Hey Family,
Believe it or not, it’s difficult to shoot a basketball when you haven’t touched one in over a month. I think worse than going those first 11 months without touching the ball, playing every week for a month and then going a month without seeing a ball. Oh well. By the end of a little scrimmage we played with guys in our ward I was having a good time.
Life is going good, but a little cloud coverage would be nice. I got the package at district meeting last week. Thanks everyone. I’ve got most of the requests distributed. As good as it feels to be able to give people stuff; they keep annoying me to know how much the different things cost. Mom, how much did the Mr. Potato Head, RM DVD, and root beer and maple extracts cost? I might just have to start making up prices, and nobody likes that part. If you’re putting another package together peanut butter and random American candies would be greatly appreciated. Go ahead and be creative. Did you guys look for the flat postage rate boxes? You sent some flat rate envelopes to me (which I’m sure saved money) but so far I keep getting boxes from random potato products that cost more to than the various flat rate boxes of considerably larger size that other missionaries are receiving. Just a suggestion. I enjoy getting the potato boxes, but that’s no reason for you guys to pay more that you have to.
A high council member was wondering how much plain gold and silver rings cost back home. He is interested in buying a simple ring and engraving the CTR symbol in it to use as a wedding ring. He mentioned that to get a ring like that in the USA would be about half the price of doing it here. He hasn’t requested anything yet; he just wants to know the price so he can do some effective negotiating and price shopping.
Baldree got released: You’re kidding me. I was kind of hoping that we would still be the president when I got home so that I could go to his class ONCE. Who’s the new quorum president? What is Baldree doing with the young men?
The work is really coming along down here. We don’t anticipate any baptisms until the end of the month, but you never know. We are teaching an awesome couple that just needs to get married and they’re ready for the water. They’re not sure if they want to be baptized yet, which means we need to work a little more on their testimony of the Book of Mormon, but we setting the marriage/slash baptism party for August 29-30. If it doesn’t happen that weekend I’ll probably get transferred before it happens. By probably I mean that it’s around a 90% chance that I’ll be transferred September 3rd. Staying in an area 5 transfers is really rare down here. Then again, we’ve got a new president which means anything can start being normal.
It’s strange to think that football and school are starting up again. It doesn’t feel like it’s been a year since the last opening day reports. It feels like August was only 6 months ago, but it also seems like 2 years have passed since I was serving in Concordia. How is that possible? What is 2 years of summer doing to me? Next month I’ll be rooting for the Bills to beat the Colts. That would not have been possible back home in the snow.
The work continues, the world keeps spinning, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.
Searching for shade,
Elder Haws(mo)
Monday, July 28, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Transfers in Navegantes?
Hey Family,
Good times in the neighborhood. We had the privilege of being in attendance while Sister Carlinda Zimmermann de Siqueira was baptized by her son, Marcio de Siqueira, Saturday evening. I’m not sure if I’ve already mentioned but he was baptized while living in Rio Grande do Sul (the only state south of Santa Catarina), served in the Rio de Janeiro North Mission, and returned last month to help us finish preparing his mother for the waters of baptism. Good times. We had around 20 people at the baptism and all were supportive. She was confirmed yesterday, without any major catastrophe, so now we just have to focus on getting the little sister to follow the answer she got to her prayer. It’s time to play the waiting game.
This past week was a little eventful. Tuesday Elder Bateman and I made our friendly trip to Florianopolis to renew our visas. After the 2 and a half hour bus ride that should only take an hour we got to meet up with most of our buds and go fill out paperwork. It turns out that Elders Andrews, Brough, and Smith had all gone to renew their visas the previous Friday, but it didn’t work out so we 5 got to go together. Unfortunately Elder Cornaby is serving out west in Joacaba so he wasn’t there with us. Concordia is a little more that an hour AFTER Joacaba so he would have been on a bus for over 6 hours. He’ll probably renew his visa tomorrow during transfers. We managed to take a picture of the 5 of us together… with Elder Clarindo, the executive secretary. He’s a good man and we needed a pretty tall, really skinny guy to pretend to be Cornaby. This visa business got me back to Navegantes late so we didn’t really start working until Wednesday. Thursday I went to Itajai to do a companion exchange with Elder Harmon and then we ended up running to the other side of the city to help Bateman a little. Saturday we were excited to have an afternoon of work before the baptism. Naturally the family of recent convert decided to move so they needed help. Enclosed is a photo of the staircase we had to manage (their new apartment is on the 4th floor) as well as a photo of Leonardo carrying the 3-person sofa up the stairs. Just to give you an idea Leonardo is my height, weighs around 260 lbs. and is on the verge of becoming a semi-professional basketball player. Good times.
Transfers have arrived and the new is… we are both staying in Navegantes. Some members had gotten worried that I’d be leaving already. Now they’ve got 6 more weeks to make fun of the giant before the next transfer sends me packing. I decided to take a few pictures of a family after lunch last week. Antonio Godois gives more referrals to us than anyone else in the ward. Unfortunately, the people who give one or two referrals a year almost always lead to baptisms while Antonio hasn’t had any true water experience yet. Along with pictures of Antonio we have his wife, Dani, his 4 year old daughter Laura and his 2 year old son Guilherme. Guilherme recently learned how to say HAWS and hasn’t stopped. He’s a good little kid, but he makes a mess wherever he goes. Remind you of someone?
This month is supposed to be the equivalent of a North American January but last Thursday the temperature reached over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. How does that compare with our current Idaho summer? Life is good, there is work to be done, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.
Going one more with Navegantes,
Elder Haws(mo)
Good times in the neighborhood. We had the privilege of being in attendance while Sister Carlinda Zimmermann de Siqueira was baptized by her son, Marcio de Siqueira, Saturday evening. I’m not sure if I’ve already mentioned but he was baptized while living in Rio Grande do Sul (the only state south of Santa Catarina), served in the Rio de Janeiro North Mission, and returned last month to help us finish preparing his mother for the waters of baptism. Good times. We had around 20 people at the baptism and all were supportive. She was confirmed yesterday, without any major catastrophe, so now we just have to focus on getting the little sister to follow the answer she got to her prayer. It’s time to play the waiting game.
This past week was a little eventful. Tuesday Elder Bateman and I made our friendly trip to Florianopolis to renew our visas. After the 2 and a half hour bus ride that should only take an hour we got to meet up with most of our buds and go fill out paperwork. It turns out that Elders Andrews, Brough, and Smith had all gone to renew their visas the previous Friday, but it didn’t work out so we 5 got to go together. Unfortunately Elder Cornaby is serving out west in Joacaba so he wasn’t there with us. Concordia is a little more that an hour AFTER Joacaba so he would have been on a bus for over 6 hours. He’ll probably renew his visa tomorrow during transfers. We managed to take a picture of the 5 of us together… with Elder Clarindo, the executive secretary. He’s a good man and we needed a pretty tall, really skinny guy to pretend to be Cornaby. This visa business got me back to Navegantes late so we didn’t really start working until Wednesday. Thursday I went to Itajai to do a companion exchange with Elder Harmon and then we ended up running to the other side of the city to help Bateman a little. Saturday we were excited to have an afternoon of work before the baptism. Naturally the family of recent convert decided to move so they needed help. Enclosed is a photo of the staircase we had to manage (their new apartment is on the 4th floor) as well as a photo of Leonardo carrying the 3-person sofa up the stairs. Just to give you an idea Leonardo is my height, weighs around 260 lbs. and is on the verge of becoming a semi-professional basketball player. Good times.
Transfers have arrived and the new is… we are both staying in Navegantes. Some members had gotten worried that I’d be leaving already. Now they’ve got 6 more weeks to make fun of the giant before the next transfer sends me packing. I decided to take a few pictures of a family after lunch last week. Antonio Godois gives more referrals to us than anyone else in the ward. Unfortunately, the people who give one or two referrals a year almost always lead to baptisms while Antonio hasn’t had any true water experience yet. Along with pictures of Antonio we have his wife, Dani, his 4 year old daughter Laura and his 2 year old son Guilherme. Guilherme recently learned how to say HAWS and hasn’t stopped. He’s a good little kid, but he makes a mess wherever he goes. Remind you of someone?
This month is supposed to be the equivalent of a North American January but last Thursday the temperature reached over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. How does that compare with our current Idaho summer? Life is good, there is work to be done, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.
Going one more with Navegantes,
Elder Haws(mo)
Monday, July 14, 2008
Running for Ricardo
Hey Family,
One more in the books. It was a difficult week but it all worked out in the end. Monday we only had 3 hours to work (because the entire day was meetings with the new president), Tuesday we only had 3 hours to work (because of P-Day) and Friday and Saturday we had almost no time to visit people (because of preparation and performance of our ward activity and baptism). Saturday we spent 3 hours helping clean the chapel, and then set up the baptism, and then threw Ricardo in the water. Good times. Elder Gilo (our friendly neighborhood zone leader) said after the interview that Ricardo is almost ready to be a bishop. That comment would have been awesome if I hadn’t already known that even Homely Haws was capable of being bishop. It still felt good though.
Just to complicate our plans, workload, and party schedule we got a special phone call from the mission office last week. At the time I was in the middle of a companion exchange with Elder Bateman. It was the executive secretary informing us that we had 2 work days to get new special documentation photos taken, find the bus times to Florianopolis, and get to the island by 1 pm tomorrow. Fun. The time has come to renew our visas so we’ll be missing a day of work while our companions run around Itajai. Right now I’ve got my fingers crossed that our entire group will be there. The last time the 6 of us were together was at the transfer meeting in February. Everyone was so preoccupied with their bags, their companions, and their posterity that we didn’t have to time to take a photo. If we all end up together on the island tomorrow we won’t let it happen again.
I’m not sure if I already mentioned this but we have been teaching a lady for about 2 months now whose son got home from his mission last month. He’s been working overtime with us and with her and it’s finally paid off. I am pleased to announce that this Saturday will be the baptism of Carlinda Siqueira. We really are being blessed here in Navegantes. Yesterday was our annual Ward Conference and our ward really came through for us. Since moving to the new chapel our ward has been averaging around 120 at sacrament meeting each week (about a half of those were at Ricardo’s baptism). Yesterday we managed to have 181 people at church. Thanks to the help of our ward there were over 20 non-members/investigators there. Needless to say, we’ll be working double-time this week to contact and teach the different families that showed up. Wish us luck.
I’ll probably pick up my package and any letters tomorrow in Floripa. The next time I’ll see letters will be after transfers. I’m doing well here. I don’t know if there’s any peanut butter in the last package, but I could use some soon. Just about every member in the ward loves maple syrup so if I stay here next transfer you’ll have to send me more to distribute. I’m always willing to receive and try different “easy” recipes. The only problem is that we don’t have limited pots and pans in this apartment to cook. We’ll be talking to Sister Queiroz to see if we can’t buy some more. Everyone says its winter but it definitely feels like a calm summer in Idaho.
Winter is a joke, there’s work to be done, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.
Trying to remember the sensation of snow,
Elder Haws(mo)
Ricardo and Ramos
baptism Ricardo 
cleaning chapel
Bishop Jarbas
One more in the books. It was a difficult week but it all worked out in the end. Monday we only had 3 hours to work (because the entire day was meetings with the new president), Tuesday we only had 3 hours to work (because of P-Day) and Friday and Saturday we had almost no time to visit people (because of preparation and performance of our ward activity and baptism). Saturday we spent 3 hours helping clean the chapel, and then set up the baptism, and then threw Ricardo in the water. Good times. Elder Gilo (our friendly neighborhood zone leader) said after the interview that Ricardo is almost ready to be a bishop. That comment would have been awesome if I hadn’t already known that even Homely Haws was capable of being bishop. It still felt good though.
Just to complicate our plans, workload, and party schedule we got a special phone call from the mission office last week. At the time I was in the middle of a companion exchange with Elder Bateman. It was the executive secretary informing us that we had 2 work days to get new special documentation photos taken, find the bus times to Florianopolis, and get to the island by 1 pm tomorrow. Fun. The time has come to renew our visas so we’ll be missing a day of work while our companions run around Itajai. Right now I’ve got my fingers crossed that our entire group will be there. The last time the 6 of us were together was at the transfer meeting in February. Everyone was so preoccupied with their bags, their companions, and their posterity that we didn’t have to time to take a photo. If we all end up together on the island tomorrow we won’t let it happen again.
I’m not sure if I already mentioned this but we have been teaching a lady for about 2 months now whose son got home from his mission last month. He’s been working overtime with us and with her and it’s finally paid off. I am pleased to announce that this Saturday will be the baptism of Carlinda Siqueira. We really are being blessed here in Navegantes. Yesterday was our annual Ward Conference and our ward really came through for us. Since moving to the new chapel our ward has been averaging around 120 at sacrament meeting each week (about a half of those were at Ricardo’s baptism). Yesterday we managed to have 181 people at church. Thanks to the help of our ward there were over 20 non-members/investigators there. Needless to say, we’ll be working double-time this week to contact and teach the different families that showed up. Wish us luck.
I’ll probably pick up my package and any letters tomorrow in Floripa. The next time I’ll see letters will be after transfers. I’m doing well here. I don’t know if there’s any peanut butter in the last package, but I could use some soon. Just about every member in the ward loves maple syrup so if I stay here next transfer you’ll have to send me more to distribute. I’m always willing to receive and try different “easy” recipes. The only problem is that we don’t have limited pots and pans in this apartment to cook. We’ll be talking to Sister Queiroz to see if we can’t buy some more. Everyone says its winter but it definitely feels like a calm summer in Idaho.
Winter is a joke, there’s work to be done, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.
Trying to remember the sensation of snow,
Elder Haws(mo)
Ricardo and Ramos
baptism Ricardo 
cleaning chapel
Bishop JarbasTuesday, July 8, 2008
One More Cougar?
Hey Family,
Sorry that this email is a day late. P-Day got moved because of our Zone Conference/Interviews yesterday. It was great. President and Sister Queiroz (you could pronounce it Kay-rose or Kay-ross) are great. Everyone commented on how they could feel a heat in the room. Whether it was lack of air-conditioning, a testifying of the spirit, or a proper cry to repentance is yet to be determined, but we all still enjoyed it. President Queiroz likes the Lakers and the Chargers while Sister Queiroz likes the Jazz. This topic got plenty of focus during there talks since they watched many epic Lakers-Jazz games during their 26 years in the United States. I sort of feel bad about my interview with him. We talked for about 2 minutes about a new teaching technique that he is going to implement next month and then he asked if I had any questions for him. Without little hesitation I asked… “BYU or Utah”? A smile spread across his face as he casually replied, “Of course BYU.” As it turns out we passed the next 5-8 minutes remembering and commenting on the last BYU-Utah games and the dramatic fourth-quarter victories that our Cougars were able to pull off. 2 Mission Presidents. 2 Cougar fans. So far, so good.
P-Day today is going to be pretty laid back. Laundry (by hand), clean house, write letters. The package hasn’t come to me yet but I’ll probably get it at transfers on the 23rd. I’m not sure if I already told you guys this but Elder Wright (my second companion in Concordia) is the new assistant to the president. As such, he and Elder Tessaro (the other AP) will be doing the next transfers almost by themselves. Elder Wright was kind enough to ask me if I wanted to stay in Navegantes or be transferred. After suggesting that he pray about it I told him I’d be happy either way. I love serving in this ward, but new areas give opportunities for more growth. I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see what happens.
The 4th of July was nothing special here. The only reason I ended up remembering that it was a holiday was because Elder Harmon called me twice to remind me. Zone Leaders are good for that. I think twice during the day someone asked me if my home country was celebrating some sort of holiday, but outside of that we just worked. This was officially my first 2nd holiday in Brazil. The countdown has begun in some parts of the mission.
Plaistead got drafted? Oh well. The parade got moved? Why? What do the parking lots of 17th street have to offer spectators? This might end up being the worst joke I’ve ever heard. I’ve been rounding up the troops to come and experience the Idaho Falls Parade and Firework Presentation in 2009, but it won’t have the same feel to not watch it from the front yard. Not good.
Life is good, it’s nice a warm ‘winter’, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.
Working to get my name in the Book,
Elder Haws(mo)
Sorry that this email is a day late. P-Day got moved because of our Zone Conference/Interviews yesterday. It was great. President and Sister Queiroz (you could pronounce it Kay-rose or Kay-ross) are great. Everyone commented on how they could feel a heat in the room. Whether it was lack of air-conditioning, a testifying of the spirit, or a proper cry to repentance is yet to be determined, but we all still enjoyed it. President Queiroz likes the Lakers and the Chargers while Sister Queiroz likes the Jazz. This topic got plenty of focus during there talks since they watched many epic Lakers-Jazz games during their 26 years in the United States. I sort of feel bad about my interview with him. We talked for about 2 minutes about a new teaching technique that he is going to implement next month and then he asked if I had any questions for him. Without little hesitation I asked… “BYU or Utah”? A smile spread across his face as he casually replied, “Of course BYU.” As it turns out we passed the next 5-8 minutes remembering and commenting on the last BYU-Utah games and the dramatic fourth-quarter victories that our Cougars were able to pull off. 2 Mission Presidents. 2 Cougar fans. So far, so good.
P-Day today is going to be pretty laid back. Laundry (by hand), clean house, write letters. The package hasn’t come to me yet but I’ll probably get it at transfers on the 23rd. I’m not sure if I already told you guys this but Elder Wright (my second companion in Concordia) is the new assistant to the president. As such, he and Elder Tessaro (the other AP) will be doing the next transfers almost by themselves. Elder Wright was kind enough to ask me if I wanted to stay in Navegantes or be transferred. After suggesting that he pray about it I told him I’d be happy either way. I love serving in this ward, but new areas give opportunities for more growth. I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see what happens.
The 4th of July was nothing special here. The only reason I ended up remembering that it was a holiday was because Elder Harmon called me twice to remind me. Zone Leaders are good for that. I think twice during the day someone asked me if my home country was celebrating some sort of holiday, but outside of that we just worked. This was officially my first 2nd holiday in Brazil. The countdown has begun in some parts of the mission.
Plaistead got drafted? Oh well. The parade got moved? Why? What do the parking lots of 17th street have to offer spectators? This might end up being the worst joke I’ve ever heard. I’ve been rounding up the troops to come and experience the Idaho Falls Parade and Firework Presentation in 2009, but it won’t have the same feel to not watch it from the front yard. Not good.
Life is good, it’s nice a warm ‘winter’, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.
Working to get my name in the Book,
Elder Haws(mo)
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