WEEK #26 - Castle Rock Zone

WEEK #26

Hey everyone! It's been a great week full of adventures.



This is from exchanges last week in Perry Park

On Tuesday, since it was MLK day on Monday, we emailed our families and stuff for a lot of the day. We had a good dinner that night and met with more members of the ward later that night. That has been something that this ward had done wonderfully. Each night, families sign up for a 6, 7, and 8:00 appointment with the missionaries. This helps us stay busy and productive during the evening. Later that night, we attended a meeting with the stake for JustServe. As zone leaders, we sign up all of the missionaries for service projects throughout the week. We were able to have a good discussion and things are moving along well.
On Wednesday, we went to the church early in the morning to get ready for a worldwide missionary broadcast that the zone would we watching with us. President Rehm was also there with us to watch. It was a really cool and inspiring broadcast! We learned from Neil L. Anderson, David A. Bednar, W. Christopher Waddell, Bonnie L. Oscarson, L. Whitney Clayton, and Dallin H. Oaks. They went through the fundamentals of missionary work and gave incredible insights and examples.
After the broadcast, we went and did some service at a thrift shop before I went on some more exchanges. I went to a place called Elizabeth and spent the day there. The missionaries live with a member, and in the missionaries' place there are a ton of animal mounts like deer, turkey, bobcat, and bear. It was really cool!

On Thursday, the rest of the exchange went alright, the Elder I was with had to go to the library to email his mom because he needed money to pay for a speeding ticket that he got, so that was a little annoying. We could have been doing missionary work instead. We exchanged back and then I went with Elder Mogle to have a lesson with a guy who is about to go on his mission. His name is Jonah and he seems very well prepared. Afterward, we went to dinner out in Sedalia, Colorado which was really cool because in some parts, you can see both Denver and Castle Rock in the distance. We met with an active family and a less active friend that they have and the less active member is progressing really well toward going to the temple! She also invited us to come along as well which would be absolutely awesome!! We are happy for her and her determination.
On Friday, we went to our district meeting and it went alright. The district leader was getting transferred and so he got lazy and didn't prepare much of a meeting for us. So Elder Mogle and I taught about what was said in the broadcast and how we can use it to improve our missionary work. After district meeting we went to Costa Vida because missionaries get 50% off of everything! So I got a big plate of nachos for like $4.00 :) we then went to the church to have our interviews with President Rehm! My interview went well and he thanked me for my leadership and obedience. He also told me how thankful he was for the group of missionaries that I came out with and the quality we carry. He said that we were the answer to their prayers and I thought that was really cool :) After the interviews, President talked to me and Elder Mogle about how the zone was doing. Then, we got new phones! They are slightly more upgraded than the last and it is weird getting used to a new keyboard and everything. But it's still a dumb phone, not a smart phone :( our dinner was with the Gann family and they are really fun. They have 2 little kids that are really funny. Sister Gann is actually from Duchesne, Utah and we talked about the long drives we had to take to play each other in sports.

Broncos sunsets in Colorado

On Saturday, we were reeled in to do service for a lot of the day. We helped a family move into the ward and got that done pretty quickly actually. Then, after that, we went and helped an old lady move out of her home and into an apartment with a bunch of couches. The couch was super awkward to move around the apartment complex and we finally were able to shove it up 2 flights of stairs, lean it over a balcony and then push in into their apartment. We felt that we deserved a trip to Maverik after that:)

On Sunday, we went and stopped by a media referral that we received and gave her the bible that she requested. We also left her a Book of Mormon to read and invited her to come to church! She didn't come to church, but took the Book of Mormon and said she would read it. At church, we were asked last minute to teach gospel principles class, but were able to get out of it because no one showed up. That night, we met with Bishop Roflson and had a really good coordination meeting. He is a great bishop and is really excited about missionary work. We are blessed to have him:)
Well, this coming week I will hit my 6 month mark! That's pretty crazy for me to think about and it is going by too quickly. Thanks for everything and talk to you later!

Elder LaRose

Kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

CURRENT ADDRESS:
4438 Buena Vista Ct.
Castle Rock, CO 80109


MISSION OFFICE ADDRESS:
4090 Center Park Drive Ste 4
Colorado Springs, CO 80916

WEEK #25 - Castle Rock Zone

WEEK #25

Hey everyone! It's been a great week but super busy.

On Monday, we met at the church with some other missionaries and played a lot of basketball. It was really fun and competitive. I thought I did pretty good haha:) dinner was fun and afterwards, we met with the 1st counselor in the bishopric, Brother Smith and his family. It was funny because we typically leave a commitment for the family to work on after our lesson, and so in return, Brother Smith gave us some 'homework' to do haha. He asked us what the difference was between doing missionary work and being a missionary. I thought that was really neat and I think that we don't have to wear a white shirt and a name tag to be a missionary. Being a missionary means getting it into your heart that you want to serve The Lord and bring others closer to Christ.

On Tuesday, I went on exchanges with the Spanish elders! We had a busy day, which was awesome, and some of the lessons we had were in "Spanglish" but most of them were in Spanish haha. So I had no idea what people were saying except for a few words the whole day:). Our last appointment was dinner and it was a lady from Columbia and her family. Right when we walked in, she said "Oh my! Look how hungry their faces look!!" and then proceeded to fill our plates with food haha. Whenever I get close to finishing a plate, she would take it and plop a ton more food on it. I thought I was going to explode.

On Wednesday, I went over the work in the area a little more with Elder Mogle and we have a lot of room to improve that's for sure. We did service at a thrift store for a couple hours and if you volunteer, you get crazy discounts on stuff, so I got a cool Colorado avalanches (hockey) sweater. We had dinner with the bishop and his family which was really neat. I can tell that he is a great bishop and am excited to work with him. After that, we drove for about 30 minutes to a place called Elizabeth to do a baptismal interview for an investigator they are teaching. I was the one to conduct the interview and it was really cool. The lady they were teaching was so prepared and absolutely ready to be baptized. After the interview, we got to know them a little better and then had to take off for the long ride home.

On Thursday, we had to get some paperwork done for the stake and then visited some less active members around the area. Dinner was with a less active family and we were able to have a lesson and a good influence on them in their home. We taught 2 more lessons that night, both to active members and one to our ward mission leader, Brother Kendall! He is a really funny and cool guy to be around and he knows how to work well in his calling.

On Friday, we got ready for a Zone Training! Yeah I know, I've not been out here for 5 days and I have to teach a Zone Training. Haha no it was great; Elder Mogle and I prepared a great lesson and really felt good about what we were going to talk about. We decided that the zone needed training on studies. Elder Holland, in a talk to the MTC pointed out that there are 3 things that missionaries don't do very well, one of them being studying. So we focused on utilizing both personal study and companionship study. If you think about it, Joseph Smith was just doing some personal studies when he came across the verse in James 1:5 and look where that led. So are we making our personal studies worthy of such a change as Joseph's? The meeting was really rough. A lot of the missionaries in the zone are lazy, disruptive, and unfocused. For example, some elders showed up with no suits on, one showed up with a black dress shirt, one with flip flops on trying to be funny and it destroyed the atmosphere of the meeting immediately. It was a challenge to bring the spirit into the meeting because it didn't seem like anyone was paying attention. I shot them a question asking them if they were being the missionary that God wants them to be and if not, what will they work on? We kind of pushed our way through the meeting and pulled through at the end. There is going to need to be a lot of change in this zone and maybe I'm here to help with that. Right after that, we drove back to the springs to pick up our truck that was in the shop. I got to see Elder Hawkins at the mission office for a little bit which was super awesome. He says he misses me and I miss him too. We drove back and exchanged with the Perry Park elders. I went with Elder Jolley to his area for this one. Perry Park is a cool mountain town with huge homes and very wealthy people. The views are incredible too and it was fun just being there. We drove to an activity for their ward that night and it was actually a comedy show where some guy from Utah came and did clean stand up comedy! We were approved to attend because there were some investigators that showed up as well. He was really funny and had me laughing a lot.

The next morning on Saturday, we went on a small hike and got to see a little more of Perry Park. We then drove to Castle Rock to do some service for a member of their ward who was having a retirement party. Our job was to help set up stuff, make sure no kids climbed over the cool vintage cars that they had in there and help people find parking. It was a really cool place to have a party.

That night we exchanged back and I went with Elder Mogle to the Crabtree family for a lesson.

On Sunday, we woke up at 5:30 to get ready to go to a couple of stake meetings. We first met with the Parker South stake presidency for our missionary coordination meeting. President Rehm was also there to discuss the work. After that meeting we drove to meet the Castle Rock stake presidency for missionary coordination with them. That lasted for a little while and then we went and attended our ward council meeting that went for 2 hours!! I was learning so much through these meetings and have a page full of notes that I was writing haha. Right after Ward Council, we had our church at 1:00-4:00. there were so many youth I had forgotten how youth deprived my last ward was! it was a good change:) Dinner was really good and we went to the home of a single dad who is a chef! So we had some really good Chinese food that he made. We then had coordination with Brother Kendall and then went home pooped from the long day:)

On Monday, because it was a holiday, the libraries were closed so we met with some other missionaries in the zone and hiked to the top of castle rock! It was super cool. 

We ran into some members there and they saw me climbing up this more difficult part of the rock. The dad then said to me, "You must be from Southern Utah - this is easy for you!" I thought that was really funny because that is exactly where I am from:) then we went and played touch football with some other missionaries. After football, we went to the Castle Rock outlet mall for a few minutes before dinner. Dinner was with Brother Pappenfuss and his family and I'll tell you, they are about as cowboy as you can get. They even know where Monticello is and know a cowboy named Mel over there:) Brother Pappenfuss had a beard with a nice curly mustache and everything. He even used to be a bounty hunter, or a fugitive retrieval officer, which is pretty much a bounty hunter. He told us all about these crazy stories and scenarios he was in with his job. It was super fun to talk with them

Well it's been a busy week and hopefully it only gets busier!! Love you all!

Elder Kyler LaRose


Kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

CURRENT ADDRESS:
4438 Buena Vista Ct.
Castle Rock, CO 80109


MISSION OFFICE ADDRESS:
4090 Center Park Drive Ste 4
Colorado Springs, CO 80916

WEEK #24 - Castle Rock Zone, NEW ZONE LEADER!

 WEEK #24

This week has been insane. You'll just have to find out why.

On Monday, the church building was closed for cleaning so we just went to the Citadel mall and checked out a couple of stores. It was fun hanging out with the crew again. Our dinner took us to an authentic Mexican restaurant called Pueblo Viejo. Mitch said he wasn't feeling good that night so we didn't go over there.

On Tuesday, we went to the bishop's storehouse and did some service for a couple hours we did stuff like stack food storage and pack it for some orders that were coming in. Afterwards, we had lunch and went to our other appointments. Lots of our appointments cancelled on us and we didn't have a dinner appointment so we came back home and ordered some pizza :) we had an active member lesson that night and were able to have a good lesson on goal setting, focusing on the new year.

On Wednesday, we did our studies and had a good lunch. Afterwards we went to the library and looked up a couple of conference talks and other resources that we could use in our lessons. That night we went to coordination meeting a little early and were roped in by the Boy Scouts to play a game called foot hockey:). A little kid who was about 5 years old was playing and fell on his back. He sat up and was crying so his dad went and picked him up. When he was picked up, he went into a seizure and so we laid him flat on the stage in the gym. It only lasted for a few seconds and the kid seemed fine when he came out of it. We were there to help and I even took part in a blessing of healing for the little man:) it was cool and I hope they find out what happened. That night we had a good volleyball game with the ward and then retired to our apartment.

On Thursday, our day was packed full of studies and we didn't have anything to do from about 3 to 6 so we went and street contacted and tracted. After dinner, we had another lesson with Kitana. She wants to push back her baptism date because of the pregnancy. It's understandable because we could tell that she could be due anytime now. We taught about CPR to her which is Church, Pray, and Read. Those three things will keep us spiritually alive if we attend church, pray every day, and read our scriptures every day. It was pretty neat.

On Friday, we had zone training at a building that was 30 min away from us. So we left in the morning to pick up Elder Stark and Elder Tu'ifua. The zone training was good and we learned a lot from the zone leaders. It was a long meeting and afterwards, we met with Elder Tallman and Elder Davies at subway for lunch. We went home and changed out of our suits and then drove down to fountain for a dinner that one of the members were putting on for the missionaries. We came back at night and cleaned up our apartment. At about 9:45 we got a phone call from President Rehm. My heart started pumping. I answered it and president said that there was going to be an emergency transfer. One elder was going home early and another elder was going to be made an Assistant to the President. He then asked if I would be willing to be a Zone Leader over the Castle Rock and Parker stakes. I was thinking "ARE YOU CRAZY I'VE ONLY BEEN OUT FOR 5 1/2 MONTHS?!" But I trust President Rehm in his decisions and accepted the assignment. I will be serving in the Plum Creek ward in Castle Rock as a Zone Leader. President said to pack my things and be ready to leave on Sunday. THAT WAS IN 2 DAYS! Elder Hawkins was super bummed but excited for me. He will still be covering 3rd ward when I leave. I couldn't sleep at all that night.

On Saturday, we had haircuts scheduled for Paul Mitchell Hair School. They usually take forever so that took up a lot of time but I really like the cut. We then came home and started throwing stuff into suitcases. The Melvin's fed us dinner and were the first members to find out I'm leaving 3rd ward. We continued to pack and clean until bedtime.

On Sunday, we woke up early to go to PEC and Ward Council and that's where I announced the news. Everyone didn't want me to leave but congratulated me on being a Zone Leader. They even announced that I was going in sacrament meeting an thanked me for my service in the ward. We got some last pics with Elder Stark and Elder Tu'ifua before we went home to finish cleaning up the apartment and going over any questions that Elder Hawkins had. I am confident in Elder Hawkins and know that he will take good care of 3rd ward. Then we drove to the mission office and met with our new companions to exchange luggage. I am going to be companions with Elder Mogle now and he seems great. I haven't heard anything bad about him. He is a little awkward and quiet but we will get along just fine:) We drove for about an hour up to castle rock and it is such a cool looking area. 

iconic Castle Rock

Kitchen with Elder Mogle 

All of the houses are huge and cool looking. That night we had dinner with the Wells family. they have 3 small kids who are super fun. Then we went and had another lesson with the Pettingill family. There are a whole lot more youth in Plum Creek than in 3rd ward and I'm excited for that:) I am again so humbled to have this trust placed in me and know that I'm going to need a lot of help. I was told that we are going to be training the zone this Friday and so it's gonna be nonstop work. Love you all! MY NEW ADDRESS IS: 4438 Buena Vista Ct. Castle Rock, CO 80109

Elder LaRose

Kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

CURRENT ADDRESS:
4438 Buena Vista Ct.
Castle Rock, CO 80109


MISSION OFFICE ADDRESS:
4090 Center Park Drive Ste 4
Colorado Springs, CO 80916

WEEK #23 - Colorado Springs Fountain Stake - NEW YEARS

Happy New Year everyone! This week was awesome!

On Monday, we were really limited on our miles so we just picked up the Sand Creek elders and played volleyball at the Murray building with members of the sand creek ward. It was good because we tried to get people who actually knew how to play volleyball there. We had a good competitive game and it was great:) afterwards, we went and saw Mitch and helped him get some family names to get ready for the temple.

On Tuesday, we got picked up by Bishop Obenchain and Mitch to drive up to the temple to do baptisms!! It was a beautiful drive up to the Denver temple and it was so awesome to be there for Mitch. I got to be the one to baptize him and I also did a couple baptisms with Elder Hawkins. Usually, in our mission, you only go to the temple at your halfway mark and at the end of your mission. But this is already the 3rd time I've gotten to go! Once in the summer, once in the fall, and now once in the winter! What made it extra special was that it was my 5 month mark that day too! We drove home and Mitch absolutely loved it. We had a good lesson with the Krings that night and wet to bed pooped.

On Wednesday, we had a lot of lessons scheduled and met some new people that just moved into the ward. Then we met one of our new investigators, Chris, at the McDonalds and taught him about the restoration there. He seems genuinely interested, and we are hoping that he keeps up the desire to learn more about the gospel.

On Thursday, it was New Years Eve and we weren't allowed to do any stop bys or cold contacting. So we did our weekly planning and went and taught a lesson to a less active member about tithing. For dinner, we went to the Williams house and had elk roast from the elk that Sister Williams killed in the fall. It was great:)

On Friday, we were in the same situation as Thursday and could only go to planned appointments. We had a lot of those cancel on us though. So we had District Meeting and learned a lot from each other. This meeting I focused on the importance of commitments. This is what I came up with: Commitment leads to action. Action leads to understanding. Understanding leads to revelation. Revelation leads to faith. Faith leads to conversion. Conversion leads to endurance. Endurance leads to salvation. Salvation leads to ETERNAL JOY. This is what we want for those we teach when we extend invitations and commitments is for them to have a reason to have joy each day. After District meeting, since we couldn't do any missionary work, Elder Tu'ifua taught us how to play rugby in the church gym and we did a 2 on 2 game for a little while:) (dont worry mom it was touch rugby). Then went and played baseball with Elder Stark and Elder Tu'ifua.

On Saturday, we helped a lady move into the 3rd ward from the Sand Creek ward and that took forever to get done.

Sunday was a great day because we had our new investigator, Chris come to church! He stayed for all 3 blocks and thought it was wonderful! We got to teach him in Gospel Principles class too. There were 11 less actives that showed up to church today and that was such a great miracle:) That night, we took Chris and Mitch to the Work of Salvation Fireside. This is where recent converts are asked to bear testimony of their conversion and then the pulpit is opened for others to share their testimony. Nothing brings in the spirit better than pure testimony and the spirit was rich. Chirs really liked it and said that he felt the heat in his heart that night. It was wonderful. So that night, I was reporting the statistics of my district to the zone leaders and they commended me on my leadership. They said that our district alone has as many progressing less active members and less active members at church as the entire Colorado Springs stake!! It just shows how much the Lord is a part of our everyday lives and work:)

It's been a great week and I love you all! 

Kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

CURRENT ADDRESS:

2605 Serendipity Circle E APT #251

Colorado Springs, CO

80917

MISSION OFFICE ADDRESS:

4090 Center Park Drive Ste 4

Colorado Springs, CO 80916