Thursday, August 8, 2013

Week 3 Ummmmmmmmmmm

Hello Family and Friends,
Well, week three has come and gone. We hit our Hump day of the MTC this past Tuesday, and it was weird to think, We ended up changing class rooms, which at first I was not happy about, because I loved our classroom since it was right next to the boys el baño and the drinking fountains outside, we are now located at the other end of the hall next to the hermana´s el baño and no drinking fountain. But see, I grew to like it by the time we actually switched because, they had to move a lot of things outside from other class rooms to make room for new missionaries coming in, so they left some rolly chairs outside and so we went and all got a rolly chair, and now every district in our building is SUUPPER jealous of us all. I kinda took it as a transfer in the field, but just to a different classroom, sounds like a good thing!
The reason they had to change pretty much EVERY district on the entire campus is because the Peru and Argentina MTC´s are both full and so next week, they are sending an extra 100 missionaries our way already to the 100 that were planning on arriving next Tuesday, we will then have around 800 Missionaries on our campus here. (Good thing I only have 2 and a half more weeks here...) I forgot to tell you about this place, so the whole campus is about 94 acres, half of it is probably houses, that house all of the hermanas and half of the elders, those of us that got here in the first three waves of Americans and all of the Native Elders are in Apartments, which I actually prefer because we are all a lot closer with other districts I feel! It is pretty cool! But we really are only allowed to hang out in like 30 of the acres, from our apparments to where our Sacrament meeting is held, if you look up the school on google maps you can probably see how big it is, I am not sure what the school was called though, I always forget, but I do know it started with a B and it was a highschool, so that could help your search. Maybe if you ask Juan Becerra, he will know?
Well, I know that letters people have been sending me have been arriving, I have gotten a couple letters, which end up making my day, but I still haven´t gotten that letter that you said Brandon sent, so maybe that address is wrong?? If so, could you throw it up on my facebook that the address is wrong, so people can write the correct address? 

Oh boy, I knew as soon as I left, that the Man Cave was gonna be attacked... I can only imagine what my room will look like when I get home...(Dad and Mom dejunked,mom) Sounds like an exciting busy day of work, and it always feels good to clean! Speaking of cleaning, after I am done emailing this morning, I will probably be going back to our apartment to sweep it out because I am so sick of all the dust bunnies and things I touch when I walk bare feet (which I don´t do anymore) or do my push ups/crunches in the morning.
Shoot, Tom Call is married! That is kinda funny, because I was actually thinking of him yesterday and that he was getting married! Sounds like an Expensive wedding, but had to be loads of fun! I am kinda jealous about the band, because more and more I realize that I miss music like Big Bad Voodo Daddy, and Chicago and all them big band stuff! Even my Reel Big Fish that I started to listen to again at the end of the school year with Jayden.
Jayden has his farewell this Sunday? That lets you know how fast it has gone, because when I left he had a month and now it is his turn to start preparing to serve the Lord for the next two years. Crazy stuff!
A Party for Grandpa? Well, I am WAY ahead of you on writing a card in the mail, I got that sent off last week, so it should be getting there today or yesterday, hopefully he likes my letter, but if you want to wrtie down another memory for me, ummmmm write down.... (Mowing the lawn on the riding mower on his lap, when I got to steer, I use to Love doing that with him!) You will have to wish him a happy birthday for me, and tell everyone Hello and that I Love them all!
I am still bummed that I didn´t get to see Sasha´s brother before I left... Man, all that talk as a kid that he was going to come over, and he got there 10 days after I left. I am sure he is a great guy if he is related to Sasha, which in the long run now means he is apart of the Family and related to all of us! Love him, so he will want to stay there and not go home before I leave! :)
The fútbal here is WAY fast,  I think I told you this last week, but we usually play with my district and the district going to Osorno, and then we split up into three teams and play at least ten games in the hour of gym time we have. We play games of either the first team to score stays or if the 4 minutes run out, the team captains play rock, paper, scissors. Everyone loves to play that... not. But it is a ton of fun!
And yes, you did read that right, there is a district all going to Osorno, that me and Elder Robertson are not in. We are in the District where everyone is actually going to Rancagua, which I think I told you that last week too, oh well. I am SUPER jealous of Elder Justin Adams, who will probably be coming here the day I leave, if I am correct. The people who he will be serving with for the next two years are Amazing, and I Love them all. Besides the fact he gets to preach along the sides of David Archuleta... ;) But I actually am glad I am in this district, because I Love these guys so much! I am going to miss them when we depart for Osorno. Along the lines of Loving people, I have grown a love for the Mexican people here, which gets me so excited to meet the Chilaen people, I already am growing a love for a people, who I haven´t even met yet!
Ummm Spanish? Well it was different then what I thought I guess, last Sunday I got called in to have an interview with President Florez (The first councilor of our Branch Presidency) and he asked me if I knew how good at Spanish I was, then he told me he knew I was pretty good at it. He had told me that the branch presidency gets letters of our progress from our instructors each week, and the one last sunday said that I did really good last week with speaking,  I was really confused when he had called me in, I thought maybe I was in trouble for something (Not that I do anything bad here...) But he told me that and I got really confused, because in class Elder Robertson is the one telling me how to say something if I mess up, and I just felt like he was ahead of me in the language. But when he told me that, it kinda made my day, and he told me an experience on his mission where he had to help the english speaking missionary speak spanish and the english speaking missionary helped him speak spanish, so I was supposed to encourage Elder Robertson to speak more this week during our lessons with our "investigators" which I did do! But the language is coming, slowly I guess. We are all nervous to get to Chile, because apparently the people there speak like 200x faster than Mexicans and Mexicans talk SOOO fast! -_-
Okay, now that I got all your questions out of the way, I guess I can tell you about the rest of my week.
The reason I titled this email "ummmmmmmmmmm" is because I really don´t know what to title it, because every day here is the same, not much different then last with some minor exceptions.
I meant to tell you last week that I met someone here. There is another kid from Utah who plays Water Polo. But you can´t guess what team. Oh what was that? Cache Valley? You are Right! Yeah.... The team that we made enemies with this year... And a kid who we all weren´t very fond of. Number 7 on Cache Valley who is the Really Tall guy on their team. and I guess he is pretty cool! I like him a WHOLE lot better now that I have gotten to know him out of the water. I sure didn´t like him at the summer games this year. But he is a cool kid!
One of our lessons with our "Investigators" this week was with an investigator named Angela. Her story is, that her whole family is Mormon, but she isn´t at our first lesson, she thought we were there for her Mom or brother, but we were there for her. We would challenge her to pray and read the Book of Mormon at the beginning but she didn´t really do that, so the other day, during one of our lessons, we taught her the first vision, the spirit was so strong, and after I said the first vision, Elder Robertson said, "Joseph Smith wanted to know so he prayed to God to find out what church was true, Angela if you want to know what church is true you need to pray as well." Which after that I immediately said "Cómo se Siente" which means "How do you feel?" and she responded after a minute of silence "Like I need to pray.." Which was AWESOME! Then with our last lesson with her, we got her to pray in front of us, which was pretty tough, but we found out she didn't know how to pray, so we taught her how, and encouraged her to pray, at first she didn't want to in front of us, but I encouraged her that it was okay, because we were only there to help her, the spirit was so strong and it got me SUPER excited for teaching people out in the field!
It is kinda funny, after we do our lesson in TALL we have time to get on LDS.org and watch Mormon Messages or do something else, so I have put a logo "Elder Holt Photography" on some of the pictures I have taken and been going around setting them up on other people´s computers, in the lab that we always go to! it is kinda fun to see some of these pictures here that I have taken like the CTR ring picture or a Temple picture I took on the screens all blown up!
A week ago tuesday our devotional was givin live by a member of the 70, his name was Elder Vanswela, I don't think that was spelled right, but he gave us a good message, and I think you should look him up, he is pretty recent into the 70.

You want to see how busy it is? I took a picture at lunch today... When I first got here 3 and a half weeks ago, it barely filled half of that room, and there are now people on the right of me, and at the very far side of the room on the right over there... It is pretty hard to find a seat these days, the poor people who have to make all the food. Laundry is good, you just have to fight for a machine, it was frustrating the first week because everyone in my building went to the temple so I spent three hours in there that day, so last week I was up at 6 doing it and I got both mine and Elder Robertson´s laundry done in the morning because he was sick, and today I was up at 4:50 and all the machines were already being used, so Elder Robertson and I found a secret room. Yes there is a place to buy products, we bought detergent on the first week, and then we found out we didn't need to so it just sits in my closet. Yes I get to see the elders who are going to Osorno, three of them sleep with me and the other ones sleep in the rooms next to us, our room is kinda the party room, we have all the funny/cool elders, so every night after everyone has changed and gotten into relaxing clothes they come and fill up our apartment and just laugh until we go to bed. Last night Elder Borup's mom sent him a package with another Elder who got here this week and we opened it up and there is a ping pong net, so we set it up on our livingish room table and now we have ping pong tournis at night before we go to bed! It is now the hot spot that even elders from other zones are coming to hang out with us! I also just got a hair cut about an hour ago, and it doesn't look too bad, here are the before and after works of the nice short mexican ladies, it was kinda a fun experience, I have never had to slouch while getting my hair done!
Okay, last thing, I don't know if there is a way you can do this, but in the next package, (to chile) could you maybe send me an ipod with speakers? I really miss music, and a bunch of the guys going to Osorno have ipods. But we can't listen to music until we get down there, but I just realized recently that I am missing my movie music. If you end up sending me an ipod, could you make sure to put Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek, Tron, Inception, and of course Church Music whether that means some of the Garrets stuff, motab, or and classical stuff, that would be... AMAZING!
Oh and I think I found out I will actually be three hours ahead of you when I am in Chile, not two hours.
Okay, that just about sums things up for this week!
I Love you all,
Elder Holt


The lunch room is getting full with all the new missionaries

Before my haircut

After my haircut




Modeled this statue after me... Obviously...


























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