Baptism!

Baptism!

Sara after her baptism!

Well This week has been absolutely nuts! but Great, no worries at all. Yeah me and elder Mansell just said good bye to Elder Boyd who went to the office today and then will be in AZ tomorrow! Anyways! So we have just been super busy! and on top of that we just keep getting bike flats! it happened 2 times this week, and my back tire still keeps going flat on a daily basis. It’s annoying! but anyways. so Yeah as my subject line says Baptism! yeah so we had an unexpected baptism. So this lady named ***, has been investigating for a while, but she keeps backing out on her baptismal dates, and the 17th was her latest one. We called her on Tuesday to see if she could meet with us, and then she said that she was prepared to get baptized for this Sunday, so we scheduled a date for the interview the next night then yeah so she got baptized on Sunday! Unexpected but great! We also got 11 people to church on Sunday! That is a ton! Granted that it was from 2 areas but there were 11 people at church. Then all of our other investigators are doing just fine,  ***, were still confused on what we need to do with him. I’m thinking about dropping him and letting him come back to us when he wants too, he's not progressing anymore and hasn't come to church in 3 weeks so.... but *** and her family came to church! yeah and it was last minute. She told us she would come on Friday, but Saturday night she told us that she had an unexpected emergency! So we prayed and then like 5 min after church started she called and said she would be there soon! and she made it just in time! It was great, and she brought all 4 kids and her husband. So that was a miracle. Then here is an awesome story!

 

So, in Elder Mansells area they recently found a guy name josh! his wife (?) is a member and he really likes everything so far. So Saturday we go over and tells us he's going to give us hamburgers! so were like sure, then we are now pushed back 40 mins because he had to go to the store. Then he cooks the meat we are having hamburgers and just chilling and then we shared a thought on baptism. And after we talked a little he stops looks at us 3 and then says "so I’ve been thinking about baptism a lot lately, for me and my daughter, and I really want to get baptized, is there any way you can help me with that ?" we all just had mouths open and we all smiled and said absolutely! So we set a baptismal date for the 7th of Sept! He is AWESOME! and then he came to church with his wife and 2 daughters! That is my favorite miracle this week. Also we kind of set a date with an older lady named inda! she is awesome she lives in Elder Mansell’s area and really understands and comes to church every week! so that is cool! and other than that it’s been a normal week.!

 

So we had zone conference this week! and it was all the way back at the Inglewood stake center! yeah far... and we had to take bus. So Wednesday morning, we woke up at 4:45 to catch a bus at 6 and then had to take an hour and 15min bus ride, then walk a mile. So yeah we were super tired that day! but it was fun there were a lot of things I learned and lots of things I’m going to try to change. Overall it was a great zone conference. President was definatly having fun with all the departing missionaries. He kept calling on all of them to answer questions and he always had this smirk on his face, it was funny. But then he asked me to give a talk in front of everyone.... oh well, not that that is any different from any other day. Well that's it! It’s been a crazy fun week and now there is no more trio, just me and Elder Mansell.

 

Love you all!!!!!!

Elder Hollingshead

Elder Mansell, me, Elder Boyd

Our 2 areas are the whole top half!

LA Grafitti

"My Heart of Gold"

Yes, Elder Kimball is really that tall!

Elder Mansell fell asleep during a lesson.

Elder Mansell, me, Elder Boyd




 

Trio?

Hello Everyone!

 

Well this week has been CRAZY!!!!! like nuts, there hasn't been a simple relax day or just a normal day of work. Why? well we are in a TRIO! yeah, so ill get to the story later.  but yeah, Elder Boyd is on his final countdown, and its crazy he had a couple of meetings with president this week and so he's been gone with some other elders and then I get put into another companionship in the ward. One was super cool, it was on Tuesday. I was with Elder Cox he super chill, very quiet but has a great testimony and is a great teacher. we taught a couple of really cool lessons, then on Wednesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders, who are in a trio also. So I went to their area with 2 of them. It was fun, but the life of a zone leader is a life of fixing problems. and its not super fun. but we had an Awesome lesson with a lady who had already been coming to church, in English, but she switched to Spanish and we taught her lesson 1 and then committed her to get married and baptized! she is awesome and Really loves the church. Then Thursday was crazy.... So I was still with the zone leaders, they had to go to pick up mail at another building then I had a appointment at the office so we went up there and waited for a while, then I wen t back to my area after, About an hour later we get a call from the assistants. And they told us there was an emergency in the mission and another companionship in the ward was going to be moved. and one was going to be put with us! so yeah now we are in a trio, on bike, covering 2 areas. its been crazy. planning is nuts, it takes forever and I feel like  it just never works out evenly. the only thing they said to us is to keep both areas alive, I hope we can do that. then of course as soon as we get put into a trio we start having bike problems. on Friday I popped a tire, not super bad so I make it home on a half flat tire.... but all is well I switched it out in like 5 min because I had a brand new tube for cases like this... Saturday we are riding and then elder Boyd looked back and one of his spokes is broken. so we stopped by and picked up a new spoke and then went to the apartment and replaced it. it has just been crazy.

 

But good thing is. We got a shower curtain. yay! now we can shower, but we are short one bed because we are in a trio so elder Boyd is sleeping on the floor on my blanket. believe it or not, it still gets a  little bit chilly at night if we don't turn the fans off, so I had to pull out my jacket one night.  (I'm such an Arizona boy) Then yeah we have just been busy, trying to set appointments then changed them and try to be most efficient with out time. This is elder Boyd's last week with us, then it will just be me and elder Mansell in both of our areas! The most frustrating part is when we have set appointments and then no one is home. or they cancel at the doorstep. It gets so frustrating. Then  the question after that is what do we do now. we could try this person, but we will be late to our next appointment. so its really hard sometimes. but Fun story so Friday we had a dinner with some family in Elder Mansell's area. so we shared a scriptural thought on how we need to pray for missionary experiences. That is what Elder Ballard wants us to teach to members. so we share the message and then right after they handed us a list of 9family members that were interested in hearing the gospel! none of them were in the mission but we sent the info in and yeah that is the most referrals I've ever seen given at once. So yeah now we love that family! Oh and another thing about being in 2 areas is that we get fed a lot, everyone wants to feed us! its nice but not at the same time. we get stuffed before dinner and then we have to eat dinner. On Friday we had a late lunch, we went and got panda express. Then an hour and a half later a member gave us 2 pupusas, then 1 hour later we had a full dinner.... we were stuffed and I carried a big part of dinner home.... yeah it was bad. so maybe ill gain a little weight :) But overall everything has been going good.

 

So I met with president recently just for a little meeting to see how everything going.  as we were talking he got up and then told me he wanted me to read a book! its called "how to win friends& influence people" by Dale Carnige. Lets just say its a great book, he told me that this book changed his life and helped him be the person he is now. And My mission president is Awesome! he is super successful and extremely organized, and always has good tips on life and how to do things. Well I hope all is going well! Now that school is starting up I feel like everyone is getting busy! I hope all goes well through out this month!  Wow when I come back there will  be 2 new temples that will be fun to go to and see them. Wow its still super weird to think I've been out a year now! time goes by fast, but its good there are so many things I've learned and things I can continue to learn!  I love you all and pray for you often!

Love

Elder Hollingshead

 

mom ps. So I'm good on everything! all my clothes still fit, still have plenty of shirts and everything. just as a side note. president does not want any instruments so ill be sending the uke  home sometime in the future. But here is something that I would like. The camera I have is not focusing at all. it will take 1 or 2 good pictures then after that it just wont focus. I guess I'm wondering if it is at all possible that I could get a new camera. Nothing fancy. just something small with a  decent mega pixel and zoom. other than that I think everything is good out here! Love you Thanks so much!

Hola

Well Hello Everyone!

 

Well this week has been pretty good! we still had a lot of work! always. It was elder Boyd's birthday on Wednesday so we had like 3 birthday celebrations! it was fun. Its been really hot this week, and it has gotten pretty humid too. Biking now is just hot and we come in people houses sweating and just bright red. But we keep riding. Thankfully we are busy actually visiting not riding around all day. The worst part about the heat around here is that there is no real way to escape it unless someone (very few people) has a mini A/C in their house. Other than that we suffer. oh and our apartment is upstairs and there is no curtains and there is a huge window that faces the morning sun so it just heats up and no matter how many fans we have on, it just gets slowly hotter and hotter. Oh and another funny thing that I don't know if I mentioned last week. Our bathroom does not have a shower curtain. So we are down to taking baths every morning... Yeah its pretty horrible. And there is no closet space or cabinet space so everything has too be super organized and put away. Oh and then this week we woke up and the rod in the closet, that holds all our shirts and pants and suits, broke.... well at least the mounting bracket. so now we don't even have a closet. yeah its just a great new apartment!

 

well about the investigators, Nothing much new.... oh wait never mind we found a new family. Super cool family! so they are friends with a member in the ward! Super cool! That day was kind of going bad, well mostly just everything was falling through and it was super hot, but we stopped by and they were super cool and let us in immediately, He is super knowledgeable about Mormons, but never has been taught much, so he knows about the church but not, if ya know what I'm saying. he has 2 teenage kids who were kind of in the lesson but not. Then his wife whos is super young has 2 little kids, she knows nothing and she just wants to have peace. She Is super cool and asks super good questions. The worst part about this week was Sunday at church. we confirmed with 9 investigators that they were all going to come to church! thats 9 PEOPLE at church, but the next morning not one of them showed up. we only had one investigator and she was not expected... so that was a bummer so we went to go and try to visit them and see why they didn't come, but none of them were home! but anyways. the work goes on. 

So I pads... nope not yet, but before December we will for sure have them. I'm still not for sure about having I pads. now that I've been doing it the normal way for 1 year it will be super crazy to have another completely way of teaching the gospel. I'm excited for the change but it will be different. Anyways. And yeah other than that there is no other exciting news... just the same mission work! ya know finding, teaching and baptizing.... It will be fun! This ward is good. there are so many people to teach and work with. 

Well I love you ALL! I'm so glad I'm on a mission! IT's the best! You really learn to see the hand of the lord in everything. Everyday I look back and try to see just one little miracle and one little tender mercy that helps us all move on and remember that we are NEVER ALONE! As I'm reading through the Book of Mormon, There is a point when Mormon and Moroni are alone, no one person believes, not one person wants to repent, so they have no one to rely on but the lord. So we need to take their example and do the same, just go out there and do it, rely on the lord even if no one else will. I love you all and hope you have the best week Ever! just don't melt... in that Arizona heat, that I'm not looking forward to in 1 year from now. You are all in my prayers often and i hope the best for all of you!

 

Love,

Elder Hollingshead

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