The miles and miles in the Mexican sun are worth it

Well adiós President F. He and his family leave today, and I'm not gonna lie I'm pretty bummed about it. He was so supportive of all of us. He knew every one of his missionaries by name and constantly checked up on each of us individually, but also knew how to motivate and put on the pressure we needed to get better. Pray for the F. family, and for our new mission president and their family please, President R.

As far as this week goes it actually was one of my best weeks in the mission. Me and Elder A. get along well and it was really good for me to lead the way this week. He is the senior companion but I have been in the area for 5 1/2 months, so I know the area like the hard shell of a taco by now. Haha and really it was a huge growing experience and we had tons of new investigators and great lessons this week.

One was with Hermana M. She is married to a less active who is trying to come back to the church and help her get baptized as well. She is catholic and so has a lot of questions about our church but is honestly really receptive and wants to know the truth. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and getting answers and the spirit and like always the spirit came into the room to help us out. It was a super good lesson and she committed to reading the Book of Mormon and fasting about it.

Another was with a college kid who told us he doesn't believe in God. We talked to him and got to know him a little bit and the more we talked the more interested he became. When we came back for a second lesson he had read the entire pamphlet for Lesson 2 and told us all about the plan of salvation and had tons of awesome questions. The last question he asked was "can this stuff really make you guys happy though, I mean it would be nice to live with God but it's my family that makes me happy right now so I want to live with them too." So obviously we explained to him about that's the whole point of the gospel and that having celestial glory means living with God AND your family forever. He was pretty psyched for that and told us he was happy before but he feels like "this stuff" and "Finding God" will just make him happier. He's ready.

We ended the work week with a family that we contacted while trying to find a reference. The first thing I want to say is 50% of the references are duds, and whenever we get a dud, out of nowhere there is someone in the neighborhood that is dying to know about God. So this time it was Family G. It's a single mom and her two daughters. They all talked about how much they have wanted to know who God is and how they can get closer to him. Apparently no one in their family has had anything to do with anything religious for generations and they told us they are ready to break the chain. They basically invited themselves to church, all three cried and all three wanted to say the closing prayer, so we had 3 closing prayers. Teaching a family is a million times better than teaching an individual. 

To be honest my emails are terrible at describing really what it feels like to teach the people that are ready, but trust me its so cool. When you get a whole family crying and talking to their Heavenly Father for the first time it makes the miles and miles in the Mexican sun worth it. 

We felt pretty good about our work this week so today we got permission to leave our area to dry clean our suits and got pizza too. 

Little Caesars has never been so good....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“If Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. …

“And [Adam and Eve] would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.

“But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

“Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.”

2 Nephi 2:22–25

 

New companion

Well I have pretty much no time cuz we had a ton of lessons this week because we worked freaking hard and so the progress form took a little longer. but hey no complaints. things are going well. We had exchanges today and good ol' Elder S. is on his way to Durango and I got a new comp. (Still in the same area that I've been in since getting to Mexico, but at least I know the people here really well) New comps name is Elder A. and he's from Ecuador. He seems like a cool guy, speaks a lot of English which is kind of weird but it will be good for both of us.

It also rained literally every day this week, and the Mexican streets aren't built for rain so they are all flooded, it was a nice change of scenery at least. As far as investigators not a lot showed up to church but the lessons are getting better and better so its just a matter of time til they start pouring in again. Thank you for all your prayers in my behalf.

Families Can Be Together Forever this is the message of the gospel!

First thing I gotta say about this week is I didn't really think much of soccer before, its kinda boring and I didn't get why everyone outside of America likes it but after this week I hate it. HATE IT. The world cup started this week so there is literally no one that wanted to hear about anything except what we thought about this player or team. HAHA and the best part is my companion loves soccer and knows everything about every player, so its a challenge for him to focus, but we do what we gotta do. I really don't get it, its two hours of guys running up and down the field over and over and they are lucky if they get 3 goals in those two hours... and its the same thing for every game. haha and el mundial (world cup) is a month long of like 3 games a day, every day. haha its gonna be a tough month man.

But yeah it was a good week. We were a little sparse on lessons because of the above mentioned problem but overall still a good week. The highlight of the week was obviously the baptism of Fam. C. Everything about it was awesome. Since I got here we have had a total of 10 baptisms in mine and Elder S's companionship and every one of them is really cool but every one of them has been either a single woman or a mom and her daughter. We have never baptized a man, and so never a whole family, and let me tell you a family baptism is 100000X cooler. The spirit is so much stronger but also just the feeling of love and support is unreal. I love this family, every time I see Hmo C he always says "anda con todo Roberts!" (its kinda like Elder Roberts gets it done!) Haha needless to say I was pretty excited to baptize this guy and see his family take the first step toward eternity. 

During the baptism of a family you look at these people and it becomes so real the point of the gospel. Personal salvation is important but salvation of families is our real goal. Hmo C. is one of the most sincere people I have ever met in his desire to please the Lord. He was so excited and humbled when we told him he could receive the priesthood and baptize his own daughter next month (his wife is already a member and his oldest daughter could be baptized with him and her sisters but she has a date in July). I got the privilege to baptize him and Elder Salazar baptized the two younger girls. I really never have had such an appreciation for the need for the gospel in families until I saw how happy they were together after the baptism. 

There is always something weird that happens at baptisms though, always, and this time it was Hmo C. came wearing a white shirt but with silver stitching and black buttons. One of the other elders insisted it had to be completely white so he switched shirts with him. Hmo C. is a pretty skinny guy, and is about 5' 9". The Elder is a thicker kid and is around 6' 1" - so I had to dunk this poor man while he was wearing a tent, meanwhile we had some crazy white kid wandering around the chapel in spandex.... Always something. 

Side note Hma  D showed up for the baptism. She has a lot of health problems but managed to come. She is an investigator we have had for a while but was a Jehovah Witness so has a lot of doubts, but she's coming around. Pray for her and C C por favor. 

But for real, this week showed me how covenants and the gospel really does strengthen families in a way I had never really noticed before. Church is true man.

My Heavenly Father Loves Me

Haha well the first thing I gotta say about this week was it was hot. Freakin hot. Hace un buen de calor man... haha but seriously. We are probably hitting around 120 but hey its better than having to deal with blizzards and snow so were good. 

We had a lot of meetings this week. Our mission president has only 2 weeks left til he is released and I'm not gonna lie, its bad news. He is a very powerful leader and motivates us all to be better in meetings, and in our individual interviews he is super helpful and patient in helping us with our challeges and is all about edifying each one of us personally. I really can't imagine having a better president. Please pray for him and his family (President Flores)

As far as investigators we have hit a wall. We either have people that are literally days away from baptism and then....nothing. We contacted about 20 people this week and got 4 new investigators out of it. What the freak Gomez? The one thing it had going for it was the people were receptive to a message about Christ. Haha were gonna try really hard to listen to the spirit when contacting from now on so were not just contacting to contact, because obviously that doesnt work...  

But for the upside on investigators familia C. is getting baptized on Saturday. We went over to their house yesterday to talk a little bit about their baptism and see if they had any questions. Hermano C and two of his daughters are the ones getting baptized. His wife was baptized when she was 8 but has been inactive for her whole life, and their last daughter is having problems with the word of wisdom so we had to postpone her baptism. (Pray for her too please, C.). But anyway when we went over Hmo C picked me to baptize him and I'm not going to lie I feel pretty honored to do it. He is such a good guy and only hasn't accepted the truth before because he didn't know where to find it (DC 123:12). He is going to be stake president one day! Pics next week for their baptism.

Our last baptism, S., is on fire. She has beep baptized for two weeks, got called into the young womens presidency the day after her baptism, and has hunted down EVERY SINGLE less active young woman in our ward boundry. She went and visited each one of them to talk about coming to mutual and working on personal progress. So hey we might be drying up a little on investigators but the ones the Lord helped us to convert are killing it! 

So yeah good week. The last thing I want to share is me and Elder S were thinking of how to make people more receptive to the message and how we can motivate people in the lessons, and it really all comes down to one thing - God is literally our Loving Father. We have to cover doctine and teach lessons and have them keep commitments yeah, but honestly this one part is the most essential for everyone to understand. If people don't understand who God is and what our relationship to Him is then the rest of the lessons are just words. So were gonna work on that one really hard this week, helping our investigators really understand who God is, and who they are.  

Elder Roberts

Consider the Lilies - Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Prayer is real

I have legitimately not time so quick run through. S (The girl we baptized a week ago) has given us a ton of references and we have another baptismal date out of one of them already. Family C is well on their way and will be baptized in 2 weeks! It was Elder S's birthday and we got him a cake. Haha not a lot or time, and not a lot of info about this week anyway.

Alma 34:18-27. We have been studying a little about prayer for an investigator and for real the day is better if you'll just say little prayers throughout the day. Gratitude for all the small mercies of The Lord or for help for the little trials that pop up. Prayer is real and God hears and answers prayers.