So Monday after emails, we went and played basketball at the stake center (which we call the Aero plaza building) and I got to see Elder Tallman there my MTC companion! We talked about each others lives so far in the mission and shared our first week experiences. After dinner that night, we went to visit Mitch, who is a retired college professor. When I met him, he had already taken most of the missionary lessons and really wants to be baptized. So now, we are just working on setting a baptismal date with him in our next lesson.
On Tuesday, we got a call at around 8 in the morning from a less active member offering to take us to his favorite Mexican restaurant for breakfast! So we met him at the place and had some great burritos. As missionaries, some ways that we can do service is finding out where local programs and businesses call for volunteers. Elder Schilling and I went to a place called Care and Share to help them sort meat into piles of good and bad. With the good meat we would package it into boxes that would be donated to different people in need. Other than that, nothing happened until Thursday.
Cool Air Force plane
On Thursday, the morning started off slow with our 3 hours of studies and weekly planning session. About halfway between our planning session, we got a call from Sister Teeples, the Bishop's wife of the Sand Creek Ward. She was concerned about one of the women she visits occasionally because she was feeling very sick and wasn't acting as herself, so she asked if we would be able to give her a Priesthood blessing to help her with her sickness. Immediately, we drove to the house and arrived at the same time that Sister Teeples did. She explained to us that the woman we were visiting (Lori) has not been acting herself and seems out of it. Her husband and her daughter were frantically trying to calm her down when we arrived. We suspect that she had been taking mixed prescription medications, and because this altered her state of mind, she would take more pills, thinking that she hadn't taken any yet, causing her to overdose. Lori was attempting to get in her car and drive somewhere, but she was in no condition to drive for fear that she would most likely get into a wreck. She got into her car and started it, but her daughter hurried and parked her own car directly behind her mother's so that she couldn't get out. After Sister Teeples had calmed her down somewhat and had helped her inside, we were able to see that she was unstable on her feet and had an angry/confused look in her eye. After about 10 minutes of letting things wind down, we were asked to administer a blessing for the sick. Despite her comprehension level being fried, the blessing seemed to calm her down and help her to relax. The police showed up to the house as well as the EMTs and other emergency people and were able to assess her and take her with them to a treatment center or something. If she had still been agitated and confused, we are not sure that the police situation would have gone as smoothly as it did. This experience was scary and we were freaking out the whole time, but helped me realize that as we blessed her, that God truly knows what she is going through and will help her if she turns to Him.
So our Mission President has asked the missionaries to meet with all of the kids who are going to get baptized in the upcoming months. That night, we met with little John Taylor and taught him a couple of things. I have really only met the Taylors once briefly before. Sister Taylor is a soon-to-be single mother who is raising four children on her own, with one of them physically challenged. At the end of the Lesson, Sister Taylor asked me if I could give her a Priesthood blessing! Two in one day!! Of course I said yes, but knowing slim to none about her or her situation, I let the Spirit of the Lord guide me on what to say. Still today I can only remember pieces of what I said to her. Overcome with the Lords love for her, I could only put my emotions into the blessing and let the Lord take care of the words. After we left the house, Elder Schilling, who knows much more of Sister Taylor and her situation, turned to me and told me that I had said exactly what she needed to hear at that time. I was then overcome with sheer joy, and a feeling of affirmation washed over me, testifying of the complete truthfulness of this Gospel and my role in helping others to come unto Christ. What a great experience this entire day was.
Sunset right after giving Sister Taylor a blessing
On Friday, we met with the Zone leaders, Elder Reimer and Liptrott, for our district meeting, where we had arranged to go on exchanges. Normally, and exchange lasts for 24 hours and is where you switch companions with the other set for the rest of the day. Our exchange, however lasted around 4 hours in total. I went with Elder Reimer to the his area and Elder Liptrott replaced me and went with Elder Schilling. Elder Reimer is from Spokane Valley, Washington and loves everything hunting, fishing, camouflage, and country. Elder Liptrott is from Manchester, England and was a Semi-professional soccer player for England and has hopes to make it pro when he returns from his mission. Elder Reimer and i started off by helping some people move an old dryer out of their basement and install a new one in there. These people were hoarders, so it took us a little struggle to muscle the machines all the way down to the basement. After that, we went to this trailer park village and walked around the thing trying to find some people we needed to contact. At one point, there was an old drunk man sitting in a tattered hammock who started screaming profanity at us, just because we were Mormon. We just kept on walking and tried not to laugh. This however, led us to run into a different man who was working on his car outside and felt compassionate toward us. We started talking with him and eventually, we left him a pass along card that had our church website on it and the missionaries' phone number if he needed help with anything. For dinner, we met back up with Elder Liptrott and Elder Schilling and went to a Chinese buffet where a member family paid for our meals. There were all kinds of good stuff, and I even tried some new things I haven't before. One of them was crab legs, which are actually really good and don't taste very fishy or stuff like that. The other thing was Sushi.... and it tasted exactly as I would expect it to. Like raw fish and rice.
Our Saturday was wide open and so we picked 24 less active members of the church to visit and try to share a message with. We actually managed to stop by 27 houses at the end of the day, but only FIVE we had small conversations with. It was a little disappointing because it felt like we just drove around not accomplishing anything. It was alright though, things were just going slow.
On Sunday, we were at the church from 9:00am to 5:00pm. We began by going to ward council meetings for both wards, and listening to the situation of the people in the ward. At 4:15, we went to choir practice... yay... For dinner, we went to the Teeples house and they had cooked Elder Schilling and I a "birthday dinner". Elder Schilling's birthday was last week and my birthday is this next week!
Elder Schilling and I at our "Birthday Dinner".... yep:)
We had yummy Mexican rice, re-fried beans, homemade enchiladas, and spicy homemade salsa that makes Mom's taste like V8. Then they brought us out cake and lit candles for us to blow out. They sent a picture to our families and then sang happy birthday to us. We were definitely spoiled that night and it made me feel even more welcome in beautiful Colorado. Love you all and the next time you hear from me I will be 19!!
Love, Elder Kyler LaRose.
EMAIL: kyler.larose@myldsmail.net
MISSION OFFICE ADDRESS:
4090 Center Park Drive Ste 4
Colorado Springs, CO 80916
CURRENT AREA ADDRESS:
2328 Washo Circle
Colorado Springs, CO
80915
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