Wow! What a Week!

Here is Scott's letter for the week.  When he is talking about going to a meal with "Lino's dad" -- Lino is a good friend of ours here who was our family's home teacher for several years, before he was called into our Bishopric.  His dad was so nice to take Scott and his companion out this past week. You'll be able to read how much it meant to Scott. Hope you all enjoy a very merry Christmas!       With love.....Carolann

Hi everyone!

Well I think that you are going to be pretty shocked this week with a couple of the announcements that I have for you guys because last week I really didn't tell you guys too much about our teaching pool. First of all, I will be staying here in Queretaro with Elder Hoopes and I will end up killing him (being his comp as he finishes his mission) because this is his last change in the mission. I have never killed an elder before so that is going to be pretty exciting. Second of all, this week Lino`s dad took us out to eat this week!! I had forgotten that he was an ex seventy and ex mission president. What an awesome experience it was being able to talk to him and his wife! (I will also attach the fotos that we took with them when we went out to eat!) My comp was a little bit surprised when we first saw them because Brother Alvarez was all dressed up in a suit and tie, and his wife was in a nice dress. We touched on that topic later, and he commented on how special our calling is, and he would never disrespect our calling by dressing just in normal clothes!  I thought that was kind of cool. He went on to tell us a bunch of fun stories like when they went out to eat with some of the apostles or the meetings they used to have when he was a seventy of the church. At this moment, my comp and I were both feeling pretty special because he had taken us out to eat!!  We had a little change of plans and went to eat breakfast instead of dinner, so we went to the Ihop here!  Then after that they took us to a bread shop to buy all the bread we wanted! Wow what awesome people. Brother Alvarez reminded me a lot of Lino and what a nice man he is! He set for me a great example on how home teaching should be done. I am just realizing that i forgot Hno alvarez`s email address to send him the pictures so please tell lino to forward them to his dad! It was super nice of them to spend their morning with us!

SO Now on to the other part of the week! We had 3 baptisms this week!  I know that you are probably wondering where they all came from, and you are probably as surprised as I was on Sunday when Adrian and Koskanny (2 young single adults that were going to get baptized last week) came to church on Sunday and told us that they wanted to get baptized that same day! Wow! The good thing was that they had already had all of the lessons, and so we just rushed the district leader over to our church to do the interviews, and then into the water they went! It was amazing and so special.  They had a ton of their member friends there and there was a wonderful spirit.  The other baptism was for Iris and we had her baptismal service on Tuesday! Her Uncle was scheduled to come home from his mission on Tuesday, and she wanted to be his last baptism as a missionary. SO we rushed over to the church and when the returned missionary got to the church, Iris surprised him by asking him to baptize her! It was a really special occasion and both of them shed plenty of tears. After the baptism, he went to talk to the stake president and got released. At the Sunday baptismal service, the bishop baptized Koskanny and Adrian`s best friend, who has been a member for about one year baptized him. That is what the coolest part about working with the members is. They do all the work, and they are the ones that are so involved in the conversion of their friends and family! It is really amazing to see! i will send you some really fun pictures today of all of them! I love the work, and i love when the work is done with the help of the members. It really is a much stronger conversion for everyone! 

This next week is going to be a super busy one. Tomorrow we set up a service project for the whole zone. Thursday is the ward Christmas program/talent show, And Saturday is our Christmas party with president! Should be some fun stuff! Tonight we are going to do our act of service for a family in the ward and I will tell  you all about it next week and send you the pics! The work is awesome!

I love you all lots,
Elder Holmes

It's All Good Stuff Here!

Hey everyone,

Well to start off my letter like always, I want to wish the following very special people a happy birthday: Tammy Wonnacott, Marisa AND Miguel Holmes, Susan Lewis and Anthony Winters.  I hope that you all have a great day, and I want you to know that I am thinking of you all! Feliz Cumpleaños. 

This last week was a pretty eventful week. On monday we went down to the state of mexico to have the zone leader conference, like we do every month. It takes us about 5 hours to travel from our house here in Queretaro to the offices. We have to go in one of those nice fancy buses, which is kind of fun. Tuesday we had the junta and it was a really great one. I wonder if Hermana Call sent you guys all of those pictures or if you would like for me to send you them to you?  We came back home and on wednesday we gave a junta to the zone here in Queretaro. It was also a super spiritually uplifting junta, and I really do love getting to speak to all of the missionaries. ON friday of last week I also asked permission from President to go and work in my old area of Fresnos for the day! SO I did an inter-cambio with one of the missionaries there in Fresnos, and we spent the whole day working my old stomping grounds. I was able to visit many of my old friends, converts, and members. The one convert who i would say is doing the very best is the Hermana Yolanda. She is a really such an awesome lady, but her sons aren't attending much right now because they have to work on Sundays. I hope that they will put their pilas (translated means "batteries") back in! haha. 

SO Mom I see that you are already asking me about Christmas day! Do you think that I think that far in advanced? haha. I really still don't know what we are going to do. We are kind of wondering whether my comp or I will have changes this next week. We will see. For some reason, we kind of feel  a change coming on.  But I will for sure let you guys know what is up next week about all of that, and which family we are going to help! The ward here is going to have a fun Christmas party with a talent show. The missionaries are also going to participate in the festivities with a couple of fun ideas on how to find people. And who knows, if I am feeling good by then, maybe I will share with the ward my snorting the noodle talent!! haha.  

We have some great investigators still, but I don't really know what is up with a couple of them. I feel like we should have a couple of different baptisms here in the next couple of weeks! A girl named Iris should be gettting baptized this week, and two other guys who have a come a couple of different times to church. One of them is named Adrian and he is so awesome! He is the friend of one of the members, and he is loving the whole church thing. His friend is a convert of one year and one of the most solid members that I know. He is the secretary of the ward and also the president of the young single adults program. SO with those two callings, he is always in the church. SO adrian just kind of follows him around and literally, the kid is in the church or in a church activity every day! Anyway, yesterday he said he definitely wants to get baptized but that it might take him a little while, so we will see what happens there!  It's all good stuff here! I hope it is there too.

I sure love the Christmas spirit!!!! 

Love,

Elder Holmes

Blessings!!

Hey guys.  How's everybody.  I'm on a little early today and just received a nice letter from dad. I sure enjoyed hearing about his fun vacation that he had with andrew this last weekend. It sure sounds like you guys are just living the life! I am glad you got to have some good father-son time. I would sure like some of that right now as well! haha. But that will just have to wait. As for now, I love the feel of the Christmas spirit that is in the air, and I LOVED the conference that was given last night from the Prophet, Elder Eyring, and Elder Uchtdorf. What great messages they shared with us, and I was really moved by some of the different stories they shared. In this last week I remember actually talking with my companion about how sometimes when we receive a gift that we don't really want, we make a bad face or just pretend to like it. I loved the talk that Elder Uchtdorf gave about how we need to be more grateful for the things that we receive. That is a Huge part of the Christmas season. What a great way to start out the holidays! And just to let you know mom, I did get the first package that you sent, and we are really enjoying opening up all of the presents. 

So something that I wanted to address from dad's letter that he sent me was how he went to a spanish speaking ward with Andrew, and how for fast sunday all the members of the ward went up to bear their testimonies and how they all sat on the stand. That is something very typical here in Mexico.  I have never been in a fast and testimony meeting here without just a ton of people sitting up there on the stand!! That is why I haven't been able to bear my testimony too many times here in Mexico during fast and testimony meeting!  But it has sure taught me just how much we should always want to share our testimony with other people. It is always kind of funny though to see them all jammed up there on the stand. I love the mexicans!  They are my BOOOOYYYSSS!!  

This week was a pretty special week because EVA got baptized!! She is an investigator who the elders have had here for a while, but she finally decided to take the step and be baptized. She had a really special day, and a really special baptism. The only bummer of this week was that I haven't really been feeling too good lately. Just the other day they gave us our flu shots, and I think that also had something to do with it. I haven't really felt too good, but the other night I had a cool experience with the power of the priesthood. I was going to bed on Saturday night and I felt TERRIBLE. My entire body started to ache. I had a fever and a terrible throat. I felt impressed to ask my comp for a blessing. For some reason, I have never felt such great faith like I did in that moment when I asked him to give me a blessing. I absolutely knew that I was going to be ok and that I wasn't going to be sick when I woke up. In that moment, I just knew that God would do that for me. Right after the blessing, I went to sleep, and I woke up on Sunday feeling Great. I am so grateful for the priesthood that we have, and for blessings that are done with faith. We ended up having a great day as well yesterday in the church. A friend of one of the young single adults came named Adrian, and he seems to be like a great new investigator. We will see how things end up with him, and some of the other people we are working with. Oh and about finding a family to help for Christmas, I am still looking, and these next couple of weeks we are going to be working a lot with the less actives, so we will try and find a family! I also want to talk to the bishop about it!  I sure love you all!  I hope you all are feeling the Christmas spirit!! 

Love,

Elder Holmes

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