Elder Huff : 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.