One Beautiful Belt Buckle (Written 11/03/14) and Yo, yo, yo (Written 11/10/14)

So last Wednesday after e-mails, my belt buckle finally came! It's sooo beautiful! As you can see, right there- smack dab in the middle- is the majestic and gorgeous chestnut stallion! And then, as you can see, there is a pistol on each side of the buckle to add another layer of excessive manliness. On the top ribbon is printed, "Elder Holladay", and the bottom reads, "Arizona Scottsdale Mission". I almost shed a single, masculine tear of joy when I saw it for the first time. 

And then I forgot to take pictures of Concho Falls while we were there because I spent my whole time there writing letters. Which reminds me, I don't know when Aaron is going to see the birthday card I sent him, but I did send him one for you guys to pass on to him somehow. I guess it might be kind of hard what with him being in socialist Europe right now. But Caitlin got hers right? Right?

That Wednesday night was our Salem Ward Halloween party, and of course, we didn't go as Jehovah's Witnesses and our bishop was very disappointed. I was a good companion though and blamed it on Elder Graves instead of Elder Blanchard (I did find out Elder Graves threw away the Watchtower that Bishop gave me, so it kind of was his fault). But Brother Page came as Emmett from The LEGO Movie, so that made me ridiculously happy. 

On Thursday, our district decided to go do some family history work. There was a nice man at the family history center who decided to give me some help. We went back several generations of Holladays to see who needed some temple work done. All I found out is that family history is a confusing mess. All these duplicate profiles for people. All these multiple wives. All these birthdays that don't add up right. This guy worked with me for 3 hours and I'm still not sure what exactly we got accomplished. That stuff is worse than college algebra. I had just read my patriarchal blessing a day or two before that, and it says I'll get the spirit of Elijah as I did family history work, but on Thursday, it just made my brain hurt.

And so on Friday all the other missionaries in the district had names to take to the temple except me. Also, going to the temple is our new Halloween tradition in the White Mountains! I mean, there's only one ghost you really ever want around, and that's the Holy Ghost! We were there for seven hours(!) doing all kinds of temple work. I myself went through an endowment session and did some sealings while Elder Blanchard did baptisms. Afterward, a lot of us stayed and helped clean the temple, which is also really cool. We got out at about 9:30, and then went to McDonald's where I got the McRib! I find that worth writing about because the whole concept of the McRib is just hilarious to me. "Let's mold some processed pork meat to look vaguely like ribs, lather it in a bottle of barbecue sauce, throw it on a bun, and then act like it's a big deal when we sell once a year!"

Saturday was spent cutting wood with Chad on his property and going to stake conference. Elder Meza had been asked to speak at the adult session, but since he got transferred, they asked Elder Blanchard to speak instead. He did good, but didn't smile once during the talk; not even during his jokes. He asked (insisted) for advice on how he could do better next time, and I told him to smile more, and he just kind of looked at me like, "What?" 

And yesterday we had the rest of stake conference. It was one of those stake conferences broadcast to the entire state of Arizona with Elder Christofferson and President Uchtdorf speaking. I wish I could tell you some cool things they said, but I was sitting with Elder Harris, and I love him to death, but you're not gonna get much listening done sitting next to Elder Harris. And we had some lessons set up last night, but they fell through. Dang it.

Today we went to Walmart again! A member in Concho took our whole district. Like last time, I stocked up enough to probably last me the whole month, but I did not get nearly as many perishables this time. Those did not last me the whole month last time as I came to find out. 

So yeah, I guess it was a pretty good week. The package you sent was fun! I thought it was funny that there were 4 packs of Jelly Bellies with Disney villains on them and then one Olaf pack. You sound pretty surprised, Mom and Dad, that I gained insight and enlightenment from the music and shows I watched at home, as if I was listening to Katy Perry and watching the Big Bang Theory. Come on. I'm better than that. Also, that sucks that Western Governors' graduation is in Florida. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. But hey, you're almost done, Mom! Right on! And I too was feeling pretty funky this past week with muscus in my throat. I was thinking it was a sinus infection, but the runny nose never came and now it's getting better.

I love you all tttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssssssssssssssssss much!!!!

And here's me wearing my beautiful buckle with my new jacket I bought at Alco's (it's getting cold!) and the new tie Jematisa Davis  sent me!

<3 Elder Holladay

Yo yo yo,

So this was the week things improved with Elder Blanchard. I think we're finally getting on the same page and seeing where each other is coming from. It all started on Monday night when Elder Blanchard asked me how I do so well at keeping my cool and avoiding arguments. He actually said he was impressed by how I never wanted to argue back with him. I just told him it's all about perspective. I could go and tell someone a bunch of horrible things about them, but I have to think about how it's going to effect my future relationship with this person (especially when I'm going to have to live with them for the next 6 weeks). 

And with that, Elder Blanchard and I have been getting along much better. We're able to serve each other, give each other sincere compliments, and we have the spirit with us more now. That's not to say everything's perfect, but it's vastly improved. 

I hope it stays that way.

We had a good lesson with Edgar last Monday night. He's opening up to a us a lot more and seems to let the lessons sink in. We're going to try and put him on date for baptism tonight, so we're excited. 

Nothing notable happened on Tuesday except we tried to go to Zumba for the first time in a few weeks and no one was there because they had it earlier that night and we didn't know. 

On Wednesday, we had a lesson with Josie and the spirit's always really strong in those lessons. Her husband, Kirby, really wants to be reactivated in the church and go to the temple with her. The trick is getting her to see that this is the church with God's priesthood and she won't find that in the Catholic church. Also on Wednesday, I saw the iPhone 6 Plus for the first time, which I didn't know was a thing. It's huge though. The thing's almost an iPad (and I'm sure I'm the first person to make that joke, okay?)!

We had to cancel Madea's lesson because we had to go to a health center in Snowflake because Elder Blanchard's heart or something was giving him trouble. They didn't find anything there but he'll get an appointment in Show Low to find out more later. 

Friday was just weekly planning and stuff. Not very eventful.

On Saturday we went out past Big Lake with Chad to cut wood. Usually we do it at his property, but his friend told him he could have some wood from their family's property, and it was dirty work. Hauling huge, burnt, muddy logs around for a few hours isn't very much fun. After dinner, we started some studies and decided we needed a short nap, but that turned into an hour and a half nap so oops.

Yesterday we got to go to a fireside in Snowflake where Joseph Smith's great-great granddaughter and great-great-great grandson spoke. The granddaughter was a convert who was raised to believe Brigham Young conspired to kill Joseph, Hyrum, and Samuel Smith and that the Mormon church was horrible. It was a pretty interesting fireside (did you know only 10% of Joseph Smiths descendants are members of the LDS church?) and afterwards, Elder Blanchard and I went to talk to them, and they were pretty cool. They live in Payson and they recorded a CD with songs about Joseph and Emma and gave me and Elder Blanchard copies. 

And that was my week. Not too eventful I guess. But it was good. Except with elections. Everyone wants to talk about politics and everyone assumes I have to be conservative. They say things like "Did you hear about elections? We won!" and then I have to say, "Who's 'we?'" That's as far as I go though, because missionaries aren't allowed to talk about politics and if I did say how I felt, I would probably lose member trust. But I've heard a lot of bullcrap this week about people being scared that Obama will pull the draft, that the entire national debt is Obama's sole fault, and that republicans are looking out for the little guy. These people... are confused. And I have to hold my tongue.

Congrats on finishing your student teaching this week, Mom! I'm excited to see Dad's beard. I wish I could be growing one right now. I'm wondering though why I never got a picture of you guys as Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head! Here's a picture of me after wood cutting, but a full body shot would have shown you better how messy I was.

I love you and hope you have a fantastic week!

<3 Elder Holladay

P.S. Last week I forgot to tell you the Show Low Dairy Queen is owned by Holladays and they have a bunch of family portraits on the wall there. I didn't have my camera, but I thought it was interesting.

Ups and Downs

So gay marriage is legal in Utah now, huh? Well, that was going to happen eventually. And in the history books, Utah will be to gay people as Alabama was to black people. So that's exciting to look forward to. Brother Page told us this week that Arizona is right on the cusp of legalizing it because the judge here is like, "Unless someone here can give me a really, really, really good reason for why it should be outlawed, I'm letting it fly." I hope Utahns are being gentle and loving about it, but knowing them, they probably aren't.

This has been quite an interesting week, and I'm not even sure where to start, because it was so odd how laced it was with completely awesome and completely horrible things.

I guess I'll go in chronological order and say that last Monday after e-mails, we got to go to Walmart in Show-Low! I forgot to tell you, but my glasses had gotten bent out of shape somehow (I just put them on last Friday afternoon, and they were busted), so President Sweeney gave us permission to get them fixed. I hadn't been to a Walmart- or anything so convenient and cheap with such a wide selection- since July, so that was really fun! I think I bought enough groceries to last me til the end of the month! I was even able to buy fresh produce! Imagine that! And I got two new t-shirts: one that's just a bunch of poorly Photoshopped cat heads pasted together around the entire shirt (which makes me laugh every time I put it on) and one with Queen Elsa that says, "Keep Calm and Let it Go." Now, I don't approve of the whole "Keep Calm and..." movement, but they were selling Queen Elsa shirts in the men's section, which deserves praise. The sad thing is I forgot to take pictures of the shirts to attach... And we even got to eat lunch at Panda Express, which is also the first time I've had Chinese food since July, so that satisfied a craving I've had for months, even if it's fast food. Then we had a Little Colorado ward party that night and our ward mission leader, Chad's wife, Raj, an Indian immigrant, made authentic Indian food for everyone. Elder Blanchard and I got to help serve the food, and I didn't know if it was hilarious or heartbreaking that so many people had never, ever had Indian food and they were so scared to try any. Most people actually ended up loving it, but there were some we talked to who said, "Well, it was interesting..."

On Tuesday, we got haircuts at the beauty school! You wouldn't think St. Johns would have anything beyond public school, but for some weird St. Johns-ian reason, they have a cosmetology school out in a sketchy looking warehouse by their little airport. Anyway, all of us in the apartment got haircuts for free there, and most of the students just happened to be either non-member or less-active! So one of these girls says, "You guys should come to the Zumba class I teach!" And all of the girls are like, "Yeah, you should come!" And they're all a bunch of potential investigators so of course, we're like, "Yeah, we'll try to get permission to go!" And... we got permission. So on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we went to Zumba class at the elementary school. Most of the beauty school girls weren't actually there; it's mostly old ladies. But those old ladies are all non-members too! So we've been setting up some lessons and gaining some good trust by doing Zumba. And apparently, you burn 800 calories per workout, so that's a plus.

Wednesday and Thursday happened. I don't remember much of what we did. Well, Wednesday, we had Zone Training Meeting. And Elder Blanchard started going to voice lessons with that old lady we talked for a couple hours when I had to fart really bad, so of course I had to go with him.

So Friday and Saturday were the horrible days. See, it's always seemed like Elder Blanchard and I are always either getting along super well or there's some tension going on. Anyway, the tension was getting really bad on Friday, so I called for an emergency companionship inventory to get to the bottom of it. I was trying really hard to use all of my conflict-resolution skills I learned from Adult Roles (stay calm, see what you've done wrong yourself, no attacking the other person, using more "we" statements than "you", etc.), but it didn't take long until Elder Blanchard just started listing everything he hates about me. I guess he never took Adult Roles. Anyway, I stayed pretty calm and wrote down things I did need to work on, and I kept my statements about us, instead of attacking Elder Blanchard. But after we got through the inventory, I found myself pretty angry that he gone full-attack mode like that. 

So the next day, we ended up in another argument and it reached a point where Elder Blanchard literally said, "Stop trying to make this about both of us, and just tell me everything you don't like about me!" So I broke and I did. And then he cried. And I felt really bad. So I had to do quite a bit of apologizing even though he literally asked for it. 

So, yeah, Friday and Saturday were bad. I ended up spending Sunday fasting and praying for help to know how to better serve and love Elder Blanchard, and it seems to be helping so far. Oh, also on Saturday, Louie dropped us because he's moving to California to take care of his brother and he doesn't want any flack from his family about being Mormon. So that sucked. But we'll teach him on Thursday and try to knock some sense into him.

Sunday we had a stake fireside for the youth, and President Sweeney came up to speak at it! And guess who his co-speaker was.... Elder Holladay! I actually knew I'd be doing it a couple weeks ago and forgot to tell you (lol at me!). But yeah, the stake youth council picked me to talk, and I think that's because of the time Elder Denham and I taught the seminary classes. The fireside was built around social media, so I spoke about the church's new hashtag, #ShareGoodness. I basically just listed all the ways high school can suck and how #ShareGoodness can help by brightening someone's day. I think it went really well. President Sweeney said it did. The St. Johns district also had to sing Called to Serve at the fireside, so that's why Elder Blanchard got singing lessons. But it was really a good, fun fireside. I really enjoyed it.

So that was my week. I love and miss you all! Make sure Brandon hears that. That missionary mom story in Meet the Mormons was really the only segment that made me feel real emotions. So I know that feel.

Have a great week!

<3 Elder Holladay

That's One Hot Pepper!

This week had sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much service. My goodness, we only had two real lessons this week. On Monday night after P-day, we went and pulled weeds for Brother Pullins and his wife. Brother Pullins is the high school janitor and he lets us into the school's weights room every morning, so we definitely owed it to him to do some yardwork. He and his wife are super awkward though. She's always staring at us with a weird grin on her face, and then he tells us some serious TMI stories about why his son got kicked off his mission and how his daughter is, um, infatuated with black men. And he's always asking to see pictures of the girls we dated back home, and I don't feel comfortable giving him that satisfaction. 

On Tuesday, we moved out St. Johns' justice of the peace, Butch Gunnels. Butch is a nonmember, but he's one of the nicest, funniest guys around. He loves the missionaries and is happy helping us out with anything we need, but just enjoys "being a heathen". But then a few weeks ago, he had to go in for emergency open heart surgery, and he's been in an induced coma ever since. He had already made plans to move into the basement of his best friend, Lucas Rodriguez, a super cool recent convert, so Lucas called us up saying it was time to move Butch's stuff over. I had never been inside Butch's house before, because we always hung out at Lucas', but oh my goodness, it was disgusting. Butch is a frigging hoarder. And his horse once kicked out a window and he never got it fixed, so wind had been blowing dust in for who knows how long. And Butch's dog and parakeet had just been chilling out inside the house this whole time pooping and peeing everywhere. I'll tell you what, I felt way dirtier cleaning that house out then I ever did at JC Mickelson's, so that tells ya something. It took all day long. 

On Wednesday, we mowed and trimmed Doris Chavez's lawn. We met her husband, Joe, and he was really nice and happy that we helped. Then we taught Tanner and Jamie Page, a young married couple with a 9 month old daughter that we've been teaching to help them prepare for the temple. They're really the only people in St. Johns that know what's up with pop culture and fashion and the news and whatnot, so I really enjoy teaching them. But a couple weeks ago, they decided they wanted to split up. Well, they decided to try and make it work one more time, so we decided to teach them about the Proclamation to the World, specifically where it talks about what husbands and wives need to do for each other. But then it turned into a big debate between Tanner and Jamie about gay marriage and the church's stand on it, and Elder Blanchard and I couldn't really get it back on track after that. So yeah, we kind of ignited a huge fight between an already struggling couple and then just left. Oops.

On Thursday, we continued on with the Pullins' lawn. Then we went and cut two truckloads of wood with our Salem Ward mission leader, Brother Henry Cohen and an investigator, Roman Cordova. Roman's been an investigator for a long time, but has trouble committing. Then we drove out to the middle of nowhere, out of our area, with our Little Colorado ward mission leader, Brother Chad New, to move a slate pool table out of some lady's house, cuz Chad's dad bought it. That was a heavy sucker. Then we had to move it to Chad's dad's house of course. We did get to have a lesson with Madea that night, and her testimony is super solid, but she's too worried about her staunch Catholic husband to get baptized. 

On Friday, we got called up by the St. Johns seminary teacher, Brother Richins. We had to help him put in his new fence and pour concrete into the post holes. That took an impressively long time. Then our Meadows ward mission leader, Brother Devin Brown, called us up asking if we could move some more furniture for a recent convert, Charlie Gann. Also, Pabla called us telling us her charges were clear so she could be baptized, but we had to explain to her that we had found out she had another charge pending that she didn't even know about yet so baptism would have to wait longer (we knew this cuz Brother Brown is the city's lawyer or something). Then she got really mad and said she would just stay Catholic cuz she's tired of waiting. I tried to calm her down, but what I wasn't telling her was that this new charge would put her on probation for 3-5 years, and she really wouldn't be baptized for a looooooong time. So life kinda sucks for her right now.

On Saturday, we were finally able to relax and watch conference at Chad's house. I really enjoyed it. Lynn G. Robbins', Elder Holland's, Elder Eyring's and President Monson's talks really stood out. I also liked Elder Cook's priesthood talk.

On Sunday, Madea came to the morning session at the stake center and that seemed to be really good for her. Louie came to Chad's for the afternoon session, but he had to leave right before Elder Bednar's talk which really would have helped him.  Then after conference, I ate a habenero (is that spelled right?) pepper. Well, let me back up. Chad was telling Elder Blanchard to eat one the night before, and of course, I was encouraging ("Do it and you're cool! Do it and you're cool!"). But Elder Blanchard wouldn't do it. When we stopped egging Blanchard on, I was like, "Well, I'll do it." And Chad was like, "Okay." But I decided to do it the next day when I had my camera. So after conference on Sunday, I ate a habenero pepper. And you know. It's like a bell pepper at first except after like 10 seconds, it scalds your entire mouth. I drank 3 glasses of milk and then I was just putting ice cubes in my mouth after that. It BURNED for a solid 20 minutes or so. But then Elder Blanchard figured he had to eat one too, and he did. He took it a lot worse then me. The poor guy's stomach felt really bad after and we had to cancel our dinner. He got better though, and we ended up visiting this old lady in Salem ward; just the sweetest old lady. She told us all about how she met her husband (who is now in very poor health, but she's 84 and looks like a 60 year old), all about her kids and grandkids and great-grandkids, and gave us lots of marriage advice and everything. Just a sweet, sweet lady. But that pepper gave me the most painful gas I've ever had in my life! It has never hurt so bad to hold gas in, and I even took 2 Gas-X's right before! And she talked forever, and then some of her kids came to visit and they talked forever! I was clenching my fists and my teeth and was just sweating trying to hold this gas in. We finally got back to the apartment, and I let out some of the biggest, longest farts I've ever farted.

 

So that was my week.

<3 Elder Holladay

Um . . . What?!

Dear Everyone That Reads These,

It's been a really good week (few days)! On Wednesday, after P-day, a lot of our plans went screwy because our main man, Elder Graves, got horribly sick. He would eat or drink, and he could barely move. So we had to tag-team taking care of Elder Graves that night and all day Thursday so that Elder Meza wouldn't go crazy taking care of Graves himself.  

On Friday, after weekly planning, we made the four hour trip to the valley to hear Elder Nelson speak! Since I know the area of St. Johns, I'm the designated driver now even though Elder Blanchard is trainer, so I was the guy that drove us all the way to Phoenix! 

On Saturday, we got to the stake center in Mesa where Elder Nelson was speaking an hour and a half early to get good seats. A lot of people had the same idea, so we were like, 8 or 9 rows back, but that was still a really good spot. Better than sitting on a folding chair back in the gym like the stragglers. When Elder Nelson got there, he requested to shake everyone's (EVVVVEEEERRRRYYYYOOOOONNNEESSSSS'S) hand. That was cool. He said "good morning" to me like 3 times in a row when he shook my hand. He brought two seventies with him, Elder Tood B. Hansen and Elder Bradley D. Foster, and we shook their hands too. Elder Hansen spoke about showing love for your companion. Elder Foster spoke about not wasting any time on our missions. Elder Nelson talked about a whole slew of stuff. He said you can tell how effective a missionary was by how many of his grandchildren go to the temple. Before we marry someone we need to make sure they love the Lord more than us. He said obedience brings blessings, and exact obedience brings miracles. Disobedience always brings misery. We need to make our ward mission leaders our best friends. We need to get investigators hooked on family history so the spirit of Elijah can play a role in their conversion. A lot of good stuff.

Then we came back to St. Johns that night and had a normal Sunday yesterday. We didn't get to teach any investigators the past few days, but this week will be better.

Oh, hey, I forgot to tell you last week about a choice lesson me and Elder Hernandez had with a less active guy living out in the 40's. We met him at a restaurant and set up a lesson with him at one of our church buildings. He told us he hadn't been sleeping well, so you know, we asked why. And he sighs and says, "Obama."

That's when I knew this was gonna be a great lesson.

Anyway, the guy goes off about how he can't believe the stuff they're letting Obama get away with. Apparently, Obama won't let you grow your own garden, slaughter your own livestock, and Obama is sending out drones across the country to kill whoever he wants just for fun. But I must say things got really great when the guy told us, "And Obama is going to kill 93% of the population and then live for 1,500 years!"

Um... what?!

"Technology has advanced to the point where Obama is going to put his brain into a robot and live for 1,500 more years! Then he's going to pick the people he likes, put their brains into robots, and then he's going to kill everyone else! 93% of the population will die!"

It took me everything I had not to bust up laughing at this guy. And his source is his pal he sees at the gas station every day. Anyway, I tried to just play it off and move on to a gospel-centered discussion, but then Elder Hernandez had to do the worst thing possible and encourage this guy with the whole "constitution will hang by a thread" prophecy. UGH. FALSE DOCTRINE.

Anyway, that was a pretty great lesson we had last week. Small, conservative towns are fun. Elder Graves and Elder Meza recently met with a guy who insists the whore riding atop the seven-headed beast in Revelations is a female president that will go to war with 7 countries. Love it.

So until next Monday, remember God loves you and I don't think He'll let Obama kill 93% of the population.

<3 Elder Holladay

Elder Denham and me the night before he left

New Companion

It was another interesting week in Saint Johns Arizona, and a longer one what with transfers going on. Since Elder Denham was preparing to leave, we spent the majority of the week seeing everybody he wanted to say goodbye to. As one can imagine, as a greenie, it's weird to see someone go through the process of going home. I'm not sure my brain has processed any of it very well, but it's whatevs. So yeah, we only had like 2 real lessons last week, and then the rest of our time was used visiting everyone Elder Denham wanted to see one last time.

Once Elder Denham left on Saturday morning (at 4 AM!), I spent the weekend with Elders Grave and Meza, our resident Spanish speakers. Luckily, we didn't really spend much time with people that only speak Spanish, so it's all goooood. On Sunday morning, I went on splits with one of the ward mission leaders so I could teach the Gospel Principles lesson in Louie's ward. Louie came and loved the lesson (on obedience, and why it's a good thing). Man. That guy is ready to be baptized. We're gonna see if we can set it up on a day when Elder Denham can actually come down and see it happen, so that would be cool. It definitely won't be this week though, because we'll be in the valley the weekend to hear Elder Nelson speak to the entire Scottsdale and Mesa missions! That will be awesome.

From Monday afternoon to Tuesday night, I was paired up with Elder Hernandez, a fellow greenie from Maryland of Guatemalan descent serving in Eager. His trainer was getting transferred, so President told him to stay with me for the night. That was... interesting. I mean... Elder Hernandez is... it would be hard to be real companions with him. That's what I'll say.

But at about 10:45 last night, my new companion arrived! His name is Elder Blanchard. He's from Roosevelt, Utah, but I guess he also spent a good amount of time growing up in Cheyanne, Wyoming. He's been out 9 months, and I think he's gonna be a really good companion. We spent about a good hour last night just talking before we went to sleep, and so far he's really cool.

It's nice that Mom thinks I'm not a greenie anymore, but you're a greenie until you finish the 12 week training program. So I'm halfway there! Dad wants to know what Snowflake and Eager are like. Snowflake's really nice (in fact, we went golfing there again last P-day!). The temple is beautiful, and so are the houses and golf course around it. Snowflake is bordering the city of Taylor (like, you can't even tell where one ends and the other begins if not for the signs), and they have a huge rivalry. That makes me happy, because it reminds me of the Pawnee-Eagleton rivalry in Parks and Recreation.  Eager is pretty nice too. I mean, they have a McDonald's, which means they're not too shabby. And both Eager and Snowflake have nice cool climates like Saint Johns.

I ordered the buckle last P-day, and it will be here in 5-7 weeks. I can't wait to get a picture of it to you guys, because it makes me giggle every time I think about what I put on there. 

That's about it for this week. I love you all and hope you have a good week!

And remember the church is true. My life right now would be pretty crappy if it wasn't true. Luckily, it is, so we've got nothing to worry about.

<3 Elder Holladay

Week 7 -- There's a Community Analogy for Everything

Whaddup, party people??

It was a pretty decent week. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were consumed by the Apache County Fair, where we set up a booth. We had all the good stuff: Books of Mormon, pamphlets, pass-along cards, copies of the Proclamation to the World, and we even had a TV playing all kinds of church videos running. But at least 90% of the people that actually talked to us were members. And then all of our dinners those nights were like, "We'll just buy you guys food at the fair!" which was not good on my insides. 

We taught Louie a couple more times, getting him ready for baptism, but he didn't come to church yesterday. Since he hasn't been to church two times yet, that means he won't be baptized before Elder Denham leaves, so that's too bad. I'm certain I'll get to see it through though.

Also, I love Elder Denham to death, but it won't be too bad when I get a companion that everyone doesn't talk to about going home. We had to drive to Eager this week for his exit interview, and a sister waiting for her interview asked me how long I have left. Um... 22 1/2 months...

It's okay though. Yesterday, I bore my testimony in all 3 of our wards (a President Sweeney challenge) on change and why it's good for us. Of course, I compared it to the movie business. Nobody wants to see a sequel that's just more of the same. We want sequels that push the characters in new, harder circumstances, and we want to see them come out of it all having changed. And that's what a mission is doing for me. Putting me in new, unfamiliar territory so I can come out of it a better, stronger person.

Actually, I've been thinking more about Community's lesson than that of great movie sequels. When Community's showrunner, Dan Harmon, was fired after Season 3, they brought in two new guys for Season 4 who kept trying to assure fans that "nothing about the show was going to change." While Season 4 had its moments, what ended up happening was that the show fell into a trap of predicitability with absolutely no character development. The new showrunners were afraid to change any of the characters or try anything new or groundbreaking with the show. 

That was horrible of them. The great thing about Community was that it was always pushing its characters into unfamiliar territory and it was always trying to tackle groundbreaking concepts. Community was great because it offered something different every week. Season 4 tried to latch onto some kind of Community formula, and it suffered as a result.

Of course, Dan Harmon was hired back on for Season 5 after lots of fans started bailing on the show. Harmon not only knew he had to change the show up to get it back the heights of greatness it reached in its first three seasons, but he had no choice but to change the show when two lead cast members (Chevy Chase and Donald Glover) decided to leave. Harmon embraced the change head on and used it to fuel the entire season. Characters changed careers and majors, characters left, characters died, new characters were introduced. And if there's anything Season 5 of Community taught me, it's that change is not only inevitable, but it's okay. Because Season 5 was just as good as the first 3 seasons, because it pushed itself in new directions.

And that's what a mission is doing for me. I don't want my life to become Season 4 of Community. That's what I was actually thinking as I bore my testimony on the importance of great sequels yesterday. 

I'm an odd duck.

Anyway, have a fantastic week! Mom, good luck on student teaching! Dad, good luck on taking care of things while Mom is student teaching! I love you all! The church is true!

<3 Elder Holladay

P.S. You should have seen the look on Elder Denham's face when he saw what was in the package you sent me. Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Week 6 That's One Big Burrito!

Welp, that new car sounds pretty schnazzy, and I'm glad to hear student teaching has gone so well and that Dad had a great birthday. I'm jealous that you got to see Into the Woods, and the second half is what's supposed to make it so great because it shows that happy endings are a bunch of hippy-dippy baloney. The rumor, though, is that the Disney movie is being sanitized a fair bit, but Steven Sondheim says that's not true. Who knows?

This was a pretty good week. I don't have my planner on me right now, so I don't have that to flip through and remember everything we did, but some interesting stuff definitely happened.

Tuesday was our zone temple trip in Snowflake, so that was fun. I didn't think temples came that small though.

In St. Johns, the most intense food challenge here is the triple grande burrito at El Cupido's. On Wednesday at district meeting, we were asked to write down 8 goals we wanted to accomplish before the end of our mission, so of course, I wrote, "Eat a triple grande at El Cupido's." And the other guys in the district were all like, "Well, we can cross that one off today."

So for lunch, we headed over to El Cupe's and I ordered a triple grande "Big Jake". Steak, beans, rice, cheese, and a jalapeno cream cheese sauce. The thing came out and it was as long as my arm. I put it all down and only dry heaved once in the process. I've never eaten so much of one thing in one sitting, and I was full for the entire rest of the day. It was truly a tender mercy when our dinner appointment forgot we were coming and just ordered us a pizza that we could take home, because then I didn't have to eat any!

That night, I slept over with the Concho elders because Elder Denham had to go on exchanges with the Spanish speaking elders. I guess I haven't cleared this up, but Elder Denham and I cover three wards in St. Johns. The Spanish speaking elders cover the other 2 wards (and live in the same house as us), and then there are 2 elders in Concho (St. Johns' Levan). My day with the Concho elders consisted of helping an investigator put together a hot rod he's building, visiting Concho's one and only restaurant which is super ghetto and kinda disgusting, taking a nap that accidentally went too long, helping an investigator bury her dead dog, and eating dinner with a lady that gave extremely high praises to the movie, God's Not Dead. So yeah, Concho's interesting.

On Friday night, we went to a St. Johns High School football game, because the whole town goes to those. That brought a whole flood of high school memories and weird emotions. Yikes.

We got to go the Snowflake temple again on Saturday for another recent convert of Elder Denham's. So that makes our 3rd temple trip in less than a month when most missionaries only go once every 3 months. Then we finally got to teach Louie Quirroz a lesson (Louie's that guy we did service for out in the middle of nowhere my first weekend here) . We taught him the restoration, and you could just tell this guy's been prepared like crazy for this. Even still, when I asked him to be baptized and he said yes, my mind went blank because everyone else so far has said no or has had something holding them back. My stun of silence sure was awkward, but we set a tentative date for September 13th, the day before Elder Denham goes home! So we're really hoping that pulls through. Then Louie made burgers out of elk meat and Jimmy Dean sausage with onion and garlic mixed in, and those were definitely the most delicious things I've had so far on my mission.

Yesterday, Madea fasted with us to receive an answer as to whether or not she should be baptized. We'll hear how that went for her tomorrow night.

And today, we went golfing with a member in Snowflake! Like an actual 9 hole course and everything. It being my first time golfing, I sucked like crazy. But I had fun, and  we're going again next week for Elder Denham's last P-Day.

So yeah. Love you all. As Brigham told me this week, the church is gnu. I'm not sure what that means, but whatever.

Week 5 One Month Down

So the Flonase got here on Thursday, and I've never been happier to shove something up my nose and inject stuff into it. I'm not really worried about a sinus infection anymore. On Tuesday, I was blowing my nose every five minutes. Yesterday, I blew my nose, like, twice. So it's better.

And the other package came on Friday, which was very exciting. I had just told Elder Denham a couple days earlier that I wish we were able to afford Nutella, and lo and behold, Nutella was in my hands and it was miraculous. Actually, I had been doing pretty darn good on keeping my food in the apartment healthy until Friday, but that's okay. I'm using the Nutella on wheat bread, and I'm rationing the candy and Oreos, so it's all good! Men are that they might have joy, and sugar can definitely bring joy. I'm also really enjoying the USB drive I got. There are some interesting choices on there, but it's mostly appropriate. I'm not sure how much Elder Denham enjoys the Muppets or the old school Disney soundtracks, but I've had to listen to his Christian rock the past few weeks, so I don't really care.

All in all, even thought the work technically got harder, I felt much better this week. I was feeling happier, I had the spirit more, and the days went much faster than the previous week. So that was good.

Elder Denham is district leader, so on Monday night, he went on exchanges with the Concho elders. Concho is to St. Johns as Levan is to Nephi. Anyway, that left me with St Johns' Spanish speaking elders Monday night and all day on Tuesday. I'd say only about a third of the people they visit speak Spanish, but it sure was awkward when we were talking to Spanish speakers. I kind of just sat there, minding my own business, and the people we were visiting would see that and have fun teasing the gringo that can't speak Espanol, but it was still a fun day. 

Wednesday we did a lot of cleaning, which is good because our fridge smelt like a wet fart from Satan. We found some nasty green meat and some purple provolone cheese in there, so that was fun. Needless to say, it smells just fine now. That night, we also picked up one of the zone leaders from Snowflake so he could go on exchanges with us for a day.

So Thursday was spent with Elder Buckley. I was also in desperate need of a haircut (I'm sure I had the longest hair in the mission, if not the entire missionary force), and Elders Denham and Buckley gave me a hard time about not just taking a pair of electric clippers to my head like most of the missionaries here do. I have my dignity though, so I made us go to a barber. The barber here is only open on Thursdays, so that's why we weren't doing it on P-Day. The barber takes a freaking 2 and a half hour lunch though, so we had to go to like, a beauty salon that charged me an embarrassingly high amount of money. Also, I learned you have to tip haircutters, so that was weird.

Nothing too exciting happened the rest of the week. We've been trying a lot to find new people to teach since none of our investigators are progressing, but it's hard to find new people too. But last night, we visited a family and had them go through their Facebook friends for referrals, and we got TWENTY FOUR new referrals, so hopefully at least a couple of those work out. We're aiming to get a baptism before September 15th when Elder Denham leaves, so we better get to work.

That sucks about the Subaru. But Provo Beach sounds fun. I've heard a lot of good things about that place. I was excited to hear about Tag's call to D.C., and apparently Ryan Hatfield was called to Virginia, so that's also awesome. Good luck on your student teaching, Mom and Aaron!

And remember that the church is true. Because it is.

Week 4 "Down to the Valley"

Sounds like a super cool week for you guys, what with a surgery AND a family picnic! I don't know why you didn't send pictures of Dallin's date though so I could rate her on a worldly scale. That's disappointing.

I'm pretty sure it would be okay to send Grandpa's talk. We listen to talks on drives sometimes, but they're all from apostles and general authorities. But all of those apostles and general authorities knew and loved Grandpa, so it's gotta be okay.

So yeah, I heard about Robin Williams on Tuesday morning, and that day was all downhill from there. Okay, I'm kinda sorta maybe half-joking and stuff or whatever, but it was a harder week than my first couple.

We've been teaching a lot of cool people this week. We've got Matt and Gloria, an unmarried couple in their 60's. Matt was baptized as a kid but has been to prison and stuff. Gloria's not a member and just arrived four months ago from North Carolina after she and Matt met on the internet. They've both been coming to church and have good testimonies, but they need to get married and give up their 20 cigarettes they each smoke every date. They're cutting down on smokes, but they supposedly can't get married until they move all of Gloria's stuff back from NC, which apparently is super expensive to do and they can't afford to do it right now. Most of the stuff she said she has to move here, though, sounds superfluous and I don't even know how any of it would fit in their little trailer home. A king sized mattress? 3 big screen TVs? A bunch of fancy furniture (apparently, Gloria's recently deceased husband was quite well off)? So... they've got to make some sacrifices, cuz we can't spend a lot of time on non-progressing investigators.

There's Madea Moreilles, a 40 year old married mom who we're teaching in a member friend's home. We showed her the Restoration video, and she clearly believes everything. The spirit was super strong, but when we asked her to be baptized, she said no. She doesn't feel like a good enough person with the grudges she's holding from her past and stuff, so that sucked. She still came to church though, so that was good.

Mario's staying strong. I don't think I mentioned that his dad doesn't want him to be baptized until he's gone to church for a year, so that's no good, but we're trying to speed that along. Anyway, we accompanied him to mutual on Wednesday where we played ultimate frisbee, so that was fun.

We taught a lady named Kristina (sic) Schwabb this week. We visited her last week and she invited us to come back because she enjoys hearing about other religions and finding out how much they align with her own. We were hoping to teach her and her whole family, but it turned out to just be her, and she was ready with her bible and a notebook for notes. It could have gone well anyway, but the member we brought with us kept trying to give real evidence that the Book of Mormon was true in the bible, and that led to some serious bible bashing between Kristina and our member. The spirit just kinda flew out the window. But we're going back there this week (with a different member).

On Thursday, we taught some seminary classes. The seminary teacher here heard our talks last Sunday and enjoyed them so much, he had to have us visit his classes. It was really fun, and it was great to see the expression all of the senior boys' faces when I told them I had been in seminary just 3 months ago. A lot of them realized they need to get their lives together.

 On Friday night, we drove down to the valley (where Nephi has "up north", St. Johns has "the valley"). One of Elder Denham's past converts was receiving her endowment in the Mesa temple on Saturday, and we got to go with her. That was super awesome to be in the temple where Grandma and Grandpa were sealed and to see how grateful people are to the missionaries that taught them. We stayed the night at some other elders' apartment in Scottsdale, and I met a guy serving here from Tuscon. He admitted that he was quite mad when he opened his call.

 So those are some of the things we did this week. Mom, you may have gotten a text last night with a picture of me and Elder Denham. A member (I can't remember her name) likes to take pictures of the missionaries here and send them to their parents. She had her teenage daughter send this one though, and we told her the caption to put with the picture: "Swag."

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Here's the crawdad I caught on the camping trip

and me and Elder Denham sucking them brain juices out