Sup Fam,
So the sun came out for the first time today in forever. I've never been so happy to see the sun! Too bad it'll set in about 5 hours. Ah well, wouldn't want to get a sunburn. There are a couple things I forgot to tell you about Val D'or. They don't shovel the sidewalks here, because people just use snowmobiles to get everywhere. Really. I've seen like five people just driving their snowmobiles down the streets and on the sidewalks to get everywhere. It's crazy.
I don't know much more to say, we just talked on the phone like two days ago...
Someone just walked into our office/church and told us a story about how his son just got ambulanced to a hospital in another town and he can't make it there because he just lost his job at the mine and his settlement hasn't cleared the bank yet and he doesn't have any gas in his car. The town is called Rouyn Noranda, that his son is in. Turns out he used to be an investigator and he knows that we are "nicest people he's ever met" and his girlfriend used to teach the gospel principles class, but that didn't sit well with him because he knew she wasn't practicing what she preached. But he used to go to church and he knows the mormons. He said he wants to come back-but people will say anything for money. He was asking for 50 dollars. E. Johnson whipped out 45 and just handed it to him. Sigh. The guy was actually upset that we didn't have the last five. He tried to sell us his radio, but we told him that's all we had, because in reality, we're missionaries, and it's the end of the month. He didn't buy that we were out of money, in an angry mutter he said "I'll be here for church" and stormed out.
Great. Kind of fouled up our morning there. Hopefully he realizes how much it is to give up 45 dollars, and he'll be a little happier when he gets to church. On the bright side, we have a new investigator now, heheh....sigh. It's all about the numbers anyways, right?
Our new investigator called yesterday and wants us to give her a priesthood blessing today, that's some landmark progress for this lady, she's known the church forever, literally, forever (she's the 95 yr. old) So that will be good, it kind of tears our P day to shreds, but that's alright, there's nothing to do in Val D'or anyways.
We went tracting last night around 7 o clock, it was -12 Celsius, with heavy winds, and heavy wind chill. I had forgotten my beanie, and by the time I had thought to use my hood, my hood was stiff from the cold and I wasn't about to wrap that frozen hood around my head. By the end of our tracting, I literally could not feel my forehead. It must have been a funny sight to see, as we got into the car I was furiously pumping my eyebrows up and down, trying to get feeling back into my face.
I can't believe that Carlie is Pregnant! That's insane. Still isn't registering.
So we got our callings yesterday in the branch. We're the Young Men's Presidents, and the Branch Presidency whenever the branch presidency isn't there. Which is about every other week. It was surprising, we had about 12 members show up for church. Soon we'll have it doubled, no worries. Actually, we make a trip out to Rouyn Noranda each week, to work there, because a lot of members come from there. So our goal is to set up a new branch in Rouyn. That's what we're looking at, our goal for the next six months there. It can definitely be done.
Welp, that's about all that's going on. It was good to talk to everyone, Everyone sounds about the same, that's good.
Love,
E. Holm
December 27, 2010
December 20, 2010
December 20th, 2010
Qu'est-ce que sup, family,
Woof, you guys almost struck out completely on letters this week, good thing pops pulled through with a letter from his blackberry. Thanks Pops! But I understand, it's a busy time and all.
So. Transfer calls. Crazy things happening. I'm going Senior Companion to an elder that is only one transfer old, and we are flushing into the VAL D'OR area, or more commonly known as Ahbitibi. It is the furthest north in the mission you can go.I'm going from the furthest south in the mission to the top of the top. In the dead of winter. I'm going to die. There's a super strong branch up there, of 8 people. heheh. But the work is turning around up there, they just had the first baptism in 4 years up there last transfer. My new comp, E. Johnson, and I will tear it up for sure. It will be fun.
I gotta learn french. It will be nice to be senior finally. Not that I'm shooting for position or anything, I just think I could be so much more effective in a senior position. I've had some good ideas shot down by some seniors that I know would have been effective. NOW IS THE TIME.
So, to get there from montreal is a 4 hour bus ride to ottawa, then 5 hour drive to val d'or. Yikes.
This past week has been nothing but tracting. Woo... But I have learned an extraordinary amount from E. Valido, especially about the bible. Like crazy things. Ah well, I still like the Book of Mormon better.
We got to help at a toy-donation event here at the church, and set up a missionary table and everything. E. Valido and I have been working very hard this past week, and a couple days extra. So this past week and a half. And in this time we have found 50 potentials. Crazy, I'm kind of sad to leave Drummondville after only being here for a week. The work here is going to explode. Man, it's already exploding.
Christmas this year will be kinda lame, seeing as we are flushing into an area. But I'm sure E. Johnson is cool, we'll have a blast. Thank you so so very much for the packages, I have to open them tonight though to make sure everything fits in my luggage.
VAL D'OR.
So, if you guys have a quilt handy, I promised a member I would ask for one before I headed out to Val D'or. If not, that's fine, I'm sure they have a lot of blankets up there. I feel bad asking for one right after you sent the christmas packages, but I might die.
I'll be calling Christmas Eve sometime, probably around 9 o clock for me, so 7 o clock for you guys. I might try a little earlier, like in the morning too. I'm just gonna call to let you know what time I'm calling on Christmas.
Um, that's really all we did this week, was tract, nothing crazy exciting or anything. Not even that many interesting people. It's been a long week. Ah well.
I'll talk to you guys on Christmas,
Joyeux Noël,
E. Holm
Woof, you guys almost struck out completely on letters this week, good thing pops pulled through with a letter from his blackberry. Thanks Pops! But I understand, it's a busy time and all.
So. Transfer calls. Crazy things happening. I'm going Senior Companion to an elder that is only one transfer old, and we are flushing into the VAL D'OR area, or more commonly known as Ahbitibi. It is the furthest north in the mission you can go.I'm going from the furthest south in the mission to the top of the top. In the dead of winter. I'm going to die. There's a super strong branch up there, of 8 people. heheh. But the work is turning around up there, they just had the first baptism in 4 years up there last transfer. My new comp, E. Johnson, and I will tear it up for sure. It will be fun.
I gotta learn french. It will be nice to be senior finally. Not that I'm shooting for position or anything, I just think I could be so much more effective in a senior position. I've had some good ideas shot down by some seniors that I know would have been effective. NOW IS THE TIME.
So, to get there from montreal is a 4 hour bus ride to ottawa, then 5 hour drive to val d'or. Yikes.
This past week has been nothing but tracting. Woo... But I have learned an extraordinary amount from E. Valido, especially about the bible. Like crazy things. Ah well, I still like the Book of Mormon better.
We got to help at a toy-donation event here at the church, and set up a missionary table and everything. E. Valido and I have been working very hard this past week, and a couple days extra. So this past week and a half. And in this time we have found 50 potentials. Crazy, I'm kind of sad to leave Drummondville after only being here for a week. The work here is going to explode. Man, it's already exploding.
Christmas this year will be kinda lame, seeing as we are flushing into an area. But I'm sure E. Johnson is cool, we'll have a blast. Thank you so so very much for the packages, I have to open them tonight though to make sure everything fits in my luggage.
VAL D'OR.
So, if you guys have a quilt handy, I promised a member I would ask for one before I headed out to Val D'or. If not, that's fine, I'm sure they have a lot of blankets up there. I feel bad asking for one right after you sent the christmas packages, but I might die.
I'll be calling Christmas Eve sometime, probably around 9 o clock for me, so 7 o clock for you guys. I might try a little earlier, like in the morning too. I'm just gonna call to let you know what time I'm calling on Christmas.
Um, that's really all we did this week, was tract, nothing crazy exciting or anything. Not even that many interesting people. It's been a long week. Ah well.
I'll talk to you guys on Christmas,
Joyeux Noël,
E. Holm
December 13, 2010
December 13th, 2010
Hey Family,
I'm now in Drummondville-which is an hour north of Sherbrooke. Some other elders were having some trouble getting along up here, so President asked me to take part in an Emergency transfer and swap out one of the elders. This happened friday morning, so I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone from Sherbrooke, but you know, that's life. I'd like to think of it as a very BATMAN exit, someone is still asking a question and all there is is an open window and some curtains blowing in the breeze. The transfer ends on the 21st, so I should just be here for one week, or more if President transfers me here for good. So it's a very limbo week, for sure. I'm sad to be broken up with E. Cherry, after we got off the phone with president he wasn't too happy about the situation either, he described us splitting up as "having an abortion against your will," I really like E. Cherry. I felt like I left Sherbrooke in good standing, we were able to boost our numbers from 3 to 15 investigators, and reactivated a good part of the ward, it was cool. Onto the next area.
My new companion is E. Valido, he is a VERY interesting character. He is 27 years old, decided to go on a mission right before he finished his masters in Critical textualism of the bible. He was a full time baptist minister before he was converted to the Church. He curses like a sailor, and is not a clean person--he's about the same height and shape as uncle Tim. Maybe a little shorter. He's also a graphic designer and a marine/army guy, he did both. He knows a whole lot about the bible, that's for sure.
So yeah, my comp is a baptist minister. How crazy is that. The branch here is really cool, really excited about missionary work, that's for sure. A longer letter will come next week, when I have something to write about here in Drummondville. I will also let you know where I'm going next week, if I'm going anywhere.
All the Best,
E. Holm
Before the change, there wasn't much going on. Just working and all that jazz.
I'm now in Drummondville-which is an hour north of Sherbrooke. Some other elders were having some trouble getting along up here, so President asked me to take part in an Emergency transfer and swap out one of the elders. This happened friday morning, so I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone from Sherbrooke, but you know, that's life. I'd like to think of it as a very BATMAN exit, someone is still asking a question and all there is is an open window and some curtains blowing in the breeze. The transfer ends on the 21st, so I should just be here for one week, or more if President transfers me here for good. So it's a very limbo week, for sure. I'm sad to be broken up with E. Cherry, after we got off the phone with president he wasn't too happy about the situation either, he described us splitting up as "having an abortion against your will," I really like E. Cherry. I felt like I left Sherbrooke in good standing, we were able to boost our numbers from 3 to 15 investigators, and reactivated a good part of the ward, it was cool. Onto the next area.
My new companion is E. Valido, he is a VERY interesting character. He is 27 years old, decided to go on a mission right before he finished his masters in Critical textualism of the bible. He was a full time baptist minister before he was converted to the Church. He curses like a sailor, and is not a clean person--he's about the same height and shape as uncle Tim. Maybe a little shorter. He's also a graphic designer and a marine/army guy, he did both. He knows a whole lot about the bible, that's for sure.
So yeah, my comp is a baptist minister. How crazy is that. The branch here is really cool, really excited about missionary work, that's for sure. A longer letter will come next week, when I have something to write about here in Drummondville. I will also let you know where I'm going next week, if I'm going anywhere.
All the Best,
E. Holm
Before the change, there wasn't much going on. Just working and all that jazz.
December 6, 2010
December 6th, 2010
Hola Familia,
This week has been a very difficult one, but a very successful one at that. Including this week's work, E. Cherry and I have been able to quadruple our teaching pool since the beginning of the transfer. It's very exciting, a lot of people are progressing towards conversion. It was rather funny, one of our investigators had a question about evil spirits, so when we showed up the first thing he did was turn on "Amytville Horror" and ask us, "does stuff like this acutally happen?" It took us about a minute and a half to explain to him, in french (everything takes longer to say when in french) that we needed him to turn it off, and by then we had seen/heard 5 people get gruesomely murdered in the film. It was kind of difficult to bring the spirit back into the lesson, but by the end we got it back.
We knocked into this guy house --he let us in and we sat down on his bed in his little apartment; he sat in his chair across the room. He had a big tub of cigarettes and a tall glass of beer on the table, and we could hardly see him through the cloud of smoke. He told us a story of how he used to go to church until his pastor caught him coming out of a strip club and told him he couldn't come back anymore. He's been looking for God ever since. We were able to teach him the first lesson and commit him to baptism, his answer was "Yes, I will get baptized, but I don't want anything to do with your book, just Jesus." So we have a little bit of explaining to do, he still doesn't get that the Book of Mormon is all about Jesus. Which is weird, cause it says so right on the cover.
Another new investigator we found this week is from Nepal, she is Hindu, but doesn't like Hinduism because she believes in only one God. Banksy. She talked a lot about Ghandi and the Dalai Lama and the importance of the soul and how you should have no fear, because whatever happens, God is in it. Then she interpreted E. Cherry's dream, that was crazy, and she showed us her temple in her room, which consisted of trinkets from every religion you can think of. My favorite part was the Lava lamp next to the nativity scene.
The work is increasing, becoming almost too much for just two missionaries to handle, which is a really good thing. We were able to watch the Christmas devotional yesterday, in French, it was really good. We've also started really studying Spanish, because 7 of our investigators speak spanish, and we would like to be able to talk to them.
Good luck Chandler at the concert! That's really exciting - someone take pictures! Good luck Noah at the Ballroom recital! Are you waltzing this time, or a different kind of dance?
Good luck with everything! Oh, and transfers are coming up on the 21st, so everything you mail has got to go to the mission home for now, because I might get transferred.
Thank you so much for everything and have a nice week everyone!
E. Holm
This week has been a very difficult one, but a very successful one at that. Including this week's work, E. Cherry and I have been able to quadruple our teaching pool since the beginning of the transfer. It's very exciting, a lot of people are progressing towards conversion. It was rather funny, one of our investigators had a question about evil spirits, so when we showed up the first thing he did was turn on "Amytville Horror" and ask us, "does stuff like this acutally happen?" It took us about a minute and a half to explain to him, in french (everything takes longer to say when in french) that we needed him to turn it off, and by then we had seen/heard 5 people get gruesomely murdered in the film. It was kind of difficult to bring the spirit back into the lesson, but by the end we got it back.
We knocked into this guy house --he let us in and we sat down on his bed in his little apartment; he sat in his chair across the room. He had a big tub of cigarettes and a tall glass of beer on the table, and we could hardly see him through the cloud of smoke. He told us a story of how he used to go to church until his pastor caught him coming out of a strip club and told him he couldn't come back anymore. He's been looking for God ever since. We were able to teach him the first lesson and commit him to baptism, his answer was "Yes, I will get baptized, but I don't want anything to do with your book, just Jesus." So we have a little bit of explaining to do, he still doesn't get that the Book of Mormon is all about Jesus. Which is weird, cause it says so right on the cover.
Another new investigator we found this week is from Nepal, she is Hindu, but doesn't like Hinduism because she believes in only one God. Banksy. She talked a lot about Ghandi and the Dalai Lama and the importance of the soul and how you should have no fear, because whatever happens, God is in it. Then she interpreted E. Cherry's dream, that was crazy, and she showed us her temple in her room, which consisted of trinkets from every religion you can think of. My favorite part was the Lava lamp next to the nativity scene.
The work is increasing, becoming almost too much for just two missionaries to handle, which is a really good thing. We were able to watch the Christmas devotional yesterday, in French, it was really good. We've also started really studying Spanish, because 7 of our investigators speak spanish, and we would like to be able to talk to them.
Good luck Chandler at the concert! That's really exciting - someone take pictures! Good luck Noah at the Ballroom recital! Are you waltzing this time, or a different kind of dance?
Good luck with everything! Oh, and transfers are coming up on the 21st, so everything you mail has got to go to the mission home for now, because I might get transferred.
Thank you so much for everything and have a nice week everyone!
E. Holm
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