Elder Huffaker

Elder Huffaker

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

April 15, 2013 -- Halfway Through the Transfer

Hi Everyone! So I'm not sure it I wrote about this already, but just in case I'll say it again.

So where I am will be part of the San Fernando Mission after it splits. North of here is Santa Clarita (where I was when I was in CC1, Mint Canyon, and Solemint) will also be part of the San Fernando Mission. But everything north of that will be part of the Bakersfield Mission. There is a good chance that this will be my last area, but that will be pretty certain next transfer, as I have 2 transfers left after this one, and transferring someone for their last transfer is not a good idea.

Anyway, this week was an okay week. We didn't have a whole bunch of member dinners, but that's probably because of General Conference (which was awesome by the way). We also had Zone conference on Tuesday from 9 to 5, but we had car inspections at 8 so we had to be there at 8. It was also out of our zone and we had to pick up some of the elders who are in a bike area that are in the more southern parts of our area. We had to leave at about 7 to be there on time. Lot's of travelling.

So before General Conference, on Friday, we had ZTM, which is like District Meeting, only the Zone leaders do it, and it lasts about an hour and a half longer. So Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday we had a bunch of meetings and conference. It was a bit crazy.

Also for this week, we did exchanges with our zone leaders. I went with one of them to their area. It was a good exchange. Other than that, we got a referral for this guy who just got out of a minimum security prison. He is super amazing. He has already read the Book of Mormon and has a testimony of it and the church. Unfortunately, he is on probation and he needs to wait until that's over to be baptized. So for now all we have to do is just keep him involved in church and whatnot.

Also one of the things we are planning on doing is working with the ward leaders in trying to get the less active members back into activity. It's something Elder Ehninger and I felt inspired to do during weekly planning. The ward here needs a little help. It probably has the lowest attendance in a ward that I've had so far. We hope to help change that. Anyway, that was our week. Hope all is well!

--Elder Huffaker

April 8, 2013 -- Another Week in Sylmar

This week was a pretty good week. Elder Ehninger and I have been working on a few things.

First was our faith in finding. We talked about how we have faith when we are in the apartment, that we can go and find people to teach. But we talked about how our faith is significantly lower when we are actually out finding. So we have been trying to increase our faith.

We started by relying on the spirit to take us where we needed to go. We decided where we felt it was, and then set out. All along the path we were walking on people were avoiding us before we even got to talk to them. We still felt like we were there for a reason. So we kept going. We got to a point we recognised and remembered that there was a potential nearby. I felt inspired to go knock on the door. Unfortunately there was no one home. Elder Ehninger then felt inspired to knock on a few doors on that street as we had not yet done that. We eventually were lead to a guy who had just recently parked on the street. We talked with him for about 40 minutes and invited him to come to conference. He agreed and he gave us his contact information. It was a faith building moment for the both of us.

General conference was also really great. Unfortunately only one of our investigators came, but she now has a bunch of questions we hope to answer for her. That's all I can really remember about our week. Hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

April 1, 2013 New Area

First off, my companion has been out 2 transfers so far, so about 3 months. Yeah that's how long my last companion was out when I got him, and the companion before that. He was born in Eagle Idaho, raised in Oregon, and lives in South Jordan Utah. His name is Elder Ehninger. He says to say vinegar only with an "e" instead of "vi".

Second, yes I'm still a District Leader, and in fact, we have 2 other companionships for this district, and they are both sisters. So I'm in charge of my companion, and 4 sisters. We are in a car area, and usually the car is a Toyota Corolla, but here we have a Chevy Malibu. They aren't as good as the Corollas. Their gas mileage is lower, turning radius sucks, and we've had problems twice already since Tuesday, so that's something considering that I've been here for almost a week. We had the temperature gage stop working and the AC went out on us. We were told to take it in to pep boys and they tested it for 2 ours and said nothing was wrong with it. Then we were making phone calls last night, and the battery on the car died. We had to get it jumped this morning. Finally got it jumped by about 11:50, and we were there at about 10:30 trying to get a hold of people. Well we finally got it taken care of.

Also I'm in Sylmar, which is the same zone I came from when I left from North Hollywood. I left NoHo and went to Mint Canyon and then Solemint and those are both in the same zone, and so I'm back in my last zone. My address is 13140 Dronfield Ave. Apt #111 Sylmar CA 91342.

Just so you know, I have 2 transfers after this. There is a good chance that this will be my last area but no confirms. In other news, since being here we had a member feed just once. It was Easter dinner, and it was a good dinner. The ward is a bit small, and there aren't a whole lotta youth. The biggest difference is that there are people walking around here. In Solemint, everyone is pretty much in their cars driving. So we have gotten to talk to a lot of people. My companion doesn't like to drive, so I'm driving and I'm still trying to get familiar with the area.

Also I'm still trying to get all the investigators figured out. We have a decent amount here and hopefully we will be able to keep it going and even increase the work here. I guess the one thing that is really annoying here is that we have almost no cell service in our apartment. We can get and send texts, but calls almost never happen. Sometimes we get a stroke of luck and we have roaming service, but that's super rare. We do live really close to the church building so that's great. I can't think of anything else at this time so if you have questions feel free to ask!

--Elder Huffaker