Elder Huffaker

Elder Huffaker

Monday, March 26, 2012

Hello to all from North Hollywood! I am now officially in a car area! In other words, it's a big area! Being in car is a bit different, you have to keep track of miles and how much money you spend on gas. We have limited miles, and we also have to get the oil changed every 5000 miles. Other than that it's pretty awesome! I'm no longer pumping away at pedals to get me from point A to point B.

My companion is a really awesome guy, we are getting along great and work hard! I wont go in to too much detail, but our apartment is infested with cockroaches. We have talked to our manager and the mission apartment manager, and we are not getting anything done any time soon. They aren't too bad, but it sure sucks, and is a big incentive to keep our apartment clean!

Other than that, it was the first week of the transfer so it was kind of slow. This area has a ton of work though and we taught about 19 lessons this week. Which, I'm told by my companion, is not that much for this area. That's the news for this week!

Elder Huffaker

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Transfer!

So today is transfers and I am actually leaving! I am going down to North Hollywood. That area actually borders with the area I was last in - Sherman Oaks. I will be going to car now. No more biking for at least 6 weeks. My companion Elder Greenwood is training a new elder and will be in a threesome with other elders until Wednesday.
 
I believe the mailing address is: 6730 Riverton, North Hollywood CA apt 231, 91606.
 
In other news, our apartment is going to be completed this week, and I wont be able to enjoy it! We also had an awesome experience in tracting the other day. We met a family of 4 who let us in and we had a lesson with them right on the spot! It was pretty cool. This area used to be slow, but my companion and I worked our butts off and changed that!
 
Not much else happened this week and the biggest news is that I'm leaving this area. Hope all is well at home!
 
Elder Huffaker

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

L. Tom Perry Visit

Well, not too much in news this week, other than we had Elder L. Tom Perry come talk to us this morning!

Well, for starters, this week we found out that we are getting our apartment renovated. It is long overdue, and about time! There is a lot of work to be done, and it will probably be done by the end of the month. The walls are being redone, the ceiling painted, appliances checked and carpets redone. A lot of long-needed stuff. This week, we also came up with an idea to help an investigator make it to church. She has an 11-year-old daughter who does not want to come, so we told her we would give her poke`mon cards for coming to church. Her mom also is funding it, and gave us enough cards to get her to church for a few months.


Other than that, the meeting with Elder Perry was awesome. We all got to shake his hand and he asked us all where we were from. For those of you who don't know (I didn't), Elder Perry lived in Lewiston, Idaho for a while! Big surprise for me. His wife even confirmed, so he's not pulling my leg. It was really quite amazing to see him in person. I haven't had the opportunity to meet one of the Twelve until now. He was making quite a few jokes and talked a lot about his position as public relations for the Church. He said if Romney wins, he's resigning that position, because anything that goes wrong in the country will be the church's fault. It was a great experience, one I will never forget.

--Elder Huffaker



Note from Marilyn:
Cameron also sent a number of photos this week. Here are his explanations and descriptions that went with them. He writes:

I believe what I'm sending you a picture of a sunset with palm trees at In-and-Out that a member took us to:

I think these are the pictures of the brownie mix you sent me for Valentine's day, and I made them the other night. Well, the oven we have is really awful. I smelled burning stuff so I pulled the brownies out 8 minutes early for the minimum time for the pan size I had, and the temperature of the oven was set for 15 degrees less than the recommended setting, and what you see is the salvageable parts.



The oven is also not level, so the part that was done and not burnt was almost an inch thick, and the burnt part that I took out was about an eighth of an inch thick.

Next off, we have a renovation of our apartment. This is probably one of the biggest things in news we have. Our apartment was in desperate need of renovation, it has several INTENTIONAL holes in the walls, and even more holes [that are] not intentional. The carpets are horrible and worn out like crazy.


They are going to sand, re-texture and paint the walls, paint the ceiling, do vent work (I'm not sure what), replace the carpet and put padding down, and check all the appliances. All this, while we are still living there. It's also supposed to be done by the end of the month. Which, with the delayed start of it, that's how long it will probably take.


So as you can see, there are several patches in the walls, and we have moved everything to the center of the rooms so they can work on it.

 --Elder Huffaker

March 5, 2012

So this week was rather slow. We weren't able to visit too many people, and not much happened.

We did have a really cool dinner with a member and their son had a snake which he allowed us to hold and slither all over us. It was pretty cool. My companion seemed pretty nervous at first but he calmed down a bit. The snake was very nice and didn't have any problems at all.






In news this week, we did meet someone at church who had been coming for a little while now with her friend, but we are now going to start teaching her. It's pretty cool, she has been coming to all the church classes too, but I feel a little bad that my companion and I haven't talked to her yet. We have an appointment set up this week and she could be a pretty solid investigator.

Other than that, we got haircuts today, my hair is fairly short now, which is nice because I've needed a haircut for quite some time now. My hair was pretty beyond the point missionaries should have it to, but we finally got it taken care of. It feels much nicer now.

Like I said, not much happened, so I hope all is well at home!

Elder Huffaker

February 27, 2012

Not much happened this week, we went by more referrals, more less actives, which seems to be all we are doing lately. Still workin hard.

We were able to attend a baptism for another ward in our stake that we knew the person and they started teaching her about the beginning of this month. She was completely ready. Before they started teaching her she was already going to church and reading the Book of Mormon.

My companion has been depressed because he hasn't gotten a single baptism on his mission, nobody he' ever taught has been baptized. I told him and others are telling him you never know what seeds you plant and it's not about how many baptisms you get. Well he still complains, but it doesn't do anything for him. Oh well, one day when he has a baptism and is really excited for a while he will eventually see that it isn't all about baptisms, but bringing souls to Christ. It probably also has something to do with the fact that this area is really slow. He has gotten a lot of inspirational words from people and even our president.

Anyway, I have found recently that it has been difficult getting to sleep at night. We are out working and when we come home I'm tired, but sleep just doesn't come. One solution was to read until I'm tired or fall asleep. As such, I have begun reading the Bible. Including the Old Testament. That'll put me to sleep right?

Anyway, the work is still going and I hope everything goes well with all of you!

Elder Huffaker