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

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

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