My Dear Family (5-23-16)

Sometimes I wish I could just write you all in Portuguese, so I wouldn't get such a headache writing in English, but the computers here all use stolen keyboards from south africa so they dont have the accents and stuff and google translate wouldn't understand.  But Anyways this was a good week.  It was a lot of adjusting from last week where we did nothing.  I have always thought that it would be super nice if at your year mark the church gave you a week break and then you could start again.  But after a 3-4 day break, it has been a nightmare getting back into the swing of things.  My legs hurt like my first week, and I am always super tired(granted that is nothing new).  But I am getting back in the game.  This was a weird week.  Our investigators had some difficulties, but I think they will overcome them.  And as much as we worked I dont feel like we did all that much so that is pretty cool, NOT.  But this week will be better.  I found out missionaries are now allowed to wear hats and sunglasses, so that is cool, we will have a good time looking like the Men in Black.  At least I am not near any sisters, it would be super weird seeing them wearing pants, haha.  On tuesday we gave a training to our zone.  It was good, super weird as we did it by skype, but other than the distance technology is nice as it lets us connect.  Hopefully it will help the work move forward.  Unfortunately I feel as if their is a lack of maturity, but we will keep working on it.  The rest of the days we did work.  Our finding was interesting, this dude took us to his house to teach his family, but he didn't walk so he brought his bike, he was convinced that he could carry me and Elder Taukiuvea and himself on the bike.  even though us two together probably weigh four times as much as this little fellar.  Needless to say he was insistant, and I sat on the back, my butt has never hurt so bad, and my legs were sore from hold them up so they didn't drag on the ground.  I wish I could have gotten a picture.  Boy were we a sight.  We got to the house, and it turns out the dude was a nut, so it was all for nought and then it started raining on the way back.  We wont be returning to his house.  We found a lot of muslims, and we dont teach them, so that was too bad.  Other than that we were also able to do some work with the Branch President.  If you weren't aware, unfortunately there is still a lot of tribalism here in this part of the country and somehow it has creeped its way into the congregation and they are creating little divisions amongst themselves.  Needless to say I was a little ticked off to hear that.  We will be teaching the members a lot about order in the coming weeks.  But in all we have made a plan with the branch president to help things be better, so that is what we will do.  Other than that I am just going to keep working and doing what I can.  Thanks for your love and support.  I pray for you all and hope you all have good weeks.  

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

The fastest slow week ever...(5-16-16)

So this week was weird, after last P-day, we went and had a family night, it was at a random member that invited us and so we went, and they ran it instead of us.  BIG MISTAKE, it turned into like an hour lone discourse and the power was out and it was dark, so I fell asleep on accident, haha.  But it was all good because they gave us bread and butter afterward.  Elder Taukiuvea has got me really liking bread and butter.  Then we went home and packed for our "vacation" we flew down to maputo first thing tuesday, and went and visited my recent converts, so that was sick, then on Wednesday we had a Leadership council with all the Zone Leaders, the SIster Leaders, the assistents, and President and Sister Koch.  It was really good, we learned a lot, and they got pizza for us.  They also have a pizza hut in maputo now, so Elder Taukiuvea and I hit that up as well.  The conference ended around noon, and we said goodbye to all our homies, because they went back to Swazi beira and their areas, our flight wasn't until thursday so we didn't really know what to do.  We tried to go out to Matola to visit some other recent converts, but the traffic was really bad, so we turned around and explored maputo.  We found a store that sold PASTEURIZED MILK, i just about pooped my pants, I got a liter, and then we went to the beach and watched the sunset while we drank real milk.  I forgot how bad UHT milk is, and it was a wonderful change.  Then we went to dinner, and went home.  A really good friend from Magoanine was in the office that night, as he was about to leave on his mission to South Africa, he had been in Tete for two transfers waiting on his visa and it came so he is in Jo-burg right now and after 6 weeks in the MTC he will go to durban.  I forgot to get a picture with him though, it was cool though because I was their the night he got his call, and I was his zone leader for a transfer.  We caught up a little bit and went to bed, or at least I tried.  Turns out my body is not used to vacationing and I was up all night super sick, I finally threw up about 4h30 in the morning.  That sucked, but I started feeling better.  It was super sucky, I was blowing up both ends, and I had a flight to catch first thing in the Morning.  Elder Combs gave me a blessing though, and then we headed out, I made it fine to Nampula, but am still recovering.  Not sure what caused it, but it is all good.  I am better now, and ready to get back in the swing of things, with the trip we couldn't get much work done, and the sickness didn't help, but we are going to do work.  Elder Taukiuvea and I have a goal of 20 baptisms for our area for the transfer, and every day of hard work behind us we are getting a little closer to that goal, so I am super happy.  We are having more investigators and families in church than I have ever had in my mission, which is super awesome.  We are just trying to help the branch be better so they can support the soon-to-be recent converts.  But to follow up, the sister I told you all about is progressing well, we will give her a baptismal date this week.  She is reading the Book of Mormon and is super concerned about her daughters understanding the doctrine, but we are helping them all, we just need to help her husband, he is a little harder, but you all know I am really stubborn, so I am not too worried.  I hope you all have a good week, and enjoy the coming warmth, I am enjoying a break from the inferno we have had as it starts to drift from the hot season to the not-as-hot season.  Thanks for your love and support. 

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

Elder Holt enjoying "REAL" milk (pasteurized),
while watching the sunset on the beach in Maputo.

Elder Holt dying on the plane, apparently he got sick before heading back to Nampula. 

Sorry if this letter is bad (5-9-16)

Sorry if this letter is bad, I talked to my family yesterday and told them everything already...

But yeah, so skype was good.  It is weird that I have done another one.  I am not trunky at all, but dang the time is going by way too fast.  It was good to talk to the fam bam though and hear about normal life.  I hope I wasn't too weird for them.  But I guess since I cant really think of much to say I will tell a story about what happened last night other than skype.  Really this story starts last tuesday, so yeah, after we finished internet we went up the road where we were asked by a prostitute if we wanted a massage, boy was that a loaded question.  Of course I want the massage, but not from you, and not with everything else your tryna get, haha.  But that is Mozambique for you.   And now that the spirit has jumped out the window let me try to call it back, haha.  Right afterwards we got to a crossroads and we didn't know what to do, we didn't know where we should go find.  So we did something most missionaries will never do.  We went to the rich part of town and started knocking doors.  After being turned down by a lot of muslims and guards who were too lazy to go and call their owners we were a bit frustrated, but yeah, we kept going and right before we went home we got to a door and knocked it.  And from the patio on the second story of the house a woman called, "yes" and we said, "we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and we are here to share a message of Jesus Christ with you." She asked for a minute and then sent her niece down to get our number.  We were bummed because everyone asks for our number but they never call, but nonetheless we gave her a pamphlet about the Restoration with our number.  Then we were going to walk away, but I had taken my watch off earlier and decided I wanted to put it back on at that moment, and as I pulled it out, it fell apart, something it had never done before nor ever done since, and it took me a few minutes to get it back together, as I got it on, this women who wouldn't come talk to us, came down the stairs, and told us she was a doctor and she was treating someone in her house but to come back tomorrow at 17.  So we came back, and we knocked and no one came, and so we left and never planned on coming back, at least until a few days later when I got a phone call early in the morning while I was making breakfast.  It was from her and she asked why we didn't come by, we explained that we came and knocked and no one answered, she invited us again on Sunday afternoon, and we invited her to church.  Once again I didn't think much of it, but I put it in my planner, and on sunday morning, she came.  So that was cool, we confirmed the visit and came by on sunday afternoon and taught the restoration, to which she said, "Well I already know that, I read it in your pamphlet."  So we invited her to pray and helped her understand how God would answer, to which she said, "I know that God will answer, I have been very concerned lately because I want my daughters to go to church, but I most churches have things that aren't part of church, they aren't in the Bible.  But what you taught me makes sense and so I will ask Him and He will answer.  I know because that first day you came was a super hard day for me and I was very depressed when I prayed to the Lord and said, 'God I need a sign, that you love me, and I need to know what I should do with my life.' and then within an hour you two knocked on my door.  How could you be anything other than an answer to my prayers.  And if the Lord responded to that prayer of course He will respond to my prayer about the church and Joseph Smith.  I have faith that he will."   

Those stories dont just go in the Liahonas or Conference, they are real.  I am a testimony of that, I have lived it and seen it.  This is the Lords work and it will go forward.  There is no way that thousands of people pray for help and recieve it within hours from the missionaries and members of the church by coincidence.  This is a real work, so if you dont believe it, trust in my words and one day you will know.  I love the Lord and this work, and I Love all of you.  

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

New Week, New Comp (5-3-16)

So last week elder Mejia went home, that poor guy, it is a scary world out there.  But because I cant stay up here alone in my new comp got here the night before.  His name is Elder Taukiuvea, he flew out with us to Mozambique.  He is a transfer older than me, but had to wait a transfer in america for his visa.  He is super awesome I only have one picture of us, but it is a selfie and not super great, so sorry. He is from logan and his parents are Tongan.   But yeah, back to last monday, as it was elder mejias last monday we had a family night.  It was super fun, we made a little campfire, and taught the jovems how to make smores, and then we set up the projector and watched conheca os Mormons, Meet the Mormons, it was a lot of fun.  I also made some lemonade as we wanted to show them a couple of american things.  But yeah, it went well, they brought a non-member and we will try to teach him as well.  They got in a food fight with the marshmallows, not sure why as it had to have been super hot, but they did it nonetheless.  Tuesday-thursday were pretty normal, we just did missionary things, and Elder Mejia packed as well.  Thursday night we picked up Elder Taukiuvea, and on friday morning we sent away Elder Mejia, and then we got to work.  We have made plans to work hard and baptize a lot.  In our area as well as in our zone as we are the zone leaders.  We are the smallest zone, but we made a goal to be the highest baptizing zone in the mission, so we have our work cut out for us, not because it isn't possible, but because we need to help the other missionaries find some faith.  But we expect a lot of baptisms and we are excited to be a part of it.  Sunday was good it was testimony meeting and we had a new family come which was awesome, we have been getting quite a few referral's as well, we are trying to get this branch divided, and we really think that we can do so.  Yesterday was a holiday, day of the worker, and so the city shut down including our internet cafes, so that is why we are emailing today, but for my spiritual thought, here is something I was pondering about while our computer was getting fixed so we can do skype this weekend.  I was thinking about the priesthood and the sealing ordinance, and the new and everlasting covenant.  A few months ago a recent convert of mine received the Melchizedick priesthood and we visited him later and elder stewart commented, there is such a different feeling about the house right now, I didn't pick it out, but it was there.  I started thinking about my situation and how my father the priesthood holder passed away.  While I still held the Aaronic priesthood, I thought the higher priesthood and its influence had left our home.  I looked forward to the day I would be ordained and the priesthood could be back again.  Only now looking back do I realize that although the holder of the priesthood was gone, I never felt the influence of such priesthood leave.  I recognized today the power of the sealing.  Although my Father was not physically there, he and my angel mother are sealed throughout time and eternity and even now as they are separate they are still sealed together and to us.  I recognized that my mother blessed us through the priesthood, not by the laying on of hands, but through the authority and decisions she took as she presided in her family.  Finally I realized how grateful I am for a mother who understands the priesthood so much that she delegated some of her rights and authorities to me(calling on people to pray, and things like that) that I might learn how to exercise the priesthood correctly.  Now back to my thoughts of wanting the priesthood in the home again.  I did, receive the higher priesthood, and about 3 weeks later I left my family and for a while I thought that its influence would not be there again.  But I learned today that I am wrong.  I am also sealed to my faithful mother.  Who through her faith will continue to preside in our family by the power of the priesthood.  While she doesn't hold it, she exercises it daily, as she pleads the Lord for blessings for me and my siblings.  As she makes decisions for the benefit of our family, and as she through her faith, prayers, and righteousness puts a protective barrier between our family and the influence of the adversary.  So with this weekend being mothers day, I express my gratitude for a Mother who took a step of faith in being sealed in the Temple of The Most High, to my father, a lucky man to have her.  I thank the Lord for a mother, who taught me a lesson about the order of the priesthood, a lesson that took me years to learn. And for a mother who today lives righteously enough that we her children receive constant blessings as the Holy Priesthood blesses us through her righteous use.  In todays world many women ask for the priesthood, even some women who have participated in the Sealing ordinance, not recognizing that one must not possess the priesthood to call upon it to bless our family.  So in todays world I ask for more Gina Holt's.  Women who are courageous, faithful, loving, virtuous, trusting, honest, kind, women who understand and/or have faith in Sealing ordinance, women who dare to raise children in todays world with faith in the power of the atonement, women who have a personal relationship with our Savior, women who can put up with children like Elder Holt, women who respect the order of the Lord, women who keep on trying, who never lose faith, women who love their children enough to punish us, who take the disrespect that comes from ornery prideful teenage boys and turn around and tell us they love us that same instant, and women who are genuinely amazing in every aspect.  Call this a Missionary's Tribute to a mother, but I do not have space sufficient to write how I feel about or how much I love the Angel I know as Mom.  She has dealt with this old boy for 19 years, and she still loves me even more than I love myself, how I dont really know.  A lot of missionaries talk about marriage and the girl they want to marry and how hot she will be and what she will be like.  I personally am still scared to get married and dont really know what kind of girl I want to marry, I hope she is good looking, I hope she knows how to cook, I hope she rubs my back in church, but these and millions of the qualities I look for exist in my mother, and I hope I find a women like her one day to be my eternal companion.  If you see her this week, give her the biggest hug for me, because I have a missions worth of hugs built up and I cant wait for the day that I can give them to her.

Love,

Elder Anthony James Holt 

Dear People at Home (4-25-16)

So this was a good week here.  It was kind of a blur.  But we did a lot of good stuff, at least I think we did.  Sorry, I got here to the internet cafe and my mind kind of blanked.  But we had a man come up to us last sunday and he said he wanted to be taught by the missionaries, so of course we jumped on that.  It was cool, we got their to review the restoration and we tried calling him and he didn't answer his phone, just our luck.  So we were calling a member that lives near him and we dont know the members house, so we were trying to get him to come and meet us, but as soon as he picked up the call dropped, so we were super confused, turns out the phone died, so we were super concerned because we couldn't get to the house we didn't know where it was at.  We went to all the members that we knew to ask for help, but no one in that area was home, finally we were just going to leave and apologize later.  When we hear someone say, do you need some help?  we turned around to find a member who took us to the other members house, and when we got their the investigator was at his house as well waiting for us to teach him.  The lesson went well, he had already been taught by the missionaries and decided not to get baptized, but that was 6 years ago and he said he regretted that and so we started again. it looks like the teaching will go well so we are excited for that.  Then on sunday we had a family come and talk to us.  They said they were from Pemba, a city 5 hours to the north where there are no missionaries and no church, and that they had been in tete, another area in the mission where we have some missionaries, and that they had received the lessons, and they had all their documents ready and that they wanted to get married and baptized.  That is like the dream for missionaries, thank goodness for miracles.  It will still be a little difficult because they live really far away and they come to church as often as their money permits which is about once a month.  But in the next few months we will get it done and so that is super cool.  But yeah, miracles are the best, I love them.  I am super tired, but that is ok too.  I am doing well, everyone seems to be worried about my weight after that picture, but since it was taken, I have put on like 10 pounds so that is cool.  I am super good though, tired but good.  We had a member that I knew in Magoanine that I helped get to the temple come up here to Nampula to do some work, that was super cool to see him.  In a few weeks I will be down in Maputo for a leadership council so I am excited for that.  Elder Mejia goes home on Friday, and my new comp should get here on friday as well, if not, I will be with a member for a few days, but president is trying to get him up here asap.  We are going to do big things up here, I think we will be able to split the Branch, but we will have to see.  I love and miss you all.  I hope you have an awesome week.  Miracles are real, missions are the best.  

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

Elder Mejias and I with a member from Magoanine that I helped get to the temple, he came up here to work for a little while.

A normal Mozambiquan house

A melon that a member gave us.

Elder Holt & Elder Mejias with a family who will be the first family from the city of Pemba that will baptize in a little bit.

A Minha Familia Querida e tambem meus amigos (4-18-16)

Hey everybody, how are you all doing.  This has been a good week up here in Nampula.  I am really liking the area, it is super big, but I am learning to navigate myself.  Just to clarify because a lot of people asked, I dont know that I explained it super well.  So we are the only missionaries for 300 miles.  But that entire space is not our area.  We are supposed to stay within the boundaries of the city of nampula.  All of the little towns between are basically just little villages and no one speaks Portuguese there, so it would be difficult as the church has told us not to teach in dialect.  I am grateful for that protocol, I know how to greet in dialect but anything else would be to much, the languages are as complex as they get, but there is no way to learn them other than by being taught by someone.  No dictionary, no grammar books, nothing.  But this week was nice, I am still getting to know our investigators as well, but the ones that we have I really like, they are all progressing really well.  This week was kind of tough though because of time.  Because we are in an independent branch, everything here is under the keys of the mission president.  Which means we as missionaries have to help a lot as the members learn their responsibilities and what not.  We dont have anyone here though that really knows how to use computers or that has the money to go to the internet cafes, so this last sunday our branch president asked us to download all of the sessions of general conference for this last weekend.  The best internet place here downloads at a speed of about 1.5 mb per second, and it hardly reaches that.  So ended up spending like 4 hours a day this week doing nothing while we waited for these sessions to download.  It was worth it though, I really enjoyed conference.  I hadnt seen any of it in english other than the first session, but I understood it all.  I would get super frustrated at the translation though, because when they translate it we lose a lot of emotion and such, so be grateful to speak the language of the prophets.  But yeah, I also was having cravings for my families conference crepes, and I experimented a little bit and figured it out, so I got to have crepes for conference as well, i didn't have any fancy fillings, but I did have sweetened condensed milk, and that is all you really need in life.  But yeah, that was my week, thank you all for your emails of support and I hope that you have great weeks wherever you are.  Be safe and remember that God knows and loves each one of you individually.  I hope you all feel His love and if you dont, look for His tender mercies, they are everywhere. 

Love,

Elder Anthony Holt

Here is a picture of me and cotton candy, we found a place that makes it, so of course I had to buy it.  They didnt have cotton candy sugar though so they just used plain white sugar, it was very sticky and heavier than normal, but it was cotton candy so who cares.

I am going to make a trunky comment just be warned!!! (4-11-16)

So i was talking with my comp this week, and we realized that I hit 9 months left on my mission.  I was going to make some joke about someone getting pregnant and then have a race to see who gets their first, me or the baby.  But I couldnt think of an appropriate way to phrase it, so I will just let you use your imagination.  But yeah, that was my trunky comment, I shouldnt be making any others.  So I really enjoyed hearing of all of the other missionaries who got to watch conference, I have not though, its all good, I think we will watch it next week, so sorry that I couldnt make any cool spiritual connections, but they should come.  This week was filled with me learning the city.  Thankfully I have an ok sense of direction, I think this area would drive most elders nuts.  IT IS SO BIG!!!!  My proselyting area consists of an entire city, and we are the only missionaries for some 300 miles I think.  So that is cool.  But it is also really hard.  I feel like we could do so much, but then we dont have the time because we have to divide our time evenly between the areas or else some areas dont get worked.  But I believe that it is possible and we will work hard to make it happen.  We do have two families thought that should be getting baptized.  The difficulty this time isnt the marriage traditions or anything, just the money.  But it is all good.  One of them lives one hundred percent off of what they grow in their house, but they are super cool and are going to succeed their names are Sergio and Rosalina.  They are super funny they always ask the missionaries to take a picture with them, and then they ask for the missionaries to print the photo and give it to them.  My camera died this week and I was too lazy to recharge it so it was a good excuse, but I apologize for the lack of pictures.  It has rained every day this week.  Not a ton, but it will sprinkle one morning and then be sunshine the rest of the day, or it will be hot all day and then rain all night, but it is fun.  We always get a little nervous when we go into certain areas on cloudy days because some of the areas will just turn to rivers if it rains enough and then getting out is impossible.  I am enjoying it here though.  I definitely need your prayers though.  I want to be the best missionary I can, so please pray for that for me.  I will pray for you all too.  I usually do.  I love you all a ton though and Miss you even more. 

Love,

Elder Holt