Three Months of Greatness

Elders Huff & Nelson

So just this last Thursday marked my three month mark in the mission. It really isn't that long but it feels like an eternity. Everyone always says that the mission goes by so quick, and I've noticed that only the people that have come home from their mission say that. I'm not saying that I don't like my mission and that it hasn't been a great experience, I'm just saying these past three months seem like a year. I've learned so much and gained so much (including a bit of weight, but don't worry, this week I've started to lose some weight, I'm working on it #lotsofbananasandcuties). 

This week was pretty good. I can't really remember much, but that's probably the result of working so hard. Tuesday we set a baptismal date with a lady named Anette, and on Wednesday, Elder Moutz and I (we were on exchanges) set a baptismal date with Fabian and Joanna. We have no problem setting baptismal dates with people, but we can never seem to get them baptized! Since I've been in Concord, we have probably set about fifteen baptismal dates and guess how many of those have actually been baptized...You guessed right, zero, none, nada, zip, zilch! It's kinda driving me a little nuts. What are we doing wrong? We just got to keep working and maybe one day we'll figure it out. 

I had an awesome exchange with Elder Moutz this week and even though I am continuously feeling like I'm being judged by a zone leader, we had a lot of fun. The zone leaders came to our district meeting and we exchanged afterwards. Friday Brother Larson, who just got back from a mission in the Dakotas with his wife, took us to go see some people and afterwards we were driving back to our apartment when we suddenly heard a loud BANG! Someone in a school bus that had just drove by threw a full water bottle and it hit the windshield of the car. Brother Larson (who has been bishop, stake president, patriarch, and has served three missions) swore, flipped the car around and chased the bus down and went in and yelled at the kids in it. It was a pretty serious situation, but I have to admit, Elder Nelson and I had a pretty good laugh afterwards. High schoolers are just dumb . . . sometimes I forget I was one less than a year ago. 

Saturday was service day. We got up and went and helped a family move because there was so much black mold that had taken over the house. We had a lot of fun there and afterwards Brother Espinal took us to Harris Teeter for some delicious sub sandwiches. When we got home, we biked to Brother Watson's (our ward mission leader) new drivers Ed office, WatsOnWheels, and helped him paint it. We brought an investigator named Price. He's a very interesting fellow who's basically homeless (we seem to get a lot of those) and has lost almost everything. He's pretty notorious throughout Concord as a protester and trespasser so whenever we mention him in the ward people warn us of him. As if we didn't already know. He's calmed down in his old age and he really isn't a bad dude. He is super humble and loves the message we share. I just wish that when we would bring him to church that people would actually talk to him. They just assume he's crazy and won't even talk to him. All the people that have been able to have a conversation with him admit he's really not a bad guy, but everyone else judges him and even us for bringing him to church. It kinda makes me a little sick. We have a great ward and I dearly love everyone in it, but I wish some people were just a little more missionary minded. We're working on it. But anyway, we brought Price to help us paint (he's painted all his life and he's really good at it) and he helped us out a lot. We were all pretty amazed at how fast and efficiently he was able to do it. We had to leave to get to an appointment, but Price decided to stay and he helped them finish up the whole job. We were impressed. Here he is, basically owning nothing, spending half the day doing service for someone he doesn't even know very well. He has come a long way since we have started to teach him and I see a good life ahead for him. His political views might be a little different than other people, and he had a pretty rough past, but he can start again if he chooses to accept Christ.  This gospel is amazing and truly the best way to go. I've seen it bless so many lives and I see it more and more each day. I keep thinking to myself. How can this not be Christ's true church? How could this church's fruit not show that it is a good tree? I never realized how much I needed to increase my faith until I came out here. So many things go wrong out here it's hard for me to stay positive and strengthen my faith, but I just need to keep looking at the great things that I have seen. Missionary work is tough but it is well worth it. 

Yesterday was pretty good too. We had a pretty good church and we got to meet a new family in the ward and had a good pot roast dinner. We went to the Browns and little Jonathan brought me up to date on the whole playoff picture and how the Packers are making it to divisionals. Well hope everything's going well at home and wherever your adventures take you. Love y'all. Talk to y'all next week. 

Shady District

Happy New Year!

This week was pretty good, and pretty busy...and weird. So we started off this week with looking for former investigators on Tuesday. There were two on a single street so we decided to check them out. It turns out they were both dead...kinda creepy. They both died pretty recently, too.

Wednesday was okay, I went on exchanges with Elder Christensen in Kannapolis. It was super rainy that day and we had to get rides because of course it was bike week for them. While we were waiting for a ride we went out and played a little in the rain.

Thursday we went down to Charlotte for a zone conference which went from 9:00 to 4:00. So long. By the time we got home and ate dinner, we couldn't go out anymore, because Charlotte people go crazy on New Year's. We had to stay inside starting at six. We live in a retirement community and we could still hear people yelling outside and getting drunk. We planned and then played Apples to Apples with the district over Skype, which kinda worked out. We then finished the night by watching the Testaments.

The next morning we went to zone meeting! Two long meetings right in a row! Eesh! While driving down to Charlotte, we saw so many cars off the side of the road. A lot of them had crashed into something. We probably saw 15 cars like that. People really party it up in Charlotte I guess. We had a good zone meeting and we had a fun district lunch afterwards. Pretty good week.

We had a mission wide fast yesterday, and while we were fasting I guess I got sick so that stunk. I was feeling lousy and I was hungry, but I made it! Still feeling some effects today, but I'll get better. This week hasn't been too effective, because we had so many meetings and everybody was busy. We haven't really been able to talk to many people like Paul and the clan.

Yesterday, though was a mess as well. We had fast and testimony meeting and a crazy lady got up at the beginning and talked about her life story and her Christmas break and how she liked it and didn't as well, yadayadayada. She was up there for 20 FLIPPIN' MINUTES!!!!! During her testimony, all of our investigators stood up and left! Including the Concord sisters' investigators. Only Nicole stayed. Good ol' reliable Nicole. Yikes. It was a mess. The bishop had to go up and tell her to stop. Oh well.

It's gotten a little colder here now, and I get to wear all my sweaters now so I am excited. To tell ya the truth, I was getting a little sick of all the warm weather. Well, everything is going well in Concord and we are meeting a lot of interesting people. Hope everything's going well back at home. Love ya!

The District

I found a Green Bay fan!

Moving on

This week was a pretty busy but great week. Last Monday started with Elder Nelson getting his stomach scoped with a camera down his throat to figure out what is wrong with him. No results came back. Bittersweet because it's good he doesn't have an ulcer or something nasty, but now we don't know what to do to treat it...oh well. I guess he'll just have to keep on keeping on. He's pretty good at managing it so it's not too big of a deal. 

Tuesday we went to a mission Christmas party/long meeting. Elder Nelson had a good time catching up with old friends while I just ate good food all alone...no, I got to say hi to some old MTC friends; Elder Buffaloe, Sister Beal, and Sister Valentine. We had a good time and I got the package my parents sent to the mission home. I had such a great Christmas! I got so many fun packages and letters from so many people it made me soooooo happy! Thank you so much!! It's not very easy being away from home for Christmas but things like that just make it so much easier. 

Christmas Day we had a brunch at the Dickson's (who have four HUGE dogs!), where Elder Nelson called his huge family. They got us a lot of little gifts and a NC T-shirt. So nice! We then visited Homer and then the Mooneys. We then visited the Dickinsons and we got to try out the Swagway that Clair got for Christmas, it was not very easy, and very wobbly. 

They offered us raw oysters but we declined because I remember how much my dad hated them on his mission, and I wasn't very hungry anyways. We then spent the rest of the night with the Eskelson's. We had a lot of fun chatting and eating and playing Mexican train dominos. I got to Skype my family which is the best! I got some good gifts for Christmas too. I got some sweaters and I wish I could wear them, but it is so blasted warm down here! Whoever heard of 70 degree temperatures the entire week of Christmas! It's throwing me off. Don't get me wrong, it's been nice, but I am really looking forward to some chillier weather and maybe to actually use the furnace in January. 

Carolina lost yesterday...pretty sad, but I can't believe the Falcons were the ones to break their winning streak. Weird. I can see Drew reading this email and laughing because he loves the Falcons and I would always tell him the Falcons aren't the best. 😅 Miss ya Elder Merrill! 

Well anyway, in other news...we got our car stuck in a ditch twice this week, well let me rephrase that, Elder Nelson got our car stuck in the ditch twice this week. That's what happens when there is a rule that to reverse the passenger has to get out of the car and back the driver up. We try some crazy U-turns. I'll show y'all some pictures. Hey, we got out of both of them though without any car damage! Not bad, not bad at all. I might have gotten a little muddy though from one of them. 

Well, we've had a really good, warm, Christmas week and we are looking forward to the new year. I love y'all! Thanks so much for everything you do for me! Peace out! ☮✌🏻

P.S. Oh, I forgot, The day after Christmas the district set off sky lanterns and then
went caroling to an old folks home. It was pretty fun.

Christmas

It was fun to talk to Elder Huff for Christmas.  We also got to 'meet' his companion.  Logan sounds great and seems very happy.  He is eating well (has gained 15 pounds), and teaching many.  We love him.

Good tidings to you!

Hey y'all! How's everything doing this wonderful Christmas season? Everything is going splendidly here in the thriving metropolis of Concord. This week was really was really fun and this upcoming week is going to be good too, I can just tell. Bike week started this Wednesday, and of course, it conveniently got chilly. Not super cold, but uncomfortably chilly. Elder Nelson was kinda freaking out about how cold it was, the lowest it ever got was the upper twenties, and that was when we were in bed sleeping. The coldest it got when we were out was the low 40's so it wasn't that bad. Elder Nelson is a St. George boy so he's weak when it comes to the cold. But everything's fine, as soon as we get the car back (of course), it's supposed to get back into the seventies for Christmas Eve and Day and for a week so we're excited. 

This week was pretty exciting, we got four 16 year olds on date. I don't know how solid they are but they seem pretty pumped. A month ago we went looking for a former investigator, and the person that answered the door was a kid named Caleb (not the former). We talked to him and he seemed accepting so we set a return appointment, but we were never able to get in contact with him for a while. We decided to just stop by and we met Paul, who also seemed excited for our message and set a return appointment for us. We went to the appointment and Paul and Caleb were there. So was Paul's sister, Alice. We taught all three of them and set another return appointment. When we showed up to that, Paul had decided to bring another friend along, Noah, and we had an amazing lesson with them and then we set baptismal dates with all four of them. I think Paul is the most excited and we really hope at least he will get baptized. It's pretty exciting. 

The Kannapolis Elders had a baptism on Saturday that we were able to attend with two investigators, Tay and Ella. We were super happy that they were there. We've always been able to get in contact and have lessons with Tay, but Ella is a different story. We haven't been able to talk to her in over a month. We brought Tay with Brother Halvorsen, and when we got there, we found Ella there! I guess she and Angie (the one that got baptized) are good friends and Angie picked Ella up. So we were super happy. We also got the whole family (Homer{Recent Convert}, Ella{Homer's wife}, Tay{Ella's son}, and Pie{Ella's granddaughter}) to church! And they really liked it! The
baptism went pretty well. Elder Nelson and I aren't very good witnesses. So when Elder Christensen was baptizing Angie, her foot popped out of the water. The water was so cold that right after Angie came up, she ran up the stairs into the bathroom. Elder Nelson didn't see the foot come out, but I did, but I guess I wasn't fast or loud enough at telling everybody that Angie's foot came out of the water, so we had to get Angie back in the cold water and do it again. But, after, Ella said, "It better not be that cold when I get baptized." Which got us excited. Afterwards we went out with Brother Halvorsen and he took us out to Pizza Hut, which was really good for Tay, because he doesn't get out much because he's wheelchair bound for awhile. We really appreciate the people that do so much for us in this ward, though yesterday at church they made things a little difficult. 

So a couple Saturdays ago, we met this guy named Pryce, who is a really skilled painter. He had just lost everything when his trailer with all of his belongings caught on fire. He didn't have it insured so he was left with only the clothes on his back. He seemed like a super nice, humble guy, so we invited him to church and he said he would love to come. Well, I guess that was a bad idea, because when we picked him up the member who was driving, who is a super nice older guy, told us that guy is crazy and we shouldn't have invited him to church. So the ride to church was super awkward. We then got to church and during the course of the three hours I had five ward members come up to us and say stuff like, "You brought THAT guy!?!" or, "You know that guy's like a time bomb just waiting to go off." So basically all through church I was stressing about if he was going to blow up or something, but he was pretty calm. Oh well. We had a guy sing O Holy Night, but I don't think he did as well as Chris Roper. 😏 

Well, anyways, how about those Panthers? 14-0 now. Pretty exciting. Well, I'm glad to hear that Star Wars didn't disappoint. There is a lot of hype round here about it. I can't wait to see it when I get home. 

Well, as I am writing this we are waiting in the waiting room of a digestive health center. Elder Nelson is going to get a camera down his throat. He's been having some stomach problems and he hasn't been able to eat much lately so we are excited to figure out how to fix it. 

I haven't really played the piano much yet in the field. I played a lot in the MTC, but there are a lot of people in the mission that can, so I haven't really had the need to. I play occasionally in district
meeting, but that's about it. 

I'll be singing tomorrow. We're going to go caroling tomorrow night with some members of the ward and the Concord sisters. Well, I love y'all and hope everything is going well. Talk to ya later!

Say hello to friends you know! And have a cup of cheer!

Hello, hohoho Merry Christmas. Things are getting exciting here in North Carolina. The missionaries are showing a bunch of people the new Christmas videos and we are getting a lot of new investigators because of them. The IPads are so awesome. We did a Christmas/#ASaviorIsBorn stand on Union street in Concord and it is just so easy to show people the video with our IPads. People love the video, and so do we!
What about those Carolina Panthers huh!?!? The are now 13-0! Everybody is jumping on the bandwagon down here! It is really easy to find Carolina Panthers merchandise basically anywhere you go. We hear a lot about the Panthers, every day. Flags are flying, everyone is getting a Panthers license plate, everyone is wearing Panthers gettup, every other billboard has the Panthers on it, it's crazy down here. It's hard not to get caught up in all the excitement. Even if you can't watch football...😥. Becky Brown's son (Jonathan) is keeping me updated with Green Bay Packers scores and Lakers scores. Whenever he sees me he comes up to me and tells me the scores. Like yesterday we went and visited their whole clan (Ben, Becky, Nicole, and Becky's kids), Jonathan came up to me and said, "Green Bay just beat the Cowboys by 28-7, now they are 9 and 4. They have only lost to the Broncos, Panthers, Lions, and Bears, but they have also beat the Lions after they lost to them. They are the best in their division!"............ This kid is four years old! He told me all of that from memory! He continuously blows me away!
Christmas lights are all over the place here now. Union Street is decked out, and so is the Speedway. On Tuesday, the Sistrunks had us over for dinner and then took us to the Speedway to see the Christmas lights. It is a huge deal. You just drive around and in the Speedway in your car (we even drove on the actual track). I never knew how slanted the track is! It goes to about maybe 45 degrees. They had millions of lights all around and it was all synchronized to Christmas music. Is was fantabulistic!

We have a two new people in our district now. Elder Washburn joined our district. He's been on his mission for a little over a year now. At first he seemed really shy and stiff, but once we got to know him a little better, he's really cool, and pretty funny. Sister Nansel also joined our district. She is fresh out of the MTC. Sister Daly is training her, and is training for her second time. So Sister Sandie left (which she was not happy with) and Elder Skinner became a district leader in Albemarle, which is still in our zone so that's fun! Guess who else is in my zone? Elder Barton! I haven't talked to him yet, but I don't really know how to approach him. He'd probably think I was crazy if I went up to him and acted like I knew him and he has no idea who I am.😜
We had a lot of fun this week and I am getting very excited for Christmas! So I hear Utah's pretty snowy and cold😆. I feel for y'all. This week has been so nice. It's been perfect weather. No rain, 70's, sunshine. We've had our air conditioning on all this week! If it gets this warm in the middle of December, I am definitely not excited for summer😓. It is forecasted to be in the seventies on Christmas too. Well, I'm sure it will get cold here at some point, but it hasn't come yet.
It's really weird to hear that Bronco is leaving BYU. I'm not angry, just a little sad. I don't know who will want to coach for BYU. Next year will just have to be another building year, like the last three. I have a feeling BYU is going to get their first non-winning record this next year. They have one of the hardest schedules ever, and now a whole new coaching team...yeesh. Oh well.
We had a nice full car week this week so I have no bicycle crashes to report, yet on Wednesday we switch the car back so I am not excited for that.
I really appreciate the package from the Steeles and my family! They really get me so excited!
We are still working on finding someone solid to teach, so right now, the only solid investigator is Nicole. Hopefully more will come our way as we work hard and go looking with faith.
We were able to watch the Christmas devotional last week at the Kings house, and we liked that. The Kings also had the Browns and Nicole over and that was good, except Penny (Becky's little girl) was really rambunctious and we all had a hard time concentrating on the talks, but I think Ben and Nicole liked it.
 Well, I love y'all and hope you have a great Christmas season and always remember what this time of year is all about. Think about why Christ was born for YOU.
Love ya, Elder Huff

Oh Little, Little Town!

Hello. Well, we had a pretty good week this week. We started off this week with an exchange with the Kannapolis Elders. Elder Christensen came over to Concord. We biked a lot that day. We had already planned out a pretty heavy bike day, but then to make it worse, a member cancelled on us suddenly so we had to bike to the appointment he was going to take us to. Eesh. We found a guy named Canaan, who was a former investigator. Now it's my turn to talk about cars, Dad. He had this little car called a Yugo. Have you ever heard of those? I guess it's a very rare car that used to be made in Yugoslavia. He also had an original Fiat and whatever the car that Knight Rider is.Pretty spiffy. I wish I could actually drive. There are so many Mustangs, Challengers, Chargers, Corvettes, and Camaros, down here in the South it blows my mind. I can pretty consistently see one on the road when we are driving around. I guess Southerners like muscle cars. I am also actually surprised how many pickup trucks are down here. I though that there wouldn't be that many but I would say there are about the same amount as trucks in Utah. I really want to drive the Black Hole again. I'm not too excited to drive in the mish because there are only Chevy Cruzes, Toyota Corrolas, and Ford Fusions. They are all pretty nice new cars, but they are also boring. We have a Cruze. Driving would be
a little easier if we didn't have the weird monitor box in our car. We call him Jarvis. He monitors our speed and other things like seat belts, tires, suspension, RPMs, and brakes. He gets mad at us a lot. If we go over the speed limit by five miles per hour, he says, "check your speed!" We get violations if we go too fast for too long, our RPMs exceed 5000, we brake too heavily, or do anything crazy. Which is good, but really stinks when someone pulls right in front of you and you have to slam on our brakes. Oh well. Oh, by the way, Brother Henrie (husband of the lady that friended Mom) has a Mazda 3 very similar to yours. It's the same except it's gray and it's a turbo instead of a 2.5 liter. His driving reminds me a lot of you too. Well, that's all I have to say about cars, I'll move on now.
We had a pretty good exchange. We stayed up a little late just talking, but it was fun. The next day we exchanged back and headed into Mt. Pleasant and talked to some people. We got yelled at by a lady who supposedly works for the DOT. She was mad because one of our tires was on the road. She drove up to us and said, "I hope you're not parking there! You know, I work for the DOT and I am not happy with the parking job." We asked her (kindly by the way) what the problem was and what was wrong with our parking job and how should we move it. She said that she just didn't like our parking job and she wanted us to move because the road was a pretty busy one. We tried to be kind and do everything she asked, but whenever we said anything, even with compliance to what she said, she just yelled back at us. Well, anyway we moved the car, but it just goes to show, some people are just set on being angry. Oh well.
We went to zone meeting this week as well. It was pretty cool. We had a Christmas theme and President and Sister Alexander showed up as well. 😳 It was good though. Afterwards we exchanged white elephant gifts. I got a NC State back scratcher, which is already broken. 😩 I gave a Batman mug. It was pretty good. I found it at Big Lots. I also found a pretty fly Boba Fett watch, which I got for myself. It's actually a quality watch which surprises me. After zone meeting we did another exchange with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Ellis in Charlotte. We did a Christmas stand in "uptown" Charlotte. We passed out pass a long cards and gave out free hot chocolate. It was pretty fun. We are psyched for the new Christmas videos. It's an easy way to talk to everyone. They are pretty good videos too. I was on Elder Ellis' last exchange as a missionary. It was one of the oldest and one of the youngest missionaries on exchange. He leaves this Wednesday. Transfers are this Tuesday. I'm a little sad. Elder Skinner and Sister Sandie are taking off. I'll miss them, but I'm happy for them. They are leaving their first areas. Elder Skinner is going to be a district leader. Which doesn't surprise me. He's pretty solid. Sister Daly and Christensen are staying and Sister Daly is training. So I won't be the youngest missionary!! It's going to be weird.
So I was jumping a brick wall to be fast. I wish it would have been something awesome like running from a dog or running from people with guns, but not so. I still have a bruise and some scabs, but it's feeling better.
It doesn't feel like Christmas here. I'm still walking around in a short sleeve shirt. It still gets pretty chilly 'round here but it is also pretty warm sometimes. Like right now as I am writing this I am outside in short sleeves and shorts and I am very comfortable. But Union street is decked out in Christmas lights. It looks pretty good. Well, I think that's all I got. I love y'all and hope to talk to you soon.

Elder Huff finds a new investigator?

Elders Nelson, Christensen, Huff & Skinner