Slurpees

Elder Kiser's first Slurpee (mine's sugar free, of course).

Transfer Meeting. Yes. Transfer. No.

This week has been pretty crazy! On Wednesday we got to go to transfer meeting even though we weren't getting transferred. We had to take a car to transfer meeting that they needed elsewhere.

Transfer meeting is always pretty crazy but this time it was even crazier because we are getting less missionaries in the mission now so areas are going to start to be double covered. Elder Nielsen is now double covering a Tagalog area now so he is excepted to learn Tagalog now. Also, since they combined some areas they made my district bigger. I now have two sets of Elder's in my district including the Zone leaders and a YSA ward. I also have a senior couple in my area that wants to come to my district meetings. Kinda unusual but whatever haha.

Elders Eating Lemons. Not sure why.

On Thursday we went to the temple with a recent convert to do baptisms for the dead. This is something that they are really pushing in the mission. They want recent converts to get to the temple as soon as possible. So we are also going to the temple this Thursday with Charlotte to do baptisms.

San Diego Temple at Night

On Saturday morning I met with one of my Zone Leaders who was struggling a lot. We talked for like 45 minutes and I gave him a blessing and he seems to be doing a lot better now! Who knew Elder LaRochelle knew what he was doing haha! 

On Sunday church was pretty normal but after church Elder Kiser had to go practice for the mission president's fireside because he was playing the violin there. The fireside went really well and I even saw Brother Riewerts! Pretty crazy stuff!

So that's it for this week! Love you all and hope everything is going well!

Love

Elder LaRochelle

Elder LaRochelle Sighting

Eric Riewerts, Chris' seminary teacher in CO, was able to cross paths with him while he was in CA. His parents happen to live in the area.

 

Elder LaRochelle and Br Riewerts

Cool Stuff Happening in Sweetwater!

FROM APRIL 14

This week has been pretty amazing! A lot of miracles and cool stuff happening in Sweetwater! We already found out what we are doing for transfers. Elder Kiser and I are both staying! So I'm probably going to be his last companion because he goes home in 12 weeks. Elder Nielsen is still staying in Sweetwater too and he also goes home in 12 weeks so I'll most likely send Elder Kiser home with Elder Nielsen too! Its pretty crazy that all the missionaries I know are going home by August all of my companions so far will be home!

On Wednesday we had interviews with President and they went super well. We talked about transfers a lot and he told me before hand that he was going to keep Elder Kiser and I together for another transfer. 

This week we added 7 investigators including a 12 year old girl named Madison! She was referred to us by one of our recent converts named Alice! Madison is super prepared though! She was asking a lot of good questions and has a Baptismal date for May 23! 

On Saturday we had a baptism! Jerry got baptized and I baptized him! Jerry is like 84 and can't hear very well so it was a hard to baptize him because I was trying to tell him what's going on and he couldn't hear me haha! Its all good though he got baptized and it went really well!

On Sunday Elder Kiser played the Violin during church and it was amazing! He has been playing for like 10 years and is super good! We will sometimes take his violin to teaching appointments and he will play hymns for them. 

Well that's all for now! Love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

 

Elder LaRochelle

Sweetwater Zone

Almost Getting Jumped & Stuff

This week has been pretty crazy! We added 9 investigators this week and taught close to 30 lessons. Elder Kiser and I are on fire. Our zone leaders actually had a meeting this week with all the other zone leaders and President Schmitt and the Assistants and they have a miracle report and our zone leaders talked about the great job Elder Kiser and I are doing.

Last Tuesday, one of our investigators named Jerry got married. He is like 80 years old and he got married so that he could get baptized this Saturday. He had a small wedding and he got married to a member in the ward. He is from New Jersey and has super bad hearing haha but he has a strong testimony of this Church and he asked me to baptize him so I am pretty excited!

On Wednesday we added the Perez family. 4 out of 5 of them are baptism age and they are soo cool but they are super busy. We shared the Because He Lives video with them and they loved it! We committed them to read the Book of Mormon as a family and pray about it!

After that lesson we tried to go visit a potential investigator named Amy. Amy lives a sketchy neighborhood and we went at like 8 pm haha. As we arrived, we pulled over across the street and sat in the car for a bit (I can't remember why). anyway,as we were waiting, we saw a dude come of the house at which we parked. Something about him seemed very strange. he seemed to be watching us, and that was alarming to Elder Kiser. As we were preparing to leave, I saw him begin walking to our car. Sensing that we were in danger, Elder Kiser keenly went to hit the lock button. He instead hit the window button first, then he moved over to the lock button in desperation. However, as it turned out, he actually ended up unlocking the car. The guy continued to walk to our car, and we were both freaking out as he opened up our rear door and poked his head in. I was like, "whoa, whoa, whoa brother what are you doing?". He proceeded to say, with a hint of confusion and uncertainty in his voice, "are you guys delivery?" With relief we both said, "no, no we are not!" he then replied, "oh man, I am sorry, I thought you weren't the same car that came last time, sorry about that." We later witnessed a girl get out of a car with a backpack, walked in, and walked out five seconds later. We were totally mistaken for drug dealers hahahaha. While she went inside two dudes that were with her came and walked into the yard that we were in. Elder Kiser is freaking out at this point. I see that he is wearing a Cleveland Indians hat on and asked him if he was from Ohio because I was. He told me no and kept smoking. We ended up just getting in the car and driving away. I'm pretty sure the reason he didnt beat us up is because he knew thatIi was a thug from Cleveland that shouldnt be messed with haha just kidding XD. 

Last week we added a guy named Keith Askerneese. He is a Methodist Minister and we were kinda hesitant to teach him because we didn't know how sincere he was so we invited a member to come with us and we had an amazing lesson with him! He is so humble and sincere. He works at the jail and helps people there. 

We also added the Hada family! They are so solid! They have a lot of good questions and really want to know the truth. We added the parents on our first visit and the son on the second visit and hopefully we can add the daughters soon. 

On Friday I had district meeting. I love preparing for district meeting. I love praying and receiving revelation to how to help my district. After district meeting I had DLC, it's a meeting where all the district leaders in the zone get together with the zone leaders and talk about missionaries in the zone that are struggling. 

Yesterday I went on exchanges with Elder Arntsen! He is a pretty amazing missionary. He has been struggling quite a bit recently though because he and his companion haven't been getting along very well. I was able to talk with him a lot about the situation and I gave him a blessing. We had a really good day yesterday and I was able to seek revelation for a missionary in my district that was struggling.

Well I gotta go! Love you all! Hope you had a good Easter!

Love,

Elder Chris LaRochelle

 

21 Dogs & Stuff

FROM MARCH 31 ....

 

Dang this week has been pretty sweet!

 

Last Wednesday I went on my first exchange as a district leader with one of my zone leaders! It was pretty good. At first I didn't want to be a district leader but now that I am one I like that I get to know missionaries a lot better and stuff.

 

On Friday I had my second district meeting as district leader and it went pretty well. Elder Kiser is a funny kid but super distracting during district meeting haha but its all good he means well. I taught on the Christ like attributes and we talked about the "Because He Lives" video.

 

On Sunday we had to do a presentation for "Because He Lives" to the ward. It was pretty sweet! Right after that we taught Elders Quorum it went pretty well. The Elders Quorum here is amazing! After that we went to the Mission Presidents Fireside and sang in the choir. It was super hot. We were all dying of heat haha. Elder Kiser plays the violin at most of the Mission President firesides but he didnt play at this last one.

 

Yesterday was a pretty interesting day to say the least. We went with our assistant ward mission leader to go talk to Laura and see if we can get her and her family coming back to church and it went ok. She didnt seem very happy to see Elder Kiser instead of Elder Arney but it went alright. We are slowly softening her heart.

 

Then we decided we would go and visit a less active in the ward. On the way to her house we walked past a guy named Steve. So we went up and talked to him and he has a serious smoking problem. He had tobacco all over his chest from his pipe and his gums were all black and stuff. It was pretty gross but he is a pretty nice guy we will see if he is willing to change. When got to her house her grandson let us in and we come in and see this older lady sitting on a couch surrounded by dogs. When the dogs see us they just come running over to us and they were all barking and stuff. It was nuts. We ask her if we can sit down and talk and she tells us of course just let me get you a towel to sit on so she puts some towels down on her couch and I immediately get swarmed with dogs so I get up pretty quick and look around for Elder Kiser and I cant see him because there are dogs all over him. He is finally able to get up and we ask her if we can meet outside. We ended up having a nice conversation with her and she told us that she has 21 dogs, 10 cats, 5 ducks, 5 chickens, birds and more. It was pretty gross. I wasn't a big fan of that place. After that we went over bishops house and had a good time haha :P

 

We went shopping again this week haha. Elder Kiser had to return some things and I bought some shoes and sweater last week and some socks this week haha.

 

Elder Kiser and I are getting along great though. We work really well together and have high goals for ourselves for this area. Since we have been companions we have added 10 investigators and doubled our lessons we are teaching. We are on fire and we dont plan on slowing down.

 

Well I love you all and hope I hear from you soon. :)

 

Love

Elder LaRochelle