Transfers and More (Feb 17)

Well we had transfers this week. It turns out that I’m going to be staying in Decatur and also with Elder Andersen. I guess if it ain’t broke then don’t fix right. We are pretty excited! We have a lot of work going on and hopefully we can see some baptism happen this transfer. Our Zone has been doing really well also. Out of our whole zone only 1 person is leaving. So hopefully we can keep on truckin along the way that we have been and we’ll be able to help our brothers and sisters make the choices that they need to.

As far as the work goes, we do what we call business contacting. It’s when we go to a business and we ask them if we can set up a stand and fill it with pass along cards, then once every week we will go and check up on it and see if it needs to be refilled and we will talk to the workers or owners and the business. We do this one business, it is a cash advance store, and there is a boy and a girl there. The boy is 20 and is an in active member from Utah, the girl is 27 and Baptist she claims but never goes. We started going by a couple times a week and we’ve been making some great progress. Brett has been coming to church often. He has come to sacrament meeting 4 out of the past 5 weeks. He only stays for sacrament but at least he comes. He’s been a great example for us because Brandi, the girl, has seen the effort that Brett has been making. She came to volleyball last night. Her and the new worker and cash advance because Brett quit. So we now have 3 people we are working with from that one business. It is way neat.

We haven’t made much progress with Amy and Ashleigh Davis. Amy is ready and is just waiting for her daughter because she wants to get baptized as a family. Ashleigh doesn’t want to get pressured into it…. So we are kind of at a standstill. The ball is in their court and we can’t do much. I really think that it would be good for Amy to just go ahead and get baptized because one its good for her and two Ashleigh could feel some pressure knowing that mom isn’t going to do anything without her so its all up to whether or not Ashleigh joins. That seems like a lot of pressure. We’ll see though. Maybe we stayed here so that we could seal the deal with those two. It’s been great to work and get to know them. They are a way fun family.

The members have been doing really good at helping us at our work and at feeding us. One time we were getting ready to leave from a dinner appointment and I was saying a prayer. Well I couldn’t think of anything to say. My mind went completely blank so I just stared talking. So this is what I said. “Lord help them……………….to be……………..thy children.” Who says that? It was pretty funny. I’ve definitely been keeping it fun.

I got a letter from Kevin today and he told me that he had been trying to get my address from his mom for about a week and then he ended up just getting it from someone that knew it in the MTC. Turns out that him and Pride Oryang who is from Tuskegee were in the same Zone there. It’s so crazy. What’s funny about that is that I told Pride before he left that Kevin was going to be at the MTC at the same time speaking Spanish and that if he saw a tall read head from Arizona to tell him hi. Thinking the whole time there is no way that pride is going to find Kevin and they did. I got a picture of them both that I’m way excited about. Its crazy how small the gospel makes the world. I found out on sunday that the young womens leader here is has history with our family. Her mom was dads babysitter back in the day that dinasures still walked the earth. Also her dad or her grandpa and grandpa Haws were really close friends. She is a relative to the Ashcrofts and the Farrs. She lookes just like an Ashcroft. Its pretty cool. I have cousins EVERYWHERE i go no matter what.
Thats about all from me this week. Love you all thanks for your letters and prayers. Happy late Valentines Day!
Love Elder Haws

The Lord is at work and the Devil is angry

Hello everybody! Long time no see haha just kidding bad joke!. Well I love being in Decatur. There is so much work going on and its is a really awesome ward to be working with. This transfer is starting to zoom by. In just to more weeks it will be time for the transfer calls again. I really hope i get to stay here again.
Elder Andersen and I were having a little bit of a rough patch this week. I was taking alot of stuff to personal and so it was making the days last a long time and there was contention on my part and I hated it. The worst of it though is that i knew that I was doing but I couldn't stop from feeling like all he was doing was picking on me instead of trying to make me a better person. So one night a knelt down to pray and talk to the Lord about my problem and I asked him to help me know how to bring it up to talk about it or to help me change the way i was acting. The very next day we were having another one of our discussions or debates and we were able to talk about how i was feeling and how we could work it out! So now i feel alot better than I was all last week. Its so comforting to know that the Lord is always there to help us out whenever we need it. I know without any doubt that our Father in heaven loves all of us. It always hurts me when people think that God hates them because I know that he doesn't. He may not be happy with the way that you are living your life but that doesn't mean he hates you. It also means that in order to feel his love for you you just might have to change some things that you are doing in your life or you might have to show that you do believe he is there by VOCALLY saying a prayer and asking him for help, Just as Joseph Smith did 190 years ago. He knelt down and offered up a VOCAL prayer knowing that there was a God that would hear his cry for help. Joseph Smith didn't know what was going to happen. He didn't know how his prayer was going to be answered but he knew that it would be answered. With his one step of faith, We now have the best thing in the existence of mankind on the Earth again. There is nothing better than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There is nothing in this life, Nobody in this life, and no reason in this life that is worth giving up what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has to offer. I know that this church is the true church of our Savior Jesus Christ that he set up in the New Testament. I know that after we die we are going to live again with a resurrected body that is going to be perfect. I know that my family can be together for ever and that is the best part of the gospel. I love you guys so much that i wouldn't want you guys to not be in heaven with me. I know all these things to be true. This is my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
As missionaries we leave people with a lot of commitments with people so.... my commitment to all of you who read this E-mail is to read again from the book of mormon. You don't have to read the whole thing because it works just like a pie. You don't have to eat the whole pie to know that it is good or not. So go through and read your favorite story again. Ponder it in your ind for a little bit then kneel down and VOCALLY pray and ask your Father in heaven who loves you and wont lie to you if the Book of Mormon is true. I know that you will get your answer.

Now as far as Missionary work goes, we are having a great week. Amy and Ashleigh Davis both accepted Baptismal dates for the 13 of February and to be confirmed members of the church the next day on Valentines day! we also gave Mr. Burney a tour of the church and he said he would read and pray about it and that we believe alot of the same stuff that he does. which is of course a good sign. so we are making head way with him finally. Mrs hubbard also read the parts of the book of mormon that we gave them to read. I really think she would get baptized but she wants to do it as a family which is good but not for her. her husband is really lazy and doesn't really car all that much. She is a great lady. i feel so bad for her
Mom i remembered to bring those names down! yay here they are. Okay so Lamell Farr is a twin to Lamarr Farr. Lamell Farr married Henry Ashcroft. Those are her relatives. let me know how we are related just ask me if you have anymore questions k! love you.
Well thats all this time family! I love you all this much
Love Elder Hawss

Pictures :)

Here are a few pictures of Elder Haws sent I (I believe) by his last mission president's wife. They were taken around Christmas time.

January 27

Well its that time of day again! Yup! Its now time to see how I am doing! Well I’m doing great! We were able to have the baptism for Kenia and Sandra Arellano. It turns out that Francisco and Rosio aren’t married and that Kenia and Sandra are Rosios children. So Rosio wasn’t able to get baptized because her and Francisco need to get married first. However, Francisco is still married in Mexico and has to go back to mexico to get divorced. That’s not all though, he has a warrant out for him because his wife said he stopped paying child support so he went to court and had to start signing a paper every week that he paid and then he was paying way more than he was supposed to or something like that so he stopped signing it and moved to America. So now he can’t go back to get the divorce because he’ll get arrested and Rosio can’t get baptized unless she moves out. To top it all off Francisco was baptized into a church of Christ church after he was already a member and he is an Elder so he is going to have a long ahead of him in order to go to the temple with his family but I hope and pray that things will work out and that Rosio will be able to get baptized and that they can be one happy family forever!
We had our zone conference on Tuesday. It was really good. We were trained on how to use the members more so that they can be more involved and also how we can build the trust of the members so they will give us permission to teach their friends. Also we were learned about how to be celetial missionaries. It was a very good conference I thought.
We were able to meet Amy’s daughter Ashliegh. I think it went really well. She liked us which is always a good sign but whats not to like right? Haha Amy is totally ready for baptism, all we need is to grab Ashliegh and throw her on board and that family will open a whole new world to missionary work. Ashliegh is a little bit cautious because she isn’t as in tune with the spirit as her mom is.( aren’t we all that way? Haha)
I’m really enjoying Decatur! Dang! Sorry mom I forgot to bring the family names with me again. One of these times I’ll remember I promise.
The weather has thrown us for a loop down here again. It gets really cold then the next day it will be warm again then it will get cold. Alabama is so weird when it comes to the weather.
I love getting all the letters from everyone. I decided that I don’t write that many hand written letters. Actually I don’t think I’ve written anyone one yet. Sorry about that. I’ll do better. I was thinking about that earlier and then MaryAnn and Dallin both mentioned it to me. Funny how that works isn’t it?
Well no new stories this week. Thanks for all the support from you guys. Dallin and Mom I really liked that package that you sent to me! I looked through it really fast cuz I was on the run so I’ll look at it more closely when I get back to the apartment. I didn’t see the camera card but I’ll go back and check again. Like I said it was really fast!
Love you guys tons
Love elder Haws