July 28, 2013


Hello, Everyone!
     I'm still doing well, and the Missionary Training Center is treating me well. The food is good and my Spanish is coming along slowly but surely. My companion and I have taught three lessons to pretend investigators of the church in Spanish, so we're coming along. Everyone is really nice here and I wish I could tell you a bunch of exciting stories, but we're mainly studying and just hanging out or eating while we're not studying so there isn't really much to say. Hopefully I'll have some cooler stories when I actually get to Argentina (assuming my visa comes in on time). But it's been really cool here, and I've learned a lot and met a lot of cool people. My companion and I barely have anything in common, but we get along and he's nice so it's all good. The rest of my roomates are awesome as well and everyone in our district and zone (who are people that we have class with and go to church with and eat with) are super nice and funny. So it's been a good experience.

     We've been learning a lot about not just teaching people lessons but actually teaching people. For anyone who doesn't know, there are five main lessons of valuable information that we teach people about our church; for those who want to know about it but rather than just going through and teaching those lessons word for word and straight through we try to get to know the person we're teaching and teach to their needs and tell them about how our message and about how God can help them with practically anything. So we get to know them, learn about some of the challenges they go through and teach them based on what they need to hear. So it's not just teaching about our religion the whole time and saying, "We want to convert you, come be baptized!!!!" but rather how prayer and going to church and other common spiritual things can help them in their everyday lives. Because those things can help. So that's just a small portion of what we do and what we've been trying to perfect; it's that sort of teaching style.

     But I hope everyone who is reading this is doing well! I hope to hear from you! My address should be in an earlier blog post, and the rules have actually changed so that I am allowed to email my friends and family. So if your not a letter writer and you would like to communicate with me, I would love to hear from you and I love getting mail! So you can actually email me at broberts@myldsmail.net and I'll be able to respond every Friday.
 Gracias! Hasta Luego!
-Ben

July 19, 2013

Hello everyone!

I'm alive and doing well! I got here about 1:30 on Wednesday and took a really quick walk around and picked up all my Spanish books and stuff to carry to my classroom where I met my "district" or small group of people that I have class with and go to church with and stuff like that. My teacher is really cool and my companion is a really nice guy, Elder Whiting. I share a room with 5 other guys who are all really friendly and fun to be around. I have to admit that I am pretty tired and that we've done so much and gotten tons of information and schedules thrown at us so far that it feels like I've been here for three weeks instead of three days. But it's nice here and the people are super friendly and food is excellent and there's a lot of it so I may or may not gain some weight before I head to Argentina.  It's pretty intense here, and everything is super structured and planned out for us with not a lot of time to spare. 

Today is my P-day or preparation day so I have some time to email and do laundry and stuff like that, but I do have to learn as much Spanish as I can in six weeks. So I have a lot of work to do, but my teacher is really helpful and everyone in my class is cool, so it should be fun. 

Anyway, if you guys would like to write to me really easily, you can go to DearElder.com and I'm not exactly sure how to work it but i think it should be relatively easy to figure out. I think the only information you'll need is my name is Elder Benjamin Williams Roberts, my departure date is August 27th and my Unit number/ Mailbox number is 167. 

(This is Benjamin's Dad:  Some more instructions for writing to Elder Roberts:

• Since he can only check email on Fridays, you might want to use DearElder.com as he mentioned above.    It is a free service and your messages get printed out everyday and delivered to his mailbox.  They do accept donations though.
• Go to www.dearelder.com
• Click on "Open a new account" (upper left corner); fill in the required information and click "continue."
• On the next screen, click "Provo MTC" under account options.  He will be in Provo until the end of August.  
• You can continue to use the pouch option of DearElder when he is in Argentina, but his mission (Argentina Posadas) is not yet listed as it was newly created.
• A pop-up will ask how many more weeks he will be at the MTC (He is scheduled to leave at the end of August).
• The next screen asks you to make a donation if you would like.
• Once you get past that, you can go up to the top of the next screen and click "Write a letter."  Select a mission (for now, Provo MTC).
• Enter his information as indicated above in his message. (Name, Unit 167, departure date August 27, etc.)

Hopefully you won't have any problems using the service.  You can also write to him using snail mail:  

Elder Benjamin Williams Roberts

Provo Missionary Training Center

August 27th ARG-POS

2005 N 900 E Unit 167

Provo, UT 84604

(Continued from Elder Roberts' message)

So I would love to hear from you guys if you do go on the website (DearElder.com) all you have to do is type up a message and send it online and they'll print it out here and put it in my mailbox. And if you write to me send me your address as well so I can write back too. I have limited time to write, but I'll try my best. I miss you guys and hope to hear from you!

Sincerely, Elder Roberts

Goodbye!

Hello everyone!
So I'm leaving today! My flight is at 4:05 and I'll be heading out to Provo, Utah to a missionary training center to learn the basics of missionary work in my church and also to begin to learn Spanish for about six weeks. In case anyone doesn't know exactly what I'll be doing when I actually get down to Argentina and Paraguay I'll tell you. So I'll be living in an apartment (hopefully) or possibly a garage or the basement of someones home, it really depends, with a companion who is usually about my age, and a missionary just like me. We wake up, work out for about 30 minutes, eat and get ready for our day. After studying what we're going to teach that day we go out from about 10:00am to 9:00pm with a lunch and dinner break in between and teach people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm probably not going to do a lot of door to door knocking but rather talking to people on the street, getting referrals from members of our church for their friends and family that are interested and also going and talking to people that haven't attended church in a while and trying to make them feel welcome and re-activate them. I'll be able to update this once a week on Mondays when I have time to email and write letters to you guys. Anyways, I'll talk to you guys later! Enjoy your summers!

Also, I'll try to write to everyone that gave me their address but I can't promise anything. My address in the training center is

Elder Benjamin Williams Roberts
Aug 27th ARG-POS
2009N 900E Unit 167
Provo UT 84602

And my temporary address starting August 27th for when I'm in Argentina, until I can tell you guys my actual one is

Elder Benjamin Williams Roberts
Argentina Posadas Mission
128 Montvale Ave.
Woburn, MA 01801
United States

Intro

This blog will serve as an update for friends and family who would like to read about my experiences in Argentina and Paraguay. My mom will receive emailed blog posts from me and will copy and paste them onto here for everyone to see. I'll try my best to write letters to everyone that writes to me but as you know my time is limited. Thanks! Seeya in 2015!