Email - November 5, 2012
Well, the first part of this week was mostly spent with Elder Park saying goodbye to people in the area. He was here for 6 months and had really developed relationships with some of the people so I was more than happy to let him do so. It wasn't too hard to say goodbye to Elder Park for me though because he is still in the same zone as me so I will see him fairly often. haha Plus, I've
never really been a sentimental guy anyway. My new companion is Elder Cummings and I really like him and look forward
to buckling down and working hard with him this transfer! He is from St. George, Utah and he has been out about 9 months. Something interesting about him is that he is 25 years old and has only been active in the church for the last couple years. His last companion was Elder Harter which is kinda funny because I served with him for my last 6 weeks in Eldon. Besides a change with my companion, I also found out that we will now be sharing the car with two other sets of missionaries. I'm kinda bummed about that
to be honest but I'm trying to look at the silver lining and focus on how much it is going to allow us to work more closely with the members in Carthage. Which, to tell the truth, is something I really wanted to focus on anyway this transfer. As far as missionary work goes, we had a decent week this week. It has been pretty frustrating that we are hardly (if ever) able to meet with our best
investigators but hopefully that can change this transfer. We have a few that are really close to baptism and teaching them is literally the only obstacle they have. Fortunately, they are still regularly attending church and have good relationships with members and so I'm not as worried about "losing them" as I would be otherwise. We really want to start putting a greater emphasis on finding. Of course, effective, diligent finding is the "secret" to having a great area and tons of work on your mission so it is always something good to focus on. Your well wishes and prayers on my behalf do not go wasted and I appreciate all of the help I can get! Love you all!
Elder Holmes
never really been a sentimental guy anyway. My new companion is Elder Cummings and I really like him and look forward
to buckling down and working hard with him this transfer! He is from St. George, Utah and he has been out about 9 months. Something interesting about him is that he is 25 years old and has only been active in the church for the last couple years. His last companion was Elder Harter which is kinda funny because I served with him for my last 6 weeks in Eldon. Besides a change with my companion, I also found out that we will now be sharing the car with two other sets of missionaries. I'm kinda bummed about that
to be honest but I'm trying to look at the silver lining and focus on how much it is going to allow us to work more closely with the members in Carthage. Which, to tell the truth, is something I really wanted to focus on anyway this transfer. As far as missionary work goes, we had a decent week this week. It has been pretty frustrating that we are hardly (if ever) able to meet with our best
investigators but hopefully that can change this transfer. We have a few that are really close to baptism and teaching them is literally the only obstacle they have. Fortunately, they are still regularly attending church and have good relationships with members and so I'm not as worried about "losing them" as I would be otherwise. We really want to start putting a greater emphasis on finding. Of course, effective, diligent finding is the "secret" to having a great area and tons of work on your mission so it is always something good to focus on. Your well wishes and prayers on my behalf do not go wasted and I appreciate all of the help I can get! Love you all!
Elder Holmes
Email - November 12, 2012
November 6th was a pretty big day for America! It was my 16 month mark! (that's what everyone was thinking, right?) Incidentally, today marks 8 months until I will actually be home. I don't want it to sound like I'm counting down the days (because I'm not) but it was my 2/3 mark so that is kind of a big deal. Anyhow, we were actually able to meet with a couple of our investigators this week which was awesome. It is pretty frustrating to have some really solid investigators but not be able to meet with them regularly because of scheduling conflicts. We were able to go and see Brother and Sister Suarez and I think that their biggest
holdup has been the fact that they haven't actually been taught for a while. They were definitely happy to have us over though and we talked about meeting on a more regular basis which is awesome. We got a media referral and we met with him yesterday! Bro. Neher works with a couple members and he got curious about what we believe. We were able to go over and give him a copy of the Book
of Mormon and explain about the Restoration of the Gospel. He considers himself a student of religion and he has done a good amount of research about the church on his own. We also have a couple appointments to meet with some new people
tonight! Sis. Cook, a member, invited her friend over for dinner and to meet us! Sis. Cook had previously presented her with a copy of The Book of Mormon and this appointment came as the result of a follow-up visit. Also, Sis. Fields encountered a former investigator (Sis. Carlinski) at an exercise class and we will be starting to meet with her again as well. All in all, things are really looking up for Carthage and I'm loving my time here! Elder Cummings is a great companion and he really loves the area as well. He and I have been really working well together. Love you all! Elder Holmes
holdup has been the fact that they haven't actually been taught for a while. They were definitely happy to have us over though and we talked about meeting on a more regular basis which is awesome. We got a media referral and we met with him yesterday! Bro. Neher works with a couple members and he got curious about what we believe. We were able to go over and give him a copy of the Book
of Mormon and explain about the Restoration of the Gospel. He considers himself a student of religion and he has done a good amount of research about the church on his own. We also have a couple appointments to meet with some new people
tonight! Sis. Cook, a member, invited her friend over for dinner and to meet us! Sis. Cook had previously presented her with a copy of The Book of Mormon and this appointment came as the result of a follow-up visit. Also, Sis. Fields encountered a former investigator (Sis. Carlinski) at an exercise class and we will be starting to meet with her again as well. All in all, things are really looking up for Carthage and I'm loving my time here! Elder Cummings is a great companion and he really loves the area as well. He and I have been really working well together. Love you all! Elder Holmes
Email - November 19, 2012
We had a really cool experience this week! Monday evening we had an appointment with soon-to-be investigator who had investigated in the past. When she initially contacted us she said that she recently got the feeling like she needed to start getting more familiar with the Bible and asked us to come over and help her with that. Before we went over, we were trying to figure out what we should share with her and I got the feeling that we should go over the story of Christ's baptism from Matthew 3. So, when we got there we got to know her a bit and then we got into the lesson and a miracle (I think) happened. Because of what we were sharing, she opened up about questions that she had from when she was investigating in the past and we were able to address her concerns and clear up some misunderstandings. Basically, she's taking the regular missionary lessons now and, even though she wants to move slow, we are able to teach her of the restored gospel along with our Bible study. Of course, it's not difficult because the gospel is contained in the Bible. We set up a return appointment for Friday and the day before she called and said that her 16 year-old son wants to be a part of the lessons as well! I'm hoping that as we continue to teach her with the Spirit that she will progress more and more.
Other than that, this week was pretty straightforward. Aka, most of our investigators that could be baptized by now have continued their trend of having to cancel the appointments that we set with them. I'll admit, it is pretty discouraging but I'm trying to keep a positive outlook as we continue to try as hard as we can to work with them as well as find new people to teach.
Much love! Elder Holmes
Other than that, this week was pretty straightforward. Aka, most of our investigators that could be baptized by now have continued their trend of having to cancel the appointments that we set with them. I'll admit, it is pretty discouraging but I'm trying to keep a positive outlook as we continue to try as hard as we can to work with them as well as find new people to teach.
Much love! Elder Holmes
Email - November 26, 2012
Well, this was the week of Thanksgiving! All in all, it was a really good week.
We have had one man with whom we have been trying to work for a while but we have had a nasty string of scheduling conflicts. We were finally able to meet with Bro. Mountain and his wife (she's a member) and set a date of baptism with him of the 29th of December! We also discussed how we can meet with him more consistently and prepare him for his baptism. I really love working with part-member families because it is great to unite families in living the gospel and receiving the joy that it brings.
We were also able to meet with Bro. and Sis. Suarez and we went over the Word of Wisdom with them. She is starting a new job and he is moving stores for his and so it will be tough to meet with them for a while, but not impossible of course. They are really great and I know that they can really progress if we are able to meet with them.
We had dinner with the Lambeth family (Bro. Lambeth and his mom) for Thanksgiving and it was delicious! They smoked the turkey and that was really good. It was pretty much a standard Thanksgiving dinner which is just fine with me. After them, we went to the Bishop's place and had a second dinner (which we didn't have room for) which was also really good.
Love you! Elder Holmes
We have had one man with whom we have been trying to work for a while but we have had a nasty string of scheduling conflicts. We were finally able to meet with Bro. Mountain and his wife (she's a member) and set a date of baptism with him of the 29th of December! We also discussed how we can meet with him more consistently and prepare him for his baptism. I really love working with part-member families because it is great to unite families in living the gospel and receiving the joy that it brings.
We were also able to meet with Bro. and Sis. Suarez and we went over the Word of Wisdom with them. She is starting a new job and he is moving stores for his and so it will be tough to meet with them for a while, but not impossible of course. They are really great and I know that they can really progress if we are able to meet with them.
We had dinner with the Lambeth family (Bro. Lambeth and his mom) for Thanksgiving and it was delicious! They smoked the turkey and that was really good. It was pretty much a standard Thanksgiving dinner which is just fine with me. After them, we went to the Bishop's place and had a second dinner (which we didn't have room for) which was also really good.
Love you! Elder Holmes