Email - August 6, 2012
Hey everybody! In a way, this week wasn't the absolute greatest but in the end it wasn't completely unproductive. Allow me to explain: starting Saturday afternoon, our car started to have troubles. We would start the car up and it would just kind of die after a little bit. The only way I figured out to get around it was to rev the engine for a while until it no longer would "sputter out". After I did that the car would drive great until I turned it off again and had to restart it. Anyhow, because of the inconvenient time that this happened (the dealership wasn't open until Monday) we had to drive it like that for the weekend. Monday, we took it in and found out that the catalytic converter was falling apart and so they replaced that but were still having problems! It took them until Thursday to diagnose the problem which was that we had some contaminated fuel. So, they finally cleaned that out and we got the car back late Friday morning. Needless to say, Harrison is not conducive to riding a bike at all. the streets rarely have wide enough shoulders and almost never have sidewalks. Also, it is really hilly and so riding any distance is exhausting. Of course, we still tried it later in the week after Elder Gulbranson actually was able to purchase one. We rode a couple miles to meet with a man and when we got there he wasn't even home! haha We did end up seeing him though, he was down the street helping his neighbor with some plumbing problems. We weren't able to have a lesson with him, but it was good that he saw how much effort that we put into trying to see him. Fortunately, he lives close to the Masters so we went and saw them. While we were at their house is when we got the call that our car was done being worked on and so they were able to drive us over to pick it up. I'll tell you what, it sure makes me appreciate having the car!
Speaking of the Masters, they are leaving either later today or early in the morning tomorrow. It will be weird to see them go! I hope that they have a great support system when they get to where they are going and that they can continue their growth as a family in the gospel and in the church. We have continued to be able to teach their friend Steve and he is doing pretty well! He definitely is in tune with the Spirit and recognizes what we have. I know that his testimony will continue to grow. Speaking of which, we were also able to meet with Sister Golden this week!. We hadn't been able to meet with her as much because she has been getting more hours at work but that is definitely a blessing for her and that is fine with me.
Transfer calls were this past Saturday and I found out that I will be in Harrison for at least another six weeks. In fact, so is Elder Gulbranson, so is everyone in my district, and just about everyone in the zone! It was kind of crazy to hear that but I guess we're all doing such a great job and "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" haha I've really grown to love this area and I really look forward to staying here and blessing the people as much as I can!
Much love!
Elder Holmes
Speaking of the Masters, they are leaving either later today or early in the morning tomorrow. It will be weird to see them go! I hope that they have a great support system when they get to where they are going and that they can continue their growth as a family in the gospel and in the church. We have continued to be able to teach their friend Steve and he is doing pretty well! He definitely is in tune with the Spirit and recognizes what we have. I know that his testimony will continue to grow. Speaking of which, we were also able to meet with Sister Golden this week!. We hadn't been able to meet with her as much because she has been getting more hours at work but that is definitely a blessing for her and that is fine with me.
Transfer calls were this past Saturday and I found out that I will be in Harrison for at least another six weeks. In fact, so is Elder Gulbranson, so is everyone in my district, and just about everyone in the zone! It was kind of crazy to hear that but I guess we're all doing such a great job and "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" haha I've really grown to love this area and I really look forward to staying here and blessing the people as much as I can!
Much love!
Elder Holmes
Email - August 13, 2012
Well, Monday was the last day that we saw the Masters family. It was a bit odd to see them go because we had had such regular contact with them for about 18 weeks. haha They had the tendency of signing up to feed us multiple times a week so in the back of my mind I was worried that we wouldn't be getting fed as much but, to the credit of the Harrison ward, that has not proved true at all. We have been feed everyday since they left and our dinner calender is still looking promising into the future. Of course, meals aren't good just because we get fed (in fact, on Tuesday we ate way too much of the Navajo tacos we were served haha), they are beneficial in that we can bless and encourage the members and build stronger relationships with them. We've been able to do that and it has been great! I really have grown to love the members here a great deal.
Sister Golden is coming along much better. To help her with her reading of the Book of Mormon, we set more specific goals with her. Previously we had more or less set a deadline more than a goal with a plan and so we implemented that with her. Instead of just having a completion date, we set checkpoint dates by which she plans to complete a given book. Also, we worked a better way for us to follow up with her.
Thursday we went out to Yellville (about 30 miles from Harrison on the eastern border of our area) to contact a media referral we had received. The referral was from the Hawaii Temple visitor's center and it turned out that the person who had been in Hawaii was actually the sister of the person to whom we had been referred AND that neither of those people lived there. The referral did not include a phone number and so all we could really do was give the man who answered (I believe the father) our information to relay to whomever really wanted to see us. It's in the Lord's hands now! Since we were in an area we didn't normally visit, we were able to stop by and see some active members. I am sure that they enjoyed the company and were especially happy to see us because whenever I talk to them it seems like they mention how they wish we were able to make it out to see them more.
A part-member family with which we have been working, the Pottorffs were in town this week and so we were able to go and see them. We helped him put up his wood fence and so that gave us some good "male bonding time" haha as Sis. Pottorff called it. We worked on it for quite some time and so we didn't have enough time for the lesson we had planned but we were still able to read the Book of Mormon with them. It was kind of a cool experience actually, I asked them what had been on their minds lately and Bro. Pottorff said, "building fences" mostly as a joke. Of course, I informed them that there actually was a story about that in the Book of Mormon and so we read the story of when Moroni had the people build up mounds of earth and works of timber (fences) to protect them. The Book of Mormon was truly written for our time and although that relation we made was somewhat comical, it always carries a message that is true to us today. It is the word of God!
I send my love and appreciation!
Elder Holmes
Sister Golden is coming along much better. To help her with her reading of the Book of Mormon, we set more specific goals with her. Previously we had more or less set a deadline more than a goal with a plan and so we implemented that with her. Instead of just having a completion date, we set checkpoint dates by which she plans to complete a given book. Also, we worked a better way for us to follow up with her.
Thursday we went out to Yellville (about 30 miles from Harrison on the eastern border of our area) to contact a media referral we had received. The referral was from the Hawaii Temple visitor's center and it turned out that the person who had been in Hawaii was actually the sister of the person to whom we had been referred AND that neither of those people lived there. The referral did not include a phone number and so all we could really do was give the man who answered (I believe the father) our information to relay to whomever really wanted to see us. It's in the Lord's hands now! Since we were in an area we didn't normally visit, we were able to stop by and see some active members. I am sure that they enjoyed the company and were especially happy to see us because whenever I talk to them it seems like they mention how they wish we were able to make it out to see them more.
A part-member family with which we have been working, the Pottorffs were in town this week and so we were able to go and see them. We helped him put up his wood fence and so that gave us some good "male bonding time" haha as Sis. Pottorff called it. We worked on it for quite some time and so we didn't have enough time for the lesson we had planned but we were still able to read the Book of Mormon with them. It was kind of a cool experience actually, I asked them what had been on their minds lately and Bro. Pottorff said, "building fences" mostly as a joke. Of course, I informed them that there actually was a story about that in the Book of Mormon and so we read the story of when Moroni had the people build up mounds of earth and works of timber (fences) to protect them. The Book of Mormon was truly written for our time and although that relation we made was somewhat comical, it always carries a message that is true to us today. It is the word of God!
I send my love and appreciation!
Elder Holmes
Email - August 27, 2012
Well, I was sick for the first couple days this week and for a while it seemed like that was going to set the tone for the rest of the week, but then it turned out pretty well! Monday morning we woke up and my stomach was pretty upset haha I told Elder Gulbranson that we weren't going to go running that morning. That was a good because all of Monday and for a good part of Tuesday I had that upset stomach (and most of the other *ahem* symptoms associated with one).
Fortunately, I was feeling better by Wednesday enough so to go on missionary exchanges with the Elder Green in Berryville. We had a fairly productive day and got to see some people. It is always great to get out and "see more of the world" and see how other missionaries work. That perspective definitely helps me to see ways that I can improve as a missionary.
Thursday we had a really great lesson with a part-member family with whom we have been working for quite some time now. We reviewed the concept of the Spirit World as a follow up to our previous lesson about Temples. They agreed to come to church in a couple weeks! It seems like it is so hard to get people to come to church out here. It is so frustrating to know that people will be blessed by doing such simple things (i.e. reading the scriptures, praying, going to church, etc.) but they still won't do it! I'm not referring to the aforementioned family specifically but them agreeing to come to church just made me think of it. haha
We had another cool thing happen this week that was a result of The Church being in the public eye more than ever. Apparently, there was a special on tv about our church and it prompted a woman in our area to go and check out mormon.org and ask for a copy of The Book of Mormon. So, we got to go and give her that and we're going to work out a time to go and see her this week. The Lord definitely blessed us with that one.
The Church is out of obscurity! Be on the lookout for opportunities to share the Gospel with others :) Love you all!
Elder Holmes
Fortunately, I was feeling better by Wednesday enough so to go on missionary exchanges with the Elder Green in Berryville. We had a fairly productive day and got to see some people. It is always great to get out and "see more of the world" and see how other missionaries work. That perspective definitely helps me to see ways that I can improve as a missionary.
Thursday we had a really great lesson with a part-member family with whom we have been working for quite some time now. We reviewed the concept of the Spirit World as a follow up to our previous lesson about Temples. They agreed to come to church in a couple weeks! It seems like it is so hard to get people to come to church out here. It is so frustrating to know that people will be blessed by doing such simple things (i.e. reading the scriptures, praying, going to church, etc.) but they still won't do it! I'm not referring to the aforementioned family specifically but them agreeing to come to church just made me think of it. haha
We had another cool thing happen this week that was a result of The Church being in the public eye more than ever. Apparently, there was a special on tv about our church and it prompted a woman in our area to go and check out mormon.org and ask for a copy of The Book of Mormon. So, we got to go and give her that and we're going to work out a time to go and see her this week. The Lord definitely blessed us with that one.
The Church is out of obscurity! Be on the lookout for opportunities to share the Gospel with others :) Love you all!
Elder Holmes