"And there was much rejoicing"

Hello friends and family! To address the title of this letter, I hope you remember the part in the movie classic "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" when they say that line. I refer to a change that was made in a general missionary broadcast: Now, we have 2 more hours in our preparation day (Sorry RM´s...) but ya, it´s Joya (as we´d say here) Well, one other point that I liked from the broadcast is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, repentance, baptism,, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End) is all interconnected. I like that, because as it states many times in Doctrine and Covenants, we need to always be teaching repentance, but, for example,. as we increase our Faith, we increase our desire to repent. We increase our Faith by different commitments, such as reading the scriptures, praying, baptism (Do you see the pattern?) All things are interconnected.

I also wanted to share a funny moment of the week, I was walking down the street (Sporting my anti-sun/skin cancer sombrero as always) and a kid was looking at me kind´ve funny. I thought to myself, "What? have you never seen a Gringo with church attire and a sombrero before?" Probably not, but whatevs. Something that was awesome from this week was that a recent convert in the ward, José, gave a talk yesterday in church. He´s a quiet guy, but once he gets talking, he keeps going. He talked for about 25 minutes before the bishop told him to give his testimony and end. hahaha. One of the things I liked from his talk was that he said that we need to be "Full-time Latter-day Saints"... and it´s VERY true. We need to be constantly dedicated and improving, constantly living what we believe. We can´t afford to be just Sunday members that go to church and that´s it. We need to be constantly taking those little steps every day, because ultimately, it´s the constant little steps that climb mountains. 

So, stay constant brothers and sisters! Set goals, work at them , and climb. 

I love you all, Let us all press on.

Elder Holtry

Los Sabios de Corazón

Bom dia. Well, it´s been a busy week. We had quite a few appointments, and in between those we talked with as many people as we could. All in all, it was fantastic, we saw many blessings from it. Also, I´ll state once more that it´s still warming up here... but ya, it´s just that time of year. 

A fun scripture that I was reading the other week is found in Psalms 137:9- "Happy Shall he be, that taketh and dasheth the little ones against the stones" :) Thought you might appreciate that, if not... oh well. Another scripture from the following book states that "the wise of heart will receive commandments..." This just made me think quite a bit on the people that we look for as missionaries. We always invite people to repentence, and only the wise of heart will receive this call. I just want to invite you to be wise of heart, and receive the commandments willingly and joyfully, because that´s what it´s all about. There´s one lady that we´re teaching right now named Gladys. We talked with her last week in the street, and we came back the next day and taught her the first lesson. She received everything (Including the commitments) really well, and arrived to the church building yesterday. 

I just also wanted to mention the importance of the gift of the Holy Ghost. One of our investigators named Sofia really wants to get baptized. She always comes to church, she helps out, and she has a very strong testimony. She only lacks permission from her mother to get baptized. She was commenting to us yesterday that she really wants her mother to start coming to church with her because she wants her to be ok with her baptism. She explained that she felt a bit bad, because she lacked the gift of the Holy Ghost (That only comes through the confirmation after baptism).  She really understands the importance and significance of this gift, do we? I pray that we do, and that if you´re already a member of the church, that you use that gift and be worthy of it constantly, and if you´re not, that you can seek it. 

Well, the work goes on, and it will continue on. 

Love you all,

Elder Holtry

I got a bit bitten the other night 

 Money from Paraguay

Empty Chairs and Empty Tables

Happy Monday! If you´re wondering about the title of the email, it just has to do with a thought that came to me this last week. As you dedicated readers will know, I have about 5 months before I "Die" (Finish my mission and go home), and I was thinking about many of the other missionaries that I´ve come to know here, and many are already home, and it´s quite strange honestly... 

Anywho, it´s been yet another swell week that´s just flown on by. During it, we had interviews with our mission President and his wife. It´s always an edifying experience that prepares us to get outside and work harder. I honestly love our chats there, and I love our President and his Wife, they´re the best and I know that they´re inspired to lead this mission. Also in the week, we had the opportunity to do service in a members house cutting out part of the floor to make room for a pipe, fun stuff. Speaking of service, I was reading in the book of Psalms this morning about how we should never deny our service and charity to anybody. it makes me think, who are we to judge who deserves it and when they deserve it?

But ya, as I was saying, It was a good week. Elder Ríos and I pushed ourselves to talk with more people. And that´s a really interesting principle, because the Lord doesn´t always bless us the way we think that he´s going to. I was a bit sad this week at first in our ward, because the people that we had found with our contacts with the Book of Mormon in the street weren´t showing up. but, a little while later, 2 investigators that I´ve never met before walked in. Well, it was a bit of a tender mercy I guess. The point is that the Lord sees our efforts and blesses us.

Well, I guess that´d be my two cents for this week, that the Lord expects us to do the things that he´s asked, and if we do them, he´ll bless us (As we say in Spanish "Sí o Sí",  "yes or yes" which basically means with total certainty)

Love you all, and I wish you the best. Do your Duty to God, and you´ll see the fruits of it. 

Elder Holtry

 Ready to go!

 chillin on the bus

  It´s not every day you see a train driving down your street

 My new socks - Thanks Grandma Jackson

The Lord corrects those he loves

Wisdom above all, search for Wisdom

Elder Holtry and Elder Rios won cleanest apartment this week!

El Poder Del Ayuno

Howdy. Well, it´s honestly been a swell week. I don´t know what happened, but I´ve been especially active this week, talking with much more people in the street and whatnot. We´ve had a lot more appointments with people this week (And of course, quite a few fell through, but just gotta keep working :) )

Also this last week, I had the privilege to go on splits with Elder Juzga! I worked in the Saavedra area, and we did a ton of great work there! I love working with Elder Juzga, he´s the best!!! Also, fun fact: there was a crisis these last few weeks in the mission, because we didn´t have enough Books of Mormon. Everyone was freaking out because we didn´t have the shipments we needed to work with, but the books finally got here, and now we´re all good.  hahahaha

Well, one topic that I´d like to treat this week is that of the Fast. I testify that it has power. One of our investigators who´s been struggling to receive her answer about Joseph Smith and the veracity of the Book of Mormon had the opportunity to fast the other week, and now she´s told us that she feels more sure about her decision to get baptized. She´ll be going on a trip to Paraguay in these next few weeks, but if not, she´d basically be getting baptized this week. but hey, you know what? FASTING WORKS, so do it! Seriously, it´s such a powerful tool that the Lord has given us, and it´s a simple thing that can push us and improve us (as well as help others). 

My goodness I love this Gospel, we have the map and we have the means, so let´s press on brothers and sisters! 

Hurrah for Israel! 

Elder Holtry

Elder Rios and I

Well, a few days ago, Elder Ríos and I decided that we were going to take our mattresses and sleep outside. It was nice at first, but then after a few ours I got woken up by rain on my face. it was the only night of all the week in which it rained... and it rained a TON! Some of my work-out stuff got soaked, and my smaller weights are a litter rusty now... but it´s all good, everything works perfectly still :) 

  there was a sweet lightning storm in the distance

¡Tomátela 2016!

Well, happy new years everyone! 2017! Whoooooooooo! But ya, it´s honestly been a smooth week... too smooth. We´re going to have to bump up a few things I guess. So, my new comp is Elder Ríos. He´s from Texas, and his family is from Mexico, so he already came into the mission speaking Spanish perfectly :) He´s been getting to know the area, and one funny part of the week was when we were talking with someone in the street. I had recently commented to him that a family of recent converts in the ward had made us a dish called Borí Borí before, and in the contact, he said that the church was in the street called Borí Borí... hahaha... maybe you had to be there. 

But ya, it´s been a decent week, Elder Ríos got to know several of the members, and we were able to pick up a few new investigators, so that was fantastic as well. Also, we found an old investigator named Mario, and we´re going to be meeting with him this week. Mario was telling us a bit about some of the issues in his life. A few weeks ago, he was making an earnest effort to make it to church, but there was always something that went wrong. He eventually decided that it wasn´t worth the effort anymore and gave up. Him telling that story and a few others to us really made me think. I know that God has power, and I´ve seen that Satan also has power to impede us. Despite this, we need to dig in deeper. I related to him the life of Christ, of how he was perfect, but despite that, he was persecuted unjustly, tempted personally by Satan, and in the end faced an agonizing death. Well, as Elder Holland said before, to bear an everlasting testimony of the atonement (And of the church) "we must pay a token of that same price. It´ll only be a token, but (it must) be paid". So, despite our challenges, we need to remember the example of our captain and dig in deeper. There will ALWAYS be a light at the end of the tunnel if we keep working, but if we give up, How can we hope for that light? 

Bueno, les amo mucho! Sigan adelante, y luchen con valor! Especialmente en la obra de nuestro salvador! Que tengan una buena semana, y espero que se hayan puesto metas para este nuevo año! Cuídense! 

Elder Holtry

I saw this pleasant sight when I was making my daily Banana smoothie 

 Legit Christmas Socks...

 the sun isn´t treating me well...