8.1.16
Hey! It's been such a busy but great week!
On Monday, we went to the church and played some basketball with a bunch of other missionaries at the Aeroplaza building. It was a lot of fun and there were more missionaries there than I had seen in a long time. Towards the end, I was feeling pretty sore and I also got a blister on my foot from it. We had a pretty good time. We had dinner at the bishop's house that evening and it was great! They are a great family and are a great help to the ward. Afterwards, we nailed down everything we were going to do for the zone conferences.
On Tuesday, we got up a little earlier and went to the office to pick up another van to drive to the church for the vehicle inspections. Today's zone conference was with the Colorado Springs stake and the Fountain stake missionaries. The conference went well and we learned from President Rehm on how to measure success as a missionary. Sister Rehm talked about true repentance and then we instructed the missionaries on developing a relationship of trust with the Lord for 50 minutes. It was really great teaching the missionaries. We talked first about the components of a trusting relationship and then moved on to talking about a having a willing heart to put God's will above our own even when it conflicts with our will. We also talked about having the faith to act upon God's will for us. We need to always be aware of His guiding hand in our lives and not be afraid to let that hand move us to change. We wrapped up our instruction by committing the missionaries to set a goal to improve in the following areas: I put Heavenly Father's will first, even when it conflicts with my will. I have enough faith to do what Heavenly Father asks of me. I actively work towards being the missionary that Heavenly Father can trust with anything and anyone. It was a great meeting and It was fun to see everyone in the southern half of the Springs. We had a good rest of the night and got to see a couple of people in the area before bed.
On Wednesday, we headed up to the northern part of the Springs for zone conference with the North stake, East stake, and Castle Rock stake missionaries. It was good to see the people from my old zone and it was good to see Elder Lloyd again. I also got to see Elder Tallman and Elder Stark there too:) It was great. We had a good time at the meeting and instructed the missionaries well. At the end of the conferences, there is a little bit of time where the missionaries can ask President Rehm some questions. They are usually pretty entertaining. This time, someone asked President what his favorite scripture was and he said, "I can't pick one, I usually just tell them one so that they go away." haha. We came home after that and then got ready to go down to Pueblo. We packed the van with stuff and then headed down to stay the night with the Pueblo Zone Leaders, Elder Calderon and Elder Hagman. Elder Hagman actually came out with me and was in the same MTC district with me and Elder Tallman. It was great to see him again.
On Thursday, We had zone conference with the Pueblo stake, Alamosa stake, and Manassa stake missionaries. Again, it was great to be there with all of the missionaries and had a great final zone conference. We held the meeting at the outlook building and that is the furthest South I have ever been in the mission.
The Outlook building
I had gone there once before when Elder Nash of the Seventy came and spoke. The mission boundaries go another 3 hour drive South, all the way down to Northern New Mexico. Elder Constantine had served in Pueblo before, so after the conference, we had dinner with a family he was working with at the time. It was pretty cool. We came back to the Springs and then did our weekly planning. That night, there was a huge storm that hit Colorado. It was super windy and there was lightning everywhere.
On Friday, we woke up to tons of big hail that came down and did damage to cars and houses, smashing the windows, busting siding, and denting cars. The aftermath was obvious with trees that were blown over and all sorts of stuff. It was crazy.
It was also the date that a year ago, I entered the MTC and started my mission! Crazy how fast it goes. We met with President and Sister Rehm in the morning and discussed different things for the upcoming transfer. We also had to coordinate an emergency transfer because of an Elder that was being sent home early. After that, we went to our district meeting where we had President there to go over some boundary changes to some of the wards that the district members covered. We then finalized everything with the emergency transfer and then headed to a lesson with Francis and Rafael. It was a good lesson and they are great Christians, but they seem a little stubborn to accept the full gospel and the blessings tied to it. We are continuing to teach them and hopefully they will begin to open their hearts. We then had a lesson with Jimmy and that went really well! we talked a little bit more about the Plan of Salvation and then about baptism as well. Jimmy has been coming to church regularly and he loves it! In our lesson, we set a baptismal date with him for August 27th:) he accepted and is so ready to prepare himself to be baptized. After that lesson, we went and got packed to go to the ward camp out that the members had planned. We got our gear and headed up to Woodland Park to drop by Amy and Gunga's for some camping gear. Then we continued on past that to the Farish campgrounds. We got there in time for dinner and had a great evening. Sister House and Sister Topham also got to come because they are covering 5th ward too. We had S'mores, sang campfire songs, and had a spiritual devotional given as well. As night came, we set up our camp and I burned a tie to mark my 1 year mark. Then, thinking we were going to be tough, Elder Constantine and I decided to sleep under the stars. He had a hammock and I just had a mat, sleeping bag, and tarp. The stars were incredible and you could clearly see the Milky Way Galaxy. That is, until the clouds rolled in super quickly and started dumping rain on us at 2am. My tarp was doing a pretty good job until I peeked out and saw Elder Constantine scrambling and trying to get to the van haha. Then parts of the sleeping bag were getting wet so I took off into the van as well. We tried to get as much sleep as we could there.
On Saturday, we woke up mostly dry and then went on a hike with the Sisters for exercise.
Breakfast was great and afterwards, Elder Constantine and I had to go into Woodland Park so our phones could get service for a conference call that we had to do at 10.
After the call, we went back to the camp and then went hiking with some nonmembers that showed up to join the fun. We went bouldering too and then had a good lunch before we took off. We drove home and then showered. That evening, we were able to have a couple of lessons and then got to go to the park and had a good conversation with some Jehovah's Witnesses. We gave a blessing to a less active member that night and were able to help her too.
On Sunday, we had church in the morning and had a great meeting with lots of people who showed up. This Sunday was different because our ward is the ward that reached out to the Deaf community and has interpreters each Sundayfor them. This Sunday, however, a couple of the Deaf people got up on the stand and gave their talks in American Sign Language while one of the members vocally interpreted for us. It was really neat to see:) For the combined 3rd block, we learned about how to reach out to the Deaf community and how to interact with them. After church, we helped some people move out of our apartment complex out of the blue. We also stopped by a couple of people and set things up for later in the week. We went to the baptism for Michael in the 16th ward and that was great to see. It is always great to see someone who has allowed the fog to move from their eyes and then see the significance and reality of what this gospel has to offer us. Then we went to the office to enter in the statistics for the mission that week through call-ins. It has been a super busy and long week but I am grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve the missionaries around me. As I looked around at all of the missionaries in the zone conferences, I felt the Lord's love for each of them. I am grateful and humbled to be among so many great and faithful servants of the Lord. I look forward to the great times ahead for me and the challenges that will come to help me learn and grow. I love you all and have a great week!
Isaiah 55:8-9
MISSION OFFICE:
4090 Center Park Dr
Colorado Springs, Colorado
80916
kyler.larose@myldsmail.net
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