Week 46

Yo!

So last week was pageant week! President Francis said we could go 3 times, once
with a member, and twice with an investigator. The problem is that we are all the
way in Buffalo, and none of our investigators have cars, so we couldn't go with any
investigators.

We went on Wednesday night with the Hunts though, and it was sweet! We showed
up, and all the Anti's were standing in their designated areas right in front of the
entrance. I was expecting much worse. It was kind of disappointing, there was just
one guy on a mega phone saying stuff, except he wasn't even saying anything that
bad or controversial. It was actually pretty funny, and then there were people passing
out pamphlets. We passed by them and then you walk through the entrance and
everything completely changes.

One of the Elders in my district says that walking into pageant is probably exactly like
walking into the spirit world, because the cast members are high fiving you, and there
are people everywhere and you get to see a bunch of people from your old areas, and
you can talk to elders you haven't seen in a while, and everyone is super happy. It's
kind of hard to explain, but I guess it's sort of like going into Disneyland, except better.
Anyway, I saw some people from my old areas, and I also talked to Randy Francis for a
 while. That was the first time I've seen him since he got back. It was fun to talk to him.
We had sweet seats for the play and it was awesome. It was really well done. My favorite
part was the soundtrack. I'm sure you can find scenes of it on youtube so you should look
them up.

Hill Cumorah Pageant Set

                     
I think the coolest thing that happened this week was our lesson with April. April is

someone we met about a month and a half ago on the street. She had talked with
missionaries before, but when they were transferred she was never met with again.
We had an appointment a while ago but she wasn't there. We decided to try her house
again since we hadn't tried in a while, and she answered and we were able to set an
appointment up for Monday night. We met with her on her porch and it started out kind
of awkward, especially because she didn't seem too excited to meet with us, but as we

started asking her questions she really opened up. She talked about how she just isn't
happy with life and we were able to talk about the Book of Mormon, especially Alma 7
(that's my go to in lessons. I think I use it 95% of the time). She didn't really have a
religious past but we testified that God is real and that life has more purpose than we
think. It turned out really well and we have another lesson with her tonight!

Besides that we just went less active hunting. That's going alright. Most of the people
on the ward list have moved. Also on Tuesday we had an AMO by the senior couple in
charge of housing, the Rays. AMO stands for 'apartment makeover', and they do one
once a year for each apartment. We requested one since our apartment is full of leftover
stuff from years of missionaries. AMO's take up all day, and the Rays literally go through
everything in our apartment with us. We got rid of sooooo much furniture that we didn't
need, and now our apartment is the bomb. It's so clean. Anyway, I have to go! 

Love Elder Holt

Week 45

Hey!

This week was good and also weird at the same time. We have gotten a
lot of referrals from head quarters and from the elders in our
district. We end up finding for each other all the time because when
we talk to people on buses, a lot of the time they are going to where
they live which is out of our area so we have to hand them off.
We got a huge pool of people to see this week which made the week
awesome, but then we didn't have too much time to see them and when we had
appointments with some of the people they would cancel last minute,
which messed up our schedule and we ended up not seeing as many people as we
had hoped.

We got a new investigator this week named Elijah. We met him
on the train, and he is interesting, to say the least. We have
had two lessons with him, and at the end of the lessons he usually
ends up understanding what we taught and with motivation to commit to
our invitations, but it takes us a while to get there. He's half Cherokee,
half Black, and he's 57 years old, and has a lot of stories to tell from his crazy
experiences. He's pretty comfortable telling us anything, so we've heard all kinds
of stories. He is a cool guy and he seems sincere with his desire to learn, so hopefully
he reads the Book of Mormon like we invited him to do. Besides that we didn't have
too many lessons, but we had other things to do. Every once in a while the foodbank
will call us and need help unloading a new shipment, so we did that for and hour and
a half on Wednesday.

The other day I was riding my bike, and I stood up on the pedals to turn
my head around to check for cars, when I sat back down my seat just snapped
out from underneath me while I was still moving. Probably the scariest moment
of my life! Luckily, I was able to catch myself with my legs and stop the bike. I
picked up the seat out of the road and the screw that was holding it together just
snapped in half, so I'll have to go find a new screw. I've been riding for a few
days without a seat which stinks, but I think my legs are getting more muscular
because of it so that's cool.

On Tuesday it was Elder Klumker's birthday so we went out to Texas
Road House for his birthday dinner. It was a lot of fun, and I
probably ate my weight in rolls. They were the best rolls I've ever had
and then they have that unlimited honey butter which makes it
impossible for me to control myself. Me and Klumker split some ribs
and they were top class.

The Hill Cumorah Pageant started last Friday. We are going on Wednesday
with a member, and hopefully we can get an investigator to go with us on Friday
or Saturday. I'm really excited for it. I'll let you know how it goes next week.

Alright Cya!
Love, Elder Holt

Me and Elder Rawe saw some guys playing Basketball after and appointment

on an exchange - we hopped in to play

Elder Rawe, me, Elder Klumker at Texas Road House

for Elder Klumker's Birthday

Me and Elder Klumker looking really good