End of Week 14

Bom Dia,

So this week was really interesting.  On monday my companion Elder Mataveis got a call saying he was leaving for tete.  All of the other transfers were moved until wednesday.  But that was all good.  I walked in a tripla with elder carvalho and elder tanner for monday and tuesday.  We had a giant familiy night on monday which was fun.  I also learned that a lot of times you don't know about miracles for a while.  So they have an investigating family named Silva and Teresa.  The story behind them is super intersting.  She was baptized in 2008 in Beira, and was active for about a year.  She and silva moved down here and basically forgot abuot the church.  She tried to get him to come to church a lot, but he was never interested.  So then about 3 weeks ago I was on division with elder adams in my old are and I was trying to take a shortcut that elder keck and I would always use.  But we got lost.  We ended up like a mile and a half outside of our are in zona verde and there was no one around to help us.  That past sunday I had fasted that we could find someone to that would actually progress, but in this moment I was really distracted trying to find where we were.  There was no one on the road, and I said aquick little prayer that we would find the road or someone to help us.  Immediately after someone grabbed my hand.  I turned around and here was this woman who looked like she was in her mid 30's.  (in mozambique grabbing someones had is a way to get their attention, it is really hard to describe) but she started talking to us, and I asked how to get back to t3.  She didn't even care to answer, she told me that she was from Beira and hadn't been to church in a long time(6yrs) and that we were the first elders she had seen in zona verde in that time.  She knew where the church was but never went.  So being good little missionaries, we invited her to church and her family.  We also took her husbands number to give to the elders in zona verde.  She hasn't missed a sunday since then, and neither has her husband.  They are working on marriage and baptism, and they are an awesome family.  I didn't hear this side of the story until this family night, and it made a lot of hard nights and weeks worth it.  Also they helped us not be lost anymore, so that was really nice too.  On wednesday we had transfers and I got my new companion.  His name is Elder Brown.  We are staying in T3, but they shut my old area, so we took half of that as well.  He is from provo, and is a ton of fun.  We have worked really hard and put together a good plan for the area.  Tomorrow we will be able to take off running and I am super excited.  We have a lot of potential for success and I can't wait.  Other than that I can't think of too much to say.  I love you all, thank you for your prayers and support, we feel it every day.  Until next week.

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

I Finished Training... Finally / Week 13

So today is a day to celebrate because I finally finished training.  It was a long 12 weeks, but I am glad to be out.  I support the church wholeheartedly, but I swear.  They wanted me to practice law of chastity invites in week 11, and I have asked people to live the law of chastity since my first day out here.  So enough of my little rant, but this week has been good.  It was the last week of the transfer and unfortunately we lost a lot of time.  We worked tuesday and wednesday full days, but we had district meeting moved to thursday as well as weekly planning so we only had like a half day in the area on thursday, Friday was zone conference, and saturday we had a wedding, baptism, and activity.  I can't think of much super interesting things that happened in the area in the first of the week, but we did have a really hard lesson with one of my favorite families.  They decided to push their wedding back until december which was heartbreaking because they know this is true and I don't think we explained the importance of baptism to them very well.  But on thursday we prepared a lesson where we watched E Um Milagre, and then we brought the family that was baptized on saturday with us.  They bore strong testimony, and I really feel that Sergio and Elisa will decide to be married and baptized now and have a party later.  We had another huge miracle this week as well that really built my testimony of fasting.  Mussa and Rosa some of our investigators have been living seperate for the whole transfer, they had the marriage process open and everything and she left him because his mom has really bad mental problems and rosa couldn't handle it anymore.  The problem is they have two children, and they were just kind of going back and forth all transfer of living together for a few days and then she'd leave again.  I prayed and studied for them a lot, and last week I felt that I should just be direct with them.  It was kind of funny looking back.  I the 18 year old had to tell the 22 year olds that they needed to grow up.  I told them that they either need to get married and stay that way or separate and stay that way.  We gave them a week to pray and think about it.  That sunday was fast sunday, and I fasted for them.  THen when we visited this last week they told us that they would get married.  It truly was a miracle and I am so grateful they softened their hearts.  We had zone conference this week, which was awesome.  I love President Kretly's presentations, he is a very entertaining presenter.  It was kind of funny, so I still have to sit in the translation section which is really annoying, but our translator were apart of zone conference for like an hour, so I ended up translating for the other people in the translation section.  A lot of missionaries told me it was a funny sight, but the gift of tongues is so real.  The transfer also came to a close, which meant Elder Larsen, one of my best freinds here on the mission was going home.  It was really sad to see him go, he has helped me out a ton out here, but he will do good stuff back in america too.  My comp is also going to tete today.  The rest of transfers were moved to wednesday though, so I will be walking in a tripla today and tomorrow until I get my new comp.  I think I might stay here and I would be so happy if that happened because we have 3 families that should be baptized this next transfer.  I can't think of much else, but I love you all and am so grateeful for your support.  Your prayers are definitely felt. 

Com Amor,

Elder Anthony James Holt

Feliz Invierno / Week 12 (June 8, 2015)

Boa Tarde,

So this week was pretty nice.  I want to start out by giving a shoutout to my mother, for all the times she yelled at me to do the dishes.  I sure learned how to do my dishes, but the most important thing is that I learned how to yell at people for not doing their dishes.  I don't know if I am growing up, or just at my wits end, but I started noticing me doing things my mom did a lot during this week.  Like always checking lights, and getting frustrated for not shutting doors.  I am still working on the whole be organized thing, but I just would be chill if the only books I needed were my book of mormon and a bible, because 90% of the time that is all I use.  We had a good week in the area though.  We left a lot of families because they weren't progressing, but our families continue to do well that are progressing.  We have two families that should be baptized in the next transfer, so that is super exciting, it is possible to have a third, but I don't know.  We also found a lot this week.  I have started to understand a lot more about the reason that Jesus related missionary work to fishing.  It is basically the same thing, granted we don't eat our success.  I have basically decided that there are two types of missionaries.  The Rod fisherman, and the net fisherman.  Right now I am trying to be as much of a net fisherman as possible.  I made a compromise basically with my comp that we will not skip houses when we knock doors, and that if we are knocking that we will plan where and when, and that we will knock every house possible.  It has been a lot more successful than passing a billion and a half houses to only knock the people who have cars.  Unfortunately this week we missed the contact goal.  I was really angry because it was because of a lack of planning, and should have been avoided, I tried and tried and felt like I got 25 of our 30 contacts by myself, but I guess I just have to be more patient and just deal with it.  This is the last week of my training, so that is nice.  I am honestly done with training.  The 12 weeks program is good, but it is too long.  It is telling me that I need to learn how to make baptismal invites during this week, but I have honestly been doing baptismal invites since before week one.  I also have had like no appetite since I got sick last week, so I am only eating what I need to walk during the days, really this just means I have watched the pounds fall off.  I have lost 6-8 the last few weeks, I am almost where I was going into the MTC.  But I think I have grown an inch, so that my cause some differences too.  This week is Zone Conference, and I am SOOO excited, it is gonna be a blast.  I can't think of much else good to say, and the internet cafe is playing the song Thinking Out Loud, and so I am gonna end this and not be apostate.  I love you all, and miss you too, sorry if my grammar sucks, I don't really remember much english, I don't speak it very much.

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

O poder de Piri-Piri / Week 11 (June 1, 2015)

Boa Tarde Ya'll,

So this week has been interesting.  To start with, I will explain the subject line.  Piri-Piri is hot sauce, the only kind that exists here.  We have a little bottle in our house and the other day I put a few drops in my egg.  Within a few hours my stomach was rumbling, and all the sudden, my plans changed in a heart beat.  I was sick for 2 days, and it was really bad.  We lost a lot of time in the area.  A few days after I looked at the bottle of piri-piri sauce and realized why I was sick.  This bottle sits on our microwave and it has been there for a long time.  Long before I got here, and a long time before then.  I was reading a tiny little part of the label that says to refrigerate.  Well it has been everything but refrigerated for 6 or so months.  I was thinking about that today and learned a little lesson.  I think I put three drops on my egg, just enough for a little flavor. 3 drops.  I was sick for 2 days because of three drops.  We all have instructions in our life, we all know what we should and shouldn't do.  But how many of us are 100% obedient 100% of the time.  I am not, I am trying so hard to be.  Had I been, I would have not been sick for 2 days.  But what can these three drops of expired hot sauce represent.  Movies, music, sports.  You choose.  I had three drops and was out for two days.  What is the power of a 3 minute dirty song.  I don't know.  But I have made a lot of mistakes in my life and as I reflect, how many of those mistakes were caused because of 3 minutes in a place we shouldn't have been, 3 hours in an innapropriate movie.  I don't yet understand it, but if three drops put me out for three days, I can't the effects of 3 minutes of bad music.  It is devestating.  We must live worthy of our covenants at all times, not just when we are preparing for a mission, not just when we are about to get married.  We have to foolow every commandment, not just the ones we understand, or can read.  Obedience is huge, and I am trying to be better, I hope this wasn't a weird analogy, but I really learned from it.

Anyways, in our area, this was also a really hard week.  We dropped 6 families that werent progressing, so we will be finding a lot this week.  It is so difficult to have someone tell you that they have prayed and recieved and answer, but that same person won't come to church, and won't follow the spirit.  I know that every single one of these families knows.  I could see it in their eyes, and it is so hard to watch them decide not to follow their sacred response.  I know that we will find someone though, it might take a long time, but I know that somewhere in our area, we will find someone who will be baptized.  I got to teach gospel principles yesterday, so yeah, that was really nice.  I have never been to "Adult" sunday school for myself, and yesterday I taught it in a foreign language.  It was a lot of fun though.  I can't think of much else that is going on here.  I am turning into an african in at least one way though.  It was like 70 degrees last night, and I was cold.  It was bad.  Hopefully my skin will relfect the change here in a few months.  I hope all is well, and wish you all the best. You are in my prayers, but not my thoughts because I don't want to get trunky.  Also I am starting to understand why my dad thought he could cut hair so well.  I have been asked for 3 haircuts this week, they were all different, and I think they all looked pretty nice.  so yeah, I am basically a professional.

Love you all,

Elder Anthony Holt

When you make your chick-fil-a run back home, you can show this to Deven or Brandon, and tell them thanks for letting me learn how to make delicious lemonade.  And that I miss the juicer, It took 20 minutes to do 15 lemons.  But my house loves me as well.