Week 14 (December 30, 2013)

Well, here I am again! Another afternoon in the cyber cafe.

This week wasn’t much to be honest. Really nothing great happened and nothing great was really accomplished. But I enjoyed the week very much. 

Monday. 

Was just the regular old p- day. We got ready for Christmas and did some serious deep cleaning in the house. We worked hard in the afternoon and had some good visits. 

Tuesday. Christmas Eve. 

Was really fun. We had district class that morning, and after we had a white elephant activity as a zone. There were some ridiculous gifts like weird glasses and scarves. I ended up getting a small but deadly Nerf gun. Elder Garcia got a crazy bubble gun thing that lights up and makes annoying laser sounds, and the other Elders in my house got candy. 

Elders Garcia and Layton engage in a mean game of laser-bubbles

We had a great lunch with the Neira family. They fed us some huge hamburgers. We visited and had a great lunch.  We worked really hard in our section A that afternoon. I don’t know if it was just because it was Christmas Eve or what, but people were really nice and loving that day. It was a nice change of things. We found a lot of new opportunities for investigators. 

Neira Family

We ended the night having a Christmas dinner with the Reyes family. Unfortunately it took the entire 2 hours to prepare the actual dinner, but we ate in something like 7 minutes flat and had to BOOK IT back to the house to be on time. It was still an incredible night though. I love that family. They are some of my best friends. 

Tommy Reyes "El Viejo Pasquero"

Tommy the "gangster hair stylist"

Wednesday. Christmas Day. 

We had a great Christmas. We woke up and opened my gifts that I received. After reviewing all that I got, we started playing some games and having a great morning. It was a great and peaceful morning. Again, we headed to the Reyes family for some lunch. This time we ate relatively quickly and had some fun. After a great Christmas lunch, we went to the Ferreira family and I got to talk with my family. It was an incredible experience seeing my family in my house and getting to see my yard and everything going on in Utah. I will never forget it. 

Elder Haws on Skype for Christmas

After getting to talk to them for a while we headed to Concé to have a huge gathering and activity with all the missionaries. Down in the chapel in Glasnier, there was every food you could imagine, people playing soccer outside, and people playing games inside the gym. 

Elders Layton and Haws

Elder Garcia, "the shoulder angel"

Elder Layton and I went inside the chapel and played some music and entertained ourselves with that. We eventually headed back to Nonguen, and tried to place a Book of Mormon. We didn’t really find anyone that night, but while we were out there was a moment where things went quiet, and Elder Layton and I kind of stood there and looked around for a few seconds. He asked if I could feel that spirit and reverence. I quickly responded yes. It was like the spirit was washing down the streets of Chile. It was an incredibly spiritual moment. The spirit bore witness that Jesus Christ was born, and lived and died to save mankind. We both were overcome by the spirit, and felt deep peace and reverence. It was an amazing experience. 

Thursday and Friday

Were tough. Elder Layton got a really really bad case of the flu after lunch on Thursday. He, for two days, looked like death itself. With permission we had to stay in the casa for two days. I felt SO TRUNKY. I felt homesick, and rung out. It wasn’t the best experience. But I studied  and by Friday I was feeling good again. By Saturday morning Elder Layton arose and finally he was feeling better. 

Saturday and Sunday. 

Saturday was good and we worked hard as usual. We had a great lunch that was kind of just a food eating contest. We had a hamburger fest with the Aburto Rico family. We waddled back to the house after that. We found some more possibilities with investigators, and we ended up feeling content with our work. 

Sunday was a good day. Church was strange though. Nearly no one attended church. Its like everyone in our sector has left for vacations. We went from 132 people attending church last week to this week being 70 if we’re lucky. Despite the strangeness of that we had the monthly visite-ton. It’s like a big visit activity where the members of the ward all gather up and go visit less active families and the people who couldn’t come to church. We went out with our ward mission leader and had some good visits. It ended up being good. 

The week was good, but we lost lots of time. Although we didn’t have as much time to work, I feel like I still learned a ton. My Spanish is getting better every day. At times its still really hard, and I occasionally get flustered, but I know it will come. I have faith that it will in its own time. 

It was a good week of reflection and kind of sorting things out in my mind. I haven’t had time for that in the mission so far. It was good to figure out a plan of attack on my skills, talents, learning, and language. I think that these next few weeks are going to be very productive, and I’m going to learn lots. 

The holidays are fun down here. Christmas isn’t too big for the adults, but its huge for the kids. There were tons of decorations. Now the upcoming start of 2014 is the time where adults are celebrating. I think this New Year should be a good time for the Chileans. 

I think it was Saturday that all the dogs flipped out on us. Every dog we came in contact with went after us and tried to attack. Yes, all of them. They added up pretty quickly. I had fun hurling rocks at all of them. I’m going to have to get some squirt guns to complete my arsenal. It’s strange how Satan works though dogs sometimes to distract us.

I’m excited to work hard this week. To fill our goals, were going to have to secure 2 people with a date to be baptized and get them to church on Sunday. We are going to be working for a miracle this week. 

Sorry guys, there isn’t much to write about this week. As much as this letter is short and only a little detailed, that’s how the week kind of went. Next week should be better.

I’m so grateful for all of you and all that you do. I can’t express even a little part of how grateful I am. I love all of you so much. I feel your thoughts and your prayers. Thank you for all that you do and I hope this New Year is going to be incredible for all of us! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I love you all so much. 

Elder Ethan Haws