January 30, 2012

Well there goes another week.

In missionary time, this next week is the end of the transfer. One of the missionaries in my district is going home, so my companion and I have been having to help them with being in a tripanionship. Well, yesterday he had to go to the mission home to be sent back home so we will be staying with our district leader for now.

We have been working on our area book still, and have had a few cancelled appointments. The work is still progressing so we keep working. Hope all is going well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

Yet Another Week Already Gone By!

Elder Huffaker's Letter from January 23, 2012

Well there goes another one! So this week was quite the week.

First off, our area book, the thing that has all the information for the area, go figure, is old and needs to be brought up to date. So we have been doing a bunch of work on that. As for the work this week, it seemed to go slow, until Thursday. Well, on Thursday, we went and did service with one of our investigators, and she thought it would take a while, but she didn't know she had two hard working young men! *grin* Well we finished faster than she expected so we were able to get in a lesson as well. She started opening up to us, so all that service and hard work for her is starting to pay off.

  

Next off, we went back to our apartment to shower and change, so we ended up being late to our next appointment. However, our investigator here was a little late getting back to her place so it just happened to work out. Funny how that just HAPPENS to work out right? Next we went to our dinner with the bishop. Well, when we were done, he called on the mother of the family that was also there because her husband was out of town, to pray, and she said she really didn't know how. Well, lucky for her there were two missionaries there who were trained just for this! So we taught her about that, and had a spiritual thought. Then we went and visited a family that we hadn't visited since before I got in this area. One was a member and one wasn't, which is one of the best missionary situations we can hope for when teaching. Well, we taught there and then got a ride back home.

So if you've been keeping track, this is all one day, and that was 4 lessons. We were pretty excited about that because that doesn't happen too often anyway, and for an area like what we are in, it's pretty amazing.

That was one of the biggest highlights of the week, but it doesn't stop there! For in between stuff, like I said we worked on the area book, and did the usual stuff. But as this last weekend was Stake Conference, and we invited 2 of our investigators to it, and neither of them showed up. So what we did was we went to their homes to see how they were doing and because they didn't show up. Well they were both very happy to see us and that we were looking out for them. Then one of the investigators called a fellowshipper and told them that we were great missionaries. So then he called us telling us about it and that we must be doing something right because she called just to tell him that.

So all in all, it has been a great week and we are really building this area.

Elder Huffaker

Another Week

Well, this week was a fun week, full of um, exciting, news. To start off, this week was a somewhat usual week, what with knocking on doors, and other usual stuff. One of the tasks we decided to take on this week was meeting with an investigator that hasn't been met with for over 3 weeks. Well, first off we had to start by finding the house where she lived. We were knocking just before that and so we decided to just walk there. Bad idea. We missed the turn and went in a few circles, but ended up getting somewhat lost, and then finding our way to a members house where we thought they could help us out.

Turns out they weren't there, and so we decided to call our district leader, to get us out of there. Well, they were busy and we had to call our zone leaders who just happened to have just enough time to come get us. They apparently had enough time to take us to where the house was, so we found out where it was. Also it is up a big hill. Go figure, when you're in an area with hills.

So the next day we were able to make it up there and she wasn't there. Convenient right? Well just as we were about to leave, she pulls up. Whew! We taught an on the spot lesson, and helped with some service. Then the next day we helped with some more. She was really grateful for our help. Brownie points for getting her to trust us!

So as we rode home, I ended up doing a really cool "trick" and scraped up my arm a bit. The major thing was that we were going down the hill at about 35 mph. So it was more bruising than scraping. Fun experience, right?

Other than that, we've been trying to meet with one of our other investigators who happens to live in the same apartment complex as us, but has been having some problems with the bank so we haven't been able to meet with her yet either. We are still working hard to find people to teach, and the work goes on.

Okay so this e-mail includes the pictures of when I went to go do laundry. The dryer was crappy, and I was doing a larger load so....... none of the things in there were dry. It took some effort finding where to put everything, but it all dried okay after that.

(drying sheets)

... and towels....

... creative jean hanging...

... and shirts and socks. That's one way to use a bunkbed ladder!

I am sending pictures of the new bike I got. It came with a water bottle holder and a speedometer thing. It also has something called a shock lock on it, which locks the shocks (duh), making it like a street bike. This way when I pedal, I'm not pushing into the shocks, so all my effort is actually going to the tires, instead of shocks.




This area I'm in has a bunch of hills, so going down fast happens a lot. Well one time we were rounding a corner going at about 35, and I didn't slow down fast enough and hit the curb resulting in what you see in the pictures. I'm fine, so don't worry, but needless to say it wasn't fun.



--Elder Huffaker

A Baptism

Hello everybody. So this week has been a slow week, kind of a usual thing in this area. For big news, one of the investigators Elder Morgan (my trainer) and I worked with in my last area just got baptized yesterday. I was unable to be there, but got some pictures of it. She was completely ready, but just had a few things to work out. She was the one interviewed by our mission president. Elder Morgan was the one who had the privilege of preforming the ordinance. So also, being a nearly dead area, and Elder Greenwood and I are working hard, we did get a new investigator this week. He's a pretty cool guy that has had a lot of things happen in his life. He would like to come to church, but needs a ride. So we are starting to have people to work with and teach here in this area. It's kind of cool to take an area as slow as this and build it up and turn it in to a wonderful area to be in. It is still going to take a lot of work, but I think we are up to the challenge.


-- Elder Huffaker

New Year

Hello everybody and Happy New Year! So if you didn't know, I am in Canyon Country, California! I am with my new companion, Elder Greenwood. He is Spanish speaking, and has been out about a year longer than me.

I am in another bike area and had to purchase a bike. The people gave me a great deal on it and it's a pretty decent bike. This area is a little slow on work right now, but we are going to be getting it back up. My companion's last companion didn't do much work; well, we are going to change that!

We are visiting a recently converted family a lot, they feed us and whatnot. We currently have one investigator. And because it is 2012, I see much more work in the future, the only problem is that who is going to be sincere and who isn't. Probably going to be the biggest challenge this year.

--Elder Huffaker

(This photo is what happens when hot wings + crazy eyes = best imitation of the Joker from Batman.)