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Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 70

Buenos tardes a todos! Espero que se encuentran bien y les agradezco por los emails! Siempre es bien para escuchar de la familia! (Good afternoon everyone! I hope you are well and thank you for the emails! It is always good to hear of the family!)

So as I mentioned last week I was transferred on Tuesday. I miss Rifle a little bit, but I love my new area. And of course you wonder where on earth are you serving? Or more accurately where in Colorado are you serving? My new area is drum roll please... ... ... MEEKER SPANISH!!! So go look up on Google maps Meeker Colorado, when you can't find it search Rifle Colorado and then follow highway 13 North until you hit Meeker. I love it so much! My companion Elder Merrill and I, who served in Vail when I was in Frisco, are opening up a Spanish area in a town of 2200 people! It's so awesome and the lord has blessed us so much last week. 

A few specific miracles: On Saturday at about 8:30 we were getting pretty tired, we'd been working hard all that day. (We woke up at 6:00 to go chop wood with the ward, did that for six hours) came home ate lunch and then went out to work! So we'd just gotten out of a lesson and decided to contact a referral before we went home. We stopped by his house and before we could even say anything he said, "Come on in, sit down!" so we taught him about the restoration and it was amazing! I know that the Lord blessed us for giving that last little bit extra! 

Another huge miracle was on Sunday at church. We'd been inviting everyone we met to come to church with us. No one came -____- well it's not too surprising it can be a little hard to get Hispanics to church sometimes. Can I get an Amen Spanish speaking missionaries! (Hopefully that's followed by a loud chorus of Amen's and I'm not just a really bad missionary.) But partway through the Sacrament I look into the foyer and see our investigator Lizeth arriving! We went out and brought her in. She felt the spirit super strong and afterwards said "I feel so good here, I'm going to come every week and bring my sons to." It was such a miracle and I'll let you all know more about it next week! 

I'm sorry, but we have to get our car fixed and a multitude of other things! 

But I love my mission, I know that this church is true, I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is Christ's true church on the earth today! 

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojo

Where have you gone?

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 69

Buenos tardes! hoy traigo noticias tristes, pero esta bien. Es que voy a ser translado a una otra area. No se donde pero quizas sera una area de Espanol, vamos a ver. Estoy muy triste para salirme de aqui porque me encanta el barrio y todas las personas. ES bien triste pero yo se que es la voluntad del senor! 

Good afternoon! I bring sad news, but it's okay. Is that going to be relocated to an other area. No where but maybe will be an area of ​​Spanish, let's see. I am very sad to get out of here because I love the neighborhood and all. IS very sad but I know it's the will of the lord! (Don’t you love it when he puts the news in Spanish so it’s harder to read?? Now we have to wait a week to find out where he is going-Aaaargh editor)

Ok well It was a great week last week. I'm very sad to be going, because I absolutely love it here in the Rifle 2nd ward! When the Assistants called on Saturday I spent a good ten minutes trying to reject the transfer. It's a good thing Elder Koyle and I are friends otherwise that probably wouldn't have ended well. But despite both mine and Elder Stephens protests It's still happening. 

Leaving an area is always hard, but the Lord always give you those tender mercies to know that you've done well. I've really grown to lvoe so many people here, in the ward and all the people that we teach, but I know that I've done what he wants me to do here. 

Well I don't have a ton of time today I need to go and pack and say my goodbyes but I'll try to take some more time next week to write! 

I know that this is the Lord's work. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, I absolutely love being his servant and doing his work! 

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojas

Deafening!

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 68

Buenos Tardes! Jajaja creo que es la primera vez que he dicho esto en mi email! Me disculpan por favor que es bien tarde y no les a he mandado nada ya. pero aqui estoy! Good Afternoon! Hahaha I think it's the first time I have said this in my email! Please excuse me it's very late and I have not sent anything to them anymore. but here I am!

Well It was another great week in the mission field! I love being a missionary so much! We're just having so much fun preaching the Gospel! Last week was busy again (as usual) but we got to see many miracles! 

One of those miracles was our new investigator Lukas. He's an amazing man! We'd OYM'ed him last transfer with Elder Gibson and hadn't been able to catch him at home since then. When we talked to him the first time he'd mentioned that he had a good friend in another ward in our stake. We'd kinda stopped thinking about him because we could never catch him at home. Then last week we got a call from this member telling us that we should definitely not give up! That we needed to keep trying. We tired twice but still nothing. Then on Saturday we were driving by and we saw his house. I felt the spirit whisper, "Go try Lukas" I discarded the thought thinking, "Nah he';s never home. we have other work to do. Then ten minutes later when our 'other work' had fallen through and we were driving past his house again, I heard the spirit. This time it was more of a shout, "GO AND SEE LUKAS!!!!!!" ... ... ... Ok, but it would be nice to have my hearing back. So we did we knocked his door and he answered! Then we taught him The Restoration and it was amazing! I know that the Lord blessed us to go on the day that he was home and would accept us! 

I don't have a ton of time I'm sorry. But hopefully next week I'll have more time! 

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojo

Stressful week

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 67

Hay Que Animo!!!!! Tengo un nuevo sobrino Pues creo que nada que puedo decir hoy va a tener mucho que ver. Porque claro que si las noticias de los Still son tan animados! 

So yeah that's super exciting that The Stills had a baby! And that's pretty much the only news I heard from anyone so I guess I'll tell you a little about my week last week. 

So It was probably the busiest most stressful week of my mission so far, but I absolutely loved it! So as I mentioned last week, We were in Craig 2 hours away doing exchanges. So we got back late Tuesday night. Then on Wednesday we had a somewhat normal day when we met with our Stake President. Thursday we drove to Glenwood for our Mission Leadership Council, then came back to Rifle so we could pick up Elder Olivas and do splits with the members of our ward. Then drove to Glenwood again to do a baptismal interview. Then we drove to Eagle and spent the night there so we could work in Elder Olivas' area on Friday. Saturday we drove to Meeker for the sister's conference. Why President Murdock wanted us in a room with seventeen Sisters I do not know. But it was kinda weird for Elder Stephens and I being the only elders in the room. Especially because President didn't get there until later. Then Sunday we finally had a somewhat normal day in our area. Except that we had a conference call with the stake JustServe committee that night. So yeah super crazy busy week! 

I don't have much time today but I love you all and I'll send some pictures in just a minute!

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojo.

"I Just Happen to have a Book of Mormon for you"

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 66

Pues menti... pero no quieria! Les prometo no era mi intencion! Es que me olvide que ayer fue el dia de labor! Entonces ustedes ven que les mande mi email hoy. Y lo siento pero no tengo tanto timepo otra vez. No se cuanto puedo escribir pero voy a tratar!

Ok so Amazing week last week! With a few little bumps, but that's ok. Elder Stephens and I are having a ton of fun! And we also have a third companion now. So Tuesday night, after having a great day, President Murdock calls us and tells us that Elder Rollins will be leaving the Eagle Valley ward, to be a Zone Leader down in Grand Junction, and that his companion, Elder Olivas, will be coming with us for the rest of the transfer. My first though was "Dang we were going to do exchanges this week!!!" As you know I love Elder Rollins so much. So I was very excited for that exchange. Trios are fun! I'm also on exchanges today in Craig. We've been having a great time. Last night Elder Stephens and I split up with one of the companionships here to help them cover more ground. We just went out and OYM'd everybody we saw! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! I love OYMing so much it's one of my favourite elements of missionary work. So that was awesome. Interesting thing about Craig, Colorado. There are deer EVERYWHERE!!!!! just this morning being in the city itself we've seen 6 last night we saw 5. It's nuts and they're pretty tame-in everyone's back yards and stuff. So Yesterday we woke up early to drive up here, went, to their district meeting and then spent the day with the Elders up here. It was a great day, and then this morning we met at the church and the Sisters made us Breakfast so pretty sweet deal.

Ok now for an awesome Miracle story this week! So every Thursday we go on splits with a priesthood quorum, or a Sister from an auxiliary comes with us to teach lessons. So last Thursday two of the Young Men came with us. Elder Stephens and Elder Olivas took Josh with them to go teach. I went with a young man named Kade to go meet his friends. We met them at the skate park which was cool. And I just started talking to one of them named Connor. After about a minute he says, "I've always wanted to read the Book of Mormon, I just need to get a hold of one." For a minute I thought I was delusional. Understandable, seeing as how very few teenagers ever say that. Then I realized I wasn't. "Well I happen to have one with me right here in my back pack. Do you know how the book of Mormon came to us?" Kade and I then proceeded to teach him the first lesson, and it was AMAZING!!!! He is so prepared and when we followed up with him later that week he'd read and he loved it! I'm so excited to keep working with him!

One thing that I would say to anyone preparing to serve a mission or who is going on a mission soon. If anyone like that even reads my blog. If you know someone like that please tell them this. No matter how much you prepare, no matter what calling your relatives have in the Church. You're not 100% ready to be a missionary. Nor do you know everything. So be humble, respect your trainer even if they aren't perfect. And don't have your mom call the mission office everyday. Yeah that happens in our mission.

I know this Gospel is true I know that Jesus Christ is our Saviour. I know that this is his church!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Rojo 

OYMing

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 64 

Buenos Dias! Espero que todos se encuentran bien y disfrutan sus ultimos semanas sel verano. hoy es el primer dia de la escuela entonces muchos ya estan estudiando! Quizas sera un poco mas dificil para contactar algunos de las personas a quienes ensenamos, porque estan mas occupados! Pues vamos a ver!

So I did not end up getting transferred, I'm still serving in the Rifle 2nd ward speaking English! I was a little sad at first because I was very excited about the possibility of serving here with Elder Gonzalez, but I'm also very happy because I get to continue working with many of the people in this ward and area! I was sad to see Elder Gibson go, but my new companion is awesome! his name is Elder Stephens, and we are doing great together! We both have the same sense of humor and really are enjoying serving together. 

Ok story time. So this week we had many miracles. On Wednesday we went out and we worked our tails off! We were trying all kinds of people, and when they weren't home or wouldn't answer we would try their neighbors. Probably one of the hardest working days of my mission. It was hot and we spent a lot of time walking. We met some very rude people, and didn't really get anywhere. But it was awesome! So on Thursday we went out and we worked even harder! And we saw so many miracles! We taught seven lessons that day, we were busy teaching the whole day! In the late afternoon right before we went to dinner we saw a man walk out of his house across the corner. We decided to go try and OYM him. When we started talking to him he was civil, but said he knew all about the Mormons. We started talking to him, and found out he'd read some of the book of Mormon before. He said it was a load of horse crap... So definitely not the best start. But as we talked with him and testified the Spirit softened his heart and when we left he was excited to read more of the Book of Mormon and we're going back to see him tonight! One of our other miracles that night was when we went to go teach at one of our members homes. He'd told us about one of his co-workers before and said he would invite her to talk to us. We followed up with him on Sunday, and he then talked to her on Monday. So we taught her Thursday and it was such a powerful lesson! I know that the Lord blessed us for our hard work and perseverance. I love being a missionary so much! 

Well I gotta get running but I love you all! 

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojo.

3 hours?

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 63

Buenos dias! Estoy en la biblioteca temprano hoy! Es muy bien de escuchar de muchos esta semana! Pues tan rapido pasa el tiempo! me siento que a penas de empezar el cambio hace dos dias! Pero ya se termino! Manana recibire un nuevo companero y quizas voy a abrir una area de Espanol aqui en Silt y Newcastle! Pero vamos a ver esta noche que pasa...

I hope you're all doing great back home! Because I'm doing just fantastic here in Rifle! It's so crazy that the transfer's already over! There is a ton of movement in the zone, so it's going to be crazy! But really what else is new. 

So as I mentioned last week, on Wednesday we had to drive down to Denver for our Mission Leadership conference. It was Awesome President Murdock is amazing! He is so inspiring when he speaks about the future of our mission and what he wants to see happen here. It was cool to go back to Denver, but we didn't get to leave until the next morning because President Murdock wanted all the out west Zone Leaders to stay the night there at the mission home. It was super weird being there again, because that's where I spent my first night in the mission when I came in (About two months ago) Elder Gibson and I were a little worried about how that would affect our week, being gone from our area for a day and a half, but the Lord blessed us and we had a great week! 

Yesterday we went early to wake our investigator Joe up so he would come to church. We also made him "EFT's" (Emergency French Toast) as he calls it. He got up showered got dressed and ate breakfast. Then as we were driving to church Elder Gibson said. 

EG: You do know that church is three hours right? 

J: Wait what? 

ER: Church is three hours. It's awesome you'll love it! 

J: ... ... ... 

I looked back to make sure he was still alive, and the look on his face was priceless! his jaw was dropped and he had this look of betrayal and shock on his face. you'd think we pulled some sort of crazy line like "Joe. I  AM your father!!!!!!" Which we didn't of course because we're only a few years older than him. But it worked out great Joe ended up loving church! Turns out he's related to one of our members and his family is good friends with some more members so they all took good care of him and did a great job of fellowshipping him. 

Well, I need to get running, I do a lot of that now, all I ever really do is run around but I love it! 

I know that this is the true church! I know that Jesus Christ is our Saviour! 

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojo

LDS Missionaries: 1 Pastor: 0

It was a great week this week. We saw a lot of great things happen and the Lord bless us for our efforts. Even though we had to drive four hours round trip to Craig Tuesday to do a baptismal interview, and then drive to Debeque that night to drop Elder Searle off. And then drive to Parachute the next morning to do another baptismal interview! So a lot of driving. And that will continue! Wednesday we need to drive to Denver... ... So that will take us out of our area for the whole day. But it's OK we'll live and I know that Lord will bless us and help us to have great days the rest of the week! 

OK story time. So I may or may not have mentioned our investigator Sissy before, but she's awesome. Just so you all know that I am being spoiled I am. We cannot go to Sissy's house without leaving laden with gifts of food and treats. Last night we went by and she not only fed us crepes, but gave us the last several along with cream cheese a jar of homemade jam, whipped cream, a bag of homemade muffins, three bags of powerbar energy bites, and several caramel apple suckers for Elder Gibson. Because I will not be eating those. But she's amazing just one of those people who brightens your day every time you talk to her.

We also got to see a lot of amazing miracles this week. Last night we went to go visit a family we're been teaching. They were all sick. Nearby was a former investigator who said she wanted to get baptized but her mother said she was too young. Well that's not a problem just teach the parents! Apparently the previous missionaries never thought of that, at least according to the teaching record they didn't. We'd been trying to contact her for a while but no one was ever home. We hadn't planned to see her but both Elder Gibson and I felt that we needed to go try. So we went to their house. And they were home! She still wants to get baptized and she was super excited to see the missionaries come to her house again! I love it so much when we are just guided like that! 

Another miracle was when we taught our Investigator John. He's about seventeen and just got baptized into a "Christian Church" I've met so many people on my mission who are "Christian". more on that later. But John is pretty awesome we'd taught him twice the week before. This time we decided to bring one of the Young Men, Weslie. And it was perfect. During the interim since we'd seen him he talked to his pastor and had received some Anti-Mormon literature. Usually when people get that they just stop talking to us. But instead he came to us and said, "My Pastor gave me this and it seems pretty weird I wanted to ask you guys if it was true?" It ended up being perfect that Weslie was there because they knew each other a little but from school and When Weslie spoke John really listened because he knew him and he knew he was normal, unlike us of course. We told him that there were shreds of truth that had been twisted and combined with lies to make us sound like a cult that worshiped Joseph Smith. Which as we all know is FALSE!!!! It was great at the end of the lesson we just read from 3 Nephi chapter 11 with him. He said that he was hungry and he wanted to learn more. He also said it was strange that his pastor had given him anti Mormon literature and it bothered him slightly. 

Church of Jesus Christ of Lattter day Saint Missionaries: 1 Other Pastor: 0

It reminds me of a quote that President Maynes told us once by Brigham Young, "Whenever you try to kick Mormonism, you kick it upstairs." 

I know that this church is true, I would quote the standard of truth right now but unfortunately am running out of time! 

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojo.

"Why would He do that?" asked Jessica

Anyways we had a great week this week. And when I say great I mean GRREEAAT!!! Like Tony the Tiger status. No I did not eat any frosted flakes. But! we found four new investigators this week! That's the highest total that Elder Gibson and I have had together. We also hit 20 lessons for the first time since I got here which was really nice. And we so many people come to church!! It was great to be hitting the standards of excellence.

So On Wednesday we had our zone training meeting. Any of you who don't know what that is apparently it's only been around for a year or two. Every month the whole zone meets and the zone Leaders train on stuff. It was amazing first off because our zone is so dang big (biggest zone in the entire mission if you want go on LDS.org and look up the boundaries for the Meeker Colorado stake. So we had to get all our missionaries to drive to Meeker which is the most central location. It was awesome we set zone goals, and everyone accepted them. It was great to see so many of the missionaries try hard and get closer or even reach those goals this last week! I remember when I got up to give my training, I was training on setting people on date. I had a plan and everything. I got up there and felt the Spirit say, “Nope don't train like that start with this.” So I did -I just followed the spirit and I felt so good about the training! I loved it and it was just so amazing to feel the spirit guiding me. I was super excited about it the whole time so Elder Rollins was joking with me on the way home. He said it was a great training though so I hope he didn't lie to me. Probably not, he's pretty straight forward. Well, we both are that's why we got along so well together. 

Anyways now let me tell you about some awesome miracles this week. We were teaching our investigator Jessica on Tuesday. We taught the plan of Salvation. When we teach we use the pamphlets as a visual a lot. We hold it and talk about the pictures to illustrate principles and read selected portions of the text with them. It's so awesome to keep everyone (especially me) focused and still follow the spirit to teach powerful lessons. But we were talking about the atonement, and she stopped us and asked "Why would he do that?" Elder Gibson and I both testified of the love of our Savior. It was damp in there from the spirit- she started crying. I started crying. Everyone there was just feeling it! It was amazing to have that experience and really receive another witness of the Atonement and Jesus Christ.

The other miracle of the week is our new investigator Ben. So on Monday night we ate dinner with our ward mission leader, and he's telling us about this family that just moved back into the ward. They'd been baptized about three years ago and then moved to Wisconsin were they became less active. When they arrived they went to his house to visit as they were friends. They talked to him about how they wanted to come back to church and their nine year old son Ben, wants to het Baptized! We met them all yesterday and they’re a great family. The Lord is blessing us for our hard work and we're seeing miracles! 

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, I know that this is his church! We're all in his work and it's the greatest work of all time! 

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojo

Magnificent Day in Silt!

Que Magnifico el dia aqui en Silt Colorado! No tengo mucho que hacer hoy entonces estoy animado a descansar un poco y disfrutar el sol. Hoy por nuestro estudios Elder Gibson y yo fuimos por afuera y estudiamos en el cesped. Me encanto escuchar a los pajaros y sentir el sol mietnras estudiaba el Evangelio!

It was a great week down here. We worked super hard, and it was fantastic. We had our MLC's on Thursday so we went up to Frisco and had a great day with President and Sister Murdock. I love President Murdock he is awesome! He taught us so many wonderful things that will really help us raise the mission and make it better. It's just been amazing this week to see the results of our hard work. Elder Gibson and I are both very excited because just recently the Ward had a family move back into the ward who'd been gone, and when they were gone they weren't active. Now they're back, and their nine year old son wants to be baptized! It's a miracle because we've been working hard but unable to get many people closer to baptism. Then the Bishop came and spoke to us of another family in the ward who have a nine year old son who wants to be baptized! So we have been blessed for our hard work and are very excited to start working with these two boys.

Another awesome story is that of a new investigator we picked up this week. She's had a really rough life. The first time we talked to her she said that she didn't believe in God and she didn't think she could. We talked with her and testified that God is our loving Heavenly Father. At the end of our first visit she said. "I don't believe in God, but I'm happy to listen to you." We set up a time to come back. It was amazing to see how the spirit touched her heart and opened her up to hear our message. As we taught her about the Book of Mormon and how she could come to know that our Father in Heaven is real and loves her she was so excited to start reading it. It's been such a change since that first time we talked to her and she said she didn't believe in God. Now she's accepted an invitation to be baptized and really progressing!

OK so one quick story from last Monday night. We were heading back to our truck to get to an appointment. And right before we got in a man came out of his house next door to where we'd been looking for a former investigator. I felt the spirit so strongly tell me that I needed to go talk to him. So we did. I juist testified to him that our Saviour is real and he has a plan for us. The Spirit was so strong. I love when the spirit prompts us to say things. I love listening to the spirit and doing this work the Lord's way!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Rojo.

New Mission President!

Bueno! Como estan todos? Yo estoy muy bien por aqui, tuvimos una semana marravillosa! estoy muy animado por esta area y todas las cosas que vamos a hacer por aqui! 

So as I mentioned we had a great week here in Colorado! Elder Gibson and I worked really hard and we saw miracles! I love seeing miracles in this work it is the best thing ever!

So It was awesome this week because we got to meet President Murdock! On Thursday, he came and talked to two of the districts in our zone. He is awesome! I really miss President Maynes, but President Murdock is amazing! I remember just a few weeks ago when we were at MLC's the first counselor in our mission presidency, President Chesney, said that the change of Presidents that he had been through was night and day. But it was a good change because the Lord's hand was in it. The change from President Maynes to President Murdock definitely was night and day. When we first sat down and they came in Sister Murdock spoke about their family and she spent a lot of time making fun of President Murdock. Then President Murdock got up and starting making fun of Sister Murdock. It was hilarious one of the funniest things he said went something like this:

So of all the things back in Bountiful that Sister Murdock will miss the most, all of our grandchildren, our children, etc. Do you know what Sister Murdock will miss the most? Every Morning between 8 and 10:30, Sister Murdock gets in the car and drives down to this restaurant, Pace's, and she gets a cheeseburger then she'll eat another one later in the afternoon. Sometimes she'll get fries, but I swear that's all she ever eats. She eats nothing but cheeseburgers and she eats 2 a day! When we're traveling we'll be in all these fantastic places with wonderful food, France, Italy, and do you know where she wants to go? She goes to McDonalds! She hates McDonalds back home, because Paces's is so much better, but whenever we're gone she gets a cheeseburger from McDonalds. 

Sister Murdock is super skinny, and the way President Murdock told the story it was hilarious! Then he said, "Ok I guess I should stop teasing Sister Murdock and actually teach some doctrine." And then he proceeded to deliver an incredible spiritual training that was just great. 

Anyway I love President Murdock already, and I'm very excited to be working with him. WE had a great week and I'll tell you more about it later for now I need to go! 

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder Rojo

Two Kinds of Sheep

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 58

Buenos Dias a Todos! Y Feliz cumpleanos ayer a Brigham! Lo Siento, yo se que casi nunca reconozco los cumpleanos de la familia, pero el dia de su nacimiento es muy dificil para olvidar! Pues espero que todos se encuentran bien!

We had a great week this week. So first off I told you of a few things last week that I need to tell you more about. Firstly I named the belt wrong. It's actually the Captain Canuck Belt, and yes I received it. When assistants stopped in Rifle to drop off the new missionaries and pick up the ones who were leaving our zone one of them, Elder Searle by name, pulled me over to the truck and gave me the belt. Sorry I don't have pictures to send you today, but I will repent and send you some next week.

Also thank you very much for the package Sister! I loved all the pictures but Aye cabere! They've all grown so much!!

So update on last week. As I mentioned I would be playing basketball one on one with Alex, so we got to the church, and we were shooting around a little and just talking. He has great questions! Then we got down to business. One on One, I started out really well, but then I ran out of steam because man I am out of shape! He came back and we were tied up at six. "Ok" I thought to myself, "I'm bigger than him, if I want to win this game all I have to do is get inside." So that's what I did, I went old man and beat him! Unfortunately he had to work on Sunday, so he'll have to come next week, he's also coming to play on Wednesday night when the men of the ward play!

Probably one of the funnest days of the week was Thursday. To celebrate the Fourth of July, Elder Gibson and I woke up at 3:30 to go help a part member family herd their sheep. It was super fun, but I did not realize just how dumb sheep are! You'd think that after the sixth time of running into the solid metal gate and hurting yourself you would learn not to do that, but nooooo, Somehow they think that they'll be able to break through it and avoid the dogs sitting on the other side to herd them up. But it was a ton of fun, I have pictures but I'll send them next week. Then after our early morning expedition and getting thoroughly dirty with the sheep. We went to our ward's 4th of July breakfast. It was awesome because we had a family that we're teaching come. They are a great family, and the Ward was great! All of them were welcoming.

OK so now for a quick miracle story. So last night we were coming home from Newcastle, and on the way back we decided to stop at the Hopes, one of the part member families we're working with. I'll tell you all about the Hopes another time, but they are super awesome! So we stopped by and they invite us in. We also find that there is a young man in the house that we'd never met before. We find out that he is a young man from Sydney Australia hitchhiking from New York to LA. Not because of money or anything, but just because he can. Naturally being the Hopes, they picked him up and brought him home to wash his clothes, get a good meal and sleep. Then drive him to Grand Junction today. (Sound familiar dad?) Once we'd found out who he was the Hopes sat us all down for a lesson, he being new, we taught the restoration. It was one of the best lessons I've taught in quite awhile. And he was so interested and asking the best questions! So naturally he's leaving and making his way to LA today. But it was a real special experience to be able to teach him that. He accepted a book of Mormon and is going to start reading it while on the road!

I love being in the Lord's work. God is a God of Miracles. I know this because I see them every day!

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Rojo

Captain Canada Belt!

Las Venturas de elder Rojo: Capitulo 57

Aye Cabere! Ya es dia de Canada!?! Que Loco! Pues a mi me siento que es el primer dia de Canada en mi mision todovia. Pues tengo noticias muy animas de Canada! en mi mision hay un cinturon, que se llama el "Captain Canada Belt" Y el missionero que tiene el mas tiempo en la mision quien es de Canada tiene este cinturon. Hoy recibi un texto de un Elder Wilde quien se va a morir el Miercoles, el dijo "Elder Redd, the belt's yours. you're staying in Rifle Second correct?" Siiiii!!!! Que Animo voy a recibir el cinturon! Estoy muy animado por este entonces creo que lo voy a obtener este semana y les mandare una foto cuando lo tengo. 

(surely someone could do a better job of translating this than Google and me, but here's what we came up with) Cabere Aye! It's Canada day!?! That's Crazy! Well I feel it's the first day of Canada on my mission Todavia. Well I have exciting Canadian news! In my mission there is a belt, called the "Captain Canada Belt" And the missionary that has been in the mission longest from Canada has this belt. Today I received a text from Elder Wilde who is going to die on Wednesday, he said "Elder Redd, the belt's yours.You're Staying in Rifle Second correct?" Siiiii!! I'm excited that I get the belt! I am very encouraged by this and I think I'm going to get it this week and take a photo when I have it.

Well Happy Canada day! Sadly practically no one here knows about it, so I'll have to text all the other Canadians to celebrate it. Oh quick funny story, on the Calendar that Elder Gibson and I have in our apartment on July 1st it says, "Canada Day - Canada" ... ... Isn't the name Canada day a little self explanatory? 

So President Maynes went home on Friday =( very very sad. He will be missed by all of us, but I know that President Murdoch will be a great Mission President who will do the Lords work! Today I got to hear from him for the first time, we had our conference call this morning and President Murdoch sounded very excited to be here! He'll be doing his Mission tour in the next few weeks, and then I'll actually get to meet him! So very excited for that day! 

Also Transfer news! So Elder Gibson and I will be staying together for another transfer! We're both excited to keep working together. This will be an interesting transfer, we have two areas that are splitting one, where both Elders will separate and each one will cover one of the wards that were previously covered by both of them. And one of our Spanglish areas will get English Sisters to teach English and the Elders will only cover Spanish! I'm very excited because I think that Elder Rollins will be coming up here to serve there and be in the Zone! We also have an area getting whitewashed by Sisters! Hermana Bennett will be up there, so our whole MTC District will be in the same zone! 

So It'll be a very fun transfer! I'm looking forward to working hard and doing lots of great stuff out here in the mountains! 

It was super weird to be thinking about the missionaries who are going home this transfer. I was thinking about Elder Ence, he was my first Zone Leader back in Denver, and he's been serving as an Assistant for 5 transfers. Great Missionary and I really love that guy. I'm glad he's been serving as an Assistant, because that means I get to see him and talk with him more. But he's going home! I was thinking about that, and I realized that Tyler Gedlaman also goes home at the same time! That's crazy, I can still so vividly remember the day he left to the MTC when I said goodbye to him. 

Well, I don't have a ton of time today, I still have to e-mail President Murdoch, and then go play basketball. Yes, I actually have to today. Yesterday we oym'ed this guy while he was shooting hoops on his driveway, long story short we're playing one on one today, if I win he comes to church, if he wins I buy him lunch. So pray for me that I haven't committed some heresy so I can win and then we'll start teaching him! 

Con Mucho amor!

Elder Rojo

Hanging Lake

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 56 June 25

Buenos Dias! Hoy es un dia maravillosa! Les digo mas tarde en Ingles para que entiendan. pero la clima es bonita, y todo va bien por aqui! 

Today we went and hiked to Hanging Lake with about half of our zone and the Elders from Frisco and Vail. It was super fun! It was beautiful so that's what a few of those pictures are. 

Well, we had a great week this last week! It was hard, but Elder Gibson and I just went out and worked. It was great. It was awesome on Saturday we ate dinner with our investigator Wade, and his two friends who are members. After dinner we were talking about coming to church. He'd had a bit of trouble because of work and he always has a lot of stuff to do on Sundays. After the lesson he promised that he would come to the first hour. The next morning we were waiting for him, but we didn't see him I was pretty discouraged. After the first speaker I looked to the side and Voila! There was Wade! It was super awesome the Ward was so friendly and he loved it! We talked to him after and he decided to stay for Sunday school, and then priesthood as well! He loved it and participated in all of it. He said he'd come again next week! 

Ok and what a broadcast! That was super cool I loved it! 

After the broadcast, Elder Gibson and I decided we should skip dinner, (because we didn't have one) and proselyte until nine to try and teach as many lessons as we could. It was rough, practically no one was at home, and those who were couldn't talk. At 8:35 we tried one last investigator. They weren't home DAGGGHHHH NOOOOO!!!! I looked over and saw that their neighbours door was open and they had a light on. We decided to go knock their door to see if we could teach them. We knocked and a woman came to the door, she was the kind of person who you see and the first thought in your mind is: "not interested" we offered to say a prayer with her to leave a blessing on her home, and she said sure, we asked what she wanted to pray for and just talking with her a little bit, and then she suddenly asked, "Do you guys do the same thing as the Sister Missionaries?" turns out her Sister was being taught by other missionaries in our zone, and she'd sat in once. So we taught her and she was really interested! 

I know that the Lord blessed us for our obedience and hard work! 

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder Rojo

Banana Peels vs. Salvation

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 55 June 18

Buenos Dias! Hoy es un dia muy bueno pero tambien es un dia triste, por que es un dia triste? Porque Presidnete Maynes se va pronto!!!!!

Ok first the business end of things. If anything you send me gets returned it's probably the wrong zip code to confirm what my address is:

Elder Peter Redd

999 East Tufts Ave.

Cherry Hills Village CO 80113

Second I hear about mom and dad getting all these pictures of the ibbi's ?I have gotten nothing... ... ... I invite you all to repent and send me pictures of my ibbi's! (Sorry if the call to repentance offends anyone, It's a joke between me and several of my mission friends.)

Yeah a lot of the missionaries are pretty sad to see President leaving, he still has a week and a half, but seeing as how I'm out west I won't get to see him again. =(

Luckily being a Zone Leader, I was able to see him on Wednesday when we held our mission leadership conference. So now that I've done that I can get released and go back to Spanish jajaja probably not gonna happen.

It was super cool though we had all the zone leaders, the assistants, the whole mission presidency, and the Sister leader trainers. We all met up in Frisco (It was nice to go back there and just see al the places where I used to work.) It was awesome, we discussed all sorts of things with President Murdoch coming in, and the Just serve program. The best part though was when President shared his testimony at the end of the meeting. It was just powerful, I con't even really describe it other than saying I'm so pleased for the opportunity I've had to serve with this incredible man of God! President Maynes really has changed my life and I've learned so much from him. I think back to before my mission (so about three weeks ago) when I spoke with uncle John and he told me that one of the number one reasons missionaries are called to serve in a certain mission is their mission President.

Overall we had a great week this week in Rifle, Elder gibson and I have been focusing on finding, because we really don't have many people progressing so we dropped about half our teaching pool and have been doing a lot of hard work! I LOVE IT SOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!! One funny story. We went to see some investigators, they weren't home so we tried contacting a referral on the same street. Also not there. So we knocked a few doors. Ok so once you've spent so much time tracting you need to find ways to make it interesting, one of the ways I do that is by knocking musically. I pretty much drum on the door for a little bit not too long, just  a short few bars to mix it up. So this door I knocked a few bars from pirates of the Caribbean. Then I said, "Because I knocked Pirates of the Caribbean they're going to answer and we'll teach them!" no sooner had the words left my mouth then a woman answered. I was right I was right I exulted in my mind. Oh, maybe I wasn't so right. She was one of those really grumpy faced people. Looking at the way she just shook her head and the stink eye we got you'd think we were homeless people trying to sell banana peels,

not two fine looking young gentlemen offering eternal Salvation FOR FREE!!! We tried to talk to here but she would have none of it! As we walked down the steps she opened the door again and said, "That's an irritating knock. You know that." And proceeded to slam the door a second time! Elder Gibson and I have been joking about it ever since.

Well, know that I love you all even though I may seem like some weird robot who's replaced your brother. Don't forget to send me ibbi pictures!

con mucho amor,

Elder Rojo.

Relativity-Time distortion doesn't require advanced Physics

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 54

Buenos dias familia! Disculpme porque probablamente no van a recibir ningunas fotos hoy. Es que deje mi camara en un otra area cuando hicimos cambios con estos Elderes. Entonces trate de mandar algunas con la camara de Elder Gibson, no se que pasa solo que la computadora no la reconoce! Y por esto no tengo fotos para mandar hoy, pero la semana que viene voy a recordar! Les prometo!

Oh man it was a crazy week! As I mentioned in the last email, we were in Steamboat Springs last p-day. After going to a district meeting up there. Then after District meeting we did a baptismal interview, emailed ate lunch, then we had just enough time to play soccer for a little bit. Then we drove to Craig to do exchanges there, slept both nights there trying to help the Elders save their miles, then had one night in my area before I did exchanges with the Carbondale Elders on Thursday. So yeah it was  a crazy busy week, with a lot of driving. 

So let me tell you about something that I am super excited about! I may have mentioned it last week I recall talking about super secret stuff but I'll tell you a little but more. So the Colorado Denver South Mission is one of four missions in the world to be pilot testing the church's new pilot program called just serve! It's basically a website that allows nonprofit organizations to post service opportunities, we then allow the missionaries to look up projects near them. We're authorized to do 4-10 hours of service a week. We are all really excited about the program. Other areas where it's been piloted have seen huge success for their missionaries!

So on Thursday I went on exchanges to Elder Rollins' greenie area of Carbondale/Aspen. That night I called him to talk about the people I'd met whom he'd baptized and stuff like that. I was excited to talk to him about it. Our conversation went something like this

Elder Rollins: Hello this is Elder Rollins

Elder Redd: Hey Chocarroles it's Rojo (those are our nicknames for each other) 

Rollins: Don't even say it! 

Redd: Don't even say what?

Rollins: You know what day it is!

Redd: I honestly have no idea what you're talking about, I've been super busy.

Rollins: It's our year mark today! 

Redd: ... ... ...

Rollins: Rojo are you there?

Redd: My mind just exploded. 

We spent several minutes talking about it and realizing how short that year has seemed. I still feel like I've only been out for 2 months. It's been so weird to think back to last year and the MTC I'm pretty much going crazy because time has ceased to function in it's normal manner. 

Well, I love you all and oh yeah the pictures yes that is a snake on my hand.

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojo

WORK!!! (June 4)

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojo

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 53

Buenos Dias! Es un dia magnifico aqui en Colorado hoy! Ahora estoy en Steamboat Springs, un otro barrio de la zona. Venimos aqui porque tenemos que hacer una entrevista bautismal, asistir a la reunion de districto de estos missioneros y tambien vamos a hacer cambios con el lider de districto que esta aqui! Mucho que hacer entnoces me perdonan por favor si el email es cuarto!

I hope you're all doing great wherever you happen to be found! It's beautiful up here today, we're going to play some soccer with the other elders once we finish all the crazy stuff we've got to do! This week was a great week. We had Zone Conference on Thursday down in Grand Junction, so the Whole zone had to drive down there and now no one has many miles this week. So it looks like Elder Gibson (oh yeah totally forgot to mention him last week, my new companion. More on him later) and I will be breaking out the bikes! i have to borrow one from a member or something seeing as how I do not have a bike with me. But I'm excited about that our area is small enough, well I shouldn't say that it's actually HUGE! But the towns where we do most of the work are small enough that we should be able to get around on our bikes just fine.

Zone Conference last week was super awesome. President taught us some really cool things, including that our mission will be one of just four missions in the world piloting a new church program with missionaries! ?Super exciting and Secret so I can't tell you about it MWAHAHAHA!! It was kinda sad knowing that It's President's last Zone conference, but I know that President Murdock will be exactly what the mission needs. I'm sad President Maynes is leaving but excited to meet President Murdock. After zone Conference one of the Assistants, Elder Searle, came with us. It was awesome he's a super cool missionary who works really hard. Speaking of other missionaries, my companion Elder Gibson! He's an awesome guy, from Mesa Arizona, so I'll really need to go down there after the day that shall not be named, seriously SOOO many of the missionaries I love are from Arizona. I love Elder Gibson he's awesome and we're having so much fun together. That and we're doing work!

Quick story about that. So yesterday we had church at nine and we really wanted to have our investigatora come to church, so we had been inviting like crazy trying to get EVERYONE to come. With one of our investigators we actually went to his house at 7:45. We woke him up, made him breakfast, he got dressed and said he'd see us at church in about half an hour. So we went to church, we waited... and waited...and no one came to church. NOOOO AGGGHHH!!!!! We had so many people promise to come but they all bailed! So after teaching Sunday school, and helping out with the Spanish sacrament meeting, seriously, being a missionary, church is Stressful! we headed back to Silt to get to work. It was a hot day and we were exhausted! We went to try and contact a Less Active-not home, knocked on all four of his neighbors doors-not interested, asked all of them if they knew anyone who would be interested-got angry at us. We went back to the truck and talked about what our plan B was. Both of us were so tired and we could have easily gone back to the apartment and studied as we hadn't done any yet that day. We decided we would pray for heavenly Father to bless us and we would go out and WORK!!! and that's exactly what we did, we went out and worked, walking around in the hot sun OYMing everyone and being very bold and direct. Man it was awesome! The Lord really did bless us and we had an amazing day!

Well I'm running out of time and I still have to email President Maynes. I love you all and hope you're all enjoying the start of summer!

Con mucho amor, Elder Rojo

Why would they send Peter to Rifle? He wasn't safe with an ax!

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 52

Buenos Dias! Espero que todos se encuentren bien! Tengo mucho suerte hoy porque es Memorial day aqui, estoy en un centro de la historia familiar, por esto puedo mandar mis e-mails hoy. 

It's great to hear from all of you this week! As I mentioned last week I was transfered and I am now serving in the Rifle 2nd ward of Colorado in the Meeker stake. Our ward isn't actually in Rifle, but that's where we meet. 

We actually cover a small area outside of Rifle namely two towns called Silt and Newcastle. It's a big change from my last areas, firstly the area is English which is very different. A lot of the members are ranchers, so we'll be doing a lot of service down here. 

It was awesome last night we ate with the bishop of our ward. He asked, "Where are you from Elder?" "I'm from Calgary Canada." "No way really? That's where I served!" It was awesome and we started talking about it. He served there when the mission got split and North Calgary was in the Edmonton Mission. So he served in Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, and a few other southern parts of Calgary. We sat there and were eating and suddenly the thought came to me. 

Me: Bishop, did you know an Elder Nelson?

Bishop: Yeah 

Me: Tall guy...yoyo's?

Bishop: Yeah he was an amazing missionary!

So yeah, the bishop here knew Elder Nelson who taught me how to use yoyo's, and we took him out to the mountains one p-day. (This was when we lived in Varsity, Peter was about 7 and always looked up to the missionaries that we had for supper often)

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojo

Adios Frisco!

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 51

Buenos Dias! Espero que todos se encuentran bien. Hoy esta lloviendo y nevando al mismo tiempo. Entonces Ya no mas tenemos la belleza de las montanas y sol. Pero me encanta la lluvia pues no hay problema.

Well apparently you all have Victoria day up there in Canada, so I hope you're enjoying a day off. Down here this is probably one of my busiest P-days I've had. Why am I so busy you ask? Well It's because I'm getting transferred =(. It kinda sucks not gonna lie. I love it here in Frisco this place is the best! I've only been here for two transfers and I'm already gone. But Elder Barfield is a great missionary so I know that he'll take good care of it. And we're pretty sure that Elder Havig is coming in to follow up train him so I know that they'll do a great job.

Ok now for the scary part... I got called to be a Zone Leader! YIKES!!!!! I have no idea what to do! I do not feel ready at all. I still feel like I've just left the MTC. And now I'm expected to be a zone Leader! And I'll be in a completely English area! man it's gonna be a change.

It's actually a really funny story, On Saturday night Elder Barfield and I were hungry so we went to go buy a pizza to eat. While at Target we decided to also buy Oreos and Milk. It was a lot of fun we had a companionship movie night in our small apartment. As we were sitting down watching the Testaments, Elder Barfield spilled his glass of milk "What have you done!!!" I yelled. (Milk is really expensive up here in the mountains so we use it sparingly) The milk went all over the table and all over our papers we had there. I jumped up to grab a rag and wipe it up. As I jumped up I knocked aver my glass of milk which was on the floor. "NOOOOO!!!!! NOT THE MILK!!!!" Seriously we treasure milk. Up here spilled milk is a HUGE deal! Then as I ran to grab a rag to wipe the milk off the carpet the phone started ringing. Of course when President calls us, is when we have milked spilled all over the place and we're running to clean it up. I answered the phone. My thought was that- President was calling so either Elder Spurlock was leaving Vail and one of us would be called District Leader, or one of us was leaving and getting a special assignment like opening a new area or a problem missionary. Our conversation went something like this:

Presidnet Maynes: Elder Redd! How are you today?

Elder Redd: I'm good President- little nervous that you're calling.

PM: Hahaha well we're gonna move you out of Frisco Elder Redd.

ER: Alright, President I can do that.

(I was devastated I really don't want to leave Frisco yet I love it! I also assumed this meant I was going to be opening an area or getting a problem missionary.)

PM: And Elder Redd, we're calling you to be a Zone Leader.

ER: WHAT!!!!!????

PM: Elder Redd we're calling you to be a Zone Leader.

ER: ... ... (Silence) ... ...

After President Maynes explained several things to me and we spoke for awhile I accepted the call. So hopefully I get a really great experienced Zone Leader who can teach me how to do it. 

It was tough on Sunday, leaving an area is always tough, but I just love it up here! Fortunately the Lord gave me several tender mercies. Yesterday I got to see that I did touch several lives. Many of the members thanked me for serving there and said I was a great missionary. Our dinner that night they had a cake for me that said "We will miss you" Super funny story, it got dropped when they were bringing it out, luckily she caught it though and it was pretty frozen so not too badly damaged. I visited several families to say goodbye and all of them expressed thanks. One of the best though was when at the end of the night we saw our investigator Will. After we talked and read scriptures with him, he prayed. He thanked Heavenly Father that I had been there because he said that he probably wouldn't be where he is today without me. I started crying. And I'm starting to cry again now dang it! But I'm so grateful that I've been able to serve up here and that I had all those wonderful experiences. 

A member said that I was the key- her grandson had never thought about serving a  mission before but now he was talking about it because of me. It was really comforting because I didn't get to see any big things like baptisms. I know that I did what the Lord wanted me to do up here, and I know that Elder's Barfield and Havig will carry it on and do great work up here.

I love you all and I love my mission! I know that the gospel is true. Any and all doubts that I had before I left on my mission have been completely swallowed up in the joy of sharing the wonderful message of the Atonement and the Restoration.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Rojo