hey there family!

I have to say when i read dad's email i smiled when he said he hadn't been doing much to develop himself spiritually and then said just family scripture study, prayer and went on to talk about how church went. The reality of this is that the three most important things that we can do to further our growth in the gospel is pray, read the scriptures and go to church. It really is the little things that count. :) One big part of being truly converted is if you have consistency in the little things. It may seem like it doesn't make us build our faith much but the thing is when bad things happen that would otherwise weaken your faith, they don't. Those three things are the most important for members because it is the strong foundation that we have to build upon. without those then we have a very weak and unstable foundation.

Well this week has been a pretty good one. lately we have been seeing the fruits of our labor and have 4 people set for baptism on June 24th. 2 families and hopefully the two husbands will start meeting with us too so it should be an exciting month getting them ready. i have already met the husbands and they are super nice. :) it is just a matter of getting a while to sit down with them. The work is going great in Inglewood.

Well, the news, Elder Blackham went up to Silverlake area which is like everything north of my first area in Downtown and i got a new companion named Elder Zachary Mitchell who has been out one transfer less than me and is from St George utah. He is pretty cool and a nice guy.

Monday was super sweet.  For a zone activity we went to a park to play a game called Battleship and to join a barbecue that the Tongan ward was putting on. The game is  played by having 2 teams on either side of a net with tarps on it so you cant see and having them all lay down except for 2 people who are throwing.  you throw water balloons across to the other side to try and sink the other people. it was tons of fun. the best part would have to be the food though. I was initially thinking maybe like a few Tongans would be there cooking for us but then i was pleasantly surprised when we showed up hahaha. They had a giant pit and they were cooking like 2 pigs on it and there were like burgers, chicken, steak and everything else you could imagine. When they cut the pig they just hacked it apart and it was gone in like less than 5 minutes hahaha. :) It was super good food.
that was pretty much the highlight of our week. today was elder Gunnels and Elder Gonzales' birthday today so we went to the yogolicious and had a birthday lunch. today i am going on splits so it should be exciting. :)

I got that letter from a girl on Friday, britton, so you can let her know i'm writing one back it just takes a while. ;)

Man it is funny y'all say it feels like you're still waiting for summer to come because i feel like i have been waiting for about a year for winter to come hahaha. :) the weirdest thing is that it is like the same temperature but people are all like " Yay! Its summer and now we can dress like summer now!" (even though it is like seriously the exact same weather) it must be a Cali thing. I met some guy that served in Jamaica with brad baird today too. it was cool. small world right?

well that is all for today, I love you all and i am actually getting better at writing letters back so feel free to test my awesome literary capacities.

Love, Alfalfa.

(Elder Winterrose) :)

Hola todos!

this week has been a pretty good one. it is always crazy busy getting ready for transfers and this transfer is no different. this last week we have had some mini miracles. we have a zone goal that is really pushing us to work more with the members.  this has been tough lately but it is really helping to make the work move forward even faster. we have kinda been the anchor out of the 3 companionships in our district this week because the zone leaders have been super busy. our prayers definitely payed off though. one day we were sitting there literally trying to find out how we could get one more member referral for our goal and the phone starts ringing. it was a brother from another ward who had been working with a friend of his and he wanted her to meet with us. we were like HECK YEAH! and the next day we baptized her...              just kidding. :) that would be sweet. we did have an awesome lesson with her and she came to church and brought a friend! our bishopric was on them like flies on the LA river. they were taken to class and everybody did an awesome job. Way to go Inglewood segundo! :)  anyways now we have like 4 new investigators from that.  the other mini miracle was on Thursday night we realized that we needed a bunch of member presents for the goal. we took a second look at our plans and realized we already had 4 member presents planned! it was sweet.
it is super cool how god takes care of his children.
so yesterday was really nice. after church we went to the wards piano recital and it was really good. the kids play like Mozart. :) afterward we went to the missionary fireside and it was really cool. we are going to be losing a bunch of super great missionaries. i got to see a few other people i haven't seen in a while and it was nice.
On our way there it was a super cool solar eclipse thing and it was pretty sweet.

Well, i'm glad all is going forward back at home. it is crazy how fast things change in the lives of the Winterroses. It is sad to hear daino was having a hard time with baseball. i hope he sticks with it and doesn't let it get him down. He is a great little player and i know he is probably the only one tough enough to play that position. Dang. i remember having that van like 2 weeks or something before we left. it will be super weird getting home and having that one. haha.

well, This week has been great. the members of the ward have been a big blessing lately and i hope they keep up the momentum. :)

I love you all and am glad to be serving on the lords time.
Every member a missionary. always look for opportunities of service.

Les Quiero,

Elder Channing Winterrose

Hey there family! sorry but this one is going to be a little short. right now i am re formatting my hard drive and i had to take a driver test but this week has been great!  We had a really fun activity dinner thing for mother's day at the chapel and it was a great missionary opportunity. it seems as though this week our members were also doing great getting investigators for us too. our investigators are doing all right but i always hope for more for them. it was sooo nice to hear from all of you and i hope you all have a great time.

I will write more next week i Promise!

con carino,
Elder Channing Winterrose

Okay, I'm going on double trouble.
i thought we would be more pressed for time but i guess it isn't that much of an issue. I LOVE FAST COMPUTERS. if you didn't already guess that about me. i just got done moving over 1,180 pictures that i had taken on my mission to the compy then back. I think i should probably go through them some time and delete a few hahaha. :)

I was wondering if anybody has good suggestions for Cd's that are good for missionaries but that aren't just Mo-tab. and if you feel so obliged send a copy my way. ;) Well, i think it was way sweet to hear from all of you. I love hearing your voices and it was funny having my friend Elder Casper call Daino. we recorded it haha. :) E. Casper was like you sound different! and Dain said, "you sound like your nose is all stuffed up!" we all busted up laughing. I miss you guys a lot but i remember what mom told me. Everybody says they miss you but they still don't wanna see you for 2 years. :) This has been a really cool ward and i am super excited for it while it is gaining momentum.

I like a lot what you said about faith and trusting in the holy spirit. if you have a good idea that you think is from the spirit, just follow it no matter what. Just give it the benefit of the doubt. God won't chastise you for at least trying to do what is right. :)

I hope you all continue to do what you know is right. if there is any doubt about it then just STOP IT.

Well, I hope you all enjoy my words of wisdom!

Love,
Elder Channing Winterrose

Me and my typewriter

A painting on my desk that has probably been there since the beginning of time

Hey there!

I am glad to get a letter from you! This week something cool happened. I was digging through the apartment and i found an Electric Typewriter! It needed a little TLC but i got it back up and working and now i can send you a few snail mail letters. it really helps because i don't do the best at hand writing. i think it is just cause i can usually find something else to do first then get caught up in crafts or something. haha. well, this week has been pretty good. during our lunch time one day i took the time to make some cool t-shirts for me and my comp! i found this iron on patch stuff and cut out letters and made us some matching shirts with our names. We found some new people to teach after like what seems to be a long dry spell. so that is really nice. we have a really big area and now that we are in car we have a hard time sometimes getting to appointments on time due to parking and travel time.

We don't have a lot of time this week because we had a lot of different places to run to but i am super excited to be talking to you all on mothers day.
We were teaching this investigator the other day and he was talking about how when you get older you start to put aside your dreams and by the time you have kids and a job and all that going on they are pretty much just obsolete until they all leave and by then it is too late. i thought about it and i believe that the best part of having kids is living out our dreams through them :) at least that's what i think is pretty cool. cause then if you happen to have 4 boys, just saying, then you have 4 different dreamers to live with and plenty of snowboarding, baseball, college, mission, and all other dreams that they can think of. it is kinda cool. i thought of it the other day and how much our parents sacrifice for us but how awesome it will be when i have kids of my own. to be able to help them magnify all of their talents to achieve their dreams. :)

anyways that was just a thought.
This week i went to the English ward and it was way different. it felt foreign hahaha. ;) I got the chance to bear my testimony in English. it was cool.

I am so excited for Baxter and you're gonna have to pass the word along. I just feel sorry for him because when he gets back nobody will know a word of Portuguese ;)

Well, i will talk to you all on Mothers day!

Cuidense,

Elder Channing Winterrose.