Elder Jackson J. Roper: Hola from Ensenada!

Hola from Ensenada!

Wow! Ensenada is great! It was a bit of a rough week and I have been sooo stinkin tired. Our sector is about 10 times bigger than Otay. We walk everywhere so I have been super duper tired this week. A bit frustrated too because we literally have no one to teach here and there was like no progress in the past two months here. It’s hard because I have no clue what to do . . . the zone leaders are helping us get things figured out. It’s hard because Elder Jacome, although he has been here almost 4 months, doesn’t really know the area or the members so we are doing a lot of walking around without getting a whole lot done.

We do have two baptismal dates for this Friday so pray that they will happen please!!

We helped Hno Fito build his new house this past Saturday. In the picture you will see that the rich part of our area is down below.

All of our work is up in the hills where the people are super poor. You will see that they live in tiny little houses that are dug out of the mountain. They don’t have running water but all of them have their dishes to watch TV.

Anyway, this Hno Fito has a son in law that lost his leg and can’t work anymore. He can’t support his family. So Fito just decided to sell his house that is already super poor and build a new one so he could send his son in law money. Amazing right? It’s just the type of people here. I don’t have pictures of his new house but we were just using shovel and pick to get rocks out and get his foundation dug out. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it surprisingly. I think I enjoyed it so much because I was super frustrated that we didnt have anyone to teach so I could take some of my frustration out on the rocks with the picks. Ha we just worked in our slacks and t shirts that Fito's wife gave us. We were super duper filthy after but it was a lot of fun and I loved helping Fito out. He is a little unsure about his baptism this week so pray please that he will get baptized. He is our only hope for people to teach. With time people will come - I hope!

The weather here is super nice. A little hot but not as bad as Mexicali. I am getting some sun so my hair is super blonde and I am getting that nice tan back ha! The zone leaders are helping us out a lot so we can plan more effectively - so we aren’t walking all the days long to do nothing. With time we will get it figured out!

It does make me super homesick to see the pictures of baseball. Sounds like the boys are doing super well! I sure miss watching them play and can’t wait to hear more about them! I love the picture of Hayden with his foakleys. I knew he would love them ha!

We are taught to commit investigators to baptism in the first appointment. It doesn’t happen 100 percent of the time but it tells the people why we are there. We are there to bring them to Christ and people come to Christ by being baptized. If we just teach without talking about baptism the people are going to think its just another bible study class and that it’s cool what we teach. Ha No it’s salvation we are talking about here and that is what we do!

I talked with President this past week and he told me that Elder Castelan can’t do anything with my number. President didn’t really say a whole lot about it but he said to advise him if stuff was happening. I will watch for the package with the new card. Be sure to send me the pin and all :)

I got a package from Molly this week and a letter from Lisa Wightman so tell them thanks! Also tell Molly that she can send packages to San Diego. She sent it the Mexican address. I still got it so it’s all good!

Well I hope you are all doing well. It’s a struggle here without people to teach but we are still working hard to make things happen. The mission is completely different here but it’s all good!

I love you and miss you all!

Elder Roper