November!

Hey everybody! Well it's November already, it's sure going by fast! Yesterday marked the halfway point for this transfer. Transfers are 6 weeks, by the way, and we're on week 4 as of today.

 

Well there probably is no actual highlight for the week, as missionaries don't celebrate Halloween, so I'll just go over some of the more important details. For starters, if you didn't clue in to that last sentence, we had to be in at 6 in the evening, and were not allowed to go out. Our president told us to do some deep cleaning of the apartment as we had nothing else to do. Let me tell you, cleaning the apartment was a lot better than just sitting around so there really is no room to complain. Well, we had some candy from members that we all decided we didn't want to eat it all, so we wanted to hand it out for the trick-or-treaters. Funny enough, we didn't get any. We live in a pretty populated area, but it can be a bit sketchy, so I wouldn't doubt it if the parents didn't want their kids going around this area. Well even though we didn't go trick-or-treating, we still got a bunch of candy. As we went around visiting people the days after Halloween, we got plenty of the leftover candy that people didn't want. We still have most of that, we tried bringing it to the zone activity we did today, and, we still have most of it...

Well, as a low point of the week, we had two so-called investigators, one of whom seemed to us to just want to argue. She is a very Catholic lady, and has a bunch of problems with what we believe. She also got a good amount of information from the Internet, and we had a difficult time trying to straighten that all out. It really felt like a big argument and she told us she wouldn't read the Book of Mormon, and wouldn't ever change religions. Sadly enough, we had to drop her as an investigator. Her records are still in our area book, and maybe the later missionaries who come through will go back, and she'll be more ready to listen.

The other one was a guy who we did a bunch of service for, and we would go over once a week to help out with the things around his house. Missionaries had been doing that for a long time, and nothing has come from it. We did what we could to try and get him to read the Book of Mormon, and he actually did once. But every time after that we were never able to get him to read. He also has a daughter who is older and moved out who is a member, but he still won't attempt to listen. We tried our best, but he too, had to be dropped.

The really sad and difficult part about it all was that we are kind of low on things to do and investigators to teach, but if nothing is going to happen, then we really don't need to be there. Our President talked about this sort of thing during his training when we had zone conference. He told us that we should "teach them that will receive you". He said that we should not teach those who aren't progressing, even if that means we go out finding. So that's what we have done.

Now, on the other hand we have been trying to work with a lady who has a member friend, and we were trying to get it all together with both of them, but it was never working out. Well, we eventually stopped by, and set a time to go back, and when we did, we offered for her to take the lessons, and she had no objection to it. Thus giving us a new investigator. Funny thing with that one is that her most available time is about when we normally met with one of the investigators we dropped.

Going further, we met another lady who was a former investigator, and she didn't want to get baptized a bit ago, but we finally were able to get in and meet with her and she had a bunch of questions. We don't have an exact return appointment with her, but we are going to be calling her to see if we can. Not only that, but she was open to having us back to go over the lessons with her again. Her main concern was that her nephew was probably going to be getting married soon and he is a member, and would be sealed in the temple. As she is not a member, she wouldn't be able to be there for it. So her concern was that should she be getting baptized and become a member just so she could be there for that. Well, no not really. Even so, she was open to having us come back and have the lessons again. So this soon will pretty well make up for the investigator we had to drop as well. Hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

 

By the way, yes I did get my box, thanks for it! It was kind of an interesting thing that happened. The picture of the stuffed animals, which was on Saturday was the same day I got the box. As we live with other missionaries, they texted us and said that I had a package, being the stuffed animals (even though it was mostly for all of us). So I got excited when I saw that for a few seconds, then I thought they were pulling my leg. Well we were stopping back by the apartment about that time, and so we saw the "package". Well we went back out for the rest of the day and aparently the mail had come and lo and behold, there was a package for me. Now the problem I'd like to express to you is that we live in a, well, not so favorable place, with the authorities there frequently, and when we get mail, the people delivering NEVER knock on the door to inform us something is there. So it's just dropped there and we always "discover" a package if there is one. Anyway, so the other elders get it and stick it under my pillow, and didn't say a thing to me about it. When we came back, the nicer of the two missionaries informs me of the package. Which is all ironic because they told me I had a package that day, and I actually did get a package. Also note that the new missionary has gotten more mail than me in this apartment(hint hint) and I don't get quite as much(HINT HINT). Now we get to the opening of the package. Remember it's fast Sunday the next day. So I get everything out of it, and it's already late at night, close to being time for bed, so I'm about ready to start my fast, and so I didn't get to enjoy anything. Then the entire day Sunday I couldn't, at the end of the day, we had a big meal, so I was completley stuffed, and eating was at the bottom of my list. Needless to say I only had a cookie last night, and have hardly eaten anything from it. Yes I am sharing so you know. The cool thing is that I was thinking, I had found some holes in more of my socks, so some were thrown away. And I thought, "you know, it'd be nice if I got some more socks soon." And what's in the box? Socks! Amazing isn't it? I thought it was really cool. But thanks for the box