Elder Danny Haws

Homecoming!!!!

2010-01-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

Danny will be coming home on Tuesday, January 19th at about 9:00 p.m.

He will speak at the Muskrat Springs ward on Sunday, January 24th at 9:00 a.m. The church is located at 5375 S 5900 W in Hooper. This is the new stake center across from the Chambers' house, the same one where Tami and Andy had their wedding receptions. It is not the same building he spoke at when he left.

We are very excited for Danny to come home. Jan spent the day washing sheets and vacuuming carpets and getting Danny's room ready for him to come home. She found a tiny missionary name tag that said "Future Missionary" on it. It's hard to believe that our tiny little Danny has almost completed his mission and is coming home.

Looking back, it seems like his time has gone quickly, although we feel like we haven't seen him in a VERY LONG TIME!!!! It seems like forever ago that we dropped him off for his mission. As we were leaving, we caught a glimpse of Danny and we all waved goodbye for 2 years. He tried to pull out his phone to text us, but he didn't have it. Not being able to text was one of the hardest adjustments for him.

When Danny left, Lila was 3, the twins were 1, and Benson was just 4 months old. Since then, we have had Alex and Molly join our family. Emily and her kids are coming to visit and will be here when Danny gets home. It will be great to finally have almost everyone together again (we will miss Johnny).

It has been such a blessing to have Danny serve a mission. We can tell that he has grown so much, but we hope that he's the same old goofy Danny. We are so excited to see him again!!!

"fecha" means "date".... in case you didn't know

2009-12-14T21:31:00.000-08:00

well, internet is not working today for some reason. I am sorry but this is tyhe only email i am going to be able to send. Please tell everyone sorry for me.

My new companion is elder urbina from Honduras. He is a great kid. Really humble, and i am excited to work with him. We ot to our area wednesday at about 630 and first thing we did was visit a new family. On friday we put a baptismal fecha with them. If you don´t know what a fecha is... sorry.

Well anyway, things are great. I will probably be calling this week, i am guessing sunday to set up the call. it will probably be about 730 at night or a little earlier... we don´t have daylight savings here though. Ok well, i will talk to you soon.

Im almost home
Love ELder Haws

Thanksgiving Picture Overload!

2009-11-30T17:45:00.000-08:00

Ok so this week was Thanksgiving as you well know. Well, we decided to have a dinner as a district. So we tried to find turkey.... The only one we found cost like over fifty bucks... Also none of us know how to cook turkey, and we have no ovens. Ok so we talked and discussed it, and decided between two things.... All you can eat pizza hut (about eight bucks) or some sort of chicken. Well, we decided on the piza hut, and then later found out... they don´t do the "pizza attack" anymore. So we were forced to look for chicken. We planned it out well, and found thirty pieces of chicken for a pretty good deal, and we were still under budget. We found a good deal on mug rootbeer (three liters) so we got a few of those. Then we still had money, so we got some frozen fries and cooked those, and STILL had money, so we made some brownies (borrowed the oven from the church). We divided the chicken between the six of us!!! That's five pieces each. Well, it was definately awesome. We even read a Psalm before we ate, and then we all stood up and said something we are thankful for.
This is the before dinner picture.

This is after feasting.

Well, thanksgiving was great. We didn´t have pie, but I did eat so much brownies and milk that I almost barfed. Ok so last night we were planning p-day and we decided that we wanted to see the sun rise, and also make our day as long as possible. So we woke up at four thirty ish and went up to the top of the mountain to see it. We sat on some old ruins and it was pretty cool.

This is the sun rising.... I think you can see a cruise ship in the background

This is cool...

This is my favorite. That's a trompo... its a top and ALL the kids have them, so we learned to play... now we do it all the time. I have two in my pocket right now!!

Later, we went to see these racing sail boats that just got here from france... http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2009/noviembre/20/deportes2165792.html they were pretty cool. I guess they are like really expensive.

Also, today we had to do our tithing deposit, but the lines at the bank are allways long the 30th through the 7th so we went at about six thirty and waited for the bank to open at eight thirty... We played dominos and everyone laughed at us, but we were second in line... It was kinda like black friday....

Well, now its only 12:40 and we have already had an awesome p-day... We should still do way cool stuff today...

Ok well, I am not trunky, and we have changes on Monday........

WOW time flies!

Love ya´ll

Love, Elder Haws

Generation of missionaries

2009-11-29T20:43:00.001-08:00

Well, these pictures are of two things:
First our celebration of my 22 months and my comps 4 months (it was kinda depressing for him).
Also here is a picture of the "two generation" chicken sandwich. It had chicken patty, cheese, an egg(hence the two generations) and the other normal sandwich stuff. It was delicious.

Forgot one...

2009-11-16T20:44:00.000-08:00

Danny sent me this picture but didn't say what it was... I guess you can use your imagination.

Picture make up

2009-11-16T17:35:00.000-08:00

My fish from last week
our district two weeks ago...
same trip, on the beach!!!(notice the garbage..)
my comp landed on board walk 5 times with my hotel, and he still managed to beat me after playing for three hours!!!

Short

2009-11-09T18:49:00.000-08:00

Well, this week was great yet long yet short I don't know how that works. It’s getting hard not to be trunky. Almost everyone asks me how much time I have left, or at least I feel like it, and I just tell them “I go home next year” which isn't a lie, but a little.

Well, today we went fishing. In all, we caught six fish. I caught three and elder Litchfield caught four. Yes your right, that is seven…. Oops. Well, we spent so much on shrimp to fish with I couldn't figure out why we didn't just eat shrimp, but the guy who took us said we couldn't eat them. In the end, we didn't even come home with fish, because he needed them for his family, but it was fun. After we went to the new burger king they just opened here in Limón. I think the lady was flirting with me a little…. But she must have been at least thirty, and I am a missionary, and Shanna is a lot awesomer!!!!

Well, that’s basically it. Oh. I got to this area with 75 ties, so we had a tie trade in our district. I got rid of like thirty ties, and got about 4 for them. It was a great trade.

Love ya'll (some more than others).

Love, Elder Haws

Pueblo Nuevo in Limón

2009-10-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

Well, i got transfered finally alter 7.5 months in Rio Claro.

(pic in front of sign.) Before changes I was in San Isidro… Heres a cool pic.

(pic with “chicks”) Ok. Well, my new area is called Peublo Nuevo in Limón. Limon is an interesting place, if you Google it I am sure you will understand why.

My comp is Elder Morales from Costa Rica. He is a great kid and I am excited to get a lot of good stuff done here.

Well, I am ready to finish the mission strong. All is well here and I am definitely working hard. Sorry this is short, but so is my time unfortunately. Thanks all for everything!!! Happy Halloween!
Love Elder Haws

Short on time...

2009-10-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

Danny's message this week is a combination of an email he sent to Jan (Mom) as well as to Tami and Nick. It is a little bit strange but Danny didn't have enough time to write something specific for the blog, so you get what you get this week! :)

He wrote the following to Jan:

Well, as always time is short.I guess that kind of has a double meaning huh? I donñt have much time to write, and i dont have much time left in the mission...I would lie if i said i didn{t think every day about going home. I am trying to use that to motivate me. This week was great but long.

On tuesday we left for san jose and weren't back until thusday night. It was a VERY long trip, but a great meeting. President Clarke of the seventy (and the area president) spoke to us. Literally it was two VERY spiritual days. Wednesday was zone confeerence and Thursday was just the zone leader meeting. I got to know him very well. Actually, he asked me for shannas phone num,ber.... I hope he puts in a good word for me...

Well, i believe that my time has almost come to have changes again. Elder Nay and I can't stay together because we go home together... So i a almost possitive i will be transfered next monday. I am sad, but at the same time happy. I am excited to get to my next and last area and work hard every day. As a zone leader there are so many things to worry about that we don't really get to wqork to our full potential. If all goes well, next week i won't be a zone leader anymore. I have had a great time searving in that function, but after a year, i could definatlely use a break.

Well, all is still well here. I am hapy and still doing my best Thanks for those quotes from my class... I don't remember them, but they are good.

Oh yeah, yesterday i was waiting for a bus and i remembered the tiome we were heading to washington and we helped that family whos van rolled on the side of the road. all i remember is that the baby was named corbin... or "cobin" as his slightly older brother said... I wonder how they are. Tell dad i said thanks for being a great example and helping them!!!!Until next time, Love, Elder Haws

Danny wrote the following to Tami to put on the blog:

Here are two pictures. One is me with this super cool family. They are all baptised except for the dad and we taught him a sick lesson in which he basically decided to get baptised. They live in my area but the other missionarries are teaching them... Long story.

He wrote this to Nick:

Well, all is well here. Yesterday was a bummer day for me too. We had four investigetores that were going to get baptised, and they didn't show up... Turns out two went to another church and the other was drinking wine.... Yeah theres a bummer for you. Also it rained SUPER Super hard.

So everyone here has been freaking out about the swine flu.... I kinda thought it was all a big lie.... Who knows maybe its real... Is it true that in utah they chaged everything to HDTV?????? mWeird...

October is here

2009-10-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

Well, this week was very eventfull. It was super awesome, but also very long. As you well know, it was conference week. Thats always a big thing here in the mission. We always want to make sure EVERYBODY goes to the conference. We worked hard all week to invite the people, and even asi thre were hardly any members that showed up. There was actually not one person that came to every session. I must say that i feel like the three nephites “afflicted for the wickedness of the people”. It is hard having heard such great talks and knowing that there were so many people that didn´t even care to come hear the prophets voice. Oh well, i guess now we have to go and and cry them to repentence!!!

Our zone at conference

Saturday in between conference sessions, i went to another wedding. This time Nelberth(look for his baptism post) got married to a return missionarry named merly. Oddly enough, merly is the sister of Didier(didier married Zailin)(another one of my converts) it seems as though all my baptisms are getting married…. I hate going to weddings, because they make me super trunky!! So Sunday after the conferencewe had to get on a buss and go to san josé again. We had zone council. It was cool, and president taught us lots of neat stuff. Well, today(Tuesday) we had our interviews for our zone, so after zone council President and Sister Galvez brought us home. Instead of going over the mountains, we went along the pacific coast. It was AWESOME. We had a great time and a long talk. Just to give you an idea of things we talked about, as we were pulling into rio claro we were talking about the three nephites…..

Well, today(Tuesday) we had awesome interviews with President. During interviews, the zone leaders give a training, and today we trained about the Book of mormon. We realized that we havent been using it as we should, well, we had a great training, and at the end we gave everyone one of the cheap copies and invited them to read it again, but the just look for and highlight a few things in different colors. 1 names and titles of christ after you finish a page, write in the bottom corner how many times it mentions one of his titles.2 faith 3 the atonement 4 repentance 5 baptism 6 gift of the holy ghost 7 endure to the end 8 any mention of the gospel( “this is my gospel”). It turns out, president later told us that we are going to do that as an entire mission. We promised the Elders that they will gain a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon and our Savior. I am way excited to do this, and plan on doing it in the next 3 months.Well, thats all i got for now. I am absolutely in love with missionarry work. It is just awesome. Sometimes i think about goibng home and get scared, but when the times comes “i will go”(1 nephi 3:7) “for behold, it cometh quilcly sayeth the lord, amen” D&C 87:8

Elder Haws

Awesomest week of ALL time!!!

2009-09-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well, things here are GREAT!!!!!! This last week was the most awesomest week of ALL time. If you paid attention last week you will know that i got the greatest news of all time and that Mauricio and his family were getting sealed, I´ll get to that!

But first....A few months ago, we heard a legend of an Indian chief. He said that his Grandfather had told him a story of a white god that came to visit them and that promised to come back. This story had been passed down from generation to generation. Well, supposedly a missionary way back met this guy, and told him about the book of Mormon. He said that if they could get 500 copies of the Book of Mormon that the whole village would be baptised... Great legend eh? Well, now years later we heard this story from the genealogy director of Costa Rica, and we decided to go check it out, seeing how missionaries could never get out there, so we got all ready, loaded as many Book of Mormons as we could, and got on a bus with the missionaries from the area where the Indian village is. We ended up having to pay a taxi to get out there. So once we get there, we looked and asked everyone if they knew Juan Quiros, and NO ONE knew him. We found the oldest man in the village, and he had never even heard of that last name. Well, i guess we wasted some time, but at least we have closure, and we actually taught the old man about the BOM (he already had one).

OK so that was Wednesday....

Thursday we had devisions for a baptismal interview of Treicy.

Friday, we got on a bus headed to San Jose for the sealing on Saturday. We picked up three pineapples on the way, and when we got there we made pineapple smoothies... They were delicious.

OK, so Saturday morning we woke up at five in order to get to the temple in time. We got there, and then Mauricio and his family showed up. The sealing was at 12:30, so we did initiatory work for almost 2 hours while we waited... That in its self was AWESOME!!!

OK so finally it was time for the sealing. We get in there, and guess who decided to seal them...... Did you guess?.... The Temple President President Haws(great great grandson of William Wallace haws... like 3rd cousin once removed and return missionary 52 years ago who served also in Costa Rica)

He had met the family, and Mauricio asked him if we were related. I had met him before and i guess he remembered me cause he said yes, and Mauricio gave him an enormous hug and told him all about his story and conversion and our relationship. Well, President Haws decided to seal them. He said some wonderful words, and as Mormon would put it..."Manny wonderful words he spake which the tongue cannot speak"

Mauricio chose me as a witness, and as i sat there listening to what the President said, i looked into there eyes and remembered all the troubles we had. I remembered ever single step of their conversion and all the wonderful decisions they had made that got them to that point. Then i thought about the future and all of the wonderful things they are going to do as a family FOREVER!!! Literally, words cannot describe how i felt. I now truly understand the meaning of Doctrine and covenants section 18. HOW GREAT IS MY JOY

So Saturday after the sealing we had to book it to the bus stop or we wouldn´t make it for church on Sunday.

We arrived home at about 11 pm and went right to sleep. five hours later, at 4 am, we woke up and went to the church to fill the font for the Baptism seeing how we had Had NO time to fill it earlier. Church was interesting, cause our Branch Pres. didn´t show up. He was sick, so i had to run everything. Our baptism was supposed to be at 8 am before church, but treicy didn´t show up. We sent a member with a CAR TO GO LOOK FOR THEM, AND 15 MINUTES LATER I CALLED HER TO SEE WHAT WAS UP. sHE SAID THAT THEY WEREN´T COMING. i TOLD HER TO GET THEM (OOPS... CAPS LOCK) so she went back, and got them ready and brought them to the church. They arrived at nine thirty in the middle of my talk about the importance of temples, and when we were supposed to have Sunday school (i hadn´t had time to plan the lesson) we baptised Treicy and confirmed her immediately after.

I am not sure if what we did was kosher, but i feel OK about it. in the baptismal photo you will see a mom, and three daughters. The Mom is named Elizabeth, and she should be getting baptised any day now. The oldest daughter is Gabriela. She had been a hard investigator, but she will definitely be baptised with her mom. The next daughter(not pictured) is Daniela. She was baptised about a year ago, and since then we have been fighting with the rest to get them baptised. The Next daughter is Treicy in the Pucca shirt(red) and the youngest is Juliana. She is crazy and she said i was "guapo".

OK so Sunday night after the longest day of my life, we got home tired and did the numbers for the zone. After we were done with the phone calls, the phone rang again. It was Mauricio. He said that on Sunday the counselor to the mission president showed up and interviewed him, called him, and set him apart as the Branch President. I WAS SO EXITED!!

Well, i would say that is a pretty event full week wouldn´t you? Oh also Thursday night i dreamed Emily had her baby... I guess i was a few days late(congests Emily and johnny)

Well, thats that.

The mission is AWESOME!!!!

Love Elder Haws

Peaks and Valleys

2009-09-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

Dear all,
so i still have no idea who amber is marrying... Thats weird, i thought she was getting married in december. Well, tell her good luck getting married.
So all is well here. We can´t help but talk about how little time we have left in the mission, but we are trying as hard as we can to stay animated(excited) we had a really good week this lasyt week in which two girls tols us they want to be baptised. One will be baptised this friday. We normally do it on saturdays, but i got a call last week from mauricio. I don´t know if i told you, but last week in transfers the mission president asked me to stand up, so i did. He said, "(in spanish) Elder Haws, i have good news. Mauricio Odio and his family are getting sealed on the 26th of october and you will be there¨
Well, i was about the most excited anyone has ever been. Mauricio called me the next day, and i was so excited to talk to him. Itr has been about a year since i talked to him. Well, long story short, we will be going to san jose on friday afternoon to be in the sealing on satureday moprning, so we are going to have the baptism on friday morning.
Other than that, all is well. Having lived in this house here for six months, i kindof lost interest in cleaning it. It got a bit messy, and so now that nay got here, we cleaned up A LOT. Good news is the house is clean.
This week elder nay let me read his book called "Peaks and valleys" It is awesome and i would recommend it to anyone that need to be inspired. Well, after reading it, i decided we should go climb a montain, so we went to the nearest one in our area. We knocked doors on the way and then knocked to door at the very top. We found a lot of great people that we are going to visit tomorrow. After reading the book, i have had a desire to do awesome things, so today for pday we decided to follow this river(actually rio claro) up towards the mountain, so we went with our district. It was hard, and a few of the missionarries were acting like laman and lemuel, but elder nay and i just telling them to keep following us. Luckily, then it started raining. Well, we got soaked, but we fiunally got to the road we were looking for. It was very satisfying to explore like that. Anyway, thats about all for now. I am very excited for these next four months. We are working like crazy, and i truly have become the missionarry of my dreams. I look forward to golfing with everyone when i get home, but i am definately not good.
Thanks for all,
Love Elder Haws

2009-09-21T14:37:00.001-07:00

fix

katchup

2009-09-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

I think this is a turkey... it pooped on my hand
This frog was mad cause his house fell down(see next foto)

This tree fell on our cooks house. You may recognize it, because i climbed it once.... Remember when i climbes the tree?

They were lucky and it didn't really hit there house, only barely.

This is a baptism from a few weeks ago... Remember the wedding?

left to right... Elder Martinez, Sarai Mylie July Zailin, Didier Naomi(in his arms), Mosiah Helaman(squatting) Nefi, and elder haws.

Yep, they are all now members.

All is well, all is well!!

2009-08-31T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well, this week was cool. We had a WEDDING and it made me TRUNKY!!!!

a member who is a return missionary an had been inactive for quite some time decided he wanted to come back to church(we may have had a part of that... I don´t really know)
Well, he came back, and brought his.... i guess girlfriend... And their like 20 kids back to church. Well, we found out that they weren´t married, and so we talked about it, and they planned a HUGE wedding.

Here we are in the very back..
Heres the cake... It was good for a tico cake (si un tico lea esto perdoname pero los quuqes no son buenos aqui al menos que Felsy los hace...)
MMMMMM Cake.
While they were taking pictures, they said"family" and took pictures... then they said "elder" i thought who is elder... And then they took pictures with us. They are happily wed, and Saileen and her daughter July will be baptised this week.
In the afternoon before the wedding, we didn´t have lunch cause our cook was cooking for the wedding, so we made lunch(i don´t know whats with the sweater vest....)

Oh, and at the wedding we were singing with these two guys... I think they were a little drunk... You can´t here us sing, cause the guy came in and told us to stop.

Well, thats all form here. All is well!!!!!

Love, Elder Haws

Is anybody out there????

2009-08-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

Does anyone even read this? I am not sure. Oh well, at least i will have a cool electronic journal someday....

Well, this week was great. On last sunday Elder Ramirez went home, so his companion Elder Davis was with us for an "undetermined time". Well, Elder Martinez went on divisions with one of our areas, and left me with Elder Davis. He is from Albequerque New Mexico. Well, luckily, on friday they called and told us he was going to get a companion on saturday. While we were together, i realized how much i have grown as a missionary. Elder Davis worries so much about everything, and thats exactly how i used to be. I used to get som upset if one of our investigators didn´t progress, or if no one wanted to listen to us. What i learned, is that peopl make there own choices, and as long as we present our message the best we can, it isn´t our fault. I didn´t realize that i had learned this until i was with elder Davis. He is a great kid, and will do great things in his mission. I am sure that my Zone leaders thought the same thing about me when i was a youngan, and now look at me.

Well, today we went fishing on the beach with one of Golfitos investigators. Unfortunately, we only caught two fish. The first one was a little guy that martinez caught, but it fell of his hook before he got it in(i don´t really count that) the second, i caught. But, it turns out it was a blow fish, and they are poisonous, so i had to let it go. Needless to say, we are hungry cause we didn´t eat lunch.... Heres a picture that basically explains our day without words....
My feet got sunburned.... But i have had worse
Sorry I didn´t take a picture today of us fishing... But i am sure you can imagine.

Well, that all for now

Love, Elder Haws

Happy mothers day!!! (in costa rica)

2009-08-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

Well, it turns out that mothers day is a diferent day here... I don't know why, but it is. So this week, we had our mothers day activity in the Church.

For some reason we decorated it like valentines day... I don't kno why... But we Played ames, listened to two kids play Marimba, and everyone(except for me and my comp) danced.

This is a picture of a crab that i ate.... Suprisingly it was delicious.

This is a plate of my food... You can se the crabs, and oysters there... I actually like it so much that i am going to tell our cook to from now on only make seafood...

While everyone danced i got to watch Keidan, so i let him play with my nametag...

He is one of the coolest kids i have ever blessed(i have only blessed two but they are both super cool)

The Party was great.

So remeber our new dog Bookie? Well he isn't really ours, but every night when we get home he runs into our house. Anyway, the other day he was eating Elder Martinez' shoes... It was funny.

I think he may have given us fleas.....

Also, today for pday we went to the beach... It was cool, but we just sat there and looked at it... Oh then we threw a cocanut out there and saw who could hit it with a rock.... Yeah...

This is me Elder Ash, and Elder Davis. Oh and you can see elder flores' pants in the background.

Elder Davises companion went home yesterday(he finished the mission) and so for the next month Elder Davis(byu shirt) will be in a trio with my comapanion and I. He is from Albequerque New Mexico. He is cool.

Well, Thats basically all for this week.

Things are still AWESOME and i am not even trunky even though yesterday i hit my 19 month mark....

Peace out,

Elder Haws

Elder "Of my dreams" Haws

2009-08-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Howdy yall. Well, its time for the whole monday comunication with the family.
So this week was pretty cool. Basically we went to San Jos'e for transfers. The transfer meeting was weird, but cool. My comp and i are still together.
So about two weeks ago, we went to visit Guiermo and his family. They were inactive, we reactivated them, and baptised Joseline. Well, when we showed up to their house, i peeked in the window, and what did i see??? THEM READING THE BOOK OF MORMON AS A FAMILY!!!

I know that to most this may seem insignificant, but to me it is like a payday! You have no idea how excited i was!!!

Also, a few weeks ago our neighbor got a new lil puppy. They named him something stupid like poopy, so we decided to change his name. First i started calling him Bufalo cause he kinda slightly looks like a buffalo (He is some sort of bulldog mut mix), and then my comp called him Bookie. I guess he had had a dog named bookie way back when, and well, it stuck. So anyway, bookie is always running around in our yard(because we share a yard with the neighbor) and the other day, he learned to come into our house. Now, when we wake up in the morning and open the door, he is there waiting to come in. We don't mind, and one day i even gave ghim a tie....
Oh cool shoe huh, i bought them for really cheap(ask nick he will tell you all about it)

Actually speaking of my new shoes, we went to the border of panama last week, and i was looking for some new shoes to play soccer, you see the week before we were playing soccer and i fell down about 15 times cause my sambas are all worn out. Well i searched and searched for a good deal, but everyone was just so expensive. Finally after giving up, i found a great deal!!! i got two pairs of shoes for less than half the price that everyone else was charging for just one pair. I forgot to take a picture of them, but here is a cool picture of me wearing them...
Yep, they are hover shoes. Oh also, i got a cool pair of sweat pants for 2 bucks...

Ok now to the important part... Last sunday a guy showed up to church and told us he wanted to be baptised.... Yeah i know thats just something that happens here... Well, we talked to him for about an hour, and this guy allready knew everything. It turns out he had investigated for a long time in sn jose but never felt like getting baptised. Well, we put a baptismal date with him for the next saturday(or last saturday)

And....... WE BAPTISED HIM!!!

This is Nelberth Gutierrez Quiros It turns out he is our branch presidents brother in law....

Well, thats all folks!!
Thanks for everything,
Elder Haws

The Missionary Of My Dreams

2009-08-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

A little bit of Danny's letter to Jan on August 3...

Well, all is well here. Today wont have time to write on my blog, because we are EXTREMELY LATE. We took the wrong bus coming home from playing soccer with the other missionaries, and because of that, we are very very late. Hopefuly you can put a little something on the blog to make up for it.

Well, every time changes are close, i decide all the things i will do better when i get to my next area. This time i had a VERY long list. I kept thinking about some of the things we do, and then ask myself what i would think if the missionaries in our ward did those things. (don´t worry not really really bad things, just small and simple things) Well, i made a mental list of what to do better in my next area. On saturday night they called us to tell us who has changes on the sixth, and (drum rolllllllllllllllll) I dont have changes. Elder Martinez and i will be together for six more weeks. Luckily, this time i was very prepared for whatever came. I absolutely love the people here and so it is easy to stay. Also, my companion and i get along really well, which makes it easy. Six months in rio claro, ¡Que Suerte! Ok so back to my list of things to change.... Well, i layed in my bed unable to sleep, and thought about my list of things to change, and tried to put order to them, but it was so hard to do, that i fell asleep. When i woke up in the morning, i was a knew person. Every thing i did, i thought"would the missionary of my dreams do this?" and if the answere was yes, i did it. If it was no, i didn´t. Well, i have kept doing that, and i feel a lotm better. On sunday, everyone was happy that i am staying. The people herte are great. Well, in my testimony, i told everyone sorry if i haven´t been the missionary of mine and their dreams. I told them from now on if i do anything that they think is not in line with hte missionarry of my dreamsw, please tell me so that i can change it. I decided that i was wrong thinking that i neede a new area to change. I feel like i am truly starting to become the missionary that i have dreamed of since i can remember(and the one shanna has dreamed of:)..)

Well, also on sunday i taught sunday school, as i do every week. It was great. Everyone participated and wel all learned. It was about adversity, based on d+c 121 and 122.It was one of the greatest lessons i have been a part of. Let me say a few words about my sunday school class... It is great. At first it was hard teaching 20 to 30 adults, but after about 3 weeks, i got the hang of it. They are just great. I have seen many of our members grow in the 4.5 months i have been here.

Also, on sunday a member who we found knoking doors came to church for the first time in years. When we found here she was pregnant, and now she had her baby a little more than a month ago. Her daughters name is Allison, and she is one of the cutest babies ever. Well, she brought allison to pe bleesed in church, and guess who the lucky one was that got to bless her.... Me. I would say that the two most powerfull experiences that i have had in my mission are the two baby blessings i have done. As i took this super super cute baby in my arms, i looked down at her, and she looked back. I just looked into her eyes, and i could feel the spirit so strong. I was feeled woth feelings about where she recently came from, and where she will go min her life, and i gave her a blessing accordingly. Isn´t it so great that we have the chance to be part of great thigns like that? I truly feel that now after 18 months i am becoming a faithfull proven tool in the lords hands. I feel like he now knows he can trust me to get the job done. And it only took me 18 months to get there

I know that this church is true, and that i truly am part of a great cause.

Love, Elder Haws

Building schools is hard to do.

2009-07-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

Well, things here are great as always. This week we had our first interviwews and zone conference with president galvez. He is SO SO SO awesome. He truly inspired us by teaching us such Basic principles, but with such sincerity. He is such a personal man. He literally cares for each and every one of us, and you can feel it. He is a bit bigger than president Arbizú, so his hugs are better as well.

After Zone conference we went to San Vito to help The missionaries there do service the next morning. We went on divisions with the missionaries there that night when we got there. Elder Soto is there in San Vito, and he is going home on the 4th on Augost. I went with him on divisions, and we had a great time remembering old times. I am gonna miss him.

Supposedly, the 25th was some sort of world wide service day, so we (in san vito) Helped build a school. It was pretty dang awesome. We got there at 6 am and worked until about 1 in the afternoon. We basically just shoveled rocks and sand into the cement mixer the whole time. I really enjoyed helpin and working so hard. Carrying the bible for 18 months has made my hands all soft, and it was nice to get some callus back.

Thats basically all for this week. I was going to put on some pictures, but it turns out they won´t upload.. What else is new:(

Love Elder Haws

¡¡¡¡¡PURA PIÑA!!!!!

2009-07-20T15:09:00.000-07:00

Well, Here I am, one month older in the mission. I guess I am old now!! Thats right, I officially have 18 months.

To celebrate, I went on divisions in Buenos Aires( I guess it wasn´t really to celebrate, but I just happened to be there)

I got there on monday morning and spent P-day with them. Buenos Aires is the pineapple capital of the world. I have never seen so much pineapple in my life. If you Have ever eaten a Del Monte Pineapple, it was probably grown in buenos aires. Well, sice that all there is there, we decided to go see some pineapple for our p-day. So we went Hunting

Elder Felipe, me and Elder Howell in the Piña(aka pieapple)

After a while of looking, we found a nice ripe one, and elder howell almost picked it....

But then we saw the other side... Rotten...
Finally, we found a slightly ripe one. It may look green because it was. But after a week on top of the fridge, it was ready to be turned into a nice piña Shake (that is the ugliest tie ever and for some reason it keeps showing up on my blog...)
Besides me turning 18 months, elder felipe was also completing years, so we got him a cake and icecream. Elder Felipe just got hear exactly 2 weeks ago.

We didn´t have candels, so we used matches instead
I was in buenos aires until friday morning, and then i came home.

Today for pday, we went to a waterfall......
and then played with some birds...
They are so cool. I think i will try to bring one home.

Well, thats all for me.

Love, Elder Haws

Yo Yo

2009-07-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

Well, this week was great and or crazy. Monday afternoon we went BACK to San Jose to meet the new president. He is AMAZING, but I will talk more about him later.
We arrived back in rio claro at 10 30 pm on Tuesday, and then Wednesday I went on divisions to Golfito until Thursdays morning. Friday, we had a baptism, and that’s what the rest of my email will be about.
After Keidans baby blessing, we found out that his mom Sharell never got put in the records of the church. After zaa long time on thephone with the service center, they told us to just baptize her again…
So, Friday, we baptized her!!!!

After, we had cake………

Tatiana got frosting on my face…….

So I got her back.

The mission is still awesome. I love being here on the mish. Our Zone worked harder this week than in the history of the world, and now this new week we are going to work even harder.

That’s All Folks,
Love Elder Haws

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

2009-07-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well, this week a miracle happened. You see, my zone is in the south of the contry. We are like the exiled missionaries. It takes about 8 hours to get to the capital. About every three to six months, the mission allows the zones to go to the temple, but, zona sur NEVER gets to go.
This week our district was going to the temple. Our district president mentioned to me that they had a lot of room on the bus, and had allready paid sothey couldn´t get a smaller one. He asked if we would be able to go(the whole zone)
Well, me being the amazing zone leader i am,(also with the whole change of mish president) got us permission to go!!!
We left friday night at 10 pm and arrived at the temple the $th of july at 4:30 AM.
We imediately started doing baptisms. I had the opportunity to confirm from 5 am until 7 am when i went through the first session. While in the session, i saw a familiar face. It was Brother Quesada from san Miguel. We ate lunch with them avery single sunday. I was so happy to see him, and he even remembered my name. He came and wispered "the aguilars are getting sealed today."
The Aguilars are an awesome family that we ALWAYS tried to get to go to the temple. They are one of my FAVORITE families in my whole mission. So, i got to see there family, as well as the bishop from san miguel. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! They had to wait a while for their sealing, so me, the father, and the bishop went and helped with confirmations for another almost 2 hourd. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!
Then, as if that wasn´t enough of a surprise, as i was FINALLY leaving, in the waiting room i found Walter and Janorie and their family. They are My family from Don Bosco. They were at the temple buying stuff for their sealing IN A MONTH!!!!
I would have to say that the fourth was the most gratifieng day i have had in my whole mission. I Felt such joy to see all these people doing such important things. I actually feel now, that i maybe have done something in my mission.

Heres a patriotical picture of the temple(i like the three missionaries in the background..)
This is my delicious grilled ham and cheese sandwich i made with some of the free cheese sister arbizu gave us a few months ago(the cheese doesn´t expire)
MMMMMMM!!!!!
Heres a little something special from those of us awericans at the temple. Enjoy and remember that we AREN¨T pros, and we actually didn´t even practice.

Thats me, elder Howell, and Elder Gordon

Happy fourth of July everybody!!!!

Love, Elder Haws

¡¡¡Adios Amigo!!!

2009-06-29T18:16:00.000-07:00

Well, the time has come. President arbizú is endiong his mission this week.(tomorrow actually)

On thursday we went to transfers, and it was basically a farewell to the Arbizús. It was great to say good bye to them and listen to their final words for us.
President Arbizú is the man, and i am going to miss him. I know that President Galvez will be awesome as well.This is a random picture i took.

Well, i know this is short, but this is all i got. I LOVE this work. We are doing awesome things.

Thanks for your support
Love, Elder Haws

LOOOOOOONG WEEK!!

2009-06-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

Well, lets get started.

First, this week we had interviews with President aArbizú. It was pretty awesome. We gave a training on wednesday about how to protect baptismal dates. It was pretty good. Next, on thursdya we had a great training by the APs. i learned a lot in the few days we were together.
Next, we visited Tatianas family. I took a picture of Kaden(the baby i blessed)

Unfortunately, my companion got sick, so we had to stay in the house friday ALL DAY!!!
(he slept with two fans)
While in the house all day, i got hungry, and so i took all of the stuff in the fridge and made this meal... It had like veggies and stuff... It was actually pretty good.Luckily, my companion was well enough to walk, so we went to our fathers day activity. It was fun, and this was the best part...

(theres supposed to be a video here of all the fathers with balloons tied to their feet trying to pop the rest of the baloons....Just imagine it)

So thats all for last week, then, today we had an awesome pday.
My comp still isn´t feeling well, so we stayed home until lunch, then while at our cooks house, i decided to make orange juice, so i went to get oranges....
Once i found them, i decided to make sure they tasted good......They SURE did:)!!! Kylie helped me!!!(she is our cooks daughter and my best friend)(don´t worry shanna, she is only 3) And so diod Negra(the dog)Heres kylie... She is so cool!Well, thats all for today. I am still the best missionarry ever, and i am still SUPER SUPER Happy. Yesterday we found out that i don´t have changes on thursday!!!

Love ya´ll
Love, Elder Haws

2009-06-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

Well, Here I am again. I decided to start with me doing my cool move from last week..

So this week was pretty normal. I decided to take a few pictures of my area. This is a sign that says Rio Claro. in the background you can see a bunch of palms... You see, here in Rio Claro, there are about a cagillion palms. They harvest the fruits and make palm oil,

Here i am in the path that leads to a big neighborhood. People tell us there are lots of snakes in the Palms, but i haven´t seen one yet. Actually i always look for them
Heres my comp and i on this neat jungle trail.
This is Rio Claro. If you understand the meaning of rio claro you, like i, will be surprised to see that it is really dirty...
It turns out the bridge was built by the United states.... GO US!(That could be U.S. or us, but i don´t really know which one i meant.)
The mission is still super awesome. As of tomorrow i have 17 months in the mish. I definately can´t believe how fast it is going by. It is crazy. Well, thats all for now. I sure love this work.
Love Elder Haws

Hey!!! Look what I learned!!!

2009-06-08T17:18:00.000-07:00

Well, here i am still in costa rica. So to give you a quick lil run through of my highlights for this week, here i go! First, we wokred really hard... Ok fast forward to sunday. So on sunday we had three babies that we blesssed. I got to bless this lil guy named Kaden. He is a super cute lil baby. He is the nephew of Tatiana, the lil girl we baptised a few weeks ago. Its really cool when we can help a family come back to the church like that!!! Well, while i was giving him the blessing, i felt the spirit so strong!!! It was incredible. I would almost say that it is one of the coolest things i have done in my mission. So there is sunday!!! Next, today, the mission had a HUGE mission activity where Everyone went!!! When i say everyone, i mean everyone except for our zone. It turns out its just too far away and they didn´t want us to waste a whole two days(with travel) Actually when i found out that we wouldn´t be able to go to the activity, President told my companion and i that we could go as representatives of our zone. We decided, that instead we would just have an activity that was better than theres, so we did. So today we played soccer on a cool field, and then we watched the Count of Monte Cristo.

So in order to do the activity, four missionaries had to stay over at our house last night. While we were there,elder Hooper (pronounced the dumb way) started doin handstands and stuff, so i learned to do a handstand. Also, he tought me to do this lil trick. This is me learning, but later i finaly got it. Unfortunately i didn´t record me finally doing it, so i will just have to show you in 7 months!

Ok, well, thats about all ive got. I forgot to take cool pictures this week, but i will be on it next week. Love you all!,
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Love, Elder Haws

A day late....

2009-06-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

Well, as you may have noticed, I am a day late today. It turns out on sunday night we had to go to san jopse for a meeting with all the zone leaders. It took us 7.5 hours to get there like always. We had the meeting on monday morning, and at 3 after the meeting we got back on a bus and came home... Yep, we got home at 10:30 so we had no time to do internet, and now here we are on tuesday doing it quick.

This week was great. To start to week out, I went to Golfito on divisiones. I was there for three days. Highlights of that are, I found this cool soda.. Like a restaurant... And took a picture.

Also, while in golfito, we found a gecko. Elder Ramirez was playing with it, and then it died... Kinda sad, well he set it on the desk, and when we came back at night, this is what we found....
The ants here are really amazing. They eat everything, and they eat it fast. One time they ate my pez and I was FURIOUS!!!!

Next, on saturday, we did service with out cook. We put up these three huge columns, and then filled them with cement. It was hard work. in this pic you can see me filling it with cement. It may not look high, but thats because I am standing on a huge stack of cinderblocks... I know that plad shorts don´t really go with rubber boots, but oh well, live with it...

After, I had to lift the topper of the pillar up and put it on there. It was super hard, and i had to use all my strength three times before i got on. I didn´t think anyone would see the top, so i put my name on all three of the pillars:)

Here i am playing with the little bit of left over cement we used.... Yep, i am quite the artist...

On sunday, the teacher for sunday school didnt show up, so I had to teach the lesson( to the adults) luckily it was about the plan of salvation, so it was east to teach... Here is a picture of the diagram I drew on the board... Part of me thinks Bob Bodily would be proud, but then I realize my drawing is crazy and takes the Urrim and Thummum to read. I promise that while I was explaining it, it made sense!!!!

Finally, here´s a video of what I did on the long bus ride... You can´t hear my sound effects, but they are great..

Well, thats all for now. Things here are great. Me and my comp are working as hard as ever. We have a lot of baptisms coming up real soon. (I always say that)

Thanks for your support!!
I am HAPPY!!!!

Love Always, Elder Haws

UM..... Well.....

2009-05-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

Well, here i am once again. Reporting in from costa rica. This week went by pretty awesomely. As ya´ll know i am now with Elder Martinez. He´s cool, and we decided to start our time out well with a BAPTISM!!!!!!! Yep thats right, saturday we baptised An 11 year old girl named Tatiana. When i say we baptised her, what i mean is that her family suddenly decided to come back to church.... First her grandpa Hernan came back, and we called him to be the second counselor in the branch... Next thing you know He brings his daughter and her three kids to church. So, we (hernan) baptised the daucçghter, and we are now working on sending her nineteen year old brother on a mission. I would be lying if i said we aren´t working super hard. Things are great here. The zone is working harder everyday, and we have two(possibly three) baptirms planned for this next week. I sure do love being here!!!!
You may notice my beautiful tie in this picture. Every time we went to visit her i would ask her whose tie was better, mine or my companions... Three times she said my companions, so i decided that for her baptism i was going to whip out the special teams, so, i opened up my special zip-lock bag and pulled out a silk tie(not pictured in the picture from a few weeks ago) i wore it to the baptism, and as soon as we got home, put it right back in the bag. When i got here, i found out that silk ties don´t hold up well in the whole humidity heat rain thing.... Anyway, thats about all i have for now. Thanks ya´ll for the support. You are awesome.
Love, Elder Haws

Ps. shanna... You know:)

ITS ME ELDER HAWS!!!!

2009-05-18T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well, it turns out it is really hard to upload things here, so sorry about that. I am trying, but i just don´´t have time.... IT TAKES SO LONG. Well, this week, we had transfers and i am now comps with Elder Martinez from Choluteca, Honduras. He has a few mopre months in the mish than i do. He is a great missionary. Remember elder nay from the mtc? elder martinez was his trainer here in the mission. He is a Really hard worker and really animated( i mean excited....) I am teaching him really well how to be a zone leader!!! Our zone has really low numbers, and now we are starting to get better and better. I am really excited to be with him.
Also Elder Soto got trasfered to our zone, so now i will get to see him while he finishes the mission.
This week we have been finding lots of new investigators and we put 3 baptyism dates. They should all come through for us.
Today for pday, we went to our branch presidents little ranch in the misddle of the jungle. We hicked forever, but it was worth it. this is about the coolest waterfall i have ever seen!!! so heres a good video.

Well, i will be sure to keep you updated on all the miracles that will happen this change. Yours always,
Elder Haws

PS. Happy Birthday Brady, Johnny And Nick. Also...

Hi Shanna:)
this is a picture of me afew weeks ago in front of an aligator infested pool..... it was cool.

Mothers day!

2009-05-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

Well, it was mothers day! it was great, i talked to my family, and thats about it.... Here are somepictures of my week. well they took a long time to put on so heres one.

Love Elder Haws

Yep...

2009-05-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

Well, this week was crazy. We went to san jose to a missionary training via satelite with elder cook. It was great. We learned a lot. Also this week Chunk got married. Congrats chunk!!! While everyone was at the reception in decided it was time to organize my ties.... So i touhgt i would share with you. This doesn't include the silk ones that i have stored in a ziplock bag so the rain doesn't kill them.
Thats basically my week. We spent a lot of time traveling to san jose and didn't really get much time to be missionarries... Yep, thats all i got.... Sorry if it isn't cool, i will try really hard to be cool next week....

Oh also, today we had no plans, so i made the goal to climb a tree... Unfortunately it started raining before i found a good tree to climb... Sorry

Love Elder Haws

YEAH!!!

2009-04-27T16:37:00.000-07:00

Well, this week went fast. I went to Buenos aires on divisions to do 3 baptismal interviews. We worked so hard that when we got home i was "dominated by the spirit" and i just passed out on the bed asleep at 850(we got home early). Next, on saturday we had the baptism of Joseline. She is the daughter of a recently reactivated brother from the ward. She is nine years old.

Also, i noticed that the fire extinguisher in our shurch is overcharged....
This is a picture that some lady took of us... I think she was trying to not have the door in the picture..... Oh well its just a once in a life time picture.... Casey, photo shop it!
Later, we found a giant bug....
I also took a pictuer almost eating it... But it was gross so i spared you all the grossness....

Well, thats about it for this week. Everything is going great. We are working hard, adn ready for changes!!!!

I love you all who read this, and if love is innapropriat... I like you.....

Peace, love Elder Haws

Ps. beware of pigflu!

Return of the cool p days

2009-04-20T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well, nothing GREAT has happened on the missionarry side of things, but we had a good pday....
We went to a cave!!!!! It was AWESOME!!!!

Also I swung form a vine!!! It was AWESOME!!!!
In the cave there were lots of bats... It was AWESOME!!!!
For bhold these are the waters of mormon........ Yeah this place was awesome!!!!!!

Heres a good look at the watrs of mormon... IT WAS AWESOME!!!

Also this week we helped a sister in the ward dig a grave fr hr friend. That wasn't awesome. It was sad, and i don't feel like i should write about it....

Well., that is our week.
This saturday we are having a baptism. It will be AWESOME
Love Elder HAWSOME

2009-04-13T15:54:00.000-07:00

Ok Heres my week in a quick nutshell. Fist i went on divisions to san vito, and while ther i ate bananas....

Next on friday(pday was changed due to semana santa) We went to the top of a mountain where i saw the ocean...... Unfortuanetely i was playing with my camara so you will have to imagine these two pictrures together....
This is what i looked like hiking through the jungle..... (brady you will recognize my shirt....i found it here for like 3 dollars...)
This is when i saw monkeys while we were hiking

Heres the view from the very very top of the montain....
Heres a spider that we found at the very top of that mountain...
This is a choza at the very tippy top of the mountain. If you look hard you can see a light bulb there covered in a plastic bottle... I thought that was neat.

Mom i thought you would like this....Also this week i taught my comp how to yo yo....... YEAH he is good at it.

(all of the last stuff was from last pday... Friday, now we are to this pday... today)

Today we went to Paso Canoas... On the border of panama to do some shopping., so i figured i might as well get a picture by the sign....

Well, thats all. I am still working hard and all that good stuff. Still love you all, and all that stuff too,
Love, Elder Haws

"Total eclipse of the area"

2009-04-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

i

Well, as is well know, Last sunday night, i got word that i was getting transfered. Sad, but it happens so monday thru wednseday i spent saying godbye to my peeps in don bosco and packing up all my stuff.

First, i said by to Yancy and Niemer. Niemer is basically the coolest, so i gave him a ctr ring and told him it gave him super powers....

Next i said by to Hilda(she is the niece of Raquel) she is basically the coolest ever and i also gave her a ctr ring.

Saying by to people really builds up your appetite, so next we decided to eat lunch at mcdonalds..If the bag fits, put it on your head
Later, while packing i needed to disassemble my starwars legos that i got for my birthday so rather than doing it the normal way, i had an extreme battle!!Now we finally get to transfers... So i was excited and nervous and scared and all those things. Sad to lose elder soto, but happy to know new people. And suddenly with all those feelings i get trasfered with....... DRUM ROLL>>>>>>><><><><><<><><>

ELDER APAZA!!! you may remember him from my post of almost exactly a year ago when we went to that cool waterfall... Yes thats right, we were in the same district when i started the mish. He is from Peru (Comps from mexico 2 comps from peru 2) More about him to come...

My new area is called Rio Claro In the zona sur(south zone) We are the Zone leaders and also we are councelors in the branch presidency....... This is one of the Hottest areas in the mission!!!!!! and it is 8 hours from san jose. (more to come)

So friday President arbizu planned a little zone leader get away to Volcano irazu.

Heres me and Elder Apaza in front of the sign.

President Arbizu with a pole we used to play aztec football....
as you can see in this photo, it was quite foggy....

this is a pic f he volcano( or my shirt, i cant really remember)
It was so foggy that we didnt even get to see the volcano
We may not have been able see the volcano, but we didnt let that ruin our day. We made paper airplanes(me siting in a nest looking thingy....) And then played football and soccer and Aztec football....
Here is a picture of all of us zone leaders.
You may notice that some of us look a little sun burned.....We left the volcano and headed to san jose. Once we got there we had to head out to m new area. As a said ... 8 hour bus... We got on the bus at six and got home finally at 1 am. Turns out we came so late that there was no traffic and so we got here in 7 hours... So i went to sleep at 1:30, and then we had to wake up in the morning to go to conference.
When i woke up this is what i looked like...

We were in confrence(very good one by the way) all day saturday and sunday, and then sunday after conference we had to organize a choir for our district conference, so it wasnt until this morning that i finally got to see my area in daytime. THIS AREA IS AMAZING!!!!!!

This is what i looked like this morning after peeling of all my skin in the shower...

Well, thats basically my week Oh one more thing..... Since i got to this area i have been a little worried about shoes. Mine are wearing out and this area gets pretty rainy. Well, this morning i was looking in the pile of old stuff that missionaries leave in the house, and i found a pare of danner goretex boot. They were dusty, but once i cleaned them up and looked at them i realized they were still basically new. I tried them on, and they fit me perfectly. Mom, don;t worry about sending me shoes... Its true that the lord helps those he calls... (ps, google danner boots and you will get n idea of why i am so happy to find them)

I am really excited to be here in a new area and ready to work super hard. Normaly when they send someone to the zona sur no one hears from him for about 6 months... So i guess i will be here for a while.

Its hot, but i am happy. I love you all. Take care and keep praying that i can find cool things....
Love Elder Haws

Farewell Don Bosco

2009-03-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

Well, i got the call last night, and i am getting transfered on thursday. I guess i am a little bummed. This past week, i was on divisions for EVER with elder shoemaker. He is super cool, and we had a great time. I am going to miss elder soto, but i am ready for a new area, and i feel i completed my work here in don bosco.
Oh, also this past week, we made sloppy joes with a recent convert family( the same one we made tacos with) and they were delicios, but not quite like the ones my mom makes.

Well, i appologize that this week is short and without photos, but i just didnt have anything to take pics of. I promise this week i will take a bunch.

Anyway, sure love you all
Thanks for all you do.
Love, Elder Haws

Normal week......

2009-03-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

Well, when i say normal week what i mean is... Nothing happened. At least nothing worth taking pics of, but heres a few random ones i took just to have something to send you.

This is me putting on my tie for tami´s birthday(also saint pattys day) I didn´t realize until about 10 30 at night that it was saint pats day, so i hurried and put on this tie i have been saving for this special day. Then i pinched my companion... He got mad.... And we went to bed.....

Today we had to get a package for my companion out of customs.... It was full of mexican candy.... Actually i feel a little sick because of all the candy....

Next, i have been working on solving a rubix cube. I am getting pretty good... Hopefully by the next week i will have beat the world record or something... I will be sure to let you know....

also, i ran out of toothpaste today..... Yeah i was pretty desperate for pictures...

Well, thats all. We found out this week that our best investigator can´t be baptised becasue of a serious problem in her life.... I was super bummed. I talked to her today for about 20 minutes and she was extremely depressed. She is moving tonight, so we will probably never see her again...... Yep thats basically all thats happening in the work here. Our zone is working really really hard and we are still the best. So the second of april we have changes... There is a good chance i will be changed, which kinda sucks. Soto is like one of my best friends of all time. We get along SUPER well. I think thats how you know its time for getting transfered. Next week at this time i will know if i am getting transfered. Also, this week i am going to another area in our zone to help and old missionarry realize that he can still change his lazy ways and work hard his last few months. I will be there all week. So my last week in this area i will be on divisiones.... Oh well at least i wont have to keep eating nasty mexican candy
Love you all
Keep on rocking!
Elder Haws

Update

2009-03-16T15:25:00.001-07:00

Well, do to losing my camera for a week, i haven{t put on lots of pics, but luckily now i have a lot to put on now... So lets start...

This is sister Ana Guzman bringing us the paint to paint her wall( see last weeks post)

This is me taping of the wall.. If you can{t tell i am sitting on a four inch ledge.... And i am above a stairwell... (nice shoes...)
Here I am getting the top corner.....

This is me ona 2by4 painting(still over stairwell) Me an Elder Soto(viva mexico) painting the wall a lighter shade of blue...

Yeah... you get it.... I am still on the wood plank...

Good work elder soto

This is me putting in a lightbulb so you can see the true beauty at night.

Finish shot... Neat huh.

This is Sister Guzman talking on the phone to her two daughters that are in Holland..... Yep, long story...

(ps. Future wife, i really like the way she has her house painted half blue and half rust.... Keep that in mind for when we have a house)

A few of my favorite people in in

We had a jump rope competition, but seeing as how the jump rope was super small i had to pull my legs up high to jump and it was hard...

This is our baptism from last week.... Raquel YEAH

Me the night before making sure the baptism clothes would fit...

Me and Soto in Pollo Campero. We are both kinda sick. He has a cold, and i feel like i have mono..... I swear i haven´t kissed anyone in 14 months!! Oh ps today i have 14 months in the mish.

Elder Stevens and I playing legos....

Well, thats our week. Still working hard!!! I am super happy, and as alwaysi absolutely love being here!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM YESTERDAY AND TAMI TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!

Love, Elder Haws

2009-03-09T14:17:00.001-07:00

blog problem....

Howdy ya´ll

2009-03-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Well, this week was great. First we made tacos for family night with a recent convert family!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!! and my mexi comp did a really good job. Heres some picks...

MMMM ¡QUE RICO!

Other than that, this week was normal. When i say normal what i mean to say is that we had to do three baptismal interviews... Cross a nasty poo filled river guided by a bum in order to save about 20 minutes on a bus... I got sick one day but then better... My comp is super cool.... Painted an extremely awesome inactive ladys house(actually now she is just less active cause she came to church on sunday for the first time in years) Talked to lots of bums.... Got my camera stolen but then recovered it.... Learned a big lesson about forgiveness....Oh yeah... And we had a baptism..... Well, because my camera was stolen when we painted the house and durring the baptism i dont have pics of all that, but my comp still had his so i will put some on next week. So yeah, i think you get the point right.... Yep, still a happy missionarry :)

Love Ya everyone(except for those i don´t know, but im sure i would at least like you....)
Love, Elder Haws

Ps. don´t worry, i got my camera back.

Yo Yo

2009-03-02T12:40:00.000-08:00

Hey all.
Its me, Elder Haws. Well, this week was good. We had the visit of elder Falabella (as i mentioned last week) It was AMAZINGLY AWESOME!!!!
We had some really great experiences and learned a lot. It really help us with our faith, and now we are seeing miricles.
Just going to share a quick experience and then i am out!!

This week we were in La Carpio. Its supposedly really dangerous. It is just like the place that they show on the comerciales when they sell kids "for a small donation of 32 cents you can be the proud owner of this poor little kid"

Literally, i have looked for cameras always when we are there, because i guarantee they have filmed those here at least once.... Well, long storry short, we were bummed cause no one wanted us, and we decided that we were going to finish our day there and then not go back. So we went to our last appointment with a family we reactivated. We shared a message, and were about to pray when my companion turned to there non member sister in law that we taught a long time ago. He asked if she had been reading the book of mormon and she said yes. He asked if she had prayed and she said yes. She only said yes, but not really very convincingly so i told her that it was inportant thats she read and pray so she could find out that the church is true. She responded by saying that she knew it was true..... I asked..... What about baptism..... And she said she wanted to be baptised. So she will be baptised this next sunday morning.

Sometimes i think God makes things hard just to see how willing we are to try and perservere. I am glad that we perserveered and that we were able to feel the promptings of the spirit to find out how prepared she really was

I know this church is the church of Christ. I recieve a stronger testimony of that everyday!!!

I am so happy to be here working super hard

Love, Elder Haws

ps. I didnt have any good pictures this week, so the picture i put on is of me with a baloon named juan carlmalone....

Well... I got nothin...

2009-02-23T15:05:00.000-08:00

Well, seeing how today we did what we always did, and i forgot to take pictures, heres is a brief resumen of what happened(i think resumen is spanish, but i dont know how to say that in english so... You get it) This is me dunking over someone else with my rocket shoes.... Well, yeah... Something like that happened..... Yeah...

Well, this week has been great. We had changes and now we have basically a completely new zone. We were worried at first because we lost all of our best missionarries, and got a lot of young guys, but things are turning out great with all our new elders. This week Elder Falabella Of the area presidency will come to visit our mission. I am excited because we as zone leaders get to be in a meeting with just him, the down side is he will probably chop our heads off.... Well, we will be pretty busy with all that. I realized now that we have such a young zone that i am getting old.... I feel like time is flying by. Well, i guess i just need to work super hard....LIKE ALWAYS

Love yall
Love, Elder Haws

Its gonna be a big one!!!

2009-02-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

Howdy yall.
I have decided that to celebrate presidents day i will post lots of pictures(also cause i only recieved two e mails so i have none i need to write)

Here are lots of pics from the last couple weeks......

This is me looking at angel moroni at the temple... "Oh if i could preach with the voice of an Angel...."

This is just a little glamor shot of me in front of the temple.... I was thinking about the future i think..... Yep..... Good ol´ future :)

This is me posing in front of the temple.... There were other normal pics, but i like this model type pic the best...

Heres a picture of moroni... If you look close you will notice that he is missing his trumpet.... It fell out during the earthquake.... No worries, they are planing on puting it back soon...( i use a lot of periods.... Sorry about that...)

This is Me elder workman and a kid named kyle playing starwars.... Yep, im still a kid...

Next, we see a beautiful picture of the heavens.... I thought this was beautiful...

Next we see me preaching off of a bridge... What you cant see is all the people below listening to me....... Ok it was just a garbage filled river....

This is a smurf house i found on divisions with elder workman... You get the full effect with the special features of my camera....

here we have another shot of the heavens.....

I don´t know what i was going for here, but it turned out really nice. you can really see the concern in my face...(also if you zoom in real close you can see my man whiskers.... I am 20 now you know...)

Here is me working on Shanna´s valentines present...(shan if you didn´t get that yet stop looking)

Yep... More
Its Elder Haws...
This is us today at another mexican restarant in our area... It was pretty good i guess....

Yesterday we found out about changes... In our zone 7 out of nine areas have changes. We are loosing all of our senior comps except for two..... Basically we are doing so well, that they want to spread that success across the mission or at least thats what it appears. We will have a fresh new zone in a few days. Oh... I don´t have changes so i will be here with elder Soto for at least another six weeks:)

I turned 13 months old today... It seems like only yesterday i was turning one year... I guess it really does go by fast.

Anyway, i would say more words, but i put lots of pics, and they say something about pictures saying words and stuff.... Yeah, you get it...

Thanks all for reading this. You are so great

Love Yáll
Love, Elder Haws

Ps tami just e mailed me... SO she gets a special plug... YEAH TAMI ok thats all

Peace

Punishment!!!

2009-02-09T15:52:00.000-08:00

Well, seeing how no one decided to email me except my mom(thanks for the e mail mom) i am punishing anyone that may be reading this but that didn´t gother to send anything. I am not going to tell you what happend this week.....

Ok i am not rude... Here you go.

So we have been doing something called the Habit in our zone. Basically we work really hard and form good habits. A lot more to it, but i dont feel like explaining..... So our zone is offically working really hard, and we are the best.

Well, it turns out that in the zone we have a tournament every three months against the zone of la paz (my first zone in the mission) We play sports, and the winner gets the... "halham mitchler cup" The four zone leaders who started it were Halgren and Burngham = halham Mitchell and Cutler = mitchler... Get it?

Well, we decided to mix it with the habit and place it as the ending part. Also, last wednesday we went to the temple as a reward for our hard work. Long story short, we dominated the cup, and are now the 2 time defending champs!!! Heres some pics of the zone in our shirts... MEtalica style!

Heres a shot of me with my bling... I am super gangsta now..... Werd!!!!

My Gangsta code name was "white chocolate".... Yeah... Im white #21... because the rest were takin... And cause its a special day;) Heres a shot of Elder Benitez with his shirt... You can see the front view really well so... Yeah....
This is me and my sick comp Elder Soto At the temple!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!

Well, thats all. I have to get back to saving the world now! Love Ya´ll

Love, Elder Haws

2009-02-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

Address...

2009-02-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

Well, i have always recieved letters just fine, but i was told the other day that the adress is actually in San José, not in Zapote.... So now all letters should be sent to....

Elder Daniel Ronald Haws
Misión Costa Rica San José
Apartado Postal 249-2010
San José, Costa Rica

I don´t th8ink it really matters, but just so you know

BAPTISM!!!

2009-02-02T13:06:00.000-08:00

Well, this week was CRAZY. We had five baptisms in our zone, and i had to do 3 of the baptismal interviews, therfore, i was on divisiones from tuesday until friday morning. I was with Elder Workman(went to weber high school) And we had a great time. I was with him for his birthday, so we bought a cake and made steak and potatoes. It was really good and or delicious.

Next, on friday night we had a meeting with the stake president and the mission president. It was really neat getting to sit on the same side of the table as the most powerful man in this contry. President Arbizú is truly an inspired man. ç

Saturday and sunday we were super busy getting things ready for zone council which we had today. Its a meeting with all of the Zone leaders, the Ap´s and the president. Also, sunday morning we had a baptism!!!! Of Ana Yancy. She is pretty cool! And was super happy to get baptised. It was a fight getting her to this point, but after our ward mission leader Humberto - 20 - baptised her, she was immediately smiling.

So zone council went really well today. It turns out are zone is THE BESt. We have been blessed to be so succesfull. Our zone is almost all city, and so it is harder, but we are teaching more, and baptising more than the rest... Oh well, we are still trying to beat the whole pride thing.....

Well, unfortunately this stupid computer doesn´t have USB2.0 and i forgot my card reader, so i cant put on any pictures today.... Sorry, maybe next time.... I have some good ones you know..

Thanks yall,(whoever you are)
Love, Elder Haws
Ps. WE GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE ON WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!

Nothing new....

2009-01-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

Well, this week was by far not as interesting as last week, but i figure since i did so well last week this week can be short. It sufices me to say that we are working hard, my companion is AWESOME and i am SUPER happy. I actually feel like i might know what i am doing now.....

Here are a few photos.... The first is my ingrown toe

nailIt looks a lot worse than it really is. I used my knife and got it out real good, then i put some rubbin alcohol on it(just like in boyscouts) and it dun even hert no maur.

On a related topic, we went to a really good mexican restaurante today so my comp could ave a real taco for the first time in a while.... It was delicious...(not sure what this has to do with ingrown toenails...)

The random taco bell rapper was from another missionary... We ate REAL mexican food.....

Well, thats all. I am working so hard i cançt believe it.

Love Ya´ll

Love Elder Haws

2009-01-19T13:06:00.000-08:00

Well, this week was LONG!!

First, tuesday was my birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
To celebrate we went looking for a cake... It turns out they are really expensive, so instead we bought Pingüinos (cupcakes) and that was my birthday cake.. Alsdo we spent the money we saved on cake by buying icecream, hersheys syrup, and chocolate flavored whipped cream.... The one in the picture is the one we gave to the guy wo works at our hotel at nights, his name his Jorge and hopefully now he will get baptised..... Mine was a lot bigger, and after about three bites we realized it was way to chocolatey and we put it in the freezer.
For my birthday i bought myself some ties form a "thrift store?" and also a pair of under armour tear away pants. All in all i spent about 8 dollars...

Wednesday was interviews with president Arbizu, and we had to teach the capacitation about charity and how it applies to the other attributes of christ. We did an activity where we threw water baloons that were "attributes of christ" and the missionaries had to catch them with their "towels of charity" if they recieved an attribute they could"share" it back at us(me and my comp throwing them) It was really fun and we all got wet. I am not sure if we really learned anything.... After that we went on divisions with some elders so we could do some baptismal interviews. I was with elder Hansen who was with me in the MTC and it was pretty fun.

Thursday we met back up from divisions and i rode a bus for one hour to go out to get my comp, we got of for 5 minutes, and then got back on the same hour bus back to our area. After that we went straight to another bus to go do a baptismal interview for another area. It sucked, but lukily we had 5 baptisms this week in our Zone!!!

Friday i completed one year in the mission. It wasn´t anything amazing, but at our lunch appointment with our stake president they had bought me a cake for my year mark. It was nice and i was happy. (the frosting tastes like vinagre but i still appreciate it and have almost ate it all)

Saturday we worked normal, and sunday too.

Today, Monday, we played touch football with our Zone, and then went to eat at one of the 5 Mcdonalds that we have in our area.... It was fun.Well, thats about all that happened this week. Sorry so much, but now you know how i feel. I love this mission. It is the best in the world. My companion is awesome and hillarios. We basically laugh 42 percent of the time. He says "thats what she said" to almost everything LOL.
I am super happy to be here. I am just trying to get all prepped for this next year. If it goes as fast as the last one, i will be home Before i realize. Thanks all for your support.
ALWAYS REMEMBER TO STAY ACTIVE IN THE CHURCH SO THE MISSIONARIES DON´T HAVE TO SPEND SO MUCH TIME TRYING TO REACTIVATE YOU!!!

Love you all, and thanks for everything, Love,
Elder Haws

Earthquake....

2009-01-12T12:13:00.000-08:00

Well, i guess we had an earthquake on thursday.... On wednesday we also had one, but a really small one. We were actually starting our transfers meeting and it happened during the prayer... That one was small, on thursday, the big one hit. We were at our lunch appointment, and it was pretty strong, but not really that bad. It didn´t really hit that strong in san jose, mostly in other parts. There are a few people/ missionaries without water, but no one was hurt.

(sometimes we don´t have water even when there aren´t earthquakes...)

It was kinda neat i guess. Oh so yeah also i got a new companion. His name is Elder Soto and he is from Mexico City. He is one of the best in da mission so i am pretty happy. We just started a program in our zone called "the Habit" basically its is to make us work harder. We started last week and it is working really well. Our zone is working hard and we should hopefully all baptise this month. Well, i am happy. This work is pretty dang awesome. The people have remembered that there is a God this week, so now they actually are letting us in... Its great!

Love yall, thanks for your support
Love, Elder Haws

Ps. Happy birthday Elder Haws and also one year in the mission!!! You are the best!

Chao
E Haws

HAPPY NEWYEAR!!!

2009-01-05T12:36:00.000-08:00

Howdy Yáll, its me, elder haws...

Well, new years was super cool. You see, it turns out that they love fireworks here, so at midnight..... FIREWORKS EVERYWHERE!!!!! They were still going when we went to bed late at 12:30(two hours late....) We had sparkling cider, and that was about it. New years day, we played sports with our whole zone for quite some time, and then watched Kung foo Panda. It was pretty good i guess.

Well, we knew it would happen, my companion is getting transfered on wednesday:( Every time you get a good one, they take ´em away. I am gonna miss him, not gonna lie. He has taught me a lot and we have grown quite close in these short short weeks. It feels like only yesterday we got put together. Oh well, maybe my next comp will be cool too.

Today we went to a waterfall, and it was super fun, i didn´t take my camera though... SO maybe i can get some from someone and put them on next week, or you can just google "waterfall" and pretend i am there.

We are all excited for this new year. It is my "dark year" which means i will be here all the year, and i guess i am excited. in 11 days i will have a year in the mission... It doesn´t feel like its half way over, but maybe something will change in a week and a half.

I love you all. Thank you for all the support! I know that you all pray for me, and i feel it a lot. I try to pray for you all too, but unfortunately you only earn a prayer for commenting on my blog, or sending me some sort of correspondence.

2009 Is going to be great!

Love, Elder Daniel R. Haws

Goodbye Frank :(

2008-12-29T09:28:00.001-08:00

Well listen to a story about a man named Richard Frank King, A rich deaf man trying to establish handicapped sports centers around the world. He was walking through the park just looki´n for sumtin to do, when up from the street came Two Angels. Elders That is........ Well the next thing you know we started talking.... Or writing i guess, and we learned a lot about him. He is from california and has come to church for 5 weeks straight. But, it came to an end because, he is going to Chile tomorrow, and then Japan after that.... This is a picture with us before he left church his last week. Hopefully all goes well with him.

Also, this week was christmas. I had a great time talking to my fam, and also our zone went caroling....You may notice a lack of elder haws in this photo, thats because i somehow got selected to be the choir director, and photographer...

This is me with my Christmas stuff.... on christmas eve... for some reason everything decided to be penguin themed this year.... It was neat :) I even had a penguin at home...

Shanna and I also talked.... It was fun

(Ps. Shan cute Scarf/everything:) you look as good as you sounded)

Well, thats all

Merry Christmas and a happy new year from Costa Rica

Love, Elder Haws

Merry Christmas

2008-12-22T10:06:00.000-08:00

Santa clause comes tonight...

2008-12-15T14:40:00.001-08:00

Well, as zone leaders our job is to animate the whole zone anfd make sure they do a good job(basically thats it in a nutshell.....) And so the other day this is what we did to "animate" them. Basically we prank called them and played christmas songs. I am not really sure why we danced.... But later we showed them the video at district meeting so it was worth it.... Try not to pay attention to my dirty desk in the background.. I actually cleaned it yesterday. Also, you can kindof tell that our pants were really dirty.... thats because we had a competition to see who could wear pants the longest..... We tied and gave up yesterday with really dirty pants that i had worn since thanksgiving... Missionaries are weird...

......Video missing......

>Anyway, its all good here. there are a lot of parties in San Jose for christmas, and every oncein a while we walk in on one... The other day we saw the girl that got second place in "latin american idol" in a live concert.... Her name is maria jose castillo.... Google her or something.... Well, thats all. Love you all fam.(and the rest)(and shanna too:) Keep up the good work
Love, Elder Haws

Howdy ya´ll

2008-12-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

Hello......

This is elder Haws. Heres what happened this week.

First, we got to go to the sealing of one of his converts... At the temple.... It was neat.

this is my comp elder halgren.... He is really cool.

This is me at the temple with the nativity....

Next in importance, we bought a cristmas tree and lights.... Now we are festive. >TOday we will get christmas ties and then we are planing on taking christmas card photos... Also there is a mask thing in this pic that a member in my old ward gave me.... He is dressed as santa... We where those hats to contact in down town san jose... Actually i am wearing it now...(sorry no picture)

also this week we went to a store called pricemart(basically it is like samsclub or cosco... We bought lots of food, and this is a breakfast we made. Thats a mango smoothie in the bowl, but it was real thick.... Also featuring pankakes eggs and bacon... MMMMM

This is what we look like when we get ready to leave.... You can see the hotel we live in just a little.

Well, thats my week. Things are a lot different than they were in my old area, but i love it. We are so busy it is CRAZY
Thanks all for all you do. I cant believe its already christmas..... Weird

Love, Elder Daniel R. Haws

Hey!

2008-12-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

Well, today i realized it is december...... Weird..... On thanksgiving we had transfers and so we woke up early and headed to get a bus to san jose, but..... THE ROAD WAS CLOSED due to rain. So, we went the long way. We were on a bus forever and got to san jose just as everyone was leaving the meeting. A few of my peeps from the mtc came up and were all happy and stuff and saying congrats.... I was confused. We went a little farther and an Elder Named Elder Halgren came up and said... So your elder Haws... I was confused, cause he is a zone leader....... Well, it turns out, i am now a zone leader. I was really surprised and so was everyone else..... My area is called Don Bosco, but basically it is just all of down town san jose and the ghetto and everything. Our zone is called la sabana and it is the biggest in the mission. I am really excited to be here. My comp is really cool. We go out to contact, and there are like a billion people so it is super easy, but they arent from our area. I think i will learn to love it here. We live in a hotel that is owned by memberes, and i already am making plans of comming back with my wife our something and staying here. At the rate everyone is getting engaged at home........... I could be here tomorrow... Anyway, i am really excited for this opportunity to help out this zone. I am trying to do the best i can. I love this work, and although i am now somewhere else, its all the same.
Love Elder Haws

Good week..... Last in Guapiles : (

2008-11-24T15:30:00.000-08:00

Well, this week was kinda crappy because it has rained almost constantly for more than a week. Our numbers have been low, because no one wants to listen to us, but we have made the best of it. Saturday night we visited a member family and their house was flooded, so we bucketed them out until almost ten.

This morning we got the call, i am getting transfered out of Guapiles. I figure its time now that Elder Kamiya and I have baptised almost every week this change.... Yeah thats write, we had another baptism this week, of two little girls. We have been teaching a lady named Luz Marina for as long as i have been here. Its sad, because she can´t get baptised because her husband wont marry her....(happens a lot here) Well, her daughter has a testimony as well(melissa-9 years old) So we baptised her and her aunt(marinas sister-stephanie-12) It was a great service, and to make things better, we found a lizard while we were getting ready.... so we played with it....
It was only a little tikley but kinda neat. Thanks all, for the love and support. Adios, for the last time from Guapiles
Love, Elder Haws

Baptism!!!!!

2008-11-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

Well, we did it! We baptised a really old lady... 82 years old to be ecact. How wonderful it was!!

Generina Araya Gonzales - 82 years old

Gena has a problem in her hands, so she could hardly hold on to elder Kamiya durring her baptism, let alone plug her nose, but, none theless, the baptism went fine and she didn´t even almost drown. As she was walking out of the water, she looked up at the heavens and said" oh Holy Spirit!!!" She is a super sweet lady and i feel so great to have had the oportunity to bring her something she hasn´t been able to find for 82 years.

Today for p-day we rented an artificial turf soccer field( just like where we played on 12th street) and had some crazy six on six soccer. Luckily, right as we staarted to play, it started to rain, (it is outdoors) but we played anyway, and it was super super fun. Yes thats right, i am sure you sense a diffence in this and the last post... Its because toay we played a sport i am good at, or at least one i dont suck at.

Well, this week a doctor is coming from Guatemala an we are going to have a health confrence in san Jose, so here i go for the 3r time to san jose this month. Also, on tuesday he is coming here to check our apartment.... Needless to say, we cleaned this morning. Ok, well, its basically thanksgiving, and while all yall are eating turkey i will be at transfers seeing where in the world i will go next... Happy Turkey Day!!!!

Love you everyone,( especially you...... Thats right you know who you are...)
Sorry this week was so long:(

Love, Elder D. Ronald Haws

Nothing great :(

2008-11-10T12:37:00.001-08:00

Well, here i am. This week we had to come to san jose again for interviews and then tomorrow we have zone conference. It is intersting because we are sleeping in the mission home and the are some 30 missionaries here. today has been an intersesting p day in san jose once agian. We played basketball, and i am still not good at all. Everyone kindof kept getting mad at me, so i decided that from now on i will stick with watching. This is the reason i have never gotten good at bascçketball, i have never been good, and then people get mad at me, which makes me not want to play anymore.... Oh well that doesn´t really have anything to do with being a missionarry. This week has been both amazing, and at the same time not so amazing. About 5 of the seven days were just amazingly good, but the there are the two that weren´t good, oh well, at least we are getting bette. The 27th is changes, and i am almost surely getting changed. I am just about ready to go to a new place and meet new people. Who knows what will happen. I have no idea who could be my next comp. Once i thought that, and then i got a kid that was new, then i thought it again, and got someone with more time than me, but i am senior comp. Now i have no idea what will happen. Oh well, only The Boss knows. Well, anyway, we have a baptism this saturday of an 82 year old woman.... Hopefuylly she doesn´t drown.... Other than that, everything is going great here. I am really happy. I know sometimes i don´t sound happy in e mails, but that just because I dont really like e mailing very much. Anyway, i am still learning everday. Thanks for all the love from hooper, next thing you know i will be there again, so heçurry and enjoy the time without me.
Love, Elder Haws

Email November 4th, 2008

2008-11-05T20:41:00.001-08:00

So Danny I hope you don't mind if I post the email that you sent to mom, but I thought it was kinda fun so I'm going to post it.
Love ya!

Well, here i am. Today we had to take a 3 hour bus to san jose for a district leader traning. We just barely got back, and have to be out to work in 10 minutes. Because of this, this will be short. Please send it to all so they know i am alive. This week has been interesting. On friday we had to move houses because of problems in our old house, so now we live in a little apartment that is about the size of our old bedroom. It is behind the bishops house, and he isn´t too hjappy, but oh well. So i hadn´t even realized it was halloween until 8 30 when we saw 4 little kids dressed up in costumes. It was funny, and that was my halloween. So all is well here, we are happy and working hard. I promise that next week i will make up for the lack this week. I love you all, some more than others, and in different ways, but i am sure that whoever you are, i love you. Thanks for all you do.
Ps mom, i didnt call you the other day, maybe just a coincedence..... Anyway, love you
Love, Elder Haws

2008-10-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

Well, first, in light of me not being there for the family pumpkin carving, here is my pumpkin.... Sorry, its not very good......

Its supposed to be a missionary..... i forgot the tag.... CRAP, well imagine there is a name tag there, i accidently cut it out and couldn´t get it back in with a toothpick......

Second matter of buisness, BAPTISM

On saturday, we babtised Miriam de la Trinidad Del Socorro Chaverri Flores( also the other elders, elder Lee and elder keddington baptised a guy named manuel)

Yes it was hard remembering her name for the baptism. Miriams story is really incredible, and i would love to share it with you sometime. Ask me about it, and i will be sure to tell you.

Thanks for all, Love Elder Haws

Flooding?

2008-10-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

So i heard there was some flooding in Costa Rica...... I am not sure, if its true, but yesterday it rained realy really hard and the stream behind our house turned into a crazy river. Its normaly just a litle stream that cars can cross, but as you can see here, the river was coming down the road as well. This probaly doesn't have anything to do with the flooding, besides that they both involve lots of water.

You might recognize this stream from the realeasing of the turtle we found......

After, we went to a less active families house for their daughters birthday party, she had a cake

and even had a crown....(it said happy new year)

She just turned eight and will be baptised on saturday with one of our investigators named Miriam. She might be crazy, Miriam not the kid, but she read the whole book of mormon and so we are baptising her. Last but not least, i took a cool picture of these flowers by our house....Everything is going well, and I am excited to get out my white clothes again. Love you all,

Love,

Elder Haws

Well, this week was normal....

2008-10-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

Normail week. Worked, had a little fight, and next thing you know............ We found a turtle. It was realy big and my comp loved it. Then, qwe took it to a nearby river and let it free. Other than that, all was normal. We have a lot of people that should be getting baptised this month...

Love yall, Elder Haws

Aloha from costa rica!!!

2008-10-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well, this week has been interesting. General conference was here, so we enjoyed it. Saturday, there were more missionaries in the chapel than there were members. It was amazing and i learned a lot. Sunday, the first session was completely full. We went to get investigators(we brought 8) and got there late, and our investigators were the very last ones to fit. I found a little closet in the very back of the church by the stage, so i sat on the stairs in there.

It wasn´t a very good view, but i was there.

Then the afternoon session was almost empty. The members here are all about doing the least that they have to do. In between sessions, we went to lunch with our cook. I made a fish out of my rice,
and then found a mask and turned into a super hero.
after, i gave a blessing to my lamanite friend Elias who is going into surgery this week to get a piece of cartelage removed from his eyebrow.

Earlier this week we made empenadas....

They were really good....

But i got really really full....

When we got home it started raining really hard....

Then i sang master the tempest is raging, and it stopped.

Well, thats about all that happened. We have some really good investigators right now that are almost sure baptisms. I am really happy and i sure just love this work!(and letters hint hint)

Well, love ya´ll. I have to go "save the world"(quote from lila) now

Love, Elder Haws

No cool pictures....

2008-09-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

Well, here in my new zone we never do anything cool.... We just play basketball and stuff like that. I am learning to dunk it... Anyaway, i was looking through old pictures and i found this one... It is a dead mbody right in front of my house in my first area... I will try to be more interesting...
Love, Elder Haws

Bananas

2008-09-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

Well, this week went about narmal. Actually it was the best numbers wise of my mission. It was pretty cool. We have been doing pretty good. So the highlights of this week is that we found a lady who is a memeber and her husband isn´t. He is super prepared and definately going to get baptised. But the best part is that they gave us 50 bananas. Um they were delicious(cool vidios maybe in the future). And they only made me miss Shanna Banana a little. So the next cool thing is that i bought a hammock. Its really neat and comfy, but it says panama on it.... Oh well. There is a picturwe of me with it set on the soccer goal while the other elders play basket ball. So yeah. We have a lot of really cool people that are progressing and will be baptised. I feel all my hard work opn the brink of paying off. I like being a missionarry;)
Thanks for all you do,
Love, Elder Haws

DUN DUN DUN!

2008-09-22T14:03:00.001-07:00

Dun Dun Dun(with intense theme music)

2008-09-22T13:48:00.003-07:00

Well, everyday here in guapiles, we have to cross this airport. Its neat and all. Elder Kamiya took this photo and i really liked it... So yeah here it is.

Wow... Long time...

2008-09-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

Well, since last time i blogged, i did have transfers. I recieved an elder named Elder Clark and i was potty training him. Now, 4 days ago, i had changes again. So here i am still in guapiles, but with an elder named Elder Kamiya. He is from Hawaii, but is really short. Everyone thinks he is chinese. We are doing a really good job and we are teaching a lot of people. I love this work and its still hot here
Love, Elder Haws

Danny's Email Home 7/20/08

2008-07-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

Hey,
I think i pobably am getting transfered on thursday so i will try hard to make the most of my last 3 days here. Yesterday we went to mauricios)one of my converts) house and lately they have had a lot of money problems. The other day their microwave stopped working. Well, yesterday we went there and they were all in the kitchen. Mauricio was almost to the point of crying. I asked what was wrong and he said the stove stoped working. He had ben trying to fix it and couldn´t. I told him to let me have a look. I started fiddling with the wires and then told them to try it, but it didn´t work. Then i told them i was going to pray. I said a simple little prayer, opened my eyes and looked directly at a connection. It was kindof corroded so i cleaned it a little. I then said, ok now try it. Mauricio said no its not going to work. I said, Have faith and try it. He flipped the breaker, and then started getting all excited and saying ITS WORKING ITS WORKING. They were all shocked and surprised, but i knew it would work. Sometimes the Lord is just waiting to help us, all we have to do is ask. It was a great experience. They are a famill i will truly miss, but hopefully i have left them with a strong faith in Christ.
This is the true church! This is the work of the Lord. This is where i need to be right now.

Love,
Elder D. Ronald Haws

In da Zone

2008-07-21T15:23:00.001-07:00

This is our zone at our last District meeting before changes. The one with the lightest blue tie is my zone leader elder glenn. He goes home tomorrow:( Also the one in the second to lightest blue tie is elder Jimenez. He leaves too.

2008-07-21T15:21:00.001-07:00

Drummer Boy

2008-07-15T22:18:00.001-07:00

I just found these random pictures of Danny drumming, so I thought I would post them because he says that he misses drumming...

Taken July 3, 2005... 3 years ago!!!

And here's when Danny was in the newspaper for drumming...

And here is Danny sleeping...

ENJOY!

I gots nothin

2008-07-14T19:50:00.000-07:00

well, i dont have a lot to say or a lot of time so i am just going to put on this cool picture of myself.... I call it "Oh San Miguel" This is my whole area and then some.
Adios
Elder Haws

¿Where is your faith?

2008-07-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

The other day we argued for about 40 minutes about how he wouldn´t wash our dishes. I asked him why and he said that he never will. He said that his dad tought him that that is not something that men do. He said they always had a servant to clean and everything. I tried and tried to explain to hi how he was being rediculous and should just do it, but finally gave up. As a punnisment from God 40 percent(or something like that) of costa rica lost water for 4 days. At that point, no one was washing dishes. Three days into the drought(saturday) we went to the chapel and people had reached through the fence with a hose, hooked it on to our spicket and began stealing water. It turns out their is a big water tank underground there. I called our bishop and he told me to shut of the breaker for the pump. There were a couple of memebers being extremely rude to the people and telling me to just shut it off, but we gave water to the people that were there and no one else. Later we were at our house and talking and i realized that we had done wrong. Here we are preaching of Charity, but then we turn around and selfishly keep our water in a city dying of thirst. After awhile, we decided that we needed to go back and share our water. I called the bishop and meerly said,"i am calling to ask your permission to share our water" he said, if you think that is a good idea than you can. We got to our church at about 2 o clock and began giving away water. There were a few members helping us, but they just kept saying, we are going to run out of water. and we arent going to have water for tomorrow. I would just respond by saying "i have faith don´t you?" at about 5 thirty we went to take some water to these old ladies, and when we got back there was no more water. The only mistake i had made in the whole day was leaving the spicket to people with little or no faith. The next day all of our ward had water except for the neighborhood where our chapel is. In church there were more than a few members that were a little upset with me for giving away the water, but i know that we did a very good service. I know that we did a very good service to a people in need, as well as teaching a very valuable lesson to our members. I still love being here. The time is flying by. The 16th of july i will hit my six month mark, and it feels more like 6 weeks. Thanks everyone for your love, support, and prayers.
Love,
Elder Haws

We're so proud of you!

2008-07-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

Danny, I don't know if it is okay for me to post on your own blog for you to read, but I wanted to just tell you how much I love you and look up to you. I know you are in the right place and that you are doing the right things. I hope you know how proud we all are of you! Keep up all your hard work! Miss you kiddo!

Love Ya!
Love, Tam & Nick

SORRY THIS IS SHORT

2008-06-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Today we went to a really cool rock and i took some really good photos, but i have to go to the bathroom really really really bad so i will have to write about it next week. SORRY
Love,
Elder Haws

2008-06-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we had transfers on thursday and i was sure i was getting a gringo. I actually got a little sad cause i started liking my latino, then, at transfers i got another latino.... His name is Elder Garcia and he is from sinaloa mexico. With elder chamaya he always spoke very formal very good spanish(he is from peru) and now with garcia he just talks a lot of sland and really non proper spanish. Yesterday i saw two people and asked what they were doing and he said they were "chupando la piña" brady i am sure you will get that and maybe some others too. I laughed really hard because i remembered that brady used to say that and now i finally understand where he got it from. The way i figure it my next companion is going to be from dominican republic... I am still really happy. My new mexican is really cool. He is very happy and very nice, but he walks slow... I think we will have a really good time together and a lot of success. Oh also, i had another baptism on satuyrday. His name is pedro aburto. He is from nicaragua and has only lived here for two weeks. He has investigated the church for a year and a half but couldn´t get baptised because he had a wife and was living with someone else. The day he left nicaragua his divorce was finalized. basically we called presidente with his situation and he said he needed to come to church twice and we could baptise him. So i baptised him. It was neat. Sometimes you sow sometimes you reap. Thats about all.... Sure love you and thanks for all you do.

Love, Elder Haws

This is me and Chamaya leaving from a cool ghetto house on his last day...

This Is a neat service activity that we had where we assembled wheelchairs...

These are all the wheelchairs we assembled... It was a lot more fun to test them than to build them.. There were 150.. This is a picture of me after i traded this kid watches.
This is me and my new comp Elder Garcia

This is me and our bishop..... He is cuban.

Heres a little glamour shot of me before the basptism;)

Me elder garcia and pedro!

What did i do today?

2008-06-09T16:03:00.001-07:00

Well, today was a good day. We mostly just chilled, but i have a story. We went to san jose today cause i decided to buy a cool knife. I found one thats real cool and so i bought it. It was only like 5 bucks and really cool. So then we were walking around in our area and theres this guy. His name is Adonai and he is pretty cool. We found him like my second day here and he was really drunk. We got him to stop drinking and now he is our buddy. Anyway, today we were talking to him and i showed him my new knife. He was like.... I want that knife. He offered me like 2 buck for it and i said no way. He had this necklace that is really cool, so i said, i will give you my nife for your necklace... He said ok, and we traded. This necklace is an eagle carved into a baboons tooth and its really cool. Mauricio told me that it is really expensive. Adonai had asked me eairlier for something to remember me and i said i would look. He said when i found something he wanted he would give me the necklace for it. That is the story of how i got my cool necklace from a guy in costa rica with one leg. Oh i forgot to mention he only has one leg.... Yeah he is cool. That is all.
Also, i still love being a missionarry. We have a baptism on saturday and it should be pretty cool. ADIOS
Love, Elder Haws

Elder Brothers

2008-05-28T19:09:00.001-07:00

(This post is by Emily)

Danny sent me this picture. It's my two missionary brothers! Johnny's brother Blake is in Honduras. They were in the MTC at the same time and lived on the same floor so they got to see each other all the time.

Well...... I got nothin..

2008-05-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

I don´t have anything interesting to say, only that it rains a lot now. It has rained everyday for about 2 weeks. Its kinda fun, i am surprised at some of these houses that they can withstand the rain. There are a lot of houses that are not quite as sturdy as kamp kaboom. I actually feel right at home in a lot of them. We were exploring the other day and we found a tree house, but it was really a house. I would send pictures, but if i takr my camera around in my area it will probably get stolen. Its kindof a bummer that i cant take lots of pictures. I have thought a couple of times here that my friends and i could make a living just building ghetto huts here. Anyway, thats about all. I am having a good memorial day all alone. Its my first memorial day ever that i havent seen another american. Adios until next week
Elder Haws

Thinking

2008-05-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

We didn´t do anything cool this week so i am just going to share some thoughts i just had. As i was reading my e mails today, i read one from my mother. She said that fremonts graduation was today, witch means i have been graduated for a year. Also, she said braxton left last week and gave me the adress to his blog. As i was looking at it i realized that we(my friends and i) are all grown up. I looked at the pictures of braxtons fiesta and missed the good old times. It seems like yesterday that we graduated and now we are all practically on missions. Oh how time flies. I am so gratefull that i have always had such great friends, and even though they probably don´t even read this, thanks friends. Thats really all, Love
Elder Haws

BAPTISM!!!

2008-05-12T15:25:00.001-07:00

Sorry that i am posting twice today, but i had a lot of stuff happen this week.....

This week we finally got to baptise this super cool family. My very first costa rican that i met was our taxi driver after transfers. The whole way to our area he and my companion were talking. I didnt understand anything and every once in a while they would stop talking. Thats when i realized they were asking me questions. I did understand one and that was when he aske me if i liked to drink coffee... Basically it was weird and really uncomfortable. That very same day after i unpacked we went to this neighborhood and stated talking to people. We saw a little kid on his bike and he rode over to us. My comp started talking to him and i didnt understand much. Then we went with him to his house. When we knoked on the door, i was a little lost. Then, Mauricio answered the door. He was the taxi driver. We went in and taught them the first lesson. Apperantely he was allready an investigator and they had taught him before i came. Durring our lesson he drank 3 beers and smoked about 5 cigarettes, but it was apparent on our second visit that he had a very strong testimony of jopseph smith.... To make a long story short, after 2 months of struggling to quit smoking and a lot of other weird stuff (including but not limited to cool dreams, scary dreams, and a possesed evagelical lady) they were baptised on the 10th of may 2008. The next day they were confirmed and mauricio recieved the priesthood. It has been a wonderfull experience watching them grow and become converted. I have no doubt in my mind that this is the true church. While Elder Chamaya was baptising emilia mauricio said to me " THIS is a true baptism" I don´t doubt that he will go on to be a great leader in the church, and as soon as pedro(the kid on the bike) turns 8, He will get to be baptised by his father. I love this work. It gets better everyday.

Elder Chamaya and I (I baptised two, and he baptised two)

This Is the family. Left Side is elder Chamaya, then Mauricio, Emilia, Danna, And me. In the front is Pedro, and Fabiola.Me with my first Tico(costa rican)This is about the coolest picture ever...This is me about to baptise fabiola. First i baptised Danna, then Fabiola, then Elder Chamaya baptised Emilia, followed by Mauricio.I really have clothes on still, but i just couldnt resist. You know me......

Overall, it was a great service. Thanks everyone for all your prayers that made this possible. I love you all
Love, Elder Haws

A little story

2008-05-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a little story!!!

I woke up the other morning and looked like this....so i decided to cut my hair...

It was really hard at first and didnt work so well...

But then it started to get fun.

I think i did an especially good job on the back.

Then i rememberd nick also cut his hair and that he also took glamore shots.

So i took some glamore shots too.This one didn´t quite turn out how i wanted it... I was going for Something more attractive...

All in all, it was a good experience and i save about two dollars, but $2 once a month for 24 months is $48 dollars, so i guess i am going to come out on top in the end. Maybe i will even buy my own hair clipper machine...

WHAT THE

2008-05-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

I was just looking at emily´s blog and in one of the pictures i saw my lunch box on the counter....
This can only mean one of two things.
Either mom stopped cleaning and let the house go when i left, or you have replaced me. I just hope Its not carl thats using it...

Nothing Super

2008-05-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

Nothing super just a note to say I am still allive.
Everything is super awesome here. We havent had a cool p-day for a while... Today we had to go to san jose cause my comp needs glasses. Weirdly enough my comp in the mtc needed glasses too while he was my comp.... Maybe i have super powers or something... Maybe the reason my vision is so good is because i steal vision from others....... SHANNA WEARS GLASSES TOOOO!!!!!!

Anyway, i am still loving being a missionarry. I am excited to call on mothers day, but i still don´t know when i will call... I guess thats all i have to say. Love you all and thanks for all you do. Thanks for the prayers. I really feel them(especially when i have cow stomache for lunch)

So long and thanks for all the fish

Love, Elder Haws

¿Apostasy?

2008-04-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

I cant figure out how to turn this but i am sure natalie can... This is a stained glass window in a huge catholic church we visited. Its the baptism of Jesus. It looks pretty correct to me.......

This is what we call apostasy!!

2008-04-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

Ok so we were practicing teaching the first lesson the other day to a pillow named pedro. He has clothes and a book of mormon. I thought it was funny so i set up my camera to record it.... Then this happened.

You can kindof see what our apartment looks like... Anyway, todo bien aqui!!

Adios, elder HaWS

Rando..

2008-04-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

This is a big spider that lives in our house
This is my cool watch that i bought so that when it gets stollen in my ghetto area i wont be sad

It only cost 4000 colones which is about 8 dollars.. Yeah i have had it for a week and one oif the buttons fell out... Its cool i guess..

Does anyone even look at this...........

2008-04-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

These are my shoes after a normal day here in costa rica

I figured i would try and be all dramatic like emily always is...
This is my district at the mtc. They were all pretty cool i guess......
Yeah i am cool i think...
This isn´t over done....

Costa rica is still the best mission in the world.. I still love it here and i am actually not sick for once:)
This is about the most amazing place in the world. Things are awesome here. Conference was amazing and we actuall had like 8 investigators come. This week we had divisions with one of the Assistants te the president. it was great and we got a lot done.
All is well and thanks for the support!

THIS CHURCH IS TRUE!!!
Love, Elder Haws

Story

2008-03-31T16:41:00.000-07:00

So yesterday i was feeling pretty dumpy. I ate some pigs feet the night before and i think that was the problem(mom i am just fine now don´t worry) So yeah at church i was misserable. A lady came up to me and was talking to me. My head hurt so i didn´t really understand all that she said, but later, my comp said" we just met your first baptism" i didn´t really understand what he meant, but later the lady came over again and said that her eight year old son wanted to be baptised and he wants me to baptise him... That will make a bad day better... So yeah i think we are going to teach him tonight.
Costa rica is amazing. The people here are so poor, but they are so happy. They are so humble! Anyway, I love this work! I love this place and am excited for the rest of my mission.
Love, Elder Haws

¡Qué bonita!

2008-03-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

So what do six missionaries in paradise do on their p-day??

They find a waterfall of course!! Six of us(me, my comp.-elder chamaya(de peru), our district leader-elder westergard and his comp-elder apaza(de peru), and the zone leaders elder glenn and elder binks. It was pretty cool. I guess thats what happens when you are in the best mission in the world....

Ok so this is one a three awesome waterfalls we found.
this is another
Cool eh? Its sideways, but i can´t figure out how to turn it...

Maybe someone else can...

¿¿¿Mission, or vacation???
This is me in the back of some random truck on the way to the trail. We only had to pay the guy 3000 colones(that like six bucks)

2008-03-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

practice4

2008-03-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

This is basically costa rica
This is the coffee field behind our house. It doubles as a dump(just below this picture is

our little river)

Click this and it gets big. Everything you can see is my area.

This is just a random view from our apartment

2008-03-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

This is the view from my house!

I would post more, but Costa Rican internet is SUPER slow...

Yep i am still sitting here waiting for this to upload......

Its been like 15 minutes allready lol.

Yo tango paciencia, pero PORQUE!!!

Ok so now it has been about an hour that i am waiting and i need to go baptise some people...

Ok i got impatient cause i was wasting time waiting. COSTA RICA ROCKS. I will upload pics on monday

More Pictures

2008-03-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

Farewell Pictures

2008-03-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

I just got a memory card from Danny with a TON of pictures and videos. So I will try to post a few here and there to get us by until we get another memory card. Please keep checking the blog and keep making comments!

Danny and his friends

Danny and his female friends Dan and Shan

Danny's Email February 7th

2008-02-07T15:22:00.001-08:00

Well it has been another week at the MtC. Everyone says the weeks are like days and the days are like weeks, it is so true. Today has been SOOO long and tedios. We have an average of about 12 hours of class/ study a day. By the end it seems like it has been forever, but then before you know it its wednesday again and the new elders are coming in. Its so weird to me that i am now on my fourth wednesday. If the days are like weeks i wonder what the years are like........ I have seen a lot of good friends while i have been here. Elder Logan Green has class on the same floor as me and i see him everyday. Elder Andrew Gooch left on monday, but i saw him quite often and even took a picture with him. Elder Chris Colvin is also on the same floor and i see him about everyday. Elder Justin McGary is in logan Zone (elder green is the zone leader) I was surprised to see him and it turns out my zone leader is his best friend which is cool cause Elder Green is one of my best friends(i hope that made sense) Well pictures are on the way and I have to go do laundry. I love being a missionary and i love this work. I feel the spirit constantly and it is amazing. Thanks all for the support and i will right again sometime. Elder Haws

Slideshow

2008-01-31T10:44:00.000-08:00

I hadn't noticed until now that Danny put on a little slideshow movie for our enjoyment. It's really kindof funny. Just scroll to the bottoom of the page and there it is!