Random Pictures from Blog Surfing

I love Mondays,! Hearing from Elder Holt is awesome, but I always want more.  I tend to look up blogs trying to see if I can find any pictures or stories about him.  I have been successful once in a while.  Thought I'd share what I found.  Photo Credit from pictures below come from the Mission President's Blog & his companion, Elder Stewart's Blog.

Elder Neil L. Andersen visited the Mozambique Maputo Mission.
Can you spot Elder Holt?
Elder Holt is 3rd row from the front,
between the front row 4th and 5th person from the left.

Elder Holt (in about the same spot as the above picture!)

Pizza!!! Elder Stewart (Anthony's Companion), ?, Elder Holt, ?

Elder Stewart in a rain puddle.  Just though you might like seeing how much it can rain!

P-Day is Futbol Day!
Elder Holt is in the center & his Mission President, Pres. Koch is next to him on the right.

A little Foot Bridge

Elder Stewart sent these pictures of what homes in Matola (his current area) look like.

We had a Baptism!!!! (3-28-16)

So yeah, this was a good week.  We had a baptism(2) incase you didnt read my subject line.  But Laura and Paula, the daughters of Mendes and Maria were baptized.  They havent missed a sacrament meeting since the day we found their family 4 months ago, except for a funeral.  But we waited a while to baptize them just because they are 20 and 21 year old women, and we didnt want to baptize them without their parents being baptized.  There mom has also come everytime, but their father is a stubborn old boy(not as stubborn as me, but stubborn nonetheless).  We wanted the parents to get married, so that the mom and daughters could be baptized but the dad wouldnt even do that one.  But we ended up feeling that we should baptize them, so we did.  They passed the interviews with flying colors, and the service went off without a hitch, other than we had to move into the chapel because so many people showed up, and we hadnt cleaned the chapel.  But it went well, elder stewart baptized one and I baptized the other.  We also found the richest family you could possibly imagine, and they seem to actually be progressing, I think I might have mentioned them, but they are super cool.  But yeah, after that we had a family night with our recent convert Helder.  We baptized him in december.  He has given us a couple of references and they are good families they just have a hard time coming to church because of the money, but we talked about how the sacrifice is worth it because of the blessings we recieve, and with that we had fantastic success they both came, plus another reference family.  References are so amazing give them to the missionaries they will call your name blessed for generations.  But yeah.  On sunday, I got pulled out of Elders Quorum by the first counselor in the primary presidency, it seems the children were being a bit obnoxious and she needed help in sharing time leading an activity, I could tell this poor woman was really stressed out, so I just had her sit down, and I led singing time.  SO MUCH BETTER THAN ELDERS QUORUM.  I felt like I was back in the zone.  But yeah I even made Elder Stewart dance for the kids because they were reverent, hahah.  Then that night we had a devotional in the city for easter.  I sang in a missionary musical number, that was really fun.  And it was really nice, for the first easter in my life, I didnt have the commercial distractions, as they dont commercialize easter here, but i really got to focus on the Savior.  Starting on Good Friday, I read the account of his crucifixion from both the new testament and jesus the christ, and on sunday morning I read the accounts of his ressurection.  The more we come to know the savior the more a part of our life he becomes and the capability of becoming like Him truly seems like a worthy goal, difficult but possible becuase of what He did for us.  I have even noticed a change in my behavior as I come to know Him better.  I think for the most part, knowing Him because you have seen Him isnt the way most of us should know Him, but as we try to mold our life around the pattern that he set I believe that we will know him personally, becuase he will become a part of us, even as He and the Father are one and to know him is to know the father, as we yield our will to his atonement and example we will know him because he will play such an integral part in our lives.  That being said I also believe that as we know him our knowing has the potential to become a personal "Face to Face" relationship, but that cant happen until we have done everything we can to know him without seeing him, and then as he did with the brother of jared we not he will tear the veil from before our own eyes.  Perfection is hard, but I believe it is possible.  A perfect life isnt and cant be easy, but a perfect life is made of of perfect days, perfect hours, perfect minutes or even perfect seconds and those are a little more doable.  Strung together little by little until we cant do anything but His will.  I am not sure, but I think these are my last days here in matola, I got an email from the APs Inviting me to the Zone Leader council and president told me I would be moving areas and getting some new responsibilities, so we will see what happens, I will let you know at my first chance.  Have a wonder ful week I will send the pictures in a second email.

Love, 

Elder Anthony James Holt

Baptism of Laura & Paula

Elder Holt with Laura & Paula and Elder Stewart

A Random Monkey that played with Elder Holt & his companion for a few minutes.

Elder Holt with some primary girls at the devotional, African children are so amazing.

MTC Group

Nossa Lei e Trabalhar (3-21-16)

So I think I already used this subject line, but its not like you all speak portugues, so whatever.  This week was a week of a lot of work, what more can I say.  Lot of work, little results.  Me and elder stewart went into the area, and we worked hard, and things just didnt happen.  But it ended well.  We have two investigators that passed their baptismal interviews this week, and will be getting baptised this weekend.  We also sat in the biggest, nicest house I have ever sat in my entire mission.  We didnt really sit in it, so much as in their backyard, which had a pool by the way, they had three cars, a pool and a basketball court, I thought I was back in america again.  But yeah, they seemed to be receptive to the mission, and unlike most people they seemed to understand us. They went to South Africa over the weekend, like I said they are loaded, so they couldnt come to church, but we will see how they do this week.  We also had 22 people that tried to come to church, they all went to the same member that has a 5 person car to ask for rides at the same time.  They live about a 2hour walk from the church, and both families are poor and huge, so to get chapa money would destroy them for like a week.  So we have been praying to have a miracle, and I think what we are going to do is ask them to make the sacrifice and walk, I cant think of much more we can do, but I ask that you pray for them, they will need all the faith they can get, but I truly believe that if they exercise their faith they will be blessed, The parents names are Tomas and Rosa, and Gastao and Fernanda, I would list the children but there are tons of them, and we are still learning all their names.  But yeah, we are just gonna start a modern day pioneer movement.  But yeah, we had zone conference this week, it was reallyh good, we are working as a mission to build our faith, and it is definitely necessary, I have a lot to do, and am grateful for the chance.  But yeah, I also gave a talk about facing adversity in sacrament meeting the other day, that was fun, some guy came up and asked for a copy of my talk, but I just had outlines with sources that I had in my mind only, so I felt honored, but at the same time I had nothing to give him, oops.  I swear talking on teh mission is a pain, I have so much study time to use, but then I have so much to do studying for my investigators that it just gets put til the next day and then the next, and then its sunday morning and I am writing my talk, ooops.  But yeah, I also went to renew my legality in the country this week, i have been here over a year now, so that is pretty long, but yeah.  With easter being this week, I just want to say, that I know my savior lives, and I am so grateful for the oppurtunity that I have to represent him among this people that so dearly need him.  I am sorry I dont have any poems or anything to write today, but all I can say is, I know He lives.  May we let Him into our lives.  Have an awesome week.

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

Dopest P-day Ever (3-14-16)

so Elder Stewart and I had an awesome p-day today and we couldn't wait to send pictures.  American Milkshakes, South African Waffles (that is ice cream on top, not whipped cream), american french fries, and finally ICE SKATING, it was at one of two ice skating places in all of Africa, I love you all

AMERICAN MILKSHAKES!!!

AMERICAN FRENCH FRIES!!!

SOUTH AFRICAN WAFFLES!!!

ICE SKATING!!!

Elder Stewart & Elder Holt

Os Meus Queridos (3-14-16)

Whats up my family and friends.  Life is good here in the land of big everything.  Like everything here is huge, except the people and the buildings.  For the first time in my life I am pretty tall, haha.  But yeah, this week was good.  We had a lot of rain .... Finally.  I think they said there would have been a national crisis had it not rained this week.  But from tuesday night to sunday morning I didnt see the sun.  It wasnt ever really pouring, but it was a constant fall, and everything was wet.  It was the first time in my mission that I had worn boots to work.  I wore them for three days.  It was really funny, becuase everyone here get super worried about the puddles and tries to avoid them, and on thursday elder stewart and I were walking, and we walked past a street bar and all these guys were in there drunk, and didnt see us with boots, and we were walking and there was this puddle like 20 feet wide and 40 feet long, and we just walked right into it.  And these guys started freaking out.  Like, careful there is water, you can walk there, you are going to get wet, and all kinds of other stuff, and when we got into the water they started screaming, all because they couldnts see our boots. it was so funny.  I wanted to go back and say, o ye of little faith, if Jesus could walk on water and we are representatives of him of course we can too, but i decided that was a little blasphemous and didnt do it.  But this week was good, we are still finding like crazy, 21 new investigators this week.  Unfortunately all but one came to church.  But the one that came to church was a reference, I am telling you, references are like gold, in all parts of the world.  JUST GIVE THEM TO THE MISSIONARIES, we will call your name blessed, because we love working with references, and if you say you dont know anyone go repent, becuase you are lying to yourself.  We are really working with our ward to get the spirit of missionary work up, we had a fast as a ward yesterday for it, and we have planned trainings and activities and everything, we just have to get the leaders and members to get with it.  Our bishop told us yesterday that he was worried that we would have more work that we could do, it was really hard not to laugh, I just told him we would cross that bridge when we got there.  But yeah, our familes are going alright, they just have to come to church, or give birth so they can come to church, but yeah.  This week I did something I have been planning on for a long time, and put up like 20 pictures of the savior, it really helped me to be more motivated becuase I know this is his work and sometimes I forget who I am serving, but it has helped a ton, and if any of you all send me letters feel free to include pictures of the savior (or other gospel art), I will try and send a picture, and the bigger it gets the more pictures I will send.  But I know this is His work and I am but His servant, and what a pleasure it is to serve Him.  I Love and Miss you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

My Jesus Wall

Elder Stewart and Elder Holt found an air hockey table last p day.

Family Night

Meus Amados Irmaos (3-7-16)

Hey family and friends, whats up?  Its another week and another email from elder holt.  I am doing pretty good this week.  Sorry I dont have a ton of super cool stories I will just get that out now.  This has been a week of a lot of finding, and so we didnt have any crazy things happen, just me and elder stewart working our butts off, as well as like 20 pounds of sweat.  But yeah, we did have a cool experience with one investigator, we found him this week and taught him about who we are and what we are doing here, and then we taught him how to pray and then invited him to church.  He proceeded to tell us all of the problems and such he has had in his life.  I dont understand why, but for some reason people trust us missionaries so much, to the point that they will tell us absolutely anything.  But yeah, usually they expect us to give counsel or something like that, but the handbook says not to, so we usually say, come to church and let the spirit guide you in resolving your problems.  AND HE DID.  for the first time in a long time, we finally had an investigator come to church.  It was a stake conference and then we were a little worried because it was a little different than normal, but he came out of the meeting beaming and said he loved it.  The stake conference was awesome.  At the first one on the mission, there was enough room that we missionaries sat in the main room, like halfway up, and then had empty chairs behind us.  But this time we got there, and not only was the main room full, but the overflow rooms with the projectors were full, and then the hallways were full with people listening, so we sat outside, next to a window where we listened to the conference.  It was fantastic, after a hard couple of years of fighting for it as a mission, I think the stake finally has taken the initiative that they need to take with going to the temple.  The saints here want a temple so bad, they always talk about it, president koch said that he did a q and a a few months ago and a member asked when we would get a temple, and that president accidentally laughed at the question, but I am pretty sure that the man who asked hasn't been endowed and so is the case with just about every member.  They want the blessings bad, but the think that the sacrifice to get to Johannesburg is impossible, but it isn't especiall with the churches patron fund.  So yeah, now the fight is helping the leaders help the members get the vision.  the good news is we have been working with a family in the ward and they have passports and will be going this month!!!!! but yeah, those are the novidades from the week.  I love and miss you all, but I also love it here a lot, so I think I will stay a little longer.

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

(But yeah, also I forgot in the big email, but I had two recent converts get the melckizedek priesthood this week, so that was awesome.)