MTC Week 5

At the MTC world map...almost
ready to go  south of the equator.

With one of my instructors, Elder Christensen

With Branch President Tyler, the man who
knows everything about everything

An army of missionaries leaving a
devotional at the MTC in Provo, UT

Hello, Everyone!! 

So we were told we we would be reassigned somewhere in the states because we didn't have visas, but just yesterday we received travel plans to fly to Asuncion, Paraguay!!!! All of the people going to my mission received travelers' visas which are temporary, 90-day visas. So I'm flying on Tuesday at either 12:00 or 12:30 (can't remember) to Dallas and then to Miami and then arriving in Paraguay at 6:45 Wednesday morning.  And then from there I'm not really sure...  I'm assuming I'll have a longggg bus ride, but I honestly have no idea. Hopefully there will be someone there waiting, and I'm sure there will be. The church is super organized in keeping their 75,000 missionaries safe and in the right place. Anyway I'm suppppppper excited now because I didn't think I would get to go so soon, but now I am!  So today and tomorrow I'll be packing and such and getting ready to leave! My next update will be from somewhere in southern Paraguay or northern Argentina!! Sorry this one is short, but I don't have too much time today. I'll post my address for my mission soonish, and I believe the DearElder.com website can be used to send letters to me in the Argentina/Paraguay. I'll try to update everyone with more information. Hope everyone is doing well!! Good luck with school starting and such!

Elder Ben Roberts

Week 4 at the MTC

Hey, Everyone! 

     I can't believe I've been out for a little over a month; it seems really short but really long at the same time. But i feel like my Espanol is really coming along, but I'm sure that will change once I talk to a native speaker and they speak 1000x faster than me. So my visa paper work came in and......... I don't have it! I got a letter saying that I'm most likely being re-assigned somewhere in the USA for a little while until I get it. Soooo...cross your fingers for me that it will come soon. I'll find out where I'm actually going next Friday. So I'll have to be a little patient. But other than that everything is going super well!! One of the apostles in our church, Richard G. Scott, came and spoke to us for a devotional which was awesome. It was just a different, stronger spirit in the room when he walked in. It was pretty cool. But I wish I had more to write, but I've been doing the same exact thing for the past 4 weeks: Learning Spanish... learning how to teach people... learning more Spanish. But it's a lot of fun. All the people in my group are really fun to hang out with in our limited down time. I hope everyone is doing well, and good luck with school starting, if school is starting for you soon! 

Best wishes,

Elder Ben Roberts


Map of the Argentina Posadas Mission

August 10, 2013

In our room...Elders Roberts,  McFarland
(left for Spain),  Thayn and Averett (going
to Posadas with me)

Hello everyone!

     I wish had some super exciting news like I picked up a pet monkey from the jungle in Argentina or that I was even in Argentina or Paraguay....but I'm still in good old Utah! Still doing well! Still learning Spanish and studying everyday! It's a lot of fun. Getting up at every morning at 6:30 even though breakfast isn't till 7:00 is tough... but it's all good! Still no word on my visa, and I won't find out for about another week and half or two weeks as to whether or not I'm going to have my visa or if I'll be reassigned somehwere in the US for a little while until it comes. So I'm crossing my fingers, but if I don't get it, that's totally fine because I'm sure God knows that He'll need me somehwere here for a little while. Then whenever I'm finished with that, I'll head down. So I really think it's up to Him. But we shall see! 

     My roomates and district and zone, who are the people I'm around the most, are all cool and nice and my branch president, who's like my temporary bishop, is amazing. He seriously knows everything there is to know about everything, and it's super inspiring. I think he has the Bible memorized, and he is just super knowledgable! So I'm learning a lot from him, and my two Spanish teachers that I have nearly every day are really cool too and really know what they're talking about.

     The group in our zone that had been here before we arrived left to Honduras which was pretty sad, but nine new people came into our group and they're all really nice! It's pretty cool to see about 800-900 kids (missionaries) leave every Monday/Tuesday and then close to 800-900 come in every Wednesday. It's cool to see so many people doing the same thing for the same reason, to help people! So it's awesome. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well, and if you're getting ready to go back to school/work, good luck! And best wishes with whatever else is going on in your life!  I'm not desperate for mail/letters or anything, but I would love to hear from everyone and what's going on in your life! Anyway, I'll talk to you all next week!  

Elder Roberts

With Elder Hancock...he's a tremendous
soccer player, and I will probably see
him at BYU in 2015.

In our classroom with Hermanas
Brown (already left for Spain) and
Reyes (waiting for visa for Spain)

August 2, 2013

The District:  Elders Roberts, Whiting, Epperson, Avarett, Thayn and Drury.  Sisters Craven, Brudnicki, Gunter, Wilde and Christensen.

Decorating the new elders' room

Elders Drury and Roberts at the Provo, UT Temple.

Elders Roberts and Epperson...learning Spanish?

Hello everyone! Not much is changing around here. I'm starting to get into the groove of things, which is nice and makes our three hour spanish classes twice a day go a little faster. I'm doing well though and having fun and learning a lot! My visa has not arrived and I'm hearing a lot of things about Argentina having a tough time getting visas quickly so I may be reassigned temporarily somewhere in the United States to teach for about six weeks after my six-week training. So I'll just have to see. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well! A typical day for me here is waking up at 6:30, showering, getting ready, going to breakfast and then usually having some time study Spanish/scriptures/whatever else we need. There's a really cool languge program on the computer that we use called TALL that we have for an hour a day; it really helps with the Spanish grammar. We have an hour of gym time where we play volleyball or soccer or basketball and then there are  two three-hour classes where we learn how to effectively teach people and learn Spanish.  And lunch and dinner of course. And the food is always good. I don't think I've been disappointed at all with any of the meals. Anyway, my Spanish is coming along kind of. My companion and I are teaching 20-30 minute lessons to pretend people that are investigating our church...all in Spanish, which is really cool. So hopefully in 4 more weeks I'll be ready to go! Anyway, hope you're all doing well and having a great summer! 

Elder Roberts