WEEK #48 - Castle Rock Zone

Hello family and friends! This week has been full of doing service and it's been pretty good.
On Monday, we hiked Castle Rock for Pday! It's always a fun quick hike.


The group was Elder Taylor, Elder Ashcroft, Elder Lloyd, and I. About halfway up, Elder Taylor and Elder Lloyd decided to bushwhack their way up to the base of the rock and Elder Ashcroft and I decided to race them using the trail. They beat us. We climbed to the top of the rock and took pictures. Elder Lloyd did a couple of backflips too. After that, we went to wash our car at the house we were having dinner at and then it started to rain super hard. It was pretty crazy because we were getting soaked and the lightning was striking pretty close to the house, making the thunder super loud. So after we washed the truck in the rain, we went in the house and dried off and changed into our shirts and ties. Dinner was great and we finished the night with a lesson with the graves.

On Tuesday it was Elder Lloyd's birthday! We started the day early to help out with the big Cub Scout camp. We directed traffic and helped people park their cars. There were probably around 300 cars that we parked. We came back and got ready for the rest of the day. Then we took off to HorsePower an shoveled stalls. That evening, We met up with Noe and he took us to Red Robin in celebration of Elder Lloyd's birthday. We had a good time with him and had some great food too. After that, we went to the Clements to have a lesson.
On Wednesday, we helped the Cub Scouts out in the morning parking everyone. Sometimes it was dumb because we were wearing these bright yellow vests but people still failed to see us. One car would go the wrong way and then like 3 more would follow and then they would have to turn around haha. In the Afternoon, we went to Task Force and they had us go with them to the Lone Tree library to grab some bookshelves they were donating. So for most of the afternoon we were making trips back and forth carrying these heavy metal and wood bookshelves to Task Force. I even smashed my finger pretty good and will probably have some cool scars. We had a good dinner with the Gatrells and wrapped up for the evening after that.

On Thursday, we had our final day waking up early to help with the Cub Scouts parking. It was pretty fun, I got to see Brother Jones who is the Parker South High Councilor over missionary work (which is no longer in our mission) so that was good to see him and catch up and all. We came home and then went to Task Force again to help them get all the rest of the huge bookshelves. It was definitely a good workout. That took a lot of time, but it was worth it because they gave us pizza afterwards for all of the hard work. We were busy all day so we didn't get to do weekly planning that day. Dinner was with the Buhlers and we were able to help Brother Buhler out a little bit. He seemed to like our lesson. After that, we went with the youth to the park right across the street from the church and played games with them. Then, we played water balloon volleyball, which just ended up into a water fight. We got a little wet and luckily it dried before our next appointment. That evening, we had an awesome lesson with Clint! Finally! After he got married to Susan, they were pretty busy for a whole month. We were able to meet with him and also got the chance to meet Susan. She will be really good for him in helping him get baptized. We took Brother Wolthuis with us and it was great. He contributed really well to the lesson. We addressed more of his concerns. He was wondering why baptism was absolutely essential and why he couldn't just believe and be saved. So all of us did a really good job of simply teaching it and bearing testimony so that Clint could be baptized. We invited him to be baptized on July 9th but he told us that he would like to come to us with a baptismal date. We encourages him to pray sincerely about the 9th and wrapped up the lesson. It was really good for us to see him again.
On Friday, we had a busy day as well. We had district meeting in the morning and had a good lesson on prayer. I need to be better at the prayers I say and at making them more specific. We ate at Costa Vida and had some lady come up to us and give us $10 each! That was really nice of her and I hope that the Lord blesses her. We came back and did service at Bonaventure where we colored pictures and talked with everyone there. After that, we went and had interviews with President Rehm at the Plum Creek building. It was good to talk with him and we got a little direction on what to do with Clint. We then went over to the Greenhalghs and had a fun lesson with their little kids. It was a good day.
On Saturday, we had breakfast with the Grats and it was really good. They are a pretty fun family and we had some good laughs. We then went over to Task Force AGAIN to finish moving and putting together those stupid shelves  we were only there for about 30 minutes and finally got it all done. Then we helped a new member move into the pines and knocked that out in like and hour. We have become pretty good at moving people haha. After that, Elder Lloyd had a haircut appointment and then we did our weekly planning. That night, we went over to the Reardons for a luau! It was pretty cool. They have a really cool house with a great view and the food was also great. They had roasted a pig and had it there on the table to take meat off of. It was pretty delicious. They have a cool pool there too, and since we can't swim; we just decided to have enough faith to walk across the water without getting wet and we actually did it! It was a good night.



On Sunday, we had a good meeting with the ward mission leader and ward missionaries. It was a little weird because the ward mission leader subtly accused us of not teaching good lessons to the members. So we were confused by that because we are trying hard and praying hard and having the faith for miracles to occur. We know that we have felt the spirit in our lessons. But it's up to those we teach to accept that same spirit. Other than that, we had a great time at church and Noe came to all 3 hours again. During gospel principles, we were teaching about the word of wisdom and then we were pulled out of class to talk to a young man who had just walked into the building! He had come to the church with some questions and we were able to answer them. They were some weird questions like "since ghosts and demons exist, doesn't that mean that God exists?" We answered that one by talking about God's love for us and about angels. He may have a slight mental disorder, but we were able to help him out. He didnt give us an address for a return appointment but he gave us a street name to check out. Hopefully he comes back with more questions. We left him with the restoration pamphlet and the plan of salvation pamphlet. After church we went to dinner at the Farnsworth's and had a nice dinner on the back porch. It had been a good week but there is still so much room to improve! I I'll try to be better this next week and hopefully keep progressing. Love you all!
Elder Kyler LaRose.

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

WEEK #47 - Castle Rock Zone

WEEK #47
6/20/16

Hey everyone! Happy Father's Day yesterday especially to my dad and my granddads!
On Monday, we got ready for the day and then headed on out to help Renae, our investigator, move out of their apartment. We started moving in furniture and boxes into a trailer and got most of it in before it started to rain! We had some people hurry and grab a tarp to throw over the trailer and we were there in the downpour strapping it around everything. The rain didn't last too long and there was even this crazy lady on the balcony of her apartment saying that she was diverting the storm away from us with her energy. Haha it was pretty funny. The unfortunate part about moving Renae out is that we won't be able to make the trip to Black Forest to continue teaching her. We hope and pray that she feels welcome there and that our visits helped her out. We had dinner with the Hess family and then had lessons at the Crabtree's and the Wasson's. When we got to the Crabtree's it was raining pretty good and all of a sudden we saw brother Crabtree book it out of his house and across the street and then 3 of his kids followed after him at full sprint. Elder Lloyd and I looked at each other and then got out of the truck and took off in the rain after them. We sprinted around the corner and into the field and they were Surprised to see the Elders hauling through a field in the rain after them haha. What had happened was brother Crabtree had seen a cool photo opportunity and wanted to get a good shot. It was a good night.



On Tuesday, we were asked to give a blessing of healing and comfort to someone who was about to go through a big surgery in the Hospital. So we went there and asked to see the person so they led us to where he was. We were glad to give him a blessing and hope he recovers well. We then went to the Horsepower ranch and helped them clean out the stalls and brush the burrs out of the horses' hair. It was pretty good. We then had to update all of our forms and charts before our meeting with the stake presidency this coming Sunday. We had a great dinner and lesson with the Pierce family to wrap up the night.
On Wednesday, we woke early and made our way our to Sedalia to have breakfast with the Funks. We had a delicious breakfast and a good lesson with them as well. In the afternoon, we went to Task Force to help them out around the place. This time, we helped them dig a trench to divert the path of the water flow when it rained. After that and some other chores around the place, we left and got some more info from the missionaries to report on. We had a good dinner with the Olers and then went and taught a new family, the DeGolyers, a lesson.
On Thursday, we woke up and went over to Butterfield park and played basketball for our morning exercise. It was pretty fun. 

We came home and did our studies and our weekly planning after that. During planning, we got a text from JoAnn saying that she would not like us to come over anymore. We were pretty confused as to why she didn't want to meet anymore. We had a great first lesson with her and we know that we did our best at bringing the spirit unto her. Elder Bednar's words are true when he says that it is the investigator's job to let that spirit into their hearts. Unfortunately, JoAnn was subject to the temptations of the devil. So that was pretty sad. Then we broke out the bikes and biked to different potential investigator lists. It was super hot that day too. For dinner, the Burnett's took us to Red Robin and we had a good meal there. We ran into a couple of other members there too!  Then we left to join the youth in a service project pulling weeds and doing yard work.
On Friday, Elder Lloyd and I were asked to teach district meeting and so we taught everyone about the power and authority of your calling as a missionary and how that allows you to be successful. It went well and we had a great meeting. After that we went to lunch at Costa Vida. Service at Bonaventure was fun, we got to play bingo and then do some more hallway bowling. After that we went and picked up Jonah Arocho and prepared him for our lesson with Noe that night. We taught Noe about obedience to the commandments. He really liked that lesson and it was also good to have Jonah there as well. After the lesson, we had dinner with the Lees and they are super cool to be with. We had some nice burgers and then a good lesson with them:) afterwards we went to the Smiths to have a lesson on gaining a personal testimony in your youth with their kids. It was a really beneficial lesson and we helped the kids select one thing that they wanted to strengthen their testimony in.
On Saturday, we found a dirt road that led to the train tracks and so we took it and put some coins on the tracks for it to flatten:) there was also a pretty big puddle there from the rain to we had to hit it to make our truck actually look like a truck :) it was super fun:) then we went to the apartments to contact potential investigators. 

Later in the afternoon, we helped the Spanish Elders with some yard work for a nonmember they were going to. It was good service and we attempted to remove all of the dead pine needles out of her backyard. Having the pine trees in our yard in Monticello, dad taught me how to do a good job of cleaning up pine needles because we did it a lot:) we then had dinner with the Secrist's and then had good lessons with the Ganns and the Snows.
On Sunday, our meeting with the stake presidency was cancelled due to Father's Day but our Ward Council was not cancelled. So we attended ward council and had some good discussion. Church went really well again and Noe came to all 3 blocks of church again! It was a little different for him this time because we were asked to substitute primary during second hour. So he got to come with us to see that and then came with us to Priests quorum for the 3rd. Esther and Andrew were also able to make it now because Andrew has Sundays off:) that is such a blessing for them. After church, we called our 'mission dads' or our trainers and told them happy Father's Day haha. Elder Schilling thought that was funny:) We had dinner with the Kumpf's that night and it was fun to go back to where we used to live. Even their dog, MJ, was happy to see me again haha. We finished the night by having a good lesson at the Pappenfuss's. After we got home, we went on to the roof to do call-ins. There was some lightning in the distance and we were able to capture it too. It was a good week and I am so grateful to have Elder Lloyd as my companion:)
Love you all and have a great rest of the week. Happy Father's Day again!!

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

WEEK #46 - Castle Rock Zone, NEW COMPANION

Hey everyone! It's been a great week.


In Monday, everyone met together at the church to say goodbyes and hang out one last time. It was fun! We also went to the restaurant at the hospital and had some good stuff there. That night, we went to the haycocks and it was raining with thunder and lightning. So when we got there, they had no power in their home. that's when they fired up the grill and grilled us some salmon:) as we were eating, the power came back on and we were able to have a lesson not in the dark. We then went back to Castle Rock to help the Pettingills clean the last little bit of the church. Then they brought out some dessert for us because Elder Tibbitts was getting transferred.
On Tuesday, Elder Tibbitts finished packing all of his stuff and then we loaded it up in the truck. We met up with the castle pines elders and Elder Tibbitts drove down to the Springs with one of them. I stayed in Castle Rock with Elder Riley for a little bit. We went and grabbed lunch and then went to the Horsepower ranch for service. When we were done with that, we drove back to the church and met up with my new companion Elder Lloyd! I am so excited. We then went to dinner at the Bay's and Sister Bay made us some good fried chicken. We finished the night by going to the store and grabbing what Elder Lloyd needed. Elder Lloyd is from a really small town in northern Idaho called Kamiah. He came out with me last July and is a great guy.

On Wednesday, we went and did service at Task Force and had a lot of missionaries there to help. After we were done with that, we were walking around butterfield park and there was this stage set up with speakers and people waiting for something to happen. Turns out that every so often, they have this thing called music at the meadows, where a band or a singer will put on a free concert and tons of people will just come to listen. So we went around and talked to some people there. We then picked up dinner at the Greenhalgh's and had a good lesson with the Keiler's. After the lesson we went into their backyard and skated, or tried to skate, their half pipe:) then we went back up to the park and talked with everyone we could. It was pretty sweet.

On Thursday, we spent most of the morning planning and prepping Elder Lloyd on the area and on zone leader stuff. After lunch, we went and tried to contact some potential investigators. We actually were able to get in with one of them whose name is JoAnn. I would say that she is in her later 50s. Anyways, we had a great first lesson and she asked a lot of questions about the restoration and about the Plan of Salvation. A lot of them required us to give delicate answers, and we are grateful for the spirit's guidance in our answers. After each of our answers, she would say "oh that makes sense" or "yeah I believe that" it was a great first lesson and she accepted the invitation to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! It was pretty good. After that we had dinner at the Robinson's and then headed off to mutual to help the scouts with building a radio. After that, we had a quick lesson with Ammon on forgiveness.
On Friday, we went to district meeting and are now in Elder Taylor's district. It was a good meeting and afterwards, we went to Costa Vida for lunch. When we came back, we went and did service at Bonaventure. We played UNO for a little bit and then went into the foyer to hear a guy sing hymns to everyone. After that, we went over to Jake Rolfson's house to prep him for the lesson we were going to take him with for Noe. Then we went to our lesson with Noe and had a really good talk about Priesthood authority. He is a pretty great guy:) afterwards we had dinner with sister Alvarez and it was delicious. Good ol authentic Mexican food. After that, Elder Lloyd go to meet up with some friends of his from his town and have a good time.
On Saturday, we got on our bikes and went out because there was a community garage sale going on in all of the meadows. So we would go from garage sale to garage sale talking with people and seeing if there was anything interesting haha. In the afternoon, we helped a family move into the ward, it was a little different because the mother and daughter are both deaf. It took a good while but we were able to knock it out:) after that, we got to drive down to the Springs for a baptism that Elder Lloyd helped with. As we were driving down, we were backed up for miles in traffic due to an accident and we were crunching on time. We had brought clothes to change into but when we got there, we just went in still in our service clothes. We made it just in time because she was baptized right after we showed up. It was really great for the family to have him there. I can tell that he really made an impact in their lives. We drove back and had great lessons at the Prescott's and the Neilsen's.
On Sunday, we went to church and Noe came as well! It was a good meeting and Noe stayed the whole time. He contributed really well to the gospel principles lesson and was also able to witness us give a blessing of healing to Jonah Arocho. It was great or both Noe and Jonah to have that. After church, we had a good dinner and lesson with the Glancy family and then had to go to a just serve meeting. Afterwards, we had a good lesson with the Karrens and then wrapped up the night with a lesson with Bishop's family and then coordination.
It was a great week and I am looking forward to the miracles and blessings that will come from the hard work and diligence that is required. Love you all, but I love my mission more;)
Elder LaRose

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

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

WEEK #44 - Castle Rock Zone

Hey everyone! It's been a pretty crazy week this week!
On Monday, we first helped a family move out of the ward and then they gave us pizza for lunch. Then we went to the outlet mall with the Spanish Elders and looked around a couple of the stores. That evening, we drove to Parker to exchange with the French Creek Elders. So I went with Elder Stewart for the next 24hrs. As we were finishing up dinner, we got a media referral to go and contact. So we headed out to see if anyone was home. Unfortunately, no one was home at that time.
On Tuesday, we went and did service with Sister Carson and Sister Tucker at one of their investigator's homes. Elder Stewart and I mainly did weeding and edging around the yard. Afterwards, we went and contacted a couple of less actives and such. We then got a call from Sister Tucker wanting a blessing, so we went over and gave her one. When we exchanged back, Elder Tibbitts and I went to dinner with the Burnett's and then had a great lesson at the MacGill's with one of the youth.
On Wednesday, we had our Zone Conference at the Parker South stake center. It was a good long meeting but we were spiritually fed! It went from 8:30 to like 4:00. I got to conduct the meeting and as I would look out to the missionaries, I felt pretty happy for them. They are all great missionaries and we are blessed to have them in our zone. One of the parts of the conference allowed Sister Rehm to talk to us. She spoke on motivation and what motivates us as missionaries. I was taking notes and then I had these lines come into my head so I started writing them down. I have never written poetry before, but this one seemed to work out alright. Here is what I wrote:
There will come a time
Unto men and women of every kind
Where trial and year will knock you down,
Sin and fear bring you to the ground.

Above you stands the Savior near.
You lift your eyes and then you hear,
"Come and take my hand, don't fear,
So I may lift you up and wipe your tear."

And because He drank from the bitter cup,
You reach out your had and He lifts you up.
Then you let go and continue on your way
Only to have Satan lead you away.

Back on the ground, you wonder why
You should continue on, should even try.
Again you lift your eyes to see
The Savior there, so lovingly.

What we need to know and understand
Is to never let go of that extended hand.
For when we grab on and never let go,
We rise and let Him take us to a higher home.

There will come a time
Unto men and women of every kind
To follow Him and to choose the right,
So take His hand to arise and shine.

Pretty good for a beginner right? I credit that one to the influence of the Spirit. It was a great Zone Conference. Afterwards, we went on exchanges with the Elizabeth Elders. So I went to Elizabeth with Elder J Smith. He is just finishing his training as a new missionary and he is a stud. He is just rock solid and a really great missionary and teacher.

 We had a good time at dinner and then went to have a lesson with one of their investigators. We taught the Plan of Salvation and she understood it really well! She really wants to get baptized too and we are happy for her. After the lesson we went into their backyard to try to scare the fainting goats that they had. Now these ones were more on their game than others. Just yelling at them wouldn't work. So what we did was distract them while the dad lit a noise maker firework. So as we distracted them, he tossed the firework right behind them and it went off. All the goats stiffed up and fell over and couldn't walk anywhere! It was hilarious!
On Thursday, Elder J Smith and I helped the member they live with move in a piece of granite into the shower they are building. It was super big and weighed about 600 plus pounds. We had six guys there shuffling it around and we finally managed to get it into place after a good couple of heaves. After that, we took off to do some service for a less active member and helped shovel out some stalls! My favorite! We then went to visit this one member and then it started raining super hard and hailing! They said that there was a tornado watch going on right then and told us to get inside. It just kept raining and hailing super hard and luckily no tornado touched down. While we were there, the members had us give a lesson but it had to be done the traditional way that they have done it. So what they do is they select an object in the room at random and then I have 3 minutes to prepare a small lesson based on that object. So what they selected for me was a roller for your sore muscles. So after 3 minutes I gave a lesson on how when we get knots in our muscles, we use the roller to straighten them out and to roll out the knots. Likewise, when we sin, our heart (which is a muscle) gets a little sore or a little harder and may have some knots in it. Luckily, Jesus Christ atoned for each of our sins and provided a way for us to overcome our weaknesses. So we must use the roller of the Atonement to roll out the knots that sin creates in our hearts. This will allow our heart to strengthen as well. They then gave me a rating at the end and said I had a nice solid 8 and that not many missionaries had done that before haha. It was fun. We then exchanged back and had dinner at the Young's. we then went to mutual and helped decorate cupcakes to deliver to different people. I used my natural cupcake decorating skills that I got from Aunt Janell:)
On Friday, we had a good district meeting and then went to lunch. Bonaventure was pretty fun and we had a good time. We played Yahtzee and had to coach them through it each round but it was fun. We had dinner with the Kendall's and it was really good. Next we had a lesson with the Spears and we had them do the pick an object thing. So we had to relate a spaceship and a cardboard box to the gospel. And it worked out! That night, the Assistants to the President drove up and we exchanged. I stayed up here with Elder Constantine and Elder Tibbitts went with Elder Buxton to the Springs. So we got some crazy news from the assistants that night too. We found out that the Parker South stake (half of our zone) would be leaving the Colorado, Colorado Springs mission and would be going to the Denver North mission. Luckily all of the missionaries in that stake will stay in this mission and will be transferred into different places Tuesday. That is crazy for us because we have half as much paperwork and stuff to worry about now and can focus on proselyting in our area more!
On Saturday, Elder Constantine and I went way out to Sedalia to find someone and unfortunately they weren't home. It was a beautiful drive though! We had lunch at Piezanos in Sedalia and it was delicious! It reminded me of the East Coast pizza. We came back and were able to have success as we attempted to talk to everyone. Dinner was with the Prescott's and they cooked smoked BBQ Ribs that were delicious! We had a good lesson at the Shifflet's too. We exchanged back and it was good getting to know and learn from Elder Constantine.
On Sunday, bishop's son Jake just got back from his mission to Oslo, Norway. He gave an incredible homecoming talk and is a really great guy. The first thig he said to us when he met us was "what's your number? I'm available anytime for any appointment" we are looking forward to having him at our lessons and stuff:) we then met with Ammon and his friend again and had a good lesson on overcoming the natural man through selflessness. We then went to Sedalia for dinner with the Polson's and then got to go over to the Watts for a good lesson on the Atonement. We then were invited to Jake Rolfson's open house thing and were able to meet some really cool nonmembers there.
On Memorial Day, we picked up the Spanish Elders and then met with the Elizabeth Elders to go out fishing on the South Platte river! So we went down to the river and met up with two of the youth in our ward down there, Blake and James. We had tons of fun just fishing and being together. I didn't catch any fish this time, but I caught some nibbles! Out of everyone, we caught probably 5 fish. Oh and Elder Taylor caught a monster stick too:) after we wrapped up fishing, we went to say goodbye to all of the Parker South missionaries. It is sad to see all of them leave but hopefully I will see them around at some other point in my mission. It was a great Memorial Day.

Thanks everyone for all that you have done for me and what you have helped me to become. Have a great week!
Love, Elder LaRose.

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

WEEK #43 Castle Rock Zone, NEW ADDRESS

WEEK #43

Hey everyone! It's been a good week:) we moved into a different member's home so my address had changed! It is now 4358 Sawmill Ct.
On Monday, we went to the computers to email, and then went shopping at the store. Then we went and got fishing licenses from Walmart to go fish for the rest of the day! We were picked up by Elder Rumsey and Elder Smith and then drove through Sedalia, almost to a small place called deckers to get to the spot. We were on the South Platte River and found a pretty good spot to fish. The four of us kind of spread out a little bit and started casting. The weather was just right too. It had just stopped raining when we showed up. After about 20 minutes, I caught a fish! It was a tiny rainbow trout about 5 inches long and I hooked it through the eye. Once I had caught it, I had to get over my childhood fear of touching the fish and so I just grabbed it and pulled the hook out. A couple minutes later I caught another small rainbow trout through the lip:) I was pretty proud of myself. Elder Tibbitts and Elder Smith didn't catch anything and Elder Rumsey ended up catching two small rainbow trout as well.







As we headed back, the road was really foggy and it was pretty cool to drive in. We are planning another fishing trip for Memorial Day too. That night, we went and had dinner with the Lee family. Come to find out, they are from Cortez, Colorado and we had some good talks about that area. We also had lessons at the  Crabtree's and the Prescott's.
On Tuesday, Elder Tibbitts and I went to Horsepower in the morning and shoveled some stalls. Then, after that, we went on exchanges with the Spanish Elders. So I went with Elder Taylor in his area. We went back to horsepower because Spanish goes there at a different time of the day. So I got double duty on the poopy scoopy. We came home and showered after that and then went to dinner. Also that night, we went to Smart Cow for some frozen yogurt and a lesson with some members.




On Wednesday, Elder Taylor and I studied about finding people to teach and specifically, talking with everyone. We had planned to go knock on some potential investigator doors and things like that around the apartment complex.
So when we headed out, we focused on talking with everyone we could. Just from that short amount of time, we were able to get so much out of it. The very first people we talked to were a very friendly couple who said they were members who moved from Nevada a couple years ago, but their records never showed up in our ward. They seemed not to mind if we stopped by again, they just said work was keeping them busy and it would be hard to catch them. It's amazing how The Lord led us to them at that moment specifically. I can't imagine if we hadn't talked to them. It may have been another couple of years before they were approached by someone from the church. As we continued on, we found 5 other potential investigators that said they would be interested in having us over! In that short time, we really put into action what we ha learned in our studies and the results came! Talk with everyone! Later, we exchanged back and then went to Task Force for some service. After that, we went and had a lesson with Noe and brought Jonah Arocho with us. We are all around the same age so it was fun to have that lesson. We found out that Noe had not been reading the Book of Mormon, so we focused our lesson on how the Book of Mormon answers the questions of the soul and left him some reading assignments. We had to leave earlier because our dinner was early. We went to the Degolyer house and had some good ribs. They are a family that has just recently moved in and they are pretty awesome.
On Thursday, we did our weekly planning and had a good discussion about how we can strengthen our companionship. That evening, we biked to President Davis's home and had a good dinner. We then went to mutual, which was at the Kumpfs for some fondue! It was great for us to be there because the youth had invited some nonmembers that we got to talk with. We also had delicious fondue:) after that, we got to go and conduct a baptismal interview for James in the Crystal Valley ward. James was found worthy for baptism and actually has an incredible story. He is about 60 and is from India and had a brother who was a member of the church. James became a burn victim through a house fire and his brother gave him a priesthood blessing and took his pain away. That was huge for James and so he wanted to be baptized a member of the church by his brother. But just a few days before James's baptism, his brother died unexpectedly of a heart attack. This caused James to fall away and back out of his baptism. He remained angry at God for some time. Then, not too long ago, James had to go through open heart surgery and received a priesthood blessing from the missionaries. Not 4 days later, he was walking around and feeling fine! So that rekindled his testimony of the truth of this church and he has made all the steps necessary to be baptized. We are so excited for the blessings we know that he will receive by doing this.
On Friday, we had a good district meeting and got to talk about those that we are working with. Afterwards, we went and did service at Bonaventure. We had some intense rounds of bingo and came through with the gold on one of the rounds:). After that, we went home and packed all of our stuff away to get ready for the move from the Kumpf's to the Kendall's. we were invited to the graduation party for Bishop's daughter, Katie that night. We showed up and there were tons of nonmembers that we got to meet and build relationships with. One of them was Katie's friend who would totally get baptized if it weren't for her parents. It was cool to see the testimony and faith of someone who isn't even a member of the church. We also got to meet some younger guys and also meet Bishop Rolfson's neighbors and have good connections. That night, we stopped by to see Noe and invite him to James's baptism. He totally agreed to come as well!
On Saturday, we loaded everything into our truck and unpacked it all at the Kendall's.

Then, we picked up Noe and went to the baptism. It was a little delayed but it was great to see James and the joy in his face. Noe really liked it was well and there were lots of people that were really kind to and interested in him. The baptism went well and smooth and the spirit was strong. We were also invited to the celebration afterwards and Noe came too. James and his Sister made some authentic Indian curry which was amazing! I haven't had curry in a long time. We had good food and good conversation. I really feel that the spirit spoke to Noe, saying "These people really will care about you and love you." We then took Noe back home and he thanked us for taking him. We spent the rest of the day unpacking and setting up and putting away things in our new location. For dinner we went to the Bays and he had smoked some pork for our delicious pulled pork sandwiches. For our next appointment, we went to the Farnsworth's and had an activity on the Atonement. The object lesson was we had candy for everyone there. We asked each person if they wanted a piece of candy if they accepted the candy, I had to do 7 push ups for payment for that candy. So as we moved around the room, I had to do push ups. Then, one of them said that they didn't want candy so that I wouldn't have to do push ups. But I did them anyway. This relates to the Atonement because Jesus had already payed the price for everything that we have done and will do wrongfully. It helped everyone appreciate what Christ has done for us and also helped me get bigger muscles:).
On Sunday, we had our missionary correlation meeting and it was nice not having to go anywhere because it was at the Kendall's. Church was really good and Noe came to church! It was
Great to have him there and stayed for first and second hour. We had some good Greek food with Bishop and his family for dinner and then we went to the church to meet with Ammon and his friend. We had a good lesson on forgiveness and were able to give both of them blessings of comfort afterwards. It was a great week with great miracles. I love being a missionary and love each of you:) have a great week!!

Elder LaRose

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

WEEK #42 - Castle Rock Zone

Hey everyone! It was a pretty great week this week!
On Monday, we had a blast. After we went and emailed and shopped, Elder Tibbitts and I went with the Spanish Elders, Elder Taylor and Elder Ashcroft, to the restaurant inside of the Hospital again. After that, we went to the turf field across from the Plum Creek building and played all kinds of stuff. We started off by playing flag football and I got a chance to break in the flags that I got for Easter:). Then we moved to playing ultimate frisbee and by that time the wind had picked up so it was hard to throw it. We then played a little bit of soccer. When we got tired of that stuff, we went over to the church and played some good basketball:) Elder Tibbits went and played the card game Magic with some other Elders so it worked out. We came home and had some burgers at the Rolfson's and then met with the Ganns and the Kumpfs for lessons afterwards. It was a good pday.
On Tuesday, we did our studies and then went to HorsePower for service. We were the only Elders who showed up that day so we helped the owner shovel out stalls. Then the owner went out into this one field to fertilize it with the poop but his tractor got stuck in the mud! So he drove out another machine out there with a chain to try to putt it out and then that got stuck too! So he drove a bigger tractor out there to try to get it unstuck but it wasn't budging. So after we were at it for like an hour, he just said that he was going to call his friend with a big tractor to come pull out everything later in the day. It was pretty funny.

 Later that night, the Wassons took us out to eat in celebration of Gary's birthday! So we went and had dinner at Outback Steakhouse. I had a sirloin steak and shrimp on the Barbie:) we were able to go to the MacGills afterwards and have a great lesson before we retired for the evening.
On Wednesday, we got to go to Task Force and help out everyone there. It is always fun to go to Task Force because they put you to work and you meet a lot of new people as well! We then had great lessons with the Nielsens and the Haycocks.

​Also, Elder Tu'ifua did some drawings on my ukulele!

On Thursday, the missionaries were invited to a luncheon for all the volunteers at Task Force. The luncheon was held at the Canyon Community Church and there were probably 200 people attending. They recognized a couple of different people and then we had a good lunch! After the lunch they gave out some awards to different people and then had all 8 of us missionaries stand up. They thanked us in front of the crowd and said they were grateful to have their "Mormon power". It was pretty cool to have that happened and may have changes some of the way that people view us. What a great opportunity. After that we went and had a meeting with Brother Jones, the Parker South High Councilor over missionary work. We had a good discussion about the documents we give to the stake and about how the stake is doing. He also told us about some of his funny missionary stories. When we came back to Castle Rock, we went to the Metcalfs and worked on their swing set:) dinner was with the Buhlers and the husband doesn't come to church so it was nice to be in their home and to have a lesson. We then went to mutual and taught the Teachers and Priests about a day in the life of a missionary. It was really good for them and we gave them a bunch of different situations in where they had to tell us what they were going to do. Not all of them have it down but that's alright.
On Friday, we had a good district meeting and Elder Tibbitts got to teach the lesson. For lunch, we met with the senior couple over the JustServe projects for the mission at Cafe Rio. Elder and Sister Searing were going to pay for us but then some members came up to us and gave us some money anyways haha. The Searings still payed for us anyways. We had a good lunch and a good talk about all the JustServe projects we are doing. After that we went to Bonaventure and played some memory games with the tenants. We did a couple of different trivia questions and their answers were pretty funny. After that, we finally completed the Metcalf's swing set!

The kids were pretty happy and excited for it to be done:) so that night, all the fathers were at Father's and Sons's so no one could meet with us that night. We ended up going to Chili's with the Spanish Elders.
On Saturday, our morning consisted of studies, finalizing paperwork for our stake meetings, and having lunch. We got to stop by a lot of new people as well. That evening, we had a lesson with Brother Hunter for the first time. He is a less active member who is looking to try out coming back to church. We are excited to be working with him and hope the best. We set out on foot for that evening and walked to the Palmers to have dinner and a lesson. Also, today our investigator Clint got married civilly to the member he was dating in Boulder! Bishop Rolfson actually performed the marriage up there for them and he said lots of people were telling Clint that the next step was to be baptized! Haha hopefully that gave him a little more of a push.
On Sunday we woke up early and got a ride from President Haycock to our meetings. We first went to Parker to meet with President Rehm and the stake there. It was a great meeting and we got a lot accomplished. We then went to the Castle Rock meeting and it was good to finally touch base with them. It was the first meeting we've had with them since January! After that we went to Ward Council and learned a lot and discussed the needs of the Ward. Church went really well and Brother Hunter showed up and sat by us! It was a good meeting too. Dinner was at the Grats and then we had to book it to the Castle Rock just serve meeting. After that meeting, we met with Bishop Rolfson and talked about some more people. We finished by singing a hymn accompanied by me on the ukulele:) even though the sabbath is a day of rest, we were busy at the Lord's work for most of it:)

I am grateful each day for the blessings that a mission brings into my life and into the life of others. There is no other place where you can find such peace, joy, and comfort than in this gospel. I love you all and have a great week:)
Elder LaRose.