Love the people I was able to teach

What has two thumbs and finally had transfers.... this guy!! Haha so I spent the last 3 hours on a bus to get to Durango MX. When I get here the first thing the Elders tell me is your new area is Santiago Papasquianto... another 3 to 4 hours away. Haha freak man. So me and the other Elder heading to my area have to spend the night with the Elders here in Durango then its off again bright and early for another 4 hour bus ride.

We had a pretty sweet adventure this week too. In Gomez there are 4 Elders - Me, Elder Jz, Elder Az, and Elder N. On tuesday Elder Jz woke up couldn't even stand up. So we called a member and went to the hospital. Turns out he's got some nerve problems in his hips or somethin (I couldnt really understand all the technical mexican mumbo jumbo in the hospital but I got the gist). To reward us for our valiant efforts of escorting Elder Jz to the hospital the Lord blessed us with being some of the first missionaries to meet President Rs. He showed up to the hospital after about an hour of us being there. Poor guy had only been in the mission literally 36 hours and was already in the hospital with the Elders. It was really weird to see our new president, we are just all accustomed to President F and to have him walk in with the Presidents badge really hit it home that President F is gone. Afterward we got to have KFC too, that was nice. haha

Gonna miss my past area though. Honestly when I went to church yesterday and looked around I realized how much I had grown to love our ward and especially my converts S, Fam. C, Y and M. S went to the temple for the first time on Saturday and the lesson afterward was super spiritual, she was so happy. She is planning on putting in her mission papers in December. Hmo. Cn is going to be recieving the preisthood soon, and Y just got a calling in the ward. I helped bring each of them to the gospel and I'll always be their missionary. I'm so grateful for that.

Well gotta go do Pday things and get ready for another trip.

Elder Roberts

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

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.

Atonement and happiness

Transfers again. Still with S. in Gomez.... HAHA oh man after we got the call last night that told us we would be together for another month at least we both were just like, okay we have got to figure out what the crap we gotta learn from one another. We have been a companionship for 4 and a half months and by the time this transfer is over I will have spent nearly a quarter of my mission with the same comp. Hes a great guy, but I wouldn't mind a change now and then.

We got another baptism this week. We went over to S. (Daughter of F.) house to ask what time she wants to be baptized. She is honestly one of my favorite people on the mission. She is so humble, so receptive, and so ready for the gospel. She started taking institute here like the day after we found her, and she told us about a week before her baptism that she is going to go on a mission! As we were leaving our lesson with her she all of a sudden was like "um Elder Roberts will you baptize me?" Not gonna lie I was pretty surprised, I thought for sure she would pick Elder S. but nope. So I got to baptize her this Saturday. The spirit was so strong during her baptism and she really was so ready to be baptized. The font was only about half full so once again I almost had to dunk myself to get her all the way under but we got it done without having to do a repeat! During baptisms things slow down, I don't really know how to describe it any other way. Its like all the problems of life get turned down and you know that The Lord really is happy and does love His children. This Sunday right after she received the gift of the Holy Ghost she was called to be young women's president. SHE IS ON FIRE MAN!!!

 I studied a little bit about the Atonement this week and would just like to share a tid bit. One of my favorite scriptures about the Atonement DC 19:16-19. You can just hear the power of the words of The Savior as He explains His eternal sacrifice for mankind, as well as the essential need for everyone to repent. Christ has already paid the penalty for our sins. We can let it all go if we will just repent. As I teach I have found nothing really gets to people or invites the spirit more than talking about the Atonement. We can be having a lesson that has a little bit of humor and whatnot but as soon as we start talking about the Atonement all jokes are out and its 100% the spirit and respect. Even those that aren't very religious can feel the difference in the Spirit when we start testifying about the Atonement. 

The other thing I studied this week is 2 Ne. 2:25. The purpose of life is one thing - To be happy. That is the purpose of everything we do. It doesn't mean we will be happy every second of our life, the mission is a perfect example of that at times haha, but it really is the purpose of our existence. We started using this scripture a lot in lessons to introduce the commandments. If you tell people that the purpose of life is to be happy, both now and in eternity, and then tell them that the only way to be this happy is by following such and such commandment they get it a lot better than if you just introduce a commandment then say We have to do it because Heavenly Father says so... haha 

Overall good week.

Elder Roberts eternally in Gomez :)

No transfers yet.. . . .

Dear Friends and Family

Well we had exchanges this week, and by we I mean every other elder. Yup I'm going 4 months strong with Elder S. Haha but anyway. This week we had a two day conference with our Mission President and not a ton of lessons to be honest. The hotter it gets the less people there are, like legitimately when were walking around at 1 in the afternoon there is no one, not in the street, not in the houses, its like where the freak does the town go in the afternoon. We've hit the point where we have either have investigators who have already accepted a baptismal date or no body. We have no new contacts because we cant find anyone. hahah its freakin weird. But on the bright side we are killing it both with those who have accepted a baptismal date and with church attendance.

We have a baptism this Saturday for Y. and her daughter M. They were a reference family and they both progressed really fast, Her husband is a super nice guy and always listens to our message but just doesn't want to change right now. So they will be getting baptized without him. Which is hard but I'm pretty sure he will accept it down the road.

We have two perfect families right now as well. Hma F. and her two daughters have all accepted baptism dates as well as one of the daughters (S.) boyfriend, G. S and G came to church on Sunday and F will be getting back from a business trip soon and they will all be getting baptized within the next month. Its crazy we started with just F (This is the lady whose husband kicked us out of the house) and it has turned into 4 baptisms. S said she is going to serve a mission too! Awe yeah!

I saved the best for last. We have a freaking awesome family. They are catholic and its a guy his wife and three daughters. On our fist visit the oldest daughter was such a punk and didn't want to have anything to do with our message, and the rest the family was about the same. Me and Elder S were both like well I guess we will go back one more time and try. They are now by far my favorite family to teach. Its weird to feel how much stronger the spirit is in lessons when it really is the whole family progressing together. One individuals conversion is cool, but it doesn't come close to when the whole family learns and grows together. They have completely changed since our first visit. All of them are going to be getting baptized and they came to church for the first time this week! It was awesome to see all five of them shuffle out of a taxi.

But yeah overall that's our life at this point. We either have people that are days away from baptism or nobody.... haha well work on getting a middle class of investigators this week.

Please pray for our success to find those searching for the truth.

Elder Roberts

A few of my favorite scriptures

Not a lot of time this week as well so I just wanted to share 2 quick things. 

1 about my studying in the Book of Mormon this week. I studied a lot about the plan of salvation (Alma 22, 40) the restoration (1 Ne 13-15) The atonement (Mosiah 3-4) and successful missionary work (Mos 27, Alma 17). King Benjamin's talk with his people in Mosiah 3 and 4 is one of the most powerful general conferences ever! It outlines our need for our Savior and His mercy so well, and that if we will repent we will be forgiven. Also Alma 17 about how the sons of Mosiah prepared for their missions is so freakin true. Verses 2 and 3 talk about their need to study, pray and fast, and verse 5 was powerful to me too. This mission isn't what I would call fun, lets be honest, it isn't a 100000 baptism and call it a day. The afflictions in body and mind and spirit are super real but that's what it takes to be the better missionary. Some days its hard to see why we have to go through some of the harder times but every missionary has had to do it, and more importantly our Savior had to do it. Its just part of the work. Haha I also found Alma 8:10-11 and this one was so true as well. Alma was one of the greatest missionaries ever. He did all he could to preach to the people, and in the end they still rejected him. Some days its just not the right time for them to accept the gospel. 

I also wanted to share a good experience I had this week on exchanges. Me and Elder S have been companions now for....105 days.... haha but no ones counting. Naw he is actually a really good companion and we have gotten to where we know each others weaknesses and strengths really well. So on exchanges I was with Elder Hdz. who is brand new but is a native so he obviously is better at the language than me. Anyway during the exchanges we went to one of our investigators homes who is getting baptized in 16 days! She asked some random question about the gospel. For things like that I could explain it in English but its still out of my league in Spanish so I usually have Elder S take over in such moments. But with Elder Hdz. he didn't really know the answer to the question and so looked at me....so here I go stumbling through some broken Spanish nonsense and doing my best. (It came to a point where I was doing more sign language than Spanish...) hahahahha I got the point across but lets just say I didn't feel exactly successful in that lesson. After the rest of the lesson I asked her to say the closing prayer. As she said it I started feeling the spirit really strong, and I was like what the freak...this was a terrible lesson... as she finished the prayer I looked up and she was so happy and we could all just feel the spirit. It was just a good reminder of who actually teaches the lessons. As long as I can bring the spirit and I put 100% in He will take care of it and still testify of our message. 

Tenge Fe

Elder Roberts

Testimony of the Book of Mormon

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was another good week. About the same amount of success as last week, which is awesome! 

I have literally no time this week so I just want to share two quick things

1. One of our investigators asked us why is there sin and hard things in the world if Heavenly Father really loves us? We shared Jacob 2:2, and DC 29:39. These two are awesome scriptures both to show that the Lord will consecrate our hardest trials for our good if we will trust in Him, and that we have to be tempted and sometimes make mistakes. If we never knew what it meant to sin or hurt we wouldn't know what it means to repent, be obedient, and feel happiness.

2. Me and my comp have decided to try and get a better understanding and stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon. This week if you have time pick your favorite chapters to read and read as much as you can. This fast Sunday we are going to pray and fast to try and gain a stronger testimony of this Book so we can teach about it with more power. Please pray that you all can gain a stronger testimony of it too and have opportunities to share that testimony.

Also look up the talk by Elder Holland Safety for the Soul. Haha its a good one!

Love

Elder Roberts

Yes, life is good.

 Friends and Family,

This week went really well as far as investigators, but we had to put in the work, its about 110 degrees right now and let me tell ya walking all day in 110 can be tricky but we get it done!

One lesson that I want to share was with one of our best investigators - Hma F. is the woman whose husband kicked us out of the house, but she wouldn't give up so is taking lessons from us in a members house. This week we were teaching her about the Book of Mormon and she says she has been studying and searching for a long time to find the truth. Elder Salazar asked,  "So do you think that our faith is correct?", but before he could even finish she said, "ITS CORRECT." There was no doubt in her voice. It honestly gave me chills. Her testimony is already so strong. She started crying. She has two daughters that are also investigating the LDS church and all 3 have a date for baptism next month. And it turns out the guy that kicked us out is her boyfriend and she made him move out, so we can teach her in her house again! 

Elders - 1 Angry Anti Mormon - 0

There are three things that were told to us that will strengthen families, non members, less actives, and members alike.

1 Family Prayer

2 Family Scripture study with a hymn and focus especially on the Book of Mormon

3 Family home evening with every member of the family who lives in the house

Anyway yeah this week was good. We had 8 investigators show up to church this week! Freaking 8 man! it was so awesome. We share our ward with two other elders and they brought another 5. Our gospel principles class was PACKED with investigators! Gomez Palacio might be a dusty town, but dang these people are feeling the spirit!

Overall yes life is good. 

Elder Roberts

Light bulb

 Dear Friends and Family,

Well this week was great. Something changed, I have been praying and studying a lot for the language because it frustrates me so much that I can't truly understand and help my investigators, and this week it has paid off. I can understand almost everything during lessons. It's like a switch that was off for 12 weeks and finally I hit a point where it flipped and I can understand people. Thank  You Lord.

But yeah right now we have 6 or 7 with a baptismal date and we had transfers today but me and my companion didn't get switched. We have been in the same place together for 12 weeks and we have another 6 to go. To be honest a switch wouldn't have been bad but I'm glad I get to stay in the same area and see people I've gotten to know over the past 3 months continue to progress. 

Other than that not a lot has changed. Just keep pushing and every day gets better. Me and Elder S studied the importance of the scriptures one morning this week for one of our investigators and here is one of our favorites if you got time. Mosiah 1:2-7

Life's good.

Elder Roberts

Angels round about . .

Dear Friends and family,

Well this week started out with nothing short of a miracle, literally as I think about it now I still am amazed. So it was Tuesday and we were walking home at night from a place called Urbi which is pretty far out there. As we were walking I was walking behind Elder Salazar and just kinda enjoying the night, all of a sudden Elder Salazar starts walking a little faster and tells me to hurry up too. So I do a little bit, but then he starts speed walking, and I'm just kinda like what the freak is he doing. We mess with each other a lot so I thought he was playing some kind of a game. He starts getting more and more nervous as we pick up the pace and keeps looking backward. I look back too and see a ways off the outlines of people behind us... Shoot man, whats going on... All of a sudden Salazar looks at me and says CORREMOS! (We gotta run) so we book it. haha so were sprinting down this street but as we look behind we can tell their hauling after us too... when out of nowhere a truck comes up and pulls along side us and tells us to get in the back. So we scramble in the bed of the truck and take off. While riding in the back Salazar starts talking to me about where he's from in Mexico there are assaults all the time and we were freaking close to getting all our crap stolen from us. But the Lord provided in a pretty dramatic way honestly. I feel so lucky too because there have been a couple elders in our mission recently that have gotten all their stuff stolen and one kid in my district had his camera stolen only three weeks into being in Mexico.

Lessons this week have gone really well too. One investigator we taught has a broken knee and his wife recently died. We taught him about life after death and about how he can be sealed to her after this life, obviously this interested him, and we got lesson two coming up. Another of our investigators, A., has gone blind due to some problems with blood pressure. He is one of the most humble guys I know and is always super kind to us but hasn't really progressed much over the last like 4 weeks of teaching him. This week something changed, he stopped drinking coffee and alcohol, and has committed to a baptismal date. Me and Elder S. were both so happy because he is honestly an awesome guy and we could just feel his desire to change and become better. Another was to a guy that's our age that lives with his older brother and his two little siblings. Their parents both recently died and you can tell this family is doing all they can to just stay alive. The two kids still have a lot of hope though and wanted to hear more about our message so the older brother said we could come back, were gonna focus on families this week and how we can all live together again after this life. All the rest of our lessons went well this week as well but we were dropped by one who was really good. She decided to drop us and go with the Tesitgos de Jehovah (Jehovah's Witnesses). They have a pretty powerful presence in Gomez and they can be pretty aggressive so it was sad but ya cant win em all..

Conference this week was awesome. Only about 8 people showed up to both of the Saturday sessions in the chapel (4 of them were the bishop and his family) but hey we got spiritually fed so it was alright. I listened in Spanish and read the captions in English. Both those two sessions were awesome but we had a special treat for priesthood, A. showed up!!!  it was awesome! He also showed up to the morning session on Saturday. My favorite talks were Elder Bednar's on the Traction of Adversity and Uchtdorfs on Not sleeping through the Restoration and Packers on gaining a testimony, go read em!

Anyway yup was a good week thanks to Heavenly Father and to His power to protect and to change lives.

Elder Roberts

A poor wayfaring man of grief

Dear Friends and Family

Well this week was another toughie, haha wah wah wah.... gotta roll with the punches. Our investigators just don't seem to be progressing, or care. Its hard to care when they don't. But we are trying our hardest and trying to keep the good attitude. Happiness is a choice. Here on the mission it seems like your doubts and frustrations are the strongest first thing in the morning when you get up, at least for me. Satan is trying to kill the day before it even starts, haha so I've learned to just say a prayer immediate on waking up and then start working immediately, if I even take a minute to think about the tough things, the day is over in the first couple minutes. Keep it positive man!

As far as highlights of the week there are two that come to mind now. First was on Thursday we had a conference with our Mission President, which went well but it was what happened afterward that sticks in my memory. Me and my district went and got pizza afterward and walked over to a park to eat it. We were talking about how hungry we were after the conference, and started chowing down. While we were doing this, a street beggar came up to us. He was missing his ears and half his mouth and could barely talk, and was wearing whatever he found on the street. He put out his little cup to ask us for money. We gave him lots of pizza and as soon as he walked away the song "a poor wayfaring man of grief" came into my mind. Christ has truly blessed us with so much, how can we not give? Our "hunger" was nothing, we hadn't eaten in 6 hours, who knows how long it had been for this guy. Puts things in perspective for sure. Another guy in the park saw that we did that and he wanted to know more about the church because of it. Sweet. We got a lesson in humility and a new investigator, win-win.  

The second was 5 kids in our ward got baptized this week and I got to be the witness for all five. Its cool to see all these kids dressed in white and so excited to start their own path to Eternal Life. You could just couldn't help but feel the spirit and feel happy when they got baptized and then the day afterward in church when they got confirmed. 

So overall good week, just gotta get those investigators to commit man!

Love

Elder Roberts

The Will of God

Not gonna lie, this week was frustrating. A lot of our investigators aren't progressing or aren't home when we come by. On the bright side when they are home I am able to understand so much more and speak so much more, it seems like I progress in the language literally every day. Its really nice, Gift of Tongues is real, you put in you effort and The Lord comes through. As far as for our investigators I was feeling bad on Sunday morning so I prayed and it was a freaking miracle - we had every one of our recent converts show up, 4 less active families that we are teaching, and 3 investigators. It was a huge turn out. When the first couple showed up I was like, oh that's nice, but they just kept coming, and after a while all I could do was just be grateful that the Lord gave me some evidence of our work even when I felt it wasn't paying off. I felt genuinely happy and like we were really changing lives this Sunday. So overall the week was hard, but God provides.

One thing I wanted to share from something I read this week was in John 15. It says that Christ is the vine, we are the branches, and our Heavenly Father is the Husbandman. All those that don't bring forth fruit (good works) are cut off, but all those that do bring forth fruit He purgeth so they bring forth more. I didn't know what to purge meant so I looked it up and it means to to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable, with plants it means to cut down a lot of the growth of the plant. So in this story that Christ uses, we as the branches are going to be cut down over and over again by Heavenly Father (through trial and experiences) until we bring forth the fruit that He wants and that we and others need. Its hard to be cut down sometimes, sometimes I feel like I'm on a roll and then something comes along that it feels like knocks me off course, but in reality it was what I needed in order to become better. 

Anyway overall feeling this week is that the mission isn't all fun and baptisms but God provides if we will endure the purging and work hard. 

Love 
Elder Roberts

I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus

Well this week was a big week of goals. It's weird once you get out on the mission you realize how much time and energy you wasted before. You look back and realize all you want to change now. So I've made myself a ton of goals this week to try and be more like the Savior every day.

As far as lessons things are going well, we are having pretty good success here. We found a woman this week who says she has been praying for an answer from God and says that a couple days later we showed up. We were all psyched about this and she is super receptive to our lessons....but there is a downside,  her husband is a devout catholic and doesn't believe our message. We asked if we are causing problems in her home by teaching her and she assured us no so we've taught her a couple times. But this Saturday we went by to teach her and we were teaching a pretty good lesson and her husband walked in... He took one look at us, took a deep breath, rolled his eyes, and pointed to the open door and whispered "por favor." We immediately got up and left. Never been kicked out of a house before and I gotta say....its awkward..... haha so were not really sure what were going to do about this investigator.....

But overall our lessons have been going well. Me and my comp constantly practice both lessons and language in the streets between lessons and its all going pretty well. 

Sorry not a lot of time this week. 

Elder Roberts

Edification and Progression

Dear Friends and Family,

Don't have a lot of time so I just wanted to share two quick things.

1) I have been studying and thinking a lot about God our Father and who He really is. Here is some of my insights this week. D&C 50:23-24 - Edify that is what Father is. He is perfect and we are fallen, and honestly, nothing in comparison.  So His whole purpose in giving us the Spirit is to edify, or build us. God is progression. If you have prompts or thoughts that are negative, tear you down, are discouraging, or make it so you no longer want to talk to Father, than it's not edifying, and so is not of God. It's weird to think about but honestly everything of God is progression even if it feels like your taking steps back or don't see where your going.

2) I was also reading in Alma 32 this week, I have probably read this chapter 30 times since coming on my mission, I think this one and Moroni 7 are two of the most interesting and inciteful chapters in the Book of Mormon. After studying edification I realized this ¨growth¨ that Alma is talking about in this chapter is the exact same thing. ¨If the seed groweth it is good, if it groweth not, cast it away.¨ 

Anyway if you had to plan a Sunday School lesson this week your welcome. Haha things here are good and I'm just pushing along. No really big experiences this week, just teaching and obviously learning.

Keep the faith
Elder Roberts

Familys can be forever

Well this week was alright. My Spanish is coming along and I'm understanding a ton more than I feel like I was even a week ago. We had another 2 baptisms this week - A woman named Ro and her daughter Ra. They have been investigators for a while and stopped taking lessons then all of a sudden they wanted to get baptized and so started taking lessons again and we got ´em dunked!

This week I would like to talk about the power of teaching. I have noticed that as we walk in between lessons its really easy to let your mind wander or to feel discouraged. You gotta just go into the lesson and first thing immediately is say a quick prayer in your heart that the spirit will be there then if it's you or your companion that says the opening prayer invite the spirit again and after that just go. I can't really explain it any better than that. I have only felt once or twice the spirit actually say something and I was like wait...what? Did I just say that, haha its really cool when your learning from what your saying, you pause for a minute and have to ponder what you said. Its really cool. But most times its you just go with what you planned and have a hope that the spirit will be felt. If you will just give it your all, all the discouragements and problems in life shrink, for a couple minutes its just you and them. 

One cool experience we had this week was with a lady that have been taking lessons for a while and just doesn't really progress but is always willing to listen to our message. This week she had her two sons sit in with us and I felt like we needed to focus on them and see where they are and what they need. We taught about who Jesus Christ is, who Heavenly Father is, and the importance of prayer and the Holy Ghost. We invited the two sons to read Moroni 10:3-5 then I asked if we could say a kneeling prayer with her family. She agreed and her ten year old son said the prayer. He started to cry and prayed for his parents who are having some problems and you could just feel his sincerity and desire to have his family with him forever. It was actually really sad. This is why we have the gospel.

Anyway to wrap it up life here is good when you give it all up and work, and it is hard when you focus on all the problems and whine and complain and just give up...go figure.

Elder Roberts

Eternal Truth

Family relationships can and will exist beyond the grave as families make and keep sacred ordinances and covenants in God’s holy temples. (4:14)

Sanctification through the atonement and choices

Well another week done. This week was a lot of walking and a lot of sun! Its about 95 degrees right now but for a white kid who is used to the colder weather of Utah right now it feels even hotter. We have two more baptisms coming up this week and a third one planned for next week.

The ones for this weeks names are Hma R and her daughter R. They are both really receptive and excited to be baptized. The one for next weeks name is M. she is 9 and is super shy but is super happy. Her mom is a catholic but is with her daughter in all the lessons and is learning a lot with her daughter and is considering baptism as well.

One thing that is really frustrating is when you and your investigator feel the spirit during a lesson and your both all psyched to come back and teacher more and when you come back they haven't changed at all and its like starting all over. Its really hard because you know they felt something during your previous lesson but Satan likes to play his little games so its difficult for them to see the point between lessons.

As far as Spanish goes I feel like this past week ive finally passed some kind of wall. I by no means am fluent but I understand a lot more than i feel like I did even a week ago! Its so nice to see help from The Lord and improvement.

One last thing. My companion and I have been studying sanctification in our personal study for the last 2 days and its really cool I found about 30 scriptures about the importance of, and the way to sanctification. Here are some of them. Study if you please. Helaman 3:35, D&C 88:67-69, Mosiah 3:19, Moroni 7:30, Hebrews 13:20, Moroni 10:33. The only thing that makes it possible for sanctification is the Atonement of course but if we make an effort to cast out the evil in our lives and improve then the Atonement and Christ are right there to sanctify us and make us better.

Elder Roberts

Family Prayer

This week went well. I had my first day of exchanges and I was the senior companion that knew the area, hahahaha so that was a little crazy. It took us a little time to find some of our appointments but overall it was a good day. I'm coming along in my Spanish, any spare moment I am studying and memorizing as much as I can. Not a lot of crazy stuff happened this week other than we have 6 people with a baptismal date, the downside is only one showed up to church this week.

The Lord has blessed me a lot with having help when I need it, one of the kids in the district speaks both English and Spanish fluently so whenever I cant figure out a phrase in Spanish we meet up with him for our lunch appointments and he helps me a ton.

In one of our lessons we stressed the importance of prayer in the family and if you would like look up 3 Nephi 18:19-21

Anyway, yeah not a lot this week. Hopefully more next. 

Elder Roberts

"Parents should teach their children to pray. The child learns both from what the parents do and what they say. The child who sees a mother or a father pass through the trials of life with fervent prayer to God and then hears a sincere testimony that God answered in kindness will remember what he or she saw and heard. When trials come, that individual will be prepared.”

That He May Write upon Our Hearts Henry B. Eyring