Hey all! Well this week was a bit hectic, a lot of things not missionary work happened.
So to start out, one of the sisters in my district ended up getting sick. The Zone Leaders were near by and so they stopped by and gave her a blessing. Well, a few days later, she was still sick, and had to go to the ER because she was extremely low on body fluids. So we made some calls and tried to figure out what we could do, but in the end we couldn't do anything. That was Thursday night.
Friday, Elder Ehninger had an appointment with the doctor at 8:45. It was a bit of a trip, but we were able to get there on time. When we get there, we find out that the appointment was for 10:40, and our mission medical lady was going to have him switch with another set of missionaries whose appointment was at 8:45. She kind of mumbled what she was planning on doing, and it was a bit confusing, but we ended up having to wait until his actual appointment.
Also, note that District Meeting is at 11. So if his appointment is at 10:40, and we are a ways away from the building where we hold district meeting, we are not going to be on time for that meeting. Also with one of the sisters home sick from the ER, her companionship would also not be attending. By the way there's 3 companionships in my District, ours included.
So we had the other companionship just go to the other district's District Meeting. Fun, right? So after all this, let's top it off by having our car mess up again. So we took it in to Pep Boys on a Saturday, and they told us they couldn't get it fixed that day. So we were told by our car coordinator that it would have to be taken to the dealership on Monday (today).
So Sunday we had to do a bit of biking to our appointments, not much, but we still needed to get there. Anyway, so now we are here at the library closest to the Dealership (which was 10 miles away from our apartment) and we had to walk here, about 3 miles away from the dealership. Then we get a call (yes, during e-mailing) telling us that the car is done, which is cool, but we are not close to the dealership, and we were told that it could be done in 4-6 hours. Anyway, that's what's been taking the majority of our time this week. Other than that, we had Stake conference, which was pretty cool and I was able to meet up with a bunch of the members from the North Hollywood ward -- the ward I was in the last time I was in the valley.
Well, that is pretty much our week.
-- Elder Huffaker
Elder Huffaker
Thursday, June 20, 2013
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
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
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
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
Sunday, April 7, 2013
March 25, 2013 Transfers
Okay so first off, if you have been paying attention, you would know that this transfer was a 5 week transfer. So if it seems a bit short, it is. Just so you all know, I am being transferred.
Last transfer I was called as a District leader, and I will be staying as a District leader wherever I go. I will know tomorrow, but I do know that it is a car area. Elder Chaney will be staying here, and he will actually be training a new missionary. Basically for me that means he will need to be to the transfer meeting early tomorrow, and as such I will need to be with him. Well, the District leader training will be after the transfer meeting, so I will be staying there from 9 to 2:30. Either Lunch will be provided, or Ima be really hungry.
I will let you all know next week where I will be, although I can tell you I will NOT be in this zone (at least I'm 95% sure I won't be). Just as a recap, I've been in this zone for 7 transfers now. We'll see.
Well, so you all know, I did say last week that we were planning on a baptism for yesterday. Well it did happen! There was a lot of stress and work to get it to go through, and Sunday evening was going to be the ONLY time we could do it. The weeks around it just wouldn't work and the day we planned wouldn't work either. The bishop was there, (the new one for the ward called at the beginning of this month) and I was tellin' him, there's no way this can't happen, we gotta make sure it goes through. He was like yeah we do! It was quite the intense process.
We filled up the font and set up all the chairs. If you don't know, baptismal fonts usually take over an hour to fill. This one took about an hour and a half. Don't worry, we were there with plenty of time, and we actually started the baptism only 5 minutes late. They usually start 15-20 minutes late. I think we did pretty good.
Anyway, her name is Khamilah, and her parents are divorced. But both sides of the family agreed to have her baptized and none of them are members. It was really awesome there with the speakers, the spirit was really strong. I felt awesome, leaving Solemint with a baptism. Going out of the area with a BANG! For your benefit, attached are pictures of who was baptized and her mom with her mom's boyfriend.
Well also so you know, I ended up being called in a couple days before Sunday to be one of the speakers. I was told to give the talk on Jesus Christ, and I could go anywhere with that that I wanted. Well, I went with the Atonement. I used President Packer's talk from General Conference in November. The youth speaker before me was told he would speak this month, but wasn't given an exact date. Well it turned out to be this Sunday. He was to talk on Dating from the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet. He did pretty good for an impromptu (last minute speech for those who don't know).
Well when it was my turn, I thought I'd have a little fun by using a quote I heard from Tucker Jeppson before he left on his mission. So, I get up there and say that he did pretty good on his talk, and how he mentioned the dating after his mission. I proceeded to use the quote which was "Any money spent on a woman before your mission is money spent on another man's wife." Well, the ward got a good laugh out of that one. Then came the best part that was a real ego booster for me. I announced that I would be leaving the ward for transfers on Tuesday, and then from the ward comes this "ooohhhhhhh" of disappointment. It at least made me feel good knowing that with Elder Wright and with Elder Chaney I worked hard, and also tried to have fun (good missionary fun). So I know I did my best here, and the ward could tell.
I also said that we would be stopping by before I leave to say goodbye. After Church, just as we were about to leave, I went and shook a member's hand and he said "so when are you coming over?" There was no "are you going to stop by?" or anything, he just said, "when are you coming?". Which I thought was cool because I wanted to stop by them before leaving, and they said I could stop by after the baptism.
It's really been great serving in this ward. The members are awesome, even though the work was a bit on the lower side. We did our best to build it. Also, I have 3 transfers left, so where I go will probably be my last area. There is still a chance that I could get transferred after that, but not likely. Hope all is well at home!
--Elder Huffaker
Last transfer I was called as a District leader, and I will be staying as a District leader wherever I go. I will know tomorrow, but I do know that it is a car area. Elder Chaney will be staying here, and he will actually be training a new missionary. Basically for me that means he will need to be to the transfer meeting early tomorrow, and as such I will need to be with him. Well, the District leader training will be after the transfer meeting, so I will be staying there from 9 to 2:30. Either Lunch will be provided, or Ima be really hungry.
I will let you all know next week where I will be, although I can tell you I will NOT be in this zone (at least I'm 95% sure I won't be). Just as a recap, I've been in this zone for 7 transfers now. We'll see.
Well, so you all know, I did say last week that we were planning on a baptism for yesterday. Well it did happen! There was a lot of stress and work to get it to go through, and Sunday evening was going to be the ONLY time we could do it. The weeks around it just wouldn't work and the day we planned wouldn't work either. The bishop was there, (the new one for the ward called at the beginning of this month) and I was tellin' him, there's no way this can't happen, we gotta make sure it goes through. He was like yeah we do! It was quite the intense process.
We filled up the font and set up all the chairs. If you don't know, baptismal fonts usually take over an hour to fill. This one took about an hour and a half. Don't worry, we were there with plenty of time, and we actually started the baptism only 5 minutes late. They usually start 15-20 minutes late. I think we did pretty good.
Anyway, her name is Khamilah, and her parents are divorced. But both sides of the family agreed to have her baptized and none of them are members. It was really awesome there with the speakers, the spirit was really strong. I felt awesome, leaving Solemint with a baptism. Going out of the area with a BANG! For your benefit, attached are pictures of who was baptized and her mom with her mom's boyfriend.
Well also so you know, I ended up being called in a couple days before Sunday to be one of the speakers. I was told to give the talk on Jesus Christ, and I could go anywhere with that that I wanted. Well, I went with the Atonement. I used President Packer's talk from General Conference in November. The youth speaker before me was told he would speak this month, but wasn't given an exact date. Well it turned out to be this Sunday. He was to talk on Dating from the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet. He did pretty good for an impromptu (last minute speech for those who don't know).
Well when it was my turn, I thought I'd have a little fun by using a quote I heard from Tucker Jeppson before he left on his mission. So, I get up there and say that he did pretty good on his talk, and how he mentioned the dating after his mission. I proceeded to use the quote which was "Any money spent on a woman before your mission is money spent on another man's wife." Well, the ward got a good laugh out of that one. Then came the best part that was a real ego booster for me. I announced that I would be leaving the ward for transfers on Tuesday, and then from the ward comes this "ooohhhhhhh" of disappointment. It at least made me feel good knowing that with Elder Wright and with Elder Chaney I worked hard, and also tried to have fun (good missionary fun). So I know I did my best here, and the ward could tell.
I also said that we would be stopping by before I leave to say goodbye. After Church, just as we were about to leave, I went and shook a member's hand and he said "so when are you coming over?" There was no "are you going to stop by?" or anything, he just said, "when are you coming?". Which I thought was cool because I wanted to stop by them before leaving, and they said I could stop by after the baptism.
It's really been great serving in this ward. The members are awesome, even though the work was a bit on the lower side. We did our best to build it. Also, I have 3 transfers left, so where I go will probably be my last area. There is still a chance that I could get transferred after that, but not likely. Hope all is well at home!
--Elder Huffaker
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