Monday, July 25, 2016

And the rain came tumbling down

Being a missionary is the absolute best experience ever. I have learned so many lessons being a full time missionary and I am learning that there is nothing that brings a greater joy than helping someone change their life and come unto Christ. Like it is cool being in a different country, speaking a different language, learning a different culture, but what makes my time out here special is helping people find the truth and change their lives. It is indescribable. It is so beautiful helping someone in such a special way. I am cherishing this beautiful time I have to serve my brothers and sisters here in such a special part of the world.

Well this week we experienced two different types of climates, super hot and super hot with rain. hahaha. Saturday night my companion and I were out in the jungle far away from the city and it started to pour and pour hard. the streets turned into rivers and we had to walk up to our waists almost in water, it was pretty cool stuff.

Miracles that we saw this week, I don't even know where to start.

I am not sure who of you reading this consistently read the emails I write, but a couple of months ago my companion and I taught  a multitude of people up on a hill and we had like 30 people listening to us and it was one of the coolest experiences of my mission. Well just from that one visit where we decided to stand up and preach to a whole neighborhood on a hill we are seeing so many miracles from those people that we first started with just a couple of months or weeks ago.

Friday night the sisters had a baptism and my companion and I got to baptized their investigators, it was my companions first time baptizing in the mission so that was special for him. Anyways, we had some great miracles because before the baptismal service we went up to that hill and taught la familia cagua and invited them to the baptism. Before the baptism my companion and I had to go give a blessing of health to a sister from the ward and when we got back to the room where we were holding the baptismal service all of the seats were full from our investigators. Famila Cagua came and they brought all of their neighbors and extended family. ke we had 20 investigators there not including their kids......and the whole ward was like elders how did you get so many people to come and we were like.......YAY. Anyways, we had a ton of people come to the baptism and it ended up being a spiritual experience for them, many of our investigators received answers to their questions in that baptism.

Yesterday church was great. La Familia Cagua couldn't come because their mom who lives four hours away had a medical emergency but they told us they are going to come this next Sunday. Michale Jackson didn't come again, so we are going to see whats up with that, everyone that we thought would come to church didn't come and everyone that we thought would never come to church came. Right after the sacrament was blessed and passed we had all of those families from that Hill come and listen to the talks and they all stayed for the three hours. YES! We have so much to be grateful for. 

This last week we decided to have a plan as a district called plan 10 20. This plan means that every night at ten twenty we get down on our knees and offer prayers individually pleading for the progress of our investigators with baptismal dates and I think by doing this plan we as a district are seeing so many miracles. If anyone would be interested in praying with us at 10 20 or another hour here are our investigators we have as a district.

La Familia Cagua for the 6th of August
La Familia Cagua Serna for the 13th of August
Savi Perea for the 30th of July
Fernando for the 6th of August
Miguel for the 20th of August.

I think if Heavenly Father listens to so many prayers at the same time for the same thing that he will really see how determined we are to help our brothers and sisters in their spiritual progression. 

Love, Elder Roberts


 Chillin with the companion

 Baputismo
 We saw a river otter 
Butterfly in the bishops office

Monday, July 18, 2016

MICHAEL JACKSON

Well all of our hard work has been paying off. yesterday EVERYONE CAME TO CHURCH. I was so happy, there is nothing better than seeing the people you teach progress. We were able to get a lot of our investigators to church and I think they all had a great experience. I was asked to give a talk yesterday in church and I talked about my bad leg and explained why I walk like a penguin but how the trial has made me a stronger missionary and a better person. 

We had a great experience this week because my companion and I decided to take La Familia Cagua on a tour of the chapel. We showed up to their house and they put on their best clothes to tour the church and as we were heading to the church we passed by two of the sisters in law of Hermana Cagua and they also wanted to check out the church with us and we were able to show them the whole church and we ended with a prayer kneeling down in front of the baptismal font and it was a spiritual experience for everyone.

When we are living worthy of the spirit we can do whatever the Lord needs us to do, we just have to follow the impressions that the Spirit puts in our minds and in our hearts and we can be epistles of the Lord. I had several experiences this week where the Lord put us exactly in the right place at the right time. One of our families of recent converts was passing through a huge problem and my companion and I showed up right in time to help them out and it was super spiritual. Another one of the recent converts was super depressed and we showed up and it was super great. I love being able to be a missionary and be guided towards those that need to hear how much God loves them.

Well this week my companion and I had to drop a family that has been investigating a long time but hasn't come to church for months. We gave them a super direct charla franca and told them we would check up on them in 2 months to see if they have changed their minds and as we were leaving in the neighboring house there was this kid staring at us. He was super interested in the church and we contacted him and his name is literally Michael Jackson. We didn't believe him until he showed us his identification card drivers license thing, I am not sure what it is called in English....and he accepted a baptismal date but he didn't come to church, so we are going to see what is happening, but the two visits we had with him this week. How cool would that be to baptize someone named Michael Jackson.

Well the work here is going great. I miss you all so much, but the mission is the best! YAY VIVA ECUADOR!
Love,  Elder Roberts

 The dangerous snake.
 We saw this little guy crossing the road and then it got hit by a car.  There are a ton of these snakes in my sector and they are dangerous .
bacan diga

Monday, July 11, 2016

mas temblores diga

Well, this week starts change 2 of Elder Delgado and I being together I am excited that I will be staying here in Quininde. There are so many people that I want to help out before I get transferred out of here. 

This week we got to know our new Mission President, President Murphy, he is super great. He came to the coast to get to know us and had brief interviews with him.  Even tho I still don't know him super well, I feel like I can really depend on him and I think he is going to be great for the mission. We certainly miss President and Hermana Richardson.  It was weird not having them there, but I think it is kind of cool having two different Mission Presidents.

Last night at 9:20 there were two more earthquakes here. Since I have been here in the coast I have felt probs like 20 to 30 small aftershocks, but only 5 big earthquakes and last night were two of them. We were heading back from our appointment. Here we have to be back in the house at 9 but if we are in an important appointment we can get back at 9:30, so we were heading back to the house and we ran into some members and were talking with them in the street and then the street started to shake a little and it got stronger. About 5 minutes later came the strong earthquake it was a lot stronger, not as strong as what there was about a month ago, but it was significantly strong and my companion and I are going to go check out the poorer part of the sector to see if any more houses have fallen or anything, but I feel like I am getting used to the whole earthquake thing now, it seems like we are always feeling aftershocks.

This week my companion and I taught the law of chastity in a super direct manner to a family whose children are the members, the mom is an investigator, and the dad doesn't really show much interest, but we were super direct with them telling them they are living in sin and all of that and they need to get married. Anyways, we got to the part about talking about pornography and stuff and I realized that they had one of those inappropriate calendars on their wall ( most of the people here in the coast have inappropriate calendars on their wall including some active members, I think it is just kind of a cultural thing) but anyways I realized that the calendar counted as pornography and the spirit told me to tell them to take it down. I didn't really give the spirit much credit and I kept on blabbing on, but the spirit told me to tell them to take it down and they will feel more peace in their house. I indirectly told them, yeah we shouldn't have inappropriate things in our house and if we do we should get rid of them to have the spirit with us. I then passed the time to my companion and the spirit told me ¨that isn't what I told you to say, tell them to take the calendar down¨and I was super nervous about being super direct to them, but I knew I needed to obey this prompting and I prayed for strength, and it was super awkward, probs one of the most awkward moments of my mission, but when my companion passed the time back to me, I told them, you will never feel the spirit in this room unless you get rid of that calendar, can you please take it down and get rid of it? Well, anyways even tho it was awkward, I felt better for confiding in the spirit. It made me think of the calling of prophet, the prophets have to be direct and are rejected a lot and I guess sometimes we have to declare repentance in a difficult way to people too.

We still didn't have too much success getting people to church on Sunday, but my companion and I last night came up with an excellent plan for getting our families to come to church this Sunday, I am really optimistic for this upcoming week. We had a ward activity Saturday night where we converted one of the classrooms into a movie theater and we popped popcorn and prepared pop for the people and the  Hermanas brought the movie Meet the Mormons and we got a ton of people to come and it was a super successful activity, we are going to be planning more activities.

My companion and I have the goal to talk with everyone we see this week, when Elder Holland came he told us if we don't talk with everyone we are sinning, because we are judging who is worthy to receive this gospel and who isn't, and that hit me hard. I am going to do my best to talk with everyone I possibly can this week and not judge them.

Well things here in the coast are going hot, humid, and great. Thanks for your prayers and support, I love and miss all of you, but I honestly couldn't be any happier than I am right now here in Ecuador. I am absolutely in love with this country and I am enjoying every second of my mission. Its the best! 

Love,
Elder Roberts

With La Familia Mendoza

Elder Gerber, Elder Delgado, and I

Elder Kerr, Elder Gerber, and I 


Like Father Like Son 

 All of the kids from my sons group in Quito

I was studying the scriptures in kichwa and saw the biggest word I have seen in my whole life



























Monday, July 4, 2016

Iguanalandia

This week we ran into a ton of wild iguanas, unfortunately I didn't take a picture of any of them, but after this week I am convinced that ECUADOR has to be the Iguana capital of the world.

I am now a dead sister missionary. That probs doesn't make sense to anyone reading this who isn't familiar with the missionary work, but the missionaries who are men serve a mission for two years and the women only serve for a year and a half and this last week I completed a year and a half being a missionary. I want to testify as to how much the mission has changed my life. Being a missionary is the absolute best decision that I have made. I am not sure if when I finish that I will be able to say that these have been the best 2 years in my life, but they surely have been the best 18 months and soon to be 2 years for my life. I have changed so much. Physically I have changed just a little bit, a little bit balder, a little bit tanner, a little bit skinnier, a little bit older. But spiritually I have changed so much. Being a missionary has helped me become a better disciple of Christ. My priorities in my life have changed. Worldly things like music or movies or sports just aren't important to me anymore, the only thing that is important to me now is living this Gospel and preparing myself to live with my Heavenly Father.

This last week was great, but hard, in fact it had to be one of the hardest weeks in my mission. I have never been more exactly obedient or worked harder in my whole mission this last week. We were blessed to visit and find so many people. The visits we had were super spiritual. One of the things my companion and I were able to do was work a lot with the members. Every day we had members accompanying us and we were able to go on a lot of divisions. All day yesterday was basically just going on splits with the members and we were able to cover alot. We did everything we could to make solid plans for our investigators and less actives come to church and yesterday I was expecting a mountain of people to come to church and very very few came.  The church was basically desolate yesterday. there was like this elementary school cultural celebration thing going on at a park here for all of the elementary schools in Quininde and everybody in the world went to that...I was so sad during all of church. I was so sad that we had worked our tails off and we weren't able to get our investigators to church.

Saturday we went to our super awesome family la familia Caugua and we had visited them every day this week and they were progressing so much, one of the strongest families that I have seen and we got there Saturday to teach and verify that they were going to come to church and the dad was hungover from drinking the previous night.....I honestly started crying, it was like the worst news i could have possibly heard in this moment. We are going to visit them tonight and teach them about the good old word of wisdom.

BUT WE HAD MIRACLES

Yesterday I was honestly so sad after church, we went back to the apartment to change out of our suits into regular pants and short sleeve shorts and I just started praying, but then I felt the spirit so overwhelmingly strong when my companion turned his speaker on and we started listening to some missionary hymns, I knew that everything was going to be ok. I felt Heavenly Fathers love and I felt the spirit comfort me. I actually felt so overwhelmed by the spirit. The mission isn't about having a mountain of baptisms or anything like that, it is doing your best and giving your best to Christ.

Last night my companion went to visit Jose Angulo with the Elders Quorum President and the Ward Mission Leader on a division and I stayed in the city with another leader and one of our recent converts who is a ward missionary and yesterday I felt a need to visit a contact we had earlier in the week. Turns out the contact that we visited is the sister of the Hermano Caugua that we had been visiting and this sister has attended church a lot and she wants to be baptized with her kids....that was like the best miracle I had, and I know that the Lord had answered my prayers that after working through a hard week that we were able to see the fruits. So please pray for the other familia Caugua that they can be baptized the 30th of this month. 

The mission is great, I am just loving it. My companion is so great, I am so happy and blessed that he is my companion. We are enjoying our time together. EVEN tho we haven't really been blessed with a lot of baptisms or anything like that, we are giving it our all and seeing miracles every day and we are becoming better disciples of Christ.

I love you all and hope you have a great day. 
Elder Roberts