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

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Dear family and friends,

Well this week i have a lot to be grateful for. Thursday we got a great referral that lead to an even better teaching opportunity. that family i told you about in the last email met a family in the Children's hospital and they wanted us to come and give their daughter a blessing. We stayed there for about 2 hours and got to know them as well as teach the Restoration. I really enjoyed it. They are a very nice and humble. the girl we gave the blessing has leukemia and is 18 years old. she is super cool and way upbeat. I love how like the whole time she seemed happy. When we left they all could feel something different in the room. I could too.
Anyways, that night we went to dinner at a member's house in Elder Walker's area and had some super good food.
Sunday i got the chance to give two confirmations and it went super well.  :) Today we have the Turkey bowl for our zone and that's why i don't really have a bunch of time.
I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Channing Winterrose

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Well, the rains finally fell!

This week we finally got a little bit of precipitation. Saturday it really poured for a while.
We spent a lot of our efforts planning for the 2 baptisms that we had on Sunday. The investigators, a mother and daughter, got baptized. They are super dedicated and have come a long way. For that I am proud. :) I will send a bunch of pictures. I sang a musical number at it too. it had been a looong time since i had sang in front of a crowd and my heart was beating like my sambas in the dryer. It went off without a hitch though. After that they wanted to sing a song... so the brother who was in charge of directing the songs picked one that was pretty hard to play... I looked at Elder Palomino over behind the piano with that deer in the headlights look so i suggested to the brother if we could sing Nearer My God To Thee. I assumed that was a pretty easy one because it is like the only one i have "learned". and I am not that good at it still. When i went over to tell him he still had that look on his face... So, having NEVER touched the piano infront of a crowd before, i played the whole song. And it didn't sound bad! I think that was my biggest achievement of the day. :) so, Sunday was a crazy but rewarding day.

Later that night as we were leaving a fireside for the youth, about to go to dinner, we got a call to go and give a blessing to a little baby. A little background, the dad is a return missionary from 2 years ago and his wife and he had this beautiful little girl.  Only just 2 months ago and she was diagnosed with cancer when they found a tumor in her thigh. Talk about a trial of faith. . . he gave us the update on her and she is going to have an mri today to see if the chemotherapy is taking. When i saw that little girl for the first time i could instantly feel the spirit in the room. I don't think i could have cared about anything else in the world more than this little girl i had just met. It really made me think about the value of the little children in the eyes of God. So perfect and innocent. Please keep her in your prayers cause i know i will. Her name is Reina.

Anyways, this week we didn't have much else going on besides interviews with president and that is always a great opportunity to get to know him and receive some personal counsel.

Well, I gotta lot of work to do on some college applications if I'm ever goin' to learn good, so i gotta run. :/

I love you all so much, and I apologize for not having some more words on the page. I'm doing great, and the lord is blessing us amply.  I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and remember to be grateful!

Love,

Elder Channing Winterrose

Monday, November 12, 2012

Hey,  first before i forget i wanna send some pictures. one is the last day with elder Shannon before he left for home. then i got one of me making pupusas. some super bomb Salvadorian food. and the last one is of my companion and i writing this email! (Only one photo came through - here it is...)


Well, this week has been pretty dang crazy and with transfers we had a lot of changes.  My companion is elder palomino, he says he's about 6'2", 180 lbs, super buff, and has an amazing tan. but really he's like the dinky little thing i was as a greenie.  he is super dedicated to the work, super funny and has only just finished training. I think him and i are gonna have a great transfer. :) He is from mesa, arizona and already knows spanish which is great. We already have a few baptisms coming up for next week.

We also had some big changes with our area where they pretty much took all four areas of the ward and changed them. they split our area in half and put new missionaries in the other side. the only thing that made it tough is that they split it north to south instead of the east to west split they had before. It is all good though we still have our investigators who are really progressing.

man, that is the craziest story about britton winning the internship!  Im so proud of you bro, it really shows what being your own advocate can do. dont forget to keep me updated about what your up to!

I love you all so much, Dad take care in New York! Mom, i miss you tons! Dain and Mo keep working hard in all you do!

Take care,

Elder Channing Winterrose

Monday, November 5, 2012

Well, this week has been good, we got 3 baptismal dates coming up and we have a lot of work with them as well. I haven't had the chance to get to doing my application essays but i will try and print them out today or soon. This week has been a little stressful getting everything ready for transfers and having elder Shannon going home on Wednesday.  He's probably one of my favorite companions so I have been trying extra hard to help him with whatever he may need as well as make sure
these weeks are fruitful and enjoyable for him.

As for me i have been really thinking a lot about transfers and what might happen. it is highly possible that they could be taking the south half of our area and reopening it as it's own again. which if this happens it would be perfectly fine with me, cause the huge area is running me into the ground with all the work. Besides that i already know that I'm getting a new companion but i have no idea where seeing as I'm sitting with one foot in each area and i will probably lose one of them. The other thing I have been thinking is how long i have been out and I'm still Junior companion. .. I know i have a place and God is gonna put me wherever that is but sometimes i cant help but think "really? Am I Ever gonna be able to call my own shots?" but it's whatever. I am just happy if i can help people.

I have been really trying hard to send out more letters but the other day i just got one back that didn't go through. That always is a huge bummer. so if you get one that is in a dinky little envelope that
looks like i had to Origami the letter to get it in there it's cause it didn't make it the first time around.

I really do love you all sooo much. and I think about you a lot. Dad, have a safe trip and if you can send me lots of pictures of the Other Big City. It's always great to get an update on how work is going for you.  Britt you too. I may be in Sunny LA but don't save all the paradise in Hawaii for yourself. shoot me some pics bro.

Well, Hasta la proxima.

Next week i will give y'all the big news on my transfers.



Love,
Elder Channing Winterrose