Chapter 19

Hola Familia y Amigos!

Les amo much y espero que todos disfrutaron el fin de semana de "Thanksgiving" es muy triste que nadie aqui sabe que en Canada "Thanksgiving" es diferente que los Estados Unidos. Quiero decirles que estoy muy bien aqui en Colorado y hoy tengo muchas noticias.

Time has passed so fast it still feels like it should be summer and not October yet. The only reason that I know the whole world isn't lying to me about what day it is is the cooler weather.

 A few weeks ago Elder Lopez and I were tracting and we knocked on the door of an old man who spent several minutes cussing at us and telling us we were wrong. I bore testimony to him that I knew the Gospel was true, and I gave him a Mormon.org card with our number if he ever wanted to hear us or if he needed service. As we walked back to the car I was amazed that even after all the bad (And I mean horrible) things that he said about our religion and Christianity in general that I felt a love for him, and if he called us I would happily go to serve him. It's been an interesting experience being a missionary. I've learned that I need to be like Christ and see all these people as Christ sees them. As he said, "Love them that hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you." It's something that I'm really trying to apply in my work and I hope you'll all try to apply it in your lives to. 

I got transferred today!!! I only found out on Saturday, and this just came out of nowhere! I'm really not getting transferred that far, I'll be in the same ward, but I'm now in the North Area. This is because Elder Sweeney got his Visa and will be leaving at the end of the Month, this also happens to coincide with the End of Elder Graf's mission, so President is sending me to the North so he won't have to Whitewash the area. It was a shock and I'm sad to leave the South, especially since I had so little notice and I really didn't have a chance to say goodbye to some of the people we've been working with. That is assuming they don't come to church, hopefully some of them will come to church now if they really miss me. When I first found out I was sad, I was thinking about all the people here that I love and it was kinda bumming me out. After awhile I realized that this is what President Maynes and the Lord want from me, so I'm going to do it. And not only am I going to do it I'm going to be cheerful about it!! So Dad that explains why I kind of have 4 companions now.

Yeah as I mentioned above earlier in Spanish nobody here knows about Canadian Thanksgiving, that was a little saddening, but I had some amazing tacos yesterday so it makes up for it.

Mom and Dad I'm so excited to hear all about the Temple and all the missionary work you're doing. And yes Dad you are completely right doing missionary work is infinitely more important than missionary training, if that wasn't the case we'd probably spend over a year in the MTC and the rest of our missions in the field. That's a lesson that I've learned, that sometimes you need to sacrifice your study even though it can be one of my favourite times of the day, in order to serve people and do the missionary work. The great thing about that is one of the greatest ways to learn is to do. I've learned that if you want to be great missionary you need to go out and serve the people.

But I'm so excited that the temple is about to be dedicated! It will be so cool to see something about it during next conference in the world report.

Ok so lets talk about General Conference. That was such an awesome conference and an exciting announcement! That will bring so many more missionaries into the field. It will be a little strange because I will probably have at least one 18 year old companion on my mission. I really hope that anyone who wants to leave at 18 will prepare sufficiently. Actually scratch that I don't think anyone can prepare sufficiently to be a missionary. But I encourage all young men to prepare to leave at the age of 18. It will require lots of study because they're shortening the MTC time. It will also be really strange to have sisters out here that are the same age as us, but we really do need more Sister's they make the best missionaries. Also there were some fantastic talks I loved Elder Ballard's Elder Holland's and Elder Bednar's specifically. Elder Bednar's was awesome also partially because I've met him now.

Well that's all for this week. I love you all and hope that you enjoyed Thanksgiving.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Rojo