Stockton (10/11/10)

Hi,

The greeting is the hardest part of the email for me. It's a crazy I don't know why but its just so hard. Anyway life is great I LOVE LOVE LOVE stockton. This is where its at. There are so many cool people here. I love preachin the gospel here. I feel like i should have grown up here. There are people like me.

Anyway so highlights of the week....

1. I serve in the Brookside ward with some really great people. The ward is very supportive and I know I am going to love it here. Sister Badger is great we are like two peas in a pod and it may be a bad thing because all we do is laugh ALL THE TIME... But we still get a lot of work done at the same time. We are going to baptize stockton change it from one of the most dangerous cities in the world to the safest city in the world.

2. Brookside Brotha: he is our mascott we made him the other day. We have decided to put on a ward challenge to help the feel motivated to do missionary work. We call it TIDAL WAVE... and you get a certain amount of points for everything that you do, that helps us. So giving someone a BOM or Inviting someone to church, feeding us, + extra point for dessert. etc. The ward is excited for it so it seems to be great. They are split up into groups so RS, EQ, YM, Primary, etc. They are trying to beat the others and its great.

3. We have a few people that are going to be baptized this month YEA. I am so excited because I get to work with kids now. In the deaf program there are not many children we get to teach but here is stockton its full of children. We have about 5 investigators that are 13 and younger. They are so amazing. They get it and learn so quickly. We are working for 3 of them to get baptized the 22 or 23 this month. We also have 2 deaf investigators both of which will be baptized real soon as well. We are hoping forHalloween. Cool yeah? And many others we are working with and hoping they will progress to baptism. We need a few parents to say yes, a few to come to church and after that they are done for they should be baptized. This is a great work.

4. There are people everywhere so we get to talk to lots of people every day and the people i meet and talk to I don't have to say ok the hearing missinaries will come and teach you but I get to come back and teach them. It makes me so excited although Im not used to that. Its a little weird.

5. Last but not least, stockton is home of some of the most blunt people in the universe i'm sure of it. I have been here 5 days and already been proposed to, asked on dates, and some other funny things of that nature. it's great i think its really funny and sis badger loves it to because she says now she gets a break from it. The new girl is in town. hahahaha

Well, the church is true and I love working with hearing people, I didn't think i would but there are some funny people here. Alvin Guy and Adnan (D) Clegg are feeding us squirell on thursday, they are some of our investigators. They are hilarious. always make me laugh so I will let you know how it goes and what it tastes like.

This is the one and only true work in the world. The Lord loves us so much and wants all of us to learn about Him. I have a testimony of the importance of member missionary work. Someone said to me, when we told them about the ward challenge, "oh so you are trying to get us to do your work now." I said "No WE are doing YOUR work already, we are just trying to get you to help us with it." We should all be spreading the gospel and inviting everyone around us to be a part of this glorious message. Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is our responsibility to do the work we are all missionaries saving our brothers and sisters. We can't get to heaven alone. I love being a missionary.

Love sIster Holt

Be happy and keep smiling

Transfers (10/5/10)

Hello all transfers have been called and I am So excited and so----------------------------------------o sad...

I'm Leaving carmichael.... I have been here for 2/3 my mission. The chances of me coming back are SLIM. So I have to say goodbye to all of my dear loved investigators and members. Casey is so great and eventually be baptized. We have had a lot of great lessons with her and got her concerns and we are starting to resolve them one by one. She knows this is the true church and it is just time now for her to be baptized. I'm so sad I will not be here for the process but I will be there for her baptism. I love her so much she has so much faith and desire. Molly will be baptized I don't know when. She is out of town for a hmong new year with her family.

I am going to Stockton!! PAH finally I have been told for so long I am going there and I think it is going to happen now. My comp is Sister Badger and i am soooooo excited I can't wait to be with her. SHe is such an amazing missionary we are going to have tons of fun... and work hard too of course.. If it aint fun your not doing it right. I am having fun so I must be doing something right. I love being a missionary and I love the Sacramento mission and deafies and I guess now I will learn to love hearing people too. I am going to an english ward and we are trying to set up a deaf program there. We have a few deaf investigators down there, + many hearing investigators. I am really excited I feel like I belong down there in the ghetto with all the crazy "Stocktonites" WOot Woot.

I don't have much time to write crazy day packing and everything but i will send pictures and tell you all I love you and that I am going to miss Carmichael and Sister Stoddard and the other sisters in my zone. It has been so much fun I am a missionary and life couldn't be better.

oh and how about

Love you all

Love Sister Holt

Be happy and keep smiling.

Hello (9/27/2010)

Hello family,

Do you believe in MIRACLES?? All around... another week of miracles life is great!! Gramps I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Casey came to church after 6 months of teaching her and she finally came. She has the fire and she is reading like crazy. She has even started reading Doctrine and Covenants. I love her so much and she is so happy now. It's great. This Tuesday she is coming over to Bro Steed's house we are eating dinner and getting a blessing for her and her son. I am so excited for her.

The Relief Society Broadcast was so good. It is wonderful to know we have such a strength in this church and support group for women. One of the members she was baptized a little over a year ago, Thinks it's the most amazing thing in this world and seeing her love and the support she receives from that has made my testimony grow so much. The Church is true and I love that we are all a part of this amazing organization or have the opportunity to be a part of it.

Molly is doing great. She came to the relief society broadcast with us and loved it and still wants to be baptized but it might be a little later because she will be out of town. Darn but it will be great. She is funny, very honest and blunt.

I am finished with exchanges for the transfer I went to stockton and manteca this past week and it was lots of fun. I learned a lot from those two exchanges. Next week is transfer week so I wiill be emailing on Tuesday and i will find out where I am beng transferred to.

BJ do you know a Brian Grob (Elder Grob) He served in the Philippines the same time as you he may have been your companion. It is my comps bro in law. Cool Beans.

Well That is all for now because it is time to go. We are playing football against the other zone and we are pumped!! Well basically the elders are determined not to lose.

Life is great and being a missionary is the most amazing thing in this world. I love it with all my heart. I love being a missionary.

Love Sister holt

Be happy and keep smiling

Hello family and friends (9/20/10)

I'm sick of saying hello family and friends but i have no other greetings so you will have to deal with it.

This week has been great. I love being a missionary and I really feel like one this past week. We had the opportunity to talk to lots of sons and daughters of God and some accepted (a very small number) but a lot were really nice. Life is great here in Sac town the weather is finally cooling off and I don't sweat do death while contacting now.

This week was a little crazy we had lots of fun Sister Stoddard was out on the deck doing her laundry and I had a flash back to bear lake. I jumped up as fast as I could and locked the door. I then made her dance for me with her arms full of laundry before I would open the door. I couldn't resist. It was really funny. On wednesday we took the district leader and his companions bike and they took our car and we went riding!! It was so fun, we went about 23 miles. I wore shoes that i had not worn in oh about 10 months and my feet killed and I have a giant blister on my foot but it was still fun. Mom I wore a helmet the whole time too. You would be so proud. We rode from Carmichael all the way to nor sac for one of our investigators. She was there and we had a quick lesson then we hurried off back to the church for our ASL class that we were teaching. Then we woke up the next day and rode out bikes 6 miles to district meeting but we didn't quite make it because the zone leaders drove by in there car and saw poor sis stoddard struggling to keep up so they turned around and picked us up. Totally not allowed but the AP's ok'd it so I guess its ok but it was so weird I felt like I was breaking the law. AWKWARD!! Thursday was a good day.

Saturday we were trying to take Molly Yang to a Temple tour but no one in the entire universe was available to take her home so we had to say next week. But we taught her the big three. Tithing, word of wisdom, and law of chastity.... She is already following all of them. So she is set up to be baptized Oct 10 woot woot woot. So it all worked out. We are going to set her up theRelief Society meeting this Saturday and church on sunday. She is great she is one of those bold, blunt, deafies that i just love. And her baby is the cutest thing on this planet.

The best part of the week would have to be Casey!! She works on sundays for a deaf client. So she is over there and basically just makes sure everything ok so we went over Sunday morning to see if they would come to church. She let us in her client was asleep so we just talked to her. She was having a really hard time and so she talked to us about everything she is experiencing right now. She had a cochlear implant about 3 months ago. Since then she has kind of lost her desire to read and pray so We talked to her about Satan tempting her a preventing her from doing the things she knows is right. We brought out a pass-a-long card with a picture of Christ and his hand stretched out for her and if she will just reach out he will be there for her. She started to cry and couldn't talk (sign) and then she spilled what has really been bugging her. We were able to help her. She couldn't come to church because her client didn't want to but next week we will get them. We set up a dinner appt with the Steed family for Thurs and she is going to get a blessing and her son and eat dinner. We are excited.

The Church is true and I love being a missionary. I really feel like a missionary because I was able to watch her accept Jesus into her life and try to follow him again. It was wonderful. I love being a missionary!!!!!!!!!

Love Sister Holt

BE happy and keep smiling.

Oh and we went to the zoo today for p-day lots of fun but i forgot my cord to email them so next week haha sorry.