New Transfer and Zone Leader

Hey!

So Its been a pretty busy last couple of days. I am just now getting on the computers and I can only be on for 15 minutes before we have to leave to get to an appointment. I got transferred but I am staying in the Denver North Stake. President called me to be a Zone Leader so Ill be working in the Northridge Ysa branch. My new companion is Elder Cowley he is sweet. He's from Phoenix. We got swept into the area which never happens with Zone Leaders so its going to be pretty crazy. We spent all day Monday getting missionaries to their new areas and we happened to get a flat tire. We hung out at F.H.E and played Volleyball with all the Y.S.A's, its pretty cool to start working with people our own age now. So a little about the Stake... Its the largest stake in North America I believe with over 6000 members and has a lot of Less Actives. It covers the cities of Thornton, Commerce City, Northglen and Brighton. Its the biggest zone as far as missionaries too. We live with a family called the Carlson's who own pretty much all the land and have a lot of money.. We live in their guest house and have a basketball court and a gym plus a ping pong and pool table! Last week went well I got to go to the temple. Sunday I had a very special moment. Jose our Recent Convert asked me to give him the Priesthood so I ordained him to a priest. Well Im excited for my new area and companion and Believe this will be a good transfer.

Img_0033 - A family we were teaching
Img_0038 - some of the missionaries before we found out who was leaving.
Img_0039 - A sweet family!
Img_0042 - A schweet family!

Elder Pedro: Baptisms, Lessons and Geronimo Update

Hello!

This was one of the most event filled weeks of my mission. First off, the Salazar family got baptized on Saturday. I had the privilege of baptizing the wife and the daughter it was so awesome. We had 60 people at the baptism which is pretty good. Their confirmations on Sunday were amazing too, Elder Broderick and I blessed their first sacrament too. I also taught a lot this week with members. We got 4 lessons with members present which is the most I've ever done in a week. There was a lot of stuff happening in my District to so I had to talk to President Toombs everyday last week and I met with him quite a bit. He even came to our District Meeting. He told me that I would be leaving the are. I told him that I really want to stay so we will see what happens. There is a new Senior Couple who will be serving in this ward next transfer and they will be doing Less Active work. There are 700 people on the rosters and 130 that come each week. We are still teaching Geronimo and he has finished 1 Nephi already which we were pretty surprised at. The Salazar's want us to teach their Mom too so we might start doing that. There is still a lot of good stuff happening in this area.

Img_0009- The day of the baptism!
-- Elder Pedro

First Baptism Interview, Success and Bowling a 229

Hola!

It was a pretty good week. We went on a couple of exchanges and had a lot of fun. Last Wednesday I gave my first ever Baptismal Interview it went pretty well, she got baptized last Saturday. The Salazar family is doing good they will be getting baptized this Saturday we are pretty excited, the ward is too. The ward hasn't had a baptism in over 2 years. On Saturday we went to a baptism and I got to see the Hathaways again! This is the first week since Elder Broderick and I have been together that we haven't found any new investigators. We had Zone Conference in Aurora on Tuesday it was really good! The drive home sucked though it was the worst traffic I have ever been in. It took 2 hours to go 3-4 miles on the freeway. We went bowling last week for P-day and I bowled a 229! we are going again today so we'll so how I do. This week is completely focused on The Salazar we will be meeting with them almost every day, the husband has cancer and I gave him a blessing last week and it was amazing There were so pretty remarkable promises. I also got a super legit haircut but a sister missionary in the zone I will have to send a picture sometime.

PS - We got a flat tire on the way to the baptismal interview and were really late. ;-)

Slow Week and Upcoming Baptisms!

Hello Everybody,

It was a slow week for us because a lot of people were gone or were busy with family. I went on exchanges with the Thornton Elders on Tuesday we worked in their area as well as mine. We are teaching a lady named Dianne now who was excommunicated and wants to come back so that's been fun. We played football all Thursday Morning and called Bingo. Then we ate with the Bigelow family they are super legit! we also ate with our investigators Greg and Jennifer a couple of hours later. Friday I was on exchanges with Elder Collette who is a Zone Leader we had a sucessful day and found a lot of new people. Jose and Elexis are doing very well and will be getting baptized in two weeks. They didn't make it to church on Sunday because there Mom who was going to take them crashed on the way to pick them up so that was pretty stressful. They are getting married today and are really excited to get baptized. So yesterday we got some referrals to teach people in an extended stay hotel which is on the very south east corner of our area, I took a wrong turn and ended up driving into the Denver-south Mission I couldn't turn around for a couple of miles so that was fun. There is a member that is staying in the hotel and she is spreading the gospel like crazy to other people staying in the hotel so we are going to start teaching them.

The Joy of Being a Missionary

Yo

This last week went by so fast. There were a lot of meetings. On Tuesday I was at a Leadership meeting all day. Friday we drove up to Loveland for a trainers meeting, it was a pretty goofy day because I hung out with 2 spanish Elders that came out with me who go home a transfer before me because they spent 6 weeks longer in the MTC, they hit there year mark on Friday which means that mine is creeping up. Saturday and Sunday morning was so stressful we called so many people to get rides four investigators it worked out though we got 5 investigators at church. The family we started teaching last week are set on baptism and they had a good experience at church. The person who finally was able to pick them up for church has a tie to there family so it worked out very well. I have taught more lessons in the last month and a half then I have taught my whole mission so I am truly being blessed. I have no idea what we are going to do for Thanksgiving I am going on some exchanges this week too so they should be pretty fun. We are still teaching that Apache Geronimo we had a really good lesson with him he is very smart and knows quite a lot about everything, he explained to me some of the Apache beliefs. We are teaching a lady named Gayle who lives in Denver and over the past 2 weeks we have started teaching all of her kids and there friends. They all really like us too.

Geronimo, Blackfoot and Scheduling Baptisms!

So the libraries were all closed on Monday and there was a leadership meeting that I was at all day yesterday, so I am just barely getting to emailing. So the highlight of last week was probably when I met an Apache named Geronimo we have an appointment with him this Saturday. We are teaching a man named Jose and his family he is half Blackfoot, We set them for a date to get baptized so they should be getting baptized on December 8th! We are at the point where we teach a lesson or two everyday so that's pretty sweet. It got pretty cold last week and it snowed a couple of inches. They took away the truck so now we are in a Corolla so we slide all over now ha ha. We have invited something like 8 people now to get baptized and they have all said yes so the next couple of weeks we are going to focus on them getting baptismal dates hopefully they all pull through. We had breakfast with the Stake President and he told me that he heard we we're doing good and that he wants us to start focusing on Commerce City more. Its hard to get down there because it uses a lot of miles and we don't have that many but we are going to do what we can. Commerce City has over 100,000 people and only about 20 active members of the church. There is a lot of potential down there because we cover the whole city. The hard part is getting people to church because the church building is about 10-15 miles north of the city. I am pretty sure that I am going to be transferred in a month or so. So I am working really hard because I probably won't be in another area that has so much potential for work.

Hello Everyone,

So today is the beginning of a new transfer. I am a little disappointed because they took our truck away and gave us a corolla (the truck is going to Strasburg). Two new Elders came into our district, Elder Leach who will be with Elder Quigg and Elder Tenorio who will be with Elder Beebe. Both of them came out with me, James (my cousin) somehow knows Elder Tenorio's sister and he told me about him before I even came out on my mission he is super funny too. We met with a new investigator named Briseida her husband is a member and she had the lessons about 2 years ago, I think is she is truly ready to join the church now so we are helping out with her. We also had a man named Paul who called us and said he wasn't a member and he was coming to church, he also asked how he could meet with the bishop so we set all that up. He did come to church and we are going to be meeting with him this week. We had to be home at 6 P.M on Halloween so we just passed out candy for our family we live with, it was pretty fun. Friday we went to Buffalo Wild Wings as a district and Elder Broderick did the blazing challenge, where he had to eat 12 of their hottest wings in 6 minutes, he had to sign a waiver that if he got injured he couldn't sue Buffalo Wild Wings it took ihm 12 minutes and he just about passed out but they still gave it to him haha. On Saturday we had a bonfire with other missionaries as we found out about transfers that was really fun. On Sunday we met with a less active family who we have been trying to see forever and we finally got to meet and talk to them, they are both return missionaries and have a lot of cultural issues with the church, One of them served in the San Jose mission and he served in the other ward up in the mountains and I think he covered the Alma branch! Well I am excited for this next transfer when I hit the end of it I will be at my year mark, pretty crazy how fast it is going.

Img_003 - Elder Broderick reviewing the waiver.
IMG_0011 - this is Elder Broderick, Beebe and myself at the border of our mission you can kinda see downtown in the background, the other side of the overpass is the Colorado Denver South mission.
IMG_0012 -Elder Holben pointing at our transfer predictions.
IMG_0015 - the district photo

Elder Pedro Letter: Tracting, Tracting and Raking Leaves!

I set a goal to work harder than I ever hard this past week, and the Lord bless us in our efforts. We found a lady named Allison tracting and we had a good lesson with her, she is awesome she grew up going to LDS services. We also found 2 new investigators by asking for referrals from our current investigators. We had two investigators come to church which was sweet! and we invited 4 people to be baptized! they all said yes so we just have to help them continue to progress in the gospel and set a date with them. Wednesday it started pouring so of course we decided to go knocking doors some guy let us in. He ended up being a born-again ex Mormon and he gave us all this false information about our church. That night it really started snowing and we had an appointment cancel it was 8 P.M. and I didn't know what to do so we just started knocking doors ( I don't think Elder Broderick was happy with me). On Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Collette (Sr. Zone Leader) and Elder Amon (co-Zone leader) It was a weird day we didn't really do any missionary work we went to the middle of no where east of Brighton to do service and the A.P.s called and said there was an Emergency Transfer and the they came and took Elder Amon. on Saturday we had our ward chili cook off and of course we were the judges! there was some really spicy chili. We had an interesting lesson with Jim (the Native American) on Sunday we brought our ward mission leader, I think Jim had been drinking because he was saying some goofy stuff and he started getting hostile with Bro. Pabst. When we left he lesson Bro. Pabst said ''never invite me again'' haha of man it was funny. I had a great experience on Saturday... We were driving around Commerce City and a saw a lady raking her lawn and I had a strong impression to go help her, so I pulled over and ran to go talk to her. She was a Hispanic lady and didn't speak any English so she grabbed her daughter who translated for us it took awhile for them to agree to help but she finally said yes. We raked her leaves and bagged them as well. When we finished the lady's daughter had left so we couldn't really communicate with her but she started getting emotional and we could tell she was very grateful. I felt very certain that we had helped answer a prayer.

Elder Pedro: Success, Conference, and More Investigators!

Aloha,

We had a really successful week. Our finding has been really steady we found 3 new investigators and they all came from other investigators. The first half of the week our time was spent at meetings so we didn't get too much done on those days. Tuesday we had the first every mission wide conference. The group I traveled up with had some miscommunications so we got there pretty late, when we walked in they were giving announcements and were about to sing the opening hymn so we sat in the very back. After the Opening Hymn and Prayer one of the Assistants who was conducting stood up and said that President wanted to start with 3 testimonies about our purpose, out of the 200 missionaries there of course they said that Elder Pedro will go first, so I had to walk up from the back but it went really well. The meeting was very spiritual, President Toombs was at a mission president seminar all last week. He relayed to us all that is going on in the mission program, he said that they anticipate the number of missionaries serving to increase from about 30,000 to 50,000 in the next couple of months, because of the new mission age. We will be getting 60 more missionaries 1/3 of them will be sisters, a lot of wards will have to have 4 missionaries serving in them now. Wednesday we had interviews with our mission president and also had district meeting. I was on exchanges Thursday with Elder Quigg and we worked in the northern part of Thornton. Friday we got to work and we found two new investigators. Saturday the family we live with had a party so we got free food! Sunday there was a special Stake Conference and it was a broadcast all 58 Stakes in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana tuned in. We heard from Elder Nelson of the quorum of the 12 and a couple other 70s. We are teaching a lot more now so that is always good. Hopefully it keeps up next week .

-- Elder Pedro

Elder Pedro: Navajo and Baptism Goals

Hello Everybody:

The Lord is continuing to bless Elder Broderick and I here in the Woodglen ward. We found two more investigators and have been teaching a lot. I am finally teaching a NATIVE AMERICAN! His name is Jim and past missionaries had tracted into him and so we finally were able to get in and teach a lesson to him. He lives in the part of Denver that we cover. He is Da Nae and is from Shiprock, New Mexico. It was pretty funny he didn't talk to my companion that much and at the end of the lesson he turned to him and said ''sorry we natives just get talking and forget about your kind'' that was pretty funny. We have been teaching a guy named Jodie who just had back surgery, his wife is a member but she isn't too active. We had a really good lesson we pretty much told him that we are here to help you get baptized and he said that he knew it was true so and wants to get baptized. I think it might take a month or two before that actually happens. We had a good experience teaching a man named Robert his wife is also a member and not very active he is super Atheist but he thinks that church would be good for his family. We watched a General Conference address and talked about it, his son Garrett also watched it with us. We are turning our focus to Garrett because he is very close to becoming a member and is struggling with faith vs. logic. I went on exchanges on Thursday and went and hung out with Elder Albertson and worked in his ward, he has been serving there for almost 9 months (longest I have heard of a missionary staying in an area in our mission). He is on bike as well so I had to be on bike for the third time on my mission. Elder Broderick was with his companion Elder Beebe and they had an interesting experience they were knocking doors in our area and a man answered with a gun. Elder Broderick got pretty freaked out so he doesn't want to knock doors anymore and doesn't want to be out after dark so that's kind of been a struggle. Our mission set a goal to baptize 100 people in the month of December.. The past record has been 59 and our average is about 35. We definitely have some work to do. The whole mission is meeting on Tuesday, its been years since the whole mission has met at once. So keep us in your prayers that we hit that goal.

-- Elder Pedro

Elder Pedro: Five New Investigators, 40 degrees and two surprise visitors!

Yo, So week 2 in the Woodglen ward is finished. We had a lot of success again and found 5 new investigators. Us and the Zone Leaders are the only ones who have been able to hit the mission goal of 3 new investigators a week so far this transfer. I went on Exchanges twice this week. I first went with Elder Holben on Tuesday he is 23 and he is from Oregon he has only been a member of the church for a little over a year. He has some interesting stories about his past but he is doing well he is also about 6' 5'' and he was on the first season of Axmen or something like that I guess its on the history or discovery channel. He came and worked in our area it went pretty well we taught a couple of lessons and did some service. The next day we had district meeting and we went on exchanges again this time Elder Beebe came with me he is from Washington and has been out for 3 months. We went to Commerce city and Tracted a lot. We also gave a blessing to an investigator named Jodie who was going into surgery. The weather was not fun Wednesday it was 80 at lunch time and dropped down to 40 in just a few hours. General Conference was awesome, it was crazy to hear about the new mission age. We had dinner with a family Sunday night and the wife was telling us that her father is a bishop in a BYU freshmen ward and that within 24 hours nearly 30 people had requested interviews to go on their missions. Monday was pretty crazy as well we did service with Elder Beebe and his companion Elder Albertson and afterwards went down to the Commerce City Building, and I got a call from my Branch President in California he said that he was in Denver and wanted to meet up so Him and his wife came over and talked with us they even took us out to Subway! so I was thinking about it and I think I forgot to mention that a month ago I totally backed into a car and dented up this car, but it wasn't my fault my companion was backing me and I guess he didn't notice a car parked right in my path.

-- -- ImG_0007 - The Reimers and I.
Elder Pedro

Letter from Elder Pedro: Investigators, Puppies and Bingo!

Hola, This was a very busy week. On Monday we had the trainers meeting, President Toombs talked to us about the responsibility we have as trainers, he said that we will impact them into what kind of missionaries they are going to become. The Transfer van from Cheyanne was late coming in (it always is) so there was a 2 hour delay where we just sat there before we met out new companions. The Clark family is super awesome she is a Dog Groomer and has a million dogs. We spent this last week getting everything in order we visited every former investigator that has been taught in the ward and we taught 2 lessons that way, we have 4 set up for this week. We found a new investigator named Jennifer we tracted into her and taught her the first lesson on her door step. The week went pretty well we found 4 new investigators total we knocked on a lot of doors too, My companion is still pretty reluctant to speak when we knock on a door but I got him to start off once, so he is improving. So I got a new tracting approach for when the Broncos are playing, I basically have to start off with ''how's the game going?'' or else they don't want to hear from us. We tracted for 3 hours yesterday with no success and the last door we knocked on before going to dinner happened to be a less active member who hadn't been to church in 10 years he told us he has been thinking about church and he allowed us to share a lesson with him. Church was good the ward is really small for how big of an area it covers. We did a lot of service this week, the last Elders had us all booked up this week that was really stressful because instead of working we were tied to service every day. On Thursdays we got to a puppy shelter and we wash puppies it was actually pretty fun. Thursday afternoons we go to an old folks home and we call bingo. We helped a guy take out a wall on Friday. I am excited for next week I am going on two exchanges and we have a ton of appointments set up.

Hello people, A new transfer has begun. President Toombs called me Saturday morning and told me that he was transferring me to the Denver North Stake to the Woodglen ward. He told me that I was going to be the new District Leader and that I will also be training a new missionary. I found out that my area covers a couple of blocks of the city of Denver! so I can finally say that I served in Denver. I have been informed that my area has the potential to be the best working area in the mission, there are a lot of humble neighborhoods. I live in Brighton but I cover Commerce City. They upgraded me to the 2012 Colorado truck and its a bright cherry red it is awesome. Yesterday I went to the mission office and we had a trainers meeting that evening where I et my new companion...Elder Jacob Broderick he is from Peoria, Arizona. He is way excited to be out on his mission. so hopefully I can keep that excitement going. We live with the Clark family and she runs a dog grooming business out of their house, they also have 5 dogs. We have no idea about this area so we have a lot to do this week.

It was sad to leave Strasburg. We ate with the Voorhies family every week while we were there. Sister Voorhies told me that her kids cried when they found out that I was leaving they got me a cookie cake that said ''we will miss you.'' Bishop took us to Mcdonalds at 4:45 in the morning to say goodbye and the Trowbridges came too. I had a lot of friends in the Aurora zone so it was sad leaving, one was named Elder Dennis we like the same music and movies. He is a visa waiter and just got his visa so he will be leaving to Peru on Wednesday. We finally got Chuck to come to church! He loved it too! and wants to join too bad I won't be able to be there to see him get baptized. He was bummed that I was leaving. Well we have a busy week ahead of us! I am pretty nervous about being a district leader so pray for me!

-- Elder Pedro

IMG_0035 - This is Chuck, just outside of the church
IMG_0038 - The Hicks family!
IMG_0040 - The Shidelers, their daughter is a member but they are not, they love us though.
IMG_0042 - Sister Laroux
IMG_0044 - The Trowbridges
IMG_0054 - Elder Broderick, straight out of the MTC
IMG_0025 - the Voorhies

Elder Pedro: Book of Mormon Challenge and Sam the Investigator

Yo People,

I had a sweet week! We did the Book of Mormon Challenge and I timed it, it takes me 17 hours and 50 minutes to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. It was so uplifting to read it again. Saturday was such a great day we drove down to Denver and had a special meeting with all the Denver South missionaries. Elder Bednar of the 12 and Elder Halstrom of the 70 was there and it was so sweet. Elder Bednar talked for 3 hours and opened up the floor to questions It was so uplifting. On Sunday we had a special stake conference where I got to hear Elder Hallstrom again it was just as uplifting. Friday we found a new investiagtor named Sam he lives right by us and he has already ready read the Book of Mormon and asked us how someone gets baptized so that was pretty sweet we are meeting with him again this week and are going to have a Baptismal Date set with him. We did some more service and we tagged goats and took DNA samples from them and we planted a ton of trees. Its the end of the Transfer and I will find out this Saturday where I am going.

-- Elder Pedro

Elder Pedro: Baptism, Service and Challenges!

Hola. This last week was crazy. It was one of the hardest, longest most rewarding weeks I have had on my mission. Somehow again we ended up doing a lot of service. Saturday we dug post holes and put posts in for 6 hours we were so soar and tired, we helped a lady move on Thursday, and spent Friday afternoon digging out a duck pond and leveling it and filling it back in. Oscar got baptized on Saturday so that was awesome! I gave a talk on priesthood at his baptism and my companion Elder Epps confirmed him a member on Sunday. Everything went smoothly this time.

Thursday is the day that we eat with the Trowbridges, they are a sweet family from Idaho and they move around a lot so they live in an RV, he surprised Thursday night with longboards so we have been riding around everywhere it is pretty awesome. We are still working with Chuck, we have been struggling with him because we can't seem to get him to read the Book of Mormon, so we presented the problem during our district meeting and we got a lot of good ideas, one elder suggested that we challenege him to read the Book of Mormon in a week and tell him that we will do it with him, so thats what we did. Friday night we went to Chuck's house and challenged him to read it in a week and he accepted, he called us Saturday and told us that his car had broken down so he will have more time at home to Read. We are going to read it in a week with him too, its going to be kinda hard because we have a lot going on this week and we haven't even started. We are on week 5 so transfers are coming up soon.

-IMG_0019 - Oscar after he was baptized!
-IMG_0011 - Fine tuning Epps board.

Elder Pedro: Flooded Barn, Oscar and Prayers

Hey Everybody,

This last week went very well. We somehow managed to do a lot of service we were able to do service for two less active members and we were able to share a lesson both times. One of them we were inspired to go there, we hadn't planned on seeing her because she lives pretty far but we decided to go anyways and when we showed up she needed help. she had left the hose on in the barn and it had flooded - the barn is 50 x 40 and it was filled with at least 6 inches of water. Her water pump was broken so we helped fix that and helped get rid of the water. We helped put up some fence too, I am becoming pretty good at it. We found a new investigator as well her name is Shyanne she is 19 years old. The lesson started off slow with her but by the end she was super interested as we bore testimonies of the Book of Mormon and she told us that she was going to pray about the truth of it. We have been working with Oscar too, he will be getting baptized this Saturday, we are way excited for him. We found out yesterday that Elder Bednar is coming to speak to us next week, its going to be awesome he is meeting with the missionaries from the Denver North and South missions. Yesterday for P-day we had a BBQ and played basketball, soccer and went bowling it was pretty sweet.

Img_0008 - the flooded barn
Img_0074 - just hanging out

Elder Pedro: General Authority Visit, Guitar and New Investigators

Yo,

Man time is just flying out here. I am at my 8th month mark so I will probably be home in no time. This was a sweet week. We had a General Authority come and visit us and gave us some training, his name is Elder Lynn G. Robbins. He talked all about studying and how we can study better it was sweet to listen to him give insights. The meeting was in Broomfield so it was good to be close to my old area I kinda miss being by the mountains for sure. We found a new investigator this week, her name is Sarah. She is from the middle of no where and lives with some less actives during the school year so that she can go to high school up here. We went to teach the less active sister and ended up teaching her she seems very promising. We used a ton of miles this last week so hopefully we will be able to make it to the end of the month. A member gave me a guitar this week so that was pretty sweet, I think elder Epps isn't too happy about that because I play it a lot. Our roommate Josh who we baptized just got the priesthood this past Sunday and he is headed down to college in Pueblo so that's pretty crazy. We are still teaching Chuck down in Deer Trail and he is getting more excited to see us come over. He keeps telling us that he wants to come to church but it still hasn't happened. He likes what we read out of the Book of Mormon though.

Img_0071 - can you find me?
Img_0059 - I look pretty natural with a bow.
Img_0060 - bow pt. 2

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Elder Pedro Letter: Sick on a Mission

Yo SO this last week was pretty lame. Elder Epps and I both got way sick along with the entire ward. I got sick first and was down for a couple of days and then when I started feeling better Elder Epps started getting way sick. We hardly left the house this last week. Its not fun at all being sick on a mission because you can't do anything but sleep. We were able to actually do stuff on Monday so we went to church and then went and visited some people. We have started a tradition with the Hicks family (he is the ward mission leader) so at least once a week we eat watermelon at lunch, and this last Sunday we ate it at his parents house who are not members so we were able to have a very good conversation with them. We both feel good now so we will be able to do more this next week. -- Elder Pedro

Hey!

So my first transfer in Strasburg is over. Elder Epps and I will be staying here together another one too. We both are pretty sick at the moment (I think everyone is Strasburg is). This last week was a weird one, it was hard to do missionary work the last couple of days because they have had ''Strasburg Home Town Days'' so everyone and their dog was there. They had a huge parade and the had a huge BBQ we even watched a fiddle contest. Wednesday we were in Aurora all day while our truck was getting fixed It took a lot longer than we thought so we were stranded there all day. We have been teaching Scott and Sandy with not much success they like having us over but she doesn't want to read the Book of Mormon, so we turned our attention to their daughter and she seems very interested. School starts here this week it was such a fast summer, I am really looking forward for it to cool down. Oscar is doing well he is getting baptized on August 25th and as far as I know Kyle will be getting baptized too. We taught a new guy named Guy this week ha ha his girlfriend is a member and we convinced her to let him meet with us, We taught him in a Less Actives home but bro. Gunn (the less active) bore his testimony about the Book of Mormon it was awesome. We are excited for things to calm down around here so we can work hard this week. There was a family from Spanish Fork at church this last Sunday it was pretty crazy.

IMG_0050 - The Trowbridges took us Bowling!
IMG_0043 - A little girl stold my tag.

Baptism, More Investigators and a Tire Chicken Coop!

Hello, This transfer has been going by way fast, I feel like I just got to Strasburg and the transfer is over this week. We find out on Saturday whats happening for transfers. We only had one baptism this last week, Melanie said that she needs more time. Our roommate did get baptized though on Saturday. We spent most of Saturday getting everything ready for the baptism including cleaning the font. We couldn't get the font to drain all day though and we found out that the font doesn't drain water at all so we waited till an hour before the baptism to fill the font. When we went in to check on the font it had drained most of the water so we hurried up and filled it more and stopped it when the Baptismal Service started, when we moved to the baptismal font it had drained a foot of water and was super shallow, and our roommate is pretty tall. His friend who was baptizing him tried a couple of times but he wasn't getting fully submersed, so finally they had him kneel and they just laid him down. It was pretty stressful but he got baptized which is good. We found out that the maintenance guys are coming today to fix the font.

Last Monday night we taught a family who belong to the Eastern Ukrainian Catholic religion and the husband is a deacon in that church It was a pretty interesting lesson but it went well. Wednesday we had a mini Zone conference in Aurora we had only two zones there, we had a great training on planning and how important it is to plan. After the meeting Josh (our roommate) met with Elder Goesch and had his Baptismal Interview. It started pouring Wednesday Afternoon and we had a lesson with Oscar who lives in the middle of no where and who to drive about 15 miles on dirt roads, some of them were flooding and so our truck got hammered with mud. We did a service project for a lady in the ward and built a chicken coop out of tires, we would fill the tires with dirt and stack them, but it wasn't stable and they eventually fell down so we stopped building and they postponed the project until they figure out how to do it. Sunday was a great day we had the opportunity to stand in the circle when Josh was confirmed a member and also we stood in the circle for a baby blessing, which I had never done. The spirit pretty much forced me to bear my testimony too so that was cool. We went to Deer Trail and got a soft commitment for one of our investigators to be baptized so that was sweet.

IMG_0032 - Josh, Kimball and us before the baptism
IMG_0002 - Elder Epps trying to uni cycle, he crashed pretty good a few minutes after this.

Scheduled Baptisms and Fencing

Hey everybody!

Another awesome week here in the Strasburg Ward. We had our District Leader Elder Goesch with us from Monday till Wednesday. He just got released as an AP and he is sweet. We Spent the day driving all over the area visiting and teaching people. We found one new investigator this week. We have two set for baptism this Saturday and we have another two set for baptism in three weeks. The work is going so well out here! We are coming to the end of the month which means we are pretty much out of miles, so we have to be very careful how we use our miles. Our zone did awesome this week, they found 71 new investigators the rest of the mission (11 other zones) only found 75. I also did my first fencing this last week, we spent 6 hours fixing a guys fence I got pretty sunburned too. on Wednesday we went to District Meeting which took up the whole morning and then visited Scott and Sandy, they have been meeting with missionaries forever but they aren't progressing, the husband and daughter love our message but the wife doesn't want any other scripture but the bible so it is hard to teach them. We also have been working with a younger less active kid and We got him to start going to Scouts so that's awesome. We taught our roommate twice this week, he is stoked for his baptism. He shared with us how great of an influence we are to live in the house. On Friday we met with a less active lady, and her daughter and we found out that her daughter wants to be baptized so we are teaching her now and have a date for later in August. We also set Oscar with a date he is excited as well. I got some other good news this week, Kyle from Coal Creek has a baptismal date set for August 25th. Man August is a good month! Man I had a ton of pictures to send but my usb thing is broken so I will have to get a new one.

-Elder Pedro

Aurora Shootings, a Catholic Priest, and Investigators

Dear Everybody, It has been a pretty crazy week over here. My companion and I both got sick so we were out for a couple of days. Last Monday, President Toombs came and played basketball with us he is quite the balla. Tuesday, we tracted out a town called Watkins with no success they have a huge catholic church so we decided to stop by. The Father ended up giving us a tour and started asking questions about our church and I pretty much told him he had no authority, I didn't even realize that I did haha but he was cool about it. He wants to meet with us again. We had an appointment with a family in a trailer park and when we showed up the cops had shut down the road and there were tons of officers walking around with guns it was quite the sight, we still don't know what happened. Wednesday we made our weekly trip down to Deer Trail and met with our investigators down there, We are still working on getting them out to church, but they are doing awesome. We also finally taught our roommates and we set one for baptism for August 4th. Thursday I was sick, and we got a call at 6 in the morning on Friday from a kid from the ward who is friends with our roommate, he asked if he was there and said that there had been a shooting at the movies which he was at and that he couldn't find him. Later that morning we got a call from the Zone Leaders explaining to us what had happened we had no Idea how big it was, we found out our roommate was okay. We found out that 2 girls in our stake got shot, but they are both doing good I believe. It is definitely some pretty big news over here because it is so close. Every time we go to Aurora we eat right across from that theater so its pretty crazy. ON Saturday we visited Less Actives who lived out in the middle of no where they were all super friendly. Sunday was good we had a lot of investigators at church. The Bishop's wife was out of town so he invited us over and we cooked frozen pizzas and drank soda, he is an awesome guy. Our district leader is coming out with us tonight and is going to spend two nights with us so that should be pretty fun. -- Elder Pedro

Investigators,Tracting, and Colorado Rockies

Another great week here in the Strasburg ward. Last Monday we spent the day in Aurora for P-day and played a lot of basketball, I am in a huge zone now so it is fun to play ball now. We worked way hard this week and got another 8 investigators which puts us at 16 in 2 weeks which is pretty crazy. We got two on Monday night they are African American and are sweet, we set her with a date for August 4th and the husband (who had consumed a few beers) took us over to his neighbors after the lesson and introduced us so we taught them as well it was sweet. We did get some lame news this week, Our investigator named Sam who had a date for August 4th left the country and is now living in New Zealand we don't know when he's coming back so hopefully soon. On Wednesday I worked harder than I ever had as a missionary. We didn't have any appointments planned and didn't have too much to go on, so we decided we would tract all day and that is what we did. We visited some investigators at 10 A.M. and talked to them a bit (reminded them to watch a video we left), then we started tracting we didn't get home until 9:30 P.M. and we took 30 minutes for lunch the rest of the time was spent knocking on doors and talking to people, we were pretty disappointed because we didn't get the opportunity to teach a full lesson. We were able to hand out 4 B.O.M's and have a lot of potentials now. Thursday we were working in the towns of Byers and Deer Trail. We met an older couple who let us in and talked to us about religion. The man is from England and had a lot of questions about the Bible he liked our answers and said that we could come back next week. The ward we are in didn't have a ward mission plan so we spent Friday morning putting one together, we came up with a pretty good plan and presented it at ward council and they all liked it. We started teaching a man named Oscar who lives in the middle of no where in a camper, he has been coming to church for awhile and wants to get baptized, he is a little handicapped so he doesn't remember everything that we teach him so we are going to go very slow with him. Sunday was awesome we got a ride down into Aurora and went to a fireside with Jeremy Guthrie who is a pitcher for the Colorado Rockies he was awesome and he signed my missionary planner. We spent the night in Aurora so we could spend P-day down here. We are aiming for 10 investigators this week so hopefully we get it!

First week in Strasburg!!!

Hey! This week was by far the best week that I have had on my mission. We found 8 new investigators and I think we can easily find another 8 this week. We set one kid for baptism and we will probably have 4 or 5 baptisms in the next month. The ward is awesome and are helping out a lot. On the Fourth of July we went to the ward breakfast it was sweet, I had a football so we got a game going with all the kids it was way fun. We had to drive into Aurora for district meeting and we did our shopping down there as well. We came back to our area and went up to one of the main houses of where we live, they had a kickball game going on so we played for awhile in the dirt field.

We went out to go do some missionary work but no one was home and all of sudden a storm came out of no where, It started pouring and I have never seen rain like that in my life, water was running down all the streets and all the fields were flooded, so of course we decided to go tracting. We were running from house to house and we were soaked. The second door we knocked on the guy felt bad for us so he let us in on the condition that we don't talk about religion, It wasn't long till we started talking about religion and we ended up teaching the first lesson ha ha. He is a big Glen Beck fan and a New York Dolls fan so he said he would read the Book of Mormon, it was pretty cool to get a new investigator from tracting like that, It pretty much rained all night and The thunder is so loud out here it is awesome. On Thursday we went to a town called Byers and visited members and went tracting the first house we knocked on a lady answered and let us teach her the first lesson she wants us to come back this week.

On Friday we had dinner with a cool family and they had a kid who just moved in with him When they had tried to talk to him about religion he shut them down but he opened up to us so we taught him as well. He ended up coming to church and we taught him again on Saturday he has a baptism date of August 4th :) ON Saturday we went to the very edge of our boundaries to a small town called agate the town was pretty dead, we talked to a guy named Tim for an hour and he was on a national Championship bowling team he reminded me of Chong Lee or whatever that guys name is he told us some crazy stuff but it was sweet.

We then took an old highway to a town called Deer Trail and we were walking around and this guy was out so we started talking to him in the street. He told us that he dedicated 2012 to God and Fishing he reads the bible a couple of hours everyday he said that the other day he was reading and he read something about the ''3rd heaven'' and asked if we had heard about that. He eventually let us into his home and we taught about the Restoration. When we told him that Christ had set up a church when he was here, he said that he had never heard of that, So We turned to Matthew 15 and he kinda just looked at us and wouldn't believe it. In his own scriptures he had written ''did Christ set up a church on earth'' It was so awesome he is going to start coming to church and we are meeting with him later this week. I have never met someone who is so ready to become a member.

We headed to a town called Bennett after that and we taught a family of 4 and they want us to come back as well. At church we had 5 investigators there, it was so awesome. One of the guys we lives with wants to get baptized and we are going to be meeting with him tonight. This ward is so awesome and the work is going very well, The storms out here on the plains are crazy as well. It pours every single night.

Img_0022 - a little water
Img_0027 - My comp
Img_0024 - We found a random telephone in the middle of no where
Img_0016 - at the temple with Holliday
Img_0035 - The Dimig family

7/3/12 - Transfer, Traveling Elder, and Teeth Marks

Aloha So I did end up getting transferred. President Toombs called me on Saturday and called me to be a 'traveling Elder' which basically means that I have a huge area and there is no senior companion. I am going to be in a town called Strasburg which is about an hour east of Denver and I am in the Aurora Stake. I am so excited the area has been closed for almost a year. The Aurora Stake is one of the highest baptizing stakes in the Country so they have pretty high standards (The stake has already had 50 baptisms this year) So there is a lot of work to be done. I am also the driver which is pretty sweet They let me keep the same truck that I have been driving in my whole mission. I haven't been out to Strasburg yet we are still in Aurora still trying to figure everything out. All I know is that we are living in an apartment and we have 2 non member roommates, I also hear they already have a couple of people ready to get baptized. There are about 15 towns we cover. My new companion is Elder Epps he is from Virginia and he is black so he is pretty cool. He just got released as a zone leader, We set some high goals for this transfer we are going to try and hand out 40 Book of Mormons and try to set someone for baptism every single week. Aurora is so much different then Boulder there is a lot more diversity. Elder Holliday got transferred up to Laramie and he is going to be with my MTC companion Elder Serrano. Yesterday was transfer day which basically means we play basketball all day, I went up to block another Elder and I smacked his head my elbow I have a couple of teeth marks in my arm now and I was bleeding a lot but it was pretty cool. Sunday was a weird day we had to say goodbye to everyone, the bishop asked us to bear our testimonies as well. Sister Dimig (Who we live with) stood up and bore her testimony about how we are like a blessing factory in her basement that bubbles up into her home. Kyle was pretty bummed that we were both getting transferred but there are some good missionaries coming so he should be baptized pretty soon. We went and said goodbye to Chip and he almost started crying it was crazy. It was weird saying goodbye to the Hathaways as well. Well I am excited to be in a new area it is huge and I am going to have a lot of fun, I did hear that it was 113 degrees the other day though. Last Friday we went to the temple and I saw Elder Gnehm who is already home. Sorry I don't have any pictures I can't find my camera.

Fires, Transfers and Books

So It’s week six of the transfer, which means that it is coming to an end. I have been here in Erie for 6 months so I am pretty sure that I will be transferred. I am pretty excited to go to a new area in Colorado. I love it here in the Coal Creek ward and I will miss all the awesome families but I am excited to go somewhere new. We have a lot of exchanges this week so I will be all over Boulder. It has been so hot here, it was 104 degrees the other day that broke the record for the hottest day in June ever. They said it might break records today as well. The smoke has been way bad because of the fire lately as well; we still see plumes of smoke every day. Yesterday at church was awesome there is a guy named Shane who is preparing to go on a mission from our ward and he got the Melchizedek Priesthood, he invited us to join, and our investigator Kyle came as well. We cut down a tree the other week and we hand dug out the stump it took forever and it was so hot but it was awesome. At the end of district meeting last week some random people came in and handed us all these books, we started to look through them and they were super anti, one was from 1897 so we decided the best course of action ws to burn them so we did.

-img_0061 - on the way home from the Temple
-img_0072 burning the Anti!

-Elder Pedro

Colorado Fires, Service and Fishing Leads

Hello, The fire keeps on growing over here and some mornings when we wake up it is so smoky and we see plumes of smoke north of us all the time. Last Monday night on Exchanges with Elder Hirschi my Zone Leader it went very well we worked really hard and went ‘fish contacting’ again. We cut down a tree Tuesday morning for Ann who lives across the street that was pretty fun, we also did service at a place called ‘’beads 4 life’’ an organization in Boulder. We found two new investigators this week! We went to go see Chip and his daughter answered (she had just moved in) we started talking to her and her neighbor came over and we started talking and eventually we taught the message of the restoration and gave them two Books of Mormon and they both want to read it and to meet with us more. We taught Kyle again and he is doing so good we had a great lesson on Jesus Christ and his Atonement, he came to church and he is just growing so much he knows all the answers in Gospel Essentials and is making tons of friends. We are excited for this next week we should have quite a few lessons. -Elder Pedro

Week 21: Tornados, Hail and Signs

Hey This week seemed like a weird one. There was some crazy weather this week, there were a couple of days where we had Tornado warnings, there was a tornado that touched down just south of Denver, and we had a lot of hail. There also is a huge fire that is just north of us, they said that the plume of smoke reached 22,000 feet high, the sky has been so smokey the last couple of days. Last Monday we ate with the Stake President and then we went on exchanges, I went with the elders in Broomfield. It was pretty fun I ended up staying 2 nights and we had a lot of fun. They hold signs during the day so we spent a couple of hours on the side of the road, with big ''Book of Mormons'' we kept track of how many people waved and there were over 300 that did. On Wednesday we taught Kyle and during the lesson he started getting really sick so we gave him a blessing, and we let him rest. On Thursday we helped the Hathaways clean out a house, they clean out foreclosed homes so we got to keep anything we found in the home. Afterwards we had district meeting and I was giving the training, so I invited the Hathaways to be mock investigators and our district took turns teaching them, it went pretty well. On Friday we had interviews with President Toombs and we did service at the Broomfield Community Center it was pretty fun and they gave us free tokens to use at the batting cages. We are going on more exchanges this week so I don't know how much we will be able to work in our area.

IMG_0045 - Holding signs!
IMg_0042 - Just after Studies
IMG_0041 - Elder Nielsen and I, he is another goofy Idaho elder.

Week 20, Kyle, Tie Burning and Fishermen!

Hey, We had a sweet opportunity to go to Nederland, Colorado this week. Nederland is about 30 minutes west of Boulder up in the mountains (8300 ft about sea level). Missionaries in Boulder technically cover Nederland but because of miles they can only get up there once a month. So we went with them to help them get some more work done, We tracted out a couple of apartment complexes and we talked to some interesting people. I guess Nederland is one of the fist places in the U.S.A to legalize marijuana so there are a lot of hippies. We talked to some Rastafarian and he kept trying to sell us some natural drink, We talked to him about religion and he said if he would join a religion it would be the mormons (he didn't know that we were mormons) So we explained to him that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the same as Mormons. Kyle came to church again he is usually there before anyone else. It is so awesome to hear his comments in gospel principles and how he is progressing, he met with the bishop and we had a prayer with him and the bishop in his office it was such a great experience. It was Elder Hollidays year mark on Friday so we burned his tie and his shirt. We found a new way to street contact this week too! So there is a reservoir in our area so we spent an evening just going around talked to people who are fishing, It is legit because people can't run away from us. We handed out a couple of Book of Mormons and had a lot of good conversations. We talked with one guy who was from Beijing and he was impressed with my Chinese. It was a very good week this week.

Img_0004 - Studying at the Rec center
Img_0024 - holliday burning his tie.
Img_0118 - Elder Hernandez and I up in Nederland he grew up a couple of blocks away form me down in the river bottoms.
Img_0117 - Elder holliday and I

Bolder Boulder, VIP and Kyle!

Hey! So this last week has been pretty crazy. I had such a good memorial day. They have a huge 10k race here called the ''Bolder Boulder'' which consists of about 60,000 runners. So we spent Memorial day in Boulder walking around. There were so many crazy people a lot of people dress up and run. We got a lot of interesting looks ha there were a lot of members there too it seemed like every minute someone was yelling ''hey elders.'' The race ends in Folsom Stadium (University of Colorado's stadium). Well we got the hook ups from the family we live with and got V.I.P passes to the stadium so we spent the afternoon in the clubhouse enjoying good food and watching the races. It was awesome to watch the main race and an Ethiopian won he ran it under 30 minutes. They had jets fly by. They honored two Navajo code talkers as well. It was so awesome we spent the rest of the day walking around boulder and The Hathaways fed us the night so had some good BBQ. Last week we only taught Kyle but we taught him 3 times. He is doing so well, We talked to him about the Holy Ghost and he said that he has felt it before but he didn't know what it was at the time. He came to church and we taught the Gospel principles class. He is starting to make a lot of friends at church so he is getting a good support group. We are hoping we get a baptism date set this week. We had a BBQ with him this week as well. -- Elder Pedro Img_0072 - Hanging out at Kyle's BBQ Img_0100 - I look goofy but thats me up in the clubhouse. Img_0103 - This is the Family we live with. Check out the FlatIrons behind us!

Transfer #4, Steak, and a Bonfire

Hey, So my third transfer has just come to an end. Last Saturday we got a call from our zone leaders and they told us that both Elder Holliday and I were staying in Coal Creek another transfer. That will make six months or 1/4 of my mission serving here in the Coal Creek ward, the members have said that's the longest they have had a missionary stay in this ward. I am in the Boulder Zone and I have been in the zone the longest now too. Last week we taught Kyle and it is still going way good, we don't have a set date yet for his baptism but he still is committed to being baptized. Something Interesting last week was we ate steak three nights in a row at members houses, and we had it for lunch last week. IT was so good. Last night for p-day we made a huge bonfire with the Hathaways and the Fire Department showed up it was pretty cool, we had to stay 50-60 feet away because it was so hot.

-Img_0031 - Transfer guesses as district meeting.
-Img_0035 - District Photo
_img_0042 - Building a fire :)
img_0048 - me standing in front of the fire! It was so hot.