August 15th

Well another week goes by fast. this week is transfer week and me voy or i am going. I will be going to a different area in the capital more in the central. My comp E. Almonte who i have now is going to be training this transfer. I will have E. Moreno as a comp, he is from mexico which is cool. i will get to hear real spanish. He Is a great Elder I hear, he was a zone leader and he will be leaving after this next transfer. so i will have 6 comps in 6 transfers and then 7 in 7 after this next one. 

The week went well we had 7 people in church this week which is way good. one family came that we are excited to teach. their daughter is a member and is excited to share the gospel with her family. we are still working with Juan and Estephani, Juan´s father died a few days ago so that was sad but they were expecting it cause he had cancer and it was his time to go.  We taught him the plan of Salvation and how that there is still a chance for him to except the gospel and receive exaltation. It is peacefull to know that Heavenly Father is so mercifull to us and that everyone will have a chance. I am sad to leave the area but i am getting used to coming and leaving. 

That is all from this week i hope that all is well with all of you and that you are receiving the blessings of the lord. Work hard to follow the Savior´s example live a Christian life. love you all so much. 

Con Amor

Elder Holmes

August 8th

Another week passes by and everything is good. ya the tropical storm came through but i was dissapointed. it didnt really hit the DR very hard. The day it came through there was just cloud cover and it didnt rain. but the day before and the day after it rained pretty hard, but it i have seen it rain harder so i was kind of dissapointed. But President had has buy some extra food and water just in case so we had to be prepared. other than that we had a good week still struggling to get people to church but there are a few coming. We don't have any baptismal dates right now, but we are still working with Estephani and Juan and they still have the desire but are not sure. When people are going through the process of baptism satan puts more things in their way and makes it harder for them. 

We have found some new people and are working with them and hoping that they will accept the gospel. transfers are in a week we dont expect to get moved or have any changes but with a new president you never know. So we will have to see. we are going to the temple at the end of this month the 31 so if i forget to tell you my pday will be a wednesday on that day 

Right now our ward doesnt have a bishop so we are hoping to get one soon. are ward starts at 8 because we share a chapel with another ward. so they start at 10 and we at 8. they have 2 sister missionaries. one of which is aunt Jens niece. I keep forgetting to mention that. We found that out a couple of weeks ago. It was funny. such a small world.

Well that is about it from the DR this week I hope all is well with everyone and I am so thankfull for all of your support. Love you all so much.

con amor,

Elder Holmes

July 25th

Well another week passes by rapido. I cant believe that it will be august in another week. Time goes by extremely fast. We are working hard here which helps the time go by faster. We had a good week taught a lot of people and got the ward members more involved. That is what we are working on right now is to get the ward members involved. It is so much easier to help people come into the Gospel when the ward members are helping. to have a friend in the church makes people stay stronger in the church. This week we had the interviews for Juan and estephani and they both did good but both are a little timid to take the step of baptism so we think that we are going to push it back another week. other than that we have been finding a lot of people and have been struggling to get people to visit the church. When it is at 8 the people have less of a desire to go to an unfamiliar place. it is also an easy way to find the people who are truly ready to receive the gospel.

 

Other then that we have been trying to find new people and working hard with the people progressing right now. It has been a little bit cooler this last week because it was raining a lot so it was a little better. Hurricanes usually dont hit this country with much strength they are still building up strength so they dont do a lot of damage here. they just flood the streets and people enjoy bathing in the rain. more or less bathing. some people go by little packs of shampoo and wash their hair when it is raining really hard. it was interesting the first time that i saw that.

 

Well that is about it from the DR. I hope that everything is going well for all of you. you are all in my prayers daily. thank you for all the support. Trust in God and be worthy for the voice of the spirit.

 

Con Amor,

 

Elder Holmes

July 18th, 2011

Holas de la Republica,

 

Everything here is going well, we have a lot of investigators and are working with them hard. We dont have alot of time in between appointments which is great cause the day goes by faster and your always on that spiritual high. yesterday was a hard day we only had 1 person in church and it wasnt any of our investigators just some random guy that came. Juan and Estephani are still progressing but we moved their dates back to the 30, they are quite ready to make the commitment. we have found a lot of people again and are trying to figure out if they are ready or not. we dont have a lot of time to waste just talking to people. but we have to give everyone a good chance to see if they are ready. There are a ton of inactives om this ward. we contacted at least 6 since E. Almonte has came. and that is just randomly doing contacts.

 

interviews went well for us. Pres. Hernendez is a great guy. He is very relaxed and natural. He doesnt speak english which would be hard for the new people coming in. but his wife does speak it so that is good. they are both really great people and have a strong spirit with them. It will be interesting to see what changes are made over the next few transfers. over half teh mission is going hime within 4 months so we are going to see a lot of changes. also Pres. Antivilo was only using 30 percent of the budget when he left so maybe we will get a few more things like a back up power system. that would be nice the other missions on the island have them but we dont. most people here have them too. It has been hotter these last few days cause it hasnt been raining. the sun is powerfull when it is shining here.

 

I cant upload pictures today cause the computer i am using doesnt have a usb port and it is way slow. but that is all from the Dominican republic for this week. i hope everyone is doing well and that you all hove the spirit with you. always take the time to evaluate your life and think if this is what God wants you to be doing. love lyou all.

 

Con Amor

 

Elder Holmes