Frustrations of Missionary work! :) we love it!

May 26

Well this week has been interesting, Hard, fun and tiring all in one! Where to begin..... well lets talk about your weekend! Wow am i going to mission going to the cabin this summer. Those pictures just make me feel at home all over again. Im glad mesa gets out the week before so that we always had that 4-5 day weekend up at the cabin to start the summer off. in Utah school gets out this week. In California, they still have 2 weeks left.... lame right but thats why i dont live here :) well i am right now but we do the same thing everyday of every week. and its great!  Anyways Looks like you all had fun up there and enjoyed the cool weather. I cant say that its been that cold here, in fact it never will i think. but this week has been super nice here in southern CA. Basically the hottest it got was 75 and the coolest it got was 60. it has been cloudy for 4-5 days now, for at least the most  part of the day. Its been super breezy and almost chilly sometimes. What can i say living 4 blocks from the beach is nice! Anyways we did splits twice this week! yeah so i was hardly in my area. my companion kept getting confused which day it was and who he talked to with which companion. he would tell me that we are going to got to this house and i would ask who? and he would say we contacted him on Wednesday....and then he would put 2 and 2 together and then remember i wasnt with him that day.... anyways it was fun. Palos verdes is super nice down here but when your down here you get cut off from the rest of the mission. you have no idea whats going on around other places, and we have no contact with any other missionaries other than the 3 companionships from our district. ITs just great! But yeah now to missionary work

 

** and **- we found out that they are not really interested at all.... they have been avoiding us all week. We think they got a little financial help  from the church and since then they have had no desire or time to meet with us... We find them once in a while in the street or talking to other people in the apartment but we have not sat down and taught them since the week before last. Sad. their baptismal date was dropped because of time and at this point we will probably have to drop them soon. Its super frustrating and tiring... **- stopped progressing. She didnt come to church, she finally told us that she really hasnt been praying or reading. She "likes the church" but i dont think she really understands what its all about. She wants to know for herself that these things are true, but isnt doing the things that would allow her to feel so. Grrrrrrr. this week has been super frustrating to say the least. We only had 4 lessons compared to the 10-12 we had before. its like none of our investigators want to see us :( anyways we got our 20 conversations everyday this week except last Monday so we will do better today :) Yesterday Elder Acosta a local 70 came and visited our branch. it was super good, the spirit was so strong and of course, no investigators at church.... He just talked alot about how we can just be better, how this is a hard generation but that the gospel is truly on the earth again and its here for each and everyone of us. He has a very strong testimony. so that was super awesome. Then next week ELDER BALLARD is coming to LA and we are having a missionary conference just with him. It will be awesome. I just cant wait to listen and learn from him. Its just a blessing to be on a mission. people ask us all the time, Why? Why did you live for 2 years? what made you come? what is it that you are trying to get out of this service? And i tell them because I know that God Loves his children, that through Jesus Christ we all can recieve strength and peace in this crazy world. I tell them that it doesnt matter what we might be losing or how hard it is when people reject us. we know this message can bless our lives  Even if people dont want to hear us, give us fake addresses or numbers, yell and cus at us for 20 min, The truth will keep going.  We are not here to tear down peoples faiths, were here to strengthen thier faith and come closer to Our Heavenly Father and His Son. That is what i know! That is why im here. And even though it is hard, that it is frustrating, stressful, tiring, and sometimes seems worthless, its completely worth it.

 

Thanks for all your support. Thanks for the pictures and i hope you all have/had a great weekend up at the cabin! Keep up the good work and have a great week! :) Enjoy your summer!

 

Love 

Elder Hollingshead

Well hello Everyone!

Hows it going? This week has been alright. Nothing crazy happened this week. I felt back at home on Wednesday. I think the hi that day and for the next 2 days was right at about 100 degrees. Wednesday was the worst because it was just dead, no wind and i felt like a good nice May/june day in mesa. Then next 2 days were just as hot but it was a little breezy so it made it better. Its funny because my comp. does not like the heat at all. he complains all the time that its too hot and that he cant think. Anyways because of the heat, it was super hard to contact people, apparently no one likes to walk when its that hot. and the few that do, don't want to be stopped to talk to 2 crazy white people wearing slacks and a tie. I have found that contacting/talking about religion to white people is super easy. especially the less time the Latin has been in the states, but it's funny to see that the longer the Latino lives in the states, the more like a white person they get, even though most of them cant speak any English after 20 years of living here. Its crazy. But Overall our investigators are doing alright. we havnt been able to get in contact with a few of them and thats frustrating. But *** and ***, had some problems. ** and The member they were living with, did not like each other.... at all..... lots of drama that we dont know nor want to know. Basically they both talked to The branch president and he helped **and *** move out because it was that bad..... They asked us to help them move, but we didnt, we called Hno Gasca and let him do that because we did not want to look like we were talking sides on the situation. But now ** ** live in a apt complex with 2 member families. so that will be good for fellow shipping. In fact we are having A FHE tonight with one and *** y ***. Im pretty sure They will be baptized, but i dont think its going to be this month, she still needs a divorce, and because of the move, they haven't worked on it at all.

We worked with *** a bunch this week. She is super ready, she just needs to convince her self she is, We went through the baptismal questions and she was perfect, she reads and prays, and comes to church without us having to tell her. She claims she has never felt the spirit, but i think she has and just never recognized it. But we met with her 3 times this week and she is awesome. Jose Garcia, is on hold right now. He has lots of addictions to drugs and alcohol and never comes to church. he reads but never gets anything out of it. But on Wednesday we went over to his house with a member and he flipped out and threw the Book of Mormon and walked out.... Super Weird, i felt bad for the member because she didnt know what to do. anyways we told His mom that if he wants us to come back again he needs to call us.  Alot of our other investigators are busy and never meet with us. Super hard but nothing we can do about it. I just hope that all is well with them.  we Are meeting with a woman named Janie, she super nice and loves talking to us. She was a former, because the sisters were pushing her too much and she "never progressed" but i think she has some potential. She super nice and just wants to learn more about Got and Jesus Christ. She never grew up going to church, and just has no religious background. She has gone through alot in here life, and really just wants to find peace. She has a 5 year old son, and also is pregnant. She got divorced a few years ago because her husband got into drugs and ended up in prison. shes engaged right now and just feels overwhelmed with life. She has been praying and is trying to get herself to go to church, but that hasn't happened yet. Personally i Think she has lots of potential, but she will just take time. Other than that Nothing much has happened this week.

Thanks again for all your prayers in my behalf. IT continues to be a real strength to me. Lots of crazy things happen on a mission. I feel exhausted each day, but somehow i find energy to go forward. I just know that this is in the lords hands. As long as we are doing what we should be doing, everything will be alright. Elder Ballard will be coming in 2 weeks and im excited to learn what he has in store for us. I wonder what he will be doing, and I just hope that i can be able to learn All that My Heavenly Father wants me to learn. I hope All is well for you. Enjoy the heat for me hahaha. but dont melt too much. Thanks again for your love. and I hope to hear from you all in letters once in a while!

Love you all!

Elder Hollingshead

 

ps. pictures!!!!! me and my companion. The Views from our super rich member who lives on the top of PV (i think one of them has downtown LA in the distance) and this was at another Apartment i thought it was funny....

At another missionary apt.

P.S. from  May 12

 

Oh and I forgot again! Elder Ballard is going to be on a mission tour here in LA on the 1st of June! Im super excited. Also Elder Acosta from the 70 will be in cabrillo branch on the 25th of this month. So its going to be a fun month!

 

Anyways just wanted to let you all know!

 

Elder Hollingshead

May 11

Well Hello Everyone!

 

First off I hope everyone had a good Mother’s day (for those who that applies too). IT was super great to see Mom and Dad’s Face and hear their Voice! It was super nice and fun to talk and hear an update about you all. This week has been pretty good. Not too much happened but there is lots of work here in this area and it keeps us busy most of the time :) Thanks for all the pictures that were sent to me, of Ryan and his Graduation! Amber and the kids and getting all wet. ITs super fun to see pictures! Anyways yeah so our mission president has a few goals that we are working on. One is to have 20 meaningful gospel conversations every day. Let me tell you that is hard sometimes. Our first week together was good. We got it 7 days in a row. but this week has been harder for some reason. First off the beginning was super cool and windy so we thought that people just avoided going outside. but then it got hot and hard to get people just to talk to us for 1 min.  So it was super hard. Then yesterday we hardly had anytime to go contacting. But in one hour we got 23 contacts!!!! like crazy fast if only it could be that fast during the day. but it was super funny because there is this super old lady from Argentina, and she got used to sisters in this area so every time we go over she wants to hug us and give her a kiss..... yeah we are trying to figure out how to explain to this 80-90 year old lady that we can’t do that... but anyways we only go over there once a week so it’s not too big of a problem. But right after the Skype we went to *** baptism. It was super fun to see all those elders. and to see him and his step that he took. but here’s the fun part. I just assumed that it would be held at the Inglewood stake center. but we got there at 15 min before and no one was there.... so we called them up and then they told us that it was at the JV building up by USC.... so we quickly got on the freeway and got over there. Got there a few min late but not too bad. So he was super excited to see me. and here’s a funny story.... a couple of days ago I tripped and fell during our morning run. No big deal right other than my knee was super tender that day. Then on Sunday. the building was different than anywhere else I’ve been. and we were quickly walking through the chapel and I thought I knew where the last pew was. and it was dark.... and as I was walking at a pretty quick pace. I straight up nailed the last pew... and it hurt.... bad. I could hardly walk. and that same knee got hit super hard on the corner of the pew. So now 2 accidents on the same knee. bad luck I know.... 

 

But other than that nothing much is new.  Last Sunday we found a super cool investigator while street contacting/contacting formers. We gave her a book of Mormon then left. then as we were walking away. My comp had the impression to go back and teach her. So we did and she was more than willing. We stopped by later this week and she had been reading the book of Mormon! Super cool and she told us to come by later this week. She’s super awesome, and is really prepared by the lord.  Also we have found a few other people who said to come by. It’s great to see the blessings of contacting. Before in my mission I really haven’t done much of contacting. Now it’s not too bad and we keep finding people. Sometimes that’s all people need is for a missionary to come to them and contact them. Anyways I love you all and hope you have a great week! Happy Birthday to Jared! and All OF the Tryon Family (since half of them had their B-day last weekend) and Keep me in your thoughts and prayers! I know that this is Lords work and that this really is his gospel. I know it, I love it. Keep up the good work!

 

Love,

Elder Hollingshead

 

** at his baptism

 

p.s. So that is ***! at his baptism yesterday! Then the rest of the pictures are from our morning jog! Disfruta!

Our Morning Jog Views

HELLOOOOOO!!!!!

 

Hey everyone! This week has been long! Very long and very tiring seeing that the last 3 weeks have been extremely slow with Elder Tramel.  Anyways this area is AWESOME. I still miss my last area a ton, but this area is great.  There is a ton of work surprisingly. So basically the area is huge and covers the entire Palos Verdes Mountain. We live the furthest south in the mission, we touch the border of the mission on all sides but the north, and yeah San Pedro is not a very super nice place. If you want to look it up. We live at 37th and Pacific. Basically 4 streets away from the ocean. Yeah. Oh and on the other side of that is all the docks and LA harbor. It’s huge but not actually in the mission. Anyways. Surprisingly it’s been super hot here. Like even hot for all the people down here in Pedro. It’s been right at 93 degrees all week. But that's where we work. Where we live is almost 5 degrees or more cooler all the time. But it’s nice to wake up every morning and take a run to see the ocean and Catalina Island.  Anyways. San Pedro is a little crazy. Even though it’s not anything like Inglewood area. Everyone here is either a drunk, or druggy. The women on the street are very manly and everyone rides skateboards. We saw a mom with like 3 kids riding a long board around town the other day and it’s just weird. Overall the people here are nice, lots of crazies, but lots of nice people. I feel like there is a lot more Spanish speakers here in this area compared to my last, I have used my Spanish alot more. 

 

Well my Comp is cool. pretty quiet when it comes to just talking about life, but when it comes to work he’s by far my hardest working companion. He has run me to the ground a few times earlier this week because I really hadn't worked that hard in a while. He’s a great teacher and has helped me out in alot of ways. Sometimes I feel like I’m at day one again because I feel so new at everything. He was the Assistant to the president for 8 months and only has 2 months left on his mission. So more than likely I will probably stay here for a while. The area has a lot of investigators. More than I have had in a long time. We have mostly worked with ***. They are a couple who are friends with a recent convert named ***. She has been doing her missionary work well. Also we have another investigator named ** who is friends with **. ** is basically ready to be baptized. ** and ** are super golden and have been progressing really fast. She needs to get a divorce before she gets married which will slow this process down for a while, but overall they are awesome investigators. We are working with lots of youth actually. 4 of our investigators are teenagers like me. It’s been fun working with them and for me to actually see how they have changed. There is a big problem in this area with youth drinking and smoking pot. and these people are just trying to be good and stay out of trouble. It’s great to see that. Anyways. Almost 3/4 of the branch lives in our area, and Elder Pollard really doesn't do much with them. He prefers working with Investigators, so we hardly visit any members. like other than dinner appts, we have not visited a single member. I guess that's weird for me because that has been a big focus in my areas in the past, we have tried to work on Less actives.  But anyways part of it is that before E' Pollard got here the area was a mess and none of the Area books have been updated for a while. Our map for where members lived is super outdated and is pretty useless so we kind-of have to start from scratch for that. Overall I’m enjoying this area a lot. Our branch president is a super young white guy who served his mission in Guatemala. He’s super animated and loves his calling and does great with it. The Branch could soon be a ward I think, we just need to bring back some members and keep growing the area. The building we meet in is tiny, only the branch meets there and it was pretty full on Sunday. 

 

Well I hope you all have a great week.  Thanks again for all your support. It’s been a blessing to know that I know that there are a lot of friends and family that are supporting me every step of the way. When a day goes bad, and things get rough I just think of you and it gives me the refocus I need to keep going. I love you all and Hope all goes well for you. I pray for you always and am thankful for all your prayers in my behalf. 

 

Love 

Elder Hollingshead

 

Pictures!!

 My new area and b-day celebration