April 2, 2012 - Email
Well this week was unfortunately uneventful as far as what I would call "actual missionary-work" goes. Monday evening we went out with Bro. Harvey and saw a sister in the ward before having our usual dinner and Book of Mormon study with them. It went pretty well. I always enjoy reading from the scriptures and I always learn something new when I do so! Tusday, we went on missionary exchanges with the Mountain Home elders and I stayed in Harrison with Elder Startup. He is really nice and fun to be around so he and I got along really well. I have been blessed to have had a great district and I get along with them all very well. He and I did service for a few hours at the local thrift store like we usually do on Tuesday. Also, every other transfer cycle (about every 12 weeks) we have a meeting called fundamentals of Preach My Gospel, in which we are instructed on various aspects of things we should be focusing on in our teaching. I was informed on Monday night (thanks for so much notice zone leaders haha) that I would be instructing on receiving revelation through the Book of Mormon and prayer. My instruction was to take about 1 hour and 25 minutes. Of course, a lot of that time was for role playing teaching situations and stuff so really I only had to teach for about 20-30 minutes so it wasn't as bad as it sounds. Anyway, I had to take some extra time on Tuesday to work on that. I definitely learned a lot through my instruction. One thing that I did was have us read and dissect Moroni 10:3-5 and really discuss all of the things that it talks about. It really helped my appreciation of that scripture. Wednesday evening we had a dinner with Sis. Petty and the Dells as well. Sis. Petty is a photography teacher and so we got to talk about photography for a bit which was cool. She also showed us a really cool slide show from a trip that she took to the Jerusalem area of the Middle East. The unrest there is just crazy. Thursday Elder Perkes had a migraine and so he had to rest up and we didn't do too much other than that. Luckily, that hasn't been a recurring problem for him this transfer like it apparently has been in the past. So, two more exciting things this past week: transfer calls and General Conference! Transfer calls were Friday night so that they didn't interfere with the Priesthood session of general conference. We got a call from the assistants and were told that Elder Perkes is going senior in Clairmore, Oklahoma and that I will be staying here as district leader as well as training a new missionary! I'm excited and nervous for the opportunity and I hope that I can be a good influence on him for the rest of his mission! I don't know his name yet because President doesn't decide where the new missionaries are going until after he actually meets them the Wednesday before transfers. So, I will probably find out either Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Also, I hope that everyone enjoyed general conference! I know that I sure did! On Saturday we watched all of the sessions at the church building and on Sunday we watched each session at a member's place. For the Sunday morning session, the Smiths invited us over to have a scone breakfast and watch the first session of conference and so we were more than happy to oblige haha. We watched the Sunday afternoon session with the Andersons and then they invited us to dinner so that was sweet. :) I thought for sure that I would be able to pick a favorite talk, but after watching all of the sessions I find it pretty difficult to do! I really enjoyed Elder Bednar's and President Uchtdorf's from the Priesthood session as well as Elder Ballard's from Sunday afternoon. There was definitely a few recurring themes such as focusing on having a good family life and raising children right, remembering we can always repent, and at the priesthood session almost all of the remarks were centered around going out and doing our priesthood duty and not just being "hearers only." I hope that it has been as enlightening for you all as it has been for me! I love you all and thank you for your support! I can feel my love for the Savior grow everyday and it is great! Elder Holmes
April 9, 2012 - Email HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY
All in all, this week has been a pretty good one! The first half was mostly spent with Elder Perkes tying up some loose ends and preparing for his departure. Then, on Thursday we went up to Mt. Vernon, MO (our transfer point) to drop him off and to pick up "my" new missionary. His name is Elder Peterson and he will tell you that he is from Wyoming, but his family has been living in Pleasant Grove, Utah for the past six years. He and I get along quite well! I do have to say that training is turning out to be a great experience for me and I am learning a lot! It is always great to have a review of the fundamentals of doing missionary work and I can't think of a better way to do that than by teaching a new missionary! It is also always great to have a new perspective on
the area and to have some "greenie faith" to work with. haha Unfortunately, our only investigator has kind of fallen off the face of the earth, but we have been working at finding new people to teach. I'm honestly not too bummed about it because I had only been able to see her a couple of times anyway. Saturday, we were stopping by some people from the Ward list that I didn't know on the way out to have dinner with the Bishop and we were able to find one place where the member had moved but the guy who lived there said that we could come back so that was sweet! We also found the Pottorff (pronounced like "put off") family. She hasn't been active for about ten years and he is not a member, but they were all very nice and they let us in to share an Easter message with them and said they wouldn't be opposed to us coming back so that was great! Hopefully these potentials we are finding will grow into something and that we will continue to be able to find more people! It will take a bit of hard work but I'm willing to put forth the effort! Sunday we had church, of course, which was pretty good. Afterward we had a meeting with our ward mission leader and went over some people on the ward list to get some ideas on who we can stop by and see. We also had one of the sisters in the ward come and tell us that she possibly has a referral for us which is awesome! We had dinner with the Tilton family that evening. They are a really nice older couple and they even made a "greenie cake" for Elder Peterson. They brought out the cake and told Elder Peterson that he had to cut it and serve it and when he pulled out the first piece, he saw that the cake was green! It was pretty hilarious. haha Easter is a great holiday! It was really nice to be able to focus on the true meaning of the holiday and remember the Savior. I love being able to share the same message that the Apostles of old shared that He lives! Christ truly is alive! He is not just a historical figure but he is here today and has given us his gospel once more. Luke 24:5-7 reads: "And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is arisen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be cucified, and the third day rise again." We need to remember that and not look in the past for a relationship with Christ but in the present! I truly believe
that we have the scriptures to learn about what Christ has done so that we can know that he can still help us today as he did people in the past! I love my Savior and know that he lives. Elder Holmes
the area and to have some "greenie faith" to work with. haha Unfortunately, our only investigator has kind of fallen off the face of the earth, but we have been working at finding new people to teach. I'm honestly not too bummed about it because I had only been able to see her a couple of times anyway. Saturday, we were stopping by some people from the Ward list that I didn't know on the way out to have dinner with the Bishop and we were able to find one place where the member had moved but the guy who lived there said that we could come back so that was sweet! We also found the Pottorff (pronounced like "put off") family. She hasn't been active for about ten years and he is not a member, but they were all very nice and they let us in to share an Easter message with them and said they wouldn't be opposed to us coming back so that was great! Hopefully these potentials we are finding will grow into something and that we will continue to be able to find more people! It will take a bit of hard work but I'm willing to put forth the effort! Sunday we had church, of course, which was pretty good. Afterward we had a meeting with our ward mission leader and went over some people on the ward list to get some ideas on who we can stop by and see. We also had one of the sisters in the ward come and tell us that she possibly has a referral for us which is awesome! We had dinner with the Tilton family that evening. They are a really nice older couple and they even made a "greenie cake" for Elder Peterson. They brought out the cake and told Elder Peterson that he had to cut it and serve it and when he pulled out the first piece, he saw that the cake was green! It was pretty hilarious. haha Easter is a great holiday! It was really nice to be able to focus on the true meaning of the holiday and remember the Savior. I love being able to share the same message that the Apostles of old shared that He lives! Christ truly is alive! He is not just a historical figure but he is here today and has given us his gospel once more. Luke 24:5-7 reads: "And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is arisen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be cucified, and the third day rise again." We need to remember that and not look in the past for a relationship with Christ but in the present! I truly believe
that we have the scriptures to learn about what Christ has done so that we can know that he can still help us today as he did people in the past! I love my Savior and know that he lives. Elder Holmes
April 16, 2012 - Email
This week has been pretty interesting to say the least! It all started with a bomb scare in our church parking lot! I didn't even know about it until in the evening on Monday and so that is why it wasn't in my email. The story is that the bomb was attached to the bottom of a van of a family in the ward and it was set to go off when they started the car and put it in gear. Luckily, God was
watching out for them and the bomb malfunctioned and didn't go off. It fell off the bottom of the vehicle and then a couple brothers from the ward identified it as a pipe bomb and called the police. Right now, the FBI is involved trying to figure out who did it. Needless to say, whenever we saw members during the week the topic of conversation was usually the pipe bomb. We were afraid that a lot of people were going to be gone from church this Sunday, but it actually seemed to me like the attendance was the same, if not larger than usual by a bit. Even the family who drove that van came to church yesterday. It was good to see that the members aren't letting fear get to them! Another event this week that was pretty exciting was that I was able to spend some time with
my old MTC companion, Elder Bott! He just recently was called to be one of the zone leaders in my zone, and so we went on missionary exchanges this Tuesday! It was great to reminisce about the MTC and to do some missionary work together. He is still the same nice, sincere, goofy Elder Bott that I knew and so that was awesome. He is a fantastic, hard-working missionary and I'm excited to have him in the zone. He and I went out with our member exchange on Tuesday evening and saw a Sister in the ward who invited us over for dinner to meet her neighbor! I think her neighbor just wants us to answer a couple of questions for her and get to know us, but I'm hopeful that she could become an investigator in the near future. I'm sure praying for it! This week has been a week of a lot of service opportunities which produced (mostly) good results. Let me explain. haha One of the service opportunities we had was with Bro. Merbes and we were helping him remove a tree from the yard of Sis. Ray, an older single Sister in the ward. Elder Peterson was throwing wood into the back of Bro. Merbes' truck and lost his footing and bent his left leg sideways (not how a leg is supposed to bend) At first he wasn't even able to bend his knee but he has healed quite a bit since then and is able to walk around mostly normal now. Another opportunity that we had was with a woman we had found while contacting at the park in Harrison. We had given her a pass-along card with our number on it and told her that if she ever needed anything to give us a call. Well, we got that call. She said that she was needing help moving and so we helped her as much as we could with our car and then the next day we were able to round up a few Brethren from the ward with trucks to help her with the bigger stuff. Of course, right now she is working on getting settled in and stuff but she said that she would be more than happy to have us over in a few weeks when she is a bit less overwhelmed. Of course, coupled with these unplanned service activities we also had our weekly service at the thrift store
on Tuesday so it has been quite the week.We had another great experience at church too! One of the brothers in the ward brought his
non-member friend, Bro. Carter, to church and he had a really great experience and was really interested in meeting with us. We weren't able to set up a specific appointment but we talked to him a bit about his beliefs of the Plan of Salvation and they match what we believe almost exactly. He says that he has made it a profession of studying different religions in search for truth. Well, his search is over! I'm so excited to meet with him because he is such a thoughtful, sincere person and you can tell that he truly has that he has "real intent". It is great to see that our hard work is starting to pay off here in Harrison. Things are definitely on the up-swing! I love the Lord and I know that He is with me in this work because it is His work! I love you all! Thanks to those of you who sent me Birthday cards last week! Elder Holmes
watching out for them and the bomb malfunctioned and didn't go off. It fell off the bottom of the vehicle and then a couple brothers from the ward identified it as a pipe bomb and called the police. Right now, the FBI is involved trying to figure out who did it. Needless to say, whenever we saw members during the week the topic of conversation was usually the pipe bomb. We were afraid that a lot of people were going to be gone from church this Sunday, but it actually seemed to me like the attendance was the same, if not larger than usual by a bit. Even the family who drove that van came to church yesterday. It was good to see that the members aren't letting fear get to them! Another event this week that was pretty exciting was that I was able to spend some time with
my old MTC companion, Elder Bott! He just recently was called to be one of the zone leaders in my zone, and so we went on missionary exchanges this Tuesday! It was great to reminisce about the MTC and to do some missionary work together. He is still the same nice, sincere, goofy Elder Bott that I knew and so that was awesome. He is a fantastic, hard-working missionary and I'm excited to have him in the zone. He and I went out with our member exchange on Tuesday evening and saw a Sister in the ward who invited us over for dinner to meet her neighbor! I think her neighbor just wants us to answer a couple of questions for her and get to know us, but I'm hopeful that she could become an investigator in the near future. I'm sure praying for it! This week has been a week of a lot of service opportunities which produced (mostly) good results. Let me explain. haha One of the service opportunities we had was with Bro. Merbes and we were helping him remove a tree from the yard of Sis. Ray, an older single Sister in the ward. Elder Peterson was throwing wood into the back of Bro. Merbes' truck and lost his footing and bent his left leg sideways (not how a leg is supposed to bend) At first he wasn't even able to bend his knee but he has healed quite a bit since then and is able to walk around mostly normal now. Another opportunity that we had was with a woman we had found while contacting at the park in Harrison. We had given her a pass-along card with our number on it and told her that if she ever needed anything to give us a call. Well, we got that call. She said that she was needing help moving and so we helped her as much as we could with our car and then the next day we were able to round up a few Brethren from the ward with trucks to help her with the bigger stuff. Of course, right now she is working on getting settled in and stuff but she said that she would be more than happy to have us over in a few weeks when she is a bit less overwhelmed. Of course, coupled with these unplanned service activities we also had our weekly service at the thrift store
on Tuesday so it has been quite the week.We had another great experience at church too! One of the brothers in the ward brought his
non-member friend, Bro. Carter, to church and he had a really great experience and was really interested in meeting with us. We weren't able to set up a specific appointment but we talked to him a bit about his beliefs of the Plan of Salvation and they match what we believe almost exactly. He says that he has made it a profession of studying different religions in search for truth. Well, his search is over! I'm so excited to meet with him because he is such a thoughtful, sincere person and you can tell that he truly has that he has "real intent". It is great to see that our hard work is starting to pay off here in Harrison. Things are definitely on the up-swing! I love the Lord and I know that He is with me in this work because it is His work! I love you all! Thanks to those of you who sent me Birthday cards last week! Elder Holmes
April 23, 2012 - Email
This week has been a great week and I continue to see our hard work pay off! Stay tuned for how we found a family of new investigators :) We had a meeting this week up in Springfield, which is about 70 miles away, for trainers, trainees, and district leaders (my companionship falls under all of those categories, so we were there all afternoon.) It was a good meeting and I
really did learn a lot that will help me be a better trainer and district leader! Hopefully I can implement all of the things I learn as well as the Lord would have me do! That evening, after travel and such, we went to institute with some recent converts and we learned about the scattering and gathering of Israel from the Old Testament which was pretty cool.Thursday we had missionary exchanges with the missionaries in Mtn. Home and Elder Payne came to Harrison with me. We did service again for Sis. Ray and helped load the tree we had cut down last time into Bro. Merbes' truck. It was Walnut and so it was pretty heavy! We managed to get it all in there though and Sis. Ray was nice enough to feed us afterward. :) Later, we had dinner with Sis. Sexton who invited her nonmember neighbor over to eat with us. She wasn't really interested in investigating the church necessarily, but she did say that she
would be more than happy to have dinner with us in the future. We actually ended up eating at her place because she has a bigger table and she made a really delicious potato soup! She even sent us home with leftovers that I have already eaten. haha Hopefully we will be able to maintain contact with her and I pray that the Lord will soften her heart and help her to be willing to listen to the message of the restoration. Okay, so the thing that I want to tell you about the most happened on Saturday. We had a pretty open day and so we were doing a lot of finding. We spent some time at the park, but nobody was really interested there. The most exciting thing that happened was when some Jehovah's Witnesses started talking to us and were trying to argue with us about their belief that it is contrary to the commandments of God to be involved in politics. To break up the monotony, we went and visited a couple
less-active members and then decided to go tract a particular street before heading home to dinner. Actually, we originally went to that street to contact a referral, but we weren't able to do so. We parked and started walking up to the first door when we heard someone from the house to our right yell, "Remember the Alamo! Remember Mountain Meadows!" so I thought that was pretty
amusing. haha Then, before we got to the door, the neighbor lady to the left told us that they were not home. So, I told Elder Peterson that we were just going to go and talk to her instead. Well, it turns out that Sis. Masters (the woman we talked to) is an inactive member of the church and within a month or so moved into that house with her parents. She was really excited about coming to church and kept telling us how much she missed it, particularly Relief Society. I thought that was great and so we started to get her information to get her records transferred into the ward when we found out that she has three unbaptized children who are all over 8 years old and they miss church as well! Also, she is remarried to a man who is not a member either and she has talked
to him about The Church before. We stayed there talking with her outside for a while and then her husband came over and we began speaking to him as well. He shared with us that for the past little while, people had (seemingly) randomly come up to him and told him something about how he can lean on Christ for help. He invited us to teach him right then and there, so of course we were happy to oblige! The Spirit was really strong and he told us that he felt that all of the experiences he has had this past while were preparing him for meeting with us. He said that we were greatly able to help his faith and he told us that he believes what we are sharing is true and that it makes sense. The father and son agreed to be baptized as Brother Masters is able to learn more and gain the
Spiritual witness for himself that the Book of Mormon is true. He definitely has real intent and showed that by saying that they were willing to drive up to Stake Conference the next day even! Unfortunately, they weren't able to attend and we haven't been able to contact them to ask why, but after the Spirit that was there for that lesson I know that there had to have been a good reason. I
know that that was not just a coincidence. The Lord truly is preparing people for the gospel and I know that by working hard and being diligent, we will be led to them! Sunday was a great way to finish off the week. (not as great as if the Masters had showed up, but still great) We had Stake Conference in Springfield and so I got to see a lot of the missionaries in the zone that I don't often have the chance to see. I got to see Elder Rich! This is his last transfer before he goes home so he is pretty trunky. haha The talks given in
the conference were great as well and some of the members bore their testimonies and it really invited the Spirit. This week has really
shown me that this is God's work! Love you all! Elder Holmes
really did learn a lot that will help me be a better trainer and district leader! Hopefully I can implement all of the things I learn as well as the Lord would have me do! That evening, after travel and such, we went to institute with some recent converts and we learned about the scattering and gathering of Israel from the Old Testament which was pretty cool.Thursday we had missionary exchanges with the missionaries in Mtn. Home and Elder Payne came to Harrison with me. We did service again for Sis. Ray and helped load the tree we had cut down last time into Bro. Merbes' truck. It was Walnut and so it was pretty heavy! We managed to get it all in there though and Sis. Ray was nice enough to feed us afterward. :) Later, we had dinner with Sis. Sexton who invited her nonmember neighbor over to eat with us. She wasn't really interested in investigating the church necessarily, but she did say that she
would be more than happy to have dinner with us in the future. We actually ended up eating at her place because she has a bigger table and she made a really delicious potato soup! She even sent us home with leftovers that I have already eaten. haha Hopefully we will be able to maintain contact with her and I pray that the Lord will soften her heart and help her to be willing to listen to the message of the restoration. Okay, so the thing that I want to tell you about the most happened on Saturday. We had a pretty open day and so we were doing a lot of finding. We spent some time at the park, but nobody was really interested there. The most exciting thing that happened was when some Jehovah's Witnesses started talking to us and were trying to argue with us about their belief that it is contrary to the commandments of God to be involved in politics. To break up the monotony, we went and visited a couple
less-active members and then decided to go tract a particular street before heading home to dinner. Actually, we originally went to that street to contact a referral, but we weren't able to do so. We parked and started walking up to the first door when we heard someone from the house to our right yell, "Remember the Alamo! Remember Mountain Meadows!" so I thought that was pretty
amusing. haha Then, before we got to the door, the neighbor lady to the left told us that they were not home. So, I told Elder Peterson that we were just going to go and talk to her instead. Well, it turns out that Sis. Masters (the woman we talked to) is an inactive member of the church and within a month or so moved into that house with her parents. She was really excited about coming to church and kept telling us how much she missed it, particularly Relief Society. I thought that was great and so we started to get her information to get her records transferred into the ward when we found out that she has three unbaptized children who are all over 8 years old and they miss church as well! Also, she is remarried to a man who is not a member either and she has talked
to him about The Church before. We stayed there talking with her outside for a while and then her husband came over and we began speaking to him as well. He shared with us that for the past little while, people had (seemingly) randomly come up to him and told him something about how he can lean on Christ for help. He invited us to teach him right then and there, so of course we were happy to oblige! The Spirit was really strong and he told us that he felt that all of the experiences he has had this past while were preparing him for meeting with us. He said that we were greatly able to help his faith and he told us that he believes what we are sharing is true and that it makes sense. The father and son agreed to be baptized as Brother Masters is able to learn more and gain the
Spiritual witness for himself that the Book of Mormon is true. He definitely has real intent and showed that by saying that they were willing to drive up to Stake Conference the next day even! Unfortunately, they weren't able to attend and we haven't been able to contact them to ask why, but after the Spirit that was there for that lesson I know that there had to have been a good reason. I
know that that was not just a coincidence. The Lord truly is preparing people for the gospel and I know that by working hard and being diligent, we will be led to them! Sunday was a great way to finish off the week. (not as great as if the Masters had showed up, but still great) We had Stake Conference in Springfield and so I got to see a lot of the missionaries in the zone that I don't often have the chance to see. I got to see Elder Rich! This is his last transfer before he goes home so he is pretty trunky. haha The talks given in
the conference were great as well and some of the members bore their testimonies and it really invited the Spirit. This week has really
shown me that this is God's work! Love you all! Elder Holmes
April 30, 2012 - Email
Last week I talked about how we found the Masters family, which was a miracle in and of itself and this week we have been able to work with them quite a bit more and their progression in the Gospel has just skyrocketed! Wednesday we were on missionary exchanges with the Elders from Berryville and I had Elder Rodriguez, a native Spanish speaker from Mexico, with me in Harrison. He and I went and saw the Masters family and had a great lesson on the Word of Wisdom. They had a couple things to work on and so we set a date with the parents to quit smoking altogether and they also agreed to stop drinking coffee and tea! They like to feed us dinner whenever we go over there, and so we were talking to Bro. Masters while Sis. Masters was finishing up with the meal and he told us something to the effect of, "You guys have been asking me if I believe that Joseph Smith is a prophet and if the Book of Mormon is the word of God. At first I told you that I believed it was true because it made sense to me but I want you to know that I have received a spiritual witness from the Holy Ghost that it is true. I know it is true." That was so awesome! It is such a blessing
to be able to be God's hands in bringing in some of his children to the fold. He and his wife have both told us that whenever any sort of conflict or aggravation comes up in their lives or even if they just have down time they turn to the Book of Mormon and read it and study it. They have such a wonderful testimony of the spirit that the Book of Mormon brings into someone's life. We were also able to meet with Sis. Brandenburg, our other investigator, this week. It had been a while since we were able to meet with her because of illness and such that had also been keeping her from church. We had a quick lesson with her about Prophets by way of review and we also taught her about Thomas S. Monson. We watched a talk of his from this last General Conference which, of course, was great! She said that usually when she watches sermons her mind wanders and such but she was really able to pay attention for
his whole address and that she would check out more from lds.org. I also left her with my copy of "On The Lord's Errand" which is a great documentary on the life story of President Monson and I would recommend it to anyone! Church services were great and the Spirit was definitely there. Unfortunately, none of our investigators were able to make it! They did all have good reasons to be
gone though. Incidentally, they were both in the ER late into the night before because Sis. Masters and Sis. Brandenburg were both suffering from illness that kept them from church. I know they both had the desire though, and that is definitely good. After church we went and had dinner with the Bishop and his wife. After dinner he got us our special recommends so that we can attend the dedication of the Kansas City Temple which will be broadcast to the church building this Sunday in lieu of regular church services. I'm excited to at least see a temple even though I can't go in one for over a year because there isn't one in the mission boundaries. We also were able to go and see another part member family with the Bishop, the Pottorffs. We shared a spiritual message with the husband and wife but the kids were elsewhere. We set a return appointment with them for Tuesday. Sister Masters said that they are
pretty much happy where they are, but that she would talk to her husband if he was curious or would be interested in learning about the Book of Mormon. I'm praying that they will do so! This week we also had Zone Conference in Springfield and that was really great! I got to see Elder Rich for what will most likely be the last time because he is going home at the end of this transfer cycle! May 18th. haha Incidentally, it was also the last Zone Conference with our current Mission President, President Merkley. It will not
be the last time that I see them though because we still have interviews with them next transfer. Things are going great! I hope that all is well back home! I know that the Lord is blessing me and using me to bless those around me and it is a wonderful experience! Love you! Elder Holmes
to be able to be God's hands in bringing in some of his children to the fold. He and his wife have both told us that whenever any sort of conflict or aggravation comes up in their lives or even if they just have down time they turn to the Book of Mormon and read it and study it. They have such a wonderful testimony of the spirit that the Book of Mormon brings into someone's life. We were also able to meet with Sis. Brandenburg, our other investigator, this week. It had been a while since we were able to meet with her because of illness and such that had also been keeping her from church. We had a quick lesson with her about Prophets by way of review and we also taught her about Thomas S. Monson. We watched a talk of his from this last General Conference which, of course, was great! She said that usually when she watches sermons her mind wanders and such but she was really able to pay attention for
his whole address and that she would check out more from lds.org. I also left her with my copy of "On The Lord's Errand" which is a great documentary on the life story of President Monson and I would recommend it to anyone! Church services were great and the Spirit was definitely there. Unfortunately, none of our investigators were able to make it! They did all have good reasons to be
gone though. Incidentally, they were both in the ER late into the night before because Sis. Masters and Sis. Brandenburg were both suffering from illness that kept them from church. I know they both had the desire though, and that is definitely good. After church we went and had dinner with the Bishop and his wife. After dinner he got us our special recommends so that we can attend the dedication of the Kansas City Temple which will be broadcast to the church building this Sunday in lieu of regular church services. I'm excited to at least see a temple even though I can't go in one for over a year because there isn't one in the mission boundaries. We also were able to go and see another part member family with the Bishop, the Pottorffs. We shared a spiritual message with the husband and wife but the kids were elsewhere. We set a return appointment with them for Tuesday. Sister Masters said that they are
pretty much happy where they are, but that she would talk to her husband if he was curious or would be interested in learning about the Book of Mormon. I'm praying that they will do so! This week we also had Zone Conference in Springfield and that was really great! I got to see Elder Rich for what will most likely be the last time because he is going home at the end of this transfer cycle! May 18th. haha Incidentally, it was also the last Zone Conference with our current Mission President, President Merkley. It will not
be the last time that I see them though because we still have interviews with them next transfer. Things are going great! I hope that all is well back home! I know that the Lord is blessing me and using me to bless those around me and it is a wonderful experience! Love you! Elder Holmes