Best of Times Worst of Times

Elder Damian left this morning in intermediate changes to Calderon. I am now with Elder Castro from Guayaquil. He only has like 2 changes left in the mission.. He seems super cool. I think it is cool to have an Ecuadorian companion. 

Thanks so much for your amazing emails, I love you all a ton and it is always a blessing to see how everyone is doing and to read your encouraging words. On a sidenote, blog title, I really like the book Great expectations, I want to read it again when I get back. I never read the full length of Tale of Two Cities, it was a harder read, but I love Charles Dickens and I am encouraged to reread and read when I get back.

THIS WEEK I have been sicker than Nacho Libre when he ate the Eagle Egg. for realz. I got super sick super super sick. I found out that i have two types of parasites and I have just been dying. Like straight up throwing up and diarrhea. I have lost a ton of weight this week, but I am starting to feel better. On another side note thanks for all of you for including my leg in your prayers my whole mission. I can walk well, sometimes it hurts bad, especially when the terrain is rough. When I get back you may notice I have a little tiny bit of a limp, it is hard to tell unless you are looking, but I just want to prepare you all and hope you wont freak out.

WE HAD A MIRACLE THIS WEEK. AN ABSOLUTE MIRACLE. Last Sunday we saw these three ladies come to church that we didn't recognize. We went and talked with them and they told us that they lived in our sector and that they recently moved form Quito and that they have been meeting with the missionaries there and attending the church there. So we were like that is great. we took down their information scheduled a visit and had an absolute miracle happen. We showed up to the visit and we went with a returned missionary and everything was going good we were getting to know them better. Her name is Monica and her daughters name is Genesis she is 9 years old. Genesis loves the church and wants to get baptized and Monica more than anything wants to support her daughter which is super awesome, but Monica isn't as interested, but she said there is something special about the church. We taught them something basic and invited Genesis to a baptismal date for the 31st and she looked at her mom and her mom gave her permission with a big smile on her face and she accepted. 

The mom doesn't have a testimony yet, we invited her to baptism and she said she doesn't feel ready, so we asked if she got an answer if she would get baptized and she said yes. We were teaching and the member shared some thought and the mom said that she wanted to know more but she felt that she didn't have a strong testimony yet. The lesson was kind of going a little long and I was thinking it is time to wrap it up, but this prompting came to me to share Alma 32 with the mom and talk about how faith is like a seed. I was thinking no, we got to wrap this up, but the feeling was super strong, probably some of the most hardcore revelation that I have received in my life. So I was like hermana I would like to share this scripture with you. She said how faith is like a seed, how it isn't a perfect knowledge but more than anything it is a hope we have. She read about how even if we have a desire to have faith that if we act on this desire that this faith can grow. I asked how she felt reading this and then it got super silent. she started crying....and she wouldn't stop. I wasn't sure if I should say something, but we just let her cry and reflect. She told us this was exactly what she needed to read, described exactly how she felt, and that in this moment she felt something so special in her heart that she has never felt before. We told her, hermana this is the holy spirit. God sends it to us because he loves us and I testify that if you get baptized you can feel this love all of the time. We invited her to get baptized the 31st with her daughter and she accepted. I was so happy. I cant tell you how happy stuff like that makes me. Sunday came and they weren't there in the church and I was super sad, but then right before the sacrament started they walked in and I just prayed to God in gratitude I was so happy. After the sacrament when I got down form the stand from directing the music, I went and sat next to them and the mom had a big smile on her face and she told me she was super happy to be here at church. Man, the mission is so hard, but the small things like this just make every hard part worth it. Please keep Genesis and Monica in your prayers that they can be baptized together the 31st.

This week a sister from our ward went down to Calderon, my first sector and she went to the principios del evangelio class and said she was visiting from Tulcan, I guess word spread that I am here and everyone was like do you know Elder Roberts, I got some amazing letters handed to me from la familia cuaran. I was glad to see that they are active and doing well and from Silivia and Andy my converts, they are active and well. This Gospel CHANGES lives. I have no doubt this is the Lord´s work, I am filled wiht gratitued that I can be  a small part of this work and that I have been blessed to know so many amazing people. 

Sorry this email was so long, but I just wanted to share these tender mercies, these beautiful experiences with you all. Have an amazing week.

Elder Roberts

Ecuatorianos, Somos Los Ganadores

This week Ecuador played Argentina in Argentina for the games to get into the World Cup. We did some contacting during the game and everyone was super mad at us. We realized that it was a horrible hour to contact so we went to a members house and watched the last ten minutes of the game and it was 0 0 and Ecuador scored. A minute afterwords we scored again. The streets were crazy, all the cars were honking their horns everyone went crazy. It was hard to go to sleep that night because it was so loud in the streets. I am so grateful that I was able to join in the excitement. This week we play Bolivia in Quito. Quito is notorious because the stadium is about 2 miles high and all the away teams die from the altitude and usually Ecuador wins. 

The past month we have been going with the Branch President to a rehabilitation center for youth and a couple older people with addictions to drugs and alcohol. It has been an amazing experience. I have a strong testimony that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can completely free us from whatever problem we have.  I know Jesus Christ came here to save us from ourselves. We have been teaching all of the youth together and recently we met Roman. Roman is a total boss. I love him. I think my purpose here in Tulcan is to help him out. He has the strongest desires to change his life out of anyone I have seen in my mission. He came to us and cried and told us he needs Christ and he needs to change. We taught the restoration and he felt so strongly that it was true. Unfortunately we have been out of copies of the Book of Mormon, we didn't have one to give to him and he really wanted one. because we live in the middle of nowhere it is hard to get the pamphlets and libros. Finally we got more Books of Mormon and my companion and I marked a whole bunch of good scriptures for him to read. He read a toooonnnnn. We asked if he prayed to see if it is true. He said no, he said the moment we taught the Book of Mormon he already knew. He said all the words we have taught are true. We were soo happy and excited, but we told him he still needed to pray. He prayed and told us he received a strong witness it was true. He wants to get baptized sooo bad, but the problem is he cant leave the center without permission and the boss has been sick so he couldn't come to church this Sunday. Please pray for Roman that he can come to church that he can follow Jesus Christ and he can be baptized he deserves it sooo bad. I know God works miracles and I feel so strongly that Roman was who God was preparing for us to find. Please pray for him. 

Love,

Elder Roberts

Tulcan

El Envia Angeles

SO this week we had a supppeeerrr coool experience. We have these super awesome new investigators that are a reference from a super awesome and super active family here in the branch, so we had a family home evening scheduled and the investigators didn't show up.......we were all pretty sad,but I was like lets say a prayer. We said a prayer and they still didn't come, so I was like ok, could we at least share a scripture with you guys before we go and they were like of course! So my companion and I shared a scripture in Moroni about how miracles have not ceased! Right immediately after we read that verse someone knocked on the door and it was the investigators! YAAAAAAAYYYYY. Miracles do happen

I had this great idea today about making cookie dough and eating it, so I got the recipe from another missionary and I was super pumped, I was thinking about this for a couple of days and the moment finally came, I bought all the ingredients, I followed the recipe, I took a bite, and I almost threw up. Worst cookies I ever made! I hate life! lol

Conference was so amazing. I was so happy about the new apostles, I was in the same elevator with Elder Rasband last year at the BYU homecoming game with uncle Lowell and Aunt Charlotte ( if you are reading this I love you two), and Elder Renlund gave my favorite talk of the earlier general conference. I was especially moved by Elder Hollands talk about women. When he was talking about moms I was crying and I noticed the other elders in the room with me were tearing up a little bit too, afterwords we talked about how much we love our moms. I can think of all the women that have influenced my life, of all my good teachers in school, of Carolyn Axt who was my viola teacher, of Sister Richardson who is my mission presidents wife and has helped me out so much on my mission, my aunts, my cousins, my sister, and my grandmas and aunt Jenifer who is basically my mom away from my mom, I love them all to death. But especially my mom. My mom is the most beautiful and most Christlike woman in my life. I miss her more than words can explain. It has been hard to go a little more than 9 months without seeing her at all or hearing her voice, but I have never felt like she has been so close to me. I know she is praying her heart out for me, I know she suffers when I suffer, cries when I cry, and she loves me in a way that seems impossible and perfect, I love her so much and I am so grateful to know that Families are eternal and that I will always be her child and she will always be my loving mom. I know for a fact that I wouldn't be here still on the mission if it wasn't for her. Mom, I love you sooooo much, I am going to give you the biggest hug when I get back. I hope you all had a great conference. I would be interested to know what was your favorite talk. Have a great week. Send me packages and money for Christmas ! 

Elder Roberts

 Perry the Platypus eating mat

 General Conference, and with Esnaider and Gabby

MY SISTER GOT ENGAGED

MY SISTER GOT ENGAGED.DANG.THAT IS AWESOME. I still don't know the guy personally yet, but I have heard a lot of great things and I know my sister has really high standards so I have complete confidence all is well. I wasn't really surprised or shocked opening the emails, because I saw it coming and yeah congrats Mallory. You will be a great mom to my future nieces and nephews.

So this week was pretty uneventful. We finally had investigators in the sacrament meeting, I can't tell you how happy I was to be sitting in the middle of the bench between my investigators and my less actives, greatest feeling in the world.

So I actually haven't bible bashed at all this week. I was given the absolute perfect opportunity in the morning. Someone knocked on our gate and we looked out the window to see who it was and we saw it was the Jehovah's witness missionaries. We were like OH YEAH. so we threw on some regular clothes took off our name tags and answered the door and I was like time for some bible bashing. They gave us some pamphlets and then the guy said can we share some scriptures with you and we were like yeah. He whipped out his bible and I was like alright here comes the macheting, but the spirit was like Logan don't contend, then I was ready to contend, but really strongly it told me don't contend. so I heeded the prompting and I was like thanks for sharing that message with us and then I was like thanks for what you do for helping others have faith in God. I felt good. I think I am going to try to give up more the bible bashing.

I am really pumped for General Conference this upcoming week. I cant believe that it has already been a year since the general conference that I was blessed to go to with all of my friends. I felt the spirit so strong that session and I know for a fact that Thomas S. Prophet is a living prophet who speaks face to face with Jesus and that he holds the keys to the Kingdom of God here on the Earth, I will never be able to deny the feelings that I had in that conference. I think it will be really cool that 3 new apostles will be called, Richard G. Scott, L. Tom Perry, and Boyd K. Packer are all continuing the work in the spirit world, but I know that God has prepared three special men to help guide us in these letter days.

If you haven't written me a letter. repent and write me a letter. 

With love, Elder Roberts

My little friend. 

Tulcan

Viva La Musica

Hey if anyone from Encore is reading this do you remember that song we sang? haha Viva La Musica?

Anyways, this week was special because I got to participate a lot with music. This old lady who is less active physically cant leave her house, because her husband is like critically sick and needs her there every second, so she doesn't get many visitors. I felt impressed to sing a hymn for her, my companion doesn't like singing, so I sang a solo, I did the first part in Spanish and the second part in English. She was crying and I felt glad that I could do that. I got to play the Violin twice this week. We had like a branch family home evening on Saturday and I played a medley of Come Come Ye Saints and I know that My Redeemer Lives, and then the Branch President asked me if I could play something on Sunday, so I played I need thee every hour. I love music so much, I know that music can be just as sacred as prayer and I am so blessed to be able to share my talents with the beautiful people here in Ecuador.

This week I had some pretty humbling experiences, we met some really poor families. Probably some of the poorest families I have seen in my life. Like you can see poverty and stuff on the Internet, but you don't really know what the word means until you see it with your own eyes. My companion and I were contacting a pretty rich neighborhood and as usual everyone was catholic and didn't want to listen to us and I saw this little hut in a field probably like a 7 minute walk away, I said lets go there. We went there and there were these 2 little kids who were super surprised, I think it was their first time that they had seen a gringo. Anyways, we asked if their parents were home and the dad came out and pulled chairs out and helped carry his wife out and it was obvious she was sick. the problem is they are too poor to go to the hospital and stuff, so we gave her a priesthood blessing. The next day she was feeling a little better and we were able to share a little bit of a lesson, and she told us her life story. Holy Cow, I have so much respect for her, everything bad that you could possibly have happen to you during your life has happened to this woman and I don't cry much in lessons, but I started to cry. This family literally has nothing, nothing, nothing. both the parents are handicapped and cant work and the kids are too young to work, so my companion and I did a little grocery shopping and spent like 10 dollars buying some basic foods and stuff, but I cant believe I was like sad in high school for not having a car. Seeing people here that don't have anything temporal but are still soooo happy happier than us in the U.S. Money doesn't matter at all.  I would have an infinitely more happier life living on a dirt floor and wearing the same clothes every day and only eating rice and living with my family with happiness in the Gospel than having all the cool new things of the world and not having the inner happiness of having a happy family. I love my family, I am grateful for humility, my parents have always been great examples, and I am grateful for this mission and so much it has taught me.

Love,
Elder Roberts

Lots of pictures from Ecuador!!!

These mountains are in Colombia 

 My old sector is that mountain

LA GUERRA SANTA

Ok, so this week we continued on our quest to get investigators, we had a miracle at the end of the week in the fact that we got 2 new investigators and they both have potential, but the whole week seemed like we weren't really getting anywhere. I cant tell you how many doors I knocked on and got slammed on my face. I have learned that Tulcan is probs the most hardcore catholic place on the earth. these are the three main reactions I get.

1. Automatic door slammed in the face

2. they ask if we worship Mary and afterwords slam the door in our face

3. they tell us they were born catholic and will die catholic and then slam the door in our face.

 Other reactions I have gotten include:

Getting pushed out of the doorway and falling down stairs

Getting flipped off and yelled at some choice words

A watter Balloon thrown at me?  

and occasionally a Jehovah's witness. Speaking of Jehovah witnesses this lady was like one minute and she came back with her bible and tried to bible bash with us and I used her own bible and she couldn't defend herself, I know the spirit of contention is bad, but it was kind of fun. 

We had a ton of success with less actives this week. We are having so much success with less actives, we had a ton at church. Our mission President said if we spend half of our time with less actives our baptisms will double, so we spend the majority of our time with less actives. I am so grateful that the saviors arms are always open, it is never ever too late to join and it is never impossible for the atonement to forgive us of our sins. I love being a representative of Jesus Christ, this opportunity as a missionary is probably the biggest blessing in my life other than my awesome mom and family I miss them.

This week in Gospel Doctrines class the lesson was on the roles of the Parents in a family and the teacher was like everyone loves their mom. And I stood up and Said, I miss my mom and everyone was laughing so hard. Mom, I miss you.

Well, keep on writing me, I love you all, send me goodie boxes. haha. CHAO 

Elder Roberts

Its green here in Ecuador 

 Me and my first district leader Elder Ramponi

KICHUWA 

 I contacted the catholic bishop, I don't think he likes that. 

Doing service

El Santo Sacerdocio

When I got my mission call to Ecuador I was thinking like a hot tropical paradise and I am living in Antarctica right now and it is super cooollllldddddd..... super cold haha. 

So this week I was privileged to help out giving a lot of priesthood blessings. For those of you who have know clue what priesthood means it is the authority and power of God that he gives to worthy men to act in his name. You can only obtain it by receiving it through the laying on of hands from someone who holds it. ( I have no clue how to explain this stuff in English) anyways, there was a really special blessing I got to give. One of the less active families we are working with has this sweet little daughter named Emily who is 5 years old. Every night she has horrible sleeping problems because she has hardcore nightmares and is always scared and waking up her parents, so I gave her a blessing of peace and strength that she could be able to sleep well. I felt the spirit so strong this blessing, I felt like I wasn't saying what I wanted to say, but I felt like I was guided by the spirit and that the Lord put words into my mouth, I think I said a couple verbs in Spanish that I didn't even know what they meant, it was a cool experience that I will never forget.

We haven't had much luck with finding investigators this week, we are doing everything we possibly can to find someone to teach, but nothing really seems to be working, but I don't feel too bad because I know we are giving it our absolute best and that is all that matters, on the other side we are learning how to contact a whole lot better and we are having a lot of success finding and reactivating less actives, so it is pretty cool. 

Well, I hope you all have a good week, I hope you all write me letters. 
Gracias, con amor your amigo 
Logan

I am a Missionary.

this guy teaches me kichua

its me mario

do you see something wrong with this picture