Not again...

Hey Family,

How’s life up there in Idaho? The goalposts are still orange? BYU dropped a game? Elder Haws got transferred? Again? Yes.

Life is crazy. One day you’re in Florianopolis, the next day you’re on a bus to Joinville. Don’t even ask. I’m still confused as to why I’m here. The fact of the matter is that I’m serving in the Itaum Ward, with one other companionship. My companion is Elder Hill (Orem, UT… kind of) and the other companionship is Elder Stokes (Poky, ID) and Elder Coburn (GEORGIA). 4 gringos in the same house. The members were more than a little startled by this outcome. The other three elders got here 2 weeks ago (when I went to Rio Tavarez) so we’re basically enjoying 2 white washes. Good times.

Joinville is the largest city in Santa Catarina and has around 7 or eight different companionships in the city. Luckily we can still have big P-days. We just have to make a couple phone calls before hand. Joinville is famous for raining every night. Right about the time the sun goes down the drops come down. Just to make matters better, during the summer it becomes on of the HOTTEST cities in the mission. Wish me luck! Pray for cloud cover.

Mom had mentioned something about a Christmas package. To tell you the truth, I hadn’t even realized that Christmas was right around the corner. I think I’m going to be here for Christmas, but there’s no way to know. I served in 3 different areas over the course of 11 days. I think President Queiroz might be having a good laugh about this one. Who knows?

Package? It’s not worth it to send clothing. Candy is always a nice addition. I think what I would like is food from back home. The sauce packets were awesome. Maybe a box of cereal. Mac and Cheese (NOT EASY MAC. Other families sent easy mac to missionaries but we don’t have microwaves), stuff like that. Don’t send ramen noodles or cake mixes, I can find them both down here. Besides that, just be creative. I trust you guys. If I get anything I don’t want, it’s easy to give stuff away to people who will use it. Thanks for everything.

The sun is hot, the rain is constant, but I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Leaving my bags packed,
Elder Haws(mo)

Where in the World is Elder Haws(mo)?

Hey Family,

It appears by your emails that everyone is a little stressed. Everyone seems to be wondering where I am, what I’m doing, and why I didn’t email yesterday. Good times. I can’t believe that BYU lost so bad to TCU. It had seemed to be the second hardest game of the year, but still. One of the assistants to the president called me Friday to tell me BYU got blown out. I nearly cried, and it wasn’t even because of the spirit of the lesson. I was pleased to find out that I’m so well known around the mision for being a BYU fan. Even the AP’s will take 10 minutes out of their “busy days” to call up and talk trash to Elder Haws.

I feel as if we are setting a record down here. I’ve been tracting in the rain for around a month now. In the last month we’ve had around 8 days of sunshine, and the rest was umbrella weather. Luckily the sun was out this morning so my shoes could finally start to dry. It would definately be a time for rejoicing if we could get some snow to fall instead of this dreadful rain.

Now to answer some questions. I got transferred from the Agronomica Ward to the Rio Tavares Ward. Rio Tavarez is the ward that covers the southern half of the island of Florianopolis. Next week I’ll try to email a map showing the distance I moved. No, the president didn’t transfer me because I blocked him a couple times (jsut to make sure I blocked his shot once yesterday), in fact, he spent that same week bragging to every missionary in the zone that his team still beat mine. Onme of this P-Days I’m going to havbe to lay down the law with the president. My new companion is Elder Rocha who is from Olinda, Pernambuco. Interesting, because my second companion in Navegantes was Elder da Rocha from Recife, Pernambuco. Recife and Olinda are neighboring cities in the northeastern corner of the country. I’m emailing today because we couldn’t yesterday. Ourr “allowance” got delayed a couple days so I had to wait for my companion to recieve funds to email. Don’t worry. President Queiroz cleared everything.

Since today isn’t P-day I’m going to have to fun real quick. Sorry for the quick email. I’ll send photos next week.

The sun is back, my clothes are drying, and I’m fine so stop worrying about me.

Roaming the Island,
Elder Haws(mo)

P.S. Forgive me for typing errors, this computer doesn’t have spell check in English.

Surprise, Surprise‏

Hey Family,

Another transfer has come and gone. Before you know it Christmas will arrive and someone will be making fun of my Brazilian accent. How crazy is that? Oh well. 6 weeks in the Agronomica Ward and I’m already packing my bags. Yes, you heard correctly. I’m getting transferred. Surprises aren’t always that fun.

This past week was a real pain. We had a couple days were plans A through D fell through ALL DAY LONG. It tests your faith, and your patience, but everything works out in the end. Willian got splashed, but his mom will have to wait a little while. Saturday after the baptism the primary had a big activity. Seeing as how we had a few kids there from investigator families, we stuck around to help out a little bit. It was a bunch of fun. It’s too bad I’m already leaving the area, but I feel as though I helped out a little bit.

For P-Day today I was expecting to go to a big game of basketball at the president’s house. It just so happened that my companion had his heart set on going to the beach. A few different Elders called me this morning to make sure I was coming, but I had to tell each of them that it wouldn’t work out. Oh well. There’s always next time. We hung out on the beach, threw around a football, a Frisbee, and had sumo wrestling matches in the sand. It was Elder Burkhardt’s last P-Day so we went to Pizza Hut for lunch.

What else could I be forgetting?

…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!

From your SON,Elder Haws(mo)

PS I'm throwing in a picture of Artur, an 18-month-ish old boy who I taught to say "Cougar". He only says a handful of words in Portuguese but runs around his house screaming "COUGAR!" Don't worry. His mom studied at BYU for a semester so she understands.