Una Semana de Milagros

Ok, so our mission has been doing this faith in February, miracles in March thing where we make individual sacrifices to try to have more success. I have been giving up emails about sports from my families, which is hard especially to miss out on March madness. But holy cow we saw some milagros (miracles) this week.

In Ecuador the people are the nicest in the world and don't know how to reject missionaries, which can actually be frustrating because we keep on visiting them and they don't progress. So we had a ton of investigators that weren´t progressing. We decided to drop a ton of people and find the people that are ready to make commitments. We spent the last two weeks contacting hardcore and just finding new people. We now have 7 promising people with a baptismal date. The hermanas had a baptism on Saturday and all of our investigators with a date came,but unfortunately none of them came to church the next day because it was pouring rain and nobody wanted to get wet and there was a little confusion because now we meet in a new chapel.

I was really inspired by my sisters email last week that said how Christ loves the children, and I realized that we are teaching a ton of children that like us and we haven't challenged them to baptism just because the requirements are harder. They have to have a ton of attendances, so that is something that we are trying to work on.

I am so grateful for the opportunity that we have to listen to the Prophet this week. Don´t take it lightly, this is a tremendous blessing we have to have a living prophet. In Amos 3 7 we learn that the Lord reveals nothing save it be through his servant the prophet. Without the prophet we don't have the word of God, we don't have the authority, we don't have a true church. Only a church with a prophet that has priesthood authority is true and this week we get to listen to him. I remember how I was blessed to attend the last general conference and see the prophet with my own eyes and have the spirit testify to me that really Thomas S. Monson is a prophet as was Moses and Abraham. 

We have changes next week, we don't know til late Sunday night who is leaving and then they leave early Monday morning so that way we are focused on the mission and not saying goodbye to people, I think Elder Morgan is going to go since he has more time and I am probs gonna get a Latino companion to accelerate my spanish, but we will see.

I love all of you and I am praying the Lord continues to pour out his good will on all of you.

Con Ful Amor,

Elder Roberts

I bought some souvenirs cost 4 dollars total

Una Semana Especial

Ok, so first of off, I bought some avocados today and they are really cheap, like four for a dollar, so that is awesome.

pretty sunset

This week was really really special. Saturday and yesterday we had stake conference and it was a really cool stake conference, because the Stake Presidency got reorganized and we had in assistance Elder Calderon from one of the Quorums of the Seventy, and presiding was Carlos Godoy from the first Quorum of the Seventy. He gave a talk in the last general conference in his native tongue of Portuguese. I felt the spirit so strong hearing their inspired messages, it was so incredible.

What was really cool was that I got to share my testimony through music to the beautiful people here. My companion and I both play the viola, and someone here has a violin, so they asked us to surprise everyone by playing the violin in front of the whole stake, the two seventies, the mission president, and the temple president. To say I was nervous would be an extreme understatement. It was so special for me to play in front of everyone. I played "Abide With Me." We also sang in the choir, we were the only two men and there were probably like seven sisters. Musical numbers don´t exist down here, let alone two gringos playing the violin and singing. It was so cool. It makes me think of one of my favorite scriptures in Doctrine and Covenants that says ¨the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me¨. 

Music has always been such a blessing in my life. I remember when I was little and my loving mom sat next to me on the piano bench and forced me to learn the importance and value of music. I never liked the piano, but I am forever grateful for the importance my mom taught me of music. I have always enjoyed playing the Viola and singing and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to do that as a missionary. 

I love this church, I love our leaders, I love music, and I have also never seen so many men with ponytails in a stake conference jajaja. I hope everyone is having a great week.

Chao, Elder Roberts

​Another celebration of the birthday with the Stake Presidents family,

Eating a snail, tasty

I sewed mom, be proud

Do you like my tie?

Un Año mas de vida

Well, this week was great. I think I worked harder this week than any other week on the mission. First of all, I got this new shampoo made from some type of Ecuadorian fruits or something that smells super delicious and I look forward to using it every day.

On Tuesday, I had divisions with Elder Spencer and we just worked our sector hard. We contacted like over 20 people without trying and just worked worked worked and just helped some people out and it was great. We had a ton of success. 

We found some awesome new people to teach this week. and we taught this catholic priest guy which was interesting. We did so much walking. I mean we always do a ton of walking. We don't have cars or bikes, its just walking and its not nice roads, its literally all rocky dirty paths up and down mountains, but hey its all good. But yeah my legs are tired all the time. It was a week with a ton of sun which was awesome, I am getting so tan and I love the sun.

​My buddy Elder Plant and I in the beautiful Zabala, and when I say the roads are rough we literally walked down the mountain on the rocky terrain that you can see behind me

So Saturday was my birthday which was awesome. I guess all my Ecuatoriano facebook friends found out that it was my birthday so I was in for some surprises. I forgot it was my birthday all of Saturday cuz we were just trying to work hard, but at the end of the day we went to the casa de la familia Cuaran and they had a cake and everything for me, I love that family.

One of my favorite families, I am standing next to Michele who posted on my facebook 

 I love the people here. I love alot of things here, but the people are definitely the best. Unfortunately on Saturday night our neighbors had a huge party and there are no noise ordinance laws here in Ecuador so like our apartment was just blasted by music and it was impossible to sleep and we heard all this gross latino music and all of these drunk people doing stupid things, and I was sooo tired for church and then after church we were walking and I was going to collapse I was so tired. 

This week is Stake Conference, 2 Seventies are coming, the Mission President, and the Temple President will be there and I am so excited. And then General Conference is around the corner. I love listening to our leaders, I know they are inspired men and women who can receive revelation to help us out. Ephesians 4 tells us the important of leaders to unify us and to help us perfect ourselves and change our lives in the manner Christ wants. I love teaching people there is a living Prophet and more importantly a living Savior. 

I know this is the Lords work and I know we have a purpose here in this life. I hope you all have a good week, thanks for the birthday wishes.

Chao, 

Elder Roberts

This is one of my favorite pictures.  Where Ecuador was dedicated for the preaching of the Gospel

​we are above the clouds

​Me in a cornfield overlooking the airport

Elder Chavez, he is freaking hilarious

 ​Silvia´s Baptism......YAY. it was really sunny out, the sun here is huge so that is why everyone is squinting

Actually his name is Elder Ramponi, he was my first district leader, he is from Argentina. we switched tags for a little 

This is for you, Parker!

Feliz Dia de La Mujer

Alright, so I almost had another Allergic reaction this week, I was like a spoonful away form eating some soup with peanuts and than I recognized it had peanuts, what a boss. Speaking of food, I had some chicken feet this week and I had Cerviche, which is like THE food of Ecuador, so good, it is like suchi but in a cold soup, and it is so good.

Usually it is really cloudy and rains a lot, but the past couple of days have been really clear and it is so cool seeing the tops of the mountains. They are so tall and so green, even cooler now that it's clear we can see 3 volcano's from our apartment, Cotopaxi, Cayambe, and some other one. You think the mountains are tall, the volcano's are super super high up there and it is really cool. 

Yesterday was Dia de La Mujer which is pretty much just another mothers day and after church the priesthood gave all the sisters flowers. I would have killed to give my mom a flower and a hug, if you are reading this and will see my mom soon give her a hug from Elder Roberts.

I did a ton of divisions this week. On Tuesday I went to Zabala con Elder Plant and that was super fun. We did some service for some old indigenous lady and taught some good lessons. On Wednesday I was with Elder Miranda who is from Peru, we were in Comite del Pueblo which is on the top of one of the mountains above Quito, it is really pretty. I taught him how to play hockey with some broomsticks and a basketball in between language study and companion study. He was an assistant and is almost done with his mission and he is a really good teacher, I learned a ton. Thursday I was with Elder Parker here in Llano Grande and holy cow he is a powerful missionary, we had some really good lessons.

Last night was really hard. Our really promising family has progressed a ton this week, but their dad hasn´t listened to any of the lessons and last night we went to teach them and he had us come outside with him and he straight up told us that he didn't want us to come back and he didn't want us to have his family make commitments or there would be problems, and he is ex military.... He was like ¨Oh I am a faithful Christian and I love the Bible, but I don't want you telling my kids they need to keep the commandments.¨I was so rattled. The ex debater non elder Roberts version of me wanted to whip out my Bible and read him like 50 verses telling him how everything he just said was stupid, but I am wearing that name tag and have to not give into the spirit of contention, so we are just patiently like trying to resolve that problem, we will see what happens. 

Con Ful Amor,

Elder Roberts

Me with two Elders.

Here's our house after we cleaned it.

Ecuador es lo mejor

Alright so this week has been just craziness squared. I had another allergic reaction this week and ended up taking another epipen, but I don't think its peanuts. I think its something else so I am going to get tested for allergies in the hospital sooner or later.

We had some cool miracles this week. We were walking everywhere up and down in the middle of nowhere trying to teach people with this member Jhon Collahuaso and he is getting ready to leave for his mission in a couple of months.  It was just about time to call it a day and Jhon was like we need to try this street and we found this really promising family. We are really making progress with alot of our investigators.

We found this menos activo from Otavalo who is living in Oyacoto now and we were working with him in this little concrete shack with a dirt floor and just a candle for light and I was like wow this is legit. It is amazing to see how important humility is and how we are so much more receptive to learn and accept things when we are humble. 

We taught Silvia and Andy about temples. I am so blessed for my parents that were sealed in the temple and I know that we can live with God as an Eternal Family. It is really hard for the people here to go to the temple because it costs a lot to take the 8 hour trip to Guyaquil, it is a really hard goal for a lot of people, I am definitely going to take a lot more advantage of the temple when I get back. If you are reading this and live by a temple go as much as you can and do what you need to do to get there. It is such a blessing.

I appreciate all of your prayers and emails, if you haven't emailed me yet, I would love to hear from you and please continue to keep me in your prayers, as rewarding and as great as the mission is, it is really really hard and I would love it if you could keep Elder Roberts in your prayers.

I hope everyone is doing well, Cuidense Mucho

Con Ful Amor, Elder Roberts

Me and my Mission Pres and his wife with Quito in the background

Me with some of the new missionaries