New pics!

I love this color! Not too dark, not too light. Feels so soft to walk on!

New Carpet!

I just found out my carpet is here. The installer is coming Wednesday to put it in! So excited! Pictures to come on the weekend, after we put everything back together.

Did you ever have one of those days?

Check out the missionary's eyes in the mirror!

Hey mom!

So, Bro. Sikahema is actually the first counselor of the Stake Presidency.

I'll send G-ma Holladay and G-ma Sweet and Aunt Joyce a thank you card this week.

That's great that you got all that work done on the floors. So now all that's left is the carpets right? What color of carpet did you get for downstairs? Is it a similar color as of old or did you get everything tan? No carpet downstairs, just upstairs.

This week, the missionary work has picked up. We've got a lot of appointments now. We've got some investigators now too. Oh, I found someone in the ward named John Sweet. I tried to get in contact with him to see if there was any connection. I heard from Elder Gleed that he left his family there, so I wasn't able to make contact. I'll ask Elder Pfost and Elder Johnson to see if they can find him for me.

For New Years eve we got permission to go up to Camden to watch the fireworks. The New Years firework show is far better than the July 4th firework show. They shot them off from a barge in the middle of the river. It was spectacular, but this time I forgot my camera. There were a lot of drunk people afterward, so we left. We didn't get to bed until like 2:15. Which is the latest I've ever gone to bed on my mission. Since we went to bed so late, we didn't wake up until 9. Which is the latest I've ever woken up on my mission. We didn't proselyte on New years eve or new years day. We were told to stay in on these days. We did have a few appointments with some members though so we still did some teaching.

Well thats all I can think of.

Love,

Zack

Happy 2010 to the Max!

Hey Momly Zomly!

I really enjoyed talking to the everyone! I hardly recognized Mike. Spencer's still pretty much the same. and Jake and John sound the same too. I didn't even realize how long we talked! That really sucks that JC didn't get to talk to his family for Christmas. Will he get to talk to his family when he gets to the mission or will he have to wait until Mother's Day?

Dinner at the Sikahema's was great! Vai wanted us to watch a movie about the life of Martin Luther. (In his mission there were a lot of Lutherans.) It was interesting, but we didn't finish it. We had a classic Thanksgiving dinner for Christmas. Turkey, mashed potatoes, home-made rolls, corn, green beans, and other stuff. During dinner, President Sikahema talked football with the other Elders using football terms that I didn't understand. I had no idea what they were talking about, so I just nodded my head in agreement, making a surprised face and saying something like "Oh wow!" or "That's Amazing!" every once in a while. Brother Sikahema knew a lot of famous players that I recognize. Like Jerry Rice, and McNabb, and others. After dinner we watched The Nativity, which I later found out was not put out by the church. The Sikahema's said that it was out in theaters. It was a pretty good movie. I could feel the spirit of the message. Then right before we left, President Sikahema talked about calling home and how much it means to our families. (His son, Trey, is on a mission in England)

For New Years, we have a dinner appointment with Sister Trout, a member. Other than that we don't have much planned. We're not doing anything for New Years Eve either. No one signed up because the meal calendar was missing for a couple of weeks and then it randomly showed up this week. Oh well. Elder Howard wants us all to buy Nerf guns so we can wage war. We'll see...

Thanks for the pics!

By George! What a fine looking ol' 'chap'! Dad should do his hair like that when he wears his suit. It looks good!

Spencer looks sleepy. He must be a pretty good guitar player if someone gave him a $5!

Did Jake get new pajamas? I think they suit him well. He is kind of an air head. :P (Love ya Jake!) I think it's cute how Jake and John are "helping" Spencer open his present.

The new oven looks high-tech! The floor looks great and so do the cupboards. The house seems a little bit darker.

I'm glad the Missionary Mall is sending me new shoes. I hope I like them. I hope they're comfortable. If I don't like them do you think I could exchange them for something better?

That's great that you got your old class back. You'll have to get creative if you have the same lesson manual. Either way its a good review for the kids.

This week was slow because of the holidays. Hopefully it will pick up next year, if not, sooner. Our teaching pool is pretty much nothing until next year, so we've been visiting members to get to know the ward better.

Elder Johnson bought a rear fender for his bike to keep the water from flinging up his back. The day after he bought it, he tried to do a wheelie and his fender stuck into the ground and broke. It was so funny!

Well I can't think of anything else to report, so I'll close.

Love ya!

Hap----------py New Year!

Zack

Kitchen done!

This was the kitchen June of 2008, just before Zack left.

Trim is all in. I finally found some curtains to match!

Now, just waiting for the carpet! Maybe new counter tops next summer!
We finished the entry way today, now we are going to take the extra flooring back and trade it for a new water heater. I'm really tired of only having hot water for 5 minutes!

Holladay Christmas

Finally a time to breath and update. Dave got a suit for Christmas. Love the morning doo!

Spence got an electric guitar, which all the boys loved! The rest of the boys basically got clothes and phone air time. Not a lot this year, but that's ok.

This is Spence playing his guitar. He's holding some money he got from grandma. Zack laughed at this...see the next post for his comments.

Merry Christmas!

Elder Edgar and Elder Zack

Hey Mom!

Merry Christmas!

I almost debated on just waiting until tomorrow to email, but I figured I'd do it while I had the time.

I got the package you sent to the apartment. I don't know which one it is because I haven't opened it yet. I haven't had time today. We've been running around like chickens with no heads. This morning we put together the supply orders for all the missionaries(except one zone) that has to go to the mission home before 10am Saturday. Then we had to drive all the way to East Brunswick to deliver some packages that arrived today for the missionaries up there. Now we came back to do emails which I'm doing now. Then afterwards we have a Christmas Open-house to go to in Edgewater park.

This past week I've been training Elder Howard how to do the referrals and trying to get the slide show on to a DVD. Oh and the slide show didn't work out the way we'd hoped. We couldn't get it to render correctly. We spent a long time trying to get it to render but it wouldn't work. We tried leaving it over night, but it didn't work so we had to do it a different way temporarily. I think that I got it to render correctly so now all I have to do is burn it to 12 DVDs and then mail it to the missionaries that departed on Sunday.

Elder Pfost and Elder Johnson are my new roommates. They'll be on a bike covering most of our old area. No one knows their area in this ward. I only know the other area. It's gonna be a fun transfer!

It snowed a ton on Saturday! We were in the office most of the day trying to get the the slide show to work. We gave up and decided to just leave it overnight to see if it would work the next day. We left around 8PM. We came out and our car was buried in almost a foot and a half of snow. The snow plow had plowed everywhere around our car so the snow got piled up. We had to dig our car out and we still got stuck. Eventually we got out and got home safely. There were very few people on the roads.

Half of those people were on the side of the road, stuck. We got home around 9 because we had to go slow. The snow plows were just starting to get to work. The roads weren't very plowed until day two after the storm, after everything had pretty much melted.

So tomorrow we will wake up and open our presents and play and have fun and stuff. Then at 1PM we'll go to the office and make calls. You'll have to call around that time, maybe around 1:30PM. Maybe I'll just call you and then you can call back. I think you have the phone number. Then at 4PM we have dinner with the Sikahema family.

WHAO! You haven't wrapped any presents? I hope you have some wrapped by the time you get this email. Or are you just going to let everyone see what they got before they get it?

Yesterday we had our Christmas activity. We played water balloon-catch with beanbags in teams of companionships in the cultural hall. Then we made teams of tables and we made little commercial skits to sell something. We had to sell something, but we couldn't sell the item that we had. For instance, my group had to sell a reindeer Christmas tree ornament, but we sold a Robotomatic 5000 that does everything for a low low price of 100 payments of just $1. It was also made in Japan. We got second place in that. Then we did Name that Christmas tune as a team.

That one was more difficult than I thought it would be. Then we played Guess that movie quote. Then we ate lunch. It was delicious! We had roast beef sandwiches and salad and fruit. Then we had a rave party with glow sticks. Then we had a white elephant gift exchange. Then the packages got passed out by "Santa". He looked kinda goofy in his costume.

Love you!

Zack

Did I skip last weeks letter?

Apparently Zack did not receive my e-mail before he sent his. And don't worry, I was able to set him straight on which day Christmas will land this year...read on.

Hey mom!

How's it going?

Everything is going pretty good here.

I learned who my new companion is going to be. His name is Elder Howard. I've served around him a little bit, but I don't know too much about him yet. He's from Missouri. I think they've sent out the Christmas cards with the pics of all the missionaries, so you should be able to see what he looks like.This transfer is crazy. Since we're losing so many missionaries and not getting many back, we have to combine zones and areas and whatnot. They're combining Spanish and English zones so we're down to 4 zones in the mission, two in each stake. They're also changing sister areas to Elder areas and vice versa. I'm being transferred to the Moorestown area. Its in the same ward as I'm in now. The Moorestown area used to be the AP area, but they got transferred further south. Elder Gleed and Elder Haslam(APs) were assigned to the new Singles branch that just opened not too long ago. So they cover the whole Stake now. I'll still live at the same apartment, I'm just covering the other half of the ward now.Elder Pfost and Elder B Johnson(I think) are being transferred to the Riverside/Edgewaterpark area(the area I'm in now) They'll be on bikes. Oh and I'm still in the Office as King Companion. I won't be doing the referrals any more. I'll be doing everything else. Such as: ordering and organizing the supply orders for the mission, making the departing slide show, making transfer cards, making the newsletter, and anything else that needs to be done.

This week has been/will be busy. We've got stuff going on everyday except Saturday which is the least busiest day this week. Today I have to send out all my Christmas cards and we have to go shopping and finish the departing slide show. then we have appointments from 5-9. Then tomorrow we'll be at the Office all day. Then on Friday we have a move in the morning and a Christmas Party at the Berry's in Cherry Hill 1st Ward in the evening.Saturday is ward correlation with Bro. Cleveland and there's a "Mormon" night at his house later that evening. Then Sunday we have church in the morning, and Transfer Meeting in the evening. Monday we have another move to do. Tuesday we have... oh I guess Tuesday is free too because of the Christmas Activity on Wednesday. Then Thursday may or may not be a P-day. I'm not sure yet. Then Friday is Christmas Eve. Then Saturday is Christmas.

The package you sent was delivered to the office, but I won't get it until the Christmas Activity. But THANKS!

That's all I have that's really report worthy.

Love ya!

Zack