Week 85

This week did also have a lot of rejection. However, unlike last week with almost complete rejection, this week we had a bit of sucess amongst the rejection.

 

We got 4 people at church and we are running after them this week to help them pregress towards baptism.

 

We only go home early on days that brazil has games. Which was last week on Thursday, Tomorrow and next Monday. We have to be in our house by 3pm on game days and we leave again at 7:30. Since brazil won there was still a bunch of people driving with loud music and celebrating, people in the streets beats pots and pans or anything else to make as much annoying noise as possible. But this all happens mostly near the avenues and bigger areas, once you get out of that into the quieter neighborhoods its a lot better. Everything is decorated green and yellow and sometimes blue though! They paint the curb in front of their house and put streamers along lots of the roads!

During the game on Thursday we did our weekly planning session which is normally done on Friday, and then left early on Friday so we hardly missed our time to proselyte.

We´ve got a few good investigators this week and they are super interested in the church.

On sunday I was able to baptize Erilson. He´s from Haiti and I was able to teach him a few times with our zl´s. He has been in Brazil for about 20 days!! He speaks creole, and spanish and is now learning portuguese. I can understand what he says(mostly) and he can understand what I say but he speaks in spanish and I in portuguese! It's great! He´s a really humble guy and is working to earn money to bring his wife to Brazil as well!

The power went out for about 20 minutes while I was here a the lan house because of a sudden rain storm! Hope you all have a good week and I love and miss you all. Your trip seemed fun and I like the pictures I recieved!

 

Elder Haws

Week 84

So this week we finished up with getting a new house. We had a lot more problems including not having electricity for a day but it was alright cause we bought some candles and studies by candle light. It was pretty weird and Elder Lima pretended to be translating the Book of Mormon. I´ll send you pictures next week.

 

We got rejected a lot this week!! A lot! Nobody even went to church with us this week. It was pretty tough and by the end of the week I had just about had it. But today is p-day and I can rest and relax and this next week I´ll change some things and we´ll have more success.

 

Well..... it was a super long week and all we did was visit some members and knock on a whole bunch of doors. I'm not sure what else I have to say!

 

I love you and thank you for your emails. I miss you all a lot and hope you have a great week.

There will be rules for the world cup but I dont know what they will all be yet. One is that we have to return to the house by 3 o´clock which means I will be reading A LOT of scriptures! Though I don't know if thats only on the day that Brazil has games or what exactly.. I'll let you konw next week! The first game for Brazil is on the 12th!

 

Tchau

 

Elder Haws

Week 83

So this week was an absolute mess! We only got to work a few days in our area because we were going crazy trying to get a new house! The good news is that we did find one! I had to talk to the guy and do a bunch of paperwork that I dont understand how everything works here cause the laws are different and had to come with him to the center to have his signature authorized and all these weird things. Everything happened to try and prohibit us from getting the house rented. The secretaries called after I had gone to a lan house to print out the contract and they called be back and said that the lawyer had sent a new one and so I had to find a new lan house in a new part of town but it was closed so I went to a member's but their printer had broken this same week so I went to another but they had just sold their's to buy a new one and hadn't bought it yet. So I went to the bishop but his was super slow and didnt want to print it but after about half an hour finally did and then I had to go find Samuel, the owner of the house and get him to go to the center with me. I went with him and we were in the car and he told me that he didnt have money to pay for the signature authentification so I´d have to pay and I agreed just cause I want a new house so bad, then we got there and it was just after 5:30 so they had closed!! Actually they were still closing but the lady was reallllly nice and still allowed us to do it real quick. But then the post office was closed and so I couldnt sent it to the secretarios that day to let President Genaro sign and finish the contract so I had to do it on Saturday. On saturday, the post office is open until 12:30 and we had a baptism scheduled for 10:30!

The baptism went perfect and the bishop gave us a ride into the center (there is no post office in or near our area of the city) and I get it sent at 12:25! There were other problems as well but im just going to finish with the fact that everything ended up alright and everything is done. Except that we are supposed to move today and we have no car to help us and the house might not have light or water yet..... but its a new house!!

hahah Like I said, it was a super crazy week. Rute was baptized on Saturday and then both she as well as Antonio our baptism from last week were confirmed in church!

Elder Helms is being rafnsferred to Foz do Iguaçu. Elder Jackson will be my new comp but I dont know who he is or what he looks like yet. I´ll have to tell you about him next week!

 

Com Amor,

Elder Haws

Week 82

Antonio

Well this week weas real fast! Just like all the rest of them are real fast! This next week is the last week of the transfer and then I only have three more tranfers! Time is going super fast! That means 18 weeks!!!!

Elder Helms and I baptized Antonio this week. He´s a little crazy but really funny. He didn't really open up too much at the beginning and I was ready to drop him from our teaching pool. But we finally spoke with him and his mom(he´s 53 and she´s about 82-she doesnt remember when she was born exactly and it was in the middle of nowhere os apparently she doesnt have a form?? I dunno exactly, she is missing a lot of teeth and talks and mumbled plus never went to school for a day in her life and talks with poor grammer) and convinced him to go to church. He liked it and we tried to teach him about how coffee is bad but he never believed us so we took his coffee anyways because the mom let us. He (Antonio) said that he wasn't addicted to coffee but that there was no way he would be able to go without it. He couldnt stop drinking it but wasn't addicted.... I dont know how that makes sense but it's his story. So we took it away and he didnt have money to buy more! when we asked him if it was hard to be without coffee he said no. He isn't drinking it cause we took it away and that gave us a good laugh. in his interview he still insisted that the doctor told him that coffee is good for him. he doesnt have a testimony of it yet, but he isnt drinking it and so could be baptized! he has tim eto adquire a testimony about it now!

Other than the baptism not a lot happened this week. We have waay too much fun in our house with Our zl´s and we looked a lot for house this week but the rules of the church about renting and paying up front and all that astuff are complicated so we havent found one that works with all the rules yet!

I love you all and am sorry I dont have too much else to say about this week. Next week are transfers again and i´m 50% sure that Elder Helms wont be staying here, so I´ll be getting a new comp that day probably!

Até mais!

Elder Haws

Week 80-81

Week 80:
Sorry there wasn't an blog post this week, we talked on Skype for Mother's Day. Tyler is doing very well!! :)

Week 81:

It was an absolutely crazy p-day with no rest and lots of crazy things. There was an emergency transfer and Elder Bispo the zone leader here was transferred to Apucarana, another elder was showing uup to take his place and we went with the zone leader so he wouldnt stay alone in the bus station. Elder Bispo left at 8, which was bad because we had a family night planned on the other side of the city with an investigator who is only available on monday nights, on the other side of the city. So we had to run to every corner of the city using the city bus, our super quick  speed walking skills and help from the members. The other Elder showed up at 12 o´clock at night and we got a ride back to our house and I finally got to bed at 1 o´clock in the morning! Today I plan on catching up on my sleep because p-day is our only change to catch up on these things!

Now our zone leaders are Elder Lima, who was trained by my old comp. Elder Havili, and Elder Diaz. He´s from Peru!

We had a good noite de integração on Wednesday, a ward activity and had a decent turnout. Unfortunately, it lacked investigators.

We still haven't got our baptism that we are looking for but we have a few really good investigators! Including a family that we found on Saturday night!

This past week went really well. We had our interviews with President Genaro and I liked mine a lot!

Our investigator, Rute, is still trying to stop smoking but she has a very strong desire to be baptized so we´re trying everything we can to help her!

Elder Helms was orded by the president to eat more. So i´m halping with that! Every meal I make him get 1 moire plate than he wants of food and in about a week and a hlaf he´s already gained over a kilogram!

Well I love you all, congrats Cydnee on your test that you passed! And I pray for you all always!

Elder Haws

Week 79

Hello,

Transfers are happening today and both Elder Helms and I will be staying here! This will be his fourth transfer! And my second here in Mandacarú B. Elder Baker is going to a new zone, Zona Tupã and Elder Bispo will stay with a new Zone leader, Elder Lima.

Umm... I dont really know what to say about this week. It went by really quickly and I can't believe that it will already be May soon! I am more than a little disappointed in this last transfer, we didn't baptize and only got a total of 6 people to church. Though things are definitely better here in the area than when I got here. We have a few good investigators and even have a baptism marked for this Sunday after church. It´ll be a challenging week because he needs to stop smoking by Wednesday for everything to work out and have him baptized on Sunday.

Umm... I think tha'ts about all I have to say this week. Have some questions ready for when we Skype here in a few weeks. and I´ll be like mom and try and have something cool happen this week so I have something interesting to tell you guys about.

I love you all and thank you for your love and support. I know that the church is true and will never be taken off the face of the earth

With love
Elder Haws

Week 78

Transfers are happening today and both Elder Helms and I will be staying here! This will be his fourth transfer! And my second here in Mandacarú B. Elder Baker is going to a new zone, Zona Tupã and Elder bispo will stay with a new Zone leader, Elder Lima.

Umm... i dont really know what to say about this week. It went be really quickly and I cant believe that it will already be May soon! I am more than a little disappointed in this last transfer, we didnt baptize and only got a total of 6 people to church. Though things are definitely better here in the area than when I got here. we have a few good investigators and even have a baptism marked for this Sunday after church. It´ll be a challenging week becaue he needs to stop smoking by Wednesday for everything to work out and have him baptized on Sunday.

I love you all and thnak you for your love and support. I know that the church is true and will never be taken off the face of the earth

With love
Elder Haws