South Africa Cape Town Mission Web site click below

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Last Week at the MTC, Game time baby

Mommy! Daddy! Kelly!

Glad to hear that things are going good back in San Diego! and oh yeah, today is the big day, Aggies and Aztecs!! dang, I wish I could watch it! go Aggies!

My interim debit card is expired, and there's no place to exchange my US dollars, so I'm straight up broke! welcome to life as a missionary.  That's cool you got a letter from Kelly...umm where's mine sista?!

That's good you got my license and stuff, send it to Cape Town, cuz I'm outta here on Wednesday morning! I got a letter from grandma and sister Bessy, and it took 3 weeks, so I hope I get it sooner than that. and I'll send you a pic of my comp and I sometime.

So last Saturday we went out with the missionaries. Wow! What a culture shock. It still seems weird to drive on the left side of the road, and have the steering wheel on the right side of the car. All the cars are super small, and the drivers drive crazy. We tracted for 2 hours. It was cool. the whole entire time I didn't see a white person. There was lots of poverty. Around every house here are big brick fences, and almost every house has like a guard dog. The people are way nice and humble and are pretty open to hear about the gospel. they use a ton of slang and stuff, so it'll take a while to get used to that.

We went to the temple on Tuesday. It was awesome. We get to go one more time, and we get to do sealings! I'm excited. the temple is near downtown Jo-burg, so I saw the Telkom tower...I remember seeing it on TV during the world cup.

We watched a devotional given by Elder Holland at the MTC in Provo, it was absolutely amazing. He got up there without any text, and just talked for over an hour. It was powerful

I played basketball the other day, it was soo fun! I still got it!  Sorry there's nothing that exciting that happened this week.  I fly to Cape Town on the 29th. Game time baby!

Love,
Elder Haws

Friday, September 17, 2010

Already Week 2 in the MTC Jo-burg

Hi

I don't need an update on everything that is going on. I'm trying to focus on missionary stuff, but thanks for all the info. Sorry, I can't answer all of your questions. How about you just send 1 email a week and I'll respond to that.

Daddy, you can go ahead and take the MTC address off my Facebook and just keep the Cape Town address on there, thanks!  Tell Kelly I was thinking about her on her birthday!!

To answer a few of the thousands of questions you asked, um the camera barley works. I really wish I have one that works. The battery only lasts like 30 seconds, but then if I turn it off and on again, it works for another 30 seconds. The food here is pretty goood. I get all that I need. Every night is PB&J night. The weather has been prefect, just like San Diego. I haven't got anything at the store. I still need to exchange my money for rand. and yeah a clock would be nice.

Well, life at the MTC is going pretty good. We wake up, study, go to class, eat, go to class, eat, study, go to class some more, etc. We got to go to the temple on Tuesday. it was unbelievable. 12 Africans got to go through for the first time. I was right next to my comp and helped him. It was awesome. the doors in the celestial room were so big that they have 4 hinges. The temple was super small, like tiny. It was like 30 minutes away, so we got to drive through the city of Jo-burg a little bit. It was for sure an eye opener.

Yesterday we taught 3, 30 minute lessons. The first one was rough, but the 2 other ones that we did at night went pretty good! Its still hard to teach stuff, cuz i'm kinda quiet, but my comp always helps me out, and I just make him answer all the tough questions. ha. Its 7 in the morning right now, and in 3 hours i'm gonna go on splits with the missionaries in the area! like, the real deal. I'm kinda scared, but I'm sure it'll be a good learning experience.

I'm just trying to soak everything up here, like a sponge. Its kinda funny, when the Africans say "Elder Haws" it sounds like "Elder Oz" (like wizard of oz) We listened to a talk by Elder Bednar and he said

"We should become a missionary, not just go on a mission" and another quote I liked was

"Don't count the days, make the days count"   but this is the best one of all, Sarah told it to me,

"Missionaries on on a mission and leave their families for 2 years so that other families can be together for eternity"

I miss you guys!!

Lots of love!!
Elder Haws

Saturday, September 11, 2010

First days at the MTC

Yeah, this is my email address. So life in the MTC is pretty good so far. My comp from Zimbabwe got here the other day. Elder Chiromo. He's awesome! He has such a strong testimony and is super nice. All of these African saints know their stuff very well. Yesterday was our first official day in the MTC, like going to the classes and stuff. We jumped right into things and already practiced teaching, its not easy! But we'll be practicing alot.

The food here is pretty good so far. And each night Im super tired so I've been sleeping like a baby. And I'm pretty much adjusted to the time zone. Im excited to go to the Jo-Burg temple on tuesday. We get to go 3 times. And most of the africans havent ever been to the temple. so this will be their first time ever. I am sooo excited for them. Well, the elder before me hogged the computer, so I gotta go. But mommy, we FORGOT to pack my shorts!! What the heck! and I by far have the least amount of stuff. Everyone else has like lots of shirts and tons more other stuff. We packed too light. Oh well, I'll be alright!

Well I miss you all. Keep me in your prayers. In one of our classes our teacher said that my time in the MTC will be one of the most spiritual times of my entire life. 10 hours a day for 21 straight days of learning the gospel. Doesn't get any better than that! Miss you!

Love you!
Elder Haws

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The flight to the MTC.... Jo-Berg

Hey family!

Well I made it here safe. Rik from NuFlow was actually on my plane to Atlanta, so it was nice to talk to him, and it kinda took my mind off of everything that was going on. There were alot of things going through my mind on the plane. And this dude in front of me was gettin' rocked in Chess the entire flight!

Once I got to Atlanta, I walked a long way until I finally reached E17. I actually saw one of the Elders in the bathroom, and we met up with the other guys. There was a total of 19 of us on the flight, and we all sat togther, but there was enough room on the plane to spread out and stuff. The plane ride actually wasn't that bad! They served us 3 meals. I didn't sleep that much, but I dozed off for about 2 hours or so. We left Atlanta at 7pm and arrived in Jo-Berg at about 5pm the next day (today). Then we drove like 45 minutes to the MTC. My comp will arrive tomorrow, and he's from Zimbabwe. So far so good! I miss you guys!!

Love,

Elder Haws

Farewell Elder Haws...

We have our own missionary!

Dusty and mom!!

Last good-byes...

New chapter in Dusty's life,,,

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Got the mission call in April, and the day is now finally here.

On the 9am Delta flight to Atlanta..then on to Johannesburg, South Africa, Report to MTC Sept 9

No more Facebook for 2 years! South Africa, here I come! I'll miss all of my friends SOO much!! Thanks for all of the support. My dad will keep my current address on my Facebook...
(http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=100000108855156) write me letters!! :)

"My life is like my shoes, to be worn out in the service of the Lord"