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