When you think of me, I'm most likely doing 1 of 5 things.....STUDYING, PRAYING, TEACHING, WALKING OR SLEEPING!

Dear Family

How'z is?! Sorry I havent taken any pictures recently.  Transfers are at the end of this month/first week in Feb.  I sent sister Monson a letter, so make sure she gets it before she leaves for Vegas bayybayyy  No new songs I'm singing  yet.

The main sports here are obviously soccer, but the 2 other HUGE sports are RUGBY and CRICKET!  This week went by super quick!  We watched part of the COLLEGE FOOTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!! Oregon vs. Auburn! We went to a DA with a member of the bishopric, and he flipped on the game and wanted us to explain how in the heck you play football. So Elder Larrabee and I explained all the rules and stuff. It was fun! haha. The game obviously wasnt live, and they cut out some parts and they cut out half time. We left about half way through the 3rd quarter. man, it was a good game huh?! haha. I was getting fired up! haha. It honestly it showed me why we dont watch/follow sports cuz in that hour that we were there, our minds were totally off missionary work. I know it was bad, but it showed me how important it is to not worry about sports or whatever and just focus on the work that I've been called here to do. I'm positive all those sports will be there when I get back.

I went on 2 exchanges this week. they both were sweeet! Elder Hastings came to my area and we had fun together, but then on friday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders! So Elder Turner came to my area and I went to their area! I was with Elder Oleole...from HAWAII!! he goes home in less than 3 weeks! lucky punk. haha. We stayed up till past midnight just talking about all kinds of stuff! I was pickin his brain. we had fun together, and I liked driving in a car..cuz they have a driving area! Elder Oleole teaches/talks really slow when he teaches, and I guess thats something I can improve on. some people dont understand english very well, so its important to teach clearly and so that they understand!

Elder Larrabee and I had a BIG day this week. We had a fellowshipper and taught some really good lessons and that day we found like 5 new investigators. nothing happens in missionary work until you find people to teach!  This week president Probst is coming to our district meeting, so it will be me and my comp, and Elder Hasting and Elder Ruzai, and then President and sister Probst! haha poor Elder Larrabee...he has to teach for 30 minutes! HA!

On saturday we did some fun service...we were helping this family put a roof on their house..it was hard work, but fun.   We literally ran out of food this week..... haha we need to do some major shopping! Im my missionary bank account, I have over 1,000 rands...only cuz we get fed pretty much every single night! most all other areas arent like that.

Well, the work is starting to pick up again in the area! holidays are over and most schools start tomorrow! Elder Larrabee and I are gonna take this area to new heights! I love that guy, he is awesome! I got lucky to be "stuck" with him for this 3 months!

Nice picture of the JoBurg Temple a friend took....

My testimony has grown alot and I'm starting to really understand the gospel more than I every have before, and I'm gonna keep learning and growing throughout my entire mission!
Well, thanks again for all the love and support and prayers that you "send" me! I feel it. yeah I still got a ways till I come home, but it's gonna just fly by! when you think of me, Im most likely doing 1 of 5 things.....STUDYING, PRAYING, TEACHING, WALKING OR SLEEPING! haha or eating.

Miss you lots!
Love your missionary son,
Elder Haws

I've fallen in love...with hymn #19!!

HEY family!

Glad you guys had FUN skydiving! how much did it cost? haha

I got that awesome package from Aunt Julie, and Aunt Sue sent me some SWEEEET shorts..love 'em!  We normally do a few hours of service each week, but last week it was just a lot. I have been driving a little bit. I'm kinda getting used to it. Going back to the states and driving is gonna be strange

The end of this month is the end of this transfer. I like East London, but it would be cool to serve somewhere else hahaha I'll be happy if I stay though.  It's been HOT here recently. we do a TON of walking. The workout band isn't heavy duty at all.

We had zone training this week with president Probst. I learned a lot, and also learned I got many things that I can do to improve on! haha. We talked about the spirit and how we can better teach using the spirit. president said "The Spirit will lead you to amazing places" so true.

Sister Peggy CUSTOM tailored 2 of my shirts! WOW! I love that lady. no offense mommy, but they fit alot better than the way you did it. like now there's 2 lines down the back where she took off the "baggyness" of the shirt? if that makes sense. after she fixed them up, she washed them and ironed them for me! I LOVE that sweet little old lady, so much!

So I'm just blazin' through the BOM. I'm already in 2 Nephi. I really enjoyed 2 Nephi 2 and 2 Nephi 3. such good chapters. Lehi was a great prophet. and in Jesus the Christ, it talks about some of the details of their journey to the promised land, like how they landed somewhere in South America, and like how the Jaradites landed a few years earlier on the Baja Mexico area! so cool.

I've fallen in love...with hymn #19 "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet"!! Elder Larrabee and I sing it while we walk!! but the best is the MoTab version during the Saturday AM session of conference...can you say POWERFUL! haha

Bad news, Yolanda hasn't come to church the past 3 weeks, and she's moving to PE soon for school, so hopefully she'll get her act together.  Yesterday we attended ward counsel...dang! it was neat to see how a ward is run!

Hope y'all have a good week

Love,
Elder Haws

Everything here is sweet, starting the new year 2011 right!

Hi family!

Thanks for the sweet email, and pictures...thumbs up bru! I love everything you said in the email, its awesome!  but yeah I took out 100 Rand the other day...thank you sooo much for letting me know there's a 5 dollar ATM fee..good to know!!

Daddy, you keep those grades up young man, is that understood?! hahaha way to go! A's! gotta love HW.  There was no post this week, so no boxes, but I did get that random but nice letter mom sent.hope you like the pictures!

So this week was pretty good. We did a total of 13 hours of service! we painted the less actives wall in front of her house...2 coats! She didn't live too far away from out boarding...so we painted, then RAN home! It felt good to run and get the blood pumpin! We did that twice, and then the other day we helped this single sister in the ward clean. and I mean clean. Im telling you this house hadn't ever been cleaned before. It was super dirty and we just did it in our shirt and tie! It was hot and this lady was kinda strange...she didnt want her furniture to be straight? and she was kinda bossy too! haha it was all good.

Hey check out in the conference edition of the Liahona, in the middle where they show all the general authorities..flip to the next page and you see a couple of different pictures, well, look closely at the smallest picture of all those missionaries! they are all the zone leaders and president and Sister Probst! ah, those lucky little punks! you can see Elder Moorcroft on the far right! haha.

Well, we had an interesting day on Thursday. We went to this housing complex, and knocked on this door, and the people living in the apartment next door had their door open, and I just casually peered in, and this black dude started CUSSING at me!!! then Elder Larrabee said something, and he started CUSSING at him! the guy got up out of his chair and started walking towards us. He used the S word quite a bit and dropped the F BOMB multiple times! I guess the guy was just having a bad day or something and decided to take it out on us. It kinda got me down a little bit, but Elder Larrabee, being the stud that he is, didn't let it phase him a bit, so we just decided to keep on working and not let it bother us, and that's what we did! It's amazing to see how the Lord works sometimes, cuz right after that we found 3 solid new investigators, and then taught a great lesson to a father led family!! It was awesome. Then, that night for our DA, we had LIVER! It didn't taste too bad, but it wasn't super good either.

We had a "wet" day on Wednesday, it looked like it was gonna be a normal day, but a storm decided to roll in, and really put a damper on our day, cuz we were unprepared for it. We just took shelter from the rain for like an hour, but eventually we had to go to an appointment, and Elder Larrabee said, "The rain is gonna let up" and I thought he was crazy, but sure enough, as soon as we started walking, the rain pretty much stopped! It was a miracle.

Our new years was alright. we stopped working at 6 pm on New Years Eve, and went to bed at 10pm. We were tired. dude, EVERYONE here gets absolutely wasted on new years! Its unbelievable, and sad. like 3 of every 4 drivers are drunk. on Saturday, we just hung out at the chapel with some of the other missionaries in our zone, and just relaxed.

Well, this new year I started reading the BOM from the beginning. someone did the math and if you read 17 pages per day, you can read the BOM 11 times...for 2011! I don't think I could do that.

Everything here is sweeet! have a great week! Miss you!

LOVE,Elder Haws



Elder Larrabee and I were pretending to hitch hike! notice the "no hiking" sign in the background



That was our Chrsitmas feast! in that picture is the Elders Quorum president and Relief Society president



 



 The Van Skeltmer family. talk about some BIGG Afrikkaners! that guy makes me look like a shrimp!



He got a shirt that said San Diego!



Isn't that baby just the cutest thing ever!

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...

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





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

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