Feliz Halloween!

I think everyone used this title for their emails this week, but oh well... gotta go with the flow I suppose. Well, first off, we had Interviews with Presidente this week, and that went well. I got some helpful info that I´ve been applying in my area. Also, the interviews were in San Miguel, so I got to see a few of some old friends from the ward. We also brought a couple of boxes of Books of Mormon to the apartment We have like 3 or 4 now). 

Well, it´s been a crazy week. With interviews, going to the hospital (To get another flippin ingrown toenail cut out...) and working diligently to flood the land with the word of God. Yesterday in the church building we had a couple of families come, so please pray especially for the Gomez family, and the Zuli family as well. Also, shoot a prayer or two in the direction of Anibal. The Gomez family is from Paraguay, so I´ve been learning a bit more Guaraní. We´re also going to make chipa (an awesome food from Paraguay). 

Well, I just want to say how grateful I am for the scriptures. Seriously, It´s so incredible that we have the word of God, and so easily accesible! Well, as I´ve said before, I just encourage you all to take advantage of the truth that we have so open to us! Use it! Apply it! Live it! Love it!

Have a happy Halloween and whatnot!

-Elder Holtry

Elder Holtry also shared this story with me:

Anibal actually got interviewed and has his baptismal service planned for this Sunday -Crazy story there - we coordinated for President to come to our area to do Brisa´s interview, since she had question 4 (You can ask the missionaries what that is) but ya, she was a special case, so he was going to come. Well, we organized the schedule, he came, and then turns out that Brisa wasn´t feeling good that day and wasn´t willing to meet with us. We didn´t know that at the time, we just knew that she wasn´t in her house. I was a bit ticked, because we brought President there, and she didn´t come. Well, we were there waiting, and talking with another Investigator and President, and then Anibal came up to us, and pretty much asked for his interview there. We had dropped Anibal before that, but President interviewed him, and said that he was ready for baptism. We were going to baptize him this Sunday, but we´ll do it the next one because there was branch council yesterday. But ya, we didn´t see that coming.

Josh hasnt been able to send photos home in a while, so i think these are old and he didnt give many captions.

Our Frame-less fan

Our mission has a goal to hand out 30 books every week, so we put this on our door

Elder Pedreros brought a card game when we did split

 Elder Pedreros

 A Chess Game with Elder Ribeiro

 Apt Jose C Paz

 Apt. Gran Bourg

 Flagging down the bus

 A note from a family in the ward

 BOM reading

 Smoking will kill you!

 Quad in English and Spanish

 Welcome to Bella Vista

Persistencia

Hey, it´s been a pretty standard week here in Bella Vista. A little fun fact for you all is that I´ve been buying a bunch of bananas to make smoothies in the morning with my comp. Hurrah for health! We´ve been working a ton this week, and we had plans as always for about a dozen people to come to the church. Well, as always, the majority of them cancelled the night before, and a few more the day of. Elder Villa and I even knocked brisa´s door, to help here to get to the chapel, but she didn´t emerge, and so, with heavy hearts, we went and took the bus the the church building. Well, while we were in the bus, we got a call from Brisa. Turns out she slept in, and was feeling quite sick, but despite that, she was going to take the next bus. Miraculously, she arrived just in time. That really showed to me her great desires to continue strong, and complete with the goals she has in the church.

So ya, one of the things that I think is of utmost importance in missionary work and in any system is communication.  A companionship, or any organization works better when it communicates. We´re stronger together. I think that´s why we have a time specified every week when we can talk with our comps and see what we need to improve. but ya, as I said, this week has been pretty standard, and Elder Villla and i are working to improve this little branch bit by bit. Thank you all for your prayers, I love you tons! 

-Elder Holtry

PS Shout out to my Grandpa Jackson, Happy Birthday! A great (And thoroughly epic) Man! 

El Día de la Madre 2.0

Happy Mothers day! (Of Argentina!) Ya, we celebrated it yesterday. Holidays are the worst for proselyting here, because everyones either outside drunk or inside not wanting to talk with us. hahaha! Well, despite that, we were still able to find some new people. Elder Villa has a very unique personality (He´s crazier than I am, can you imagine?), but despite that, he work´s pretty well. We´ve been pounding the area hard this week, I´m a bit bummed, because we technically didn´t arrive to our goal of 30 Books of Mormon handed out... Right now, our goals as a mission is to hand out 30 books of mormon to people who´ll accept another appointment to their house, and the commitment to read the Book. This helps us to talk with a TON of people. Yesterday night, we´d only arrived to 29 books handed-out, and we had one more left in our hands. We contacted a lady, and she accepted the book and the commitment to read it, but then didn´t accept a visit to her home. *sigh* oh well mission probs. hahaha! 

Anywho, after like 3 or 4 months, I´ve finally been able to go to the mission office and get a bit of mail... And I was reading one of the letters from my grandparents. In one part of the letter, my Grandpa wrote "Listen for our prayers". That sentence there really called my attention. It made me think if I really am listening for the prayers of others. First off, I thank you all for your prayers, and know that i´m praying for you too. It´s important that we always "Listen" for the prayers of others, and have gratitude for those prayers. And ya, let´s just raise our spiritual awareness and keep those prayers flooding the heavens. I love you all, the work is going well here, and we´re seeing a lot of progress in the people. 

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Holtry 

Elder Scarber, awesome guy

The apartment of José C. Paz 1

Elder Ribeiro from Uruguay (Splits)

Elder Pedreros (Splits)

El poder para Cambiar

Howdy, so, the weather´s still weird here... for example, one morning, it was sprinkling outside when we left the apartment, later, it was all clear in the sky and it was hot, and later on, it started pouring rain (a TON!) Well, other than that, it´s been a swell week. We´re still pushing the initiative to flood the area with the Book of Mormon (We´ve just about emptied another box this week) and we´re meeting alot of great people. Sometimes, it´s funny because we contact people in the street like Christina, a nice young lady from earlier in the week. We talked with here for a bit, and she was super receptive and accepted a Book of Mormon and everything, seriously, so awesome! Well, turns out she lives super far away *sigh* well, some other Elders will be able to help her. But ya, that happens every once in a while.

But hey, just a quick note that I´d like to share is my appreciation for the Atonement. Seriously. It doesn´t only work to cleanse us of Sin, but it changes us also. This is great, because i´m a naturally lazy person. :) As I work and apply the atonement, I become a better servant, bit by bit, day by day. Well, I love you all, Study the scriptures, speak with God, and Do all that you must to apply the Atonement of Christ in Your lives. 

Hurrah for Israel!

--

-Elder Holtry

I think these are old photos with his previous companion Elder Juzga that he sent this week, but I will post them anyway!

Gozo

Alright Alright Alright! Well, first and foremost, General Conference was great this last weekend. there were several talks that touched the topic of mission work, which is fantastic, I enjoy the talks alot, especially when Elder Nelson was talking about Joy. It made me think to myself alot about how we as missionaries offer a gospel a joy and hope to the people, and a true and everlasting source. What a blessing! 

This has been a good week, helping people and teaching a ton. Brissa is still doing well, and is feeling the spirit a ton when she reads the scriptures and prays, so we talked a bit about the holy spirt, and we´ve covered the first few mission lessons as well. There´re a few other good possibilities right now, but in this moment, only Brissa´s progressing. So we´re going to try to raise the bar a bit more in the area.

So A little fun note, we had transfers today. I´m staying in Bella Vista, and a missionary named Elder Villa came as my new companion. He´s my first argentinian comp! Should be interesting. We´re going to try to start this transfer with fire.  I´m a bit short on time here, but we´re psyched for the new transfer! Love you guys, spread the gospel! Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Holtry