Week 41

Hey! Who's that lovely family right there? Oh wait, that's YOU!! 

Happy Late Thanksgiving!

We have to bring an investigator to see the devotional and the transfers will probably not be messed up, just cause it's always 6 weeks.

I didn't get sick!!! I made it past the Thanksgiving hump!

Monday was a pretty fun day. We played this new soccer game with the other Elders and it was super fun. The game goes like this: everybody has their own chair and you have to protect it from getting hit by the soccer ball. It's every man for themselves. You try to peg someone's chair with the ball and they try to block you. Everyone is up and trying to kick the ball at this point. When your chair gets hit, you now have to always be touching your chair. You can now grab the ball with your hands though. If you peg someone else's chair, you can stand up and they have to now touch their chair. The last person "standing" is the winner. It gets really intense when you play with Latinos and gringos who played soccer in high school, I never won, but I still had a lot of fun. We ate with the bishop and his wife, they are super nice people. They have a son who is on a mission right now in Colorado, he just left in September. We stopped by a part member family later on and, wow, do they have problems up the wazzu! I feel like I'm in the middle of a freaking novela right now. They have a lot of marital problems and the wife (a non-member) asked us why bad things happen to good people (that type of question). We told her why, and she told us that she prayed just before we came. She is not very religious and hates talking about God, so this was a big change for her. She told us that in her prayer she told God that she was mad at him. We compared that to a child giving their parent a hug and saying 'I'm mad at you'. She laughed at that and we told her that we will always be in the area if she wants to keep talking. 

Tuesday we had a special Zone Conference because Elder Clark from the Seventy came. We had to wake up at like 4 in the morning to get ready and bike over to another Elders apartment. Our zone is full of companionships on bike. We had to mix and separate companionships just so that all of us could get into a car and arrive on time. One companionship even had to take the bus even earlier just to arrive on time. The conference was super good. I took a bunch of notes. There was a lot of cool things said, even funny quotes here and there. We were talking about 1 Nephi chapter 1 and words that people might not understand, cause of the word language the scriptures have. The phrase 'pillar of fire' was one and Elder Clark explained it his way, which was good, but then after he had already moved on from the topic, a random older lady raised her hand and said 'the pillar of fire is like a light saber!!'.... Oh my. It was funny and everyone chuckled to themselves because of how random and awkward the comment was. All of the appointments canceled that day too. We had dinner with the E family and they had their whole family over! The daughter, who served her mission in Utah gave us early Christmas gifts! I got a BB-8 cup from Disneyland plus cookies and Elder G got a light saber, I think I got the better end of the deal. It was really cool cause not all their family members are LDS so we showed them last years Christmas Mormon Message (FYI new one just came out on the 29th!!) and we asked everyone why they like Christmas, or what they think Christmas should be like. It was a really good lesson and everyone was smiling at the end. 

Wednesday I went on exchanges/ splits with Elder J. This day was probably one of the most eventful days of my mission. So many crazy stories, ready?? Ok. First off, it's the Zone Leaders area, so I was in car!!! It was cool. Crazy side note to all of this. Elder J was Elder W's MTC companion, and Elder J is from Herriman/ South Jordan area. He went to Itineris at SLCC and so we have a lot of people that we both know and talked about. We talked to a lot of people on the streets. While we were walking down one street, this drunk lady asked us (while walking towards us) "are you Mormons??" We said yes and then she asked us for money, and that's when it got weird. I started to walk away, but she cut off Elder J and tried to reach into his pockets. Elder J started dancing away from her, but she kept being persistent and trying to go for his pockets. He scurried away and then she started to walk towards me. She didn't even get close and Elder J caught up to me as we walked away. One of the funny things this lady said was "I'm not the devil" as we walked away. Man did that make for a good laugh later on. All of the appointments that he had scheduled, fell through, or they rescheduled for Friday. As we were walking, Elder J saw some black guys ballin it up and asked me jokingly, "want to go play with those guys?" I turned to him and said "ya, let's go!" He looked at me and said with a huge smile "you serious?" So we decided to challenge the guys to a basketball game, cause hey, Elder J is 6"3' and he plays super good. So we asked the guys if we could play. Our whole intention was that we would make a bet with the guys that if we beat them, they would listen to our message. Because there were 4 guys there, they split us up, so it was 3 on 3. Elder Js' team won because it was him and two 17 year olds vs. me, and pretty big black guy and a 11 year old. We played for like 20 minutes and at the end talked to them a little bit about the Book of Mormon, it was sooo cool. We ate dinner with the S family and it was super good. They gave us tamales the Guatemalan way along with rice and black beans. To drink they gave us hot chocolate and it was funny cause everything was hot, so you couldn't cool your mouth off with the drink you had cause, well, it was hot! At the very end of the night we went to go get Cream, which is an ice cream place (see pic) and it's super good. I got cookies and cream ice cream with a peanut butter cookie on one end and a red velvet cookie on the other, sooo good, and messy. We joked a lot and that was just a super fun exchange. 

Thursday was thanksgiving... If you didn't already know;) we switched back with the ZLs and went out to Jack in the Box, cause we were all hungry. I'm pretty sure that was the first time for me at Jack in the Box, correct me if I'm wrong. That place was super good! Greasy, but good. Talking to people on the streets was super difficult. We would try and stop them but people just kept telling us "happy holidays! Bye!" Ugh it was super frustrating. I saw more white people on thanksgiving in this area than any other day, weird huh. We had thanksgiving dinner with the R family. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of everything, I forgot to take one at the beginning with all the food, so the picture is of my 2nd plate of food. Other food that they had were some BBQ ribs that were seasoned with pineapple (sooo good) and a fruit cocktail that Latinos like, but I don't. It has plums and papaya in it, so no thank you. Dinner was so good, I was so 'stuffed' hahah, that was bad. I miss having pumpkin pie and stuffing though. There wasn't any sweet potatoes, green bean casserole with bacon, or noodles, but it was a lot better than the thanksgiving in Peru!!

Friday morning we were invited back to the R family for breakfast, round 2 anyone? It was super good. We had mashed potatoes, Mac n cheese (I miss that a lot), rice, and they put their turkey in a soup type things and it was good. Latinos don't like turkey at all, they all think it's the most blandest, driest thing ever. Well hey, I like it. They then gave us flaun. I normally don't like flaun, but I think it's growing on me. We then went back to our apartment afterwards. Because it was Black Friday, nobody was outside. We would try to talk to people, but nope, nobody wanted to talk. We stopped by R's house, and this time we found a relative and a little boy. We started talking to the relative, I think he was an uncle or something, and he started to bash with us. I have recently learned that it is better to just listen and talk about the Book of Mormon, than to argue doctrine. The little boy seemed to be interested in what we said though! I explained the Book of Mormon to him and he read the last 2 paragraphs in the Book of Mormon and he was super into it! Too bad cause I think his family lives outside of our area. We then went and taught this guy named L. L told us to come back on a Thursday or Friday, but when we knocked on his door, he seemed super shocked. We were doing How To Begin Teaching, or getting to know him more, what he believes, all that good stuff. All of a sudden Elder G goes off on the Plan of Salvation, talking crazy, completely random stuff. I looked at him and said "how to begin teaching" we were then on the same page. By the end of the lesson, L understood a little bit of our purpose as missionaries, and we set up a return appointment for next Friday, hopefully that goes good! We then walked around for a long time, and then had dinner with the Fs. We ate tostadas and a salad type thing, it was good. Bishop and his wife visited the Fs as well and we shared a scripture and played a round of spoons, like always. 

Saturday helped me realize that God has a plan for everyone. We had no set appointments and we didn't have a dinner with a family, or anything, so the whole day was spent visiting potentials and trying to talk to as many people as we possibly could. As we were walking along one of the major streets in our area, we were right about to cross an intersection when we saw this older lady waiting for the bus on the other side. We decided that we were going to talk to her, as we approached her, she stood up. I was thinking that she was getting ready for the bus, but my surprise was when she held her arms out to stop us. She basically told us this (in a nut shell): she was a member who has a friend to whom a recent tragedy happened. She has a firm testimony in the power of the priesthood and she wanted us to go and give the friend a blessing. She has been praying to Heavenly Father that she could know the phone number of the missionaries in her ward, she goes to another ward, and then boom, we show up. We walk with her to the house of her friend and the husband of the friend answers the door. The old lady says "is sister Aju here?" The man responded that she was busy and it would be bad if she was disturbed. To my wonder this lady bore the most powerful testimony. She said "these men are Elders. The bible says that these men have the power of God to heal the sick because of their worthiness, if you want your wife to be healed, you let them in!" We walked up the stairs of this humble home and say the sister. She has a muscular problem, I don't know what it is, but she can barely control her muscles, they are very stiff. We explained the blessings of the priesthood and talked briefly about the faith that precedes the miracles. I was blessed with the opportunity to give the blessing and although my Spanish sucked, afterwards the sister with the muscular problem smiled at me. The old lady then bore a stronger testimony of the priesthood and we have a return appointment for Tuesday. We then went back to the apartment for dinner. Our neighbors were very kind one night and brought us over food in tin foil. They wrote a note and the dish is called a 'bastilla'. It's a Moroccan dish with raisins, meat, almonds, egg, bunch of stuff. Here is a picture of it. It tasted really funky. It's not that it was bad or lacked flavor, it's just really weird. It's almost like a shepherds pie with nuts and raisins in it... Different. We had a lesson with a couple named F and G. They have a lot of problems. The first one is that they are not married and F is a member. G doesn't really believe in God, but some relationship issues have come up for them that have recently helped her to start praying. It's really awkward because both G and F want the other to be 'called to repentance' but neither one will do it, or forgive the other about something that they did. The lesson we taught was about the Atonement and it was a pretty good lesson. They both committed to come to church afterwards.

Sunday was pretty good. I am so grateful for church. In sacrament meeting the missionaries were in charge because it was the fifth Sunday of the month. Two other Elders gave talks and the ward mission leader also gave a talk. One of the ZL sang a solo, acapella, and it was pretty good. We had G and F and their kid show up to church. We then went to the F family to see why they didn't show up to church. Their family was in town and convinced them to not go to church (stupid), but hey, at least everything is ok in the family. The Hermana gave us pozole again, this time it was even better. As we were walking around, we are know showing everyone the new Christmas video that the church released which is #ASaviorIsBorn and it's pretty good. We showed it to a couple people and had some good street conversations with people. 

This week was altogether good, just 3 1/2 more till Christmas!! Transfers are next week, any bets? At this point anything can happen. I have never had the same companion for more than 1 transfer (really) and I've never stayed in the same area for more than 2 transfers. Elder G was called English speaking, so he might be switched back, but who knows?? 

Love, 

Elder Roberts

Week 40

Oh what a beautiful family!! 🎶🎶🎶

Thursday we have dinners up and down lined up, it's gonna be epic. I will definitely send pics and everything. 

This week was another doozy, I just think that it's because it's the Holidays that the weeks are going super slow... So that makes it hard, but there were a lot of cool things that happened!!! 

Monday, thank goodness for Pdays in the mission!! I think I would lose my mind without them. They really do help us relax and get us ready for the next week. It was super windy on Monday! My poor little body was almost blown over multiple times riding on the bike, I had to tilt a couple times just to stay upright. Biking in the wind is the worst possible thing that is ever on this planet, FYI. I might as well enter into the Tour de France after the mission with how much conditioning I'm doing (just joking hahaha). But biking is becoming easier, my legs don't hurt as much, it's actually kinda fun now. We went to Krispy Kreme to get some donuts because hey, we are guys and we love donuts. Elder G gave me money so that I could get him a dozen, and after I ordered the dozen, the workers at Krispy Kreme gave me an extra donut. I gave that to the ZL Elder G and then I was given ANOTHER donut by the workers. 2 free donuts anyone? Too bad they were just glazed, but they were sooooo good. I love Krispy Kreme. We played basketball for a while and did a free throw shooting contest. I got my game on every now and then, but then I lost it just when it was down to me and the final Elder, so I only won once... Sooo sad. We ate dinner with the M's and then had a lesson with S and M. On the way to the lesson, I thought we were at S and M's house. I knocked on the door and a man that I had never seen before answered. I asked him if S was there and he said no, so I figured this man was S's husband. He asked us who we were and I kept asking when S would come back, because we had a lesson. Well turns out it was the wrong house and I was trying to convince this guy that Sandra was there, but I was wrong. The awkward part about all of this was that we had the M's with us, so they were on my side. Afterwards it was a funny joke and we laughed about it. The lesson with S was alright. Turns out her son, M is only 7 years old so he can't be baptized yet, (cough) she lied to us, and M is not very interested in the lessons. We are still working towards his baptism though.

Tuesday was a loooong day. We walked aRound a lot, talking with everybody. We went to this park and a Black Israelite wanted to talk to us and called us over. He told us that he has been reading the Book of Mormon so we asked him questions about that. We talked for a while, had a little lesson, but nothing happened. He was trying to tell us and these cool facts about the Hebrew language and stuff, and we just kept going back to the topic of the Restoration. During the conversation we switched to the topic of the Atonement. We asked him what was the most important day in the history of the world (meaning Easter or when Christ rose from the grave) and he answered with his fist in the air "the day we were freed from Egypt!!" We politely told him that that may be a close second, but Easter morn is the most important. We bore our testimonies about how without the Atonement, nothing else would matter. We told him that through the Atonement, he could be with his son (he had a 4 year old son) forever in the presence of God. That made him think for a while, but then he invited us to his church and Saturday (law of Moses strikes again) so we were like "dang it!" He wouldn't even be our investigator cause he is English and not Spanish. We ate dinner with the Es and that was good, as always. The daughter said that she is going to bake us stuff! I love members, they are the best. We then had a lesson with J, J, and W, 2 of our baptismal dates. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and it was a good lesson. It's so frustrating because Wendy receives answers to prayers super fast, but then never does anything. She told us of this one dream that told her that she needs to stop wasting time and live the gospel, but then she doesn't. 

Wednesday was pretty rough. We had this good idea that we started doing. We are doing a 'ponderizing' scripture with all the families and members in our area. The scripture for this week is Moroni 7:33. We have a short lesson with the members and share the scripture, and then ask them for referrals, and it's no coincidence that this week we had 11 lessons with recent converts and less actives and 7 referrals!! Man those blessings! Woohoo! We ate with the Rs family, cause it's Wednesday, and they gave us pupusas. Have you ever eaten pupusas?? I feel like you need to try them so that you can understand how I feel when I eat these heavenly Salvadorian creations. If you learned how to make pupusas Mom.... Wow, you wouldn't need to learn anything else. ;)  

Thursday was just full of mean people, just not a very happy day for the people in Los Angeles I guess. We had a lesson with R, a former investigator, and I'm pretty sure she fell back into drugs. During our lesson she was not paying attention and then she would try and say a joke, but then she was serious about the joke... It was confusing. And then during the lesson her neighbor kept smoking close to her baby girl (the lesson was outside). She asked him to stop, and we did too, but he wouldn't. I wanted to just call down those powers of heaven right then and there! Pobrecita. We saw this lady needing help with her groceries, so we helped her. She has some mental problems, so everyone in the area knows her and helps take care of her. After we helped, her neighbor (idk she woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something) made sure that Pauline, the lady, was alright. She asked me what we were doing and as I responded 'helping with groceries' she cut me off and yelled at me saying that she was P's neighbor and yadayadayada. No good deed goes unpunished (wicked🎼🎧) S canceled on us for our lesson with them, that was sad. We ate dinner with the F family and we ate grilled chicken, Cole slaw, and rice... Yup they are Mexican. It was super good. D and M had a lot of doctrinal questions about the Plan of Salvation and we answered most of them, I think. #personalstudypaidoff it was super good. 

Friday was alright, we had DM and a special ZTM to announce the Christmas video for this year which is A Savior Is Born, super excited for that. We had dinner with the P, a less active family, and they gave us 7/11 pizza.. Oh man. It was really good pizza, but that was not nice on the tummy, nope. We had another lesson with Hermano G and during the lesson the Hermana kept laughing cause they kept using the word gabacho, which means white guy, and she thinks that it offends me, but it really doesn't. We stopped by the A family just to invite them to church and then that ended the day.

Saturday was a pretty fun day, we had a super fun language study with some members for like a FHE in the middle of the day and we ate pizza, pistachios, soda, played games, and it was just super fun. We then had coordination with the other Elders in the ward and we got pizza and pupusas there too!! Pizza 3 times in 24 hours!! Woohoo! There was a ward party on Saturday that we helped set up. Our investigators came to that! We weren't expecting anybody to show up, but there was a crazy good turnout! 

Sunday was kinda a weird day. Our baptismal dates didn't show up and so then now we will have to push their dates back even further. We did have some random investigators show up to church though. We ate with Hermana M and that food did not sit well, but it was good. She always forgets things, so we always have to keep repeating ourselves... It's almost funny now. 

Love you all! I wish I could get a pie! They are all 8$ here... Too much for a missionary. I also am eating ramen now, with ham and cheese, anything else cheap I could buy to put in it?? 

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 39

Hello Family! How was the snow?

I did not have quite the EGGcellent week I hoped for.... But there were still blessings to be seen.  This week was just a little harder with the comp cause he is always sleeping and always says that he wants to be a bucket for the day.... Which bugs me. I'm just trying to wake up every day willing to work and just do the best I can tbh.

Monday was an incredible let down day. We wanted to go play basketball at the church, but other companionships beat us to that. I spent less than 5$ for my groceries this week so that was good, except for some medical stuff and soup that I bought later during the week. Apparently there are these new Pringles that Walmart has that are flavored as milk chocolate, white chocolate, and salted caramel... They all are pretty decent. I bought a sweater, but it's not a vneck or a cardigan so it's eh right now. We had to bike up some huge hills just to get to Yogurtland and then bike them AGAIN just to get home. We stopped by the church and talked to some Elders. Elder Hall (English missionary) is probably one of my favorite missionaries. He is just so cool. We talked to each other for a bit. Oh and FYI he knows Elder McDonald, my MTC companion... Small world y'all. 

Tuesday was weird. We have our Seventh Day Adventist scheduled for an appointment and so before that we decide to go and knock some houses around where he lives so that maybe there will be someone else interested. I told Elder G that he was in charge for the first half of the day and that I was for the second half (so that he learns the area and I am less stressed). Well, he decided to go and knock on all of the pink houses, and there was a good amount of them so it was worth it. The funny part about all the pink houses... You might have guessed, Jehovah Witnesses. Every single house that was pink a JW answered.... Who woulda known right? We knocked on a different house and this huge black guy walks out all jacked a tatted up and says "Mormons??" So we say yes of course and he replies "I respect you guys so much, you got me out of jail". So apparently he was taught by someone, could've been missionaries or members who knows, in jail. He basically pleaded his case before the, and they made him a deal that if they wrote a letter to the judge to set him free (cause they felt that he was innocent) then he would have to read the entire Book of Mormon. We asked him how it was going and he said he hasn't read it all the way through and that he didn't want to keep talking to us because he was stoned.... Alrighty, well... Have a nice day?? It was kind of funny but cool cause that guy was HUGE!!! We taught Neftali and dang it! He is just super stuck in his thinking and he says that he is never going to change. We then biked to another part and taught the less active lady named H. It's kinda funny because we read the story of Ammon and the Kings flocks with her and the part with this arms getting cut off we asked her "what is happening right now?" And she said idk. Her sister was then like "what? Some guy just chopped off arms!!" And the sister tried to chastise her by saying "no you have to read it spiritually, that's why I don't understand"..... For real?? Dear H, them arms just dun be chopped! We also tried to have Elder G practice his gospel Spanish and talk about the Plan of Salvation and it was super difficult for him, like wow. I think that's why it's a blessing to be able to teach in English and Spanish in this area so that you can switch back and forth between languages, that way it makes a it a little bit easier to switch back and forth. We ate dinner at the Es and they gave us this Stir Fry type dinner, which was different but pretty dang good. They also gave us some carrot cake to eat once we got back to the apartment. We talked with them for awhile and that ended the day on a high note.

Wednesday... Oh man. In the morning I just felt super sick, like de repente, and I got a fever, had no energy, and the yuckies. It was not fun. We stopped by the F house and we thought we were just going by for a quick lesson and then on the way to the R family for dinner, nope. Apparently they thought that we were eating there too. They gave us soup, Gatorade, and a banana, so that actually helped me stomach a lot. We then biked all the way down to the R family (it's like a good 20min bike ride) and then ate there too. Hermana R made me a friendship bracelet!! Here's a lovely picture of it. It was really cool. We asked the family if they could come with us to meet with our investigators, the A family. Because we cannot enter into a home without another man present. Hermano R said that he could, just that he doesn't speak good English so he won't talk a lot. Thank goodness we brought him!! Oh man! The lesson was really good! We taught the Plan of Salvation to the little girls and the crazy grandma A asked a crazy question otra vez! This time she asked "in the bible it mentions 2 baptisms, one in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Ghost. The other is in the name of Jesus Christ." Hermano R nailed it!! He answered it so matter of fairly and plainly that I learned something new and put 2 and 2 together just there. I knew the 2 baptisms is about baptism and confirmation, but even the way the prayers are said line up perfectly!! Dang! It was so legit.

Thursday we had DM because everything was pushed back this week one day cause of interviews on Friday. It was really good, there were a lot of announcements, just little rules here and there that missionaries neglect to do, just like asking permission to be somewhere, just as a formality. Nothing too crazy or dramatic. I felt really bad so I bought a couple ramen packets, and ate some soup. We then went to the clear corner of our area because we received a referral for over there. We found this part member family and set 2 baptismal dates for the 13th of December!! Their names are M and M and they are 15 and 8 years old. We then ate with the bishop and his wife and had... Camarones and pasta Alfredo, which did not sit well with my stomach. I felt super bad, so I asked if I could take the rest in a container. We then bike a long way to get to the A family again to teach them with the E family now. I taught the girls the WOW while my comp was talking about biology to a member of the A family and the E were 'distracting' A. 

Friday we had interviews with President Weidman. I was actually excited for this time, cause I actually had a question prepared to ask him. He always asks at the end of the interview if we have any questions, and I always so that I don't. However, he likes it better when we ask him questions. It was funny though, cause he told me some good advice and a mission story of his and at the end he just said "basically all this was to say I don't know to your question"... Ah dang it! It wasn't anything like profound doctrine or a life changing decision so don't worry about it, I'll figure it out. We the. We're told to go and buy stuff, like reflector tape, for our bikes so that people see us at night. Well there wasn't any reflector tape at the hardware store, but there was aluminum tape!! So I now I have LDS in aluminum on my bag and an A on the back of my helmet (for captain America) so that people see me, and man can they see me, I'm like the biking tin man and the road is made of yellow bricks for me (badumtiss). We then had a lesson with N again, but this time we figured if he doesn't seem like he is going to progress, then turn him over to the Lord. During the entire lesson there was distractions. Every time we would say something bold it would go like this:

We know God called Jo-...... Phone rings

N: "Alo! Alo! Alo mi amor?" 

And that happened a lot. Like "The Book of Mormon is the Word of G- ...phone rings and 'alo' would happen like 7 times... So frustrating. By the end of the lesson we decided not to go back and visit him because he felt the spirit when we testified, which made him sit and think for a while, but then he said he would never change. I bought some stuff from CVS for my stomach, like Imodium - we had another lesson with the A family and basically taught the little girls all the commandments in one lesson (we also gave the Law of Chastity pamphlet to the mom so that she can teach the kids and not us) and the lesson was alright, lots of distractions. A even asked when we talked about tithing "in the Bible it talks about if you don't pay tithing one month, that there is a 5% interest the next month" referring to Leviticus 27:30-32. Honey, that's the freaking Law of Moses! #lawofmosespranksusagain and she wasn't satisfied because she is a bible nazi. We showed a gospel library video called Remember Him and explained why we come to church. It was a really cool part of the lesson which totally brought the spirit. 

Saturday we had coordination and during which we got a call from Hermana F (the family that was suppose to go to the temple to do baptisms that day) and she said because her little girl C is young, what is she going to do while they are all doing the ordinance? Thankfully (no coincidence) the family fellowship per was in coordination with us. I handed him the phone to see if he could watch C while they went and he said of course he would!! Clutch moment! For the win!! The all went to do baptisms for the dead and confirmations (ps ask Charlie and Emily for a funny story about the F) and that was super cool. We basically just street contacted for the whole day. We ran into this 55 year old lady who is episcopalian and we asked what she believes in. She said "we are pro-abortion. I am too, I should've been aborted cause I have autism" oh man, that made my heart sink. Elder G talked with her for a bit while I just listened. It just makes you stop and think what life might've been like had you not been born Mormon or maybe had become Mormon. Knowing that God has a plan for each of us, is just something others don't even know about. That plan may have some more dings and scratches for some more than others, but you never know how strong you can become until you grow. The press those of the ward held s Carne Asada which is like a Latino cook out with lots of beans and rice and horchata. Elder D fixed the breaks on my bike and I tried to drift/ skid on my bike around a corner in the church parking garage, and I totally ate it hahaha! I started braking too soon so I just fell over. I didn't fall hard and not a scratch on me, maybe on Peggy my bike, but not on me. It was funny, you would've laughed. 

Sunday was awful. It didn't go at all according to plan. None of our investigators showed up to church so that means that A and J and J won't make their baptismal dates... Dang it! We were worried about where they were or what might've happened to them. We went back home after church and my stomach started to hurt again. We stopped by the F family (the picture only has the Hermano and Hermana and C with the aunt by the Hermano) and we ate a little bit with them and talked about the temple with them for a bit. We then stopped by the A family to see what happened. Turns out Satan is a complete jerk and made the baby get super sick! They all didn't come to church for that reason. I can understand the parents, but not the grandma, grandpa, and the 3 little girls. We reset their date for the 6th of December and they are excited. On the way home we got EGGED!!! Some guys drove alongside us as we were biking and threw eggs at us. I got hit in the shoulder and Elder G didn't get hit at all. It made a bad day super sad. Thank goodness it was at the end of the day!

The week was really good, it was just the fact that I have had stomach problems all week so it's been really tough. 

Well, I'll be back on later

Love,

Elder Roberts

Ps 5 more Fridays!!

Week 38

Querido familia, 

This week was rough.

Monday we played basketball and emailed at the church. I was a little off on 'my game' in basketball, but I blocked my companion twice, so that felt good. We couldn't find a Yogurtland, so instead we went to this place called Yo Way, which is like the ghetto version of Yogurtland, less choices, but basically the same. It started to rain on Monday, which was not fun to bike in. We came back to the apartment and got our coats so that we wouldn't get out ties and stuff soaked. By the time we left the apartment, the rain stopped. Ugh! Serious? Why is it whenever I put on my matrix jacket that the rain stops? Anywho, we had a lesson with the F Family, the RC family that is trying to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead on the 14th of November. Hermana F gave us pasole, which is like a soup with meat, cooked corn stuff, veggies, you also eat tostadas with pasole. It was good, not like "wow amazing!" But good. Have you been able to try mole yet? I bet you could find a recipe, cause dang that stuff is good. 

Tuesday was good. We had a lesson with A, W and We (part of the A family) and we taught the Plan of Salvation. It was funny because Elder G doesn't know gospel Spanish at all, so he would just turn and gesture to me when he forgot a word, or wanted me to talk. It was still a good lesson. A always asks ridiculous questions that never have anything to do with what we're are talking about. 

Since it is darker now at night, we were given permission to go and buy the needed lights to put on our bikes to fit the requirements that the mission has. Basically I just bought some tape and ankle reflectors, cause my bike is good. I am going to buy a sweater though cause it gets a little chilly at night while biking. I know, I sound like a wimp, it gets down to maybe 65 degrees and I need a sweater... Go ahead, call me a pansy, I deserve it. 

We talked to two less active members who are sisters. One is really shy and doesn't like to be involved at all, and the other is pretty chill, H and S are their names. We ate with the E family which is always so good. Haha they are the ones that leave us alone when we eat, so weird. It's even more awkward cause the humor of my companion is different than mine, so that makes that time even more awkward. We finally had a lesson with a recent convert, anywho, it was an interesting lesson because turns out he can't even read, and he doesn't like his fellowshipper.... Ugh. 

On Wednesday Elder Ga (my DL) came to my area to go on exchanges. He was "born" in this area and the family that we eat with on Wednesdays is his favorite family, ever. (R Family) Elder Ga and I have similar humor and so the exchange was a nice relief. We stopped by N, our Seventh-Day Adventist friend. We asked him if he had some time, which he said no. It was funny cause we ended up talking to him on his doorway for 40 minutes and had a prayer at the end of it. It is really hard to teach N because basically all he believes is that the Sabbath Day is on Saturday, not Sunday. What we are trying to do with him is have him read the Book of Mormon and have the Book do the talking. We went to visit potentials for days in the Jungle, which was fun. We were locked outside of an apartment building and Elder Ga used his strap on his bag to pull the doorknob on the other side, too bad it was for nothing cause nobody answered their doors. We visited H and S again and started to read 'the cool stories' in the Book of Mormon, starting with Ammon, I mean, why not. So we are slowly reading Alma 17-19 with them. We then biked down to the boonies #timbuktuidaho to go eat with the R family. They love Elder Ga, they made so much food it was ridiculous. I feel that I always just want to eat so much food, but then I never have room for more. They gave us this Mexican creme Popsicle that is super good called.. Idk, but I will ask. It was super cold in the bike rides, I am totally going to buy a sweater. It was a little startling when I got a message from President Wiedman asking if I could meet with him on Thursday after the temple session. 

Thursday was different. It was the day that we were able to go to the temple to do a session inside. It was beautiful. I loved it, and I definitely loved the timing. I don't think the opportunity could have been during a tougher time in my mission. During the session, I was a little preoccupied in thinking about what President Weidman would want to talk to me about, I figured that possibly something happened to my family, so I was worried. 

This past week a dear cousin of mine passed away. His passing was a complete blindside to me, and I was speechless when my mission president told me. It made me quite sad to note the circumstances through which he passed away. However, my mission president has helped me realize a very crucial fact. The Atonement of Christ is everything. It is what allows God to bring all of his children back into his presence. No matter what the case may be, our perfect and loving Heavenly Father does everything he can to help bring even one soul back to him. Because he is just, he notes the circumstances in which someone lived, may have committed a sin, or fell away from living the commandments. He notes the thoughts and conditions of the mind and the pure desires and intents of our hearts. God is also loving. He has provided a way for all of those who have passed away and may not have fully accepted the Gospel or never had the opportunity to hear and accept it. This opportunity occurs after this life in a place we know as the Spirit World. We know Christ preached the gospel there after he died, and the gospel continues to be taught there. Here is where all of our dear family members are. We feel their love for us in our lives. We celebrate a birth of one of God's children with joy and happiness just as we commemorate and honor their passing with sorrow and tears. In all the infinite wisdom and power that our Heavenly Father has, he has revealed His Plan through his called servant and prophet Joseph Smith, through whom the proper authority and power of God, called the Priesthood, was restored. With the power and authority of God on the earth, we can be sealed to our families for time and all eternity. What a wonderful miracle is this!!! To have the hope and knowledge that the relationships and tender moments we once shared with our most beloved family members can continue to blossom after this life. I know that families can be together forever. Although now the sting of sorrow has touched all of us, The Atonement can help relieve the pain and help us feel the "song of redeeming love" (Alma 5:26). I know that the Plan of Salvation is perfect. It is God's plan. I know that one day I will see my cousin again. Through fully accepting the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I know one day that I will see all of my family and friends in the presence of God after this life.

 Friday was alright. We had Zone Training Meeting (ZTM) and one of the ZLs is super depressing when he talks. It is not motivating whatsoever, it's super saddening. We took a zone picture and I'll send that to you. My comp is right by me. Afterwards we decided to go and see R because we haven't seen her for a while. On the way there this guy stopped us and asked us what we believe in. We gave him the 'low down' but he wasn't 'chill wid dat'. Apparently he is a baptist minister, but he doesn't 'minister' same with his dad. He was one of those super fit old guys and he kept pacing back and forth while trying to tell us what to believe. He got super close to my face though, I felt like telling him 'sir, my bubble' but no, he just got super close to my face while me and Elder G listened. At the very end he told us 'the message that God told him to give to us' was that we need to 'read the scriptures'. We told him that the Book of Mormon is scripture and that we study the scriptures every morning for 3 hours, then go talk to people about the scriptures. He didn't like that. He said 'Listen young man, I'm not telling you what you do, I'm telling you what to do.' Well after that we just walked away and he was yelling at us, just another day in the mission. We actually ended up finding R's drunk dad and her uncle. We taught them the plan of salvation because their brother just passed away. We invited them to come to church, but they didn't come. We ate with the S family, and they are really funny. The sons are super shy at first, but then they are just a bunch of goof balls. We had a lesson with A, one of our baptismal dates. Afterwards we asked her if she was excited for her baptism on the 29th of November, then her mom told us the sad news. She said that they are going on vacation that weekend and that we will need to push the baptism back 1 week. I just turned to to the mom and said "we can move it up a week!" So the baptism for and A and J is now the 22 of November!! They are both super excited for it! 

Saturday I was losing my mind. Elder G basically broke the bike that he is borrowing and complaining the whole time that the bike is defective. Of course it is, you broke it. We had coordination finally with the ward mission leader, he brought pizza!! It was really weird cause we didn't even talk about our investigators. We basically wrote down their names and then gave him the paper and left. We went to go visit our friend N again. He said he read and marked some notes in the Book of Mormon, but he couldn't find it, so we read from our copy. Going into the lesson, I just wanted to listen. I have a really bad habit of trying to tell people something, without letting them understand it for themselves. I tried really hard to listen, and I do think that it helped the lesson. He is slowly changing. We were bold and told him very simply: If you pray about the Book of Mormon and read with the desire to know that it is true, then you will receive an answer that it is the word of God, just like the Bible is. If you know this, then the LDS or Mormon church is the only true and living church of God on the earth. We testified of how we know the Book of Mormon is true and how we have seen it change lives. 

Sunday!! Finally church came! We had the whole A/N/E family come, that's 5 investigators at church!! J walked up to Elder G and told him that she wants him to baptize her and A told me that she wants me to be baptize her... SWEET! Already thinking ahead, way to go girls. Elder Ga overheard and then he joke back at me "where do I get one that just asks me to baptize them??" It was funny. We ate with B M and I tried to get a recipe out of her, but mom, she was going on and on and on about what to put into freaking meatballs. I promise I will get some recipes for you!! We then had a lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the A gang. It was a really good lesson. 

Les quiero muchísima y espero por 6 más días de viernes para hablar con vos!

Qué tenga feliz día y semana!

Elder Roberts

Week 37

Weekly letter

Lovely Family,

To answer questions: I definitely think that you should apply for the head security spot, I mean why not? My companion and I cook differently so I cooked the chicken, the spice was really good, I tried the lemon pepper, any others? I eat the sandwich with barbecue sauce and dip it like its ketchup almost... Sooo good. I like Elder Ballard's talk about the ship, especially the part about not leaving the ship. We cannot swim to shore, we need the boat. I love that because it talks about the people who feel that they can just do things by themselves and not follow the plan that God has for us, that's what I thought about it at least.

Sad news happened this last week. You know how I told you I was going to train? How I was finally going to have a child here in the mission? Well I get a call from the APs and they told me that I wasn't and that my new companion would be Elder G (a different one). So I am not training.  It's less stress off of me anyways... Kinda.

Elder G is interesting. He is from Brooklyn NY and his parents are from the Dominican Republic, so he is Latino. He looks super white. His Spanish is alright, but because he doesn't practice it, it needs some working on. It's really funny because he doesn't say certain his 'S' when he speaks, so "gracias" is "gracia" and "Dios" is "dio"... So instead of thank you, he says grace... Ok, instead of the word "God" he says "gave".... Hmmmm. He also uses a certain Spanish tense that missionaries are not aloud to use, because it is informal. He uses it all the time. So to help him, and he agreed to this, every time he uses the tense, he has to do a push up. He has actually gotten a lot better. I am senior companion because I have been out longer. This is his 3rd transfer in the mission, and he was actually called to be an English elder... Weird. He has a lot of mannerism that are silly, like he always says the word "fetch". You know how in The Best Two Years the guy says flip a lot? Well imagine it more and the word is fetch. He agrees that he needs to get rid of saying that. Don't get me wrong, I like Elder G, he's a cool guy, super chill, this transfer is going to be awesome, I'm just relearning patience again. :)

Monday: Elder A's last day with me, what did we do to celebrate? We went to Burger King, so yes, I accidentally used the card. I couldn't find the mission one cause I put it in another place, so I just used the card, sorry. The dinner with the Flores was a little interesting. They didn't do the reading, or go do baptisms for the dead, so the party didn't happen. We still ate with them and had a good FHE, but there wasn't like a "party" setting. 

Tuesday was crazy. I got my new companion, Elder G, and we got a ride from one of the members because we are in a bike area. Elder G brought so much stuff with him! It was funny because the whole ride I was talking to the Hermano and my companion didn't talk at all. Basically he doesn't speak any gospel Spanish, so I talk most of the time during lessons, so I get a lot of practice. We had a lesson with R G and her dad was there. He was so drunk it wasn't even funny. He would ask us "can I drink this?" Or "I want you to help me" and we would tell him to not drink, but then he would drink so basically we were like "oh no, stop it..." But the lesson was alright, it was pretty good, just the distracting drunk dad was a little too much. We ate dinner with the E family again and I had 2 helpings, hopefully I get to eating more, cause the food is just so good!!

Wednesday was really fun. We did a lot of street contacting, trying to find all those people who are waiting for the gospel. We also visited this less active lady named H, turns out her mom is an investigator so we are trying to work hard with that family! H even treated us out to ice cream so that was super nice! We ate with the R family, like we always do on Wednesday, and it was so funny. Elder G is a little socially awkward, so at the R family it was awkward. They normally laugh a lot during dinner, but this time they were just quiet.... It was so funny!! We talked to this funny guy outside an apartment place. He was drunk and told us that Adam was not the first man on earth. He said that he uses a "Good Will Bible"... A Good Will Bible? Could I please get a Bad Will Bible? Or at least A Million Dollar Bible? It made me laugh. We read in he Bible about the creation and he was amazed! It actually says Adam was the first! He went back to his apartment super drunk and mumbling to himself.

Thursday we had another lesson with R G and her dad. We tried to teach about the Book of Mormon and read the introduction to the book, but there were a lot of distractions. We answered all of their questions about why the Book of Mormon is called after Mormon, why its separate from the Bible, and why we need to have it, and read it. We also answered their questions about baptisms for the dead, so that was cool. We are trying to work with this less active member and his girlfriend, but their marriage is really complicated, so we invited them to go talk to the bishop.. Let's see if they do. 

Friday was pretty fun. We had district meeting and the district is pretty fun. I like the District Leader, his name is Elder G and he is super funny. I had to bike home from the church with a mop in my hand, it was like going to lacrosse practice again, but this time it actually looked better because it was a mop. We met with the F family and set an official date for them to go do baptisms for the dead, it's on November 14th, in 2 weeks. I am so excited because I have never helped a RC go and do baptisms for the dead! 

Saturday, Halloween, was ok. We had to be inside our apartments at 6 and then do studies, or planning. It was ridiculous. All of our set up appointments and lessons fell through. We had a lesson with a Seventh Day Adventist. That was interesting. It was funny because he said that he could believe in the First Vision and Joseph Smith being called a prophet, but not about Peter James and John being angels or resurrected beings. .??????? For real? We are seeing him this week and going to bring by a Book of Mormon, so that will hopefully help him.

Sunday we saw so many miracles. We fasted, of course, so it's no coincidences that miracles came. We had 4 investigators at church, had 2 member present lessons, and we set 3 baptismal dates! We had a super spiritual lesson with the Armas family. We finally met with all of them and set a baptismal date for the 29th of November!! It was interesting because Elder G has never set a baptismal date before, so that was interesting. They seem super solid.

Miracles are happening, work is happening. I am so excited for this transfer, I am going to learn so much and grow so much!! Thank you for all your support and everything!

Love you all so much,

Elder Roberts