Week 97

Hello!!

I´m bettter now, on Tuesday morning I woke up mostly better and by Tuesday night I was back to normal again!

What did dad get for his birthday that was steelers? And Ali, what did she get that was fun?

Sounds like you guys had a busy weekend,with pajama parties, peach days in bear lake and family parties!

This week we have a good possibility for baptism finally. His name is guilherme and he is dating a member here. He´s 15.

Umm.... it was s uper long week and we didnt get too much accomplished. we had a zone meeting in Tupã on thursday and i got to see Elder Gregory, my comp in the MTC. Also, hes the one we met in the airport in Salt Lake with his family. They live in Fielding.

Sorry that this email is so short, but i dont have much else to say. Do you guys have a few questions for me?

Much love,

Elder Haws

Week 96

Hello,

In Salmourão we ate lunch at a members house. Edimar and Lucy. She just made a meat and a potato salad and juice. but she actually took time and made it good! There is a member here who doesn't really like elders too much and so just gives us a bowl of rice and hot dog slices or something similar. She gives us lunch every Tuesday :(  but that's just part of the mission. and it made lunch in Salmourão THAT much better when we went there! the meat was cooked with cilantro and some other spices that i dunno what they are, and it was delicious!

We're teaching two families in Salmourão. One is a dad, a mom, a daughter and a son. Only the son has gone to the church. He loves it though. The dad can't stop, and doesn't want to stop, drinking coffee. The mom is great and is reading the Book of Mormon every day! But she needs to go to church! She has lots of excuses she uses to not go though.

This week we finally got a few new people at church. The problem is that 2 of them live in Salmourão and we can pretty much only go there on Saturday. So that's tough. The other lives here in the city. So we finally have some new people to work with that can actually be baptized soon.

I also stayed home sick yesterday for the first time in my mission! After church i started feeling really sick. We walked to lunch but by the time we got there I knew I shouldn't eat anything! So i didn't, I laid on their couch while Elder J. Silva ate and then we called sister Genaro. she told me that it was just cause of what I was eating (not that i doubt her but.. i don't think it was) so she said to go home and rest. It's terrible being sick on the mission!!! My first time and hopefully the last. Right at this moment my stomach still kind of hurts and my body aches but other that that I´m fine. The worst was having to throw up! I called the zone leaders to pass our districts numbers and shortly after I passed the numbers to them I went and threw up everything in my stomach! Which was luckily just water! Today for lunch I'll maybe try and eat some crackers cuz I'm starving (I haven't been able to eat since Sunday morning when I ate some crackers and chocolate milk)! 

It's a bummer being sick but it's certainly gonna help me in my competition with Cydnee haha (losing weight)!

Well I hope you all have a great week. I love you all and thank you for your support.

Com Amor

Elder Haws

Week 95

Alright, tansfers were today and I...... will tell you what happens after I tell you about the week!

Wow, I´ve qualified for a home improvement loan? but I´m without a job for 2 years already! That bank is crazy!

I saw the pictures of the Ogden temple on the church website and its look awesome! I´ll miss the open house but I´ll be able to visit it when ever I want afterwards.

This week we went and worked in a little city about 20 minutes from here. Its called Salmourão. We had a good lesson with a family there and there's a lot of potential there as far as new investigators go! The family that invited us over(memebrs) is super cool and she made a super delicious lunch!

On Saturday night there was a gincana da família, basically a family game night here in the branch. It want pretty well even though half the people who were supposed to plan activities and games didn't even show up. 

Irmã selma( sister Selma) made her part extra long to make the activity fun still. She´s a really great member!

This week I also thought I lost my glasses!! I got pretty upset cause I know how much I had to pay to get them! But two days later I was asking the branch presidents wife if she had seen them and I had accidentally left them in her house! So I got a lot happier after that conversation. 

Dad, in my hed the weather sounds perfect in logan. My body would probably think its too cold though. This area of Brazil is super hot and pretty dry. not uite as dry as Utah though. Both my comp and I are suffering bloody noses almost daily. Its about 90 every day here. and its the winter still!!!! spring is just about to start. Good thing i wont still be here in December!! 

This branch is passing through some difficult times. A few members in particular.  I think thats part of the reason president Genaro decided to leave Elder J. Silva and I here for another transfer! 

I have not been transferred.

WEll.... I hope you all have a great week!

Oh I heard that our mission will have Mission Tour this next month. So that will be pretty cool. Last time it was Elder Costa who came!

Com amor

Elder Haws

Week 94

HELLOOOO!!!!

Mom, I really liked the joke from the high council man about double spacing his talk to make it long!

I also spoke in church this Sunday! However the sacrament meeting started about 15 minutes late :( so I spoke and when I ended.... my companion only had about 4 minutes to talk!!!! haha I took up ALL the time! whoops. He´ll speak next week though with our branch mission leader who was supposed to talk but didn't show up!

This week we didn't have any success at getting people to go to church. We worked a lot on a list of less active and inactive people who he wanted us to try and reactivate but also didn't have any success. This isn't quite how i was expecting the end of my mission going, with absolutely no success! its frustrating.

This next Monday we will have transfers again. Which means I´ll be on my last transfer of them mission! It´s crazy how fast time is flying.

Oh and a few months ago I saw sister Briggs and told her that we were related, though kinda distantly. She didn't know! With her and sister Eliasson I have two not so close relatives in the mission!

The ideas are kind of working. We did a branch activity on Wednesday and got 16 people there, which in this tiny branch is really good! We´ve got another planned for this week and this time we´re GOING TO GET INVESTIGATORS to go!! I´ll go crazy if every single person we talk to rejects us once again this week!

I´m sad that dad will cut his hair before I get home, I wanted an awesome picture with him when I got back before he cut it, but oh well.

Well.. that's how my week went! Love you all and I´ll let you know next week if I´ll die (*his last area..where they send him home) here in Osvaldo Cruz or somewhere else!

Elder Haws

Week 93

This area is being really difficult! nobody wants to be reactivated and no investigators want to go to church! We had 0 people at church AGAIN this week!

The coldest its been for me has been about 70! the coldest!

Dad, you said you liked my house and thought it would be easy to maintain because we dont have any grass. well you didnt see the backyard to our house! its a huge field that we play soccer on during our p-days!

I´ll send photos today of it!

Elder J. Silva and I are friends, we´re having a rough time here in Osvaldo Cruz but we´re trying hard. He´s a pretty picky eater. He wont eat any vegetable except lettuce. Sometimes. even lettuce he won't eat some times. He doesn't like feijoada (a super famous food here) and won't eat it at all EVER. He also can't eat pork (this one is cause of a health issue and so is okay to not eat). And then after all this he sometimes complains about lunch. Not a lot but just occasionally. I don't really feel bad for him going hungry though because he doesn't eat half the stuff cause he doesn't like it... He buys a lot of crackers to always have somehting to eat at home after a lunch that he doesn't like!

Anyways, this week I´ve got a lot of different ideas that we´re going to try and help this branch strengthen and grow!

Until next week!

Elder Haws

Week 91 & 92

Week 91:

HELLLOOO!

Mom, No. there's no shade in the whole city!

Dad, the weather here was really hot when we first got here cause it hadn't rained in a long time! but now its been rainy almost every day for a week! and in the mornings its freezing!! One day it even got down to 15 degrees Celsius... which i know isn't that cold,but I'm used to Brazil heat now so I´m using my sweater in the mornings, and sometimes for the whole day, and I´m sleeping with 2 blankets!

Elder J. Silva is from Maceio Alagoas. In the Northwest of Brasil. He´s 20. He´s brown haha He has 2 sisters, one who will go on a mission soon and the other has 11 years only so won't be able to go for a while.... His dad works with sugar cane and he did for a little before the mission as well. He wants to be an engineer.

(wow i just realized that as i asked Elder j. silva info about him, i wrote in Portuglish..... i´ll just leave it like that though and i think you´ll still understand)

The branch president is a really cool guy. He´s funny and likes to talk about deep doctrine with us sometimes. His wife is cool too. 

We´ve had a little bit of trouble getting people go to church here in Osvaldo Cruz. We had 6 people for this Sunday and nobody went! Just one lady who said she wasn't a member but turns out that she is so... we at least are helping reactivate her!

We´re working a lot here and just waiting for the results to start showing up. The branch president leaves with us a lot and is always encouraging others to do the same! Its a great bracch here.

I love you and hope you all have a great week!

Week 92:

Alright so this week we had district conference. When all of the branches went to the city called Tupã! President Genaro was there and spoke. He´s great at giving talks!

We aren't the first elders to come to Osvaldo Cruz. There were elders a few months ago and then they got taken out and sisters got put here. After about 3 months, they were taken out as well and now me and my comp are here. The branch has about 40 people that go each week and maybe 100 people in the city are baptized.

We haven't had too much success in getting people to church :( the transfer is already half over too! but the members are great and we´re working with them. I just wish we were seeing results for our work as well!

Im sorry that my email is really short this week! 

I love you and will talk to you all next week! Time is flying by too fast just like mom said!

Elder Haws

Week 90

Hello!!

The trip here to my new area wasn't too long. I left Maringá at 7:15 and got to a city called Presidente Prudente at 12. At 1:45, I left from there and came to Osvaldo Cruz, I got here at 3.

Me and my companion are opening the area. in other words, we got here at the same time and didn't know anybody or where anything is. The members helped us out a bit and since its a small town (with only 30,000 people) we already know how to get pretty much where ever we want.

Our branch here has 5 cities in total. We´ve only been to one other city outside of Osvaldo Cruz so far. It's called Parapuã. 

The branch here has a really great branch president and we´re really excited to work here. Elder J. Silva has about a year on the mission, just a little bit more than a year. He´s from the northwest of Brazil and has a bit of an accent but its not too strong anymore, he´s lost a lot of it on the mission.

It's a lot hotter here than it was in Maringá.. hopefully it cools down a bit. The members however tell us that this is as cold as it gets around here!

I´ve told everybody here that I only have 1 year and a little on the mission, like 3 months... i don't know if its a sin cause it's dishonest or if it´s okay so that people don't just try and make me trunky all the time and talk about home and marriage and end of mission stuff... but I already did it so i guess it doesn't matter. If I stay here until the end I´ll tell them about 2 weeks before I go home that I´m ending my mission!

I´m out of time but I´m having a good time here and I´ll talk to ya'll next week!

Elder Haws