Incredible week! :)

Hey Fam!

You know when things are going so well you can't help but just sit there and smile all the time?  I would def say that is how I feel about life as a Missionary right now :)

The Dempsey family was baptized into fourth ward this weekend!  Elder Bishop and I share fourth ward with 2 Sister Missionaries that primarily cover the YSA ward but they were the ones that taught this amazing family.  Brother Dempsey is originally from San Diego so naturally he and I get along ;)  They have 5 kids but only 2 are of baptismal age.  So, Brother and Sister Dempsey, along with their 2 oldest boys, were baptized on Saturday!  The oldest boy, Sam, is mostly deaf and so my companion and I with some of the members learned how to sign, "I am a child of God"  and we got to sign the song at the baptism.  It was a really cool experience.  There were between 50-60 members who came to support them in their decision to be baptized.  Then they all were confirmed in sacrament meeting yesterday.  It was amazing to be a part of their confirmations.  I have such a testimony of the Holy Ghost.  I have been able to be a part of many confirmations and I know that each of them truly did receive the Holy Ghost. 

I was on exchanges on Friday in Clinton and had the opportunity to teach a guy named new investigator.  The Clinton Elders had previously taught him about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and he had accepted the invitation to be baptized but had not set a date to perform the ordinance.  We were able to teach Moroni's Promise to him.  The Holy Ghost was present and had a giant impact on him during the lesson.  He really is a truth seeker.  He has read almost a third of the Book of Mormon and had been praying for confirmation if it is true.  As I explained the formula Moroni gives us to qualify ourselves to receive an answer from our Heavenly Father something changed in his countenance.  Moroni says we need to have 3 things: A sincere heart, Faith in Christ, and real intent.  We established that he truly had a sincere heart and Faith in Christ and then I asked him how he can show God he has real intent.  He said he could show real intent by reading, praying, going to Church, and preparing to be baptized.  I then invited him to be baptized on the 31st of this month.  He thought about it for a moment, became quite emotional, and then was able to utter the word, "Yes."  Now he is a very big guy who seems quite tough.  He is taller than I am and has definitely spent some time exercising in his life.  As he accepted the invitation to be baptized the Holy Ghost manifested himself and confirmed to him the truthfulness of the of baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We asked him how he felt and all he could say was that a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders.  I have such a testimony of the cleansing Power of the Holy Ghost.

 

In Doctrine and Covenants section 84 verse 20 we read,"Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of Godliness is manifest."  I know that even when we commit to make covenants and perform sacred ordinances such as baptism that the Holy Ghost can manifest Himself and confirm the Power of God in that ordinance.  I am so grateful to know that God is a loving Heavenly Father and to be a witness of Him and His Son.  I know the Gospel is true and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's Kingdom on earth today.  I love being a Missionary.  I feel I could do this for the rest of my life because as I witness the conversion and cleansing of so many of my Brothers and Sisters here in Montana I am cleansed and converted as well. 

I am grateful for all of you and the great love and support I have from you.  I hope you all have an exceptional week!

 

Love,
Elder Holland

Snow and then Sun...

This week was amazing!  We had crazy nice weather and then it snowed the next day... Mother

 

nature sure does keep you on your toes around here ;)

Our investigator was baptized on Saturday!  Her husband was able to baptize her and lots of her family was able to attend.  Many members of her family are not members of the Church yet so it will be cool to watch the ripple effect from the righteous example she has set for her family.

I love being a missionary and am so grateful for all of you and all you do for me.  Sorry this letter is super short but I'll write more next week!

Love, 
Elder Holland

Color Me Rad!

          Hey Fam!

This week was so awesome!  We got to visit lots of people and volunteer at Color Me Rad!

We did not run the 5k but we ran one of the stations where you just chuck paint powder at people.  It was so much fun!  We did it in a white shirt, tie, and shorts with our name tags on.  Everyone knew who we were and we got to talk to tons of people about the Church.  The guys that run Color Me Rad are LDS so they let us set up a table with pass along cards and pamphlets to give out to people.  I loved it and def plan on volunteering at these events again in the future! 

We have been meeting with a lady for the past 7 weeks.  She has been having a really hard time and has had to endure lots of trials in the passed few years.  She is just finishing her last treatment of Chemo for her cancer and things are starting to look up for her.  We met her at the perfect time in her life.  Her husband is a member of the Church but had not been to Church in a long time.  He fell away from the Church when he was like 10 because his family stopped going.  This saturday she is getting baptized!  Yesterday her husband received the Aaronic Priesthood and he will be performing the baptism!  :)  He is now active in the Church and is a worthy Priesthood holder.  I have such a testimony of the Lord's timing.  As a missionary we get to meet with so many people that have been waiting so long to receive the Gospel and somehow we show up just at the right time.  I know that the Lord is in the details of all of our lives and that He uses us to accomplish His great and eternal purposes. 

I am so grateful to be a missionary here in Missoula.  God is good, All the time!

Thank you all for all your love and support! 

Love,

Elder Holland

Spring is Here!

Hey Fam!

The world turned green this week!  most of the trees grew leaves this week and wow this place looks amazing :)  It rained most of the week so Missoula really looks like Portland right now.  There are also tons of people out and about.  I feel like most people just hibernate for like 9 months but now are ready to just let loose in the streets.  We had some amazing things happen this week!
 

We are teaching a bunch of people right now and I did not say anything about a Sister investigator last week because we were not completely sure she was going to get baptized last Saturday but she endured through her trials and was baptized!  I apologize for not writing very detailed letters about all the people we are teaching but she has truly conquered miraculous things in the passed few weeks!  We started teaching her about 6 weeks.  She grew up in another faith but has not been very active in the church.  The guy she is living with is LDS but had not been to church in a few years.  He is now active and has overcome the same trials as she is.  They both had smoked for years and had tried quitting multiple times before but never could.  We taught her the Word of Wisdom and told her she needed to quit before she could be baptized.  She had had many spiritual experiences that helped her to know the Gospel truly has been restored but was afraid she could not quit.  She had committed to quit Saturday the 19th.  We had an appointment with her that night but had no idea the struggle she was having that day.  We had promised her that whenever she felt the craving to smoke if she picked up the Book of Mormon and read that God would help her and take away the craving.  She told us that in the morning she had been really having a hard time and she was planning on telling us when we came later that night that it was too hard and she can't do it.  She prayed to receive strength and said she felt the most warm, comforting feeling come over her and she knew God had heard her prayer for help.  She said this feeling stayed with her brought her to tears.  A couple hours later she was having cravings again and said she prayed again for help and literally 2 seconds after closing her prayer our Bishop, Bishop Hanni, called her and said he felt he should come over and visit.  Bishop went and shared the new video on Christ, #BecauseofHim, and once again she was brought to tears.  Later after Bishop left she started to feel the same again and decided to read the scriptures.  She was reading just as we arrived.  She was crying when we got there and said that God had answered her prayers 3 times that day and now she knows she can do this!  She quit smoking that day and has remained smoke free ever since.  I have no doubt in my mind that God is aware of us and our personal needs.  I have no idea how He does it but somehow He is able to cater to ALL of our needs.  I know that because our Savior suffered for us that He can help us and enable us to do things we can not do on our own: Just as He helped Linda quit smoking so she can enter into the waters of Baptism.

I absolutely LOVE being a missionary!  We get to see things I never dreamed we could.  God truly is in the details of our lives!

Thank you for all of your love and support! I hope you all took my Book of Mormon challenge seriously!

Love,
Elder Holland

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