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