Gladys Knight is coming to the mission.....
The week was pretty
good, you'll read about it later. The apartment is pretty nice, I'm always cold
in the morning cause I'm a pansy and my comp needs a fan at night to sleep.
Whenever we move apartments, we take our bikes with us. So my bike is flipped
upside down in the living room of the apartment here with me. Something cool
that is happening in April is that GLADYS KNIGHT is coming to our mission! She
basically has a volunteer choir that is Grammy award winning - "SUV"
or Saints Unified Voices - and her and the group travel across the nation
holding FIRESIDES to sing hymn and children's songs of the church. She and her
family bear their testimonies of why they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter- Day Saints and it's super cool. We are so stoked because we want to
invite as many non members and less actives! The sad part is that WE can't go as
missionaries... Darn. Anywho, it's pretty big. It's my companion's birthday
today, so I think we are going to China Buffet and getting Yogurtland as well,
maybe slip a pie in there;) I will be so amazed if I don't gain weight in this
area, but don't worry, I can lose weight really fast, remember?
I was thinking about what you said about some stuff that you could
put into the Easter package. Maybe some homemade goodies? Cake balls, Oreos,
cinnamon rolls? idk. I'm just missing some good homemade stuff from my mom:)
Monday was a crazy day. I didn't know that we are the only
companionship in the zone that has a car and a bike rack. So when missionaries
have a broken bike and they need to take it to the shop to get it fixed, we
drive them. This time it was Elder G. We went to go pick him and we did our
shopping and laundry with him. We went to this haircut place cause Elder S needed a haircut and they had a foosball table! So of course like the Rogers side of me I just had to challenge the other elders. I'm so glad Dad, Mom,
Charlie, and Bryant all taught me how to play foosball because I never lost to
any of them. The second to back line on one of the sides was even missing! So
it was the opposing 3 vs. the goalie and I still won! It was fun though. After
that Elder S and I went to play basketball with some other elders. They
actually know how to play and man are they tall! That was really fun too. After
that we tried to contact some referrals, but the addresses didn't exist or the
wrong person lived there. We then ended the night with our dinner hour. We ate
Yogurtland and Taco Bell.
Tuesday was crazy at the end of the day. While looking through the
area book, Elder S decided that we needed to go to a certain street to try
and find some Samoans. We walked up and down that street, and didn't find any.
We had a lesson with M and the parents said that the street we went on
use to have Samoans, but not anymore. During hit lesson with M and her
mom, we were trying to figure out a date for the baptism. M was feeling a
little pressured and she was stating to cry. We told the family how much we
love them and how much we support them. After a good heartfelt time, the
baptism is set in stone for the 16th of April. It was a good lesson because we
even got to talk to the mom for a bit about what she believes because she is a
little less active. We ran over to another lesson with N. She is 13
years old and is super shy. We didn't really have time to talk to her too much,
and it's even worse because this whole week the family said that they will be
out of town or unavailable. It was still good to touch base with them. We then
hurried to another lesson with the C family. They are a family of 4 and
3 are old enough to be baptized. The Branch President came with us to the
lesson and introduced himself and talked for a bit, which was really good. The
C family have a lot of desires to learn, all they really need to do is
to come to church! We then hurried to ANOTHER lesson with a less active family
in which we talked about prayer and shared a scripture. They gave us a cake to
go (Samoans man) and that ended the night.
Wednesday was our temple day. Our session began at 6:45 in the
morning so we woke up at 4:30 to arrive there on time. Here in LA the traffic
is terrible in the morning. Luckily we arrived on time, a little early
actually, and had time for a 20 minute power nap. The session was awesomely
golden. It was cool and it was nice to go to the temple. We took a picture so
look for that one! We then went back to our appointment and just crashed and
took a quick nap because traffic coming back was WORSE than getting there. We
went by our WML house and talked to him and his wife. They are preparing to
enter into the temple and it was nice to hear their conversion stories, or part
of their testimonies. We talked to some people after that before we had dinner
with our Branch President. They gave us soup and that was good. After that we
had to go to coordination meeting with the WML at the church. We had already
talked to him a little bit about our investigators and what they need, so we
didn't need to take too much time. We closed off the day by baking cookies and
eating cake.
Thursday was weekly planning and we went and grabbed Panda before
we started our weekly planning. It's really hard when you are trying to help
investigators and you just can't figure out how to help them, or what their
needs are. After weekly planning we went to go and see M G. She is a
recent convert and she has a lot of health problems. She likes it when we go
over and read with her. We talked for a while and she even gave us a pan dulce
and some water, she is so nice. We then had dinner with the P family.
Because there isn't a man in the home, we eat outside. It was good because
while we were eating we invited her to come and visit the C family with
us. Later that night hermana P, her youngest son, and her daughter, all came
with us to go and visit the C family. They seemed to get along pretty
well. The daughter invited A, the C girl, to church and to
mutual. She also is an 'upper class man' and so she started to take A under her wing. Hopefully they go to church!
Friday it poured! Rain was just going crazy man! Poor Elder S,
he doesn't have a jacket or anything! We ate dinner with the R family. We
thought we remembered her saying that she was going to make pupusas for us, but
we think that when we knocked on the door we barely woke her up for the day.
The food we ate was not cooked. Me, trying not to notice, just forked down
everything. I ate raw shrimp and chow mein! Man did my stomach hurt after that!
I don't think I can ever eat shrimp again! We watch a Mormon message with them
and that was really cool. After that we tried to go and visit some potentials
and contact referrals. Some people weren't there and others didn't live there
anymore. We stopped by a recent convert/less active/ investigator house of
Samoans. The mom is an investigator and her name is 'Bambi' because her first
name is super hard to pronounce. Her husband, A, is a less active and they
have two kids?? One is named King A..?? Ya. We set up a return appointment
with them. We then saw S. She is 9 years old and she is preparing to be
baptized in June.... Because that's when her dad gets done working in the oil
refineries in Utah. Her mom is also a less active. After that we went to go
walk around a neighborhood and we stopped by this house of Samoans. The dad
stopped us and invited us in! It's a HUGE family. Like at least 7-8 members.
They are Seventh- Day Adventists... Legitly. The dad went off on us for a whole
and did not let us speak. It was super hard because we didn't want to
disrespect him in front of his kids or disrespect him period. We set up a
return appointment, so hopefully the next lesson goes a lot better, please pray
to soften his heart and let us teach him about repentance.
Saturday was just the day that we were told about Gladys Knight.
We had a lot of meetings about it that day ahahaha.
Sunday was Stake conference and it was crazy cause of Day Light
Savings. Yes, we woke up late, but luckily we had some elders call us just to
make sure we were awake. We stopped by the C family to wake them up so they
could go to church. They had barely woken up when we knocked on their door. We
helped with directing the traffic for parking because the Spanish Branch was in
charge of ushering. We waited for the C family. Everybody was arriving
from the Samoan Ward and also the Spanish Branch, but nothing. Stake conference
started and they weren't there. About 15-20 minutes within the meeting, we get
a text saying that they are there. We walked outside with our WML and looked
for them, but couldn't find them. They parked so far away!! But they came. The
wife, I, is the only one that didn't come. V, A, and V jr. all came. It was so good. During the meeting A was watching the
speakers so intently and sometimes V would read in the Book of Mormon and
mark pages. The stake presidency was reorganized this time, so sad. The
speakers were super good though, and the Samoan Ward sang! I didn't understand
the words, but I recognized the tunes and I could follow along pretty good.
They were so good. We then had a former investigator and her daughter show up
to church and the daughter is basically begging us to baptize her.... Ok! Other
missionaries have started calling me the "primary baptizer" cause all
I do is baptize kids hahaha.
So to celebrate my comps birthday we went to a Chinese buffet,
Yogurtland, we are eating with Samoans tonight (here comes the Samoan food!)
and I also bought a pumpkin pie:)
Spiritual thought: (sorry/ not sorry that it's long)
This last Sunday was our Stake Conference and the Stake presidency
was reorganized. One of the talks that was given was by a member of the
Seventy, I don't remember who exactly. He taught us that if we were to do 4
things, we will become converted to the Gospel, we will have the spirit in our
lives, and we will never fall away from the church.
The 4 things are:
1: Individual and family prayers - every day
This is a commandment of God! He expects us to be obedient! He
wants to bless us!
3 Nephi 18:19-21
19 Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name;
20 And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is
right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.
21 Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that
your wives and your children may be blessed.
So there you have it, direct teachings from our Lord and Savior
found in the account of his personal ministry in the Ancient Americas.
2: Individual and family scripture study - every day
2 Nephi 32:3
3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they
speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of
Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should
do.
God has given us a commandment to read his word. Whether that
comes from prophets of old, such as reading in the Old Testament, New
Testament, The Book of Mormon, or the Pearl of Great Price, we may also read
the words of modern day prophets that are found in The Doctrine and Covenants,
General Conference, the Liahona, Ensign, New Era, or Friend.
D&C 1:38
38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not
myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass
away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of
my servants, it is the same.
I testify that the prophets, both living and old, are the servants
of God.
3: Hold a family home evening - every week
Now he gave a powerful testimony of family home evenings and I
want to add to it. Parents, your children may not like having family home
evenings, they might never remember a single lesson that you teach them. But
this is what they will remember: the consistency of your faith and diligence.
Alma 56:47-48
47 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and
they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their
lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt,
God would deliver them.
48 And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying:
We do not doubt our mothers knew it.
He mentioned some interesting things here: who are the fathers?
Very little is said about the fathers of the stripling warriors, could they
have been the very men that "laid down their weapons of rebellion"
and were killed for it? For the thought they would fall into old habits of
disobedience was so great that they willingly gave their lives as a testimony
equivalent to a martyr? I testify that WE are the people of Ammon. WE are the
ones who will teach our kids the Gospel
Alma 23:7-6
6 And as sure as the Lord liveth, so sure as many as believed, or
as many as were brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the preaching of
Ammon and his brethren, according to the spirit of revelation and of prophecy,
and the power of God working miracles in them--yea, I say unto you, as the Lord
liveth, as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were
converted unto the Lord, never did fall away.
7 For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the
weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more,
neither against any of their brethren.
4: Pay a full tithe
In the Old Testament and in the Book of Mormon, it talks about the
severity of this particular commandment of God.
Malachi 3:8-11
8 ¶Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein
have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this
whole nation.
- Yikes! That is the severity of this commandment!
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be
meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I
will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not
destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit
before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
The promised blessing if we follow this commandment is that, well,
we won't have ROOM enough to receive all the blessings that come from it! We
will also have power over the adversary, who's eternal goal is our misery. I
testify that tithing is a powerful commandment of God. A recent convert in my
area has many health problems. She cries every time she tells us that she
cannon make it to church. She always attends at least Fast and Testimony
meeting because she pays her tithing. This lady, Maria Garcia, has diabetes,
high blood pressure, is obese, has heart and lung problems, and has an
excessive amount of water in her lungs and heart. This past week she had 7 lbs.
of water removed from her body. She is going to come to church to pay her
tithe, not because she is rich, but because she knows and understands the
blessings of our Heavenly Father.
I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the
complete and true church of God, and his kingdom on the earth. It is lead by a
prophet, Thomas S. Monson, who holds the priesthood power to receive revelation
directly from our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to guide the work of
salvation and exaltation here on the earth.
Love,
Elder
Roberts
