Like I Just Got Sucker Punched in the Stomach

If you are wondering about the title of this email. That's pretty much how I feel whenever I truly think about going home. It hits you like a ton of bricks. It feels like you just got sucker punched in the stomach. It feels like the end of the world is nigh. Going home is something I've been looking forward to, but at the same time, it's almost like something I'm dreading. I have no idea what I'm going to be doing in particular, other than school starts in the fall.

Getting back to Jamaica... this week seemed to fly by. Elder Madsen and I have been tearing it up and having a good time. Working with some good people still. Wish they'd actually do something though.

I went on my final tradeoff on Wednesday. I went with Elder Brough, once again, in Kingston. We did a little souvenir shopping while waiting to tradeback - especially since we go home together. We also went to a dinner appointment that I had to laugh at. The member wasn't expecting me. Elder Emery also showed up with a different companion - Elder Stone - and he wasn't expected either. It was supposed to be a going away party, but not quite what the member expected.

Overall, there's not much to say. The double digit days to the end are now gone. No pictures today... sorry.

Elder Huffaker

How Many Fingers?

So with the picture, you will see Elder Brough and I holding up our hands on Thursday. We can count on our hands how many days left on our mission. Ok, well it took both of our hands, but at least we can count! Zone conference was on Thursday. It was a very long zone conference. I'm not sure why, but I have this curse where I either arrive very early or very late to missionary meetings not in my area. Elder Madsen and I arrived at 8:20 and the conference didn't start til 9. No one else but the Assistants were there when we arrived. It was long, like I mentioned before because we didn't leave til after 3 p.m.

After the conference, Elder Madsen and I went and got some jerk. Not just any jerk, however. This goes on the new foods list. We had jerk pork and jerk lamb. The Pork had a lot of fat and sometimes if there was skin - there was hair. Doesn't gross you out unless you eat it.... We didn't leave Kingston til about 6:15. We had to stop by the mission office and the office Elders sent us in a big circle. Elder Madsen and I walked around for a long while. When we reached. I realized that they could have given us a shorter route if they would have told us to turn around.

Not much else for this week, same old - same old!

Elder Huffaker

2 1/2 weeks

The Long and Winding Road

This week there isn't much to say... but I do have to say that we had one heck of a Saturday. We road our bicycles up the side of a mountain to a place called swamp. I haven't gone there in a long time. On the way up, my bicycle chain broke TWICE! I was more than upset on the second time. Thankfully it made it up and down the hill. However, it broke again later that day.

So now I'm on a new bicycle chain. I can't get the one I've got to last me three and a half weeks. It was worth going up the hill though to go and see a really good investigator. While we were there I finally saw the national bird. A two tailed hummingbird!

Also in this week, Tracy Meddow thought she'd be funny and caught me and put a little "twist" on my hair. So I went around for about 24 hours with it in my hair. I got a few comments and weird looks. Don't worry, it's not permanent!

Elder Huffaker

The Last Conference in Jamaica

So for some dumb reason I forgot to include this in last week's email. On our way into the square in Yallahs to go and email, we saw a "procession". Whenever Jamaica begins it's circuit court (kinda like our district supreme courts) they have a formal procession done by the local police department. The judge is dressed in a colonial uniform with a wig and everything. Anyway, I thought it was really cool but forgot to get pictures. They use the circuit court for extreme offenders: murderers. Getting on to this week though... This week Elder Madsen and I went around getting people excited and ready for General Conference. We had 34 people at the church on Sunday morning for it! That's more than we get on any other given Sunday. At least 10 more and sometimes double. Plus, the Daniels weren't even there for the conference, so if we had them, it would have been 36.

For the conference we set up the church computer and a projector in the sacrament hall. I manned it and made sure everything worked properly. It was really good. The pictures you see are from Saturday. We had Elder Madsen and I, Pete, and Jordan who showed up for Priesthood. Priesthood session didn't connect very well and we had to keep reconnecting and consequently, missed most of the addresses. We also showed the, "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" movie between the Sunday sessions. This leads me to a question to all family members: is Clynn in this movie? Please note the man with his back to the camera and is somewhat out of focus at approximately 52 minutes into the movie. To watch the movie you can go to: http://newsroom.lds.org/article/film-about-joseph-smith-now-available-online You can watch the movie online or download it.

As far as General Conference goes, I want you all to be aware of the fact that Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the 12 did not speak this conference. Some missionaries called and asked me about it as well and I noticed that before and after sessions, Elder Hales had a series of tubes and what appeared to be an oxygen tank at his side during the sessions. He was also using a walker to exit the Conference Center.

Elder Huffaker