Feliz Navidad

HELLO!

Feliz Navidad ya'll! It sure does not feel like Christmas here! Yesterday we had just had Sacrament Meeting and a little Christmas devotional they did. One of the things I love about this area is that the members are so devoted to the Gospel. They love their missionaries as well. They have a tradition here around Christmas time that the people all eat it is called Pannetone, and the members and natives here love it, but I absolutley hate it. It's just fruit cake and it is AWFUL hahah! 

We also had some nasty hot chocolate too. I just have to tell myself that "this is good, this is good" when I eat it so I don't hurt their feelings haha. They asked us and the Hermanas to sing in their devotional with like 40 seconds notice so that was interesting haha. One of the hermanas in my area is from Kansas and her family has season tickets to the Royals, so I'm really jealous of that.

This week we found a man by the name of Ivan. And he is interesting to say the least. He was a contact straight up, and he was asking all about God and I didn't understand anything he said. We spent like 45 minutes with this guy, and he passed us un the street the other day when we were walking and he yelled "ay! los mormones! bendiciones!!!" bwahahah he's a good guy. We taught him the Restoration and the first half  - we teach it with just the Bible, so he was lovin it, until we got to the First Vision . . . surprisingly, he loved it!  But, he had his buddy with him, and they started going off.  I didn't understand much of the dialouge here, but my companion explained to me that they were asking each other questions that pretty much answered themselves within the lesson of the restoration. But yeah, I don't think we'll pursue this guy anymore.  He loves God, but he doesn't want the truth.

We got our first and second baptism date this week! One of them is a 73 year old woman, she has no teeth, and I understand absolutley nothing that she says. I just kinda go off my companion and hope that it makes sense what I say haha, It was kind of scary. We had our ward mission leader with us -  my comp invited her, and she didn't really answer it. Our ward mission leader was like look hermana, the missionaries asked you a question. ANSWER IT, And my comp and I looked at each other like, "Oh boy! Here we go!" haha. Sure enough she said yes. January 13 we will have a baptism if everything falls our way.  We're also teaching a 15 year old girl named Leslie, who I think is gonna get baptized, we just need her mom to follow the example of the daughter. It was crazy in our last lesson. We taught Lesson 3, the Gospel of Christ.  Normally we have the mom and the daughter, and the Gramma sits in and listens, but doesn't really say much.  She is an Adventista. I have no clue what they believe. BUT, we got to the third priciple of the gospel, Baptism. and the gramma outta the blue said "What do I need to do to be Baptized in this church?" very firmly, and my comp looked at me and proceeded to explain. The Spirit was super strong, I was scared to move lol it was one of those moments. The daughter accepted, but the mom not yet. So, this is our lead investigator right now. I'm really hoping everything goes our way with this family. They need it!

Everyone has told me my Spanish is improving, and that makes me feel good. Granted I can't understand a whole ton right now, but that'll just come I guess. All you gotta do is study, study, study and speak, speak, speak. 

This week I went on another EXCHANGE and they were literally in the middle of the jungle! No buildings . . . nothing!   Just the little huts! They told me if we went any further we would find the Indians haha. So that was fun. I wish I had my camera when I was with them!

But to sum up, I am super tan and covered in bug bites. 

I sweat a lot and we don't have hot showers. I can't really speak the language or understand it, but I'm sure loving it out here! 

The members are awesome, and it is such a cool experience to be a missionary!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! 

Elder Roper (:

You Kinda Just Have To Forget Yourself On A Mission

Hola all, this week was an adventure hahaha. Not being able to understand a language is actually the worst hahaha. So many barriers impeding everything, I can't really share how I really feel about everything. But it is progressing . . .  slowly, but surely.  My companion tells me all the time how much I'm progressing and all that good stuff. 

This week I gave many blessings in spanish, and let's just say they were awful.  My vocabulary and the words that I used were soooooo simple and so random.  But I hope they could feel the Spirit. We also had a family home evening the other night with a family who is really really struggling, and they asked me to dedicate their home in spanish and english, so that was fun.

We had a Zone Conference this week. That's what the majority of the pictures are from.  Elder Ginerllai is ridiculous and loves photos hahah. We learned a lot, I'm truly grateful for the Elders and Sisters that we have in our mission. They're pretty dope to say the least. This week my comp also got shipped to Iquitos for a day, so I stayed the night with the ZLs. Their casa has 2 companionships, I enjoyed talking with Elder Walker. I found out he pretty much ditched a full ride scholarship to play baseball at some school in Washington to go on a mission. He is one of the ZLs. He really helped me a lot during my  stay with them.  Just with advice and council, he has 11 months so he really knows his stuff. At first I was just gonna learn the bear necessities, and have awful spanish for now and always improve throughout my mission. He told me how much Presidente Li always compliments his Spanish, and the members as well and that really inspired me to be the best me that I can.

YES, I recieved the packages. 

I have never been so happy to see an Oakley T shirt in my life and the cinnamon Oreos, too!!!!!!!!!!! LO MAXIMO. I throughly enjoyed all the cards as well, especially Ryan's. Thanks for the picture of trump! hahahahahh hilarious!

This week was a struggle when it came tot he work. We didn't have a lot of time in our area and you could tell. We only had three of our 8 investigators come to church and that sucked hahah. I'm hoping this week we can get back on track with everything. I'm learning that you kinda just have to forget about yourself on a mission. I've learned that I need to not care how bad my spanish is, I just need to talk, and act like I can understand, that way we can build trust with out investigators. It's honestly the worst when we get caught in the rain, everything gets wet and you're soaked the rest of the day.

My comp said we will have 5 minutes to call later today and organize when we're gonna Skype on Christmas! So I'll probably call mom or dad haha. I think we will be with our Bishop. I know for sure we will be able to, we just don't know what time yet.  Probably in the afternoon, through SKYPE.

But yeah, that's all for this week!

Also, I HIT 2 MONTHS TODAY

Elder Roper!

Every Day Is An Adventure!

Buenos tardes everyone! I wish I could write you all and tell you that I'm fluent in Spanish already lol, but it is gonna be a longgggggg time before I can really function in this language. An English speaking stateside mission doesn't sound so bad right now. Not bagging on those, it would just be nice to be able to understand the language and have a Walmart or something to go to every once in a while.  But it's all good out here. 

Our church isn't a real chapel, it is literally like an old wharehouse that was converted into a chapel, and they put the church logo on it hahahah. Pretty cool I guess. The people here are all super duper humble, and that's awesome. I'm hoping all my pictures from this week will load onto my google drive this week, we're in a different place and the internet is a little quicker.

The food is dank here. Max from Oakley if you're reading this, we can't eat guina pig, so I'm pretty sad about that. We have lots of rules against what we can and can't eat. However, I'm trying everything and trying to enjoy it. This past week we ate liver for lunch. That was freaking gross. They told me about halfway through, I was trying to suck it up and just pound through it but nope. They gave me some chicken hahaha (: 

Que mas, we had an appointment with these sisters the other day, and we knocked on the door and she had a machete in hand hahahahah. Turns out, they were trying to get coconuts down from a tree. So us being the good missionaries we are, helped natives get coconuts down from their tree bwahahahahahahahha. Pretty fun. Today we lost power and water for a bit, which has happened multiple times in my short 2 weeks in the field. We've killed a lot of spiders, my comp doesn't like them hahahah. The rain is really strong here, but we just put our boots on and get to work. No umbrella, no jacket nothin. It isn't worth it because the sun comes out and then its just hot. We're actually in the middle of a pretty good rain storm right now. 

We had 4 investigators come to church this week, and that has never felt so great. I feel as if were actually doing the work we need to. However, I can't understand anything. I just say what I need to say -  when my comp looks at me and he takes the lesson over. I really need to work on my language skills. It'll come with time. I remember Brother Bradford told me it took him about a year before he could really do anything with the language. Alma 26:27 tells us that we just need to be patient with things. I've been able to read the scriptuires and kinda understand, but not a ton. 

We had a lesson with a man and as soon as we got to Joseph Smith and the first vision, all hell broke loose. I didn't understand anything he said, but my comp explained that God gave him authority to talk with Spirits and he knows who made the Maccu Piccu and Bermuda Triangle all that good stuff. Lol-fun! We asked him to give the prayer and he gave like some weird Mayan chant. The joys of a mission -  I guess.  Apparently we have a neighbor who has Dengue fever hahahah awesome right??? I can't tell you how many people I have seen breastfeeding here bwahahahh talk about awkward. 

If you can find any way to help the missionaries in your area, DO IT. THEY WILL APPRECIATE YOU AND LOVE YOU SO MUCHHHHHHHHHH

Mom, I know for sure we'll Skype on Christmas, I just dont know how or when or why or what. We wash our own underwear in the sink, and the pension does the rest for us. I have yet to recieve my package yet, hopefully tomorrow when the President comes down to our area. 

I'm absolutley loving it here!  Every day is an adventure! I think that's all for this week! 

Elder Roper (: