Adiós Presidente Ayre...

Well, there are a few Items of business that I´d like to throw out there (I won´t mention the American cup *sigh*) President Ayre is going to head to his house tomorrow.  I´d just like to say how grateful I am for that Man.I testify that he was called by a Prophet of God to serve here in this great mission. He´s given me so much strength and help, and I´m grateful that he was willing to accept the call 3 years ago to serve here, dedicating all his time, heart, might, mind and strength to the mission work.

Our new President´s name is Robert Smith. He has a pretty standard name, but not a standard story.  Apparently, he graduated as #1 in his class in Notre Dame, and also #1 in his class in BYU... sooooo he´s pretty smart I guess. :) I´m psyched to meet him this Friday. Anywho, it´s been another week. There´s not much to tell. I can talk about the neighbour we found of an inspired contact that we did in the street, or the people that live in front of a less active who are now listening to the gospel... There are many things that happen. The only things that I can talk about are the basics, the Christlike attributes. I´ve studied Hope alot. It´s an interesting topic. For me, Hope motivates us, it gives us strength to carry on and do our  best. Hope is one of the things that I love most of this gospel.  Through Christ, I have the hope that I can become a better person- even the person that the Lord wants me to be. I have the hope that I´ll be able to bless the lives of many people here in the mission, and more than all, I have the hope that I´ll be able to arrive to the Kingdom of our Father in heaven, and live there forever with Him, with Christ, and with my Family. 

Suffice to say, I´m grateful for the hope of the Gospel. So, just remember to follow Christ always, so that you have that hope, because when we do what the Lord asks, we have the promise that he will grant us those promised blessings.

Bueno, sigan con Esperanza de un mundo mejor, y logren todo lo que nuestro Padre Celestial quiere que logren. Sé que es a través de Cristo que Obtendremos la vida eterna. Sé que este es su camino. (Editors Translation: Well, keep up hope for a better world and accomplish all that our Heavenly Father wants to accomplish. I know it is through Christ that will gain eternal life. I know this is his way.)

Elder Holtry

Hump day!

Wow, I never thought the day would come, but, I now have a year in the mission. Much has happened during this last year, and I’ve learned a lot.  I know that not only has this service been helpful for many people here in Buenos Aires, but it`s blessed me also.  This has honestly been a hard year.  Working every day, learning a new language, trying a world of new things, etc. But ya, it`s been super rewarding.  It`s been hard, but I wouldn`t trade it for anything else, and I guess that`s how life`s supposed to be.  

Anywho, it`s been a good week here in Bella Vista.  There aren`t a whole lot of members, so it`s hard to complete with the 20 lessons with members that we need to complete in the week... sometimes we only arrive to half of that :/ But, we`ve just got to keep working. we`ve been contacting a lot of references, and through that we`ve found more people who`ve accepted more visits, baptismal dates, etc.  Wow, It`s pretty much the same thing day by day, week by week, month by month, etc. The only change is that (sadly) President Ayre is going to be leaving us soon.  I think it`s the week after this one :( He`s a man that’s helped me a lot.  He’s been my coach, teacher, example.... Well, he`s been my mission President, and I`ll miss him.

Well, honestly, as usual, I don`t have a whole lot to say. I suppose I`ll just share a little experience I had last week. We were working down in our area, walking in the streets, and we were a bit in a hurry to get to someone’s house for an appointment.  We passed by a less-active member and his friend, and we said hi to them.  As we were walking away, I felt a bit bad that we weren’t able to contact the friend of the member, and I silently said a prayer. I promised that If we ran into them again, I’d invite the friend to a family home evening we were going to have later on.  As we were walking a bit later, I heard some music approaching us from behind, and I was just thinking "Wow, this music is all the same" (But seriously, you have to hear it) Well, imagine my surprise when I turned to discover that the people with the music were the member and his friend.  I got over my surprise,  remembered my promise, and extended an invitation.  Well, he came to the appointment with the member family, and now he’s listening to the lessons and has a baptismal date.  Well, I guess what I’m trying to say is, Keep in touch with the Lord.

I love you all!

--

-Elder Holtry

Feliz día del Padre

Hey, I hope that everyone had a swell week. We´re still pretty content here in Bella Vista, working hard and having Faith. One thing to say is that we´ve found a few investigators who accepted baptismal dates. One of them is named Julio.  Now, our area basically has two parts, the ridiculously rich part, and the more humble part.  He lives in the humbler part, where there´re horses, pigs, and chickens wandering around (Funny side note-story: we were contacting the neighbor of a member, when two guys ran up and told us they needed to call the police, when we asked what happened, the said thatsomeone came up and robbed their horse and cart... so random) Anywho, Julio´s a great guy. His wife died recently, he´s looking for work, and he basically doesn´t have anything. I really hope that he accepts this message so that the Lord can bless him with the things he needs. (Please pray for him)

So ya, I honestly have grown to love this work alot more as I´ve been more diligent.  We´ve just got to make the effort and the changes sometime, so that what we´re doing daily brings real results, and so that we can be content with what we´ve done.

Well, I love you guys.

-Elder Holtry

#VamosEEUUyArgentina

#CopaAmérica

(Happy Fathers day by the way)

On a members roof in La Villa

My new apartment in Balla Vista (it's a good one- I even have a hot shower!)

 A member giving us a ride home from church

 Church in Bella Vista with Elder Juzga

 A park Soccer Game on P-day

 Part of our New Area

 A humbler part of our new area

¡Vamos Todavía!

Hey Everyone! Wow, what a week!! We´ve been working a ton, and i´m so psyched to be in this area! Every piece of opposition gives me more fire to work harder!! During transfers, there were a few that gave us a pat on the shoulder and said "Good luck" and the first Sunday in the ward, the branch President recognized us over the pulpit and said "We hope that they have the......... Motivation to continue the work in this area". Well, Elder Juzga and I are working hard, we were able to get a little over a dozen references in the time we had last week, and we´re getting to know all the members to work well with them. We´ve been able to find some great people here in the area as well.

Well, In the little time that I have right now, i´d just like to mention the importance of consistency. Not just in the mission work, but in our lives. If we´re consistent with our actions to follow the Lord, He´ll lead us on the paths that he desires us to trod.  So, Let´s be willing to have his spirit with us in every moment through our righteous actions! If you do this, I promise you that you will be led down the path that will give you the best result. Maybe not the easiest one, or the best looking one in the eyes of the world, but the best one for you.

"Let us all press on in the work of the Lord"

Les Quiero!

Elder Holtry