Hey Family,
How’s life up in the frozen north? We had three days of blistering heat last week before the rain set in. I feel kind of bad. There was a flood in Concordia my first Sunday there. A month after I got to Imbituba we got a rainstorm that lasted for over 10 days. My first week in Navegantes we got a huge storm that had the streets filled with so much water that it reached my knees. It rained almost everyday for the entire two months I was in Florianopolis. The two months I was in Joinville weren’t any different. The worst flood in the history of Brazil destroyed our mission during my first transfer. We had sun the day I was on the bus coming out to Joaçaba but my first full day of work was the start of three solid days of rain. What’s wrong with me?
Life in Joaçaba is pretty good. I got to wake up at 3:30am on Wednesday to catch the bus to Florianopolis. On the way we dropped off Elder Bateman in his new area. We decided that our own “home winning streak” has come to an end, and I’ll probably only run into him when we’re going home. After the transfer meeting it was time to get on the WESTERN BUS. When I rode that bus last year it took almost 9 hours to get to Joaçaba to let Elder Pereira off the bus. This time the transfer was pretty small so we got there in about 7 hours. That night just about everybody in the zone stayed the night at our house (because only one other area in the zone is in the bus route) but Thursday morning everyone went back to there areas. We’ve got a new kid on the zone from Rigby, so we had some fun conversation on the bus ride.
Many people consider Joaçaba to be the worst area in the mission. Not because of the work, nor the apartment, nor the branch. Just because of the hills. To be completely honest, I think I’ve only found three streets so far that don’t climb up hills. One of those is the main street in Joaçaba, and the other two are the bridges that cross the river. Elder West has been here for 3 transfers so he knows his way around pretty well. He’s got around 11 months on the mission (he came to the mission field when I went to Navegantes last March) and has served in Concordia as well. He is from Connecticut, is a construction management major at BYU, and is 6 feet tall. He is used to be the big guy because for the last three transfers he was with a 5’6”, 115 pound elder from Montana. Needless to say, Elder West feels a little different now and everyone in the branch was a little surprised to see me.
Thanks for the stake information. I got that email sent off a few minutes ago so the mission should be able to get my travel plans all figured out. No dad, neither of us is a district leader. If you were to ask the other elders in the mission they would just laugh and tell you that I was probably being punished for something. Nobody has any idea what I would be getting punished for. President Queiroz went so far as to say that I’m not being punished, it’s just that the Lord wants me here right now. It’s shown to be a good little area so far, we just have to see what we can make of it.
Hey Mom, congrats on teaching your students to use the computer! I never saw that one coming. Greg, congrats on being assigned to a mission, it’s just too bad that you won’t be finding out about it for another month.
The sun is back, the hills are steep, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.
In the west with The West,
Elder Haws(mo)
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