Flat Tires

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

Elder Matthews

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!

Some Cool Stuff

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

Baptism!

Hello! This week has been a pretty good week. It seems like we have received a million referrals of people wanting to get baptized recently just needing the lessons. So we are starting teaching a few of them this next week. Lydia is one of them and they just recently moved from Caldwell and were referred by the missionaries up there. She is 9 and the family is less active and they are trying to return to church. So it will be a good experience. The other one is a boy named Alex who is 14 years old. He has had a rough past and his adopted parents here just recently got full custody of him. He has been coming to church for a long time and I just didn't know he wasn't a member. He goes on camp outs and hang out with the youth. I just never noticed that he hasn't actually passed the sacrament. As well we have found a few other people who are interested in learning one that we know is interested in being baptized. Her name is Lillie and she has had rough
life up to this point as well.

We also had a baptism this last week Matt was baptized and he is really excited in the journey he is making. Kassidy should be getting baptized this next Saturday as well but we are having a regional conference on Sunday so she will be confirmed the Sunday after that.
This last week we had a zone conference and that was good and fun. We were all edified by the messages our leaders had to share. We also at the end of the conference we performed skits about going through the invitation pattern in chapter 11 of preach my gospel. It is was really fun and there were lots of laughs.
I love the Gospel and my Savior Jesus Christ. I hope all who read this know that and that if it weren't for the power of the atonement in my own life I don't know what level of conviction I would have in sharing this. But I know that Jesus Christ's Church has been restored and I am grateful that I have the opportunity to represent Him in sharing this message with the Idaho Nampa Mission.
Love,
Elder Roberts

Temple week and Costco Pizza

This last week had a bunch of cool things and stuff that happened in it! We helped the Elder Short, one of the senior missionaries in our mission, clean out the mission storage unit, me, Elder Rogers, an old comp Elder Bushell, and his companion Elder Twigg. It went fast so he took us to costco for a hot dog/pizza/chicken bake.

On Thursday, I went to the temple. The long awaited, first temple trip of the mission. We get to go twice on our mission. Once at halfway, the other time right before we go home. This picture is me and Sister Cannon, Our Mission Mom/President Cannon's wife, out in front of the temple. Me and 11 other missionaries went with the Mission President and his wife and one of the senior couples and the Assistants to the President. My MTC Companion, Elder Hulet is in the background. We of course came out at the same time so he hit his halfway mark too.

This is the Boise Temple from a better angle. It is really pretty and I am going to miss the temple a lot for the next year but I am so grateful for the covenants made here, and the peace inside this building. The Temple truly is the House of the Lord. The covenants bring real power, peace and strength in my life and I am grateful to go back to remember them.

I also went on exchanges this last week with one of the missionaries in my district and it went really well. He has ass-purgers but he is a great missionary and is out here to serve His Heavenly Father. It is great to see how he is able to overcome the challenges that he has and be so willing to serve. We went over and taught one of our investigators who is getting baptized this Saturday. His name is Matt and he is really excited to be baptized and to continue to learn afterward as well. The girl that I met the first day in this area, Kassidy, is getting baptized next Saturday. The 28th. The same day that L Tom Perry is coming to speak to our mission. They both have one more lesson they need before and they need to have their interviews but they are on their way and they are excited. I'll have to send a picture of my district so that you can see the missionaries I am most associated with. I will also send pictures of the baptisms. I love you all!
Sincerely,
Elder Roberts

Sick day

I am officially over the hump and it has gone by scary fast. Everyone keeps telling me it speeds up from here so I am scared ;) This last week on Saturday I got to have one of the least fun days of m mission. I got sick and I had to lay in bed all day. That day lasted what seemed like forever. Probably not too different for my companion, having sit around all day as well just a little more conscious most of the time. Kassidy is struggling to come to church right now but we should have another baptism on the 21st for Matt. One that I have almost nothing to do with. Matt is really looking forward to it. We met a few more people this week that seem like there could be some great potential for teaching. They seem interested and like they want to make changes in their lives. Just some of them are really busy and have a hard time working a good time into their schedule to have us over or to come to church, while they do want to do both. I am grateful for priesthood blessings as I feel like that was the only reason I have been recovering as fast as I have been. We went on exchanges with the zone leaders as well and that was good. We didn't have too much success but they are helping me and my companion work on some things to improve. I know the atonement is the power that helps us overcome our struggles and learn and become better people and disciples of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the struggles that help me to appreciate the miracles and the Joy.
Love,
Elder Roberts

The One Year Mark

So I am in Nampa covering the 2nd and 18th wards. I am down in the hub of the mission now. I don't know surprisingly very many missionaries because I have been hiding out most of my mission. My companion is Elder Rogers from Gilbert Arizona and he has been out 6 months. And I was made district leader. I have had the opportunity to do a few baptismal interviews for the zone leaders. Those were pretty cool and it was great to see the people's paths as they are making their way into the church. And their challenges as well as the things that pushed them forward. The first day I got out here I was sent over to a little girl's house named Kassidy and she wanted to get baptized on the 31st. But we didn't have enough time to all the things we needed to so we needed to set the date for the seventh. Because she hasn't come to church the last couple weeks we've needed to push it back to the 21st. But she is excited. There is also another guy named Matt and he moved into the area I believe in mid December and he is getting baptized the same day. This is Kassidy and my companion Elder Rogers.

Things are going pretty well with her we just need to make sure she gets to church.
Also this week is a pretty crazy milestone. It will be hump day/my year mark on...... (yes a milk jug expiration date)

it is absolutely terrifying to think I have been out a year now. It feels like it has only be a couple months. And it has been such an amazing journey so far. I can only hope it continues to be as great as it has been. So filled with the spirit and joy and peace that it brings. At transfers I got to see the other missionary I trained just as I was finishing with Elder Clark so we all got pictures together. And one of the assistants to the President decided to photo-bomb it. I am so glad he did cause he is such an amazing Elder and he is going home this transfer. Elder Brimhall is his name. Elder Bushell is from Sandy Utah also so I will get to go to his homecoming which will be so great!

One more cool thing before I go. We were informed this last week at zone meeting that Elder L Tom Perry is going to be coming to speak to our mission on February 28th! It is going to be so cool! I love you all and have a great week!
Love,
Elder Roberts