10/29/2018 -Speak, He is there

Hello family and friends,

Tryna get a peek of the game

This week has been a very crazy week. It has been full of out of the ordinary things which I never would have expected to see and be a part of in my life. My testimony has truly been strengthened this week. I know that our heavenly father is there and that he loves us. He listens not just to our prayers but to our desires we have in our hearts.

Last Monday I talked a lot about Dale! This past week Dale has been through a lot that is set back his progression to baptism. But he will get there soon. Last Monday we were not able to see Dale. He wasn't home the times we went to stop by. Early Tuesday morning we got a text from his son Dakota. Dakota told us that Dale relapsed on some pills and alcohol that his neighbor slipped him. We instantly went over to see Dale early that morning. He was completely out of it and not conscious of what was going on at all. We gave him a blessing, even though he was babbling on about who knows what the whole time. This went on for about 2 days. While Dale was out of it we would go over about twice a day to walk his dog And talk to him a little bit. Thursday morning we went to see him and he was out walking peanut. I could tell there was a lot on his mind and he was very embarrassed. He saw us and looked down ashamed. We went and started talking to him and he just wasn't his self. It was heartbreaking to see. He was very angry at everything going on around him. Satan was working very hard on him and was in his every single thought. After getting Dale to calm down enough. We read Moroni chapter 7 with him. We don't know why we felt prompted to read it but we did. In the last verse of Moroni chapter 7 it says.

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

After we had read the whole chapter we invited him to pray with all the energy in his heart and tell how many father what was on his mind. That was probably one of the most spiritual experiences I've had my whole mission. While we were reading the book of Mormon I could see the countenance on Dale's face completely change. I was literally seeing the anger or leave him as he was reading. After he said his prayer he didn't know what to say except tears rolling down his face. He knew Heavenly Father was there and truly was listening to him.

After we had that lesson with Dale everything has been smooth sailing since then. We have gone over every day and read the book of Mormon with him and helped him understand the gospel. He knows this church is true and is willing to give up everything to get there. He showed up to church yesterday looking very snazzy in his sons sweet suit and floral tie. We recommitted him to be baptized on November 17th and are gonna do everything possible to help him get there. If Dale gets there we will have 3 baptisms that day and have a mega baptism for the ward. 

Over the course of my mission I have come to know how much Heavenly Father loves us. He loves us so much he was willing to send our older Brother, Jesus Christ, to suffer ALL things for us. He is there for us to rely on Him and what he has done for us. As we rely on Him and His Atonement and repent and change, we can feel of our Father in Heaven's love for us. 

Love y'all and hope y'all have a great week!!😏

-Elder Rose🌷

Walking James' dogs with him

Texas

Skert skert

 Our street

Bro. Jorgensen and his sick jacket.

10/22/18

Hello family and friends,

This week was a really good week and full of blessings! This week we were able to set three baptismal dates for people that we are working with. Dale Keyser, are investigator that moved from San Antonio and was on heroin for 40 years, has a baptismal date for November 3rd! He has been doing awesome and the VA has given him medicine to help him overcome his heroin problem. Ever since he came to Lubbock it has not been a problem for him. He has been doing great with resisting temptation. He has had many opportunities to go back to his old ways but has held strong. The only thing he is working on now is stopping smoking. This past week he smoked his last cigarette, and ever since he told himself that was his last cigarette he hasn't smoked one since. On Saturday we went to visit him but we didn't find him home, which was very unusual because he is always home! We asked his neighbor if they knew if he had left, and his crazy neighbor told us that he came over and asked for a cigarette not too long ago. We were very disappointed and a little upset. We went back about 2 hours later to check up on him again but he was still not there. We were pretty concerned about him. We showed up to church yesterday not knowing if he would be there. But he showed up! We are very happy to see his face. After sacrament meeting we went into class and he was telling us "he felt a little weak yesterday." He told us what was going on and how he asked his neighbor for a cigarette and went around the corner to smoke it... But then another neighbor came by and asked him if he had another cigarette to smoke. He ended up giving that cigarette to the other person! And he thought that was God telling him to STOP!!! We were very very relieved when he told us that! He is still holding strong and has come such a long ways. He knows the Book of Mormon is true and the gospel is true and can't wait to be baptized. Please pray for Dale that he will be able to hold strong and to be able to make his baptismal date for November 3rd!

Recently we have worked with A.B and his family a lot and have been very lost on what the next step with him to help him stop smoking. Originally him and his son wanted to be baptized the same day. But as we have prayed about it we have felt that Amoni is ready to be baptized and nothing is holding him back except his dad. So we went and invited Amoni to be baptized on November 17th. At first Amoni was very skeptical and didn't want his dad to be mad at him. We invited him to pray about it and talk to his parents about it. A. B. And Stephanie were very supportive in everything. A.B. Told Amoni that if he feels like he is ready and that is what God wants him to do. So when we came back after inviting him to pray about it, Amoni told us that he is ready to be baptized. We were very pumped. He is very ready for baptism. And we think that this will help his dad have more motivation to prepare to be baptized also. When we were there talking with them we ended up talking about the friendship that we have gained while I have been here. They told me how grateful they were for me for helping them as much as I have. I am very grateful for this family and know that's one of the reasons why I am in this area is because of them. 

This week we had exchanges with the Spanish missionaries here in Lubbock. I went with Elder Winmill and we worked the Spanish area. The whole time we were there I was very grateful that I'm an English-speaking missionary... Not just because of the language either. This white boy can only handle so much Mexican food. Overall it was a very good exchange though. 

This week has helped me remember how much our Father in Heaven is aware of us and loves us. We have seen many miracles recently with the people that we are teaching and also for the people that are holding back the people we are teaching.  He listens to our prayers. I have seen many blessings as I pray not only for those I care about but also for the people that I don't care much about. In 2nd Nephi 33 it says--

3 But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry.

4 And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their fathers; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life eternal.

I know that as we pray for everyone in whatever they are going through. Heavenly Father will listen to our prayers and truly bless them. I invite you all to be mindful of those people in your life and strive to be live our Savior, full of Charity. As you pray for them not just their heart will be softened, but yours will also. The church is true.

Love y'all,

Elder Rose🌷

Elder Moline before he went home

DALE

#dinner

Elder Winmill

Quaker Heights exchange

10/15/2018 - Texas made me a wimp

Howdy Howdy everyone. 

The past couple days here have been freezing here....and freezing means like 40 degrees! Last night it dropped down below freezing and Elder Terry and I were not prepared. We are hoping it warms back soon. 

This week has been really good. We started off with transfers. We drove to Midland on Monday night stay the night there and hit the road early Tuesday morning. That was a pretty long couple of days with very little sleep! I think I'm finally caught up on sleep. On Wednesday we were able to go on exchanges with brother Tanner. He works at the MTC in Provo. He has been a missionary for literally 22 years. After he came home from his mission he worked  at  MTC and has worked there since. He works with missions and Mission presidents all around the world to help better the work. It was awesome to be able to go with him and learn from his knowledge. He was able to give us quite a bit of ideas to find new people to teach. Brother Tanner and His companion brother Gonzalez also came to mlc on Friday and instructed us. We had a great mlc and were able to learn quite a bit.

This week we were able to teach Dale quite a bit! We actually went over one time this week and washed his nasty stinky dog peanut. After we were done washing his stinky dog we cooked him some hamburgers. So he wouldn't go to Whataburger to waste his money. 😅 Dale also came to church with us yesterday and all of the ward just loves him. He actually might start singing in the ward choir! We have really hit him hard with the word of wisdom lately. Even though he has done awesome already without using heroin. But he still struggles with smoking. If y'all would pray for Dale that he will be able have the strength to stop smoking that would be awesome!! 

Hope y'all are enjoying the cold weather more than me. Have a great week. 

-Elder Rose🌷

Thrift shopping

Thrift shopping

Bro Tanner

Weather

10/8/2018 - Conference & Transfers

Hello everyone!

How about conference? It was awesome to be able to listen to our prophet and apostles speak and uplift us! I learned a lot and hope you all did too! I know the changes that will be taking place are exactly but our heavenly father wants to be happening at this time! 

This week has been pretty insane! Last night we got our transfer calls and I found out that Elder Terry and I will be staying one more chance for together here in Lubbock. This will be my 5th transfer here in the Heritage Ward! Which is pretty crazy because doing five transfers in one area is not common at all in my mission. I am so stoked to stay though! There are many people that I have come to love here in this area and I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to Lubbock yet. Also Elder Terry is legit, and that makes missionary work so much better!! 

This week we are going to teach Dale at his house. We showed up to his house, and totally forgot that he was at the addiction recovery class at the church. But it was pretty good timing because when we pulled up I saw a guy that we have been teaching on and off the whole 6 months that I have been hearing! It was pretty funny to see him away from everything else that he has going on. He is homeless and doesn't have a phone so it's always impossible to find him but we saw him there. While we were talking to Tyro, a crazy lady came up and told my companion that we need to follow her because she has someone we need to talk to. So tyro walked back to his chair and started drinking again... And we followed the crazy lady around the corner. We ended up talking to her boyfriend it is actually a member of our church. It was really weird in the conversation that we had with him. He told us his whole life story, and probably things that we didn't need to know haha! While we were talking to Larry, the crazy lady's boyfriend, the crazy lady and tyro came around the corner and walked in to the house! Apparently tyro, Larry, and the crazy lady used to all be friends a while back. Long story short we are going to keep visiting and teaching Larry and try him get him to come back to church. Lots of weird connections. But it was definitely Heavenly Father putting us in the right time at the right place that night to be able to visit with Larry!

 

Hope y'all have a great week, and are able to apply what you learned in General conference into your lives. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ is restored on the earth today and by listening to the council of our leaders that we are so blessed to have, we see blessing through our obedience and be able to feel of our Father in Heaven even more.

Love y'all,

ELDER ROSE🌷

10/1/18

Hey Family and Friends,

It was another quick week here in Lubbock. This week we had a ton of sweet lessons with people that we have recently started teaching. One of our new investigators Dale, that I mentioned last week, is doing great. He was the one that I mentioned that is coming off of 40 years on heroin. Last week he was not doing too well with his health. He had tons of cravings and his body was taking a toll for it. Apparently they came out with a new medication that helps that addiction go away. Was a Marine so the VA hooks him up with drugs that will help him get away from the bad drugs. Dale is a super sweet guy. And boy does he have some stories. He used to play a guitar in front of bars and make tons of money. This week we had a little concert in his apartment, it was pretty crazy. Dale also was able to come to church. He showed up with his son that is helping him get back on his feet! 

This week we went on exchanges with Elder Bishop this week. We went finding on Texas Tech campus for like 4-5 hours. It was pretty crazy. Elder Terry got bashed on for like an hour by this guy. I met this guy that got shocked by a telephone wire and almost died... But somehow lived. He was telling me some crazy wild stories for almost an hour. And then was able to pick up an investigator or of our all!! Texas Tech proselyting is always super crazy! It was fun though. 

Last night we were going through some referrals that we were sent recently and we went and visited one and her name is Halley. Halley moved from California out of a very bad relationship and circumstances. We went and got to know them, she was almost baptized almost a year ago. But the circumstances that she was in kind of ruined that option. She's now interested in learning more about the gospel again and wants to start coming to church with us as much as she can!! And we ended up teaching the restoration lesson that lasted for 2 hours. We will have some lessons with her this week. Please keep these people that have talked about in your prayers.

Funny story of the week... There was a Texas Tech football game on Saturday. We were asked to get a blessing to remember in our Ward that lives pretty close to campus. We went there around the time that the game was getting over and everyone was going back to their cars.... Terrible idea! There were so many people that were on closed walking around everywhere. When we pulled up to the person's house that we're getting a blessing to there were a bunch of drunk college kids that were walking back to their apartment. One kid was on crutches and very drunk! He's going pretty strong the whole time or watching him for all the sudden he passed out and ate concrete. We got out of our truck and help them up. His friends were also helping him up... But they were so drunk that they couldn't get him up. I was looking at them and they all looked pretty beat up they had cuts and bruises all over their faces. It was pretty crazy! Later we found out that all of those guys just came from a huge fight between the fraternities at the party they were at! I'm sure they were wondering why in the heck Mormon missionaries we're helping this drunk guy up! But it was really funny seeing the guy on crutches eat it😅 

Hope you all have had a great week and are enjoying potato Harvest! 

The gospel is true, and Jesus loves you. 

Love Elder Rose🌷

A friend in Texas sent us these next two pictures in a text Friday evening 10.5.18 :)

9/24/18

This week was a really quick one. So here are some of the main point of my week. 

- Drove to Portales twice within 24 hours...that means 8 hours in the car.😫

- went to the temple with Elder Blake and Hoppe.👌

- Did service at the fair here in Lubbock...was not very fun ha.😅

- started teaching this guy named Dale Keyser. He moved from San Antonio to get away from old habits. He was hooked on crack for 40 years, and this week has been clean from everything! He has accepted to be baptized and to make the changes willing to do that! His son is in the YSA here in Lubbock. Is really cool guy, but has probably the stinkiest dog in Texas!🤧

- we had exchanges this week with missionaries from Portales! I went with Elder Lore. On our Exchange we taught a girl that I have been teaching here for about 3 months...her name is Kaily Miller.....We had a very spiritual lesson with them and got them pumped up to come to church! They came to church yesterday and I really enjoyed it!

Her and her fiance both came. 😃

Sorry my weekly emails have been trash lately. I am doing great and am loving life here in Lubbock. I love hearing from y'all so if you want to know more about my week email me and I will respond!! 

Love y'all and have a great week!

-Elder Rose🌷

9-17-18 ~ Get dunked on🌊

Happy Monday everyone.

This week has been a really eventful one. To start out our week we had Zone conference on Tuesday. Me and Elder Terry were asked to instruct everyone on the safeguards to technology. It was a pretty good Zone conference. Right after Zone conference we had exchanges with the elders that are in Clovis. I went with Elder Van Der Beek, he is a cool guy. His Dad is actually in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, crazy!! We had a pretty good exchange full of knocking doors and some service!! 

This week we got a referral for a guy named Blake. He requested a book of Mormon. We have met with him three times this week, and he is already on track to be baptized on October 6th. He has told us his story and he has been one of the most prepared people to hear the gospel that I've ever met. He doesn't have much here in Lubbock because he just barely moved here. He actually stays in the Salvation Army at night for a place to sleep and we teach him in the "Enrichment Room" there.....haha it is super ghetto. Always keep my head on a swivel cause ya never know who is coming in there. But he is always wanting to learn and wanting to meet with us whenever he can. He came to our baptism on Saturday, and he also came to stake conference yesterday. We actually had members pick him up for both of those. He already knows the Book of Mormon is true, and is willing to act on everything because of the feeling he has from the gospel. 

This week we also had Madison's baptism. It was great. She had tons of family come out of town to support her, and tons of members from the ward were there also. There was some great talks given and the spirit was very strong. She asked me to baptize her which helped me feel the spirit even more. It was a confirmation of knowing that I truly was sent to Lubbock, Texas for a reason. Whether the people I come in contact get baptized or not. It has been such a learning experience to serve the people in this part of the Lord's vineyard. 

The Church is True. Hope y'all have a great week. 

Love, Elder Rose🌷

9/10/18

Dear family and friends,

This week has been really good. This week we were able to go to the temple again which was amazing. It was Elder Terry's first time going to the temple is whole mission, so that was great. We went with a member that just recently moved her records to our ward. Her name is Bridian. She is pretty sweet, and she takes us out to lunch whenever we want. This week we also had some exchanges. I went with a brand new missionary, Elder Hoppe, here in Lubbock. On our Exchange we had quite a bit of action going on. It was pouring rain the whole first day. So the roads we're basically Rivers. That was fun and exciting. And on the second day of our Exchange there was a Texas Tech football game. Texas Tech is in my area so the campus was a huge attraction. We forgot that there was a game and drove down that way and got caught in traffic for like 30 minutes. Where it only takes like 5 minutes. But at least it was entertaining to watch all the crazy fans rooting on their team. On our exchange we were also able to do some more service for A.B. in his yard. He hasn't kept his yard very nicely cut.... So his backyard was literally like a jungle. There were weeds as tall as me and weeds as thick as my ankles.  It was pretty crazy. 

This week we have taught the Paslay family quite a bit. I don't know if I have mentioned them. But we have been teaching them for a while now.  Sister Paslay is a returning less active that me and my past companions have been able to reactivate. She has two kids that are 12 and 13 Madison and Dylan. Madison is getting baptized this Saturday. This past week we have done a lot of teaching over at their house to prepare her for baptism. One night we were over there at their house and sister Paslay was very stressed out because she was being investigated for something at her work.  Her job was on the line but she still wanted us to share a lesson. While we were talking and just about to start our lesson. We asked who would like to say the prayer, and it was Dylan's turn. He prayed for ministering angels to help Mom and he asked heavenly father to Comfort his mom. Within 10 minutes of the prayer and into our lesson sister Pasley got a phone call from her boss saying the case was dropped. In the moment we weren't really thinking about what just happened but we continued on with our lesson. But as the lesson went by we had realized what had just happened.

The moral behind this is that things happen in life that make life a little crazy and scary sometimes. But our father in heaven knows exactly what is happening right now as you are reading my email. He knows if you are struggling and he knows if you are happy. When we have enough faith to pray and ask our Eternal Father for a little guidance, he will help us. No matter how shaken our faith is in the moment we have to rely on what faith we still have. 

Thanks for the emails and the support y all show me. Have a great week everyone!!!

Love Elder Rose🌷

THESE ARE SOME FUN PICTURES WE HAVE SEEN THROUGH FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM AND ALSO RECEIVED THROUGH TEXT. 

ELDER ROSE IS DOING WELL :)