Biking Workouts

Well this week has been the usual week, running around on bikes and whatnot. In biking news, we went from the top of corner of our area, to the bottom opposite corner of the area, and then back halfway to the church to finish it off. Needless to say I was pretty wiped, and I'm sure Elder Morgan was too. We also had a pretty cool musical fireside last night, we went to our dinner with a member just before it and they took us there. The fireside lasted until about 8:30-40-ish and we went back to the members house after that. They live in the bottom part of our area, and we live in the top part of our area. Well we booked it back and made it inside at 9:30 on the nose! Talk about close. But I was completely exhausted after that. I hit the ground and didn't get back up for 20 minutes. THAT was a workout. We also had an investigator who was nearly done with the lessons tell us he couldn't get baptized because he was told being Mormon was a sin. Well he then told us he could be Mormon again because he prayed about it. We did have a baptism recently and we have yet to get pictures from that. We will definitely need to get those soon. Well the work is progressing, and Elder Morgan and I are working hard (really hard being on bikes haha) Hope all is going well there, and don't forget, Postal letters are great, even if they are typed up!

Trying (and failing, he said!) to mend his pants.

Heating his socks up -- must be chilly in California!

Elder Huffaker

Hello from the great state of Claly-fornya

So this week was interesting. On Monday we went to an investigator teaching about tithing, and then he all of a sudden says that he prayed and talked to his mom, and came up with a baptism date! He has a slight mental handicap, and it took us by complete surprise!

Also for a funny thing, Elder Morgan and I were riding down the sidewalk and went down the slope on the edge of the street and was going to go up the other side, and realized that there's no slope! So he slammed on his brakes and skidded right up to the curb, and when I realized it, I slammed on my brakes, but didn't hit him. It was pretty funny though.

We did have a baptism, two kids got baptized. One was 9 almost 10 and the other was 8so only the one counted because the parents are members. They are a little less active so we will be working with them a little still, but it was great for them to come to the baptism!

So yesterday, we had a scheduled lunch with a member, and then a dinner with bishop. Lunch was at 3, and dinner was at 5. Woo! Lot's o' food! Needless to say, Elder Morgan and I were stuffed. Later that night we ran into a returned missionary on our street and he introduced us to one of his friends, and we had a lesson, and we left her with a Book of Mormon. It was a great unplanned experience, and we had the lesson with the guy we found and two other guys who were there, all were return missionaries.

The area here is really taking off, and we are starting to have appointments filling the days! Sounds like things are as busy as ever at home. That's really interesting that they got in a big car accident, sounds like the one Brandon, Nathan, and I were in, but Alys wasn't driving so that's good. Hopefully she will learn from the experience and always wear her seatbelt, That was the way I was after Brandon's accident! Always always always wear a seatbelt. (especially in California!) They don't call it California driving for nothing!

Also we went to Costco, and got stocked up, and besides eating with members, we have been eating pretty well. The other day we had chili cheese dogs and cornbread!


Elder Huffaker

Pop of a Different Flavor

Okay so there is very little in news I guess, but we did get some new people in our zone and one in our district. Apparently Elder Morgan came out with the new sister we got in our district. Nothing exciting for food experiences, but I haven't had the same meal or similarity in meals twice from members.

If you have forgotten, I am in a bike area, but there are rumors about us getting a car. That would be pretty cool, but they're only rumors, and I'd be fine if we stayed on bike. I've done it one transfer, I can do it another.

Another note of news is that we found a couple part member families, one where a 17 year old is the member and another where a 22 year old is the member, but neither are the parents. We are meeting with the latter today, it is a family of 9 and one is under 8 so if we can teach all of them, it would be 6 new investigators, and if we taught the other family it would be 2 or 3 new investigators, so that's also exciting.

Also, one of our investigators is scheduled to get baptized next Sunday (the 16th) and has asked that I baptize him. Not sure entirely why, but that's fine by me. It would also be my first baptism on my mission. He is 13, but is about my height and he says he's a 38 waist. He plays football, so he's a big kid. He's still got a few lessons though, and so we have 2 more scheduled appointments this week and probably another one on Saturday, and might get interviewed then too. If that happens, then I'll definitely get you pictures!

Unfortunately I don't have really any pictures this time, nothing going on except the usual, but I will try harder to look for opportunities to get pictures. I do have a couple of the most awesome soda machine I've ever seen though. You can get a bunch of different shots of flavors added to the usual soda. Like there was a peach Fanta, I had a vanilla Sprite, there was a raspberry Coke and just a bunch of other stuff, and it was all on a touch screen.

Thanks for the pictures you sent to me, you should definitely send one of other parts of the breeze way. I love pictures printed out because I can hang them up. So send me more please! And also, if Grandma and Grandpa want to send me stuff too that would be awesome!

Elder Huffaker

First Transfer, Same Area!

Okay first off, the first picture on the list is an Idaho picture. Everyone in that picture is from somewhere in Idaho, and these are all missionaries in my Zone. Transfers just ended yesterday so we have new people in and some older people out.

Also, the other picture is of me eating a 4x4 at an In-and-Out. For those of you who don't know, that is 4 patties and 4 cheese. One of the members in the ward always take us to In-and-Out and if you haven't gone with them before, they make you order that. That is way too much cheeseburger for anyone.

Well the week has gone pretty good, although I have recently gotten a flat tire which I have yet to fix so I've just been pumping it up as necessary. Like I said, transfers just happened, we lost/gained 4 people. One from our district, one of our Zone Leaders, and two from the other district.

In the new training program we have, new missionaries stay with their trainers for at least two transfers, so for the next six weeks I will still be with Elder Morgan in the same area I'm in. Still on bike for another 6 weeks. That's okay though, since we bike all over the place (p.s. Brandon, we are in earthquake area so the sidewalks and streets are all broken up), we have a pretty big area, it's hot, and we carry around all our stuff in our backpacks, so they're heavy, I have already gone down a beltloop size, working on the next. Also, as a district we tried to put on a sort of game night for members, and their nonmember friends, but that was a big flop. It was fun, but not productive.

My companion just reminded me, one time when we went contacting, we ran into this guy who liked to talk and had some questions about our church. Well the conversation eventually got to politics, and a Jamaican sitting on a bench about 25-30 feet away overheard us and the guy we were talking to and the Jamaican went back and forth. The Jamaican was saying "stop spreading lies!" I'm not sure what exactly about, I think it was related to politics, and the guy we were with was saying "And you're a Jamaican, sitting homeless on a bench!" "I like your CART!" Also we started to talk to another guy who talked a little about the incident that was happening and said he threw in something to just kind of make them turn their heads. He said something like "Go Lakers" and was telling us, "why can't we just get along?".

So my week has been like that so far, still working hard, I can't believe I've already been out for a transfer! Hope everything is going well at home!

Elder Huffaker