Baptisms

Whateth is up thine dudes. It was a smashing week over here in Brid. I learned some tae kwon do, spent a week with 2 new lads and JOE AND DAISY GOT BAPTIZED!!

     

On Tuesday of this week, we picked up Elder Black and Lewis at the train station. We had some hot, fresh and spicy curry and then hit the pavement for the week. It's been fun/stressful adjusting them into the area, but they've met most of the members and know their way around the area now. 

     

Elder Lewis has been out for 18 months and just came from serving in North Shields up in the Jordie land. He's a funny and awkward ginger, that is ready to work. Elder Black is on his last stretch in the mission (5 more weeks... shh don't tell him). He just came from Dewbury near Leeds. He's a good video game loving chap, that I've been jamming out with on the guitar at night. They're a good edition and breath of fresh air to the area, so it'll be a good transfer with them. 

     

One evening Elder Mills and I were walking past the chapel to use the bathroom and we came across one of the YSA of the branch, Jacob Maclean. We're both 19 years old, so it's always fun talking to him. He showed me how to do a little bit of self defense if someone is holding me against the wall. So yeah, that was a treat.

     

The baptism happened this week! We held it right after church on Sunday. Everything went as planned, well almost everything. The Branch President thought he had turned the boiler on to warm the water, but once they started getting in they realized it was freezing! Joe didn't all the way under the first time, because he was moving around from the cold. But the second attempt worked. Other than that hiccup, it was amazing to have the opportunity to help this family to be more united in the church and to see their 10 year old son and 8 year old daughter make such a good decision that will bless them throughout their lives. At the start of church, I could see that their whole family was stressed out and their kids were being naughty. But after the service, they were calm and smiling and their less active grandparent came too!!

     

I don't have much else to say other than we are still grinding and searching for the next person that we can help join and experience this amazing gospel in their lives. Oh, the Tour de Yorkshire is happening this Friday and I'll make sure to give one of the bikers a high five. 

Hope you all have a good day as always, cheerio cheers!

-Elder Holyoak

Joe and Daisies Baptism

                                                        

Jacob Maclean teaching me tae kwon do 

Happy Easteroony

Hey up my lovely fellow Americans! 

This week was transfer calls and... I'm staying in Bridlington with Elder Mills. But there's something different, they're adding 2 Elders back into the area. It's going to be to a 4 man flat again. This week we helped a member build a shed, I went on an exchange with an Elder from Tahiti, we had some Easter fun and a Super Hero is about to be baptized.

     

So yes, I'm staying here another 6 weeks. The new Elders are Black and Lewis. Elder Black is from Spanish Fork and Elder Lewis is from Draper (I've talked to him a couple of times and he's a good lad). Adding 2 Elders back in the area again will probably be good in the long run, with the transition of the branch becoming a ward in the next couple of months.

     

On Friday we met with Brother Needham, from the branch, who is a super cool coast guard/fire fighter who it a young RM that served in Scotland. We helped him build the foundation of his shed in his back garden. It was fun! We mixed the cement in an electric mixer and wheelbarrowed it over. It reminded me of when I was doing humanitarian work over in Fiji 3 years ago building an outhouse.

    

This week, I went on another exchange over in Scarborough. This time I spent the day with Elder Barf from Tahiti. It was nice going around the beautiful beach of Scarborough and learning random French words from Elder Barf. We tried visiting a less active member with the last name Hollyoak (one extra L than mine). He sadly wasn't in, but I'm hoping that one day on my mission, I'll make a random ancestor connection.

     

Easter was yesterday, of course. We've been passing out Easter pass along cards and sharing the church's Easter video with people when we've gotten the chance. Easter doesn't seem to be a very popular holiday over here. There are, of course, Cadbury Egg advertisements galore. Elder Mills and I were treated with the visitation of the Easter bunny. (Watch the video below.) We had a nice Easter service on Sunday, as well. It was cool seeing the other churches around town being so active on a Sunday too. Someone explained to me what the "C of E" stands for in the Church of England. They jokingly told me that it stands for "Christmas and Easter" the 2 days in the year that people go to church. Hahahah!

     

A Super Hero is getting baptized next Sunday! Josiah, the 10 year old boy that we've been teaching for a while, is for sure getting baptized this Sunday the 23rd. We helped him with some last minute things for the baptism a couple of days ago, including fitting him into his baptismal clothes. I asked him, "Could you try on your Super Hero suit for me?" And he came back into the room kicking in the air jumping around like a Super Hero, and yes it fit him!

     

I'm really glad that I'm staying in Brid for at least another 6 weeks. There is definitely a lot to be done here and many funny Branch members to talk to. Hope y'all have a dandy week. Ta!

-Elder Holyoak

"The grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ." Mosiah 16:8

Hoppy Easter!

The Easter Bunny found us.

                                             

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2 weeks in one blog post

April 3, 2007

Hey again! This week as a missionary I experienced an Evangelical Preacher telling me there was no Apostasy, an American lover who showed off his guns to us, General Conference of course and we gave an entire family a chapel tour.

Not much has changed this week. Elder Mills and I are getting pretty close to knocking about every door in Bridlington. We just laugh at each other when we see someone that we've already talked to before... haha. So I'll start off with our experience of meeting a Lebanon man who is a devout Evangelical sort of Preacher. He let us in for some juice and kept telling us that we didn't need the Book of Mormon because we already have the Bible. He was a respectful man and he shared some really strange experiences with us. We gave up trying to teach him and before we left him he prayed for us in his way.

Another funny experience was a man that we met who was obsessed with Americans! He insisted that he show us his rifles and we got a quick picture with them. We bumped into him again later in the week and he photoshopped a super model next to us in the picture. Elder Mills and I were laughing about that for the rest of the day. We're going to do some service for that man in a couple of weeks.

This coming Sunday is, of course, Joe the now 10-year-old boy that we've been teaching's, baptism!! During P-day today, we've been organizing all of that jazz. The service will be right after church this week. There's been a lot of planning going into this and we're doing our best to make sure everything goes as planned. So.... it's exciting!

Another highlight this week was that we gave an entire family a chapel tour. The spirit was so strong during it. We haven't been able to get in contact with them for the past 5 days so we are really hoping to see them again.

General conference was good, as always. My favorite talks were the ones given by Elder Rasband and Yoon Hwan Chow of the 70. We watched Conference with the faithful members that came to the church to watch it instead of in their homes...haha. I hope that you all have a great week as always!! Cheerio!

-Elder Holyoak

American rifles in the UK

General Conference in the chapel

April 10, 2017

Hiyuh you alright! It's been another great week over here in Brid. As the summer is rolling in we met a couple of teenagers that wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon, we had an Easter reach out to every member in the area, a new pound coin has come and our Mission President is using hashtags!

The weather has been superb this week. Easter Break started this weekend, so the beaches were loaded with people. Elder Mills and I have been beating the heat by drinking this Gatorade kind of drink called Lucozade. The flowers and trees are blossoming like crazy as well.

As we were walking back to our flat one day we talked to an 18-year-old girl and her friend. We shared with her about how Joseph Smith's prayer was answered and she told us, "I wish that I could get answers to my prayers!" Then we explained to her that she could just by simply reading a bit of the Book of Mormon and praying about it. We are seeing her again this Wednesday and we're super excited.

On Tuesday, we had an Easter reach out. The Branch President made a hand out with an Easter message and had people share the new "Prince of Peach" video produced by the church. We got some help from the senior couple serving in York and Elder Peña and his new companion who previously served in Brid. Elder Peña and I were with the Branch President and we drove around in his car for a while. It was a really good experience just getting to know President Gregory better and to visit so many less active members all in one day.

With the planned baptism of Joe last Sunday, the family decided to move it back a couple of weeks. There were a number of reasons, but we are still visiting that little drummer boy and he'll get baptized on the 23rd of this month. Our mission President has been changing a lot of ways that we do missionary work lately and I'll let you know more about it next week. One thing that I've noticed is that he's been using hashtags in his weekly emails.... haha. He's such a great man and the entire mission looks up to him. His council has definitely been inspiring lately, especially for me and to help other missionaries.

Other than that, there isn't much else to update on. Transfer calls are on Easter this next Sunday. I'm thinking/hoping to stay a bit longer in Bridlington, we will see. I hope all y'all have a good Juan, Cheers!

-Elder Holyoak

Sunset at the pier

Spring time in Bridlington

Britain's Gatorade

New pound coin