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!!

My 4 month mark

This past week has been just kind of a humbling experience for me. We ran to so many people who is spiritually and physically going to pain, grief and afflictions. Wednesday morning we went over to our less active member brother Langestein and we got to met his wife for our first time. His wife is going to really hard times. She has some type of a disease all over her body. She can't even walk on her feet. Her whole bottom feet looks like it has been wounded. She told us how every day is a struggle for her just to get around in her home. Even though she has been going to all that for years and years, she still has a great faith in God and willing to accept what he has given her with thankfulness. Sometimes it is really easy to forget the things that Heavenly Father has blessed us with. It is huge blessing just to have a healthy body. I shared Alma 7:11-12 and told her how Christ has felt her pain and how he knows what she is going through. That just made me to be grateful for the healthy body God has blessed me with.

My other experience was with Brother Hutton. Brother Hutton lost his wife first week I got here. He called us down to the hospital when his wife was on a life support machine and he asked me if I could give him a priesthood blessing. I was really nervous at the time because I never have given anyone a priesthood blessing before. Anyways we haven't seen brother Hutton since then but we finally saw him this past week. He is going to really hard times right now. He doesn't have any family members close by so he doesn't have anyone who takes care of him. He is very lonely and spends most of his days and night on bad because of his health issues. From now on we are going to see him at least once a week and hopefully that would make him feel better at least for that moment we are there. 

On Thursday we had really good zone training. Most of our training was on Book of Mormon. I learned a few great ideas on how to pass out the Book of Mormon. One of the thing me and Elder Pollmann trying is to write our testimony and mark few scriptures before giving out the Book of Mormon. Hopefully they will at least read those verses we marked for them. 

This past week was been really good as far as teaching goes as well. We had some great lessons and we found a few more potential investigators. Our area is slow picking up and the members are helping by coming out teaching with us. It is always the best when the members and full time missionaries work together. We are trying a few things to have the members share the gospel with their nonmember friends. One of the thing that we came up with was to give the ward monthly missionary challenge. And our challenge for this month to the ward is to share something spiritual on social media. 

 

This mission has been really great experience for me. I don't think I would have learned in 10 years the things I have learned in four months. Yesterday was my four months Mark, it is crazy ha? I got all of the winter stuff you have sent me at zone training on Wednesday. Thank you so much for all that. The weather is really nice here for now, this past week the lowest was 55 and highest was 78. I'm really enjoying it right now, it's kind of feels like I'm in Ethiopia. 

I'm so glad you all are doing so well. I do really like how you and grandma Hill have positive attitude about everything. That reminds me of the pioneers, they sing "all is well" when all wasn't well and when they are experiencing all the hard times. You are right being on a mission during holidays season could be hard but I think it's a special blessing to be out here during those times. I only have two holidays of each to spend to spend while serving the lord and have all those when I get home. 

Yes I did heard about the new church policy. On Saturday one of our less active member texted us and said  "After reading the story that CNN did and doing my own research.... the church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints is no longer welcomed in my house.To hold a child responsible for the sins of parents who are gay is directly against the teachings of Christ. Do not come over my home ever again." That was exactly his words. I think there was a reason that he was a less active at first place and that just gave him another reason to leave the church. It all comes down to weather God has called the prophet here on earth. If we have testimonies about God calling the prophets and apostles, then what they they does really comes from God. We might not understand all things alright now but we should just take it with faith. I know that God has called the prophets to guide us in this latter days. I'm sure we are going to have a lot more people ask us about that but it's doesn't change anything my belief. 

Thank you so much for everything, I hope you will have a fantastic week. 

Love elder Haws

Visiting the Priesthood Retoration Site

I hope you all are doing great. I had really amazing week. The lord really blessed us so much. We were quite successful at our finding and tracting this past week. We found this really solid investigator named William and he has been taught by the missionaries before. He stopped meeting with missionaries because he was going to really hard times. He had a lots of death in his families and after that he just kind of lost his faith. As we knocked on his door he immediately invited as in. We had really powerful lesson with him about atonement of Christ and the Book of Mormon. He was really happy that we showed up and he told us how he have been thinking about God lately and wanted have his faith back. 

Yesterday after church we found this former investigator named Nikki. She is so awesome and was really glad that we stopped by her. As soon as we gave her our contact information and left she texted us and thanked us for stopping by. She was being taught by the missionaries before back in May and they dropped her for some reason. On her teaching record it says that she was not interested but she told us that the missionaries just kind of stopped coming by her. We also found this potential investigator named Sydney. She is from Cameroon and she is so solid. Told us to come by anytime she is home cause she loves talking about God. We have appointment with her this Friday and I'm excited for that.

On Thursday we had opportunity to go to the priesthood restoration site In northern Pennsylvania as a mission. We all got up at 3 o'clock in the morning and met in Dover to get on the bus there. The travel there took us about 4 and half hours. It was really beautiful drive there thou, the trees were so beautiful and colorful. We spent about 4 hours at the site, and it was such a remarkable experience. We had the opportunity to go into Joseph and Emma's house where part of the Book of Mormon translation took. We also went into the Hales home. You can see so much difference between Joseph's house and the Hales. You can see that the Hales were well off just by looking at how nice their home is. We also went down to the river and saw that same river where Joseph and Oliver baptized each other. It was really spiritual experience for me. The spirit was so strong there, it gave me an additional witness that Joseph Smith was truly a prophet of God. I am so grateful for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through prophet Joseph Smith and for the priesthood that has been restored back to the earth through him. If it wasn't for this gospel I won't be the person I am today. 

I hope someday you all will have an opportunity to go visit that priesthood restoration site. It's truly is wonderful place to be. Love you all and hope that everything will go well for you in life. 

Love Elder Haws!!

Here are some of the pictures we took at the site

 

Priesthood Restoration Site

Sorry guys it is going to be a little short this week. Our p-day is going to be really short today. We are going to the priesthood restoration site on Wednesday and that is going to be all day long. So because of that they cut our p-day in half today. It's has been really great week thou. It was really busy week. We spent majority of our week doing finding and tracting but we were able to have fair amount of lesson with our less active members.

 On Thursday we had really great lesson with one of the recent convert. The spirit was so strong in the lesson and she kept crying. She is going to rough time as well with somethings. We taught her about temples because we are trying to get her to go to the temple. It was really good lesson, we talked to her more about preparing for the temple. She loved talking about baptisms for the dead because she had some concerns on whether or not it was possible for her to do. She is on wheelchair and she thought it would be really hard for her to even find a ride there. She felt so much better when we told her all she have to do is to spiritually prepare and we will help her with all other things. 

 

I'm so happy for Jason, that is so great. Branden is going all the way to Kentucky? I bet Mesafint is going to be really happy to see him there. I'm surprised that he got permission to go met up with Branden. I don't think our mission president will allow anything like that. Yeah you are right, dad is really great person. We are so blessed to a parents like you two. I feel so much better every time I read your letters out here. It makes me to be motivated and work hard. Being out here is hard sometimes and I look up to you guys when those hard time comes.

This past week has been so much better for me and Elder Pollmann. We do get along super well and we have been teaching with unity. That first week was just hard because we didn't knew each other that well and I was just so stressed out. I felt like everything was on me. But now things are so much better since we got to know each other little better and Elder Pollmann know more about the area now. He does help me with planing and teaching now. 

Oh poor Luke, I hope he gets better soon! That is good all other kids are doing well and appreciating the gospel. So did Damitu made it to state at all?

We were able to ran to some good people while we were doing tracking. They seemed to be interested in hearing more when we quickly testified to them. So we were able to get some return appointments. So I'm really excited for this week to go out and work hard. I wish I could write more but don't have too much time. I hope you all will have a very blessed week. 

Love, 

Elder Mubarek 

Mini Miracle

Dear Family, 

 

 

I hope you all are doing great. I had another great week, there is lot that happened. I got a new companion on Tuesday. His name is elder Pollmann and he is from southern Utah in small town called Minersville. He has been out for 14 months now. He is great and we get along well. 

This week has been little slow as far as teaching goes. Most of our appointments got cancelled on us. We did a lot of finding and tracting. We were able to get some return appointments out of that. On Thursday we found this older lady in a wheelchair. She doesn't have both of her legs. She was trying to sweep her driveway when we found her. We stopped and offered her help and she allowed us to help. After we got done we asked her if it's okay to share a message with her and she allowed us. We taught her little bit about the plan of salvation on her front porch. We weren't able to teach her the whole thing because her grandson got home from school. She seems a little interested when we talked about the purpose of life, and how things happens for a reason. She is really sweet lady and willing to have us back.

We were also able to see this mini miracle on Friday. Most of our appointments got cancelled on us on Friday and then we decided to do tracting. As we knocked on doors nobody really seemed interested but we accidentally met this lady named Jay. We took her parking spot and she came home as we were getting out of the car to see one of our potential. She stopped her car on the road and told us how we took her parking spot. We then slowly got talking to her and she was very nice. She believes in having a Christian lifestyle but doesn't believe too much in the bible. We told her how we believe the bible to be a word of God as far as it is translated correctly and then testified to hear about the book of Mormon. We had her read intro and she asked for a copy. At the end we asked if we can meet with her to talk to her more about the BOM. She said in order to meet it would have to be somewhere other than her home because her father is atheist. She seemed pretty solid and we are excited to meet with her some time. 

We had stake conference yesterday and it was really amazing. Our mission president and his wife came and gave a talk. They gave really great talk on missionary work and temples. They talked about how our ultimate goal as a missionaries is to get the people to the temple. The other speakers also talked a lot about keeping the sabbath day holy. It was really great stake conference. 

I know that we will be blessed as we keep the sabbath day holy.

 

 Jessica Rudderforth texted us and told me how happy you were and how that made your day. Jessica was really happy too that you emailed her back and thanked her. They are really great family and love the missionaries. Jessica actually used to live in Rexburg. She grew up in Idaho False and went to college in BYU-I. And I will thank them again for you. (They took and sent the picture above.)

That is awesome how Luke is having a new teethes. Why is he being grumpy? Is that because it hurts when the baby's get a new teeth? Wow all the sports season is almost over? That went by so fast. Sounds like you and Damitu had really fun time at Lindsey Sterling's concert. She has a Mormon message video and I watched that with elder Mackay. She is really great at playing the violin and dancing at the same time.

The weather is getting really cold here. This morning it was 28 degrees. It is getting dark here super early too. That kind of makes missionary work hard. People gets mad when we knock on their door at 7:00 because it's dark and seems like it's in the middle of night. Taking over the area is kind of hard for me too. It's a lot of responsibilities, my new companion just expect me to make all the decisions. This past week was probably the hardest week for me, it was really stressful. But it's not too bad. Thank you so much for everything and have a great week.

 

Love Mubarek!

I've been out over 3 months

I hope you all are doing great. This week has been crazy busy. We did a lot of tracting and finding and we were able to see some miracles. We found about six potential investigators and we got two return appointments out of that. They seems like they were pretty interested when we talked to them. 

We also got one new investigator who committed to be baptized in our first lesson. Her name is Jasmine and we had an awesome lesson with Her. We couldn't get any male member out to the lesson with us because they all were really busy with work. So we end up taking one of our investigator to the lesson and it still worked great. We taught her the restoration and she was so accepting to our message. We really were able to relate a lot of the information to herself and she totally agreed and thought that it made sense about the Restoration of the gospel. She committed to read and pray to know the Book of Mormon is true. It was really awesome lesson and she is well prepared. 

We also had really good lesson with the Offei-ansah family. In the lesson we really focused on them and tried to answer their questions about baptism. At the end we committed them to pray about it if this baptism is a right path for them. It might take them a while but I know that they will accept this gospel. They are really great people. 

 

On Thursday we had a zone training and it was really great. Our zone leaders taught us how to teach quick 3 to 4 minutes lesson using Book of Mormon. I learned a lot from that. One our zone leader elder Child is going home so we will be getting new zone leader tomorrow.

 

We got a transfer call on Friday. My companion Elder Mackay is leaving the area and I'm staying. Transfer is actually tomorrow so I won't know who my new companion is until tomorrow. I'm not to worried about it, I just hope that he is hard working and obedient missionary. Yes you are right living the gospel is as much us teaching the gospel. It hard to go out and teach the gospel if you don't have companionship unity. That is so great that you were able to help your companion. When you love your companion and serve them, things goes so much better between you and your companion.  

I got done with 12 week missionary training program today. So I'm a regular missionary now. It's crazy how fat the time flies by, I can't believe it's already been little over three months since I've been out on a mission.

 

Thanks for letting me know how everyone is doing. I love hearing about how things are going at home. I'm glad that Everett is doing good and liking school. That is sad Tofik lost his game to Highland. My zone leader went to highland and he was telling me how much he was mad at Madison because Madison won them and kept them from going to state couple years ago. He has been staying with us for about three days now because his companion went home little bit earlier before transfer. He was really happy and joyful when I told him how highland won Tofiks team. 

 

Sorry I don't have to much time right now. We are at Rudderforth and they are going to take a picture of us because Elder Mackay is leaving. Josh Rudderforth is like professional photographer. We are also going to do little shopping for groceries. 

I hope you will have a great week.

Love Elder Haws

"Why the Chuch?"

Hi everyone, 

 

I hope you all are doing great. It's been another great week here. It was really busy week. On Wednesday we had a zone conference In Cherry Hill New, Jersey. It was my first zone conference and it was so amazing. Our mission president taught us a lot about gathering of Israel and the role of the Book of Mormon. He encouraged us to use the Book of Mormon in every single lesson. When it comes to conversion, the Book of Mormon should play a really big role. Every answer, to every questions that investigators have, can be found in the Book of Mormon. It is amazing how much impact the Book of Mormon has in conversion.

We got a new ward mission leader this past week. Our old ward mission leader was really busy guy. Because he is so busy that we weren't able work with him at all. Not being able to work with ward mission leader makes missionary work so much harder. Ward mission leader is like a bridge between the members and full time missionaries. It is hard to work with the members without the ward mission leader. I'm so excited to work with our new ward mission leader. He is really great guy. We already had coordination meeting with him and from now on we have weekly coordination meeting with him.

It was slow week with investigators, most of our lessons was with less active members. We are trying hard to get those less active members back to church but it's not really working so well. They do really feel the spirit when we go over and have a lesson with them but its just hard for them to show up to the church. Some of them work on Sundays and that even makes it harder. We were able to have another lesson with the Offei-ansha's family. It went really good but they had a lot of questions concerning baptism. They think that every church has authority to baptize.

General conference was great, I really enjoyed it. I really liked  D. Todd Christoferson's talk called "Why the Chuch?" There are a lots of people out here who are spiritual but don't feel like coming to church. Elder Christoferson really pointed out great things about the importance of coming to church. I am so grateful to have prophet and apostles here on earth today. I know that we can get close to Heavenly Father if we followed their teachings. 

Love you all and hope you will have an amazing week.

Mubarek Haws

The Family Unit

Dear Family,

 

I had another great week. A lot has happened this past week. We have been working hard to build up the ward. In this ward we have a lot of less active members, part member families, and people who has fallen away from the church for different reasons and don't really want to get back in church. We have been working so hard to get them back in to church. We have been working with ward councils. This past week we were able meet with two of the ward council members. We were able to go over the ward report with them. They really helped us a lot and gave us a lot of referrals. This week we are going to contact those referrals and going to try to meet up with other ward council members. 

We were also finally able to have lesson with the Offei-ansah family. They are really great family from Ghana. The husbands name is Nana and the name of  his wife is Esther. They have two little kids. They were taught by the missionaries before I got here. Right before I got here the missionaries lost being in contact with them because Nana and Esther were really busy with work and schooling. We were finally able to sit down and have a lesson with them. It was a good lesson, kids were tired and crazy but we were able to keep their attention for just long enough. We established some expectations for them and they said they are still interested in learning more. Esther seems so solid and wants to meet even if Nana isn't there. She loves the temples and told us how she really want to go inside. The last time they were taught was about there months ago. So we reviewed the restoration and focused on the Book of Mormon and on families. Nana said that's what interests him most about the church is the family unit. They both are really great and I'm so excited to work with them. The only thing is that they still have really busy schedule.

The people in the ward still treat us super well and feed us a lot. You could not believe what I had at the bishops house. He is from Philippians. He invited us to his house for dinner last Monday. He made me try Belut. Belut is egg embryo that is ready to hatch. It is usually embryo that is 18 to 21 days old. They take that and cook it. As you eat you can see the the head, the legs and little feathers of the chick. It's almost like eating a baby chicken haha. It taste just like a boiled egg. looking at it was so gross thou. 

You experience with a lot of different things out here. I'm just really grateful for all this things I'm experiencing out here. Along with helping others, everyday is a learning experience for me. I hope and pray that everything will go well for you all. Thank you for all your support and prayers. 

I hope you all will have a great week! 

Love Elder Haws. 

Sorry I've been so bad at it but here are some pictures 

 Mubarek's Zone Leader

 Mubarek with his Aunt Kaeley at the MTC---She's a teacher there.

Mubarek and Benson at the MTC.  They ran cross country in high school together.

Donations

Hello, 

This is just a quick note for those who have asked about donating to Mesafint's and Mubarek's mission funds.  You can donate through the your LDS account with the online donation form. Our Archer ward account number is 23264.  You can select Mesafint or Mubarek name from a drop down list.  Thank you for your kindness in preparing our boys to serve missions and for any help with the financial side of having two missionaries out.

Thanks, 
Alyssa 

I'm so grateful for the priesthood

 I had really amazing week. It went by like a blink of un eye. Out here time just flys by so fast. First off investigators, it was pretty slow week with investigators. Most of them called and canceled it on us. Most or our lessons was with the less active members. We've been trying so hard to get them back In church. Bobby is the one who is progressing the most out of our less active members we've been visiting. Ever since we met him he has been keeping all of the commitment and has been going to church.

Yesterday after church we went and visited this guy named Bob Young in rehab center. He is in rehab center for hip replacement. He is a convert to the church and it has been 4 years since he has joined the church. He is really amazing guy, has really great testimony of the gospel. He has been having a lot health problems and hasn't been to church for long time because of that. He still read his scriptures and say his prayers. We were able to talk with him about atonement little bit. We told him how God is really aware of his situations and knows what he is going through. 

On Saturday we had opportunity to attend a baptism at the beach. President Phillip's of the elders quorum eight years old son got baptized. It was really cool experience, I had to to give a talk on baptism. The baptism was at the sunset and it was so beautiful. President Phillips also had a new baby couple weeks ago. They decided to do baby blessing right before the baptism so we had opportunity to participate in that as well. That was my first time participating in baby blessing, it was really cool experience for me. 

Saturday morning was the dedication of the priesthood restoration site in Harmony, Pennsylvania. Pres. Nelson was the one who dedicated it. We went to church and watched it, It was really cool. You should watch it if you haven't had a chance to watch it yet. It's still on LDS.Org. In ensign of September 2015, there is also great article called "Joseph Smith in Harmony." It is really great article, it's explains in depth what happened in Harmony, Pennsylvania. I'm so grateful for the priesthood that was restored back to the earth through prophet Joseph Smith

 

That is so cool how  Mesafint's patriarchal blessing came in the mail. I don't remember him getting one when he was at home. Did he get it out on a mission? I'm so glad he got one. He is having really great experience on his mission too. It makes me so happy when I read his emails. Being out here is truly a blessing, it has changed me a lot just for being out here for this long. I think I lost the copy of my patriarchal blessing somewhere. It would be great if you are able to order a copy of it for me. 

It looks like you guys had pretty fun week with demolition derby and trip down to Utah for Chaltu's talk. Long car trips are always fun, I love those times we had. That is so awesome how Mariuma got baptized. I didn't knew that shat she hasn't been baptized yet. I'm also glad Abate is going back to church. Running to ER still didn't stopped ha? I thought it would stop since me and Mesafint left. Poor Gutama, I hope his finger will get better soon. So is he out from football for a while? That is so cool how awesome Tofik is doing at soccer. I hope they will do well on his coming home game as well. How is Everett doing with school? It so awesome how Luke is walking. 

That is so great how it mentions in your patriarchal blessing about the blessings you will receive if you paid your tithing. It is so awesome how you saw that blessing right away after you paid your tithing. I know that God will bless us if we are obedient to him. The blessings do come even if it have to be on the next life. 

My favorite scripture is alma 37:6-7. By small and simple things great thing comes. Over here the weather is definitely getting cooler but it's not at the point where I need to wear my winter close. The weather is really nice now. It starting to cool down at nights. You don't really have to ship my winter clothes now but it will be nice if I get them at the end of October. . 

Thank you for your letters and everything. Hope things will go well for you guys. How is grandma Hill and grandpa Hill are doing? I haven't heard from them for long time. Please say hi to them for me. I hope you guys will have a great week.

 

Love Elder Haws.

 

The Spirit was so Strong

Hi. I hope you all are doing great! 

I had really great week, it went by so fast. We did a lot of service for people in the ward. I love doing service for people out here. We all ways ask the people for service opportunities. We also had a zone training this past week in Harrington Delaware and it was really great. The spirit was so strong. I also had opportunity to go on a exchange with the zone leaders. It was really good, I learned a lot. 

it was really good week as far as teaching goes as well. We met up with Bobby again this past week. We taught him at church. We had a powerful lesson with him and his girlfriend Mckenzie. We didn't knew that we were going to teach Mckenzie until 30 minutes before the lesson. We were just planing to teach Bobby alone. He then texted us and asked us if he could bring Mckenzie with him. Mckenzie is not a member but has met with the missionaries before. Her dad is a preacher and doesn't really like our church. We had really great lesson with them. Mckenzie kept telling us how she really felt the spirit in the lesson. She had a lot of deep questions for us. We really focused on her and tried to answer all of her questions. We talked a lot about repentance, atonement of Jesus Christ, plan of salvation and priesthood authorities. She talked little about her baptism in her church and asked us if her baptism means nothing to God. We told her how her baptism means a lot to God because that shows her willingness to follow him. At the end we talked little bit about priesthood authority and how God has led her to farther knowledge. We asked her if she would be baptized by proper authority since she knows more now. She committed to be baptized. We are excited to teach her. The only thing is that she doesn't live within our ward boundary. We are planing to teach her for little and then going to transfer her teaching records to the missionaries in her area. 

The church was really good yesterday. We had really good speakers, I really felt the spirit as they talked. We had couple of investigators and less active members showed up at sacrament meeting. That was really nice, I was really happy to see them. We also had to teach the priest quorum yesterday. We taught them from preach my gospel about missionary work. It went really good, everyone participated. I'm so so grateful to be out here and experience all this things. Along with helping others it's been really good leaning experience for me too. I'm so grateful for all the things you guys have done for to get me out here. 

I love all hope you will have a great week. 

Elder Haws.

Instrument in the Hands of God

Hi mom and dad. I hope everything is going well for you guys. 

I had really amazing week, it went by so fast. This past week we did a lot of service for people in the ward. We went with a member and helped a single sister with laying down a flooring. We spent about 4 hours there and we are still not done. We are going over some time this week and trying to finish it. We also helped another member who is switching a house in the ward. His name is Jason Phillips and he is really nice guy who is elders corm president. We spent two days helping him move out from his old house and move in to his new house. They had so much stuff, I never seen that much stuff in the house before. There is no way that we could get it done with in two days if the members didn't showed up. About 7 members showed up including the bishop. 

It was pretty good week too as far as teaching the teaching the lessons goes. I've definitely seen the hand of the lord in my life so much since I got out. When I was at home I didn't really believed when people says the lord will lead you to the people that he has prepared for you. But now I do really believe that and I've seen it a lot out here. Yesterday after church we had two lessons but both of them got canceled on us. We then decided to go see this former investigator named Jenny who has been dropped by previous missionaries in the area. When we knocked on her door, one of her son came out and told us that she is not at home. As we turned around to leave, her other son and the dad arrived. We said hi to them and told them how we were there to see Jenny. The dad went in but the son stayed back and talked to us on their front porch. His name is Bobby. He told us how he used to be a member of our church and how he left the church. We slow start talking him about why he left the church, he just let everything that's been going on with his life loose. We talked about so many different aspects about the gospel to help him. We talked about how God is loving and always watching out for us, we talked a lot about the Atonement and how it changes our lives. He was just so happy we showed up. He told us how he has been thinking about God lately when he does all bad stuff like drinking and smoking. He also told us how much he misses the church. Since he left our church he has been to many other churches but never felt the same. He said that he always felt like something has been missing In his life. We testified to him that what he is missing is this gospel. He wants to get back to church and he wants to start turning his life around. He also said he wants to go to the addiction recovery classes to help him stop smoking and drinking. We committed him to read the Book of Mormon and go to church. He is really nice guy. He wasn't born In the church, he was a convert. He stayed in church for about 3 years then left for a lot of different reasons. I think now he is going to do what ever it takes to get back. 

That is really Gods hand, him leading us to Bobby. We didn't knew nothing about Bobby before we met him and it wasn't our plan to go there and talk to him. It is amazing to me how God does great thing by small and simple steps. I know that God really loves and cares about each one of his children. I'm so grateful for this gospel for peace and comfort it brings to our lives. I know that this gospel can really change our lives. I'm so grateful to be "instruments in the hands of God."

Thank you so much for everything. I hope you guys will have a great week 

Love Elder Haws.