well catch you later.

well I was going to write a longer letter today, but..... aparently there was some sort of national case that just got closed and its causing some civil unrest and we just mandated to go home before 1. so we don't have much time.

*** got baptized! she is absolutely awesome. It was a great service and she bore her testimony at the end and it was super powerful. then the hno *** and the kids got the priesthood on sunday! they are doing awesome. it was just great to see the progress a lot this week. what else that's important. its Thanksgiving on Thursday! soundslike we will have 2 meals with members, lunch and dinner. and then Sandra is awesome! she took us out to eat 2 times this last week. so we had panda, and in and out... it was so good. and then. she told us that on Wednesday she is going to give a big dinner of what ever we want.... so we shall see what me and elder earl decide. then....this week. we had an activity for the ward. it was alright. lets just say, singing is not a strength in latino wards.... I played the piano and it turn out better than I thought but.. they really struggled with it all. So yeah. not much other updates. thanks for all your love and support.

 

Love

Elder Hollingshead

Sooooooo.... turns out. we can still come out and finish our p day stuff, but we have to be in by 4. so yeah, we should be good now.

 

Well this week was pretty good! lots of good things happening. the church is going to put out a new video about Christmas and so we will have a special zone conference this Friday to talk about it and all the cool things its going to do. The rumor is that the church  bought you-tube for a day, and also time square in New York and it will be a big advertisement for this new video. So it should bring a lot of new things! Its been pretty busy around here in this area. We had a ward missionary activity and it was a little play and I was the piano player, so we had 2 practices that took way too much time out of our area, me and elder earl were pretty frustrated, but asi es. we had an awesome week with *** because she got baptized! She is so awesome, we had the interview Wednesday and she was super ready, and then also she gave us good food! she's is by far the most ready person I've seen for the gospel. From the day we contacted her and her baptism, it was 5 weeks. And she kept the same baptismal date the whole time! if only missionary work is always like that. Her baptism went perfectly and smoothly. she was super happy all week. 2 of her daughters came and watched, the baptism. and then she bore her testimony at the end and it was super powerful! Then yeah, the *** family is doing well, and they dad and sons all got the priesthood on Sunday and they are staying strong and faithful. Hna. was going through some hard times at the beginning of the week and so we stopped by and watched mountains to climb and she was just crying and crying and we talked about continuing to the end and working and never regretting our faith. It was super awesome and she is going strong again.

 

A lot of our other investigators we had a hard time planning and meeting with them. they are doing good, it was just we did not have a good schedule to work with so things were just not following through. But it was overall a good week. Lots of good things are happening :) we are busy and tired so that means were getting work done right? We got a new elder in the district and he's a convert of about 1 year and a half! he's cool, but he seems to have a hard time adjusting to the new rules, but he'll work it out, he's got lots of energy and excitement for missionary work. 

 

ITs weird to think thanksgiving is already here! its been super quick this month. and now, its going to be Christmas in no time! now its getting super cold. and our heater is still not on. we cut the gas, so nothing can go wrong with CO poisoning but its still cold.  and then this morning we got up and we have no hot water..... needless to say I was freezing cold this morning. so we are calling it in, but no one answers the phone, this apartment is nice but hard to work with people.... So I hope as we come to Thanksgiving this week we can remember all the Our Heavenly Father has given to us! everyday I

'm amazed at the blessings we receive and its just a testimony builder to me of how much he loves us so he blesses us every time we Obey with exactness. (D&C 130:20-21) So just remember to always give thanks for the things we have and for what he has blessed us with. I love you All!!!!!!! Have a great Week, and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Love

Elder Hollingshead

 

*** at her Baptism

 

Week of Miracles!

Well,

WOW this week has been Amazing! lots of cool things happened with our investigators. they are all super cool! Where to begin.... well first things first the *** family is doing great. they go confirmed and are progressing very well. sometime this week we will have dinner with them and they will be bringing some friends to share the gospel with. They are reading and we watched the Joseph Smith: prophet of the restoration video. and they loved it and want to go do baptisms at the temple too. Then we met with *** 2 times, and taught most of the commandments. and everything is going good with them. She loves everything we teach and will change just about anything to make sure she's living it right. she read like 20+ chapters in the book of Mormon and every time we teach she just testifies to us that it is the truth. I love her so much. She will be baptized in a few weeks for sure. as soon as she moves out. Then also. We took ** and ** to the visitor center.  it was amazing!  ** is super awesome and loves to learn and she realized she has not put her part in, she committed to read everyday and also they came to church! It is super cool. They have progressed so much in the last little bit. ** on the other hand is not so open, but I see it coming, he is very quite and he finally said he would read and pray and then he came to church and I know between those 2 times he has felt the spirit somewhere! they are not married so that will be a problem but we will work with that in a little bit. We met with the *** family. They are super good. she read, and liked it, just had a few questions on timing and who these people are. so we reinforced reading and praying and they also committed to come to church next Sunday so that will be great for them. it was a super good lesson and it got topped off with some good "pan con pollo" dinner after. it was amazing.  Then, yeah we did find 5 new investigators, that is something we have been struggling with. So we found a super cool family, they are super cool and he really liked the restoration lesson. We have hopes for them. and then, we found this older couple who are very catholic, but very open to listen, they like to learn, and are more than willing to try it. out, so our plan of action is get them to church, and slam them with the spirit and get them baptized.... lot easier in words than in action, but something to that effect.

 

We got to go to the temple this week, it was pretty good. finally got to see the new version, it was fun and then it was a lovely 2 hour bus ride home. it was a night mere, I hate taking the bus. we got stuck in traffic on the way there, and we had to run as fast as we could to make it to the 9:15 session. thank goodness for a nice bus driver who made an extra stop right in front of the temple. If not we would have been like 10 min later because the stop was pretty far.  and me and elder earl both realized that we need to go running more. we both got winded when we ran up that hill. I think its the super humid air here in LA, its just thick and hard to breath in. anyways.  we got to talk to some people from Spain on the way back home. they were on vacation, and it was fun to listen to their accent. it was not that big. only they speak so much slower and clearly and have a lisp. then we did exchanges right after that. it was a very busy and quick day. Elder barker is awesome! he so fun to talk to. He actually wants me to go to byu and room with him after! so its an option, that's if I get into BYU.  owell. that still 9 months away to worry about.

 

so yesterday at a members house elder earl looked up a video to share. and its called  Missionary work and the atonement. Its clips of 2 talks by President Eyring and Elder Holland. Super good. It talks about how missionary's complain how hard it is sometimes to be a missionary work, and the whole talk talks about how It will never be easy nor was it made to be easy. He does a great example of how, it was never easy for Jesus Christ when he was on the earth, So how can we expect that it will be easy for us in these days. It was super powerful. I love listening to talks, its so much powerful when you hear it from them not just reading. Anyways I hope all is well for you all this week. with wedding planning, and you have a fun veterans day. and Just a great Week!

 

I love you all!

Elder Hollingshead

 

Baptisms !



The *** Family Baptism

Well, this week has been pretty good. The *** family did get baptized finally! it was awesome yesterday. Super good to have that happen. I will say for some reason some of my stress went away after the baptism.  it was good to see how happy the family was. Ivan (dad) is usually pretty straight faced with not much emotion. But he was happy and smiling after the baptism. He's so cool! I love this family so much. But now its the temple for them!  So it was a good day yesterday. I will say it has been super cold. It finally dropped in temperature. it rained Friday night and Saturday morning, then it just stayed cold and windy the next 3 days. our apartment is not insulated, and our heater does not work.... the pilot lite turns on, but then after like 5 min, it goes out and doesn't cut the gas so then the apartment smells like gas, not good. so we just try to sleep as warm as possible with blankets and jackets. I think it was like 60 in our apartment this morning. anyways. it finally rained. that is a first in probably about 6 months. if you ever thought Arizona was bad, come to Sothern California. Its worse. But now its cooler so I'm happy :) Oh and Wednesday  we went to the Visitor center with **! she is super awesome, it was super powerful. one of the rooms here is the testimonies of the apostles today. we watched the one with Elder Christofferson. It was super powerful and It talks about how he received his own testimony. and then relates it with the restoration. it was super cool. and she loved the temple, she said she works close by to the temple and she might stop by and walk around when she can. I love **, she is so willing and ready to do it. Except she didn't come to church. she said she would but she never showed up. But we talked about the law of chastity and baptism on Saturday. she has to move out because there are single men living there, but she is willing and asked us what else she has to do to get baptized. anyways. she's golden and willing to change anything. she testified to us like 6 times at the visitor center how true this is, and how god had prepared her to receive this message. Other than that nothing much has changed, oh wait. so familia *** is not good. Sounds like they are going to split up and he's going to move to riverside... sad day, but he said he will get baptized asap and that he wants his wife and girls to get baptized asap too. I  just think that they don't want to get married, well at least she doesn't. they have big problems and we have no idea what to do to help them. but other than that nothing new.

 

So this week was Zone Conferences. It was one of my favorite zone conferences. President ands Sister Weidman went to a conference for mission presidents. he says they are just awesome. And  he always pulls quotes and things to do differently.  Last years was about deep faith and high expectations, this year was how the sprit adds power to our calling. he started out with some things from Elder Bednar. "if we always do what we have always done, then we will always get what we have always gotten" or a really cool way to say, in order to progress in everything and grow we have to do things differently, and change and be better, so we can get bigger and better blessings and miracles. so we talked a lot about how we can have the sprit more in our lives. and earlier this week I went on exchanges with Elder Maughan. he was in the MTC with me, he's super cool. and he showed me something that I think I'm going to try. its called the 40 day fast. Obviously we cannot fast for 40 days, we would die, but we do a normal fast and then make a list of things that impede our ability to feel the spirit and its guidance,  then and commit to the lord you will abstain from all these things for 40 days. and then plead and pray for help everyday to do it. and then you change and you can feel the sprit even more. So I think I'm going to give it a try sometime soon. So I learned a lot. between the exchanges and zone conference. then we had a lovely 4 hour planning for Halloween night when we stayed. it was about to die! we had been at zone conference for 6 hours then outside for 2 and then back inside for 4..... not enough time outside for me.

 

Well I love you all! Even though times seem hard some days. You all seem happy! in all the pictures. Jarom looks so excited and that whole family does. I'm glad it was a good week, I love you all so much. this is a scripture that I read this morning. and I really like it. it's something we all know but its alma 46:12 "And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In‍ memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole." this is why we do what we do as missionaries. We are fighting everyday against the world or "satan" to help people find that hope and peace and love in families that does not exist in the world now. and when I saw the familia *** get baptized I just realized how much that is true, that for them, and for all of us, we will be fighting the rest of our lives to defend the truth.

 

I love you all so much :)

Have a great week.

 

Elder Hollingshead

 

This is the *** family! super cool!

and that is a sunset I have not seen in over a year. I swear they just don't exist.... but apparently they do, only when it rains... which is never.