Elder Pedro - September 16 2013

Elder Alexander and I just got back from the Denver Zoo with one of the members of the ward and that was pretty fun. The work is starting to really slow down in our ward. We are working with less actives but we haven't taught many investigator lessons in the last couple of weeks. We are probably going to knock a lot of doors this week to try and find some new people to teach. A lot of members went up to BYU Idaho this week as well. We had so many appointments cancel on us this week because of the rain. We weren't too effected by the floods... the city we live got 14inches of rain though. And a couple part of our areas were flooded and we couldn't get up to though. Most of the flooding was in the new fort Collins mission.

--
Elder Pedro

Elder Pedro - September 9 2013

Dear People,

It was a pretty interesting week. My companion got emergency transferred last week.. 2 days later I got a call that he was coming back. Elder Watkins was my companion for only 2 days. We taught 11 less actives this week which is a new record for me! We are back to finding and are focusing on Less Actives. We have found any new investigators for a while so we are trying to find some. There is a member coming from the first quorum of the seventy tomorrow and I was asked to sing with a few others when he comes. It should be pretty exciting. 

Elder Pedro

Baptizing David and Baseball

We had Davids Baptism this week and it was awesome! he asked me to speak on Baptism and of course he asked the Stake President to follow my talk! It was great though. We have to do  a lot of finding now because we baptized everyone we were teaching. Yesterday for P-day my companion and I got club level seats to  a rockies game it was super sweet! President Toombs called yesterday and said he needs to do an Emergency Transfer so looks like I am getting a new companion today.

Elder Pedro

8/26 - New Companion, Basketball, and More Baptisms!

We had a great week this past week. Elder Alexander is learning the ropes. On, Saturday we had Michaels baptism which went very well. He asked me to confirm him. We met with David a lot in preparation of his baptism this upcoming Saturday. In the past 4 weeks we have had 3 baptism which is so sweet! the ward is really starting to get excited. We are going to be doing a lot of finding this week. There is a college in our area that starts school soon and we are going to go campus contact up there. We are meeting with 3 brothers this week, we have been playing basketball with them.
--
Elder Pedro

 

8/20 - Transitions

Hello

I am getting a brand new missionary. His name is Elder Alexander and is from Western New York. He turned 18 in June! He is really out going and I think he is going to do well in the singles ward. We got a call from President Toombs that one of our investigators on parole got permission to be baptized. He is getting baptized this Saturday and then we have two more baptisms coming up! the Lord has truly blessed me here. Last week I got to  go to the Bronco's training camp which was awesome. I was right next to all the players!  


Elder Pedro

Raining Rain, Investigators and Baptisms!

Hello

It was a good week. On Friday, It rained so hard, I have never seen rain like that! On, Saturday we had a baptism his name is Eric and he was ordained a priest yesterday. We found 2 new investigators we still have 2 baptisms coming up. Its the last week of the transfer and I have a feeling that one of us will be getting transferred.

Elder Pedro

Elder Pedro: GREAT Week, Crazy Weather and Basketball!

Hello

We had another boss week out here! Elder Brown and I found a new investigator  named David and he is super excited about the gospel he agreed to be baptized in a few weeks. We should have 3 baptisms in August! Eric who is getting baptized this week bore his testimony yesterday it was so awesome. There was some crazy storms this week, on Friday it was pouring and there was Tornado warnings and Flash flood warnings. On Saturday we played basketball with 15 non members who are all YSA age they want to start playing every week.
--
Elder Pedro

Elder Pedro: Great week! Lots of Success!

Hello

I had one of the best weeks on my mission. Especially being in a Y.S.A ward. We found 5 new investigators and set 3 people to be baptized. It was so sweet! Its always a good feeling to work hard and to see blessing like that. Elder Brown and I are getting along well too! I really love the ward that I am serving in. Everyone is getting excited to do missionary work. We had interviews with President Toombs this week and he thanked me for enduring all the changes which have occurred down here. Our top investigator is named Eric he is getting baptized in two weeks. Then a girl named Megan will be baptized in a month. We have an investigator named Michael who has been coming to church forever  but he is on probation so he met with President Toombs and they are sending a letter to the first presidency to get approval. On Tuesday, we were late going to institute and when we were walking in we noticed a guy walking so we invited him to come to institute and we ended up teaching him 3 times this week. He came to church too. Good things are happening over here.

--
Elder Pedro

 

 

Elder Pedro Letter: A new area..

Hello

Things are going well for me. I hit my 19th month mark this week. Crazy how the time keeps flying by. The work is starting to pick up in the Flanders ward. We are teaching a ton and we are getting a lot of referrals. We have been starting to hit up the north part of our area, which is in Denver and is close to Down Town. It is ghetto and rich at the same time every block seems to be different. It has a sweet feel to it though. Elder brown and I are doing well! he cooks a lot of food and makes me eat it all.
--
Elder Pedro

Record Baptisms in Arvada!

It was a very good week for us. We taught so much. We area teaching most of the day now which is awesome. I have been in Arvada for 6 months so I am sure that I will be transferred next Monday. I am going to miss this area if I am. On Wednesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Reiber he is an AP I got to go down to Aurora and do some office work with him. On Thursday, we were very busy and drove all over our area. I had an opportunity to do something I have never done before. I dedicated a grave for one of the recent converts that I taught here in Arvada. Emily, one of our investigators was supposed to be baptized this coming Saturday but she wants to delay it a few weeks, I was pretty bummed because I wanted to be there for it. The Arvada zone is doing well we had 5 baptisms this month and President Toombs says that is a record for Arvada. Every Monday we have a conference call with all the zone leaders and President Toombs, today was the last time we had it as the ''Denver North'' mission as we knew it. It officially splits today. I gave the closing prayer (which means I am probably done as a Zone Leader)

--
Elder Pedro

IMG_0086 - A picture of Denver I took from a hill in my area.

DSC01585 - Elder Ruppity rupp. and I  

Mafia Baptism!

Hello Everybody.

I hope you all got to watch ''The work of salvation'' broadcast. It was awesome. Elder Rupper and I are doing great out in Arvada. Emily, one of our investigators had a super hard week and she wants to push her baptism back so that was a bummer. We are still trying to work with her to keep it on the 6th of July. This transfer has gone by so quick, its already week 5! On Tuesday, we had a mission meeting with all 270 missionaries. This is the last week of the Colorado Denver North Mission as we know it. There was so many missionaries. We took a massive group picture. On Saturday, we got to go to a baptism of an ex-mafia guy. He was high up in the mafia world, and had to get permission from Salt Lake to get baptized. So cool story for the week... We have been doing service at ARC ( a thrift store), They had me organizing the books. I took a peak at the religion section and I found an old school large print blue Book of Mormon, it is in pristine condition. It only cost two dollars too!!

Elder Pedro

Fast Times in Arvada! (6/17/13)

Hello

It was a great time this past week. Elder Rupper is becoming one of my favorite companions. We are working hard and having a lot of success. I have a pretty rowdy zone and its been a handful, I'm glad I have a good companion to help me through it. I went to two different hospitals this week both out of the mission. On Monday, I went with Elder Rupper to National Jewish hospital in Denver for his check up. Then on Saturday, we were doing service at a huge festival in Arvada and for our lunch break I was playing volleyball with another missionary when he dislocated his shoulder again and collapsed. I ended up riding in the ambulance with him down to Wheat Ridge. Our mission president had lost his phone so it took me awhile to get ahold of him. Elder Carvalho has only been in America once and has dislocated his shoulder twice! he is doing well now. We are working hard on Just Serve. We coordinated 125 hours of service this past week in our zone. We are spending a lot of time teaching members right now and its been pretty successful.

--
Elder Pedro

Arvada! (6/10/13)

Hello!

Elder Rupper and I are tearing it up out here in Colorado. We are making a huge push to meet with members of the ward everyday and to challenge them to do missionary work. Tuesday, we had lunch with the zone at the Stake President's home. We have been working with Just Serve a lot as well. We are now doing service at a thrift store, we have to coordinate so that 4 missionaries go every single day. On Friday, we had a mission leadership council. We spent that whole day in meetings. On Saturday, we tried a new thing called ''zone blitzing'' we had everyone in the zone go to one area and we all tracted for two hours. Our top progressing investigator right now is named Emily I have been teaching her since I have been in Arvada. She is committed to being baptized in a few weeks. It's so exciting. We made a scripture study calendar to help prepare her for it. Gen our recent convert is doing well. Her parents are ''disowning'' her for being baptized, we are doing our best to help her cope. Today Elder Rupper and I are driving down to Denver, he has an appointment at National Jewish hospital to check on his CF.

Elder Pedro. 

Emergency Room and General Authority Visit (6/4/13)

Hello,

It was an eventful week last week. I love my new companion Elder Rupper he is such a great guy. Last Friday we got a call from one of our missionaries that his companion had crashed on his bike and would need a ride. When we arrived at the scene, his companion was curled up in a ball singing hymns, it was his fifth day in the mission field and was from Brazil. His shoulder was badly dislocated so we had to rush him the the Emergency Room we didn't leave until midnight. He is doing great now though. It was a slow week as far as investigators we didn't teach one investigator lesson. We are making a big focus with Less Actives and Recent converts. We had Stake Conference this week and two 70s came. Elder Zwick of the first quorum presided. All the missionaries went to the Adult Session on Saturday night and Elder Zwick dis-invited us and told us to go find people to teach, a lot of missionaries were upset but it's hard to disobey a 70. Missionary work was a major theme of the conference.

Elder Pedro

Elder Pedro: New Companion and a Baptism!

Hey Everybody!

It was a great week. We had a baptism! Gen our new investigator wanted to get baptized so we planned it all out and did it. It went so smoothly. We also set one of our investigators named Emily with a Baptismal Date. Saturday we had transfers and I am staying in Arvada for my 4th transfer. I am training a new Zone Leader named Elder Rupper. He is from Pennsylvania. He has Cystic Fibrosis so he has to wear a vest every morning and night and he takes about 50 pills a day! The weather has been so nice over here.  I am excited for this transfer! Today is my 17 month mark. <p>

Elder Pedro<p>

Img_0158 - Saying Goodbye<br>

Img_0155 - Elder Andrus. my favorite Japanese person<br>

Img_0107 - Doing some service<br>

Img_0131 - Getting Baptized! <br>

Arvada, Arvada & Arvada

It was a hot week. We received some pretty good rain too. Our mission has really been pushing 'Just Serve' Because we are one of the pilot missions using it. A couple of weeks ago we volunteered at a festival and helped festival goers sort their trash. The City of Arvada wrote back and said that we are the best volunteers they have ever had! 6 of us spent Saturday morning painting the home of an elderly person. It was so fun. We also volunteer at a food bank every week. We are teaching a girl named Gen, she is Chinese. She has come to church the past 2 weeks. We taught her three times this week! She really wants to learn, it is so legit. This is the last week of the transfer and I am pretty sure that my companion is going to be the new A.P so we will see what happens.

Elder Pedro
Img_0066 - After Painting
IMG_0053 - There's the companionship
IMG_0015 - this is whom we live with.

Hello

What a great week. It rained quite a bit here. The weather has finally risen, it was in the 80s today! Mothers day was great. I got to talk to my Mom, it was a weird feeling because it is the last time I get to talk to her before I go home. It was good to hear from my family though. One of my recent converts wanted to talk to my Mom so I let her talk to her for a couple of minutes. We found a new investigator named Gen, she is Chinese and her boyfriend is a member. She came to church along with the two Brazilians. There have been 20 or so new people in our ward the last couple of weeks, there is a huge group doing summer sells out here. We have a pretty good week planned. We have zone conference on Wednesday in Boulder and a couple of investigator lessons. We taught a lot of Less-Active lessons this past week. I haven't worked with much L.A's on my mission but I think we are going to try and work with more.

Elder Pedro

IMG_0009 - Angelena and I.
IMG 0012 - Elder from Mesa AZ
IMG 0011 - Elder Fadika

Elder Pedro: New Mission Leader Council

Hello

This week went by very fast. Are two main investigators were both out of town this week so we weren't able to meet with them.We went on exchanges with the A.Ps on Wednesday. The sisters started fighting again while they were down here. We had to cancel district meeting it is getting pretty annoying. On Friday we had the first ever Mission Leader Council, It replaces the Zone Leader Council and sisters are now invited to sit on the council. It was pretty sweet. On Sunday, we had two Brazilians show up to sacrament meeting they aren't members but took English lessons from Elders in Brazil, We are going to start teaching them soon. My companion and I have been sick the past couple of days and we haven't gotten too much done.

Elder Pedro

Elder Pedro: A New Transfer

It has been quite the adventurous week. We has so much snow this past week. We are supposed to get more today too. (It is already coming down pretty hard) We had a lot of missionary 'drama' this past week. We got a call from the A.P's on Saturday that they Emergency Transferred a missionary out of our zone that was getting along with his companion. We had no idea! On Saturday we had some sisters who were fighting. We had to split them up and change companionship's. Our mission President was in Cheyenne so we couldn't get a hold of him so we had to deal with it our selves. It got pretty intense. We had 3 referrals at church which has never happened. All these people want to get taught now! Our main Investigator named Emily is doing great. She is still coming to church and praying. She is praying about May 18th as a day to be baptized. Elder Fadika and I are doing great he is a stud. Love all y'all.

Elder Pedro Email: Arvada, Temple and Snow!

It was a good last week of the transfer. We had transfer yesterday. Elder Fadika and I will be staying in Arvada I am so happy! We got to go to the temple last week it was great. On Saturday there was huge festival called the Kite festival and we got to do service there. We helped people sort there trash between recyclable, compostable and landfill. Sunday was our last day in the family ward we are solely in the Y.S.A now! We are teaching a girl named Emily who is doing really well I think she will be baptized in the next month or so. Elder Fadika backed into her car the other day though haha. but She was cool about it. Yesterday was crazy no one knew that the storm was going to be that bad. We probably had about 18 inches at our house. We were stranded at the mission office all day. We weren't able to leave until 8:30 PM. I had to drive sisters home by myself and a usual 25 minute drive turned into 2 hours. Elder Fadika and I didn't get home until close to 11 last night. It was crazy. We now have 6 sisters in the zone and 16 total missionaries.

Elder Pedro

Img_0065- one of our districts
Img_0016 - Elder Fadika and I
Img_220 - driving the sisters home
Img_208 - this is the car I had to drive home last night in.