Great News!

So the Thanksgiving celebration was pretty awesome over here in Mexico!  The only bad news was that I got a little bit sick the day of Thanksgiving, but I have some fun things to share with you guys. Exactly one year ago on Thanksgiving, I was doing an inter-cambio with Elder Coley from my generation and this year I also spent Thanksgiving with him on an inter-cambio. We had a good day of work, and that night, they had some members who invited them to go to a Thanksgiving feast at their house. The area of Elder Coley is a really rich area, so we went to eat at this huge house of one of the members in their ward. They had invited like 20 people over, and had made a really big turkey. My comp actually met up with us in the night to go to dinner with them and with us. We also made a nice Thaksgiving dinner for a family in the ward, and the dinner turned out super boss, but I sure miss your food mom! haha. 

OK so the most exciting announcement of the week is that ADRIAN GOT BAPTIZED!  For those of you who don't remember Adrian, he is the husband of Mayra who I baptized in my last area, along with her children.  Adrian is thedad, who was just waiting for permision to get baptized. He is so awesome, and he finally received permission this week and everything went great in the baptism. I couldn't believe it when I received the call from Elder Marquez this week telling me about his baptism. I was able to talk to Mayra just for a couple of minutes, and she started to cry talking to me on the phone. That was a really special moment for me, as well. 

As for my area, everything is going well but I have felt pretty sick, lately. I have got kind of a cold and my nose is all congested. I feel like I should be getting over it soon, but I still feel super wiped out. Today we went to play soccer because it was Elder Rojas' birthday yesterday. It is always fun to see him, and some of the other elders of the zone. The rest of the day we spent visiting the other families up here that I still haven't visited. They were sure happy to see me, and we had some cool experiences with them today. I hope that it will excite some of them to go back to the church. I think that it is the perfect time for them, especially with the christmas season in the air. Mom I want you to know that i have started listening to Christmas music so you would be proud of me, but it isn't the same without the Chipmunks. haha. I am really excited for the Christmas season, and I want you all to know that i miss you! 

Love,

Elder Holmes

Happy Thanksgiving!

Is time just freaking flying or what???  I am loving life right now, and I am super excited for all of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons!! I hope that you guys all have fun as a family and that you do some fun stuff. I want to start out by saying what I am thankful for! I am so thankful to be a member of the Lord's church here on the earth. AND that through his teachings, I know that I have an eternal family. I am so grateful for the family that I have and everything that you guys have taught me. I don't know where I would be without the direction from my parents, and I am so grateful for the life that I have, especially that at this point in my life, I am serving our Savior. I am so grateful for His sacrifice that he made for us, and the opportunity that we have to be cleansed from our sins. I don't have words to describe how grateful I am for His great sacrifice. I love you guys so much, and you are the best thing that I have in my life!!

Well so to start out, this week went pretty well for us with the family of Ashley!! Her mom and dad got married on Friday! They invited us to go with them, and the mom (Alicia) said something really cool when they were exchanging the rings. She said that this is my promise that we are going to do everything possible to enter into the temple in a year and get sealed! That was really special. After the ceremony, they took us all out to lunch, and then we went back to work. The next day we had his baptismal service (George) and he wanted me to baptize him. I don't have much time here, but I feel like I have a really strong connection with him in the short time that I have spent here. They are a really special family, and it was a really amazing weekend for them with the wedding Friday, baptism Saturday, and the confirmations of Ashley and George on Sunday! It was a really spiritual weekend!

We have some other great people that are progressing, but they all have their different difficulties, so we are working with them, and hoping to see their progress here in the next couple of weeks. Iris is going to be out of town this week, and she has some fears about getting baptized because of her really Catholic family. The thing is though, she has received an answer to her personal prayers, and I think she will take the next step here soon. If you can't tell, I love my new area.  The ward is really fun and the zone is great.

Well for Thanksgiving we are making a little Thanksgiving dinner for a cool family in the ward tonight, and on Thursday some people invited us over to make us a turkey and everything!  Should be really fun. Mom I definitely take you for granted, because today I tried to make a jello salad kind of like yours, but I totally messed it up! haha. There is nothing like your great homemade food, mom, and your ORANGE ROLLS, of course! haha. Hope you guys have a great time. 

I love you,

Elder Holmes

It's Great to Be Back in Queretaro!

Hi family.  So I'll bet you guys were just as surprised as I was with the cambio that brought me back here to Queretaro. I really do love it here!  It is a super pretty place and a really safe one as well, so you don't have anything to worry about. This last week was pretty fun because we got to go visit some of my converts in barrio fresnos, and then Sunday was actually stake conference, so i was able to see lots of people from the ward. The ward is really struggling though, and there aren't really many people who are attending church. I hope that I will be able to go and work there with the elders so that we can reactivate as well! That would be really nice! 

My new area is looking great, and we have some really great people who are progressing. Actually this last Sunday we had a baptism of a girl named Ashley. She is the daughter of a less active, and is 11 years old. She is a super smart girl, and was extremely ready to get baptized. It's so awesome because we actually have some great plans with the rest of the family this week, as well. The mom and the dad are going to get married on Friday. They are really excited and have invited us to go and see them get married. Then on Satuday the dad is going to get baptized, and will then be able to get confirmed with his daughter on Saturday!  They are an awesome family, and are extremely active in the church and with the ward members. 

Then we also found an awesome girl from a reference of a member family! Her name is Iris, and she had been to church already a couple of different times, but the missionaries always thought she was just a member. So it was kind of a miracle that we found her this week. We were walking on the street and this member who isn't from our ward picks us up and says 'hey you guys should pass by with my cousin who lives in your ward. She has gone to church a couple of different times, and she is really interested!'  So the next day we went with her and to visit her cousin and she was great. This last week she went to some of the young single adult's activities, and then she went to church again on Sunday. She loved it, and she actually ended up crying from the great spirit that she felt in the conference. We will see if she gets baptized this week! 

Also we found this other lady who also had been going to the church for a while, and this last week we taught her all about fasting!  She actually fasted all day Saturday to be able to receive her answer from God as to whether she should get baptized this next sunday, as well!  So everything is going pretty great in our area!  Nothing to complain about!  I LOVE THE WORK BABY!! 

Today we went to play soccer, and we tore it up! haha. My 'son' Elder Rojas is in the zone, so it is pretty fun to play with him again. One of the goals that I did score though, I fell and smacked my face pretty hard on the ground! I felt my tooth smack on the ground and I was freaking out because I thought that something had happened to it. You know me with my teeth! I love them! haha. Anyway, I ended up with this huge bruise on my chin but that didn't stop me from winning the game!!!

Well that sucks that Obama won. I am sorry mom, but I am going to have to extend my mission for another four years so I dont have to be in the states! haha.

love you all,  Elder Sholmesy

Home Sweet Home!

Here is Scott's most recent e-mail.  Many of you have asked where you can send Christmas cards.  Go ahead and send them to the mission home.  They do a good job forwarding them on quickly.  The address there is:

Elder Scott Holmes

Mexico City North Mission

Apartado #98

54740 Cuatitlan Izcalli

Estado de Mexico

Mexico

Well I'll bet you cant guess where I am at right now??? I am sitting here in an internet in QUERETARO!  They sent me back to where I started the mission. And the funny thing is, is that I am in the area that is right next to the area I was in when I got here!!  Can you believe that?  Kind of crazy how things work out. I never thought that I was going to come back here, and actually I didn't even think that I was going to leave my last area in Tepotzotlan. But everyone was sad to see me go.  The rain also came in like crazy in these last couple days.

Well so now I am with my new companion, Elder Hoops. The funny thing is, is that he is one of the best friends of my 'son' Elder Hirst, the comp who I just loved!  Hoops lives in North Ogden as well, and he and Hirst went to the same high school together. He is a really cool kid, and he only has a little bit of time left in the mission. SO today I got here to Queretaro, and I went to visit some of my converts here. I went to visit Lourdes and her family, the Castillo family (the member family that was always so great to me), and some other members along the way. Everyone was wicked happpy to see me, but the barrio is kind of suffering. I think the Lord sent me a little sign on how I have to reactivate some of the people who were so solid in the church when I left from here just 10 months ago!  Lourdes has had her fair shair of pruebas but she tells me that she is going to come to the church this week! I hope to see some of the other converts i have as well.

Well so it was another teary farewell for me there in Tepotzotlan. The good news is though, that I left all of my converts there in really good hands. They are all active, and they are all doing great. I was able to say goodbye to almost all of them on Sunday. It was sure nice to say goodbye to the family Torres (an awesome member family), Yamina (who is the friend of mom on facebook), Marlen (with her mom Felicitas who are doing really awesome in their testimonies), and Mayra, Adrian, and their daughters. It was sure sad to leave them behind, but I hope that sometime soon Hermano Adrian will be able to get baptized. We saw some other great miracles in the church yesterday.  We had this one guy come who is golden! It is amazing to see the blessings that God has for us. And I was able to bare my testimony for one last time in Tepotzotlan. It was a really great experience, and a big surprise that I was leaving. I couldn't believe it. It is my first area where I have spent less than 6 months.

Well I know that the Lord puts me in the right place at the right time, and that all of the changes are given to me so that I can learn and grow. I know there are people that are here in Queretaro waiting for me, and that I have some work to do as well with my converts here. Thanks to everyone for the support,

Hugs and Kisses - Elder Holmes