Weeks 3 & 4

Hey everyone! So last week when I traveled to Florida it was this mission’s P-day, so I didn’t get to write.. sorry. But as far as week 3 went, it was just another week at the MTC... teaching, teaching and more teaching and reading.

Week 4, my first week out here, was....interesting. lets see, my new companion is Elder Graham, like the cracker, he's a cool guy - really nice. And kind of a neat freak - haha, but it’s ok, that’s good for me, maybe a little bit will rub off onto me. Also we’re in a car share with 2 other elders, so one week bike, other car, so on and so on. So the first day here was just meeting with the mission president, and I won’t lie, at the end of that day I felt a little scared, homesick and nervous. I’m not sure exactly why, I think it was just because it was a change and they gave you so much info at once. Then, Tues when we all went our separate ways, it was kinda hard, I miss elder Oteo, he was a funny guy. But Elder Graham has been nice, and helping me out a lot, teaching me different things, mostly things that I should know about in the area. Like, there’s a lot of Jewish and Baptists in our area, and they will be nice for the most part, but they don’t really care about anything we say. Oh well, I'll baptize them all. lol. Speaking of baptisms, the mission President, Pres Barry, told us that apostles have said that for 2011 they want this mission to get 2,000 baptisms! That’s crazy, and I guess outside of Utah, this is the highest baptizing mission in the US or something close to that, crazy! I’ve had fun so far, after the first day out here. So Elder Graham had just talked to this kid, Phil Jon, like a day or two before I came out, and all he was able to do was talk for a minute with him and give him a Book of Mormon. We visited him a few times this past week, and he went to church with us yesterday, which was cool, he said that he really liked it. There is a girl that we talked to real fast just riding our bikes, and she said she was new in the area and was looking for a church, so we invited her to go, she said ok and we gave her the address, then we didn’t hear from her for a few days so Saturday night we left a message on her phone just re-inviting her for church. Well Sunday morning she called because she was lost and couldn’t find the church, so we ran to where she was so she could follow us in the car and she brought her mom, that doesn’t speak English, they're Heshan. So all 3 of them went to church and all loved it, which was awesome. Florida is false advertising.. it has been freezing. Like, I could see my breath a few times since I’ve been here, what..the..heck, if I wanted that I would have just stayed at the MTC! Well I can’t think of to much else to write right now, so I'll give my address so you guys can write me. I'll be here for 5 more weeks, at least. 10275 Old St. Augustine Rd Apt 1010 Jacksonville FL 32257
Love,
Elder Holcombe