June 24, 2013 -- The Start of the Last Transfer

Well, if you are aware, I am on my last transfer, and it started last week.

Well I've got some information about this transfer so be ready for it. As a reminder there are 6 weeks in a transfer, and I'm telling you this because I will be referring to the length of a transfer several times. So keep that in mind.

For starters, my former companion Elder Ehninger went to Valencia 3rd. A car area, and it's up in Santa Clarita. Not in the same zone I have been in so much, but it is up there.

Anyway, so President Hall does leadership calls after transfer calls(which come on Saturday Night). So anywhere from Sunday morning to Monday Night it is possible to get a leadership call. Well, he also calls those in leadership to either keep them there or release them. Sunday passed, and then Monday passed no calls from President. All the while my companion is getting packed. I actually took some of this time to go through my stuff as to what I'll be sending home and what I'll be leaving behind. It was good to do that and keep me less stressed about the end of the transfer.

Well, Tuesday morning came and Elder Ehninger got stuff ready to take out to the car to go to the transfer meeting. And then, 8:17 in the morning (I checked!) President calls. DUN-DUN-DUN! I hand the phone to Elder Ehninger as I'm pretty sure President is calling to give him a leadership assignment. I told him it was President and he's like "no you're kidding" and I said, "nope!" and he took the phone and he just sank. It was a bit amusing to watch.

Then he answered the phone and President asks him how he's doing and whatnot, and then he asks him if he could speak with me. My thoughts are "he's gonna tell me I'm still District Leader. It's a little late for that." So I start talking to him, and President asks me to be a trainer. Uhhhh. "Of course President." I may or may not have lost feeling in my legs.

Please make note that this is my last transfer, and the program we go through to train new missionaries is called "The First 12 Weeks" or the 12 week program. Did you catch that? I was certain that I wouldn't be called a trainer as I have 6 WEEKS LEFT! It seemed out of the question. Not a possibility. Well, that's the biggest news from the transfers.

I got that call Tuesday morning, the day of the transfer meeting at 8:17 (now you know why I checked!) and the new trainer meeting started at 9. So we had to book it up there, and we were a bit late, but we were able to make it there and when I walked into the training, president thanked me for being there as I received my call just an hour ago. In fact when he was announcing the transfers, he talked about how he was sure the transfers were right, and then this morning he had to call another missionary (me) to be a trainer. It came as quite a surprise.

So anyway, I will go over the first 6 weeks with my new companion, Elder Ruiz, and then someone else will have to pick up from where I left off. Oh, by the way, he is a Visa waiter, reassigned to here until it comes. He'll be going to Brazil speaking Portuguese. Well, as such, I do language study with him, and so I'm learning a little tiny bit of Portuguese. It'll be fun! right? He's from Fort Lauderdale Florida. Kind of an interesting place to have a companion from! He spent 6 weeks in the MTC learning Portuguese, and I will be with him for the next 6 weeks or until his Visa comes.

So anyway, this coming week we have 2 meetings in Santa Clarita, one zone conference and one Trainer meeting. Both will last a while so it will take up most of our week. This last week has been kind of slow with getting him all settled in. Also since he is a visa waiter he wasn't given a card for his MSF funds so it will be placed on my card. Well, that's one more thing I'll have to take care of. Oh well. Also I'm still District Leader. I don't know what else to write but that's been our week.

Oh, funny story: so we make calls from a parking lot near the church because we have horrible cell reception. So Sunday night we were there and there was this girl who came up and knocked on our window. Kind if weird and random, I figured that she was wanting money, but she started talking to my companion and saying stuff about what we believe in. Then she just left. Really weird. Then later during calls, she went running, well more like sprinting across the parking lot for no apparent reason. It was weird and super random.

But hey that's our life! Fun right? Hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

June 17, 2013

Well, I put more pictures on the pictures thing. [Google Drive] I hope you get them. Kinda bummed I don't get a letter today.

--Elder Huffaker


With Elder Kruger:

With his companion, Elder Ehninger:

June 10, 2013 -- Heading in to the Transfer Ending

Well, if you are aware, our week 5 has ended and week 6 has started. Next time I e-mail, I will have the transfer call for you.

As far as what we think will happen, we think Elder Ehninger will be leaving, and I will be staying for my last transfer. In our District, one of the sisters is going home, and so she will need to be replaced, and we think that the other sisters will all be staying where they are. The calls will come Saturday night, although sometimes they come late, generally Sunday morning late, and it might happen so this way, as the mission will be split this coming transfer.

So our president has to really figure out who will be going where as the people up north will be going to the other mission. So he's taking extra time to figure it all out. If any of our calls would come late it would be this one. We'll see what happens though.

Anyway, for this week. We had two big things happen this week. They both had to happen on Saturday too. First off, our ward did an Emergency Preparedness Fair where they offered free food. In order to get free food they had to come talk to us. Now we weren't supposed to bully them in to investigating, in fact we got only one potential from it, but they had to be in a church building and talk to the missionaries to get their food.

It was a big event and we had all the missionaries in the zone participating for it. It didn't have as great of a turn out as we had hoped, but it wasn't bad. It lasted 3 hours and we had to help set up and take down. 

Then right after that, we had a thing we did with some youth in the Santa Clarita Stake. They were doing a youth conference called, "Mission I'm Possible."  During this, they were given a companion and also had to go through a whole MTC experience. Then they had 2 hours with us being missionaries actually going out and talking to people. It was quite an experience.

Then at the end of the day, we got a call from one of our investigators who was telling us that he wouldn't come to church the next day and that he'd prefer it if we didn't stop by anymore. We tried to see if we could at least meet with him once but he wouldn't have it. It was rather saddening. We had just had a lesson with him that was really cool and he even said in the closing prayer that he'd come to church. After all that he changed his mind.

For the rest of the week, we had a hard time trying to get in contact with some of our investigators and we weren't able to meet with them all. We'll try again next week. Anyway, hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

June 3, 2013 -- This Week AND Last Week

 

Hey Everyone! Well, I don't know if the word got passed around last week, but my companion had some trouble e-mailing and things didn't work out, so I wasn't able to e-mail a whole lot last week.

 

Anyway, so the biggest thing from the week I couldn't e-mail was that we had interviews with President Hall. It was quite an interesting experience, we were told to bring our Area books and Planners (like we wouldn't have our planners, we ALWAYS have our planners) and then we didn't use them in the interview.

 

What happened with them is that we went with our zone leaders and they checked our area books and planners. We have recently been trained on using our area books more effectively, and using them with our planners. It has really made planning much better. Anyway, the interview with president went well, he talked with me about being a District Leader and I was able to ask some questions about it. He shared his insight on it and I will be trying to use it and become a more effective District Leader. What was cool is that he knows that I'm working hard on it, and doing my job, as not all District Leaders take their assignment seriously.

 

So for this week. This week was a slower one, we had pretty much all of our appointments cancel one way or another. Some of them got cancelled earlier on in the week and then got moved to Friday. Well, Friday I actually got a bit sick, like a cold or something, but we had to cancel our appointments that moved. So like I said, one way or another the appointments got cancelled.

 

Also this week, I had a baptismal interview to do, but then the baptism got cancelled. The person who would be baptized is moving to Utah, and has decided that she wants to be baptized when she moves there. She will be moving at the beginning of next month I think, and decided to push it to after that. It's kind of sad that the baptisms that would be happening here in my district keep getting pushed or cancelled.

 

The good news is that it'll either eventually happen, or they will be kept in our records and from there someone else should go by at a time that they will be more ready for it. We are the missionaries, once we have your information, there is no escape! Haha, a bit scary (but very true). Hope all is well at home!

--Elder Huffaker

May 28, 2013 -- Email Flop

Hey my companion is having trouble e-mailing, and so we tried something, but we will not be able to e-mail more today. Sorry :(. Hopefully we will be able to do more next week.

So I haven’t really been able to take pictures, and I don’t really know what to take pictures of as of right now. Anyway, what I do have is pictures of my “happy” They’ve recently done a thing where they have 10 calorie soda. I got some Dr. Pepper. (it’s 10 calories a serving, and a serving size is 12 oz, so the whole thing has 60 calories. It’s pretty dang good, and it doesn’t do a whole lot calorie wise. Anyway, I love soda (as you probably know) and so this is awesome!

 

 

 

Also I had some questions about some things to send home

1. Should I send home my blankets and sheets? Also my pillows?

2. What about my towels, and any bathroom stuff?

This will vary the amount I'll have to pack or send home. Please let me know by next week.

 

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Also could I get a line of authority for my Priesthood?

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--Elder Huffaker