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.