Serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Monday, October 31, 2011





ahh, well i think this week might have been a little better. just finally knowing what was going on with -- helped a lot because i could worry a little less after the initial shock. it sucked a lot. haha but i think it will all turn out alright in the end. im sure if i dive into the work headfirst it will keep the outside world and whatnot from discouraging me. so it has been better. i just try not to think to much about it. Also i know that God looks after his missionaries so i need not worry. i sent home some cool pictures this last week and i hope they make sense. i wish i could like tag them somehow so you could know what to look for in them.

we also had a cool sacrament on Sunday, it was the 5th Sunday soo I GAVE A TALK!!! it was on humility and i wrote it in about 10 minutes ( like 3 scriptures and points i wanted to include) and with the brief outline i spoke from the heart at the pulpit for about 8 minutes and it was remarkable. hahaha. i only messed up a few words but everyone said it was great. also we sang a musical number a Capella and it turned out pretty good. so, first talk in Spanish in the bag already haha. the funny thing was that Elder Filiaga gave his talk too and it was the first time for him too!

Crazy week haha. we got payed so it's nice to have some moola for food and whatnots. we had transfers this week too and our district got smaller and now it's just the four of us ( me, fili, orozco, and penrod) and three new elders, two greenies and their trainer. our zone got all moved around too it is crazy! our church building is out of our zone! but you gotta realize our area is like the equivalent of from like the Campbell;s to the mall. it is tiny! and our area is on the southern border of the zone.

we also found a bunch of new investigators in our area and that was cool. one is this kid who is into some really crazy stuff and we teach him and these other kids in the apartment complex who are all around the same age. i am pretty sure that at least one of them will get something out of it and all of them want to change. but we can only hope!

i also wrote and sent my letter to britton for elder holland and i hope it gets there in time. i put a pic in there too. I will send some cool pictures here too.

I went through hollywood blvd too and got some cool pictures when we went and dropped off some elders.

oh! i almost forgot!!! we got a shiny brand new car!!!! it's a 2011 mustang!




...okay, it's just a corolla.... but still!!! it only had like 8 miles on it when we first got it and it is still just a baby! we left all the stickers on it so it looks fresh like a baseball cap. haha. so that was pretty cool too.

there;s some pictures of us actually doing service at the ACS too that you might like.

well i love all of you so much and im glad to hear all the updates!

much love from sunny California!

Elder Winterrose

Monday, October 24, 2011



wow, what a crazy week it has been! so much has happened but i think it has made me reestablish why i am here and that i am dedicated to the work enough i can just get lost in it and not worry about anything else. I think i know what Britton meant that time he didn't really say much about his investigators. "because he didn't want to count his chickens before they hatched." i think this transfer we had catch and release licences or something, cause it was hard to get investigators and things always fell through. I think I'm going to put in the extra effort this transfer and get myself a big boy license so i can get in the water sooner.

we have been to a few baptisms but our investigators are slow and steady and we don't wanna pressure them anymore cause right now it seems to be working.

well, there isn't really that much new this week besides just the same old same old. i don't have my journal right now so i don't have any funny stories. sorry fam :/

oh, just remembered one! we parked before an appointment the other night and we saw a van with like a 9MM bullet hole in the back door of it! and today i saw a car with 12 ga shotgun spread on the back trunk and light! I tell ya it is getting realer and realer every day here haha. i sent a pic of the van back home on this sd card.


well, i loved the update from the home front! (mom, i totally know what you mean with the money thing. i think i have the same problem sometimes. i tend to justify it because it isn't an individual but i am getting better at it as my morals are improving.... and my spending habits..:)

I am glad you are doing something that is a little more recognized at your work dad, that sounds awesome. it is always good to be recognized for your potential and even just to make friends with the people you work under i.e. the bosses bosses boss haha. i did that at all my jobs and it helped me love my work just a little more.

daino!!! i saw the coolest thing at the alley the other day! luchador masks like off of nacho libre! I'll send you a pic of them some time they were sweet! there's one i think i might get that is blue and white. it's pretty sick.

Morgan! hey dude glad to hear your making it through school without a hitch! it still amazes me all the smart kid classes your in. your absolutely brilliant as they would say on harry potter.

well, i hope all of you have a swell day and i love all of you tons. and if you are reading this and have made it this far then send me a dang letter! and i will try my best to send one back fast! love ya!

Winterrose boy #2

PS if you could get some of the people in the ward to start writing me that would be awesome. maybe you could get Ryan O. to send me one? i haven't heard from him in forever!

Monday, October 17, 2011




Hey! It's a much better week or at least since Wednesday. We didn't do a lot on Thursday, but Friday was busy, busy.

Friday we had a Fundamentals Training class from 9 to 3 and it wasn't actually too bad, haha. I was expecting it to be boring lecture for hours, but we were actually really involved. It was sweet. Then Friday night we had a Latino Festival at 7 p.m. Boy, do they know how to party! It was really cool, they had booths for all the different countries and lots and lots of food. :) They each did like a skit or something to represent their country. USA was the funniest. Haha, it was like set up really well but the food to represent it was ham 'n cheese sandwiches and that was just funny.

Anyways we stayed there till like 10 p.m. because there were so many people to meet. One of our part-member families was there and they brought their little boy a 2 year old. He is soo funny and I love him to death. He always wants to play with us when we're there and he is such a little monkey boy. :) He reminds me a lot of me when I was a kid.

Well besides that, the work is going good.  We are receiving a ton of referrals from our key member families who we are really close with, and we have 3 set for baptism. The other ones I don't think worked out, (the elderly lady moved and the other one isn't quite ready) but I am super excited for these 3 and we are working hard to keep them on track.

Well, it has been a short week because of the temple p-day on Wednesday, so not a lot going on.

Alrighty, you asked about my comp and our day to day stuff and whatnot, it is like this: My comp is doing pretty good, he might be getting a little trunky though, haha. But we bought a football and are playing catch to keep his mind off wanting to play already and that seems to help. He is like a teaching guru it is great that I get to have him as a comp. We wake up at 6:15 each day and go to the park and play catch for gym.  Then we come back, get ready, and do personal study at 8 for an hour.  Then we do comp study from 9 to 11, then we have lunch and then we do Spanish study from 12 to 1.  After that it's off to work with our appointments and a dinner, then we come back at about 9 and plan out our next day, then I journal and get ready for bed! :) Being busy is great cause it keeps my mind more focused on here and now, not on the other things that are going on.

Daino's birthday sounded super awesome! Man Hunts are always a fun activity, Haha. Mo, good luck with the job hunt, Bud. Britton, your letters always help me out, I'm glad to be tag-teaming this work with ya, finish strong! Mom, keep feeling good. Dad, I love what you did with the deck, great idea.  You guys should send me some pictures of that too.

Well I love all of you and wish you a good week!

Elder Winterrose jr.

Monday, October 10, 2011



Hey family,

It has been a crazy week.  It has been hard but good at the same time. I have had a lot of trials and at times it feels like it will never end. I received some more letters finally, but all the mail is like 2 weeks late when I get it because they get mail Thursday and we don't open it till Monday, or like this week on Wednesday. I think all my mail is getting here on Friday cause it keeps missing the cut off. It is depressing at times getting no mail, especially when I have been mailing people every week. I didn't think it would be that bad but it really sucks not getting mail.

Anyways, so besides mail we got our car towed last week and I figured I might as well tell ya now rather than later that it was expensive. We lost track of time while tracting one night and came back and it was gone. We called the towing hotline and it was closed so we had to wait till the next day and it charges by the hour. I was super mad. We got there the next day and it was about $266 dollars for the towing. When we finally got it there was an $88 dollar parking ticket on it. Do the math, whatever that was I have to pay half of it. I have been super stressed about that and the fact that I have to come to you guys and ask for more money which I hate doing with every bone in my body. It has been a horrible week in the means of temporal things and on top of that I am still broke for going on 2 weeks cause I have no blue card to buy anything. It has been really crappy this week cause of all this. It makes it extremely difficult to concentrate on the work.

So this has been my week:
We did have some success this week though. We set 3 people for baptism on the 23rd and the 30th. I am excited for that and also we have a Latino Festival this Friday and we should get some new investigators from that if it all works out.  All I can do is try not to dwell on all the stuff that is discouraging to me and do the best with what I have.

Well that is about all the work here.  Sorry if the letter is a little short.  It is pretty much the same old stuff. I know the 5000 hr project thingy and I think i saw it in the MTC. It is one of my favorites on LSD.org.

Tell Daino Happy Birthday for me and that I love him.  Tell Mo that girls are poison and to stay away from them till after his mission haha. I hope you and Dad are doing great.  I love all of you and you too Britton, keep up the good work Bro. and send me some stinky fish man. It is all my comp ever asks for down here haha.

Love you mom, thank you for the great emails it is nice to have something I can rely on and I love all the funny stuff in them. I wish I could write more but I can never remember all the things that go on during the week.


Well, I love all of you back at home and I miss you.

Love your missionary,

Elder Channing Winterrose

Monday, October 3, 2011

Okay, first things first, conference was soooooo long! I didn't realize it, but when you have to watch every session in conference, it is crazy long.
The fine Elders Filiaga and Winterrose

This has been a long week! I'm still getting things each day cause I keep realizing that we don't have something simple, like toilet paper, water bottles, (the water isn't very safe here) and bread, and have to run across the street to get it! We just got our allotment the other day though, so hopefully it won't feel like we are so stinking deprived anymore. I just gotta wait for my allotment card, cause it still hasn't gotten here.

I thought we would be fed more often, but most the times we don't have a dinner appointment until late, and sometimes we have none at all because of stake or general conference, or cause nobody can feed us. It has been a really expensive last 2 weeks. It has been frustrating some days when we have no dinner appt and we get home to an empty fridge. I'm trying to only eat at home because it is usually cheaper.

Right now we have finally got a teaching pool started with one progressing investigator and a few others that we can teach. Our progressing investigator is an elderly lady and she lives with another elderly sister from 6th ward. (We're in 3rd ward.  The wards in our building are 6th and 3rd, and both have two sets of missionaries.) But the thing is that they are in our area, so we can still teach them!

Anyways we saw these two ladies at a baptism for the 6th ward and they sat next to us. We got a referral at the baptism and decided to check it that night. We went there preparing to teach a new family or something, but the two of them answered the door! (At this point we thought they were both members.) So we thought they just wanted a little visit.  They talked our ears off for about 2 hours straight about their life's story. :)  Right before we left we asked if they had anybody we could teach and the one sister was like, "Yeah! you can teach me!" So then we figured it out! Now we have my first fresh investigator, just in the nick of time! We have a baptism date set for the 23rd so hopefully all works out.

Well besides that, it has been a crazy week. I came to the mission home today and Finally got my mail! I got some letters from people at the MTC and a few from elsewhere so that was really nice. It had been a long time since I got mail so it was refreshing.

We have been receiving a bunch of good referrals from the families around here and have had the opportunity to meet a bunch of cool families, give blessings, and lots of other cool stuff. I will have to take pictures of them with this next memory card and send a bunch of them home. I realized when I sent the last one home that it had been al long time, so I will do it more often.

Well, all is going pretty good in Los Angeles. We hiked up to the observatory today, so I got a bunch of new pictures waiting for you guys when you send that card back to me.


First door?

Hope all is going well back at home!

Gotta go work on some other things, so I will see all of you later!

Love,

Elder Winterrose