An Amazing Christmas!

This week has been long but really good!!! Me and Elder Fraughton are killing it in San Diego 1st ward!

To start off this amazing week last Tuesday we were in the gym playing sports for p-day and our mission president walked in with our investigator Chris and he told us that Chris got approval from the First Presidency to get baptized!!! He's been waiting for a year and half to 2 years so we are very excited!! Our mission president is coming and hopefully previous missionaries that taught him can come too!

After p-day was over we took Janette to the Mormon Battalion to hear the sister missionaries sing for Christmas

On Christmas Eve we had a really good day! We had district meeting in the morning and then we had dinner with the Crandall-jennings. She is the stake relief society president and her husband just got baptized a little over a year ago and she has 3 daughters. One is on a mission and comes home soon and one is in college up in Irvine. I told her to look out for a Elder Johnson from Denver! :P

We had an amazing Christmas! We woke up and opened presents - I got a pretty sweet watch made of wood - and then we went over some members' house for breakfast and to Skype home! After that we went caroling to some recent converts and some investigators and stuff and we had a blast.

We had dinner with Janette, one of our investigators. She has been struggling going through the holidays without her husband so she really liked having us over. We're going over again on the 5th for her birthday!

Being a missionary on Christmas is weird haha. In a good way though. We did't see any crowded malls or even going shopping. We got to focus on the birth of our Savior. This Christmas I have thought a lot about the sacrifice it took from our Heavenly Father to let his son go and know what was going to happen to him. It must have been so hard. I'm just thankful for his perfect plan for us!

The day after Christmas we got to work at the temple and talk to people that were coming to see the lights! That was way cool!! A lot of people were like "don't they usually have sisters do this?" and we were like "yup" haha but they let Elders do it during Christmas with the sister missionaires. We talked to a lot of cool people and were able to tell them a little about the temple and stuff. We had to write down how many people we talked to. Elder Fraughton tried to tell me that it wasn't a competition but I didn't believe him, I'm pretty sure after they see how many people we talked to that they are going to have the Elders up there more often haha :P

The day after that I got sick haha and I have had a pretty nasty cold ever since. A member gave me some medicine and cough drops and tissues though, so don't worry Mom haha. Another member gave me a scarf so hopefully I start doing better soon haha :P

I think that's it for now! hope you all had a good Christmas!!

Love
Elder LaRochelle

San Diego Temple Lights

Deck The Halls!

Elder LaRochelle's Christmas Message

A small excerpt from our Christmas Skype call with Elder LaRochelle this morning.  A brief (very brief) message to his fans.

Mission Tour & Devotional

This week has been amazing!!! We started off the week with a mission tour from Elder Nielsen of the quorum of the 70! It was amazing. He talked about the atonement and he explained it so simply and so easy to understand that I feel more confident talking about it with my investigators. Another thing he talked about was prayer; more specifically, how the apostles pray. He told us that when the apostles pray in public they keep it very short. They want us to pray what's really in our hearts and it shouldn't be about trying to have a long prayer so people think you are good at praying. He also told us about how apostles send missionaries to missions and how they don't assign us to our mission but they assign us to our mission president so that was kinda cool!

The members here are just killing it!!! We have been fed everyday this month so far and we have so many sweets and cards its crazy!!!! I don't know how we are going to eat it all!!! Yesterday we had 2 dinners! I don't know how I ate all that food haha. After the first dinner I was full haha!!

Janette is doing a lot better. She is having us over for Christmas dinner and on her birthday!! She still has a lot of questions but it's OK. We are still working on her! Yesterday we added a guy named Flavio. He went to the temple to see the lights and meet some missionaries. He is from Italy and his girlfriend is a member and is from Mexico so teaching them will be interesting because English is their second language! 

Yesterday we had our missionary devotional! It's the only time the whole mission is together so I got to see Elder Nielsen again and I saw Sister Stewart who was the sister missionary that I came out with! There were a lot of people singing and scriptures and stuff and afterwards President Schmitt gave a special blessing over the mission. It was just extremely powerful and I could feel the spirit so strong. I know he has been called by God to guide this mission!

Elder LaRochelle, Elder Salmond, & Sister Stewart

I can't believe its already been 5 months since I left. These past 5 months have gone by crazy fast. I'm kinda scared to see how fast the rest of my mission goes by!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!! I know I will!!! 

Love,

 

Elder Chris LaRochelle

Amazing Members

This week was pretty boring. A lot of our appointments cancelled and what not.

One cool thing is we took Chris Garvos to the Mormon Battalion. He is way cool and has a good friend in Hong Kong who is a member and has been a big influence on him. We have only taught him twice and he has already read up to Enos and has read the whole Gospel Principals book! The hard thing is that he is always busy because he is a flight attendant so he's gone a lot. Hopefully we can set a baptism date for him this next week!!!

On Sunday Elder Fraughton and I sang in the choir that performed in sacrament meeting. We also sang "What Child is This" by ourselves and it was pretty good. Our choir director is pretty amazing. 

I'm really loving it here in the San Diego 1st Ward. The members are amazing and we are getting fed like every night! Sometimes two times a day! 

 

Elder Fraughton is a pretty cool guy and we get along pretty well!!! Sometimes I miss Elder Nielsen because we got along sooooo great but I have so much to learn from Elder Fraughton!

Janette is doing better. She is becoming really good friends with another sister in the ward that lives right down he street! We actually taught her at the members house this week. So many members want to come out with us. It's crazy!!!

We had our ward Christmas party this week. It was alright. A lot of people came and some Polynesians in the ward danced! 

Transfers weren't that exciting. This time only one new person came into the zone because a sister went home. But the new sister in the zone is a sister trainer leader so I think she will be a good addition.

I think that's it for this week!

Love 

Elder LaRochelle

 

Another Visit to the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center

Elder LaRochelle (by Elder Smith)

Elder Fraughton

Zone Meeting

Busy Week!

Wednesday we had Zone meeting and it was really good. Elder Ballard came to the mission recently and had meetings with our leaders. Our Zone Leaders told us what he talked about. One thing that stuck out to me is when he was asked what was required for missionaries to have success. Elder Ballard said "The first thing a missionary has to do is to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ" he continued and said "In our minds we must spend more time going to Gethsemane and more time at the cross and more time at the tomb." Hearing that was extremely powerful! As I have pondered about this and thought about the sacrifice that our Savior made, I am already gaining a more personal relationship with my Savior Jesus Christ

On Friday we had exchanges with 4th ward. I went with Elder Salmond to 4th ward. All of our appointments cancelled so we were just walking around and some other missionaries called and asked if we wanted to borrow their car so we did. We were able to go visit some referrals in a part of the area that is hard to get to and really ghetto haha!

When it got to around 7 pm and it was getting dark we went and saw this referral named Chuck. So we knock on the door and this nice guy answered the door and told us that chuck was in the back. So we walked through the house and in the back there were 2 other houses and in between them there was this old hairy guy that grunting and trying to slam this gate closed. The super nice guy was like "That's Chuck. Just wait here for him." As were waiting for him this older women with like 2 teeth sneaks up on us and walks past us. She had a limp and everything. It was pretty sketchy. Once Chuck got the gate closed he just ends up being drunk and slurring at us, but he lets us in. When we get in there are cockroaches EVERYWHERE. It smelled like something died inside. We thought we were going to die but we ended up having a pretty good lesson with Chuck's roommate who wasn't drunk haha!

Saturday was a really good day. I went to Sweetwater and baptized Peter. I taught Peter last transfer before he moved but I was still able to baptize him. I saw Elder Nielsen there and after the Baptism we went and got Golden Spoon and me and Elder Nielsen talked for a while. It was pretty sweet!!!

After that we had dinner with a less active part member family. They are really cool and we were able to do some service for them!

Then we had the adult session of Stake Conference. The spirit was so strong. President Schmitt was there and he shared He Is the Gift and then he talked to members about how they shouldn't have fear as they share the gospel. It was really good and I feel like it's going to really pump up our members to want to do missionary work!

After we got out of Stake Conference, we saw that we had missed a call from Janette so we called her back and she told us that she was really depressed. Me and Elder Fraughton were soooo sad and we just prayed for a long time that she would be ok, but we set up an appointment with her on Sunday to make sure.

Sunday we went to Stake Conference and President Schmitt was there with his wife. He asked me and Elder Fraughton to watch his kids so that was pretty cool. We saw a little bit of the Christmas Devotional then we went to Janette's and we brought Brother Kullberg with us who is a nurse. He told her that she needed to go the hospital right away, but Janette didn't want to so we convinced her to stay overnight at a members house. We called a member that lived down the street from her and when we got there the member was like "it's weird I made my guest bed earlier this week like I was going to be excepting someone". It's so cool to see the Spirit work like that. We talked to Janette yesterday and she is doing great! She talked to her doctor and got some things figured out and she is feeling a lot better now!

Well I hope you are doing great and enjoying the Christmas season. It doesn't feel like Christmas here with all the palm trees and stuff but it's all good I'm having a good time!!!! Love you all!!!

Love,

Elder Christopher LaRochelle

The District

Elder L. Sings! Whaaat?

This week was amazing!!!! Me and Elder Fraughton are killing it!!! We are teaching like crazy trying to teach 25 lessons a week. Thanksgiving set us back a little but this week looks promising!!

This is the last week of the transfer so next Tuesday I will find out if I'm staying or going. I think I'll be here for one more transfer but we will see!

The day before Thanksgiving we were going to see a referral and it was a home with someone living upstairs and someone else downstairs. Our referral was upstairs so we go up and we knock a few times but the lights were off and we assumed she wasn't home. We started walking to the car and we decided to go ask the girl downstairs if she knows where our referral is. When we knock on the door she comes to the door and she is super excited to see us. She was like, "Do you guys have a Book of Mormon!! I have wanted to read one for so long!!" So we gave her a Book of Mormon and we have another appointment with her tomorrow !!!

Thanksgiving was pretty good. We had dinner with the Carsons. They have a pretty big family and we had a lot of fun. Thanksgiving was kinda hard to meet with people because a lot of people were busy or not home but it's all good we stayed busy!

Janette is still going strong. She just recently lost her husband so she struggles sometimes. She told us that she didn't know if this was the right path she needed to go down and that she needed a break. We told her that was fine and the next day some members from the ward decided to go by her house to see how she was doing. It really touched her that people she barely knew were coming by to see how she was doing so she decided to come to church again. It's so awesome. We are seeing many miracles in our area and its so amazing!!!

So our choir director makes the missionaries sing in the choir which isn't a bad thing haha. I like it but she wants us to sing by ourselves in sacrament meeting, she bribed us with a dinner so me and Elder Fraughton are singing "What Child Is This" I'm pretty excited. It's one of my favorite Christmas songs!!!

Yesterday we got a call from a less active named Bo. She said she needed a blessing and that's it. So we went over and she just opens up with us and starts telling us all these things that are going on in her life. We gave her a blessing and she is going to come to church at the family ward and the YSA ward. We are going to start meeting with her every week. She is so amazing and I know our Heavenly Father has a plan for her.

Every other Friday we give service at a park and this week they had us picking up trash in a canyon and we found like half a car! Me and Elder Arnie carried it down the canyon to the pickup truck so the ranger could take it to the dump! It was pretty cool.

Well I hope you are doing well. I miss and love you all and I'm so thankful to be serving in San Diego. I know this is the true church I can defiantly see the Lord's hand in this work.

Love,

Elder LaRochelle

Exchanges And Stuff

From Tuesday, November 25:

This week has been amazing!!! Last Tuesday for P-Day we went to this park that has a lot of museums in it. We went to the Museum of Man which was pretty cool. We invited President Schmitt and he brought his 6 year old son with him. It was pretty cool, though some of the missionaries were kinda annoying because all they want to do is play basketball but whatever its all good.

On Wednesday we had MTE's (Missionary Training Exchange). MTE's are when a couple of zones get together and missionaries go with other missionaries to train or get trained. Me and Elder Fraughton both left 1st ward area and went and coached other missionaries. So I went to U.C. 1st ward with Elder LeMmon and Elder Hirst who is my zone leader. We were in Clairmont up by the temple. We had a really good day. Me and Elder LeMmon and Elder Hirst all got along really well and we had a lot of fun.

On Thursday I had ingrown toenail surgery. The doctor was LDS which was pretty cool. Elder Fraughton helped him a little bit haha just handing him things and stuff but it was pretty funny.

On Friday we went to the Mormon Battalion with Chris. it was my first time going through with an investigator and it was so fun.

On Monday we went on Exchanges with the zone leaders. I went to YSA Ward with Elder Yates and we had a blast. We didn't have a whole lot of appointments planned but it was all good. We got to go visit a ton of people and that night we went to FHE. I played pool with one of their recent converts, Toddrick. He is way cool. He got baptized like 2 weeks ago and he is already half way through the Book of Mormon!!! He really wants to serve a mission which would be way cool!!!! YSA work is really fun!

I don't know if you have heard about what the Church is doing for christmas this year but its a video called "He Is the Gift". We got to see a special preview of it and it is amazing!!! It's like the "Because of Him" video that they did for Easter except bigger! We are getting special pass-along cards for it and we only have enough to hand out 10 a day!!! The Church is putting pass-along cards in the Ensign and they are taking over the ads on YouTube on December 7th. The church estimates that 220 million people will see it on that day! Its going to be crazy!!! I hope you guys tell your friends about it. It has the potential to be huge and we want to make it even bigger!

I think that's it for this week. We don't have to much planned for Thanksgiving but we do have a dinner so it's all good :).

Love,

Elder Chris LaRochelle

Honorary Member of the Mormon Battalion

Drivin'

Heading to the park to do some service!

Teaching Like Crazy!

This week was pretty awesome!!! Me and Elder Fraughton are killing it!!!!! We are teaching like crazy! The members are being super supportive with going out with us and feeding us and everything. I love it here so much!

So on Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Smith from fourth ward. He came to my area and I drove for the first time since I've been on my mission haha. We started off the day by doing service with Elder Fraughton and Elder Salmond which was cool. We had a really good day and me and Elder Smith get along pretty well. He actually came out with Elder Nielsen so he showed me some pictures from when Elder Nielsen was new so that was pretty cool!

Sunday was a lot of fun. Me and Elder Fraughton helped teach the sunbeams and we sang in the ward choir. We got Clay to come to church which is awesome since he has only been to church once since I have been here. Janette was supposed to come to church but when a member called her to see if she needed a ride she told him that she wasn't coming to church again because someone told her that we didn't believe in Jesus Christ. The member then helped her by giving her chapters in the Book of Mormon to read. It was way cool to have him help her. Then after church we stopped by her house and talked to her and she had read the chapters the member left her to read. It helped her so much and answered all her questions!!

After that we went to go see Alex Boye. We actually convinced Janette to come with us and she loved it!!! We had to leave a little early because missionaries have a curfew and stuff which is kinda lame but we want to make sure we are following all the rules!! But Alex shared his conversion story with us and it was really powerful. He is such a good speaker and really talented!

Yesterday we met with Richard again. He dropped us a couple months ago but a few weeks ago we called him and asked how he was and he told us that we could come by again. We had a really good lesson with him about coming to church. He likes church and knows it's important he just thinks he is too old to come to church.

Well I think that is all for this week. Love you all and hope you are all doing amazing!!!

Love,
Elder LaRochelle

Elder LaRochelle Sighting!

Elder LaRochelle and his companion Elder Fraughton spotted at an Alex Boye fireside Sunday evening.

Pho With The Sisters

One of the Sisters insisted they get Pho.  As evident by the expression on his face, Chris doesn't like it. Apparently the translation of Pho in English is 'nasty soup'. 

Super Pumped

Hello everybody!!!!

I can't believe its already P-day again. This week has just flown by!!! Me and Elder Fraughton are getting along great!!!

So this week we had a really good lesson with Janette. She actually came to church on Sunday for the first time!!! It was really cool how the talks and lessons seemed to be directed at her and what she was going through. It was so cool!!

Yesterday was a really good day. We met with a less active named Sarah that we just helped move into the ward a couple weeks ago. She lives with her boyfriend and they have a baby together. She was telling us that right before we called she was praying because she was really stressed and right after she finished praying we called. It was a way cool experience and she was telling us that her boyfriend is thinking about becoming a member because they want to be married in the temple!!!

After we visited her we went and saw Clay. He just quit smoking so we went by yesterday and brought him some donuts and celebrated a little with him. Hopefully he is still going strong, he is such a good guy!!!

We also had zone meeting yesterday and it was awesome. My zone leaders are way cool!!! I love Zone Meeting so much. I always leave feeling super pumped and I can always feel the spirit super strong!!

Well thats all for now!!! Hope you are all doing awesome!!!! Happy Veterans day!!!

Love,
Elder LaRochelle

Teaching Peter In The Park

A local ward member spotted Elders Nielsen and LaRochelle in the park a couple of weeks ago and snapped a picture.

Elder Fraughton & Elder LaRochelle

Elder Fraughton - Companion #2

Quality Time

New Companion - Elder Fraughton

So last Wednesday Elder Nielsen left San Diego 1st Ward and my new Companion is Elder Fraughton. He is from Utah and we are getting along great!!!

Sorry if this email is short. We went to the temple again today so my time to email is shorter!!!!! We had an awesome week though. Sadly, Peter's baptism got moved to the end of the month. He just wants to make sure that this is something that he wants to do, which is OK.

Taking over the area is pretty stressful though. Thank goodness I have a GPS or we would be lost like all the time haha!!! We are actually saving less active members' addresses in my GPS so we can visit more in a day which is awesome!!!

Yesterday we had a pretty cool experience. We went and visited a potential investigator that we street contacted. Her name is Laneice (that is spelled correctly by the way haha) and we met her 3 kids too. They are all coming to church this Sunday which is awesome!!!!!

Sorry I don't have a lot to say this week. Things are pretty crazy today. I'll send pictures from the temple next week!!

Love,
Elder LaRochelle

Transfers And A Baptism

So We just got a call from our zone leaders and Elder Nielsen is getting transferred out of San Diego 1st ward. I'm honestly going to miss him. He taught me so much but I'm so ready to take over my area and I'm pretty nervous and excited to get my new companion tomorrow.

So this week was pretty cool. On Thursday we went to the Mormon Battalion and taught a referral, Their names are Ivano and Analietta. They are a young couple from Italy that are visiting the U.S. to see if they want to move here. Before they left his dad told him that if they see any Mormons that they should talk to them. We had a really good lesson with them though, their English isn't the best so she had to translate for Ivano a lot but they had a lot of questions and we gave them an Italian Book of Mormon!

Oh yeah. So Peter, our investigator that has a baptism date for November 1st, moved out of our area!!! Luckily we were able to send his stuff to the missionaries in his area and he is still planning on getting baptized this Saturday and he asked me to baptize him!!! I'm pretty nervous and way excited!!!

Once we found out that Peter wasn't going to able to come to our ward we were a little depressed and right before church started we met Chris Gargos. He and his friend have been talking about the Church and he actually has been taking the lessons on the phone from sister missionaries at the MTC. He is pretty cool and is pretty excited to meet with us. When we told him that we meet with people in their homes he was like "I want that!!!". He is a way cool guy and he has a job and a car!!! which is pretty unusual for our investigators haha.

Well things are going amazing here in San Diego. I'm Excited to get my new Companion and see how this next transfer goes! I cant believe I'm already in my third transfer!!!

Elder LaRochelle

Senior Week

Hello everyone!!!

This week has been so amazing!!! Its crazy to think that in a couple days it will be my 3 month mark! Time has just flown by and I can't believe that I'm almost done with my second transfer!

So like I said last week, this past week was my "senior week" so I was in charge of everything and it was pretty stressful haha. Last Tuesday after emails I had 4 appointments set up and they all cancelled so I had to come up with things to do so we weren't just sitting at home doing nothing haha!

On Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Petersen and we went to his area which is a walking area. We had a pretty good day set up. We actually spent most of the day at the church because we had a teaching appointment there with one of there investigators that is getting baptized next week. It was a really good teaching appointment. Elder Petersen is a way good teacher. I learned a lot and we get along really well!

Elder LaRochelle & Elder Petersen

After the teaching appointment we stayed at the church for a baptism and Elder Petersen actually baptized and confirmed one of the kids that was getting baptized. After that we had a less active named Scott take us out to dinner. Scott is a way cool guy and we quickly became friends especially when we found out that we both like cars. After dinner we got talking and he really opened up to me and talked about his drinking problem and how it ruined his kids. It was really sad because he still has a drinking and smoking problem and he knows he has to stop but he just can't. His son is actually in prison and his daughter just totaled her car from drunk driving. It was really sad. I was able to talk to him about repentance and I bore testimony to him about the power of repentance and how it's a blessing in our lives. I told him that his Heavenly Father loved him and the spirit was so strong. It's one of the best lessons I have had on my mission so far! It's one of the best exchanges I have had as well. The only bad part is that I was in a suit all day haha!

Yesterday was a really good day. After studies we went downtown in little Italy and got some lunch and it was way good. Then we went to Golden Spoon and the people that work there know us pretty well so Elder Nielsen told them that it was my birthday haha. They asked us what we did for my birthday and we were able to talk about what we do as missionaries and we actually had a really conversation with one of the employees. Later that day we went out with Brother Humiston, a member of our bishopric. He is a retired psychiatrist and helped our less active who is trying to quit smoking. After our lesson we dropped him off and we started talking to one of his friends that was over and she had some concerns about the Book of Mormon. Me and Elder Nielsen actually didn't say a lot because brother Humiston talks a lot haha. But I felt the spirit so strong that I just had to bare my testimony to her. I actually interrupted brother Humiston and bore my testimony to her and it actually touched her and she put her concerns aside and said that she would try and read the Book of Mormon again

Peter is still doing awesome. We downloaded the Gospel Library app on his phone and he loves wandering around on it. He is getting really comfortable at church. We taught him the Word of Wisdom this week and it went surprisingly well haha. The only thing he does wrong is drink coffee and he said he could stop drinking it.

Well I hope everything is going well. I love you all so much and I'm so thankful for all your support.

Love,

Elder LaRochelle

October In San Diego

It's Elder LaRochelle's Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Chris!!

A Visit To Five Guys

Note From Elder Cuckow

Sister LaRochelle,

I just wanted to thank you so much for the cookies you sent your son. They were divine! He was super nice and shared with me.

We are in the same zone and your son is my hero. He is such a funny kid! He is doing such a great work out here on his mission, setting a great example for me!

Elder Cuckow

Another Crazy Week in the San Diego Fist Ward!!!

Hey Everyone!!!

So this week was another crazy week in the San Diego First Ward!!!!!!!!!! This week is actually what they call "senior week". It's when I become the senior companion so that Elder Nielsen can see how well I know my stuff haha!!!

On Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Yates who is like 20 months out so he gave me some tips. This is also his first transfer being a zone leader so he is pretty nervous. I don't know what it is about exchanges but the person I'm with always decides to talk about what they're struggling with with me and then I have to help them, but Elder Yates is an amazing missionary!!!!

Elder Yates and Elder LaRochelle

On Thursday we met with a bunch of people including Chris and James.

Chris is still doing awesome. I don't how he finds the patience while he waits to see if he can get baptized. He is an amazing person and has an amazing testimony!!

James has some disabilities so we have been teaching little bits at a time. We are using Mormon Messages and music to teach and its working really well!!!  This past week we actually set a date for him to get baptized on December 6!!

So every other Friday we do service at Balboa Park with a bunch of other missionaries. We just help out a park ranger and move logs and trim trees and what not. Elder Nielsen loves to go because he gets to wear jeans and not a tie haha. He actually got poison ivy (but he says its not that bad).

Saturday we met with Peter. We are actually meeting with him two times a week now just to make sure he is ready for baptism in a few weeks. He already has a super solid testimony and texts us sometimes and asks for reading assignments haha. He is way cool!!!!!!!

Sunday was fast Sunday and it was hard but we broke our fast at Sister Anderson's house. She is an amazing cook and she always feeds us a ton of food. We had another good lesson with her though. We talked about her niece and how she can talk to her about the gospel.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. We went and talked to the Kneelands for a little bit. He is struggling with cancer and is an amazing member missionary. Yesterday when we met with him we were able to talk to him but there's some hard stuff going on in his life.

This week we have been meeting a lot with a less active named Clay. He is trying to quit smoking and struggling with it so we come by 2 or 3 times a week to just check up on him. He is an awesome guy and has a really cool conversion story!!

Other than all that, this past week has been pretty chill.

A random tidbit. Elder Nielsen discovered that one of the Piano Guys songs he has is a really fun song to pretend to drive in slow motion like we are spies and such. So we've been doing that a couple times the past couple days.... haha.

I cant think of anything else to talk about, but I love you all and hope everything is going well!!!

Love,
Elder LaRochelle

Pretty Awesome!

Hey everyone!!! So this p-day is already starting off crazy. I had to go to the mission office and watch a safe driver video and take a test because I had to many moving violations before my mission.

Other then that my week has been pretty awesome!

Last Monday we got a call from one of our investigators named Janette. She had some things she was struggling to understand and she sounded like she wanted to stop meeting with us, but we were able to convince her to let us come over Wednesday and help answer some of her questions. We brought along Brother Whiteley who is a boss member missionary and we were able to answer her questions and help strengthen her faith that the Book of Mormon is true!!!!!!!

On Thursday I had my first interview with President Schmitt. He said that I'm definitely doing better then I was my first day haha. I was pretty nervous and tired my first day and I don't even remember how my first meeting with President went haha!!!

On Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Salmond again. We had a really good day. We were able to meet with Peter who has a baptismal date for November 1st!!! He is super solid and came to conference on Saturday!!!

Saturday and Sunday we were at the church almost all day watching conference!! We were actually late to the Saturday morning session because Elder Nielsen locked the keys in the trunk haha!!! It's all good though. When we got to the church they were having technical difficulties anyway. Conference was way awesome though!!!

After Conference on Sunday we went over the Owens place. They live downtown in a sky rise and have an amazing view!!!!

San Diego Temple

Unu Uka Wu Ezi Okulu!

Hey sorry for the late email this week - we went to the temple today!!!! (so this week's email is going to be short sorry!!) The San Diego Temple is so beautiful inside and out! Kinda weird but at the beginning of our session an alarm went off and we got evacuated because a fire sensor went off  or something haha. I was really confused!

This past week we meet with a former investigator named Chimezie. He is from Africa and an amazing man. He is constantly thinking about others and how to help them. He told us that when he becomes friends with someone he calls them his brother or sister so he calls us his brothers. It's kinda cool. He taught me how to say "this church is true" in Igbo. That's the language he speaks.

It's starting to cool off a little here.

Friday we had zone conference and it was amazing!!!! I learned a lot and we got to watch "Meet the Mormons"! It was an awesome movie and I encourage you to go see it and encourage people you know to go see it. Elder Nielsen was way excited because this is the first movie he has gotten to watch in the last year an half haha!!!

Last night we had our last appointment fall through; which always stinks because then you have to think of something to do on the spot. As we were about to drive away I see this U-haul and I ask Elder Nielsen if we should help them. So we do and afterwards one of the girls that was also helping almost starts crying and said that she has never seen anyone thats been affiliated with a church be so willing to help people on the spot. After we talked a little bit more I got a prompting to ask them if they would like us to bless their home. Elder Nielsen looked at me really weird because that's not usually what we say but they got really excited and said yes, I would love that!!! So later in the week we are going to stop by and hopefully share a message with them!!!

Me and Elder Nielsen are getting pumped for General Conference this weekend!!!

Love you all and hope you are doing well!!!!!

Love,

Elder LaRochelle

Elder N & Elder L

Fun With Mustaches!

"Labor Without Ceasing"

So today is my 2 month mark. It's hard to believe that 2 months ago I was in Colorado getting ready for my mission and now I'm on it!!!! But I have loved these past two months! And I love being in San Diego!!!!

This week has been going great! Last P-Day after E-mails it rained pretty hard for like an hour which is pretty unusual I guess. Elder Nielsen said it's rained like 4 times on his entire mission!!! The rain and wind actually knocked over a bunch of trees and palm leaves and stuff it was pretty crazy. We had to give another set of missionaries a ride to their next appointment because the tops of palm trees were falling on cars and stuff!

In District meeting this past week a sister missionary challenged us to do a positive day. Me and Elder Nielsen did ours on Monday. It was pretty hard but definitely made the day better.

Kinda sad but Richard dropped us this past week so we won't be baptizing him but he said he is going to find the missionaries when he moves to Florida. But our other baptism, Dunia, is scheduled for October 11 and is still going strong!!!!

I don't have a cool food story this week, haha.  No abnormally hot peppers or big burritos. But we did get a bunch of free stuff from Einstein Bagels. One cool thing about my area is that we get free frozen yogurt from Golden Spoon which is pretty nice on those hot days!!!!

This Friday we have Zone Conference!! Im pretty excited. Elder Nielsen said its like 6 hours long though!! But we get to watch a movie apparently (Meet the Mormons) and get taught so I'm way excited!!

This past week me and Elder Nielsen have been focusing on what makes us happy in this gospel.  We have been sharing a message with members and asking them to share something with us that makes them happy. Sunday night we had an amazing experience with this when we went over to Sister Anderson's who is a single lady in the ward.  She invited a counselor from the bishopric and his wife.  It just so happened that they were all converts and they were able to share their conversion stories and tell us what makes them happy about this gospel.  The spirit was so strong. 

We then shared a scripture in Alma 36:24 which is the scripture right after he is visted by an angel and it says:

"24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost."

Then we challenged them to remember those things that bring them "exceeding joy" and do as Alma the younger did and labor without ceasing to bring them that joy. 

I know this Church is true and im so thankful for the opportunity I get to serve in San Diego for the next 22 months!!!! 

Well I love you all and pray for you constantly!!! 

Love,

Elder LaRochelle

Damp & Windy

Some unusual rainy weather in San Diego brought down some trees.

This fence is at Elder LaRochelle's apartment.

Tall Ship in the Harbor

Some Like It Hot!

So this past week has been HOT!!!!!!! Me and Elder Nielsen have been sleeping in our living room to be close to our AC unit.

Other than it being really hot, I had a pretty good week. I went on exchanges again. This time I was back with my MTC companion Elder Salmond. It was my first time going to another area. Elder Salmond is in 4th ward and it's a walking area. It was 104 degrees outside and I got a little burnt, haha, but we had a good day. Got to work on my street contacting some since I'm used to driving to my appointments.

On Thursday we went to a members house with Dunia. We were going to review previous lessons with her but her uncle just died so we were able to help her and give her a blessing. At dinner they had a side with cactus in it. First bite I took I ate a pepper and I guess its called "the Chinese fire pepper". It was probably the hottest thing I have ever eaten. After I ate it I tried to stay cool but ended up freaking out a little haha. Everyone thought it was funny except me because I couldn't taste anything. I drank like half of their gallon of milk! Afterwards the members apologized and said they should have warned me, haha, but it was really good.

Church in San Diego is weird, some of the guys wear ties and some don't. Some wear flip flops and some wear beads. This Sunday was weird because we got a list from the Relief Society to visit some less actives in the ward and they spelled Elder Nielsen's name wrong and they just put "other elder" on my list haha.

I'm pretty sure our Bishop thinks I'm like straight out of France or something haha. At ward council he asked me to say the prayer and right before I said it he was like "in English please" haha. I was like OK I think I can do that haha. After the prayer he said "in case you didn't know, Elder LaRochelle is French" Haha. Kinda weird. But overall the members are way cool and love to help us out.

I finished my first transfer! 16 more to go haha. Im just kidding. Being a missionary is amazing. I love sharing this message and making people happy! I'm not getting transferred, though.  I'm staying with Elder Nielsen in 1st ward!

General Conference is in a few weeks and Elder Nielsen is getting super excited for my first General Conference as a missionary. We are going over to a member's house to watch it. This member actually works with nuclear weapons. It's way cool!!

Anyways, I love you all and I'll keep praying for you guys!!

Love,

Elder LaRochelle

San Diego Harbor

Chris & Chris

This week has been pretty cool. San Diego is still awesome. I don't think I will ever get sick of this weather haha.

Last Thursday me and Elder Nielsen had an amazing experience with Chris (our investigator - not talking in third person haha). He is waiting for First Presidency permission to get baptized and has been waiting for almost a year now. He has a really cool story about how he discovered the church in jail. So we meet with him every week but this week we thought we would just share some Mormon messages with him. We shared a couple with him, "The Savior Wants To Forgive" and "Abide With Me". He was tearing up at the end but he thinks he has to be this tough guy so he changed the topic, but I could feel the spirit so strong in that room and I'm so thankful for the atonement and for our loving Heavenly Father.

Sunday was a really good day. Richard finally made it to church and Elder Nielsen said I did an awesome job introducing him to people and explaining things to him. He had a really good experience and wants to come back but only wants to come every other week for right now :/ .

Yesterday was amazing! we had Zone meeting and my Zone Leaders, Elder New and Elder Cuckow, taught us. The spirit was so strong, and I love what they taught us, they both have amazing testimonies.

Later that day we were street contacting - thats when we just walk around and try and talk to people on the streets. We don't tract houses anymore. The first lady we talked to, Carmen, was pulling some weeds in her garden so we decided to help her. After we finished, she started crying and thanked us so much for helping her and how unusual that is nowadays. She opened up to us very quickly and started talking about her family, especially her kids, and how she is worried about the choices that they are making. I was able to bear my testimony to her and it made her cry even more. Then we said a prayer and gave her the Spanish missionaries info. It sounds like she really wants to learn more!

Me and Elder Nielsen have been talking a lot about families and how lucky we were to grow up with loving parents and amazing siblings. In the first lesson we teach our investigators, we teach them about how the gospel blesses families. I know how true that is and how vital it is to keep families together FOREVER!

Well, I miss you all and love you all and hope you're doing amazing. I pray for you all daily!

Love,

Elder LaRochelle

Elder LaRochelle And His District