Exchanges June 29, 2015

This week was awesome! we witnessed a lot of miracles in the zone as a whole. We set some goals to finish of the transfer well and a lot of missionaries have seen some miracles in their area's trying to find new people. Sorry for next to nothing this week. But there is amazing power and joy found in the sacrament and there is a kid this week that we pretty much commited to go on a mission and he has been coming out with like 5 days this last week. He is a super amazing guy. His name is Mckay and he doesn't have great knowledge of the gospel but he bears a powerful testimony he has some health disorders but he has a desire to work through them. He is amazing and I am grateful for amazing examples of this for me.
Sincerely,
Elder Roberts

Answers! June 22, 2015

Paige got the answer that the church is true! She received the answer in a dream. And now she is talking a lot about baptism, she is still trying to receive a confirmation that she needs to be baptized again, as she has been baptized previously, but she is doing awesome! We were waiting for another person to get there so we could teach her so we were just waiting in the doorway and she told us she had been having some conversations with God, but before we could ask about it, the other lady, Audra (the lady who I did the baptismal interview for) kept talking to her. So once he got there we got inside and asked her. She is happy to know that it is true, and she actually seems anxious to be baptized. She brings it up all the time and is asking about it. She is just trying to receive another witness. She is great and it won't be too long for her!
Our appointments with both Danielle and Janelle fell through this last week, which was sad, but we just went over and tried Janelle yesterday, and we found out that her and her husband have been listening to the Book of Mormon through the gospel library app. They are on chapter 15 and they've only been doing it a couple days. They are enjoying it so far! We should be seeing them again tomorrow.
We went on exchanges with Elder Hulet, one of the district leaders in the zone. He is also my mtc companion. But I wasn't his companion. He is in a trio with two other missionaries and I was with them. They got to come to the dentist with me and it was a party for sure. I got to go to the dentist twice this week and get my face all numb on two different sides. We were able to talk to quite a few people, mostly not interested, but there were a few potential people who said they could come back. And then we went to an investigator's, named Jeremy, house for dinner and we had really spicy hamburgers for dinner. He is big into a pepper called Carolina reaper, which sounds scary. I am not big into spicy food.
The zone was also able to find about 12 new investigators the last 3 days of last week! It is really amazing to see how many people they are getting out and being able to touch the lives of people. We have seen lots of cool miracles. Lastly, last Sunday, a week ago we were out with the Stake President's son who is going on a mission to Guatemala in a couple weeks. After we tried an appointment that we were planning on having him there for (that fell through) we asked him if there were some people who he wanted to try before he heads out on his mission. We had heard of a couple of them before, but one we knew of named Jayden and we knew he was out of town, but for some reason we felt like we should go. We went over there and we didn't find him, but there was this big garage band thing going on. And there were a bunch of people on the street listening to them. To talked to a lady who had been baptized recently up in Emmett. And after she walked away another guy walked up holding a beer and he was drunk. He was telling us about how much he respected us and how he felt like his life was going wrong and that he just felt like he couldn't move forward. We testified to him of God's love for him and that God wants to help him and forgive him. He also told us about how his Brother is on a mission. He told us his name was Justin and he is a member and just recently in ward council they had told us of a guy named Justin who lost his job after a tool was dropped on his foot from multiple stories. Elder Bjorling looked down and his foot was in not so great a shape. So we figured out it was this same guy. He was grateful for our testimony's and he said we could come back. Then later, while they were on exchanges, Elder Bjorling and Elder Hulet went to Justin's house. We had were thinking he would not have remembered because of him being drunk. But he remembered it all. He welcomed them right in they testified of God's forgiveness and taught largely about prayer and how that will help him. They committed him to pray every night for 7 days and to stay on his knees until he felt the spirit. He said he could do that, and then they invited him to pray right then and Elder Bjorling remembered a testimony of the significance of a kneeling prayer in district meeting. They all knelt down and the second Justin's knees hit the floor he started breathing heavy and then he started crying. He said a very short and simple prayer but one of the most powerful Elder Bjorling has heard. He said the lesson was also one of the most powerful. After he was trying to be all manly, cough it off, but he admitted as to how amazing it was and how quick it hit him. He is such a humble man and a couple days later we asked him how his prayers are going. He said they are great and that he is doing better everyday, he feels like he can move past the struggles he has and that he can be forgiven. He also told us that his wife, who used to be against the church, has agreed to pray with him. It is so cool to see the way that his life is being changed, and the power of prayer is truly amazing. The Lord wants to bless us with so much, we must be humble enough to ask for a lot of it though. And to ask with the faith to receive it.
Sincerely,
Elder Roberts

June 15th 2015

Hello!
This week has been a good and fun week. We got to see pretty much everyone we wanted to see. We had a great lesson with a lady and her husband. Her named is Janelle and his named is Cody. He is a member and she is not. His brother died not too long ago and since then their normal roles have switched. She is now trying to increase the faith in their relationship while he is really struggling with it. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to be baptized, in the past she has been apprehensive but when we invited her this time she said yeah. She said asd long as her father in law can do it. We wanted to set a date with her but the days we aimed for she was out of town. But that she will talk to her father in law about a good day to do it.
We also got to see Danielle just yesterday her family is still pretty anti- but is standing strong in her determination to learn. The hardest thing for her is when her kid's uncles who are not too much older are telling her kids that we are bad, it makes it harder for the kids. But she still wants to learn and get her family in there. We went over and told her the story of Amulek, and how he had Alma to help him in his hard path, and how she has a lot of people who want to help her as well. It touched her and we are going to have a lesson with her tomorrow with one of the ward missionaries and her husband.
Paige is going through some hard things but we taught her a little bit more about opposition as well. She comes to church most every week and she enjoys learning. She is often focused on little small things and allow them too hold her up. She is striving to have a more open and sincere heart. We hope to see her receive an answer soon as she is reading the Book of Mormon.
The zone is doing pretty well. There have been some cool things happening for them as well as disappointing. But overall it seems like they are doing well. There has been a lot of cool improvements. We went on exchanges this last week with Elder Clark and his companion who is the district leader and it is first time. I went with the new District leader Elder Stanley and Elder Bjorling went with Elder Clark and it was awesome.
Also we drive a super slick mini-van around. I don't think I mentioned this yet. It is pretty great. Her named is Charlotte and she is beut. Here she is after some of the Sisters who live down the street from us, along with the Sister Training leaders tatted her up. But she good now. All of the little stars have hashtags with random things as well that mean something only to us.

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Elder Bjorling also had boot on his feet up until last week and it was because of his ankle, this is him wearing the rubberband on his head that he uses to exercise his ankle.
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Love you all!
Sincerely,
Elder Roberts

Hello! June 8th 2015

Hello everybody! This week was a good week, we had zone conference which was a great experience. A lot of the focus of this zone conference was on the sacrament, striving to be who the Lord would have us be. It was a very cool meeting! At that meeting they also stuck these little things called Tiwi's in all of our cars. They help us drive more better. They tell us to check our speed and if we are aggressively driving and if we are driving without a seat belt. And then we if we do it too much it gets reported to salt lake and then to the mission office and if we are terrible we get our driving privileges taken away. But it mostly just helps us be safer drivers. It is cool and kind of funny.
We were able to see Danielle and we had a good lesson with her at a members house. She is trying to find out if the Book of Mormon is true and she is super awesome. She has a lot of opposition from family but she is pushing through it.
Paige was super awesome! The first lady I ever did a baptismal interview for came with us to her house and she was able to address pretty much all of Paige's concerns . They were raised in very similar ways and have had very similar concerns in investigating the church. So they were able to connect amazingly well. The missionary before me with Elder Bjorling both felt strongly prompted to have her there, and both Paige and Audra had felt inspired to talk to eachother. And Audra gained a testimony of fasting because of this experience. It was really cool!
I love you all and I'll say more next week, but we got to go! :)

Zone Leader 1st week June 1, 2015

Dear Everybody,
This week was a crazy week. Sadly we weren't able to accomplish as much missionary work as we needed to, because the first week of every transfers is crazy for zone leaders. We had to prepare for our zone meeting, which is a 3 hour meeting that me and my companion are in charge of, plus we had a 7 hour meeting called MLC (missionary leadership council). Plus all sorts of other fun stuff. But we did get to do some stuff. I met a few of the investigators of the area and they are really cool and have a lot of great potential! I will let you know more of the details of the investigators as I have more, but one of them is a lady named Paige who is in her 50's or 60's who was a big cowgirl in her time. She did rodeo's all the time and now she announces in them. It is cool. She is Christian and she is excited to be learning this stuff she is just trying to figure it all out at this point. She is enjoying reading the Book of Mormon and she comes to church a lot. She is in a wheelchair now. We helped her with her garden a little bit  and we will being seeing her again soon.
So for a lot of the zone meeting we have a lot of the other missionaries train on different things pertaining to the vision that we had seeked revelation on. It was a powerful meeting and it was great to have all of the missionaries participation in discussions. The coolest experiences we had this week had to do mostly with me and Elder Bjorling in our planning for the zone. We were planning what our vision is for the Zone and our vision is Victory through Reliance. That we can achieve victory in the war against the adversary through reliance on our Savior. It was a cool experience in planning and trying to help the zone to move forward. At this point the District leaders are going to have to carry this vision along with the zone. We will try our best to make sure it goes about but now the district leaders have to make sure to apply this to their training and implement it into their meetings and everything we do. So we hope to see good things come from it. I love you all!
Sincerely,
Elder Roberts
Me and Elder Bjorling and Elder Clark and Elder Stanley (he is Elder Clark's companion and one of the district leaders)

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Zone Leader 1st week June 1, 2015

Dear Everybody,
This week was a crazy week. Sadly we weren't able to accomplish as much missionary work as we needed to, because the first week of every transfers is crazy for zone leaders. We had to prepare for our zone meeting, which is a 3 hour meeting that me and my companion are in charge of, plus we had a 7 hour meeting called MLC (missionary leadership council). Plus all sorts of other fun stuff. But we did get to do some stuff. I met a few of the investigators of the area and they are really cool and have a lot of great potential! I will let you know more of the details of the investigators as I have more, but one of them is a lady named Paige who is in her 50's or 60's who was a big cowgirl in her time. She did rodeo's all the time and now she announces in them. It is cool. She is Christian and she is excited to be learning this stuff she is just trying to figure it all out at this point. She is enjoying reading the Book of Mormon and she comes to church a lot. She is in a wheelchair now. We helped her with her garden a little bit  and we will being seeing her again soon.
So for a lot of the zone meeting we have a lot of the other missionaries train on different things pertaining to the vision that we had seeked revelation on. It was a powerful meeting and it was great to have all of the missionaries participation in discussions. The coolest experiences we had this week had to do mostly with me and Elder Bjorling in our planning for the zone. We were planning what our vision is for the Zone and our vision is Victory through Reliance. That we can achieve victory in the war against the adversary through reliance on our Savior. It was a cool experience in planning and trying to help the zone to move forward. At this point the District leaders are going to have to carry this vision along with the zone. We will try our best to make sure it goes about but now the district leaders have to make sure to apply this to their training and implement it into their meetings and everything we do. So we hope to see good things come from it. I love you all!
Sincerely,
Elder Roberts
Me and Elder Bjorling and Elder Clark and Elder Stanley (he is Elder Clark's companion and one of the district leaders)

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Sickness, transfers, Union! May 25, 2015

Hello! Here is some info for you.
This last week was sadly a very unproductive week. Except on Wednesday on splits where we got to have a good lesson with a couple, it was not filled with super exciting things. Elder Matthews got sick and has been sick since Friday. It got progressively worse up until Sunday. But this morning he seemed to be feeling a whole lot better. Also we got transfer calls Saturday morning. We have been shotgunned out of our area, And Elder Matthews is being transferred up to Union!!! It seems like it has been decided that All missionary's that I train must spend some time in
Union. I trained the first two in Union, Elder Bushell and Elder Clark, and now Elder Matthews is going up there too. He was kind of scared but he will do great. I was transferred within the same zone, just to a different stake within the zone. I was also made a Zone Leader. So that will be a new adventure! Elder Bjorling (pronounced B-yor-ling) He has already been a zone leader for 7.5 months and before that he was an Assistant to the President for 7.5 months as well. He is from Canandaigua, New York. It is right next to Palmyra and Manchester, New York. He just told me that Canandaigua means chosen spot  He is super great and it will be great to learn from him! I hope I am able to learn a lot! Here is some pictures of the people from my previous area.

Here is my ward mission leader, Bro Haws, from the 2nd ward and his family.
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Here is Bro Blackhurst from the 18h ward he is our other ward mission leader. Inline image 2
This is the Bishop of the 2nd ward and his family! The members are all some of our favorites and ones that we worked with closely.
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These are a couple members that would often give rides to us for p-days grocery shopping and emailing. They are great!
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This is Elder Bjorling, back when he was my zone leader. Last week we went to the roller drome and went roller skating.

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He is super tall and great! He has a low voice as well! Have fun all of you and I can give you more updates next week. I love you all!
Sincerely,
Elder Roberts