Week 71, Time is just passing too quickly....

This week zoomed by for us! We had our mini missionary until Wednesday night, and of course saw miracles up the WAZZUUU. Last Monday, we went to Trader Joes, which was AMAZING! All healthy food! ♥♥♥ We were able to see miracles everyday!

Thursday we contacted a lot, and we were able to have the opportunity to meet with families that have missionaries out! It was great, the finding idea that President Nattress had with the Apostolic promise, he wants us to apply to the missionaries that are out in the field from our wards.  We haven't been able to follow up yet, but we will be next week! :) Had the last lesson with Alex G. Before his baptism & headed home!

Friday was a little more fast of a day than we thought! It was quite the day, We had contacted some people, and then headed to planning. Dinner, then more contacting, but lots of fun because Sister Farmer and I made a game up to keep our minds occupied from the heat! haha.

SATURDAY! Probably one of the most glorious days of the week! We heard the alarm clock beep a little bit earlier because we got up and had a stellar time and a great turn out at the Ward Block Party Breakfast Feed! We had 25 non members come & 4 less active families show up! There were over 250 people there!

We ended the night with Alex's baptism! THE SPIRIT WAS SOO STRONG! I cant tell you enough times how much I love feeling that! There were many tears, and so much happiness, that was also a huge success because over 150 people were there as well! Alex had asked me to do the musical number for his baptism, so I played "Come Thou Fount" with my guitar, but it was so hot in the room that the guitar went out of tune, luckily the spirit was still there and I just sang louder so no one would notice ;) He is now confirmed and will be receiving the Priesthood next week! :)

Alex with his friend, Sean, that got to baptize him.

I can't tell you enough how much I love missionary work, and how much I want to stay longer! I love the feeling and the opportunity to serve the Lord, just a portion. I hope all of you find ways to strengthen and lift each other this week! I know that God is real and that he is aware of our needs. One of my favorite scriptures is Proverbs 3; 5-7. If you don't know it, look it up! It will change the way you see or think about things! I know He loves each of us! Here's something really cool that I found when I was studying this morning :)

"We can choose to humble ourselves by....

- receiving counsel & chastisement

-by forgiving those who have offended us

-by rendering selfless service

-going on a mission and preaching the word that can humble others

-getting to the temple more frequently

-by confessing and forsaking our sins and being born of God

-by loving God, submitting our will to His and putting Him first in our lives"

-Pres. Ezra T. Benson

Anyway, I thought this was interesting, but hopefully it changes your perspective on something! I love you all, have a great week! :)

-Sister Holcomb ♥

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-Sister Holcomb-

Gilbert AZ Mission

Week 70, I ain't trunky!! :P

 Hello everyone! This week was awesome!!!!!

Wednesday was my last transfer meeting, so I had to get pictures of course with my posterity! :) And a few other people!!  It was quite overwhelming because I wanted to just get pictures with everyone! But thankfully I got them!

Friday night, we went to the Gilbert Temple with Alex G. It was an awesome experience! We were able to talk to him about the symbolism about the different designs on the temple, we also talked about after he is baptized that he could come back to the temple and do the baptisms for the dead! He is so excited about that! We got fro-yo after and rode home in a convertible bug (his girlfriends) with the top down! That was so fun!

We found out on Wed. that we were getting a mini missionary, from the Desert Ridge stake (my last area). We got to get them on Sat.  There was tons of sisters from my last ward, but we ended up getting one from another ward, which is obviously okay, cuz they were all adorable. Anyway, President talked about all the miracles we would see with our minis and it truly has happened! We are currently preparing for a ward activity coming up, and everything has just been so smooth, stressful still, but its gone a lot smoother than we thought it would, MIRACLE!!

Anyway, the 2nd day with our mini we had church and 4 investigators were at church!!! We woke up, and stopped by a less active and 3 of the investigators and of course Alex G. (the one that's getting baptized this weekend) was there so that makes 4! MIRACLE!! Oh, forgot to mention that one of the investigators, (Alex S.) that we have been teaching has been struggling with his Dad not excepting the fact that he wants to join the church, so today after PC2 ward, he came up to us & said he wanted to finally talk to his Dad about getting baptized, well we were over at the fellowships house & they all talked with him and asked if he wanted a priesthood blessing for inspiration and peace on what to say to his dad. So brother Dinehart, gave the blessing and he felt it! MIRACLE!!  He went over and talked with his Dad, even though his Dad still wasn't going to budge, he knew what he still needed to do. He knew he still needed to attend church, read the scriptures and continue to do the things he knew were true until either his Dads heart softened or he was old enough to make his own decision. But again, the Spirit bore witness that why I'm here serving a mission is totally and completely worthy every hard time! And the spirit was so strong to bare witness to Alex as well!   

 After church we had dinner and went to a fireside called the mission presidents fireside & I was able to go for the first time in my entire mission (since we can only go with investigators) and Alex G. came! What a great fireside! The spirit was sooooo strong! Recent Converts get to speak and each of there stories were different, but beautiful as they each bore testimony that the things they were taught and the way they felt about the principles of the gospel were true! Alex G. was crying almost the whole fireside!  He is so filled with the spirit, he's golden! I swear he's going to be an apostle one day!

Anyway, I learned a very important thing this week, to find MIRACLES everyday & you'll see more and more as you go on in your week, month & year! I love being a missionary and getting the opportunity to see these big or small miracles! I love having the experience to help others come unto Christ! Have a great week everyone!

-Sister Holcomb ♥

P.S. Sorry about a lot of pictures, we just forgot our camera cord last week!
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-Sister Holcomb-

Gilbert AZ Mission

Week 68- Wait... How many weeks left?!

This is upcoming week is the last week of my 12th transfer. I have one transfer left, you do the math. Its crazy to think I have less than 2 months to do the Lord's work, but I'm putting in "all my heart, mind, mind & strength" to finish out strong! This week has been a blur though, for me especially it went by pretty quickly.

Monday was the norm day of prepping for the week. Well kinda, we switched a lot stuff around to get our hair dyed, then it fell through, but that's okay, cuz its happening today:) We had dinner with a new young couple in the area, which was super fun, because they are SO cute! We got to look at her wedding pictures and stuff, and we found out he served his mission in Philly, Spanish speaking!  

Tuesday was lots of fun! We had district meeting, had lunch with a less active & got to chat with her about her daughter that was coming into town, we contacted a bit and than had dinner with Sister Fuller, and she fed us yummy tacos. :) We were able to go out later that night with a young women named Janel and go by some investigators! We were able to share a temple presentation to Linda, and also to Alex S. (2 investigators we are teaching)

Wednesday, was quite the day, we went on splits with 2 young woman, and it was a really cool experience we had. We ran into these younger couple, they were going around giving flyers door to door, well the girl needed to use the restroom, and no one was answering the door for her, we let her use our bathroom & offered snacks or water; they kindly declined. As they were walking away, I had asked them if they had ever met missionaries before and they said, that they had lived next door to some missionaries before they were kicked out of there home. The conversation continued, and I had asked them if they had ever read the Book of Mormon, they answered no, so I ran back inside to get them both a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon. They both expected and than told me that they were actually in a Christian rehab center currently for recovering drug addiction, and I just told them and testified to them that Jesus Christ was there for them every step of the way & that the Book of Mormon would be a guide to them & that it was another testament of Jesus Christ. Overall, a really great experience!  :) Later that night we had a lesson with Alex G. (the one that's getting baptized Aug. 2nd) We also went out to dinner with him & his girlfriends family to Moreno's; a really great Mexican restaurant! 

Thursday we had exchanges & I was with Sister Marz! That was lots of fun! We got alot done! P.S. We got to go the relief society activity & make my first fondant cake! :)

Friday we had quite the day as well. We went from meeting with Brother Finch, to going to practice the musical number for church on Sunday, to lunch at the Daily Bread (yum), to planning from 1 to 4, a lesson with Bryan at 4:15 & dinner at the Gallups. Just non stop all day.. not to mention we had to walk everywhere because my tire popped for the 2nd time this last week... #the struggle is real.... after dinner we just contacted a ton & stopped by one of investigators house to drop off a cake for his birthday!

Saturday was pretty fun too! In the morning, I didn't feel all that well, I got a mini tummy ache & decided to sleep for a few hours. After waking up & feel better, we went out with a soon-to-be missionary! She got her call the the Rochester NY mission, and the Palmyra visitors center! Anyway, we went out with her all day & it was so fun! We were able to go to a baptism with Alex G. and he got all excited for his! :) Had dinner at a new family in the wards house & than went to a ward BBQ, that was quite the fail... Later that night we had a stake meeting with the big guy over missionary work in the stake & left the meeting early to remind our investigators about church! Sunday was packed full of things to do, so much that at the end of the day I felt like falling over and sleeping in my desk chair! We had a lesson with Bryan (he's getting baptized on the 26th of this month) and had a musical number! Met with Brother Finch, had dinner, had a member lesson with the Coopers, stopped by a potential new investigator, and then headed to make a flyer for the upcoming ward activity :)

 

All in all, twas a great week! I love being a missionary, and I know for sure I'm supposed to be here, at this time & in this place! Hope y'all have a good week! :)

 

Love, Sister Holcomb ♥

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-Sister Holcomb-

Gilbert AZ Mission

 

Week 67 - 1 year anniversary!

This week was nuts! So many things and we still managed to have a good amount of lessons this week! This past week also marked the 1 year mark of the Gilbert AZ Mission! Monday was crazy! It was super fun too though! There was water games and the whole mission was there. We even played ultimate Frisbee, and that was fun. I haven't played that since YSA ward! haha. After that we rushed to get everything else done that we needed to. Later that night  we went to go support one of our investigators at a game that he coaches for! He is the head coach for a high school down here. But it was super fun to go to!

Tuesday, we had another awesome experience of going to the temple. We were at the temple with our entire mission! It was great! Our entire mission went through the temple for our one year anniversary. How neat is that? Not all missions can do that! What a privilege  When we walked in to the celestial room, President and Sister Nattress were there dressed in white. It was a really neat experience. After we had a brief fireside with the temple president, we headed out to take a mission picture.  As if the day wasn't awesome enough we got to meet with Alex, our fabulous investigator. We talked about repentance. Of course everything just clicked. He is quite the young man.

Wednesday.. well, another day, another miracle. Sister Farmer got an email a few weeks ago from Coach Branson (Former Coach of hers) because he was planning a trip to Arizona and asked if he could come visit. When I first read the email she thought, "there is no way." But then she decided, what the heck, why not give it a shot and ask President. So she did! And... We got to meet up with Mr. Branson at the Gilbert temple sight. He was easy to spot from a mile away. What a treat. He gave Sister Farmer and I a big squeezeze... whoops. Then, we took him around the temple. We talked about the symbolism associated with the layout and different engravings on the temple. He is one amazing man. He asked a lot of great questions. It was quite a great missionary experience not only for her, but for me as well, seeing how the Lord softens the hearts of people.

Thursday, DUST STORMMM!!!! Hello Monsoon season!! We ended up getting stuck inside an investigator's house because we got caught in a dust storm. The wind was blowing like crazy. We had to save our investigator's pool umbrella from taking off. I thought that I was going to fly.

Friday, Happy Fourth of July! Sister Farmer and I decked out in our patriotic but oh so professional look. We had to go inside a couple hours early for safety precautions. So, what did we do? Yes, we crawled on the roof to watch the fireworks. We live in a one story house, so it wasn't very high up. We used the wall in our backyard to launch ourselves up there. It was fun! :)

SERVICE SATURDAY! We spent a solid three hours helping a less active clean up his "yard,"  rocks. When we got home I thought that I had gotten a killer tan, but then I got in the shower and realized as I looked at the shower walls and floor that it was all just dirt. Darn! It was really good to getting to associate with his less active dad and brothers as well. It was a good interaction not only with Sister Farmer and I, but for the YSA elders.

Sunday, Fast and testimony meeting! I bore my testimony! I based it off of Nephi, and the Atonement. We had three investigators at church! Miracle!

Great week and another one ahead of us this week!

LOVE you all :)  Have a great week!

Sister Holcomb :)

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-Sister Holcomb-

Gilbert AZ Mission

 

Week.. I dont even know anymore. (Mom does-66!)

 Sorry I never gave an update for last week. Its coming close to the end for me and I'm trying to get some school things figured out. Anyway, last week and this week were really good. We have slowly but surely gotten things straightened out with members are are trying to work with lots of less actives with the members. Honestly, pushing missionary work with members about non members is the 2nd thing we should be doing with how many less actives we have in both wards. So that's been our push recently. :)

Something really cool that our mission is doing right now, is they have a challenge to read the book of Mormon in 60 days! This morning, we also had a mission 1 year anniversary! It was WAY fun! We had water games and some fun activities :)

​President & Sister Nattress & us :)

So this week was quiet thee adventure! Monday was really fun! We got our nails done by a member, but about 3 days later my were all chipped off :( After P-day was over we had 2 family home evenings that we were teaching. The first one we taught them about Nephi's courage and we acted it out! Then the 13 year old showed us magic tricks, he tried to teach me, but of course I'm kinda obvious. The second one, was a less active couple & there son, we taught about gratitude. It was based off the talk given at conference. (Such a good talk, btw.) We ended the night with them.

Tuesday morning, we got to go to the Gilbert Temple :) It was so great! I love going to the Temple, just the peace you feel when you go is indescribable!

We also had our first lesson with our NEW investigator, Alex. He is the boyfriend of a member in the ward & is sooo prepared! He is already in Alma in the Book of Mormon! He is on date for the 2nd of August!  It was going to be sooner, but he wants his family to be there and they wont be back in town until the 30th of July.

Wednesday was fun, we did a lot of contacting and did alot of stop by's. We had another lesson with Alex and taught him about the plan of salvation. :) Sister Farmer and I teach very well with each other and so its alot of fun to teach in unity!

Thursday we had a random service opportunity! A less active member called us, and asked if we would help her move some furniture, we did & it was a really good interaction with her! We actually found out she is doing a relief society activity for the ward this coming month!

​After coordination... He meant to say, "when you exercise". But its funny that he 

called us "little knuckle heads" haha. 

Friday was just crazy, It was honestly a blur. We went out to lunch with our zone, at "The Daily Bread" and than had a few appointments afterward. And more and more. We got so busy, we forgot an appointment we had scheduled previous, and had to reschedule for the next day! 

Saturday was full of contacting! And Sunday was filled with church, and in and out lessons. It was a productive week for sure! :)

I love missionary work! Hope all of you guys have a great week! :)

Love, Sister Holcomb  ♥

Week 64- It's gonna take work!

This week was long, and full. Monday was alot of fun, cuz we got to go to the store and hangout with Krystal :) We also got to go to Olive Garden, which was sooo yummy, considering I haven't been for almost 2 years. Later that day after prep day was done, we went to a less actives and taught her a lesson. She wants to gain a better testimony of the Book of Mormon. 

Tuesday, we had one last district meeting with the people that were leaving, like half of our zone was leaving, going to another area. :( 3 of our appointments got cancelled on Tuesday.. what a BUMMER :(   Wednesday was fun! We had transfer meeting, we got to meet as a mission and see everyone, its kind of overwhelming sometimes. But I almost got it down!

 

Thursday was soo sad. I was as sick as a dog.. I was kind of upset because all I wanted to do was work, and no matter how hard I tried I was just dead tired, and dizzy and congested. :( I slept like a baby all day though.

 

Friday was still pretty slow, well for me at least. I felt like a sloth, even though I wanted to go as quiclkly as the wind would carry me, (and for Queen Creek/Santan Valley that wouldn't be hard considering how windy it is.) Haha. Saturday was all pretty random, but it was busy.

 

And Sunday! OH HAPPY FATHERS DAY!! :) That was a little hard considering I couldn't be with my Dad, but thank you to all the fathers who have brought up there kids in a good home. And specifically for my Dad, for being an example with your testimony, even if we did have a rough patch, to know that you took the right steps in being apart of the Gospel and I wanna thank you, because without that, I wouldn't be here, on my mission, being the person I am today. I love you!♥

 

Anyway, to all of you.. Hope you have a great week!

God be with you till we speak again! :)

 

P.S. Pics below are from Transfer meeting with all my "daughters" :)
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-Sister Holcomb-

Gilbert AZ Mission

Week 63- Wow. 15 months?

On June 2nd, I hit my 15 month mark, its crazy to me. If feels like I've only been gone for a few at that. This week was great though! This is the second week that I've been with Sister Farmer and its been just hard work all day, every day! I love it! Also, we have been getting up everyday, at 5:30 am to work out with Krystal (Our Investigator). Its been great, because when I work out, I feel alot better! Anyway, this week was great. We worked hard, but also alot of appointments cancelled. So that was kind of a bummer!

Monday we had norm p-day activities following p-day we had a few lessons planned. One with a potential that said we could come back and show her the "Because of Him" video and teach her more about Jesus Christ, but that cancelled. We had a Family home evening with a member family & taught them about family history, and had brownies as the treat! :) 

Tuesday we had a whole list of appointments to teach set up, but a lot of them fell through... BUT! We had 2 service projects to do! It was great! Cleaning service projects for that matter. :) 3 appointments cancelled. At dinner we challenged them to give a Book of Mormon to someone that could benefit from the message and than the last thing for the night was our lesson with our 2 new investigators, Andrew and Vianney! :) We showed the "Because of Him" video and talk them that God is our Father in Heaven who loves us very much. We also taught them about prayer!  

Wednesday, we did the normal studies, and headed out & went by Cody, the less active that is currently coming back to church. Well he told us he transferred to the singles ward, which is awesome because he needs more friendly faces his age anyway!  Thursday we had an appointment with another less active, Cheyenne. She wanted us to come back and help her bake pies for the Trek... and we kinda wanted to learn anyway! haha. So we came back and helped her! It was a ton of fun!  We had dinner at the Gallups, and it was brother Gallups birthday so we took a selfie picture with the family :)

We will just skip to Saturday, because nothing interesting really ever happens on Fridays. (Typically people are grumpy from either having to work, or rude because they don't want us to get in the way of there Friday night partying...) Well. The original plan was to go to the Tempe/Phoenix area to go to a baptism of someone that I had taught who we turned over to her missionaries. And the zone leaders gave us permission to go... well 20 mins before we had to leave they texted us saying we couldn't go anymore. But in place of that we got to do some service. A new family moved in and we got put in charge of the pantry! It was definitely a job in itself... haha. The photos show really how much food it was... She is a couponer so it was ALOT of food. 

Sunday was great! A whole 6 hours of church is always refreshing for a long week :) Brother Gallup ended up being called as the new ward mission leader for one of the wards & I'm pretty excited to work with him! We had dinner with the Combs and they fed us steak and potatoes, and you can guess what dessert was.... SUPER yummy German chocolate cake... rolled with frosting in it. YUMMM!

Anyway, this week was really great, Remember that Heavenly Father loves you more than you can comprehend! Have a great week every one! 

♥, Sister Holcomb :)