Week 63

 "So this is hillarious.  This is one of the stinking dogs that wouldn't go away so we just buried it"

Alright, here we are again! Another week down.

We had a good time this week. There are a lot of adventures so I’ll include just a few.

Dedication of the sector:

So last week we were planning and thinking of things that we could do to improve the sector. We got a little off topic and somehow it led to the idea of something more. I had always wanted to go and do something along the lines of going to a hill in the sector and offering a prayer to plead with Heavenly Father to bless the sector for good that we could see the work progress. I threw out the idea and everyone loved it. We took some time and climbed the biggest hill in the sector. Up there on the hill there are many big trees and a famous tower thing that is now unclimbable due to the earthquake in 2010. We went up there and offered a prayer. It was very spiritual. In a way we asked the Lord that he could dedicate the sector and that we could begin to see miracles. When we got down, from that moment on, we swore that the sector felt a bit different. It was a bit more calm, and fewer people yelling at us.

Soccer tournament:

This Thursday we organized a little soccer tournament between all of the quorums including YM's, Elders Quorum, High priests, and Missionaries.  It was a good tournament. We ended up in 2nd place and Elders winning it all. I’m getting a lot better at soccer, I’m nowhere near good still, but hey there’s progress.

 Elder Haws in a park in Tome on the way to the beach

 The beach in Tome

The Beach:

Today we went to the beach in Tomé. It is beautiful there. We played Soccer, Volleyball, and Ultimate Frisbee. We also had a herd of dogs following us around. The stinking dogs….. They never go away here. Ha, actually we were walking to the beach and they wouldn’t go away so our zone leader, Elder Donoso, Kicked the soccer ball at one of the dog’s and it got mad and started attacking one of the other dogs and soon all of them were in commotion. They are very unintelligent creatures around here. You just had to see it to be funny.  Anyway, we had a good time and messed around for a while. It’s always fun spending the morning at the beach.

"So we ended up making it into a turtle monster thing...."

Famous Drunks:

So maybe some of you remember, in my first sector, Nonguen I was always talking with the famous town drunks. Good old ‘’John Anthony, Nelson, Gato, Guido’’, and others. I hadn’t been in a sector with famous drunks again until now. There are some pretty hilarious guys here. One of them is called, to us, El Viejito Pascuero. That’s what they call Santa Claus here. It’s this old shorter guy who is kind of slouched over with sunken eyes and a ball cap. Elder Stockford always messes with him and tries to turn his hat around every time he sees him.  His classic thing is he gives a jolly and half drunken ‘’Oh Oh!’’ It’s not a deep voice that he has, rather he sounds like a drunken elf. It’s really hilarious. He always says just about the same thing. ‘’Oh oh! Pascuero, me falta poco (stroking his beard). Oh oh!’’ and just rambles on. Sometimes he just swears a bunch and just goes off to his shoe repair shack. The other day we were walking down the street and he was up about two blocks from us and we shouted ‘’Pascuero!’’ He didn’t even turn around but just stood there and lifted his fist up in the air victoriously and walked into his house. Funny stuff.

He is the Gift:

So this new initiative has been incredible. Already, this has been one of the most meaningful Christmas seasons of my entire life. Sharing the true meaning of Christmas has been miraculous. People have been listening to us more and we have seen many hearts almost accept our invitations. We have had a few lessons with just sharing the video and those have been some of the most spiritual lessons that I’ve had here in my mission. People just start to cry when they see the video and cry harder when we talk about the love of our loving Heavenly Father and our Savior. It is a miraculous time to be a missionary and to see hearts opening. The Lord is preparing people to hear this message and it’s incredible. It’s like He and his servants have been chumming the waters for people to notice the gospel.

Our investigators are doing well. We had three of them in church this weekend! WOO HOO!

We weren’t able to visit with Fransisco this week but he is still our main focus. Not much happened other than looking for and finding more people.  We are working well with members and seeing progress through that. We are happy to see that the work is progressing.

That’s about all that I have for now! I hope that all of you are doing well!! I miss you very much and I love you all tons!! I hope that all of you are enjoying the wonderful Christmas season. Can’t wait to be talking to all of you again over skype. We still don’t have many details but I will still keep you updated. Thank you for all you do for me. I love you guys so much. Until next week. Have a fantastic week!

Elder Ethan Haws

 We painted a house this week for service