HP!

Hey!

 

Wow, this week has been Crazy!!!! I've been so busy. And it's just so fun! so this area is almost exactly like my first area. In fact they areas are kitty corner. The NE corner of my first area is Slauson and the 110, my SW corner is Slauson and 110. So lots of Hispanics, lots of Spanish, and just as ghetto as before, BUT I LOVE It. My comp is so cool, we work well together and we keep it up, and still there are so many people to visit. But yeah. Where do I begin......

oh btw, thanks for all the pictures of the cabin! wow does that bring memories, and I really miss all those monsoons, there is nothing here. ITs just humid, and somewhat hot, in comparison to Arizona. Our apartment is Tiny. its brand new, and is like dead center to my area.   oh yeah our area is from Slauson to Washington, the 110 to central, its not too big at all. And there is lots of members and investigators. the only thing is that we live the furthest away from church. but its not as bad as Inglewood. that was a 45 min ride, this is about 30 or less.

Anyways. so investigators, the cool thing about it is that most of them are families. that we are teaching.

*** family. been investigating for a while. come to church consistently, but not married. they have everything they need to get married, they just have to do it. supposedly there have been some recent relationship problems, so that is on hold but we still visit and work with them. He works a lot, she stays at home, and then they have 2 girls a 10 year old and a 7 year old.

**** family- been taught for about 3 weeks. Love the book of Mormon, haven't come to church, YET! hoping to set a baptismal date this week with them. she has already read up to 2 nep 10 or so. and loves it all :)

*** & family- she is super cool, we taught the restoration this week. She is super interested not for sure about the rest of the family. She has lots of questions and is not one of those Latin ladies who says they understand, when they really don't.  She asks lots of questions but overall loves the message.
Then we have a few other investigators that we visit once a week or so, and are just cool.

Less actives are all over the place. from Tuesday to Saturday we got 19 less active lessons,  Wow, never gotten that number ever! so there are a lot and I cant remember half of them. (is that bad) There area a couple of recent converts in that number, but mostly less actives. There are so many fun families in this area, so we have lots of fun! its sometimes really hard to keep lessons to about an hour, because everybody LOVES the Missionaries.

Well, The cabin trip looked fun! that's cool that you saw the deer and then made all those catapults, and marshmallow war. Oh am I going to miss those trips! That's nice that the neighbors let you borrow their cabin for the weekend. That probably made things a lot less crowded. 

This week  has been great. My personal study has been reading the book of Mormon while Christ visits the Americas. Its super cool. there is a lot more things I'm learning each time I read the book of Mormon. This will be the 4th time during the mission that I've read the book of Mormon. And it just gets better and better every Time. Then for 10 min or so each personal study, I like to study a topic.  today was grace, and there are a lot of scriptures that talk about this amazing word. I cant remember any off the top of my head, but there are a lot of them that really apply to me and to everyone! I just love how scriptures can talk directly too you.  I Know that They are true, that every word that the prophets spoke is true, I love The book of Mormon, I hope you read it everyday!

Have a great week Everyone!

Love,

Elder Hollingshead

Transfers.....?

Well Hello everyone.

well first off, transfers...... sadly, im leaving. This is a bummer for me, i know this area is slow sometimes and that the work can get really hard, but I really liked this ward, everyone loves and adores the missionaries (sometimes too much jaja) but I just felt happy in this ward.  Ive moved more people in 4 weeks than in my whole mission. we moved 2 more people this week. But as much as i don't want to leave. Where im going is supposedly an AMAZING Area. Mini mexico basically. Its up in Huntington park, or spanishville. and It has lots of members and lots of work. Elder low who is leaving this week served in that area for a long time! My companion is going to be Elder Boyd, from Gilbert AZ,  and hes super awesome, and was my zone leader for a long time in Inglewood. Anyways. it was a long week at the beginning, but it ended up pretty good. Sunday was just weird feelings. Anyways. Wednesday we helped someone move. the Ortiz family, they were unfortunately not ready, so most of the time we were just standing there until they told us to move something, then we would move it quickly and then wait for a while. Thursday was nothing exciting, we just did a lot of street contacting. Friday we had a lesson with **. She is a super crazy lady from el salvador who's mind runs about 90 miles and hour so we cant finish answering one question before she cuts us off and asks another in a completely opposite direction. Shes super nice, and always asks us if we have eaten. When we stopped by Thursday night to set an appointment up for the next day, she asked us if we had eaten, we said yes ( but we really hadnt) then after she was like oh, well i was going to offer some pupusas but i guess you already ate. After we walked away me and elder cranney look at each other and were like "Why did we say yes... we just got offered some Amazing food"..... oh well, the ramen that night was good..... so we had a lesson with her, and it went alright she had lots of questions about the plan of salvation so we shared that instead, but we really need to teach the restoration so that she understands that we are guided by revelation, not just what the bible says. She went to church one time like 5 years ago, and of course it was a fast and testimony meeting and she was a little weird ed out and thought that we worshiped Jose smith and the book of Mormon. Yeah so getting her to church will be a miracle. Then we also met with the *** family (less active recent converts of about 1 1/2 years) they are super cool, but just don't have the motivation to come to church. BUT, they came to church! and the pioneer day activity on Saturday! so super awesome! she really loves the church, and loves the book of Mormon, her 2 teenage sons like us as missionaries, but kind of could care less about coming to church, but they looked like they enjoyed it at the church.  

 

Oh yeah so fun thing this week was that elder cranney's bike broke, like completely, its still ride able but the whole sprocket and gear is completely fallen apart. so it just takes a lot of energy to go anywhere. so we rode around a lot of Thursday grabbing the bike then fixing the tires and the fixing my tires (that popped the night before) then going back to work in the area. anyways it has just been a long interesting week. Last night was just weird for me.  we went to the departing missionary fireside, and it kind of hit me hard, that This is My Mission, That I've been out for 11 months, Almost all of my companions will be leaving in the next 3 months and that I was going to miss a lot of people. It really sunk in how much i love being out here, how this has become my home. I'm sad when my friends leave, just as all of you were when i left, but Lots of good things were said at the fireside, One coming from my last comp. Elder pollard, who I love and look up to a ton! He said That he received a letter from his dad at  the beginning of his mission that said  "Dare To Be Great" That hit hard to me. There are a lot of things that I struggle with, lots of ways I can improve, and That hit me, and I asked my self AM i being Great, Am I being the missionary that people look up to.  Am I a missionary That Really Has the missionary purpose infused in everything I do? I did a lot of thinking, and The only thing that kept coming o my mind is Just DO IT! BE Great, Let go of any pride and BE The best missionary out there. All the people i have looked up to for the longest time are now going home, Now its my time to shine, to take the lead and Be and example to all those new young missionaries like me! I have done a lot of personal study on Christ, how it is that he can help us. How we can fully use his Atonement in our lives to be better.  And the thing that i have learned is that It doesn't matter how much we feel like we cant measure up.  Even if improvement is little or we fall a little, he still loves us unconditionally, and will strengthen us even more and Help up even more, IF  we turn our will over to his, and turn our lives to his! I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for all your letters and love and support.  I love you all, I Hope you all Enjoy the cabin this weekend! 

 

Love,

Elder Hollingshead

 

Hola!

 

Hola!

 

well this week was pretty good. nothing too much big happened, other than splits that was a crazy day! First things first is that Lucy and Abraham moved out of the zone.... sad day, but we got contact with them and we sent their info too the other zone leaders and they are starting to teach them! so we are sad but happy. She was actually pretty sad when we told them we couldn't teach them anymore. but supposedly the other missionaries are awesome and very nice and she liked them. but yeah Tuesday we went on splits.... first off was that they started later in the day because Elder Low the district leader had a training on going home (he goes home next week) and so we met the right after that, and lets just say i think that's when if finally hit him that hes going home.... he was shooken pretty bad and forgot to switch the keys and gate unlock-er..... So we had no way to get into the apartment. we had a busy night and left to give and emergency blessing to the ward mission leader's friend who has cancer.... that was sad but after when we got back to the apartment we had to break in... meaning hop the side fence then walk in the alley, then climb a fence jump over and land on the landing of the 2nd story... yeah super fun. it took us about 5 min of looking, scratching our heads and figuring out how to get over the fence without being caught.... something i will probably never do again in my life! that's the fun thing that elder low told me was that whenever i have a bad day and everything goes wrong, he tells me to think "when will i ever be doing this again" and then laugh about it! so that makes everything seem better.

 

Other than that nothing special has gone on this week. We did find a less active who is super cool and wants to come back.  her name is *** (super hard Latina name) She is from el salvador and went less active like 9 years ago then came here and has had little to no contact with the church. Anyways, she is recently split up with her husband, and she has a 9 month year old baby. she wants to come back, but because she is a single mom she works Sunday, but she really wants to come back. So that was a miracle.  actually she really found us. we were just walking down the street and she was looking at us, then last second before we turned the corner she said "hablan espanol?" (translation, do you speak spanish) we said yes and then she started talking to us and we set a time to be back and she was there.

So yeah that was cool. 

A sad thing this week was that we still haven't had contact with the *** family for over 2 weeks now. we don't know whats up with them.... its sad but there's just nothing we can do... I just hope i don't get transferred because that would be horrible, I really want to stay in this area even though its slow someday it just a really good area!

 

Well I love you all! I miss you but im glad to be on  a mission! you learn so much, but sometimes its soooo hard, but we learn to endure, to work and to shake off fears. even though im not perfect at anything, progress is progress no matter how small or insignificant progress is, it is still progress and will make everything better. I hope you all Have a great hot week in Arizona or where ever you are at!

 

Love 

Elder Hollingshead

 

Hollywood!

 

 

 

Well Hello Everyone!

 

This week has been alright. other than its been hot, ok well 90 is not too hot, but its been humid.... I don't like humidity. I sweat a whole lot more here than back in mesa. but owell everyone else is complaining too so I'm not the only one. Anyways. Monday we did make it too the Hollywood sign. Basically it took almost an hour to find though. The main trail everyone takes is closed, and has been for a good while. But there was someone there that had a map to get to the other side and hike in. But.... that led us no where and if we could have hiked it would have take 2 hours at least. so we sat there with confused looks at the map and saw another road that leads up there that actually was pretty close to the sign, so it was our only hope, we took it and we found a trail. It was hot, but surprisingly I didn't get sun burned at all. The smog was super bad as usual so we could barely see downtown. Anyways we made it pretty close to the sign. well as close as we could find. We spend like 20 min up there and took some fun pictures (see below) and then hiked back down and then took a 45 min drive through downtown to get back home. Lets just say We might have gotten home a little late. were supposed to be home by 6 but it was almost 7, but we went out and worked for the last 2 hours. Fun stuff. Then the rest of the week was pretty slow until the weekend. we only had 4 other lessons. No one was home at all. Plus it was a holiday weekend. So no one "had time" which meant they were all planning to go and get drunk.... launch fireworks and party it up.... Anyways. it was pretty boring week. Friday we had a training meeting and that only left us about 4 hours to work that day before we had to be in at 6.  so we just street contacted for those 4 hours and even then there were not that many people out. So we made it back in at 6 and then sat inside for a good hour or so. clean up a little bit. and then went outside, hopped on the roof of the parking garage  and watched LA BLOW UP! it was crazy how many fireworks were going off.  And the Getto-er the area was the more fireworks went off. so Torrance is nice so there was not much there. But Gardena and Compton and south LA were just blowing up. it was crazy. after about 30 min we could hardly see anything because the smoke haze was so bad.  

Saturday was Moving day. Our bishop was changing apartments. so we helped him for 2 hours in the morning but... Elder Cranney's dad came into town and he got permission to go eat lunch with him. so we went out to lunch. that was weird. I would advise my family to not do this.... anyways I cant think of a good reason why president would let that happen.... But that was quick then we went out and tried to visit a few other people. But no luck but we knew that Lucy and Abraham were moving too so we went over and helped them pack up some stuff for a good 2 hours. But we think there is some communication problems between Lucy and her husband because she still does not know where she is moving, she doesn't know why they are moving, her husband never showed up with the truck, and then we had to leave to another appointment. so we don't know what happened. We did read the Book of Mormon with them while we were at their house and they were actually reading! super cool. we read the story of the tree of life and tied that into their lives and she really like the story. then after that we went and had a lesson with Sergio Ortiz, kind of and eternigator. almost 5 years now. the only reason he cant/ hasn't gotten baptized is that he needs to get married and his girlfriend does not want too.. she supposedly is not interested but we have faith and part of my fast yesterday was to find a way to get them both together or that Sergio can find a way to get baptized. Anyways he's cool but needless to say. after that we were super tired and hungry and it was a very long day. so Sunday was alright again no one came to church, we called so many people the night before and still no one came, not even members. Owell.

 

It sounds like you all had a fun 4th of July.  It sounds like the cabin was super great! I miss the cabin so much, with the rain and the lightning and camping in a tent. oh fun times but it looks like you all had a great weekend though. A wet one for sure. I'm glad that everything seems to be going well. I just am thankful for all your prayers and for remembering me. Just remember that You are all in my prayers also. I've been learning a lot recently about the grace and love of god. It has been a great testimony builder to me to know that no matter what, God loves us, And that anything absolutely anything is possible through the atonement of God. It has Helped me through the roughest times in my mission. And I always remember that whenever I have a bad day, where it seems like we are failing or not measuring up, that if we look for just the smallest things, we realize that Gods hand is everywhere in even the most simple things. For example we ate lunch with a member yesterday who has been going through some hard times. 2 weeks ago when we last ate with her, we gave her a scripture to read. And I don't know why I picked that scripture, but I did, when we did our follow up on her reading yesterday she told us that this scripture that we gave her really helped her out. That she really could feel that It was speaking to her. That right there helped turn a somewhat hard day at first into a really good powerful day. I'm grateful I can be out here on the mission. I hope you all have a great week!

 

Love 

Elder Hollingshead

Buenos Dias!!!!

Buenos Dias!!!!

 

Well this week has been pretty good! Nothing really big happened. but we did  get to go to the temple! and splits, and had the ward activity. so you know nothing to crazy.

First off Happy Fourth of July!!!!!!! I know its technically still June but since my next letter wont be till the 8th happy 4th. Yours will probably be well spent up at the cabin.  mine will be well spent in our apartment! playing monopoly deal n'such.... But no big deal. well on Wednesday we went to the temple I'll send some pictures! it was great, but

I still saw the old one. its been almost a year now since I saw the new video.... but either way the spirit is still there and its really great. so yeah and then we had the ward activity on Thursday night. And someone did a goof on planning and either we didn't or the other group didn't reserve the building..... There was a Samoan family reunion going on..... yeah whoops but everything went pretty smoothly we worked it out so we used all the rooms and chapel and they used the cultural hall. So what we thought was going to be a failure of a activity actually turned out to be really good. lots of people came and the spirit really was there. I ended up singing a solo in the last room of a family's can be together forever. it was alright.  Then Friday we went on splits. they were alright. I left the area and went with elder Comeau (Como) hes and interesting elder, but it went good. he just likes to talk alot.... like ALOT. so I was kind of ready to get back to quiet elder Cranney. but  after splits we just had  normal day. our investigators are doing alright, we met with the Honduran family. la Familia Hernandez, they are super cool but we can hardly meet with them and they never come to church. so that's hard. I think. that will be every mission/missionary problem. no one wants to come to church or they already go to church and don't want to come to our church. Anyways Lucy and Abraham I guess are doing alright. I didn't actually meet with them. but Elder Cranney said that they  were doing pretty good and really liked the book of Mormon. But as investigators go there are not a ton of others.

 

Today is going to be fun! we are going to the Hollywood sign actually like right now as soon as we are done emailing we will leave and grab some lunch and drive a good 30 min trying to find how to get there... apparently there are no signs or directions.  but hopefully we will get there and have some good fun! This week should be good! hopefully we can set some baptismal dates with Lucy, Abraham and the Hernandez family Because they are all Awesome, its so fun teaching them. Also its been really fun the last few weeks with Elder Cranney. he is teaching me another form of you. In Spanish there is tu and usted. But in certain (very few ) countries they use something  call vos. Not vosotros which translates to you all informal. so now he talks to me in vos and sometimes I get it and then some times he asks me to translate something into vos form and  i get super lost.... but its a work in progress. The thing is is that we are supposed to use the usted form because it is the most formal.... so we will hardly use it and on top of that, vos is in very few countries (mostly central america) and unless you use it correctly it makes no sense. so its a work in progress. Also our apartment is kind-of sort-of infested with ants. ill lay down on the couch and 10 min later there will be a dozen ants just crawling all over me. so im slowly working on cleaning up our apartment and getting it better so hopefully the ants go away.... lets just say this apartment is a mess. I think I've gotten the kitchen and bathroom a lot better, now its the bedroom and study area.... mostly it just needs to have a good deep cleaning and I think it will get rid of some of the main problems. but yeah. Such is life in missionary apartments!

 

I hope everyone has a great week and a great 4th of July! It seems so weird to think about last years 4th of July trip with friends. A year goes by sooo fast! but its so great.  But thanks for all your love and support and for your letters and everything that you send me! I love it and a truly do feel your support and prayers. I hope everyone has a great week! Happy 4th!

 

Love
Elder Hollingshead

Well Hello everyone!

 

How is everyone doing? LA is going pretty good. our area is picking up pretty good right now and we are having a blast! anyways  first things first. Thanks mom and dad for the watch! its perfect! and also the scripture cases! they area awesome, just what I was looking for. It was good to finally receive some mail! but yeah this week we still continued to find more and more people. But the best is Lucy and Abraham. They are super cool. Abraham is 14 and Lucy is his mom. She says she's married, but I haven't ever seen the husband and she says he's super Christian.  we taught them on Friday with our ward mission leader and he was awesome.  they seemed to understand the lesson and want to come to church. At the end of the lesson we invited them to the ward activity that we were going to have the next day at a local park.  So we arranged a ride and they came!!!! but they didn't come to church, but we will work on that next week! but yeah so the ward activity was great. we were there for about 3 hours. it was a fathers day activity and so we had a carne asada, and played futbol. So a couple of things i learned here. 1, I love futbol! its so fun. 2, I hate playing sports in missionary clothes.... i.e. super hot, uncomfortable, not move-able..... 3, LA is humid, and is getting hot. 4, chile de arbol is super spicy, like really spicy.  so yeah the activity was great we played for a good hour and a half of futbol. and it was just super fun. I'm still miserably horrible, but I got some things down. 

 

The Honduran family is slow but good. the only time they are all in the house is Sundays, but that is the day to do all the clean up. so we couldn't teach all the family and only taught the mom, Elsy, she is super awesome!  we didn't hardly have to teach anything. we would just talk for a little bit, then have her read and then she would just teach it back to us! WOW never had that happen before, especially to a latino. anyways, it was super fun! after we taught her, we helped the family out for like 45 min move some things around the house. and so we got a little dirty but that's ok its not like we have 10 other shirts just like it at home. those are the 2 families we are working on. it just seems like no one was home this week. we could hardly find anyone to visit on Thursday. all of our plans and backups fell through and it just gets frustrating and for my comp tiring. He has been super tired lately. but owell we work through it. This week we are having another missionary activity at the ward. we are doing a plan of salvation plane crash.... seems a little weird to me, but hopefully it comes out smoothly 

 

 But it sounds like you all have been busy. The flagstaff trip looked like fun! oh to be able to go back and stay there in flag! Anyways the kids looked like they had lots of fun! lots of running and games! And then grandmas bathroom looks amazing! like wow, you went all out for here bathroom. I hope she enjoys it!. When are you all going to go to our cabin again. You need it enjoy it while you can! at least to get out of the heat.... Well Anyways. I hope you all have a great week! You are in my prayers frequently and I hope all is going well. I'm so glad I'm out here on a mission and serving and working to help others find joy! I love it. Its not just a job we do everyday, its the work of salvation, and its a privilege to serve everyday! I love you all and Have a great week.

 

Love

Elder Hollingshead

 

ps. pictures from last transfer. yeah Elder Pollard is super tall, and then the family, are recent converts in the Cabrillo branch. hope you enjoy. Ill be taking a bunch of pictures from now on, I promised myself that so I will try to send a couple every week!

 

Torrance?

Well Hello everyone! 

 

This week has been pretty good! To start off, My companion. Elder Cranney. He is super cool. He actually had his birthday this week, so we got lunch from and investigator :) Anyways, He super cool. Hes from utah, la fabrica, and he has been out almost 18 months. He actually served a little over a year of his mission in Honduras! hes got super great spanish, and knows that culture super well. He came back because he got a few parasites, one of which started eating his muscles and doing weird things to his heart. So he stayed home a few months and then came out to LA to finish his mission.  Hes super cool and is willing to help me out alot on my Spanish.  yay! But yeah this week has been alright! We found 7 new investigators! and a family! super cool right. this area has been slow, pretty slow and hardly any work. most the people int he ward just know it as the slow area for missionary work and so its hard to find people to come out with us. But overall its cool. The area is big! it takes almost 40 min biking to get from one side to the other. And thats the only 2 Spanish pockets. The area itself is super nice. Parts of it remind me a lot of mesa, but then the more ghetto parts are like normal LA. And you are right its only like a mile and a half south of my first area. but the area is good and its seems to be picking up real good right now!  

I still dont know many names, but we have patricia and her family and they are investigating she is the closest to getting a baptismal date, also we have a few other former's that we found! Edwin is a super cool guy (bought us lunch) and loves missionaries. i think he could be baptized pretty quickly here, he remembers everything and came to church faithfully for a while. hes on disability because he had 2 strokes and cant walk really well right now. then we found a Honduran family yesterday who seem really cool and they connected with My comp really quick because he served there right where they used to live! They came to the states only 2 years ago, so still not very american, which is good! Anyways. We have a lesson set up with them tonight. Also we have a few less active families that we are trying to reactive. Some of them are super close but just never come to church. anyways im still trying to figure out names of people. other than that this area is pretty cool. The apartment is a mess, i spent a lot of my free time trying to clean up. and its getting there slowly. There is a big ant problem here in our aprtment and they other day i went to pull some gym shorts out of the dirty clothes and all of my clothes were covered in ants..... so i grabbed the most covered parts and spred them  out on the ground. then next morning all the ants were gone.... so i dont know why they went for my clothes but they were gone so i cant complain. 

 

So this week, the world cup started for soccer! and Futbol is everything to latinos... so we constantly get updates on who wins and so when we talk to people we can ask them where they are from and then, bring up soccer. its pretty funny how intense they get about the sport. so its going to be a great month trying to contact people and actually teach people. because the soccer games are always on in peoples houses!  Anything else, i dont think so. other than that my comp has lots of stories about honduras. Its supposedly the #1 most dangerous place in the world, and so he has some scetch stories. He got robbed 2 times and lots of other crazy things happen to him. the government is supposedly non functional and there is no such thing as police. The UN is there but they havent done much.... But its fun to hear stories of his mission. 

 

Anyways. It sounds like dad has been super busy between trying to finish grandmas house, and his new calling. Fun stuff. I still miss that sometimes doing projects with dad! You taught me alot!!! but it sounds like you all are going to have a fun trip to Flagstaff. I'm jeolous... i wish i could just leave the city for a while and go where its a little more peaceful, but nope LA Mission is more important right now, Its been great to hear from everyone, and to hear everyone is doing great. and no i didnt get the package. Mail just gets slower and slower around here. but it should be here next week. And thanks for ordering those scripture cases. And one more thing, i know you just sent a package, but my mind is slow and i forget things. So i honestly dont carry much stuff with me anymore, and i was wondering if you could send me my little bag i got from mountain man a couple of years ago. the little one i used to carry my scriptures in. I should be in one of those boxes i left with my stuff in them. Honestly i dont know if it would work or not, but i think its worth a try! since you just sent me a package, dont worry, you can wait until the next one to send it.

 

Anyways I love you all. Im thankful for all your support! I hope everything goes well for you this week. I have been studying the Conference talks from april, since i just got a hold of a copy. And there area  lot of talks that I really liked. One of my favorites was Elder Bednars, and elder Hollands about being a disciple and having to go through difficulties. I hope you have all had the chance to read them through again, because i have learned alot of things from reading them.

Have a great week everyone!

 

Love, 

 

Elder Hollingshead