11-26-18 ~ Abilene for Thanksgiving

 Hello Family and Friends,

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and were able to have full hearts and full stomachs. This past week has been a good one. It has felt like me and Elder Henderson have been on a week long exchange. Hasn't hit us that we are actually companions yet. He is a great guy.

To start out our week we went to a District Council in San Angelo. Elder Nabrotzky (a previous companion) is actually the district leader out there. It was a good time. On our drive back we were cruising through this very small town and I saw someone that I recognized. It was Bro. Adams. He was in the ward in Lubbock that I just came from. Very weird to see him and his family again after just seeing them on Sunday.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Started it off with a very competitive Turkey Bowl with a bunch of different ward member here. We all came out injury free and in one piece so that was good!! ;) we were sore for a good few days after though. It was fun to play some good ball. That afternoon we went and had a HUGE Thanksgiving meal at the Gale's house, (a member family) that was great. After that we went to the Eastman family, also ward members, and we played games with their family up until the end of the night. It was a great day. Much different compared to my last Thanksgiving and spending it with a drunk guy!!

Abilene is a highly "religious city." they have the most church per capita out of the whole country. Very crazy. There is literally a church on ever corner. What I have heard is that it is illegal to even build another church here cause there are already so many. We actually went to a Nondenominational church yesterday before we went to our ward. The church was twice the size of my high school. It was a interesting experience and made me so grateful for growing up in this church and knowing God's plan for me. We are. So lucky to have the knowledge we do. 

The Fulfer Family

This week we also started teaching 2 new families this week that will hopefully be pretty solid. It is still weird adjusting from Lubbock to here but I live it here so far. 

I also got to go and participate at a baptism for Trason Jackson's uncle. It was a very cool experience and awesome to see their family come closer together!! 

Hope y'all have a great week and are enjoying the snow and cold weather at home (this week it will be 75 a couple days here)

Much love, 

ELDER ROSE🌷

The apostate Church

Dale

McPhee's

The Barnes

Jorgensens

11-19-2018 ~ Outta Lubbock

Howdy everyone,

Well I'm gonna get right to the good stuff....... I am finally getting transferred out of Lubbock! I am pretty sad to leave Lubbock and especially the ward/area that I am in.  I have gained some great friends here and have many amazing memories here.  But on the positive side of things. I am getting transferred to Abilene, TX to be companions with a good friend, Elder Hendersen!! I have always wanted to go to Abilene and now I am headed there in the area that I wanted and a good comp. I also found out last night that Elder Hayden Wood and his companion will be living in our apartment with us until they get a new apartment. That will be crazy since Elder Wood and I haven't served around each other at all yet. It will be sweet. I am super pumped for this transfer!!

On the other note, my week was one of the best of my mission. We spent tons of time with Dale, James and Amoni this week. Between walking 3 miles with Dale and his dog a couple times. Walking James' crazy dogs....ended up chasing them and trying to get them to behave. And playing catch with Amoni and A.B. in a park. And then just the last few lessons with them before baptism. 

On Saturday they were all baptized, and that was such a great experience not just for me but everyone that came. There was lots of support from our ward and that made the spirit there even stronger!! On Sunday Dale and James asked me if I would confirm them. That was also a great experience. I look up to all of them so much for the changes they have made. Next Sunday James and Dale will both receive the Aaronic Priesthood and have the opportunity to go to the temple and do baptisms for members of their family. So cool. 

This past transfer my testimony has truly been strengthened seeing them change. They have put their faith and trust in the Lord and relied on Him every step of the way and he has lifted them and helped shape them to the men that he knows they can be. The power of the Atonement is so powerful and is sometimes hard for us to comprehend. But I know that through our faithfulness and obedience to what God asks us to, the power of Christ's Atonement will turn our weaknesses into a strength. We do not have to have a complete understanding of every point in the gospel to know it is true, but what we do know is true we have to hold on to and act on that. By acting, our faith will grow in other areas and it will continue to grow as we put forth the effort to do the simple things like reading our scriptures, praying and going to church. 

I know that this gospel we have contains the fullness of what Christ taught while he was on earth. It contains everything that we need to make it back to our Father in Heaven one day. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and was called to restore the priesthood and fullness back on the earth. I am so grateful for a living prophet today that leads and guides and continues to push us closer and closer to what our Father in Heaven wants. This church is true, and I am so grateful for the decision I made to come on a mission and serve the people out here in the middle of nowhere Texas. I hope y'all have a great Thanksgiving week and travel safe for all the holidays. 

Love, Elder Rose

If anyone who would like it...here is my new address. 

3649 Cedar Run Road #411

Abilene, Texas 

79606 

11-12-2018 ~ Weeks feel like days

Hey Family and Friends

I have gotten to the point on my mission where everything is a blur. Days feel like hours and weeks feel like days. So that's my excuse for not writing in as much depth as I used to. 

This week was really good though. We had the opportunity to have Zone conference this week with a general Authority there. His name was Elder Ochoa. He is a member of the 70. He instructed us and motivated all of us all to do better and be better. It was a crazy Zone conference because we had more than half of the mission there. Close to a hundred missionaries. What was even crazier was that they asked me to conduct the meeting. That was pretty nerve racking but a great experience. Right after we had Zone conference, we had a mission Leadership Council with Elder Ochoa also. He again instructed us and help us set goals to help our mission meet. He also chastised us a little bit on being better. Way more harshly then the rest of the mission. It will be awesome to see the progress we make within the next 6 months.

This week we also had exchanges with the Portales Elder. I went with elder Moody. It was a pretty good exchange.

 

This week we have also been preparing Dale, James, and Amoni for baptism. They all had their interviews on Saturday and they are passed and are ready to go as long as they stay clean this week from Satan. We are pumped for this upcoming Saturday. 

Funny story of the week. Yesterday at church three people that we didn't recognize showed up. Two of them were non-members and one of them was a member. They all came to gospel principles class with us a couple of the members and Dale. We were reading in the gospel principles book and one lady flipped out, cuz of something it said about the restoration of the Gospel. We thought it would be the perfect opportunity to teach the restoration. But we had five other people with us. Everyone in the class kept trying to give their two cents on what to say and it just ended up very bad and basically like a bash for class. Luckily Dale already has a strong testimony or I'm sure it would have shook him a little. Dale actually shared his testimony with her of the restoration which was awesome.

We will be going to see the crazy lady sometime this week to clear up her questions and hope she doesn't come to class next week to bash again cause she said she would be there ha😅

Thank you all for the prayers for me and for the people me and Elder Terry are teaching. The prayers have truly helped all of us. The gospel is true.

Love y'all!!

-Elder Rose🌷

11/5/2018 - Sucker for cigars🍭🚬

Hello everyone.

This week flew by. We had a couple exchanges. I went on an exchange with Elder Blake this week. That was fun to go with him and to catch up a little bit. Also went with Elder Mann, the assistant that we are working with this transfer. It was a good exchange also! Exchanges always make the week go by much faster. On Halloween all of the missionaries that are serving in Lubbock had the opportunity to go to the temple. That was great to be able to go there and remember the promises that we have made with Heavenly Father. Also to see many blessings come from that in our daily attitudes. 

This week we really focused on James Gallowkowski, Dale Keyser, and Amoni. They are all getting baptized on the 17th of November. Which is coming up very soon. The only one that we are a little worried about is Dale! He has really kind of struggled smoking ever since we invited him to stop. But he knows that he needs to for more than one reason. It is pretty funny because last week every time he would go to smoke there would be something either making it so he couldn't or he would feel guilty when he was. This past week we also bought him two bags of Dum Dum suckers and traded them with his cigars. He is very determined to this time to stop. He is a couple days clean right now and will have to be totally clean for the next two weeks to be baptized on the 17th. He is working hard at it and will definitely need a little extra help. So please keep him in your prayers. 

Love y'all and hope you all have a great week. 

-Elder Rose🌷

Dale's outside pet...... Elder Terry touched it's butt (no joke either)😅

E. Blake

E. Terry and I

E. Mann

Temple Group

More scootering