Week Forty-Five: August 29th, 2011

Dear Family,
This week has been a good week. We had a lot of success yesterday at the chapel. So with all of our investigators. First is Iris. She is really progressing. It is just taking that step between getting married or getting seperated. She knows that she has to do one of them and it is hard to choose. She has such a testimony about the gospel and the book of Mormon and the church. We taught a lesson about temples and she absolutely loved it. Yesterday in the Gospel Principles class we had some other investigators (Daniel, Daniel's Mom, and Waldo) and during the entire class she was bearing testimony of everything and helping the others understand more. Next is Daniel. Well he has been having a hard time but this past week he had to go to the hospital for something and we saw him a day later and offered a blessing. Well he came to church Sunday with his Mom which was awesome. They participated in the class and it was awesome. So hopefully Daniel is turning arround. Waldo is a reference from the ward and he is awesome. We have only had a chance to teach him in the class but he had some awesome questions and was just way interested. With Matias it has been difficult. When we would go over and try to teach him he would have a hard time focusing and paying attention. So I don't know what is going to happen to him. Well it has been a pretty good week. I got a phone call last night that I have changes this week which means I'm being transfered. I have to confess I am a little sad. Well I hope you all have an awesome week.


Love,
Elder Holton


Me, Elder Crist, Elder Myers and Elder Lowry Today at Pizza Hut!

Week Forty-Four: August 22nd, 2011

Dear Family,

This has been a very good week. We have had some very excellent progress with Iris and with Matias. So first to start off with Iris. Last Sunday in the Gospel Principles class we were talking about the Book of Mormon and about the challenge we left with Iris. Well there is a Sister in our ward who we eat lunch with. Every time we go she tells us about her testimony of the Book of Mormon. She has found that with any trial in her life if she makes a promise to the Lord that she will read the entire Book of Mormon then the trial will be resolved. She has told us about the many trials and times that she has tested this promise and how it has worked every time she has tried it. Well I told Iris about this sister and her experience and then challenged Iris to do the same. Well we met with Iris later on Tuesday and we sat down to get started and she turned to me and said “You know Elder Holton. The Promise is true.” I honestly didn’t know what she was talking about. She expounded to say that the promise is true and that she has found a job and somewhere to study in just the two days that we didn’t see her. Honestly she is so ready for the waters of baptism. They just need to get married. Now with Matias, This week actually we were able to set a date with him. He is just so loving the gospel. We asked him to pray to know that baptism is right and he said that he didn’t need to pray. He just knows it is right. He also came up to us asking us for ideas to invite his Mom to talk to us. She has already told us before that she wants nothing to do with us but that she loves have us over teaching her son. We gave him a few ideas. Lately I have been working really hard on memorizing references for the lesson. We have to memorize 3 references for every principle and there are 8 principles in lesson 1 and 8 in lesson 2. My brain is starting to hurt. I'm almost done with lesson 2. It is very interesting to see as I memorize it is like a high and I want to memorize more. This past week me and Elder Lowry have seriously gotten into Insence. We have a burner and everything. It is so cool. I will send some pictures. It is starting to warm up here. We still get some random cold days though which really stinks. So I talked to President King and he said that I am staying with this sector for another change to finish Elder Lowry's training. Cool right?

Well I hope you all are having a blast.

Love,
Elder Holton
p.s. I would love to hear from everyone.

Our Insence and burner stuff.

The outside of our apartment.

Our apartment.

My clothes.

My desk.

Our kitchen.

More pictures of the outside of our apartment.

Week Forty-Three: August 15, 2011

Dear Family,
We have been doing fantastic. We have some excellent news this week and at this rate we should be doing just perfect. We have Matias who is 14 years old and he just loves the gospel. He is basically one who says tell me what to believe. My only fear is that he only is listening to us because we are his friends. So we have been working hard and getting him some friends in the church and then we can be more the teachers but he will still have some friends. We have also been working with Iris and Ashley. It looks like Iris and Martin are working things out. Iris went to the Gospels Principles class and we were talking about the life of Christ. Just as we would ask questions and discuss her thoughts and comments were so on the ball. Her testimony is totally in the right place. With Ashley it's a little harder but the good news is is that her grandma appears to be a lot more willing in helping us. This last time we visited she seemed to be a lot more open to us and having us work with her granddaughter. We have been seeing many miracles and our animo have been doing so much better. We also had a gun pulled on us this week. It was just part of the little excitement of the protests. This past week has also been crazy with meetings. We have had like 3 meetings when we normally only have 1. But they're good. We got to see President twice this week. He is just so awesome. Today we got to do something exciting. We visited what is called San Cristobal which is the hill with the huge Mary on it. I'll send some pictures. It was definitively cool. Although I wonder how much cooler it could be if it was Christ. Anyway. It has been an good week. Hope to talk to you guys later.

Love,
Elder Holton

SANTIAGO!!

San Cristobal

Week Forty-Two - August 8th, 2011

Dear Family,
This week has been a very excellent week. We have got a few new investigators. We found this family that was actually a reference. So we have been doing very well. Our Investigators are doing good. Iris has had a very crazy week this past week. On Tuesday they (Iris and Martin) decided to get seperated. He said that he wanted to try new sensations and he didn't care what commandments he breaks if it feels right and yeah. K well We have been passing by making sure that she is doing ok. We have been looking for a house and job for her. So we think we had some ideas and we went to go see how she was doing on Saturday and it looks like there are back together again. They both even came to church on Sunday. Drama. We have been working hard and will continue. Elder Lowry is doing fantastic and working hard. There is a program for Preach my Gospel. This week I have memorized 3 scriptures for every principle of lesson 1 and this next week. We didn't actually get in touch with Ashley this last week but this next week we will. Daniel we didn't either. There was one intense thing that happened this week. We were teaching at Nibaldo's house and we ended at nine. All the schools down here have been on strike and have been taking over the school. Well they turned on the news and it showed cops everywhere and said that the President had called in the army and was ready to let them do some riot control. They say that this is the biggest riot since the 80's. So we went home early. Well that's about it for this week. Have an awesome week.


Love,
Elder Holton

Week Forty-One: August 1st, 2011

Dear Family,
This week has been a very exciting week. We have actually found 3 new investigators this week which we are very excited about. Two of them were from some contacts that I found with Elder Jones. We have been trying to get into their house for weeks. Well we finally got in with them. We were able to share lesson one and it was awesome. I have never taught a lesson before being the senior comp and it is just amazing how you just know what to say and how God really prepares us. I can truly testify of the Mantle. I have felt such a difference the past two weeks as the Lord has qualified me for the work. I was really nervous about it and everything but I can speak and understand spanish well enough and now I can teach. So that was an awesome lesson. And the other new investigator we found was kinda like a diamond in the rough kinda deal. So we did divisions a few weeks ago and Elder Jones found this less active grandma and I just remember him saying that she seemed pretty cool and that I should follow through with that. So we have been trying every once in a while if we were heading to an appointment to just knock on the door and see if we could at least get someone to set an appointment with. Well we passed by once and actually got in. Keep in mind I have never met anyone here before. Well we met Gloria who is an inactive sister and her granddaughter Ashley. Gloria basically explained to us that she got baptized for a bet and doesn't really know anything or wants to know anything but she loves to have us and will allow us to talk. Ashley just loves it. We invited her to church and passed by her house and she came and everything and just loved it. ¡¡¡Greenie power!!! Well we have also been working on Iris and this week she has expressed to us that she wants to be baptized and knows that the church is true. The only thing we are waiting on now are Martin's papers which should be ready in about a month. Then they want to get married and then she can be baptized. So we were thinking of what we can do to keep her excited for everything for possibly more than a month and we came to the idea of giving her a challenge. She has been doing really well reading. So we left her the challenge of reading 5 pages from the book of mormon every day until her baptism and she accepted and has been doing well so far. Things have been going great. Elder Lowry, my new companion is doing fantastic and we are getting along so well. He is an excellent missionary. He is from Draper Utah and knows everyone from our old ward. We have been having a blast. He has been becoming very accustom to everything very well. Although his biggest fear is clowns. Well this week has been really awesome. I hope you guys are all doing well.


Love,
Elder Holton