Hey family! sorry it's a little late! this week has been extremely hectic and crazy due to Christmas coming up, Elder Filiaga going home, and also our baptism coming up this Sunday!

this last week i received all of the boxes! that was so fantastic. i loved everything i got. :) my favorite things were all the food! the cookies and peanut brittle and caramels. haha, it really helped make this place feel closer to home.
thank you for everything else too! the letters and also the prayers. :)

okay, so like i said there is a lot going on this week which explains the tardiness of the letter. yesterday after elder carver and i got back from the temple we met up with filiaga who just got back from traffic court. bad news, we had to go back like right then and get more paper work done and today too. so we have been over there it feels like the last two days. also with fili going home we are saying goodbye to all the families in this area which i always love because it gives me a chance to get to know the few that i don't already know. they are really great families.

so last Sunday we had a cool experience. our investigator who is on date for baptism this Christmas gave us an invitation to a birthday party for her 3 year-old-girl. it was right after church so we went over to check it out and say hi. Man, they know how  to throw a party! there was a bounce house, catered food, 3 pinatas and one of the best cakes i think i have ever had in my life. haha. it was sooo cool. we also got to talking to a lot of the people there and now we know some more people in that apartment complex. I think i have learned that working through the members and investigators is like the best way for finding. that is as long as you are doing it right.

oh, almost forgot! this Saturday we had our Christmas dinner and it was super great! the only bad thing about it was one of these three missionaries who was acting as an angel in the nativity totally forgot his part and thoroughly embarrassed himself. I won't name any names...... ( Elder Winterrose) *cough cough* :) it was all fun though, he had a little help from the narrator. so, i don't think i am very cut out for acting anymore but it is a good thing i never aspired to be an actor. :)

well, i think that is about all i have for now. i hope Morgan had a splendid birthday and i cant believe how old he is. just crazy haha. also i hope britton has a great Christmas and that his ward treats him good this Christmas. i love you all and wish you a merry Christmas! I can't wait to hear from you! i will see you all Sunday after the baptism!

Love,

Elder Winterrose

Well, this has been another crazy-eventful week. we had some success and some super bummers. we have been doing a lot of finding lately and through our work with the ward we are receiving a lot of referrals and support from the members. it is really awesome to see this change wrought in their hearts. now we are just trying to unify them as a whole cause i think that would keep this fire burning.

with our two investigator sisters it has been really hard and great at the same time. one hasn't been home to find. we don't know where that will lead but i hope it is just something legitimate that is keeping her from coming. on the other hand her sister is making great strides because she has a goal to get baptised before Elder Filiaga leaves and she wanted to get baptised with her sister too. She is showing great acts of faith that truly testify of her dedication. i hope it all works out.

okay, now for some of the big news! TRANSFERS!

Well, i lost one of my mission friends, our district leader Elder Orozco. he left us to be our zone leader, so he is still close but not in our ward. it is alrighty though cause i know he will be an amazing zone leader for us. Okay, now for me.  I'm in the same area, with the same companion, Elder Filiaga.... annd Elder Paul Carver! from west valley Utah. he is going to be my breaker! and we are in a TRIO! it is so much cooler than i thought it would be haha. it makes lessons very interesting haha. now, this is just till the 28th when fili goes home but it is gonna be a great Christmas. :)

man, the home front sounds pretty cool fam. i cant believe it is that cold up there! here it is in the lower 50s and it just started raining again haha. it is such strange weather down here. one of my members checked for me and told me that it is warmer by like 10 degrees in anchorage than in richland haha. ;)

hey Morgan, send me your fitted cap size will ya?

well, that is all from me for now. Thank you all for the support and the letters and prayers. :)

Love Elder Channing Winterrose.

hahaha, i see you found the big news! we won the clean apartment award! it might have something to do with moving into our brand new apartment the day before or that we are just awesome cleaners haha. so we won the lunch with president that day and it was pretty neat. i guess it does pay off!

well this week has been pretty good, first things before i forget. mom that sounds fine with the card thing but how about putting the money on it and i just take it out of my wallet or something. i think that is like 90% of the problem. i also told my comp we cant keep buying 10 double cheese burgers every time we go to McDonald even if they are one dollar a piece. ( i think my Tongan is rubbing off on me.) so I'm going to take it out of my wallet and that will help a lot. also i think i am going to put some money back on it today if i get the chance. oh, also i got a jacket for really cheap. i went to Ross so i don't have to worry about that anymore. :) i was starting to freeze down here. it has finally gotten cold and i feel like it has been summer since may. haha. also, i will send you some cards cause I've had them for a while. they do come in very handy. speaking of hands. could you maybe send my biking gloves down? i want some gloves that are warm but not like really thick or anything and my hands freeze when we go biking. oh, almost forgot. also i am sending home an underwater camera case i found in the trash room. we find all sorts of cool stuff in there.:) and it just needed a little fixin and it is good as new. it still doesn't have a camera in it but i don't know what i will do with it when i (or Britton) get home. also i got some other sentimental things i don't want to get lost while I'm out here that i am sending too.

okay, enough about that. so this week was very eventful. I got a letter from Fio and i could actually understand it all in Spanish! so i think it is coming along very nicely! it always makes me happy to receive mail. i am trying to catch up on sending out all my letters but it is a lot of writing when it comes from me. i love it tho. :) also this week we had the lunch with the president and that was really cool. then last night us and some members went to the missionary farewell at the artesia bldg and we got to see all the leaving missionaries and listen to them talk. but best of all i got to see elder Casper! my pal from the mtc! i haven't seen him since we left the mtc cause he got delayed a week. ahh, it felt so good to see him. :) so that was really really nice.

along with all that, we had some really good lessons this week with our investigators and also our investigator did her baptismal interview so we are now set for baptism. the only bad thing is she could not make it to church yesterday so  we still don't know if it will be next week or the week after. that has been stressful seeing as we were shooting for having the baptism yesterday. . . anyways, transfers are coming up so i just hope it all goes well. i really want her to be my first baptism.

alrighty besides that we don't really have many others we are teaching because we are in finding mode. we are working a lot with getting the ward reactivated  and pumped for missionary work. it has helped so far with quite a few referrals being generated. i just hope the momentum continues.

Alrighty well that has been the work so far. my health has been generally good but one thing has been bugging me a lot. i don't know what it is but when i sleep or try to my shoulder joints hurt excruciatingly. like i take pain medication before bed and wake up in the middle of the night and take more but it still hurts. i don't know if it was something i did or if it was from sleeping wrong one night but there isn't a comfortable way to lay down and i am losing a lot of sleep over it. they hurt all day too. it is  really weird. i'm going to ask the dr what is up tho so hopefully it will all blow over. (i just hope it isn't like that thing i had as a kid with my hip joint. you know, the one when i couldn't walk when i got sick.. ) i also gotta get a flu shot. thank you for reminding me!

well it is always good to hear of the changes that are occurring back at home. i love hearing your stories about sharing the gospel because they are a great motivator for me as well. i am glad you are having these opportunities. ustedes son muy bendecido. :)

well i love you all and hope you keep it up.

Love,

Elder Winterrose

December 2011 Clean Apartment Award Winners (He didn't send this first one - I got it from the Mission Website.  Proud Mom moment!)

2011 Turkey Bowl - Griffith Zone

Dear Family and friends.

Hey there everyone! this week has been really good. lets start with the good stuff! Monday we had our turkey bowl and it was a blast! the only field they could find was kinda just a giant muddy field tho so that was interesting. haha, it was tons of fun. we even had some really great plays. also this week we had Thanksgiving! i sent some pictures to mom but we had it with the C. family in our ward and they always take good care of us. Hna. C. always makes whatever we want and that is nice when we are tired of beans, chicken, rice and tortillas haha. it was an amazing dinner. i gotta say i don't think in my entire life i have ever seen a turkey that big! it was like the size of three Busters. they said it was a big one for them too haha. they had to go out and buy a special pan just for it. (i thought that it might just be a Latino thing) but yeah it was a giant. then they made us these Salvadorian sandwiches and they were the best thing ever. i had like 3 of them and then two giant slabs of turkey. also i almost forgot! haha. i told Hna. C. that i missed potatoes one day because we never get that cause it isn't very common and she makes them every night we eat with them now haha. so that night she made a whole thing of potato salad and it was delish. so that was my turkey day. definitely something to be grateful for. :)

so besides the festivities this week has been pretty good. we have three of our 4 investigators prepped for baptism and one just needs to get married. (that is one of the more common challenges around here) but besides that she is set. the date is the 4th of December so hopefully all goes down without a hitch. :) but as with everything there was one or two hiccups. they are all sick this week so it has been hard to get them to church and also we wanna take them to the Visitor's Center but they weren't feeling up to it on Sunday. this dang sickness is bugging me. it's all good though, if i pray hard enough, then it will all work out.

so Christmas is coming around and the only thing i really need is like an overcoat of some sort. besides that i am all set so far. :D

oh goodness i almost forgot! last night we had an amazing dinner at the Peterson's! they are the senior couple in our ward and they always love to have us over for some home cooked Idaho food. and boy is it good. it is like my favorite! they had roast beef and home made rolls. like 100! cause those are our favorite haha. they are soo nice and they really are a blessing to have. they are great in the ward. in fact just about 2 Sundays ago sister Peterson gave the closing prayer in sacrament, In SPANISH! and that was remarkable seeing as she didn't know a thing in Spanish like one month ago. Although it was about 10 seconds long and very gringo-ish i think it put a smile on everybody's face. :) they are like the replacement mission grandparents haha.

we also got a lot going on for Christmas coming up at the vc and it should be a great opportunity for missionary work. :) we have at least one thing happening every night for the entire month of December it should be great.
also transfers are coming up! on the 7th or something. elder filiaga is going home on the 28th, mid transfer and i hope i get to keep him till then! i'm really loving this ward and hope i can stay here for a long run. they are finally starting to really help us out too. it is great to see this progression.

well, i love all of you so much and i pray for you every day. i hope all the fam is either doing great or recovering well soon!

have a great week all y'all.

Love,

Elder Channing Winterrose

haha, okay just to start off that sounds like an awesome missionary experience mom. i am so excited that you have all had an opportunity to share a bit of the gospel and to also apply more of it to your lives. that is really cool. :)

our apartment is really nice and i might have to send pictures soon. transfers are in December 7th and elder filiaga is going home mid-transfer, 3 days after Christmas. so idk if he will be with me but it would be super cool. it is getting really chilly here believe it or not. yesterday we got rain all day and that made it really cold. it is really really hard to find an overcoat here because most missionaries are like me, doubting that it will ever get cold here, and are doing anything to find them. also the Goodwills here are pretty picked clean. i think this has to do with the fact that we are kinda in an area where people are always looking for a good bargain. so still haven't found one yet and i am kinda low on money right now so i cant really purchase one.

we are doing great on food and our ward always makes sure we are fed now. :) that Sunday when we all gave talks kinda got us on the radar so we are doing just fine. I'm excited for thanksgiving too! we should have some bomb dinners. last Saturday we had a like ward dinner thingy and they had great food. it was a great opportunity to bring our investigators and introduce them to the ward too.

man, i don't know what it is, maybe the time of season or something, but they are shooting movies like EVERYWHERE in downtown. they usually have like half a street blocked off and they never really get in the way but they have dozens of trucks packed with equipment all down the street. it's pretty cool haha. last week they had one street with like 50 old school cars like you would see in a Scarface movie or something it was pretty sweet.

oh yeah! im trying to read the whole book of Mormon before the end of the year too and it is crazy! lots of reading but i am really seeing a difference as i am reading more.

today has been good too. we had the turkey bowl and we did pretty great. i didn't really keep track of score but im pretty sure we won. it was our zone, (Griffith) then Westwood and Marina. it was pretty fun.

It is getting closer to Christmas and it is getting harder and harder to think of things that i would like that would be easy to get to me. but don't worry mom, i don't think you can possibly go overboard. i would sincerely appreciate everything. ;)

okay and with your investigators, mom, i would just invite them over for a little FHE and like treats or even just for dinner. think of it like running a relay. you are the starter and you gotta run your hundred then pass off the baton. :) plus the longer you know them the more they will trust you. sometimes, actually all the times it is hard to be patient and you kinda just wanna give them the whole pizza. but if we get them to eat one slice and like it then they wont need any convincing to eat the rest... okay. that sounds like a meal right there. :) ive been living with a Tongan for too long..... also getting to know them and be friends helps the missionaries a lot because then they have a fellowshipper who they will feel comfortable coming to for questions when the missionaries aren't around. good luck!

Alrighty, well i still gotta email the pres and go to a dinner apt so i will see all of you later! I love you all and thank you all for the support and prayers.

Love,

Elder Channing Winterrose

ps. i am sending the receipt to you along with my short Christmas list for now haha. there isn't much on there but they are kinda just the things i really really wanted.

okay, somewhat ignore the backwards-ness of this email, i do have some things i would like for Christmas. and if i don't type them i will probably forget cause it's almost 8 and i can never remember things. haha. i would really like any v-neck sweaters that i left at home because it gets chilly here and we can wear them under our suit coats. and also any vests. like regular or sweater vests because they are nice to wear under a suit. also, if you have the biking gloves i left there those would be nice too because it is cold at 6 in the morning when we jog. please send me my green Spanish notebook. i think i accidentally sent it home when i was leaving the mtc and i could definitely use it. also we moved into a new apartment and they have stationary bikes so if you can send my black and red jersey and i can wear it to work out in. all the rest get really really gross.... like think of dad in an RPM class at the gym... that's why i want it. cause it usually soaks through like 3 regular shirts. also, i am always accepting ties! even though here in the alley i can get any one i can imagine for about 3 bucks a piece. i still like the ones from home the best because they are just special... like sentimental. that's the word. :)

Which reminds me we moved apartments!! we moved over to this huge resort type complex with all these fancy wingdings that we will never use but also they have a gym which my comp (linebacker for the Utes) and i (scrawny kid from washington....) were super excited to find out about. right now he is trying to eat less and get cut and i am trying to eat more and bulk up while staying cut. it is an odd diet haha. it's kinda just like i will eat all i can and then still end up giving it to him and having him eat like half my plate plus his... :) 

anyways, that reminds me we are getting fed about once a night if we are not busy but we are never really hurting for food. i have a almost full pantry now we just had to get some different things and we are good.

we have a family in the ward who are my favorite, every Tuesday she feeds us whatever we can think of! and it always turns out perfect! i told her that i make good onion rings and she wants us to come over and help her make onion rings and burgers for the family! so i told her i needed to get the secret recipe from you mom and then i would see what i can do. ;)

this week has been really good. we went to the visitors center with our investigators, well two of them and the visit was really good. the Visitors Center is remodeled and it has a lot of the same cool stuff as the salt lake one just more condensed. we watched the families thing, it is the same as the one i watched in salt lake with grandma right before we went to the mtc. it was really good and our investigator was crying with joy. :) the vc is truly an amazing blessing. :)

I saw the pic of buster! it is sooo cool! i am going to send some pics too! and I am actually in them this time! ;) haha. i hope you like them. oh and also i sent Britton a letter for elder Holland and i hope it made it to him. well, i gotta send off these pictures too so i gotta go. i love all of you and thank you all for the letters and pictures!

love tons,
Elder Channing Winterrose

Buenos Dias hermano y hermanas! Hey family! i got the letter from dad! I'm glad you are all doing great and that through us you guys can open the conversation on the gospel, haha.  That is really cool!

well this week has been kinda hectic i got some of the stuff done i really needed to though. we have been teaching two investigators and they actually referred us to two more, so now we are teaching the 4 of them together and have them set for date for baptism on the 4th of December. hopefully all works out. we wanna make it more enjoyable for the younger of the 4 and make our lessons more meaningful for them. i think we will go to the temple visitor center with them. we just have to get rides figured out for them because they don't have cars, which is another problem we have run into here. there are a lot of unique situations like that that i didn't think i would run into.

well oh yeah, i got some things done i needed to too, i scheduled a dentist appointment to get my filling fixed because it cracked and is like really loose . :/ so at least I'm getting that taken care of. also i got myself a brand new, in the box, seagate 500 GB portable hard drive for a deal, only 35 bucks, a dang steal if you ask me. that is the beauty of this city. if you keep your eyes open you can come across some real treasures. so i backed up all my pictures, inspirational music, and documents like my baptism programs. :) that way if i accidentally throw away a memory card i wont loose my mind.

so for church yesterday we had fast and testimony and i managed to be the last one up there haha. i gave my testimony and it is amazing what just a simple testimony about the gospel can do. we had our investigators there and i think it made a big impact on them. :)

so the weather, dad just emailed me back and asked about the weather. down here we have gotten a little bit of rain and it comes in torrential downpours for like one day then there is no more for like up to a week. then it has also been getting a little cooler like 65 is the coldest during the days but nights have been getting kinda chilly like almost 50 some nights so still warm but we can feel the season changing finally.

well, we have been doing pretty well, just a little cough and cold combo that has been going around but with this many people it is inevitable.

i have been getting pretty good mail too! I can honestly say it makes my day like 1billion times better. :) thank you all who have been writing me and i love you all soo much. :)

well i hope all of you have a splendid week and don't be strangers!

les amo,

Elder Channing Winterrose