Family,
Fun fact about Montreal. You can't turn right on a red light. VERY illegal. Crazy eh? Just on the island, the rest of Quebec you're fine.
This week has been very fulfilling, but very stressful. One of our teams has been struggling, and it finally reached critical mass and we had to have an emergency transfer. Wednesday night I went on splits with the Zone leaders to try and find a reasonable solution to this problem, but the final result was an E.T. That night, by the time we had spoken to all parties and swapped teams around to make everyone happy, we arrived at the Zone Leaders' apartment at Midnight. Sigh...There is a couple of hours of sleep I'll never get back. Quite the all day extravaganza. STRESS. Ah well, this week is over.
Elder Dalton and I have been focusing on being more bold with our teaching, and it is paying off. More people are progressing and more are being found, it's great. Something big is going to happen here in this area soon, we've involved as many members as possible, everyone is getting excited.
There was one certain experience we had that rather frustrated me. We were on the metros, and I contacted a man that was super interested, asked questions and worked with me to better understand the Book of Mormon. In fact, during the contact we spoke of baptism and he showed interest and asked what he needed to do to qualify for baptism. It was a wonderfully spirit packed discussion, and as I showed him a scripture in the Book of Mormon, another man came up, and waved his hand to get my investigator's attention. Turns out this other man, (whom elder Dalton and I have dubbed STEVE) was a catholic missionary who was passing out rosemary chains to interested parties. He interrupted me and introduced himself by telling us how messed up the mormons are. He went on for a couple minutes, just spouting off blatant blasphemy, and then something that confused me. He spoke of virgin Mary, and showed us all how to pray to her, using the beads--one of the most complicated systems I have ever seen. The Spirit was gone, obviously, and Elder Dalton and I were trying our hardest to not argue, to give this man the same kind of respect that we in fact deserved. It amazes me what power lies in Moroni's promise, and how great it is to say with full confidence, "Ask God, and He will tell you if it's true." No other religion I have encountered trust their religion, or even trust God enough that they would share the same challenge. We offered this invitation to this Catholic Missionary, but unfortunately he only prays to Mary. Thus, he cannot ask God if our message is true. Hmmmm.... I don't get frustrated with people, but I get frustrated when people act under misguided faith in incorrect principles. I found that the bible dictionary section on FAITH is very informative. I recommend you read the effects of faith, and the change of perspective that leads to repentance.
Unfortunately the investigator guy walked away, not interested in learning anymore. We left them with a strong testimony, hopefully later he will find the truth again. As for the Heckling Catholic missionary, it saddens me that two young men must be better dressed, and more mature when sharing the message of LOVE and RESPECT and HAPPINESS. He must have missed that day in 6th grade. We pray for him, we pity his misunderstanding, respect his desire, and condone his method of sharing.
But in all reality, the work is going forth much too strong to be stopped by anything. We got more baptisms this month than ever as a mission here in Quebec. Things are progressing. The work is rolling forth.
Peace be the Journey,
Elder Holm (1)
September 26, 2011
September 19, 2011
September 19th, 2011
Family,
Good week this week, really good. President Cannon has been stressing the importance of setting realistic goals and then achieving those goals in a steady consistent level. Our mission has been converted into a goal oriented mission--which is good, this means that we do effective work and people find the gospel. Unfortunately when I was transferred here, the goals for this district were already made, and 1 of my teams, the Hochelaga Elders, whitewashed in. Elder Gibson came from Val d'or, and he is training a new missionary. Needless to say, they haven't hit the high goals that were set for them by the previous team, because city missionary work is very different to Val d'or. Everything is different to that place. So that means that Elder Holm and Elder Dalton have been playing the "Work as hard as possible to cover for the other team" game. Because we as a district report our goals as a district. We are a team. all our lessons count towards the same goal. The joys of being district leader, you get to be responsible. Yay. We have worked really hard and for some reason everything has been coming together for us. Huzzah. Lots of lessons, I've never taught so many people in my life. It's excellent.
We were visiting a less active member and her inactive daughter, the other day. This member has been less active since her baptism, and her daughter is deaf, and only speaks french sign language. We don't know how the missionaries in the past taught her enough for her to understand and be baptized....sketchy... But We were over at their apartment talking when all of the sudden a knock comes at the door. the Mother says "Oh, those are my daughters friends at the door, they sign with her." She let them in and then...we knew. Two very nice Jehovah's Witnesses walk in. AWKWARD. We shook hands with them and they sat down. ...silence.... I asked them "so, you speak sign?" "Yeah! Do you?" Elder Dalton said, "All I know how to say is the phrase --did you go to church yesterday?" Outgunned by the J Dubs. We can't compete with them when it comes to communicating truth to this already confused less active member. Grr..... It was like Batman passing Joker in the Cereal aisle while of walmart. Awkward timing, that's for sure. We'll keep trying.
Well it's been a ball, back to the city for me!
Peace be the journey,
Elder Holm (1)
Good week this week, really good. President Cannon has been stressing the importance of setting realistic goals and then achieving those goals in a steady consistent level. Our mission has been converted into a goal oriented mission--which is good, this means that we do effective work and people find the gospel. Unfortunately when I was transferred here, the goals for this district were already made, and 1 of my teams, the Hochelaga Elders, whitewashed in. Elder Gibson came from Val d'or, and he is training a new missionary. Needless to say, they haven't hit the high goals that were set for them by the previous team, because city missionary work is very different to Val d'or. Everything is different to that place. So that means that Elder Holm and Elder Dalton have been playing the "Work as hard as possible to cover for the other team" game. Because we as a district report our goals as a district. We are a team. all our lessons count towards the same goal. The joys of being district leader, you get to be responsible. Yay. We have worked really hard and for some reason everything has been coming together for us. Huzzah. Lots of lessons, I've never taught so many people in my life. It's excellent.
We were visiting a less active member and her inactive daughter, the other day. This member has been less active since her baptism, and her daughter is deaf, and only speaks french sign language. We don't know how the missionaries in the past taught her enough for her to understand and be baptized....sketchy... But We were over at their apartment talking when all of the sudden a knock comes at the door. the Mother says "Oh, those are my daughters friends at the door, they sign with her." She let them in and then...we knew. Two very nice Jehovah's Witnesses walk in. AWKWARD. We shook hands with them and they sat down. ...silence.... I asked them "so, you speak sign?" "Yeah! Do you?" Elder Dalton said, "All I know how to say is the phrase --did you go to church yesterday?" Outgunned by the J Dubs. We can't compete with them when it comes to communicating truth to this already confused less active member. Grr..... It was like Batman passing Joker in the Cereal aisle while of walmart. Awkward timing, that's for sure. We'll keep trying.
Well it's been a ball, back to the city for me!
Peace be the journey,
Elder Holm (1)
September 12, 2011
September 12, 2011
Family,
This was a wonderful week. A long, difficult, wonderful week. I don't remember if I told you, but Yan Ricard, the man who got baptized when I was in Val d'Or, received the melchezidek (not spelled correctly) priesthood and is now 1st counsellor in elders quorum. What joy sharing the Gospel brings! We have been working really hard here in the Big city, it can be frustrating when you are responsible to share the gospel with millions of people--this mission is definitely lacking missionaries. We can now drive and because of our mobility we were able to meet with our amies and we will have a baptism next week, hopefully. We have been working hard with the members and all is well in our area. It's starting to cool down here, getting and staying darker earlier. I'm excited for fall. There was a jumper in the metro station the week before I got here, suicide by metro train. We've been told these will happen more often as winter comes. The missionary work here is terribly different than in the boonies. out in the outer parts of quebec, once you get a phone number to call or an investigator, you hang on to them for deal life. Here in Montreal, you call once, if nothing, you dump the number and move on. CRAZY.
Elder Dalton and I are getting along great, taking on the big city. We live in a little apartment next to a little park, it's in a quiet part of town, right next to a metro station.
The work comes forth, life is good.
Peace be the journey,
Elder Holm (1)
This was a wonderful week. A long, difficult, wonderful week. I don't remember if I told you, but Yan Ricard, the man who got baptized when I was in Val d'Or, received the melchezidek (not spelled correctly) priesthood and is now 1st counsellor in elders quorum. What joy sharing the Gospel brings! We have been working really hard here in the Big city, it can be frustrating when you are responsible to share the gospel with millions of people--this mission is definitely lacking missionaries. We can now drive and because of our mobility we were able to meet with our amies and we will have a baptism next week, hopefully. We have been working hard with the members and all is well in our area. It's starting to cool down here, getting and staying darker earlier. I'm excited for fall. There was a jumper in the metro station the week before I got here, suicide by metro train. We've been told these will happen more often as winter comes. The missionary work here is terribly different than in the boonies. out in the outer parts of quebec, once you get a phone number to call or an investigator, you hang on to them for deal life. Here in Montreal, you call once, if nothing, you dump the number and move on. CRAZY.
Elder Dalton and I are getting along great, taking on the big city. We live in a little apartment next to a little park, it's in a quiet part of town, right next to a metro station.
The work comes forth, life is good.
Peace be the journey,
Elder Holm (1)
September 6, 2011
September 5th, 2011
Hello Family.
Life in Montreal is fantastic. It's incredible to finally be working in the big city, I love it! Truly an amazing experience. I've had some interesting encounters on the metros, but none of the them have been negative yet, so we will keep going strong! There was this one time when I contacted this lady and she mumbled in broken french while signaling to her ears and such, and making another funny sign with her hand. I, assuming she was deaf, leaped at the occasion to practice my sign language contact and promptly signed to her "Jesus Christ." (That's all I know so far.) After about 5 seconds of awkward silence, She looked at her boyfriend and he turned to me and said, "She speaks spanish man." Ah. Okay, not deaf. gah... So I stuttered out a spanish contact and she gave me a look like "ah...that's a nice trick..." And as she started to respond the doors opened and she had to leave. Terrible. But you know it worked to my advantage, because after they left, everyone was looking at me, I just gave the next person a look that says "that was awkward, wasn't it?" and then contact them. It's a blast really.
We had a really rough week, when looking at lessons taught, but fortunately we had 8 investigators at church. I'm always nervous about inviting investigators to church on fast sundays because, sometimes I don't trust the members. But nothing too terrible went down, and the investigators really liked it. We had 2 african families there. Missionaries are here in this mission to teach the immigrants, I fully believe that. The native quebecois people have very hard hearts in comparison.
I am the district leader of the french district of Montreal. That means my district covers all the french speakers of Montreal City, Elder Dalton and I cover the West half of the island and another team of elders and a team of Sisters cover the East half. It's crazy crazy. There is a spanish District here and an english District and a Chinese district as well. It's just too much fun here on the Island, I love it, although those sister missionaries in my district stress me out of my mind sometimes. 
Well, I'm glad to hear that everyone had a good time in Zermatt and that Hayden is getting better! I bet you he'll be teaching the scenario for all the new incoming elders soon. That'll come. I wish him luck being P1, it's...a good thing, it is.
I hope everyone has a good week! And if Mom and dad could send me that driving report as soon as possible, that would be incredibly helpful. We have a lot of investigators we can't see, because neither elder Dalton or I can drive. Thank you so much! The Island is where the office is.
Peace be the Journey,
Elder Holm (1)
Life in Montreal is fantastic. It's incredible to finally be working in the big city, I love it! Truly an amazing experience. I've had some interesting encounters on the metros, but none of the them have been negative yet, so we will keep going strong! There was this one time when I contacted this lady and she mumbled in broken french while signaling to her ears and such, and making another funny sign with her hand. I, assuming she was deaf, leaped at the occasion to practice my sign language contact and promptly signed to her "Jesus Christ." (That's all I know so far.) After about 5 seconds of awkward silence, She looked at her boyfriend and he turned to me and said, "She speaks spanish man." Ah. Okay, not deaf. gah... So I stuttered out a spanish contact and she gave me a look like "ah...that's a nice trick..." And as she started to respond the doors opened and she had to leave. Terrible. But you know it worked to my advantage, because after they left, everyone was looking at me, I just gave the next person a look that says "that was awkward, wasn't it?" and then contact them. It's a blast really.
We had a really rough week, when looking at lessons taught, but fortunately we had 8 investigators at church. I'm always nervous about inviting investigators to church on fast sundays because, sometimes I don't trust the members. But nothing too terrible went down, and the investigators really liked it. We had 2 african families there. Missionaries are here in this mission to teach the immigrants, I fully believe that. The native quebecois people have very hard hearts in comparison.
I hope everyone has a good week! And if Mom and dad could send me that driving report as soon as possible, that would be incredibly helpful. We have a lot of investigators we can't see, because neither elder Dalton or I can drive. Thank you so much! The Island is where the office is.
Peace be the Journey,
Elder Holm (1)
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