Week Eighty-Eight: June 25th, 2012

Also this past week we received Nick's travel itinerary for coming home! He leaves on Monday October 22nd and arrives on Tuesday morning October 23rd at 10:25 am! We are very excited!!
Dear Family,
We had a really good week this past week. Well to start off the week we had changes last Tuesday and half of our zone left. It was a little crazy. But it's all good. We are still getting to know some Elders. But all in all it was fun. I was able to see old companions and talk to missionaries that have been in old sectors. We have rainy days about once or twice a week. In the picture I sent last week we were trying to cross the street in that picture which turned into a river. Those were some boots that were gifted to me by an inactive member. We have already put them to good use. Honestly it is such a blessing and a priveledge to serve as a missionary. Well the highlight of this week is Andrea (one of our investigators) passed her interview and will be baptized this next Saturday. So that is super exciting. I love being a missionary. So this next week should be a busy one. I hope you all have a great week and I can't wait to hear about Jonathan getting the Priesthood next Sunday. I love you. Love, Elder Holton

Week Eighty-Seven: June 18th, 2012

Dear Family,

Wow this week was so busy but in the end it was a good week. So the highlight of this week for our sector is that Marina finally got Baptized and confirmed. So that was awesome. We also have 3 more people who are preparing for baptism that are all progressing super good. Andrea is a friend of a recent convert and has a date for the 30th of June. She is going through a lot of trials with her friends and family but she is converted and excited to be baptized. She has been making a lot of changes in her life and they have been hurting but she knows that they are for her good in the end.

The next date we have is with Manuel who is the like a step grandpa of Francisca who just got baptized like 2 or 4 weeks ago. He is progress also by reading and going to church. He is also excited to get baptized the 30th. And we also have a baptismal date with Andrez, the son of Marina, for the 14th of July. He felt something special in the baptism of his Mom.

This past week we had interviews with President King and they went really well. President basically told me that I will probably be Elder Smith's last companion and then finish the mission here. It rained like crazy this past week but it was all the more fun. Things are going great. Elder Smith is doing really good. We have changes tomorrow we have to go to. Half our zone is getting changed out. So it'll be a lot of fun. Well I hope you guys have a great week.

Love,

Elder Holton

 Marina was baptized!!

Since I had boots and Elder Smith did not I gave him a ride accoss the rain filled street!!

Week Eighty-Six: June 11th, 2012

Dear Family,
Wow well the cold is really starting to settle in but the work keeps going. Honestly I think this has been the slowest week we've probably had here in Talagante but I guess that's what happens when both of us gets sick. Elder Smith got a cold and I got a fever but we're still doing good and working hard. This past week we had Zone meeting instead of district meeting and we had to teach the new inictiatives President has for us as his missionaries. It went really well. I really enjoyed teaching my initiative. This past week we also went to a wedding of a couple in our ward. It was really good. And Yesterday Elder Smith and I were asked to sing in a choir with a few people in church for Sacrament Meeting. We sang "I am a Child of God", or "Soy un Hijo de Dios." It went well. It was hard though. They had me sing a bass part half of it and then they had me sing a soprano part 2 octives down. It was hard. I'm not kidding. These people take such good care of us that it is almost getting embarrassing. Last Monday we went to eat with Tity and her mom and they favored us by making all of our favorite foods. They also bought a juicer, just to make us juice! A funny thing that happened is, Tity was teasing Elder Smith because she always calls him, "Prince". Well, she told him that, for lunch, she was going to give him a pig and a feast. I thought it was just a big joke, but she really did buy him a pig's head! haha It was so disgusting, but really funny! Tity also brought us cookies and milk again for Sacrament and Nora brought us a bag of goodies and juices. Everyone makes fun of us because we are babied so much. It's great! haha Well we're looking forward to have a great week.

Talk to you Next week.
Love, Elder Holton

 P-day in Talagante!

 Zone Barbeque at the Parcela

 A Feast for a Prince!

Yum!!

Week Eighty-Five: June 4th, 2012

Dear Family,

Well we had a great week this past week. We had quite a busy week this past week. We did divisions with a few missionaries and they went really well. This week we had a meeting we had to go to as Zone Leaders called Concilio. We had leave Talagante Thursday night and sleep over with the office elders in Maipú. Luckily President was visiting Talagante doing a baptismal interview and could give us a ride to Maipú so we didn't have to take a bus to get there. That was way nice. Then we had to get up early and the assistents gave us a ride to Presidents house. There we had breakfast and then the meetings began. It was a lot of fun. We have to tell how our Zone did for this past month and what are we going focus on the next month. Then President gives us the iniciatives this month that we have to give our missionaries in our Zone. It was really fun but a little long. We also had a confirmation Yesterday. Right now we are just really focusing on finding new people to teach. Well I Hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Holton

 Meeting for  Zone leaders!

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!