Busy Busy Busy

Yeah so as you can tell by the title of this email we had a bunch of stuff going on this week.

1st off last week we had a FHE with a member super far in the Bukid.  We got to cook some food over a campfire and share a lesson and play some games and it was super fun.  It started pouring rain while we were there so we got to walk back home for like 2 hours in the rain and of course I forgot my payong(umbrella) so I was soaked.

2nd we had exchanges in Carigara.  I was with Elder Lopez who is from Utah and he is super dope.  We taught a bunch of lessons and it was good to be back in a Waray Waray area.  I like Waray-Waray much more than cebuano.  

3rd we had zone conference in Tacloban.  It was super fun to be with a bunch of missionaries and to learn from President Argana.  He gave a training about a talk from President Monson I think about Faces of Failure and Attitudes of Accomplishments.  It was basically that I don't ever need to be discouraged because as long as I give my all the Lord will make up the rest.  The conference was supposed to end at lunch time but it ended up going until 5 so we missed our van back to Calubian so our entire zone of elders stayed in the Carigara apartment.  It was a pretty good time.

4th we had exchanges in Calubian with the other elders in our district.  We found a couple new people so that was good.

Sadly Jhon Rex and Noel didn't come to church last week so we had to push their baptism back a few weeks.  They still want to be baptized they have just been busy so we are just encouraging and praying for them.

Also we had a member invite her friend to church.  Brother Joel and he is super awesome.  We were able to teach him at the Church and it was a super good lesson and the spirit was super strong.  He accepted an IBD so that was super awesome. 

Pretty busy crazy week but it was super fun. 

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Carigara Zone

Zone Conference lunch with Elder Gomboc

Zone Conference haka???

Sitting in the Throne at Robinsons

 Us with the Family of Jhon Rex and Noel

Maayong Semana

This email is entitled in Cebuano because I have been trying to use more of  it but now I like can't really speak Waray-Waray of Cebuano it is just a mish mash or sagul as they would say which is what they speak here so that's all good.

Anyways this was another great week in Calubian.  We have realized that we haven't really had any new investigators for the past few weeks so this week we spent a lot of time just going to a bunch of houses and teaching lesson 1.  We have also taken the challenge of President Argana to use the Book of Mormon in every teaching opportunity and man the Book of Mormon has power.

I don't know what it is but like 3 people just opened up to us and were crying as they told us about trials they were having and we just testified that everyone has trials but if we live the gospel of Jesus Christ and stay faithful all of our trials will become things that make us stronger.  I have seen that soo many times already on the mission.  

One of new investigators Brother Jayce is super cool and he was super receptive when we started teaching him.  He asked us why there are so many churches and using the Book of Mormon we shared about how many churches will come saying I am the Lord's, I am the Lord's but they are just built up to get gain and he was like oh that makes a lot of sense.

We were then teaching his dad Brother Rodrigo and he asked about why infants don't need to be baptized and we shared Moroni 8 about how baptism is for the remission of sins and how children are clean and pure and he also was like wow that makes sense.  They both accepted Baptismal dates so hopefully they can progress.

Jhon Rex and Noel are progressing well.  Hillboy Family has been dropped because they must have moved or something.

Questions from mom and dad: How many miles does your mission cover?  I have no clue how many miles my mission covers but my address is just Calubian, Leyte, Philippines.

What is your favorite scripture or scripture story since you have been on your mission? I have two favorites:

1st: I have really loved the Stripling Warriors while i've been on the mission.  Just because they fought armies and were always outnumbered but they never feared or doubted and were saved.  I have been trying that to never fear or doubt or get discouraged and then I will make it through.

2nd: The end of Alma 31 about Alma praying for success as they go to teach and how the Lord blessed them.  It just always gives me a boost when I need it.

Love you tons!!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Another week in Calubian!

So this week was pretty normal not much exciting happened.  We did go to Tacloban for zone interviews and I learned that I lost weight :(  All the hills are keeping me thin haha.  I went into my interview with President Argana and he shared with me how President Nelson's talk from Sunday Morning was what the mission needed to hear and I was like hey that was my favorite talk no way.

We have kept teaching Brother Orlando, Sister Layza and Jhonrex and Noel.  Jhonrex and Noel should be getting baptized in two weeks so that is exciting.  Jhonrex and Noel were the only ones at church but we had a pretty good attendance so that was good and we helped our ward to plan a ward activity.  They haven't had any this year so that should be fun.  I'll let you know the specifics of the activity when it gets closer but it sounds like fun.

Our zone conference is on April 26 so hopefully I can get the journals and hear about when we get to skype home then.

Oh for riding the karabaw we were just walking down this path in the bukid and Elder Gomboc just asked a random guy if we could get a picture on the karabaw and the guy was just like sure.

And yeah dad Tatay is right :)

Question from mom and dad: What is the language going?  Language is going really good.  I can understand people which is a major bonus, sometimes it is still hard to speak but I feel like people can understand me so that's good.  Oh by the way I spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday and a member said that she understood everything and I did the whole thing in the language so that was cool.

Anyways, Love you tons!!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Me with Noel and Jhonrex

Eating some cheese flavored seaweed

A pretty epic dart throw by Elder Gomboc

Conference and New Companion

So we had transfers on Wednesday and I got a new companion.  Elder Gomboc, he is from Manila.  He goes home in September and is super awesome.  We get along really well so that's good.  His english is okay not great but we speak a lot of Cebuano, which is good because I haven't really used Cebuano since the MTC.

We finally got a little bit of progress going in Calubian.  We found a less active family that is super awesome and we learned that there kids are not members so we have been teaching them which has been super good.  They are 10 and 9 and are super smart.  One of them memorized the first paragraph of the intro to the Book of Mormon in between our visits.  Jhonrex and Noel they are legit.

Also on to Conference I loved it soo much.  I have so many favorite parts that I decided to make a list to make it easier to remember what I liked:

Favorite Talk: President Nelson Sunday Morning 

Favorite Session: Sunday Afternoon

Other Favorite Talks:Elder Holland, Pres. Eyring Sunday Morning, Bishop Causse, Pres. Nelson Priesthood, and Brother Durrant

Best Joke: Elder Holland-Rushes of Revelation, Elder Wakolo-15 brethren behind me, Elder Durrant-Es Posible?

Coolest Moment: Solemn Assembly, seriously gave me the chills and I felt the spirit super powerfully, and also Standing to sing Rise up oh men of God in the priesthood session.

Best Story: President Nelson-Wilbur Cox and Smashing Alcohol bottles, Elder Holland-Home Teaching Story, Bishop Causse-People researching church for temple approval, Elder Wilson-Man receiving revelation on the ship. Elder Christofferson-George Goats

Weirdest Moment: Hearing President Oaks conducting instead of President Uchtdorf.

Biggest Surprise: No More Home Teaching and the New Apostles

Best New Temple: Cagayen De Oro (of course!) and unnamed city in Russia

Funniest Moment: When President Nelson announced Layton UT temple. and Elder Gong's song

Hardest to Understand: Elder Zivic and Sister Aburto

New Word for a talk: Interregnum

Coolest Voices: Elder Robbins and Bishop Causse

Biggest Theme for Me: Receiving Personal Revelation

Best One Line:  "I love you mom" -Elder Durrant, because same

Yeah I really loved conference, it has become one of my favorite parts of the mission.  I know that President Nelson is the Prophet that God has chosen to lead the Church today and that he truly is guided by God.  I know this Church is true.

Oh and if you could send a new journal or two.  I am almost out of room.  They have some here they are just not super good.  Thanks

Oh and mom Pancit is like ramen noodles but it has meat and veggies in it.  It is everywhere here.

Question from mom and dad: What are the bathrooms like in your area? 

The bathroom took a little to get used to but now it is just normal.  There is no toilet paper but there is like a little bucket with water next the the toilet that you use to clean yourself and you dump water down the toilet to flush it.  No sinks.  They have normal bathrooms but only in the big malls in Tacloban.

Anyways I'm loving the work

Love you tons!

Me and Elder Gomboc

Me and Elder Gomboc with Sister Baronda, her house is super nice

Me riding a karabaw, or water buffalo

Easter Weekend and Conference

Maupay nga Semana,

So not too much happened but it was a good week.  We didn't have anything to crazy happen for holy week except for we got to watch a huge firework show from our back porch I will try to send a video.  And they had a huge parade through the town that we didn't get to see but we could hear it.  Easter here was basically a big excuse for tons of people to just party.

Sadly Brother Orlando didn't come to church because his family got offended by the bishop. That is a really common problem in this ward because the bishop has been the bishop for 7 years and everyone thinks that he stole all the relief from Typhoon Yolanda so it's a challenge.  And we haven't been able to contact Hillboy because all the people who are Catholic in town flocked to the huge catholic church.

It was super crazy on Friday because everything closed.  Seriously we were like the only people on the streets the entire day so weren't able to talk to anyone.  

But the beat goes on I heard about the new apostles on Sunday which was super cool because Elder Soares visited my mission for my first zone conference and I got to shake his hand so that was really cool.  It is crazy the home teaching is no longer a thing.  That helps bring our ward here because it was a major struggle.  And Awesome that the PHilippines is getting a new temple!

Answering the Question (What do you do on P-day?):  P-Day in Calubian goes just like this

we wake up then we head to a calendaria and buy some pancit, it's super good then we do our weekly laba.  After that we head to a little computer internet cafe thing for our emails.  After that we kinda clean the apartment and kinda chill.  It's kinda nice to just rest because we are pretty worn out by the end of the week.  Then at 5:30 we head out and work until 8:30.  Pretty chill day I love it.

Also transfers are on wednesday and I think Elder Martin will transfer so I'll let you know what happens.

Love you tons

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Getting ready for Holy Week

Super solid week this week.

We hit our goal for church attendance so we will not be a branch.  Super good.  The other major good thing was that we had a guy who is the son of a really old member tell us that he wants to get baptized which is super awesome because it has been tough lately finding new people to teach.  We already taught him once and he is super awesome.  His name is Orlando if you want to send some prayers his way.

This week I also had two different exchanges which was a pretty good time.  My first was in Carigara which is basically a mini city.  They have a super good ward there and we actually got to teach with members that would work with us.  It was kinda weird.  I also got fed by some other really awesome members so it was a super awesome exchange.  The only bad part was the apartment they live in was an old hospital that was turned into an apartment and everyone swears it is haunted. It was kinda freaky but it was a good time.

The second exchange was in Calubian with the other elders in our district from San Isidro and we had a good day of work.  Me and Elder Bao-as taught a bunch of lessons and we found some new investigators so it was a successful day.

Oh and Calubian is kinda getting crazy right now for holy week.  they are setting up shrines all  over the town and the Catholic Church here always has like 50 people there.  It's gonna be crazy.  The craziest part is that I hear they are doing actually live Crucifixions in Tacloban.

Answer to the question (What is your favorite thing about serving a mission in the Philippines?):  My Favorite part is either the food or honestly just being on a mission and seeing the miracles of the Gospel.  But probably the food because it is super good.  And it is kinda cool to think that I can speak a language that like a very small percentage of the world knows.  

Love you tons,

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

A fish swimming in the gutter in Carigara

Me and Elder Sarmiento

Adventure is out there

Not too much happened this week but it was super good.  We had zone conference in Tacloban and got to meet back up some of my batch that I haven't seen since the MTC so that was super fun.  We had a bunch of good trainings and then President Argana gave a big training about the Book of Mormon.  It was super good I love the Book of Mormon.  I also finished it for the second time on the mission last week so yeah.  It's the best.

Another good experience this week was after church we got invited to the house of Nanay Tigley who lives as far away from anything as I have possibly seen.  We hiked for probably 2 hours up a mountain and through some crazy hills to get to her house.  After we got there we got fed a huge feast so that was great.  I felt that some of the people we passed had never seen white people before.

Well our ward attendance went down this week which kinda stunk.  Our less actives are very stubborn but we are gonna get them eventually.  We keep getting threatened by stake leaders that we are going to become a branch but that is mine and Elder Martin's goal to not let that happen.  

Aside from that pretty normal week.  Lovin life in the mission field.  Even when success isn't very easy to see it is always there.  At least I feel closer to Christ if our less actives don't.  I think that's the secret to the mission.

Love you tons "Don't worry Mom I am doing great :)"

Also thanks so much for the package it was amazing.  For my birthday we decided to celebrate in Tacloban after zone conference and we ate at an american pizza place and got real chocolate shakes it was amazing.  And they had cake at zone conference.  Also I ate Durian which as described by President Argana "smells like hell but tastes like  heaven"  I think it tastes and smells like hell.  Pretty disgusting.

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Pictures from Zone Conference:

Lubi-Lubi

First off, Thanks for all the Birthday Shout outs!

One more year as a teenager, pretty crazy.  As for plans for the birthday usually the person has to cook up a meal for basically everyone in the town and then everyone comes and parties and gets drunk and all that good stuff.  I don't think we are gonna do any of that but one of the recent converts here is gonna cook us up a little bit of food so that's great.

As for this week kinda disappointing.  We didn't have any investigators at church and our attendance was pretty low but I blame it on the rain.  We had a little rain storm before church and that usually hurts the attendance because lots of members like in the mountains.  But I got the opportunity to speak.  They told us we were the speakers about 10 minutes before sacrament started so we kinda just winged it but it was a great experience.  I just spoke about the importance of member missionary work and how all members are called to share their testimonies in word and action.  

This week we also did a lot of finding or tracting to get some new investigators.  This area is like the church capital of leyte I swear.  In 1 barangay, which is like 1 neighborhood there are about 5-6 churches and their are probably 10 barangays that we work in.  Lots of churches and not many people want to change religions so that has been a little tough but I have learned about some pretty interesting churches.  It just helps remind me how true of church really is.

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

All the Filipino money

Studying in the apartment

Carigara Zone - after interviews

Birthday Package!

All the Coconuts You Could Ever Want

Another week in Calubian!

This week was super good we got a text really late on Wednesday night that we had zone interviews so we woke up super early and traveled to Carigara.  It was pretty cool meeting my new zone and getting to know them better.

We have been focusing a lot this week on Less Actives and members because we are trying to get our ward to not become a branch.  We got  the attendance up from 65 last week to 80 this week so pretty good improvement.  We want to hit 100 by the end of march so pray for us.  

We have been exploring the mountains of our area to find new people to teach because my companion has been here for 3 months and has basically found in all the normal spots so we have been exploring which has been kinda fun.  We were able to find a really nice family, the Hillboy Family who was super nice and listened to our message so hopefully we can see them progress.

To answer some questions Elder Martin is super cool. We did play a little bit of basketball at the church this week.  It was pretty fun.  He not super into sports but he is willing to play.  He is more of a gamer but we played a lot of the same games so we get along good. We shop for groceries in the local market but we buy meat from a meat shop because the meat at the market is a little freaky. Most of the milk is super weird here so we don't ever buy it.  We usually buy meat, veggies, rice, soy sauce.  My favorite recipe is Adobe which is basically chicken with soy sauce, vinegar, and a little bit of brown sugar, onions and garlic. It's super good. and Elder Martin is a chef so we eat good.

Oh we also had one really good lesson this week to one of our investigators named Layza.  We taught her about the book of mormon and at the end her mom bore her testimony of the book of mormon and I just started thinking about how much the book of mormon has blessed my life and I just felt it was true.  At the end we invited Layza to pray and she did and cried during the prayer and the spirit was super strong. 

Anyways good week of work in Calubian, btw I got my birthday package but I haven't opened it yet!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Calubian

So the biggest news is that I transferred to Calubian.  It is about the exact opposite of Anibong area in every way.  First off It is on the beach which is super awesome but it is also on the side of a mountain so we are hiking a lot.   Anibong was super flat so it was weird to see mountains everywhere on the way to Calubian.  I speak a language here that they call Calubiano because it is right on the edge of where people speak waray and cebuano so I can basically say anything in the two languages and people understand.  The understanding other people is the hard part but I am remembering a lot of the Cebuano from the MTC so that's good.

I will say it is super nice to actually live in my area.  It was sad to say goodbye to all the people I met in Anibong but I am super happy to be here.  It is a ward but the attendance is only 50-60 so they are talking about going to a branch.  There are over 300 members but so many less actives so we are focusing a lot on reactivation.  The stake president came to the ward on Sunday and he basically said we cannot become a branch and tried to help get a ward mission plan rolling.  The stake president is super awesome and was talking to us a lot about how the work is going and how we can get help from the ward.  Our bishop is kinda not super good so that stinks but we have some super faithful members.  

One funny thing is Calubian literally translates to the place of the coconuts so there are coconut trees everywhere.  It reminds me of that song from Moana about the coconuts and I was singing in my head when I first got here.  The food here is also super good.  We have a really good burger place and bbq and then all the normal filipino stuff.

My companion is Elder Martin.  He is from Arizona and he has been out for 19 months.  He's really cool and we get along well.  The apartment is right on the beach which is pretty cool.

I was trying to send pictures and the computer deleted them all so next week I will try again.  :(

Anyways I am doing great and we are working hard

Amping/Paghinay

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Transfer to Calubian

FB message from Rito Dacome (Wade's neighbor in Burauen):

Hello Mr. and Mrs. Holmstead, it's now almost 3pm here in the Philippines and I just got back from Tacloban.  I dropped off Elder Holmstead at the taxi van terminal on way to his new area in Calubi-an, Leyte.

These are two pictures that was taken today at the taxi van terminal....God Bless

From Rito Dacome:

Elder Holmstead gave this magazine the night he was packing his luggage, and look what I found inside?  A short note that really touches my heart.  He's really a well molded young man.

Few words were written in waray waray which is the dialect here in Burauen.

Basyang

So to start of I have officially experienced my second typhoon of the mission.  Tropical Storm Basyang came through this week so we weren't able to work for 2 days and it pushed our baptisms back to next week so that was a bummer. Mecaela and Rochelle-Anne both passed their interviews so Saturday is there baptism now which is a bummer because transfers are on Wednesday and i'm about 85% certain i'm transferring. (Word of advice don't tell your branch you may be transferring because they will make you share spiritual thoughts and teach priesthood haha)

Aside from that the work went really good in Anibong.  Solomon said a few weeks ago that he wasn't sure about baptism but this week he said he is ready to be baptized so we set a date in March for him.  Pretty exciting.

And same story for Brother Ernesto.  Before this week he had kinda just come to church with his family and not really participated in lessons but he was super ready to participate and even prayed which he had never done before.

Both of these experiences were super big answers to prayers to help them progress.  I was sad that we might have to drop both but now we are planning on baptizing both of them so that was super great.  

We also had our first Anibong FHE which was super fun.  Lots of members came to our branch president's house and I shared a spiritual thought and then we had lots of games.  It was great to be able to spend time with members outside of church and teaching.  and we got fed so that was a big bonus.

Yeah that's about it for the week.  

Thanks for all the prayers for investigators I am seeing the miracles come because of it!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

This was the picture from our last district meeting.

The video is the new cooking show I'm going to start.​

Tolosa Zone Conference February 2018

Elder McKell, ZL farthest left, with his fellow American Zonemates Elders Valentine, Holmstead, Rogers and Mecham

Elder Holmstead and Elder Escalona at Zone Conference February 2018

Tolosa.....Stake!!

First off, I finally got my packages. Glasses and watch and rain coat, they are great and nothing broke.  The glasses are super good and I'm glad because I have been using the spares while we play basketball in the mornings.

Anyways this week was pretty good.  The first experience this week was that me and Elder Valentine from Abuyog had exchanges.  Combined experience in the mission is less than a year.  I had to do all the leading for lessons, planning, and finding.  I did lots of praying for the gift of tongues and we were super blessed.  I was again reminded of the reality of the gift of tongues because I was actually able to speak and understand also everything that was said to us.

Also we had another exchange with me and Elder Valentine in Abuyog because they had 3 baptismal interviews and I met a bunch of new people and was able to communicate with them.  It was amazing.  I nowhere near fluent but at least I am actually able to speak and share with people.  

We also had District Conference this week so the entire district headed to Tanauan for a special conference and even President Argana came and spoke.  He shared a lot about the importance of daily scripture study and paying tithing.  The church is so new in the Philippines so they have really stressing on getting good studies for leaders so that they know their responsibilities.  Also we learned that about 18% of the district is full tithe payers so that was pretty shocking.  The biggest announcement though was that Tolosa District has met the requirements to become a stake so that was super exciting.  

As for our investigators, Rochelle-Anne will be baptized this weekend which is super awesome.  Mekaela has some weird problems with finding her head of the household so we may have to wait until the week after to baptize her.  Solomon came to church along with Rolando and Ernesto so we were very excited to see them there.  We haven't really found any new investigators this week because we have been really busy with our progressing investigators.  

Thats about it for the week.  Crazy to hear the Eagles won the Super Bowl, I was very excited that it is not the Patriots.  Also keep me updated on the Olympics because I love them haha.  Go USA!  Does the Philippines have a winter olympics team?  

Love you, and next week I will send some good videos but I can't this week because the internet sucks in Burauen.

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission