Welcome Back Cummard!‏

Hey Family,

Thanks for the photos of the kids Jenny. They’re great. Thanks for coming back to BYU Lee. I don’t know what we’d do without you. Go Celtics. Don’t let Kobe even think about another ring.

Another week ended, another transfer ended, and another soul entered the waters of baptism. That last one is the happy story. My first night in Navegantes we went to visit Marcia and her family. She smoked and drank coffee, didn’t want to marry her boyfriend/husband/father of her children, but liked going to church. After two months of working with her she agreed to get married, was down to one cigarette and one cup of coffee a day… but moved to Cacador (a city in the central north region of the state). Two of her kids stayed with her aunt, who had already been responsible for raising them. We continued visiting the kids (ages 11 and 7). Saturday we baptized Anderson (photos next week) and it looks like we’re going to start teaching the aunt and uncle. But that was just the good news Saturday. Last night we found out that Elder Lacerda is getting transferred. He’s going to… Cacador! He’ll show up, get the family married, and start tossing bodies in the water. At least that’s the plan. The Elders who have been in Cacador decided that she lived too far away to visit, but not anymore.

Today we celebrated the last P-Day of Elder Flores. He served for seven months as assistant to the president and his last three months as our zone leader here in Itajai. We played basketball with him and his dad. Yes. His dad came to pick him up and brought all kinds of goodies. Sun Chips, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Whoppers, etc. Elder Flores is going home, and we’re going to miss him, but he’ll be at BYU so I’ll find some way to hunt him down. Poor Elder Harmon. Zone Leader, 5’10”-ish, always ends up guarding me in basketball. The worst part is that I end up guarding him too. Today I must have blocked at least 10 of his shots. I almost felt bad. Just to be a nice guy I stopped posting him up for the last half an hour or so. Instead of backing him down in the post I starting hitting 15-foot jump shots. He tried to tell me that big guys aren’t allowed to do that. I tried to explain that I’m a Haws but he didn’t seem to understand. Poor guy.

This next transfer I’ll be working with Elder da Rocha. We were in the same district when I was in Imbituba. He’s a good kid. We already worked together on splits once, but now we’ll have a little more time to work. The only problem is that this next transfer will only be 5 weeks long. Time’s going to fly by.

The new president arrives this month. Life will start changing. Wish me luck.

Thanks for everything, and sorry this letter is so short.

It still feels like summer, transfers are turning the mission upside-down, but I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Awaiting the Switch,
Elder Haws(mo)