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