I Have a Great New Area - Except for the Scorpions!

Hola, Hey there everyone. Thanks a lot for all of the fun pictures that you guys sent me today from Powell. It sure looks like you guys had a killer time and that you are all just living the life. I like how Nick just emailed me and was all sad that there weren't any more trips planned this summer. You have got to be kidding me! You guys pretty much traveled the whole world without me! But that is ok because my new area is really cool and I am really liking it! II is really touristy and all I ever think is how much dad is going to love this place! It is so him with all the little restaurants and the museos! There is a huge catholic church in the center of town and every weekend all the foreigners come in and they set up all of the tiangees and all of that jazz to sell stuff. We live just about 5 minutes walking from the center so it is really fun. However, I think our area is the biggest in the whole entire mission. We have a bunch of pueblos in our area that are all about 30 minutes by bus. It is so big because this actually used to be two wards. And the zone is also huge, so that means that I am going to be spending even more money! We are all over the place, not only with our area, but having to visit all of the different districts and to do all of their interviews, as well. It has been a busy week and i feel completely exhausted but I already think I will like it a lot. I have a really great zone. Well so on Tuesday we went to the df ("District Federal" -- which is like Washington D.C.) to go to the hospital with Elder Ocampo. He just had his surgery and with the doctor visit and all, they decided that he will be leaving tomorrow to go home to try and recover, and will then come back out on the mission. He kind of wanted that and he isn't too sad, so it is all good. It was fun to go to the df because that isn't a part of our mission. It is ridiculously big and fun to see all the people there. Anyway, because of all of the doctors visits and everything we had going on, it felt like we hardly had any time to work in our area. We have two investigators that are progressing really well and we are hoping to baptize them in the new church that is going to be dedicated on the 12th. Right now we just have a casa de oracion (house of prayer), but they have been building this beautiful church in the area and they are just going to dedicate it. We might be the first ones to baptize in it and go down in the history books! All of the members are really excited about it, and I think that our whole zone will be there to sing for the opening ceremonies or whatever it is called! I will send you guys a couple pics of the church as well! Ok so now on to the little scare of the week. I was studying the other morning and my comp got up from his chair and hurried over by my desk to kill a freaking scorpion that was crawling at me. I was freaking out! That was the first one that i have ever seen, but he says that that it is a weekly occurence in our house! Oh boy. I sure hope not. And wow, I can't believe that about Michael Phelps. What is he doing! Thanks for the olympic updates, mom. And finally, that is great news that everything went well with grandad. Please tell him that I sure love him. I love you all so much, and I really love the work of the Lord. I am so happy that I am here, and the time just keeps going by even faster and faster. I wish it wouldn't go so fast, but that's the mission, I guess. I love my Savior Jesucristo and I know that we will be happy when we follow his example and teachings. It really is that easy! love you all, Elder Holmes so here are a bunch of the pics of the new church, me saying bye to everyone, the freaking boss trophy reyna made me, the angel de independencia (some of the pics didnt turn out as well because something that i have learned is that mexicans aren't the best at taking pics! haha. youve got to love them though!), and one with ros and me in front of our new house.