I am blessed to be a part of their lives...

Hello Fam,

This week was amazing.  We have lots of people to teach and it is so exciting to see people progress in the Gospel.  The most amazing thing is what is happening with John's family.  So we have been teaching John's friend and his son and his niece.  But we have never been able to sit down with his mom or his sister. Yesterday that all changed.  For whatever reason we came to teach and they decided to listen to a lesson! We taught the Restoration and at the end they both accepted the invitation to be baptized! I am so stoked for John cuz he is going to get to baptize his entire family!!  It was such an amazing meeting and I am so grateful that I am blessed to be a part of their lives.

I have been thinking a ton about how just being an example to others can bring those we love the most to the knowledge of the Restoration of the Gospel.  At the end of the lesson I asked John's mom what changed for her; Why did she decide to meet with us today?  She got all teary eyed and looked at her son and said it was because of the changes she has seen in him.  It truly was a precious moment as she then committed to read, pray, and come to church as a family next week.  

I know that it does not matter if we are investigating the Church or if we have been members all our lives, if we Read, Pray, and go to Church the light of Christ will never diminish in our hearts.  The energy of the everlasting atonement will always be a part of us and will help us in all aspects of our lives.  I Know the Church is true and all things are possible when we allow God to bless us.  

Thanks everyone for all your love and support :) I love you all

Elder Holland

Montana!

Awesome week!

Hey Fam,

We had an awesome week!  People are just kinda popping up to teach. It is really cool to see :)  A couple weeks ago Elder Rodriguez and I were teaching a investigator a lesson in the Book of Mormon and his friend was there.  She was kinda shy but participated in the lesson and even tho she has family members who are Mormon I could tell she knew very little about the Book of Mormon.  So we taught her exactly what it was and then gave her a copy to read.  I prayed for her to read it but she sorta slipped my mind cuz she lives in Boulder and we weren't planning on teaching her any further.  Then a little while ago I heard she was in a 4 wheeling accident and broke her back so I continued to keep her in my prayers.  We are currently teaching the investigator's son the lessons and so we went over after church yesterday to teach a lesson and the friend from Boulder was there! As well as one of the investigator's 10 year old cousins.  I immediately could tell something was different about the friend and her energy was just radiant.  She was very excited to meet with us.  I came to find out that she has been reading lots from the Book of Mormon.  She said she has had multiple signs that the book is true too!  She was sitting in the doctors office reading her Book of Mormon.  She said her Doc came out and noticed what she was reading and told her to keep reading because that book will answer any question she has.  Turns out her Doc is LDS! So as of yesterday she had already read half the book!  We taught her the Restoration and she accepted the invitation to be baptized.  It was a very joyous meeting and helped strengthen my testimony of the Book of Mormon.  She just kept saying how excited she was to finally have all these questions she has been wondering about answered.  The Book of Mormon truly does answer every question one could have.  It fully explains why Christ did all he did and gives explicit detail of the Plan of Salvation.  It is now and will forever be my favorite book.  But that is just one of the many awesome experiences we are having here.  We are setting personal records every week as companions and I love it because the more people we teach the more I am learning.  Thanks everyone for all your love and support, I love you

Elder Spencer Holland

Time is flying....

Hey Fam!

This week really was awesome! We have lots of people to teach and time seems to be flying by.  I can't believe that I have been on my mission for almost 4 months.  That blows me away but I think about how much I have learned and really can't believe it has only been 4 months!  I love being here with Jar.  He teaches me soo much every single day and we teach really well together.  

We got to go up to Helena this week for our Zone Conference with President Mecham.  It was fantastic.  Jar got to meet Elder Rodriguez and lots of other Elders I have become friends with.  I really enjoy those meetings.  The Energy in a room filled with 80 or so Elders and Sisters who are set apart with Priesthood Authority to preach the Gospel of Christ is truly incredible.  It is the next best thing to being in the Temple.  AND President Mecham announced that at the beginning of the next transfer we are all gonna get to go to the Temple!! When he said that I wanted to scream and cry at the same time.  I am so excited for that trip and he said we are all going to have a discussion in the Chapel after the session and I know the things I learn will help me to understand how to fully keep all the commandments and become what my Father in Heaven already knows I am. 

I also learned what a Gospel Principle really is.  A Principle is a moral belief that allows us to govern ourselves as we work towards a moral goal.  A Gospel Principle is the same thing except the goal we are working towards is Eternal.  I learned that obedience is a contribution to a covenant.  It is all about perspective. 

In our Gospel Principles class yesterday I had an "Aha" moment about something I have thought about a lot.  My goal in life is to always have an eternal perspective.  As I do I am more able to be present in my every day activities and to pick apart the most important things of my day to focus on.  The lesson we had was on the Holy Ghost.  I thought about Him and how he is already an established member of the Godhead.  I thought about him and where he is currently in his progression and how he is a God and has not even received a body yet.  I couldn't help but ponder what that means about You and me.  As I did the Spirit confirmed my thoughts and once again I came to a realization of who I Am.  In that moment I also was able to see just who every individual around me Is as well.  I am confident that this perspective is one that Heavenly Father wants to instill in All of us. All we have to do is give him a chance.  

At the conference we got to take a picture with Elder Rodriguez and Zachilli (From Rancho Bernardo) Which was way cool.

I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints is God's Church Restored on the earth today.  I am amazed at the evidences of the Book of Mormon that I continue to find all the time.  But truthfully all I need and all anyone needs to know it is true, is the confirmation from the Holy Ghost.  There is a God who out of love has dedicated this time to us to confirm truth to us.  I am so grateful for Him and for all the knowledge I have from the Gospel.  Because of it I can say I truly know the meaning of the word Joy. 

I love you all and am so grateful for your love and support!

Elder Spencer Holland

Hello Family,

This week was a good one. We started off better than we had any of the other weeks which was good but then it kind of got slow. I like it when we are really busy. But we have a couple of good people to teach which we are excited about. 

One of those people is a young sister. She is a spanish speaker and last week we taught her with a member that we ate with and it was a really good lesson. She left for girls camp last week and we heard from a couple of the leaders that she had a really great time there so we were really excited about that. They told us that she bore her testimony at the end of the camp so that is really great news. She has a baptismal date for the 3rd of August which we are still shooting for but it was strange because she didin't come to church on Sunday and we dont know why...we'll see this week though.

Yesterday we had a really great lesson with the guy we are teaching out in the mountains and we are so excited for them! He is the guy that raised the bear up there.. But we taught him with Spencer's member friend from Three Forks and we taught the Restoration. So it was a great lesson and we got to the end and he said that he believed everything that we had told him.  He proceeded to tell us an experience that he had during the week when he was talking to a young man who came into his work that was an evangelical christian and he said that he was very very close minded. The point was brought up about having other scripture out there that is from God and the kid was 100% against it but then Mike (our investigator) started saying that he believed that the Lord could bring forth other scripture and truth. He spoke about the Book of Mormon and actually defended it which was amazing! He defended the LDS church! It was incredible, and I definitely see him and his son being baptized sometime here in the near future though I don't think it will be while I am here. It will probably be a couple of weeks after I leave but we are excited for them. 

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful time with the family reunion down there in SD! It should be a great time! Tell everyone that I said hi and I'm sorry that I couldn't be there but that i'll see most of them here pretty soon! 

Love you! 

Elder Jaromy Holland

It was another great week in Bozeman! 4th of July!

Hey Fam!

This week was awesome!  I continue to learn loads each day from Jar and have come to realize that him coming here was truly a gift from God.  We click really well and the fact that we are brothers has brought us lots of attention.  We have the opportunity to explain on the door that we are brothers and it has been very beneficial in aiding us in bringing others to Christ. 

The members here are fantastic and love doing missionary work.  One of Jar's great ideas is to focus on a small community and to use the members there to get to know the community and it is working very well.  We are in the beginning stages of the plan but I have prayed about it and I know Heavenly Father is supporting it 100%. 

The way we have been finding people is amazing.  God is literally just planting them in front of us!  There is a less active member we ran into early last week who is so prepared to come back to the Gospel it is amazing.  His girlfriend is not a mamber yet and I am very excited to teach them this week. 

My spanish is also improving since Jar came.  We have a few spanish people to teach and it is amazing how the Lord is helping me to remember a language I learned almost a decade ago.  But Jar is a fantastic missionary and truly loves the people we teach.

For the 4th we went up to watch fireworks at the Mortensons.  They live up on the top of the hill in south Bozeman and you basically have a view of the entire valley from their place.  The sunset was breath taking and then they had their own little firework show too. Earlier that day all 6 elders went and did service at a members house and we sat around and sang songs too and she suggested we sing the one primary song that's like," The Lord commanded Nephi to go and get the plates, from the wicked Laban inside the city gates... " It was fun and there were tons of non-members there but it was different singing in front of a bunch of people. Welcome to missionary work I guess. 

But we are really enjoying our time here and truly are seeing miracles happen in front of our eyes.  I am so grateful I decided to keep a journal every single day of my mission because it is already one of my most prized possessions and for all of you at home I highly suggest doing so.  I love you all and am sooo grateful for your love and support!

Love,

Elder Holland

Jar is here!!

 

Hello
This is the first letter from Spencer and Jaromy so I thought I would include both letters.  These boys are brothers as well as missionary companions!
 

Hey Fam!

This week has probably been the best week so far on my mission.  I was super sad to see elder Rodriguez

get transferred but unbelievably stoked to get my new companion, Jar!  He def grew an inch on his mission cuz now he is barely shorter than me... but still shorter than me ;) 

We were able to go to a baptism on Friday for a lady I was able to get to know and teach out in three forks!  It was soo fun to see all my good friends out there and especially to get to introduce them to Jar.  The Spirit was soo strong and it was another great experience I will never forget. 

Jaromy is an exceptional missionary.  I have already learned tons from him and feel like he will be teaching me every day while we are together.  I truly do feel like it was divine intervention to bring us together to make this experience possible.  We teach really well together and I can already see miracles happening here in Bozeman. 

It has been sooooo hot here! Crazy hot but I hope it dies down soon...  We have lots of great things planned for this next week and I am very excited about them.  We got to go hike out to a waterfall called Hyalite canyon this morning and it was beautiful.  I love it here in Montana and am soo excited to have Jar with me cuz this experience is truly a once in a lifetime king of thing :) I love you all thanks for all your love and support!!

Elder Spencer Holland

Dear Family,

Anyway, as for us and the week it was a great week. I got into Billings on Tuesday morning (I tried to get on

the same flight as the other misisonaries but it was all full so I couldn't, I ended up on my regular flight which was ok because I was able to talk to the girl next to me the whole way and basically share the message of the restoration with her which was cool. But we got here and went to the temple and the temple here is gorgeous! It really is beautiful. It was cool to see, there is a beautiful foyer with an open glass ceiling as you walk in. Also in the entrance there are a couple of fountains which are beautiful, it is a really neat temple. It was cool to go there on the first day with all the new missionaries, pres Mecham and Sis Mecham. But I do love President Mecham, he is a really cool guy and it was amazing that he is letting us do this. He isn't very by the books, he tries to go by the spirit which I like a lot about him. It should be fun here, there is lots to learn.

But Thursday I was driven out to Boseman and I met Spencer. It was really cool, he is so different! He is really really different but in amazing ways.. It has been fun to see him and how he has changed and he really does have strong desires to do what is right. It is cool to see that. I am excited to get to know him and we are going to have some great experiences together.

As far as the work goes, we are implementing some ideas from my mission and keeping some from his so we have a hybrid workstyle going on here which should be good. The members are great and are very helpful..  Lots of the members are very Missionary oriented and are engaged in the work which is great to see, its exciting. We selected a few young couples to concentrate our work on so we are going to work with them to see what fruits come. it should be great! thanks for everying and I got to go,

Love

Elder Jaromy Holland