Capitulo 14

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 14

Hola! Este semana fue muy bien tengo mucho a les digo sobre todo. Es bastante loco que he estado en mi mission por tres meses! Muchas gracias por las cartas este semana!

Alright so first things first. Elena it was great to hear from you! Both your email, and the letter you wrote. (The one that you started in Italy) I just got it this week it was a great letter thanks! For your information, we do have a temple here in Denver, and all the missionary's serving in the metro areas of the mission get to go the first Wednesday of every month. so this Wednesday will be my first time going. You and Dad both asked about my ward, so I'll tell you a little bit about it. I'm serving in the Denver first ward, our meeting house is on Zuni street off of Alameda. There are six missionaries in our Ward Elder L and I Elder's G and S, and Hermana's P and B. I haven't been to a ward party yet, but I think that yes any of those would include dancing. But I love the ward its great, we also have an amazing ward mission leader who helps us out all the time, he's a huge help.

About Groceries, I love buying my own food! I've gotten really good at budgeting and I always use well under the weekly allotment, so be proud of your me! For your information I love to cook, regrettably I don't have as much time as I'd like so my cooking is pretty simple things like pasta for lunch or eggs for breakfast. Speaking of which I'm going to tell you what I've been eating, because I'm pretty darn healthy out here too! For breakfast I have one of three things. A fruit smoothie, eggs and fruit, or yogurt with granola and oats. I can buy all of things for pretty good prices if I ration it properly and its pretty healthy. Lunch is quite often pasta, or occasionally a breakfast item, sometimes a sandwich. I've cooked meat once, but we really don't have any spices in our apartment so I don't do it often. I think I'm going to start building up a supply of spices to carry around my whole mission.

As for P-days, right now I really only play basketball. I'm really enjoying the opportunity to play with Elder S because he's really really good. Last week we had Zone Olympics which has super fun I'll send a few pictures of it. Someday I'd like to play board games or something but I need to have the right missionaries in the Zone to do that, and right now I do not have the right zone. But I love playing basketball and other sports it's great. I don't have the opportunity to go to the Mountains here, because I'm serving "Metro" instead of the "Western Slope", but I will most definietly spend some time in my mission out west in the mountains so I'll have opportunities to hike a bit at sometime.

Cool that you're learning Russian Sister! I love learning languages, and I want to learn more when I get home!

Dad it's awesome that you went to Cardston and got to see Grandma, Grandpa, and the other Redds, how is Jeff? Also next time you go down give Grandma and Grandpa a hug from me!

Dad I hope you enjoy cleaning the temple, I absolutely loved when I got to clean the temple in Provo!

Ok so I'll tell you a little bit about what happened with me this week. First thing that I'm so excited about is that we had a baptism this week!! The first baptism of my mission it was an amazing spiritual experience. Our investigator has been investigating the church for six years, and its been a crazy up and down road that she's been through to finally get baptized. I'm so glad that I could be a part of helping her come unto Christ!

Second thing about this week was an amazing story about our new investigator Jesus. So last Sunday we walked into church and we didn't recognize him so Elder L and I went to talk to him. After we introduced ourselves he said "Hi I'm Jesus and I'm here to learn about your church" (In Spanish of course) Elder L and I were shocked. He stayed for all three meetings and was asking questions that were really good. After Church we set up an appointment for Wednsday gave him a book of Mormon and asked him to read. Now one thing about Hispanics, I love them, they are super friendly, but they NEVER keep their commitments on the first try if your lucky they might actually read the book of Mormon after a month of teaching them about it. So we went to go see Jesus on Wednesday. We asked him if he'd read, he replied "Yeah I read, I prayed about and I really think it's true" I swear Elder L and I couldn't talk for at least 20 minutes. We taught about the restoration, and he accepted everything. He believes Joseph Smith was a prophet and we accepted the Baptismal invitation on the first date we gave without question! I really know that Heavenly Father does put people in our path when we are obedient and work hard.

So thirdly, last Tuesday we had zone conference with Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy. That was so awesome I wish that I had time to tell you everything about it. I took at least ten pages of notes it was amazing. Some things that really struck me were: he said "Successful missionaries are willing to do what unsuccessful missionaries aren't" Then he gave a few examples of things that we do and how we need to do them correctly, such as companion study, daily and weekly planning, and not wasting any time. I remembered one email where Tyler talked about working with all our mind, and not just our might and strength. It really made me realize that missionary work is more than just working hard and driving yourself to the ground. You need to work hard, but you need to work smart as well, following the instructions of the Brethren in Preach my Gospel and the white handbook.

Well I love you all, I'm so glad to be a missionary and serving here in Denver. The church is true.

Love,

Elder Rojo.