November 28th, 2011

FAMILIA.

This last week was great, we had an interesting time. We had Thanksgiving Dinner in a small french bakery in Montreal, while we were down for Zone Council. It was delicious, chicken noodle soup and a Chicken panini sandwich with a Kiwi snapple. YUM. I felt very cultural. We've only been in our new area for a couple days and it was....interesting. We are pretty bad a talking to people about the gospel in english, it's kind of funny. Good practice, it was. Luckily, the first lesson we had was with a part member family, and we were able to commit the boy who isn't baptized yet, he's 11 years old. It's a family from Korea. They are so awesome, we're excited to see them progress.

The ward here is awesome. I've never seen a ward in my mission that is so excited to magnify their callings. There is a definite difference between the 1st generation convert french wards, and the stable old english wards. HUGE DIFFERENCE. It's lovely here.

Well, there isn't much else here to write...things are great.

Have a great week! Life is good.

Peace,

Elder Holm (1)

Pictures,
Dinner with BunnyRabbit.
And I forgot the rest of the pictures already, sorry.
Chinese church I think.

November 21, 2011

FAMILY.

Once again Elder Holm is blasting off, flushing out of another area. Two transfers, two areas. I feel like a wandering Jew. President Cannon and I talked about this in transfers and when I brought up how many areas I've been in his eyes shot up and he said "WOW. you may have the record for the most areas by the end of your mission!" Rats. Ah well, onward and upward to DownTown Ottawa! Sadly we're leaving 3 baptisms behind, but the sisters that are taking our place in Gatineau will do a good job. I'm a little sad leaving a french area, going to english--but at the same time I am very much excited to preach the word of God, uninhibited by language barriers and miscommunications. Oh happy day! There is a great power in testifying in your first language. The missionary work will explode in Champlain, (downtown ottawa). We will literally be starting from nothing. Opening up the area as we call it.

Okay, spiritual experience time. So we started teaching this part-member family, the husband is a member and the wife isn't. They have a little boy, 1 and a half years old. They are haitian. We'll call her Daisy. When we first met with her the first thing she told us is "Look, I don't agree with baptisms for the dead, temple work, you say the sacrament prayer wrong at your church, and families can't really be together. I've already been baptized." Ooof. But we knew that she had been pushed by the missionaries in the past, so we prayed hard and really tried to follow the spirit. Her husband promised not to push her, he doesn't even say anything during the lesson, except when we ask him to testify.

3 weeks ago. We ask her to read the book of mormon, to put all her problems on the book of mormon and to pray to know if the book is true or not. She says she will.

2 1/2 weeks ago. We change our lesson plan 5 minutes before knocking on her door. She didn't read. We read with her, Alma 32. Re-commit.

Two weeks ago. A monumental change. As Elder Leavitt was teaching her about fasting and trying to ask her to fast, she mentioned something.

"Will you fast to know if the book of mormon is true? We will fast with you.."
Daisy-- "But I already know..."

Elder Leavitt didn't catch it, he just kept testifying about the fast. My ears had perked up when I heard her mumble it, and I interrupted Elder Leavitt and asked her. "Wait a second, you know? You already know what?"

And there it was. Her little testimony of the book of mormon had taken root. She discovered in reading that it couldn't have come from man, the book of the mormon was from God. And you know what? All her problems dissolved, because of the chain. She understands, if the BOOK IS TRUE, so is the rest. How beautiful. Daisy is already inviting friends to church and passing out our pamphlets. The sisters will take her from here.

Well it's been great in Gatineau, off to Ottawa. Have a great week everyone!

Peace be the journey,

Elder Holm (1)

P.S.

I'm going to try and write Carter and Chandler Next week. Thanks for the pictures!

November 14, 2011

Family,

So things have been going well. Unfortunately one of our missionaries went home today... sad face. Due to mental health issues. It was rough, but it was good as well, for him. We are seeing more success than I've ever seen in my mission, here in Gatineau. Unfortunately We'll be moving areas next week to be closer to the stake president. Some sister missionaries will probably be put in Gatineau...I hope they keep up all the good work. We had very powerful lessons with all our investigators, all our investigators are committed to baptism and we are sure of 3 of them, that they will be baptized in December. More could change with this next week. It's strange when you are doing so well, it is a beautiful, and stressful thing. The ward has clicked. We're ready to launch!

Elder Leavitt and I are doing great, we had a little falling out the other day but were both men enough to rise above our pride for the sake of our zone. We're best buds now. I just lost patience with him the other day because I was sick, but now we're right as rain, except for the fact that Elder Leavitt got Dear John'd today...ooof...He was one of the few left with a girl waiting for him...yikes. I feel like the last of the Mohicans over here. By the way one of my District leaders is Elder Fitzgerald, he showed me a picture of his sister and Carter was in it! His sister is currently dating Carter's Roommate apparently. Small world.

It's starting to get dark, and all the missionaries are literally afraid of the coming winter. It's not going to be as bad as last winter I believe, but nobody is excited. Winter here is like a giant tunnel. It's long, dark, and cold, and there's only light at the end of it. We had a "Winter sky" the other day, where the whole sky is covered by one large, in indistinguished grey cloud. Time to dive in!

Well sadly I must get going, our team of three sisters here is having some major problems getting along. Elder Leavitt and I need to go help them work things out.

Peace be the journey,

Elder Holm (1)

P.S. Ate Rabbit last week, it was...interesting. That's the end. Okay bye.


And I'll be posting a Mormon.org profile soon, look it up! and make your own, it's good for the church!

November 7, 2011

Family Holm Evening,

The zone activity was great, we went to the Museum of Nature--and we saw the skeleton of a blue whale! That was cool, it was HUGE. and of course there was some other interesting things, but I was mostly in it for the blue whale. Zone conference was the next day, very powerful, we talked about teaching to peoples' needs and how basically we don't need to follow any format in our lessons--just plan well and then let the spirit guide you. This is a very difficult technique to master, and it takes lots of practice. We've been speaking with the stake president here and he wants to get really involved in the missionary work. We're excited. Ottawa really wants a temple, but until their numbers and temple attendance goes up, they have to keep heading over to montreal.

Our area is doing really well, We are leading the rest of the zone and we had 6 investigators at church--it was great to see them all there. I believe that that's one of my favorite aspects of being of missionary is seeing investigators come to church. For people who haven't yet had the truth in their life it is a great opportunity to see them feel the spirit. I look at them being overwhelmed by the spirit and I wonder "Man, why haven't I ever felt a super blast of the spirit like that at church?" And then I remember that I've been blessed by feeling that ALL my life and I move on.

We've had a couple people just come up to ask us if they can be baptized. We're really excited for this area, we Finally got the ward warmed up to us and the idea of missionary work has wriggled it's way into their hearts. It'll be really hard to leave soon. One of my favorite families here is a young family from mexico who are expecting their first child soon. The brother is a mexican teddy bear who loves to help the missionaries and invited a family over to his house to meet with us. Now that is a member that cares. He only speaks spanish, so communication is rough, but our spanish is enough that we can talk to him. His wife is tri-lingual as well, that helps.

Well, that's all family, hope everyone has a great week!

Peace be the journey,

Elder Holm (1)