Week of Miracles!!!!!

Well this week has been pretty good.! sorry rephrase that It has been AMAZING!!!!!! you would not believe all the awesome things that happened this last weekend. Where to begin.... Well the *** family is going to be baptized this next weekend. that is, if all goes right this week. but I have no doubt it will. I'm actually very excited for them, I've seen them change so much and I really know that all they are missing to be closer and better is the restored gospel. Its so true that the gospel changes lives. I know it. Also we met with The *** family! so this lesson was kind of a do or die lesson. we were both nervous about it, we both wanted them to start to progress, but they just haven't. so we laid down what we want, what they want, and what they need to do. The lesson actually was going in the wrong direction, we were kind of out of things to say, they started to argue a little bit (** and ***) and then it got quiet. for about 30 seconds. we just kind of sat there and they he looked at us and asked "what goals?"  so from there it was him, we told him what he needed to do, and then we started talking about how he can do it. First off was to get a marriage license. we set a date for the 31st of this month. Also we talked about Tabaco. we didn't get too much goals set, but he did agree to work on it. And they took us to church the next day and they stayed for all 3 hours.... so we are excited but, its going to be a while. But we also had a super awesome lesson with Sandra Sanchez. we brought the other familia ** in our ward. The lesson was sooooooooo powerful. we talked about the plan and focused the last 2/3rds of the lesson on the atonement. We just testified of the power and ability the atonement has in our lives. it was awesome we finished the lesson off with "because of him" the Easter video from the church and they we talked about the visitor center and we will be going this week sometime with her. She also came to church! it was amazing! I love her so much, And she reads lots every time. she read 6 chapters. not even the members do that! That's why I know this is something she wants.

 

We met with ***, she is doing good, just busy so she hadn't read the book of Mormon, so that was sad, but we read and stressed the importance of reading and also church. So it was good, but she doesn't feel ready for her date in  a month. then, we also found an awesome new family. I cant remember their last name, but its *** and *** and their 4 kids. They are super prepared. they both hate the catholic church, and want to find truth. we taught the book of Mormon and they all accepted it immediately. they believed it should be true without even reading it. so that was good, he actually contacted us on the street and we had a very long conversation about the second coming and the signs that are passing, but we told him that we believe we have the true church and a prophet and he was interested and so we passed by. we were afraid he was going to pull us on tangents the whole time, but he didn't and when he did It was actually something important and needed to be addressed. So yeah that all happened from Friday to last night. Super good end to a slow beginning  of a week. so yeah.

 

Thanks for all your love and support. I really feel your love for me out here. I hope you all have a great week! stay strong, keep up the great week. I hope everything goes well with Wayne and Ruth this week and their family. I'm so gald to hear that she is doing much better and I hope it continues to go well.

 

Love

Elder Hollingshead

Dear Brother and Sister Hollingshead,

 

Elder Zerin Douglas Hollingshead has been called to be a District Leader in the California Los Angeles Mission.  This assignment has come to him because he has exhibited high qualities of leadership, demonstrated his obedience, and gained the trust of his fellow missionaries.  In this leadership position, he will be an example of conduct, appearance, and performance to his fellow missionaries.

 

As a District Leader, Elder Hollingshead will supervise the activities of between 4 to 8 Missionaries in his district.  His responsibilities will include demonstrating and teaching missionary skills and attributes to each member of his district.  One of his most important responsibilities will be to interview candidates for baptism to determine their worthiness for this most significant ordinance.

 

Sister Weidman joins me in extending to you our sincere appreciation for your fine son. We realize that your example, training and love have contributed in large measure to his success as a missionary.

 Sincerely yours,

President David N. Weidman

California Los Angeles Mission

Hola Todos!

Hola Todos!

 

Well this week has been BUSY!!!!! First off, transfers are this week and......IM STAYING!!!!! and my comp is staying also! So that was good to hear, because I really like him, he’s super cool. but the new big news is that I’m District leader here now...... that one took me by surprise. but I guess it’s what the lord wants, because that’s how transfers are done. Anyways so this last weekend was great. Lots of good things happened. Well first off, we got 2 new baptismal dates. and these people are awesome. One of them was a self referral. It’s an amazing story. It’s weird this area has its good weeks and then a bad one, then some even better weeks then a slow one, but every time we have a good week there are just miracles after miracles. and just like another missionary said not too long ago here. A miracle is a direct consequence of obedience to the laws of GOD. and its sooooo true! anyways so ***. She is super awesome. So she was diving down the road and saw two missionaries and stopped in the middle of the road and then gave them her info and told them she wanted to be taught. So we got the info that night and passed by then next night. It was great! She is extremely prepared and the funny thing is that same day we had training in zone training meeting about setting baptismal dates. So that afternoon we set a baptismal date with Her! She is so awesome. Every single question she had, the restoration had the answer. As my comp said as she started talking. She was really"screaming the restoration" which was true. We stopped by the next day and she was thinking about the message and she said she was thinking and feeling peace she hadn't felt in years. Also we got a new investigator a week or so ago. We also set a baptismal date with her. She is super humble and loving and really wants the best. She really likes to learn and always smiles when we are there! Her name is ***. Then we taught *** and *** then area also awesome. We shared half of the plan of salvation and then focused on families after. She was super excited and loved the fact that we lived with god before. she was like "wow this makes so much more sense, it makes me feel so much more important" she loves it and the more we visit them the more they want to meet with us and learn. Again they are humble. and all the cool people we teach are humble. It is something I have learned here on the mission the importance of being humble. Now I will not say I’m perfect at it. but I do know its role and importance in the gospel. The *** family is doing good. They are super ready we finished teaching the commandments and they took everything just fine. They actually asked about tithing and then we explained it. They are so fun and then they invited us for dinner on Saturday so we had a great fun carne asada this last weekend. but we had to push the date to the 26, so that is sad but I’m 99.99% sure they will get baptized and then also that the whole family will be ready by that time. The kids are super cool. and the youngest will turn 8 on the 26th so hopefully she will be baptized too. So yeah. Everything will go good with them. 

 

so yeah. It was weird, my trainer is leaving the mission also elder tramel and elder roberts who was my day one companion. It’s so weird, but I guess that’s always what happens in the mission always new ones coming in and old ones going out. but anyways. I hope everything is going well with you all. I hope you all have a great week. Time passes fast, that’s all I know, Next thing we know it will be Christmas but yeah. I love you all I hope you all count your blessings and really see all the miracles that happen in your lives because there are always some, maybe not big nor life changing but Small little acts that let you all know that God is there and He loves us all, and has a specific plan for us all. I hope you all Have a great and wonderful Blessed week!

 

Love 

Elder Hollingshead.

what a week!

Hello everyone

 

well this week was very interesting. needless to say, I think the weekend was great and hard.  Conference was great! I love conference! There were lots of talks that were really special and helpful to me. In fact my whole personal study today was reading notes and making goals and 1 hour was not enough time. but anyways things were good.

 

to start off this week was hard. it was hot again, so a little tiring. we started off doing splits on Tuesday so I was not in the area for the whole day, but the day with Elder Mansell was fun. Its so weird to me to be on splits with your old companion who is now your district leader.... anyway we had a fun time. Wednesday we went and saw the rest of the meet the Mormons movie. It was really really good. the movie got better and better as it went on. the last part was extremely powerful. so I encourage you to see it when you all have time. after the movie we went and visited **, and he is doing alright I guess, defiantly not progressing, and he's going to Utah for 10 days for a hunting trip.... so not much of him for a while now. we also saw ***, and they seemed really interested again so we were pretty excited, but after our second visit the next day they seemed turned away for some reason. we watched the restoration video with them on Thursday. and it was super powerful but they just don't understand what we teach, they still don't understand the book of Mormon and we have talked about it so many times.... its frustration, so we will keep trying them, but if they don't start progressing soon, they will have to be dropped.  quien mas..... oh we also taught Lilia and Pablo 2 times this week, 2 days in a row. they really got interested after we taught them the book of Mormon, and even though they didn't read the entire chapter, she understands a lot! he does a little, but he is more than willing to let us pass by and teach about God. the Hernandez family are doing great, we are going to start teaching the kids this week, and then they should be baptized by the end of the month. its weird but he has changed 100% its crazy, I don't even understand, other than he has felt the spirit and knows its true. for the first month and a half, he was just kind of there and didn't really care, he listened but put forth no effort. but now  when we asked him if he was ready for his baptismal date (the 12th) he said he would get baptized but he wanted to come to church one more week. so it will probably be the 19th but hopefully we get the 2 older teenagers to join in and listed too. I'm so happy for them, every lesson is amazing because they love learning! but overall its been good this week.

 

Just keep us all in your prayers, especially for my family right now! The work of the lord will continue, and that's a fact! I love conference and there were many talks that we very needed for me. I loved Elder Christofferson. and also both of President Uchtdorf. They both inspired me in many ways. I hope we all take the time to study conference and learn more of what it means to sustain and listen to a prophet. I Love you all! Keep it up, and keep up the prayers, because I KNOW THAT PRAYERS WORK! Have a great week Everyone!

 

Love

Elder Hollingshead

 

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