Mama's happy again!

No, not cause we caught fish! Because I finally got my e-mails from Zack! OK, Zack is pretty obvious in this pic, but can you tell who the rest are, and which is who? This is one of our trips to Moosehorn Lake up in near Mirror Lake. We loved to fish here because the fishing was great and we never got skunked here. The boys used to call it "Muddy Lake", because there was always mud to go through to get to our favorite spot!

Here are some excerpts from Zack:

Hey Momerdoodle!

I did get the email thing figured out, so I shouldn't have anymore problems with it. Transfers last 6 weeks. Every 6 weeks we have a transfer meeting. There's a possibility that I may move every 6 weeks, but its not likely. Anyways its best to send packages to my apartment within the first five weeks of the 6 week period. if its during the last week of the period, then its best to send it to the mission office. I think it should be fine if you sent the package on wednesday though.

I will try to send the pictures that I've taken since I sent the package so that I can keep up with it so I don't have to spend money to get them developed. I just wanted to make sure that you got all of the pictures before I started to delete them when I run out of room. so far I haven't had to delete any though.

Update on RJ: on the 7th, RJ came to church again. When we were in priesthood, Pres. Mordecai asked us to flip open to Mosiah 18: 8-9. RJ was the first one there, so Pres. Mordecai asked RJ to read it and RJ was happy to oblige. As he is reading, he thought that he was supposed to read verse 10 also, so he kept reading on to 10. After he read it, he pulled out his highlighter and marked verse 10. After church, he told us that that verse was his revalation to be baptized. so we showed him the baptismal font and we set up an appointment to talk with him about discussions 2-4 so that he can get baptized as soon as he wants to. that appointment is tomorrow, so hopefully it goes well.

Thats cool that James and Aunt Steph and Amanda are comin down to visit! Has James decided to go on a mission yet, or is he still scared? Is Amanda still reading them twilight books? How's steph doing with the house practically to herself all day?

Regarding the tiling: Woohoo! you got the easy part done! You should make a goal to have the bathroom finished by the end of the month if not sooner. maybe even set up "appointments" with dad to do certain things on the shower.

Our shower is still broken! lol We need to talk to management again to see if we can get it fixed. I think I included a picture of it on the cd.

Sounds like you had a really good regional conferance!

We had a Zone Conference yesterday with Elder Nuenschwander(sp?) of the first quorum of the seventy. He talked about Preperation. We should also write down the revalations and learnings that we recieve from the Holy Ghost. when we do this we will learn more. ("line upon line, precept upon precept"). Also when I know that I'm going to be somewhere where the Spirit is mostly likely going to be, I should bring a paper and pencil to write things down.

1. I should expect to use what we study in personal and companion study that very same day

2. I need to focus on the people

3. I need to be consistant in every day preperation.

4. I need to be willing to sacrifice.

I feel that sacrifice is a crucial part of being prepared. In fact when we found RJ, that was during the day of sacrifice. and also on fast sunday, he said that he wanted to be baptized. I have found that as we sacrifice, God will pay us back way more than we gave up.

It was a very good conference as well! I enjoyed it!

Woo! you finally decided to clean out the garage eh? how far did you clean? did you decide to clean underneath the stairs too? cuz that needed cleaning (at least when I left it did) and also the storage room by dad's computer needed some work too. Then you'd have a completely clean house! well except for Mike's and Jakes room, and possibly spencers.

Honestly, I'm not surprised that you decided to move things around. LOL! When I left, I expected everything to be almost completely different than from what it was when I left. I'm sure you could recruit kyle to move the heavy stuff. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a job yet. :P

Re: Jake talking on the phone all the time with girls around the country: LOL! I'm going to be honest, I can't help but chuckle at Jake's whole "situation". John: I need you to do me a HUGE favor: When Jake is on the phone with one of his "girlfriends" say "I Love you!" in a really annoying voice. If you do this for me, I'll get you something from New Jersey and send it to you. I'll have mom tell me if you actually do it or not.

Mom: tell me if John actually does ^that^ or not. Also keep buggin' Jake. I'll send you something too if you'd like.

I think Piano lessons would be good for Spence. looking back,--I never thought I'd say this-- I kind of regret giving up piano lessons. I think having the talent of at least one musical instrument is beneficial.

I miss going to the gym and playing racquet ball! I do as many pull ups and chin ups in the morning and I do at least 25 push ups every day. Lately I've started to use weights when doing pull ups to build muscle faster. We also play basketball every wednesday night, but the past two weeks, I haven't been able to play as hard as I wanted to.

I have not given out any Book of Mormons this week, but I will probably give out a few this week to make up for it. I believe that my total is 5ish, but I'm not exactly sure. I know I asked you in my letter, but I'll ask you again, cuz I haven't recieved an answer yet.

How many Book of Mormons have YOU given out?

Love ya lots,

Elder Holladay

Dear Mom,

I'm sorry that you didn't get my other email. It said that it sent it, so I didn't even think about it. I think I had too many pictures attached or something so it didn't actually send when it said it did. I'll take the pictures off and resend it.

So I found out that missionaries aren't the only ones that needs to do missionary work. Its the members' job to find people for the missionaries to teach. I think that Elder Bednar gave a talk about it. It's called "Ask in Faith" Look it up on the website. I think you'll enjoy it.

My story:...I called the school at 4 to see if he actually went there and they said he had and had passed off one packet. About 6:00 pm I heard a voice tell me that Jake was getting home from school and I should go pick him up. So I got in your car and headed down to the bus stop. I had no idea when the bus would be there or which one he was on. I pulled up to the bus stop and noticed some people crossing the street from the bus going to Provo. I was getting out of the car to check to see if I could even see a bus coming down the road, when one pulled up and off stepped Jake! I was just pondering earlier how we (mormons) don't even use a 10^th of the power we have available to us, through the Holy Ghost and the priesthood, and how much more we could do if we just tuned into the spirit. Jake wasn't praying for me to be there, but it was a affirmation to me that the spirit is there to help us and that through us, if we (I) would but listen, would be an instrument in blessing the lives of others.
I'm actually surprised to hear that Jake went to school that day! I wouldn't have been surprised to hear that he slept in and sluffed school. That is a really cool experience! You should keep a journal (if you haven't already started one) about the spiritual experiences that you have. I try to keep stuff like that in my Journal because I think they're just so awesome.

Fav. Scripture: D&C 121: 45-46. and for the pic, just do one of the ones that Pres. Winegar sent you.

Thank you for that package that you sent me last week! I love everything in there! I'll have to send you a pic of me and my pillow (case) and blankets and stuff. I'm also excited to put some new music on my music player. I'm getting tired of the ones I have already. I don't have the greatest selection, so thanks for the music as well!

I didn't get transfered this time, but we had to move to a different apartment yesterday. The Hermanas moved into our old apartment. We live in Pennsville now. I'm not quite sure what our entire address is but its 815 Curtis Ave. in Pennsville. I don't know the apartment complex name or the zip. sorry I'll try to get that to you by next week or I might have Sis. Carter email it to you.

Speaking of Sis. Carter... that one day that she called you. She's pretty funny. She likes to give missionaries a hard time. and most of the stuff that she said, she exaggerated a lot. so yeah. thats my schpeil about that.

RJ is getting baptized this Saturday! We're going to give short talks and Elder Palmer is going to dunk him. He's still looking for a new job, but he comes to sacrament meeting every week. Another person that we're teaching has a baptismal date as well. Her name is Tiffany Devinshire. She has been taking the discussions for the past year or so, and she had a baptismal date before, but she had a lot of negative pressure from her family so she bowed out. But now, we feel, that she has a strong desire to get baptized and she's going to go through with it! Her best friend, Jason Reese, (you may get an email from his mom) left for the MTC on Monday. He's going to southern Mexico. Jason is Tiffany's BFF, so Tiffany was inspired by Jason's dedication, to be baptized.

2. I weigh 157.5 last I checked. My drivers license says 140, sooooo yeah. I'd say I've gained weight.

3. We have kind of been slacking in the running department lately because of the move. We'll have to scout out a good running area sometime soon.

7. yup I need my coat. It rains harder over hear because of the Hurricane season. When it rains, I get drenched!

8. When we were setting windows, I picked a street that didn't actually exist to go tracting, so we went to a street near where we had previously tracted. We found an investigator there who is searching for the true church. but now that the Hermanas are here, We'll probably let them teach her.