Letters from 11/18 and 11/26

Elder Holden is still working hard in the Montana del Sur ward in South Phoenix. Here are letters we recieved from him the past two weeks:

From letter written on November 10th:

A week ago was my first PDay in the mission field. It was OK but very different from those in the MTC --no temple and laundry is different as is checking email. We played football which you can't do at the MTC so that was a pleasant change. We also played sand volleyball which was OK.

Thursday was Zone Meeting. Three elders spoke on different things all related to the Book of Mormon because that is our biggest gun. We need to remember to always use it. We went to Subway for lunch. Thanks again for the gift card for Subway.

We then went on exchanges with the zone leaders. We tracted a lot and got one return appointment which will be mentioned later.

Guess what we had for dinner? Ceviche. I know you and Wes would have loved it but me? Not so much. I ate it and I didn't complain or make faces. You would have been proud. (Ceviche is a marinated seafood dish which isn't cooked but rather marinated in citrus juice. Tyler strongly dislikes any kind of fish or seafood. When he was growing up and I served fish I'd always tell him, "You better eat this because someday when you go on your mission you are going to have to eat it so you may as well start eating it now.” He never would eat it but looks like Mom was right about eating fish on his mission)

Friday we went on exchanges with the Spanish APs. We went to Ranch Market which is like a Mexican grocery store. With all the Mexican influence here it is sometimes hard to remember that I'm still in the U.S.A.

Saturday we shoveled rocks for service and now I think I officially hate rocks but it was OK. I read the John Bytheway book you sent me and it was a very, very good book. (The book was How to Be an Extraordinary Missionary.) Saturday night there was a boxing match on or something like that so everyone we tried to see that night failed to work out. That's just part of the work.

Sunday was OK. I'm understanding more and more but we only had one investigator come church. One of the other Spanish elders made the statement that it's hard to break 200 years of tradition of only going to church twice a year. We were glad the investigator, Briceida showed up because she is getting baptized on Saturday. That night we went over to meet with her. She had her baptismal interview and she passed.

Monday we briefly helped a member moving into the ward. We then had splits with Chewy and Benji who are both 19 and preparing for their mission. It's weird for two reasons. First, that was me a few months ago and also, they are both older than me. For dinner we had mole which like a meat in a spicy chocolate sauce. It was very interesting and was pretty good.

Tuesday we had a tri-zone conference and they emphasized the Book of Mormon and using it as our primary resource. We then had a series of wonderful appointments. First with a family who is having financial problems. We talked about prophets and their council on what to do when having financial difficulties. We then met a lady that I had tracted into with the zone leader. Her name is Roberta and she and her family were very active in the lesson. I was able to bear my strongest testimony in Spanish to date thanks to the spirit that was there.

Next, we met with a young lady named Isabel who asked us what she needs to do to get baptized. We are trying to get her on date for the end of the month or the beginning of next month.

Hope things are going well at home. The work is good and only getting better. As long as we have good missionaries trying and good members willing to help the work will move forward.

Letter written on Thanksgiving:

Last Thursday was weekly planning. For dinner we had mole for the third time in four days that week. Before that my trainer had only had it twice in 15 months.

Last Friday we went to the Mesa Temple Visitor Center. The Mesa temple is very cool looking like amazingly cool looking. Our investigator, Eusebio, came and we watched the Joseph Smith movie he loved it and we hope to get him on date for baptism soon. While we were driving there I realized I only live about 5 miles from the hotel we stayed at this summer when we were down here.

On Saturday we had our baptism of Briceida at 2:00. It was wonderful. Me and Elder Klemme taught while they were changing and I did asi asi. . Bricedia's mother-in-law now seems interested and her husband was just baptized in June.

We had a ward activity at the church during which we were pulled out by one of the youth because this random guy wanted to talk to us. He started off by telling us he was drunk. Instead of talk he just wanted to argue and it was all sorts of wasting our time.

Sunday I went to ward correlation in Spanish which was a new experience because I wasn't with my companion. I went with Elder Klemme so I had to describe our investigators by myself in Spanish.

On Monday we went tracting and found two good investigators. Our big lesson of the day was with Bricedia, our recent convert, and her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law now seems really interested. We set up a time to go with them to the Visitor's Center at the temple a week from Friday.

Last Tuesday was my first district meeting. During the meeting we were told of a promise that we have the most people prepared to listen to and accept the gospel in our district. More than any other place in our mission, in Arizona and in North America.

Later we saw Isabel and she went with two of the youth go mutual. We set up a time for us and a group of youth to go with her to the Temple Visitors Center.

We also had a good appointment with a new investigator who is the friend of one of the members. She is now on date to be baptized on December 19th.

Yesterday was good. I got a letter from you and Lino. We tracted and found 3 new investigators.

All is well.