I'm 1/3 Finished!

Hey, what’s up?

It looks like everyone sure is happy this week in Arizona.  I am super jealous you all went to the Diamondbacks Game and had Pioneer Day Celebrations.  Here in Mexico nothin’ cool like that happens! ;) We had zone conference this past Tuesday so I got my package. Thank you very much for the pants!! They fit great. Still can’t believe I am in a 40 in waist now, but it is what it is right?  Speaking of pants . . . I ripped a huge hole yesterday in the ones you sent me in the MTC. I sat down to eat yesterday and rrrrriiiip! hahaha! Is there a guarantee with these ones from CTR? If so, here is the evidence :) There is another sister in the ward that is going to fix them up so no worries if there isn’t the guarantee.

Speaking of clothes, I am fine right now, but I am gonna need some new shirts here in a little bit.  I know it’s still a while out, but if people want to send me stuff for my birthday or Christmas can you please tell them to just give you money to put in my account for some new shirts?? I am perfectly good now, but missionary work is just super hard on the clothes!

Wednesday morning President Carreon, his wife, and the zone leaders just happened to show up to the house to check the cleaning and all that good stuff. Ha it was a nerve racking experience to have people going through my stuff right and left ha. We actually had the house pretty clean.  It was super dirty when I got here to Ensenada, so I didn’t feel too bad. Ha I had to laugh because when President got to the house, he just sat down on the couch and started playing with his iphone and Hermana Carreon went nuts checking everything inside and out hahaha. I just had to laugh and wonder how their marriage is.  President has always said that Hermana Carreon is the senior companion in their relationship :) I asked them if there were celebrations for Pioneer Day that day but there wasn’t anything going on :( Be glad you all enjoyed your day on Wednesday!

So to explain the picture with Elder Vargas...hahahaha! We were on our way to an appointment and we passed this lady in the street. She was walking super funny- I thought she was just exercising, so we didn’t say anything to her. The second we passed her she was like, “Hey!! Why didn’t you say hi to me?” I thought . . . oh here weeee go! hahaha She starting explaining that she had gotten kicked out of every church that she had been to. We asked her why and she explained that she had received the gift of Isaiah from the Bible that the prophet sent from Jesus Christ to the world.  She then walked 3 circles around us chanting some random thing in Hebrew!  She hucked two huge loogies and began to give a blessing to Elder Vargas.  By this time I was dying laughing and had to pull out my camera for a picture! I have seriously met so many crazy people like this hahaha. It’s one of my favorite parts of the mission for sure! I was dying of laughter!

We still haven’t been able to find our Golden Family!  We think they just left without telling anyone ha. So we are back to finding more people to teach. We fasted this past week and have found a couple people in the street that are promising. So we are re-cooperating right now here in Ensenada!

It’s weird to think I’m a third of the way done already . . . who knows where time goes? I already know I’ll be home before I know it!

Sorry no pictures of me this week :(  I don’t have anything new ha. So hopefully I’ll have something cool for next week!

Thank you for everything! Here is another picture what it looks like up in the hills!

Enjoy your time in Arizona!

Elder Roper :)

Another Week Is Gone, Gone Gone!

Hey how are you all?

Can’t believe another week has already come and gone . . . this week I complete 8 months in the mission - a third of the way done!!  

Sorry I was so short last week.  What happened is the laws for the visas for us gringos changed a while back. The visas are only good for a year and they used to be good for 2.  So the Church paid for 2 years and paid like 4500 pesos extra for every gringo that got here after the changes.  I think there were like 12 of us so it was a bunch of money.  So had to open a bank account down here from Mexico in the name of the church so the church could receive the money again and redeposit it in the missionary fund.  I stayed and worked in TJ with the secretaries because i came from ensenada and the mission.  I didn’t want to have to pay for my trip back to Ensenada Thursday night and then back on Monday morning, so when we have to stay in Tijuana for a bit, we always stay in the house of the assistants and secretaries.  So that’s where I was the past week.  I got back here to Ensenada on Tuesday.  Actually President Carreon was gonna come by the assistants house to pick us up to head back to Ensendada but he totally forgot and left to Ensenada alone ha.  So we traveled back to Ensenada by bus.  It actually worked our really well because President took me out to eat after the interviews at Carls Jr. Ha paid for my lunch too :) and him and I had a nice lil chat about the family, Mexico, and whatever else ha.  Pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity to go out to eat with the President alone ha ;)  I am still amazed that I can communicate fluently and have a nice lil convo in all Spanish with the President only after having been in Mexico for only five months ha. Guess I’m a fast learner :)

The work has slowed WAYYYYY down here in Ensenada.  Our golden family just didn’t show up to the last appointment and didn’t come to church either.  We were teaching them in a member’s house so we never found out where they actually lived.  The members gave us a general direction of where they lived and we spent about 4 hours yesterday knocking doors trying to find them up by the castle and we never found them. Their cell phones aren’t working either right now.  So we are a little disappointed. Our other two possibilities to get baptized are still waiting for their answers to their prayers to come.  So we probably aren’t going to baptize in July and it makes me sad because it’s the first time in my mission that I have blanked in a month but it’s all good and we will just keep working and finding people to teach!

To answer questions from last week, I haven’t learned how to cook anything all that cool. I have a general idea. I want to learn how to make the flour tortillas before I leave the mission.  Something real quick and tasty though is to fry a flour tortilla with vegetable oil and then a sprinkle a bit of sugar on it. Quick snack that tastes great!  If we had more money and time I could try to cook more stuff but we only have enough to buy breakfast food for 2 weeks and then transportation.  Money is holding out well though.  I haven’t had to dip into my own account for a while now.  How much of my own money have I spent? Do you know? Elder Vargas receives 50 bucks from his family every week so he spends a bunch of money in the street with tacos. I always try to budget my money out and if I have a lil bit left over, then we always go for tacos :)

We see cruise ships leave and dock just about everyday.

The monsoon season here is from October to the first of February. They say it rains a ton here in Ensenada and gets super cold too!  Glad I’m here in the summertime :)

Mom, the secretaries have a contact in San Diego that they are going to call and send you the address sometime soon. I’ll call them later today to remind them to get it to you :) Please don’t worry about me hauling around my suitcases. I don’t have transfers for another month so I’ll be just fine :)

I’m super jealous that you all went boating and that you’re headed to Arizona for a bit.  Just make it a trip and come here to Ensenada while you’re at it ha ;)  I hope you all have fun and travel safely!!

Time is flying by!  I received a package from Grandma and Grandpa Roper this week, so please tell them thank you!  I hope the package with my pants comes tomorrow in zone conference because I’m gettin chubby!! ;)

Glad to hear you’re all doing well! 

Love and miss you all!

Here are some pictures from the last district meeting and of the beautiful sunset here a couple weeks ago!

Elder Roper :)

What's Up?

What's up?

Super happy to hear that Brigham and Randy got called to Tijuana.  There are a bunch of missionaries coming down here in the coming months.  I am so happy for those two.  They will love it here and will thrive here.  I wish them the best of luck!

Well first things first.  I’m up here in the offices again.  I have been up here since Thursday afternoon fixing more visa issues.  I have been here with the secretaries with Elder Sandburg since Thursday afternoon.  It’s been really good to catch up with him.  He is doing well...dying in the heat in Mexicali but doin' real well.  

I had forgotten was Tijuana was like after having been in Ensenada for awhile.  It’s like a whole different world ha.  I worked with one of the secretaries Elder Bryce for the past 3 days.  It’s been a lot of fun and I have learned a whole bunch from them.  We have visited straight less actives the past 3 days.  I met a prophet and a lady that had power to heal people from their sicknesses.  It’s always super funny to hear the stories that people have and how they lose their testimonies.  Super important to stay up on your reading and prayers everyday.  Tijuana is nuts!!!

Sorry don’t have much to say this week. I talked with President and they are going to get you an address to send the luggage.  So be watching for an email or a phone call even better.  

Super happy for Brigham and Randy! They will love their missions!! Crazy to think that I’ll have a year when they all get here.  Can’t wait to see them down here!!

Well take care and have a great week! Sorry time is super short here in the offices.  I head back to Ensenada with President tomorrow as we have our interviews there.  

Take care and have another great week!  Sorry for the lack of pics mom . . . don’t have my camera with me.  Double next week!

Love you all!!

Elder Roper

6 More Weeks in Ensenada

Hey ya’ll!

Sounds like you all had a great week!  It’s a miracle - Keaton’s baptism invite got to me this week.  I enjoyed his little note that he had attached.  I really wanted to be there with you all and I had hoped that we would baptize here in Ensenada but it just didn’t work out.  Actually every companionship here in the zone had dates for this past Saturday and every single one of them fell through so I don’t feel all that bad haha :)

Congrats to Hayden for taking state!  I am excited for you all to be able to head to Surprise! If you remember, that’s where we went to play ball my sophomore year.  Wow how fast the time goes by....

So I am sure you are all dying to know if I am dying in the heat or not but the good news is that...I get to stay in Ensenada with Elder Vargas for 6 more weeks!! :) Woo hoo! I was super jacked that I get to spend my summer here in Paradise haha.  I already had all my books packed away and most of my clothes ready to go Saturday night but the zone leaders called us to tell us that we are staying together.  I am really looking forward to this next 6 weeks.  We have a goal of 4 baptisms in this next month and I know we are gonna do it!  

A family here in the ward presented us a family by the name of Jose, Cecilia and their kids: Jared and Licha.  They moved here from Sonora about 3 months ago and are in pretty poor circumstances.  We always get super excited when we find families like this because we know this is how the Lord prepares his children to come to Christ.  Jose and Cecilia might not know it now but I am sure they will here pretty quick.  They are already reading the Book of Mormon and accepted a date in 3 weeks.  Super excited for them!

I am really loving this way to work!  I have knocked seriously less than 10 doors in my entire mission and from those 10 doors I haven’t found a thing.  Success really comes from the members.  Sometimes we don’t have much to do but the Lord always provides us with something.  We had 32 lessons this past week and really didn’t have to stress to find people to teach.  Actually on the Fourth of July we left with the bishop and his family and knocked on every single door in his neighborhood.  Man that was fun and I was super happy that I was able to have a good day on my favorite AMERICAN holiday :)  

Oh how I love my mission and how everything happens!  Again this past week we didn’t have anything to do for about an hour and the simple thought came to my mind that we should go visit Julio because he hadn’t been to church in a bit.  So we went and it’s a good thing we went because he was super dissappointed. . . he had been fighting with his mom and she doesn’t want him to go to church anymore.  So he was super sad.  We were able to cheer him up a bit and give him some scripture references and Mormon Messages to watch.  We saw him yesterday at church and he was doing better.  Gotta love those simple little thoughts that come from the Holy Ghost :)

Mom as for the luggage dont send it anywhere yet.  A family here has family in San Diego and said that you could send it to their address in San Diego and they would bring it down for me :) Let me get the address this week and I’ll send it to ya next Monday :) 

I am super proud of Hayden and Keaton and am hoping the best for Hayden in Arizona!  

Keaton bud, I was thinkin' about ya all day Saturday and was super glad your invite got to me in time.  I like to think that heavenly father had a little somethin' to do with that :)

Sorry for no pictures this week :( my computer doesn’t have a USB port...

Glad you are all doing well!! Take care and have another great week! :)

Much love,

Elder Roper :)

There is a mexican celebrity down here named Chabelo and everyone here knows who he is.  I had never heard of him before. . . everyone here also says I look exactly like him. . . what do you think??

I Completed 7 Months This Week!

Howdy y’all!

Crazy to see that it’s been up over 105 3 or 4 days this past week.  Summer has definitely hit here in Ensenada but nothing like 105.  It’s usually around 90 or 95 here with the ocean breeze.  Next Monday are transfers and I have a feeling I’m headed out of here so if you don’t hear from me next week it’s because I am on the road somewhere.  I completed 7 months this week and who knows where time has gone??

This week for work was super slow.  Things have really slowed down . . . we have 2 or 3 investigators that are so so and we aren’t receiving references from the members so its been rough this past week.  We realized that we were focusing in too much on having a bunch of lessons and not in finding.  So yesterday in the ward council meeting we changed the ward mission plan and told the whole ward that we are going to start teaching them the lessons and if they don’t have someone in mind for us to teach we are going to say a prayer and go to knock on their neighbors doors.  Ha it’s an interesting way to work and the members are super surprised when we just straight up tell them we are going to say a prayer and ask that we have the Spirit to help us know with what neighbor and what to say.  It’s actually pretty effective and keeps the members involved.  I am super convinced this is how the Lord wants us to work.  It benefits everyone both missionaries and members.  This is the way to work in ALL of Mexico now.  Baptisms sure have gone down but tithing has gone up and our mission has like 68% retention which is the highest in all of Mexico.  We are definitely seeing results here in the mission.  

Can’t remember if I shared this story or not earlier but I am going to share it anyways.  We went to find a friend of a member up in the hills 2 weeks ago.  She wasn’t home and we ended up chatting with a man of about 55 years.  He had spent time in jail and had been involved a bunch with drugs.  But he was super friendly and we started chatting.  He asked us if we really believed that Christ came to the Americas and of course we told him yes and we have the evidence of it.  He pretty much told us that that was BS and that we were crazy.  The best thing we can do when it comes to when people don’t want to listen to us it just bear our testimonies and tell people that we have read the Book of Mormon and why we came on the mission.  If they really listen to what we say it’s a promise we have that they will feel the Spirit and realize that it wasn’t true.  So Elder Vargas and I did that but he didn’t listen to us.  He began to tell us that we shouldn’t tell people that we know our message is true or bear our "testimonies" because that is the cause of all confusion.  To me it was the voice of Satan.  It discouraged me for a sec but I bore that man my testimony like never before.  He still wanted nothing to do with our message but whatever.  I was jacked and my testimony had never been stronger before.  It says in Preach My Gospel that logic can never deny a heartfelt testimony.  

We also taught an atheist this past week that pretty much just told us that there isn’t God and we are crazy for teaching about him ha.  Never ever has my testimony been stronger that this is the Lord’s church and that Satan will do WHATEVER possible to bring it down.  Have it to be with gays or drugs or whatever.  

Be sure to read the Book of Mormon everyday and say your prayers PLEASE :) it really makes a difference when we do the small things!!

Mom don’t sweat the luggage.  I can deal with hauling my stuff around for a day.  If President doesn’t respond, don’t be surprised just because he is super busy.  I’ll talk with him this week to see what we can do to get that luggage here.  If there is nothing we can do then I’ll just have to deal with it :)

Keaton enjoy your baptism buddy!  I did everything I could to try and have a baptism this week but it’s not gonna happen :(

Also enjoy the 4th of July for me! That’s my favorite holiday by far and I am going to be in Mexico but its all good!  I have been looking for fireworks but haven’t found nothing.  Ha we will be busy working anyways!

Enjoy these pictures of me and the view in Ensenada :) 

I spent Tuesday in Maneadero which is about 30 minutes south of Hidalgo.  It reminded me a lot of Levan as it’s just small town with a bunch of farm land.  Super pretty too!

This is the size of the spiders we killed this week during a service project.  We had to move a bunch of rocks around and they were all camped out underneath.  Super gross!!

I love you and miss you very much! Take care and enjoy the heat.  Rumor has it that I’m headed to Mexicali next week but who knows?  If so I’ll be in 130 degree everyday :) ha have a good one!

Elder Roper