I AM NOT ON A MISSION TRIP, I AM ON A MISSION

Is it bad that I didn't know that it was Easter this last week until I opened my emails and got all of these Happy Easter letters? I thought Easter was this next week.....Here all of the Catholics are celebrating semana santa, so that has been cool. 

So, we went to Quito on Tuesday and we were on the super crowded bus, and I ended up getting shoved next to another gringo. Here the buses in Ecuador are packed like sardines, it is super uncomfortable and dangerous on the bus. Anyways, I got shoved into this gringo who tried telling me in Spanish that my tie was cool and than I was like gracias, hey I speak English too. and we started talking.  I found out he is from Finland, and then he is like, so are you here on a mission trip? I AM NOT ON A MISSION TRIP.  MISSION TRIPS ARE WHEN HIGH SCHOOL KIDS GO TO ANOTHER COUNTRY TO TEACH ENGLISH OR BUILD HOUSES FOR A COUPLE WEEKS WHICH IS GREAT. I AM HERE FOR 2 YEARS NOT TO LEARN ANOTHER LANGUAGE OR BUILD HOUSES EVEN THOUGH I HAVE HELPED OUT A LITTLE IN BOTH OF THOSE THINGS. I AM HERE ON A MISSION. I AM HERE TO HELP BRING MORE OF HEAVENLY FATHERS CHILDREN TO HIM, TO HELP THEM FIND SALVATION, TO TEACH THEM THE GOSPEL. ok nuff said. 

OK, well I don't have much to say. Another slowish week. I am super happy to be here in San Roque, last night we had a miracle. Every month, the ward has a ward noche de hogar , or a ward family home evening and it was super awesome. We got a ton of investigators to go and they asked me to share my testimony, I like almost never cry...but yesterday I just started balling during my testimony and telling everyone how much I love them and their language and their culture, it was super awesome. I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father sent me here. I couldn't have asked for a better place to serve a mission.

The ward went to the temple this last week and a lot of families that were baptized a year ago went to get sealed for time and all eternity. It was super awesome to listen to their testimonies yesterday in sacrament meeting.

I am sooo excited for General Conference, General Conference is like the best thing on the mission. I testify that there are living prophets and apostles here to guide us. I remember going with Jayden, and Calon, and the whole Minnesota crew 2 Octobers ago to the General Conference and I was amazed and could feel the spirit testify to me that in these days prophets walk the earth. I was so excited 6 weeks ago when I saw Elder Holland and got to shake his hand, and I am excited to see what him and all the other apostles have to say. I encourage all of you to watch Conference and look for answers to your questions. I know that God lives, and listens to our prayers, and answers our questions. 

Love, Elder Roberts

Just got a chicken foot in my mouth

Lets just say this soup didn't agree with my stomach

Celebrating my birthday a little late in the zone 

We found a bamboo hut in our sector 

 I saw the train

 Me seeing the train

 Me with la familia Cordova Tituaña

 Alberto, Lisbeth, Aaden and I 

 I dressed up as a wawki on Sunday, my selifie with Hermano Jorge Montalvo

I found a Nazi here in Ecuador

estoy cansado de buses

Well this week was actually way too normal, I don't have anything interesting to say, nothing crazy happened this week. We spent 2 days this week going to Quito.  My companion has some dental problems and the mission only allows missionaries to get dental work done in Quito, so we had 2 days of our week filled with traveling to and back from Quito, and tomorrow and Friday we have to go to Quito as well so my companion can get his teeth situation figured out.

Lets just say I am super tired of bus rides, they are so boring, and the roads here are crazy and doing all of this traveling makes me car sick. It is just windy bumpy roads on crowded hot buses. It has been kind of hard not just working in the sector, because there is so much work to be done, but I know my companions health is important, and I remember all the times I was sick or had doctors visits and my companions were patient with me, so I am just trying to be patient and grateful that there are doctors here to help us. 

On this last Friday we went to Quito and I was able to take advantage of our time there by quickly passing by the doctor and getting my ingrown toenail removed.  This was like the fifth time on the mission that I have had to take care of that toe. I need to learn how to cut my toenails better....hahaha. Between that doctors visit and the dentist visit we had like 4 hours in Quito with nothing to do and we were actually not in our mission, the hospital and church offices and dentist office are all in the MIssion Quito not in the Quito North Mission, so we had permission to be outside our mission limits and we walked through some parts of Quito that were really cool that I hadn't seen before. It was cool just walking from the hospital to the dentist.  It was like a 2 hour walk and we walked by some cool things, one of which was this huge catholic church or basilica or something that Quito is super famous for, it just towers above all the surrounding buildings. It was super cool and we saw the Panecilio too

Well we had some hard moments this week, like everyone we have progressing got hit with some huge problem this week.  We are seeing a lot of trials in the lives of those we are teaching, so we are praying for miracles. I know God is a God of miracles, I have seen so many in my life and especially on the mission. I pray that we can also find new promising people to teach. The good news is the family we recently baptized, well the 12 and 14 year old kids are now waking up at 4 in the morning to go to seminary. They have to walk like more than an hour down the volcano to get to the chapel, but they love it. They are golden converts.

I love you all and hope you all have a great week. 

Elder Roberts

 This is the jatun rumi, which is Kichuwa for big rock

 These are red bananas, they are a lot better than the normal ones

 Look little Aeden is in a nest just like Clayton would do

I ran into my good friend Elder Veliz, I served with him in Tulcan

My companion Elder Sejas and I 

A child took a pic of me during a lesson or something

Ñuca Charini Ishkaychunga watata

I am now 20 years old, I think today has been the most uneventful birthday I have had, but yeah thanks for all the Happy Birthdays I love you all. I feel like 20 years ago I was probably getting my last goodbyes from my Heavenly Family and maybe even Parker and Clayton were there and Heavenly Father probably told me, I am going to send you to the best family on the earth, and I love my family. I miss you all!

Well, I ate peanuts yesterday, I ended up using the epi pen, and then we hauled from the house where I ate the peanuts to our house which was like 35 minutes walking down the volcano. When we got to the house I realized my pants were soaked in blood...I guess I must have put my epi pen in an artery or something, but I didn't even realize it was bleeding so bad until I got home and saw so much blood, it kind of freaked me out, but I am all better now. I hate peanuts.

We saw the largest tarantula that exists this last week. We were walking down the dark street and saw something move and shined the flashlight our cell phone has on it and it was huge! I was so scared!

Have you ever felt like you could be an angel for someone? Like you were the means of answering someones prayers? That has happened a couple times to me on the mission, but the most significant I feel like was this week. Before lunch, there wasn't much to do, so my companion and I planned to do a surprise visit to one of the old widows in the ward named Maria Mercedes. She has to be like 80 or almost 90 years old and barely speaks any Spanish. She has a super hard time getting to church, cuz she lives like 15 minutes walking away from the chapel, but directly up and to walk up and down the volcano her legs cant handle it that much, so she comes like once a month, but she has to leave like 2 hours early to walk to the church. 

We showed up to her house to surprise her, and she wasn't there.....she is always there. we were very surprised because it is hard for her to physically leave her house. We decided to go to our plan b which was like 20 minutes away. My companion being new to the sector didn't know how to get there, so we were walking towards our plan b and my companion asked is it this street and really the street he indicated was the fastest way to get there, but I felt this tiny little feeling to take the small chaquiñan which is Kichuwa for foot path. We went on this tiny little path along one of the cataracts here and I am not sure why, but as we crossed a turn, we saw this old lady. Then we realized it was her! IT WAS THE LADY WE HAD PLANNED TO VISIT! We caught up to her and she was crying, she was so sad. She fell the day before and she was in so much pain. We helped her walk a little bit, me on one side, my companion on the other and we took her to a spot to rest. She cried and said she felt alone and she was just praying that she could be comforted. We showed up in the right place at the right time. We just sat there in path with her and listened to her for like 40 minutes. We just let her talk and we listened. We couldn't understand much cuz it was almost all kin Kuchuwa, but she wanted a blessing too. So on that tiny, muddy path, my companion and I got our pants muddy as we knelt there next to her as she was laying down and we gave her a blessing. I never felt so needed in my life. I have had too many experiences where I have been in the right place on the right time that I cant believe in coincidence. What I do believe is that God answers his prayers and sends Angels to protect his children when they need them. I am glad he sent my companion and I to this lady right when she needed someone there for her.

I have learned to love old people, they are so cute. Especially the old indigenous people here. haha

Love you all,

Elder Roberts

These are Sunday clothes here in Otavalo.

 I honestly have no clue what happened in this picture?

 After walking an hour up the volcano and watching the clouds slowly come down the volcano

 We where an hour late of seeing these little baby pigs get born

So there have been a lot of these beetles out on the street

UNA NOCHE BLANCISIMA

Well, late last night we found out the changes, Elder Quispe went to Tulcan, I stayed up all night telling him about Tulcan and showing him pictures and I am tired now, but I know he is going to love it there. I am now with Elder Sejas, he is from Cochabamba Bolivia, he has like 7 monthish on the mission, but he seems pretty cool. I am excited to see what he has to bring here to San Roque, but I am thrilled to be here for another change.

Saturday at 3 in the morning there was a small earthquake here.  All day Saturday everyone was talking about it like hey did you feel the earthquake and I was like what are you talking about, I guess we work so hard as missionaries and get soo tired that we sleep through just about anything.

I was kind of sitting in sacrament meeting bored yesterday because everything was in Kichuwa and I didn't understand much and I was just kind of thinking about all sorts of things and then the door opened in the back and I recognized the face and I realized it was my dear friend Humberto Montalvo. He is from here from San Roque but is living in Quito, I worked with him and his family when I started my mission and it was so cool seeing him. I really appreciated his visit. I will never forget him nor his family.

One of my best friends from Quito, Humberto Montalvo, came and visited me on Sunday!

So, we had an absolutely beautiful week. The most beautiful part was our noche blancisima. Friday night had to be one of the best nights of my mission. We had just the perfect baptism. It was so cool seeing the family all in white and realizing that they are going to be an eternal family, that I am going to see them all in white again when I see their pictures of them at the temple, and when I am living with them in the celestial kingdom. They are just the best family, they needed the gospel. The mom literally prayed and prayed for years that God would put a church in her path, She walked the streets alone at night looking for the truth, and somehow we ended up getting the reference of them and knocked on their door and everything changed for them. They have had a HARD life. A really hard life, and the Gospel has been the medicine they have needed. Jesus Christ has been a master doctor for them. I am so humbled and blessed to have been a part in bringing them into the Gospel.

Pretty much the coolest pic I have taken on the mission

I love you all, I hope you have a great week. I have been kind of sick this week, my stomach has been weird, I think it is the food here. I am having a hard time eating a lot, so if you can keep my health in your prayers. Thanks for all of your prayers, I know God has sent so many angels in my path and in the lives of those I teach. Have an amazing week!

Love, Elder Roberts

 Malki and I

 the whole group together

 I can now say I have my mom closest to my heart

We've got a swag daddy in the chapel, I repeat swag daddy in the chapel

Another one with me and Elder Holland