Feeling Powerless‏

Hey Family,

How’s life? It’s pretty wet down here. It’s incredible. Since I got here in Joaçaba we’ve only had sun on Sundays, and on days that we happened to be fasting. Any regular old day of work means that the rain comes down hard, and that’s no different on P-day. Wish me some luck with the weather.

Life is going pretty good. This last week we ended up climbing every hill in the city. It was tough work at times (we even did a little “off-roading” through the jungle/forested areas that appear on the side of the road). We’re as tired today as I have been in a very long time but it appears to be paying off. This Saturday we went to visit a less-active family that Elder West has been visiting every week for the 5 months that he’s been in the area. They’d always been a little cold to the missionaries, and had never really made any progress, but when we got there on Saturday the house was completely different. They mentioned that our visit had taken them by surprise. They were all getting their church clothes ready, and had even started making lunch for Sunday. They mentioned that (almost magically) Friday afternoon they got the feeling that they have to get back to church as quickly as possible. They now know that the only choice they have is raising their children in the church, because if they’re not learning about life at church they’ll be learning it in the street. This family has been inactive for a little over two years so we’re setting up the baptisms for the two sons (ages 8 and 10) for the 14th of February. We hope to have a couple more people to join them, but no real names to write down. It’s amazing to see miracles spontaneously happening, like a recent-convert coming to church after mission 3 weeks, and bringing his brother’s family with him. In a matter of moments we had a family of 5 who liked church and want us to visit them.

Besides that life has been pretty laid back. Yesterday we woke up at 5:30 am to get ready for PEC before church. As we were getting ready to go the power went out. We imagined it was just a side effect of the rain, so we left it alone. When we got home last night the power was still out so we went to talk to our neighbors in the building. It turns out that the only apartment that didn’t have power was ours’. This morning we got up, ate in the dark, took cold showers (we have electric shower heads that heat the water) and made a call to the maintenance guy. It turns out someone actually turned of our breaker in the fuse box in the basement. We had checked the one in our apartment, in the hall on our floor, and on the main floor, we just had imagined that there would be a problem in the basement. Everything worked out in the end.

Rumor has it that it’s my birthday this week, but I don’t think it’ll mean too much. It’s kind of crazy that both years I got transferred 3 weeks before my birthday. Oh well. The Lord knows what’s best. This Wednesday is the branch’s monthly “Birthday Celebration” so I’ll get a piece of cake. Thanks for everything!

Recovering from the Mountain Climbing Expeditions,
Elder Haws(mo)