that i teach every week and am over. We were doing service together and this is just a funny picture. left to right. Sister Breen, Sister Collins, Sister Hernandez, Sister Dunkle, above her Elder Myers, me, below me Elder Daniels and Elder Matthews
And Elder Matthews with an axe while doing service
original message.
Dear Everybody,
Who remembers the Christmas initiative #HeistheGift? Well there is another one starting up right now.
Step 1: Watch the video: HeLives.mormon.org
Step 2: Feel the Spirit of God
Step 3: Share the video with friends through social media along with your testimony and the #BecauseHeLives
Step 4: Share it with those you love in person that way they might learn more of Jesus Christ and the Resurrection and the love Our Heavenly Father has for us.
Step 5: Invite those around you to learn more of Jesus Christ and His gospel.
There is even a cool little marker your can print out to show where Christ is in your life.
We have been focusing on this quite a bit since this last week and I hope that all you have the opportunity not only to watch this but to share it as well.
We moved one of the baptisms forward. So Alex should be getting baptized this week on Friday. Alot of fun things happening this week. General Conference is coming up, this Easter Initiative and Alex's baptism this next Friday.
I am so excited for General Conference and I probably have expressed this thought each time it has come around; but it is so great, that we are going around and telling people that there is a prophet of God on the earth again today and we get to hear from him this week. I know that there are such great blessings that flow from following the words of the prophet because he is telling us what God wants us to do today. The world changes, not God, so he needs to be able to tell us and let us know what we need to do as our world changes. The space between righteousness and wickedness is growing ever larger in today's world and we need to know which side we are on. There is less grey area.
Over the last while we have been introduced to many new people, right now the struggle is actually trying to meet with them. Today's world is a busy one and it is making it hard to find the people we need to see at the right times. A lady named Mary that was just going through a phone book and she was looking to go to an optometrist and she decided on one randomly. At this time she was struggling because of the death of her son and she had questions pertaining to his death and what happens to him. She went to the optometrist and she broke down crying and told the doctor her struggles. He is LDS and shared with her a little of our beliefs and got her information. He got a hold of us, because she lives in our area, and sent us over there. We met her and were able to bear our testimony's not only of where her son is, but that families can be forever. We invited her to watch this Easter video about Christ's resurrection and we have yet to find out more. But I will let you know.
In the wards and a big focus that the Stake President has is building a stake/wards that God can trust. As with this doctor he was able to open his mouth and share the gospel. We want God to trust us so that he can place people in our path so that they can receive the gospel. If he can't trust us, why would he place those people there. Also he wants us to build wards that when one of his children enters into it, that they will be loved and accepted and they will feel of His love for them.
I love you all and be excellent to each other.
Love,
Elder Roberts
Happy Birthday Jake!
Make sure you wish Jake a happy birthday. This week was a good week. We met a few people. We met this girl named Alex who has recently been getting more into Christianity with her husband and she invited us into her house almost right away. While she seemed interested her husband seemed more skeptical, but is interested to find the answers to the questions that he has. As we see them more will find out what exactly we want to do and if he is genuinely interested in learning more, or if he just wants to prove us wrong. We found another few people by trying other people. We were expecting to find one person, but there was a different person there who was interested. It has been cool. Not too much this week but here's a great picture of us out riding our bikes on a nice day.
So we have had all sorts of wonderful experiences this week. Lots of them revolving around flat tires. Simply put we are excited to get him a new bike so that we can invest some money into making it puncture proof and it just make life easier. We are still able to get around luckily, we are just more prone to stopping, and yeah. But this week we were able to meet a few new people. Quite a few who have interest in learning more about the church. A few referrals and also some inspired tracting. One is named Malissa and she had been taught by missionaries previously before she had moved and she is interested in taking the lessons and taking her family to church, she seems to have a lot of promise, we just need to actually have the opportunity to sit down and have a lesson. Sadly she was not able to come this last week due to sickness and such but we are praying for her and we hope all will be well this week.
Another lady we met due to a recent convert. She was in gospel principles and started telling us about her daughter in law and son. The daughter in law (Tiffany) kept seeing missionaries riding around and knocking on peoples houses and a few around her house, but they didn't knock on her door, and she wanted them to. She lives in the other ward (the 18th) adjacent to the recent convert's ward (the 2nd). So we invited Trina, the recent convert to invite her to the lesson we were teaching Trina that night for the new member lessons. We were teaching and naturally it gravitated toward Tiffany. It was a great experience filled with the spirit. And we ended up inviting Tiffany to be baptized and she accepted.
For the inspired tracting experience, I was pondering on area's to tract for a while one morning and and eventually chose an area. While we were out that day I asked Elder Matthews where we should tract and he chose the same area. We went and knocked a few doors and the first couple doors we knocked had some good success. We met family who said we could come back and share a message with them. Another one we met was an 18 year old boy who is investigating different churches with his mom. They are currently trying out a few different churches and said we could come back and that they would be interested in coming to church.
It has been a good week and we are learning a lot. Elder Matthews is great and is practically a flown missionary already, just needs a few guidelines here and there. He is extremely friendly and easy to get along with. I love you all and will talk more later.
Love,
Elder Roberts
So Elder Matthews is pretty awesome! He is very excited to do missionary work and have a strong desire to be obedient and to make the most of his mission. I am excited to have him as my companion. In case your don't remember he is from Australia and but he is half Philippino and has spent the last 6-7ish years in the Philippines. He is very devoted to the gospel and is excited to be learning more as well as teaching others. We set another two baptismal dates this week. One is a 9 year old girl named Lydia whose family is currently reactivating. She is very excited to be baptized and might possibly have a crush on me... But she is actually really close to God as well as her two younger brothers. They all like to fight over who says prayer and such. It is always a lot of fun. Another boy is named Alex and he is 14. He was recently adopted and has been coming to church for awhile I just didn't know he wasn't baptized. So that is great. Lydia should be getting baptized on the 28th and Alex the 11th of April. There are a lot of cool people that was have been meeting though, like I mentioned last week. Kathy is really cool and we believe she has some promise. She is genuinely seeking truth. Another referral we have received we are having a really hard time contacting though it sounds like she is interested. Her daughter told us she might be interested in switching churches so we just need meet her and see if what we have to offer is something she wants to learn more about. I'll talk to you later. Love you all!
Hello Everybody. A lot of things have happened in the last week. We have had some cool experiences in finding new investigators as well as receiving a lot of referrals. Kassidy was baptized this last Saturday but due to a Regional broadcast on Sunday we could not confirm her then. So she will be confirmed this following week in Sacrament Meeting. And this is our Bishop. He baptized her and will confirm her as well.
We talked to another lady this week who had previously requested a bible through the online referral system and they had stopped by previously and given it to her. We went back by again and when we started talking to her she was not interested, but we continued to talk to her and eventually she invited us inside, and we gave her a Book of Mormon. We talked about the light of Christ with her and how she was recognizing it's influence in her life. We taught a little bit of the restoration as well as the plan of salvation and that was a cool experience. I believe she felt the spirit and understood the things we were teaching as well as believed them to be true. It is amazing to see the influence of the Light of Christ and the Holy Ghost working together to lead her to the truth and then to confirm it to her. She said we can come back and that she may be interested in coming to church sometime soon.
Elder L Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve also came and spoke to our mission. We all got to shake his hand. That was a cool experience to hear from and shake an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ's hand. He teaches with power and authority and I was grateful to be able to hear from him. He spoke largely about companions and the influence we have on one another. He then also had a question and answer session with us. It was great. It was the first time we had ever had the entire mission together for a conference since the mission was started in July 2013.
Today is also transfer day. Elder Rogers is being transferred to the North Nampa stake, but it is still in our same zone. I will stake district leader and I will also be training this next transfer. I am really excited to train again. I love training new missionaries and there are two English Elder's coming in. One from Georgia and one from the Philippines. It would not be my first time with a Phillipino companion so that would be cool, but I will possibly let you know tomorrow when I let him email his family. And this area is blossoming, and with recent converts and new member lessons it will provide good opportunities to teach this new missionary, as well as with some great referrals.
At the mission conference I learned of some very happy and sad news, my trainer, Elder Morse, is going home, kind of for health reasons, but also not the details surrounding it I will need to get permission from him to share but he is doing well. He is not going home for disobedience or anything, and the choices he is making is because he is following the guidance of the Mission President as well as the Holy Spirit. And if the Lord wants him back out here, it will work out so that he can come back out. I hope he is able to. I will try to let you know next week.
Lastly while waiting to get my new companion until tomorrow, my temporary companion is my MTC companion. It is great and funny. It should be fun.
I will talk to you later. I love you all!
With Love from,
Elder Roberts
