What We Sow, Is What We Reap

Hey how are you all??

Crazy to think that I am already writing again...where does the time go?  

It’s a rainy cold day today but we are loving it. Reminds me a lot of home this time of year. If it keeps raining this week it will be a fun week of work in the mud :) I like to think that God will bless us more if we just get out there in the rain and get workin!

Oh and crazy to think that today I complete 11 months. Almost half way there . . . I have no clue where the time has gone.

It was a pretty normal week of work this week. Still tryin’ to get the members to get excited and give us references.  Elder Tall explained to me that the Bishop and the ward council didn’t really know how to work together, so I gave him a training on how to work a couple weeks back and he loved it. I am really excited to see how this ward changes.  I hope I can have a calling when I get home that has to deal with missionary work within the ward council. We are receiving a ton of training on how to work with the ward council that I think the ward back home could really benefit from! A Seventy is coming to give us a zone training this Wednesday between the missionaries and members. I am looking forward to what he has to say and the training he will give us on how to work with the members.

We re-activated 2 less active families this week and both families have members that aren’t members. Fransisco is progressing as well and all things are a GO for the 12th of November :)

Alright, so we had 2 more birthday parties this week for Elder Tall and I.  Like I said, the families treat us really well down here in Tijuana :) 

So with the cake it’s tradition here for the birthday person to take a big birthday bite from their cake thus explaining the pictures.  

So when it was Elder Tall’s turn to take his bite, I slammed his face into it hahahaha. He had frosting clear up his nose . . . it was too funny!! I’ll try and get you the video!

I loved the pictures from Halloween and the Pumpkin Party back home!! Definitely missed that party this year! Halloween is celebrated the same here as it is back home but I am sure we will be in our houses at six to keep us safe :)

Mom, Day of the Dead is celebrated as well. I don’t remember the day, but it’s a lot like Memorial Day as you said. Everyone goes to the cemeteries to leave flowers and what not. Everyone is Catholic here, so the missionaries usually go to teach the Plan of Salvation ha. Too bad there isn’t a cemetery in my area!!

We still aren’t seeing a whole lot of success here in the ward, but we are improving little by little. I am very grateful that the Lord lets us see fruits of our work even if it isn’t seen by baptisms. We gave easily more than 10 blessings of health or comfort this week and like I said, we are activating less active families as well.

I really love Alma 26:27-31. Helps me see that through patience and trials the Lord gives success. Sometimes we don’t see the fruits as baptisms but we will ALWAYS see the fruit of our work. What we sow, is what we reap :)

I am so grateful for this Gospel and the comfort it brings to families. It answers all my questions and it’s amazing to see how the Gospel changes people’s lives. Where would we be without it?

I love and miss you all! Have a great Halloween and enjoy the chilly fall weather!!

Much love

Elder Roper :)

Week of Miracles!

Hey how are you all? This week was a fantastic week and we had a lot of improvement!! Lots of cool stories, too so here goes nothin :)

We got home last Monday afternoon after writing and washing our clothes and what not. Elder Cornejo went to take a nap and I wasn’t tired so I just layed down and relaxed. I was thinking about all that I had been through and seen and heard in my mission and was comparing my stories with other stories from other missionaries.  I was thinking that it would be super cool to teach someone the Word of Wisdom, ask them if they had problems with the WoW, and then take away their stuff and throw it in the trash. Ha pretty random thought I know. But we left normally to work after Pday and we just went around visiting less actives in the colony where we live. We visited a family named the Peregrina Family and began to visit with them. To make a long story short, their son of 16 years old had began to smoke and his life had begun to head downhill. He told us that he wanted to quit smoking and get back to church. So I asked him if he had cigarettes and asked if I could take them with us and throw them away.  So he gave them to us and we threw them away when we got home. Ha went back Saturday night to see if he had really quit smoking and he hadn’t smoked a single cigarette. Ha I was stoked and super grateful to know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. We are still working with this family to get the kids active and the parents married and active but we’ll see what happens :)

Elder Cornejo found a man by the name of Francisco before I arrived here to the ward. The man moved here from Sinaloa and claimed he was a member. He had an accident a while back and hasn’t been able to find work or anything. He is living with his brother right now and trying to get back into the Church and what not. So we looked up his membership and turns out the Church doesn’t have any of his records or anything so he will be getting baptized again the 12th of November :) We are only able to visit him once a week so by the time we see him from Sunday to Thursday, he is really struggling and upset. But he told us this week that every time we come to visit him, we have what he needs to hear and feels the Spirit really strongly :) Ha it was good for Elder Cornejo and I to hear that because we had wondered, for lack of success, if we were doing something wrong and didn’t have the Spirit with us. Needless to say hearing that really helped us this week and gave us a good boost :) We were able to set 3 other baptismal dates this week and all are for sure going to get baptized in November :)

From the pictures you can also we made tamales this week with the members :) super fun and they turned out really good!

Solid week this week and I am super grateful the Lord was able to help us set baptismal dates and find people to teach!!

To answer a few of Keaton's  questions:

Yes, they celebrate Halloween in Mexico :) The traditions are the same here in Tijuana because they are so close to the U.S. but they kids have a trunk or treat in the chapel the night of Halloween. Chistmas is the same as well! We actually already have our dinner appointments set with families here for Christmas Eve and Day :)

Keep working on your Spanish so we can talk when I get home!! :)

I love and miss you all :)

Take care!

Elder Roper 

A member opened up a Pizzeria this week and invited us to come and try it out.

Our apartment . . . I don't think anyone had cleaned the house before I got there so we are still tryin' to get it spic and span, but it's a battle . . . it's not much but it works for what we need :)

If You Want To Make The Missionaries Happy . . .

Hey how are you all?

Decent week this week. Elder Cornejo and I enjoyed it. Not a whole lot of success but we are finding a little bit more people to teach and we are really focusing in on gaining the members confidence so they can give us referrals. If you want to make the missionaries happy, GIVE THEM REFERRALS :)  

I am getting a bit more adjusted everyday to the new area and doing my best to stay positive and happy even though we don’t have a whole lot of work right now. It’s been cool though to share ideas with Elder Tall and catch up with him. He is ready to get out of ward as he has been here 6 months now but he is still doing well and working hard. 

Because we don’t have a whole lot of people to teach right now, we are focusing in on less actives and strengthening the active members. We made two visits this past week to a family that got baptized 7 months ago in the south and are still progressing along in the gospel. We read with them a little bit of Alma 32 just to get to know them and be able to work with them. Turns out the mom had been offered a job but the job was on a Sunday and she wouldn’t be able to come to church. So we talked about how if we put the Lord first in our lives he will bless us and especially if we pay our tithing the Lord will make up for what we don’t have.  

So we walk into Church Sunday and it was fast Sunday. Everyone started going up front and when she went up front to bear her testimony she mentioned how two angels and passed by her house and shared exactly what she needed to hear and how if we wouldn’t have passed by she probably would have been working that Sunday. It made Elder Cornejo and I sure feel good and it was good to see some of the fruits of our work this past week.  I know for sure that the Lord has our back and knows our trials and struggles. He will always bless us as long as put our part :)

Well I know this is super short this week, but that’s about all I got ha. Glad to hear the Utes won and the RedSox came back to win...definitely missing the October sports action but I know this is where I need to be right now in my life.  

I hope you are doing well!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Roper

Here is a picture of the rain that pounded us this week. All the members said that it hadn’t even begun to rain and just to wait about 6 weeks more...ha it should be fun! 

We had a little party with the Cordova Family to celebrate my birthday 

and Elder Coutino's birthday this past week.

These are stairs that people make here in Mexico to climb the hills.

It's Impossible To Fail When You Do Your Best and When You Are On The Lord's Errand!

Hey, how are you all? Hope you had a great week! Mine was a bit rough but I'll get into details in just a bit :)

Let me get you some details about where I am at and the ward. The ward is called Ojo de Agua. It’s about an hour east of Tijuana and in between Tecate and Tijuana . Dad you can find it on Google maps if you search la Universidad de Tecnologica de Tijuana. We live right by there.  It’s definitely been a BIG change for me to say the least this week from Ensenada. I felt like I was homesick for Ensenada this week ha. Super hard to leave the members and missionary work just when it was getting good there. But I know the Lord needs me here.

There are 4 of us here in the ward. This is the cool part . . . Elder Tall and his trainee and myself and my trainee. Elder Tall is the district leader here and it’s kinda cool that we are working the same ward and training together. I didn’t get a picture of us so I’ll try and get one this week for ya Mom :) They divided the ward in two areas about 7 weeks ago and Elder Cornejo started there without a single investigator or nothing. Elder Tall didn’t leave us anything to work with when he left to the other part of the ward!  We still don’t have a whole lot to work with right now and it’s super discouraging and frustrating but it’s all good. We were averaging 37 - 42 lessons a week in Ensenada and this week we only had 18 ha. We don’t have any baptismal dates and with this new rule that investigators have to go 5 times to church to be baptized it will be hard to baptize this month. And the way things are looking we probably wont baptize til the middle of November or December. But I have faith and I know that if we work hard and help the members realize that they should be sharing the Gospel with everyone we will have success.

I really loved a quote from conference that said something like if we ALL shared the gospel with at least one person, how many people would feel God's love and possibly accept the gospel? So that’s what we are going to focus on right now. I am trying super hard to maintain a positive attitude and stay upbeat. It’s been a test of faith this week and I’m sure that's how it'll be my stay here in Ojo de Agua.

So I loved all the talks in conference that talked about trials and struggles, especially the one from the Prophet. That really hit home for me this week. My mission has been pretty easy so far, so I should have expected it to get a little tougher. Needless to say I am counting my blessings trying to stay positive. But please keep us in your prayers so that we can find people to teach :) And Mom don’t think that I am down or sad or homesick or anything please :) it’s just been a wake up call for me like welcome to reality ha. 

It was weird day Friday. I didn’t even remember it was my birthday until Elder Tall called me in the morning wishing me Happy Birthday. The members treated me real well and we ate birthday cake just about everyday this week ha :) Elder Cornejo and I ate the little cakes that you sent us Friday night and they actually turned out super well so thanks for those!! I got a ton of birthday emails so thanks to you all who sent them :)

Conference was really, really good and I loved it. I really liked all the talks about missionary work and LOVED the talk from President Uchtdorf about reactivation. Definitely can’t wait to share the talks with the less actives and members here in Ojo de Agua :) I understood a lot more this time but by Sunday afternoon I was super tired and sick of Spanish, so it was hard to pay attention. Please send me the conference Ensign in ENGLISH asap :) We went out for pizza Saturday in between the Priesthood sessions and yesterday we ate dinner with members that invited us after :) they take real good care of us here in TJ :)

Hey can you tell Paula's friend that we are living in the Refugio? That is my sector. That would be awesome if we could go out to eat or something. I don’t recognize the pictures from Tijuana but that’s awesome they were able to build that many houses in such a short time!

The quote that that guy left on the blog is SWEET :) time really is flying by too FAST! In regards to conferences, I’m half way done with my mission. That and my year mark is coming up way tooo fast as well. Time sure slowed down this week, I know the work will pick back up again and the time as well. Please keep us in your prayers :) I know we aren’t have a lot of success right now but I loved this quote from conference,

“It is impossible to fail when you do your best when you are on the Lord’s errand.”   M. Russell Ballard" LOVE IT :)

Well, I hope you all have a good week! I love and miss you all :)

Elder Roper :)

P.S. Dad sorry to hear about the government shut down situation, but ALWAYS pay tithing and the Lord will work the rest out :)