Easter!

Hello Fam!

This week was one to remember :)  We were able to experience so many awesome and amazing things this week!  First off, Matt was Baptized on tuesday!  He is quite the character and right after he came up out of the water he yelled, "I feel good!"  It was awesome.

On Sunday Matt was Confirmed a member of the Church and received the Holy Ghost.  Matt and Steve both received the Aaronic Priesthood and Matt taught the lesson in Gospel Principles!  It is amazing to see how the Gospel can help people change and literally become new creatures in Christ in such a short period of time. 

President Mecham asked that all the Missionaries have an Easter Devotional and so we all met 7:30 for a devotional yesterday morning.  It was fantastic!  I loved hearing all the different Missionaries share their testimony of the Savior and what he did for us.  The Spirit was strong i the meeting and at the end we all had the opportunity to kneel and offer a personal prayer of only gratitude to our Heavenly Father.  It was a moment I will remember forever.  I know without a doubt that God answers prayers.  I know that he blesses us unconditionally but as we raise our voice to Heaven in gratitude He blesses us even more abundantly.  I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world.  He suffered for our sins, died, and was resurrected.  Because He lives we will also live forever.  He has the power to cleanse even the vilest of sinners and make them clean once again.  I am a changed person because of Him and am eternally grateful for His great and Infinite Atonement. 

We have lots of fun things happening this summer that I am really excited about!  In 2 weeks we as missionaries are going to run the 5K, "Color Me Rad" while wearing a white shirt and tie.  I'm stoked!  On saturday we got to hike up to the M with a large group of young single adults and we had a great devotional that focused on the Savior.  It was awesome how many random people joined us in our discussion at the top of their hike.  The people in Missoula are awesome :)

I love you all and am grateful for all your prayers and support as a missionary. Have a fantastic week!

Elder Holland

 

Hey fam!

Steve's Baptism!

This week was fantastic! We got tons done and had beautiful weather to enjoy all the way :). I feel like spring is finally here! Things are starting to turn green and we are all doing lots of fun activities outside :) today we are all gonna go play ultimate Frisbee on campus which will be lots of fun. Elder Bishop and I have been hiking this trail right by our apartment that leads straight up this mountain in the Moroni's and I have to admit it is a pretty awesome way to start out the day.

Steve got baptized!!!! It went really well! He did not tell his 2 kids he was getting baptized so they found out as they walked into the church! They were both super cute and gave their dad a big hug. It was an exceptional day :)

Also, a guy named Matt that we have been working with ever since we got here will be baptized on Tuesday! He was waiting on a letter of approval from the First Presidency and it came in on Friday! His wife was baptized a couple months ago and he will now join her in making this sacred covenant of baptism. He truly is a changed man and I have loved getting to know him.

The work is going really well here and the spirits are very high with all the members and missionaries here. I feel we are working with the ward members really well and because of this synergy great miracles are happening daily. We truly do see miracles daily here and I LOVE it! There are 8-10 people that will be baptized in our ward alone in the next 6 weeks! I a, so grateful for the amazing opportunity I have to be a witness of the work of The Lord. He truly is hastening his work here in Missoula.

There is a guy that we meet with in French Town every Thursday named Rick who was has become active in the church over the passed few weeks. When we first met with him just 6 weeks ago he had not been to church in over 20 years and knew very little about Christ and His Church. He has become a reading machine! He started reading the Book of Mormon the first day we met him and as of last week he was in 3 Nephi chapter 17! He is almost done with the entire book! His knowledge of the Gospel has expanded 100 fold and the most impressive thing of all is that he has begun to apply the principles that are taught in the Book of Mormon to his own life. Except for taking the sacrament weekly, I would say that his reading of the Book of Mormon has brought him closer to our Savior than anything else he has been doing. I love the Book of Mormon. I have had many spiritual experiences in my life and especially on my mission but I have had more cumulative spiritual experiences with the Book of Mormon than anything else in my life. It truly is an inspired guide for our lives that was written by prophets of God. I have a challenge for all of you. I challenge you all to read the entire Book of Mormon before I get home starting NOW. I don't care if you are somewhere in the middle just keep reading and go all the way back to that point again cuz you need to read it multiple times anyway. I can promise that if you will all do this life will become easier and the Spirit will be which us more in our lives. I also know that doing this will bring us even closer as a family. I also want feedback and insights as you read! It really is my favorite book to discuss so I expect feedback.

I hope and pray you all accept this challenge! I love you all and am so grateful for each and every one of you.

Elder Holland

Conference!

Hey Fam!

 

This week was phenomenal!  We got to visit with tons of people and truly saw the hand of the Lord working in the lives of many here in Missoula.

 

First off, Conference was awesome!  I love General Conference and if I had time I would go into all the great things I learned but I truly did love what I learned.  I will say I did Love President Uchtdorf's talk on gratitude.  There is a common theme to every single person I have seen come closer to Christ and it is gratitude.

We now have 3 people who are preparing themselves to be baptized on different dates.  All of them come from different walks of life but are united in their goal of Repentance and coming unto the Lord through Baptism.  One will be baptized this coming saturday!  We are so excited for him!  We gave him a homework assignment a week ago to come up with 3 questions he had about the Gospel and as we met last week to follow up he said something incredible.  He started like he was going to ask a question and seemed a little torn whether or not he should ask.  He then looked us in the eyes and said, "No. I do not have any questions.  I know what I need to know and that is enough."  The Holy Ghost filled the room and confirmed to me that he is ready to make the Covenant of Baptism.  This experience led me to think about the early days of the Church when Oliver Cowdery inquired of the Lord to have another witness of what he had already had confirmed to him by the Holy Ghost.  Doctrine and Covenants section 6 verse 22-23 states, "22 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things. 23 Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?" This man has had a witness from God that these things are true and as he talked about his questions he said he was brought back to the night these things were confirmed to him and how he needs no further witness that these things are indeed true.  I know that the Holy Ghost is real and that He truly can bring ALL things to our remembrance.  I am so grateful to be able to serve as a full-time Missionary and be a witness of this great Work of Salvation.  I know that Christ lives and loves us and does all he can to help us in every situation we are placed in.

Thank you all so very much for all you do for me!  I love you all

Elder Holland