Phil Pickle Dill: Elder Holland, June 13, 2022

Hello everyone! What an amazing this week was.

Elder Matthew Holland came to our mission for a mission tour. He is just wonderful. He is very kind and teaches with power. He explains doctrine simply and he is bold. Most importantly he teaches with the Spirit. Elder Thomas and I were very blessed and honored to spend a lot of time with him! We probably spent the most time with him out of all the missionaries in the entire mission. We spent 11 1/2 hours with him. On Tuesday he came to our Mission Leadership Council. That was wonderful. He talked about setting stretching and reachable goals to become an escalator mission instead of an elevator mission. I liked the analogy and learned about gaining positive momentum. After that meeting Elder Holland and President Collins came into our apartment to plan with us! (We definitely didn't rush home to clean before they came in haha) That was really cool. We role played a daily planning session and he encouraged us to use the format of weekly planning to plan each day. Very insightful. He asked us how we were each doing and that was touching. He really does care and wants us to be happy.

It gets better. We drove him in our car to a teaching appointment that night. I was driving and he sat in the front seat. Talk about pressure. I did my very best to not have Tiwi (a device in our car which gives us driving tips) coach me. I only got one "check your speed!" It was very honoring to be in the car with him and just talk with him. He is just a normal man like everyone else. The lesson with the Levins was great! We talked about the Great Apostasy and the Book of Mormon. Elder Holland taught powerfully and Sister Levin felt the Spirit. He left a wonderful blessing and prayer on their home afterwards and the whole family was touched by his words. It was a beautiful experience.

After we walked out of the lesson he just put his arm around me and told me how proud he was of me. I just felt so loved.

I love you all! Elder Spencer