Sunshine :)

Hey Fam!

This week was so awesome!  Sorry for the late email but it has been crazy and this is the first opportunity we have had to send this out.  The snow completely melted in the last 3 days and the sun has been out almost all day every day.  I have been soaking in some much needed vitamin D :) I was up in Havre for a few days and got to meet and teach some really awesome native people. They have very similar beliefs to some of the people in the Book of Mormon! It is so sweet because the fullness of the Gospel fits naturally with what they already believe :)

We all went to Helena for our Mission Leadership Council on Friday. It was great to see all my good friends :). Lots of them will be finishing their missions this transfer. The entire thing was focused on planning.  Planning is def an eternal principle.  I never used to write things down but as a missionary we have to and now I am beginning to see the importance of writing down my thoughts, impressions, and plans. One of my very favorite Apostles, Elder Neal A. Maxwell, said, "The promoting that goes unresponded to May not be repeated. Writing down what we have been prompted with is vital... God should not, and may not, choose to repeat the prompting if we assign what was given such a low priority as to put it aside."  Planning is an eternal principle and I am so grateful to finally be figuring this out!

On Friday we had a couple appointments cancel and we're trying to figure out who the Lord would have us visit. We said a prayer and started going through our area book.  As I was looking through the many people to visit a name was literally highlighted on my iPad. Ha at first I thought there was something wrong with my iPad but I clicked it her and felt like we really needed to visit her.  There were notes that said she and her husband had not let anyone into their home for a while. Haha the timing was insane cuz right as we were walking up the steps to her porch she opened her door to let her dogs out. Ha she wasn't expecting to see someone there and she freaked out and screamed like crazy and slammed the door shut!  I love to spook people and she was def SPOOKED so naturally I started laughing really hard and my companion is just looking at me like I'm crazy. About a minute later she opened the door and said please come in! It was obvious that something big had happened in their lives because they were both quite emotional to see us there. Come to find her brother had passed away a few days before and she was confused and hurt because of her loss. She said she had praying for help and then there we were. We had one of the amazing discussions on the Plan of Salvation.  We read all about the afterlife from the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost confirmed truth to all of us. As we left (there was not much I could do about this one..) she literally jumped on me and gave me this giant bear hug and just cried. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that brings me so much peace. I'm grateful to be able to act as an Emissary for our Savior. I know this is His work I am engaged in. I am constantly put into people's lives who desperately need Christ and, to me, it seems random but I know God is up there orchestrating everything. He really is the details of our lives :)

Yesterday we had our zone training! I realized this is the last one I will have as a missionary... Kinda sad but it went really well :) Elder Bishop came up from billings for it and gave an awesome discussion. It was fun toA hang out with him for a little bit.  I have made so many friends here and I know our friendship will last into the eternities. God is soo good!

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

Elder HollandA