E-Mails 10/29/2012

So my week has been interesting.

My trio is not as bad as I thought it would be, but there are a few kinks here and there. Sis Smith is a very sweet and quiet person. Which is the opposite of both Sis Aloi and I. Also Sis Aloi has kinda had an attitude. Not necessarily a bad one, but I can tell she gets upset or annoyed at things. Not exactly sure what though. We have fun though. I feel like they think that I am the leader though. It’s like nothing gets started unless I go first… sigh. I am exaughsted because of it. They are slowing getting it though. Unfortunately there are a lot of awkward pauses when we teach people. hopefully they will turn into spiritual pauses soon. 😛

Anyways. Sis Smith is from Tri Cities area of Washington state. She is super nice and a good missionary. She goes home in February. So she has been out a while. She is very good at coming up with solutions to problems which I love! Plus she is funny so that is good. Anyways we are all working out.

So Super cool story! We are teaching an Iranian man who speaks Farsi!!!!!!! He is so cool. His name is Bizhan (Bee-shon) He converted from Islam to christianity years ago, but then stopped going because they were pushing him to believe things that he didnt believe. The Elders found him while they were harvesting. So we went over and he is the most precious and sweet person I have ever met! He also makes me think of Grandpa Losee. He is so cool and tells funny stories and jokes and things. He is reading the Book of Mormon in Farsi which is amazing. It is a language that I couldn’t even begin to guess what it says. He feels the spirit so strongly too. He hadn’t even read the Book of Mormon yet but he told us that he knew that it would bring him the peace that he is looking for. There is also a member in our ward who is from Iran and also speaks Farsi. So we know that Bizhan is meant for the gospel. It would be so difficult to teach him without Bro. Jamei’s help. And they pratically have the same story. They came from Iran, the iranian government killed some of their family. They had been married and divorced by their wives who ahd abondond their daughter. It is a crazy story! But they are so precious! I love them so much. Right now Bizhan has a hurt shoulder and it has made it hard for him to come to church because he can’t put his clothes on himself. Plus he is in a lot of pain. But he is so excited to come. We know he will be baptized! We are so excited for him and he can’t wait to come to church and to prepare for baptism too.

Also this week we found two amazing spanish families that we are so excited for. We had to pass them to the Elders though because they speak more spanish than english. But it was confirmed that they went to church yesterday and are working with the Elders. They are the sweetest people too. One is Isabel Mesa. After we explained to her that she would be working with the elders she told us that we have to come and say good-bye to her before we left the area and she wants us to stop by as often as we could. She loves us so much. She is so sweet. And she has a way cute family. Her husband is David and her son Pablo.

Also we had a lot of fun harvesting this week. We met cool people and we have been having fun singing songs and things as we work. We have also been having lots of spiritual experiences with our lessons and blessings. I don’t know if it is because I’m nearing the end of the mission or what or if I am the onyl who feels this way but we just keep seeing miraCLE AFETR MIRACLE.

Anyways I had a good week.

Thank you for the updates on Zander. He sounds so cute! How is Grandma doing? are her eyes getting better? How about the rest of the family?

Question. May I have some money to send to packages home of my stuff. I wont be able to pack my letters and books and stuff?

It’s only 2 of them. I believe it would go media mail.

Well thats all I can think of.

I love you tons!!!! Best parents ever

 

Dear Pres. Anderson,

This past week has been full of miracles!
The Elders past us a referral that they had found harvesting. He is an amazing man named Bizhan from Iran. We had a neat experience of sharing the Book of Mormon with him in his own language; Farsi. We also had one of our members who just happens to be from Iran as well and a convert. As we shared with him the power of the Book of Mormon he shared with us that he could already feel the peace that would come from the book. He is very in tune with the spirit. Every time we meet with him it is a spiritual experience. He is so excited to read it and understand the peace that it will bring to him. He has also started to make the changes that he needs to to prepare for baptism.

Harvesting this week we had miracle after miracle with asking others for referrals. We began knocking in a neighborhood and had the opportunity to bless Maria Elena, who is now being taught by the Elders. She led us to her son, who led us to a friend of his. As we went to find the referral, we ran into David who was doing yard work. My companion offered him a card and we introduced ourselves and offered the prayer. Afterwards he had tear filled eyes and was grateful for the experience. we invited him to come to church the next day. He was iffy on committing to come. So Sunday morning we went and knocked on his door. He opened as saw us and said, “I’ll go get dressed.” He came and is interested in what it is that we have to offer.

This week has been a great one for us and we are excited for the next!

Thank you!

Sis Holder

E-Mails 10/23/2012

Dearest Family,

This week has been pretty cool 🙂

I’ll start off with the fact that we had 3 baptisms on Sunday!!! WootWoot!!

It was quite the event. It was our investigator Karen and her sons Junior and Omari.

They are the sweetest little family ever. We are so excited for them and have had

so much fun working with them. If I could send pics I would but for some reason they aren’t working:/

Anyways, Funny Story. Yesterday as we were knocking on doors. We were in a nicer area so

people weren’t being as receptive. But we knocked on this one door and a young man came out

who was like a bajillion feet tall, (6’5) came out and greeted us. His name was Jordy.

While talking to him I had to look up almost cricking my neck. No matter what we said to him

he would not let us share a prayer with him or anything really. So we finally gave in. We put our hands

out to shake his hands and to thank him and be on our way. He ignored our hands and stated “I give hugs.”

Sis. Aloi and I were baffled at him and his giant self gave each of us a hug. He then made his way back into

his house and that was it. We laughed a good long laugh afterwards. We were just so shocked

at him and how funny the situation was.

Also we had Transfer call ysterday… For my last transfer… my fate is. I stay in Coral Springs….

with Sis. Aloi….. and with one other sister………………………………………

I am not exactly happy about this. I don’t really like being in a trio.. and it’s my last transfer….

I’m pretending like I don’t care. But trio’s suck. No matter how good the missionaries you are with

are. Sigh… I’ll I know is that we better baptize every week. 3 missionaries should produce a lot of

work. I can do anything for 6 weeks.

But Sis. Aloi and I get along amazing! We love working togther. Plus we have been getting so many

compliments about how we are the best Sisters. Apparently we are the only sisters in the mission who

aren’t complaining about something. It was super funny to hear. :p

Anyways. I am enjoying the work and am happy to be where the Lord has put me. I have been able to

do a lot of introspection and have been looking at how my mission has gone and how I have changed and

grown. Well lets just say I have made major progress and am happy about it. I have had a great time out here

and am super excited for this last transfer. Sis. Aloi and I are excited for the miracles 🙂

But it is neat to look at how the beginning of mission was to what it is now. It’s a world of difference

and I’m excited to see what happens by the end of this transfer. I know I was meant to be here 🙂

Anyways that is my week.

How is Grandma doing? and Zander?

 

Dear Pres. Anderson,

This week has been awesome and full of miracles. This past week we had the pleasure of being apart of our investigator Karen and her families baptism. It was packed with the spirit and her and her family are amazing. Because of the recent baptisms our ward has become even more missionary minded than they have ever been and have been excited about the work. It was neat to see how the members became such a big part of the process.

This week as I was reading the Book of Mormon, I had been praying for more spiritual experiences that would help with the work and how I can serve more fully with my “heart, might, mind and strength.” I was reading in the book of Mosiah where King Benjamin is giving his address and he explained that we can more fully serve the Lord as we continue to follow the commandments with exact obedience and to serve. It was simple and nothing I hadn’t heard before, but it was powerful. It was a testimony of how Heavenly Father hears our prayers and gives answers. It has been awesome to testify to our investigators of how the Book of Mormon is going to help them on their journey to getting closer to Christ.

A cool harvesting experience we had happened just the other day. Sis. Aloi and I have been trying to find ways to improve our harvesting so that we can help those we bless to have a greater desire to hear our message. We were able to learn a little bit from our district leader about “How to begin harvesting.” We learned how to apply better the “how to begin teaching” in harvesting to find real desires of those we bless. Asking inspired questions was a big part of it. We got to apply it as we met Belinda. We offered the prayer and she willing accepted. We asked her what it is the she would ask the Savior for at this time in her life and she gave us amazing responses that made the blessing so powerful! She is super excited to come to church on Sunday!

Thanks so much!

Sis. Holder

E-Mail 10/15/2012

Dear Pres. Anderson,

This week during harvesting we were knocking on a comlpex that we had been having a lot of success with. As we were going about knocking in doors a couple floors up from the bottom, I saw a young man walk from his apartment in the bottom floor. I looked at him thinking that it wouldn’t be possible to catch up with him to talk to him. So I attempted to continue on. But we felt that we really needed to say a pray with him. So we quickly made our way to the bottom and across the parking lot to catch up with Claude. We offered to share the blessing and he willing accepted. After we shared the blessing he was happy and dove in for a hug because he was so grateful. I know in that moment he was able to feel the spirit and if nothing else in that moment he was able to come closer to Christ in his busy life. It was an awesome feeling to be apart of the joy that he felt.

We have been working with a young man named Zamir. For the past coouple of weeks we have been trying to help him and his fmaily come to church, but they had been non-committal. We got to talk with Zamir and found that he had been struggling with trying to understand the need for the Book of Mormon. It was a neat experience because I saw that both Sis Aloi and I had a building testimony of the Book of Mormon as we testified to Zamir that it was the word of God. Zamir came to church the following Sunday and explained that he is starting to understand better the need for the Book of Mormon.

Also this week we got to have an amzaing baptism that was able to help the young women in our ward come closer together. Christina was baptized in major part due to theyoung women doing their part and being their for her when she was preparing. It has been an awesome experienece for our ward as they are becoming more converted to doing missionary work.

Thanks so much!

Sis Holder

E-Mails 10/8/2012

Dear Pres. Anderson,

Being able to watch conference this weekend was an amazing blessing!

I was able to receive answers to my prayers and receive a lot of guidance on what to do in my area.
This past week Elder Smoot had challenged us in district training to better invoke the spirit as we teach and harvest. It is something that I have been praying for everyday. After general conference we went harvesting in a building that we had just found. We went to the very top floor, the 6th floor. When we got there, there was a family who was moving large bags into their apartment and and their children were running around them. We approached them and offered to share a blessing with them. The mom, Keisha, politely declined and explained that they were moving. We offered again and she said “no”. We gave her a card and began to walk away, but something just wouldn’t let us just end it. we turned around and again offered to share the blessing and we offered to help them move the bags into their home. Keisha thought for a moment and accepted. Keisha told us that her father was very sick and she was unable to be there for him and that they were going through this move. We offered the prayer. Afterwards she was so grateful and was glad that we were persistent in sharing with her and her family. She is now excited to learn about baptism and what it can do for her family. 

I know that us continuing to follow the spirit is what is going to help others to feel the spirit. I know that yesterday in conference Pres. Monson stated that no prompting form the spirit should be ignored. I see how true that is. 

Sis. Aloi and I are excited to be having a baptism this week which is a miracle! Especially since Christina told us during her interview and after her interview that she was not getting baptized. But now she is happily preparing for Tuesday.

We are excited for a new week to accomplish great things!

Sis Holder  

Dear Parents

This week was a pretty good one. It was a little hard though. Sis Aloi and I found ouselves with time on our hands which was bad.

But it turned out good.

OH! The most embarrassing story ever.Well it was just that we were so emabarressed.

So we had district training on Tuesday as always. But surprise! Pres Anderson and the Assistants were there.

So that was the start of Sis Aloi and I feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

Then during roleplay demonstration Sis Aloi and I had a moment of tension because she needed to go to the bathroom and I told her she needed to wait until after. She said no and got up and went to the bathroom anyways. So I had to fallow of course. I wasn’t mad, but we thought we were mad at each other. So now we are even more uncomfortable. Then we did roleplays…. We had an assistant, district leader and zone leader with us fir the roleplay. We felt like we were being watched and evaluated. At this point we both were kind of in shut down mode. The roleplay by our standards was super bad. We had the most awkward moments and felt so stupid. We ended and tried to get away as fast as possible, but the zone leaders caught us first. Just moments before Sis Aloi and I had just talked about what had happened and came to the conclusion that they all probably thought we were in a huge fight or something. So I kinda saw it coming that they would need to talk with us. They made sure all the other Elders had left the room and asked if they could sit and chat for a moment. They asked us what was wrong and what they could do to help. They were so serious. Sis Aloi and I looked at each other and just cracked up laughing. They were so confused. So we had to explain to them that we felt super awkward and were embarrassed for our actions. They weren’t convinced that everything was ok. They went into big brother mode. So we talked with them for like ever until they were convinced that we were ok. After the whole ordeal we had to go home and sleep off the experience. It totally drained us.

Also this week we had Christinas’s baptismal interview. Just so she could see how readys he is for baptism. So Elder Odar went in and did the interview while we waited outside. It took about 40 min. Then Christina came running out. She was acting silly so I asked her about getting baptized and she said no. I guess to start off her interview, the first thing she said to Elder Odar was, “I’m not getting baptized.” It was super funny. But I guess during the time after she had ben praying about it and was able to get the confirmation that she needed to be baptized. So we are grateful for the spirit for sure.

Also I loved Gerneral Conference! It was the best and we got an investigator to come to the saturday session. We have to go to the church and watch it or to a memebrs home. But everytime we go to a memebers home it is super distracting. And usuallythe satelite feed goes out. But we had fun in both places. I loved the talks by Elders Bednar, Holland, Nelson, and Pres Monson, Uchtdorf and Eyrings. all for different reasons. But they were amazing. It was really good this past weekend. I’ll have to show you my notes about it when I get home because the Elders loved my notes and wanted to make copies of them. They thought they were so cool.

Anyways. I dont really know what else to talk about.

E-Mails 10/1/2012

Hey Parents!

Ao this week wasn’t that eventful. It was actually kind of a rough week but it was all good. We still had good stuff happen.

like for example we had our Atheist investigator Carina come to church. I can’t she liked it but she did want to come back. 😛 So we will see what happens there. I am pretty sure she will get baptized before I am finished here. Daniel was confirmed Sunday which was awesome! We met this cool Panamanian lady named Claudia! She is freakin sweet! She told me how to make something called Garminolas I am so very excited to make them. They are Yucca and ground beef empanada things. But I can’t wait! Yum! We had a leadership training this week which was so absolutly amazing! It was by Pres Anderson. It was about the Missionary Pride Cycle. It talks about how we go through the same patters of blessings, complacency and pride, chastening, humility and back to blessings. Basically he wants us to be able to balance all the areas of our work and keep them at a standard and always be obedient. But it was cool. I’ll have to show you notes sometime. It was really good. During the training Sis. Aloi and the other trainee’s were dropped off with the Boynton Sisters and went on a 20 mile bike ride. They were stranded and had to be picked up by the Assitant’s (sp?) We didn’t get back to ou rarea until 5 oclock that day. But it was all good we had fun.

Church was good. We tried to have a baptism but were unable to. It was super sad, but we will baptize next week.

Anyways. Yeah I dont have much news either. But it was a good week and we had fun. 🙂

Sis Holder

 

Dear Pres. Anderson,

Harvesting this week wasn’t going as well as we wanted this week. We were really working hard on turning our blessings into investigators. But appointment after appointment cancelled. We continued to have a positive attitude about it and keep going out there to find people. One day after some appointments had fallen through we went to check up on some potential investigators and we ran into a woman named Yanick who was asking us what church we were from. We started talking with her and decided to offer a blessing. It was a powerful blessing that she was able to feel the spirit and couldn’t stop smiling. She told us how she just moved her and was looking for a church to go to. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted right away and is excited to be working towards the 14th for this month! I know that it was a blessing for us in the work and for her looking for a place to get closer to God.

During my studies this week I was going over “Our Purpose” in Preach My Gospel. I started thinking more about what it is that I am doing here and why it is that I am on my mission. As I began to read the Book of Mormon I was reading 2 Nephi 25. I read verses and felt the spirit as I understood more what it is that my purpose here is. I felt the spirit strongly and had to read it over and over again. It made me happy 🙂

Sis Aloi and I also were able to go and see the Relief Society General Broadcast. It was amazing! I loved the talk from Pres Eyring. It was all about service and how we can follow the spirit in the acts of service that we do. Also how we should be prepared to do those acts of service that the Lord needs us to be ready for. There was an awesome quote that was given, “What comes next for willing hands to do?” He also talked about how the Savior would not pass anyone by, even if the person was his enemy, and would offer what help he could. It was awesome and the spirit was so strong there that night with all the woman from our ward and around the world.

Sis. Aloi and I are doing great and we are having fun helping our are to grow! We are expecting tons of miracles to happen this week and are working hard 🙂

Thanks so much!

Sis. Holder