MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

   

Hi friends and family.  I know I haven't posted Lee's missionary letters since he returned to the field, but thought this was worth sharing.  It is excerpts from his Christmas e-mail.  It is the best gift a mother could receive for Christmas.  It is long, but I hope that you will each take the time to read it and feel of our Savior's love as you do so!  Lee loves you — as do we! xoxo — Carolann     

WOW! This week felt like a dream it was just SO AWESOME!! And it was such a blessing being able to talk to the whole family and share laughs and smiles. Sure LOVE all of you and appreciate more than you know all you have done for me this year. It has been a rollercoaster to say the least but I know it has brought our family closer together and we are stronger because of it. I know personally, I am a lot stronger, feel the love of the Savior more, have a greater understanding of the atonement, and understand people and their situations better.

.....This week we had some great lessons, but there is so much else to talk about I'll focus just on a couple things. One of the most Important, if not THE MOST important, Besides Christmas itself and the Birth of Christ, was JOHN'S BAPTISM! :) OH MY GOSH SO AWESOME! This week we helped him prepare for it, trying on the clothes, discussing his worries, what he needed to bring, and he even asked us to give him a blessing the night before. He is the most prepared person I've ever met for Baptism. 

Saturday, Christmas Eve, we drove to Pittsford, about 30 minutes away from Canandaigua, and had the Baptism at our Christmas Mission Conference. We had probably around 150 to 180 missionaries, senior couples, mission president and family and counselors and family there. We then had around 20 Members that came from the Daigua to support John. It was sooooo awesome! John had asked our Stake President to conduct, and he closed the service by saying how never had he seen or even imagine such a army missionaries and members coming to a baptism before. It was memorable, for sure! 

A member of the ward spoke on Baptism. He is a recent convert and we sure love him. He's doing great and did great at the baptismal service. We then performed the baptism and lets just say John was the happiest guy there he was glowing. As I said the prayer, immersed him in the water, and when he came out he just had the biggest smile on his face. He gave me a big hug and right away said so sincerely, "I love you man!" I'm Never ever going to forget those words and that experience. I love Brother John more than words can describe. He is my friend. Someone I only met 3 or so months ago that has a big soft spot in my heart. He is an example to me of a true believer, and what a glorious day it was. After the hug he put his hands up with excitement with a big ol' smile on his face. :

The rest of the service went awesome. My other favorite part though was when John got up to bear his Testimony. He shared how he had been waiting for this day for a long time. How he feels the spirit so strong and he loves his brother in Heaven, Jesus Christ so, so much. He is CONVERTED to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of his reasons for wanting to be baptized is to be sealed one day, for time and all eternity, to his wife who passed away. He shared how he is excited to help more people and help them come unto this great gospel.

We then had the rest of our mission conference that day. We took a mission picture, did a gift exchange, had lunch, and had a little conference on Jesus Christ being Christmas. President asked us "what do you want to get out of Church tomorrow? It's His meeting. What do you want to learn? And what do you want to DO for him?" I pondered that, as the musical numbers were played and sang, and I thought back to about a year ago when I had a conversation with a fellow missionary in Portugal. We were talking, and this was when I was pretty beaten up, pretty low, pretty unhealthy. I said, "I have always Known this Church and Gospel is true because of attending church, reading the Book of Mormon, etc. It just makes sense. After reading the Book of Mormon, it just HAS TO BE TRUE. It just HAS to be true. If this Church isn't true, there is no other out there that could be. But I too want to KNOW without a doubt, that this is HIS Church, run by Christ Himself, through a very Spiritual experience and an understanding of Coming to KNOW HIM. I Know I have had times in my life, living this gospel, that I have felt the spirit here and felt the spirit there, testifying to me that this is the truth, but I've never heard a voice like some have, I've never had this Huge Experience that others have had. Why not? By the end of my mission, I want to KNOW that this is HIS church because it won't be sufficient in these last days to just believe and hang on to saying, "It's true because it just makes sense". That isn't going to be enough. We ALL Need to be CONVERTED to His Gospel and actually KNOW our Savior."

Well, I'm here to say today that I've had that experience. Yesterday, on Christmas day, after a whole year of ups and downs, I KNOW that this is His Church, Christ's Church, and I have had that experience, an experience that will carry with me for the rest of my life. As we were called up to confirm John as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and as we put our arms on each others shoulders as Melchizedek priesthood holders of God, and placed our other Hands on Johns head, the spirit was as real as if I could see it. The confirmation blessing I gave was what God wanted said, but also what God wanted me to feel and Know was true. The spirit in our Chapel was so strong. Later in the day, the Bishop came up to me and shared how much he loved the confirmation blessing. And right then, a man I don't know too well in the church, who is usually quite shy, stopped while walking passed us, looked at me and said reverently and sincerely, "Oh my, The spirit that was in that room while that blessing was there was so, so strong. I could feel it."

Being the last email I will write this year in 2016, and being a year full of many ups and downs, I want all of you to know, that I KNOW this is His Church. This is His Gospel. What I said to my missionary friend just one year ago, of coming to know that for myself, and not just have a superficial knowledge, has been answered, by my Father in Heaven. It maybe was not, no it DEFINITELY was not the plan I wished for. Coming home from my mission in Portugal, being beaten and broken, confused and feeling like my testimony was getting shattered, but it was HIS PLAN for me. He could see what I needed in my life to become a life-long Disciple of Jesus Christ and He allowed me to go through exactly what I needed to go through to achieve that. 

I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He Knows me, as He knows each and everyone of us. He is the head of this Church. He leads and guides us through a prophet on this earth, Thomas S. Monson. He broke the bands of death and He died for each and everyone of our sins here in this life. I know He has felt every pain that I have felt, am feeling, and will feel for the rest of my life, and I am beyond grateful for all that He has done for me. 

I hope your Chirstmas was centered on Him. I hope next Christmas and all to come will be centered on Him, and that we all can remember what we felt this week, yesterday on His day, for the year and our lives to come.

Love and miss you all! I owe all of you a whole lot for all you have helped me through. Thank you. Sure Love you! :) Merry Christmas one last time!

Love,

Elder Holmes

Blessed with Some Investigators!! (with pics)

Oi Família! 

This week was a good one and we were blessed with some lessons, finding some less actives, and some of the investigators we found last week made it to church. Serafina, we had knocked the door the week prior and her son was sick, she opened the door, and we left a prayer with him. This week we taught her some more lessons, she loved all the lessons, has the desire to get baptized, and made it to church and loved it. We figured out super late though that she has a bad habit of smoking. You would never guess! Elder Empee and I were shocked, so we decided to make a goal with her to stop and she ended up wanting a blessing as well. She says how the day she stops smoking will be one of the best days in her life. And then being baptized a couple weeks after, even more ALEGRIA! 

Last week I told you about a family that we knocked on their door and wanted to give them a card. This week we got to teach them again with our member Kevin (about 20 going on his mission soon) and they loved it again. Patricia, the Mom, says that her husband Regenaldo has never showed interest in religion at all, but something seems to have caught his interest with us and our message. They both got to read a little bit of the Book of Mormon, and in spite of being nervous and caught off guard, Regenaldo got to finish our lesson with a great prayer blessing his family and asking about these things. He works on sundays, so it was tough for him to make it to church, but Patricia and her daughter Laura (4) were able to make it to church and seemed to like it. Didn´t have much time to catch up with her after but seemed happy. It was a great testimony meeting, where Kevin even got to bear his testimony about the spirit he has felt lately, and even talked about the experience he had with us which was really cool. It was nice hearing him say after our lesson this week something like this, ´´hearing that that dad’s heart has been softened and accepted the missionaries in his house, just shows how true the gospel of Jesus Christ really is!´´ Sunday I had the privilege of sharing my testimony as well, testifying how Christ is there for us, how through him and his grace, he makes all the difference after all we can do. When we fall short, HE truly makes up the difference. 

We´ve also been teaching Elvina the last couple of weeks, a girl about our age, and this week she made it to church. She was nervous to go, with everyone then knowing her and then affiliating herself with our church, and then during sacrament meeting, she gets up and bears her testimony! haha it was interesting. I was like wow! She shared how she would never have thought she would be here that day, and kinda just shard a little about life, but the whole ward was interested! From what it seemed, it seemed like she had felt something there and liked church. She grew up in the pentecostal church. She likes the studies she has with us.  She is going to have some family for the next couple of weeks so not sure if we will see much more of here. But at least she got to experience a little of the church, and of the gospel.

Lastly, Elder Empee and I helped a man who was struggling getting back to the house from the hospital, which was a blessng for him. I was so tired and have no idea what he would have done if we weren´t there. He could barely walk! Not sure what he really had, but he was grateful. Got to see Sonia, Viviem, and Dulce as well this week, with their other sister Kiami. Wanted to have the mom there like we planned, to talk to here a little about church, but improvised and had them teach us the first lesson, the restoration. Haha it was fun, some laughs as they tried to act like misisonaries, but it blew my mind how much they truly had learned from us and how ready they truly are for baptism. They seemed to know everything about joseph smith, the church being restored, the book of mormon, all the way to the authority being restored, baptism, repentance, and everything (which isnt even in the first lesson!) I think they surprised themselves with how much they really knew. Tough thing with them is seeing how ready they are yet not really sure what exactly more to do, but just pray that at some time, hopeully soon, they enter the waters. 

Had a fun family noite with some a recent convert famlly, Veronica, guilherme, and filomena Alves. Had the kids invite their friends, had the sisters there Vanaquer and Olivera, and I taught them a hand tapping game and the Pig snorting game. They were pretty impressed and thought it was way funny how long i could do my pig snort. Afterwards we got to teach the little friends how to simply pray, and Guulhermes friend Anderson left us with a great prayer to go. 

Hope all is well and LOVE you all. 

Elder Holmes

Wrapping up the week with General Conference! (with pics!)

Working in Odivelas!  

We ran into some members from Sacavem yesterday as 

we went to Benefica to listen to General Conference.  

First pic is with Joanna....

then with Irmao Panzo and finally with Joaquim -- all from Sacavem!

Bom Dia Famlia, Tudo Bem!?

This week seemed to go by fast. And ended well with Good old General Conference! Been a nice start to the transfer with Elder Empee. A couple weeks ago we had taught an Elvina and Teadora, and when we had returned to teach them again, Teadora didn´t seem like she wanted us back again so we didn´t get back in the door.This week on Tuesday, we decided to stop by again, and Elvina was more than Happy to let us in and teach her. She loved learning and seems interested. She invited us to come back on Thursday because she wanted to cook us Bacalhão com natas, a special Portuguese dish here, and be taught again. We were pumped. She is about our age, from Angola, studying architecture here in Portugual. Nice Girl and hope to see here progress! Read 2 Nephi 31 with her and enjoyed explaining to her the Book of Mormon. As I said to here, ´´If you pray about the book of mormon being the word of God and Know that it is true, you will know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and if you know Joseph Smith was a prophet, you know that He restored the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints again here on earth, the only church with the proper priesthood authority to baptize in his name,´´ or something like that in Portuguese. As I was finishing saying that, she was saying if for me hahah she said ´´I know, I have that memorized already from you guys saying it.´´ Haha well it is true! She got sick this weekend but hopefully she got to attend general conference in her house on the computer. 

Had another lesson with Sonia, Vivem and Dulce, watching the video the restoration and trying to pull out the doubts that have come into their minds. Trying to help them set a goal for baptism. Sad to see. Pedro as well had a hard time meeting with us because of work. Hopefully we can see him this week!

We met and taught a good new amount of investigators,this week and will see if they keep with their proximal visits with us and want to progress. One was pretty awesome that I hope they continue. Seems like they have good potential. Elder Empee and I decided to Knock some doors, and one we knocked the lady said, ´´Who's there?´´ ´´Hello!´´ ´´Who´s there?´´ ´´Elder Empee e Holmes.`` ´´What`` haha kept going back and forth until she yelled through the door she didn´t want anything!  We calmly said, ´´Just a card for you?´´ No!  ´´Just a card?´´ Finally she opened the door, we gave her a card of Jesus Christ, and then she just started firing off super good questions, telling us how impressed she was with our appearance and manners and Portuguese, inviting her husband to meet us and accepeted a meeting with them the following night. Haha Loved how she said, ´´you guys talk so firm, like you guys just KNOW that these things are true, without doubting. How did you guys come to that conclusion?´´ We responded and said how it was all through prayer and the following night we would answer even more questions like these. Patricia from Angola and Regenaldo from Brasil. Taught them a great lesson on Saturday, and they told us how they felt we are here to help them find God’s church, and a good environment for their daughter Laura (who is 4) to grow up in. Elder Empee and I growing up in this church testified of the blessings that truly come from this gospel. Hoping to see them progress!

General Conference was Great! Hope you guys all had the opportunity to watch it. I loved in the beginning how Henry B. Eying challenged us to pay tune to the spirit throughout this weekened and listen attentively to the inspired speakers. For our investigators, I loved elder Bednar´s talk. I love how he shared how after we are baptized, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, as we weekly partake of the sacrament we can be clean through repentance through the Holy Ghost during the week. It isn´t just the act of taking the sacrament at the end of the week that gives us a remission of our sins, but it is the weekly taking, daily repenting, that allows the Holy Ghost to cleanse us. I also loved Bonnie L. Oscarson's when she asked us ´´Do you believe it or not? We have the knowledge of the things but do we believe them ? We need to get the gospel from our Minds to our HEARTS´´ And lastly, Elder Holland’s last talk. How he expressed the Love he and all the General Authorities have for us, and how we need to take today and apply it into tomorrow. Coming off a spiritual high of conference, and keeping that spirit as the days go on. I loved how he said the first great commandment is to love God with all thy heart, but the first great truth is that God loves us. How he loves the ones that want to improve and is Happy when we just keep trying, that he will never desert us and will aways be there, especially when we struggle. I know these men are God’s servants here on earth, and that what they said is exactly what we needed to hear.

Love and miss you all!

Elder Holmes

Happy Easter Everyone!

   The Hunt for the Golden Easter Egg!                  

 Irma Luciane Buffet

Familia Dimitruv! 

Olá Familia,

Então! The last week of transfers came to an end here in Odivelas! On monday night we had another lesson with Sonia, Viviem, and Dulce. We explained the importance of baptism, how it is the door of salvation, the way back to our Heavenly Father. Challenged them to be baptized this past week, and to continue praying about it. We didn´t get to teach them again until Saturday, and decided to do more of a family night with them. The mom was there, and by the end of the night she was opening up more, and they all enjoyed a video we shared with them about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, being Pascoá. It was nice testifying that Christ really died for us, but that he was resurrected, and for that, we too can be resurrected and live with him and our Heavenly Father one day, together as families forever. 

This week we got to eat some Cachupa with Domingas and Celeste, Luciane brought us to the Minheiro Brazilian Buffet again (she does it for the missionaries once a month it´s so bomb!) and Familia Dimitruv had us over as well. The ward here in Lisboa 5 is pretty incredible! 

We also heard about the attack in Belgium, where 3 missionaries were involved. We are making sure of keeping Richard Empee, Mason Wells, and Richard Worby in our Prayers, along with their families and everyone else that was involved. Apparently Mason Wells was present in the Bombing in Boston, Paris, and then Belgium. What in the world? Unreal!

Pedro is going back between 1 to 0 cigarettes every other day but trying to help him stay strong to get baptized. Has a hard time of getting to our appointments on time and church, but he along with Viviem and Dulce were there for our Pascoá Sunday which was nice. Ana has been working a lot, and I think is going to spain this following week, so was tough getting in contact with her. Met a nice guy Aníbel though, an x-soccer player, who finished the lesson by saying ´´I want to be a mormonista`` in portuguese haha but wants to REALLY get to know the Book of Mormon because he likes stories so we will see how it goes with him. 

Saturday night I went and bought some mini Chocolate easter Eggs and hid them in our Kitchen for Sunday Morning for Pascoá haha! Had Elder Reni, Elder Hobson and Elder Ward on the search like good old times back in our house. Coudn´t do an easter without one. Little chocolate eggs were 5 points, plastic ones 15 and the Ovo de OURO 50 Points! It took them a little while to find the Ovo de Ouro because I hid it above the stove inside the pipe, but Elder Hobson encountered it for the Win. Yeah buddy! It was pretty funny, fun way to start the Pascoá as well.

Transfers came around and Elder Empee, one of my friends in the MTC, is going to be my comp! WIll be nice! I wrote in my Journal in the MTC I wanted to work with him. And Elder Easton is going to be comps with Elder Hobson which will be pretty sweet! 3 from the same MTC group living in the same house! 

This week I enjoyed reading in Alma 34 about the atonement of Jesus Christ and in the Bible about the resurrection. I know that Christ lives, that he was crucified for us, and that on the day of the ressurection, that empty tomb not only showed that he still lives, but that we too can live again, as resurrected beings. In the book of John, he closes his entry on the Resurrection stating, ´´But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name.``Happy Easter!

Love,

Elder Holmes

Week with Pedro! (with pics!)

Date: March 21, 2016 at 11:18:01 AM MDT

Subject: Week With Pedro

From: Lee Holmes <lee.holmes@myldsmail.net>

Ola!

This week was a busy one, lots happened! Tuesday we got to do a division in Lapa, a really beautiful city here in Portugal, and I got to go out with Elder Silva, a great missionary. He has a stutter that gets him down at times, but he has a sign on the wall in his study room that says 1) Esquecer Imediatismo, 2) Se-Tranquilizar, 3) Fazer o Seu Melhor. Or in englsh, (1) forget immediate things, (2) relax, and (3) do your best. Really loved those three things, and I can apply those things perfectly as well!

On Wednesday night we had a dinner and family night and helped the family with their missionary work. Elder Ward and I did a practice with the son Guilerme of him ``inviting his friend to church after coming home from playing soccer.´´ It was fun, he relaxed, got to laugh and get the nerves out, and on sunday he told us how he did the invite with his friend but the friend was busy. Haha was excited to tell us he invited his friend though. 

Also met an awesome girl named Ana this past week, who went to church and was taught by some missionaries on the other side of the river a couple weeks ago. And she really felt the spirit with the first missionaries and at church, and with us as well. She didn´t make it to church this week, got caught up in work, but looks forward to it next week. She Wants to be baptized, so now its time to prepare her for the waters of baptism. 

This week, the best part I think had to be our time with our friend Pedro we met last sunday night. He´s really poor, is living in a abandoned car and gets paid nearly nothing for the cars he washes, but has a ton of faith in Christ and tells us how he reads the bible every night. After giving him the book of mormon, he has been reading every night and is flying through 1 Nephi. Read more than any other person I have taught until this point. We had a number of lessons with him this week, but the first one was my favorite. We taught him the restoration of the church, and he loved it. Every time we showed him a picture of christ he expressed his love for his savior, and then Pedro gave a beautiful prayer where the spirit was the strongest. The words that taught me after that he said was ´´Obrigado pai pelo abraço, não senti isso por muito tempo´´ or ´´thank you heavenly father for the hug, i haven´t felt thisfor a long time.´´ He wants to be baptized this coming sunday, even set a date in his phone and tells us every day how many days left he has, came to the baptism of a lady named Lucia this week and loved it, loved church, and tells us that he prays for US every night. He repeats to us all the things from the word of wisdom like he cant drink, and is doing great at giving up smoking. He told his boss that he never wants him to offer him a cigarrette again, He´s the MAN! Got to teach a lesson with one of the members here, Ivanildo, and they became friends which was nice. Hard seeing his living conditions, but happy to be able to bring the restored gospel into his life and increase his faith. 

Taught 2 more ladies yesterday with Ivanildo as well. A house that we knocked a door, and they really loved our visit. They accepted to read and pray, said how they really wanted to know what church here on earth is really true, and accepted to work towards getting baptized on the third of April! Going to go back to them this week!

Sonia, viviem, and Dulce´s dad left, and we are planning on teaching them tonight and seeing their baptism this week. We ran into them walking home one night and they were so excited to see us!

Also went to a mission call opening yesterday, our Friend Josémar isgoing to Mozanbique! Today we went to Palacio Queluz with a bunch of missionaries which was pretty awesome as well! Hoping to see a great week coming up, and then transfers!

Love you all!

Ovidelas! (with pics)

Bom Dia Meus Queridos!

So this Last monday was Elder Ward´s Birthday , where we went to Colombo, a huge mall in Lisbon, to do some bowling with some Elders, and today was SIster Vanaquer´s Birthday, so a bunch of us decided to play some soccer at the Church in Tejo, had uma pequena festinha for her, and went to an all you can eat Chinese buffet! foi bom foi bom. Pretty sure their mission birthdays were some good ones!

This week we had a zone conference in Benfica with President Tavares and the other zone. President Tavares spoke a lot about "apesar de" and "por causa" which in english is like "in spite of" and "because of. " He shared how these sayings can be used for the good on the misison, or for the bad. Shared how we need to take these sayings, and use them for the good. "In spite of it raining, I went out and gave it my best.... because of my love for our Savior, I went the extra mile... In spite of being rejected a million times, I went for that millioneth and one contact... Because of my testimony of this gospel, I am here to serve" and So on. 

Talked a lot about our motto on the mission, "Eu vim Para Servir" or in other words, I come to serve. How when we have hard days, we can know that it´s just a day of learning. "um dia difícil é um dia de crescimento!" The love President and Sister Tavares have for the missionaries here is very apparent, and they are truly here to help us fulfill our purpose.

Infelizmente we didn´t get to meet up with the girls this week, Sonia and Dulce, but we got to meet up with Viviem where we read the 13 articles of faith with her with some members in the church. The mom is still all for them getting baptized, and hopes they can start going to church again, so we will keep the faith. This week when talking to them on the phone, we asked them if we could help them with anything, and they said to just pray that their baptismal day would go through! Hopefully we well get to meet up with them this week and teach them, and we are pretty sure they will make it to church this week, as well!

t

Passed by some less actives and recent converts as usual. Fun seeing one of our older members in his house doing the activity in Preach my Gospel, the Characteristics of Christ, where we evaluate ourselves on how we are doing and make it a goal to do better in certain areas. He wanted to make sure he did it well and honestly, so that he could truly make improvements. What an example to me that no matter the stage in our lives, we can always improve. Having faith in Christ, hope, charity and love, virtue, knowledge, patience, humility, diligence, and obedience. The characteristics we should all strive after, our Savior being our perfect example.

Taught one of my favorite families here again, Familia Morauto, and helped them with their misisonary work. They gave us a list of names a little bit ago that they thought they could share the gospel with, had us pray over them, and now they are excited to invite a familiy over for easter to have us elders share a message with them. They really want to help bless the lives of those around them.

And lastly, we met a nice young man with a lot of Faith named Kairo who we taught on Saturday but he didn´t make it to church on sunday. Hoping to teach him tonight and help him draw closer to christ. 

Love you all, hope you enjoyed the pictures! Thanks for all the prayers, and know you are in mine! 

Elder Holmes

Starting off March

Hello familiy! 

This week we started the week off on monday taking a trip to Cabo de Roca in Sintra with Elder Madsen and Elder Soares. It was pretty awesome, a great view of the ocean with a light house and some huge cliffs! Don´t worry I didn´t do any cliff jumping haha. I´ll send some pictures though. 

The rest of the week we continued preparing Sonia, Viviam, and Dulce for their baptism. Had their baptism interviews, taught some more lessons where they could feel the spirit, did a Fast with them, and spoke to their Mom who finally got here on Saturday. The Dad arrived too, but they didn´t want us to talk to the Dad. The Mom gave them all permission to be baptised, even said how while she was in Angola she had been praying that her daughters here in Portugal would find a church that could bring the spirit into the house and help her daughters grow. We testified that her prayers had been answered, and testified that what we have taught them will and is blessng their lives. Anyways, saturday night we filled the font, made the programs for the baptism, made some desserts along with the members, and were excited to see these three girls follow the example of Jesus Christ and get baptized. Sadly though, they weren't baptized on Sunday.  It's a long story, but now we just have to have Faith that everything will work out!

The other parts of the week consisted of passing by Less actives, the ward had a party for young man named André Pina who is going on his mission to New York! They did a good job decorating the room in the church with things from New York and with Hotdogs and Hamburgers and all haha! He is our ward mission leader who does an awesome job and will do great as well on his mission. Sunday we took all the treats that had been made for the baptism and visited some members. Dropped some off at Paulette's house, a recent convert, and shared a spiritual thought with her and then Dropped by Domingas and Celeste's place, the ladies that have like the most energy in the world. Celeste had a rough day on Sunday, was a little down in the dumps, but she touched my heart and shared with me that she really appreciated the nice words and conversation she and I had after the second hour of church. Nice of her to say, and made me feel good that I helped pick up her spirits a little as a missionary! Anyways, yesterday when we passed by we helped Domingas start reading the Book of Mormon Again. She wants to try and read it all this month. We started with the Testimony of Joseph Smith and explained it as we read! 

It´s incredible the trust that our Heavenly Father had in Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon and Restore the Church of Jesus Christ here on earth. I can´t imagine the pressure he must have felt. And how well our Heavenly Father had prepared him for this task. He was only human, had weaknesses, even made mistakes at times like we all do, but wouldn´t deny what he knew to be true. The work that was needed to bring the Book of Mormon about was huge and it´s apparent how many lives it has affected.

Today is Elder Ward's Birthday so we celebrated with some Pancakes in the morning and are thinking about going and doing some bowling today on our p-day. Big 20!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Holmes

Planning that Baptism!

Good morning! 

So the latest news on Sonia, Viviem and Dulce is that they all want to get baptized!  Two Weeks ago we finished a lesson with them and they agreed to talk with their Mom about being baptized before our next visit this past Monday.  Immediately after we had left, they called their Mom and she was super excited for them! Said she wanted to be there as well! We had a couple great lessons with them throughout the week, and had them planning on getting baptized this Saturday, but because of some activities with the ward here in Odivelas, we are going to do it this coming Sunday instead. The parents should get here on the 3rd. The girls have their interviews scheduled and seem very excited. Last night we taught them a little more about the Law of opposition, how we as missionaries talk a lot about the good and happy things, about turning our lives to Christ and being changed through Him by faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. But while we talk about these things, feel the spirit, and try to apply them, at times we forget that there truly is another side working against us. We talked about how they are all making such an incredible decision in their lives to be baptized, that they are following the example of Jesus Christ which makes are Heavenly Father Super Happy, but that it also makes Satan mad, and will literally make him do whatever he can so that they don´t keep with this decision and feelings they have felt. Maybe a doubt will come into their minds, they may get a job that makes them unavaliable to go to church on Sundays, or someone may make a comment to them that shakes their faith. When we said that last line, that someone will make a comment to them, Dulce and Viviem both looked at each other like “Wow - that Happened!" Apparently one of their friends was saying something about them getting baptized. Anyways, we shared 3 Nephi 18:18 and talked about how prayer is the way we can fight against him. We challenged them to continue praying to our Heavenly Father and to continue doing what´s right. Excited to see them get baptized this week!

The other highlight of the week was hearing the testimony of the sisters' recent convert here, Ihta. She is from Bangladesh and doesn’t speak Portuguese and just a little bit of english. That is how she was taught. Anyways, she shared her testimony this week while a member translated and it was so awesome. She was just so unbelievably happy. In her words more or less she shared, "I love mormon book. I read it all days. I just want everyone to be mormon. I´m so happy. Every day is just an adventure of happiness.  I feel like I´m not even on this world, this planet. I thank the bishop and the prophet of this church." She is seriously the sweetest lady, and is a true testimony to others that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can really change lives. She likes passing out mormon.org cards to the people outside her shop as they wait for the bus. It is awesome seeing converts like her!

This week we also went to the buffet again with Irma Luciane and had a little party for Elder Hobson's Birthday yesterday!

Short of time today. Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Holmes

Here in Odivelas!

Good morning everyone! 

This week we started the week off monday night teaching Viviem (17), Sonia (17) and Dulce (13). They are three girls from Angola that the sisters contacted in the street one day, who live here with their older brother, and have been looking for a church. They came to church yesterday and the sunday before, and are really loving the members, everything they are learning, and their mom is happy that they have found a church to attend. Monday night we taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ,and when we spoke about repentance, Sonia brought up how it has to do with forgiveness. She shared a story about forgiveness and it reminded me of how Mom used to teach us kids how to forgive others! haha! How when us brothers fought, she would put us in the bathroom together (while we were still mad at each other) and wouldn’t let us come out until we had apoligized and made up! haha  The girls loved the story and it brought back some funny memories of Nick and I or Chistian and I just sitting in the bathroom together until we resolved our problems. After we went on to explain the steps of repentance, the 2 youth members we invited, Kevin and Veronica, bore their testimonies of the constant companion we recieve after our baptism, the Holy Ghost. 

Tuesday night we had another family night with Família Santallem. The other elders shared the Joseph Smith story to a non-member Ecuadorian couple and another kid that is friends with Família Santallem. And then wednesday night we attended a missionary reunion for a sister missionary from our ward here in Odivelas who just got back from Cape Verde. Friday night we got to bring Sonia, Viviem and Dulce to a baptism of a kid in our ward, Rui Dimitrov. He turned 8 this past month and made the decision to be baptized. It was nice seeing his older brother Ianik baptism him. There were so many members there to support him, and afterwards, they served literally every Portuguese finger food and dessert you could think of haha. The baptism went a little long, so let’s just say we Elders filled our trays full of food and power walked to the house!

The best part of the week was probably last night. We had another lesson with Viviem, Sonia, and Dulce, answering a lot of questions, bearing our testimonies about the Book of Mormon, reading the scriptures, praying, our purpose here on the earth, etc, and we invited them to be baptized. Viviem brought up that when she saw Rui get baptized this last Friday, she felt something different, and right after she said that, both Dulce and Sonia said they experienced the same thing. We went on to connect those feelings to the Holy Ghost. What they feel when they read their scriptures, when they pray, when they go to church, that the Holy Ghost is truly testifying to them the truth of these things. We told them we prayed about what day they could enter the waters of baptism, and Dulce was so touched that we would really take the time to pray for them. Towards the end of the lesson, they were starting to feel this was for them, and we invited them to pray about it and ask for themselves. These girls have so much faith and are loving reading in the Book of Mormon. Yesterday they practically told us the whole first 15 pages of the book, how Nephi was a man of God with great faith and how his brothers wavered.  I can really see the light of this message growing in their hearts. 

Praying that they recieve an answer; we know that all who pray with a sincere heart, with real intent, with faith in christ, will recieve one. Praying that the parents who will come here to Portugal in the coming week will allow them to follow the answer they received. (A little worried because the dad is a Jehovah’s witness... but the girls don´t want anything to do with that church haha). Throughout the week I thought a lot about the actions that we make, the little things that add up. Hearing from the returned missionary, seeing the little steps that have grown the testimony of Viviem, Sonia and Dulce, Alma 37:6 really rings true….. “but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass."

I know that this is true. Our actions, no matter how small and simple, bring great things to pass. They truly reflect who we are. 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Holmes

Visit from the 70/Eric Getting Baptized! (with pics!)

Elder Holmes & Ward with Celio

P-Day Adventures at the Palacio em Sentra

Baptism of Eric

Party put on by ward members to celebrate Eric's baptism!

Sorry it has been a while since I posted a letter from Lee.  He has been transferred since the last posting and is serving in a suburb of Lisbon called Ovidelas.

Thanks for all the interest and prayers on his behalf. Sure love you all……  Carolann

Subject: Visit from the 70/Eric Getting Baptized!

From: Lee Holmes <lee.holmes@myldsmail.net>

Olá Família e amigos!

I hope you guys all had a great "dia dos namoradas" yesterday (thanks for spoiling me mom with the package!) and are all excited for another week! 

Here in portugal, we were visited by Elder Dyches, a member of the 70, which was great. He spoke a lot about the 8 fundamentals of Preach My Gospel and how we need to be applying these into our work here in portugal. Teaching the doctrine of Christ, the role of the Holy Ghost, Revelation through Prayer, Revelation through Church attendance, Revelation through the Book of Mormon, Teaching People and not Lessons, How We Invite, Then Commit and Follow up, and How to really begin teaching. He shared some great stories about conversions and how we can truly be the angels in people lives here in Portugal. How we need to look to see where the Lord´s hands was in helping us each and every day. Elder Dyches shared a story about how one time he was asked to perform a surgery on someone with a man that everyone knew as the master, one of the best ear, nose, and throat doctors out there. He began the surgery and this master teacher placed his hand on Elder Dyches' hands and helped him make the perfect little cuts that needed to be made. It wasn´t until after, that he realized he had just been trained by the master. During that story, I felt like the spirit was trying to tell me that here on the mission we are being trained by the master trainer, whether we know it or not, preparing us not only for the mission but for the rest of our lives into the eternities. It was a privilege to hear from him and his wife and comforting to hear the love he shared with us from our own living prophet. Not only are we praying for him, but he is praying for us.

Later on in the week, we had a baptism for our friend Eric Anderson de Sousa Costa. There is a long story about him so I´ll try to share a little bit of what happened! Anyways, Eric is one of Josémar´s friends (one of the youth in our ward here in Odivelas). He grew up here in Portugal, but moved to Angola and just comes here during vacation time during the winter. He had come to church a couples times, had spoken once with the missionaries before I arrived, and was waiting for his Mom to come from Angola so the missionaries (us) could speak with her about the church her son has so much enjoyed. The mom took a little time to come, so we started teaching him more, inviting him to church (with their other friend Celio) and his testimony grew and grew. 2 Sundays ago, after not talking to him for a week or so, knowing he was going to leave to Angola here soon, we sent him a text and he showed up in Church. Not only showed up in church but bore his testimony! It was awesome! Josémar shared with him that he was the first person to share his testimony before baptism for 4 years. Anyways, after church we had a lesson with him, he really felt the spirit, we invited him to be baptized that day, he got on his knees and asked God and after the prayer just kept saying how good he felt and how he was ready! How he was really feeling the spirit. Sadly, he had some troubles with his family when they heard about the decision, with him telling them that he really received an answer from God to be baptized. Never have i seen someone with so much faith and so much desire to enter the waters of baptism. Anyway, that sunday night, it was a little tough as he decided to wait, maybe until Angola or in the future, and we prayed that one day he would enter the waters of baptisms. BUT! A miracle happened. He didn´t deny what he felt, he received a ton of love and support from the members here, and decided he wanted to be baptized before he headed off to Angola. We got a call Thursday night, the members did an awesome job of preparing a little celebration after, and Eric was all smiles as he left the waters of baptism. 

The lesson I learned with Eric is our Heavenly Father is really preparing his elect, how the Holy Ghost can really touch someone’s heart and testify of whats is true. AND that Faith is what truly drives everything! He had the faith, kept with his desire, and followed through what what he knew to be true. 

Love and miss you all!

Elder Holmes

Feliz Novo Ano!

Date: January 4, 2016 at 6:44:03 AM MST

From: Lee Holmes <lee.holmes@myldsmail.net>

Olá Familia!

Feliz Novo Ano para Vocês! This week was a little random at times with the new year, and with people partying and on holidays! Anyways, This week we taught Domingos and Maria English monday night and got to know them a little better. They are a couple who has been waiting to get married, got their papers to get married, but then Maria didn´t realize that her citizenship expired, so she has to renew it before her marriage papers expire the 21st. If that doesn't happen, she will have to renew her citizenship, then reapply to get married, which will take several more months. What a headache! Just trying to teach them once or twice a week, Domingos goes to church every week, Maria off and on, has been like this for a good amount of time. They just need to get married and baptized! 

Anyways, the rest of the week, we entered a couple of houses and taught. Taught this family that we sang christmas carols to during christmas time, Vera and Carlos, who have kids that are younger, and they really seemed to like it. Challenged them to read the book of mormon chapter about christ in the americas and she said they would! We had another appointment with them on saturday, planned with a member, but when we got there, they weren´t home! Bummer. Well it happens. When we passed by later that night the husband said that vera´s mom got sick, but she read the chapter, and to try the next week. So we will see how it goes this week!

Also taught another man Eurico that is about 26 that we had contacted by our shopping center here. We talked to him about prophets, and how we have a living prophet today. He told us he would need to check the internet for that one! haha  We told him that the internet has a bunch of good and bad things, how we have been called by that prophet to serve here in Portugal, and if he really wanted to find out for himself, that we were his source. Well anyways, we taught him this week, seemed to really like it, but with new years this week he went out of town and have lost contact with him so far. 

Taught some other people that didn´t seem as interested. Just if they knew what is really out there for them. New years eve was pretty random. We taught this guy from England and his girlfriend who is from portugal, and the guy really didn´t want us to talk anything about religion, but the lady actually seemed more interested. We finally got the guy talking, got his interest a little, but then it kinda just went down hill from there.  He kept telling us that he invited us over becuase we seemed like nice kids, that we needed a break from this work, and that we weren´t going to leave to go to any other appointments that night because he had prepared us snacks and cake and all to eat! hahah Long story short, they started drinking, we were a little worried he was going to freak out on us, so when he had repeated the same thing like 15 times we were like alright we got to go. He said 'no you guys just got here', and I was like 'actually we have been her for a whole lot longer than that' and finally he let us leave. Sad to see people who just love to drink and party. It made it a little difficult to do anything that night and the following days. Elder Macedo and I just went back to the house and studied a little bit. President told us we had to be in the house at 9:30, and could stay up a little past 12, but our house is boxed in so we didn´t get to see any fireworks, just a bunch of noise and crazy people screaming! haha But we passed the new year with some pão de quijo that Elder Macedo made, some ovomatchini (maybe you know what that is nick) and some ice cream. I TOTALLY FORGOT TO BUY GRAPES I DON`T KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING! Haha It was a new years to remember, though. Good ol crazy Joseph, making us stay in his house. Only on the mission do things like this happen.

Anyways, this week tried a harder, more appointments fell through, but yesterday was interesting! This lady we have been trying to schedule something with for this whole transfer (like 5 times, we would have given up on her forever ago but she always seems like she wants to talk to us) called us after church and said she could do a church tour that we had been trying to plan with her. Elder Macedo and I were kinda like.... we´ve already tried with this lady and she has stood us up a lot. So we got a member to go there with us, waited there... she didn´t show up for 40 minutes, kept calling us telling she would, we were about to leave, and then finally she showed up! I had tried telling the member before how we wanted to do it, but when she got there, he pretty much didn´t let us talk at all. i was kinda annoyed, but at the end, he really made a good friendship with her. She wants to come to church next week. I really believe she felt the spirit, and hey who knows! We were wondering why she had called, (becuase yesterday we had seen her in the shoppying center and she said she didn´t want to go to church or anything) but she told us a couple weeks ago, when she had planned a church tour with us, that that day was really hard for her for a bunch of reasons. She remembered we told her on the phone that this is what she needed, that these things were going to bless her, and so on. She said when she passed the church, and told us that she didn´t have time, etc. etc. when she was walking away she just felt sad, and the words we had said to her on the phone and in front of the church had stuck in her mind, and maybe what we were saying really would help. Anyways, cool to hear! And maybe it´s her time now! Going to try and teach her this week, get her to church, and teach her the gospel.

Sorry my letters are so jumbled. It´s hard to explain the details especially with so little time on the computer. Wish I could just call you guys at night and give you the real low down on what´s happening. 

Other news. P-day here on the mission got cut short 2 hours until we start baptizing more than 40 people a month... ends at 4 instead of 6:00. I am now the district leader here with two sets of sisters (one in Olhao and one in Tavira) and one other set of elders in Beja! Elder Macedo and I are staying together which I think will be good! I’m excited about that!

Elder Holmes

Christmas in Portugal 2015 (pics!)

Dear Family and Friends:

Lee didn't have much time to write today, so I thought I would post 

just a few pictures from his Portuguese Christmas.  We were able to talk with him

on Christmas day and it was great.  He sure appreciates those of you who have taken the time

to keep in touch.  Thanks for your love and friendship!

 Elder Holmes with his companion, Elder Macedo.

 "At our Mission conference, we had a bunch of musical acts and then all the zones did a skits. Elder Macedo's and my part was about how the sun melts the snow men haha. So I made us these wigs out of paper and all and let's just say it was a hit! Guess you just had to have been there!"  

 These pics are from the P-Day we had when Elder Madsen was with us.  We went to Lagos.  

Such a cool place.  

A few Christmas pics at our apartment in front of our Christmas tree!  

 And finally, a shot of Elder Holmes skyping home on Christmas day! Oh how we miss him!

Feeling a Bit Better!

Date: December 14, 2015 at 7:40:13 AM MST

From: Lee Holmes <lee.holmes@myldsmail.net>

Olá Familia!

So this week was still a little tough getting over my sinus infection. We didn’t do much all week until Thursday or so, as I started feeling better. Still was having severed headaches but the last 3 days I have felt pretty good! Tough just sitting in the house! Once we started getting going again, we taught another lesson to our friend Domingas, along with a a member of the church Emaneul. He has some struggles right not too, as we are trying to help him quit smoking again, but it´s kinda cool teaching his friend Domingas, who is helping Emanuel’s testimony fire up again, as well. She has loved the two messages we have left with her so far, but she doesn’t have a phone so it is tough getting in contact with her. She said she would come to church with us this week with Emanual, but when we arrived at her house on Sunday, she had left for work and Emanual had gone to the beach to fish. Bummer!

Taught a lesson with a man the Elders before us were teaching, Fernando. His wife couldn’t make it to be with us. But they made it to church. He has a little hard time understanding what we are teaching at times I believe, and then our member who was teaching with us started talking to him in criol, which is a little difficult for me at least to understand! It was good though. They can only meet on the weekends and aren´t married. We will do our best. 

Friday one of our members Nato, who has a lot of fire to do activities with our branch, put on an activity where Elder Macedo and I and then the sisters, Sister Olsen and Sister Andrade, did a Spiritual thought. Had a nice object lesson that is a little difficult to explain over email but it went well. Talked about the world we live in, the things we can use to overcome the wickedness and become clean and perseverar ate o fin!

This week I read a lot of conference talks from the past general conference and decided to start Elder Durrant’s challenge to ponder a scripture every week. To put it in a place that we will think about and then talk about your scriptures to others. I was reading in Mosiah, when Alma the younger went from one wicked kid to an incredible righteous missionary, and what he said when he truly had a change of heart. My scripture this week was Mosiah 27:26… I have it memorized in portguese but can’t quote it in english! haha It talks about us becoming new creatures in this life, and unless we do this, it´s going to be hard for us to return to our Heavenly Father’s presence. I thought a lot about how we truly are here to change our habits, our natural man habits, and become better people. Better disciples of Christ. Trying to become perfect, even like our Father in Heaven is perfect. Of course in becoming a´´different´´ creature, I know I´m not going to change from a human into a dog (as much as I´d love to turn into a dog like Cosmo and have everyone give me all their time all day long! hahahaha) but that “different creature” will be a new and improved ME!  We can change ourselves. Who we really are. I enjoyed sharing this scripture with my comp, and some other less actives and members throughout the week. 

Today we are headed to Lisbon and tomorrow we are having a Christmas party with our entire mission. Should be fun! We are doing a secret Santa so we all bought presents to exchange. I´m excited about. This week, I think up until christmas, I believe Elder Madsen, the AP will serve with us which I´m excited about. The president just has the AP´s now doing week long divisions with missionaries. Kinda cool and excited to see how he works. 

Excited for Christmas. Sorry that I´m not so good with the details! I am so slow at reading and try to read all your guys emails and respond as well!

Elder Holmes

Nothing like Being Sick in Sacavem! (with pics!)

A few pics of Lee in Sacavem, taken before he was transferred.

• Lee and some of his investigators in Sacavem
• Lee with his companion, Elder Leung, in Sacavem.  
• Lee even mastered Steve's rice pudding recipe!
• A few views from his apartment! 

           

So this week was pretty uneventful - except for monday! We visited a less active and a friend was there, as well, so we ended up teaching her! Domingas! She really loved our lesson and was happy for us to come back in a few days. Unfortunately, Elder Macedo and I got sick. I started feeling better around wednesday or thurdsay, but then began having these really bad headaches. Sister tavarez decided that the Roberts, the missionary couple here, should take me to the hospital. So we went to the hospital Friday night and figured out that I have a sinus infection, sinnosidis or something like that. The rest of the weekend until today we have literally just been chilling in the house and my head feels like it’s about to explode. It´s kinda hard to read and type so sorry that I´m going to be pretty short with all of you guys today! (I’ll include some pics instead). It wasn´t that exciting of a week anyways, but hopefully I can start feeling better! The headaches are like in the right side of the head and it feels like all this pressure is in my teeth. I could barely sleep the last two nights. I feel bad too because Elder Macedo, being his first couple weeks here, is just kinda chilling in the house with me and we aren´t really doing any missionary work. Big-time bummer! Hope to get better soon|

Elder Holmes