Capitulo 8

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 8

Hola Todos! Muchas Gracias por las cartas que yo recibe este semana. Muchas Gracias a Tia Linda, Elena, Janine y Benjamin, y mis Padres. Este Semana fue loco ahora hay 56 missioneros en mi districto! y recibe nuevo missioneros dos semanas a pronto.

Well, that's really exciting for the Thompsons, I know they've been trying to get a job somewhere else for a long time. Tell them congrats from me in case they don't read my emails, and tell them to send me a dearelder. Katie is the only sister who hasn't written me! Also very exciting to hear about all the babies in the Redd family. Also say hello to Jeff for me, I guess he's coming home today!! Nice to hear that I've got pictures and a bag in the mail. Muchas Gracias!!

OK, Elena you need to stop telling me about food in your letters. I work very hard to eat healthy in here, and it’s hard enough with all the missionaries in my zone trying to feed me brownies and cake every night. So I definitely don't need you tempting me with thoughts of Pad Thai and Scone Sundays!!! That does sound like a lot of fun with the food festival. I will never eat the potatoes here. They are all nasty and come out of a can. I might eat those if I was starving to death, but seeing as how I'm very well fed right now on my salads, wraps, soup, and rice I won't be touching potatoes. Also I will be careful. 

Well, it sounds like Janine and Benjamin had very different MTC experiences from mine. First: I've never worked in the call center and to my knowledge I won’t over the next week. I'm not sure what it was like way back when, in the time they were in the MTC, but now we actually have permanent call centre missionaries. They are probably the most diligent, patient missionaries in the world. Most of them have some sort of physical disability. I've talked to some of them, and they are just amazing people. Also the term discretionary time is alien to my ears. I don't have discretionary time. I have about three hours of self directed study a day, but I'm so busy that I fill all that time up easily. The only discretionary time I have is from 9:30 to 10:15 before bed and I almost always exercise during that time.

I've got a little bit of news, I got my travel plans yesterday!!! I leave on August the sixth at 5:00 AM to the airport. My flight leaves at 8:30. So I can probably call you and talk for about 20 minutes around 7:30. I'm so excited to go out and hit the field. I'm also a little excited to leave the MTC but I do still love this place. I'm just so excited to go to Denver! This week we also had a really interesting experience teaching a lesson only using questions. That was interesting, but it really was great to work out concerns.

OK, so if you at all have an opportunity to tell this to the young men please do. You need to have everything worked out before you get here. This week I saw a missionary go home who I had thought was completely and utterly solid. It was a shock to see him go home. He said he's going to try to come back out. The Lord needs more missionaries and I've seen too many people who go home whether they aren't ready physically, mentally, spiritually or emotionally. We need more missionaries. Tell the young men that they need to prepare now. I've realized how unprepared I was and I don't want anyone else to feel that. If they can start preparing now, they will be such amazing missionaries.

This week in my study I learned about keeping my eye single to glory of God, and what that phrase actually means. I've learned that when it's time to focus on my studies, or on my language, I need to focus completely on my study. I can think of other things on P-day, meal times and personal time. Apart from that I need to be 100% focused on my purpose as a missionary.

Well, I love you all so much everybody, I love hearing from you. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve that Lord and I know this gospel is true.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Rojo

Week 7

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 7

Hola Familia,

Yo creo que este semana es 7 pero so estoy seguro, tiempo no existen en el CCM!! Pero me gusta mucho. Estoy aprendiendo mucho sobre Español y el Evangelio Tambien.

Well, now that I've written my weekly little Spanish blurb to show that I am in fact learning Spanish I'll switch to English. Today on Wednesday another District left, and my district is now the oldest District in our Zone!! It was really weird to be singing Hasta Ver for them and remembering our first Sunday when we sang it for Elder Olman. One of my best MTC friends was in that district, Elder Clawson. He was hilarious, and now he's gone. It feels really strange to be the oldest district, and time is just racing. It almost feels like I wrote you yesterday. At the same time however, so much has happened this week.

I'm very excited to get out and hit the field, although I do still love the MTC. Maybe that's a slight exaggeration and I'm saying it to make me feel better. I'm very excited to get out, but I'm keeping my attitude good. There are a few things that I still enjoy about this place. The food is definitely not one of them. However, I've deviated slightly. I ate rice a few times and I had a bratwurst yesterday. Apart from that, it’s still wraps with the occasional bowl of soup. This is addressed to Elena: I WILL NEVER TOUCH THE CASSEROLES!!!!!! not for any price could you make me touch the casseroles.

Anyway on Wednesday I tracked Elder Bullock down. I didn't get to host him, but I just figured out his schedule so I could find him. Thank you for the cookies, they were great and I shared them with everyone in my zone. Speaking of Packages would it be possible to send me a new bag? Through a series of unfortunate events my bag has fallen apart. Could you send me one?

Anyway Snitney and I have figured out that we have temple walk at the same time, so we usually meet up and talk when we're there. It’s great to see family and Snitney is really funny. I've also ran into Elder Hudson a few times but not near as much as I had hoped. Just curious, am I going to be getting any family pictures?

So this week we had Devotional by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone an Emeritus Seventy. My favourite part of the talk was when he read from Ruth 1. I forget the verse but the one that says entreat me not to leave thee. I really liked it and that's what we should say to the Saviour.

I should be getting my travel plans probably next Thursday, so next week I should know when I'm leaving and when I can call you.

Sorry this email has been shorter than some of my others I love you all and can't wait to hit the field

Les amo mucho!

Elder Rojo

Week 6

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 6

Hola Familia!!

Yo estoy muy animado para ustedes!! Yo creo que estan habiendo un muy bien tiempo sin me. Esperomente usted puede me entienden, mi Español esta progressando, y mi districto y yo estamos tratando HSI siempre!  (for those of who speak Spanish yes I just learned gerund's so that's why I used so many)

Sorry for not answering your question earlier, but yes I did get the Almonds! Thank you so much it was nice to have healthy snacks and I also liked the mangos mucho!  If you want to send me a package I'm not gonna complain but I wouldn't really want food or anything, and my suitcases are probably approaching the weight limit with all the books I've gotten. So really it might just be better to send me something once I get to Denver in a few weeks. Thank you so much for the other package though I really loved the Canada towel its pretty awesome, and I kinda needed a second towel anyway one wasn't enough.

Dad to answer your questions-no we really don't get much time outside. We can go out for gym and I do that occasionally so this week I went running around the field with Elder Bailey. He's in my zone and he runs marathons, so yeah I kept up with him for as long as I could. I've played softball a couple times. The first day 6 my American buddies were making fun of me because, well I have no idea how to do anything in baseball. I've actually gotten a lot better and I'm not half bad now. Most of the time I like to play basketball though because it can be too hot outside here. Apart from gym we have our temple walk on Sundays. I usually meet up with snitney and we talk because we have it at the same time. And Elder Rollins and I usually study outside during personal study but apart from that I'm pretty much inside all day. Also yes I am allowed to call from the airport it is by no means against the rules. I'll let you know when I have my travel plans about what time I can call. Honestly I don't care that much about the cabinet in the office but if you want to send me some family pictures that would be great, because I have zero. It would be nice to have some pictures of the Ibbi's and I guess you could throw some other pictures in there. Chiste!! Send me pictures of everyone please but not on email if you could mail me some I would love that. Also It's super exciting to hear about your papers going in mom and dad! And Marc I'm excited for him!

Janine thanks for the letter, you are my favourite sister this week! In answer to your question, for breakfast I really don't have much choice. I have gym first thing in the morning three days a week. I just go to the sack meal line and have a bottle of skim milk with a whole wheat bagel. The two mornings a week that I have real breakfast, I usually eat oatmeal with almonds and a bit of cinnamon. Occasionally I'll have oatmeal and granola too. It's also nice to hear you’re enjoying work, and that you're going corrupt by selling spots off on the energy priority list.

Its great to hear that the stampede is fun and your enjoying the free meals everywhere. I've actually had a lot of fun telling everyone here about the stampede and how awesome it is. But make sure you have fun there for me!

OK so now that I've dealt with that, I'll tell you whats been happening here with me. I was called to be the district leader last week and I'm now five days in. It's hard. It adds more responsibility and takes away from a lot of my study time, but I'm really enjoying it and I've learned a lot in only five days.

Apart from the district leader stuff I've learned a lot from my study as well. I got to teach a lesson with my district and I'm gonna briefly summarize it to you. I read from Alma 29 the one where he says "Oh that I were an angel" there are some great scriptures in there, both for missionaries and everyone else. For anyone who has received a mission call and feels a little choked, I know I did for a little while read in I believe verse 6 when he says "but why should I desire more than the Lord has given me" or something like that. It's a really powerful scripture and I am so excited to go to Denver even though it might not be as exciting as some missions I know that it will be a wow mission despite what other people may say. For anyone else read, in I think verse three, when Alma says that he sins in his desire. That was really cool when I read it. it makes me realize how far we all have to come. if we can reach the point where that is our sinful desire then we're in pretty good shape, I hope that i can get to that point someday. I've met a lot of missionaries in here and it is so easy to tell the ones who are ready to serve and those who are here because their parents made them I would strongly recommend that anyone preparing for a mission should read this chapter.

So this week in devotional we had a fantastic talk by Elder Robert R. Steur of the Seventy. It was an absolutely amazing talk. He talked about words and their roots and how we need to dig deeper into words like commitment (in Spanish it’s Compromiso which means with promise). He also talked about excuses, fear, and how we can be become better missionaries. One quote I really liked was as follows "Any excuse no matter how valid, always weakens character." It really made me realize that as missionaries we don't have an excuse not to knock on that last door or talk to that person on the street. What do we have to be afraid of? The worst thing that can happen is they yell at us and don't want to talk to us. Right at the end of the talk he shared a poem that I really like. "A fly may bite a stately horse and make it wince a time or two, but I fly is still a fly, and a stately horse is still a stately horse." He changed this a little bit and said that we are still men of God. Despite trials we face on our mission or people not accepting the gospel we are still men of God and have a calling to fulfill. I loved this talk and I'm trying to apply these principles in my missionary work.

I can't wait to get to Denver, although I am still loving the MTC!

Les Amo Mucho!!

Elder Rojo

MTC Half Way

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo Cinco

Thankyou so much for the package it didn't actually come until yesterday July 5th, and I really needed to see some Canadian things after the over patriotism of the 4th of July. It was cool even if all the Americans in my Zone were being really annoying that day, we got to watch fireworks and stay up late!! which just made me more tired yesterday.

Yesterday we had a new district come in, and Elder Rollins and I got new roommates in our tiny room. Basically our room is half the size of all the other rooms and we now have the same amount of elders in it. We have no space. Unfortunately with the coming of this district we lose the second Chilean district on Monday, that's gonna be really sad, I love almost all of those elder's. Just kidding I love them all. I'm sad that they're leaving but Estoy Bien. On a crazy freaky totally insane note. I'M HALFWAY DONE THE MTC!!! which is pretty exciting.

Oh side note if Sister Gedlaman wouldn't mind letting Tyler know, half of my MTC district is going to Toronto. I don't think I'd mentioned that before, and when they go I'm going to send a present for them to give to him. Also let him know that these elders are amazing and he should be excited I hope he gets to train or at least be companions with one of them. Their names are Elder Prochnow, Elder Dial, and Elder Flygare. If he isn't allowed to know that and I just told a terrible secret -yo tengo culpa.

Well it sounds like the reunion was a lot of fun WITHOUT ME. It sounds like no tears were shed over my absence and you had a great time. That's good, I had a great time here too except that I got sick on Monday. That was annoying pero yo estoy muy bien ahora! Stop worrying Mom I took all my pills and I feel great.

Speaking to mom you'll be pleased to hear that I am getting enough protein. I have grilled chicken breast in all my wraps so I get enough. You'll also be pleased to hear that I'm exercising all the time and have defied the norm and actually lost weight in the MTC. I've lost eight pounds so far and I plan to bring that down so I can have no memories of the freshman 15. Along the lines of food I have tried a few different things. I ate a Gyro yesterday and had some rice and stir fry last Saturday. It was pretty disappointing though so I'm pretty much sticking to wraps and salads.

I don't really know how to describe Elder Perry's talk it was pretty much statistics of how the gospel blesses lives: like how Mormons have an longer life expectancy, Mormons on average are more satisfied with their life and such. The part of the talk that was really awesome was when he bore testimony. It's always great to hear the testimony of one of the apostles, but in person it just seemed so much more powerful.

So this week for our devotional Elder Yoshihiko Kokuchi an Emeritus Seventy came and spoke to us. He gave a great talk about being perfectly obedient at all times in our mission and how this will help us be more successful as missionaries. The spirit really bore witness to me that if I am perfectly obedient I will be a better missionary. As such I now wake up before 6:30 everyday and am in bed before 10:30. I make sure I spend all my study time studying and always seek for revelation on how I can do better. At the end of the talk He spoke about the how the most important thing we can bring home from our mission's is a true relationship with Christ, because it's something that never leaves. His hand is always there, we just need to reach out and take it.

I know that this church is true and I know that my Father in Heaven wants me to be here on a mission, I can't wait to start sharing the gospel with people when I get to Denver.

Les amo muchisimo

Elder Rojo

P.S. please please send me my field address in a dearelder asap I need to give it to the Chileans who leave on Monday

P.P.S I heard that the state of Colorado is on fire can you tell me what's going on there?

Me cuarto email

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo cuatro

Hola Familia!

Whoah time is flying by it feels like I just had pday yesterday! But I guess that's what they mean when they say the mission goes by quickly. There's alot to talk about in this week's email, so please forgive my complete and utter lack of grammer (Mikyla) (I have fixed the grammar errors I could see to make this easier to read. Peter was correct to apologize!! and I apologize for my incomplete editing-Jim). Anyways thank you for the letters mother and father. It's true- It's more fun to get dearElders than emails, still email me especially when I'm in the field, but just send me updates with dearElder while it's still available. Thanks to Mikyla for her letter. Thank you Emily, it's great to hear how the boys are doing. Thank you Blake, Jaima and Ivy, speaking of which- someone tell them about my blog. I don't think they know about it. Also thanks to the Gedlaman's– I really enjoyed the letters.

Ok so now i'll tell you a little bit about this week. As you may know this week was the mission presidents seminar so all the apostles and the First Presidency were in the Mtc at one time or another. That was really cool. The negative side effect of having them was that they closed off half the cafeteria and they didn't have wraps, I was so sad. But! because they were all in the MTC we had an awesome devotional on Tuesday. Ten of the apostles were there! the only ones who weren't there were Elder Hales and President Packer because they're both sick. It was really funny because Elder Rollins and I were sitting down and there wasn't really anyone on the stage. Then we saw some older gentlemen walking in the back doors right next to the stage. I turned to Elder Rollins and said, "That looks suprisingly like Elder Oaks, and that looks suprisingly like Elder Andersen! and that bald man looks just like Elder Cook. OH MY GOSH IT'S Elder HOLLAND!!!!!!!! For anyone who doesn't know missionaries absolutely love Elder Holland and Elder Bednar. Elder Perry spoke and it was a really good talk not at all what I was expecting, but the devotional was awesome. You could literally feel the power of the witness of the apostles.

So let me briefly tell you why missionaries absolutely love Elder Holland and Elder Bednar. I know that I love them because they have given some of the most powerful talks to missionaries in the MTC. I've seen two taped talks that they only show in the MTC. One from Elder Bednar entitled "Character of Christ" and one by Elder Holland that I don't know the title, apparently anyone who's been in the MTC since 1998 has seen the Elder Holland talk its so good and directly for missionaries. We also love Elder Holland and Elder Bednar because when they talk to missionaries they are hilarious!! I don’t think I can talk about it on an email though so you don't get to know for two years mwahaha!!

Dad you'll be pleased to hear that I ran into some missionaries headed to Thailand this week. I came up to them and said "Sawa ti kup" (I know I'm evil because thats inaccurate but whatever) They then proceeded to speak fluent thai to me and I was thoroughly lost, but it was cool. I told them about our trips to Thailand and how you served there, and how friendly the people were. It was really cool.

Janine you'll be pleased to hear that I ran into some Finnish Elders this week I talked to them about how you served there and asked how the language was. It was pretty darn cool to talk to people who are going to your mission. After I talked, I said "Quitos" (yeah yeah misspelled I know) and they thought it was cool that I knew I tiny bit of Finnish.

This week I also was able to meet Schwester Young when she came in on wednesday, I just sat outside the arrival thing and ambushed her and her host. It was nice to see some family and talk a little with someone from Canada. Seriously, the americans are getting a wee bit tiresome because they cannot pronounce mountain or any word that has a T in the middle properly.

Well that's about it for my email this week, please keep sending letters!

Les amo mucho

Elder Rojo