Week 55 - 6 weeks in Perry

Monday- We had to get our truck fixed in Ankeny which took a ton of time. Then we headed to Madrid for dinner with the Pearsons. After dinner we had a lesson with Oscar.

Tuesday- Nothing too exciting, we walked a lot to save miles.  

Wednesday- P-day.

Thursday- Transfers!! We had to go pick up another set of elders that are now serving here in the Perry branch. The are awesome Elders. Elder Dumais and Petersen.  We are now in a car share with them and walk every other week.

Friday- Had district meeting, and then had to do weekly planning.

Saturday-We had a great day we ran around like crazy getting things done.

Sunday- Testimony meeting was amazing here in Perry!! And after church we had a couple good lessons.

Love 

Elder Roberts

Week 54 - Hectic!

I don't have a ton of time since we have a ton to do today and today really isn't our P-day, but I will write you a letter this week and update you on everything.

Today is very hectic and we really only have 30 minutes to email.

Monday- P-day/ taught J about the Word of Wisdom

Tuesday- Set two baptismal dates with M and B two people we have just started to teach

Wednesday- We taught J about the Law of Chastity

Thursday- We had district meeting taught JK how to pray in ASL

Friday- Weekly planning/ O passed his baptismal interview

Saturday- Nothing too exciting

Sunday- Had church, taught M and B (O's cousin).  B told us he wants to be a member of the church too!!

Pretty good week I just don't have the time to go into details, have to teach the gospel.

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 53 - A great week

Here in Perry we had a pretty great week, we met with the people we have been teaching, and served those who needed it!

Monday We had a normal P-day and taught J about the Book of Mormon and how to study it.

Tuesday- We had Zone conference in Des Moines for most of the day, and I learned a ton about teaching simply.

Wednesday- We saw a man whose name I will not release, but we have been teaching him,  get arrested!!! It was an interesting.... experience.  Then we taught J again, and to wrap the night up we taught O the amazing principle of living the Law of Chastity! 

Thursday- Nothing too spectacular. 

Friday- We woke up to our sewage being backed up and whenever the person above us would flush, it would go into our bathtub. Then we had some great lessons in the afternoon and evening.  

Saturday- We taught J again. After that we had an amazing experience where we were truly led to two people, S and A. They have both talked with missionaries many times, in Guatemala and Mexico, but said that there lives just got busy and they lost contact with the church. We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel and invited them to be baptized and they both said yes!! Tonight we are going to teach again and ask 

them to prepare to be baptize on August 30th.

Sunday- Nothing out of the ordinary.

Love
Elder Roberts

P.S.  Mom thanks for the camel, I named her Shaniqua.  And I think we finally got rid of the bed bugs.

Week 52 - Baling hay (and one year down)!

This week was different for me and Elder Johnson here in Perry. Not everything went as planned and a lot of things fell through, but we are definitely excited for this upcoming week! So here are some of the things that went on this week:

Monday- Had P-day in Ankeny, spent all of our P-day time helping a member there get their house ready to be put on the market. Then @6 we headed back to Perry and watched J play softball for a little bit. We have been teaching her for 2 weeks now and we are excited to see her be baptized in a couple of weeks.

Tuesday- We spent the whole day cleaning our apartment and making it spotless. Then we sprayed poison all over it to kill the bed bugs.

Wednesday- All of our appointments fell through other than our appointment with O. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom and he thinks it makes sense and is going to live it.

Thursday- We had district meeting here in Perry. We taught John about the Plan of Salvation, and then we went to the Ellis home to help Bro Ellis bale his hay before the storm rolled in.

Friday- We planned out next week, checked up on Sister D who we have been teaching, but she is in the hospital again. Then we had dinner with the Ellis family and had a blast.

Saturday- After all of our work to clean and spray poison everywhere it didn't matter because Elder Johnson still found 2 bed bugs in his bed....Then we had lunch with Jaime and tried to contact a lot of people with Jaime. Then we taught O about tithing and fasting, which he also understood. Finally to wrap up the night we had dinner with Jaime

Sunday- We had branch council. O came to church!! And we had some great lessons after church.

Love

Elder Roberts

Week 51 - Perrydise, week 2

Elder Johnson and I had another amazing week here in Perrydise!!! Some of the people we are teaching were out of town so it was a little slower, but we still had a fantastic week. 

Monday- We had P-day and then visited a woman we are teaching right now. When we went there you could tell she was distraught. She was speaking super fast Spanish and we could tell something happened. She proceeded to take us down to her basement where a layer of water sat up to our ankles. We looked at each other and had no clue what to do. It smelled HORRIBLE! The whole day it had been storming pretty good and we had received some flash flood and tornado warnings on our phone. But anyway her sub pump had busted and her whole basement was flooded, and what made it even better it that she would let her dog use the restroom down there!!!! We helped her shop vac her basement and help where we could but it was a pretty crazy situation.

Tuesday- We invited J, a young woman we are teaching, to be baptized on August 9th! And she said she is excited.

Wednesday- Nothing too special that I can remember.

Thursday- We had a church tour with J and showed her the baptismal font which made her even more eager to be baptized. The spirit was super powerful in the lesson. This was my One Year mark until I go home. 

Friday- The 4th of July, our cars were grounded at 6pm so we didn't see fireworks or anything. We just taught people during the afternoon.

Saturday- We taught Jes who is from LA , and so we talked about LA a little bit and then taught him about the Plan of Salvation.

Sunday- Church was great!! The testimonies given were very powerful and J was there for all three hours!

It was another super great week, and we are truly seeing miracles and being blessed!

Love
Elder Roberts

Zone Training Meeting in Ames, IA:

Week 50 - MANY miracles and Bed Bugs...

This week has been so full of teaching opportunities and spiritual experiences!! This week we have been truly blessed and realize that missionary work is truly the Lord's work and not ours. All we can do is give it our all, and when we do that, miracles occur! 

   

   Monday- We went to go shopping and e-mail and bam!!! Our car was dead. Really dead... A guy in our apartment complex helped us jump it. But it still wouldn't start. Luckily one of the Hispanic men in the complex we live in that we are cool with noticed that the Americans just didn't know how to jump a car. So Ulysses hooked the cables back up and gunned his engine! Elder Johnson and I were cracking up. Turns out he knew what he was doing, because our car started. Then we had to drive to 45 minutes Ankeny to make sure our battery wasn't ruined. 

  

  Tuesday- We did service at the Library here and helped summer school kids color. Then we visited Sister W who is an elderly woman in our branch, we just check up on her once a week and make sure she is doing alright. After that we had an amazing lesson with John K, he is from Africa and doesn't know any specific language. He is deaf and mute. But Elder Johnson and I have been teaching him ASL. So really we are having to be tri-lingual. Elder Johnson luckily knows ASL so he has been teaching me a little and i pick it up pretty fast in lessons. John was just baptized here in March! After our lesson with John we had a great lesson with a Sister D. The sister missionaries that used to be here talked with her a few times. But Elder Johnson and I have really focused on teaching OUR message. We taught her about how God is our Loving Heavenly Father, and it was a very powerful lesson. To wrap the night up we went out to Yale to help build a wheelchair ramp for Sister G at her home. 

   Wednesday-We had a great lesson with R we focused a lot on the priesthood and baptism. We have taught him twice and set a date and goal for him to be baptized on August 8th. After that we went to the rec center to help with translating for people here who don't speak English. Then we had another great lesson with O, he is a 16! We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he said that we have answers that no one else has. We invited him to be baptized on August 2nd. He came to church this Sunday and is really excited for his baptism. In the prayers he offers he thanks Heavenly Father for the things he has learned and for being able to be baptized. We then had dinner with Jaime and talked with him about missionary work.

   Thursday- We had district meeting in Ankeny. I gave a training on Teaching when we Find, and Finding when we Teach! After district meeting we headed over to A's house. He hasn't attended church in a while, but went to youth conference and loved it! While talking with him we let him know that we were teaching O. He was so shocked and happy. We invited him to come teach him with us for our next appointment. After that we had an amazing powerful lesson with JC and explained to him our purpose and went over the Word of Wisdom. 

   Friday- We had another lesson with O! We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The best part of the lesson was definitely A sharing his testimony with him. It was so powerful! The rest of the day was mostly filled with trying people and weekly planning.

   Saturday- Jaime had appointments set up for us to go to with him. While working with him we invited M and B to baptism, we had a great lesson with them. They came to church on Sunday also!!!! Then we had another good lesson with Sister D, but we had to talk with her in the hospital since she had fallen. After that we had another great lesson with John. Then at around 8pm we had a lesson with J. Her mom is a member but no one else in her family is, and while growing up her mom never went to church. So we started from the beginning and taught about the Restoration of the gospel and invited her to be baptized, when she comes to know it is true as well!

   Sunday- We had four people who are interested in the church come!!! And we just had an all around great day.
 

I am loving the people and work here in Perry

Love
Elder Roberts

p.s. Elder Johnson kept waking up with more and more bug bites each night till we found out that we have bed bugs. This week every morning at 3 am we wake up and search for them. There have been none in my bed but so far we have found 4 in Elder Johnson's bed. But we are getting rid of them tomorrow with a machine the mission has.

Week 49 - Transferred!

So I got transferred... What a surprise!!! It was very unreal only being in Muscatine for 2 transfers and then leaving but that is ok, because I love my new area just as much! Elder Steele and Elder Akaka are still serving in Muscatine. It is so crazy what has happened in the past few days, so much is going on, and when you get transferred they expect you to hit the ground running full speed. I am not all the way unpacked yet, because we have just been having to go to appointments.

Monday- got the transfer call at 10pm that I would be getting transferred on Thursday.

Tuesday- Elder Steele, Elder Akaka, visited the people we had been teaching knowing it would be the last day of work as a trio in Muscatine.

Wednesday- Packed and prepared to move on to my next area.

Thursday- Headed to Iowa City where I found out that I would be serving with Elder Johnson in Perry Iowa!!! What is really cool about our companion ship is that we both were in the Mexico MTC together at the same time and flew to Iowa together, so there is no senior or junior companion. We both know how to do the work, and both expect to see huge success here through working hard, following the spirit, and truly loving the people.

Our padre here in Perry is Jaime!! My first night here he made us a delicious meal, and since then has fed us multiple times. He also comes out to lessons with us, and everyone here in Perry knows him and loves him. He is amazing.

Friday- Started work here in Perry meeting the people we are teaching. We also have to work with the English speaking people here. This transfer they had to close the sisters area that used to be in Perry. So Elder Johnson and I get to teach all the people they were teaching, too.

Saturday- We had great lessons, and worked, worked, worked!

Sunday- Had church in the Perry branch, and had the opportunity to pass the Sacrament and introduce myself in Sacrament meeting.

Today---- We woke up. Studied.  Our car was dead. We got it jumped, then had to drive 45 minutes away to the big city called Ankeny to make sure our battery was still good. Then we stayed there and had P-day there with the 3 sets of Elders and 1 set of Sisters that serve there.

I am sorry if this email does not make since my mind is scattered and constantly going hopefully in a couple weeks it will slow down!

Love

Elder Roberts

Baseball in Muscatine:

Empty drawers:

All packed and ready to go:

Saying goodbye to Elder A and Elder S:

Family in Muscatine:

Elder J:

Jaime feeding us an amazing dinner: