April 25th, 2011

WHAT NEWS FROM THE MARK?

So...Big week. Baptism of an investigator. Great guy, super solid. The baptism was excellent. Felt the Spirit, all that good stuff. It was actually very difficult to get to, you see. It took place in Rouyn-Noranda, an hour away and we had an extremely NASTY Blizzard that morning. Yup. Our third one last week. We passed 3 wrecks on the Highway on our way over to the baptism...."And if the very elements arise to hedge up the way..."--Not correctly quoted at all, I'm sure.

And that same night, after the entire branch had bonded at the baptism, and it seemed as if the heavens had just opened up and doused this branch in joy and unity, we received transfer calls.

I'm leaving Abitibi.

Sunday was a very emotional day for everyone really. Half the branch cried when the investigator received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The other half teared up as I said my good-bye testimony. No one knew really what to feel. I've never worked harder with a small group of people. I know all the members of the branch here extraordinarily well. It makes it hard. Impossibly hard to leave. I am the Batman of missionary work. Dunk 'em and disappear, with the window open and curtains blowing in the wind.

But my mission president must have known this. Because he helped me leave here in the fact of who he placed me with, and where.

Mascush, is my new home. 20 minutes north of the Island of Montreal. Hometown of Celine Dion, and the Largest French ward in North America. Largest French primary in the world.

Needless to say, Big changes from Abitibi.

But that's okay, because my new comp is none other than Elder McRoberts. Yes, Payden McRoberts. From Kaysville, Utah. The Alto Sax section leader, a good friend of Elder Holm before the Mission. How insane is that? I am very excited, very much so. It's going to be a blast. We will do good things for the city of Mascush. (Mass-Coosh)

I'm being replaced by a good elder and Elder Holbrook is staying here. It's too bad, we were having a lot of fun together, him and I. Despite his strangeness. I love him though.

I've got some good pictures attached here, the last sunset I'll see in Abitibi and other such stuff.

Martin is the one with no arms or legs--he's the branch pianist. Crazy eh?

Yan looks like he's going to kill someone. And he could, fifty different ways. GANGSTER.

As for Mom's package...I'm good on food, don't need any of that, but I could really use some short sleeve shirts. It's getting warm fast. despite the snow. hmm.... I'm going to die this summer. I'll send an address as soon as I have one.

Hayden Got his mission call, that's crazy! Paraguay is legit. Like. Super legit. That's crazy cool. I've had a lot of opportunity to contact in spanish, and I'm bound to have more closer to montreal, I'll have to try and get good so Hayden and I can chat.

I'm proud to say that I left this place better than I found it, Abitibi. Even though it took all my spiritual strength and all my physical strength as well, I did it. I'm excited for the future. And I'll be talking to you people in about two weeks time. I'm hitting up the doctor in Montreal after transfers. I've been losing weight again. I haven't the slightest why, we've been eating like kings. Lots of casseroles and burritos.

On to spring, it's about time.

April 18th, 2010

Tanner's classic hitch-hiking pose.

On an Ottowa farm.

Visiting Cabana Sucre (Sugar Shack) - eating super concentrated maple syrup poured on snow.

"Tracting in Abitibi"

SCHEINHUNDE.

Our German member called me this the other day. Apparantly directly translated it means "Pig Dog" But it is a lot more offensive for other Germans. Don't worry, he was only teasing.

This week has gone by super slow, but that's okay. A lot of busy tracting done this week, and a lot of important decisions made. Our main investigator's baptism is actually on the 23rd now, the same day we receive transfer calls. So we'll probably baptize him and everything, and make it home just in time to receive the news that I'm probably getting transferred. That's okay, I'm rather pleased with the state of the missionary work that I'm leaving Abitibi in. We have 3 more baptisms planned for the month of May, with this man's baptism, more people will join the church in these two months here than have joined in 13 years. That's kind of cool.

Anyways, I realize that a lot of missionaries write very spiritual parables and gospel parallels in their letters home, often relating to what they personally experienced in the mission. Huh. My letters are apparantly lacking in spiritual stories. Ah well. Go read the book of mormon. That's full of good spiritual stories.

So I discovered that my companion, Elder Holbrook, is a Homewrecker. That's his mission nickname, anyhow. Apparantly before he came on the mission, he inadvertently annihilated a future marriage by making out with some guy's fiancee. The fiancee became emotionally confused and then broke off the engagement. Then Elder Holbrook ceased to further his relationship with her. Hmm....Home. Wrecked. But, his excuse, is that it wasn't going to be a temple marriage anyways, so it's not that bad. He's a strange one, but oh how we love him.

We visited a Cabana Sucre, or a Sugar Shack this last monday, and let me tell you. I've never had maple syrup so good. I'll try and send some home for Easter, it's delicious. I've attached a picture of me eating some Maple syrup taffy. It's hot maple syrup, concentrated ten times over, poured onto a stick and rolled in snow. It was so sweet it left my throat burning. Yuck. Good for the experience, never eating it again.

I'm excited to hear about Hayden's mission, it should be good! Crazy things, man, crazy things. The French is picking up really well. I can think fluently in French. Well not fluently...but I find myself thinking in french more than in english nowadays. Sometimes a couple Spanish phrase I've studied slip in there. Insanity. It'll be a miracle if I am able to communicate to anyone at all when I get home, I'm going to have troubles keeping these languages separate. Anyways, I'll let you know how the baptism goes. Have a good week everyone!

Peace be the Journey,

Elder Holm

April 11th, 2011

FAM.

Down in OTTAWA again. For another Zone Conference. About every two weeks now. It's sad that I can now navigate my way through the city of Ottawa and it's not even close to being in my area. Craziness. But that's okay.

Our week was really good. I spoke to an old investigator, he's in his early 30's, he isn't a member, but his wife is. We have been working with him ever since I got into Val d'Or. It's been tough with him, we've really struggled to work with this guy, but we've been able to see miraculous results. We don't have sacrament meetings in Rouyn-Noranda anymore, we have two firesides a month. Last fireside we did the classic, everyone gets a donut and someone has to pay for all of them by pushups (Jesus parody) and we asked that same investigator to do the pushups. Because he's pretty ripped, and used to be a ninja. Really. Taught ninjitsu.

It went really well and he ended up inviting a friend over who became a new investigator. And he even ended up teaching him, and testifying, it is awesome. Yesterday, on Sunday I asked him to be baptized. He agreed, but he couldn't do it on the date I asked him. He'll be doing it on the 30th, and he'll be baptizing his daughter right after. He asked me to baptize him, but truth be told, I probably won't be in Val d'Or when he does get baptized. We have transfer calls on the 23rd of April. Soo...yeah. The investigator offered to move up his date so I could be there, but we wouldn't have time to prepare him before then. This has been my desire ever since I got to Val D'or is to complete this family. And it should come forth, I hope. I don't expect to be there though. Magic.

So that's about all that happened this week. We watched the priesthood session finally, and they are really cracking down on single guys. I bet Carter is feeling the pressure. My advice for Carter is to stop waiting around, just have Hayden do an Impersonation of Kazia, and if in any way Carter can live with what comes next, he should seal the deal. If not, time to find another.

Well, that's all I have to say this week, we'll keep working.

Love,

Elder Holm

April 4th, 2011

Holm Family,

How is it going? Did everyone enjoy conference?

This week was good, it's starting to warm up a little bit more now. Elder Holbrook and I were walking back from the Bank and we decided to take a shortcut, which took us over this sheet of ice. Turns out the sheet of ice was not really ice but a thin glaze over the world's deepest puddle (or the world's smallest lake) Elder Holm was not wearing his boots, thinking fashion was more important than protection, and thusly did not have much traction. What happened during this discovery is very aptly described by what Elder Holbrook and I like to call a game of "Death Twister." Right foot. SOAKED. Left Foot. SOAKED. Both hands. SOAKED. I was throwing my arms back and forth, my legs were in the arm It's a miracle in itself that I was able to catch myself with my hands, but my english scriptures just fell right into the puddle. Luckily it was very much cold, so the water didn't really stick, and my scripture case kept it all out. Scriptures are very important to Missionaries, I near about died. My hands were completely numb in about 5 seconds. It was good for a laugh. We've fallen a lot, Elder Holbrook and I. I hope Elder Holbrook magnifies his soccer talent when he gets home, because he is a killer slide tackler. No matter where he is standing in relation to me, whenever he slips on ice, he somehow manages to sweep my legs. Luckily no one has seen our little soccer matches yet.  

Ottawa was fun. Eh. I'm getting really tired of spending my mission in a car. But that's okay. Wherever the Lord wants us. 

Anyhow, we've been working supremely hard, and we are actually running out of town to tract. Fortunately, after having a good talk with the members, a few of them are starting to invite more people to the Gospel. We hope to have a baptism in the month of April. Elder Holbrook and I have been practicing our teaching with Object lessons, we have found a really powerful and simple way to teach about the restoration by using the game JENGA. 

By the way, if you have been able to find the connecting cord for Carlie's Camera, I have a lot of pictures I would like to switch over, that I've been saving to the camera because I've been sending my SD card to Kyra with all my pictures. If you ever want pictures, she should have a lot, well I hope so anyhow.  

We've experienced a lot of persecution this week, but that's okay. With the sun of spring comes large groups of people standing and talking in the streets. We've run into a lot of these. For the most part, it doesn't really bother me anymore, talking to large groups of people in french. It's just gotta be done, no use in worrying about it. Almost never are these groups friendly, or even courteous. Usually Elder Holbrook asks me afterward "what did they say?" and I usually cannot respond, because of the crude and vulgar language the group had used. But that's okay. I really get frustrated when people touch us. The other day a man got very angry and started pushing Elder Holbrook off the porch. This made me mad, because not only is Elder Holbrook an extraordinarily nice and kind person when contacting, he is also very sensitive to such things. I decided to not move from the porch, I decided to lean forward a little bit. I took a little step in front of this man and Elder Holbrook, and raised my hand to quietly discourage this man from pushing Elder Holbrook any further. Elder Holbrook didn't see any of my interactions with this guy because he was already down the stairs and out onto the street by the time he looked back. For a very intense moment, what seemed like a wrestling match of sheer will power, this man and I stared at each other, neither of us moving a muscle. I leaned into a turning step and this man started to raise his arm. Then I turned and walked away, telling this man to have a good day. Curses followed us down the driveway.

Elder Holbrook was shaken up a little bit, I told him to not worry, quoted ACTS 5:41 to him and told him to brace himself for the reward. Because it is a law, that persecution precedes and follows success in the spirit. The next door, not two seconds later, we were let in and were able to teach a little lesson.

Anyhow, that's about all that's been going on. This week will be better. Our main investigator, is committed again. He just decided that he would stop smoking and reduce his coffee intake for "no reason" really. Uh huh. He's hooked.

 

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Holm