E-Mail 4/15/2013

Dear Family,

  Well I don’t really know what to say. I guess grandma is doing alright now but Now great grandpa is gone. Sorry. This past week was a downer for teaching. Every single day was dead. We had one woman as we taught the restoration come and say from her own mouth that we need to find the true church and that it’s The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Then we asked if she would join it and that was where she had trouble. Sad day. We’ll see if she is able to make those first few steps and start coming. Then we had similar lesson with a boy who had been taught before and he accepted a baptsim date for this month. It surprised me because it came kind of suddenly. We’re running low on investigators so we’re going to start building up again. I did organize a pizza day for us but I didn’t get to enjoy. Luckily I still got pizza and it was good. Before I forget transfer news. So Pres. Shulz thougth I was doing such a great job here that he decided to make me temporary mission president while he goes and visits a loved one in the hospital back home. He’ll only be gone for maybe 3 or 4 weeks so not even a whole transfer but he feels I’m up for the challenge. Jk. Really E. Kariuki is leaving me and now I’m getting my first Nigerian companion, E. macauley. Oh and I’m also a DL again. shucks. The Ap is coming down and training in my district. The kojokrom ward is powerful in that even though our building got moved farther away people still come. Better yet the people who didn’t come last week are beginning to continue to come. I will have to talk to my new companion but I already have a goal in mind for us. To help attendance grow to the point that we can’t stay in the new building simply because it won’t hold us. This will be done by RC’s and reactivativation. I gotta figure out how to get it going though. A cool experience though. We are supposed to get some things called gospel conversations. 35 a week. Usually we don’t get. sooo yesterday we were at 31. We needed 4. Instead of going back to our usual walking routine I said let’s go here and go get the 4 in some other place. We go and talk to some people. I was ready to walk somewhere to get the last one and my companion says that he’s going to sit in some spot and wait for the last guy to come. Then that guy came and he’s talking to him. then a girl walks up and says “please can I talk to you?” I figure ok. As it turns out she was baptized two years ago and then her parents seperated and now her mom doesn’t let her come to church. She wants us to come and talk to to her at her house. hmmm ok. So she shows us her house so we can find her later in the week. I just wonder what would have happened if we went our normal routine. I don’t really have any news to share. and we’re going to have trouble geetting home tonight so I’ll end there. Love ya latas,
Elder Holder

E-Mail 4/8/2013

Dear Family,
    So before i forget I got a dear elder from Mckay. It was nice except that he wrote the entire thing in spanish. (sigh) So a few guys could read a little spanish and what they got out of it surprised me. One of them got that Justen and amanda were like together and the other one said that Amanda was pregnant. If you could tell mckay to send the letter in english I would very much appreciate it. Well this past week was alirght. We ‘re starting to see the people who are looking more serious than others. I imagine that soon we’ll be dropping a few people. Aside from that we have two people wtih baptism dates but we’re waiting to see the answers that they recieve from their prayers before we make it set in stone. We also just moved to a new building in a other area. Logically the building is farther away from our area and actually makes it harder t for the member to come but that being said we did have a goode number come still.. My new motto for Kojokrom is seperating the baptized from the converted. It’s  going to be tough but we’ll just have to make it work. This is week 6 of the transfer and to be honest I don’t thingk I’m going to  be with my Kenyan for another transfer. We had a secret zone conference last tuesday. The reason I say secret is that Pres. didn’t tell anyone that it was conference just taht he was coming to our districtt meeting. then lo and beho0ld the other zone was there. That Pres. he got us again. Thanks for the conference updates Theyll probably be the most I get until next month when we watch in church and then get our Liahona or ensigns or whatever.I also found today that our mission is out of planners. So that’s fun. I’m not ectually sure what I’m going to do yet but we can figure out. The black and yellow spider went away but we found bigger ones just outside our compund. I was surprised to find them that big. Called af ew people yesterday from Bakaano and then got sick of eating rice and beans. We had already eaten those things for like two days so me and my companion were like ughhhand we waited until today to break the cycle. the sisters that I came with on mission are going home next week. It’s sign of the times. As for Kariuki I think you just need to find pics of girls that fit the criteria if you know who they are that’s just a plus. Not too much else to report on. Talk to ya later? or possibly now.
Elder Holder

E-Mail 4/1/2013

Oh Dear Family,

To start I sincerely did try last week. My companion and I figured
we’d try the cafe in our area. we made a few calls and found out that
the power was off in our place so we waited some hours. Then we
decided to go with the other guys in our apartment to a place in their
area. I was able to open and read one email and then the power went
off. So we trekked back to our area and found that the power had come
back. We found our cafe. We started using it I finished reading the
emails from last week when yet again the power went off. So we gave up
for the day and decided to try on the morrow for district meeting. We
got in and everything but then those computers wouldn’t let us into
Myldsmail. We each tried maybe 3 different computers. We decided to
give up on that for the week. The week before I don’t think too much
happened. and then this week when I finally realized that easter was
coming I decided to read the account of the sacrament, suffering in
gethsemane, trial and condemnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of
Jesus Christ in the 4 gospels, followed by Jesus the Christ, and a new
testament manual for institute to kind of be prepared for easter. It
was nice. Kept me busy. Build here a little and there a little. Then
sacrament on Sunday was half about missionary work because one of our
members is leaving to Lagos Nigeria this week. One member gave a good
talk in which he used one of my favorite hymns,I stand all
amazed,-193. I also bought ice cream for our apartment to enjoy sunday
night. Strawberry frosty bite. it was all right. All our investigators
are seeming halfway right now. I can’t tell if there ready to progress
or not. I had a bad dream on saturday so I was kind of dead that day.
I didn’t really care what we did so it ended up flopping. Oh, one day
we were teaching this kid Kenneth when lo a woman comes out of nowhere
shouting. I turn around and her entire front is covered in blood. It’s
running down her face and arms and clothes. She had been cut in her
forehead by someone over a disagreement. The entire area went into
unrest and we discontinued the lesson. I also thought of “Be of good
cheer, I have overcome the world” I remember reading Talmage this week
about when all those things were happening to the Savior he never got
angry or upset. He never gratified himself. As Talmage said he truly
overcame the world. I’m trying to think of spiritual insights from the
past weeks but I think I was goofing off too much this morning to
remember any. though I will admit I am still trying to figure out what
I’m doing in Kojokrom. anyways back to this morning. So there’s a
black and yellow spider that has been sitting in one of our trash cans
outside for who knows how long. This morning as I cleaned I decided
that we should try to catch something and put in the web so we can
watch it kill and eat it. Our attempts proved fruitless. We tried
other smaller spiders, a fly, some other flying insect but we couldn’t
get it in the web. Then we found like a caterpillar or something like
that. It was in a cocoon. and we got it in the web and the spider
looked like it bit it but nothing happened. So we hoped that it would
do it later. This one was supposed to be for last week. Since Mckay
doesn’t want to be my brother in law I have a solution. There are a
few guys in my apartment that may be interested. He”s Zimbabwean and
his name is Elder Jakopo. I don’t see that going anywhere but more
importantly my trainer will be home in May. May 1st to be exact. He
might be a little chubby but let him work it off he’ll be a stud. oh
also for last week can you guys do my kenyan companion a favor. Find
and send pics of girls around 5 ft. 6 and that aren’t chubby but not
too slim. He wants to see if could like American girls. Now that I
remember some of last weeks email. You asked if I thought I had
changed. I do. Though I actually think i’m less serious than before.
You guys always talk about how spiritual kylie has been since she got
home and it makes me nervous because I don’t feel that way at all. I’m
not saying I don’t feel the spirit just I dunno. oh and when I send
you guys emails it isn’t to complain or I’m miserable I’m just telling
you guys straight what’s been going on. It doesn’t mean I’m not
enjoying. You can even talk to preso shulz. I remember telling him way
long ago that if I had family to go back to every night I could do
this for however long. Well aside from that all is well.  I’m doin
good and thanks for the brownies. Talk to you guys later.
From the one, the only,
Elder Holder