This week has been my first full week in the field that has been "normal" I suppose. We aren't having any training meetings or meetings with the president, the only meeting we've had is district meeting and the usual meetings at church (ward correlation and ward council).
I don't remember if I've said this before, but I'm in the Sherman Oaks Ward, and so far Elder Morgan is pretty awesome. He's only been out about 7 months, but he's doing fine as a trainer. We have a ton of people to try by, less actives, old investigators, people who haven't had a home or visiting teacher come by in a while and don't come to church etc., and almost every day we are having dinner with a member family, and sometimes we have had dinner with investigators or part member families, which are some of the best discussions we have. So far this week we have been teaching Sara, Burton, Rosamaria, Varo, Armen, and the McKinnens.
Sara is a really awesome investigator, she's about 22. We are teaching her in the home of who we believe is her boyfriend, we aren't sure if they're actually a "thing", but her boyfriend is K.C. He's in the Elders Quorum presidency and he plays Elder Rogers in The Best Two Years:
He's quite the uh, character. We almost have a date for baptism with Sara, and we've taught her lessons 1-3 and part of lesson 4. She says before she gets baptized she wants to have her families support. She also says that she has made the decision to get baptized even if she doesn't have her families support, but would like it.
Burton is in his 70's. I would say he's not quite progressing, we teach him a lot and he expressed a desire to come to church, and apparently has been invited several times, but hasn't been to church once. He hasn't been taught a single lesson and hardly or never reads the Book of Mormon. He does however, enjoy us coming over, but we are trying.
Rosamaria is also awesome, and is in her late 30's we think. She was raised a Catholic, but has said it never feels as good at church like it does at an LDS church. She hasn't been taught much but has a real desire to learn. We are hoping to set a baptism date within a week or two.
Varo is Armenian and so is his wife. They are probably in their late 20's to early 30's. His wife Sophia has been baptized and we are really trying with Varo. He needs to read and pray about the book, which is something Sophia has done and Varo hasn't. Hmmm.
Armen is atheist. He really wants to learn about us, but doesn't want to do anything, like reading or praying, or the like. He's a good guy, and might come around eventually, but not yet.
The McKinnens are a part member family about in their 50's. Bro McKinnen is less active, and apparently his problem is that it really was Adam's fault because he didn't tell Eve not to partake of the fruit and she did unknowingly, even though it says in Genesis 3 that she said straight up - we are commanded not to partake of the fruit. Oh well, they attended a temple marriage, and waited in the waiting room and Brother McKinnen asked Sister McKinnen if she wanted to learn more, so we are teaching them. Sis McKinnen has taken the first two lessons and we are trying to get her to read the Book of Mormon.
In other news, we are biking all over the place. I'll see if I can send a picture of our area, which is pretty large. We are planning to go to the hollywood sign as a zone and obviously we will be taking pictures. There has been rumors that we have a lot of movie stars living in the lower part of our area. Also that Elijah Wood lives across the road from the bishop. No confirms though. Our zone is full of lots of characters I guess, but other than teaching not much is happening. We do a lot of teaching.
Elder Huffaker
(Photos Cameron sent of the old bike he started out with. He has since upgraded to a better bike!)
The 5-gallon jug of water. (We need to ask him why they don't just drink tap water!)
