Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Hi from Bessemer Alabama!

Well hello everyone and anyone that is going to be reading this. I am now in Bessemer and i am loving it! we have had a really good week. I walked into a baptism here. we had it on Saturday and it was in a creek. I guess that before the church was built here they used to meet in a house and they did baptisms in a creek right by the house and some how that land has stayed in possesion of one of the families here and so one of the members were going to be baptizing his twin sons in the river cuz they were Eight so we decided to do our investigator there as well! it was really neat. The work is going awesome here. My companion has been here for 9 months at the end of this transfer and he is so good at working here.
Bessemer reminds me a lot like Tuskegee. It has a lot of Black people and so we are able to have a lot of lessons which is good. the only difference about here and tuskegee is that we can actually get the investigators to church because most of them have cars and can drive themselves and because it is a ward here so the members help out with rides a lot. Most of the members are white and come from the surrounding towns. It is a great ward though and they help us out a lot even though it may mean a 20 minute drive into town and a twenty minute drive back home.
We had a really good sunday! we had 4 investigators at church. Sabrina was one that came on Sunday. I met here on the first day that i got here and we taught here a lesson one and we committed her to be baptized and she said she would. Then she showed up to church with her two sons. she had to leave early because she promised somebody else she would go to their church but she said that she would be back next week. We also taught a really cool kid named Ledarious. He is so cool. We challenged him to be baptized aswell on the 5th of June and he said he would. Then he came to our bible study the next night and was paying close attention. He is 19 and getting ready to go into the job corr then he plans on going into the military.
There is another person that is really close to baptism also! her name is Mekenzie. she is the girlfriend of a return missionary and she knows the church is true she just doesn't know if she should get baptized here or when she goes to college in Auburn. I think we can get her to realize the importance of getting baptized sooner so that she can have the holy ghost to find out what she needs to do in her life. I am really pumped for this area.
That is about it for now. Elder Sheitinger is from Buffalow New York. He is 21 and has a older sister and a mother and a Father. He is tons of fun and i love him!
I love all of you aswell! Have fun at TAPP. be safe and we will talk next week.
P.S. There is a member here who is from Utah and served in this same mission and moved out here and married one of the girls from here. The cool part is that he served the same time as Robert and knows him. His name is Austin Burdick. So you should ask Robert if he remembers him. He should though Bro. Burdick said that they were MTC companions.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Hello...Again!! (May 12, 2010)

Family,

Well hello again family! It was great to be able to talk to most of you on Sunday! I’m glad that you all are doing well and managing okay! It was very good to be able to hear from my nieces and nephews and know that they are still their good old selfs. It was way cute how they would say something and then I couldn’t tell if they understood what I was saying or not.

Yesterday was transfer calls, which means that we got a phone call at 7 in the morning telling us who if any body was leaving and it turns out that one of us was. I am getting moved to a new area known as Bessemer. It is just out side of Birmingham and from what people tell me it is going to be like Tuskegee again just now as bad. I’m going to be serving with Elder Shitinger, with a long I after the H for anyone who was wondering, as a Zone Leader. I’m eager to find out what this new adventure is going to bring. So tomorrow I will be transferred to my new area so any mail that you send here fro the next week send to the mission home address which is 3100 E Lorna Rd suite 102 Birmingham Al 35216.

Not to much has changed since I talk to you all on Sunday though. We were able to ask Courtney and Ronnie and Justin why they weren’t at church and they said they were sleeping cuz they had a late night. We made them feel guilty which is good and they said they would be there next week so I hope they will be.

Elder Bishop is the new District leader here in Decatur and he is companions with Elder Putnam.

That’s about all for this week though. I hope you all are doing well and I can’t wait to tell you about my new area and companion next week! LOVE YA”LL

Elder Haws

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Tornados In Alabama!






Yes i am still in Decatur and really hoping that i get to stay another Transfer! that would just be the best news ever!!!!!
So on Saturday we went down to a town called Albertville and helped the residents down there due to a tornado that touched down and caused a ton of damage down there. Luckily there was no one killed directly from the Tornado but it was crazy that nobody did. I mean to tell you what. there were whole houses moved off of its foundation and huge huge trees with all there roots pulled up! I got a really cool picture behind one of them that i will attach. there was so much destruction though that i didn't even know was possible from a tornado. It was really fun and good to be able to go and help out though. We helped a lady who was evicted because the house or trailer was no longer safe to live in and she had 1 day to move out. so we helped her pack up all of her stuff and then we went and started clearing away trees that had falled over fences and on sheds and barnes and things. It was really cool. I have always wanted to see a tornado and experience one but now i don't mind if i ever see one. I'll send more pictures as well to let you guys see what else all happened! We are teaching some more people now! We got a media referral for these two people for a finding faith in Christ DVD so we desided to give them a call to set up a time so we could give them the movie and also try to teach them. Well the good news is that we were able to teach them! the better news is that we have already taught them 4 times in the past 6 days and the that they want to come to church and they are reading out of the book of mormon and they want us to teach all of their friends and family but the BEST news is that last night we taught them and extended a Baptismal commitment for the 29th of May and they all Excepted! there are 3 of them their names are Courtney, Ronnie, and Justin. Ronnie and courtney are bf gf and justin is Courtneys uncle. courtney is 20 Ronnie is 21 and Justin is 25 and they are all black! we are so ecited! whats is even crazier is that Justin is Ashley Scruggs our first baptism date's cousin! so we are jsut way excited to see what May is going to bring for us! i hope its nothing but joy and hard work! sorry this one is so short! I hope ya'll have a good week and a great Mothers day for those of you that are mothers and i hope that those of you who aren't mothers make it a good day for those that are! I love yall
Love,
Elder Haws!

p.s. the pictures are me behind a huge tree that was blown over by the tornado and also of me helping clean up the mess of a tree that fell on an old shed and on a fence that we needed to clear as well.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

I love my mission! April 28, 2010

I LOVE MY MISSION!!!!!! I really wish that everyone was able to go on a mission! They are probably the best thing ever!!!! There are so many wonderful experiences that come along with being a missionary along with all the blessings as well. It’s crazy how when the lord says, “take you no thought beforehand what you should eat, or what you should wear, or what you shall say, for I the Lord will give it thee,” that he really will. Yesterday was such a good day. We were able to go and see a less active in the church that lived out in Hartselle about 10 or 15 miles away from Decatur. Well when we went we were able to find out how she heard about the church and how she got baptized and then she told us how she fell away from the church. It started when she got cancer up in Gunnersville. Well she had asked her Bishop to go to the hospital to pray with her before the surgery and so that if she didn’t make it out alive she wouldn’t have to die alone because she only has one brother and she hasn’t heard of him in 9 years and doesn’t even know if he is alive, and she has a son that is in prison in Montgomery. Well the bishop told her that he couldn’t take off work and wouldn’t be able to. Well she survived the surgery and then went home hoping that some of the ward members would come and check on her and see if she was alright like they said they would. Well none of them did for 2 weeks she was by herself after surgery from getting a breast removed. She said though at the end of this story, “I know though that the church is true and that the church didn’t let me down but the people in the church did and that is why I went and asked for my name to be removed and haven’t been back since.” It was such a powerful testimony to me about the importance of being a good member and not thinking of yourself but of other people and what they might be needing and how you can help them. Like the scripture says, “When you are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God.” SO my question is Why not serve everyone that we know of? Why not try to help people out as much as possible? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

We are going to be baptizing Ashley Scruggs on the 15th of May! She didn’t come to church again so we had to move her date to the 15th but I’m almost positive that she is going to be at church and will be able to make her date of the 15th. She reset her date for us we didn’t do it for her. It is definitely something that she wants and I don’t mind giving her.

We had some really neat weather last weekend! We were in a severe thunderstorm watch for about 9 hours or so. There was a bad tornado that touched down in Mississippi that killed 9 people I think. There were also tornados that touched town in Cullman County which is the next county over. The Zone Leaders, Elder Ryszka and Elder Howard said that while the tornado sirens were going off and they could hear the tornado they were in a lesson and set a baptismal date with a lady! That would be so could to be having all of this havoc and crazy things happening all around you and you are calmly seated next to your companion teaching someone about the Lords restored gospel on the earth today!! Man that pumps me up!! Then on Sunday it was really really hot and then the past 3days have been pretty cold for summer. We’ve been down in the 60s most of the time which is highly unusual for this time of year here. I love it though! It’s my kind of weather!

That was way exciting to hear that Brett received his Mission call and that he will be serving just south of me and just north of Kevin. I love how it all works out. I love that Tyson Nicoll is right above me and that Brett is right below me and that Kevin is right below him. It gives me comfort for some reason knowing that.

Well that’s about it! Its been a great week and I hope to be able to talk to you guys on Mother’s day if by chance you will be at home. I don’t know if I can call you all individually or not.

Love Ya’ll

Elder Haws

Friday, April 16, 2010

April 14, 2010

Family,

Well it’s been another GREAT week!!! We were able to have some really good success and had some good experiences happen. We were pleased to see that one of our main investigators as of right now came to church!!! For her first time other than conference. She used to live in Harselle which is a little town about 20 minutes away and she never would come to church but she just barely moved to Decatur about 2 tenths of a mile away from the church so she didn’t have any excuses this week and we didn’t even ask her to come she just said I’ll be at church tomorrow! We were so excited! This is Brandy Chambers by the way. She also informed us when we went over to her house to eat Saturday night that she had stayed up until 2:30 in the morning the night before so Friday night reading the whole book of 1st Nephi. She was so excited when we started talking about it. It’s so cool because her whole countenance has changed and she seems like a whole new person! The other cool part to this story is that her boy friend has been against the church his whole life because that was how he was raised and he has changed a lot towards us as well!! She asked him if he wanted to go to church with her and he thought for a while and said no not yet. So he’s thinking about it! So cool

Then while She was at church the members did an amazing job at fellowshipping with her. I never realized how important just a, hi welcome to church is form the members until I realized how much it means to the person visiting the church. So remember when you see a new face at church go and introduce yourself. I promise it isn’t as weird as you think it will be. So Brandy absolutely loved church and is planning on coming back!!

We are also working with Ashley Scruggs. Her mom is a member but she isn’t. She is 24 and has been meeting with us for about 3 months now and last week she committed to get baptized on the 8th of May. Now we are helping realize the importance of baptism and getting her ready for the date. She is showing a lot of faith by accepting the baptismal commitment. She was really nervous at first but she realized that it was a goal and if she wasn’t ready by then she didn’t have to be baptized but if she was ready by then then it was the right thing to do. It is a win win situation. She is such a good girl. I’m way excited for her!

We had a team up with the ZLs this week also. I love team ups because it always seems to boost your area and you have an opportunity to learn from other missionaries as well to get some other teaching ideas and things like that. So it was fun. I also enjoyed it because my Zl in Tuskegee was Elder Howard and now it is Elder Howard again and I really liked him so we got to see each other again and be companions for a little bit. He actually served her before he went to Montegomery so when he came back he was so excited to see the apartment and we were able to set up and appointment with an investigator that he was working with when he was here so he really liked that.

I had a really cool experience this week to that I want to share with you guys. For the past few years I’ve been thinking about why really hard trials haven’t happened to me. For instance, Elder Brown and his dad passing away while he was on a mission, and there is a lady in our ward here that has a cancerous brain tumor that is untreatable really. She is in her late 30s early 40s so not that old she has 5 kids I think and it’s so sad. The thing is that they are both so positive about the whole thing. So I’ve been thinking what makes them so strong and able to have these things and I’m not. Then one day we were talking to this member and I realized I’m not supposed to go through their trials. They are not trials that I need to go through but that I can learn from so that when the trials that I am going to need help with I can look back on these experiences and know that it is possible to get through them with a positive attitude and not a poor me attitude. The lord never ever ever will tempt us past what we are able. Everything we go through is only to make us stronger. So whatever the challenge is that our Heavenly Father has set forth for you to go through know that you can make it through it and with a positive attitude you will only make it easier.

That’s been my week though. I’ve had a good time and I’m loving it. Thanks for your guys prayers. Love ya’ll

Love Elder Haws.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

New Transfer

Dear family!

Well another great week has pasted by. Another one is on its way. I got a new companion this week! He is really cool. His name is Elder Bishop and everyone makes some kind of joke about his name as if they are going to be the first person to say something so clever as just wait till you are bishop bishop and all those funny remarks. I love it. Especially because of knowing Dr. Bishop Bishop. Its been a good first week.

We had some of our investigators come to Conference and they had a really good time. One of them said that she felt the spirit for the first time and that she really liked Elder Holland. Coming to conference was really good for them. We then went and taught them a couple of days later and they both set dates to know when the book of mormon was true by. It was so cool. The Apostles are defiantly called of God.

Conference was so good. It was crazy how many talks were about preparing your children and your families in the gospel. I loved how at the end Elder Andersen said that none of the talks are assigned but how they are all by inspiration and how they come to the speakers by inspiration. Its crazy how the lord uses his servants to tell us how we can become better. How they can all tell us something different but have it come back to the same principle in the gospel. If the church isn’t true I don’t know what is. I tell all my investigators the church is either true or it isn’t. Its black or its white. There is no grey area. You can’t have a black object or darkness put off light. It just wont do it. So the church isn’t bad or wrong because there is nothing that the church does that puts off darkness.

Since I’ve been out here and have been going around to the different denominations and have been talking to lots of different people I hear a lot of stuff. I’ve been able to thing about the church and other churches and other beliefs as well, and I’ve one to the conclusion that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the lord true church on the Earth today. I’ve heard and thought about the comment ”I don’t believe that there is one true religion. As long as we are all working towards the same goal we are going to be ok.” Well that doesn’t make sense to me because that isn’t what Christ taught at all. It was that if you weren’t a part of his church the one that he organized while he was on the earth with Apostles and Prophets and, not only just a part of but you had to be living your life according to the teachings and the commandments set forth by God, You were in need of repentance. Then we learn from the reactions from the people that they don’t think what they are doing is wrong the honestly feel that what they are doing is right and they find the things that are right and true to be hard things to them. Which is completely normal. Who likes to change? Who likes to hear that they are wrong? Nobody does, but that is what they need to hear and know in order to receive the blessings that the Lord God is literally waiting to pour out upon them. This is my testimony that if we put our trust in the Lord and have faith in him, like a little child has faith in their parents, we will have better happier lives. If we run to him when we are scared or hurt or confused or happy or sad or down or troubled or anything he will be there for us. But if we do it for the wrong reasons he won’t help us out just like a child if a child asks or does something for the wrong reasons the parent isn’t going to just give in and say okay they are going to wait till their child learns the right way. I know the church is true and I know that when we become as a little child in the gospel and when we are ready to accept that we aren’t right and that God is right we will find our lives so much better. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I love you all so much! thanks for the letters and the support.

Love Elder Haws

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

March 31, 2010

Dear Family!

Man this week has been awesome! We had the best Missionary event so far on my mission! It was so awesome! What we did is every month we have a missionary fireside here to help members bring their friends to something other that church which is a little bit easier. We also have it like a fireside so that members can just show up and get an opportunity to feel the spirit and fellowship with the investigators that do come. Our problem though is that we haven’t been having any members other that our ward missionaries show up so we don’t have any other support from the members. So for this month we decided to call it a ward fireside instead of what we were calling it, which was a missionary fireside. Then, we called the members on the Monday and reminded them about it and re invited them to it so that it was fresh on their minds because the program that we set up was going to be really good.

So here is the program that we had lined out. We were basing it off of Easter since it is Easter week. So we got three members from the ward to give short 5 to 7 minute talks. One was going to talk on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, one was going to talk about the crucifixion and the last was going to talk on the resurrection. Then we had 3 musical numbers to go between each of those talks that had an Easter theme and then we also showed a clip from Finding faith in Christ and a short clip of Geoffery R Hollands talk None were with him. Then we had refreshments for afterwards which were rootbeer floats and cookies. The musicals numbers were a song sung by bro Mortensen who is related to the Mortensens that used to be in our ward, a piano arrangement, and an arrangement with the Ukulala. It was so so so good. So we have this wonderful program planned out we have all the refreshments and the speakers and everything ready to go. And remember we called about 10 families and reminded and re invited them to come and most of them said they would be there. Then last night on the 30th of March we held it and Only one of the families that we called showed up. We had 2 other members there and everyone else had something to do in the program or was married to someone that had something to do in the program. It was so frustrating. The bishop was there though so hopefully he will see that the members aren’t helping us out as much as they should be and we can’t do much without the members. But it was such a good program. The spirit was way strong it was a good way to end out the transfer. The lesson that I learned though is that it doesn’t matter if you are helping the missionaries teach somebody or not. The missionaries are taking the place of our Savior and if he were putting on a fireside by golly EVERYBODY would be there. Well we as members need to support the missionaries and go to the things that they are putting on. It is way more important than staying home or not wanting to put your Sunday close back on or any other excuses that may arise. Missionary work is very important and should be supported by the members.

Speaking of transfers. We got our transfer call yesterday morning. Elder Andersen is leaving and I am staying here and going to DL and getting a fairly new missionary this will be his second or third transfer out to far. His name is Elder Bishop and he is from Utah.

That’s about it though. We are still having success with Jorge and Clara. We taught them the Plan of Salvation in the church on Monday and at the end they taught it back to us. We are hoping that they will want to get married and that they will be able to be married as well.

That’s about all though. Hope every one is doing good and enjoying the nice weather while its here. Love you all thanks for your E-mails.

Elder Haws