WEEK #21 - Trio Trouble

Hey everyone! Hope you enjoy this next weekly :)

Monday: December 9th

Had a few lessons to teach which was unusual on pday. Got to talk with family and email friends, always an uplifting and motivating time to keep pressing forward for those that I love! <3 We had an AWESOME lesson with Roberta, we outlined 12 steps to making a covenant with God. We got up to the point where we asked her, "Are you willing...?" And then ended the lesson. She's getting there! She told us she felt comfortable at church with our talks, just need to keep expanding that comfort Zone for her :)

Elder Garstin and Elder Thygerson!

Tuesday: December 10th

Great day! Had a district council, didn't give the training this time cause we were combined. After we went on exchanges!! This is a weird one though, we got to take Elder Thygerson back to Naturita with us for a temporary trio!! WHAT. Awesome right? I went on exchanges with Elder Thygerson in September so it's been a bit. The trio was SO fun! We were crackin jokes, workin hard, and just lovin being missionaries!! We had someone at Walmart ask us if we were in a band haha. We told them we sang the music of the Lord ;) Definitely a first experience being in a trio, lot of good work we can get done! We ran into this one guy named Scott, he is a character... after talking with him Elder Thygerson asked me, "Was Scott drunk?" And I replied, "Yep. That's Scott for ya" haha! ;) #OnlyInRita

Trio Trouble in Rita

Wednesday: December 11th

Got to teach Karen again, first trio teaching experience :) We stacked a TON of wood which was fun. Thanks Dad for giving me all those wood stacking chores to prepare me for this, haha ;) We had a really cool experience where this one less active was finally home after 5 MONTHS of trying to get in contact! We walked in a started building up her fire and splitting wood. We had a great conversation with her and she was able to open up about her trials and asked us to give her a blessing on Friday. She had a the newspaper in her home and GUESS WHAT... it was literally the San Juan Record!! (Hometown Monticello Newspaper) And also, she is related to the people who own Los Tachos in Monticello, WHAT!! (Famous local truck vendor we went to as a family) It's so crazy that I have so many awesome connections here in Rita just from living in Cello :)

We got upgraded from the trailer home to an abandoned stone hut... pitchfork included!

Thursday: December 12th

We re-exchanged and Elder Garstin and I went back into the wilderness of Naturita... :) We got Tina to let us teach her daughters Niki and Kira the Plan of Salvation! (Explains where we came from, our purpose in Earth, and what happens after this life) We used some pictures to teach them and they really liked it! Niki, Tina's 8yr old daughter, roasted her mom by saying, "Mom! You're not supposed to swear if you go to church!" Haha, we just need to keep being there for Tina and her family. She's closed her heart off to us, but we can at least keep serving them and teach her kids more Gospel principles :)

Friday: December 13th

Went by this VERY sketch house to visit the "devil lady" as this person was called. Luckily she didn't answer the door so we were saved. ;)

This is the house of the devil lady... ya, these are the types of houses we knock on boys ;)

Today we gave a lot of service for people and then had dinner with... a former family from Monticello!! The Tibbets family actually have a daughter I went to elementary school with and a son that I was on the same wrestling team with as a kid. So awesome! :)

Saturday: December 14th

We got a few angry texts from one guy we were teaching. It's sad to see people quickly change to being so hard hearted. Elder Garstin thought we were going to get murdered by him, haha! But we have a lot of crazy people here in Rita, so it's normal and the Lord protects us :) We had three amazing lessons with Dan, Shane, and Pam! During our lesson with Shane he exclaimed, "I want to have faith!" He is totally willing to read more from the Book of Mormon and when we assigned him to read a chapter talking about faith and he said, "Do you have faith that I'll read this chapter?" Haha, what a savage. I love that guy :) We had our branch Christmas dinner! There was so many less actives there (people who don't attend church frequently) and I got called to play PIANO on the spot! Brother Royer signed me up for the talent show without telling me and all of a sudden I hear, "And next we will have Elder LaRose playing the piano." WHAT. I'm literally so bad at the piano, but I quickly decided to play the song I wrote and created myself. It was nerve racking but my first piano performance was really cool nonetheless :) Great time spent with the Branch!

I think something was snuck in those cookies Santa!!

Sunday: December 15th

I love taking the sacrament at church! Just pure peace, reflection, and renewal for the upcoming week :) We finally got to talk with Loren and Phil, they are SO golden they said, "We should probably go to church next week, will you guys be there?" Haha, of course we will! Had fun driving in ANOTHER blizzard tonight! Good thing I got snow skills, good braces, and a sprinkle of God's grace keeping us alive, haha ;)

All around a solid week, I get transfer news this upcoming week... SO nervous!

Love you all,

Elder LaRose

P.O. Box 821

Nucla, Colorado 81424

EMAIL: keldon.larose@missionary.org