Hey, you alright everyone! It's been a very eventful week here in Newcastle. First off, it's a new transfer so I've got a new comp, I went on exchange in Gateshead, we've been bringing friends to Institute and someone got baptized!!
These past couple weeks have been super fun and busy. I'll summarize what's happened. My new companion now is Elder Kearl. He's from Ogden, Utah and likes to party. He a chill bloke and has a good mix of working hard and having fun. At the start of the transfer, we made lots of plans to serve the missionaries in our zone and show them love and help them grow their areas. For the most part, things have been working out pretty well. Our zone is the 3rd largest zone in the mission, so it doesn't take ages to visit the other missionaries luckily.
I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Lopez again. He's a super funny kid from Idaho. It's mental, because he's been out for like 3 months and I feel like a dinosaur compared to him. An interesting thing about Gatehead is that it has one of the largest Jewish communities in the world. In their faith they are told not to talk to people like us. It was very strange approaching them and getting stared at in response. I felt like I was an animal at a zoo exhibit! I could tell overall that they were good people and that they had strong morals and families. The light of Christ is everywhere!
These past couple of weeks we've been bringing our friends that we've been teaching to Institute. They've been loving it! The YSA are hilarious in this Stake. They're ace at fellowshipping as well. It's amazing how captivating the lessons and the atmosphere is overall. It got me excited for Institute back home!
That transitions over to the biggest miracle this week. One of our friends, Dean got baptized!! It's been about a month since we first taught him and brought him to church to watch General Conference and look at where he is at now! The actual service was as they say "Belta!" It was really good..... haha. There was a couple of hick-ups with the pianist not being there and other things, but there are always those little things that happen, so it's alright. I learned as well how cheeky this ward is during the baptismal service. During the talks everyone was taking the mic out of each other hand and laughing. It was perfect for Dean's sense of humor. During the baptism the Mandarin branch was putting on a BBQ. It was funny while we were taking pictures a large group of Mandarin speakers came in the church to go to the BBQ. It was funny and Dean thought that all of these random people were coming to his baptism for a moment. After the baptism, the Mandarin speakers invited everyone to come and join in and have some food at the BBQ.
Overall, it was a really good start to this transfer. I love this work so much and seeing the effect that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has on people and myself included. It isn't an instantaneous thing, but those little things that we do everyday, cause us to change into the people that we want to be!
Talk to yous lata cheers!
-Elder Holyoak
New companion Elder Kearl at Dean's baptism
Dean's baptism
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