WEEK #100 - Cheyenne Mountain YSA

Hey everyone! This week has gone by pretty slow but that's usually hat happens during the first week of the transfer.
On Monday, Elder Nelson and I went and got haircuts in the morning at Paul Mitchell hair school. They usually do a good job. We went and emailed and then went to lunch. We met up with the rest of our zone at cottonwood park and had a good time there.

We played some basketball with a group of kids that challenged us and that was pretty fun. I stuffed this one kid really hard haha. We signed transfer journals and stuff like that and then went to dinner. FHE was really fun too. They had water balloon volley ball going on and it was a good game but actually ended up into a huge water fight. The missionaries were all over it and I got soaked. I got a bucket of water and threw it all over Sister Anderson and Jhazmine Haha then someone blindsided me with a huge bucket of water haha it was a lot of fun.
On Tuesday, we had transfers and I got to say goodbye to Elder Nelson. He was a great companion. I was on exchanges with Elder Burrows and we went and had a lesson with Samantha. It was a great lesson and we were able to help her feel that peace. She is going through more treatments and they are taking toll on her. We were able to set a baptism date with her for July 15th! She is so prepared to have the gospel! She has the most incredible faith that I have ever seen. She is learning to trust that The Lord really does have a plan for her. We had to help her stand up and walk to her car because of how weak she is feeling. It was a good lesson. Then we got back and met our companions! I got to meet Elder Johns. He is from Fredericksburg, Iowa and has been on his mission for about 20 months. I am looking forward to these last 6 weeks! We wet and did service at the YMCA and they had us sand down a fence to get it ready to paint. After that we went to the store and got Elder Johns some groceries we were supposed to have another lesson with Bernadette but we showed up to a note on the door that was pretty mean. We jut laughed it off and said "oh well" and headed home.
On Wednesday, We had a lesson out in Falcon with some of the sister missionaries out there that are teaching this YSA age girl. The lesson was awesome and filled with the spirit. She has already been reading the Book of Mormon and is super awesome. The member's house we had the lesson at had a son that introduced Tori (the girl) to the gospel. It was so awesome. We came back to the Springs and played some bingo with the people at the Turner house. Afterwards, we went and had another lesson with Samantha. We met her at UCCS and were able to find a study room. We talked a lot about how she is doing and taught her about the Restoration and about the priesthood. We were able to giver her a Priesthood blessing too. It was so powerful and Samantha truly felt the Spirit and peace come over her. We had a lesson with an investigator but they weren't there when we showed up. Our next lesson was with AJ and Sean Kenner and that was good. They are some pretty awesome people. We came back home and had a late dinner after that.
On Thursday, We had to drive some Elders down to the mission office in the morning. While we were there, we got a call from Samantha. She found out that her cancer is terminal and that they want her to kind of just live it out. They gave her from as little as 10 days to a couple months to live. It is really hard news for her to hear and she is struggling with all of it but has such incredible faith. She sure knows that God has a plan for her. We had a lesson later that afternoon with Lexi and that was good too. We did some weekly planning and then had dinner. Institute was really good too. We talked about Charity. In Moroni 7:44 it talks about meekness and lowliness of heart. That is actually a huge part of Charity. Being meek is an important prerequisite to having charity! Charity is an important prerequisite to our salvation as well. It was a great lesson.
On Friday, we had a good district meeting and then had lunch together. We then went to UCCS and talked to the students there on campus. We ran into a couple of members too! Afterwards, we did some finding and were able to have a couple people invite us back. That was really awesome. We had dinner with Gilbert at Chick-fil-a and that was awesome. For the mingle, we got to go hiking with all the YSAs at Ute Valley park. That was really fun:)
On Saturday, We had a pretty good day. We went downtown and went contacting there. afterwards we went tracting for a good while and were actually able to have a really great lesson with these two guys from Alabama that had just moved in. We had good talks and the lesson was like 2 hours long! They had a lot of questions that were really good and we were able to answer them all really well. We had dinner at Sister Evans house and it was great.
On Sunday, we had a good day at church! There were a good amount of people there. Things are thinning out for sure with summer being here. There are a lot of people that are gone. After church we went with Gilbert and the sisters contacting at memorial park. When we got there we got to have a lesson with Samantha over skype. We found out that she actually lives in the Sister's ward boundaries so we had a transition lesson there. Because of the seriousness of Samantha's condition, we were able to talk to President Rehm and he gave permission for her to be baptized as soon as we teach her everything. So we are thinking that this next week she should be able to be ready:) We went contacting around the park and were able to have some pie with a pastor that was celebrating his birthday haha. We then had dinner again with Mike and Randi and that was awesome as always. It was a good week.
Thanks for all the support from everyone!! Love you all

WEEK #99 - Cheyenne Mountain YSA

Hey Everyone! This week has been another great week!
On Monday, we went to Palmer Park for pday. It is an awesome park that is in the middle of Colorado Springs and it feels like you are in the Mountains! It was really fun. We hung around and then went and hiked along a trail. We got some good pictures along the way haha.

We came back and had dinner with the Porters and they are fun. They are the YSA representatives for one of the stakes we cover. For FHE that night, we had a good lesson and then played volleyball and it was pretty fun.
On Tuesday, we had a full day all day. We did service at the YMCA and then went and had a lesson with Naomie. She is a YSA investigator and we were able to talk more about the Book of Mormon. She seems curious about what we believe and hopefully we see some real interest coming from her. We went down south for dinner and had a great time with Brother Arnold. We had a lesson after that that was the most intense lesson I have ever been in. It was an older lady and her son that we showed up to and when we walked in, she was on the phone with someone (we think it was her pastor or something). We looked at the table and she had documents about Joseph Smith printed off and Elder Nelson and I looked at each other and were like, "Here we go..." The lesson was pretty awesome! They were definitely confrontational but we were able to testify so strongly with the spirit and were able to refute their claims against us. It was so strong that it led to a change of heart in the older lady and she invited us back! It was really cool to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost with us in that lesson. We met with two YSA girls, Angela and Ashley, after that and actually had a really beneficial lesson. They had a lot of great questions about what we believe and we were able to talk about the Book of Mormon too. They both took copies and we are going to be going back this week sometime.
On Wednesday, We helped Naomie move out of her apartment and then met with Samantha! Samantha is the girl who is a cancer survivor and who had her 4 year old sister pass away two weeks ago. When we saw her for this lesson, she told us that she went back to the hospital and that they found out that she has cancer again... I almost cried. She also said that this time around, she only has a 25% chance of making it through.... I almost cried again. She is such a sweet girl and I hope the absolute best for her! We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. She want's to be baptized when she is ready too! Please keep her in your prayers! She started treatments this week and her parents left yesterday to go back to Japan. After that, we went and played bingo with the old ladies and it was awesome. We then went to the Academy and had some lessons with a couple cadets. Dinner was way out there but it was really great. We had it with Lauren Filichia and her family. We had another lesson with Anitra! We met her last week and taught her by the poolside. We went over the Plan of Salvation with her and she accepted it pretty well.
On Thursday, we had a lesson up in Black Forest in the morning and that was nice. We did our weekly planning that day and stopped by some people. For dinner, we went to Red Lobster and had some good food there because it was National Lobster Day! haha Thanks to Nana and Papa for that one!! Institute was incredible. Brother Goss is a great teacher and talked about the doctrine of the Holy Ghost and the Role of the Holy Ghost. I learned a lot from that lesson.
On Friday, we had a good time at district meeting and talked about teaching together in unity.

Afterwards, we went to UCCS and talked to the people out there. We were going to have a dinner with a less active member, but he didn't answer us about where to go and so we made stuff on our own. The mingle was pretty fun too. There were only a few people there and it was really great.
On Saturday, we went contacting at Memorial Park and there was a Celtic festival going on and so we got to see and talk to a lot of people with kilts on haha. It was a really good day. We stayed down south and knocked on some doors down there. Dinner was pizza at the house where a bunch of YSA guys live and it was pretty cool being there.
Sunday was great as well! Church was really good and Gilbert gave an awesome talk.

Elder Nelson and I also got roped into singing in sacrament meeting. So we went up and sang How Great Thou Art. We went contacting for a bit after church with Gilbert and the sisters. It was pretty good! Dinner was with Mike and Randi and the APs haha it was good to see them and the other missionaries there. They made us awesome tacos:) We found out that Elder Nelson is going to be transferred! I am really sad to see him leave. We have had tons of great laughs over these past 6 weeks. I will be getting Elder Johns and he seems like a pretty cool guy! We will have a good time together:) Thanks for all the support from everyone! I love you all:)

WEEK #98 - Cheyenne Mountain YSA

Hey everyone! What a great week!
On Monday, our zone met up in Manitou Springs for pday and we had a great time. We went to this little place called graffiti falls and hung out there. It's a waterfall that is near a bridge that has tons of graffiti around it. Had some fun climbing around and then came back down the trail to a cave where we went inside for a little bit.










I got to set up my hammock out there and that was pretty awesome. For dinner, we went to Rudy's and it was sooo good. Hannah Blanchard and Gilbert took us. FHE was pretty fun too. There was a scavenger hunt around town that was organized and it looked really fun. We didn't go on the hunt because we didn't have enough people in our group so we stayed at the church and played some games.
On Tuesday, it was a pretty good day. We spent some time at the YMCA doing service by pulling weeds around the building. It was a nice hot day so we got tan while doing it. After that, we went down south and did some contacting down there. It is pretty difficult to find young single adults while knocking on doors in apartment complexes. We didn't meet too many people in the places we went. However, right before dinner, we knocked on a couple of doors and were able to find people that want us back! One of them is a college student at UCCS named Angela! She is Buddhist and is also a philosophy major and so she wants to learn more about what we believe. It was pretty cool. We had dinner with the sisters and a member from their ward and it was pretty awesome. We had a good day.
On Wednesday, we started the day by going to UCCS and we got to see a miracle happen that day! Right as we started to talk to people, a girl we saw at the parking garage had followed us to where we were. So I started a conversation with her and said, "Have you ever talked to missionaries before?" She replied with "No, but I have always wanted to!" Her name is Samantha and she has been through a lot. We got to talking to her and introduced the Book of Mormon to her. She openly accepted it and it was wonderful. She also opened up to us about some of the trials she has been going through. She is 20 and is a cancer survivor and has been in remission for about a year. That caused her to have side effects like balance issues, and overheating. Also, when we talked to her that day, she told us that her 4year old baby sister with Down syndrome fell out of her crib, broke her arm, went into a coma, and when she was given the anesthesia, she never woke up, and that was only 6 days prior. Her parents are in the military and were stationed in Japan at the time all of this happened. It's pretty crazy how he is handling all of this and we were able to really help her out. We used the Book of Mormon to talk about God's love for us and about hope for those who have passed on before us. She said that the lesson really helped a lot and we gave her a conference talk from Elder Holland to watch. We are so happy that she was led to us. She is such a sweet girl and deserves all the love that we and God and His gospel have to offer her. After that miracle, we got to go and play bingo with the ladies at the turner house. It is always a new adventure when we go over there and it's great haha. Then we got to meet with one of the cadets who is pretty cool and talked about missionary work with him. He sent us to this house that was nearby and told us to knock on it. It was actually a house of missionaries for another church. It was awkward but pretty funny too. Dinner was out in Falcon with Jhazmine and Gilbert. They are some of my favorite people so it was awesome. We then drove back to the springs and had a lesson with Amiera about missionary work. She is really funny and is working with some of her friends so that is great. We stopped by one more person but they weren't home.
On Thursday, we had a good morning and then Samantha invited us to join her for lunch. So we went to Chipotle and got to talk to her more. She is definitely struggling but wants to meet with us to feel that peace and relief. It is definitely going to take time too. You don't just get over your sister's death in a week. Later we had a lesson with Damion Howard and got to talk about missionary work with him. Afterwards, we did our weekly planning and then had dinner on our own. Institute was really great that night too. We had one of the return missionaries bring one of his friends, Jake to institute and he loved it. Jake recently moved to the springs and isn't sure he believes in God. However, he wants to believe and feel the peace that God offers us. It was really cool.
On Friday, we had a good district meeting with everyone and learned about using the scriptures in our teaching. That is something that I can definitely work on. When we use the scriptures in our teaching, it automatically brings the spirit into the lesson. After district meeting, we actually got to go and record a song that Elder Nelson and I wrote. It's pretty good aside from the fact that I am in it but we had a good time there in his home recording the different parts and stuff.

We had dinner with Gilbert and the sisters at Red Robin and it was delishhhh. The mingle was fun too and we got to play volleyball. We had a less active member come to that so it was really cool.
On Saturday, we had a lesson in the morning but they cancelled on us. Our lesson later in the afternoon also cancelled on us so we had an open day pretty much. We went to Costa Vida or lunch with the other YSA missionaries. The sisters had stolen my wallet and froze it into a block of ice haha. So I had to break the ice around it and unwrap it all. No damage was done. We went contacting at Fox Run park and didn't have a whole lot of success but ran into a couple of members there. They gave us some food and then we continued on our way. We got to talk to this guy named Anthony and it was really cool! He was sitting by himself and so we went up to him and started talking to him. He was really open and had a lot of great questions. We got his info so we can contact him later. Our other two appointments we had cancelled on us so we went and stopped by a couple of people before going to dinner at the Paige's out in Falcon. They are so awesome! We got delicious ribs and Dutch oven potatoes. They also told us that they are going to be going on a special diet as a family for a month and so we got to leave with a TON of food from their food storage. It was mana from heaven. They are hilarious too so we had a good time.
On Sunday, We had a good day at church and then went contacting afterwards. We also had a great lesson with Jake. He is a new investigator that we have. Another great week in the books! Love you all!
Elder LaRose

WEEK #97 - Cheyenne Mountain YSA

Hey everyone! Another pretty good week in the books.
On Monday, we had an awesome day. In the morning, we met up with Gilbert and Jhazmine and they drove our whole district to the mountains to go hiking. We went and hiked St. Mary's falls. It was really beautiful up there. The hike was a good one and we all had tons of fun. One of the Elders was being dumb and decided to go ahead of the group but ended up taking a wrong turn. We were all at the falls and he wasn't there yet so we huddled together and I got to say the prayer for him to be okay and to find us. Like 2 minutes later he comes running up the trail and was able to find us. I guess prayer can work quickly sometimes haha. We made our way back down the mountain and I only tripped down the trail once. In the afternoon, the YSA wards had a picnic held at the Melissa building. It was pretty good food and a good time with everyone. We played some basketball with a bunch of the YSAs and that was awesome. It was a pretty good game too. There were some huge Polynesians there that nobody wanted to get in the way of haha. We also played chair soccer too. After that, our district went to 7 eleven and got slurpees together. It was such a fun day together. Later that evening, we had a great lesson with Jhazmine at the church. She is a rock star haha.
On Tuesday, we got to email because the libraries were closed on Monday so that was good. We found out the details for Sister McFarland too. She is going home to figure things out with some doctors and is leaving on Thursday morning. We gave her another blessing with this news. She is such a trooper. She didn't ever stop working hard even though she was in pain all day. It's frustrating for her to be having to take a break but she is going to do all she can to come back out as soon as possible. We all went to lunch together and then afterwards went and washed our cars. There was a little bit of a shaving cream fight between Elder Nelson and Sister Anderson and so they were hosed off by the power sprayer at the car wash haha. The other elders needed a ride after that to Black Forest to drop off a baptismal record to the member who lives out there and so we have them a ride to it. Dinner was at Chick-fil-a and then afterwards, we had a couple of lessons at the church. First we met with Laura Coke and then Alyssa Crawford. Both of them are really awesome and we had great lessons.
On Wednesday, we had zone conference for most of the day! It was President and Sister Rehm's last round of zone conferences. They talked about the importance of having a belief and foundation on Jesus Christ. We also talked about the shafts in the whirlwind that satan throws at us. President Rehm said that sometimes the shafts will come at us because of temptation but sometimes they come just Ecuador we are human. Sometimes The Lord needs to have us go through affliction so He can make His works manifest in us. I really liked that advice. After the conference, we drove around and contacted some people before coming back to town and going to dinner with Miriam Griffin. We went to Costa Vida and it was pretty bomb. After dinner, we went over to say goodbye to Sister McFarland. It's sad to see her go.
On Thursday, we got free haircuts at Paul Mitchell hair school and then went contacting at UCCS after that. It was pretty effective too. We got lunch afterwards and then went to the church and had a good lesson with Lauren Filichia. Dinner was with the Churchill's down south and then we had to go all the way back north for a lesson with Kynzee before institute. Institute was pretty fun too and the lesson was awesome. It was about the resurrection and how things will happen.
On Friday, we had a good district meeting with everyone. Sister Miller is the sister that replaced Sister McFarland and she is pretty cool. After lunch we weekly planned and set up a ton of appointments. We had a lesson with Megan at the church too and it was good. We have been meeting with like all the members in the ward and having a lesson about missionary work and then role playing how to open your mouth and direct the conversations you have with people to the gospel. It has been really good. The mingle was pretty fun too we did a lot of different things like chair soccer and whatnot. We also made inspirational cards with quotes on them that were going to go to a soup kitchen.
On Saturday, we had some good studies and then we went contacting at Palmer Park. There weren't a whole lot of people there to talk to but we did come across a group that was LARPing. They basically are grown men and women who dress up and paint their faces and fight each other with homemade swords and other weapons.

It is pretty funny to watch but we went up to them and talked to them about it. I even got to fight Sister Anderson for one round. She still thinks she won but that's not true. We went to a different park and were able to have a little more success there. Later, we were asked by our bishop to help our ward set up chairs for stake conference. But when we got there, there was no one there to help. So Elder Nelson and I set up all the chairs. From the overflow to the back of the gym. It was pretty ridiculous that nobody helped but we did it anyway. We drove to our dinner after that and had a good time with Mitch. We came back up for the adult session of stake conference and that was pretty good. President and Sister Rehm got to speak too. It was a long day but we just gotta keep pushing through.
On Sunday, we had stake conference in the morning but we went to the jamboree building and it was broadcast to us there. After the conference, we had a correlation meeting over the phone with Mormon and it was good. Then we went to memorial park and talked to a lot of people there. We walked over to a field and saw that there was a cricket league out there playing a game! So we walked up and started talking to one of the coaches on the side and he told us all about cricket. We also got to talk to him about the gospel and he opened up to us and accepted a Book of Mormon and we got his info so we can set something up. It was pretty awesome. We had dinner with the Lorenc's and it was so good! They are just awesome people to e around haha. Sister Lorenc even tried to put a good word in for me with her granddaughter who is going to BYU haha. It was pretty funny. It was a pretty good day too. Also when Elder Nelson and I have been getting in for the night, we have been working on a song that we are writing and we actually finished it on Sunday. There is a member that has a studio that is near us so one of these days we are going to go in and record it because it is pretty awesome:) we have titled it Floral Friday for now. But anyways, thanks for all the support from everyone! Things are going well out here. I love you all and hope you have a great week