What a gwon?

So district meeting this last Wednesday was very good. First of all, I made a pineapple upside down cake - I haven't made one since Sav. I brought the cake which was to be part of the lesson. I used an object lesson that Elder Boyd K. Packer used when he was a mission president. I talked about how the gospel is sweet and desirable. But when we take it with out hand and throw it at investigators, they don't want it and neither does anyone else. I threw the first piece at Elder Brough. The reaction was perfect. Then you dish out the cake and everyone wants it. The pictures are of our district - Elder Brough is sitting in the back/middle and later turned around with the yellow stain from where the cake hit him.
Thursday I had an interesting experience where for a while I lost my sunglasses. I left them in the taxi on the way to Morant Bay. Somehow - miracle - we got the same taxi for the ride back and there they were sitting on the back seat where I sat on the way over.

Saturday brings my next amazing experience. The Lord is always preparing people. When we missionaries don't find them, they find us. We met a man that is truly down on his luck. He's from Santa Rose California and moved to Jamaica and has been living here the last 5 years. He was truly humble and we immediately gave him a Book of Mormon and committed him to read it. We are following up ASAP. We never know who the Lord has prepared or where they are.

Elder Huffaker

Picturesque

How do I describe this week..... I dunno, but it was good.

This week I taught my first district meeting as district leader. The Assistants decided to join us and even shared a little bit themselves. I went over "the challenging and testifying missionary" by Alvin Dyer. The Assistants said it was good except to get my district more involved next time. Oh well. After district meeting we went out to see one of the mission vehicles. They just switched over to Mitsubishi pickups. They look pretty good and still have that new car smell. mmmmmmmmmmmmm

After the district meeting, I went on a trade off with Elder Edwards, who is one of my zone leaders. He seemed very complacent while he was here in Yallahs with me. Elder Jarman went to Kingston with Elder Emery and rode in a car all the time. He misses the A/C and had quite the experience eating pig skin. I can't wait till he eats some mannish water. Not to mention he took one look at chicken foot and said, "NO!"

Anyways, Friday Night Activity was a little different this week. I introduced the family game of States, except I used countries because 90% of Jamaicans only know 5 states: Texas, Florida, California, New York and New Jersey. I don't really know why these are the only 5 they know other than that's probably the only places where they go when they go to the states. Back to the game, they really had a blast with it and I think they will want to play in the future.

Saturday, we had a lot of service we were doing. First we helped clean the Meddow's shop (they're a family in the local branch), then we went and cleaned the church, then we went and purchased some plywood for another service project. Well, I'm sure most of you know the saying, "When you play with fire, you're gonna get burned." AFTER 21 YEARS, it finally bit me. While cleaning the Meddow's shop, we cleaned out their chest freezer. To speed up the process we lit some coal and put a pot of water on it to get it going. So to help the coal get started, I blew on it. Some little ember decided to pop out at my face. Got me right on my left eyelid. So then I squeeze my eye shut. No I've got burn marks on my upper and lower eye. Needless, to say, this didn't stop me and won't stop me in the future. Lesson learned, watch out for leaping embers!

Pictures include: the sky that just seemed to pop out from a painter's canvas, me kissing $2700 goodbye for the purchase of the plywood for one of the service projects, and our orchids are in bloom, except for one last white one.

Elder Huffaker

The Doctor Will See You Later

(Brandon's letter from September 20th)

It's another week here in Kingston and everything could be going better. Of course, however, everything could be going worse.

First off, last week our washing machine broke. Soooooo, we all had to wash our clothes by hand. At first, you will think this is kinda cool and not so bad. However, by the end of doing simply a weeks worth of laundry. Your wrists will be sore and red and you might even have a blister on your knuckle. You don't need a scrub brush to wash by and nor do you need a washboard. Your clothes will get washed! This will also take you at least 3 hours to do this (considering you actually want them to be clean and not just have soapy water go through the fabric).

Along with this experience, the office Elders dropped off a new stove for us. Our last one didn't have a working oven. So I finally baked my cake on FRIDAY!

Please note: the other Elders in your house will beg and plead and trade and barter for some cake. I know my companion is making me breakfast one of these days.

Next, Elder Walker has been having some back pain. The Friday before last, we were in the doctor's office. Wednesday we went for an x-ray. Then we went back again to the doctor's office this Friday. When you go to a doctor's office here, you don't just check in and wait 5 minutes before they call you back. YOU SIT THERE AND WAIT! Elder Walker and I sat in these offices for about 2 hours (each) before they finally called him back. Then they do the whole thing in 15 minutes and say send in the next one. I don't understand where it takes 2 hours when it's just fifteen minutes in the back. Can someone answer this question, please?

Lastly, we had district conference in Spanish Town. So I got to see members from Old Harbour and Linstead! I got some pics with people I didn't get to get pics of, not to mention some of my favorite missionaries. For those of you who don't know. A district is like a stake, but not as fortunate. A district doesn't have a patriarch like a stake and it also doesn't have a high priests quorum (because it has no high priests quorum, the mission president has to interview and approve all prospective melchizidek priesthood holders). In all other respects, however, it functions like a stake. Take care everyone :D

Elder Huffaker

It's the News

Brandon sent a few more pictures to go along with this email; the first is the elders in his apartment (house): Elder Jones, Elder Huffaker, Elder Harris and Elder Darling, taken the day Elder Jones went home. He took a few shots of the view from the house, and the last photo is of his suntan - after only a month there's a big difference between the arms that see the sun, and the legs that don't!

He writes:

Alrighty, so the most popular thing going on here in Jamaica is the fact that Michael Jackson is dead. So they have been playing his music nonstop! Forget the reggae and the dancehall! Someone even pulled out 4 speakers 3ft by 4ft by 2ft in the middle of the street just playing his music!

I've had my first taste of straight-up noni juice. That is soooo bitter. We got it from our progressing family. I learned that there is a difference when you say peel an orange down here. When you say peel an orange, it means to just get rid of the orange outside, they leave the cream rind on the orange, so if you don't want that part, you say you're gonna peg an orange.

Elder Jones, a Jamaican missionary who I lived with died (finished his mission) and went home Wednesday, I got to see him yesterday at a district conference (equal to a stake conference) in Maypen. When Elder Jones went home, Elder Darling, the other elder living with us, joined our companionship and we became a threesome. We felt that we probably looked formidable walking around. That was Elder Harris' first time in a threesome and he's been out for almost a year and a half.

So I mentioned district conference in Maypen, that's probably the last time I will see President Gingery, being as he goes home today and President Graff will be coming in. They talked about preparing this district for becoming a stake and also the Kingston District, and they dissolved 3 other districts and made the branches mission dependent. Still no stakes yet, and they say it's because of a lack of worthy Melchizidek priesthood holders. So the sooner we get more of them, the sooner the church will flourish here.

Elder Harris finally got his shears back from some other missionaries, but they're broken, so it looks like we're goin to a Jamaican barber, which I have heard, are not too good at cutting hair. they're more of stylists down here.

A couple of emails ago, I mentioned bag juices, and I finally realized what they're like. It's similar to otter pops, except instead of tube form, change it to like a ziploc bag, sandwich size. I picked up some rice a couple weeks ago and cooked up too much rice, so I was eating rice for about a week, and I finally finished it last week on Wednesday!

Last Monday, Elder Harris and I went and played some good-ol' American football in Spanish Town. It was the Spain zone (mine) against the Kingston zone, needless to say we lost.

That's all for this week