Elder Haws didn't have tons to say this week but here it is:
The house is...the same. The shower works most the time now, we don't know what happened but we're not complaining! Our washing machine is broken but we did have a guy come by about it. He told us he couldn't fix it but somebody else could. So basically he just didn't want to do it. Hopefully we can get it taken care of this week.
We had zone conference and it was all the same things as last time! We went to Assis twice for baptismal interviews, there are two duplas of sisteres there. We got the cousins of some recent converts to come to church and had five people there because our ward mission leader brought two of his neightbor kids with him.
There's a ton of work to be done here in Ourinhos and it's a lot further from Marilia than I realized when I finally saw a map. We're practically in Parana still! Right on the border of Sao Paulo and Parana.
I'm already out of time because I've had a lot of computer problems today and it's suuper slow, that I wasted time waiting for it to load.
Love you guys!
Tchau
Elder Haws
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
Week 37: Ourinhos
Hello!
Alright Ourinhos is a pretty small city, only 100,000 people but its really spread out. There's hardly any tall buildings here, just a few apartment buildings with maybe 20 floors. So we've been doing a lot of walking!!
Our house is huge. It has two rooms. A bedroom and a kitchen/dining/closet/living/study room. Oh and I guess there's three rooms cause there's a bathroom too. But as a trade off fo rbeing stmall, everything is really high quality! Except that the washing machine doesn't work, the shower head that is suppose to ehat the water is broken so it's always cold, as well as teh water tank on top of the house has hole in it and the whole house stinks like mold and its growing on some of the walls :)
Alright, I apologize for complaining but I had to get that out of my system! It's not so hard to deal with. Elder Havili is great!I forot to tell you last week but this will be his last transfer before he goes back to Seattle! His dad is Tongan and his mom is from the U.S. I have only taken one picture so far so I will try and do better this next week.
We're gonna have Zone conference tomorrow AGAIN!! Tha's three for me in three weeks! It's awesome! They hadn't done the conference in this zone yet (Zone: Marilia) and so I was at the one in Zone Tiradentes and get to be at this one too! Marilia is about an hour and twenty minute bus ride if we can catch the 7:00 bus at night, and during the day it's about a three hour bus ride at any other time. We've already had to go there for a zone meeting and during transfers and we'll go there tonight because we need to be at zone conference at 7:30 tomorrow morning.
We only had two people at church and that was pretty disappointing. If we don't have at least 8 we have to leave and invite people to come in. It's really unproductive to try and invite people to church cause when we tell that that it's happening right at that moment nobody wants to go. But Sunday night we talked to a family! It was the parents of a girl that works at a restaurant in the center of the city.The missionaries eat there a lot cause the member has an account there that it gets charged to whenever it's his day to give us lunch. The missionaries have never talked to them about the church until this past week when Elder Havili and I went there. The daughter ended up not being home but we taught both her parents and I thought it went really well.
Elder Havili and I get along really well and I like it here a lot too, just like all my areas so far! (except for the house..but we're working on getting these things fixed soon).
The first week after being transferred always passes sooo fast! I feel like so much has happened since last pday but at the same time it's mostly just riding busses and so I don't hae a lot to say about the work that has been happening.
That's all I've got today!
I know that this is the work of God. I know that He still revels His will through prophets in these later days and they will help us on our jouney back to Him. The Book of Mormon is a book of sacred scriptures that was protected by God and delivered to be translated by Joseph Smith! I'm so glad to have the Church and the Gospel in my life!
Elder Haws
Alright Ourinhos is a pretty small city, only 100,000 people but its really spread out. There's hardly any tall buildings here, just a few apartment buildings with maybe 20 floors. So we've been doing a lot of walking!!
Our house is huge. It has two rooms. A bedroom and a kitchen/dining/closet/living/study room. Oh and I guess there's three rooms cause there's a bathroom too. But as a trade off fo rbeing stmall, everything is really high quality! Except that the washing machine doesn't work, the shower head that is suppose to ehat the water is broken so it's always cold, as well as teh water tank on top of the house has hole in it and the whole house stinks like mold and its growing on some of the walls :)
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| Elder Havili |
We're gonna have Zone conference tomorrow AGAIN!! Tha's three for me in three weeks! It's awesome! They hadn't done the conference in this zone yet (Zone: Marilia) and so I was at the one in Zone Tiradentes and get to be at this one too! Marilia is about an hour and twenty minute bus ride if we can catch the 7:00 bus at night, and during the day it's about a three hour bus ride at any other time. We've already had to go there for a zone meeting and during transfers and we'll go there tonight because we need to be at zone conference at 7:30 tomorrow morning.
We only had two people at church and that was pretty disappointing. If we don't have at least 8 we have to leave and invite people to come in. It's really unproductive to try and invite people to church cause when we tell that that it's happening right at that moment nobody wants to go. But Sunday night we talked to a family! It was the parents of a girl that works at a restaurant in the center of the city.The missionaries eat there a lot cause the member has an account there that it gets charged to whenever it's his day to give us lunch. The missionaries have never talked to them about the church until this past week when Elder Havili and I went there. The daughter ended up not being home but we taught both her parents and I thought it went really well.
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| Augusto and his family in Cambe the day I left |
The first week after being transferred always passes sooo fast! I feel like so much has happened since last pday but at the same time it's mostly just riding busses and so I don't hae a lot to say about the work that has been happening.
That's all I've got today!
I know that this is the work of God. I know that He still revels His will through prophets in these later days and they will help us on our jouney back to Him. The Book of Mormon is a book of sacred scriptures that was protected by God and delivered to be translated by Joseph Smith! I'm so glad to have the Church and the Gospel in my life!
Elder Haws
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Week 36
Hello!!
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| HERBIE!!! |
President Genaro raised the goal for coming months to 231 and eventually wants upwards of 4 to 5 hundred! I gotta admit...I'm lacking faith in his vision of 500 right now, but maybe in a year we can get there!
I don't really have a lot else to say here about Cambe. Except that I'm leaving! I'm going to Marilia. It's a city back in Sao Paulo again. Not quite as far away as Bauru is though. My companion will be Elder Havili. he's from...i'll give you two guesses! If you guessed Brazil, you were wrong. But from good 'ole Washington again! That makes three from Washington for me! I already know Elder Havili a little from when I was in Bauru-he was in a city nearby and I saw him 3-4 times. I'll send you a picture next week!
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This is a box of cereal that is basically cocoa puffs. Elder Haws and Elder Abreu each got a toy in their box! |
I really liked Cambe and wanted to stay, but that's why I got transferred!
There are some pictures below:
Until next week!!
Elder Haws
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| "This one shows that I´m super qualified as a missionary and have done lots of training! :)" -Elder Haws |
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| Again sorry this one will not let me format it!! This is Ginga a fruit that grows in a pod on trees. |
Monday, July 1, 2013
Week 35: Rain
Hello!!
After 8 days of raining we finally saw the sun again on Thrusday! but...then it rained again that night and has been raining ever since!
Every week I'm getting tested; and I'm sad when I fail!
Such as this past week: on Sunday (yesterday) we had a list of 11 people who said they would go to church. So we woke up early and started walking to every single house and...like usual most of them were not there. I was getting a bit upset. But after every house, I was still okay because I knew we for sure had the last two people who would for sure go. Gabriel and his little brother Mateus. We talked to them Saturday night at 8 to double check that they were planning on going still. They said they would and we planned to stop by there at 8:50 and get to church at 9 cause they live really close. We went to every single house on the list and nobody was home or they had decided not to go anymore. Wehn we finally got to Gabriel and Mateus' I htought "at the very least we'll have these two!" Their mom came out and said that they didn't want to go anymore and had left for their aunt's hous. One last night and the other that morning...I was super upset!! After all that work and a whole week of talking to people, we had zero people to take to church! Church is really important! If they don't go tot church they can't be baptized and that means we have zero possibilities this next week.
So I got upset and I know I shouldn't get mad cause it drives away the spirit.
And so after all this, we show up at church and 1 of the people we had gone to pick up had already gone to the church!! Her husband and grandson didn't go but she did! (Unfortunately she can't be baptized cause she isn't married) so I was a little bit happier but not much. We didn't get to church until about 10:45 cause we had no reason to be there without investigators. We also got asked about the other couple that was there. We weren't aware of another couple. We had probably four or five people say, "who is the other couple that are investigating today?" so we went to talk to them and it turns out they were wanting to visit the church on another day but it was closed. So they saw the sign that says the meetings are at 9 on Sundays and they came back to make a visit and know what's it's like! We got their address and we scheduled a visit at their house on Tuesday at 4! We're gonna see how they liked it and talk about the restoration and baptism and stuff!! I'm super excited for it!
People don't do that here. Nobody just wants to pay a visit and will return a second time on a Sunday, early in the morning, to know about a church here! It's a miracle here in Cambe!
And so...after all this, I wanted to be mad at myself for getting mad but that wouldn't be productive and also wouldn't show that I'm learning anything. So I got a little sad that I had gotten mad and know I'm going to do a lot better in the future. We weren't taking investigators to church but He had already sent two to the church and were already there enjoying it while I was getting mad walking on the street!
And other than that...it rained sooo hard as we were walking home last night. I could wring out my garments when I got home! Soaked to the bone! I have a cool video but it's too big to email and so you'll have to wait a year and half to see it!
Well that's all I have this week! Love you all!!
Tchau
Elder Haws
After 8 days of raining we finally saw the sun again on Thrusday! but...then it rained again that night and has been raining ever since!
Every week I'm getting tested; and I'm sad when I fail!
Such as this past week: on Sunday (yesterday) we had a list of 11 people who said they would go to church. So we woke up early and started walking to every single house and...like usual most of them were not there. I was getting a bit upset. But after every house, I was still okay because I knew we for sure had the last two people who would for sure go. Gabriel and his little brother Mateus. We talked to them Saturday night at 8 to double check that they were planning on going still. They said they would and we planned to stop by there at 8:50 and get to church at 9 cause they live really close. We went to every single house on the list and nobody was home or they had decided not to go anymore. Wehn we finally got to Gabriel and Mateus' I htought "at the very least we'll have these two!" Their mom came out and said that they didn't want to go anymore and had left for their aunt's hous. One last night and the other that morning...I was super upset!! After all that work and a whole week of talking to people, we had zero people to take to church! Church is really important! If they don't go tot church they can't be baptized and that means we have zero possibilities this next week.So I got upset and I know I shouldn't get mad cause it drives away the spirit.
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| The best pizza he's eaten in Brazil! |
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| Not sure what these masks are for... they are kind of creepy though! |
And so...after all this, I wanted to be mad at myself for getting mad but that wouldn't be productive and also wouldn't show that I'm learning anything. So I got a little sad that I had gotten mad and know I'm going to do a lot better in the future. We weren't taking investigators to church but He had already sent two to the church and were already there enjoying it while I was getting mad walking on the street!
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| I cannot get this picture to go the other direction! I'm sorry.. |
And other than that...it rained sooo hard as we were walking home last night. I could wring out my garments when I got home! Soaked to the bone! I have a cool video but it's too big to email and so you'll have to wait a year and half to see it!
Well that's all I have this week! Love you all!!
Tchau
Elder Haws
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Week 34
Hey Family!
Woah..I'm in Brazil and speaking Portuguese! And have been here for 8 months!! That still seems crazy to me! Good news! I got the package!! IT got here monday and the lady called us saying she had a paper so we could go pick it up from the correios. So we went there on Tuesday after we got back to Cambe from our district meeting. It only cost 60% to get it! :/ which was 76.50! so..i paid it! TThe insoles seem to be helping a lot! Elder Abreu also enjoyed the pop rocks! I gave some to a little girl, I think she's five, a granddaughter of a recent convert and she cried! So that didn't go exactly as I was hoping, but oh well!
It's a small world! We were going through a list of names that we have a nd met a kid named Enzo. he's pretty cool and we've taught him twice this past week. He knows Joey Burt from when he served here! It's weird to think that in a small-ish city in Brazil I can bump into people that know the same people as me from Logan!
I can't believe it's been a week since I last emailed, It feels like it's been a year!
The world wide training thing wsa awesome! We went to the stake center in Londrina to watch it. It's crazy to think that missionaries will be chatting with people online to teach the gospel too. I don't think any of the things will change here in Brazil though, at least not for a really long time. Computers are way more expensive here and stuff but...we'll see what happens!
The training that they gave there was really good too! I thought it was kind of funny the way President Packer gavehis training on teaching though. He basically juast said 'do it' just decide to teach and do it! At lesat that's what I understood of it all because it was only in Portuguese here.
This week was incredibly long! Probably because it rained all week and we have no way to dry our clothes after we wash them except for a clothes line. Clothelines don't work when it is raining. So it's always frustrating when that happens but maybe this week it'll clear up.
We taught a lot of lessons this week and worked really hard to get people to church. But nobody goes to church when it rains. Plus it was really cold so there were even less people than during a regular rainy Sunday! We only got 1 person to church and the other 9 that committed were either
'not home' or straight up told us that they weren't going anymore cause it was cold and rainy and we couldn't convince them to come!
We have quite a few young men that we are teaching right now that are definitely candidates for baptism here in two weeks! They ahve to go to church at least once and then after the second time they can be baptized.
I love you all and you're always in my prayers!
Elder Haws
Woah..I'm in Brazil and speaking Portuguese! And have been here for 8 months!! That still seems crazy to me! Good news! I got the package!! IT got here monday and the lady called us saying she had a paper so we could go pick it up from the correios. So we went there on Tuesday after we got back to Cambe from our district meeting. It only cost 60% to get it! :/ which was 76.50! so..i paid it! TThe insoles seem to be helping a lot! Elder Abreu also enjoyed the pop rocks! I gave some to a little girl, I think she's five, a granddaughter of a recent convert and she cried! So that didn't go exactly as I was hoping, but oh well!
It's a small world! We were going through a list of names that we have a nd met a kid named Enzo. he's pretty cool and we've taught him twice this past week. He knows Joey Burt from when he served here! It's weird to think that in a small-ish city in Brazil I can bump into people that know the same people as me from Logan!
I can't believe it's been a week since I last emailed, It feels like it's been a year!
The world wide training thing wsa awesome! We went to the stake center in Londrina to watch it. It's crazy to think that missionaries will be chatting with people online to teach the gospel too. I don't think any of the things will change here in Brazil though, at least not for a really long time. Computers are way more expensive here and stuff but...we'll see what happens!
The training that they gave there was really good too! I thought it was kind of funny the way President Packer gavehis training on teaching though. He basically juast said 'do it' just decide to teach and do it! At lesat that's what I understood of it all because it was only in Portuguese here.
This week was incredibly long! Probably because it rained all week and we have no way to dry our clothes after we wash them except for a clothes line. Clothelines don't work when it is raining. So it's always frustrating when that happens but maybe this week it'll clear up.
We taught a lot of lessons this week and worked really hard to get people to church. But nobody goes to church when it rains. Plus it was really cold so there were even less people than during a regular rainy Sunday! We only got 1 person to church and the other 9 that committed were either
'not home' or straight up told us that they weren't going anymore cause it was cold and rainy and we couldn't convince them to come!
We have quite a few young men that we are teaching right now that are definitely candidates for baptism here in two weeks! They ahve to go to church at least once and then after the second time they can be baptized.
I love you all and you're always in my prayers!
Elder Haws
Friday, June 21, 2013
Week 33
Hello Family!!!
Another week! We're already half-way through the transfer!
Teaching English to Elder Abreu is pretty fun. He never remebers to say the 'r' right though! I think its because he has such a strong northern accent and doesn't even say his r's in Portuguese either!
We had a baptism on Saturday!! And a confirmation on Sunday! Her name is Amanda and she's the granddaughter of one of the longest time members of the area, Natal. Most of her family was already members but she never had been baptized or really gone to any church.
I'll try to send pictures afterwards.
We had a surprise zone conference on Thursday. It was half the length of a regular conference, only from 7:30 til about 2 and had five zones there. About half the mission. 91 companionships! It was super great! I love zone conferences. It was in Ward 1 building in Londrina where there's an institute and everything. It's the biggest chapel around here. It was our last conference with President Tavares because he leaves at the end of the month and President Genaro will come in June.
Oh! Father's and Mother's day...I have no idea if they exist here, I imagine they do though because they DO have children's day! And this past week was dia de namorados! Which is Valentines Day.
I hope hyou have a great week!
Com Amor,
Elder Haws
Another week! We're already half-way through the transfer!
Teaching English to Elder Abreu is pretty fun. He never remebers to say the 'r' right though! I think its because he has such a strong northern accent and doesn't even say his r's in Portuguese either!
We had a baptism on Saturday!! And a confirmation on Sunday! Her name is Amanda and she's the granddaughter of one of the longest time members of the area, Natal. Most of her family was already members but she never had been baptized or really gone to any church.
I'll try to send pictures afterwards.
We had a surprise zone conference on Thursday. It was half the length of a regular conference, only from 7:30 til about 2 and had five zones there. About half the mission. 91 companionships! It was super great! I love zone conferences. It was in Ward 1 building in Londrina where there's an institute and everything. It's the biggest chapel around here. It was our last conference with President Tavares because he leaves at the end of the month and President Genaro will come in June.
Oh! Father's and Mother's day...I have no idea if they exist here, I imagine they do though because they DO have children's day! And this past week was dia de namorados! Which is Valentines Day.
I hope hyou have a great week!
Com Amor,
Elder Haws
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Week 32
Ola Familia!
I'm missing you all a lot right now. This week was suuper long and really hot, except for the mornings are really cold. They're actually about 15 which isn't cold but I've become a whimp here. My feet are a bit better after a week with running shoes on but still hurting. I'm excited to try the insoles and hoping they're gonna work great.
Nothing much to tell about this week. We only got three people to church, even though we had about 10 who committed.We worked all through church until sacrament meeting to get them there. We had Geronimo (Jeronimo?) who is one of our new investigators there. He is addicted to cigerettes and coffee but we're helping him to stop. He's pretty committed. He already stopped drinking acohol a long time ago. He looks about 40 but we found out he's 60 as we walked to church with him.
Amanda went again and she's going to be baptized this weekend. She's planning on Sunday but we're going to talk to her tomorrow when we go there if it can be Saturday so she can be confirmed on Sunday. It's way better to do it that way, less time for stuff to happen and them end up not getting confirmed, which happens quite a bit here.
I had a picture to send but I think I left my cable here int he LAN House last week and its not here anymore so I can't connect my camera to the computer.
You should all send more letters, more often, they get here fast!!
Love you lots. Stay safe ad know how much I care about each of you.
Com Amor
Elder Haws
I'm missing you all a lot right now. This week was suuper long and really hot, except for the mornings are really cold. They're actually about 15 which isn't cold but I've become a whimp here. My feet are a bit better after a week with running shoes on but still hurting. I'm excited to try the insoles and hoping they're gonna work great.
Nothing much to tell about this week. We only got three people to church, even though we had about 10 who committed.We worked all through church until sacrament meeting to get them there. We had Geronimo (Jeronimo?) who is one of our new investigators there. He is addicted to cigerettes and coffee but we're helping him to stop. He's pretty committed. He already stopped drinking acohol a long time ago. He looks about 40 but we found out he's 60 as we walked to church with him.
Amanda went again and she's going to be baptized this weekend. She's planning on Sunday but we're going to talk to her tomorrow when we go there if it can be Saturday so she can be confirmed on Sunday. It's way better to do it that way, less time for stuff to happen and them end up not getting confirmed, which happens quite a bit here.
I had a picture to send but I think I left my cable here int he LAN House last week and its not here anymore so I can't connect my camera to the computer.
You should all send more letters, more often, they get here fast!!
Love you lots. Stay safe ad know how much I care about each of you.
Com Amor
Elder Haws
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