Here is Bethani's latest post. Please email me if you need her mailing address...the address she gave me last is incorrect, I have the correct one now. (kimberli.holloway@me.com)
Thank you for your continued support of Hermana Holloway, otherwise known as Herman A. Holloway. I really appreciate it and I know it strengthens her.
Love,
Kim
HOLAALOHAHOWDY!!
First of all, I'd like to
give a big shoutout to everyone that sent me letters, packages, or Christmas
cards. I was just overwhelmed by the amount of love, often from people that I hadn't seen in a
while! Thank you so much! I promise I'll respond to all the mail you send me, even if it takes a
little while.
This place is just so
amazing! I though I would be sad serving in English, but Weatherford is the
best of both worlds. We still have some Spanish members and investigators, and
teaching in English is SO much easier than teaching in Spanish. We're way out in the
country, which means that you can see the stars, and everyone loves fried food, guns, and trucks.
I've even started to like country music! Basically, these people have become my
people. It was hard to be away from my family for the Christmas season, but
everyone here has taken me in and made me feel like family. I absolutely love the
people I serve.
This is what my Christmas
looked like:
On Christmas Eve we ate
dinner with the other missionaries and a family in the ward, and afterwards we
washed their dishes and decorated temple cookies!
Then on Christmas morning,
instead of doing normal exercise we exercised our arms and opened Christmas presents ;) Thanks
family for the regales!
And this was our Christmas
dinner! The family that had us (us
sisters and one other set of elders from the ward) over gave us stockings that had fake mustaches in them (among other things),
so we decided to add that to the nativity. It was... interesting to say
the least. But also really fun.
The highlight of my
Christmas was definitely the phone call that I had with my family. It was super
strange to dial Mom's cell number into our phone, but once I started talking it
was like I was back at college again! It was great to hear all y'all's
voices again for sure.
The rest of the week was
just full of miracles. We found some new Spanish investigators, had a rockin-awesome
district meeting about consecration, taught a recent convert about the temple, one of our less-active
members hasn't smoked for a month, and then to cap it off, a former
investigator randomly came to church
and wants us to start teaching him again! We weren't really expecting so much
to happen because of the holidays, but the Lord told us otherwise and, as
usual, helped us to be in the right places at the right time. The work is moving forward
in Oklahoma!
Yesterday in my personal
study I was reading in Alma 34, and I was just amazed by everything I was
reading. verses 30-41 are especially great, and especially especially verse 31.
It tells us rather plainly why we should
not put off repentance. Alma says that "now is the day and time of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will
repent and harden not your hearts, immediately
shall the great plan of
redemption be brought about unto you." We don't have to be finished with
the repentance process to feel the redeeming
power of the Atonement, rather we are promised
that if we make the decision to repent, we will immediately feel Christ's redeeming power. The Atonement really is the greatest gift that the
Savior has given us, and I'm so grateful for it.
I love you all!! Thank you for
your prayers, support, and mail. Being a missionary is seriously such a blessing. I hope y'all have a good
week, and keep focusing on the miracles.
~Herman A. Holloway
