transfers!

Sept. 1

Well this week has been great! more or less... alot of days were just alright but we ended with a good weekend.  It has just been nuts trying to keep up the 2 areas.  So now for the transfers...... drum roll...... I'M STAYING! YAY that’s what I was expecting. They split the areas and me and elder Mansell are training. Yeah yikes but it will be great times. There will be 3 new trainers just in Huntington Park ward. So that will be fun. I'm actually a little nervous to be training, sometimes I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing, but it will be a good learning experience. Lots of fun things will happen. So here's the not so secret part, earlier this transfer, when I had an interview with President, he told me I would be training this transfer, so it wasn't so unexpected. But anyways. That’s the news for today. But the rest of the week just went alright. but there are a couple of miracles that happened for sure.

So first off. We met with *** on Tuesday, and he told us he wills probably getting married in the next couple of weekends!!!! Yeah, that will be great. He says he wants to get married and have his wife and kids get baptized, and then a month or so, he will get baptized. He has a chewing tobacco problem, but he says that when he sees his family get baptized it will give him a little more strength to overcome his addiction. Anyways it was awesome to hear that. He really wants to change, this last year his relationship with his wife/girlfriend has been rough, he wants to change and become more of a family man. He’s awesome. Anyways. After that, nothing much exciting happened until Friday.
So we have an investigator named ***, he’s super cool. He owns a music store and is a professional singer.  He loves music, so we get along. Last week, he told us that he had a friend that wanted to visit with us. So this Friday we showed up and there was this lady name ***. She is super Awesome! She is super prepared, and really wants to come closer to God. So about 9 years ago she used to go to the Mormon Church on Jefferson and Vermont.  but she was a little confused about the book of Mormon, so she went to other churches. Now she still believes in god, but never really joined a church she felt was right. As of like a month ago, her x left her, she has 2 kids and she’s 3 months pregnant. She is super depressed and is really going through a hard time. Because Joshua is an awesome guy and loves helping people out, he gave her a job at his shop for the time being to help her out and get back on her feet. We started talking to her and she loved it, she loved the message of the restoration and she accepted a baptismal date for the 12th of October. The next day we stopped by to give her a book of Mormon and she almost started crying, she promised she would read it. She is so excited to learn and grow her strength again.  Anyways that is a miracle, because most of our investigators right now are kind of so and are not really progressing. She is a new miracle that we will work with a lot! 

 

Anyways it was good. I Love the gospel. Sunday I was asked to give a talk, on missionary work. So my first talk in Spanish for 10min.... yikes I was pretty nervous, but it ended up great I think. After that, we did a musical number, and Man do I miss singing. Since I’m the only one who plays the piano I never get to sing.  So it’s a bummer, but I get to play for the ward and at all the baptisms. So yeah, learning all those hymns was good. But oh I can’t wait until the cooler weather comes. I feel like I’m going to go back to AZ and melt. It gets to like 90 here and it feels so hot, anyways from what I’ve heard, it supposed to cool down after this week. and then stay cooler until we hit fall. Anyways until that point it’s enough to say that we melt in our apartment and that it’s just hot, and I go pee a lot, trying to stay hydrated. But this is defiantly the lord work! I love it, I’ve felt more joy and happiness here on the mission, because I get to see people make the change and to have Christ change them. And I know he can. There are a lot of weaknesses I have, and a lot of things that I need to work on, but I know that if I try my best that we can receive strength! I love you all! Thanks for all your prayers and support. 

 

Love

Elder Hollingshead

Week 3 Trio!

Well Hello Everyone!

 

This week has been pretty good.  Busy! Let me tell you that is one thing I’ve learned about on the mission, especially in this area!  We have been so busy! It’s a great thing, but it gets tiring some days. So yeah. Where to begin.... well Elder Boyd.. I mean Jordan is now at home, sad day but we had a blast together! There are so many fun things we did. But Elder Mansell and I are working good, I feel bad, but Spanish is super hard for him, se cuesta mucho...(there’s a little Spanish for ya) so that's one struggle, but I’ve realized in the last 2 months my Spanish has improved A tons. I don't know what the change was, but it was dramatic,  In may I still really struggled and I could hardly teach a good lesson in Spanish, now in august 3 months later, I feel like I lead out in the Spanish and teach alright. Now I agree with Ryan here, Learning another language will take a life time, And There is no way I could learn it all in 2 years, but At this point, I can say what I want to say, and I can learn at a lot faster at a rate. So that's been good. I Love Spanish! It’s so fun to speak and learn another language. So yeah. Investigator wise, everything's going good. *** got confirmed yesterday and it was good. Then *** finally came to church again, it had been 3 weeks. Technically he’s not progressing, but I think we're close to get him close to progressing, and hopefully baptized before the end of the year. He’s super ready! and loves the church and missionaries. So yeah lots of good things happening. We taught ** again! And we set a baptismal date with him, silly me, we accidently set it on conference weekend so we will have to change it, but other than that everything was good.  He super awesome and loves the message of the restoration! He really wants to know if it’s true. Then josh came to church again, He super awesome but we can hardly ever meet with him because he has a weird schedule that he doesn't know usually until the day of or day before so we can hardly schedule a time to meet with him. We also are teaching another guy named **, He is awesome! He knows a ton and loves everything we teach, the only problem, is that he needs to get divorced to his wife and re marry is other "wife". He says he’s working on it, but that his real wife doesn't want to divorce so she won’t sign the paper/agree to the divorce. So we just have to wait. Then yeah I think that's the only updates that are needed on our investigators.

 

Transfers are next week! Wow way to fast. So next Monday we will see what will happen.... And then this Tuesday I have my Year Training! YIKES! Wow I can’t believe it’s been a year. It goes by way too fast. and everyone says the second year goes by even faster.!!!! I’m scared but over the last few months I've noticed some changes that I like,

First is that my testimony has grown so much, in what we believe and what we KNOW, I love it, I love the Gospel. I love Jesus Christ and I’ve learned to trust him so much.

Second, Missionary work isn't so awkward for me anymore, before I felt super weird talking to people on the street, and being bold with people, but it’s become part of me, I no where near perfect, and there are lots of things I can improve  but overall I have improved over the year.

Third, Leadership, over this transfer, I’ve learned to take the lead a little bit! Between covering 2 areas, having my companion leave and then me having to lead in my area, I've learned a lot!, It’s hard sometimes, but It good to learn these skills.

There are tons of things I’ve learned over the last year, but these are my top three recent ones! I heard one missionary at the end of his mission say, "I may not have become everything I wanted to be on my mission, but I’ve learned how to become" That is super true, We may not learn everything we want to, but we learn how to become what we want to be! I love that thought, so yeah,

I love you all! You are in my thoughts and prayers often!  I enjoy reading and hearing from each and everyone of you! Funny story this week, so Friday is mail day, that is when mail is distributed between everyone. So they handed me 2 letters, one was from Amber, the other was from someone I didn't know.... The only name on the front was Lea Hollingshead.??? I opened it up and realized it was not for me, it was to an Elder Edwards in the mission, but when ever we see each other we say cousin.... because his mom was a Hollingshead! So I don't know where the connection is but yeah there are Hollingshead’s in Utah. So yeah I got to forward that to elder Edwards. anyways. Yeah I love you all and Hope you all have a great week! I hope you don't freeze or drown over there in Arizona, I heard it’s been cooler and with lots of rain!

 

Love

Elder Hollingshead

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