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 :)
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