July 26, 2010

Hey everybody!!

This is going to be a short one, money is a little tight right now at the end of the month and I don’t want to spend too much on the computer :) I’m learning to be frugal ha-ha. Anyway, things here in the area are going well. The ward is a little bit stronger than the last by just a bit. There are about 60 that attend and there are people with callings so that is spectacular. The ward works rather well; at least there are programs and things for the different organizations. The area in and of itself is rather tiny. It is about 20 blocks by 15 blocks. It is in the capital but right on the edge so it isn’t quite a big city. We have everything close though. It is nice being not so far away from everyone else for a change. It has been really really cold lately, it snowed, but it is starting to warm up now. We are fixing this area again. The last elder that left messed some stuff up, but it seems like with the change we are gaining a bit of confidence back from the stake. In the building we meet in there is our ward and two branches. This last week was a bit slow because my comp was sick so I was hanging out with him and taking care of him. The work is going pretty well, sorting through the people that were being taught to see who is going to keep going and finding fresh meat. We have found a couple of really cool people through knocking doors, visiting less active members and references. I really enjoy working with Elder Carter. He speaks Spanish which is fantastic, I really don’t have to correct him much, and he is a good teacher. We get along fantastic. Today was a fun p-day, we went and played soccer and ate lunch with the zone. Well, that is pretty much all. I am doing well. Kind of scared that the time is getting short, but it is still a ways off. Well... talk to you all later, love you

Elder Rose

It's Cold and Snowy!

Thanks for all of your letters this week. They meant a lot for me. This week has been really good and it just got better when I read your letters. This has been a good area so far. I have been getting to know it and I am getting along spectacularly with my companion. He is a great kid. He’s from Blackfoot, Idaho; or close thereabouts. I’ve attached a picture of him. He reminds me a little bit of Michael. Ha-ha. But yeah, we get along good.


Elder Carter

Church yesterday also went well. We had a visit from the stake president here in Tucumán and he did a little chat after church with the ward council and us. Apparently that was a result of something that the last elder that was here did. So we are recovering from some lack of confidence issues and such on the part of the members towards the missionaries. But things are going well. It is just a matter of working like crazy so that they can see that we are different. I really like the ward. It is smaller, but it has good members and they actually have callings unlike the last area so the load is just a little bit lighter.

We have found some way cool people in the last week. Given, they are newbie’s, but they seem really promising. We also received a really cool reference from a member of another ward here in Tucumán, so we have really good people to teach and I am really excited. We are working hard and have good numbers, good people, and I am happy. Really that is all I can say, the only way to explain it. There are still things that I am working on but I am progressing. I have dropped some bad habits and am now working on others. But all in all I am extremely well.

Sorry if there are a lot of typos in this email, the keyboard isn’t great and my fingers are extremely cold. [Mom cleaned up the email!] That is the other thing. The weather took a cold turn last week. It has been snowing for a couple of days and it is still really cold. Seems like I have all the luck, it is the first time in 90 years that it has snowed here. Ha-ha... and about the travel plans. They sound good; I’ll work on filling out the schedule and all that. On Tuesday morning I am free to go whenever you want to pick me up. If you want to see me on Monday night I think that you can as well. What day are you planning on getting here? I would suggest Monday so you can get over the jet lag and whatnot from the trip. But yeah, I will be thinking about all of that and I will let you know. Thanks for all your good advice guys and for your love. I love you all. Take care. CHAUUUU!!

ELDER ROSE

Transfer to Tucuman

Things here are great. The first question that I am sure you are all wondering is what happened for transfers. It hit me this time, breaking the 6 months in an area tradition. I left Monteros today for Tucuman Capital. I am now in an area in the big city :) called Universitario. It is right next to the university in central Tucumán. My comp’s name is Elder Carter. He’s a stud. We met up this morning and took my stuff to the apartment (it was an easy transfer and we had a member take us up there and then bring the new missionary back.) He seems really cool. We also live with two other elders from another area who according to my comp aren’t the most obedient elders so that will be a fun experience trying to help them to work things out.

This last transfer ended really well. We weren’t able to have the baptisms we had planned for this last week, but I am close to my old area and they said they were going to invite me if I could get permission to travel down there. But apart from that we worked way hard and have had better numbers and better results than ever in my mission. It seems like just as soon as you’ve got things figured out it is time for you to go. But it’s going to be great being here.

I like being in the city a lot and I am back in a ward and a stake so that will be a good experience hopefully to have more support from the members. I’ll miss them though. Last night the members invited me over to one of their homes and they did a little farewell for me. It was way special. They all took turns saying some things about me and expressing their feeling and all that mushy stuff. One of my comps filmed it so I have a really cool memory from that area. Oh yeah, that was the other thing. When I say one of my comps it is because we were in a trio for the last couple of weeks. That was a blast. The other elder is Elder Fuentes who is soo cool. Such a stud. He is also from Chile, from Concepcion where the earthquake hit the hardest; his family is all good though.

Today when we were in the terminal doing transfers I got to see both of the elders I trained (they are both in Tucumán now) and some other elders I haven’t seen in a long time. One is off to home now so it was way cool to get to say goodbye to him. In the future I might have to send you some emails to send on to some people since I cannot write them directly.

I was thinking about the trip today since now I am probably in my last area and here’s my thoughts; you´ll fly into Salta. We can drive to Jujuy (3 hour trip) and visit, then return to Salta, then south to Tucumán (4 hours) and then fly out of Tucumán for bs as. Or we can visit in Tucumán first, then to Salta then to Jujuy and fly out of Jujuy. There are airports in all three provinces, I don’t know what kind of flights they have, but you can check that all out with the mission and such. My area in the north of Salta would be cool to visit but it is such a long trip that I don’t think it would be worth it unless you also wanted to visit Bolivia while you’re here and then we can change the plans. welp... just wanted to let you know that I am happy and I am in good health, I’m in my new area and I will send you pictures of me and my comp soon. Talk to you all later. I love you a ton, take care.

Elder Jeff Rose

Words of Wisdom

I hope all is going well for all of you. I am so excited to hear the news about Emmaline, which is so cool. I look forward to getting to see all of the family, especially the newbies, really soon.

I got my truny papers the other day, so you will probably be getting a call from the new secretary one of these days if you haven’t already. They just changed, now it is elder Papenfuss, a friend of mine. So this past week we have been in a trio with Elders Papenfuss´ companion since he was in our district. It´s been pretty fun.

Everything here is going well, I’m liking life. We have a lot to do this week to try and meet all of the goals, we have been doing really well lately and we just have to keep it up. This is the last week before transfers so the pressure is on. We have found so many cool investigators lately; I would be bummed out to leave this area, but sometimes that is how things work out.

This last week was good. I learned a lot about things that I still need to improve. I was able to feel good in the lessons that we have been teaching in a way that I haven’t felt recently. I have seen things that have really given me a better perspective on life. I am so grateful for what I have been blessed with, my loved ones, my family, my friends, and everyone who once upon a time taught me something that I needed to know. Take care of yourselves. Be careful. I want you all to be around when I get back. Don´t make bad decisions, they only lead to sadness, and I guarantee it. Make sure you’re in good health, take things seriously, but not too seriously, there has to be a good balance of work and play in our lives. That doesn’t mean an equal amount of work and play, but a good ratio.

If there is one thing that i have learned it is that if we are working hard, the Lord will bless us. But if we aren’t enjoying it, it is because we have turned our sight away and we are not looking at the blessings we receive on a day to day basis. Sometimes I get down on myself being here. Sometimes things don’t work out as I had hoped. But I count myself among the privileged because whenever that happens, the Lord seems to smack me upside the head and make me recognize what he is giving me. This Sunday we had more people in church than we have ever had in my time here. We have super cool investigators, I’m healthy, I know I am going to see you all soon :) and all in all life is good. But that is only because I know where to look for the good part. Life´s a tricky thing right? The more we try to figure it out it seems that it had us figured out a long time ago. But that’s the point. We live and we learn as the saying goes. If it weren’t that way, what would be the purpose? So I say that we take what life gives us, we learn from it and we use it to help us be happier instead of getting us down. I love you all and I love the gospel. That is perhaps the most important thing that I can say helps me every day. Bad stuff happens. We deal with it. And how do we do that? Through the gospel. We are so blessed to know God’s plan. We have so much to be thankful for. We should show our Savior that we appreciate what he has done for us by living the way he wants us to, obeying ALL the commandments (we could make a list: go to church every Sunday and keep the Sabbath day holy, fulfill and magnify your calling, read your scriptures every day, pray always.... it’s a long list but if you’re not doing it you need to repent and do it) taking care of ourselves spiritually and physically, and taking care of others. Sometimes we feel bad in life, but 99.9% of the time that is our decision. We choose to feel good and be happy when we do God´s will. That is my wish for all of you. I love you. Take care until next week. Same time, same place...? maybe :)

Elder Jeff Rose

Things here are really good

Yesterday was an absolutely spectacular day. It all started bright and early at 6 am. We got up earlier to go and pick up some investigators in order to travel to the district conference. We picked up 3 members of one family, one from another and another met us at the church. We were all ready to go and waiting for the bus, which never showed up. It seems that Father’s Day got to the driver and he slept in a little bit. Anyways, we ended up having to turn around centro to find another way to travel. In the end we had one car from a member, a van and two taxis, and we ended up missing the first session but the second session was wayyyyyy good. President Northcutt was there along with Elder Avila who is a seventy from Uruguay or Paraguay. It was way good and our investigators enjoyed it and so did we. That was more investigators than we have had in church for a long time in this area. Also, the names of two of my converts from Simoca were presented to be ordained elders so that was really really cool too. Things seem to be going better.

This week we also ended with better numbers than we have in a while. We met all the goals for the mission this week and it was just an all in all way good week. Elder Barraza and I are doing good and enjoying the work we are doing. We had a cool cita [appointment] with an old investigator I have probably commented to you about before. His name is Angel and he was once upon a time an altar assistant in the Catholic Church. He has read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover and says he hasn’t received an answer. He was at the conference on Sunday and I hope he will have understood something more about how he can receive an answer. We went to his house the other day and talked about completely giving into the Lord and we felt impressed to talk about all of the catholic images he has in his house. We asked if he would be willing to give all of that up to know the truth and talked about the father of King Lamoni. He said yes so we went to a nearby store to ask for a couple of boxes and loaded up all the saints and statues and such and took them from him. He said we could come back this week to see if he has received an answer. I really hope he does because if not I don’t know what else we could possibly do to help him. So all in all things are good.

We are staying in Monteros more lately, not a whole lot of travel to Simoca. Other cool experiences, in the conference President Northcutt passed us a reference for a man he had talked to while he was doing interviews in Simoca. Those converts had the opportunity to talk with Elder Avila about the Melkezidek priesthood and all that so that was cool. My comp and I also had the opportunity to give a blessing along with President Northcutt. That was a very cool experience. So things are well. I hope all is going really well for all of you. Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there, especially my dad and Mike and Shawn and Peter. I love you all a ton. Talk to you all later. :D !

Elder Jeff Rose

Que Tal todos!!

Como andan! Espero q bien porque acá las cosas están de diez :) Ha-ha, how are all you all doing. I hope everything is just spectacular with you guys. Things here are going good, we had a good week. Not a whole lot to tell. We went down a different path this week and started working with a lot of less active families to try and help the branch grow a little bit to get it back to where it has been in the past. Some of the families, as can be expected, received us very warmly and others wanted nothing to do with us. We had some good experiences with a few of them and one family was in church this week and another two participated in a ward activity that we held last night. We also have found a few investigators among those families and their extended relatives. We will be working with them to see what we can do. We have one family that the children are investigating but the mom is a little bit more difficult.

The other day when Argentina played against Nigeria in the world cup we took another kid the same age more or less as the other kids and watched part of the game with them. One of those kids came to church with us yesterday so that was cool.

Everything here is moving along just nicely and we’re working hard. Elder Barraza and I have a good connection and are able to work well together. We get along well and have a lot of fun. I have a bunch of pictures that you need to see, so I’ll try and get you some of those. Well, that’s all for this week, hope you enjoyed it. I love you. Talk to you later.

Jeff Rose

One More Week and Way Too Much Excitement

Everything here with me is going just spectacular :) This last week we had a baptism and on Sunday we were able to get her confirmed. That was where all the excitement came in. We went to Simoca early to be there for church and while we were starting the meeting the cell phone rang a few times. I didn’t bother to look at it until the confirmation was over because there was no way to call back or anything. After the confirmation turns out that I checked to see who it was and it was the number of the branch president’s office in Monteros. So I called back and the branch president asked us to come to Monteros to preside in the meeting because he had to go to work. That was fun. So we took a remis back to Monteros and I had my first experience with presiding over Sunday meetings. Luckily it was fast and testimony meeting so I didn’t have to wing it with talks or anything, but it all went rather smoothly. Luckily a family invited us to eat lunch with them since the lunch we would have had in Simoca was an hour away and it would have been hard to get there and back and not waste a ton of time. So anyway, it was a fun day.

There is an ex-missionary that served in the mission that was here yesterday because apparently he is getting married to a girl from the branch, haha; kind of weird right? Anyway, so yeah that was a fun day.

This past week Elder Barraza and I have been hitting it hard, working 100 percent and trying to get things going once again. My comp is a stud, he is a way better missionary than I am and I am glad to have him. I’ll try and get some pictures to you from some of our recent adventures. We have a blast together and I hope I get to be with him for at least one more transfer after this one.

Things in the branches are going well and I have been learning a ton about how the church should run and a lot of the little things like the unwritten rules and such through all the experiences that we have been having. Speaking of which, I believe that in the package I mailed home right before I left the MTC I put a talk in there that was called "the unwritten order of things". If you could find a digital copy of that and email it to me or make a photocopy and mail it or something of the sort that would be spectacular. I just would like a copy of it because it is way good.

As for the investigators that we have of the moment, they are in that first stage of seeing what happens for the most part. We have one investigator in Simoca that is doing well but his family is separated and travels a lot so it is difficult for him to go to church sometimes. We are working with a lot of less active families to get them activated since these branches really need their help, especially priesthood holders. So that’s what we are up to lately. Taking the approach from all sides and trying our dandiest to get things moving. If you all have any suggestions or comments, they are very invited. I love you all and I hope that you are doing awesome. Take care and don’t forget to try to be perfect. :)

ha-ha, dad, thanks a ton for always reminding me to smile, it really came in handy yesterday while directing the meetings. It was kind of stressful and I tried to keep smiling the whole time and it really helped out. Now I understand why there was a bit of a struggle with the smile while you were bishop and I don’t blame you at all. I was only there for a couple hours and I got a taste of it :) I love you.

Elder Rose


p.s. Could you tell Brother Heath thank you for the letters that he has been sending and I would absolutely love it if he keeps sending them. If it is too expensive to mail them tell him he can email them too me since they are already typed up.