives about an hour and a half from our apartment. We are now working on teaching/baptizing her two sisters and her mother. Her mom hasn’t been to church yet, nor has she been present at a full lesson but combing the baptismal experience and our new teaching techniques it shouldn’t be too long before she “joins the club”. We had a little party after the baptism, but I’ll probably wait to send hoe a DVD of photos rather then email all of them.

For P-Day we went to a beach in Itajai with the zone and then had lunch at McDonalds and/or Subway. I’m going to have a Subway In my next area so I went to McDonalds with Elder Stephanou (Currently: Itajai Zone Leader, but on Wednesday he becomes the new Assistant to the President). I got a Big Mac combo with a shake. The burger was a little small; the fries only “looked” exactly like the original, but the shake was delicious. The entire combo cost around $10-12. When I explained to Elder Stephanou that I could have had 3 combos for the same price back home he asked if he could come live with us. Poor guy. It’ll be a good change to get home and pay the real price for fast food. The dollar menu will definitely be a pleasant surprise.

Tomorrow night I’ll be sleeping at Elder Bateman’s house in Itajai before taking the bus to Itajai. Unfortunately we’re getting separated again, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be ending up in the same zone any time soon. My new companion will be… a short Brazilian. Who would have guessed? But seriously, even the other Brazilians call him short. Should be a fun 6 weeks. It turns out that I’ll be going to take Elder Andrews’ (from my group) spot, which is also where Elder Brough (also from my group) started his mission. Good times. Let’s see how it goes.

Life is good, Morgan seems like a boy’s name, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Leaving “Heaven,”
Elder Haws(mo)

PS I also tossed in a photo from our last P-day. Maiko, Elder Harmon, Elder Haws, Elder Stephanou, Elder da Rocha

Baptismal Planning‏

Hey Family,

Winter is coming to a close. Who would have thought it? Life is good but it’s getting hot and I’ll probably be sun burnt tomorrow. This morning we went to Itajai for P-Day. The idea is that we’d be hanging out with both Itajai groups, but Elder Bateman and Elder Farias didn’t show up. But lucky Michael was there. Kind of. The Brazilain people have stolen the name “Michael”, but are incapable of spelling. In order for it to sound like “Michael” they have to spell it “Myckon” “Micon” or “Mikon”. Anyways, “Michael” is a 20-something year-old high counselor in the stake. Yeah. Figure that one out. He’s fluent in English so its fun to hang out with him. We played random little games of soccer and a 3-on-2 “racist” game of basketball. Elder Harmon and I managed to beat Elder Stephanou, Elder da Rocha, and Michael by a score of 7-3. The hoops were around 9 feet tall any thought of a jump shot was a complete joke. Just to show whose country invented the sport we made sure to end it with a dunk. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

We will be having a few baptisms this week so I hope to have some pictures in the email next week. We’ll be baptizing two sons from a recently re-activated family. One is 11 and the other is 8 so only one will really be a baptism for the Brazil Florianopolis Mission. Then we’ll be baptizing a 13 year old girl who is best friends with a member and has been attending church for the past month. After baptizing her we’ll start working with her two sisters, her parents, and we’ve already started teaching other kids on her street. Elder da Rocha and I started counting yesterday and it looks like I’ll leave over 10 people (water ready) if I get transferred next week. No one likes that part but it’s no good to complain to the president.

I think Ramos (pronounced Hamos) will be calling you guys this week. A lady from the ward down here needs some medication that it seems you can only get in the US. Ramos will be calling (or already called) to see if you guys can help. He speaks English pretty well bust as a solid accent. Be good to him. He plays basketball.

This weekend is going to be D-Day in Barra Velha. Barra Velha is a little city about an hour north of Navegantes. During the summer it’s a busy vacationing spot for thousands, but the rest of the year it’s almost a ghost town. Let’s see what happens with 16 missionaries knocking doors. Wish us luck.

Thanks for everything. The sun is raging, the font is filling, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

One eye on the font, one eye on the sunscreen,
Elder Haws(mo)

It's the Conference Spectacular‏

Hey Family,

P-Day on Tuesday. This sensation has become a little unfamiliar to me. We always did this in Concordia, but it’s become a little rarer here in Navegantes. We’ll have to improvise a little today to fill up our time, but we’ll probably be heading to Itajaí next week.

Zone Conference/Interviews was great. We used to have them on different days throughout the transfer, but for training purposes we’re lumping them all together until the end of the year. We left here Sunday night to stay in Itajai. Good times, little parties, and some sleeping. Yesterday we got up, got dressed, and got to the chapel at 8:15 so that we could be seated and ready to start at 8:30. At about 8:50 the assistants called the zone leaders and told them that they hadn’t even left the island yet. That being said, we abandoned the thought of sitting all pretty waiting for the president. Elders threw their coats off, the kicked their high heels off, and we scattered. I left the football with the rest of the elders as I took a small group to a local bakery to get some breakfast. We got back and I started playing catch while talking with Elder Larson. Time passed and we were sitting in the parking lot playing catch when the President, his wife, the assistants, and the president’s father showed up. We ran inside and got the meeting started at around 10:15. Only an hour and fifteen minutes late.

The regular Conference schedule got thrown out the window as we had a mini-MTC. President Queiroz and the assistants taught us some valuable techniques for utilizing the spirit, inviting people to baptism, and teaching the first two lessons. Now we’ve got the flipbooks back, only this time their Queiroz-style. President Queiroz’s dad was both mission president and temple president in Porto Alegre a while back. He taught us how to do contacts and first visits in people’s houses differently. Using 5-10 stories that blew everyone’s minds, he explained that these same techniques (that focus on our authority as missionaries) turned the Porto Alegre mission around. When he arrived the mission had 100 missionaries and was baptizing 50-60 people a month. Each of the 3 years he served as mission president the mission baptized hundreds of people each month. He promised us that if we have faith, we will see enormous numbers of people come to a sure knowledge of the Restoration of the Gospel.

Well, how are you guys? Is Buffalo looking ready for the season? Is Warren nervous about grad school? Does Bentley love 1st grade? Is Max ready for kindergarten? Jonah excited to be the man of the house while his brothers are at school? Jake comes home next month? That’s not fair. Is it Mandy Burton that’s serving in Europe, or a different Burton girl? I’m worried about Derek’s health/weight if he doesn’t get out of the MTC soon. If Mexico doesn’t decide to let him in he’ll end up losing his Christmas phone call. No one is allowed to call from the MTC.

Life is good, there’s work to be done, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

The Father of an Angel,
Elder Haws(mo)

The Day After Father´s Day (Brazilian Style)

Hey Family,

Half of this transfer is already over. The transfer had been crawling by until this last week which seemed to be over in 3 days. My perception of time is incredibly unreliable these days. Do you suppose that’s because I’m an old missionary, or because I’ve taken a little too much sun?

Next Monday will be Interviews/Zone Conference so don’t be expecting an email that day. I haven’t yet heard which day will officially be our P-Day so just relax next week if the email doesn’t come on Tuesday. Our style for doing contacts, giving the lessons, marking baptisms, and everything else we do will all officially change next Monday. President Queiroz has brought a new system/program/spirit to the mission field. Our Zone Leaders already talked about the change in contacts last week, but the rest will still be a mystery. If everything works out as planned I’ll be having a lot more reasons to send pictures home. Keep your fingers crossed!

Since we now have the keys to the locked cabinets at the chapel, we can start mixing up our morning exercises. For example, this morning we went to the church and played basketball and soccer. I played basketball and Elder da Rocha played soccer. Good times. I still feel like an idiot every time I pick up the ball, the shots weren’t falling like I want them to, but it’s much better exercise than I have been getting everyday.

Besides that, life keeps going. It rained all week, so we had to work a little more creative to get our contacts but it all worked out alright. Everyone is complaining about it being cold these days but I’m still working every day in short sleeves. Some people are starting to think that I’m crazy, but what else is new?

If you’re putting a package together I could use some new heads for my razor. Gillette Fusion. It still doesn’t exist in Brazil. And I could use some common medications. Allergy meds, Ibuprofen, Pepto-Bismol (chewable). Nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. If there is any more room in the box toss in some more American candy.

Life is good, the sun is back, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Happy Holidays,
Elder Haws(mo)

The Long Lost Jumpshot‏

Hey Family,

Good times here in Itajaí. This morning we got a bunch of elders together and played some basketball. I was teamed up with Elder Bateman and Elder Larson (from Meridian, ID) so we dominated anything and everything. We have the duty to represent our country well on the streses of Itajai. Now we just have to hope that our boys come home with the golds. Everyone down here keeps telling me that the Chinese are going to end up beating us in medals. What do you guys think? I’m kind of “out” of the sports conversations (except Cougar Sports) so I have no way of responding to them. Oh well. Life is good and it will keep coming. Oh, we also played a little soccer this morning. I really am not a huge fan of the sport. The only thing I can do with my feet is walk. Soccer was completely humnilihating, but everyone was nice enough to let me score a goal.

Elder Jackson is still hanging out in the Idaho Falls Stake? He is a great man. Trained 2 assistants? I’ve only put one in the office so far. Everyone thougt Elder da Rocha was going to become a secretary, but in the end he stayed put with me. With transfers coming up I‘m probably going to get moved but that’s ok. It’s probably someone else’s turn to soak up the blessings in Navegantes. We won’t be having any baptisms this week (and probably not the next week) but here in about a month two elders are going to be baptizing far more than they deserve.

Thanks again for the potato head doll. Luiza freaked out when she opened it. Good times. I’ve got almost all the rest of the stuff delivered so far. I just need to get the hymnbook on its way to Elder Lacerda. Hey, is it possible for you guys to get another bottle of contact solution in the mail to me? The bottle I’ve got now is only going to last about another month. I’ve also heard that seagull book sells rubber CTR rings. Basically the same thing as the Livestrong bracelets, only as rings for little kids. Rumor has it that they’re cheap and the little brazilians love them.

Well I better get running. Life is good, basketball always calms the nerves, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Wishing I Could Make a 3-Pointer,
Elder Haws(mo)

Bills or Colts?

Hey Family,

Believe it or not, it’s difficult to shoot a basketball when you haven’t touched one in over a month. I think worse than going those first 11 months without touching the ball, playing every week for a month and then going a month without seeing a ball. Oh well. By the end of a little scrimmage we played with guys in our ward I was having a good time.

Life is going good, but a little cloud coverage would be nice. I got the package at district meeting last week. Thanks everyone. I’ve got most of the requests distributed. As good as it feels to be able to give people stuff; they keep annoying me to know how much the different things cost. Mom, how much did the Mr. Potato Head, RM DVD, and root beer and maple extracts cost? I might just have to start making up prices, and nobody likes that part. If you’re putting another package together peanut butter and random American candies would be greatly appreciated. Go ahead and be creative. Did you guys look for the flat postage rate boxes? You sent some flat rate envelopes to me (which I’m sure saved money) but so far I keep getting boxes from random potato products that cost more to than the various flat rate boxes of considerably larger size that other missionaries are receiving. Just a suggestion. I enjoy getting the potato boxes, but that’s no reason for you guys to pay more that you have to.

A high council member was wondering how much plain gold and silver rings cost back home. He is interested in buying a simple ring and engraving the CTR symbol in it to use as a wedding ring. He mentioned that to get a ring like that in the USA would be about half the price of doing it here. He hasn’t requested anything yet; he just wants to know the price so he can do some effective negotiating and price shopping.

Baldree got released: You’re kidding me. I was kind of hoping that we would still be the president when I got home so that I could go to his class ONCE. Who’s the new quorum president? What is Baldree doing with the young men?

The work is really coming along down here. We don’t anticipate any baptisms until the end of the month, but you never know. We are teaching an awesome couple that just needs to get married and they’re ready for the water. They’re not sure if they want to be baptized yet, which means we need to work a little more on their testimony of the Book of Mormon, but we setting the marriage/slash baptism party for August 29-30. If it doesn’t happen that weekend I’ll probably get transferred before it happens. By probably I mean that it’s around a 90% chance that I’ll be transferred September 3rd. Staying in an area 5 transfers is really rare down here. Then again, we’ve got a new president which means anything can start being normal.

It’s strange to think that football and school are starting up again. It doesn’t feel like it’s been a year since the last opening day reports. It feels like August was only 6 months ago, but it also seems like 2 years have passed since I was serving in Concordia. How is that possible? What is 2 years of summer doing to me? Next month I’ll be rooting for the Bills to beat the Colts. That would not have been possible back home in the snow.

The work continues, the world keeps spinning, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Searching for shade,
Elder Haws(mo)

Transfers in Navegantes?

Hey Family,

Good times in the neighborhood. We had the privilege of being in attendance while Sister Carlinda Zimmermann de Siqueira was baptized by her son, Marcio de Siqueira, Saturday evening. I’m not sure if I’ve already mentioned but he was baptized while living in Rio Grande do Sul (the only state south of Santa Catarina), served in the Rio de Janeiro North Mission, and returned last month to help us finish preparing his mother for the waters of baptism. Good times. We had around 20 people at the baptism and all were supportive. She was confirmed yesterday, without any major catastrophe, so now we just have to focus on getting the little sister to follow the answer she got to her prayer. It’s time to play the waiting game.

This past week was a little eventful. Tuesday Elder Bateman and I made our friendly trip to Florianopolis to renew our visas. After the 2 and a half hour bus ride that should only take an hour we got to meet up with most of our buds and go fill out paperwork. It turns out that Elders Andrews, Brough, and Smith had all gone to renew their visas the previous Friday, but it didn’t work out so we 5 got to go together. Unfortunately Elder Cornaby is serving out west in Joacaba so he wasn’t there with us. Concordia is a little more that an hour AFTER Joacaba so he would have been on a bus for over 6 hours. He’ll probably renew his visa tomorrow during transfers. We managed to take a picture of the 5 of us together… with Elder Clarindo, the executive secretary. He’s a good man and we needed a pretty tall, really skinny guy to pretend to be Cornaby. This visa business got me back to Navegantes late so we didn’t really start working until Wednesday. Thursday I went to Itajai to do a companion exchange with Elder Harmon and then we ended up running to the other side of the city to help Bateman a little. Saturday we were excited to have an afternoon of work before the baptism. Naturally the family of recent convert decided to move so they needed help. Enclosed is a photo of the staircase we had to manage (their new apartment is on the 4th floor) as well as a photo of Leonardo carrying the 3-person sofa up the stairs. Just to give you an idea Leonardo is my height, weighs around 260 lbs. and is on the verge of becoming a semi-professional basketball player. Good times.

Transfers have arrived and the new is… we are both staying in Navegantes. Some members had gotten worried that I’d be leaving already. Now they’ve got 6 more weeks to make fun of the giant before the next transfer sends me packing. I decided to take a few pictures of a family after lunch last week. Antonio Godois gives more referrals to us than anyone else in the ward. Unfortunately, the people who give one or two referrals a year almost always lead to baptisms while Antonio hasn’t had any true water experience yet. Along with pictures of Antonio we have his wife, Dani, his 4 year old daughter Laura and his 2 year old son Guilherme. Guilherme recently learned how to say HAWS and hasn’t stopped. He’s a good little kid, but he makes a mess wherever he goes. Remind you of someone?

This month is supposed to be the equivalent of a North American January but last Thursday the temperature reached over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. How does that compare with our current Idaho summer? Life is good, there is work to be done, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Going one more with Navegantes,
Elder Haws(mo)

Running for Ricardo‏

Hey Family,

One more in the books. It was a difficult week but it all worked out in the end. Monday we only had 3 hours to work (because the entire day was meetings with the new president), Tuesday we only had 3 hours to work (because of P-Day) and Friday and Saturday we had almost no time to visit people (because of preparation and performance of our ward activity and baptism). Saturday we spent 3 hours helping clean the chapel, and then set up the baptism, and then threw Ricardo in the water. Good times. Elder Gilo (our friendly neighborhood zone leader) said after the interview that Ricardo is almost ready to be a bishop. That comment would have been awesome if I hadn’t already known that even Homely Haws was capable of being bishop. It still felt good though.

Just to complicate our plans, workload, and party schedule we got a special phone call from the mission office last week. At the time I was in the middle of a companion exchange with Elder Bateman. It was the executive secretary informing us that we had 2 work days to get new special documentation photos taken, find the bus times to Florianopolis, and get to the island by 1 pm tomorrow. Fun. The time has come to renew our visas so we’ll be missing a day of work while our companions run around Itajai. Right now I’ve got my fingers crossed that our entire group will be there. The last time the 6 of us were together was at the transfer meeting in February. Everyone was so preoccupied with their bags, their companions, and their posterity that we didn’t have to time to take a photo. If we all end up together on the island tomorrow we won’t let it happen again.

I’m not sure if I already mentioned this but we have been teaching a lady for about 2 months now whose son got home from his mission last month. He’s been working overtime with us and with her and it’s finally paid off. I am pleased to announce that this Saturday will be the baptism of Carlinda Siqueira. We really are being blessed here in Navegantes. Yesterday was our annual Ward Conference and our ward really came through for us. Since moving to the new chapel our ward has been averaging around 120 at sacrament meeting each week (about a half of those were at Ricardo’s baptism). Yesterday we managed to have 181 people at church. Thanks to the help of our ward there were over 20 non-members/investigators there. Needless to say, we’ll be working double-time this week to contact and teach the different families that showed up. Wish us luck.

I’ll probably pick up my package and any letters tomorrow in Floripa. The next time I’ll see letters will be after transfers. I’m doing well here. I don’t know if there’s any peanut butter in the last package, but I could use some soon. Just about every member in the ward loves maple syrup so if I stay here next transfer you’ll have to send me more to distribute. I’m always willing to receive and try different “easy” recipes. The only problem is that we don’t have limited pots and pans in this apartment to cook. We’ll be talking to Sister Queiroz to see if we can’t buy some more. Everyone says its winter but it definitely feels like a calm summer in Idaho.

Winter is a joke, there’s work to be done, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Trying to remember the sensation of snow,
Elder Haws(mo)

Ricardo and Ramos

baptism Ricardo

cleaning chapel

Bishop Jarbas

One More Cougar?‏

Hey Family,

Sorry that this email is a day late. P-Day got moved because of our Zone Conference/Interviews yesterday. It was great. President and Sister Queiroz (you could pronounce it Kay-rose or Kay-ross) are great. Everyone commented on how they could feel a heat in the room. Whether it was lack of air-conditioning, a testifying of the spirit, or a proper cry to repentance is yet to be determined, but we all still enjoyed it. President Queiroz likes the Lakers and the Chargers while Sister Queiroz likes the Jazz. This topic got plenty of focus during there talks since they watched many epic Lakers-Jazz games during their 26 years in the United States. I sort of feel bad about my interview with him. We talked for about 2 minutes about a new teaching technique that he is going to implement next month and then he asked if I had any questions for him. Without little hesitation I asked… “BYU or Utah”? A smile spread across his face as he casually replied, “Of course BYU.” As it turns out we passed the next 5-8 minutes remembering and commenting on the last BYU-Utah games and the dramatic fourth-quarter victories that our Cougars were able to pull off. 2 Mission Presidents. 2 Cougar fans. So far, so good.

P-Day today is going to be pretty laid back. Laundry (by hand), clean house, write letters. The package hasn’t come to me yet but I’ll probably get it at transfers on the 23rd. I’m not sure if I already told you guys this but Elder Wright (my second companion in Concordia) is the new assistant to the president. As such, he and Elder Tessaro (the other AP) will be doing the next transfers almost by themselves. Elder Wright was kind enough to ask me if I wanted to stay in Navegantes or be transferred. After suggesting that he pray about it I told him I’d be happy either way. I love serving in this ward, but new areas give opportunities for more growth. I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see what happens.

The 4th of July was nothing special here. The only reason I ended up remembering that it was a holiday was because Elder Harmon called me twice to remind me. Zone Leaders are good for that. I think twice during the day someone asked me if my home country was celebrating some sort of holiday, but outside of that we just worked. This was officially my first 2nd holiday in Brazil. The countdown has begun in some parts of the mission.

Plaistead got drafted? Oh well. The parade got moved? Why? What do the parking lots of 17th street have to offer spectators? This might end up being the worst joke I’ve ever heard. I’ve been rounding up the troops to come and experience the Idaho Falls Parade and Firework Presentation in 2009, but it won’t have the same feel to not watch it from the front yard. Not good.

Life is good, it’s nice a warm ‘winter’, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Working to get my name in the Book,
Elder Haws(mo)

The Fourth of July?‏

Hey Family,

As of today my mission president is President Queiroz. It’s a little hard to believe that the Dansies will be gone in a couple of hours. It’s been a fun ride with them. I’ve always been able to rely on them to talk BYU sports with me, but now we have doubts. President Queiroz has been living in Utah for around 20 years but I don’t yet know if he’s a Cougar or Ute fan. Pray for me.

Life is going on as usual. After four or five days of clouds and winter coats the sun came back and it’s HOT. Good times. I thought I was going to get to use long sleeves for a little while. I guess not. This morning we ran to Itajai with the hopes of playing basketball with the Zone Leaders and some members. It had been 2 weeks since I’d gotten to shoot so I was all kinds of excited to play. When we showed up we found out that we had no ball, no members, and the Sisters showed up (so there was no possible chance of playing football). I ended up tossing the football around with Elder Harmon a little before the sisters pulled out a deck of Uno cards. We played one round before the security guards threw us off the premises. Good times. We always play basketball at the University in Itajai, and today we learned that they don’t allow anyone to play any form of card games on campus. That was a new one. Do they even have that rule at BYU-I? If not it doesn’t exist in the USA.

Last night we found out that our baptism this Saturday won’t work out. Don’t worry. We’ll splash him next Saturday. Then we’ll have at least one baptism on the 19. Transfers are showing up on the 23rd and no one has any idea what President Queiroz is going to pull. This last transfer that President Dansie did surprised everyone, even the Elders who are going home in 3 weeks and have witnessed 15 transfers. IT just so happens that in this next transfer my current Zone Leader Elder Gilo and my trainer Elder Martin will be going home. Elder Martin left Concordia in October and has been serving as Zone Leader in a city called Lages (the coldest city in the mission) since January. If I don’t get transferred this month I won’t get to see him again. Don’t worry, I’m not going to cry if I don’t see him.

Sorry if this email is short or lacks exciting information. We’re working hard, the members won’t stop giving us referrals and there aren’t enough days in the week to teach everyone. Wish us luck. If anybody has fun little stories or fables that teach (or could be adjusted to teach) positive messages and/or doctrinal principles please send them. It’s always nice to mix up the lessons a little bit.

Thanks for everything. It’s hot, there’s a ton to do, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Hoping the parade comes back to 4th street in 2009,
Elder Haws(mo)

(PS Is it already the 4th of July again? That's my 2nd time here in Brazil)

One More Time with da Rocha‏

Hey Family,

Life is good here in Navegantes. It finally started to cool down a little bit and now everyone is talking about the coldest winter in history. Just to give you an idea: I’m still walking around in short sleeves. It’s fun to see everyone shivering in their winter coats, trying everything in their power to stay in the sun, while I’m hanging out in shorts and a T-shirt. Oh well. I guess I’m just going to have to accept the fact that I won’t be seeing snow for another 17 months. That’s just not fair.

Good times working with Elder da Rocha. He doesn't speak English as well as Elder Lacerda… yet. We’re definitely working on it. He is from Recife, the capital of Pernambuco. Pernambuco is one of the most northern states in Brazil, and rumor has it that the sun rises on Recife before any other city in North or South America. Recife generally reaches temperatures of 104-110 degrees Fahrenheit year round, never measuring less than 70 degrees in the winter. Unfortunately Elder da Rocha feels cold from time to time down here in the south. Poor kid.

Hey, we have some requests from a ward member named Daniel. Daniel is Luiza’s husband. We baptized Luiza May 24th, and Daniel has been helping us in multiple aspects of the work all along. He has a couple questions for the family. He wants a recipe for corn dogs. He ate them a few times on his mission but doesn’t know how to make the batter. He’s also curious regarding a few prices. How much do the following items cost? A Mr. Potato Head, the book “I Have an Answer”, and the book “Missionary Pool”? He said not to send anything until I’ve confirmed prices with him, but if at all possible, could you throw a Mr. Potato Head in? Just get me the prices next week and he’ll pay me in Brazilian Currency. Luiza, his wife, fell in love with Mr. Potato Head after watching “Toy Story” and has wanted one ever since.

Nick Birch is home? Is he really going to play baseball at BYU? Alex is coming home? When did that happen? Jake will be home in a couple months, and Josh Tew is probably already packing his bags. This is almost too much to believe. I’ve still got 11 months ahead of me.

So, I’m throwing in a photo of our district this last transfer. After every district meeting we would go outside and play catch with the football for 15-20 minutes. Good times. Elder Lacerda (far right) and Sister Dantes (right) both got transferred and Elder Flores (the Mexican on my right) is sitting at home right now. That kid will be married here in a couple months and maybe even have a kid before I get home. I also attached a photo of Anderson (our most recent baptism) and his family. His little sister Tais is only 7 but she’ll be getting baptized in March. We started to teach the parents on Saturday, they were REALLY receptive, and we’ll be going back tonight. Wish us luck.

Brazilian Winters don’t exist, the members won’t stop giving us referrals, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Praying for Snow,
Elder Haws(mo)