Good Week - Sept 10th

hey hey hey red headed clan!

How’s it going?? Mom and dad thanks for the emails today, and sky thanks for the letter, and talk, and thanks to the rest of the fam for the picture book! I loved it. haha i was just thinking the other day that i need a picture book of my family to show the other elders!!! haha so thanks! It sounds and looks like you’re all doing really well!

I had a pretty sick week here in the mission...in fact, it will be a week that ill probably remember for the rest of my life. haha all the Elders have been calling it P-week, because we had so many fun things planned out for this weekend. 

Anyways, this last week on Thursday i got to travel up to the big city capital because my comp had to sign some documents on his visa, so we totally got to travel up to the big city for 2 or three hours! it was so much fun, i took a couple of pics! We even ate at a McDonald's! ahhh it was so good, and pretty fun to, pretty much the trip took up the whole day, cuz it took us forever to take a train back to our area. Later that night we had two elders show up from the coast...about 9 hours away from my area, and they spent the weekend with us for our "p-week."  So the next day we woke up and took a train with our zone to an area called bonfield. There we had a mission picture and then we headed out on buses to go to a stake center in the west mission where 3 apostles would be speaking to just the west north and south mission. Once we got there, we all stood as elder Christopherson walked in, Elder Ballard, and Elder Eyeing...and elder Walker was there to.

 Elder Christopherson started off speaking and gave his whole talk in Spanish. He served in the Buenos Aires mission as well. He talked on living your purpose as a missionary and the importance of missionary work. Elder Ballard gave a talk that I will never forget. It was so sweet, and so powerfully moving. he shared a story that he had to get first presidency approval on to share with us that knocked me over by the spirit. He talked about his grandfather, he said that one evening he had a vision deep in the night where he stood in the temple and was ordained as one of the 12 apostles, he bore his testimony to the 12 and then walked into another room of the temple where he was alone, he said that as he walked in, and he saw the most glorious being he had ever beheld sitting on a thrown, as we walked in he said he fell to his feet crying over them kissing them and feeling the prints in them. He saw Jesus Christ the lord. Two years later from that day he was ordained an apostle...and he bore his testimony to the 12 that he would do and give whatever it took to feel the way he felt again, when he was in the presence of our lord Jesus Christ. He began to share how he believes that it was this experience that prepared him to be an apostle as well as to prepare him to start the work in South America.

 He told us a story how his grandfather and 2 other men took a boat to Buenos Aires Argentina, and held the first ever sacrament meeting there…in German. He said that 14 people 4 being members and 10 being friends attended this meeting, and after the meeting his grandfather declared the land of the children of lehi ready for the gospel. he declared that the work here would not be as a sunflower, sprouting living and then dying all with in a few days, but as an acorn, slowly progressing, growing into a great and mighty tree. and he said that this prophesy is being fulfilled through us. it was an incredible talk. and then after him Elder Eyering spoke about knowing god, and knowing that god knows you perfectly. 

Elder Eyerings talk moved me so much. He spoke with such power, and he answered questions that i have prayed about for along time. When elder Eyering testified that he knew god, the spirit bore such an intense feeling in my heart, that i knew that Elder Eyering was speaking the truth. When he spoke there was no doubt in my mind that we was a special witness of god, and that he knew him. and he bore to us, that god knows us perfectly, and that we can have all fear conquered through this. that we can lift and carry the church on our backs like we have been doing, and that we can be lifted and have help from on high by knowing that god knows us, and by coming to know god even more! it was incredible. I´ve never had the spirit hit me so hard then i did in that meeting. it was unreal. we ended up getting back home at 1 in the morning later that night, cuz it takes so long to travel back...and at this point we had about 8 elders sleeping in our pench. as we all went to bed, the alarm started going off at 6¨:30. haha we got up, did our thing and we headed to the mission home to hop on a bus to go to the independent stadium where we had the celebration for the re dedication of the temple. I saw dad for about 15 minutes, got to give him a good hug, and then we had to split up, but that was pretty fun;)

 dad can feel you in on all the deets of what we talked about! haha after that we had the celebration! Elder christopherson, Ballard, And Eyering bore there testimony, and we had a pretty good time. lots of cultural dances, and lots of youth prepared pretty hard for that day, at the end of the celebration all the missionaries marched onto the fútbol field of independent stadium in a straight line, singing at the top of our lungs called to serve in Spanish! it was so amazing! the whole time i kept waving at dad up in the crowd of the stadium! After that we ended up getting home at around 1:30 and woke right back up at 6! we all headed to our stake center and watched the dedicatory prayer over the temple. Words cant explain how incredible it was to have our temple dedicated. Millions have prayed for yesterday to come, and it finally did! we have a temple! haha half way through the temple dedication, me my comp and the zl´s were sitting on the wooden bench in the sacrament room and it broke as we were sitting on it! haha right in the middle of the reverent meeting! haha it was awesome, and now today is p-day! haha the last pday of the p-week!

But man!!!! it was such an incredible week. Elder Eyering said that we wouldn’t ever forget it if peter james and john stood from a pulpit and spoke to us, and he said that Christopherson Ballered and him stand in the same line with them, and so we should never forget what we have been told and taught...and i don't think i will ever forget this weekend of my mission. for as long as i live!

well yep, that was my week :) sky thanks again for that talk. i read it this morning!! it means a lot to me, and i cant wait to truly put all that i have on the alter of Christ and become a consecrated missionary like he talked about. I want it to change my mission the way you said it will, so i will do all i can to forget about what i want and my will, and put gods will first. I love you man, and good luck with LA this week! Mom, i just got your letter to! Thanks for the update on how you and the fam are doing. im glad jadens loving school, that brocks killing raddle snakes and that the bunny hill is still there! im glad your talk went well, and thanks for feeding the missionaries too. it means a lot to us :) with some elders you truly have to help them with finding a desire to work and to have a conversion, god works in marvelous ways and who knows, god could be working through this elder that's a little bit more lazy right now :) but I'm glad you gave them that talk, hopefully they love it as much as i did! well I'm running out of time, but i want you all to know that i love you, and that God knows who each and everyone of you are. Seek him constantly. I hope all my little brothers are preparing for the day they to can serve a mission. it will change your life, i know this because its starting to change mine. i cant wait to see what god has in store for me each day out here. start prepare for a mission now all you holman boys, its such an incredible experience! 

K i gots to run. but remember God loves you, he knows you, and he is always there for you. He is just a prayer away. Peace love, and temple marriage (specifically in Argentina cuz we have a temple now!!!)

Elder Holman