Conference

Hey Fam!

Well this week was really as good as it gets :)  I got to do so many awesome things and to top it off it was General Conference!  We had tons of missionaries get transferred this transfer so we are getting to know all the new missionaries in our zone.  I am not sure if I have said this before but Missoula is totally the Sister's zone.  We have 16 sisters and 9 elders.  It's awesome cuz they do things we never could and people always seem more open to listen to sisters over Elders.  I love it here and am grateful to get another transfer here.

My new Companions are Elder Brunham, from Arizona, and Elder Oaks, from San Diego! I love how the Lord keeps us San Diegans together.  Ha-ha it will be a great transfer. I am looking forward to all I will learn from my companions.

I would be very grateful If you would all please join me and add an investigator and her 10 year old son to your prayers.  They will be baptized on the 18th of October and I am super excited for them!  We missed the first session of General Conference on Saturday because we were helping them move but they are now in a house with a big yard and it seems like things are going well for them.  We have been teaching them for about a month now and because they have been reading and praying they both feel very good about being baptized on the 18th :)

The YSA ward also threw a surprise birthday party for me in between sessions! They are all so awesome.  AND on Sunday the Harris family made me Mexican chicken and had a oreo green mint chip pie and a huckleberry cake for dinner!  I love the people here :)

I am not even sure what to say about General Conference.  I feel like the General themes were follow and sustain the Prophet, Missionary work, and enduring to the end.  I loved President Uchtdorf's masterful teachings about the principles explained in Moroni's Promise (Moroni 10:3-5).  I love how at the end he added the fourth step to go and do something about it!  The scripture he quoted, John 7:17, is one I love to share frequently with those that are experimenting on the Word.  The Invitation that stood out to me the most actually came from Elder Andersen's talk when he invited us all to find some of our favorite scriptures and share them.  I thought and prayed about this all weekend and decided to share this as one of my favorite scriptures, "Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know you’re doing."  This is toward the end of the Book of Mormon in Mormon 8:35.  It is Moroni, the son of Mormon, speaking and what he says changes everything about how we should receive the messages in the Book of Mormon.  I remember when I first read the Book before my mission how I kept wondering how the principles of a book written almost 2,000 years ago could be so relevant to me and the world today.  It says in many places that they could not put even one one-hundredth of all the records in the abridgement that was made by Mormon and Moroni.  This scripture helps answer the question to how they knew what, out of all the plates they had, to include into this sacred text.  They, just like other Prophets, were given a vision of us TODAY.  They saw all of us and were given this knowledge so they would know exactly what to include to help us.  If you look at the Bible and what it says about Christ the Old Testament testifies of Christ and what He WILL do, The New Testament is a record of what He DID, and the Book of Mormon explains WHY He did it.  The Bible was primarily written to the Jews whereas the Book of Mormon was written for the Gentiles or the world.  The Book of Mormon literally contains a guide to how we need to live to return to live with God once again.  I am so grateful to the 23 authors of the sacred record and all those in this dispensation that sacrificed so much so I could have the privilege of learning the things, daily, that I need to be doing to be the happiest version of me I can be.  I have had many sacred and special spiritual experiences in my life but I have had more spiritual experiences while reading the Book of Mormon than anything else.  I know without a doubt that is true.  I hope and pray you all will take the time to read from it daily and to receive the Spiritual sustenance it provides.

Thank you all so very much for the birthday cards, packages, and constant letters of encouragement.  I love you all and am so grateful to have you all in my life.

Elder Holland