Transfer Week

Hey guys! Sorry I didn't write on Monday! You probably thought I died or something haha... But I'm good. The reason I'm writing on a Wednesday is because its transfer week. And things kinda change on transfer week. We have it every six weeks. Its just when certain missionaries change areas and companions, but luckily I still get at least another 6 weeks with elder Poulsen. I love that guy. He is an amazing trainer. I love working with him so much. We get along fantastic too.
But ya, we will be staying here in Hampton for awhile. It’s exciting too, because for our branch right now were renting out a space as I told you before, but we are in the process of building a church too. It should be done around end of October - mid November. Its gonna be nice to have an actual building instead of where we are now. But we still get by so it’s all good.
All last week we were barely in Hampton at all. We did this thing called exchanges or splits. We went to Fort Dodge and went on splits with those elders. Elders Curtis and Winton. I love those guys. I refer to them as my fairy god fathers because they took me in for a few days when I was abandoned by Gonzales. I went with Elder Curtis for most of the day. He had a lot of appointments set up, but the majority of them fell through which sucks… But it was still a good day. The weather In Iowa has been rather crazy lately. It gets soooo windy here and it has been raining a lot. It’s been pretty cold, but I LOVE my P-coat. It keeps me soo warm and I have already received many compliments on it. One guy we were visiting wanted to know where I got it cuz he wants one haha. But ya, the only bad thing about the weather here is that it often limits the missionary work we can do. In Fort Dodge with Elder Curtis, It was raining on and off. But every time we started to tract, It would rain like crazy! Making it slightly impossible to tract and if we did, the people at their doors were very distracted by the rain and would listen to us. I got several doors slammed in my face... Those Grouchy old farts are so set in their ways that it is very hard to make them listen. Most often it is older people hear that slam the doors. I thought it would be the opposite, but I guess not.
So anyway, Fort Dodge was a lot of fun. Those elders have a sweet apartment, with a ping pong table, so we had several tournaments. It was a party. We were there for about two days. Then we came home, worked in Hampton for a day, and then the next day we headed up to Mason City for general conference. We stayed with the Mason City elders who are awesome too. Elder Anderson (from Idaho) and Elder Heywood (utah). They were a lot of fun, and Elder Anderson is an AMAZING cook! He made us so much good food. We also had meal appointments with members there so we were well fed.
Conference was awesome right?! I love it so much. It makes me pumped. I loved all the talks. They were so good. I specifically liked Elder Holland’s talk. He shared such a solid witness about the Book of Mormon, one of the strongest I have heard.
Then we've been in Hampton this week of course. Things were pretty slow at first when coming back because the whole last week has been such a party, but we're getting back into missionary mode. The work is good. There is so much potential here as I've said before, But people usually fall through when it comes to appointments, Especially Mexicans. They have no sense of time, of responsibility. I LOVE their culture, but it is very different from ours. They are very slow... chill people, which is sometimes fun, and sometimes not. We have a lot of potential people that we are working with though. Hopefully we'll get a baptismal date out of some of them pretty soon.
Spanish is still very difficult for me... I'm trying really hard, but it doesn't always come. Sometimes I'll be in a lesson and I talk just fine, and other times, I'm really not that good. I'm trying to learn though and so hopefully it will come a little faster and a little sooner. I have such a struggle understanding what they say to me sometimes. I can only pickup so many things. But it also feels like every time they look at me and start talking, my mind goes blank, and I forget Spanish. Please keep praying that I can do better with the language. It’s coming along slowly, so I know I am making some progress, but I wish it would go just a bit faster.
Other than Spanish, things are going great. I love my companion, Love my area, The ward members, investigators. I love it all. I love being a missionary. It's such a cool thing to be focused on the church 24/7. I know that my testimony is being strengthened. I know that every time I share my testimony, it gets stronger. And I do that many times a day. It’s also cool to see how the influence of the holy ghost works as missionaries. Sometimes you just get these little promptings to do something, and if you follow it, it’s a blessing. Sometimes they are slightly small experiences, but they mean a lot to us as missionaries. :)
Well I love you all very much, i pray for you all the time. I hope all is well at home! I really appreciate your letters. They give me an extra boost to get through the day! The more the better :) I love you so much and miss you!
Much love,
Elder Holman