Hooola

Date: October 24, 2011 Area: Santiago, Chile  Companion: Elder Metcalf

Hey Family,

How is everyone doing? I hope everyones well!

Lindy, to answer your questions, the mamita (hna gomez) has made some pretty good food of late. There was a shephards pie type of thing that was delicious with fried potatoes (so they were basically french fries) some rice with meat, and a soup sort of thing. Its all really really good! But there is a sister in the ward that makes the best empanadas that I´ve had here- by far! and so she is going to teach my Elder Metcalf and I how to make them and like 4 other things on P day in 3 weeks! We are super stoked!!! Super excited! I sent you a voice message today actually so that answers that question. My favorite things about Chile so far are the people of the ward, they are all super nice and I love them. I like seeing people change their lives because there are a TON of drunks here and they always ask us for help to help them stop so its cool to see them actually see them do it! And they all give us food and I love the food=) I¨m not sure i´m going to come home the same size, I´m guessing í´m going to be a little bigger! As for the accent... i´m just trying to copy them so that I don´t sound so gringo. And in that file that I sent you, I normally don´t sound so gringo but that was early this morning so my tounge wasn´t loose yet =)

Mom! Thanks for that recording from your kids! That was super fun to listen to! I´ll send them one back! They sound old! haha but it was super fun to listen to.

This week we had stake conference and what they call Tour of the Mission! They were both super sweet! There were members of the 70 at both of them. At stake conference we had Elder Richards there. It was cool because we had both Jose and Nicole there at the conference. He talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and happiness. He talked about how they go hand in hand, you cant have one without the other that they really are the same thing. The happiness that we experience comes from the holy Ghost. It was a really great talk and it was good for the investigators to hear.

In the Tour of the Mission we had Elder Ceballos there. He is in the area presidency and it was a great meeting. He talked about how in the world there are people that are prepared and ready for the gospel. That because of the experiences that they have previously had in their lives they will willingly accept the gospel when they get the chance. But that group of people is small. Jose and Nicole are two of those people. He talked about another group of people out there that likewise is small but is the opposite, they will reject the gospel. He then talked about a 3rd group of people in the world, a much larger group. They are out there living day to day but not really searching for anything. But this group of people if presented with the gospel in the right mannor will accept the gospel and change their lives. It is this group of people that we typically work with and that the members work with. So he just stressed the importance of working with that type of people and that when rejection comes because it most certainly will, to not get discouraged. Never get discouraged. I thought that was cool.

We also found out at stake conference that we are going to have another stake conference in 2 weeks because an apostle is going to come!!! We don´t know who but we are all excited. There is going to be the apostle and a member of the 70 and a member of the presiding bishopric! And also the saturday before we are going to have a huge conference with both the East and North missions with one of the people who is coming (we don´t know which one yet).

Mom, I found out that President Essig changed the rules on the music that we can listen to so we can listen to more than just the mo tab. We can listen to anything that is uplifting and helps us to think of Christ. If I send you one of the ipods that I have could you load it up with music? like lots? =) I´m going to send some stuff the coming week (letters) so let me know! Thanks!

Dad, I hope you had a good trip to Minneapolis and got some good ideas for what to do in San Diego! Go for the gold! It might be hard to set it up right so that it grows like it did in Minneapolis but you taught me that any job worth doing is worth doing right. So go for broke, I know you can get it going! Get it up and running right and it will definitely pay off in the end. And then you can buy your boat and I´ll tag along on the trip around the world ;) I had a conversation with a guy in the ward this week and it was really fun cause we talked about world isssues and stuff. It was good that you taught me a little bit about that stuff because I didn´t sound like a complete idiot! =) Thanks.

Other than that stuff. It was a really slow week because we don´t have that many people to teach right now so we were knocking doors a lot. Hopefully next week will be a bit more exciting! But for now, I love you all and hope you´re doing well. I´ll send some more voice messages next week!

Love ,

Elder Holland