8.28.17 ~ Fixin to be like Jesus ~

Fort Stockton, where the sunsets and sunrises are literally the prettiest thing here and the only things that won't insult us ha..... It has been quite the week.

One thing that all the people say here is "Welcome to Fort Stockton, where the wind is blowin, the grass is grownin, and the oil is flowin." and i like to add in... and nothin else is goin.. Cause this town is the most boring town in Texas haha. But there is a high school football game this week that should get the whole town to we here..... probably shouldn't expect to much though cause the team was 1-6 last year haha trash;)

On tuesday we ended up going to brand cows with some straight up cowboys.... non of them were members which was interesting haha probably heard every single curse word in the book up until they knew that Me and Elder Brower were representatives of Jesus Christ... then they stopped haha! We rode around on this SICK dune buggy out on the dessert for like 2 hours until all the cowboys got all the cows rounded up! Lowkey taught this Hispanic dude about families most of the time. He said that he's seen satan before and all this crap and then we gave up cause he stopped listening...... then he rammed this coyote in the buggy! Pretty sweet haha!! 

Did lots of service like normal this week..... its almost ridiculous how much service we do compared to anything else!! Our branch would probably fall apart if we weren't apart of their ward.... We bless and pass the Sacrament,  i spoke on Sunday for like 30 minutes, we have a family home evening every tuesday night, we do a book of mormon study every thursday night and we give a blessing probably like 3 times a week. It's cool and all but they wouldn't know what to do without us:)

We have knocked SO many doors and only got to teach 2 set lessons.... everyone knows who we are and either doesn't want to talk to us or will come up and talk to us to try and prove us wrong.... stupid haha!! The first lesson we taught was to this Church of Christ minister that seemed super nice and wanted to listen to what we had to say and then boom..... whips out the ole bible and starts bashing with us haha!! he is a super cool guy but just hard to get along with.... we are taking him a BOM soetime this week though... don't know what he'll do with it haha!! The 2nd lesson that we taught was to this lady and her boyfriend. We have been stopping by a ton with her to see if we could finally get a lesson and we finally got one in yesterday cause both her and her bf were there! Their names are Kiara and Paul, some sick black people that live in the hood and it always smells like weed around there appartment haha!! But the lesson was killer and the spirit was so strong. Strong enough that we committed them to be baptized on September 23! And if they follow though this will be the first convert Baptism that Fort Stockton has had in 5 years.... crossing our fingers that they go though with it!!

Besides Kiara and Paul everyone we have talked to has either chewed us out, threatened to sick their pit bulls on us, or gave us a water and kindly told us to leave haha West Texas is pretty weird man!! 

This week we moved the Escobar Family and me and elder Brower had to clean out their NASTY fridge..... we both threw up cause it was so disgusting haha.... weak stomachs man😂 

Don't forget Jesus suffered and died so that we can become better. Look to him as your Example!! Pray, go to church, strive to do what's right!!

That's all for this week..... love you bye!

-Elder Rose

1. Squishy

2.Fresh Cut and my Sunny D

3.Moving the Escobar family

4. Fixin to be like my hero Jesus

5. Elder Chicoski... funny dude... Missionaary in Alpine

6. Sunset

 Notes to his Mom:

Hey Momma❤ Just got onto my email for today!! sounds like you guys have had a pretty great week. Looks like the eclipse was pretty dang cool. Was there a ton of people in town like they thought?? I was thinking of Jr last night and remembered that he leaves very soon, he is gonna do awesome!! You should either get me his email, or give my email to him before he leaves so that we can stay in touch just a little bit. 

The work here is so hard and some days absolutely suck cause we have only taught 2 lessons in the 2 weeks that i have been here, but thats already more than Elder Brower had the last transfer he was here.... he didn't get to teach a single lesson... pretty crazy!! Most of the people here are either way nice and not interested in what we have to  say or complete jerks about everything.... haha it really funny how everyone knows us!! We had a bible bash with this one Church of Christ minister.... and that was one of our lessons, stupid... but he is a way nice guy and we are gonna go back and just help him with things around the house because he is almost on his death bed and nobody can help him around his house!!

 We get the bash about once a day when we go door knocking....:)

Can you put like 100$ in my checking..... i am going to buy some work boots because i am borrowing Elder Brower's shoes right now and they aren't working.... i have had to pull out like 3 thorns out of my foot because i need boots haha:) love you

i am sending Stockton a package in the mail today!

Tell Ta'lee ill write her cause i don't have time to email!! 

Here is my letter to Elder Rose this week. 8.28.2017 :

Hi Elder Rose! 🌹

Hope that you have had a good week! I thought I'd drop a line to you and let you know that Mom and Dad are thinking of ya every day, and hope that this finds you healthy and happy! We went today to Jr.'s farewell and he did awesome! He was wearing the state championship ring from basketball, and he said he wears it every Sunday. It reminds him of the thoughts he had; that he might not even play basketball his senior year because of the hard season you guys' junior year. It reminds him of becoming one; he also thought of what you learned during that senior basketball season - making goals, fighting pride; fighting selfishness; sharing; leaving pride at the door. His whole talk was about Becoming one, and related it to a process which helps us become a well oiled machine, and finding our role in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

He first started off by saying, "Gods love is real. He didn't let me fall.". He then said, "God's love equals being one", and related it to what you guys had to overcome to win that state title. Here are some of his quotes. "We did not tear each other down. We held each other accountable. We kept things simple and not judgmental. We each had a role on our team."

He then turned it to our roles in the church, in our family, in our community and gave examples of what we might be responsible for.  Then, he shared John 13:34 and afterwards, said how grateful he was for his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas, siblings, mom and dad.
Friends... they were good examples and never pushed him but always loved him. He ended with "I'm a firm believer of the church of Jesus Christ.

Then, he shared the thought about the man who dies, and finds himself on a beach with Jesus Christ, but was only seeing one set of footprints in the pathway of his life at times. The story goes that Christ explains that the one set of footprints were the times that Jesus was carrying the man during those tough times of life. Jr said that God knows us. He knows our struggles. And then he encouraged everyone to pray, and read the Book of Mormon daily.

It was awesome and wanted you to know his words and let you know that it may seem like a long time since you've left. It may feel like a long time before you're home again. It may seem that the work is slow. But, looking back, look what you've already accomplished! I'm so proud of you, Jr., Hayden and Taevin for choosing to serve a mission. I'm proud of those that have their call and are gearing up to leave. Be grateful for the hard times, because remember that's when Christ is carrying you and you will get through it a stronger person because of it.

We love ya, Elder Rose and we are cheering for you... just on a different court now! 😊

Also, Daniel Searcy was the concluding speaker after Jr's family sang Army of Helaman. Daniel did an awesome job, and it was so fun to see him and visit again with him! 

Let us know any details ya can, and here is a picture of the solar eclipse. But, I'll also send some other pictures with a letter I'm mailing this week. This picture is from someone that Mike and Julie Vickers know and it was taken up by Warm River.

Love you lots!!!!!
💕Momma💕

I wrote to Elder Norman and Elder Wood to share with them the same thing I did to Elder Rose regarding Jr.'s farewell yesterday and I got a sweet note back from Elder Taevin Norman and 

Elder Hayden Wood today:

I hope you know that you have an outstanding son and he is a big reason to why i am out here. Come to think of it we really did become one that year. It's funny to think of the times where we didn't really get along but now we forget about each others weaknesses and use our strengths to help each other out. I love the Roses and always will. Thank you so much for everything you've done for me and my family. We've really appreciated you in our lives.

love you bye

Elder Norman

Thank you so much! and thank you for sharing that. sounds amazing. i'm doing great! i really needed this! 

Elder Wood!

I also got a fun reply back from Elder Hyde and Elder Bloxham today!

Hey guys! thank you so much for the email. It is so great to hear from everybody back home and it really helps. I feel the love and support each day. Jaron and I actually were on the same floor in the MTC and it was great to see him and hang out for a bit. I wish we couldve done more of that before the mission. I think we couldve been really good friends. I hope he is doing well, and i hope that you all are well as well. Im doing great here in Georgia. It is a blast.

Elder Hyde

Glad you are all doing great and smiling on! I hope Jaron is doing great. Is his email just jaron.rose@myldsmail.net? Anyways, all is well fam. Take care.

Love,

Elder Bloxham

8/21/2017 ~ "West Texas is WACK"

1. Colorado

Howdy Y'all, sorry I didn't get the chance to email last week, i was on an airplane to Texas!! Thank goodness... after almost getting kicked out of the MTC it was a relief to get the heck outta there haha..... don't be stupid future missionaries;)The airplane we rode from Denver to Lubbock was the smallest thing i have ever seen, haha we were sure that puppy was going down.... if we were even gonna get off the ground haha!! My flight legit was full of missionaries coming to Texas with me! 

2. Texas...... flat huh?

Everyone said that it would never rain here... but y'all were wrong!! It has rained about 50% of the days i have been here... haha crazy! My first area is called Fort Stockton and it borders Mexico... pretty "dope"... literally haha every appartment complex we go knock doors on smells like weed😂  Fort Stockton is probably the weirdest place i have ever been in my life! It's a pretty small town, and everything is SUPER spread out!! The people here are the craziest, nicest people ever but just goofy ha.Everyone is either mexican, straight up cowboys, or people that moved from Utah that hate mormons but claim our church ha?

 A common thing that you see around here are SUPER nice cars and trucks and a puny house... a lot of the people's cars cost more than there houses.... haha i don't understand at all!! 

3. Me & Elder Wood

4. Elder Blake my boy

5. Lubbock Temple

The branch me and my comp are serving in has about 60 members... but yesterday like only 20 people were there and my comp said that that is the most people he has ever seen here and he was here last transfer also!

6.Texas sunsets are the prettiest thing here

Most of the work we do here is service! We are actually going to brand some cows tomorrow. We do lots of farm work for the Branch President, who is one of the weirdest people ive met here..... haha he F bombed the first time i met him.... but we have this family in our branch that are moving into a new trailer this week and we have been helping them basically renovate the whole thing and its not even close to done, but they are moving in on Wednesday.

We have gotten fed at least once a day, everyday i have been here so far, and my comp says that that is not a common thing at all haha so i guess i brought us some good luck! But sadly the food is either really good.... or it tastes like dirt and oil water! haha we actually can't even drink the water from our apartment because the water is full of dirt and oil.... so we have to buy cases of water..... 

Anyways the church is true, Jesus died so we can repent of our sins and be happy, and Heavenly Father love's y'all!! 

till next week....love you bye

-Elder Rose

7. My new pet

8. Me & Elder Brower (my comp)

(Here are some answers to questions that his momma asked and he shared answers)

8/21/2017

Hey momma:)

Im alive and well! My new companion is awesome we get along great! He is from Spanish Fork Utah and he actually played soccer at USU before he came out on his mission! West Texas is the weirdest place i have ever been in my life haha! The people are beyond weird. I'm in Fort Stockton right now for my first area. The town is tiny and there isn't like anything here haha!! The branch only has like 60 members but yesterday only like 20 people were there, pretty crazy!! I'm finally feeling a little better from my cold!! i still have a pretty congested head but other than that i feel pretty good. 

Yes we were able to just go on to the grounds there and we took a picture... you might have seen it?? And yes im sleeping great! We actually have like the biggest condo in the mission right now! it's not even that big but everyone else says its huge!!

Glad you guys have had a great week!! have fun with all the people there today and tommorrow im sure its like a zoo up there haha!!

Love you momma!!

1.  I totally thought of Stocko when i found out i was heading there! I was actually thinking the whole time about serving here... pretty craszy!!
2. Haha funny thing is im actually freezing at night cause the AC actually works! but yeah i got all my sheets and i have enough blankets now! The mission office gave me some!
3. It looks sweet... havent even ridden it yet haha!
4. We have a car and only ride bikes on one day.... except this month we have unlimited miles so we are using that to our benifit😅
5. We have actually been fed A TON this week and the relief society president gave a hundred buck so we will be eating like kings this week!!:)

 From Mom - "Sounds great! Well, love ya lots!! Be a good example 

and share that light!!"

From Elder Rose - "Love y'all too. Always, you do the same back home. 

Have a great week!!"

Companion Elder Brower and Elder Rose (touched up photo)

"All are here or accounted for. Some arriving later tonight. 

Welcome to Lubbock!"

- From President and Sister Hales

"Here's the newest TLM missionaries! All 28 of them. Love them."

-From President and Sister Hales

Photo credit - Julie Vickers on Facebook 

It was hard not having our son here to get to experience the total solar eclipse, as I kept thinking, "I want my family all together to witness this!" I wondered and thought about him all day long. It was such a spiritual experience!! And yet, I know that no matter how I felt watching such a remarkable event, that our son is right where the Lord wants and needs him. He is having a spiritual experience. He is witnessing a remarkable event. He feels God's love. He can bless others by sharing God's love with them. I am grateful for his example to our family and to me. And, I know he will experience many spiritual moments, such as the one on ~8.21.17~

God's love is real and He loves each of us dearly.

~Momma Rose

8/8/2017 - 23 Fast Sundays Left--Week 2

Squad pic on the way to class

Howdy Y'all. I survived my 2nd week here..... barely. Looking back it's crazy to see how fast time flies by. I only have 6 more days from today until i am in Texas. We fly out on the 14th at 7am. I'm so pumped to get there. The MTC is great and all but for future reference of anyone that's coming here soon... or planning on serving a mish.... the food has messed me up hahah! Normally people gain weight in the MTC but I've actually lost 2 pound because I can't keep the food in me ha. FUTURE MISSIONARIES..... bring some Pepto Bismo;)  

Found a drinking problem...... Mexican Soda

Sup homies

I really do love my district though. I'm so tight with about 3/4 of them. After class at 9 we go to Zone prayer and always come back and talk about the crazy stuff we used to do in high school..... makes us feel like old men and homesick every once in a while but doing that every night has brought us so close together. About once everyday we find ourselves singing to some random song and then try to change the lyrics to make it more missionary appropriate. Miss the good tunes. So if anyone would be willing to send me some lyrics... you will be my best friend:) 

This week we changed up to teaching our new TRC people.... but me and Elder Jenkins(comp) taught our investigator Daniel until Saturday and he accepted to be baptized once he figured out how to tell his mom and gains a little stronger testimony.If he was an actual investigator in Texas, i feel like we definitely could have baptized him. He was super cool and was accepting everything that we were teaching him. He lived in Zimbabwe before he moved here to play Rugby at BYU. Such a cool dude, but i guess i'll never know if he was a real investigator or not haha......

Casually walking on the walls

We started our new TRCs and we are teaching this older guy who owns this clothing line.... pretty slick stuff too ha!! He is from Chile. He lost 2 daughters right when they were born and him and his wife aren't able to have kids. PLAN OF SALVATION right there baby... We've only met with him once, but he is totally bought into what we are teaching him so far. We will see how everything else goes. It is just hard because after this week we will never teach him again.

Our other TRC this week is a chick named Becca... super easy to teach because she is super talkative. We showed her this video on like the restoration and asked her what she got out of it.... and all she said what... to be honest i was just starting at that dude's crazy AF noodle arms the whole time haha. She accepted our challenge to read the Book of Mormon though so that's a start i guess!!

Sundays here are literally my least favorite day..... we are out and going nonstop from 7AM until 9:30 at night.

This week was my first fast Sunday in the mission field and boy did it suck haha. Didn't help that some sickness has been floating around the MTC and i caught it a little bit and felt horrible on Saturday night and felt even worse on Sunday morning! We woke up and went straight to district meeting and priesthood meeting.. then to Sacrament meeting, then back to class, then we had an hour of study time... then more class.... then we went on a walk to the temple and FINALLY got to go eat some food. We were all super Hangry and were seriously questioning why in the world i chose to serve a mission haha. But after dinner we went to Sunday night devotional where Jenney Oaks Baker (a very successful musician that's pretty well known...if you are into that kind of stuff haha) she is also Dallin H. Oaks' daughter. pretty cool. She spoke to us on never doubting that God loves us and knows what we are going through. Her and her 4 kids would also play music throughout the devo... super cool and very spiritual.

After the devotional on sunday nights they play a certain talks and this week they only played the "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar.... so i saw it 2 weeks in a row.  But it is totally worth it. Too bad they don't show it outside the MTC or i would challenge you all to watch it. Bednar talks alot about the natural man and how the natural man wants you to turn inward... when Christ would turn outward. He also says a lot in it that.... it's not about you..... and the whole time i was thinking like.. umm it kind of is about me, because I have to prepare to teach, I have to have the learn and strengthen me testimony too, and kept trying to make excuses in my head but later in the talk Bednar said..." The greatest convert should be you... but that won't happen if that's your only focus. Forget about the natural man and when you are having a hard time, turn outward like the Savior did when he suffered in Gethsemane and healed the soldiers ear right before he was crucified." That has stuck with me ever since.

Emailing y'all

Elder Bowring and Elder Nelson

I went from feeling super crappy all day to being on a spiritual high after devo/the film.... and then guess what! Elder Bednar and is wife SHOWED UP! So sweet.... they came and answered some of the questions that people had about the talk and it was awesome. They answered all the questions that I have been thinking about and even something i have been praying to know for the past little while. It was definitely the Highlight of my MTC experience! The church is so true, and if you are are having any doubts of it.... PRAY. Through prayer and studying the scriptures you will find answers to things that you can't do yourself. One thing I've learned to do while ive been out here that i wasn't great at is first ya got to get up in the morning... next pray, and pray like you mean it.... and through the rest of your day you have to put one foot in front of the other and put all of your Trust and Faith in the LORD because he knows all things and if we are willing to trust him and communicate (prayer) with him.. he will bless us.

Elder Blake

Thanks for the prayers and support... i can truly feels the prayers daily.

Love y'all bye. 

Elder Way

My new pet

8/5/2017 - Surprise text from the Klingler's

8/5/2017

Text from Kailey Klinger: 

Look who we saw today!:) He looks happy, 

he is such an awesome young man!

8/6/2017

Today, in Sacrament meeting, Kaysen Klinger bore his testimony and shared this moment with our ward. He mentioned that their family was talking about how cool it would be if they ran into someone that they knew. They then ran into Elder Jaron Rose. :) wow... that was such a sweet moment listening to his testimony about how happy Jaron seemed and how great it was being in the MTC, and Kaysen then expressed how it sure made him want to be a missionary someday too.

As Jaron's mom, it sure made the tears come, but they were happy tears, because when your children are doing good, and being a good example, it makes your mama heart so happy and proud!

We sure loved this sweet text from our friends and members in our ward family, and for their opportunity to see our cute 

missionary yesterday! 

Thanks to Kaysen, Kailey, and their family for sharing this moment with us!!!!

Howdy Y'all --Week 1

Well I lived through the first week here at the MTC. Not gonna lie it was really hard leaving home and all of the easy things about life. Goodbyes suck and always will haha, but right after I hugged the fam and started walking into the MTC with my escort I felt I was leading the 2000 stripling warriors of something, and knew that Heavenly Father needs me here to prepare to teach someone in Lubbock Texas.The spirit is so strong here and you can definitely of the saviors love right when you walk in. The first 3 days have probably been the longest days of my life and there is like no time to breathe. Which thinking back right when i got here someone said " welcome to the MTC where a day feels like a week and a week feels like a month" haha and now i know that is exactly how it feels... We are always beyond busy!! They pack our schedules with all the classes, meetings, meals possible with like only 10 minutes in between everything ha.... it's definitely like drinking out of a fire hose. You can only take in so much and it's more painful than enjoyable. But it starts to grow on you and you enjoy it more and more.

 All the people are so friendly here it's kinda weird sometimes......After getting here on Wednesday and sitting through a few meetings we had lunch and i sit down with all my food and this person taps me on the shoulder and is like hey can i borrow your water for a second...... i was so confused and not thinking i was like sure?? so I look back and he is legit dipping his hands in my water cup washing his hands. And trying to keep my cool and act like i wasn't to mad I asked him go get me another water...... still confused, but he was asain so that made it worse but explained a lot haha.

The first night Me, Elder Jenkins (my companion), Elder Blake, and Elder Williams (both my roomates) were getting back to our room and this WACK Elder comes into our room and starts just spilling his soul to all of us and hugged us all and is telling how much he loves us already.... weird dude right there....and the worse part was his last name which I won't mention cause that is kinda against missionary rules haha. 

My companion like i said is Elder Jenkins and he is cool but also SUPER shy!!! The first like 3 days im almost positive he farted more than he talked hahah.......he has been really hard to talk to and get to know. Think of Wreck it Ralph and he looks like fix it Felix.... or the little boy off of The Polar express haha!! its been super difficult trying to teach investigators with him because he is so shy and doesn't want to talk so i have been doing about all of the teaching.... kinda annoying but it is at least helping me grow more than i expected to. We are finally starting to click and teach better though so thats a start. We are teaching an investigator in our TRC, which is just teaching investigators or fake investigators but we don't know, our investigators name is Daniel Spencer and he is awesome. He's on a rugby scholorship at BYU and is dating a mormon girl. We've only met with him once but i'm positive he really is a true investigator and he is so willing to listen to everything thing we have to say and has accepted all of our challenges for him.... i hope he pulls through. We only had like 25 minutes to teach him but Me and Elder Jenkins killed it in our lesson and i feel like if we would have taught him all... i could have dunked him that night. 

My district is so awesome!! we are all so tight and i feel like i've known them all forever already. About half of them are going to my mission so that's sweet...... and thankfully the elders that i can't stand aren't going to my mission ha. It's awesome though, me and Elder Blake... my roomate.. also going to Lubbock.... we go running about a mile and a half every morning and then me and Elder Bowring, going to Pennsylvania lift everyday during our exercise time. 

Every night we have zone prayer. We have like a spiritual thought, prayer, sing Ye Elders Of Isreal and than do a zone cheer. And my like second favortie comment so far has been our cheer and we yelled "baptize the hell out of em" you wouldn't think missionaries would be using that kind of language... but he i guess that's exactly what we are on our mission for hahah....... My first favorite comment was at like 11p.m. our second night in and it was probably 100 degrees in our room and Elder Williams (funniest guy i've ever met) is like "im like a lizard on a rock on this flippin wall trying to stay cool, calm and collect without breaking any of the flipping missionary rules with my language.

I love it here and know that this is what God wants me to be doing at this time. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church and if you don't know that without a doubt in your mind, i challenge you to kneel down and pray to feel of his love and to know that it truly will bless your life. Heavenly Father wants to hear from you because thats the only way we can communicate with him. PRAY< PRAY< PRAY.

Love you all and thanks for the support you've all shown my......... love you bye.

Me and Elder Jenkins (fix it felix)

Beautiful MTC campus.

Me and my boy Elder Nelson

Selfie w our pride and joy

"There is my cute boy.", Love, Mom

(Just in time for you to go to bed with warms thoughts of the finest and most handsome missionaries in the MTC.) -From Aunt Sheila (and Paige had texted me a this picture as well. We received it from them on Sunday night. Keller had gotten to email home to let them know he would be calling on Tuesday morning, because his flight plans were scheduled for that coming morning to leave for Atlanta, Georgia!
Jaron told me in our emails back and forth today this today....
 
"So actually me and Keller were in the same residency and on the same

floor!! We have actually kinda been hanging out at night when we have

a little free time!! But he flew out this morning so I said bye to him

last night after zone prayer!! It is so awesome here and the spirit is

unreal."

"It's all been a great/spiritual

experience so far😌" -Elder Rose