Week 60

Hey Everybody!

I decided this week that I will never even consider swerving for a
squirrel ever again. Well I guess I never have swerved for them
because I'm not going to wreck a car over a squirrel, but now I won't even
feel guilty about it. I went to get my Halloween package that the
mail man set by our mailbox, to find that apparently squirrels really
like Halloween packages for Elder Holt.

Exhibit A

They also liked my M & M's

   

and my Ramen Noodles

  They also stole half of my Reeses, which I am the most upset about,
and there were bits of the Reeses foil wrappers all over the yard in
front of our apartment. I was ticked, actually I'm still pretty ticked.
There is a massive population of squirrels in Lewiston, and we usually
see a new dead one on the road every day. I used to think "oh that's
sad" but I found myself muttering "serves you right" under my breath
the other day, and that's when I realized I have a lot more bitterness
bottled up against them than I thought haha. I guess I have to work on
forgiveness.

I ran out of time for last weeks email, so I'll back track a
couple weeks. Two Saturdays ago we went to the Sacred Sites with
the Schultz's. They are the parents of Maren, who just returned from
her mission in Provo about a month ago. I think she joined the church a
couple years ago, but we've been visiting her parents every week and
reading the Book of Mormon with them. We always have good visits with
them, we usually just go over what they have read and answer any
questions. They've been taught in the past by other sets of
missionaries so they've had all the lessons, but they are just reading
through the whole Book of Mormon right now. They're in Mosiah.
Anyway, the sites were sweet! I'll just attach a bunch of
pictures in here.

First we went to the Hill Cumorah Monument which has a statue of Moroni on top.

                           

and some sweet engravings on the side.

I don't know what was happening in this picture

Then we went to the visitors center, watched the restoration movie and explored around there a little bit.

                               

Then we went to the Grandin Building where they printed the first order of The Book of Mormon. That was super interesting. It was a crazy tedious process and a massive order (5000 copies) for back then.

         

Then after that we ate at Nima's. You can't go to Palmyra and not eat  at Nima's.
The calzones are top class, and huge. Then after that we wrapped things up at the
Joseph Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove. I think the Sacred Grove is a
lot cooler in the summer, because it's so thick that it creates a roof
over you and you feel like you've entered a bubble that's totally separate
from everything around you. In the fall you can see through it and its
not as cool, but it was still pretty sweet. I think the Schultz's enjoyed it and learned a lot.

                               

I was trying to take a selfie with the Temple

 

A view of the Palmyra Temple 

The works been a little repetitive lately. We've been going through
the big list of people that we've been meeting with and narrowing it
down to the people that are worth the time.  Two weeks ago we had the
sweetest restoration lesson I've had on my mission with a family we met
tracting. It was seriously the bomb, and then she got sick for a week
so we couldn't have a follow up appointment, and then we called her and
she dropped us. If I wrote my weekly email last week I would have said
why the lesson was sweet and tell all the details, but she dropped us
this past Thursday so I don't really feel like it.

Sunday was awesome, because someone I taught in Buffalo got baptized
and I got permission to go. His name is Jonathan, and he was a media
referral for a bible a few months back. We taught him the first three
lessons and invited him to baptism before I left, and then his parents
recently gave him permission to be baptized so he was baptized
yesterday. It was a really nice service and I got to see a lot of
people that I missed from the Buffalo Ward. I'll have to throw in that
picture too.

Oh and we just got transfer calls. Elder Anderson and I are staying
together which I am happy about, and the other area in our district is
getting flushed and a new elder will get trained there by the ex-AP.
So yah, that's about it. Alright, I hope everyone is doing well!

Love Elder Holt

PS Here's some pictures from P-day at Niagra Falls

These are from "Cave of the Winds" which is a tour spot at Niagra Falls

                

They gave us these sweet ponchos

                                                    

Niagra Falls