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

July 11th

Saludos de la Republica,

This week went by fast, we had a good week found a lot of new people to teach. We are completely full for the next three days with appointments. We have two people with baptismal dates right now. Juan and Estephani for the 23 of this month. Juan is 29 and a good guy he is already living all the commandments before we taught him anything and that is weird in this country. He is a little nervous for his baptismal date but we are working with him and letting the spirit work within him. Estephani is a little nervous too but she is way cool and she also is already living the commandments she is 19. We are teaching her family too a family of 7. but as of right now she is the only one that is ready we are going to keep working with her family so they can receive the blessings that come from this gospel.

Last Monday when we left the internet place we left to a tropical storm. It was crazy how much rain was coming down. By the time we got home it was as if we had jumped in the river with all of our clothes on.we had to walk through water past our ankles to make it to our house. We also couldnt leave the house after cause it was raining the rest of the night. I have some pictures but this computer wont recognize my camera so i cant download them this week.

I havent met Pres. Hernandez yet but  we have interviews with him this Thursday so we will meet him there. My comp went to a meeting with him and said he was a great guy and very relaxed and easy going which is different from our last pres. I dont think he speaks very much english which will be hard for the new americans coming in who dont speak spanish. I am glad that i got  here when we had a pres. That spoke english.

Well that is all from the republica. I hope all is going well with all of you. Stay strong in the faith and give thanks for our many blessings which we have. Thank you all for your support. Love you all so much.

Con Amor,

Elder Holmes

July 4th, 2011

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

It is weird not being home for the 4th but be thankful for our country, we have a good life there. I remember coming home from Africa this time last year and saying the same thing it is weird how fast the time is going. It seems like yesterday I was in Africa and now I am in a different country speaking some foriegn language. Life is a wonderfull experience, always take advantage of the time we have on this earth now is the time to prepare to meet God.

Everything here is going well. I was glad to have changed comps and get someone who is not trunky. Elder Almonte is my comp he is from here from La Vega if you want to look that up it is in the Santiago mission. We get along great and worked hard this week. We also had E. Braithwaight with us as he is going to be training and his comp doesnt leave the ccm untill tommorrow, so we had a fun time and worked hard. It is weird teaching in a trio but fun in the house. E. Braithwaight went to the islands and learned popimento. It is interesting to hear about how the islands are. 

We have a good pool of investigators and got a lot more this week. We have 2 familys that seem like they will progress good and we are excited about that. We also have a few more and that have that desire to know about the true Gospel. It is amazing to see how people are prepared to receive the gospel and how ready they are to accept it when we share the message. This week we had two amazing lessons where the spirit was strong and where the investigators recognize it. We had one lesson with a women and his wife the other day and we had taught the women Joselin once and she has a strong desire to be baptized after she went and saw the one we had 2 weeks ago, but the husband was drunk the first 2 times we went over there. They need to get married and when one of the people dont want to get married it is way hard to get them married then baptized so I was kind of down about that, but 2 days ago he sat down and listened to us and you could see the change and excitement in his eyes as we taught the lesson. You can literally see the light of Christ shining brighter in their eyes when the spirit is there. Now they both want to be baptized. They are so excited to hear the new things we teach them. They are a great couple and we hope that they can keep their desire and work towards baptism. 

I hope all is well with everything and everyone. you are all in my prayers daily. thank you so much for everything. love you all!

con amor

Elder Holmes

                            

 

Elder Holmes his outgoing Mission President

June 27

Buenas de la Republica.

 

Well today and the next few weeks is going to be weird. I will be in a trio for today with our zoneleader and a mini missionary from Utah but his family is living here for a year or two. He is 15 I cant imagine serving at teh age of 15 but for these last two hours he seems like a good guy. Then tomorrow my comp comes Elder Almonte he is Dominican but speaks quite a bit of english I know him from La Romana and he is a great missionary so I am excited to work with him. Then we are also going to have a trio with another elder for a week while he waits for his trainee to come, so it should be interesting but it will be fun.  Our new President comes tomorrow to take over and  am not sure how all that will work if we are going to have a meeting or not but I would think so some time soon but not positive. I am excited to work these next week and try to find some new people and work hard. I think that we will have a lot of success.

 

Hmno Wayne was baptized this saturday and everything went really well. He has a strong testimony and already fits in in the ward which is great. We also have a few more people that are progressing and I hope that they will except the gospel and be baptized. One lady asked us after the baptism of Wayne if she could be baptized tomorrow, which was sunday. We told her she has to learn a little more and get married cause she has a boyfriend for I think 15 years now so we will work on that. It is great to see people that have that strong desire to follow christ and have truly been prepared to recieve this gospel.

 

I think that I am going to put pictures up but not positive so we will see. thank you all for everything that you do and I hope that all is well. I pray for you all daily and hope that you continue to follow Jesus and receive the blessings that come with being a true disciple of Christ.

con amor

Elder Holmes

 

                    Wayne's baptism

              Elder Holmes with Wayne and Elder Pena

June 20

Another week goes by and they seem to be going faster and faster each week. It is crazy to think that i already have 7 months in the mission. Things have been going good for my comp and I. We have some promising investigators. One, wayne but they say it weird but that is how it is spelled no one can say his name it is kind of funny. Wayne has a baptiamal date for this saturday and I am pretty sure it will go through. He has a lot of faith and loves the church. He was a reference from one of the families that the Hermanas baptized that their family is seeing the change in their lives and wants to know why and how. It is pretty cool. but we have a few others that are progressing. One old guy that has been coming to church for a while but he has been going to a different ward but now we have everything straightened out and he should progress to baptism if he has the desire. Other then that we are still looking for new people and  hoping to find some families. My comp has one more week left in his mission and so he is counting down the days till he leaves.

The weather is still extremely hot and humid but the last few nights it hasnt been as bad which is good. It is nice to have a break form the heat for a little bit. I guess that is has been hotter than normal this past week or two and should cool down a little in the next few weeks but we also dont get a lot of news as missionaries so we dont really know if what we hear is correct. 

Next pday we have an activity with president Antivilo and then he leaves the next tuesday so I wouldnt be surprised if Pres. Hernandez will be there, but you never know.  I also dont know what will happen to me during the week between when the old people leave and the new ones come. It is going to be different so we will see how everything works out. well I dont have much to say today but I hope all is well with everyone. You are all in my prayers and I hope the best for you all. Always remember our savior and what he did for us and make decisions on the thought of our eternal salvation. 

Con amor

Elder Holmes