WEEK #51 - Colorado Springs Mission Office

WEEK #51
July 20, 2016

Hey Family and friends! Things are going great here in Colorado Springs!
On Monday, we had to begin the day with helping someone move out of their apartment and into another. That took a little while so we came to the misison office to send out our emails. Because of our assignment, we are given laptops to have so we can create documents and manage different things so we used them for our Monday emails. After we went shopping, we didn't have a whole lot of time to do anything big until we realized that it was 7/11 day. So we went to about 15 different 7/11s where they had the promotion of getting a free slurpee that day. So we went around to as many as we could and filled our faces with slurpees. We ended up having close to 30 cups combined between us.



So we did that until we had dinner with a less active family. We had a great lesson and are working on setting a date with them to go to the temple!
On Tuesday, after our studies, we met with all of the office missionaries and with President and Sister Rehm to have a Transfer Coordination meeting with the upcoming transfer in a week. We had a good long meeting and talked about what needed to happen to make the transfer run smoothly. We are in charge of creating the travel arrangements for each of the missionaries on transfer day. We tell them where to go, who to meet, and so on. After that, we met with President and Sister Rehm to discuss transfers and who should go where. We had lunch at the office and then continued on.
We went to Memorial Park and talked with a lot of people. It was funny to see a lot of younger people out with their phones playing that new Pokemon game or something haha. We then went and helped Sgt. Bean, a nonmember who is stationed at Peterson Air Force Base, move out of his home with Elder and Sister Mecham, the senior couple over military relations of Peterson AFB. We had dinner with the Fosters and their girls and helped the girls set up the program for their baptism on Sunday. That was way fun.
On Wednesday, we did our weekly planning and I'm feeling comfortable with the new area and everything now. We had a good time preparing for the coming week and for the coming transfer!


We went and had a great time talking with people as we went contacting and then actually got a new investigator to teach as well. His name is Lewis. We had a good dinner and then went to the Family History center for a little bit.
On Thursday, We went up to the North part of Springs and met with the North and East zones for their Zone Conference. We did some training with the missionaries on the new dress and grooming standards. We also talked about contacting people through our own efforts and how we can be effective missionaries. After that, we went and had lunch with a member that Elder Constantine knows. So after we had lunch, we went and did the same training with the Colorado Springs and Fountain zones. That night, we had a great lesson with Jimmy. We planned on teaching him the Plan of Salvation and when we got to the lesson, we found out that his nephew had passed away only a couple of hours before. The lesson was really great for him and really spiritual! He is progressing along really well and said that he would set a baptismal date with us in our next lesson too.
On Friday, we had a good district meeting with the new district! It was good to get to know more of the missionaries, and there are even two senior couples in the district. After our district meeting, we went and had lunch at the Mecham's with the rest of the district. Then we met with President and Sister Rehm again to finalize everything for transfers. It was cool because we would put missionaries in different places and in different leadership positions and then we would kneel and pray about our decisions and wait for the Spirit to confirm our decisions. We got most everything finalized for transfers and then headed out to do work. We went and saw Francis and Rafael and had a good lesson with them. We talked about Christ's earthly ministry, the great apostasy, and about the restoration of Christ's true church. Dinner was with the Searings and we had a great time in their home. We then went over to Sister Zeigler's for some smore's with the sister missionaries.
On Saturday, we got all ready for the big transfer! We had to make the travel arrangements for each missionary that would be involved in transfers in any way. We had a big map on our wall with sticky notes for all the missionaries and vehicles that we needed to figure out. We need to factor in a lot of different things into the travel arrangements such as phones, cars, luggage, and missionaries. We were doing that for a lot of the day,

We went to a baptism that the sister missionaries had in our ward (There are sister missionaries that cover 5th ward with us as well). Then we did a conference call with some missionaries in training for an hour. We also had a good lesson with the Wheelers and also with Jose. We are really grateful for their progression.That night, we called each of the Zone Leaders and told them the missionaries that would be leaving their zones.
On Sunday, we had ward council early in the morning and had a good meeting. We then went to church and were glad to see Jimmy there. Reygan, Kyla, and Kymber and their parents were also there and the meeting went really well. After church, we grabbed a little bite to eat and then were asked to go give a blessing to someone's friend who was sick. We went over there and did that and then got another call for a blessing from one of the recent converts, Shannon. After we were able to help them out, we went back and worked on the travel arrangements for transfers. We then went to the church to fill up the baptismal font for Reygan (12), Kyla (10), and Kymber (9)! When everyone showed up and we got the pictures taken, we got things started.

I got to say the opening prayer for them and it was great. President and Sister Rehm came to support them as well. It was so wonderful to see them take this step of faith in their lives. We returned again to slaving over travel arrangements and making sure that every little detail was correct and that transfers would run smoothly. After call-ins and all, we got done with transfer stuff around 12:30am. Good fun.
I am blessed for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord. I love my mission and I hope that all of you can see the power that the Lord's true church and restored gospel to change the lives of those I've talked about, my own life, and even your own. Love all of you!

MISSION OFFICE:
4090 Center Park Dr
Colorado Springs, Colorado
80916

 kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

WEEK #50 - Colorado Springs Mission Office

WEEK #50, 07.11.16

Hey everyone! It seems like this week started so long ago!
On Monday, it was the 4th of July and it was great. We started off by getting ready for a parade. The missionaries, each year, get to march in the Parade in Monument, Colorado! So we put on our patriotic ties and sung hymns as we marched in the parade. I got to see a ton of people from other areas and that was cool. 

After the parade, we had to go and pick up President Rehm because he got left behind on the buses haha. So we drove to the Monument church building and had lunch with the missionaries there. Afterwards, we went and changed clothes and then went and played basketball with some missionaries. My skills had gotten rusty being in Castle Rock haha. After that, we were invited by the Mecham's, a senior missionary couple in the ward, to Memorial Park to have a family home evening and barbecue. We had a good time there and stayed a little longer to watch the fireworks over Prospect Lake. It was a good night.


sunset at Memorial Park

On Tuesday, it was Tony's bday so HAPPY BDAY TONY!! Hope it was great:) So in the morning, we drove up to Castle Rock to have a specialized training with President and Sister Rehm for the zone. Our portion to teach addressed the new dress and grooming standards and also focused on the importance of contacting people. We headed back down to the Springs and met up with the Pueblo Zone Leaders to exchange. I went with Elder Buxton and Elder Bennett to go finding in the area and we had some pretty great success. We were able to share lots of lessons and get return appointments! It was weird having people that were willing to listen to you and willing to let you in haha. We had a good lesson with Eric on the plan of salvation and he really liked the whole concept of that. We met with a progressing less active Jose and that was good. He is really funny too. We had dinner and then went to teach a family that we have been working with. Erich and Christawnia are the parents and their three girls are Reygan, Kyla, and Kymber. We had a great lesson on the Holy Ghost and were able to have the girls get baptismal dates! Erich is not a member yet and is waiting on some job things for it to work out for his baptism date. The girls will be getting baptized on the 17th! We are super excited for them.
On Wednesday, it was McKayd's bday so HAPPY BDAY MCKAYD!!!! go kiss a girl or something. So we got up, got ready, and then headed to the Aeroplaza building for Mission Leadership Council. We had a good long meeting and we got a lot discussed. One of my new responsibilities was to pull up the Key indicator graphs for each of the zones. After that, we went to a park to teach a less active family and while we were teaching, a lady came up to us, asked us for a Book of Mormon, and asked if we could come and teacher. That was super awesome to have happen and it also helped the less active family we were talking with. Haha I was like what just happened?! That evening we had a lesson with another investigator and are working closely with him. It was an awesome day.
On Thursday, we went on exchanges with the Castle Rock elders. Considering I left that area a week ago, it seems like we have been up there a lot since then haha. We drove up in the morning and got there in time to do companionship study. After that, we got to go to lunch with Nana and Papa LaRose!!! They were in the area and were able to come down and treat us well. We had a great lunch at Applebees. It was so good to see them. After that, we said our goodbyes and got back to missionary work. 

I was up with Elder Buxton to help Elder Lloyd with planning for his first Zone training. So we helped him map out what he wanted to instruct the zone on and remind him of things he needed to cover. After that, we went and visited Judy, a returning less active that is ready to get herself to the temple! She is so ready and is so excited about that. Then, we went out to Sedalia to contact some more less active members but none of them were home. So we decided to tract a part of Sedalia and got Elder Lloyd a new investigator! (right after I leave right) that was super cool. We were driving down the road and saw this huge looking castle thing and then were determined to find it. So we took a couple of roads and found the castle! we got some cool pictures and then headed to dinner at the Howlands. 

After dinner we were able to go and teach Noe! It was great to see him for one last time. We taught about the Word of Wisdom and committed him to live it. He accepted! It was a great last lesson. We drove back down to the Springs and then planned for the next day then crashed.
On Friday, we did our studies and then went to the mission office to meet with President Rehm and help plan for transfers. We made a couple of decisions on where people would go and stuff. That went on for a while and then we got lunch and then went to Zone Training for the Fountain Zone. The Zone Leaders over our zone are Elder Pexton and Elder Tibbitts! It was great to see them again. Afterwards we went and had dinner with them at Fargo's Pizza! it's a pretty famous pizza place in the Springs and it was good. We finished the night by working on the miles document for the mission.

​Fargo's and Elder Pexton

On Saturday, we had a lesson in the morning with Jesus who is a young Hispanic guy who we found tracting. He has a smoking problem so we taught him about the Word of Wisdom and committed him to work on that. It was a good lesson! Afterwards, we drove up to Castle Rock AGAIN via Hwy 105 because Elder Buxton left his phone up there while we were on exchanges. 

HWY 105

When we got back, we went and saw a really great less active family. The Wheelers have a desire to be more active and want to have a foundation in the Gospel. We taught a great lesson to them about how God loves us and about the compensatory blessings that He gives us. They are ready to progress and we are looking forward to working with their family. We tried to contact a couple more people and then went and had a lesson with Francis and Rafael. They are new investigators that have had missionaries in the past, but love to talk about the gospel. We are going to work on them:) We then had some dinner and then went to a lesson with a recent convert named Brian, who is deaf. It was cool to have the lesson taught through an interpreter too.
On Sunday, we went to Ward Council early in the morning and had a good coordination with the Colorado Springs 5th ward. I got to meet Bishop Hendry and am looking forward to working with him. We had a good amount of people come to church too! The Wheelers came and some other people that we have been working with. We then came home and had some lunch. Afterwards, we had to spend a good amount of time working on finishing the miles document for the mission. And speaking of compensatory blessings earlier, when we had time to go out and do missionary work, The Lord led the people to us. As we were walking along the sidewalk, a car pulled up next to us and a younger couple asked us where the church building was! They said that they had just moved in and were looking for where to go for church! They then told us their address and said to come by. They also said that they would be at church next week too! We didn't have to ask them for any of that haha. We just asked them what their names were and then they drove off. The Lord will lead us to them or he will lead them to us. We were in the right place at the right time and were able to see the Lord's blessing. We did some more contacting and had a quick doorstep lesson with John. He told us that he had read a little bit out of the Book of Mormon and that he would continue to pray as he read. We continued on after that and then had dinner and then went to a lesson with a less active family. We had a really great lesson on the Temple and about what we can do in there. We committed them to select a day by which they would be temple worthy so that they could be sealed to their family for time and all eternity. They accepted and we will meet with them next week to discuss a date. We then went and finished some more paperwork and then collected all the Key indicators from the zones.
It was a great week and I am so happy to be serving The Lord here in Colorado. What a great blessing. Love you all!

MISSION OFFICE:
4090 Center Park Dr
Colorado Springs, Colorado
80916

 kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

WEEK #49 - Colorado Springs Mission Office - ASSISTANT to the PRESIDENT

It has been one crazy week this week! I have a new address too.
On Monday, we went fishing with a bunch of people! We took our investigator Noe with us and had a blast. We also took two of the youth in our ward with us. We fished for a little bit and then did a lot of hiking and cruising around. The views were awesome. Elder Lloyd did a couple of backflips too haha. It was great being out there with Noe and we had a great time.

That night we had a great dinner with the Wolthuis family. A couple months ago, we helped Brother Wolthuis renovate his house and paint some walls. It looked great this time we went over and was well done. We ended the night with a lesson with the Smiths.
On Tuesday, we had a good morning and got ready for Horsepower. It was not that bad cleaning up the stalls especially when you have friends doing it with you. We exchanged with the Perry Park Elders after horsepower and I went with Elder Patterson in our area. Elder Patterson is from Idaho and he is super cool. We got along pretty well and had a great day together. We had 3 evening appointments and we taught great lessons at the Karrens, Pierces and Kumpfs. The Kumpfs had a nonmember friend over and it was super great to get to know him in that brief time. It was also good for Elder Patterson to be there.
On Wednesday, we went to the computers after our studies to make a map of the area to concentrate our efforts. After that we went to Task Force and met back up with Elder Lloyd and Elder Tu'ifua. We helped out the thrift store and had a good time there. Afterwards, we had a good lesson with the Olers and had David Hess with us teaching. For dinner, we went to Crave burger with Brother Perez! It was pretty awesome. Elder Lloyd had a huge burger that had 14 items on it and then for buns, he put 2 grilled cheese sandwiches on it haha. I had what was called the Luther. It has bacon, a fried egg, and other crazy stuff. And then for the buns, it was 2 glazed donuts! It was pretty good too. We then headed out to Sedalia to meet with a less active member David. We had a great lesson on the Book of Mormon and encouraged him to read from it every day.
On Thursday, we planned for the week to come and discussed the work in the area. It was pretty good! We then went and collected stake information and miles stuff too. We didn't have a dinner appointment that night either and so the Spanish Elders invited us over to their dinner. Then we went to activity night with the youth and played some games there. There were a couple of nonmembers that showed up as well! It was a great night.


On Friday, we hopped in with Elder Taylor and Elder Ashcroft to go to district meeting. We had a good meeting and got to talk about our areas. After that, we went to Costa Vida for lunch. We came back and got ready to go to Bonaventure, where we played memory games with everyone there. After that, we had to collect some more info from everyone and enter it into the computers. Dinner was with the Howland's and we had some great food.
On Saturday, it was Mom's bday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Also, we woke up to an interesting start to the day. About 15 minutes after we woke, we got a phone call from President Rehm. I answered and he said that I would be getting emergency transferred. He extended the assignment for me to serve as an Assistant to the Mission President. I was floored by this but accepted the responsibility. He told me that I would be leaving the next day and to get packed! Pretty crazy for being out 11 months. So all day I packed up my stuff and went to our appointments. We went to a baptism at the church for an 8 year old. After that, we went and helped sister Ward get some groceries. She is unable to get out of the house much and so we went to King Soopers and got her a ton of groceries. It was actually great because we ran into a former investigator that was open to have us back over again! Dinner was with the DeGolyers and we had awesome biscuits and gravy. We finished the night by going over to Bishop's house and having a great lesson with their family. They left me with a present too! They got me some Colorado socks and a Colorado keychain:) it was great to be with them.

On Sunday, we woke up and got ready. We loaded all of my luggage into the truck. We went to PEC to coordinate with the ward and had a good meeting. After that, we went to church and had a good meeting. It was fast and testimony meeting so I got up and bore my final testimony for the Plum Creek ward. I got a lot of thank-you's from the members and I am grateful to have learned and grown from this experience. Right after church, we drove down to Colorado Springs to transfer.

My new companions will be Elder Constantine and Elder Buxton. I will be in a AP trio for like 2 weeks until Elder Buxton gets reassigned. It's pretty funny because I replaced Elder Buxton as a zone leader and now I'm replacing him as an assistant. Elder Lloyd will be taking over Castle Rock with Elder Fillips. So as I started life in a new area, we went straight to business. We went to a fireside with a lot of missionaries and their recent converts and investigators. I got to see a bunch of missionaries there from past areas like Elders Hagman, Stark, Schilling, and more. We then had to go and take call ins from all the zone leaders.
So sorry for the late email but things have been crazy and will probably continue to be! And since I will be working closely in the mission office and stuff, my NEW ADDRESS will be:
4090 Center Park Dr
Colorado Springs, Colorado
80916
Love you all and have a great week!!

 kyler.larose@myldsmail.net

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