Week One Hundred: September 17th,2012

Dear Family,

Well what a crazy week we've had. The really awesome good news is that I have a companion. His name is Elder Barrett and he is the cousin of the other Elder Barrett that was with me a few weeks ago. He is awesome. He's from Logan Utah and has about 20 months in the mission. He is super tall. You'll get to see in the pictures. This week we've been working really hard. Looking for new people to teach. We have seen a few miracles this past week.  We've been teaching a teenager and we gave him the Book of Mormon Promise. So he did it and one night before he went to bed a voice came to him and basically started to chew him out. That he needs to start to live a better life. That God has a purpose for him but only if he does what is right. It was really cool. Well this next week we are going to have Zone Conference where we will hear from Elder Resek of the Area. I will also have to give my last testimony which is kinda sad. Well This week is also that 18th of September the Independence day of Chile. So it is going to be a very different week also. We'll take pictures of everything. 

Love,

Elder Holton

 With Elder Sanchez and Elder Crane

 My new companion Elder Barrett

Week Ninety-Nine: September 10th, 2012

Dear Family,

Well I'm sorry but there isn't much to tell about this week. I've been mostly leaving with members when I can and when I can't I go with missionaries from the other sector. It's been fun getting to know their members better. This past week we did have interviews with President where he basically told me that almost half my zone is going to have to changes which I already guessed. This next week is going to be a crazy one. Well I hope you all have a great week. 

Love,

Elder Holton

Week Ninety-Eight: September 3rd, 2012

Dear Family,

Wow this was a crazy week. Well Elder Barrett left last week and I've been flying solo. I spent almost no time in my own sector. I went and visited another sector one night (and slept on the floor hahaha). Plus this past week we had concilio which took 2 days. The assistents had to come pick me up to get there. It was really fun. Basically President took Our idea (Elder Smith and I) of taking converts to the temple and put it mission wide. He now wants all the stakes to do it also. So that was pretty cool. Really there isn't much happening over here. We have interviews with President tomorrow. It is starting to warm up a bit. This past winter was like nothing compared to the first two.Well I hope you all have a great week and We'll talk to you soon.

Love,

Elder Holton

 

Week Ninety-Seven: August 27th, 2012

Dear Family,

This week was a crazy but good week. Elder Barrett was with me the whole week and we were able to work really hard. Elder Barrett is from California. He only has 2 weeks left in the mission and then it is his turn to go home. He was my leader before. He is a great Elder and we've had a great week together. Although tonight at 6 he is going to go to help another sector and I have to start finding youth to come out with me. Last week we also had to go to Santiago to renew my visa. Well everything is going good down here. Just busy as always. We'll talk to you guys later.

Love, Elder Holton

 These pictures are from Valentina's baptism!

 

Week Ninety-Six: August 20th, 2012

Dear Family,

Wow this week was so crazy and busy and hard all at the same time. Well it was the last week of Elder Smith. We also had 3 baptisms this past week on Saturday. It was crazy but it all turned out in the end. I dropped off Elder Smith this morning. We have been doing goodbyes the past 3 days and that's been pretty intense as always. Now I'm with Elder Barrett who is going to be with me for 3 or 4 days and after that I have several brothers from the ward that are going to help me out. So the work is going really good. We have 2 investigators now who are working really well, and progressing really well and should have a baptism in the next month or two. So I'm super sad to see Elder Smith go but yet ready to keep working hard. We'll talk to you all next week.

love, Elder Holton

 More Pictures from the Temple trip!

 Holding the Chilean flag!

Farewell to Elder Smith "We will never forget you!"

 Crazy Eyes!!

Lder Holton

Week Ninety-five: August 13th,2012

Dear Family,

Wow this past week was crazy. I can't even tell you. We had something extra almost everyday. So to start off. Tuesday we had Zone Meeting where we as the zone leaders had to teach the new iniciatives for the month. It went well. Tuesday night we planned some of our lessons at the chapel and were there hanging out waiting for our appointments. As we were there, there was a little 9 year old girl in a wheelchair named Valentina there. She is the granddaughter of one or our really active members. Well she said that she finally got permission from her mom to be baptized. So she is getting baptized this Saturday. Wednesday we had to prepare a class we were going to teach to all the leaders of the mission. So we decided to make a movie and do a testimonial of all the recent converts that went to the temple. It turned out great. Thursday we had a capacitation that went good. Friday we had that meeting with all the Leadership of the mission. Our class went awesome. Hopefully other missionaries can focus a little bit in Family History. Saturday we had Luis' Baptism with was awesome. A lot of people came. Sunday we had a meeting in Santiago at 1:30 with Elder Zevallos from the 70 (Area Presidency) with all the Leaders from our mission and the North mission. It was good. We couldn't go to our church though so that was lame. There were 4 or 5 days when we couldn't even go out to our sector till like 6 or 7. Well it was a good week but now we are on the last week of Elder Smith. Well I hope you all have a great a week.

Love, Elder Holton

 Our baptism temple trip!

 We are on the bus we rented to take our new converts and ward members to the temple to do baptisms.

 

Week Ninety-four: August 6th,2012

Dear Family,

Well hever we have passed another crazy week. Wow this week was insane. So to start off on Tuesday we had changes we had to go to. Only 3 of our 8 companionships had changes. So it didn't change too much. Then another really exciting thing we had this past week. Elder Smith got the opportunity of doing a Session in the Temple. So Thursday we had our weekly meetings with the Zone and then we took off and went to Santiago. We had to take clothing to sleepover because we also had concilio on Friday at President's house. We got to Santiago at 3ish we ate lunch and went straight to the temple. I did divisions with another Elder while Elder Smith was in the temple. The other Elder Actually brought an investigator to show the temple and everything. So we basically taught her for 2 hours. It was really good. Then after they finished we went back to Maipú and grabbed something to eat at Micky D's and then we went to the office. We slept with the office Elders. We got up at 6 to leave with the assistants bright and early on Friday. We had the meet at President's house all day. It went really well and then around 5 we took off. We actually had a really cool thing happen. So we had to take the metro back and there was 8 of us. Well we had to go like 20 stations so we decided to sing hymns. After about 10 hymns this lady came up to Elder Smith and said that it was against the law to sing if someone doesn't want to hear it and she didn't want hear and that we have to stop. Well Elder Smith told her that after the next song we would stop (we were getting close to our station anyways). Well all the people that were listening to us overheard this lady complaining and started to talk to her. One grandpa said "I actually enjoy hearing them." another lady said "If you don't like it you can get off", Another said "hey you had to come all the way over here just to complain about them and we are right here and we love it." In the end there were about 10 people that started defending us and not only defending us but chewing her out. It was intense but kinda cool too haha. Yeah I don't think we are going to do that again. Well we have a baptism this next week. His name is Luis and he is awesome. He is 17 and his comprehension is off the roof. It's like he knows too much. haha But we are really excited. Well we are planning on having another insane week. Hope you all have a fantastic week.

Love,

Elder Holton

 Concilio!