Week 49

Yo!

We had transfer calls last night, and our district got slashed. Before last night it was Elder Rawe and Elder Detlor in Eggert, Elder Klumker and Elder Giroux in Kenmore, and me and Elder Clinger in Buffalo. We used to have sisters here a couple transfers ago so it was 3 sets covering 4 areas, but Elder Klumker and Elder Giroux both got transferred out and Kenmore is being closed down, so now we have two sets covering 4 areas. Elder Rawe is going home in 3 weeks in the middle of the transfer so he can get back to school, so Elder Eggert will be in a trio for 3 weeks, and me and Elder Clinger are the same. Elder Rawe is district leader right now, but after he leaves I'll be made district leader, so that will be interesting. So the next transfer will be crazy because we have to realign our boundaries, and we have to take all of Kenmores investigators, and we still only have our bikes to get around. It will be fun being super busy, but probably pretty stressful too.

Our week was good though. My birthday was fun. I was on an exchange with Elder Rawe, and a couple in our ward took us out to Anchor Bar for wings which was the bomb. We had a couple really good lessons, one particularly with April. I think I talked about her a while ago, but we were finally able to see her again and teach the Plan of Salvation, and she loved it a lot. Our lessons always go so awesome, but then we won't be able to see her for like 3 weeks. We should have a regular Thursday appointment with her now though. Also, with the Key Mey family, we found out there is a Karen/Karenni/Burmese branch in Salt Lake, and we were able to get a hold of them, so we can skype in a member who knows English and Karen so they can translate with the family. This is actually a super big deal, because we can finally teach them and they can actually understand what's going on. Also, on Sunday they showed up to church again for the third week in a row, even though every week I ask them where they are going to church and they say their Burmese church. I asked them why they decided to come and they never understand what I'm asking. We will have our first skype lesson with him this week which will be super awesome.

That's about it for our investigators. Me and Elder Clinger have our new tradition of "Sunday Night Tracting" which is usually pretty fun and kind of effective. Oh also, they have a General Mills Cereal factory in South Buffalo, and every couple days the wind will be blowing into the city from the south, and the whole entire city will smell like Lucky Charms. Those are always great days. But yah, that's all I got for this week. Cya later!

Love Elder Holt

Week 48

Sup!

Everything's going good here. I couldn't get an email out last
week so I guess I have 2 weeks to catch up on. I've been doing that a
lot lately because our p-days have been packed.

There is a kid in our ward named Kombi. He is 13, and he
and his family immigrated from Congo a few years ago. He is one of
the coolest kids and has been bringing his friends, Mark and Jack to
church for a couple months. The Young Men's leader took
them all to the pageant and after seeing it Mark and Jack said that they
would feel comfortable taking the missionary lessons, so last Sunday
we had our first lesson with them and it was sweet. We taught them the
Restoration and Kombi was able to sit in with us and bear his
testimony. It went well. Mark and Jack are both really good kids
that sincerely want to learn. English is their second language too but
I'm not sure where they are from. We're excited to teach them.

With the Key Mey family, we have been trying to re-teach them the
lessons in more creative ways so that they can understand better. We
taught them the Restoration using cups to build a pyramid and
represent the apostasy and that went really well. They are still
coming to church every other Sunday and we visit them every week.
We have hit a slow spot with them. The kids want to be baptized, but Key
Mey is not ready, so we won't be able to do much until we can help him
gain a testimony. That's the hard part because he can't speak English. We
are trying to figure out how to best help him to progress. 

Last week before zone meeting we went out for district lunch at the famous

"Anchor Bar". It's the most popular wings place in Buffalo and is apparently

where the first buffalo wing was invented. It's a place you have to go to if you

ever visit Buffalo (except I don't know why anyone in their right mind would take

a getaway to this city). We bought a hundred wings and they were sooooooo

good. The best chicken wings I've ever had. The BBQ wings were the best.

Since I'm talking about food, Elder Clinger and I also went to one of the most

popular pizza places in town. "La Nova". Since Buffalo is so big into chicken wings,
the pizza places around here make the best chicken finger pizza ever. It's

just a Buffalo chicken wing in pizza form. Really, all Buffalo can offer to people is
pizza and wings, but at least they do it right. 

           

Elder Newold and I went down to the harbor to see these warships

  

Lake Erie

 Alright, cya!

Love Elder Holt 

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

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