Week 18 - Transfers this week

Sorry I didn't mail a letter last week I will this week, I just didn't have time. This week we have been super busy, we packed our schedule everyday and worked hard. 

We are getting transfer calls today, and Elder Blauer has a feeling he will be leaving. I have no clue what is going to happen to me but I will let you know.  

Lately I have been extremely pumped up to work. I cant wait to see the growth in this area. "S" didn't feel comfortable with being baptized this week so we have dropped his baptismal date for now. He is such an awesome kid. I have grown to love him even though he is wild and crazy. He reminds me of me in some ways. 

We also have many part member families that we are going to try and start teaching this week!! The Lord has been putting us in places at the right time and perfect moments. 

I'm planning on re applying to BYU when I get back I think, I have been thinking about fire fighting and it would sure be hard to stay active while being a fire fighter, I have seen while on my mission how important church attendance really is.

I love you so much

Elder Roberts  

Week 17 - The weather is "terrifyingly awesome"

So this week we had a week full of service and strengthening the members in our ward, this week we didn't see any success with finding new investigators, but that's alright we know they are out there. We also went on exchanges in Knoxville because Elder Blauer and Elder Graham had to go to a leadership meeting in Iowa City. Elder Underwood and I stayed in Knoxville the whole day and worked. We got home from Knoxville at 10:20 and we were both exhausted, I tossed my bag next to my bed and just feel asleep. Then the next day it was back to work. We haven't been seeing much success and have sort of hit a road block but this week we are trying everything and going to try and truck on through. 

My favorite thing to cook is probably fried rice and omelets. Other than that our meals are pretty simple.  We got fed 4 times this week by members!!!!! It's pretty easy to budget for me. "S" is doing great, we are having a lesson with him tonight on Faith and making sure we are still on track for his baptism.  I don't have a hat or scarf.  It's supposed to be a high of 33 tomorrow and a low of 15. The weather here is terrifyingly awesome.  I don't miss that much food from home, except your cooking which can't travel in a package. But I would LOVE recipes from home. 

I love this mission and I love the Lord.  Here are some pictures of Iowa, I have more that I will send you next week but we have to get off because our hour is almost up, and we have to be obedient.

-Elder Roberts

Week 16 - Fall in Iowa

It's so beautiful here in Iowa right now! Fall time is absolutely gorgeous. 

My week was so great, this week I saw God's hand play a role in our week countless times! I love the mission so much, it is pretty unreal. There is nothing like serving people 24/7. The best feeling ever is helping people out and seeing the smile on their face. 

This week we had a great experience, we gave a man in our ward whose name is bro sham a Pohnepian Book of Mormon, his face let up like Christmas.  Since he left Pohnpei he could not find a Book of Mormon in his language  (Pohnpei is a Micronesia language spoken on the island of Pohnpei). He is a very quiet man but when we gave him the Book of Mormon, he couldn't stop saying thank you. 

We do a lot of service but we have also been teaching a lot lately too! We taught Skyler last Monday and wants to be baptized! We set a date with him of Nov. 23 and he said yes!! He is very excited. 

Elder Blauer and I are working well together.  Transfers are on Nov. 21, and YESSSSSSSSSSSSS I want to stay in Osceola, it's amazing!!!

P.S. I got the flu shot so hopefully I won't get the flu!

Love

Elder  Roberts

The first picture is of me and Elder Brown.  On Halloween we moved our desks into our workout room, laid down four mattress and then we all had a wrestle mania.  We had to be in at 6pm on Halloween so we decided to make it fun!

The second picture is Elder Blauer while I was flinging pumpkin by at his face in the apt. it was so hilarious...

Week 15 - Knockin' doors

Hey Hey, how is everyone doing? This week has been a great week! We didn't have that many lessons, but we were really busy! We had a trunk or treat here on Wednesday and the ward did a primary program this Sunday! It brought back a lot of great memories. We have not found any new investigators but we are working with S and C as much as possible. We have knocked a lot of the doors in Osceola most of the time we get a response like "Hello boys how are you doing, I'm not interested right now". Osceola is a small town and everyone knows who we are, so knocking doesn't work too well. But we keep trying and having faith that the Lord will prepare someone. Well I love you all so much have a great Family Home Evening,

Love,

Elder Roberts

An Iowa sunset:

This spider was outside the door of our apartment

ME:

This is me and Elder Ganoe, he's serving in Lenox, IA and is such a stud:

Our District:

Week 14 - Strengthening the members

This week our focus was to strengthen members, recent converts, and less actives. We had a very successful week, and we cant wait for this week to. We had exchanges with our Zone Leaders on Friday, the exchange was great! I learn so much from our zone leaders every time they can make it down here. They are great examples to me of awesome elders. I can't express the love I have for the members here. They are amazing they just need help to get started. Bishop Bair is an amazing guy too. We had our biggest week number wise this week. We really want to keep the momentum going this week and throughout this transfer. We have interviews with President Jensen coming up not this week but next. There is a pretty good chance that I will be training next transfer. I think it's a 50 50 chance right now. I have no idea how I can train others when I wasn't really trained, I just trained myself. But I know God will mold me into what he needs me to be.

Love you so much,

Elder Roberts

Week 13 - Time flies and it's getting colder

Time flies when you work your hardest. Missionaries tell me that the first 6 months are slow and then the rest fly by.  If that's the case, I can't process how fast my mission is going to go. My first 3 months have flown by. I'm scared though, here in Osceola we do not use a lot of Spanish! If you are not completely  surrounded by it, it is very hard to improve!! I think I have lost some of my vocabulary!! 

I would love another sweater it is getting cold here. Do we still have three missionaries in our ward? We mostly have 1 dinner appointment a week here. On a good week 2. In our ward we are trying to figure out how to pump them up. We now have 6 missionaries in this ward, 4 elders... Me, Elder Blauer, Elder Brown, and Elder Croxall which is what we have always had. But we got 2 sister missionaries this week who opened up a new area down in Lamoni, so now me and Elder Blauer's  area isn't an hour distance north, south, east to west!!!! It's going to be nice. Our ward does have a trunk or treat on the 23rd. We aren't in a car share anymore, Chariton has their own car now, so we will not have to walk every other week. 

In Osceola right now we have dropped all 5 of our investigators because they didn't want to keep any commitments and weren't serious.  This whole week Elder Blauer and I are going to focus on finding the elect that God have prepared to be taught the Gospel. We are really STOKED! It going to be a crazy week. We also get to go on exchanges with the ZL's this Friday which I always love, they are such solid missionaries and I always learn so much from them.

I got your card, It was pretty hilarious!! Thank you so much for the letters the make the hard days a little better.

I love you,

Elder Roberts

Week 12 - 6 weeks in Iowa already, and pictures!

Right now we are at the church. That's where we email from if we have the car. If we don't have the car we go to the library.

First I want to tell you about the new thing Elder Blauer and I started. Since he is training me how to be a successful missionary, I decided that I would be his personal trainer... So every morning we wake up a 6am and go on a run, then we do a workout, then yoga to finish everything off. I do yoga about 3 times a day it is awesome!!! I thought it would be dumb but it is actually cool. 

This week the work didn't go so well, it's hard to recover from a big hit sometimes, no matter how many times you say "O lets go, let's work our tails off".  The work is going to pick up here soon, I know it, we are doing everything we can think of this week!!

The temperature dropped here pretty fast! Thank you so much for the sweater. It says it was like 40, but that doesn't take in account the wind, when the wind hits you its about 30 something degreeeeeeesssss.

                               

Training is a 12 week process so I'm here in Osceola for at least another 6 weeks.

  

My favorite General Conference speaker is always Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, he is the man!!

I look forward to getting emails, it's so awesome to hear from the real world! Some days it gets hard to remember what the real world back home is like. O and did you know Danny W, Amber's husband has the same birthday as Dad and also he LOVES the Miami Dolphins too!!!!

I pray for the family a lot, and hope everything is going great, I'll talk to you soon.

Love your little boy,

Elder Roberts

And some fun pictures this week....

This is what we made when we were on exchanges with the Centerville Elders:

It's a pizza with 2 lbs of bacon, then 2 boxes of mac n cheese then more bacon then crazy bread then another pizza on top.  Eating dinner with Elder Blauer, Elder Keeley and Elder Bailey:

My desk:

The awesomeness that is Iowa:

I have been studying like crazy, my preach my gospel is pretty destroyed with notes everywhere. It is a great tool in missionary work:

I made this for dinner the other night -  I've found out I am a great cook!

These train tracks are by our apartment, we walk on them a lot to cut through certain parts of town, they are a shortcut!