Week 71

Eduardo and Adrian

Update on the baptism from this week: I already emailed photos of the two from two weeks ago now and also the one that we had on this Saturday and confirmed yesterday. Eduardo and Adrian are the first two. Gabriel is the other photo. He´s 18 and lives just above the chapel (three houses). Everton didnt end up getting baptized this week but we remarked his baptism for this saturday in 6 days. He went to FSY (the same thing as EFY but they changed the name a little bit, and this was the first time they ever had FSY here in Brazil) and he came back super excited. All the youth in our ward are super excited and all shared their testimonies this Sunday. Its was soooo cool to see some of them who never had a testimony before and they get up there and talk about how they felt the spirit while they were there and they want to help get people to join the church and how they want to serve missions and everything. The parents were all crying seeing their children up at the pulpit and saying all this. It was a good Sunday. Plus this Sunday I got to confirm Gabriel. I dont remember if I´ve actually confirmed somebody before, but as I was confirming him I got an impression to tell him something along the lines of how he´d be a good example for his family and stuff. so I said it but then I waited for what would come next and it was the same thing! So I said basically the same thing but in a different way to try and say what i was supposed to say. Afterwards I got the SAME impression again and I was surprised! I guess I'm not good at discerning exactly what I'm supposed to say during a blessing! After the third time of the same idea coming to my head I said the same idea but tried to do it in a different way once again and then ended the blessing.

Gabriel

So like I said Everton came back from FSY really excited and he´s going to be baptized thie next Saturday at 3 in the stake center. He invited all his friends from other cities to come to his baptism. It's going to be a really big meeting!

We had Sebastião and Conceicão at church yesterday and she really liked it. Sebastião is still a little bit harder to understand. I think he liked it but we havent had a chance to visit them since church. The thing that he needs the most is a friend.

I´ll have to let you know about my testimony building experience next week as well, I´ll take some time and write it all out and then type it to email to you next week. I´ve got a topics in my head such as exact obedience obedience and the power of prayer but to share specific examples I´ll need some time to think.

Well..... I dont have much else to say. this week went by really fast! J

Edler Morgan at the dentist...again!

ust like all the others.

This week we found out that almost nobody will be transferred this next transfer(next monday) only a few who will go home and a few who wil train. so it looks like Elder Morgan and I will be staying a fourth transfer together! Though we dont know for sure yet.

Until next week when i send you photos of Evertons baptism!

Elder Haws

Week 70

Hello-

 

So this weekend has been and is Carnival. Everything is closed and has been since Saturday at about noon. It´ll all open back up at about noon on Wednesday. We were really lucky to find a LAN house that is open today! Because of Carnival, the chrurch was practically empty yesterday! We had our four investigators there and there were probably 15, MAYBE 20 members. Plus all the youth went on a trip/camp thing out of the city for the week of Carnival like usual and so it was only older people.

 

We´ve been having difficulty with several of our investtigators lately. They were all becoming eternal investigators. One of them always has an excuse why they couldn't go to church that week. This last week one of them actually had a valid excuse though. They were at the bar, of course (everybody has a bar within like 100 feet of their house) and some sort of problem happened between a random person and the bar owner because he wasnt paying for his drinks. A friend/neighbor of our investigators went to help the bar owner get this guy out of the bar and he got stabbed by a big knife right in the hip! This all happened Saturday night. So our investigator took him to the hospital and were helping him out and that's why they didnt go to church!

 

Also, we thought that some of our investigators, this ´´couple´´, were boyfriend and girlfriend cause they look a lot different but live together and stuff. But when were found out they werent dating we were only a little surprised cause he acts kinda gay. Turns out that they are just tbest friends and he had family problems and needed help so she let him move in with her and her family. I dont think they can be baptized while he continues to live there but we´ll see if they ever actually go to church before we worry about that problem.

 

This week we baptized two of Guilherme´s cousins! Adrian and Eduardo! It was great! I don't have any photos to send because I dont have my camera.

 

This next week we already have two more baptisms marked. One of Saturday, Everton, who we´ve been tryingt o baptize for forever! The other is Gabriel. He lives just three houses away from the church and really is excited to be baptized. He already has invited a lot of people to come and see it!

 

On Sunday, it was pretty cool after church; we had THREE different people call us over to talk to them. One of them said that her mother in law does voodoo and took dirt from the cemetary into her house and apparently thats a really bad thing to do if you ´´cursed´´ it or whatever and so we walked back to the church while she drove near us (there was no man in the car and so we couldnt enter, luckily we were only leaving the church after the baptisms and were only about 2 blocks away) and talked with her and the bishop and stuff and then we gave her a blessing. She promised to go to church next week and we´re going to pass by this week to tell her about the restoration fo the gospel!

Plus there was a lady that lives in our area but went to the church in the center of the city and she really really liked it. We taught her and her husband. He´s got sooooooooooooo many doubts but she already went to the church and loved it and wants to go again in our ward and take him with so he can see what its like. He used to be Catholic but after doing a whole bunch of research he realizes how wrong the Catholic church is and also discovered that there are tons and tons of churches and he says that he lost all of is faith because so many people teach so many false things and false doctrine. I know that he´s going to love church next Sunday and we will be prepared with answers to every doubt that he has.

Lots of miracles this week and its easy to tell the the Lord repares people for us to teach. He is hastening His work!

And I think thats about all I have to share this week!

Love you all

Elder Haws

Week 69

This week we confirmed Guilherme. He is a really cool kid. He was so important in helping his mom quit smoking. It's great to have him and his mom at church every week. Also José is showing up at church every week by himslef now! Though he is still leaving after sacrament meeting because his health is still poor.

We got a family that lives right by the church to go yesterday. They had never visited the church before even though they lived on the same street but just two blocks higher.

We havent really taught them yet though. The dad doesnt have any interest at all but the mom and two sons who are 16 and 18 went and seemed to like it a lot.

This week I also did a division in Independencia, another ward on the other side of the city. It went well but divisions always make the week pass by quickly...which is why this week my email is short. It passed so quickly that I don't remember that much stuff!

 

Elder Haws

Week 68

Hello!!!

 

This Sunday was a really good Sunday! José was confirmed finally! His health has been improving lately and he can walk normally and dress himself again! So he came to church and was actually already ready and standing outside his house when we showed up to take him to church!

Everton was not baptized :( He cancelled his appointments with us THREE times last week which was really annoying.



 

However, we had a miracle! We had a lady show up at church last week because she wants to treturn to the church. She was baptized when she was 16 and has like 30-ish now! She has a son who was never baptized because she was baptized when she was still pregnant with him! So when I saw her at church I started talking to her and asking about her and found all this stuff out! We taught him this week and he´s a super awesome kid! His name is Guilherme and he is 13! He was baptized on Sunday and we´ll confirm him this next sunday!

  

 

The bed bugs went away after a good cleaning. I've only been bit twice since last week but they might just be mosquito bites. And no, I never found out if they were for sure bed bugs or not.






 

 

Everything was in the package and it show up the day I went to Londrina. I went on Wednesday night and had quite the adventure with Elder De Los Santos, one of our Zone Leaders. How often are you going to see an American and an Urugayan getting off a bus at midnight in a big bus station in Brazil, they both speak Portuguese because both of their native languages are others and they are both wearing shirts and ties in the crazy heat? We had to walk to the secretaries house, which is only a few blocks for the rodoviária and luckly Elder De Los Santos knew wheer it was. more or less. The only problem we had when we got there is that it is a apartment complex that you cant enter without a key.....The guy at the door was a cool guy though and let us in and we walked into their house and they had already put some little matresses by the front door so finally at about 1:30 we got to sleep! Everything went fine the nexy day and my visa was renewed and I'm legally allowed to be in the country again! It will expire again on the 24th of October so I know I´ll be home before that!

 

 

Well.. I think that is all I have to share for this week! Time sure is flying by! I'll send a bunch of pictures today as well!

 

Elder Haws

 

Week 67

This week we ate with Roberto again he´s the one who made the ´´jokes´´ about eating chicken feet..

He made jokes about chicken feet again!! But we didnt eat chicken feet :) We had beef fried with onions, salad and scrambled eggs with rice and black beans. I love the randomness of Braziian's meals!

Mom, I forgot to respond to your question of valentines day, they DO have valentines day here but its on June 12 rather than February 12th.

On Sunday we confirmed Daniele! She arrived a little late to church so we did it at the end of sacrament meeting rather than the start but it still got done! José wasnt able to go because he has a lot of pain in his back and intestines and such and couldnt change clothes to go to church or get there very well becasue of the pain...but we´ll get him there this next Sunday for sure! Even if we have to get a ride for him for the 50 yards to the church building! And throw his dress shirt on top of his t-shirt if he cant change clothes!

This past week we have been plauged in our house! We got some of what I believe are bed bugs! We called Sister Genaro on Wednesday about it because I thought I was just getting attacked by a crazy lot of mosquitos at night! I started getting bit on Sunday or Monday and it was weird that Elder Morgan wasnt getting bit too. So, on Wednesday morning I went to wash my sheets again and put my little matress in the sun. When I did it I saw the little bugs on the bottom side and so we called Sister(this was Wednesday) she told us that she would look up how to kill them for us. So I washed all my sheets and cleaned everything really well. For the most part they are gone, even though sister Genaro never called us back to let us know how to kill them all........ Elder morgan has been bit a few times as well so we wash our sheets and put our little matresses in the sun basically every day trying to get rid of them. Now we each only get bit by maybe 1 or 2 per night, which is waaay better than the 20-ish that I had on Monday and Tuesday nights! We´ll call her today to ask how to completely kill them all and do it since its p-day and we can stay home all day!

Other than the bed bugs (if they are really bed bugs) we had a pretty good week!

We have a baptism marked for Saturday (Everton, the kid who moved here and lives with his aunt and unlce now). We just need to get his Aunt or uncle to sign the sheet to authorize him to be baptized. They kind of dont think he's ready yet. I´ll let you know how things go next week!

Elder Haws

Week 66

 

Ola!

 

Today we had transfers! Neither Elder Morgan or myself got emails soo.... we´re pretty sure we are both staying! (though it could just be that the secretaries messed up with the emails again and we recieve a call later today telling us that we were transferred. But for now, it seems like we´ll both stay! This will be the first time that I stay with a companion for more than two transfers!

About the chicken feet! we thought the member was just joking about feeding us chicken feet for lunch. We were at José´s baptism and they came to clean the chapel. As they were leaving he said that he was going to make chicken feet but was laughing and so we thought it was just a joke. On Sunday he asked us if we liked chicken feet and and joked around some more so we thought he was just continuing the joke. Even when we showed up for lunch at his house after church he said that the chicken feet would be done soon and we STILL thought it was a joke! However when his wife brought the food in from the kitchen, what was it?? CHICKEN FEET!! Just so you know, there is no meat on chicken feet, just skin, nerve endings and tendons. They love chicken feet and I choked one down but didnt like it. its just like eating chicken skin except the bottom of the feet have the little bumps that kinda seem like taste buds.... the texture is horrible! haha

When Elder Morgan came back from his ´´trip´´ to Lençois Paulista, he brought back a beverage called Guaraná Jesus. they have Guearaná everywhere here but this brand is special. originally it was a small company up in Northern Brazil. Coca Cola tried to sell the same type of Soda there but it wouldnt sell because everybody already drank Guaraná Jesus. so Coke bought it and kept the same name and still continues today. This was the first can that I drank. It was pretty good but nothing too different that regular Guaraná soda.

 

José wasnt confirmed this week because it was stake conference. The conference was awesome though and the Saturday night session was extra cool because it was all about missionary work.

José came back from the hospital on Saturday and is fine now. He should be confirmed this Sunday if all goes well.

Daniele

 

 

 

After Stake conference on Sunday we had another BAPTISM! Her name is Daniele and she has a boyfriend in another ward here in Bauru and so because of him, she got baptized!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The girl on the right was baptized last week and the other three
were baptized this last weekend!

This past week was a hot one! It was almost 100 every day! I didnt get burned somehow though! the Lord pretects his servants!

There is a really cool family in an other ward that I taught with Elder Hendrix last week but only the daughter was baptized last week. This Sunday the mom and son were baptized as well as the moms niece who lives right by them! It was a great Sunday here because we baptized 9 people in our zone!

This week we still have two good possibilities for baptism but we need to find a lot of new people this week. This past week we didnt find many at all and so this week our teaching pool is already really small.

I love you all and thanks for the support.

Com muita água

 

Élder Haws

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