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