Week 40

Oy!

I'm still alive. This week I decided that I am now more likely to get
injured riding a train or a bus than riding my bike. I have yet to
develop the incredible balance that every person in Buffalo has when
they are riding a bus.

Seriously though, whenever I get on a bus, I slide my card and right as 
I turn around the driver just floors it and I almost fall face first into one
of the side polls every time. Every other person I see though is completely
un-phased. Teenage girls will get on while they're texting and the bus will
take off and they don't even shuffle or anything. It's worse when I don't
have a spot to sit and I'm just standing there, because everyone around
me that's standing doesn't even have to hold on to anything, so I try to look
all casual like them and just keep my hand on a nearby seat, but
really whenever the bus slows down I am digging my toes into the
ground and flexing my quads as hard as I can so I don't fall forward,
which usually doesn't work and then I stagger forward and desperately
look for something to grab on to...it's great! I guess it gets people
to notice me right?

This week has been good! I'll just give you guys the good main
thing we were excited about this week. The Key Mey family is one of
the Burmese families we are teaching. We call them the Key Mey family,
but that's mostly because the father's name is Key Mey and Burmese
people don't have last names. The other Burmese people that were
baptized are from a different part of Burma, and in their part their
last name is just their gender. For boys it's "Reh" and for girls its
"Meh", so in that family we have Deh Reh, Seh Meh, Lu Meh, and Pleh
Meh. I'm sure Burma has problems with identifying people.  

The Key Mey family didn't come to church last Sunday
and they said they would, and we were really disappointed, but when we
went over this week Key Mey said that he tried to go ride is bike to
our church (he likes to ride his bike to places before he drives
there) and said he couldn't find it, so we just went with him and his wife in
his car, showed them where it was, and then gave them a tour of the
building. The next day they came, but it was cooler because the mom
wasn't supposed to come because of work and she told us she wouldn't
be there, but I guess she asked for special permission to go into her
work later to come the church! that was cool. But yah, we were excited
about that and we're hoping to commit them to baptism this week.
Hopefully it goes well!

Alright cya!
Love Elder Holt

Week 39

Yo!

Bikes, trains, buses. That's our order of preference for transportation
in the gorgeous (dirty) city of Buffalo. I would say that anyone of
these emails I send in my time in Buffalo could be my last, because I
swear, one of these days I am going to clip my handlebars on a parked
car's mirror on a busy street and then proceed to get run over by a
car. That wouldn't be an unlikely scenario, I've almost done it 20
times already. It makes for a good time though! Missionary work on the
edge. For reals though, some roads are crazy skinny and theres no
space between the passing cars and the parked cars, and it doesn't help
that insane people still try to pass. I'm actually pretty comfortable
with it by now, but my first day here I was fairly confident that I
was gonna die.

Anyway, I love the city! Completely different from anything I've
experienced in my mission so far. Our apartment is right in the middle
of it, and there are people everywhere and it's just a good time. We
ride around town all day visiting people. People will call us out to
talk to us every now and then. Everyone in the city is pretty nice so
far. Some people know us as the "Jesus people" which is kinda cool
haha. As for our investigators here, so far I haven't taught a single
lesson to people that understand what I'm saying. That's not because we
teach Spanish people, it's because our main pool of investigators are
all Burmese. We have 3 Burmese families we teach, and before we would
go to teach them my companion would always say "they know some
 English, and can understand what we say". No they don't. Our lessons
usually involve us saying the simplest sentences of doctrine we can
while still attempting to cover everything, and then in each house
there is a young teenager who knows more English than anyone else
because they go to school, so they translate (kind of) what we say to
the rest of the family. If they don't understand, we just get a bunch
of blank stares (which is most of the time), and we have to reword
what we just said. It's a little confusing because for each state or
section in Burma there is a different language for it. Two
of our families speak Carenni, and the other family speaks Caren,
which are apparently very different. The other Burmese people they
taught before I got here spoke a different version than those two.
Anyway, they don't have a Book of Mormon in the national language of
Burmese, much less all the different off shoots, but they do make the
lesson pamphlets in Burmese, which is really our only shot.  The
problem with that, is that Burmese is the national language that no
one uses and is only taught in certain schools, and the only people
that know it are the older generation. So pretty much the parents know
it, but not the kids, so when we do get the pamphlets the parents will
have to read them in Burmese and the kids are still going to end up with
a translated version of what's in there because they have to translate
it into Caren or Carenni. Oh, and we just found really cool potential
investigators today. They are French speaking Congans, and only the
mom knows English haha. We teach completely differently than how I've
taught my whole mission, but it's a lot of fun.

I'll end my email there. Maybe next week I'll talk about our
adventures in the really sketchy parts of town haha. Alright cya!

 Love, Elder Holt

Week 38

Hey Everybody!

It's been a couple weeks, but the biggest news is that we had transfer calls last night, and I'm going to Buffalo Spanish! I don't speak Spanish, but apparently it's just a normal area with the title

"Spanish" because every once in a while there might be a random person that speaks Spanish. I'm really excited about it, because I've been away from the city for the most part and now I'll be right in the middle of it. I'm sad to leave Geneseo though. It's a really nice area and the people in the ward are really nice.

This past week had some good stuff. Lets see, so Tuesday through Thursday was pretty normal. Thursday we had interviews with President Francis. Those are always fun. I learn a

lot and it's nice to talk one on one with the 'Prez.' Thursday night it started raining like crazy, and the next day a lot of people's basements were flooded. Our investigator Dan had all his inventory for his antique/trinket type shop in his basement, and he also went in for surgery on Thursday, so he called us and asked if we could go try and get the water out of his basement as soon as we could.

We spent a good amount of time taking water out in buckets, and calling people looking

for a dehumidifier. We eventually got one and dried out all of his stuff pretty good so we were happy about that.

Saturday we had a ward service project over at a sister's house. She and her non member husband have both been pretty sick, so we all went over there and did a lot of yard work and people were working on their deck that was in pretty bad shape. We had a ton of people there and it all went well.

The sweetest thing that happened this week was on Sunday night. We had gone through our former investigators about a week ago, and there was this kid named Jared who had been taught when

he was 17 (he's 20 now), loved the Book of Mormon, came to church all the time, and then just dropped off the face of the earth. We left him a voicemail a week ago just asking if he ever wanted to meet up with us again, and randomly he decided to call us back on Sunday (people literally never call us back) and he wanted to meet that night. We went over, he had joined the army and just had stuff

come up with work and school back when he was being taught, and he lost his commitment to reading the scriptures and stuff, but that he had been rethinking his faith as of lately. We probably had one of the best discussions on faith that I've had on my mission. He thinks really....genuinely.

I don't know if that's the right word to describe it, but it was one of the few lessons I've had where he didn't have to be compelled to listen to us, he was legitimately trying to figure out God's place in his life and wanted to hear our thoughts. It was really cool, and I'm disappointed that I don't get to teach him more since I'm being transferred. It was good way to end the transfer though.

I'll tell you guys about my new area next week! peace!

Love, Elder Holt

Week 36

Sup!

        So on Tuesday we had a specialized training at the Peter Whitmer farm! It was pretty cool being there, but we didn't really get to explore the place or the visitors center too much because we were getting trained on random things all day. Mostly all of the training was focused on "how to live" things, like eating right and shining our shoes. It was good, but it would have been cool to have some of the training happen in the visitors center, because I hear they have a lot of cool stuff about the restoration and organization of the church that you don't really get to see anywhere else. It was fun though, and it was awesome to see Elder Knudson (from Springville) again because I haven't seen him in a while.
        The rest of the week was pretty average. We tracted a bit, and we had a couple good conversations but no one really to come back to. We had a really good visit with a less active who's husband died a year ago. She's been in a depression since and doesn't like being in social situations so that's pretty much why she doesn't come, but we were able to give her a blessing and she really liked it.
         We also have an investigator named Vinnie. I don't know if I've said much about him, but he is a Doomsday prep-er. He has a magazine that he writes every month, and he has a radio show with a decent following (for a doomsday guy I guess). It's pretty cool because people will send him in sweet gadgets that they have made to try out, and he even gets random things from Cabella's that are pretty cool. He got these pants from them that change their camouflage depending on the temperature. He's a bit out there, and we don't really get anywhere teaching him because  he usually gets to the Second Coming and the Apocalypse no matter what we try to talk about. He is probably our most promising investigator if we are  measuring by church attendance. He loves coming to church, he likes talking to us, and he says he "feels good" when he reads the Book of Mormon. We never really get in to sit down and have a lesson with him, but we have learned if we go over a couple times a week to just say hey and remind him about church that he comes, and he will usually read the Book of Mormon more too. A lot of the time we just end up walking around his apartment complex a couple times while he talks about random life things and then at the end he'll just say "yah I've been reading the Book of Mormon, I like it, oh and can you guys set me up a ride to church on Sunday?" and that's about it (haha.) But if it's just small visits that get him to come to church then we'll take it.
         I think that's about all the notable things from the week. Hopefully this week we'll meet with all the people that can only meet every other week and I can talk about those people next week.

k bye!
Love, Elder Holt

                         

 President Francis photo-bombing the picture of me and Elder Knudson

Week 35

Hey everybody!

This week we spent most of our time visiting less actives and recent converts,
which was good but we didn't have a lot of lessons to teach, which was a bummer.

A while ago we got a call from the Stake President saying that he was close
with this 28 year old guy who was about to get out of jail and has been wanting
to get baptized for years. He grew up in foster homes but for multiple
reasons he was in jail for a while, but we were told that he would be
released soon and we would get a call from him to go and meet him. His
name is Brendan and he called us on Tuesday this week. He's staying at a
motel in Mt. Morris which is meant for people who just got out of jail and need
time finding a place to live and what not. We went to meet him and he is the
nicest guy ever. He's read the Book of Mormon multiple times, but he just needs
some help getting started with life since he's been in jail for around 14 years.
We got some clothes for him from a few members since he pretty much doesn't have
anything, and he came to church on Sunday too. There's no question
that he will be baptized, but he just can't with all the legal stuff and
with him on parole right now. I don't know, it's an interesting
situation.

Anyway that's about all that was new this week, but I'm
attaching pictures to make up for my lack of email alright? alright

Love,
Elder Holt
                                                    
                                                         

Me with the Owens Family

Me

Me and Elder Lewis

Elder Williams had to clean out the Baptismal Font and he looked a lot like

Sam Wise from 'Lord of the Rings'

Elder Williams fell into a hole

Me with our investigator, Chuck

Me with our investigator, Charlie

Me with the Snyders (The Senior Couple in Freedom)

Me and Elder Williams (from Springville)

My Red Sox buddy, Brother Duncan

Me and the Stoddards (Brother Stoddard was really happy)

  

Me, Elder Klumker, & Elder Lewis

(from when we were a Trio)

How I fell asleep one night...I was tired

Week 34

Hey Everybody!

So I didn't get a weekly email sent out last week so I guess I better
update you guys on the past 2 weeks.

So two weeks ago was a really good week! We had some really good
appointments with Nona, Randy, and Cassandra. Nona is a lady that we
met going to a dinner appointment one day, and she invited us back to
talk. We went over and she had us come in, and we just started talking
about normal things. My companion Elder Allen is really good at just
taking something from normal conversation and using it to jumpstart a
lesson, so we basically went right into the restoration. She liked it
and said she would read 2 Nephi 31 right after we left, so that was
cool!

We met with Randy later in the week. He's been an investigator for a
while, and has a kind of hard to explain situation. In short, he just
needs to come to church consistently for 4 months before he can get
baptized because he's on parole. He's been taught all the lessons and
will get baptized, but he also has a plan to get his wife to start
coming to church with him. We usually go over and talk about whatever
he has studied, but we had a really good visit with him.

On Sunday we met with Cassandra. She's the librarian lady that I'm sure
I've mentioned, but meeting with her is always really funny. We
asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon at all, and she said no,
but then she said how she's read Mosiah 3:19 every morning because she
wrote it down in her notebook which made us kind of confused. We
pretty much just talked about the restoration with her and how it
allows us to be even closer with Christ, and we started reading more
 Book of Mormon verses with her, and every verse we showed her, she would
just go crazy. She would make us stop and say "OHHHH
thats VERY good" in a thick African accent and then write it down.
Pretty much at the end of our meeting she had done that with 10
different verses and realized the Book of Mormon is really cool, so
she said she would finally read it. The only thing with her will be
getting her to connect the Book of Mormon with the restoration and
having Christ's church on the earth, because she's already very
religious.

This past week on the other hand, was really, really slow. We got
canceled on multiple times, and we had one appointment with Jen that
went well, but it's getting to the point where she needs to start
taking action with reading and coming to church or our visits will be
a waste of everybody's time. She didn't come on Sunday which was
disappointing but hopefully we can have a visit with her that gets her
going this week. Besides that though we really had nothing else going
on.

Easter was really good, we had a dinner at the Larsen's, the
family with 2 year old quadruplets, and it was fun playing with them.

Alright well I hope everybody's doing well. Also if you haven't seen
the "Because of Him" video that the church put out yet, I command you
to go to youtube and watch it right this instant. It puts the
Atonement and Resurrection in a really cool perspective, so go watch
it!

And I finally bought a thing to put my sd card in so I can send
pictures, so I'll do that next time we go to the library.

K bye!
Love, Elder Holt

Week 32

April 7, 2014
Hey!
So transfer calls were last night and my companion and I are both
staying. I'm pretty happy about that, this transfer should be a really
good one.

So we had a really good lesson with Jen this week. I can't remember
how much I've mentioned about her but she is the daughter of a lady in
our ward, and she's in her 30's I think. Anyway, we have taught her
most of the lessons and have invited her to be baptized, which she
said she will do if she sees the Book of Mormon make a difference in
her life, which it will, she just needs to work on reading it
consistently. She lives far away so we can only see her once a week,
but this week we just reaffirmed the importance of the Book of Mormon
and the direction it gives, and I think she will do a lot better with
her reading.

Other than that, not much else happened. We usually do a lot of things
on Saturday and Sunday, but of course we had conference, which was the
bomb! a lot of good talks. every question I wrote down before
conference was specifically answered. It's funny how that works.
President Uchtdorf's Sunday morning talk was my favorite.

We tracted more than usual this week. Not too much success though. One
old lady opened her door, and she looked crazy, then told us she was
Catholic and that I should feel guilty whenever I think about faith,
then she shut the door. Usually we can tell what point people are
trying to make when they say things like that, but with her we still
have no idea, haha
.
Oh, so we had a dinner appointment on Thursday night and we had
cinnamon roll waffles. You literally just take pillsbury cinnamon
rolls and put them in a waffle iron and then put the frosting on
after. So good! and also fattening, but really good.
Anyway, see ya later! pictures are coming by the way. I'm using my
procrastination to teach everybody patience.

Love, Elder Holt