Week 2 Mozambique

Tudo Bem all,

Today is monday here in Africa, and things are going great.  I arrived here a week ago, and we have tried to be as busy as possible since.  Tuesday we unfortunately had to spend the entire day in the city working on immigration documents, you got to love beurocracy though, because after waiting for a day nothing got done.  This meant that I had to come back into the city again on Wednesday, thankfully we got stuff done, and I am finally legal to be here.  It also meant that we lost a whole day of work for two days, which really sucks.  Wednesday night was awesome though because we  got to go to dinner with President Kretly.  He is an amazing man, we went to a rodezio(brazillian food on giant skewers) for dinner, and it was really good.  It was the first bacon I have had in a few weeks, and probably the last.  It was really cool though to sit down and discuss the goals of the mission, and how we will work into them with President.  Thursday we finally got to do a full day of work and it was really good.  We walk everywhere which isn't a bad thing, and I am really living in Africa.  Everyday we see green tropical trees, and we are the only white people around.  Because of this we get a lot of attention from everyone.  Unfortunately for Elder Keck and I, most of it comes from the mocas(young women 14-18)  They try and take pictures if they have camera phones, or else they just stare, it is kind of funny, but hey its Africa, so its cool right.  Friday we had another full day and I got to meet some more of the people in our area.  Our days are very full, we usually teach 3-5 lessons a day, and had 4 new people commit to be baptised this past week.  Unfortunately because of Lebolo and documentation for legal marriage, it could be another month and a half before they are able to be baptized.  I got to watch a video about our mission this week that explains the whole process with marriage, it is called "E Um Miragle" or "It's a Miracle" I am pretty sure it is on youtube and I encourage you all to watch it when you have some time, if you wonder what we are teaching the people here, this is it.  We would love your prayers to help the people with the ability to find the means and documentation to be married.  Saturday was a special experience.  I had my first baptism.  Her name is Gilda, but here house name or preferred name is Gina, so it was really special because she has the same first name as my mom.  I was the one who got to baptize her thanks to my amazing companion, and it was an amzing experience.  I will attach pictures to this email or the next one.  Sunday I bore my testimony in church in Portuguese, it was pretty scary but I survived.  Gina was also confirmed and it was super awesome.  I can not wait for the good things we will do this week, we will have to go to the city for some trainings but shouldn't lose nearly as much time as last week.  But things are going super well in Africa.  The women all wear these things called capelanas and they are basically universal clothing.  They mainly wear them as skirts, but ive seen them as shirts, and as padding for anything they carry on their heads.  And the woman carry EVERYTHING on there heads.  Except for their babies, which are carried in a capelana on their back.  I decided when I am married and have kids, my wife will have to carry our child  on her back in a capelana, it will be one of those questions that make or break the whole proposal thing.  I seriously love the people here, they are all so amazing and faithful, they don't have much, but they love everyone with their whole hearts.  I love the kids especially, they are the funniest kids I have ever met in my life.  I wish that everyone in the world was as happy as these people.

Com Todo da Amor em Meu Coracão, 

Èlder Anthony Holt

Some other things he said:

Elder Keck is super cool and is teaching me a lot.  I am eating pretty well, my diet is mainly cereal, rice beans, and chicken.  We don't have a ton of time to spend cooking.  I am used to the time by now, and the house is one of the nicest on the mission.  We have some short power outages at times, but its not a big deal.  We have AC, and filtered water, so we are great.  We haven't had any bad weather, but the humidity is real, i haven't stopped sweating since I got here, but it is all good.  I shower twice a day.

Me with Elder Keck, Gina, and the other boys baptized.

The road is right next to my house, and what I work in every day.

Week 1 Mozambique

Tudo Bem,

I am not really sure how long it has been since I wrote last, and this whole last week has been a big blur.  Anyways, I left the Provo MTC last Monday morning and began the 10,000 mile journey to Africa.  A bus, three planes, three trains, and a chappa later I made it.  We landed about ten local time and went back to the Mission home with the AP's.  They gave me the best news that I have received since I left here, in that I was allowed to sleep as much as I wanted to.  I woke up around noon the next day with about 4 hours of sleep haha,  jet lag is the spawn of satan basically.  I got to meet the Office Elders that day, as well as the sisters in the Maputo district.  We were told we were going to stay in the Mission home until this week because President Kretly was up in Beira for the organization of the second stake in the country.  This meant we spent a lot of time in the office.  Basically we studied a lot and it was similar to the MTC while we caught up to local time and waited to recieve our first assignments.  I was able to go out on a split and teach a family my first day out here though, and it was a special experience  because we were able to commit a family to baptism.  I couldn't follow the Portuguese super well, but I was able to teach a lot more than I anticipated, and It was amazing to watch real people accept the first step in their salvation.  That same night I got to ride in a REAL chappa(an oversized minivan with about 30 people jammed inside).  It was the first time I had heard any music since entering the field.  They were playing some crunk rap lil jon, and I kept laughing to myself because the Africans listen to the same music as black americans.  I do not mean that to be racist I promise!!!!   One of the biggest things you notice here is the Poverty.  It rages through the country, but it is amazing to see how happy all of the people are, it is beyond inspiring, and everyone is so humble and willing to listen to us.  We went out by the mission home on friday contacting and in two hours I was able to get 9 contacts.  The work is progressing so strong here and I am so excited that the Lord chose me to be a part of it.  We are in a special time here in Mozambique, they just had their first two stakes organized this year, and the church is booming.  Everyone is so funny because they just love talking to us.  Our president has set aside a designation for a qualified contact which we are supposed to have 5 a day as a companionship.  It is basically a Man with a family who believes in Jesus and is interested.  I find it funny though because as we talk to people, they will say they are Muslim and then we ask if they believe in Jesus, they almost always responds, ÖH YEAH, I LOVE JESUS."   It is kind of stupid I guess, but it makes me laugh.  We went to Church on sunday, and I am just conviced that the Portuguese changes on a daily basis, haha.  I will learn it someday, along with chingana, the local dialect.  This morning I got my assignment for the transfer, and I am serving in a place called T3, it is right by Maputo, and my trainer is Elder Keck.  I just barely got here, and so I haven't been able to get a picture but I will send one next week.  Elder Keck seems super cool though, and I am super excited to work with him.  It is hot here, it feels like a sauna in this cafe, but I will get used to it, haha.  I can't think of much more to say, but thank you and I love you. Please keep praying for us, we need it.

Com Amor,

Elder Anthony Holt

A few other things he said:

 I am sleeping under a mosquito net, so that is cool.  I am still getting adjusted to time.  Don't tell me to much about conference, we won't be able to watch it for like a month until the dvds get here, and I don't want you to spoil anything.

Mozambique Bound

So happy to receive an email this afternoon letting me know Elder Holt has arrived safe and well in Mozambique.  After the 15 1/2 hour plane ride through the night (not to mention the other 2 flights) I'm sure they are all exhausted!  I was so excited to talk to him yesterday morning as he was waiting the long travels ahead at the Salt Lake Airport.  He sounded really good, and I just loved hearing his sweet voice-made for kinda an emotional day or two for me.  I am now anxiously awaiting his next P-Day to hear all about his trip and arrival in Mozambique.  He is half way around the world, and yet I feel very comforted and blessed that he is in the best of hands!

They have arrived...and so did ALL the luggage! YEAH!

FINAL MTC EMAIL

Hello everybody,

So I am not breaking any rules I promise, because I leave on Monday, I get the next few hours as a P-Day to do laundry, pack, and email, so here I am now.  

This week was a really good one, we tried to focus on going out learning as much as we possibly could, so that was a lot of fun.  I don't have a lot to write about because its only been 4 days, but I have had some good stuff happen too.  We had in-field orientation on Thursday, where we sat in a class for 9 hours straight doing a review of everything we learned in the MTC.  My contact tore in my eye about an hour in, so it was a very long wait for the lunch break where I could switch it.  I also believe that meeting defies the whole attitude is everything theory, I tried to have the best attitude possible, and it was still a freaking rough day, especially because I still had another 3 hour Portuguese class right afterwards.  I did meet THE Elder Christensen from the district videos, so that was pretty cool, he taught one of my breakout sessions.

I had my last two classes this week and it was really sad, but I am so grateful that I had such amazing teachers.  I have spent the last few hours packing, and that is really fun, not.  I miss my mom more than ever now, because if she was here she would do it for me, haha.  I guess I will learn anyways.  

Not much else interesting has happened this week, but hopefully I wlll be able to send you all an email when I get to Mozambique.

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

MTC Week 5

Oi, minha pessoas prefirido,

Como Vai?  I am doing well.  I have had another week for the books.  Considering this is the MTC, I still probably won't have a ton to write, but I will try to make this a good letter.  So the one of the best parts of this week was on Friday.  Because I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS!!!  I will leave the MTC at 6am this coming monday, the 16.  I fly out of salt lake at 11:15, land in atlanta around 5, and get on a plane to Johannesburg at 8:30.  I fly for 21 hours, and then I get on a flight to Mozambique.  I am so excited, maybe not for 21 hours in a plane, but I am about to go to the greatest place in the world.  

This week I also got the opportunity to play piano in the opening devotional for the senior missionaries.  I played a song and I practiced every chance I got, and I had a really good learning experience.  As I was practicing I felt really good up until the day of, and then it seemed like everything was going wrong.  I was making a ridiculous amount of mistakes, and I was so nervous it was making me sick.  I knew the entire MTC presidency would be there, and I really needed to play my best.  Even my run through right before the devotional didn't feel very good, but I prayed super hard that I would be able to do my best.  Right before I got up to perform, I had the feeling to pray that I would have faith in my practicing.  I prayed really hard for the whole song, and as I played, I had very strong faith in my practice, and it ended up being the best run I think I have ever had with that song.  I encourage all of you to stop praying for help with things, God has the power to help, but he also honors preparation.  Therefore, I encourage you to have faith in your preparation, and It will be a much better experience, because I know that with faith, all things are possible, even so much that eventually we can be as the brother of Jared and have so much faith that our faith will tear the veil down before our eyes.  

We had a good week with our investigators, we committed Manuel to be baptized, and hopefully Michelle will accept the invitation this week.  I keep learning so much from the lessons, even though they are role plays, they feel so real.  I believe that God helps us as we all try our best to make it as realistic of an experience as possible.  

I want to tell you all about an elder I met here this week.  His name is Elder Mazivila.  I was at lunch on Thursday, and I was walking to my seat when I had a strong feeling that I needed to talk to this elder that I saw.  I kept fighting the feeling, but finally it got to strong to ignore.  I went and introduced myself to him, and it turns out he is from Mozambique.  He didn't speak much English, so I had quite a miracle when I realized I could communicate with him fairly well, it helped that he talked slow, but I got to learn a lot more  about the country.  I kept thinking what a miracle it was that he was here in the Provo MTC.  I know that most missionaries there don't come back here to learn, and they serve in missions around there native countries.  For some reason this Elder was going to Tampa, and he happened to be in the MTC the same time as me.  As we were talking I found out that he is the only member in his family, and he asked me to find his family and baptize them.  For some reason I had no fear about saying yes, and I did.  It was so amazing, and now I have a family that I need to work hard for, not only to find, but also to prepare for.  I have no doubt that if I work hard enough, the Lord will bless me, with the ability to find them, and if I am worthy of it, the spirit will be a tool for their conversion.  I like the 2000 stripling warriors, will "Doubt Not," because my angel mother taught me so.  I am so unworthy of being blessed to have her for my Mother, but God must have been loving me a lot the day he sent me to her, because without here, I would have this faith, because my faith comes from hers, at times when I didn't have faith, she was there stalwart and strong, looking to God, and I had her to lean on.  I am forever grateful and indebted to her for that. 

I guess I will tell a funny story or two to close.  So yesterday we were eating lunch, and Elder Ryan was walking to the table, on the other side of me.  Someone bumped into him, and put his tray off balance, he tried to adjust so he didn't lose his food, but in doing so, ended up dumping about half of his chocolate milk on a senior sister missionaries head.  I couldn't stop laughing, and her response was the best.  She said, "well it looks like you just got your first baptism."  The other sort of funny, sort of annoying experience is kind of an ongoing thing.  4 of the elders in our room are from cold places, and Elder Lunt and I are the odd ones out.  They all think its a good Idea to sleep with the AC on full blast, and because we are the minority we get shafted.  I resorted to stealing half the blankets in the room, and I now sleep in sweats, a hoodie, and like 3 blankets.  Boy are they gonna get an awakening when we get to Africa.  I just guess everyone would be more Christlike if it wasn't so dang hard.

Thank you all for love prayers and love, I really need them, and I feel them everyday.

With Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

Elder Holt & Elder Mazivila

MTC Week 4

Hello everyone,

Thank you again for all of your prayers.  I really feel them, and have definitely needed them this week.  I got sick again, and the doctor said it must have been a sinus infection, but it didn't heal because he didn't give me an antibiotic last time, but I got one this week, so I starting to feel a lot better. This week has been interesting.  I guess I got my payback for laughing at everyone in St. George who got a lot of snow.  We had snow three times this week, but thankfully none of it stuck.  Then about 15 minutes ago I looked out my window and it had started snowing, and there is already about two inches on the ground.  I realized I am a lot like my mom, and I really don't like the cold, that or maybe its the fact that I packed for Africa.  My mom is the best missionary girlfriend though, and she sent me a warm jacket, so its been a lot better  Either way, all of the Elders except for one are from cold places, and they just laugh at me and Elder Lunt, for being cold.  Oh, well they have never been in 100+ degree weather, so I am cooler(hotter) I guess. I had the opportunity to host this week, it was a ton of fun, I got a lot of the early arrivals, and the normals, and then the late arrivals, I ended up hosting about 16 missionaries, we get to host again this week, so it should be a lot of fun.  

        Portuguese keeps coming, It is difficult, but I am really feeling good about the language, and am so grateful for the gift of tongues, I would be nowhere without it.  The funny thing is, our teachers here push us really hard, and Elder Ryan and I have been feeling very comfortable with our speaking, and Ironically our new investigator is deaf.  We have been writing our lessons for him on a little white board, but as hard as it is, I really love the lessons we have with him, because the silence in the room really allows the spirit to penetrate our hearts, and the inability to speak helps us keep our lessons simple.  The teaching and studying here is the same as it's been before, but we keep improving, and I am just so excited to get to Africa, the MTC is a lot of fun, but my heart yearns for the people of Mozambique, supposedly I will be getting my travel plans this friday, so I am really anxious, granted because we aren't Brazil heroes, we don't get Visa information, until we are supposed to leave.  I guess I will find out if mine is here in the next week.

        Sunday proved to be the best day again this week.  Fasting was a lot easier, because we were too busy to have time to eat.  We had a Mission Conference, and the spirit was super strong, and the Devotional that night was amazing.  I keep learning a lot about love, I have struggled a lot with knowing what love for others is because I am such a conceited person, but I am learning day by day.  As I feel myself growing closer to Christ I feel his love grow within me, and I am starting to have an understanding of what love really is.  

        This week I was reading in my scripture study in Alma 32, which is an amazing chapter, and I encourage all of you to read it.  One of my new favorite scriptures is verse 27, in it, Alma says that even if you don't have faith, you must have faith in your faith, and eventually it will grow within you.  I have had to have a lot of faith in my faith here at the MTC, and I already feel it growing tremendously.  I know that someday, my faith will one day be as it describes in verse 34, and It will no longer be faith, it will be a perfect knowledge.  That is my goal for faith, to have as much as the prophets, like the brother of Jared whose faith was so strong that it tore down the veil and he saw our Savior, someday I will have that faith, but right now, I just have to have faith that my faith will be sufficient for my mission, and I am content with that. 

I Love You All,

Elder Anthony James Holt
PS-The Picture is us warm weather boys enjoying the snow, and some of the shenanigans we get involved in here at the MTC

The things missionaries do in their spare time....

Let It Snow...The only two missionaries in the district that are cold climate (snow) deprived!

Toast with Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider to celebrate 1/2 way mark in the MTC...

Melting Mama's Heart...I believe it says "I Love You Mom" in Portuguese.  He attached a voice recording along with this picture.  It was so fun and good to hear his voice!  He even bore his testimony in Portuguese.  WOW! Made me a little emotional today!  Love this boy!

This must be proof he is doing laundry!  This statue is like the one on our Bishop's desk, one of the many moments in time, he knew he was ready to go serve the Lord.  He wanted to be "Anxiously Engaged".

This picture...well...I'd say it speaks for itself.  
I really hesitate to put it on here, but he sent it to everyone on his email list...so here it is!  Missionaries do shower! Yeah for that!

MTC Week 3

I would say week tres, but then people would think I was using spanish, and I don't want to be associated with that, haha.  This week has been good, but the MTC is very repetitive, so I won't probably have as much stuff in this email, so sorry.   Anyways, I gave my first haircut this week to Elder Lunt, he wanted his neck shaved.  I guess I should have put my glasses on first...  It was all good though, I got most of it, and then accidentally left a little soul patch on the back.  It will probably be like the next mullet or rat tail thing to do, so he'll thank me later.  Other than that we go to a lot of classes.  I can read the book of mormon in portuguese now, and have a good understanding of what is actually happening, so that is really exciting, it does take me ten times as long, but it truly a miracle considering that I've only been here three weeks.  We lost our oldest district today, with all of my favorite elders.  This left our district as the oldest, and as such two of the elders(Walton and Copitzky) were called as ZL's.  Elder Ryan is the new DL, Elders Karl and Lunt are media specialist trainers, and I am the Priesthood greeter.  So between all of us we basically have monopolized every calling in the Zone.  I had a really cool experience this week where I go to give my first Priesthood blessing.  A sister in our district was feeling sick, and I had this overwhelming feeling to ask her if she would like a blessing.  It was kind of like the feeling you get before bearing your testimony when you know you're supposed to.  It was a really cool experience though, I was shaking so bad, but I could feel the spirit so strongly.  I am grateful for the opportunity to exercise the priesthood as a servant of the Lord.  

If you are wondering what we do for fun here in the MTC, it basically revolves around singing.  We are not supposed to listen to music in our residences, so we make our own.  At first we were killing it, we sang anything and everything.  This week though we started losing our memory of most of our lyrics.  Thankfully we still have frozen which we sing every night, and newsies.  So we are basically the real deal.  It is kind of cold up here, its been ridiculous in the morning, especially considering I packed for Africa, all of this makes me wish even more that I could get out there.  But I do have less time left than I have been here.  I guess I will share a quick experience I had this week.  We were talking about the ordinance of receiving the Holy Ghost, and I had an overwhelming feeling as I was studying, that the Holy Ghost is not just an inward change on our personal lives.  When we are worthy, the Holy Ghost can change our entire physical persona and make us happier, not only to ourselves but to others.  I encourage all of you to live worthy of the Holy Ghost, and simply by doing so, someone in your life will be touched, and want to know more about why you are who you are.  We hear so many stories of this in the field, and we need all of you to be the example.

I love all of you, Thank you for your support and prayers,

Com Amar,

Elder Anthony James Holt

MTC Week 2

Week Dois is done!!!  It has been a good interesting week.  So I talked about Angelo last week, and we stopped teaching him on Wednesday.  It was kind of sad, we really got to know and love him, and we didn't want to say goodbye.  Then on Thursday night we were working on our study time and all of the sudden the door opened and Angelo walks in dressed in Sunday best with a teacher name tag on.  Turns out he is our Second teacher for the rest of our time here at the MTC.  His name is Irmao Workman, and he served in Mozambique 2 years ago, which is really nice because he teaches us the Portuguese we will speak there.  The week has been really fun though.

So on Wednesday we were walking to lunch, and all of the new missionaries were coming in, so there was a really somber air about.  We were talking when all of the sudden Elder Lunt just yells, AW CRAP!!!  We all turned around and he had some weird brown stuff on his face.  Apparently some bird pooped on him while we were walking and hit him square on the cheek.  We were all right there laughing so hard we couldn't breathe, and I felt bad because all of these new missionaries were there crying and what not because they were saying goodbye, and all of us were just dying of laughter.  I hope they don't think that we were laughing at them.  Elder Lunt and I have a lot of fun.  We sing in the shower every night at the top of our lungs for about 15 minutes.  So far our repertoire includes anything from Taylor Swift to Fall Out Boy to Ed Sheeran to George Strait.  We are pretty sure MoTab will be asking us to come as a preferred walk on any day now. I have the coolest Elders in my district.  Elder Ryan and I are the coolest companionship.  We decided I'd a Leader and he is a Lover, so we both have a lot to learn from each other.  We get work done though, we even focus better than the sisters in our district during study time now.  The rest of the Elders are so cool, we all do choir, and It is so fun, we are singing Consider the Lilies this week, and the arrangement sounds amazing.  The sisters are pretty cool too.  I really feel like the district is my family.  WE are going to have some really hard goodbyes in a few weeks.

I am not gonna lie to you.  As much fun as we have had, this week has been so hard.  Our Branch President challenged us to start the Book of Mormon over and read it all before we leave the MTC.  This past week I read the Isaiah chapters, and for the first time they didn't confuse me.  I really understood most of what Isaiah was talking about.  It was really hard because I began to be filled with a lot of feelings of inadequacy as I know that I am part of the mission force God is sending out here in the 11th hour, and it is really scary.  I also have been struggling with sleep too.  I know that blessing are predicated on obedience, and I am striving to be exactly obedient, yet I still struggle to sleep, and in the days I fall asleep in class and it is so hard because I try to be obedient, and all I want is to be blessed with some more energy, but it hasn't come for some reason.  This coupled with the feelings of Inadequacy made for a very hard weekend.  Thankfully there were a few things that made it better.   

On valentines day I got a package from my mom and it really lifted my spirits. Actually I got four from her.  All the Elders in my district decided that with as many packages she sends me my mom is the best missionary girlfriend. I think so at least.  We also talked about bae's on valentines. Fortunately I've never had a Girlfriend so I couldn't get too depressed, haha.  Sunday was amazing also and really helped me feel better.  I blessed the Sacrament in Portuguese, and Sang a musical number in a quartet with Elders Ryan, Walton, and Nelson.  It was awesome, and the spirit was so strong the whole day.  I don't know that I feel 100% better, yet, but I've started to realize that this whole mission thing is supposed to be easy, but I know that there is a reason I'm here, and there is people in Mozambique who I am Foreordained to teach.  These thoughts keep me taking one more step each day, no matter how hard, because I've learned so much about love in the few weeks here.  I know that Jesus was pained to go through the atonement, but he went through it because he Loved me, and all of us.  For this reason, no matter how hard it gets I have someone to look to that has been where I am now, and it makes such a difference.  I also feel the influence of the hundreds of thousands of young men and women who have come through the mission field before me, and if they can do it, I know I can too.

I love all of you so much, and am so grateful for all of your prayers and love.  Please keep them coming, we truly need them.  Even if the entire church prayed for the missionaries I think we would still need more because of the depth of the task we are called to undertake.

With Love,

Elder Anthony James Holt

Elder Holt's District in front of the Provo Temple

Elder Holt & the Elders in his District in front of the Provo Temple

Elder Holt's District with their Valentine Cookies!

Elder Holt & Elder Ryan

MTC Week 1

Hey, so Tuesday is my P-Day, so thats why I'm writing today.  The first week had been a lot of fun, and a lot of work.  My companion is Elder Ryan, he is heading to Cape Verde but is also speaking Portuguese.  There are two other elder companionship in my district.  Elder Walton and Elder Copitzky, as well as Elder Karl and Elder Lunt.  The sisters from our district our Sister Thomas and Sister Miller, and Sister Kohlert and Sister Larsen.  Me, Elder Walton, Elder Copitzky, and Sister Thomas are all going to Mozambique. The others are headed to Cape Verde.  We started learning the Language from day one, and it is very overwhelming, but it is coming, and I have seen the Miracle of the Gift of Tongues a million times in the last week.  My teacher is Irma Kimball, she served in Brazil.  We have been teaching an investigator in Portuguese since day 2, his name is Angelo, and the spirit is so strong when we teach him.  We do not know Portuguese much more than a child, but they say that out of the mouth of babes many will be confounded, and the simplicity of the messages coupled with a sincere desire to teach by the spirit makes the lessons amazing, we have had three lessons already, and the spirit is stronger than I have ever felt when I am teaching him.  On thursday we got to meet our Branch Presidency, our president is President Brough.  He is very disciplined, and we have a lot of things that most other zones don't, but I really like the discipline.  I know the rules are for our benefit, and it leaves out a lot of gray area.  Sunday was amazing, It was my first away from my family, but it was so amazing.  The sacrament was in Portuguese, and I got to go to Elders Quorum for the first time (I guess I finally graduated from Primary).  We also had missionary choir and a Devotional that evening, as we were singing, and throughout the devotional, the spirit was so strong, you counldn't help but feel amazing.  I was kind of sick since friday, but I went to the doctor, and it isn't strep, or a sinus infection, so it is all good.  Other than that the week is great.  If you want to know what the MTC is like, it is a lot of studying, 10 Hours a day, a lot of praying, probably 100 times a day, and a lot of trusting Heavenly Father,  basically 24/7.  It has been amazing so far, and I look forward to more experiences to tell you all about, and I hope to keep hearing from you, If you send your emails as a dearelder.com letter, they will forward it to my mail box, and I can read it physically the next day.  I love all of you, and am grateful for all of your prayers.  Please keep them coming.  For those of you getting ready to put your papers in, remember that "The Lords calls first, and then he qualifies, and If You have a desire to serve, Ye are called to the work."  I love all of you and miss you all. 

Tchow,

Elder Anthony James Holt