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

Jan 16th, 2012

Well another week passes by. Things have been going well for us. We have a lot more people to teach now which is nice makes things go better and helps you keep the spirit high. We are teaching a few Haitians and one of them doesn't know a lot of Spanish so we are learning a little french to talk to them. It is very similar to Spanish besides the pronunciation.

Yesterday we went to a fireside about the scientific evidence of the Book of Mormon, it was put on by a BYU professor named Jamison or something. It was really interesting and it had a lot of evidences that were cool to know about. It showed some pictures of chinzinitza or however you spell it, the place we went to when we were in cancún. we had one of our investigators there and we are hoping that she understood more the story and background of the Book of Mormon. she has been going to church for 4 months and her whole family are members but her. She has one son that is a returned missionary and another on a mission and another preparing to go in the next 6 months, and her husband is the institute teacher. She goes to a different church so is not sure about anything. But we are continuing to work with her and hoping we can help them get sealed as a family in a year. 

We just got done eating at a Mexican restaurant with the district which was fun. We have an Mexican in our district so we went there to eat. I also bought some dominoes which is a big thing here the people are always drinking playing dominoes. so I figured that i better get good at it. we have interviews with president on Thursday so that will be good. and other then that everything is fine. we are working hard and trying to find people to teach and baptize. God always has people prepared it is just a matter of finding them through faith. thanks for all of your support. love you all so much. Work on not falling into a rhythm of the gospel but really leaving it to the full and becoming fully converted. love you all.

Con Amor,

Elder Holmes

¡oh ya and the family i was teaching in my last area  was baptized!

January 9th

Well another week passes by and things are starting to pick up with the holidays past. We are finding new people and had some more at church. The weather has cooled down a bit this last week which was nice. It had gotten hot again for a while. We taught a lot more lessons and it made the week go by faster, which is hard to believe how fast a week can go by. Not a whole lot has happened but we continue to work hard. One of the families I was teaching in my last area passed the interview so they will be baptized this saturday so that is exciting and way happy for that. E. Smith is still there and everything is going well.

 

Today for pday we went and played batilla a game that they play here with a broom stick and some small saucer like things and you play baseball. it was a lot of fun and there were a lot of missionaries playing that and other things also. so it is always cool to see other missionaries and catch up. the mission is very new. there are a lot of new missionaries and it makes me feel old in the mission which is wierd. i have the most time in the mission of my whole district which is way wierd.

 

I was reading about george albert smith in his teachings of the prophets book and his little biography is amazing on how genuine of a person he was and how he really was interested in the welfare of other people. We need to work on being genuine and fully dedicated to the work of the Lord. well that is about it for this week I hope all is well and that we may all walk in the way of the Lord in all that we do.

 

con amor,

 

elder holmes

January 2, 2012 Feliz Ano Nuevo

WELL 2012 IS NOW STARTED SO I GUESS WE DON'T HAVE A LOT MORE TIME TO LIVE SO MAKE THE BEST OF THIS YEAR. THINGS HERE IN THE DR ARE GOING WELL. WE HAVE A FEW NEW INVESTIGATORS BUT DURING THE HOLIDAYS IT IS A LITTLE HARD TO FIND PEOPLE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE MESSAGE OR WHO HAD TIME TO TALK TO US. BUT NOW THAT THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER I AM EXCITED TO GO BACK TO WORK AND FIND THE PEOPLE AND GET THE MEMBERS TO HELP. WE HAD A GOOD NEW YEARS. WE SET AN ALARM FOR 11 55 WOKE UP WATCHED SOME FIREWORKS AND LISTENED TO GUN SHOTS AND THEN WENT BACK TO SLEEP SO IT WAS A GOOD DAY. WE WERE FED BY SOME MEMBERS AND THE FOOD WAS REALLY GOOD. BUT OTHER THEN THAT IT WAS A NORMAL DAY OTHER THEN WE HAD TO BE BACK IN THE HOUSE A LITTLE EARLY FOR CAUTION. THERE WAS A LOT OF BLASTING MUSIC ALL NIGHT. A FEW ELDERS IN MY DISTRICT SAID THAT SOME NEIGHBORS WERE STILL BLASTING MUSIC AT 6 30 WHEN THEY WOKE UP. WE DIDN'T HAVE A LOT OF LESSONS THIS WEEK WITH A LOT OF PEOPLE BEING GONE AND NOT WANTING TO TALK TO US, BUT WE DID TALK A LOT TO THE MEMBERS SO IT WAS FUN. WE HAD TO GIVE TALKS IN CHURCH YESTERDAY CAUSE THEY DIDN'T ASK ANYONE BEFORE SO WE HAD ABOUT AN HOUR TO PREPARE WHICH IS BETTER THEN 3 SECONDS. I AM EXCITED TO WORK HARD AND FIND SOME PEOPLE TO TEACH AND HELP THEM RECEIVE THIS MESSAGE. 

THERE ARE 7 BAPTISMAL DATES IN MY OLD AREA OF SOME OF MY OLD INVESTIGATORS SO I WILL KEEP IN TOUCH WITH ELDER SMITH TO SEE HOW EVERYTHING IS GOING WITH THEM. I CAN SEE SOME OF THERE HOUSES FROM WHERE I LIVE WHICH IS KIND OF WEIRD. WELL I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR AND WORKS HARD IN THE WORK OF THE LORD. TRY TO ELIMINATE THE DISTRACTIONS THAT KEEP YOU FROM COMPLETING YOUR GOAL OF ETERNAL EXALTATION AND FOCUS MORE ON THE THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT. LOVE YOU ALL AND THANK  YOU ALL FOR EVERYTHING THAT YOU DO. 

CON AMOR,

ELDER HOLMES

December 26th Feliz Navidad!

Merry christmas. I hope all was well and continues to be so during the holiday season. I hope the spirit was strong during the christmas and you could all feel the true meaning christmas.

 

Well I was able to talk to my family a little bit yesterday and that was awesome to hear there voices and talk a little bit. It seemed that everything was fine. It was wierd to talk to Bekah and know that she is married. The week went by well. We had an alright week. The area that I am now in is way different. It is a pretty wealthy part. There are a lot of mercedes and porches and audis the work is a little harder and we dont really have a lot of investigators and so we will have to change that up. The members are really great and everthying is going well. We are going to work hard and help bring people into the ward.  I don't have a lot to talk about cause I feel like I said everything yesterday but I am excited to work in this new area and work hard.

 

My new comp. Elder Wood is from Las Cruzes, New Mexico and has 5 months in the mission. he is a good worker and knows a lot of spanish. We are excited to work in the area together. well that is about it from me I dont have a whole lot to say. But thank you all for your letters during the christmas time I really appreciate them all. love you all and make some good spiritual goals for this new year, when we arent progressing we are declining spiritually.

 

con amor,

 

Elder Holmes

Christmas Pictures, before the transfer

Christmas Day at a member's house:

December 19, Whey me voy!

Well I am leaving this transfer to go to another area. I am literally crossing the river. I can see my next area from where I am. I am going from the poor side to the rich side. But I am excited to move. I love this area and am going to miss it but I am ready for change. 

We had the Baptism and it was a little stressfull at first cause nothing was going right, we started about an hour late but after it started it was a great experience and went well. I was glad to have had a few baptisms before I left. dont have a lot of time to write cause I havent packed a single thing and I have to leave tomorrow morning. but everything is good. We had a lot of fun at the christmas activity today. tThe whole mission got together and we had a great activity. I will try to send pictures next week of the baptism and the activity.  Well I get to call next week or sunday. which is awesome. I cant wait. 

The weather has been cold in the mornings and almost perfect during the days. The work here is strong and I left a good area. I hope the next elder can work hard. Elder Smith will be receiving his first latin comp, which is always hard but he will do well. Well that is it for today I wish all a merry christmas, and hope that we can all remember the true meaning of Christmas. The Birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Redeemer.
 love you all so much.

Con Amor,

Elder Jacob Holmes


Baptism

December 5

Well things are going good here in the DR. It is starting to be a
chilly 73 in the mornings which doesnt sound cold but it is. I am cold
throughout the night and morning. I wear pants to bed and in the
mornings, but the days are just about perfect weather. I went to
another area a couple of days ago on an activity and saw the ocean and
that was pretty cool it had been a long time and it was beautifull. I
am hoping if I get transfered I go to a place by the ocean. We have
transfers the 20 of December so it seems like we will be transferred
right before christmas I will probably go and Elder stay but kyou
never know. We still have a lot of people to teach and are finding
more so it is kind of hard to keep them all straight and have time for
all of them. We have 4 people prepared for the 17 and 1 for the 24 so
we are hoping they all go through. 2 on the 17 are firm dates and 2
are not too firm mainly cause the wife may give or has given birth at
any moment which makes it hard. We have Emilio and Nicauris a couple
and she is the pregnant lady, and also 2 young men that have been
visiting the church for almost a year named francisco and valentin for
the 17 and kirovelys for the 24. It is great to see the spirit working
within the people and watching them change their lives. Today for pday
we went to mega centro, a big mall, and ate and talked to other
missionaries. I caught up with Elder Jones which was nice to talk to
him and to see a friend, and also to eat taco bell was nice. Not much
happened this week, we had a good week with good lessons and had 11
people at church the ward is working better and we have activated
quite a few people too which is nice, mostly priesthood holders. I
left with the steak president a couple of days ago to meet some
members and we had a great spiritual experience, he is a great guy
with a great spirit. He works for the us ambassy and the guy who
checks on all the americans in prison here to make sure that they are
treated well. i thought it was interesting to know that they have a
job like that.

Well, that is about all that happened this week, we will continue to
work hard and help people change their lives through the atonement of
Jesus Christ. I hope all is well with all of you and that we all think
of God and Jesus during this holiday season.

Con Amor,

Elder Holmes

November 28

Well here we are again seems to be going faster each week. We had a really good week seems like more and more people are progressing and that everything seems to be going well. We had a lot at church this week and more of the people that we wanted to also. We had a good thanksgiving we ate hamburgers and potato pearls and chips and cheesecake. It was a great thanksgiving. It is a great day to think about all the blessings that we have received both temporally and spiritually. The more we think about it the more desire we have to follow our Savior. To know how much he did for us and for how much he suffered is crazy. We are so blessed and now all we have to do is repent an follow his commandments and we can have eternal salvation and even exaltation. 

Not a lot happened this week really there is not a bunch to write about. we either go to the temple next wednesday or the one after that. I am excited to go and feel the spirit there. Well I hope all is well withall of you.
 love you all so much.

Con Amor,

Elder Jacob Holmes

Thanksgiving meal (my son is too skinny!)

Nov 14

Well, this week hits a year and I am excited for that. The time goes by so fast though it is weird. I still feel new in the mission and now I am one of the older ones as the whole mission is new. I am going to work harder and harder each week of the mission and have more success. 

The branch is getting better we had a lot of members at church yesterday and it was good. the only bad thing was that I had to give a talk with about 3 seconds of notice, the time it takes to walk from my seat to the lecturn. They never told me I was talking before then I guess they announced it before the intermediate hymn but I didnt hear, so after the hymn I sit down then everyone starts looking at me and so I grabbed my book of mormon and walked up and gave a talk. I had to talk for about 15 minutes. It was kind of funny but the lord really did give me what to say in the VERY MOMENT that it is needed. Only the older members noticed what happened which was good.

Other then that things are doing good. 

We are working hard and had a good week. We have 4 baptismal dates for november and december and we are focusing on these people that we have fechas with. we had 6 people at church and I believe they all enjoyed it. It is sometimes hard to teach the people when they dont know how to read. We have to read the BoM to them to help them get a testimony of it. But we do whatever it takes to help them receive this message.

Well that is about it for this week. I hope everything is good this week for all of you. this week think about our priorities and where they are in our lives who or what is first. Our desires effect our priorities and our priorities effect our actions. So makes sure we have a priorities in the right order. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. 

Love you all.

con amor,

Elder Holmes

November 7

WELL IT WAS TRANSFER WEEK AND FOR THE FIRST TIME NO CHANGES. I WAS A LITLLE SHOCKED BUT HAPPY. I HAVE GROWN TO LOVE THIS AREA AND THE PEOPLE HERE. SO WE HAVE ONE MORE TRANSFER TO WORK BUT IT ALSO MEANS THAT I WILL PROBABLY BE TRANSFERED RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS WHICH WILL BE A LITTLE ROUGH. BUT I AM GREATFULL FOR ONE MORE TRANSFER IN THIS AREA.

WE HAD A GOOD WEEK WE HAD 10 PEOPLE IN CHURCH THIS WEEK WHICH WAS GREAT SOME OF OUR INVESTIGATORS THAT WERE FALLING CAME AND SO THEY STILL HAVE A LITTLE DESIRE IN THEM WHICH IS GREAT TO SEE. WE HAVE TWO BAPTISMAL DATES SET FOR THIS MONTH BUT THE MISSION IS CHANGING AND THEY ARE WANTING US TO SPEND A LOT MORE TIME WITH OUR INVSTIGATORS AND REALLY PREPARE THEM WELL SO THERE IS MORE RETENSION. WHICH IS GREAT ACTUALLY, SO OUR DATES MIGHT BE PUSHED BACK A FEW WEEKS FOR MORE PREP TIME. 

THIS WEEK WE MET A MAN THAT WE CONTACTED AND HE REALLY RESPECTS US. HE HAD A REVELATION ABOUT US TALKING TO HIM SO HE REALLY KNOWS THAT WE ARE REPRESENTATIVES OF JESUS CHRIST. IT REALLY BUT THE WEIGHT OF BEING A MISSIONARY ON MY SHOULDERS AND HOW IMPORTANT MY CALLING REALLY IS. IT WAS A GREAT SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.HE SAID HE IS WILLING TO TAKE WHATEVER STEPS NECESSARY TO GET CLOSER TO GOD.

THE BRANCH IS DOING BETTER IT SEEMS THAT WE ARE WORKING BETTERTOGETHER AND REALLY TRYING TO STRENGTHEN THE BRANCH. THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF INACTIVES COMING BACK TO CHURCH WHICH IS GREAT. MOSTLY PRIESTHOOD TOO. WHICH IS WHAT WE NEED IN THIS BRANCH. 

OTHER THEN THAT THINGS ARE ABOUT THE SAME. WORKING HARD AND TRYING TO BECOME MORE EFFICIENT WITH EACH DAY. I HOPE ALL IS WELL WITH ALL OF YOU AND THAT YOU ARE COUNTING YOUR MANY BLESSINGS EACH DAY. GIVE THANKS FOR ALL THAT WE HAVE  AND REALLY WORK ON HAVING SINCERE PRAYERS WITH OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. THE MORE WE PRAY THE MORE WE REALIZE THE INFLUENCE HE HAS IN OUR LIVES.
LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.

CON AMOR,

ELDER HOLMES

October 31st Happy Halloween!

That is weird that it is halloween. They dont really celebrate halloween in this country so it isnt any different. There was a haunted house in the big mall that is here but that is about all I have seen of halloween. 

Things here are going well. We finally got jose to come to church. The boyfriend of the less active and he really liked it. We are now going to work on getting them married for baptism hopefully this month we just have to find a new job for him. We also talked to one of the couples that we just started teaching and they are already married which never happens. It is truly a miracle. We found that out yesterday and so it gave us some more animo to work harder. Working with families is hard work and kind of stressfull but i know that it will be worth it in the end.

The weather has been a lot more cool lately which is way nice and I think hurricane season is coming to an end which means I only have one more season to get hit by one. We still have random rain storms but usually no longer then 30 minutes.

Elder Smith my comp slipped on tuesday and cut his had pretty bad so we had to go in early and get it all fixed up. It is healing well now so that is good. We are not sure what cut his hand but he really fell hard. His feet came up and kicked me in the shoulder. It was a little funny, especially that all is healed now. 

well I really don't know what else to write. The weeks go by faster and faster, and in now time I am going to hit a year. Next week is transfers so we will see if I stay with my comp for another transfer and have my first comp for 2. I expect to stay but you never know. Well thank you all for everything. I hope all is well. I pray for you guys daily.
 love ya.

con amor,

Elder Holmes

Halloween "pumkin carving" this is as close as they could come! 

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October 24th

Here goes another letter. I think this was the fastest week yet. I feel like I was just here writing a letter. We had an alright week but yesterday was happy but kind of dissapointing too. We had 3 new people come to church but none of our other investigators came. We are working hard but it seems like everything is going wrong. We are working with a lot of families and there are a ton of problems. Because I have seen the blessings in my family I do my best to help them accept this message, but everyone has their agency that we must respect. 

Right now we have one investigator who has a strong testimony of the book of mormon and is ready to be baptized but his wife who is a member is not ready to return to the church. She had some problems with some members so now she isnt 'ready' to come back. He talks about how he just has a stronger and stronger desire to read in the book of mormon and loves it. He is a way cool guy. He also talks english so it is nice for my comp to talk to him. 

Other then that we are trying to work more with the members and build thier trust. There are a lot of stuff to do in this branch and we do our best to help it out with not taking over. They rely too much on the missionaries and need to learn how to be independent. The peolple in this area are great people and all really respect us. 

Well that is about it from the republica but I hope all is well with all of you. remember our savior Jesus Christ and all that he did for us the stronger testimony that we have of him the easier it is to make the right choice. love you all.

con amor,

Elder Holmes

October 17th

Here goes another letter and I now have 11 months in the mission and 13 more to go. It is crazy how fast the time goes and how it picks up with each week. My comp is now well adjusted and doing well. He has great spanish but just gets a little nervous in the lessons which is understandable. We had a good week worked hard and found some more good people to teach. 

Wilfrido and Heridania are doing well but we found out that she has to be divorced then married so it will be a long process cause you have to wait 3 months after the divorce to get married. So we are working with the ward on this one to be a big support cause I probably wont be here when they get baptized. Their animo is still high so that is good. He loves reading the book of mormon and that is really all you need in an investigator is to have a desire to read the book and you have them converted from the word of God. We had a new couple come to church this sunday and it was good they seem interested and they are young and have a little boy and another on the way. We will work hard with them to let them see the blessings of the gospel. william and adela are still progressing and are willing to get married and baptized we are just working on a stronger testimony for them so that they will be more sure of their decision and desire. 

Other then that things are going good it is starting to cool down a little bit and it rained the last few days which makes it more cool at night. interviews with pres. went well. 
We have a great pres. He loves the work and is a very personable guy. The area leaders really love him and are getting more excited about the work. Well that is all from the Rep. I hope all is well in zion and that you are all staying strong in the gospel that has blessed our lives. remember to do the small things and all the big things will come after.
 love you all.

con amor,

Elder Holmes

October 3, 2011 Another week past!

Well this week wasn't as fast as the others because of the big change of having a new missionary. It helps me realize how much I have grown spiritually and how much I am used to this culture. His name is Elder Smith from Utah from pleasntgrove or something like that. He is a good missionary and wants to work hard so that is all I need. He is very hesitant, I dont know how to spell in english anymore. He reminds me of myself in the beginging of my mission but he is a little more. We are working hard to get him to participate in the lessons but it is hard. The church has a new training program for the new missionaries which is great so now we have 2 hours of comp study each day for the first 12 weeks of his mission and we have certain things we focus on each week. It is an inspired program for sure, this will get the missionaries up and ready a lot faster than before. We had a baptism on friday of alejandro the 15 year old who has been going to church for 4 months the service wasnt the best but it was a good baptism. he was excited and his friend was able to do it so that was cool. 

We had a family come to conference with us which is good. The father went with us on saturday the the mother and on of the kids on sunday. The saturday session in the afternoon was good we didnt go to the morning one and also the priesthood session was really good. the sun morning went well too but in the afternoon it was horrible so we didnt get to watch hardly any of it because of the internet. Only the stake centers have satellites so we watched it by internet and the connection was bad in the afternoon but all is good we will be able to read them later anyway. So that is about it from the republic we are working hard and hoping to find some more people and bring more people into the truth. I hope all is well with all of you. Thank you for everything.

 Love you all. take care.

con amor,

Elder Holmes

New Elder Smith with Alejando at his baptism 

Current Apartment

September 26th

Well, the transfers came and right now I am with the zone leader cause his comp went home too. I had a great transfer with Elder Moreno and learned a lot, and now I am going to have to apply those things this next transfer cause I will bve training a greenie. I dont know who it is yet or if it will be an american or latino. There are a ton of americans so most likely it is going to be a latino. Everything is going good so far and I am excited to train. It is going to be hard but I will learn a lot. 

We had two new families come to church yesterday and they loved it so I am excited to begin to teach them and hope that they work towards baptism to receive all the blessings that come with it. One of them has 3 kids and the other dont have kids that live with them. we have a baptism on friday of a young man who is 15 named alejandro. he is a great young man and he came to the church by himself for the first time about 4 months ago and has been coming ever since. he will be a good thing for the branch. they need mor young men and women to help strengthen each other. this country has a huge problem with teen pregnancies. it is sad to see such young people having children that they cant take care of. the commandments of god are for a reason and we need to remember to follow them even if we dont quite understand them. they all have a reason.

As general conference is this week I hope that all of you will have the opportuniy to watch the leaders of the world give us guidance directly from our lord. Pay close attention to their words and your feelings we are all able to receive personal revalation if we listen with real intent. I dont have a lot to write about today I am sure I will have more next week but I hope that all is going well with all of you. I pray for you all daily. Thank you for all your support. 
Love you guys.

con amor

elder holmes

September 12th & 19th

September 12th 

Thank you all for the happy birthday wishes i really appreciate it.
Being on the mission is a great birthday present so i am happy.
Tonight my comp is going to make me mexican hotdogs so we will see how
that is. Today we went and played football at a park with most of the
mission so that was fun it was good to play some football.

The week went by way fast we have been working really hard and things
dont seem to be going our way but Espinal was baptized so that was
good it was what we needed to boost our animo to work harder. It was a
good baptismal service  except that I had to lead the music and was
the only one singing, I am a worse singer in spanish so it was pretty
bad. But I forgot to bring my chord to download pictures but next week
I will try to get some up of the baptism.

We had 2 new people in church this week which was great and we hope
that they show some promise so we will begin teaching them more this
week. but next week is stake conference the people have to pay to go
to church 50 pesos so our investigators will probably not come cause
people here dont like spending money on travel.The good thing is that
the stake center has air conditioning so that will be nice for a
change.

This week we had a 70 come talk to us Elder Cornish, and he did a
great job in helping us. He told us when we understand the doctrine
behind the reason why we do things we will be more likely to do them.
So, my comp and I have completely changed our teaching style and have
a different aproach and it is still a work in progress but it is
working. After the meeting when we were eating he had a open
discussion when we could ask whatever question we wanted and that was
way cool. He shared a lot of great scriptures about Jesucristo and the
spirit was strong. We need to always have a strong testimony of Jesus
and be greatfull for everything he did for us. Study his life and his
teachings and your love for him and others will grow. 

that is it from the DR. 

Love you all and hope all is well. tengan buena semana!

con amor,

Elder Holmes

Well, the last week of the transfer is coming up and so this time next
week i will know who my comp will be. It is going to be different
cause there arent many elders better then elder Moreno. he works hard
and knows how to teach. i learned a lot from him this transfer. Not
much is new this week we have quite a few progressing but not very
fast so i dont think that we will have any baptisms this week but it
is possible. yesterday was stake conference and there was a change in
the stake presidency so Elder Viñas from the 70 was here doing all the
changes. so it was cool to hear from a 70 this sunday. other then that
not a lot is new but we did eat at pizza hut today and it was really
good. it is like a fancy restaurant here it is way funny. people come
dressed really nice and everything, good thing we are always dressed
nice in formal clothing, there were about 16 missionaries there
eating.

Well i dont have a lot of time but i encourage all of you to be
diligent in studying the scriptures and diligent in all that you do.
the ensign of october about the BOM is great. i would recomend
studying it and your testimony will grow of the power of the book.
love you all and hope everyone is well.

Con Amor,

Elder Holmes

Buenas de la Republica,