This Week I Complete 14 Months!

Hey, how are you all? This has probably been the fastest week of my entire mission. But I say that every week that I sit down to write again. There are sometimes that I wish I could put a hold a time ha. It’s going by quick. It’s been a blur this last transfer here in Las Villas. This week I complete 14 months.

We were supposed to baptize a family of 4 this past Sunday, but the dad had to work so we are going to baptize them this Thursday :) There are another 3 possible dates this Thursday. So if everything goes well we should baptize 7 this week and finish the transfer with 13 baptisms.  We have been on fire!! The area has really exploded these past 6 weeks. We have had so much success that they are sending 2 more elders here to the ward. President Carreon said on Sunday during a stake training that soon every ward here in the entire mission will have 4 or more missionaries. Ha that blows my mind! The Lord really is hastening his work. I am not sure how I feel now that there will be 4 of us here. The area is small as it is and it will be even smaller now. But it’s all good I guess.  We will keep working :) It’s fear or it faith - right?

That’s cool you were all able to get together with Randy and Brig's parents. We actually had a get together as well at zone conference.

BTW I got your package and thanks very much. The Reese's are already gone :)

But yeah Randy is in my zone and Brigham's zone was there as well.  It was good to catch up with them even if it was just for a bit. I would love to be their companions someday! I saw Elder Sandberg and he is doing well too!

So dad you asked if I am very time conscious. I do my best to get to appointments on time and to church on time and to the district meetings and what not. I do my best to let the investigators know if I am going to be late and what not. But I do my best to not stress out about time. There are a bunch of missionaries here that get way stressed about time and they end up going crazy. Ha another missionary told me yesterday at a training that I am one of the most happy, relaxed elders he knew. I took that as a big compliment because I enjoy the heck out of everyday and do what I can to invite others to come unto to Christ. Sometimes that results in baptisms, sometimes not. D & C 123:17 explains this thought a lil bit better :)

Dad we always try to find people that need help service wise...carrying groceries and all that jazz because its a good way to find people to teach. Usually once a month or so we have an organized service project helping out the members or investigators. I dunno – I’m just trying to enjoy my mission to the maximum and do all that I can everyday to fulfill my purpose :)

Well, that’s about it for this week...changes are this Saturday, so if you don’t hear from me next Monday,  that’s why...mom thanks for the pictures :) I miss basketball a bunch!! I love and miss you all :)

Elder Roper

Eating tacos with my District

God WILL Answer Your Prayers

Hey how are you all?? This week was absolutely LEGIT. We ended up baptizing 2 this week due to a miracle that occurred last Monday night.  Seriously one of the coolest experiences of my life! We have been teaching another dad and son that accepted dates in two weeks as well. The Lord has seriously opened the windows of heaven on top of us. We are finding new people to teach just about everyday and a lot of older investigators are beginning to progress towards a baptism. I feel like all the work that I have put in as a missionary in a year so far -I am finally beginning to see the results . . . BAPTISMS :) 

Alright so you are all going to be blown away by this story. Cynthia is the young woman in the pictures. We met her my first day here in this area. She was a referral from the Stake President. They work together and there are various members that work with Cynthia. So the first day we taught her we made it very clear that she needed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it so she could know that our message was true. She accepted and said the prayer after the first appointment. In that prayer she asked the Lord to open her heart to this message and the Spirit was seriously so strong. We left that appointment very excited and we thought that for sure she was going to get baptized.  Later that week we went to her house where we found out Cynthia's mom and grandma are members. Super less active and the last time they went to church was like 40 years ago. But needless to say the seed was there planted. 

So the teaching continued on as usual. We checked up on her often to see how her prayers were coming and if she had received an answer. She always told us that she hadn’t received anything and couldn’t seem to recognize the Spirit no matter how hard we tried to explain it to her. The lessons turned into more or less a big Q and A. So I had to set things straight and tell her that if she wasn’t going to read the BoM sincerely we couldn’t do anything for her. That’s why I went off on a BoM shpeeeel 2 or 3 weeks ago in my email. There wasn’t much progress and last week we were considering about dropping her for some time. So last Monday we went with our ward mission leader to finish the teaching and tell her that we couldn’t help her anymore. So we finish teaching the law of chastity and we begin to ask her questions about her prayers. All the sudden Cynthia tells us she had a dream. And in that dream she says she was about to do something real bad.  She never clarified what she was about to do but the point is that she was about to do something bad ha. So she is telling us all this and she starts laughing. She said she wasn’t going to tell us the rest of the dream because it embarrassed her. At this point we knew we had to hear the rest of this dream so we could know what had happened. After 30 seconds or so she finally tells us what happened. She told us that right as she was about to do whatever she was going to do that 2 angels came down from to heaven to stop her . . . but the angels were Elder Estrada and I :) Ha my jaw just about dropped . . . I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She got her answer :) And in a very clear way too. The Spirit was seriously so strong as if Christ were sitting with us in that very room.  To make a long story short, she told us she was ready to be baptized and wanted to be baptized yesterday so her family could attend.  I don’t remember feeling the Spirit stronger in my whole mission. I am not even going to mention the baptismal service - man it was powerful! The best one I have been to in my life!! This experience has been so rewarding and my faith has been strengthened SOOOOOOOO much. My testimony of the BofM and prayer has never been stronger that it is today. It felt so good the rest of the week when we taught about the BofM and how we can know if it’s true or not and have the assurance that God WILL answer our prayers. I feel powerful!

So that’s the story of my week. The other girl that got baptized is named Britzeda. She was baptized on Saturday afternoon and Cynthia on Sunday afternoon. Britzeda's family was inactive when she was 8 and her family is getting active again. Britzeda is 9 now so her baptism counts as a convert baptism for us :) Gotta love free baptisms!

What else has happened?? We spoke in Sacrament yesterday. I gave my talk from my farewell and it was a hit ;) The weather here has gotten hot. It’s been like 80 degrees for the past week. But they say in February it gets cold again so who knows?? The weather here is crazy just like it is back home. I’m looking forward to your package! Thanks for sending it...ha I got a bunch of Christmas cards this past week that were sent a month ago. The mail is super slow here! 

Well that’s about it for this week :) I have a grown a bunch.  I was reading in my journal - my entries from when I very first got here to TJ . . . man I was a different person ha! TIME IS FLYING BY!!

I love and miss you all! Go Utes and Go Broncos!!

Elder Roper :)

I'm In A Missionary Groove

Hey, how are you all this week? Glad to hear everyone is back into the groove of things.

Mom, I am glad you got my letter in time - perfect timing that it got to you right on your birthday!!

I must really be in the missionary groove because I feel like everyday is the same-ha wake up, study. work, teach and meet new people to teach. It's awesome though . . . time is FLYING by.

The ward I am in right now is awesome . . . we don’t hardly do anything but all the members present us to their friends and families that aren’t members. We had Stake Conference this past week and the WHOLE conference was on member missionary work. Sometimes the members see the missionaries as a support for the ward and they have to help the members but its the other way around . . . the members are the support for the missionaries and the members are supposed to help the missionaries. It can be a lot of work but their is certainly a lot more of success and new people to teach!

We didn’t have baptisms this week but the next day is for this upcoming Saturday. We have dates every week from here to the third week in February. So if everything goes as planned, we should be baptizing every week :) It’s a good feeling to finally have a little bit more success than what I have had in the rest of my mission. What you sow, is what you reap.

Glad to hear there were 2 more baptisms back home . . . everyone looks so happy :) I don’t remember a single convert baptism before my mission back home so that’s good there have been a few more!

I am feeling a lot better from last week. I woke up Tuesday again sick with a stinkin’ cold that was kicking my butt. But I am doing 100 percent better now. 

My next zone conference is the 24th so if you send the package this week it should get here in time. I don’t have any more requests but thank you! I got another Christmas package from Nancy (Jennay's mom) with some Christmas goodies . . . if you see her please tell her thanks :) 

Mom thank you for the updates on mission calls back home . . . it’s always good to hear where people go on their missions.

I saw Randy this week during interviews and during the stake conference. He is doing well . . . still a greenie though :) hahaha He is in the ward that is called Florido. I haven’t seen Brigham since he got here but he is in the ward that is called Pinos in the Insurgentes Stake.

Oh and Dad yes we all know that President Carreon is out of here in July. It will be a rough transition between mission presidents.  Does it say where the new mission president is from??

Mom, the picture with my face on Mr. Incredible is pretty funny :) It makes me laugh! We actually piled in a mini van this past week with more members. I was forced to sit in one of the booster sits and I barely fit . . . Elder Cornejo has pictures so I’ll forward them when I get them . . . too funny :) 

Well that’s about it for this week . . . sorry it’s so short. Here are some pics of my sector and the picture with the big black line . . . ha that’s the border of the USA. There are always helicopters checking to see who is trying to cross right there ha. Living on the border is wild for sure!

Well, I love and miss you all!

Elder Roper

I'm Really Loving My Mission!

Hey, how are you all?? I hope you had a Happy New Year and enjoyed the festivities . . . I spent the whole day on the 31st sick in my bed:(  DON'T WORRY I’m up and going just fine now :) I’ll explain in just a little bit....

Mom, sorry to hear that you got in a car wreck and I am glad to hear you are okay! Happy Birthday this week! :) . . . and what’s up with a new car?? Man, I’ll sure miss the Sequoia :( that thing was a lot of fun to get around in . . . oh well!  Sounds like you got a good deal out of it all though :) and dad don’t worry about the new ride being small . . . I’m already used to it after getting around in all the mexibeater cars here :) I sure do miss driving . . . it’s weird to think that I got around driving before . . . now I just walk everywhere.  The mission life is interesting :)

So we baptized 4 on Thursday :) It was a good start to the year. A sister that goes by Nati and her 3 sons named, Aldrin, Erivan, and Isacc. All are sweet and are super ready for the Gospel. 

Elder Estrada had been teaching them since he got here to the mission (he got here in August I think). I was just lucky enough to be one of the Elders that finished off the teaching and was able to baptize them. A couple of other Elders that had taught this sister and her kids came back to baptize them. That’s why I’m not in all white clothes :) It was a cool experience though!  I always love to see the investigators in the white baptismal clothing ready to make covenants with our Father in Heaven. Their smiles afterwards are always priceless as well.

We have another family of 4 that will be getting baptized on the 30th and 2 others that will possibly get baptized later on in January.  It’s going well for Elder Estrada and I though :)

So in my blessing when President Schulte set me apart . . . it tells me that I would be able to declare the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon to the people here in Tijuana.  That is honestly been one of the biggest themes of my mission up to this point.  We had two appointments this past week where the investigators asked a TON of questions that had to do with really deep doctrine.  We taught the Plan of Salvation to one of them and she began to ask us about the Millenium, the spirit world, and all that jazz - really deep doctrine that we never teach in details. Needless to say the lesson just turned into a Q and A and we lost focus completely.  This investigator hadn’t completed her Book of Mormon reading that we had left her before.  She really isn’t praying and doing anything to get an answer from God. Instead she is searching answers that come from man (Google, Facebook, etc)  I have come to learn that we can search on Google, ask our neighbors or even the missionaries questions about the Gospel and we will ALWAYS receive answers to our questions from man.  I know God has ONE answer for everyone and that is that the Book of Mormon is the most true book on the planet and if one person knows that, they will know that the rest of what we teach is true. Basically if a person doesn’t understand or have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, they will never understand anything else in the church because they don’t know that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  So with these two people, in the middle of the lessons I kinda got after them for not reading the Book of Mormon and praying because they were just searching answers from men and not from God. I bore my testimony super strong about the Book of Mormon and how if you know the Book of Mormon is true, you know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and everything else that follows is true. Ha the room went silent afterwards . . . but it’s true! I hope this all makes sense with my Spanglish :) To sum it all up, the Book of Mormon is true and if anyone back home doesn’t know that, they need to read it so they can know it’s true and that this church is the ONLY true church on the planet :)

So last Saturday we went and ate breakfast at a well known taco stand right by our house. Everything was fine until Sunday morning . . . I woke up with a terrible fever, dizziness, and all the symptoms that bothered me when I got sick back home.  Needless to say I manned up and went to church.  The members there gave me pills and I felt great Sunday afternoon and all day Monday morning.  But when I woke up Tuesday morning, hell had hit me, but this time with stomach pain.  So I called the president's wife and she told me to go to the doctor. So Bro. Sol (the member in the picture below) took me to his family doctor and the doc told me that I had a bad stomach infection and that action needed to be taken right away. So I bought my meds and hit the hay. The tacos raised hell in my stomach - probably the last time for a while that I’ll being eating street tacos.  So I spent all New Year’s Eve in my bed chatting with the member that stayed with me while Elder Estrada was out working. All of the traditions are the same as Christmas though - food, family, friends, music and fireworks. But I missed it all . . . sad day! But mom, PLEASE DON'T WORRY :) I’m perfectly fine now :)

I’m really loving my mission at this point. Being district leader is legit!  I love being able to help the other two companionships and seeing their progress. There will be 4 more baptisms in the district and it’s really going well for us. Faith goes a long ways afterall :)

Well, I love and miss you all! The weather down here is gorgeous - 75 and breezy everyday!

That’s cool Hayden got to go to the Utes game and meet some of the players . . . send my shoutout!

Have a great week!!

Elder Roper :)