FELIZ NAVIDAD ÑAÑOS

Ok, so this week was going great until Saturday night. I started feeling super sick and started throwing up. We called it a day and went back to the house early and I was throwing up super hardcore and I started freaking out. After 2 hours of only throwing up I went to the emergency room and suffered there. Fun way to wake up the mission President at almost the middle of the night to tell him you are in the e.r.....I found out I had a bad stomach infection. I was pretty bummed out because I was super sick and I wasn't able to go to church yesterday. But I am starting to feel a little bit better. 

Holy cow, San Roque es la mama! It is pretty hilly here, but I am not walking up and down mountains all day, I am walking up and down a volcano all day. el volcán Imbabura. It is kind of hard for my leg, but I wouldn't have it any other way. 

My sector is so crazy. It is awesome. There are a ton of people in my sector that literally don't speak any Spanish. It is actually kind of hard. We want to talk to people in the street and stuff but they don't understand us. haha. There is like one latino family we are teaching, but they don't like going to church because they don't understand what's going on. 

The church is sooo strong here. Otavalo really isn't super big, but there are 2 stakes here and I think they are going to put a 3rd one in combined with Ibarra sometime in February. The members here are super strong. They are hard to baptize but when they commit they commit and stay strong in the church. We went on divisions this week and I am new to my sector and stuff so I was like ok lets talk to that family in the street. Every contact I have had in the street so far has been members.....lol. But it is awesome how strong the church is here. It is awesome. I love Otavalo, I just hate being sick. It is the worst. We are going to have a white Christmas. We are going to have at least 2 baptisms this Saturday. I hope you all have a great week and remember the birth of our Savior, the King of Kings. I share my testimony that he is the Son of God and he has come here to save us from ourselves. 

Love,

Elder Roberts

 Pictures from our Zones Christmas lunch at the mission home from last week.

SAN ROGUE, OTAVALO

Ok, so today was changes, I was super sad to leave Tulcan, as always it was super hard to say goodbye to everyone and leave behind four and a half months of memories and work, but I am so stoked to be here in Otavalo, I have been hoping my whole mission I would be here and I am finally here. I am with Elder Quispe from Peru, he seems really cool. Here the streets are just filled with Indians in their cool indigenous clothes, all the guys have ponytails, and my companion tells me that all of the church meetings including the sacrament and ward council are in Kichuwa. I will finally be able to put the little Kichuwa I know in use! I am so pumped!

For those of you who haven't been following my blog much, when Spencer W. Kimball came to Ecuador he said that the Otavalians have the purest lamanite blood out of any other group of people in the world. They dress differently. All of the men have ponytails including in the church, for example some of my past wards have had priesthood leaders with ponytails. The missionaries that leave from Otavalo also have permission to keep their ponytails, we have one in our mission. They speak a different language, and the culture is different, and I have had a special interest in them my whole mission and I am super stoked to be here.

Yesterday was the Primary Program, it has been the first Primary Program that I have seen in my whole mission and it was super awesome. It was the cutest little thing in the world. I ended up getting to play violin which was super awesome. Romel wasn't able to get baptized, but I know that I could help bring him unto Christ and hopefully this week or the next I will be getting a picture of him wearing white. 

Four and a half months in Tulcan without baptizing made me kind of sad, but I know I worked hard and I did what the Lord needed me to do there. There are so many ways to help bring others unto Christ, whether it is reactivating less actives, getting future investigators ready for the next missionaries, strengthening the branch, helping the city become more receptive to the missionary work. I can look back with happiness for my time in Tulcan.

Not really anything interesting to say, I am hoping you are all getting ready for Christmas. have a great week. 

Love,

Elder Roberts

 Me with my friend from the hardware store

 The primary

Elder Veliz and I 

 Carina our investigator

mis amigas 

 The rest of the pictures are me saying good by to my friends in Tulcan

EXTRANO COMIDA DE MI PAIS

So, this week we had the opportunity to go down to Quito to go to the mission house and have a Christmas lunch/dinner with President and Sister Richardson and it was amazing. I loved it. I could feel a special spirit there of Christmas. My mission President and his wife are the best, they are so loving and have helped me a ton and Sister Richardson knows how to cook. The food was so good. I have gotten so sick of eating plates of rice and beans every day for lunch. It was awesome eating turkey, yams, mashed potatoes, salad, brownies, ice cream, it made me trunky for American food lol. In other news our lunch this Thursday will be chicken and I have been the one selected to kill the chicken, should be fun. 

I was super sad to read about what happened in Lakeville with the Nerf War. That made me terribly sad to know that 2 kids from my High School died this past week in that tragic accident. I don't understand everything at all about why Heavenly Father gives us some of the trials we have,but I testify he lives and that his plan for us is a plan for happiness that we can have the peace and hope that we are going to be eternal families and live forever with our Heavenly Father if we love him and keep his commandments. I pray that Lakeville can rise up from this and that Christ can shower his mercy and grace upon those families affected.

Not much happened this week. We weren't able to baptize Romel, but it is looking very promising that this Saturday he is going to get baptized. I am going to pray my soul out for him that he can be ready. We have changes next Sunday and I think I am going to leave and I would love to see Romel get baptized before I go. He is such a stud! This less active that I helped reactivate in my time here received the priesthood last week and he didn't have a white shirt or a tie, so he got a white shirt and I gave him one of my best ties and I saw him bless the sacrament yesterday and it was awesome. I almost started crying when I saw him hand the tray to his son. I hope this family can go to the temple soon to be sealed for time and eternity. I love the rewarding moments of being a missionary. It is such a blessing for me to be here. I hope you all have a good week and are enjoying this Christmas season.

Oh and my sister is getting married soon asdlkfjaslñdfkjasodifuas dpfasdfklajsdfasjdfaslñdfjkasdflkjasdfljasdfa. that is all I know what to say. 

Love,

Elder Roberts

Me from Presidents house looking over Quito

 Me with Pres.and Sis. Richardson

Chillin with Elder Jeffery and Elder Whetten on the bus