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.

5/14/12 - Mother's Day

Man I am almost done with my 3rd transfer. It has gone by so fast. I am pretty excited to find out what's going to happen to me next transfer, I am pretty sure that I am going to get transferred. I just hope I stay in a Vehicle, I hear the summer months are brutal on bike. It was a rainy week this last week. So everything is green! I went on exchanges twice this last week so that was fun. On Tuesday I went with Elder Nielson who is from Idaho he is a really small guy and a lot of people asked if he was old enough to be on a mission while I was with him. We got to go to the temple, it was such a great experience I love going to the House of the Lord. We took a belt route to get there so I got to Denver from the outskirts and it was pretty cool. We passed by the Airport too! Elder Nielson made them comment that I probably won't see it again for 19 months haha. Wednesday we did almost no missionary work because the Vehicle Coordinator called us and gave us a laundry list of stuff we needed to fix on our truck, so we spent the day driving around and making the repairs. on Thursday/Friday I went on exchanges again this time with Elder Baker who is serving in Lafayette. We did service at the Rec Center and we also went to the Dentist! I hope my teeth survive the rest of my mission with all the desserts I am fed. We also taught Kyle again and we set hime with a Baptism date, so as of right now he is getting baptized on June 9th I hope everything works out because I don't think that I will be there for it. Sunday was pretty awesome too! I got to call home and talk to my family. It was so good to hear the voices again and to hear that they are all doing great. Church was good too beacsue Kyle came and had a great experience both the Gospel principles class and the Elders quorum's lesson was geared to him and He is really starting to get how this gospel is working. Well this time next week I will know where Im getting Transferred! -Elder Pedro