Week 55/56

Week 55:

This week Elder Morgan and I had a couple of great adventures! First off, when we got here the phone didn't have any credits to call anybody, we didn't know where our house was or how to get there, and we didn't know any members who could help us (and even if we did, we had no way to call them).

Luckily, the Zone leaders helped us out and we got a hold of the 2nd counselor of the bishopric and he came to get us and our bags and then showed us where we live and how to get to the chapel.

Everyday after that has been spent walking the streets with a map in our hands because we need to learn more about the city and where everything is! Luckily this is a much smaller area than Ourinhos! Ourinhos was a whole city to learn, this time it's just one part out of six (cause there are six wards in this city).

There is an entire section of the city that it shows on the map, but when we got there...it was just jungle! There were a couple of dirt roads and we saw one or two houses here and there are these little dirt roads, boy were we surprised! I have a funny video of it but it's too big to send.

We had a lot of possibilities to take to church that we met this past week but nobody was there when we went before church to get them.


A whole bunch of Snails! They are an invasive species so
we're supposed to kill them all! 

We were going to try and confirm a girl, Cheyanne, that had been baptized a few months ago but she didn't want to go that day and we were planning on sacrament being last so we thought we could get here at about 10:40 and she'd only go to sacrament meeting. It turns out that sacrament meeting is first in this ward and so we had no way to help her get confirmed this week.
Hopefully we can convince her to go next week!

The ward members here seem really good and we've even marked with some already to leave with us this week! Hopefully that means our investigators will feel more welcome and want to be baptized even more!

Week 56:
 Dear Family,



Elder Morgan making apple pie/pastel

What a long week It's rained a lot here and the washing machine was broken when we got here so the stuff we've washed by hand still hasn't dried!

Cheyanne didn't get confirmed :( she doesn't even want to go to the church again cause she's going to a different one and he's really rude to us about it so we haven't been working with her anymore. we got a kid, Gabriel (16 years old), to go to church with us but he missed sacrament meeting so in the books we have a zero for this Sunday, again. I don't really know if he liked it cause he really wanted to get out of there quick at the end of the meetings....so...we'll see what happens!

We know a few of the bigger roads in our part of the city. Though we still have to use the map for anywhere we go because all the roads have such weird names!

They do celebrate Christmas here but it's not nearly as big. They still have Santa and a little party and stuff on Christmas Eve. Last year the family I was with, opened their presents on Christmas Eve but it might have just been because we were with them and they wanted us to open our little boxes with a tie in them...I don't really know.

A monkey!! We're going to the zoo next p-day!

This Thursday, we will have our Mission Tour meeting with Elder Claudio R.M. Costa and that will eat up a lot of our time, it will use up three days actually because we have to leave on Wednesday and we might not be back until Friday!

Thanks for the love and support!

Elder Haws

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! We're Wizards! :)

Week 54

I was told by President Genaro that I was going to Maringa. It's a city a little bit south of Londrina. But today...the zone leaders told me I'm going back to Bauru.The zone I was already in but just a different area. My comp will be Elder Morgan (he's from California). He's here in Zone Marilia with me right now. Which means there will be two completely new missionaries there! Just like Ourinhos will receive two new missionaries! Good luck to the missionaries that will go to Ourinhos! They will have a whole city and not even know where their house it!!

I'm actually pretty upset about being transferred because first of all: packing is no fun. Second, I was super excited to work with the new people we had found. And third, I was going to meet Elder Halpin's family..but now...I won't be able to meet them. That's really sad but I guess I can meet them in a a year when i get home.

We did baptize this week. Her name is Gabriele and she's 9. She is the daughter of a memeber who has been inactive for 10 years but now we have been visiting here-she has gone to church every single week! Now the husband just needs to get baptized but I guess that's work for other missionaries.

There was a lady that we had worked with for over two months that we didn't baptize.It was really sad to leave. She used to be a prostitute and did all sorts of bad things but has completely changed her life around because we helped her. She even stopped drinking coffee and everything!She was ready to be baptized but just didn't want to be baptized yet. It was really really hard to leave because she had already worked with other sets of missionaries *at least two other companionships* and never opened up to them and told them what her problems really were, so she FINANLLY did with us after a month of working with her and now we left and I hope she doesn't just give up.

I know I'm here on the mission to learn a lot of things  but two in particular are humility and learning how to follow. Being a leader is important but we also need to learn how to follow.

I have a testimony that the church is true. The Lord knows each one of us individually. The leaders of the church are truly inspired and receive revelation from the Lord. I know that the Lord knows me and I am trying to be who he wants me to be. It's hard. Really hard. But I won't give up!

Elder Haws

Week 52/53

Week 52:
This past week was definitly a crazy one!! Wednesday was one of the worst days I've had on the mission, including really annoying investigators, waiting for hours to be able to eat lunch *obviously working not just sitting down waiting) and having an arguement between our companionship. Everything was resolved though and we're better now!

Friday night we planned and then called the sisters to accompany them *its a rule to do it every night) and they said they needed an interview done. So we replanned and had stuff for after 7 at night because it's a 2 hour bus ride to the city where they work and we figured we could catch the 4 o'clock bus or at the very worst we would have to get the 6:15 bus and just walk straight home after. We never imagined we would be at the church and have finished the interview and have it already be 5:30. We only have 45 minutes to baptize him and ge to the other side of the city!! It's about 30 minutes to walk tot he bus station from the church there in Assis. So we called and got permission to get home late from Sister Genaro. President Genaro didn't annser his phone, nor did the President's assistants nor the Zone leaders!! So she gave us permission and we stayed to baptize him-there were no members who could. After the 6:15 bus, the next bus goes back to Ourinhos at 930!! so we got back to Ourinhos at 11ish( the bus goes faster later at night) and then still had to get all the way across the city to our house!! We didn't get to bed until midnight! It was so weird to be out so late. I haven't done anything after 10:30 for over a year so it was quite the change for me. I was soo tired. But it was all worth it to get him baptized.

The real hard part happened the next morning when we still had to wake up at 6:29 and work alld ay!! Plus we had forgoten that is was the fourth Sunday! Which means we have to give talks in sacrament meeting! So I gave the home teaching message for the month from the church magazine-nobody does their home teaching here and hadn't heard it anyways.

We'll I'm already out of time! Have a great week and I always love hearing from you guys!

-Elder Haws

Week 53:
We cut a lot of people this past week  again. We've been teaching a ton of lessons lately! We're going crazy trying to get a last baptism for Elder Halpin before he goes home (which is next MONDAY!!!) we've taught almost 50 lessons a week this past month and found tons of new investigators and even got like 25 people to church!! But nobody wants to be baptized. It's realy hard because all of our numbers show that we are waaay over due for a baptism.

This past week has gotten me all sorts of trunky!! I've heard imagine dragons (one of my favorite bands) playying three different time plus a macklemore song and at the super market they had a skiing show playing on a tv while we were grabbing some food and it made me miss skiing sooo much! Plus its crazy because once again, this is my companions last week in the field and he always makes comments about it! But its alright cause everybody wants to throw him a churrasco (bbq) since he's leaving. So we've gone to two already and have two more planned this week!

Today we tried to go bowling but th bowling alley was closed and doesn't have hours posted or anything so i probably won't ever try and go again cause its on the opposite side of town than we live or the LAN house is.

This next Sunday we'll be leaving here from Ourinhos on Sunday night to go to the Zone leaders house in Marilia so that Elder Halpin and the Zone leader that is finishing his mission too can catch their bus to Londrina on Monday morning. I'll have to hang out there, with the other zone leader (Elder Schenewark from Boston) until my comp gets there. i'm pretty sure I'll stay here in Ourinhos because its not that common to replace both the missionaries in an area at the same time. But it does happen occassionally. Because if I do get transferred I'll already be in another city without all my stuff! so I really really hope that doesn't happen.

I'm gonna miss Elder Halpin, he's a cool guy and I'm nervous to see what happens in our distric this transfer, anything could happen!!
Well have a great week, I love each of you!!

-Elder Haws