Hey Family, It just became a sad P-Day. I just read the email from Dad that said the third prophet of my lifetime, and the only one that I remember passed away last night. Naturally I’m happy for him. He’s in a better place, and he’s with his wife again. The problem is: I’m selfish. Elder Brough, my district leader, always talks about how President Hinckley is/was HIS prophet. It was President Hinckley’s talks that he listened to in Primary, that he learned from during Young Men’s, and that helped him prepare for the mission. The First Presidency that sent me on mission is almost gone. It’s a good thing that this is the true church, and that it is guided by the hand of God. It doesn’t help to dwell on the past so I guess I’ll just have to focus on the good times in the future with President Thomas Spencer Monson. Last week we had interviews with the President in Tubarao. It was great to get to meet the Elders serving with me in this Zone. It so happens that I already knew half of them from when I was serving out west, so it was a happy reunion. After interviews with the President and a couple trainings from the Zone Leaders we went to a local restaurant for lunch. As everyone was finishing up their desserts I decided to make a quick run to the restroom. I was gone for all of about 3 minutes. When I came back the Dansie’s and the 15 Elders in white shirts and ties were all gone. I made a quick phone call to Sister Dansie and she and the President came back to get me. I never would have imagined that they could leave ME behind. I don’t think I’m any better than anybody else, but I’m definitely a lot bigger than anybody else. I guess it was just my turn to be the Elder left behind. We will be headed to Florianopolis this Wednesday for Zone Conference so if there is a package or more letters to be had I will be having them. Thanks to everyone who is writing letters. You have no idea how much it means to a missionary to know that someone back home still thinks and cares about them. When I was serving in Concordia, I always made sure to sit near Elder Harmon on the way home so that he could see me get my stack of letters. He was always jealous, and one time even got a little angry. It turns out he was transferred to Tubarao as well. When Sister Dansie handed him his letters last week he got a smile on his face. Then he remembered that I was there. He walked over to talk to me as the smile slowly disappeared from his face. He sat next to me and, without looking at me, asked me how many letters I received. I replied that I hadn’t counted them yet but that he was more than welcome to count them for me. Much to my pleasure he counted out 24 letters. Thank you everyone. Other details: No Jenny, I’m not checking the blog. If someone in Brazil is checking the blog it must be Marcelo. He was my branch president in Concordia who sent a couple emails to Mom. He speaks English, and just has problems with grammar so I told him he could check out this site for practice reading. If Marcelo is reading the blog: Bom dia fubeca! Vocês estão sentindo minha falta aí em Concórdia? É bem plano aqui cara. Eu quase não durmo a noite porque eu me acostumai nos morros do Oeste. Dá um abraço para o todo mundo, e você deve falar para todas as irmãs que elas têm que continuar fazendo batatas nos almoços com os Élderes. Nunca esqueça Èlder Haws, o Grandão. The weather is great, the work is the Lord’s and I’m doing fine so stop worrying about me. There is no negative wind chill in Brazil,Elder Haws(mo)
Hey Family, You got my letter? It’s about time, don’t you think. The truth of the matter is that I’m hanging out down here in Imbituba in the Tubarao Zone. (Tubarao means SHARK). This city only exists because of the beach. Back in November they had a huge professional surf competition. The Elders who were here at that time got their pictures taken with Kelly Slater. I’m not sure if anybody is familiar with that name, but he’s the only surfer I recognize and is rumored to be the best in the world. Oh well. My companion is Elder Candia. He’s an averaged sized (short) Brazilian from Campo Grande, the capital of the state Mato Grosso do Sul. Our personalities and pre-mission lifestyles and more-or-less polar, but we get along pretty well. This is the first time in my mission that I’m REALLY speaking Portuguese. Before now I only had to use Portuguese when we were teaching and when we were with members. Life is changing a little bit. Mindy should send me a big package full of nothing but candy. Let me explain why. I let here go to the easy mission in the middle of Canada while I accepted the call to come to the Brazilian coast. I was kind enough to come here and eat seafood multiple times a week while letting her eat french fries with vinegar. The members down here have a tendency to throw shrimp at us during our lunches. Shrimp is really cheap this time of year, and half the member go and catch their own anyway. Speaking of the members, I’m serving in a ward now. A ward with 30 active members. 20 live here in Imbituba and 10 live in a city named Imarui. Years ago they built a chapel over in Imarui so ever Sunday morning the ward charters a bus to carry us there. This would only be a minor problem if you ignored the fact that trying to get investigators to the bus stop at 8am without picking them up personally is very hard. Don’t worry, things are working out. I almost feel like I need to apologize to you guys. I’ve got a few pictures I want to send you, but the computers at the LAN House we use are rigged in such a way that I can’t access My Computer to get the photos. Next week we’ll probably try to find a new place so that I can get the last photos of Concordia to you. Thursday is interviews with the President in Tubarao and afterwards he is coming to our house to do a cleaning check. I should be able to pick up any letters that have been sent, but the package will probably have to wait until next Wednesday when I go to Florianopolis for Zone Conference. After last transfer when I saw NO ONE from my group because they were all at the Floripa Conference, there will be 4 of us in Florianopolis next week. Elder Andrews and Elder Smith, who I haven’t seen since July, are currently serving in Itajai so it will be a few more months before I get to see either of them. Maybe the best news I got during the actual day of transfers is that Elder Brough (one of the other 5 from my MTC district) is now my district leader. He turned senior companion and district leader with only 7 months in the mission (5 months in the mission field). What’s more is that he’s also training. This kid is a stud. He’s the kind who (scary enough) would probably get along really well with dad. Well... life is good, the work is always going, and I’m doing fine so stop worrying about me. The tallest Haws to “Preach on the Beach”,Elder Haws(mo) PS Did anybody else ever serve on the beach?
January 1, 2008Hey Family,
This will just be a quick note to you guys. We learned Sunday Night that I am being transferred. I will be in the Tubarao Zone (down south) in the city area of Imbituba (right on the beach). I will be walking down the FLAT streets of Imbituba with Elder Cania. I will include more info about him once I’ve found out you got this letter. Make sure to mention it in an email. Jenny: Please email info about the other Jenny’s husband. Family address, etc. I will be making the 14 hour trip to Florianopolis tomorrow (Wednesday the 2nd) and then get a bus down south on Thursday.
Packing my bags,
Elder Haws(mo)
Hey Family, I guess you guys will love and support me no matter where I am... as long as you know where that is. But oh well. You guys might not have told me anything about your lives, but I’ll do my best to throw a little bit in about mine. In a minute. I love the photos that Jenny sent me from Spencer’s house. Fences up everywhere, kids screaming, good times. I appreciate that the boys are all wearing BYU sweatshirts. They’ve still got to support my boys (and girls) in blue. I just want to know: Where’s Ruby’s? Does she not get the opportunity to wear merchandise from the true church’s real school? Or has she already rebeled against the truth and gone her apostate ways? Wo be unto those who resist the Cougar Blue, for I, Hawsmo, will return after 16 months and exact my vengeance upon the heathen. Anyways. I will give you a hint. I was transfered. I’m sure that is a surprise to everyone, but you’ll just have to relax to find out where I am now. The letter I mailed SHOULD get there by the end of the week. I hope. Maybe not until Monday/Tuesday of next week. Either way just name where I am and I will give you the rest of the details. I was unfortunate in the sense that I went to a slow area. I showed up and learned that we currently had 0 (zero) investigators and that the current plan was knock doors and pray We’ve been doing that and have found a few nice people who will probably tag aloing with the missionaries for a few months, but it won’t be until they are re-discovered in 3-5 years that they’ll actually progress towards making the church a part of their lives. We are still praying and doing everything we can. We are at the stage that we are trusting in the Lord to either guide us to someone that’s ready, or to guide them to us. Either way, we’re hanging in there because there is salvation on the line. Just one last little note. Renato, the guy that we spent Christmas and New Years with, decided that he wants to talk to Greg. Renato loves Final Fantasy and any other video game, so when I mentioned that Greg is probably playing #12 right now he wanted to meet him. GREG: Renato’s email is sephirot_sud@hotmail.com. Obviously, he likes FF7. SUD is Portuguese for LDS. You NEED to send him an email (assuming you have an email account) and you can write anything you want in English. He can understand written English better then Dad. Feel free to talk to him about anything. He loves any practice he can get with English. I’m still typing without Spell Check so forgive me if you can’t understand something. The work is coming along, Brazil is REALLY hot, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me. Hoping that you get the letter,Elder Haws(mo) PS Thank you REVELATION. I was about to click send on my email when I thought that maybe I should refresh my inbox. I found Mom’s email. Unfortuantely she didn’t want to say too much to me either. Is everyone really mad at me about this whole transfer thing? Relax. Elder Brough from my MTC district is in my district now. I’m doing great. It’s awesome to get to see a familiar face every week. No word from BYU about Greg? I’ll keep him in my prayers. If nothing else, sometimes they will let you in if you offer to do Summer Semester before Fall. It’s only 6 weeks long, and it cuts out time to work, but it gets you in. Best Wishes little Bro!
Hey Family, How are things going this year? I hope things are going good for you. I just opened Dad’s letter that had those papers for me to sign. I signed and dated one this morning but left the middle part blank where we have to disclose my current financial status. I don’t know which one describes me so I’ll let Dad handle that. Let me know in an email what I should date the other one as and then I’ll get that shipped to you guys as well. So, we spent Christmas and New Years with a member by the name of Renato. This man is a stud. He is kind of a computer guy (the computer he has will always be 3 years ahead of any other computer in Brazil) but he is great with us Elders. He has done visits and everything else with the Elders every since his youth down in Porto Alegre. He reads, writes, and speaks English. He is addicted to the Simpsons, Heroes, and Prison Break. He is just a great man to be around. He told us the same thing that he tells every American missionary that passes through his area. If anyone can give him a Utah Jazz Jersey, he will by the missionary an entire uniform of a team here in southern Brazil. Elder Wright and I were talking with him about the current Jazz Players. He knows none of them. He just knows that the Jazz tend to be at the heart of sports in Mormon Culture and he wants to be part of it. Here’s the ridiculous part. I remember seeing Spencer and Brianna with custom Jazz jerseys. How much did those cost? Since he doesn’t know any players I thought we could make him his own. If that is incredibly expensive: DO NOT DO IT. If it’s a resonable price... please do it. Use my money, use money people want to donate to me for Christmas or my Birthday or whatever. The name would say RENATO and the number would be 7. Just send it to me and I’ll work out the deal. Again: Expensive-NO, Reasonable-YES. The deal is that I would end up getting an official uniform, complete with Jersey, Shorts, and socks of Gremio. Gremio is a team based out of Porto Alegre that nearly everyone in Concordia worships. Life is sorf of sad right now. Elder Da Silva, the man who has been my Zone Leader since I came to the mission, went home last week. We had become good friends here on the mission. He trained the only Elder in the mission that is taller than me. 6’7”. Da Silva and I always did splits together when we were in the same area. He really was like a brother to me out here. I’m glad that he now has the opportunity to go home and be with his family but I’m definately going to miss him. Now to answer a few of mom’s questions. My first companion (Elder Martin) had/has a portable DVD player. There is also a TV and a DVD player at the church, so that’s were Elder Wright and I watch movies without a portable. When the mission isn’t REALLY low on a money we get a bus with a DVD player to take to Zone Conference in Lages. Twice we didn’t get his luxury and a few people were more than a little upset. President Dansie lets the Zone Leaders decide what movies their Zone can watch. Everyone can watch Disney and Cartoons (We get to watch Pirates because it is Disney). The Zone Leaders almost always let us watch Spiderman and Harry Potter. What were the rules on movies in Warren, Mindy, and Spencer’s missions? I remember Spencer saying that a bunch of Elders got together to watch Lord of the Rings during Marti Gras. How did that work out? Was he a Zone Leader or something? Was Warren? Oh well. I guess it’s not that important. I mailed you what happened at transfers with that paper for Dad. You’ll just have to wait a couple weeks to find out who left. Typing Without Spell Check,Elder Haws(mo)
