Week Twenty-Seven: April 25th, 2011

Dear Family,
Well this week was a very different week. Because Elder Conforme is going home this week we got to go visit some of his old sectors and families and all that. It was really fun. Monday we went and visited a sector here in Santiago he was in before and we got to eat a lot and it was just fun to meet all of his old families. Some cool things that happened this week were we did have the Baptism of David the Bishop's grandson on Friday and the Confirmation of Juan, Sara, and David yesterday. This week as we visited Juan and Sara for some reason or another I got the impression that Sara probably won't live much longer after her confirmation. Like max 3 weeks. After the lesson I brought that up to Elder Conforme and he said he had the exact same impression. So only time will tell. We also on Saturday got to go visit a little town called Melipilla and we were there all day. I have never eaten so much food in one day before. We just went from house to house saying Hi and getting fed. haha. It was pretty cool. So today I dropped off Elder Conforme at the Office in Maipu and I am spending today with Elder Jensen and Elder Mahoni. And Tomorrow we will go together to Cambios at the office and recieve our new companions. Well things have been going good here. I love you all and hope to talk to you soon.

Love,
Elder Holton
Elder Conforme, Astrid, her daughter, Me, and Luis

Me, Daniel, Elder Conforme,

Me, Carolina, David, Cristian, Elder Conforme

Rose, Janette, Elder Conforme, Fanny, Elder Holton

Me, Juan, Sarah, Elder Conforme

Week Twenty-Six: April 18th, 2011

Hello,
Well this week has been a different week. Last week on Monday before I wrote to you guys we played soccer as a zone and well I was the goalie on concrete or cement. Those are the same right? Well now I have an awesome bruise from diving on the concrete. It's all these different colors and what not. It's awesome. After I wrote to you guys we went to Lidor (Chilean Walmart) and we ran into my next door neighbors from my other sector and it was so exciting to see them. The Dad wasn't a member but he has been baptized since then. So that was way exciting. Then we had Zone Conference this week which was pretty much all day on Wednesday. It was spiritually boosting. Friday was a different day. Elder Conforme got to go to the Temple with all the missionaries that are leaving and I went on divisions with two other missionaries. We were together like 6 hours but it was fun. So we were supposed to have a baptism Saturday and Sunday. Well Saturday came and the hot water on the font work and we couldn't even figure out why. So we postponed the one till this Friday for David. The Bishop's Grandson and the other one for Juan and Sara we had at a different chapel with some other missionaries. Sara is 90 years old and she did not like the water but after trying 4 or 5 times she finally went under.

Well its been a good week and this next week will be a little crazy as Elder Conforme prepares to return to his house. We will be visiting some of his old sectors during this week also.
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Holton

Pamela, Sara, Juan, and Elder Conforme

The bruise on my knee after playing soccer on concrete!

Pamela, Aaron, Armando, Eduardo, His Grandma, and Nibaldo

Aaron, Eduardo (the Bishop's Grandson) and Eduardo's Grandma

Week Twenty-Five: April 11, 2011

Dear family,Well how is everybody doing? The work is going good. We have our updays and our downdays. We did have one baptism Yesterday and we are looking to having 3 next week. Last week we did this Family Home Evening with a family in the ward and it was pretty funny. See there is this stuff called Mate and it?s basically herbs that you drink filtered through a straw. It?s usually really hot and yes we are allowed as missionaries to have it. So we were drinking Mate and they pulled out some salsa which wasn't like way spicy or anything but it did not sit good in our stomachs. Both me and Elder Conforme were like ready to throwup. I mean think about it Hot temperature wise and Spicy. Yeah bad combination. But it was fun. Then we had a class with 3 other zones with President. It was way awesome to be taught by President. I just love him. Then I had the awesome opportunity of going on divisions with Elder Crockett who is the Zone Leader. It was so fun to work with him. He is from West Jordan and we just have so much in common. Then yesterday we had a baptism that went awesome. We had 2 of our investigators there to watch it, Juan and Sara. Juan and Sara had their interview with President last Saturday and they passed so they will be baptized this coming week. Daniel has actually lost his baptismal date and he is actually getting a divorce which is really sad but I believe he is still strong in the faith. We have Zone Conference this week which should be awesome. Well I hope all of you are doing well. Talk to you next week. Love,Elder Holton

Week Twenty-Four: April 5, 2011

Dearest Family,
How are you all doing? I’m terribly sorry about last week. I was not very good at managing my time but today I’m better. This week was a good week. We had interviews with President which was awesome. I love my president. This week we were trying a lot harder on getting some new contacts so we put a time every day where we would go knocking. Well after all of that amazingness we only got one new but still it’s all good. Conference was awesome. We went to our stake center and all the gringos went into another room where we got it in English. No but before the first session I saw the cutest thing. This little kid (like 2 years old maybe 3) came in the church and was just wandering around before his family. Well he wandered into the Chapel where they had the temple conference thing saying like 15 minutes till the session. Well the second this kid could see the screen he started freaking out. Look! look! mama! mama! look! how cool! how cool! It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Well conference was just a blast. I will say Ryan was getting slammed by Elder Oaks, President Monson, and Elder Scott. I’m just glad I’m here so I don’t have to feel guilty :) I felt like the priesthood session was really about the priesthood and honoring it and using it. It was awesome. Then Sunday was way focused on service and on serving. Well this week has been good. We were supposed to have 4 baptism interviews. Well one passed his interview. Another didn’t show and the other two (Juan and Sara) have to have an interview with the mission president. We don’t know for what but it has to be something pretty bad. So we should have a baptism this week and probably next week. I’m feeling a lot better. Plus I finally got over the stomach problem. I now have a bottomless pit in my stomach. You have no idea how stressed I was with that. Now not a problem at all. Well I love you all and hope you are all doing amazing.

Love,
Elder Holton

Week Twenty-Three: March 28th, 2011

Hey Family, Well this week has been a certainly different week. My stomach was still acting up and I got this way awesome cold, and the problems with my hands came back. So I didn´t actually get to go out and teach but it was all good. It gave me a chance to study and get caught up on the lessons. I really love my comp and we´ve been having so much fun. It´s been a blast even though I stayed in the house for 3 days and took the other days slow. I just have the one ward I watch over and it is just me and my comp. We have around 60 members that go. They are all really cool. There was one lesson I wanted to tell about that was really cool. There is this guy named Daniel who is like 35 to 40 and he has kid who is 2 years old. Well we always start a lesson with a prayer and before the lesson his son was going all crazy and wild like 2 year olds are. Well when we got down on our knees to pray that little kid went over with out being told and got down on his knees next to his dad and was silent the entire time. I just thought that was the coolest thing and how special is it that his son is already in the spirit of prayer. I tried to express how cool I thought that was and tie in the fact that he wants to live with his kid forever. Well I tried but I had a hard time not crying. It was really humbling. Well I went to the Doctor today and told me how to get some more medicine to help with everything. I hope you all are doing good. Love, Elder Holton

Week Twenty-Two: March 21st, 2011

Hey hey,
Well I made it here alright and the flight wasn´t too bad at all. I seriously slept like 6 hours. I took a Tylenal PM and it knocked me out cold. The work is going fantastic. I´m with a Elder Conforme who is from Ecuador and he really knows how to work. He is really cool. We have a lot of fun and work hard. We have like 4 maybe 5 and even maybe 6 Baptisms. Elder Conforme has been here for 6 months and he is just finishing the mission. I´m his last come. In 5 Weeks he is going home. We get along awesome. It´s been going really well. There is a couple named Juan y Sara and they are both like 70 years old. We´ve taught them like 3 times. Sara has Alzheimer which is really sad but Juan understands everything and is just loving the gospel. We also have Eduardo who I've only met once but he is getting baptized them also. And then we have the Bishop´s grandson who is getting baptized. He is 9 years old. I don´t know why he didn´t get baptized earlier. I guess he parents were a little inactive before but Elder Conforme has been working with them a lot. The Spanish has been really good. It is crazy how much better it gets everyday. I understand more and more every hour almost. The food is good. My stomach is still giving me grief but I´m not worried about it. It´ll fix itself soon. Well sorry guys but my time has run out. There is a link at the bottom of my sector. It´s actually not too far from my other but it isn´t as big which is nice also. Well I´ll talk to you guys later.
Con Amor,
Elder Holton

Week Twenty-One: March 16th 2011 I made it!

Hey Yall,
Hermana King is awesome! Well I made it here. I actually slept for about 6 hours which was way awesome. Well all is good. Ready to go to work! Hope all is well at home. talk to you soon.
Here is a picture of me with President and Sister King and my new companion Elder Conforme.