Monday, May 4, 2015

May 4, 2015


Hi everyone,

I apologize but this email might be a little short because I forgot my Library card and I have less time to email. I guess this is what happens when you get older you tend to forget the basic yet vital details.

So this week was a really stressful yet rewarding. Like I said in my last email, our district has been taking huge strides in the work. We set the goal of having 32 Member Present Lesson and a goal of 15 Investigators at church. Our actual numbers were....31 Member Present Lessons and 6 Investigators at church. We were actually really happy with our member present number due to the fact we still let several lessons fall through without a member present. So this week we decided to bumb up the goal again to 36 Member Present Lessons, which is about 12/companionship. This is really going to stretch our district and our companionship. However we have the confidence that the Lord is providing miracles in our area and it is very achievable.

To answer mom's question: Juan was not baptized this weekend. We had moved his date back a week in order to have enough time to cover the lessons and give him enough time to read the Book of Mormon. However, it has been a struggle to teach him consistently and help him understand what he is learning that it is looking a little bit difficult to help him be baptized this coming weekend. We have also drifted away from teaching Juan according to his needs and teaching more lessons in order for him to be baptized. So this week we are hoping to sit down with him, have a good lesson about the step he is hoping to take, and set a solid game plan with him in order to help him take this step in his life.

This week has just been hitting the pavement hard and working diligently every day. This week we focused on having a member with us at every set lesson and even lessons that weren't set up. We did a better job this week as we had 8 member present lessons as a companionship, 3 more than the week before. We did realize that we had slacked off a bit to end the week and decided to change that. So this week we have the goal of 10 member present lessons while always striving to have a member with us every day this week. It definitely is going to be a stretch, but it is going to be a great growing period.

It has been an amazing opportunity to work with the members in the Bolsa Chica ward. Their testimony of the Gospel is so strong and they provide such a critical relationship with our investigators to help them progress. For example, on Wednesday we had a lesson with Juan and we took a member to it named Ramon. Well those two just hit it off, they spent a good 20 minutes talking about cars and motorcycles and showing off pictures they had on their phone. Then once we got the lesson started about the Book of Mormon Ramon bore a powerful testimony about reading and learning from the Book of Mormon. The Spirit was super strong during that lesson and I was so grateful for Ramon and his role he played in that lesson.

A bit of sad news, Roxanna, who had a baptismal date for the 17 of May, won't be able to be baptized that day. She has been struggling coming to church and in order for her to be able to be baptized she had to come the following 3 Sundays. However she didn't come on Sunday which doesn't leave her enough Sundays in order to be baptized. We were super sad because we had a really good lesson with her at the church in the chapel. The Spirit was super strong and you could tell something was different. At the end we invited Roxanna to come and she said she would. So that was a little heartbreaking. We are hoping to meet with her during the week and try to reset a baptismal date with her.

Ok well I apologize for the short email, but I have very little time remaining. Thank you all for your love and support. These past weeks have been amazing! You can definitely see the Lord's hand involved in this great work. Time is running short sadly so there can be no room for distractions. I love this work and I am so grateful for the time to serve here in the great California Long Beach Mission.

Love you all!
Elder Roberts

P.S. Congrats to mom for surviving the last fast sunday for the past 2 years. You can't stop the countdown :) Love you!

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