March 5th

Here we are again with another week passing by and things going good. We are going to have a baptism this week for Leo or Siul as his real name is. We are way excited about it. He will be a great nem member in the ward. He truly has a sincere desire to do what is right. We are looking forward to it and hope all will go well. His wife is still closed about the whole thing but I believe that she is a little better. It is something that he wants to do. He started reading in the Book of Mormon in Alma for some odd reason but he has already finished Alma and is now in Helaman. he is a very intelligent guy he seems to remember everything that we teach him and then he studies it more after we leave. He truly was prepared by the lord. 

This next week is transfers so next week I might be writing with a new area or a new comp. I should stay and get a new comp but you never know. So we will have to see how everything goes. 

Yesterday was another carnaval celebration and we saw a ton of people dressed up in the masks and all sorts of weird outfits driving around. It is way funny. Elections here are coming up also, so there is a lot of campaigning going on. They campaign in a very great way in this country. It is mostly whoever can throw the biggest party can win the race. And they know how to throw parties in this country. It is way funny. They drive trucks around with huge speakers blasting music made for the candidate. Election day is the 20 of may or something like that which is a sunday so a lot of the members say that we will just have sacrament meeting and nothing else. 

I did an interview for 2 people this week and one of them is an 88 old man that is a journalist. He is a very interesting guy and very intelligent. He still writes for the newspaper sometimes. His daughter is a member so it will be a good baptism. Also for this other guy who found the church by watching Big Love on HBO and it interested him about the church so he researched it and found out that one of his friends is a member who gave him a BoM and then from there he read a lot and now has a strong desire to be baptized. The many different ways that people come to know the truth are amazing. It is great to know that people have been chosen before this world to be a part of this gospel and they will find it in some way or another. That is why it is important that we are always talking to our friends and inviting them to receive this message. We never know when it is the time that people can accept. It is just a matter of following the spirit and do it in a loving manner. I hope all is well and that you are all doing what you need to do to receive all the blessings of the Lord. love ya alll. 

con amor, 

Elder Holmes

Feb 27

Here we are again. another week further into life. We had a good week not quite as many lessons as we did last week but it was a good one. We set a fecha with Margarita also for the 10 of march. so her and leo or Siul is his real name, will be baptized on the same day. Siul will most likely be baptized and Margarita is a maybe. We sure hope so. 
Things have been going well with both of them. Siul is ready is a great person. He has been playing basketball with us on pdays. His wife is a little better about the whole thing. I think he talks to her about it every night so it is all good. He will be a great baptism, and new member to the ward for the little time that he will be here before he goes up to the states. Margarita is progressing and has a testimony of the Book of Mormon but just has a lot of doubts about some of the doctrine. So, we talked about walking with faith, and how we dont always why we do the things but if we feel that it is right in our hearts then we should just do it without questions and follow what God is telling us. 

Today is Independence day for the DR so they celebrate it with what is called a carnaval and they where these crazy masks and crazy outfits that are supposed to some how be from the ancient people of this country. So the other night when we were walking home we saw this crazy guy dressed in the whole outfit and mask and stuff just walking down the street which is weird because they usually only have the costumes in the party areas which are on the beach. They have crazy looking masks, but they are cool. We also played betilla today, which is a baseball type of a game but it is with plastic top things and a broom stick. It was way fun. It is hard to hit them but you get pretty good at it after practice. I remember Nathan Bills trying to explain it to me. I will have to bring some of them home to show cause it is hard to explain. Other then that not a lot has happened. The weather is way hot but not much you can do about that. I am not looking forward to another extremely hot summer, but it will be hurricane season soon so that will be cool. Well I hope all will be well with all of you. ¡haz lo justo! and never cease to work in the work of the Lord. love you all.

con amor,

Elder Holmes