Capitulo 14

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Elder Rojo.

Capitulo 13

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 13 

Hola Familia y Amigos! 

Estoy muy animado. Estoy teniendo un gran tiempo aqui en Denver. Este semana elder Lopez y yo encontramos muchos nuevos investigadores! 

It was great to read your emails! Mom and Dad it sound like you're very busy for the next few months before you leave. I'm super excited that you'll be serving a mission at the same time as me, and it will be really interesting to relay mission experiences once you're in the field too. I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures, I'll send some more next week. President Maynes has asked that we don't give out our address's, so anything you want to send me should just be sent to the mission office and then they can forward it to me or I can pick it up at the end of a transfer. 

Alright I don't have a ton of time this week so I'll quickly tell you a few things that happened before I have to sign off.

Yesterday we went to the baptism of Angelo, he was Baptized by Elders E and T the zone leaders who are in our District. All of the missionaries know him pretty well because he plays basketball with us on P-days. Actually we know the whole family pretty well. They have an amazing story. The missionaries met them a few months ago, and now the whole family has been baptized! Yesterday Angelo was baptized by his father Mike and it was an incredibly powerful experience! It's so cool to see the changes that he's made in his life. And he's planning on serving a mission in a year! I'm super excited, because if all our investigators on date keep their dates, we could have a baptism every week of September! So we're gonna work hard this week so we can keep all of them on date and get them to keep their commitments! 

Oh before I forget, do you think you could possibly send me some conference CD's because I'm in a car a lot and listening to conference talks would be really great if not don't sweat it. 

Well I love you all tell all the ibbi's about me so that they'll actually remember me in two years. 

Elder Redd,

Sorry the letters short I'll write a longer one next week

Capitulo 12

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 12

Hola Familia y Amigos! estoy muy feliz esta semana. el semana passado
fue muy buen y sus emails fue magnifico tambien. Me gusta leyendo
todos sus emails.

Now that I'm speaking English CONGRATS MOM AND DAD That's awesome that
you're going to Thailand! its great to hear that you've started
working hard at learning the language. If I may offer a piece of
advice with the language that my Branch President in the MTC always
told me. It's simply this, don't worry about the language work as hard
as you can to learn it, but never worry about being able to
communicate. I know that's something that mom might worry about but
don't let it bother you.

It was great to hear from all of you. It sounds like the Skinners,
Fixsens and Thompsons are all having a great Summer, Jaima that blog
was hillarious thankyou for including it! It's always great to hear
about the Ibbi's but kinda crazy how fast they're all growing up! I'm
trying to avaid thinking about how old they're gonna be when I get
home because it makes me Trunky (That's a mission slang term for home
sick). It's also nice to know that the boys still remember me.

Alright Blakovich you sent me some questions so here are some anwers for you.

1. Colorado is great it's a little hot some days it's gotten up to the
mid 30's. Tracting or OYMing (Opening Your Mouth) in that weather is a lot of fun.

2. My Companion's name is Elder L, he was born in Peru, so he's
always spoken fluent Spanish that can be kind of interesting because
sometime he uses Peruvian Terms that I don't understand at all.

3. As to what I eat, I eat a lot of Taquitos, seriously atleast 70% of
our dinner appointments are Taquitos home made and they're good, but
we eat them a lot. we also have rice with pretty much every meal and
we eat a lot of chicken.

4. I would answer this one but I don't really know what mom rice is Blake.

5. Ok gross story for Blake: so our appartment is near the Bear river,
or something like that. and the entrance to our complex is right next
to the dumpster. As such it is not entirely uncommon for us to see
Rats when we come home at night. So one night I had Rat run about 3
feet ahead of me from the bush toward the dumpster. I freaked out and
Elder Lopez was laughing at me.

Hope those aswered your questions Blake!

Thank's for letting me know that you will now be responsible for my
blog now Elena I think I sent this email to you hopefully you do in
fact get it if not send me an angry Email or something next week. It
also sounds like you had a ton of fun at the murder mystery party!

Ok Jaima you asked how I was shocked. Well let me put it this way.
I've been very fortunate in my life. Dad's always been fully able to
provide for us and I've always lived in nice neighbourhoods. So on my
first day when Elder L and I were OYMing guys with tatoos all over
and piercing's and hear some of them talk about what their lives were
like in gangs and how Jesus changed their lives, It was a little scary
for awhile but I've adjusted and I really love the area and all the
people I serve.

If anyone wants to send me pictures it's probably better to snail mail them.
Mom and Dad it's great to hear that everything has come together with
your call and I'm super excited for you to enter the mission field I
know you will absolutely love it! Along that note I'm just thinking
about how Chrstmas will work, can you do a Skype conference call?
because we skype in my mission too.

Ok so I guess I'll tell you a little bit about how I'm doing and
everything else that's going on with me. First off let me tell you a
bit about my District. My Companion Elder L is our District
Leader, The zone Leader's Elder T, Elder E and Elder T
are also in our District, I did an exchange with them this week and it
was really cool to have the opportunity to learn from other
missionaries too. Elder S and G are the other Spanish Elder's
in our ward I did an exchange with Elder G this week and that was
awesome too. Elder S is a Visa missionary and he'll be leaving
for Argentina in about one week. but he's a really cool guy he
red-shirted at BYU last year so I like playing basketball with him on
P-days. he wins but its fun none the less. finally Hermana B and
P. Hermana B was in the MTC with me so that's cool and Hermana
P is a crazy gymnast which is ridiculous.

Ok so one quick story from this week. Yesterday at seven o'clock we
had about one hour and then we could go to a dinner appointment, I was
pretty tired and hungry so I thougtht maybe we could OYM or Tract for
awhile and then go to the appointment we decided to stop by an
investigators house. We really didn't accomplish much we taught her a
brief lesson and then she had to leave I was a little discouraged and
I wanted to go to dinner Elder L said we should work for just a
little longer. We did and because we stayed and kept working hard we
found a new investigator and talked to her for quite a while. She is a
golden investigator and I'm so excited to start teaching her next
week! I know the Lord rewards us when we just give that extra little
bit of work, and I will never miss an opportunity to work as hard as I
can again!

I know that this church is true and I love being a missionary. To
anyone considering a mision DO IT!!! I won't lie it is hard, but it is
the best decision I have ever made in my life.

I love you all very much and hope you're all doing well.

Elder Rojo

                                                                           
                                                Me and Elder R, my MTC Companion

 

My MTC District

 

 

Me and Snitney (my cousin,serving in Frankfurt, Germany)

 

 

Asleep on my desk!

Capitulo 11

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 11


Hola Familia!

Lo Siento no he escribido. Es porque mi dia de preparacion es lunes y no tuve un computadora el Lunes passado!

Ok there's my weekly Spanish bit. First off. Sorry I didn't call from the Airport, apparently the Provo Airport has zero pay-phones, and we really didn't have time in the Denver Airport. Also quickly to Katie yes I did get your letter, I just forgot to mention it in my email. yes I got the shutterfly pictures thank you so much I put them up in my apartment and it feels really nice to have a little bit of a personal touch The Ibbi's look like they're doing great and had a lot of fun at the Reunion. And sorry I forgot my camera cord so I won't be sending any pictures this week. President M sent you the picture of me with him and Sister M though.

Alright I guess I'll tell you a little bit about my first week in the Field. On Tuesday I met my Trainer, his name is Elder L, and then we went to our Area. I'm serving in Metro Denver, and it is very different than home. My first days were a bit of a shock, but I'm doing a lot better now. I've really gained a love for my area and the people. This week we put two of our Investigators on a baptismal date, and that is an amazing feeling. Right now our Area has a huge teaching pool, so we spend almost all of our time teaching people, we really don't tract or anything like that. unfortunately we're also in a car, because our area is so huge. In some ways it's great because it allows us to do so much teaching everyday, but I spend a lot of time sitting. I'm working hard in my morning exercise and eating as carefully as possible. Which can be very hard sometimes we have Dinner appointments everynight. I'm pretty sure that my first week in the Mission field I've eaten more Taquitos than my entire life! dinner appointments with the Hispanics here are very different. I was expecting something more like back home where the missionary's come over we all sit down and eat together and everyone can serve themselves as much as they want. Here we come over with the other set of Missionary's in our Ward Elder G and Elder S, he's really cool I'll talk more about Elder S later, we sit down they bring us plates absolutely loaded with food, whether it looks in anyway appetizing or not, and then they sit somewhere nearby and watch us eat. It's a little weird, but I guess that's just a cultural thing.

Anyways suffice it to say, I love my Mission President, I love my Area, I love my trainer, and I'm loving everything so far.

It's a little strange, I was so excited to leave the MTC, but now I'm really realizing what a special place it is. There's something cool about being surrounded by missionaries all the time. and the weekly visit's from General Authorities were pretty awesome to. Eventhough it was long at times I'm glad I had nine weeks there to learn about the Gospel and feel the spirit so strongly. If there's one thing I'm glad to be done with about the MTC it's the food! I haven't had much of an opportunity to cook anything yet, but I'm going grocery shopping later today and this week I should be able to cook my own stuff.

Anyways I'm running out of time and I still have to write my letter to President. Just know that I love you all, and I'll write a better letter next week with some details of my exploits in the field.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Rojo

Capitulo 9

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 9

Hola Familia y Amigos!

Si algo de mis amigos leen mis Emails. No se, pero esta bien no es importante. Estoy muy animado a salir el CCM por Denver in dos Dias! Y Katey, yo no hablo Aleman, pero tengo una prima que hace. Ella puede tranducir para mi.

Sorry you didn't receive a letter from me yesterday, but the Friday right before everyone leaves is in-field orientation, so my P-day got moved to today. Anyway in-field orientation was great! I am so excited to go into the field! It's really hard not to let that distract me this week and remember that I still had a week in the MTC and try to work as hard as I can here because I need to get everything I can out of the MTC. Also along those lines my travel plans changed a little bit. I fly out of the Provo Airport at 8:30, but I'm leaving the MTC at 6:00. Not sure what time I'll be able to call, but I should be able to talk to you for at least a little while.

Just want to thank everyone for the letters I've gotten throughout my stay in the MTC, I know that those will diminish without the availability of DearElders. Also thanks Aunt Colleen for the doughnuts. Elena, if you want to hear from me Ropiero might need another letter which will have to go to Denver because I won't get anymore DearElders before I leave Monday. Janine thank you very much for the demonstration of the typical missionary experience with Tatu and Patu. It was so funny and I absolutely loved it. Thanks for letting me know that I'll be getting those packages in Denver. I was getting a little worried, but good to know that they won't get stuck at the MTC without me here to claim them.

Well, I guess I'll tell you a little bit about my week. Really nothing crazy exciting happened. That's kinda how the MTC is. Elena, this week I only had three wraps and two salads, my lowest number yet. I'm excited to get to the field so I can cook my own food again. 

On Tuesday we had a Devotional by Elder Rex D. Pinegar, it was great. The single most important thing I learned this week, well honestly almost everything I learned this week was about being a fiery greenie when I hit the field and having a hunger to teach. Most things I read or heard just came back to that. So I've resolved that I'm going to be a fiery greenie. I really hope I have a good obedient Trainer. If not well he's in for a shock. I'm not gonna think I'm the man and that I know everything because I just got out of the MTC. He does know more about the area, and the mission field then I do, so I'll be humble, but if he doesn't follow rules then that would be a fun Tuesday!!

So I've started reading the New Testament just last week, because I finished the Book of Mormon, and I absolutely love the New Testament! Reading about the life of Christ and the Apostles is really interesting. I'm glad that I've done that.

Anyway I'm sorry, but I really don't have much to say, I'm a little too excited by the thought of leaving on Monday! I love you all, and I'm sure next weeks Email will be much longer.

Les Amo Muchisimo

Elder Redd

Capitulo 8

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 8

Hola Todos! Muchas Gracias por las cartas que yo recibe este semana. Muchas Gracias a Tia Linda, Elena, Janine y Benjamin, y mis Padres. Este Semana fue loco ahora hay 56 missioneros en mi districto! y recibe nuevo missioneros dos semanas a pronto.

Well, that's really exciting for the Thompsons, I know they've been trying to get a job somewhere else for a long time. Tell them congrats from me in case they don't read my emails, and tell them to send me a dearelder. Katie is the only sister who hasn't written me! Also very exciting to hear about all the babies in the Redd family. Also say hello to Jeff for me, I guess he's coming home today!! Nice to hear that I've got pictures and a bag in the mail. Muchas Gracias!!

OK, Elena you need to stop telling me about food in your letters. I work very hard to eat healthy in here, and it’s hard enough with all the missionaries in my zone trying to feed me brownies and cake every night. So I definitely don't need you tempting me with thoughts of Pad Thai and Scone Sundays!!! That does sound like a lot of fun with the food festival. I will never eat the potatoes here. They are all nasty and come out of a can. I might eat those if I was starving to death, but seeing as how I'm very well fed right now on my salads, wraps, soup, and rice I won't be touching potatoes. Also I will be careful. 

Well, it sounds like Janine and Benjamin had very different MTC experiences from mine. First: I've never worked in the call center and to my knowledge I won’t over the next week. I'm not sure what it was like way back when, in the time they were in the MTC, but now we actually have permanent call centre missionaries. They are probably the most diligent, patient missionaries in the world. Most of them have some sort of physical disability. I've talked to some of them, and they are just amazing people. Also the term discretionary time is alien to my ears. I don't have discretionary time. I have about three hours of self directed study a day, but I'm so busy that I fill all that time up easily. The only discretionary time I have is from 9:30 to 10:15 before bed and I almost always exercise during that time.

I've got a little bit of news, I got my travel plans yesterday!!! I leave on August the sixth at 5:00 AM to the airport. My flight leaves at 8:30. So I can probably call you and talk for about 20 minutes around 7:30. I'm so excited to go out and hit the field. I'm also a little excited to leave the MTC but I do still love this place. I'm just so excited to go to Denver! This week we also had a really interesting experience teaching a lesson only using questions. That was interesting, but it really was great to work out concerns.

OK, so if you at all have an opportunity to tell this to the young men please do. You need to have everything worked out before you get here. This week I saw a missionary go home who I had thought was completely and utterly solid. It was a shock to see him go home. He said he's going to try to come back out. The Lord needs more missionaries and I've seen too many people who go home whether they aren't ready physically, mentally, spiritually or emotionally. We need more missionaries. Tell the young men that they need to prepare now. I've realized how unprepared I was and I don't want anyone else to feel that. If they can start preparing now, they will be such amazing missionaries.

This week in my study I learned about keeping my eye single to glory of God, and what that phrase actually means. I've learned that when it's time to focus on my studies, or on my language, I need to focus completely on my study. I can think of other things on P-day, meal times and personal time. Apart from that I need to be 100% focused on my purpose as a missionary.

Well, I love you all so much everybody, I love hearing from you. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve that Lord and I know this gospel is true.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Rojo

Week 7

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 7

Hola Familia,

Yo creo que este semana es 7 pero so estoy seguro, tiempo no existen en el CCM!! Pero me gusta mucho. Estoy aprendiendo mucho sobre Español y el Evangelio Tambien.

Well, now that I've written my weekly little Spanish blurb to show that I am in fact learning Spanish I'll switch to English. Today on Wednesday another District left, and my district is now the oldest District in our Zone!! It was really weird to be singing Hasta Ver for them and remembering our first Sunday when we sang it for Elder Olman. One of my best MTC friends was in that district, Elder Clawson. He was hilarious, and now he's gone. It feels really strange to be the oldest district, and time is just racing. It almost feels like I wrote you yesterday. At the same time however, so much has happened this week.

I'm very excited to get out and hit the field, although I do still love the MTC. Maybe that's a slight exaggeration and I'm saying it to make me feel better. I'm very excited to get out, but I'm keeping my attitude good. There are a few things that I still enjoy about this place. The food is definitely not one of them. However, I've deviated slightly. I ate rice a few times and I had a bratwurst yesterday. Apart from that, it’s still wraps with the occasional bowl of soup. This is addressed to Elena: I WILL NEVER TOUCH THE CASSEROLES!!!!!! not for any price could you make me touch the casseroles.

Anyway on Wednesday I tracked Elder Bullock down. I didn't get to host him, but I just figured out his schedule so I could find him. Thank you for the cookies, they were great and I shared them with everyone in my zone. Speaking of Packages would it be possible to send me a new bag? Through a series of unfortunate events my bag has fallen apart. Could you send me one?

Anyway Snitney and I have figured out that we have temple walk at the same time, so we usually meet up and talk when we're there. It’s great to see family and Snitney is really funny. I've also ran into Elder Hudson a few times but not near as much as I had hoped. Just curious, am I going to be getting any family pictures?

So this week we had Devotional by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone an Emeritus Seventy. My favourite part of the talk was when he read from Ruth 1. I forget the verse but the one that says entreat me not to leave thee. I really liked it and that's what we should say to the Saviour.

I should be getting my travel plans probably next Thursday, so next week I should know when I'm leaving and when I can call you.

Sorry this email has been shorter than some of my others I love you all and can't wait to hit the field

Les amo mucho!

Elder Rojo