Bike Week

Yeah, this week kind of stunk. We biked all over the place and had no dinners. It kind of stunk. Tuesday we did exchanges and I got to be with Elder Johnsen in Waxhaw and it was fun. But that was about it for the week. We had district meeting on Wednesday, and that went well, and then we had interviews with President on Friday, and afterwards we were stranded at the stake center for a couple hours until we were able to get some other missionaries to give us a ride home. Well, that's about it for the week. Today marks one month left of my mission, so crazy. Hopefully my last four weeks will be better than this one 😑 Love y'all

The Last Transfer

So this week I started my last transfer. I'm tripping out a little bit. But it will be a good transfer. 

On Tuesday we dropped off Elder Lewis and picked up Elder Fife. I'll miss Lewis, but Elder Fife is a good guy. He is from Sandy, Utah and went to one of my rival high schools, Jordan, and we are different in a lot of ways. He's a die hard Ute fan, I'm a die hard BYU fan. He's a huge soccer fan, I'm a huge football fan. He likes Coke and Pepsi, I'm more of a Dr. Pepper guy, among some other things, but we get along. He's been out for about 13 months, so he's pretty experienced. We weren't able to have many teaching opportunities this week, but from what I've seen, he knows his stuff and he'll totally be able to take over the area after this transfer. 

This week we had some interesting contact attempts. We went to go contact a Bible referral we got and we drove all the way out into the boonies. We got to the address and couldn't find a driveway leading up to the house. The house was literally surrounded by soybean crops and had a tree growing through the front porch. So we wasted a lot of miles going there, but oh well. We also went to another house to contact a less active. We walked up to the door and there were spider webs EVERYWHERE. Usually spiders don't really freak me out too much, and I wasn't totally creeped out. But when you are standing on a porch, literally surrounded by spider webs and gigantic palm sized spiders, you get a little antsy. I wish I had taken pictures cause some of those spiders were nuts! But Elder Fife wanted to leave as soon as possible😊, which I understand. 

This week I also was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting on the Book of Mormon, so I was chill with that. It's a pretty easy subject to talk on. I enjoyed preparing for the talk, and I think it went pretty well. 

So yeah, that's the week, Irma's gone, and we just got a little bit of rain and wind but nothing crazy. So yeah, love y'all!

Irma is Coming

Elders Huff & Lewis

So this week everybody was freaking out about the hurricane that was going to directly hit us, supposedly it's a huge one too. Luckily it moved out west so it won't directly hit us, so we'll be fine, but I have to admit, I almost wished it more directly hit us, that would have been exciting. We still will be seeing some effects of the storm though. Right now it is still super dark outside, the clouds are super thick and we'll be getting a lot of rain and wind, but nothing crazy. 

Oh, so transfers. We got calls this morning and it turns out Elder Lewis is going to be going to Gibsonville NC, right outside of Greensboro. 😢 Being with Elder Lewis was a lot of fun, he's a stud and I'll miss him. I'm getting a guy named Elder Fife. We'll see. 

This week was great, we found a couple new investigators and both of them are from Africa! You know they are great if they are from Africa, literally the best people to teach. 

This week a guy in this ward left on his mission to Guatemala. He had been hanging out with us a lot. He helped us out with rides and stuff a lot. Anyways, seeing him go just reminded me of how nervous I was going into the MTC almost two years ago. It is so hard to believe that my time here on my mission is coming to a close. I've got one transfer left and I'm determined to make it a great transfer and go out with a bang. I'm actually about as nervous about going home as I was coming out here. Yikes, time flies when you are having fun. Love y'all! Have a great week!

Elders Huff & Fife

Eh Weeks

4 September – Eh week x2

So yeah, this week wasn't much better than last. We were able to get in contact with some former investigators that are pretty cool but I'm not how fast they'll progress, if at all. It was bike week too, so we didn't get around as much as we wanted. We also had a lot of drama. One of our investigators was going to get married to a less active in the ward so he could get baptized, but the day of the wedding, he came home and found her drunk and he wasn't happy. They got in a fight and she broke his nose and bit him. So he was fed up and he packed his stuff and left to his mom's house in Gastonia. So it kind of put a wrench in the whole baptism thing. He still wants to get baptized but he's not ready yet. We'll see what we can do. That's pretty much the week, pretty bleh. Hopefully this week will be better. Love y'all!

28 August – Eh week

This week was alright, but it was a little rough. It seemed like nobody was home this week. Probably because it was the last week before school so people were doing their last minute vacationing. This was our last week with the car so we lost it today😓. Oh well.

We had zone conference this week on Thursday. It was really good. It had a big emphasis on the Book of Mormon, so I think I'll try and read the Book of Mormon one more time all the way through on my mission. After the conference we did exchanges and Elder Rives came to Waxhaw with me. He's a cool guy, he sort of likes to bend the rules, but oh well, what can you do other than trying to be a good example. 

We had a bunch of pizza this week and I almost never want to have pizza again, I'm getting a little sick of it. I literally had it six times this week for meals! I mean, don't get me wrong, if I was going to have one specific food for the rest of my life, pizza would be up there. And I guess I have no room to complain because I'm not even paying for it. 

Ray is doing well. We are working with him and he's almost set to be baptized but he has a few complications that might make it hard. He is going to get married this Saturday, so that will help him out. We'll see what's happening and keep y'all updated. Other than that, I can't really think of anything else that happened this week. Talk to y'all next week! Love ya!

Baptisms, baptisms, and baptisms!

This week was crazy. So on Wednesday I went to go interview Edward's brother for baptism, then on Thursday I attended his baptism, which was great. I got to see Edward and the Fowler family from the Mountain Island Ward. 

Then on Friday I interviewed the Sharon Sister's investigator for baptism. She is a 9 year old girl and she was ready. 

Then on Saturday I went back to Harrisburg and I got to see Galiano get baptized! It was so great, he and his family were super happy. It was great. 

We went on exchanges this week. Elder Berryhill came down to Waxhaw with me. It was a good exchange. 

This week was a little rough. It seemed like nobody was home and we hard a hard time getting in contact with anybody. We were in a neighborhood yesterday and a lady seemed to be stalking us but we kind of paid it no mind and kept going. A few minutes later she drove up again with a cop right behind her. She rolled down her window, pointed at me, and said, "Suspect one," then pointed to Lewis, "Suspect two." Anyways, so we had to have a nice friendly conversation with the cop while the lady was glaring at us. The cop told us we were fine and the lady flipped out. She wanted him to arrest us and she was literally screaming at the cop as we rode away. Anyway, we met some super nice people later that day so it made up for it. 

The eclipse was pretty cool today. It wasn't a complete eclipse where we were, but it got really close and it got pretty dark. It was cool. 

Anyways, that was the week. It was a little rough for us, but things worked out. Love y'all!

Third Bike Week in a Row!

Elders Lewis & Huff in Waxhaw

So yeah, my last week in Harrisburg was a bike week, and the first two weeks in Waxhaw I've been on bikes, I am so ready to get the car. There has just been a lot of complications with the cars in the missions so we got a little jipped. We get the car today so I am pumped. I've learned this week that Waxhaw has a lot of hills, big ones too. It's been a good week. 

I went on two exchanges this week. Since I'm a district leader now, I get to go on exchanges with the zone leaders and elders in my district. So Wednesday after district meeting I went with Elder Morgan to the Pineville area. It was a good day. I had never really met him before so it was a good way to get to know him. He's a good guy. Then the next day we switched up and I went with Elder Rives and Elder Berryhill in the Sharon Ward. It was fun to be back in Charlotte again, and honestly, I kind of miss it. Waxhaw is great, but we're kind of out in the middle of nowhere. It is a pretty wealthy area too, so the houses are all far apart which makes it hard to knock doors. But the town is great. It is a really happening little town. There are a couple pretty good little diners in downtown Waxhaw, and I've been to a couple and they are really good. 

Yesterday the youth did a really great activity. It's called prepare the way. So basically, the youth got a bunch of surveys with questions about the church on them and went out and knocked doors. The people would take the surveys, which basically asks them if they want to learn what we have to teach, and then the youth gives their information to us! Yesterday we got 21 referrals! Which is nuts! We are going to be working hard this next week trying to contact them all, I'm excited. Well, I'll make sure to tell y'all how great car week is next week! Love y'all!

The Haw

7 August

So I got moved out of Harrisburg last week. Sorry for the poopy email last week. I was saying goodbye to a lot of missionaries. This week was eventful...obviously. 

So Tuesday morning I got up, finished packing, then a member came to pick us up. I had to go to Salisbury and my companion had to go to Hilliard which are in opposite directions, so we dropped off Elder Ashton at another member's house then Brother Dunn took me to Salisbury and dropped me off. There I met my new companion Elder Lewis and a member of the ward, Sister Hargus, took us home. She apparently is in charge of the missionary mom's Facebook page so she knows like, all the missionaries. And she's like a missionary mom to all of them. We had to stop by the Hilliard building anyway to pick up a loaner bike for me because my bike is still in the shop. I got to see a bunch of missionaries that were going home like Elder Hulet and Elder Richins. So that was good. 

We them drove down to Waxhaw. It's a lot different than my other areas. First of all, we live in a house! It's the first time in a long time that I have my own closet and bathroom, pretty sweet. It's in the middle of downtown Waxhaw, it's a quaint little town and it's quite the lively town. It's about the size that Newton was, but it's a lot more happening and a lot more wealthy. Since I've been here I've seen a Maclaren, a Maserati, and a Lamborghini. Kind of crazy. We live right next to the train tracks and since we lived right next to the train tracks in Harrisburg I'm pretty used to it. 

It was a humid week this week. It wasn't too hot, but all the sweat would make you think differently. The members here are pretty nice...and pretty $$$$$. We went out a lot this week with a couple priests, this ward has a HUGE youth program, there are like 80 youth, it's crazy. So we have a lot of priests who are willing to come out with us. We were with one in a neighborhood and we were knocking on some doors and we had some pretty rude people but we didn't really think about it much, but I guess they called the cops. So before you know it we have a cop following us, then pulling us over as we were walking. You could tell he knew we weren't soliciting, but he told us to leave, so that was fun. It reminds me of the Summerfield days. 

Well, anyways, I'm in a district with the Sharon Sisters, Sharon Elders, and the Providence Sisters. It's a good district so it'll be fun. We are hanging out with the Sharon Elders. One of the Elders went to Brighton High School. That makes four missionaries in this mission that went there, pretty funny. Things are good here, I'm still figuring out the area, and there seems to be a lot of good things going on here. I'll let you know more about the work next week! Love y'all!

Elders Ashton & Huff