All good things must come to an end

Hey howdy hey family and friends!!!!! 

 

Greetings from frigid Oklahoma!! 

 

Where the wind comes sweeping down from Canada and chills you to the bone! 

 

But it's also the best place in the world, hands down.

 

We just found out that I'm leaving the Village after being here for about 6 months. It's a bittersweet moment for sure. I have absolutely LOVED this area because of all of the work that has happened. I have seen many many people come closer to Jesus Christ and many changes of heart. It has been a fulfilling and satisfying 4 transfers! I feel like in the Village I finally was able to be an effective missionary. In Norman and Weatherford I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Choctaw taught me the skills that I needed and humbled me enough to rely fully on the Lord. And here in the Village I have applied everything that I've learned and used it to help those around me. And with about 3 months left, I'm redoubling my efforts to make them the best 3 months of my mission. I'm very excited for the challenges that are ahead!

 

And now for where I'm going! I'm being sent to serve in Noble, OK! For those of you keeping score at home, Noble is a small town a few miles south of Norman. It is also in the same zone as Norman 3 Spanish North, where I started my mission, as well as Norman 2 East, where Sister Lemmo is serving. So my baby and I will get to go on exchanges and I'll get to do exchanges in my first area!!! I've been praying and praying to end my mission there and I know that Heavenly Father will give us our righteous desires because He loves us more than we can comprehend. He is our Father!

 

I'll be coming back to the Village soon, though, because Andy Wood is getting baptized on January 16th! There's NO way I'm missing that one, because I've been teaching him since September and his change of heart has been the greatest.

 

We also were able to set a baptismal date with Ramon for February 14th! He and Stephanie both came to church on Sunday with their kids. 

 

Also one of our members (sis. Fahey) invited one of her friends over on New Year's Eve for dinner along with us and she had questions so we ended up teaching her about the Restoration and she invited us over to come over Wednesday for dinner and to teach her more! The on Sunday Sis. Fahey got up and bore a beautiful testimony about the experience and it made me realize how much of an impact we all can make in other people's lives as we share and invite them to live the Gospel of Christ, because that is the ULTIMATE source of happiness.

 

I love you all and I hope that your New Year is wonderful!

 

LOVE,

 

Sister Bethani Holloway 

(who most likely will stay in English for the rest of her mission... and is surprisingly ok with that :) )

 

PICTURES:

1. New Year's Eve with the Faheys.

2. Elder Gardner's funeral. He was my zone leader for 4 transfers (2 in Choctaw and 2 here). We'll be sad to see him go! this is also an accurate representation of strange missionary culture.