WEEK #70 - Colorado Springs Mission Office

This week has been a great week!

On Monday, we went to the Olympic Training Center and took a tour of the campus! It was pretty cool:) I remember vaguely being there as a little kid when we visited the Springs. So the tour started off with a cool video about some athletes and then we went and walked around the campus. It was pretty cool to see all of the different training areas for the Olympians. We saw places like the shooting range, the wrestling room, the pool, the gyms, and the exercise rooms. There was so much for all the athletes to do! After the tour, we went and took some pictures outside with the statues and at the Olympic rings. It was pretty great. 

On Thursday, we started out Thanksgiving by going and playing in a Turkey Bowl!! Since our ward wasn’t having one, we got in touch with the Sand Creek ward and went to play with them. It was cool because Elder Stark and I were there last year as well. This time, it was not snowing but we still had a great time

After that, we met with President and went over the new missionaries' applications and then went to the airport to pick them up! It was good to see all of the newbies come off the plane just ready to go:) We took them to have dinner at the mission home and it was great! There were only 6 new missionaries that came out this transfer.

On Tuesday, we woke up a little earlier and headed to breakfast with the new missionaries. After that, we drove them down to the Aeroplaza building and did a little orientation to the mission. Then, I got to monitor transfers while Elder Stark taught the Trainers. The transfer went really smoothly. We are planning travel arrangements so that we have everyone spread out so they arrive at different times to control the amount of missionary traffic in the building. This time it was smooth. After lunch, I taught the trainer and new missionary meeting and then transfers concluded! Another transfer past already. It's going by too quickly. We had an appointment with Cynthia, but she didn't answer the door when we showed up. To celebrate our work with transfers, we went to Texas Roadhouse and had a good dinner. We at buckets of their delicious rolls haha.

On Wednesday, we did some weekly planning and then at noon, We went and did service for Operation Turkey. What they are is an organization around the world that helps bring home cooked meals to families in need on Thanksgiving. So they buy, cook, carve, and deliver a bunch of turkeys. What we did was help out with the carving. We went and carved a ton of turkeys. I carved probably 10 turkeys that day. After that, we went to the office and figured out some things for the miles document. We didn’t have anyone signed up to feed us that night so we looked around the area to see what restaurants were close by. We found this German restaurant called Edelweiss and we had to go. The food was super delicious and I got a full plate with Spätzle and Jagershnitzel J It hit the spot.

. Afterwards, Elder Stark gave us haircuts. We went to dinner at Mike and Randi’s and it was greatJ we had great turkey with green bean casserole, stuffing, and cheesey mashed potatoes. It was great food and great company. We got to watch a PG movie as well so Elder Stark and I watched Finding Dory. It was pretty good! Worth the watch.

On Friday, we had a good district meeting and then we went and had lunch at the Mecham’s. We had to play a couple of rounds of Spot it too before we left. Afterwards, we went to the office and while we were there, Elder Stark and I put on these fake mustaches on that his friend sent us and made some funny videos. It was great.

On Saturday, we got to go to the Temple with Mike and Randi for their first time and that was awesome! We got to do baptisms with the youth in the ward. After that we went to Five Guys and then made the trip back home. It was so neat to be there at the temple with them. Such a great spiritual strength.

 After we got back to the Springs, we went and had a lesson with Anthony and Deborah. We are hoping to help them start progressing again. That evening, we had the baptism for Jesse and Diana! I was asked to baptize Jesse, and confirm Diana. Elder Stark was asked vice versaJ The baptism was great and we were happy to see them so happy. After that, we celebrated by going to Burger King and getting ice cream.

On Sunday, we had ward council in the morning and then went to church. Church was really good and we were asked to teach Gospel Principles. It was about the Gathering of the House of Israel and so that fit right in to what we do full time! After our church, we hung around so that we could be at the 18^th ward sacrament meeting to confirm Jesse and Diana. It was really great to be there for that. Dinner was that evening on base with the McEchron’s and the Hess’s and had some great curry. We had a lesson with Greg and Shannon that evening and then finished the week by taking call ins.

It has been such a great week and I hope that everyone had a great thanksgiving! Love you all!  

WEEK #69 - Colorado Springs Mission Office

Hey Everyone! It’s been a super busy week this week.

On Monday, we started the day by going on a sweet hike with Elder Buxton, Elder Yarmo, and Elder Meyers. We went and did the Seven Bridges hike, where it’s a cool path that crosses over a stream 7 different times. We took some good pictures and it was way fun. After we got back from the hike, we went to Memorial Park and had a birthday party for Elder Constantine and Elder Pexton. It was great! We threw a football around, played some volleyball, and President and Sister Rehm came to celebrate as well. Dinner was at the Bishop’s house and that was really good.

On Tuesday, we had our Transfer Coordination meeting at the office and got things layed out for the transfer. Because of the holidays, the transfer is a little weird since the departing missionaries fly home before Thanksgiving. After that meeting, we had lunch with the office missionaries and then met with President and Sister Rehm to discuss transfers. We prayed and confirmed who the next trainers should be and then talked more about the transfer. After that, we were going to have appointments full but then they all cancelled on us! So we went to the park to talk to people. We then had a coordination meeting with our Ward Mission Leader and then headed to dinner with the MechamsJ They took us and the sisters to Rudy’s bbq which is this super good steakhouse thing. I got some smoked brisket that was super delicious. We then played a couple rounds of Spot it and then headed home. We worked on a little more things for miles. As well.

On Wednesday, we drove up to Castle Rock in the morning and had our final zone conference there. It was so much fun and the conference went great! We enjoyed spending time teaching up there. We came home through the scenic route and made it in time to go have an interview with Tyler Shumway for his baptism! We had dinner over at Mike and Randi’s and got to teach Mike the final parts of the Restoration. It was a great day.

On Thursday, we had time to do our weekly planning and so we did that. In the afternoon, we met with the departing missionaries and got their luggage and everything all packed away. In this departing group, two of my companions are finishing their missions! Elder Buxton and Elder Constantine have completed their 2 years and are headed out. Crazy to think about! When we got them all loaded up, we took them to dinner at the mission home and had a good feast. After that, Elder Stark and I went and had a lesson with the FostersJ they are doing really well. Then, we went and played basketball with a bunch of nonmembers at the church. The Elder’s quorum is setting up basketball for each week and that is going to be really good for getting people to come. We then went back to the mission home and spent the night with them.

On Friday, we loaded the missionaries up in the 12 passenger van and made the trip up to the Temple. We stopped at Costa Vida on the way up for lunch as tradition holds and then went to the Temple. We did an endowment session and a sealing session. The temple is such a great place to be and I love going each time. We made the drive back and had dinner at the mission home. President Rehm had seen that the BYU Young Ambassadors performance group would be in town and so he got 10 tickets for the departing missionaries and us to go and see them! The theme was very fitting for the occasion too! It was titled ‘Welcome Home’ haha. They performed really well and it was fun to be there. Elder Constantine went up to one of the singers afterwards and told her she was pretty and then she told him that she was married haha! That was super funny. We came back to the mission home after that and prepared for the next day.

On Saturday, we shipped off the missionaries at the airport and then went to the office with President to talk about transfers. We did a training call at 10 and then finalized everything for transfers with President. We started to type up the documents needed and then ran over to a baptism that the sisters were having. They asked us like 5 minutes beforehand to sing a hymn in English and then in Tongan!! So we practiced once right before, decided it was alright, and then went and did it. The spirit definitely helped us out on that one. After the Baptism, we went and took our car to get an oil change. We finalized some more things before dinner and then went to the Saturday session of Stake Conference. The theme was about missionary work so we were excited to hear about that. Elder Bat, a general authority was there and he was a great teacher. Something he said was “If you want your kids to stay out of trouble, have them do missionary work.” I thought that was awesome. After the conference, Elder Stark and I stayed up late figuring out Travel Arrangements for all of the missionaries. Once it was done, we both crashed on the couches in the living room haha.

On Sunday, we went to Stake Conference and it was again really awesome. Elder Bat spoke again and I liked when he said “The only power the Devil has is the power we give him.” Another great conference. Afterwards, we went over to teach Jesse and he fed us lunch. We taught him about all of the commandments and then we played some card games with them. Then, we went and had one last lesson with Tyler before he left for Utah to be baptized. He is really excited and will do well. We had an awesome dinner at the Mismash’s and enjoyed being over there with them. They are such great members and literally carry half the ward on their backs. We really appreciate them. After that, we got typing away at the Travel Arrangements and took calls from the zone leaders. We were again up late typing everything and getting it all sent out. Elder Stark and I got home and just crashed again.

It was a pretty exhausting week but we are so happy to be serving the LordJ Thanks for all the wishes and have a happy Thanksgiving!!! 

Elder Kyler LaRose

WEEK #68 - Colorado Springs Mission Office

Man! This has been one busy week!
On Monday, we we went and saw Jimmy Avila in the morning before he left for Arizona for a while. We had a great lesson there. He is nervous to leave his mother at home because she is getting pretty old and he is her caretaker.  After that, we did some shopping and then were going to bowling until we showed up at the bowling alley and there were these High School teams competing against each other! They were all getting like gutter balls and when one of them knocked some pins over they all cheered haha. But they had taken all of the lanes so we didn't get to go. So for a little bit, we went and played basketball and volleyball at the church. We had dinner with a family that has one of their unbaptized kids being baptized this coming week! It was great to go over there. After that, we went and saw Cynthia and were able to get in touch! We had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon and are hoping to keep a consistent rhythm to our meetings. We had to clean our van that day too for the upcoming zone conference.
On Tuesday, we went and had Zone Conference at the Aeroplaza building for the Colorado Springs stake and Fountain stake missionaries. We were having our vehicle inspected at this one so in the morning we made it smell nice and stuff. The Zone Conference went well! We learned a lot and it was good to be around the missionaries. Our part went well too and there was great participation. Afterwards, we drove some elders back to their apartment and then headed to dinner with General Taylor and his wife on Peterson AFB. Dinner was great and we got stuffed! After that, we went to see Jose because he was in the hospital again. So we went over there and he said that he was probably going to be there for the rest of the week. So we had a good lesson there and then came home after a good busy day.
On Wednesday, we had like the whole day free which is rare sometimes in the position we hold. So we were able to pack it full with things to do and people to see. We started the day by going to Memorial Park and weekly planning. After we got things all set, we went to the Hospital to see Jose again. He was feeling depressed because the doctors weren’t really sure what they needed to do with him. So our visit was good for him. After we saw Jose, we went on a ‘blitz’ with some other elders. That is where Elder Stark and I split off with the companionship for a couple hours and both work in their area to help them find some people to teach. The area we were in was actually my first area I served in, 3rd ward. So it was great to be in the familiar area. We went and stopped by a lot of people that I had been teaching when I was there and were able to meet with them again. Some of them had temporarily stopped meeting with the missionaries and so it was good to help the area get moving again. After the blitz, we met back up and then Elder Stark and I went to dinner. His parents had given him some money to take the both of us to a good dinner. So we treated ourselves by going to Tucanos! It had been a while since I had been there and it was absolutely delicious. After that, we went and saw Mike and Randi. We taught him more parts of the Restoration in better detail. Mike is just doing greatJ He is such a great member that already brings strength to the ward here.
On Thursday, we had the opportunity to go to the temple with the missionaries that were hitting their halfway mark. It was a small group, but it was a great time. Elder Tu’ifua was in that group, who Elder Stark trained when we were serving around each other in 3rd ward and Sand Creek ward. It was great to be in the house of the Lord and to feel the peace that accompanies it. At the temple, we were able to do baptisms and then an endowment.

Afterwards, we got done a little earlier and so we went to Deseret Book to look around at stuff. The drive to the mission home was good and we had a great dinner waiting for us when we arrived. After that, there was a mini testimony meeting and it was awesome. We then took everyone back to the mission office and they headed back to their areas.
On Friday, we had a good district meeting. We all coordinated and wore floral apparel haha. The Elders wore floral ties and the sisters wore floral dresses.

We were asked to teach as well and we talked about using the Book of Mormon in teaching. It was a good quick lesson and there were some good ideas passed around. Afterwards, we went to lunch at the Mecham’s and it was great. Then we met with President and Sister Rehm and talked about transfers. There were some ward boundary changes in the North stake and so we had to discuss how that would affect the missionaries and then make some changes. We went to the hospital again to visit Jose and he is doing better. We had dinner that evening with the Fosters and that was funJ We had awesome spaghetti and meatballs. Then we went over to see Jesse again. He is progressing well towards baptism and his wife, who wasn’t too fond of it, has been having her heart softened by the spirit because she asked a question about if she were to be baptized! It was a great lesson and we made it out with some good cupcakesJ. That night, we were coming home and there were tons of cop cars stationed out with their lights on right by our apartment complex. Come to find out, there was a manhunt going on for two people who had stolen cars and then ditched them. One of them was armed and they told us to go into our home and to lock the door. Elder Stark and I wanted to form a vigilante possy and catch this guy but we did what they said. Haha good ‘ol 5th ward.
On Saturday, we were running really behind on watching instructional videos from The District. So what we did in the morning was got the projector, put it up on the wall, and binge watched The District so we could get caught up.

We saw Jose at the Hospital again and were able to get him a large print Book of Mormon for him to study. Later in the afternoon, we were able to get in and see Anthony and Deborah! We had a really great lesson about the Sabbath day and talked about how going to church helps us. They were both really excited to come to church the next day. Dinner was at the Severe’s and that was pretty awesome. They had actually lived in Germany when my dad was serving his mission there and he went over to do his laundry and stuff at their place like every week! So they had us over and we had a great dinner.

After dinner, we went and prepped Tyler Shumway for his baptismal interview! He is going to Utah to be baptized out there and so we need to prep a couple of things with him before he leaves. We are so excited for him! It was a good lesson.
On Sunday, It was my dad’s bday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! LOVE YOU!!! Haha, we started the day by going to Ward Council and talking about the people we are working with. Then, we went to church and had a great Sunday. Anthony and Deborah didn’t show up and we were pretty sad until we got a text from them saying that Anthony had a seizure in the shower while he was getting ready. We just hope that they are doing well and are keeping them in our prayers. After church, we went and gave Angela Avila, Jimmy’s mother, a blessing at the hospital. She is recovering well and just keeps trooping alongJ We went to the Park and talked to a lot of people there. Dinner was a Michael and Marly’s and we had come authentic Cambodian food. We had these rice paper wraps with noodles, lettuce, herbs, beef, shrimp, and SQUID!! There were little squids in the meat bowl!! I love to try new things and so I went all in. I’m not sure if I would make it myself and eat it again, but it was really neat to try it! Definitely a new thing to add to the list.

We then went and collected Key Indicators from the zone leaders and then headed to bed.
It has been a great and busy week and it only gets busier from here! Love you all and have a great week!
Elder LaRose

MISSION OFFICE:
4090 Center Park Dr
Colorado Springs, Colorado
80916

kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

WEEK #67 - Colorado Springs Mission Office

Hey Everyone! It has been a great week this week!


On Monday, we had a good Halloween and got to go shopping AND
we went to Colorado College to see an original Book of Mormon. It was really cool to see the original copy.

 After we went shopping, we went to the church and had a good couple of rounds of Basketball! After we were done with that, we went over to Michael and Marly’s to carve pumpkins with the sisters. We are not allowed to proselyte on Halloween night, so we had a good time playing games and then we got to carve our pumpkins. I put a BYU logo in mine! As we were leaving to go home, we drove past this one car and there was totally a clown in it!! It was super freaky looking and so Elder Stark sped away quickly.

On Tuesday, we made our way up to the North/East stakes in Colorado Springs to have another Zone Conference with the missionaries up there. The conference went well and Elder Stark and I ended up changing a couple of things around that ended up making things go a lot smoother in our teaching portion. After the conference, we went and picked some stuff up from the Aeroplaza building and then went to our dinner appointment. We had a really great lesson on prayer there. Prayer is really key to receiving blessings from the Lord and gaining a testimony. I like the scripture in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 18:20. Basically it says that if you pray and ask for something good, and believe that you’ll receive it, then you will receive it! There is no metaphorical meaning to this verse, it is straight up and trueJ That night, we went to pick up Elder Calderon. He is leaving for home a couple weeks early so he can attend a wedding. So we picked him up and then came back home. Sisters Topham and Anderson tried to scare us that by having us expecting Marly to drop off some leftovers. When they knocked, they tried to jump at us with masks on. We didn’t get scared but we did get confused haha.

On Wednesday, we woke up at like 5:50 and went to the church to workout. After that, we changed and went right to the airport to send Elder Calderon on his way. Then, we went and got ready for MLC. We showed up and had a good breakfast. This MLC was a really good one! We spent a lot of time talking about how we can help the missionaries have a deeper love for their Savior Jesus Christ. After that, I got ready to go up to Castle Rock again with Elder Lloyd for Exchanges! We made the drive up there and went straight to dinner which was with a family that I hadn’t been able to have much success in setting appointments. That was great to see and the family is really happy to have the missionaries over now. We had some other appointments that night and then we had some time to see some families like the Grats, the DeGolyers, the Snows, and Bishop RolfsonJ It was so good to see all of them againJ
On Thursday, we had a great day in Castle Rock. We hopped on our bikes for most of the morning and went to go see a ton of people. Being there that day really helped me to see some of the fruits of the efforts that I gave up there. We were able to get in touch with people that we just couldn’t contact when I was there and things went really well! We started the afternoon by having an investigator come and do a “church tour” which is where we go around the church to the different pictures and teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We take them through talking about faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We show them the baptismal font and end the tour in the chapel at the sacrament table. It is really a spiritual environment and the lesson went really well. He told us that he wants to be baptized! We then went and taught a family that had just moved up from Blanding Utah! I expressed my pity and told them I was from awesome MonticelloJ It was all good and we had a good lesson with the kids about the Plan of Salvation. We then went to see a less active member that recently went through a bad divorce. He is humbled and really wants to hold the Priesthood. So we are working with him to get to that point. We had dinner with Sister Alvarez and Esther and Andrew Wolfe! It was great Mexican food and they were all glad to see me again! After dinner, we went to have a lesson with Noe. As we were waiting at a red light, we saw this mouse running across the intersection and then a flipping OWL came down and swooped it up! It was so cool haha. We had a great lesson with Noe and he is doing really wellJ He is so close to baptism and absolutely loves the church. He attends the YSA ward in Parker and has made some really great friends there. He is looking for an answer to his prayers but doesn’t realize that he has gotten answers. He even got to shake hands with Elder Ronald A. Rasband and felt how awesome that was. We met up with our companions later that night and Elder Stark and I drove back down to the Springs.
On Friday, we had Zone training in the morning and that went really well. For lunch, we went to Cici’s pizza and they again didn’t say WELCOME TO CICI’S. lame. It was good though. We met with President and Sister Rehm after that and talked about the upcoming transfer. We made dinner for ourselves after that and then had a lesson with Jesse and Diana Howard. We had a good lesson on the Plan of Salvation! They both said “It just makes sense!” it went really well.
On Saturday, we went to help clean the church building and then had to dip to go do a training call. We got a call after lunch asking if we could go give a blessing to someone at the Hospital. It was a nonmember who was in a car jacking and was shot. He is recovering well and we were able to give him the blessing. We also went to see Elder Soller, who had taken a tumble off of a cliff and is in therapy to recover from his injuries. He is doing well and we are absolutely keeping him in our prayers. We got to meet both of his parents and they are there to help him out. We had dinner with the Hendry’s and then had a lesson with Tyler Shumway that evening. He is progressing well towards baptismJ
On Sunday, we had a special stake conference broadcast from Salt Lake City. We got to hear from Ulisses S. Soares, Devin G. Durrant, Ronald A Rasband, And this one lady whose name I forgot and I’m sorry! They talked about temples, teaching in the Savior’s way, and being an instrument in the Lord’s hand. We had some appointments with some people that Elder Stark found while we were on exchanges. We talked to this guy named Tovi who found the bible while he was in jail and turned his life around because of it. He accepted a Book of Mormon and wants us to meet him at the park where he fishes for our next meeting. We had dinner over at the McAllister’s and that was fun. They are in the Sand Creek ward and are willing to feed us when we don’t have people sign up. That evening, we had the work of salvation fireside and got to hear some amazing testimonies from recent converts to the church. It was a great time!
Thanks for all the emails! It’s so good to hear from all of you and have a great week!

Elder LaRose

MISSION OFFICE:
4090 Center Park Dr
Colorado Springs, Colorado
80916

kyler.larose@myldsmail.net