Monday, September 29, 2014

September 29, 2014



Hello everyone,


Well I agree with dad, another week is gone and it went way too fast. Can y'all believe that September is basically done? Just to help y'all understand how fast time is flying by, almost a year ago Elder Kunz and I baptized la familia Sobrinho in Huntington Beach and I got transferred to Whittier. Ya that was only 1 year ago, but it does not feel like it was one year ago. But ya just thought I would boggle your mind a little bit.


I will quickly answer more of mom's questions right now. Like I said in my last email this transfer is only 5 weeks and next transfer will be 7 weeks. They do it so we stay on track with the schedule Salt Lake has from what I have heard. Either way time is going to fly by as always. We do have a car in our area, but we try to only use it to go to dinner appointments, meetings, and P-Day. We do live in our area and we live fairly close to where most of our work is. My companion does run, but every once and a while he will bike along side me. So far shoes, clothes, and bike are holding up good.


Man so this week I just confirmed that I am NEVER EVER going to live in California. So on Tuesday we get a call from some other Elders asking us if we could go with them to help a member move some boxes out of her living room. So we show up but only to find that she has a cockroach problem, and it was a BIG ONE. So we literally spent 3 hours trying to clean everything and kill as many as we could. No lie we literally killed thousands of them. It was absolutely DISGUSTING!! So ya I will NEVER live in California.


Well this week turned out to be another good finding week. Once again we found 4 new investigators, 2 of them are super solid and have great intentions to act on what we share. It was actually a bit of a surprise that we had such success finding this week because it seemed like there was alot of distractions trying to pull us away from working. But we were super excited to have found these people. The Lord is definitely helping us out in our area; in the past 2 weeks we have found 8 new investigators that all are pretty solid. The thing we are going to be working on this week will be contacting and teaching them almost daily, and getting members out with us this week. This week we are also going to be working super hard to help people come to Conference.


We are super excited for this week. It is going to be a super good one full of activities. This week we have Zone Conference on Thursday, and then General Conference on Saturdayand Sunday. Then, to top it all off, next Tuesday we are going to the Temple as a Zone. So ya this week is going to fly by super fast, but we are going to definitely put in every bit of effort possible to help those we have found to learn more about the Gospel.



Hope everything is going well for y'all back home. I hope y'all are ready for Conference this weekend. I know we super excited about it and we are already making some plans to make it even more enjoyable. Have fun playing Conference Bingo this year! Have a good week.


Love,


Elder Roberts




p.s. The terrible tres representing our favorite teams from the World Cup. Sort of I was rooting more for Mexico, but Brazil looked like a Powerhouse so I will support them.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

September 22, 2014



Hey guys!


Well, just like dad said in his email, this week just flew by super, super fast. I don't know why this week seemed to fly by but it did. I think it might be the fact that this transfer is only 5 weeks, so the thought of a shortened transfer might be the cause of everything. But it might be the fact that this week we had quite a bit of success as well. You can be the judge of everything.


First off to answer mom's question: so far everything is holding up good. You should be proud of me because I split a pair of pants in the crotch and I was too cheap to pay someone to fix it. So I fixed them myself! It isn't anything fancy, but it is fixed and now I can wear them. I am super positive that they will hold up till the end of my mission (Knock on wood).


This week Elder Higley and I got involved in a decent bash with a minister for a Christian Church, at least we are pretty sure he is a minister he has a graduation certificate from some sort of religious school. To be completely honest all he did was bash on Joseph Smith saying he had read the Book of Mormon, seen several documentaries on Joseph Smith and was certain that he didn't see God. It was interesting to see how much emphasis he was putting in worldly sources, obviously nothing that the church produced, and isn't willing to go to the source of all truth. Needless to say, we shared our testimonies about Joseph Smith with this guy, invited him to find out for himself, and left it at that. Kind of an interesting experience this week.


That bash was not the only interesting thing that happened this week. Like I said in my last email that our teaching pool is pretty small and we are focusing alot on finding. Well, just to cut to the chase, this week we found 3 new investigators that are super solid. One of them was a referral from a member, one we found looking for a former investigator, and the last one we found through contacting. We were super excited to have found these people. Once again just another example of when we are out working hard and doing what the Lord asks us to do, He will provide us with those prepared to receive the Gospel.


So ya that is this week in a nut shell. I am going to send you another email to explain a ward activity we had this past Saturday. Then another with a couple pictures I took today at the Aquarium. We are super excited this week and we are ready to get down and dirty in this work. We have seen the Lord's hand bless us and guide us to those prepared when we are working hard. Now we are going to do everything to help our investigators keep progressing towards baptism.


Love,


Elder Roberts


PS......


So like I said we had a ward activity on Saturday. In our ward we have members from all over in Mexico, Central America, and a few from South America. So this ward does an activity where people from different countries prepare some food from their country, decorate a table with items in their culture and they did a show with dances, or other cultural activities. It was super awesome to learn about the different countries and try some of their super delicious food.


But I really liked the message that they focused on. That it doesn't matter where we are from, or our cultural background, we are all children of God and we all have the same potential to become like Him. It was an awesome activity for sure!






Here are a couple pictures from the aquarium. We went today right before email so we could let y'all enjoy the pics. ENJOY!




This is my zone leader, Elder Schoof, and I with the flag from Guatemala










Picture 2
This is Elder Higley and I in front of the table for MEXICO!!






Yes Elders can have fun on the little kid's toys. Haha this is me and Elder Christensen representing Lewis and Clark on a more modernized vessel.






I contacted a Pirate in Cerritos, and now I have contacted a Penguin. Unfortunately both are still potentials and haven't invited us back yet :P





I bet this will bring back some memories from when we went as a family.







I didn't get this picture in the MTC, so I decided to do it today. But instead of pointing to my mission, or where I am from originally, I am pointing to my second home: Michuacan, Mexico :P





this is all the pictures I will send now. I took quite a bit and it would take alot of emails to send them. So y'all have to wait till I get home.


Have a good week!!


Elder Roberts



Monday, September 15, 2014

Sept. 15, 2014

Well hello there,

This email is coming to y'all from sunny Long Beach. Right now temperatures are hovering in the mid-90's with humidity through the roof. But this heat won't stop those wearing the famous white shirts, ties, and black plaques as they continue to bring the world the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us know go to our top missionary, Elder Roberts, as he describes how the work is going in his area "Long Beach 16 G." Elder Roberts?

Thank you. Well my area is located more north and west of downtown Long Beach, basically covers everything west of the Long Beach Airport between the streets Carsons and Willow. My companion is Elder Higley (Yes the same Elder Higley that was in my MTC District, and in the same ward as me in Whittier). We live in an apartment that is pretty nice, just always super hot during the day (No AC :( ) We are serving in the Long Beach 16th Spanish ward with 4 other companionships. This is actually the biggest ward in the mission; in the past it used to have 22 missionaries, but has slowly been lowered down to 10 missionaries. We are on a member dinner program and have eaten every
day for the past week, got to love that delicious mexican food. The work is doing all right in our area. We have basically 2 investigators right now, we dropped several this past week.

This past week we were focusing on finding new people. We would choose a couple potentials or formers in our area book, try contacting them, and then work in that area by means of knocking and contacting. We had a little bit of success by finding potentials, but didn't really teach anything. We did receive quite a bit of help from other missionaries who have given us several referrals. Then also at church we had two members come up to us and say they have friends who are willing to listen to the missionaries. So that definitely stregthened my testimony that the Lord is helping the work progress in our area. We already have some solid plans to try different methods other than
knocking to find new people to teach.

As for the ward, like I said, it is the biggest ward in the mission. The members are willing to help us out quite a bit. They are always willing to come to lessons with us, and really want their friends to
receive the Gospel as well. The ward definitely is a little different that past wards I have served in, but I am sure I will adjust to the change soon. As for our correlation meetings we usually focus on our investigators and relay the info about them. Then we also focus on how can we help the wards be more united in missionary work. Usually it leads to planning some sort of activity as a ward, or focusing on families to help us in the work. It has help them in the past, so we will see how it will continue growing.

Well that finishes up my report here in Long Beach. This week have a lot of great activities planned, and have set some really solid goals for this week. The next part is making plans to accomplish those
goals. It is going to stretch us quite a bit for this week, but we know that when we do everything we can, the Lord will really help us accomplish those goals. Stay tuned next week for more updates in the Lord's work. Reporting semi-live from Long Beach, CA this is Elder Roberts. See you next week.

Love,

Elder Roberts






La familia Pinillos. The mom is a member, but her oldest son, Michael isn't we were working with him to help him be baptized. Super cool family.




La familia Villegas. This is the brother of Geraldo Villegas. They are members and are working to be sealed in the temple. They were members in my area.



Last pictures with Geraldo and Roxanna. Mis papas de Mexico, los aguacateros de Michoacan.



We were on a bit of a Star Wars Lego rage in my last area, so here are the two ships of my fleet :)




Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Sept. 8, 2014

Hi everyone,

Well I bet you already guessed what this email is going to be about from the subject. We are starting a new transfer this week. Time just keeps flying by as usual. We have had quite a bit of success in our
area and it has been awesome to see the number of people that the Lord has placed in our path to help them come closer to him. Next transfer is looking like it is going to be a successful one. Unfortunately I won't be around to experience it all.

Yep I am leaving the Cerritos zone after being here for 4 transfers. I am being transferred to Long Beach, to the Long Beach 16th ward. To be completely and totally honest I thought I would be staying here in Cerritos for another transfer. But I guess the Lord has plans for me in Long Beach. I am super, super sad to be leaving this area. The ward is super awesome, the members are super strong in the Gospel, and like I said the Lord really blessed us with great investigators.

So here are a few pictures of the great members and investigators I have met here in Cerritos. First one is Geraldo and Roxanna. Yep this the mighty Geraldo that I started teaching my first transfer here in Cerritos. It is crazy to think about. When we first found him he really didn't have a great desire to come to church or learn to much about the church. But as we took things one step at a time, and as he
did the invitations we invited him to do, how things started to change. For both of them. Now he is fully committed to coming to church every week, he reads the scriptures every day, and is currently
working on his divorce papers so that he and Roxanna can get married and he can get baptized. I have really come to love working with them and grow with them in the gospel.

The next picture is la familia Segovia y Garcia. The hermano has been a member for 5 years and the hermana has been a member for a little over a year. When I first got to the area they were living together and working to get married and sealed in the temple. Well last week they met with the bishop and were able to set a date to do so on October 11. The hermana will go through a week  before for her endowment and the following week they will get married and sealed. We would meet with this family every Sunday and hold a Family Home Evening with them to help them prepare to enter the temple. Plus the hermano would come out with us to alot of our lessons, so they are a bomb family. I am super happy for them to be able to enter the temple.

I will send more pictures in other emails today and next week. There are a couple more people I have to say good bye today. But like I said everyone that the Lord has placed in my path to meet are awesome and I am so grateful for the opportunity to have served in this Ward. My testimony, and love for the Gospel definitely grew during my time here in the Cerritos zone. I am excited for the adventures that await me in Long Beach. It is cool because my companion is Elder Higley. We were
in the same MTC district, we served in the same ward in Whitter, and ever since then we have been saying we would be companions. Well now it is going to happen!

Thanks for everything. Sounds like things are really starting to roll back home. I can't believe that we will be starting the holiday season next month. Basically I have been saying that when we have General Conference the year is over. But we will still be working super hard to finish out the year. Like mom said, I have 15 months in the mission, down to single digits in months remaining. This really is the time to buckle down and work hard. I am grateful for this time to be a missionary for our Lord Jesus Christ. I know He is guiding this work and is always helping others come closer to our Heavenly Father through us. I hope and pray that He will continue guiding me to those He has prepared.

Love,

Elder Roberts



This is la familia Luque. They live in our area and are also a bomb family. The hermano served a mission in Washington DC, and they have a son, Pablo, who just barely graduated. We would go by and help Pablo get ready for his mission by going over the lessons with him and taking him out with us. Such a great family.





 









Also thought you might be interested in how my planner turned out. The
temple is from Montevideo Uruguay. Thanks for you help with the
pictures.


Monday, September 1, 2014

September 1, 2014

Hey empty nesters :P

How are you guys doing? Sounds like things are going pretty good for you guys this first week of being empty nesters. I think you guys chose a good time to be empty nesters because you still have a lot of
activities to occupy your time. Haha that's ok at least Erin and Jordin are close so you can start bothering them :P

Well it good to hear that your summer is coming to an end. Here it feels like it is starting. It has been pretty hot the past few weeks. I saw on the calender that Fall starts the 22 of September. I am pretty sure that California is exempt from that date and we will start fall in the end of October.

To answer mom's question: We just try to set up service projects. For us we have someone who isn't really interested in the Gospel (They are Jewish), but they are trying to get their yard cleaned up so they can plant some grass. So we go by 2 times a week to help them get it ready plus help them clean out their garage. This week we had a zone service project at a community garden in our zone that was pretty fun. So we usually try to set up projects like that, but also search for small, on the spot projects.

So on Tuesday we did a super fun activity as a zone to find new investigators. We called it a stampede. So what we did was every missionary in the zone would work in one area and stay there until they found a new investigator. When we did find one, we would move to the next area. We did this until every area found at least 1 new investigator. Well since not every missionary in our zone speaks the celestial language of Spanish, us Spanish Elders worked together. We had alot of success and we had a super fun time together. When someone would find a new investigator we would text the other missionaries "Dragon Slain" and for lunch we took a trip to Cafe Rio. So overall it was a fun activity and we had a lot of success.

Things are going good with our investigators. We had a super good lesson with Royler yesterday about the Plan of Salvation. We started off by asking him if he ever wondered where we came from, or where we are going after this life. Well he didn't really have an answer and had always wondered about these questions. Well we taught a super simple Plan of Salvation with visual aids. Afterwords he was super happy to know the answers to his questions. He is such a cool guy and we are hoping to commit him to baptism this week.

On Saturday we had a training about asking for referrals. But I really liked how they directed it. They  focused on Preparation and how to bear powerful testimony. I really liked the training about bearing testimony. Have you ever thought about what is a testimony? Or how can I bear a testimony to touch the hearts of other people?

In Preach my Gospel it says, "A testimony is a spiritual witness and assurance given by the Holy Ghost. To bear testimony is to give a simple, direct declaration of belief—a feeling, an assurance, a conviction of gospel truth." One thing I have learned about bearing a powerful testimony is 1)Keep it simple, 2)Be sincere, and 3) let the Spirit guide your words. As we share what we know to be true, the Spirit will touch the hearts of others and confirm to them that what we know is true.

One cool thing that President Tew showed us was about Peter. In 2 Peter 1:16-19 it says "16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts."

So Peter's received his testimony of Christ, not only by being with Christ, but the Spirit also confirmed to him who Jesus Christ was. In fact the testimony he received of Christ from the Spirit was more powerful than being on the Mount of Transfiguration.

It is by the Spirit that we can gain a testimony of the Gospel. It is by the Spirit that we can know we are children of God, the Jesus is the Christ and Savior of the World. We can know that through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the true church was restored to the Earth again. And as we share those simple truths, others will feel of the Spirit.

So ya just something to think about. And I am out of time. Gosh dang holidays always falling on our P-days. Oh well. Thanks for the emails, support, and love from you guys. Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Roberts

P.S. Thought I would show you how my planner turned out for next transfer. Thanks for you help with the pictures. Also just thought I would show you what we do after our nightly planning. Haha! Enjoy!