Big Thanks from Elder Okamoto

Dear Sister Holladay,
Thank you for wonderful package for me! I was really surprised when I got it. And every candy wonderful! And your letter made me happy with deep emotion. I don't know how much I can show my thankfulness heart to you. When I got the mission call I was so shock. Because I didn't know how to speak in English, and I didn't know American cultures. But now, I can say that here is my mission place. I really love United States. I really love your country. Every Americans are awesome. and most important things are I met Zack Holladay and his family. I heard from Elder Holladay that how wonderful people you are and my family wants me to say that we're grateful for your son. Such a wonderful friend and my son's companion for Sister Holladay. I'm sorry my family can't speak English. Wonderful things of Missionary work is finding investigator and meeting eternal wonderful friend like your son. Heavenly Father wanted me to see your son at here. So then he called me to go New Jersey. I can testify it. Thank you for everything you have done for me.

Love, Okamoto

Just have to share...

Just had to share this short note the Emily posted on her blog. The picture on the left is me and Emily playing the guitar and singing "Called to Serve". The bottom picture is me and the primary kids singing a song I couldn't play on my guitar, so Sister Spencer was playing the piano in the other room. The other picture is the me with the Heaps family singing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me". It was so sweet it was all I could do not to choke up during the song.

Written by Emily: It was fun. I had fun playing the guitar. At the end we got to have cookies! Cambry came, Angie Johnson came and Grandpa and Grandma Heaps, Grandma and Grandpa Whiting,Katie and her dad came and Sister Spencer.
Sister Holladay is my teacher. She played the guitar and I love her.

It was a special program because people got to come and it was at my house.

Awe! Precious!

Dec. 3 note from Zack

Dear mom,

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip over this way. Hope everyone is doing OK.

Elder Okamoto is a phenomenal painter/artist. He likes to paint Jesus. I'll have to take a picture for you some time.

You already got a new stove? lets see... that means that next you're either going to get a new dishwasher, or a new dryer, or a new toilet. My guess is the dishwasher.

Since I've been in NJ, I've sang twice in the Ward Choir. It was fun even though I didn't know my part. I'll probably end up sing twice this month because the priesthood is singing a song and then the ward choir is singing for Christmas as well. I'm not sure which days, but I'm sure it's soon... too soon...

LOL! You painted your room bright green? that would hurt my eyes to wake up to bright green every morning... you are bold...

I love the camera! Its everything I ever wanted! I tried to upload some pictures, but for some reason the computer doesn't like the card. So I tried to print off some pictures at Rite Aid, but it still wouldn't read the card. I think it has something to do with the Card being an SD HC, but I"m not sure. I'll bring the cord next time and see if that works.

Thanks for the packages in advance! The email said it would probably be there today or tomorrow. I think it will be there when we get back home today.

I'm glad I'm not wearing girl slippers either. they were too small. no they weren't pink (much to my dismay), but they were fuzzy and dark blue.

I did receive some letters from Erika the other day. Surprisingly they made me very happy. They brought me a lot of hope, and comfort.

Also, I've begun to learn the Japanese alphabet characters. I can pick out a few, but I've still got a ways to go.

Just a heads up: We might have to move next wednesday, so I might not have time to do emails on Wednesday. Rest assured, I will email you next week.

oh and we gave talks on sunday.

Ya!

Aishiteru!

Love,

Elder Holladay

Thanksgiving 2008

Finally! The dishwashing duties fall the the next generation!

Thanks for the pics Carma! You should be able to click on them to make them bigger.
Out of all the wonderful things we had to eat, Spencer could not find one thing he would eat!

Zack Notes Part II

Hey mom!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE YOU SENT ME! The camera is very nice! I really enjoyed the pictures and videos that you put on it! I also enjoyed the cards that your primary class sent. They are very sweet. The brownies and cookies didn't last more than one day. Tell the Johnsons Elder Okamoto and I said "Thank you'! I wear my slippers almost every day. I had actually found some slippers that the sisters had left, but they were too small, and they didn't keep my feet very warm.

I found out some news from President Winegar today. starting in April, they're going to reduce the number of full-time missionaries in our mission from 106 to about 60. Also, starting next transfer, we can only go to the temple once during our mission. Elder Perry said to reduce the number from 2 to 1 time in the temple for missionaries. Pres. Winegar decided to let us go to the temple at our halfway mark, so I'll be able to go to the temple next summer.

RJ Still is still prodigal, but we can still work with him. He's still our friend, so we might take him out to lunch next week.

Tiffany is still solid. She has made many friends in the church, ( as you probably already know from talking to her).

We talked with wayde and we had dinner with him and with the Carey's (they gave us the refferal that led us to wayde). We had pizza at the Sal's Pizza that's right next door to the mechanics shop. We then talked about the papers that he got from his pastor, and we all came to the consensus that the papers were false. He's still golden.

It finally snowed here! During the weekend on Friday I think. It snowed about an inch. maybe an inch and an quarter. at least that's how much there was on the ground when we woke up. We actually had to scrap off the car. luckily it was wet snow, so it was good snowball material. I got in some good hits and Elder Okamoto got in some good hits.

Elder Okamoto is still teaching me Japanese. I've found that its pretty easy for me to pronouce japanese, but its nearly impossible for me to read Japanese. First I have to learn the japanese alphabet which has 142 characters. then there are more than 100,000 other characters for certain words. I'm still working on the alphabet, but hopefully one day I'll be able to carry on a conversation in japanese. One day...and if I get there, I have to learn japanese grammar. its lots of work.

So how's New York? cold?

Well my time here is up.

Ja!

Aishiteru!

Love,

Elder Holladay

Zack Notes

Hey mom!

I am so very grateful to have a washer and dryer. I can do laundry any time I need it instead of having to wait for Wednesdays. AND I save $20 a month. AND we have a dishwasher. Cleaning Dishes by hand got old after the first dish... However, on Saturday, we discovered that our kitchen sink has a leak where it connects from the drain to the pipe. I cleaned up the mess and we told management about it so hopefully it gets fixed this week. Oh, and the tile in the bathroom was repaired when we got there, so there's no hole there any more.

I go on 2-3 exchanges every transfer. Its just for the day. Its a good learning experience. So far I've gone on 2 exchanges and have one more with Elder Nash. Elder Okamoto was in Mantua; a little further north.

Flight to NY: oh nice! Hope the flight was somewhat pleasant. Though you had a lot more options for entertainment than I did. maybe you could rentacar for a day or something?

Painting my room green: Green? Why green? OH! That reminds me! Sis. Schultz is a painter. She painted her walls and they look really cool! Wish I took a picture... She made it look like there was leaves on the wall, but it was just one color and one roller. I was pretty impressed. I'll have to see if she'll send you an email or something. Any ways... As I was saying... Green? like NEON Green? Its just YOUR bedroom right? cuz that would hurt my eyes....my eyes hurt just thinking about it...

So my room is vacant then?

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome: T.O.S. Doesn't sound pleasant. maybe if we pull your arms one way, and your legs the other way, you'll get taller and then your nerves will naturally get un-bunched up?

Is this the same "Jake" that I left at home? Has he stopped playing Computer too?

Actually I'm "in" the ward choir too. I figured since I'm already there, I might as well learn how to sing... I'm learning the bass line. I didn't know the difference between "alto" "soprano" "tener" and " bass" before I went to the ward choir, but now I do.

What did you talk about with Emily? How's she doing? Is she out of the hospital yet?

You learned how to make rolls? I thought you just took them out of the bag, and put them on a pan and put them in the oven and cook 'em. You learned how to make them from scratch? sounds like a tedious job to me, though I'm sure the benefits outweigh the costs.

John taught his class at school? Did his class go with him to help aunt Joyce? Dad's usually a pro at that kind of stuff. unlike the "pro's", apparently.

So we FINALLY got in contact with RJ on monday. Apparently, he had purchased a "Mormon Encyclopedia" that was not published by the church, and he was reading in there and he believed a lot of it. the book that he purchased talked about stuff like "God was a man" and "God lives on Kolob with his wives"(yes that was plural), "the garden of eden is in missouri", "the flood only covered the American Continent", "Men can become like Gods" and the list went on about really deep topics. RJ didn't like most of the stuff in there, he said it was too much and he got upset that we "didn't tell him up front" about this kind of stuff. I told him that if it doesn't have the logo of the church on it, then we don't most likely don't teach it. So I told him that we'd do some research and we'd get back to him on sunday. We told him that the book he got was the authors interpretation of the scriptures. So hopefully we can get things cleared up soon.

We are also teaching a man by the name of Wayde. We picked him up from the sisters. He's a mechanic in Elmer. When we went to go meet with him, he showed us some papers containing Anti-Mormon material that he got from his pastor and he asked us some questions about it. I was so glad that he asked us about it instead of believing everything his pastor tells him. I've gone through and corrected the papers with scriptures. we're meeting with him tonight for dinner. Hopefully all goes well.

well Gotta go!

Ja!

Aishiteru!

Elder Holladay

New Stove

This is my new stove and range hood I had to buy to bake my turkey in. I got up early in the morning to clean the walls and floor, pull the fridge out and paint the walls. I had it done in 2 hours! I could have the rest of the kitchen painted in a couple hours, then I only have to paint my room. It feels great to get things done!

New York Trip

Uncle Jayson and his dog

Dad, me, Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Phil at dad's house

It was a short, cold trip, but I got some visiting in, and that is what I had planned. I extracted some history from dad and his siblings and will write it up with pictures. I got a picture from dad with all of his siblings, but I can't seem to get in loaded on this post, so maybe later.

Awesome Pic!

I love this picture! I asked Zack to get his companion, Elder Okamoto to make me a picture of Zack reading his scriptures. When I got home from New York today, this was in the mail! Fabulous!

More to come on the NY trip.

My stove went out on me the day I left for NY, so I need to get that fixed or replaced by Thanksgiving, otherwise that turkey is not going to taste too good.

Keeping it short, cause it's time for FHE!

Sunday, Sunday. So good to me!

We have been working hard all week! I talked Dave into doing a little work for his sister so he could have some $$$ for his silly hobbies. He had John over there helping him hang doors. I was so impressed how Dave included John on all the decisions and made him feel an important part of the process. Dave said he really had fun working with him. He did the same with Jake when they were putting in the water softener. I love to see that "Father-Son" bonding and it will be some great memories for them.


We had the Heaps Primary Program tonight. I wish I had a picture to share, but I will get one off their blog when her mom updates it. Emily picked the people she wanted to speak about which subject. Every person did an excellent job in adding to the spirit of the program. It was the best meeting I've been to in a long time. The talks were short and oh so sweet! Each person spoke from their heart. The Primary kids sang so well and Emily did an awesome job playing the guitar with me for the first time in public (she did the strumming). I was especially touched by Matt's (dad) talk about how his mom, who had passed away a year before his mission, was there watching over him while he was on his mission. She must have been there with the other angels sharing this special time with the family. What an amazing experience it was to be with this family while they shared their testimonies and life experiences. It was an exceptional program that I think none of us will forget. I think we were in Heaven, for just an hour!