Splish Splash‎

Hey Family,

Survived 6 weeks in the field, one full transfer completed, and I’m staying in Concordia. I was glad to hear it. I like this place. All the hills/mountains make for some good exercise, the members are great and try to speak slowly so I can understand, we have investigators who are excited about the Gospel and are really progressing, we just found out there are couple of places we can play basketball here and the kids are anxious to play against me. I was fully aware that a greenie “usually” stays put in the same area for a few transfers, but I was still a little worried they’d move me. The likely course will be that I stay with Elder Martin (my companion, trainer, and district leader) for this transfer, then he will get moved and I’ll show a new senior companion around the city, after 1 or two transfers with him I’ll likely be packing my bags to head off somewhere else. Whatever happens will be dictated by the Lord so all I’ll have to do is sit down, shut up, and take notes. Life will be good but I think I’m going to miss this place when I go, but I guess that’s normal.

Friday was as interesting as I expected. Elder da Silva (our senior Zone Leader) and Elder Burke (a junior companion from Chapeco, but originally from Wyoming) came in the morning and we went to the church for Micael’s interview. Everything went well; he was ready for the water so we went to lunch at a member’s house. Because of awkward bus times, and Micael’s limited availability, the interview was at 12:30 and lunch wasn’t until 1:30. After lunch Elder Martin and Elder Burke left for Xanxere to do a baptismal interview and I was on the streets with a zone leader for the day. He knows some English words and a phrase or two, so I got some good practice with Portuguese. He says he understands most of what I say, and that I don’t have a bad accent at all, but I don’t know how much I can trust that. After all, zone leaders are supposed to be positive and supportive right? After nearly everyone that we had expected to visit wasn’t home, he taught one lesson and went back to the church for the interview with Marcelo at 6. We got there 5 minutes early, and waited until 6:25 before leaving. He never showed up, and I was worried about what would happen. We went to see if he was at his house (a 20 minute walk), he wasn’t, tried another address, and then went back to his house to find him arriving home. He had thought the interview was at 6:30 and had gotten there promptly 5 minutes after we had left. We got the interview done and headed back to the apartment. I was fortunate enough to have received 23 letters in the week and a half since Zone Conference. Everybody here is jealous. Keep ‘em coming! Elder Martin and Elder Burke got back at 12:30. Everybody was fortunate enough to wake up a 5 AM to help Elder da Silva and Elder Burke leave in the morning. Good times.

Saturday Micael didn’t show up to the baptism. There was something about emergency work, or something said in quick Portuguese with words I don’t know. Marcelo was there, ready, and excited for the water. The actual baptism took place in a pool at the house of a friend of our new Elder’s Quorum President. Fun, fun. Marcelo was (in the words of Elder Jordan Danger Brough) the first person I “splashed” on my mission. Greg still holds the honor of being the very first person I splashed back in the Idaho Falls Temple, but this was entirely different. We got a new date set up for Micael, Marcelo came to church, was confirmed, took an active role in the discussion in Gospel Principles class, and went on a visit with us last night. It is amazing to see how his life has changed in 5 weeks since we started visiting him.

Weekly Request: Contact Solution and a little bottle of hand sanitizer. Sister Cardon from the MTC suggested we buy hand sanitizer but I can’t find any here. I have easy access to stuff to make refills, but the original product can’t be found. Besides that, just keep sending letters. Candy is good too.

I love you all. I’m good, great, grand. Keep praying, keep writing, keep knowing that I’m safe but stop worrying about me.

Probably another P-Day without basketball,
Elder Haws(mo)

P.S. Last P-day 9(in Xanxere with the Sisters) we went to an outdoorsy place with a waterfall and paths through a forested area. I will add a couple photos this week but will do more next week.

Photos:

(1)Marcelo, Me, Elder Martin before the baptism

(2)Family Photo, Stack of letters I’ve received so far in Brazil

and the 7 letters I got from friends last week

(3)Elder Martin watching a movie two p-days ago

(4) The lunch the sisters cooked us
(5) Sister Tavares and Sister Soares

(6) One photo of the waterfall
(7) Me with a little meal I cooked (proof that I’m still alive)

Christmas List (revised Aug. 20)

-An American Football

-A Potato Peeler

-Plan of Salvation Lesson Pieces that Mindy used (leave spots for the names blank)

-PEANUT BUTTER

-More Photos of family. Recent ones of the nephews. More of parents and siblings.

-Photos of Friends. I have none with me. If anyone reading this is a friend of mine, or knows a friend of mine, I would appreciate if you would get a real photograph of the afore-mentioned friend to my parents. Senior Pictures are awesome. PARENTS: Don’t make copies to send me. Save up pictures and send real prints in a package in a few months.

-3x5-ish note card with a simple map of Idaho on one side and of the USA on the other. If Mindy or Jenny or someone could make it instead of the parents, it would be great.

-Scripture Marking pencil(s). The ones we bought pre-mission aren’t that great.

-An English copy of whichever “Teachings of the Prophet _______” that will be used after President Kimball

-Recipes

-Picture of the IF temple

-Ensigns, New Eras, The Friend in English

-CANDY!!!!! Reese’s, Starbursts, Hershey’s,

Anything that the other Haws Missionaries craved.

Always Working,

Elder Haws(mo)

Dad Would Have Killed Him‎

Hey Family,

As always, I’m safe and sound. However, I’m not in Concordia this time. For P-Day we got up early and took a bus out to Xanxere to spend the day with the sisters. Elder Martin is paranoid that she is going to get transferred next week so we are going to be here the whole day. They apparently have something fun planned for this afternoon, but we don’t know what it is yet. All in all life is good, but I feel naked. We’re running around Xanxere in P-Day clothes, but something is missing. Not the nametag. Not the tie. I’m in jeans and a t-shirt and I’m not wearing a BYU hat. It doesn’t feel right. Not right at all.

This morning was pretty eventful getting to Xanxere. Our alarm went off at 5 AM like it always does for road trips. I jumped out of bed to get ready for the day. Elder Martin crawled out of bed 10 minutes later. We always plan to leave our apartment by 6, for the bus that leaves at 6:30, but never make it out before 6:15. At 6 I was finishing packing my bag and was about to get my shoes on when Elder Martin got out of the shower and announced it was time to get our stuff ready to leave. 10 minutes later I’m standing my the open front door watching him run through the apartment, searching every room looking for shoes, nametag, cell phone, keys, and everything else. He probably has the worst memory of any guy I’ve ever met. He can’t remember faces, names, times, the cell phone in the morning, his keys… It doesn’t help that he never puts anything in the same place twice. This morning I got to watch him destroy the apartment for nearly 20 minutes trying to find his stuff. I couldn’t help but think what Dad would have said/done/thrown-out-the-window if he had been here. We ended up having 3 minutes to walk to and load a bus that normally takes 10 minutes to reach. We got there a few minutes late and he was able to talk the bus driver in to waiting another 2 minutes so we could get the right tickets. In the end we made it here safe.

I’ve got the camera. I’ll be taking a few pictures today and Saturday and then will hopefully be emailing some next week. Normally we’re not allowed to take pictures on Saturdays but we will be having a baptism, and President Dansie let’s us take pictures for baptisms. Marcelo and Micael (Pronounced like Michael in German… meek-eye-el) are around 21 years old and excited for the baptism. We’ll have an interesting situation Friday for the interviews because the Zone leaders will have to be here all day. Marcelo is only home at night, Micael is only home in the mornings, and my companion needs to come back here to Xanxere for a baptismal interview in the early evening. Wish us luck!

Mom mentioned that she wanted me to start a Christmas List. I will send another email with that. I can’t think of much I could use or want, but if Warren, Mindy, or Spencer can remember stuff they wanted, I could probably use it.

Life is good, baptisms are on the way, and I’m fine, stop worrying about me.

Preparing Souls for the Waters of Baptism,

Elder Haws(mo)