Spring is here!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are doing well. It got to 81 yesterday and I loved it! I am really glad the cold is over for a while. This week was pretty good. I went on exchanges with my district leader and we had a fun FHE night. We played pudding Pictionary. Elder Merrill, the sister missionaries and I all spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday and it went pretty well. That was the first time I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting so far. The ward I'm serving in is a lot bigger than the mar vista ward and Elder Merrill and I have been meeting a lot of people. It is the same as any other YSA Ward; there are people that don't like each other, there are clicks and stuff. But it is really fun and all the returned missionaries really want to help us. 

 Since Elder Merrill and I can only teach people between the ages of 18 and 30, it seems that everybody we find we have to pass off. We had a last teaching appointment with our only investigator on Saturday morning with the other elders in our zone. He is 33 and the YSA age stops at 30 so we had to pass him on.

 At least we are still doing the work. Today is Zone P-Day so we get to do stuff with the sisters. We still haven’t decided what we are going to do yet. Last night Elder Merrill and I made a cake that was cool. The last elders that lived in our apartment left a lot of food behind.

We had the opportunity to go to the temple this past Wednesday and I saw my ward mission leader from Arvada. It was nice to see him and his wife again. So this is the last week of Transfers and I will find out what is going to happen Saturday night. Like always there is a possibility that I might get transferred next Monday.

There are a lot of missionary minded people in the ward that want to help us, which is always helpful. One of my Zone leaders is going home tomorrow for medical reasons. So there is a possibility that the other zone leader will be with us in a trio for the rest of the week. Nothing much is new here. My companion and I are healthy and we are doing well. Until next time.

Love,

Elder Rodriguez

5 Months!

Hello Everybody,

Hope you are all doing great! The work in my ward is definitely moving. We are seeing more less-actives and we even got a brand new investigator! This past week just flew by so fast! And yeah I just hit my 5 month mark and man it has gone by so fast! It also feels exactly like 5 months at the same time. On Wednesday I went on exchanges with one of my zone leaders. His name is Elder Klafke and he is a 23 year old from Las Vegas. He is so freakin awesome. I had so much fun being with him. Since we are in the YSA Ward, we have the entire Parker Zone and we only get to teach YSA aged people which is unfortunate. We ask members for referrals, go see potential investigators from other missionaries that served in our ward, and of course we tract a lot as well. 

We have a lot of YSA activities during the week. We had FHE, Institute, Game Night, and a Karaoke activity. The sisters in our ward sang a Pocahontas song and Elder Merrill and I sang "let it go." It was really fun. On Saturday, we decided we will go to the skate park for an hour and see if we can find some people. In the first few minutes a few high school skaters came up to us and one of them said "I worship satan." Later on I had an idea come to mind and I counseled with Elder Merrill. We decided in order to connect with them we would hold a little competition. We told them who ever does the coolest trick based on our judgment will receive $10. It totally worked. They started talking to us and opening up. 

We had our first ward counsel yesterday and it went well. We still haven’t met the ward mission leader yet unfortunately. We don’t know if we will ever meet him this transfer. He has a busy work schedule.

So one of the office staff members said that we might have IPads by June. They have been saying we will get them for a long time. But I hope we will get them soon.  I have learned so much the past 5 months and am still learning. Time fly’s so fast. I love President Moson's quote "Find joy in the journey, NOW." I have grown and learned to find joy in the journey of the hard times on the mission so far.

Take care,

Love, Elder Rodriguez

Transfer week 1

Hello again!

That is super cool. Elder Merrill and I had a pretty good week for week 1 of the transfers. We get to go to all these activities such as FHE, Institute, and Sports night. It is so fun being around the YSA people. The downside about serving in Parker is everybody is super rich!! There are nice houses everywhere; nothing like Whittier. Not a lot of people will talk to us when we tract and there are Mormons everywhere as well. We tracked down like 6 or 7 members already. But the area is awesome. We are also sharing the ward with Sister Missionaries from the Colorado Springs Mission because the YSA Ward consists of 3 stakes. Parker is the farthest south the North Mission goes and it is the farthest North the Springs Mission goes. It is really weird because some of the members we want to see are out of our mission. So we have to set up an appointment at the church building.

We haven't been getting a lot of referrals so far but it might pick up soon. When we got to our apartment on Monday the other Elders that we replaced trashed it. It was so dirty and they left the oven on. Parker is maybe 30 or so minutes South of Denver. This Thursday is District Meeting and my District Leader has asked me to give some role-plays on patience. So when I was in the MTC, I meet and elder who was going to the Long Beach California Mission and I talked to him a little about Whittier. And I found out recently that he is serving in the Mar Vista Ward!! His name is Elder Phillips I think.  It has been snowing a lot that past couple of days. It has been super cold too! There is snow everywhere and in fact Saturday night/Sunday morning we were not allowed to drive except for church. My companion and I are determined to work hard and get our area going. Talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Rodriguez

Transfers!

Hello Everybody,

So I got transferred!!! I am now in a place called Parker, Colorado and I'm in a YSA Ward!!! I am supper excited. My new companion is from Ogden Utah and his name is Elder Merrill. He has been out for about 18 months and he is one of those missionaries who came out at 18. We just went to FHE last night and it is a blast. I miss the Mar Vista Ward and my new ward is going to bring back so many memories. My last companion, Elder Brinkerhoff is still in my last ward and he got called to be a District Leader and a trainer. Probably the highlight of last week was saying goodbye to the people I would see and Transfer Doctrine. Saturday night before the end of every transfer the zone leaders tell us what is going to happen. We all meet as a zone to sign transfer journals and take pictures. We call it Transfer Doctrine. The Bishop asked me to bear my testimony on Sunday which was pretty cool.

It just snowed here so much and it just got really cold. It has been in the 20's and 30's the past couple of days. My new companion and I got swept into our new area and are in a very nice apartment. The last missionaries that where in it didn't leave it clean though. I really think I am going to love Parker and I really like my new zone as well.

Love, Elder Rodriguez