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Sunday, December 26, 2010

First phone call home...

After a half hour of trying to get an open line, got to talk to Dusty for 45 minutes and get caught up an all the news.  Great to hear his voice, maybe Skype on Mothers day....

Hi Family

It was sweet to talk to you on the phone! I'm sure glad it worked, for a minute I thought it wasn't. Man, it took me like over an hour to go to sleep after I called, even though I was exhausted. I guess I was just SOO happy that I got to talk to my parents and sister!! I'd rather not skype next time, just a phone call is good for me.

I think I forgot to tell you what we did on Christmas day! We baked cookies and then went around to members and SANG them Christmas songs! Can you imagine me singing?! It was kinda fun actually!

I tried to attach some sweet pictures, but it is going way slow for some reason..sorry! but the one is of elder Larrabee and I tracting in the afternoon when NO BODY is home! haha we just thought we'd have some fun. The other picture is of me waiting to call home!

SHARP!!!!! (pronounced SHOP)
Love

Elder Haws
Nobody home.... again...

Waiting to call home...

Monday, December 20, 2010

I'm staying in East London!!!! for Christmas.

Hey Family!!

I'm good, glad Kelly made it home safe and sound! Sounds like that was a late night! dumb planes! We have some investigators that are more promising than others, but none that are really super solid at the moment.

I'm staying in East London!!!! With Elder Larrabee! there werent many changes in the mission.  I dont know what other Chrsitmas tree you're talking about haha.  I havent gotten any mail, but Im sure i'll get it soon.   hope you like the pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soo about this phone call.....ummm how about I'll call you, then you call me back on that number?! OKAY?! good. I will call at around 9pm South African time!!! sooo whatever that is back home!! I can talk for about 45 minutes! Have lots of questions and stuff to talk about! I CANT WAIT!
Soo this week was pretty great! We worked hard and found some cool investigators! but on thursday was our ward christmas party...it was pretty much the highlight of the week! We got there are like 2pm and didnt leave till like 7pm. It was lots of fun. All the auxiliaries made their own "porkies." basically it was like a stew put into a dutch oven type of thing! we put veggies, potatoes, bananas, meat, peppers, etc. It was lekka! (nice) they of course had a cute Christmas program, but nothing like the PQ2 ward! haha.

On Saturday we did like 4 hours of service, that was fun. we went out to that crazy lady's farm and helped them out there. she was naughty and put on josh groban's Noel CD....it was awesome! made it seem a little like Christmas...minus the burning african heat and being 10,000 miles away from home haha

There was a pretty sweet lighting storm the other night, and I mean a South African lighting storm!

Yeah, it wasnt a very eventful week. just getting ready for christmas!! Our district of 4 elders are planning on getting together on Chrsitmas Eve and make cookies and stuff. then, on Chrsitmas day we'll go out and visit members and sing for them! HA. We also have 2 DA's that day, so we'll be fed!

Sorry for the short letter, looking forward to talking to you guys!!!!

Love
Elder Haws

I'm on the left, on the row just below the top!! Elder Watson is in the gray suit in the middle, those other old people are the senior couples.  That is a pic of 3 zones! and there are a total of 8 zones in the mission!!

Yolanda's baptism!!

A few Christmas decorations in town...

A nice part of town....

Yhoo

Looks like home in San Diego,....  Nice



Monday, December 13, 2010

WOW, what a fantastic week in East London!!

Hi family!!

We were talking to this one less active who is a native of South Africa...and he said that we in the States have everything backwards! haha for example, we call the back part of a car the "trunk" but everyone knows the "trunk" of an elephant is in the front! Here they call the trunk the "boot". Sometime I'll list all of the different words they use here!

We use the elders quorum presidents house cuz he had 4 computers for email, now we just go to internet cafes/portals. It costs around 20 rand for an hour on the computer. I'm not gonna go through everything in my package till Christmas day! We dont hear many Christmas songs down here, only the ones that we sing in church.  I would like that picture of the SD temple thats like a post card?! I cant explain it. Daddy, its the one at the distribution center at the temple! You know?!

Wow, what a fantastic week here in East London!!

We had Zone Conference, with the one and only Elder Watson of the seventy! Look in the middle of the conference edition of the Lihona, where they show all of the general authorities and find him! He and his wife are awesome! We sat in the 2nd row, so basically we were right at the feet of a general authority! He did like a little demonstration during his talk and called ME and a few other missionaries up in front! I was scared haha, he said my name like 5 times, so basically I'm best buds with a general authority! haha. Elder Moorcroft is our zone leader, and likes to mess with me, so guess who he assigned to give the closing prayer at Zone Conference...ME!!!! There were like 60 missionaries there, President and sister Probst, and of course Elder and Sister Watson! I was super nervous, and I was like shaking during the prayer...but I survived! hahah.

Since other missionaries came from other areas, we had a sleep over at our boarding! One night we had 4 other elders with us, and the next night we only had 2. it was fun!

The next day after zone conference we had our christmas activity!! We watched Gifted Hands! I remember watching it before! It was good, but kinda awkward during the 2 KISSING parts of the movie! hahah. We had a talent show, that was fun! and a gift exchange. We all stood in a big circle and sister Probst read this story and everytime during the story she said "left" we passed it to the left. and the same for the right. I got the WORST gift out of everyone! haha some kid wrapped a piece of gross cake on a plate! haha everyone laughed.

We had exchanges this week, it was fun! I was with a short little guy from England!

The highlight of the week had to be yesterday! It was for sure a "dark day" literally!! haha the chapel didnt have any electricity!!! They were working on the power lines, so there was no power. but we had 9 investigators at church!! It was great! even though it was kinda dark, it wasnt that bad. but after church was Yolanda's baptism!! Oh my goodness, it was soo great! her and I got dressed into the white jumpsuits and took some pictures (I'll send them soon). There were SO many people from the ward that stayed and supported her. We had 2 talks about baptism, then it was time to do it! It was sooooo cute, all the small kids in the ward put their faces up against the glass in the font. The water was a little bit chilly, but I wasnt the one getting dunked! haha. Everything went perfectly! It was a great moment, I cant even describe it. After she got changed, Yolanda bore such a sweet and powerful testimony! You could tell she was totally nervous, but she did a good job! After that we went out and got back to work, didn't even have time for lunch! haha It was a great day.

This week is transfer week!! I sure hope I stay!! One cuz I love the area and my comp, and 2 cuz the ward Christmas party is soon!

Well, I love you. I pray for my family every morning and night!! Havent missed a day yet!
I CANNOT WAIT till I get my phone call on Christmas day!!

Love,
Elder Haws

Monday, December 6, 2010

I have that cute little Christmas tree up in our boarding!!

Heyyyy Family!!
Thanks for the email, as usual!  The Bishop emailed me!  I GOT YOUR PACKAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mom, I wasn't planning on opening it until Christmas, but its a good thing that I did cuz now I have that cute little Christmas tree up in our boarding!! Thanks!! I'll be honest, I did kinda peek at some of the things in there ;) haha I got Grandma Strang's package as well! It was sweet.

Only one house in all of East London has Christmas lights on it, and that's Bishop house!!! and he lives right above us, so that's nice.  There's only 1 zone in Namibia...so like 14-16 elders or something like that.  President Probst goes home in July, so we'll get a new president. They serve for 3 years.  I got a picture of the snow last week, and I LOVE that pic of my plaque!! awesome! looks gooood! question, umm what picture is that from? I cant tell, is it the one I sent to SLC with my papers?

Alright, I only have 13 minutes left on this computer.  I spent too much time emailing my favorite sister!! oops. This week was just another week. I'm starting to get used to the missionary routine and I know my way around East London really well!! The missionary work is kinda slowing down a little bit. We are trying to get our teaching pool up, but lots of people are going to the rural areas for the holidays and other investigators seem like they're never home or just aren't interested. It's all good. Elder Larrabee and I still work hard all day every day. Tomorrow is Zone Conference. It happens every 3 months. We have 3 zones meeting together...so that's a lot of missionaries!! We'll have 2 elders sleeping over tonight and tomorrow night! Elder Watson, the same guy who came to the stake conference a few weeks ago, the same Elder Watson who served as the secretary for the prophet for 38 years, is coming to zone conference! this morning I read a conference talk that he gave in May 2009. The next day is our Christmas activity!! I'm not sure what exactly we'll do, but I'm sure it'll be fun!

Sister Peggy is doing AMAZING after her surgery. Shes such a stud!!  Yolanda, the person who is getting baptized next Sunday, has to meet with President Probst to make sure she'll be able to get baptized. The info is confidential, but there's a problem with question 4...so most likely about having an abortion or committing a crime. President just has to make sure everything is cooool. but she'll almost certainly pass! :) and since she doesn't really know anyone in the ward, it'll probably be ME who will baptize her!! If she wants, that would be a COOL experience. We'll see!

Well, gotta go. hope all is well!! Don't worry, your son is safe and having a BLAST! talk to you soon.

Cheers!

Love,
Elder Haws