Elder Mason Holman

I don't want to take up too much of anyones time on Christmas or of my own to spend and talk with family but I will leave a quick update on the area and share my short thoughts and feelings about my week!  This week we have seen countless miracles it's beautiful to see the Lords hand in the work and him guiding us and blessing us for our efforts in this work to save his that are him. This week Mary Lopez recieved an answer about her desire to be babtised and will be babtised January 3rd and bore unto us a powerful testimony of the truth and love that she has found within the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! We also saw many miracles this last monday which is normally our preparation day but it was moved to Chirstmas so that we could talk with family and have a rest day then and we had nothing planned with it normally being our preparation day but the Lord showed unto us why that preparation day was moved. We had a first lesson with someone we met two weeks ago of the rest...

Well very short on time today sorry about that! Got my new companion the new guy from the MTC. He is from New York city, 20 years old, and a convert with 2 years in the church and has a very strong testimony! He is awesome and we work really well together! Really excited for the next 2 transfers and the time we have to bring people unto Christ and help them find the truth of the restoration of the gospel through the scriptures and prayer! We saw many miracles this week and taught many good lessons! The people were teaching are progressing well! We had a lot of lessons and service this week. We helped unload 5,000 gifts for kids in mexico which was pretty cool! Helped our neighbor build a fountain and did a light the world stand giving out hot chocolate and wrapped copies of the book of mormon! It was a great week and I'm so happy to be a missioanry! Starting this week training and seeing a fresh missionary has shown me how much I've grown through Christ and his atonement and...

Good afternoon brothers and sisters with transfers this week we've got the news, I'm staying in Nogales! They're sending elder ramierez to the other Nogales area which will kinda stink to not have a native spanish speaker anymore because he's helped my Spanish grow so much these last 6 weeks! As for me I'm getting one of the new spanish missionaries to the mission to train so that means I'll probably be here in Nogales for 2 more transfers or 7 1/2 months in total! It will be really good to stay I love this ward and the people that were teaching and have seen so many blessings these last 2 weeks of the transfer! Many of the people were teaching have been good about coming to church and are learning so much through the book of mormon and praying its awesome to see the blessing this gospel is in our lives! We had a lesson with Mary and a sister from the ward and the sister bore her testimony of the atonement and began crying and then Mary started cryi...

Thanksgiving week was a very interesting week in the mission! We had preparation day, Thanksgiving and Friday we were basically at the hospital all day for my companion so we had some weird days in there but it was a really good week. A lot of our investigators are really progressing so well and weve started to teach a lot of new very interested people! We also had many people come to church Sunday and ththe babtism later that night. It really showed me that the Lord was preparing them for better things the weeks they couldn't come because it was fast and testimony meeting and the testimonies shared were so powerful it was awesome that they were able to see that especially one of the ladies that were teaching which is probably the closest person we have to being babtised, she wanted to come to church and see how it was and she loved it! It was a huge miracle and blessing! We also had a couple huge miracles finding this week and great lessons! This week we were in our house studyi...

Well it was another really good week to everyone who reads these surprise haha! We had a lot of success getting in and teaching many lesson and seeing people continue to progress and bind themselves to Christ! We also had a lot of opportunities to do service and all types of forms! This last Tuesday we went up to Patagonia to help a family assemble a fence assuming they had the necessary equipment and tools to accomplish such a task and upon our arrival seeing thats this was not the case. We went to their parents house near by and dug up some posts, grabbed the fence and a couple pretty beat up shovels and other tools. We attempted to dig the post holes with just shovels which was not going to work so a member lent us some long rods to help speed up the process and despite not having the necessary tools, knowledge and great weather (it was raining) we put together a pretty good fence! It was a great lesson learned. This is exactly like how our lives can be at times and I can att...

Another great and busy week down here in Nogales. The weather here has been perfect about 80 during the day short sleeves every day it's pretty awesome I'm still getting tan and it seems pretty cold back in Utah so I'm pretty grateful!  This week we have had a lot of lessons with those who we have been teaching and working with them to come unto Jesus Christ. It is really cool to see the change that a better relationship with jesus Christ makes it is truly awesome to see and to see it happen in so many people each day! The Lords hand is present in this work and he places us where he needs us when he needs us every day. It's interesting to look at the Lord putting you in a not ideal situation but that hes preparing you for something great down the road. Everything that happens truly happens for a reason and I've recognized that so much on my mission. If you are late to a lesson, theres a reason. If your companion stops to tie his shoe, it happens for a reason a...

Another really good week down here in Nogales. Lots going on in the work and we are continuing to see the hand of the lord in this work! We have had a lot of success finding this week despite not having much time. The Lord seems to be putting people in exactly the right spot when we are passing by and they're the people that have been prepared I can really tell.  This week has really opened my eyes about the role of the Savior in our lives and the necessity of a savior to save us! One of the biggest thing I've grown over these last 4 short months is the love that I have for reading, studying and pondering the scriptures. This week my study was very focused on the savior and his life, sacrafice and ressurection. I was able to read John 12-21 which goes into beautiful detail about the saviors last week on the earth, crucifixion and ressurection. Also being able to read 2 Nephi 9-10 where Jacob goes into detail about the necessity of the Atonement and Jesus christ and it is ...

Fun week down here in Nogales, went up and got my new companion elder ramierez Tuesday up in Tucson. Hes from Mexico city, mexico and likes music and can play basically every instrament it's kinda crazy. He has a college degree in batraía which is the drums so that's pretty cool. This week we basically only did service and had lessons it was a pretty crazy week for missionary work and the Lord really blessed up this week with great people to teach and the work really is progressing.  We were able to start really teaching two people we hadn't been able to contact in a while one named Mary and the other Vianey and this week they both progressed so much! We taught Alma 32 with both of them, so once in Spanish and once in English. It allowed me to take a step back and see how I could apply this in my life because the scriptures are here so that we can apply their messages in our own lives. The part of Alma 32 that we really took a focus on was where is compared faith ...

Another great week out in Nogales. We had many awesome break through lessons with a lot of the people that were teaching and even more miracles took place. It is also transfer week and sadly elder Woodward and I will no longer be together but I have really lucked out because my new companion Elder Ramierez is the only elder in the mission from Mexico so hell really be able to help me out with my Spanish so I'm really excited to be able to learn from him as a missionary and in Spanish. We also had a little graduation ceremony this week and I was able to see Elder Riches for the first time in a couple months which was awesome! We were also able to go to both lakes today that. are within driving distance which was pretty awesome and unplanned we also set up a cattle coral with one of our investigators for service which was really cool.  Elder Woodward and I had some really cool lessons with three of the people we're teaching. Raul, Mary and Giselle.  Raul- we had a rand...

Somehow another week has gone by, the weeks seriously fly by on the mission it's kinda crazy. This week much happened and we had many miracles given to us. We seriously see miracles everysingle day in direct answers to our prayers. I read a really cool talk by Thomas S Monson this week all about praying to be a tool in the lords hands in helping others. He shared many experiences in his life where he followed the spirit and was able to change peoples lives. This whole week i wanted to follow his example and prayed daily to be a tool in the Lords hands to help others and help lighten their load. This week we had many opportunities to help others and in many ways were able to "lighten their load" by following the spirit and Gods perfect timing of everything we were able to run into the right people at the right time. It was really cool to be able to pray for something and so readily receiving an answer when it is for the helping of others and glorying God. It showed me a di...

Buenas días! It was another really good week in the work of the lord we saw tons of miracles this week in finding, teaching and serving! I love how in the scriptures it uses the word joy as opposed to happiness because there is quite a substantial difference in the two. This is so true in missionary work in seeing the difference. Many things you do before the mission bring you happiness, all of which are things that are good but maybe not the best. My mission thus far has really opened me up to the things that bring me true Joy and peace, things that I did before my mission but not to the extent that I am doing them now. These things being: scripture study, constant prayer and being constantly there to serve others. It has really showed me the world of joy qnd knowledge that I was missing out on because I was so focused on myself and things that truly weren't as important.  There is so much power reading the scriptures daily and helping others to learn to understand them and lo...

Another glorious week in the work of the Lord here in Nogales, Arizona and a very busy week at that. We had exchanges, zone conference, and General conference. This week we were able to set our first babtismal date with Raul for November 2nd and were very excited to help him prepare for this glorious day when he begins his path towards our Lord Jesus Christ. We had many opportunities to learn from great church leaders this week with Zone conference and hearing from President and sister browning who testified of the importance and necessity of simplicity in all aspects of the work from teaching to study in order to best serve this people and bring them to Christ. The biggest opportunity we had to hear from great church leaders was obviously General Conference this past weekend and I marval at the divinity of these men and woman and the guidance of the holy ghost as they gave their talks. Always when listening to conference you are told to go in with one to a few questions that you would...

Another great week down here in Nogales, Arizona. To be honest this was probably the best week of my mission so far for many reasons but specifically: seeing people change by the gospel, finishing the book of mormon, the work BOOMING, exchanged with the Zone leaders, people actually coming to church, and seeing my growth in the language. All of which i will go unto more detail on. Starting with seeing people change by this gospel and by the power of Jesus Christ and his atonement. We are teaching a young man who is addicted to Cristal meth and cigarettes and it was really not worth it to teach him before because he'd always be high but we read chapter 89 with him and talked about the word of wisdom and its blessings. We promised him strength to overcome his addiction when he prays and reads the scriptures and that we' visit him everyday at 2 to check up on him. Never have I seen so much of a change in someone in three days than I did with him in these three days where we tau...