Once Again! I have so much to say and no time to say it! Actually there isn't that much to say...every day is almost the exact same thing. It is helping me a lot though. I can't believe I've already been here for a month. In one more month I will be out in the field teaching real people! That thought terrifies me! I feel in no way qualified to do that but I know the Lord will help me when the time comes. Learning the language is coming along great. I learn 100 words per day! Unfortunately, I forget about 98 of them cause I forget just as fast I learn! haha just kidding! The language is actually coming along really well and I'm getting a lot more confident in my ability to teach now! One of the hardest things to deal with is the books they gave us. They are terrible. They are suppose to be teaching English speakers how to speak Portuguese but the English part is full of typos and the Portuguese is Spanish half the time, so the books are practically useless without an instructor there to tell you which parts aren't actually Portuguese! I'm definitely more used to the weather down here! I don't particularly love it but I can handle it now haha I love you all! Write me, I love hearing news from you all!
Tchau,
Elder Haws
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Week 4
Week four here already! At the end of this week I'll already have been here for a whole month! That's crazy! I guess time really has started to speed up. Its been raining here like crazy! It's rained for the past four days and they tell us it's supposed to keep raining for four more. It makes it really humid but also a lot cooler since the sun isn't shining so brightly on everything. The air conditioning doesn't work half the time so they fix it but it's broken the next day again, I don't know how it's even possible to break that often. I don't know if I put in my last email that I had caught a virus or something down here that gave me a super sore throat and a cough and stuff but it's gone now! I still can't bend my toe! I was hoping it would heal quickly but it hasn't. The kinda docter guy here has looked at it and says it seems to be healing correctly so I'll just keep waiting. I'm getting real good at walking and jumping and stuff without bending it! One day a week we have TRC which is when we teach a pretend investigator and they video and audio record it and then give us feedback. It went soooo much better this week than last even though we had to teach native Brazilians and couldn't fall back on English if we didn't know a word. This week we have kind of become part of the "older group" here and we now will be the investigators instead of the missionaries. It should be a lot of fun. I'm out of time! I love you all!!
Tchau
Elder Haws!
Tchau
Elder Haws!
Friday, November 9, 2012
Temple Visit
This is an email we received from President and Sister Degn:
Dear Family,
We are pleased to be able to send you a picture of your missionary's recent visit to the Sao Paulo temple. The morning they enter as a group is a very sacred experience for them, and it is an experience that is always anticipated with much excitement. We know they will treasure this remembrance.
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It is a great honor to serve with each of these fine young people and to watch their growth as they learn more about their sacred calling of a missionary. WE have a great love and respect for each one of them. Thank you for your support for them. They love to receive emails and letters from you, and feel of your love. We know that your familly will fell the blessings of their service.
Sincerely,
President and Sister Degn
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Dear Family,
We are pleased to be able to send you a picture of your missionary's recent visit to the Sao Paulo temple. The morning they enter as a group is a very sacred experience for them, and it is an experience that is always anticipated with much excitement. We know they will treasure this remembrance.
Sincerely,
President and Sister Degn
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Week 2: All About the P-Day
Hey Everybody!
I apologize if I sounded negative at all in my last email! It was a very hard day and also almost 100 degrees outside plus humidity! The heat is just not my cup of tea. Anyways, things are going a lot better now! I can't believe it's already my second p-day and at the same time I can't believe it's only my second p-day! Days feel like they could be weeks here and I haven't been here nearly long enough for the weeks to seem like days. I like p-days a lot though. We wake up at six and then take a bus ride for like 40 minutes to the temple. It's always exciting. The roads are tiny, there are millions of people and cars and they all want to be the first one to wherever they are going. Motorcycles drive in between the lanes and have to honk all the time so people know they are passing. It's so dangerous! I've seen them bump into cars but manage to stay balanced and keep going. When we get back from the temple, at about 12, we eat lunch and then can go walk around the CTM and go to the shops and stuff. We have about a two block area we are allowed to go. It still looks so weird to me that there are walls all along the street and everything everywhere has bars, you'll see when I send some pictures exactly what I'm talking about. I'm out of time!! Weird things here are that the toilet paper is already in sheets instead of rolls, kinda like Kleenex and at night the sky just turns a hazy yellow or orange because of all the exhaust and lights. It's weird. Talk to you all next week!
Elder Haws
I apologize if I sounded negative at all in my last email! It was a very hard day and also almost 100 degrees outside plus humidity! The heat is just not my cup of tea. Anyways, things are going a lot better now! I can't believe it's already my second p-day and at the same time I can't believe it's only my second p-day! Days feel like they could be weeks here and I haven't been here nearly long enough for the weeks to seem like days. I like p-days a lot though. We wake up at six and then take a bus ride for like 40 minutes to the temple. It's always exciting. The roads are tiny, there are millions of people and cars and they all want to be the first one to wherever they are going. Motorcycles drive in between the lanes and have to honk all the time so people know they are passing. It's so dangerous! I've seen them bump into cars but manage to stay balanced and keep going. When we get back from the temple, at about 12, we eat lunch and then can go walk around the CTM and go to the shops and stuff. We have about a two block area we are allowed to go. It still looks so weird to me that there are walls all along the street and everything everywhere has bars, you'll see when I send some pictures exactly what I'm talking about. I'm out of time!! Weird things here are that the toilet paper is already in sheets instead of rolls, kinda like Kleenex and at night the sky just turns a hazy yellow or orange because of all the exhaust and lights. It's weird. Talk to you all next week!
Elder Haws
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Getting the Hang of Things
Week 1:
Hey thanks I made it safe! The flight was terribly long and very boring. The plane was all stuffy and crowded but when I finally got off...it was just more humid air than the plane and about 20 degrees hotter...I don't think I've stopped sweating since I got here!!
The language is...coming along. I'm at the point where I can talk in full sentences in Portuguese already but I have a really hard time understanding them when they reply to me. I've already been teaching two 'investigators' com meu companheiro Elder Gregory and things are actually going...pretty bad unfortunately. haha They are both interested in the church but they are hard to understand and I don't have the vocabulary yet to explain things to them. But anyways...I'm picking things up faster than I thought I would.
It's hotter than hot. Today it's almost 100 and I don't even know what the humidity level is. I can't stand it. I try and end my shower with cold water so I don't start sweating again as soon as I get out but unfortunately my room is on the top floor of the building and is always extra hot. On the bright side though, my room is on the top floor of the building and has an AMAZING view of the city. It's so big I can't even comprehend it; the closest border of the city is over 50 miles away and the furthest is something like 100 miles, they told me. I can't wait until some pictures are on Facebook for you all to see. Unfortunately, my room is on the sixth floor which means I have to run up 108 steps every time I need something from my room.. :p But it helps me stay fit if the sweating doesn't already!
I have sent you a really long letter today and I sent it priority so you should hopefully be getting it in like two weeks! There are also letters for others that you can just give to Koty. It was a lot cheaper to send them that way.
I love and miss you all so much! This is by far the hardest thing I have ever had to do! The Temple in Sao Paulo was absolutely amazing today! The entrance has an awesome 30 foot stained glass window that is broken up into two or three foot sections of the visit of Christ to the Americas. It has a guy that looks like the one in the church movie where he goes blind in a storm the night before Jesus comes and then he gets healed by Him. I don't know if you know what I'm talking about but hopefully you do.
I am almost out of time and I feel like I haven't said anything yet! hopefully you get my 'missionary ties' thing and can send me lots of stuff through that! Mail is the most exciting thing ever around here! Our district did make a rule that every letter you get means you have to do 50 push ups though, so try and make them one big or every day or whatever and not three small ones!
Also could you maybe log into my credit card account and see if I ever paid off the last 40 or so dollars? I can't remember if I did or not. I'm out of time! Love you lots and you'll hear from me in a week! But I hope I hear from you sooner!!
Elder Haws
Hey thanks I made it safe! The flight was terribly long and very boring. The plane was all stuffy and crowded but when I finally got off...it was just more humid air than the plane and about 20 degrees hotter...I don't think I've stopped sweating since I got here!!
The language is...coming along. I'm at the point where I can talk in full sentences in Portuguese already but I have a really hard time understanding them when they reply to me. I've already been teaching two 'investigators' com meu companheiro Elder Gregory and things are actually going...pretty bad unfortunately. haha They are both interested in the church but they are hard to understand and I don't have the vocabulary yet to explain things to them. But anyways...I'm picking things up faster than I thought I would.
It's hotter than hot. Today it's almost 100 and I don't even know what the humidity level is. I can't stand it. I try and end my shower with cold water so I don't start sweating again as soon as I get out but unfortunately my room is on the top floor of the building and is always extra hot. On the bright side though, my room is on the top floor of the building and has an AMAZING view of the city. It's so big I can't even comprehend it; the closest border of the city is over 50 miles away and the furthest is something like 100 miles, they told me. I can't wait until some pictures are on Facebook for you all to see. Unfortunately, my room is on the sixth floor which means I have to run up 108 steps every time I need something from my room.. :p But it helps me stay fit if the sweating doesn't already!
I have sent you a really long letter today and I sent it priority so you should hopefully be getting it in like two weeks! There are also letters for others that you can just give to Koty. It was a lot cheaper to send them that way.
I love and miss you all so much! This is by far the hardest thing I have ever had to do! The Temple in Sao Paulo was absolutely amazing today! The entrance has an awesome 30 foot stained glass window that is broken up into two or three foot sections of the visit of Christ to the Americas. It has a guy that looks like the one in the church movie where he goes blind in a storm the night before Jesus comes and then he gets healed by Him. I don't know if you know what I'm talking about but hopefully you do.
I am almost out of time and I feel like I haven't said anything yet! hopefully you get my 'missionary ties' thing and can send me lots of stuff through that! Mail is the most exciting thing ever around here! Our district did make a rule that every letter you get means you have to do 50 push ups though, so try and make them one big or every day or whatever and not three small ones!
Also could you maybe log into my credit card account and see if I ever paid off the last 40 or so dollars? I can't remember if I did or not. I'm out of time! Love you lots and you'll hear from me in a week! But I hope I hear from you sooner!!
Elder Haws
Thursday, November 1, 2012
The First Hand Written Letter
Day 1:
Dear Mother and Father and Sister and Sister and whomever else it may concern, such as Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Cousins and Non-Existent nieces and nephews,
I only have one page to write on so I'll try not to waste space. It's about 5:30 on Wednesday night. I haven't really slept much since I woke up at 5:30 am Tuesday morning. i'm exhausted. I did finally get to shower during a short break at 3 today. They've kept us pretty busy. I arrived at the MTC, though here it is called the CMT, at about 11 this morning. The flight took FOREVER and it was hard to get any sleep. The drive through Sao Paulo was really cool though. It's unbelievable how big the city is! I took some cool pictures though, so you'll be able to get a small glimpse of it. I haven't stopped sweating since I got off the plane. It felt like i walked into a locker room after lots of people had showered and has smelt kind of like it too. i am in a room on the top floor of the CMT, the seventh floor. The view is great but the stairs are ridiculous to go up and down so much. There are suppose to be six people to a room but mine only has four of us right now.
It's crazy how different everything here is. I'll send you pictures but everywhere is just walls and gates and then cars and houses inside. Lots of people have electric wires on top of their walls too. The traffic is terrible and people always ask you for money, not cause they need it but just cause they want to take advantage of you. the money is 1.89 Real to a US Dollar but you pronounce it hi-yah and plural is hi-yah-s.
They spend 20 minutes tonight teaching us how to speak Portuguese and are expecting us to speak it as much as possible now. AND don't plan on teach us too much more, just requiring us to use it and grow our vocabulary. it's incredibly frustrating but it's been a long day and I'll work on it more tomorrow.
These shipping instructions (I've updated the side of the blog) should be much more helpful than the ones in my packet. Basically, I can't have packages until I get into the field.
You can use Dear Elder to write me quick and that will be lots better than e-mail. I don't know when my p-day is yet but it will be Tuesday or Wednesday.
The food has been alright, some great, some terrible.
My two other room companions are Brazilian and don't speak English. This is going to be interesting!
Love you all!
Elder Haws
Dear Mother and Father and Sister and Sister and whomever else it may concern, such as Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Cousins and Non-Existent nieces and nephews,
I only have one page to write on so I'll try not to waste space. It's about 5:30 on Wednesday night. I haven't really slept much since I woke up at 5:30 am Tuesday morning. i'm exhausted. I did finally get to shower during a short break at 3 today. They've kept us pretty busy. I arrived at the MTC, though here it is called the CMT, at about 11 this morning. The flight took FOREVER and it was hard to get any sleep. The drive through Sao Paulo was really cool though. It's unbelievable how big the city is! I took some cool pictures though, so you'll be able to get a small glimpse of it. I haven't stopped sweating since I got off the plane. It felt like i walked into a locker room after lots of people had showered and has smelt kind of like it too. i am in a room on the top floor of the CMT, the seventh floor. The view is great but the stairs are ridiculous to go up and down so much. There are suppose to be six people to a room but mine only has four of us right now.
It's crazy how different everything here is. I'll send you pictures but everywhere is just walls and gates and then cars and houses inside. Lots of people have electric wires on top of their walls too. The traffic is terrible and people always ask you for money, not cause they need it but just cause they want to take advantage of you. the money is 1.89 Real to a US Dollar but you pronounce it hi-yah and plural is hi-yah-s.
They spend 20 minutes tonight teaching us how to speak Portuguese and are expecting us to speak it as much as possible now. AND don't plan on teach us too much more, just requiring us to use it and grow our vocabulary. it's incredibly frustrating but it's been a long day and I'll work on it more tomorrow.
These shipping instructions (I've updated the side of the blog) should be much more helpful than the ones in my packet. Basically, I can't have packages until I get into the field.
You can use Dear Elder to write me quick and that will be lots better than e-mail. I don't know when my p-day is yet but it will be Tuesday or Wednesday.
The food has been alright, some great, some terrible.
My two other room companions are Brazilian and don't speak English. This is going to be interesting!
Love you all!
Elder Haws
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