Dispute Not Because Ye See Not

Hey, how are you all? Dad I hope you had a very happy birthday and enjoyed your day! You’re getting’ old ;) hahahah!

It’s good to hear that the Utes did well this week along with the high school!

It has been a pretty slow week here. Nevertheless it flewwwww by! We had another baptism and some pretty sites as seen in the pics.

A boy by the name of Angel got baptized this week. I had the honor of baptizing him.  Call me crazy, but this guy is a mexican twin of Turkey. They look exactly alike, their mannerisms are the same and everything. It kind of blows my mind how alike they are. Its been good to teach and get to know his family. His siblings and grandma are members. We are working with his mom right now who has a date for March. She works on Sunday mornings but she is trying to get a new schedule so that she can come to church.

Not gonna lie we are still having trouble finding people who are READY for the gospel. I had 2 Zone Conferences this week. We are really focusing on being able to baptize every week. But to be able to baptize every week we have to be able to find those who are ready to hear us. In D & C 29:7 it says the chosen are those who listen and don’t harden their hearts towards the message. So this week we found new people but very few who are ready to listen to us and accept the message. In like 4 different occasions this week, we ended up bible bashing because the investigators weren’t ready to listen to us. First off, they didn’t listen to us and then hardened their hearts. I left the appointments without the Spirit and super frustrated. Some people just don’t wanna listen and that’s that! I asked Pres. Carreon what I could about it and he just told me to bear my testimony, let go of my pride and leave. Its been hard, but it’s a waste of time to argue the bible and the Spirit leaves us quick. That’s been the story of my week.

I have been really trying to focus on my faith. I am loving Ether 12 this week, especially verse 6 that says dispute not because ye see not. Love it! And verse 12 is great as well.

We just had another sweet investigator send us a message saying she is too busy and not ready to listen to us. Ha so its been a big test of my faith this week but I know God will pull through in the end so my faith can grow and so I can see His hand in the work. 

Well thats about it this week . . . sorry it’s so short! I hope you enjoy the pics.  The sunset was gorgeous Saturday afternoon! I love and miss you all!

Elder Roper : )

One Year In Country!

Hey, how are you all?? Sorry I am getting to you late again.  We had appointments all Pday long today and we are barely getting around to write.  I hope the Lord sees our sacrifice ;)

Dad, glad to hear your talk went well. I am starting to get used to people telling me no.  At first it got me down, but now I realize that it’s just not their time to accept the gospel.  Everyone has their time. That’s why it’s our job to search and find the chosen and those who are ready to accept the gospel. It’s pretty obvious those who are ready and who the Lord still has to prepare a bit.

Today was a milestone week. Last Tuesday marks one year that I arrived here to Tijuana. My first day was spent in training from the Zone Leaders wondering what awaited me. We were in the chapel called Lago. Well last Tuesday, a year later, I returned back to the same chapel for another special training. The WHOLE mission was there. I caught up with Brig, Randy (I can’t say Elder Ivins or Elder Peisley for some reason), Elder Gunderson, and Elder Tall - my comps from the MTC. 

Elder Gunderson and Elder Roper

Elder Tall and Elder Roper

The WHOLE mission was there because the second counselor from the presiding bishopric, Bishop Davies came and talked to us. He was with Elder Valenzuela, a 70 and counselor from the Area Presidency. Man these guys were powerful and they really carry the image of Christ in their being. Both have spoke in General Conference and both gave us really good messages. On how to teach better and what we need to focus more on. 

Bishop Davies

Elder Valenzuela

It was really good for me to look back on one year in TJ. Real fun today and it was good seeing all my former companions and catching up with them!

Its been a better week! We are up to 8 baptismal dates now and found new people to teach. We should have two baptisms this week.  We’ll just have to see how things turn out though. The other two Elders in the ward had a great week as well and have a few more dates. They should be baptizing two this week as well.  I am excited for them! They are very GREEN still, so I have my hands full telling them what to teach and how to teach it. I feel like a senior in high school again teaching the freshman and sophomores how to do things.  My mission is going wayyyyy too fast and I feel super old.  When we split the ward, I took the side that I didn’t know that well.  It was a rough first week but now that I know my area a bit better, we are having more success. My companion is doing better. I sent him in interchanges with other Elders this week and I told them to work him to death :) He has learned and progressed a lot this past week. The blessing that President Schulte gave me when he set me apart has been a big help for me - especially the part that says for me to have empathy for my comps.  Please tell him thank you! I am trying my best to be an example and help my companion out with his doubts about the gospel.  But dad, like you said, I never dreamed I would have to be teaching and converting my own companion. But hopefully I am the type of companion, that in the future, my comps can look back and say, “Wow Elder Roper really helped me out!”  The mission really has so much more to do with than just knowing the scriptures and preaching. It has a lot to do with your companions and the people you get to know and love.

Dad, our district meetings are Tuesdays from 11-1 in the morning. The first hour is talking about our weeks and the people we are teaching and the second hour is the training that I give and practices. It’s fun but sometimes can be boring. maybe we will start playing soccer when the Zone Leaders aren’t there ;) hahahah 

The weather here has been really warm this week, but today its been chilly. It changes every few days or hours just like home, but the for the most part it has been real nice. It hasn’t rained for about ten days or so.  It doesn’t rain a whole lot here in TJ - who knows why? 

Mom, we have zone conference this upcoming Friday so the next package will be for March - Easter right? I don’t need a whole lot:  Axe deodorant DRY please :) mouthwash and Spitz BBQ Seeds por favor :)

I hope you all had a nice Valentines Day!  It was a rough day for us as no one was home all day ha. The holidays being a missionary are rough because no one is ever home but like I always say . . .its all good! :)

Well, I love and miss you all!  Time is FLYING by. It scares me because I know my mission is winding down little by little.  I have progressed a lot but I still have a ways  to go :)

I love and miss you all! I hope all is well and I hope you all know you are in my thoughts and prayers. Moroni 8:3.

Dad, have a happy birthday on Sunday!  Wish I could be there! Have a great week!!

Elder Roper 

Learn To Love That Which Is Hard

Hey, how are you all?  I hope you had a great week.  Looks like the banquet was a lot of fun . . . baseball is right around the corner!! Enjoy it all for me!

This week has been a bit of a change . . . okay a huge change!  Dad, I’m with you – I’m not a fan of living 4 in one apartment!  We found a new house that is awesome and ginormous!  We wanted to move in today, but the owners of our apartment right now have been real busy and haven’t been able to help us get everything finished up. I hope can get out of there by Thursday or Friday this week. Not only has the house gotten smaller but the work as well. My last transfer with Elder Estrada was a dream transfer. Great companion, awesome area, and most of all 12 baptisms! It was very easy for us and we found a lot of people who were ready to hear the gospel and accept. We had a lot of amazing experiences and our faith was taken to the limit. I feel like the Lord was preparing me for this transfer.

We started out Tuesday morning with 9 baptismal dates and now we have 2 ha. We weren’t able to find anyone decent this week and all of our dates we had for March fell through just cuz people didn’t go the church Sunday or they don’t want to listen to us anymore.  It almost makes me laugh how rough this week was. Right now we have 2 investigators that will be getting baptized in two weeks and after that we don’t got nothing!  Needless to say, it’s been a big change! My area is half as what it was and we have less the work now. I ain’t complaining one bit though. I just gotta learn to love that which is hard. I learned that lesson working for Bart on the freeway. I came to love that job - I don’t know how, but I had to just make the best of what I had.

From last Monday until Saturday morning I was pretty down this week. I was like still stuck in the last transfer  wishing I still had a bunch of work and the rest of my area. | couldn’t feel the Spirit at all and the lessons we taught were terrible. But I dunno . . . when we started pouring cement Saturday morning with the ward mission leader, it brought back a lot of good memories of the B. Jackson Days! I remember one night talking with you, Mom and Dad and I was ready to quit . . . tears and everything ha...just cuz it was so hard. But I remember Dad asking me what I was going to do when things got hard in the mission...quit??  I just had to man up and deal with things on the freeway and learn to love that which is hard. And that’s just what I am having to do right now :) I will be forever grateful to Uncle Bart for giving me that job . . . it has effected my life on an eternal scale!

My new companion's name is Elder Gonzalez from Acapulco. He is going on six months in the mish. 

I hope you all have a happy Valentine’s Day this week!! It’s celebrated down here just like it is at home. 

Dad, I had to take a bit of money out this week.  We are paying off the damage from our old house over the years.  Don’t worry though, it will be reimbursed by the mission.

As for the Book of Mormon – I’m reading it. It has a different taste because it is a copy of the first one - just to keep my testimony strong :)

I hope you all have a great week! I love and miss you all!

Elder Roper :)

New Companion

Hey, how are you all?? Super sorry I didn’t write yesterday - I didn’t get home from the offices until 7 and I had 3 new elders with me all with under 6 months - yikes!! First things first - my new companion is Elder Gonzalez from Acapulco, Mexico.  He has 4 or 5 months in his mission. Sorry Mom, I don’t have a new pic yet. I am sad to see Elder Estrada go.  We got along well and we worked great together but all good things must come to an end.  He started his mission here and spent 6 months here as well. So now there are 4 Elders here in my ward. Now I have half an area and half the work. It will be tough but I know the Lord will help us. The other 2 are also living in our tiny house until we find them their own house. So this week is dedicated to showing them their new sector-the members, investigators, less actives, and what not- and finding them their own house :) I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed my privacy - ha!

So we baptized 6 on Thursday night. I really hope you enjoy the pictures! The Ayala Family, and Juan and his son, Carlos. It was a great baptismal service. We baptized the same number of people in one day that I baptized in 6 months in Ensenada. It’s interesting for me to see how the work is different in various wards here in TJ. The baptism was scheduled to start at 7 but we didn’t get started until about 8:15. We asked the Zone Leaders to fill the font up in the morning but they spaced everything. So when we got there the font was completely empty….yikes! We had to fill it with COLD water.  It was pretty frustrating and we had to force them in the font to get baptized, but hey they got baptized and all were confirmed on Sunday morning in Sacrament Meeting :)

We don’t have another date until the 20th and I really have to focus on finding people now that we have half the work and half the sector. It’s all good though :)

We climbed another mountain on Saturday afternoon with a convert that was baptized on Thursday. . . enjoy the pics, especially of the rainbow :)

Mom that’s nuts I’m down to 298 days. I feel super old in the mission now. At the transfer meeting yesterday I hardly knew anyone because there were so many new missionaries. I have no clue where the time has gone...it makes me laugh because with the other 3 elders that are with me right now – it’s just like “monkey see monkey do”. When I brushed my teeth, they brushed their teeth etc . . . It makes me laugh!

Well, that’s about it for this week.  I’ll get your questions answered next Monday.

I love and miss you all!

Take care :)

Elder Roper