Amazing things happening!

Hey Fam!

This week was amazing!  We started doing a little more exercise in the mornings and I am liking the results.  The average weight gain in this mission is 40 lbs and we are def gonna prove that one wrong :)  We have been hiking up to the "M" most mornings.  We stay in when it is dumping rain/snow/sleet but I really do feel better with this extra exercise.

No matter what we do we end the day exhausted. We talked to a TON of people yesterday and last night Elder Bishop was super tired and when we got home instead of pulling out the key and opening our door he knocked the door like we were there to see someone.  I was on the ground laughing for like 3 minutes straight.  

We had a great week and found and set up a bunch of lessons with people who have not been to church in a while.  We taught the investigator that I was talking about last week, the one that was healed of her pain from the Priesthood blessing.  We gave her the first lesson and she accepted the invite to be baptized on April 26th!  We are super excited for her :)

Amazing things are in the works here in Missoula.  The Lord truly is hastening His work.  I am super excited for what will happen here in the next few weeks!

Sorry this letter is short but we have tons to do today and I don't have much time but I am grateful for all of you and the love and support I receive from you! 

Love,
Elder Holland

PS - The photo with the Elder in the yellow jacket is my companion, Elder Bishop.

Getting Warmer!

Hey Fam!
 

This week was awesome!  It started to get warmer and then snowed again... BUT it is super warm today and so we are all gonna hike the M.  Should be great :)
 

Zone conference was fantastic.  We focused on the Book of Mormon and how it is the Key to Conversion.  I did not realize that there were only 23 authors in the Book. The Kalispell, Missoula, and Stevensville zones were there and we did something new.  We broke into small groups and all read 40 pages each of the Book of Mormon.  As a conference we read the entire book in 2 hours.  Pretty cool.
 

I had a really cool experience with the Priesthood this week.  As a zone we have been doing this thing with all active members where, for our lessons, we teach the Restoration out of the pamphlet and invite them to give it to someone in the next 3-4 days.  On Saturday we had dinner with a Bishop  (Who is awesome!) and invited him to give it to someone.  He said he knew exactly who he wanted to give it to and so we went with him right then to deliver the pamphlet and set up an appointment to teach this person.  It was a less active man and his wife who is not a member of our church.  He has not been to church in quite some time.  When we got there is was apparent that his wife was in quite a bit of pain.  We gave her the pamphlet and set up an appointment this week to discuss it with them.  The Bishop asked her if there was anything we could do for her and, even though she is not a member of the Church, she asked for a blessing of Healing.  Her husband had received one years prior and was healed and she had faith she could be healed as well.  Elder Bishop and I were able to give her this blessing and she was told if she prayed her pain would cease and she would be healed.  We said a prayer and left.  About 15 minutes later she called the Bishop and said thank you for coming.  We had no idea when we were there but apparently just moments before we arrived she had said the pain was too much and they were about to head to the hospital.  She told the Bishop that immediately after we left she prayed to God and 10 minutes later all pain was taken from her.  I know the Priesthood of God has been Restored to the earth today.  I used to have faith and just believe this but I now Know it to be true.  I also know that if we are doing what God has asked us to do in keeping His commandments that He places people in our path to help.  There have been way too many time that we just happened to show up in the exact moment that someone needed help the most.  God is in the details of our lives.  I am so grateful to know this.
 

I invite you all to do all you can to be present and notice the small details of life and see the hand of God work in your life.  All things denote there is a God.
 

Thank you all so very much for all you do for me.  I feel the strength of your prayers and am so grateful for the love I feel.  I love you all
 

Elder Holland

The World is thawing out!

Hey Fam!

This week was fantastic! We got to drive to Helena for Missiona Leadership Council and the drive there was incredible!  I am so blessed to get to serve in such a beautiful area of the world.  We get to have our Zone Conference here in Missoula tomorrow so all the missionaries from Kalispell and Stevensville will be here along with President and Sister Mecham.  I love these meetings and they have all been really musical lately which I have grown to love.  We are going to sing at this one which is new for me I know but we practiced and I think it actually sounded pretty good! 

We got to visit a ton of people this week and had some really good lessons.  There are people all over that are so prepared by the Lord to receive the Gospel!  We taught  a new investigator on Monday and he has been meeting with missionaries for quite some time but has never committed to anything.  He had not been to church in a very long time either. His wife is a member of the Church and it seemed he really only would listen to the missionaries because she would ask him.  We had our first lesson with him Monday night and really just established his needs and discussed the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We ended up going through the promise that Moroni gives to all who are seeking confirmation of Truth from the Holy Ghost (Moroni Chapter 10:3-5). We had a very inspired discussion about how this formula works.  We talked about how the difference of reading something and receiving something is the state of mind we are in and how to be qualified to receive an answer from God we must have a grateful mind.  We discussed how when we ask God, in the name of Christ, if something is not true we are asking in a way that God can confirm the truth.  He did not understand this at first but we showed him in the Scriptures how the purpose of the Holy Ghost is to testify of Truth (John 15:26) and in order for Him to do so we must have made up our mind about the subject we are asking.  It is the difference in asking,"Father, is the Book of Mormon true?" and,"Father, I believe the Book of Mormon was written and translated by Prophets and contains thy Words, please confirm this to me."  That is the difference.  Moroni also says we must have a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  He said he had prayed this way before and had not received an answer and I felt prompted to ask him if he had real intent or if he was willing to do something if God gave him the answer he was seeking.  We showed him in the scriptures how if anyone receives a confirmation form God that something is true and then turns their back on that answer that God says, "...it would have been better for you that ye had not known me." (2 Nephi 31:14)  We testified that God will not give him an answer unless he is willing to act on it because if he received the answer and just said, "Well that was good to know but I don't wana change" then God would be condemning him and God loves each of us way too much to ever do that. 

Before arriving at his home Elder Bishop and I had prayed to know what date this investigator would be prepared to be baptized on and we both felt he would be ready by April 12th.  At this point in the lesson we invited him to show God his real intent along with his sincere heart and Faith in Christ by preparing himself to be baptized on the 12th of April.  We explained that Christ never healed anyone without them first showing forth some sort of faith and by committing to a date he would be showing God he had real intent and would be ready by that date.  We promised him as set apart representatives of Jesus Christ that he would receive an answer and know the Church was true and everything we had taught him thus far was true.  He agreed to the date contingent upon himself receiving an answer before the day arrived.  We left his home.  We came back on friday and had another lesson.  He was kinda smirking as we started the discussion so we asked him what happened.  He said that one night as he was praying he told Heavenly Father that he believed the things we had taught him and asked for confirmation if the Book of Mormon was the word of God.  He said he waited and waited and then felt some sort of warm burning feeling that he has only felt before when he is with his family and up in his cabin in the woods.  He then asked if Joseph Smith was a Prophet and said the feeling intensified and then he asked if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was His Church and he said he was completely overcome by the feeling.  I thought it was funny because he sounded a little annoyed because from that point in the night the feeling stayed with him and kept him awake all night!  He looked us dead in the eye and said he now knows without a doubt that God has restored His Church today through a Prophet and that he will be baptized on the 12th of April.  I was ecstatic!   I am so grateful to be a witness of such great miracles and to see my brothers and sisters find truth in their lives.  I know that God answers prayers.  I know that Moroni was inspired by God to give us that formula to find truth and we can know the truth of all things, according to the will of God, by applying it in our lives.  I know that God restored His Church on earth today and that we can find everlasting happiness and peace by reading the scriptures and applying the words of the prophets in our own lives.  I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

I am grateful for all of you and the love and support I receive from you.  Thanks for all you do for me.  I love you all! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Elder Holland

P.S. -  everything on understanding Moroni's Promise can be found in the talk, "Moroni's Promise" By Elder Gene R. Cook on LDS.org!  Jaromy showed me the talk when he was here and it has changed my life and I invite you all to read it!!

Missoula!

Hey Fam!

Wow Missoula is awesome!  I love it here!  Yes, I really miss Bozeman but I'm glad I got sent here.  It is just like Portland. Old early 1900's bungalow type homes. All unique and colorful.  AND it is raining today!  And the town is full of hippies. 

My companion, Elder Bishop, and I get along really well.  It is strange how similar we are but thankfully the Wards have accepted us and we really hit the ground running.  We have found tons of people to teach here in just the past few days!  We have like 19 investigators!  Life is awesome but I think my biggest struggle is remembering everyone's name. We cover 4th ward, the University Ward, and French Town.  Lots of people to remember but I feel the Lord has greatly strengthened me and has helped me in this adjustment.  

One of my favorite members in 4th ward here are Brother and Sister Ribera.  They are from Spain!!!  They grew up in Barcelona and moved here last september.  They were baptized 3 years ago in Spain and Brother Ribera is now the Elders Quorum President here.  Incredible people.  They fed us dinner yesterday and we got to speak lots of spanish :)  They came here to sell cooking supplies from Spain and their company is called, "My Pots and Pans"  you should all like them on Facebook, they need help with that!  

I don't have much time to write this week but there are some incredible things happening here and I really can feel the work of the Lord hastening.  Great things are in the works here and I am so grateful I have the opportunity to be a part of it.  I will write more details next week but thanks for all your love and support!  

My new address is 1101 Greenough Drive #E10 Missoula, 59802

I love you all!

Elder Holland 

Transfers!

Hey Fam!

So I am being transferred to Missoula!  I have always wanted to serve there and they have some really awesome stuff happening there right now!  My new Stake President sounds incredible.  They are on the verge of splitting the stake and have a great goal to reach by the end of the year.  There are also rumors that a Temple will be built there soon if the work keeps progressing as it currently is :)  It will be quite the adjustment because my new zone has 22 missionaries and Bozeman only has 14 so I will def be learning some great things in management soon!  I will say I am glad I was not there last week because they got like 2 feet of snow and had 70 mph winds and there was an avalanche!  Crazy.

Mike was baptized this week!  It was fantastic!  He even got up and bore his testimony at the end of the service and wow it was powerful.  There was a girl there who got to see a baptism for the first time.  We had not taught her anything at this point but we taught her about the Restoration last night and she accepted the invitation to be baptized and is preparing to enter the waters of baptism on April 5th!  It sounds like she does not have the greatest family life and the biggest thing that is drawing her to the Gospel is the calm and peaceful feeling she has at church and when we talk.  I appreciate how well she is able to recognize the Holy Ghost in her life.  I feel if we all paid closer attention to the feelings we have whenever we are discussing the life and ministry of our Savior, Jesus Christ, it would be much easier for those that are struggling to keep the commandments to be obedient.  I know these feelings can be felt even after our faith is tested and it becomes a knowledge.  I feel our Savior's love daily and I feel it is because I am consciously looking for it and engaged in His work.  I would invite you all to look for the Savior in your life daily and especially in the moment because I know and testify that when President Thomas S. Monson said, "The Lord is in the details of our lives" he was telling the truth.

I am sad to be leaving Bozeman because I really do love the people here.  I have made friendships that will last into the eternities and am grateful for all I have been able to experience this far on my mission.  I am especially grateful for all of you and all the love and prayers and support I receive.  Have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Holland

P.S. The handsome guys in White are Mike and President Heap