June 19, 2012

Well this week has been an interesting one. Down goes Week One with my new companion in this area. It's always interesting seeing how things go when the new transfer hits, and you get a new companion. Things are interesting anyway even if you don't get a new companion.

Well, my zone has to be one of the youngest, if not THE youngest in the mission. There is only one missionary in our zone who has been out longer than me. There's one who came out with me who was in the MTC with me, but everyone else is younger. The only older one is a district leader for the other district in our zone, so my current hierarchy are all younger, both zls and our dl.

As I made mention of last time, and you might be able to tell from what I have said so far, I am currently senior companion. In a car area, that means I drive. Being senior companion and being the area I am familiar with means I have to come up with what to do for now, until my companion gets more used to this area. Also since my companion is Peruvian and doesn't speak fluent English, that makes things a bit more challenging. His English, however, is fairly good for being out 6 months, and he told me he didn't study English hardly at all in Peru.

So, thus far this week has been a bit of a shift for me as far as missionary work goes. Well like I said, transfers are interesting, and as such this week was interesting. For starters, I was informed that the mission office didn't have some information on me to have me checked off as a driver for the mission. So we had to make a special trip to the mission office in Santa Clarita. Near my last area. That is about a 30-mile round trip. For those of you who don't know, as missionaries we keep track of miles and are limited to how many miles we can go in a month. That being said, the trip to the office was not the greatest for our miles. Hopefully we'll be fine, but that's an additional 30 miles on top of what we already have to travel on a regular basis. So this last week has been interesting as I have moved to driver, senior companion and taking over the area.

In other news, we as a mission are going to the temple this week. This will be my 2nd time since being out. Our president is going home soon, so we are going to the temple. Also, because our mission is fairly large, we are splitting up into three groups to go on different days. Our group is included in the valley here in Los Angeles/San Fernando and will go on Tuesday(tomorrow). We will also be having what I guess you would call a departing Mission President training. Normally when missionaries leave, the president gives a training for all the missionaries going home. Since President is the one going home, he is giving that training to all of us, only, he's the one leaving.

All in all, that's the majority of news I have for this week, and the events to come. Hope all is well at home.

--Elder Huffaker

June 11, 2012: Transfers!

Well from last week, you all know that it's a new transfer, as of today. Well, Saturday we found out that I am staying in this area and my companion is leaving and going to Palmdale. That would be north of Santa Clarita, where I was before here.

I have really enjoyed this time I got to spend with Elder Farnsworth, he is definitely one of my favorite companions. I'm going to miss him. In his place we have your very own Captain Barboza! Elder Barboza is from Peru and has been out about 6 months, making me senior companion for my first time on my mission. Guess I gotta work hard on being a good senior comp.

Well, since he is from Peru, he speaks Spanish, which is his native language. He does not speak fluent English, so we will be doing language study in the mornings before going out. Well I hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

P.S. from Marilyn:
Cameron also managed to get some photos sent this week. He's been having issues with his camera card, so these are a little late. He sent his birthday cake, and a couple photos of the nighttime skyline. Enjoy!

June 4, 2012

Well for starters, this week concludes week 5 and we are heading in to week 6 of the transfer. For those of you who don't know, a transfer is 6 weeks, so at the end of this week the transfer will be over, and another opportunity for me or my companion to leave the area. Since he's been here longer, it will most likely be him leaving and me staying. Although we would not mind staying another transfer together.

As for news this week, my companion has not been feeling well, still. He has had no desire to eat food whatsoever. Well, he called our mission medical and she said to give the doctor a call. He did that and the doctor told him it was just food poisoning. Thing is, he's had it for 3 weeks now, we are pretty sure it's not food poisoning. As of late though, he seems to be recovering. We still try to go out and work though, even in his condition.

Recently we have been receiving a lot of referrals, so that has been our main objective. We still have work to do on that, and we are still trying to meet with some of our usuals, who have been busy or otherwise unavailable. We keep trying though. Hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker