I'll Be Home For Christmas!!!!!!

Dear Family,

I have absolutely loved the mission. I have learned so much and met so many people that I love. I have never felt more close to my Father in Heaven. This week was great! The Zaragoza family got baptized and they have the goal to be sealed in the Holy Temple. I love them a ton. They are real great. I love the ward where I am serving and they moved their Christmas dinner to this Saturday so that I could be there, I really do love them all. Today we went to a buffet, it was fantastic. This was the greatest decision I have ever made, to serve a mission. I have always loved how Jerry Seinfeld says that guys think of super heroes as a job option instead of a fantasy. I lived as a super hero for the past 2 years. I know that this Church is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is evidence of it and has what we need to live a happy life. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. He died for me. I have felt his love and seen the atonement not only change my life but the lives of many. I love you all.

Elder Roberts

Tortas

We are still adapting to the new mission plan. It is for all of Mexico and they say it is forever. It makes sense. I know that there will be alot of success from this. We are teaching an awesome family! The family Tacalo Garcia, we love them so much! They didn't make it to church this Sunday and it broke our hearts, but for sure they will make it next week. Well we are hoping and praying that they will. We are hoping they get baptized on the 15th of December. We have a zone conference tomorrow. I am excited. I have a ton of questions that I am going to bring. I love being a missionary. I love you all! I am thankful for this opportunity to serve. I am thankful for all of your support. I am thankful for all the great food here in Mexico. I am thankful for my family! I am thankful for the scriptures.

Love Elder Roberts

No more knocking on doors

This week we worked hard. There was a big announcement from the First Presidency and we are now not allowed to knock on doors at all! We now have to rely on the members to do the finding and we do the teaching, just like in Utah! We are praying a lot for referrals from our ward. We need them alot and without them we literally cant work. Its a big change since I first arrived here. We used to get 300 contacts a week and everything, but I know it will be soooo much better if the ward members do their part. We have a area seventy in our ward and he got up and had a few deacons hand out paper and he commanded the entire ward to write down someone that we could share the gospel with. We got a good 35 references that day! We are excited and hoping that everything goes well! Well I love you all!

Love Elder Roberts

Baptism of Sofia and Pedro

October 29, 2012

This week was good. Pedro and Sofia are getting baptized this Saturday! We are very excited for them and are praying every day that it will be a good experience for them. Pedro is learning a lot and loves church. Sofia received her answer and is strengthening her testimony everyday! I love seeing the Holy Ghost work within people. I love being a missionary! We need to find some people, it is a huuuuuuge problem. We are going to try some new ways of finding.

November 6, 2012

Well thanks for your prayers! They, as well as ours,were answered! Sofia and Pedro were baptized! It was a great experience! It was Elder Bentalls first baptism and he loved it. The service went great! The young women did a musical number for Sofia and Pedro. Pedro wanted the first counselor to baptize him. It was his first baptism as well. We are having a lot of success working close to the bishopric. They will be life long buddies for sure. We are still looking very hard to find people, but the Lord blessed us this week by leading us to 2 families that want to listen to the restored gospel- The Tovares family and the Prado family. We felt something special in each one of the lessons we had with them. I am so thankful for the opportunity we have to teach them.  We are still on the hunt and we want to make the most of our time. I love you all!

Finding, finding, finding

Thanks a ton for all of the birthday wishes! I still don't feel like I am 21. On my birthday I bought literally the biggest banana I have ever seen in my life! It weighed over 0.6 kilos and it cost 5 pesos. This week Elder Bentall and I were looking and looking for people. We are trying to get the ward working, but we aren't seeing the results as fast as we would like. We brought a man named Pedro to church last Sunday. We talked to him earlier this week and he was super sick. He has diabetes and had sugar levels over 500 the other day(I have no idea what that means, only that it is bad - I think. But dad would know) and he is having serious problems.The first time we talked to him, he could barely even walk. We felt a strong impression to give him a blessing and he accepted. The next time we talked to him he looked a ton better, and when we went to go take him to church he was walking like normal! He loved the Church! And the Ward members were great with him. He accepted to be baptized on the third of November. We are really hoping that Sofia gets baptized that day too. She needs alot more support from her family. Well I am praying a lot and studying a ton on how can we get this area moving. We need some major prayers headed our way to help us find some families that will get baptized. Well I love you all. I am thankful for the scriptures. They always have the answers. 

Love you all. Good luck Austin!!! You will be a great missionary!!!!

Family History

This week was a rough one. Elder Bentall and I are searching and searching but we just can't seem to find a lot of people who want to listen to us. I really feel like there is a family here that needs the Gospel but we need to find them!!!! Sofia is learning a lot but she has a lot of pressure from her family. We are hoping that she gets baptized the 27th. We are going to pray a lot for her so that it goes well for her. We have a genealogy activity in 2 weeks and I need to bring a couple cool stories about my ancestors. I don't know if it would be possible if my expert grandmas could help me out with that and send them to me before next Monday?? That would be great. Well I love you all. We have a ton of work to do! I found out where all of the old Easter candy that doesn't get eaten goes - to a store called Waldos!!!! It is the greatest! I bought a giant bag of Reeses Easter eggs and I was very happy! I love this gospel! I love being a missionary! Every day my testimony of the Book of Mormon gets confirmed. It is a great book.

General Conference

I sure did love General Conference! It was the greatest!!!! I am pretty excited for Parker and Sam to serve their missions early! I instantly thought of them when I heard that! That is sooooo crazy! I enjoyed all of the talks but I loved D. Todd Christoferson's, (he is like the Bill Nye of the 12). I also enjoyed Uchtdorf's about how we need to enjoy everything. I loved the scripture that he used from Psalms 118:24 This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. I agree with him. 

This week was good. Elder Bentall is talking more in the lessons and he is getting his Spanish down good. Last week we tried to visit a less active member but she wasn't there.  But then she showed up at church Sunday when her family told her that the missionaries passed by. We visited with her and she has a 14 year old sister named Sofia that isn't baptized that we started to teach. She is progressing really well and is reading almost everything we leave with her. Her sister that is a member got a call from her sister that lives in Washington and she wanted to say hi,. I just had to ask if she knew Kory, and it turns out- she did! He was in her ward before he went home! It was cool! Tell Kory the Hermana Bety Mora says hi! But Sofia was having trouble accepting a date to get baptized, so we prayed alot for her and told her if she prayed and wrote down all the questions about her life, that every one would be answered in the conference. After the conference we showed her the baptismal font and she accepted to be baptized the 20th! I am very grateful for answers to prayers! I know that God hears and answers every one of our prayers. 

It is hot!

It is not raining that much anymore, it is just really hot. This week was alright. We are trying to find new people to teach and we are having some difficulties right now but I know the Lord is preparing more people. This week Perla and Jorge got baptized. They are 2 kids of a less active member that we helped activate. They are pretty cool. They were found by Elder Tapia and Elder Reid and they were taught by Elder May and Elder Cluff. But then they changed areas and Elder Esquivel and I taught them too and we all got to see them get baptized Saturday! This Thursday I get to go to TEPIC!!!!!!!!! Yup- with the whole zone of Vallarta! Elder De Hoyos, the seventy of the area will be giving us a conference! I am going to bring a ton of questions! I am pretty excited! I sure do love Tepic. Well I love you all!

Back to Guadalajara

Sep. 3

Well I am in Guadalajara tonight and tomorrow and I love the weather!!!! The heat in Vallarta has gotten reeeeaaaally strong. This week had its ups and downs, Hno Arturo and Saggy couldn't get married. They are having problems with their birth certificates, but they still love the church and their testimonies are growing. We baptized 2 girls that were going to get baptized in another ward but they moved to our area this week. They are way cool and have very strong testimonies - hermana angy and hermana ana- they both want to serve missions! Well i love you all!

Sep. 10

Well Guadalajara was cool. Guadalajara was fantastic! Every month the zone leaders of the mission have a reunion with the president. I am still the zone leader and so I have been going every month. Esquviel and I learned a lot and we have a ton of great ideas help out the zone. This week we also had a zone conference which was one of the best I have had in all of my mission, My love for the scriptures grew a ton! The presidente gave us all an hour for questions about doctrine. My companion and I asked him like a million questions about the plan of salvation. It was an awesome experience. We also had a stake conference that was also great.

Arturo and Sagrario still aren't married.... they are still battling to get a paper for their daughter. That is all that they are missing to get married! They had a cool experience trying to get the paper. They were talking to the secretary in the social security building and I guess the secretary was being a little unhelpfully snobbish and Sagrario was almost in tears. Arturo, who was trying to calm her down, went to buy her a soda. She told us that she said a prayer that someone would arrive to help her. When her husband returned, he was with the mom of Sagrario! She went there for a different reason and had no idea that her daughter was there but God answers prayers!!! Her mom let that secretary have it and now they should get their paper within a month. We are praying that it gets here sooner. Well I love you all!

Predator!

Hola! Well this week was great. We worked hard and we received blessings. We are preparing 4 people to get baptized next week! Thanks for your prayers for Hma Sagrario and Arturo. They went to church again yesterday and loved it. They are both set on getting baptized this week. We will be praying alot that there isn't any problems with them getting married. Hermana Sagrario told us that she always told herself that she would never get married but when she learned about all the blessings of the Law of Chastity, she and Arturo gladly accepted to get married this week! I am very gratefull for the opportunity to teach them. Also 2 kids of a less active hermana who is reactivating in the church, Jorge and Perla, want to get baptized! They are almost ready and they love the church alot! Arturo, the husband of Paula didn't make it to church Sunday and we were really sad. He was going to get baptized this week, but we will have to give him another week more to prepare himself. 

Well we went to the film site of PREDATOR!!! It was kinda cool - walking the ground that was walked on by Arnold like 20 years ago, and the lamanites like 2000 years ago. The place is called Eden and it is almost exactly how I imagine the Garden of Eden. I feel bad because the pictures don't show justice of how beautiful it was. Well I love you all! Thanks for all your prayers!!!!!