Captain Canada Belt!

Las Venturas de elder Rojo: Capitulo 57

Aye Cabere! Ya es dia de Canada!?! Que Loco! Pues a mi me siento que es el primer dia de Canada en mi mision todovia. Pues tengo noticias muy animas de Canada! en mi mision hay un cinturon, que se llama el "Captain Canada Belt" Y el missionero que tiene el mas tiempo en la mision quien es de Canada tiene este cinturon. Hoy recibi un texto de un Elder Wilde quien se va a morir el Miercoles, el dijo "Elder Redd, the belt's yours. you're staying in Rifle Second correct?" Siiiii!!!! Que Animo voy a recibir el cinturon! Estoy muy animado por este entonces creo que lo voy a obtener este semana y les mandare una foto cuando lo tengo. 

(surely someone could do a better job of translating this than Google and me, but here's what we came up with) Cabere Aye! It's Canada day!?! That's Crazy! Well I feel it's the first day of Canada on my mission Todavia. Well I have exciting Canadian news! In my mission there is a belt, called the "Captain Canada Belt" And the missionary that has been in the mission longest from Canada has this belt. Today I received a text from Elder Wilde who is going to die on Wednesday, he said "Elder Redd, the belt's yours.You're Staying in Rifle Second correct?" Siiiii!! I'm excited that I get the belt! I am very encouraged by this and I think I'm going to get it this week and take a photo when I have it.

Well Happy Canada day! Sadly practically no one here knows about it, so I'll have to text all the other Canadians to celebrate it. Oh quick funny story, on the Calendar that Elder Gibson and I have in our apartment on July 1st it says, "Canada Day - Canada" ... ... Isn't the name Canada day a little self explanatory? 

So President Maynes went home on Friday =( very very sad. He will be missed by all of us, but I know that President Murdoch will be a great Mission President who will do the Lords work! Today I got to hear from him for the first time, we had our conference call this morning and President Murdoch sounded very excited to be here! He'll be doing his Mission tour in the next few weeks, and then I'll actually get to meet him! So very excited for that day! 

Also Transfer news! So Elder Gibson and I will be staying together for another transfer! We're both excited to keep working together. This will be an interesting transfer, we have two areas that are splitting one, where both Elders will separate and each one will cover one of the wards that were previously covered by both of them. And one of our Spanglish areas will get English Sisters to teach English and the Elders will only cover Spanish! I'm very excited because I think that Elder Rollins will be coming up here to serve there and be in the Zone! We also have an area getting whitewashed by Sisters! Hermana Bennett will be up there, so our whole MTC District will be in the same zone! 

So It'll be a very fun transfer! I'm looking forward to working hard and doing lots of great stuff out here in the mountains! 

It was super weird to be thinking about the missionaries who are going home this transfer. I was thinking about Elder Ence, he was my first Zone Leader back in Denver, and he's been serving as an Assistant for 5 transfers. Great Missionary and I really love that guy. I'm glad he's been serving as an Assistant, because that means I get to see him and talk with him more. But he's going home! I was thinking about that, and I realized that Tyler Gedlaman also goes home at the same time! That's crazy, I can still so vividly remember the day he left to the MTC when I said goodbye to him. 

Well, I don't have a ton of time today, I still have to e-mail President Murdoch, and then go play basketball. Yes, I actually have to today. Yesterday we oym'ed this guy while he was shooting hoops on his driveway, long story short we're playing one on one today, if I win he comes to church, if he wins I buy him lunch. So pray for me that I haven't committed some heresy so I can win and then we'll start teaching him! 

Con Mucho amor!

Elder Rojo

Hanging Lake

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 56 June 25

Buenos Dias! Hoy es un dia maravillosa! Les digo mas tarde en Ingles para que entiendan. pero la clima es bonita, y todo va bien por aqui! 

Today we went and hiked to Hanging Lake with about half of our zone and the Elders from Frisco and Vail. It was super fun! It was beautiful so that's what a few of those pictures are. 

Well, we had a great week this last week! It was hard, but Elder Gibson and I just went out and worked. It was great. It was awesome on Saturday we ate dinner with our investigator Wade, and his two friends who are members. After dinner we were talking about coming to church. He'd had a bit of trouble because of work and he always has a lot of stuff to do on Sundays. After the lesson he promised that he would come to the first hour. The next morning we were waiting for him, but we didn't see him I was pretty discouraged. After the first speaker I looked to the side and Voila! There was Wade! It was super awesome the Ward was so friendly and he loved it! We talked to him after and he decided to stay for Sunday school, and then priesthood as well! He loved it and participated in all of it. He said he'd come again next week! 

Ok and what a broadcast! That was super cool I loved it! 

After the broadcast, Elder Gibson and I decided we should skip dinner, (because we didn't have one) and proselyte until nine to try and teach as many lessons as we could. It was rough, practically no one was at home, and those who were couldn't talk. At 8:35 we tried one last investigator. They weren't home DAGGGHHHH NOOOOO!!!! I looked over and saw that their neighbours door was open and they had a light on. We decided to go knock their door to see if we could teach them. We knocked and a woman came to the door, she was the kind of person who you see and the first thought in your mind is: "not interested" we offered to say a prayer with her to leave a blessing on her home, and she said sure, we asked what she wanted to pray for and just talking with her a little bit, and then she suddenly asked, "Do you guys do the same thing as the Sister Missionaries?" turns out her Sister was being taught by other missionaries in our zone, and she'd sat in once. So we taught her and she was really interested! 

I know that the Lord blessed us for our obedience and hard work! 

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder Rojo

Banana Peels vs. Salvation

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 55 June 18

Buenos Dias! Hoy es un dia muy bueno pero tambien es un dia triste, por que es un dia triste? Porque Presidnete Maynes se va pronto!!!!!

Ok first the business end of things. If anything you send me gets returned it's probably the wrong zip code to confirm what my address is:

Elder Peter Redd

999 East Tufts Ave.

Cherry Hills Village CO 80113

Second I hear about mom and dad getting all these pictures of the ibbi's ?I have gotten nothing... ... ... I invite you all to repent and send me pictures of my ibbi's! (Sorry if the call to repentance offends anyone, It's a joke between me and several of my mission friends.)

Yeah a lot of the missionaries are pretty sad to see President leaving, he still has a week and a half, but seeing as how I'm out west I won't get to see him again. =(

Luckily being a Zone Leader, I was able to see him on Wednesday when we held our mission leadership conference. So now that I've done that I can get released and go back to Spanish jajaja probably not gonna happen.

It was super cool though we had all the zone leaders, the assistants, the whole mission presidency, and the Sister leader trainers. We all met up in Frisco (It was nice to go back there and just see al the places where I used to work.) It was awesome, we discussed all sorts of things with President Murdoch coming in, and the Just serve program. The best part though was when President shared his testimony at the end of the meeting. It was just powerful, I con't even really describe it other than saying I'm so pleased for the opportunity I've had to serve with this incredible man of God! President Maynes really has changed my life and I've learned so much from him. I think back to before my mission (so about three weeks ago) when I spoke with uncle John and he told me that one of the number one reasons missionaries are called to serve in a certain mission is their mission President.

Overall we had a great week this week in Rifle, Elder gibson and I have been focusing on finding, because we really don't have many people progressing so we dropped about half our teaching pool and have been doing a lot of hard work! I LOVE IT SOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!! One funny story. We went to see some investigators, they weren't home so we tried contacting a referral on the same street. Also not there. So we knocked a few doors. Ok so once you've spent so much time tracting you need to find ways to make it interesting, one of the ways I do that is by knocking musically. I pretty much drum on the door for a little bit not too long, just  a short few bars to mix it up. So this door I knocked a few bars from pirates of the Caribbean. Then I said, "Because I knocked Pirates of the Caribbean they're going to answer and we'll teach them!" no sooner had the words left my mouth then a woman answered. I was right I was right I exulted in my mind. Oh, maybe I wasn't so right. She was one of those really grumpy faced people. Looking at the way she just shook her head and the stink eye we got you'd think we were homeless people trying to sell banana peels,

not two fine looking young gentlemen offering eternal Salvation FOR FREE!!! We tried to talk to here but she would have none of it! As we walked down the steps she opened the door again and said, "That's an irritating knock. You know that." And proceeded to slam the door a second time! Elder Gibson and I have been joking about it ever since.

Well, know that I love you all even though I may seem like some weird robot who's replaced your brother. Don't forget to send me ibbi pictures!

con mucho amor,

Elder Rojo.

Relativity-Time distortion doesn't require advanced Physics

Las Venturas de Elder Rojo: Capitulo 54

Buenos dias familia! Disculpme porque probablamente no van a recibir ningunas fotos hoy. Es que deje mi camara en un otra area cuando hicimos cambios con estos Elderes. Entonces trate de mandar algunas con la camara de Elder Gibson, no se que pasa solo que la computadora no la reconoce! Y por esto no tengo fotos para mandar hoy, pero la semana que viene voy a recordar! Les prometo!

Oh man it was a crazy week! As I mentioned in the last email, we were in Steamboat Springs last p-day. After going to a district meeting up there. Then after District meeting we did a baptismal interview, emailed ate lunch, then we had just enough time to play soccer for a little bit. Then we drove to Craig to do exchanges there, slept both nights there trying to help the Elders save their miles, then had one night in my area before I did exchanges with the Carbondale Elders on Thursday. So yeah it was  a crazy busy week, with a lot of driving. 

So let me tell you about something that I am super excited about! I may have mentioned it last week I recall talking about super secret stuff but I'll tell you a little but more. So the Colorado Denver South Mission is one of four missions in the world to be pilot testing the church's new pilot program called just serve! It's basically a website that allows nonprofit organizations to post service opportunities, we then allow the missionaries to look up projects near them. We're authorized to do 4-10 hours of service a week. We are all really excited about the program. Other areas where it's been piloted have seen huge success for their missionaries!

So on Thursday I went on exchanges to Elder Rollins' greenie area of Carbondale/Aspen. That night I called him to talk about the people I'd met whom he'd baptized and stuff like that. I was excited to talk to him about it. Our conversation went something like this

Elder Rollins: Hello this is Elder Rollins

Elder Redd: Hey Chocarroles it's Rojo (those are our nicknames for each other) 

Rollins: Don't even say it! 

Redd: Don't even say what?

Rollins: You know what day it is!

Redd: I honestly have no idea what you're talking about, I've been super busy.

Rollins: It's our year mark today! 

Redd: ... ... ...

Rollins: Rojo are you there?

Redd: My mind just exploded. 

We spent several minutes talking about it and realizing how short that year has seemed. I still feel like I've only been out for 2 months. It's been so weird to think back to last year and the MTC I'm pretty much going crazy because time has ceased to function in it's normal manner. 

Well, I love you all and oh yeah the pictures yes that is a snake on my hand.

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Rojo

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