April 16th :)

Dearest Family!

How are you, Well I hope. Remember last week how I said if I had another week like that one I'd go crazy and lose all my hair? well.. this week was crazier.. haha and yet somehow I still have my hair and at least a portion of my sanity haha. so .. miracles still do occur :)

Although I have been extremely busy, it has also been a very fun week. STRESSFUL, but fun :) On Monday we had a office staff meeting that went 10 hours too long haha.. We talked about leadership training meetings and Zone Leader Council and the arrangements we needed to make in order to get a lot of missionaries here. I was a head case haha.. It’s tough because Neither Elder Paulson or i have done this before, because we were white washed into the area, and all AP References have gone home at this point so we had to start travel plans from scratch haha.. What a pain. but we got through it.

The next day we were up bright and early! We had a Zone leader Council where we talk about everything going on in the mission, mission updates, rules and regulations, a bunch of random stuff, and then Elder Paulson and I did a training on President Uchtdorfs Talk: Your Potential, your privilege.. It was a really good training.. the spirit was pretty strong. Sister Jergensen talked about being a disciple of Christ.. it was really inspiring. She put the statement on the board: By this shall men know that ye are my disciples... by your language, by your actions, by your image, by your cleanliness, etc. By your love for one another.. It just made you think that there are so many more things entailed in that statement of love one another and the manner in which you show that love. President shared with us an amazing talk by elder Holland in the MTC. It was brilliant. I love Elder Holland. He is my modern day apostolic hero. :) He talked about Peter becoming a Chief apostle and the president of the church after Christ left and the moment where he became that man.. he went from a man of little understanding and much questioning to The authoritative position of the church, and he who received all Revelation regarding it. It was an amazing talk... I'm gonna try and get a copy of it.

That night we went on a quick exchange, and an elder who served in this area prior came with us to show us around and introduce us to several people. It as a lot of fun. I really like my new area.. It’s kind of ghetto, but that's okay.. that's where all the humble people are :)

Wednesday and Thursday were just crazy beyond all reason! We had leadership meetings about the fundamentals of preach my gospel almost all day both of those days. The first day I conducted and the second day we did a training on the role the Holy Ghost in conversion.. It went really well.. Elder Paulson and I are starting to work a lot better together I think.. Because of lack of time, most of our training was based on inspiration and guidance from the holy ghost, but it was super spiritual. We asked them to take a moment and reflect on their "Conversion story". and then we had a few share, and we pin pointed the areas where the holy spirit was in there conversion and the role he played.. we then related it to Book of Mormon converts.. like Lamonis father.. such a sweet story. We talked about our role as missionaries, the Holy Ghosts, and then the investigators in conversion. We also talked about the proper way to cultivate an environment for the spirit using book of Mormon missionaries like the sons of Mosiah. It just ended up going really well... The crazy thing is it starts over this next week for the other half of the mission! Another headache on its way haha ;) We have a lot of travel plans to make, a lot of housing and working arrangements as well.. Busy Busy! But I love it. I lay down each night and wonder where the day went! Time has been going by quite quickly for me as of late... I think It's a sign that I'm working hard which makes me very happy and is very fulfilling :)

Yesterday we spent most of the time planning.. it was a long day.. we ordered pizza cuz we were so hungry.. that was the first time I’ve done that my whole mission.. and I messed up my "diet".. I've been trying to eat healthier.. and have been. Since I hit 190 I've lost 12 pounds.. I'm hoping to get to 20 in the near future.. so we'll see.. I exercise a lot and try to eat less calories, or more healthy calories. :)

I hope all is well at home! I miss you guys! but I'll be calling home in a couple weeks, so you'll hear from me soon enough! I already got my phone call with Star which was awesome :)

Love you all tons! I appreciate your prayers, I can feel them, and they boost me up! I love you tons.

Much love,

~Elder Holman