Elder Mason Holman

  This week marks 2 years since when I first left on my mission. It has caused me to really deeply reflect on what has happened in the last 2 years on my life. I recall thinking that two years seemed like an eternity but just started one day a time. God has taught me slowly over this time but I can say that God has allowed these convictions to become my own. I can honestly say that before these two years I was a pretty passive member of the church. I was not purposeful in daily saying my prayers, I did not make a real effort to read, study, and ponder the scriptures. My mission has shown me that these are not things we do to simply check a box or to make ourselves look good. These are the simple ways that God has given us to build our relationship with him, gain a greater understanding of our lives and how they relate to the perfect plan of God. When I had a sincere desire to know that these things are true and began to apply myself in my studies and prayers that is when I saw...

 Yesterday we had Maya's baptism and it was such an amazing experience! She is so prepared and was so happy to be baptized. Her friend from Washington and his parents flew into Tucson for the Baptism and it was truly a special day.  This week was really good and I will be brief in my email today because as always I am running out of time.  For the first time since his training Elder Midyette and I were able to do an exchange and it was such an uplifting experience. He is such a great example to me and to all missionaries and I cherish my relationship with him. We saw so many miracles together and it was just like old times in Nogales. We had an amazing lesson with this young man named Jason and taught so well together. Afterwards we taught a lesson through facebook with a family that he and I had taught together and I got to hear his spanish for the first time in well over a year and he's improved so much! After that we had about an hour and prayed for a goal of new, prep...

  This week I'd have to say that I have underestimated Tucson. I've never really been here in the summer months and the hottest I had seen up until this week was just a little over 100 degrees and that's pretty warm but bearable and I felt pretty good about myself, until I saw the forecast for this week. 114+ every single day this week! I did not see that coming. It's pretty crazy how much of a difference a couple degrees can make but we are doing just fine here! This was our first week of officially being over both the YSA 5th and 3rd wards and it has gone pretty well. The other Elders that used to cover the 3rd ward didn't have too much going on so it hasn't been too much of a change other than our area is much larger and we gained some new members!  This week has seemed to just fly by with everything that we have been doing. We had a couple missionaries that were leaving Thursday stay with us for the day before they left which was fun but man did they talk ab...

  I had my first and only birthday as a missionary this past week and was not able to write an email because of some birthday activities. We went and played some golf which was a really great time. We went and played a course called El Conquistador in Oro Valley at the recommendation of The Nielson family which was super fun and a good way to enjoy my birthday.  It is very crazy to think that it has been two years since I graduated from high school. So much about my life, my perspective on the importance of certain things and what it means to be a TRULY good person has changed over these past two years. It has caused me to deeply reflect upon the plan that God has given me in these past two years. I have really been thinking about the concept of "Thy will be done" this has really been on my mind lately with the fact that if I would have never had to go home for COVID I would be returning from my mission on this coming wednesday morning. I've had to reflect deeply on why G...