A Freaking Awesome Week in Tepotzotlan!

Well this week was a freaking awesome week here for us in Tepotzotlan.

On Saturday Mayra and Adriann got married!! It was a miracle, and we were extremely happy for the both of them! They seem extremely happy now, and i feel like we have really helped them change their lives. Also that very same day, Mayra and her daughter Laura got baptized. That was also an extremely special moment because Mayra asked me to baptize her, and my comp, Elder Neyra, baptized Laura. Hermano Adriann is progressing really well too, and he is still really excited about the church and also about getting baptized. This guy is a total stud. His first Sunday in the church he stopped smoking completely and after ten years of living with his wife, he got married on Saturday. I love him a lot, and i know that he will keep progressing just great. Just a little fun fact about Mayra and how awesome she is:  for the last two weeks she has been giving classes to the relief society on how to make diferent foods. Two weeks ago she did donuts and last week she taught them how to make empenadas. All of the hermanas already love her, and she feels really great sharing all her different talents with them, as well.

Now on to the other story, of Marlen. She also progressed really well in this week and we had a really awesome baptismal service for her on Sunday. Her dad was able to come (who is really sick) and i think that he really enjoyed it as well. We are going to keep working with her mom this week, and we will see how everything turns out. She is really awesome, and another miracle that my comp and I have received from our Heavenly Father.

So on Friday we had the zone leader meeting and it was fun to see all of the other missionaries that I have gotten to know throughout my time here in Mexico. One who has been a really good friend to me has been Elder Marquez. We were in Queretaro together and he taught me a lot of good stuff. SO in the junta on Friday, I was saying how sick it would be if we could be comps. I thought that there was no chance, but when they gave us the changes on Saturday night, they surprised us by moving Elder Neyra to Queretaro and putting Elder Marquez with me here. It was kind of a big surprise, because I thought that I was going to end up killing Elder Neyra (killing is used here in missionaries terms btw for when missionaries finish their missions). haha. But the change came as a surprise to many, and Elder Neyra left a couple different people here pretty sad. Elder Marquez and i have already started off great, and have been talking all day about everything new that has gone on. I think that we will have a really great time together with a lot of success! I will miss Elder Neyra, but the things always hapen for a reason, so we will see what the Lord has planned for us now!

I sure love you all,

Elder Holmes

so here are some of my pics from this week! the baptisms of marlen, mayra, and laura. A pic with elder marquez if you forgot what he looked like (the elder in the middle is also one of my good friends and they just called him as assistant.) and then one with a hermano in my ward who is really chill. His name is rafa! it was his birthday and i gave him my shirt because he really liked it when we played soccer one day. and also one last photo with elder neyra 

Go For The Gold!

I would like to start off this week by thanking everyone for all of the suppport that you have shown thus far in my mission. It really means a lot to me, and i sure can feel the power of all the prayers that have been offered in my behalf. And also i want to congradulate my cousin elise and her husband andy on the new baby! he is absolutely adorable, and i hope that everything goes well for you three as you are starting your precious family!!

Well this week for me was a very eventful week with all of the activities that were going on in the new church building and with all of our ward. On friday there was a social event for all of the members of our ward and the other ward that shares the capilla with us. We just played with the jovenes and everyone brought a bunch of food to have a really nice dinner.  Then on Saturday morning, all of the young men and women from the stake got together for three hours to do a big proselyting activity. Also all of the missionaries from our zone were there so it was about 22 missionaries and 200 youth with their parents! It was a really good experience but also a little scary at first when i had to teach all of them how to make contacts, and invite people to listen to the missionaries. If you think talking in front of about 200 youth and their parents is tough in english, you should try it in spanish! haha. But it went extremely well, and by the end, my comp and i had all of them laughing and excited to go out and talk with everyone. The purpose of the activity was to invite the people to an open house at the church at 5 o clock in the tarde. The activity with the young men and young women went extremely well, and we sang them a song at the end (all of
the missionaries) which left a bunch of the people crying! The bummer of all of this was that for the open house in the afternoon the weather was really crappy and so i think that is a big reason why not too many people came. Those who did come seemed to really like it, and we were able to get a couple of really good references from them. I will send some pictures along of the activity. Actually, in the morning when we were teaching all of the youth we did a practice in front of all of them of what a contact should look like and what we need to say. I was acting as the investigator in the practice and when they asked me my name, i responded that my name was "nacho" (the most mexican name you can get! haha).  Everyone started to laugh, and now all of the youth in the stake call me Elder Nacho. hahaha. I was in a different capilla yesterday to do some baptismal interviews and all the youth were calling out "Elder Nacho, Elder Nacho"!

Sunday was the first time in all my mission that a bishop has invited me to
confirm someone a member of the church. I was able to confirm Alejandro and was a little bit nervous because they didn't tell me until i was up there in front of everyone! I messed up a little at the start but it was also a great
experience for me! They all were confirmed today and so that was great!

Well so those are the activities that went on this week in the church, and they were all really spiritual and uplifting experiences for me. On sunday adrian, mayra and their daughters came to church again! They are sooo awesome and we love them so much! They are progressing really well and they are scheduled to get baptized this sunday if everything goes well with them getting married on friday. Actually i want to tell a little story about something that happened with them yesterday in the lesson that we had with them. We got to their house and mayra wasn't really sure if she wanted to get married, and she felt like it might be a little too rushed. We had one of the most spiritual lessons with them last night though!! I was able to bear testimony about my family and what my parents had done for me. I told them that the best knowledge someone can have in this life is the knowledge that they will live with their families for all eternity. It brought tears to my eyes just talking about the family that the Lordblessed me with and how i know that i will live with them forever. Of course they all teared up when we sang a hymn to them, and committed her and her husband to get married this friday! It was a really beautiful experience and i am so grateful for the family that i have. I have heard so many times people say
that isn't it good enough to just believe in god and Jesus Christ? Why does it
matter what religion we are? I know that all of the religions work hard to help people come unto christ, but i also know that the only church on this earth where we can receive salvation, and go onto live with our families forever, is the church that Christ himself established: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. I have always been a competitive person, and i always hated how in primary they would give everyone a blue ribbon and tell us always that we were all winners. We all knew that was a bunch of junk! haha. I know that God, in our final judgement, won't just give to everyone a blue ribbon and call them all winners. He is a God of order and a god who has placed the fulness of his gospel on the earth to guide us back to return to live with him someday. We can either follow his gospel plan and join ourselves with his church to win the gold, or we can justify what we are doing by saying that everyone is a winner, and end up with something much less than what we hoped.  I know that God lives and loves us all. I know that his son Jesus Christ paid for our sins! I hope this letter motivates you all to work your hardest so that we can obtain the gold medal that awaits us!

Love you all,

Elder Holmes

The Mission Can't Be Replaced by Anything!

Well so this week was pretty sick, I am not going to lie. It was the first time that I have ever really been a part of opening a new church and being with a ward that had been in a casa de oracion for four years,  and now they have their own church building. It was a really awesome day,  and all of the members of the ward were really emotional and pumped up to be in the new beautiful church building. It is a one of a kind design for the churches here in mexico,  and all of the people who aren't members are really curious about it and they always give us comments. So to open up the new church,  doris and alejandro got baptized, as well as two other little 8 year old kids who are from families that we reactivated, and they were able to get baptized yesterday, as well. It felt pretty awesome to see this whole family reactivated and in the church. I will send a long a couple of photos at the end of my email so that you guys can see how everything went. 

It was also an awesome day because we brought two new families to the church. They both have a goal to be baptized in about 2 weeks and one of the families is extremely special. It is a lady named Mayra and her husband Adrian. They have two really cute little kids and they all absolutely loved the church. Actually after the church they also invited us over to the house to eat with them,  and they always are super nice. I hope that they can progress in these next couple of weeks because they are a really beautiful family. They just need to get married,  and so we will be looking into that this week. The other family that we found is an older couple with a daughter who is 20 years old. The dad of the family is really sick,  and so we were able to talk to him and the whole family about the plan of salvation and the perfect plan that the lord has for him in this life. The parents are a little more stuck in their ways,  but the daughter seems really excited,  and I think that she will be getting baptized here soon.  

Well to answer some of the questions that I have received:  President was just in the church this last week to see the opening services and to see the baptisms that we had. We have 22 missionaries in our zone,  and the zone is made up of 3 districts and in my district, every companionship has someone from my generation, so that is pretty crazy. There are 4 of us in the same district. I still havent seen my comp, elder watson, since we left the mtc. Actually I guess that is kind of a lie because I have seen him once or twice in the offices. 

My testimony has sure grown a lot in the time that I have been on my mission. I have witnessed many miracles,  and I know that the church is true. I can say that with 100% assurety. I don't have a doubt in my mind that this is the work of the Lord and that I was called to this mission for a really specific purpose. The people I have met have changed my life,  and I wouldn't rather be in any other place in my life than here. Of  course, I miss the family,  school,  friends,  sports,  etc. but the mission can't be replaced by anything. I have experienced true joy,  and I believe that is why we are here on this earth. The gospel of Jesus Christ is eternal happiness. I hope that everything is going just great for all of you and that you keep me in your prayers. I love you so much and miss you all!  

Love, Elder holmes  

A New Week in Tepozatlan!

Hi Everyone! Well happy birthday to my cousins Chris Marler and Will Cassity, both this wednesday the 8th, and also a birthday shout out to my little brother Lee (who I guess really isn't that little anymore!) I cant believe that you are already 17 years old bro. I hope you have a awesome birthday. Well I wanted to tell you guys that I did hear about that crazy guy who went to the Batman premier in Colorado. It was actually kind of crazy how I heard. I entered into a papeleria to teach some lady when all of a sudden I heard on the radio that she was listening to the words "Denver colorado". Obviously I tried to start paying more attention to the radio and the next words I heard were the guys name, but I only heard his last name "Holmes"! I was freaking out because I couldn't really hear the rest of what they were saying. Gotta say I was a little worried but then that night someone from the ward told me everything that had happened! I thought that was a pretty big coincidence with the name and the location, but relieved that it wasn't my family! Ok so this week was a little rough because we found a bunch of awesome people to teach, but none of them came to church on Sunday, besides the two who should be getting baptized on saturday, Dorris and alex. We are going to be the first ones to baptize in the new church, and actually this little 8 year old girl here in the ward will also be baptized and she asked me to baptize her. So that will also be fun. Everyone was really excited this week in the casa de oracion because it was the last week that they will have the little house to hold church in. We sure take for granted a lot of time the church buildings that we have always had! What a blessing they are. This week was also pretty fun because we had the zone leader conference. I was able to see all of the other zone leaders and some of the friends that I had in my other areas and I was able to see my 'papa' for the last time before he heads home from the mission. He is doing good and his home is actually in my zone so I will still see him even when he goes home! That will be kinda different! I actually met his sister the other day in one of the churches in our zone. In the zone that I am in right now I have two elders who were with me in the mtc, Elder Baker and Elder Son. It has been fun to see them again. They are great kids. Also, I have really been liking the new calling that they gave me. However, I feel like my spanish has kind of gone down hill for some reason. I don't feel like I have as much confidence as I used to have. Maybe it is because this is only my second mexican comp really, from the time that I got here with Elder Castillo, so it is back to spanish 24 7. I know that is a really good thing and I am sure learning a bunch from him. I feel like my spanish should be pretty dang good after the time with him. Well that is about it. I know that the church is true and that this is the work of the Lord. I love you so much and I love the opportunity I have to serve the Lord. Elder Holmes

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.

A Tearful Goodbye to Lomas

What is up!! Well this week was a pretty good one, but also a pretty sad one. I had a bunch of pictures that I wanted to send to you guys, but I forgot my camera in my house! Ok well as you can tell from the name of my email, I left my area of Lomas. I will tell you a little bit about my new area, and then I will let you know how everything went in my last area. Right now I am actually with two comps. One named Elder Neyra and the other is named Elder Ocampo. I think that Elder Neyra will be my permanent companion because right now Elder Ocampo had knee surgery and we are going to go to the df tomorrow to check out what he is going to do. They might be sending him home. My comp has 20 months in the mission and is from Tijuana. The other, Elder Ocampo is from Oaxaca and has about 18 months in the mission. They are both really nice, and I think that we will get along just great. I am now in the zone of Cuatitlan and I am in the area of Tepotzatlan. It is a really pretty place, and it is actually a really big tourist place, so everything is like really classic Mexico! Where we live is pretty boss as well and the streets are really dope. I think I am going to like it a bunch. Ok well now on to the goodbyes from my ward of Lomas. Everyone was extremely sad to see me go. Even people that I really didnt even know started to cry when they were saying bye to me. I was impressed with how many people commented to me on the hard work that I had done. Sometimes as missionaries, we don't really realize that the members see how hard we are working, or not working, even if they aren't working with us. I had some really nice comments and another great experience with my Bishop. He and his wife both cried a little when they said bye to me, and I really enjoyed working with them as well. So after all of the meetings, we went to go say bye to Reina. I didn't think that I would cry leaving this area, but I was extremely wrong. haha. When I walked into their house, they had posters all over the wall wishing me good luck, and then she put on this slideshow that she had made me, and gave me one of the coolest gifts I have ever received on the mission! I will send pics of all of this next time, and you will have to see the slideshow she made me when I get home. Just saying bye to her was so hard, because everthing she always did for us, and how solid they are in the church. They are some of the greatest blessings I have received on the mission. Well after that, we went and visited Carmen and her mom, and other families in the ward that I got really close to. Carmen gave me a nice cologne, and they were also extremely grateful for everything that we did for them. They always call us their angels. They are also a great family. Then I also said bye to one of the youth in the ward, Victor, who always went out and worked with us. He also started to tear up and almost made me cry as well. Every one else I had already said bye to in the church because I just didn't have enough time to say bye to all of them. Well also one of the hardest things was saying bye to my comp Elder Hirst. He is a great kid and one of my best friends, for sure. I can't believe how close we became in just 3 months. I love the kid and it was hard leaving him this morning when he went to drop me off with my new comp. Ros also went to drop me off and it was a little emotional saying bye to him as well. He is one of my good friends, and I am definitely planning on seeing him after the mission as well. Let's just say that it was a little emotional with everyone! I understand now why everyone says the mission is the best two years of your life. I told my comp after leaving Reina's house, that there is NO feeling better then what I had just felt. It was a happiness that I can't even explain, and it is something that you could never feel in any other place. Wow, the church is true and I love the mission so much. Good luck getting me home! haha. So now I am off to my new adventure in my new area. I love you all, Elder Holmes p.s Mom you are going to be wicked proud of me because this week I had some spare time in the church so I sat down and learned how to play "Nearer my God to Thee" on the piano. I play it pretty well, and I wish I would have listened to you more. haha.

The Flood!

Hey guys! Ok well this weekIi have a lot to tell you guys so i hope that there is enough time to get all of it said! But to start off, Happy Birthday to Grandad on Wednesday! I love you so much Grandad, and I will be thinking about you a lot, of course, in this week. You are such a special person, and one of my heroes in life. Ok, so to start off with a funny story that happened to us during this week. The other day we were leaving the house, and all of a sudden I hear Elder Hirst getting all ticked off. I turned around to see that he had been hit right in the shirt with an egg! haha. I almost peed my pants laughing, and it was this little troublemaker that lives right in front of us that threw it! He is always doing a bunch of junk, and we wanted to go pay him back a nice one, but with us being missionaries and stuff, we can't really do that! Now onto the really cool experiences of the week. First was the baptism of Reina´s sister, Lorena. She progressed great in this last week, and was able to be baptized on Saturday night. Lorena is the one that can't really speak too well, and when we first got there, she was really shy and didn't really want to talk to us, but she really warmed up to us and all of the people in the church as well. They even gave her a calling as well yesterday, right after they confirmed her, so that was pretty awesome! She is happy and feels like a big space in her life has been filled. But there was a story about the baptism which was another crazy story. We went to the church at 12 to start filling up the pila (font). There is a security guard there that works 24/7, so we left him in charge of turning off the water when it got filled to the top. We told him that we would be back at six to set everything up for the baptism at 7. So when we get back at 6 o clock. There is water pouring out the front door of the church! Every missionaries nightmare! The security guy says, "I went into clean the sacrament room and when I came out, it was flooding!" There was so much water in all of the church though, and I am almost positive that the guy fell asleep and forgot about the water. I would say there was a solid inch or two of water in every room of the church, besides the sacrament room. Wow! That was really hectic. We didn't even start the baptism until 8 because of all of the cleaning that we had to do, but it ended up being a way spiritual experience so it is all good! Reina was so happy to see her sister enter the waters of baptism. She has now shared the gospel with her son, daughter in law and her sister. How cool is that? The other family that we are teaching didn't come to church with us this week, so we will have to see what is up with them this week. I will let you know how our visits with them go. We brought these two other people to the church and they really liked it as well, so i will keep you posted on how everyone is progressing. I would imagine that the next week will be the last week that I write you from this area. I think I will be rolling in 2 weeks, which I am kind of sad about, because I really love this place, and my comp! The members are great, and really help us out a lot with everything. So today for p-day we went to the pyramids again! It was really fun! Our zone leaders had never gone, so they asked President if we could go as a district, and he gave us permission to go. We rented out this little van for about 110 pesos each person to go down there, and then we just spent the day down there again. It is a really cool place and there was only one thing i wanted to buy.... A mexican poncho! haha. There was this sick one, but they were all trying to sell it to me for like 400 pesos. I told myself that I was not going to buy it unless they offered it to me for 200 pesos! I went to every single little store that had them and the closest I got was 220. So I was going to walk away empty handed when this guy chased me down and offered it to me for 200! haha. Jackpot! It is a sick one and you will see the picture of it today! Well i love you all! The church is true, and Mexico is boss! Love, Elder Holmes