WEEK #45 - Castle Rock Zone

WEEK #45, 6/6/16

Hey everyone! This week had been pretty crazy.
On Monday, well, I guess I talked about it in last week's email so...
On Tuesday, we went to the computers and emailed our families and stuff for a little while, then we got some lunch and then went to the HorsePower ranch to help the people shovel out the stalls! It.... Wass.... Estinky. After we left the ranch, we took some showers and then went and did our shopping. After that, we went and got some haircuts before MLCs the next day. For that night, we went over to Sedalia and had a good lesson with the Wells. We made it back home and had some time to enter in some reports for the zone.

​Sedalia:)

On Wednesday, we woke up and then drove down to Colorado Springs for the mission leadership council. It was a good long meeting. 

​MLCs with Elder Stark, Sister Madsen, and I

What we do in MLCs is account for how the zone is doing as a whole and report on the key indicators for the month. Then we discuss certain topics that we may provide input or insight on. In this meeting, we discussed which reports we were to fill in, how to make zone trainings more effective, working with less actives, keys to missionary work, area books, standards of excellence, and some other topics. It was a good meeting and we were able to learn more and to take new ideas back to our zones. At the meeting, I again got to catch up with Elders Tallman, Stark, and Schilling. It was good to see them:) after the meeting, we went to the mission office and grabbed our supplies. Then we went and tried to stop by Mitch Beville and say hi but he wasn't home:( We grabbed some food and then drove back to Castle Rock just in time to join the youth for a temple baptism trip! We got permission to go and were able to have a great time at the temple:) it was a great day.

On Thursday, we spent a lot of the day planning. We first did our weekly planning and then we went and planned for our zone training. Now that we don't cover the Parker South stake, we no longer have Sister Training Leaders to help us plan zone training. 

Zone Training

So Elder Tibbitts and I laid out the game plan for what we were going to cover.
On Friday, we met with the zone and now, we only cover like 11 missionaries, so it was more like a large district meeting rather than a zone training:) so we instructed the missionaries on two main things: Planning with vision and effective lessons with active members. We had a good time with that and did an activity showing how The Lord had a plan for us using the process of Vision, Goals, Plans, and Schedules. We then had some good discussion on how we can make our lessons with active members more effective and worthwhile. Up here in Castle Rock, we teach a lot of active members and have good lessons, but we struggle to find people to teach. The best way to find is through the members and so we focused on having our lessons be spiritual and uplifting with the members so that they will trust us with referrals to their friends. After zone training, we had a potluck lunch as a zone and had some good stuff! We had tater tots, home made pretzels, blueberries, pizza, curry, and I made dad's smoothies for everyone (they all loved them).
After that we did service at Bonaventure and did some hallway bowling. Everyone really enjoyed that:) For dinner, we made our way out to the Pettingills in Sedalia where we had some good chicken pesto pizza. We came back into Castle Rock and had a good lesson with Bishop's family and with the Snow family too.
On Saturday, we spent the morning moving a family our of our ward. It went by really quick! We only had 6 people there and the move only took about an hour and a half. As missionaries, we get called to help move people around a lot so we have become experts at packing boxes and furniture into moving trucks. In fact, we are helping with another move this Saturday. After that, we grabbed lunch and did some studies until we got a call from the sisters asking for help with some service for them. So we went to help them weed a nonmember's backyard. It was pretty bad because apparently they hadn't weeded it for 2 summers. The weeds were prickly and big haha. We went and had a lesson at the Palmers and then went to the MacGills for some pie and a lesson. That night, we got a call from the Assistants with the information on who is getting transferred! There will be a couple of people leaving the zone, they are: Sister Ward, Elder Blood, Elder Jolley, Elder Sanford, and Elder Tibbitts! We were both shocked to find out that Elder Tibbitts would be leaving! We thought he was going to stay here until after I left the area. But from what it looks like, I will be getting a new companion tomorrow! His name is Elder Lloyd!! He came out with me and is super great. So Elder Tibbitts will be leaving and I will be staying here for at least another 6 weeks. Crazy night.
Sunday, we went to PEC and had a good meeting talking about those members of the ward that need help and attention. Church was really good and it was a great fast and testimony meeting. We were able to teach the Gospel Principles class and it reminded me of my days in 3rd ward. 

this is us and the Priest Quorum!

Following church, we had the Stake Priesthood Meeting and got to hear from the stake presidency. Dinner was at the Gann's and we had a nice sunday meal of ham and mashed potatoes:) we ended the night by finishing up some things for the Assistants and then getting back to the apartment to let Elder Tibbitts finish packing and to do call-ins. It was a crazy week and I'll miss how crazy Elder Tibbitts is haha.
I love you all and have a great week:) and shout out to Nana whose birthday is this week!! Happy birthday and love you!

Kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

CURRENT ADDRESS:

4358 Sawmill Court

Castle Rock, CO 80109

MISSION OFFICE ADDRESS:

4090 Center Park Drive Ste 4

Colorado Springs, CO 80916