May 3, 2011

Dear Family,
Well another week has gone by but this one was just a little bit different from the last 80 or so that I have had. On Wednesday we had a torndao hit our town of tuscaloosa. We were okay and were able to find all of our members and investigatores as well which we were very gratefull for. This past week has mainly just been cleaning up and helping people get tarps on there roofs and get things ready before the rain which is falling right now.
I just want to share a few stories with yall real fast on how great this week has been for me.

After the Tornado Elder Lindemann and I were with the two bishops of our two wards looking for members who were in the path of the tornado. We were able to find and make contact with almost all of them which was good. While we were looking for them we we saw an apartment complex where a couple Martin and Maria lived. There apartment was completly distroyed. I was super worried for them because they didn't have Tv and they didnt' speak english. We tried to find them but had no luck. Then yesterday monday May 2, We went to a Catholic church to help translate becuase they have made that the place for all the hispanics to go. While we were there we found them! They were ok! Maria was there alone with her to sons and Martin was at work. She said that she heard it coming and the whole building started to shake so she threw herself on top of her sons next to a couch and the roof blew along with all the walls and everything else but they were ok. I was so relieved to see them and know they were ok.

Another story. We were driving around trying to help people get trees off of their houses so they could get them tarped before the rain. Well we were driving and driving and then all of a sudden we saw a house with a tree on it and no body was working on it. That was one thing that was tough for us was people were either waiting for the insurance to look at it or somebody was already doing it but not at this house. So we stopped and as soon as we stopped a couple came out and said we could help him. As we helped we started talking to the guy and he told us " you have no idea how much this means to me. I was just looking at this tree and I was overwhelmed at how I was going to get it off of my house by myself and still have time to tarp it but that is when ya'll showed up and I feel like 1000 lbs has been lifted of my shoulders."

That is just a few of the many stories I have of helping people. Many more will be on the way. I am thankful that we were all okay and that all of the missionaries were safe. I am gratefull for all your prayers and all you are doing to help. I'll talk to ya'll on sunday hopefully.
Love Elder Haws.