January 24, 2011

Well I have a new companion as you all probably already know! I am super excited! I'm really going to miss Elder Klabacka but my new companion is going to help me out so much more! His name is Elder Abac. He is from..... Drumroll please...... Quatemala! I LOVE QUATEMALA. If there is any place I want to visit that speaks spanish it would be Guatemala or Honduras or El Salvador because I think the people there are all really nice.
It has already been a huge help to be serving with someone that is a native to south america because there are a lot of people here that are from guatemala and he is able to relate to them and talk about his family and where they live and things like that. He speaks good English but is still learning and so we speak spanish all the time when we are proselyting which is hard to do when you are serving with americans because they speak in English to you so you speak back but now it is all spanish! I love it!
Elder Abac was just barely serving in Huntsville where I first started as a spanish elder. He has informed and updated me on everyone. I guess that they now are an actual spanish branch and his last sunday there they had 62 people at sacremant meeting! a new record high! 16 of which were investigatores! Talk about the growth of the church! As I was looking through his pictures I had a really really good experince.
He had pictures of when they went to the temple with several of the members to do Baptisms for the dead. He was there with members that had been baptized for not quite a year and also Consuelo. She was a recent convert that moved in from Tennesee. The thing that really made me happy was I saw Lourdes there as well. She was the lady that Elder Mancera and I taught and baptized. The amount of joy that came into my body was uncontrollable I started shouting and acting like a crazy man. Elder Abac had no idea what to do. He was probably thinking "great another crazy american" haha. I was just so happy to see that she was happy and attending the temple and doing the things that are going to bring her so much joy!
Here in Montgomery all of our recent converts and members are going to be going to the temple to do baptisms aswell this friday! There is a man and his son, Jose Manuel and Jose Manuel Jr. who are going to be going together. They have been members since October and have changed so much since I have been here. Jose Manuel was addicted to Beer and other things and now is just a completly different man,and father. His son looks up to him so much now and he Jose Manuel is so much more happy and his countenace is just so amazingly bright! I love the gospel and what is does for people! I love that as we change we become better. It has not been easy for Jose Manuel to change his life to live the way that God wants him to. It has been really hard, but he has done it with faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement.
I just want to let all of you know that I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is real. I know that we are loved so so much by our Father and that He wants us to do want is right so much so that He is constantly thinking of how he can help us. When we make the decision to do what is right I have no doubt that he will help us.
I love you all so so much. I love to hear from you and I hope to hear from you next week!
Love Elder Haws.