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.