Tuesday, September 25, 2012

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

Monday, September 17, 2012

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

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

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.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

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