October 1, 2012 - Email
Well, this week was a pretty good week but it was kinda slow as far as meeting with investigators just because of scheduling issues and one of the was sick. Luckily, they were still able to come to church! One thing that we did a good amount of this week was service! Saturday we helped a sister in the ward with the roof on her detached garage. Us and some other brothers from the ward went over there and stripped what was left of the shingles, tore down some rotten boards, and put up some new ones. When we left
they still had to put up the tar paper and the shingles but we had to leave early to go and help another family move. Needless to say we were pretty exhausted after that and it was awesome! Friday morning one of our investigators, Bro. Suarez, came to a volleyball
activity with some other members of the ward and that was really fun! Apparently, he played volleyball in college and so he was pretty good. I always enjoy playing volleyball. My workout regimen with Elder Park has continued and it is really great. It
definitely feels good to be in better shape and it has only been a week. Hopefully after six weeks I'll be in the habit enough that I can be more self motivated with exercising. He and I have been getting along pretty well. I'm alive and well! Love you all! Elder Holmes
they still had to put up the tar paper and the shingles but we had to leave early to go and help another family move. Needless to say we were pretty exhausted after that and it was awesome! Friday morning one of our investigators, Bro. Suarez, came to a volleyball
activity with some other members of the ward and that was really fun! Apparently, he played volleyball in college and so he was pretty good. I always enjoy playing volleyball. My workout regimen with Elder Park has continued and it is really great. It
definitely feels good to be in better shape and it has only been a week. Hopefully after six weeks I'll be in the habit enough that I can be more self motivated with exercising. He and I have been getting along pretty well. I'm alive and well! Love you all! Elder Holmes
October 15, 2012 - Email
Well, this last week has continued the trend of things being fairly slow when it comes to being able to meet with people but so far this week is looking a lot more promising. Also, sorry about the lack of an email last week but I just really wasn't feeling up to it. I'm pretty much back to full health though so that makes me pretty happy. One of the reasons that things are really looking up is because of a couple new investigators we picked up! Chris and Shannon are 19 and 17 respectively and are currently dating. Chris is friends with a member of the ward and plays ultimate frisbee with us every Tuesday. He called us up and told us that he and his girlfriend want to grow closer to God and they wanted to meet with us. They are super sincere and after only a couple of times meeting with us they have started to really fall in love with the gospel! They have been a real blessing. On Friday, we had a zone meeting with everyone in the zone (obviously) and it was pretty great. I only know a few people from this zone outside of our own district but I guess that just means I have the chance to get more people. We talked a lot about getting the members involved in teaching more, which is
something I've been meaning to work on here anyway. Things just go a lot better in the long run when members are involved
Love you all! Elder Holmes
something I've been meaning to work on here anyway. Things just go a lot better in the long run when members are involved
Love you all! Elder Holmes
Email - October 22, 2012
We had a pretty good week this week! Tuesday we had a really good meeting with Chris and Shannon during which we watched Prophet of the Restoration. After, Chris told us that he wants to be baptized and so we were able to set a baptism
date with him. His girlfriend isn't as familiar with the church and stuff yet so she is still making her decision. They are definitely a success story from church activities. Every Tuesday, some people get together at the church and play dodgeball and that is what caused Chris to be interested in meeting with us. Thursday we went to an event in Joplin that they do on every third
Thursday. They block off a section of main street and there are performers, companies with booths, food, etc. We went around talking to people and handing out invitations to the open house of the Joplin stake center that was going on Thursday through Saturday.
Sunday we had a nice little surprise at church! Two investigators got upset at a member of the ward and had kind of dropped us but they showed up at church on Sunday and said we could come see them this week! That was really great since I haven't really had the opportunity to meet with them since I've been here, I have only briefly met them at church. Overall, things are going well! Love you all! Elder Holmes
date with him. His girlfriend isn't as familiar with the church and stuff yet so she is still making her decision. They are definitely a success story from church activities. Every Tuesday, some people get together at the church and play dodgeball and that is what caused Chris to be interested in meeting with us. Thursday we went to an event in Joplin that they do on every third
Thursday. They block off a section of main street and there are performers, companies with booths, food, etc. We went around talking to people and handing out invitations to the open house of the Joplin stake center that was going on Thursday through Saturday.
Sunday we had a nice little surprise at church! Two investigators got upset at a member of the ward and had kind of dropped us but they showed up at church on Sunday and said we could come see them this week! That was really great since I haven't really had the opportunity to meet with them since I've been here, I have only briefly met them at church. Overall, things are going well! Love you all! Elder Holmes
Email - October 29, 2012
A few pretty exciting things happened this week! We had a really good district meeting this week. They said to go over the top with what we wore because we planned on doing district pictures and that was really fun (attached is a picture of what I wore which is incidentally my Halloween costume as well. All courtesy of Salvation Army). However, that wasn't the best part. Our instruction
was really good as well. Elder Park and I were asked to instruct on finding people to teach and it was great. It was Elder Park's first time instructing in a district meeting and he just did really awesome! I think that he is going to make really great mission leadership someday. Speaking of Elder Park, Saturday was transfer calls and we found out that he will be getting transferred to Monett, MO which is still actually in the same zone so I will see him at least once a month. My new companion will be Elder Cummings who has been out about 9 months and he served with my district leader Elder Bartschi so that will be cool. Serving with Elder Park has definitely been a pleasure and I know he will continue to be a great missionary and help forward the work wherever he goes.
On Sunday I spoke in sacrament meeting and that went over really well. I have actually come to love speaking in sacrament meeting. It is always such a great learning experience for me and it always makes me feel really good when somebody tells me that I said something they needed to hear. My talk can basically be summed up by James 1:22. I talked about how the Gospel of Christ
isn't just something we learn but it is something we have to live to produce salvation. My talk was largely inspired by Elder Bednar's address from this last conference. Saturday we went and ran a 5k with the Joplin elders! It was cool because we ran it in our proselyting clothes and so we had the chance to talk to some people before the race started. Until that morning I didn't even know we were running it but Elder Park and Elder Pope (one of the Joplin missionaries) decided we were going to. I ran it in 27:26 which I don't think is too shabby considering the fact that I had never run any farther than 2 miles in my life. I actually really enjoyed it though! I could see myself getting into that type of thing more for sure. Much love! Elder Holmes
was really good as well. Elder Park and I were asked to instruct on finding people to teach and it was great. It was Elder Park's first time instructing in a district meeting and he just did really awesome! I think that he is going to make really great mission leadership someday. Speaking of Elder Park, Saturday was transfer calls and we found out that he will be getting transferred to Monett, MO which is still actually in the same zone so I will see him at least once a month. My new companion will be Elder Cummings who has been out about 9 months and he served with my district leader Elder Bartschi so that will be cool. Serving with Elder Park has definitely been a pleasure and I know he will continue to be a great missionary and help forward the work wherever he goes.
On Sunday I spoke in sacrament meeting and that went over really well. I have actually come to love speaking in sacrament meeting. It is always such a great learning experience for me and it always makes me feel really good when somebody tells me that I said something they needed to hear. My talk can basically be summed up by James 1:22. I talked about how the Gospel of Christ
isn't just something we learn but it is something we have to live to produce salvation. My talk was largely inspired by Elder Bednar's address from this last conference. Saturday we went and ran a 5k with the Joplin elders! It was cool because we ran it in our proselyting clothes and so we had the chance to talk to some people before the race started. Until that morning I didn't even know we were running it but Elder Park and Elder Pope (one of the Joplin missionaries) decided we were going to. I ran it in 27:26 which I don't think is too shabby considering the fact that I had never run any farther than 2 miles in my life. I actually really enjoyed it though! I could see myself getting into that type of thing more for sure. Much love! Elder Holmes