Tuesday, February 17, 2015

February 9, 2014

Hey Everyone,

Well, here we are to start another week. Like mom said in her email, this week just flew by that looking back it is kinda hard to see what we accomplished. This week was full of good things that it felt like we were running from one thing to the next.So where to begin, I don't know but here goes.

On Tuesday we did exchanges with two Elders in our District, Elder Higley and Elder Rebolloso. This exchange was a little different from regular exchanges where one companion will leave his area and go to the other area. Instead both Elders came to our area and we did our exchange that way. I worked with Elder Rebolloso (pronounced Re-bo-yo-so). He is a brand new Elder with about 2 months in the mission, this is his first transfer in the field. He is from Mexico but moved to the US when he was 6 years old. We had a good time together. We had alot of success in teaching and finding. It is a little different, I realized, being on the DL side of exchanges. In the past, I would just do the regular missionary stuff and not think too much about exchanges. But now, after this past exchange, I realized how the exchange is used to train and learn. Especially as a District Leader it all starts with that first example from the leader. So I am kinda kicking myself for not recognizing that until now. But now I have a good idea what to look for the next time I do exchanges.

We had a bit of a sad experience on Wednesday. I don't know if you all remember Diana and Aurelio? Well we taught them again on Wednesday but the lesson didn't go how we thought it was going to go. We showed up they told us they didn't want to keep learning. I was kinda surprised why because the past lessons we had with them were really spiritual and I know they could feel the Spirit. But they said that they feel by learning about the church it is going to create conflict within their family, not between them but the rest of their family that don't live with them. They don't want that conflict and feel that by staying Catholic they will be able to avoid that conflict. Well it really made me sad that they don't want to keep learning due to other people's opinion. It made me think about Elder Lynn's talk in the most recent General Conference about which way do we face. Well there really wasn't much we could do so we left it at that. It was a difficult experience for me mostly because I know they could feel a difference, I know that the Spirit testified to them this is true. So hopefully in the future they will remember those feelings and have that desire to have them again.

The rest of this week went by pretty smooth. We were busy finding new investigators, helping our current investigators progress towards conversion, and just enjoying life as a missionary. We were able to find 2 new investigators this week, but haven't been able to follow up with them recently. We were able to get members out with us more this week and they all helped out a ton with the lessons they came with us to. We had a member come with us to teach our two investigators with baptismal dates and that was a really good lesson. We taught about reading the scriptures daily and learning from them. The member who came with us bore a super powerful testimony about how the scriptures have helped her throughout her life and the Spirit was super strong at that moment. So strong that both our two investigators got more excited to read them. So far they haven't missed a day of reading since we taught them on Friday.

This really strengthened my testimony on the role of members. Alot of times people see us missionaries as super dedicated people to the gospel and that is everything for us. That is true, but sometimes I feel that as we teach people and commit them to do some thing, it doesn't really stick. But as we take members out with us and they share their experiences, it seems to stick. I don't know if it is because those we teach see the members as regular people that they can relate to, but I know that members have the abilitly to help others come closer to our Savior just as well as missionaries. So I invite all of you guys, if you haven't gone out with the missionaries recently, call them up and go with them. You never know who the Lord will be preparing to hear your personal testimony.

Well that is pretty much the week in a nutshell. This transfer is flying by so fast it isn't fair. We are starting week 5 which basically means that next week the transfer is over. But we are going to work every possible time left of this transfer to death. There are people waiting to come closer to our Savior. Better now than later, Right?

Love you all,

Elder Roberts

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