Hey'all

Well, this week has been pretty good. Tuesday we went and finished laying down the tile at Chris Sloane’s house. We did it pretty fast. I also found out what the guard does on a tile saw. It keeps it from spraying water and little pieces of tile in your face. I got really dirty. I got pretty good at using the tile saw, but I still hated it. Oh well. Here's what I looked like after the tile job. It's kinda hard to see but I have mud caked on my face.

When I took a shower I found a bunch of little tile pieces in my hair. This week I also went on my first exchange with Elder Christensen. He's a cool guy. He wanted a picture to remember the exchange, so he climbed onto the roof and took an interesting picture.

He then proceeded to jump off the roof onto the balcony, which was wet because all it does is rain here, he landed on his feet, but he then slipped and landed on his butt pretty hard. 😆 A good way to start the exchange. We had a lot of fun. We taught a couple people and I learned how Elder Christensen loves everybody and is kind to everybody. I need to work on that. We exchanged back on Thursday and that started my bike week.

I was kinda nervous about that because the one time we biked last week I kinda crashed into Elder Nelson...😳. I bet Brian Thomas is so proud of that. Luckily he stayed on his bike and kept it upright and I was the only one who got hurt. I got wedged between his back tire and seat. It hurt...a lot, and I still feel a little twinge there, but it's all good. Biking hasn't been all that bad, except for last night. We had a forty-five minute bike ride to visit the Dickinsons and the Browns and Nicole. It was cold, the first time since I've been here of course, raining of course, and of course there was no shoulder on the road, so I almost got hit by a couple cars. Man, it was dark too. It was on a country road so no street lamps and it gets dark here at five. All we had was our little bike lights. It was really cool though. I had never done anything like that before, so it was a good experience. We had a good visit with the Dickinsons, a less active family. We then biked to the Browns.  Ben, Becky, and Nicole were there this time, and we had a really good lesson. We then biked home, which was a little shorter than the bike ride there. I almost got hit by two semi trucks. I guess semis don't like yielding to cyclists on the road so I felt the heat of the engine as each of them passed and was almost knocked off my bike by the gust they produced. And I swear I felt one of them barely brush my elbow. Super scary but we got home safely.

We are still working on finding the elect. We have found a lot of different people, but they all turn out not very good. We tried to visit someone we had met with before. When we got there we were chased off by a boy probably around twelve years old with a 2x4. He said he would shoot us if we ever came back. It turns out that boy doesn't even live there. We were flagged down by the actual owner and were able to talk to him. We asked him about the boy and all he said was, "That boy needs serious help."

So the sisters brought an investigator to church yesterday. We had a Sunday School lesson about the law of chastity. Somehow, the conversation got into how hair highlights were rebellious. The teacher went on and on about how her daughter went a little rebellious and colored her hair, and how she had to let it go because you have to pick your battles and let them make their own choices and how she was happy when her daughter "grew out of it" yada, yada, yada. The whole time she was talking about it, the investigator, Carla, about thirty years old, was sitting there with a lot of purple highlights in her hair...😲. Okay sister, I love you to death, but I would think you would clue in and stop raving about the hair color. IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER!! Oh well, hopefully the investigator wasn't offended. She seemed like she was cool with it.

Okay, let me say, I need to see some sun. It has literally been raining here for the last two weeks now. And if it hasn't been raining, it's been overcast. This last week, I only saw the sun once...no joke. It's okay though, I like rain...except for when I am on a bike! Oh well.

Time for me to answer the questions I received from my family. My apartment is about average, maybe a little better than average. My companion says it is above average in the ones he has been in, but he also has only really served in ghetto-ish areas. Our mission president said at the very beginning that our missions' apartments are all pretty nice, some of the best compared to other missions. I'm enjoying the apartment. Okay, I love the Concord ward, but the dinner appointments are kinda sad. The Kannapolis elders have dinner appointments every night, while we are lucky to have four dinner appointments a week. And it is always the STP. Oh well, we eat okay at home...kinda. We have corn dogs, sandwiches, noodles, and sometimes mashed potatoes. I always make sure I get my bananas at the store as well. The other night was kinda sad. All I had was a corn dog and Elder Nelson had plain rice with butter and salt. Kinda pathetic. But I am maintaining my weight so far. Our exercise time is right as we wake up, which is not a good idea. We get up, lay on the ground and pretend to do sit-ups. Occasionally I get a few done, and maybe some push-ups, but usually we don't do much. We can't really play catch or something outside because it is dark, so...whatever. It's not really that cold here, just wet. Last night got into the forties, but that is as low as it's been.

Well, I don't really know how Concord is pronounced. The people with an accent say erd, while the people that speak real English say ord. I'm actually surprised, not many people here have accents. I mean, everyone has a little twinge, but it is really easy to understand. The only people that we have a hard time understanding are the elderly people and the people without teeth (there are a lot of those out here).

My companion was raised in the church, but he was mostly inactive most of his life until his little brother went on a mission. He then decided he wanted to go on one. So he did...obviously. He has a huge family of eleven kids, he being the ninth. We get along really well and we are actually similar in many ways. He is teaching me in a way I enjoy. He's kinda teaching by example. He lets me observe him do things before he asks me to do it. I feel like I have already learned a lot.

Don't worry mom, I am staying awake during personal study...most of the times.😜 I got over my cold and I have been eating the gummy vitamins. I love y'all and love your emails and letters. I still need to get some stamps and envelopes for real letters, but I hope I'll get there soon. Stay strong, 

love Elder Huff.