March 5, 2012 - Weekly Email
My first full week in Harrison, Arkansas! Tuesday we went and did some service at a thrift store for a few hours, and so I got to rock my awesome new R2-D2 shirt that Brittany sent me from her trip to Disneyland! I'm sure that everyone who saw it was pretty jealous. After that, we went back home to change and have lunch, then we went and knocked some doors until we were to meet a couple who was taking us out to dinner at a restaurant called Western Sizzlin'. Our time of tracting didn't bring much success, but we did find one guy who seemed to potentially be interested and were able to leave him with a copy of the Book of Mormon for him to read. Hopefully something will come out of our meeting with him, but so far we haven't had much luck with catching him when he is available so that we can follow up with him. After that, we went out home teaching for our exchange with Bro. Wolfe, a member of the bishopric. His wife came as well and they are about the nicest couple ever. Wednesday was my first district meeting as a district leader! Lately we have been covering the LDS Addiction Recovery Program for the first parts of our district meetings and so
I went over step 10, which is about accountability. Of course, it is a very necessary step in overcoming addiction and we discussed that for a bit and then for the rest of district meeting I showed how all of the principles taught in the step could easily be applied to making ourselves better missionaries and also how understanding the concept of accountability can help us help our
investigators make and keep commitments, or, repent. "My" district consists of the Berryville missionaries: Elder Bennett and Elder Worthington, and the Mountain Home missionaries: Elder Payne and Elder Startup, and Elder Perkes and I in Harrison. All in all, from what I have been able to gather, I am in a pretty awesome district and we all get along pretty well! In fact, we went out
with the Berryville Elders after district meeting to have lunch which was great. Wednesday evening is when they hold institute class, so we went by and invited some people to come to the class and we also talked to one of the less active members with whom we have been working. We got to talk to our investigator too! It was great to make contact, but unfortunately we were not able to go in and have a lesson with her. We did some more service the next day and helped Sis. Harvey move from her parents' place to her own
apartment. We also had a meeting with Bishop Jenkins and Bro. Utter, our ward mission leader, and discussed what the Bishop's vision was of the missionary work in his ward. He had a few ideas and he also had a referral that he said he needed to give us which is great! The bishop wants to use family history as a missionary work tool in his ward which is awesome. So, I decided to visit the
family history center after church on Sunday and have Elder Pederson (who is serving a family history mission in the ward) show me the ropes. It was cool how far back I was able to go! I actually followed one line clear back to Caesar Augustus and another one back to a guy named Odin King of Asgard! haha That is basically awesome. On Friday, we were able to go and see a part member couple that Elder Perkes had never met before. Unfortunately, she wasn't really interested in hearing about the gospel but they were both really nice so we will definitely maintain contact with them. They are retired and one cool thing that they do to keep busy is to learn the Ukulele! They are actually in a group of people who perform and stuff. He let me play his Uke which was pretty great since I dearly miss my guitar. haha Most of Saturday was filled with traveling to and from Springfield for a district leader training meeting. I was able to see Elder Rich and Elder Bott there though which was awesome! Elder Bott was pretty excited to see me. haha Sunday was great because we had a member who told us that he has some people with whom he has been sharing the gospel and so hopefully that will result in some referrals and people for us to teach! I have to say that I am not the biggest fan of not teaching. haha I know
that I'm doing the Lord's work though and so I'm hopeful that we can turn this area around! Love you all! Elder Holmes
I went over step 10, which is about accountability. Of course, it is a very necessary step in overcoming addiction and we discussed that for a bit and then for the rest of district meeting I showed how all of the principles taught in the step could easily be applied to making ourselves better missionaries and also how understanding the concept of accountability can help us help our
investigators make and keep commitments, or, repent. "My" district consists of the Berryville missionaries: Elder Bennett and Elder Worthington, and the Mountain Home missionaries: Elder Payne and Elder Startup, and Elder Perkes and I in Harrison. All in all, from what I have been able to gather, I am in a pretty awesome district and we all get along pretty well! In fact, we went out
with the Berryville Elders after district meeting to have lunch which was great. Wednesday evening is when they hold institute class, so we went by and invited some people to come to the class and we also talked to one of the less active members with whom we have been working. We got to talk to our investigator too! It was great to make contact, but unfortunately we were not able to go in and have a lesson with her. We did some more service the next day and helped Sis. Harvey move from her parents' place to her own
apartment. We also had a meeting with Bishop Jenkins and Bro. Utter, our ward mission leader, and discussed what the Bishop's vision was of the missionary work in his ward. He had a few ideas and he also had a referral that he said he needed to give us which is great! The bishop wants to use family history as a missionary work tool in his ward which is awesome. So, I decided to visit the
family history center after church on Sunday and have Elder Pederson (who is serving a family history mission in the ward) show me the ropes. It was cool how far back I was able to go! I actually followed one line clear back to Caesar Augustus and another one back to a guy named Odin King of Asgard! haha That is basically awesome. On Friday, we were able to go and see a part member couple that Elder Perkes had never met before. Unfortunately, she wasn't really interested in hearing about the gospel but they were both really nice so we will definitely maintain contact with them. They are retired and one cool thing that they do to keep busy is to learn the Ukulele! They are actually in a group of people who perform and stuff. He let me play his Uke which was pretty great since I dearly miss my guitar. haha Most of Saturday was filled with traveling to and from Springfield for a district leader training meeting. I was able to see Elder Rich and Elder Bott there though which was awesome! Elder Bott was pretty excited to see me. haha Sunday was great because we had a member who told us that he has some people with whom he has been sharing the gospel and so hopefully that will result in some referrals and people for us to teach! I have to say that I am not the biggest fan of not teaching. haha I know
that I'm doing the Lord's work though and so I'm hopeful that we can turn this area around! Love you all! Elder Holmes
March 12, 2012 - Email
Tuesday was the beginning of a 3-day missionary exchange extravaganza! As the District Leader, we are supposed to go with each Elder in the district and so, for travel conveniences, we scheduled them around days where they would have to get rides anyway, such as district meeting, because of the distance between areas. I went out on Tuesday to Berryville, AR with Elder Worthington. He has been out for two transfers and he is a super nice guy. We were able to teach a couple of really great lessons with their investigators which was a nice break from our lack of such in Harrison. haha In district meeting on Wednesday, I presented the 11th step of the LDS Addiction Recovery Program which talks about personal revelation. As always, the ARP went right along with
how we can be better missionaries and so I talked about that as well. Specifically, I talked about the importance of having sincere, heartfelt prayers and of pondering on what we study in the scriptures throughout the day. Elder Richard G. Scott has a great talk about that from last general conference about how memorizing and pondering scriptures is a key to unlocking new revelation. After the meeting, Elder Payne and I headed out to Mtn. Home on my second exchange for the week. The member took us to a pretty good Thai place on the way back which was pretty awesome! Elder Payne and I have similar "styles" when it comes to missionary work and so we got along quite well. I get along pretty well with all of the members of the district which is great! We went out to eat for lunch with a member on Thursday after exchanging back. The place was called Homey Hearth and it was a Mennonite sandwich place with homemade bread and stuff. It was pretty good! That day, we decided to go to a place called Marshall which is a ways away from where we normally work, and do some things down there. We were able to meet a great part member couple down
there! They were really nice and invited us right in. Not only that, but they invited us over for dinner on the 15th! Hopefully we will be able to start teaching the non member husband. When we got back in town, it was pretty late and we decided to go out to eat at a Chinese buffet place that wasn't too bad. We left a pass along card with the waitress and talked to her about our church
a bit so that was cool. The next day, we spent all day clearing up a page of old potential investigators that we found. We did not have a dinner appointment, so we made ourselves dinner at home and then went over to see Bro. Bass, a recent convert, for our weekly scripture study with him. It has really helped him stay in the habit of reading the scriptures on his own! Saturday was a great day for mostly one reason, we were able to finally meet with our solitary investigator, Maria! It had actually been over a month
since the missionaries had a chance to meet with her, so we did some review of the Restoration and just an evaluation of her testimony. She seems to be doing really well and has the desire to be baptized on the 21st of April! That day we were also able to meet another part member family that we had never previously spoken to and so hopefully we can help the ward keep better contact with them. We also had an MCM with Bro. Utter and did some tracting before dinner. Sunday, we decided to buckle down and do some administrative matters, such as come up with a plan that the ward can use to achieve their missionary goals for the year. Also, I found this pretty hard-core missionary quote by George Albert Smith about missionary work!
“We will attain our exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom only on the condition that we share with our Father’s other children the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and observe the commandments that will enrich our lives here and hereafter” (Sharing the Gospel with Others, sel. Preston Nibley [1948],190).
I love being a missionary, I love you all, most importantly I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ!
Elder Holmes
how we can be better missionaries and so I talked about that as well. Specifically, I talked about the importance of having sincere, heartfelt prayers and of pondering on what we study in the scriptures throughout the day. Elder Richard G. Scott has a great talk about that from last general conference about how memorizing and pondering scriptures is a key to unlocking new revelation. After the meeting, Elder Payne and I headed out to Mtn. Home on my second exchange for the week. The member took us to a pretty good Thai place on the way back which was pretty awesome! Elder Payne and I have similar "styles" when it comes to missionary work and so we got along quite well. I get along pretty well with all of the members of the district which is great! We went out to eat for lunch with a member on Thursday after exchanging back. The place was called Homey Hearth and it was a Mennonite sandwich place with homemade bread and stuff. It was pretty good! That day, we decided to go to a place called Marshall which is a ways away from where we normally work, and do some things down there. We were able to meet a great part member couple down
there! They were really nice and invited us right in. Not only that, but they invited us over for dinner on the 15th! Hopefully we will be able to start teaching the non member husband. When we got back in town, it was pretty late and we decided to go out to eat at a Chinese buffet place that wasn't too bad. We left a pass along card with the waitress and talked to her about our church
a bit so that was cool. The next day, we spent all day clearing up a page of old potential investigators that we found. We did not have a dinner appointment, so we made ourselves dinner at home and then went over to see Bro. Bass, a recent convert, for our weekly scripture study with him. It has really helped him stay in the habit of reading the scriptures on his own! Saturday was a great day for mostly one reason, we were able to finally meet with our solitary investigator, Maria! It had actually been over a month
since the missionaries had a chance to meet with her, so we did some review of the Restoration and just an evaluation of her testimony. She seems to be doing really well and has the desire to be baptized on the 21st of April! That day we were also able to meet another part member family that we had never previously spoken to and so hopefully we can help the ward keep better contact with them. We also had an MCM with Bro. Utter and did some tracting before dinner. Sunday, we decided to buckle down and do some administrative matters, such as come up with a plan that the ward can use to achieve their missionary goals for the year. Also, I found this pretty hard-core missionary quote by George Albert Smith about missionary work!
“We will attain our exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom only on the condition that we share with our Father’s other children the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and observe the commandments that will enrich our lives here and hereafter” (Sharing the Gospel with Others, sel. Preston Nibley [1948],190).
I love being a missionary, I love you all, most importantly I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ!
Elder Holmes
March 19, 2012 - Email
I had a District Leader meeting up in Branson with the Zone Leaders on Tuesday of this week, and afterward I stayed up there for our exchange with them. I was there with Elder Doxey who has served in Eldon before and loves it as much as I do and so we were able to reminisce about that which was fun! Branson is a tourist town and a lot of the performers there are LDS. We were able to take a less-active family to one of the shows there and it was really fun! They are called SIX and they are six brothers who do a Capella singing. They were really cool and apparently four of the six are in the ZL's ward. Also, Branson has recently been hit by a tornado and so I was able to see some of the wreckage that it caused. It is pretty crazy how much damage can be done by just wind!
The following day, we had district meeting wherein I finished my instruction on the LDS Addiction Recovery Program. It really is a great program and the last step talks about service. Especially as a missionary who is constantly serving, I can definitely see how losing yourself in helping others can strengthen us to resist and overcome temptation and also strengthen our resolve to follow the commandments. After the meeting, we went out to eat and stopped by the hospital to help the Bishop give a Sister a blessing. We went to institute that night and had a lesson about how the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel are spoken about in the Bible. Specifically, we discussed Isaiah. Thursday was a day for planning and other administrative matters mostly. We had our weekly planning session and then worked on some ideas for a mission plan to implement in the ward that works around M. Russel Ballard's Write Down a Date talk. As it progressed, we felt like it would be a great mission plan for the year for the ward and so we
are in the process of setting up a meeting with the Bishop to propose the idea. It should work out really well I think! We had a dinner appointment that was pretty far south in our area, so we headed off to that and to make a couple other stops after we finished with our work on that plan. We had a pretty good dinner with the Hamricks, a part-member couple and were able to have a message
on the spirit world with him. It came up because his belief system is based around Cherokee Indian beliefs. It is kind of interesting to work with someone who has not grown up in some sort of protestant denomination but it wasn't necessarily more difficult or anything. Hopefully we will be able to work more with them in the future. Also, we are pretty sure that Elder Perkes left his
scriptures on the top of the car when we left the Hamrick's and he lost it when we drove off. We have gone back to look for it, but to no avail. He is pretty bummed about it because he had put quite a bit of work into those scriptures as far as marking them and things. Hopefully someone finds them and reads them! haha Saturday we helped with a child of record baptism by filling up the
font for them and also we each gave a little talk. I spoke about the Holy Ghost which was a great opportunity because of how much of a blessing it truly is and have come to appreciate His aid very much as I have been here on my mission. On the way home we were able to catch our investigator (yes, our only one currently) and have a lesson with her. We reviewed the Plan of Salvation with
her and cleared up some misconceptions that she had about it. It truly is wonderful to have the knowledge of that plan! It is great to keep an eternal perspective in this life and that surely makes things a lot easier. Oh, speaking of an eternal perspective (okay, not really) we had a "linger-longer" after church which was a pot luck lunch and they had blueberry cheesecake and lemon cheesecake. Definitely a highlight of the week worth mentioning. Love you all! Elder Holmes
The following day, we had district meeting wherein I finished my instruction on the LDS Addiction Recovery Program. It really is a great program and the last step talks about service. Especially as a missionary who is constantly serving, I can definitely see how losing yourself in helping others can strengthen us to resist and overcome temptation and also strengthen our resolve to follow the commandments. After the meeting, we went out to eat and stopped by the hospital to help the Bishop give a Sister a blessing. We went to institute that night and had a lesson about how the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel are spoken about in the Bible. Specifically, we discussed Isaiah. Thursday was a day for planning and other administrative matters mostly. We had our weekly planning session and then worked on some ideas for a mission plan to implement in the ward that works around M. Russel Ballard's Write Down a Date talk. As it progressed, we felt like it would be a great mission plan for the year for the ward and so we
are in the process of setting up a meeting with the Bishop to propose the idea. It should work out really well I think! We had a dinner appointment that was pretty far south in our area, so we headed off to that and to make a couple other stops after we finished with our work on that plan. We had a pretty good dinner with the Hamricks, a part-member couple and were able to have a message
on the spirit world with him. It came up because his belief system is based around Cherokee Indian beliefs. It is kind of interesting to work with someone who has not grown up in some sort of protestant denomination but it wasn't necessarily more difficult or anything. Hopefully we will be able to work more with them in the future. Also, we are pretty sure that Elder Perkes left his
scriptures on the top of the car when we left the Hamrick's and he lost it when we drove off. We have gone back to look for it, but to no avail. He is pretty bummed about it because he had put quite a bit of work into those scriptures as far as marking them and things. Hopefully someone finds them and reads them! haha Saturday we helped with a child of record baptism by filling up the
font for them and also we each gave a little talk. I spoke about the Holy Ghost which was a great opportunity because of how much of a blessing it truly is and have come to appreciate His aid very much as I have been here on my mission. On the way home we were able to catch our investigator (yes, our only one currently) and have a lesson with her. We reviewed the Plan of Salvation with
her and cleared up some misconceptions that she had about it. It truly is wonderful to have the knowledge of that plan! It is great to keep an eternal perspective in this life and that surely makes things a lot easier. Oh, speaking of an eternal perspective (okay, not really) we had a "linger-longer" after church which was a pot luck lunch and they had blueberry cheesecake and lemon cheesecake. Definitely a highlight of the week worth mentioning. Love you all! Elder Holmes
Email - March 26, 2012
We worked really hard this week! It seems like our efforts don't quite match up to the results but my areas have pretty easy before this, so I figure that I'm paying my dues. haha Besides, you know that I don't get down easily and I'm pretty laid back so I'm staying pretty positive! Tuesday we had planned on heading over to the park to talk to some people and hopefully find some new
investigators, but that didn't really work out because as soon as we got there, the weather decided to disagree with us and rain. Not that I mind the rain so much, but most people don't like to go to the park in the rain so we didn't have people to talk to anymore. haha So, we stopped by and saw our investigator, Sis. Brandenburg, but she was busy and so we only had time to talk for a bit and not to have an actual lesson. After that, we went and got ourselves a bit more acquainted with the family history center which was way cool! I was able to make a connection in familysearch that wasn't there previously and was able to trace that genealogical line back to Adam! I'm sure that the reliability is a bit shaky once you get back that far, but it was still really cool! Unfortunately, Elder Perkes got a pretty bad headache and so we went back so that he could rest. I watched some DVDs that I had ordered that had short biographies on all of the Presidents of the church. I learned a lot and definitely grew a new respect for the Lord's chosen leaders!
Of course, it makes me even more excited for General Conference coming up this weekend! I have grown to absolutely love conference and I look forward to hearing more life changing messages from the prophets of the Lord. The next day, Wednesday, we did our weekly service at the thrift store and helped them make the transition from winter items to spring and summer stuff. We also
went to the hospital and gave Sis. Eddings a blessing to help her through the medical problems she has been experiencing. The following day, we had missionary exchanges with Berryville and I stayed here with Elder Bennett. It was a good, productive exchange and we were able to teach a couple lessons. We went by to see a part member couple, the Mickelsons, and when we got there Bro.
Mickelson was at his neighbor's house out front, helping him work on his big rig truck. We went over and started talking to them and had a nice little gospel discussion. The man said that he would have no problems meeting with us but he is gone a lot being a trucker, so we will work with him as much as we can. Then, we went in and shared a message with the Mickelsons. We talked about
prayer and how important it is to have that relationship with our Father in Heaven. Also, we were able to see Bro. Sadler who is a less-active member. He is an elder and served a mission but has just fallen away so hopefully we can start helping the ward work with him to get him back to church. Friday was interviews with President Merkley and, as is usually the case, that took up most of the day. Since the interviews were conducted in my area and I am the district leader, I was the one to instruct for district meeting for both
districts that were there. Not that I was nervous or anything, I just wanted to point out that fact. Also, since the interviews were in our area and we had no time constraints, I was the last one to be interviewed. I have been the last one in all of my interviews! haha Just an interesting record that I have. We'll see if I can keep it up. Saturday we went to the park again to talk to people and this time the weather was a lot nicer to us! We found a former investigator of whom the missionaries had lost track because he moved from his previous residence. Hopefully we can start to meet with him and pick him up as a new investigator. Bad news from that day though, our investigator no-showed us for the appointment that we had set with her and we haven't really been able to talk to her since then. We really need to help her get on track because she has a baptism date set for the end of next month! I'm praying pretty hard for some help! haha I hope all is well back home! I know that I am doing the Lord's work and that even though my main purpose is to be an instrument in blessing others, I have grown so much as well. I love the Gospel of Christ and
know that it is how we achieve true happiness! Love, Elder Holmes
investigators, but that didn't really work out because as soon as we got there, the weather decided to disagree with us and rain. Not that I mind the rain so much, but most people don't like to go to the park in the rain so we didn't have people to talk to anymore. haha So, we stopped by and saw our investigator, Sis. Brandenburg, but she was busy and so we only had time to talk for a bit and not to have an actual lesson. After that, we went and got ourselves a bit more acquainted with the family history center which was way cool! I was able to make a connection in familysearch that wasn't there previously and was able to trace that genealogical line back to Adam! I'm sure that the reliability is a bit shaky once you get back that far, but it was still really cool! Unfortunately, Elder Perkes got a pretty bad headache and so we went back so that he could rest. I watched some DVDs that I had ordered that had short biographies on all of the Presidents of the church. I learned a lot and definitely grew a new respect for the Lord's chosen leaders!
Of course, it makes me even more excited for General Conference coming up this weekend! I have grown to absolutely love conference and I look forward to hearing more life changing messages from the prophets of the Lord. The next day, Wednesday, we did our weekly service at the thrift store and helped them make the transition from winter items to spring and summer stuff. We also
went to the hospital and gave Sis. Eddings a blessing to help her through the medical problems she has been experiencing. The following day, we had missionary exchanges with Berryville and I stayed here with Elder Bennett. It was a good, productive exchange and we were able to teach a couple lessons. We went by to see a part member couple, the Mickelsons, and when we got there Bro.
Mickelson was at his neighbor's house out front, helping him work on his big rig truck. We went over and started talking to them and had a nice little gospel discussion. The man said that he would have no problems meeting with us but he is gone a lot being a trucker, so we will work with him as much as we can. Then, we went in and shared a message with the Mickelsons. We talked about
prayer and how important it is to have that relationship with our Father in Heaven. Also, we were able to see Bro. Sadler who is a less-active member. He is an elder and served a mission but has just fallen away so hopefully we can start helping the ward work with him to get him back to church. Friday was interviews with President Merkley and, as is usually the case, that took up most of the day. Since the interviews were conducted in my area and I am the district leader, I was the one to instruct for district meeting for both
districts that were there. Not that I was nervous or anything, I just wanted to point out that fact. Also, since the interviews were in our area and we had no time constraints, I was the last one to be interviewed. I have been the last one in all of my interviews! haha Just an interesting record that I have. We'll see if I can keep it up. Saturday we went to the park again to talk to people and this time the weather was a lot nicer to us! We found a former investigator of whom the missionaries had lost track because he moved from his previous residence. Hopefully we can start to meet with him and pick him up as a new investigator. Bad news from that day though, our investigator no-showed us for the appointment that we had set with her and we haven't really been able to talk to her since then. We really need to help her get on track because she has a baptism date set for the end of next month! I'm praying pretty hard for some help! haha I hope all is well back home! I know that I am doing the Lord's work and that even though my main purpose is to be an instrument in blessing others, I have grown so much as well. I love the Gospel of Christ and
know that it is how we achieve true happiness! Love, Elder Holmes