Where Do I Begin?

Hey Y’all!

 Well where do I begin?? Transfers? Baptism? The fact that all the birthday packages and new luggage got to me?? Super good week!

I’ll start with the baptism.  We went last Sunday to visit Jorge and he told us that he wasn’t ready to be baptized. He knew he should do it, but he was just scared. So we worked with him all week to get him ready.  Thursday evening Elder Valdez and I went to visit him.  Elder Valdez was sick, so he gave me the reins and let me teach. I felt the Spirit super strong tell me to teach about baptism and how Jorge shouldn’t be scared and that everything would be okay. So I shared Alma 7:14-16 with him and that is what he needed to hear. He agreed to be baptized with one condition . . . He told us that he is thinking of moving to Chicago with his son and didn’t want to be baptized if he couldn’t keep going to Church. So we explained that the church is pretty much in all the world and the meetings even come in Spanish for Jorge in Chicago and that his family in Chicago could listen to the missionaries there as well. So that made him happy and he agreed to be baptized!  Super cool baptism! He said the water was super cold but he said he felt a fire in his heart and invited everyone in the baptismal service to be baptized ha. Cool huh? One of my favorite parts of the mission is seeing how people change and the excitement when they get baptized. 

As for transfers I am up here in Tijuana again. I am with Elder Cornejo (which means rabbit in English). He just got to the mission six weeks ago so I will be finishing his training :) Super excited for that! The area is pretty difficult but I am sure we will have success eventually! That and Elder Tall will be our district leader. Super excited to be around him again! I’ll actually see him every Sunday as we share the same ward :) Cool huh??

Here is Elder Cornejo and I in the house :)

And yes, it was super hard to leave Ensenada. We actually celebrated my birthday and goodbye party yesterday with the Mosqueda family. I asked them to send the pictures. So be looking forward to that. I already miss that ward and the members and the dear friends I have made there, but the Lord needs me elsewhere right now :)

One of the signs the Mosqueda Family made me :) had to laugh how it says desperate...the daughter was trying to say Happy Birthday next week :) They take good care of us here in the mission mom, so no worries :)

Wednesday morning I got a call from the zone leaders telling me that President Carreon had brought like 5 packages to town for me and the luggage!!! Prayers answered!! Ha it was like Christmas!! Thank you all for the packages and all the goodies! Truly felt the love from home there. I was going to try and take all the packages with me and open them here in Tijuana but there was no way, so I opened them Friday. Needless to say, Elder Valdez and I had a great time opening them and especially enjoying the little photo album from home.  Thank you all so much!! :)

I’m gonna send a bunch of pictures and then I’ll get back to some more questions okay? Love you all and thanks for the birthday wishes!! Hard to believe I’m 20!!

Elder Roper :)

Update on the temple here in Tijuana . . . we drove by it today and took some pics.

Pictures of various Elders, Sisters and families from Ensenada

Tijuana Bound

Hey, they are sending me back to Tijuana tomorrow morning so if you don't hear from me, that's why :) Jorge got baptized Friday and it was super good! If you don't hear from me tomorrow, I'll try and get you something Tuesday :)

Love you!!

Elder Roper

One Hard Week and Go Utes!

Hey, how are you all?? I am doing great . . . it was another crazy busy P-day today so that’s why this email is coming in late again but better late than never right??

Well first things first . . . GO UTES!!  ha glad to hear they picked up the win for the fourth year in a row against those Zoobies!  Wish I could have watched the game but we were so busy working it didn’t even hit me that they were playing until late Saturday night. I guess I’m just lost in missionary work right? :)

We had our zone conference Tuesday. I got one package from Grandma and Grandpa M with two real good looking ties, two shirts and some cash!  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!  I imagine the rest of the packages will get here sometime in October.  After the zone conference, one of the assistants came to work with us.  I was super nervous, but it actually went well with him. We worked hard and had good lessons.

Wednesday night was a big fiesta in the stake here in Ensenada. If I’m right, the 16th of September is a big holiday here in Mexico and there are a bunch of parties. Luckily we were able to go...we brought like 10 investigators with us and it was a real success. Here in the picture from the party. 

As you can see we are all in sweaters . . . it’s cooled down a bunch here.  The weather is reminding me a lot of home from this time of year. Perfect during the day and a little bit chilly at night. The other elders in this picture are Elder Hammond from Draper, my companion, and Elder Hernandez from Veracruz, Mexico. All three of these guys go home before Christmas this year.

Sadly, none of our baptisms happened this week. Remember Eduardo that was supposed to get married this week? We hadn’t seen him in two weeks because he had been out of town working. So when we went to go visit them Tuesday morning to get them ready for the wedding, his girlfriend just explained to us for the fifth time that they needed more time to get ready and still didn’t have the money - super frustrating but what can ya do?

We still have a date for this Friday with Jorge. He says he doesn’t feel ready to be baptized Friday but we will see what we can do to help him out this week to get him ready.

I am a little bit down because I have blanked for 2 months now baptizing and if we don’t baptize this week, it will be 3 months that I haven’t baptized.  None of the 5 converts that I have taught here in Ensenada are active anymore.  Super frustrating and it makes me feel like my work here has been a waste, but I know those thoughts come from the enemy.  I have just gotta keep workin! 

Well that’s about it for this week . . . a little bit of a rough week but it is what it is.

Here is a cool website that you all might like to see from the mission :) mmtijuana.org/spa. It’s for the families of the missionaries here in the mission. Mom thought you might like to see that! :) 

Once again glad to hear the Utes won!! I’ll definitely be rockin’ my red ties this week to celebrate ;)

Hope you all have a good week and take care!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Roper

P.S. I complete 10 months this week.  Where is time going??? 

43 Lessons This Week!

Hey, how are you all? Sorry this email is coming in a little bit late . . . we had to clean the house in the morning and then we got invited to go eat breakfast with a family here and then we went to play soccer with the rest of the zone. For being a Pday, I’m pooped ha :)

Pretty solid week of work here this week. We always try to have at least 40 lessons a week between investigators, members, and less actives and we had 43 this week. We worked super hard and had two days with 10 lessons each day. That hadn’t happened before in my mission. So I was happy with our work this week :)

Elder Valdez and I get along really well. He goes home in December and is starting to "die" as we call it so I am just trying to keep working hard so he can finish his mission well.  We work really well together though and that’s all I can ask right?

We have possibly 2 dates for next Wednesday. If Eduardo gets his act together and gets married this upcoming week, he will be baptized next week.

We are teaching another man by the name of Jorge. He is about 55 years old. His wife and one of his daughters are less active, so we started teaching the whole family about a month ago. Jorge had an accident that left him a vegetable pretty much and he has battled his way back to talking, walking and even working. But because he can't hold a stable job now, his wife wants someone else :( makes me super sad because she is stealing his kids from his as well...he has been super sad but it’s amazing to see how the Gospel changes peoples lives and the front row seat we have as missionaries to see the Atonement take effect in peoples lives. It’s honestly one of my favorite parts of the mission . . .seeing how the Gospel changes people’s lives and the how the changes are seen in every aspect of their lives...even their faces :) that is our biggest focus this week so that Jorge can get baptized :)

Here comes the funny/awkward story of the week . . . I am sure this has happened to just about every missionary that has ever lived. We went to our appointment last Wednesday night with a single mom named Cynthia and her family . We hadn’t taught them yet and we had planned to teach them the Restoration this night. So we get there and Cynthia's sister was there as well. So we begin to chat with her and get to know her as well . . . . she was wearing a super baggy shirt so her bra was totally hanging out ha. She was laying on the couch with her legs spread open . . . super awkward I know. . . . that’s not the best of it . . . her baby comes running in and decides she is hungry. . . so she reaches in and goes for it. So this lady just started breast feeding her kid right their in front of us with out even covering up or anything . . . . I was dying laughing hahahah. Mom, remember the time that we went to the Veterans Day Concert at the U and the lady in the seat next to me started breast feeding her kid?  Man it must be my curse or somethin! hahaha thought you might get a laugh our of that this week :)

Still haven’t received the luggage, but Pres. Carreon is coming to town tomorrow with the zone conference so it should be here tomorrow. I am doing great though and don’t need nothin’ much right now :)

Dad in response to your question, the Spanish is coming along great.  I had to say a prayer last Tuesday in English and I couldn’t do it ha! Super Bad Spanglish!  I had a dream about two weeks ago that I was with all my friends again and they all started talking in Spanish and I asked them, "Wow, you all speak Spanish??" hahaha super funny.

Here is another pic from the blowhole last week and two of my meals this past week. 

 The one with all of the lettuce and cream are called flautas. 

And the other plate are enchiladas...that was by far the best food I have had in my mission.  Hopefully this gives you all a better idea why all of us gringos put on a couple pounds in the Mexico ;) 

 I hope you all have a great week and Go Utes!!! 

Love and miss you all :)

Elder Roper

Super Sorry, Super Late, Super Worried, Super Quick

Hey, super sorry this is coming in super late. We went to the blowhole yesterday and got back super late. We had an appointment as soon as we got back, so we weren’t able to write yesterday. So we are writing right now :) Sorry you were all probably super worried, but everything is A okay :) enjoy the pictures from the blowhole!!

It was a super quick week. I can’t believe I am writing again just like ya said Mom!

Our families that we are teaching are progressing right along. We found another cool family last night that are interested in the Gospel. We have visited with the children of the family and they quickly became our friends...ha so when we showed up last night they requested that we help them with their homework especially in English :) I don’t want to jinx this family so I’ll get you names and pictures later :)

I caught a cold this past week and man its kicked my butt. Being sick in the mission is the worst. Ha the sisters in the ward could tell I had a cold and gave me all sorts of remedies of teas and herbal stuff hahahah. I am doing a lot better though. The members take good care of us!

Mom, I thought you like to see this picture of the double rainbow. I saw this last Monday after we wrote - I couldn’t help but think of Granny J and how she is watching over all of us :)

President Carreon explained to us a couple of months ago that we as missionaries are safer than what we would be in our houses. He also explained that the majority of the cases where there are accidents with the missionaries is when they are doing something they shouldn’t be and in an area where they shouldn’t be. Granted accidents happen and I think that is the will of God, but we are 100 percent safe here in the mission :) When I got set apart, President Schulte said that I would be blessed with safety and health and be watched over.  

Mom that’s cool you got to experience a Quinceanera. We have been invited to many, but we can't go obviously ha. It’s a Catholic thing here, but just about everybody has them.

I’ll get you some pictures of the food we eat here daily. It took just an adjustment, but I love the food and tortillas at every meal. Last week a family gave us chicken, potatoes and toast and I didn’t know what to do without tortillas.

Sorry again this is short and it came late but everything is okay :)

I’m looking forward to the birthday packages!! If they don’t get here in time for my birthday, they will come in October in zone conference :) 

I love and miss you all and hope you are all doing well!

Have a good week!

Elder Roper