Guagua Pan y Colada Morada

Well here in Ecuador we don't celebrate Halloween nor day of the dead. But at this time of the year the tradition is to make colada morada which is like this hot raspberry pineapple drink and it is so delicious and also guagua pan which means little breads that look like babies. Guagua is a word in Kichwa. So life is going here in Yaruqui everyone is giving us guagua pan and some colada morada.

I am really sorry to hear about the passing of my Great Grandpa George Samuel Roberts, he is the best. I am going to miss him. Fortunately I know of Gods perfect plan and know that I will be seeing my great Grandpa again. I am glad that our loving Heavenly Father allowed him to live such a long life at 98 years, that is such a great accomplishment. He was such a great example to me. Even tho we lived far away from each other, he is an amazing man and I am proud to be is great grandson. Even tho we didn't share the same religious beliefs, his great faith in our Savior Jesus Christ was immense and blessed my life in unimaginable ways. He helped me to get here on my mission. I know he is going to be very blessed for the much good that he has brought about here in the world. 

Well our golden family is more golden than ever. I just love them so much and it has been one of the biggest miracles in my life being able to meet them and teach them and see them grow in this gospel. Even tho I have only known them for a few short weeks, I have this feeling that I have always known them. They are always going to have a special place in my heart and I am excited for the 12th to see them make their first of many covenants with our loving Heavenly Father. We are trying to get our mission President to come to the baptism as well, it is going to be great. 

Yesterday we decided to spend some time contacting and my companion pointed to a big house that looked empty and was like hey lets knock this door and I wanted him to feel good and be happy so I followed him even tho I thought deep down inside that there was nobody there and we would be wasting our time. I was surprised as two young adults opened the door and even let us in, let us share our message, and wanted us to come back. I know my companion is a great missionary, he is really receptive to the spirit and he is a great blessing for me. 

Well, this week is going to be so busy, we just have so much stuff to do. There is way too much work to do, too many people to visit, and there just simply isn't enough time or enough people to do it all. I love you all, the mission is the best. I hope you all have a great week. 

Love, Elder Roberts

 My companion and I in front of the Quinche, where the Pope visited when he came here

 The beautiful Ecuadorian landscape

 GUAGUA PAN

 The oven

With my all time favorite family of Yaruqui, la familia Quinchimbla Auqui, from youngest to oldest Nayra, Sarita, Prisila, Wilver, Wendy, Veronica, Wilver, the parents and their 12 year old daughter are going to get baptized the 12th, we are going to see if the dad can be able to baptize his other children two weeks after. They are so awesome.

MILAGROS Y MANÍ

Well, the bad news is that I ate peanuts this week. It was terrible, I think my peanut allergy has gotten worse instead of getting better. We were teaching some investigators Saturday night when they gave us a treat. Some plantain and they knew I was allergic to peanuts so they put peanut butter in my companions and in the kid who was accompanying us and they put cheese in mine. Long story short they used the same knife that they used to spread the peanut butter to cut the cheese (haha) and yeah. I started dying. We ran back to the apartment and I used my epi pen ( sorry mom, I am honestly doing my best to avoid peanuts) and my companion and the future missionary who was accompanying us gave me a priesthood blessing. The priesthood blessing definitely helped a lot because I started feeling a lot better afterwords.

Holy Cow, we had some Zion camp type action this week. I was on another division with Elder Arrietta, my Colombian zone leader and we worked hard. We literally talked with more than a hundred people in a huge park but we got SO REJECTED. Oh my gosh, I don't know why people are so mad at us for trying to help them be happy and have salvation and everything. We decided to leave the park and we started walking up and down some streets and some guy came to us and said he was like the neighborhood watchmen and asked us what we were doing. We were like oh we are missionaries, we are getting to know the people and teach them a special message about Jesus Christ and the families. He said, yeah we don't want you here and if you don't leave right now I am going to call the police........The natural man in me wanted to say a couple of things to him and maybe whip out my bible and chastise him a little bit, but we left and found another street to contact. But despite all the rejection it was fun working hard.

We had the saddest visit of my life on Saturday. We went far away to a little pueblo that is between the cities of Ascazubi and Cusubamba ( I am not sure if dad is going to look that up on google maps) but anyways we visited a less active family that was baptized like a year and a half ago, la familia Simba.......they have received us well in the past and we told them we missed them in church and they told us, yeah we have talked as husband and wife and we have made the decision that we aren't ever going to go to church again.......we were like. SAY WHAT! and yeah, they talked about all these reasons about why they don't want to go to church and then my companion and I felt the spirit strong and we did some hardcore testifying and scripture sharing and inspired questions.....I think my companion was really sad for that situation, but sometimes people just have their agency. The good news is that even tho they don't want to come to church, they still love us a ton and are going to give us lunch on Saturday, so we are going to see what we can do there. Just pray for them hardcore that Satan can get stomped the heck out of the house of that family.

SO LETS TALK ABOUT THE MIRACLES BABY

Familia Quichimbla is really Familia Quinchimbla, Holy Cow, they are SO AWESOME. We are visiting them like every day and they have gotten answers and know this is true and are determined to get baptized and the dad even wants to be a missionary like us after he gets baptized. They are the best. Last night we had a super spiritual visit with them in the chapel with a member of the branch presidency and the elders quorum president and his wife. We watched the 20 minute video of the restoration and all shared our testimonies. To say that the Spirit of God like a fire is burning would be an understatement. It was so powerful, the dad Quinchimbla said ¨why didn't you knock my door earlier, why couldn't I have found out about this path earlier, why did it take so long, oh well I am glad that it came, the day you knocked our door is the day that has and is changing my life..¨Oh my gosh, that made all of the hard days in this sector worth it. I love this family, they are just the best. I know the Lord needed Elder Gehring and I here to help them. Keep on praying for them that their whole cute little family can get baptized the 12th. 

We are just working hard and having a good time. The mission is going by too fast. Sometimes I think wow if I wouldn't have gone on the mission, I could have been working, I could have studied, I could be almost graduating from college, but none of that is even a fraction to the joy that I have had being a missionary. THIS WAS THE RIGHT DECISION. Being a missionary was the absolute right decision and the best decision I made in my life. I don't regret it and I never will. There is nothing that could make me feel happier than helping someone find the joys of the truth of the Gospel. I couldn't be spending my time in any better way. Even tho it is kind of cool to think in like 2 months I will be home with friends and family and worldly things like movies, music, sports, all of that, it makes me so sad thinking about dropping all of this. But I know if I work hard even until the last day that the Lord will make me feel great about my efforts here and I will be able to feel the peace of knowing that I gave my all to the Lord and I did what he asked me to do. I am so excited to be here. I love you all and I testify that Jesus Christ is my King and this is his work. 

Love,

Elder Roberts

 I accidentally cut my face walking into a metal sign

 Dusty road selfies

District activity selfie

WORK HARD PRAY HARD

Well, this has had to be one of the best weeks in my mission. For realz, I couldn't even write all of the miracles that we have seen. Elder Gehring and I are such a great companionship, the lord really knows what he was doing putting us together.  We are able to put our individual talents to help the people here progress and we are seeing a lot of progress here in this tiny branch in this beautiful part of Ecuador.

So, first of all last Tuesday we had capacitation with President which was super good. It was about how we can make sure our investigators are really ready for baptism and make sure that they have repented of their sins and it was super good. After that we had interviews with President. Holy cow, President Murphy is the best, I really enjoyed my interview with him he was able to give me some great counsels. I was kind of nervous tho because my whole district had their interview and than it was my turn and I walked in and President said have a seat Elder, ¨Elder your companion tells me that you aren't teaching him Spanish.....¨and I was like.....uhhhhh.....we are really only speaking Spanish when we study and leave the apartment, we only speak English at night and in the morning, and he said ¨he told me you are only teaching him kichwa¨and he started laughing.....and I was like....uhhhh hahaha. It was great. And then he was like ¨but is it true that you speak kichwa¨and I was like uhhhh.... a little bit. and he said do you know how to pray in kichwa and I was like yes and he said how about you say the opening prayer in kichwa and I did it and it was pretty cool beanz. And then he said he was just kidding that my companion told him that we practice Spanish but that elder Roberts is obsessed with learning kichwa lol. I love my companion and I love President.

So the miracle. My companion and I had some high goals this week and we reached all of them. We contacted so many people this week, and we contacted in the rain and we worked and worked and worked and prayed and prayed and prayed and had faith we had miracles. AND WE FOUND A FAMILY OF GOLD. OF GOLD. ABSOLUTE GOLD. Holy cow I cant explain how golden they are. They live right across the street form the chapel, all they have to do to get to church is cross the street. They are awesome, they are married so that wont impede them from their baptism and they are passing through some hard times and they love this gospel it is what they have been praying for, they are la famila Quichimba. They are just the cutest family ever, they are a family of 7 and 4 of them accepted a baptismal date for the 12th, and they all came to the 3 full hours of church yesterday. We visited them last night and they cried and told us they have been praying for help for their family and we knocked their door and this is exactly what they needed. oh my gosh they are just amazing. Please please pray and fast and fast and pray for them.

We had 9 investigators at church yesterday. My whole time here we have had like between 0 and 3 and yesterday we had 9, I know it not good to focus on numbers, but it is fun to focus on them when they are high.

Also we did some divisions yesterday with members and I think it was a good experience with my companion just being forced to be with Latinos, He is progressing with his Spanish, he is so awesome. holy cow. I love the mission.

I LOVE THE MISSION SO MUCH.

I love you all. have a great week.

Elder Roberts

 Teaching Carmen

 Working hard

 COTOPAXI

 Beautiful sunset as the sun hides behind the volcano Pichincha

 This is the worst drink I have had in my mission. It is like squash and a type of banana. 

 Chilling on our roof

 District Activity in da mall

Hey dad, there's payless here in Quito

TENDER MERCIEE

WELL THIS WEEK WAS AMAZING. First off, I won a Pokem Go t shirt so I hope you all are jealous. 

There has been some major satan slappin ( as my sister Mallory would say) going on here in Ecuador. Yesterday Elder Carlos Godoy came to Otavalo to organize the 3rd stake there. WOW. and to think I could be a part of expanding the work there. Ecuador is the best. viva Otavalo! 

This week started great, I went to Iñaquito, where I worked with Good Old Elder Quispe until Wednesday, it was SUCH A PARTY! Oh my gosh. best 3 days of my life hahaha. Elder Quispe is a beast and we worked hard and played hard, that was such a tender mercy of the Lord for letting us be together again for a couple of days and remember the good times. Even tho he is from Peru, I know we will be eternal friends. SO Elder Quispe and I are both training and Wednesday morning we went to the chapel to receive our new missionaries. 

I received ELDER GEHRING. He is super awesome. He is 18 years old and is from Vernal Utah and is a super good missionary. I love the passion he shows for the gospel and his work ethic. Like for realz I have never been so tired in my life we are working hard. He is working super hard. I think the hardest is Spanish, because with Elder Delgado when I trained him I didn't have to train the language too, but in just the first week I have been with Elder Gehring his Spanish has improved a lot. He is such a great missionary. And we are working super hard and have already seen some fruits, I am optimistic that there will be a ton of fruits before I leave this place.

SO the assistants challenged us to give out a book of mormon before we got to our house and in the taxi ride to the bus station, Elder Gehring and I contacted the taxi driver and gave him the book of mormon. Then as we were finishing up the night we decided to talk with one more person before we got in the house and Elder Gehring gave another book of mormon to a young man in the park. We are talking with everyone and we found 2 new super cool families this week.

Our plans fell through and we said a prayer and started knocking doors and the first couple of people didn't show much interest, but then a family invited us in and listened to us and they have a ton of potential. La familia Mesache. they are super cool and they have a daughter named Katy who is like 25 years old who lives like super far away, but we found her house and she was super happy and it was awesome. The Lord is really preparing people for us.

Yesterday we were knocking more doors and La Familia Sanchez let us in their house and even made food for us and accepted our message. They are cool, but I am not sure how much interest they had in the restoration. We will see if we can find them again.

So yesterday was one of the absolute best days of my mission. So right now I am serving in the Quito Stake and Santa Anita where I served over a year ago is also part of the Quito Stake. Anyways yesterday was Stake conference and I saw like EVERYONE from Santa Anita. I was in tears, I even saw my special Amiga Aylin. We were so happy to see each other she kept on hugging me and holding my hand. She will forever be my best friend that I have made in the mission. I saw some less actives that I was working with in Santa Anita and they are now receiving the Melchizedek priesthood and going on missions. WHAT. I was crying, I was so happy. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting me see them all again. I loved Santa Anita, and I loved serving there it was such a special place. The Lord has blessed me so much to put me in so many special places and to know so many amazing people. Gosh Dang it, I just love Ecuador so much. I DON'T WANT TO COME HOME. well, that is my week, I am looking forward to a glorious week and to see what will happen. I wish you all the best of look and hope you have a great week wherever you are at, and I hear the vikings are doing good, so go vikes from Ecuador. K BYE.

Elder Roberts

 Elder Equite ( Now he is just Hermano Equite and I) I served in the same zone with him a little over a year ago

Hermana Marsela and I 

Elder Damian and I 

 2 of my favorite companions, ELder Damian and ELder Quispe

 ELder Quispe and I with our entrenees Elder Gehring and Elder Christiansen

 Encebollado for breakfast

 Familia Chicaiza

 Familia Chicaiza Part 2 ( Priesthood Power)

 LA FAMLIA GALARZA

 WITH TWO OF MY BEST FRIENDS ,SWAG DADDY ELDER/ FUTURE ELDER SWAG

 LOS PODEROSO 4 

 JOEL Y YO

 MY AMIGA AND I, I LOVE HER SO MUCH

MAMI JENI, ASHLI, AYLIN, AND ELDER ROBERTITO

 ELDER GEHRING and ME

 Helping Elder Gehring get his stuff in the taxi

UNA SEMANA PODEROSISIMA

Well, I am chillin here in Yaruqui right now with one of my best friends in the whole world, Elder Quispe. Elder Quispe and I were companions for 3 months almost a year ago when we served in Otavalo. We are both going to be training new missionaries this change and since we are in the same zone now we are going to be together until Wednesday or Thursday until we get our new trainees. I am pumped. It was sad to part ways with Elder Miranda and I was jealous that he is going to Tulcan, but I am pumped for him as well. 

General Conference was super awesome! I loved seeing that Thomas S. Monson is doing well enough to speak and I was touched by his few but powerful words. I love testifying daily that he is God´s prophet here in earth. He will always have a special place in my heart as he was the prophet who called me on the mission. The mission is da best! Anyways, one talk that really struck out to me was from Juan A. Uceda. I love Elder Uceda, when I started my mission he was the Area President here in the Area of South America North West in which Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela are all members. When I hit like 7 months in the mission, Elder Ulisses Soares of the presidency of the 70 came to my mission and Elder Uceda accompanied him and I remember Elder Ucedas talk from his visit to the Quito north mission. It was awesome listening to his talk in the conference and I think his talk had a huge impact on me. I am determined to better my prayers and my relation with my Heavenly Father, I know he loves me so much and he always wants to listen to us. 

No really crazy experiences for this week. This week was really good food wise. We showed up to our mamita on Tuesday and she had ceviche de camaron. oooohhhhh, that was the best. Then Wednesday our mamita made cuy which is Spanish for guinea pig for us. I love cuy, it is super delicious, but it always reminds me of all the pet hamsters we had lol. Also, on Saturday before conference, our less active sold us some delicious encebollado. la mama diga! I miss the food from the coast so much. but it was a really good week in terms with food.

Well, sorry that not a whole lot happened or I didn't really take pictures, I am sure getting a new companion will be filled with all sorts of unique experiences and I am sure I will have a ton to write for next week. but I love you all and hope you have an absolutely amazing week!

Love, Elder Roberts