Eleven

Hey Family,

Wow, tomorrow marks 11 months since I left home. 11 months, 3 areas, 5 companions (6 including the MTC), 7 transfers, and 3 baptisms. Wednesday will be 11 months in Brazil, and Friday will be a baptism. Next Friday will be another baptism, and after that we just have a couple things to clear up before more people start falling in the water. The goal the Itajai Stake is to divide the Navegantes Ward at the end of next year. There are currently over 100 people active, which means that I’m going to have a chance to help with the division. We have a pretty ambitious stake presidency. The ultimate goal is to divide and became 2 stakes in 2012. It’s not going to be easy, but it doesn’t have to be. That’s the beauty of it.

Tomorrow morning we’ll be waking up a little early so that we can make it to the Stake Center for Interviews with President Dansie. We’ll probably discuss the details for the Mother’s Day Phone Call with Sister Dansie. It will probably be the same protocol, but since this is the last phone call during the Dansies’ mission, they might loosen up on the rules a little bit. I’ll most likely be in Navegantes next transfer so it shouldn’t be too difficult to set up the phone call. We have church here from 8:30-11:30 in the morning. If the time change is how I think it is (3 hours right now) that means 5:30-8:30 in the morning for you guys. If you guys have church from 1-4, that should be 4-7 here. I’ll make sure to clear up the time difference with Sister Dansie and let you know for sure next week. If you guys can find a time to call that works for everyone we’ll just do that. Sundays here in Navegantes are pretty laid back.

Chad is already on his way? That’s awesome. Shayla is engaged? So is Brett? Jared already married? Wow. If anybody else gets a mission call to Brazil let me know. Make sure to tell me when they get to the MTC so I can get a letter on the way. Justin Baird is a stud. It seems like everybody in the mission loves him. He was always up here in the northern part of the mission, at least until I came. Now he’s down close to the island. He was in his 2nd area for 3-4 months, and when he left it became a Zone Leader area. I can only imagine the work he was doing up there. He’s in an awkward situation right now because his companion is an elder from his group. I want that kind of companionship but I don’t think it’ll work out.

The work here in Navegantes is different from the other areas I’ve encountered. He we have young men who are preparing for mission who want to do visits with us, we have over 100 active members so we get referrals, and investigators actually come to church. Yesterday we had 18 non-members in Sacrament Meeting. Elder Andrews (District Leader) and Elder Flores (Zone Leader) almost cried when I told them last night.

The weather is great, the work is coming along, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Keeping the Font Full,
Elder Haws(mo)

P.S. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I’ll see if I can’t fix this problem before next week.