Have a Fantastik Week

Hello Everyone!

Well this week was great. Kind of. Monday we had dinner with the *** family. They are super cool. Hopefully they will get sealed soon. She wants to get sealed before she has her baby in May. They both have their Endowments, but because of custody issues, they have not been able to get sealed. So that's a work in progress. But super cool family. Tuesday was interesting. At English class, the Assistants to the president just showed up to see how classes were going. So weird and unexpected. But after class later that night we got a call from the zone leaders saying we don't have to go to class anymore. Apparently the office had no idea that we lived 40 min from the church. So they cut 2 trips a week and I’m very thankful. Wednesday I had my 6-month training. (still weird to think I’ve been out this long). That was really good. I almost enjoyed it more than Zone conference. It was mostly about just making new goals and progressing in your mission. Because I have seen it a lot, after 6-8 months missionaries just stop progressing and just stay at the same level for the rest of the mission.  So anyways we made some good goals and mission visions for ourselves and for the mission. Thursday was long. We met with*****, he’s doing alright. But his psychosis is still a big problem anyways we talked and invited him to church he said yes. We got a ride and everything and then he called a little before and said he couldn't come..... Anyways he still has a lot of potential.

Friday we had district meeting, and guess who showed up again... yeah the AP's otra ves. So now were just super confused why they keep coming. We think it will get solved tonight as we have a zone conference call with president. I wonder how that is going to go. After the meeting I went on splits. Back to my old area.... super weird and I kind of miss it.  Mostly we were at ***'s house to eat dinner and then pickup some other stuff after our lessons. O well. Fun and quick. Saturday Was MY BIRTHDAY!!!!! I didn't tell many people it was my birthday so nothing crazy happened. but on our way back to the apartment after coordination, Elder Schwalger and Elders Nelson and Amacher wanted to go to Home town buffet and eat lunch/dinner to celebrate my birthday. So yeah that's what we did. So that has been my week.

A new bishopric. WOW sounds super great. And it sounds like you had a fun time with the kids for a day. Amber sent me and email about her quick trip.  Looked fun. What else, anything crazy or new in Mesa, or AZ. I heard it is supposed to rain a couple of days here in LA so I’m not really looking forward to that. Oh.. So last night as we were riding home, fog moved in, like it usually does, but it was thick. Like the times up at the cabin and you couldn't see anything. Super crazy and fun to ride in. But it has been super foggy lately, almost every day. What else.... OH and I figured out how to solve the Rubik's cube again. Elder Cisneros gave me one before he left and I finally figured it out again. My companion has taught me some new songs on the ukulele. So we jam out sometimes, I’m going to see if he'll teach me some guitar. But I hope everything is going good with you all! I love you and have a great last week of February. 

Love

Elder Hollingshead

Well everyone!

 So today is going to be quick. All the libraries are closed again, so I’m here in office depot using one of the display computers.... But I’m getting tired of standing. Anyways. This week has been alright, I’m so tired. We still haven't found new investigators, *** dropped us yesterday. That was hard... we never found him for 2 weeks and when we finally found him he acted like he didn't know who we were and also told us not to come by because we he was offended and didn't want to change. Other than that we have ****, who has phcosis and it’s really interesting. His mom wants us to come by everyday just to talk about him and she’s really pushy. I really don't care for her that much but he’s our only investigator and our only hope. The *** family is doing alright. We talked about the priesthood and he understood a lot more, but they got sick this week and couldn't make it to church... also we found a less active family this week. Familia ***. Super awesome, I don't understand why they are less active. The dad is super funny and joking and they want to feed us 2 times this week. So we can’t complain.

So we also have tried to contact referrals, but no ONE IS EVER HOME! grrr.. but one of them is a super awesome family and we have found the dad a few times but never his wife who is actually the referral from LA English. Hopefully we can contact them this week and start teaching. Yesterday we also receive a referral from a member that sounds super great. So we have deep faith we will have a great week. That's what we have talked a lot about as a mission is deep faith and Prayers.

On Wednesday we had Zone conference and it was good, but didn't start out will. We were 10 min. late. The zone leaders were going to pick us up but super early and of course the day we need to wake up early is the day our phone turned off in the night and we didn't wake up. So... we called them and they said they would get other elders to come and pick us up. and they came a little too late and then we got stuck in LA traffic. but over all I was a good zone conference. Friday we went on splits and I was with Elder Marin's greeny. It was fun, and we had a pretty good day. and I realized how much my Spanish has grown since MTC days. So we had fun and visited the Sepulveda family. They also gave us some food on last min notice. Super nice and fun family, but never come to church....

 Well I hope you are all doing great in Mesa, or wherever you are at. If you didn't know Brayden got his mission call to Nicaragua. He leaves in the beginning of April. And he's going to Mexico MTC! So I’m excited for him. And that's right Sam just left this week! How fun. Bytheway thanks for B-day card, and money. OH and If you are reading this Kara and Sis Ludlow. Thanks for the Valentine’s Day chocolates they were delicious! I love you all and Hope you have a great week! Keep me in your prayers, and thanks for all you do!

Love

Elder Hollingshead

New Transfer

Well everyone, I’m tired! It’s been a long week. My Companion is awesome! Elder Schwalger, he’s a Samoan from Hawaii. He’s super funny and happy. He has a ukulele also so we jam out sometimes at night. His Spanish is awesome and he’s just cool all around. It’s funny because all he wears at night is a lavalava, or the skirt thing, it’s funny but it’s completely normal for him. Anyways so yeah transfer day we woke up at 5 because my comp had to be there early for a trainer training. He’s not very happy he’s training again, but such is life. So I basically moved 4 miles south of where I was. My area is from the 110 to prairie and imperial hwy, to Rosecrans. Yeah even bigger than my last. Oh and we live at the bottom corner and everything is up hill from us. Its miserable going up some of the hills. and my new companion has a fixie road bike, so no gears and he looks like he is going to die going up those hills. The worst part to me is that the church building is 40 min away on bike. Each way. So times that by 5 times a week and we do a lot of riding. It’s horrible. We’re trying to see if the other elders can give us a ride, because it would make life much easier. but there was a meeting a while back, and president said that zone leaders and district leaders that have cars should not feel obligated to give rides, so in other words, our zone leaders and Elder Egbert don't give rides to us. I wasn't going to complain but over and hour almost every day of biking gets long.

So the new area. 2 other investigators that we still have not been able to contact yet. and that’s about it. There are a lot more active families, but at the same time a lot of less actives. and a big problem around here is that no one is ever home. Literally no one for the whole week we got 3 less active visits and 1 other lesson. It looked like we did nothing but we were really trying. So it’s hard, we hope to find some new investigators. But there are a few super nice Members, The ***, a super old couple that always gives us dang good food, and then a recent convert family the ***, and no that is not a Hispanic name. He is actually Hawaiian, and she is Guatemalan, he hardly know Spanish and she hardly knows English, but somehow they are married, they are willing and happy to serve. But this area has been pretty dead for a while so I think it might be hard to get it back up. But we have deep faith it will.
Other than that nothing much has happened this week. Oh wait, yeah so one of those 40 min bike rides we did in the rain! It was absolutely amazingly wet! I was soaked and cold and then we had to ride back. At least it wasn’t raining then, but it was super cold and windy. So I hope that doesn’t happen again. Anyways I love you all, and hope you have a good week! You are all in My Prayers and keep your prayers up for me!

Love

Elder Hollingshead

Hello Everyone!

 

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

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

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

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

 

Love Elder Hollingshead

 

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