Well, life is good! the church is true.

Hello!

Thanks for the email. I love reading them! sorry if I don’t comment on everything that you say. I really enjoy reading it and please keep me updated on stuff that goes on..I appreciate it!

Mommy, I wish I could have some of those choc chip cookies..they're the best! but I don’t get many goodies here in East London. they call desert "pudding" here and yeah the food has been pretty good. you'd be impressed, I eat a lot of rice now! its not that bad. and I’m not sure what happens for thanksgiving...oh my comp just said" there’s no such thing as thanksgiving." haha. he said some of the American missionaries meet together and have a little party or something. and the mission home is hours and hours away.  I saw Elder Rigby yesterday, but just shook his hand.

No, missionaries here normally don’t perform baptisms, or priesthood blessings. we have someone from the ward baptize them..cuz we'll leave the area, but the person that baptizes them will stay in the ward and be like a support system, ya know! and home teachers and the elders quorum do the blessings.

I have been thinking about stuff for my Christmas package......I would love those 3 missionary books! they come in a pack or something. one of them is written by Elder Ballard or something, and another one is Jesus the Christ by James E Talmage? those would be great to have and study. and I don’t have many pictures of like San Diego or Logan...my boarding looks boring! and i would like a pic of the SPECTRUM! please.  Tell Aunt Julie that I really appreciate her letters, and that I’m not sure how long it takes for a package to get here. just that mail takes like 3 weeks, and i don’t care what you say in the report on fast Sunday, don’t make it too long, but make it good!

It was a pretty good week in the mission field. I went on exchanges twice! so Elder Aires went to the other area and Elder Ruzai came to my area! oh my goodness, Elder Ruzai cracks me up! it was kinda bad, we were trying to have a prayer before planning, but for some reason i had the giggles really bad, and it took like 5 minutes before we could pray cuz I just couldn’t stop laughing! I don’t know what it is about him, he just makes me laugh! the dude is constantly forgetting things! like his belt for church, missionary planner, his name tag, etc. he's awesome! we had a GREAT time together! then the next day I went on exchanges with the Zone Leader! I thought I would go to his area, but they showed up at our boarding and told us I would stay in our area and Elder Aires would go to their area! so I was the senior comp for 2 days in a row..that’s stressful for a greenie missionary! Elder Dillon was super cool, and i learned a lot from him. but I was in charge of comp study and like what we did during the day and calling people and stuff. so we had all these appointments planned, but ALL the appointments fell through. sad. lets just say that i was glad when the day was over! haha

We were in this lesson last week with a family of 10 people..all girls! like the grandma was there, with her 2 daughters and her kids. intimidating. and they didn’t speak or understand English very well. they live in this tiny little room, in a very rough part of town, and it was burning hot in there. but we started the lesson and my comp started talking about the gospel, and after a while I could tell the people were starting to lose interest. the spirit told me to talk about the restoration and BOM and to bear my testimony, and that’s what I did! it was amazing and powerful. they all were interested and asked a few questions. I bore my testimony and told them what I know to be true and gave them a BOM and they said they would read and pray about it. it was a cool experience.

Yesterday we drove to Mdansane (25 min) for a special conference. wow. Mdansane is the 2nd largest township in South Africa. Look it up on Google or something. it is absolutely unbelievable. you just see miles and miles of small little shacks and dirt roads, where people live. it is unreal. so sad.

Elder Watson was there! Elder Watson served for 38 years as the secretary to the first presidency! for 7 PROPHETS! incredible! it was a big conference, 750 people, and missionaries from 4 zones, so lots of elders. but he greeted each one of us. I got to shake his hand! just think how many hands he has shook in his life. I still remember what he said to me. "where are you from Elder Haws?" I told him and then he said "oh that’s a nice place" it was so cool! the conference was great. President Probst was there and gave a nice talk, and of course Elder Watson, the general authority, gave an amazing talk. but I’m not gonna lie, I kinda wish I was in Cape Town, cuz the one and only ELDER HOLLAND was there!! lucky people who got to hear him, but Elder Watson was great.

We've kinda done a lot of tracting recently, we gotta find more people to teach! but we're pretty booked for this week. those 2 girls are getting baptized this weekend! and this weekend we FINALLY get to watch conference! yes! I am soooo excited.  It has been kinda rainy and windy here, and we walk a lot.

We saw some drunk guys wizzin' on the side of the road, for the world to see! haha and got offered drugs by 2 dudes standing on the corner of the street, that was cool.
well, life is good! the church is true.

Love your missionary son,

Elder Haws