FUN In south central

Well this week has been busy. We have just been packed everyday! Its been hard to get our 20 convs. everyday. anyways.... so where to start. well we got another 8 new investigators. yeah ALOT.... its hard to keep track of all of them and plan lessons for all of them and then try to visit them 2 times a week. while still visiting less active members and dinner appointments and meetings..... lets just say I've been absolutely exhausted this weekend. on top of that we had to go to Santa Monica for an emergency zone conference to see MEET THE MORMONS. it was good....well the 20 min we saw.  it had problems because we were streaming and halfway through windows basically crashed and after that it just wouldn't load fast enough.... so supposedly we will watch it all before it comes out on the 10th. but what we saw it was good. It's really just a  documentary on like 6 families and how they live the faith. Anyways we had to take the bus, and it was a forever long bus ride out there, but o well. so yeah we got lots of new investigators, it's crazy how much. It just surprises me how much people are ready to hear the gospel here. There are so many people ready. its fun! our first new investigators is *** and his mom. He and his family went to Utah and went to the Ogden open house and then his info got sent from the temple square VC, so he's super cool. he wants to learn more, one of his neighbors is super cool, and she is a member and so she comes over all the time and visits them. then here's the fun story of the week and a awesome miracle. so Monday night we get a call from a random number, so I answer and its a member that lives outside the mission.... how they got our number I don't know. BUT it doesn't matter. so this guy named *** was referred. So his dad became a member of the church after ** came to the states. so he has his family and ** dad recently came up from the states to visit his family here in LA. but halfway through his vacation he got super sick and died suddenly..... This happened last Friday. so *** didn't know what to do for a church service so he told his buddy and his buddy referred him to us. so we went over and talked about the situation with ***. SUPER AWESOME FAMILY! I love them. so his dad was super faithful and had his temple recommend with him. so we briefly talked about the church and then talked about the plan of salvation. They love the lesson and right after we were going to go try and visit a couple of less actives, but no they made us food and wanted us to stay. need less to say we had 2 dinners that night and 3 new investigators with his family. ***'s oldest son just came from El Salvador 9 months ago, so he loves talking to us in Spanish and is just a super cool kid. they told us we could stop by on Sunday, but it ended up his brother came from El Salvador to pick his dad up so they could have his funeral down there. so we couldn't pass by, but they are super awesome! I love them so much.

 

So yeah we got some other new investigators. one named ***! She is super cool also. she just found out that her brother has cancer, so she is making an emergency trip to Mexico in 2 weeks to see him. so we taught her the plan of salvation and she loved it. we asked her some ?s and she told us that she had never thought of life like that and that she really like this plan that god has for us. So she  should be super good and teach able. she doesn't know anything about the bible.  Then also yesterday we got ***. hes a cold guy. An alcoholic, can't read, and super humble. he wants to change, he knows he has a problem so he wants to change, in fact he told us we can come any day to help him overcome his addiction. I think there will be some groups in the church for those recovering alcoholics so hopefully he can get there. But, honestly this area has a miracle everyday. We work hard, and because of that I think that is why there have been so many awesome things happening. and just like Ammon said in I think alma 24:17  I'm only boasting of my God. because it is the only reason behind it. HE is everything and my testimony has grown so much in him. I was commenting to my companion the other day, that the more I've learned and the more I've studied, the more I've realized how perfect Christ's church is. And that I know without a doubt that what I teach everyday and have taught for the last year is true! so Keep studying. You would not believe how hard it is to get people to read just 5 min everyday. So study it everyday, and if you do you can receive and answer. We were teaching the *** family. and I asked ** if he had read and he said no. so I told him that is why he dosnt know if it is true. but I've seen a huge change in him recently and like hna corona said "they are super prepared and will be baptized someday" its true they are super awesome. I love them so much. It so interesting, but as I have been out here, I learn to love people so quickly and its so weird how as soon as people say no or say don't come by anymore, I feel a weight and I feel sad, because I know that if they actually keep going they can know if it is true and receive the most happiness ever! anyways That is all! I love you all! keep up your prayers and stuff! They truly do work.

 

Love

Elder Hollingshead

 

ps. so I forgot to tell you a few weeks ago, I got invited back for the baptism of ** and ***, from when I was with Elder Cranny! so yeah that is them in the picture.

**&*** Baptism

 

 

then that is my new comp and the temple it was a awesome trip. and then the poster, I found in another apartment, I thought I was pretty good. so enjoy!



Z & Elder Earl

 

Halfway through transfer ALREADY!

Halfway through transfer ALREADY!

yeah weird its been 3 weeks with Elder Earl. Its been a great week. some very slow days but a great week. So Everything been great though. Today is a little weird, I'm with 2 other elders (not my companions) whose companions all had to go to the mission office to take a driving test/interviews. and since there is not enough cars we had to do a 4 way split kind of thing... anyways so I'm just chilling out with these elders. its good time. So yeah the beginning of this week was pretty normal, Super hot, about 100 for 4 days straight, then its started to cool down. but its hot again today.  one of those super hot days we had nothing to do. so we literally walked for 3 hours during the afternoon. it was miserable, but we stopped and talked to these 2 ladies that were selling this stuff called respaldas( basically a slush with lots of syrup. and since it was super hot, I'd figure we'd buys some and chat with them for a little.  Then I went on exchanges and for some reason, I left the area and went with the zone leader. so Elder Earl said he would take care of everything. quite a task for a new missionary, who still doesn't know the area very well. anyways it was good, a super good learning experience for him. so that was fun, then Thursday we had a great lesson with *** family. they are super cool. we taught the plan of salvation and it was super great! SHE IS AWESOME! well the whole family but her especially. Then we set up a visitor center trip for Saturday and it HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!! even though that took a good 3 hours out of our day, it was probably the most useful successful hours. ** is her husbands name (and yes they are married :) he opened up a lot as we took the VC tour. the family part really hit him I think. because the family is super important for them both. The kids were all there and i think it kind of struck all their attention. then we talked a lot about the temple. and he had lots of ?s and we answered them and then at the end he asked "when can we go in?" I told him after his baptism and he seemed to understand the importance of baptism. IT was an amazing trip! they are defiantly going to be baptized and on top of that they came to church the next day. They only came for the first hour, but that was because their kids didn't eat breakfast, but she promised that they would all come the next week. so good stuff.

Also we visited ** 3 times this week! That's amazing, and one of them was with a member, it was super good, the member lives right behind him and is super willing to help out with anything for him, It was great, oh and funny thing, we found out that ** speaks fluent English... but it doesn't matter because he is trying to help us out with Spanish, :) I love him, he super cool, He hates this world, he cant wait to finish life so he can stop living in this" horrible world" those are his words, but overall he's super cool and loves to learn. But other than that our other investigators are just alright, Jesus is not progressing nor will he get married before this weekend, which means that his baptism will be after his hunting trip to Utah the first weekend of October. so hopefully he will progress after that, Elder Earl is super frustrated with him and wants to drop him, but I feel like hes ready, he just needs another spiritual boost to get him to do the final things. so we talked about going to the visitor center with him. he said it would be good, but after his trip. so everything should be good!

Well I love you all. I'm so thankful for all your prayers and support. I really do feel the power behind them. I know that miracles happen in this area because the Spirit of the lord is resting upon the people here in LA, and over the mission. We have seen so many miracles lately its so hard to tell them all. And its all because i think people realize that Jesus Christ is very important and people do really want to come closer to him. so yeah. I Love you all and keep up the great work!

Love,

Elder Hollingshead

Hace Calor!

Well Hello everyone!

 

This week was alright, it was a struggle, as my companion put in his journal also in mine on Saturday, "we made it through the day..." it was rough. but that's just part of missionary work. some weeks just never go as planned. my companion was having a rough time yesterday and was getting pretty frustrated why everything was not going right, But I Told him , that there will always be days and weeks sometimes that will just feel like a failure. But I told him that its through these hard times, my testimony Grew, in different ways, and that we need to stop, look around, see what we could do better and then do those things. Anyways it wasn't a horrible week, just this weekend was pretty bad. IT has been super hot. I think the last 3 days its been right at 100 degrees. Oh and humid. All you Arizonans were getting flooded as we were melting, like mom said, the signs of the times. So unlike Arizona when the peak of the heat, is late July-August. here its mid-September. so I still have to suffer for another 2 weeks till it cools down. But anyways its nothing to hard to work with. So yeah, This weekend was stake conference.... As a member, stake conference is good, its different and we hear from different leaders. But... as a missionary, its hard. so the stake center is in downy, about a 25 min drive, Oh and its on this dinky little street that you can hardly find. So we got no investigators there, we couldn't hardly find a ride from members to get us there. it was frustrating. The conference was good, the stake president and president Weidman both spoke and it was great, and all the missionaries were invited the night before for the adult session, to talk about gospel conversations. so that was differnet. so that took up our saterday night from 5 on. We watched a video presentation from Elder Bednar on the uses of social media and what the church is doing to get into these sites. Basically he gave us some outlines of why we sould share our faith and then how we should do it. Also he talked about the easter video that was produced earlier this year, then the new Meet the Mormons movie that will come out right after conference. Anyways. good stuff, not that it applies to me right now, but it will someday.

Our investigators, well the work was slow so we couldn't meet with a lot of them.  so  we should be getting better lessons this week. the *** family is progressing pretty good. We brought the relief society president and she was perfect, she is a recent convert. about a year ago. and she was a great testifier of all the things the gospel has done for her family. Anyways it was good. but other than that nothing much has happened with them. we basically dropped katy, she never talks to us, and if she does its to change or cancel an appointment. we will stop by one more time to see and then decied from there, but it looks to me we probably wont teach her anymore. Then ** we could never find at her house this week so that ist frustration. But You just have to keep going and things will work out. My comp is great. he and I get along great and we get a lot done. SO yeah that's great. Other than that I think that is it for this week. Its great! I love being a missionary, every moment, even though sometimes its hard. I love you all, you are all in my thoughts and prayers often, and thanks for all your prayers in my behalf.

Have a great week!

 

Love

Elder Hollingshead

 

Elder Hollingshead - New Trainer

Elder Hollingshead - New Trainer

 

8 September 2014

 

Dear Brother and Sister Hollingshead,

Elder Zerin Douglas Hollingshead has been appointed as a trainer in the California Los Angeles Mission.  No more important position exists than that of training a new missionary.  New missionaries need to be properly taught immediately upon entering the mission field.  Initial experiences truly influence the remainder of one’s mission.  Your son will teach by both precept and example the attributes and skills that his companion will need to become an effective representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I am confident that he will, with the help of the Lord, be very successful in his new calling.

 

Sister Weidman joins me in extending to you our sincere appreciation for having a son of such quality and our appreciation for having Elder Hollingshead in our mission.  We know he will receive your continued support in his missionary service.

 

Sincerely yours,

President David N. Weidman

California Los Angeles Mission

Week 1 training... = AWESOME

Week 1 training... = AWESOME

Well hello everyone!

SO this week has been crazy fun! lots of miracles and lots of crazy new things. SO yeah, My Trainee. His name is ELDER EARL. Hes cool. he grew up in Utah and then moved to virgina 4 years ago. Hes cool. hes 19 but just graduated from High school. Hes right in the middle of his family, and he told me today that hes actually really missing home right now.... so yeah.... Its hard but its a stage we all have to go through to progress. Anyways. yeah so Tuesday we got up early to get to artesia. We had a little training and then did a little planning for what we would do. Then we headed back up to our area with our new comp! Hes got super good Spanish for 6 weeks. well he did take 4 years in high school, and was in the intermediate class so yeah that's really good. he loves to talk to everyone in Spanish too. I told him to watch out for that, because los morenitos (blacks) don't like that at all, and on top of that, were in south central... not the safest place. Anyways life has been good here, lots of miracles and fun! So basically all the missionaries around us have greenies. Its great. We are literally the freshest zone! But yeah, so where do we begin. Well we met with ventura a couple of times this week. we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them. they liked it, we focused ont he need to get baptized. then we came back on saterday and taught them. well we read with them from 2 nep 31. again we focused on baptism and that gate we need to enter. we invited them to be baptized and they said yes!

 

Sorry about that, my finger accidently pressed tab and then it sent quickly.....

 anyways continuing. So we kindof sortof, put October 19th as a date for them. We will follow up this week on that. also we set a date for sure with the *** family. That was super good. and it was all by the spirit. that is something ive learned a lot on the mission is to create a lesson plan and then listen hard to the spirit, and it will tell you exactly what you need to say, invite, or teach. So we invited them, and they both said YES! it was awesome! I love it, Inviting people to be baptized is the best, then we set a date for the 12th of October. el hermano, he has a few doubts and the biggest is the book of Mormon. we will be taking them to the visitor center this Saturday so hopefully that will help him see the truth of the message. the problem with them is that they don't come to church, and on top of that, this week is stake conference, so it will be far to get people to church, its all the way in downy.... anyways that's another problem. We met with ** last night and talked about the book of Mormon. he really liked it, and told us he would read it. Luis loves science and so he talked a lot about how this answers the ?s over where the natives came from. he super smart. awesome guy. Then we got 2 new investigators, **+**. they are both super humble and love their family. Lots of cool things happened in the lesson. they were a street contact reffereal. they want to know how they can become a stronger family with god in the middle. so yeah super prepared, the only problem is that they work a lot and are hardly home to visit, so we just told them we would stop by and see how everything is going. Yeah.

 

So yeah now to street contacts. so our goal as a mission now is 20 contacts everyday. in our area theres a lot of people so its not super hard. we have found lots of cool potential. one of them it was this 30 or so year old woman, she had a daughter, and was waiting for the bus. as we were talking to her, she at first didn't not seem interested, but we mentioned living day prophets and she perked up and then as we talked a little more, she started to cry a little. I have no doubt she felt the spirit. she gladly gave us her info. we stopped by late last night, and she was busy, but she told us next sunday. as we looked in. I think she's a single mom of 3 kids. it just looked like things were hard. but she has lots of potential. then there was another we saw waiting for the bus (its always at the bus stops) she was a mom with 2 little kids. we started talking to her, and she really looked at us and then she started talking to us. She lives in north Hollywood (far away) and she is in drug rehab. she was supposed to be released this month, but they told her that, she needs to stay in another 4-5 months. she was super depressed, she took her last 8 hour pass, to spend time with her kids to go shopping with them. She was on her way back to Hollywood when we contacted her, she started balling right there. She told us she really wants to hear our message, life has been hard for her, but at this time she cannot receive any visits. we gave her a Mormon.org card and told her to look it up, and that when she can visit with us. to request missionaries. I just have a feeling that she will someday become a member and know the gospel in her life.

I just want to finish, by saying today, that I know that this is the true gospel. IT HAS POWER,  The lord is preparing people on the left and right of us to hear this message, I saw it multiple times this week. I love you all, I hope you have a great week. Keep up the great work and service

 

Love

Elder Hollingshead

transfers!

Sept. 1

Well this week has been great! more or less... alot of days were just alright but we ended with a good weekend.  It has just been nuts trying to keep up the 2 areas.  So now for the transfers...... drum roll...... I'M STAYING! YAY that’s what I was expecting. They split the areas and me and elder Mansell are training. Yeah yikes but it will be great times. There will be 3 new trainers just in Huntington Park ward. So that will be fun. I'm actually a little nervous to be training, sometimes I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing, but it will be a good learning experience. Lots of fun things will happen. So here's the not so secret part, earlier this transfer, when I had an interview with President, he told me I would be training this transfer, so it wasn't so unexpected. But anyways. That’s the news for today. But the rest of the week just went alright. but there are a couple of miracles that happened for sure.

So first off. We met with *** on Tuesday, and he told us he wills probably getting married in the next couple of weekends!!!! Yeah, that will be great. He says he wants to get married and have his wife and kids get baptized, and then a month or so, he will get baptized. He has a chewing tobacco problem, but he says that when he sees his family get baptized it will give him a little more strength to overcome his addiction. Anyways it was awesome to hear that. He really wants to change, this last year his relationship with his wife/girlfriend has been rough, he wants to change and become more of a family man. He’s awesome. Anyways. After that, nothing much exciting happened until Friday.
So we have an investigator named ***, he’s super cool. He owns a music store and is a professional singer.  He loves music, so we get along. Last week, he told us that he had a friend that wanted to visit with us. So this Friday we showed up and there was this lady name ***. She is super Awesome! She is super prepared, and really wants to come closer to God. So about 9 years ago she used to go to the Mormon Church on Jefferson and Vermont.  but she was a little confused about the book of Mormon, so she went to other churches. Now she still believes in god, but never really joined a church she felt was right. As of like a month ago, her x left her, she has 2 kids and she’s 3 months pregnant. She is super depressed and is really going through a hard time. Because Joshua is an awesome guy and loves helping people out, he gave her a job at his shop for the time being to help her out and get back on her feet. We started talking to her and she loved it, she loved the message of the restoration and she accepted a baptismal date for the 12th of October. The next day we stopped by to give her a book of Mormon and she almost started crying, she promised she would read it. She is so excited to learn and grow her strength again.  Anyways that is a miracle, because most of our investigators right now are kind of so and are not really progressing. She is a new miracle that we will work with a lot! 

 

Anyways it was good. I Love the gospel. Sunday I was asked to give a talk, on missionary work. So my first talk in Spanish for 10min.... yikes I was pretty nervous, but it ended up great I think. After that, we did a musical number, and Man do I miss singing. Since I’m the only one who plays the piano I never get to sing.  So it’s a bummer, but I get to play for the ward and at all the baptisms. So yeah, learning all those hymns was good. But oh I can’t wait until the cooler weather comes. I feel like I’m going to go back to AZ and melt. It gets to like 90 here and it feels so hot, anyways from what I’ve heard, it supposed to cool down after this week. and then stay cooler until we hit fall. Anyways until that point it’s enough to say that we melt in our apartment and that it’s just hot, and I go pee a lot, trying to stay hydrated. But this is defiantly the lord work! I love it, I’ve felt more joy and happiness here on the mission, because I get to see people make the change and to have Christ change them. And I know he can. There are a lot of weaknesses I have, and a lot of things that I need to work on, but I know that if I try my best that we can receive strength! I love you all! Thanks for all your prayers and support. 

 

Love

Elder Hollingshead