Week 7

Hello Family!

I don't have much time and this keyboard is extremely sticky so I am sorry if this is like hieroglyphics for you. Pisco is a huge area, I am not by the coast, Pisco is by the ocean, but I am in a desert, it kinda sucks, but hey, its my mission so I will live with it.

Craziness right, my very first lesson was with this lady and she was breastfeeding, just ooop! like that. So needless to say that is how most lessons are, breastfeeding mothers. I think I have had 5 lessons without breastfeeding. The food here is good, I am starting to get the bug, but its fine, its like it was in the CCM, except toilets don't work here past noon. With boxes you send them to the office, but on the BOX part, not the address, put Pisco, because that is my zone. Most of the food goes like this, breakfast we have rolls with egg or ham, with this drink that is like oatmeal without the chunks, disgusting. Lunch is always rice, chicken with bone, and surprise. One time they had noodles that were COATED in pesto, nastiness but alright. I cannot finish a lunch meal to save my life, they give us so much food!!! I am known as the missionary with the tiny stomach, its ok.

I am in a ward with 150 members this past Sunday!!! our goal is 200 so that will take a while. I have figured out some weird things about Peru. The dogs are either strays, abused, pregnant, sleeping, or cute. Always a combination of 2 but most of the time combo of 3. There was a funeral, but the people threw beer bottles at the casket, it was weird cause it happened on the catholic road. Here we have roads that different religions are centered, we have just the catholic road and the testigos de jehovah road. Needless to say the catholic road is alright, but the other is crazy. I saw them trying to preach, they were wearing hats, old OLD clothes, and were just .... extrano. Wedding was fun, I will put pictures if I have time. There is this lady that we contacted, who I think is technically my first investigador and her name is Paula. She is golden. The members here in Peru are mostly women, we had 6 people in Elders Quoram, including 4 Elders.

I don't think we do anything for Thanksgiving, because its an American Holiday (winky face) but its all good. I am getting frustrated a lot and it is bugging me because its only my first week. I am having lots of problems with falling asleep after lunch, not during lessons or anything, but I am just tired. Trying to be better. I am also thinking of buying a blanket because I sleep with a hoodie and my socks because it is cold in the morning. I got a tie that has a llama on it, its awesome. I have lived off of yogurt and peanut butter for my dinner, es lo maximo, not! My companion is always chastising me about not being able to teach, because I can understand Spanish, I cant ever explain how I am feeling because he doesn't know english well enough and I don't know Spanish well enough. The people here talk really fast and really quite. I cannot hear them at all!! but I guess they say that I am better than most of the gringos that come because I actually talk, its weird. I am baptizing an hermana on Saturday, its kinda crazy. I really need something to be able to help me belt, because nobody knows what to do.

Well, sorry for cutting off, but I have to go do stuff.

Love you

Elder Roberts

Extra Sweetness

This is a letter he wrote, I'm assuming while he was meeting with his Mission President.

Week 6

Ok, let me see how much I can write in 40 minutos.

I love all of you guys. Charlie and Emily, congrats and looking amazing in that awesome pic, es lo maximo (its the best) thats the most common phrase here in Peru. My companion is Elder P and he is shorter than me!!! hahahaha, anyways we are in a city south of Lima called Pisco. TBH you havent seen people who are poor until you have seen Peru. Leterally our apartment is the best and we cant flush a toilet in the afternoon, because the water doesnt work. I am able to download pictures when I write you guys, but I havent taken any pictures yet, sorry. The dogs here are so weird. Imagine all types of dogs, but with no hair to incredible sparce hair. It is crazy. Elder L was in my district back in the CCM and I helped him with Spanish, he was kinda weird TBH because he thought that he could "read me" hahaha oh it was hilarious. The flight here was fun, I talked to a guy in Spanish for like 4 hours, cause I slept the first hour and after we just waited for a long time. We started talking because he was curious as to what Elder meant. We talked about temples because his cousin is a member and he wasnt allowed in the wedding and was wondering why. I told him that what goes on in the temple is sacred and instead of being married until death do you part, you are married for time and all eternity, how wonderfulo is that? Anyway he was a catholic who believed that God is the universe so that was weird and I wasn't the best teacher cause it was hard to communicate in spanish. I think that once I get into the routine here in Peru and after I know where things are, I will be able to go crazy on the language. You would be surprised how much I actually understand, the only problem is that I cannot talk to people. I cannot communicate my feelings the way that I want to. The first night we stayed in a hotel that was super nice, then the next day we woke up around 5 to go to a meeting with the Mission President, President Douglas. He is way chill and I am grateful for the two things that he is stressing in the mission: exact obedience and the atonement. Everyday we read with our companions a scripture about the atonement and it is awesome. It is extremely hot here. The first food that I tried was the breakfast that I had this morning, it was interesting. It was 3 rolls with bologna in them and this oatmeal like drink, extremely hot, but not chunky like oatmeal. I actually liked it. Our lunch today was chinese food, a lot of it that only costs like 4$ in America for 3 plates of food, crazy, i didn't finish it was so much. I tried Inca cola for the first time, it is one of 4 drinks that I can drink here: water, inca cola, coca cola, and the oatmeal thingy. I am probably going to get a bug because I can never use a bathroom!! there isn't a place that has a working toilet past noon, terrible. We have to fill a bucket of water and flush our toilets, so fun.... ya. My companion el lo maximo, he knows a lot of english and he will help me with learning spanish. One of my zone leaders made me a little mad today during our meeting because he came over and asked if I was tired, I said yes and he told me kinda snarky "get over it". I have a good attitude about most stuff, but when someone was new like me and says that, just a little frustrating. I am sorry that all of this is just one giant paragraph, but the cubicle that I am writing in is so tiny, everything here is tiny. I have to duck to miss hitting my head when coming downstairs to bruch teeth or eat or study, ME!!!! ya crazy. The people seem that they are nice and this weekend we are attending a wedding I think and I think my companion has already set up a baptism on the 3rd of December. We are in the desert, it is so crazy, I am going to be so dusty its almost hilarious. Mom, you would freak out about how dusty everything is and how many cookarachas there are. When you are sending a package, address it to the zone in Pisco, I will be here until february so its ok for you to send something. I dont know what I need because we can order garments which I will eventually need. Everything is in spanish which is good, but it is driving me crazy. I really wish that I could just understand, but I know that it will come with time in the mission field. It is a little different with the schedule, but thats ok. Ya, que mas... que mas.... I could use some socks... but I'll let you know later. I am really grateful for all that you guys do for me. It is extremely different here than in Utah, like driving wise, if you don't try to cut people off, you get honcked at. It is literally crazy, grampy would say "guy" at everyone, so that always goes into my head. The verbs are normal words though! like to clean, to lift, to break, to breathe, to think, every normal word in a dictionary guys, nothing new from me... come on;)

Let me know if I forgot anything

Love you tons and bunches

Elder Roberts

Week 5

Hola Familia!!! 

So crazy things happened this weekend, oh goodness this is going to be a crazy letter.

So first things first, I AM LEAVING ON MONDAY!!! We leave the CCM around 10 AM and our flight is from 2 in the afternoon to 9 at night, not too shabby. So exciting because the others mission in Peru (West ugh) jk, they leave in the middle of the night and it is hilarious because they have to go to their classes and everything. It is really scary because I have no idea how to speak the language and its just.... ahhh!!! I feel like I've been gaining a little weight, but that might just be because of the food and all the sitting that we do, we don't really walk as much as the Provo MTC would. i'll either find another belt in Peru or just find a way to punch holes in it.. idk. We had a huge party last night with all of our goodies, we had the chips, root beer, chokies in leche with peanut butter... ah t'was glorious. I am getting my umbrella, just making sure I have enough pesos. all of my clothes are holding up, except for some of my socks, like the cool British pair, gray and blue pair, but that's just because they are thinner so when I play sports it wears them out. Grammy and Grampy are the only ones besides Charlie and Emily to send stuff, which was very nice of them to do for me. 

OK so we met the new baby district: so there was the one with all of the hermanas in it, and now we got another with 8 elders.

The one with the 8 elders is so legit. They are all a bunch of cool kids. There is Elder M with Elder A (who went to Bingham a year before me, didn't really know him but he's chill) Elder D with Elder S, Elder H with Elder S, and Elder T  (who is from LP and is crazy at sports, ginger jumps has a whole new meaning now) and Elder A  (he is from St. George and he says he has danced ballroom for most of his life and did Dancesport, but I don't recognize him, but he's funny) They are all just the coolest most ready missionaries. Unfortunately (don't freak out) we were playing cage soccer and I kicked the ball high so that it was bouncing. Elder A was the goalie so he jumped up to grab the ball (nobody was around him or anything) and he came down on his ankle.... and ya. gross. Elder M and myself ran to the infermeria and got someone that could help. He was gone to the hospital for 2 days and then came back. He told us that the doctors told him that he dislocated his ankle so severe that it would have been better if he had just broken it. He is in a wheelchair right now and has to wait for Monday to go home to heal for 2 to 3 months because he can't put pressure on his foot. Needless to say we are all kinda protective of anyone being rough in cage soccer now. I jammed one of my fingers a little playing basketball (cause we didn't want to play cage) and it hurts, put its almost healed, not worried about it. Other than those injuries I have to half index cards that I use as yellow and red cards for cage soccer, so if someone is acting stupid and reckless, BOOM card, or boots the ball out of the cage BOOM card. Its hilarious and everyone goes along with it. Today (pday) we played cage for a bit and I didn't play defense, I was just by the goalie kinda cherry picking, it was fun, scored 3 goals... it was a fun day, nobody really was injured except for two people in my district complaining about blocking shots and tripping and... blah blah blah. 

Everything is kinda weird right now, nobody is really liking their companion. We got a new District leader because Elder D is now our zone leader, and the new district leader... oh man. He loves role plays, it is driving me nuts. When we have a testimony meeting, he doesn't wait for people to gather their thoughts so that they can share what the want to about the day or about what they learned from the devotional. Needless to say I am looking forward to Peru.

Saturday: Finished organizing my Spanish scriptures the way that i wanted to. I put tabs on every 5 chapters so that when I know a certain scripture, I can just flip to it. It was a frustrating day because everyone thinks that Elder Roberts doesn't have struggles with the language, so when I get something wrong, they all jump on my back and attack me. Just because I made 450 flashcards and know 370 doesn't mean that I can speak fluent or mildly fluent yet. 

Sunday: Sunday was good, I finished the BOM in engles from when I started on week one (100 pages a week, or 15 pages a day, no biggy). I also blessed the sacrament in Spanish. It was funny because I practiced with our branch president before and he said that I sounded Mexican (good????) but then things changed. President Pratt (MTC president) came in and joined our sacrament meeting. I was a little nervous and stuttered a bit, but I didn't need to do it again, which is good because I had been here for 5 weeks, come on. An elder from the toddler district got up to share his talk, and he thought that nobody understood a scripture that he shared in Spanish (everything on Sunday is in Spanish FYI) and so he said "let me just read it in English for those who don't understand" President Pratt quickly said "don't bother" kinda bluntly and I had to hold back a laugh because it was hilarious. Needless to say the elder was a little mad. 

Monday: The teachers talked to the Elders and the Hermanas separately about the rules of clothing and appropriate relationships with the Hermanas (not a problem). Monday was the day that Elder A hurt his ankle. Our Progressing Investigador lesson was good, we hit everything we wanted to and the teacher told us that it was a 9.5 out of 10, so that's good. My companion made fun of the word Mentally Retarded... ya, still mad about that, don't know if I should talk to him about that, pretty sure I'm going to cause it was extremely offensive. After that my companion hasn't really talked to me, so I'm gonna tell him what's on my mind then let him tell me what's on his.

Tuesday: Today wasn't the best day. Elder D and I split and sang in the choir for the devotional, it was a good devotional that helped me realize a whole new meaning the the purpose of inviting ALL to come unto Christ. That doesn't mean people that we don't think will except the Gospel. That means ourselves first, our companions, a bishop, ward members, and investigadores. Es muy importante por todas las personas recibiremos el evangelio porque es como regresamos a Dios y Jesucristo. 

So that is my weekly update. Everything is going good.

Jacob 6:1 says Oh Be wise, what can I say more?

That is were I got my sassiness from, that guy.

Love you all, will take more pictures, sorry

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 4

Dearest family that I love,

No I did not fix my belt, gonna try to fix that in Peru, not too much of a problem anymore.... I will get an umbrella the last week that I am here because it hasn't been raining here, and the umbrellas cost about 100 pesos (about 10$) here. Which is how much we are given each week. I have been saving up because I don't know what I will need when I leave. I leave November 18th, so I think that is a Monday. Yes I did get the goodies (pretty sure I said that last week) but we haven't pulled anything out yet, because we have been waiting for this PDay. I'm not sure if we get to call, probably not because the entire flight will probably be missionaries, seriously though. I have one more PDay here in the CCM before we head out to Peru. So excited!!

This week has been a little crazy, I will start with the crazy then go into the normal.

So remember how Clay was in the same District that I am in now? Well now we are the oldest District in the zone because the other district  left. I really enjoyed spending time with that district because they had the same humor that I have. I didn't get to take a picture of the Hermanas from that district (10A) but its all good because the Elders are the ones that I hung out with. One of the Elders in their district left before anyone else, and his name was Elder D, he was a cool legit person, and he is actually serving in Peru Lima North. I had most of their district write testimonies in the book, so that was good. We received the new district with the usual random pranks (russian) and the Hermanas (6 of them!!) basically looked liked they wanted to kill us, it was nuts. So we had a fun time, but we weren't sure about the new district. Sunday was Fast Sunday and they closed the Comedor on Saturday night for dinner so we could start our fast that night and have lunch the next day, which was nice. My companion and I taught the priesthood lesson on Sunday, which was alright, but we talked about the two priesthoods, so naturally people started to doze off. Everyone in our district is a zone or district leader now except for me and my companion, which has him a little mad. I am fine with it because I don't think that I could handle a little extra (not even though) stress on my shoulders. It was weird to see the difference in the Espanol. The difference was between the district that left and the baby district. I started to memorize verbs, around 60 a day. One day I did pretty good and i memorized 100, so now I am at 220 to 280, there are 450 total that they give us, some are repeats, and some I will never use. It was good thought because one of the Elders in my district, Elder L, has had the hardest time struggling on Espanol and I started to help him with the verbs. So far he has 73 down (that I know of) which is about 25 a day. He used one of the new verbs in class and the teacher was surprised that he knew that word HAHAHHA!!! One of the new Elders from the baby district also kinda slipped, not meaning to (I think) an insult to him, which made him feel bad about his Espanol. I tried to cheer him up, but I feel that he will just be motivated by that more now.

Onto the days. 

Friday was a PAIN!!! Probably one of the worst Halloweens ever!! They made our entire casa move casas. We had to move from casa 1 to casa 2, not that big of a deal except that we were in our nice clothes, had to move everything, my companion cut his thumb on his razor, and my companion and I don't have any drawers (gahones). So we are literally living out of our suitcases. Its not that we just don't have drawers, we don't even have a place to put drawers in. The Hermanas in both districts were just really sassy and I didn't want to be mean or sarcastic, so I just didn't talk for most of the day. 

Saturday: Friday night the CCM had a power outage (in the new casa remember) and it was freezing. The new district Elders were being a little rude. I told them that if they wanted to talk to other Elders, we are just down the hall. One of the Elders jabbed back "this Elder wants to be a psychiatrist when he grows up, cause he likes to talk about feelings"UGH!! needless to say my prediction came true and now we can't get rid of them, lovely. We taught in TRC again (no little 15 year old this time) instead we had a 30 to 40 year old member. We taught her about prayer and she asked why do bad things happen to good people... piece of cake, you got Alma 14:14, 2 Nephi 2:13... The spirit was so strong that she teared up and gave us an amazing review, boom, spiritual high. 

Sunday: I started to feel a little distant from my district because everyone talks to each other and I study vocab, because I want to know how to say things. It was a rough day because my companion started to be a little moody and I didn't know why. I spilled food on my shirt at lunch (the food just wanted to be eaten so bad that it jumped out at me) so I had to go change. I think one of the things that I don't appreciate about people on Fast Sundays is that they gorge themselves with food. Disgusting. 

Wednesday: I kinda messed up in our progressing investigador lesson today. I thought that we had to hurry and didn't have enough time , so I said that we didn't have time, but then we had 5 more minutes, so it just ruined the whole forward motion of the lesson.. ugh.

Today: I really wanted to iron all of my shirts (almost done) and get organized, which we did. I wanted to go play ultimate, but instead we played volleyball for awhile which I didn't particularly enjoy. We played ultimate and it was alright, nothing crazy. We played normal soccer on a regular field and the other team had the 3 actual soccer players, so we got destroyed. We found out that we have another baby district that came yesterday and met some of the Elders. We have 8 Elders in the new district (Me gusta). Onto the last week of the CCM WOOO!!!!

I like DC 24:7 because its simple and I like it

Love, Elder Roberts

 The hoodie Brigade

 The baby district

 A yummy breakfast drink

These two are for Elder Olive :)

Week 3

Just FYI, he didn't really end his letter...I think he has a lot on his mind.

Hola Familia!

So this week has been a bit of a rough one. It was hard because for the longest time I was struggling with some of the words when I was trying to teach during Progressing Investigador. I'm just going to tell you each day starting with Sunday because I have forgotten Friday and Saturday of the past week.

Saturday: I actually remember something from Saturday. We have this thing called TRC. What TRC is, is the oppurtunity for us to teach (along with our companions) volunteers who may be members, non members, less active... etc. Well we go on in, and we see this little latina lady. We asked the get to know you questions and asked her age... 15 (great). We start asking what she knows about our heavenly father and the gospel and she totally bears her testimony. We didn't know what to do so we started to talk about prayer and the restoration. My companion was a little tongue tied so I did most of the talking, which I did surprisingly well on. After TRC we receive a review from the person we taught about how well we taught. In the letter she said that she loves the misioneros, especially my companion (uh oh). Needless to say my teacher was a little mad about that and I don't think that we will be teaching her again. 

Sunday: It was a rough one because I really didn't know what to do during study time or language. I am trying to finish the BOM by the time that I leave the CCM, but I was caught up to where I needed to be. Our district had the special musical number for sacrament meeting and we were going to sing Himno 159 (Onward Christian Soldiers). While we were practicing, one of the hermanas said that we were tone deaf, which kinda hurt my feelings. I was a little upset about that, but all was good when we actually sang during sacrament meeting. The topic for this last week was La Expiacion and I understood almost every word that was being said during the talks. Lots of people in our district are also comparing others in how well they speak the language. I feel that that shouldn't be taking place at the CCM because we are all pretty much in the same boat, some just lack the confidence. It was hard for me to try and study in my scriptures because everyone was talking and laughing and telling personal stories, which was really distracting. 

Monday: It was a better day. During our day the other district in our zone started to talk to me more, which made me feel really good. They have the same type of humor as me and my companion and it was a good bonding experience. I got sunburnt really bad and my face started to peel. It has been a really steady 70 degrees here (not missing the cold hahahaha). I felt really excluded by my district because everyone had someone to talk to except for me, so I felt kinda bummed. It was hard during one of the Progressing investigadores porque the teacher acts like someone who was on his mission, and the person believed that all churches that talk about Christ are true, which is false. It was hard to communicate in espanol that this was the true church, just made me frustrated. How would you guys react? What would you tell him? (FYI we figured it out, i'll let you know next week)

Tuesday: We had a special devotional from Elder Clark of the quoram of the Seventy (and his wife) which was good. I was farther in my reading during this day that I thought I would be which helped and during both of the Progressing Investigadores we did really good. I am not injured anymore (that pep talk;) ) except for my finger that I cut, but it is healing very fast. I missed most of my shots in cage soccer, guess its not for me;) I am starting to try and turn any ingles word that I speak into espanol, when I do it, I can understand more, and when I don't I'm pretty much sunk. I really wanted someone to talk to because everyone was pairing off, except for me. I learned a lot about the devotional, but the part that stood out to me that most was that I need to share with you all the trials with investigadores that I have, and ask questions such as, what would you do?

Wednesday: So the answer to the progressing investigador question is.... 3 Nephi 11. We walked into Pedro.. aka my teacher... aka someone who was really in his mission. And he said that he prayed and didn't think that all churches were true, but what was the evidence that the Mormon church was true? (angel singing) Book. Of. Mormon. We start talking to him about the introduction and he asked why God would want another form of scripture to be written and not just the Bible. BOOM! We talk about the ministry of Jesus Christ on this continent and how it was recorded in the BOM and we placed a "BOM" and he started to read 3 Nephi 11 during our lesson. We challenged him to be baptized in 3 weeks and told him that we would help him reach this goal. He was hesitant until I (of course) said in pieced espanol.. unless you are ready before then (smolder). 100% classic. So that was good cause we were all hyped up.

Today has been kinda crazy. We went to the temple (lots of pictures) and it is someone in our zones birthday, so we are buying chokies (crumbly chocolate chip cookies) buenos *the best chocolate ever. Studying and then doing whatever he wants to do, probably signs. We saw our new district that arrived yesterday. 6 hermanas and 2 elders... exact opposite of ours. I am acting Russian so it was hard not to talk. Plus we are never safe because they might walk by us without our knowledge... ok picture time  

Here are a few pics.  He got a haircut :)

His zone at the temple

You just have to love those type of haircuts.

Week 2

Dear Family,

I would definitely like some goodies :) That sounds like it has been fun... ish, more times than not. I don't know if the Dear Elder site works better. So on P Day (which is a blessing given from heaven, oh goodness) helped my companion realize that the hermana likes him. Needless to say he doesn’t feel the same way which was a total relief. We had a long talk about how the first couple days we were very close and were thinking of the same ideas, but then we stopped when the hermana would pull him aside. Everything is good between us. Crazy story, ready? So we are playing futbol (yes you know what is coming) and my district leader Elder Davis is very good, he tricked me out and his foot smacked into my shin.... and now it is swollen. The picture that is below is one that i took today, 3 days after he hit me. Today while we were playing (cause thats just how I am) I nailed my companion in the middle of his legs when trying to take a shot.... he had to sit out for a bit. He got me back though by taking a shot on my leg, so I am not really walking on it too much, ya. Dont worry though, I am fine :) I also tore up my middle finger when trying to move a water jug that we put in our casa. The jug is on this plastic shelf and when I tried to pull the jug off, I tore up my finger on the plastic. So ya, I am the one that has been getting hurt the worst. Esta bien

One of my roommates Elder L (Did I tell you about him?) anyways, he was having a really rough time and was set on leaving because he didn't feel adequate enough for the language. We invited him and his companion Elder R to a testimony meeting that we had just for him, I cried like a baby. Later that day we find Elder R and he tells us that Elder Lis staying just for the CCM, not what we would hope but alright?? He told us that Elder Ls mom pretty much told him that he will not go home and to stick it out. Well, last night Elder L told us what really happened. He didn't feel like after our testimony meeting that he should stay (great thanks man, just balled my eyes out for nothing) and then he had to talk with his mom for an hour. She told him to make it at least through the CCM. He told us that the next day (yesterday) as he was reading emails, his P Day was yesterday) that everyone from Canada that he knew sent him a letter of support and that he still felt like he needed to go home. Then he read an email from his sister who is 9 years old (go get the tissues now) The email read this:

Dear Brother,

I cried when I saw that you wanted to come home. Please don’t let Satan win, you can't let Satan win.

Love... 

YA!!! crazy right? I’m almost in tears right now just typing it. Needless to say he is going to stay for his entire mission and will serve with all of his heart, 9 year old to save the day WOOT WOOT!!

Crazy fact about my district, you remember Elder Oliver?? (Clay?) Anyways, he and his companion were the last Zone leaders for my zone, AND his district number IS MY DISTRICT NUMBER!!! What are the odds??? I’m seriously freaked out. Everyone asked if I felt pressure knowing that he was the last zone leader and that everyone liked him. At first, I felt pressure. I felt pressure that if I told you guys this that you would expect me to become a district or zone leader here in the CCM, but then I just figured (with the help of some CCM devotionals) I don't care. I don't care if I am in a leadership position because I am stressed out enough. My district is full of some of the most supportive people that I know and they would never hold anything like that over me. AND my mission is not about becoming a zone or district leader. It is to focus on serving the people of Peru in their native language so that those that have been prepared by the hand of God can receive the true gospel in their lives. I started to read the L de M and I am already in Mosiah (I'm actually behind) but my goal is to finish it through in ingles before I leave, its gonna be pretty easy because there is a lot of extra time on our hands. Anyways, Mosiah 15 is insane with crazy good stuff! Idk what my favorite scripture so I will get back to you on that, if I remember. 

So cool things that have happened at CCM devotionals: 

We have had Elder Andersen come from the quoram of the 12 apostales. He was crazy good, but hilarious at the same time. I was so focused on his talk that I didn't write anything down... I know!!! he actually is that tall, he is maybe like 5''8 or something, made me feel good.

Then we have the directors of international MTCs around the world come around the CCM and give a devocional. They are really cool, one served his mision in Japan and He talks really fast, which only made his jokes hilarious. Again, so focused on his talk and his jokes that I only jotted down a coupld notas. Pero yo se it will come in handy later on. 

So we have this activity called progressing investigador. It is when someone who we don't know only talks in espanol. They later turn out to be our teachers in the afternoon, which we all saw coming. Pero it was really hard to understand what Hermana was saying. I am starting to be more confident in the language and I know that once I have been out in Peru for a little bit, I will be able to speak fluently-ish. I love singing in Spanish, we all sound the same. So maybe I might sing to you guys a Navidad o something. maybe. 

As we get closer to Dia de los muertos, fireworks are going off all the time around here. It seriously is so loud that it sounds like Armageddon has happened and has come to Mexico. The birds here are so funny. None of them ever really fly away, except for the green ones. There are beautiful black birds that will just hop out of the way and know that misionarios wont harm them. 

Oh and I gave talk last Sunday which was difficult and I was able to pass the sacrament which was cool.

Let me know if I left anything out;) 

Love, Elder Roberts

Sorry, I’m going to say a couple more things because I didn't take up my hour of writing. We played ultimate Frisbee and lets just say that teams want me to be on their team. 

I think the coolest thing about the language is that once you learn something, so does everyone else in your district. It helps a lot when we are trying to learn new phrases or words. I started to write down all 450 verbs that they give us in this little red book, I think that it will be pretty easy to memorize that many;) It’s really weird because the latinos here are really cool and want to communicate in ingles pero we need to talk to them in espanol at the same time. So it all works out during lunch or when we play cage soccer. My district is hilarious. In our classroom we have a white board that has 4 different slides, like in seminary, and on one of them we have our district mandamientos. One of them is thou shalt not speak mucho ingles on p day.... HAHAHAHAH. It is really funny because in our zone we only have 2 districts, which means that we are getting one next week and I will meet them on Thursday next week, so stay tuned for that. We all decided to say funny things about ourselves when we are all introduced to them. I am going to act Russian (holla) and I am going to just say weird things and mumble, oh the story will be wonderful. Its so funny to see all the newbies here. I feel like I just entered the CCM (oh wait I did) and then I see how little they actually know about espanol and it makes me feel so much better about myself. Its weird to think that after next week I will be halfway through my stay here. 

In the morning we have teachers that help us with language or with doctrine or coaching. One of the teachers is named Hermano Gallegos, and he is hilarious!!! My district says that when I am trying to teach them or I just talk en espanol, I talk like Hermano Gallegos. The other one is named Hermano Palma. I promise you he is only 5 feet tall. He is so funny cause when we are learning phrases, he will slowly shout them, and want us to repeat it in the same manner. Most of the time he just makes fun of Hermano Gallegos, which is really funny. The teachers that we have in the afternoon are also really funny. The one that we normally have has a lisp when he speaks in ingles pero when he speaks in espanol he is crazy vast and very articulate. Our other teacher is the Hermana. (the one he mentioned above)

One of my shirts has a stain on it. We dry cleaned it and it is still visible, but not too bad, just curious if there is anything else that we can do for it. The tie that I was wearing when I stained it, well, lets just say that the bottom of the tie doesn't look too nice, its the blue and white striped one that I took some of my mission pictures in. 

Charlie: Most people want the testimony tie that you gave me. Trust me, I won't trade it... here.

Bryant: Almost everyone wants your tie and even Elder Andersen said that the tie looked nice... I might trade it;)

I am really grateful for a lot of things this week. I am grateful that my companion doesn't make excuses for me because I may need to use the restroom or because of my leg. I am grateful for the food, because I am finally starting to eat most of it and nothing bad will happen... I just cant eat the fish, it is inedible. We have pizza night every martes and it is really good porque the slices are ginormous!! like literally two pieces in one! so I fold and I dip it in... you guessed it, nothing! but my companion and Elder Davis like to dip it in ranch, what a bunch of weridos;) 

Remember when I said that the weeks here are like Harry Potter years? that’s because it feels like so long, and yet the weeks go by so fast that it feels like we just finished another book. Too bad that the 7th book will be for 2 days at max, such a shame. I felt pretty awesome because when our zone was discussing what funny things we were going to do to the next district, one of our zone leaders mentioned acting retarded. Oh man did I respectfully put him in his place, needless to say nobody has said that word or handicapped since then and now the zone leader will be act like pocket himno man (he will have himnos everywhere on him). When the new district comes, my district will act like it is our first week here as well and act like we don't know espanol cuando they come in, it will be very humorous.

Are friends looking at the blog/ letters at all? I really want to know how they are doing, but if there isn't a way for you guys to get in touch with them, then esta bien, Ok, I think my time is up

Love ya, Elder Roberts

 They wrapped him up like a cocoon to prevent any more injuries

His swollen leg....UGH...boys!!!!