First Week!!!!!

Our district plus Concord sisters. From left to right, top to bottom. Elder Skinner, Elder Christensen, me, Elder Nelson, Sister Blaylock, Sister Flaherty, Sister Sandie and Sister Daly.

Wow, it seems like so long ago that I said goodbye and entered the MTC. Well, so far I love the field. So I get an IPad!! Which is awesome! It helps so much. I have all the gospel resources on one device. It makes planning and studying so much easier. We just punch in the numbers to our area book and we can record all of our lessons as well as all the people we meet. We create calendars so we can pace ourselves throughout the day and it makes my backpack (excuse me, my shoulder bag) so much lighter and it keeps me connected to everyone in my district, zone, mission, and back home. I can read your guys' emails whenever I want to. But I can only send emails on Monday. 

  So my trainer....................

Is Elder Nelson!!!!! He's a great guy. We are in the Concord area, which is the best area I've been in so far.😜 Our first day we went around in the...well… ghetto area, or sticks, or the hood, or whatever else you want to call it. This week was mostly just finding people, so we mostly just walked around and talk to people. That was really interesting to me to see all the different types of people that live in such… interesting circumstances. People here are very religious, and it seems like everybody we talk to believes in God and Jesus Christ. Which is awesome but sometimes makes it hard because they have their own church that they go to and are loyal to. But I'm surprised with how many people are willing to talk to us. We just walk around and talk to people on their porches, or who are just outside. Though many people will talk to us, not all tell the truth. I love the people in the projects down here but I can not trust them. Sometimes it is obvious that they are lying. 

For example, we met a guy named Darrius who told us he is a quarterback AND fullback for the Iowa football team. First of all, fullbacks and quarterbacks have totally different builds, and this guy was neither of them. He was short, and really skinny. And second of all, he showed us how he threw the pigskin and let me tell you, if he threw it like he said he did. It would go maybe ten yards. Whatever, we pretended to believe him. Then we had to leave because this guy's friend showed up and told us to leave. Here are this guy's words, "I ain't talking to no white guys when I am soo drunk. What's a bunch of white guys doing in my lawn brotha, I'm too drunk. Them's gonna see me drunk. I'm so drunk!" While he is saying this he keeps taking big swigs out of his bottle. Needless to say, we left. Anyways, back from my tangent, sometimes we have to trust the Spirit to know if they are lying or not. 

Yesterday we had an appointment with a lady named Gladys. We pulled up and a man (who we later learned was her uncle) was outside her house. We asked him if Gladys was home. He said no and that she wouldn't be home for two hours. He got into his car and drove away. We felt that she was actually home so we went up to the porch and before we could even knock on the door, she opened it up and walked out like she was expecting us. We had a great lesson with her and I am glad that we didn't leave. 

Well, more about my trainer/comp. He's from St. George Utah (his parents now live in Gilbert). He's about four years older than me and he's only been in Concord for about a month so we are both new to the area, so that's why we're are doing so much finding. He drinks A LOT of water. He goes through at least five water bottles a day, while I might go through two. Because of that, he has to use the restroom A LOT! Which isn't bad because it is an excuse to get into people's homes. So cool. Speaking of water, the tap water here stinks! Literally and figuratively. So we end up having to buy big cases of water bottles. I am seriously considering buying a water filter.  I miss Utah tap water. Now I kinda know what Drew is going through. Not to his extent, but just a little. I am getting used to missionary life. The first few days I would always fall asleep during personal study, but today I am happy to report that I didn't even close my eyes except to blink. Yes! I do have a nasty little head cold though, but it's nothing I can't get over.  

Well, we had stake conference yesterday and the night before. We had two members of the seventy come because they were putting in a new stake presidency. They gave really good talks about missionary work. We went early yesterday to stake conference to sing in the choir, but when we got there, two hours early, the choir lady told us we couldn't be in the choir because we hadn't been to any other practices! She didn't even let us try out or anything! Kinda ticked me off but hey, she's a child of God and I love her. So Elder Nelson and I just sat for two hours. We were able to meet a couple members though so all's good. Well, everything is going well, my companion is awesome, the area is fun, and I love the people of North Carolina. 

I love y'alls. 

Elder Huff.

P.S. I am in a car for two weeks, then a bike. So on and so forth.

Elder Nelson and me

Oh yeah. I am popular already in NC. My voice is advertised.

He made it

Elder Huff with President and Sister Alexander

And he's off!

I got to talk to Logan for a few minutes this morning.  He's off to Atlanta, then on to North Carolina.  He sounded good, with lots of nervous laughter.  David got a little longer visit, he just happened to be at the airport early this morning. ;)

One last visit with dear old Dad. Elder Huff Jr. and Sr. Just seems like last year I (David) had one of those black name tags.

You can see it in his face . . . excited and scared at the same time.

Can you see him? He had a window seat.

MTC Life

Elder Buffaloe and Elder Huff

Wow, I have so much to tell you and so little time. Story of my life. No time. We are always being told, read this, plan for this, study this, yet there is no time. I wish I could just pause time. Read my B.o.M. study, and just have time to sit down and think. Nope. Well, I am super excite that BYU won and I also heard that the U beat Cal as well. Tanner better not push too hard and stay injured. Well, MTC life is crazy. I am so stressed out all the time. We have to do this, we have to do that, Iwishwehadtimeforthatbutwedon'tsowehavetodothis. AAHHHH!!! I have never worked like this in my life! It's constant! The only time to relax is the time we get to eat. And the food is...bad. So now I will vent about the horrible food here, I'm sorry, but I have to get it out. You can skip this section if you want. I can't stand the food here. Everything is stale, expired, cold, or just plain nasty. We have a motto here; "If it looks good, it might taste okay. If it doesn't look good, DON'T GO NEAR IT." I have already lost five pounds because I have only been eating salads (which are actually really good because they are the only things made fresh in front of you) and skim milk. I really want real food, or as we call it in our district, outside food. Dang Elder Mecham, he keeps getting packages of outside food and it drives me crazy. Well, yup my companion is Elder Buffaloe. He's a cool guy. I think the MTC has kinda gotten to him though. He has a hard time stressing out and his sense of humor isn't exactly like mine. But I love him already and I am so glad to be his companion. I also love my district. It's weird to think that I haven't told you about them yet because it seems like I have known them for months now. Originally there were nine members of our district; Elder Buffaloe and myself, Elder Mecham and Overfield, Elder Maxwell and Mizell, and Sister Beal, Valentin, and Vasquez. We are tight. I am super sad to report though that Elder Mizell left for home this morning...😥. I have to admit, when he said he was leaving yesterday, that night was the first time I cried in the MTC. He is from Douglas, Georgia and I miss him already. He got super homesick and then his spiritualness flew the coop. It's heartbreaking. He is so funny and his southern accent just made us laugh harder. He literally had us laughing for a straight 30 minutes one night when we were in bed talking. I'll miss him but this last day has just confirmed to me that he doesnt belong here. My room used to consist of Elder Buffaloe, myself, Elder Maxwell, and Elder Mizell, but now since Mizell left Maxwell has left our room because he is in a trio with Mecham and Overfield. So it is just the Buffaloe and I. We get our own dorm room, which is both nice and depressing. I have often said that we, as a district, get along too well. We feel like we've known each other for a long time. For the first couple days we had a hard time concentrating in class because we are always cracking each other up. We have a "real" investigator now. She could be either a converted member acting like she was before she was converted, or she is a real investigator...kinda nerve-racking. I think Elder Buffaloe and I are doing pretty well. He's a spiritual giant I just don't think he knows it yet. To make his stress worse, he was assigned the district leader...whew, I got the easy job; online coordinator, oh yeah. He's a good guy and I'm proud of him. He feels like he is not doing real well as a district leader. I think it's my job to kinda help out his self confidence. He is really doing well and so am I. So, I am not really a fan of the MTC. It does have a great spirit and I have learned so much here and have received my own personal revelation, but as I said before, the food is not great and it feels like a prison. We call it Spirit Prison. It is hard to see the outside world in the MTC. When you are outside or looking out a window, all you can see are other MTC buildings. We have key cards to get into building and get our food, and we only have a limited time to get exercise. When we went on our temple walk, I was amazed at the sight of a streetlight. I feel so cooped up all the time. I have to say, I am good at sewing buttons. Yes, I have already had the opportunity to sew buttons on my suit coat. I guess the Missionary Mall does not know how to sew buttons on suits, because on the first day I started wearing it, one button fell off, and the next day the other fell off. So I have sewn two buttons and I have to say, they look pretty good. I can just feel that they will last my whole mission. I'm just that good. 😁 And on that note, I have learned in the MTC that we aren't supposed to think about ourselves on our mission, and the connection WE have with our investigators, but on the connection that the investigators have between themselves and God. I need to learn to be less selfish and less prideful and be as Christlike as I can. I also have learned the difference between ah-ha moments and personal revelation. Our district is awesome. We can learn so much together if we just focus and put our heads together. Yesterday we were supposed to be learning about personal revelation through the B.o.M. We decided to pray to know which scripture we should read together. We prayed and then returned to our seats (we kneel for all our prayers, I have a big bruise on my knee now) and Elder Mecham and Maxwell both though of Mosiah 18 at the same time. I was thinking somewhere in Mosiah, Buffaloe was thinking of the number 18, and Sister Valentin was already opened to Mosiah 18 and she didn't know how she got there..............WHOA!!!! It gets better. We start reading as a class and it contained a scripture Buff and I were trying to find earlier, it perfectly covered the topic of church attendance that we were talking about earlier in class, and had a great missionary scripture. I encourage all of you guys to read this chapter, it is full of great stuff. I have to thank auntie Elizabeth for my great laundry bag that has helped me stay somewhat organized. I also want to thank all those who supported me to come on my mission. I can't wait to get into the field. Oh, I forgot to tell you where my district is going. The Buffaloe and I, along with the sister missionaries, are going to North Carolina, Charlotte mission, while the other elders are going to Nashville Tennessee. Mizell was going to New Zealand, but that didn't quite pan out. Sorry for such the scattered email. There are just so many thoughts running through my head it's hard to type them all down. Flight info: I don't know all the details, but I know we have a sevenish o'clock flight from Salt Lake to Atlanta Georgia on Monday morning. I'll get more info to you later today when I have my flight paper. I will also send some pictures. For some reason only the computers in the laundry room can send pictures and I'm not there yet. And yes mom, I have taken plenty of pictures. Well, I love you all, I miss you all, but I know I am in the right place. I know that Heavenly Father can help us in our trials and I hope we can all have a good relationship with him. I'll see you all in, well, a while. Love ya!

(P.S. Thank you all for sending individual emails, it means a lot to me. Could I ask that maybe you can sometimes send letters as well (that means I still want your emails). I can only check emails once a week, but I can read letters whenever I get them. I have to admit, I am a little jealous of the other elders that get physical mail all the time. I don't mean to be selfish, and I don't want to make you feel obligated, but maybe a little mail will not make me only think about P-day the whole week. I love you guys, I want to hear from everybody. And I do have Drew's email and he has mine so I do get his emails)

-Love, Elder Huff

Elders Overfield, Mecham, Mizell, Sisters Vasquez, Valentin, Beal, Elders Maxwell, Huff & Buffaloe 

Logan says, "Gotta be goofy sometimes!"

The first one

Well, I made it through the first day of the MTC. It's pretty crazy and very scheduled. My companion is Elder Buffaloe. He's pretty awesome. I share a room with Elder Mizell and Elder Maxwell. Pretty cool guys. I like my district and zone. Well, my Preparation day is on Wednesday so I'll write more then.
Love, Elder Huff