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

Campo de Sion

This week was actually pretty cool. Tuesday we had a zone conference with President Murphy and he taught as all about Zions Camp ( for those of you who aren't members of the church or who are members that don't know anything about Zions Camp this isn't going to make any sense. lo siento) Anyways, basically President taught us how the Lord is refining us and how we have to pass through difficulties here in the mission to show our faith to the Lord and the importance of not murmuring.

On Thursday I put those teachings in action. I went on a division with one of the zone leaders Elder Arrieta in Quito. He is 27 years old and from Barranquilla Colombia and he is super cool. I was super ready. There we were, two seasoned missionaries ready to work like absolute bosses. We said our prayer and then we were off. On the bus to Quito there was like this 16 year old that got up front and started sharing some apostasy and was testifying some apostasy and then he said in the name of Jesus Christ I forgive you all of your sins and I give you the Holy Spirit. I was ready to bible bash with this kid, but whatever.

We got off the bus and a lady said elders, and we gave her a pamphlet she took the pamphlet and slammed it on the ground and stomped on it. As we were contacting, a car came and pulled up to us and the driver said some choice words and told us he hated us and our religion and that we didn't belong in Quito......About 10 minutes later we contacted a priest of a big evangelic church here.........that was fun, but we got rejected hardcore, then we were walking down another street and this guy came and burped in our face and said some bad words and flipped us off. We walked away and then he came in front of us and said more bad words and kept on flipping us off..........welcome to Zions camp in Ecuador lol.

Despite all of the opposition and apostasy that we saw, we worked like absolute animals. We talked with literally everyone we could, I think it was one of the absolute hardest worked days in the mission. We talked with everyone and had some cool little miracles.

One of the biggest miracles was yesterday. Maybe we didn't have as many investigators attending church as we were praying for, but we had an absolute miracle of miracles. One of my favorite families here in Yaruqui, la famlia Cadena have recently become active in the church minus the dad. The dad, Fabian, is super cool, and yesterday he came to church for the first time in 10 years and it was so awesome. That was one of the best moments of my week was seeing him at church and seeing his family so happy that he came. He is going to come back and come back strong. 

There have been a lot of requests from members and investigators and less actives to have me teach them English, so after talking with President Murphy this week I am going to be teaching English classes in the chapel house thing at 6 in the evening on Wednesdays. I think it is going to be a huge turnout and help people come to church. I am pretty hyped. 

Well I love you all, the time is certainly flying by. I hope you all have an amazing week. Chao Chao. 

Elder Logan Roberts

La Misión Ecuador Quito Norte

Another dead dog 

 Crossing the interstate like a boss

 Our sector is super close to the airport

rainbow 

Its pretty catholic here

POKEMON GO

I have no clue how big of a thing Pokemon Go is in the U.S., but here in Ecuador it is getting to be huge. Not too many people have smart phones or anything, but there is like a sticker game going on.  You can buy an album for 10 cents at almost any store in the streets and if you collect the 220 different stickers you win a big prize......my companion and I have already finished 2 albums.  It is only like 1 cent for every 2 stickers, so it is pretty cheap and fun.....but everyone here is playing it, it reminds me a ton of my childhood.

 Pokemon Go is a real thing

It has kind of been a desert here in Yaruqui and for the past couple of months, all of the farmers have been sad because the rain hasn't been falling as it usually does and it is affecting drastically a lot of the crops, but this week the heavens have poured down which everyone has been super grateful for. Even tho it isn't the funnest thing in the world to work in the rain, I am happy that the Ecuadorians are happy and that the Lord is blessing them and their lands, because the economy isn't the best here and prayers are really being answered with the rain here.

My companion and I were in a pueblo called Checa which is like 40 minutes walking from Yaruqui and the rains came down and we were walking back along the highway with all the cars coming by and we were soaked, but a nice car stopped and gave us a ride to Yaruqui.  We contacted them gave them some pamphlets and have a visit with them scheduled this week. The Lord works in mysterious ways. 

I believe my companion and I now have one of the biggest and most populated sectors in the mission. The sisters in Yaruqui left this week, one had to go home for medical reasons and the other got reassigned in a trio in another sector, so now my companion and I are covering 3 cities and a lot of villages, Pifo, Yaruqui, Quinche, Ascasubi, Esperanza, and more that we still dont know........but we have A LOT OF WORK TO DO. It is going to be nice working 2 sectors, because now we have to visit all the people that can really progress.....hopefully we can see some fruits.

The Hermanas had a baptism this week. It was a really great baptism. It was of a 40 year old man named  Manuel. His wife and some of his kids are recent converts to the church, I interviewed Manuel this week and felt such a special spirit and it was a beautiful baptismal service. President and Sister Murphy came so that was cool having them there. I also sang a solo as a special musical number. I am not sure if I have really explained the baptismal font here, but the church here is a members house and the font isn't a font, it is a huge plastic tank container thing that is outside on the lawn. It was super dirty because it hadn't been used for months, so my companion and I spent Saturday during studies cleaning it for hours and it was actually super fun. It was a cool baptism. I think it would be cool to baptize in that tank, I am determined to work harder to be able to baptize someone in that thing lol.

My companion and I were in Quinche Friday and we decided to contact a part that we never really contacted. As doors continued getting slammed in our face we knocked a door and a couple of older women answered and invited us in. We couldn't enter their house since there wasn't a man there, but we sat outside and it was quite the experience. We were about to share the restoration when the woman said let me get my bible, she came back with her bible and started sharing verse after verse after verse with us and wouldn't let us talk. Turns out she was a Jehovahs witness that just wanted to contend with us. I was so tempted to just bible bash right there, but I overcame the temptation and we asked if we could say a prayer before we left and as my companion said the prayer the woman started saying her own prayer in a really loud voice and my companion wasn't sure what to do and it was actually super funny. I had a hard time not laughing and my companion had a hard time not laughing and then he started laughing like during the prayer and I started laughing but we covered up the laughing to make it seem like we were crying and the lady was still shouting her prayer and it was unforgettable hahahaha. 

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week. You are all in my prayers. Please pray for our success here in the mission. I love being a missionary. I love knowing my Savior better and better every day. It is such an honor having his name on my name-tag close to my heart. I love my Savior so much and I know he loves me and loves all of you. 

Love, Elder Roberts

 Some Pretty Profound Doctrine

 Enjoying the sunset

 I was wondering why they would put up a sign saying to not put dead animals in the property until I saw all the dead animals lol

ALBEDRIO

Well this week wasn't super eventful. Last Monday when p-day ended and we started to work it started to pour rain here in Yaruqui, but as missionaries we had to keep on working and all of our visits fell through so we decided to do some contacting.  We found a huge hill and decided to contact as we walked up the hill and we found a nice lady who let us teach her and her family.........For realz, every time I have worked in the rain, things have always gone well.

Well, this week has been hard, we are having such a hard time getting our investigators to progress and finding investigators that have potential. It is so hard here. I am trying to be as optimistic as I can and I feel like that is the best I can do right? It makes me mad sometimes how people use their agency so stupidly.  It makes me sad to think that even tho I am representing the truth, that our numbers are tiny to compare to the millions of people living in apostasy around here. Sometimes I ask myself why does it have to be like this?   I studied a lot about agency this week. I know Heavenly Father loves us so much that the only way we could progress to receive the blessings to live with him again was through agency. He had to leave our future up to us.......He cant force anyone to join the truth, he cant force us to progress, he cant force us to live with him again.. I think that is what I had to learn this week, the importance of honoring agency and accepting that not everyone is going to use their agency for the best.

Well that is pretty much all I have to say. Please pray that we can have a good and successful week. I love you all and hope all goes well. I am optimistic about the opportunities that there will be this week. 

Love, Elder Roberts

 With Billy the goat

 A dog eating half of a pig in the street

 The Catholics marching the virgin through the streets

 In front of one of the many catholic churches in my sector

Trying to not fall asleep while contacting 

 This little baby isn't even a week old

 My companion and I with Marieli

They set this thing in fire in the park

Temblores, Catolicas, Milagros, Rechazo

Well this Week Ecuador played Brazil in soccer here in Quito and we lost three to zero, and as the game was happening all of our visits happened to fall through and my companion and I decided to say a prayer and we felt like we should knock doors. We were in the super catholic Quinche in this time and honestly I wasn't sure why we we kept on knocking doors because every door we knocked got slammed in our face. After the tenth door we were feeling pretty sad and felt defeated and we were walking down the street and a man came running out of the door that just got slammed in our face and caught up with us in the street and said Elders, I haven't gone to church for 3 months and my family and I just moved from Riobamba, where is the church and when can you visit us.........what a miracle! Our diligence payed off and Heavenly Father really needed us to find this family, they are la familia Ron, they are members of the church that want to get sealed but have been a little less active lately because they recently moved here from Riobamba and haven't been able to find the chapel.

They came to church yesterday and we visited them last night and about 10 minutes into the visit the house started shaking pretty strong and we realized we were in an earthquake! So of course we all left the house running like little girls haha, but I thought by leaving the coast I would be leaving the earthquakes, but apparently the earth quakes here in Quito too so that is interesting stuff. But fortunately we are all ok and as far as I have seen there wasn't really any destruction.

We had our district meeting on Thursday and about halfway through the meeting Elder Calderon an Area seventy here walked into the chapel with a couple of other men and he sat through a little bit of the meeting, I thought it was pretty cool that there was a 70 here.  He congratulated us on our good work and told us that they are surveying land to build a chapel here in Yaruqui, ( right now we have our meetings in a house and there isn't enough space, even tho the branch is pretty small, I think it will be great to have a chapel!) 

My companion and I were accompanied by two future missionaries on Friday night and all of our visits fell through so we all said a prayer together and looked for guidance as to what we should do. After we prayed my companion felt inspired to lead us to a less active family and right when we showed up the mom told us she prayed to God saying she doesn't believe in him anymore because just in this past month her husband abandoned her and she was passing through some hard problems. She was so mad at God and told us right in that moment she just said a prayer telling God she didn't believe in him.............All I can say is there are no coincidences in missionary work, when all of the visits fall through it is for a reason, the Lord really uses us as instruments in his hands and I am so grateful to be a missionary. It is such a miracle. 

Well things are going good, my companion and I are doing great and are enjoying the blessings the Lord is giving to us. This sector is easily the hardest sector that I have had in the mission, but there is also so much potential and I know that if I do the best I can do and if I strive to be obedient that the Lord can help us out in what we need and can change our weaknesses into strengths. 

I love you all and hope that you all have a good week.

Elder Roberts

Feed my sheep 

 An Old lady we helped in her field

Catholic church selfie

Our sector is close to the airport

Maní

Well, this has been a great week getting to know the sector. Even though I only have a week with Elder Miranda, I already feel like we are best friends and we are getting along super well and seeing a ton of miracles. 

Last Thursday our mamita  wasn't there, so we had to go eat out at a restaurant and I got like fried chicken with french fries.  I have eaten that so many times here in Ecuador and they never put in peanuts, but for some reason this restaurant put like a peanut sauce on the chicken which I didn't realize until about 5 minutes into eating it. Holy cow, I have never had such a bad allergic reaction in all the times I have eaten peanuts in the mission. My mouth was soooo swollen and I had a hard time breathing. I took my epi pen but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. Anyways, I tried calling the nurse and she didn't answer, then I tried calling the mission President, didn't answer, the mission Presidents wife, didn't answer and I was dying, so finally I called the assistants and they answered and they were with the nurses and the nurse from Argentina was like yeah go buy this medicine and rest and I was like I need to go to a hospital because I am dying and she was like the mission only accepts the main hospital in Quito, you will have to come here, even tho it is like 2 hours away and I was like, if I don't get to a hospital in like 10 minutes I am going to die, and then she passed the phone to the new nurse and she was like, yeah go to the nearest hospital as fast as you can and we will meet you there. 

We ran to the hospital and there were a ton of people in line in the emergency room but they bumped me up to number one and the doctors put an oxygen mask on me within seconds of getting there and then injected me with stuff and I got better............fun stuff

Well, what I didn't realize when I first got here is that a good chunk of my sector here in Yaruqui is the famous El Quinche, where a huge catholic church is located where the Pope Fransisco came and all of that jazz. It is super beautiful, but this sector is sooooo catholic, the people here are so closed and I have never been so rejected in my whole mission. it is defs an interesting experience. 

Well yesterday was super cool. Our Mission President came to church with us. I love President Murphy, he came to church here in the branch and it was super cool.  He helped us out a ton and got to know some of our investigators.  It was kind of a surprise having him there and right before the sacrament the counselor in the branch presidency was like hey Elder Roberts can you give the 2nd talk and I was like sure. I think most missionaries would be nervous to give a talk right on spot and especially do so in front of the mission President, but I was totally fine and I thought it was a pretty good talk.

The church is so true, I have no doubt about it. It makes me so sad to see how many people don't accept the truth. So many people that think their purpose in life is to have fun or make money.  It is sad to see people I love in bad paths that are contrary to the commandments of God. I know this Gospel is so important, it means everything. Jesus Christ means everything in my life. It is sad to see so much confusion in the world regarding Jesus, I know that today Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and that he reveals to us the true doctrines regarding our Savior Jesus Christ. I so testify as one of his representatives in his sacred name Amen. 

Elder Roberts

 I ate Peanuts this week and almost died, no big deal

 Elder Phipps and I are mutual friends of Kyle Madsen

 I tried to get a pic with the volcano in the background but it didn't turn out that well