Baptisms

Hello All!

This week was a little slow because we had a lot of set appointments that canceled on us at the last minute. My Training for Zone Meeting went great and I thought it was very effective. We also had a mission wide meeting on Wednesday. President wanted to talk about our 1001 baptisms for this year. Everybody was able to see old companions and mingle together. I got to see Elder Merrill and Elder Takis my last 2 comps. Those two have been my favorites so far. 

As for Elder Wakeham things are not really improving which is normal. We got into a heated argument one night because he wanted to break a rule that I didn't want to break. I called the Zone Leaders and they helped me through it. He has no desire to serve the Lord anymore. He has kinda been like this his whole mission I heard. President told me when he says "I don't care anymore" give him the phone and tell him that he can send you home. All the Baptisms I interviewed for took place. One was at the river again and another one was at the Church building.  It has been raining in Denver almost every single day. I really like it though. And it hasn't been too hot yet but I heard that it will be really soon. In my ward there are a lot of young couples, many of which are Marisa's and Aaron's age. They come and go for school, internships, and work. I really like the bishop, he is very supportive and he came with us to a lesson this past week. I wasn't too fond of my last two bishops. Just 2 more weeks and the transfer is over. I am looking forward to that, lol. We have Zone Conference this Thursday so we have to clean out our car for inspections. Nothing really new is happening but things are slowly getting better. I miss you all so much!

Love,

                        Elder Rodriguez

Week 4 of transfers!

Hi Everyone!

This week was our best week yet as far as teaching. We are really getting the hang of things and building ward trust. Yesterday we had a missionary theme for sacrament meeting. Elder Wakeham, one of the sisters, a ward missionary and our ward mission leader spoke and it was a great service. Our ward mission leader is very supportive and super nice. Remember that super funny family that feeds us all the time? His wife was gone at work and his son was gone at scout camp but they offered to feed us 3 days in a row. It was just the 3 of us but it was very kind of him and we enjoyed it. They love the missionaries and they make sure we are fed. They are by far my favorite family in the ward. 

Elder Wakeham's attitude has gotten worse. He does not want to work, He will not do planning or studies, and sleeps in til 9 or 10am. I am dragging him around everywhere we go. I take the lead in every single lesson and he really doesn't care. He even said himself to other missionaries "I really don't care anymore". I pray for him every night and I do what I can to help him but I honestly don't see him changing in his last 3 weeks. President gave us permission to go to a baptism that he would have had. It was all the way up in Arvada where I started my mission. It brought back so many memories going back to my old church building. The baptism was in a different ward in the stake but I did see and said hi to a member of my ward while I was there. I was a great service. The sisters that we share the ward with had a baptism as well. Since I am the district leader I had my first baptismal interview with a 10 year old and he and his sister got baptized by bishop in a river on Saturday.

This next week is going to be crazy tomorrow is zone meeting and I am giving training on Integrity. Wednesday is a Mission wide meeting for 1,001 Baptisms for 2015. I have 2 other baptismal interviews that I have to conduct this week as well. Time is really flying here in the mission it is already week 4 this transfer. We are actually getting more dinners now. We have every single day covered this week except Saturday and Sunday. Other than Elder Wakeham, things are getting better little by little. I hope you all are well.

Love,

                        Elder Rodriguez

Happy 4th of July!

Hello All!

Happy late 4th of July! This week was a little better than last week, we are starting to get the hang of the new ward and we are teaching more lessons. Elder Wakeham still hasn't changed. He doesn't want to be obedient and he is really hindering the spirit. The other day I went on exchanges with the zone leaders and that was a nice break. When we exchanged back he got into an argument with them. He is probably the toughest comp I have had so far. He goes home in 4 weeks and he is really checked. But President is mindful of all this and I hope things will work out.

Thursday night some members invited us to a 4th of July party and that was pretty fun. There were both members and non-members there. Saturday morning the ward had a pancake breakfast and we were able to mingle with members and get to know more people. For the 4th of July all missionaries had to be home by 6pm unless you were with a member proselyting, watching fireworks or other approved stuff. Since we are both pretty new to the ward we don't know a lot of members who would be willing to come out with us. So we went back to our apartment and stayed there for the rest of the night. It was pretty boring but I was able to clean up and organize our area. The weather has been pretty hot lately but no more storms yet. Not a lot of people our signing up on our diner calendar but there is a family in the ward who we really like and they feed us all the time. We have already been there 3 or 4 times in the last two weeks and they love missionaries. They are super funny.

 I have a testimony that the Lord’s blessings are real. I can truly say that I was blessed the first week we were here. We didn't have any money and we ate scraps for food every day because nobody signed up for dinner. One day Elder Olson and I were walking home because we were really low on our car miles and we ran into a hospital employee who just got off work. It turns out he was LDS. He offered us a ride and since we had no dinner he took us to Chipotle. Another night we went to meet bishop at his house and told him our situation and he and his wife loaded us up with food! The Lord truly blesses the obedient and patient! We are doing a lot better now. We have miles, food, more dinners and things are getting better. I love you all and I'll talk to you all next week!

Elder Rodriguez

Storm on Colfax!

Hello Everyone!

Happy Monday. This week has been super crazy and one of the hardest weeks I have had. I heard the stories about elder Olson but I decided to keep an open mind. It turns out he is a lot better than what I expected. He has been disobedient in the past and he has had problems with other missionaries but he truly wants to finish his mission strong. He goes home in 11 weeks. However, there was a missionary who lost his driving privileges by going 90 miles an hour and his companion doesn't have them either. So President decided to switch them with Elder Olson and I because we both have privileges. So Elder Olson got emergency transferred to Arvada and now I am with a guy named Elder Wakeham. Elder Wakeham goes home at the end of this transfer, in 5 weeks, and he put a lot of work into his area in Arvada. And he is super mad and upset about getting transferred to Aurora. Ever since he got here on Saturday he has thrown an attitude and will not stop complaining. He doesn't have that much of a desire to be obedient either. I served around him in Parker and I really liked him. He is from Huntington Beach as well. I just hope his attitude will change and it will be a successful transfer.

I am serving in the Crestmore ward in the Aurora South Stake. The ward is super awesome; the members welcomed both of us into the ward yesterday. But I think only one person signed up yesterday for diner. The ward is just a little bigger than the Pickering ward. We are not biking since Elder Wakeham didn't bring his bike, but we have a car. 

 I don't know if you found out but there was a big storm that hit on Wednesday. Elder Olson and I were driving and we saw in the sky a tornado cloud forming. It was really freaky for me since I have never seen one. Then it started to rain and get really windy. It started to get hard and harder while the temperature dropped. It scared the crap out of me when we heard the tornado sirens and saw trash and papers being sucked up into the sky. Big balls of hail began to fall and I could not see very well. As we were trying to drive back to our apartment we saw a big tree fall over because of the wind and a bunch of branches fell onto the road where we were driving. I had to dodge them as we drove. It got so bad that we had to pull over and stay there until the storm died down but it only got worse. The streets began to flood and we couldn't go anywhere. But a kind man who lived in the house we were in front of beckoned us to come in. He allowed us to stay inside until the storm died down and offed us juice and grapes. We had an awesome conversation with him and his wife. They were Catholics but they still respected us. After the storm the streets were still flooded and Elder Olson and I decided to park somewhere and see if we can help out anybody on Colfax rd. Our feet got soaked but it was still fun.

We decided to do a new finding activity with chalk. We bought some sidewalk chalk and went to a park to draw the plan of salvation on the sidewalk. It was really fun and also pretty effective. We got some people to talk to us and ask us what we were drawing. I will get some pictures for you guys. Some parts of my new area are really ghetto. I heard Colfax rd is the longest road in America and I cover a part of it. There are drug stores, liquor stores, and strip clubs all along the road. It's like serving in Compton, lol. Oh we got TIWI's into are cars this week as well. It is a device that tracts where you are, your speed, and things like that. Salt Lake wants to increase the safety of missionaries. I hope you are all doing great and enjoying your summer. Take care, Love you!

Elder Rodriguez