WEEK #105 - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Hey everybody! It's crazy to think that this will be my last weekly email on my mission! I am so grateful for all of your support and the experiences that I have had here. It has been an incredible last week here in Colorado Springs.
On Monday, we went to the church in the morning and played some games there with Gilbert and the sisters. We played water war, that card game from the tonight show. Then, we were able to have someone take all of us to the top of Pikes Peak! 

A member of the YSA had their mom take us up:) it was so much fun! The drive was beautiful the whole way up and towards the top, it looked like you were just driving into the sky! Our ears were popping the whole way up. The mom who drove us warned us that she had depth perception issues and that really made the whole car ride interesting. We kind of thought we were going to die at some points where she would cross the yellow line haha. We made it to the top and it was gorgeous! It was mostly clear up there but there were big dark clouds looming closely. There is a gift shop up there and we got to go and check things out. The dark clouds kept coming in and the hair on Sister Anderson's head was sticking up because of the static electricity in the air! We got some good pictures and then headed down because it was starting to rain and there were lightning warnings. We drove back in a hailstorm for a minute and then it was just raining. Part way down the road, they stop every car and check the brakes and make you pull over and cool off in your brakes are over 300 degrees. When it was our turn, they scanned us and our brakes were 680 degrees! The mom didn't use the engine to break and so we had to cool down for about 45 minutes and so we went into their other gift shop and messed around. We made it back alright and had a couple minutes to email and stuff. FHE was pretty good too! We played a fun matching game thing.
On Tuesday, I got to go on exchanges with Elder Williams! We had a great day there too. We did some service at the YMCA and then picked up one of the young men to teach with us. It was a great day of teaching and then we got to go and teach some members that were back from Saudi Arabia. They wanted to have their son taught the lessons by the missionaries so we taught him all of the first 3 lessons :)
On Wednesday, we started off by going to UCCS and had a good time there! Then we went to the turner house and played bingo with the tenants for the last time! They were all so nice and were sad to see me leave! We had a lesson with Daniel at the church and read the scriptures with him because he didn't read our last commitment. After that we went and helped a person in the sister's ward move out. For dinner we went to Rudy's and got to meet Elder Henning and his companion there and the sisters came too. It was super good and was great to see them. We then went to the church for correlation with the Mt. Herman ward mission leader. As we were leaving, we saw Spencer Pirzadeh leaving too and he was like "boys, get in my car I need to vent" haha and so we got in his car and he told us about all the drama he was going through with girls haha it was a good talk

On Thursday, we deep cleaned our apartment in the morning because if inspections and headed down to the Bishop's Storehouse and helped out there. After we were done there, we weekly planned and discussed everyone that we had been working with. We then met with the elders and sisters over some of the family wards and that was really good. We hope that it will help with the disconnect between the YSAs and the family wards. Dinner was with the Allreds and it was great! Then we drove to institute and had a great lesson there:)
On Friday, we got a call in the morning from the sisters because Sister Anderson got pretty sick that night and she needed a blessing. So we went over and got to do that. We had district meeting in the morning but before that we showed up and made cardboard coffins for Sister Anderson and I because your last district meeting is known as your funeral haha. 

Elder Johannesson conducted the district meeting and it was super great:) we went to UCCS again and handed out free lemonade. After that I went and said bye to Evan McHardy who is super awesome! We had dinner at the church with the sisters because both our dinners cancelled so we just ordered a pizza. The mingle was pretty fun and we just played volleyball but it was a great time. I got to say bye to a bunch of people there.
On Saturday, it was July 29th which means that two years ago I entered into the MTC in Provo and started my mission there! Crazy! In the morning, we went and taught James Jackmon and had a great lesson. He is working towards getting a temple recommend and is super great. We had lunch with the Paige's out in Peyton and that was awesome:) they fed us some good ribs haha. We came back and went contacting for a little bit and then I went home to start packing up my stuff!! We had dinner with the sisters again and then went down to memorial park. A little while ago I had seen that they were doing a color run down there and so I signed our district up to volunteer and throw color at the runners. When we got there, we met the guy running the thing and apparently he is a member and so we got t shirts and he set us up at a good spot to throw color. 

It was so much fun! We got to cake all of the runners and then got to throw the color at each other too haha. After the runners were done, they told us to go to the stage where the DJ was and we got to throw T-shirts and color packets into the crowd. He gave us a shout out telling everyone that we were missionaries and we love doing service. We got to go in the crowd with buckets and everyone loved it. We drove back and cleaned ourselves up from all the color. Haha it was a great night.
On Sunday we had a great time at church. It was great to be around everyone and I got to say some more goodbyes there. We then went contacting with Gilbert and the sisters down at memorial park. That was really fun and we were able to hand out 3 copies of the Book of Mormon to some kids there. We came back and then drove to dinner with the Lorenc's and it was great! I am going to miss them. We got to go over to the Evans and roast s'mores with them and the sisters. It was a lot of fun. 

Then we drove up to monument and had a great lesson with Dara. I realized part way through that these are the final lessons that I will be teaching as a missionary. When I was bearing my testimony I kinda tested up and it was really powerful. That was it for the night and then we came home.
Today we will be going to hike Stanley Canyon on the Academy and then going to FHE. Tuesday is going to be transfer day and on Wednesday we will go to the temple and then on Thursday I will get picked up by my family!!!
I am so grateful for who these two years have shaped me to become.  I wouldn't trade the experiences I have had here for anything. I will love the people of Colorado for the rest of my life and am so grateful for the many friends that I have made here. I know that what I have been teaching is true! I know that the fullness of the gospel is restored to the earth today through the Prophet Joseph Smith and that the Book of Mormon is the very evidence of this and that it is truly the word of God. Thank you to all who have followed me through this adventure of a lifetime. I love you all and will see you soon!

-- 

Elder Kyler LaRose

****HOMECOMING TALKS****

Aug 3rd @ 11am. Monticello 1st Ward, Monticello, UT (Stake Center)

Aug 20th @ 9:30am. Madison Ward, Madison, CT

FUTURE EMAIL: klarose21@gmail.com

WEEK #104 - Cheyenne Mountain YSA - 10 DAYS LEFT!!! (says the MOM!)

**yes, this mom is excited!!
*** DATES TO REMEMBER***
-6 Aug @ 11am, Monticello 1st Ward, Monticello, UT (Stake Center on Main Street) - Elder LaRose will do a Homecoming Testimony
-20 Aug @ 9:30 am, Madison Ward, Madison, CT - Elder LaRose will do his Homecoming Talk


WEEK #104
Hey everyone! time is short again this week.

On Monday, we went and hiked 7 bridges down in Cheyenne Canyon and it was great! We had a great time as a district there. Afterwards, we met Bishop at the church and had dinner with them. FHE was pretty fun! We were supposed to play capture the flag but because of the rain, we played volleyball.

On Tuesday, we did some service at the YMCA and afterwards went down south and contacted down there. We went to UCCS with a snow cone machine and got to hand out free snow cones to the students there! it was a great tactic because tons of people came and talked to us then. After that, we went to the church and started making dinner. We all decided that since Gilbert feeds the missionaries all the time, the missionaries would make him dinner instead! So we met Gilbert and the sisters at the church and had some pizza and wings. It was pretty good! We got to have a good talk with Gilbert too.

On Wednesday, we went to UCCS in the morning and had the snow cones again. We were able to meet a lot of people too! We went and played bingo and had a great time there. After a good lesson with Daniel DeFord, we had dinner delivered to us.

On Thursday, we went to the storehouse and helped out down there. We did some weekly planning and then went and did some finding! We had dinner and then went to institute which was really awesome. Brother Goss taught the lesson and we discussed the talk from Elder Holland about staying in the choir. We were having a good discussion and then he opened it up for everyone to bear their testimony about a hymn and then we would all sing a verse from that hymn. It was really great! I loved it a lot.

On Friday, we had a good district meeting that was taught by the zone leaders. We had the other district join us and that was good too. Afterwards, we did some finding Mt. Herman and then visited some of the family ward missionaries to coordinate YSA efforts with them. I got to see Elder Lloyd again out of that visit so it was good. We had a great dinner at Drifters with Kristin Mason and then had a good time at the mingle. We played this cool game called escape from Alcatraz. It was really fun.

On Saturday, I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and stayed in the area with Elder Williams and Elder Johannesson. We went to Canon City in the morning and ate for free at big burger world and got to see Elder Nelson. We talked with him about the YSAs and it was great. After that we went to memorial park and went contacting there. We showed up and there was a pro wake boarding contest going on and a ton of people there! I love how we plan to go somewhere and there is awesome stuff happening when we get there and tons of people for us to talk to. We were going around the park and there were some young guys playing basketball and so we went and asked if we could play! They said yes and we were able to play with them for a short time. Afterwards, we invited them all to the YSA and one of them accepted a Book of Mormon! It was great. We also got to run through a bouncy house that was set up haha. We met with more of the family ward missionaries too. We had dinner at the Jensens and had to drive up to Larkspur to get to their house. It was a YSA social for the Mt. Herman ward and we got to talk to a lot of people. At the table we were at, we shared a ton of funny mission stories and life stories with the people there and had good laughs.

On Sunday, We had good meeting in the morning and then had a good time at church. After church, there was a linger longer and we got to have some good taco salad and talk with some of the people that came! We had a less active member show up and that was great. We went contacting at cottonwood park for a little bit and then headed back to the church to have a lesson with Mac, a new person that was passed on to us by some sisters. Dinner was with Sarah Baker, Amiera, and Daniel Alworth. They are all awesome and we had great home made pizza. It was a really great week Love you all!

Elder Kyler LaRose

Elder LaRose

kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

6480 Honey Grove Apt. 105

Colorado Springs, CO 80923

WEEK #103 - Cheyanne Mountain YSA

Hey Everyone! This week has been pretty awesome. We don't have much time today so I will keep things pretty short!

On Monday, We went and hiked Mt. Herman and that was really fun. That is such a beautiful hike and this was my 3rd time doing it. I got to set up my hammock at the top too and chillax for a little bit.









We came back and had dinner with Sterling and it was great! FHE was really fun too. We met individually as wards and made ward flags or banners for next week's capture the flag activity.

On Tuesday, we went and got free slurpees because it was 7/11 day. We got to go to the YMCA and paint fences and then we took Elder Johns to an urgent care because his toe was hurting. Turns out that he broke it! So that was interesting! We had dinner at Brother Arnold's and then went to a rodeo parade that was happening in downtown Springs and got to talk to a lot of people there!

On Wednesday, we had a busy day and we drove around the whole city that day. We had interviews with President Stevenson and it was really good! He shared an awesome scripture with me that is about finishing strong. We went and had a transition lesson with the sisters for a Less active member that is really awesome that moved into our ward. We had dinner with Arien and then later that night met with Gilbert and that was a really good talk.

On Thursday, we went and did service at the Bishop's Storehouse and then were asked to help some sisters move out of their apartment because they got bed bugs. After that we did some planning and then had dinner at the church with Lexi Chatterly and Laura Coke. They made us some awesome fajitas. Institute was really good too.

On Friday, we had a good district meeting with everyone and talked about obedience! Afterwards, we went to UCCS and went contacting. We got info from two people there and they are really awesome so we hope that it goes somewhere! We did some finding and then had dinner with Evan McHardy. He is super awesome and dinner was great. For the mingle, we went to cottonwood park and played some games there. We played soccer and it started raining and we got soaked which was super fun:) We went back to the church and played volleyball because of the weather.

On Saturday, We had lunch with Gilbert in the morning and it was awesome. We went contacting that afternoon at Cottonwood because we had heard that there was a disc golf tournament going on there. We then drove to Woodland Park and met with the missionaries out there and stopped by some YSAs they knew! We were able to meet some of them too! We had dinner with the Martellaro's from Pueblo!! It was so great to see them. They picked up Elder Perrins too and brought him along so it was like a reunion haha. We also saw the Thomsons there too! It was so crazy.

On Sunday, We had a great time at church and had a couple of nonmembers there! After church, we went contacting with Gilbert and I had to ride in his trunk haha.

 Dinner was with Miriam, Kelly, and Amiera! It was a lot of fun being there with them. We had a good lesson with them and then did a couple of mad libs with them and they are hillarious:) It was a great week

Thanks for all the support and I will talk to all of you next week!

Elder Kyler LaRose

Elder LaRose

kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

6480 Honey Grove Apt. 105

Colorado Springs, CO 80923

WEEK #102 - Cheyenne Mountain YSA - SAW MY FAM!

Hey everyone! This past week was such a great week!! It's probably the most interesting week of my whole mission haha. Also, shoutout to Mom, Tony, and McKayd for having birthdays
On Monday, we woke up really early in the morning to drive to Manitou Springs and hike the incline!! I got to meet my mom, dad, and McKayd there! McKayd entered the MTC this week so we were able to get permission for me to see him before he left!! It was so cool but really weird at the same time haha. I would look to one side and see my family and the other side and see the missionaries haha two of my worlds were colliding. The incline was really fun! I didn't try to race up it this time and stuck with my family the whole way up. The view was great:)

We left and showered at the church and then emailed really quick before we met back up with my family at Mod pizza. We then drove to a park where the other missionaries were. I got to hang out and talk with my family and we got to play some volleyball together too. It was all of the LaRose's on one team and I'm pretty sure we were undefeated. Dinner was at Hu Hot and it was delicious. The Wolins joined us there too:) Afterwards, we took mckayd with us to FHE with the YSAs. It was pretty awesome to have him there. We had a nonmember show up and that was really sweet.
On Tuesday, we woke up early again and went straight to Monument for the 4th of July parade! We got to work the booth for an hour and that was cool. It was slow at first and then things picked up. McKayd and I were able to talk to a lot of people and twice the booth people told us to stay in our booth area haha. It was awesome. Then we got to go and march in the parade and hand out candy to everyone! Mc and I were on the sides the whole time passing out tons of candy and pass along cards haha it was great.

We went to the church building for lunch after that and then had to say goodbye to each other. It was hard but I know that Mc will do great in Singapore and will change many lives. Crazy to think that this time has come! Now there are 2 Elder LaRoses out there:) We drove to Fox Run park and met up with all of the YSAs that were there. It was really fun to be there with them. For dinner we went to Steak and Shake with the district and then went to memorial park to go contacting and talk to all the people there. We got to watch some of the fireworks too!
On Wednesday, we got to go and visit some people and played some bingo with the old people at the turner house. We did a lot of finding down south and then had dinner with the Harlines and that was great. Their mother was there and it was good to meet her too.
On Thursday, we drove down to the office for an emergency transfer! We are getting another companion with us and are covering the Mount Herman YSA ward as well. Elder Johannesson is our new companion and it is going to be awesome! I am looking forward to more work and it will be great. We went weekly planning for a little bit and then our car was having some difficulties and so we had to switch it in for a different one. We made ourselves dinner before institute.
On Friday, We had a welcome tour with President Stevenson and that was good. I believe that they will take great care of the mission over the next 3 years. It was raining really hard for a little bit and so we met afterwards to have a mini district meeting. Then we went to UCCS and went contacting for a little bit. We were going to go and see Anitra with the family ward missionaries. Unfortunately, she wasn't there when we had set our return appointment. We went to dinner at Dairy Queen and then showed up for the mingle. We played volleyball and then headed out for the night.
On Saturday, we went to stop by someone we had met before and they weren't home unfortunately. We went contacting at Cottonwood Creek Park and were able to talk to a few of the people that were there. We had a great first lesson with Petula! She had read a little bit from the Book of Mormon and was saying "Why don't more people know about this??" it was really awesome! We are excited for her growth! Dinner was in northern Springs and then we also got invited over to a house for some catfish too! It wasn't too bad haha.
On Sunday, we had ward council with both wards. Church was really good too and Jake was able to make it there! That was really cool. We had a lesson with Daniel Alworth afterwards and then had dinner with the Lorenc's. Another lesson with a less active, Daniel DeFord and then a lesson with Dara before we wrapped it up for the night. It was a great week:) I love you all and thanks for all the support!

Elder Kyler LaRose

Elder LaRose

kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

6480 Honey Grove Apt. 105

Colorado Springs, CO 80923

WEEK #101 - Cheyenne Mountain YSA

Hey everyone! It has been another awesome week!
On Monday, our district went down south and went hiking! The hike that we wanted to do was blocked off temporarily so we decided to do another hike called Helen Hunt Falls. It was a short hike to the top but was really pretty. Our district is really awesome so that makes it fun when just being with them.  We also set up my hammock and got some good pictures.

We all went and got root beer floats and then headed to dinner. We had dinner with Laura Coke at Mod pizza and that was really good. For FHE, we did a service project where we made cookies for each other and wrote them a nice note. It was pretty cool!
On Tuesday, we went and did service at the YMCA and pulled weeds around the front. Later, we had a good lesson with Samantha! We went with Sister Anderson and Sister Miller, Sabrina, and the zone leaders. Samantha was pretty weak and had to lay against the wall while we taught her. We found out that she lives in the pikes peak ward and so we transitioned her over to the sisters. We also received permission from President Rehm to have her baptized quickly because we aren't sure how long she has left. So we were able to have an interview at set her baptism for Wednesday. After the lesson we were helping Samantha walk to her car but she couldn't get the strength to stand so I had to carry her down the steps to Sabrina's car so she could get a ride. After that, we went to an appointment that we had set up with an investigator, but they had cancelled on us so we ended up heading to dinner. Dinner was in Monument with the ward clerk so we had to drive up there. It was super delicious! Then we went back to the church and met the Sisters to help make the programs for Samantha's baptism.
On Wednesday, we went contacting at UCCS and had a good time there! We got to talk to a lot of people. There was this one guy who came jogging around the corner and so I took off with Book of Mormon in hand and ran next to him and tried to talk to him but he just told me to F off and so I stopped running haha. It was pretty funny. We then went and played bingo at the turner house and that was awesome. Right after that, we went to zone conference. This one was a goodbye zone conference for President and Sister Rehm! They have finished their 3 year mission as mission president and wife! We got to learn from them one last time and then got to give them our goodbye hugs. After the conference, we hurried to Samantha's baptism! For such short notice to the ward there were a lot of people there! It was probably one of the most spiritual things I have witnessed. Samantha was on the ground against the wall. Sister Anderson carried her into the font and then Elder Nelson got to baptize her. I was able to confirm her after she was baptized as well. It was such a great time.

Then we had dinner with the Allreds and the Mt. Herman Elders! It was really good. Then it was Sister Anderson's birthday and so we went to the church and celebrate for her by taking root beer shots haha.
On Thursday, we had a pretty good day. We did some studies and then wet to the mission office to drop off some stuff. Afterwards, we did our weekly planning. We had a great lesson with Anitra about the gospel of Jesus Christ and she loved it. We were really bold with her and she was intrigued! It was great. We had dinner at Papa Murphy's and then headed to institute! It was pretty awesome:) we learned a lot. Then we went with the other YSA missionaries and left balloons and a sticky note on President Rehm's door before they left Colorado. Then we exchanged with Mt. Herman.
On Friday, we had a good district meeting in the morning. Our district is the best. We had a great lunch afterwards too and then Elder Smith and I went down south to knock on some doors. We saw a tank and took an awesome picture with it:)

We were able to find a new investigator down there and it was awesome! We had dinner with James Jackmon and the sisters at the church and had some awesome chicken and macaroni and cheese. For the mingle that night, we had an awesome activity planned. They had a big water fight and we got to participate! We had an investigator show up too! His name is Ben and he is awesome. It was so much fun.
On Saturday, we went contacting downtown at Acacia park and set up some slack lines for some people to try out! it was really cool and a unique way to find people to teach. However, there was this one homeless girl who only had a shirt and underwear on that tried to do the slack lines and it was pretty awkward for everyone. Haha. We had lunch at the Skirted Heifer which is a really awesome burger place. We went tracting later on in the day and were able to find someone whop really wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon! That was awesome. We had dinner with Spencer Pirzadeh and John Bahr and that was really fun. Then we met with a member, Nick, at the church and wrapped up the night.
On Sunday, we had a good meeting in the morning for ward council and church was really great too. Afterwards, we went contacting with Gilbert and the sisters at memorial park and met some really awesome people. Then we came back and met with some other missionaries to coordinate YSA efforts in the family wards. So I got to see Elder Perrins again because he is in a ward that we cover! That was really cool. We made ourselves dinner and then went to the Work of Salvation Fireside where we got to meet President Stevenson for the first time! It was a great week and I love you all!

Elder LaRose