You Got Mail?‏

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?