Hola!

 

Well the no big news, still going to be here in the Same Area for 1 more transfer, except the only difference is that they split our district and My Companion is one of the New District leaders. He does not want leadership at all! It was funny when he got the call he defiantly let the AP know how much he didn't want to be DL but that's about it. Let’s see where to Begin. Los Angeles English, Tuesday first class 5 members showed up that was it. Kind of boring so me and a couple of other elders played the piano and I tried to play the organ. Yeah didn't go so well, maybe I’ll figure it out someday.   Wednesday was alright. We visited a less active member whose son just arrived here in the states from El Salvador. He’s 17 and it was good to hear that he got here finally. Last we heard was he was in Texas at Immigration trying to get his papers ready, and they didn't know how long he was going to be there, it could take up to 3 months, but it was about 2-3 weeks.  He doesn't know any English so were trying to get him and his mom to come and learn English. In Salvador he was very active and is preparing to go on a mission so we hope it will re activate his mom, and convert his step dad. It will be a slow work in progress. But there is progress. Thursday We taught ***, and his wedding was called off again and now it’s for sure so we just have to wait until he moves out of the house and then he can get baptized. He has come to church 2 weeks in a row by himself in a white Shirt! That’s big progress. It used to be his the Hermana in the ward trying to drag him out at least in a polo, but now he does it on his own. Also in that house there is a less active Returned Missionary who works Sunday so he can’t go to church. But he just told us that next week his schedule changes so we are going to go hard and get him back to church. Friday was Zone training meeting. It was super good. About prayer and I have a few goals and things I'm starting to work on in prayer. Then later that night as we were putting up LA English signs up we locked our bikes and came back and some Hispanic neighbor told us some guy was checking out our bikes but the man kept an eye out thankfully  and got him to go away. They were locked! 2 locks to be exact, but as my companion said, his got stolen with 3 so hopefully it never happens but its LA you never know. But as we rode away after that, almost in the exact same spot/ corner. My front tire basically blew out. It was flat in about 15 seconds. That just made the day a lot worse.  Thankfully when we got to ****** house he had patches so I fixed the tube while dinner was being cooked. He is a lifesaver. Saturday English class. About 16 people showed up, half were not members and 5 or so said yes to Missionary lessons!!!! We were super excited. Then because there were 4 people in our zone who needed to go to training, my companion being one of them, the rest of the zone got ice cream and then chilled at the chapel for a while until they came back. It was a very boring 2 hours.  We visited a less active ***, he has such a strong testimony of the gospel and me and companion can’t figure out how he became less active. But the LA English class is the key. He said to us that this is the start of him coming back, cause he wants to come back. Yesterday was just a normal Sunday nothing to exciting. Walter, a referral, we visit him the last Sunday, he is super prepared and wants to change so we hope to start making progress with him these next couple of weeks.

Well that was this week. Oh and if forgot the mission just got a new language. Farsy, probably just butchered that spelling. It is a language spoken in the Middle East and 4 elders have been called to speak it. One for sure was in the MTC with us Elder Larkin. He is super excited and supposedly there's another missionary that is going on his 2nd transfer that is starting this language. The only problem is that a Book of Mormon has not been translated yet into the language, no MTC material, only members and probably a dictionary. Super weird, and not quite for sure the reason for it but yeah.

But anyways what about home? Anything New? Did grandma move in yet? Tell here thanks for the note on the letter. I Love her So much. I also got a letter from Blake.  Yeah it was nice. His mission is completely opposite. He said he drove an hour to another city in his area. Jokingly but probably true he said his area is probably the size of my mission. Oh well. Life has been good here. I got cussed out the other day as we rode by a house. Not the first time but the closest I’ve been to someone like that. Today is going to be a little tight schedule. We had to go to the mission office to do letters right now because the library is closed for Veterans Day. LA Traffic is horrible.  Then we also want to do lunch with zone. and we still need to shop and do laundry. I guess no nap today :(....  Well I love you all. Sounds like Ellie likes here new swing up in flagstaff. Hope you all had fun up there. Weather sounds great up there what's it like in Mesa. Here is probably 70s in the day but because of humidity it gets super cold at night so long sleeve works but it just gets hot during the day with it on so it’s hard to decide. Love you all. Stay strong and Love the Lord. Work on Prayers, it’s something that may seem small and insignificant but if you work on more specific and detailed prayers that make you closer to your Heavenly Father you will receive blessings beyond your imagination. I love you all and thanks for all your prayers.

Love

Elder Hollingshead