Mexico!

Hey family, This week Elder Tapia and I did everything we could to baptize. We searched and taught and prepared, but we didn't have the success we were hoping for. We were planning on at least 18 investigators in church this Sunday and we did divisiones to pass by for all of them. We had a car and a giant truck ready to fill for everyone, but no one could go. It was kinda sad but we didn't lose the faith. We worked so so hard Sunday. We knew our Heavenly Father was going to bless us. We left the sacrament meeting to go look for some more people to bring to church and came back empty handed. When we got out of the taxi we saw a girl entering the church. I said hi to her and asked her if she was from the other ward. It turns out that she isn't a member! She has been to church a ton and even went to EFY but has never been baptized! We asked where she lived and it turns out she lives in our area! She accepted the invitation to be baptised this Saturday!!!!! Only through the grace of God we can baptize, after we have done all that we could do. I love this church. I know it is so true!!!!!! I love you all

Tepic!

This week was great! I love being here in Tepic. Yesterday I ate like 25 oysters and I feel great. We had a baptism Saturday, Hermana Betsy. She is a daughter of a less active hermana, but her grandpa is an active, awesome man. He started bringing her to church and now she has been baptised! Her mom is starting to reactivate too. We are hoping we can baptise this week too. Our goal is a baptismal service every week. We have to be the example for the zone. We are finding a lot of people. Hermana Erica is still waiting for permission, but we won't lose the faith. Elder Tapia my comp. He is from Chihuahua and is the biggest man in the world. He is teaching me a ton. We are having a ton of fun. well I love you all!

Old, Scary woman!

4/9/2012

This week was great. Hermana Liliana and her daughter, Lily got baptised! It was a cool experience. They were a part of a christian church before, but they never were baptized there. She said she was praying and looking for the right church for her and her daughter and we knocked the door. They are real awesome. We had a great experience this week. We have been teaching a friend of a member name herman a Estivaliz. She has gone to church and she went to conference and everything but her family doesn't want her to be baptized. But she prayed alot about it and read the chapters from the Book of Mormon and during a lesson, the spirit hit her sooooo hard and she knew it was true and is set on being baptised this Saturday. Yesterday we walked a lot in the hot, hot sun and we didn't have a lot of water in our system. I was super dehydrated so we stopped at our house to grab some water really fast. We get there and walk up the stairs and search the house for water, but there wasn't any. But then I found a bottle of water in our fridge. I opened it and right before I was about to drink it, we see someone walking up our stairs. We both froze! An old woman walked into our house( my comp left the door open) and she stole my bottle of water. I was speechless! We are still trying to process if she was a ghost or not??? But then we led her out of the house. Changes are today and Elder Johnson is leaving to Santiago and I am staying here. We had a ton of fun together -probably one of my favorite comps! Well I love you all. I know the power of the Book of Mormon and prayer is HUGE! NEVER STOP READING!!!! love Elder Roberts

4/17/2012

Yup, I was in a earthquake! It was small, but it was kinda cool! We were in Guadalajara for a leadership council and it started shaking a little bit. It was cool. I saw some people from one of my old areas there. They told me Octavio from Las Aguilas just got the Melchizedek priesthood! I am so happy for him! I love that guy! Estabiliz was baptized! It was a cool experience! Thanks for your prayers. She got the courage to tell her parents that she new the church was true and she was going to make this decision. There was an awesome spirit there. We are teaching the niece of hermana Liliana and she wants to be baptized too. But she has the same problemita with her parents, but we will pray alot for hermana Erica. We found a family this week and they are progressing very well - the familia flores I really want to see them get baptised as a family. Well I love you all!

hamburgesas de avestrus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved conference! It was great! We brought a ton of people! We had investigators in every session but one. We told them all to bring questions written down with the promise that they would be answered - and they all were! I love Holland's talk on envy. It seemed like a branch of the good old "pride talk" from our pal President Benson. We actually used that talk to teach a lesson Sunday. IT was an awesome weekend full of personal revelation. There is not a doubt in my mind that Thomas S. Monson is an inspired prophet of God. My testimony of that was strengthened more than ever.

   This week I ate ostrich. I hear it has less fat, but you eat more of it. It was actually a great burger, one of the best I have had. The ostrich egg tasted like a normal egg, it just was gigantic.

   We went and worked in a little town where we had to take a bus 45 minutes to arrive. Compostela!!!! We did some work up there helping out some missionaries that just opened the area. They have bike taxis up there, so we had to take one. It was cool.

   We are teaching a lot of new people. We found a family yesterday that is in real need of the gospel. Her husband was kidnapped and they never heard from him again. They are really struggling but I know the gospel will help them out. We are teaching a girl named Estivilis. She is a reference from a girl in our ward. She is pretty cool and went to every session of conference this weekend, but her family doesn't want her to be baptized. She is 20 years old so she can make her own decision, but her family is really pressuring her to not do it. We need some extra prayers headed her way por favor.

Back to Xalisco!

Well this week was great. It was awesome. We found a bunch of people and we are preparing a woman name Rosio to be baptised. She is awesome and is passing through some tough times in her life, but we are planning that she will be baptised between conference sessions Sunday. I made tortillas this week. It was my companion's birthday. We bought him a cake and it was good. I went to Xalisco again and saw the Cuellar family! That was cool and they were happy to see me. I loved that. well I love you all!

The Cuellar Family

Stuffed Otter!

Hola! Well I am still loving it here in Tepic! I am still getting use to washing my clothes by hand again and the hot sun, but it is awesome. The shower we have here is an electric heated shower and it shocks me every morning. I hate it. I got to return to Xalisco to do some divisions and I loved to see the members there. They are real great. We just received a new gringo in the zone and guess where he came from? Everett Washington!!!! He said Kory was his zone leader in Washington!!!! While he was there, he broke some pizza eating record. I was happy to hear that. Well we baptised this week. His name is Jair and he is awesome. He is 11 years old and his mom is less active and his dad isn't a member. His grandpa got to baptise and confirm him. It was a nice experience. Sam and parker's prom pictures look awesome! They look like MEN! Sorry about the cat. The picture attached is a stuffed otter I found in a house. I've started up the New Testament again and I am really enjoying it. Well I love you all. 

Tepic!

March 5

HOLA!!!!!! Well I have 1 minute to write, But I am in Tepic! I love it here, the mountains, the people, everything! It was sad to leave Elder Lopez. He was most defs one of my favorite comps and that area was amazing too.  My new ward is a lot different but they are still way ready and able to help out. We have a couple people that I hope are baptized. We will work with them so that they can meet that goal. Well I love you all.

Elder Roberts

P.s. Sorry, yup I got your package -thankssooooooo much, I loved it. Also, I got Karin's package and I loved it too. Tell her thanks. And tell Grandma Bliss thanks for all of her cards and dollars. It makes me so happy.  love you.

March 12

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM AND PARKER!!!!! 17 YEARS OLD!!!! Just 2 years away from the mish!!!! That's so cool!! Well I love Tepic! This place is great! The weather is awesome but it is getting hotter. The people are way nice and we are trying to figure out how to baptise them all.  My companion, Elder Johnson is cool, he is from Mesa, Arizona and has like 19 months in the mission. He is my second gringo companion. We should have 2 baptisms this week! I am pretty excited! We are working hard. Sorry my letters are short. I know they are horrible but I don't have time to write ever. well I love you all.

Elder Roberts

 

P.s. I left my camera cord in Guadalajara. sorry no photos

Good-bye to the office!

This week was good. It was great! Carlos and Elisa were baptised and it went great, except for Lola, the wife of Carlos, couldn't get off work early enough and didn't show up at his baptism. But he was determined to be baptised. I really do love them! Yesterday they were confirmed and it was such a great day. I knew I was leaving the ward so I said goodbye to everyone. I only had 6 weeks in this ward but hands down one of my favorite wards that I have been in. Oh ya, I got my changes and I am returning to TEPIC!!!!!!!! I am way excited! I do love the state of Nayarit! I will be one of the zone leaders up there and I am stoked! I am way excited to work! I have learned so much in my time here and I am way excited to head back to the land of the lamanites. Well this means you need to write me before Monday because I will be writing you Monday in the morning from now on. Love you all! I know the Book of Mormon is true and I know it has THE FULLNESS OF THE GOSPEL!!!! 

Carlos and Lola got married!

Well we have good news and bad news about Carlos and Lola. The good news is Lola was baptised but Carlos had some problemitas. But don't worry, he is getting baptised this Saturday. They got married last Saturday! We went to the office place to plan it and everything, with all their papers, birth certificates and stuff, and everyone was giving us the worst looks ever. Half way through the process I realized that everyone there thought that Elder Lopez and I were getting married. I love my companion and everything but I don't think I was ready for that kind of commitment. But everything worked out in the end and Carlos and Lola were married. It was great. President made my changes this week. I was about to go to the only area in the mission that has SNOW!!!!!!! But it wasn't where I was suppose to go. But I still have a week left here in Primavera and I will work hard and focus on this week. 

The baptism of Lola!

Zombies

Well Carlos and Lola didn't get married so they couldn't get baptised. You have no idea how hard it is to marry a couple in Jalisco. Everyone tells us we should go to another state to marry them so we don't have to deal with the registro civil here. We were stuck in registro civil from 9am to almost 300pm. We battled and battled but they are getting married and getting baptised this week. They are awesome! I really do love them so much. They want to be baptised but they have their sights stuck on the temple. Baptism is only a little stepping stone. Elisa the wife of Roshon is progressing so well. She is going to be baptised this Sunday with Carlos and Lola. She is having a lot of problems in her life right now and I know she needs the Holy Ghost more than anything right now. President is making my changes. I'm mos defs leaving the offices, but the change doesn't end for 2 weeks so I will be focusing on baptizing these two weeks. I love my companion! We are working way hard! I wrestle with him a lot. In the offices we have a luchathon, but one of the assistants is a pretty big guy. He gives me a run for my money but I can still beat him sometimes. I hope you are enjoying Star Wars episode 1 3D. The past couple of weeks I have bought my cereal according to the free starwars stuff I can get. We had our zone conference this week and it was a great experience! I learned a ton. We are trying to focus on working with members more. I love the mish.

My bus was hijacked!

Baptism of Hermana Ana

Well we had a fantastic week. I love this ward! It is the greatest! We worked way hard and we found a family of 5 that accepted to be baptised. We are putting a goal for them for the 25th of this month! Hermana Ana got baptised Saturday! It was such a special experience for her! The water was sooooooo cold, because the water heater doesn't work, but it still worked out. The enemy tries so hard to ruin baptisms but he did not win!!!! We had so many problems but it all worked out so awesome in the end. She already has visiting teachers and the Bishop gave her a triple combo, a bible, and a hymn book after her baptism! I have never seen or heard of that before but I was so grateful for the support of the ward. I won't forget how happy she looked after she was confirmed. That is the best part of a baptism. After the baptism on the bus ride home, a strange man with a machete and giant tree clippers got on the bus. The bus hit a speed bump and he totally fell down, he laid there for a while but then got up and put on a ski mask and told the bus driver to go somewhere. Before we knew it everyone on the bus slowly moved behind my companion, Elder Hall, Elder Magaña and I. The wall of missionaries! To be honest, I didn't know where we were, but we got off pretty close to the house. And when we left, pretty much the whole bus left with us. It was pretty crazy but I know that we are protected. Carlos and Lola are set to get baptised this week. They are getting married Saturday night and getting baptised in the morning before sacrament meeting. They have made a ton of friends in the ward and feel right at home. I had a very interesting experience Sunday. So like 9 days ago, a man contacted us in English, his name was Roshon. It turns out he is a inactive member and he doesn't speak Spanish. He is from Sri Lanka, an island close to India! He can speak English alright. Oh ya and a little over a month ago he got married to a Mexican women. He invited us to his house and it turns out his wife is real nice. We had a lesson with her and it turns out she is going through some real tough times. We taught the power and importance of prayer and it made the biggest impact on her life! They came to church yesterday and she loved it! He doesn't speak Spanish so I translated the meeting into English, and gospel principles, and priesthood. It was a cool experience. His wife Elisa has accepted baptism and we are preparing her for the 18th. I love my companion, we have so much fun everyday! This is his second area and he loves it here. I do too! I have been feeling the spirit stronger than ever before in the mission. I love you all.

I am alive, alright!

Hey sorry I haven't written for a while. We had changes! Elder Moguel left the offices and I am here again! Yup, I didn't see that coming, but its alright. I am getting white washed into another area again this change. I am starting to get use to that. I have a new comp ELDER LOPEZ!!!!! He is from Mexico city and is awesome! We are working way hard together. Our new ward is great! It was the first time in my mission since my first area where I have seen the building full of members! We have a lot of support from them and they are starting to throw some references our way. We have some real great people we are teaching right now. We found a young couple named Carlos and Lola in the dropped investigator binder and we are teaching them. They aren't married but we brought with us to our lesson a counselor from the mtc in Mexico who is in our ward and his fiancé. It was incredible! They were the ultimate example of a future perfect marriage. Carlos and Lola have  date to get married the 11th of February and to get baptized Sunday, the next morning before church. I am pretty excited! We found a couple of other dropped investigators that are progressing real well. Hermana Ana is the best! She has a testimony of the church and wants to get baptised but the problem is she works on Sundays. She also is the biggest fan of Phantom of the Opera. We are praying that she can find a job that she doesn't have to work Sundays. She is 22 years old and a single mother and is soooooo humble! She is doing all she can to support her kid. But she changed her shift so she didn't have to start work til 12 and so we went to the ward that has church at 8. She loved it! And actually we did too. I am not going to lie, I wasn't too excited about 6 hours of church every Sunday for a while, but it was great except for when we were in the other ward the gospel principles teacher didn't show up so I had to give the lesson to a ward where I didn't know anyone. But everything went good. My comp and I are working way hard, and we are having a ton of fun. The food in this ward is wonderful! I have never had such variety of such marvelous food before! My diet out side of the food with the hermanas consists of cereal and quesadillas. I am having a great time. I love you all! 

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

Changes

We have had a lot of changes this week. Well more like today, in the past couple hours. We had a giant activity in downtown and we got together the two missions - Guadalajara, and Guadalajara east. We set up tents in the middle of these giant round about things(it kinda reminded me when I slept in the round abouts with my buddies), but it was day this time. And we got all the stakes from the city together and had the members contact people and bring them to us where we had little presentations and taught them a little bit. We cleaned out our storage room in the office and gave away all of the old stuff and all the vhs videos (we had a ton). Then if they were interested in having missionaries pass by in their house they wrote down their directions. It was actually way cool! A lot of members showed up and we had a ton of success. One area in the city received over 100 referrals!!!! The president said that has never happened in history. 100 referrals in between 1 companionship!!! Well that's were the changes come in. The President closed our area. His wife said because the members weren't doing their part. But I really love them and I am going to miss them a lot. So Elder Moguel and I are now in an area called union. It has been closed for a while and we are going to open it, well kind of. The area that had the 100 referrals is going to merge with this area and we are going to work reeeeaaal hard together to make sure all of the 100 referrals get baptized. So it will be a huuuuuge area with no borders between us!!! It is going to be quite the adventure and the truth is that I am super excited! We don't have food with any members this week so we are going to eat in the street  on the presidents tab! I am very happy about it. I am going to push my body to the limit! I haven't been sick for a while, knock on wood. Life is good here in the office. I can see miracles everyday and it is awesome! I love being a missionary. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to spend Christmas here in Mexico. I will mos defs miss my family but I still will have a good time. I won't have to wait 4 hours  until we take a picture to open my presents, hahaha just joking. I loved every minute of those 4 hour mornings of waiting. Hermano Octavio is doing great! I am so grateful for the opportunity to watch him grow spiritually. He is preparing for the Melchizedek priesthood right now. I am so happy for him. I am praying that he can find a wife. That guy needs to get married. Well I love you all. I am very happy where I am, even though I don't know where I am going tomorrow. I will have fun with it and I know if we have the spirit we will see a lot of miracles.