Monday, November 24, 2014

Power in the Book of Mormon

It's been another really great week and I'm so blown away with all the wonderful things that are happening! We have a baptism this coming Saturday and he is so ready so I'm super excited about it :) He is literally a golden investigator... He listened in on the lessons for awhile when we were teaching his neighbor, and he asked if we would teach him. He immediately stopped his Word of Wisdom problems... and the changes in him are just amazing.

We have had so many miracles this week! We found this new investigator that has had some rough things happen to him in the past and he told us that he never felt comfortable in one place for too long because he feels like there's something missing in his life. The first lesson we had with him, he told us he doesn't feel like there's hope left for him. We left him an assignment in the Book of Mormon and when we went back the next day to teach him, he had read his assignment three or four times, as well as other chapters in the Book of Mormon. The changes- even though they are coming little by little- are incredible in him! There is such power in the Book of Mormon and the gospel can change people! :) 

I'm really loving this area... it was weird at first to come back to Tarlac, but I'm really grateful that I am here and for all the things that I am learning. :) It amazes me how fast the time is going, but I'm grateful for the experiences Heavenly Father is giving me! :) I love you all!! :)
Xoxo Sister Holmes 

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Lots of pictures! Love all the new friends

 Camiling Cuties!
 Camiling friends
Camiling Friends!
Batch Pictures
New Room in Tarlac 5th ward 
Sister Gamolo and Sister Holmes
Tarlac 5 ward home
Sister Holmes and her new Kabahay!
YUM Pumpkin Pie
 Sister Neilson and Sister Holmes Exchanges 2014 ( they were MTC companions)
 Great Reunion- Back together again!
Happy to see Jamaicah again!
Sister Neilson at MTC with Sister Holmes Oct 2013 Throw back!

Ward 1 and exchanges

I cannot even comprehend how fast the time is going! I am really enjoying my new area and am loving the progress that is happening here. It's really exciting to see how the work is really moving forward. I really feel this urgency to do this work and I know it's really hastening. 

This week I got to go back to my old area in Ward 1!!! :) It was so cool to see everybody again and it was a really good experience for me. I got to see some of the effects that my work had there and it was super cool. My companion for the day was a Tongan sister and we talked to this old man and he told us that I just just like the toy doll of my companion. He was super funny, but I had a really good time. I love exchanges because I always learn so much from the other sisters :) 

I was also with another American this week... that was an interesting experience. :) haha We took a tricycle and they overpriced it, but there is nothing we could do about it because we were late... I tried, but they insisted that that was the real price. :) haha maybe that's the real price for two Americans. 

I am so excited! This week is the interview of one of our baptismal candidates and he is literally so golden! He has had a really rough life, but the changes he is making in his life are amazing. His faith is so strong and I am excited to see how much more blessed he will after he is baptized.

Anyway, I love you all and hope you have a great week!! 
Mahal ko kayo! 
xoxoxo Sister Holme

Monday, November 10, 2014

New Adventures and famillar faces.

So.... unexpectedly I was transferred to a new area! I thought I would be staying in Camiling another transfer, but I guess Heavenly Father has other plans for me! :) I got transferred back to Tarlac, but this time I am in Ward 5. The members are really nice here and I am so excited to be able to meet them and work with them and get to know them better! My new companion is Sister Gamolo and she's super awesome. We actually came together to the mission! So it's super exciting. She always makes me laugh and I love being with her. But she's from Cagayan de Oro City. This area is really awesome and so I am excited! :) I mean, I feel like I was just here, but it's definitely different this time.

On Sunday, the ward had a Primary Presentation. The Primary is HUGE here and they are so stinking cute! :) I loved one song they sung about how families are gifts from God so that we can become what He wants us to be. Something to that effect. It just really touched me that Heavenly Father knows the people that we need to be with and who will help us grow. And the thing I love about Primary is they are so sincere in all that they do. Hopefully we can be more like that. 

I also am so excited for the work here. We have a lot of progressing investigators, and the pressure is on to reach our goals of 1650 for the year of 2014! We have about 400 baptisms left( Not just numbers, but souls that Heavenly Father has prepared), and while it will be a stretch I know we can do it! :) I was so sad to leave my old area, but I'm excited for the potential this area has. :) 

I really love you all and hope you have a fabulous week!!! :) 
xoxox, 
Sister Holmes

Monday, November 3, 2014

11-1-14

 Supper perhaps?
Umbrella's don't always work fully.
Birthday Cake for Sister Holmes "21" What great companions she has


Prison for kids and superheros

Happy November! I don't know when that happened... :)
So we had exchanges this week and I went to the area of the Sister Training Leader. Both of us were actually American, so that was an adventure alone. But this real cool thing happened to me. So we went out to work in the morning and I was really surprised because our work was SO GOOD for only two hours. We went home, Sister Larson and I cooked our lunch, we ate, and I started feeling really cold. I just kind of ignored it because that's been happening to me lately if I sit too long in front of the electric fan. So we went out to work again and I felt really, really warm, but I figured it was because it was really hot outside. We were punted at like 5 houses and then we were able to finally teach a few lessons. By the way, I am amazed that neither of us are native speakers (obviously) but the Spirit really does speak all languages. But I just want to talk about the enabling power of the Atonement for a second. I thought I was going to die in the last lesson or two, but i have no doubt I was enabled to teach and to invite them to make changes in their lives because that is what they needed. Turns out, I had a way bad fever. So that was cool, so we went home early, SIster Larson took real good care of me, and I just slept. But I was just amazed that even how I didn't feel like I could do it anymore, that I could. And I realized that I will never, never understand all that Christ went through, but that through our sicknesses and trials we are blessed to experience just a small part of what Christ went through so that our understand of the Atonement can increase.
 
So they definitely celebrate the Day of the Dead thing here since the Philippines was colonized by the Spanish for over 300 years.... they definitely believe they see ghosts and they put candles in front of their houses here so that the souls have a path to travel? Or somthing like that. I don't quite understand everything. But basically that means we don't have anyone to teach because they were all at the cementary! But we did find some people to teach so it worked out.
 
On Friday, we went to a special missionary fireside with Bishop Gerald Causse, 1st Counselor in the Presding Bishopbric. It was a really good meeting and we drove past both of my old areas (it was a really, really long drive). His wife was darling! She told us how missionaries are like superheroes and compared us to Spiderman, how at first when he got his powers he didn't know what to do with it, but after training himself he could climb builiding and shoot webs from his hands with accuracy. Haha she told us not to try to jump off any builidngs, but it's the same for us (and not just for missionaries, for EVERYONE). As we learn to develop teaching skills, or whatever skills it may be, through training and hard work, we can become what we need to be in order to help and save other people! :)
Bishop Causse talked about using time wisely. It was so good and he talked about how short the mission in, especially if we think of the eternal perspective. But I think it's the same way with our lives.We don't really understand how short this life is... so hopefully we are using our time wisely :)
 
Also, one of our less actives was talking to us about how she has a hard time coming to church because she had five really little kids and that the "Prison for Kids" won't take all of them. haha, she was joking but I thought that was a pretty accurate description of the Primary room here. :)
 
Anyway, I love you all and hope you have another great week! :)
xoxo,
Sister Holmes