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

The Mail that Didn't Come

I'm sorry about last week. I had a bit of trouble with the computer I was on. I had typed up my email and was trying to attach some photos, but it was taking forever to attach the photos. So, my time ran out and my email wasn't sent. So, here's last week's mail that didn't come.

Well, it was Halloween, and this year I decided to dress up as a missionary. It's very uneventful down here because the people don't believe in Halloween. In fact, they're kinda against it.

As far as this week's happenings, we had interviews with Pres. Graff and I learned that 8 missionaries will have gone home and only one new one is coming. We're losing missionaries in the field, but not just here, it's happening all over the world.

Along with the interveiws, transfers are this week. All of us here in Old Harbour are pretty sure it's going back to a 2 man house, we're just not sure who's staying and who's leaving.

Lastly for this week, we had dinner at the Relief Society President's house. You could say it was like a mini branch party. It was pretty good and I got to say goodbye to some people. I've been in Old Harbour for 6 months and am 99.9% positive I'm leaving. Here's the photos:


-Weight loss with pants that I have not had taken in by a tailor

-6 month mark of my mission

-party at Sister Dennis' and the Don of Old Harbour herself

Another One Finds the Truth

My apologies for not posting Brandon's last email right away; it has been a wild week. The photos go with his letter; the last one of the flowers in Bellas Gate he described: "a garden we saw up there and it was awesome, because it had flowers out of one plant that were 3-5 different colors. (a flower itself wasn't five colors, but one flower would be blue and another yellow and another pink)" He had this to say in his emailed letter:

Yes, we had another baptism. This one is Vanessa Bell. Vanessa is 14 yrs-old and loves school. She lives next to the Relief Society Pres. here in Old Harbour. She was baptized yesterday and I had the privilege of performing the ordinance.

This week has also been very weird in the weather perspective. It has been raining off and on so much. I wonder sometimes whether to take a plastic bag (they call them scandal bags down here) or whether to wear my sun glasses. It will rain cats and dogs for 20 minutes and then let up, and won't rain for a couple days. Sometimes it rains so hard, I like to say instead of raining cats and dogs, its raining horses and cows.

Nextly, this week, Elder Olson and I received a referral to go to the edge of our area to a place called Bellas Gate (very expensive taxi ride) There we got to meet Debbie Clark, who just moved there from England. Very interesting lady, but doesn't really have any interest right now.

While there, we got to try a new fruit to my taste: Passionfruit. For those of you who have not had fresh passionfruit, it's very tangy. Elder Olson has a picture of me eating it and making a "sour" face. You don't even really eat it, technically, you suck out the insides, seeds and all. It looks like frog eggs. I'll have to get the picture from him later to send to you.

That's about it for this week. Keep in touch, I like to read up on everyone to see how it's going.

Elder Huffaker

One Today, One Tomorrow

This last week has been somewhat eventful. I bought Orange Marmalade last Monday. I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT! It tastes like fruitcake. Needless, to say, I'm finishing it, it seems like a waste of money to not eat it.

Then, Elder Tonks and I had a close encounter. Have you ever been wandering around in the complete darkness and not realized how close you were standing to someone? That happened to Elder Tonks and I; Elder Olson and I had just finished turning off the lights in the house for the night. When I walked into the bedroom (dark) and I have to pass everyone's beds to get to mine. Elder Tonks was standing by his bed - which I didn't know - and I was just walking through. He knew I was coming but didn't know how close I was. When all of a sudden, Elder Olson flips on the lights. And our faces our inches from each other, with the looks of utter terror. He fell back onto his bed and apparently I "shrieked". It was mildly humorous and we all laughed about it and as such took us a while to go to sleep that night.

Then, I had an awful experience in which, I just finished frying some dumpling (a local dish which I'll be happy to make for anyone who wants it - when I get home) and was moving the pot full of hot oil to the back burner of the stove so that the others could use the front; when all of a sudden the handle broke off of the pot! There was no sign of wear or anything to say that it could come off. All of a sudden it did, and hot oil was all over the stove top. So I didn't have a fun morning.

Nextly, Elder Olson and I have come to an agreement in which once a week, we cook dinner for each other. So I got to prepare Mac n Cheese with some dumpling, and enjoy some Spaghetti. Yep, Spaghetti, I was so happy.

Then, I've told you about a local soda I've come to enjoy, called Bigga. They just came out with two new flavors: Mango and Pommegranite (I don't know how to spell) The Mango isn't a good one, but I do enjoy the other.

Lastly, we had a baptism, shout hurray. (see picture) This is Sandino Gordon, aka Spoogy. He was baptized Sunday and we have another baptism this Sunday. That's the longest my hair will be. I just got a trim yesterday. I think it was about 3 inches that the barber took off. :D

That's all folks
Elder Huffaker

Bikes!

First off, We had Zone Conference last Tuesday in Spanish Town. The Kingston-Portmore zone came as well. There, we met a new senior couple who will be serving in Turks and Caicos-Elder and Sister Herbert. They're from Eagle, Alaska, I think. Also, I got to enjoy the zones singing happy birthday to me as well as a few other Elders who had and will have birthdays.

Next, Elder Olson got sick for 2 1/2 days He got sick on Thursday and didn't head back out until Saturday afternoon. We're not sure what it was, but he had strep throat about 3-4 weeks ago, and we thought it might be that coming back. So I stayed home all day Thursday. At first I thought it was kinda nice, but then it turned to the fact that I now had boundless amounts of energy. Then on Friday after our weekly planning, we split. I went out with Elder Tonks in the afternoon and Elder Hicken in the evening. I learned my lesson of patience, which brings me to my next point...

I will not ride a bike ever again while on my mission. The bikes down here are quite different, despite the fact that they ARE bikes. My butt still hurts from riding just half a day. Sure it doesn't hurt when you first get on and you have a good time, but by the end of the day. OUCH. I then stayed in again on Saturday morning and proselyted the rest of Saturday with Elder Olson again, he felt good to get back outside.

Lastly, I finally finished peeling my sunburn that I got a week and a half ago. It didn't blister, but it kept peeling.

Thats all for today, hopefully I will get some photos later today to send next week.

Elder Huffaker

General Conference

Ahhhh, this week has been a different week.

First off, you all know that I'm now in a four man house. Elder Tonks is the district leader, and it's kinda weird that I now report to someone who lives in my house. He went to district leader training on Wednesday, so we had no district meeting. So Elder Hicken, Olson and I proselyted 3 full days in a row. The sad part that came from it is I got sunburned on my nose, forehead and
upperlip. Not cool, my nose is still peeling from it.

Thursday, the Zone Leaders came to Old Harbour and they split to go with each of our companionships. Elder Knowlton (who is a transfer above me) came with Elder Olson and I and Elder Christensen went with Elder Tonks and Hicken. We didn't really do much, we just did some street contacting in attempts to increase our teaching pool.

Saturday, we travelled to Maypen to watch General Conference. Elder Olson and I stayed at a house in Maypen with Elder Rebeiro and Elder Smith. Elder Rebeiro is a transfer above me and Elder Smith is a transfer below. We had a pretty good time there, although I forgot some things to pack for staying the night.

Then, it brought us to today. And now I'm writing.

I needed to include some photos so here we go:

First is a local soda that I've come to enjoy, called Bigga. Flavors include grape (as seen) orange, fruit punch, jamaica kola, pineapple, and ginger beer (no alcohol). They just changed the bottle style when I took the photo.

Next is me and my previous zone leader Elder Brown enjoying some ice cream at Juici Patti (a local restaurant) after playing a few games of pool. I had butter pecan he had strawberry cheese cake.

Here is the photo of the members of our house. I actually took this picture in Maypen. Elder Hicken is on the left (he turns 18 months this transfer and served in Old Harbour about a year ago), Elder Olson (my companion who is currently 16 months), Elder Tonks (who is my district leader and turns 1 year this transfer), and me (who turns 6 months this transfer and hates the racoon look I have because of my sunburn).

Lastly, this a photo Elder Olson took and I'm standing next to a sign that says Cameron's Bulk Chemicals. I thought my little bro. might like this.

All New!

Yes, it's official, the latest transfers are over! I'm still in Old Harbour, but I now have a new companion! I'm now with Elder Olson, who was in Linstead last transfer. GET THIS! They turned the house back into a four man house intead of two man. IT GETS BETTER! Elder Tonks and Hicken are the other two Elders. Elder Olson is from Spokane. Elder Tonks lived in Spokane until about 2 months before his mission. Elder Hicken has already been in Old Harbour (about a year ago). I can relate with everyone really easily. IT'S AWESOME! Elder Harris was moved to Kingston.

So on the Wednesday when they all got here we did a deep cleaning of the house - it needed it and I couldn't do it all every Monday. THE HOUSE IS CLEAN!!!!!! It's really great being here. I feel as if I've left a big pit of despair. They are no longer dividing into areas for missionaries, but are just sending them to serve in cities. So we can go wherever we want. We did decide, however, to split up our less-active members we see.

I also got my mom's package, which included a box cake and frosting, and we celebrated transfers (since my birthday was about 3 weeks ago). It's goin' really great down here.

Sorry I don't have any photos, but I promise to have some next Monday, we got to go and purchase more stuff for the house now that it's a four man again.

LATER

Elder Huffaker

The Rain is Tess...

It rained a lot this week, and it just made me think of a song from the musical, “Paint Your Wagon,” called Mariah. The song takes place when it just rains and pours constantly.

Photos or no photos, an email is always good to have. No package, no dear elders and I’m only receiving the monthly letters from Brother Young. I'm guessing the box should be here by Wednesday, which is also when transfers are (instead of Thursday when they used to be) I really need to pick up a hole punch, unless you sent one, so I can "document" all the letters I receive.

I haven't really been anywhere to take scenery photos, the best place to get those would be on the way up to Linstead, and I haven't gone that way in the longest time, everywhere I'm at is so developed. As far as changes go, transfers are this week and I won’t find out what's happening to me until its here... They want to send two more missionaries to Cayman and two more to Turks and Caicos, which means a total of 14 missionaries off island now. (Cayman:4, Turks and Caicos: 4, Bahamas Nassau: 2, Bahamas Freeport: 4) Transfers are Wednesday instead of Tuesday now, so we'll see what happens.

As far as the work in Old Harbour, it's taken a sharp drop. We have people that won't keep commitments and it looks like we're gonna have an all new teaching pool, instead of gradually adding and dropping some. President Graff did meet with the investigator that needed interviewed, but she has since had a change of mind on getting baptized. Same with another investigator we had. It's seriously taking a turn for the worst since I've been here. We are very far down on investigators and dropping a lot and it looks like more will be dropped. I know we've got one solid 14 year old girl who has already been coming to church with a member before being taught by us. The next closest baptism right now looks like Oct. 18, unless by some miracle we get a turn of events. Our inactives are not going so well, we've had 3 out of the 70 or so inactives actually come back to church, sadly though it was only for one Sunday that they came back.

Last Tuesday, when our mission president came here with his assistants to do the interview for baptism, my companion, Elder Harris, went with him and one of the assistants, and I went with the other. (our own little splits) Then, he went on a trade off this Wednesday and the district leader came here to Old Harbour with me, and my district leader is really weird. He would walk on the other side of the road for as long as possible and really complained a lot.

Then I decided to do some experimental deep frying this week. I made deep fried "snickerdoodles" For those of you who aren't familiar with snickerdoodles, they're a sugar cookie with cinnamon. I just threw together flour, salt, sugar, water, baking powder and cinnamon (not necessarily in that order) and deep fried them. Very good and I highly recommend it. There's no set recipe, so experiment for yourself if you want.

Next Monday, you'll get the update on what's happening here in Jamaica. Keep it up at home, and I sent a snail mail last Monday, so it should be there either at the end of this week or sometime next week.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS,

Elder Huffaker

A Week Mostly Dedicated to Food

Well, I've had quite the interesting week. Yes I am now officially 20 years old and I don't feel too much different thankfully. This email is mostly dedicated to food as I have had quite a few experiences.

I learned that peanut butter is not best to leave on your skin. It eventually becomes a lot like superglue and hurts when you 'peel it off'.

This last Wednesday was zone meeting and we learned how to make a weird juice mix that's supposed to be like Gatorade, but isn't. Afterwards, we went to Pizza Hut/KFC like usual, and Elder Harris and I had a specialty pizza called the jerk sausage bites pizza (see photo).

Then Friday I made a birthday cake, double decker style. It was a white cake with cherry frosting. (see second photo)

Then yesterday, while we were at a recent convert's house, I ate aloe vera. Yes that's right, he grows the plant and gave me a slice to eat. It smells like onions but is very slimey and takes a lot of water to get down. It also has a bad after taste. He also has an almond tree and you can eat the fruit of it. The nut is not the only thing edible (I didn't know).

Lastly, we had some cool cloud formations. I wish I had my camera but we're not supposed to walk around with it. One of them looked like the surface of Mars and another one looked like waves in the ocean at night. Wish you could've seen it.

Elder Huffaker

How to Find Little Joys

Brandon's email this week was 3 1/2 days late. I still can't figure out the delays. The first photo is of the cinderblock making machine he talked about last week. Then, Brandon described how they ran out of propane to cook with, and he finished cooking his egg on the iron, as shown in the second photo. Ahh, the mother of invention!

August 31, 2009

First off, I hope everyone is having a good week. I do love to hear from everyone and always look forward to emailing.

This week, I've noticed that my companion's and my life are a lot like Shrek and Donkey. I'm Shrek and he's Donkey. He just keeps on talking and singing, and I can't get him to shut up. Other than that, I'm not like an onion. ; D

Last Wednesday, I had a pizza! I enjoyed it so much! Just a plain pepperoni pizza is amazing. Me and two other Elders went in on this pizza. HAPPY DAY!!!

As far as what is happening in the mission, we are no longer allowed to cut our hair very short. We're in one of the hottest countries in the world and we cannot have short hair. On the next note, it's rumored that someone is training in the Caymans. Everyone is not happy about that. Going off island used to be an honor to good missionaries and you had to be at least 6 months out. Apparently not any more.

I also learned how to make a glaze. I tried making some frosting with a recipe my mom gave me. Generally you use powdered sugar, but I don't have any so I tried using regular sugar. When I was whipping the frosting, it was still very chunky, so I tried applying heat to see if I could get the sugar to break down. It didn't, but I did learn that's how they make a glaze like for doughnuts.

On another note, I have found a "replacement" for little Emma in my life. There's a family we're teaching that has a 9 month old daughter. So when she started to cry during a lesson Elder Harris was teaching Sunday, he immediately said, "Elder Huffaker, quiet that baby!" So this is one of my little joys on my mission, although we still can't hold children. :(

Well that's all for this week.

Elder Huffaker

Returned Emails and A Private Little War

Brandon has had some issues with his email getting through, and has had some returned to him. This post is a compilation of a few emails, which he was finally able to get to send. The first part is older stuff; the end is his message for the current week. He writes:

I keep getting this delivery notice that my mail isn't going through sometimes. I don't know what's up, but here's a few emails you were supposed to get but didn't.

Well, well, it's transfers this week! I dunno if I'm leaving Old Harbour yet or not, I'll find out later this week. I could be writing from a different place next Monday.

I learned that tropical flavored Skittles are actually pretty close to what fruit tastes like down here. So go eat a bag! :D

Accountability has changed down here. Instead of reporting our numbers, figuring what we could've improved on this week and tied it to a Christlike attribute and a doctrine, we just report our numbers. It makes Thursdays and Sundays a lot easier.

I've officially had a Jamaican apple. A lot different than an American apple, but just as good. I want to bring a seed home and see if I can get it to grow. Mmmmmmm. I've also had coconut. Not the milk yet, but the coconut straight is very good. It tastes different than the shredded stuff you buy at the store.

I have learned that when you say, "bike," it refers to a motorcycle or moped. If you want to talk about a bicycle, you have to say, "bicycle."

They listen to the BBC down here, too. It's pretty good to listen to, to catch up on the news around the world. The only time I can listen to it though, is when we're in a taxi with a driver who wants to listen to it.

We're teaching a family whose father makes cinderblocks. It's a pretty cool machine; I want to go over one of these days to actually watch.

Wednesday, I went on another tradeoff. I was reunited with my MTC companion, Elder Tracy! It was awesome. Sadly, we rode bikes all day and my butt got really sore and I biffed. I was looking down at this dog chasing me and was getting ready to kick it when my front tire hit Elder Tracy's back tire and he caught his balance. I didn't. I got bloodied, but no damage to my clothes.
Last night, we went to a scheme called Planters and Bois Content. It reminded me so much of the Grangemont road, I thought it was kinda interesting. A scheme is a neighborhood, but they name the neighborhoods.

The cool thing is, they use a lot of the old fashioned sewing machines. The ones where you have to pump it with your feet. I'm gonna try and get a photo of one at a member's house.

Lastly. I can officially solve a Rubik's cube. I've been working on it for the past couple of weeks and last night I solved it by memory! Yeah me!


In another email, he writes:

WHAT'S THIS ABOUT RYAN BEING SICK! I DIDN'T KNOW. I've been emailing him, but never knew why I didn't get a reply. I hope he doesn't have to be sent home, but I guess if he needs to. THAT SUCKS! I still won't see him for 3 years total. You'll have to send me a photo of Cameron's new marching uniforms, but it's good to hear Alyssa made varsity. Love the pics of Emma.

Next transfers are at the last full week of September. A transfer is every 6 weeks. Lately I've been eating a lot of rice. I try to mix up my meals, but it still feels like I eat the same things week after week. We have a very short budget. We get about 20,000 Jamaican a month and we now have to travel to Linstead for District meeting, which costs 400 to and back, another 500 a week for a lady to wash our clothes, 120 or 140 a week for an hour of emails plus other funds in between. We have also been taxiing a lot to get to the edges of our area, so even more money goes there. I end up with just a little over 1000 for food every week, which doesn't buy a lot. Just keep feeding the missionaries there, it definitely helps them with their funds. I wish we had faithful members like that here in Jamaica. We just get a Sunday night dinner from the Branch President and that's it. The weight is still coming off, but a bit more slowly now. I'm still not saying how much.

The assistants and President Graff have yet to come to Old Harbour. Nothing special happens on P-Days, and we just lost one investigating family and we might lose another. One didn't want to commit to baptism, but knows everything else to be true and the other father claims to have had a vision to go to another church, but we think he had too much ganja (marijuana). The other family we have is doing good and the oldest son wants to get baptised, the mom is unsure, and the father seems uninterested overall. There's a couple of factories I'd like to visit here in Old Harbour, but will probably have to wait til next Monday. We have our bikes, but still have to fix them and Elder Harris needs a helmet. To be honest, I'm not looking forward to biking.


And finally, his current email had this to say:


Well, I've had a very interesting week. First off, there's the mysterious brown spots. I think they're guinnup (ginn-up) stains, which apparently don't come out until the end of the season. You only see them after you wash your clothes.

We have new zones and areas in the zones in the mission now. President Graff reopened two areas and dissolved two zones. Example, there used to be 10 missionaries in Spanish Town, now there are only 4 as he opened a couple areas. There are a few other places like that too. We now have 3 new areas in our zone, we have Linstead, Highgate, and Ocho Rios (a.k.a. Ochi), as such, we now meet in Linstead for our Wednesday meetings.

On our way to district meeting, the police were doing random vehicle stops and searches. We didn't get stopped on the way up, but we did on the way back. The taxi driver was freaking out because he didn't have his uniform. I don't know if he received a fine or not.

The War: at about 6:00 in the morning yesterday, there was a gun fight at the bottom of the hill we live on. Thankfully, it wasn't in the direction that we go to church. It ended at about 8:30 and we don't know who won, but we were hearing shots and breaks for reloading all morning.

I made a giant no bake cookie:

A Quick Email and "Thanks"

Brandon's weekly email was not as detailed as some of his others, but he was focused on answering questions I'd asked. One question was if he might take his pants to a tailor to take them in from his weight loss. He also sent another email that was asking questions of his own, particularly about some recipes and how to make certain things from scratch. I have my typing cut out for me this week as I answer and send him recipes.

He sent this photo, which is with Elder Tracy, his companion from the MTC. They must have met up again, possibly at a zone conference.
He writes:

Finding inactives has been quite difficult, we've started to travel outside of Old Harbour itself to reach those members. Thankfully, no traveling in circles, but we do have a lot of vague addresses. For some we just have which scheme they're in and no phone numbers. That's very difficult to work with. We are supposed to fix our bikes today so we can begin biking.

For District and Zone Meetings, we go to Spanish Town, for Zone Conferences we go to Linstead. This Tuesday however, we have a special Zone Conference in which the president of the Caribbean (a member of the Seventy) is coming, so we're going to Constant Springs in Kingston. We take taxis and/or buses to get to these meetings. President Graff has yet to visit Old Harbour, or if he has, I didn't know about it.

I'll go to a tailor eventually, but not yet. There are a few tailors that are members as well. I eat a lot of American foods/quick foods like ramen and pb&j sandwiches. We get fed every Sunday by the branch president's wife, but that's about it. We generally don't eat dinner though, except the Sunday dinner.



He sent one more short email this week, and this is an excerpt from it:

This email is just to say thanks. I never really took thought for what you have taught me. Especially about cleanliness. Elder H. is pretty much the opposite about that. .......... As such, I thank you for all the preparedness you've given me.


It feels good as a parent to know that a) he appreciates what we tried to teach, and b) he listened and remembered!! I hope now that he's learning patience and tolerance.

Another Day, Another Week

Well well, it's that time again.

This last week I realized that I have been cursed. This curse comes from my Young Men's leader Bro. Young. He cursed me with the fact that if I didn't continue to practice piano, there would come a time while on my mission when I would have to play the piano. There are a few Sundays here where that has proven true, however, I didn't step up to play.

On another note, a recent convert has given Elder Harris and I 30 eggs. Talk about a lot of eggs. More than we can handle. He works at this hatchery and any eggs left over that don't hatch or have cracks, you can buy from the hatchery dirt cheep.

I've learned the best way to explain Huffaker to a Jamaican is by telling them it's not a full acre. "A" in Jamaica is sometimes pronounced like an "O". So on a girl named Tammy, it sounds like Tommy. So instead of a full acre it's a Hoff aker. :D

Nextly, I went on a trade off last Wednesday. I spent my first night out of Old Harbour. I traded with one of the zone leaders, and stayed with the other. The other was Elder Sizemore (see photo). He and I had a good time. It was while on this trade off that I showed some other elders how much weight I lost by pulling down my pants while still buttoned. So unless I wear a belt, I can be de-pantsed.

One more thing they do down here is when they see a hot person, they don't whistle, they hiss. It's the weirdest thing, yet kinda disturbing. Anyways.

That's all for this week.

Elder Huffaker

The New Week

Brandon's email came on time, but my hit-or-miss internet access while camping kept this post from being on time. His first photo shows his weight loss; the second one is him cutting a new notch in his belt, and the third picture is the notches with progress dates. Any guesses on how many pounds he's taken off?

He writes:

Well, well, well, it has been quite the week here.

I've learned that they need to announce a new weight loss advertisement. It should be called the Mormon Missionary. All you have to do is join our religion and serve a mission. HAHA!! It really does work!

On a new note, our P-days have now been shortened. This is effective for all missionaries everywhere by announcement of President Monson. We now end P-day at 5 instead of 6.

Elder Harris is now going on a special diet (he's hit 18 months) now all he eats is bread, tuna fish, eggs, and mac'n'cheese. He only eats breakfast and lunch (supposedly) so I laugh everytime he complains. I've been doing that since I got on the island (the eating at breakfast and lunch only).

We had Zone Meeting last Wednesday. It was very good and spiritual. We're supposed to do our interviews with President those days, but our interviews went short because he had to go somewhere for another meeting.

Along the lines of President Graff, we're now going to be remaining in our areas a lot longer. Before, you'd move about every 3-4 transfers, now it's more like 4-7 transfers. So I'll probably be seeing less of the island now. (I'm disappointed.)

I've finally met Elder Talbert (Mom talks about him a lot). He dropped off a bike for me. (FINALLY!) He saw my Rubik's Cube. He picked it up, messed it up, and fixed it with only 3 glances. CRAZY!!!

I dunno if I've talked about it before, but people down here have yardnames. They basically have a second name given to them. For instance, the lady I just baptized, her real name is Falyn (Fay lynn), but her yard name is Clair. So sometimes, you could be looking for someone who "doesn't exist."

Last Tuesday, our power went out again, this time at 11:00 at night; it didn't come on for at least 18 hours. Needless to say, I had a gallon of milk in the fridge that went bad. Which is another thing, I didn't know powdered milk could go bad. Apparently it does.

That's all for this week.

P.S. Check out the weight loss (I'm not saying how much)

Repent Ye!

Brandon sent a few interesting pictures this week. Before you cry foul, please know that we will be sending him a new pair of shoes, but are debating whether to send them separately (as we've been advised to), or to follow suit-no pun intended-with Brandon's companion, who received a pair of shoes together without problem. If you're not aware, shipping items to the island can be hit-or-miss, if the local postal workers think they can sell something you've sent, it can disappear before delivery. So if you separate a pair of shoes into 2 boxes, about a week apart, you're more likely to get them through. After all, who is going to buy just one shoe?If shipping weren't so outrageous, I wouldn't even worry about it. Anyway, Brandon sent this:

Well, I experienced my first bus preacher. HAHA! Interesting, right? There apparently are people who when they get on the bus will just shout quotes from the Bible and a few other things and a repent ye in there too. I was laughing inwardly the whole time. I wanted to just yell, "Wo unto all ye hypocrites!" haha.

Well, we have a new assignment from the mission president, President Graff. We are to find 5 less-active members each week and work on bringing them back to church. Needless to say, while we were looking for one of these members, we walked for an hour and a half in one big circle. We realized that when we saw our branch president's house, which is in the area we started. That sucked! Then we realized we were in the wrong area. We were going down roads we didn't know and eventually got to the circle point. THAT WAS CRAZY!

Wednesday, after District Meeting, Elder Harris and I tried to do some shoe shopping for me. We stopped at 5 shoe stores, none of them had size 13's in a polishable black shoe. That was dumb. So we're going to another town called Maypen today to see if we can't find any.

There's been a lot of new changes with our new mission president. We now are supposed to locate those 5 people every week, and a few other weird changes. Not only in rules, but there are some elders that have been having problems, so there has been a lot of missionaries moving around the island.

That's all for this week!

Elder Huffaker

And in a P.S. for him, he sent this photo with the question, Can you tell what's wrong with this sign? (You may have to click to enlarge it)

Two out of Three Ain't Bad

(Um, the title is from the song; no reflection on the content of the blog entry.)

Brandon's email brought pictures and news of a baptism! We're so excited for him. He writes:

Alright, so I met the new Mission President last Wednesday. President Graff is an interesting person and has already instituted new rules. The trip to zone conference is much better though. We travelled to Linstead, and once you get out of the cities, it is beautiful country. There's times when it looks like the plains of Africa with the weird trees, like you're along the Amazon and like the forests back home. ITS AMAZING!

I learned that investigators will sometimes join the church thinking that we can solve their problems. Thinking we will give them money for dental care or to get glasses, etc., then they don't come to church anymore when they realize this. Makes ya wonder how many investigators are sincere.

We baptized 2/3 of a family yesterday. The father and mother were baptized (the Seaton family), but when the son watched, he flipped out and did not want to. He sat in the water for like half an hour and just wouldn't. We're working with him for next Sunday though. Elder Harris baptized Bro. Seaton and I baptized Sis. Seaton.

On the way to the baptism, we passed a donkey cart, like the one photo that's been goin' around on the internet. Except instead of a truck cab, it was just a wood cart. But it did have the car tires. Haha.

Then last night, the power went out in the middle of the night. It sucked! I kept waking up waiting for the power to come on and cool me. That was one of the roughest nights I've had here.

I'm getting a watchline with my "amazing tan" I would like to hear everyone's opinion on whether I should keep it or get rid of it. Lemme know!

Elder Huffaker

This Week

Brandon's weekly email was a little short, but full of news. With no new pictures to add, this will be a short blog entry. He writes:


This week has been pretty interesting. I had my first jellie (an unripe coconut). Before they become coconuts, they call them jellies and they have this water that tastes pretty weird. Still waiting for an actual coconut.

Ladies down here are obsessed with hair extensions. They love to use them, especially colored ones. One of the things they do down here as well is wash their shoes. I mean stick them in a bucket of soapy water, take a brush and scrub. I've never done that before, but they like their shoes nicey-nice.

This week we had 6 investigators at church. It was amazing! The only bad thing was is we were supposed to have a baptism yesterday, but the investigator called in the morning and backed out. But we do have 3 for this week that are really solid.

That's all folks,

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

The Next Series

Although Brandon doesn't mention it, President and Sister Gingery are soon reaching the end of their mission presidency -- I believe in the next week. The new mission president will be Rick Graff. Sister Gingery sent out some photos of recent Zone Conferences, and a tie-cutting all-around. Sister G. is apparently using the cut ties in a quilt. So this is a photo with Brandon's zone, and that's why his tie is cut. (Brandon is at the far left of the standing missionaries, with President Gingery in the red tie next to him) He writes:

Alrighty, so I came up with some more things to talk about and noticed a few things I didn't cover.

First off, when someone is crunked, its nearly impossible to communicate with them. Crunked means they're drunk and high at the same time. Elder Harris and I ran into one and the way I could tell was by the smell of alcohol on his breath and the spliff still in his mouth.

We did some service the other day, we chopped someone's yard using the machetes (mowing the lawn) and I got burned on the back of my neck. We were in regular clothes (which feels so weird when you're used to wearing slacks and a tie all the time) and thankfully I had jeans on. Elder Harris didn't and got sunburned on his calves. I got burned on the back of my neck, it sucked when we went back out to proselyte.

I mentioned before that they are a little racist down here and yell whitey or white man at us all the time. The funny thing is is they sometimes (children in particular) will mistake us for Asians and yell chiney. So it's always kinda funny to hear that.

I noticed that they dont have any rootbeer down here. Which really disheartened me. Especially since on Wednesdays after district meeting, we go to a Pizza Hut. I love rootbeer with my pizza and they don't have it. They have a couple of their own flavors of soda down here. I mentioned before the brands but these flavors are unique. There's ginger beer which is really gross, they will add it to fruit juice so sometimes you can taste ginger in your juice. The other soda is Ting, which is grapefuit soda and I think it tastes pretty good, its kinda a lot like Squirt.

Another thing they do down here is if they're black, sometimes they will bleach. Apparently brown is the prime color down here. So they have a bleach cream that they rub on to make their skin lighter, it makes them look kinda gross.

That's all for now,

Elder Huffaker

GREETINGS FROM OLD HARBOUR, JAMAICA!

Brandon's first emails from Jamaica came, and Sister G. sent one more photo, with Brandon and Elder Tracy pointing out their first areas on a map of Jamaica. I asked him a ton of questions in my email, and he tried to answer quickly in a response. He writes:

Hello, hello, hello

Alrighty, so this is the first email i get to send off. normally yesterday would have been p-day but it was labour day here as well. It's either hot or humid down here. So you sweat for the simplest of tasks. The showers are pretty much cold water only, although it does feel good, but as soon as you step out, you're sweating again.

My trainer is Elder Harris from Willard Missouri. He's been out here since February 2008. I'm sure he could pass for a younger dad though, he's a curly red-head.

So far so good here, the first day that i got to Old Hrbour, it poured. It will soak you in 10 minutes flat. We do a lot of proselyting, and the people will pretty much talk to you the first time, it's the return visits that are the hardest. We do have to progressing investigators and have set a baptism date with them. :)

Leaving the MTC was a little hard, especially saying goodbye to my district. We were very close. The flights were interesting though. Flying out of SLC at 1:00 a.m. then atlanta and miami. We actually had a delay in miami because our plane had not yet arrived from its previous destination.

Other than that, the AP's picked us because the mission president (Pres. Gingery) was on a video conference with Elder Bednar and a few other mission presidents. Going through customs was really weird. Thankfully we made it ok. Then the humidity just hits ya.

The AP's drove us to a fast food restaurant and ate there, then went to the mission office, met the Pres. Gingery and his wife and then went to their house. We stayed there for two nights and then I came to Old Harbour and Elder Tracy went to Spanish Town.

Hope everything is goin alright with you guys!

Elder Huffaker

Slow down on the questions mom, flights went fine, we made it through customs fine. The country is really different. people drive on the left and steering wheel on the right and when they're behind the wheel, they are really aggressive. Every morning we get to wake up and smell the ganja. j/k but it really is a third world out here.

Old Harbour is pretty much urban, its a small urban but yeah. We get a lot of street contacts. We got to progressing investigators. Kino, who's about a 25 yrs old male and Charm, 34 yr old female.

Our apartment is decent size, it's like living in the laundry room to the mudroom (square feet wise) There's four of us altogether, Elder Darling and Elder Jones are the other two. They just split Old Harbour into two areas. Elder Jones is a native, but i forget where he's from. I'm not sure of the size of the district, but I'll find out tomorrow at district meeting.

It's not so much hot and humid as hot or humid. either way though, you sweat. I'll keep you posted.