Merry Christmas!

Hey Fam!

This week was awesome!  I got to go to Billings for our Christmas Zone Conference and then on tuesday we got to go to Helena for a meeting so we got to do quite a bit of traveling this week!  I am still learning but I def feel much more confident in my snow diving now :)  But for our Christmas Zone Conference we got to do something fairly unique.  It was all done like a traditional Christmas program with tons of music.  It was really cool cuz some of the people here serving as Missionaries are incredibly talented. They had all sorts of instruments and sang all day.  The Spirit was very strong and I really enjoyed singing.  Haha I know yes that was me talking... Singing was fun :)  

We have had some difficulty finding people to teach since pretty much all of our Ward went home for the holidays.  I guess that is just the joy of serving in a University Ward around the holidays but we still have great faith that the Lord will provide us people to teach.  We did get to teach a guy named Ty for the first time this week and he is preparing to be baptized on the 18th of January.  We have 2 others that are preparing to make the covenant to serve the Lord in january and we are very excited for them as well :)

Last week I shared a little of the experience I had being able to give a blessing to a man on 2nd Ward but I feel the need to expound on it a little more.  We were able to witness a miracle last week.  This brother ad come up to me during the Stake Christmas program on Sunday night and had asked if before the night was over we could give him a blessing.  He had told us, and I remember this when it happened, that about 2 months ago he was driving in his work truck when he had a terrible headache come over him and he had lost consciousness for a short period of time.  He told me that night that he was losing hearing in his right ear and had many other side effects of that experience.  He said the doctors had done tests on him four days earlier and he had suffered from a minor stroke.  As he described this experience to me I felt very strongly that he would be healed of his infirmities.  I told him I would find him later with my companion and give him a blessing.  I then went to seek confirmation of the impression I had felt.  I went into a classroom all by myself and told Heavenly Father I felt and believed he could and should be healed this night and I felt a confirmation that it was true.  We then went and gave him a blessing of healing and I was able to tell him that his body would be completely healed and restored to its proper working order.  I knew that this blessing would happen but that it would be on the Lord's time table.  On tuesday afternoon I received a call from this man.  He told me that he had been to the doctor that day and that they had no explanation as to what had happened.  The doctors can find no evidence of a stroke or any of the multiple side effects his body was displaying only a few days before.  He has been completely healed.  I am so very grateful for this experience because it has helped me to know without a doubt that the Priesthood of God, The same authority that Jesus Christ gave to his Apostles (Mark 3:14-15), has truly been Restored today.  

I have been blessed to see many mighty miracles on my mission so far but  for some reason I feel I should share this one.  I add my testimony that Jesus Christ lives.  He is the Savior of the World.  He loves us all perfectly and does everything he can to heal us, spiritually and temporally.  As we open our hearts and keep the commandments we qualify ourselves to receive more than we could ever imagine.  

I am so grateful for you all and all the love an support you have shown me. I have a giant stack of packages that has tempted me beyond belief to open in my apartment and I just want to say thanks :)  I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that the Spirit of Christ can be felt at every moment of this great holiday :)  I love and appreciate you all,

Elder Holland

Almost Christmas!

Hey Fam!

This week was AWESOME!  Well, I lost one of my companions, Elder McLaughlin, because he got his VISA and flew off to Brazil but besides that it has been sweet!  Also, it is Christmas and so our ward pretty much went home but we are still finding some good service opportunities so life is great :)

Last night was our stake Christmas Program and it was a great success! There were like 600 people there and many were not members of our church.  They had lots of Nativity sets up and live musicians all over the building.  They had people playing the harp, cello, violin, and piano.  It was a really fun night cuz all the missionaries were the ushers and we really got to interact with all who were there. 

I have been asked to give many blessings recently and I am so grateful every time I do.  In particular, I gave a blessing of healing to a friend from 2nd ward yesterday which changed my life.  I was able to pray before hand and receive confirmation that this person had the faith to be healed and through the priesthood of God he was healed.  He had suffered from a minor stroke and was losing hearing in his ear and it will not be immediately but I know he will make a complete and full recovery.  How grateful I am to know without a doubt that the God we serve truly is a God of miracles.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever and loves us enough to heal us when we are in need.  I will remember this week for the rest of my life. 

Thank you all so very much for all the love and support you give me!  I've received so many packages and letters and truly am grateful.  I love you all!

Elder Holland

It's freezing here!

Hey Fam!

It is beyond freezing here but I have learned the art of layering :) I found out that last week for whatever reason Montana was the coldest place on the planet!  I believe it too.  The coldest I saw it was -35.  I have never experienced my face freezing the moment I walked outside... but I did get to boil water and dump it of my 3rd floor apartment building and watch it turn instantly into snow :)  

This week was fairly slow as far as missionary work goes mainly because I am serving in the University Ward.  It is finals next week and everyone is freaking out and does not have time to spare this week.  Next week break starts and all will be back to normal though :)  

We did get to go to a baptism of a 9 year old girl in 2nd ward that I got to start teaching while I served there.  It was really cool because her father is not a member of the church and her mother is not active in the church but their comments were, "we will let her do anything that is good and is to her benefit as she grows up."  I love and respect them for that.  This Church truly is the "Good News" and when picked apart can truly be identified as Christ's Church because of it's "Fruit". 

It was kinda sad to send Elder Ruzicka home last friday but I am glad to hear he is doing well.  I found out I get to stay here in Bozeman for another transfer!  My companion, Elder McLaughlin, is still waiting for his VISA and will still be here with me but my new companion will be....... Elder Rodriguez!!! Hahaha I am so excited about this! We used to joke that we would one day be back in Bozeman as companions and the day has come!

Yesterday we had our Christmas program in the Singles ward.  The people there are incredibly gifted and shared their musical talents.  We had people on the piano, cello, clarinet, and violin.  The overall message was of gratitude for the Gift God the Father has given us: Our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I have done some real soul searching in the passed year or so to find out, in any given situation, how I can feel the Spirit of the Lord the fastest.  I now know exactly how the Spirit speaks to me and really thought it would be valuable to learn how to bring the Spirit when I am frustrated or angry.  I have learned that a prayer of gratitude ALWAYS works.  It is truly amazing and I have a strong testimony that if we will just take the time to thank God in all we do that we will have the Spirit with us in a greater abundance.  

Thanks so vey much for all you do for me!  I am staying at my current address, 2307 west main street apartment #324, Bozeman, Montana, 59718.  I love you all,

Elder Holland

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey Fam!


This week was really fun!  I was on exchanges in Belgrade and Livingston for most of the week but I did get to spend Thanksgiving Day here in Bozeman.  We did the Food Bank 5K run, "Huffing for Stuffing"  Hahaha wow, I am super out of shape.  I have not run in a while and we are at 5,000 feet here.  I could make excuses all day but the truth is I'm gettin fat and it was hard.  It was awesome though.  There were over 3,000 people there and that never happens anywhere in Montana. We wore our white shirts and ties for the race too!  We definitely got a ton of attention :)  It was really cool and I am excited to see the results down the road. 

The man in the hat is President Heap and his wife is standing in front of him.

We had dinner at our Stake President's house.  President Heap and his family are awesome!  His son is a chef and so the food was incredible.  They are so thoughtful too. They took orders from us a couple days before on what pie we wanted and made 6 pies.  I had a berry pie and it was delicious.  Then we did something I never thought I would do on a mission.  We played Mexican train!  I def did not win but it was lots of fun. 

My companion, Elder Ruzicka, goes home this week.  I will be sad to see him leave but happy for him to move on to the next stage of his life.  He drives to Billings on Friday and then it will be just Elder Mclaughlin and I until another companion is assigned to me.  It is crazy the transfer is almost over again  but I am fairly confident I will still be here in Bozeman :)

Life is great.  I really enjoy how honest most people seem to be here.  There was a guy in Livingston that I got to visit with a month ago who had not been to church in over 25 years.  We had a really cool lesson and I invited him to pick a day sometime in November and go to church.  He said he wasn't going to commit unless he was serious and so we gave him some time to think and he eventually he said yes he will do it.  He came to church yesterday just in time to see his son be ordained as a new ward missionary.  I was happy to hear he kept his word.  As I learn and grow I have realized that we first and foremost need to be honest with ourselves if we are to one day be like Christ.  I feel most of our brothers and sisters here on Earth are deceived because they are not honest with themselves and what truly makes them happy.  If we all would just take the time to truly and honestly evaluate where we are in life we would without fail learn that when we follow the teachings of Christ we are happy. 

I pray that we all will continue to look for others to lift, encourage, inspire, and bless.  And that we can all feel the love of God every day in every way.

Thanks for all you do for me I truly am grateful for the love and great support I receive. 

 

Love,

Elder Holland

Yup, It is freezing here!

Hey Fam!

Well another week has come and gone.  I love it here.  The more I talk with missionaries the more I learn how irregular it is to be able to stay in one town for 8 months. I am so grateful to live here in Bozeman!  It really is a fantastic place to serve.  It has been crazy cold the passed few days though.. Down to single digits which is def not cool.  But on the flip side I do get to finally wear all these accessories like scarfs,gloves, and ear warmers that I have never needed my entire life :)  Life is good.

Sorry I missed last week but we did have a baptism yesterday!  His name is Randy and he actually went home to Arizona to be baptized.  He will be back after the holidays but he is another person that I am honored to be able to know.  He is Navajo and is the first of his family to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  

I got to spend half my week in Three Forks which was sweet!  I love going back and seeing all the people that I got to teach and get to know.  There are people there that are really having a hard time with their current circumstances but chose to accept that God gave them those trials to make them stronger.  I admire everything about them.  I love how my perspective continues to change as a missionary.  

We have another Person who is investigating the Church that has really helped me think of how we can be more like Christ.  His name is Mike.  We have been teaching him for a couple weeks and he has agreed to prepare himself to be baptized on the 7th of December.  He is making big moves towards qualifying himself for the great blessings that our Father in Heaven has prepared for him.  In teaching him I have really thought about myself.  I have been very focused on the subject of self-mastery.  I feel that to be like the Savior I need to allow myself to evolve to exactly what he has taught.  This is a process that I know will take my entire life but I understand how important it is to have a sure foundation.  I know that everything we do initially comes from a thought.  I have really been working to master my own mind and only allow those things that are pleasing to the Savior to enter it.  I had the thought the other day, Can Satan read my thoughts?  First I am so grateful for people like my Stake President , President Heap, who have studied the scriptures all their lives and can help direct me to the answers to questions like this.  He directed me to the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants section 6 verse 16, "Yea, I tell thee, that thou mayest know that there is none else save God that knowest thy thoughts and the intents of thy heart."  How grateful I was to learn this!  Wow seriously that makes it so much easier for me to know that Satan has to base what he throws at me by what I do, not what I think.  Yes I also have to take into account that in our pre-mortal existence he must have known me but from here on out he can only throw his junk at me by what I do, not what I think.  This was a powerful lesson for me and I know that it would have been near impossible for me to learn it if I did not have the desire to find an answer and the scriptures to search for that answer.  

I am so grateful for all of the many things that God has given us in these latter days to guide us.  I pray that we all may take the time to prayerfully search the scriptures for the problems to the questions we have in life.  Because of experience, I can now testify that all questions to life that we need to know can be found in the scriptures.  I have yet to have a question that I need to know that they can not answer.

I get to have Thanksgiving Dinner at President Heap's home! I'm excited and grateful.  I hope you all have a fantastic week!  I love you and am so very grateful for all you do for me.

Elder Holland

Another great week!

Hey Fam!

This week was fantastic!  I am still adjusting to the cold but at least the past 3 days it has been sunny :)  I have learned that Vitamin D pills are awesome and I will definitely be taking them the entire winter :)  

The work here is really progressing!  A couple weeks ago, when we received out iPad's, we were told that we would receive training in the form of exchanges.  We were told every companionship would have an Elder with them for at least 2 days, twice this transfer.  Turns out I am the one who gets to do the exchanges with my zone here in Bozeman!  It started last week and it is actually really fun because I am getting to meet tons of people and am able to help these awesome Missionaries that serve here.  The one downside is that I will only get to spend 13 days out of the next 6 weeks in my own area.  I did arrange the schedule so that I get to be in my area for Sunday though.  I am very excited about this opportunity though because I get to see all the great and many blessings from using iPad's in our teaching.

We have multiple people in my area that will be baptized in the next few weeks.  I am really excited about this guy named Mike.  He was raised in another faith and has found great joy in the knowledge he has gained since meeting with us and coming to church and institute class.

The teacher in church said something profound in our lesson on Sunday.  He said, "The blessings of Heaven are limitless but perishable."  WOW.  I really thought about this and it is so very true.  As we qualify ourselves for the blessings of Heaven, as the scriptures state, we will prosper in the land.  The windows of Heaven are opened and we are filled with the joy that only God can provide.  These blessings and feelings are perishable because as we disobey the Heavens can not send down all that our Heavenly Father wishes to send.  I do not wish to say that in disobedience there is no happiness but I will say from experience that although joy may be felt outside the Gospel of Jesus Christ it is always fleeting.  When Jaromy was here he shared a scripture with me from the Book of Mormon that has become one that I love and share often; Alma 12:10, "And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full."  I love the connection to knowledge and the state of our hearts. 

I am so grateful for the knowledge I have and for the Joy that comes from my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I know that we are all children of God and He loves and does all He can to bless us.  The blessings we receive are limitless but perishable.  I pray that we will all qualify ourselves for limitless blessings that never perish.  I love you all and am so grateful for all the letters, packages, and love you send me, you are the best!  

Elder Holland

Getting Chilly!

Hey Fam!

Well, It is snowing!  And it is freezing!  I bet my skin will be transparent by the end of this winter but it's all good I am enjoying learning a new way of living :)  Things are going really well here!  I love serving with all the college students.  It is very refreshing to spent time with and teach people my own age.  There are many incredible things happening here and I am excited about this transfer because we have prepared ourselves to truly witness miracles.

I was able to witness a miracle this week.  We were driving to an appointment and we got a call from Brother Judd saying that a girl from 2nd Ward had been in an accident.  He said she flew off the road at 60 mph and rolled her car 4 times and we needed to go to the hospital and give her a blessing.  To be completely honest I was actually fairly nervous on the drive to the hospital because I had no idea the condition she would be in when we got there.  When we walked into her room she was sitting upright on the hospital bed and was talking with her mom.  To my amazement not a single bone was broken in her body!  She had cuts all over her arms, legs, and face and had a bruise on her chest from the seat belt but that was it.  She showed us some pictures of the crash and her car is toast and she rolled about 50 yards up a hill before she stopped.  As she spoke I felt this incredible warm, deep, soothing feeling come over me and I had the most amazing confirmation that there were angels there protecting her.  Her mom said as she was rolling she said a prayer and asked over and over for God to stop the car.  It truly was a miracle to witness and I am so grateful that I was blessed to be there for it.

Last week Camille sent me a quote By President George Albert Smith, "Those who are on the other side [of the veil] are just as anxious about us.  They are praying for us and our success." I have been thinking about this a lot especially after having this experience.  I have no doubt in my mind that, just as we are assigned to help people here, angels are assigned by God to do the same.  I know that no matter what we do they are there.  Most of the time they are silent but they are there.  I know that as we keep the commandments of God and qualify ourselves for their assistance that they are then allowed to have a larger influence in our lives.  I have learned this through experience and am forever grateful for those here and on the other side of the veil that help lift, encourage, inspire, and bless me.  I testify to what Russell T Osguthorpe said in the CES devotional last night, "Saying and doing the right things becomes easy as we make promises to the Lord."  As we continue through life in righteousness our tasks do become harder but the help we receive is ALWAYS more than sufficient for our needs. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have and pray that we will all do all we can to share this Gospel with those the Lord has put in our path.

Thanks so very much for all of your great love and support.

Love,

Elder Holland