March 11, 2013

Hey everybody. I guess this week in news is that we are allowed to e-mail friends as well as family. Other than that, it's the usual here.

We are still trying to meet twice a week with our investigator who has a baptismal date. We've had to work out the kinks of her date because of ward activities. However the weeks surrounding it will be difficult to do it as well, so we determined that Sunday would be the best day and in the evening because two wards meet at that building and we don't want interruptions. We hope this will go through because it will be difficult to baptize her around that date and would probably be pushed back further than what it is.

Also, we have gotten in with a former investigator who we hope to start meeting with regularly. What's cool about her is that when we were over there she said that someone she knew hates Mormons, and she said " Well do you hate me then? Because I'm on the verge of becoming a Mormon?" Lots of hopes for her. The only problem is that she has to go to the doctor frequently and with her business, it's hard to meet all the time. We are going to be persistent a bit and hope things go well.

Other than that, it's been the usual here. We're still trying to get the ward excited about missionary work as our referral is the one getting baptized and she was a member's friend. That's the way missionary work works best!

Hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

(Some photos that Cameron sent this week. They found an interesting park....)

 

March 4, 2013 -- Mission Split!

Hey All!

Well for starters, I have just found out that this July they are going to split our mission. For the last month of my mission I will be either in the San Fernando Mission, or the Bakersfield mission. If I stay here I will be in the San Fernando Mission. I've sent Mom and Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa the image for the mission boundaries, so ask them if you want to see it.

Anyway, if you've been keeping up with my past letters, we have had an investigator we've been meeting with for the past couple weeks, and have just recently invited her to be baptized. She agreed, and we set a date for the 23rd of this month. The best part is that she is a referral from some of the members. We are trying to take this and show the rest of the members what can happen through referrals. We hope that people will get excited about missionary work and will provide us with referrals. As missionaries we are supposed to do the teaching, and the members are supposed to do the finding.

We hope things will continue to improve, and I myself can say that over the course of my time here, things really have improved. Hope all is well!

--Elder Huffaker

New Transfer, 5 Week Transfer

Well as my subject says, this transfer is the 5-week transfer, so our mission will be shortened by a week so that we will be on the schedule for the MTC.

Anyway, so you all know, Leadership calls were on Monday night. So I've been called as the new District Leader. I've got 8 missionaries in my district including me that I now have to deal with (just kidding!).

Anyway, so mission experience last week: Elder Chaney and I were knocking doors and we knocked on a door, and we heard footsteps and nobody came to the door. So we knock again, and hear a thud, like someone jumped off the stairs. Then this kid opens the door. Pretty sure it was a little boy, but he had long hair and he could have just been a chubby girl, but we aren't sure. Anyway, so we ask, "is one of your parents here?" and he says "Yes." So we say, "Will you go get them?" He says, "no". So we ask again, "Will you please go get one of them?", and he says "no," again. So we just hand him a restoration pamphlet and tell him to give it to one of them. He takes it and shuts the door. It was rather interesting.

Anyway, so this week was alright. We have actually had to drop some of our investigators because we just aren't able to meet with them and can't teach them. So we are just wasting our time there and they are in our records so we will just stop by from time to time. It's kind of sad to have to do that, but that's the way things are sometimes.

But on the positive side, we had lunch with a referral and her mom two weeks ago, and I think I wrote about that last time. Well, we have taught them both twice since last Monday and will be teaching them again today. Our referral will probably be baptized here in the coming month, although we haven't actually extended the invitation. That'll probably happen soon though. Other than that, our week was pretty usual.

Hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

New Transfer! February 18, 2013

Well for those of you who are unaware, it is now a new transfer. My companion, Elder Chaney, and I will be staying together for this transfer. That will mean by the end of this transfer that I will have spent 6 months in Solemint.

It's actually been really cool to see the work progress here. In other news, apparently there will be 28 new missionaries coming to our mission. They will arrive today if they haven't already. They will get in to their areas tomorrow. With all the new missionaries, we are told that they are opening 14 areas in the mission. I kind of want to be at the transfer meeting to see all the missionaries come in. It would be really cool.

We are getting two areas separated again in this zone. The Zone leaders have been covering the YSA and a family ward and now they will separate that so there will be sisters in the YSA and the ZLs covering the family ward. Also, CC1 and CC2 were combined a bit ago, and now they are separating those as well, putting elders in CC2. Well, that's what's new in the zone.

This week was pretty good, we got 2 new investigators who are friends with a member family in the ward and will be taking the lessons at their house. Statistically speaking, that is the best way to get new members. We are hoping for the best for them and we are meeting them tonight. We are hoping this transfer will be a good one, and I hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

P.S. from Marilyn:
Cameron has sent a number of pictures -- hope you enjoy these!

A view of the area

Dam in the canyon



It's kind of a tradition to burn something at the milestones of a mission. These are the pants that Cameron burned for his 18-month mark!

Actual snow in the nearby hills -- pretty uncommon for California!

The Elders and Sisters in his Zone

Maybe he needs to go to therapy for the quantity of ties he's accumulated!
 

He's "stumped"!

February 11, 2013

Note from Marilyn:
No, you didn't miss a post. Elder Huffaker was so busy sending photos last week, that he didn't send a letter. Photos are coming, so watch for them! And now..... Elder Huffaker:


Well, this week was okay. For starters, we did some service by ripping out carpet and taking out an investigators tree. It was a palm tree, and man those suckers do NOT want to come out! The thing was hanging on with half of its roots and it still couldn't be taken out by his pickup. It was quite the difficult tree to remove. Well, we got it and then used a car jack to get it into the bed of his pickup. It was heavy, but we felt accomplished.

Well, this guy is quite the interesting fellow. So while I was in CC1, We went and did service for him, (that was a year ago) and so now I'm in the area that he was in, so we are going over and continuing to do service. Well, his daughter is a member and he I guess at one time hated the LDS church. As of late we are actually sitting down and having lessons with him. He's slowly progressing, but we feel that things are starting to click. Hopefully things will continue to improve with him.

Also, there was a referral Elder Wright and I received that we had been trying to contact for forever. Well, we have finally been able to meet her and have invited her to take a lesson. We'll see how it goes, she is known by many of the members already and is friends with one of the young women in the ward. We'll see how things go.

Also in other news, there was a front of cold air that moved in from over the ocean and cooled things down here quite a bit. It actually snowed on some of the high hills and mountain area around the valley. I have pictures of it too, but those will come next week. It got down really cold that night, I'm not sure how cold, but a lot of people were saying that their cars had frost on them. It felt great and was cool to see. We were all saying that if it snowed a couple inches the whole city would probably be shut down. That would've been funny!

Anyway, hope all is well at home!
--Elder Huffaker