That would have been fun to hear the Dutch names! That's really cool
that you got to go to the temple with the youth and the new member to the
ward! A member in San Diego who served in the High Council shared his
thoughts about new members attending the temple. He noticed that a high
percentage of the members that didn't go to the temple within 3 months of
being baptized who were converts became less-active compared to the
members those that did. He encouraged us to get all of our friends to the
temple as soon as possible so that they could experience the importance of
constantly learning and experiencing the fullness of the gospel and to help
them keep progressing. I think that's super cool that she got to
go! Good Job! Leaving at 4 in the morning though does not sound
like the best.....maybe a little later is a better/safer idea. Man....I
can't imagine 25 youth in a ward anymore! I remember in Ottawa when we had
more than that. It's so different being here...there are not a lot of
youth. We have been pretty blessed with the wards we grew up
in. Super blessed.
Dang....those landscapes would be soooo nice. Especially along
those rest points or whatever they are called. A lot of the Nederlands
people loooove Canada for its beautiful scenery. It's hard to remember
what home is like now-a-days. A member told us that there are some parts
in North America that are buried in snow! So weird to think about
shoveling driveways! San Diego last winter...no snow yet here or even
weather for snow to happen. Crossing fingers that we'll get some snow
just before Christmas. It would be nice to have a white Christmas.
But maybe only for Christmas seeing how it would really suck if we lost the
possibility of using our bikes.....we kind of need those in our area. If
we didn't have them our work would be waaaaay slow.
This week was a blur. I feel like I say that every
week. I guess this week I just let the numbers that we share with the
zone leaders get to me so last night I was just feeling overwhelmed and trying
to figure out what the heck the problem was. It's nice to know that
we can go somewhere private and speak to our Father Heaven.
I find a lot of assurance having some experience recognizing answers and
know that He hears our prayers and will help us. I guess I
allowed things to weigh me down to the point where I just needed to have a good
long chat with my Heavenly Father. The feelings and
thoughts that come to our minds as we take the time to pray....and then pause
to listen......really help clear and rekindle(I wanted to use reguvinate but I
don't know how to spell it so I went with rekindle)your mind, your feelings
and your spirit. A sister missionary once shared what someone
had once told her about listening while praying. This person
said....Imagine someone tells you how they are doing, what's going good, what’s
going bad and all the feelings that they are going through, asking for you
advice and help but they never stop, giving you no chance to reply leaving
you unable to actually help them. I feel like whenever things
start going good I will forget the little things such as allowing my Father in
Heaven to try and help me or putting my trust in Him. Sometimes I get so
caught up in life and what’s going on where I forget something that I have been
learning all my life like, ''trusting my Heavenly Father in all things.''
Heck, I share this with people very regularly. Man I suck at
spelling. Curses Dutch spell-check. People wonder why good things
happen to bad people. We may feel like we are doing so good as we do our
best in following the steps of our Savior and then booom.......we walk into a
wall. We get spiritually hit. I can speak for myself that if I
didn't go through things like this....and it's sad to say...I would forget my
Heavenly Father.
Mosiah
1 :17 ''Therefore, as they were unfaithful they did not prosper nor
progress in their journey, but were driven back, and incurred the displeasure
of God upon them; and therefore they were smitten with famine and sore
afflictions, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty.''
haha I hope you all don't think that I am going apostate or being
disobedient by me sharing this scripture. I like it because to me it
explains that we all may have the thought to do something like to go and speak
to someone, or to go and visit or call someone. Heck it could the most
simplest of things but sometimes, and it could be soooo good, but we shrug it
off. Everyone does it. If you don't....I'm sorry...you gotta quit
pulling the wool over your eyes: ) We ALL do this...it's ok. haha
that's how we learn. When I shrug off an impression, to me, I am being
unfaithful. Last night we were biking and I saw the other side of the
road and just had this feeling and desire that I wanted to bike on the other
side of the road. I didn't do it. I kept biking on the normal path
we take, contacted a dude....didn't go as one would intend....and then saw
these 2 other people on the other side of the road. All I could think in
my head was, ''shooot.....that's why I was supposed to go to that side of the
road.'' I guess I had many experiences this week where I felt that I knew
what it was that I was being guided to do....but I was trying
to.....rationalize....or justify...haha there's a word I really want to use but
I can't dig it out of my brain. Ok. That dude that we
contacted. I felt the impression to bike on the other side of
the street. I didn't because I saw a dude walking towards us and no one
on the other side. Because I saw this dude...I brushed aside the
impression. I guess the word could be reasoning.
I'm pretty sure reasoning was the word I couldn’t dig out of my
brain. Man I do that a lot. I feel like this week was a week
of ''reasoning'' for Elder Holt. Dang that's a tricky
thing not to do eh? I was forgetting to trust in my Father in
Heaven. I forgot that these impressions, if they be good, come from
God. That they come for a reason. I feel that because I
shrugged these impressions that I did not progress as much in my journey of
life and was being driven bac, (referring back to Mosiah 1 : 17). I
was slowly becoming the person that was forgetting to include my
God. I started to feel the weight of feelings, responsibilities and
all that become heavier and heavier. How grateful I am to have
been given the wake up call to remember my God. Sometimes we feel that
they are unfair but what a gift it is to find answers to the why of
things through the words of our Prophets of old and
of today. I didn't fully understand why these feelings of
overwhelment were coming from. I was doing what I should, I
was doing my best to be obedient...I didn't fully understand why these
feelings came. But now I have learned and experienced another
lesson why God said we are giving afflictions ''...to stir them up in remembrance
of their duty.'' We need these moments to help us remember things we
may have forgotten. I can promise you that if you are honest with
yourself and do not try and sugar coat things with the intent of making
yourself feel better....there will be a lesson that will bless not only your
life, but to all those your Father in Heaven has put into your life.
We went to Brussels last week to get our drivers
licences. Got to eat Belgian Friets and waffles. I didn't
get a Belgian waffle. I ended up giving my money to a lady...I am
sometimes a weak hearted kid. There was a dude who was 25
skateboarding at our meeting and I really had the impression to go and skate
with him. He came to grind the stairs where we were and he screwed
up...giving me the opportunity to say hi and start a conversation with
him. We talked about skating....life...growing up skating. It was
awesome. Well, Elder Holt wanted to skate so he asked his friend Lucas, (who
was the skateboarder) if he could use his board. Lucas replied to me with
the comment...''in those shoes?'' haha We laughed and I asked if we could
switch shoes so I could skate. This dude was so cool that we switched
shoes. I did a few things. He challenged me to grind on the stairs and
luckily it ended in success. It was nice to share a common joy that we
found in life through skateboarding. Turns out he quit drinking liquor because
it cost too much, he didn't feel good after drinking and he found more joy in
developing his talent in skating. Talking to this dude and getting to
know him, the Spirit helped me see how the Lord was preparing this young man to
receive the Gospel. While I was skating another missionary contacted him
and kind of did the regular normal missionary contact; leaving me feeling like
it would be weird to add what I felt the Spirit was helping me to say.
Sad to say that I allowed myself to ''reason'' myself out of it. I really
hope to learn to reason but at the same time trust in answers I know the Lord
is giving me and try my faith and just go with it.
Love you all and I miss you,
Elder Holt
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