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.