Saturday, January 30, 2010

Our Elder Holmes

Here he is at home before his service began....

Our Elder Cody Holmes has 4- 1/2 months left to serve in the Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission. I have been requesting pictures for a while, but he got his camera stolen last year as he was robbed, with his memory card of course. Randi said, gun or no gun she would have asked for the memory card.

He has been in some very remote areas where developing them was not possible. So finally with this last transfer, we received a few pictures with his email.

We knew he had lost weight walking 10 to 15 miles a day, because we had to send money for new shirts, new pants, and finally a new suit. Minus 60 lbs later, here is our much leaner, and fit Cody. He loves it, and gets up 30 minutes early every day to work out and keep toned up. So here you have the Elder we sent into the MTC, and here is Elder Holmes today.
Here is his email from this last week..he is so enjoying his service. It has been a very growing and moving experience for him.

"Heyyyy.....so, this week went great! The baptisms went through, our branch had 5 baptisms total, we had three and the other elders that share the area with us had 2. It's such an awesome feeling after suffering a bit to get these baptisms. But theyre doing great, we had a really good lesson with all of them yesterday. It's hard to think that the month is already closing in, and that February is coming around the corner. My time really is SHORT. We have a lot of potential baptisms for this coming month as well. We have Miguel, Margarita, Wilmer, Kelvin, Darwin, Deisy, and I think a couple others as well. We are working as hard as we can to get them in for Feb. and I honestly can say this is the happiest I've been in my entire mission! The fruits of our labor our showing! What has been a factor in this is our ability to answer questions and adapt the lessons to their needs. It's not enough to just blurt out the restoration at them, it's about making sure they understand that there was a need to restore the true church that Christ himself had established. Being able to study the scriptures everyday is such a blessing, and my knowledge has grown soooo much. It helps me realize my repsonsibility a little better. I have a few pictures in this e-mail, hope you like them!! I love you all, and thanks so much for supporting this great work. Give the missionaries references! They need them!

Until next week!
Elder Cody Holmes

11 comments:

Dejah said...

It's so fun to see those pictures. Not only is he thinner, but you can really see a happiness in him. It's hard to explain, but you can just tell he has the Spirit with him.

Ashley said...

Yay for missionaries! He has lost so much weight since he's been out. I hardly even recognized him in those pictures.

Lauri said...

I loved having missionary sons. Letters and pictures make a mom's day! I'm sure he's a great missionary.

Grammy Staffy said...

Wow...Cody looks great....and so happy. What a lovely payday for a mom to get a letter from her elder like that. What blessings come from being in the mission field...and from having a child in the mission field.
We were too sick to come to church last week. I missed seeing you. I will look forward to seeing your smiling face tomorrow. Hugs, Lura

Barbra said...

It is amazing to see how different he looks!!! He also looks so happy!!! Those last months of serving on your mission are always the best. I cannot believe he will be home so soon.

Have a great day!!!

everyday katie said...

I love letters from missionaries. Very cute. And wow! Has he changed!

Sundbergs said...

He looks so different. Sounds like he is doing great.

Sara said...

such a sweet joyful boy! or should i say MAN. i can't believe he is coming home this year! already. can't wait.

Heidi said...

It really is kind of crazy! he is looking so happy! Cant wait to see him in June!

Marie Rayner said...

I don't know how I missed this Sheryl! What a transformation in that wonderful son of yours! How very proud you must be to have a son who is serving the Lord so very well. I just love the missionaries. I try to do the very best for them that I can at every opportunity! xxoo

Todd Family said...

wow the spirit really does build strong missionaries! (emotionally, spiritually and physically!) :) he looks great!!