Thanks Dad, I really love you and am so grateful to be your son.

I have heard of short letters from missionaries, but this beats all! editor

Capitulo 41

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 41

Aye Cabere! Es bien loco que ya escribi una carta que era muy buena y larga tambien, pero no se exactamente que paso, pero lo perdi! No tenemos tan mucho tiempo pero voy a tratar de escribir todo otra vez para que tengan una buena carta. Tambien lo siento que no tengo fots para mandar hoy, perdi mi camara, y acabo de encontrarla hoy!

Ok so I already wrote this amazing really great pretty long email, but I deleted it on accident and the draft hadn't saved. So I'll try my best to rewrite it all.

  

We had a great week here in Frisco, and this area is really turning around! We found several new investigators, and we also taught a lot more lessons than the week before. I know that if we continue to work hard and be diligent that the Lord will continue to bless us, and we will see miracles here in Frisco. One of my favourite parts about the week was that many of our new investigators were really great investigators. The kind who ask questions and are really engaged in the lessons. Anyone who has served in the mission field should know what I'm talking about here. I'll teach anyone who's willing to listen, and I'll try really hard with the ones who don't. But sometimes it can be a little discouraging when you go over a point really thoroughly, and think you teach them so that they'll actually understand, then ask a simple follow up question and they say, "Pues... no se" and laugh lightly. (that means "Well... I don't know") when people say that sometimes I just want to say then why didn't you ask questions!!! but I restrain myself one thing I'm definitely getting better at on my mission is patience. So it's been great this week to find people who really want to learn more and are asking us those great questions.

Ok now for a little bit of a funnier or just normal story for the week. Last Thursday I went on exchanges to Vail. was serving with a certain Elder Mori, he's a great missionary and a really fun guy. He's on his last transfer, and its great to see Elders like him working hard when they're so close to being done. I want to be that kind of missionary, I want to be working so hard near the end of my mission that people think I'm a greenie. I hope that I can be an example to other missionaries the way that Elder Graf and Elder Mori have been. Anyways we had an amazing day in Vail, we found a ton of new investigators and taught some really great lessons. One of the things that I really learned from Elder Mori was how to teach a short version of the restoration where they can still feel the spirit strongly and it can be just on the street. It was overall just an amazing day in Vail. (I also loved eating mexican food again I kind of miss it here seeing as how most of our dinners are american). At the end of the day we called the elders in Frisco and we told them about our great day and jokingly said that we should do a 48 hour exchange. They told us that they'd had an amazing day to so we started talking more seriously about this 48 hour exchange. Finally I said "Forget 48 hours lets call President and make this the rest of the transfer!" we called President. I'm very lucky to have President Maynes as my mission President. He answered and we explained the situation to him and asked if we could do a 4 and a half week exchange. President laughed. Like I said I'm very lucky that he has a sense of humor.

Anyways we're getting kicked out of the library.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Rojo

Capitulo 40 Frisco & Why I'm Not Skiing!

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 40

Buenos Dias a todos! Es un mes nuevo por nosotors y una area nueva para mi! Hay muchas cosas que me encanta sobre el lugar donde estoy! especialmente le nieve, pero tambien es muy dificil porque veo todos los esquiadores. De esto voy a hablar en Ingles para que entiendan ustedes!

I got transferred. It was pretty hard to leave Denver 1st. I really love that area and part of me still misses it a little, but I'm very excited to be where i'm at now! My area is Frisco Colorado, It's a town in the mountains. We also cover a bunch of other towns including Leadville, Silverthorne, Keystone, Fairplay, Breckenridge, and Dillon Colorado. It's a Spanglish area, which means that there's an English ward, but Spanish missionaries because there are a lot of Hispanics here. So we're responsible for translating from English to Spanish. The only problem with that is the translation equipment doesn't work right now, so we're looking into getting it fixed so that we can get Spanish going and the Hispanics will come to church!

It's a pretty cool area, and there are some really great members here. I'm excited to work with all of them and I know that we will see miracles here if we do things the lord's way, and do what he wants us to do.

This week we tried to spend a fair amount of time building up our teaching pool, so we were riding the bus a lot (The buses are free up here so that's pretty nice). It's a great opportunity to OYM (Open Your Mouth for those who don’t speak fluent missionary, editor), especially because the people can't run away from you! jajaja it's interesting because quite often people will have a few minutes and listen to us for at least a little while. instead of the regular street OYMing when they just keep walking. The only problem with that is about half the people on the buses are tourists... But we still OYM them as well. And the next time they see missionaries in their home countries, hopefully we piqued their interest enough that they'll listen over there.

So yes there are a lot of tourists here, and they're all here to ski......... That makes things a little difficult for me sometimes because I want to ski so much especially since in the last week the resorts have gotten a lot of snow. It's pretty much been snowing since I got up here. however it does make for a great OYMing opportunity as follows:

Me: How's the snow?

Victim (or whatever you'd prefer to call them): It's great, lots of powder.

M: Awesome. are from here in Colorado?

V: No I'm from (Insert Country here) or Yes I live here in Frisco.

M: I've heard the skiing's amazing here I'll have to ski it some day.

V: Well, why don't you ski it now?

M: I'm a missionary, so I sacrifice a lot of the things that I like to do, so that I can do something even better (or something along those lines)

And just like that they're in the conversation and they can't get out unless they want to be really rude or get off the bus several stops early. OYMing is a great part of missionary work, I've really noticed that when we do talk to everyone and try as hard as we can to share the gospel with them, the lord really does bless us. It was funny just on Thursday my new companion Elder Curth asked me, "Elder Why don't you ever OYM the white people on the bus?" I hadn't really realized it, but as soon I step on the bus I'm usually looking for a Hispanic. (those OYM's don't start with me asking about the snow) Funny the habits I picked up from Denver 1st. I need to remember that I'm also trying to baptize los guerritos ahora!

Well I hope you enjoy the pictures I'll be sending in just a sec, sorry I don't have any of the snow for i built with Elders Havig and Rollins, It got destroyed before we came back with our cameras.

I love you all and look forward to hearing from you soon!

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Rojo.

PS. If you click on the location link at the bottom of this post you can see where Frisco is. Most of the towns he mentions have a ski  resort attached. editor

Capitiulo 39

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitiulo 39

Feliz Febrero a todos! Hoy me siento un poco triste y bien raro! solo es que he pensado en varias cosas que me ponen triste y loco!

It was great week here in Denver! The sad news is that I'm leaving... It's kinda got me a little bummed I've really grown to love a lot of the members here in the Denver 1st ward, and unfortunately I didn't have much of an opportunity to say good bye to them (more on that story later) As i've been packing up all of my things, I've just gotten hit. A ton of memories came back from the MTC and my last few weeks at home. It seriously feels just like I'm leaving home again, It's crazy to think that I'm almost at my nine month mark I still feel like I've been out for only a few weeks.

But, I'm going to try not to dwell on that, when I get to my new area I want to be fully focused on that, and ready to work. I don't want to be trunky or area sick as they say. So on to the good news. Yesterday we got a huge dump of snow!!! I remember we woke up in the morning and as I was getting ready Obispo called us. My first thought was "Dang were we supposed to be at PEC this morning?" immediately followed by "Shoot I didn't prepare our report on that." Luckily I was wrong we didn't need to be at the meeting. instead he called to let us know that because of the snow, church was cancelled that day. About two minutes later, our Zone leaders called to let us know that we weren't allowed to drive because of the road conditions. and that they would call us and let us know when the roads were good to drive on again. So Elder's Havig, Rollins and I sat in our apartment for awhile, made some hot chocolate, and then went out and played in the snow for several hours. We built a snow fort, tried to build a snow man, and just had an all out war in the snow. Both of them being from Arizona, they didn't really have much experience with snow. I loved it. Probably my favourite part was when Elder Rollins and I were crouched behind our wall and piling more on top to increase the height. A lady walked past and said to us "Is that a snow fort? it's great guys!" we enthusiastically replied that it was and we'd been building it for awhile. She congratulated us and continued walking. I turned to Elder Rollins and said, "Were we just treated as children?" Elder Rollins looked at me and said, "I think we were." I grinned back and said "It's the little kid in all of us" We laughed about that thinking that we're both almost 20 years old and still have our childish moments. It was a lot of fun to play in the snow and I felt right at home jumping into snow piles and making snow angels. That bad part of that was because there wasn't church I didn't get to see a lot of the members who I would have liked to say good bye to. It's ok though maybe someday I can come back and serve here again.

Well I'm sorry, but today with having to pack and all the other process of finishing off the transfer, I really don't have much time today. I promise that next week when I'm in my new area I will tell you all about it and send you some pictures as well remind me so that I actually will

(Yes, that is how the email ended, we didn't cut off the closing)

Capitulo 38

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 38

Hola a todo mi familia y amigos! Primero disculpame que este E-mail va a llegar un dia tarde, pero ayer yo estaba bien occupado, y tambien era el dia de los Presidnete's aqui en los Estados Unidos, entonces todos las bibliotecas eran cerradas. Y por esto les escribo hoy!

First off I love you all Happy Valentine's day! (I'm not sure if I said that last week or not) It was great to hear from all, and thanks for the scripture case! Es muy Chido!  

I've been asked what it is exactly that keeps me so busy on my p-days right now. Well it's all kinds of things, some are in relation to the missionary work, last week we had to help Elder Belnap out so he could leave for Peru! and this week we went to Aurora partially because we had to, and partially because we went to play Soccer with the other Spanish Elder's over there. Oh wait none of you know where Aurora is. That's just to the east of Denver, whereas I'm in the west. So we went over there to play Soccer. (I'm also getting a lot better at soccer serving Spanish so after the day that shall not be named I might have to start playing a little more)

It was great to hear from you Mom and Dad, I always love hearing your mission stories from Thailand. It's great to hear that you're working hard over there. And I hope that family will get Baptized in March. 

I really am learning to love Hispanic culture, they are such friendly nice people and very very rarely are they mean. It's fun talking to English Elder's about that. they talk about tracting and how they don't like having door's slammed in their faces. I really don't think I've ever had a door slammed in my face except by white people. along with that I've also gotten really good at telling from the outside of a house if the occupants are Hispanic or American. Don't judge me, it naturally happens!

It's been a lot of fun this last week to work with the combined areas. Some of the people who I worked with when I served in the South are still there, so it's great to see them again. Unfortunately though, Elder Rollins and Elder Havig both got sick last week so that slowed us down a little bit. And as such there really aren't any stories to tell this week, but I will next week i promise!

I love you and I love being here in Denver.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Rojo

It's been a while Capitulo 37

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 37

February 12, 2013 (infrequent posts are what happens when the parents are missionaries too)

Hola a toda la familia! Primero, Perdoneme por aquel abominacion que mando la semana pasada. Casi no tenia tiempo, ahorita mis dias de preparacion son bien locos y muy occupados! pero estoy muy agradecido que no recibi ningun correos de irritacion debido del malo correo que envie.

Ok so I do actually love you all, I just had a crazy week last week, my p-days are getting continually busier and more occupied. but anyways I have some pretty exciting news to tell you later. So first off If I could ask someone to send me Grandma and Grandpa Redd's address? The Christmas card I sent them got sent back. Also I want to profusely thank the Schneiders for those chocolates they sent me awhile I ago I just got them from the mission office because they put them in the fridge and forgot to give them to me. but thankyou so much because I have them now and they are great!

In answer to the question mom I am doing well I got sick for a little while earlier but I'm doing a lot better right now so I'm good gracias.

Also happy Valentines day! thanks for the Valentines they were quite funny Sister!

Alright so now I'll tell you a little bit about the week. Elder Havig and I had a great week, we were able to teach lots, and we also found several more new investigators. Possibly the most exciting news is that our investigator Felix accepted a baptismal date for February 24th, I may or may not have mentioned him before but he's super awesome and been talking with the missionaries for almost a year now. So could you all please pray for him? I really hope he can get baptized! But yeah it was just overall a great week.

Another really exciting piece of news was that I got to help with a Baptism yesterday!!!! The Hermanas' investigator Abuelito Romeo got baptized, he's a very old man and they needed two people to be in the font to help him get in and out of the water, The family asked me if I would help, and it was so awesome to have the opportunity to assist in any way of helping someone be baptized.

The last thing that I'm really excited about involves some transfer news. So this last week Elder Belnap received his visa and just left for Peru this morning. We had thought that Elder Rollins would get a new companion because there are two other Spanish Missions in our Zone serving in English Areas. Well he's not, instead he's coming with Elder Havig and I for the next two weeks! I'm really excited to serve with him, he's a great missionary and we'll have a lot of fun and we're also going to see a lot of success this week!

Well sorry but once again this week I'm a little rushed for time, so I hope you enjoy the email that is a lot longer than last week's. I'll also try to send a longer one next week!

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Rojo