Elder Redd's favorite scripture

Elder Redd's favorite missionary scripture

Alma 26:11-12
But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength,
nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with
joy, and I will rejoice in my God.
Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak;
therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his
strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought
in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

Monday 27 August 2012

Capitulo 12

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 12

Hola Familia y Amigos! estoy muy feliz esta semana. el semana passado
fue muy buen y sus emails fue magnifico tambien. Me gusta leyendo
todos sus emails.

Now that I'm speaking English CONGRATS MOM AND DAD That's awesome that
you're going to Thailand! its great to hear that you've started
working hard at learning the language. If I may offer a piece of
advice with the language that my Branch President in the MTC always
told me. It's simply this, don't worry about the language work as hard
as you can to learn it, but never worry about being able to
communicate. I know that's something that mom might worry about but
don't let it bother you.

It was great to hear from all of you. It sounds like the Skinners,
Fixsens and Thompsons are all having a great Summer, Jaima that blog
was hillarious thankyou for including it! It's always great to hear
about the Ibbi's but kinda crazy how fast they're all growing up! I'm
trying to avaid thinking about how old they're gonna be when I get
home because it makes me Trunky (That's a mission slang term for home
sick). It's also nice to know that the boys still remember me.

Alright Blakovich you sent me some questions so here are some anwers for you.

1. Colorado is great it's a little hot some days it's gotten up to the
mid 30's. Tracting or OYMing (Opening Your Mouth) in that weather is a lot of fun.

2. My Companion's name is Elder L, he was born in Peru, so he's
always spoken fluent Spanish that can be kind of interesting because
sometime he uses Peruvian Terms that I don't understand at all.

3. As to what I eat, I eat a lot of Taquitos, seriously atleast 70% of
our dinner appointments are Taquitos home made and they're good, but
we eat them a lot. we also have rice with pretty much every meal and
we eat a lot of chicken.

4. I would answer this one but I don't really know what mom rice is Blake.

5. Ok gross story for Blake: so our appartment is near the Bear river,
or something like that. and the entrance to our complex is right next
to the dumpster. As such it is not entirely uncommon for us to see
Rats when we come home at night. So one night I had Rat run about 3
feet ahead of me from the bush toward the dumpster. I freaked out and
Elder Lopez was laughing at me.

Hope those aswered your questions Blake!

Thank's for letting me know that you will now be responsible for my
blog now Elena I think I sent this email to you hopefully you do in
fact get it if not send me an angry Email or something next week. It
also sounds like you had a ton of fun at the murder mystery party!

Ok Jaima you asked how I was shocked. Well let me put it this way.
I've been very fortunate in my life. Dad's always been fully able to
provide for us and I've always lived in nice neighbourhoods. So on my
first day when Elder L and I were OYMing guys with tatoos all over
and piercing's and hear some of them talk about what their lives were
like in gangs and how Jesus changed their lives, It was a little scary
for awhile but I've adjusted and I really love the area and all the
people I serve.

If anyone wants to send me pictures it's probably better to snail mail them.
Mom and Dad it's great to hear that everything has come together with
your call and I'm super excited for you to enter the mission field I
know you will absolutely love it! Along that note I'm just thinking
about how Chrstmas will work, can you do a Skype conference call?
because we skype in my mission too.

Ok so I guess I'll tell you a little bit about how I'm doing and
everything else that's going on with me. First off let me tell you a
bit about my District. My Companion Elder L is our District
Leader, The zone Leader's Elder T, Elder E and Elder T
are also in our District, I did an exchange with them this week and it
was really cool to have the opportunity to learn from other
missionaries too. Elder S and G are the other Spanish Elder's
in our ward I did an exchange with Elder G this week and that was
awesome too. Elder S is a Visa missionary and he'll be leaving
for Argentina in about one week. but he's a really cool guy he
red-shirted at BYU last year so I like playing basketball with him on
P-days. he wins but its fun none the less. finally Hermana B and
P. Hermana B was in the MTC with me so that's cool and Hermana
P is a crazy gymnast which is ridiculous.

Ok so one quick story from this week. Yesterday at seven o'clock we
had about one hour and then we could go to a dinner appointment, I was
pretty tired and hungry so I thougtht maybe we could OYM or Tract for
awhile and then go to the appointment we decided to stop by an
investigators house. We really didn't accomplish much we taught her a
brief lesson and then she had to leave I was a little discouraged and
I wanted to go to dinner Elder L said we should work for just a
little longer. We did and because we stayed and kept working hard we
found a new investigator and talked to her for quite a while. She is a
golden investigator and I'm so excited to start teaching her next
week! I know the Lord rewards us when we just give that extra little
bit of work, and I will never miss an opportunity to work as hard as I
can again!

I know that this church is true and I love being a missionary. To
anyone considering a mision DO IT!!! I won't lie it is hard, but it is
the best decision I have ever made in my life.

I love you all very much and hope you're all doing well.

Elder Rojo
                                                                           
                                                Me and Elder R, my MTC Companion

 
My MTC District
 
 
Me and Snitney (my cousin,serving in Frankfurt, Germany)
 
 
Asleep on my desk!

Sunday 19 August 2012

Capitulo 11


Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 11


Hola Familia!

Lo Siento no he escribido. Es porque mi dia de preparacion es lunes y no tuve un computadora el Lunes passado!

Ok there's my weekly Spanish bit. First off. Sorry I didn't call from the Airport, apparently the Provo Airport has zero pay-phones, and we really didn't have time in the Denver Airport. Also quickly to Katie yes I did get your letter, I just forgot to mention it in my email. yes I got the shutterfly pictures thank you so much I put them up in my apartment and it feels really nice to have a little bit of a personal touch The Ibbi's look like they're doing great and had a lot of fun at the Reunion. And sorry I forgot my camera cord so I won't be sending any pictures this week. President M sent you the picture of me with him and Sister M though.

Alright I guess I'll tell you a little bit about my first week in the Field. On Tuesday I met my Trainer, his name is Elder L, and then we went to our Area. I'm serving in Metro Denver, and it is very different than home. My first days were a bit of a shock, but I'm doing a lot better now. I've really gained a love for my area and the people. This week we put two of our Investigators on a baptismal date, and that is an amazing feeling. Right now our Area has a huge teaching pool, so we spend almost all of our time teaching people, we really don't tract or anything like that. unfortunately we're also in a car, because our area is so huge. In some ways it's great because it allows us to do so much teaching everyday, but I spend a lot of time sitting. I'm working hard in my morning exercise and eating as carefully as possible. Which can be very hard sometimes we have Dinner appointments everynight. I'm pretty sure that my first week in the Mission field I've eaten more Taquitos than my entire life! dinner appointments with the Hispanics here are very different. I was expecting something more like back home where the missionary's come over we all sit down and eat together and everyone can serve themselves as much as they want. Here we come over with the other set of Missionary's in our Ward Elder G and Elder S, he's really cool I'll talk more about Elder S later, we sit down they bring us plates absolutely loaded with food, whether it looks in anyway appetizing or not, and then they sit somewhere nearby and watch us eat. It's a little weird, but I guess that's just a cultural thing.

Anyways suffice it to say, I love my Mission President, I love my Area, I love my trainer, and I'm loving everything so far.

It's a little strange, I was so excited to leave the MTC, but now I'm really realizing what a special place it is. There's something cool about being surrounded by missionaries all the time. and the weekly visit's from General Authorities were pretty awesome to. Eventhough it was long at times I'm glad I had nine weeks there to learn about the Gospel and feel the spirit so strongly. If there's one thing I'm glad to be done with about the MTC it's the food! I haven't had much of an opportunity to cook anything yet, but I'm going grocery shopping later today and this week I should be able to cook my own stuff.

Anyways I'm running out of time and I still have to write my letter to President. Just know that I love you all, and I'll write a better letter next week with some details of my exploits in the field.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Rojo

Saturday 4 August 2012

Capitulo 9


Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 9

Hola Familia y Amigos!

Si algo de mis amigos leen mis Emails. No se, pero esta bien no es importante. Estoy muy animado a salir el CCM por Denver in dos Dias! Y Katey, yo no hablo Aleman, pero tengo una prima que hace. Ella puede tranducir para mi.

Sorry you didn't receive a letter from me yesterday, but the Friday right before everyone leaves is in-field orientation, so my P-day got moved to today. Anyway in-field orientation was great! I am so excited to go into the field! It's really hard not to let that distract me this week and remember that I still had a week in the MTC and try to work as hard as I can here because I need to get everything I can out of the MTC. Also along those lines my travel plans changed a little bit. I fly out of the Provo Airport at 8:30, but I'm leaving the MTC at 6:00. Not sure what time I'll be able to call, but I should be able to talk to you for at least a little while.

Just want to thank everyone for the letters I've gotten throughout my stay in the MTC, I know that those will diminish without the availability of DearElders. Also thanks Aunt Colleen for the doughnuts. Elena, if you want to hear from me Ropiero might need another letter which will have to go to Denver because I won't get anymore DearElders before I leave Monday. Janine thank you very much for the demonstration of the typical missionary experience with Tatu and Patu. It was so funny and I absolutely loved it. Thanks for letting me know that I'll be getting those packages in Denver. I was getting a little worried, but good to know that they won't get stuck at the MTC without me here to claim them.

Well, I guess I'll tell you a little bit about my week. Really nothing crazy exciting happened. That's kinda how the MTC is. Elena, this week I only had three wraps and two salads, my lowest number yet. I'm excited to get to the field so I can cook my own food again. 
On Tuesday we had a Devotional by Elder Rex D. Pinegar, it was great. The single most important thing I learned this week, well honestly almost everything I learned this week was about being a fiery greenie when I hit the field and having a hunger to teach. Most things I read or heard just came back to that. So I've resolved that I'm going to be a fiery greenie. I really hope I have a good obedient Trainer. If not well he's in for a shock. I'm not gonna think I'm the man and that I know everything because I just got out of the MTC. He does know more about the area, and the mission field then I do, so I'll be humble, but if he doesn't follow rules then that would be a fun Tuesday!!

So I've started reading the New Testament just last week, because I finished the Book of Mormon, and I absolutely love the New Testament! Reading about the life of Christ and the Apostles is really interesting. I'm glad that I've done that.

Anyway I'm sorry, but I really don't have much to say, I'm a little too excited by the thought of leaving on Monday! I love you all, and I'm sure next weeks Email will be much longer.


Les Amo Muchisimo


Elder Redd