Happy mothers day!!! (in costa rica)

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

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

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.

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!!!!!

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

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!!!

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