"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that you are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism--yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel." 2 Nephi 31:13

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Week 57

The mission tour meeting went awesome! The President of the Area of Brazil came and spoke to us. He gave some good training and inspirational messages but I'll get to that later!

Elder Schenewark has two more transfers than I do. He's from...everywhere cause his family always moved a lot because of his dad's work. He's a zone leader in the zone i used to be in, Zona Marilia. Now I'm in Zona Bauru and so haven't seen him for a few weeks.

Did you guys know that if Jesus were to return right now, Claudio R. M. Costa would become the president of Brazil? He's the president of the area of Brazil currently and so he would take the place of the current president! What's more is that he was in Londrina with us giving a training to us. He talked a lot about the spirit and how we need to leave shortly after getting the spirit into the lesson so that people will notice that it left with us and want it in their lives. He also spoke about how we need to speak to everybody!! That's something that i already knew I needed to improve. He also chose 10 missionaries to interview after he was done with his presentation and I was one of them!!

Here's a question for you to think about: if you had an opportunity to be in a room with a member of the presidency of the 70, below only the 12 and the prophet, and he asks you if you have any questions for him, what would you ask?

Before be asked me, I had about a million but when he asked, I just went blank! I stared at the ground for probably a good 20 or 30 seconds before aksing him a little more about the Spirit. After the interview (though it really was just a conversation) was over, about a million questions far better than I had before the interview came into my head. Anyways, it was a really cool day and we learned a lot. It really helped me to get re-motivated and excited for the work.

We are trying hard to meet new people here, we're not working as efficiently as possible though and that's something we will work on while we put into practice what President Costa taught us.

Tchau,
Elder Haws

Monday, November 25, 2013

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! :)


Monday, November 11, 2013

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

Monday, November 4, 2013

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

Monday, October 21, 2013

Week 51

We've seriously had soo many people lying to us lately and its getting to me! People 9investigators and people on the street usually) always lie to us cause we're the missionaries but this past week its been out of control! I might develop some major trust issues that i'll have to get over by the time i get hom!

This is a family that gives us lunch once a month.
They aren't even members of the church!
The area I'm in isn't really jungle-y although the areas by the river are, they are really small though. There are just lots of parrots. A lot of people have pet parrots and parakeets and stuff and there are a lot of wild ones too. The wild ones are the most annoying birds ever because their whistle is the exact same and they just sit there making noise all morning while we study.

They kind of celebrate Halloween here but its nothing compated to the united states. They have a thing they do on new year's day though. They go to the houses and say "felize ano novo" and if its a little kid the people are pretty much required to give them something, otherwise everybody gets mad at that house.

I've never gone to primary here. In Ourihos, we always teach the new member class, principles of the gospel and about half the time there is no youth teacher so we teach them as well.


This is my super dialated eye
when I went to the doctor.
President Genaro already told me that this next transfer I won't be killing my companion!

this past week we almost had a baptism but she didn't feel ready. She is a daughter of a less active member who is returning to church. She is returning and knows that her daughter needs to be baptized but the dad isn't a member of the church and is making the daughter feel not-ready. I don't think he means to do bad but he also doesn't really support her being baptized 100% only 80%ish and he's made her fee not-ready.

We've had to cut two families that we were teaching this week because they weren't progressing and don't want anything really. Actually one family its just the husband that isn't interested and so because of him, the wife doesn't want to come to church or be baptized without him. He had been inactive in the Catholic Church for years now and he "wants to return" and so the wife will go there with ihm and their two kids.

The other family is just a waste of time because all they want to do is talk about the U.S. and want their daughters to marry an American and go live in the U.S. So, we're done there.

WE haven't baptized in a while but our numbers are still pretty good. Our mission did really well last month. We got 3rd in all of Brazil last month. That's super good!



-Elder Haws



Monday, October 14, 2013

Week 49/50

Well last week Tyler didn't really write us anything to post! Here's today's letter:

I apologize for last week's letter! That survey we had to do took almost half of my time on the computer!

This past week has been insane!
First off, I didn't really say anything about General Conference last week cause I didn't have time but I liked it a lot and it's easy to tell that at least in the U.S. there are problems with women right's and attitutdes and stuff. We don't seem to be seeing anything like that happening here in Brazil. i really liked President Uchtdorf's comment about "why would anybody want to join your church??" The one where he starts out talking about all of the activities that members of the church are involved with!

We also had zone conference on Friday with President Genaro and that was so great too! We had to leave here on Thursday night like we always do for meetings that start early the next morning. So i left the house Thursday morning and didn't get back until Saturday night! The zone conference ended at 5:30-ish but we got a surprise because we had broken the record of bapisms in a month! We got to watch 17 miracles!! If you haven't seen it, you really need to! But do it in a more comfortable location than on a wooden church pew in a really hot chapel while wearing a suit in Brazil! It was a great movie though and the only one I've seen in a year now! So because of the movie, we missed the only bus that goes to Ourinhos that we can get at nght and had to stay in Marilia for another night. On Saturday morning we found out the sister in our district had an interview and so we were going to catch a bus to Assis, the city that they work in, and then go to Ourinhos after but we already have four appointments marked for Saturday. So i went with one zone leader and Elder Halpin with the other. Elder Halpin went bck to Ourinhos and I went to Assis because I have been in theis district the longest and know the areas the best. We went and did the interview and the lady went in not wanting to be baptized really because of a bunch of Adventista 7th day church people have been going to her house every single day after the sister missionaries to try to have her not get baptized. They felt the spirit really strongly though and still wanted to baptize, so we baptized her that day! I was the one who got to baptize her too!! So that was a great Saturday!

We've done a lot to get the ward to like us here including making cookies and stuff! It really really worked! But the whole purpose of getting them to like us more was to get them to help us more and they still aren't really doing that...but we'll keep at it!

Also, I was walking down the street on..Tuesday, I think, and a parrot said hello to me and said good afternoon! Though it was in Portuguese,  I looked around to see who it was that said something cause it sounded like a regular person but then I saw the parrot in the tree and it was kind of making noises still so I knew it was him! Later that day, anothe rparrot said hello also! That's never happened the whole time I've been here in Brazil and then it happened twice in the same day!

We got five people to church again this week, it is so nice to finally have people go! It's been a while since I've had a lot of people who actually wanted to go to church! One lady (Regina) even gt up and bore her testimony even though it was her first time visiting the church! It was awesome! She was pretty funny up at the pulpit cause she told a baby to shut her mouth during the middle of her testimony and kind of just talked about us the whole time rather than Christ, but we'll help her learn how to do it right!

Well I tried really hard to do a better email this week so I hope it was interesting! Have a great week, everybody!

Com amor e muita agua

Elder Haws

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Week 48: Transfer

So Elder Halpin and I will be comps again this next transfer, which means I will kill yet another companion!! The Noah's Ark activity last week was an idea that one of the sister's shared with us in district meeting, she said it ws in some EFY Counselor book.

With Lucas this week, yes there certainly was progress! He got baptized on Saturday night!! ANd then confirmed on Sunday in Sacrament Meeting. But this was the last Sunday of the month and we were really close to our goal for the month and President Genaro had authorized people to be baptized even if they had only gone to church one time if they were living all the commandments. Last week there was a girl, Leticia, who hadn't gone to church yet and didn't that Sunday either, unfortunatley. BUT this Sunday she went and she had agreed that if she liked and felt good at church she would be baptized. Soo..we went by bus and got her because only  like 3 people in the ward here have cars, and that made us get to church pretty late, missing the entire first class. But she still really liked it and got baptized! Plus we had permission to have her confirmed outside of a sacrament meeting as well! So she was confirmed right after! It took us all the way until the last weekend of the transfer but we finally baptized!

We've got 2 potential families for these next weeks and so that's who we'll be running after these next weeks! Oh and like two or three months ago we beat the old mission record of baptisms with 168 but this month right now (September) we just beat it again and got 182 in the mission!

-Elder Haws