Alo (9-21-15)

Bom Dia Meus Queridos,

So I want to start off saying, that whatever you have been praying for this week/doing... KEEP DOING IT!!!  I think I had one of the best weeks of my mission this week in terms of physical success.  We only were able to work 4 days because elder combs was sick.  And in those four days we found 7 new families.  3 came to church, and we found 3 others on sunday after church.  We were so blessed.  And absilom and adalaide were able to get their documents, and we are opening the process tomorrow, in other words "I can hear the bells.'  It was a great week.  Elder Combs and I made a really hard goal two weeks ago, and we sat down and made a plan to reach this goal, and now we are being blessed because we took the plan to the Lord, and worked our butts off.  When last night rolled around, I was more tired than I have been on my entire mission.  Anyways, yeah.  The week was good.  We were in the house on the hot days, because Elder Combs was sick, but on the cold rainy weekend(which is super weird for this time of year) we were working.  I got to finally wear my rain jacket haha, it works really well.  And one pair of my shoes is still water proof, so that is really nice.  Well yeah.  So I really cant think about much else that happened, but we worked a lot, and I really dont know much else.  I am just super ecstatic because of all of our families.  I really pray that all will go well with all of them, and all of the families that we will find this week.  I guess my spiritual thought this week comes from a dream I had this week.  It was really interesting, kind of like a dream in a dream in a dream.  But I remember getting into bed, and I was a returned missionary(I promise I am not trunky), and as soon as I fell asleep, I dreamed I was teaching absilom and adalaide.  This was the first time I have consciously realized I was dreaming in portugues.  Anyways in the dream absilom asked me, why it was that Jesus is so important?  I dont know why but in the dream it really hit me, and I started thinking and next thing I knew I was swept off to a flashback, where I was studying, and I was reading in the bible in Isaiah 53.  It was really weird because it was super realistic. But then I remember reading, "Surely he was bruised for our iniquities... and with his stripes we are healed"  About this time I woke up to go to the bathroom, and then when I laid back down I stayed there for like an hour just thinking, "With his stripes we are healed."   I couldnt stop thinking about them, but I just had the strongest feeling that they were true.  And I want to testify to you all that I know that my savior lives, and that he loves all of us, no matter where we are, or what we are doing.  He suffered for every pain, sin, and difficulty we have or will ever have.   This was confirmed to me, and I know this is true, and that is truly why I am out here, because there are so many people here that dont know that that need it.  I love you all and am so grateful for you support.  Until next time.

Abracos,

Elder Anthony Holt

Faz Calor (9-14-15 End of Week 26)

Bom Dia Meus Queridos,

So this has been a good week, we had transfers, missionaries came and went, and it rained, then it was hot, and then it was cold, and then it rained again. The weather here has been so bipolar, it kind of reminds me of the weather patterns in utah, haha.  But other than that, we have taught some, found some, and discovered new parts of our area.  Our area is super huge, but I finally think I know the boudaries more or less.  It is super hard too because I know that there are really good people in our area, so we are either knocing all the wrong doors or something is up.  I dont really know, haha.  But me and elder combs made a decision to try and work our area in a way that I dont ever think it has been worked, we have put together some plans and we will start tomorrow.  I am super nervous, because it is going to require working at a level that I never thought was possible, and it is going to require the longest days we can possibly put in, but I have a lot of faith, that after putting it into practice for a little bit, we will see the fruits, but if you dont here from me next week, it is because I will be spending my whole p-day recuperating, haha.  I am super excited though and will have to pull into some of my old athlete tank and imagine my coaches saying alright one more 1000 times or so, haha.  If all else fails, we will find out and try something else.  This week we had a really cool experience with a family we found. It really showed me the importance of talking with everyone as a missionary or a member.  So there is this guy we met named ozorio, and we contacted him by knocking the door.  And when we knocked he let us in, and we shared our message, he said it was really interesting that we were there that day because earlier that day a coworker had talked to him about his church at work, and he was really interested.  So we come back 4 days later and we were talking to him again, and the guy says first thing.  So I went and talked with my friend and shared what you guys told me, and he said, those are missionaries from my church, listen to them, they will help you out a lot in your life.  I got to think about this experience and I was amazed at the situation, I cant say it was coincidence, because I have to know better being a missionary, but it was so amazing to me, and I got to thinking how much easier it would be if people would share the message and invite them to recieve the missionaries in our home.  I know references are a million times better than contacts, so you should all think of someone, and then share are message with them, you will never know who the Lord has prepared for you, and if you do this the missionaries will love you for forever and ever.  This gospel is a message of 100% happiness, so spread the joy, dont be selfish and keeps this knowledge fo eternal families, and life after death to yourself.  We know what we know is true, and we know everyone needs it, so if we just open our mouths the lord will bless us.  I know this church is true and that god is our loving heavenly father.  I know that he is the same yesterday, today and forever, and that he loves us the same as his children in ancient times, for that reason we have a prophet today, thomas s monson, he talks with god, and he receives revelation for all of the world.  The priesthood is the power of god on the earth, by and through it I have seen miracles.  Most of all I want to share my testimony that Jesus Christ is our savior, he suffered for us, and he know us perfectly.  Through his atonement, we learn that all of this is possible, and we recieve the strength(grace) to do the impossible.  There is only one true church and I am so grateful for the knowledge that my heavenly father has given me through my prayer and study, and desire to to know, that I can say I Know.  I Love you all so much and look forward to the day when I will see you all again.  A-Frican have a lot of work to do so until then.

Love and Hugs,

Elder Anthony Holt

Another Day a New Transfer (9-7-15)

So yeah, we had transfers today, I will continue training elder combs in our same area.  I am super excited, because I actually am feeling like I know the area a little bit.  Other than that, the entire mission changed, haha.  But yeah, I am super excited for this transfer.  We should be opening the marriage process for Absilom and Adalaide this week, which will be sweet, because I haven't had a marriage and baptism yet, and I am so excited, and ask for your prayers that all will go well.  But yeah, today I realized that I am in my 5th transfer, which really isn't all that much, but that is like 5 more transfers than I ever imagined would pass by.  The time is definitely going, somedays really slowly, others a lot quicker, but it is a blast, that is for sure.  This week we had our mission tour, which is where an area presidency member gives a tour of our mission, so on wednesday we got to hear from Elder Kevin S. Hamilton of the Seventy.  He was a great speaker, and he talked a lot about the purpose of the plan of salvation and the family in our work.  I can definitely see how important it is, and I am learning more everyday.  It is basically that the plan of salvation is our fundamental doctrine.  It was lost with the great apostasy, and there are a million churches with a million different interpretations of the same scriptures, but between the book of mormon and modern revelation we have 100% surety of why we are here, where we come from, and where we go when all is said and done.  I dont understand why people dont just flock to the font sometimes,  I talk to people who go and mourn for weeks after a passing away, and have no clue where their loved one is, but as soon as someone offers to tell them where he is, and how they can see him again, they dont want to know anymore.  It is weird, it is like we are holding a million dollar check in their face, but they are turning it down because they dont want to go to the back to cash it.  It is probably the most frustrating part of missionary work, and the greatest gift god ever gave us: Agency.  The other thing I am so grateful for is a living prophet.  The more I think about it the more it only makes sense that we have someone on the earth to direct the church with his authority.  It is another golden truth that makes no sense to me when people turn it down.  Satan is definitely rampant, and it sucks, but it is all part of the work.  We also have been working with two families and they have talked with bishop and will go to the temple in november, so that is super awesome, there is so much sacrifice at times, but I think Joseph Smith once said, A church that doesn't believe in sacrifice will never have faith sufficient enough to produce miracles.  So yeah, this was a little bit of a slower week work wise, which gave me a little more time to think, but I see miracle that come from faith.  Heck, my being here right now is a miracle, especially when I think of everything I was doing a year ago to get here.  It all seemed so distant and impossible, but it definitely isn't, that is for sure.  This week I will hit a year since I turned in my papers, it is crazy.  I Love you all, and hope you have an amazing week.  I cant wait to hear all about them.

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

Meus Queridos... (8-31-15)

Boa tarde,

So, I am just sitting here sweating.  Summer is starting here, and man It is gonna be a warm one, that is for sure...  But yeah.  This was definitely a good week here in the vineyard.  I guess you could say we are pretty close to the part of the vineyard the lord is burning because it is very very hot.  Sorry for that missionary humor there, I guess that sounded better in my head than on paper, or the screen i guess...  The lord is definitely blessing us though, we had two new families found and elder combs and I both feel really good about working in a part of our area that has hardly been worked.  This means a lot of walking, in the heat.  But like I said the Lord is mindful of us, and our hot water broke so we have nice cold showers to get our body heat down to temperature normal when we get home.  I also notice that my shirts were not very white compared to my companions this week.  That is realy depressing because when I look at them I think they are super white, but when he stands next to me they just look not white at all.  But it is ok because I have 8 brand new ones in a space bag to be opened in a few months.  My area is still very sandy, but we had the best contacting experience this week.  So we were walking down the road when a member told us to come play a game of dama(checkers on steroids) with him, so we did, and while we were playing he called his neighbor over and taught him the restoration with us.  It was a super prepared guy and he has a member friend and everything and we have an excuse to play dama every few days when we go to teach him.  We got to teach the 5th sunday lesson yesterday about how to help the missionaries, that was really fun, I really love teaching.  I guess I love being a missionary in general, I dont know if I dont remember my last life, but I really love what I am doing, and I love every single day more than the one before it.  We are being so blessed though.  So 3 weeks ago elder combs got here, and we started working in our area with no one to teach.  Now we have 8 families, and another part-member family, and the icing on the cake is that one of the families will open the process next week.  The lord is blessing us immensely.  We still have a ton of work to do, and unfortunately will have to drop a few families, but I trust that we will always find more.  We also got to try a new fruit this week called masala.  It is like a coconut shell with a seed pod inside, so you open it up and then you take a bite of the fruit and suck the juice out and spit out the lima bean sized seed.  It tastes like mashed up bananas, so it was a good experience.  There are also like 100 seeds per fruit and it looks like vomit.  I think my most spiritual experience personally this week was as I was reading the book of mormon.  I prayed to know if it was true and all the sudden this weird thought came into my head.  As a child I never asked a magic 8 ball or anything if the book was true, something deep withing has always felt it was true.  I was not doubting my testimony or anything, but I just wanted to ask again.  And I will say,  don't doubt what you have always known. Our strongest testimonies have been with us since we were innocent little children.  Anyways, I love you all, I miss you so much.  Have an amazing week.

Abracos for everyone, except the women because I am set apart ;)

Elder Anthony Holt

Trying a new fruit-MASALA-he says it tastes like mashed up bananas--not sure he is loving it!