Kylie’s Last Mission E-Mails 12/4/2012

Dear Pres Anderson,

This week has been full of spiritual experiences!

As it is my last week we have been trying so hard to have the miracles happen to be able to finish the transfer strong. As things always seem to go wrong right when you think things are going to be perfect. Sis Aloi and I were not able to make our weekly goals in the things we were working hardest at. We were trying so hard to get people to church and to have baptisms. Both of the baptisms that we had planned fell through and people didn’t follow through with their commitments to come to church.

As I was in church I was a bummed out about the outcome of all we had done. Then I started to notice the bigger picture. Earlier I had read a talk by Elder D. Todd Christofferson about seeing the gospel with an eternal perspective. So while I was at church I was surrounded by many of my recent converts and ward members who have been converted to the great work that we do here. I was happy to share my testimony with all of them and to be there with them. I know that I was able to lay a foundation for future missionaries to work off of. This work is one of the greatest things that there ever was. Helping the Lord fulfil his purpose is the most amazing thing that I have ever been privileged to be apart of. I love my mission and I know that I am a representative of Christ.

As we harvested this week we were able to find a wonderful woman named Lordes. When we knocked on her door and introduced ourselves as Representatives of Christ she immediately started speaking in Spanish. Neither of us speak Spanish but she seemed to understand what we were saying in English. So after explaining something that I don’t know what she said, she allowed us to come into her home and share the blessing. As we walked in she asked if we were Mormon. We replied yes and she told us how Elders some time ago used to visit her at her home and that there were many of her family that lived in Utah and were members and had served missions.

She was excited to talk with us and to receive the blessing. She had her granddaughter come and be apart of the blessing. Turns out we had just blessed her granddaughter with her dad just the day before. Lordes loved the blessing and can’t wait to have us back and to continue to learn about the Book of Mormon and church!

Sister Aloi and I have had a great week regardless of anything that has happened. We have enjoyed being together and I am so excited for her and for the great things that she will do. Thanks for being inspired to have us be together.

President, Thank you for all that you do!

Sis Holder

 

Hey Parents!!! Guess what??? I’m coming home soon 😛

Sigh… i’m not gonna lie i have been freaking out about coming home. Don’t feel hurt but yesterday I was tryingt o find away to extend. Then I came to my senses(Sp?) and was happy I was coming. I have been a ball of all random emotions at one time. But now that it’s pday and everything is final and set I am happy. I cant wait to see you on thursday 🙂

Right now i am super excited for going to the temple in the morning and dinner with pres. and sister anderson. I would love to go the temple on saturday please!

E-Mail 11/26/2012

So the week has gone by super fast! Here are the stories:

 Grandma Fechik- Grandma Fechik is the sweetest Ol Lady you would ever meet. So for the past 2 weeks we have been teaching her… which has been a doozy. She is pretty much deaf so we have to talk very loud when we talk to her. Well I have found that I am not a loud speaker. All my talk in sacrament they have had to turn up the mic because I talk to soft. The funny thing is that I thought I was talking super loud. Sigh. So we teach grandma Fechik practically yelling. I always leave with a headache. Not only that, she already knew everything, so it was silly for us to teach her. She would tell us how she already knew all those things over and over again. But over all they ended up being very spiritual experiences. We had Thanksgiving dinner with them. This is the family that takes care of us missionaries the most! We had a major feast that I couldn’t believe that I ate. It was intense! Super good though. Then on Friday we had her baptismal interview. That was precious. Elder Smoot did the interview and he had to yell the whole time. It was so funny. We could hear everything. But it was good. Then on Sunday.Was the big day. It was just the family and the missionaries their. Of course the 2nd counselor had to be there. But we got there after Bizhans baptism. They had preped the pool so that it was 90 degrees. Bro Fechik and Tyler (grandson that just came home from the mission in Sept.) got to baptize her. It was the most precious baptism of my whole mission! She just wanted to dunk her self and have it over and done with because she was worried that she would die before she would have the oppertunity. She is the sweetest lady! You would love her! It was just so beautiful too. It was an awesome Florida day, the pool was a pretty blue color and the sprirt was so strong!

 

Bizhan Tajalli- Ok so I will start from Thanksgiving. Bizhan had a hard time beleiving that Jesus Christ was the literal son of God. So he didn’t want to get baptized unless he knew that that was true. So we thought that sharing the Restoration DVD would help. Well we got to his house and we had the case for the DVD but not the actual DVD. So we instead decided to show him Finding Faith in Christ. We watched it and after the movie we were given the shock of our lives. He was so upset witht the movie. It made him feel depressed and sad. He couldn’t believe that some one would go through such crazy experiences for him or anyone else. We had to stay a whole extra hour just for damage control. We were home at 10 o’clock and had to explain the situation to Pres Anderson through text because it was soooo late. So we were discouraged about everything and weren’t sure he would work towards baptism anymore. But the next day the elders encouraged us to have Bizhan do his interview. So while we were waiting at PEPBoys for our car we set it all up. Unfortunately PepBoys sucks and instead of having us with out the car for an hour and a half they had us waiting for 4 hours!!!!! what a joke right!?? So we sent the elders over with out us. When we finally got our car back it was 345 and we hurried over to Bizhans. When we got there Bizhan opened the door and jokingly chastized us for going to Pepboys We were confused. and there the elders were sitting drinking lemonade. So we sat down. They started up their conversation and Elder Torres made the comment like “So Bizhan what size suit do you need?” Sister Aloi and I were taken aback and realized that the interview was done, he had passed and was super pumped for his baptism! It was super cool! The Elders are amazing! So Bizhan was ready to go and on Sunday we preped everything. So when it was time for the baptism. Bizhan and Bro Jamei walked into the font that I was happy I had rememebr to fill. Well when they got in there it was only full up to their ankles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The font had drained! I was so mad. So we had to wait another 20 30 min for it to fill again! So we spent like 5 hours at church.But it was awesome! Bizhan only had to be dunked 3 times! 😛 He said he was going to sue Bro Jamei for doing it wrong twice. It was so funny!I think those are the best things that happened this week!

 

Hey parents! Love you tons!

E-Mails and Photo 11/19/2012

Sister Holder’s Last Zone Photo

To let you know. Grandma Fechik is getting baptized this weekend in her pool at her house. Which is pretty cool. We still need to get approval from Pres Anderson, but the assistants said he’d be cool with it. Bizhan is planning on getting baptized on Sunday as well. He has completely stopped smoking and I took his coffee and alcohol so he hasn’t been having any of that either. We told him he could drink hot chocolate. So he now treats us to hot chocolate every time we come over. His health is much better and he is excited to be coming to church and being around people that enjoy him and care. He calls Sister Aloi and I his daughters. He’s so sweet 🙂 Kenson is still being stubborn and he has a crush on me so it’s and interesting process, but he is progressing.

I gave a talk in sacrament this Sunday and it was awesome. I talked about the Atonement and answered the questions. “As a member missionary who will be returning home. What would you change when you go home to be a better member missionary?” The only thing that I could think of was INVITE. I will invite people to do stuff. Come to church, read the Book of Mormon, be baptized. That’s basically the major thing that changed our mission here. We started invited people to act, inviting them to be baptized, to repent. So they did. What amazing miracles came from it. Who would a thought that something so simple would make the biggest difference? It was a really fun talk 🙂 Anyways. That was most of the week.

 

Dear Pres. Anderson,

This past week we saw a lot of success! We have been blessed so much with members coming with us to our appointments and helping our investigators work towards their goal of baptism. The Coral Springs ward is becoming more converted to the work we do every week. I was given the privilege to speak this week in sacrament and to share my thoughts and feelings on the Atonement of Christ and those things that I would encourage the members to do to do their own missionary work. After sacrament many of them came to me excited to share the gospel and were grateful for those things that I shared. It was an awesome experience!

We have also had amazing experiences with members helping us with stubborn investigators. We have been working with our investigator Kenson for quite some time. I met him my first transfer here in Coral Springs. As we have had him come to church and meet members we can see that he is slowly, but surely becoming more converted to the gospel and has a greater desire to repent and come closer to Christ. Because of the bold testimonies of our members he is starting to see the changes that he needs to make in his life and the things that he can be blessed with. The members are amazing and are sticking with our investigators.

While harvesting this week we have been praying for those who are the prepared and the elect. We have been finding many individuals and families who have been interested in our message and we know that as we continue to work with them miracles will happen as we follow the spirit. Yesterday we decided to knock in an apartment complex that we had driven by a million times but never really noticed. As we knocked on the doors we weren’t finding much success. We continued on. We knocked into a man named Kiet. A very out going and happy guy, he let us pray with him. After the blessing he began to talk with us about what his ideas on religion. He doesn’t really go to church, but has Christ in his heart. As we were talking with him he was telling us how he is very accepting of religion and how one day he was on a plane to Germany and was sitting next to a lady who shared a book with him. He never read it, but thought that it was cool. So he kept it. He showed us the book and to our surprise it was the Book of Mormon. We shared with him our testimony of the book and that it was words from God. We left him with the invitation to be baptized and to read the Book of Mormon. He was excited to read what we left with him and can’t wait to talk more with us about the Book of Mormon.

This week has been an awesome one for us. We are excited to have baptisms this up coming weekend!

Thanks so much!

Sis. Holder

E-Mails 11/12/2012

Ok so back home looks like it will be way too cold for me to come home…. When it gets to 75 out here I am freezing. I am not prepared for snow at all!

And is that topic for Dec. talks what I will be talking on is that why you sent it to me? 

Bernie looks like a rat in that picture.. 😛 

Well we had even more miracles happen then the ones that I shared in my email to President. 

So Grandma Fechik. (The Fechik family is one of the families that takes really good care of us missionaries) Grandma fechik is Jewish. Well on Sunday Sis. Fechik came up to us and told us that Grandma Fechik wants to get baptized!!!!! We are so excited. She is like 85 years old.. Im not actually sure about that but we were so happy! So we are going to be teaching her this week and I think she is getting baptized on Sunday! It’s more up to the family though 🙂 But we are so HaPpY!

Then we also had another guy surprise us on Sunday. His name is Kenson. He is a 21 yr old Hatian kid. But he is pretty noncommital. So when he showed up on Sunday we called the zoneleaders and asked if they would come and do an interview. So they did. He passed. But he was too scared to get baptized so we are working in having him baptized this upcoming Sunday. 

So we have just been blessed this week. 🙂 Other than that there isn’t much else going on. We have zone conference coming up on Friday in Ft. Lauderdale. Bizhan still hasent been able to come to church. SO we are trying again this week so he can be baptized on the 25th. His poor arm causes him so much pain. 

Oh can you send me the lyrics to Amazing Grace and to “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” (i dont know the title to that song.)

Thank you so much for the money. I dont think that I needed that much but i can use it for when I go home. 

I can’t really think of anything else. Oh Krissany was wanting to come with you to the airport to pick me up. That would be ok right?

Well I can not think of anything else that is running around in my brain right. Now. 

sorry for being so scatterbrained. 

 

Dear Pres. Anderson,

This week started off really slow for us since we had an incident where Sis. Aloi sprained her ankle. But this week we were optimistic in doing the work and did our very best to keep up with the work. We have been seeking new investigators and we know that the best way to find them is through harvesting. With Sis Aloi’s ankle it was a  little difficult to get out there and be knocking on doors. By Friday we only had 5 blessings for the week. With the help of our leaders and Sis. Aloi taking care of her ankle we were able to get 25 blessings by Sunday. Which brought on so many miracles. 

We have been seeking and praying for families to teach. We were blessed with 4 families that wanted to learn about baptism and how it will bless their family. One of the families. Tamarah and her 3 children were so intrigued by us that they could help but ask questions about who we were and what made us different. We were able to share a short lesson of the Savior and His atonement and the Book of Mormon with them. They can;t wait to have us back and to come to church on Sunday and prepare for the 25th 🙂

We were also blessed with member work this week. Our ward has been taking even more steps to being converted to missionary work. They are expecting baptisms to happen at any chance and are more willing to come out with us and take care of those we teach. We had an experience with one member while checking up on a media referral. The referral, Lin opened the door. She’s from China and is trying to decide if Christianity is something that she wants to believe in. She just happened to come across Mormon.org and requested missionaries. We tried to offer Lin a couple options for learning more, but it was our member that made the difference. She invited Lin over to home for dinner and to take the discussions there. Lin accepted right away and is so excited to come to church and learn about Jesus Christ.

We were able to have many more miracles happen this week that were an answer to my prayers. We know that this new week as we keep consistent in our efforts the miracles will continue. 

Exchanges this week were amazing! Sis. Jackson is a sweet new missionary with a powerful testimony and I was grateful to be able to spend some time with her. At the beginning of the exchange she seemed very nervous and explained many times how she wasn’t feeling very confident about going out and doing the work. As the day went on I noticed how powerful her testimony is and shared with her how that is something that will build others faith in the things she shares with them. We had a lot of fun together harvesting and teaching. She will be even greater the more she learns and acts on her faith!

Thanks so much!

Sister Holder 

E-Mails 11/4/2012

So Yes,

I was in my 2nd trio for 8 days then they ripped sis smith away from us. There was a sister that came in unexpectedly and so she got moved up to boynton beach and the new sis is being trained by sis beck in boynton beach central. poor sis beck training again. training is hard…. sigh, but it is soo good at the same time. Besides sis beck is amazing.

So yeah. I miss sis smith, but oh well. We now have an extra bed in our apartment. I use it as a nightstand. Silly.

Anyways. so this week has been interesting. We didn’t have any baptisms which was a bummer. and our peeps aren’t progressing as well as we thought they would. Except for Bizhan. He has been reading the book of mormon and having amazing spiritual experiences. but becase of the experiences he has been getting scared. so he will go to the casino in the middle of the night so that he is around people….. We are trying to work through this problem. But other than that he is amazing. I can’t until he gets baptized!

We are working towards the 18th.

Funny story.

So on sis smiths last night with us we went out harvesting. We walk up to the first door and it swings right open! And the first thing I see is a huge Hooka pot and 4 people smoking out of it. So i immediately start laughing my head off right in front of them to the point that I am in tears. I couldnt look at a single one of them with out laughing. they thought it was pretty funny too.

Finally when i was able to compose myself (about 5min) they let us in and we shared the prayer. They were very accepting and appreciated the prayer. But it was a quite unforgettable experiences. Then as we were leaving the complex, i was backing the car out and a guy yeld to us and said, “Dont head that way!” and pointed to about 8 or 9 emergency vehicles about 20 yards up the road. He then yells out, “They just shot someone up there! So dont go up there!” I told him that we were headed home and he stalked off to his apartment door. We werent exactly sure how to feel since where the shooting took place was our first choice to knock. But because of laziness of having to make u-turns we opted out and picked the complex that had easier access. Lucky us!

Anyways this week was hilarious. and crazy and exaughsting(sp?)

Anyways it sounds like things at home are going well. I like hearing the updates about grandparents and zander. I am excited to come home and see everyone again.

And mom dont worry… There are 2 Elders that I go home with in my Zone that text me weekly about how many days we have left of the mission. as of today we have 31. sigh 😛

But im not trunky. I am quite enjoying the work and am trying to find who it is that we can baptize theses last few weeks. It’s not as easy as I thought it would be but i know we will have at least 6. because that is our goal.

But yeah everything is great. Because we got 270 harvest blessings this week in our zone we got a zone activity today and lunch so we are super excited for that. Volley ball adn pizza! YUM!

Or maybe Dodgeball.. we’ll find out when we get there. Anyways.

I just remembered I forgot to tell you and Mike HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I felt so bad lst week! I was trying to find a way to send you something or anything, but i was shut down!

So Happy belated birthday!

The best mommy in the world

And Mike Happy BIRTHDAY@!!!!!!

best dad ever!

I love you parents!

I got 30 secs! LOve you@!

Dear Pres. Anderson,

This past week has been a whirlwind! We were so excited to have Sis. Smith with us and then she was taken away 😦 But we had a really good week with her and saw miracles.

We have been teaching a gentleman from Iran and have been sharing with him the Book of Mormon in Farsi. After a lesson we committed him to read the it. The next day we went back to discuss the things that he read. He told us of how he had an amazing experience with the spirit as he read, that he wasn’t exactly sure what to do with himself. But he knew that it was from God and is excited to prepare for baptism and to learn more. It has been amazing as we have been teaching him to share with him the things that I know to be true and it has been building my testimony. We are excited for him as he is preparing to be baptized on the 18th of this month.

Earlier this week we harvested a a woman named Mely. She had just been getting ready for bed. She allowed us to come into her home and share the blessing. After the blessing she expressed how it was interesting the timing that we knocked on her door. She had just been given a lower position at work and life hadn’t been going the way she wanted it too. I know that Heavenly Father sends us to peoples home who needs us most. With out fail we always find some one who is seeking Him out and we are there knocking on the door. Since, we have gone back to share with her more about our message and she is excited to come to church and learn about baptism and who we are.

This week we had some struggles with our area in getting people to progress forward. After discussing it, Sis Aloi and I are going back to the basics and are working on improving our harvesting efforts and finding those who are the elect. We are excited for the miracles that will come from harvesting and can’t wait for the baptisms.

Thanks so much!

Sis Holder

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