Crazier than I Had Thought!

So big news here in the mission.  Our e-mailing rules have changed!  President just this week finally gave us the same rules as all the other missions in the world, that we can now have contact with anyone through email. The only rule is that we can't email people of the oposite sex within the boundaries of the mission, which is pretty obvious. We now have an hour and a half to write, which is Double the time we've had actually! Kind of a big surprise for all the missionaries, but everyone was pretty excited about it.  SO if anyone wants to write me here in these last couple months then they can write me at my email address scott.holmes@myldsmail.net!  I doubt there is anyone out there that is dying to write! Especially since my bros don't even write anymore! haha. 

OK, so this week was even crazier than I had thought it was going to be, because as you guys have heard, my companion Elder Hurst is no longer my companion. Sunday morning President told us that Elder Cruz would be coming here with me to the offices, and that Elder Hurst would be going to go to my old area there in Queretaro! I am not going to lie. I am pretty jealous because that area is just exploding and it looks like they should be setting some new records in the mission!  But we will see how they do! Thinking about it, I could have still been there with Elder Hyde! But you can't have your cake and eat it too!  So I was then made from one day to the next Assistant one, and took on a lot more responsibilities as well. I thought it was pretty nice just following Elder Hurst around! haha. The consejo for the zone leaders was canceled last month, so I had never given a consejo as an assistant, and this week i had to plan the whole junta with Elder Cruz (and the help of Hurst) and Cruz and I both gave the junta (it being the first one for the both of us!). I am not going to lie, I was pretty worried about it this week, and I didn't really sleep great. The days felt a lot longer because I was stressing over it. But honestly, it was one of the best juntas that I have given, and everyone really enjoyed it. We should see some great stuff happening here in the mission! I also think that President and Hermana call enjoyed the junta which is always a good thing. We talked about the teaching of the mission, and I remembered a cake example that I saw at BYU when they talked about how to teach! I dont know if I ever shared this with you but I bought a cake for the consejo, and when I pulled it out, I asked everyone who would like some of the cake.  Of course, everyone raised their hand! I related the cake to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I then said just like this perfect cake, everyone should want the gospel in their lives, and asked "so why do some people reject it"?  I then grabbed the cake with my hand and threw it on a little plastic plate.  I asked everyone who wanted a piece now. I then related that to our teaching. We have the perfect message, but it depends on the way that we "serve" it to the people. I thought it went really well, and I had done this activity with some of my other zones before. We talked about how the doctrine needs to be in our hearts as missionaries and did some great practices, and really felt the spirit!

As for the rest of the week, Monday and tuesday we had a bunch of new missionaries coming in that we had to train, and also a bunch of missionaries that were headed home (like Elder Marquez and my old comp, the other Elder Cruz). We gave 3 capacitaciones to the new missionaries and the trainers, and also went down to the mtc in the DF to pick them up. That night I had a good talk with Elder Marquez, and as you can imagine when missionaries go home they are so excited that they don't even sleep!  SO me sleeping much here in the offices isnt too likely!

As for our baptism, Hermana Maria isn't going to get baptized this week because her son wasn't able to come down here to baptize her. We will be having the baptism next Saturday instead. She is still really excited, and went to the first session of conference with us today in the morning! WOw what a session it was and what great testimonies! The testimony of Elder Eyring was just so powerful!  This is the true church. There is no doubt about that!  You can sure feel it as the prophet and apostles speak. I am excited for the rest of the sessions. 

Now Just to answer some questions that you guys had:

• So what are the training plans the next 3 months? How many missionaries will you be receiving?
• President really still hasn't let us know whats going to go down, but all I know is that for the two new missions,  we have to train an assistant for the both of them (2 assistants) and 2 secretaries as well. And then for our mission, we will need another one, so we will see what happens! 
• When do the two sister assistants get called?  Just like you go out on splits and study with the elders the sisters need the same treatment.  Mom's mission president was sure inspired 30 years ago. I'm surprised it hasn't been done more in the past.
• I actually talked about this with president the other day, and he also thinks that it is something that they will have to do with so many new sister missionaries! We are going from 25 sisters in the mission to about 100 so we will see what they end up doing for the leadership.

Watch the conference everyone! They are special witnesses of Jesus Christ! I love you! 

Elder Holmes