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!