Philadelphia Temple Open House and Snow

Hey mom! Yes we did get a lot of slow but I'm still alive. It's been really cold but I am staying warm thanks to the winter clothes you have sent me. We have been really busy with proselyting so we haven't really had a chance to shovel the snow for the people. I haven't really heard from Mesafint for a while now, how is he doing. I used get his group email and I don't know if he stopped doing that. 

Thank you so much for the birthday wish and for the birthday package surprise. It did really surprised me and made my day. Found it right on our doorstep after coming from our lesson with the Wiess families. We set them up with a date on that lesson and I was already really. Getting your package even doubled my happiness by so much. I was like oh my goodness, this the best day ever. Thank you so much! The area is doing every well. We found out that they are going to split it in half and put a set of sisters here next transfer. It is going to be Wilkes-Barre north and south. We are going to cover the south part. We are not too worried about losing a lot of our investigators because most of them are on the south side. So I think the work in Wilkes-Barre is going to increase so much. 

The first presidency announced the date for the open house and dedication of the Philadelphia temple. The open house for the public is from Friday, August 5, 2016 to September 3, 2016. The temple dedication will be on Sunday September 18th. I'm so excited for it, I haven't seen a temple since I have been here. I think it is going to bring so many people to the church too. 

Something funny that happened to this past week is that a guy mistaking me for a girl. It was pretty funny. He did know that I'm a guy at first and as I got close to him and began speaking to him.....he changed his whole attitude. He began calling me ma'am haha. I guys that's how much of a good looking I am, people actually mistakes me for a girl. 

Well it sounds like you all are doing so well. The biggest advice I will give for someone who is preparing to serve a mission;

1, read the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon has every answers that the investigators will ask. As the investigators receive their answers through the Book of Mormon, the the spirit will enter into their hearts. Then the chance of them accepting the invitation to baptism is high. 

2, Read Preach My Gospel. If you don't, you will be behind on your mission and will have to try to catch up. PMG is your best friend. That is something that  I wish I had done. 

3, Learn to love anyone and everyone. You will be teaching drug addicts to businessmen. You will be teaching in clean, nice homes and in dirty house that is filled with Dog hears. Sometimes the house is so smelly. You have to love everyone regardless of their circumstance, their looks, or their interest.

So those are the three advice I will like to give them. I hope you guys will have a great week. Love you both. 

Elder Haws!

Members are the key in missionary work

Dear mom! 

 

I'm so glad that you had a great birthday. Yes you are right, wisdom comes with age. Know that "you are not aging, you increasing in value." I had a shirt that has that quote and it's been stuck with me since then. I was able to get the email grandma Hall send out about grandpa Hall's biography and it brought so much tears to my eyes as I was reading. Grandma Hall was really amazing man and we all are going to miss him so much. 

Well I had really great week. The first few days are kinda of hard but things are going very well now. I think we are going to get along fine with elder Baker. He sounds like he is excited to have me here because his previous companion was rough to to him. From what I heard from Elder Baker his previous comp didn't liked working at all. They spent a lot of time in the apartment because he didn't wanted to go out. I think that is one of the reason why the work is so slow here. So far the lord has blessed me with really great companions who are obedient and hard workers. I am so great full for that. Hard work and obedience is the key in missionary work and even in our everyday life.

I am the senior companion now. Being a senior companion isn't hard at all. There are few responsibilities and I just have to set a good example. One of the privilege you have for being a senior companion is driving. So I've been enjoying driving but driving out here in the city is little scary. This area is way colder than Smyrna. The coldest was -5 digress the week before I got here. It's little warm now but still cold. 

Thank you so much for everything and I hope you will have a wonderful week! 

Love Elder Haws!

 

 

I hope you all had wonderful week. This week has been so wonderful for me. I am loving my new area and comp. I ended up in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania. It is such a huge are. It covers three measure towns, about 25 to 35 small towns that are right next to each other and two cities. We have to cover all that by ourselves as for now but I think they are going to split the area in half and put the sister missionaries here. My new companion name is elder Baker and just in case you are wondering..... He can bake too! He has been out for 3 months now. He has lived all over but he moved to Washington with his family right before he came out and that's where his family is living now. Something that I have in common with him is that he is adapted as well. And not to be racist but he is half black. 

Well the work in this are is very slow right now, we have a lot to do. It scared me so bad when elder Baker told me that they usually teach 2 to 4 lessons a week. We have set some goals and trying so hard to improve that. Right now we have about 5 soiled investigators right. One is getting baptized this Saturday. His name is Chris and this man the most prepared person I ever met. He has been investigating the church for about two months now. We were able to teach him three times since I have been here and it's all most like we don't even need to teach him. He knows everything and agrees with everything we say. 

I already love all the members here. They are so wonderful and loves to help out the missionaries. All the investigators we have right now are through the members. We have this lady named sister Dean in the ward and she is just so wonderful and sweet. Oh my goodness, it almost feels like I have known her from pre-earth life. She is a ward missionary and she has been helping us out a ton. She pretty much knows everyone in the ward. Every time we are in the area that we don't know, we gave her a call and she just feels us up with information. 

I had to gave a talk at sacrament meeting yesterday. I talked about my favorite topic which is missionary work and setting goals . Here is a portion of my talk and I hope it helps. Sharing the gospel and serving others is something that the lord expects from all of us. When we were baptized we all promised to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ and that we will always remember him and keep his commandments. The best way we can take his name upon ourselves is by sharing the gospel with others. In D&C 18:28 "The Savior has made it clear that if we desire to take upon us his name, with full purpose of heart, we are called to go into all the world and preach his gospel to every creature". Jesus Christ has also said "If ye love me, feed my sheep. If ye love me, keep my commandments” we show our love to the savior by serving and loving our brothers and sisters. 

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to be out here and serve others. Being on a mission is the best experience ever. It's been such a great learning experience for me as well. I have been able to learn how to be patient and endure through hardships and challenges. In D&C 24:8 . It says "Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days” I also were able to develop a great skills such us setting goal and working hard. 

Setting a goal is not simply saying I am going to work on this thing. There is more to it than just that, there is steps to be taken. The first step in setting goal is knowing the goal itself and knowing why you want to accomplish that goal. You do that by seeking revelation from Heavenly Father through prayer. Ask your Heavenly Father what would he want you to accomplish. After figuring out your goal, the next step is to write it down and put it somewhere where you can see it everyday. After that figure out what steps are you going to take each day to achieve that goal and work on those steps each day. The next thing is to reflect back and see how you are doing on that goal. If you are doing well keep it up, if not ask someone for help or seek guidance from Heavenly Father. 

If you accomplish your goal, keep up with the good skills you have developed, pick a new goal and start working on it. If you miss your goal, don’t get discouraged; just start again from where you left off. Remember that God will help you succeed if you turn to him with sincere heart. President Uchtdorf said: “God loves you this very day and always. He is not waiting to love you until you have overcome your weaknesses and bad habits. He loves you today with a full understanding of your struggles. … He knows of your remorse for the times you have fallen short or failed. And still He loves you. … He wants you to achieve your destiny—to return to your heavenly home in honor” I know that God will help us in all aspects of our lives if we put him first and do his will. 

I am so sorry for my novel email but I hope you will learn something from it. Something that I learned out here is that the members are the key in missionary work. I hope you all will have an opportunity to share the gospel with others around you. I'm going to leave you with a challenge this week and don't worry it's not a hard one. The challenge for you for this week is for you to get to know the missionaries in your area and pray for them by name. Pray for them that they will be able to find people to teach. 

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. I hope you will have a fantastic week. 

Much love, Elder Mubarek Haws!!!

I know this is not the end

 

Hey mom! Happy birthday to you next week! Thank you for being an amazing mom. We are indeed so blessed to have you as a mom! You have taught us how to love and serve others! You are so kind and caring to everyone. You have taught us how to all ways fight and push forward during challenges and hard times. I never have seen you gave up during hard times. Thank you for being a wonderful mom and a great example. 

Oh my goodness, the death of grandpa Hall is so shocking to me. I never thought that would happen, I'm so sorry! He is a great man and did made all of us laugh, I loved hearing his jokes. Grandma hall emailed me right before Christmas and I was telling to elder Pollmann how Healthy they both are and how they do everything on their own. I can't believe this! He is going to be missed by everyone! I am so grateful for the knowledge we have about the plan of salvation. I know this not the end, I know that we will see him some day and be with him.

 

I hope you all are doing well. This past week has been really great. We were able to teach a lot more lessons than the week before. We were also able to get two new investigators. They both sound really nice and welling to learn more about our beliefs. Their names are Mike and Bill. We found Mike while out tracting on Wednesday. Before we knocked on Bill's door, We ran to this guy who is so rude. He just cussed us out. Told us that he is an atheist and how much he hates God. Told us to get off his property as fast as possible or else he will call cops and have us lucked down. He kept yelling at us to walk faster as we were leaving using very colorful words.

Well the scriptures teaches us that there is opposition in all things and I'm so glad that there is opposition in all things. We met Mike right after we walked away from that guy who cussed us out. Nocked on his door and he let us in right away. He is very nice man and has strong relationship with God. We were able to share a short message with him and he loved it. He wanted to learn more and told us to stop by him any time he is home. 

Bill is really great guy as well. He is from Liberia and has lived here for about 6 months. He already knows a lot about the church, he know about Joseph Smith and Book of Mormon. He a lot of questions about the organization of of the church. We were are able to answer that and shared shared the message of restoration. He really enjoyed it and agreed with everything about the needs for the restoration for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We gave him a copy of Book of Mormon and he is way excited to read it and find out the truth on his own. 

We are still teaching Ashley and she is not really progressing very well. This past week we just focused on her and tried resolve all of her concerns. We talked and talked about prayer and repentance and baptism again and how she shouldn't be afraid to talk to our mission president if she needs to. We think that fear is the main thing that's keeping her from progressing quicker. She's afraid of prayer, afraid of the mission president, afraid of confessing her sins, afraid of what her husband might think, afraid of what the members might think, afraid of not knowing enough, afraid of going inactive after baptism, and a million other things. But within the time we talked to her we made it very clear what it is she needs to do to gain a testimony and be baptized. How and when she does it is her choice. So we concluded on that not with her. 

We had an amazing lesson with one of our investigator named William.  He is a former investigator that we found a while ago and we weren't able to meet with him for long time. He had really rough life before and now he really want to turn his life around. He is willing to do whatever it's takes to have personal relationship with God. We also set him with a baptismal date for January 31 and he happily accepted it. We saw him drinking coffee and we briefly went over the word of wisdom to give him a head up. He said that he will give away everything to come closer to Jesus Christ. It was so cool. He want to come to church and he is going to keep Sunday open for church. He is just so ready and prepared. 

We got transfer call on Friday and I found out that I'm leaving Smyrna. I don't know where I'm going or who my new companion is going to be yet. I'm sad that I'm leaving this area but I guys it's time to move on and serve somewhere else. I will let you know next week about my new area and companion. 

May you all have blest week. Thank you for all your love and support!

Love elder Haws! 

This guy below on the picture is brother Klevis! He is really great man. It was hard saying goodbye to him. His whole body from the left side is paralyzed and he is stock in nursing home/hospitality. We've been visiting him twice a week ever since I've been out here and even longer than that. He really loves chess so we always play one game of chess with after sharing a message.

After Christmas

Hey Mom! It was truly wonderful to hear from you too. It was really hard to hang up though. One hour of talking seemed like like 10 minutes! Now I can see why they make us call only twice a year. I felt really weird right after I hanged up. I kind of felt like I wasn't a missionary for a minute and I was like "oh I have to snap back into my missionary mode now." It was so great talking to you all thought!

 I still weren't able to locate the package yet. We were actually just at the Rudderforth's house helping Josh move and I forgot to ask him about the package. Josh is moving out to Missouri next to his kids. That's where his x-wife is with his kids. This is both Josh's and Jessica's second divorce. And Josh has three kids with his first wife. One of the thing that caused the divorce was the kids. Josh really loves his kids and he is way too far away from them and misses them way to much. He only got to see them twice a year. So that just kind of caused him to be depressed. 

Today right before we left, he asked me if I could give him a blessing and it was the best blessing I have ever given. Both him and I were just tearing up as I gave him the blessing. I am so grateful for the priesthood that has been restored back to the earth.

Thank you for everything and I hope you will have a wonderful week! 

Love elder Haws 

Sent from my iPad

Blessings come as we are obedient

Hi mom! Thanks for your letters. Sounds like you all doing great. That is awesome how the kids are paying full tithing. The lord does really bless us in so many ways if we trust in him and pay our full tithing. A couple week ago as we were teaching this one family in the ward the mom started crying as she shared her experience. She used to be really poor and her grandfather told her to keep paying her tithing. She said she took her grandfathers advice and kept paying her tithing when she didn't even had a food for her kids. As she kept paying she saw a lot of blessings that comes from paying tithing. 

That is cool how Everett got a new dog. How big is the dog? Pretty much every one has a dog here. That is awesome how you guys went and got Christmas tree. I all ways enjoyed that tradition. Did you guys went somewhere different this year or the same place we went last year?  The the weather is really nice here. At nights and mornings it get cold but it is really nice during a day. This past week it's been in low 50s. It supposed to get even warmer this week by Thursday. It is going to be in low 60s. That is almost like a Addiss Ababa weather. 

Everything is going well for me and I'm just so happy to be out here. Thank you so much for you love and support. Thanks for your letter too, I love hearing about how the things going back at home. . 

I hope you will have a great week 

Love Elder Haws

Show love by proclaiming the gospel

Hey mom! Yes we did had really wonderful thanksgiving. We had really great time with the Shahan and Mendez family. We weren't originally planing to go to the Mendez family but they texted us and told us to come over. They both had really great food for us. We didn't eat to much at the Mendez though because we got stuffed at the Shahan. We still have a lot of food in our fridge. We specially have a lot of deserts. The members keep telling me that I need to gain more weight and they give us a lot of food. I think I have gained about 5 pounds now. 

Oh don't even worry about it mom, just write me when ever you can. Don't even worry about writing me every week. I do really love your email thou. It sounds like you guys had really fun thanksgiving with family and the homeless people. That is really awesome that guys were able to do that. That is really what Jesus Christ did, he loved and served the poor. My talk was on that last Sunday. Here is part of my talk. 

Jesus Christ loved us and showed us what loves is. He loved the poor, the meek, the sick and the sinners without pushing them away. He forgave of their sins and told them to go and sin no more.  In John 8:10-11, we see Jesus forgiving a woman who is accused of Adultery. and it's says "When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." 

Not only did Jesus loved us and showed us what  love is, He also taught us how we can show our love back to Him. He said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” President Heber J. Grant said: “The first great commandment was to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, might, mind and strength; and the second was like unto it, to love our neighbor as ourselves. And the best way in the world to show our love for our neighbor is to go forth and proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, of which he has given us an absolute knowledge concerning its divinity.”

Just like president Grant said the best way to show our love to our neighbors is by sharing the gospel and by serving them. One of the best way we can show our love to the savior is by serving our brothers and sisters too.

In Matthew 25:35-40 it says 

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Just like its says in this verses, we are really serving our Heavenly Father when we serve our brothers and sisters.  

You dad are really great example at serving others and caring for the poor and needy. I'm here because of you two and my life has been completely changed in so many ways. So I kind of have idea what to get dad but not too sure. Do you have any ideas about what he needs? And I also have an idea what to make for Damitu. Do you think you can send to me the measurements of her scripture? 

Aright thank you so much and I hope you will have another great week! 

Love Elder Mubarek Wesley Haws! 

Missions not always about baptisms

I hope things are going well for you all. I had really amazing week. We taught a lot of lessons this past week and the lord blessed us with four new investigators. And they are just a potential investigators that we weren't able to have a lesson with for a while. This past week we were finally able to set down and have a lesson with them so they became a new in investigators now. Their names are; Elizabeth, Sadony, Anita and Kevin. 

Elizabeth is a single mom with two kids. She goes to seventh-day Adventist and very active in it. She is very open about hearing others beliefs so she allowed us to share our beliefs with her. We taught her about the restoration and she liked it. She accepted our invitation to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it.  She is very into her church and it doesn't looks like she is willing to leave her church but she want to learn more about our church. Hopefully she will change her mind as she read from the Book of Mormon and as she learn more about the church.

Sadony is really solid, she loves talking about God and has great relationship with Heavenly Father. We had awesome lesson with Her. We taught her about restoration and she really liked it. She really agreed about everything we talked about. She committed to a soft baptismal date for December six. Anita is an older lady and is probably in her 70s. She lives on Main Street of Smyrna and we taught her on her front porch. It was kind of hard to feel the spirit because it was so loud but after all the lesson turned out okay. We tried to get her to come to church but she said that she needs more time. We found Kevin while we were Looking for his mom and end up having quick lesson on his front porch. He is really nice kid and very knowledgeable about the bible.

We had really good lessons with our less active members as well. On Thursday we met this guy named Raymond Benson. It has been about 3 years since he has left the church.We met him at the church building and had a good lesson with him. He openly expressed some of his concerns why he went inactive. He doesn't understand why the church buildings are not nicer and more convenient for the older people of the church so they don't have to sit on hard chairs that have to be stacked and set up every week. We told him how nice it is for him to feel bad for those people but that shouldn't keep him from coming to the church. We related the story in alma chapter 14 about Alma and Amulek watching the people be buried by fire. He really liked that scripture and thought that scripture was just for him. We gave him couple more scriptures to read and he told us that he will go home and pray about it as he reads. I don't really understand why people leave the church for small reasons like that. 

We will be getting a transfer calls this week on Friday and I'm kind of afraid that I might be leaving this area. So I guess we will find out on Friday. 

 

Yes, all the winter close fit me really good. Thank you so my for that. I'm glad everything is going well with you guys back home. Yeah its sounds like you have been really busy with work but that is really good how you are enjoying it.

I had really great week, we taught a good amounts of lessons . We taught about 14 lessons all together. I haven't taught that much lessons before since I got here. We usually teach about 9 to 11 lesson a week. Last week, Elder Pollmann and I set goals to push ourselves and work hard. We set our goal to teach at least 15 lessons a week and we were 1 away from reaching our goal. We are struggling with progressing investigators right now. We don't really have any investigator who is keeping all of the commitments. Sometimes it kind of hard when that happens but I still have it out here. It is nice to have baptisms but mission not always about baptisms. I love meeting and talking to a people like brother Hutton and sister Langestein. It makes me so happy when I leave them with a smile. 

I don't need any thing for Christmas, thank you so much for everything. I really appreciate for all the things you guys have done for me! Love you guys and I hope you will have a great week. 

 

Love Elder Haws!!