Christmas in Mexico

Hey everybody! It's late and I am tired but I will do my best. Well Union is going great! 23 people went to church this Sunday! That was incredible! Everyone was so happy! Everyone is getting so excited! Hermana Bety got sick so she couldn't go to church, but she still wants to get baptized so bad! It was a holiday here named the day of the kings. It is like a second Christmas! But it is when you get more presents and you have this traditional bread and inside the bread there are 3 or 4 little idols of baby Jesus. I got one in my bread and I started screaming "I won, I won"! But it turns out that you don't win. All the people that get them have to cook tamales for everyone else on  the 2nd of February. I don't know how to cook tamales. We are finding escogidos every day here. The only problem we have is its like 45 minutes to an hour to travel from the offices to there. We don't have that much time to work or to put appointments but we have 3 people that have accepted baptism. Hermana Bety, she is the best! I love her so much, but she is way hard to find. We can only teach her at night because  she works so much and she lives in the land of Narcos, so its way sketchy walking home. Hermana Abby- she is so great! The gospel is changing her life a ton! She loves prayer and she can't stop bearing her testimony to us and to her family of prayer. She wants to get baptized but we have to pray a lot that her dad will let her. He is not a big fan of the church at all. Hermano Jose Jesus is a new investigator very similar to Abby. He is 15 years old and is super prepared for baptism but his mom is super anti- baptism. But I know that God wants him to be baptized and he needs to be baptized and we need to have our test of faith. But I know he will be baptized! I love being a missionary. I have a ton of work next week. We've got cambios. I don't think I'm leaving the offices. I WANT A FULL DAY IN THE FIELD!!!!!!!!!!!! But I am here to do what The Lord wants me to do. I know the Church is true. I know that everything done in the church is a revelation from God. To see President make changes is a incredible process. I don't know if you remember that conference talk about missionary callings and the revelation in that, but it is the same. I love to see the church grow and I know that The gospel of Jesus Christ changes their lives.

 The fake snow Mom sent was a hit!

 Tyler making a snow angel!

Missing Utah and maybe a little skiing!

Christmas, New Years, and a New Ward!

Well Merry Christmas to all! Thanks for everything!!! Mom your packages were perfect!!!! The sees chocolates were delightsome! Lloyd and Meg and Family- I think I was the only man in Mexico with a bag of Funyons and they were the best!!!!!! I missed that flavor so much for too long!!!! Grandma and Grandpa Clark- I loved your letters and package! They were very heart warming! Well Christmas was awesome, I talked to the fam and they all looked too old. That was weird, but it was awesome!! Skype was great!!!! On Christmas day, we opened the ward of Union. It was quite the adventure. When we arrived at church there were 2 people, but then 6 more showed up a little later. That was it in sacrament meeting - The missionaries and 8 members. We were asked to speak and it went great! It was the first talk I have ever given that they clapped! It was kinda weird. They were so happy to see missionaries! We visited a ton of less actives this week and found a ton of success! We found Hermana Abby, a cousin of a less active, that is going through a real tough time right now. Her parents are having a lot of problems and she feels really alone. We taught her about prayer and she was so happy! She accepted a date to be baptised - the 15th! We also found an old investigator that accepted to be baptized, hermana Bety!!! She is real great! Literally the shortest person I have met, but I love her! I love this area so much! It has a ton of work to do. All of the less actives were so happy to see us! There were 17 people yesterday in church!!! The only thing I don't like about this area is that half of it is factories, but not just any kind of factories, there is a HUGE factory of beer, and also a giant factory of dog food!(I think its dog food)??? So the whole town smells absolutely terrible! The first couple days were rough! We had a lot of headaches. I went on divisions with my zone leader and he threw up. We were riding in the car with a member and a cop pulled us over and searched us to see if we had drugs. I couldn't help but have a big smile on my face the entire time especially when he asked who we were. We simply responded, "we are representatives of Jesus Christ..." and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. We didn't get a direction but we did get out of paying money. We found a lot of families here that have potential to be chosen ones! I love this place! I know the Lord is blessing my companion and I more than we can imagine right now. New years was great! When it hit twelve we heard a lot of fire works, but there is a clear difference between gunshots and fireworks, and we heard a TON of gunshots!!! and not just little guns, we heard full on automatics! They just shoot them in the air. It was kinda cool and I personally like the change! Well I love the mission. Everything about it is awesome! It was most definitely the best decision I have every made in my life! I hope you have set a lot of Goals this year. If I have learned anything from setting goals in the mission it is that they should be set prayerfully and they should be clear and we should be able to measure them, not any thing like "I will read the scriptures more" but more like" I will read the Book of Mormon 4 times." And also, they are not goals unless they are written down and written down good. I love the mission. I love Mexico. I love the people here. I love my companion. I love my family. I love Jesus Christ, my Savior and I am so thankful for him. I learn more and see more proof of the impact He makes in my life everyday! I love you all!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

Love Elder Roberts