hey fam bam! what's crackin??

i miss y'all and love hearing all the good stuff from the home front. i am really exhausted from the week of being sick but i am starting to feel better so sorry if i bore anybody ha ha.

well, my i told my comp about how i hit my 6th month a while ago and he said we had to burn a tie and i said why not ha ha. our neighborhood is pretty ghetto so we did it really quick and it was fun. i felt at home watching stuff burn ha ha. i am such a pyro at heart. i was pretty sure we would attract the cops but it was all good. i miss all of you. i can find lots of love amongst the families here! 

we have been working to get one family baptized too and it has been pretty cool. the only thing is that they aren't married. bummmmmer. but were working on it!! God speed. so , that has been good. just hope we can have a baptism soon. we have some pretty good investigators too. its way tight. i really want more people to teach though because it is always good to start fresh. i think my favorite members here so far are C.C, an rm of 3 months, and he's still single ladies. he is way cool and will help us out with anything we need, a real super blessing on a mission. :)  And a recent convert, whose family is super nice and they just live down the street. it's nice when our legs are dying and we want somewhere to walk to. she just got baptized but she is going strong and is a great member. 

oh boy! i almost forgot! Tyler B., you gotta read this part. I'm pretty sure you're famous. first i met your old roommate at the mtc and now i met your other buddy! Elder Shannon, my District leader is from kennewick too! he said he worked at DQ with you and says to send his hello your way. he is way tight and we both agree you gotta get your butt out the door on your mission cause the blessings that are sitting there waiting for you are not something you can live without. :) they are just too awesome. do whatever you have to to go. and we both love you!

as for all of you others thinking of going on a mission. a lot of you know it took me a while to get out the door and make my way down to LA, but it has been the greatest decision in my life. do what it takes because it will bless your future, your family, and yourself more than you can imagine. 

well, that's all i got for today folks.:)

les quiero muchisimo!

Elder Channing Winterrose

hahaha, i love getting all of the updates from home. i miss the snow sooooooo much.

I got the big news, we had transfers this week! and i am now in the bell gardens ward! on bike! with elder shumway. he's from Utah and he is super funny and awesome. we have had tons of fun already. when i got to the apartment i got a neat surprise. i found myself a new bike!  well, it was far from new but it was new to me. :) it just needed a little TLC and i got it all looking good. it makes me feel cool haha. i put new pedals on it, handle bar tape. breaks, tire and tube in it. it rides like a dream. :) i could really use like a co2 air pump and maybe a bike pump like the orange one we have at home because it sucks not having one that works... we gotta walk to the gas station. :/ i love being on  bike tho. our area is really low key too so it is calm and has like 0 traffic in comparison to downtown area.

I really really miss my old area but so far i have felt super welcomed and everybody is sooo nice. just the other day we went to a family's house and they had puppies and let us play with them. it was super fun. it made me miss my dumb pug from home. so  last week we had our stake conference and we got to see all of the people from my old ward but i hadn't even been gone for a week so nobody really missed me yet haha. the meeting was really cool though i liked the talks a lot for the parts i could understand. it was nice.

we have some really good investigators too. it is nice. i cant wait to find more and teach a lot. we went to a couple of member's houses and i found myself useful. i got a chance to fix a heater and a light and some other stuff. it is nice
to find ways to use my talents. :)

well, this was a kinda slow week for me so far because we haven't really met a lot of people or anything. the highlight was definitely the move and finding the bike.

I love all of you so much, i love getting the letters and i have some catching up to do. haha, im sorry about that everyone. writing letters is not my forte. haha. but i hope to get back to all of them soon.

take care everybody!

Elder Channing Winterrose

howdy friends and family!

man, i think this city life is getting to me haha. the longer i spend here the more i want to just live in the country my whole life and be a cowboy. i think it is just funny cause back at home i always thought i would be a better city boy haha. i must just be really finding myself or something. anyways. i would have to say i think at times it can be way more boring here than back at home because i find my fun in the wild. i think i miss it a lot because I'm gonna have one more year and a half before i can go play in the snow, go fishing, or go shotgun shooting.  it's really funny when i tell people i used to do all that stuff they look at me like I'm crazy for having a gun safe in my bedroom. hahaha. definitely a different culture around here.

well, this week was kinda entertaining. we got some new senior missionaries moving into the apartment complex with the senior missionaries from Idaho. they are fresh out of Georgia and they got here on Saturday night. so we live only about 2 blocks from the apartment complex and we offered to move all the furniture into the apartment. we moved it all with just the 2 of us and it was all in boxes and needed to be set up. soo, i made the offer that we could set it up for them and that was really fun. we started at like 6 on Friday night and put together furniture for about 3 hours and i gotta say that apartment was a mess when we were done with it haha. so the next morning we came back and cleaned it up really really good. (like it was impeccable). and they were soooo happy :) so that was a lot of fun receiving all of the complements and the smiles. it was totally worth it. 

so, this week it has kinda been like saying goodbyes just in case and it is really hard. i am thinking it is really possible i might leave and I think i am really attached to this place. so, i am hoping i stay but i know that i can love anybody like i love this ward and that God will put me where he needs me. :) i really liked what you said mom about everybody loving channing haha. i just think a lot of that is just from what i try my best and put out. As long as you are real in your relationships and you always give people the benefit of the doubt and love them no matter what, even if they try to not like you it just wont work. you put everyone in a positon where the only thing they can do is like you. :) because they will have no reason not to! :)

in fact the other day i proved this theory right. to be honest there was a person who really offended me with some things they said and i decided i would just let it go. so what i did was rather than just avoiding this person i just started to be really nice to them and not let them get a reaction they were looking for. (mom, i think you taught me this with the brothers) and the next couple times we were with this person they really tried to not say anything that could be offensive. i think it is kinda like just being an example for your friends dain and mo, if you don't swear or do other bad things around them they will eventually catch on and stop doing it around you.   if we respect God then people will respect us.

aright well, i gotta go. I'm so super glad to be receiving all the support from family and friends and i pray for you all every day.

I know this is the opportunity of a lifetime that even though i am putting aside my family for 2 years i can bring families together for eternity.

daino. be diligent in your commitment with wrestling. you can honestly be the best on the team, state, nation and world if you put your mind to it. it's in your blood dude.  but you just gotta learn to stay committed. i love you and i better see you wrestling when i get home!

Morgan, like britton said, and mom says all the time, girls are poison. :)


I love you mom and dad.

Elder winterrose

hey family!

wow, my has this been a crazy week eh? I didn't get any mail this week but i think it is getting better because i didn't even notice! i think my life is starting to be more entertained by the work. this is the point i was hoping i would reach and now I'm there. i feel like last week was really good because we found a lot of people and we finally have a big teaching pool. one of our investigators was soooo legit. we found him from a referral and were just real and friendly with him. we had only had 2 lessons with him and he accepted the baptismal invitation. the only bad thing is that just this Saturday he moved! out of the mission! so that was a kinda bitter-sweet week but we know that with the rock solid testimony he has of the gospel so far that there is no doubt he will be a great member. He is like the closest friend/best investigator that i have met out here. it is pretty cool. He now lives out by universal studios on the north side of the mission but he still keeps in contact because he wants to take us to all these restaurants down here. so I'm excited. :) besides him we have had a lot of rock solid appointments and it feels amazing to be really teaching again. i was starting to feel a little rusty but now i know that i still got it. :) one man we got a referral for had just had surgery on his leg and cant get out of bed for the next 3 months so i joked around with carver saying, "hey he may not be able to get baptized till his leg gets better, but at least he wont be able to skip out on our appointments!" :) so that has been going good. I have really seen a lot of blessings in the lives of the people around me and i am glad i can be a big part of it.

well, i have to say i think i am loving it here. the weather is alright most the time (besides it being allergy season all year long). also my relationships with the members are really paying off. we always have more referrals than we can handle haha. also we can always call up one of our solid mission moms here in our ward if we don't have dinner and they will get our backs. :) which reminds me, mom if you can send me some recipes via email or if i could have one of the sisters here call you she wants to make some of my favorites. :) haha. i think she just wants to give us some more variety. so if you could email me some of our regular dinners that would be awesome. Thanks! love ya.
We have also finally been getting in a groove. we had not been very perfect at getting up on time and working out (sleeping in about 30 minutes or so) and we have been keeping it our new year's resolution to be more obedient and work out more. Elder carver wants to cut 10 lbs by the end of the transfer on the 18th so i have been helping him out a lot more with that giving him more specific workouts and such. it is working out alright. i have been trying to cut back down to 150 cause I'm floating around 157ish lately. and my abs are looking a little less visible if you know what i mean. ;) my shirts are nowhere near fitting though and i always look like I'm wearing a small poncho haha. i guess i should have thought about getting a few fitted ones too.

ahh, well that is enough about me haha. my companion is just the coolest guy ever. he is just like filianga, easy going but a hard worker. he is very efficient so we don't have to work as hard to get a lot done. and he also understands that even though it is work it can be lots of fun. :)

I gotta say I am so thankful for all the support from all the family and all the friends. :) it makes me SO happy. 

well i gotta go but i miss you all. I cant believe that it has almost been 6 months away from home. it really does fly by.

Les quiero y extrano muchisimo y gracias por todo. :)

Elder Channing Winterrose

Another p-day that fell on a holiday!  At least we got this from Elder Winterrose:

Hey here's another picture!