Week 91: Ciudad del Este, Paraguay

 This week was pretty great. I left the office Wednesday and i think i taught everything to Elder Johnson he needed to know... I hope haha. But yeah, so i came Wednesday night.  Our pension is actually pretty nice, no leaking windows and I haven't seen a cockroach yet, just we don't have hot water right now but it's cool. Our area is really cool as well, apparently it's the most dangerous area in the mission, it's right on the Brazilian border where a lot of people smuggle drugs and other stuff across at night, so we stay away from that part.  But I haven't seen anything crazy yet. But it's really cool, Elder Thomas and i get along really well and are having fun together, and the zone is pretty cool.  Elder Litchfield is in my zone again, he was the one I talked to before the mission.  I was his zone leader before, then he was my zone leader, and now I'm his zone leader again haha.. But yeah, there haven't been any problems yet, everything is going well. 

I did divsiones with one of the newer missionaries Friday which went well, he is really good; he is Elder Reyes from Chile.  We went to one of his investigators houses and there was a big storm coming and she was trying to cut her tree down.  She couldn't, so we helped her cut her tree down and she was telling us how grateful she was and that she didn't know what she would have done if we wouldn't have gone by.  So that was fun, hopefully she can get to know the church a little bit more.   Service is always a good way of getting to know people better. 

We have some cool investigators though, there is this lady named Lurdes who is reading the Book of Mormon and she really liked Mosiah 18:8-10.

8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

 9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

 10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

She told us that she felt like verse 10 was talking to her and she made the decision to be baptized next month, so we are working with her.  Also, some less active people came to church which was cool, as well as three other investigators that we are working with.  Well two of them are new, so we are going to visit them this week. But the work seems to be going pretty well.  The branch has about 50-60 people usually, but 70 came yesterday. Last night there was a huge rainstorm and we got kinda wet and there was tons and tons of mud, but it's kind of nice being a regular missionary and walking around in the rain at night where its really dark getting rejected haha. I feel like a missionary now rather than being in the truck in the office. 

There are some good members though, we have lunch almost every day with them and there are a few kids getting ready to go on misisons that are willing to help out with missionary work. Being back in Paraguay is cool though, it's fun, and different so i can't complain.  My first area is pretty close by, it's in our zone and this week we have the conference with the Seventy, so we are trying to organize the food and stuff for that and do divisiones and plan an activity, so we are pretty busy which is good. I don't feel like I'm going to finish my mission soon, so hopefully i can keep going with that same mindset.  This weekend is stake conference, so hopefully I'll get to see some people that I met before. 

Thanks for writing and for the update, have a great week!!!

Elder Roberts

Week 90: Posadas, Argentina

Hello everyone... IM GOING TO PARAGUAY... TO CIUDAD DEL ESTE RAMA 6! I´m pretty excited, I´ll be with Elder Thomas and we are zone leaders together, so it should be busy but super fun. There are a lot of good missionaries in our zone, so i think it'll be a lot of fun. Anyway, I´ll be writing next monday!! 

Thanks!!

Week 89: Posadas, Argentina

Yeah............. my flight information came in....... pretty weird. My last pday in the office and the last transfer is coming up. I think I'll know soon where i am going, which is one of the advantages of the office haha, finding out early the transfers to be able to plan for everything. I´m hoping i get to go to Paraguay. 

This week was pretty good though, kinda crazy on Monday because all the zone leaders and sister training leaders came in and we have to account for the money they have to do divisions which is about a 10 hour project.  I actually didn't have my passport because it got too full and we sent it to Buenos Aires to get more pages added, so Elder Johnson crossed over and did everything in Paraguay, I think it was an interesting experience for him because he had never done it before.  I guess that is the best way to learn. Now it's time to go over everything and make sure he´s got it done before i head out. There are 15 missionaries leaving this change and 17 coming, so it should be a busy next week, I probably won´t be able to write.  I'll probably let you know where I'm going, but that's about it.  I'll have a regular pday next next Monday.

Yesterday there was no power in the office, so elder Worthington and I went and did divisions all day and it was actually pretty nice to get out all day and work. The night before was the Iguazu trip and we had finished cleaning up from the leadership council and everything at about 11:00.  At 11:30 i got out of the shower and realized we hadn't given anyone the money to travel or get in to the park in Iguazu.  So we went back to the office and ended up getting home at 2:30am.  So yesterday we were working all day and i may have fallen asleep during a lesson haha, but things went really well. We talked to one of our investigators who accepted the invitation to get baptized and there is a partial member family that we are working with as well who are really  cool.  Also, a few other investigators are doing well, so things are not going to badly. I think i learned it's important to work hard even if you are leaving.  President always tells us we aren't here to work for ourselves or to try to gain recognition, but to help God´s work. Even if we are leaving an area or have been there a long time and we don't see that there will be a baptism or something while we are still there, it doesn't matter because the only thing that matters is that we are working hard and trying to help the work continue. It was something that was tough for me earlier in the mission, but I've definitely learned the importance of that principle. 

Today, Brother Pereya, the taxi guy, had all 9 of us plus 2 other elders here over for lunch haha 11 of us because it's our last week.  Elder Magdaleno, Choez and I are all leaving the office.   The lunch was really nice. It´ll be weird leaving an area and ward that i have been in for so long, but i think change is good. 

I´ll have to think about the classes and the schedule and stuff that you sent me, but it looks okay.  I'll let you know, I'll see if i can get some time to look at the byu website. 

Thanks for everything and have a great weekend!!

Love, Elder Roberts

Week 88:Posadas, Argentina

My week was pretttty great. There isn´t too much that is new, just trying to get everything cleaned up and stuff Elder Johnson's head with all the financial knowledge he will need. I made a manual on the computer and tried to explain everything, but i feel like everyday i keep adding stuff because i always forget.. 

But that is so cool Ethan got his call to Washington State!!! But i missed him by two weeks... but that is pretty cool, and really soon-in about a month! But good for him. Is anyone else from the ward planning on going this year? 

That sounds pretty scary about the riots in Baltimore though. 

This is my second to last pday here in the office.  This weekend we have Mothers Day, then the zone leader conference Monday andTuesday, and all the people going home this month are heading to Iguazu Falls on Wednesday, then next weekend we are planning for transfers, and next Sunday is the Cordoba temple dedication. There aren't any church meetings in all of Argentina next Sunday, and the broadcast is going to be in all the stake centers.  Only people with temple recommends can attend. It should be pretty cool. Here in Posadas it's still not the closest temple, the people here still go to the Asuncion temple, but it is still exciting that there are now two temples in Argentina. 

After our drought of not finding very many people to teach we have found a lot of new ones. This week we were contacting and we found this less active guy that i had met right when i got here, but then never saw him again. He had super long hair and used to use drugs i think, but he told us he wanted to change, wanted to cut his hair and buy himself some clothes and go to church.  So the very next day we took the clippers and some clothes that a member had given away, and i cut his hair and we gave him a gray button up shirt and some jeans.  He was super excited and he showed up to the baptism that night and started talking to all the young single adults there and really enjoyed it.  He is pretty cool. 

Saturday night to Sunday morning at 11:00 there was a torrential downpour in all of the mission, in every single area, and the church attendance was pretty shaken.  There were three places where only the missionaries showed up to church, and a lot of places with less than 20. I think we had about 50, i think half of what we usually have, but the rain really drove people away. 

We also found a partial member family and a really,really cool family who let us in and we talked to them and showed them some videos on lds.org.  They said they would start reading the Book of Mormon.  We have found some really cool people just as i am getting ready to leave, but it's still nice to have met them and started helping them to learn more about the church. 

The classes for BYU we can talk about on sunday. 

Thanks for the letter and have a great weekend!!!

See you sunday!!

Elder Roberts

Week 87: Posadas, Argentina

Holllla.

This week has gone by pretty fast. Elder Johnson is doing really well learning everything, so far so good. He reminds me of me when i was in his spot haha but he is cool. With two of us we have been able to get out to work more, so that has been fun. This week has been really chill though, nothing crazy going on and we have been able to focus a lot of learning the responsibilities and the financial things. 

The conference with Elder Oaks was pretty cool though. It was interesting. I was expecting him to talk about missionary work and to get out and work hard and do a bunch of stuff to help the church grow, but it was more about the sabbath day and also about receiving revelation. Obviously it was tied into to missionary work, but it was a little different than what i was expecting. He said that they as the apostles and the prophet had prayed about what they needed to do, or what we could do as people to resist all the bad things happening in the world and the answer they got was keep the sabbath day holy. Interesting. I figured i was keeping the sabbath pretty holy, but i guess there are always better ways we could. It made me think a little. 

Anyway, i am excited to leave the office in two weeks and spend the last 6 weeks in the field. I would love to go to Paraguay, but we shall see. 

We had our activity for the ward on Saturday, i think it's the third one we have done and it didn't really go as well as the other ones haha. It was fun, but it could have been better. 

What was good about this week was that we found some pretty cool people. We kinda got lost last night, but ended up running into some people from Uruguay who were really cool. We were talking to them and gave them a pass a long card and then they said... so you people are Mormons right... there is that one book that that one guy from New York wrote when he had the dream about the Indian and the Indian led him to a hill where he found the book... haha it was funny, but after we explained to him the Book of Mormon and the concept of it, they were super interested and his wife said, "Oh man, I've always wanted to read that book! Can we have one…?" that was the first time anyone ever said that too me.... But it was pretty cool, unfortunately they don't live in our area, but hopefully they can progress. We also found some other cool people contacting and we´ve actually gotten a few references that we haven't been able to find, but we are still looking. Things are starting to pick up a little which is good. 

We´ve also been teaching the youth Sunday school class because there isn't a teacher and its been pretty fun to get to know the youth.  Also, we started inviting a few more to come back and the youth have been doing well, and there has been a big change. There are also new presidents of the Young Men and Woman, but we went from having about 3 or 4 in the class to 13 last Sunday. And 8 of them went with us and the seminary teacher to go visit some of the people that weren't coming to seminary or church and that went really well. 

Tomorrow is holiday here, the day of the worker... so no one has work haha, but the tradition is to make something called locro. Its like a big corn soup they cook in huge pot with corn, vegetables and meat, and they like to use weird meat like cow intestines and pig feet.... so I'm hoping they let us serve ourselves so we can avoid the weird stuff. They are making at the church tomorrow as a ward. 

Anyway, i keep doing and saying really weird stuff at night while I'm sleeping. The other night i was sleeping on the bottom bunk, the top bunk is supported by about 6 skinny wooden boards, and i think i had a dream that the top bunk was falling on me.  So while i was sleeping I kicked up really hard, probably trying to stop the bed that was supposedly falling on me, and i broke one of the boards and almost kicked my companion off the top bunk.  So we decided it was best i sleep on the floor because if i sleep on the top bunk I might fall off, as I've fallen off 3 times in my mission. 

Anyway, the time keeps going by pretty fast, i cant believe tomorrow is May. In Argentina the April showers bring may flowers thing doesn't really exist-it's more like April showers bring more may showers... and June showers. So I'm getting my raincoat and Underarmour out for these last two months. Thanks!!!

Have a great week!!!!

Love, elder Roberts

Week 86: Posadas, Argentina

Are you watching TED talks? I watched a few the summer before i left, i thought some of them were really interesting. I´m not sure if the spirit gives you the desire to learn, i think so, because i really like learning about random stuff now and i want to read books.... it's kind of weird, haha but maybe i just have a different mindset now. I think i like learning more than i did before. I talked to President a little about school in my interview and that was good, and then to Hermana LaPierre about what some of her kids and children in law do. President told me that i should find someone that studied economics or computer science and talk to them and see what they have to say on it. I feel like the more i think about it the harder it gets to decide. President also told me to try to take a little bit of everything my first semester so that i can really see what i like and maybe try to pick up on something. I´m not really even sure what classes are available, but that is good that the sign ups aren't until June. 

This week has gone pretty well. It's been kind of crazy because there was like a mini transfer with a few people having to go home early, two new secretaries coming in to be trained, and two problems with some legal work, so there are quite a few missionaries that have to be moved around starting tonight because tomorrow we have the the opportunity to listen to Elder Oaks!!! He is going to be in Resistencia, which is the next closest mission, and we are going to watch it live on a screen as it is broad casted from Resistencia. So i am pretty excited about that. Tomorrow should be a good day, but after that all the missionaries are moving around, so we are busy helping president organize all that. 

We did get to go out and teach this week and we did another activity with the young single adults where we left with them and visited some less actives. It went really well, like 13 young single adults showed up, so we split up into two big groups and went and visited some people and it went really well, hopefully we can keep doing it and helping them. We also found a lady that had left her church and she said she had been praying to try to see what she should do and we were the first people to show up at her door, so that was also a really cool experience. We haven't been able to visit her again, but we will be going today or tomorrow. Also, last night we taught a really cool family, we were kind of talking in the doorway of their little wooden house for 10 minutes and they finally decided to let us in and we taught the parents and their seven kids and it went really well and they were really interested. Unfortunately they are moving to the sisters area tomorrow, but hopefully we can see them in church sometime. 

Pday was really cool today as well, we went to the biggest hill/mountain here in the province of Misiones where there is a big cross that they built as a tourist attraction. It was really cool, kind of reminded me of High 

Rock, the view, but it was cool to see. The European immigrants really had a strong influence in Catholicism and seemed to plant the Catholic church really strongly here in Argentina. There is also a butterfly room, so it was fun  to go and see that. Then we came back and Hermana LaPierre taught us how to make apple pie and we ate it.... and it was really good. 

Anyway my new companion comes tonight at about 9:00.  His name is Elder Johnson and he is from Idaho.  He is pretty new in the mission, i think he has about 5 or 6 months, but he is really cool. I´ve talked to him a few times and he is a solid, nice, smart kid, so i am excited to be with him. I'll be here till the change, May 19th, and then i'll get to spend my last transfer somewhere in the field... hopefully Paraguay!! But anyway, i hope everyone is doing well. Have a great week!!!

Week 85: Posadas, Argentina

This week has been pretty busy as well. We had the zone leader/sister training leader conference, then cleaning up from everything, and also helping President plan interviews with everyone and talking about who is going to replace me… haha.  My new companion hasn't come yet. I´m thinking he may come next week. I hope so, because I'm kind of excited to start doing something new, training him.  And i think the time here in the office will go by faster. I can't believe April is already halfway over, but i guess that is the mission and life. 

Our Bishop is really cool here in our ward.  We stopped by last night and talked to him about some of the stuff we were doing in our area and a lot of the members that were on the list and that had moved or passed away. We are going to help him clean up the member list a little. He is really nice though, and supportive. I think he is just genuinely nice and ready to help, he kind of reminds me of dad. 

Anyway, i believe i only have 5 weeks left here in the office, I have to send my passport to Buenos Aires to get more pages added to it because mine is too full from crossing the border too many times to take out money and do other stuff. 

It is kind of scary to think that i need to start studying so that i can get a job that i could do for the rest of my life. But President Monson said that our future is as bright as our faith... so i guess i just gotta have faith that everything will work out

It was cool in the council meeting we had on Tuesday with President, he talked a little bit about an example of an airplane, kinda sounds like Uctdorf, though President was an airplane engineer. But he was talking about how there was a plane that had crashed and it was because on the motor, the metal hadn't gone under some kind of chemical inspection.  There was a tiny little air bubble.  But as time passed, the pressure made the air bubble bigger and bigger and after a few years the plane crashed on one of its flights and killed over 100 people. It really goes to show that the small simple things are sometimes the most important. President LaPierre is pretty cool, he is just really wise and can pretty much teach you anything at anytime in anyplace. The kind of guy that always has something to say that just sticks with you. The other day he was talking about being prepared and being on time and that in his career those two things helped him a lot, Sometimes he would get little projects to do and he would be busy so he would say, "In 10 days i'll have it done. And he would finish his stuff and kind of take his time and by the 10th day he would have it ready and sent, and the person would always been happy because he would always have it done by when he said he would. Anyway, there are a lot of little things like that that I've learned here that i think will help me a lot afterwards in school and working. 

Our area is going pretty well though, the members are helping, and the young single adults are really working as well.  They have a lot of activities and cool stuff going on and are trying to reactivate a lot of people. There are three young adults preparing for missions, and actually today there is a kid from Tacuari that is leaving on his mission that was reactivated not too long ago. When i was there the other elders were working with him a lot and helped him start coming back to church; now he´s headed off to Columbia. It's fun to see progression even though there isn't a whole ton of it, everything i think is growing little by little. We also went and sang at a retirement home last week which was nice, doing service is always a nice change, and something that is usually fun to do. 

Anyway, thanks for the update and i hope everyone has a great week!!

Love, Elder Roberts