Contento

Well, I wish you all a Merry Merry Christmas. I´d just like to say that it´s really been a privelidge to be serving the Lord here in this time when we´re remembering his birth. If i could describe how I´ve felt this month, I´d have to say "Content". Maybe it hasn´t been the same Christmas Spirit that we´re all used to at home, but it´s been one of peace as I´ve worked here. Obviously, the rejections continue, and it´s hard to see the direct success of our work, but we just need to have faith that it´s there.

this is probably going to be a pretty short email, because there´s not a lot of things that are coming to my mind right now from the week, but as always, I just want to leave my testimony of the church. The Gospel doesn´t take our problems away, but, it helps us to handle them. I´ve also been pondering this week in the relationship`of our church to other churches. I´d like you all to understand that the vast majority of the the churches in the world are great, and help people alot. I´d like to relate the churches of the world to ships, sailing the stormy seas of the world. Like our church, they can help others to get out of the viscous waves of the world (Drugs, gangs, etc.) but only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the coordinates to carry us exactly and without fault to the destination where God wants us to arrive. (This is obviously carried out through revelation and the power of the Priesthood). But ya, just a thought I wanted to share with you. 

bueno, sé que esta es la iglesia verdadera, y que por medio de nuestras oraciones, podemos verificar esto en nuestras corazones. Doy mis gracias al Señor por su bondad y amor. Esta es se obra. Hurrah por Israel!

Elder Holtry 

 On the bus

 Christmas Devotional

 New Shirts

 Aguante Boca

 Christmas Stuff from the family

 Reading letter from the family

 Elder Cortaza

 Secret Santa Gifts from Elder Steele

 "Light the World"

 We were outside (And on the roof) with our Christmas hats, and some kids across the street started shouting "Papa Noel!" (Santa!) So we basically waved Hi to them, grabbed some candy that we had in the apartment, and when their mother came over with them, we handed it to them. A fun experience! 

Ahora Soy un Elder!

Hey! So to explain the title (It says in English "Now I'm an Elder!"), it has a bit to do with something my old Companin Elder Tito told me once when he completed 18 months in the mission. He said that all the missionaries are sisters until they complete the 18 months, and then they really become Elders! :D What a guy!! (A little reference to my grandpa).

Fun fact: We had our ward Christmas Activity this last week, and it was rad. We got to interact and build trust in alot of members and investigators!

Another Fun Fact: A while ago one day, I made a nice banana smoothie, as I so often did, and I took a shower, so I left it in the freezer for a little while, I came back and poured myself a bit. I drank a glass, and when I went to pour some more, I noticed a curious black lump in the blender. I thought to myself that it would be a frozen piece of banana or something like that, but when I was pouring my second glass, I then saw clearly that it was... A cockroach. I definitely took a few probiotic pills after that. 

Anywho, it´s been a normal week of work, perhaps a harder one, but a good one nonetheless. basically, I don´t have much time right now, but I´ll just throw in here that I love doing splits. Elder Jared(A new guy) came this last week, and we were able to see a ton of miracles (Referalls, new investigators, member-taught lessons, etc.) It makes me think of how we need to always be changing and switching things up, so that we don´t get too comfortable.  I´m not saying that you should go insane and rob a bank or anything like that, but set powerful, short-term goals that you´ll complete, and keep adapting! It´s something really important in life! (especially in the mission).

Sooooo, as always, les amo a todos ustedes! FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!! Que la disfruten!!!! Hurrah Por Israel!!!! 

-Elder Holtry

me chillin´ at the ward activity

Lucas Godoy! An awesome recent convert who´s preparing for his mission!

 Elder Cortaza! 

 Elder Cortaza and I sharing a spiritual thought

 Christmas Activities/games

 Brother Juarez (Left), brother Raposo (Right)

A couple of shakes for p-day

Bowling!!! Me, Elder Wilheim, Elder Zapata, and Elder Cortaza

 Elder Evans, Elder Deshler and Elder Diorio

Notice the name.... 

Acredíteselo a Dios...

Well, we´re really entering into the Christmas season! The other day, I saw a tree outside that had a bunch of wine-containers/boxes hanging from it like ornaments! (Sad, but clever!) It hit me recently that there´s only two more weeks before Christmas, the time´s really flying by! This last week was a good one. There were a few things that took a bit of our time away in the week, but despite that, we were still able to do a few things. 

Well, President has instituted a new action plan. He wants us to continue using the Book of Mormon, and using it at least 30 times every week to contact and set appointments with people, but he is also now focusing more on using the members and increasing personal consecration, which is awesome. The mission has already been raised up quite a bit, and I feel like it´ll continue rising even more. There´s a scripture that I read with a Zone leader this last week, that´s found in D&C 50:34. It´s helped me think alot about positive motivation to do more. it says "He that receiveth of God, let him account it of God; and let him rejoice that he is accounted of God worthy to receive". Basically, that just makes me think on how we should focus on that last part there. We shouldn´t rejoice in our own strength, or in the results we may have, because nothing´s ours... it´s all of God! So, as our Mission President said, we need to consecrate ourselves, rejoice in that, so that if/when the Lord blesses us with something, we´ll be able to rejoice in the fact that we´re worthy of something. I mention that because it´s something that we can all work towards. We can always consecrate ourselves a bit more in respect to the commandments, and if we do it, we´ll be able to receive our blessings without pride. (I hope that makes sense, sometimes I just write away)

Anywho, I´ll also mention that we did splits this last week as well.I went to José Leon Suárez, and had an awesome day working there. Fun Fact: They literally have the worst apartment in the mission, and that´s saying alot. hahaha! But ya, I love Splits, because we always learn so much from different people! Also, one more highlight is that Alfonso got Baptized Saturday (and confirmed Sunday). A recent convert in the ward named José Bua performed the ordinance. José really understood the importance of the priesthood, and of the ordinance. It was sacred for him as well. When Alfonso emerged from the water, he and José gave each other a hug. The spirit was there, and it was probably one of the most spiritual baptisms that I´ve been apart of. As I said before, I rejoice in the fact that the Lord allowed me to be there.

Well, Once again, I love you all! Have a week "De Diez", as we´d say here. Hurrah For Israel!!! 

Elder Holtry

#Villeros

 Air Hockey on P-day

 Elder Cortaza, Candido, Alfonso, José, María, Me 

 Good ol Elder Cortaza

 Me teaching a bit of English

 Papa Noel in the mall and the biggest eld EVER

 pretty bird... Pretty bird...

 The new bill of 500 pesos!

 New manual finally! 

Bienvenidos a Navidad!!!

Hey, this has truly been a great week! A great way to get the Christmas season started! One of the first things that I´d like to mention is that we had a zone conference with our mission President this last week, and I learned a ton of stuff that i´ll be able to apply and use in my area. Also, the mission President´s wife shared with me a scripture about how we should let Virtue Garnish our thoughts unceasingly, and then will our confidence wax strong in the presence of God. She said that many times, we associate virture with the law of Chastity, but it´s not necessarily that, we just need to maintain the Lord in our minds, and then we´ll have confidence to do what the Lord has asked of us.   But ya, this last week, an Elder that has the same time as me, Elder Evans came to do a couple of baptismal interviews for our area. While he was doing one of them, I was waiting outside sitting on a brick, and he has two puppies that kept attacking me and wanting to play with me. It was pretty much the best time I´ve ever had waiting for a baptismal interview in my whole mission! Hahaha! 

But ya, we´ve been teaching some great people, and a couple of brothers named Alfonso and Candido have their baptismal date for this upcoming Saturday, so please pray for them! We´ve also been meeting some great people this week. One of them was a nice young lady named Zuli, she´s working in the Godoy family´s house (Recent converts in the ward) and we´ve invited her to take the discussions before, but she just liked to talk with us, and didn´t really want anything else. But ya, one day, we were eating lunch with the Godoy family, and we shared a scripture with them, and then, after we´d finished, she asked us the question of why there´re so many people in the world that are disabled. Well, we explained to her quite a few things about the plan of God, and a great point that my comp (That day it was Elder Evans) shared was 1 Nephi 11: 17, where Nephi explains that He doesn´t know the meaning of all things, but he knows that God loves his Children. This struck me to be very true, maybe we can´t answer why every person is the way they are, but we know that everything has a purpose, and God will always bless us in the end. So, whatever difficulties that we may be having will be swallowed up in the Love of God, and as we know, this special time of Christmas should be a time to serve others. And, as we serve, we can be healed also. 

Well, I wish you a Merry Start to a Merry Christmas! Love you all! 

-Elder Holtry

(Ps- It´s another burning Hot Christmas for us down here!)

We found a KFC! First one in 1 1/2 years!

 Going to the movies! (not!)

 You'd think they would have written something important like this in Spanish!

 La Autopista

 The Capitol- Kept up a bit nicer

Chillin in El tren rojo 

 Chilling out with Elder Cortaza after a long week of work

 The Godoy Family! They are the best!

 My worn out service and p-day shoes!