Dear family and friends,
So I made it to Huntington Beach! What a great place. However, the day I actually had to leave the Walnut apartment was really sad. While I was upstairs gathering my things, Sunra drove by and dropped off a big bag of sausages. She told Elder Butler (one of the senior missionaries who was picking me up), "me no cry, me no cry" then she drove away. It was super nice of her. Now I have enough sausages for at least me and my companion for this entire transfer!
It's so weird not really being a Cambodian missionary anymore. I still study Cambodian for an hour a day, but it's 100% different over here. Everybody's white, rich, Christian, likes Pizza and BBQs etc.. It'll be good to get a new perspective on things. Also, we're staying with a member which has been great so far. The owner of the house is an elderly lady, named Sister Taylor. She lives with her daughter and her daughter’s husband and their two kids, 4 and 1 years old. And by the way, the daughter is less active and the husband is a non-member which means...missionary opportunity! Anyways, Sister Taylor is just the nicest lady you'll ever find. She's always making sure we're living comfortably. Plus she offers to get us food, or give us rides (since we're on bikes). I told Elder Jolley the other day that every time we go home it feels like we're going back to Grandma's house! She's just great! And don't worry mom, we're taking good care of things, and we're looking for ways we can help too! We actually vacuumed the house and cleaned the kitchen for her this morning. Yay! And speaking of the house, it is huge and really nice! She and her husband actually built it themselves. Like they sawed and hammered and nailed everything in place. They even have an elevator! It's way cool!
So now, to give you an update about my new companion-I already mentioned him a little bit, but his name is Elder Jolley. He's 6'1'', 170lbs, red hair, and he's from Cedar City Utah. He played football and wrestled in high school. He's got 9 brothers and sisters, and he's truly just a jolly guy! (his name really fits him) He’s great. So far we get along well and he's a solid missionary with a sincere desire to serve. He's willing to work hard; he wants to improve; he's excited about our people; and he is humble. He’s awesome! I'd say we've really bonded as we're trying to figure out this area together. haha.
So I don't know if I mentioned this last week, but we're "white washing" this area, which means neither of us have ever served here before. A lot of what we've been doing this week has been figuring out the streets, meeting members and finding people to teach. (we’re always trying to find people to teach) But it's been good and by the end of the week we had several appointments with people. Yay! I think we're getting rolling here a bit which is good. I'm excited to see what we we’re going to be able to accomplish while we're together. Traditionally, Huntington Beach hasn't been too much of a baptizing area but I'm not going to tell Elder Jolley that. I know we can change things! I love this work.
Love you all!
Elder Hicken
P.S. I can’t remember my new mailing address. However, I can still get any letters sent to the Walnut apartment because the Elders now living there should just bring it to the office. For now, maybe could you send things to the mission office and next week I'll remember to bring my new address! Sorry!
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