Capitulo 16

Capitulo 16  

 Hola Familia y Amigos!! Espero que todos esten disfrutando el regresa a escuela, trabajo, y la clima mas fresca!! Me gusta la cambia en clima aqui porque es mas fresca, antes hizo mucho calor aqui. 

I guess I could translate it for you Dad although I did have a lot of fun wondering what you thought. (Hello family and Friends. I hope that you're all enjoying the return to school and work, and the cooler weather! I like the change in weather here because it's more cool. Before it was very hot here.) 

It was good to hear from G and G, I hope they have a great time on their cruise. It was good to hear from you to Katey it sounds like Medicine Hat is a good place for you and I'm glad the boys are enjoying it. It's also great to hear about your writing and I wish you the best of luck with your submission! 

Elena it was great to hear from you. I think I've played human battleship before but I'm really not sure tell me a little more about it. As for the tourism here in Denver that's something that really depends on my companions and my area. It's something I'd like to do but I don't think I will for at least another transfer. 

Speaking of which it's crazy to think that I've just finished my first transfer in the field! Me and Elder Lopez will both be staying here in Denver Fourth, the only change in our District is that Elder Ence is getting transferred. (he's the really tall one with glasses in the pictures in front of the the temple.) 

I'm glad you had fun at the book signing Sister! it would be great to be there and visualize yourself on the other side of the table. That day in the far off future that I'm not going to talk about, when that happens we'll have to go to a book signing together. I'm glad you’re determined in your writing I'm excited to hear a little more about it when you've done it, but don't let it kill your enthusiasm for Bells because that book really is amazing. 

Mom and Dad great to hear from you as always it sounds like both of you are getting really excited for your mission, and I'm glad you’re working hard now. And also Dad you went rock climbing for staff meeting that sounds awesome! 

You asked about what kind of service we've done out here, It's nothing exciting really, we've helped people move cleaned up yards- that fun stuff. I love serving it's always great but I really haven't had any cool experiences with service or anything yet. My favourite service project we did was when we went out to the mountains a little bit to help the stake work in the Church owned park out there. It was nice to be outside of the city seeing as how I didn't have that chance at all this past summer. 

Ok I guess I'll tell you a little about this week here. The thing I'm most excited about is that Jesus will be baptized this sunday I'm super excited about that he is going to be an amazing member, I've been so lucky to have the opportunity to teach someone who the Lord has prepared like that. Also some pretty big news, yesterday we got to have a three hour training session with Elder Bednar. Yes the Elder Bednar it was so cool and I learned so much about teaching by the spirit. It was amazing to see how normal he was, yet the power he had when he spoke and bore testimony. 

Dad a few weeks ago you asked if I could tell you a little more about the work here I never did my bad so I'll tell you a little about some of the people we teach. Right now we do a fair amount of work with Less Actives and Recent Converts. one of my favourite families is the Mendoza family. Hermano Mendoza is a really amazing man doctrinally he's an amazing member. The only reason he can't go to church every week is because he's sick and can't always come. We do a lot of work with him and his daughters who have moved out. We're working hard and they're starting to do better. Another one of our Investigators is Estela, we've been teaching her since my first week. She knows that the restoration and the book of mormon are true but we're having trouble getting her to church because she attends another church at the same time. We gave her a church tour on saturday and it went really well, but then she didn't come to church sunday morning. I know that if we can just get her to come to church and get her the fellowship she needs that she will get baptized, we've just got to overcome that obstacle. I really love our area, we're busy all the time and we are having success. Right now we have so many people who are so close and just need a little bit more. That's our main focus right now, just trying to help all the people who are almost there. 

I love you all, I hope you're all doing well. I love being out here, I know this Church is true and I love being a missionary! 

Love, 

Elder Rojo (A lot of people here actually call me that just so know)

Capitulo 15

Hola Familia!

Que loco tiempo esta pasando muy rapido! me siento como you solamente

llegue en el campo dos dias en el passado! Pero estoy casi terminado

con mi primero cambio! Quiero que ustedes sepan que mi mission es todo

a mi! Me encanta mi mission y espero que cada persona que sirve un

mission tambien siente como mi.

That crazy time is passing too fast! I feel like you only
arrives in two days in the field passado! But I'm almost finished
with my first transfer! I want you to know that my mission is all
my! I love my mission and I hope that each person who served
also feel like my mission. (Google translated)

It was a great week, the work is goin well here and I love it!

Thankyou for all the letters that I recieved (including a 5 letter day

on tuesday) thank you to the Harkers, The Kearl's and Bishop. I really

loved the picture of the temple, it was great to see what it looks like

now that it's done! That's also a really cool story about Brett, glad

to hear he's doing well back home.

Hey quick note I've just thought about the emails that I feel the best

about after I write them, and they’re always the ones when I answer lots

of questions. So please have everyone send me questions I like

answering them!

Ok first off Elena great to get your email. I'm sorry you had to use

google translate, but sometime in the very distant future that I'm not

going to think about when I'm not a missionary that would be awesome

to translate Spanish for you anytime. I love the Spanish language! It's

good to hear that you like your new roommate, and that is a little

strange that there are people at welcome week younger than me. I still

feel really young sometimes. That's probably because I really am

especially when I talk to the missionaries in their 20's

Mom and Dad! it was great to hear from you too, in answer and

explanation to a few questions, yes a spice kit would be wonderful the

first one you mentioned sounds fantastic! also if you could send me

some more tape for my mouth, and my blue jump rope that would be great

because I'm running out of tape and the jump rope would be good for

excercise. Also I have three more temple cards, but I don't know how

many more times I'll be going to the temple because I could quite

easily end up serving most of my mission on the western slopes and not

have temple access so send me a few cards and I'll make sure they all

get done. On the photos, the one in front of the Provo temple is me

and the other elders in my MTC district just taking a funny picture we

were being  Daniel, Shadrac, Meshach and Abednego and ....... their other

two friends ..... who are not named in the Old Testament. The guy in

the back who photo bombed us ...( shaking my head )

You also asked what I've learned out here in the Mission field. Wow

where to start and what to tell.

1. This one won't apply quite as much to you two but I think all

missionaries should know it. Part of being a good missionary is being

a good companion, or just good with other missionary's in your

district or Zone. You could have all the scriptures memorized and be

the most spiritual missionary in the world, but if you don't love your

companion and work in unity with them you won't be near as affective.

2. There's no excuse not to be exactly obedient. I've seen lots of

missionaries who will say that you need to loosen up and have fun on

your mission. I can honestly say that the most fun I've had on my

mission is when I am being exactly obedient, fun and obedience do go

together. Others will say that its more important to follow the spirit

and not be a Pharisee. The problem with that is that Preach my Gospel

and the white handbook were written by apostles and others under the

direction of the Spirit. I have seen a lot of missionaries use that as

an excuse and break rules in the name of the Spirit. I think that

sometimes the Spirit may prompt us to do something against the rules,

but those are rare experiences.

3. Patience is one of the most valuable things you can have on a

mission (Mom and Dad you should be pretty good at this, after all you

raised me- that takes patience) Whether it's patience with

investigators, patience with the members, or patience with your

companion. It is extremely important.

There's so much that I've learned on my mission and I wish that I

could share it all, but for right now that's probably all.

I love you all, and I hope that everything is going really well back home

Elder Redd

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