Conference

Hello Guys,

Happy Monday again. This week was pretty packed with a lot of things. We went on two exchanges with District Leaders and had MLC on Friday. We had a lot of appointments as well. Stella is back on date for May 8th. She contacted us on Tuesday and gave us a big apology and wanted us to come back. We taught her once with the first counselor in the Bishopric and his wife. She says she is off of green tea and drinking herbal tea now but we hope and pray she will make it to the 8th. 

Elder Conlin and I get along great. He got me hooked on Cajun food and we went to Popeyes on Friday for dinner. We will have another Zone Meeting this Thursday because we had MLC on Friday. This should be another great one. We have 14 missionaries serving in the zone. I definitely got a lot out of Conference. We watched 2 sessions with a less active named Phil, one with Sister Ellis, and another with the first councilor in the bishopric and his family. The ward members here are so nice and are a lot like the Pickering Ward. Just 2 more weeks and the transfer is over. The fear of getting transferred is starting to boil in the missionaries. I hope I stay another transfer in this area though. 

Elder Conlin and I made it a goal to go outside for morning exercise every day this week. He jogs and I ride my bike. I would jog but I just can't in this altitude. I will dry gag way too much. The snow has all melted now and they have already put out summer stuff in the stores. They say it is supposed to be in the 70's, and 80's until summer with a couple of snowy days, but we will see. We are also working with a lot of less actives but a lot of them aren't willing to change so we have dropped many of them. Until next time!

Love,

            Elder Rodriguez

Easter

Hello Everybody,

This week was very interesting for us. We did have a great Easter. We spent some time with a less active and his family. He wanted us to share an Easter message to his granddaughter. We shared the #Hallelujah video the church put out. We have been using that a lot in our proselyting. After that we had dinner at the Hollingsworths, the senior couple that work in the mission office. Another senior missionary and a recent convert joined us as well. We got loaded up on candy and cake.

Wednesday we had a huge blizzard that grounded all the cars. We didn't do any driving that day and we had to walk to dinner. The restaurant we wanted to go to was closed due to the snow and the only place that was open was an Indian Restaurant. I didn't enjoy it but it was still dinner. We were supposed to have zone meeting on Wednesday but we cancelled that because we couldn't drive our cars. But we will have one this Wednesday.  Now the snow is almost gone. It is in the 70's right now I think. Elder Conlin and I played tennis this morning. 

Stella's baptism fell through unfortunately. She was supposed to be baptized on March 26th and confirmed on the 27th. We had our last lesson on Friday night, March 25th, and she confessed that she still struggles with green tea. So we called President Mendenhall and he said that she would have to make a commitment to us to stop drinking tea if she is going to be baptized the next day. When we told her we did our best to do it in the nicest way possible but she went off on us and started cussing us out. We spent around 30 minutes at the door step late at night.

She wouldn't make the full commitment when we invited her to. We asked her "Will you commit to stop tonight" and she kept saying "I'll try" and "I already told you". She was just not ready. She also said she would not be baptized the next day and that she doesn't understand why she can't be baptized even though she drinks green tea once or twice a day. The next morning she would not answer the door, calls, or text. It truly broke our hearts. Now we feel we need to give her some space but we will keep her in our prayers and try again in a couple of weeks. 

We have been losing our investigators one by one, but one showed up to church with his less active mom yesterday. That was Ricky, he said that he is kinda scared to get baptized, probably because he doesn't know what to expect, and we didn't know that before. So we are teaching him tonight and we will see if he will come around. This week we have MLC again on Friday and that should be fun. Can't wait to see all the movies I miss out on after the mission. Hard to believe I hit 18 months in a couple of days. I hope everything is going well!

Love,

Elder Rodriguez

First Snowfall

Happy Monday!

So it finally snowed this past week. Friday morning Elder Conlin and I were shoveling the side walks up and down our street and did a couple of drive ways. When it snows Sister Ellis expects us to do all that. A lot happened this week for us. 

Wednesday was Zone Conference and it was amazing. It was also a grand reunion to see a lot of missionaries. Thursday morning Elder Conlin and I went to judge cars for the other half of the mission. After that we all went out to eat at this famous Hawaiian BBQ place in Aurora. We've been teaching Stella Mendoza a lot this week. President Mendenhall interviewed her for baptism on Friday and she passed. She came to church with her 2 daughters yesterday but was 2 hours late. So we sat with her in another wards sacrament meeting. The ward has made baptismal arrangements for this saturday at 3pm. So hopefully Stella gets there on time. She also wants the water to be extra hot.

Today is Zone P-Day and we are going to play Chair soccer, Kick ball and a couple of other games. Zone P-days, in my experience, are either really awesome or really bad. We also have Zone meeting on Wednesday and a family history service missionary in our ward will be training us on how to do family history work. This mission is still extending the opportunity for a zone to go to the temple. Until next time.

Love,

Elder Rodriguez

Service

Hello all!

Elder Conlin and I had a busy week. We taught many lessons and we even had 4 investigators on baptismal date. We had MLC on Friday and that was great. Got to counsel with many close missionaries. We did a lot of service as well. We go to a place called Habitat for Humanity. It is pretty much a thrift store and we help move in donations and move things around. We also helped an older man in the ward move some filing cabinets and other furniture from his former office. 

We tried really hard to get our investigators to church but none of them came. So now we have to push back their baptisms except one. Her name is Stella. She was a referral given to us awhile back and we gave her to the Spanish sisters. Stella now requested to be in an English ward because its closer and the time we meet makes everything easier on her and her kids. She has been taught by missionaries since 2002 and has seen tons of missionaries. But it seems like every time she tries to get baptized she backs out. For instance one time she thought the water was too cold and another time the elder that she asked to baptize her backed out right before her baptism. But she really wants to be baptized on March 26th because that is her grandmothers birthday. Hopefully it happens. I really think the adversary played a part in our investigators. Ricky's mom got in a car accident this week and she had to go to the hospital. Stella said herself that she had a skirt picked out for Sunday but her daughter got an ear infection and she had to take her to the hospital and didn't get back til 4am. Elder Conlin and I are going to fast this week to help them progress.

Elder Conlin and I and the sister training leaders met with the stake president yesterday to give him a report of the zone. We have zone conference this week on Wednesday and Thursday. Elder Conlin and I are doing car inspections with the rest of the zone leaders. We don't have too many appointments this week unfortunately but we are going to be making a ton of calls in the next couple of days. I hope all is well, I miss you all!

Love,

            Elder Rodriguez

Here's a picture of me and my last companion, Elder Ah Nee

Great new Companion!

Hey Everybody!

Hope everything is going well!  Elder Conlin is such an awesome missionary. He is from New Orleans but doesn't have an accent. But he was a drum major in high school and we both love jazz. It's been a great week with him and he is definitely in my pool of favorites.

This week was an emotional roller-coaster. Monday and Tuesday we saw a lot of people so Elder Ah Nee can say good bye to everyone. We stayed up late Tuesday night so he could pack. Wednesday was transfer day and a lot of changes were made in the mission. Transfer day is always kinda stressful; new companion, new area, new lifestyle. All the spanish sisters that I came out with went home on Wednesday as well. Makes me think how close I am to going home. Elder Conlin and I are picking up things really quick. We taught a lot of lessons in the past couple of days and we found 2 new investigators. This week we are slammed with appointments, it's pretty awesome. The ward is not giving up on Trina and Dominick. We offered them a blessing and hopefully they will come back. 

Saturday was Stake Primary baptisms and there was a little girl in our ward that got baptized. He mother wanted us to be there and provide Book Of Mormons, pamphlets, and things like that because she had a nonmember family there. It was pretty fun. She also wanted us to give a small presentation too.

Today we are just going to take it easy. We're going to play basketball, go to the bike store and just chill. No snow yet. It's been pretty warm the past couple of weeks now and I don't know where winter went. Elder Conlin and I went jogging out in the neighborhood this morning and I haven't done that since summer. I hope we get a least a little more snow before I go home. Hope everything keep going well.

Love,

            Elder Rodriguez