Hello Everyone!!! So this week was pretty rough due to we didn't know anyone and it was cold!!!!!! We were walking most of the time in it and then finally we got let in somewhere. But it was -7 but the wind chill made it -21. Lots of fun. So Elder Dana and I the first couple of days was creating a game plan to figure out what this ward needs. We were left a list of people to visit and we got to visit a couple of them but it was quick short visits. Then we were back out into the cold. I wish I had something to say that was really cool this week but I don't... My new companion Elder Dana is awesome!!! He is very easy to get along with and we have a lot in common which is amazing. 

So this week we did some service at Barr lake. It is a state park and they were getting ready for their eagle day. So we showed up and the other elders were painting toilet paper rolls for a arts and crafts thing. While Elder Dana and I shoveled snow off of a bridge trail to a pavilion. That was a long bridge trail and it seemed like it would never end!!! But we got it done and it was good to help out. I haven't been doing very much service due to my last area didn't have very much service stuff to do. But I am glad this area does because I love doing service!!! 

So it is crazy that my year mark is coming up in a couple weeks and it is scary to know i only have a year left. I have loved my mission. It has taught me of what kind of person my heavenly father wants me to be. I have had my ups and my downs of my mission but my downs have taught me so much and how to seek help. I also just this morning finished the Book Of Mormon. I have gained a greater love and understanding for that book than i have ever in my whole life. I love all the teachings it gives us to any situation in life. It gives us the plan of how to return to our heavenly father and it is laid out so simply. I have a year left on my mission but it will be a year that will change my life forever!! I can't wait to see what my heavenly father has in store for me!!!

I love and miss everyone!!!! and here is a video I found that i really like! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Rr8xvw0cgw0

Love,

Elder Escudero

February 2, 2014

Well this last week was very good. Full of saying goodbyes to people because I had a feeling that I would be transferred this week and I did. But before I get to that. Last week was full of walking everyone because of the snow but good thing we had a small area. So we had our usual Family Home Evening with the Metties and tried to help brother Mettie to start looking towards the future and stop looking to the past. That was really good and I think it finally sunk into him. 

Also we saw Steve twice this week and talked a lot to him about his Patriarchal blessing and also read a lot from the Book of Mormon. We also started to get into members home and to share a lesson with them and get referrals from them. That worked out pretty good. I got to watch most of the game due to everyone in Colorado watched the game. AND WHAT A GAME!!! Lets go. Colorado was pretty quiet that night. Except the few Seahawks fans in Colorado lighting off fire works. But ya pretty exciting when I was in the orange territory.

So transfers... I got transferred up north to Brighton and still am a District Leader. I have 12 people in my district which is really big. Oh forgot about the most exciting part. So I get up to meet my companion and He is new to the area too. So we both have no clue what we are doing. Then we hear bad stuff about our apartment and that was true. So we got to our apartment and it was super ghetto and get inside and it was really dirty from the previous missionaries. So we spent all day yesterday cleaning and unpacking which I am really tired from!!! Then we sit down and start looking at the are book and thank goodness the left us a list of people that they visit and other stuff. But still we both have no clue what to do. SO my new companion is Elder Dana. Pronounced like Day-nah. He has been out for 3 months and from Arizona. Graduated high school the same year so thats pretty cool!!! But he knows sort of what he is doing. He and his trainer were brand new in his first area so he is used to this. Well now that yesterday is over with. Now we can start working hard and making this area the best ever in the mission. It sounds like a great ward and a lot of potential. I am still on bike and it is suppose to snow all week again!!! But all will be good.  

Thank you so much for all the support and love you all give me. I am coming up on my year mark and it is scary to think that I only have a year left... I love my mission. I have learned so many skills since I have been out I love it. I love this gospel and I know that it is true. I would not have wasted 2 years of my life to come out if I didn't know it was true. I know now with out a doubt that it is true. Due to studying and praying. My Heavenly father has answered my prayers!!! I love and miss everyone!!!

Love,

Elder Escudero

January 27, 2014

             Hello from broncos territory where I am standing my SEAHAWKS ground!!!! Oh man has this week has been crazy!!! So Elder Christian and I worked really hard this week and changed our ways of everything!!! We are only in peoples houses for exactly and hour and we are back out into the cold!! It was very successful due to we had a lot of lessons!!! We focused on finding new people to teach and we have 5 potential people we could start teaching this next week. So this week we saw lots of less actives where we saw a couple stay all 3 hours at church on Sunday which is amazing!! Also we got to see a couple of our less actives Robert and Jeff who we haven't seen in a very long time. So Robert we went in and shared a scripture about prayer and we found finally his concern with progressing and that is because he asked once received an answer that he is fine where he is. So we are going to ask again about the church and everything and hopefully we can get a different out come!!! So we saw Jeff this past weekend and that was really good. We did service for him like always and then had a lesson. So we focused on prayed and overcoming trials and it went very well. Shared lots of scriptures with him that helped him push on. Then afterwards we gave him a blessing on comfort and after the blessing. He said he finally found peace! He finally is starting to progress.So the Knowlton family we haven't been able to get a hold of them and so hopefully we can get them to be baptized this upcoming weekend.

 

So besides the teaching I have been great. I think I finally have gotten the hang of this missionary stuff!!! It is very hard work and 11 months into it, it is definitely rewarding. I have seen me grow up a lot in the last 11 months that I definitely would not have been able to do at home. I have found out so many things and I love helping people find the gospel!!! It really is the best thing I can do in my life. To see the changes in others makes me feel really good. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who loves each one of us and knows our needs. He sometimes as to tell you things a million times before you finally get it!!! Happened to me this week. I have found that reading the Book of Mormon brings me so much comfort and peace than anything else. I love my mission so much and all the changes it has done to me.

 

SO the weather was pretty good this past week but now it is snowing and it is suppose to get a lot colder in the next few weeks. I love the snow but I hate it as a missionary!!!! Especially when all you have is a bike or you walk... But Colorado needs the moisture because it prevents the drought. But anyways all is good. I am loving life and looking forward to where I can serve. Transfers are next week so if you don't hear from me its okay. I will email on Tuesday!!! I love and miss everyone!!!

 

Love,

Elder Escudero 

January 21, 2014

Hello Everyone!!!

 

To start off yesterday we played our mission President and his 2 assistants in basketball. They are going to all the mission zones and playing them. Thy are undefeated so far. It is a game to 11 and best out of 3 games. So I played the first game and we won 11-5. The second game they  took me out and we lost, and then put me back in and we lost 11-7... So we were close and they said we were the hardest zone they have played so far!!!   

 

So this week has been pretty good. Every Monday night we have been doing Family Home Evening with families in the ward and it is a lot of fun to be in members homes and interact with their families. On Wednesday we had an opportunity to go to the temple and it was awesome to finally go and get some questions answered that I needed answered! Right after that we had interviews with our mission president. That was good because I had a lot more questions to ask haha I usually have a lot of questions for him and he answered all of them for me!! Then we also that day went out with our bishop and visited some people and shared a message with them and tried to help them come back to church and see the importance of enduring to the end. Not very many people see that but when the do, that is when the true conversion comes into play!!!!

 

So also this week I had my District meeting where I totally forgot to plan and I had to do all of it which I was fine with because I like to talk haha Plus the topic was really easy to talk about. We talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. It was a really good meeting and I think I learned more than anyone else there.

 

Also we went and saw one of our investigators the Knowlton family and she totally forgot about us coming over so we taught a little bit about prophets and apostles and she loves the concept and is curious about it. So next time we go over we will have to teach her more about it!!! I am super excited for the Knowlton family and the big commitment they are making to be baptized!!! They have been prepared and are so ready for this moment. Hopefully we can get in and teach them the lessons that we have.

 

So for me personally I have been doing great. The weather has been perfect and I have been training Elder Christian for the last 5 weeks and its been great. Lots of struggles but it has been amazing as we resolve all of the problems that we have. I am thankful for great leaders that help me be a better District Leader and try to be a better example to my District. Not saying I am horrible but to always try to be better. I love this work. I have been out for almost a year and I have loved every single moment of it. I wouldn't trade these 2 years for anything else. I love this gospel and I love my savior Jesus Christ and all that he has done for me. I am thankful for all the support I receive. I love and miss everyone.

 

Love,

Elder Escudero

January 13, 2014

Alright so this week was exciting!! So Monday nights we are starting to do Family Home Evenings with families and it is awesome. I love it, mostly we do the lessons but its great. Also this week Elder Christian finally got his bike so he is loving that his brakes don't freeze when its snowing!!! We also have been tracting a lot... I hate tracting but now I am starting to like it a lot better. We have 8 new potential Investigators now. So I am not complaining. Also this week we went to the young mens and women's activity because it was meet the missionary night!!! It was awesome. Also I did a baptism interview for a guy named Ray who is awesome. I love being able to give baptism interviews because you get to see how prepared these people were to the gospel. Heavenly Father has his hand in every part of this work!!

 

We had a Zone meeting this week and they are really trying for obedience in this mission because they are starting to lock down on all the rules... But I guess that is good for all the missionaries so that there isn't a really bad thing that happens. But ya we visited a less active who is trying to stop smoking and we taught him about prayer and faith that sometimes he has to let go of the driver seat and let our savior start driving his car!!! It was an awesome lesson. Then Friday we had a lesson with our investigator Josie and we planned to the Plan of Salvation with her but ended up just talking about Baptism. We set a date for Feb. 1st and she accepted and then we talked about involving her family!!! She is so ready that we just need to teach her all the lessons!!! Also Elder Christian and I finished splitting our area book and cleaned it up so much because previous missionaries don't do a very good job with it! But now it is super organized!! 

 

Church was good this Sunday because we had 3 investigators there and it was great. They were excited to be there even though it was at 9 haha Also we went to the baptism for ray who I interviewed this week. It was great week I can say!!! I have been mostly trying to help Elder Christian learn the lessons because I have been slacking with that!!! But he is doing great!!! Well I hope everyone has a great week and I love and miss everyone!!!

 

Love,

Elder Escudero

Jan 6, 2014 HAPPY 2014!

Hello everyone!!!! SO this week was a little different still because it still is the holidays but now the holidays are over. It finally stopped snowing as of today. It started on Friday night and stopped Monday morning. Walking all day in it was not very fun!!! But it was very successful.

 

So this week we read a talk by Elder Corbridge called the forth missionary and we had a zone meeting where we talked about it then we got a challenge from our Zone Leaders to knock 150 doors in a week. It did not matter who was behind the door as long as it was a door. We called it knock'em  alive. Also on new years eve we had to go in early at 6 and stay in. This is probably the first New Years Eve where I went to bed before midnight, haha. Kind of lame but mission holidays are always different.

 

Anyways we taught a less active this week and he is starting to come back to church. He only has been baptized for a little over a year but he fell away but wants to receive the priesthood!!! So that was pretty exciting also while it was snowing all day I was on exchanges with Elder Russell who is one of our Zone Leaders and we walked all day. We gave blessings to people, we did service, and we tracted. We did everything all day. But within that day I got 6 new potential investigators out of the 13 doors we knocked that day. It was incredible. I knew that if we worked hard that we would find success. So I can see because of our hard work we were able to find new people to teach.

 

Elder Christian my companion is doing good. I feel like I have so many easy companions that this one just feels a little harder. I know that he is a new missionary but there is just something different. I am trying to figure it out but we will see how that goes.

 

I made a lot of new years resolution and most of them have applied to being a better missionary because I know, especially after this week that the harder you work. The more success you see!!! I love and miss everyone!!

 

Love,

Elder Escudero

Dec 30, 2013

Hello!!!! So this week was pretty slow due to Christmas but we still got to see a few people that were actually home! So we mostly went and visited a lot of less actives this week and taught them lessons and also trying to get them to come to church. So once this past Sunday passed by we lost our 2 investigators baptism date due to the lack of contact we could get!!! But they decided to feed us dinner this week so we are going to put them on date again for a later date. Hopefully we can teach them all the lessons soon because they love coming to church and love the environment.

Pretty much the week consisted of Christmas and visiting families, haha ,It definitely is different when you are on a mission. I just got to see how other families celebrated their Christmas and Skype. So ya this week will consist of finding new people to teach and working on lees actives. Christmas night as a zone we went caroling and it was very successful and a lot better than knocking doors. We are trying to think of different ways to find people and singing has been the only successful way.

So our mission gave us a talk called the 4th missionary by Elder Corbridge. It has definitely changed my whole thinking of how a missionary should be and act. So I am trying to be better and have my mission change me forever. Sorry this letter is so short but not much happened this week. I love and miss everyone. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Love,

Elder Escudero