Hey everybody

I'm doing great this week. It was a pretty busy week in that we had to prepare for a baptism this last Sunday. This last Sunday we had a baptism of a woman from Cambodia. Her name is Sarimom. Her husband, Vaughn, is a member already and has been for the last 4 or 5 years. So she has been going to church for the last couple of years and learned with the Elders several years as well. She has wanted to be baptized for the last 4 years but has not been able to because of her visa situation. She is what is called an asylum seeker, Which means that they are refugees but the U.N. has not yet acknowledged them as so. The reason the church does not allow asylum seekers to be baptized is for welfare reasons. They don't want people to be baptized then after they start receiving welfare support they will disappear or go inactive because they don't have a true testimony. But for Sister Sarimom's, or Mom for short, case, she was given special permission to be baptized from President Smith. So she was able to be baptized. They live in the Assistants to the President, Elder Brown and Elder McConkie, area but they didn't have time to get them ready so they gave Elder Christensen and me charge over them. So it took about a week to review everything, get interviewed and then baptized. That was definitely the fastest anyone I taught got baptized. It was a good baptism.

This coming week we have a special fireside for the missionaries coming up. We are going to have a Church Historian and a General Authority come up and answer questions about anything we want to know about concerning the history of the church. I'm way excited about it because they want us to focus on the questions that we have got from investigators that stopped them progressing, or anything that we have heard of in the past or anything strange rumors that we have heard of. I can think of a lot that I heard of in the MTC, for example the theory of the Hollow Earth. That's where the 10 lost tribes of Israel are. 5555. OK, maybe not that question but I do have a few that I have always wondered about.

Hey I had an amazing thing happen yesterday for Easter. We ate a real Easter meal at the mission home. It was amazingly good food. Ham, potato salad and birthday cake with ice cream. That was for Elder Brown and Me. His birthday is on the 27th of April. It was a good time that we had to sit down and think about the Savior and his Atonement for us.

With all the snow that's falling I might still be able to go skiing when I get back. That will be fun.

I have been talking to some senior missionaries that are living in the district. Elder and Sister Sangswaan. They live in Bountiful. But they told me of a really good Thai place that they said they thought was pretty authentic Thai food. Called the Thai Garden. If I remember right, its on 9th East across the street from Little Caesers pizza. That's a place that I intend to go to. I also have had a few members tell me of a place or two that members own in Provo, that say if I tell them that I served in the Pakkret branch that they would give me a discount for sure. I'm going to have to find a place for Issan food. That's my favorite kind of Thai food. Nothing like papaya salad with water fall and sticky rice. saab saab. That's Issan.

Well today is a fast letter. See you in 2 weeks

I love you all

Elder Brandon John Holt