May 20, 2013 -- Week 2

Hi everyone!

Well, there wasn't any really big thing that happened this week, but we did well on our lessons and we had a bunch of people at Sacrament meeting. We have a few investigators who are really interested so we were able to have some good lessons.

There was one person who is investigating now, that told us about a thing people do where they pray for like 7-10 days to receive an answer from God as to what it is He wants you to do, and how she did that, and then missionaries knocked on her door (the Spanish missionaries). She told us about how she has checked out other religions, and hasn't really felt anything, so why not check out the Mormons. It was a decent starter lesson, as we didn't teach a whole lot, but we were able to set a good foundation. It was cool to see all the people at church as well.

We had to get another investigator, her husband, and two kids a ride to church, and it wasn't easy, but she was able to come. We were able to show her around the building, but she had to leave after Sacrament meeting. Elder Ehninger and I are really feeling like things are starting to happen here in the ward.

Oh also, we went and helped out with the building cleaning, as it was the Elders Quorums turn, and there are like 4 elders, and only one could show up (the Elders Quorum President). If it was just him, it would have taken forever. We decided to do some service and help out. He was really glad we were there. It was great to help out too and it made it go faster, and probably improved the ward's opinion of missionaries.

Anyway, that was pretty much our week, hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

May 13, 2013 -- The Day After Mother's Day

Note from Marilyn:
We were able to Skype with Cameron for Mother's Day, and loved every moment of it. As a result, we both felt like we didn't have very much to say in our weekly email, since it was less than 24 hours later. This was Cameron's response to my email to him, and the only thing he wrote to us that week:

Yeah I feel like that as well. We just talked, so I don't know what to write. Anyway, I got the Google Drive thing to work with the file for descriptions of the pictures, but I can't put any more pictures on it. I have created a folder that will have the other pictures that I have taken so you can get them, but I can't put any pictures in there. I'll just try again next week.

--Elder Huffaker

May 6, 2013 -- Transfer Over

Hey everyone! So this transfer is officially over. As for transfer call, Elder Ehninger and I will be staying together in this area for one more transfer. As far as my district, one of the sisters is going home, so her companion will need to get another companion. And it turns out she will be training. So the rest of them will be staying the same. Unless I transfer out my last transfer, I will stay here until I come home.
 

Next on the list is this week. It was a pretty good week. We have been being taught about having short powerful lessons. Well this week we did pretty good. We had an investigator who we normally have a hard time having short lessons with (he's a bit of a talker) and we had a short lesson with him. At the end of the lesson we invited him to church, and he said "I feel like I should say yes." And we're thinking: YES YOU SHOULD! Then it was cool when he came to sacrament meeting yesterday. It was cool to see.

Then, (if you remember last week) the crazy guy who was outside of our meeting last Sunday morning, came in to sacrament meeting during the closing hymn, and started shouting things again. Luckily our investigator wasn't phased by it at all. The bishop and other priesthood holders were quick to escort him out of the building. No Problems. I guess that was the main highlight for the work this week.
 

So for those of you who don't know, Saturday was actually my birthday. Yep, I'm a-fficially 21. So what was cool was there is this less-active who thought it'd be cool to get a bounce castle for me. So I have sent pictures home of me in this bounce castle. Okay so for the truth: he got the bounce castle for his kid who was having a birthday party that day, and his birthday was on the 8th I think. But they were having the party that day, and we were doing service for them, so I got to bounce in the castle as part of my birthday. Pretty cool.

Anyway, so that day there was a baptismal interview that needed to be done in the bottom of my district (we are at the top of my district geographically speaking) and so we went to do that. After that we were asked to give the other sisters in my district a "blessing." (notice the "") So we get there and it turns out that they (all 4 of them and possibly my companion) had a little birthday party for me. It was actually pretty cool, and I guess I must be doing something right. I also sent pictures home of that. Then we had dinner with a member who offered to feed us again (they fed us Friday) because of my birthday. It was really good. Overall, it was a pretty good 21st mission birthday.

Today however, we had a zone activity where we got to tour a Warner Brothers Sudio. I sent more pictures home from that (we weren't allowed to take pictures everywhere, but some places we were). It was really cool.

We got to see a lot of the costumes, some of the sets, and some of the rooms where they do the recording and the editing. They had a room where they create sound effects of anything. Like walking, or door shutting. They had a ton of stuff in that room and a microphone that picked up everything. They told us that they have to do sound effects for everything you see. It is a crazy process. It has been a fun day so far. Hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

April 29, 2013 -- Starting Week 6

Wow, so the transfer is almost over! It's pretty crazy. So along the lines of missionary work in our area, this week was pretty lacking, and I'll explain why (get ready).

So everyone can understand, I am the District Leader for my District. What that means is that I pretty much look over the other missionaries. Also, I am the one who gives baptismal interviews for baptismal candidates who have been prepared for baptism. If the person has done something really wrong (like an abortion, or murder, etc.) they need to be interviewed by the mission president. Those are usually pretty rare cases.

Anyway, there are 2 companionships of sisters in my district which make up the rest of my district other than me and my companion. So they both had baptismal dates for the 28th of April. As such, these people needed have an interview with me to make sure they are ready for baptism (kinda scary to think that I am the one to make sure of that, and I have the say as to whether or not they're baptized!). So where I'm going with this, is one of the interviews was scheduled on Friday. That's the same day as District meeting. So we are with our district from 11 to 12:30. The interview is scheduled for 3:30. We live far enough away from where we do district meeting (which is where we were going to do the interview) that we'd be able to make it back in time for lunch and then like 10 minutes of work in our area and turn around and come back. If you didn't know, we are limited on miles, so the back and forth would be a waste. So after all this, 3:30 rolls around and the baptismal candidate's brother had broken his leg and so they were all at the hospital.

So we rescheduled the interview for Saturday. And that's when the other interview is. So the other interview was schedule for 4:30, so we rescheduled the one that fell through for 6:30. The one for 4:30 was at a different ward building even farther from the one where we have district meeting. So we had to do a lot of travel. Now interviews usually last from 20-30 minutes. So the gap was a bit frustrating as well, as we wouldn't even be able to make it back to our area before needing to come back. The only problem was that the other sisters couldn't get a hold of their investigator, and she didn't come to the interview. We waited as long as we could, but she didn't show up. So then we go to the other interview, and find out that the investigator had moved to south LA a few days ago, and needed to travel up to where we are to have his interview. Well, he showed up at 8:30. Not his fault, he had a long way to go. But because of that, he will have to be baptized in the area he lives in. SO, both baptisms didn't happen :(. That was what took up most of our time.

As for other exciting things, I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but there was this crazy guy who showed up to the Saturday Afternoon session of Conference. He rambled on some crazy nonsense, but then we got away from him and thought it was over. Then, a couple weeks ago he showed up to the library and gets on a computer. We evasively avoided contact with him. Anyway, so Sunday morning we had meetings with the Ward Council, and there was almost nobody there. So the ward clerk showed up a bit late, and had to make copies of the program. The copy machine was just outside the room of our meeting. And who shows up but "god" (that's what the bishop has nicknamed him because he calls himself "The Creator") The bishop has experienced talking to him too. So the Clerk is out there and just walks away from him  and we can hear him almost yelling "YOU ARE WALKING AWAY FROM YOUR CREATOR! ONLY THE TREE OF LIFE WILL ENTER INTO MY KINGDOM!" And a bunch of other nonsense, that's just what I can remember. This guy is literally crazy. I guess he moved in to one of the houses nearby, and the Bishop said if he comes back, we'll have to ask him to leave. That's California I guess.

Anyway, that's really the only big things that have happened lately. Hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

April 22, 2013

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