Hey Family,
Life keeps going, and the rain keeps falling. Joinville is an incredible city. 2 days have a hot, blazing sun, 2 days have cloud cover which turns the city into a giant oven, and the other three days have pouring rain. No matter what Mother Nature decides to throw at us, we come home wet. But that’s ok. There is always work to be done, and rumor has it (October) showers bring (November) blessings. I’ve definitely got my fingers crossed. We can use a little heavenly help in our little corner of the mission.
Just to fill in any gaps. I’m still in Joinville, in the Itaum Ward. Itaum is a word in a “native” language that means iron. The four gringos are now thinking of printing up some shirts with the name Iron Men. What do you guys think? Itaum is the largest ward in the Joinville Stake, which so happens to be the largest stake in the mission. We just got a brand new chapel built on top of a hill across the street from our house. The open house will be Thursday and Friday which means we’ll probably stop knocking doors and hang out looking for referrals. Everyone in the neighborhood is talking about the new “Mormon Temple” so hopefully we’ll get plenty of leads. The dedication and cultural show will be on Saturday. Unfortunately we’ll be wearing suits for an extra day, but at least we’ll be able to have part in the festivities. For the past 15 months the stake has been renting a bus to take the members, missionaries, and investigators to the neighboring ward. It just so happens that the other ward is Boa Vista, the area where Elder Bateman is currently serving and where my buddy Elder Huber started his mission. Up until the bus trip to church this ward was one of the highest baptizing wards in the states, but has had problems with the current situation. Every member in the ward seems interested in getting back up to the former state of glory. We’re more than willing to help them out a little bit.
Our little gringo situation got a little worse this past week. Tuesday night I got a phone call from the assistants telling us to be at the bus station at 10:30 pm. I thought it was a little weird, but I played along. Elder Hill and I got there and, much to our surprise, Elder Wright got off the bus. Elder Wright was my second companion and is serving as assistant to the president (at least until he goes home Thanksgiving Day). He ended up staying and working with a couple of the “white washed” companionships for a day. I’m not sure if we use the same term back home, but in this mission whenever a companionship gets transferred to a new area where neither was serving beforehand, we call it a whitewash. We had 15 in the mission last month, so a couple of them have been getting extra help. Elder Wright served here in Itaum when I was down in Navegantes so we went to visit some of his old investigators. At one particular house we had a great lesson. He had baptized the wife and 14 year-old daughter but the father couldn’t give up smoking so he couldn’t get baptized. Elder hill and I had visited him a couple times but we didn’t have any success in getting him to give up the cigarettes (even though we did take his pack away the first time we visited him). Elder Wright threw in a bunch of different techniques that appear to have worked. Burning, guilt tripping, and priesthood blessings got him to agree stop smoking and get baptized next week. I’ll be sure to keep you posted.
Thursday will be the grand conference with Elder Ellis. Everyone is a little nervous because the last time part of the area presidency came to visit there was a lot of burning and repentance involved during the following weeks. Don’t worry; I was still in the MTC when that happened.
2 more weeks and then it’ll be transfer time again. We’ve got the 4 of us who arrived and practically the same time so anything could happen. I just hope the rain gets transferred to another city.
The chapel is ready, the rain drops are heavy, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.
Thankful for Umbrellas,
Elder Haws(mo)
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