Monday, May 25, 2015

MI NUEVA AMIGA

O.k, so Santa Anita has some of the straight up coolest people ever, it is a lot more poor than my old sector, and it is sooo hard walking up and down the mountain all day, but the people here make it worth it.

This week I made a new friend. Here name is Eileen Cabascango and she is 4 years old. We visited their family and she was very timid at first, but then after an hour of ignoring me running away from me and seeking the refuge of her mom, she is now my friend. She said ¿ Quieres ser mi amigo? and I was like ¡Claro! and then she sat by me and talked and talked.  The next time we visited her she like clung onto my legs and kept on saying MI AMIGO MI AMIGO and it was great. 

Yesterday there was a little time leftover in the meeting, so the Bishop said the new Elder will share his testimony, so I walked up and started sharing my testimony and it was all reverent and stuff and then I hear this cute little voice shout Mi Amigo! hahah. My heart melted, Eileen is the cutest little girl I have met in my life and I am glad she is my friend. 

Yesterday we walked about 40 minutes directly straight up the mountain in the hot Ecuadorian sun.  I was sweating and it was hard, and there were dead dogs in the road and it smelled horrible and then I heard this voice say MI AMIGO. And Eileen was walking down the street with her family and she walked with us and told us she wants to be a missionary like us. 

Next week I am going to have a picture of me with Eileen, she is the cutest little thing ever.  The computer isn't letting me upload my pictures right now. 

Thanks for your support and prayers,
Chao,
Elder Roberts

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

A week of goodbyes

This week a 6 year old girl confessed her love for me and told me she wants to marry me.....

This week was an experience of a lot of hard emotions. Today I said goodbye to Calderon, I have grown to love that place and more so love the beautiful children of God there. I have been there since January, and today marks a new beginning with a new opportunity. It was also hard to say goodbye to Elder Rodriguez my last companion. We were really close, even though I was only with him for six weeks, I felt like we had known each other our whole lives and I enjoyed every second of that companionship, I know he is going to do a great job carrying on the work in Calderon.

This morning I rolled my suitcases up the street and stopped by the bakery of my favorite family, the family Cuaran. Hermana Berta saw my suitcases and knew why and we all pretty much started crying. I am going to miss that family more than anything. I promised them that if I ever come back to visit Ecuador after the mission that I would be sure to visit them. I gave them one of my name tags. They gave me a really cool souvenir. I know I was best friends with that family in the pre existence and I was so happy to have some time to get to know them as a missionary. 

I was so blessed to work in such a beautiful sector. It was so pretty, it was a mix of the city and the country. A mix of cultures. We would go from crowded cities to isolated cornfields. I liked seeing the volcano's. I was blessed for the experiences I could have. The two baptisms we had with Andy and Silvia, those two are golden and are going strong. We saw so many miracles helping to reactivate less actives, and investigators that I could help find and teach are now progressing a lot. 

I am now in Quito the city. High on a mountain that towers over the city. I am in Santa Anita, which I think is cool because my Granny's name is Anita. It is a beautiful sector, it is basically the top of a mountain. It is all a steep hill, so my leg is going to die, but God blesses his missionaries. I am here with Elder Vera, my first Latino companion from Santiago Chile. He has a ton of experience and is getting ready to finish his mission. I am excited for the new opportunities I have and am grateful for your prayers and support.

Chao,
Elder Roberts

This is my old district.





















Monday, May 11, 2015

Feliz Dia de la madre

¡ Hola mis amigos! I hope everyone is doing great and I hope you women out there especially had a great mothers day. This week was great in Ecuador, we had some really great moments, but today I want to focus on something more important than my mission and that is my mother.

My mom is honestly the best person in the world. I love her sooo much, and every day I miss her a ton, but I know for a fact that I would not be on a mission without her. She is the perfect example to me in almost everything. She has always been there for me, she has always encouraged me, she has helps me through really hard times, and she has an unconditional love for me. She has been a great mom since day one. I remember the night I got my big leg surgery a couple months before the mission I was just crying in the recovery room because my leg hurt so bad and I felt like I could never walk again and I wouldn't be able to go on my mission, but somehow her grabbing my hand and telling me it was going to be ok gave me all the confidence in the world.

I am inspired by the women here in Ecuador who literally have nothing and give everything to their kids. I am inspired by the women who carry their little babies in the blanket slung across their backs. I am inspired by the women in the scriptures. I know women are so important, it was only after everything else was created that Eve came to the earth, because women are queens and deserve the best.

Please give my mom big hugs for me.

We have changes next Monday. I think I am going to leave my sector because I already have 3 changes here. It will absolutely break my heart to leave the people if I have to, but I know the Lord leads this mission and maybe he needs me somewhere else. have a great week everyone. 

Chao,
Elder Roberts

We´re not in Kansas anymore
The famlia San Martin
Otavalian family
So you can notice here that the lady is wearing the indigenous clothes. Her two sons and husband have pony tails. I love this family a ton and have worked with them a lot. There are about 5 different ladies in the ward that wear this type of clothing, and in otavalo and Imbabura all of the ladies wear this clothing. There are two different types of indigenous people, the other type look more like the Peruvians
This is one of my favorite families. I am going to miss them a ton.



Monday, May 4, 2015

I don´t like spiders

Ok, so yesterday during sacrament meeting some cute little Latino kids were giving their testimonies and then my companion just turned to me and pointed and crawling up my suit was a spider and in Ecuador the spiders are slightly larger and more scary looking and I like almost died, but all was well and the spider is now living in spirit prison.

We went into Quito on Tuesday to have special training with President and it was great. Hermana Richardson gave a really good training on how we can be more dedicated missionaries. I love the trainings we have, it was good to see all of the friends.

Unfortunately the baptism we had planned for Saturday didn´t work out, but hopefully this week or next week we can get a baptism. This sector has always been hard for baptisms, but I really have faith that we can see one this change. 

So there has always been confusion between our ward boundaries and the other ward.  The stake president has said something different and the high priest leader has said something different and our bishopric said something different, so they all met together to clarify the boundaries and we found out that like 75 percent of the people we work with now officially live in the other ward boundaries. That really was sad. Either we are going to have to get the boundaries changed again or we are going to basically have to start new with finding people to teach. Lets pray for a miracle that we can keep these people in this ward. 

Happy mothers day, everyone reading this give my mom a big hug from me and my sister too now that she will be home which is crazy to think about. 


Chao,
Elder Roberts
Hermana Roberts
Above some of the clouds
This is one of my best friends, Elder Miranda, he is my zone leader and he finishes up in 2 weeks and heads back to Peru. One of his old companions was from Minnesota and gave him this t shirt

I bought an old license plate. I think it is fake, but it is still cool.
Elder Caballero and me
​Me, Elder Rodriguez, Elder Caballero, and Elder Gallardo