December 16, 2014

Buenas Tardes!

And week 2 of this transfer has ended. For those that are wondering why I am writing my email on Tuesday, we had a General Authority visit our mission and we met with him yesterday. So today was our Temple trip which means P-Day was moved to today. No we did not get IPads.... :( I will talk more about our visit with Elder Baxter a little bit later.

So everyone was asking about the weather here. We have received quite a bit of rain the past week. In fact, as I am writing this email, it is raining right now. We received quite a bit of rain Thursday night. It rained so hard that I couldn't sleep at all... :( Usually we leave our windows open so the room stays cold, but it was raining so hard that it woke me up. So I shut the windows and went back to bed. Well an hour later I wake up again because the wind was shaking our windows pretty loud. So I stuffed my exercise shirts into the window to try and muffle the sound. Ya Elder Brown was pretty confused waking up to a window full of shirts :P There is the LA "River" that runs through our area. I say "River" because on a regular day it looks like a canal. But on Friday morning, the water was pretty high and running pretty fast. Other missionaries got a flood warning during the night so that goes to show how much water we received. So ya that was a blessing for sure.

As for my ankle it is doing good. I went this whole week just wearing my ankle brace. I was able to get out and work the entire week which felt really good. On Friday I was really tempted to go run, but I had the thought that I needed to just rest this week and wear my brace every day. And if I did so, I would be able to get out and run this week. We didn't run yesterday because we did laundry, and today was our Temple trip. So we will see if tomorrow I can get out and run for a little bit.

A couple more answers before I get into some details. We still don't know if we will be able to Skype home or not. They are kinda holding back on that piece of detail, but for sure next week we should know. When we find out, I will probably have one of our members call home and give you all the details if I don't have all the details by Monday.

My Book of Mormon reading is going super well. Right now I am in Helaman 5, so I am a little bit behind as of right now. But I am loving it. Like mom said in her email, the Christmas story in the Book of Mormon is just as good as the Bible's. I am getting really excited to read about the signs of His coming, and then to read about His personal ministry to the Nephites. So keep reading on! The end of the year is coming, so hopefully everyone isn't too far behind.

Ok, so what happened in the Great California Long Beach Mission last week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had some super solid lessons with our Investigators Rosy and Fransisca. It was good to teach Fransisca because we hadn't seen her in more than 3 weeks. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she was understanding everything perfectly. In fact, she was answering questions before we would even ask them. We weren't able to teach her again this week, but we are hoping that this week, we will finish that lesson, and commit her to baptism. As for Rosy, we read 2 Nephi 31 with her to help her understand the Doctrine of Jesus Christ a little bit better. She made a great connection at the end of the lesson that this is the only true doctrine that will bring us eternal life. However, she said that right now she doesn't believe she can change from being Catholic. So we are going to go over all the lessons with her, and see if we can help her see what God has restored to the Earth and then go from there.

On Thursday we had our Christmas Zone Conference. We watched the First Presidency Devotional, I really liked Elder Maynes talk about Christ and His earthly family. Then President gave a training about teaching simply which was super good. I had kinda fallen away from teaching simply and by so doing, our investigators haven't been progressing as well. So it was good to talk about teaching simply and how it does help our investigators understand the doctrine and have a desire to live it. There were some other Elders who gave trainings, but the training that most effected me was Presidents training about teaching simply.


Cool experience happened on Sunday. So the mission has departure firesides for the missionaries going home at the end of every transfer. Well, because of Christmas, some Elders wanted to go home early, like today early. So the mission held a departure fireside for those who went home. Well, Elder Brown and I weren't planning on going, but at the last minute our investigator decided to go and to take us. So we went! Well I am super glad I got to go because I saw two families that I taught in Whitter, la familia Berriel y la familia Guzman! I was super happy to see la familia Guzman because I literally haven't heard from them for almost 6 months. So to see them really made me happy and grateful that our investigator decided to go. Plus we will be going to the regular departure fireside at the end of the transfer, and I will see these families again :)


Ok so the visit from Elder Baxter. First off, it was a super spiritual, full of learning, and funny conference. First, President Tew talked about the essence to missionary work: Love and Charity. Then Sister Tew talked about using family history to help recent converts and less actives see the big picture and how they play a role in helping their ancestors receive the Gospel and help their future generations maintain in the gospel. Then Sister Baxter talked about how the mission is laying a foundation for the rest of our life. I had never really thought about that until the last few weeks: that the things I am learning on the mission will effect my life forever. To be honest I totally agree with that statement, and am sure that everything that I have learned the past 18 months will have a lasting effect on my life, as well as the upcoming 6 months.


So Elder Baxter training was on finding. He focused more on talking with everyone and teaching when you find, finding when you are teaching. He really did bring in alot of good ideas to help with contacting. He shared some scriptures in D&C about opening our mouths and they shall be filled. One thing I learned was this: The Lord promises us that as we open our mouths, they shall be filled with the words to say to those we come in contact with. So the words we speak aren't our words, but His. Then we read later that the elect hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and hearken unto it. So as we just seek to open our mouths and talk with everyone, we learn to say what the Lord puts into our hearts, and then the elect and prepared will hearken unto His voice and seek to obey it. Kinda cool right?


So that was most of Elder Baxter's training. He most offered us word of encouragement to overcome any doubt, fear, or worries we might have by talking with others. It really did strengthen my faith that the Lord will work through us, but it takes faith, practice, crashing and burning, and letting the Lord lift us up when we do fall down. So that is the goal for these last 6 months: Seek to speak the words that the Lord would say, have patience while overcoming this weakness, and let the Spirit guide me to those who are ready to hearken to the voice of the Good Shepherd.


So ya that is everything. Sorry for the giant epistle, alot happened this week. Thanks for everything you guys do. Hope you all are having a Christ filled Christmas, and are seeking to have His Spirit part of your Christmas Celebration. I know this Gospel is true. I can't tell you how strong the Spirit was as Elder Baxter spoke to us. I know that the Lord has once again restored His Gospel to the Earth, and has chosen His servants to lead us. I know that we will not go astray as we heed their counsel.


I love you all! Have a good week!


Elder Roberts


p.s. I forgot to bring my camera today, so next week expect pictures of our temple trip.

December 9, 2014

Que Tal!

How is everyone doing? Another week has gone by and December is already flying by! Hahaha first off who is confused about the subject?? Hahaha maybe those who have served missions know what it means, but for everyone else haha no I didn't kill a sister missionary. Dead sister just means that an Elder has 18 months on the mission and the sister missionaries who came out with him have died (finished their mission). So ya the big 18 months on the mission! Unfortunately I didn't have time to burn a pair of pants, nor did I have an idea of where to burn them since we are in Long Beach. But maybe I will try to do it this week :) But ya it is kinda scary to think that I only have 6 months left!

So like I said in my last email we had transfers this week and I got a new companion: Elder Brown. He is from Bend, Oregon and has about 6 months in the mission. He is super patient with me which is super good. With my ankle I was able to start walking on it a little biton Monday, but it was pretty achy on Tuesday, so we stayed in for most of the day. Kinda the same story with Wednesday and Thursday. But Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we got out and worked the entire day and the pain was very minimal. Pretty much now I can walk with no pain. I am going to keep wearing my ankle brace this week and the nurse is going to send me some exercises to strengthen it. So my goal is to be back and running next week :)

So this month and transfer is going to fly by like nothing. This week we have a Christmas Zone Conference, next week we have a General Authority visiting our mission and we are going to the Temple next week. Then the following week is Christmas and then the year is basically over. CRAZY!! It kinda isn't fair that time is flying by so freakin fast! I did recognize the scriptures on the Calender you sent me and I write them down in my planner so I can remember then during the day. Yeah thanks for that, it is helping me focus more the on the Savior this Christmas. BTW who has seen the video, HE IS THE GIFT?? Yesterday was when it was it took over Youtube and was right on the front page. Can someone see how may views it has so far? Bomb video I love it! I wish we had IPads so I could watch it everyday and share it with people right on the spot.

So this week was difficult, but it felt good to get out and work. Like I said earlier we took time on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to rest my ankle and only had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to work. We found all of our investigators which was good. We taught Rosy and Julio, our two most solid investigators. Rosy is still working towards her baptism date for the 28 of December. But she hasn't come to church recently so we are probably going to have to move it back. Then Julio is still dragging his feet to be baptized. So we invited him to start reading the Book of Mormon again, and see if this book does talk about Christ. Then to really pray and ask God specifically if this book is true. It was a good lesson and he seemed committed to do so.

Other than that, we found our other investigators and set up return appointments for this week to teach them. We are super excited for lesson with one se llama Fransisca. She has been super busy, but she is also super prepared for the Gospel. In fact, as we were leaving she asked us if there was anything she could study or read so she could be ready for our visit. So that just goes to show how prepared she is, we just need to help her understand the doctrine and live it.

Outside of that, we had a hard time finding anyone else. We have mostly been trying to talk with everyone that the Lord puts in our path. In fact, I feel like this week I have improved dramatically with contacting. There were some times, I would see someone and just start talking to them and it didn't feel like I was doing anything. I know that He has helped me alot to find His children that He has prepared to receive his Gospel.

Well that is this week in a nutshell. Thanks for the picture of Matt's wedding invite. I am going to send him an email and see how he is doing. Thanks for everything you guys do! Hope you all have a good week! If you haven't share the "He Is The Gift" video with someone :)

Love,
Elder Roberts

December 1, 2014

Que tal mis queridos hermanos?


Hope everyone had a really good Thanksgiving! From the updates that Mom and Dad gave me, it sounds like everyone was well fed and had a good holiday. Did you guys survive Black Friday? Any good deals? Or are you all busy right now with Cyber Monday? Haha I am positive that everyone had a good Thanksgiving, and are now anxiously waiting for Christmas.


I will get the details about our Thanksgiving out of the way right now. We only ate 1 dinner because we were slow talking with members to go visit. We ate with one family, la familia Garcia, and it wasn't your typical Thanksgiving dinner. Instead of turkey, mash potatoes, and the whole nine yards, we ate ribs with rice and potato salad. It was super good and we ended up staying the rest of the night with them chilling and relaxing.


So that is what happened on our Thanksgiving. Here is what happened throughout the week. I will warn you all now, if you thought last week was a difficult week this week was worse. First off, on Monday I re-sprained my right ankle playing basketball. In fact, I sprained it so bad that I couldn't walk or put any pressure on my foot. I was super angry that I re-sprained it, but for a specific reason that I will explain later in my email. So because I could't walk at all, and we don't have a car, we have been doing exchanges with other missionaries to teach our investigators and I have been stuck inside the apartment all week recovering.


Then, oh yeah it gets better, on Friday both Elder Higley and I woke up feeling a little sick. Then during personal study both of us were throwing up. We are thinking we got food poisoning from our Thanksgiving dinner. So we were stuck in the apartment trying to feel better.


On Saturday I woke up with less feelings of sickness, but with a ginormous headache that was awful. But I didn't dare take any medicine because I hadn't eaten anything all day Friday and didn't want to screw up my stomach. So Saturday was full of sleeping trying to get rid of my headache. Finally that night, I ate a little bit of food so I could take some Tylenol and go to bed.


So that was our week in a nutshell. Oh yeah, we are starting a new transfer this week. Elder Higley is leaving the area to go to the first ward I served in, Bolsa Chica. Then I am getting a missionary named Elder Brown who is fairly new to the mission. So I am kinda worried about leading the area after being stuck inside the apartment for an entire week. So this week was pretty bad and right now I am pretty nervous for the new transfer and what the Lord has in plan for us and His work in our area.


But, even though we had all those bad experiences, we did have a couple good things happen. First off is with my ankle. About 2 weeks ago I started having the impressions to stop playing basketball during p-day so that I am healthy coming back to Utah State to run. Well I kept putting off those impressions saying that nothing will happen. Well later in the week, the impressions came back saying "Stop playing basketball, or you WILL re-sprain your ankle and might cause some problems in the future." But, again, I put off those impressions.


Well come Monday, I am playing on BAM I sprain my ankle. It was that exact moment I realized that the Spirit was talking to me and trying to warn me. So I was angry with myself that I completely ignored the Holy Ghost. But at the same time I learned an important lesson: 1) I learned for a surety that the Holy Ghost does talk to us, and does warn us so we are safe. 2) I learned how the Holy Ghost talks with us and how we can recognize his voice (See 1 Kings 19:11-13; Helaman 5:46; 3 Nephi 11:3).


I know that the Holy Ghost is a gift from God, and he does talk to us. I know that it isn't a loud, powerful voice that talks to us, but it is a soft, pressing voice that if we pay close attention to it, we can hear it talking to us. I know that as we heed the Holy Ghost with diligence and faith, we will be protected and guided in all things.


Ok so Mom knows about it, I am curious who else know. Who has heard of "He Is The Gift" or "El es la Dadiva?" If you have been tolds.org or mormon.org recently it is right on the front page. It is an amazing initiative that the Church is doing to help us remember about the true meaning of Christmas. There is a short video that is super, super powerful about the first gift of Christmas: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."- John 3:16.


So this is an awesome thing that Church is doing. In fact they are going all out with this. For example: On December 7th, the Church has bought out the front page of Youtube so everyone can see it. Then the Church has bought out the big boards in Time Square in New York for everyone to see. This is an awesome thing that is happening and we have the opportunity to help it progress. So there are two things you can do to share this video.


1) You can put the video on your Facebook, Twitter, or whatever accounts so other people can see this video.


2) In this months issue of the Ensign they included awesome cards about "He Is The Gift" that you can share with anyone.


So that is what is happening. Like the video says, this time isn't about the gifts, the money or anything worldly. It is about His births and the start of His mission to bring us happiness and eternal life. May we all remember Him and help other remember Him.


Love you all!


Elder Roberts

November 24, 2014

Hey Everyone,


Well, like mom described so well in her email to me, another week has flown by and we are now starting the final week of the month. Also another Thanksgiving has approached us! I am sure all of you are wondering what will happen this Thanksgiving for us here in the Great California Long Beach Mission. So we just found out that we are having a mission wide conference that morning at 9:00 a.m., then we will hold District Meeting and Weekly Planning as usual. Then at 3:30 we can go to as many dinners as we want for the rest of the night. Right now we have 1 solid set dinner with a member from Honduras, then a semi-solid dinner set up with our investigator Rosy. I am sure we will find other dinners or other members to chill with for the night. So we are pretty excited for that day.


I have a favor to ask, and I feel bad that you already sent me a package. But would you mind sending me my other Utah State sweatshirt? It has been pretty chilly in the morning running and I have started wearing a sweatshirt instead of a long sleeve. I apologize that you have to send another package because I am sure it is pretty expensive to send them. I really appreciate it.


Sounds like it was a pretty chill week for you guys in Utah. This week, like it says in the subject, this week we had some success, but it was also was one of the most difficult weeks of my entire mission. I will start off by describing the success that we had this week.


So an update with Rosy. So she has been attending a christian church with her friend to find one that she likes. Well on Monday she had a really bad experience with one of the pastors and she didn't like the way that he talked to her. Well, "By their fruits, ye shall know them" she decided that she is going to stop going to that church. Well that opened the door for us to re-teach the Restoration and about how the true church has been restored. She really liked it, and we committed her to be baptized on the 28th of December. She wants her husband to learn as well and support her in this change. But she knows that baptism by the proper authority will help a lot in her life. So she is bomb! We are praying that her husband will listen to us as well, and that she will receive an answer to her prayers.


We have an investigator named Julio. He has been investigating the church for a long time, like over 9 months. He was super focused on renewing his drivers licence and not a whole lot on what we were teaching. So we dropped him about a month ago. Well he passed his test last Tuesday and wants to really commit himself to what he is learning. So we talked about baptism with him, using Mosiah 18 with him and how when the people learned about the truth, they acted immediately and they were immediately blessed. He understood it super well and we invited him to be baptized on the 21 of December. He wanted the weekend to think, and pray about it, and said he will let us knowon Tuesday. So that was a miracle for sure.


Well to be completely honest, that was all the success we had this week. We literally went 2 straight days of not finding anyone at home. So most of our time was talking with people on the street and inviting them to listen to the message of the Restoration. I can tell you that this week was probably one of the most difficult weeks of my entire mission. In fact we had one experience that just cut deep. We were going to try by a potential and his mom was outside of the house. As we got closer her neighbor started talking to her and we decided just ask her if her son was home. Well right as we got close, her neighbor said (In spanish "Quieres hablar con ellos? Porque yo no."), "Do you want to talk to them? Because I don't..." That really cut deep on me and kinda ruined the rest of my day. I probably shouldn't have let it, but after a tough week like we had little things like that kinda stick with you. Plus I fear that I might be getting a cold and that is draining my energy every day. So hopefully, with the holiday, we will have a little bit more success and re-build that fire again.


How is everyone doing with your Book of Mormon reading? If you want to be on track, today you need to be in Alma around page 209 in English. Right now I am loving it! Yesterday I finished up Mosiah and I loved the example of Alma the Elder in Chapter 26. I also started the other day listening to the Book of Mormon in Spanish. We weren't able to get the CD's to our investigator and he is in Mexico right now and won't be back until maybe February. So I thought I would take advantage of them and improve my listening in Spanish.


Well that is the update for the week. Like I said we are hoping to bounce back from last week and find those who are prepared for the Gospel. We are all excited for Thanksgiving and enjoying it with the members and our investigators. Hope you all have a good Thanksgiving!


Love,


Elder Roberts

After one night, I got home freezing. So I broke out the Hot Chocolate and wrapped up in a blanket for daily planning.

This is Elder Ortega from Mexico. He works in the same ward as us, in the area just south of us. This is a pretty "typical" dinner at night. El cae muy bien conmigo.

November 17, 2014

Hey everyone,


Well this week officially was chilly and I wore a sweater every night this week. So yep it is starting to get cold here in Long Beach. But we don't have snow! From the sounds of things the snow is starting to fly in Utah so I am sure that sweaters, snow boots and snow shovels have been coming in handy.

I can't believe that Coach Reeder is going to stop coaching at USU!! Did they say who would be taking his spot? Man ya I really hope that they will let me run again for them because I can't just have 1 season being trained by him. Dang it.... :(

The results from your Bathroom Project looks super good. I am kinda sad that I wasn't around to help out..... But I am sure that there will be some other project for me to do when I get home. Lo siento papi pero estoy en acuerdo con mama, me gusta el color de tu bano. Well done they look super nice, and a successful project.

So this week was pretty successful. Nothing too crazy happened but we definitely had a good week. We had a good zone meeting with our mission president about the changes that he established back on Halloween. It has been cool to see how the Lord has blessed us as we have made these changes part of our mission. I know personally I have felt alot more fire to get out and work hard. This is such a great time to be a missionary in the great California Long Beach Mission!

Well you are all probably going to kill me but I have hit rock bottom on what to share with you. Time just keeps flying by and everything is feeling like a blur. The Lord is definitely helping us out in our area, and little by little it is progressing more. This week we are going to really make the little things work in our area, because we know by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

Thanks for everything. I promise next week I will have a little bit more to write. Oh by the way how is everyone doing with their Book of Mormon reading? I am in Enos right now and by the end of the day I will be in Mosiah. I know the Book of Mormon is divine scripture from God and it really can help us come closer to our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. Like I had said in my last email I am marking any scripture that talks about Christ and it is amazing to see how it is another powerful testament of Jesus Christ. I hope everyone is having spiritual experiences reading this great book!

Have a good week everyone! Thanks for everything! Remember as you pray for missionary opportunities, the Lord will bless you with them. But if you don't pray for missionary opportunities you won't have such opportunities even though you will interact with the same people.

Love,
Elder Roberts

Had a little fun today at Wal Mart and we found these sick Marvel Heroes shirts pretty cheap. So we had some fun today when we got back to our apartment.

 

Yeah I couldn't resist buy the first batch of Eggnog for the season. Don't worry they were out this week so I have to wait till next week. But it was super tasty!

So we do some of our shopping at a 99 cent store. Well a couple weeks ago they had these sick pancake makers for $2. So I couldn't resist buying it to help me have perfect pancakes for breakfast. 

November 10, 2014

Hey Everyone!


Man so last week got pretty crazy after halloween. All of us were just pumped up and ready to apply the new mission goals. This was the first real week that we got to apply these goals and boy did we see some changes. I can honestly say that my faith in this work has increased quite a bit, and I am so glad to have such an awesome mission president to help us improve.


First off, thanks for the update about Stake Conference. Sounds like the new leaders are stepping up to the plate and really leading the stake the way the Lords wants it to be. It always is a great experience to hear from our leaders, both General and Local leaders. It was cool to hear that they applied Elder Bednar's address and the BYU Educational week about using the internet to spread the Gospel. I watched his talk a couple weeks ago and man was it powerful. I almost started crying when he invited us to "Sweep the Earth as like a flood." It was super powerful and I highly recommend watching it because it is so awesome.


Looks like Dad is already applying our mission goal to look for miracles and blessings. That was one thing I was really focusing on this week, "Praying for miracles everyday and eyes of faith to see these miracles. Then every night I write them down in a journal." This week was super full of miracles. Let me just share a few with y'all.


Remember Ortencia? Well, after consulting with our leaders, Elder Higley and I decided that we would try at talk to Ortencia's husband and try to share with him what we are teaching. Well we go by and Ortencia invites us into her house and her husband is home. We followed up on her reading and shared with her a couple Mormon Messages. Then as we were going to leave she told us that we could keep coming by and keep teaching her. YEAH!! That was such a miracle for sure. We are hoping that as she keeps applying the gospel her husband will see the changes and his heart will be more open.


Second miracle. We found an investigator way back in October named Fransisca. We taught her the Wednesday before General Conference and never saw her again because of family health problems. Well we got a call from her saying that we could come by because everything had blown by and gotten better. So we did and found out she has been reading the Book of Mormon and really likes it. So we decided we would invite her to be baptized in our next lesson. After teaching her about baptism we invited her to be baptized. She didn't accept a date, but said she would pray about it and let us know the following week. YEAH!! She is super prepared as well.


Third Miracle. Rosy is progressing super well. She is reading the Book of Mormon daily, texts us the chapters she has read, and has always felt better when she reads it. We also invited her to be baptized and she said yes, but she wants her husband to participate as well and know what we are sharing. YEAH!! So hopefully we will be able to teach her husband this week and commit her to baptism.


So that was just a couple miracles we saw this week. I know for sure that our leaders are inspired and receive revelation from God on how to lead His work in this mission. Also, in my Book of Mormon reading I am in 2 Nephi 9 (I didn't read yesterday or today yet....) and it is amazing. Like I said in my last email usually when I hear challenges like the one we received I am not the most excited person to do so. But I have learned so much from reading the Book of Mormon and I love it. I am highlighting scriptures that talk anything about Christ and His Atonement, that talk about His Gospel, and that have the promise of the Book of Mormon. Pretty much almost every page has something highlighted and are things I have never recognized before. It is awesome!!


So that was our week in a nutshell. Hopefully that gives y'all an update on things. We are in an awesome time to focus on Christ and all that He does for us. I know we are really focusing on helping others come to Christ during this time. I know that I have learned alot more about Christ just by reading the Book of Mormon and and trying hard to help others have similar experiences. Hope you all have a good week!!


Love,
Elder Roberts


P.S. Sweater Weather didn't exist this past week because it was so freakin' hot. But this week looks like it is going to be a little chilly in all of the country. Hope y'all are ready for snow! :P

November 3rd, 2014

Amados Padres Mios, Amados Hermanos Mios,


Man this week could not have been any more spiritually jammed packed. I did not think that this week was going to be good because of Halloween. Plus, I can't lie, I was pretty excited to take time and clean our apartment on Halloween night. But we had some BIG changes in our mission that just changed everything this week and got me super excited for the remaining time I have on the mission.


First off, thanks for finding those CD's. I really appreciate the time you took to find them for our Investigator. I am positive it will help him enjoy the scriptures and just increase his love and knowledge of our Savior and His teachings. Also thanks for the pictures of Bridget's rugby game. Looks like she is enjoying in and just destroying down there.


All right now for the details of what happened this week. So on Tuesday we found a pretty solid investigator named Rosy. She has suffered from depression the past few years and is barely starting to recover and is still suffering from anxiety. We found her contacting and she had some bomb questions about the plan of salvation, and knowing why there are so many churches today. So we taught her on Tuesday, with a member, and she just accepted everything with alot of excitement. She also has expressed numerous times that she just feels more happy as she talks with us about God. In fact, she wants to stay in contact so much that she will text us and so far this week she has fed us twice. So ya she is super bomb and super prepared. This week we are going to really focus on contacting her daily so she can get in the habit of reading from the Book of Mormon regularly and praying to know this is true.


Ok now for what happened on Halloween. So we had a pretty solid morning and afternoon of working. We contacted some cool people and some of our investigators. Then around 4 o'clock we get a call from our ZL's saying that President wants every zone in the mission to hold a zone meeting at 8 o'clock sharp and that some big changes were going to happen. No we did not get IPads.... Our ZL's had their Mission Leadership Council with President that day and he announced some big challenges. So from 6-8 pm we were in our apartment cleaning (By the way, our bathroom is SPOTLESS! I got that bathroom looking super clean) and then we met with our zone at the church building at 8 anxious for these big changes.


So here is a little bit of details. Around this time last year, we, as a mission, set a goal to baptize 70 people before the end of the year. Well we blew that goal out of the water and got 91 baptisms. So then, after that, we would set Monthly Baptismal Goals and strive to achieve those goals. Well we never achieved our monthly goal. We would get close, but we never achieved our goal. In fact we started getting less and less than our goal as the year went by. Well President kinda got tired of us not achieving our goals and decided a change needed to happen. So he changed the goals that we are focusing on and also set some challenges for us to achieve to help us increase our faith. The challenges were:


1. 75 Baptisms before December 31.
2. Every missionary in the mission will read the Book of Mormon, starting at the beginning, and finish it before December 31 (So we have about 60 days to do so).
3. Every day at 6:30 am and 10:00 pm, every missionary will get on their knees and ask God to bless them with a Miracle that day. Also to ask for the Eyes of Faith to see these miracles.
4. Every night, every missionary will write what miracle(s) they saw that day in a journal.


When I heard those goals, I got super super excited and felt that I could achieve those goals. Mostly because I feel like I have "failed" our mission because I haven't felt like I have helped our mission achieve it's goals. In a sense it felt like 17 month year old Elder Roberts died, and a new Elder Roberts was born. That night is always going to be a night that I will never forget. It was such a powerful spiritual night and I could really feel like we became more united as a zone, and as a mission that night. So that night we prayed for a miracle to happen the following night and we went to bed.


The following day during personal studies I started reading the Book of Mormon to start our challenge (I need to read about 9-10 pages a day in order to achieve this goal). I was thinking to experience before the mission when we got challenged to read the Book of Mormon in a set time and I didn't really have a great desire to do it in a set time. But this time I felt super excited to do this challenge. Man just within the first 10 pages I learned so much, and I could feel the Spirit testifying that the Book of Mormon is true. Every time after that has been the same.


So this week my testimony was strengthened like crazy. First off it confirmed to me that our Mission President is an inspired and guided leader of this mission. I know that he receives revelation directly from our Heavenly Father on how this work can progress better and how to help us work with more faith and trust. I know that I got super excited for these changes, especially because I want to contribute to these goals and help our mission achieve it's goals.


I want to invite you all to join with us with these goals. Maybe you can't help too much with our baptism goal. But you can join with us in our goal to finish the Book of Mormon before December 31, Pray for miracles in your own life, and then write those miracles in a journal. I know that by doing so you will recognize the hand of the Lord more in your life and your faith will increase dramatically. Just like Elder Bednar said in the General Conference last november about having eyes of faith to see His hands and His blessings.


So ya that was what happened this week. Like I said, there were alot of things I have changed to help me be a better missionary. I had a good visit with my ZL's to help me set some appropriate goals and plans so I can do my part to help our mission have success. This mission is awesome and I know that our Heavenly Father has called me to be here at this time specifically. I am so grateful for all that I have learned and for the experiences my Heavenly Father has blessed me with so I can learn.


Well hope you all have a good week. Thanks for everything!


Love,
Elder Roberts


P.S. (Feel free to laugh as you read this section, but stop immediately when you finish) I broke out the sweaters this week. Yep it got down into the 60's this week and I started wearing sweaters.... HAHAHAHA........stop laughing ;) LES QUIERO!!