Week Eighty-Four: May 28th, 2012

Hey moms! Here are your studly missionaries! haha we love you so much! Have a great week and know that we will be thinking of you!

Your stripling warriors,

Elder Holton and Elder Smith

This is the letter I got first along with a bunch of funny pictures and thought it was all he was going to send this week and then I got a longer letter a few hours later!

Dear Family,

Well we had another great week. Its been pouring but seriously pouring rain here. Its been crazy and fun. Well I guess Ill start off from the beginning of the week. We have been having a lot of fun .So we have had some great miracles as well this week. It started raining and then on saturday we had the baptism of Monica. It was a crazy baptism. Like no one came because it was literally raining so much that there were rivers in the streets. You almost couldnt cross without going through lakes. It was so crazy. The baptisimal service actually was really good. We sang nearer my god to thee with the mom. It seriously was a beautiful baptisimal service. We have another investigator Juana wasnt able to be baptized because she has phemonia and bronchitis. She got super super sick and the doctors said that she shouldn't bathe herself. It was sad but Juana said that whatever happens she knows that she will be baptized. She said that she is going to give all of her strength and faith so that she can be baptized this next saturday. We sure hope so. She has great faith and really does know that what we have taught is true. She already passed the baptisimal interview. Now the only thing that she needs is to get better. haha But we are excited about her. It'll be cool. Another cool miracle we had is that the grandma of Monica was really mean the whole time we were teaching her. But last week she just came up to us and started sharing. The lord helped us find all of her doubts and we helped her out a lot. Now she loves us....im not kidding loves us a lot. The family is so interesting because there are three couples that live in Monica's house. Half of them are members and all of their partners are not members and they are not married. Well now that the grandma loves us they are all listening to us. Elder Smith and I were able to teach them about the law of chastity and the temple and eternal marriage. Every single couple said that they wanted that in their lives. We have started teaching them and they all have plans to get married. It would be the coolest if we really could get them all married and sealed in the temple. So it was a cool little miracle that we had. We are excited.

Yesterday we also had district conference so president king came and spoke. It was really good. The Spirit was so strong. So many members commented on how good it was.

We just need to find more people to teach. But I'm not worried about it. I know we will.

Well I hope you all have a great week

Love,

Elder Holton

Week Eighty-Three: May 21st, 2012

Dear Family,

Wow this week was just another crazy week. We had divisions like 4 times this past week. Something really cool we can do in this week is go on divisions with the members and get twice the amount of work done. So we did that 2 or 3 times this past week. Then I also went on divisions with 2 Elders this past week and visited their sectors which was also fun. A really exciting thing that happened this past week is the baptism that happened. It turned out really well. And we should have 2 more this next week end. The only problem is we are baptizing all of our investigators haha. So this week we are really going to focus on finding new people and really finding the people that are prepared.

So today for P-day we are having a ward activity that we are playing games and then later doing a family home evening.

Well I hope everything is going good with you guys and that you all have a fantastic week.

Love,

Elder Holton

 Estefania got baptized!!

Week Eighty-two: May 14th, 2012

It was so great to talk to Nick on Mother's Day he was recently transfered to a small town out in the country called Talagante. He is a new zone leader with 2 districts in his zone. There are 18 missionaries total. He was so so happy to find out that his new companion is Elder Smith from Sandy Utah who had been his District leader last fall. The have a lot of work to do in this new area and are ready to get going on it. His new place is a condo and is so much better then the last one and he shares it with 3 other Elders. The other really exciting thing he told us was that he will be leaving Chile to come home on Monday October 22nd, arriving in Utah on October 23rd. He looked great and is just loving his mission!! -Kendra

Dear Family,

Well we have had a very busy week last week. So to start from the top. We had Changes Meeting on Tuesday in the morning. It was a very exciting meeting. And to announce my new companion: Elder Smith. It was so exciting. You should've seen us. We just had smiles so big on our faces that Hermana King couldn't stop laughing at us. Then throughout this entire week for bad luck we've had meetings every day almost. But we are doing really good. The sector is doing great. We have a baptism coming up this next week and we should have a few more coming up in the next couple weeks. But still there is a lot of work to do. I love you all so much and I hope you had a great Mother's Day.

Love,

Elder Holton

 Saying Goodbye to Elder Guevara

 Moving out to the Country! This is Talagante.

 My new home!

Here is a map showing Talagane is about  20 miles South of Santiago!

Week Eighty-one: May 6th, 2012

Dear Family,

We had an excellent week. Where to start haha? Well we had an activity this past week and it was awesome. We had several investigators go and we had a lot of fun. Then that night we had some fun in the street too. Some teenagers were burning brand new couches in the street for no reason. I got it all of video. It is right in front of our apartment. Sorry Mom and Grandma. Next we had District Meeting on Wednesday like normal but this time President sat in on my class so that just made me more nervous. But it all turned out great. Then I went on divisions to another sector and had a great day. We made giant pancakes in the night. Then Saturday night I received a phone call from President to tell me that first I have changes tomorrow and second that he would want me to be Zone Leader. So yesterday we first had an awesome baptism and then we spent the day saying goodbye to everyone. Oh and another thing that was great was that we had 7 investigators to church. The Ward did a special farewell for me in the night. They set up a bunch of Tables and did kind of a toast thing. They had me stand up and everyone said good and bad things about me. It was way cool but a little weird. I really could feel the love of this ward. It is going to be very hard to leave them all tomorrow. So I'm sad but I'm happy.
Well I look forward to talking to you guys next Sunday.

Love,
Elder Holton

 

 

 Saying goodbye to the Bishop!

 

 

 

 Saying goodbye to everyone!

 

 Making GIANT Pancakes!

The burnt out couch!

Week Eighty: April 30th, 2012

Dear Family,
Things are going great. Yesterday in the chapel we had 5 investigators. We finished this week super strong. Two of our investigators had their baptismal interviews yesterday and they both passed. It was awesome. So we will be have 2 baptisms this next sunday. Well the weather is starting to get a little cooler and my companion is dying. He is from Honduras and has never gotten to know the cold. We had our first rainfall the other day. We have be finding various families that look like they have a lot of potential.
The time is going so fast and I've been really worried if I'm doing all that I can do. As Elder Ardern said in his Conference talk in October 2011 time can't be bought and can't be recovered. I'm excited to hear about Issac. He is a great kid. The mission will change his life. Well I love you all very much And hope you have a great week.
Love, Elder Holton

Our Chapel is the largest one here in Chile!

Graffiti is like art here in Chile!

Our first rainfall of the winter!!