Week Twelve: June 8th, 2010

Hola Hola,
How´s everyone doing? Things are going good here. Busy busy busy of course. So let´s see. Last week I´ve had the biggest meal of my life no chiste. We had a big bowl of soup(Clam chauder) (bigger than the big bowls at home), Then the main dish which is a full plate of food(Beef, rice, and brocoli), and a full plate of salad, and a bowl(about the same size as the small one at home) of fruit. It was delicous but alot. I´m proud to say that I ate all of and and 3 big pieces of bread. I can honestly say that I have eaten everything put in front of me. I don´t have a scale but I would bet money that I have gained weight. I´m always hungry. Everyone jokes that I´m going to get fat but I don´t buy it. We´re on the go too much. Another food that I forgot to talk about that I absolutely have fallen in love with is what is called an "AS" and yes it is said just like the cuss word which is way weird. But it´s made just like a Completo except instead of a hotdog they have little pieces of amazing beef with avocado, tomatos, and mayo on top and I usually put mustard also. So amazing. My trainer Elder Young just hit his year mark last week and we celebrated with Ases. It is so funny because we are almost the exact same. We have so much fun and yet challenge eachother at the same time. We got 2 new baptism dates set up last week and this week should be even better. I honestly love it down here. I mean it is a little weird walking down the street with guys cussing at you telling you to go back to your country and girls making kissing noises and whistling at you. It just adds to the adventure. Our ward is pretty small but we love them. They feed us every day except pday and they do our laundry. It´s getting kinda cold here but it´s not too bad. It´s a whole different thing though when the only building that has a actually furnace is the chapel of the church. No one else does. Everyone just bundles up with a lot of clothes and blankets. They love love love soda. It is insane how much soda they drink. They also love brooms. They do everything with a broom. It´s hilarous. Plus they are dogs everywhere and they are always making noise. I am sad to hear about Keith Whitmore. Make sure you give him my love and that I look forward to seeing him on the other side. This work is pretty crazy. Just last week we visited a boy named Charlie who is about 15 years old. When he was 8 he was only baptized and never confirmed which means he needs to be baptized again. So we went over there to his house to see what was going on and if he wanted to be baptized. My companion started asking questions about what was going on and everything and the kid just had his head down and kept quiet. He acted like something bad was really wrong. So my companion pushed and pushed but nothing happened. So I felt the impression to bear a little bit of my testimony to him. I straight up told him that I had no idea what I was doing and that I didn´t know this language or this country but I that I do know this:that God loves him and that God cares about him and that it is only through God that we can receive happiness. I pretty much made him look at me in the face. I told him that we want to help him and that God wants to help him but first he needs to ask God for help. It was a very powerful moment. My companion said that it was like I was staring into his soul. Well He hasn´t made a decision yet but that was a very foundation shaking experience. The reason why I´m writing you today instead of yesterday is because for this week they allowed us (my zone) to switch our Pday so we could go check out this airplane museum. It wasn´t as cool as Hill Airforce but it was still fun. Sorry but I can´t send pictures. We don´t trust these computers. Maybe later in a different sector. I finally got a map of our sector which has been very helpful for learning the streets. Well It´s time for me to sign off. If any of you want to write me my address is
Elder Holton
Chile Santiago West Misson
Correos Casilla 149
Chacabuco 166
Maipú
Chile
It takes about 2 to 3 weeks for letters to get down here and DearElder about a week. That´s the misson office address but we get all of our mail every wednesday at District Meeting.
I love you all and I hope all is well.

Love,
Elder Holton

Week Eleven: May 31st, 2010

Life isn't too different from the states. Only thing is Lunch is the big meal of the day and we always eat at a member's house and they love to feed you alot. And if you don't eat it all you're basically insulting them. Which is really bad. As far as the type of food goes it's just like home. I've had things like fish, spaghetti, just whatever.

The language is coming good. The first 3 days really stunk because I could only pick out a couple of words but it is getting better. At Sunday school yesterday I could undertand almost everything and respond accordingly. My trainer is from Arizona and he is way cool. We went door knocking yesterday and we asked if we could come inside and say a prayer with them and after the prayer the lady just went crazy with questions wanting to know all about the Book of Mormon and everything. It was just too cool.

The ward is way fun. It is really small with only about 70 members. We try to get more people to come to church. Me and my companion live in this little house with 2 bedrooms. a living room and a kitchen which is way big for 2 people. Another cool thing about Chile is they have the most amazing hot dogs here!They are called completo!

Week Ten: May 26th, 2010

Hey Everyone,
Well here I am in Chile. Things are going great. The flight was way too long but I placed 2 Book of Mormons and had an amazing discussion on the plane for about 3 hours. It was amazing. All is well here and PS my P-days are now on Monday. I love you all. My Mission President is awesome. Now time for the real work to begin.

Love,
Elder Holton

Week Nine: May 21st, 2010

Buenos Tardes!
This past week I got to host which was awesome. It's basically where you take a new missionary and get him set up with his Residence keys and Classroom and walk him through the book store. It was fun. I can't wait to actually be able to teach. My companion leaves Monday morning at 4am which means I have to get up to drop him off. But then I have a lot of time to pack which is way awesome. Thanks Dad for teaching me to pack. I have already put that knowledge to good use by showing others. My plane leaves Tuesday May 25th at 2:45 and I stop in Dallas and then arrive in Santiago on Wednesday May 26th at 7:30 am.

Week Eight: May 14th, 2010

Two big things happened this week...

1: Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came and spoke at our devotional. I took 5 1/2 pages of notes.
He was so amazing! He told us that every good thing that has happened in his life has been because of his mission! He said "Get everthing you can out of your mission! Don't let us down! Don't let the Lord down! Teach with power and authority! If you don't get a second appointment to come back and give the second discussion then it's because you didn't do a good enough job on the first one! Knock their socks off! We are counting on you to spread the gospel. It was an amazing talk! I just love that man!

2: I got my travel plans and I leave on Tuesday May 25th and I arrive in Santiago on Wednesday morning the 26th! I am so excited to get into Chile and teach the gospel!

Me and Elder Winters are doing FANTASTIC! Last Wednesday I decided to only speak in Spanish all day! And guess what? I did it! The other missionaries in my district thought it was pretty cool so we have decided to make it a district goal to only speak in Spanish except on P day until we leave here! It will give us alot of good practice!

Me and Elder Winters in the bookstore!

These are my Spanish scriptures that I have been marking!

These are the missionaries in by district singing before going to bed.

Week Seven:May 7th, 2010

This past week on Tuesday we saw Elder Plaskett off on the bus at 6:00 am and then Elder Monsen was called as the new district leader and Elder Coates and Elder Smith were called as the new Zone leaders and I was called as the Zone music coordinator.
They also changed the companionships. I am now with Elder Winters and Elder Monsen is with Elder Christensen. We are now the oldest district in our zone and we just got a new district in that has 12 new missionaries which is really a lot!!

I have been playing a lot of four square and I love it so much! It's very intense! Just so fun! My companion Elder Winters was running up some stairs and broke his toe pretty bad. He's been limping everywhere and is wearing a boot.

Some scriptures I have fallen in love with are (and yes they are full chapters, get over it and read them! It's worth it!) 2Nephi 9, Mosiah 3 and 4, Alma 5 and 32, and also Moroni 7. I just love the Book of Mormon and the stories. It's just too good! When Nephi says (in 2Nephi 32:3) Feast upon the word, I think I finally know what he meant. I think I'm going to try out to sing a solo in the next devotional. I want to sing "I know that my Redeemer Lives". I just love that song!

Love you guys! Stay close to the Lord!

Not sure what this picture is about! Crazy Nick!!
Flowers at the Provo Temple!

More flowers!!

My new companion Elder Winters!

One more flower!

My district: Me, Elder Winters, Elder Christensten,

Elder Plaskett, Elder Monsen and Hermana Frandsen.

Me and Elder Plaskett before he left for Spain on May 4th!

Week Six: April 30th, 2010

My district is now the oldest district in the zone and will be getting new zone leaders this Sunday. It's crazy that we will be the oldest district for over three weeks. We will be getting a new district every other week so we will have to be the example for 2 new sets of newbies. It will be kind of crazy!!

Elder Plaskett finally got his visa and will be flying out on Wednesday May 5th! I'm so excited for him! My companion Elder Christensen has been getting 2 packages a day from his Mom ever since he has been here. Everyone has kind of been teasing him about that. It has been 12 - 15 packages a week all from his mom. Well our Branch President called him in and he got in trouble and he told him that he can only receive 1 more package the rest of the time he is here at the MTC. He was pretty upset about that!

Last Sunday I taught Sunday school and also I had to give a 2 minute talk in Sacrament meeting in Spanish. Our last devotional I got awesome seats in the center on the fifth row and it was Elder L. Tom Perry it was intense. He talked about the Book of Mormon.

We went to the temple this morning we totally love the food in the temple cafeteria! Temple Breakfast is just the best! It's so much better then the MTC food! It is insane how strong the spirit is here!