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

Duo Otra Vez

Yeah, so the trio was fun while it lasted which wasn't for very long. Last night we got calls again from the zone leaders and found out that Elder Unzueta was getting changed to the beaches of Atacames.  We are all super jealous of him, Atacames is one of the coolest parts of the mission and I know he is going to enjoy it. The other part of the news for changes is that there are only going to be 4 of us missionaries here in Quininde. When I started there were six and now we will be four, it is kind of crazy but kind of cool also, because everything that belonged to the other elders is now ours. I really enjoyed my time in a trio, it was super fun and Elder Unzueta was a great companion, I know he is going to work miracles in Atacames and I am excited to continue to see miracles here in Quininde with Elder Delgado. 

So our sector now consists of our old sector as well as the sector of the old elder and it is gigantic. We have soo many people that we need to be visiting and teaching and helping and there just simply isn't enough of us as missionaries or enough time to do it all. SO right now we aren't concentrating as much on finding as much as we are as prioritizing who we are going to teach. We have had to make some drops, not because we don't love the people or because they are bad people, just because we don't have time to visit everyone. We can only be focusing on the people that are most likely to progress. But the sector of the elders is huge and it is like all dirt roads without street names.

So last week when we were working as a trio, we worked mostly in the sector of Elder Unzueta which ended up being a huge miracle because now that he is gone my companion and I have to visit the people he was teaching and our time with Elder Unzueta allowed us to learn a little bit of his sector, but the Bishop is going to help teach the sector with us tonight. Working in a trio we had a lot of visits to do in both sectors and I got to do a lot of splits with the members and it was great.

One of the most spiritual lessons I had in my mission was last night we taught Milton Caughua and his family. Milton was one of those that listened to us in the street that day when we taught a ton of people in the street. Anyways, I didn't recognize him, but he surely recognized us because a couple of days ago we were walking in the street and he found us and told us he wanted us to come to his house and teach him more. FAMILIA DE ORO. they are super awesome. We are so excited to be teaching them, but they have a hard time reading. The majority of the people that I have taught here in Ecuador have difficulties reading and writing especially in my last sector in Otavalo and here in the coast, the majority of the people cant read. So I went on a split last night with the ward mission leader who is a recent convert and we read the introduction of the Book of Mormon to this family and it was powerful. I know the Book of Mormon helps us learn more about Christ and have peace. I love reading the Book of Mormon, I have read it in English, Spanish, and a little bit of Kichwa and I finished reading it again in Spanish this last week and I know without a doubt that it is true. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who promises his holy spirit to us.

Well, something that Elder Holland told us when he came here is that right now the Lord is hastening his work.  He said that back at church headquarters they aren't walking, they are running and I feel like that is the same here in the mission, we aren't walking, we are running from visit to visit, there is just soo much to do. The world needs more missionaries, there aren't enough of us to teach everyone. The mission is the best decision that I have made in my life. I love being a missionary, I love all of you and hope you all have a  great week.

Love Elder Roberts

 Chillin with Elder Larsen, he finishes his mission in 2 weeks with the Zone. 

With the zone

TRIO

Hello world, this week was incredible. It was filled with fun and spiritual experiences. I am really loving the mission and it is just so amazing to be a missionary. My companion and I got a suprise call last night and found out there were changes in our district. Elder Roney went to Quito and now we are with Elder Unzueta in a trio. Elder Unzueta is super cool, he is from Cusco, Peru and I was with him when he started his mission in Otavalo. He knows a lot of Kichwa so we are conversing quite a bit, but for the part of the day we have been in a trio, it has been super fun. I think we should all be together for like 3 weeks and we are going to be working the two sectors here in Quininde. Elder Unzueta is going to help me out training Elder Delgado. But for realz I am so blessed to have such great companions. I feel like these next 3 weeks will be fun with fun experiences and hard work.

We had a super cool experience Monday after we wrote and when we got back to work. My companion and I went to contact a reference in a sketchier part of our sector and they were super interested so we all brought lawn chairs outside and started teaching and we started with a group of like 7 people. As we were teaching the neighbors came to listen and little by little more people came and when we finished there were 35 people listening. It was so cool teaching such a large group of people and they were all reverent and listening well. Since then we have gone back every day and we are seeing some cool miracles in this little part of our sector.

I ran into one of my mamitas from San Roque this last week. It was super awesome seeing her. She was the Relief Society President there in Otavalo and it was cool being able to speak some Kichwa. I found out she is doing well and my family of converts there in Otavalo are super active. Right now the CopaAmerica or like the American Cup for soccer is going on in the U.S. I am not sure how many of you know much about it but here soccer is a huge deal and so is the American Cup. Anyways, Ecuador had its big game this last week against the U.S. on Wednesday and Wednesday everyone was dressed up in their Ecuador jerseys and were just like messing with me in the streets. It was dangerous to be a gringo here especially because the U.S. won and everyone hated me. 

Yesterday we didn't have any investigators in sacrament meeting and that made me sad especially since we had worked so hard and I feel like we did everything that we could to get our investigators to come, but we had an absolute miracle. During priesthood there was a man named Jose Angulo who just walked in. He spent the morning attending different churches seeing how they were and he walked into ours. He enjoyed the experiences here because he said our church is the most reverent. Anyways we visited him last night with the bishop and the elders quorum president out in his plantation which is super far away ( the bishop here is a taxi driver and helps us out with rides.) anyways we had an amazing lesson with him and he accepted a baptismal date, but then we found out he isn't married so his date wont work out until he is married, but hey he has a ton of interest so that is cool.

Well, I love you all, especially you dad, happy fathers day. You are the best! I am so grateful for my dad and the example that he has been. I have learned so much from him just from his example. I am grateful for his infinite love he has for me and how he has been with me during the good and the hard moments of my life. He is filled with wisdom and dad I love you a ton. Have a great week. 

BYE BYE,  Elder Roberts

Una Semana de Reuninones

Well, this last week was super fun, my companion and I saw so many miracles. We prayed and fasted last week to find new people to teach and this week we found a ton of new people, the only difficulty is that none of them are progressing, but every day the Lord is putting a ton of new people in our path. My companion was super happy to see that the Lord had answered our prayers and it is fun seeing him so happy with the Missionary Work.

We had a lot of meetings this week. One of the meetings was a combined zone meeting with our zone and the zone Esmeraldas.  The two zones on the coast.  When I got there I ran into my old companion Elder Quispe. It was so good seeing him. I wasn't sure when the last time I would see him would be, but he is doing super good. He is such a great friend, I will for sure be in contact with him for the rest of my life.

Reunited with my old companion Elder Quispe

I had a cool baptismal experience this week. The Hermanas had a baptism of a woman named Teadora. She is super awesome. I got to do her baptismal interview a while ago and anyways, she is kind of heavy and she wanted the bishop to baptize her, but the bishop isn't that strong in his arms and the sister is kind of big, so before the baptism the bishop was like I cant do this alone, and he asked the sister who she wanted to help out and she said in front of everyone, I want that pretty white boy to baptize me.....she is like 60 years old lol.  Anyways, the bishop did the baptism and I was behind her in the font and helped her get submerged in the water and then I pretty much just lifted her up and it was hard, but cool. 

Me, Teadora, The Bishop

I had a lot of spiritual experiences this week, I learned a lot. the spirit taught me a lot. Yesterday was stake conference and the temple president and his wife from Guyaquil made it up here and they gave some great talks that I don't think I will ever forget.

Well I love you all and hope you have amazing weeks. Take care,

Elder Roberts

Elder Quispe stole my camera, I miss that kid 

 The Zone San Rafael 

The baptism 

The Bishop and I are major amigos

My ingrown toenail that I am going to get taken out on Friday

New Companion

Well, this week was a great week. I got to go up to Quito and it was quite a party. I ran into a ton of old friends here on the mission and it was great being able to spend a little bit of time with them. Thursday came and we all got our new companions fresh from the MTC. The group of new missionaries that came was huge and they were all from Ecuador and Peru. I received Elder Delgado, he is super cool, we are getting along super well. He is from Guayaquil.

On the way back from Quito to Esmeraldas there were eight of us on the bus and the bus driver put in a super inappropriate movie and we got them to change it to the dvd that one of the elders had called Finding Faith in Christ. That was super awesome. The whole bus watched one of our dvds and we were able to talk to some people on the bus.

This week was a special week for me, because it is my companions first week on the mission field. He is super energized to work and is just so excited to be working. He is helping me see all the miracles that the Lord is putting in our path everyday. We are entering into so many houses and finding so many people it is unreal. I think I am learning more from him than he is learning from me. 

Last night we had a really special lesson. We are teaching this 15 year old girl who has been coming to church and coming to baptisms and is looking super hard for an answer to see if this church is true. She gets really uncomfortable every time we bring up baptism, but last night the spirit was really present in our lesson and we were able to get her to accept a baptismal date for this upcoming 18th. It is amazing how the spirit can enter into the hearts of everyone.

Well, I am looking forward to this upcoming week, when we work hard that is when we see the miracles. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all and love hearing how you are doing. Keep on writing me. 

Love, Elder Roberts

 We got the bus to put in the movie Finding Faith in Christ #winning

 Elder Delgado swagging out in the house

My son Elder Delgado and I partying

La Vida Costeña diga

Well today was a sad and happy day. It was truly sad to say goodbye to Elder Antezana he was such a great companion, we were happy to see that he is going to Tulcan, I showed him all my pictures of Tulcan and told him all about it and I know he is going to enjoy it alot out there. I found out that I am going to be training a new missionary fresh from the MTC this change. I will leave for Quito Wednesday afternoon, stay the night there and Thursday get a new missionary. I am excited to see what happens, I think training will be super fun. It makes me think of when I started my mission, and my dad in the mission Elder Morgan is now finishing and tomorrow he will be with his family, holy cow the time is going by super fast.

There weren't any major earthquakes this week which is nice, but there were a couple of small aftershocks. but nothing crazy. My companion and I had such a cool miracle yesterday in the chapel, we were a little bummed cuz we didn't have a single investigator in the chapel and then during the sacrament I was thinking of the Atonement and thinking of what I can do better to get Investigators to come and then our family, la famlia Iglesias walked into the chapel and came and sat by us and enjoyed their experience it was super cool!

Our Zone Leaders came on Saturday to do divisions with my companion and I and I went with Elder Higgins who has become a good friend. He finishes his mission right now as well and it was his last Saturday here in Ecuador and it was super awesome. I learned a ton from him. 

Last night my companion Elder Antezana and I had our last lesson together and I think it was probably the most powerful lesson that we have had together. We are teaching this young woman who is looking so hard for an answer and just hasn't gotten one and we taught her about the spirit and how we have gotten our testimonies and it was just an incredible lesson. I know the spirit is real and I know our testimonies are powerful. It is so important to always share our testimonies, when we testify we invite the spirit.

Well, I love you all so much. I love Ecuador. I am so amazed that my Heavenly Father put me here in the absolute best country in the world. I am in love with the mission and I just love everything to do with the mission and Ecuador. es lo mejor diga! I hope you all have a great week.

Love, Elder Roberts

 The district!

 Relief Society dance at the night of talent shows

 There are so many of these spiders here in our house

Getting ready for the baptism

A Crazy Week of More Earthquakes

Well Quininde is looking a lot different than when I came here, this week there were 2 pretty strong aftershocks from the big earthquake that hit Ecuador a month ago and it took a little bit of a toll on the city.

The first aftershock was Wednesday night at 3 in the morning. My companion and I were asleep and then I felt some heavy shaking and felt like I was getting thrown out of the bed and my companion is like vamos, We live on the second floor so we ran down the stairs and went to this basketball court outside of the house where the whole neighborhood went as well and we were just there feeling the earth shake and watching glass shatter in houses and watching houses move and it was so crazy and all of the light posts like exploded. I had to call the other missionaries in the district and they were all fine and I reported that to the zone and then we tried going to sleep, but I couldn't sleep for like 2 hours after that cuz I was so shocked at what happened.

Wednesday at about 11 during weekly planning my companion and I were just sitting there at our desks when our windows started shaking hardcore and I thought our house got hit by a train. I got thrown out of my seat and we hauled out of the house again to watch more windows break and roofs fall and stuff. A lot of the poor part of our sector had some houses flattened, the other elders who are here had a lot of their investigators get their houses pretty damaged. It has been crazy here and all of Wednesday everyone was super scared and everyone was crying in the streets and everyone thought it was the end of the world. In my whole life I have never experienced this type of a disaster or anything, it is weird seeing everyone in a crisis. Anyways, Wednesday after the quake  we followed the mission emergency plan and went to the chapel and after that we got the all clear sign to get back to work. It was actually a really good day to work because everyone felt a need to get closer to God and change their lives.

I also found out that the epicenters of the two earthquakes were here in my sector.

I think only one person died, but I know a couple people that got injured and a lot of people who dont have their houses in the best condition right now, so please keep the people of Ecuador in your prayers that we can get through these earthquakes 

We had an absolute miracle this week. My companion and I found this awesome new family, we actually met them last week as we were contacting in the rain in downtown Quninde. We learned that they live in a plantation of cacao and bananas about 20 minutes in bus from our house and then from there 30 minutes walking through the jungle, so we were able to find their house and they are just so awesome. they have understood the lessons really well and they even gave us some awesome food. I ate duck for the first time in my life and it was super delicious! 

I got to do another baptismal interview on Saturday and it was amazing. It is definitely one of my favorite things on the mission, and the Hermanas had a baptism this last Saturday and the girl that got baptized asked me to baptize her and that was a really special and spiritual opportunity for me. 

Love, Elder Roberts

My earthquake wound, I hit my arm against a wall as I ran down the stairs 

Just chillin by one of the rivers 

Bautismo!

chillin in a palm tree forest

 chillin more in a palm tree forest