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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