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