July 25, 2011

Dear Family,
Things are going good! We got some roommates that are living with us for a while waiting for their Visa's to go to Angola Africa. They are both from Salt Lake and are really excited to be here in Alabama and to be on Missions. I remember being so new to the missionary life and just thinking that everyone in the whole world wanted to hear and was going to except the message of the Restored gospel. I wish that i was still that way. It has helped having them living with us. It makes me more positive.
We had some things happen this past week that weren't so good. Luis was found drinking on saturday night and he didn't come to church on Sunday because he said he had to work. So that was a bummer. We are going to be seeing him tonight so hopefully we can help encourage him to try again and to do better.
We also weren't able to see Araceli and her kids at church because she had to work and so non of them were able to come. I hope that one day they will all be able to come as a family. The children really want to and Araceli really likes the church. Hopefully next week.
We did have an investigator at church though. Her name is Saira. She is from the Dominican Republic. Her brother is a member and she just came randomly. We have been working with her for a few weeks but she wasn't really reading or anything so we stopped going over there just to see what would happen and sure enough she came to church. We were pretty excited. So now we will she why she came and what here plans are.
We found some really neat peopel this week that I am excited to start teaching. i hope that they will understand and that they will do their part to know that it is true.
So far this transfer which is half way over we have ridden our bikes 270 miles! It is awesome. We ride everywhere. Everyone sees us and we get honked at probably 5-10 times a day from people that are nice. I love it. Ridding bikes is so much fun.
Elder Davis ( one of the elders waiting for his Visa) and I were riding our bikes to a trailer park that is about 8 miles away and when we were about 7 miles out. So almost there he got a flat tire! flat flat flat. So we ended up walking the las mile and we were able to see some people but we had no idea how we were going to get home. We tried calling members and no one was answering. Finally we got ahold of a member and he gave a ride home. I found out from that experience that I hate walking. I would rather ride m bike over walking any day.
While we were out there though we met a man that was from Arizona. He had on a Diamond backs hat and he actually came to us and wanted to know how he could cme to church and who he needed to talk to to find out more. It was really neat! I love moments like that when you conect with a person and they want to learn the Gosple. If the tire wouldn't have ever popped we never would have met him.
That is about it for this week! I am glad that everyone is doing well. I hope you keep doing all you are doing and that you show everyone that you love them. Don't assume that they know tell them.
I love ya'll. So stinking much.
Love Elder Haws

Elder Haws ate this Burger in under 12 minutes, including the fries!!

July 18, 2011

Dear Family,
Things are going really good here! We are having lots of really good success lately! We have had some pretty good lessons and are constantly finding new people to teach. Luis came to church again which was really good. He should be baptized on the 30th of July! He is such a different man than when I knew him from my last visit here.
I have really enjoyed being back to Montgomery. I just love the people down here and I hope that I will be able to be a help to them this time around.
We went to a District meeting on Wednesday and learned about revelation through prayer! It was a really good experience. afterwards though we were getting ready to leave and some elders were trying to get me to ride down the stairs on my bike and i k now that I wouldn't be able to do it, so I told them no. They kept trying and I kept telling them no. Finally I gave into their peer pressure and tried it. Well it definalty did not work just like I knew it wouldn't. I ended up flipping over my handle bars, getting a good scrape on my elbow and a huge bruise on my hip from hitting the cement. I will send a picture of it next week. It is a pretty good bruise. So I learned a really good lesson last week. Don't ever give in to peer pressure. If you are sure that it isn't good for you or it is against your standards don't do it. I knew that I would get hurt trying to ride down the stairs but I still tried it and all that happened was I got hurt pretty bad.
Since I have been here in Montgomery we have ridden about 200 miles on our bikes! We ride our bikes everywhere. We don't really have a car. It is so crazy! It has been raining like every day and it is hot when it isn't raining but it has been lots of fun! I love riding my bike. It is a really good bike. we have been through a lot of miles together. I have been trying to find out how much it will cost to send it hope and as of right now it will be anywhere from 50 to a hundred $. I still Have $40 so I might need a little more but when I find out I will let you know.
Sorry this one is short. i will do better next week.
I love you all!
Love Elder Haws

July 11, 2011

Well Hello dearest family of mine!
Things are going so good! I don't think that there would be any other thing or way I would want to do besides end my mission in this way! I ended up getting trasfered out of Tuscaloosa but i don't really mind due to the fact of where I was put in. I am back in Montgomery! I am so excited! There is so much potential here right now that I just can't even hold in my excitment. We have 3 baptismal dates and we have a family that we are working with. She is someone that I wasn't working with when I was here before but that was just barely found. She has 5 kids and a boyfriend that she doesn't live with which is so so so surprising with hispanics! She was at church this past sunday for her first time with her boyfriend who is Ruben. Her kids were in Texas so they didn't come.
Another man that we are working with is named Luis. He lives with one of our Recent Converts named Jose. Jose is the one with the son that we worked alot with when I was here last time. Luis was a man that I invited to church probably about every week I was here but he never came because he was drinking! but now he has given that up! he hasn't drank in about 2 months and he has come to church twice and has a baptismal date and loves it! He is reading the Book of Mormon, saying his prayers! All of it! He is a completely different man. I love the things that the gospel does to change peoples lives.
O man! Sorry MaryAnn I lied to you there has been a crazy adventure. When I got here I found out that we aren't living with the Jacksons any more but that we are staying in a place that we call "The Mansion" because it is so huge! it is a four bedroom, living room,dining room, kitchen. one and a half bath, with a laundry room house! It is huge and it is owned by a member. When I get here we get straight to work and we don't have a car. It is a biking area all day basically. So we are biking and I am sweating like crazy because it is so hot and humid here. So we come in for the night and I go to take a shower right cuz I am sweaty and gross. Well I pull back the shower curtain and all I see is MOLD!!!! So so so much mold all over the shower/tub. I was so grossed out. So I showed in it that night and the next morning and when I went to do it the second night i just couldn't handle it anymore so I got out and grabbed a brush and just stared scrubbing! I think I was in the shower for about 15 min just scrubbing the whole time getting rid of all of the mold. It was so gross. But now it is clean and I can shower in peace. I should have taken a picture but there just wasn't time. It had to get scrubbed. haha
Things are doing really good though. I am sad that I don't get to go on anymore teamups with spencer. I am really glad for the many different ways that he helped us out. Thankyou so much Spencer.
I love you all and can't wait to see you in a few weeks!
Love Elder Haws

June 27, 2011

Dear Family!
Hello everyone! Hope all is well where everyone is that reads this. Things here are going really well. It has been hot the past few weeks but it is only going to get hotter so there is no room for complaing! you just have to get out and do it! We have had a few really good things go on this week that I am looking forward to!
We had a family come to church this week! Their names are Lalo and Mary and they came with their 2 daughters! It is so good to see them come! Lalos dad is a member of about 2 years and his dad has been trying so hard to have someone in his family come to church with him, so it is really exciting to see it happening now! They really enjoy it also. It has been hard to get their girls to go to primary because they are still learning english and one of them doesn't even really speak it at all, but they will go with time and when they go I think their parents will enjoy it alot more!
Our other investigator named shiqiao (pronounced shichow) is going back to China on wednesday due to his dad not wanting him to get baptized so his dad said he had to go back to China. It is really sad because he really really wanted to get baptized. Hopefully soon China will be open to missionaries and they will find him and baptize him. He is living all the commandments.
We have a few meeting with president that we have to go to this week. One is for Zone Leader Council and the other is to talk about our area and how we can be most effective here with 4 or 6 or 8 missionaires. It should be a good meeting.
We are reading the gospel of Mark right now as a mission. We read one chapter a day. Today we read Mark chapter 7 so if you want to you can read with us. We will read Mark 8 tommorrow. It has been really neat to read this time becuase as I read I am trying to apply it in a missionary view and see how Jesus responded with certain things. It has been neat. Today I read when Jesus was on his way to heal the damsel of a master who was sick. He was on his way and the lady that had the bleeding problem touched him and he stopped to talk to her. Well when he did that the damsel died. What I learned was that Jesus knew that he had the power to raise the damsel from the dead, so he was able to take the time to help this lady first. So in missionary work we need to look at our options and do that which will be of the most benefit and do it so that everyone can have the gospel in their lives. The gospels are so amazing. I love that we have the bible to help learn of the life of Jesus Christ. President Holzapfel knows so much about the bible and the context and how it all blends together it is so amazing sitting down in a meeting and just listening tohim talk about a chapter in the bible because he knows so much about it!
That is about it for today though! It has been a great week! I hope that you all have a good week and that you are safe!
Love ya
Love Elder haws

July 5, 2011

Dear Family,
Well we have had yet again another really good and interesting week! We have had a lot of success in the past few days with the members giving us people to teach! Both with the hispanics and with the english members. We went on an exchange with some missionaries in a town called columbiana. Baurer served there once upon a time. It was really good and fun. We also had a zone leader council meeting the day before the exchange on tuesday and that was really good. We learned a lot of things that would help us and we also thought of new things that we could improve on it was a good meeting.
President came down on Friday to talk with us about the area to see how the spanish and english work was going to know where he needed to put the missionaries that he has since transfer is this week. He took us out to this place to eat called Archilbalds BBQ. It was pretty good. It is just a hole in the wall restaurant that I would never go unless someone took me to show me what it was like. It was good though! I was surprised.
We had a good lesson over at the Bakers house on saturday. We had Luis Fernando and German over there. Luis is a new member and german is his friend. We had dinner of hambergers and hotdogs, with potato salad, chips, watermelon, kool-aid and million dollar dessert! It was really good. Then after we ate we had a lesson and we invited german to be baptized and he said yes! So now he has a date for the 30th of July! I am really excited! Then the next day he came to church. He had already been a few time but it is just good to see people changing thier lives to become better.
We got transfer calls yesterday and we found out that both Elder Chow and I are getting Transfered. It was quite a surprise because of all the good work that we have been having lately especially with the spanish people. It has been rough but I am sure that the Lord knows what he is doing. Something I have realized on my mission is that the Lord wants everyone to go to heaven and he wants to do what is best for them. So us getting transfered isn't cuz the president has something up his sleeve or doesn't like us or doesn't know what was going on in the area. It is becuase that is what the lord knows needs to happen to grow the kingdom of God. So I am excited to see what happens. I will let you know next week!
Everything is going reall good though! I love you all and hope that you are all safe! Hope to hear from you soon.
Congratulations Buddy and Sara on the blessing of Beau! He looks like a great kid!
Love ya!
Love Elder Haws.

PIctures from Transfers!

Preston was just transferred this last week. Looks like he is going to be a zone leader!!

June 20, 2011

Dear Family,
Well it has once again been a really good week. I love hearing how everyone is doing and getting updates on the new stuff! Things are going really well here! Thank you everyone for the birthday gifts. They are very nice and appreciated.
We have had a really good week! We went out with Spencer on tuesday and we had a lesson with Lalo. It went really well. He understood alot of what we were saying about baptism and the authority. We asked him to prepare for baptism on the 16th of July and he said he would. He also said that he wants to quit smoking and drinking and gambling. It is so amazing to me how people know that that stuff is bad yet they all accept it at one point. The light of Christ that we all have is such a great gift! They didn't come to church this week though. They were tired or something. When we went by to see them they were excited to see us and they want us to come back and said that they would be there the next week.
Good news! San came to church! We had to give her a ride but she still came and really enjoyed it! She is such a good example to the rest of her family. I hope that she will continue to come and that she will continue to prepare for her day for baptism. richard did not come to church however. He changed his mid about an hour before it was going to start. I gave him a tie and everything. I think he is just scared that he doesn't know anyone so we are going to go over with a member on thursday! I think that will help us alot.
The sisters that were serving here got transfered out due to one of them getting released for medical purposes so my companion and I have to take over doing the english work aswell. It has been pretty crazy but we are getting it under control. The members are helping us out a lot.
Thanks for all your prayers and support. Tell Elder Baker I said Happy Birthday!
Love you all
Elder Haws
ShiQiao is doing really well also. His dad wasn't to happy with his wanting to get baptized and told him he has to go back to china but he is still really from the Book of Mormon and coming to church. He prayed the other day that his dad would let him get baptized. The kid had a lot of faith and I hope that one day he will be able to be baptized and enjoy the blessing of the gospel.
I hope that we will be able to baptized a few more hispanics so that they can form their own branch. The mission is so low on missionaries right now that president isn't sure what he is going to do with this are as far as if he wants spanish missionaries or now so we will see but I really hope spanish stays we have a lot going right now.