Prayers have been answered and miracles are being seen.

Dear Family,

It sounds like things are good at home.  I hope that everything with Grandma Yates is alright.  Donut Falls sounds and looks like it is a cool place - where is it exactly??  I am glad that everyone at home is well and having a good time - it's good to be busy, because time goes faster when you have lots of stuff to do :)

Well, prayers have been answered and miracles are being seen by Sister Kirifi and I.  Thank you for your prayers.  Everyday we go door knocking for at least an hour, most of the time it is more because we have nothing else to do.  But anyways, from tracting the last two weeks we have been able to get some 8 new investigators!!  For me that is really a miracle because I have never gotten new investigators from door knocking.  We still haven't seen any success from trying to work with the members, but we will continue to work with them.  But let me tell you about some of the investigators that we have found.

First is Kate, we knocked into her about a week ago and she said that she was willing to chat with us.  She believes in God but doesn't put a label on her beliefs - which is fine with us - the things she believes runs closely with what we believe as well.  We had our first "lesson" with her last Friday and we brought a member with us who lived across the street.  they hit it off right from the start and have lots in common, medical problem wise, and they seem like they will bet to be good friends.  We got to talking about the priesthood and how we can receive blessings and then we ended up talking about the Book of Mormon.  It was really a good visit, after I finished explaining about the Book of Mormon and read a verse to her I asked if she would like a copy, she said that she was hoping I would ask her that.  A lot of things have happened in her life recently but she tells us that instead of asking 'why me?' she asks  "what do you want me to learn from this?"  She really is an amazing woman, she said she would come to church on Sunday, but wasn't able to because her health was bad - hopefully next week.

The next one is a family of 4, Matthew, Anita, Ashley and Albert.  they are from India and are both great people :) On Thursday we took Sister Kezerian out with us to meet with them and they had a few questions about the plan of salvation, which is the lesson that we gave a brief overview of when we first met with them. Their son, who is 3 keeps throwing things at us - it's kinda funny. :)  Sister Kezerian talked with Matthew about the priesthood and how it is able to bless his family.  It was a really good visit with them and we hope to be able to see them progress and move toward baptism.  They are catholic and Anita seems more interested than Matthew, but I think that he is just more cautious about new things.  He was more interested in what we were talking about when Sister Kezerian was with us than the first time we met with them.  But when we door knocked inot them Anita was at work and it was Matthew that invited us to come back - so he must have some level of interest and maybe just shows it differently.

We also met two girls while door knocking, Jasmine and Emily.  they are great girls who really want to find peace and purpose in life.  We have only met with them once. but they are both really willing to do what we ask them.  I hope that they too will be able to progress.

So that is just a few of the many miracles that we have been seeing because of your prayers - thanks once again.  We also have a few investigators that are outside of our area because President Kezerian doesn't want the Elders teaching the single mum's so they are giving us all those investigators.  We haven't been able to meet with all of them yet, but we should be able to this week.

Thanks for all you do!!! I love you all so much!! and miss you too.  Have a good week!!

Love, Sister Jami Huffaker

8 Months Out - Can you believe it!?!

Kia Ora Family!!!

The weather is strangely warmish here, so I think your sending the hot weather my way is working mom! :)

Everything is going great here!  Daniel is all set to be baptized on the 21 July!!!  We are so excited for him - He is truly converted to the Gospel and not just converted to the missionaries or the activities.  he loves coming to church and meeting all of the members.  He went to Institute last Thursday and just loved it!  I am so happy - I don't know how to explain my happiness!!!!!! :D

Mom, that is cool that you were able to go out with the Sister Missionaries!! I know, from how I feel when members come with us, that they are very grateful for your service.

It sounds like lots of fun things are happening at home.  I bet Krista is super excited to start university - I was too :) I hope that everyone has a great week, I love you all.

Love, Sister Jami Huffaker

Here in the Shaky City.

Kia Ora Family!!

My week has been really good here in the shaky city.  I don't remember feeling an earthquake on the 3rd, but there was one on the 6th here and once again I ducked for cover under my desk, this one was 4.8 and it was kinda long, but it was just a gentle rocking instead of the one the week before that was a violent shake!  I'm not sure I would be able to sleep through an earthquake or that I would even want to sleep through one, but we haven't had very many earthquakes in the middle of the night.  That's nice of President Kezerian to email and let you know that everyone was okay.  I'm glad that you all had a good time at Yellowstone, Sister Fitisemanu would have freaked out to have seen a bear - she thinks that all Americans are crazy to be living in a country where bears live and can kill you.

Anyways, Daniel is doing amazing!  I can't really remember what I told you about him last week, so sorry if I repeat myself.  Daniel is wonderful!!! He absolutely LOVES the Book of Mormon, and he came to church last Sunday!  He is so excited to get baptized on the 28th of this month and we are just so excited for him as well.  Whenever we are with him his enthusiasm for the Book of Mormon just rubs off and I can't seem to keep my smile in control, it just wants to take over my face!! :D but it's great, the ward has been wonderful and he is making a lot of new friends.  He says that is good because he needs to get rid of his bad friends.  he cam to Ashburton Ward's baptism on Saturday to see what a baptism is like.  he was also able to talk with the members of that ward, some of who are converts themselves and have had some experiences that Daniel can relate with.  Also, the best part is that Daniel is thinking that he might want to serve a mission!!!  Oh how great is my joy!!!  I just want to be able to tell everyone about the happiness that I feel that Daniel has been able to find peace and happiness in his life.  THIS is why I am on my mission!  I love it!

Well, that's about it for the week.  We are trying to find new investigators, but tracting isn't finding much success.  I always have to try hard to be positive and have faith when we are door knocking or street contacting.  Bu things are going well, I believe that we have earned the trust of the members - especially the Bishop, he told us yesterday that he is happy with our diligence and our hard work.  We are very glad that the members trust us :)

I hope that everything is going well at  home.  I love and miss you all.

Love, Sister Jami Huffaker

I Love You :)

Kia Ora Family!!!

It's good to hear from everyone at home, I hope mom is okay because I didn't get a letter from her and she is one of the only ones that emails me every week.  (I was late in emailing but she got my letter before she was off the computer)  So I hope that everything is well.  Things here are going well.  This week we ran into a few rough patches, but they are all smoothed over now and things are going great.  The work in this area is starting to pick up slowly and I am absolutely excited about it!  The ward members are really helpful and we are starting to get more of them excited about the missionary work in this area.  We are also slowly earning their trust back that the previous missionary lost because of disobedience.  A lot of the members here have told us that we are different from the previous missionaries and that we actually act like missionaries.  I am so glad to know that we are gaining the respect of the members.  It is really hard to do anything as a missionary to help the work progress without the trust and the help of the members.

So on Friday night after we had gone home to our flat to plan for the next day and get ready for bed we hear a knock at the door.  We are both like...who is that - NO one knocks on our door!  It was weird.  So I looked out the window to see who it is and it is just two guys about our age - strange, I know.  Well, one of these guys is a member from one of the other wards in Christ Church, and the other guy was his non-member friend.  Will, the member, said that they had been with the Elders where he lived and they didn't have any answers for his friend, Daniel.  They had decided to come to us and see if we could be of any help.  We were sitting there thinking, okay that's great!  A new investigator who has literally been dropped to us on our doorstep!  We set up an appointment for the next day.  It's kinda weird knowing that an investigator knows where we live - because we aren't really supposed to tell them...but that's okay.  So Daniel is a young man who is struggling a lot in his life.  He doesn't have a religion and he doesn't know what to believe, but he does think that he needs to believe something.  So it's good that he has member friends.  he has gone through a lot in his life and really needs to be able to accept Jesus Christ and apply the Atonement in his life so that he can be free of all the pain and the burdens that he carries.  I really hope that he will allow us to help him allow the Atonement to help him in his life.

I am going on exchanges today with Sister Meister down to Ashburton.  Sister Meister is from Arizona, so it should be fun serving with an American companion for the next couple of days.  She is lots of fun and has lots of energy!

Dad, there is a family here, the Beck's, that know a Burt Huffaker (I think his wife's name is Catherine) - are you related to them?  They live in Oregon.  Just wondering. :)

Thank you so muchh for the love, support, and prayers that you give from home.  I truly appreciate all that you do for me.  I hope that everyone has a fantastic week!  I love you all :)

Arohanui,
      Sister Jami Huffaker

Happy Father's Day!!!!

Kia Ora Family!!!!

Wow, it looks like everyone has been pretty busy this past week - that's good, time always goes by a lot quicker when we are busy :)  It has been really cold here, whether it is raining or just being very bleak - most days I would class the weather as MISERABLE.  But luckily we have a car so we don't have to be out in the cold weather.  Even though we have a car I think I am coming down with a cold - I hate colds, and being sick altogether.  Luckily today is p-day so I can rest and relax for most of the day.

I think I told you that we have been working a lot with the members, trying to light the fire of missionary work in their hearts.  Our ward mission leader have us a talk, "The Missionary Next Door" by Diana H. H (I'm not sure how to spell her last name).  It is an amazing talk and something that I hope to live by for the rest of my llife!  You should find it and listen to it...she is pretty funny too.  We are going to have a missionary fireside soon with the YSA and then the Youth and eventually with the adults to introduce the ideas that are discussed in this talk/fireside thing.  hopefully it goes well and the members receive it well and try to implement it in their lives and in their families.

We are still doing lots of finding, and I have come to absolutely hate door knocking!  Hardly any success comes from it - it is way more successful to have referrals from members so that our investigators already have that friendship in the ward.

Sorry this letter is so short, I for some reason can't think of anything else to write.  Well, I hope that all is well back home and that everyone stays safe and has a good week.

All my love,
     Sister Jami Huffaker

I Love My Mission!

Kia Ora Family!!!

The days this week have just flown by!!! Which means that the days are going good. :)  We have been doing a lot of finding, and have found a lot of people, it's just whether or not they are interested in the church. But we have a new Ward Mission Leader who just got home from his mission to the states last week and he has several new ideas on ways that we can help the ward help us in finding people to teach.  So what we are doing is going around and visiting the members to get to know them and earn their trust, then we leave them with a spiritual thought on revelation and have them talk of a time in their lives when they have received personal revelation.  We then commit them to, as a family, pray to know who they could invite over to meet us at their house, and to pick a specific date for when they want it on.  Everyone we have committed to this task has been great, we still have to follow up on a few of them, but we have faith that they will be able to find someone that we can teach.  We were at the Taleni family's house for dinner last night and before we got a chance to give our spiritual thought they told us that they had someone they wanted us to meet and then we talked about how they could invite them to their house, for dinner or something, and have us over at the same time - that way we can meet them in a more comfortable setting.  We will see how it goes. :)

Last Wednesday, the 6th, it snowed...It was Sister Fitisemanu's first time seeing snow so it was pretty fun, because she was so excited about the snow (seriously like a child on Christmas morning) it made it so that I didn't hate it so much.  The people here in New Zealand are not prepared for the snow at all though,  they don't have snow plows for the roads and so when we got not even 5 inches of snow everything shut down!  All of the businesses closed for the day because of the snow, and you would have thought that would mean that a lot of people should have been at home, but nope, no one was home!  So we spent the day walking all over town, because it was too dangerous to ride the bikes and president told us no to, and every park we would walk by we had to make a snow angel in...and we would make them missionary snow angels! :) It was actually quite a fun day walking around in the freezing cold snow.

On Friday we got a car!!  Hurray!  Heavenly Father is definitely blessing us for our hard work and obedience!  We are really trying to only use the car at night when it is dark so that we don't have to be walking or biking on the dark streets, and that way we can still get our exercise during the day walking or riding our bikes.  Sister Fitisemanu doesn't have her license though, so I have to drive. :(

I can't believe that Brandi gets married in 3 days!! That's crazy!! Wish her all the happiness from me!  That is so funny that Grandma threw a fit so she could get the color of car that she wanted! But I have to agree with the silver color - good choice Grandma! :)

Okay, now to answer your questions dad:  There is only one Stake in the area of Christchurch.  There are enough wards to make up a Stake, but I'm not sure how many there are.  Our weather here is pretty much just like the beginning of winter back home, the snow has pretty much all melted by now and the people say that it doesn't normally snow more than one or two times during the year - which would explain why they are not prepared for the snow.  i'm not sure what most of the people do for a living -I ask them when I meet them, but you know how my memory is :) - and I don't know what they farm, or how may of them fish.

I hope that every one is well and safe back home.  Things here on the other side of the world are going great!  I am loving my mission, even if we don't have a lot of people to teach as of yet, but we are praying to see miracles happen in this area!

Arohanui,
     Sister Jami Huffaker

P.S.  Enjoy the pictures of my missionary snow angel and Sister Fitisemanu and I enjoying a day in the snow!

My companion is wonderful!

Hey Family!!!

That's okay if you send the music next week - I'm not in a big hurry to get it.  My companion is wonderful!  She does have a definite accent, but I wouldn't say that it is a strong Aussie accent - that's mainly because people always seem to think she is from America, I don't know if that's because I say I am from America and they just assume she is as well or if the way I talk is rubbing off on her. But i love her accent! She has been out about 7 months.

things have been going really well.  So we have moved Peter Marshall's baptism date up to this Saturday and it is all good to go.  I am really excited for him and he is way excited himself   It has been amazing to see how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has helped him come closer to Jesus Christ and also to make those changes in his life that need to be made.  I am so proud of him for being able to quit smoking.  I will tell you next week how the baptism goes.

We have been teaching a guy named Aaron who really knows his Bible.  He seems really interested to know about the church, but he is hesitant to pray and ask if it is true because he has had some rather unpleasant experiences with evil spirits in the past.  He doesn't drink, smoke, take drugs; he is like the only person we have met that isn't addicted to something.  He went to Church, not yesterday but the Sunday before, and told us that he felt a sweet spirit there.  he has gone to several different churches and told us that when he goes he normally just feels like burning them down.  He is very opinionated and very smart, he thinks very logically so we are trying to get him to know what the Spirit feels like and also how to tell it apart from the other spirits that are around him.  He is a choice spirit.  He came down to Invercargill to study at S.I.T. and he met us at the library when we were doing emails a couple of weeks ago.  his studies aren't going very well and he has tole us that he doesn't really know why he is here, we told him that he is here because he needed to meet us and learn about the Church of Jesus Christ and how it is on the earth today.  I'm not sure what he is thinking in his logical head, but I am pretty sure that the only reason he needed to come down it Invercargill was to meet us missionaries and be taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday Sister Cameron wasn't feeling very well, in fact today she is still not feeling very well.  But when we were at the Ngahooro's getting something to eat for lunch we were talking about maybe going up to Gore so that we could spend p-day there, and also so that Sister Cameron and I could sleep over at Elder and Sister Risenmay's place.  We called them and asked them if that would be alright, they said yes.  Then we called President and asked him if it would be okay, and of course he said yes!  So I am in Gore today writing you from the Risenmay's computer.  I love the Risenmay's!  They take such good care of us, I will miss them when I have to leave here and also when they finish their mission in August - they are from Washington.

Well, I hope that all is well at home.  It sounds like everyone had a good week and Micaela did AMAZING in St. George - could you send some of that sun down here to the South Pole?  I am FREEZING!!!  I sure hope I get moved up to the North Island for winter!!  I will go wherever the Lord sends me - but it sure is a good thing i only have to spend one winter here on my mission!

take care, I love and miss everyone heaps.

Love, Sister Jami Huffaker