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

Week 43

O Swa! (that's how you say 'what's up' in Caren)

So Peh Reh and Lu Dee were baptized yesterday! It was awesome. I'll try to explain their family situation so I can explain the baptism. This might get really confusing. Here we go! So Deh Reh and Seh Meh are Peh Reh's parents. Deh Reh was baptized a few years ago, and Seh Meh was baptized a couple months ago. Peh Reh is married to Lu Dee. Peh Reh also has a little sister named Lu Meh who is also baptized.

We wanted to make the program special for them, so we asked Seh Meh and Lu Meh to give talks in their own language, they are both extremely shy, so we just asked them to give testimonies, so they did that and that was cool. Deh Reh said the closing prayer, and we were going to try to have the Baptismal prayer said in their own language but that would have been getting a little too crazy. Anyway, it was a good program and the baptism went well. It seems like the ward is pretty excited about it.

I don't have a lot of time and that was the main thing that happened this week that I wanted to tell you guys. Oh, and transfer calls were last night. My companion is being transfered. I was only with him one transfer so we weren't expecting it. Ok, I've got to attach this picture and get running!

Love Elder Holt

Week 42

Hey!

This week was sweet! The best thing that happened was that Key Mey's
family came to church. This time it wasn't just the parents and
the two toddlers. It was the whole family. We were standing inside the
foyer when the 4 oldest kids in the family walked in, (which we were
stoked about,) but we didn't see Key Mey or his wife. We asked
the kids where their parents were, and they said that they just went
home. I assumed that Jo (the mom) probably had to go to work, so I
didn't think much of it and was just happy that the kids came. Then 4
minutes into Sacrament meeting Key Mey and Jo walked in with the two
youngest. Key Mey made two trips to get all 6 kids to church and
Jo had gotten permission to go to work late again so that she could
come.

After sacrament I had to herd all 6 kids around the hallways trying to figure
out what rooms their classes were in and dropping them off one by one.
It was a little hectic, and then we went and got Key Mey who was wandering
around looking for Jo. We found Jo outside the bathroom, and got them to
the English class that we have for the Burmese people.

At the end of church it was a little crazier because they were trying to get the
whole family together in a corner of the church so they could leave. It was really
funny because Jo was yelling to me the number of kids left they needed to find
in her thick Burmese accent and then I would go off to find them. She kept losing
track of her youngest and then turning around to count them all again.

They ended up all liking church a lot. They would come every week but Jo wants
her kids to learn Caren (their native language) and they do that in Sunday School
at their church. I think that's only every once in a while. We'll have to figure that out.

In other news we taught this girl named Kisha this week. I don't know if I've mentioned

her very much. She was a media referral that requested a bible and we've met with

her a couple times. Teaching her is kind of crazy because she goes off on tangents,

but we actually had a sweet lesson with her this week that got somewhere. All of our

lessons so far have felt like she is cautious towards us and like she is hearing us out 

and not looking to learn, but this lesson was the first time where she was actually

looking to us for answers and had legitimate questions. We didn't stick so much to any

of the lessons, but we had a really good conversation about our purpose and what

being a child of God really means. We were bouncing around to a lot of other topics

but I feel like we made some progress, and we were able to teach out of the Book of

Mormon the whole time. I think she is more open to reading it now. 

 

We have a baptism coming up on Sunday! Peh Reh and Lu Dee. They have had their

date set a couple weeks before I got here, so we've just been reviewing commandments

and helping them prepare. That's happening Sunday after Church so it should be sweet!

 

k bye!

Love Elder Holt

Week 41

Sup!

So it was raining a lot this week, which meant we can't really go
riding our bikes around town because whatever pants we decide to wear
will just be ruined. All the dirt and rain kick up from the tires and
just destroy them. So, we were riding buses around.

Buses are fine, except it takes up most of our time to ride a bus to
an appointment, have them not be home, and then go wait for a bus and
catch that somewhere else. Sometimes it just feels like we're on buses
and trains all day long, but that time can be productive if we can get
in conversations with people on the buses. Sometimes its a little hard
to talk to people, because there's a weird social code on buses where
people won't even look at each other. Sometimes people talk, sometimes
people ignore us. Sometimes people will ask what we're "slingin", or
just tell us to teach them "the word", so that's where our good
conversations come from.

We had our lesson with the Key Mey family with the intent
of setting a baptismal date. That went....alright. We started by
reviewing the restoration, having them say what they knew about it and
stuff, and then we re-taught baptism and the importance of baptism
within the gospel, and then invited them to be baptized. I don't know
if I've laid out their family situation, but there is a 17 year old
daughter, a 13 year old son, a 12 year old daugher, and an 8 year old
son, and then the two parents. Everyone wanted to be baptized, but Key
Mey said he had already been baptized.

The problem with Key Mey is that he knows pretty much no english whatsoever,
so we spent time trying to explain the restored authority and how that matters for
baptism, which is touchy enough to do in English, but the problem is
that whatever we were saying was being translated by one of the
daughters, but not exactly very well. A lot was getting lost in
translation and there were a lot of misunderstandings, but eventually
we simply invited Key Mey to pray about it and he agreed, so we'll see
where he is this week. They couldn't make it to church because of some
fathers day thing, but they promised to come next week.

Another thing that happened this week was that we met this really
cool guy named Elmore. We were waiting for someone on the sidewalk of a kind
of busy street, and we saw this jeep flip around down the street and he came
and pulled up right in front of us. He called us over, and he's this big black guy with
a bull ring nose piercing, and then he told us that his best friend was a missionary,
and he started telling us how he was taught back in 1988 and went to the Hill Cumorah
pageant and stuff. He's the nicest guy of all time, and he spent an hour telling us all
these stories, and eventually invited us over for dinner, so we'll go over there this week.

Love,
Elder Holt

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