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

Cooking for Cooks

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 50 (May 14)

Buenos dias en este hermosa lunes. Hoy estamos en Vail y si es bien hermoso! Espero que todos disfrutaron el dia de los madres. Yo disfrute el dia muchisismo era maravilloso!

It was very fun yesterday when both Elder Barfield and I were asked to speak about our mothers. I had no idea what to say, so I just started talking about how much my mom loves me. That ended up in me telling the story of ax + knee = extremely worried mother. I talked about how no matter what, my mom always loved me and she was always concerned with my welfare. Despite all the stupid things that I did. Later one of the boys from primary, Max, came up to me and said; "Elder Redd you shouldn't say stupid, it's a bad word." "You're right Max, I know better than that thank you." "It's ok I'm going to help you. I never say bad words." It was funny I realized that in two of my talks I've said the word stupid. The last time I was quoting Elder Bednar though so I felt a little better about it. Given that was in a Spanish ward. And in Spanish, the word "estupido" is really really strong. Immediately after the sacrament meeting finished the bishop pulled me aside and said (In Spanish of course) "Elder great talk thank you very much, but that word is a little strong, please don't say that again in a talk." So maybe I need to be a little more careful about what I say, that's twice I've been rebuked jajajajajaj.

I just love being a missionary, unfortunately this week I had a few days of Migraines, so I had to stay in the apartment two days Blehch! But on Sunday we proselyted again. It felt so good to be out there again. Mom and Dad you got to see a little bit of the Cook Clan. I'll explain it a little bit more. So our ward mission Leader is Brother Cook. Two of his sons also live in our ward. They were all there for Mother's day while we were skyping. They are a super fun family. Mom and Dad actually got to meet several of them yesterday mostly the kids while they sat there and watched me skype. It was a lot of fun being there with them. 


While Elder Barfield skyped I made them all dinner. I LOVE TO COOK! especailly for the Cooks jajajajaj. They liked my cooking fortunately. Anyways Mother's day was awesome!

I hope you all know that I love you very much.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Rojo

Tres Leches Birthday!

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 49 (May 7)

Buenos Tardes! Disculpame que ya no les escribi, pero algunos otros missioneros vinieron hoy, y estabamos occupados con ellos hasta se salieron ellos. Entonces esto ers la razon. Pero yo tengo tiempo y no tengo que escribir tan rapido.

Well we had a great week this week. I had lots of fun celebrating my birthday... Twice!!! As I mentioned last week on monday we went to eat with the Allens. We had make your own pizzas and that was a ton of fun. I was doing card tricks for their sons, when the oldest began quoting the hobbit. He started by quoting Smeagol lines. Of course once that happened I had to show them my Smeagol voice. BIG MISTAKE! for the next fifteen minutes I had to show them different renditions of Smeagol. They're favourite was "the fishy!" as their youngest called it. (When Smeagol catches the fish and sings before being captured by the Gondorian rangers) I must have done it at least 30 times before we left that night. But it was so much fun to be there with them.

Then on Tuesday as I mentioned we ate with la familia Higuera. We had a great dinner ensalada fiesta! or Party Salad, Composed of: Lettuce, Cheese, Tomatoes, Fritos, and an assortment of other vegetables. Put a little bit of Chile on top for dressing and it is delicious! It was a lot of fun to eat with them. Then Hna. Higuera brought out a homemade tres leches cake. brief explanation for those who do not know what tres leches is. IT'S SOOOOO GOOD!!!! It's a traditional hispanic cake made with lots of sweetened milk, so the bottom is just a little soggy and sugary delicious, not healthy at all but so good. So after singing and me blowing out the candles they all started chanting "Que la muerde! Que la muerde!" or "Bite it! Bite it!" I knew it was a trap I've been to Mexican birthdays before. In fact I have often been the one who springs the trap. But I really wanted a real Mexican birthday. So I did it. I don't think I've ever felt quite so much pressure on the back of my head as my face was pushed into that cake, later seeing the video I found out that all of them had pushed, I was willing to do it they only needed one but... Asi es! That should explain the pictures.

Beyond my birthday it was an amazing week. We found 8 new investigators, tying the most I've ever found in my mission. And we have some real amazing people who are learning more about the Gospel and coming closer to Christ. I love it up here in the mountains, even if it is hard to breath on occasion. It's been great to just really lose myself in being a missionary, I love to have fun with my companion or others when we're doing missionary work. I remember well when President Stephens told me make sure you're having fun, don't be disobedient, but make sure you're having fun. I look back and all of the most successful times that I've had were when my companion and I were working hard and just having fun while doing it. The best of course is teaching the Gospel and seeing it touch peoples hearts, but you throw in some fun while walking down the street or driving, and that's what makes a great mission. Mom and Dad it seems from you're letters that you also have a lot of fun over there in the heat! I hope so, if not have more fun!

This week there were two experiences that really stuck out to me. The first was on Saturday when we had interviews with President. I just had a great talk with President Maynes where he really taught me so many wonderful things. At the end I asked him, "President will this be my last interview with you?" "Yup, probably." He responded. (This is his second last transfer) "Alright can I give you a hug?" I asked. He looked a little surprised but said "Sure Elder" I gave President Maynes a hug, I'm not sure but I was probably one of the first missionaries to do that.

The other was that on Monday I got a letter from one of my former companions. He thanked me for being patient with him and helping him to learn so much. It was great to know that I'd helped him.

I know that the Gospel is true, and I absolutley love sharing this with everyone!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Rojo 

Mud season

Hola familia y amigos! Si mi amigos de verdad leen mi correo. No se, porque nunca escucho de nadie! Es la verdad que esta pasa a casi todos los missioneros. Y ahorita mi compa es verdecito entonces el recibe tan mucho correo! Pero esta bein.

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you're all doing great! I'm loving life up here in the mountains. just this week I once again realized how high up we are here. We went to Leadville last Friday, and while there we ran up the stairs of an apartment complex. It really wasn't that much, just two flights of stairs but man was I out of breath! The weather up here has warmed up. (As you can probably see from the picture I sent) and it is just gorgeous. We're currently in what the locals call "mud season" the interval in between ski season and the summer tourist season. I'm loving it even though all my clothes are getting pretty dirty.

So to let you all know I will be spoiled for my birthday. Some of the members found out that I was turning 20, It still makes me shudder to think how old I am, and so we have a great couple days. Tonight we are eating with the Allen's a great younger family with four young boys. They wanted to have a birthday party for Elder Redd, but the oldest son has baseball tomorrow so we're doing it today. Then tomorrow la familia Higuera will be giving me a good mexican birthday. So I'll make sure to take pictures and send them to you all next week. So don't worry about that I'll be taken care of.

Alright so now I'll tell you a little bit about the missionary work that i've done here in the past week. For the past transfer and a half we've been experimenting with a new finding method called "The Prayer Approach" It's super cool and I really like using it. This past week we found two great families through it. One of them is la familia Gonzalez. They are a super cool family. Hermano is a Seventh day Adventist, but he's very open and willing to hear us. On Saturday when we gave him a book of mormon he was excited to read it and learn more. It's always amazing to see the spirit touch peoples hearts and prepare them to receive the Gospel.

Ok another quick story, not sure If I ever mentioned back when I was in Denver this amazing investigator I had back in Denver named Carlos. He was just an amazingly prepared man who was super excited about the gospel. Regrettably for my last transfer there we could never get a hold of him. It was really sad, I wasn't sure what had happened, maybe he had friends who were opposed to the church, or had otherwise encountered anti material. Then just this week the Elder's currently serving there Elder's Havig and Gonzalez, both good friends of mine, called and told me they's seen Carlos again. It was great to hear that he was once again meeting with the missionaries, and progressing. Even better he asked about me! It was great to know that I was living in a way to be recognized as a disciple of Christ who he remembered and didn't forget.

I hope you all know just how much I love my mission. I love being a missionary and I know that this Gospel is true!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Rojo.

Totally forgot to include this super cool amazingly awesome story. 

Ok probably the funniest and coolest story of the week. So on Thursday we had to drive over to Vail so I could do baptismal interviews for the Vail elders. on our way there we called them to get the address and they told us just to call when we got closer. Right before we got close our phone battery ran down. I started calling them to get the directions, but they weren't answering. Just as we reached the point where neither of us knew where to go it died. It was already late and we really didn't have much time. Elder Barfield and I had no idea what to do. we decided to go find a phone and call the Vail Elder's we figured we could turn the phone for just long enough to get the number and then we could call them. regrettably the phone wouldn't even turn on. I could really tell that the adversary did not want this interview to happen. This made me want to do everything I could to ensure that it did. When we found a pay phone and got change I decided to try and call one of the office missionaries numbers that I keep in my wallet and get the Vail number from them. I called Elder Drake, our Housing Coordinator. After explaining to Elder Drake that I didn't have time to explain the situation and I needed the Vail number he gave it to me (It was really fun telling him the full story the next day) "Finally" I thought, "Now we can call them and figure something out." I called and it went straight to Voicemail. I got slightly frustrated. then almost immediately after hanging up the pay phone they drove right up to the gas station where we were. "That was fast" I said. They didn't even receive the message until later, but they had felt impressed to come and find us and knew exactly where to go. I was able to interview them and they were baptized the next day. It was so cool to see the hand of the Lord in ensuring that these people could be ready for baptism.