Hello Everyone!

 

Well this week has been Great! So when I got to this area in October, it was really dead, the only investigator was **** but now we have so many investigators. ITS AWESOME! And this last week it was so hard to plan and meet with all of our investigators. But Of course, as soon as it’s a golden area, I get transferred. Yep I’m leaving this area....  :( Super sad, but not going too far. I will be whitewashing an area in this ward, in the same district! So as my comp says, I’m fake white washing. So yeah I will be going there with some other elder I don't know and my companion will be Training in this area again! He’s not excited at all. Before the call last night, I was 90% sure he was leaving and I was staying. But the complete opposite. So as my companion says, he was called to the mission of Inglewood 2nd, not LA. After this transfer he has been in the ward for just about a year. It’s crazy. So basically I packed everything up last night except my clothes. and yeah ready to go tomorrow morning. I’m super sad but, I will still be in the same ward and district. What else happened this week.... oh only a completely new bishopric. Yeah so the new bishop, is the son of a previous bishop, who was in another ward and was asked to come back to the Spanish ward to be bishop. I don't understand, because there are a few people in this ward that are fully capable. But I’m not Stake president so I have no say. Then, Bro. Martinez is first Counselor, and then someone else I don't really know is 2nd. So yeah the bishop and first counselor are only 29, and both of their wives had their baby this week. So let’s just say it was a hectic week for them.

Other than that, *** and *** came to church! We did not expect it at all, in our last lesson we invited them and they said they would come... sometime. The only thing is that their 2 year old, is a little crazy and they had a hard time keeping him occupied and quiet during sacrament, but we explain that there is nursery for the rest of church, and he was great for the rest of the time. We met with *** finally and she is fine, but still she hasn't come to church. but she still has lots of potential. We met with *** and she has lots of questions and some of which we really don't know how to answer.  Basically we had lunch with her and then, taught the restoration and the book of Mormon and then she just asked more questions for an hour. owell. Other than that, nothing much new has happened, just crazy busy. We have had lots of new changes with the English class. Now it’s on Thursday night not Saturday, but Tuesday we had soo many people come to class. It was full! Like Packed!!!! Super exciting. 

 So fasting works, and the church is true! So we had our fast for rain, and literally at 5-6 it started pouring and it rained for most of the night last night. Thankfully we were at a baptism and Ivan was giving us a ride so he just gave us rides the rest of the night. But it was good to have rain. I hope it goes your way and you get some too in AZ. So I have seen so many miracles here in LA and I hope to continue to see miracles. I hope my new area will be great. I know this area has struggled a little bit in the past. But Elder Cisneros said before he goes home he wanted to change this area and make it better than it was. And he did that, even though it’s not a perfect area, there are now investigators in the area and it has lots of potential. So I have Deep Faith that we will do great there. Oh and also I heard, ( not for sure) that my new companion has been out for a year or so, but... he requested to be junior comp his whole mission, so I might be the senior comp, or well just both be juniors. Either way it’s weird to think I’ve been out for almost 6 months now. Time Fly's when in the service of the Lord.

I love you all and keep you in my prayers all the time. Keep up the good work with missionary work and taking people to the temple. That is something that I wish I could have here, a Temple open house, but there is a visitor center so it’s good enough. Have a great week!

 

Love Elder Hollingshead

 

ps. so that’s me and Ivan, and then the group is Ivan, elder Cisneros (scarf) and elder Wilson.

Hello Everybody!

Well this week has been pretty good. We found 2 new families this weekend, and they are awesome and have a ton of potential. One stopped us on the street and told us they wanted to feed us, so we set a time, but had no idea who they were. We then found their number in the phone under former investigator, and they are awesome and have had lots of contact with the church. They have 4 kids and then the dad has 2 others. The other family is awesome too. The Husband does not have a ton of interest, for right now. She has lots of question and knows a lot about the bible, but not in a bashing way, she just doesn’t understand it. We found, not really, this family by a text. Someone from somewhere sent the Information, from another mission to ours and it finally got to the right place. We called them up because it said "some of the family are members, the others are interested, want a blessing". We called and set a time up later that night, and they wanted a blessing on their home. So we get there finally (gave wrong street) and we find out the family situation. One couple is Very Active, and very strong in the church, they were visiting and the wife is a member, and they were at her sister’s house.  Basically we talked for a long time, and then the Active Brother, gave a blessing for the house, and then came an hour and a half discussion about religion. This is a super prepared family.

Other than that nothing much new has happened. We thought we might get Ipads on Friday. Salt lake was here and they called an emergency meeting with all leadership. So I stayed with another elder and we went and tried to contact our referrals. but no iPad, just a basic meeting. owell. The Zone Leaders changed English class, from Tuesdays and Saturday to Tuesdays and Thursdays. We weren’t very happy because they just took another night, which is the best time to contact people. Very hard because Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday are already taken now. Owell we will make things work out.

Well I know this email is short, but we have ran out of time. The library is under computer updating, so we had to come to the Church building again. I Love you all, and I love this gospel. I'm so glad I’m here on a mission in LA. I'm grateful for my challenges and lessons I’m learning here. I hope you are all doing well.

I love you and pray for you each day. Stay strong and Be Happy! :)

Love,

Elder Hollingshead

Referrals!

Hola!

 

Well this week has been pretty good. Lots of weird things happened. But super cool things. But be glad you’re getting this email. ITs MLK day and all libraries are closed today... so we asked Zone leaders what to do. they said talk to The AP's asked them and they told us to go to an Internet café or something... the nearest one is On Hawthorne and Lennox, basically on the other side of the zone, and it cost 5 or 6 bucks and hour... we almost weren't going to do email because of the pain it would be. but they told us we could go to the church building and use the clerk’s office computers. So yeah it’s a blessing. So let’s see... Wednesday we were walking down the street and all the sudden some white guy from across the street started yelling "Elders...Elders come over here." so we thought he was going to ask for some money but no... He’s a member, but he has been using drugs for many years and he is in rehab right now. He wanted a blessing so we gave him a blessing right there on the side of the road. It was super crazy but I could tell that even though it was loud and hard at this time, he could feel the spirit. We gave him a book of Mormon and the address of the ward building. so I hope he comes back. We went and visited ***. He’s doing well, but on the weekends he’s super board. He doesn't work for 2 almost 3 days and he usually works at night so he has absolutely nothing to do other than church and stuff. So usually when we go we spend a lot of time just talking and visiting because he has no visitors and really no one to visit.

We had interviews with president and they were good. No I do not need to get a side bag. He gave us some things to work on and one was shoe shinning. Apparently some missionaries never do it. I usually do it every other week but now I’m trying to do it every other day or so. President says he shines his shoes every day, I’m not sure I really believe it. We weren't able to visit ***... she said she was going to call Thursday, but she forgot and we forgot to call her so... nothing happened.  but we did visit *** (not the Recent convert) He and his buddy are super prepared. Although Marcos might be a member already, he said he was baptized when he was young. Anyways they are ready and we will teach them tomorrow, we had a long visit last night as lesson 0 how to begin teaching. Saturday night we went and visited ***. It has been 2 weeks and we were afraid she was not interested anymore. But no she is still interested, she and everyone who lives there was super sick and that's why we couldn't meet with her. She should be coming to the FHE tonight. Other than that it was a normal week, lots of LA English ads, lots of contacting, LOTS of referrals, we got 6 yesterday and that's not including the others we have received throughout the week. Its crazy hard to keep up with them.

Yesterday was a little different. It was stake conference, but it was State conference, or at least Southern CA. it was good but super short, it ended 25 mins early. But it was good, it was weird being there listening in English, and with a bunch of white people. But The Stake center was packed full of people, which is good.

Thanks for the package, yep I got my tire fixed and it works great now. I have brakes and it coasts a little better so all is good. Thanks for the CD's there were 2 duplicates of cds you already sent me so I just gave it to my companion. Sounds like you have been busy working at Grandmas house. Sometimes I do miss doing all the odd jobs around the house and fixing things. Has it been Warm in Mesa? It’s been almost 80 if not warmer some days here. And since Southern California is in a drought right now, there is going to be a special Fast for February for rain. Reminds me of the time we did that and the next week it rain... A Lot. Transfers are the first week of February, and I’m pretty sure and also my companion that he’s leaving. Any ways President hinted at that during his interview.

 I hope all is going well and Remember that I pray for you every day! I’m Glad Ryan passed his test! Keep up the good work and Have a Great week.

 Love

Elder Hollingshead

Hola!

Pues.... Elder Marin was sick for the first half of the week. So that made things really hard, but he is back all better now! It has just been a long week, but a fun week. So Elders Egbert and Williams had a baptism last week, and he got confirmed this week. Also from the same area, they had another baptism this week, and so since I’m basically the only piano player in the ward, I get to go to all of the baptisms. So yeah that’s always fun. Also yesterday before the baptism, we ate a La Familia Martinez, he made ribs, and they were good, but Dad I do have to say, you make some pretty dang good ribs. Owell, Tuesday we contacted a referral, she is super awesome! her best friend from Mexico was a member and got sealed and within a few years after she got married, her friend died and she has had no contact with the church ever since. She used to go to all the activities and youth conferences. She is awesome, the only problem is that she says the only time she is available is Mondays in the morning. First of all that’s during studies, and second it’s p-day and we usually don’t finish everything till 3or so. But she canceled this morning so we will try to call and explain our situation and try to meet another day.

Wednesday we visited a few less actives, but it was slow because elder Marin just did not feel good at all. Owell. Thursday we got a lot of advertising in for LAE, basically the Zone leaders and President said advertise or LAE goes away. And it’s true after the Holidays everything picked up a little, but the last Saturday was a little pathetic. casi ninguna persona came! owell. Friday we had Zone training, and there are a few new rules. So apparently like 1 or 2 weeks before I left home they changed some rules for Elders Dress and Grooming. my packet said dark colors and suits. now it can be any conservative color, including tan and light grey. but that really doesn’t apply. but they also changed a worldwide mission rule. NO backpacks. nada... only shoulder/side bags.  they want us to carry as little as possible. We have Interviews with President on Wednesday so I’ll ask him what I should do, because shoulder bags are probably the worst I could do to my back. I’m not trying to be rebellious ( like my companion who does not like this rule at all) but at the same time I don’t want to mess my back up and be in pain so.... we’ll see. President also wants us to de junk our apartments. Good idea I think because there is a lot of things in our apartment. so that’s what I’ll be doing today.  I went on splits with The Zone leaders. Elder Haro came here in our area with me. It was good we met with **and *** and taught the restoration, and also *** and *** about the book of Mormon. So we have some good investigators now. Hopefully we can meet with them and teach them more. I learned a lot and In the PPI with Elder Haro, he helped me set some goals, personal and companion, and so that was good. he says since the last time he went on splits with me a month ago, my Spanish has improved. that made me feel a little better, but even then I have noticed that my Spanish has improved. I understand about the same amount, but I can speak what I want to say a little easier.

 

But yeah. Thanks for sending that stuff, I’ll be getting it this Friday, hopefully. Oh and yeah Saturday night as we were visiting the ***’s, our bikes were right outside the door and all the sudden one of my tires, completely deflated. the nozzle basically tore off and then as it started to deflate my patch failed and it just let all the air out. thankfully we had an extra tube from the broken bike, so we asked if they could take us to the apartment real quick and pick up the tube.

 Well, I missed all the tree pruning... Sounds fun! yeah, people ask me how big my house and yard is and everything and then I start listing the # of trees we have and they are just amazed. mostly because I have a yard that fits all this... California is expensive that’s all I’m going to say. and there’s no such thing around here as a yard. if you have a big enough lot, there’s an apartment or 2 in the back that people rent out. Owell, I don’t plan on living here after my mission anyways, as of right now at least. Oh and so the ***, recent converts that couldn’t have kids, gave elder marin a birthday present, and they also gave me a ukulele. He asked me what else do I play and I said ukulele. He asked what it was, and then said. I’m going to get you one. ... and that’s exactly what he did. Let’s just say he has no kids, so all the missionaries, the 12 of us in the ward are his kids and he spoils us all.

Thanks again for all your prayers. I hope everything is going alright for all of you. I pray for you all the time. I know this is the Lords work, and it is moving forward faster than ever. I hope you have all made some good new year’s goals and I hope that you all especially read the book of Mormon. I love you all!

 

Elder Hollingshead

pics... my ukulele, and *** riding a mini bike... I think he’s 15 at heart.



The Ukulele Bro. *** gave me!

Bro. *** is 15 at heart!

The New Year

Hello Everybody!

 Well this week not much has really gone on. In fact the end of this week was a little boring for me. Elder Marin and I went on splits, so I went to another area as usual, and they apparently had some spaghetti, and both of them had the runs all night, so my companion has been pretty beat up by this and it hasn’t gotten better. We still go out and stuff, but we stay longer at places and also we have come in a little earlier each night so he can sleep. So I’ve just gone along for the ride and just read more ensign's or write in my journal. Let’s just say it has been an interesting few days. Yesterday we went to 2 baptisms, one in our district, and another for someone else in our ward. I was the piano player and that was the reason we went. So that was really all we did Sunday was go to the baptisms and have lunch at like 3 at a members house. Backtracking to Tuesday.

Tuesday we gave some service to a member, then we tried to go find a few other people, but nada... so we put a few LAE adds and then went back to that members house to have a little New year’s./my companions Birthday celebration.  Yeah it was his birthday and we spent it playing games in our apartment because Mission President wanted us in our places by 6 pm. Yeah so nothing really happened. Wednesday the same kind of happened, LAE advertising all early afternoon, then visited a less active Nelson who just got here from El Salvador. He super chill and cool just comes up with excuses for not going to church with his mom. Owell we went and got dinner somewhere I don’t remember then my companion had to do an interview, so we went to the ward building and that took the rest of the night basically, because we couldn’t leave the sisters there with their investigator as they planned the baptism. Thursday we met with *** and talked about fasting, because he had lots of questions about it and how long and when to start. Still haven’t been able to meet with **. His family is a little frustrating and we think they don’t want us coming. We found him New Year’s, but they were having a little celebration so teaching was not an option. and then he didn’t come to church, so I have a feeling that it’s going to be a struggle to teach him. We also had dinner with Familia ***. It was good, but I was stuffed. Then we went to ***s house and tried to teach half of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went horrible. Her brother, and boyfriend were just bickering about everything and they did not understand what repentance really is. Of course that is kind of their problem because they never let us teach about it. It went way to long and we just tried to leave, but then she insisted that we eat with them, so we had yet again a second dinner. I ate a lot that day.

On that note, yeah I have gained some weight. But all the members still try to make me eat more and more. Friday we went on splits and Elder Cisneros is Soooo trunky. But he is still working and getting things done, but all he talked about was "in a month I will be doing ...." Owell you gotta love him. 

But it sounds like you have been busy. New Year’s sounds fun, better than ours. We played 4 games of pokemon, cause my companion wanted to teach me how to play, and I won all of them. Then some members did a drop off, dinner run. and it was American food! Actually it was kind of weird since I haven’t eaten a potato in a while. But now the New Year is here and it’s weird to think that its 2014 already! Time flies. I hope everyone is doing great back home. I’m glad I’m here in LA even through all the weird things I’ve gone through. I don’t know if you have read the new ensign yet, but I really enjoyed the first article by the first presidency When to plant a tree. It’s really made me think on some goals that I want to have this year for myself. And I hope all of you will make some good meaningful goals this New Year.  I love you all and Hope you have a great week!

 

Feliz Ano

Elder Hollingshead

Ps. let me add a few more things on the list. A spoke wrench. (The small round thing to true a rim.) and my efy cds 2010 and 11 ( courage and believe), and also Jon schmit cd. As of right now I think I’m good. but I need the wrench quickly, my accident did actually put my tire out of trueness and so I have no front brake. There is no Walmart in our zone, and target does not have one.

Thanks, I love you!

Happy New Year

Hello Everyone!

Well this week has been pretty good. A little tired. But well. Yeah so Tuesday we had an appointment with that one lady. It was super bad. The spirit was not there at all not even 1%, frustrating and the guy was just frustrating in general. He presented his church like a business plan. Clipboard with paper. Along with a little bible. and grrrr. I know the bible is not perfect but the longer I’ve been out here the more frustrated I get with different bibles. Every translation is different and they all word things differently. Well. Basically this other church believes the sacrament is the Passover and is only done once a year. They don’t celebrate holidays, and oh they believe Jesus Christ came again already in 1940 or so. We asked if we could start our conversation with a prayer and they straight up said no,

Because we don’t believe in 2nd coming Christ and so forth, and they they started doing their prayer. Super weird and the spirit literally left and it just made it hard. Owell. Also the same day we got cussed out by some dude on the street. He started calling us devils and cussing and basically spiting at us and they he started threatening us so we just left. I hate that street, for many reasons now. owell. Wednesday we did our studies and they went to Mario’s and I made my call. I felt bad, my companion called and no one picked up so for 2 hours he just sat there. But right after that we went to Isabel Morales and taught the law of chastity. It went well. She said that her mom left her dad because he didn’t want to get married, and she said she might have to do the same thing. So that gave us hope, because noel does not want to get married at all. After that appointment my companion called again and got to talk to his family for a while. It was just a trade off.

Thursday was alright. My companion had a Leadership meeting that we had to go to. It was alright, president has a lot of new rules that I think are good. As my companion said, he’s glad our district has no problems with these rules. After we went to find Marcos but he was not available, but we ended up talking to his neighbor for a while and his name is William. He came to our church before and really liked it and his aunt is a member who is coming back. He wants to get baptized and also his cousins are interested too. It was a great find and I hope they will start to progress. He came to church, but left before we could talk to him.  Friday was splits. So I went to another area. It was good, did a lot of riding. Let’s just say one of the companions is leaving this transfer and the other is a follower, so they don’t do much I think. Then that night there was a call and Elder fiddler, the Elder I was on splits with, and he was being emergency transferred the next day at 10 am. So he stayed up till 12:30 or so packing up. It was a long night. Then because the zone leaders had to drive that companionship up to the office, they were short teachers for English class. So we taught the intermediate class. I was super confused cause I had no idea what was going on. Then after we got back from class. We had to walk 2 miles to meet up with other elders to get a bike. Yeah my companion's bike's chain completely broke. and the bike died. Now he has a super awesome bike so we get around a little quicker.

Other than that nothing much new has happened. I was super happy to be able to Skype with you. It was a great day. I loved to hear your voices, and see you. Thanks for all that you do for me. For your prayers and love. I know that this is the Lords work and no matter what happens I Know that it is for a purpose. I Love each and everyone of you  and pray for you all the time. I hope you all had an amazing Christmas! and have a happy new year. I’m assuming that president will sent a message about a curfew that night. Thanks for all your letters and cards that you sent me. It was a great time to read and hear about each of you.

Have a happy new year.

 Love

Elder Hollingshead.

Merry Christmas!

Well Skype should be a go. The member said they should be able to hook me up with a camera and computer. I honestly don’t know when we’re calling. Probably around 12 here. Remember the time difference.  I guess I’ll call you first or shoot you a text or something saying I’m ready. I’m excited to see everyone and talk to you. 

 Well first things first. Yes *** got baptized! It was an awesome service even though we were not very prepared. Our Ward mission leader is supposedly the one who goes before hand and turns the water on. He told absolutely no one that he was not going. We were running a little late because we forgot something at the apartment. When we got there like 5 min before it was supposed to start the font was just barley to the 1st step. and it was supposed to be at the 4th. Oh and we heard that it takes close to 2 hours to fill. Let’s just say there were many miracles. The Zone leaders weren’t coming, but they had the clothes. Thankfully there was a Tongan bishop who had a bunch of plus sizes that we could use.  But over all the service went well. It was his birthday the exact same day also, and he was just super happy. His face was beaming when he got out of the font and came back into the room. Sunday was good. *** came to church. She is progressing really well and is very prepared. Her guy friend she’s living with ( yeah, they’re not married) is a little hard headed. He loves meeting with us and talking with us. does not see the need to change. He smokes and has no desire to quit. and that’s not the only one he has problems with. The word of wisdom lesson went awesome and a goal that Isabel made even before we met with her is that she wanted to celebrate the holidays Alcohol free. She is more than willing to give up coffee and follow the word of wisdom. This Thursday is the law of chastity. Let’s hope it goes alright.

 And then randomly a lady stopped us on our bike and started talking to us and we planned a little bible study and since she does not celebrate holidays we doing it Christmas eve. yeah... she’s interesting. She insists that the Sabbath day is on Saturday, and that holidays should not be celebrated because they are of "Men". It sounds like a very interesting religion. So we are going to study and then share the restoration. Thank goodness it’s in English not Spanish.

 Sunday is also played for the choir in our ward. The program went well, and from my point of view, the guys sang a whole lot better than the women. Kind of the opposite of all other things. Oh and we had a mission Christmas devotional on Saturday with president. It was good. long we left at 7:15 or so to take the bus, and got back at 4 yeah. owell. Just a very simple read aloud sing along part then lunch. I honestly don’t know why it took so long. And I was expecting mail. I got the package not last Friday but the Friday before that. I told the ZLs to drop it off and they never did and I’m still waiting for it now. They are dropping off all the mail tonight finally. I’m excited.

That’s really all that’s happening around here in LA. I Hope everything is alright back at home. Enjoy Christmas Eve’s eve. I have learned that Hispanic and American traditions are very different. For them any holiday is an excuse to party and play loud music. For them the holiday is Christmas Eve. That’s when they party all day and night till midnight and then open presents then. Christmas day is just a day off. Basically. I’m the weird white kid who does everything the opposite. And my companion is Hispanic so for some reason he thought we called on Christmas Eve and I had to tell him that it was Christmas day. It’s super weird. I’ll get used to it. So yeah it will be Wednesday when I’ll see you.

I love you all and hope you all have a very merry Christmas. Enjoy breakfast at grandmas and having all the Christmas traditions. See you Wednesday!

 Love,

Elder Hollingshead

Making Tortillas