District Leader Letter

PHILIPPINES TACLOBAN MISSION                                                                                  July 4, 2018

511 Maharlika Highway

Fatima Village

Tacloban City

6500 Leyte

Dear Brother and Sister Holmstead,

It is our pleasure to inform you that Elder Holmstead has been called to serve as a District Leader in the Philippines Tacloban Mission. We greatly appreciate his dedication in the mission in enabling eternal conversion through faith in Christ and his good works.

There are many important functions that a district leader is entrusted with:  

• Be an example for the missionaries in his district as he leads, teaches, trains and inspires missionaries through district meetings and companionship exchanges in a loving and humble way. 

• Look after the well-being of missionaries in the district and carry out the instructions given at the mission conferences and training meetings. 

• Responsibility for regular communication and reporting the progress and needs of the district to the mission zone leaders. 

• Facilitate good working relationships within his district and problem solve any needs that arise.   

He has been called by God through inspiration to fulfill these responsibilities and assist fellow missionaries in their efforts to invite others to come unto Christ. This important role in the mission will be accomplished as he strives to lead as the Savior did and goes forward in faith with dedicated service. We appreciate the love and encouragement you give him. It is our opportunity and blessing to be able to work with him. Thank you for sending us such a dedicated servant of our Father in Heaven.

Sincerely your brother,

Eduardo M. Argana

Philippines Tacloban Mission President

Back to Tolosa

So this week has been one of the craziest of the misson.  First off on Tuesday I got a call from the AP's and I have officially become a district leader and they also told me that I was transferring from Calubian.  I spent the rest of Tuesday saying goodbye to all the members and our investigators.  I was a little sad that I won't get to see them get baptized but I am pumped to transfer.  I headed to.......DULAG.  

It is the area that is literally right next to Anibong so I am back in my first zone again.  Elder Laitinen just trained his companion here so I am following up his trainee.  Elder Ababa is my new companion, he is from Cagayen de Oro and it super awesome.  It has only been a few days but he is already one of my favorite companions.  He is fluent in english and Waray-Waray so its legit.  

Dulag is a super good area.  The people here are super nice and finding here is super easy.  We had only 3 days to do finding and we found 8 new investigators, the challenge is just getting return appointments.  The branch just announced that they are becoming a ward and at the end of July a general authority is coming to create the new Tolosa Stake.

The investigators that we have here that I have actually met are Lupe Potot who is a tatay that was super against mormons but then got really sick and it humbled him and now he wants to be baptized.  Then we got Joshua Capili who is the son of a recent convert and his baptism is coming up on the 14th of July.  Grateful to Elder Laitinen for putting in the work and now I just get to have some baptisms haha.

Oh we also had a District Leaders Council this week so I got to go to Tacloban and meet with a bunch of other elders who were called as district leaders.  Including Elder Hassan and Elder Jefferies from my batch. It was basically just a big training on how to be district leaders and we got fed a bunch of new food so it was dope.  

My district that I am over is a companionship that is training right now and another companionship with an elder who has never spoken waray in his mission so we are all really focusing on mastering the language.

So yeah this week had a lot of changes and I am really loving being super busy and in a new area.  Thanks for all the prayers. Love you tons!!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Pics from the baptism last last week

Goodbyes to the members in Calubian

Me with Elder Ababa

Baptisms and San Juan

So this week was super exciting because we had the baptisms for Jhonrex, Noel, Jun-Jun Balse, and Kristine Balse.  I was able to baptize all of them which was a really cool experience.  It was weird because during the baptism I wasn't really feeling the Spirit that much and I was kinda confused but for the closing song we sang I am a Child of God and then the Spirit came and I just felt it testifying how important it is to humble ourselves like little children and come unto Christ.

We also had Zone Conference this week which was super good and I learned a bunch.  President Argana gave us a challenge to be more urgent.  He really stressed that we are the ones who are bringing salvation to the lives of God's children.  No one else can do it so we need to never be afraid or lazy to share it to everyone so they have the opportunity to receive this.  That is something I have really been trying to apply, just talking to anyone at anytime.

All of our other investigators are doing really well.  We had the opportunity to do a CSP at the bukid of Brother Jun-Jun Cacananta and he basically just gave us machetes and we cleared this huge forest of bushes.  It was pretty fun.

Also this last sunday it was San Juan in the Philippines which I think means it's the day that they believe John the Baptist was baptized so basically everyone in the whole Calubian went swimming and people were just throwing water on each other in the streets.  It was kinda crazy, luckily we didn't get any water thrown on us.

Oh I did finally get the package from the Jensons.  I think God put an extra special blessing on it because the cookies were still super soft and tasted like they could have been made yesterday even though it was like a month ago.  Also transfer day in on Wednesday so i'll let you know if anything happens.

Love you tons!!

Request from mom and dad:  Please send us a list of all of your investigators:

Alright Updated List of Investigators

Jun-Jun Cacananta

Angel Balce

Adelene Balce

John Paul Balce

Sister Lanie (I don't know her last name)

Jammy Vallente (10 year old referral i think i mentioned last week)

Joel Yare

Those are all of our progressing investigators

Sorry I can't send any pictures because the computer won't read my USB.

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Zone Conference June 20, 2018

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!!

They do actually celebrate that here so it was pretty fun.  Love you dad, I was blessed with the best!!

This week was pretty fun.  We had the baptismal interviews with Jhon Rex, Noel, and some of the Balce family and it is official that we will be having 4 baptisms this week.  Thanks for all the prayers to get Noel and Jhon Rex to church because we definitely needed it.  It was cool because we went to pick them up before church and they told us that they were not going to come this week so we were kinda sad and headed to church, then right before the sacrament starts they come running it and me and Elder Gomboc were super happy.

Speaking of sacrament meeting I got to speak again.  Me and Elder Gomboc spoke and together we filled up a full 35 minutes which I was super surprised about.  I spoke about Fathers and the importance of them in our lives.  We had 10 investigators come to church also so that was super awesome.

Oh we finally got to play some good basketball this week also.  After the interviews the zone leaders and the san isidro elders didn't have rides back to their areas so they stayed in Calubian and we played some basketball.  It was 3 v 3 and we did Filipinos vs Foreigners and the foreigners won of course!!

Question from mom and dad - What kind of ward activities do you have?

Well me and Elder Gomboc basically planned the last ward party.  All we did was play games and then the youth did a presentation of the story of Enos.  Then we ate a bunch of food.  Seriously every time we have an activity it is just an excuse to eat soo much food.That's about it for the week.  We have zone conference on Wednesday which should be pretty fun!

Thanks love you tons!!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Pictures from our ward activity either last week or 2 weeks ago.  Nakalimot ako haha.​

Slowly but Surely

Lagi a lot happened this week I don't know where to start.

I guess we had our exchanges this week in Carigara so we got to work there for a day and it was a pretty good time.  We taught some investigators that I have never met before and we did it all in Waray H.  I love Waray H but it was super hard to switch back to it after being in Calubian for 4 months.

Our investigators are still doing super good.  We had a few challenges come up this week so it kinda slowed down there progress but they are still moving towards baptism.  There is a rule for the Philippines that investigators have to come to church for 4 out of 6 weeks to get baptized so we had Jhon Rex and Noel's baptism scheduled for this week but they didn't come to church so we will have to push it to next week.  Pray that they will come to church.  

As for the Balse Family they are doing super good.  We practiced a baptismal interview with them and they are remembered what we taught and have really developed testimonies.  But Sister shared that she had an abortion in the past so now we have to have her get interviewed by President Argana which may move her baptism as well.  Sayong but it's ok.  I know that God has a plan for each of his children and that he knows when they will join his church.  

Aside from that the work is still going good.  We got a referral from a member that is actually a 10 year old that is from a part member family and we thought she was already a member so we will get her baptized pretty soon too.  

I know this Gospel is true and I love seeing it change people's lives.  I love seeing the pictures of everyone at the temple.  I am definitely grateful to be part of a family that is strong in the Gospel and that we have been sealed for time and all eternity.  It is such an amazing blessing in my life.

Question from mom and dad: What is the most spiritual experience you have had on your mission?

Ooh that's a good question.  The two experiences that are coming to me are my first baptisms just because the spirit was super powerful and I was able to find and teach them all the lessons so it was just a really powerful spirit.  The second actually happened this week. We were teaching the Balse Family and Sister just started sharing her conversion story to us that she didn't really want to meet with us at the start but she slowly started to listen and started to feel the spirit.  Then she started to see the blessing from testing the commitments that we gave to her.  I just felt the spirit very powerfully during her testimony that the Gospel is true and that it is the way to true happiness in this life.

Love you tons!!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Salamat sa Buhi nga Dios

​Another week of miracles in Calubian.

There has been a big storm going through Mindanao so we have been getting lots of rain in the last week.  Every day it rains which means it's not hot so that's been nice.

We had another good sacrament attendance in the 90's and 10 investigators came to church which was awesome.  I think we also had like 25 less actives come so me and Elder Gomboc were super stoked.

One of the highlights of the week was FHE with the Balce Family.  We just shared a really simple lesson about faith and floating a needle on water.  Then we just played a bunch of games with their kids.  I love their family so much and they are super amazing.  They had this big shrine when we first met with them and now they have taken it down and have a picture of the Cebu Temple so it is awesome.  We have their baptism scheduled for June 23 so I am super excited.

Jhon Rex and Noel are both scheduled for June 16 but Jhon Rex's dad is a little hesitant for him to be baptized so send some prayers that he will say yes to the baptism.

Sister Wilma is doing great and we shared a message to her husband this week also.  They need to get married in order to be baptized so we are trying to help her get that figured out too so that's fun.

Oh and one funny experience this week.  The San Isidro Elders in our district had a baptismal interview so we headed there for the interview.  We hiked super far into the wilderness to get to her house.  She was ready for baptism every time Elder Gomboc would ask her a question she would say "Salamat sa Buhi nga Dios"(Thanks to the Living God) which was kinda interesting and then at the end she sang us a christian song so it was a pretty entertaining interview.

Amo la for this week.  Love you tons!!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Pics all of our investigators at church

Stake Conference and a White Guy

Super Great Week

So i'll start it off that for the last two days we were in Carigara for our stake conference.  There were a lot of people there and it was fun to meet members from all over the stake and see all the missionaries.  It's kinda crazy because most of the stake speaks waray but some speak cebuano so it's all sorts of craziness trying to talk to people.

It was all focused on ministering which was good to get everyone up to date on the whole changes.  We had a guy come from the temple department in Utah and he spoke.  It was super weird having an american speak at church but he gave his whole talk in Cebuano because he served in the Tacloban Misson 20 years ago and actually baptized a family whose son received the Melchizedek Priesthood yesterday so that was pretty cool.  We also had the Cebu Temple President speak so that was awesome.  One thing that I really like from I think Brother Sutton (the white dudes) talk was that he said he may look american and be from America but his heart is Pinoy because it was in the Philippines that he really came to know the gospel is true.  That just really stuck with me because I have really grown my testimony as I have been here with the amazing people of the Philippines.

Update on our investigators:

Joel Yare: 19 he is super awesome and we visited his family that lives so far away from society that I wonder how it is possible to survive but they seem happy and have food so that was good.  We just shared about the plan of salvation and taught his whole family so that was really cool

Sister Wilma: I said not really anything has happened with her in my skype but she has had lots of cool experiences since then.  She has already read up to Alma in the book of mormon and she started two weeks ago.  She said we have really been a blessing in her life and we recently started teaching her 9 year old son Reggie also.

Balce Family: Literally my favorite family ever.  I have literally witnessed the Gospel change their lives.  Tatay Balce told us last week that he has really been struggling with the word of wisdom and we committed him to follow it.  Yesterday we visited them and he said he has stopped smoking and drinking and it was amazing to see how fast he responded to our commitment.  Sister also shared that she has seen that her family is so much happier since we have been teaching and even though they live far from the church and it is expensive to go every week they have always had enough money to make it to the church.  I just love them so much.  It is Tatay Jonnifer Nanay Analyn and their kids Angel 16, John Paul 13, Cristine 11, Jun Jun 9, Jerra 6, and Jenesis 3

Those are most of our progressing investigators and we have them scheduled to be baptized by the end of June so pray for them to keep progressing.

Also I got the package that you sent in April it is great but I still haven't got the one from Jensons.  It's all good though it's the thought that counts.

Love you tons!!

Sorry I forgot to take Pictures next week nalang!!

Another Cycle in Calubian!!

So yeah mothers day was great. Loved seeing you!  Seriously the fastest 45 minutes of my life.  

I have another cycle in Calubian with Elder Gomboc.

This was a super busy and fun week.  After skyping we had no transportation back to Calubian so we spent the night in Carigara and then caught ride with a member of the stake presidency in Ormoc which is a stake here to Tacloban and then a ride back to Calubian.  It was a pretty crazy day but we actually got to ride in a car for the first time in like 8 months which was super weird.  I am not used to having space for my legs in a vehicle.

Aside from that I gained a lot of respect for the calling of primary music leader because I filled in this week and I realized how hard it is to teach songs to kids especially when they don't speak english but it was actually really fun.  

We had a ward activity that me and Elder Gomboc basically planned.  We had lots of games with the members it was super fun.  Then we ate a lot of food.  Seriously tons I wish I would have taken a picture, they basically gave away all of the left overs to the members afterwords and I think it would be like when they gathered the 7 baskets of bread after the sermon on the mount.  

Church was a great time also because we got the opportunity to speak again in Sacrament.  We had 8 investigators come and over 100 attendance so we are making progress here.  That is one reason I am super excited to be staying in Calubian for another cycle.  

Thanks for all the love and support.  Love you tons!!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Mother's Day Skype 2018

Mother’s Day Call 7pm on 5/13/2018

9am in Tacloban on 5/14/2018

·    It took him and his companion 3 hours to get from Calubian to Tacloban.  They had to rent a trike because today is election day so no buses were running.  They left really early in the morning to get there in time to call us.

·    He looked healthy and so happy!  He smiled almost the entire time.  He gains and then loses weight, up 8 pounds, down 3.  He hasn’t been sick at all from the food or water.  And somehow he seems to be immune to the mosquitos.  He said they attacked him one night when he first got there, but haven’t bothered him since.

·    He said it’s so hot during the mornings and afternoons.  Then it rains in the late afternoons and evenings almost every day.

·    Has eaten about every part of the chicken.  He said chicken heart is actually pretty tasty.

·    Likes pancit (pronounced panseat), which is kind of like ramen noodles with vegetables and chicken.

·    Cooks a lot, mostly chicken and rice. Surra is whatever meat goes with your rice (chicken, steak, pork, etc,).  He loves rice and said he will probably eat it twice a day when he gets home.  He does eat much fish because it takes too long to prepare the cook.

·    They usually on get invited to eat with members a couple of times per cycle (6 weeks).  He was pretty jealous of his friends serving in the states that have dinner appointments every night.

·    They have a McDonald’s in Tacloban.  They do serve rice and chicken, but also Big Mac’s.  But he said he hasn’t had a Big Mac yet because they are so expensive - $5.  He said he can buy a full meal anywhere else for $1.50.  We told him we will add some money in his account so he can splurge and buy a Big Mac for him and his companion.

·    Bought shoes there for $8.  He said they are pretty nice and are waterproof.  The shoes he brought with him got destroyed when he rode the bike in Anibong for 6 months.

·    His companion, Elder Gomboc (pronounced Gumbooc) speaks pretty good English, but mostly Tagalog.  Wade said the people in his area will start to speak in Cebuano, but then change to Waray-Waray half way through the conversation.  It keeps him on his toes.  He is more comfortable speaking Waray-Waray, but can understand and speak both languages pretty well.

·    They have 7 baptisms planned for next month: JhonRex, Noel, the Balce family (including nanay/mom, and 3 children), another sister (can’t remember or spell her name)

·    The only air-conditioned rooms in the church are the bishop and clerk’s offices.

·    Filipinos love basketball.  There is a hoop on almost every corner.  They love the NBA.  He gets to play basketball on some pdays.  He thought they would be more into soccer, but they are not.  He is grateful for NBA updates so keep ‘em coming whoever is emailing them to him!

·    He washes his clothes with a scrub brush and a bucket.  He demonstrated it for us and he said he is getting pro at it.

·    We talked for 44 minutes and 50 seconds.  He said his mission president told them they need to be obedient and only talk for less than 45 minutes.  He even gave us a 5 minute warning. J  Our favorite part is when he said, “Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles.”  He said every missionary that has been through the MTC should know that quote.  He is working on being exactly obedient and we are so proud of him!

Week of Miracles

Great week for Calubian!!

This week was a new high for my attendance in the Calubian ward with 92 which is a lot better that our usual 55-60 so that was awesome.  We also had 5 investigators at church which was super unexpected and great.

One super cool story this week was the story of the Balce family.  We got shown were their house was by some members and it is super hidden on down this cliff by the beach.  We learned that the tatay is a member but nanay is not but tatay has not been to church in many years.  We started to teach them together and nanay is super interested.  The next time we come back she shares how she and tatay had been talking about the gospel a lot in between our visits and it was bringing their family closer together.  Then we invited them to church and we were unsure if they would come because they live kind of far away but they said they will try.  They came and Tatay shared his testimony and it was super powerful about how he has felt the spirit powerfully coming back to church and accepting the gospel again.  It was a super cool experience to see the Gospel blessing their lives.

We also got to help a brother in our ward give a priesthood blessing to his wife.  He had never done so before so we helped him through it and it made me grateful that I have the priesthood and can bless people's lives and also that I have had leaders and teachers who have helped me use and exercise my priesthood.

Aside from that Noel is still coming to church Jhon Rex has kind of stopped and brother Joel keeps coming so that is good.  

Work is going good here in Calubian and by the way they don't even celebrate Cinco de Mayo or Mother's Day here but they did have Labor Day on May 1st so that was kinda funky.

Love you tons,

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission