February 23, 2015 - It's a Baby Elder!!

Hello Everyone,

Who is confused with the subject line? Haha or I guess better question, who understands it?? Well I guess I better get to that piece of detail before moving into the rest of the email. We finished up this transfer yesterday. On Wednesday we get a call from the Assistants as we were walking into our apartment. They extended to me the call to TRAIN! Yep I am going to have a hijo (son). I guess the Lord doesn't want me slacking off my last 3 months in the mission so he is going to send me a brand new missionary. Plus I am still a District Leader so not only do I have the responsibility to train a new missionary but also to continue serving the other missionaries in my district. So ya these last 3 months are going to be full of learning opportunities and alot of fun. Here we have a name for Elders who train a new missionary their last 2 transfers, Trunky Train. Maybe Dad, or Jordin, or Steve can help ya'll out with this term.

So with me training a new missionary that means that Elder Arias' time in Bolsa Chica has come to an end. He got transferred to Long Beach and is going to serve in a Branch, Ximeno. It was a fun transfer working with him and helping our investigators progress more and more. He is pretty sad to leave since he has been here for about 8 months, but he is excited to go to Long Beach and work there. He is definitely going to be missed here.

Well to answer Mom's questions about missionaries returning to their "Greenie area." Here it isn't to common to return to the exact same area, but it is fairly common to return to the same ward were you had served in the past. I can think of several missionaries who did return to the same ward, but served in a different area within the ward. So I guess it is sorta common but probably just here because our mission is so small, especially since there are only 6 spanish wards/branches that we can serve in.

So ya it was a pretty crazy last few days here in Bolsa Chica "A." The rest of the week was pretty successful and we definitely finished off the transfer strong. We just seemed to be hitting the little small details of missionary work right on the dot and it just brought even more success and miracles. Definitely something I want to keep going into this new transfer.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I did my last exchange with my Zone Leaders. I stayed in my area and had Elder Jenkins come with me to work. He was in this area the transfer before I got here so he was familiar with everything and he just settled right into working hard. We had a super fun exchange and had alot of success as well. He also is a big fan of Star Wars so we spent most of our time talking about the movies, books, and video games. We did work hard, don't get the wrong image of two Elders only talking about Star Wars for 24 hours. We actually had a really good lesson with one of our current investigators, Eduarda, and her daughters, Angie and Lizeth. Eduarda wants her daughters to learn about the Gospel so she invited us over to talk about the different organizations of the church such as Young Women and Primary. Both of the daughters got interested in these activities and wanted to participate as well. Then the topic got switched to baptism and we started talking about that. I was a little hesistant about talking about it with them, but Elder Jenkins did an awesome job of teaching simply and helping them see the need to be baptized. It was a really good lesson and both said they would get baptized if they knew it was true. That was a big miracle and we hope to help them receive that answer in order to take that step of baptism.

Yesterday we had our Ward Conference and it was top notch. There actually was a cool experience that happened that hit me the most and got me thinking. So our Stake President serve his mission in the states but learned Spanish. However he hasn't been able to practice alot so his ability to speak it has gone down a bit. For most of his talk he spoke in English and it was translated to Spanish. However, as he was nearning the end of his talk, he paused and then started to bear his testimony is spanish. It was probably some of the most clearest and understandable spanish I have ever heard from a Stake President my entire mission. As he was bearing his testimony the Spirit was so strong and I knew that he had been called of God to serve the members of this stake.

Well that is what happened this week. Another transfer has begun, and like I said earlier it is going to be a learning one. I have been trying to remember the things that my trainer did to help me adjust to the mission and what I can apply as well. I really hope that I can be the missionary that the Lord can guide to help this new missionary adjust to the mission and his purpose to help others come unto Christ.

Les Quiero Mucho! Espero que todos tengan una buena semana!

Elder Roberts


Foto 1
These are the Elders in my District. We all are serving in the Bolsa Chica Ward. From left to right

Jenkins, Higley, Rebolloso, Arias, and Humphreys

February 16, 2015

Hi Everyone,

I apologize right now because this email is going to super short due to two reasons:

1) It is a holiday and we are on a strict email schedule

2) I was kinda stressing about housing and spent most of my time communicating with my parents to get me applied for that.

So I apologize for the short email. Next week will be a lot better because we will have the libraries back open.

I hope everyone had a really good Valentines Day. It was pretty chilled here in California. Every member was out doing something with their spouse so we struggled getting members out with us that night. Thanks mom and dad for the package. I actually did receive it before Valentines day because I had an interview with President Tew and I was able to pick it up. Thanks for the card, I love it and have it hanging up on my wall.

This week we were able to help one of our investigators understand the gospel a little bit better. Her name is Eduarda, she has learned about the Gospel for a long time and knows the church is true. However, she is living with another guy who doesn't want to get married nor talk with us. But we had a really good lesson with her in the church about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She really felt the spirit and committed right there to attend church every week. She really wants to be baptized, so hopefully she is willing to act on what she felt during that lesson. Plus she said her daughters are starting to show a little bit of desire to learn, so hopefully we will be able to pick them up.

We were really able to apply the Mission Culture. We taught every night, we found this week, and had someone to church. It felt really good to achieve the Mission Culture, and now this week we really hope to build upon it.

We are starting the last week of this transfer this week. I am assuming that I will get a new companion because my current companion has been here for 5 transfers. We will find out on Saturday night. So we are really going to focus hard this week to finish this transfer off strong.

Sorry I have to finish up. Hope everyone has a good week. Also fyi la familia Sobrinho invited my companion and I to come visit them this week! I am pretty excited to see them again.

Love you all,
Elder Roberts

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

February 2, 2015

Hi everyone,

Wow, ok I guess January didn't want to stick around at all and has left the stadium. I agree with everyone else, it feels like Christmas was just a couple days ago but now we are starting February. Here we are starting week 4 of this transfer and we are all kinda wondering what happened with this transfer. But, like I have said in the past, there really isn't anything we can do about time with the exception of taking advantage of every opportunity.

So first to answer some of Mom's questions about leadership in the mission. DL= District Leader, ZL= Zone Leader, and STL= Sister Training Leader. In this mission there are only 6 STL's that help out the sisters better than we Elders can do. The week after transfers happen, President does a Leadership training for all the leadership in the mission. Mostly to help us know how we can better serve those in our district/zone, and what to focus on this transfer such as teaching, finding, or so forth. So when I say Mission Culture I am focusing on 3 things President Tew wants us to focus on:
1)Teach Every Night
2)Find Every Week
3)Bring someone to church every week

As leaders, we have the responsibility to apply these principles into our area. Then during exchanges we can help those other missionaries see the blessings that come from it and help them apply the same principles into their own area. I have really seen this help me focus on my purpose as a missionary. As we find every week, we have more people to invite to come to Christ. As we teach every night, we help those we find learn the doctrine, fulfill with commitments, and recognize the fruits of the Spirit. Then as they come to church every week, they come to know this is the true church restored to the earth and leads to conversion. So these 3 basic principles really help us focus on our purpose and those we are teaching.

Ok so what happened this week for us. It was a good week, but we really had to dig deep to accomplish our goals. This week, it just seemed that every member we invited to go out with us cancelled 1 hour before we met up with them. It was definitely a struggle to not get frustrated, but we still had a really good week. We were able to teach several of our investigators, and help them continue to progress in the Gospel. This week we were able to commit 2 investigators to baptism for March 8. Their names are Elly and Araceli (pronounced Araseli). They both are super solid and have great desires to know more about the Gospel and what the Bible teaches. The challenge with them is getting them to church and Youth activities. But we have some solid plans to help them get more involved in the Gospel.

So that really was the highlight of the week. We were able to find several of our investigators and help them. This week is going to be full of finding. We dropped a couple investigators this past week and we didn't find new investigators this week. But we have been receiving several referrals from other missionaries so we have a good list of people to go by. I know that the Lord will help us find His prepared children and He will give us what we need in order to help them come closer to Him.

I hope everything is going well for everyone back home. Hopefully you all are avoiding the sickness going around. Several of our investigators and members have been sick with the flu and the cold. Needless to say I bought alot of oranges and orange juice this week so I don't get sick as well. But things are starting to warm up here so maybe not as many people will get sick. I feel like this month is going to fly by so this is the time to buckle down and help those who God puts in our path receive the Gospel. This is going to be a fun week and I really hope that we will be able to fulfill with the vision our Mission President has established for us.

Love,

Elder Roberts

January 26, 2015

Buenas Tardes todos,

Wow another week has just flown by and it was a very successful week. I don't even know where to begin describing what happened this week. I will say that the subject for this email hits everything on the button. So ya I will try to describe how things went this week.

Since I am a District Leader, on Tuesday I had a training with the other DL's, ZL's and STL's in the mission. President Tew, Sister Tew, and the Assistants gave us some awesome trainings on Leadership skills, our Mission Culture, and establishing that culture within our companionship and those in our District/Zone. As always, the trainings were top notch and I learned alot. First off, I learned that in order for success to happen within a District, it must start with it's leader. This is something that really hit me hard and made me think how I can be that example to those in my district. Such a simple principle, but one that can really help the work progress in our areas. I really started to see how the Mission Culture that President Tew has established really does help us focus on our purpose and those we teach. So after that meeting I was determined to establish the Mission Culture just a little bit more in our area. It was a great time to receive instruction from President Tew as well as personal revelation.

The other main highlight of the week was a visit from a General Authority. I know you all are thinking, "Again? They just had one visit them." We were surprised by this visit as well. We found out a week before he came to visit our mission. We had Elder Rasband of the Presidency of the 70 visit our mission on Saturday. From the 4 General Authority Visits to our mission, I think this was was one of my favorites. Elder Rasband talked to us about our call as missionaries and shared some experiences from his service as a missionary and a mission president. The thing that really stuck with me was when Elder Rasband reaffirmed to us that our call isn't random, but really a specific call to us from our Heavenly Father through His chosen servants. I can't describe how I felt when we testified to us about this principle, but I can say that it really strengthened my faith in God and this great work that is happening in the world. Such a great visit!

The rest of the week was full of finding and teaching opportunities. We found 5 new investigators this week which was awesome, I can't remember the last time the Lord guided us to 5 new people to teach. We had an interesting experience with two of these new investigators, Aurelio and Diana. They were referrals from some other missionaries asking us to come say a prayer at their house. So we went over last Monday and they started describing some crazy things that I have never heard of on my mission. They said that their house was cursed and that their neighbor is doing satanic things. Well all we did at that point was say a prayer and set up a return appointment later in the week. We went back on Friday to teach them about the Restoration. It was a little hard to keep them focus on our message, but as we kept promising them peace by applying what we shared, they stayed focused. Afterwords we said a prayer with them in their house and dedicated it. Afterwords, Aurelio said, "Wow, I feel alot more peaceful and more protected. I feel like you guys have something that will help us." That was such an awesome experience about prayer and my desire to share more with this family increased tremendously.

That was probably one of the greatest finding moments on my mission. Just another testimony about the power of prayer and the peace that Jesus Christ promises us as we turn to Him and His Doctrine. I know that my love for the Gospel increased and my testimony that Christ does promise us peace and protection, as we follow His teachings, increased. I love helping people find that peace through the Gospel. After that experience we started promising people more peace and it lead to finding two more people. I know that peace is one of the greatest gifts we can receive from Christ.

Well that is the update for this week. A lot happened and every night I just kept coming home more and more tired. However, every morning I just seem to be waking up with more and more strength to keep going out to do the Lord's work. I know that this is His work on the Earth. I can't explain how grateful I am for this opportunity to help others come closer to Him. I know that He is working miracles for us everyday and we get the opportunity to see these miracles work in those we teach. As time continues to fly by, it seems like every opportunity becomes more and more desperate to help others receive the Gospel. His work is hastening! Catch the Wave!

Love you all! Hope you have a good week!

Elder Roberts

January 19, 2015

Hi Everyone,

No I am not home, don't be fooled by the subject. But after week 1 back in my greenie area, it really did feel like I was back home. First to answer some of Mom and Dad's questions. The mission changed the areas for the spanish missionaries in this ward. However, the majority of my area is the same, there are only a few parts of the stake that I don't have now but I did have before. Unfortunately, la familia Sobrinho aren't in my area. So I am going to see if I can do exchanges with the ZL's one day and go visit them. I live in the same apartment complex, but a different apartment because our old one had mold, Yay... Our area literally covers over 2/3 of the stake, so we have a car and mostly drive around. I might see if we could bike one day just to see how out of shape I am from my greenie days.

Sunday was an awesome experience. I was surprised how many members actually did remember me. In Priesthood, they were introducing the new missionaries in the ward and they got to me. I said "I am not new to the ward, I was just inactive for a time." Haha I got a couple laughs and then I introduced myself. It was awesome to be back in this ward, there has been alot of growth in this ward and I hope to be able to keep it growing in a positive way.

So about Elder Arias... He is from Utah, but was born in Peru and lived there until he was 6 years old. He has been out for about 10 months now and has really grown since our days in Cerritos. I love working with him and we are having a blast together.

Well, like I said it was an awesome experience being back here in Bolsa Chica. There were immediately flashbacks to when I was first here and how much I loved this area. From Elder Kunz and I competing to win the chocolate milk to finding awesome people to teach. Our teaching pool right now is actually really good. We have several people who are progressing super well towards baptism. This past week we focused mostly on finding them and introducing myself to them. This week we are going to focus on the little things to help them receive an answer that these things are true. Plus we are teaching a guy how to read and write spanish. He grew up on a ranch and didn't go to school to read or write. So now we get to do so, and it is kinda hard I won't lie. Basically I am trying to remember how I was taught Spanish in the MTC so I can help this guy out. Kinda cool, and crazy at the same time.

First week as a DL was pretty good. Really the only big thing was conducting District meeting on Thursday. The mission creates outlines for these trainings and I didn't get mine until Wednesday night. Thankfully it was a topic I was familiar with and I spent Thursday during personal study to prep. Well we show up to the church and we are about to start until the Assistants to the President showed up. Yeah plus there are only 2 districts in the zone, so I was going to have one of the Assistants in my district along with a ZL. Well that just added to the stress of giving my first training. But we had a good discussion on teaching everynight and how we can do better at doing so. So ya that was fun, hopefully this next District meeting goes a little bit smoother. This week week I will start getting exchanges done.

Well that is most of the updates for now. I have to run because we are on a tight email schedule. Next week I will give a bit more details about everything. Have a good week!

Elder Roberts

This is Rosie, she was one of our investigators in Long Beach

On the left is one of our Investigators Mireya and her daughter Heidi. On the right is a member and her daughter, hna. Rodriguez and Natalia

La familia Paz. Members who lived in our area. Super bomb family

La familia Paz tambien. There are the parents to the guy in the first picture in this email.

These two hooligans are Elder Christensen (Left) and Elder Petersen. We did a lot of things together in Long Beach and they helped me visit people my last night in Long Beach.

January 12, 2015 - I am going home!

Hi Everyone,

Now before everyone starts freaking out, no I am not returning back to Utah. I still have 3 transfers left, not a whole lot but enough to keep working here in the great California Long Beach Mission. So everyone can calm down and can read this email with more peace.

I am just going to get right to the details. We are starting a new transfer tomorrow (Jan. 13). However, I will not be working in Long Beach anymore and I will not be a regular missionary. I am going back to the first ward I served in, Bolsa Chica, and I will be a District Leader there. So ya there was quite a bit of changes this transfer and I am not 100% sure how I feel right now. It still hasn't hit me yet, but I am sure that tomorrow things will start to become more real. I feel excited because I am going back to where I started, sad because I am leaving another ward and members that I love, and nervous because of the opportunity to serve as a DL. But things will be all right I guess.

Ok so now that I got that piece of detail out of the way, time to explain what else happened this week. This week was amazing and chuck full of miracles. It started off on Monday with a Family Home Evening with one of our investigators in the house of a member. We had a really good lesson about the family and how to establish the family in the Gospel. On Tuesday and Wednesday we found a family to start teaching. It is a mother, Leilani, and her two daughters, Gaby and Jeanette. We had a really good lesson with them about the Restoration and how to find more peace and guidance for the family. In fact, Leilani express her desire for her family to become more involved with church, but hasn't found one that she likes and feels comfortable with. After we taught her the Restoration, she really liked what we taught and wanted to learn more. Such a cool miracle from God to help us find His children in need. On Thursday we found another girl, Jazmin, who is in High School and feels a lot of pressure and stress from her classes and all the walks of life. So we taught her about prayer and how she can find more peace by talking with her Heavenly Father. She really liked it and was excited to start praying.

On Saturday we had a huge miracle. So we are teaching an investigator named Julio. He is actually really solid and loves learning about the church. He comes every week, he reads the Book of Mormon as well as the manuals for the classes, and has grown a lot. However, whenever we tried committing him to baptism he wouldn't and said he would let us know when. Well we decided to re-teach the Restoration and see if we could find what his doubt was. To be completely honest, I thought it would be a doubt about the doctrine. However, as we got near to the end, we started bearing our testimony about the Restoration and invited Julio to pray specifically if these things are true. His response "I feel this is good, and I love learning about the Gospel, but I can't fully commit myself to one church." Well at that moment I felt impressed to pause and ask a question, but I didn't know what. After a couple seconds of silence I asked "Why can't you commit yourself to this church?" His answer "My wife doesn't want me to, she is fine with me learning but doesn't want me to fully commit to this church or any other church." At that point, everything change and we committed Julio to follow the example of Alma the Elder and pray for his wife to open up to the Gospel and learn why he wants to commit to this church.

Wow all I can say is that lesson was a huge miracle. The past 3 transfers I could not figure out why Julio wouldn't commit to baptism and I was kinda frustrated. But as I was talking with Elder Petersen, he told of an experience where the same thing happened as he re-taught the Restoration. So we decided to do so, but really follow the Spirit and teach it powerfully. And because the Spirit was there, Julio expressed his concern and now we can help him more effectively to progress towards baptism. He is such a cool guy and I really pray that his wife will be open to learning about the Gospel and let him take that step of faith in his life. The first picture is of him and I after church.

So those were some of the miracles we had in our area. I don't know what we did differently, but the work has really progressed in our area and I am super excited for those the Lord has placed in our path to come closer to him. I feel like this week I had a lot more faith in our Heavenly Father to lead us to to His children waiting to receive the Gospel. I am sad to have to leave these people, but I know that they will be guided by Him to receive the Gospel and take the necessary steps to come closer to Him.

So to answer a couple questions before I finish up. Yes, Dad did talk to a member in our ward, Cruz Garcia. She helped me out to get money for a new running watch I got from another missionary. She said she was pretty nervous to call, but it sounds like it was a good chat. She told me that she told Dad that he could call anytime. I think it would be good to call, but talk with her husband, hermano Garcia. He is from Honduras and his spanish is super clear and anyone could understand him. So it would be good practice for dad :) The second picture is of la familia Garcia.

This week was kinda interesting weather wise. So to start the week it warmed up quite a bit. We were in the high 80's to low 90s and it felt great. However, it didn't last. Friday it cooled down a bit, and all day Saturday it was raining, and it rained super hard. Then Sunday was just wet and cold as well. Like mom said in her email, these members just don't understand that I like to be warm and wear less layers, so they always ask why I don't wear a sweater. Haha silly mexicanos, no conocen los hueros de Utah.

Well that pretty much is all the updates. Like I said, I am sad to be leaving this area and all the people I have met here the past 4 months. But I am excited to return to my first ward. Who knows, maybe I can help la familia Sobrinho come back to church again. I don't know what the Lord has planned for me in Bolsa Chica, especially as a District Leader, but I am excited for this time learn and grow to help His work progress in this part of his vineyard.

Love you all! Next email will be coming from sunny Huntington Beach!

Elder Roberts


Here are a few more pictures I took after church with some members.

La Familia Lopez. They didn't live in my area, but we always ate with them at least 4 times a month. They are an awesome family and she makes some really good food.

La familia Cedillo. The hermano is our Ward Mission Leader

Elder Petersen. My fellow Cache Valleyite. We served together in the same ward a total of 3 transfers, 2 in Cerritos and 1 here in Long Beach. I love this kid.

Elder Whetten. Man this kid is an amazing missionary. We served in the same ward here in Long Beach for 3 transfers and he was with our DL so we did exchanges together. I love this kid!

Elder Beck, my former Companion. Well he is going home tomorrow, so I thought I would grab one more picture with him. I love this kid.