A Day and Adventure in the Life of Connor: April 2015

Wow, I really don't even know where to start...

How about with this? Since I have gotten home, now almost 4 weeks ago... (Where has the time gone?!) I have received a job. I am a Life Guard again at the Murray Rec center, but I have been offered two other Jobs, a Desk Job. (But lots of guys from MHS work there and apparently its lots of fun) and also a salesman job where I could make $1500 a week! So there is a chance that I may be changing here shortly. I am not so sure on that part yet.

Photography?? Well, ya'lls know that I LOVE IT! I have my first photo shoot this Saturday! It'll be pretty fun! I am doing Senior pictures of a Best Friend who is gonna be graduating here in June! Maybe if I am lucky, I will have one with one of my favorite models Josilyn Harsh (Who has literally gone PRO in modeling since I left on the Mission).

Girlfriend? Well, that's out too. We had a big talk sesh this last week and we ended up breaking up (Mutually) so we are out on that one, so if anyone wants to go on a date This guy is open, willing, ready, whatever you want to call it to go out!!

I have a really close friend from the mission, that I only spent 3 weeks with. His name is Alex York. The kid is Awesome! He was a District Leader of mine in a REALLY hard time of my mission. He did a lot for me. Really is a true friend. Although when he finished his mission last November, I remember receiving and email from him! Now let me just say one thing about this kid, in his mission, he was a legend with his scriptures and personal study times!! He did so much! In this email that I received from him, I remember him telling me that it was so hard to keep on reading and doing all the stuff we do every single day as missionaries, because it is in our Agenda every single day. When you get home? There is no horario or Agenda that is the same every single day. Maybe when you have like 45 years and you are in your job that is your everyday profession or something, but even then?? Everyday really isn't "The Same". The thing is, Sadly over these past 4 weeks of being here in the house, I have had like NO TIME to myself... Today? I sure did, that is why I am writing this. But don't worry I read my scriptures first! Haha it's been something super hard, but it really has been so hard to keep reading my scriptures everyday! Which is something really hard for me, because my goal in the Mission was to just finish the Book of Mormon before I had to come home (Didn't work) I read it 1 and a half times in Spanish, I am in like Alma 25 in Spanish and in English? I started Day one in the MTC in Mexico with 1Nephi 1 and before I came home, I was just entering 3Nephi 1. So yeah, I am still not done, that kinda makes me sad, but it is because I have really taken a liking, more like a LOVING to the Scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon over the past 22 months. I didn't just READ the Book of Mormon on my mission (Except in Spanish), but I STUDIED the Book of Mormon in my Mission. It's kinda cool, because this actually helps me understand a little better my Patriarchal blessing a little better as well.

Okay, one thing that I love and hate? Is the time that I came home. I Love it, because I now have the wonderful chance to see all the home comings of almost all the Missionaries I got to see all of their farewells, and surprise them that I am home! Now the part that I am not a fan of? Is even though I have lots of friends who are here, and who have shown their Love for me in the past couple of weeks, I still have to be patient and wait for some more friends to get home so I can be with them! I mean, you can't just change the Best of Best friends! Like Jayden Beardall, Shaurie Coleman, Brooke Barker, and especially Adam Jones! When these guys are all home, that will really make life better for me!!

Something that one of my best friends said a couple weeks ago in one of her letters home to the family (This was something I read right before I came home from Chile) really hit me. At this time I was really questioning "Why do I have to go home Early?" In her email, there is something that was very important that helped me out a whole bunch! There is something the father of President Hinckley always did while President Hickley was on his Mission. He always sent him inspirational things to help him always be ready to serve. One of the Scriptures that his dad sent him you can find in Mark 5:36 which Christ states "Be not afraid, only Believe." This is where my friend starts in her part of the story, she said that this scripture reminded her in a study of a scripture found in the Book of Mormon 5:23 "Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God?" "We have every reason to trust in our creator. Things will work out, because He is in charge, and He never forgets us." Right there. That is what made me okay to come home early, and I am so thankful to this friend who wrote this in her email. In fact I am at this very moment, in the process of writing her a hand written letter personally thanking her for that very part of the email. It was an answer to my prayers, and has helped me. Really? Just writing that down right now, and thinking about it again, has helped me with the last thing I will be writing about in this post.

Something that I have had to do since I have returned home from the Mission is help in remodeling the basement. Well, Finishing the basement (I Know, what a surprise! The Holt family is FINALLY doing it!) haha but here is the thing, My dear Uncle Bruce, who is in charge of it. I have had a couple days of being down there with him alone and just helping him. Something that changed on my mission about me, is before the mission I was a BIG Talker, I almost Always got in trouble during class for talking... Now? I am definitely much more of a listener, and I just enjoy to listen and to think about everything. So with my lucky chances of doing this with my dear uncle Bruce, he sure has taught me two very important lessons. Something I will never forget and will always remember for the rest of my life, and probably be teaching to my Friends, Kids, Nephews, Grand kids, etc.
#1 "6 months after a Missionary returns home from his mission, everyone will know what kind of Returned Missionary was." Meaning, if he was a first missionary, second missionary, third missionary, or fourth missionary. If you don't understand those four types of missionaries, you should go and read this talk, it changed my Entire mission. The Fourth Missionary Now for those of you who still don't understand those terms, it means if you come home, and in 6 months time, you are attending all of your church meetings, doing your home/visiting teaching, you are paying your tithing, reading your scriptures, going to the temple, have a missionary haircut, etc. etc. etc. you Obviously were a "Fourth Missionary" or a Really good missionary. On the other hand, if you haven't shaved, for a while, have long and scrappy hair, skip church, don't go to the temple, and what not, etc. etc. etc. Maybe you didn't serve the best that you could of, and it actually explains this in the talk of "The Fourth Missionary".
#2 "Returning home from a Mission is A lot harder than it is to leave and go out" I agree completely with this statement. He actually told me about this one yesterday while we were in the basement working on dry walling. I've been thinking A LOT about this one in the past 24 hours, and it seriously has been so hard to be home in the past 4 weeks, a lot has happened. I mean, throughout my mission, there would be times where I would think "Wow, I can't wait till I can go home, so that I can get back to the "Real" world or so I can get back to dating girls, or so I can go back and do some crazy things that the mission won't let me do." hahaha that is what would every now and then come up on my mind. When I was told that I would be coming home in the back of my mind I was secretly happy and hoping that I could come home, (Saturday night) of General Conference, then on Monday morning the Zone Leaders called us and told us that me and my companion would be going home this following Wednesday for Transfers, because of our Sicknesses (They put me with my companion to take care of him and his sickness, but in the end it was really him taking care of me...). Well, after buying lunch for our Zone leaders, and buying gifts for our families, we went to the cibier (Cyber cafe) to write families, and right as we got there, I heard the ring tone, that in the beginning of my mission would of made crap my pants if I heard it. The ring tone of Presidente Obeso. He asked me how I was feeling, then said that I would be going to Santiago to visit the doctors there later on in the week, because he really didn't want me to go home. So I said Thank you! Then I got on the computer and started talking with my Dad about all of the things that were going on. He then said "The Stake President just called saying that your mission nurse called and told him that you had another seizure on Sunday is that true?" I said yes and so he told me "Well, that could change everything, you could be coming home then." and that was the last I heard about the problem until the next morning. On Tuesday morning, I right after District meeting had ended, I received a phone call from a number that we didn't have registered, so I picked it up, and said "Halo" (with a British Accent, that's how we answer telefonos there in Chile) and it just happened to be the Mission Doctor for like all of South America up in Santiago and he wanted to ask me how I was feeling and all about this "Seizure Problem" I have had, so I told him everything that I knew about since the MTC in Mexico. Then in the end I asked him "Am I still coming to Santiago?" Then he replied "You could be coming to Santiago, going home, or staying in your mission." Great.... Now I didn't have an answer, but another option... #Thanks So i still had no idea what was going on, so it was nice, when the ZLs called and told me, you should probably pack your bags, since we believe you are at least going to Osorno (Where the Mission Home is) tomorrow morning for transfers. They'll deal with you there. So that is what I did. When I reached the Bus terminal in Osorno, I was welcomed by the Other Elder Holt, who is from my group, and who has my same sickness. He said, "Are you coming home with me?!" I told him the same thing I just told all of you guys, but in a much shorter version, and he said "Well, I dunno what is gonna happen with you, but I have to go to Matta (The Church building where everything is held in Osorno) So you should just come with me!" When we got there, there were was a pair of the couple missionaries who had two plates of spaghetti and said "Elder Holt and Elder Holt we have been waiting for you, here is your food!" Which was placed right next to all the elders who were finishing their mission that day, so in that moment I knew I was going home, but it sure wasn't a happy feeling, because I was completely unready for it... Anyways, going back to #2 what my Uncle Bruce told me. Really the past 4 weeks, have just been so hard, I think a big reason, is because I haven't really had anytime to just sit down and rest... UNTIL TODAY! Wow, it has been Great to just sit around today, i can't lie. But I really don't know how to describe it, it just is hard. I am sure there are other RMs who understand what I am trying to say!

Now the last part, ("finally" is what you are all thinking, I know.) Here is the hardest thing about being home! This last week, I had the chance to go to the hospital to have some tests done for my sickness, (The reason I came home two transfers early from my mission.) I had an EEG and an MRI done in IMC here in Murray. In Chile, I had an EEG, MRI, and a CT scan. Anyways, when I got the results back this past Friday, the nurse told me "The EEG results are the same as the ones from Chile, there is something in the front left side of your brain. The results from the Super Close in MRI says nothing new, there is nothing there. So the Doctor has said, 'keep taking your pills and we'll see you in September...'" WHAT?! That is pretty much what they told me in Chile, and they told me I had to come home early to visit better doctors here in the States... I was taking the same medication there, and I could have finished my mission... Grr..... (This is why I like that thing that my best friend said in her email, because obviously there is a reason why I am home, and I just need to trust in the Lord and He will guide me and let me know why.) I have been lucky, until yesterday, to of not had any of these seizures here at home for the past week, or if you have read my Mission blog "The Feeling." Yesterday, I had 7... Oh boy, that really sucked, sleeping last night? Was awesome because I sure slept a lot, from like 10:50 pm until like... What I thought I had slept in a long time at 7:20 am so I went back to sleep until 8:45 this morning, although not sure if I liked the dreams very well. Anyways, here is the thing these seizures, or "The Feeling" nobody understands it, I don't even understand it and it has been almost 2 years since I started to feel it... Although EVERYONE wants to know how it feels, my companions, my mission presidente, the doctors, my friends, my Mom.. I DON'T KNOW. I have tried to explain it so many times! I just can not wait until one day I am perfect, and then I can explain it, or just give you the chance to feel it, just so you can know... I hate it! But really? That is the biggest reason why it is so hard to be home right now, but now you are all caught up in my life. Now? I have to go right all that same stuff down in my journal hahaha

and now I am off to go to a SLCC Scholarship meeting from receiving the Presidential Scholarship two years ago! I Love you all and thanks for reading!! \

Elder (Not) Connor Holt

here are some pictures of the past couple of weeks since I have gotten home to keep you all updated on me too!!

The Day I got home

I can Finally drink Mate now! :D

My new phone has 18 Mega Pixels (Thats the same as my camera for photography...)

It snowed the week I got home, JUST for me, so I could see snow, since it had been more than two years....

My toe, definitely looks better than this now, but it is healing! woo hoo!

Life guard certified again! Woot!

Had the chance to have a "Family Reunion" and be with my Trainer, and the kid I trained in the Mission (Had to come home a little early, but will shortly be leaving again soon).