Week 30

Wow... have I really been gone for 30 weeks now? thats crazy i must be miss counting or something... we'll things are going pretty good. the fires have really kept the area warm and smokey. Elder Marquez and i have been blessed with some pretty great days. each day is a new thing, with new people that want to learn more about the gospel. its hard work tho trying to help keep them strong and not falling off the straight and narrow. Hunters doing great still, his baptism has been pushed back a week, just beacuse he couldnt make it to church yesterday. We were also lead to these young kids, named Holly and Robert. they are brother and sister and are pretty interested in knowing more about god and finding him for themselfs. they are pretty funny and love having us over. they actually read everything we ask them to, and if we dont give them enough to hold them over until the next time we see them, they swap assignments and study them also. they are way better than some older people we've met thats for sure haha.. everything is going good and the fires arent to close, so no worries there. and i failed to mention last week that my bike got stolen... thats 2 so far.. but this one is not going to get stolen, its a pretty cool bike so i'll hunt someone down if they take it and swap them back my bike for a book of mormon. but thats about it for me, hope ya'll are doing ok,

 

Love,

Elder Holcombe

Week 29

Well this week has been pretty good for me. I hope it has been for everyone else also. Hunter and Sandy are doing really good, Hunter is super excited to get baptized on the 26th, and is already telling us of a few people that we should go see with him! He came to church yesterday even tho he wasn’t feeling good - he told us that he really liked it and can’t wait for next Sunday. I’m still trying to get used to the humidity as it seems like one of the things that God didn’t intend for man to get used to! Count your many blessings people! so there’s a senior couple that’s serving in the district now, and they’re from Las Vegas - the Lakes Stake right around us haha, small world. We'll be going home at the same time (still a very long time away thank goodness) They don’t know if there going back to Vegas or not yet. They are really great and have a lot of fire, they are going to help out a lot. Not too much else really to report, hope all is going good with everyone.
Love,
Elder Holcombe

District Meeting with President Barry

Waycross District

Elder Holcombe, Elder Marquez - District Leader, Elder Waechtler, Elder Nelson, Elder Banner, Elder Woodard, Sister Elliott, Elder Elliott

Weeks 27 & 28

Well sorry for not writing last week, with it being a holiday and all we didn’t really get a chance to email very much, but not a whole lot happened. Well I did get a new companion, Elder Marquez, we came out from the MTC together. he's pretty cool. We spent most of last week organizing all of our paper work and dividing the area up into different sections and finding out who lives where. It was pretty long and boring to tell you the truth. This past week we worked a lot tho. One night we went to see a former investigator, Jessica, that we had an appointment with. We get there and she was working a bit outside, so we talked with her a bit, to see what she remembered and get to know her. After talking to her for about 45 min or so, we finished up and were leaving. While Elder Marquez was backing up there was a guy standing on his front porch that said hi to me and asked how things were going, so I said good. I went to introduce myself, Elder Marquez was a little confused at first I think. Well he gets out also and we introduce ourselves to him, his name is Hunter. We met his (we think) wife and their 4 month old baby. We talked to them for a bit and taught them the first lesson! He said he was wondering what we were talking to Jessica about. He said he has dyslexia but will try to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and that he was excited to read it. He asked us to come back in a day or two. so we go back and he had to go to a neighboring town but would be back later that night. We asked him if he had read any and he said "Well, to be honest with you guys...I was reading and praying about it" and at this point, I won’t lie, I was kinda thinking "dang he's gonna ask us not to come back" but he said "and I heard a little voice in my head saying 'just prove one thing about it wrong' " and that he can’t prove anything wrong, and he likes it because "it means exactly what it says, and there is no way to twist it really, like the bible can be." So we went back later that night and the first question he asked was "So how do I join the church exactly?" Elder Marquez and I both were super happy - it was hard to talk for a few min! We then told him how, and he committed to be baptized the last Sunday of the month! And that he’s not even going to try and prove anything wrong because he knows it’s true, and that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and if he didn’t believe it yet the Book of Mormon would tell him otherwise! And for a little icing on the cake, his wife wasn’t there that time but we went back a few days later and she still wasn’t there, but she told him she wants to join also! the Lord defiantly blessed Elder Marquez and I for the long "boring" work we did, and for this dang heat and humidity that were out tracting in! We’re super happy this week, and hope everyone is doing really good,
Love y'all,
Elder Holcombe
ps: I’m getting the country lingo down, I have to edit some of the words I put into my letters now so they are "normal" haha

Week 26

So this week went by pretty quick. Not to much happened really. But we did meet this one guy named Chris. He’s such a funny guy. We ended up talking to him for about an hour, after talking to him a bit about the gospel, he was just asking us random questions and telling us some stories. We were all laughing for about the rest of the time. He is a sweet guy. Nothing else really happened this week. well did hear some crazy stories about how there’s an asteroid coming to hit earth in 2012, and there’s one that’s going to pass between earth and the moon this November. Scary. But other than that not much.
Love you all
Elder Holcombe

Week 25

Hey everyone, how’s it going this week? Well this week was pretty good for me. Just wanted to start out by saying Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms, sorry it’s a day late, but better late than never right? :) So let’s see, what happened this week.. well we went tracting, and was having a little bit of success, and at about 8:15 we were getting ready to go somewhere else or see one of the members in the area. We decided to knock the last few houses that we were at, and ended up meeting Steve. He's a pretty cool guy, and said that he’s seen missionary’s around but never talked to them. So when we asked if he's heard of the Book of Mormon he said that he sure had and would like to get his hands on one so that he could read it. Well we gave him one and set up a time to try and come back. He has a pretty busy schedule he said and we were lucky to catch him - so hopefully we'll be able to see him again. Then, just a few days ago we were tracting and knocked on this one door, and we can hear a pretty big sounding dog behind the door. Well no one answers and we walk all the way down the lawn, and the people let the dog out and it comes charging at us. Like a train, there was just no stopping this thing it was a big ole pit. It runs all the way up to Elder Neville and I, we both gave pretty weak attempts to tell it to go home before it got to us.. (cant lie it was pretty sad) but then it stopped and turned back and ran all the way home at the last second, it looked like it was about to jump on us. So outside of that, not to much, hope every one is doing good,

Elder HolcombeLove y’all,

Week 24

Well ya'll, it’s been a long week. Not too much new really. We did a lot of tracting, and tried to see a lot of former investigators. Most of them either moved, or didn’t answer the door. Now that I am thinking about it, I don’t think we actually got a hold of any that we tried to haha. We did meet some other people that let us talk to them for a bit but that was about it. Earlier this week we went with a member to teach a recent converts mother, she only speaks Spanish, so obviously we can’t teach her. BUT, we did sing a song in Spanish. When the member asked if we could sing, first thought was "Haha, I cant sing to save anyone’s life!" Then it was, "Crap, I only know like the first verse of a few songs!" But then I saw him holding two hymn books so I thought we were good. Well he hands one to Elder Neville and I to share, and it’s in Spanish...what the donkey?! Well we ended up singing a song in Spanish, it was pretty cool. Then on Saturday, a few of the local churches all teamed up to rebuild a few houses here in Waycross. So we went to help, we helped tear out some "winders" to put new ones in. It was fun, and I got a free shirt out of it. Nothing much else really right now, just a lot of tracting, only one funny story from it this week. We were walking past one house that we just knocked on, and no one answered. Well while were walking to the next door, this big old dog comes running up barking at us. We got a little scared, I wont lie. It was a big dog. Well then, this little 10 year old girl come running from the next house runs past us and yells, "Don’t worry, he's scared of me!" She then runs up to the dog and starts beating the crap out of it, yelling at it screaming that she’s told him not to bark at people. It was pretty funny.
Well got to go, love you all,
Elder Holcombe