LA VIRGEN DEL QUINCHE.

Well this week has been great, but absolutely interesting.

In my sector there are two major cities, there are Yaruqui and Quinche. Quinche is a very famous city in Ecuador even though it is not that big, it is famous because it has a very significant and historic catholic chapel. This last week were the caminatas al Quinche or the pilgrimages to Quinche. People from all over Ecuador start walking from Quito or Cayambe and come to Quinche to attend special mass sessions and to worship the virgin of Quinche. 

Anyways, these special pilgrimages happen annually and took place this last week from Friday to Saturday and holy cow our sector was crazy. It was so crazy with thousands of people making the pilgrimage from Quito to Quinche and having to pass through Yaruqui that like nobody came to church. The branch president couldn’t even get to church cuz they closed the highway down. It has kind of been a hard week to work because everyone has been busy with the pilgrimage and the parties and like all of the Catholics have been revived and have kind of been rejecting us harder.

So being in a small branch is fun, for those of you who don’t know, we don’t meet in a chapel here, we have the meetings in a house. Anyways with so few members and so few worthy priesthood, we help out a lot. Teaching classes, giving talks, helping out with sacrament, and yesterday we kind of helped out the counselor with the meeting, because he is new to the church and he was kind of up there by himself, so we kind of helped.

One of the coolest experiences of my mission was yesterday, I gave the priesthood to Wilver Quinchimbla and ordained him to a priest. Even tho I have participated in some priesthood ordinations in the mission, I have never actually been the one to pronounce the words, so that was a special experience for me. A while ago I translated my Priesthood Line of Authority in Spanish and I have used that in Spanish to show people in lessons that I really do have the authority of God and now I am going to make him his own line of authority. I just hope soon it changes and that he can get the High Priesthood. He is doing great. He is excited to baptize his kids this Saturday, please pray that all can go well for this family.

I am seeing so many miracles. I am honestly not trunky at all, I am more focused than ever and my companion is so great and is helping me so much. I love Yaruqui, I love my mission, I love the people here, I love Elder Gehring, the mission is just so great. I am almost 99 percent sure that I wont write next week cuz I am going to spend my whole p day in Otavalo. I got permission to call my converts this last week to plan a visit with them for next Monday, the familial Cordova Tituaña, and when I told them it was me they started crying and I started crying.  I am so blessed that President is letting me visit them before I finish. 

Well I love you all, you are all in my prayers. It is so precious to be a missionary. I love it so much. I love representing my Lord and I have grown to love him. I have learned there is a difference between knowing about the Savior and knowing the Savior and I feel like in my mission I have been blessed to know him. Maybe I haven’t seen him eye to eye, but I have had so many special experiences and  testify he lives and love us more than we could possibly imagine. Well take care and have a great week. 

Love, Elder Roberts

 Ecuadorian sunset

 Sara turned 8 and Nayra turned 2

BIRTHDAY PARTY OF NAYRA AND SARA 

We did some Satan Slappin this week

Well this week was a ton of fun. It had to be one of the absolute best weeks of my mission. And here is why. We baptized our golden family. My companion and I woke up on Saturday Morning and we cleaned out the baptismal tank that we use and we got it all filled up and we had a big turn out for the baptism. 

Everything went really smoothly. Our mission President wasn’t able to come because he was in Peru for a special meeting, but we were able to get a ton of members and investigators to come to the baptism.

I baptized the Dad Wilver and his daughter Prisila and my companion baptized the mom Veronica, it was a super special feeling. One of the best feelings I have had in my life being in that little tank. After we did the baptisms, the parents shared their testimonies and they were so powerful, it was absolutely amazing. There is no greater joy than helping someone find the truth and come unto Christ.

Yesterday, all 3 of them got confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and received the Holy Ghost. The dad got interviewed and he is going to get the priesthood next week and on the 26^th he is going to baptize his other kids, Wilver junior who is 14 and Wendy who is 16. They are such a special family. They will always have a special place in my heart.

Well the sun has been suuuppeeerrrr strong this week, so I am finally going to go ahead and get sunglasses cuz my eyes are soooo sun burnt. Recently the missionary department approved sunglasses, so I am going to get some to protect my fragile little eyes cuz I look like a little raccoon right now. 

So I have no clue how crazy the elections are in the states, but just Trump being president is a huge deal here in Ecuador. Nobody here likes him at all, they all view him as a crazy racist who is going to make it impossible for Ecuadorians to visit the states. It is sure interesting to be outside the U.S. during a presidential election and see things from a different perspective. The truth is I don’t like Trump much, but I cant stand Clinton at all, so I am happy with the results. I don’t understand why the U.S. couldn’t find anyone better to run for president. The way I see it is soon enough it will be the second coming and then we will have an absolutely perfect ruler.

Well other than that, there were changes in the mission this last weekend, but not in my district we are all still here. I am going to finish my mission here in Yaruqui and I am so happy. I love this little city. It is such a special little place. So I talked with President and since it is my last change I have special permission to visit Otavalo on pday and visit my family of converts there. I am so pumped, I am also going to be going with Elder Quispe and our two companions are going to buy souvenirs and stuff in Otavalo while we visit our family. That might happen next Monday or in a couple of Mondays. But it is possible that I may have to sacrifice my writing time, so if I don’t write one of these Mondays it is because I am living it up in Otavalo.

Well I love you all. The time is sure flying by, I will see you sooner than later. I know the church is true. 

Love, Elder Roberts

 the before work

 the fun work

 best part of my mission diga

presidents car

SOY UNA LANGOSTITA

Well, It has been super sunny this week, it looks like maybe today and the next coming days it might rain a little bit, but this last week was supèr sunny. I got quite sun burnt, so I am looking kind of like a lobster right now, but I guess that is just part of life right.

My companion Elder Gehring and I are seeing a lot of miracles. One such miracle is that our super awesome golden family Quinchimbla had their baptismal interviews and passed and everything is in order for their baptism on Saturday, I think Saturday may be one of the best days on the mission, I am so excited to see how this all turns out. But we had some amazing visits with them and I truly love them, they are such special friends to me. They will always have a special place in my heart. I hope that with skype and modern technology that I will be able to maintain contact with them my whole life.

There were holidays here in Ecuador on Wednesday and there was nothing to do........zilch.......nada.......like misisonary handbook says that the best days to work are holidays.......well, it obviously wasn't written by people who are from Ecuador.  When there are holidays here it is easily the worst day to work, my companion and I literally had nobody to visit on Wednesdayand nobody was in their house to talk too, so we explored our sector and went like walking 2 hours down our sector close to the airport.....fun stuff.....

As we were walking, we knocked a door and a lady answered and said, I'm not interested, slammed the door in our faces, and we started to walk away. Then I was like, hey lets go be persistent, so we went back and knocked the door again, and her and her husband were super mad at us for coming back and I was like, hey before you reject us, you should know what you are rejecting, my companion and I did some hardcore testifying that we represent Jesus Christ and share important truths of him and his gospel, it felt good saying that. I felt like a disciple of Christ and going back. 

We were busy on Saturday doing baptismal interviews for the other missionaries in the district. Oh my gosh, the elders in my district got like hardcore robbed this week. but they are ok. That was quite the situation tho. but yeah like Saturday we didn't have time to do anything, because I had to do a ton of interviews, but that is a good problem to have right. The interviews are easily one of my favorite parts of the mission and it is good seeing that the district is having success.

Well I love you all. I guess I only am going to write 6 more of these letter updates things. The time sure is flying. Well I love you all and hope you have an extremely great day. you are all super awesome. bye bye. 

Elder Roberts

Zone meeting