3-18-19

Howdy howdy everyone,

This week was a good one. It started out with going down to San Angelo for a District Council there. Afterwards I went on an exchange with the District Leader there in his area (spanish) and it was a super good time. Elder Broadbent is a great guy, we had a successful exchange, some good lessons, and good Mexican food. Besides the fact I don't hablo espanol it was great Haha! 

This we spent a good amount of time on our bikes trying to find some new people to teach and we found one guy that had some interest and hopefully we will have a lesson with him this week! 

Friday we set up a lesson with a member family right after our dinner appointment. We are a huge nice meal, and ate some seconds. We were stuffed. And once we got to our appointment we were had a sad realization that they thought we needed dinner that night.....so we ended up having to pound down some pizza. It was painful, but at least we were able to get in with that family and share a message with them!😅 

Last night we shaved Kélé's head. That was fun and exciting ha. And just for clarification she wouldn't have if she didn't have to, but she is getting her cochlear implant surgery tomorrow and they were going to shave it once she got there anyways. So she threw a little head shaving party and we were able to invite and get lots of members there. Which was great for their family to have that!!

This week I also found out some crazy news. So the Eastmans in my ward. Their daughter just left about a month ago to the Idaho Falls, Idaho mission and she just got to her mission this past week and her first area is Sugar City. So crazy and weird at the same time. But for all of you that are in Sugar take care of those missionaries and find some people for them to teach!!

But I hope yall have a great week and all is well in your lives. Always remember the love that God has for you.

Much love,

Elder Rose

Windy exchange w/Elder Broadbent

Texas street signs😂

The Smith Fam💇🏻‍♀️

Sister Ellis sewed a Texas flag in my suit for me.

3/11/19

Hey everyone,

First off, Thanks to everyone who still reads these things and shoots me a little note every once in a while. This week has been a real busy week. To start out the week we drove out to Brownwood to hit up the district council there. Afterwards I went on an exchange with Elder Hoppe out in Comanche, Texas. And just a fyi.....Comanche is the most "Texan" town you could imagine. It is a weird little town with some wild people. While we were on exchanges we were doing a little bit of service for a member there and Elder Hoppe stepped on a nice rusty nail. Ha so that was a good time, and then later that night we were driving home and Elder Hoppe got pulled over and the cops were very suspicious on who we were and where we were coming from😅 despite the crazy things that happened we had a really good time on exchanges. Then later in the week I went on another exchange with Elder Bauer. He is serving in another ward here in Abilene. While we were on exchanges we were out walking around an apartment complex talking to everyone we could see. We met a lady from an island pretty close to the Philippines that we had a great conversation with and were able to teach her.  We gave her a book of mormon and have a lesson set up this week with her. The work is picking up but it's been tough the past couple of weeks. But the gospel is still true.

Love yall have a good week!!!

March?

Hey everyone,

This week started off with going to Lubbock on exchanges with Elder Taylor. It is always super weird going back to Lubbock because my brain is always just flooded with memories. Exchanges were good. It's always a good time going on Texas Tech campus and trying to contact people and give em the Restored gospel. While we were there I got into a really good conversation with 2 guys about God and life. They definitely felt the spirit but unfortunately they started talking bad about everything they knew about the church. They'd asked me if we believed in miracles by the laying on of hands and asked me a story with it. I gave them the low down about all the concussions in my life and tied that in with priesthood blessings. After that they asked if they could give me a blessing and if I never had a headache again than to rethink Christianity and leave the church🤔 sooo before I could say no the both had there hands on me and commanding me in the name of Jesus to never have a headache again in my life.....funny thing I had an extremely bad headache a little while after that😅 

This week my testimony has truly been strengthened of this gospel and the love that God has for us. The first thing that we teach people when we teach them about the Restoration, is that God is our Loving Heavenly Father. And because he loves us he blesses us here on Earth. He blesses us with families, a home, a knowledge of Jesus Christ and many more things. He gives us little tender mercies that help us know that He Lives and He Loves us. Everything that is good in our lives comes from God. With that comes adversity. If everything in our lives were perfect we would not be able to know the difference between happiness and sadness. We go through things in life that are hard and challenging. But what I have come to know is that however hard life can be sometimes, God does not forget about us. He is there every step of the way and will pick us up when life is hard (if we allow him to). 

In Luke 1:37 it says, "For with God nothing shall be impossible."

This past week we had Zone Conference and Stake Conference and my Mission President and his wife both said something that really stood our to me. But when life is hard and we feel like we are just being weighed down by the world. Make Christ your sail and let him guide you through the storm. No matter what we will face hard things but it is also important to remember that God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers. 

Love yall and hope everyone's well is good.

-Elder Rose

2/25/19

Howdy friends and family,

This week was busy with some traveling to meetings and a exchange with the YSA missionaries here in Abilene. I went with Elder McKenzie on my exchange and it was a good time. (Hence being sick) it seems like every exchange I have ever had on my mission either goes perfect and all of our plans work..... or literally everything falls through!! And this one everything fell through, but we were still able to see some sweet people with our backup plans. 

The past week or 2 we have been trying to spend some more time out on our bikes. Even though our butts were sore for the first few days we have had some good success with finding some new people to teach. We found a lady that is a leasing professional at an apartment complex all because we had to use the restroom and the closet bathroom we could for sure use was a mile away..... heavenly father works in mysterious ways because once we got in there we didn't have to go,  but had a great talk with Cynthia. Taught her one more time this week and has some great potential and interest in the gospel. 

Yesterday we went and saw the Smith Family (Kélé and Amos). We got some sad news that Kélé wont be able to be baptized on the 23rd of March. She is getting another cochlear implant and the surgery is scheduled for the 19th. It is a good thing because Amos is preparing to baptize them but sad cause I most likely wont be able to be here for that. But, please keep them in your prayers. They are doing awesome and working hard on overcoming their vices but still struggling with some things. 

Elder Thornblad and I are reading the Book of Mormon this transfer and gonna finish by the end of the transfer. I've learned a lot this time around and really been so grateful for the testimonies and writings of their faith in Christ. I am so grateful for the knowledge of the Savior that I have. I know that as we turn to Christ when our lives are hard we gain strength and peace through His Atonement. I hope yall have a great week. The church is true. 

Love, Elder Rose

Pics

1. Connor Ellis in our ward got his call to Salt Lake City, UT. He comes to lessons all the time with us. He's a beast.

2. Elder McKenzie

2/18/19

Hey everyone,

It was a pretty good week. To start off the week we went to a District Council in Abilene. We were able to do a little bit of service at a food bank and for a member this week. And we have been doing some hard core planning this week for this transfer. This week it hit me so hard that I only have so much time to serve the Lord until i go home. Time goes by too fast. One of our goals with planning was to find more people to teach. So with that we were out on our bikes quite a bit and with that we were able to meet a couple of part member families in our ward and we are hoping to see some success come with that!! 

I know you all are probably aware that we can now talk with our families over Skype, text, or phone calls. Some of you have asked me my thoughts on it so here it is. I think that it is awesome. There are of course many things that are good about it and some things that many people have worries about it. But it all comes down to it being revelation from God to our Prophet Russell M. Nelson. This is a living church and changes sometimes happen to help prepare us for the Lord coming again. God blessed us with agency. All over the scriptures God promises that if we keep my commandments we will prosper, and those are blessing that come from obedience to what God commands. But only if we use our agency wisely and do what he says. Some people will say that it won't allow missionaries to have the same mission experience, or more importantly rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ to lift them. But when a missionary is diligent and committed to His/Her calling this won't be a distraction. There are definitely hard and discouraging times out here and there have been so many times where I would have loved to call my mom and dad, but that is where we learn to rely on Jesus Christ to lift us. But missionaries can still turn to the Lord with this change. Hard times will still come, but that is life. 

Thank you all for the support and prayers. The Church is true. Love yall and hope yall have a great week!

-Elder Rose

2-11-2019 - Uno mas en Abilene

Like many of you know I received a transfer call last night. I got some good news that I would be staying one more transfer here in the Abilene 2nd ward. I was very grateful for the chance to stay home more transfer. We have a lot of things happening within the next 6 weeks here and I would have been a little sad to leave. 

This week was a good one. Started off with going to Brownwood for District Council one Tuesday. After spending some time out there with the missionaries we grabbed some bikes from the Sisters bikes that are going home and headed out. We than took a drive over to San Angelo to go one exchanges with the Elders there. I went with Elder Bingham and Elder Edwards. It was good exchange with lots of weird things that happened😅 but hopefully I was able to help them both learn somethings!! After we ended our exchange we headed back to Abilene and had a good rest of our day. 

Thursday we were having a pretty good day until we had the horrible realization of remembering that those bikes that we took from the Sisters were left in Elder Binghams and Edward's apartments..... Haha so we had to fix our mistake and than had to drive another 150 miles to get the bikes. 

This week we had an awesome lesson with Kele, Amos and their kids. We talked about putting down our weapons of war in Alma 24 and about baptism more. We talked about how Amos could baptize their family if he got cleaned up and that inspired them. We committed them to be baptized on March 23rd. 

The days and weeks just keep flying by faster and faster. The church is true. God loves you. 

- Elder Rose

1. Elder Bingham and Edwards 

2. Brownwood DC

3. Classic Tejas

4. The Eastman's 😊

2-4-2019

Howdy yall,

Just thought i would inform yall that it is currently 74 degrees here with a high of 79 today!! Don't you love winter?😊

This week was a decent week. I have been fightin an upper respiratory infection for about 6 weeks now. I got pretty sick early in the week and got put down for a few days. But went to the Doctor got some shots and antibiotics and feeling much now. Thank goodness.  Later in the week we were able to go and teach a lot of member families the Restoration and invited them to implement the ward mission plan into their families. This week we were also able to help a older lady move from here in Abilene out to Winters, TX. 

This week we have been preparing James Avery, one of the recent concerts here in our ward, to the temple this Saturday. We are driving over to Lubbock with him. He is an awesome guy and has some of the greatest stories ever. 

Yesterday we had dinner and a "family home evening" with Kele, Amos and their family. It was a great time. They are slowly progressing towards baptism.

Sorry for the short and not very detailed email, but hope life is good for y'all!! 

Much love, Elder Rose

1-28-2019 - A Sister's Mission

Family and Friends,

This week I hit my 18 month mark. Can't believe it. Sometimes its felt like 18 months and sometimes it feels like 18 days. But what I have learned these past 18 months are things I will cherish the rest of my life.

This week was a very busy week. We had Zone conference down in San Angelo. It was a great meeting. We talked a lot about the basic fundamental things of missionary work. It was a great reminder for me and hopefully helped a lot of the newer missionaries. It was crazy at Zone Conference because the 2 sisters that I came out with gave their departing testimonies. It hit me hard realizing that I only have 6 months left of my life to dedicate all my time to serving the Lord.

After Zone Conference that night we went on an Exchange with the YSA Elders here in Abilene. I went with Elder Wolford. It was great to be able to go with him. I have been able to see him grow a lot while I have been around him. We had a great exchange full of lessons, some service and he makes some good company! 😅

Later in the week I went on another exchange back to Comanche, Texas! That is a pretty wild place. And with the most 'Texan' people I have met my whole mission. It was a great time with Elder Ortega there. I've always heard so much about the people there from other missionaries that served there and finally got to put some Faces to the names, so it was a really good time!! 

This week we had an awesome lesson with Kele about baptism. We read 2nd Nephi 31 and also Mosiah 18 with her and talked about the importance, covenant, and promised blessings of baptism with her. It was great. She still has a couple of concerns but yesterday she was also able to come and join us at a baptism for someone here in Abilene. Afterwards both of her daughters were telling us that they wanted to be baptized. It was a sweet experience with their family. We are planning on inviting her to be baptized this week so please pray for her and her Family that they will be ready to accept! 

Love yall and hope everyone has a great week. The Church is true. 

- Elder Rose

The boyz in the Zone

Elder Mann & Nabrotzky

Elder Wolford

Larry Roberts

Elder Ortega