Monday, January 30, 2017

Yum

Found his fav

Hahahahaha

January 29th

Hey Mom!

It sounds like you guys had a pretty solid week! Good to hear that it's getting warmer, although I think the last temperature update I remember from Cali was like 67 degrees. We aren't quite there yet, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

That's good we had a solid week for basketball! 51 points for Austin, that's crazy haha! I bet the crowd was going crazy. Hopefully he'll keep his hot streak alive so we can take league. I also heard that Luke has been playing really well. Dad said his jump serves are looking nice, that's sweet haha. I bet when he comes in freshman year serving like that, the coaches are gonna freak. I still remember having Brad on the team freshman year, and how many times he tried to jump serve and just ended up nailing either the ref, or one of us in the back of the head.

Haha I bet it's gonna be weird for you having Sabrina in the house. It'll be a pretty serious change from the norm, 4 boys. Do you know how long she is staying?

Our week was pretty solid! We started things off with a fun branch family home evening activity, where they announced a branch talent show. There is a slight possibility that we are going to be joining an investigator singing and dancing to Beat It by Michael Jackson... we'll see. Whatever happens, there'll be a video haha.

Then we had an exchange with the Zone Leaders. That was interesting. On the plus, one of them had a sword. He used it to work out in the mornings haha. I can't say I was expecting to walk out of the bedroom after my morning prayer Wednesday morning to see a skinny elder swinging Excalibur around, but hey, stuff happens.

We had a lesson with our investigator with the baptismal date on Wednesday night, and President came to help teach with us. That was cool, President is a pretty solid member to have on lessons, surprise surprise haha. 

On Thursday we watched a worldwide mission broadcast. They made some changes to the daily schedule and how we report each week. There was some pretty cool stuff, and now we have more time on PDays too. To quote a member of the Worldwide Mission Committee as the extra 3 hours were announced, "There was probably a roar heard around the world", to which Elder Dallin H Oaks replied, "And there should have been". Classic.

We had our last church meeting in our chapel this week. From next week onward, all the members and missionaries from both branches will be meeting in the big chapel. It's pretty cool, but kinda sad. To celebrate good times in our chapel, we threw a missionary waffle party. Who knew peanut butter on a waffle could taste so good?

Basically, life is good right now! We're hoping to have a bunch of meetings with our solid investigator before his bdate in a few weeks. He's getting pretty excited!

That's all I got! Love you tons Mom!

Elder Haskett


Monday, January 23, 2017

Warsaw!!

Hey Mom!
Haha it's good to hear that we keep getting rain! Hopefully we get enough for things to cool down in SoCal as well, although the whole district agreed that it's pretty noble that we decided to save a fish with our rainwater. We're having similar weather over here: wet. It's been either raining or misting on us nonstop for like a week. Not too cold during the day, but cold enough at night to freeze all the sidewalks and turn the city into a skating rink. A day doesn't go by where I don't about die sliding in my dress shoes. The other day I think I was fully horizontal in the air after slipping, and still managed to stay on my feet. What can I say? The Lord protects his servants.
I've been hearing a lot about the protests over here. Apparently one of them was like the largest women's protests in US history. A bunch of people on the streets have been asking if we think they could overthrow DC. I usually say yes, a sarcastic opinion that has surprisingly enough been taken into account by several adults.
We beat Hart! Haha fouling with less than a second left, I bet coach had a long talk with the team after that one. At least we got the free throw. Hopefully we can keep this alive, Noah said that Valencia and GV already lost one, so if we went undefeated for the rest of season we could still take first. Keep me posted! Also, that's weird that Luke's coach keeps throwing games. I hope that we get our act together for the Holiday Classic, that's a fun tournament, and it'd be a bummer if we didn't come to play. Either way though, with the fam coming, it sounds like you guys have a fun weekend coming up!
Things for us in Warsaw are going really well! The whole district is doing fine, and now that the weather isn't too bad I'm feeling good! Elder Barlow is still coming along great, and he's making a lot of improvements in Polish. Our investigators are doing great, one just had his baptismal interview yesterday! He is planning on being baptized on the 11th of February! Should be great! Even better, cause the interview was held the day after a disastrous lesson with a member hahaha. He was doing his best, but there was some shady doctrine being preached (eg the Church forbids members to attend Catholic weddings and funerals). Haha it happens, and we were able to do some damage control after. Welcome to my mission! Other good news, is that the baptism will still be a part of this transfer! We'll for sure be here until the 27th of Feb, and then who knows? That'll make 4 months total in Warsaw, cause I've already been here 3. 
This week I was able to serve on another exchange with Elder Einfeldt. That was cool, we've served around eachother for so long we've gotten to be really good friends. Nothing too crazy happened though. Basically we did the normal routine, and Elder Einfeldt failed his driving test twice haha. I've heard it's pretty tricky, but I also might just be bad luck.
Other cool story from this week, we were on the metro the other day and this guy whips out a saxophone and starts playing. He was pretty good to be honest, so Elder Barlow and I moved closer to listen. As we got closer we noticed that he had tatooed across his knuckles, JAZZ. At the next stop he tipped his hat to us and got off.
Basically a good week all in all! Let me know when you know more about the missionary month thing! I'll try to come up with something good for the video!
Love you Mom!
Elder Haskett

Monday, January 16, 2017

January 15th

Hey Mom!
Bummer to hear that basketball is off to a rough start. I guess that's West Ranch though, if we're not on top of our 3 point game, we're not doing too hot. Hopefully Austin and the guys come together, I'd like to hear about a win this week with Hart haha. How's Noah doing by the way?
The know vs. know about Heavenly Father question is always a good food for thought question. It's usually pretty safe to say that with people we're meeting with over here, the majority of people just know about God. The relationship is rarely personal, and that's what it's meant to be. It's a pretty self-evaluating question to ask, and I think it's a good way to get people to think a little more about their prayers and things like that.
Our week was pretty solid haha. Things warmed up a bit, so getting out and working wasn't too bad. Still cold, don't get me wrong, and it's still snowing, but I think the Siberian winds thing passed by already. Hopefully the worst is behind us. As far as investigators are doing, things are still going really well. Our solid investigator is still going strong with his resolve to quit smoking. Now he's had all the lessons, and accepted all the commitments, so it's crunch time haha. He's feeling good about baptism though. We set up the service the other day, cause he came to President Turek's daughter's baptism and wanted to know how his was gonna look. He's also pretty concerned about the quality of the food that's gonna be served there. The brownies we had last Saturday are gonna be pretty hard to beat haha. I think that we're actually gonna make a cake with him haha. Should be sweet, the yellow cake we made last week was first class.
We had zone training again last week. That was pretty cool, and then when we did a big finding activity, President came with us. We actually tag teamed it for a while haha. Met a crazy politician that wants to meet with us, we'll see how it goes!
I think I'm gonna send all the BYU stuff in a separate email! That's all I got this week!
Love you!
Elder Haskett

Monday, January 9, 2017

Brrrrrr!

Hey Mom!
Haha rain in California, hopefully it keeps up till I get home so I'll see some green! Haha I've heard that pretty much ever since I've been gone, the drought has gotten better. Are we still on all those water restrictions? Haha Elder Einfeldt always jokes around about that and says that we shouldn't worry about it so much, cause we can just use the ocean. I always shoot back and say that him and the rest of Utah should start drinking out of the Great Salt Lake haha.
Glad to hear that Noah's still doing well in basketball. Can't believe that season already starts this week. Let me know how things go, and if we have another Malice in the Palace incident this year hahaha.
So yeah, you could say that it's been cold lately, and that would be an understatement haha. Last week things pretty much froze. The hand warmers have been saving my life, but it's still so cold. Apparently there's some like Siberian winds blowing through lately, and so everything's freezing. Whenever Siberia, or Siberian is used, it generally implies really cold. We did that thing last week where you boil water, and then throw it off the balcony and it freezes in mid air. A video is on the way haha.
Our week was pretty cool though! We've been meeting with that one solid investigator still, and things have been getting pretty serious. We finally did the Word of Wisdom lesson with him, and I knew it was going to be a big one cause he's been smoking for 10 years now, and he also has a drinking problem. He said that he'd try his best, but he was really worried about it. We offered him a blessing, and he said he thought it would help. Basically the blessing was nuts, and he said that he'd never felt the Spirit like that and to be honest I don't think I had either, and he hasn't smoked since. It was awesome. He came to church again this week, stayed for all 3 hours, and we're feeling pretty good. Cool stuff! Other than that, we're planning on meeting a few new people this week, and we actually got a referral from an investigator last week, so things are looking good!
Caroling is finally over, that's a bummer:( We did end off with a bang though. The last door we knocked on let us in, and we got to talk with a really cool family for about an hour! They fed us this really weird, but pretty good fruit, said I'd make a good lawyer, all that good stuff. I swear, everybody here either says I'd be a great lawyer or politician haha.
Also some pretty classic awkward moments this week. At church, my hands were getting really dry, and I was getting really desperate, so I asked one of the sisters to use her hand lotion. Right in the middle of our little handoff, one of the other sisters in the branch was like, Elder Haskett, are you using girl lotion? I was caught pink, fruit-scented, handed. Then earlier this week, I was on the phone with a sister, and I was trying to say bye, and out of reflex, I was about one second from saying "Love you", but I caught myself on the "Lo-" and then was like, "Aaahhh gotta go bye". If it wasn't bad enough, she figured out what I was about to say, and now pretty much the whole district is making fun of me for it haha.
There was this guy on the metro with us yesterday that was a little crazy. We were standing there, and he started singing a song to us, then saying 'tenor' over and over again. Then he would just say, "beautiful music" and smile. It was right at the end of a particularly cold finding activity, so I think that was a little tender mercy of the Lord for me haha.
As far as BYU goes, I'm on top of everything. I sent in the request through myBYU, and I think I have an interview scheduled for tomorrow with Pres at Zone Training. I think I might be rooming with Elder Liechty, but I'm not sure how the whole request roomate process works. Do you have to talk to his mom or something? Also, as far as location goes, I've heard that Heritage isn't bad, but I guess I don't know much at all about it haha. I'll talk to some other missionaries to figure it out. Do you need anything else?
One more thing, did you get the package I sent? I hope it got there on time and in one piece!
I think that's it for this week though! Love you Mom! Enjoy the back to school grind!
Elder Haskett 

Monday, January 2, 2017

2017!!

2017!!

Hey Mom!
Bummer you guys all got sick on the holidays! I guess it's better now than in school, but then again, it sounds like Noah's got no winter break with basketball and if you really think about it, school shmool. Hope everybody's feeling better now!
So crazy that Austin is already heading out on her mission! Haha I bet she's freaking out a bit, but that's pretty much the norm. It gets better after a couple days in the MTC.
Wasn't able to go to the New Year's baptism:( but the good news is that it went through! I can't complain about missing it, a lot of work went into making all this happen finally, so I'm really happy about it. It was the end of an 9 month journey!
New Years for us was pretty fun. We had a sweet game of soccer in the morning that involved me making the keeper save of the year with my face as well as a belly slide header for a goal, and then a finding activity in the square. While we were there, a man ran around making airplane noises with his arms all the way out. Nothing unusual. There was a branch party that we got to catch a piece of. It kinda felt like a church dance, except at one point an older lady took the microphone and started to sing an opera, and another missionary pretty much cut loose to Gangam Style. I was not that missionary. Then we had a sleepover party at the other elder's apartment and stayed up til the new year. To celebrate the end of our full calendar year of missionary service, we threw a ham that we had previously failed to cook off the balcony into the dumpster a few stories below. I was mostly impressed I nailed the shot, the ham was 5 lbs!
The work is still going really well! We're doing a lot in the square, as per usual, but we also go around a few different parks in the city that: 1. look really cool in the snow, and 2. are full of fully sober people. As far as the investigators go, we had 2 in church yesterday, and another random guy showed up that apparently got contacted a few weeks ago by a mystery elder. That was a little New Year's miracle. One of the 2 from church finished the Book of Mormon last week, and he wants to get baptized before the end of January! 
The new city near Kraków is called Mielin. It's a city where a family that used to have to drive 2 hours a week to go to Kraków lives. We visited them a couple times, and the city is really cool. Pretty exciting stuff.
Elder Barlow is doing really well! He's getting a solid start on the language, and we've been working well together.
Hope you guys have a good rest of winter break! Try to get to Disneyland! 
Love you Mom!
Elder Haskett