WEEK #83 - Pueblo Zone

Hey everyone! This week has been pretty good.
On Monday, we went and played some Volleyball and Basketball at the stake center with a bunch of other missionaries. Elder Stark was transferred into the zone so it was good to hang out with him more. I was able to get some really good spikes in. We had lunch with the Viehwegers and Brother Bundy in the afternoon and that was pretty great.
On Tuesday, we spent most of the morning emailing and everything. We had a good lesson with Sister Ford and then grabbed some lunch. In the afternoon, we went and saw Francis and Josephine and had a pretty good lesson with them there. Lately, it has been really hard to get a hold of Vanessa. She isn't responding to our texts or calls, and we haven't caught her at home yet. We have no idea why she isn't talking to us and it's pretty frustrating because her baptism was supposed to be this weekend. We just have to keep trying I guess. That was pretty discouraging for us. For dinner, we were given money so we went and got a pizza. After that, we went on splits with Brother Martin and were able to visit some more less active members and have good lessons.


On Wednesday, we went and helped Brother Dougherty on his barn for a little bit and he fed us lunch. Then we went down to the nursing home and got to color some pictures with everyone and that was fun haha. Later, we had a good lesson with Socorro, Asa, and Zach about the Law of Chastity. They haven't been quite living the law so it was good for us to talk about it and we are helping them to live it. Dinner was with the Spencer's and we had a great dinner and lesson there. They also let us wash our car out there so that was nice.


On Thursday, we had a short zone conference where we got to hear from President Rehm and the family services guy, Bishop Stohl. Both talks were great and it was a good pick me up. Afterwards, we did our weekly planning for a while. For dinner, we went with the Coombs to a really good restaurant. Then we came back and prepared the 4 talks we had to write for Saturday.
On Friday, we had interviews with President Rehm and that was nice. Elder Tallman was also transferred into the zone so we all went to Wendy's for lunch. We had a combined district meeting and Elder Tallman and I taught together. Dinner was with the Avery's and we had a good time there.
On Saturday, we had a training call in the morning and then spent the afternoon stopping by people. We set a return appointment with this really nice guy named John and hopefully that goes somewhere! We then went to help out on the barn again and it was freezing! We dug some more post holes for the fence and then helped out Alex more. We had dinner with Alex over at the Dougherty's and we were able to teach Alex the first lesson! He accepted a Book of Mormon to read and we are excited to be working with him more!

On Sunday, we had ward council in the morning and then church was pretty good. We were able to meet with Sister Landreth and discuss some people that we could try to work with. Then we were going to go out with Brother Bundy to do home teaching, but he got into a car crash on his way to pick us up. Everyone was alright and so he just postponed the home teaching. We went and visited a couple of active members with him and it was great. Brother Bundy is this seventy year old Vietnam Vet. Who is a Purple Heart recipient. Haha he is a trooper. We had dinner with the Archuleta's and taught a good lesson with Brother Martin there. We are working on getting them sealed together. It was a pretty good week! Thanks for everything and hope that you all have a good week! Especially Keldon who is turning 16 this week! Happy birthday!! Love you all.

kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

CURRENT ADDRESS:

4753 Eagleridge Cir. Apt. #103

Pueblo West CO 81008

MISSION OFFICE:

4090 Center Park Dr

Colorado Springs, Colorado

80916

WEEK #82 - Pueblo Zone

WEEK #82
12.21.17

Hey everyone! This week has been great! We have a new address too by the way. It is 4753 Eagleridge Cir. Apt. #103
On Monday, we had the last pday with the zone before transfers and everyone got together and played some basketball. Elder Perrins and I got our weekly ping pong playing in. Each week we play a couple games of ping pong and it is super fun. Elder Perrins is really good and usually wins. It was a good day and for dinner, we went over to the Biggerstaffs.
On Tuesday, it was transfer day for the rest of the mission but we stayed put. We also put stickers on our face per tradition.

It's crazy to think that training is already halfway over. We got news that we were moving so we started cleaning up a bunch of stuff and packing things away. We went and saw Linda Ford and read the scriptures. Later, we saw Francis and Josephine and talked about the temple. They were pretty frustrating because they said that we didn't need temples on the earth again. They really aren't progressing so we are going to have to go over less. Dinner was with the Martellaro's and it is always fun being around them. We
spent some good time there and had a good lesson too. It was a good Valentines day.
On Wednesday, we had a lesson with Sister Snyder and Brother Nanto. We taught the plan of Salvation and it went well. We went to the nursing home and played some more games with the tenants. Afterwards, we had a lesson with Asa, Socorro, an Zach about the Word of Wisdom. It was Elder Perrin's first time teaching about the Word of Wisdom and he did great. After that, we had dinner over at the Carters. Sister Carter was not feeling well so she wasn't present at dinner and her kids, Damon and Larae made dinner for us and ate with us haha. They made some pretty good bean soup and fry bread.
On Thursday, it was the big moving day. We moved out of the Cash's home and into an apartment. We met the housing coordinators there and got everything situated and moved in. I prefer to live in an apartment because I am less at ease in member homes but I am grateful for all of the members' sacrifices. We live on the bottom floor and it is a cozy one bedroom apartment. We spent a lot of the day moving in and then unpacking all of our stuff and finding a place for it.

We went and saw the Jim's in the later afternoon and that was good. It had been a while since we had seen them. Dinner was a pizza that was dropped off to us and so we ate it there and then did our studies.
On Friday, we had a good district meeting in the morning and have one new member of the district. Elder Koehler. I remember picking him up from the airport when I was an Assistant. Afterwards, we stopped by a ton of people that we just couldn't catch. Dinner was at the Sefcik's house and that was fun. She is from Russia and has and accent and everything. We had a good time being with their family and got to have a goo lesson with the kids. They commented on how they like having Elders in the ward again. We have gotten that from a couple of different people too so that's good.
On Saturday, we started the day on a weird note. Francis had been inviting us this whole time to a Christian Men's conference at his church. Well, we went to the Saturday part of it and it was pretty wild. With our white shirts and ties, Elder Perrins and I stuck out more than an Amish man working for Microsoft. There were a lot of people here and we got a lot of looks but a lot of friendly welcomes as well. After we checked in, we went into this amphitheater thing and it was something that I wasn't expecting at all. After this really long prayer, a band came out and started singing songs and everyone was jumping and swaying with their hands in the air saying "praise Jesus" and everything haha. I was like "What the heck is going on right now?" It was really different but neat to see people gathered for a good cause. Then they had this preacher guy  come and give a motivational speech on making decisions.

We left after that and then went to go and help bishop move some of his furniture around.  Then we went over to the Dougherty's to help Alex on the barn. This time, we were digging trenches for the electrical and water lines. It was hard work and at some points, we were digging out dirt with our hands.

Afterwards we went and saw Cass Bailey and talked to him for a little bit. He needs to get back to church more. Dinner was with the Ashton's and it was super fun. Te food was good and then we got to help their autistic son Caleb with his social skills by playing different interactive games with him. That night we had a good coordination meeting with Brother Martin and then retired for the night.
On Sunday, we had church in the morning. It was good because Asa and Socorro and Zach came again! Asa is feeling like he has lost all hope but he is still coming to church so that is good. We had a good talk with him too. We went and stopped by a lot of people after church and were able to find another less active lady to work with. We had dinner at Brother Sawyers home and had some spaghetti. We had a good fun lesson where we talked about cool things found in the scriptures. It was a good week! Hopefully this week goes even better.

Elder LaRose

kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

CURRENT ADDRESS:

4753 Eagleridge Cir. Apt. #103

Pueblo West CO 81008

MISSION OFFICE:

4090 Center Park Dr

Colorado Springs, Colorado

80916

WEEK #81 - Pueblo Zone

WEEK #81

Hey everyone! This week has been a good one!
On Monday, we did some emailing and then we met up with the APs! When they pulled up, it was Elder Stark, Elder Lloyd, and Elder Pexton! Elder Pexton will be replacing Elder Stark this Tuesday. So we got to have a good little reunion and then we went and got some lunch. Then, we picked up the zone leaders and then drove all the way out to Rye, Colorado. We went to see this place called Bishop's Castle. Y'all should look it up. It is this man made castle that this guy named Jim Bishop has been working on for years. It's pretty big and is basically put together with rocks, cement, and welded metal. There are a couple of metal spiral staircases that lead up to the top of the towers and you can look out across the mountains. The castle is definitely not up to code and there's not much between you and a big fall sometimes, which made it awesome. We got a lot of good pictures and it was great to be there with everybody.

 We drove back and then went to Goodwill to check out what they had. Dinner was at the Nanto's with Socorro and Asa and Zach. We had a good night with them and had a good lesson on enduring to the end.
On Tuesday, we had another good day. We had lunch with the Harrison's and that was really good. Afterwards, we had a lesson with Linda Ford and continued to read in the scriptures with her. Vanessa had to cancel her lesson with us because she was busy dealing with family stuff. I think an uncle of her's just passed away so they are going through all of that with the family. We went and saw Francis and Josephine and had a better lesson with them. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that has a lot more common ground. We had dinner at Burger King before we met up with Brother Ashby and Brother Morgan for splits. I went with Brother Ashby and we visited an active family while the others went to this less active home. It was great! We both got in and shared good messages. Afterwards, we met up and then went to the Maurello's. He is a less active member that told us that he only got baptized so he could marry his wife. So it is a little bit of a struggle trying to build his testimony up but it was good for us to be over there. We have their little girl a blessing before we left too. That night, we went and exchanged with the San Carlos Elders. I stayed in the area while Elder Perrins went to the other one.
On Wednesday, I was with Elder Riley for the day. He is a great guy from Yucaipa, California and we had a great day! He even has a little bit of a connection with my cousins the Salisbury's! In the morning, we went to visit Tori out in the sketchy junkyard part of our area. It was brief but good for her. We talked to her about prayer and she said that she was trying to get her life back in order. Her trailer smelled like Marijuana and pet poop. I could even see a couple of turds on the floor in the other room. Hopefully she does clean up and start over. After that, we went and did service at the nursing home. It was great to be with them and they all like having us come over. We had an ice cream social and then played a game with them. Afterwards, we had dinner with the Cooks and they are all awesome. They have 4 kids and we taught them about the restoration using the little cups that mom sent me haha. We then went over to the Coombs and gave them both a blessing because they weren't feeling well. It was good to be over there and we talked a little more about the priesthood. Later, we went over to the former bishop's house and had a great lesson there with his wife.
On thursday, we did our weekly planning through the morning and then went to go and help the Avery's move. They only moved a couple of apartments over so it wasn't too bad. Then we went and did some more tracting before we went to dinner with the Smith's. we had a good dinner and a lesson about enduring to the end and they are working on getting their kid adopted.
On Friday, we had a good district meeting where I talked about having better studies as a missionary. After that, we wet on exchanges and I left Elder Perrins in the area while I went with Elder Laga. Elder Laga is a great guy and we have a lot of things in common! His dad is the institute director at the University of Montana, he moved his senior year too, his first name is Kyle, and we both had 1970 jeeps. We had a good day together and went to see a bunch of people on our bikes. We stayed on the bikes for most of the day and that was great.

We did some tracting, and the first door we knocked on was a really big brick house. The people opened the door and invited us in! It wasn't totally what we were expecting but they invite us in and offered to take us around the house for a tour! Haha. So we did. We went around the house and it turns out that whenever the missionaries have knocked on their door, they have always shown them around the house. They said that they are happy with their own faith but always are kind to the missionaries. They even took us into a room where they have tons of Genealogy and stuff like that. They do family history work better than most LDS people haha! Then we went to dinner with this Filipino family and had a Filipino soup. It was great.

On Saturday, we were still on exchanges, so we woke up and did our studies and then went to go help a family move some gravel around their house so they could landscape it. Most of the houses in Colorado are landscaped with rocks and things like that instead of grass. Especially in Pueblo where it is more of a desert. We met up with Elder Perrins and Elder Pope again and then Elder Perrins and I went to go help Alex work on the barn. We had a good gospel discussion with him and made more progress on the barn. Dinner was with the Martins and we had a good meal and afterwards, we did our coordination meeting with Brother Martin.
On Sunday, we had PEC and Ward Council in the morning and then had a good time at church! Vanessa wasn't able to make it because of more family stuff but Asa finally made it! Church was good and after that, we came home and had lunch. Then I got to work on a essay for a scholarship. Dinner was with Willie Siddoway and his family. They are super awesome too! We had elk back strip steaks and they were delicious. We had a good lesson with their crazy kids and then got to mess around with them downstairs. We would pick then up and throw them at the bean bag and then roll them down the stairs on it haha. It was a great night and a great week. Elder Perris manages to find us a new investigator while we were on exchanges so that's pretty awesome.
Hope that everyone has a good valentines day and a good rest of the week. Love you!
Elder LaRose

kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

ADDRESS:

4 Colt Court

Pueblo West CO 81008

MISSION OFFICE:

4090 Center Park Dr

Colorado Springs, Colorado

80916

WEEK #80 - Pueblo Zone

Hey everyone! It's been another good week.
On Monday, we got to email and then we went and played some tennis. Elder Perrins played tennis in high school and so did this other Elder, so they went and had some good matches  against each other. The rest of us just smacked the ball around and then played spike ball. It was a good day! We went over to the Avery's and had delicious enchiladas. Then we went and exchanged with the Zone Leaders. I got to have Elder Garton with me for the day.
 

On Tuesday, it was the last day of the month so we rode our bikes everywhere. We had to stay in town for most of our visits because the ride out to Pueblo West is pretty far for bikes. So we went and stopped by a bunch of people. We got to see David, someone that we had met when we first got to the area and had a good lesson there.  Elder Garton commented on how out of shape he was from all the biking we were doing haha. We had a great lesson with Vanessa! We brought Sister Cook along with us for the lesson and talked about the Plan of Salvation with her. Sister Cook was just awesome during the lesson. Vanessa understood very well and we set a baptism date with her for March 4th. That was awesome. It was funny because after we extended the baptism date to her she said "yeah, what time?" Haha she is really looking forward to that date. After the lesson, we got back on our bikes and did some finding. Dinner was out in Pueblo West with the Spencer's so we drove out there and got to share a message about the Plan of Salvation with the fam. We went and had another lesson with the Doerrs and talked about how the Savior's suffering for us motivates us to share His gospel. Then we went over to the Smith's for a lesson about temples and about being sealed. They have not been sealed in the temple yet, so we are working with them towards that. We may start going through the Preparing to enter the Holy Temple book with them. They are progressing really well and we are excited for them.

On Wednesday, we had a lesson with Sister Snyder in the morning and taught the message of the Restoration. She is still struggling with her worthiness but still has a strong testimony of the gospel and that is what we are trying to build. Afterwards, we went into town for lunch and Elder Perrins had his first Slopper. It was pretty good. Then we went over to the Nursing home and got to play some games with the people there. They really like us coming over and it's always good to see them.

After that, we had a quick lesson with Socorro, Asa, and Zach about the Holy Ghost. We are working through the new member lessons with them and it's going well. Asa definitely has a pretty big personality and he is pretty jittery so  it makes the teaching fun. Then we went to dinner at the Cluff's and had some great hamburgers. They still have all of their little puppies and they're still cute. We shared a message with all 6 of the kids and they were awesome.
On Thursday, we drove our car to the shop to have the traction control serviced at 8:00am. Then we came home and did our studies and tackled our weekly planning. We biked to lunch and then did some stop bys. Finally, at like 4:00 we got our car back. We had dinner with Bishop Klemm and his wife. It was great. Our final appointment cancelled on us which was a bummer.
On Friday, we had zone training with the whole zone and President and Sister Rehm attended this one. It was good to see them again. It was a good training and we got to learn a lot.
Afterwards, we went over to Sister Ford's and helped read the Book of Mormon with her. Then we went and saw the Reed's and had a lesson with Brielle, who was going to be baptized on Saturday. Then we went and saw the Burns, who had a son getting baptized on Saturday as well. We had dinner over at the Bailey's and got to meet all of them that night. They are pretty cool. Both of daughters are returned missionaries.
On Saturday, we went to the stake center for the baptisms of the kids. That was super great. After that we went to an apartment complex to figure out our next housing situation. They are going to be moving us into apartments because the Cash's time is up for housing us. The rest of the day was pretty slow. We stopped by a ton of people that we had expected to be home on a Saturday but nobody was home. We had dinner with the Viehwegers at a Chinese restaurant. Then we came home and tackled more of our studies.
On Sunday, there was no ward council or anything like that, so we came to church. It was a great Sunday! The only thing that stunk was that Vanessa didn't come to church. We kept crinking our necks to the doorways hoping that she would come through. But it's alright. After church, we went and met with the Elder's quorum president, Brother Siddoway, to discuss some people that we could visit. Then we went and stopped by the Jim's but they weren't home. They were probably watching the Superbowl somewhere. Superbowl Sundays suck as a missionary. Nobody wants to let you in and it's hard to be completely productive. We saw sister Larson and checked in on her too. We came back and broke our fast by making breakfast burritos. It was a good rest of the day and training is going well.
Thanks everyone for the contact and stuff:) have a great week
Elder LaRose

MISSION OFFICE:

4090 Center Park Dr

Colorado Springs, Colorado

80916

kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

NEW ADDRESS:

4 Colt Court

Pueblo West CO 81008