Well it has been like a year since the last time I wrote... (1-4-16)

Sorry, that subject was a little bit cheesy, but all is going well here in mocambique.  To be honest, we are all a little confused, there is something weird going on with transfers, and none of us know what to expect, they were supposed to happen today, but nothing did, so I guess we will see.  I will be at least one more day in Matola.  But the new year was fantastic.  We had to come in at 17h00 but it was good, some family members sent me money to go out, but instead I used it to buy a huge pot of Matapa, and 3 chickens, and rice and xima, so instead of having a good lunch out with my comp our whole house had a nice feast.  Plus we had leftovers so we didnt have to cook.  But it was also very good to relax a little bit that day and get ready for the year, 2016 is going to be crazy, so I think I needed it.  But to relax, we ate and played risk, which I one from a crazy disadvantage, but that isn't super spiritual so I wont talk about it.  This week has gone well with teaching, it is weird, on the mission it seems like the opposite of real life, because in real life if you truly give something all your heart, might, mind, and strength you turn out all right, but here on the mission, it seems like the hardest weeks of work, when you teach a crazy amount of lessons, or do a ton of contacts are the worst weeks for new investigators, and investigators in church.  But that probably doesn't make any sense to any of you except the missionaries, and RMs.  But I have continued trying to focus less on the numbers and more on the investigators, so as much as I try to miss you all, I end up getting distracted because for some reason you can tell a man so clearly that he is breaking a commandment, but he wont do anything about it, and not because he is ignorant, or rebellious, just because he doesn't understand you.  It is very interesting, I think I am part of very few missions where you learn a new language, and with hard work you end up speaking the language better that the natives.  Dont get me wrong, Brazillian and Portuguese missionaries will probably speak better than me when I get home, but I am saying this with all the humility in my capacity, I speak better Portuguese than most people here, and it is so frustrating.  I have become a super anti dialect person.  It is cool, but I see all these families that I love so much held back because they will not learn Portuguese above an 8th grade level, and they revert to dialect, so instead of getting good jobs, they all sell stuff on the side of the road, or work in little farms, and barely make enough to get one more day.  It is super sad, but it has made me learn to be more grateful for all that I have.  And especially when I see people making sacred covenants with the lord.  There is not much better than that, so we just have to work Maningue hard this transfer to get there.  But I listened to a really good talk from Elder Holland the other day called Remember Lots Wife, it was about facing the future with hope.  Which is something I really need.  I have learned here on the mission that I am really not all that much.  Most days I am running on empty, Physically, Spiritually, Mentally, and Emotionally.  And I dont have a reserve tank.  But there always seems to be just enough fumes in the tank to get me to the next Tender Mercy, and that is a tender mercy in itself.  I know that God is aware of us, and no matter how hard we try to cement him out, he will get a sunflower growing through the cracks to make us smile.  I might not always be running on full, but I do know that I am running, and I have to be thankful for that.  I challenge you all to recognize it, because that is where the happiness is.

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

Happy New Years Week (12-28-15)

So, whats good my homies,  This has been a good week here in mozambique.  It was kind of slow because we losta lot of time with christmas, but it was still really good, especially talking to my family, so good that none of them emailed me, haha.  But I still love them.  This week Elder Sharpe and I got to dial in our area a little bit.  It is super frustrating we are walking so much becuase our area is HUGE.  But we did the math the other day, and if we have a day where no lessons drop, we get an average of 5 lessons.  But in the 7.5 hours we have in the area, we have to do four hours of studies, we spend 2 walking to and from our area to our house, we spend 3.5 walking/running between lessons, and we get a grand total of 2 hours to teach all of the people here about the gospel.  So we have had to learn to be really effective and patient.  It is really wierd because I am teaching and contacting less than I have ever done on my mission, but we have more families that are progressing than ever before.  So you can feel free to pray for them; Gabrial matilde and sara, slesio and lizy, Mendes and Maria, Alexandre and Linda, and Reginaldo and Fatima.  Either husband wife, or both have all come to church and they are all keeping their committments, we will work with 3 of them on the law of chastity this week, so feel free to pray for their faith.  Other than that, on christmas we had our party, singing, eating, watching its a wonderful life, and then playing risk until 22h30.  but it was super memorable.  I cant really think of much else too memorable to say, elder sharpe and I listened to teh forgotten carols, he hadnt heard them before so that was a good tradition to have out here.  But I love and miss you all and wish you a prosperous new year.  

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

Minha Querida Familia e Amigos (12-21-15)

So I will apologize once again for the lack of photos.  I have taken lots, but because our normal internet place has not had internet for 4 weeks, we have been going to another one and it doesn't download photos, so sorry.  But this week was fantastic.  The beginning of the week elder Sharpe and I really focused on just working.  we ended up getting some new families as well as new investigators with a baptismal date that are working to progress.  Then this weekend brought some long-awaited miracles.  It started on Friday.  In my first transfer Elder Keck and I worked really hard to get a reference from a really strong member family in t3.  They finally gave us on towards the last week of the transfer, but it was in another area in t3.  Lo and behold the next week I was transferred to the other area, where I got to start teaching this family.  I taught them for two transfers with Elder Mataveis and Elder Brown, but they parents wanted to wait to get married so they couldn't get baptized when I was with elder brown.  However, we baptized their children with their permission at the end of my 3rd transfer.  Then I went to Magoanine and talked to them every once in a while, and then Matola, and finally on friday 7 months to the day I invited them to follow the law of chastity by getting married so they could be baptized, they did it.  It was a lot of stress but it happened, I am also super grateful for elder brown for sticking with them for so long.  But the wedding was nice, but the all around best part was on saturday when They were baptized be their son, who I baptized and ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood.  Then on Sunday Elder Sharpe and I baptized a family from our area.  It was a fantastic weekend, now we just have to keep working with our other investigators to get them there as well.  

I will end though by sharing my thoughts about christmas this week.  I will paraphrase from one of my favorite stories: The Forgotten Carols.  In it Uncle John says, "think about it, wise men coming from the east because they saw a new star in the sky, angels singing to shepherds, a virgins having a child.  It sounds absolutely absurd, but we believe it is real because something about the season makes us feel that it is."  I am sorry I cant quote it off the top of my head.  But what I have come to feel with the lack of presents, lights, and christmas trees is that the christmas spirit is still there.  I dont focus so much on the things that this christmas lacks, because it isn't about santa and his sleigh bringing toys on christmas day, its not about christmas cards or sparkling lights ago, because far away and long ago he was born to straw not snow, in swaddling clothes, the newborn king, our heavenly lord, our everything.  I know he lives, I know he came as the scriptures say, and he is "more than the babe in Bethlehem.  More than the carpenters son"  I know he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  He it is who saved all mankind, and through him we become clean of our sins, and he knows every single one of us personally and intimately, he has helped me through my darkest times and saved my sanity when I thought it would be gone.  I testify to all that He lives, and I will do all I can to testify that to all those who will hear me, I encourage you all to do the same.  May you all have the Merriest of Christmases and Remember the reason for the season.

With My Love,

Elder Anthony Holt 

Feliz Natal (12-14-15)

Hello dear family and friends.  This is Elder Holt here.  I am currently in a internet cafe in Fomento, Matola, Maputo, Mozambique.  In case you all forgot.  But I am just here writing a weekly follow up of what i did this week.  So I knocked some doors, taught some lessons, and sweated profusely.  It got very hot this week, and humid.  I have a feeling that God sent me here so that I could know what it felt like, and make me very sure to be a good person so that I dont go to hell.  But it is all good, its like sitting in a sauna, and it refreshes you, just not your white shirts, haha.  But that doesnt mean I am not loving it.  This week was a very slow week.  But I think the Highlight of the week was yesterday, we went to church and the stake president called me up to the stand, and asked me to translate for the man with him , who I came to find out was the area seventy.  i think his name was elder ungunlani.  It was super cool we went up to the pulpit together, and I translated his talk into portuguese for the whole congregation.  He talked about the sacrament and challenged everyone to make a commitment to never miss the sacrament again, he said, I am here because I made this commitment, I will need to be in Johannesburg, but the sacrament is more important and so we moved our trip back a few hours to come to sacrament.  It was really good.  Other than that not a ton happened, we just worked and sweated.  We also had a christmas party, very different from home, but fun nonetheless.  I will send this now without pictures or anything.  Because the internet place is having so many problems.

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

A semana de trabalha (12-7-15)

I wont lie, I am kind of excited to hit my year mark here soon because I forgot how many weeks I have on the mission, and that will be really easy to catch me up.  But I still have a little bit of time and I promise I am not trunky, I just thought of that because I couldn't think of a subject line.  So this week started of with change  Elder Sharpe and I received notice that instead of serving in the Matola b area, we had been moved into the Mozal b area.  So for the 3rd time in 4 transfers I am opening an area, and training.  Boy that was a bit overwhelming just writing it out.  I guess the Lord is trying to say he trusts me, or just giving me endless chances because I need to learn something from doing it again.   But it is all good.  We have a brand new ward with a brand new bishop, he is super awesome, and asked us to help him as he is new and doesn't really know what to do in terms of working with the missionaries.  But yeah, we also have had a good week.  We had a bunch of days of just trying to find people, which I wont lie, they are really long, but I am kind of learning to love.  Thankfully though parts of the area I am opening had missionaries working in them before, I am just opening it as its own area, so we have a father from a part member family that will get baptized this transfer, and we are praying for a miracle that we might find some others as well.  We had a great week this week finding, we found one guy and we sat with them and we got there and then another man sat with us, and then another, and then another.  Turns out they all were brothers, and all lived at the one house with there wives, unfortunately the wives weren't as interested, but we will still work with them.  We found another family as well that was really cool, we were walking down the road at 10 in the morning which isn't a good time to find families, but we saw through the crack in the gate a man as we were walking by, and we stopped knocked, and next thing you know we were teaching the restoration.  The man told us he wouldn't be able to make it to church, but he sent his wife and two daughters, and they came and enjoyed it, so that was a really good sign.  Elder Sharpe and I are really focusing on constantly finding as we teach so that we can always have a good teaching pool.  I wont lie, the temperature is getting hotter, and the fruits from when I first got here are starting to be sold again so I realize I am starting to have some time here.  But other than that Elder Sharpe and I came up with a quote this week in a comp study where we were talking about God stretching us.  It goes a little like this, "Miracles are like the lotion God uses to rub us down when we are being stubborn and dont want to stretch, but usually they are like Icy Hot and burn the whole freaking time... But they are effective."  So I hope that doesnt make you all think that I am super weird.  I love and miss you all.  Especially the cold you are feeling, dont complain, I will take it any day all day I promise.   But remember you are in my prayers, and I hope this week is amazing for all of you.

Love and Hugs,

Elder Anthony Holt

Transfer Day (11-30-15)

So transfers came and I will be staying in the same area and finish Elder Sharpes training.  I am pretty excited for this, but the difficulty is ,that because of the new ward we will be in a new area, and would you guess, whitewashing again, WHOO HOO.  I think that was a little sarcastic, but I will do my best and need all of your prayers, I cant believe how hard it is, and that president has trusted me to white wash 3 times in 4 transfers, It is super hard, but we will work hard and all should go well.  This week was good we celebrated thanksgiving with a good old turkey bowl, and then on thanksgiving day we had a feast.  We found a turkey, and made all the classic stuff except stuffing, but that is all good.   I even pulled off a Pumpkin Pie, thanks to my angel mother who sent me a recipe, and it was very good, we just didn't have molasses so I used syrup, haha.  But yeah.  I thought I was going to die after all the food, but it was good.  And I will send pictures next week because we are kind of short on time.  We also had a bunch of non-alcoholic champagne bottles.  I got to fulfill a bucket list Item I never thought would be possible: Popping a cork, it was hard, but I got it.  I will be using the same bottle to send a message in a bottle, so feel free to scour the beaches to find it.  Other than that the work was normal.  We are super grateful because our investigators are stopping smoking.  One has already kicked it, and the other two are fighting hard, but we are sad because they were the jewel that we found this whole transfer, and we will lose them from our area, but all will go well.  I just want to wish everyone a merry christmas, and remind you all that we can all try to ignore the Christ, but he is the center of all the celebrating.  And I am so grateful for that first christmas night, because I testify to you all that the baby boy grew to become the Savior and Redeemer of the world.  The atonement is real and personal for every single one of us, and his sacred power is present on the earth today.  This week I had a man ask me how I could go around and tell people that there church was false and that my church is true.  It was amazing that without thought and in Portuguese I am not sure I could use on my own, I responded, Because I am an Authorized Set Apart Representative of the Lord Jesus Christ and as such he has revealed to me that this is the only way to achieve life eternal.  I have never seen him, nor heard his voice, but I have felt his power change my life to become a more perfect person in every day.  I have seen his face in the faces of the people I see use his atonement, and I have felt his touch in the most difficult moments of my life pushing me forward, step by step.  So I know that I am on the other side of the world, for that dont send me a christmas present, instead, look inside look at your life where you are and where you want to be, where you feel you should be, and "let him in" let him change your life and begin again.  He is the Savior of the World and he is the Savior of every individual, this is my testimony in his name.

With all the love in my heart, Merry CHRISTmas,

Elder Anthony James Holt

Carta Do Elder Holt (11-23-15)

Bom Dia Meus Queridos,

Hey, so this has been a good week.  We spent some time working like normal.  We had a practice for the christmas program we are doing.  Thankfully it got moved to the matola chapel, which saves us a ton of time and energy.  But yeah, this has been a good week, we have had a lot of difficulties, but in the end we have seen some results.  Elder Sharpe and I have been trying to find some elect families, but we are enjoying little successes right now.  We have a cool family that should get bapitized next transfer, but they have a smoking problem so if you could pray for emma danilo and arcilio that would be cool, they really need it.  And then we are just trying to find new families.  We have a lot, but they are really hard usually.  I will say I am a living witness of the prophecy made by jacob in the book of mormon that people will all say, We Have a bible and we need no more bible, is true.  I cant say I have bible bashed really because people here do not know the bible well enough to fight, but man they sure love the bible.  I think that might be why god sent me here, becuase other places I would have just fought, but here fighting is impossible because these people are convinced the one scripture they have memorized validates the bible and contradicts, almost 19 years of experience in the bible and book of mormon, haha.  But yeah, yesterday was stake conference.  It was all south east africa and we got to hear from Sister Esplin of the Primary General Presidency, Elders Cook and Clayton of the seventy, and Elders Renlund and Cook of the twelve.  It was a good broadcast and they talked about good things, but the translators had a really strange accent, that was like impossible to understand.  But because it was stake conference I got to see 3 men that I taught in T3 recieve the Melchizedic Priesthood.  One of them was Dique, I baptized him like 5 months ago.  Anyways, I was in there and the 2nd counselor asked who he wanted to ordain him.  And out of no where he picked me.  I just about pooped my pants I was so nervous.  I have never conferred the priesthood, let alone in portuguesse.  Ordaining my brother was nervewracking, but I thought I was going to pass out.  My comp said I was white as a ghost.  But thankfully all went well, and I succeeded.  I actually was the only one that said the ordination in the truly correct portugues, according to one of the senior couples.  But I did mess up on one part.  But I was helped a lot, It is really a cool experience giving blessing in a second language, I would never expect to recieve inspiration in anything other that english.  But the oppurtunities I have had to give blessings have been some of the times when I had the most clear concise thinking in portugues.  Anyways I wish you all a happy thanksgiving.  I am thankful for each and every one of you.  But I have a turkey bowl to win, so until next time...

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt