Hard at work 6/17

Hey Holman crew,

How are all of you! Thanks for the emails, it all sounds like your doing well!! Im glad to hear that dad had a good fathers day! That chance taught a sick lesson, that moms preparing for trek, and that its warm in the states....its freakin’ cold here!!!

Well im writing you guys a little bit later today, so i don’t have a whole lot of time, today was a super long and kinda crazy day. Me and my comp both hopped on a bus to go to La Plata (its pretty much like New York there) We went there to go work on renewing my visa! I’m still illegal in this place, but that’s okay...something really cool that happened today well i was walking in between people on super packed sidewalk in La Plata....I was walking and i heard a girl shout Elder Holman! Elder Holman!!! I looked around and i saw an old investigator from Guttierez running up to me, i was so shocked to see her, and the very first thing she told me is that about 2 weeks after i had left the area she got baptized. She said that she had always wanted to thank me for all that i did to help her change her life, but i was emergency transferred so she couldn´t get a hold of me, but it was so great to see her and have her tell me about her baptism and hear the strong testimony she had, it was super crazy that we bumped into each other in all the hoards of people! Super cool experience!

Actually this week was cool and full of super spiritual experiences, because of the lack of time I’ll only share two, but This week we past by a man named Ernesto, He´s a friend of one of our other investigators i started talking to him, and he said that we could pass by his house, After passing a bunch and never finding him, we stopped passing by, but this week i had the impression that we should stop by, and he was home, he told us he only had a little bit of time, but wanted to hear our message. As we began to talk to him we found that he had a huge belief in god, in fact it was the most important thing to him in his life. He told us that he prays to god each day, that he doesn’t belong to any religion, because he told us that he basically believes that the truth was taken from the earth after Christ came...He said that he always trusts that God will provide for him a path to take if he just continues to trust in him. It was so amazing to start teaching him, because i can see that god has been preparing him for a long time to hear the message of the restored gospel. As we said the opening prayer his heart was touched and he began to cry, after we said amen in the prayer the very first question that he asked is, what is this, can you all feel what i can feel? Through his tears he explained, I feel so good inside! We explained to him that this was god speaking to him through the holy ghost, before we even started the message he told us, i believe that you two are sent from god...as we dove into the lesson he listened so carefully, we testified that our message that is centered in Christ would bless his life as well as his family. Towards the lesson, my comp got enough courage to open his mouth and speak in his very broken Spanish, as my comp shared his testimony, of how Christ has restored his church today and that joseph smith was a true profit, he began to cry again. He said i wish that i could always feel the way that i do now...i explained to him that he can, and that is through being baptized and receiving the gift of the holy ghost. He accepted, without hesitation. It truly was a miracle in that small room, God had testified to Ernesto that our message is true.

I have been praying dearly for our small branch here in Chascomus, because the only priesthood we have right now are the elders (us), president of the branch, and my convert Jorge. I had been praying for some time now that god would prepare somebody for us, somebody that could receive the priesthood and become a leader in the branch. I believe that God answered my prayers this week by leading us to Ernesto.

Yesterday we had 14 people in church for father’s day. Yep in total. Right now i am assigned as elder quorum president, secretary, and 1st counselor to president. I taught Gospel principles and elders quorum class. Kinda a long day!!! haha but i was thinking of my old man the whole time!!! Dad i hope you had a great day. Thank you for all you have done for me, and continue to do. You´re an amazing example me. I love you more then you will ever know man! I spoke to the elders quorum yesterday about the great dad that i have, and that if i can become half the man he is, ill be content with my life here on the earth. I thank my father in heaven each night for giving me such an incredible earthly father. You’re the man dad!!

Haha well that’s all i got time for now, i had a couple other really cool stories that i wanted to share but you´ll all just have to wait until i come home to hear them...like this week how i received one of the biggest spiritual confirmations that joseph smith is a prophet...or how to be a good missionary!!

I’ll shoot you all these photos of me and my mission father and my mission son, and me and my mission father Elder Herrell in a sick catholic church.

Well i got to run i love you guys have a great week, and remember that you all are always in my prayers, may god continue to bless you,

Con muchísimo amor

Elder Holman

In this picture please notice that his 'dad' is wearing one of Landens favorite ties, and Landen is wearing the tie from my wedding.