The Holidays! Plus Tornadoes... -December 28th, 2015

Hey guys!

How was everyone's Christmas? I hope you all had an amazing week:)

My whole week was awesome! The Christmas spirit was real and we were able to do some really good work; visiting/finding less actives, teaching lessons, and doing some awesome contacting. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were a whole lot of fun too. It didn't really feel like the regular Christmas I'm used to but it was still really great! Christmas Eve we spent most of the day with a couple less active families and finished the night having a lot of fun at a members. We had an awesome dinner, played some fun games, then re-enacted the Nativity with their whole family. The elders were wise men (of course) and had one part haha! It was a lot of fun though and we ended the night singing some Christmas songs. 

We stayed with some other elders that night and set up some lights and our humble Christmas tree on top of a trash can covered with a white blanket. I'll include a picture, it was pretty cute. 

In the morning we woke up and took turns opening all our presents and packages. It was a lot of fun and we had a really good morning. After that Elder Shurtz and I headed to a lunch appointment we had where I had the immense opportunity to talk to my amazing family;) That was awesome! It was so cool getting to spend time with y'all and get caught up. I love y'all! After that we went over to another members home and ate some amazing lasagna plus some fantastic dessert. 

The rest of the week was pretty busy too which was great. 

Oh yeah, something I forgot to tell y'all about Talladega. The Helen Keller School for the Blind and Deaf is actually right down the road from where we live! So there are quite a few deaf people and people that know sign language around this area. So I've actually been able to practice and try out the sign language I learned from school! It's pretty rusty but it's coming along! There's even a deaf foreign exchange student from Africa staying with a family in our Branch. He's sixteen and we've been hanging out with him a lot and I've been able to try to speak to him in my broken ASL haha! It's been really cool though! 

Haha oh yeah, like the title of this email says, this whole week has been filled with tornadoes down here in Alabama. The warnings started at the beginning of last week and are actually still going. There was an 80% chance at the beginning of last week and it's been continually going down. A couple hit some areas around Alabama but none have been super close to Talladega so we've been safe so far! On Christmas Eve the warnings were pretty high and we were staying with some other Elders so we setup our "safe room" in the laundry room downstairs (they didn't have a bath tub downstairs so we had to improvise). One of the Elders we were with, his name is Elder Svenson (from Canada), he's hilarious and the whole time we were getting everything ready he was running around screaming "The Tomato is coming!" I honestly don't know why I found this so funny but I was dying!

Anyways, we've got a busy week planned ahead of us and I hope y'all have an awesome week too! And a Happy New years!

I'll talk to y'all next week:)

Love, 

Elder Honn

Steadfast in Christ

Pretty bad picture quality.... but this was our Christmas setup!

Merry Christmas From Alabama!! -December 21st, 2015

Hey everyone! Merry Christmas week! 

This past week has been very busy! As my mini email a couple of days ago said, I have been transferred to Talladega, Alabama! Which is down south by Birmingham. So far it's been a lot of fun and we've already had some amazing experiences and seen success. 

My new companion is Elder Shurtz. He's from Orem, Utah and has about four months left in his mission. He's awesome and we actually have a lot in common. We're really close already and it's only been less than a week! This is going to be an awesome transfer.

So a little bit more about Talladega. We are actually in a branch and there are maybe 40 people that actually come to church. There are a lot of less active people but the members that do come are really awesome and supportive of the missionaries. 

Talladega is kind of a dying city. A while back it was a pretty popular city but over time it's just become pretty run down for random reasons. We cover quite a lot of country, a couple cities, and quite a lot of projects. So a pretty wide variety of people as you can imagine! 

I'll also have a lot more basketball to play here too, which is just amazing. Haha this morning three other elders and I woke up at 4:30 to drive down to Birmingham to play basketball with some other missionaries at a baptist church. I was thinking we'd just play around and stuff but this was the biggest church I have ever seen. The courts were the size of the YMCA courts and it was serious competition. Haha the six of us were the only white guys there too so it was pretty funny. But like I said the competition was real! There were multiple guys who played college, and even one who played in the NBA for a couple years. I'm pretty out of practice so it took me a while to adjust to the competition but it was so much fun!

Oh yeah, I have been absolutely loving the 12 days of Christmas y'all did for me. And can I just say how much I appreciated the Christmas tree from everyone. It was very touching and definitely made me feel loved. Y'all don't understand how much that meant to me. The presents have also been a lot of fun to open up every day, my family are just so creative!

I'll attach a picture of the tree in my new house:)

I'll also attach a picture of our mini house that we stay in here in Talladega. 

Also, as far as talking this Christmas goes, I'm pretty sure that google hangout will work. I'll just have to figure out how to set it up and make sure it works. I will do that and also find out exactly what time I will be on and I will let you guys know within the next couple days:) I cant wait! 

I'm still learning more and more each day and my testimony of this church continues to grow. I absolutely love this church with all my heart and I know it is the true church of Jesus Christ. And no matter how many people argue or disagree with me day to day, my testimony is unmovable. I love being able to serve the Lord all day everyday and I know that there is nothing else that would be better for me to be doing at this time in my life. 

I love each one of you so much and hope you all have an amazing Christmas week!

Love,

Elder Honn

haha a couple more pictures! This was at our branch Christmas party this last week. A kid won a package of stick on mustaches and wanted us to wear them with him. It was hilarious and we had a pretty good time with it:) I was German and Elder Shurtz was Hispanic! Haha the sisters even joined in on the fun too!

First Transfer! -December 18th, 2015

Hey guys!

I'm just shooting this quick email to y'all to let you know the news! I tried to get on yesterday but my email wouldn't work...

So I have been transferred to Talladega, Alabama! It's down by Birmingham and it's famous for the Talladega Speedway which is a huge racetrack. Pretty cool! So far it's been pretty different from Monte Sano which is what I was expecting. Our area is pretty big and we cover quite a few towns. I've already gotten to play some basketball in the ghetto too! We didn't get to play for long but it was pretty fun:)

Anyways, my new address is:

203 Mary street

Talladega, Alabama 35160

I'll let y'all know more about everything on Monday!

Love you guys,

Elder Honn

Christmas Festivities! -December 14th, 2015

Hey guys! 

This week was pretty busy! 

We started off by having our mission Christmas party on Wednesday. It was awesome! First we had a Christmas devotional by President and Sister Hanks. It was amazing and the spirit was so strong. After that we had an awesome Christmas dinner filled with ham, steak, mashed potatoes, and a bunch of other great stuff! We then had a talent show haha! It actually was filled with a bunch of awesome talent and was so much fun! Then after our talent show we got to watch a regular movie! It's a tradition in this mission that during the Christmas party each year, we get to watch a regular movie all together. Last year they all watched Frozen and this year we watched Big Hero Six! Everybody loved it, especially the sisters. I had already seen it but it was still fun to watch again. 

Then for the next couple of days we were working at the annual Huntsville Christmas Festival! The festival is ran by the church and has gotten very popular throughout the years. People from all over come to this festival, member and non-member, to experience the festivities. The festival consists of an amazing concert, a live nativity, a display of Christmas trees and display nativities, and a Christmas video. It's such an awesome holiday activity and is really good exposure for the church. So basically we were just there helping out in any way and talking to everybody. We weren't allowed to proselyte, which is okay, so we basically just went around talking to everybody for hours on end haha! It was a lot of fun and I loved it! The spirit was and has been so strong this whole week! 

So basically our whole week was filled with the spirit of Christmas and I loved it! 

Then a couple days ago we got transfer calls! Let me start out by saying that this past couple months have been amazing in Monte Sano/Huntsville and I've drawn so close to so many people here. My first area and it has felt like home since I've gotten here. Sadly though, I will be leaving this Wednesday and am being transferred to somewhere else in Alabama! So Sunday was filled with goodbyes to a lot of people that I have grown close to. I'm kind of torn to be honest! I'm sad to be leaving and sad that I don't get to spend Christmas in Huntsville with people that I'm close to but I'm also so excited to experience a new area of Alabama and meet a bunch of new people and missionaries! It will be a new experience that's for sure! 

Shout out to my Momma for waiting all day to hear about whether I'm leaving or not haha:) I kept her waiting for this email and she was a trooper!

Anyways, I'm excited for all the new experiences this week has to hold! I'll probably shoot y'all a quick email in the middle of the week to let you know my new address and where I'll be serving. 

Until next week and Happy Holidays! 

Love,
Elder Honn

Pic: A birthday party with some of the elders for our zone leader, Elder Faustin! 

Tracting, Tracting, More Tracting and the Temple! -December 7th, 2015

Hey everyone! 

This week not a whole lot happened! Just like the subject says, we spent most of our week tracting and trying to find people to teach. Which is what most of this transfer has been... but this week it felt like that's all we did! But that's okay, its what you've gotta do to find the people that are prepared here in Alabama! 

Other than that, this week we had the immense privileged of attending the Birmingham temple again. You guys, I love the temple so much. Its beautiful and always such an amazing experience. I would challenge any of you that are able to attend the temple, to go as often as you can. I promise that it will bless your life and help bring you closer to Christ. It's the biggest blessing that I get to attend the temple every couple months and I'm so grateful for it! I'll attach some pictures from the trip:)

Back to tracting, we had quite a few funny experiences this week while knocking doors! 

In Alabama there's a thing where people will yell through their doors and not even open the doors haha! And the phrase that is usually said is "Who it is??" haha It's just hilarious how it normally goes down! So we'll knock on the door and they'll say "Who it is??" and we'll be like "the missionaries!" and they'll be like "who?" and we'll say it again then in the end they'll just end up opening the door because its almost impossible to talk through a door... obviously... 

Then another weird experience is we were tracting and knocked on a door and the person answered and we talked to them and they weren't super nice and declined our invitation to teach them. But as we were walking away, the guy shouted "Hey! Y'all want some candy?" and obviously at first I was a little sketched out haha! But I was like um sure... so we went back and he pulls out this random bag of candy that was unopened and said it was leftovers from Halloween...haha so we took it! And for a while we were tracting and my companion was just holding a big bag of candy... it looked pretty weird so I was decided we were going to use this candy to get into a door and teach somebody! And we did! haha we knocked on the door of a lady and I told her about the candy and she told us she was a teacher at an Elementary school and would love the candy! So she let us in and we gave her a message (she turned out being baptist) and also gave her the bag of candy for her students! Haha it was awesome and we probably wouldn't have gotten into her home if it wasn't for the candy. 

Anyways, those were just a few of the funny experiences we've had while tracting! I've learned to really enjoy tracting solely because of the funny experiences that we have haha!

Anyways, sorry this email wan't full of spiritual experiences but I hope you enjoyed hearing about a couple of interesting experiences we had while tracting this week:) 

I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to y'all next Monday! 

Love,

Elder Honn