Hey Family,
Warren wrote me an email? I didn’t see that one coming. It was a nice change though. Now I guess I’m just waiting for word from Greg. Welcome to the Haws family Kylie Marie. There’s no need to be too embarrassed about the relatives there in Idaho, I’ll be home soon enough to make everything right again. That is, in a year, a month, and a couple weeks. For the time being, I’m here in Navegantes. It’s a littlish city (~ 40,000 people) across the river from a big city (Itajai, 140,000). In order to get to Itajai or back we get a ride on a ferry boat. It’s a little interesting but we generally make it across. We have a Ward here in Navegantes. Unlike the Imarui Ward, we actually have the numbers to prove it. They tore down the chapel last year, re-built it, and dedicated it a couple weeks ago. It’s beautiful and enormous. The only problem is that the outdoors basketball court only has one hoop. Underneath that hoop and at the other end are soccer goals. Don’t worry; I’ll be preaching repentance to the Bishop and Stake Presidency before the end of the week. Before too long I should be playing basketball again. It’ll be the first time in nearly 9 months.
My companion is Elder Lacerda. He was born and raised in the city of Sao Paulo, but his family moved to Montes Claros (a city in Minas Gerais) a couple years ago. Navegantes is his first area, and I’m his second companion. His trainer spent 3 months in Imbituba (July-October) and just got shipped out to Concordia. Elder Lacerda likes to draw, skateboard, and preach the gospel. We work hard everyday to speak English. His dream is to teach English to pay for law school. He wants to be a judge. A righteous judge. Not one of those jerks who takes YEARS to finalize a divorce so that a righteous couple can get married and baptized into the true church. This has happened more than once.
My new Zone is the Itajai Zone. My district leader is Elder Andrews (my district leader from the MTC). My Zone Leaders are Elder Harmon (who was in the west and the south with me) and Elder Flores (former Assistant to the President). 3 Brazilians who came to the mission with me are training in this zone, and the other senior companion in the Zone was the first missionary who talked to me when I got to Florianopolis in July. Needless to say, we’re going to have some fun. I’m currently trying to talk the zone leaders into organizing a P-Day of basketball and American football. It’ll be good.
At the Transfer Meeting I got the package and the letters. Thanks to everyone. Elder Lacerda and I have already had pancakes with the Mrs. Buttersworth Syrup 3 times. The Zone Leaders (both Americans) mentioned to me that they had syrup, so I responded talking about Mrs. Buttersworth and peanut butter. They went green with envy. It’s good to be a Haws. Thanks for the maple concentrate. How much is one of the those bottles? A member from Imibituba still wants it. Oh. Any word on the Jazz jersey (Renato #7)? If it’s not possible just let me know, Elder Wright said he can get another jersey to him if we need.
Thanks for everything. The weather is great, the ward has over 100 active, and I’m fine so stop worrying.
Raising “Rigby” in Navegantes,
Elder Haws(mo)
PS Dad, keep sending the spring scouting reports, I would LOVE a collection.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Navegantes
Area: Navegantes
Zone: Itajai
I'm not sure if Navegantes is it's own city, or just a nieghborhood of Itajai that happens separated from the rest be a river. Looks like you guys will know before I do.
Elder Haws(mo)
An Unanswered Question
Hey Family,
Another 6 weeks have already passed by here in Imbituba. You always look forward to the transfer with mixed emotions. It’s not easy to leave behind a ward that you love, a companion that you get along with, or investigators that are startin to give you hope. On the other hand, you get kind of excited at the opportunities that await. New companions to meet, new families to find, new wards to get to know, and new baptismal fonts to try out. Needless to say, the phone call from the Zone Leaders on Sunday night is a joyfully miserable thing. “Pack your bags” or “make yourself comfortable”, either one holds the best of one world, and the worst of the other. There doesn’t seem to be anyway to please both the wullingness to stay, and the desire to jump into the unknown. The results of last night’s phone call...
This last week was a little bit different than what I’ve gotten used to here in Imbituba. Tuesday I went to Laguna to do a Division/Split with Elder Schioser, my current District Leader. He is from Sao Paulo, goes home in May, he’s for the most part a happy person, and he’s fat. This kid is enormous. His snoring at night is rumored to be worse than my own. It’s hard to believe, but I think it might be possible. I got back to Imbituba on Wednesday, did some good old fashioned preaching on Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday showed a curveball that almost sent us into the dirt. We had scheduled with our Ward Mission Leader to help him put the roof on his house. With the contruction style he’s doing, that means a LOT of concrete. We showed up at 7:15 am, expecting to help him and the rest of the ward start and finish the “lage” before having lunch (BRAZILIAN BARBECUE) and heading home to get ready to work. As luck would have it, he wasn’t anywhere near ready to start work on the roof. Our group ended up doing the prep work until lunch. After lunch we helped them to get set up to work, but decided that if we left when we had planned, they would never get done. As it turns out, there’s no way they could have. Elder C. Silva worked using the wheelbarrow to haul the cement to the different parts of the roof. I had the privelige of running with 2 buckets from the pile of gravel to the mixer, back to the pile of sand and to the mixer, back to the pile of gravel, rinse and repeat. I was throwing buckets, shoveling sand and gravel, hauling enormous tubs of water, catching flying buckets, telling jokes, randomly yelling at members in English, and even spent the last 30 minutes babysitting the stake president’s 4 year old son. At times people on the street would just stop and stare at me. It was great. The stake president, who speaks english, started calling me the “American Machine”, and decided that I didn’t get tired because I’m really just a child. Good fun. Proselyting didn’t happen until 8 o’clock, but we definately did our good turn for the day.
Sad news. I loaned my camera to an inactive member to take a picture of the sunrise on the each for me. He informs me that he took some awesome photos, but when his father brought me the camera, the memory card didn’t have any pictures on it. I have started to think that he developed some of the photos or made a CD and accidently “wiped” the memory card clean. I’m going to go and talk to him this week to see what he has so that I can salvage some of the pictures that I didn’t send home. It’s not a BIG deal, just a little sad that most of those pictures are lost.
In an attempt to save my own mortal life, I will let you know that in fact... I am getting transfered this week. After almost 3 months, it’s already time to pack my bags and head off to a new land, a new home, and a new set of circumstances. Elder C. Silva will be staying here in Imbituba with another elder who started his mission in Concordia, Elder Melo. My new companion will be Elder Lacerdes(?). He’s a cool kid I met in January when I got transfered to Imbituba and he was just arriving in the mission. He REALLY wants to learn and English and seems to have met one of my friends in the MTC. Next week I’ll be sure to get you some more info on the companion. Just one more quiestion: “Where am I going?”. That is a great question.
Hiding From My Mother’s Wrath,
Elder Haws(mo)
Another 6 weeks have already passed by here in Imbituba. You always look forward to the transfer with mixed emotions. It’s not easy to leave behind a ward that you love, a companion that you get along with, or investigators that are startin to give you hope. On the other hand, you get kind of excited at the opportunities that await. New companions to meet, new families to find, new wards to get to know, and new baptismal fonts to try out. Needless to say, the phone call from the Zone Leaders on Sunday night is a joyfully miserable thing. “Pack your bags” or “make yourself comfortable”, either one holds the best of one world, and the worst of the other. There doesn’t seem to be anyway to please both the wullingness to stay, and the desire to jump into the unknown. The results of last night’s phone call...
This last week was a little bit different than what I’ve gotten used to here in Imbituba. Tuesday I went to Laguna to do a Division/Split with Elder Schioser, my current District Leader. He is from Sao Paulo, goes home in May, he’s for the most part a happy person, and he’s fat. This kid is enormous. His snoring at night is rumored to be worse than my own. It’s hard to believe, but I think it might be possible. I got back to Imbituba on Wednesday, did some good old fashioned preaching on Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday showed a curveball that almost sent us into the dirt. We had scheduled with our Ward Mission Leader to help him put the roof on his house. With the contruction style he’s doing, that means a LOT of concrete. We showed up at 7:15 am, expecting to help him and the rest of the ward start and finish the “lage” before having lunch (BRAZILIAN BARBECUE) and heading home to get ready to work. As luck would have it, he wasn’t anywhere near ready to start work on the roof. Our group ended up doing the prep work until lunch. After lunch we helped them to get set up to work, but decided that if we left when we had planned, they would never get done. As it turns out, there’s no way they could have. Elder C. Silva worked using the wheelbarrow to haul the cement to the different parts of the roof. I had the privelige of running with 2 buckets from the pile of gravel to the mixer, back to the pile of sand and to the mixer, back to the pile of gravel, rinse and repeat. I was throwing buckets, shoveling sand and gravel, hauling enormous tubs of water, catching flying buckets, telling jokes, randomly yelling at members in English, and even spent the last 30 minutes babysitting the stake president’s 4 year old son. At times people on the street would just stop and stare at me. It was great. The stake president, who speaks english, started calling me the “American Machine”, and decided that I didn’t get tired because I’m really just a child. Good fun. Proselyting didn’t happen until 8 o’clock, but we definately did our good turn for the day.
Sad news. I loaned my camera to an inactive member to take a picture of the sunrise on the each for me. He informs me that he took some awesome photos, but when his father brought me the camera, the memory card didn’t have any pictures on it. I have started to think that he developed some of the photos or made a CD and accidently “wiped” the memory card clean. I’m going to go and talk to him this week to see what he has so that I can salvage some of the pictures that I didn’t send home. It’s not a BIG deal, just a little sad that most of those pictures are lost.
In an attempt to save my own mortal life, I will let you know that in fact... I am getting transfered this week. After almost 3 months, it’s already time to pack my bags and head off to a new land, a new home, and a new set of circumstances. Elder C. Silva will be staying here in Imbituba with another elder who started his mission in Concordia, Elder Melo. My new companion will be Elder Lacerdes(?). He’s a cool kid I met in January when I got transfered to Imbituba and he was just arriving in the mission. He REALLY wants to learn and English and seems to have met one of my friends in the MTC. Next week I’ll be sure to get you some more info on the companion. Just one more quiestion: “Where am I going?”. That is a great question.
Hiding From My Mother’s Wrath,
Elder Haws(mo)
Monday, March 17, 2008
Finding Friends in the Forest
Hey Family,
How was your week? Mine was pretty good. I'm sorry Greg didn't get into BYU. I was really hoping he'd be able to go down and be part of the marching band. Here's what he's gonna have to do:
(1) Try to get straight A's, but nothing below a B.
(2) Keep playing the trombone!
(3) Around next March try to transfer down to BYU and apply to get into the marching band.
If we manage to succeed on all 3 steps Greg and I should be on the field together my senior when he gets back from France/Korea/Germany. Ready...BREAK!
One question. Was the MWC Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas again? Somebody has got to see that this set-up isn't exactly fair. If we were able to play every postseason tournament in the Marriot Center, we'd end up winning the tournament too. In fact, we might have shut-out a team like CSU in the 2nd round. No worries, we've just got to keep proving that we deserve attention so that when I get back and rejoin the Pep Band the team will be on the wayto the Final Four in 2010. We will play UCLA in Anaheim? Who's the fat man on the NCAA Tournament commitee who has no interest in his eternal salvation. Some sinner is going to miss out on the kingdom he deserves if some serious repentance doesn't start happening.
Happy Birthday Jonah! The big 3. By the time I see him, I will have been in Brazil for half of his life. When I left he didn't say more than one word at a time, but when I get back his sister will be talking, AND his new littlebrother/sister will probably be pretty close to walking. I'm not sure if this would be a compliment to me or an insult to Jonah, but everytime I show the pictures of the family people say that Jonah looks a lot like me. That is, after everyone comments on how white the nephews and neices are. Brazilians have never seen anyone like them before.
Now to explain this week's pictures. The first three come from the top of a little mountain/hill that overlooks my area. We climbed up there with a member and her friend to share a neat little message about the creation and the love that God has for us (hey dad, you should send me a copy of that poem you always read: let's face it, God's crazy about you). When we got up there we stopped for a minute to take pictures. The first two pictures show the "center" and a couple inner neighborhoods of Imbituba. The third and fourth pictures, which have some plants blocking part of the view, shows the neighborhood where we live. Our house is a 40 minute walk from the center of the city. You can't actually see our house in the picture, it would be a little above and to the right of the white apartment building that you can see in the lower left. We will be going back up there next P-day (I think) to take some better pictures. As we were walking up to the top, we used a trail that cut through some woods. Everything was going good until I felt a thick string break on my forehead. I quickly brushed off my forehead and my shoulders, looking for what I thought would be a little spider on my clothes. Luckily, I found nothing in my clothes. I casually looked to see if I could spot the culprit, but a glance to my right showed nothing. Almost too casually I looked back to my left and found "my friend". Not more than 6 inches from the tip of my nose, the largest and most colorful spider I have ever seen was staring right back at me. I tried to take a couple pictures,but I couldn't get a really good one of the pattern on his back. You can see an almost white spot on the back of his thorax. In reality, that white spot is the pattern of a skull. I was a little creeped out when I saw it, but I have fully recovered since then.
Thanks for all the love, prayers, and support. The only thing that I was thinking I might like is a talk from Elder McConkie. I found it in Portuguese in the back of the "Strengthen Your Brethren" manual. It was the manual they used in Priesthood during the early 90's with the Doctrine andCovenants. The name of the talk in English should be "Just an Elder". Elder McConkie gave it as an address in a regional representative meeting (I think) so I'm not sure just how easy it would be to find. I was reading it in Portuguese, but I think I wasn't understanding some stuff, you know,McConkie has a tendency to say things really complicated in English. Imagine translating it. Besides that, I saw another Elder get a package that looked exactly like the big flat-rate envelopes you guys sent me a couple times. Is it possible that they do the same thing with boxes so that you don't pay for the weight?
The weather is great, the work is coming along, and I'm fine so stop worrying about me.
Climbing the hills wherever I go,
Elder Haws(mo)
How was your week? Mine was pretty good. I'm sorry Greg didn't get into BYU. I was really hoping he'd be able to go down and be part of the marching band. Here's what he's gonna have to do:
(1) Try to get straight A's, but nothing below a B.
(2) Keep playing the trombone!
(3) Around next March try to transfer down to BYU and apply to get into the marching band.
If we manage to succeed on all 3 steps Greg and I should be on the field together my senior when he gets back from France/Korea/Germany. Ready...BREAK!
One question. Was the MWC Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas again? Somebody has got to see that this set-up isn't exactly fair. If we were able to play every postseason tournament in the Marriot Center, we'd end up winning the tournament too. In fact, we might have shut-out a team like CSU in the 2nd round. No worries, we've just got to keep proving that we deserve attention so that when I get back and rejoin the Pep Band the team will be on the wayto the Final Four in 2010. We will play UCLA in Anaheim? Who's the fat man on the NCAA Tournament commitee who has no interest in his eternal salvation. Some sinner is going to miss out on the kingdom he deserves if some serious repentance doesn't start happening.
Happy Birthday Jonah! The big 3. By the time I see him, I will have been in Brazil for half of his life. When I left he didn't say more than one word at a time, but when I get back his sister will be talking, AND his new littlebrother/sister will probably be pretty close to walking. I'm not sure if this would be a compliment to me or an insult to Jonah, but everytime I show the pictures of the family people say that Jonah looks a lot like me. That is, after everyone comments on how white the nephews and neices are. Brazilians have never seen anyone like them before.
Now to explain this week's pictures. The first three come from the top of a little mountain/hill that overlooks my area. We climbed up there with a member and her friend to share a neat little message about the creation and the love that God has for us (hey dad, you should send me a copy of that poem you always read: let's face it, God's crazy about you). When we got up there we stopped for a minute to take pictures. The first two pictures show the "center" and a couple inner neighborhoods of Imbituba. The third and fourth pictures, which have some plants blocking part of the view, shows the neighborhood where we live. Our house is a 40 minute walk from the center of the city. You can't actually see our house in the picture, it would be a little above and to the right of the white apartment building that you can see in the lower left. We will be going back up there next P-day (I think) to take some better pictures. As we were walking up to the top, we used a trail that cut through some woods. Everything was going good until I felt a thick string break on my forehead. I quickly brushed off my forehead and my shoulders, looking for what I thought would be a little spider on my clothes. Luckily, I found nothing in my clothes. I casually looked to see if I could spot the culprit, but a glance to my right showed nothing. Almost too casually I looked back to my left and found "my friend". Not more than 6 inches from the tip of my nose, the largest and most colorful spider I have ever seen was staring right back at me. I tried to take a couple pictures,but I couldn't get a really good one of the pattern on his back. You can see an almost white spot on the back of his thorax. In reality, that white spot is the pattern of a skull. I was a little creeped out when I saw it, but I have fully recovered since then.
Thanks for all the love, prayers, and support. The only thing that I was thinking I might like is a talk from Elder McConkie. I found it in Portuguese in the back of the "Strengthen Your Brethren" manual. It was the manual they used in Priesthood during the early 90's with the Doctrine andCovenants. The name of the talk in English should be "Just an Elder". Elder McConkie gave it as an address in a regional representative meeting (I think) so I'm not sure just how easy it would be to find. I was reading it in Portuguese, but I think I wasn't understanding some stuff, you know,McConkie has a tendency to say things really complicated in English. Imagine translating it. Besides that, I saw another Elder get a package that looked exactly like the big flat-rate envelopes you guys sent me a couple times. Is it possible that they do the same thing with boxes so that you don't pay for the weight?
The weather is great, the work is coming along, and I'm fine so stop worrying about me.
Climbing the hills wherever I go,
Elder Haws(mo)
Friday, March 14, 2008
A Day Late and a Dollar Short
Hey Family,
How was your week? Mine was pretty good. I'm sorry you didn't get an email from me yesterday. I think I forgot to tell you last week that yesterday was going to be Zone Conference. We left at 6am and got back at 6pm and went straight to an FHE with a family that moved here from Florianopolis. The Zone Conference was awesome. Maybe I'm a horrible missionary, but I think my favorite part of the mission is getting to see the other missionaries. To sit down and swap stories, jokes, and crazy investigators really works wonders to relax and "recharge the batteries". Who knows, maybe my favorite part would be baptizing if I was getting in the water often enough to remember the feeling.
Mom, I'm sorry if you feel like I'm not receiving your emails. In reality I didn't receive your email from last week until today. I'll do my best to get some pictures of my houses. I make no promises about the Concordia apartment, but I'll get a picture from Imbituba to you next week. If the pictures I'm sending aren't turning out well just let me know and I'll send a bigger copy. It's no problem at all. As far as companions go, I'll get a better picture of Elder Wright and Martin (I hope) I'm putting one in of Elder Candia, but I'll probably take a better one before I get home, and I sent one of Elder C. Silva and me in front of the beach last week.
I can't even imagine the snow these days. We are generally between 86 and104 degrees Fahrenheit. The humidity from the beach doesn't help the temperature any. The nice thing is that between the sun and the ocean breeze, our clothes dry really fast on the line. That is, when it's no training. Since our clothes dry so fast on the line, I thought that I could try an experiment that would allow me to save time I the morning. Between exercise, breakfast, waiting for the companion to shower, my shower, and getting dressed, it's sometimes difficult to have everything ready when its time to study. As such, sometimes you have to mix up the routine in the morning. You'll have to see the pictures to understand.
As far as items from home, there are a couple things I could use. I would love to have an English copy of Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (The manual from priesthood and relief society, not the big published book), pencils to mark in the scriptures, I would love a little map of the US to show where Idaho is. The same member here who wants to buy a bottle of maple syrup extract (the little glass bottle with that you can mix with water and sugar to make syrup) from me wants a jar of peanut butter from me. Just let me know the prices when you send it and he'll pay me. Oh. I tried to use my Wells Fargo card last week and it didn't work. I'll try it again today and let you know next week if it really isn't working.
Oh. Don't send anything in the letters except the paper. There are workers in the Post Office opening the corners of American letters to look for money or something. It's illegal, but they haven't found out who it is yet.
Celebrating the MWC Championship,
Elder Haws(mo)
How was your week? Mine was pretty good. I'm sorry you didn't get an email from me yesterday. I think I forgot to tell you last week that yesterday was going to be Zone Conference. We left at 6am and got back at 6pm and went straight to an FHE with a family that moved here from Florianopolis. The Zone Conference was awesome. Maybe I'm a horrible missionary, but I think my favorite part of the mission is getting to see the other missionaries. To sit down and swap stories, jokes, and crazy investigators really works wonders to relax and "recharge the batteries". Who knows, maybe my favorite part would be baptizing if I was getting in the water often enough to remember the feeling.
Mom, I'm sorry if you feel like I'm not receiving your emails. In reality I didn't receive your email from last week until today. I'll do my best to get some pictures of my houses. I make no promises about the Concordia apartment, but I'll get a picture from Imbituba to you next week. If the pictures I'm sending aren't turning out well just let me know and I'll send a bigger copy. It's no problem at all. As far as companions go, I'll get a better picture of Elder Wright and Martin (I hope) I'm putting one in of Elder Candia, but I'll probably take a better one before I get home, and I sent one of Elder C. Silva and me in front of the beach last week.
I can't even imagine the snow these days. We are generally between 86 and104 degrees Fahrenheit. The humidity from the beach doesn't help the temperature any. The nice thing is that between the sun and the ocean breeze, our clothes dry really fast on the line. That is, when it's no training. Since our clothes dry so fast on the line, I thought that I could try an experiment that would allow me to save time I the morning. Between exercise, breakfast, waiting for the companion to shower, my shower, and getting dressed, it's sometimes difficult to have everything ready when its time to study. As such, sometimes you have to mix up the routine in the morning. You'll have to see the pictures to understand.
As far as items from home, there are a couple things I could use. I would love to have an English copy of Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (The manual from priesthood and relief society, not the big published book), pencils to mark in the scriptures, I would love a little map of the US to show where Idaho is. The same member here who wants to buy a bottle of maple syrup extract (the little glass bottle with that you can mix with water and sugar to make syrup) from me wants a jar of peanut butter from me. Just let me know the prices when you send it and he'll pay me. Oh. I tried to use my Wells Fargo card last week and it didn't work. I'll try it again today and let you know next week if it really isn't working.
Oh. Don't send anything in the letters except the paper. There are workers in the Post Office opening the corners of American letters to look for money or something. It's illegal, but they haven't found out who it is yet.
Celebrating the MWC Championship,
Elder Haws(mo)
Monday, March 10, 2008
no email
Mikey has a zone conference today, so we didn't get an email. If we hear from him tomorrow I'll update the blog.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Rising to the Challenge
Hey Family,
This week was a wet one. It has rained everyday for about 10 days straight.There is no one in the street to talk to, and nearly impossible to dryclothes. Life keeps going, because there's no other option at this point.Today is looking to be a bright, sunny day. I just hope this sort of weatherwill endure a couple more days.
This past week we started a REAL service project. A member of our ward has ahouse. This house has an unfinished room on the back that lacks walls, andis just being used to dry clothes. We are now working with the Bishop,almost every morning after study, to build some walls. All we have to workwith is used materials, so I spent about an hour the first day bending usedrebar(?) of various shapes and sizes until it was straight and unbent again.That was not fun. Some pieces appeared to be 100% rust, other pieces didn'twant to bend at all, etc. We only got to actually work two days, because therain puts a stop to everything. It turns out that this member knows JennyCrandall. They were in the same ward in Tubarao and claim to be goodfriends. I'm supposed to pass on word to Jenny that they miss her and wishher the best. Selma has twin sons who will turn 3 this week. These kids areterrors with a capital T. Selma's husband is from Chile, and occasionallyspeaks Spanish to the boys, which means that they try speaking Spanugueuseor Portunish or some other combination to me. It's fun, but definately astruggle, to communicate with them.
Yesterday after church we went to the Bishop's house for lunch, as usual.The change of pace, is that Selma was there with the twins and their 7 year old big brother. Selma decided to help the Bishop's wife and made acasserole of rice, mashed potatoes, and shrimp. She made it for us one day last week and I nearly ate the entire pan. Selma remembered this, and madetwo pans. We got to talking about eating, and Elder C. Silva mentioned how his family always eats once. No one goes back for seconds. You fill your plate, you eat it, and you're done. The topic then switched to me. We all decided that I wouldn't fit in with Elder C. Silva's family, seeing as how I always eat 2, 3, 4, or 5 plates worth of food. Selma was kind enough to take my plate and serve it herself. She filled it to overflowing the first time in an attempt to hold me to only serving once. After finishing the plate,without breaking a sweat, she grabbed my plate and filled it again. A second time I ate without a problem. At this point she started giving ice cream tothe kids and adults, and then loaded a third mountain onto my plate. Selma then offered a challenge to me. She said that there was NO possible way thatI could eat the third plate of "casserole" and then still have room for icecream. I calmly replied that I would not only have room for a cup of icecream, but for an entire tub (400 grams~almost a pound). She then got a defiant look on her face, put a little more casserole on my plate, and thechallenge began. Needless to say, I won without trouble. I had to make sureto represent the Haws family well. When all was said and done, Selma informed me that I ate around 2 kilograms (4.5 lbs) of casserole. For those of you keeping score at home, that comes out to about 5.5 lbs of food and lunch yesterday, and I was still hungry. I might not be baptizing everyweek, but this ward will still remember Elder Haws.
How is life at home? Is BYU really charging me $2700 for being in Brazil? I hope not. Any more mission calls? Any word on Greg's college plans? University? Major? How about Spencer and Brianna?
Life is good, the beach is beautiful, the sun is high in the sky, and I'm fine so stop worrying about me.
Honoring the Family Name,
Elder Haws(mo)
birthday
Silva and Hawsmo on the beach
service
Selma
Gabriel and Pedro
This week was a wet one. It has rained everyday for about 10 days straight.There is no one in the street to talk to, and nearly impossible to dryclothes. Life keeps going, because there's no other option at this point.Today is looking to be a bright, sunny day. I just hope this sort of weatherwill endure a couple more days.
This past week we started a REAL service project. A member of our ward has ahouse. This house has an unfinished room on the back that lacks walls, andis just being used to dry clothes. We are now working with the Bishop,almost every morning after study, to build some walls. All we have to workwith is used materials, so I spent about an hour the first day bending usedrebar(?) of various shapes and sizes until it was straight and unbent again.That was not fun. Some pieces appeared to be 100% rust, other pieces didn'twant to bend at all, etc. We only got to actually work two days, because therain puts a stop to everything. It turns out that this member knows JennyCrandall. They were in the same ward in Tubarao and claim to be goodfriends. I'm supposed to pass on word to Jenny that they miss her and wishher the best. Selma has twin sons who will turn 3 this week. These kids areterrors with a capital T. Selma's husband is from Chile, and occasionallyspeaks Spanish to the boys, which means that they try speaking Spanugueuseor Portunish or some other combination to me. It's fun, but definately astruggle, to communicate with them.
Yesterday after church we went to the Bishop's house for lunch, as usual.The change of pace, is that Selma was there with the twins and their 7 year old big brother. Selma decided to help the Bishop's wife and made acasserole of rice, mashed potatoes, and shrimp. She made it for us one day last week and I nearly ate the entire pan. Selma remembered this, and madetwo pans. We got to talking about eating, and Elder C. Silva mentioned how his family always eats once. No one goes back for seconds. You fill your plate, you eat it, and you're done. The topic then switched to me. We all decided that I wouldn't fit in with Elder C. Silva's family, seeing as how I always eat 2, 3, 4, or 5 plates worth of food. Selma was kind enough to take my plate and serve it herself. She filled it to overflowing the first time in an attempt to hold me to only serving once. After finishing the plate,without breaking a sweat, she grabbed my plate and filled it again. A second time I ate without a problem. At this point she started giving ice cream tothe kids and adults, and then loaded a third mountain onto my plate. Selma then offered a challenge to me. She said that there was NO possible way thatI could eat the third plate of "casserole" and then still have room for icecream. I calmly replied that I would not only have room for a cup of icecream, but for an entire tub (400 grams~almost a pound). She then got a defiant look on her face, put a little more casserole on my plate, and thechallenge began. Needless to say, I won without trouble. I had to make sureto represent the Haws family well. When all was said and done, Selma informed me that I ate around 2 kilograms (4.5 lbs) of casserole. For those of you keeping score at home, that comes out to about 5.5 lbs of food and lunch yesterday, and I was still hungry. I might not be baptizing everyweek, but this ward will still remember Elder Haws.
How is life at home? Is BYU really charging me $2700 for being in Brazil? I hope not. Any more mission calls? Any word on Greg's college plans? University? Major? How about Spencer and Brianna?
Life is good, the beach is beautiful, the sun is high in the sky, and I'm fine so stop worrying about me.
Honoring the Family Name,
Elder Haws(mo)
birthday
Silva and Hawsmo on the beach
service
Selma
Gabriel and Pedro
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