Week 102 - Last email, see you Friday!

13 I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee:

14 But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. 

Greet the friends by name.

(3 John 1:13-14)

Areas:  Mexico MTC - Osceola - Muscatine - Perry - Iowa City - Muscatine (#2) - Iowa City (#2) - Des Moines

Companions:  Marstaller, Blauer, Jackson, Miranda, Steele, Akaka, Johnson, Gregor, Jackson (#2) Peterson, Hunter, Porter, Broadbent, Marting, Edmunds, Peterson, Akaka (#2)

From this week's branch activity:

Week 101 - The best kind of week, busy & fun!

Today we have some awesome lessons lined up! After P-day we are having dinner with a member family and then we are teach JG! Elder Akaka and I met him a couple of weeks ago. He has completely changed his life and will be getting baptized this Saturday!!! After his confirmation on Sunday I will probably be checked out, but I am grateful that I have had the responsibility to help him into the waters of baptism. It has helped me a lot to stay focused.

Tomorrow I will be going on the departing temple trip in Nauvoo....

Wednesday we have exchanges planned.

Thursday will be a day full of meetings.

Friday we be spent planning and teaching.

Saturday Jose's baptism.

Sunday Jose's confirmation.

So this week will be very busy for us as well and FUN!!

I am feeling great!  I don't need anything in particular, just prayers throughout the week.

See you next week :)

Love

Elder Roberts

Week 100 - So many highlights this week!

This week has been a wonderful week!!

Some of the highlights...

-Helping Jose prepare for his baptism that is coming up!

-Participating in an inspirational zone conference (gave my departing testimony....)

-Helping Edwin quit smoking (so he can enter into the temple)

-Giving a blessing to a baby who was afflicted and whose mother was in distress

-Being surprised with a visit by an old companion and being able to talk about the good times we had serving together (Elder Gregor)

-Having the opportunity to be taught by Elder David S. Baxter; who presided at stake conference and being able to meet and talk with him

-I also had my departing interview with President Jensen on Sunday (due to the number of missionaries who are going home with me)

and last but not least...

-Being able to participate in Stake Coordination and to be able to learn hands on about leadership in the church.

Stake Coordination is a meeting in which leaders from the mission meet with the leaders from the stake they are serving in to discuss the Work of Salvation.

It is truly amazing to see the Lord use the men of the Priesthood as his instruments here on the earth!

I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is led by men chosen by God. 

 D&C 65:2

   2 The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth, and from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth.

In this life we must prepare to return to our Father in Heaven. To return to our Father we must....

  Moroni 10:32-33

     32    , come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

 33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

We must act in this life, it is essential! "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also"(James 2:26).

Thank you for all of the love and support

Love

Elder Roberts

Why I haven't lost weight this  transfer:

We came home on Thursday and this is the new ticket on our mail box

Morman Elders.... Really....

Week 99 - Big week

SO this week was great!

We had a couple "close calls" :)  Mom, they sure were "close" 

and that is as much as I should tell you now!

We have gained some amazing memories this past week.

And we saw COUNTLESS blessings!!

Right now we are working with a lot of people that Heavenly Father has prepared!
There were 10 non-members at church this Sunday in la rama quinta and we are helping
multiple people reach the baptismal dates that have been set with them.

Everything is great in Des Moines!

We are working hard!

and

my jaw continues to drop day to day

from the miracles Heavenly Father blesses us with.

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 98 - Lots of success, crazy month

June is going to be a crazy month but Elder Akaka and I are very excited!!

Elder Akaka and I are doing great we saw a lot of success this week and the area is on FIRE!

We are in the same apartment that I've been in for the last 2 transfers.  Elder A is the dream companion that missionaries want to finish their mission serving with!

And I am doing great right now as I have been able to stay focused on the work and helping Father in Heaven's children find the iron rod.

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 97 - No time to relax, I love it

So last Thursday the Des Moines 5th branch got 2 new missionaries! I am now serving with Elder Akaka, who I served with in Muscatine for 6 months the first time I served there! I am SO happy to be serving with him!! 

We have seen MANY miracles already and it has just been a few days!

From last Friday till this Friday we will have no time to breath or relax, I LOVE IT! I have said many times on my mission that we have been busy, but this is a new level. With the short time we have had to work/ proselyte in our own area this week, we have been richly blessed!!

This week so far:

On Monday we had a great day playing sports as a zone and getting to know one another! On Monday evening a member family called us and said Elders we are sitting with a family right now that want to learn about the gospel. We were just walking into another appointment but we told them that we would be there in an hour. We entered C and E's trailer and my heart just dropped. They are SO humble in all aspects. They have two grown children that live with them as well. As we testified to them of the Restoration they were so open, C said after we were done, "It is amazing how young you are and how much you know of God and how old we are and how we don't know anything." The member family testified of what the gospel has done for them in their lives and the blessings they have received from the gospel. C and E want the same blessings for their family.

We are excited to see them be baptized one day soon and to be sealed as a family for time and all eternity.

On Tuesday we had Mission Leadership council in Iowa City and got home at about 8:30, so with 30 minutes to work we went and taught J and G about the importance of the Book of Mormon and invited them to be baptized on July 18th! We are really excited for them as well. They are both extremely humble too.

The Lord will pour his blessings upon us if we are pure, worthy, and diligent!

Love,

Elder Roberts

With my new/old comp Elder Akaka:

Saying goodbye to Elder Ganoe:

DS Stake Leadership

With Yordan and Elder A

Transfer meeting on May 21:

Week 96 - Finishing up in Des Moines!!!

This week I feel many different emotions and feelings, but the one that I feel the strongest is an absolute excitement to do the Lord's work! Many missionaries might dread when they hit their one transfer left mark. They might want to pull a mission emergency break to slow things down or they might feel the time goes by really slow. I am excited to put my shoulder to the wheel and push as hard as a can until it is over!! I know the Lord has so much in store for me and my new companion!

My new companion!!! YES... Elder Petersen and I have served together for 2 transfers and have seen SO many miracles. This morning we got a call from President that he will be getting transferred and that I will be getting a new companion. We will be going to Iowa City on Thursday for transfer meeting.

This week the highlights were:

Monday: We met a woman whose name is G. She is a very humble woman. We taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel and she said a very sincere, and beautiful prayer at the end of the lesson.

Tuesday: Was a day full of teaching!! Those are always the best days :)

Wednesday: I almost got squashed while Elder Petersen and I where helping O (a Hispanic man) move his HUGE refrigerator! We also taught L for the first time. She is a single mom with 2 cute little girls!

Sunday: We taught C who is preparing to be baptized on June 6th. We helped her resolve some concerns she had and taught her about the Plan of Salvation and what a blessing it is to have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation in our lives.

We are so blessed as the Lord's servants to be serving in the 5th branch here in Des Moines. The members are so incredible and loving.

This week strive to see God's hand in your life!

He lives, He loves you, and wants the best for you

Love,

Elder Roberts

At the Sanabria's:

We got spotted at Panera by a member there on business and she sent this pic to my mom:

Easter Lake District:

Des Moines District:

Week 95 - Great to see the whole family

Sunday was great!! It was great to see the whole family! I am doing good, doing the best work in the world :)

I used my birthday money to buy something nice :) :)

I feel like what I write each week is super repetitive. People don't care what I write anyway, but I will try and do better next week.

Love Elder Roberts

Week 94 - Short & Sweet

We will call you Saturday evening for details for Mother's Day :)

This is me and my friend Yordan.  He is awesome!! He is a returned missionary who served in the California Anaheim mission and has such a powerful testimony of the gospel which has really helped us with teaching the families we are teaching! He knows Grandma and Grandpa Call.

From the Mission Leadership Council on April 14:

Week 93 - Des Moines East, The Beast!

Whelp this week was really interesting....

 

Monday- We taught a beautiful family (C, E, and M) with Y. We taught them about the Restoration and they loved it!

 

Tuesday- We did a lot of finding and found many new trailer parks!!! Some of which we probably won't go to when the sun goes down :)

 

Wednesday- We had interviews as a zone with President and Sister Jensen! It is always such a blessing to talk with them and feel the love they have for us! After interviews I was out for the day with the flu or food poisoning. I had not been sick like that before on my mission and would appreciate if it never happened again! We had appointments that still needed to be kept so Elder Petersen went on exchanges with Elder Guymon serving in  West Des Moines so we could still make them.

 

Thursday- Went on exchanges with Elder Cox in the Easter Lake ward and we had a great day working there.

 

Saturday- We met G who referred herself, because she has been going through a really hard time and saw an add for Mormon.org on Facebook and clicked on it!!! Super cool miracle! We have a lesson with her this upcoming week!

 

Sunday- We taught C and her family and they are excited to prepare themselves to be baptized on June 6th!! They are such a humble and open family who really want to strengthen their relationship with God and follow Christ's example. We love them! :)

 

Thanks for all of the love and support

 

-Elder Roberts

 

With President Jensen:

 

 
Sick:

 

Week 92 - Great start to another transfer!

This week was packed full of meetings, interesting lessons, and to wrap it up a HUGE miracle!

On Tuesday- We woke up at 5 am to head to Iowa City for MLC (missionary leadership council)! We were trained by President and Sister Jensen and the Assistants to the President. We received a lot of revelation on how we could help our zone be even more successful missionaries! We got back in Des Moines around 8pm.

Wednesday- We prepared trainings patterned after the trainings given at MLC that we would be giving to the missionaries in our zone on Thursday. We also had a great lesson with O. He has a great desire to be baptized and wants to come to church, but work is standing in the way right now. We are planning on fasting with him, because we know that if it is God's will, he will be able to get work off, come to church, and enter the waters of baptism.

Thursday- We had our ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) where we relayed the message from MLC. It was so much fun to have the whole zone together and to grow in our testimonies and devotion to the work together.

After ZTM we had a great lesson with A who is now a new investigator, and then we had a lesson with J and his primo.

Friday- We meet J while walking through a trailer park, and invited him to learn about the restored gospel. He accepted the invitation and we taught him and he is now a new investigator as well

Sunday- MIRACLE: As we walked into gospel principles which is the 1st hour of church we go to, in walked two beautiful Hispanic families!!! Elder Petersen and I smiled and looked at the Hermanas serving in our branch. The spirit for the next hour radiated throughout the room as member after member testified of truth. What a powerful 3 hours of church it was! These two families were simply invited by a family in la rama, and came. We then taught them in the Valencia's home later one that evening. The really loved the message and we are excited to continue to teach them!!

I am continually reminded that I am simply an instrument. This work is truly in the Lord's hands. He lives. He guides this work. He knows his children. I know this gospel blesses families as an essential unit in His plan for us.

Thank you for your prayers, love, and support.

-Elder Roberts

Week 91 - Only 2 transfers left, ahhhhhhhh

This week was definitely a different week than normal for us here in DSM!! This week we had lessons with many people whose eyes are blind and hearts are hard. We also had many of our investigators no longer want to meet with us. But...... the Lord's work must not slow down!!! So with this upcoming week we are super excited to find more people to teach. With the many meetings we have this week we are very aware we are going to have to rely on the Lord. We know he will bless us with miraculous miracles!!

Love

Elder Roberts


Elder Cleverley and I ;( he is now home

 My birthday gift from Sister Petersen

The West Des Moines district

Easter treats from Elder Petersen's family

Week 90 - Conference, Easter and Thinking of Zach

1. My birthday was great thank you so much for the money and the pictures.  I took pictures this week but forgot my camera. We just worked the whole day, nothing to special, except the Whitlows came and said hi.

2. Conference weekend, we watched conference at the stake center. On Sunday in between sessions we went to President and Sister Jensen's home and had a wonderful lunch! And after the second session we went to dinner at President and Sister Jesperson's home which was amazing as well! President Jesperson is the branch president here and they were really sad they were not able to meet you when you came here recently so they are looking forward to you next trip out here.

3. My favorite talk was Elder Brent H Nielson.

4. I am staying in Des Moines this transfer.

5.  I hope all the boys are doing alright and they know that Zach is in a better place.  Please post this for me:

Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the power of His Resurrection, all of God’s children will be raised unto life eternal. He gave us His Beloved Son as our Savior to make that possible. The Savior in Gethsemane and on Golgotha paid the price of our sins so that we could be cleansed. That purifying can come to those who have faith in Jesus Christ.

The darkness of death is dispelled by the light of revealed truth. “I am the resurrection, and the life,” spoke the Master. “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25).

The assurance of life beyond the grave provides the peace promised by the Savior when He said to His disciples: 

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

Thomas S. Monson
Henry B. Eyring
Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 89 - 20???

Well it's going to be really weird being 20 years old on Wednesday. I remember when I started my mission and I was like wow I am going to finish my mission when I am 20 and thinking it was so far away and now POOF.

So I don't have time to e-mail you too much this week! Which is really sad because it seems the weeks that are packed full of goodness can't be relayed over e-mail. But good thing I keep a journal :)

We had many powerful and life changing lessons this week!! Every night Elder Petersen and I would come into the apartment and just say wow, and couldn't stop saying it! We also had super funny experiences!  We were used as the Lord's instrument and he made it known to us this week!  I'll share one of the powerful experiences and one of the hilarious ones.

POWERFUL- One night some of our appointments fell through, which is normal, so we decided to look at a list of members and less active members that we have. As we were looking over the names, we noticed that neither Elder Petersen or I knew one of the families, the S family. So we just said "hey lets go try them." As we knocked, a shocked man opened the door and let us in. He told us to take a seat and he went to the other room. We got to know him and he let told us that he had only been in the USA for 4 days. He then began to tell us that he had just finished studying his scriptures and asked the Lord in prayer that he might feel an increase of the Spirit, and as soon as he said amen there was a knock on the door and there were two missionaries standing at the door. He said look at my hands. As we looked we saw his hands shaking as his prayer had just been answered instantly. We had a great lesson with him, and felt the love the Lord has for him.

ok...

FUNNY - This one was pretty good :) I wish that I had taken a picture, but hopefully my poor descriptions will suffice. We had a lesson with someone people named C, E and K. We had set a baptismal date with them for May 2nd, and since then they haven't been responding to any contact we decided to stop by one last time last night. We arrive at their apartment, the door was closed but the keys were in the deadbolt just hanging!! So it was obvious that someone was home. We heard talking inside, then we knocked, and it got silent. Nothing too unusual. We knocked again, then a third time. We then see the keys rotating from our side of the door because they were locking the door from the other side. We then began to laugh uncontrollably. Once they finished locking the door, I said, "sus llaves estan en la puerta!!!" (For you gringos: your keys are in the door!) We then continued to knock three more times while dying laughing at the situation. So we waited out side for a while because we wanted to do everything possible for them to use their agency correctly. But they didn't respond... Oh what people do to avoid the missionaries.

This is 1/100 of what happened this week, but I must compile my record.

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 88 - Another week...

another dollar...

This week we were super busy!! Which I absolutely love! There is nothing better than wondering how you are possibly going to accomplish all you need to do!

Highlights of this week:

Tuesday- We had an amazing Zone Conference here in Des Moines. We were blessed to be trained by Sister Training Leaders, the Assistants, and President and Sister Jensen. After Zone Conference we went and applied what we learned and found 2 new investigators, D and C!

Wednesday- I went on exchanges with Elder L, who is one of my best buds. We had a great exchange and had a blast teaching the gospel together.

Saturday- We helped a recent convert family move a HUGE sofa up to their apartment on the third floor then we flew to our apartment to change into our suits. We then went to the baptism of the G Family. They are a beautiful family from Liberia who were baptized. G, who is someone we are teaching, came and now he is really excited for his baptism. After the baptismal service we taught S and she wants to know if the church is true and when she knows it is true she said she would be baptized. Then after our lesson with S we went to a restaurant, El Salvador del Mundo. And to wrap the night up we went down to Easter Lake to interview J for baptism.

Sunday- Was wonderful in Rama Quinta I love all the members A TON.

Sorry not to much details don't have a ton of time.

Love

Elder Roberts