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

Feb 20th

 Well this week was a good week we had a lot of lessons we had 33. That is a good number for this area. We also had a good week for teaching, and are teaching a lot of way cool people. We are teaching this one Haitian lady who has been coming to church for a long time and all she ever does is question what we say. She is nice about it but always questions us. It is funny. We actually stopped going by because they didnt seem interested and one week she miraculously showed up to church.  She has been going for about 2 months now. She has a lot of faith in Jesus Christ and knows that she needs to go to a church, so because we invited her, she came. Over the last 2 months we have just been trying to explain the need for the authority to baptize, we explained it a million times and left her to read and pray about the book of mormon, and now she is completely fine with having to be baptized again cause she understands the connection between the BoM and the authority. Now we just have to try and get her married but she doesnt want to get married with her current husband and they would have to go back to Haiti to do it. So we will continue to work with her and try to help her understand the importance of the Baptism. It was a great experience to see how the BoM changes the hearts of the people and lets them know the truth.

 

Leo is doing good. He went to church again and he played basketball with us this morning. He used to play in the professional baseball league here untill he got injured. He is a way cool guy. He is talking to his wife about the church and she isnt quite sure. We are going to fast with him this sunday for her to have an open heart. The Lord really does prepare people to receive this message so always be looking for people that you know that can receive this message and change their lives. When we teach the message the people can put it all together in their minds and it all makes sense. We truly did live before this earth and learn the things necessary to salvation.

 

Well i hope everyone is doing good. Always remember the reality of God and his son Jesus, they are real and love us so much. They are literally waiting for us with open arms after this life. Do all that we can to accept the open arms and be prepared at all moments to meet God. Today is the day for men to prepare to meet God. work hard in the obra of the Lord. I love you all so much.

 

con amor,

 

Elder Holmes

Feb 13th

Think he needs some new shoes?!!

This week was a good week we have had more success and are working hard. First we found out that one of our investigators who we weren't sure about is one of the best investigators that I have ever had. We also had the priviledge of hearing from Elder González from the presidency of the seventy twice.

 

So our one investigator is doing well. Leo is a way cool guy he is 23ish and has a little kid and wife that live in the states near Boston. We contacted his mom a while ago and we went over a few times and things didnt really seem to work out but we had a lesson with them and they called and said that they were going to be there but to reschedule. And for someone to call you and tell you that they wont be there is extremely rare so we went back and taught a few things and he has a ton of interest. Everything we leave him he studies and always has questions. He studies a ton on the internet also. He watched the whole Joseph smith movie that the church has that is an hour and a half and he knows all the commandments because he read about them. He is a golden investigator. We put a baptismal fecha with him for the 10 of march and he will be ready to be baptized then. He is going to move up to the states in July to be with his family. Oh yeah and he is also married which is another miracle. It is great to have some good progression.

 

Elder González was a great speaker and we heard him at a specialty meeting with the whole mission on Saturday and then he came to our stake conference so it was way good. He has a strong testimony and is a great guy. He would always throw in random english words when he was talking, even during the stake conf. When not very many people know english it is funny. jsut some words that arent really in spanish but were exactly how he wanted to say it. He is from Uraguay or somewhere like that but has lived in the states for a while since he has been in the 70 for a while.

 

Today we talked to a baseball scout from the Yankees. He was a nice guy. He says he comes down here a lot to do scouting. He has some locals that work full time down here and he comes about once a month to scout. He said that they had just signed a guy a few minutes ago and we met a whole bunch of other people speaking english today which was weird. We actually heard a couple breaking up in english cause she was tired of him trying to control her. It was kind of funny cause they could have been anywhere in the mall and no one would have understood them but they were sitting right next to us. That is about it for this week.

 

Keep on the straight and narrow path and do what is right always, it may be hard for now but we need to look at the goal of eternal exaltation with our families. and the sacrifice "vale la pena". love you all so much. take care.

 

con amor,

 

Elder Holmes

Feb 6th

Here we are again in another internet center writing yet another email. The time blurs by now and it is pretty crazy. I feel like I just barely reached a year but it has been 2 months since then and the time seems to be speeding up. We are working hard and are having a lot of let downs but if we continue to work hard I know that we will be blessed. We are working with a few more people that are progressing. We are teaching one guy that is already married that has a lot of good questions and is progressing well. His wife and kid live in Boston and he is going to go up there soon to live with them. He seems to be looking for something in life for his family. Let's hope he recognizes that he has found it. Fermin and Ramona didnt come to church again which makes it hard. Ramona has back problems and has been feeling bad lately and Fermin doesnt like doing things by himself so he wont come with out her. It is somewhat frustrating when the people dont do their part to receive the blessings. Heavenly father is always waiting to and wanting to bless us but it is always on our part whether or not we will receive it. Last monday was the baseball championship for the DR. It was crazy. No one was doing anything besides watching tv. We didnt have a single lesson cause everyone was watching the game. It was game 9 in the series and it came down to the last inning for the win. The city errupted after the game. The escogidos from the capital won so there are a lot of fans here. There were a ton of fireworks and everything. I was in my first area when the team from that area won the championship. it was crazy to think about. It made me miss watching sports and getting excited but you can gee a lot more happy in the mission field then you can on the football field. Not much else has happened.

 

 

 Well always remember that Life is more of just realizing our potential and doing everything we can to reach it. Our bodies and minds and spirits have so much potential and all that holds it back is us. We can overcome everything in our path with hope faith and the mercy of The Lord. Things in life arent free everything has a price just depends on if we are willing to pay that price or not. Do we really want eternal exaltation? Cause all that we have to do is written, the path is made we just have to follow it. Don't get distracted of what this life really is about. Work hard in the work of The Lord. We should apply ourselves in the gospel more than anything in our lives. That is the difference between us and the prophet, he is a hundred percent dedicated to the work of the lord. That is all we need to do is be 100 % dedicated in the work of The Lord, and then we will receive exaltation. Dont get lazy spiritually do everything you can to have the strongest testimony you can have. love you all.

 

con amor,

 

Elder Holmes

Jan 30

Well it was transfers yesterday and I am staying here in Ozama for at least another 6 weeks. Elder Wood and I will be comps again which is good. I am glad that we are staying together. I believe that we will have more success this next transfer. Our whole district is staying the same which is great cause we have a way cool district. We do things almost every pday together. This transfer we are going to step up our game and work harder each day. The ward we are in just doesn't have any ánimo to do anything and it is sad. There are a few to help but not a lot. We have been passing by the members a lot and they are working better with us so things are getting better but we need to get everyone involved and not just a few people. We had an disappointing week for people to come to church. We were expecting a whole bunch more, but whatever. We will continue to work hard. The people just dont quite understand the happiness that they can have from this message, and you can't explain it you just have to live it and see it in your own life.

Fermin and Ramona are doing alright. They didnt come to church yesterday which was sad but they are still wanting to learn and be baptized so we are going to continue to teach them. We put a goal with them for the 18 of Febuary so we will see how that goes. We will still have to get them married but that shouldn't be too hard cause they have money and all the papers necessary. Other then that we don't have a lot of people very close to baptism. Margarita said that she has a testimony that the BoM is true but doesnt understand why we have the sabbath day on sunday instead of saturday. She just doesn't quite understand the significance of her testimony. Other then that we found a lot of new people this week that we will work with and hopefully get them to progressing soon. There is not a whole lot going on. I am trying to make the most of my time here cause of how fast it is going by. I only have 7 more transfers left. So that is way crazy. This is the time when I can grow spiritually the most and also help others grow in their faith. Always have love and charity for other people. Without charity we are nothing as paul says. We need to have a genuine love for others, serve them and really be 100 percent in this work. This work is really what our lives depend on. Sometimes we fall into the rut of doing the gospel things and forget why we are doing them. Do the things with a willing heart and be happy to live the gospel. There is no shame in gaining exaltation so do what we have to do to get there. Lose the natural man and become as our father which is in heaven, perfect in all things. 

Love you all and hope the best for you all. 

Con Amor,

Elder Holmes

Jan 23rd

Here we go again. One more week goes by and it seems like just yesterday that i was writing. we had a pretty good week. the work in the area seems to be growing with every week so that is exciting. We have a couple people that are getting close to baptism they need to be married but here in this area it is easier cause they have money. Their names are Fermin and Ramona. They are a great older couple answer had some good lessons with them. We also have a newer couple that we are teaching that are progressing a little bit. We had some good lessons with them and everything seems to click with them. It is amazing to see the gospel really make sense to people. It is great when they can put it together by themselves. 

This week I have really been trying to focus myself on the work I find myself being distracted sometimes so I am trying to lose my self in the work. That is how you can fully convert yourself is when you are lost in the work. The weather has been a little warmer lately and I am not looking forward to the summer. But it does mean mango, pineapple, and lots of other fruits will start being in season and cheap so that is always fun. We are still teaching a lot of Haitians, they are a really humble and cool people. I am learning how to do the first vision in Creole and also learning a little french. The Haitians speak Creole that is like a sub language of french, but all the schooling there is in french so if they go to school they also speak french. So most of the ones i know speak french Creole Spanish and  a little bit of English. They are a very smart people also. 

I had to give another last minute talk in sacrament meeting. but it is all good. The people assigned to give talks never show up so you cant do a whole lot. Elder Wood and I have been playing a lot of dominoes at lunch and at night. It is a lot of fun. we are learning more  about the country. 

well I hope all is well and that everyone is doing great. remember to continue to study the words of the prophets from the last conference and to always follow their council. It is truly meant for us from the Lord so use it. love you all so much and hope all continues to be good.

Con Amor,

Elder Holmes