Companion Transfer

Hey Everybody,

The weeks fly by like days out here. This transfer is already over. Transfers are on Wednesday and a lot of changes are happening in the mission. Elder Ah Nee is getting transferred after serving 6 months in the Hidden Lake ward. He is going to a city called Brighton. He has served there before and will be glad to be back. I am staying here and my new companion will be Elder Colin. He is from Louisiana and has been out for about 9 months. He has never been a Zone Leader before so I will be training again. I'm sure many missionaries are made as usual about the changes. 

Elder Soares was a fantastic experience. We had to split the mission into two zone conferences for him to cover all the missionaries. All the leaders had to meet with him 3 times out of the two days as well. He gave a lot of great counsel and guidance on our goals and our calling. At the MLC he suggested to change our standards of excellence. He says we are aiming our goals too high. I agreed with him because the mission as a whole haven't been achieving them. One March 11th, we will have another MLC and discuss what expectations we are going to change. He was very loving and kind and everybody enjoyed hearing his Brazilian accent. 

Got some bad news. Last Monday Trina texted us and said that she and Dominick wont be participating in church anymore for medical reasons. Elder Ah Nee and I were devastated because he was super golden. We triad all week to contact them and ask for more information but they were not answering us at all. Finally on Friday she called us back and explained the whole thing. Trina has a lot of mental problems and suffers from anxiety. She can't be in a room with more than 5 people. When she came to church last week she didn't want to come to second hour and didn't attend relief society. We thought something was off and we were right. The ward counsel is not giving up though. Elder Colin and I will probably go visit them sometime and members of the ward are going to reach out to them. Ricky didn't come to church yesterday again, but we went by his house last night and he told us he went to the spanish ward in another zone two weeks ago. He wanted to attend our ward but his mom wants to attend the spanish ward for time situations or something. They also stayed for the 3 hours as well.

Members said I gave a great talk in sacrament meeting; I hope I did ok. We helped a young couple move out on Saturday morning. There were a ton of members there to help. This ward really does have a strong bond and a willingness to help one another out. It's a lot like the Pickering ward.  

This is the start of a new transfer and I only have 5 left. Things are really starting to get real. Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

            Elder Rodriguez

Warmer Weather

Hey Everybody!

Elder Ah Nee and myself had a good week too. It hasn't been in the 90s yet but it has been pretty warm for Colorado winter. I heard we broke a record since 1938 or something. But it will start to get colder this week.

Elder Soares is coming this week and all the Zone Leaders, District Leaders and Sister Training Leaders will be meeting with him as a group. We found out last night from the Assistants that he will be interview random missionaries. I kinda want to but kinda don't. Being interviewed by a President of the Seventy sounds scary. Dominick and his wife trina are still progressing. They both went to church yesterday and stayed the whole 3 hours. Dominick even went to an Elder Quorum activity on Friday. If everything goes as planned he will still be baptized on March 5th. We have a set of senior missionaries called the Hollingsworhths that work in the office but are assigned to the Hidden Lake Ward.We have invited them to fellow-ship Dominick and Trina. They invited them and us to have dinner and a lesson at their house. That went very well. The Hollingsworths are from Alabama so they made some southern food.

Yesterday we had dinner with a family who wanted us over at 3:30 in the afternoon and that kinda threw are schedule off a little. Sister Ellis has a neighbor who is a former investigator. His name is Jamie and we did a little service for him yesterday as well. We just moved a piece of furniture. He and his family are funny people. He can be really inappropriate sometimes too. He swears right in front of us and Sister Ellis but we are used to it. Last night the first counselor in the Bishopric called me and asked to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting this Sunday on my purpose as a missionary.

Along with Dominick we had 4 less actives come to church. They are doing a lot better but another one of our investigators didn't show up. He and his less active mom said they would be there. We even called and Texted them an hour and a half before church that morning and she said they would come but they didn't. But there is a lot of work to do in the area. It is the last week and a half of the transfer and Elder Ah Nee is positive he will be leaving. He has been here for 6 months. We will see though. Hope you all have a fantastic week and I will talk to you later!

Love,

            Elder Rodriguez  

Golden Investigators!

Hey Everybody

Another week has gone by and it is almost the end of the transfer. This transfer ends on Feb. 29th but transfers won’t happen till March 2nd. This week Elder Ah Nee and I got a lot of work done and we truly had a miracle.

We received a media referral a couple weeks ago but we weren't able to meet with them until tuesday. Her name is Trina Rael and she is a convert to the church but has been less active for awhile. She has a nonmember husband and a 10 month old baby that went with her to our lesson. She wants to get active again and her nonmember husband said he would like to be a member! His name is Dominick Bohoy and he really likes the morals and values that the church has to offer. We have taught them twice this week and Dominick went to church all 3 hours yesterday. He even participated in Priesthood and is getting well fellow-shipped. He is on baptismal date for March 5th. They are just so golden.

Along with Dominick, we had 2 other investigators come to church. We are teaching a couple of girls that are not baptized yet. One is 9 and the other is 12. If everything goes well we will have a couple baptisms in the next couple months. 

Wednesday was Zone Meeting and that went very well. The missionaries were able to take away a lot of things from it to apply. Thursday was Interviews with President Mendenhall. He is such an awesome Mission President and is so wise. He and Sister Mendenhall definitely do a lot for the mission. I was able to go on exchanges with one of the District Leaders on Saturday and that was fun. I went to their area and they are struggling a bit. They need to find new investigators. Ther area is super rich and it is just hard to find people that will talk to you. 

Elder Soares from the Presidency of the Seventy is coming to the mission. It should be an exciting day. I've been sick with a cold for a couple of days but it is not too bad. I will be well soon. Hope you all have a fantastic week and I will talk to you later.

Love,

            Elder Rodriguez

Super Bowl Weekend

Hey Everybody!

Happy Monday. It was a wild week for the Denver North Mission. We weren't able to do archery last Monday due to some snow but we will do it another Monday. Today is Zone P-Day and we are going to play teepee dodge-ball and some other games. Tuesday we had a huge snow storm and our cars got grounded. Elder Ah Nee and myself did so much snow shoveling that day. Sister Ellis expects us to do her drive way and a couple others on the street. We did a lot of walking too. We weren't able to teach as much lessons as we would have liked but we hope we can pick things up again this week. 

The super bowl was huge deal yesterday. President didn't want us tracting or in a home where the game was on. Elder Ah Nee and I did are weekly planning and area book work in our basement. Sister Ellis and a lot of family over including the bishop to watch it upstairs. Wednesday we went to the Temple and that is always a great experience. I can't wait when I am home so I can go to the temple whenever I want. I saw a lot of missionaries from other zones at deserert book afterward. We had another MLC on Friday and this one was the best one I have ever attended. We learned a lot of helpful things and we are super excited to teach the missionaries at Zone Meeting. Interviews with President and Sister Mendenhall are this Thursday and I'm looking forward to that.

Elder Ah Nee and myself have a lot of investigators but it has been so hard to get ahold of them. And when we do set something up they cancel on us. Some of them are not very promising either. We have one named Gabe and he is in his 40s. He is living with his girlfriend and we have to get them married. We have another one named ricky and he is 13. His mom is less active and at times attends the spanish ward. He doesn't really keep commitments and is not all that interested in changing but he likes the missionaries as does his mom. We also have a couple of young girls who we got from the past sisters but we have had little to no contact as of yet. They are hard to get a hold of. But we hope we will start picking things up again this week. 

It has been pretty cold lately. I heard it is actually warmer when the snow hits because it has a cocoon effect. It does feel colder when there is an open sky though. Happy to hear you all are doing well still. Hope you have a fantastic week

Love,

            Elder Rodriguez