I never knew I would have to be singing soo much

Dear Family,

Powerful email! I got and responded to the Lew’s email last week. But it was a bummer, we never got around to sock wrestling, oh well. And heck yeah I’ll work at NuFLow haha or ZeroREZ with brother Holland. I just need to make some money so I can pay my tithing and get some much needed blessings haha. Mommy, you’re funny. Salty lemonade sounds good hahah

This week has flown by!  It was busy busy. Last Monday we decided to go to china town to get some matching ties for the upcoming zone conference. It was soo weird to see soo many Asians in Namibia. We finally found a store that sold ties and bought ‘em. They were only N10, so like only a dollar back in the states. They were not the best quality, but they did the job. We bought one for each of us, and one from President Wood and Elder Smith. I saw a cool thing there though, these guys used a shopping cart to have like a braai (bbq). They had like a rack over the top, and were just on the side of the road selling food to people haha.

So the assistants came up on Tuesday night and stayed in our boarding the entire time they were up here. Elder Doxey from Las Vegas and Elder Lebala, from Botswana, and proud of it haha. They are both sweet and powerful missionaries. President Wood decided to do something new. Last month Elder Morris and I flew to Cape Town to meet up with all of the other zone leaders for zone leader council and we talked about certain things, and that normally happens 4 times a year. But president decided to instead of having all of us fly to Cape Town, we could just have a zone leader council via Skype! So that’s what we did. We came here to the Smiths and had like a conference call with all of the zone leaders. There was no video, just audio, but it was cool! It lasted over an hour and we got all the things done and discussed that president wanted. But in the beginning of August, I will fly to Cape Town again to have a real zone leader council. That’ll be sweet.

We call them COW LADIES

So exchanges was fun with the assistants. Elder Lebala is hilarious. The next day president and sister wood flew up and then on Friday we had our zone conference. It was powerful! As a zone leader, we had to come up with a creative thing called a zone report…where you just summarize the people and things that have gone on in your zone. Some zone leaders get really creative and use like scriptures or other themes to make the report entertaining and funny. Throughout my mission, there have been some really funny zone reports. So Elder Morris and I had to come up with one. After much deliberation and thought, to sing to the theme of Mulan ‘I’ll make a man out of you’ so we just replaced words and put our own spin on it. It was epic! It started out “Let’s get down to business to report this zone. When we came to Nam, it was little known” you know that song! Haha we had another cool line “time is racing towards us, till we give up the ghost. Then we will get sent back, to the Cali coast” hahahaha good huh?! Each companionship sang a part, then we all sang the chorus together. Sister Wood filmed it, it was so good! But heck it took lots of preparation. Later at zone conference we sang the song from Zion’s Camp “Hark listen to the trumpeters” and I even sang like the first line solo, then one by one the other people in the zone sang along. Man, I never knew I would have to be singing soo much haha.

Elder Lebala and I

But overall, zone conference was very nice. President said that missionaries are really good at teaching about faith and baptism, but not repentance. So that was a topic at the conference, as well as gossip and how we shouldn’t do it as elders. Haha. I learned lots and took good notes. President Wood is powerful! So that was one day. And oh yeah, we ate delicious chicken enchiladas for lunch!! Yummmm. But listen to this. So we were all here, just about to eat lunch, but then I heard like water coming from the bathroom, I was like huh, who is taking a shower right now, wait, there’s no showers in that bathroom, but out comes Elder Farley with OLE FAITHFUL behind him!!! One of the urinals exploded and water was bursting up to the ceiling! Ah, you shoulda seen it. It was insane. All hands on deck! Elder Smith rushed to close the tap and shut off the water, but it was no use. Literally, I kid you not; there was 2 inches of water in the entire bathroom, and in the hall and kitchen! It was soo bad. Oh man.  For some reason, the water never shut of until like an hour had passed and thousands of liters of water wasted. And get this, the next day there was a baptism! But long story short, eventually the water stopped and things dried up, but the damage had been done. I was just starving and wanted to eat haha. It was defiantly something to remember.

Then after zone conference, President Wood took us all out to eat at a restaurant called Spur. It was nice. And then the next day us zone leaders had to do training while president interviewed each elder. Things were so hectic that Elder Morris and I had to finishing up the planning for what we were going to present the morning of haha. It went very well though. But I also sat down with the man himself and interviewed me for my temple recommend, because mine expired in August. It was the best interview ever. How could I not be worthy of going to the temple, I'm a full time missionary. I eat sleep and breathe the gospel haha. But he said he knew he could just sign it right then and there without the interview, but he gave me the privilege to declare my worthiness to him and the Lord.

Like I mentioned, there was a baptism! 5 in total got baptized, and 2 from our area. Fransois and Lukas! Lots of people were there, and things went smooth. It was good timing for President Wood to be there. I was so happy for each person that got baptized. The next day at church they were confirmed, and bore their testimony! They actually spoke for a long time. I find it so rewarding to listen to recent converts bear their testimonies. It’s so rewarding. Just to see them progress and learn and grow. Awesome. But Brother Francois stated his full name and then testified about the truthfulness of the church and Book of Mormon, it was powerful.  But the only bad thing right now is that I don’t have the pictures, so I’ll send ‘em home next week for sure.

But now, things have settled down and are back to normal. Back to the grind!  The fellas were talking about school and what they’re studying and stuff, and I realized, dang, I have no clue! Haha I know the Lord will take care of me, but I’ve got to come up with some of the decisions and get like registered and stuff? I don’t know. Haha I guess you could look into things?

I may have forgotten to type about father’s day, and I’m sorry, but I shall not forget your upcoming anniversary!! On the 5^th of July, eh?! I hope you plan to do something fun and memorable. Isn’t it like 25 years or something like that. Haha. I’ll be thinking about you 2 on that day.  But no big plans for the 4^th of July here.

Look up Alma 10:6 (end of the verse). HahaThe 2 scriptures are Alma 17:2-3,11 and D&C 64:29 (Agent Haws)  I heard that the word “elder” means ‘defender of the faith’ and that’s what I’m doin’  Things are great here in Namibia! No place I’d rather be.

Good luck mommy! You’ll be just fine. Miss you lots. Love you even more!
Have a great week!

LOVE,
ELDER HAWS