May 16, 2011

Dear Family,
Things are going really good here in Tuscaloosa! We are still doing a lot of clean up but we are having a lot of really cool experiences from it. The other day Elder Lindemann and I were just walking down the street trying to find some service to do and we saw a lady out side picking up sticks and racking up leaves. She didn't look like she needed any help. All the tress were already cut up and stacked in her yard waiting to be picked up. Her house wasn't damaged. Everything looked ok, but we still went and asked if she needed help and sure enough she did. When they were cleaning up a HUGE tree that had falled down in her back yard they piled everything next to her yard by the road. They happened to put it all at the entrance way to her driveway so she couldn't park there. So we were able to help her move everything out of her driveway so she could park there. Spencer came down with his chainsaw and helped us because there were some really big logs there. It made me feel really good.
We have hooked up with a couple of organizations to do service such as directing traffic or sorting clothes, delivering food, Whatever they need us to do. It is really fun helping out. I am reall glad that I get to help out. There are a lot of people right now that are just trying to get their houses in order again and clean up their yards and stuff like that. Those are the people that we are looking for. We can't do anything big right now. We mainly just have to wait for the bul dozers to come and tear everything down and start building everything back up. We were able to help another older couple who had a fence that got blown down and needed it moved over to the road, so we got an axe, chopped it up, and moved it to the road for them. It sure has been a blessing that I know how to use and axe dad. You have no idea. I have notice that not that many people out here do. Almost none of the missionaries can. I really like swinging one and being able to do the same stuff as a chainsaw.
We ended up winning our soccer game! They ended up coming to church and I think they liked it! We are hoping that they will keep coming back and that they can join their dad and grandpa in the church. They are to really good boys. Lalo the grandson of the member is really tight. He wants to start coming to mutual activities and things like that. We get a long really well.
Maria and Silvino didn't come to church and we haven't been able to see them for about a week due to thier work schedules./ hopefully tommorrow we will be able to teach them.
That is about it though. I got my school schedule and it all looks good. It should be a smooth transition. Thanks for getting everything set up for me.
Love ya'll
Elder Haws.