It's Austin's birthday this week on October 18!
Everyone send him a note or card to make his birthday week the best! His address is in the right hand column.
OR...TO MAKE IT EASY...
There's an app called SnapShot Postcard. Download it. Upload a photo and add a small message and it sends it as a postcard FOR YOU! This first postcard is FREE so you can send Austin a birthday postcard FOR FREE!!!
As a reminder, his address is:
3500 N Grand Ave #44
Ames, Iowa 50010.
Monday, October 14, 2013
LIFE ISN'T FAIR
Hello! First off, Elder Claridge is now serving with Elder Dex Mark Mckell, of Orem, Utah. My best friend since preschool. That's not fair. He gets to serve with HIM? LIFE ISN'T FAIR. BUUTTTTTT the chances of Elder Mckell and I serving together are pretty good I think/hope/pray.
Monday we visited a lot of members in preparation for Elder Claridge to leave.
The Lord has prepared people for us to teach, and we're starting tonight. Thank you all for all the support, love, and prayers. Thank you for all the letters and everything. This next week I'll actually be 19! AND maybe some more investigators.
This is the Lord's work, and I am just a means by which it comes to pass.
-Elder Hollan
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Corn
"My first picture with the kern."
"KERN!!!"
"i have a bunch of pictures of the HUGE amounts of food that elder claridge and i make for lunch sometimes. A cookie sheet of nachos, HUGE cookies, ya. haha"
"Frozen mcnuggets and corndogs from Brother Sharp. Such a homie."
"GIANT (burnt) cookies"
Dear family,
Hello! This week was very hot. I thought that as we got closer to September it would cool down, but the heat that everyone told me about is finally here. We had no car this week, so we walked around in the high 90 heat! I'm starting to get a nice watch tanline.
On Tuesday we spent some time at the family history center so we would actually know what we're talking about when we invite and tell people to come! I kind of knew what was there, but we got to work on our own genealogy work for about an hour, and it was a nice break and learning experience. From there, we walked and knocked around the area. We had a dinner at 430 that was in NARNIA so we walked half the day looking and knocking for people to teach. No apparent success. The dinner was with a family in our ward who's very young son is fighting cancer. Lots of kids in the family, but the one who was battling was one of the biggest sweetheart studs ever. We were probably smelling awful after walking all day now that I think of it... but he loved talking with us. From that appointment we kept spiritually finding for the rest of the day. LOTS of walking, knocking, and nothing.
On Wednesday, we had a lesson with the lady that has the corrupt bible. We were planning on teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to her, but for some reason during studies I decided to study about the Apostasy.
We had about an hour between studies and our appointment with her, so we walked over to the 92 year old ladies house wondering if she would let us in. She was home! and she let us in! We talked with her for the entire hour, and she really opened up to us and likes us a lot. Hopefully we can meet with her about the gospel soon, even though she says she isn't interested. We can get her, I know it. We went to the lesson with a member, and 3 sentences into the discussion she started asking about things that the Apostasy explained perfectly. Well perfect, it was fresh in my mind! I was talking before I even thought about what I was going to say, but because I had prepared myself so well, I knew that the spirit would make it all come out to make sense. IT WAS AWESOME. And the spirit was WAY strong. Apparently the past missionaries hadn't taught her about The restoration, or the apostasy, because this was the first time she had ever heard it. The member bore a sick testimony, we were all grilled spiritually, and we left. I was pumped.
After the lesson, we went and helped this kid in our ward with his eagle project. He had put posts in the ground before, but some unruly kids had torn them out and chucked them into the woods. (hahahaha) We had to haul all the cement bags out there, climb down the embankment to get water from a river with a bucket, and pour it in. It was "one of the hottest days of the year!" according to will's dad, who watched the whole thing... Will, Elder Claridge and I were literally dripping in sweat
After that project, we went over to this old woman who is in our ward for dinner! When she answered the door, the ENTIRE APARTMENT was filled with smoke! And Brother Russell, (a different guy from our ward who helps her) was running a flaming pan of green beans out of the the back door. We spent the first 20 minutes waving towels, like we were the hebrew slaves to pharoah, trying to clear the smoke out of the apartment. She just sat on the couch and laughed about the whole thing. SUCH A SICK LADY. (She's really old, African American, and laughs really hard at everything.) We taught a sweet lesson, and when we got home, I realized that because of the smoke, we smelt like a combination of hotdogs and smoke. So I started to singing a song about it.
I left the phone on the desk after weekly planning and Elder Claridge and I started getting ready for bed and talking on the other side of the apartment. When it was time for bed, I went to go get the phone, to find that we had 23 missed calls! It started out with the Sisters, then the District leader a few times, then the zone leaders A LOT of times, and finally, the AP. I picked up the phone and called the district leader who told us that because they couldn't get a hold of us, everyone was trying to find out where we were, "A district wide search". Then they told the zone leaders, who with their failed attempts finally told the AP. We were freaking out, mostly because it had gotten all the way up to the AP! We called everyone, and tried to get things straight, everyone was relieved, but we still felt like sinners for some reason. Needless to say, the phone has been in my pocket every second since.
Thursday we taught {a guy} a sick lesson, and he is ready to be baptized on the 7th! I'm freaking excited to say the least. He's a huge stud and is excited to be baptized. We had a dinner with {a} family later that night. The {family} is way awesome, and have twin boys that are 3. They are best friends and always running around doing stuff. While we were eating dinner, there was a HUGE noise from upstairs, and I turn around to see one of the boys TUMBLING down the wooden stairs. I thought he was gonna be broken all over, but he was fine, so I laughed because it was so weird, and I just end up laughing at most things now a days. The two boys are studs, and love the Elders.
While walking home from dinner we came across a couple who we taught about the Book of Mormon, and prophets. They were WAY excited and really interested, so we gave them both a Book of Mormon. Unfortunately they were leaving the next morning to go back to China... so I don't know how that's gonna turn out. But it was nice to have success talking to someone on the street!
Friday was another very very long day of trying to find investigators. The woman from Congo just started school so is too busy to meet with us last week. Hopefully we will be able to meet with her this week. The Sisters got their transfer calls that night, Sister Browne (who came in with me) will be training, and her companion Sister Hill is going to be opening a new area and a Sister Training Leader. They were freaking out. It's weird that they got those callings, but it happens when you're a sister.
Satuday we helped this lady move out from Story City and into our ward. The Story City elders were doing stuff all day somewhere else, and because we didn't have a car and no members were going, we couldn't find a ride. The Sisters were going to help her move too, but we have to get permission from the President to ride in the car with the sisters and to leave our area. So I called him, and he was... not happy that no members or auxiliary leaders were helping out with any of it. We got permission though, and drove out to a house IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE, and in the middle of a cornfield. We didn't move everything, but there weren't any other people there so it was not very fun. While driving home, The Circle Of Life came on the CD (Missionary approved music is held as a delicacy) and Elder Claridge and I sang it better than Broadway. The sisters want us to perform in church. HAHAHAHA not gonna happen.
Read the Book of Mormon with a specific subject in mind. I am reading it right now looking for the promises the Lord gives missionaries, teaching strategies, and scriptures of encouragement. It's way awesome, and I KNOW whatever subject you choose to study, and as you are diligent to it, your testimony of the Book of Mormon and that subject will grow. It's freaking awesome.
Before we came over today we got our new sidebags! NEAT!
Thank for all of the support and letters! Let me know if I can do anything for any of you! Don't worry, my address isn't going to change for a long time.
Love you all,
-Elder Hollan
Monday, August 19, 2013
A 7 egg omelette and Elder Claridge's birthday
A 7 egg omelette we had and it was also Elder Claridge's birthday.
Dear Family,
This week was different than last week. I don't know if I'm just coming down from last week and how legit it was, or if this week really did kind of suck, but this week kind of sucked.
Tuesday Elder Claridge had to go a a new trainers meeting in Des Moines so I went down to Ankeny and worked with Elder Kay for the day. He's super stylish, and Elder Mckell's MTC companion. We already knew each other kind of, so it was a good time. He already has a baptism, and he's a way good missionary. We talked to two recent converts, and it didn't really feel like a formal lesson in any sense of the term, but the spirit was strong, I liked it! After Elder Claridge and I got back to Ames we went to dinner at a members home, grilled chicken. mmm
Wednesday we helped some more members move, our typical service for the ward. It was his first time driving a moving truck, and it was soooo funny to watch how stressed out he was. We had to move a piano, and honestly, I enjoyed it a little bit. We got to their new house and set a new world record for the fastest unpacking/moving in on the PLANET. 21 minutes to get everything out of the truck and into the house. INCLUDING THE PIANO. It was crazy, (some member was just SOO DETERMINED to beat the old record) but when it was over I laughed pretty hard. I don't know why, but I just find myself laughing at everything
We then had another exchange. Elder Mckenzie came down from Story City and Elder Claridge got to go up to Iowa Falls! We taught one of his investigators in a town that's probably about as big as our home ward. She wants to get baptized sooo bad, but can't get approval from her mother. We set a baptismal date for the day after her birthday, in 9 months. She's VERY excited.
We then traveled back to Ames, met with a recent convert. After we left his apartment we went over to a less active family who lives upstairs. The mother works from 7pm to 7am at the hospital, and then makes up her sleep. We just happened to show up at their door just 5 minutes after she woke up. The whole family was there! They brought us in, we got to know each other, and taught a sick lesson on charity. They said they wanted us over for dinner, and loved having us.
We then went to a potential investigators home. To make things short about this very long, tiring, and... challenging meeting I'll keep it to a few sentences. He asked some great questions, which the restored gospel could answer perfectly and completely. But as we were answering, he would interrupt and start talking about something else. WITH EVERY SINGLE QUESTION, HE INTERRUPTED EVERY SINGLE TIME WE WOULD TALK. I was getting really bothered. We somehow started talking about the Book of Mormon (we usually just talk about the bible) and we explained what was in it, very, very simply. He made comments like, "So you are saying that the second coming has already happened?" (because of 3 Nephi when Christ comes to the Nephites). It was very difficult to TEACH him anything because he wouldn't give us more than 5 words to answer before he started talking again. We were leaving, (as he kept talking to us) and he started talking about how God could only not do one thing. "Everytime he tries to make a society works, it fails. It's the only thing he has tried over and over again to do, and can't do." I was mad, and I went off about agency, which he apparently didn't understand or didn't care, or didn't hear, because he tried talking over me. I need more patience and love.
Thursday was Elder Claridge's birthday, and we had a way busy day. District meeting, studies, and mormon.org time. A member took us out to Texas Roadhouse for his birthday. I don't know if there is a bigger chicken fried steak, but if there is, I could probably eat that whole thing too. SOO GOOD.
Friday we helped a members professor move. Like I said, that's all the service we do. She was way awesome, but had a bunch of funky furniture. She was a interior designer I think? She kept talking to us about the funky lights and tables and stuff... I don't appreciate "art" like that I guess.
After she moved, we went and taught the Congo lady again. She is in her 3 year of nursing school, but we still don't know the exact age. This was easily the worst lesson I had ever taught. I confused myself at some points. She knew everything we said is true, and we know she felt the spirit, but she doesn't understand or want to be baptized again because she was baptized as a baby. We're still working with her, but she likes what we teach her a lot. She starts school again this week, so we're trying to teach her a few times before her schedule gets super busy. Pray for her and us. haha
Saturday we helped a member for a few hours move his legit library of religious books. There were literally shelves and shelves of books we had to take off, dust, and move to another shelf. He had a collection of books for Old Testament, New Testament, Peal of Great Price, Apostles, Prophets, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Church History, Geology (mapping where Nephi, Moses, Nephites traveled and lived). Literally every single thing. He had books that were original print copies. The original "Mormon Doctrine" by McConkie (apparently worth A LOT), all the Joseph Smith Papers books, everything. I got excited about all the things I can study when I'm home!
This morning we had the opportunity to move some more members. Furniture, and more boxes than I've ever seen. A HUGE moving truck. haha. Atleast they didn't have any weird stuff.
As I said, this week was just kind of ordinary.
Thank you for all of the letters, love and support.
I LOVE THIS WORK, and I CANNOT WAIT TO HAVE A SUPER SICK AWESOME WEEK.
I love you, thank you
-Elder Hollan
Monday, August 12, 2013
By faith, miracles are brought to pass.
ETHER 12:7-19
Me and Elder Olson
Me and Elder Newhouse (He's so awesome)
Thank you for your letters and support. I know that I am being blessed by every one of you and your prayers.
This week was DOOOOPE. But, just like all things worth doing, they were hard. The Lord tested me and Elder Claridge.
This week I was supposed to be the senior companion as part of my training. So I made the schedule, decisions, and led in lessons. No biggy. Except we had no one to teach, so Tuesday looked like a LONG day of work.
Tuesday: BLAZING HOT, HIGH HUMIDITY. The temperature was 89 degrees from about noon to sundown, and because we had no one to teach, we went out to contact people. The people of Iowa are smart, they don't go outside when it's blazing hot. And I don't know if it's the heat, but NO ONE wanted to talk to us. We walked up to a RC house and helped him move some boxes around. A little girl that's a family friend had the BIGGEST crush on me, and would NOT leave me alone. She was jumping on me and grabbing me, spanking me and pinching my butt. I WAS FREAKING OUT. Missionaries are not supposed to be affiliated with children, and this one was getting weird! I was losing my mind, and she would not leave me alone. She would grab my leg and I would literally drag her around, while carrying boxes. FINALLY we left, and she LITERALLY chased me out the door. I ran outside and down the sidewalk, I was done. But there was no relief, no escape for us! IT WAS AN INFERNO OUTSIDE. I don't know if I had ever sweat so much in my life. Walking around, in the blazing heat, with missionary attire, and a backpack, in the humidity. That shirt was worn once, and put in the laundry bag. AND NO IMMEDIATE SUCCESS CAME OUT OF IT. No potential investigators, nothing.
On Wednesday we had exchanges with the Zone leaders. Elder Barger and I went to his area (Ames 2nd ward) and we had a really good day. We talked to quite a few people, recontacted a dropped investigator, and met this LA who was super legit. We taught him and it was great. The spirit was really strong and we scheduled another visit! We ate at a members house who were from Utah, and they made Costa Vida/Cafe Rio Salads for us (with no meat). OH IT WAS SOOOO GOOD. Between Elder Barger and I, we put down like, 30 Tortillas w/ condiments. I'm smiling on the memories.
Thursday came around, and once again, we didn't have much to do, so we got to tracting! At the stake center (my normal church) the mission president was conduction interviews, and there was a whole zone there for them. We decided that it would be a good use of time to try and schedule a ward activity with the sisters, to strengthen the ward and hopefully get new investigators out of it. We called the sisters, and they agreed to meet us at the church. We started walking over there, (thankfully it wasn't as hot today) and then they called and said something came up, and they wouldn't be available for another hour and a half. We were right by the apartment complex/park where we had found, and forgotten to get contact information, the family from Congo that was so interested in the gospel. I don't really know what was in me, but i just thought, "We're going to find that family today." We headed into the park where we first found them. We remembered that she had pointed over in a general direction where she said they lived, so we headed over there. No way to find them without knocking doors. I somehow, had NO DOUBT that we would find them. The first door we knocked on..... literally yelled and slammed it in our face. I laughed way hard. Because I was the senior companion, Elder Claridge asked, "What next?" I said something like, "Well we know they're not in there, look at all these doors." I started walking. We walked over to an apartment that had a fence that closed off the door to the front door. Well, that sucks. It's already uncomfortable to knock on someones door, but to walk inside someones fenced off yard? We weren't about to do that and get in trouble. I started wandering again, and ended up on the other side of the building. On the other side, I saw the backdoor of the fenced off place, and there was a doorbell on it! I said, ELDER! A DOORBELL! "That's someone's BACK DOOR. No one will answer their back door." Too late, I was walking up to the back door, and rang the doorbell.
The woman from Congo answered the door. I was speachless. Literally could not talk. I think my jaw might have fallen open. Luckily Elder Claridge didn't as well poop his pants on the spot and was capable of utterance. She looked ALMOST as shocked as we did. ALMOST. haha. She let us in, we talked about prophets, and scheduled another appointment. As she closed the door behind us, I stepped off the back step and said aloud, "It's a miracle." I have never felt so loved, looked after, and led in my entire life. Looking back, I KNOW we were led by the spirit. I KNOW God had answered my prayers for new investigators, and this family specifically.This morning we met with her, taught the Restoration, and she accepted the invitation to be baptised. We will be returning Thursday morning to teach her again, hopefully with her family, and set a specific date.
After meeting with her, we made our way to the sidewalk, and talked to a lady in a wheel chair. Honestly, I have no idea what we talked about. I have no idea what we said, but I was filled with the spirit, and Elder Claridge said that I was killing it. We invited her to church, she's a devout Catholic, and she considered it. We got her information and gave her ours, and she said she will think about coming to church on Sunday. She didn't end up making it, but we are following up on her this week.
We then wandered our way through the streets, and found ourselves in the front lawn of two people sitting on a bench, and of course, we talked to them! He had fell off his roof onto his head on the driveway, and lost all long term and short term memory, but it was slowly coming back. We talked exclusively to him, he was really funny, and SUPER nice. He loves going inside churches, and does it for fun. He had tried to go inside ours, but it was always locked. We gave him our information and told him we'd love to give him a church tour when we could. (We couldn't right then, we hadn't prepared it and the church was being used by the President). We left with his information and promise that we would go through the next week. I think he was actually more excited then we were. The woman we hardly talked to, was his therapist.
We got to the church, and ran into the President and his wife immediately. GREEEAAAAT. Super sweaty and also filled with the spirit, we talked for a second in the hall and then went to get a drink. We were waiting for the sisters to come when a missionary called for Elder Claridge. We turned the corner, and there was the guy and his therapist we had JUST talked to in his yard! At first I was like.. what? Did you not understand? He said he was walking by, saw the cars, saw the sign that said welcome, and the door was unlocked so they came in! Well great! So we gave them the most impromtu(help) tour of the church possible. His therapist was transfixed by the paintings of Christ, and loved all the artwork in the hall ways. We made our way into the Chapel, talked to them about everything, and it was really awesome. The spirit was really strong, and we had to rely on it, because we were not prepared. She (his therapist) was looking through the hymn book a lot, so I mentioned how I loved the hymns in there, and that they really bring the spirit. She agreed completely. She said she could feel the power of them. She asked why we were called Mormons, and we explained that it was because of the Book of Mormon. We pulled one out and gave the basic rundown. We asked if she wanted one, and she literally snatched it out of Elder Claridge's hands. She said, "I need to make a donation or something." We explained the book was hers, no donation needed or wanted. She said more passionately, "I NEED TO MAKE A DONATION." The spirit, to say the least, was filling my entire body. We finished the church tour and she asked what time our service was. We told her, and she said, I will see you there.
Unfortunately, she didn't make it. I'm guessing that there was some type of GIANT car accident near where she lived that made it competely impossible to make it. We'll be checking up on her this week as well.
Two miracles, in one day.
Friday was relatively uneventful, weekly planning, interviews with mission president went well, and his wife is awesome. Saturday we had zone meeting, and we taught invesigators for "Role play". I don't know why they called it role play, they were real investigators. I was put in a group of 5 other Elders, but ended up saying the most. What?? We got a long really well, I loved him, and I was feeling the spirit strong. He's an awesome kid.
Finally, to end the week, we got two dinners yesterday. And it was AWESOME. I'm out of time, so I need to make this quick.
Thank you for all your prayers, love and support. It means a lot, and I am feeling the blessings of it.
I know that miracles happen today, and are possible through faith. I know that THIS gospel, which was restored by the prophet Joseph Smith, is the only true gospel on the earth today. I know that God loves us, hears us, and blesses us. Never give up because you don't see the prize. It's like digging for treasure, you can't see it, hear it, anything, until you've worked hard enough and long enough to finally reach it. Every action of faith, every long day working towards it, is more digging to finally get to the prize. The Lord has a prize for all of us. I would like to challenge you all to find something inside yourself, that you think would take a miracle to change, and exercise your faith in Christ. Bring it to Christ, and work yourself on fixing it. The Lord will bless you, I know it, I've seen it.
Ether 12:27
-Elder Hollan
ps.. If any of you feel like it, you can send me ties, slacks, suits that are now allowed in the new dress code. hahaha
Thursday, August 8, 2013
August 5, 2013
(My parents went to Paris last week and sent Austin a shirt)
Dear Family,
Thank you for all your love, support, letters, and prayers. I appreciate it immensely.
On Tuesday, we met with this mom. She's been having bible study with missionaries for a long time, and she LOVES religious discussions. She reads her bible, and asks us questions. And we answer them all. She does not have the King James version of the bible, so... honestly it's really weird. I feel really bad, cause if she had the Kind James version, she would be way less confused. THE APOSTASY IS REAL. She asked us interesting questions and we taught as much as we could about the plan of salvation, but it was general. We're going back next week for another crack at it.
We met with [the first guy we went to institute with], and the lesson went way good. Because the spirit had been working on him, and he had been reading the Book of Mormon, AND studying and everything, he already knew it was all true. He has a very strong testimony bout the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the restored church. He has already told his family he will be converting and removing himself from the church committees he was participating in back in his old church. He wants to be baptized in September. WOO HOO!! SICK! Right after his lesson, the sister missionaries texted us with a referral! PROGRESS IN IOWA. FINALLY.
Wednesday we cleaned our apartment, met with a recent convert, cleaned, and contacted. NOT A SOUL WAS OUTSIDE. We just had a nice little walk around, and couldn't find anyone.
Thursday morning the 2nd ward sisters were moving into a new apartment so we went to go help them with that, but by the time we got to their new apartment, the other Elders had moved everything.. so we drove back home. Then we started our move! We moved from one building's basement to the next door buildings top floor! Elder Claridge and I, being the smart kids we are, decided it was best to move the heaviest, most difficult and awkward items first. So we took the super old armchair that felt like a car was in the cushions up 3 flights of stairs. Then we took the ancient couch, which felt like it had a full sized blue whale on it, up the stairs. The turns in the stairwell were too narrow to turn it around at the top of each flight, so we had to get creative. I was on the bottom, and we would make the couch almost vertical and push it up over the railing. IT WAS AWFUL. It took like 30 minutes to get it in our apartment. By the time we were done moving that, we were both literally dripping in sweat. But what can you do? The job had to be done. Almost 5 minutes after we moved ALL the ridiculously heavy stuff upstairs, the Elders and Sisters called to offer help! CONVENIENT TIMING! They came, and helped a lot. Elder Claridge and I were exhausted, but we kept moving stuff. We had a District meeting in Story City, (about 20 minutes away) we had to go to, so we didn't get everything moved before then.
During the meeting, the phone was going CRAZY. I finally checked it (I was trying to be reverent) and realized that I should've heeded it's call. We had a ton of missed calls from people, mostly about the move. Our apartment complex is owned by members in our ward, but they needed to know if we were out so they could start cleaning and getting it ready for the next people. We weren't done, and the apartment definitely wasn't anywhere near being clean. So we SPRINTED out of that meeting and moved everything as fast as we could. We didn't finish until like 9. Needless to say one of the longest days of my life. There is so much crap in missionary apartments you didn't even know existed until you pull them out of old, dusty closets. I don't know if I've ever slept better in my life.
Friday, we met with a less active family, it was really hard to teach a lesson because they just loved to talk talk talk about random stuff! Then we called some of the potentials we had last week while we were contacting. One kind of blew us off with the feeling that she was just really polite the first time. We had a lesson with some of our potentials planned, we showed up, and she was about to put her kids down for a nap, so she told us to come back later. We came back later, and no one answered the door. While sitting in the car trying to figure out what we were gonna do, we saw the husband come out of the complex. GREAT.
3 more things, I'm almost out of time. GO READ 2 Nephi 4. It is so legit can change your life.
Be spiritually minded.
Watch the video "Mountains to Climb" and try not to cry. I CRIED. I'll admit it! I cried in a public library! IT'S AWESOME.
The church is true, the Book is blue. Thank you for all your support. My new address is 3500 N Grand Ave. #44, Ames, Iowa
I love you all, and love this work.
-Elder Hollan
Monday, July 29, 2013
The Spirit Is Strong In This One
Hello.
Last monday night we went to a members home and had dinner. They served us the LARGEST pork chops I've ever seen in my life. Easily over a pound of pig, all in my belly. They were amazing. Then while we were teaching them a lesson, it started getting REALLY windy and raining way hard. I kept looking out the windows and they're like, "Oh it always storms like this". I just wanted to see a tornado. Haha I hope that isn't bad. We got a ride home, (because we didn't have a car this week) and the kid driving us was like, "You don't have to worry about it until the sky turns green, then you can worry." As soon as he finishes his sentence we come out of some trees and look to the left, and the sky is green. He simply says, "Ya like that. That's green." So I started to get excited. No tornado though. :(
Tuesday Elder Claridge and I walked over to this elderly woman. She is 92 and looking to live to 100. They had done some service for her before in the earlier months, and we just wanted to touch base and try to get a lesson out of it. (Because we still have 0 investigators) She said she needed some help for cleaning up her yard. The storm had blown some branches and all the bark off the trees. As soon as she said that I thought, "Heavenly Father is looking out for us." So we scheduled to come help her the next day. We then started walking to this other old ladies house that was way far away. on our way, we talked to everyone we saw. EVERYONE. This one guy was super nice, and loved talking to us. We found out he had read a lot of Anti-Mormon literature, and LOVED the Book of Mormon.... musical. He joked with us and talked to us a little more, but I think it was just for some entertainment. We got all the way to the old ladies house, and she wasn't home. So we went and visited a recent convert and talked to him about Patriachal blessings. After dinner, we still had a few hours of unscheduled time. We weren't about to sit around and waste the Lord's time, so we said a prayer. We both got the feeling we should just start walking around. So we said another prayer, asking for guidance, and to put people in our path that we could help.
We started walking, and got to a corner. Elder Claridge said, this way. We walked. I felt like freaking Nephi, "And [we] were led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which [we] should do." We walked, and walked, and walked, looking for ANYONE we could talk to. Turning corners where we felt like we should, and somehow we ended up in this apartment complex with a park. We walked through the park and found a family from Congo playing basketball. We talked to them about the gospel. It went SO WELL. The spirit was strong and they took Book of Mormon's from us and committed to reading them. Elder Claridge and I both taught simple, quick things, and they really stuck. We gave them our number and left, knowing Heavenly Father had answered our prayer. IT WAS DOPE. BUTTTTTT we forgot to get their number.... so we're praying that they'll call. AHHH. hahaha
We kept walking, and met two more people, both potentials. One was a couple. The FUNNIEST man I have ever talked to in my entire life. He works at a cemetary, mortuary, and cremetorium. (I spelt that wrong I know. I don't really care.) He believed in God, but had trouble with church, saying it was a fashion show. We talked to him about prophets, the restoration, the Book of Mormon... a bunch. Then they agreed to meet with us again. They really liked Elder Claridge, he was making way funny comments. SO we have their info, and we will be contacting them tonight. We went home, and just died. We were drained. The Lord answers prayers when you pray in faith. We got home, and the Story City Elders needed to do an exchange because one needed to interview someone in our zone. So I got to go to Iowa Falls! ROAD TRIP.
I went with Elder Newhouse (NH), and we drove about an hour up to Iowa Falls. It's a way small town, and super picturesc. (Don't care) We had a full day of work up there, so we dropped our luggage off at their SICK LUXURY apartment and headed off. Elder NH is pretty quiet. He's a tall, blonde missionary who is from a way small town in northern Idaho. He may not say much, but when he does, he packs the spiritual punch. Such a homie. ANYWAYS. We took care of his business (meetings with members, scripture study with members) and it was time to GO GET PEOPLE. At this one house we knocked on the door, and waited. A huge black guy drove his gangster car up and parked out front, he was blasting Kanye, I was rapping it under my breath. He goes to the other door and we asked him, "Do you know if _______ still lives here?" He says, "Nah I'm not from around here." 'Well where are you from?' He responds in a way deep, "THE SOUTH" and closes the door behind him. HAHAHA I almost died laughing. We visited some former investigators, one had been reading the Book of Mormon and agreed to meet with missionaries. Another excitingly accepted a offer to teach the following week. Basically Elder NH and I were tearing it up. Then we went "Sister ********'s" house, (another former investigator)
We talked to her about why she stopped meeting with the missionaries. She said that everything was going fine, but then they called her "an abomination" and she was really offended. She was straight up and really blunt about everything, without being rude. She apologized for her bluntness and I just said, "No no it's fine! I'm the same way!" We talked super casually and she started to like us a little I think. She began to be more open, and she told us about her church, and how it was just alright. She didn't really "feel it" anymore. Then SOMEHOW we started teaching the Restoration. I was doing most of the talking... no surprise, and it was going really well. When it got to the part when you talk about Joseph Smith and his vision, I got super nervous. (Elder Claridge and I had role played it the day before, and I couldn't recite the first vision very well in a lesson. I didn't have it memorized well enough.) So in my head I said, "Heavenly Father, this is it. I need your help. I can't do this without a lot of help." haha. So I went for it! I started with the Prophet Joseph's words. "I saw a light, exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other 'This is my Beloved Son, Hear Him.'" SHE WAS FEELING IT. Her eyes were watering, and she just stood there. I will never forget the look in her eyes. We bore testimony, and as we were doing so, her son came and she kind of shrugged the Spirit off and acted normal again. We asked if she would like us to come back and teach her some more. She declined. So we smiled, thanked her for her time, and started walking back to the car. Once in the car, I realized how big of an idiot I was! I didn't give her a Book of Mormon! I pulled one out, wrote a little message in it, with the missionaries number, and we ran back there and gave it to her.
We finished our night in Iowa Falls teaching an inactive grandma. She was the nicest person ever. She was SUPER old and was a caretaker. The lesson went really well, and when we left it was dark. One of the sickest things about Iowa is the Fireflies. When we left, there were SO MANY FIREFLIES OUTSIDE. We grabbed some empty gatorade bottles and Elder NH and I caught as many as we could. It was super funny. hahaha.
OPPOSITION IN ALL THINGS.
Back in Ames, with no investigators, Elder Claridge and I once again said a prayer, and went out searching. We came across this guy taking the finish off a desk. He worked for the Baptist church for a long time, and wanted to talk to us about his beliefs. I'll keep this short, I don't want to get upset, and I'm almost out of time.
He talked to us about Grace. Asked us questions, and when we answered, would try to confuse the doctrine we used. He spit scriptures out at us and asked us what they meant. It's not like he knew anything we didn't his perspective on it was very misunderstood. You could tell he was very studied in the Bible, and that he was very proud of his "knowledge". He thought he was teaching us a lesson and making us second guess our religion. Here's the thing though. HE DIDN"T TEACH ME ANYTHING. I already knew everything he was saying. He did not make one valid or non-hypocritical point. He COULD NOT understand the doctrine of Grace, the atonement, our purpose, our potential, God's purpose... It was so frustrating. It was like talking to a person with a misunderstanding of 2+2=4. We weren't going anywhere, and we had somewhere to be, so we started wrapping it up. He said, "If you guys ever need some water or anything, come back if you're not scared! I'd love to teach you the truth about Jesus." HAHA scared. That was really funny to me. Elder Claridge and I started walking away. Both of us very frustrated.
We ended the night digging a window well for some members! 6 feet in a hole, working hard, I loved it. Perfect way for me to blow off steam. Ha, probably the best part of my day. All the daughters were gathered around watching us dig and talking to us, it was really funny. Then they gave us a pizza, and that made me happy.
The last few days have been relatively uneventful. Half the people in the ward are moving, so we have been moving A LOT of furniture. We moved like 3 families this week, and more this coming week. We fasted for new investigators, and pray for them all the time. The Lord's time frame is difficult to get acquainted with. But I know he hears us, and if we are faithful and work hard, he will bless us. That's what we have to do, WORK HARD, and FOCUS.
I love this work. I love the opportunity to be a tool in the Lord's hands. I know he answers prayers, he knows us personally, and he loves us. This is truly HIS WORK. So, farewell for now. I'm gonna go sweat in this Iowa heat.
-Elder Hollan
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